Social eLearning Software Blog

Here is a quick story for you. A mid-market human resource executive schedules an agenda item for the next month’s senior management and board meeting. The proposal is to create a Corporate University to address meeting the company’s performance objectives. The initial reactions to this agenda item from the CEO, CFO and COO ranged from “are you nuts?”… “in today’s economic climate”…. ”expensive”….”limited appeal and utility”…. “no short-term benefits”….. to ”looks like it’s time to look for new HR leadership”.

Despite their skepticism, the diligent HR executive went to work on detailing the value of the Corporate University proposal to the organization. The HR executive was secure in the knowledge that the company could overcome the traditional objections from senior management by:

1. Utilizing new, affordable Web 2.0 collaborative learning environment
2. Augmenting existing content via a diverse content delivery types and 3rd party providers
3. Leveraging a flexible university framework that could grow over time

The next order of business was to prioritize the solution framework to address a number of the company’s strategic and tactical objectives.

Upon completion of this effort, the HR executive presented the recommendation to implement a Collaborative Corporate University solution for the organization with existing content and third-party content to achieve the organization’s objectives. The total costs associated with this solution are a $15,000 investment that can be implemented within an 8-week period.

The company began realizing returns within the same quarter. The CEO, CFO and COO recognized the contributions of the HR executive and now this leader has a permanent seat at all senior management and board level decisions.

For more details, please feel free to contact me at bob.brogan@interactyx.com or via phone at 708 572-4899. Also, you are invited to attent our free, live webinar where we will be discussing collaborative corporate universities in greater detail. Register for the webinar below:

Enable Knowledge Transfer with Collaborative Corporate University
Thursday, October 1, 2009
2:00pm - 3:00pm ET
Register Here - Space is Limited

Recently, I initiated some discussions on Linkedin discussing the applicability of Twitter in educational environments.

It prompted some very lively debates with comments ranging from “no *bleeping* way” for a variety of reasons to “absolutely” and again listing many different cases of appropriate utilisation.

I wondered specifically how and why people were using it was that it appears to me Twitter is another arrow that can be placed in the quiver to make courses more engaging and relevant.

Students desire interaction, whether in a classroom or in an online or distance learning environment.

Interaction in a classroom is usually completely in the hands of the instructor. It can be extensive or it can be virtually non-existent. I think we all remember which classes we enjoyed the most. People generally want to participate.

I'm not for technology simply for technology sake. However, I do advocate the use of technology to better engage the student, where appropriate.

A distance learning scenario is a perfect example. In a situation when students rarely, if ever, meet their peers, it's very difficult to emulate the experience of a quality, engaging, live classroom setting.

This is where I feel tools, properly implemented and integrated into the learning environment, can serve both the organisation and the students well.

Communities tools, like forums, wikis, blogs, live chats, video conferences, and social networking tools and sites like LinkedIn, Facebook and yes, even Twitter can be used to both connect and facilitate interaction, discussion, and enable a more vibrant experience overall.

The same tools can be used to augment classroom based instruction as well.

I'm not advocating the use of all of them in a single course, and certainly not for all ages, but where appropriate, I feel technology can be used to enhance the learning experience.

This title of a webinar hosted by CLO Magazine caught my attention and I thought I would throw it out to you for your opinions. I think both directions have great value, just different drivers and potential benefits.  So, do you really need an Enterprise LMS?

How do you know what LMS is best for your organization?

They tossed out some startling statistics large corporations (10K employees and up) have 5 or more LMS in many cases.  So there must be some value to having departmental/divisional LMS, yes?  Or is this the case that they are so large the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing?

Could we be moving toward more user-centric learning portals offering more than a course library?  What do you think?

Jodi Harrison
Vice President, Business Development and Affiliate Partners
Interactyx Limited

jodi.harrison@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

A recent report of 700 learning professionals conducted by the American Society for Training & Development entitled Transforming Learning with Web 2.0 Technologies found that Web 2.0 technologies is still “bleeding edge” when used within corporate training functions.  Only 9% of companies use Web 2.0 technologies in a major way within their learning function.

My last blog - Collaboratories: How can you compete with the most innovative companies in the world? – discussed how the most innovative companies in the world embraced the collaborative learning that is facilitated by the Web 2.0 in their R&D and business processes.  However, it appears most are slow to adopt.

Fortunately, the report the future appears brighter than the present.  In the same report:

But why aren’t the 91% of companies that are not using Web 2.0 technologies in a more prominent manner in the corporate training function, especially when increasing employee productivity must be a key strategic goal for all organizations in this macro economic environment?  Moreover, if you look at any recent survey of younger workers in the corporate environment, they all yearn for collaborative, informal learning. They understand and embrace the power of Web 2.0, having used it more than some of us older folks.

Could it be the decision makers tend to be a little older, less Facebook friendly, more passive in decision making in this environment, and thus, clutch to more conventional techniques.  We all know what happens with sheep – “sheep get slaughtered¹.”  I wonder if the initial adoption of emailing had the same type of result.

In this same report, it appears the respondents know in their hearts using Web 2.0 technologies is coming, with nearly seven out of eight respondents saying they will use Web 2.0 more in the near future.  It took time for teachers to embrace personal computers in the classroom.  They are now resisting smartphones as a powerful learning tool.

Your shareholders should not wait.  Your CEO should not wait.  The tools are here. They are affordable and easy to implement.

Collaborative learning, cost savings and an environmentally friendly education distribution system our eLearning 2.0 and mLearning platform provides are just some of the benefits of TOPYX®. Our eLearning 2.0 education distribution technologies are paving the way in creating innovative solutions to meet the needs of today’s learner.

For more information, blogs, videos and even test driving TOPYX, please go to www.interactyx.com.

Alfred R. Novas
Chief Executive Officer
Interactyx Limited

al.novas@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

Interactyx, the developer of TOPYX®, is at the forefront of developing eLearning and social networking solutions that engage and facilitate knowledge-sharing activities with learners.

[¹] Gordon Gekko in Wall Street I (Wall Street II is current being filmed).

Clearly this has been a tremendous year of growth for Twitter.

Current valuation estimates of the company are in the order of $1 billion, and users are expected to reach 250 million over the next few years.

A an eLearning provider, on a daily basis, we are talking to schools that looking at using it both for themselves as well as possibly having their students use it in some fashion.

Campus Technology recently reported, http://www.campustechnology.com/Home.aspx from a recent Faculty Focus http://www.facultyfocus.com/ survey that of 1,958 higher education professionals 30.7% are using twitter currently and another 20.6% reported that there was a reasonable chance they’d start using it in the coming year.

Of those that currently use it, 7.2 percent use it as a part of instruction frequently, and an additional 9.4 percent use it in instruction occasionally. I believe that is a relatively high adoption rate given the time that twitter has been in the market.

Depending on your particular academic sector you may also see appropriate uses for your students. I have opinions, but this week rather than taking the platform, I’d to see what everyone else thinks.

As well as Twitter, sites like Facebook often are used for school sites, events and groups. Possibly even course specific groups could be established and offer additional value.

In my blog this week, I’d like to pose three questions:

1) Does Twitter have a place in Education? If so, where and how do you think it could be used for maximum benefit.

2) What other social networking tools / sites do you feel most relevant in an academic environment?

3) Do you see value in blending Social Networking with eLearning?

To establish context, please indicate which area of education you are referring to. i.e. Higher ED, K-12, Corporate etc.

I very much look forward to your thoughts.

Also, you are welcome to attend our free, live webinar to learn more about how the classroom is being redefined:

With my nearly 20 years of professional experience within the franchising business arena, it is safe to say that the traditional and existing franchisor training has failed its two most important constituents:  1) Customers and 2) Franchisees.  The central tenet for franchisors to provide immersive training around key events is flawed and the manual-based operations courses are outdated methods to deliver daily success.

The inability to provide a consistent customer experience, deliver on the brand promise across locations, get new unit managers trained and productive(as quickly as possible), and provide access to continuous knowledge sharing environment have an immediate impact on customer perception and wallet-share.

The damage to the brand, the financial implications to the franchisee, the diminished franchisor’s stature, and ability to concentrate on growth are difficult to repair.  The potential death spiral can bring down the entire system, if left unaddressed.

Lessons from Traditional Event-Focused Franchise Training

The immersive training techniques associated with new franchisee training, new location openings or the most common – unit management turnover - offer opportunities for franchisors to reinforce “delivering the brand”.   However, these “drink from the fire hose” course curriculum do not offer timely post-training reinforcement of key course objectives nor on-going access to resources / experts.  The learning is not sustainable for attendees or relevant for non-attending franchisee employees critical in execution.   Moreover, the courses are usually boring, not engaging and seldom interactive.

For ongoing operational training and new product introduction activities, the ever-present debate of franchisor / franchisee cost absorption relating to travel expenses and time away from their location to go to regional or national training rarely gets addressed.  The result is those who need the training the most are the franchisees that can least afford to take the training.  The responsibility then falls to Regional / District Managers or operational “SWAT” teams, to spend inordinate amounts of time attempting to coach and mentor non-attendees without adequate tools to assist their efforts while at the same time the customer suffers.  The franchisor field personnel spend valuable cycles on supplementing training rather than orchestrating the revenue enhancing efforts in their geographies. The chasm between high performing and lower performing franchisees grows wider, reducing brand equity due to inconsistencies in customer experience.

It is time to fix the training failures of the past and provide the franchisees with cost effective and eases to implement tools to provide a continuous learning and knowledge sharing environment that facilitates the “real-time” needs of franchise employees to delight customers.

With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, the ability to deliver collaborative knowledge management and training environment to increase franchise employee proficiency to business performance objectives are a relatively new phenomenon.   By leveraging a variety of media to provide video snippets, simulations, core on-line course curriculum, franchisors can now affordably augment event learning with a continuous learning environment for all franchisees and employees.  The addition of collaborative tools that allow for the enablement of effective knowledge capture, storage in a readily accessible location, and facilitating knowledge transfer to new learner communities of interest and on-going communities of practice are critical components in solving the franchisor / franchisee training conundrum.

While there are a number of solutions on the market today that address pieces of the continuous learning needs of the franchise community, only TOPYX on that addresses all of them.  To learn more about how enable franchisees, please visit us at http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning-topyx-trainer or email me at bob.brogan@interactyx.com or via phone at +1-708 572-4899.

Bob Brogan
Vice President, Corporate Solutions
Interactyx Limited

bob.brogan@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

David Leonhardt of the New York Times recently wrote an eye opening article entitled "Colleges are Failing in Graduation Rates."  The full article can be found online at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/09/business/economy/09leonhardt.html?_r=1&ref=education.

He mentions that at the University of Massachusetts, only 33% of freshmen graduate within 6 years. It's an extreme, but somewhat shocking statistic.

In his 2008 report "The Costs of Failure Factories in American Higher Education" Mark Schneider states:

"The international reputation of many "marquee" universities and the high U.S. expenditures on postsecondary education mask a simple fact: American postsecondary graduation rates are low, and the costs of these failure factories to students and the federal government are high."

Clearly the reasons for the failure are vast. They are explored in detail in William Bowen's new book "Crossing the Finish Line: Completing College at America's Public Univerities."

In reviewing the book, David Glenn of Chronicle of Higher Education states that among the book's central themes: Large disparities exist in graduation rates by gender, ethnicity, and family income, even after accounting for differences in standardized test scores and high-school preparation. That is not exactly news, but the book grounds those findings in an unusually rich set of data. . . . Mr. Bowen and his colleagues put forward two arguments that are likely to fuel debate for several years. . . . The first argument is that money matters. . . . The second argument is that admissions offices should downplay the SAT and ACT, and instead lean heavily on students' high school grades"

Thomas J. Kane, of the Harvard Graduate School of Education says "Given rising pressure on state budgets, public higher education must learn to do more with less. Crossing the Finish Line illuminates anachronistic practices, such as an overreliance on test scores in admissions, continuing tuition subsidies to higher income families, and an underemphasis on degree completion. For the nation's economic future and the dreams of tomorrow's college aspirants, we must fundamentally rethink the function, pricing, and operation of public colleges.

Crossing the Finish Line is indeed food for thought. However, it also makes the problem seem so large that it's almost impossible to address.

Certainly changing admission procedures, subsidies and possibly relying less on SAT may make a difference.

But couldn’t an institution, program, or even instructor also really examine if they are truly engaging their students?  This isn’t an attack or criticism. It’s simply looking at it from the point of most influence.

Massive changes in policy will naturally take years to occur. However, schools, programs and instructors should really examine how they present their courses, how effective they are, and what can be done better to assist the students in understanding the material, keep them interested, and active in the learning process.

I realize it may sound simplistic, and frankly it is. But if changes are implemented on a course by course level, to help students truly engage in their material, success rates are sure to improve.

As always, I welcome your thoughts.

You are welcome to attend our free, live webinar to learn more about how the classroom is being redefined:

Social Networking Around the Classroom
Thursday, Sept. 17, 2009
2:00pm - 3:00pm ET
Register Here - Space is Limited

We are going to cover a lot of ground in the webinar, but if you would like to discuss your unique eLearning needs, feel free to contact me at patrick.batty@interactyx.com.

I look forward to speaking with you.

Patrick Batty
Vice President, Academic Solutions
Interactyx Limited

patrick.batty@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com