September 1st, 2011 by Robin Green

If hurricane Irene taught us anything, it’s that preparation is key when it comes to dealing with potential disasters. Knowing what to do in a disaster, natural or otherwise, is knowledge we all should have.

How Can We Get Prepared?

If you want to learn the basics of Disaster Management, it can be achieved online with 15 to 40 credit hours of coursework. You can complete this within 6 to 12 months. You’ll obtain an online disaster management diploma that will document your skills in meeting the needs of those affected by disasters, disaster preparedness, public safety and hazard mitigation.

Disaster Management Can Be a Viable Career Option

Those looking to pursue a career in disaster management will need an undergraduate degree to obtain the skills necessary to seek employment at the local level, or perhaps even a more high-profile job with a federal agency like FEMA. Typical coursework will include introduction to emergency management, disasters and psychology and hazard mitigation in disaster management.

Other potential industries for disaster management specialists include hospitals, power generation and distribution companies, natural resource extraction companies, and community organizations like food banks and housing programs.

Employment of individuals with disaster management training is expected to rise by approximately 13 percent over the next decade. With climate becoming more and more unpredictable, it is important that we all do our part to understand what it means to be prepared for the worst.

E-Learning is the Best Option

There are many accredited e-learning programs that offer disaster management training. Whether you are personally interested in obtaining this knowledge, or are part of a corporation that wants to improve its skills when it comes to being prepared, there are options that can be pursued individually, or via an LMS platform. The worst may never happen, but common sense dictates that we know what to do if it does.

—————

Coggno.com provides a robust Learning Management System platform for users all over the world.

August 11th, 2011 by Robin Green

E-learning has changed the educational landscape and opened up a world of new opportunities for educators. Those who no longer want to teach in the traditional classroom can put their skills to use in challenging and exciting positions outside the usual academic grind.

What Types of Jobs are Available?

Currently, there are a wide variety of e-learning positions. The most in-demand are instructional and curriculum designers, along with training consultants who help coordinate LMS platforms at the corporate level. Regardless of which position you choose to pursue, the traditional educational skill set must be augmented with technical knowledge that will allow for use of Web tools and applications. The science of learning must be combined with strong business skills, as well as the ability to be flexible.

Prepare for a Paradigm Shift

Most e-learning positions are not permanent. If you can shift your thought process to embrace a career as an e-learning contractor, you’re halfway home. Many e-learning positions are temporary,  but require a commitment to see them through to their completion. If your area of interest lies in working with companies to develop LMS strategies, you’ll need to possess vision, creativity and the ability to get the job done in the allotted time frame. Today’s corporate culture wants to keep costs in line while getting the biggest bang for their buck. Many are looking for professionals who are “specific generalists” that are not locked in to a specific job description.

Be the Total Package

Updating and increasing your knowledge base is always worthwhile. Many e-learning and LMS professionals have advanced degrees in education, as well as various certifications. Developing a strong stable of personal contacts is a must; networking through your personal connections is where the opportunities lie. Attending conferences and seminars is crucial, as is joining professional organizations and familiarizing yourself with the latest technology. Keep in mind that educational design principles tend to remain static, but technology moves at a much faster pace. It is always prudent to keep up with it.

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses; update your resume; use Web tools to facilitate your job search. Search engines are today’s classifieds, and they can lead you to a wealth of opportunities. Most importantly, keep an open mind and embrace the possibility of change. It could lead you to a career you never thought was possible.

Good luck!

—————–

At Coggno.com you can choose a variety of specialized e-learning courses that are created by industry experts.

July 15th, 2011 by Robin Green

Anyone who uses e-learning courses will tell you that when running down your check-list of desired  features, one aspect not to be ignored is how easy or difficult it is to integrate your existing learning materials into the course you want to create. An LMS’s ease of integration will speed up course creation and allow you greater flexibility with the kinds of materials you offer your learners.

In choosing an LMS, integratability is key. You’re not creating learning modules in a vaccuum. You have years of experience and probably have a lot of material up your sleeve. Maybe you’re a teacher or a trainer and have learning materials stored on your computer, an external hard drive, or online in the cloud. Choosing an LMS that allows you to take advantage of these text, video, and audio files is going to make your course creation experience much easier.

What is SCORM and why might I need it?

Besides your learning material, you may want to make sure the learning management system you choose integrates with all SCORM software.

SCORM is a group of standards set for online learning. If you are creating a course for a governmental organization or an NGO that requires the use of SCORM standards, you will need SCORM authoring software.

One purpose of a SCORM authoring tool is that it allows you to control the order in which learning modules are experienced. Does your course have a natural flow, an order in which your learners should work through the material and activities? Most courses do, since knowledge is meant to build on previously learned knowledge, continuously reinforcing what has been learned. The ideal is not that a learner is able to jump ahead to the last section of the course without any difficulty. So what SCORM does is provide the structure of the learning program. It allows you to create and control the rules, time your learners, and ensure they are on task.

Live Webinars and Web Conferencing

Some learning management systems have incorporated web conferencing and webinar tools into their e-learning courses. Such LMSs provide you with the options of both synchronous HD visual and non-synchronous training.

How does it work? Learners simply log into the LMS course and participate in seminars or other kinds of real-time web conferences. The integrated webinar prevents confusion and produces seamless learning, without having to go back and forth between various locations. Additionally, webinars are an dynamic and increasingly popular way to provide collaborative and self-paced training to learners.

Easy Integration with Existing Learning Materials

Some learning management systems, such as Coggno, allow course creators to integrate existing learning materials, powerpoint documents, SCORM and video files with the click of a button. Having the course ready can be simply a matter of uploading the material that you have already worked on. You also can brand your material with your company logo, colors etc. Using a pay-per-use model like Coggno provides a few options for delivery. You can distribute the course within your organization, syndicate it on the web, or publicize it on Coggno’s catalogue of training courses.

Flexibility in Action

The flexibility of Coggno’s LMS platform to meet organizations’ particular requirements and needs, as well as its standards implementation, make it among the top online learning platforms on the market.

——————–

Coggno.com provides high-quality online education  world-wide.

June 30th, 2011 by Robin Green

Regardless of whether you have experience in distance learning, if you’re a professional copy-editor and proofreader, you understand your work isn’t just about finding and correcting errors in text. Your ability to navigate the intricate web of factors and rules for deciding what parts of a text to change and how to change them, and when it’s best to leave good enough alone, ultimately decide how good you are at your trade.

Online proofreading courses are an affordable way for copy-editors and proofreaders to sharpen their existing skills. And for beginner copy-editors, gaining this skill in a formal context can open the door to many different jobs including writing reports, publicity writing, journalistic writing and news articles, marketing content, and more.

In a copy-editing course, you’ll learn to differentiate between the numerous editorial, proofreading and typesetting roles within the publishing industry.

Then, you’ll get into the nitty-gritty of copy-editing. To be an effective copy-editor, of course, you’ve got to have a solid grip on the basics. An online course will review how to identify typical spelling, grammatical, punctuation and layout mistakes in printed text. To be a great copy-editor, proficiency in the application and understanding of the parts of speech including nouns and pronouns, verbs, adverbs and adjectives is an absolute must.

Web editorial skills

Today most editors need to have some experience working with online content, and a growing market exists for proofreaders who can tailor their content for a web audience. A distance learning course in copy-editing will help you adapt your skills to the online medium to enable expanding your client base. Furthermore, if you yourself are responsible for online content, an online course in copy-editing can greatly improve your ranking and the quality of your web content. Learn how internet content differs from printed text, and how to structure and articulate your content in a way that is easily to read online.

Tech-savvy copy-editing

You will also build on or develop your knowledge of computer applications. More and more content copy-editors and proofreaders are expected to read is web-based. Perhaps you are already working from content on the web but aren’t sure that you’re doing it correctly. An online course can help smooth out the uncertainties and give you the tools for seeking guidelines for publishing on the web. You’ll gain an overall competency in your knowledge of theoretical and practical features of proofreading and copy-editing.

Get with the program….or is it programme?

Is it program or programme? One important topic in a copy-editing or proofreading distance learning course is that of regional and stylistic language differences, such as MLA or APA and differences between British and American English. Copy-editing is one of those professions where the devil is in the details: a UK-based client will not want to see z’s (realize, utilize, etc.) in their text where they do not belong, for example. Consistency is key.

An online course should cover these regional differences to guide proofreaders in their task of marking text accurately.

Proofreading vs. Copy-editing

All this talk of proofreading and copy-editing, but what really is the difference between a proofreader and a copy-editor? Simply put, the copy-editor works on a book in its manuscript stage, while the proofreader works on the galley proof. Proofreaders are expected to make less subtantive changes than copy-editors. If you are searching for an LMS online course to brush up on your marketable skills, check out Coggno’s selection of distance learning courses.

_____________________________________

Coggno.com is leading provider of Learning Management System.

June 15th, 2011 by Robin Green

Distance learning is a valuable resource for proofreaders and copy-editors, professions which are in high demand in today’s global market place.

However,  these valuable skills are often needed in environments where coworkers or clients are not able to do their own editing, and therefore on-the-job training is often lacking.

Many proofreaders and copy-editors are self-taught and have little formal training.

What are the best proofreading distance learning options?

Online training can consolidate and expand upon skills which have been developed on-the-job through trial and error. Distance learning in proofreading and copy-editing is a great option for people already doing this work who would like to brush up on their skills. Most courses also involve theory and context, helping learners understand editorial tasks in the context of the complex publishing process.

Levels of copy-editing elearning

There are three standard levels of copy-editing training: beginner, intermediate and advanced. Beginner courses are for well suited to those who have an interest in copy-editing but have no formal work or education in copy-editing. An intermediate level is appropriate for those who have been copy-editing for a year or more. An advanced level is meant for those who have already had formal education in copy-editing or proofreading and who simply want to polish their skills.

Who enrolls in copy-editing courses?

An LMS distance learning course in copy-editing is useful not only for people currently working in the industry, but also for those editors who are experienced but who are out of practice, such as in-house staff who have taken on other roles within an organization, or people with a background in editing.

Why knowing “the rules” doesn’t cut it

To be an efficient copy-editor, you need to develop strategies to maximize your existing skills. That’s where online learning comes in: to help you organize and expand your understanding.

Knowing “the rules” of  grammar, punctuation, form etc. is only part of the big picture. To be a copy-editor or proofreader you must also possess the self-confidence and organizational skills to put these rules into practice. An e-learning course in copy-editing teaches critical skills which you can offer to your clients to make you a highly depended-upon asset to their work.

What you’ll learn

An online course in copy-editing will teach you, among other things, how to: interpret your client’s instructions, even when they are unclear or difficult to understand; propose solutions rather than seek help from your client or other sources; be decisive; take control of the situation and all the details involved in the work; and give your work a complete and professional touch.

If you are a copy-editor who has experience and expertise in your field, and are considering creating an online course for proofreading or copy-editing, check out Coggno’s simple online course creator toolkit. The simple user interface and fast delivery make distance learning creation or in-house training content development easy and fast.

——————

Coggno.com offers high-quality LMS.

April 27th, 2011 by Robin Green

The online education content community should be taking notes from the book publishing industry. It’s an adapt-or-perish world in which those who embrace technology such as tablet computers and apps are able to thrive, while those who stick to the same old packaging are doomed to die off.

Metatextuality is key here. If your content has it, you are entering the world of the average internet-user: a world that’s dynamic and constantly in dialogue with other sources.

The death of textbooks
With more and more students getting their degrees online, education technology is wildly expanding. Not only online education students are finding textbooks irrelevant, but those who attend brick-and-mortar schools are increasingly opting out of buying the course textbooks.

In many subjects, textbooks are going the way of the dinosaurs. While textbooks like language, philosophy, and other humanities remain necessary, many other course textbooks such as biology and math are becoming obsolete as students use Google to find the answers they’re looking for.

All the information is out there, and students no longer depend on textbooks to find it in a consolidated format.

The transformation of one publishing house
In a recent Reuters article, Mark Egan profiles the innovative New York publisher Nicholas Callaway, who saw wild success with the publishing of the children’s app book “Miss Spider’s Tea Party” on Apple’s iOS platform. His company began publishing regular paper books in the 1980’s but now concentrates its energy exclusively on iOS app versions.

With an openness to more dynamic story-telling methods, Callaway’s company transformed from a traditional publishing house to a technologically innovative one.

From stories to learning Content: the transformation of your learning system
Just as you can tell a story in a number of ways, you can teach in a number of ways, in an endless number of formats and media. The way we interact with stories, news, educational content, and all kinds of information online offers a range of possibilities for online education systems.

I also loved the concept of another successful publishing company described in Egan’s article is DMC Worldwide, whose most recent venture is Copia Interactive: social e-reading.

“We think there is space around the book for community to grow,” said Seth Kaufman, Copia’s vice president of marketing and merchandising.

Copia Interactive, still in beta, allows users to not only buy books, but also inteact with one another. They can annotate books, publishing their comments and reactions.

When Kaufman explains Copia to publishers, he likes to tell them, “There are many friends I have who would never buy a Sarah Palin book, but if Jon Stewart annotated Sarah Palin’s book, they might buy that book.”

As online education content developers, how might we tap into the potential of metatextuality?

How to make your online learning content metatextual
If it’s online, information has the potential to be interactive and metatextual. Meaning, it can refer to information outside the text, like linking pages in a blog. It can create and be part of a vast network of information—there’s no limit to its scope.

Education, with or without professors and textbook companies who stubbornly stick to traditional methods, is moving in that direction.

In order to adapt and thrive, online education platforms must join the publishing industry and offer an interactive and metatextual learning experience to their learners. Platforms like Coggno offer a simple way to tap into the interactive potential of online learning for those both beginner and expert learning content developers.

—————-

Coggno.com provides premier educational training.

April 21st, 2011 by Robin Green

It seemed that there was some good news for job seekers when the employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on April 1st reported that the private sector added 230,000 jobs in March, adding jobs for the 13th consecutive month. The unemployment rate fell in March to 8.8%.

However, also in March, government employment fell by 14,000, making it the fifth straight monthly decline. And local governments were especially affected, losing 416,000 jobs since the peak in September of 2008.

Although job gains are getting better, it is still exceptionally difficult for the unemployed to find work. There are almost five job seekers for every opening available.

Unemployment is highly stressful and emotionally exhausting, but it can also be an opportunity to reflect on your skills and long-term goals, and take action. If you are unemployed, you might take this time to build on your skills and expand your marketability.

Especially for women, further education helps while seeking employment to fight the gender disparity that remains an active element in the work force. For many women either working, raising children, or seeking employment, an LMS online program is not only the most attractive option, but the only one feasible one.

The increasingly financially crippling expenses of brick and mortar university education is enough to make anyone seek alternatives, but especially those with mouths to feed, bills to pay, etc.The low cost combined with the flexibility of online courses make it the fastest-growing learning method in the world.

Surprisingly, many women are finding post-recession time to be the most difficult financially. During the recession, men lost more jobs than women overall. However, now that the recession is over, and we are supposedly enjoying an economic recovery, women are losing more jobs. Why is this the case? Part of the reason is government funding—state money has been quickly running out. Government payrolls are shrinking, programs are being cut, and jobs are being eliminated left and right.

So how are women more affected by state budget cuts? Women make up some 57% of the government work force. And among the public jobs that were cut recently, two-thirds of them were held by women.

Another factor is nothing new. Despite affirmative action and other efforts to balance the inequality between men and women in the workplace, gender biases still have a place in society. Specifically, the “breadwinner bias” still holds sway. When given a choice between a man and a woman, historically a female’s income has been considered supplementary, despite the case that more and more women are the full breadwinners of their homes.

LMS online training is helping to bridge the gender gap and equip job-seekers with the skills they need to find employment. However, without a concerted nation-wide effort in both the private and public sector to generate more work, education alone isn’t enough to solve the unemployment problem.

—————

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

April 13th, 2011 by Robin Green

You might fancy the idea of saving resources and money for your organization by hosting webinars and LMS online training. But how do you go about it?

There are many avenues available in implementing online training and hosting your own training webinars. You can host training via a learning management system (LMS), providing learners with a common space for building their skills and knowledge as well as interacting with each other.

LMS training offers a variety of benefits including cost-effectiveness and a range of customization options. You can design your own training or choose pre-packaged and specific online training for your needs. In designing your own LMS training, you have the freedom to create and incorporate your own learning material, quizzes, videos, and audio and podcast features.

In addition or as an alternative to LMS online training, webinars are an exciting way to deliver training to participants. When choosing a webinar service, make sure you choose one you can trust. Do a test drive. Participants should be able to log in easily and have easy access. For many people, it might be their first time attending a webinar. Complex instructions on how to attend the webinar will deter participants and prevent the success of your event, and possibly the entire training effort.

Include polls. Polls can be taken throughout the webinar to give you instant feedback on how people are doing during your event—whether you need to repeat something, or expand on something you have said. Polls are one feature that will help guarantee the success of your event.

Remember, in a webinar you’re only able to control your end—the presentation of the webinar. That means that you should tell participants at the beginning of the event what to expect and where they can find all the materials of the webinar. Provide the slides from the webinar on your website so people can access them later. Additionally, record the event and provide the recordings afterward.

Let participants know they can ask questions via twitter if you are using it. The key is to be specific in all directions. Tell attendees they can use the question panel to submit questions, including their name, title, and location.

Provide a number to call in case people are having trouble logging in to webinar. Tell around what time there will be breaks, and when you will be taking calls.

Webinars and LMS online training provide a dynamic and environmentally friendly alternative to in-person training conferences. In both methods, the more explicit and simple your directions, as well as the effort you put in to make the experience an exciting and interesting one will make all the difference in their success.

—————

Coggno.com is an LMS platform that offers a wide range of online courses.