Elearning! June/July 2015

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June / July 2015 Volume 11 Issue 2 • www.2elearning.com

The

Sexiest Job of the 21st Century Pg 28

>> Learning! 100:

Bayer HealthCare Pg 20

>> Sales Enablement Roundtable Pg 24

We learn something new every day with video.

Your most valuable asset is your people.

Deliver live instructor-led or self-paced on-demand training for onboarding, continuing education, annual compliance and certiďŹ cation.

Learning is simple and measurable with:

A Learning! 100 Award winner.

Contact us to learn more!

312-962-3708 . contactsales@inxpo.com . www.inxpo.com

Leading Learning executive chief Learning officer graduate certificate George Mason University’s ECLO Graduate Certificate provides aspiring CLOs with the competencies of learning leaders so that they can align learning opportunities with business needs and demonstrate the value of the learning enterprise to organizational performance.

The Executive CLO Graduate Certificate is a cross-disciplinary program drawing on the expertise of faculty members from the School of Business and the Learning Technologies Division of the College of Education and Human Development.

executive cLo graduate certificate at a glance: ■ ■ ■ ■ ■ ■

Learning with real-world, project-based activities and case studies Leading-edge, integrated curriculum delivered by expert faculty Online courses augmented with 6 weekend, on-campus class days Classes start this fall Program completed in 8 months 18 credit hours

create, implement, disseminate and diffuse a vision of change that includes learning and non-learning solutions that have a systematic, measurable impact on organizational performance.

Learn more at business.gmu.edu/ecLo

Contents

JUNE / JULY 2015 VOLUME 11 NUMBER 2

>> Cover Story: The Sexiest Job of the 21st Century PG 28

This year, the demand for data and analytics resources will reach 4.4 million jobs globally, but only one-third of those jobs will be filled. The sexiest job of the 21st century is part data and part scientist.

By Jerry Roche

>> Essentials 10 12 13 14

News People on the Move Trendlines Deals

PG 24

>> Features 20

Learning! 100: Product Training at Bayer HealthCare Designing product education around two parts, the disease and the product, is not necessarily a bad thing. But we omitted the most important element: the patient. In 2015, we redesigned product training holistically.

By Chara Balasubramaniam, Janice Mas, Hayley Crouch, Helen Rushmer-Wilson, Hannah Kitchen, Joe Mallen, Rob McInnes and Dawn Livingstone

24

Sales Enablement: Driving Sales Performance via Technology Effective selling strategies must be honed and practiced regularly to stay ahead of the competition. Salespeople in particular are under constant pressure to deliver and are always looking for tools and information that will give them a competitive advantage.

By Jerry Roche

32

Upskilling America: Talent Makes a Difference The White House Upskill Summit was an event aimed at highlighting the strategies that companies are using to develop the skills of their employees. The event convened 150 employers, labor leaders, foundations, non-profits, educators and tech innovators from across America.

PG 20

4

June / July 2015 Elearning!

>> News 10 10 12

PG 32

E-learning in Healthcare The ‘Internet of Things’ On Video Training

>> Management 15

Leader’s View: How to Achieve Collaboration Successfully Ruth-Ann Clurman of Ascension Information Services, a four-time Learning! 100 winner, answers four questions about collaboration and reveals how a variety of twoway communication practices engender conversation, learning, and organizational and personal growth.

By Ruth-Ann Clurman

16

Advantages of Personalized Learning Successful personalized learning strategies and trained facilitators recognize individual differences in learning and help develop learning profiles and use portfolios and analytics to support learning requirements and successful learners and performance.

By Margaret Martinez, Ph.D.

32

Upskilling America: Talent Makes a Difference The White House Upskill Summit was an event aimed at highlighting the strategies that companies are using to develop the skills of their employees. The event convened 150 employers, labor leaders, foundations, non-profits, educators and tech innovators from across America.

By Jerry Roche

36

Conscious Capitalism In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, employees are looking for organizations that honor people, planet and profits, and leaders are looking for organizational frameworks that increase engagement and performance. The place where these groups intersect is evolving as a new

landscape for how businesses of the future may operate and succeed.

By Michelle Maldonado

>> Business 7

Big Data has arrived in the learning sector. But before you start incorporating it into your corporate decision-making, tread lightly — and remember that, beyond numbers, people are still very, very human.

By Jerry Roche

>> Tools & Practices 19

Three Ways to Help CLOs What keeps a CLO up at night? These three challenges are top of the list.

By Emma King

39 The Solution to Talent

Recruitment and Retention: Training Almost every industry is now facing — or will soon face — a blend of human capital challenges. These challenges include attracting skilled talent to their industry, retaining and engaging top performers, and ensuring that their people have the skills required to make the business successful. An investment in training has an impressive ROI.

By Jake White

13

Trendlines Statistics, figures and industry trends

16

Business of Learning Successful personalized learning strategies and trained facilitators recognize individual differences in learning.

By Margaret Martinez, Ph.D.

42

New Products

50

Pop Quiz Are you Mensa material?

42 LMS/TMS Product Showcase Up to 50 percent of learning organizations are adding, changing or replacing their current learning or talent systems. Which brands are offering the capabilities you need?

Editor’s Note

50

Ad/Edit Index

44 Training Content Resources Training resources are more creative, interactive and engaging than ever.

From mobile snippets to advance degree programs, the resources are numerous.

Source your content needs here.

Elearning! June / July 2015

5

JUNE/JULY 2015 VOLUME 11 ISSUE 2

Catherine Upton Group Publisher >> cupton@2elearning.com

Online@

2elearning.com Trending Topics

Adaptive Learning and Big Data in the Learning Age

By John Ambrose http://www.2elearning.com/insights/ item/55977-adaptive-learning-and-big-datain-the-learning-age How Are Organizations Changing Their Approach to Collaborative Learning?

By David Coleman http://www.2elearning.com/insights/ item/55883-trends-in-collaboration-howare-organizations-changing-their-approachto-collaborative-learning

Most Popular Web Sessions How We’ll Live, Work and Learn in the Future http://www.2elearning.com/webseminars-series/item/55978-elc14kn100-how-we-ll-live-work-and-learnin-the-future

Research

E-learning User Study 2014: Corporate Sector http://www.2elearning.com/research/ item/55597-e-learning-user-study-2014

Events

13th Annual ‘Innovations in E-learning’ Symposium at ELC 15 June 8-10, 2015, Manassas, Va. http://elceshow.com

6

June / July 2015 Elearning!

Jerry Roche Executive Editor >> editor@2elearning.com Rosemary Doody Senior Director of Digital Content >> rdoody@2elearning.com JW Upton Vice President >> JW@2elearning.com Marguerite Hoffman Event Operations Manager >> operations@2elearning.com Kim Lewis Art Director >> production@2elearning.com

Beverly Miller Print Production Manager

Susan Glenn Controller

Contributors: Ruth-Ann Clurman, Ascension HIS Margaret Martinez, Ph.D. Chara Balasubramianiam, Janice Mas, Hayley Crouch, Helen Rushmer-Wilson, Hannah Kitchen, Joe Mallen, Roc McInnes, Dawn Livingston, Bayer Health Care Emma King, INXPO

Elearning! Media Group is the property of B2B Media Company LLC P.O. Box 5417, Oceanside, CA 92052 • 888-201-2841 • 951-547-1131 www.2elearning.com Elearning! magazine is published bi-monthly by B2B Media Company LLC, P.O. Box 5417, Oceanside, CA 92052. Application to mail Standard Class is filed with Sheppardville, KY Post Office.

POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to: Elearning! P.O. Box 5417, Oceanside, CA 92052. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals in the USA. All international or non-qualified subscriptions can receive Elearning! e-zine complimentary by ordering at http://www.2elearning.com/reg/choose. Elearning! magazine is a trademark of B2B Media Company and publishes under creative commons copyright.

Editor’sNote

B

Big Data and Real People

ig data has arrived. And, the sexiest job of the 21st century is in this field according to Harvard Business Review. The learning sector and corporate management, including the all-important marketing and sales sector are embracing big data (see pg 32).

When Merriam-Webster defines Big Data as “an accumulation of data that is too large

and complex for processing by traditional database management tools,” it immediately becomes obvious that — despite all the benefits of collecting, processing and applying them to work-related problems — Big Data also carry their share of risks.

1

There’s the omnipresent security risk. You’ve captured tons and tons of data and statistics. They are housed on your corporate main frames, in your corporate networks, or in the Cloud. Your

I.T. experts have taken every precautionary measure to secure them. But what if somebody or some organization (think competitors) could hack your databases? What if somebody did hack your databases? What havoc could they wreak?

2 3

The next problem is sorting the data. Even using the most sophisticated algorithms, your organization might not yield data subsets that are ultimately more valuable than the required financial investment.

Then there are the further problems associated with such a big pile of statistics, the most likely being the danger of putting too much emphasis on only the data available, when there might be

other immeasurable circumstances that can impact important decisions.

4

Finally, what about the human factor? When so much is known about every individual’s likes, dislikes, tendencies, even thought processes, there’s the danger of defining individuals solely by

the data available about them. In how many Hollywood productions have we seen the danger of trying to humanize advanced technology — and the protagonists always fail. Just off the top of my head: “I, Robot,” “SimOne,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” “Her” and — most recently — “Ex Machina.”

To discover how today’s organizations are deploying big data and learning analytics, we invite you to join us at Enterprise Learning! Conference June 8-10, in Manassas, Virgina. The event offers 50 plus sessions, 10 workshops, 3 keynotes across 3 days. Learn more at www.ELCEshow.com.

—Jerry Roche, Editorial director

Elearning! June / July 2015

7

Co-located with:

June 8-10, 2015 | Manassas, VA

Where Leaders Meet to

Build Smarter Organizations via Learning & Workplace Technology.

3 Keynotes, 10 Workshops and 50 Sessions to Drive Performance Keynotes:

“Transformation of Learning & Ecosystems” Wayne McCulloch, Sr. Vice President, Saleforce

“Building Learning Environments for the Next Generation” COL Ronald Dodge, CIO & Associate Professor, U.S. Military Academy, West Point “The Social Web and You, Your Career & Your Organization” Jennifer Golbeck, Author of ‘Analyzing the Social Web’ & Associate Director HumanComputer Lab, University of Maryland

Hosted By:

50 Sessions:

ELC15, in partnership with The Innovations in E-learning Symposium, features four distinct conference tracks to help you drive organizational performance. >> Learning Environments for the Next Generation >> Smart Connected Things in Learning >> Learning Analytics & Performance in the Big Data Age >> The Learning! 100 Best Practices

Workshops Sharpen your skills, develop your career, and drive enterprise performance by attending ELC15 workshops. >> CLO Executive Forum: The Business of Learning >> Building The High Performance Organization >> Learning Analytics & Big Data >> E-learning Design Principals >> Mobile Deployment Strategy >> Play & Design for Game-based Learning >> Cloud-Based Learning >> Creating Engaging Virtual Learning Experience >> And more…

REGISTER TODAY

Visit www.elceshow.com Or, call 888-201-2841 Partners:

Enterprise Learning! Conference is a B2B Media Company, LLC brand. Learn more at www.elceshow.com

Bring the Team & Save $500

www.elceshow.com

REGISTER TODAY at www.elceshow.com Meet the Learning! 100 Network, Learn & Share from the Top Global Learning Organizations

>> AlliedBarton >> American Heart Association >> AT&T >> Cisco >> Choice Logistics >> Defense Acquisition University >> Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

>> George Mason University >> Honeywell >> IBM >> Leumi Bank >> Salesforce >> US Navy >> Waddell&Reed >> And More‌.

Who Should Attend:

If YOU are responsible for business or agency performance, employee development, training, education, learning or talent strategy, you need to attend ELCE.

ELC attendees include: Agency Directors, EVPs, VPs, Directors, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Care and Finance Managers, CLOs, HR, Training, Talent and Corporate Executives aspiring to C-level suite.

Innovation in E-learning Symposium attendees include: Training, education, learning professionals deploying e-learning and workplace technologies to drive employee, stakeholder, citizen, customer or channel performance.

Workshops: June 8th, 2015 Conference: Jun 9th-10th, 2015 Exhibits: June 8th-10, 2015 ELC15 Online: July 16th, 2015 Sponsors:

REGISTER TODAY

at www.elceshow.com Or, call 888-201-2841 x848

News

Internet of Things: Changes the Face of Enterprise Technology

E-learning as Effective in Health Care as Traditional Learning E-learning is likely to be as effective as traditional methods for training health professionals, according to a review commissioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and carried out by Imperial College London researchers.

According to another recent WHO report, the world is short of 7.2 million health-care professionals, and the figure is growing.

The Imperial team, led by Dr. Josip Car, carried out a systematic review of scientific literature to evaluate the effectiveness of e-learning for undergraduate health professional education. The findings, drawn from a total of 108 studies, showed that students acquire knowledge and skills through online and offline e-learning as well as or better than they do through traditional teaching.

The authors suggest that combining e-learning with traditional teaching might be more suitable for health-care training than courses that rely fully on e-learning because of the need to acquire practical skills.

—More info: www.reuters.com/article/2015/01/12/us-health-trainingwho-idUSKBN0KL0XZ20150112

The Internet of Things (IoT) is becoming a big driver of enterprise technology and consumerization. According to Goldman-Sachs, a number of significant technology changes have come together to enable the rise of the IoT:

Rising Technology ‘Will Revolutionize Learning’

>> Smartphones and Big Data >> Cheap sensors – Sensor prices have dropped to an average 60

“Better software will revolutionize learning,” write Bill and Melinda Gates in their annual letter published earlier this year. If they haven’t already, cheaper devices, rising incomes and growing Internet access almost certainly will revolutionize how we teach, learn and increase literacy.

“But are existing e-learning programs really having an impact?” asks Anand Jagatia of Thomson Reuters Foundation.

And Tom Power, a lecturer in international education at the Open University, co-authored a 2014 report on the effectiveness of educational technology in developing nations, concluding that many programs are going wrong.

But e-learning is not just used for promoting literacy. Rebecca Harrison, CEO of the African Management Initiative, an e-learning platform for aspiring managers, says that the use of technology may help reach a million managers by 2023.

—More info: http://www.scidev.net/global/education/multimedia/ elearning-impact.html#sthash.Gg4T5t3H.dpuf

>> Cheap bandwidth – The cost of bandwidth has also declined pre-

10

June / July 2015 Elearning!

cents from $1.30 in the past 10 years.

cipitously, by a factor of nearly 40x over the past 10 years.

>> Cheap processing – Similarly, processing costs have declined by

nearly 60x over the past 10 years, enabling more devices to be not just connected, but smart enough to know what to do with all the new data they are generating or receiving.

>> Ubiquitous wireless coverage – Wireless connectivity is now available for free or at a very low cost.

>> IPv6 – Can support 128-bit addresses — an almost limitless number that can amply handle all conceivable IoT devices.

—More info: www.goldmansachs.com/our-thinking/outlook/internet-of-things/iot-report.pdf

Bring the Team & Save $500

www.elceshow.com

REGISTER TODAY at www.elceshow.com Meet the Learning! 100 Network, Learn & Share from the Top Global Learning Organizations

>> AlliedBarton >> American Health Association >> AT&T >> Cisco >> Defense Acquisition University >> Dept of Defence >> Gates Foundation >> George Mason University

>> Honeywell >> IBM >> Leumi Bank >> Salesforce.com >> US Navy >> Waddell&Reed >> And More‌.

Who Should Attend:

If YOU are responsible for business or agency performance, employee development, training, education, learning or talent strategy, you need to attend ELCE.

ELC attendees include: Agency Directors, EVPs, VPs, Directors, Sales, Marketing, Operations, Customer Care and Finance Managers, CLOs, HR, Training, Talent and Corporate Executives aspiring to C-level suite.

Innovation in E-learning Symposium attendees include: Training, education, learning professionals deploying e-learning and workplace technologies to drive employee, stakeholder, citizen, customer or channel performance.

Workshops: June 8th, 2015 Conference: Jun 9th-10th, 2015 Exhibits: June 8th-10, 2015 ELC15 Online: July 16th, 2015

REGISTER TODAY

Sponsors:

INXPO, Degreed, Cisco, American Public University, KZO Innovations

at www.elceshow.com Or, call 888-201-2841 x848

News 2015 Learning! 100 Named The top 100 global learning organizations were revealed by Elearning!

Media Group, host of the 5th Annual Learning! 100 awards. Sixty corporate enterprises and 40 public sector organizations are being honored for learning culture and innovation that impact organization performance.

The Learning! 100 rankings will be revealed at the Learning!

100 Award Ceremony on June 9th at the Enterprise Learning!

Conference at the Hylton Center, Manassas, VA. “We are honored to host the top global learning organizations at the conference,” reports Catherine Upton, Conference Co-Chair. “We believe excellence is best achieved when shared, so we invite honorees to share their advice, best practices, tips and more with the larger learning community.”

More than 20 organizations are presenting their programs including: Saleforce, IBM, AT&T, Skillsoft, George Mason University, Defense Acquisition University, American Heart Association, AlliedBarton and more.

Learning! 100 are global organizations and come from Israel, Denmark, United Kingdom, Canada, across all industries and company size.

Enterprises number as few as 2 employees up to 1.6 million employees.

“The Learning! 100 is diverse mix of innovative organizations driving performance by re-inventing learning within their organizations,” concludes Upton.

Learn more about ELC15 at www.ELCEShow.com. View the entire list at: http://bit.ly/1P3SQXo

Necessary, Foundational Aspects of Video Training

Availability isn’t the only factor driving the adoption of video for online training. Equally important are the opportunities that video provides for greater trainer/student engagement and flexibility, for less logistics in the planning realm, and for lower costs.

However, regardless of how video training is used, there are several distinct features that online training must be able to provide for a wide range of potential learners including employees, business partners, and even customers:

>> Equal access for remote and on-site learners >> Better access to more trainers and subject matter experts in more locations

>> Greater convenience and availability with live and on-demand instruction

>> Comprehensive performance tracking and reporting >> Ability to register users and/or charge for training —More info: www.gototraining.com

People on the Move United States Naval Academy.

Meridian Knowledge Solutions has named JEFF KRISTICK its new president. He oversees all business operations, including global sales, services, customer support, marketing and product development. Kristick is a learning and human capital management industry veteran with more than 15 years of proven global 12

June / July 2015 Elearning!

enterprise software leadership, most recently as vice president of Oracle’s HCM Business Unit. He’s also worked at SuccessFactors, an SAP Company, Plateau Systems, Siebel Systems and Tibco. He holds an M.B.A. from Northwestern University, Kellogg School of Management, and a B.S. in mechanical engineering from the

STACY SAKELLARIOU is the new vice president of Marketing at Meridian Knowledge Solutions.

She will oversee the strategic positioning, branding, go-to-market strategy, demand generation and management of all marketing functions. She brings over 20 years of experience driving global marketing and product strategies and more than a decade of experience within the learning industry at SumTotal Systems, a Skillsoft company; SuccessFactors, an SAP company; and Plateau Systems. She holds a B.S. degree from Rochester Institute of Technology and an M.S.M. from the Johns Hopkins University, Carey Business School.

Weejee Learning has hired JIM FARRELL as director of technology services, ANNESSA FIKE as talent acquisition director, KELLY PRINCE as design lead, and APRIL BARNUM as PMO manager. Farrell has 20 years of learning experience, most recently as product manager for Questionmark Corp. Fike successfully owned and led a recruiting agency prior to joining the Weejee team, and previously served as global recruiting director for The Motley Fool. Prince has spent more than 15 years developing world-class learning programs and leading training teams.

Barnum brings more than 18 years of experience to the Weejee team as a learning consultant, project manager and instructional designer.

Trendlines Global E-learning Market to Reach $107.3 Billion by 2015 The global e-learning market is projected to reach $107.3 billion by the year 2015, driven by its benefits in the form of reduction in operational costs, flexibility in learning activities, and simplified training programs.

The United States and Europe dominate the global e-learning market with more than 70% share of the revenues. AsiaPacific represents the fastest growing market for e-learning, with revenues projected to grow at a compounded annual rate of more than 20% over the analysis period.

A report titled “eLearning: A Global Strategic Business Report” announced by Global Industry Analysts, Inc., provides a comprehensive review of market trends, product introductions/innovations, and recent industry activity.

—More details: www.strategyr.com/eLEARNING_Market_Report.asp

Coming Soon to Corporate Recruitment

Here’s some of what HR professionals can look forward to when recruiting their next set of employees: Death of the résumé. Employers want to be able to learn about a 1blogging, candidate’s former company in one click, through social media, micro-blogging, site referrals or video.

Digital conversation through visual media will increase with the 2 rise of mostly visual social sharing communities like Pinterest and Tumblr. talent pools and social media will dominate 3Community-oriented recruiting.

4Mobile-friendly career sites where people can easily view jobs. tools will leverage Big Data to offer real-time access to 5Sourcing 1 billion virtual résumés.

—More trends: www.slideshare.net/Arbunize

Mobile, Paperless Hit HR Technology Push Four major trends that are due to hit the human resources professionals in 2015 are: Companies will be stepping up their game in the push for mobile for everything. The bar has been raised, and instead of mobile versions of a site or system, organizations will be rolling out mobile apps.

Today (actually, this technology was available quite a while ago), there is just no reason not to go paperless. It is better organized, easier to search, and easier to collect and use data from.

Employers are continuing to push learning and development in the workplace, many of which are depending on advanced learning management systems.

There will be a strong shift toward single vendors, who are offering centralized, fully integrated technologies for recruitment, performance management, talent management and compensation along with core human resources management applications.

—More info: http://blog.clearcompany.com

1 2 3 4

More Gamification in Our Future Dr. Karl Kapp shares where gamification of corporate learning is headed: becomes integrated in the larger strategy. Organiza1gerGamification tions are recognizing that gamification is a fresh tool in much bigtoolkit to help make learning a continuous and engaging process. of gamification into more delivery methods like webi2 Integration nars and mobile devices.

Gamification gains more traction internationally, in countries like 3 China, India, Canada, Mexico and parts of South America. According to M2 Research, in just two years gamification will grow from a $500 million to a $2.8 billion market. to expand into leadership development, safety/com4Gamification pliance, R&D, accounting, onboarding and more.

—More info: www.karlkapp.com

Elearning! June / July 2015

13

Trendlines News HR Leaders Becoming Learning Converts Eighty-five percent of respondents to a recent Deloitte survey cite learning as “important” or “very important,” up 21 percent from last year. Yet the capability gap between the importance of the issue and the ability to respond grew in magnitude by an enormous 211 percent over the last 12 months (from -9 to -28).

More than 3,300 business and HR leaders from 106 countries took part in the survey.

“The comparison of findings with previous years does suggest that employee learning has become more of a concern to HR leaders [who] are less able to respond to that need,” reports Stephen J. Gill.

The investigators attribute the change from previous years to: >> Increasing need for high performing employees, especially leaders >> Corporate training and development programs are not meeting this need >> Organizational cultures don’t support employee engagement and learning —More info: http://stephenjgill.typepad.com

Learning Trends are Collaborative and Personal According to Learning and Performance Institute survey, three major learning trends are: 1 Maturing, widening deliver channels 2 The networked individual 3 The demanding business The focus of learning delivery is evolving as well. Collaborative learning and personalization lead the trend.

Collaborative learning

13.4%

Personalization

10.7%

Mobile delivery

10.2%

Curation 7.8% Games/gamification

7.6%

Showing value

72%

of HR managers use online employee communications

7.0% Developing the L&D function 6.3% Video 6.1% Open everything (badges, MOOCs, etc.)

6.1% —More info: https://donaldhtaylor.wordpress.com/about/

Deals LINKEDIN has entered into an agreement to acquire LYNDA.COM, a leading online learning company teaching business, technology and creative skills to help people achieve their professional goals. Based in Carpinteria, CA, lynda.com was co-founded in 1995

by Lynda Weinman and Bruce Heavin.

The transaction is valued at approximately $1.5 billion, subject to adjustment, in a combination of approximately 52 percent cash and approximately 48 percent stock. Subject to the completion of customary conditions, the acquisition is expected to close during the second quarter of 2015.

WEEJEE LEARNING is now listed as a U.S. General Services 14

June / July 2015 Elearning!

Administration Mission Oriented Business Integrated Services – Schedule 874. As a “GSA Advantage!” contractor, Weejee is pre-authorized to provide its transformative e-learning solutions to federal government entities. The GSA Schedules program spends approximately $50 billion a year.

ELEARNING BROTHERS and ICONLOGIC have formed a partnership to provide a new twist in e-learning training. E-learning developers can now receive software training and more than 35,000 e-learning assets through the partnersnip, including games, quizzes, interactions, cut-out people images, scenarios, player skins, layouts,

stock images, templates and PowerPoint interactions.

NETDIMENSIONS is partnering with BIZLIBRARY. NetDimensions clients can now quickly deploy BizLibrary’s award-winning online training collection, which includes more than 10,000 video and elearning courses on a multitude of business training topics, including compliance training, leadership and management, and sales and customer service.

Rand Worldwide’s IMAGINIT TECHNOLOGIES DIVISION has partnered with 4D TECHNOLOGIES to create a multimodal e-learning experience. Imag-

iniT’s video-enhanced e-learning curriculum now provides access to more than 1,000 video demonstrations covering products such as AutoCAD, Autodesk Inventor, AutoCAD Civil 3D and Autodesk Revit.

UL EDUNEERING and LEARNSHARE partner. LearnShare provides talent management solutions that enable Fortune 1000 companies to measure, motivate and manage employee development. UL EduNeering provides a combination of technology, content and professional services that helps organizations mitigate risks, improve business performance and establish qualification and training programs.

LeadersView 4 Questions for… …RUTH-ANN CLURMAN, DIRECTOR OF LEARNING AND O.D., ASCENSION INFORMATION SERVICES WHY IS COLLABORATION SUCH AN IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT BUSINESS? It is not only an organizational goal for our parent organization — Ascension, the nation’s largest nonprofit and Catholic health system — it is the foundation upon which we build our plans for growth and innovation. Ascension Information Services CEO Mark Barner considers learning and development a necessity — there are no shortcuts — and this thinking permeates the organization at all levels.

He often speaks about how he considers AIS a “learning organization.” This is consistent with all of Ascension, which places great emphasis on learning and development.

HOW DO YOU ACHIEVE COLLABORATION SUCCESSFULLY? Our social learning tool leverages the knowledge of those who know our national health ministry best: our associates. They understand what is important to achieving our organizational objectives. We also have a chief executive who — along with the other senior leaders on our Ascension Information Services Executive Council — not only endorses but expects collaboration and innovation.

The tool allows us to deliver on those expectations. Organizations frequently tend to engage in one-way communication (leadership to associates), meaning they don’t always benefit from the full capabilities of the professionals they hire. But within Ascension Information Services, a variety of two-way communication practices engenders conversation, learning and organizational and personal growth.

HOW DO YOU USE YOUR SOCIAL LEARNING TOOL TO INCREASE COLLABORATION? The 70% Advantage tool has helped our associates feel more connected to the organization and its leadership. Our previous engagement survey revealed our associates had a desire to know our senior leaders better and understand the reasons our leaders make certain decisions.

Through the tool, we now have a direct yet simple way for leadership to communicate organizational objectives. Our associates can use it to learn more about virtually any business or organizational topic, then engage in discussions with colleagues and leadership alike to further their understanding. We also ensure compliance dates for learning requirements appear as a banner on the tool’s home page to alert associates to upcoming course deadlines.

HOW HAVE YOU MEASURED THE EFFECTIVENESS AND USAGE OF WHAT YOU’RE DOING? We measure usage each quarter. Not long after the tool was introduced, 50 percent of our associates were using it. As of the third quarter of our current fiscal year, though, we recorded a 99.6 percent usage rate, which is exceptional.

We drive traffic to 70% Advantage by linking mandatory associate courses to the tool and offering items of interest such as TED Talks and subsites focused on team collaboration. In the busy world of health care information technology, we understand the value of taking time out to listen to an inspirational message, something perfectly aligned with our faith-based culture, so we also include those types of messages on the tool.

Our associates visit it frequently. Many internal teams use it for collaboration and conversation, increasing its role as a gathering place for our associates.

When large group meetings take place, associates can visit 70% Advantage to view photographs of meeting participants, which creates a sense of connection with their colleagues because associates can see their colleagues’ faces. We continue to develop content enhancements and make improvements to keep the tool fresh, interesting and useful.

Elearning! June / July 2015

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Businessof Learning What Have We Learned About Personalized Learning?

BY MARGARET MARTINEZ, PH.D.

I

n 2015, there is a much greater interest in personalization. The E-learning User Study 2014 mentions that interest in personalization of learning shifted from 4 percent in 2013 to 47 percent in 2014. In the March issue, John Bryson mentioned five training trends to watch this year. His No. 2 trend was “personalized experiences.”

What does this mean to corporations and others who are thinking about offering more personalized learning? What strategies are useful for implementing more personalized learning?

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SUCCESSFUL STRATEGIES THAT INDIVIDUALLY SUPPORT PSYCHOLOGICAL FACTORS — such as emotions, will, persistence, expectations and social needs — are essential to personalized learning experiences. Up to now, the study of emotions and other factors has been difficult, since we previously did not have the technology to measure them more precisely. Now, many are discussing how emotions can trigger greater creativity and better learning in the brain. In contrast, advertisers and sport psychologists have long known about the impact of emotions and have been more innovative in tapping into emotions and other relevant factors to enhance sales and performance.

Our new personalization models and strategies need to consider the impact of relevant factors on learning similarly. Strategies are obsolete if they do not consider, for example, how to help students tap into emotional resources, master emotions, support the learning process, and desire to achieve true potential. We must eliminate models that encourage passivity, memorization, rule-based learning and one-size-fits-all learning.

In the future, a personalized approach will use emotion and other relevant psychological factors to fuel motivation, persistence, innovation, self-directed effort and goal-oriented achievement.

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STRATEGIES THAT PROGRESSIVELY NOURISH INNOVATION AND HIGHER-ORDER THINKING ARE CRITICAL FOR PERSONALIZED LEARNING. Innovation underpins the growth of nations and depends on education that fosters the achievement of a talented workforce.

The Council on Competitiveness shows that we have dropped to sixth place in global innovation capability.

The National Science Board reports a troubling decline in the number of U.S. citizens who are studying in fields that require higher-order thinking skills and innovation. Today’s challenge as a nation is to find solutions that encourage more active-thinking workers who want to make learning “a rewarding part of everyday life.”

Unfortunately, if we are still using yesterday’s industrial-age education models, we will continue to create a passive workforce that lacks higher order thinking and decision-making abilities.

Corporations can use personalization to fit the needs of today’s constantly changing, informationseeking world. They can and must

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collectively push for a major paradigm shift to meet the information and decision-making needs challenging today’s workforce. The lack of systemic change in education is creating a crisis that we urgently must solve. Personalized learning experiences focus on learning success and harness the psychological sources that drive individualized learning. This is in contrast to learning strategies that result in stress, dissatisfaction, attrition, retention problems and wasted time.

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STRATEGIES THAT CREATE PERSONALIZED AND JUST-IN-TIME LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENTS CAN HELP LEARNERS SUCCEED. They can help learners assess needs and progress, sense, synthesize, create new knowledge and act upon decisions continuously; emotions can help fuel this iterative process.

To develop problem-solvers and thinkers who want to become lifelong learners, we need to show them how to tap into passions and actively involve them in the self-assessing, thinking, decisionmaking and innovation processes. Rapid advances in adaptive learning technologies are how we can develop environments for more personalized learning experiences. Failure means that new technologies may create cognitive overload, attrition, stress and lack of product use. Build it, and many may not want to come.

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IN CREATING STRATEGIES FOR BETTER PERSONALIZED LEARNING, WE MUST DEEPEN OUR KNOWLEDGE ABOUT INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING AND HOW THEY FIT WITH LEARNING REQUIREMENTS. Personalization requires that we better understand why some individuals are more prepared to use their abilities to succeed and others cannot or will not.

A brain-based “learner profile” should recognize individual differences in learning and match what needs to be learned with personalized solutions that meet goals and work requirements. A well-designed learner profile can help develop more self-motivated, self-directed and autonomous learners if they are successfully learning and meeting requirements in ways that support them individually. High attrition or lack of retention rates demonstrate that profiles, requirements and environments are not working together successfully. For example, less sophisticated students will fail or drop out if needs are unmet, especially those who are more dependent on instructors and social interaction and are more resistant to change. Learner profiles can help collect data about learners, assess progress, and report achievements. Personalization strategies may also involve learner analytics. Portfolios may also be included in personalization strategies. Privacy issues may be a special concern with personalization strategies that include learner data collection.

The Council on Competitiveness shows that the U.S. has dropped to sixth place in global innovation capability.

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SUCCESSFUL PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCES NEED TO BE SUPPORTED BY TRAINED FACILITATORS WHO UNDERSTAND REALITY: MANY LEARNERS MOVING ONLINE FROM CLASSROOMS ARE SIMPLY NOT ADEQUATELY PREPARED FOR LEARNING WITH TECHNOLOGY. Until the advent of online learning, it was enough to rely on the instructor to deliver the personal approach. As a result, too many online learners lack the self-motivation, confidence and learning management skills to stay online, finish the instruction, or learn and meet requirements.

Motivation, interest and persistence is something that has to be intrinsically earned and maintained throughout the learning experience. Even in the classroom, keeping learners engaged is a tough challenge.

Corporations need to learn how to introduce more sophisticated technology and personalized

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Businessof Learning Emotion and other psychological factors are the triggers that drive the personalized learning experience.

solutions to sophisticated and unsophisticated learners who can benefit from using a learner profile that recognizes and adapts to individual differences in learning and suggests targeted remedies and support. Learners will also benefit greatly if they know more about their own learner profile and portfolios to understand how they learn best and succeed professionally.

BEING MORE SOPHISTICATED In conclusion, as full-time instructors and classrooms disappear from the training landscape, we need to be more sophisticated in addressing the whole set of personal learning needs to meet work requirements.

The old methodologies relied on good instructors in the classroom who intuitively addressed emotions and intentions to learn and created social relationships with learners. Today, we know that emotion and other psychological factors are the triggers that drive the personalized learning experience and serve as the mortar that cements memories, interest and effort for more successful learning and performance.

Strategies that support innovation and higher thinking are also critical for corporate learning success. Fortunately, technology advances are making adaptive learning in personalized environments more available. Successful personalized learning strategies and trained facilitators recognize individual differences in learning and help develop learning profiles and use portfolios and analytics to support learning requirements and successful learners and performance.

Successful personalization encourages a more innovative, motivated workforce.

— Instructional psychologist Margaret Martinez, Ph.D., recently retired as CEO from The Training Place. She has worked on educational and measurement research, instructional design, learning and technology for 25 years. She was previously the worldwide director of Training & Certification at WordPerfect Corp. She is nationally recognized for her learning orientation research, publishes regularly, and presents at national conferences. She also developed the Learning Orientation Questionnaire (LOQ). For more about the Learning Orientation Research, visit www. trainingplace.com/source/research/index. html.

—Sources: Elearning! User Study 2014 (www.2elearning.com/research/item/​ 55597-e-learning-use​r-study-2014); “Reshaping Learning: Frontiers of Learning Technology in a Global Context” Chapter 6: Adapting for a Personalized Learning Experience (www.springer. com/education+%26+language/ learning+%26+instruction/book/978-3-64232300-3)

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VirtualEdge Three Ways to Help CLOs Rest Easier

BY EMMA KING

W

hat keeps a chief learning officer up at night? An informal survey of INXPO clients outlined three common challenges. Here’s how to to keep them from becoming nightmares.

Enterprise learning is evolving. Today, we must support on-the-job and momentof-need training. Intense pressure to educate a workforce and keep skills current amid economic headwinds, travel budget cuts, and growing regulatory demands is the new norm. The resulting shift to online programming and automation requires a redesign and repurposing of classroom learning. For enterprises of all sizes, education must happen immediately. Let’s consider the following scenarios: Challenge: How to modernize training programs for today’s new workforce — without starting over. Modernizing training is a huge, but necessary, undertaking. Instructor-led programs, in many cases, are being phased out. The average human attention span of just eight seconds is a major learning hurdle.

Solution: Content must be focused and engaging. A virtual/online delivery model shifts from a “push” to a “pull,” where the learner leads training. Trainers can no longer be trainers. Instead, they must become content development facilitators who understand subject matter, how people learn and how to make content “sticky.”

Challenge: Quicken time to value for new employees, while streamlining onboarding. Onboarding often takes longer than it should and is unstructured and unmeasurable.

Moreover, it’s largely treated as an administrative and compliance function.

Solution: Onboarding is a perfect opportunity to establish a foundation for ongoing engagement to reduce turnover and shorten time to value. In addition to satisfying HR and corporate requirements, successful onboarding helps new employees understand their roles and how they support the business.

The best programs also integrate new hires into cross-functional groups and establish organizationwide connections. This helps to instill a culture and mechanism for learning as a daily function.

Challenge: Knowing what technology makes sense for my needs — without becoming a CIO. Knowing what a CLO needs is itself a full-time job. For instance, most enterprises only use a fraction of their LMS’s features due to the complexity of integrating with HR systems, content and communications technology like video and webcasting, or third-party authoring tools. Results are poor and create a disengaging learner experience. Systems with sophisticated features aren’t always necessary. Don’t get me wrong: posting documentation on an intranet and sending broadcast email can’t be trusted to get the job done, either.

Solution: A better approach exists to deliver strategic goals and leadership messages, role-specific training, and HR policy. Successful CLOs are driving value for their organizations. A global consumer packaged goods firm recently deployed an online portal of self-paced materials that a new hire can experience in preparation for onsite training. The portal includes engagement features and comments by other employees, connecting new hires with peers who can help them succeed. The same system delivers information about product launches and executive communications.

Emma King is Vice President of Learning for INXPO which markets enterprise video communication solutions. More info: www.inxpo.com

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Learning! 100 Profile:

Product Training at Bayer HealthCare

BY CHARA BALASUBRAMANIAM, JANICE MAS, HAYLEY CROUCH, HELEN RUSHMER-WILSON, HANNAH KITCHEN, JOE MALLEN, ROB MCINNES AND DAWN LIVINGSTONE Picture a global corporate organization focused on product development, consisting of thousands of employees in many countries across the world. Now imagine training those people about a product pipeline that probably takes many years from formulating an idea to eventually getting to market. With so many people, in so many locations, satisfying so many roles within the organization, how do you come up with an effective and engaging learning strategy?

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THE CHALLENGING YEARS Training in the health-care and life sciences industry has always been compliance driven. It’s hard to argue against the compliance nature of our industry, and that spills over into our approaches to training — especially with patients in mind.

However, should training just be about achieving that tick at the end through a single e-learning module or learning event?

Even if it is about compliance, these days our external authorities and regulators expect more from us, especially in our approach to learning and development.

In such organizations, most training has been done by various groups in silos as opposed to working toward a unified holistic approach to product education.

They’ve all employed strategies that have

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producteducation been reactive, based on emerging training needs, and very disjointed in regard to learning design. When it comes specifically to product education around drugs targeting life-threatening illnesses, training has been designed in two parts: The disease: Training based on content relating to initial patient presentation, signs and symptoms of a given disease, investigations that are required as followup, diagnosis based on all the information at hand, and treatment based on diagnosis.

The product: Training based on how the product would help target the disease, how the product works from a biochemical process perspective, how it is administered to the patient, and what the outlook is like post-treatment, including any potential side effects.

That textbook approach is what we in the industry have come to expect of product training. But how memorable and effective is this approach?

Even in recent years, the fragmented nature of product education has continued.

Since the advent of learning technologies, a mixture of approaches have been deployed using the very disparate learning design and content approaches mentioned above.

Beginning with the new millennium, the industry started training people on product education but focusing on e-learning delivery methods to make it

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more cost effective, and using webinars and linear didactic e-learning modules (often PowerPoint conversions) in addition to face-to-face events. Some individual elements have been great, but due to the lack of overall approach to product education, the impact has been lost.

Global Clinical Development at Bayer HealthCare, we continuously seek opportunities to enhance our people’s knowledge through innovative solutions to identified learning needs.

Last year, The Learning Academy was approached with a business need to enhance

The concept of the learning path can be innovatively delivered to increase organizational knowledge and level of expertise.

Thus, the challenge became to find that “special something” that was missing.

Designing product education around two parts — which makes perfect sense — was a good place to start. However, how to cut across all of the information within those two parts was still missing. Often the most obvious solution — in our case, the patient — was forgotten.

CONNECTING PATIENT TO PRODUCT As The Learning Academy within

the level of organizational expertise of Bayer employees who are in contact with clinical sites conducting studies for a key compound in development. Since we know that adequate product education is a crucial success factor for all employees in Global Development and beyond, we quickly set out to analyze the who, what, when and how of the need.

Through this analysis, it became evident that a holistic and progressive approach would be required for the learning journey, which would take individuals from very basic understanding of the compound to an expertise that would enable them to speak knowledgeably with physicians and clinical trial investigators.

The Learning Academy, the Clinical Team and Medical Communications collaboratively devised an approach to product education that not only satisfied the educational needs for this particular compound but which in the future would be easily re-purposed for any development product.

The Learning Academy found that a learning path that blends innovation with delivery was needed to offer a unique and optimal learning experience. This was an opportunity to really engage and motivate the learners by linking the facts to the real experience of a patient undergoing treatment. Using a combination of good story-telling techniques and leadingedge technology to bring our product compound alive, we decided to lead our

participants on their learning journey through the eyes of a virtual patient.

‘SUSAN’S’ WORLD Learners begin their educational experience with several uniquely designed e-learning modules in which a virtual patient, Susan, allows us into her world, to hear about her signs and symptoms, her diagnosis, her treatment and beyond.

We are able to unfold the details of her progressing disease and treatment as seen from her perspective. Details about her personal life — hobbies, time spent with friends and family and how all of this was impacted by the disease — are also introduced.

The video of Susan and her journey eventually leads to her participate in a clinical trial involving our product. Her story is presented as a series of short sequential clips along a sliding parallax HTML5 timeline, interspersed with further text and image content relevant to each clip. Visually, the timeline illustrates snapshots of Susan’s life — her garden, her home, visits to her GP and the hospital — to further depict a character that the learners can relate to and empathize with, all within a well-written scenario. The e-learning modules and “Susan” provide the learner with a unique opportunity to understand the disease, the product’s target indication, safety profile, drug administration and mechanism of action.

With respect to the mechanism of action, we took innovation one step further, using design thinking approaches, and delivered

The Learning Academy found that a learning path that blends innovation with delivery can offer a unique and optimal learning experience. the material via an immersive format using Unity 3D. This resulted in a virtual reality sequence that not only satisfied our e-learning requirements but was also easily adapted to serve the needs of future face-to-face learning and marketing/ communication events. Having this multioutput approach allowed us to memorably satisfy our foundational learning.

In keeping with this blended approach to learning, the e-learning modules were supplemented with a reference library that is a repository of literature, journal articles, competitor information, and internal training presentations. In addition, an interactive face-to-face global workshop was included as part of the learning path

strategy, as it will continue to deepen the knowledge gained from the virtual patient and the e-learning modules. In fact, there are plans for our virtual patient, Susan, to make a special “real” appearance at the event as part of simulated activity-based learning events to achieve higher learning.

As you can see, the concept of the learning path can be innovatively delivered to increase organizational knowledge and level of expertise. Through the measured use of e-learning, the foundational knowledge so important to start a robust product education journey is set. Each step beyond, particularly the face-to-face event, meets the challenge to achieve higher-level learning, which in turn should result in a higher competence level for our employees.

WHAT DOES THE FUTURE HOLD? For us in life sciences and health care, patient-centricity is key. Patients have always been our focus, but we feel now more than ever that positioning product training firmly around the story of a patient, you achieve a high-impact, more meaningful learning experience.

A key take-home is that regardless of your line of business, look back for your most obvious solution and try not to overengineer your learning interventions.

Once you’ve found your “virtual patient” equivalent, focus on telling a good narrative. Get the story right, and the rest will fall into place.

—The authors all work in The Learning Academy at Bayer HealthCare.

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jumphead

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Sales Enablement:

Driving Sales Performance via the Newest Technology MOBILE, E-LEARNING AND COLLABORATIVE LEARNING ARE FUELING PERFORMANCE.

BY JERRY ROCHE With the availability of cellphones, tablets and new 4G technology, corporate sales training has become “mobile” in the truest sense of the word. And training has kept pace with technology, thanks to forwardlooking chief learning officers and software vendors.

“In today’s super-competitive environment, organizations need their sales teams to be consistently operating at peak levels,” observes Russ Howard, director of Product Marketing at Skillsoft. “Effective selling strategies must be honed and practiced regularly to stay ahead of the competition. Salespeople in particular are under constant pressure to deliver and are always looking for tools and information that will give them a competitive advantage. They also feel strapped for time, so they want knowledge they can apply on the job immediately.”

Technology has forged what Rich Nazzaro of CloudComputing International (CCI) calls a “seismic shift” in sales training that encompasses social media, mobile devices and online communities.

“With these new ways of learning and communicating, companies are leaving behind the standard corporate learning model: instructor-led classrooms using static webinars and mechanistic e-learning modules. They’re joining a digital learning revolution that can create new efficiencies for development programs and drive learning sustainability to unprecedented levels.”

THE BIG PICTURE However, just because the technology is available doesn’t mean that the traditional

With these new ways of learning and communicating, companies are leaving behind the standard corporate learning model.

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salesenablement sales training noted by Nazzaro is being left in the dust. Take, for instance, individual coaching.

“Sales coaching is not about you looking like the world’s most successful manager and leader,” says Rosalie Pope of the Richardson Group. “It’s about you sharing and transferring your knowledge

digital tools and strategies, content can now be customized and delivered in a way that aligns with the unique learning style, skills gaps and schedules of each team member,” notes CCI’s Nazzaro.

“The big question is, how do you most efficiently migrate your best practices from your top sales people down to the rookies?”

‘What’s next in the evolution of learning is personalized, predictive and connected.’

—Rich Nazzaro, vice president, CloudCoaching International

and experience to people who don’t have it, collaborating with them in a nonjudgmental way — in a safe space — about what they want to work on. It’s an easy process, especially if you lay out what you’re doing up front. Making the process transparent shows that there’s no hidden agenda, no secret.”

There’s also a time and place for traditional sales training, most specifically classroom instruction that is based on a presenter (usually the sales leader or a qualified guest) and PowerPoints. Even role-playing still has a place. But getting the entire sales staff in one place at one time is proving more and more difficult as the world becomes more and more competitive.

It’s a fact of life that many supervisors and managers are good coaches, but they might not be not trainers.

So social networks, e-learning and collaborative learning (inside or outside of classrooms) can provide a firm base.

Then, the sales manager can put the generic material in context.

Enter video and mobile training…

MAKING IT EASY For the first time, training on a corporate scale can be tailored to meet the needs of the individual learner. “Using a variety of 26

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asks Ryan Eudy of ej4. “We don’t see sales people taking longer courses, because they don’t have the time.

“Classroom training is great, but much of the fundamental knowledge can be relayed through online learning. Custom e-learning can be derived from that base.

The theory is to give people fundamental tactics that they can learn one week at a

time in bite-sized increments, then follow it up with a certain amount of curriculum depending on ramp-up time.”

Chip Ramsey of Intellum says that access is all-important. “It all comes down to how sales people access the knowledge they need to sell their product or service,” he says. “From our perspective, it’s not the sales tool itself, it’s the training. When you have people who are tech-savvy and bright, who are moving at a fast pace, having bite-sized training increments is important.”

What learning professionals and, subsequently, vendors have learned is that today’s generation of sales people demand short, tactical and quickly applied lessons, because they are easily distracted by other demands of their job.

So lessons have to be engaging. They have to be fun. They have to provide a means for learning quickly, either by accessing the lessons on their own or during a sales meeting.

ENTER MOBILE Mobile is important — and not only because instructional design today is made with mobile training in mind.

“There’s been a huge increase in mobile learning, especially among sales people,” Eudy says. “That type of mobile learning doesn’t have to be just showing

‘When you have people who are techsavvy and bright, who are moving at a fast pace, having bite-sized training increments is important.’

– Chip Ramsey, CEO, Intellum

customers actual products with their benefits; it can also provide a consistent message across the organization and thereby unify sales forces.”

More advanced sales people employ programs and apps that are responsive to screen size and are HTML5-based but scrollable (as opposed to flipping through slides).

Intellum’s Ramsey, like most of his competitors, promotes training vignettes that do not exceed about 10 minutes.

“We’re seeing mobile in two ways,” he says. “One style is the more formal, justin-time archived approach, where sales people go through training whenever and wherever they want, whether it’s sitting in a train or in car. The informal type of training is like a social network, a private social tool where everybody’s posting.

“Another tool is like a private YouTube, and many companies have a whole group that’s devoted to producing videos to help the culture and conversation within the organization. All are consumerlike experiences employed in a private, secure manner, geared toward corporate communication. Mobile is a huge part of that.”

WHAT’S NEXT? “Things are still changing quickly,” says CCI’s Nazzaro. “What’s next in the

evolution of learning is personalized, predictive and connected.”

By personal, he means customized to the individual sales person. By predictive, he means using history to predict how any person will consume new information and what new information he or she will need. And by connected, he means that sales people will be connected

for specific coaching and direction. They not only gain confidence with a new skill, but they also get real work done in the real world.

“For generations, corporate learning systems have been content-based,” Nazzaro notes. “The focus of the training has been to push out packets of information to be consumed by users in a one-size-fits-all process. But to be effective today, we must tailor the delivery and focus of content to match the needs of the user, [then] develop algorithms that will recommend specific learning experiences based on the real task-execution conditions of each individual.”

The final step is embedding those learning experiences inside systems that can be (and are) accessed by users on a regular basis.

Meanwhile, Intellum’s Ramsey sees more user-generated content making an impact on sales training in the near future.

“I’m hoping that user-generated videos and user-curated facts and knowledge from anywhere on the Web will become more important,” Ramsey says.

None of the changes coming in the near future are likely to be entirely smooth — but so far, corporate training and learning officers have been up to the challenge.

It was just 40 years ago that employees

‘Classroom training is great, but much of the fundamental knowledge can be relayed through online learning.’

—Ryan Eudy, CEO, ej4

with each other, with sales managers, and with other resources by way of their learning system.

Nazzaro says that digital learning platforms can now be embedded into everyday functions. When users encounter a challenge or a gap, they can access the learning platform in real time

converted from electric typewriters to the first generation of desktop computers, and from file cabinets to servers and complex database systems. Even though technology innovation is proceeding at a breakneck pace, corporate sales staffs — much to their credit — have proven highly adaptable to whatever is provided for them.

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Sexiest The

Job of the 21st Century

IT’S CALLED ‘DATA SCIENTIST,’ AND IT’S IN HIGH DEMAND THROUGHOUT CORPORATE AMERICA.

BY JERRY ROCHE This year, the demand for data and analytics resources will reach 4.4 million jobs globally, but only one-third of those jobs will be filled, according to researchers at Gartner. The emerging role of data scientist is meant to fill that skills gap.

And the reason for this explosion in what Harvard Business Review terms “data scientists”? Big Data — a concept and an approach to business management that most large corporations are now embracing.

One of the nation’s largest companies, IBM, believes that “new skills are needed to fully harness the power of Big Data.

Though courses are being offered to prepare a new generation of Big Data experts, it will take some time to get them into the workforce. Meanwhile, leading organizations are developing new roles, focusing on key challenges and creating new business models to gain the most from big data.”

A MOUNTAIN OF DATA In this day and age — when most corporate functions depend on the technology of the Internet and/or the Cloud for easy but secure access anytime, anywhere — data collection is no problem. Consider these statistics: >> Twitter generates 1,000 “tweets” per minute; >> Google handles 700,000 searches every hour; >> Facebook features 700,000 status up-

dates per hour;

>> YouTube handles 600 new video uploads every minute;

>> And email messages fly through the

technosphere at the rate of 168 million per second.

Big Data is being generated by everything around us at all times. Every digital process and social media exchange produces it. Systems, sensors and mobile devices transmit it. Big Data is arriving from multiple sources at an alarming velocity, volume and variety.

Early adopters of Big Data analytics gained a significant lead over the rest of the corporate world.

“We now live in an age of Big Data,” says Cynthia M. Wong, a senior researcher for Internet and Human Rights. “Our communications and activities routinely leave rich digital traces that can be collected, analyzed and stored at low cost. In parallel, commercial imperatives drive a range of companies to amass vast stores of information about our social networks, health,

finances and shopping habits. The plummeting cost of storage and computing means that such data can be retained for longer and mined for future, unforeseen purposes.”

Know, data collection is no problem but data management is. What do you with mountains of data available to your learning organization? How do you sift through it? How do you determine what is relevant to learning? How do you incorporate it into a overall learning plan and, subsequently, into individual learning initiatives?

Those are daunting questions, even for the most astute and technologically oriented learning professional. To extract meaningful value from Big Data, you need optimal processing power, analytics capabilities and skills.

RISKS VS. BENEFITS When mountains of proprietary data are being stored, security is always a question.

Because corporate investments are put on the line when the decision is made to integrate Big Data into a corporate philosophy, the first question that C-level executives might ask is, “Is building an advanced analytics capability really worth it?” Until now, the answer to that question has not been resolved.

But a recent Bain & Co. study found that early adopters of Big Data analytics gained a significant lead over the rest of the corporate world. Examining more than 400 large companies, Bain found that “those with the most advanced analytics capabilities are outperforming competitors by wide margins.”

Early adopters are:

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sexiestjob

‘Organizations should already be tapping into social media streams. If you’re not listening, then you won’t be leading.’

—Douglas Laney, Gartner

>> 2x as likely to be in the top quartile of

financial performance within their industries; >> 5x as likely to make decisions much faster than market peers; >> 3x as likely to execute decisions as intended; and >> 2x as likely to use data very frequently when making decisions.

BIG DATA AND LEARNING The first thing that managers of corporate learning programs must realize is that you are not in this quest alone. You, your business leaders and your information technology (I.T.) leaders must join forces to realize the value of the data at hand. And it won’t hurt to have one of those sexy “data scientists” on loan from the business side.

“Learning adds veracity and value to Big Data,” says Eric Bruner, chief technologist at GP Strategies Corp. “Learning data can include the time of day during which it is referenced, the format/device from which it is consumed, where it’s being consumed, what kind of ratings the different lessons are receiving, how long it’s on the user’s screen, and how many starts and stops the user is making to consume it. It can tell you what your learners like and dislike.”

Where do you find existing Big Data?

According to Douglas Laney of Gartner, unused sources of Big Data can be found beneath your feet in the form of operational data you collect during the normal course of business. You can start with data that your learning management system (LMS) already spits out.

“Increasingly,” Laney says, “organizations are looking to extend this data with additional sensors or instrumentation.

Many organizations are also finding value in the intersection of operational data with externally available data. This external data comes from a growing cadre of syndicated 30

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data providers and public data, made available by government open-data policies and initiatives by many Western countries over the past few years.”

Of course, Laney adds, organizations should already be tapping into social media streams. “If you’re not listening, then you won’t be leading,” he notes.

Meanwhile, Bruner contends that good learning data: is relevant to the user;

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comes in smaller chunks; is simple; is always available (just-in-time);

is flexible;

fits in the work stream; and

provides a means of interaction.

Furthermore, IBM believes that “insights from Big Data can enable all employees to make better decisions, deepen customer engagement, optimize operations, prevent threats and fraud, and capitalize on new sources of revenue. But escalating demands require a fundamentally new approach to architecture, tools and practices.

Andy Price, CEO of Tamr, claims that data analysis must start with asking aspirational or transformational analytic questions. He contends that the process includes: >> Getting a broad and dynamic inventory of all your data, and embracing ambiguity and variety of enterprise data. >> Matching workload to appropriate engine and technology. >> Using distributed systems, which can radically lower your cost. “You need to build an enterprise infrastructure that is

as inexpensive, scalable and persistent as that of modern Web companies. Put tight spending limits on storage and systems infrastructure.” >> Expecting modern and dynamic visualization; that is, iterative versus reporting. >> Treating the Cloud as a first-order resource, not just an ancillary one. It can provide the world’s largest high-performance computing and persistence infrastructure through on-demand rental. >> Establishing better collaboration between development and operations teams. “DevOps is to the Cloud as systems management was to client/server computing.” >> Making sure that you have the appropriate tools to manage the data. >> Perhaps using JSON (JavaScript Object Notation), a lightweight data-interchange format, easy for humans to read and write, easy for machines to parse and generate. “Sources will proliferate; embrace them. They are the ultimate evolution of relational and object-oriented technologies coming together that provide a loose, flexible coupling between data access an applications.” >> Incorporating bottom-up data/metadata management like curation and integration that incorporates both internal and external data. “We need to get to the point [like Google] that we don’t care where data comes from,” Price says.

CONCLUSION Big Data’s most important corporate function is to increase the effectiveness of decision-making within the organization and, more specifically, within your learning/training department. It will help you determine the programs and initiatives that are best for your learners, how to proceed with their implementation, and how to adjust them over time.

“Big Data analytics is the application of analytic capabilities (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive) on enormous, varied or rapidly changing datasets,” concludes Gartner’s Neil Chandler. “The application of analytic capabilities combined with the increased scope, content and context of big data — particularly when merged with more traditionally structured datasets — has drastically increased the variety of use cases for decision support, and in some cases, decision automation.”

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Mobile Learning Strategies

Date: Tuesday, May 12th, 2015 Time: 10 AM PT/1 PM ET Speakers: Colin Forward, Sr. VP, Allogy, Jason Haag & Peter Berking, ADL Initiative Access to information is power! Today, 98% of your staff uses at least one mobile device at work. And, 79% want 24/7 access to the workplace.

Anytime mobile access to enterprise information has major implications for your organization. In this session, three experts at the forefront of the mobile enterprise and performance support share their insights. Colin Forward outlines the current and future mobile landscape, as well as strategies to expand your mobile capabilities. Peter Berking and Jason Haag, will share ADL’s mLearning design and performance support reference model. Discover how APIx and MoTIF can jumpstart your mLearning programs.

Register for free at: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/3281460932941777921

Seven Tips for Getting Your Team to Produce Awesome Video Content

Date: Thursday, July 16th, 2015 Time: 11:30 AM PT / 2:30 PM PT Speaker: Emma King, Vice President of Event & Learning Strategy, INXPO, Inc. While content has always been regarded as “king” keeping your audience engaged, goes beyond content. We’ll be honest with you, it’s all about the presenter, the tools at their disposal and how they use them. With video content on the rise as an education medium, you need to know how to keep peoples’ attention, drive interactivity and be engaging as a facilitator/speaker/trainer.

In this webcast you will learn how to: >> Take the television approach, create short, relevant series-focused programming. >> Learn how to mine on camera talent and content ideas from within your organization. >> Deliver a professional, engaging video broadcast no matter how big or small your resources may be.

Register for free at: https://presentations.inxpo.com/Shows/ELearning/Microsite/agenda.htm

Now Available On-Demand! CLO Executive Forum

Speakers: Dr. Williams van Rooij, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Division of Learning Technologies, & Roy Hinton, Associate Dean of Executive Education at the School of Business, George Mason University Are you ready for the C-suite?

Watch this session on-demand and discover the business and learning leadership skills you need to be a successful Chief HR, Talent or Learning Officer.

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Upskilling America:

Talent Makes a Difference

BUSINESS LEADERS AND A NEW TALENT REPORT CONVERGE AT WHITE HOUSE-SPONSORED EVENT

There can no longer be any doubt that the rapid pace of innovation is:

>> changing the recruiting strategies of large companies;

>> changing their efforts to recruit

line for employers, career progression and pay growth for employees, and economic growth for the nation and the world,” says Steven Rath Morgan, of Xerox Corporate Human Resources. “As noted by Vice President Biden and numerous summit participants, barriers to learning not only include access (cost), but also awareness of opportunities and individual employee commitment to leverage the resources available.”

Millennials; and

>> changing how they try to keep Baby

Boomers productive as they near retirement.

The HR Policy Foundation’s “Talent Sustainability Report: The Chief Human Resource Officer (CHRO) View From the Front Lines of the War on Talent” was released in late April during the White House Upskill Summit, an event aimed at highlighting the strategies that companies are using to develop the skills of their employees. The event convened 150 employers, labor leaders, foundations, non-profits, educators and tech innovators from across America who are answering the President’s call to action and equipping workers of all ages with the skills they need to advance into better-paying jobs.

“There are numerous benefits of training and learning, including attracting and retaining talent and building a talent pipe-

69%

of CHROs report that innovation and transformation are happening faster than normal.

HUMAN RESOURCE TRENDS Key findings from the Talent Sustainability Report include: >> Nearly 7 in 10 (69 percent) CHROs report that innovation and transformation are happening faster than normal with 28 percent saying the pace is the fastest they have ever experienced. >> I.T. Professionals and engineers are the most competitive positions for which companies recruit. >> Eighty-two percent of companies have a core recruiting strategy to actively recruit passive mid-career talent away from other companies. >> More than two-thirds of employers report their Millennial workforce as being above average (59 percent) or exceptional (8 percent). >> Challenges Millennials present in the workplace include: their desire to change employers more frequently and — at least from a traditional perspective — often unrealistic expectations about career progression. >> Eighty-five percent of companies report they have made changes to company policies and programs to be more appealing to Millennials. >> Employers report Millennials are all too often lacking some foundational or

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CHROsummit soft skills, including: communications (40 percent); professionalism/work ethic (33 percent); leadership (29 percent); self-direction (22 percent); and/ or critical thinking/problem solving (20 percent). >> Nearly one in four employers report between 26 and 50 percent of their workforce will be eligible to retire in the next five years. Another 48 percent of employers report between 11 and 25 percent of their workers will be eligible. Three percent of employers report more than 50 percent will be eligible for retirement within five years. >> Companies report that Baby Boomer employees are making tremendous contributions in the workplace, citing their deep knowledge, expertise and work ethic as key attributes that are critical to the success of their companies. >> Companies are trying a number of innovative practices to help transfer knowledge from Baby Boomers to younger workers including: creating generation meetings for information exchanges, hosting more company events between younger and older employees, using older workers as faculty in leadership development programs, establishing more mentoring relationships, and apprenticeship programs.

85%

of companies have made changes to company policies and programs to be more appealing to millenials.

IMPLICATIONS OF HR POLICIES The Report is the culmination of a oneyear project conducted by the HR Policy Foundation, under the leadership of Mara Swan, executive vice president of Global Strategy and Talent at ManpowerGroup.

The Foundation met with and listened to CHROs of large companies to learn more about what is happening behind the scenes at major corporations and then surveyed

‘It has never been more crucial for companies to align their talent strategy with their business strategy.’

—Jaime S. Fall, Vice President, HR Policy Foundation’s Talent Sustainability Initiative

>> Although Baby Boomers are making

great contributions to the workplace, they are presenting some challenges as well, as they near retirement. Those challenges include: effectively managing younger workers; keeping up with technological change (and embracing change in general); lack of social media skills; and becoming “blockers” to those beneath them in the organization.

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them in September and October of 2014.

More than 100 large companies responded to the survey and answered questions about what they are doing as they struggle to attract, train and retain the talent that will help them stay competitive in the global economy.

In addition, the graphics-based report looks at the future implications of today’s talent attraction and management practices for students, jobseekers, educa-

tors, employers and policy makers as the country struggles to equip workers with the skills they need to drive growth in companies.

Swan, who is also chairperson of HR Policy Foundation’s Talent Sustainability Initiative, says: ‘We are pleased to be a part of the President’s efforts to shine a spotlight on what businesses are doing to upskill their workforce and we are delighted to rollout the Talent Sustainability Report at this important event.

The report underscores a number of the recommendations we make to our clients on a daily basis, including the importance of optimizing workforces by creating a culture of life-long learning, and harnessing technological advances and disruptive innovations for the better. Significantly, 69 percent of CHROs surveyed reported that they feel innovation and transformation is happening at a faster rate than normal with 28 percent saying the current pace is the fastest they have ever experienced.”

Jaime S. Fall, vice president of Workforce and Talent Sustainability at the foundation, adds: “While skill life cycles are shortening and competitive advantage is increasingly transient, it has never been more crucial for companies to align their talent strategy with their business strategy. This report includes eye-opening future implications from CHROs and survey data that we hope will be used to encourage frank discussions about how employers, educators and policymakers can work together to develop the skills of future and current workers who are prepared for success in the workplace.”

The White House will announce new commitments being made by public and private partners in response to a call to action launched by the President in January “to help workers of all ages earn a shot at better, higher-paying jobs, even if they don’t have a higher education.”

The HR Policy Foundation is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to getting America educated, qualified and hired, and is a supporting organization of the HR Policy Association, the lead organization representing chief human resource officers of major employers, which consists of more than 360 of the largest corporations doing business in the United States and globally.

—Read the Talent Sustainability Report: www.hrpolicyfoundation.org

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TipsManagement

‘Conscious Capitalism’: Evolution of the Modern Workplace In today’s volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) world, employees are looking for organizations that honor people, planet and profits, and leaders are looking for organizational frameworks that increase engagement, productivity and performance. The place where these groups intersect is evolving as a new landscape for how businesses of the future may operate and succeed. In this conversation, Michelle Maldonado reveals the fundamental principles of “Conscious Capitalism.” She is a former corporate attorney with 20 years of leadership experience in strategic planning, operations and partnership development across the Internet/technology, e-learning and online media

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industries. She now serves as associate vice president of Corporate and Strategic Relationships for American Public University System (APUS). The creator and managing editor of The Inspire Leadership Series is also co-founder and chairperson of the Northern Virginia Conscious Business Alliance.

Q:

WHAT IS CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM? Maldonado: John Mackey, co-founder and co-CEO of Whole Foods Market, nicely captures the essence and framework of Conscious Capitalism by describing it as “a more complex form of capitalism that reflects and leverages the interdependent nature of life and all of the stakeholders in a business.”

Q:

WHAT ARE THE FOUR PRINCIPLES OF CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM, AND HOW ARE SOME HIGH-PERFORMING ORGANIZATIONS PUTTING THEM INTO PRACTICE? Maldonado: The four key principles of Conscious Capitalism present a guiding framework for operating a healthy and sustainably successful organization.

Today, numerous organizations are embracing Conscious Capitalism in some form – many of which we are familiar with. I’ll share some of these with each of the principles below.

1) Higher Purpose - ensures that your business reason goes beyond the singular purpose of profit. Ed Freeman, University of Virginia professor and originator of the Stakeholder Management Theory, offers this helpful analogy: “We need red blood cells to live (the same way a business needs profits to live), but the purpose of life is more than to make red blood cells (the same way the purpose of business is more than simply to generate profits).” So, within the context of Conscious Capitalism, conscious businesses operate both for purpose and for profit.

For examples of organizations that do this well, we can look to several industries, such as retail, high-tech, Internet, and biotech, including companies like Google and Genentech. There are also companies

in traditional blue-collar sectors, like manufacturing, that successfully embody this first principle, including BarryWehmiller (a global supplier of manufacturing technology) and Pantheon Enterprises (a green manufacturer of industrial chemicals) whose mission is to transform the industrial chemical industry by removing toxic chemicals from the environment. Pantheon Enterprises is known for its tagline “Conscious Chemistry.”

2) Stakeholder Orientation - In contrast to organizations that operate solely to maximize a return on investment for their shareholders, conscious businesses focus on their whole business ecosystem. They create value for all of their stakeholders, understanding that engaged stakeholders lead to a sustainable business.

To help understand the interconnectedness of an organization’s stakeholder community, Rajendra Sisodia, co-author of the books “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” and “Firms of Endearment: How WorldClass Companies Profit from Passion and Purpose (Second Edition),” explains its composition of stakeholders using the acronym, S.P.I.C.E., which stands for: Society, Partners, Investors, Customers, Employees.

Businesses that align the interests of all stakeholder communities recognize that, without employees, customers, suppliers, investors, communities and a life-sustaining ecosystem, there is no business. This framework offers a “win-win-win” proposition where the natural outcome is a healthy return to shareholders.

Organizations that are known for stellar stakeholder alignment include The Container Store, Costco and Whole Foods Market.

3) Conscious Leadership - Conscious Capitalism, Inc. describes Conscious Leaders as people who “understand that their role is to serve the purpose of the organization, to support the people within the organization, and to create value for the all of the organization’s stakeholders. They recognize the integral role of culture and purposefully cultivate a Conscious Culture of trust and care.”

Conscious Leaders are inspired within and are also able to motivate and influence others in a way that creates value and, ultimately, profit. In a recent whitepaper titled The Future of Leadership for Conscious Capitalism, Dr. Barrett Brown keenly observes that “there are already leaders who have achieved a level of development beyond the glass ceiling. Approximately five percent of leaders in the West operate with the mental and emotional capacity needed to manage complex, systemic change and reliably generate organizational transformation. They are at the leading edge of human development and represent the future of leadership....”

Brown further acknowledges that Conscious Leaders understand that today’s leadership development depends upon a combination of vertical and horizontal learning.

Vertical learning includes mindsets based on deep connection, courageous action, vision, outlook and self-transformation. In contrast, horizontal learning is based on developing competencies and functional expertise. Both are necessary.

Several modern-day examples of Conscious Leaders are Meg Whitman (CEO of Hewlett-Packard), Tom Gardner (CEO of The Motley Fool), Tip Kindell (CEO of The Container Store), AnneMarie Slaughter (CEO, New America Foundation) and Jeff Weiner (CEO of LinkedIn).

4) Conscious Culture - To reference Rajendra Sisodia’s work once again, we are provided another helpful acronym to describe the fourth principle: Conscious Cultures.

These are organizational cultures that possess the following T.A.C.T.I.L.E. characteristics: Trust, Authenticity, Caring, Transparency, Integrity, Learning, Empowerment.

Conscious Capitalism, Inc. describes this kind of culture as one that “fosters love and care and builds trust between a company’s team members and its stakeholders.” When done correctly, the culture becomes the force that unifies the leaders’ and stakeholders’ communities as the living representation of the

organization’s higher purpose. Sample organizations include Zappos, Southwest Airlines, Luck Companies and Trader Joe’s.

Q:

CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW THE PRINCIPLES OF CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM BUILD UPON ONE ANOTHER? Maldonado: Yes, we must first start with a Higher Purpose so that everyone is aligned with the same “why.”

This helps inform how organizations will move forward with everything from strategy development and execution, hiring, training and development of its people, and treatment of stakeholders— which, ultimately, create the elements of a strong culture foundation.

Next, leaders need to set the tone, model the behavior, and “walk-the-talk” for how the organization not only competes, but thrives, in dynamic workplaces. It is in this way that Conscious Leaders further the “why” or Higher Purpose.

After all, organizations are nothing more than communities of people striving toward a common goal or purpose.

These leaders also hold the key to Stakeholder Orientation and set the bar high as to how their stakeholders will be viewed, treated, integrated and valued as part of the business.

Once Higher Purpose, Conscious Leadership and Stakeholder Orientation principles are embraced and woven into the fabric of people performance, behavior and organizational operations, the natural outcome is the fourth and final principle, a Conscious Culture.

Q:

DOES CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM REALLY MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO A COMPANY’S BOTTOM-LINE? Maldonado: In the book “Firms of Endearment,” several publicly traded companies were studied that embody these qualities. When the companies were compared over a 15-year period, a majority of them out-performed the S&P 500 Index, in terms of annual and cumulative returns (earnings per share), by a factor of 10.5. So, I would say that, yes, it has a positive impact on the bottom line.

Q:

WHAT RESOURCES DO YOU RECOMMEND TO OUR READERS TO LEARN MORE ABOUT CONSCIOUS CAPITALISM? Maldonado: Here are a few: Organization: Conscious Capitalism, Inc. www.consciouscapitalism.org Whitepaper: The Future of Leadership for Conscious Capitalism by Barrett C. Brown, Ph.D., Metaintegral Associates.

Books: “Conscious Capitalism: Liberating the Heroic Spirit of Business” by John Mackey and Rajendra Sisodia; “Firms of Endearment: How World-Class Companies Profit from Purpose and Passion” by Rajendra Sisodia, John Wolfe and Jagdeth Seth; “Uncontainable: How Passion, Commitment and Conscious Capitalism Built a Business Where Everyone Thrives“ by Tip Kindell and Casey Shilling; “Working For Good: Making a Difference While Making a Living” by Jeff Klein.

—More info: www.StudyAt APU.com/Solutions

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MAGA ZINE advertising WORKS CCIKnowledgeNow_FP_0215.indd 23

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•

Magazines rank #1 out of 16 media in terms of giving readers a positive impression of advertising.

•

The degree to which readers recall ads in magazines has increased by 6 percent in the last five years.

•

The number of readers who took action after viewing a specific ad has increased by 10 percent in the last five years.

•

Fifty-six percent of readers took action as a result of viewing a magazine ad.

*Sources: Yankelovich; Affinity’s VISTA Print Effectiveness Rating Service (2 and 3); VISTA Norms and Starch Adnorms

Magazines create relationships, which in turn increase sales. Shouldn’t you be part of this equation?

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TipsT&D

Training & Development:

One of the Best Investments Your Company Will Make

BY JAKE WHITE Almost every industry is facing — or will soon face — a blend of human capital challenges: attracting skilled talent to their industry, retaining and engaging top performers, and ensuring that their people have the skills required to make the business successful. We will also face challenges in preparing the next generation of leaders to take on new responsibilities. In order to address these challenges, businesses need to make employee training and

development top priorities.

An investment in training and development has an impressive ROI. The Construction Industry Institute found a return of $1.30 to $3 for every dollar spent on craft training; the U.S. Department of Labor found that ongoing training raises productivity by 16 percent; and Caterpillar University saves an average of $87 per person for every e-learning course taken.

These returns are much higher when we consider training as an employee retention tool. Losing talent is very expensive, with the

cost of replacement and training as high as 2.5 times a departed worker’s salary. “Learning and development opportunities” is consistently listed among the top reasons high performers stay with their companies.

Implementing a learning and development infrastructure — including resources, technology and processes — also empowers your organization to quickly implement change initiatives.

Your ability to respond to the market and adapt quickly is the essence of competitive advantage. When you need to roll

out new procedures, strategies, technology or respond to new regulations, it is crucial to be able to disseminate necessary training to employees to ensure that the change sticks.

To attract and retain top talent, reduce risk, and drive greater results, businesses need to make employee training and development priorities. Our businesses will benefit, and industries will be better prepared for future challenges.

—The author is a CPLP and is the CEO of Torch LMS.

TORCH LMS ENTERPRISE Engineered for Business Designed by Workplace Learning Professionals

Torch LMS is an award-winning learning management system that is usefully powerful and refreshingly intuitive.

View our demo at torchlms.com/upgrade.

2014

2014

Elearning! June / July 2015

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EventNews

Engaging the Learner Chief learning officers, vice presidents, directors and senior managers of learning and development from Fortune 500 companies are meeting in Chicago for the Next Generation Corporate E-learning “Engage The Learner� Congress.

Taking place on June 22-23, this is the only vendor-neutral forum led by heads of learning and development where speakers will share first-hand experiences benchmarking the cost benefits of current e-learning solutions on the market.

Participants will explore how to maximize the functionality, practicality and costs of mobile, social, gamification, on-demand performance support and blended solutions to measurably improve workforce engagement and drive business performance.

Speakers will address how to apply gamification strategies and mobile

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June / July 2015 Elearning!

Participants will explore how to maximize mobile, social, serious games and blended solutions. learning tools to increase Millennial and multi-generational workforce engagement in enterprise e-learning programs and maximize learning and development budget ROI. They will also

share valuable insights on how to develop a comprehensive social learning strategy and optimize video, on-demand, live remote and blended solutions to enhance performance support.

Case studies specific to heads of learning and development will be unveiled on: >> Gamification >> Mobile learning >> Social learning >> Engaging millennials >> Video learning >> On-demand learning >> Performance support >> Live remote learning >> Blended learning What’s more, participants will have the opportunity to view live demonstrations of cutting-edge solutions, providing a comprehensive learning experience.

Mark Your Calendar 06.08-06.10.15 | 07.16.15 | 11.04.15 | 01.14.16 Learn More at:www.2elearning.com/events > Discover the $220 Billion Learning & Workplace Technology Market

> Convene with up to 3,000 Learning, HR and Talent Executive Leaders

> Learn from Thought-leaders, Analysts and Technologists Online & Onsite

> Network with Executives from the Learning! 100 & Best of Elearning!

> Build Your Personal Brand with Certificated Credentials via Elearning! Institute

Learn More at: www.2elearning.com/events

06.08-06.10.15 07.16.14 Enterprise Learning!

ELC Online Conference Manassas, VA • Learning! 100 • Best of Elearning!

• Solutions Roundtable

Hosted by:

7 AM – 2 PM PT • Building Smarter Companies • Learning! 100 • Learning Tech Trends

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7 AM – 2 PM PT • Virtual Learning Edge • Best Practices • Learning! 100 • Solutions Demos

Partners:

Enterprise Learning! Events are property of B2B Media Company LLC www.2elearning.com/events 888-201-2841

01.14.16 Enterprise Learning! Summit 7 AM – 2 PM PT • Best of Elearning!

• Learning! 100 • Solutions Roundtable

NewProducts: LMS/TMS LEARNING CLOUD PROVIDES CONSUMER-LIKE LEARNING The new Oracle Learning Cloud helps companies provide employees with a consumer-like experience to retain and develop the talent they need to be successful. Oracle Learning Cloud can be integrated with its more conventional LMS to create a comprehensive learning environment that supports formal training for regulated learning requirements.

Employees of all levels at Oracle will be able to use smartphones and tablets to view usergenerated video content, with product demos visible for sales people, and servicing staff will see maintenance and repair videos. Employees can also create their own videos, with the most useful content being integrated into specific learning modules.

Oracle will also continue to offer the more traditional learning management systems and other training systems.

—More info: www.oracle.com/Cloud NEW CYBERSECURITY TRAINING SOLUTION Cybrary, a no-cost I.T. and cybersecurity MOOC, is launching an enterprise learning management system to help organizations provide and manage cybersecurity courses and training programs for their employees.

With Cybrary’s enterprise learning management system, company cybersecurity training initiatives can be customized by job roles within the organization. Managers can easily track the completion of classes by user, and receive reports and notifications on how employees are progressing on learning objectives. Cybrary courses are available for organizations that require different security training for industry compliances such as CAP, FISMA, ISO, DIARMF, Health care IT, SOX, CSCMC, SCADA, FITSI, HIPAA, and more.

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—More info: www.cybrary.it/ or https:// www.cybrary.it/enterprise-training-solutions/ LATEST VERSION OFFERS MORE LMS MODULARITY The new version of the Docebo LMS had incorporated useful refinements, including an enhanced multi-domain app, which manages multiple clients with unique domains from a single learning management system (LMS). This improves the user experience as well as providing automatic setup for domain configuration and http(s) addresses for the various domains.

This makes the Docebo LMS a multidomain, multi-branding, multi-layout solution, enabling customers to establish a different brand and layout for each domain within a single LMS, while focusing on different training targets.

Another big improvement involves the expansion of the LMS’s popular widgets feature, now allowing the first page that users see after logging in to be a configurable user dashboard created by the LMS’s administrator.

—More info: https://www.docebo.com/ elearning-platform-saas-lms/ MAKING YOUR WORKFORCE SMARTER, IMPASSIONED IBM-Kenaxa’s Smarter Workforce helps

organizations build an impassioned and engaged workforce to drive deeper client relationships and deliver better business outcomes. Smarter Workforce combines talent management and social collaboration solutions with the power of workforce science and cognitive analytics capabilities, to help organizations: >> attract, engage and grow the best talent by using analytics and workforce science to predict the “best fit” for highvalue roles and help your people do meaningful work; >> create an engaging, social and collaborative culture built on trust, transparency and responsiveness, informed by analytics and grounded in a common vision of success; and >> connect employees, customers and partners, to enable a collaborative work experience that is in-context, powered by analytics and delivered anytime, anywhere.

—More info: www-01.ibm.com/software/ smarterworkforce/ ROBUST SOLUTION IS PERFECT FOR LEARNING Infor Learning Management is a robust end-to-end solution for creating, delivering and reporting on learning throughout your internal and extended organization. It accelerates the rate at which you can help employees achieve their full potential by improving productivity, enhancing compliance, and contributing directly to the success of your enterprise.

Offering global deployment on all mobile platforms, Infor Learning Management is suited for every organization that desires to capture, convey and expand its workforce’s knowledge: >> Advanced certification and compliance >> Ad hoc reporting >> Social collaboration and community learning features >> Learning content management and creation >> Classroom, virtual, online, and mobile access support >> Available in more than 35 languages —More info: www.infor.com/product_ summary/hcm/learning-management/

NewProducts: Tools Genie allows content creators to collaborate on projects in real time, allowing for impressive project management, and gamification features like points, badges and achievements motivate creators to move projects forward and hit deadlines.

—More info: www.growthengineering. co.uk/genie-content-authoring-tool/

SABA ADDS PRE-FIGURED CLOUD INTEGRATIONS Saba is adding pre-configured integrations to three of the human resources industry’s most popular Cloud solutions.

Adobe Document Cloud combines the power of Acrobat and eSign services (formerly known as Adobe EchoSign), enabling users to securely edit, send, sign and track business documents from anywhere on any device.

In addition to HireRight’s background check services, Saba now integrates with HireRight’s electronic Form I-9 services, enabling the screening and employment verification process to be managed from within Saba Cloud.

Through Saba Marketplace, Saba customers will have access to PAN’s vast array of general business and industry-specific assessments, which can then be surfaced throughout Saba’s talent applications.

—More info: www.saba.com/us/technology/marketplace/ COMPREHENSIVE RANGE OF VIDEO PRODUCTION SERVICES Sage Media’s comprehensive range of video production services are ideally suited for human resource departments, proprietary training organizations, e-learning developers, facilitators and recruiters.

Sage Media heavily emphasizes the presentation of engaging stories and depicting realistic scenarios in believable training environments. Using a consultative approach, the company assists clients in identifying core development opportunities and works to develop strong characters, storylines and environments that will best convey the lessons through the use of engaging and entertaining video. The complete offering of Sage Media’s services includes story design, full-scale video production, multimedia integration, and distribution of specialized content for Web, TV, theatrical and alternative media platforms.

—More info: www.sage.media

DELIVERING ENGAGING VIDEO EXPERIENCES GuideSpark’s communication platform — tailor-made for today’s busy employees — delivers an engaging video experience that transforms employee learning and communication. Focused on deepening the connection with employees, the GuideSpark solution is cost-effective and time-efficient, delivering on-demand, customized content that simplifies complex topics and enables engagement with employees when it is convenient for them.

GuideSpark transforms employee communications from traditional methods such as emails, brochures and seminars to an engaging video experience. It simplifies important human resources topics like benefits, health-care reform and compensation programs, to make them accessible anywhere and anytime via customized videos.

Content is updated on an ongoing basis with a subscription model, ensuring the information you provide your employees is always the latest and greatest.

—More info: www.guidespark.com/solutions/

CLOUD-BASED AUTHORING TOOL MAKES LEARNING FUN Growth Engineering’s new Cloud-based authoring tool, Genie, has been developed to create game-based e-learning that is engaging for learners, but which also makes the process of creating e-learning fun for developers, too.

Having recognized the importance of gamification and social features to engage learners on its Academy learning management system, Growth Engineering decided to add the same gamification and social functionality to its authoring tool, with engaging results.

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NewProducts: Content SIXTH GENERATION NOW ENHANCES E-LEARNING Six generations of active development in mobile have resulted in hundreds of additional features being added to the CellCast Solution platform by OnPoint Digital. The new features enhance the learning experience and enable new and innovative ways to apply its solutions to solve real-world problems.

A selection of the highly differentiated features available in CellCast includes: >> Content features >> Support for wide variety of content formats >> Content categorization and metatags >> Detailed reporting of all access events (who, when, what, frequency) >> Full notification and messaging engine (email, SMS, in-app/push) >> Full SCORM tracking (version 1.2 and 2004 with interactions) >> Tin Can/xAPI support (online to LRS as well as offline collection) >> Required/optional assignments and learning paths —More info: http://onpointdigital.com/ technologies.php LEARNING HUB ALLOWS CUSTOMER CONTENT CREATION SAP has launched the user adoption edition of its learning offering: SAP Learning Hub. This new edition features customer learning content creation and sharing as well as in-application guidance to provide on-the-job enablement within the application, enabling organizations to train and enable their end users effectively.

SAP Learning Hub combines standard content from SAP with social learning elements and learning management system features. In the new user adoption edition, ready-made training materials from SAP are available for users and can be combined with the user’s own training content and documentation.

In addition, customers have the option to modify the materials through content services provided by SAP partners.

—More info: https://training.sap.com/ shop/learninghub 44

June / July 2015 Elearning!

NEW E-LEARNING GAME HAS THREE MODULES Certification Game’s first course, the Support Center Analyst course, will contain three modules: the actual content of the course, a game that will reinforce the content, and a practice quiz at the end to check for comprehension.

Certification Game, Inc. is an Austin, Texas-based company that is focused on building online training courses to prepare learners for professional certifications. The concept of the company is “Serious Learning, Not So Boring,” with a focus on building certification courses that will help the learner qualify for a new job, promotion, or a professional certification. Uniquely, Certification Game courses incorporate game mechanics in order to make learning more fun and engaging for the participant.

—More info: https://certificationgame. com

PERSONALIZED LEARNING: CUSTOMIZING CONTENT ej4′s custom e-learning development brings your voice to engaging and effective online learning. The company has more than 60 years of instructional design experience to creating custom content that speaks to your specific needs.

Creating your own custom content ensures that your team knows exactly what they should be doing and exactly how they should be doing it. ej4 can create custom e-learning modules that provide just the right information at just the right time. ej4’s custom e-learning brings your message and your brand to the learning experience. Your teams will relate to the content by communicating with familiar company language, look, and feel that they are already used to.

—More info: http://ej4.com/servicescustom-elearning

THE BEST CANDIDATE FOR THE JOB ISN’T ALWAYS THE TYPICAL CANDIDATE.

LEARN HOW TO FIND, TRAIN AND CULTIVATE A GREAT POOL OF UNTAPPED TALENT.

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NewProducts: Collaboration CISCO UNVEILS NEW ‘COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE’ Cisco Collaborative Knowledge, a softwareas-a-service (SaaS) solution, integrates best-in-class consumer and business technologies to enable capabilities such as highly secure knowledge sharing, expert identification, continuous learning, social networking and analytics into one complete and end-to-end enterprise knowledge exchange. With Cisco Collaborative Knowledge, workers are able to benefit from these continuous learning features, helping organizations innovate and solve real-world business challenges.

With Cisco Collaborative Knowledge, organizations are able to: >> Mobilize their workforce with knowledge, speed and flexibility. >> Fast-track learning and knowledge sharing to foster a culture of continuous learning and innovation. >> Tap into the collective knowledge of the entire organization.

—More info: http://www.cisco.com/c/en/ us/products/cloud-systems-management/ collaborative-knowledge/index.html COMPANY’S OVERALL HEALTH IS EASILY ACCESSIBLE Clarizen’s Spring 2015 Release delivers a 360-degree view of the health of your company’s initiatives, so you can quickly make accurate business decisions – and rapidly take action.

The Spring 2015 Release features the all-new “Reports and Dashboards” module, which was developed in close collaboration with customers. It also includes updated connections with other missioncritical systems, as a part of the company’s strategy to deliver a broader integration platform.

Highlights and features: >> Provides insights and KPIs based on any role or responsibility >> Aggregates data from different sides of the business, creating relevant and actionable visualizations >> Delivers widgets, dashboards and snapshots that can be shared, acted upon, and tracked as performance trends —More info: www.clarizen.com 46

June / July 2015 Elearning!

KEEP COMMUNICATIONS IN COMPLETE CONTEXT Dashcube helps teams communicate in context by giving planning and communicating equal status. This means you can structure your tasks and communicate about them in the same place, at the same time, without any extra effort.

Dashcube lets you focus on your work, while everything is kept in sync and up to date, seamlessly. It works together, because it’s built together.

Dashcube is currently in free public beta.

—More info: https://dashcube.com/signup. html AGREE, PRIORITIZE YOUR PORTFOLIO OF SERVICES The CollabWorks enterprise SaaS solution called WaaS brings actionable clarity to the work and shifts talent from what matters least to what matters most. In a few hours within normal work schedules, WaaS customers are quantitatively measuring increases in productivity. The innovation and improvements are primarily led by employees as they align with the organization’s priorities.

“Discovery” is a bottoms-up process that defines the current state of your team and the work they do, capturing the right data needed to optimize work and talent.

“Engagement” uses the data captured in

Discovery to build consensus and alignment around the work and the talent needed to perform the work.

“Service Improvement Teams” digs deeper into further refining, prioritizing, and recommending changes to improve the effectiveness of the team.

—More info: http://collabworks.com ALL-IN-ONE SOFTWARE MAKES MEETING EASY Lucid Meetings is a complete online system for running business meetings with your team and clients. With Lucid, you have everything you need to schedule, prepare and follow up with actionable results.

Lucid Meetings makes scheduling easy with scheduling polls, international time zone support, full list of contacts and email invitations that work with Google Calendar, Apple Calendar and Outlook.

Simple default agendas are appropriate for any quick meeting, and a document repository has an online preview of all files.

Agenda templates and quick “copy meeting” ability makes it easy to start from what you know works.

Lucid Meetings requires no downloads or plugins. It has one-click access during the meeting and has been developed for any browser, including on tablets and phones.

—More info: www.lucidmeetings.com/ features

2015 Vote for

[Best of Elearning!]

Nominate your best in class solutions in our annual readers’ choice awards. Winners will be featured in Elearning! Magazine December 2015.

Vote At:

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Happy with your learning or workplace technology service provider? Nominate them for Best of Elearning! 2015.

More than 25 categories are available to recognize your solution partners:

>> Best LMS, LCMS, TMS, HRIS, MOOC >> Best Content: Leadership, IT, Sales, Soft Skills,

Compliance >> Best Tools: E-learning Development, Simulation, Presentation, Mobile Authoring, Game Development, Video Capture >> Best Services: Web Seminar, Virtual Classroom, Virtual Environment, Learning Svs, Translation Svcs, Testing & Assessment >> Best Solutions: Social Learning, Mobile App, Video Publishing

The Ballot In 2015, each product can be nominated in only one product category. All vendor ballots will be nullified.

Cast your ballot for free at: www.2elearning.com Nominations accepted 6/11/15 to 9/1/15.

Who is Best-in-Class for 2015? >> Discover the Best of Elearning! in the December edition of Elearning!

Magazine

>> See solutions, demos and client case studies at Enterprise Learning!

Summit 01/14/16. Learn more at: www.2elearning.com/events

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About e-Learning for Kids: Established in 2004, e-Learning for Kids is a global nonprofit foundation dedicated to fun and free learning on the Internet for children ages 5 – 12 with courses in math, science, language arts, computers, health and environmental skills. Since 2005, more than 15 million children in over 190 countries have benefitted from eLessons provided by EFK! An all-volunteer staff consists of education and e-learning experts and business professionals from around the world committed to making difference. e-Learning for Kids is actively seeking funding, volunteers, sponsors and courseware developers; get involved! For more information, please visit www.e-learningforkids.org.

Do You Make the

PopQuiz Quiz

Grade?

2

Results:

6-7 correct makes you Mensa material.

4-5 correct means you are a skimmer — and can learn oh-so much more.

Fewer than 4? This issue is your Sunday reading assignment. Try again!

1

This year, how many jobs globally will have a hand in compiling, managing and processing Big Data? a) 350,000 b) 1.2 million c) 4.4 million d) 8.1 million

How many emails are generated every second throughout the world? a) 4 million b) 86 million c) 114 million d) 168 million

3

According to this magazine’s 2014 annual survey of the industry, what percentage of companies are interested in the personalization of learning? a) 4 percent b) 25 percent c) 33 percent d) 47 percent

4

According to a survey of chief human resource officers, what percentage of companies think their Millennial workforce is above average? a) 8 percent b) 33 percent c) 59 percent d) 75 percent

5

6 7

How big will the global e-learning market grow to this year? a) about 38 billion b) about $107 billion c) about $200 billion

According to Deloitte, what percentage of human resource leaders cite learning as “important” or “very important”? a) 55% b) 65% c) 75% d) 85%

Which of the following options is not listed as a major factor driving the adoption of video for online training? a) it’s more fun than other modes of training b) it’s equally accessible for remote and on-site learners c) comprehensive performance tracking and reporting is available

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pg 41

pp 8, 9, 11

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Torch LMS www.torchelms.com

Answers 1) c; 2) d; 3) d; 4) c; 5) b; 6) d; 7) a

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Elearning! June / July 2015

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LastWord Making a Great E-learning Course HERE ARE SIX TIPS THAT GUARANTEE LEARNER INVOLVEMENT AND RETENTION.

G

BY MAHAMMAD SHAFI

reat e-learning motivates learners and provides a great employee learning experience. Great e-learning means writing great content. How do you make a great e-learning course? Here, I would like to share six tips.

>> Making Raw Content into Good E-learning Content Reading through the raw content and writing the content in a simple and easy-to-understand way is the first step. Flow of the content is very important and provides information in consecutive steps; otherwise, learners will get distracted and may not focus on the course. >> Writing Better Learning Objectives Writing good learning objectives gives clarity about the purpose of the course and instills learner confidence. Learning objectives need to be clearly defined, specific and measurable. Learners need to know what they get after completing the course. >> Presenting E-learning Content Present the content so that learners can easily understand what is being shared. Chunk the content into smaller parts, and keep each screen to a minimum duration.

Giving lengthy information in one screen and long duration of slides are boring. Ensure consistency of presentation patterns throughout the course. >> Making It Interactive Involve learners in the course by making them participate in an activity.

Add interactive elements like click-on tabs, slide shows, gaming interactivities and internal assessments such as FAQs. With these elements, we can make courses interesting and prevent learner humdrum. >> Summarizing At the end of the course, summarize the key points that have been shared. This provides information about key takeaways in a nutshell. This also enables learners to recall and re-visit the information. >> Final Assessment It is a good practice to end the course with a summative assessment. This tests the extent to which a learner has mastered the topics covered in the course. Prepare the questions such that they test your learners on content that has been shared during the course. In other words, the questions should be based only on the course’s content. This helps learners re-visit the portions that they have not answered or found difficult to answer.

Good e-learning courses go a long way toward engaging your learners and meeting your learning needs effectively. By using these tips, you can develop top-notch online courses that captivate your learners and deliver first-rate training. —Mahammad Shafi is a project manager at CommLab India. More info: www.commlabindia.com

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June / July 2015 Elearning!

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