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]

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It’s a sobering fact that college debt is second only behind mortgage debt. The average college debt is $37,000 or more according to Forbes. It’s no wonder that people are looking for alternate ways to fund their higher education, or won’t even consider it, instead of being saddled with debt. Employers are recognizing this problem and are offering tuition reimbursement or their own education assistance programs to help. The problem with tuition reimbursement is that it’s a good start, but it actually doesn’t go far enough, as education assistance programs are much more cost-effective and flexible, promoting a better work/life balance.

What’s in it for your organization?

Attract and Retain Top Talent

According to a 2015 survey by EdAssist, 60% of recruits will choose a job that offers great potential for professional development.Today’s ambitious job seekers will be more inclined to look your way if you offer a cost-effective way to continue their education.

Improve Engagement and Productivity

Giving your employees the chance to climb the corporate ladder through ongoing professional development is one of the best ways to keep them engaged and productive, which increases revenue.

Foster a Learning Culture

Offering an education assistance program drives learning into the heart of your organization. Learn more about why a learning culture is important in your organization.

Vital Considerations

Once you’ve decided to set up an education assistance program, you’ll need to take time to consider the following, then plan accordingly.

#1 Which courses will be eligible?

Decide on the type and subject matter of courses. Will you stick rigidly to those topics that fit in with your line of business, or are you prepared to let employees go outside the parameters? Will courses be academic, vocational, or a combination? Some courses may require ‘hands-on’ training; is this something you can accommodate?

#2 Who can enroll?

When it comes to traditional tuition reimbursement, organizations may select certain departments, job designations, GPA eligibility or employees with a minimum length of service to qualify. An education assistance program can open doors for your entire workforce, without breaking your budget.

#3 How much will you reimburse?

As of 2016 in the US, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) allows employers to offer an education benefit of up to $5,250 per employee per year without requiring that the employee or employer pay taxes on the dollars spent on qualified education. As a result, many employers offer up to $5,250 in tuition reimbursement each year. By creating your own education assistance program, you can reduce the average annual per-employee cost to less than $2,000 per year – a cost reduction of more than 60%.

#4 What university should I partner with?

Seek out partnerships with universities; they can offer assessments, exams and capstones for your learners to earn real college credit and have the university award the final degree. Integrating credits and grades should be a breeze with the right platform (see consideration #6).

#5 How much flexibility in course progression will you allow?

Do they have to stick to traditional course schedules, or should you aggregate content from other content providers so that your employees can learn at their own rate? Having the right work/life balance is key to your learners’ success. 

#6 What platform will you chose?

You’ll need a system that easily tracks learning progress for everyone enrolled in the program, and this is where a learning management system comes in. The platform should be flexible and scalable, to cope with changes, program expansion, etc. There are many good products on the market, but if you’re wanting the most cost-effective, longer term option, an open source LMS should be considered. While the upfront cost can be more expensive than with a proprietary brand, in the long term it should work out far cheaper, as there are no per-user licence fees to pay, and you don’t have to stick with any one company.

See how our client JetBlue is using Totara as their platform to support their education assistance program, JetBlue Scholars.

Amos Biggers is a Senior Business Development Executive at Webanywhere and advocate of continuing higher education in the corporate environment. For a decade, Amos has supported several sectors by delivering organizational development solutions which impact performance and professional growth.

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New Years is my favorite time of year. There’s a collective optimistic energy and shared agreement on new beginnings. It’s a reflective time where we all acknowledge the events of the past year and identify our goals for the year to be. The impending change, promise of improved quality of life and a tabula rasa, or blank slate, is truly an exhilarating feeling.

From my previous blog post about the disruptions to come in 2018 in the learning and development industry, the one that’s probably on most of our minds is that the LMS is no longer the center of learning, bringing forth the peak of the anti-LMS movement. If you’re ready to wipe the slate clean with a new learning platform this year, Totara is a great option.

What is Totara?

Totara is a functionally rich corporate open source LMS platform which can be implemented quickly and at a fraction of the cost of proprietary solutions. You can deliver learning effectively through individual learning plans which reflect your employees’ roles, training needs and objectives.

If you’re looking for a new learning platform, here are five ways that Totara can transform your new year.

#1 Avoid unjustified long-term contracts

When comparing Totara to other proprietary systems, you’ll notice the upfront cost is cheaper with their long-term contracts. But, you’re paying signficantly more over time. With Totara you pay for a reasonable annual subscription, and because Totara is open source, you’ll never have to worry about vendor lock-in.

#2 No more overpaying for bloated software licenses

Too often with proprietary solutions you’re paying for functionality and features you don’t need. You can learn more about the total savings with Totara over a proprietary system.

#3 You control your platform’s road map, not your vendor

Closed, proprietary solutions purposefully encourage technology lock-ins to ensure long-term customers and revenues while discouraging innovation. Adopting open source technology means open innovation with you in control.

#4 Utilize social and informal learning

Social, informal learning is happening in companies all over the world and thankfully, there’s a way it can be structured. Totara has its own enterprise social networking platform called Totara Social that features forums, blogs and gamification. Totara Learn and Totara Social can easily work together to create an environment that employees want to use, rather than have to use.

#5 Create rich learning experiences with H5P

Unique to Totara is its ability to integrate the H5P plugin, which allows you and your team easily create rich, HTML5 learning content within the platform, such as interactive videos, presentations and more. No complex, expensive authoring tools required! Our CMS/LMS hybrid, Promatum, shares this functionality.

Webanywhere is here to help you with your fresh start. As a certified Platinum Totara partner, Webanywhere is authorized to provide a full range of complex development services for unique-use cases. We strive to work closely with you to build and deliver a custom learning platform that meets and exceeds your business needs.

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.

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We are honored to announce that Brandon Hall Group, the leading independent research and analyst organization focused on human capital management practices, has awarded Webanywhere the Gold Award for Best Advance in Unique Learning Technology as part of their Technology Excellence Awards Program in Learning & Development.

Our submission titled ‘Reforming Higher Education with MyDegree from JetBlue Scholars’ detailed how the platform we built in partnership with our client JetBlue Airways enables flexible, self-directed and self-service learning for their JetBlue Scholars program.

“We set out to empower JetBlue crewmembers to earn a college degree on their own terms. After enrolling, Scholars needed to be self-directed in their educational pursuit, and Success Coaches and Administrators needed the resources necessary to ensure their success. JetBlue Scholars is the first educational assistance program of its kind, and we needed a ‘first of its kind’ technology solution. MyDegree brings all of the necessary components together, enabling scholars to focus on their academic goals.”

– Cody Cleverly, Manager of Academic Programs at JetBlue

At the heart of the Scholar experience is myDegree — a Totara platform — a first-of-its-kind solution made possible by custom degree management and a wide variety of features that contribute to the platform’s flexibility, simplicity, efficiency, effectiveness and the overall success of the JetBlue Scholars program. If you’d like to read more about the features, check out our JetBlue case study.

What makes MyDegree truly unique is that it enables self-directed, self-service learning. Full-time employees can learn at their own rate with complete flexibility in how they progress. Scholars can log in at any time to verify progress, jump in on forums, request a course or have a conversation with their Success Coach. For example, JetBlue’s flight attendants who are Scholars can easily slow their progress during travel, send their Success Coach a quick message to request enrollment to a new course and have it approved by the time they return home and then get ahead as much as the want.

Behind the scenes, MyDegree is making JetBlue Scholars possible while adding even more value to the overall experience and is also setting the stage for how employers are offering educational assistance.

The most significant benefits realized by JetBlue include:

• 60% reduction in the cost of educational assistance
• 33% increase in administrative and coaching efficiency
• Improved engagement and retention among enrollees
• Reduced average annual per-employee cost up to 60%
• Received a Net Promoter Score of 87 points

We are thankful for JetBlue’s support and continued partnership. The work that JetBlue has done to further employee education and development sincerely makes us proud.

What Makes Webanywhere Different?

As a certified Platinum Totara partner, Webanywhere is authorized to provide a full range of complex development services for unique-use cases. We strive to work closely with you to build and deliver a custom learning platform that meets and exceeds your business needs. We have experience in both traditional, top-down approaches to learning, as well as modern, bottom-up ones. As a global company, we leverage resources from all over the world to bring your vision to life.

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Retailers are currently moving away from traditional learning management systems (LMSs) and are considering newer “experience” platforms to complement them, which focus on personalized, social learning experiences — a.k.a. social learning platforms. Now that millennials are the largest generation in the workforce, especially in retail, they demand new modes of delivery for their learning and value it more than ever.

What is Social Learning?

According to Bersin by Deloitte, “social learning is a blended learning model that uses social media to enhance the learning experience.” Social learning platforms deliver rich, engaging and collaborative content to the learners. Social learning can:

• Build teamwork skills such as communication, conflict resolutions and leadership abilities.

• Improve online learner participation and engagement, since it appeals to our social needs.

• Facilitate peer-based feedback, which helps employees identify areas of improvement and bridge performance gaps.

• Give employees a sense of community and purpose.

Additionally, social learning platforms have the ability to create personalized experiences for the users. For example, clever technologies such as machine learning enables the platform to learn more about your preferences as you click. Think about how Netflix gives users different ratings based on programs you watch, or how eBay suggests similar products.

What ISN’T Social Learning?

For example, enterprise collaboration platforms such as Yammer, Slack, Salesforce Chatter and Facebook for Work are all for communications. It could be argued there is an overlap between the two. Within a platform like Slack, an employee could post a question, a colleague could then comment on this and provide a link to a useful resource, a perfect example of social learning. The challenge for these new enterprise collaboration platforms is that they haven’t been designed for learning.

Why is this important in retail?

The key to success in retail is twofold — standing out from the competition and keeping up with the fast-paced environment. To ensure your millennial workforce can retain important training such as product knowledge, Point of Sale (POS) and/or customer service in order to meet these expectations, it needs to be effective. This is where a social learning platform comes in.

Hold up… Is this replacing my LMS?

If you’re in retail, you’re probably familiar with compliance or OSHA training. This training is required and is often repeatable at multiple times in the year. Learning management systems (LMS) still need to exist since it’s a requirement in the compliance world. To be clear, social learning platforms aren’t meant to replace the LMS, only compliment it.

For example, here at Webanywhere we have worked on numerous projects where our clients are looking different platforms based on their audience type. We generally provide a LMS (Totara) along with our experience platform Promatum or Totara’s social learning platform, Totara Social.

Conclusion

The experience learning space is an interesting one and growing fast. Many large companies such as Caterpillar, Visa, Sears and GE are already using them. But these haven’t necessarily replaced their LMS, instead they are complimenting them — adding richer, more engaging learning experiences for their employees.

Considering a social learning platform of your own? We invite you to check out our case studies and contact us. Our team is excited to show you what we do can to help you gain that competitive edge with a social learning platform!

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We have been looking into Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) recently in our consulting division, it’s interested to see that this is often discussed by organizations looking to compare Learning Management System (LMS) offerings.

Here’s a few things to consider when calculating the TCO:

• Licensing costs

• Hosting costs

• Setup/implementation and consulting fees

• Integration costs

• Data migration

• Maintenance

• Change management

It’s important to note that TCO isn’t just the costs associated with moving from one enterprise software vendor to another, instead, you have to consider the other costs internally that you have. For example, from the list below training and change management would be one.

We compared Totara Learn, the leading open source enterprise LMS, with another leading enterprise proprietary LMS. We reviewed Totara Learn pricing based on several partners in the market where information was freely available.

For this test, we made a few assumptions, these were:

• 3,000 – 10,000 users

• No setup, consulting or configuration fees were required with the proprietary vendor

• No integrations were required for both Totara Learn or the proprietary vendor

• Support fees and hosting not required for the proprietary vendor as they were including in their Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offer

• All other costs in the business as part of transition were not included in the calculation (e.g. training and change management costs)

The key takeaway here is that although the upfront cost for Totara is more expensive than proprietary, you will actually save more over time than a proprietary solution due to the licensing costs. Another added benefit to open source solutions such as Totara is that you control the roadmap for your platform, not the vendor.

Some considerations when choosing your LMS vendor:

• Don’t forget TCO costs internally that are ‘hidden’ such as training and change management, ensure they are in your calculations

• Data migration is key, if you are currently using an LMS you will need to clean your data, or ask the vendor to do this

• Proprietary SaaS LMS vendors business model is to start small on a license fee, as you add more functionality modules, price per user increases significantly

• With open source LMS vendors like Totara Learn, new modules and functionality is included in your annual subscription fee

• If you move vendors in the future, be sure to check with your proprietary LMS provider what the exit fee would be, they won’t want to lose you and so it’s likely they will try and stop you in your tracks

Where would you rather spend your L&D budget? Filling the pockets of overpriced learning technology companies or investing in initiatives that drive the development of your employees?

This This blog was originally published on our UK site and rewritten/edited for the US site.

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Over the last few years, much emphasis has been placed on knowledge sharing within an organization’s own elearning program. Easily accessible, bite size knowledge has applications for:

• Sales / marketing – get up to speed on new products and services

• Customer service – refresh correct responses to different scenarios

• Compliance – find the protocol for handling a hazardous substance

Regardless of sector or industry, every organization needs a flexible, knowledge sharing platform. It should be available 24/7 using mobile devices, as you want to make it as convenient as possible to learn. Webanywhere decided to take this to the next level and create a culture of knowledge sharing.

eLearning User Group Conference

Webanywhere Inc decided to trial hosting an elearning user group conference. The inaugural event was held in February this year in Chicago, home of our US branch. We invited a number of major clients to attend and were delighted when Medtronic, JetBlue, Texas Instruments, and Apollo Education were among the nine organizations who took part. The theme of the event was: Together we are more than the sum of our parts.

Watch the Video

Agenda

The conference was set up to foster innovative ideas and share best practice. Presentations included:

• Medtronic Academy

• JetBlue Scholars – continuing education

• Totara Learn LMS

• Creating engaging content

• Promatum CRM for fast knowledge sharing

There was also a round table discussion on ‘Encouraging uptake and utilization’, which proved lively and thought-provoking.

The various Learning & Development guests were able to look at how other organizations approached elearning for employee onboarding, talent management, mandatory compliance training and product knowledge. It helped to put things in perspective and highlight alternative strategies. A wide range of topics was discussed, from improving what you get out of your LMS, to using gamification to increase learner engagement. Everyone went away with a renewed commitment to meeting their company’s learning goals.

eLearning Themes

Some of the more important ingredients for successful learning were demonstrated at the conference:

• Collaboration

• Mobile learning

• Interactive content – heavy on the visual

• Social learning

• Knowledge sharing

Afterwards the overwhelming feedback was that the user group had been a complete success – so much so that it was decided to hold them annually in the US and UK. The sharing of new ideas between learning specialists will also help us create more effective solutions.

When a customer chooses Webanywhere for an elearning solution, it’s all about the journey together. We work alongside our clients, offering our expertise and flexibility. It’s very much a synergistic partnership.

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Choosing a Learning Management System (LMS) in a market of over 600 can be a daunting task. So, where do you start? To help you choose the best LMS, we have prepared a recipe with everything you should keep in the mix.

Ingredients

• Goals, expectations and needs

• A list of ‘must-have’ features

• Request For Proposal (RFP)

• Demo / Free trial

• A shortlist of LMSs

• Budget

Preparation

• Have a clear sense of what are you trying to achieve.

• Ensure you get feedback from a good cross section of business stakeholders.

• Consider the skills and feedback of your L&D team when building your RFP.

• Compile a list of ‘must-have’ features you want your LMS to have.

Method

• Choose a system that is flexible, quick to deploy and user friendly. Try a system that offers a free trial or demo site to avoid making a costly error.

• Bear in mind the technical limitations of your audience. Are you learners tech savvy?

• Check that the new LMS offers the essential features and functions you really need. Does it have to be mobile friendly? Is it secure? Are gamification and social learning a ‘must’ for you? Is in-depth reporting available?

• Check your new system is future-proof.  Is it scalable to grow with your organisation’s needs? Will it be easy to upgrade and maintain?

• Evaluate how the new LMS will be integrated with your current software.

• Review a variety of vendors and negotiate your preferred terms of contract. Ask them about their experience, skill sets and qualifications. Look at online reviews to give you a better idea of how they dealt with customers in the past.

Serve and enjoy!

• There will be times when you are going to need 24/7 support from your LMS vendor. Will the vendor be able to guide you through the setup and training process? Can you call them when you face a technical problem?

• The best LMS will allow you to create an ideal e-learning experience for your audience.

Still need help with selecting the best LMS? As a Totara Platinum Partner, we know how to get the most from Totara Learn, a scalable and flexible open source learning management system.

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Feature Links Block & Learning Design

One of the impressive new features of Totara 10 gives the administrator more control of the look and feel. The feature links block allows the user to create custom graphic based navigation. LMS teams can now add tiles, image galleries and much more to make the experience much better for the learner.

360 Appraisals

A really useful tool, fully integrated into Totara Learn, is the 360 appraisal tool. Large corporates like Google are using 360 appraisals as the base of their performance review process. The 360 tool within Totara has been advanced in version 10 with optional or mandatory self assessments.

Appraisal Message Placeholders

You can now add personal messages for each recipient. These messages can be set in templates so you don’t need to create several wasting lots of time, for more information you can read about it here.

Progress Bars

Totara 10 now also has progress bars so managers are able to see on a more granular level how well their teams are progressing through a course.

Recycle Bin

Remember that time when you delete something and need it back? Similar to the recycle bin on your computer, Totara 10 now incorporates this. So, if you or a colleague deletes a learning resource, for a period of time, you can still retrieve this back.

Badges are Better!

We all know the boring PDF certificate isn’t good enough for our modern learners. Badges within Totara Learn have just got better in version 10 with some exciting new options. You can read more about badge improvements here.
Notifications

Pull learning is a really useful approach to try and entice the learner back. Totara 10 knows about this and have added improvements notifications within their learning ecosystem. This means managers can send more informative alerts to their learners.

User Tours

To support the experience of the learner, Totara 10 now has tours which can be created or imported. These tours can be site wide or targeted at specific users. This supports the internal Learning and Development team to ensure they have automated training in place to support their learners.

Notifications

Pull learning is a really useful approach to try and entice the learner back. Totara 10 knows about this and have added improvements notifications within their learning ecosystem. This means managers can send more informative alerts to their learners.

User Tours

To support the experience of the learner, Totara 10 now has tours which can be created or imported. These tours can be site wide or targeted at specific users. This supports the internal Learning and Development team to ensure they have automated training in place to support their learners.

Job Assignment Import Source

The HR Sync tool within Totara means you don’t spend your days adding and maintaining user lists. The new job assignments is now in place and ready within Totara 10. This also includes multiple job assignments which is a clever feature LMS administrators can leverage.

If you would like more information you can contact us and we will be happy to show you more.

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This spend can be linked to concerns with:

• falling sales
• the apprenticeship levy
• competition

Retail Sales Index: showing the slump in sales

According to the Retail Sales Index, sales are declining.

We saw the recent slump in Next’s sales in 2017 adversely affecting their profit and cited a “combination of economic, cyclical and internal factors working against us”.

Also, we saw John Lewis slash staff bonuses to the lowest level in over 63 years to protect their future.

Source: Telegraph.co.uk | Data: ONS

Competition

Another factor affecting this change is competition from online sales. In grocery for example, companies like Acado in the UK are providing more and more reasons to buy online, with new entrants such as Amazon building on their current business model to now deliver food produce.

Increasingly, competitors are entering this crowded and aggressive marketplace where:

• the product range is wide (i.e. home cleaning items, personal hygiene goods and foodstuffs, such as crisps and ready meals); and
• margins are low.

In order to compete for retail shelf space, customer facing employees need to know exact information about products at a given time.

The apprenticeship levy

Another criticism in the training industry has been how the apprenticeship levy has been introduced.

Retailers feel that this is an unnecessary tax on their revenues given that most of them are already running training and graduate programmes.

As the size of the retail sector is approximately £3bn they will pay around £235m for the levy this year.

How can we measure training impact as a return on investment?

Here are several tips on how to measure the impact of training in your FMCG business

Sales revenues

Running product sales training, or coaching is a simple win.  When you are releasing a new product, why not link the Learning and Development team with the Sales and Marketing team to produce supporting training materials.  As sales increases, you can demonstrate through learning assessment how this effected knowledge of individuals and therefore sales results.

Customer net promoter

Some businesses ask you to fill out a net promoter score at the bottom of your receipt.  There may be in some cases a cash prize or holiday if you win.   If you are rolling out a customer service training programme, you can assess the its results by the customer net promoter score.

For example, how many customers are filling out the feedback via net promoter, low number means your employees are not doing their job.  If they are feeding back, how good is this feedback, is it positive?  You can then link in the customer service training programme results to your net promoter.

Employee engagement

Most businesses send out an employee engagement survey, this is to ‘check in’ and for the head office to understand where people are feeling engaged or not.  This would be on top of the one to one’s with managers.  Typically more engaged workforces have a learning culture, you can evidence how many effective training programmes have been rolled out over a specific period and link this data to increases in employee engagement, then you can evidence the impact training is having.

Learner feedback

From training courses that you run, whether they are face to face, or blended, you can always ask for feedback.  You can use the ‘happy sheet’ to gain this, but most organisations are now using their online learning portal to gain this feedback, which means it’s much easier to aggregate and analyse the data.

Mystery shopping

FMCG businesses outsource their mystery shopping to other businesses who specialise in this area.  You can use this feedback to understand the impact of your training programme.

For example, you may run a training programme about management of aggressive behaviour in store.  You could ask the mystery shopper to approach several stores to raise complaint and potentially use aggressive behaviours.  Following your training programme, you can ask the mystery shopper for independent feedback on how this was handled.

Therefore, with these challenges in the FMCG sector training has become more important than ever.  We need to leverage our skills in our teams to bridge the challenges in sales decline.

The benefits of training

In our experience, we are seeing that these employees have benefitted from training on:

• Product knowledge
• Professional selling skills
• Bespoke sales training
• And much more …

Once trained, they are far more effective in negotiating shelf space with retailers to increase distribution and sales.

For more information about how other FMCG corporates are approaching learning programmes, you can read more about:

• Zara
• Hotter Comfort
• Dominos ; and
• Clas Ohlson here.

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