March 16th, 2010 by Robin Green

Whether you are a business or an individual joining the world of internet marketing, now is a great time to invest in LMS online training and/or certification.

What exactly is internet marketing? It involves both technical and creative features of the internet, including design, development, advertising, and sales. It also refers to various stages of the customer engagement cycle via search engine optimization (SEO), search engine marketing (SEM), banner ads, email marketing, and Web 2.0 and social networking strategies.

If you are a business seeking greater exposure on the internet, you may consider a variety of internet marketing techniques. To implement these techniques, many businesses use outsourced service providers to develop their internet marketing strategies, along with other outsourced business processes such as website design and programming.

Unfortunately, what happens all too often is that service providers take on projects they can’t support. They have too much on their plate, or they simply can’t do all the work you need them to. Too often, business owners end up wasting thousands of dollars choosing the wrong service providers when they are first starting out in their internet marketing campaign.

Therefore, your company’s success in internet marketing will depend on the winning combination of two factors: finding the right people, and training those people to maximize your marketing budget.

Internet marketing training will ensure that your team is well equipped to develop and implement your business’s internet strategy. Luckily, there are a growing number of LMS courses and online certification programs available in internet marketing, for both individual and group learning.

Despite the qualifications your service providers possess, the vibrant and rapidly-expanding world of internet marketing is continuously producing more techniques to be learned. There are many skills your service provider can learn from LMS courses in internet marketing. For example, in a course dedicated solely to SEO, your service providers will learn, among other things, how to top search engine rankings and be listed more often on Google, what keywords customers are searching with, how to improve link popularity, Google ranking factors, and how to create effective Google AdWords ads.

The internet has forever changed the landscape of the business world, prompting a sweeping change from traditional exposure and advertising strategies to more complex online techniques, often with immediate and easy-to-measure results. Companies want to see those results–especially given the troubled economy and many companies’ financial worries.

If you are individual thinking of taking an LMS certification course in internet marketing, it’s a great time to do so. Internet marketing is growing and is a business you can begin to develop while keeping your day job.

The opportunities for marketing professionals and organizations with thorough internet expertise are vast. As an individual taking up internet marketing, consider taking an online training program for advancing your knowledge and securing the credentials you need to become an interactive marketing expert. You can learn about web analytics, social media, blogs, Web 2.0, website usability, SEO, affiliate marketing, and more. Enrolling in a certification program will help you not only learn internet marketing strategies, but also develop and implement your own strategies to offer to companies.

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Coggno.com provides high-quality online training.

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.

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Coggno.com provides world-class online training.

May 27th, 2009 by Robin Green

There are a number of misconceptions surrounding the purpose and function of learning management systems (LMS) and the related area of eLearning. It is perhaps an erroneous first step to look at these two areas as being distinctly separate. While it is true that each of the concepts that are presented here do have distinct definitions, they nevertheless form an integral partnership with one another, a virtual (no pun intended, but applicable) symbiotic relationship. Let’s take a look at how each of these concepts is defined in order to better understand the dynamic relationship they share with one another.

A LMS is a software package that an organization (be it business or educational) can utilize to provide instructional material and resources to personnel/students. Typically, an organization will integrate a LMS into their existing computer systems, or it can be a stand alone package. Whatever the case, a LMS is a tool that is used to offer training, educational courses, evaluation mechanisms and a whole host of other benefits. Usually, these resources can be accessed from computers that are provided on location and/or online.

Electronic learning or eLearning (also known as technology support learning [TSL]) is a means of instruction that is facilitated by technological means. In other words, it’s an educational experience that uses computers and other technology to provide training, classes, testing and other needed functions. Classes provided online, with either a virtual instructor or done remotely, is an example of eLearning.

At this point, a clear picture should be developing on the synergy that exists between a LMS and eLearning. In short, a LMS is the means and structure by which one facilitates eLearning. In an educational environment, for example, a LMS can integrate teaching and learning functions to enhance the overall use of resources, as well as the dissemination and absorption of information.

This is accomplished by the development and management of classes, information accessibility, student accomplishment analysis, progress tracking, and even the delivery and presentation of classes. With a LMS, eLearning is not limited to a single location. An educational organization can provide its offerings to a wide range of students in diverse locations as a result of online capabilities of a LMS.

There is little mystery, as one can see, about these concepts. LMS’s and eLearning allow effective and wide-reaching instructional offerings. It is within this understanding that Coggno, a software developer has stepped forward. This company that specializes in LMS’s, has offered to provide public schools free eLearning tools with its software. This move in the midst of educational budget cuts only serves to highlight the practicality and resource efficiency that these concepts provide. Coggno, for its part, is providing a much needed service to the public.

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Coggno.com provides world-class online training.

May 27th, 2009 by Robin Green

Every organization realizes a need for both resource efficiency and training/information dissemination. Indeed, much time, energy, and budget allocations are directed to these functions. With a learning management system (LMS) delivering an organizations eLearning requirements, many training/educational delivery problems find quick resolution.

For the uninitiated, a LMS is a software package that enables an organization to deliver educational/training materials to those who need it. This can be done either on location, utilizing computers and other technological means, or online from remote locations. eLearning is simply the concept of utilizing technology to teach or receive instructional material.

Ok, this sounds great, but why should you care? The reason is simple and it goes to the point that we started this article off with: “Every organization realizes a need for both resource efficiency and training/information dissemination.” This is what an LMS and eLearning can do. An educational organization, for example, has the need to instruct students in the most effective manner possible. This entails not only classroom instruction, but also testing, evaluation, class management and more.

An LMS can perform all of these functions in an efficient manner. Consider these benefits of utilizing an LMS for eLearning:

• Schools will be able to instruct a greater number of students
• Students progress will be able to tracked efficiently
• Faculty and teachers can be easily accessed
• Information is easily accessible and disseminated
• Students experience more time and convenience in learning endeavors
• Enhanced opportunity to complete courses

These are only a small sampling of the benefits that are enjoyed by utilizing an LMS.

What should be noted is that these are all benefits that educational entities seek on a general basis but are often unable to attain because of budget constraints or manpower that such moves would require. A LMS is a practical, and more importantly, budget friendly means of accomplishing the progressive goals that educational organizations rightfully endeavor toward. There is little question, in the final analysis, of the benefits that eLearning and a LMS can provide an organization.

Indeed, one such organization that develops software that delivers online training tools is taking the initiative that illustrate this very point. Coggno is providing public schools that accept its offer, with free LMS software to provide them with eLearning capabilities. As more and more states slash educational budgets, their ability to adequately serve students is hampered. Coggno understands that these problems can alleviated by implementing eLearning solutions. By offering LMS tools to public schools, Coggno is not only providing a public service, but also showcasing the ability of these concepts.

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Coggno.com provides high-quality LMS platforms.

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.

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Coggno.com provides premier e-learning education.

April 10th, 2009 by Robin Green

Experienced trainers and educators understand the secret of peer groups in LMS online courses. When learners collaborate in an engaging and satisfying way, they produce potent results.

It’s not only an effective business strategy, but in a training program it works wonders, fostering a spirit of community and a sense of common purpose. Why is a sense of community an important aspect of a learning experience? And how can you create efficient group formats in a learning environment?

Latané’s social impact theory describes how a person’s behavior tends to correlate with the behavior of a group of people, given that these people become important to that person. So if a group is working hard to achieve a common goal, individual members are more likely to feel more deeply invested in the cause.  Frequent interaction is a critical factor in the equation.

Encourage learners to collaborate to achieve goals using group discussions, IMs, blogs, conferences, wikis, etc. The more interactions that take place, the closer the students’ sense of “us” will be. Belonging to a community of engaged learners increases the likelihood that each learner will become more deeply engaged with the learning material.

All too often in LMS online systems, a leader (teacher or trainer) fails to take advantage of peer groups. This may be partly due to challenges posed by peer group arrangements. For example, we’ve all had the experience of a team effort in which there were one or more participants didn’t–lightly speaking–give their all. For peer learning to be effective in LMS online learning, the trainer must create a system that insures that all learners are participating. Thus the importance of an efficient learning tool like an LMS.

Using a learning management system, trainers and educators are able to track both group and individual progress. An LMS includes critical tools such as online assessment, automatic marking, a resource organizer for project work, and progress tracking mechanisms. Trainers are able to track which employees have completed their course requirements and those whose obligations are unfulfilled, or who may require updates or “refresher” courses.

LMS online learning experts strive to be trendsetters, not followers, in the industry. This requires not only thinking outside the box, but keeping in mind our societal need for technology as a collaborative tool. The possibilities are endless. Companies are reacting according to this basic human need, developing cutting-edge technology that provides new ways of interacting online.

Cisco, for example, is working on unified communications that combine a virtual meeting space via TV, web conferencing and instant messaging. The idea of collaboration is at the heart of tools like LMS online training systems as well.

In designing and maintaining your organization’s LMS, keep in mind its community-building capacity. The more interactive and collaborative, the more effective your course will be. Synergy is the bread and butter of today’s globalizing economy.

Organizing a virtual team is a process made a great deal easier by a robust learning management system. Training for team members can be organized and performed internationally, linking LMS online training to its various human resources departments and ERP systems, to perform multi-locational, cost-effective and efficient training.

These days, organizations are practically composed of a vast network of individuals and teams to meet all the goals and functions of an organization. An LMS can be not only a helpful way to organize employee training, but service teams can use them to keep track of customers and employee achievements.

The benefits of peer groups outweigh any potentiality for disaster that prevents more people from tapping into them. These include not only professional benefits, within an organization, but personal ones as well: a sense of team-building and support systems, greater self-esteem, social competence, and better communication skills. Peer groups and virtual or face-to-face teams are a vital resource to any LMS online training program.

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

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.

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Coggno.com offers premier e-learning courses.

November 6th, 2008 by Robin Green

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

Learning management systems provide the most efficient way to train employees. Of course, some LMSs are more complicated than others. If you’re planning to implement a complex learning management system at your company, you’ll want to consider some courses for your LMS trainers. Look for training classes designed to get your technical staff up to speed with new technologies, as well as maintain their knowledge of system and software capabilities for your specific system. Trainers will learn how to apply your software to tackle engineering problems in specific application areas. Some courses provide both learning management system training classes and optional on-site training services.

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Coggno.com offers premier online training courses.