One of the key discussions revolved around the importance of equitable access to education. The summit emphasised the need to break down barriers and ensure that all learners, regardless of their background or circumstances, have equal opportunities to pursue education. The Knowledge Equity Network, a concept presented at the summit, highlighted the importance of radical collaboration and ensuring equal access to educational resources.

To achieve equitable access, the summit participants emphasised the need for dedicated spaces for collaboration. The University of Leeds showcased their innovative spaces, such as Helix and Nexus, which foster collaboration and enable students to connect with each other, content, and ideas. These spaces encourage students to actively engage in their learning and create a sense of community, both online and on-campus.

The summit also explored the concept of a new student experience, emphasising the importance of adopting new ways to teach online and on campus. Digital-first higher education was discussed as a way to leverage technology and provide students with a dynamic and interactive learning environment. The summit encouraged educators to embrace risk and try new approaches to teaching, highlighting the potential consequences of not adapting to the changing educational landscape.

A key performance indicator for online learning discussed at the summit was the continuation rate. This metric measures the percentage of students who continue their studies and complete their courses. The summit participants recognised the importance of providing ongoing support to online learners, such as regular meetings with mentors and consistent assessments. These practices contribute to student success and help maintain high continuation rates.

Throughout the summit, various problem-solving mindsets were explored, including systems thinking, design thinking, and futures thinking. Systems thinking allows educators to identify root causes and understand complex problems by examining the relationships and connections within the educational ecosystem. Design thinking provides a structured approach to generating innovative solutions, while futures thinking helps imagine multiple futures and create the desired outcome.

The summit also featured discussions on competency-based education, where two institutions were compared: Western Governors University (WGU) and the University of Nottingham. WGU, has been successfully implementing a fully online, self-paced, competency-based education model since 1997. The University of Nottingham is in the process of setting up a similar model in the UK. The session explored the design of the student and academic experience, relevance for industry, and the ability to offer accessible online learning at scale.

The importance of accessibility, usability, and inclusivity in online learning was another significant topic at the summit. The sessions highlighted the need to design online learning experiences that are accessible to all learners, ensuring diversity, equity, and inclusion. Testimonials and case studies emphasized the non-negotiable nature of accessibility and the impact it has on learners.

The summit concluded with sessions on the future of technology, artificial intelligence (AI), and the importance of multidisciplinary course design. Participants explored the transformative possibilities of AI in online learning and its potential to go beyond traditional applications. The sessions encouraged imaginative thinking and storytelling as tools to shape the future of AI in education.

The Online Learning Summit 23 at the University of Leeds provided a platform for educators, researchers, and experts to engage in meaningful conversations about the future of online education. The summit emphasised the importance of equitable access to education, openness, collaboration, and redefining the curriculum to create a new and meaningful student experience. By embracing innovative approaches and leveraging technology, universities can enhance student engagement, improve learning outcomes, and foster a more inclusive and transparent educational experience.

The post Online Learning Summit, The University of Leeds appeared first on Webanywhere.

Hey Development Managers! Are you looking to take your workplace to new heights? Look no further than Totara LMS!  Totara is one awesome platform for levelling up your skills and with Webanywhere’s personalised LMS solutions, you’ll be able to harness the power of this platform and supercharge your team’s employee development. In this article, we are spilling the tea on the best tips and tricks to make your workplace learning experience the bomb. We’ll show you why you should trust our dedicated learning solutions, how to master the tools, rock collaboration, stay on top of your game with organisation, and make the most of all the resources available. Get ready to level up your workplace game!

Toolbox Treasures 

Our learning platform has a whole bunch of ’em, from forums to wikis to quizzes and more. Make sure you know what each tool is for and how to use it to its fullest. For example, forums are a great way to chat with colleagues and work together on projects. And quizzes are a fun way to test your team’s knowledge and track their progress. Don’t forget to check out all the features each tool has to offer – like setting up notifications for forums to stay in the loop.

Collaboration Central

Our LMS gives teams plenty of opportunities to work together and create a dynamic learning environment. Get involved in forums and discussions, share your thoughts, and get feedback from your team members. For group projects, set clear goals, divvy up tasks, and establish regular check-ins.

Organisation Overlord 

Let’s talk about staying organised, yep, everyone struggles with this at some point or another but we have got your back. Our LMS system helps you set up a personal study plan with dedicated study time, a to-do list, and regular review of course materials. And you can use the calendar feature to keep track of deadlines and upcoming tasks.

Tailored Experience

At Webanywhere, we get it. Personalisation is key when it comes to e-learning. That’s why we offer custom solutions tailored to your organisation’s unique needs and goals. Our Totara LMS is all about giving each employee their own custom experience. Whether it’s a custom dashboard or a tailored study plan, we’ve got you covered. And the fun doesn’t stop there! We add a touch of gamification, encourage social learning, and even make sure our platform is mobile-friendly. All so you can have the best possible e-learning experience with us!

We also have a bunch of resources and support services to help your team along the way. From a user guide to online forums to interactive tutorials, make sure your team takes advantage of everything that’s available through the platform. And if you run into any issues, the support team at Webanywhere is always there to help.

So, that’s it! With the right tools and a positive attitude, you and your team’s employee development will be unstoppable on our tailor made LMS Solution. Let’s do this!

If you’d like to know more, don’t forget to get in touch! We love chatting about all things training and development solutions![/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post Step Up Your Workplace Game with Totara LMS appeared first on Webanywhere.

Anyone from any company size and industry can create great eLearning — I truly believe all teams inherently have the ability. All your ingredients are there, it’s just prepping and serving the correct way.

Start with solid production guidelines

You can plan out, develop and executive great eLearning when you have production guidelines in place. Some key elements include:

• Production team model: Set out roles for content experts, design and production team members.

• Module planning sequence: Learning objectives should be supported by a session plan and storyboard.

• Design elements: Ensure that design elements are called out so that they’re consistent with your organization’s brand.

• Quality assurance: Outline the required editing, testing requirements and develop a model for feedback collection.

• Resources: Identify extra resources for your learners in the event they need more information.

Sprinkle in some new perspective and collaborate

Seek collaboration from your peers and regularly seek feedback from your colleagues. It’s proven that collaboration pools talent, develops the skills of those around you and fast-tracks progress. Get a teammate to proofread your storyboard, or get a second opinion from another instructional designer or graphic designer.

Know your audience and trim the fat

Seasoned instructional designers are probably all too familiar about what their eLearning should contain, and just as important, what it should not contain. It’s very tempting to add all the bells and whistles, but by removing extra features and excessive information, your eLearning can offer a clear, simple experience for your learners. Or, if you have a lot of content to communicate, break it up by topic into micro-modules so that the information can be easily digestible for your learners.

Keep all your ingredients fresh

Use fresh ingredients that will engage your learners, such as the following:

• Gamification: Gamify your learning with a mascot, badges and more to incentivise your learners.

• Microlearning: Break up the content into small 5-10 minutes chunks or by topic so that learners can easily consume the information.

• Mobile compatibility: Ensure the content you’re creating is mobile-friendly so that your learners can access from any device. If you have a shoestring budget, I highly recommend H5P — a free, HTML5 open source rapid content authoring tool.

Aesthetics are everything

There are plenty of resources out there for those who may not have a design eye, or you can loop someone in from your team that may be able to help. Here are some helpful resources when it comes to design:

• 10 Top Graphic Design Tips for Beginners by eLearning Brothers

• 11 Extremely Helpful (And Free!) Online Graphic Design Courses

• [Video] Beginning Graphic Design: Fundamentals

Test before serving

It’s critical to perform thorough quality assurance check to ensure there aren’t any errors in your eLearning. After your content is developed and is ready for testing, I recommend three separate reviews before roll-out. You’ll be able to catch more things when you’re focused on a particular area versus trying to focus on multiple areas at once.

• Functionality Review: Do a test strictly on functionality.

• Proof/Grammar Review: Test strictly on the textual content, ensuring there are no spelling or grammatical errors.

• Outside Perspective: Have someone that hasn’t seen the content get an outside perspective. Maybe one page seemed to flow, but not to someone looking at it for the first time.

Get rid of your leftovers (a.k.a legacy content)

At one point, your legacy training was fresh. But now, it’s run its course and just hasn’t kept up with advancements in the corporate learning landscape. It’s important that those lengthy courses get broken down, become more responsive, and that the new training needs of your company are covered.

Got some legacy content in desperate need of evaluation? Webanywhere is offering a free one hour course evaluation and consult for a limited time. This is a no-obligation hour where one of our Instructional Designers will help you personally with the direction of your legacy content.

Jessica Arenz brings out the best of both worlds as an Instructional Designer and Marketing Executive at Webanywhere. She’s passionate about proper brand messaging and retail training and development. Throughout her career she has worked on eLearning for companies like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger and Saks Fifth Avenue, to name a few. Jessica is one of many talented individuals on our team ready to collaborate with you on your next learning solution.

The post The Secret Formula to Great eLearning appeared first on Webanywhere.

Hello Lesli… Thanks for taking the time to share your knowledge and experience in micro-learning.

Tell us a bit about yourself, your background and experience.

For the past 20 years, I have worked in academic and corporate educational arenas, beginning my first career as a secondary English teacher. A colleague introduced me to an LMS in 2003, and in 2008, I chose to leave the classroom and move into the realm of helping others learn how to use LMS for the learning needs of their organizations. Over successive career iterations in working with online learning, and particularly with Totara Learn, I have served as Internal Training Manager, site administrator, implementation specialist, and Totara mentor/trainer for various Totara partners. I am currently serving as a Senior Solutions Architect for Webanywhere, and one of my chief roles is to facilitate the design and actualization of learning environment improvements for our clients.

What is micro – learning to you and why is it significant …or not?

I think the trend for offering micro-learning arose out of the demands in the workplace to provide “just-in-time” learning opportunities and resources to employees who need them, oftentimes right there on the job when they need them. The challenge to provide meaningful (and let’s face it, useful) learning objects to a workforce with highly competitive demands for their time and attention is ever foremost in the minds of those who design virtual learning environments today, and we often meet that criteria only halfway. We manage to provide it in smaller chunks, but so many times we fail to offer it in more concise formats with clear, cohesive pathways back to practical applications on the job. In short, I think it is a significant and valuable trend, but only if it is implemented in the right way.

According to Bersin by Deloitte, a typical employee has 1% per week to spend on training and development, how can micro-learning support this?

Micro-learning is only effective if it incorporates a clear organization that is supported by clear objectives on the back end. If done correctly, it can provide the immediate, and sometimes crucial, skills proficiency reinforcement that employees need to have available to them as they are performing the task at hand.

Do you think advances in AI and mobile learning have led to improvements in micro-learning?

Mobile learning certainly has. If staff can access crucial information at the moment they need it, that underscores their learning by providing them with the chance to apply their learning directly to their task. In terms of AI, the ability for software to aggregate data on behaviors and to in turn direct users down certain paths according to those behaviors, well, at first that was an amazing thing. Still AI is not human, and I think the current algorithms and technology in use to guide us in the social network arenas, for instance, are far more prone to filter out actual useful and wanted information than not. In a learning arena, the consequences are far more dire: it amounts to selective education and an imperfectly informed workforce. So I guess you see I am a skeptic of AI, though I recognize its impact is ubiquitous and that we are often now adapting to AI as much as it is adapting to us in the various arenas where it is employed.

What are your experiences in micro-learning?  What type of training does it work well with or not?

I confess I have not completely climbed on the whole micro-learning bandwagon, but I have spent a fair amount of time begging my clients to reduce their one to three hour lecture videos (of the most riveting content EVER) down to shorter segments that can be watched and digested in a way that allows the person viewing the lecture to actually take time to reflect on the content.

In your opinion,  is micro-learning here to stay?

Well, call it what you like, but the need to provide far more concise and meaningful learning opportunities to those in the workplace when and where they need them, yes, that trend is here to stay.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with us

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The post eLearning Expert Interview: Lesli Smith appeared first on Webanywhere.

By: Mike Hogeorges

Why consider video as part of your next eLearning or in-classroom L&D project? Well, 90% of the information our brains process is visual, and video viewers are 65% more likely to retain that information because they don’t have to visualize it themselves.

Adults in the US spend approximately 5.5 hours a day watching video. It’s what we watch at home and at work, on traditional TV, the internet and via social media. Video is everywhere, and it’s just what we expect! Easy access to video via digital devices means that use of video should no longer be an afterthought or a “nice-to-have” as you plan your next online or in-classroom training.

Utilizing video in your training:

• Keeps employees engaged in learning. This is key to building a learning culture within your organization. Video can help make learning memorable and accessible.

• Increases learner retention.

• Visually depicts demonstrations, processes, personalities and behavioral interaction.

• Presents a consistent message with scenarios that mimic real-life situations.

• Makes learning available on-demand.

Here are the top 10 tips I’ve compiled for creating engaging video for training.

Tip #1: Plan before you shoot

For the best videos, even if they’re only a series of visuals, begin with a script. The script should include what you’ll need to shoot, all spoken word or graphics content and what the flow is of the finished piece.

Tip #2: Think about how you’re going to use it

Think about why you want to utilize video as a medium for training. Do you want to show or convey:

• Physical steps in a process?

• An activity or product?

• A story?

• Behavioral styles?

• Human interaction?

• Emotion, dramatization of a serious event, motivation?

• Humor to support an entertaining learning experience?

Tip #3: Decision-making scenarios

Video is great for use in branched training scenarios where the learner must make a decision and the decision has consequences. When the learner sees the results of their decision, it can have a lasting and memorable learning impact.

Tip #4: Keep it short

Keep video segments short and to the point. Think in terms of 2 to 5-minute video segments at most. Short sentences in dialogue also work best.

Tip #5: Utilize professional voice-over and/or talent

Professional voice-over talent or actors may make your presentation not only more believable but easier to understand and remember.

Tip #6: Consider capturing real employee experiences

Sharing personally created, positive on-the-job examples what learners have accomplished via phone video can be a great way to encourage peer-to-peer learning.

Tip #7: Ensure your video is compressed

Ensuring that video downloads or streams quickly at high quality is very important, as you don’t want to disrupt the learner’s attention. There are lots of free video compression software options out there, such as Handbrake.

Tip #8: Add animation and graphics

Adding sound effects, graphics and animation over the video can make a huge difference. It can highlight important key points to ensure that information is retained, and keep the learner engaged. If you can’t do this in-house, there are lots of talented people out there that can help you.

Tip #9: Hire video production professionals

Almost everyone is capable of recording video on their phone, but that’s not always the best choice. Consider using production professionals when you need to present a professional example. Take into consideration the camera work, lighting, editing and execution that needs to be done to create a quality video. Good production values are what we don’t notice when they actually exist. When video is poorly conceptualized, written, shot or edited, it can get in the way of communicating and teaching.

Tip #10: Make your video interactive

You can use video standalone for your training or in an eLearning module. But did you know you can make it interactive with hotspots, multiple choice questions and more? H5P plug-ins for Totara has interactive video authoring, and our very own rapid content authoring tool Promatum has this feature as well.

Webanywhere specializes in custom eLearning solutions and provides a myriad of media services including video production, animation and photography that can be used in your next L&D project. We invite you to check out our services to see if there’s anything we can help you with!

Mike is a Senior Instructional Designer at Webanywhere who has worked with clients including Allstate, Brunswick Corporation, Deloitte, Ford, Shell, and Philips throughout his career. In addition to his work as an ID, Mike also has more than 20 years of experience writing, producing and directing videos for a broad range of corporate clients.

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The post 10 Tips for Creating Engaging Training Videos appeared first on Webanywhere.

Step 1: Consult with your staff

eLearning content development is a necessary process to ensure the training is correct for the whole team. The best forms of eLearning content development will take a consultative approach, asking all the right questions and really looking at your business from a birds-eye perspective. By doing so, the learning styles and needs of your staff can be assessed, allowing for the most effective training plan and content to be put in place. Looking at your existing training set-up (how you implement it, what systems (if any) you use already and how your staff feel about this arrangement), as well as speaking with and observing your learners is the best way to really understand where there can be improvements to your training plan. Taking the time to understand the training objectives and any specific company goals is priceless when creating a successful course. Without knowing exactly what your business wants to achieve from the training, creating content for an eLearning course can often miss the mark and lead to poorly trained staff and disappointed managers.

Step 2: Create a storyboard

Once the key learning goals have been decided, your existing training has been analyzed and your learners have had their say of what they like and what they hate when it comes to the existing training, creating a storyboard of how the eLearning course will look is necessary in saving time and creating focus throughout your staff. Noting the desired goals of your learners and working backwards in how to get to that goal is a great way of mapping the journey that the eLearning course needs to follow to be successful. This journey should include the key milestones that you want your team to hit on the way to training success.

Step 3: Author the eLearning

This is the daunting step. You know what needs to be done, you know the pathway to get there, now you have to actually create the content. From basic text creation, to audio, video and simulations, this can be extremely complicated. The more interactive and engaging the content, the richer the learning experience is; however, this often also means the more difficult the creation is. The creation of content such as gamification and custom graphic design and animation can vastly improve the likelihood of a learner to not only remember the content in the short term, but also to retain the information for years to come. This deep understanding of the content as well as basic fact-retention is what makes for great training and business-improving results.

Step 4: Publish to your platform

Once you have your content in place and know exactly what you need to teach your learners in order for them to achieve your business’s goals, choosing the best platform from which to publish your content is key. There are many different learning management systems available to choose from. Finding the best learning management system (LMS) can be hard, different LMSs offer different levels of flexibility and usability. Having spent time and resources creating the correct content for your team, ensuring you use the right platform is essential in providing the best training for your business. Using an open-source learning management system, such as Totara Learn LMS, for your eLearning content is the best way of preventing vendor lock-in and keeps your content accessible and future-proof.

Step 5: Perform quality assurance testing

Having created your perfect eLearning content and chosen the best learning management system for it, it’s time to test it. Vigorous quality assurance is necessary. Glitches, breaks and flawed systems can all pause or even stop training altogether, wasting staff time and company resources. By running the eLearning content and its delivery through software to ensure its smooth running, you can guarantee that your staff can make the most out of their training time, and you can get the results you expect.

Step 6: Analyze the results

Analytics are hated by many. Getting bogged down in the statistics of training can seem like a waste of time, however, not using the training data is a massive waste of a resource that can help you improve your training. Training should be considered a continual process, one where people are always able to be pushed, can learn new skills and are able to transform how they approach business. By generating and reviewing data provided by the learner, you can glean important information on where they struggled, where they found it too easy and can make significant improvements to both the eLearning content and the way in which it’s delivered.

eLearning content development can be a struggle. It’s an ongoing process that can make the difference between confused, directionless staff and a business-savvy team. If all of this seems too complicated and you just don’t have the time to get stuck into the different stages, we’d be happy to help! Not only do we already work with some of the biggest companies in the US and UK to deliver eLearning that transforms performance, but we can offer you a no-obligation chat to see how we can help. From the eLearning content development, right through to learning management systems, we know how to deliver the best training for your team.

(This blog was originally published on our UK website)

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The post 6 Steps to Creating eLearning that Sticks appeared first on Webanywhere.

What is Adobe Flash Player?

Adobe Flash Player is a web application that displays certain types of content. For example, Adobe Flash is used to deliver video, games and other interactive content. Created at the dawn of the web in 1996, Flash quickly became the a standard in the world of the web.

How does it apply to L&D?

Adobe Flash has been frequently used in its prime to display interactivity, video and other media like animation in eLearning modules. “How eLearning courses are built is typically SCORM — it’s built to  SCORM standards,” Jon Perkins, Webanywhere Senior Solutions Architect explains. “You’d have a SCORM wrapper and in that wrapper, which consists of Javascript and HTML, you’d have those HTML pages and on those pages you’d have Adobe Flash that enable interactivity and media.”

Why is it dying?

Apple first kick-started the downfall of Flash by not supporting it with their products due to the proprietary nature, technical drawbacks, security risks and the non-existent support on mobile devices, among many other reasons. Browser makers, such as Microsoft, Mozilla and Google have also taken steps to de-emphasize Adobe Flash. As the following chart shows from Statista, while Adobe Flash was used in nearly half of the top websites in 2011, that figure has dipped to just 10% by October of last year:

“There are just way too many problems [with Flash] — it’s too buggy, too many security flaws, so no modern browser is supporting it anymore,” says Perkins.

Should I stop using it?

Yes! But if you absolutely have to use it, ensure you’re using the most recent version because of its vulnerability to online threats. In terms of your eLearning content, we recommend it being updated to HTML5 so that it can be accessible on mobile devices, because after all, a mobile workforce needs mobile accessibility. According to Perkins:

“If you’re doing new content development, you should not use Flash. Browsers no longer support it, as new versions come out you’re going to lose access and your users aren’t going to have access. Most mobile devices don’t allow Flash, so you’d be losing your mobile audience. If you’re talking about internal HR training and all your computers on your networks are setup to support it, that’s fine. But, if you’re reaching out to an external audience where you aren’t in control of the IT, you can’t use it or you’re going to lose out on your audience and you won’t be able to access your content. If you currently have eLearning courses in Flash, I highly recommend you convert it to HTML5.”

What are the alternatives to Adobe Flash Player?

HTML5 is the new standard for eLearning content development. When authoring content in HTML5, there’s lots of tools out there for you to choose from. Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate allow for a full range of functionality, while other tools such as Lectora and iSpring are best for minimal learner interaction.

How do I convert my old Flash-based eLearning courses?

Before you make the switch to HTML5 for old Flash-based eLearning courses, ensure that all of your content documentation  is up-to-date, reverse engineering if you need to. Chances are that content such as media and company messaging needs to be updated as well, so consider resources that can help you rewrite the content, support with media or even develop it in HTML5 if you can’t do it yourself.

Webanywhere can offer support with converting those materials to HTML5 using an authoring tool of your choice, and provide support with updated media and new storyboards. We invite you to check out our content services to see if there’s anything we can help you with!

Jessica Arenz brings out the best of both worlds as an Instructional Designer and Marketing Executive at Webanywhere. She’s passionate about proper brand messaging and retail training and development. Throughout her career she has worked on eLearning for companies like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger and Saks Fifth Avenue, to name a few. Jessica is one of many talented individuals on our team ready to collaborate with you on your next learning solution.

The post Everything You Need to Know About the Death of Adobe Flash appeared first on Webanywhere.

By: Brian Hostetter

In light of Uber’s sexual harassment scandal, there’s a a few lessons to be learned for fast-growing companies, especially when it comes to HR — it’s about human capital, not large-scale talent recruitment. Startup leaders need to be savvy when it comes to human capital, or else it will be too late.

Let’s take a look at some of the top mistakes fast-growing companies like startups and unicorns make, and some tips on how to avoid them.

#1 HR is solely used as a hiring machine

In fast-growing companies, HR can commonly be designed and staffed to provide the “services” – such as onboarding employees –  that are most visible to leadership, which is usually large-scale recruiting. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, “If risky managerial behavior is tolerated while HR is focused on recruitment, that behavior becomes accepted.” It’s essential to organizational growth and value that checks and balances are established early.

#2 Your company’s core values aren’t identified or reinforced

Your company’s core values, vision and mission are a great tool for strategic planning and scaling by design, rather than a headcount. Unfortunately, many companies only go as far as hanging them on the walls, but never actually follow them. Core values need to be brought to life as often as possible by incentivizing your employees, and recognizing and rewarding  employees who follow them.

#3 There is no HR person established

Quite often in fast-growing startups and unicorn companies, HR gets hired too late and stays understaffed for a long time. This makes HR unable to perform its duties to the fullest, which is taking care of people and team performance, as well as maintaining happiness and satisfaction. There should be at least one HR manager for every 50 people.

#4 Your CEO is distracted by bright and shiny objects

CEOs and boards can easily overlook basic personnel tasks, being attracted to bright and shiny objects like agile culture, holacracy, best-place-to-work lists or a cool physical space. “The key is to maintain your long-term love affair with the problems you need to solve and the business you are here to serve.”

What do all these mistakes have in common?

The root of the problem in all of these mistakes is that the company isn’t focused on the basic needs of their employees. With an employee focus, you can scale your company’s success with a strong company culture.

Along with the benefits of a company-wide, employee-focused culture, emphasizing learning in your culture can have tangible payoffs as well. According to a study by Bersin at Deloitte, high-performing learning organizations are 92% more likely to innovate, 46% more likely to be first to market, 58% more prepared to meet future demand and 37% of their employees experience more productivity:

Learning culture is company culture

Too often, startup leaders view such investments as costly training on things that seem to be ‘common sense’ or issues that they can afford to get around to later. But taking a strategic approach by implementing a learning culture can make engaging your employees and risk mitigation easy.

• L&D gamification: By gamifying online training topics like compliance, audit preparation and cultural inclusion/diversity, your employees will be more motivated to learn and retain information. Gamified elements, such as leaderboards and badges, can also be applied to your learning management system (LMS).

• Peer mentorship & leadership development: Not only does a peer mentorship provide new hires a collaborative, comfortable outlet for on-boarding, it can also provide current employees (especially those pursuing a management position) with leadership training opportunities to teach new hires.

• Tuition reimbursement opportunities: Providing growth opportunities, such as tuition reimbursement for your employees, has been proven to make them more committed to their company and are more engaged in their job. Our client, JetBlue, is setting the stage for a cost-effective tuition reimbursement model with their program JetBlue Scholars. Check out the case study.

We invite you to check out our services to see if there’s anything we can help you with! Webanywhere provides learning platforms and custom content solutions, and can partner with you with to nurture a learning culture within your company.

Brian Hostetter is a Senior Account Executive at Webanywhere who is passionate about employee training and development, leadership and HR/HCM technology. Brian connects with L&D professionals on a daily basis helping them find the right learning platforms and content solutions to meet their precise needs.

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The post Top 4 Mistakes Fast-Growing Companies Make appeared first on Webanywhere.

At Webanywhere, the most rewarding part of our job is seeing our clients succeed and we want to share their success with the world by celebrating their achievements in our eLearning Rockstar Spotlight series.

Our very first eLearning Rockstar Spotlight is about Franklin Snider, Founder and CEO of CATV Training Institute, a B2B provider of education programs for cable technicians. We chronicle his journey, how he’s setting the stage for training in his industry and the recognition he’s receiving for his work.

Upon meeting Frank, he was so kind and open, and imparted some wisdom that has resonated with our team:

“I have found (in my old age) that when you “force” a situation, you may get an immediate result, but if you let it unfold over time, you will often (most of the time) end up with a better outcome.

I can relate this to a piece of fruit on a vine. If it looks good and you pick it, it may be tasty but if you have the patience to wait and let it drop into your hand, you will have harvested the fruit at its very best!”

It’s been a pleasure working with Frank and getting to know him. Our team is thrilled to kick off the series with the Rockstar who inspired our series!

—

JA: Thanks for joining us today, Frank! Can you tell us a little about the industry you’re in and provide some insight on some of the problems or challenges in it?

FS: There was always a very limited amount of training available in the cable industry and for the past 35 years there was primarily only one provider. Cable wasn’t too difficult to learn in the early years and actually there wasn’t a lot of training needed because of the simplicity of the job. With the evolution of the cable industry and the multitude of products introduced over the years, there was a strong need for the “up-training” of staff. The cable operators created their own internal teaching centers known as “Cable Universities” to train their in-house people on all the new products, but contractors didn’t get the same level of training. Due to co-employment issues, cable operators could not train the contract labor who worked for them. (Co-employment is a relationship between two employers where they both have responsibility to the employee, but co-employment issues can cause problems with companies that supply contingent labor.) As time went on, the cable operators started to measure performance and realized that contracted labor was underperforming the in-house staff.

JA: How did you find out about this problem and why did you decide to act on it?

FS: I always knew the problem existed but not the severity until I got more intimately involved with them. Towards the end of my career, I was asked to work with contract labor and find out why they were underperforming our in-house staff as well as figure out how to improve their performance. In a very short time, I identified the problem to be poorly trained employees.  I found this out by asking some of the management staff basics technical questions when they would drop off their invoicing. So, I came up with an idea to train them but unfortunately was told by upper management that it couldn’t be done due to our co-employment policy. However, they would allow me to train their management teams and then hope that knowledge could trickle down to their staff. So, I put together a 30-minute presentation on radio frequency (the frequency used in the cable industry) and started training their management teams.

JA: How was the response to your training presentation?

FS: The response was phenomenal. People asked me if I would moonlight or make a DVD. They tried to find all different ways to get me to help train their people. I told them it would be considered a conflict of interest and, unfortunately, wasn’t going to happen.

JA: Is this how you got the idea of CATV Training Institute?

FS: I was at a point in my life where I was getting older, my kids were grown, and I said to myself ‘maybe I’ll write a course on radio frequency, get a motor home (because that’s my dream) and travel the country and hold seminars.’ So, I wrote a book on it and gave it to my lawyer for copyright. After reading the book, he said “What else do you have?” I said, nothing.  He told me to get writing because I had a gift.  My brother suggested I try webinars and how I should use the power of the Internet to leverage my training content rather than physically showing up. So, I started looking into screen recording programs, Learning Management Systems (LMS’s) and also learned about SCORM compliancy in the process. At this point, I thought of having a website and a platform that would offer free resources to the cable industry. I envisioned an all-in-one location where you could find free cable related information including links and videos along with our school to help all cable field operations.

JA: How did you end up choosing an open source LMS and why did you choose Webanywhere?

FS: A partner of mine recommended an open source product as our school platform. So, we started looking for a partner that could help build my vision. At the time, it seemed no one could do what we wanted until we spoke with Webanywhere. They were the first company able to integrate a website, a shopping cart, all under one roof and make my vision a reality.

In the beginning, it was very difficult working with Webanywhere because they were overseas and the time zone and language barrier was a hindrance. The turning point with the company was the opening of the U.S. branch location in Chicago and the introduction to Drew Kenning and the rest of the team.  Since meeting Drew, it has been absolutely the best experience to have someone that is always communicating with me and personally taking an interest in my product and success of my company. Drew and the new location have certainly made my life a lot easier.

JA: Thanks for sharing that with us. You came to us at our infancy and I’m glad we had the opportunity to grow together. I feel like we have a great relationship, because our interest in you goes beyond being just a client of ours.

DK: I got your back Frank!

FS: Wait, Drew is here? I didn’t know he was listening!

JA & DK: [laughter]

DK: So, I believe you taught yourself Articulate Storyline. How did you decide to go with Articulate and how did you come to learning the tool?

FS: When I was learning about LMS’s, I started researching authoring tools. I had a blank canvas to go with whichever direction I wanted and create anything I wanted. Storyline seemed to be the best product available for what I wanted to do. The project became my obsession. I was never tired or stressed and always working. I learned how to use the program myself – it was quite challenging but I loved it! For example, I would do something on every single page and then realize there’s was a master slide function which would have saved me a whole lot of time. I originally started with Storyline 1 and am currently using 2. When I was making these courses, I didn’t want them to be cookie cutter, which is common with most eLearning courses I see. I’m blessed to have my partner David, who has 25+ years of experience in graphic design, create custom graphics and media for our eLearning courses. I would drop his graphics into a blank slide and then create the layers and triggers for everything. Every time someone takes our eLearning, they go ‘Wow!’ Actually, I still say Wow!

DK: Those graphics and illustrations really do look nice.

FS: Yeah, they’re beautiful! I also work closely with a guy Jeff, he’s been doing eLearning for a long, long time and he said by far, it was the best stuff he’d seen.

JA: I hear you received an award for your eLearning?

FS: Yes, if you go to our website, CATVtraining.com, you can see we recently won an award for Excellence in Learning and Development from the Society of Cable Television Engineers (SCTE). They are the technical leadership for the industry and to get that recognition from them, there is no higher honor. Our eLearning is engaging, intuitive and self-paced. There is nothing like it in the industry.

DK: It’s broader than just a single course, it’s the whole platform and set of courses you’ve brought to the industry, correct?

FS: That’s right. We were also selected as a training platform for transitioning veterans into the cable industry. Being a veteran myself in the communications field, it was great to speak with them about my experience and how I worked my way up from an entry level position in the industry. It was a great story for them to hear because many of them come home and have little hope of finding a career.

DK: Tell us more about your work with veterans…

FS: What happened was, I got a call from a company called “Warriors for Wireless”, a non-profit organization that works to transition veterans into the civilian workforce. We went down to D.C. and presented, they loved it and we began training veterans with our products. We successfully transitioned them into the workforce and their employers said they were some of the best and knowledgeable employees they’ve ever had walk through the door.

JA: Well done! So, we’ve covered your eLearning content, let’s talk about your platform.

FS: I think it’s important to know that we’re a B2B business. Our custom dashboard is very unique in that it puts our business partners in control of the school and managing their students.

DK: Not only do you provide a portal for clients to take training, but another portal for your clients to manage their users’ training, correct? It’s like you’re providing them with their own LMS.

FS: Correct. Our business partners can immediately get students started, they have that control. They can see what their progress and grades are as well as have access to their certificates. I really wanted to build this to be as automated as possible for our business partners. Some of the recent upgrades we have put in place have made the platform even better. We continually listen to our customer’s needs and work to improve our product.

DK: So, what you’ve done with your courses has set the stage for standardized accreditation in your industry. Your Tech-Check feature is especially innovative — it allows anyone to come and check a learner’s accreditation. They can go to your website to verify if they are certified.

FS:  Yes, no one else in the industry offers this feature.

DK: What are the two formal accreditations you’re formulating with the courses?

FS: The CATV Broadband Installer and CATV Broadband Technician. With our fixed seat bulk affordable pricing, a business partner can pick and choose the specific courses they need for their business. Whether they want to “up-train” their existing staff to drive performance, meet a cable systems certification requirements or start from the ground up with a newly hired employee, it’s all up to them. We also have plans to add more content as well as additional CATV designation titles through our tech progression structure. The CATV Training Institute has proven that together with our business partners, we can deliver technically stronger cable technicians at an affordable price.

JA: That sounds great, Frank! We look forward to continuing to support you in your endeavors. Thank you so much for your time, and thank you Drew for joining us!

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The post eLearning Rockstar Spotlight: CATV Training Institute appeared first on Webanywhere.

Currently, the retail industry is undergoing a profound shift. Price and product are no longer enough — modern consumers value seamless experiences across multiple devices and touchpoints.

Multichannel retail, which refers to the consumer’s ability to interact with your business with various channels independently, such as a mobile device, a website or a retail location, has evolved into omnichannel retail, which goes a step further by providing the consumer a seamless experience between each one.

In order to fully understand omnichannel, it’s important to know who is driving this shift, and address some common misconceptions about retail in this new era of digital innovations.

Millennials are driving this profound shift

Millennials have now surpassed Baby Boomers as the dominant demographic, and have brought with them a greater level of tech-savviness and different expectations. This new breed of consumers are connected to devices and data, comfortable moving across a myriad of media channels and are more informed than ever before. In fact, 81% of shoppers conduct online research before a purchase is made.

Retailers who create personalized, catered experiences that enable consumers to seamlessly transition from the online and offline worlds will thrive the most in the next ten years.

Stores are the heart of digital experience

Despite the popular belief that technology holds all the answers for retailing, the future of retail is solidly anchored in physical stores.

Brick-and-mortar stores provide consumers with a sensory experience that allows them to touch and feel products, immerse themselves in brand experiences and engage with sales associates who provide tips and reaffirm the consumer’s enthusiasm for their new purchases. It’s not physical or digital, it’s physical with the digital.

According to a study by A.T. Kearney:

• 95% of all retail sales are captured by retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence,

• Two-thirds of consumers who purchase online use the store before and after the transaction, and

• Physical stores help retailers drive online sales.

The time to embrace change is now

Over the next few years, we’re going to see the retail landscape undergo dramatic changes. Retailers will need to use technology to create seamless shopping experiences and positive in-store encounters to meet the needs of modern consumers, who demand and expect it.

An excellent way to prepare for this change is to empower your associates with product knowledge and system-based training. We invite you to check out our custom content services and contact us. Our team is excited to show you what we do can to help you gain that competitive edge with custom training solutions!

Jessica Arenz brings out the best of both worlds as an Instructional Designer and Marketing Executive at Webanywhere. She’s passionate about proper brand messaging and retail training and development. Throughout her career she has worked on eLearning for companies like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Kroger and Saks Fifth Avenue, to name a few. Jessica is one of many talented individuals on our team ready to collaborate with you on your next learning solution.

The post Understanding Omnichannel: The Future of Retail appeared first on Webanywhere.