March 24th, 2011 by Robin Green

Would you like to make yourself more relevant at work or simply improve your skills, but you aren’t sure how? This is a problem many people (including myself) face when it comes to maximizing their potential and letting their skills shine. It often has to do with personality traits such as shyness or aversion to attention, or simply not wanting to put yourself in the spotlight.

Perhaps just the idea of talking to your employer about the possibility of picking up a course teaching some work-related skill makes you feel slightly nauseous.

Sometimes it requires the encouragement of a coworker or a friend to approach your boss about possible improvements, courses you are interested in taking whose costs you hope your employers will cover, or LMS online training which you can complete at home in your free time.

Women especially have a difficult time approaching their boss for salary raises or training and LMS courses. Several recent studies, including a 2010 study in the U.S. of gender in the workplace, show that when asking for a salary raise, women are much weaker than men, and less likely to even state their case to their employer. And since classes that are paid for by an employer basically mean a raise in pay, even if they are work related, the same applies for LMS courses and other work-related education.

I once decided to take a Spanish language class offered at a university location near my workplace. I knew that other employees were taking language classes, since our organization was an international one which holds meetings held in various languages, but it never even occurred to me to ask my boss if my course could be covered until a coworker brought up the possibility.

Still, it took me a few days (cutting it close to the sign-up deadline for the course) to approach my boss about it. I waited until we were alone sitting at lunch, and felt my face turn beet-red as I explained my plans and stated my inquiry. He said he would look into it, and I receive my answer days later, affirmative. I was ecstatic, but noted regretfully that without the encouragement and easy confidence of my (male) coworker, I never would have asked in the first place, and would have ended up covering the costs of my language course, which come to about 1/8 the amount of my salary.

Moral of the story? Whether you’re a shy male or female, getting over your hesitation can pay off, and it can also help fatten up your ego so that next time you need to approach your employer about something–whether it’s LMS course-related or about another work-related topic–it won’t be as painful.

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Coggno.com offers high-quality online education.

March 16th, 2011 by Robin Green

As I wrote in a recent post, LMS certifications in wedding planning are on the rise due to an increasing interest in customized weddings.

How many times have you been to a particularly unique or creative wedding? Or flipped through a Facebook album (perhaps of someone you don’t even know directly) of a wedding that caught your attention?

Customized, creative weddings are all the rage and more and more soon-to-be-married couples have their own wedding ideas that they would like help fleshing out. Many also don’t have a specific idea, but would like some help figuring out what their perfect wedding would be. This is where wedding planners come in, and the reason why LMS wedding planning certification is an increasingly popular endeavor in the U.S..

One example of a customized wedding I recently attended was what I’ll call a “green wedding”. It took place near Burlington, Vermont, on a hill with a beautiful view. At the reception, all plates and cutlery were compostable. Drinks were organic and their provenance was local breweries and wineries. The food was mouth-wateringly delicious, and the pig they roasted came from a local organic farm which uses free range and humane practices. Actually, local and organic were two characteristics applicable nearly to everything, from the table clothes to the fruits and vegetables. Wedding favors for the guests, pots of oregano, basil and other herbs, also served simply and beautifully as the table centerpieces.

During the ceremony, the bride and groom’s spiritual beliefs were written into their vows, and their attire was symbolic as well, straying purposely from the traditional white gown and tuxedo. In short, everything was customized and in line with the bride and groom’s beliefs.

My friend, the bride, is now considering an LMS certification in wedding planning—or creating an LMS course herself, since she now has the experience of planning her own wedding under her belt. In fact, her then fiancé had twisted an ankle during an ultimate frisbee match the week before, leaving my friend in charge of instructing the wedding help and calling most of the shots concerning the details.

Wedding planning, the affair of managing, coordinating and planning a wedding, is something that people are increasingly paying for in order to truly enjoy a non-stressful wedding. Although my friend claims she enjoyed her wedding, she also admits she was totally overwhelmed with all the details, and was happy when it ended.
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Coggno.com is a premier LMS software platform.

March 9th, 2011 by Robin Green

Have you ever thought about taking or creating an LMS certification course in wedding planning?

At a wedding I helped set up last summer, I remember talking to people who had planned their own weddings. During the setup they felt a strong desire to give their advice and suggestions. They said that after planning such a challenging and time-consuming logistical and symbolic event, they were eager to share their knowledge.

It’s knowledge that very few people, except wedding planners or LMS wedding planning certification creators, ever use again.

Throughout history and socio-economic classes, weddings have traditionally been a special event that people are willing to invest in perfecting.

Across the world, weddings have mushroomed to a multi-billion dollar industry. Each year in the U.S., there are around 2.5 million weddings, and none of them exactly the same.

In an age when people’s interests, tastes and spiritual beliefs are increasingly varied, it takes a great deal of time, thought and energy to plan the perfect wedding. More and more people seek personalized, customizable weddings, but don’t want to be in charge of the logistics, wedding invitations, clothing, music, reception, bachelor and bachelorette parties, ceremony, and all the other details involved in making the wedding a perfect event.

Therefore, more couples are seeking assistance in making their wedding dreams come true, and therefore the professional wedding planning industry, along with LMS online training and in-person certification courses, is growing rapidly.

Just as there are as many tastes and styles as there are different kinds of people under the sun, there are endless ways in which a wedding can be conducted. A wedding planner is a professional with expertise, an LMS wedding planning certification, or just a strong reputation and great ideas who helps plan and organize weddings according to the wishes of the soon-to-be-married.

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Coggno.com is a quality LMS for learners and publishers alike.

March 2nd, 2011 by Robin Green

For both educators and LMS course creators, the effectiveness of your material will depend on how organically you’re able to work in the essential repetition that builds on itself.

As I’ve written about previously, repetition and memorization are the basic building blocks of knowledge. My history teacher used to say, “You can’t make up an empty mind.” I remember recalling this phrase in a college classroom where one particular professor sat back and allowed student dialogue to rule the classroom (a pedagogical approach that’s increasingly popular in humanities departments). I wanted to hear what my professor knew; I wanted to get the basic building blocks of the course material before we were to do any group discussion.

I wouldn’t have minded having to memorize a few facts, ingest a few critical texts or novels (it was a literature class), in order to then climb the “skill ladder” at a swifter speed. And indeed, that is the fastest way to climb any skill ladder—with repetition and transforms the unknown into the known.

The problem is, how can LMS course creators or educators design material that includes repetition without losing students’ interest?

Learning, after all, is seldom its own reward. Even if you’ve put together the most exciting and intellectually stimulating LMS course ever made, the point of taking your course is the new skill or knowledge hoped to be gained—not the joy of learning in itself. Both children and adults learn for different motivations—children for stickers and shining report cards, and adults for the practical new skill that they’ll be obtaining. So the best way to include repetition is to create activities and learning sessions which allow students to immediately put into hands-on practice what they’ve learned.

The more repetition/practice your course includes, the more confidence students gain, not only in their own abilities, but in the ability of the course to effectively weave in repetition that enables them to climb the skill ladder.

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Coggno.com offers world-class e-learning.

February 23rd, 2011 by Robin Green

In designing online training or other adult LMS courseware, close your eyes and remember the last time you really learned something. When was the last time you dug your nails into learning something complicated, be it a work-related LMS course or a more personal endeavor, like learning to play the guitar?

If nothing comes to mind right away, try to recall learning how to drive. It’s something most of us have at least vague memories of, and perhaps a few moments in particular. I myself remember almost all of it (how could I forget?). The thrill, the sense of possibility and anticipation of new experiences—and, inevitably, the frustrations.

Luckily, my mother was a good sport (and apparently enjoyed living dangerously) and took me out driving. She suffered months and months of practice. I remember panicking at intersections, cutting drivers off, and being told to take it slow, relax, over and over.

The very first time I got behind a wheel, my father took me to an abandoned lot and we drove in circle after circle. I remember thinking as I tried to maneuver around cones while practicing parellel parking: I am never going to be able to do this. And indeed, it took me quite a while to learn to drive.

Like driving or any other skill, everyone learns at their own pace. But none of us is born with the ability to drive or play the guitar, and that’s where pedagogical strategies enter into play—and your own knowledge and expertise as an LMS course creator. Repetition and practice may be the only ways for knowledge to be truly digested in LMS online training. The challenge lies in working repetition into your course in an effective and engaging fashion.

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February 16th, 2011 by Robin Green

As educators, it’s easy to bemoan and criticize the trend of short attention spans in the digital generation. As a language teacher, for example, it’s like pulling teeth to coax students students unwilling to perform repetitious drilling.

Memorization and rote learning, of course, gets a bad rap. For years repetition has been deemed an inadequate teaching technique.

However, memorization is still a highly valuable teaching and study practice. Some examples are typing, playing the piano, and learning an alphabet, a language, or the multiplication tables. None of these skills could be learned without the use of repetition, memorization, and “rote learning”.

In learning a language, repetition is essential. After all, a new word often isn’t registered into the brain until it’s been repeated about 15 times.

We educators need to respond to changing times in a proactive way. We can’t go back in time or change students’ behaviors. Instead, it’s time to take the efforts to adapt the multimedia, quick-paced digital generation.

Blended learning techniques involving audio and visual tools are an absolute must. A learning management system (LMS) is one big tool that offers many possibilities for educators and subject matter experts interested in designing a dynamic course that caters to our tech-savvy youth.

However, even if you don’t use an LMS or incorporate online learning into your classroom, you can still tap into the audio and visual pedagogical tools on your own. Make a podcast that students can listen to on their ride home, or on their way to work. Create a video of your classroom, encouraging students to participate.

There are many ways, using an LMS or not, to adapt to the digital generation’s ways, rather than simply lamenting them.

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Coggno.com is a leading provider of high-quality learning management system.

February 9th, 2011 by Robin Green

As the internet generation is bombarded with newer and newer ways to distract itself, we can’t really get a clear picture of all the consequences they’re having on young people’s learning systems. But one outcome is plain to anyone who spends time in any classroom, whether it’s 100% face-to-face or LMS-supplemented: shorter attention spans.

Studies show that the digital generation is less willing to read long texts, perform repetitious exercises, and memorize basic information needed to advance in any learning system, LMS or otherwise.

One problem is that this tech-savvy generation expects instant gratification, and therefore is quicker to lose confidence when faced with challenges. When success is not immediately obtained, students are quicker to lose the confidence required to see a difficult task through to completion.

And with cell phones and smartphones, students are easily distracted on a moment-to-moment basis. Many teachers are forced to create phone rules in the classroom, such as maintaining cell phones on the desk top in clear sight. However, many students get around these rules by bringing two phones to school, one active and one inactive, and hiding the one they use in their coats or in their desks.

More and more young people are admit to an adversion to reading anything but bite-sized information. We have, in effect, a generation of nonreaders.

However, one thing is still true: students are motivated to learn when what they’re learning is valuable to them, and/or seems relevant to their lives. How can these trends be mitigated or even capitalized on with the use of LMS, online training, and other educational technology?

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Coggno.com is a leading provider of high-quality LMS.

February 2nd, 2011 by Robin Green

Perhaps you own your own business which has nothing to do with web design. If so, you already understand the value of web design skills. This is because you’ve probably spent a pretty penny on web designers to design your site for you, as well as to maintain it.

Each time you want to announce news, a new product, or any other topic on your website, you have to contact your web designer, and write another check.

Why not learn those skills yourself? Why not design, maintain and update your own company website?

Not enough people who consider themselves “non-tech-savvy” are taking advantage of online LMS web design courses which could save their companies thousands of dollars. Intensive online courses in Dreamweaver and other web design editing and management tools are quick and affordable, and allow learners to go at their own pace.

Some online courses include online classrooms, which include threaded messaging systems through which students may interact with each other. Each class, instructors post lectures and reading material, as well as hands-on activities such as simulations and web design practice tasks for students to complete on their own. If you run into problems, the discussion forums are a great space for discussing topics, beyond communication with the instructor.

LMS web design courses often have no specific meeting time, which allow learners to attend class according to their own free time. However, combined with the threaded forum format, interaction with other participants and online support are still possible.

Consider an introductory web design class hosted on an LMS platform. Designing your own beautiful website may be the first step to reaching your organizational goals and cutting out large costs.

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Coggno.com is a leading provider of world-class online training.