December 30th, 2010 by Robin Green

It’s that time of year again; a moment for reflection and action. For many both course content creators and learners, the new year signals an opportunity to renew dedications to projects, loved ones, work, or other areas of one’s life. And as we know, it’s also an important time to renew or develop commitments to oneself.

During the new year many people set plans in motion to improve the quality or change the direction of their own lives. One of the most common ways that people go about their self-improvement projects is with the body: becoming more physically active and improving one’s diet.

The key is to have a strategy. Among the strategies of losing weight and becoming a fitter and more mobile person, taking an online LMS course is a great option for many people. There are many benefits to online fitness programs. First, well-designed programs help individuals to begin a workout and diet plan that has been researched and proven to provide results. All too often, individuals set out on their own without any guide, and the consequences can be negative.

Without information on how to balance one’s diet, gradually increase workout activities, and other basic fitness program tenets, individuals run a huge risk of injury or setting themselves up for failure. We all need guidance, and LMS online programs can provide that.

Another benefit of LMS fitness courses is that they are private and customized. Fitness goals are as varied and unique as the people who create them; some of us want to lose 5 pounds, some 50. Some want to get into shape or train in order to run a marathon or climb a mountain, while others want to create a daily regimen which will last a lifetime and gradually become more demanding and fortifying. Some people are interested in increasing muscle tone and strength, and the capacity to burn fat. Others want to improve their heart health or manage stress.

Another reason for beginning and online fitness course is the desire to revitalize workout routines or dietary habits which have lost their energy, or have become too routine. Online trainers are often available via an LMS online course to help with many of these issues.

The new year is traditionally a time to put fresh energy into one’s commitments, and to begin new commitments altogether. Signing up for LMS online training can be the first step to accomplishing a variety of goals, and at a much lower cost than personal trainers or other costly programs.

——————

Coggno.com offers high-quality LMS platforms.

December 27th, 2010 by Robin Green

Every week throughout the year Coggno is contacted by trainers, content developers, instructional designers and would-be courseware developers who are searching for a means to take their traditionally off line training, online. Most often they have a specific expertise around a subject or domain that they have spent years developing and delivering in a traditional format, and they have decided to take their training online. This usually falls into two categories, making the jump from instructor lead training, to an online format, or converting DVD based training onto an LMS format. While this can seem like a daunting task, if it is carefully planned, and executed, making the leap to an online training course can be the beginning of a whole new avenue to deliver and expand your audience.

Here are 7 steps to follow that can assist you.

1. Take an Online course.

Hop onto Coggno.com and select a course that may be of interest to you. The subject matter doesn’t really matter, what you want to look for are the structural elements of the course. Look at how it is designed, its length, if there are any testing objects incorporated into it, and how the outcomes are measured.

2. SCORM

The first decision you will need to make is if you want to use Coggno’s online tools to create the course, or if you’d like to use a SCORM authoring tool. To make this decision, do some research around the tools that are available, and the expectations of your learners. There are pros and cons of going either way, and by doing some quick research you can decide which is the best way to go.

3. Gap Analysis

Now that you know a bit more about what an online course looks like perform a gap analysis of your online training course. In other words, what are the differences between the structure of your course, and what will be needed to take it online? If it is an instructor lead course, what would best serve your learners when translating it to an online environment? Do you need to do some video recording? Do you need to blend your video into a slide presentation? Is it an appropriate length, remember, students have an easier time sitting through a long instructor lead course, than they do an online one. Do you need to record some voice over onto your slides, would that be something you would do yourself, of do you need to hire a voice over artist?

To be continued on our Next blog……..

——————-

Coggno.com offers world-class online training.

December 15th, 2010 by Robin Green

Many organizations suffer the consequences of poor training in the simple procedures of soft skills.

An organization’s success depends not only on hard technical skills, but its members’ ability to work together effectively. Success can be jeopardized by factors such as inter-staff politics, personal agendas, lack of energy and commitment to organizational goals, and poor communication.

How can your organization avoid these dangers and achieve actionable outcomes with LMS online training?

The purpose of any kind of training is the acquisition of skills. So what kind of skills are teachable? What skills can you expect to nurture in online training? The truth is that all skills, both soft and hard, are teachable–and critical to an organization’s success.

Soft skills, or “people skills,” are utilized in both professional and personal life, and include all the procedures involved in effective communication. These include listening, engaging in dialogue, providing feedback, functioning in a team setting, resolving issues and conflicts, and contributing in staff meetings.

Hard skills, on the other hand, refer to the occupational requirements of a position. These include technical or administrative skills related directly to the organization’s business. Examples include typing, software knowledge, operating machinery, and speaking a foreign language.

Hard skills are often contrasted to soft skills and defined as specific and “teachable” abilities which can be quantified and defined. However, unlike a personal attribute or natural talent, a skill is always something that can be learned, and converted into a personal and professional attribute.

It’s simple. In order to learn any skill, you need to learn and recall information accompanied by certain steps to follow. Then you need to apply the information and steps. It isn’t necessary that a learner understand all the principles behind the subject matter in order to gain the skills required to perform the tasks well, but that he or she understand what steps to take and how to take them in a given situation.

So how can you deliver effective LMS training for project management and other  In order to deliver effective online training in soft or hard skills, there are three simple steps: 1. Provide the information and steps. 2. Reinforce through practice and exercises. 3. Use quizzes and tests to confirm knowledge.

——————

Coggno.com is a leading provider of world-class LMS platforms.

December 14th, 2010 by Robin Green

As organizations grow they can quickly lose control of their privacy, making their customer and financial, as well as HR data open to prying eyes. Using online training for training your organization about the correct procedures to follow to follow standard internet privacy is an easy way to quickly role out standards and practices.

The first thing you should cover in your online course is that one should stop and think about who or where they are recording something that can later be found. If it is an email, is inappropriate information being divulged, if it is a financial matter, is it being recorded in the correct secure location. Often 2 seconds of thought can avoid troubles later.

Your course should also explore the need, or lack thereof, for the many mailing lists your employees iare members of. Some of these lists are simply fishing for information, and a good point to make would be that if the mailing isn’t directly relevant to the performance of their functions at work, they shouldn’t be on it.

Many organizations encourage people to work anywhere anytime. Coffee shops, restaurants, airports, libraries. This is great for productivity, but often the wireless internet connections in these locations is not secure. Logging on, and viewing a virtual private network from an location where the wireless access has not been secured is an invitation for trouble. Instruct your employees that an open wireless connection is like an open window and anyone passing by, can stop, and ‘listen’ to what is going on.

Changing passwords on a regular basis is another important action you want to strengthen on your course. Often people create a password and live with it for years. This is a dangerous practice, for many reasons, not the least of which, they are often using the same password for private and corporate use, and if it is breeched in their private life, not soon after, corporate data can be accessed, and your entire organization can be at risk

There is a multitude of different software available for securing data, creating firewalls, detecting and stopping viruses, spyware, and other hidden threats. You should have a procedure and process within your organization with someone specifically appointed to oversee this process on a weekly and monthly basis, and your online course should address them all.

————

Coggno.com provides high-quality LMS.

December 8th, 2010 by Robin Green

Do you believe your organization to be unique? Just as every company is different, every organization manages performance appraisal in its own way. However, if performance appraisal strategies are ineffective, they can do great damage not only to employees, but to your organization and its bottom line.

What damage can they do? Improperly conducted performance appraisals can give an inaccurate impression of employee performance, and consequently of the entire organization’s performance.

The best way to create an effective performance appraisal process? Simple training for managers and supervisors.

All too often, appraisals are performed by managers and supervisors who have never been trained on how to perform them. LMS performance appraisal training provides managers the tools for preparing both parties–managers and employees–for the review. Training helps managers to develop a clear connection between employees’ jobs, the organization’s strategy, and individual performance.

Performance appraisal training can help answer questions about many topics, from the more general down to the particulars.

These questions include: As a manager, how can I create, monitor and track employee development plans? What is the best method of evaluating performance and rating employees? How do I remain objective during the appraisal? How can I deal with non-performers and employees who do not cooperate? What are the techniques for setting goals? How do I respond to different employee reactions to the appraisal? How can you structure the appraisal to focus on improving performance?

Part of a good performance appraisal strategy is development planning, where managers and employees work together to create an individual development plan, which is later monitored for effectiveness.

LMS training means you’ll be not only be prepared for performance appraisals, but you will have the know-how to establish an effective and ongoing performance appraisal strategy, which is year-long as opposed to once or twice and year.

Before you perform appraisals this month, invest in online training. Get educated on the standards for performance documentation, improving rapport and communication, building employee morale, motivating employees, and observing and measuring performance. At this time next year, you’ll be happy you did.

————–

Coggno.com provides a robust Learning Management System platform.

December 6th, 2010 by Robin Green

One of the big issues around online training is perception that measuring and monitoring the effectiveness and substantive results of this training can be elusive.

In other words, turning the training into an actionable outcome is the difference between a pretty screen that your learners will stare at, and a meaningful translation of what they just learned into accountable result.

The question is, is the result of Online training a measurable outcome? To answer this, you must first ask yourself a series of questions. Who is the target audience? How will the training be used? What specific result are you trying to effect? What will be done with the results, and who how will you measure them?

Once you know the answers to these questions you are better equipped to decide what types of outputs you would like to see as a result of this training. So as important as it is to develop a great online training course, it is just as important to develop an evaluation methodology to measure the impact of the training. Impact can be measured by the amount of change in behavior, skills, attitude, or knowledge of your learners

Another effective means of beginning the process is by first evaluating if you are trying to correct a process, create a persuasion or outcome, affect a sales or business object, or define and teach a skill.

Leading the learner thru a process in an online training course is often a great way to facilitate this. By establishing a protocol, giving an example of a broken protocol, and demonstrating how it is easily and effectively corrected you can use the cognitive eye of the learner to develop their own substantive learning outcome before you even need to demonstrate it for them. By affectively reinforcing what they have already discovered for themselves, your online training course becomes most effective. In this way you’ve successfully created a context from which they can explore, question, and achieve a result. In addition, they can begin to understand for themselves the relative value of the training and enable them to take responsibility and “ownership” of the training.

Finally, effectively interacting with your learner inside your online training course is an important element. Check in, measure comprehension, create short quizzes, and ask for an evaluation at the end of the course.

————–

Coggno.com offers a wide range of high-quality online courses.

December 2nd, 2010 by Robin Green

Why all this audio training craze? (See previous post.) Last week, due to my own personal discovery of online tools (which are available to anyone seeking knowledge or the means of providing it), I was able to complete a book that would have otherwise taken me about two weeks.

That’s if I worked for about 2 or 3 hours a day, in the traditional sit-at-your-desk-and-read style. However, with my audiobook of Don Quixote, I completed the task in just 4 days. LMS online training courses could benefit from this kind of methodology.

Book I of Cervantes’ masterpiece is about 500 pages, or 18 hours of audiobook. Instead of spending each night reading the old text, I took advantage of my 45-minute bike commutes downtown every morning and afternoon. I listened to the audiobook while I cooked, while I cleaned my apartment, while I bought groceries.

My daily chores and commutes suddenly became interesting and relevant to my life, and they seemed to go by faster. In just four days, I had read the whole Book I, without making any changes in my daily schedule.

Podcasts and audiobooks are a pedagogical tool not used widely enough in today’s education system, from youth to adult learning. With LMS platforms for employee training, podcasts are extremely easy–and fun–to create.

Every employee, no matter what their daily routines are, can surely find at least an hour or two daily that is “sunk” time, or time when they are not doing much other than skimming the newspaper in the subway, driving, or exercising. Everyone has gap spaces in their schedule while are perfect times for LMS online training homework.

—————–

Coggno.com provides high-quality e-learning education.