The Boggs e-Learning Chronicle

A Snapshot of the e-Learning Market

Sarah Boehle of Trainingmag.com has an article out on the current state of the e-learning market.  The article sites many trends and gives a pretty accurate assessment of e-learning / learning management systems industry.  The e-learning market is maturing, putting pressure on companies to provide better products and learning services to meet their needs.

Excerpt:
"Peter McStravick, a senior research analyst with the learning services group of Framingham, Mass.-based research firm IDC, is witnessing the same trend. "There's a transformational discussion going on right now between customers and vendors. Vendors are having to step up the services they offer around products because it's no longer a matter of giving people products and helping them implement them. Today, customers also want to know how you can help them improve their return on investment on products, or help align learning objectives with their company's business objectives."

The State of the E-Learning Market

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Learning Styles and its impact on Study Habits

ASTD has an article  by Ryan Watkings, PH.D. at The George Washington University,

Learning Styles and Study Habits

The article offers some practical exercises to give online learners to help them better understand their own learning style and prefered study habits in the context of an e-learning/learning management systems environment.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

New SyberWorks Media Center Article: Web-Based Learning Management Systems Deployed in Partner Support Settings

Check out our latest news & article.  Here is the press release:

SyberWorks announces a new article available in its Media Center: “Web-Based Learning Management Systems Used in Partner Support Settings”

The article is located at Web-Based Learning Management Systems in Partner Support Settings

I have also included it in the post:

Web-Based Learning Management Systems in Partner Support Settings

In many respects, e-Learning has matured as a technology and industry. Today we will look at how web-based learning management systems can be and are being used as part of the partner support function in a company or organization.

What is a learning management system?

Learning management systems (LMSs) are web-based software application platforms used to plan, implement, and assess learning processes related to online and offline training administration and performance management.  LMSs provide an instructor a way to create and deliver content, monitor learners’ participation, and assess student performance. They also provide learners with the ability to use interactive features, such as threaded discussions, web conferencing, discussion forums, and other methods of communication.

Where and why are learning management systems being used in partner support settings?

LMSs are being used in business-to-business, high-process, value-added, and technology-oriented business environments in industries like telecommunications, advanced electronic technology, semiconductor manufacturing, insurance, banking, medical products, and others. Learning management systems are being used in partner support settings because they can be a cost-effective solution to providing performance support for a company’s products and services.

In some ways, partner support operations may be similar to customer support settings, but they possess some distinct differences. More often than not, and by its very nature, a partner channel of distribution exists because the partner adds value to the product and services your company offers. Partner support operations may be more concerned with tactical distribution or other issues because they are responsible for providing their part of the value chain in the delivery of your product or service.

Partners walk a different road with product end users. Partners need the flexibility to provide information and support customer needs, but in a way that supports and amplifies the value their company brings to the partner channel.

Why is it cost-effective to use an LMS for your company’s partner support operations?

Learning management systems have lots of functionality that can be used in partner support organizations. A good LMS lets you create multiple partner campuses, which the partners themselves can customize to meet an end-user customer’s needs. Each partner can have their own look and feel, with a large selection of capabilities to deliver their unique value-add to the product or service.

Learning management systems can be used to create a library of custom online courses that demonstrate how to use products and services. These courses can be easily updated with the information/service offering unique to the partner’s contribution to the product. They can have the same look and feel as the partner’s site, to maintain a branded experience. The course can be updated at will, so you’re not paying every three months to print new product guides and support manuals.

LMSs can be used to track and monitor your partner’s activities, instead of using a bunch of spreadsheets. This is very effective in scenarios where partners must be certified to use your products and services. The learning management system can be set up to notify a partner when their certification is set to expire, using an email tickler so they can recertify on your product. The partner organizations themselves can be configured into a hierarchy within the learning management system, which can be used to manage the partner distribution channel.

What other features in learning management systems can be used for the partner support function?

A well-designed LMS comes with a help desk feature that can be used for 24/7 partner and end-user customer support. Learning management systems can have integrated web conferencing technology, which can be used in a number of ways to support partners and end-user customers Such as:

• synchronous training used in product implementation;
• web conferencing on a new feature set that can be archived for later viewing;
• actual, on-the-spot tech-support using the “share your desktop” feature so your tech can go in and fix any problems
• and more.

LMSs can have a built-in survey tool that allows you to query your partners and end-user customers with the results stored in the learning management system database for later use. Learning management systems can have a single sign-on/e-Commerce registration feature that can be used to sell add-on features. LMSs also may have events management/seminar logistics add-on applications that can help you manage both your off-site and onsite partner and end-user customer support training. Each individual partner campus that is created can have its own reference area for materials, to help supplement online course content.

A company can realize effective resource planning and substantial cost savings by using learning management systems in partner support settings. The support offered through the functionality of a learning management system can go a long way to cement the relationship between the company and its partner distribution channel, and will have a direct impact on both organizations’ bottom lines.  Using a learning management system, one or two channel partnership managers or business development managers can manage and direct thousands of partner firms at substantially reduced costs, with the ability to provide precise support requirements customized to that partner’s individual needs. In conclusion, web-based learning management systems can be a very useful, cost effective way to manage a company’s partner support function.

 

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Will Corporate Trainers Become an Endangered Species

Godfrey Parking had an interesting post back in December about corporate trainers?

Is there a future for corporate trainers?

Excerpt:
"It is alarming that as corporations allegedly place increasing emphasis on human performance as a critical success factor, one of their traditional drivers of that performance – trainers – are dying on the vine."

I think some of his underlying assumptions and observations are correct and the growth, acceptance, and use of e-learning / learning management systems as a viable mechanism for training has somewhat fueled their demise.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Lots of controversy about Wiki's

Here are some interesting post about wiki's.

Are Wiki's Inherently Flawed?-Good article about the problems associated with Wiki's

Throwing Stones At the Wiki Glass House -Another  post on the other side of the issue

WikipediaClassAction.org -A group gathering material for a class action lawsuit against Wikipedia.

More about Wiki's- A post from 12/14/2005

As stated in a the 12/14/2005 post, because the content can be edited by anyone, the whole process of certification and training on competencies or other proprietary content is put in danger.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks
 

 

Personal Learning Environments vs. Learning Management Systems

Very well done post about Personal Learning Environments vs. Learning Management Systems.

"Summary: Although there is something quite compelling about the vision of a lifelong learning environment that is centered upon and perpetually belongs to the learner, I think we are some distance from being able to operationalize that vision. ..........LMS systems have afforded teachers the capacity to create their own web courses with minimal programming expertise or even instructional design support. Thus, they have become essential and very popular tools for early and late majority users ........"

PLE’s versus LMS: Are PLEs ready for Prime time?

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Benefits....

Very interesting post that runs counter to current thought in the corporate braintrust, and certainly, a company that takes care of its employees would probably concerned about their training and employee competency management and development.

BENEFITS:  Cutting Benefits To Cut Costs? Think Twice

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

An oldie, but a goodie...

While it was posted Jenna Sweeny back on February 9th, 2005, if your a newbie to e-learning/learning management systems, its a good post that summarizes some of the benefits of e-learning.

Benefits of e-Learning

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Best Practices in Evaluating e-Learning Platforms-->Segment #2 Emphasize the value-add elements of the platform to drive acceptance

This is the second segment in an occasional series about best practices in regards evaluating e-learning platforms.

Emphasize the value-add elements of the platform to drive acceptance

Spend time stressing the benefits that will be gained by the various groups in your organization in relationship to specific aspects of the technology as it relates to job performance. For example, highlight the blended learning functionality with your organization’s trainers who run traditional training programs so they can begin to visualize how they would incorporate the LMS into their brick and mortar training events.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks

Which better promotes business sustainability, organizational learning or individual learning on the job?

Very provocative article about Peter Senge's  keynote speech at the annual conference of the European Academy of Business in Society.  Senge is a senior lecturer at MIT.

Strategy & Management: Management thinking - It’s the learning, stupid

Excerpt:

"“Learning is always contextual,” he told the cream of corporate social responsibility thinkers from business schools all over Europe and the US. “The organizational learning perspective provides a natural way to step into these problems referred to as corporate responsibility.”

To make his point about the value of learning and the key challenge of maintaining success, Senge points to the 1982 Shell-commissioned study into the organizational life expectancy of a Fortune 500 company.

In the original study, which has been repeated since, researchers found the average life expectancy of such companies to be about 40 years. “An organism must move in harmony with its environment,” Senge told the December conference........................

Senge told the conference: “Slowly, but in an accelerating way, more and more global enterprises see [learning] as core to their survival and ability of innovate.” Such learning about environmental harmony represents what Senge calls sources of value, which, he says, are “fundamentally of strategic significance”."
***Excerpt End***

Senge goes on to say that "A focus on teaching individuals in the workplace “borders on irrelevance”, he says. Generally “no change comes as a result”.  He then goes further and says, "“What value is produced by the individual?” Senge asked the Warsaw audience before providing his own answer: “Nothing”. Collective learning is the fundamental, he says. “It is teams embedded within larger networks that drive organizational learning.”

I am not sure I totally agree with him here.  His over arching point of the article is that organizational sustainability is directly related to a company's ability to achieve an environmental harmony, i.e., change with the business environment and the times.  Employees who improve and enhance their skills on the job may benefit the company and in turn, potentially help the company stay in environmental harmony.

Yes, the collective organizational learning is important, and yes, human nature being what it is, an individuals motives and desires for improving their performance are personal, i.e. self-directed [performing better at work, getting more $$, and feeling more satisfied about their work] but that can have a very positive outcome for an organization as it strives to achieve organizational  sustainability.

In my estimation, a company  needs both and a good e-learning program/learning management systems initiative as part of tactical strategy to support  both sides, organizational learning and individual learning for the greater goal of environmental harmony and business sustainability.

Oh well, I could go on, but there  just not enough time for these intellectual musings.  Hope you enjoy the post.

Dave Boggs
SyberWorks