June 25th, 2009 by Robin Green

In LMS training programs, oftentimes trainers ask staff members to work in groups to develop ideas, produce reports, and assume different roles within a group to achieve organizational objectives.

We’ve all seen the corporate art poster that reads “TEAMWORK” at the top, and at the bottom, the old Japanese proverb: “None of us is as smart as all of us.” There’s a photo in the center of hands of placed one over the other, suggesting that cooperation and team spirit yield success.

Some of us with a dryer sense of humor have also appreciated another poster, with the same image and “TEAMWORK” at the top. Below the image reads the slogan: “None of us is as dumb as all of us.”

Which slogan is more accurate, humor aside? Are teams a worthwhile venture in a training program–or in any educational context, for that matter?

Studies have shown that when a strong and clear structure exists, team learning systems can be highly efficient and successful. When lead by an experienced trainer or organized by an LMS online system, the benefits of creating teams for training purposes outweigh the few hazards of teamwork. But teams do need to be coordinated correctly.

Everyone is born with different talents, and throughout our lives, we each cultivate different sets of skills. We all have something unique to offer. Experienced teachers have always understood this, which is why group projects continue to be assigned to students–even in this individualistic day and age.

However, despite the fact that “teamwork” is a sort of buzzword in the corporate world, businesses often make only put forth a superficial effort to create a functional and trusting team environment. Many managers continue to nurture competitive work environments, convinced that the strongest employees will rise to the surface.

This becomes a major obstacle to corporate team-building efforts–managers themselves often possess weak teamwork skills or don’t really believe in teamwork, and so imparting and fostering these skills in others becomes difficult and unrealistic.

But when teams are organized and guided with good faith, a successful team learning experience creates a happy, productive staff. But when teams are handled poorly–tasks are unclear, competition exists, etc.–the opposite scenario becomes true: a tense, unhappy, and unproductive staff.

Because of this, both trainers and trainees benefit largely from team-building learning systems. LMS training can help to organize teams and assign individual tasks and aid in the development, distribution of goals and roles amongst team members.

LMS training can also be used to provide teamwork skills training. Teamwork is something that is taught–it’s not an innate understanding or knowledge that comes natural to most people. There are plenty of team-building learning systems online. Coggno offers a wide range of cost-effective courses on areas ranging from Group and Team Management, to Workplace Communication, to Team Dynamics and Motivation in the Workplace.

Team development LMS training can help both managers and staff become better communicators and achieve organizational goals together.

April 14th, 2009 by Robin Green

Are some learners more important than others in LMS training and education programs? Most people would answer no. But they’d be mistaken. 

When adopting LMS training and teaching technologies, there is one special person whose mastery of the technology holds more consequence; whose profound understanding of the course content and its form is critical. This is, of course, the person who is delivering the material–the teacher or trainer him/herself.

“Who dares to teach must never cease to learn,” said John Cotton Dana. Good teachers and trainers–especially those who rely heavily on technology for their course content–are constantly learning new ideas and skills in order to evolve with changing times.

An LMS is a big, intricate tool, though the complexity varies from LMS to LMS. If your organization is planning to implement LMS training, you’ll want to consider LMS training courses for your staff.

Look for training classes designed to get technical staff up to speed with new technologies, as well as maintain their knowledge of system and software capabilities for their specific systems. Trainers will learn how to apply the software to tackle engineering problems in specific application areas. Some courses provide both LMS training classes and optional on-site training services. 

LMS use in both companies and schools is currently on the rise. However, though LMSs are commonly used in universities, the standardization of LMSs in high schools is relatively sluggish. Why is this the case?

Lack of school funding and proper LMS training for educators are two reasons. 

For many teachers, the span of time separating today from the day they completed their teaching degree is a long one. And though most teachers are constantly learning as they go, there are some new skills, like managing LMSs or online courses, that they might be lacking compared to teachers fresh out of college. 

This is one major obstacle to the implementation of an LMS in many schools–oftentimes, educators are not well-equipped to use the technology. Training is expensive and often outside the possibilities of a school budget. Many educators are plunged into the stormy waters of unfamiliar technology without a paddle.

And given the benefits that experience with LMS technology provides for learners, it’s paramount that more high schools adopt advanced technology and collaborative learning softwares. Doing so will prepare students not only for more education, but for an increasingly competitive job market that values ICT skills more every day.

In higher education, feedback for LMS use has been mildly positive, though not exactly radiant. This reflects a need for better integration into the classroom, blending with face-to-face instruction, and LMS training for professors. At the beginning of 2008, about 4 million students were taking online courses in universities and other higher education institutions, with many of those courses being hosted on LMSs. And according to the Sloan report, which is based on a poll of academic leaders, students generally appear at least equally satisfied with their online classes as they were with traditional ones. 

But with more educators able to instruct using LMSs in their courses, greater quality and accessibility in course content offered online, and increasingly computer-savvy educators, the feedback is bound to become more positive. 

The ideal is for teachers and trainers to become closely familiar with how LMS training or teaching works as quickly as possible. This involves understanding instructional design as a teaching strategy. Instructional design refers to the practice of creating instructional tools and content to instigate interactions and facilitate learning between students. To facilitate effective online interactions, it’s important to first analyze and understand the different forms of interaction and learning online. 

Capella University is one school that recognizes that teachers might not have the time or means to attend face-to-face workshops. Capella offers Masters, PhD and other graduate programs in teaching online, instructional design for online learning, and curriculum and instruction with a technology focus. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission and is a member of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools. 

For a wealth of information on classroom technology topics, there are online sources for educators in the form of chatboards and discussion forums. Teachers.net is a great one for discussion boards, such as the Educational Software chatboard, as well as articles and resources related to integrating online courses in the classroom. Other sites offer tips on how to integrate online courseware into a course, and reports from educators who face challenges in their own blended learning environments. 

If you are a courseware system developer seeking a discussion forum to converse about the challenges and strategies involved in courseware creation, there are also many online resources. Some courseware system syndicators host forums where course developers can discuss their ideas, suggestions, etc. Coggno is one such platform, hosting an author-to-author discussion forum for anyone involved in the e-learning industry, or who wants to learn more about LMS training.

April 7th, 2009 by Robin Green

Have you ever thought about designing an LMS training course? Or do you already have your own learning material and brilliant course content prepared, just waiting to be released to the public? 

In the process of designing an online course, it’s essential to your keep learners in mind. How? By understanding multiple intelligences and using them to your course’s advantage.

Howard Gardner, whose multiple intelligence theory provided scholarly and scientific support for what many educators already believed to be true, created a small revolution in the educational community in the 1980’s with his book, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Twenty-five years later, his theories have been widely discussed, criticized, discredited as unscientific, reinterpreted, and embraced–though not necessarily in that order.

“Instead of human beings possessing one generalized mental computer,” Gardner says, “human beings are better described as having a number of relatively autonomous computational devices.” In other words, we’re all programmed a little differently. 

According to Gardner there are eight intelligences: linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and naturalist. 

Despite controversy over Gardner’s findings, most experienced teachers and trainers possess an intuitive understanding that there exist more than one kind of intelligence. Even if you don’t buy his theory exactly, it’s hard to deny that everyone is differently gifted with assorted talents and personalities. And as Gardner insists, it’s true that we spend too much time testing learners in the U.S. when we should be dedicating time to helping them. 

Understanding the theory of multiple intelligences will aid in the creation of a more effective and robust LMS training course. 

Many educators and trainers find that responding to learners’ unique cultural backgrounds, interests, and world knowledge results in a more interactive and dynamic learning experience. An LMS can be an invaluable tool in not only tracking learners’ progress, but in providing an organizational and educational tool that caters to the needs of all learners.

Coggno is just one growing LMS training course platform that understands that all learners are distinct–and that this fact enriches, rather than detracts from, the quality and effectiveness of a learning system. Coggno’s suite of course development tools enables interactive learning that lends itself to differentiated instruction. 

It’s all about choices. Providing learners a choice is one way to take advantage of the spectrum of intelligences, creating a more vibrant and exciting learning experience.

An LMS training course can include assignments, quizzes, projects, activities and exams that cater to a wide spectrum of intelligences. Of course, this doesn’t mean that trainers or educators should assign different learners separate tasks. But within the same assignments or exams, learners can be given a choice. This means that within the same task, learners may choose which questions or exercises to answer. 

While any given group of learners will most likely constitute a motley batch of learning types, many are probably strong visual-spatial learners. As an LMS training course developer or a corporate trainer, you can make simple efforts to enrich your course and speak visually to these learners.

Visual-spatial learners process information better when reading, taking notes and making lists, and learning from books, videos, and demonstrations. They use mental imagery, associating colors and shapes with ideas. 

In your LMS training course, create videos and incorporate visual data into your students’ learning experience. Use graphic oragnizers. These include brainstorms and idea maps, webs, plots, and illustrations like stack plots and Venn plots. Showing the relationship between ideas and images, teachers can help all students–not only visually-gifted ones–digest information more quickly. 

The creative instructional tools offered by LMSs like Coggno can be wielded to effectively express information spatially and with images. Use Coggno’s Text Tool, Video Tool, Scorm Publisher, Template Tool, and Question Bank, engage your students in active, visually-interesting learning content.

Does more visual information actually improve learner performance? Absolutely. A study conducted by the Institute for the Advancement of Research in Education at AEL showed that visual learning improves student performance in four major ways: critical thinking, retention, comprehension, and organization. 

While listening to someone lecture for hours doesn’t suit many visual learners, watching a dynamic speaker demonstrate an idea will. Visual learners are sensitive to body language, and often have an advanced ability to “read” people. Include videos with demonstrations, simulations and screencasting.

The effectiveness of a course depends on the designer’s tapping into the right resources. These include not only the tools offered by the LMS, but the students themselves. By understanding learners’ needs and learning styles, designers are better equipped to create a more helpful, engaging, and successful LMS training course.