Two current trends in technology-enhanced learning systems that are now starting to gain exposure and adoption are Learning Analytics and the SCORM upgrade/replacement, TinCan, also known as xAPI.

Learning Analytics is the application of marketing-style analysis to data generated by learners. It aims to capture what tasks a learner has performed and build profiles of activity and end results in order to try and see what kinds of behaviour and activity lead to learning success. Additionally, it seeks to flag up learners who are perhaps struggling with work, which might offer a teacher or trainer the chance to intervene with more support.

Learning Analytics does have numerous issues around things like capture of data and privacy-protection, and many organisations and leaders are still debating the ethics and policies that should guide its implementation. However, it does seem like an efficient and effective way to capture and analyse more about learners.

TinCan / xAPI is based on and extended from the popular SCORM course specification, breaking free from the confines of a closed delivery system such as an LMS. It allows practically any type of interaction, both on and offline, to be recorded against a user’s learning record. For example, using the simple language-like syntax of “John read a research paper”, or “Mary took test 1 with a score of 10”, TinCan can capture data which can then be analysed using a variety of different models to discover things like content or activity effectiveness. The data retrieved is then stored in a Learning Record Store (or LRS), which can be incorporated into the LMS.

In combination, these two methods of data-capture and analysis offer a new method to gain insight into the way that learners learn and what kinds of activities and events benefit or hinder learning. This means reduced costs for you when developing learning content, as the most effective activities and content types for your audience can be easily discovered. It also brings better outcomes for learners, as those who are struggling with content can be identified and given extra support, while those who are not challenged enough can be presented with more challenging work to do.

Find out more about Learning Analytics and TinCan, or about implementing an LRS within your organisation: contact us today for advice.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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How Is AI Changing The Way We Work?

From small changes such as email inbox filtering and email auto replies to AI assistants, the positive impact of technology in the workplace is plain to see. From the start of the employment process AI is heavily involved, from screening CV’s and increasingly popular use of skill games to assess the cognitive and emotional behaviour of candidates. Once in the workplace the implementation of AI processes and automation of mundane jobs enables employees to focus their time and energy on completing more complicated tasks to a higher standard as AI frees up employee time. The ways in which AI can grow and be implemented shows a lot of promise, such as CRM systems that learn from sales history, and guides employees on where to focus their sales energy to work more productively based on their work habits and past performance.

How Can AI Be Used In Employee Training?

Learning and development (L&D) is one of the key areas that AI is being implemented in workplaces across the globe, and also one that will see great advancements over the coming years. But, how can employees utilise training AI and what are the benefits of doing so?

Content Curation

As mentioned in our previous post, Learning and Development: Why Is Employee Development Important, curating a L&D strategy is vital. Thankfully, AI is on hand to help with this by taking into account the company objectives, the employees role and the training course. Once this has all been taken into account AI can curate custom training content in order to get the most out of the course and trainee.

Reinforcement

In order to make the most of L&D newly learned skills should be reinforced on an ongoing basis, however this is an area where training is often lacking. Once a training course is completed we tend to see this as ticked off, yet it’s a process that takes time. This is where AI can make a real difference; using it’s learned behaviours and reminder style systems it regularly reinforces the information we have just been taught to ensure this is really understood and taken on board.

Measurement

Large data sets are often quite unwieldy and time consuming to sort into manageable, and readable, results. Data such as employee training courses, employee surveys and employee reviews can easily be digested by AI and given back to us as tangible information we can use to help employees by skill matching for mentorships, on the job training or progression support. This use of AI frees up time by taking the heavy lifting of data sets off employers shoulders, and freeing up time for them to focus on the results and how to make positive changes off the back of them.

How do you see AI changing the landscape of the workplace in the future?[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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Bridging the Communication Gap

In this current work-from-home environment, face-to-face communication is becoming more and more a thing of the past. Instead of co-workers stopping by the desk to ask about updates, our inboxes are being inundated with messages. We login to video conferences that are hard to focus on and plagued with teething problems. Watch and Learn bridges this gap between these two extremes.

This video sharing feature is part of Webanywhere’s effort to speed up business communication to provide the benefits of face-to-face collaboration between colleagues, customers and partners who cannot physically be in the same location but still wish to conduct effective communication, coaching, interviews and sales engagements.

“Technology needs to be more empathetic and combining video conferencing with voice notes and video messages makes communication more human” said Sean Gilligan, CEO of Webanyhere. “Video conferencing is on the rise and has been one of the defining elements of the coronavirus pandemic, with millions of people forced to work remotely.”

Watch and Learn provides a delightful user experience for both structured and spontaneous communication.

“Watch and Learn is a one stop shop solution which allows you to enter video rooms or messaging groups. Working from home can be lonely. Watercooler conversations are no longer possible. The real work happens in the meetings between the meetings,” said Sean Gilligan.

Having one platform where you manage and participate in scheduled (formal) communications and spontaneous (informal) teamwork reduces your communication overhead.

Offices are closing and lots of people are uncomfortable returning to work for health reasons. This demand is met with an all in one video and messaging platform.

Michal Woch, Operations Director at Webanywhere, went on to add “The problem that Watch and Learn solves is for those instances where a meeting is not necessary and an email lacks emotion. Watch and Learn addresses the business communication gap by bringing empathy into the remote workplace.”

Executives have a communication overhead when it comes to checking in with all staff. Managers who do this too often are accused of micromanagement. Watch and Learn helps you avoid radio silence by keeping all communication channels open.

Sean Gilligan went on to say “You can see who has played your audio messages or watched your videos. In addition Watch and Learn can launch high-quality video calls in a branded environment with no software to install.”

Watch and Learn provides businesses with an efficient and easy to use alternative to endless emails and meetings.

The platform, which can be used across all mobile and desktop devices, enables members of your team to send short video, audio and text messages to colleagues which appear on a social media style timeline.

With Watch and Learn, everyone is kept updated and informed from anywhere at any time, without their inbox getting flooded.

Watch and Learn moves business communication away from the inbox and makes it interactive and fun.

In conclusion, you wouldn’t dream of turning up to an exhibition with an unbranded shell as a stand. Furthermore, if you spot a white van driving down the street you don’t know which company is being represented. Why should this be any different when it comes to video calls? Branded video calls build trust with your audience. It’s not just about the screen backgrounds, the presentations and the content of video calls, it’s how you launch a video call.

Watch and Learn Overview for Business
Watch and Learn Overview for Education[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post New Launch From Webanywhere Lets Companies Have Branded Video Calls appeared first on Webanywhere.

Skills are voice-driven Alexa capabilities. You can add Alexa skills to your Echo to bring products and services to life. You can view available skills and enable or disable them using your Alexa app.
It’s easy adding skills onto your Alexa device. All you need is the Alexa App (and of course an Alexa.)

Alexa for Business gives you access to all Alexa skills. To enable skills for your devices, you must first enable it for your organisation and then add it to one or more skill groups that are assigned to your rooms.

Manage your skills on Alexa

• Open the Alexa for Business console at https://console.aws.amazon.com/a4b/
• Choose Skills, Alexa Skills store.
• Find the skill to add by browsing the list of available skills, filtering by category, or searching by keyword. You can get more details about the skill and how to add it in the skill details.
• Choose Enable skill.
• If the skill requires it, link your master account by following the account linking steps. When you are done, you receive a success message in the console.
• If the skill supports it, optionally enable permissions by choosing Allow next to each permission and choose Save.
• Choose Enabled skills, select the check box next to the skill that you just added, and choose to Add to a skill group.
• Select the check box next to the skill group to which to add the skill, and choose Add.
• Custom Alexa skills development

Alexa skills are essentially apps, which enable Amazon’s voice assistant to connect to hardware and software to perform certain tasks.

What skills can Alexa develop?

Alexa comes with a selection of built-in capabilities, which are referred to as skills.

The Alexa Skills Kit allows you to teach Alexa new skills. Customers can access these new abilities by asking their Alexa questions or making requests. An example of some skills are;

Tip – Try looking up answers to specific questions

Challenge the user with puzzles or games (“Alexa, play Jeopardy.”)

Control lights and other devices in the home (“Alexa, turn on the living room lights.”)

Provide audio or text content for a customer’s flash briefing (“Alexa, give me my flash briefing”)

Some custom Alexa skills you can develop are –

Ask requests. For example – Look up things on the web, integrate a web service so that you can order something like a pizza

Use skills that can control your smart home devices. For example – Turn the lights off, change the temperature on a thermostat or change the channel on the TV

Music skill. For example – Stream music and playlists through your Alexa, you can control the next song or volume by your voice

What do you need to build a custom skill?

Accessible internet .

Amazon Web Services account in addition to your Amazon developer account.

A development environment appropriate for the programming language you plan to use. You can author a web service in any language appropriate for web services.

If you have no such files other than for a skill icon, you do not need to host any resources. One possible solution is to use an Amazon Simple Storage Service.

You will need a device with Alexa for testing. Skills work with all devices with Alexa, such as the Amazon Echo, Amazon Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, Fire TV, and devices that use the Alexa Voice Service.

If you don’t have a device, you can use a simulator on the Test page for testing. You can also see what the display templates for Echo Show and Echo Spot look like so that you can try before you buy.

Some must have Alexa skills:

Evaluate the price of your home: Thanks to its thousands of skills that suit everyone, you can now ask Alexa the estimated valuation for your home. The Hunters property valuation ‘skill’ is the first of its kind in the UK. Homeowners and landlords can now ask Alexa how much their property is worth by answering a few basic questions. Then you can book a consultancy with your local Hunters estate agents.

Dyson: Keep cool whilst laying on the sofa without moving. Dyson’s next-generation fan is compatible with Alexa. The Wi-Fi connected Pure Hot + Cool Link Air Purifier works with Alexa commands so it can be switched on and off, as well as switch between a fan and air purifier. After installing the skill, just as Alexa to “start purifying” and your air will be clean in a matter of minutes. Perfect for if you live in the city.

Lights on lights off: Whilst we are on the subject of not moving off the sofa, if you’re an Echo user who has Philips’ Hue connected light bulbs in your adobe, then get that Hue Skill downloaded. This allows you to turn your Philips Hue lights on or off and change the room’s ‘mood’. And of course, the classic Alexa skill, you can tell Alexa to play a song (even on Apple Music) to get the perfect ambiance.

TrackR: Find your phone when you lose it. Alexa is worth buying just for this skill in my opinion! If you sign up for a TrackR account and install the corresponding Skill, you can shout “Alexa find my phone!” and your handset will immediately ring at full volume, making the search easier, especially if you’re by yourself.

Uber: Can’t be bothered doing it on your phone? Ask Alexa!
Just say the right words and you can be in a taxi in a matter of minutes thanks to the Uber Alexa Skill. It might take some time setting up, but once you’re used to it, it’s a good skill to have if you cannot be bothered ordering it off your phone.

What Alexa can’t do just yet!

Shopping list – Order from supermarkets – At the moment Alexa allows consumers to buy and order from Amazon itself whether its shoes or a new phone. However, considering you can create a shopping list on the device, it would be even better if you can order your weekly shopping on it. From what I understand it’s currently in the making with business such as Morrisons and Tesco. Ocado was the first supermarket to bring this skill into play due it being an online-only retailer. Let’s hope the bigger high-street supermarkets join in.

Job search – There are plenty of job search websites in the market currently that can search for a variety of jobs with a variety of filters. It would be even better if Alexa could do this for you. You could start off by asking Alexa to search for a job in a specific area in marketing for example. You could then filter the results to location, pay, the role and whether it’s part or full time, etc. After Alexa brings up any results that you are interested in, you could ask it to email you the results or perhaps even apply for the job.

Train and bus times – Getting public transport can be a challenging, stressful thing to do on a daily basis. One of the worst things is missing it too! What would be great is if you could receive live updates from busses and trains. For example ask Alexa, “Alexa, when is the next number 3 bus from the bus stop near me?”. Amazon may then be able to work closely with bus and train companies to receive accurate results and to be able to work in all areas.

Business insurance – Rather than looking at the consumer side, it might be better to focus on the business side. At the moment Alexa does not offer the opportunity to take out business insurance. This would be very useful for business and companies and would save time so that you wouldn’t have to fill out lengthy forms that take a whole day to do. Alexa could then provide you with a quote, with an insurance company and the individual could then make the decision on whether to go ahead with it, or not.

Tune in to speak to your pets – Something that people do often leave their pets at home whilst they leave the house and go out. Something which is fairly new to the market is CCTV which allows pet owners to check in on their furry friends. An idea for Alexa is that it could allow the consumer to tune in and speak to your pet. I know of someone who’s dog cries after their owner has left and it means that they have to keep their TV on all day. This also means their electricity bill is sky high. What would be good if you could speak to your pet, or even better record a message that could play or play every half an hour or so?

Order prescriptions – One thing that would be very useful for Alexa to do is to order prescriptions. As it’s becoming more possible to facetime doctors, book appointments online and contact them regarding symptoms, this should be something that’s hopefully in the making. This would be useful to elderly people especially who maybe aren’t as ‘tech-savvy’ and struggle to work their way around the internet. With the command of your voice, your prescription could be at the pharmacy the next day.

Book a gym class – For someone who goes to the gym regularly, this would be a very useful skill. Ideally, Amazon would be able to link to various gyms and give the consumer information. Whether that be how many people are the gym right then, or the next possible class that’s on, and then the opportunity to book onto it. One again, Alexa would make life a lot easier.

Call 999 – This doesn’t just mean saying “hey Alexa call 999” in this context Alexa could save lives. If you pair up Alexa with a skill that is tied in with your Apple Watch and it notices any unusual activity it would be handy if it could call 111 – the non-emergency line and if you respond and need assistance it could be a crucial act.

Also when you set up your skill you could put all your health profile in and if you cannot respond then the doctors could ask Alexa what your blood type is etc. This would obviously only work if you were in your home, if you fell over and cannot access your phone, then it would be useful if you can say “hey Alexa call 999” and speak to the operators like that because currently, this is not doable.

Hologram phone calls – We know Facetime is amazing as it is a clear picture but what would be good is being able to have a Hologram call. Just like how the Avengers use hologram calls – (they’re up to date on technology). If Alexa could form a hologram business call with people all around the world this would be very useful as you can see people’s body language, a real-life figure which could be more effective than Facetime when in a board meeting.

Car insurance – There are only two companies currently that sell car insurance through Alexa and if you’re anything like us, we like to branch out and look for the best possible quote for car insurance. It could work like evaluating your home through Hunters. Just ask Alexa to find the cheapest car insurance, she asks you a couple of questions and then tells you the best quote and if you would like to book now or call an insurance broker.

TV recording – Now Alexa can change the channel but CANNOT record for us. What is worse than having to go off the tv programme you are currently enjoying and watching to record something someone wants to watch. Instead, wouldn’t it be great to say “hey Alexa record today’s tipping point” without it flipping screens?

Heating seats – Now this, we would use. Imagine on a cold frosty morning getting into your car with the heating on and your seats all heated up. A useful skill Alexa could have with your car is warming it up so you save the time in the morning for an extra snooze without needing your keys.

Please contact Webanywhere if you would like any help or advice in creating an Alexa skill.

With Webanywhere’s expertise in mobile app development, we can guide you through all the steps of the lifecycle of your Skill. Whether you are interested in idea creation, conception, interaction design, development, certification or hosting, our expert Alexa skills developers can help you achieve your goals. Webanywhere’s developers can build and publish skills for Alexa using the Alexa Skills Kit. Once the developed skills are published, they are available across all Alexa-enabled devices. The recent development with Hunters means you can value your home straight from your kitchen too.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Amazon Alexa, what can it do and what can’t it do appeared first on Webanywhere.

However, in conversations with employees, employers and business owners, the performance management process or ‘appraisal’ is one which is often dreaded and can bring feelings of disdain.

There are, of course, ways to make performance reviews a less tedious experience. Face-to-face meetings are helpful, but in an increasingly busy workplace they can take up precious time that could be spent being more productive. As well as that, one-on-one meetings can often be quite stressful and tense, and it’s easy to forget things you want to say, which leads to a less useful session.

There’s also online appraisals. Employees can fill out a questionnaire to explain what they think they’ve done well, what they could improve on and any issues they might have with the work environment. This is advantageous, as people are more likely to speak their mind in an online form rather than in front of their manager. However, this method isn’t very personal, and it’s important to establish a link and trust between employee and employer.

Therefore, why not choose video as a form of performance appraisal?

Taking advantage of video as a way of delivering performance appraisals eliminates the most common problems that both employers and employees have with them.

For instance, an employee may feel like performance reviews within their workplace do not occur frequently enough, or the feedback they receive might not be detailed enough. Using video removes this issue – the videos can be as long or short as you like, and can be filmed as frequently or infrequently as you wish.

Video appraisals have the best of both worlds: they allow respondents time to think carefully about their answers, and they’re also personal in the sense that you’re filming yourself and your reactions. Overall, it makes the process much less formal and daunting for both parties.

Using video is also a less time consuming experience than the traditional method of a face-to-face meeting, and is flexible in the sense that filming a performance appraisal video can be slotted in around a busy schedule. It also means that the entire process does not need to be done all in one go – it could go back and forth between employer and employee by breaking the appraisal into relevant sections and filming short clips, rather than recording and sending the whole process at once.

There are many different ways you can implement video appraisals: employers can set questions and get their workers to film their answers, for one – but in what other ways could you use video to carry out performance appraisals?

Checklists and ratings

One common method of rating an employee’s performance in the workplace is by setting out a list of desired qualities, and rating them on how well suited they are. For instance, an employer might want someone who works well and gets on with others. Throw video into the mix, and your analysis of an employee’s performance becomes more interactive and personal as opposed to just handing them a sheet of paper or sending them an email.

Go through each point and verbally communicate with your worker on which traits they have and which ones they need to improve on – then, have them respond with a video of their own to explain how they’ll work on their weaker areas.

Work standards approach

Setting goals for the next work period is an essential feature of a performance review. With video, employees can explain to the camera their ideas for improving their performance as well as how they intend to achieve those goals. For more communication between employer and employee, managers could set specific tasks and goals in their own video response to tailor their goals to their own expectations and standards.

In a separate appraisal, after a period of time allowing an employer to assess their worker’s performance, you can send feedback to your employee based on how well you think they’ve met the goals they’ve been set.

Critical incidents

This method isn’t as frightening as the name suggests. A critical incident is an action or event which has happened in the workplace, and is focused on exceptional things an employee has done, as well as bad or unacceptable things. The purpose of this method is for the employee to receive feedback and work on how to progress by making any necessary alterations.

When we mix this with video appraisals, there’s a few advantages. First of all, it’s easier than in a face-to-face meeting to discuss any mishaps or failings when you have time to respond and form intelligent responses. It’s also more effective than an online form as it communicates the message clearly and more empathetically, as you can listen to the tone of voice and see reactions through facial expressions and body language.

Employee self-assessment

This method allows employees to think about their own personal performance and identify their strengths and weaknesses, in order to find ways to improve and develop in the workplace. They might also be able to make a list of everything they have accomplished over that year, six months or set period of time.

Carrying out this method via video rather than face-to-face is much more effective as it allows the employee to think carefully, rather than being put on the spot in a meeting.

They might also be able to collate a series of mini clips as they happen – for instance, if they feel they have had a particularly successful work day, they could record the video that evening when they get home and keep it to collate with other clips. This method is sometimes referred to as ‘journaling’, but in this instance, the details are kept via video recordings rather than written down.

Sometimes, people find it challenging to talk about themselves in high regard or face their weaknesses head on. Using video to self-assess takes away this issue of the matter being somewhat disconcerting, making the employee feel more confident and comfortable when discussing their achievements with their manager.

The future of the performance appraisal

Using video as a form of delivering a performance appraisal also takes away endless hours of admin for managers, which can often be overwhelming.

This type of approach turns a performance review into more of an ongoing discussion, which has a huge impact on the completion of goals, personal career ambition and growth. It also allows room for the development of a strong, trusting relationship between manager and employee.

With video, performance reviews would no longer be thought of as an unsettling, uninspiring task. Instead, the experience would be insightful, turning the activity from one which is conducted annually, to one which is carried out continually. Where lessons are learned and achievements are recognised in the most simple and effective way.

Watch and Learn is a knowledge sharing app which lets you find the right learning for you from colleagues and experts. Users receive personalised, curated and constantly updated content to improve their on-the-job performance.

Through use of Watch and Learn, video appraisals become ever-easier; workers can share their knowledge faster and practice their communication, pitching and negotiation skills. Learning is much easier when it’s done through practice and experience.

So, if you’re thinking about doing performance appraisals through video, think about downloading Watch and Learn. It’s an easy to use app with many features and benefits for improving your workforce.

Webanywhere provides complete eLearning solutions to clients across the UK and worldwide, including learning management systems (LMS) / virtual learning environments (VLE), business or school websites, and useful apps for education and training.

We have offices in Leeds, West Yorkshire and London, as well as the USA and mainland Europe, serving thousands of clients and over 3 million learners.

If you’d like to learn how Webanywhere could help you implement or improve e-learning within your organisation, please contact us at info@webanywhere.com.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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CMS: Content Management System

Content management systems create the framework in which content is stored and displayed on a website. A CMS provides the space for content to be stored and displayed or collaborated on with team members. A good example of this is WordPress. CMS primarily serves to facilitate the creation of content but essentially allows distributors to decide which content is displayed on the website.

Benefits:

Rather than working from multiple documents or systems, a CMS gives you the ability to upload everything into one system.

Not only can you store all the information about your courses, but you can assign resources, instructors, and classrooms. This ensures that you have everything you need for each course to run successfully.

If you use a CMS as part of a training management system you should be able to integrate your CMS with your website, saving you time and effort for your team.

LMS: Learning Management System

Learning Management Systems allow companies and educational bodies to upload online training content or courses for their employees or students and track their participation. Commonly used in corporate training and higher education settings, LMS platforms are able to provide space for learners to absorb, train, test, and collaborate.

Benefits:

A Learning Management System is a great way of keeping track of your students’ progress as they make their way through your training and also measures the effectiveness of your eLearning offering. This enables you to see where you need to make improvements to your course content.

Adding another form of course delivery to your training offering is always a great option so that you can open yourself up to a vast amount of new potential customers.

You aren’t limited by the amount of teaching time you have or the number of classrooms you have because you can run as many eLearning courses as you want

CMS vs LMS Summary

In short, an LMS places emphasis on “learning”, whereas a CMS places emphasis on “content”. The truth is CMS and LMS do very different jobs, but they are both a great addition to your training business.

While these management systems have several similarities, they ultimately have different functions. It’s important you understand the differences of each management system as choosing the wrong system could be costly.

Webanywhere have been supplying learning management systems (LMS)  to organisations around the world since 2006. Please contact us at info@webanywhere.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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• Planning
• Reasoning
• Problem solving
• Knowledge representation
• Perception
• Motion
• Manipulation
• Social intelligence and creativity

It’s estimated that 1.5 million people in England are at risk of losing their jobs due to artificial intelligence and automation.

The office of National statistics says that 70% of roles that are at high risk, are currently held by women.

The Graph above supports the recent report by ONS which showed that employees in the food industry will be hit the hardest. After that, it could be workers in retail and then after that, teachers and medical practitioners.

There’s the question as to whether E-learning will take teachers jobs. Online courses are becoming important in many countries as they allows students to gain access to a greater depth of information than a teacher may be able to provide.

Robots and AI have started to worm their way into the retail industry. The majority of supermarkets now offer self service and more recently, departments and clothing stores now do.

Retail giant, Zara now offers self checkouts in some of their stores where you can buy or return items. Who needs a cashier anyway? In some HSBC banks, customers are greeted by a robot who questions why you might be there and if he can do anything to help. However, although this might seem that the robot has taken someone’s job, HSBC says that the reason behind it is so that it frees up bankers and specialised employees.

A survey by Pew Research Internet finds Americans are roughly twice as likely to express worry (72%) than enthusiasm (33%) about a future in which robots and computers are capable of doing many jobs that are currently done by humans. A survey was conducted where it showed that 46 countries and 800 working environments found that number of people forced out of jobs by machines could near the one billion mark by 2030.

It’s argued that jobs may be shredded, but not eliminated. Rather than worrying about jobs, bosses, employees and company, owners should introduce AI into the workplace rather than it be a threat.

The overall threat of AI is that it won’t only take away jobs but change what workers do. An example is before airlines and aeroplanes were created, we never would have dreamed of having a job as an air hostess. Or, before Apple was created, who knew what a tech genius was? So, despite forcing tens of millions out of jobs in the next four years, the WEF thinks near twice as many more job opportunities will be created.

Technology has affected our life both positively and negatively. New technology takes our lives to a different level. It might ruin jobs but we can’t forget about the jobs that are created due to technology.

A.I assisted health care technician is where doctors will need the same health care skills but also up to date technology to deliver them remotely, but using telemedicine tools and in-home testing equipment. Thanks to A.I nurses will also be able to diagnose and treat more ailments, leaving doctors to support these technicians and handle the trickier cases directly.

For example, if the health care sector hires a doctor to answer appointed Facetime calls people are more likely to seek medical advice if they have access to Facetime. This is because the citizens who work 9-5 may not have a chance to go see a GP but if they’re on their lunch break they will not need to leave work or take it off sick.

We have all tried Uber at least once, just from a little persuasion of ‘sign up now and receive £10 off’. Uber is classed as technology, rather than a taxi because it becomes safer and easier for users. This technology has created over two million jobs worldwide. Although, we had taxi drivers ten years ago and a lot of them will have changed jobs, Uber has created delivery services for companies such as Mcdonald’s with Uber Eats. All through an app, thanks to technology we now could not imagine life without them.

Social media has several roles which have been formed – ten years ago most people didn’t even know what social media was and now in the 21st century we couldn’t even cope with Facebook being down for 24 hours.

Social media platforms have been growing and developing ever since Facebook came out, it has become a key method in reaching a wide audience, as has Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Instagram influencers with up to 1 million followers can receive around a six-figure salary.
There are now so many new job roles such as App Developers, YouTube Content Creators, even websites such as Airbnb has formed dramatically due to technology.

One main issue with these new jobs is they appeal to a much younger generation. It tends to be the employee’s losing jobs due to technology are the older generation. When we think back to coal miners, it took up so many jobs that when the demand was no longer needed, in the 70s so many were out of jobs because we had electric fires now.

It’s easy to blame technology for taking jobs but the reality is, we can’t live without it and it will continue to dominate our lives.

For more information on how AI could help your business contact Webanywhere.
Email: info@webanywhere.com
Call: 0113 3200 750

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1) James Stoller, MD, MS, Cleveland Clinic

According to Webometrics, Cleveland Clinic is number 1 on list of the top 10 hospitals in the world.

Dr. Stoller, MD, MS, (Organizational Development), is the Chair of the Education Institute at the Cleveland Clinic and is responsible for learning at the hospital.

2) Robert J. Batory Senior Vice President, WellSpan Health

Mr. Batory has led the human resource management activities of WellSpan Health since 1991. With more than 30 years of health-care human resource management experience, he has been an active leader in the human resources profession.

The New Employee Orientation program focuses on the experience of the new employee and emphasizes welcoming, engaging, and inspiring. WellSpan Health employees are immersed in interactive experiences through the day, receiving a Passport booklet to guide them on their journey.

3) Joanna Weeks, Associate Director Workforce Development, Great Ormand street Hospital (GOSH)

London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital tops the list of best hospitals for children. It was the very first pediatric hospital in the world when it opened in 1852. It retains its fantastic facilities in part because it receives the royalties to Peter Pan (the play).

GOSH strive to create a learning culture for all staff, ensuring they receive continual support, education, and training to enhance their specialist skills and provide the best care for our exceptional patients. A wealth of training programmes are on offer including simulation, clinical skills, speciality training and leadership development, plus undergraduate and postgraduate academic education courses.

4)Lisa Bisaccia Executive Vice President and Chief Human Resources Officer, CVS Health

Lisa Bisaccia is responsible for direction and management of all human resources functions across the company, including oversight of a billion-dollar benefits budget.

She has driven multiple strategic initiatives, including improving employee engagement and experience, redesigning health benefits for all employees and launching enterprise-wide talent management and leadership development systems. In addition, Bisaccia also oversees CVS Health’s Corporate Social Responsibility and Philanthropy department, which includes the CVS Health Foundation.

5) Gladys Lopez senior vice president and chief human resources officer.

In this role, Lopez oversees all human resources activities for the Norton Healthcare system, including operations, compensation and benefits, talent acquisition, and workforce development.

Norton Healthcare The Practice Manager Development Program is an immersive and interactive learning program that focuses on 4 essential elements of the practice manager role: effective leadership, practice operations, access to care, and patient experience.

6) Kristen Mulholland, Head of Human Resources, Global Pharmaceuticals Group and external innovation

Kristen Mulholland is responsible for the global talent, recruiting, diversity, compensation, benefits, employee relations, external innovation and all aspects of the human resources agenda for the pharmaceuticals group.

In 2017, the team made several strategic changes to the experience design, which resulted in significant cost savings, stronger engagement, and increased retention. The program exceeded benchmark data for ROI (6.42/7), business results (6.3/7), and job impact (6.4/7). Janssen reduced It’s scrap learning, which is saving $41,316 a year.

7) Leslie Rohde, Senior Director of Human Resources

As senior director of human resources at Johns Hopkins Community Physicians, Leslie Rohde, M.B.A., works to integrate multiple medical practices into the Johns Hopkins Health System and works directly with practicing physicians, physician leaders and administrators.

Johns Hopkins Community Physicians refined its existing safety officer program, which provides special training to a team member in each of 40 medical practices and sustains/builds knowledge in monthly online meetings. Refinements included incentives to participate in monthly meetings, and using stories to train. This “trained the trainers” of more than 600 front-line staff, and contributed to an 8% improvement in the organization’s safety climate.

8) Caroline Luscombe, Executive Vice President, Human Resources, Sanofi (China) Investment Co.

Ms. Luscombe was most recently Head of Organization and Human Resources and member of the Executive Committee at LafargeHolcim, based in Zurich, Switzerland. Before joining LafargeHolcim, Ms. Luscombe was the Global Head of Human Resources of Syngenta.

The Breakthrough BELBIN Team Leadership program at Sanofi (China) Investment Co., LTD., applies BELBIN Team Roles to enable managers to enhance self-awareness, better understand others, and improve team construction and composition. BELBIN Team program facilitates leaders to assess a current team’s strengths and weakness against its business goal, develop members and the team as a whole, and enhance the overall team’s performance. Participants demonstrated a 2.3% higher sales growth rate in 2016 versus non-participants

9) Elga Lohler, Chief Human Resources Officer, Smith & Nephew

Elga Lohler, as Director of HR and has since held progressively senior positions in Wound Management, Operations, Corporate Functions and Group. Elga became Chief Human Resources Officer in December 2015 and leads the Global Human Resources with more than 25 years worth of Human Resources experience.

Elga is responsible for driving Smith & Nephew’s human capital strategy across the enterprise in support of the Company’s overall business plan and strategic direction.

Smith & Nephew entirely mobile, electronic Plan of Action (ePOA) initiative is a learning program designed for Smith & Nephew sellers to develop their selling skills and improve product knowledge. Analysis of sales performance showed that the sellers in the organization who completed all of the ePOA assets increased sales at a 13% rate versus the sellers who did not complete all the learning assets and had a 5% increase.

10)Christopher Lind, Talent Development, & Culture, GE Healthcare

Christopher Lind is a talent development leader that’s spent over 15 years working with business leaders to collaboratively improve performance. He has 15 years of learning and talent development experience while also having 10 years of experience leading, developing and coaching high-performing teams.

Lind leads the organization accountable for the digital transformation of learning and talent development within GE Healthcare’s global commercial and marketing functions. Establishing the learning and talent organization responsible for supporting GE Healthcare’s global marketing function. He also Led the standardization and architecture of GE Healthcare’s global leadership development program.

Webanywhere provides cutting-edge learning management systems and are researched and developed by professionals with extensive experience. Contact us to learn more at info@webanywhere.com[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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You can create the specific structures and relationships of job positions and different sections within your organisation. Totara Learn enables staff to complete their certifications online or even at home, saving time and money.

First impressions are important and how your site looks is a big factor in engaging your users. Totara Learn version 12 contains a range of improvements to the way you can set up the look and feel of your Totara site.

The site is still based on blocks but now with more flexibility. Blocks can now be full width at the top and bottom of the page and you have the option to rename the block, remove borders and headers. This is particularly powerful when combined with the features link box.

Rob Faulkner, VP solutions for Webanywhere said:

“My job is to work with the customers and to understand what they need the system to do and then help our company to then configure it and build it to match their requirements.”

“The main thing for us is flexibility, because not every business wants to do their training and learning the same as every other business. So Totara allows us to customise it to be exactly what they need it to be, so rather than them having to change their processes to match the system, we can get the system to match their processes.”

Totara 12 includes a host of new features and functionality designed to provide rich, tailored experience for the learner whatever the training text may be: onboarding, compliance or for the extended enterprise.

Using open source technology, Totara 12 provides organisations with full flexibility and control over the learning experience.

A new addition is to create more workability around the site structure, a third level has been added to the top navigation area and the most significant change is the introduction of a configurable site administration menu, which has been relocated to the top right of the screen. As a site administrator, you can create your own groups of links for different tasks, allowing you to set it up in a way that works for you.

Many of the new features add further power and ease of use, with an enormous range of appearance options. Here are a few improvements that will be featuring in version 12:

1. Faster and easier to find relevant courses with a visual course catalogue
2. More space for content with a streamlined top navigation bar
3. More engaging visual options to help attract learners, including full-width banner and footer blocks and custom image feature link
4. Clearer communication with a refined front page which improves the display of course lists, course search, and announcements.

Totara 12 is the newest, most advanced and flexible system yet. Everything has been designed to offer the customer full freedom over creating the learner environment.

If you would like any more information regarding Totara 12 visit https://www.webanywhere.com/ or call on 0113 3200 750

Hi, I am a journalism student working as a freelance journalist. Enjoy the blogs!
Katie Lyons[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Totara 12 – the Latest Features You Don’t Want to Miss out On! appeared first on Webanywhere.

If you’re looking into open source versus other types of LMS, you should understand what makes this platform a sound choice for your organisation. And you should know that there is no such thing as a “free” LMS – but that there are distinct advantages to choosing open source.

Open source LMS: a community affair

The core to any open source LMS is a vast community of developers, ready to update and modify the software to fix errors and make improvements. “Open source” means that anyone is guaranteed the right to access the source code and use, reuse and redistribute the software with no royalty costs.

The source code of the LMS application can be downloaded and modified by any software developer. Because the open source model means that any developer can contribute to the source code, companies adopting the software will be harnessing their collective knowledge and expertise.

Popular open source Learning Management Systems include Totara Learn for corporations, ATutor, OpenOLAT and ILIAS.

The real key to open source LMS is that the software evolves quickly to keep up with the changing environment of eLearning trends, processes and technology. The peer review process ensures that quality and security is constantly updated by a large number of developers.

With open source LMS, there is no initial outlay on licencing costs – but you do need to consider the cost of implementation and customisation as well as ongoing support.

Benefits of open source LMS

So, now that you know what open source LMS is all about, it’s time to look at the benefits of choosing this type of learning platform over proprietary systems.

Endlessly Customisable

Whatever themes or styles you need to suit your corporate branding, you can customise your open source LMS to match. The only limitations are with the capabilities of the designer – you are free to choose the look and feel that you require.

Intuitive Interface

Because of the collaborative way the system is designed, you’ll find open source LMS is exceptionally user friendly.

Flexible

You choose which features you require, and build those as and when you need them. You can work with a third party to develop the system to your specifications if you can’t (or won’t) develop in-house. Additionally, you are not locked-in to one vendor – meaning you are free to switch when you need to.

Cost Saving

There are no licencing fees or subscription costs, and you won’t pay any upgrade charges (licences typically costs between $15-100 per user). Learn more about the pros and cons of open source versus proprietary LMS here.  New functionality is free to use.

Stable & Secure

Thousands of developers access the core so bug fixes, security releases and features upgrades happen continuously.

Real-time, Real-world.

Additional features that are developed by the open source community are available as plugins, making the system user-friendly with excellent functionality tested in the real world.

Access to Expertise

You will access a vast amount of expertise in using the open source platforms as they are used by millions all over the world. Proprietary systems are much more limited in terms of number of users.

Things to consider when adopting Open Source LMS

There are always pros and cons when you are making any choice about software, and people have varying opinions about whether proprietary or open source is best for them. There are some things to consider when you adopt open source LMS – and you want to go into any implementation with your eyes open.

• You need to adapt to the new features. The constant stream of new elements is a bonus in terms of functionality, but you will need to work with your processes and administrators to implement them.
• It’s free to adopt the software – but you will incur costs for hosting. You may choose that it is more cost-effective to choose to outsource the hosting element to experts.
• Costs of customisation – you’ll need expertise in-house, or you’ll need to outsource. You’ll need developers to build, host and maintain an open source LMS.
• There may be additional uncertain support and maintenance costs with LMS that you hadn’t considered. You may be able to agree those in advance with a proprietary provider – meaning there is an element of risk in open source (although you are unlikely to end up paying more).

Open source LMS: flexible, customisable and future-proof

If you want an LMS that can be custom-built to your specifications, but without being bound to one provider for the long-term, then open source offers a flexible solution.

You’ll need to be able to adapt to the regular updates, but if you are ready to work with the flexibility, then you’ll benefit from upgrades and new features that will constantly improve the system.

Open source Learning Management systems are used and managed by experts operating in real-time, and implementing updates to respond to the changing eLearning landscape. You, as an organisation, will benefit from a huge knowledge base, meaning you get a system that is dependable, but customisable to your exacting specifications.

Webanywhere is a global provider of Learning Management solutions. We are a Platinum Partner with Totara Learn and can provide a fully comprehensive Totara solution. We offer custom configuration as well as training and support. Visit our Contact page to talk to us about realising the benefits of open source LMS.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

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