Two current trends in technology-enhanced learning systems that are now starting to gain exposure and adoption are Learning Analytics and the SCORM upgrade/replacement, TinCan, also known as xAPI.

Learning Analytics is the application of marketing-style analysis to data generated by learners. It aims to capture what tasks a learner has performed and build profiles of activity and end results in order to try and see what kinds of behaviour and activity lead to learning success. Additionally, it seeks to flag up learners who are perhaps struggling with work, which might offer a teacher or trainer the chance to intervene with more support.

Learning Analytics does have numerous issues around things like capture of data and privacy-protection, and many organisations and leaders are still debating the ethics and policies that should guide its implementation. However, it does seem like an efficient and effective way to capture and analyse more about learners.

TinCan / xAPI is based on and extended from the popular SCORM course specification, breaking free from the confines of a closed delivery system such as an LMS. It allows practically any type of interaction, both on and offline, to be recorded against a user’s learning record. For example, using the simple language-like syntax of “John read a research paper”, or “Mary took test 1 with a score of 10”, TinCan can capture data which can then be analysed using a variety of different models to discover things like content or activity effectiveness. The data retrieved is then stored in a Learning Record Store (or LRS), which can be incorporated into the LMS.

In combination, these two methods of data-capture and analysis offer a new method to gain insight into the way that learners learn and what kinds of activities and events benefit or hinder learning. This means reduced costs for you when developing learning content, as the most effective activities and content types for your audience can be easily discovered. It also brings better outcomes for learners, as those who are struggling with content can be identified and given extra support, while those who are not challenged enough can be presented with more challenging work to do.

Find out more about Learning Analytics and TinCan, or about implementing an LRS within your organisation: contact us today for advice.

One of the most popular learning tools in the world is YouTube, according to Google, there are more than 500M views of educational content on it every day.

“So, you thought cats were big on YouTube”

 

You’re wrong… education and learning videos earn x4 more watch time than animal videos on YouTube. Think about it, you are trying to fix something, you have a question, you need to know something now. The modern learner is constantly on the move, they learn via social and other means via their mobile devices. We all do this, we take a look on YouTube and other mobile apps to find out how.

This is no different to the corporate learner, they have the same demands, expectations and needs as we do in our lives. So, why treat them differently?

Here’s a really useful video explaining how YouTube is being used to support education and learning:

Source – YouTube, Education and Learning

So what are the top reasons learners engage with video?

1. Video is available at the Speed of Business

We are constantly on the move. McKinsey came up with the concept of Learning at the Speed of Business in this post. We need learning on demand, the modern workforce doesn’t have time to wait for the Learning and Development team to create something for them.

2. Video is authentic

You might view a video and think, this isn’t quite professional enough …but the actual learning is really good. Do we really care? If you are looking to learn something quickly, you are not really interested in the way it is presented, it’s more about the actual content. Moderation can happen with video, there are workflows to do that.

3. Bitesize and to the point

Some videos are as little as 60 seconds on YouTube, so long as you learn about the subject matter you need, that’s the main thing. Within the busy modern day business, we don’t have the time to go through hour-long presentations about a particular subject, do we?

4. Engagement

Video is by far more engaging than other modalities. With video you can do so much more and it’s real. Learners expectations are similar to tools they use in their personal life like Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin. All these social media tools incorporate and maximise video.

5. Self paced

Video content doesn’t force you to the next point in the learning experience, it’s not as patronising. Instead, you are able to learn at your own pace, modern tools like H5P allow you to create mini assessments within the learning which means your learner can have feedback throughout the experience and you can check their understanding.

6. Accessible

Video is accessible, with modern technologies on your smartphone, the video can be played in a range of ways to support different types of learner. If your modern workforce is remote and on the move, video provides them with the performance support learning they need on the job.

7. User-generated

Video can be user-generated, this supports the creation of a corporate social learning community. Think about engineers on the road, sales reps, HQ communications to remote workers, knowledge acquisition for busy leaders. Typically all of the above is done using email for the majority of businesses. With Watch and Learn, the mobile app provides video-based knowledge sharing, which doesn’t require your learners to sit at a computer. Instead, they can be on the move sharing knowledge. The return on investment for businesses means they are not building learning content libraries, instead they are curating user-generated ones.

If you’d like to learn more about Watch and Learn or discuss how video is used in learning, contact us here.

Retailers and other sectors are now looking for a new platform for their learners, not a traditional Learning Management System or LMS as they are commonly known.

Why is this?

Well.. it could be a range of factors.

For example, many retailers with store locations have high churn rates and a younger population.  This younger workforce is demanding new modes of delivery for their learning and valuing it more than ever.

Another factor is the type of learning we like to consume these days,  affected in our everyday lives byt he use of social media websites and fast news feeds.

We simply don’t have time (or the attention span) to focus on a learning activity for more than a few minutes.  Even the famous TED talks are becoming too lengthy for people!

Finally, the learning experience has become more and more personalised to individuals. Clever technologies are employed such as machine learning where the platform learns more about you as you click.  Think about how Netflix or Ebay picks up more about you when you access their websites more offering you new content …

Earlier this year, Josh Bersin coined these new generation platforms for learning technology as ‘learner experience platforms.’  Ever since this, numerous elearning companies are promoting their own elearning experience which is … different.

Is the LMS really at the end of the road?

Unfortunately many businesses still require compliance training, often repeatable at certain points during the year.  This drives, on scale particularly for larger enterprise corporate entities, over 100,000 employees which equals a lot of their training.

For example, in the UK the Financial Conduct Authority audits many corporates to ensure they comply with set standards.  This is where the LMS is in full play, often providing a blended learning programme for huge numbers of people.  Without this, there would be a huge administration overhead.

Why would you open a can of beans with a spoon?

So the approach of a new ‘experience platform’ is not to replace the LMS, instead it’s to complement.

At Webanywhere, we have provided numerous projects to our clients where they are looking for a platform for different audiences.  So, we generally provide a LMS (Totara) along with our experience platform Promatum.

How does this all relate to retail?

Retail is fast-paced, often about sales and product knowledge in store to drive efficiency and numbers.

The experience platform is really useful in this area as it can provide personalised, mobile content, when you need it.  We can also leverage the 70:20:10 method of learning, particularly the 70% on the job as the experience platform is integrated into the customer experience, for example, through effective questions of a new customer in store.

It’s important to understand the context here if you are reading this coming from a retail background.

The LMS will still exist. It will still have a requirement (especially in the compliance world).  The social learning comes into play with the experience platforms, as Bersin comments.

Very close to the style of learning from a experience platform, is a communications platform.  This is different.

For example, all the ‘new in class’ enterprise collaboration platforms like Yammer, Slack, Salesforce Chatter and Facebook for Work are all for communications.  It could be argued there is an overlap between the two.

For example, within a ecosystem like Slack, an employee could post a question, a colleague could then comment on this and provide a link to a useful resource … this is all learning and social.

The challenge for the ‘new in class’ enterprise collaboration platforms is that they have not been designed for learning.

This is where you need to be careful

If you are using enterprise collaboration platforms for learning, then they are becoming bent for another purpose.  Instead, focus on what they are good at, communication.  Yes … you got it, they are all trying to reduce your inbox from over 100 emails every day!

The experience learning space is an interesting one and growing fast.

Many large corporates such as Caterpillar, Visa, Sears and GE are already using them.  But these haven’t necessarily replaced their LMS, instead they are complementing them.

Every year the non-profit organisation Towards Maturity releases their industry benchmark report on the world of Learning and Development in the UK, and this year’s findings make for some fascinating reading, particularly if you’re looking into updating or upgrading your system. Here are our top 5 findings from the report:

1. The Expectations are High

91% of Learning and Development Directors expect to improve their company’s productivity and engagement through their systems and plans. 88% expect to see improved business-responsiveness. These are the key, powerful areas that L&D is funded to improve, and are essentially how these departments justify their budget and resources. The fact that directors are assured they can deliver on these promises is a sign that we clearly have the self-belief within the industry that such improvements are attainable.

2. But we aren’t meeting those expectations yet

Of the 91% of directors who said they would deliver improved productivity and engagement, only 41% are actually doing anything about it. That’s a painfully high failure rate, with over half not being able to improve in the area that matters most to the business’s bottom line. When it comes to business-responsiveness the stats get worse, with only 24% achieving an improvement. We clearly believe that L&D can advance business, but achieving the results has proven to be trickier than simply knowing we can do it. Future L&D projects will need to focus around delivering results, rather than aspiring to them.

3. Those mastering L&D are reaping huge rewards

Looking through the report, you can see a drastic shift in how those considered to be in the top 10% are gaining so much more from their systems compared to the bottom quartile. A few stats show that the top L&D departments are:

• 3x more likely to say they are improving efficiency within their business.

• 5x more likely to state they’re improving employee-engagement and business responsiveness.

• 8x more likely to positively impact learning culture.

It’s plain to see that those ranked highly by Towards Maturity are gaining much from their plans, and should be aspired to by other L&D directors.

4. Some types of elearning are everywhere, but others need more support

90% of business use elearning content in their training which, while a great showing for L&D directors embracing technology, shows some lack of a full commitment to owning their elearning – only 79% are using an LMS. Having content is no match for a full system, and without backing it up with tracking, the weight of elearning’s strength is being lost. With other, more specialist features such as gamification and virtual simulation sitting at 31% adoption, there’s a rift between the things elearning can deliver and those willing to dedicate the resources to getting them in place.

5. The Self-Directed Learner has arrived.

One of the the best aspects of elearning is how individuals can take responsibility for their own learning and lead the way on their personal development. The modern worker is happy to embrace this philosophy too, with 88% wanting to learn at their own pace. Backed up with the finding that 87% know what learning they need to do, and you have a workforce awaiting empowerment – they just need to be told where the learning they need is in order to get it done.

According to the 2015 Retail Sector Benchmark Report, 46% of retail companies are planning on increasing their training budget in the next couple of years, compared to 35% average across all businesses. Why should the retail sector invest in elearning?

1. Staff retention

Staff turnover in the retail sector is one of the highest with an average of 40%, and with the cost of hiring and training a new recruit reaching several thousands pounds, it is vital for organisations to retain their staff. Well trained employees who understand the products and processes before they are let loose on the shop floor are more likely to understand their responsibilities, be happier and therefore stay longer. eLearning is an easy, engaging and cost effective way to onboard and train new employees.

2. Instant training

Online training allows staff to immediately access training materials on new products, sales campaigns and flash promotions whenever they need it. Prior to elearning, head offices had to prepare and print training materials and book time out of the working day to provide face-to-face training. However, with the advent of online training, staff can now be kept up-to-date quickly and efficiently at the touch of a button saving weeks of preparation and increasing staff knowledge instantly.

3. Increased customer satisfaction

Customers are more likely to buy a product from well informed staff. If the sales staff know the products, their features and benefits, and they share this knowledge with the customers, then they’ll have more confidence to buy. The same goes with customer service skills. Customers will go back to a shop and offer repeat business if they have received good service.

Mobile learning also brings added value as staff can easily and instantly access information on the floor giving them the ability to advise the customers at once, again increasing customer satisfaction levels.

4. More efficient and less costly training strategy

The use of elearning means the need for printed material, on-site trainers and off-site training days is greatly reduced, bringing down the training budget which can then be spent on higher quality content. Additionally, staff are more likely to be more engaged with the course and retain the information more effectively as they can carry out the training at their own pace and where they want (home, break room, bus…). The content of the courses can also be fully tailored to each individual or job role so that staff do not have to sit through courses they don’t relate to.

5. Elearning games (gamification) for optimal engagement

Utilising games in elearning content increase staff’s engagement, completion rates and retention of information and they are particularly popular with the younger employees. In the shape of very short fast-paced modules, they also allow employees to be trained quickly preventing them to be “off the floor” for too long which is encouraged by sales managers.

6. Social Learning

eLearning platforms can be used for social learning where staff can share their experience and knowledge, upload photos and videos and learn from one another. If a new shop window in Manchester is bringing a lot of customers through the door, staff can share a photo of their work on the social platform for other shops to implement. Webanywhere has created a video based learning platform for Inditex, the brand owner of Zara, allowing staff to share best practice. You can read the case study here.

If you are in the retail sector and you think that elearning could help with your daily challenges, contact us now to discuss your requirements.

Source:
https://www.independent.co.uk/student/career-planning/getting-job/hanging-tough-how-the-retail-sector-is-weathering-the-storm-1669029.html
https://elearningindustry.com/get-retail-elearning

MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses) first emerged in 2008 but became widely known when Stanford University released their first open-enrolment course in 2012. Since then, MOOCs have become hugely popular and are offered by leading universities from Harvard to Oxford.

But as MOOCs take the education world by storm, one question remains – can they be used in a corporate training environment?

MOOCs vs LMSs: the key differences

Below is an overview of differences between MOOCs and online courses.

What are the opportunities for workplace learning?

Incorporating MOOCs within businesses will challenge the way human resources and corporate learning departments historically work, but many see the positive opportunities. In a survey from Future Workplace, completed by 195 HR and corporate learning professionals, 70% agreed they could see the possibilities of integrating MOOCs into their own training programs.

Many MOOC features are indeed well suited to the corporate world:

1. Flipped classroom: The concept of doing the training at home and applying the knowledge in the classroom can be easily adapted for businesses. It allows learners to have a wider role and be more engaged.
2. Analytics: MOOCs provide real-time analytics that not only reveals learners’ progress but what formats work best for them.
3. Credentials: Many MOOCs offer college credit or certificates which “formalise” the learning. In the workplace, where employees are demanding more opportunities for CPD, certificates can become an incentive for them to complete training as they’ll be able to keep evidence of their work.
4. Social learning: Sharing, networking, blogging – all are a key part of MOOCs. Some LMSs such as Totara have already recognised the importance of social learning by introducing it to their platform.
5. Blended approach: MOOCs can be used to complete in-house training. Employees can take a MOOC for general training and carry out their more in-depth training on the company’s LMS. Ultimately, this reduce the cost of training and budgets can be reallocated.

Of course, the opportunities go much further because they are not limited to HR departments anymore. By integrating MOOCs with their standard LMS, organisations can add value by using the platform as a marketing and sales tool which carries their brand and engages all their stakeholders, from personnel to partners, users and customers.

Success story

Webanywhere successfully integrated a MOOC within a traditional LMS for one of their customers, a US fortune 500 healthcare company.

The company wanted to consolidate their two global educational sites. Working closely with them, we developed a MOOC platform which provides personalised, relevant, and interactive education where healthcare professionals can learn more about the organisation’s products and therapies. The system offers a wide range of courses, PowerPoints, procedural videos, and webcasts.

The platform is a powerful ecosystem of learning technology solutions which offers users a powerful MOOC experience that standard LMSs do not usually provide. It is used by internal and external stakeholders and actively promotes their brand globally.

This is a true success story of how a large organisation has integrated the MOOC concept within a more traditional LMS approach.

Finally

The learning management market continues to evolve. There are more than 500 LMS providers worldwide and open-source platforms such as Totara, which offer more flexibility and customisation than other “off-the-shelf” systems, have already improved users’ experience. With the explosion of MOOCs, social learning and micro-learning, corporate training must catch-up with the education sector and embrace the new trends.

 Sources:

• https://idreflections.blogspot.co.uk/
• www.futureworkplace.com
• www.forbes.com

As companies increasingly move both their business and training online, their employees are reacting and changing accordingly. With the proliferation of mobile devices, it’s more important than ever before to make sure that your employees are able to access their working and learning materials in a way optimised for them.

A new generation of workers, accustomed to being “always online” are entering the workplace – are you ready for them?

“Totara LMS was launched at Learning Technologies in 2011. As we come to the end of 2011 there are over 80 organisations using Totara and a community of over 30 partners globally selling, supporting and developing Totara. Clients of Totara range from some of the largest corporate organisations including Tesco, Vodafone Ireland, Michelin, Cable&Wireless, Logica and Guys and St. Thomas NHS Trust.

So how did we get here?

 

The Totara vision

Totara LMS was conceived on the idea that open source software, developed with an active community, could deliver real benefits to corporate organisations in the area of learning and development. Other open source learning platforms had already delivered significant benefits in the education sector and it was felt that similar benefits could be gained outside of education. The course centric structure of open source LMS and other elements which worked well in education worked less well in corporates, which led to frequent customisation to bridge the gap between what it did and what corporates want. This led in 2010 to the vision for Totara.

Totara is a simple concept. It’s a custom distribution of the open source learning platform that has been transforming education, designed and developed specifically to meet the needs of corporate clients. The aim was to build a community of partners (Webanywhere is a Totara Platinum Partner) that would contribute to the development of Totara and provide professional support services to clients. Totara would be licence free and the core team developing and supporting the product would be funded through a low cost annual support subscription based on five sizes of installation.

A simple concept, with a big vision: The aim of Totara was nothing less than to transform corporate learning by providing open source enterprise software.

We aimed to do five things differently:

• Drive down cost through open source. Totara achieves a significantly lower cost of ownership because there are no per user proprietary licence fees.
• Meet the needs of enterprises: Whilst an open source LMS provides a wide range of core functionality, Totara provides extensions that enable organisations to manage the complexities of their organisational structure, talent and learning requirements of specific positions, competences, learning plans, mandatory learning, compliance and also to allow managers to manage their teams including setting objectives, allocating learning and reviewing performance. Totara also has major advances in classroom booking and management, reporting, and search which bring it more in line with what you’d expect from an Enterprise LMS.
• Make customisation easy. Totara has a great range of innovations out of the box. But customers can take it further – the ability to customise is central to the open source model, and Totara is designed to be highly flexible.
• Deliver peace of mind with commercial support. Totara subscriptions ensure clients have the latest security releases, patch updates, fully-tested new feature releases, and error correction when required. Now, enterprises can procure the best value, fully-featured open source LMS, secure in the knowledge that it is comprehensively maintained and supported.
• Have a different way of innovating. An open source ‘ecosystem’ exists to support the product’s development and distribution which is explained later.

So the aim of Totara was to provide an enterprise level open source platform with commercial support as an alternative to the large and expensive proprietary LMS systems. Forget per user per year licences. Forget the message that it’s got to work one way and one way only. Totara partners like Webanywhere can add services and configure it any way clients want. Forget lock-in. You can buy services and support from any Totara partner.

In short Totara aimed to turn the LMS market upside-down. Ambitious? Well, if you’re going to get in the game, you may as well be a game changer…

How does it feel (and look?):

Totara aims to provide a more learner centred experience than most LMSs – designed for the learner, not the administrator. That means taking a more web-based approach, and look and feel is a big part of that. So to answer the question, how would you like it to look? Contact us and we can show you a few Totara theme designs which show the flexibility and range of options.

HR Management, talent management or learning focus?

In recent years the needs of learning and development teams have been subsumed in large monolith enterprise software systems that include HR databases, recruitment, talent management and enterprise planning. The current vogue is for large integrated single talent management and HR systems. This is reflected in the purchase of Learn.com by Taleo, Learning Gateway by Lumesse and Plateau LMS by Success factors and then subsequently by SAP. What we are seeing in the market is larger and larger software suites for the HR function.

These developments have meant that the needs of learning teams have become less and less central to the software suite and a lower priority in terms of investment and innovation. Whilst there is a clearly a need for integration of learning and HR systems our approach has been to develop a best class learning platform which can integrate with HR systems, whether SAP, Oracle or another HR system. The core focus of Totara is delivering a first class learning experience that can play nicely with other systems.

Also the very nature of these large systems tends to negate innovation and rapid adoption of new technologies. US analyst Josh Bersin in commenting on the latest SAP acquisition of Success factors notes that all the integration effort “typically slows down innovation and takes lots and lots of intellectual energy.” Our aim is to have an ‘ecosystem’ of innovation with inputs from many groups:

Innovation from everyone: The Totara ‘ecosystem’:

Totara is not just building a product but a community ecosystem – a network of professionals that collaborate and share to improve Totara. Totara believes in communities, no one knows everything and everyone has something to contribute. The Totara community is already very active and recent contributions include a 360 module, programme management functionality and evidence management modules.

How has the market reacted?

The market has been very receptive to Totara and our belief in Totara having the potential to deliver a commercial open source product has been vindicated. Over 80 organisations have already selected Totara LMS.

Webanywhere has signed up as a Gold Totara partner as part of the partner / reseller network, and we offer a range of customisation, development and support services.

The client uptake has been a great testament to this model.

In less than a year Totara has been adopted by many leading organisations globally including:

Tesco – UK’s largest private sector employer
Vodafone Ireland – part of the global Vodafone Group
NZ Inland Revenue – New Zealand’s tax department
SNCF – French Railways
PAZ – the largest energy company in Israel
Queensland Health – state health provider in Australia
Michelin, China – the World’s largest tyre manufacturer
Logica – one of the largest business and technology service providers
Guys’ & St Thomas’ NHS Hospital – a leading UK hospital
Toll Transport – Australia’s largest logistics and transportation solution provider
UCAS
Cable&Wireless

Totara is not only delivering significant cost savings, it is delivering learning experiences that change behaviour and improve performance.

What are they saying? Here are just a few quotes:

“The use of open source technology in our business is a real milestone in our approach to learning.” – Tesco

“Having been using an open source LMS for the last 4 years I’m delighted we made the move to Totara – the additional functionality means we can really use our LMS to enhance our learners’ training experience and give them control over their own development paths.” – Vodafone Ireland

“One of our major concerns was cost: could we buy and implement a scalable, corporate LMS that looks good and is easy to use without breaking the bank? We didn’t have to look much further than Totara! Not only are we now in a position to effectively deliver our training in a variety of methods, but we have a great looking, customised and branded LMS.” – Guy’s & St. Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust

At the Learning Technologies conference Jane Williams from Tesco will present a case study on why they chose Totara but one of the key factors was the ability to deliver a great learning experience.

The Future of Totara LMS

2012 is looking even more exciting than 2011 – if that’s possible! Totara is taking advantage of all the recent developments in open source LMS. The next Totara release in Quarter One of 2012 will include all recent LMS features, but it will also include a range of new functionality developed specifically for Totara. This will include performance appraisal and feedback features.

2012 will also see a software as a service (SaaS) version of Totara so that smaller organisations can buy and deploy Totara very quickly and easily. Totara will also take advantage of mobile features and be available on mobile devices.

Have a look at the latest version of Totara at www.totaralms.com – we think you will be impressed.

Alternatively Webanywhere has a stand at Learning Technologies so feel free to book a demo with us either before the event or come and see us at stand 14 – we’d love to see you there.