Musings on Personalized Learning

Personalized Learning Musings on Personalized Learning Balasubramanian Krishnan | Feb 01, 2024 | 3 min read Recently I spoke to the regional head of HR for a large multinational tech company based in the USA. While she was very confident that they had some of the best learning tools & courses in the market – LXPs and more, she felt they weren’t working for her needs. As an example, she mentioned that she knew that the sales performance in the region needed improvement, but that the L&D department was focused on other priorities and not working on the needs of the business. Does this sound familiar? Are we losing sight of the needs of the business while promoting personalized learning and growth? What do you think? I’m Curious to hear your thoughts and comments..

How the world of Learning & Development is changing

Learning & Development How the world of Learning & Development is changing Balasubramanian Krishnan | Jan 31, 2024 | 3 min read The Old World of Learning & Development You know how it goes: -> Run Induction & Onboarding Programs -> Consult with HR Business Partners & provide Learning Solutions -> Measure Compliance & Outcomes -> Leverage Technology for efficiency and effectiveness -> Request Budgets The new world of Learning & Development is very different. -> Personalized Learning & Development paths for each employee -> Consultants to business problems and measure business outcomes -> Leverage technologies for productivity and -> Leverage key analytics and insights to engage in business discussions -> Awarded budgets for business initiatives In short: 👉 Make Talent Development a competitive advantage for the business. What do you think? Curious to hear your thoughts and comments..

Employee Onboarding Perspectives and Metrics – Poll

Poll When a new employee joins a company, it is very instructive to understand the various perspectives of the different stakeholders in this employee’s journey and the entire employee experience. The Employee Perspective (Let’s call him John):  I’d like to know more about what the company does, who I work with and what I need to do to be successful in my job. I want to start contributing to the company at the earliest.  [democracy id=”1″] The (Manager or Supervisor of John)’s Perspective:  I’d like John to learn about what the company does, what the team does, who John will need to work with and what John needs to do to be successful in his job. I want John to start contributing to the company at the earliest. [democracy id=”2″] The Manager’s Boss’s Perspective: I want John to start contributing to the company at the earliest. What about the others who joined at the same time? When will they be productive?  [democracy id=”3″] The Learning & Development Manager’s Perspective: I want John to start contributing to the company at the earliest. In order to do that, I’d like him to complete all his assigned mandatory courses and other courses that his manager wants him to complete. [democracy id=”4″]   The HR Manager‘s Perspective:  I’d like John to learn about what the company does, what the team does, what other teams do in this company, who John will need to work with and what John needs to do to be successful in his job. I also want John to know the policies and procedures in the company (such as when John gets paid, how we manage issues and concerns and also how we measure his performance, etc.). I also want John to start contributing to the company at the earliest.  [democracy id=”5″]   The HR Manager’s Boss‘s Perspective:  I’d like John to be productive at the earliest, and make sure he understands the culture of the company. How are our productivity metrics trending?  [democracy id=”6″]   For more details on NuVeda’s onboarding solutions, please see this: https://nuvedalearning.com/blog/post/retail-industry/

CALF(TM) LMS Use Cases for CSR Initiatives

CALF™ LMS Use Cases for CSR Initiatives Successful implementation of a CSR initiative, be it diversity, volunteer training, or eco-literacy, involves delivering volumes of subject matter to a large audience in a simplified and effective manner. With the rising popularity of learning management systems (LMSs) in eLearning design and development, various organizations have been leveraging these online training tools to provide apropos and on-time learning, enhance their CSR initiatives, and achieve the desired social impact. Here are some examples of how this can be done. Leveraging CALF™ for CSR Initiatives Challenges/Requirements LMS solutions -Suitable  CALFTM features Environmental Literacy Untrained trainers Excessively technical and hard-to-digest content Over-reliance on the lecture method for teaching, causing low engagement with the content All the necessary courses on a wide range of topics from global content partners, engaging and interactive learning methodology   -Short and easily digestible microlearning modules with images, audio, videos, animations, documents, and infographics for better understanding -Gamification with quizzes, polls, leaderboards, points, badges, and automatic certification for engagement -Social learning for better interaction Volunteer and leadership training Unclear guidelines Ineffective training and guidance Too little time to upskill Lack of growth opportunities Sticky training experience with multimedia learning modules, short content that can produce immediate results -Clear, precise, and engaging training through Microlearning -Short content that can easily be accessed and completed on the go in less time -Mobile-first approach to learning for easy online and offline access -Recommendations with new industry-relevant information for exposure to new skills and opportunities Improving labor Safety Unawareness of labor laws Ignorance of recent industrial developments No exposure to new industry-relevant skills Lack of knowledge of environmental and equipment safety Easily manageable bite-sized information available readily  -Microlearning for creating custom courses on universal labor laws and new industrial developments -Easy access to the latest skills with timely learning recommendations Diversity and Inclusion Lack of cultural sensitivity and awareness Language barriers Easily digestible and accessible courses available in multiple languages -Multilingual content support -Microlearning for all the necessary content available at the fingertips within minutes -Social learning to facilitate engagement and interaction Reducing Carbon Emission Excess paper usage in traditional learning material Dependence on conventional training methods  Mobile-first LMS can eliminate the need for using big computers, going to training venues, and consuming excess paper in tests and training manuals. Relevant training modules on reducing carbon emissions and green practices -Mobile accessibility through native Android and iOS apps  -Simplified, engaging, and more effective training through microlearning Water conservation Overuse  Poor waste management Unawareness of the proper water conservation practices Relevant content available readily Scalability for spreading awareness to a broader audience -Timely delivery of all critical information in a simplified manner -Mobile accessibility for providing requisite content at scale Engaging in charity work Lack of funds Skill gaps among staff and volunteers  Lack of time for necessary training On-time delivery of important information  -Monetization and branding of content modules on the eCommerce marketplace -Simplified and effective upskilling with engaging learning content  -Multilingual learning for dispersed staff/volunteers -Crisp content in multiple formats that can be consumed on the go   Let us dive deeper into some of these points and understand what makes CALFTM LMS so incredibly beneficial for these CSR initiatives. 1. Environmental Literacy Environmental literacy plays a vital role in understanding the impact of modern-day activities on the environment and spreading awareness about the good practices and values to protect the environment. For its effective execution, it is essential that learners easily understand the training, its significance, and its relevance. With online coaching software like the CALF™ LMS, you can leverage the vast potential of microlearning and provide learners with short and easily-digestible content modules. They can benefit from multiple media formats on the platform to go beyond mere rote learning and increase understanding. CALF™ gamification and social learning features can help better engage with the learning.  2. Charity Work Charitable organizations often have beneficiaries and volunteers in various parts of the world. Providing them with opportune and appropriate training and education is a key element of many services sought to be provided to the communities. With CALF™ LMS, you can provide equality of learning to all beneficiaries, regardless of where in the world they operate. The online training software also exhibits multilingual support so dispersed learners can gain all the vital information through personalized modules in their native languages. You also have the option to design, develop, brand, and monetize your training content on CALF™ eCommerce marketplace to generate more funding for projects. Additionally, the platform’s social learning facility allows colleagues with similar professional interests, roles, and learning requirements to interact with one another, irrespective of their geographic location. This helps create a source of communication and collaboration within the diffused learning community. Thus, learners can have beneficial discussions and share best practices to serve the greater cause better.  3. Water Conservation Water conservation is one of the biggest environmental concerns today that demands collaborative action from all sections of society. CALF™ LMS’ availability as native iOS and Android applications allows for on-the-go learning at scale. It enables you to reach a wide audience base and achieve a bigger social impact. Through the simple and concise content modules, learners can gain important and timely insight into various relevant topics, including water-based industry challenges, overuse and waste prevention, the right conservation practices, and much more.  4. Improving Labor Safety Relevant and targeted training is vital for improving labor safety. Microlearning on training tools like CALF™ LMS can help educate learners about universal labor laws, safety practices, handling equipment the right way, etc. These short learning modules available in multiple media formats across different mobile devices can give learners all the necessary information just-in-time in an easily accessible, understandable, and engaging manner. Furthermore, personalized recommendations regarding the latest industrial developments and in-demand skills can be provided so learners can get the right exposure and upskill themselves when needed. CALF™ real-time reporting can help you track the training effectiveness and completion rates while identifying and reducing potential labor safety exploitation incidents. Talk to our learning expert to know more about how CALF™ elaborate features can help

CALFTM LMS Use Cases For NGOs

CALF™ LMS Use Cases For NGOs The need for an LMS to train and upskill learners has grown exponentially across various sectors in the last decade. Numerous organizations worldwide leverage one to manage all their eLearning activities. This includes small and big businesses for corporate training, national government agencies, local governments, educational institutions, etc. This is because of the accessibility, ease of use, cost efficiency, and various other features that an LMS offers.. Let us explore how it fits in the NGO sector and how online training tools like CALFTM can provide NGOs and not-for-profits with impressive technological support to enhance their initiatives. CALF(TM) LMS for NGOs and not-for-profits Projects Challenges/Requirements LMS solutions Relevant  CALFTM LMS Features Modern education in rural areas Untrained teachers Little to no transport connectivity Poor learning results Lack of engagement and motivation  No exposure to new information Easy upskilling, improved reach, immediate results, engaging and interactive education Short and easy-to-digest microlearning modules with images, audio, video, graphs, animations, etc. Just-in-time content Mobile-first learning through native Android and iOS applications Detailed and instantaneous reports to measure learning outcomes Social learning and gamification for better engagement Sanitation Unreliable data about sanitation issues and policies Lack of education Specific reports for reliable information at their fingertips, easily accessible training Infographics and elaborate reports with the latest data  Accessible learning through relevant and timely microlearning modules Mental health education and awareness One-size-fits-all approach to mental health education One-way communication/no interaction or discussion Unskilled educators Information overload with biomedical terminologies and rationales Interactive and engaging training, timely access to only relevant content to prevent being overwhelmed with bulky and technical information Personalized learning with recommendations Social learning Easy upskilling of educators through microlearning Crisp and easy-to-digest learning modules with multiple media formats Farming association at the village level Lack of awareness about the right farming practices and modern agricultural technologies  Inaccessibility to relevant education Timely insight into the latest industry-relevant information to keep farmers updated with the right practices and technologies  Delivery of relevant and just-in-time content  Mobile availability via native Android and iOS apps for easy access, both online and offline Palliative and hospice care Misconceptions and biased conversations Lack of trained caregivers Ignorance in patients regarding their health conditions leading to unrealistic expectations Clear and concise content that is easily understandable for patients and caregivers alike, leading to better implementation of good healthcare practices Simplified and personalized learning with timely and relevant content Promotion and conservation of cultural heritage Language barrier Diminished public exposure Lack of funding Content available in various languages, customizability,  Local and global access to content  Mobile-first approach for better reach and exposure Ability to author, deliver, and manage customized content  A robust e-commerce engine to create, brand, promote, and monetize the learning content Multilingual support What makes CALFTM LMS an effective solution? Ease of use Upskilling at scale can be overwhelming for all the involved stakeholders.  With training tools like CALFTM LMS, you can develop and author custom-tailored and specific lessons that target the skill gaps of learners or users. This allows them to upskill and cross-train in-house, with little oversight from busy staff members.  Customization  You can leverage CALFTM to provide localized training for users spread across the world, that too in their local languages. The platform’s availability as a native iOS and Android application significantly boosts the learning content’s accessibility, scalability, and reach. This helps bring a diverse global workforce together to work collectively toward achieving organizational goals. Organizations working to promote and conserve heritage can create promotional content to educate people about their mission, projects, and funding needs.  Personalized Journey The platform’s personalized online coaching recommendations ensure that the content pertains to the skill sets, knowledge level,  job duties, or roles of the beneficiaries. It also exhibits timely delivery of relevant content in an easily digestible format.  Microlearning The short and crisp microlearning modules in different media types offer an increased training convenience for learners as they can access new information any time in the format that best suits them. This helps speed up the knowledge transfer process and reduce training time so workers can invest their time in their job roles rather than wasting it on traditional time-consuming, and effort-intensive learning methods.  Community building CALFTM promotes social learning and helps build an online community for learners to discuss their online training experiences, train together, and share tips and advice. This promotes a collaborative workflow and helps create strong relationships between beneficiaries as well as mentors and mentees.  Tracking Its automatic reporting engine provides detailed real-time progress analyses of all the learners and helps measure the efficacy of programs, be it upskilling or regulation training. Learn more about how this online coaching software can enhance such initiatives by talking to our learning expert or scheduling a demo. Share This Post Subscribe To Our Newsletter Get updates and learn from the best More To Explore

How To Leverage Microlearning For Corporate Training

How to Leverage Microlearning for Corporate Training Industries are shifting to a faster and more easily consumable type of learning content. Today’s workforce is always on-the-go, and taking time off to attend conventional in-person training events is becoming less feasible. Microlearning is the perfect solution to this radically changing learning landscape. It can help deliver short and just-in-time content modules on the go in a mobile-ready environment. Such modules are engaging, accessible, easy to update, and measurable. By leveraging microlearning in corporate training, employees can merge the training into their workflow as the courses are short and can be completed quickly. Microlearning minimizes distractions because the content nuggets are to-the-point and relevant, making it easier for people to focus on shorter modules. Here are the different ways you can leverage the benefits of microlearning for your corporate training: 1. New Hire Orientation and Onboarding Training new recruits is essential to make them aware of the different aspects of the organization and their job roles and responsibilities.  Microlearning can provide clear and relevant information on company culture, values, mission, compliance, skills required for specific job roles, necessary corporate jargon, etc., in an appealing, digestible manner that’s more engaging than reading voluminous employee handbooks. Short videos with images can help familiarize employees with the company’s campus, offices, essential stakeholders, and colleagues. Sending personalized messages and a welcome speech by the CEO can make them feel valued. Relevant training increases the chances of retention. 2. Upskilling Sales Teams Sales teams require mobile-ready, just-in-time learning that they can directly apply to their tasks at hand. It is beneficial to provide crisp learning assets on relevant topics like Managing the customers Making a sales pitch Using relevant software for streamlining the sales process Latest industry trends and practices Short animated videos with illustrations, background narration, infographics, and sound can furnish useful information in an engaging manner.  Prospects’ Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and answers can enable them to handle customers’ general queries better. Cheat sheets, refreshers, flashcards, or mini-courses can help the sales reps review their learning before an appointment with a new client and improve their performance regularly. 3. Supplementing Macro Learning Microlearning can help reinforce online training with follow-ups and reminders to enhance the existing training module, webinar, or instructor-led experience. Large chunks of information regarding complex learning topics can be broken into easily-digestible bite-sized microlearning videos for quick walkthroughs when needed. Summary videos at the end of the lessons can be beneficial as well. Microlearning platforms like NuVeda’s CALFTM can provide you with relevant practice exercises, quizzes, polls, surveys, assessments, flashcards, etc., to help complement the more extended training modules, allow learners to revisit their online training, and improve retention. The platform supports gamification (leaderboard, badges, automatic certification, simulations, etc.) to help them-  Apply their acquired skills in a real-world scenario  Increase their completion rates Establish a friendly competition  Boost engagement  Strengthen their knowledge base   4. Safety Training Emergencies like accidents or mishaps demand that all helpful information be conveyed in the shortest possible time and be easily accessible. You will need to provide employees with knowledge on evacuation route maps, handling people, using the safety equipment, identifying and preventing workplace hazards, etc., in an easily-understandable manner. Charts, images, videos, and animations, can make such content more engaging. Simulations can help enhance the learner’s real-life application of the acquired skills. Moreover, such online training can be made easily accessible across all iOS, and Android devices through robust microlearning platforms like CALFTM.  5. Compliance Training Short, interactive microlearning modules can be incredibly effective for making employees aware of the new rules and regulations, updates to the existing ones, latest news events, and changes in the industry trends. All the key compliance concepts can be introduced through documents or textual images with illustrations, accompanied by short explainer videos. Tests and actionable takeaways at the end of the modules help reinforce the necessary compliance concepts and their application. 6. Product Knowledge Training Being aware of the brand offerings is essential for the sales reps as well as all the other employees. Microlearning can be immensely helpful for training with timely updates about the company’s products and services, their features, new additions to the offering portfolio, and changes/updates to the existing ones. Short video product demos, infographics for dos and don’ts, and simulations for virtual hands-on experience can communicate details of the different products among the employees. The modules’ interactive documents and textual images can emphasize important product features and benefits as ‘need-to-know’ information. Ways to Implement Microlearning the Right Way Here are a few things you need to keep in mind to implement corporate training using microlearning successfully: 1. Develop Your Learning Goals Identify the outcomes that your organization wishes to achieve from its training programs before starting to churn out microlearning modules. Also identify the knowledge gaps of employees and their training expectations. This will help you create content that is just right for them. 2. Personalize the Learnings Provide employees with content that suits their individual needs and learning preferences. Not everyone learns in the same manner and at the same pace. So you can consider surveying employees to determine the best way for them to learn.  During the training, leverage AI-powered Microlearning platforms like CALFTM to provide employees with personalized training recommendations so they can customize their learning journeys based on their learning styles, organizational roles, and interests. 3. Experiment with Multimedia There are various media formats available for designing microlearning modules, such as: Short videos (explainer, how-to videos, product demonstrations, post-training summaries, animations, etc.) Audio files (short podcasts, expert talks, anecdotes and lessons, general Q&A sessions on the training modules, etc.) Games and rewards (flashcards, assessments, simulations, quizzes, surveys, polls, leaderboards, badges, automatic certification, game points, etc.) Infographics (statistics, dos, and don’ts, quick tips, guidelines, points to remember, etc.) Interactive documents (PDFs with embedded multimedia on comprehensive topics like brand offerings, policies, compliance, organizational processes, etc.) Some employees might prefer learning through short videos, while others might consider infographics ( graphs and images) ideal for online training. Hence, experiment with such rich learning assets to prevent the modules from being similar,

Microlearning 101: Meaning, Benefits, and Best Practices

Microlearning 101: Meaning, Benefits, and Best Practices Modern deadline-driven workflow has rendered legacy training methods ineffective. It has shrunk the time employees have available for training, making it difficult to learn bulk information favored by conventional learning.  Today’s learners need relevant, specific, and digestible learning on the go to help them fill knowledge gaps and make them competent to fulfill their job responsibilities.  Enter Microlearning Microlearning refers to the process of breaking down large learning content into easily-digestible, bite-sized chunks. These chunks are delivered effectively through multimedia like images, infographics, interactive PDFs, audio, short videos, and animations. Such content conveniently allows employees to upskill while performing their jobs. Why Is It So Popular? With the worldwide increase in smartphone penetration, internet connectivity, and access to cheaper data plans, especially in countries like China, India, Pakistan, Nigeria, and Indonesia, the global market for microlearning is expanding exponentially. It has garnered the attention of various industry verticals worldwide. A recent CNBC study predicted that by 2025, over 73% of the global internet users (approx. 3.7 billion people) would access the web only via their smartphones. Consequently, in a few short years, the learners are bound to expect almost all of the online training to be mobile-ready.  It does not come as a surprise then that over 94% of e-learners prefer microlearning on the job, and over 95% of eLearning trainers choose it over conventional day-long seminars. Let us look at some of the benefits of microlearning and the best practices for its effective implementation. Benefits of Microlearning Microlearning is effective because people learn best when they focus on smaller pieces of content. It helps them avoid distractions and improves retention.  Increase Knowledge Retention According to research, microlearning improves focus and long-term knowledge retention by over 80%. When the content is bite-sized, the mind can easily process and retain it as compared to bulky and overwhelming information. The chances of redundancies are reduced because each microlearning course has a targeted focus on specific information.  The learners can target areas for improvement, acquire the required information, and quickly bridge knowledge gaps. They don’t need to sift through lengthy online training sessions to find the relevant sections. Highly Cost-Efficient Conventional full-fledged online training courses need a lot of time and money to produce and distribute. A major expense is involved in creating lengthy content with multimedia, analysis, course design, staff (technicians, graphic designers, cameramen, editors, project managers, subject matter experts, etc.), development, and marketing.  Microlearning courses require only a fraction of that time and money. In his book 3-Minute eLearning, learning architect Ray Jimenez mentions that by implementing microlearning, online training providers can reduce development costs by over 50% while increasing development speed by over 300%. This is because there is no need to rent physical venues and pay for classroom equipment, utilities, and instructors.It is less resource and time intensive to update digital courses than reprint training workbooks or manuals and conduct supplementary classes. Easily Accessible With microlearning, employees can train on the go as they can access the content on their mobile devices whenever and wherever they need it. Since the content nuggets are short, they can be completed quickly. Employees can choose to squeeze in the learning during breaks or while commuting. This encourages them to complete the training and upskill.   Trackable It is hard to determine actionable business outcomes from conventional corporate learning. But in the case of microlearning, tracking the learner’s progress and gaining actionable insights is much easier.  With Microlearning platforms such as the CALF LMS, you can easily measure the business, social, and behavioral impacts of your learning offerings through its built-in Kirkpatrick model of learning measurement.  The detailed reports and smart analytics contain data on general as well as specific aspects of the training, including metrics like ROI, productivity, cost reduction, and other user-defined metrics.  Support Personalized Training Traditional training methods often contain vast information, and not all of it may be relevant to the employees’ roles. Microlearning courses can be specifically tailored to the learners’ needs, skill gaps, pain points, and expected outcomes. This allows for a customized and flexible learning path for the employees. Self-Paced Learning With microlearning, rather than conforming to a structured and rigid learning course, the employees have the flexibility of learning at their own pace. It doesn’t matter whether they are getting that information for the first time or if they need to refresh their knowledge.  Improve Morale and Engagement Condensed microlearning courses facilitate quicker learning, faster progression, and immediate results. When the learners easily complete their training and constantly see progress being made, they feel more confident and motivated in their job roles. Quizzes, polls, simulations, flashcards, assessments, and surveys help enhance their engagement in the learning process. This becomes even easier with Microlearning platforms like the CALF LMS that use AI to recommend and deliver just-in-time personalized content nuggets.  Gamification Gamification is a prominent benefit of Microlearning that adds an interactive and immersive angle to the learning process through role-playing and competitive elements. The learners can apply their training to real-world scenarios through simulations and better retain information. They can work towards measurable and meaningful targets in real time while making learning a fun, exciting, and engaging process. Microlearning platforms like the CALF LMS support gamification through learning points, automatic certification, badges, leaderboard scores, and infographics. These help motivate learners, establish healthy competition among them, and increase their course completion rates. The Best Practices Microlearning is indeed the future of learning and development. Here are the best practices to follow for effective and successful implementation.  Don’t churn out content that has little to no value for the learners or the organization. Know your audience and understand their current skill levels, existing knowledge gaps, employee profiles, learning requirements, and expected results. Only then will you be able to provide them with appropriate, relevant, effective, and useful content just when they need it. Cramming excess information into short videos, documents, or infographics defeats the very purpose of microlearning, overwhelms learners, and interferes with their daily workflow.Condense the subject matter to the very fundamentals, and cover only a single individual topic,

How to Build Your eLearning Business with Online Training Courses

How to Build Your eLearning Business with Online Training Courses  eLearning is a prominent buzzword in the Learning and Development domain. Online coaching, remote tutors, virtual workshops, and remote learning resources have exploded in popularity and innovation. Organizations increasingly realize how impactful and rewarding it can be. Over 40% of Fortune 500 companies regularly use eLearning extensively. Because of its wide-ranging advantages over conventional learning, the online training industry has become one of the fastest-growing industries on the web. Entrepreneurs can leverage this opportunity to build and grow a lucrative eLearning business. Read ahead to discover how you can do so: What Makes eLearning Superior? eLearning exhibits some of the most radical advantages over traditional training. It reduces the learning time for employees by 40-60% compared to conventional learning. It further enhances the learners’ retention rate to over 25-60%, compared to 8-10% in the case of one-to-one tutoring.  eLearning lets learners quickly revisit what they learned and have more control over their learning process. They can set their own learning pace, skip what they already know, and focus on learning only what is needed. It also contributes to an 18% increase in employee engagement. Employees don’t have to be physically present at the training venue or stay extended hours, giving them extra time to learn and improve. eLearning courses decrease CO2 emissions per person by over 86% and energy consumption by over 90% compared to face-to-face sessions. Not to mention, they are much more cost-efficient than in-person training. These advantages, combined with the availability of AI-powered training software like CALF LMS, have helped significantly grow the market for eLearning. The global eLearning market is predicted to be worth over US$350 billion by 2025.  Mobile learning is one of the fastest growing markets in the eLearning sectors, with its value expected to go over $80.1 billion by 2027.  Steps To Build an eLearning Business Here are the essential steps to build your eLearning enterprise in 2022 and beyond: 1. Identify Your Target Audience When you start an online training enterprise, you must first identify your target audience and understand their pain points and interests. This is essential for you to produce relevant and quality learning offerings. You must ask questions like: How old are they? Where are they located? What kind of courses do they want? How much knowledge/proficiency do they already have about the topic? What do they aim to achieve with the acquired skills from the course? What languages do they know? Such key factors can help you create the persona of your target audience. 2. Decide Your Core Learning Content Enumerate the core skills your learners will desire the most in your niche. These specific lessons will have the biggest impact on your learners’ success. Exploring google trends is one way of finding the latest trending content topics. For instance, if you are building an online coaching business for creative freelancers, include core lessons around acquisition, negotiation, productivity, etc. Or, if you are providing online coaching to marketing professionals, create core lessons around content marketing, paid acquisition, organic website traffic, etc. You must analyze contemporary trends and look for content that will stay relevant in the future to retain and increase learners. 3. Create the Lessons It is best to create a few lessons for your core online training courses and get initial feedback before going live with your business. You can send the courses to friends, hire relevant freelancers to review the content or focus groups to give detailed impressions. High-quality and relevant content is important for high early admission and positive audience response.  Consider including a few actionable lessons or workable modules for the core content. With CALF LMS, you can complement the lessons with relevant surveys, quizzes, handouts, exercises, etc. This will help generate early results/progress for the learners and set the tone for future content. It is essential to develop structure in your online training curriculum. People will choose systematically organized over courses on other platforms.  4. Choose the Right Platform To build and grow your eLearning business effectively, you need a robust eLearning platform with industry-relevant features, such as the CALF LMS. It is an elaborate AI-powered training software that helps you seamlessly create, manage, deliver, and monetize your learning content at scale with the convenience of your iOS, Android, web, and tablet devices. It helps you build your own controlled learning environment through an AI-driven intuitive workflow specifically customized for your business. You can manage, schedule, and deliver training in all forms-instructor-led, self-paced, virtual, or blended. It further supports all types of content, including audio, video, external links, images, documents, and SCORM files. CALF LMS provides a robust e-commerce engine to effectively create, brand, and promote your eLearning offerings on its marketplace. You can determine the look and feel of your landing pages by customizing their color, theme, logo, font, etc.  5. Integrate With the Right Tools You need specific tools to help grow your business, like email software for effective communication with your clients, in-app notifications, APIs to enhance the functionality of the platform, video conferencing tools to record and repurpose training sessions, etc. All of this can be taken care of seamlessly with the CALF LMS. It has built-in plug-and-play APIs and connectors that help share information between CALF and the other system it integrates with, like the HRMS, PMS, CMS, CRM, and other LMSs. It also supports platforms like Mailchimp, Darwinbox, SAP, ZOHO, Gmail, and Outlook, and virtual event platforms like Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, GoToTraining, GoToMeeting, and WebEx. 6. Determine the Pricing The objective of any business is profitability. You need to price your courses smartly for your eLearning business to grow. The audience might undervalue your content if the price is too low, whereas high pricing can hinder registrations.  Conduct a competitor analysis to find out how similar courses are priced. The pricing will also depend on the course content, duration, complementary activities, and instructor experience.  You can initially offer discounts to gain a firm footing in the market and accelerate your revenues. The CALF LMS integrates with gateway portals like Razorpay, Paypal, and Stripe to make the payments seamless. 7. Market Your Business No

Buyer’s Guide -Things to look for in a learning and development solution

Buyer’s Guide -Things to look for in a learning and development solution The American Society for Training and Development says that companies offering comprehensive training programs enjoy a 24% higher profit margin, 218% higher income per employee, and 26% higher price-to-book ratios than businesses that invest less in their learning and development. Robust learning and development have numerous advantages that directly affect a business’s bottom line. Done right, learning and development help- Empower the employees and improve their soft skills Retain top talent Boost employee confidence, engagement, and productivity Increase the employees’ trust in their employer Earn more profits   A recent report mentions that over 93% of the employees of a company would stay there longer if it invested in their career development. Well-trained employees with an in-depth understanding of the company’s offerings and values can handle customer conversations effectively and serve them better. But choosing the right learning and development solution can often overwhelm businesses. If you face a similar predicament, here are the most essential things you must look for in a training solution:   1. Understand Your Training Needs Before choosing the right platform, you must first define the training’s requirements and expected business outcomes. What kind of skills will the employees need? Mathematical, behavioral, problem-solving, management, leadership, or decision making? How will the training content be delivered? Will it be an online training, virtual, in-person/instructor-led, self-paced, or a blended program? Understanding and clarifying such requirements will help you select the right training software and craft the most suitable learning journey. 2. Scalability A learning and development solution should be able to meet your current as well as future requirements. It should not only provide seamless learning but also have the ability to scale. The E-commerce engine of the CALF LMS allows you to grow your business by creating, branding, promoting, and monetizing your e-commerce offerings on its all-in-one marketplace.  You can thus grow your learners, enhance organizational performance, increase revenues, and demonstrate ROI to the clients to effectively scale up your business. 3. Excellent Performance Standards You want training software that constantly establishes high standards of excellence in its performance. The elaborate features of CALF LMS make it ideal for vital use cases in various industries, including healthcare/pharma, educational management, retail, banking, food packaging, etc.  Software suggest awarded CALF LMS the ‘Best Usability’ and ‘Great User Experience awards for two consecutive years, 2019 and 2020. It was also awarded the ‘Best Software’ in 2021. 4. Usage Of Best Practices A good learning solution helps you effectively evaluate and improve your learning content’s business impact and ROI. CALF LMS is the only platform in the world that allows you to measure the behavioral, social, and business impact of the learning through its in-built Kirkpatrick model of training effectiveness.  The behavioral impact is calculated through the LAP (Learning application post), while the business impact comes with metrics like ROI, productivity, cost-reduction, and other user-defined metrics that are validated by supervisors. 5. Industry-Relevant Features On-demand learning, video streaming, and various learning formats are the norm in today’s training industry. The CALF LMS has dealt with rapid industry developments with features like an e-commerce marketplace for monetizing your training content, detailed reports, data analytics, and much more!  It also has AI-powered personalized course recommendations tailored to different job specifications and learning styles to boost audience engagement and motivation.  6. Accessibility Besides quality, easy accessibility is vital for an effective learning and development solution. CALF LMS helps you deliver simplified learning seamlessly and at scale. It is easily available on the web, tablet, and native mobile apps on iOS and Android. Combined with an efficient and easy-to-use UI/UX, it can provide a fantastic learning experience on the go. 7. Microlearning Microlearning refers to breaking up the course content into small, bite-sized learning chunks that usually last 2-5 minutes. Such content can easily fit into the busy workdays of the learners and is easier to repurpose and refresh. As per research, microlearning can significantly improve focus, create 50% more engagement, and increase knowledge retention by over 80%.  CALF LMS helps you easily deliver just-in-time microlearning courses to the learners. It comes with numerous assessments, assignments, surveys, flashcards, and authoring tools to help you get creative with your learning content. 8. Strategic Integrations You must look for training software that gives you a complete learning experience backed by strategic integrations with the right technologies. The CALF LMS integrates with systems like HRMS, PMS, CMS, and CRM, among others. The platform’s built-in plug-and-play APIs (application programming interface) and connectors help seamlessly share information between the systems. The platform further integrates with gateway portals like PayPal, Razorpay, and Stripe for efficient payments and software like Darwinbox, Mailchimp, SAP, ZOHO, Teams, Gmail, PowerBI, SalesForce, Office 365, etc. for an all-round seamless user experience.  It also supports virtual event platforms like GoToTraining, GoToMeeting, Zoom, WebEx, Google Meet, Teams, etc., to help the learners communicate better and work in an instant messaging environment for an efficient workflow. 9. Customizability Businesses have varying demands for a training solution based on their needs. Hence, customizability is of prime importance. The CALF LMS helps you personalize the clients’ learning journeys with AI-powered course recommendations and customize the journey the way you want. It can include online training, coaching, assessments, surveys, and more.  You can administer and personalize the learning journeys for different clients and generate desired reports on their progress. You can also create custom metrics to measure the business impact of your learning. The platform allows you to manage and schedule learning events and deliver them in different types- instructor-led, self-paced, virtual, and blended. You can easily customize the look and feel of your e-commerce page on the platform’s marketplace for better branding and promotion. 10. Engagement Going through the training content and learning independently can often be overwhelming for people. You need an engaging learning and development platform that promotes social learning, as over 20% of learning happens this way. For instance, the CALF LMS helps improve engagement and promote social learning by allowing people to learn from each other, access subject matter experts, and solicit advice. 

10 Key aspects to look in a LMS

10 Key aspects to look in a Learning Management System LMS in 2019 Support all types of content A critical aspect for a Learning Management system is to support content in the form of Videos, SCORM, PDF, Word, Excel, PPT etc. This will ensure user engagement with appropriate call to actions. Personalization (Branding) A Learning Management System should be flexible to be personalized & structured according to ability, when required; allows to create learning universes, when and where desired. Integrations with different systems & other LMS’s The Learning Management System should be able to seamlessly integrate with HRMS systems and with Other LMS & Applications, this allows the organization to bring all employee related data in a single place.  Course recommendations & self-paced learning The Learning Management System should have AI inbuilt to recommend content based on the users learning journey and users liking. The LMS should give the users freedom to learn at their own pace. Gamification The Learning Management System should be able to provide a fun environment and should make learning more interactive & competitive by adding gamification & leaderboards in the learning journey, this helps the users to know where they stand and how they can improve their learning process. Discussion forms A good Learning Management System should have an aspect of Social Learning as it enables peer to peer learning, this helps the users to learn from their peers and share their ideas on their new learning with their peers and thus improve the overall learning experience for the user. Pre determining the learning journey A good Learning Management System needs to have the capability to identify and record individual job roles and create automated learning journeys for each such role, this offers better control for the organisation. Mobile / Multi device support The Learning management system should be compatible to all screen sizes and should automatically reconfigure for maximum efficiency (as per screen size) as per the user preferences. Reports & Analytics A good Learning Management System should support metrics that continually guide the learning process; offers techniques for correlation analysis, across objects, time, and learners. This will ensure that the organization’s learning goals are met on one hand and on the other relevant information is passed back to users to ensure their engagement as well. Customer service A good Learning Management System should be able to support its clients 24x7x365, ensuring business continuity and predictability. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management What is Learning Acceleration – 2019? Today, we see a August 2, 2021 Acceleration learning | Feature-2 | Featured post Read more Training Company demonstrates ROI of Leadership Programs using CALF™– A July 26, 2021 ROI of Leadership Read more Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your July 26, 2021 Top 10 features LMS Read more

What is Learning Acceleration?

What is Learning Acceleration – 2019? Today, we see a lot of leaders talk about learning acceleration, and I thought it’d be helpful to spend a few minutes thinking about this, in depth. How do you define “Learning Acceleration”? Having been a physicist, I need to say that learning acceleration involves a time component, and it should be properly defined as the how fast the learning velocity changes. But that is not really transparent and best understood with an example: it’s fairly obvious that human beings learn new things very fast as children and as they grow older, learning slows down. So let’s stick with something more understandable: how fast you learn new things. That should suffice. Note that the learning doesn’t necessarily have to be one dimensional – for example, acceleration in sales techniques, etc. Learning is in general, multi-dimensional. In today’s world, multi-dimensional learning is just as important as learning something very deep. More and more disciplines like biology, physics, chemistry, math, computing, geology, environmental sciences etc. require learning in multiple disciplines to arrive at a deeper understanding of natural phenomena. Why is “learning acceleration” important? Learning Acceleration has become important with the rate of technological changes afoot. Learning acceleration has always been important from time immemorial. It has been the difference between leaders and others i.e., leaders need to learn faster to be at least on par with their peers, if not ahead. But “Learning Acceleration” has also become important for companies to think about and start to worry about. One way to calibrate learning for an organization is to take the Learning Culture Survey (LCS) periodically and measure movements – say for teams, departments and organizations as a whole. How do you “accelerate learning”? We’ll visit this topic in my next blog topic as this is a whole field in itself. In the meantime, it will be helpful if you could share how you are accelerating learning in your organization.. I look forward to your thoughts and comments. Balasubramanian Krishnan, Ph.D. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your July 26, 2021 Top 10 features LMS Read more How a Learning Management System can help the BFSI industry July 26, 2021 BFSI industry Read more 10 Key aspects to look in a Learning Management System August 3, 2021 10 key aspects-2019 | Feature-3 Read more

The Google of Learning – Part I

The Google of Learning – Part I Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan Chief Executive Officer NuVeda What follows is a vision and a dream of mine. I have been an unabashed admirer of Google and its efforts – not only in its technologies, but also its philosophies. I believe with some of Google’s technologies, online universities and schools can be created that are unparalleled in depth, breadth and impact. Articles and contributions In a series of articles, I will outline what I wish to create in my lifetime. I admit that I tried to create this on my own and did not succeed, for a variety of reasons – for one, it is not an easy one to create. I am happy to contribute my time and energy in creating this space for people interested in this effort. I mean Google itself, if it is interested. I invite comments from one and all. Why? I am a firm believer in that Learning began when Nature began. Plants learn, animals learn, human beings learn. Learning continues even where electricity doesn’t. I feel that if there is a way to capture, deliver, synthesize, personalize, collaborate and innovate on all things we know about, it can be good for all of us, not only to leverage for business needs, but personal needs of humanity as a whole, and who knows – one day perhaps, more than humanity. I look at this as the ultimate innovation engine, if ever something like this should exist. It would become the ultimate open university. It would also create his-tories or her-stories – a story-telling of a kind yet untold. How? I’ve decided that this needs to be an open-source project – one that invites collaboration, research, experimentation and more (just like the Google of Learning itself). I am looking for volunteers to suggest, participate and develop the system. I am also looking for companies, universities and organizations to contribute to the effort with software, and more. Definition A system or space with the following characteristics Content-rich : Leverages freely available resources, organizes and structures them continually. Personalization: Personalized & structured according to ability, when required; allows to create learning universes, when and where desired. Collaborative: is collaborative & facilitates contributions Feedback: Provides continual feedback automatically; encourages feedback from others, when desired Gaming & Experimentation: Provides a fun environment – one that encourages Gaming and experimentation Research: Provides opportunities to research any item in the learning process always; refines research where and when appropriate Nuggetization: Allows for collective synthesis and sharing; creates stories for re-telling Sense-itive: Appeals to all senses – visual, auditory, touch, smell and taste; automatically reconfigures for maximum efficiency if one or many of the senses are absent. Continuous Learning: Is always learning – therefore intrigues the learner in the process to learn more; Fault-resistant – i.e., learning continues even if mistakes are made. Analytics: Metrics continually guide the learning process; offers techniques for correlation analysis, across objects, time, and learners Delivery: bite-sized nuggets of learning for continual improvement Is available 24x7x365 Is device & space agnostic – mobile, desktop, brick-and mortar or otherwise Leverages all available and relevant technologies – SCORM, videos, webinars, virtual classrooms and more Base Technology There are a variety of learning technologies – including excellent learning management systems (LMS-es) that do a portion of what I envision above. Over the course of these articles, I will start to inventory these systems for widespread application. Google+ or Facebook can be a prime candidate for the base system of this project. One can also argue that the University or a school is one such space. If such a University exists, I would like to know about it and contribute to its growth! Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your July 26, 2021 Top 10 features LMS Read more 8 Must-have Features for any Online learning platform along with July 26, 2021 8 Features of online learning Read more Are Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx & Livestream really enough to July 26, 2021 Livestream Read more

How a Learning Management System can help the BFSI industry tackle its top 5 training Challenges

How a Learning Management System can help the BFSI industry tackle its top 5 training Challenges It has been more than a decade since the Global Financial crisis crippled the Financial Industry. As a result, the need for regulatory compliance in the industry has taken unprecedented importance. Financial Institutions today face the daunting task of balancing regulatory compliance across global locations with employee engagement. Technological advancements can help the Financial Industry tackle this situation to their advantage. One such tool is a state-of-the art Learning Management System, such as CALF™. Listed below are the top 5 benefits that a world-class Learning Management System can offer: Adherence to Internal and regulatory standards Modern Learning Management Systems can offer an institution the flexibility to design and deploy content to targeted users. One example could be of a multi-national institution that would require to adhere to multiple regulations. A well designed Learning Management System can help the institution tackle this problem efficiently and help adherence to the multiple regulations coupled with the ease of operations for the team deploying such content Availability of training material on the go It is estimated that millennials have their mobile phones accessible for 70% of their waking time. When we combine these kind of statistics with the rising number of millennials in the work force, the need for training being made available on the go doesn’t need any further validation. A modern Learning Management System will ensure that the content, created painstakingly by the learning and development team, is made available to the users on the go. Engaging the learner Studies in the learning and development space have clearly shown that the effectiveness of training is largely dependent on how engaged the learner is with the content that is being made available. Hence, initial solutions were designed around digitisation of content, however this too did not seem to solve the issue. A contemporary solution has been found in the use of SCORM, a standard in the learning industry. A modern Learning Management System will be able to support this requirement to ensure user engagement and also give detailed reports on the engagement of the user. Measuring Training effectiveness  In spite of the rapid rise in the need for engaged and accelerated learning, the quantification of the training effectiveness remains a challenge at large. A modern Learning Management System can help the Learning and development team to measure the effectiveness of all its training initiatives across courses, groups, locations, regions, departments etc. MIS Last but not the least is the capability of a Modern Learning Management System in effectively creating reports for the Learning and Development team that could result in effective learning interventions. A modern Learning Management System can also assist the institution is creating customised reports to have key information handy for regulatory reporting as well. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your July 26, 2021 Top 10 features LMS Read more What is Learning Acceleration – 2019? Today, we see a August 2, 2021 Acceleration learning | Feature-2 | Featured post Read more 10 Key aspects to look in a Learning Management System August 3, 2021 10 key aspects-2019 | Feature-3 Read more

Are Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx & Livestream really enough to conduct Online Learning ??

Are Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx & Livestream really enough to conduct Online Learning ?? What is Online Learning? “Online Learning” is learning through the internet and not in a traditional classroom. Today we can learn anything from purchasing self-paced courses available on the online market to the free videos on Youtube. All these falls under the broad term “online learning”. How effective and efficient is online learning? Online learning is broad, and the effectiveness & efficiency of the learning depends on the method of learning. For example, in self-paced courses, the learning can be very slow because the participant has to understand the topics on their own and there are limited opportunities to clarify doubts on a subject. In such cases, there are legitimate questions about the efficiency and effectiveness of learning. The Present Situation Today because of the COVID-19 everyone is moving towards online learning and started using Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx & Livestream to continue their learning, But these platforms’ main purpose is video conferencing, they allow visual connection between two or more people residing in separate locations for the purpose of communication. Thanks to their free plan offerings and simple UI & UX, many people started using these platforms. However, these platforms’ cannot track the effectiveness nor the efficiency of the learning because they are not built for that purpose. They simply just provide online conferencing and collaboration facilities. The Right solution When online learning is used along with video conferencing, additional tools are required to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of learning. For example: Ability to record the video conferences and assign it as an attachment for review to the participants. Ability to mark the attendance and issue certificates online after the course completion. Ability to conduct Quizzes, Assessments & Surveys and real-time instant feedback. Ability to get a detailed report on every participant. Discussion forms to increase learning between peers. The CALF™ platform comes with all these features inbuilt and free virtual classroom setup and free trial for 45 days for up to 100 users. Start using it NOW and transform your company into real online learning. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management How a Learning Management System can help the BFSI industry July 26, 2021 BFSI industry Read more What is Learning Acceleration – 2019? Today, we see a August 2, 2021 Acceleration learning | Feature-2 | Featured post Read more 10 Key aspects to look in a Learning Management System August 3, 2021 10 key aspects-2019 | Feature-3 Read more

Training Company demonstrates ROI of Leadership Programs using CALF(TM)–

A leading training company specializing in delivering world class leadership programs found it difficult to monitor, track and demonstrate the ROI of its leadership programs to its clients. They tried projects, pen and paper techniques to calculate the benefits, but found it difficult and cumbersome. Solution NuVeda recommended the use of their world class learning platform, CALF™, NuVeda’s flagship product to demonstrate business impact and calculate ROI. CALF™ provided many benefits, including the automation of the Kirkpatrick Model workflow during course creation, tracking behavior through Learning Application Posts (LAPs), Manager Approvals of benefits, and finally, the overall business impact calculation. In addition, automated reminders and notifications to participants and managers made the management and administration very easy. Benefits A consolidated report of revenue, cost reduction, productivity and customer satisfaction was demonstrated to their end client, and enabled repeat business for the training company. In particular, for one automotive client, they were able to demonstrate the following benefits: 20% increase in revenue Increase in productivity by reduction of 16,000 man hours 30% Cost reduction during painting by reduction of lead time from 3 days to 1 hour Testimonials “CALF™ provided all the required features to measure learning and track performance improvement. Moreover, our participants found the user-interface friendly and easy to navigate. CALF™ has proven itself to be an effective sales tool.” Director, Training Company Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management

Are your teams competitive enough in today’s world?

Are your teams competitive enough in today’s world? Most organizations spend considerable sums of money training their sales teams and leadership teams , for good reasons. They want them to stay competitive and successful. More importantly, such teams need to be learning continuously to stay competitive. Therefore, a key question arises: How do we know that such teams are learning continuously? As a Learning company, NuVeda is committed to learning always for its own benefit and for the benefit of its customers as well. To understand organizational learning better, we came up with a diagnostic that measures the learning of an organization across 3 dimensions: a) the organization as a whole; b) the teams in the organization, and c) the individual. There were three basic outcomes of this effort 1) We were able to capture a Learning Culture Metric (LCM) for our organization. This is a number between 1 and 10, and allows you to benchmark with other organizations or teams within a company. If you are interested in finding out the LCM for your organization, please contact us here. 2) We discovered that in order to increase the LCM by 10% we had to do a considerable amount of work across multiple dimensions. 3) We realized that we need a more continuous way of growing learning in our company, and created a unique social learning ecosystem called GOL that has the following traits: Learning, Accountability, Excellence, Feedback Culture, Recognition and Data Centricity, all tied to a Gamified Leaderboard. We tried it, and within 3 weeks, we saw learning increase multi-fold across diverse topics. For example, our teams shared learning across multiple disciplines: sales, technology, health and wellness, planning, software development practices and more. We were able to identify how our teams learn, the breadth and depth of learning, as well as identify team members who are learning accelerators and facilitators. If GOL is of interest to you, please contact us here. We are now accepting the first 10 companies who wish to engage in a pilot with us. (1) – The sales training market is estimated to be in excess of $2.5B worldwide. Source: Training Industry Reports. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management 10 Key aspects to look in a Learning Management System August 3, 2021 10 key aspects-2019 | Feature-3 Read more The Google of Learning – Part I Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan August 1, 2021 Feature-1 | google of learning Read more The Google of Learning – Part III Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan July 26, 2021 google learning3 Read more

8 Must-have Features for any Online learning platform along with video conferencing in 2020.

8 Must-have Features for any Online learning platform along with video conferencing in 2020. 1. Discussion Forums Discussion forums help the participants to interact with their facilitators & peers and thus help in peer to peer learning. 2. Surveys/Polls Ability to create surveys and polls and send it to participants to collect their feedback on the sessions. 3. Assessment & Quizzes Ability to conduct assessments & quizzes inside the platform and also need to get instant reports on participants’ performance. 4. Reports and Analytics Highly personalized reports and the analytics for the session /course should be available along with the status of each student in the concerned categories. 5. Gamification Ability to assign points to the participants as they learn and complete tasks and track those points using leaderboards creates a game-like experience and makes learning fun & exciting. 6. Notification and Announcements The ability to send role-specific notifications and to set the auto-notifications trigger in the platform for session reminders, session invitations will be handy. 7. Session Calendar A session calendar in the platform can help the participants to keep track of all the important session dates and deadlines in one place and helps in managing their time. 8. Certification Auto-assign Certificates on course completion, as well as the design of the certificates, are important in Online Learning. The CALF™ platform comes with all these features inbuilt and free virtual classroom setup and free trial for 45 days for up to 100 users.  Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management The Google of Learning – Part II Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan July 26, 2021 google learning 2 Read more The Google of Learning – Part III Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan July 26, 2021 google learning3 Read more Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your July 26, 2021 Top 10 features LMS Read more

Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your LMS

Top 10 Must-Have Features You Should Look for in Your LMS There are a lot of Learning management systems that are available in market today. While it is debatable which is the best, we have listed out some of the essential features which you should look for before buying a learning management system. Beautiful Interface and an amazing user experience A seamless and comfortable user experience is a must have as this is the deciding factor to the relationship between the learning management system and the organization. It is very important to be able to manage, deliver and participate with simplicity and ease of use. The process of creating courses, programs or curricula should be transparent and done with a minimum number of clicks, but with the maximum of flexibility. Native Mobile Apps Today’s learning happens mainly through formal and informal ways over smartphones and tablets. This allows the students or participants to take part in learning activities anytime and anywhere. Native iOS and Android apps enhance the user experience, and must be considered essential. Course and content management The learning management system should support the latest international standards and be able to upload documents,videos and other learning materials for the users to consume.It would be nice if your LMS has the ability to customise your courses.Registration and assignment of courses should be doable for an individual participant or for a group of participants. Broadcasting of your organisational information will help you to keep updated with latest activities. ILT, Blended and Online Learning Support for multi-modal learning methods such as Instructor-Led Training (ILT), Blended Learning and online learning are a must. Facilitators and Administrators must have the ability to mark attendance at a training program, and have the abilities to conduct instant polls as needed. SCORM Compliance Although there is an increasing tendency of LMS-es today to downplay standards such as SCORM etc., we find that many organizations require support for these standards as relevant today as before. In addition, newer compliance standards are now being adopted, including the TinCan or Experience (xAPI). App Notifications and Emails The ability to provide App and email notifications & reminders to engage the users is critical. Additionally, the ability to customize email templates and provide flexibility to facilitators is also critical. Surveys and Assessments Surveys and Assessments are key ingredients of any course and the flexibility in providing the course creator to create various types of quizzes and surveys is essential. These include: The ability to create statements and questions that have multiple choices,Texts, Likert scales, fill in the blanks, etc. The ability to randomize questions for each learner. The ability for manual and automatic grading. The ability to give weightage for your marks. And, in some cases where your LMS is also a recruitment platform, the provision for proctoring during exams. Certificates It is essential that your LMS provide a way to certify users after completion of their courses. This serves as a badge of honor in their peer groups and also as an accomplishment mechanism. Gamification Gamification is a must have attribute of a learning management system with an organization that incentivizes the process of learning.It also helps in nurturing a learning environment by creating a friendly and constructive competitions.It engages learners and it is the best practice to accelerate learning within an organization. Reporting The reports are a very critical aspect of the learning management software system.It is very imperative to keep track of the progress of the learner as well as tracking the adoption of the learning and Identifying the learning path. Nearly all the above and many more critical features are readily available with our CALF Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management The Google of Learning – Part II Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan July 26, 2021 google learning 2 Read more The Google of Learning – Part III Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan July 26, 2021 google learning3 Read more The Google of Learning – Part I Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan August 1, 2021 Feature-1 | google of learning Read more

The Google of Learning – Part III

The Google of Learning – Part III Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan Chief Executive Officer NuVeda In the original article on this subject (The Google of Learning – Part I), I defined a set of attributes for the online learning university I called the Google of Learning.  In a prior article (The Google of Learning – Part II), we talked about content, what content-rich is and what automatic categorization is about.In this article, I explore Personalization – what such an online university system should do for me. We all know of many organizations that subscribe to thousands of e-learning courses but very few of them are actually used. Why? They simply aren’t personalized to the individuals. In other words, there is a library, but that is not of interest to me because it doesn’t serve my needs and interests. There are a few attributes that come to mind, in no particular order. They are related to the “what, when and how” of the learning elements. In order to demonstrate the points, I take a non-corporate example such as cooking a vegetable lasagna. Just-in-Time i.e., Provide me with the learning elements at the right time This is now a commonly expected behavior of many applications – that the notifications and learning elements are delivered when you need them, not too much earlier or later. It’s like performing any task – be it mountain climbing or swimming or bicycling, for that matter. Unless the key tips for doing the job are learned closer to the time of the actual event, the tips may well be irrelevant, because we may well forget. But Just-in-Time also means the ability to replay and re-learn things when we want it. For example, in Mathematics or in Physics, we might want to hear the techniques a couple of times before we actually perform the mathematical task or the physics experiment. For example, in the case of a vegetable lasagna, can a simple recipe be delivered when I want it (yes – today!); Watch a video of a cook making it (yes, probably!); but real learning happens if I get asked a question: “What would happen if you added coriander to this lasagna sauce?” Contextual i.e., Provide the right learning elements at the right time We all know of many organizations that subscribe to thousands of e-learning courses but very few of them are actually used. Why? They aren’t personalized to the individuals. The contextual characteristic goes hand-in-hand with the “Just-in-Time” requirement. What is relevant to me at a particular time differs from what another employee needs at that time. The ability to distinguish that comes from an understanding of the historical perspective of my needs and actions. In many ways, this is similar to the Google search – how it anticipates what you are likely to type. That is, the system must be smart enough to provide me with the next learning elements based on historical experience. One could stretch this further and ask the system to anticipate the learning elements in the current context – i.e., literally “just-in-time”, but that simply destroys the joy of living and discovery, in my humble opinion – that would be more suitable for robots. In the vegetable lasagna example, one context might be that I do not have much time. In such a case, I might actually appreciate learning about whether there is a quick and dirty way to make a vegetable lasagna? Or are there other alternate dishes that are easier to cook and have a similar pasta-cake like feel? Discovery versus informational i.e., Allow me to discover versus simply provide information One of the biggest drawbacks of general purpose courseware is that they lack the fun elements of learning. When courseware becomes fun, it becomes learningware. It is well known that discovery fosters learning and that puzzles and games accelerate learning because there are many elements to discover. Even physics, chemistry and biological experiments may be considered as games, in some extreme cases. It is therefore meaningful to structure learning elements in various puzzle and game-like methods for effective learning; the easier it is to do, the better the Google of Learning will be. In that sense, the Socratic method (asking questions) is supreme for learning effectiveness. This begs the key question: What kinds of puzzles, games, simulations and other such methods must be possible in the Google of Learning? In the vegetable lasagna example, I might appreciate learning more about what vegetables can go in a vegetable lasagna, and what not. And more importantly, why! Sensory i.e., Allow me to leverage the right kinds of sensory behaviors for effective learning. This characteristic is a little tricky and necessarily complex. It is well known that the learning styles of people differ and many people may call themselves visual, auditory, etc. With the advent of the touch-sensitive devices such as iPad and Tablets, the number of possibilities to deliver learning elements compound dramatically. What then is the right approach? The Google of Learning may itself have to discover the user’s learning style using a combination of methods, and senses, when and where they are applicable. For example, learning how to cook a vegetable lasagna well by reading a recipe is very different from learning from an accomplished cook – learning by watching and doing. This explains why the iPad is a big hit with the young children – they tend to learn by feeling, touching and tasting, in addition to seeing and hearing. When the opportunity to play with the iPad presents itself, I have never seen ANY kid shy away. Now, that is saying something! In the case of the veggie lasagna, I might be interested in a learning element that allows me to touch and feel the lasagna – I for one like the top crispy! Do we have ANY devices that allow us to experience that kind of feel? Probably not! Probably soon to come! Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management 10 Key aspects

The Google of Learning – Part II

The Google of Learning – Part II Dr. Balasubramanian Krishnan Chief Executive Officer NuVeda In the original article on this subject (The Google of Learning – Part I), I defined a set of attributes for the space I called the Google of Learning. In this article, I explore the meaning of Content and structure for such a Learning Universe. Content-Rich In the context of the Google of Learning concept, content acquires a holistic meaning – that of an object that can be consumed by the senses. Let me explain. Today content is generally understood to be text, art or images, sounds, songs (audio sequenced over time) and video (audio & imagery sequenced over time). All of these are stored in computers in a boolean sequence (ones and zeroes) and retrieved when required, for example – clicking on this web page. Therefore, you can now begin to imagine the scale of the content to be managed. Video is rich because two different senses are combined over time. Now, when you coalesce video and the sense of touch over time, a whole new sequence of content is created which is easily richer than video itself. Now, that is still only 3 out of the 5 senses. I will let you imagine the size and scale of the content to be managed when you include all senses (see Sense-itive, as part of the Google of Learning – Part I). When I talk about content-richness in the Google of Learning concept, I am talking about content that can be assembled and dis-assembled, aggregated, disaggregated and presented to the learner. But this assembly and dis-assembly is possible only when the content is structured – not just in terms of tagging, which addresses relevance to some extent, but also organized in a logical fashion that is appropriate for the needs of the learner. Why is organization and structuring of content important? In some ways it is exactly like a product and the buyer. When the need is there, the product gets bought. If the need is not there, the product may get bought, just like a search might yield the results that you want. Similarly, the question to ask is – how can content be structured in a fashion that the learner wants. Even better – how can content be automatically structured? Note that this is more than meta-tagging. It is more than Web 3.0 – the Semantic Web. How the content needs to be structured is dependent on how the learner wants it. Therein lies the challenge. A kid learns differently from a teenager who in turn learns differently than an adult. But what really distinguishes a kid’s learning ability from that of an adult? We all know of many whiz kids who qualify for Ph.D’s at a young age, etc. It all depends on their abilities – assessed by a well-accepted set of independent measurement tools. These tools are called tests or assessments. In effect, one needs ways of creating steps or mini-steps of learning along the way which assesses an individual (see Nuggetization – as part of the Google of Learning – Part I). Let’s be sure that Meta Tagging is a fantastic beginning. It addresses elements of the What. Automatic Meta Tagging is something Google does reasonably well, today. Therefore, one can easily categorize learning subjects and find subjects of interest to us. However, consider these scenarios: You want to learn piano lessons for free – search the web and search youtube. What do you find? How do you choose? Does it have the right structure for you? Assume you want to learn in 5-minute segments: what can you find? What if you wanted to learn in 10 minute segments? 20-minute segments? Can you break up a 20-minute lesson into 5-minute segments? Take the example of a book having 200 pages – you can read it one page at a time, 10 pages at a time or a chapter at a time. However, one could argue that it makes sense probably to read it only one chapter at time, but still the choice is available to me. Provides continual feedback automatically; encourages feedback from others, when desired You might also want to aggregate their lessons, based on their time availability – i.e., aggregate 5-minute lessons to create a 30-minute segment, for example. Are these offerings available to you? Now think of added complexity. Assume that you have completed basic piano lessons and are now ready to do more. What should the Google of Learning do for you? Where should you begin? Allows for collective synthesis and sharing; creates stories for re-telling There is more. You might be a piano aficionado and you might actually want to learn from certain Masters, specific ones. And….more! More need for structure. I am sure there will be more such needs, as it develops. The key question is: are such choices available to me today? The answer is – it is available, partially. But learner demands dictate how the content must be structured, automatically. Are you able to set up a start point and and end-point for your learning – i.e., goals? Can the Google of Learning determine the right goals for you, based on your profile? And that brings us to the next article on the The Google of Learning – Part 3: Personalization. Stay tuned – and please do let me know what you think! Cheers, Krishnan. Explore our thought leadership Similar articles on learning management Are Zoom, Google Hangouts, WebEx & Livestream really enough to July 26, 2021 Livestream Read more Training Company demonstrates ROI of Leadership Programs using CALF™– A July 26, 2021 ROI of Leadership Read more Are your teams competitive enough in today’s world? Most organizations July 26, 2021 Competitive team Read more