May 5th, 2011 by Robin Green

Conflict. We see it on the news, from Bin Laden’s death to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. We see it in our daily lives, personal and professional. At work, we might see it on refrigerator doors or in the tense dynamic between coworkers.

Conflict is the very fabric of existence. Without it there would be no war, no fights, but there would also be no revolution or democracy—there would just be world-wide sameness and complacency. There would also be no great novels or any great works of art to speak of.

Given the all-encompassing nature of conflict, we could say it’s a neutral force, neither positive nor negative. It’s putty; it simply asks to be transformed into something else.

So once we accept that conflict is not only inevitable, but a necessary catalyst for change, then we can ask the question: why isn’t conflict resolution a topic taught extensively in schools? Lots of companies offer conflict management and team-building courses, but by the time adults are part of these professional environments, too often, bad conflict resolution habits have already been developed.

But it’s never too late to learn how to manage, resolve, and benefit from conflicts. Even though some things might have been more easily absorbed when we were children, the things we missed in grammar school we eventually pick up along the way.

Unresolved conflicts in the workplace

Unresolved conflicts are like untreated infections. The longer they are left alone, the more difficult they become to eliminate, and the nastier manifestations they produce. Everything from passive aggressive notes left on refrigerator doors to icy interactions between employees which create divisions and make everyone feel uncomfortable create an unhealthy work environment.

Unpleasant work environments are the number one source of poor employee morale. And as everyone knows, employee morale is a tremendous factor in the success of any organization.

We like to poke fun at complaintive, often snarky notes posted on refrigerator doors at work. They’re often written in anger, with gratuitous exclamation points, and later can be read for a laugh. But basically they point to a kind of pathetic communication failure. And if we’re totally honest, how many of us are guilty of leaving notes when we could have spoken in person to someone instead?

The different faces of conflict

There are many different kinds of conflict, and many different ways to resolve them. LMS conflict management training can cover all the bases of conflict—which are sure to arise—so that employees have the tools required to resolve them before they fester.

Conflict management training: Assertive, not aggressive

Conflict management training can teach employees the communicative tools required to resolve conflict when it arises. One important distinction employees will learn is the difference between being assertive and being aggressive. When people are assertive, they are able to voice their perspective without the negative consequences that come with aggression. They learn to be firm and stand their ground to reach a solution without losing their tempers.

Online tools for conflict management

One common cause of conflict is the unclear delegation of responsibilities. One way in which team projects can be made clear as to who does what is with the use of discussion forums, video conferencing, and other web 2.0 tools. The goal, remember, is to enhance communication, since conflicts are best resolved quickly and openly. Organizing information regarding employee achievements and team objectives is another way to squash conflict in a timely manner.

When left untreated, conflicts are an expensive wastes of time. An untreated infection after a while weakens the entire immune system, leading to other problems. The health of an organization’s body depends on its staff and staff relations. Conflicts are always going to arise. But what comes out of them—positive or negative—will be the defining element in the long life of an organization.

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Coggno.com offers world class LMS.

April 6th, 2011 by Robin Green

Have you ever considered LMS training in herbal medicine? Herbal medicine refers to the use of plants for medical purposes. This means not only the treatment and prevention of disease, but the promotion of healthy lives and resolving health problems before they have an impact on one’s quality of life. Herbal medicine education trains aspiring herbalists to practice using plants as remedies, something that in many countries is a common practice that many people already know through tradition.

Medical systems like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine depend on herbalists to treat patients. However, in the U.S., herbal medicines often come from North American and European plants.

All kinds of health professions, from herbalists to naturopathic medics to chiropractors make use of herbal medicinal solutions in their practices. As the herbalist industry grows and more and more people seek natural alternatives to pharmaceutical ones, an increasing number of people are seeking education in this growing field. LMS online programs are often a convenient and low-cost solution for aspiring herbalists.

In the U.S., herbalist medicine is widely varied. It can include someone who grows herbs, “wildcrafts” or picks herbs, manufactures herbal products, teaches or counsels on herbal medicine, or supplements, as I already mentioned, another profession such as nutrition or naturapathic medicine.

What can you expect in an LMS herbalist medicine course, or a university herbal medicine program? Herbalist medicine training typically includes courses on botany and plant identification, human physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, and the history and philosophy of herbalism. It may also include issues of professional practice.

What are the career opportunities for LMS herbalism students? Herbal medicine practitioners who have completed LMS training can expect a welcoming market. With an increasing number of studies on the benefits of herbalism and the spreading of scientific data showing the results of such medicinal practices, interest in herbal medicine and therapy has grown world-wide.

What are a few of the careers that an LMS herbalism student can train for? Careers include owning a retail store, counseling about herbal products and uses, growing herbs to sell to manufacturers, and operating small-scale manufacturing companies which produce herbal products. Most herbalists are self-employed.

Teaching is another great option for herbalists, and are abailable through many alternative medicine colleges. Some herbalists also work for the kinds of businesses mentioned above. To discover these job opportunities, check out online forums, attend conferences of professional herbalist groups, or get to know herbalists in your area. In other words, network. These positions are rarely included through the traditional sources like the classified ad section of your local newspaper.

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Coggno.com offers high-quality LMS.

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.

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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Coggno.com offers a wide range of high-quality online courses.

August 24th, 2010 by Robin Green

In difficult economic times, often the only time when an employee can expect to receive a change in wages or pay scale is at a performance review. Usually once or twice a year, when management sits down with staff and discusses milestones, successes, achievements as well as gaps in performance throughout the previous year.  A good review is a reflection of success, and can mean more responsibility and money for an employee. A substandard or poor review can be indicative of many things, and most importantly can result in no raise or increase in pay scale.

It’s important for both participants in the review process to come prepared, and be able to offer suggestions to address any gaps identified.

Injecting the notion of training, its benefits, and their effect on outcomes, is an important career enhancer in an employee’s job that can be identified and quantified. If you are sitting in your performance review meeting and your manager identifies gaps and failures, you may want to consider delicately referring to the training, or lack thereof, you received. This can be a great way to counter management expectations and enable you to answer negatives with a constructive point. Being prepared to mention courses you’ve identified as being useful, and that can assist in the strengthening of your job performance is an effective and constructive way to offset any negativity around gaps that are mentioned.

Successes in the workplace are often a function of a properly deployed and measured training initiative; and failures are can be the result of just the opposite, a poorly delivered and carelessly evaluated training plan.

A Learning Management System that is easily deployed goes a long way to bridge any gaps in a training initiative, and www.Coggno.com is a perfect solution for this. Filled with robust tools to distribute private training, and a marketplace filled with relevant courses, Coggno’s learning management system can be a great partner in advancing your career, navigating a prickly performance review, and prepare you to meet the challenges at work.

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Coggno.com offers premier LMS platform.

April 28th, 2010 by Robin Green

As your company matures and expands, you’ll find your employees are handling more calls and emails from customers. And if this situation has begun to spiral out of control–too many calls and emails to track–you know it’s time to step up to the plate and implement a new strategy to deal with the influx of communicative traffic. This is a critical moment in the evolution of your company, and may be the perfect time for you to consider implementing a call center. Call centers and contact centers are efficient and help you organize, maintain, track, and improve your customer relationships. They also help cut costs–especially when training and other processes are taken care of online.

Once upon a time, before learning management systems (LMS) and other online training systems were used, training employees across distances was a chaotic, decentralized, and often inefficient process. Most of the time, a company was unable to confirm how much money it was spending on employee training across the enterprise. The training process in each group of the company could vary significantly.

Today, companies utilizing business process outsourcing (BPO) for call centers can cut costs if they are able to centralize, unify, and repeat the process of employee training. This is where LMSs are useful, since an LMS allows its users to develop and distribute their own training solutions. Companies can create and customize training, integrating their logo and applying the company colors. And the ability to pay-per-use makes it easy for companies to load and reload learning content as required for relevant and up-to-date training. This pay-per-use model provides companies with a way to train employees in a call center in an efficient and timely manner.

Coggno is now offering a limited time free trial on its pay-per-use LMS. Click here to try it out.

Outsourced call centers require online training, easily delivered via LMS. But why create and/or outsource your call center to begin with? There are numerous benefits to implementing a call center, or a customer relationship management team. First of all, a call center creates greater efficiency in your company. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a big operation, involving a separate office, although it often does. However, if need be, a call center may involve minimal employees, in any location in the world. In fact, you might not even need to hire extra personnel.

Second, call centers allow you to track business processes and progress. Using customer relationship management software, your office can track the number of calls and emails received and responded to each day by making them into simple and trackable cases. An ordinary helpdesk isn’t able to track these. A call center generates these statistics and allows you to use them for future reference and to take measures to improve your business processes and ultimately, your business.

This point leads to the next benefit: launching a call center strategy will help you get organized and up to date on the most robust technology–including LMS software and communication handling systems–available. For example, using the Software as a service technology delivery model, virtual call centers are the most recent phenomenon emerging to manage customer relationships. Oftentimes call centers operate using cloud-based services like Salesforce.com, for a monthly or annual fee, to integrate with their call center functionality. Software like Salesforce also includes ways to help call center reps stay connected, use feeds to keep up with the latest salesforce activities and record updates, and more social networking-style tools that are actually useful in the communication-handling world.

Salesforce’s up-and-coming collaboration platform, Chatter, includes a variety of cutting edge and useful tools for a call center. Status updates provide a way to quickly let others know what you’re working on, without having to post to a staff blog or send an email. And in addition to following other staff members (like Twitter, only the ones you choose) you can also follow individual records in Salesforce such as contacts, accounts, cases, or opportunities. For example, say you’re a customer service rep and you’ve got a case (an email or phone call from a customer) you want come help on. Now you can share a question, comment, link, or file about the case in your status update, and have the answer from your followers right in Salesforce.

Likewise, as more companies utilize LMS for training, such software has developed in sophistication. In some instances, educational software begins to look more game-like in its interactivity, and fun-to-use tools and interactive and practical features. Social networking features are an up-and-coming addition to online courseware and LMSs, with potentiality to transform learning and create more robust training modules.

Coggno is now offering a limited time free trial on its pay-per-use LMS. Click here to try it out.

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Coggno.com provides premier e-learning education.

April 20th, 2010 by Robin Green

Despite the media telling us that the economy is stabilizing, we all know many people are still jobless or working in a position that isn’t up to their standards, simply for fear that finding something better will be impossible. What do many people do at a time like this? They go back to school and cultivate some skills, so that when jobs begin pouring into the economy again, they’re are ready to snag a great one.

Consider picking up a vocational or other online course to increase your skills and become more valuable in the marketplace. Become more tech-savvy. LMS (Learning Management System) online programs are available in a wide range of career fields, and their self-paced format is designed fit to your life. If you are working as a service provider in an outsourced position, you may consider expanding your resume and offering a wider variety of services, or an altogether new service. Or, you may learn how to further develop the skills you already have.

These days, educational systems are increasingly preparing students for a tech-infused workplace. And as more institutions use LMS courses, such software has developed in sophistication. In some instances, educational software begins to look more game-like in its interactivity, and fun-to-use tools and interfaces.

Educational software with game-like characteristics (such as virtual worlds) has begun to creep into higher education and the professional world. For example, some universities have either begun to implement, or are making plans to integrate, a virtual world into their education systems. And research firm eMarketer reports that 24% of the 34.3 million internet users under age 19 use virtual worlds at least once a month, a figure that they predict will jump to 53% by 2011.

As more students gain experience with e-learning, and as online education becomes more sophisticated, their experience becomes more easily translated into a professional setting. And given the benefits that studying online and collaboratively with an LMS provides students, more schools are seeking out and integrating advanced technology. As a result, more and more young people graduate high school prepared not only for more education, but for an increasingly competitive job market which values ICT skills more and more each day.

However, most students are still graduating high school with little idea of what they want to do with their lives. Furthermore, many students graduate from university with the same problem. It often takes years of working in different jobs to decide what you like best, and this is when many people decide to gain more education.

Unless you are in your twenties or younger, you may not have had a great deal of experience with online education. High school didn’t prepare my generation for the business world as directly as it does today, and for this reason, now might be a good time to increase your value in the workplace by taking online vocational training.

More and more colleges and universities, technical schools and institutes are answering the call for online education. Courses provided online allow students to work towards certifications and degrees. In some cases, they also supplement face-to-face learning.

Vocational courses are related to a particular skill or kind of work. Students complete a series of tasks and assignments which prepare them for real work experience. Certification programs include a variety of professional fields including like social care, health care and childcare; hospitality and catering; leisure and tourism; media and design; construction; business; information technology; and animal care. Vocational courses traverse a vast landscape of professional possibilities.

Coggno is one LMS with a simple interface and a variety of professional skill-building online courses.

Enter Coggno’s marketplace and discover LMS online courses for cultivating your professional skills. For a limited time, Coggno is offering a free trial on their Learning Management System.

Furthering your skills might involve enrollment in a technical or community college program, an online certification course, or an LMS training program. Regardless of form your studies take, developing your skills is the first step on your path to new and better employment opportunities.  Take advantage of the flexibility offered by online courses to gain the skills and/or certification that will take you where you want to be.

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Coggno.com offers premier e-learning education.

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.