Do you “Train” or “Facilitate Learning”?

In the last decade or so, organizations have done every bit they can to become effective learning and development OR training organizations. Training managers work round the clock to ensure that employees learn and grow in their chosen domains. The moot question is whether the training programs are effective enough to achieve the overall organizational mission and fulfil business needs while, at the same time, maintaining high interest and motivation level in employees. There could be several responses to this question and these could vary from organization to organization.

Training must empower Learning

Most organizations would respond quickly by saying that they have well-defined training programs, which take care of all of these needs. But when asked how they evaluate the effectiveness of training, there could be some significant pauses in their response. That’s understandable because evaluating or judging the effectiveness of training programs is a complex task and there are some subjective areas where difference of opinion may exist. So we will not jump into those muddy waters. Instead, our aim here is to simply find out how training is conducted in organizations or, more realistically, to answer the question, “Is learning happening within the organization?”

G-Cube is the preferred learning partner for several organizations. As a result of this engagement, we have found there are certain questions the responses to which may help us find some key insights. This, in turn, can help us make better learning programs. Some of these questions could be:

• Does your training program support employees in identification of their personal learning needs and assist them in finding ways to meet these needs?
• Do you devise learning programs that focus on the application of knowledge and skills to the job?
• Do you tailor learning solutions to meet the needs of employees and the organization, or are there generic programs for most of the audience?
• Does your training program enable employee and organizational learning from various relevant sources (not limited to only the ones used in training programs)?
• Do you measure the success of the training program only by the satisfaction level of employees about the learning experience?

Of course, there are various other parameters for defining and executing an effective learning program, besides the answers to the above questions. So, it may often be difficult to determine whether the training program is meeting its defined objectives or whether it is meeting the expectations of the business and the people (includes stakeholders, sponsors, employees, etc.). The answer may remain ambiguous.

In many cases, we have seen that stakeholders and sponsors endeavour to enable their employees through valuable learning (or training) programs. However, various constraints – such as duration of training, employees’ availability, content redundancies, and budgetary issues – make it difficult to get the required results. In such situations, it may be better to delay training (rather than deliver something that does not meet the objectives) till these factors become more aligned and conducive.

In other scenarios, there may be no real requirement of a training program for the identified need; nevertheless, trainers or learning partners are still asked to develop the program because of certain high-level agendas. What can a learning partner or trainer do in such situations? The answer to this question depends on individual choices and responses, and we leave these to readers. Whatever be your stand, it is highly recommended that trainers or learning partners should facilitate learning rather than just deliver the same. At the same time, organizations need to ensure that training programs are not only worthwhile but also meet the expectations of the people and the business. There could be various methods to achieve this, and the success of these methods depends on how realistically and comprehensively the business case is evolved and analyzed.

Instructional Design Challenges for Smaller Screens

Mobile learning is fast gaining pace as a popular medium of imparting knowledge amongst the new-age learners of today. Most of us carry (or at least aspire to carry) a high-end mobile device – be it a Smartphone or a tablet. This proximity to the device, at all times, creates a huge opportunity to make learning material available to the learner – anywhere, anytime. This opportunity has been tapped for corporate learning and, according to a report, 50% of those who have implemented m-learning have already begun to see positive results*.
*Source: E-learning Guild Report – Mobile Learning and Trends by Clark Quinn

So, while that’s the good news, mobile learning comes with its own set of challenges,especially for instructional designers who lay the foundation of the learning content.

Small Screen - New Challenges

• The biggest challenge in mobile learning is, unarguably, the limited viewing space available. This restricts the inclusion of exhaustive text or documents. Also, the viewing space changes for every learner, as every one of them may not carry the same make or model of the mobile device.
• Another major concern is the lack of a common development platform which renders content across all mobile devices – be it Android, Blackberry or iPhone. Also, mobile devices have lesser processing capabilities than desktops or laptops. Therefore, heavy video files or media rich simulations might not render properly or be compatible to the screen size of the device.
• The biggest measure for the success of any learning course is to garner if it was able to capture the attention of the learner and retain it. For mobile devices, this is a difficult task. The primary use of a mobile device is that it enables the user to make or receive calls as well as send or receive text messages. This can be seen as a deterrent to achievement of the overall learning objectives, especially when distractions like this cannot be avoided.

So, while some of these challenges cannot be overcome in a day, designers can work around them. Here are some ways how –

• Mobile learning content needs to be concise and ‘bite-sized’.
• When designing courses, codes should be written so that the content can automatically adjust as per the dimension of the learners’ mobile device.
• In a bid to make mobile courses more interesting and appealing for learners, images or graphs can be used to convey as much as words would.
• Audio can also be extensively used to support text. To lessen text, only an introduction or gist can be presented through words while the rest can be presented through audio, to which the learner can listen to and learn.
• Simple animations (like external SWFs) or Page change animations can also cut through the visual monotony in a course and increase its visual appeal for the learner – even within the constricted space.
• Most mobile devices provide access to the Internet. This provides an opportunity to include streaming media in mobile courses, instead of embedded audio or video files which are bound to make the course heavy. Live or recorded sessions can be made part of a course, using streaming technology, and can liven up a mobile course to make it more interesting for the learner.

G-Cube prides itself in being involved with mobile learning from the early days of its inception. There is a lot of scope for newer kinds of learning through this medium, and we look forward to enriching our experiences with this medium and sharing them here. Click to contact us about our mobile learning solutions.

Don’t attempt to convert e-Learning to m-Learning – they’re different.

Mobile Learning can expand your reach.

Recently I participated in a LinkedIn discussion started by one of the Learning and Development Managers in my LinkedIn Group – The eLearning Guild.

The question raised by the member was – “What are the key challenges in developing e-Learning content for mobile devices?” If you want to participate in the discussion, here is the way to go.

Here are my key takeaways based on the comments by several community members, each having vast experience in the e-Learning industry.

• m-Learning is important because most of us carry at least one mobile and use it extensively. So learning content that is available on mobile devices will have much wider reach than any other kind of learning. If used judiciously, it can play an important role in your learning strategy.
• The biggest challenge with mobile-based instructions (MBI) is the reading area, which is very small even on a big smartphone. Instructional Designers have to ensure that MBI has only vital and precise information – neither less nor more.
• m-Learning content needs to be broken up into “bite-sized learning chunks”. Don’t attempt to convert a desktop course to MBI even if, from a technical perspective, all of the components work on a mobile device.
• At its best, m-Learning can act as a learning re-enforcement mechanism. One large training company used m-Learning as part of its blended learning solution. Learners trained in classrooms were offered a mobile-accessible library of the same training, to refresh the knowledge they were about to apply in their profession.
• Mobile devices carry both limitations as well as advantages compared with standard desktop/laptop computing. One should use these devices when they provide an advantage – like as a job aid for someone in the field who does not have a laptop available.
• m-Learning is good for small trainings. For lengthy trainings, it is a terrible platform.
• Tablets and smartphones capable of rich media presentations have only been in general use for a couple of years. Unfortunately one mature, generally accepted presentation platform – Adobe Flash – does not exist for many of the mobile devices and mobile OS versions. Everybody is betting / depending on HTML5 to deliver some great standardization. But only a few are hopeful that it will happen in a few years time.

Poorly designed m-Learning can cause anxiety & confusion

• The prevalence of mobile devices provides great potential to the Learning and Development community. But to realize that potential, we need good authoring tools. Until we have some kind of rapid m-learning environment that allows us easy access to mobile phone/tablet features – such as the gyroscope, GPS, camera, etc. – it’s very unlikely that many will be able to create cost-effective m-Learning that uses these features.
• There is a need to create an LMS that can better capture the learner activity on mobile devices and give as good reports as available for desktop-based e-Learning modules (btw G-Cube offers mobile version of its WiZDOM LMS).

The LinkedIn discussion is still on, and group members will continue to add value to the global community that strives to take m-Learning to its next level and avenues.

If you are looking to convert your existing e-Learning content to mobile platform or planning to develop fresh m-Learning content, G-Cube can help you achieve the desired results. Please click here to contact our m-Learning team.

Emerging technologies & challenges in e-Learning content creation: Global resourcing to rescue

The dynamics of e-Learning Industry have recently witnessed swift changes due to emergence of new technologies in recent past. Delivery platforms are seeing a paradigm shift from desktops to mobiles & tablet computers, operating systems are transiting from Windows to Android and iOS, programming tools maturing from Adobe Flash to HTML 5, Rapid Authoring tools are also going through a metamorphosis and so on so forth.

Emerging Platforms - Pressure on e-Learning Development

The emergence of new technologies requires the organizations to quickly arrange for skilled workforce that can develop quality e-Learning content on the new platforms to satisfy the Learners’ needs. Off-the-Shelf e-Learning content publishers, technology-driven training providers, and everybody in the e-Learning space is under pressure to maintain the pace of content design & development on the new platforms at the same cost.

Unfortunately, the supply of competent manpower always lags behind the pace of the new technology adoption, and such is the case with e-Learning technologies as well. Added to the woes are the rising costs of infrastructure, talent war for skilled manpower and the competition to deliver high quality content at a lower cost.

Here comes the use of global resourcing to rescue. Several leading e-Learning organizations in competitive markets like United States, Canada, and Europe etc. have chosen to utilize the globally available resources and selectively outsourced the e-Learning content development (in full or in parts) to partners beyond their geographies. This helps them to bridge the resources gap required to create high quality e-Learning solutions to their customers (at the costs lower than their geographies and at a speed appreciated by their customers).

While outsourcing and off-shoring have been a buzz word for more than a decade, they are now hot in the list of e-Learning honchos as well. Based on our experience, here are some reasons why organizations choose to partner with e-Learning vendors across the world:

Functional Specialization

The design and development or maintenance of e-learning library requires multiple talents to work together. It requires a team of Instructional Designers, Content Writers, Graphics Designers, Flash Animators, Localization Experts, Software Programmers, Project Manager, Voice-over experts etc. It needs no argument that creating such a varied pool of resources can eat up large budgets for any organization.

Global e-Learning Service providers like G-Cube offer functionally distributed teams which consist of skilled experts as opposed to multi-tasking generalists.

Quality Check and Analysis

e-Learning content requires meticulous quality reviews before it is offered to the learners. It has to go through multi-layered quality checks like –check for functional correctness, instructional design, localization, content and media mapping etc.

You may have good internal SME’s or Instructional Designers to design and develop content, but investing their time in quality checks may not be the most appropriate use of their time. Here a globally distributed team can take care of this function for you at fraction of the cost, and more importantly free up your resources for things they are good at.

Cost of Production

Organizations which are located beyond developed geographies like US, and Europe have relatively low cost of infrastructure and manpower. This brings down their direct expenses and they are able to pass on this benefit to their clients resulting in direct savings to the clients.

While distributing work across global team does add project management costs, and at times quality control costs as well, but overall an organization is able to save substantial amount of money in medium to long term.

The Bottom Line

If you are looking to speed up the design and development of content in your organization, you may like to attend the Brandon Hall webinar on this topic where you can listen to some real-world case studies about the organizations that have benefited from global outsourcing / off-shoring services.

Click here to Register for the Webinar (Opens in a new window).

Disclaimer: This Brandon Hall webinar is sponsored by G-Cube.

Benefits of e-Learning Debate (Part 1) – Reduce Training Time by Half

A debate on advantages and benefits of e-Learning is a common scenario in G-Cube. Whether it is our e-Learning consultant discussing with the customer, or an Instructional Designer arguing with the Graphics Designer over an e-Learning Screen layout or the Project Manager discussing how quickly can we deliver the learning module to the client; there is always a buzz over e-Learning.

During one of the discussions I and my colleague Anusha Jain, an e-Learning consultant (having experience of more than 5 years in implementing e-Learning solutions) had a long debate on an interesting edge of e-learning over traditional class room based training – its ability to reduce learning time. And thereafter this debate moved on to ten typical benefits of e-Learning, which we will cover in a series of blog posts titled “Benefits of e-Learning Debate”. And here is the Part I.

9.00 Hours to 4.5 Hours

As we discussed the effort required to create e-learning content for our several customers, we realized that in most of the cases we convert about 9 hours of class room based training into three hours of e-Learning. This is merely due to the fact that in 9 hours of class room based training the learning content is mostly for three hours.

Soon we were joined by our other colleague Ankush Jagga (an e-Learning consultant with more than six years of experience in this domain). He argued that while one can package a nine hours classroom based training in a 3 hours of e-Learning content, however, the learners may still spend around 4 to 4.5 hours to go through the whole content, which we agreed to.

And here are some of the key points that churned out of this discussion:

What makes traditional class room based trainings longer?

While there is no denial that class room based trainings have several advantages and may continue to have an edge over e-Learning (if the infrastructure and budget permits); however, these trainings requires more learning hours as:

Class Room Based Traning

• There is always a warm-up time required to for the trainer and the trainees to settle in the training room. Coupled with a quick introduction session, this time may go up to one hour in classroom based training.
• All trainees being human do lot of interaction with each other, which is good for socializing but not always good for the objective of the training. Such interactions may take the training topic left and right and thus add on the total delivery time in a classroom environment.
• There are several clarification questions asked by trainees which may not be always relevant to the rest of the group.
• In nine hours of classroom based training trainers may need to give 3-4 breaks of 30 minutes each.
• While there is fun in classroom based training , the focus on main content is frequently deviated and its takes certain time for the trainer to bring the group on the track.

How e-Learning can cut short the Learning Duration

e-learning Benefits: Reduce training time by half

• The complete program is structured and there is little deviation from the training topic.
• There is literally no warm-up and settlement time required in e-Learning environment.
• Each trainee can control his own pace of learning; while some trainees may take an extra hour, majority of trainees can finish the trainings in time.
• By reducing the training time we also eliminate some of the breaks that are necessary in a class-room based training.

At the end of the debate we arrived on an agreement that e-Learning certainly has an edge over the class room based trainings when the training time is concerned. It can cut the training time by half in most of the cases.

Certain trainings like compliance trainings, policy trainings, some part of Induction etc. where the main goal is to deliver a standard information, e-Learning can not only reduce the time required to train the people but also release pressure on the trainers.

Business Advantages of Faster trainings

The next point that turned up was why an organization would like to invest in e-Learning just to reduce the training time. And the thoughts were:

• By reducing the training time, we ensure that the trainees can become part of the productive force quicker.
• In industries where there are large numbers of trainings, the time cut by half can have direct ROI.
• In cases like fast moving products where current workforce needs to be trained on a product that will come and go in a short time, an edge over the competition can make or break the top line.

Be a part of debate

The debate is continued. We would welcome your comments on how e-learning reduces the training time (or not)?

ROI Analysis for Trainings – How We Are Doing It

ROI calculation for training initiatives has been one of the most interesting areas for me – it holds so much potential, but due to complexities involved in calculating ROI for trainings it’s very rarely calculated by the organizations.

So when we institutionalized the internal training process for G-Cube around a year back (before that it was more of adhoc trainings managed at department level), one of the key focus areas for us was to ensure that we capture ROI for all the trainings that were undertaken by our L&D team.

With all the ‘knowledge’ we had about analysing training effectiveness, we thought it would be a rather straightforward and simple job. It turned out to be anything but that!

Our first attempt included –

1. Creating ROI calculation process – need identification -> briefing of learner by supervisor -> pre-assessment -> training -> post-assessment -> post session update by supervisor -> action plan by learner -> monitoring of action plan execution by supervisor -> training effectiveness calculation via objective data captured on the floor -> training re-intervention (if required)
2. Creation of relevant templates to support above process

Once this was done HR team floated this to all people managers, started conducting training sessions and started waiting eagerly for data to pour. Not a single piece of data came back – not even after some follow-ups! Our mistakes were –

• Not all work can be objectively captured because of limitation of IT systems that can be put in place, or the overhead this exercise can cause – it looks quite commonsensical in retrospective
• Many a times people attend training sessions just to gain knowledge (because they have some time in hand or there is an extra seat available), and are not really in immediate need of that training – so there is no immediate application of what is learnt in the training
• Buy-in from people managers was missing – they were part confused how can tangible evaluation be done for soft skill related courses, say communication skills, and moreover they thought this would take lot of time which they didn’t have

Having understood our mistakes within couple of cycles of trainings for each department, we brought following changes on how were trying to capture ROI for trainings –

1. Classified trainings at participant level as Knowledge Sessions where there was no immediate need to implement the learning – no follow-up action was required for such participants
2. Senior management and HR team took sessions with people managers to make them understand that without necessary follow-up, most of what is learnt is not retained – which means the problem for which training was given remains unresolved, and organizations precious resources get wasted.
3. Before publishing training calendar for the month, a brief session with people managers was conducted where each training was quickly reviewed, and parameters to evaluate its success were discussed and agreed upon. This was done because it was people managers themselves who had raised the training need during TNI and hence were best positioned to evaluate what gap they wanted to improve in their team members and also what was practically possible to observe and capture.

Since now people understood importance of the process, and took part in defining the tracking parameters, the uptake was much better and results were instantly visible. There is still a long way to go in terms of being able to do this consistently and across functions, but the results so far conclusively substantiate that training with proper follow-ups lead to significant tangible benefit – both for hard as well as soft skills.

If you would like to find out more how we are doing ROI analysis, or if you would like us to assist you with your training programs, do feel free to contact us

Interpreting Learner Interaction in LMS to draw meaningful insights for e-Learning strategy

L&D Managers often question themselves on how can they get more insights about the learners and provide content accordingly. The real challenge comes when they have a heterogeneous group of learners consisting of a few geniuses, mostly average and a few below average learners!

Interpreting Learner Interactions in LMS

The use of technology in learning, especially through an LMS, has provided a powerful tool in hands of the Learning & Development managers through which they can deliver different courses to learners based on their learning profiles.

Astute L&D Managers can dexterously use the reporting capabilities of Learning Management System to draw meaningful insights about the learners. These insights can direct their Learning & Development initiatives to achieve the desired results for the organization, thus providing an edge over the competition.

Continuing G-Cube’s research on this challenge, I came across an insightful research paper by Onur Donmez titled “How can we make use of learner interaction in Online learning environments?” This paper truly hits the nail on the head. There are two interesting examples in this paper which shows creative use of an LMS to draw meaningful conclusions about the learners and the e-Learning content.

Experiment 1

In this experiment, 27 students of a mathematics course were selected and trained using e-Learning tools. The key highlights were:

• The course was instructor-led, with traditional classroom approach as well as e-learning support.
• The e-learning module was suitably enriched with activity based interactions like quizzes and questionnaires.
• User interaction within the online forum and content usage was also monitored using the LMS.

The researchers with help of the data collected using the Learning Management System’s found that that the learner group interacted a lot with the course. They concluded that the group will benefit from an e-Learning content which is highly interactive and immersive.

Experiment 2

In the second experiment, researchers tried to find the problem solving capabilities of a learner group using technology. A group of software-programming students were presented with programming instructions and asked to write a specific code to create model of a ‘house’:

• If the written code was wrong, the program warned the students of the error. If the code was correct, the program animated the line for a second as a feedback to the student.
• To provide insight to the researchers, the program also collected data. It saved written codes in every run attempt, providing insight into the problem solving capabilities of the student.

At the end of this exercise, studying learner-interactions gave useful insight into each student. It also equipped the researchers to invaluable knowledge in developing suitable learning material for the group, keeping each individual’s strength and weakness in mind.

LMS – Beyond managing content

The two experiments above prove that the capabilities of Learning Management technology is not limited to managing e-Learning content and delivering different kind of content to different learner groups. An LMS also provides great insights about the learners and their interaction with content. Using this, it is possible to design and deliver impactful content as per the needs of the learner.

What Next!

If you are looking to know more about how Learning Management System can deliver valuable insights about your learners please view demo of an LMS by clicking here or you may contact us to know more.

HR Challenges in Small & Medium Sized Organizations

HR activities in SMB become the prerogative of a few operation managers who concentrate only on the very administrative issues to ensure smooth operations. Mostly, hiring senior HR professionals is not a viable option as far as cost is concerned. Also sometimes, if not well thought of as a strategy, it can end up being a complete disaster in an SMB environment where there are no specialists and usually a very lean HR team. Complex HR issues cannot be dealt by a general manager who does not have the expertise in the field to take decisions which may require an expert human resource professional’s experience. On top of that, it also leads to loss of their productive time and soon they start losing interest in HR and concentrate only on the absolutely necessary personnel activities. Hence in SMBs, mostly HR ends up being a personnel function that manages leave register, sends payroll inputs to Finance, recruits talent and does some basic coordination work. Since HR is not a revenue generator, it is never given its due importance and hence people practices and innovative HR practices take a back seat.

For an SMB to grow and sustain that growth, it is imperative that it has healthy HR practices. It is only till a certain time that an organization can sustain without effective HR. Experienced HR personnel can bring immense strategic and cultural changes that are required to streamline and keep pace with rapid growth and sustain the growth rate year on year. Beyond a point, it is impossible to retain high quality employees without sound HR practices.

Cost is a major deterrent in introducing many HR practices that can hugely benefit the workplace and employees, most SMBs shun away from the thought. However, there are some amazing ways which, at minimal cost, can still act as catalysts to bring about a cultural and strategic change.

Recruitment is a major challenge because of the huge demand and competitive compensation packages in the industry, some innovative models to attract talent could be introducing partial work from home for homemakers, people pursuing higher education and retired people. Bringing such diversity in the workforce and targeting the non standard talent pool, will add a new dimension in terms of experience and knowledge and because such people may not be interested in pursuing a full time career, one would be able to attract them too.

Employee referral is another great way of attracting potential talent and be able to brand the organization through your own employees at the same time. While looking for references, your existing employee will act as your brand ambassador and say positive things about the organization in his social circle. Instead of searching through job sites and finding candidates who you would not really know firsthand, a well designed employee referral could do wonders and at considerably lower cost. One such instance is of ‘Mitr’, an employee referral scheme based on point system used in G-Cube. Mitr does not give monetary awards. Instead it gives the employee a chance to choose from a range of exciting gifts at each level. Levels are attained based on the number of points received by the employee. Even referring a candidate can earn the employee 5 points.

Learning & Development is usually not the hot topic amongst the top management because of non tangible ROIs. For this reason, it is seen as a sheer waste of resources and money and most SMBs do not focus on L&D activities. However, they do not realise that L&D is a huge motivator for employees who associate their individual growth with such programs. Hiring trainers from the market has a cost attached to it and may not be feasible. Because of such challenges, training is normally swept under the carpet and forgotten. However, if you are an HR person in an SMB, one way to tackle this would be to identify internal subject matter experts and groom them to take internal trainings. Train the trainer could be facilitated for these SMEs and few other potential trainers for soft skills and technical training and once certified, they could be imparting the training in house. This way your company could even give a Steven Covey or Edward De Bono certified leadership training through its certified in house experts.

Normally in SMBs, employee’s vertical growth is either extremely fast or it’s highly staggered depending on the growth rate of the company. Both scenarios are not very favourable for the employee who may be sitting in positions with little or no coaching and may be very confused. It is not a very favourable situation for the organization as well where most mid managers have little or no expertise to handle the roles being performed by them. It is important to show a steady career path to the employees and handhold and coach them to ensure that they are suitable and fit well into the next role and its responsibilities before pushing them there. One of the ways to do this is through Leadership development and Individual Development Plans. Plans can be created and discussed with each employee and their supervisors and senior management must guide and counsel as well as support them to reach their goals gradually supported with training and mentoring. All first time managers should be given mentors who can support them to settle them into their new found people management roles before they start independently handling these roles. An inexperienced people manager can lead to huge attritions and many more complex issues.

It is important to show to employees that the organization thinks about their growth and that can be achieved to a large extent through Internal Job Postings. By giving the internal employees a preference over external hiring, you would not only be helping them achieve their goals but also gain their trust and commitment.

Apart from these, HR should keep innovating to create a culture of camaraderie and teamwork.

Something as simple as a Thanks giving week where employees write to each other making them feel appreciated and liked by one another could go a long way in adding positivity in the environment. G-Cube has come up with Thank You cards which are distributed to employees by HR when they want to thank someone. While one part of the card is a note for someone they’d like to thank, the other part is perforated and given to HR with the name of the person who has been thanked. HR does a lucky draw of all these slips once a quarter and awards the winner. Apart from this, these Thank You cards adorn each workstation and make each employee feel proud of the good deeds he’d done for a colleague at work. As soon as you enter G-Cube office, you see multitude of these bright green post card size cards on everyone’s desk which makes one smile.

Another way of creating culture in the organization could be by creating screensavers and wallpapers of the organization’s values. Since the desktop/laptop is on everyone’s seat, same messages running on all of them just unify the entire workforce and soon it becomes a part of them. Motivational films or talks or skits can be held on organizational values where culture could be communicated to employees in a fun and interesting way.

To summarize, SMBs need to realise that their internal customers are as important as their external customers. HR practices in SMBs have to be designed using innovative thoughts and cost effective mechanisms. Overall, a well designed HR system and innovative people practices can benefit any organization in today’s competitive global environment especially if one is a small or medium sized company and needs to be known amogst competitors and talent as a good place to work.

Text in E-learning: The Unsung Hero

Being part of the learning industry, most of us have seen how e-learning has changed and evolved with time. As e-learning comes of age and newer ways of instruction gain popularity, let us ask ourselves one question—Is text in e-learning as important today as it was when this industry took its first steps? I know that most of you will answer “yes” and that’s true. Text has not lost its shine amidst high-end graphics, audio-video or any other kind of content. The main reason being that it is text that forms a ‘connect’ with the learner – in the absence of an instructor. It charts out the learners’ route through the course, sets the tone of the course and guides the learner through. It is indeed an integral part of any e-learning course, with varying extend of usage.

On the other hand knowing how important text is, sometimes we tend to overuse it. To get our point across to the learners, we build an intricate web of text and end up creating text-heavy courses.  Imagine going through a course that has around 300 words on each frame or 10 text-heavy pop-ups. Would you really like to go through such a course? Probably not! Text-heavy courses or page-turners are often deemed tedious by learners. Many learners are prone to just skimming, which can leave gaping holes in the understanding of the subject. So, the main question ahead of us now is that how can use the text to our advantage without making our courses text-heavy?

Well, here are some tried and tested solutions that will help you use text to its maximum potential.

Chunk your text: Chunking is a clever instructional tool when creating text content for e-learning. To cite an example from an entirely different context to understand the importance of chunking – Have you ever tried swallowing an apple instead of eating it bite-by-bite? A text heavy course is like an apple which you need to swallow and chunking is the liberty to eat the apple bite-by-bite. Chunking creates space for one idea at a time, giving the learner the time to understand and then go ahead.

Some of the basic rules of chunking are:

• Ideally each paragraph should convey a single thought or idea. Similarly, long and complex sentences should be avoided.
• The transition from one ‘chunk’ to another should be smooth. Small introductions can be given before introducing a new topic.
• In-line knowledge checks or questions can be also used to make sure the learner is ready to go on to the next topic. This is also instrumental in increasing the learner’s involvement with the course.

Language: Now here is the tool we think we know so well but very often use it incorrectly. Since appropriateness of language is of foremost importance in e-learning, it is necessary to understand the audience before setting out to create content – especially text. There are however, some thumb-rules that one can work with.

• Keep it simple. Clear and simple usage of language works for all kinds of audiences.
• Use active voice. Text written in active voice connects more to the audience as compared to passive voice. Similarly, the impact of active verbs- Look, Perform, Discuss, Use etc.- is also accountable
• Keep the tone of instructional text very clear and directive. This is necessary for the learner to find his or her way within the course. It should also have a grain of authority in it, to make sure that the learner takes the exercise of learning seriously.

The power of minimalistic OST: “Less is more” is not just a proverb. It plays a major role when you are writing text for e-learning.  To ensure that text does not create tedium, on-screen text (OST) should be crisp, to-the-point and minimalistic. Here are some of the tips for keeping the OST minimal:

• Use bullets and numbering extensively used to chart out the main points.
• Use “layering” to create impactful OSTs. Layering is a useful instructional tool whose main objective is to keep on-screen text to a bare minimum. Different layers are created that present information to the learner in a gradual momentum. While the main points outlining a concept are given on screen, learner can click on a button or link on screen and read a detailed document for in-depth understanding.
• Use clickable tabs and roll-over texts as they help to keep the OST to minimum.
• Appropriate use of audio is another way by which OST can be minimized. Audio accompaniment can give out details of a concept, while OST remains minimalistic. For the benefit of the learner, the audio-transcripts can be shared separately
• Use videos to avoid lengthy text descriptions of activities or processes.

The balance of text and graphics: So far we have discussed only importance of text. But can an e-learning course be created without graphics? The answer is “No”. Text and Graphics cannot exist without the other in e-learning! Images and visuals complement all kinds of courses and can be used effectively to make our text more impactful.

• Images and visuals are very helpful in creating an instantaneous connection with the learner. If the imagery is strong, it becomes very easy for the learner to associate images with ideas or concepts.
• Graphical representation of data and information is also useful in garnering learner attention through its visual impact. This is also an easier way of understanding complex comparisons and relationships.
• On account of visual appeal, graphics form an overall sense of relief. This is quite necessary for text to have its intended impact.

Building explorative elements through text: Interactions with the learner within an e-learning course are necessary. It is human nature to explore things and look for answers. Interactions offer just that in an e-learning course. Contrary to popular belief, this element can be built successfully with text. Here are some ways we can provide explorative elements for our learners:

• Asking questions, which is mostly associated with evaluating learners, can also encourage thought process while learning. A Question can awaken the learner to the concept being taught and puts it in the right perspective in his or her mind.
• Tips and trivia shared from time to time within the course contribute in providing relief. Giving out information that is not strictly within the realm of what is being taught creates a place for relaxation within the mind of the learner and opens him or her to newer concepts that are being taught.
• From time to time, text can also be utilized to create a sense of solidarity within the learner group. A typical example of this would be sharing testimonials and experiences of fellow colleagues in induction programs.

The strategies shared here are common practices that one can apply in e-learning. However, changing needs require changing strategies. Effective instructional strategies like role-plays, storytelling, scenario-based learning, game-based learning, theme-based courses, comic-strips, simulations, tutorials and such, can all be effective in creating content that is impactful in e-learning. Text element is the backbone in all of them, and if treated right – instrumental in building the path to learner success.

Some Insights for Successful LMS Selection and Implementation

Every organization is a melting-pot of information and knowledge. Learning Management System (LMS) arrange, manage and channelize this information and knowledge through the organization. As a concept, it is not new. The last decade or so have seen tremendous rise in the popularity and acceptance of LMS, especially in the corporate space. As more and more organizations are becoming aware of the need for learning management, we bring to you some insights into the LMS of today and practical approaches to implementation.

We talked to Shah Rizwan, Head – IT Services at G-Cube, who shared with us some eye-openers into the wide world of LMS of today. Shah has been a part of G-Cube for more than 7 years. His close association with different projects and clients has been a continuous opportunity to learn and he shares his learning, with pleasure.

Learning Management Systems have become part of every organization’s learning delivery strategy which wants to encourage the culture of learning. What are the basic features that organizations want out of an enterprise LMS?

Learning Management Systems, as the name suggests, is essentially a system that manages learning in an organization. It’s a system that also manages learners, courses, instructors and resources (e.g. classrooms, equipment etc.). This is a basic feature of any LMS today. In addition, a LMS should also provide reports, course-wise, department-wise or of learner progress – as per the requirements of the client. Assessments are also an integral part of a LMS. Many courses have in-built quizzes or tests to ascertain learners’ assimilation. Even if assessments are built within courses, separate opportunities to assess the learner through CYUs (Check your understanding) tests and Question banks are now a basic feature of new-age LMSs. Many LMSs also have analytical tools built in to provide insights to the administrators. For instance in addition to generating a report, a LMS also provides clear insights into understanding and utilizing the report to the best. In addition to stating the learner progress through a course, analytical tools built in LMSs can provide the additional knowledge like what are learner’s weak areas.

An LMS should also enable seamless scheduling of trainings to be conducted and provide the detailed calendar for all training activities within an organization. Some clients also express the need for a LMS to be able to create curriculum or learning path for learners. This curriculum may include e-learning, webinars, Instructor-led courses or other modes of instruction – as best suited for the learner.  This concept of blended learning, is fast gaining popularity in corporate circles, as it provides the learner a platform for well-rounded learning. Enterprise class LMSs now have the ability of managing different modes of learning, in addition to e-learning courses, that create an opportunity of blended learning for the learner.

With increasing user base, it is important to inform the learners of upcoming courses, courses that they have been waitlisted for and so on. Notifications are also a part of LMSs today and are a basic feature in most.

What are the add-on features that can enhance the functionality of a LMS?

There are many additional features that can give LMS enhanced functionality. Corporate learning is always directed towards increasing the reach of a course to the maximum number of learners. Social learning increases the reach of learning and encourages participation of a large number of learners. That’s why social learning has now found firm footing in the corporate scenario. This is the next step for any LMS – integrating the system with a social networking platform, which provides the learners an opportunity to collaborate and learn.

Another feature that can enhance the scope of LMS is video based learning. Instructional videos, 3D simulations, webinars are some examples of video-based learning that have proven to be immensely successful for the corporate audience. So, integrated video players within the LMS, is an added feature that can be utilized very well. In addition, if the LMS is also fitted with an integrated webinar tool, the learners can attend live or pre-recorded sessions within the confines of the LMS. Not only does this increase the ease of the learner in accessing learning material or learning events, it also takes care of security concerns of many clients.

Mobile learning is also coming of age and the LMSs of today need to be aligned to the new mode of learning. Mobile devices are available to many corporate learners and they prefer to learn on the go. A new-age LMS should provide the opportunity to access courses within the system, through mobile devices. This would increase the reach of learning manifold and also provide the learners the opportunity to learn, whenever they want.

Lastly, an extension of mobile learning through LMS is the feature of receiving notifications through mobile devices. While most LMSs do provide notifications through email, SMSs can be a faster mode of reaching the learner. A learner might not check emails regularly, e.g. a salesperson in the field, but will never fail to check an SMS. This ensures that the notifications reach the learner on time and he or she is able to act on it appropriately. SMSs can also be used to share knowledge snippets or conduct short quizzes with learners who don’t have regular access to computers.

While people are taking the concept of ‘learning’ seriously across all types of organizations, there is still a lot of change management to be handled when implementing a LMS. How would you suggest an organization prepare itself before an organization-wide LMS implementation? How can the LMS provide help?

However evolved maybe the LMSs of today, we cannot ignore the fact that they cater to users from very different industry-types. That’s why we cannot have a standard norm to which they can all comply. In such a scenario, change management will be encountered in the early steps of implementation. However, an organization can certainly prepare itself before the actual process of implementation, to lessen the impact of change management in the quality of work.

The first step would be to define the scope of the LMS. A LMS will not be able to automate everything. The expectations out of the LMS have to be clearly understood by all stakeholders. It might be prudent for first-time users to limit the scope for the first few months, when they are getting settled with the new system, e.g. perhaps just start with conducting assessments on LMS, or use it to automate classroom training delivery to start with. In course of time, when the users as well as the administrators are more at ease with the system, more complex features can be explore and utilized.

Also, organizations should have a clear work-flow of how the trainings will be executed through the LMS. It should indicate who will assign courses, who will approve attendees, who shall monitor records and so on. If every stakeholder is clear about his or her role in implementation, the process will smoothen itself out.

The worth of training and testing during implementation cannot be ignored. The LMS provider can assist to a great extent in this area. Trainers, trainees, administrators as well as technical staff needs to be trained on the features and working of the LMS. However, the mode of training for all groups need not be the same. The LMS provider can provide help-files within the LMS for the users and administrators. In addition, small handouts can also be provided (e.g. FAQs) which would be handy in the first few months of implementation. Training the trainers is also important, for they would best understand the learner and learner needs. The LMS provider can have interactive workshops with this group, providing an opportunity of fruitful dialogue that would bring out all the features and their utility for the learner group. The technical staff can be given detailed documents that list out the architectural or technical features of the system and list out common problems as well as solutions. This can be a useful tool of reference in the first few months when technical glitches will be common.

Similarly, testing should also be done before enterprise wide implementation, at all levels. Users, managers, administrators and instructors should all be included in the testing process to anticipate any specific issue (technical or otherwise) that they may have with the system. This becomes even more important when integration with different enterprise systems is involved.

Finally, a marketing plan can help sell a new idea better. The LMS and its utilities are designed to ultimately help the users increase their standard of work. The end-user should find benefit in embracing the new system – this is the simple secret to the success of any LMS. This is also the greatest barrier to overcome in change management. If the idea of a LMS and its usefulness is sold well to the end users, things will definitely start to improve from then on! Here too, the LMS provider can share insights with the client to identify the most useful features and highlight them in marketing communication.

How can we equip a LMS to keep up with the changing needs of the client?

The client may start with a smaller user base, but may envisage that number to increase within few months or years of implementation. The LMS may also need to accommodate more course-ware and learning material within the structure. The technical architecture of LMS should be flexible in order to accommodate changing needs of the client. With increasing load, the system should also have adequate provisions for backup and security. Higher use base means increasing load on the system and backup servers should be assigned for clients who anticipate growing user numbers. The LMS should also have security provisions like data encryption, and secure login management, which should be able to dovetail with customers IT policies.

It is sometimes suggested that only large organizations can afford or maintain a LMS. Is this true? How can small or medium size companies implement and reap the benefits of a LMS – within limited resources and budgets?

Small and medium size companies too can implement a LMS within an organization. For very basic needs, there are a number of open-source LMS available which may benefit a company with restrictive budgets. But the drawback of these systems is that they do not provide robust support and technical assistance is not readily available for them.

In such a scenario, the SaaS (Software as a Service) model can work for small and medium size organizations working on tight budgets. There is no upfront investment to begin with and one can work with monthly installments. Understanding the need of the client would also be able to lessen costs. For example, if the LMS is to be implemented for a series of basic courses, features like audience management or skill-gap management can be done away with. Also, if user numbers are not expected to increase manifold, frugal infrastructure can be utilized to provide required and adequate support.

So, it is a myth that only larger organizations can afford to implement and maintain a LMS successfully. For the organizations of today, where there’s a will, there’s a LMS!

And finally, an enterprise level LMS requires a fair amount of investment of time and resources for any organization. How would you suggest that the customer derives maximum ROI?

A LMS increases the reach and effectiveness of training within an organization. With the introduction of an online platform for learning, costs of printing and disseminating training material is cut to minimum. Time of L&D team is also better managed, as the LMS takes care of complete training cycle from publishing of training calendar, to nominations, approvals, reminders, and feedback collection etc.

But while time and costs are saved, clear indicator of ROI would be the increase in productivity or quality of work. This can be achieved by creating a right strategy to motivate and positively push the learners, which can then be implemented through various tools available in the LMS.  For example, most enterprise LMSs now come with some system of giving credits to learners on course completion – these credits/ribbons can be tied to training related KRA scores, or can be traded for some gifts perhaps to motivate learners to complete their trainings. Short assessments mapped to training outcomes can be conducted after a training event, which can help in reinforcing the trainings. If such assessments/surveys are conducted regularly and positive results are shown over a period of time – it is bound to reflect in the work standards of the user as well.

New age LMSs also have features like Skill-Gap Analysis, which not only create a repository of skills present in the organization, but also identifies skills that need to be improved. It then suggests customized learning paths for learners to increase their knowledge and hone their skills. Utilizing this tool, over time, ensures that a better skills-pool is created within the organization, which is clearly an asset against the investment incurred.

Organizations also are changing their perspective in how ROI is sought. Investments on processes that have long term returns are now being welcomed, where the ‘big picture’ is more important than an instantaneous perceptible growth in revenues. Training and Learning take some time for the results to be reflected in numbers. But over time, they certainly do and LMS provide the support needed to sustain training seamlessly within an organization. So, as an investment, LMS is bound to create positive ROI, provided it’s implemented right and is backed with a sound strategy to generate and then maintain learner interest.