August 25th, 2011 by Robin Green

A college education is becoming unattainable for many without the financial means to make it happen. The U.S. government is proposing cuts to financial aid and unsubsidized student loans, leaving many out in the cold when it comes to obtaining the college degree that will help secure that well-paying job.

Students are Beginning to Rack up Credits Online

In an article that appears in today’s online edition of the New York Times, Tamar Lewin addresses the fact that online e-learning entities are gaining not only steam, but credibility, in today’s uncertain economic climate. Students are looking for ways to obtain the education they need, as inexpensively as possible, while gaining the experience they must have to survive in the workforce. Lewin compares e-learning to Wikipedia and iTunes for initiating the same type of paradigm shift that has given us a different perspective about encyclopedias and music. Many students are becoming hip to the fact that they can complete coursework online for a fraction of what it would cost at a traditional college or university, parlaying those credits into advanced degrees and better-paying jobs.

Students Young & Old are Taking Advantage of E-Learning

The article cites examples of traditional college-age students, as well as students in their 30s with full-time careers and family commitments, taking advantage of e-learning courses to facilitate career changes or increase their knowledge bases to obtain certifications to better their chances at earning higher salaries. The tuition savings are substantial, and some online outlets provide mentoring to keep students motivated to complete their studies.

Traditional Institutions Scoff at E-Learning

Chester E. Finn, Jr., a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution and president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute believes an emphasis on e-learning does not give students the same quality education they would receive in a traditional college environment: “Instead of a full entree of four years in college, it’ll be more like grazing or going to tapas bars…with people piecing together a postsecondary education from different sources.”

Meanwhile, a study conducted by Teachers College at Columbia University tracked 51,000 community college students in Washington State for five years, found that those with a good number of online course credits were not likely to go on to transfer to traditional four year institutions or obtain degrees.

Learning is What You Make of It

Of course the traditional higher learning crowd is going to claim that e-learning will never replace the student-professor relationship that can only be found in a classroom. The problem is, not everyone can afford to spend four years in a college atmosphere, especially as funding to public universities gets slashed to the bare minimum, and the tuition at private universities continues to skyrocket. Despite all the scoffing, academics are eventually going to need to accept that online coursework is likely to become the only means of obtaining an education for many American students if our educational system does not undergo some significant changes.

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May 20th, 2011 by Robin Green

Whether you’re starting a new business or managing an old one, the last thing you probably want to think about is failure.  However, failure is a part of life and a part of growth. Growth never takes place without pain, hardship, and mistakes. So if your organization has recently undergone a problem, big or small, consider it a growing pain, and an opportunity to learn from what just happened.

Of course, the first step is to identify the problem. In order to set potential growth and learning from misteakes in motion after a failure or problem within your business, you have to get to the root causes. Root cause analysis is one way to go about it.

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a management process that seeks to understand the causes for performance and other process-related problems in an organization or business. By determining and implementing corrective measures to negate the root causes, previously encountered problems are less likely to occur.

Get to the Root

Simply perceiving the outward symptoms of a problem usually isn’t  enough to get to the depth of its root causes. Root cause analysis training helps to uncover the most insidious and deep roots, as well as to implement smart and effective changes.

Root cause analysis is a tool of continuous improvement. Continous improvement is a Japanese philosophy known as Kaizen (”kai” meaning “change” and “zen” meaning “good”). One might say that kaizen is responsible for Japan’s competitive labor force and overall success in the business world.

RCA helps organizations to discover methods that allow problematic events to be predicted and eliminated before they occur.

Why RCA Online Training?

RCA online training is convenient and cost-effective. You will learn to identify and solve problems in equipment failure and system failure, as well as how to improve processes in order to prevent future failures.

RCA online training has proven effective in getting to the bottom of problems to solve them long-term, rather than simply producing a temporary solution to a problem bound to resurface at some point in the future.

RCA Types

Although Root Cause Analysis is a group of methods that cannot be narrowed down to one specific methodology, there are a few broadly defined methods which address different kinds of problems. These are safety-based, production-based, failure-based, and systems-based approaches.

Safety-based RCA includes accident analysis and occupational safety. Production-based RCA includes quality control for manufacturing systems. Process-based RCA is related to production-based RCA, but which also includes business processes. Failure-based RCA includes engineering and maintenance failure analysis. Finally, systems-based RCA covers all the other approaches, condensing them and also including systems analysis, change management, and risk management.

The Magic Ingredient

The effectiveness of RCA online training depends a great deal on the use of systems: RCA must be carried out in a systematic manner. It must involve an investigation which uncovers root causes and conslusions that are taken from documented evidence. Although there may be multiple root causes for an event or problem, the key is to develop a persistent and sustainable effort to resolve and eliminate the problem. Click here to visit Coggno, sign up for a free account, and have your learning material ready for distribution in 5 minutes—it’s that easy.

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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.

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February 10th, 2010 by Robin Green

Over the past few years, the effectiveness of Online Training has been spread all over the world. This also became one of the best options of any company who wants their employees or trainees to be able to have short courses taken without even going to a particular place. Basically, it makes the process much easier. Trainees and employees could be given the chance to work on the online courses either at home, or even while they are in their office workplaces as well.

Because of this growing innovation in the field of learning, it has been known and different names were given to it – sometimes it’s called online training, sometimes it is known as e-course, computer based training and different courses call it short online course. So, don’t get yourself confused with these terms, they all mean the same thing.

Aside from the different areas wherein computer based training is being used, most offices have also been using this learning course for compliance training. Well, compliance training is to ensure that all employees are aware of the rules and laws. Most often, it is necessarily needed for employees that are in the field of accounting, financing, business or even contractual business with the government. Offices who were informed that online training can also be used while in their office space and use it for compliance training.

If you would think about how employees were being trained before, there were short courses with a bunch of folders distributed, while in a short meeting room, or at least something familiar with that. It needs a trainer of course, and the schedule of all the employees should be synchronized. That sounds too much of a hassle, don’t you think? However, being blessed and with all the wonders of what technology can do, compliance training which is very needed by employees can be done easily.

Online training courses can be easily found online – and don’t worry, there are also lots of compliance training courses from some of these software. If you are still wondering why it is a must for employees to undergo these courses, using computer based learning, here are some reasons why:

First, a company/organization has different information that should be kept confidential – and not to be breached through any conditions at all. You must ensure that your company will be able to realize and get educated about these things. Rules and regulations of your company are very important. And it is your duty through online training to make sure that compliance will be implemented no matter what department they are in.

Secondly, there is no need to schedule the compliance training. You may get the chance to give them the courses, and just give them a scheduled date where they should be able to complete the course. That way, your employees will be given a chance to complete all the courses on their most favorable time of the day.

Finally, compliance training that is done online is more flexible, and even provides some interactive exercises. This way, employees won’t get bored and understand details that the online training has.

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January 29th, 2010 by Robin Green

As online training continues to get accepted in the corporate world, other industries are also looking at it as a solution. In sports, injuries to head are most common. When the head injuries are not serious, it is vital to evaluate sport related concussions before allows playing to return to play. Many injuries are not reported because of their mild nature and are overlooked by coaches, team mates and athletes as well.

Using online training as an assessment tool with parameters like reaction time and memory it is possible to assess cognitive function. The assessments ask the patient to identify shapes, words, and colors for at least thirty minutes. With the help of concussion guidelines and comparing the results, it is possible to categorize the severity of concussion.

The evaluation tool when used in an online training environment can be used for individual athletes or to a group. This assessment is designed to aid trainers and athletic physicians to make decisions of allowing players to return to play when they are unsure. The online setup provides easy access and quick administration of the test and has a reliable baseline. The result of the players can be sent to neurophysiologist for quick consultation.

The data provided is comprehensive and can also include processing speed and attention as parameters.  By repeating the tests, the data can be compared and ensures that the decision to play is safe. There are a number of tools that use online training setting to administer during play to identify cognitive deficits.

Besides athlete’s, children are also prone to concussions and neuropsychology focuses on assessment and management of concussion. Today, using assessments in an online training environment has proved to be reliable to distinguish between individuals that suffered from a concussion. The neuropsychological tests to baseline and identify post concussion syndromes include word discrimination, design memory, x’s and o’s, matching symbols, color match and three letters.

ImPACT is one such tool that evaluates concussions and post concussion syndromes along with Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) and Sport Concussion Assessment Tool (SCAT). Some other online training environment based neuro-cognitive tests available for the evaluation of concussions include and the Automated Neuropsychological Assessment Metrics, CogSport and Headminders.

In order to teach doctors and sports trainers more about concussion or effects of mild traumatic brain injury, online training has been quite effective. They have provided clinicians with the knowledge required to understand the severity of concussions and suggest the duration for rehabilitation.

When athletes that has symptoms of concussion over one to two weeks is considered to have a post-Concussion Syndrome. In such situation, it is best to treat the individual by an experienced physician and facilitate quick neuropsychological testing. Using an online training setup, it is possible to take a quick test and use the data to baseline in case of injuries during a game.

Over the last few years, a lot of literary research has been conducted to manage head injuries and identify concussions.  There is a not too much controversy surrounding this simple and quick method of identifying concussion in online training by sports physicians and trainers to avoid further complications.

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January 22nd, 2010 by Robin Green

There is no doubt that a well trained workforce gives an edge to a company in today’s competitive market. Online training has gained tremendous popularity in the last few years, and provides companies with an opportunity to train employees. The main aim of online training is to ensure that employees have proper knowledge of their day-to-day tasks. This will not only help them improve their quality of work but also increase productivity.

For instance, human resources, managers, executives or employees involved in training and development would excel at work if they learn job related skills and tools through online training such as employee personality assessment tools. Through training and education they can perform better and learn how to select the right candidate for a job and retain them.

Employee personality assessment tools:

There are various career simulation, video and computer based technology online training courses that users can opt for. It will help the trainee enhance their knowledge of personality tests. Some of the important training courses for employee assessment include tools for assessing work ethic/reliability/pre-employment integrity, team analysis, knowledge of customer service, feedback survey for performance review or personality assessment for increased motivation.

Benefits of learning assessment tools through online training:

If you take up video training for testing employee personality type it will show you outcomes of job related scenarios in which candidates make selection of the best or least effective consequences. The feedback for this type of testing will help assess the performance of job-related skills of the test taker. Through online training, employees can educate themselves about different tests for employee personality type. With this training, the HR or executive can use these tests as a tool to measure qualities of an employee’s personality. It will help them assess their job performance. In a business personality test, the potential candidate will be asked few questions in which he or she will have to agree or disagree with proposed statements.

Employees can learn personality assessment tools through online training even at home or during weekends. It will help them choose the right candidate for a job and eventually increase the productivity at work. There are several home-study programs related to personality assessment of employees that can be taken up to enhance and advance knowledge in this field. These programs mostly include course materials like sample assessments, books and informational CDs.

Finding the right personality assessment tools:

When looking for an informative personality assessment tool, find training programs that have approval, accreditation or company certification from a renowned association. Programs that have a good credential will offer high quality information. There are several programs available that are customized according to the company as well as individual needs. It will help you understand your challenges and strength in the first place before you help others in identifying theirs. It helps to stay updated with industry literature about new developments in this field so that you can enhance your educational efforts.

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January 18th, 2010 by Robin Green

If you need a productive and efficient employee, you can consider online training to overcome the performance gap. As a company one of the greatest assets is a valuable employee. When a company hires an employee they are making an investment in their future. Employee retention is extremely important because every time the company has to start from scratch training a new employee it costs more money to them. Therefore, it is more cost effective to the company in the long run to ensure the employee is happy in their job. Part of this entails paying a fair wage and benefits for the position but another responsibility of an employer is to ensure proper training.

Why Train Employees?
Online training can help facilitate your organizational training needs. Employee training includes ensuring the employee is qualified and trained in the position for which they were hired. However, it goes even further than that. If the company wants to ensure employee retention they have to provide a stable future to the employee. An employee wants to be challenged in their area of expertise and they also want to know that there is room for advancement. If they can not advance both professionally and financially internally with the company, the employee will start looking elsewhere. In addition, it simply makes sense to ensure the employee has all the available tools needed to work efficiently and effectively. The more knowledge the employee has, the better they will be at their job.

What can Online Training Offer?
Online training allows employers to offer employees tools to advance themselves within their career and personally. Internal online training can mean training materials and course work geared toward a specific position. New hires can take online training courses to learn how to do their job and test on policies and procedures. Existing employees can begin taking job specific courses that will ready them for their next steps within the organization. For example, if an employee wants to move to another department, that employee can begin taking coursework to become familiar with the operational procedures within that department.

Additionally, online training can provide personal improvement possibilities. This can help the employee do their existing job better as well as prepare them for more advanced positions within the company. For example, an employer may have available computer courses. This will allow the employee to add skills to their resume. A savvy employee will look first at their existing position to see how they can apply their new found knowledge to improve their work. This will result in getting noticed my management and their proactive stance in their position will give them an advantage on the competition when it is time for internal advancement.

Advantages to Online Training
Many companies are moving toward online training as opposed to sending employees to traditional brick and mortar learning institutions. The two primary reasons for this are cost and convenience. First, online courses typically cost less so the company can provide more training at the lower cost. Next, the employee has the advantage of being able to work from the office or home as is convenient. In the office they will be available for questions or in case of emergency. But, they also have the option of taking continuing education classes in the convenience of their own home when they have free time to do so.

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January 14th, 2010 by Robin Green

Why would you consider using online training to train employees? Training your employees is an essential part of ensuring your employees know your expectations and policies along with how to implement them.  The more educated the employee is, the more valuable they will be to your organization.  Also, the better your employee retention will be when you have the ability to allow for internal promotions.  Because of this, many companies offer online training and education opportunities to enhance the skill set of their employees. When classroom training is scheduled, in most cases it affects the productivity of employees. Online employee training, though, is a way to combat this.

How Online Training can Help Employees
Establishing online training can help enhance the skill set of your employees making them more valuable assets to the company.  They have the ability to excel within their job as well as get exposure to other aspects of the company in which they may want to contribute.  It gives them an opportunity to learn about other departments and to gain experience with necessary skills that will make them eligible for future lateral moves or promotions.  This gives employees a sense of stability.  They will be sure they have a future within the company so they will remain focused and challenged in the work place and they have the opportunity to advance internally.

Online Training Helps Optimize the Employee’s Time
One of the significant advantages to online training is the versatility allowed when using it.  If the employee has to go to a class outside the office for training, that employee is unavailable for significant amounts of time that can cause issues with daily operations.  However, if the employee is utilizing work time to accomplish their training they will be available in case of emergency.  The employee can take a break and check voice mail or email which will maintain the continuity of productivity.

In addition, the option is there for the employee to take advantage of continuing education in order to better themselves on their own time.  They can take online training at home in the evening or on weekends or even during break times that will enable them to possible advance within the organization.  Giving them options for additional educational opportunities that are not mandatory will allow the employee to be proactive in advancing their own career and skill set.

Reference Material Available Online
Retention of knowledge in a classroom setting is sometimes difficult.  Many lessons are compressed and designed to get the most material exposed to the student in as little time as possible.  While online training is also set up similarly, the advantage to online training is that the material is still available after the class.  You can refer back to information when you need to in order to put it into action or to refresh the material if it is not used immediately.

More and more companies are moving to online training for their employees.  Often this is a more economical solution from a strictly per class basis.  However, there are more benefits to using e-learning as it optimizes the employee’s training.  An employee can learn and retain information in a more productive manner.  They can be available in the work place for issues that may arise during the course of business.  They can train during optimal times to make the best of their time management.  With online training the employee can use the available tools to better themselves so they will be a greater asset to the company and to enhance their own career goals.

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