Elearning blog: Learning re-imagined

Learning ITIL®

By Jim Zimmermann, Director, Books24x7

If you are a learning or HR manager, you may have never heard of ITIL (or know how to pronounce it – eye-till). But if you are in IT, you probably know all about ITIL, short for Information Technology Infrastructure Library– is the most widely adopted approach for IT Service Management in the world.  It provides a practical, no-nonsense framework for identifying, planning, delivering and supporting IT services to the business.  ITIL is to IT service management like ISO 9000 is to quality management. The ITIL standard is published by The Stationery Office(TSO) and the Best Management Practice, part of the UK Cabinet Office (formally the UK Office of Government Commerce– OGC).

Tips to Drive Learning Program Adoption Rates

By Margot Cook, Learning Strategist, SkillSoft

Recently, I had a relatively new client express concern that their learning program usage wasn’t where they expected it to be. They were just a few weeks into the program launch, and, had hoped to see more activity. I’d had other clients express the same concern, wondering where their usage should be in their learning program.

Once your program is launched, here are a few tips to drive program adoption rates:

Why So Low?

By Kieran King

When KnowledgeAdvisors measured SkillSoft’s scrap learning rate (the percent of learning that is not applied to the job within six weeks) at such a low level (14 percent), the question of “why so low?” naturally arises.  This is especially so when most learning efforts result in more than half scrap.

Why, well it comes down to two primary aspects of the SkillSoft solutions:

 

 

E-Learning Effectiveness Blog Series: Delivering Learning That Lives On

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from Mollie Lombardi, Research Director, Human Capital Management, at Aberdeen Group. She has surveyed and interviewed thousands of end-users to better understand the key challenges facing today’s HR and talent management leaders, as well as uncover the Best-in-Class strategies, capabilities, tools and technologies they are using to address those challenges.  She has written and spoken about a wide variety of HCM topics including strategic talent management, workforce planning, employee engagement, talent acquisition and learning, as well as the use of emerging technologies.

By Mollie Lombardi

Learning is as essential to organizations today as its customers are. It is how intention is translated into action. Without learning, the core purpose of an organization - to generate revenue by delivering goods and services to paying customers - will rapidly grind to a halt. Continuing to expand skills and knowledge among company leaders, organizational veterans, newly hired employees, and even temporary workers, customers and channel partners is fundamental to the success of organizations today. But for all the investment in learning, for all the new ways to go about it and channels through which to deliver it, organizations still struggle to make it last, and to make sure that the messages delivered don’t go to waste.

Even as the importance of learning as a bridge between strategy and execution continues to rise, organizations still face critical challenges in executing on their learning priorities. Anyone who's ever been to a training event or learning program knows how quickly the day-to-day demands of the office can erase the insights from even the most targeted and useful class. Participants can struggle to link what they've learned to life back on the job. So it’s not surprising that in my latest learning study, nearly half the respondents (47%) indicated that the biggest learning execution challenges are supporting learning after a formal learning events and linking learning to business results.

Learning Execution Challenges

 

Source: Aberdeen Group, October 2010

 

The Social Enterprise – Learning and Communication Reimagined

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from one of our customers, Josh Murrell, Training Network Administrator for Five Guys Burger and Fries. Josh administers and oversees the Five Guys University LMS. Five Guys currently integrates SkillSoft’s learning courses into the Five Guys University LMS to provide advanced management, leadership, and communication training for its area managers, district managers, and corporate trainers.  

By Josh Murrell

Imagine being able to keep up with what your coworkers are up to by quickly browsing status updates on your  home page. Imagine being able to instantly chat via text or even video with coworkers, or host a conference with 100 people all from the comfort of your desk. What if an employee no longer had to send out an email or pick up the phone when they have a question about something?  Instead they could  simply do a quick search that provides a variety of accurate and useful results that include documents, discussions, questions, wiki’s, videos, and even knowledge experts. Imagine that this system could integrate with Outlook, SharePoint, and other tools you already use. Imagine not being confined to using all of this on your computer, but also on your tablet computer and smart phone. What if this was something that people would be comfortable using and would enjoy using right away? Imagine no further, this is a reality today and it is available right now.

Advice on Avoiding Scrap to Make e-Learning Effective

We are pleased to bring you a guest blog post today from John R. Mattox, II, Ph.D., director of research for KnowledgeAdvisors, a learning measurement software and solutions company focused on improving the effectiveness of learning.

By John R. Mattox, II, Ph.D., KnowledgeAdvisors

What is Scrap Learning?

Scrap learning is learning that is lost after training.  Three great minds give us context and provide a better understanding of the concept:

• Ebbinghaus was a German psychologist, and in the 1880’s he elegantly demonstrated that memory fades exponentially with time.  By extension the knowledge and skills gained during training fade as well.
• B. F. Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, stated, “Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten.”
• Lastly, Brinkerhoff extended the idea and provided the label, scrap learning, by focusing on application.  If learning is not applied, it is lost.

Leadership Skills Training Lesson: Build Purpose and Skill, then get out of the Way

By Shawn Hunter

Your brand is a lagging indicator of the quality of your culture, and your culture is driven by the level of engagement in the organization.  Quality and positive leadership is the biggest driver of the habitat and the mindsets of the people in the organization that make that engagement possible.  The goal is to draw those discretionary qualities from people in the organization – initiative, creativity, passion – that can’t be bought.  You can dictate obedience, you can hope for loyalty, and you can even buy expertise.  But you can’t buy those discretionary qualities of initiative, creativity, and passion that must come from all levels to create next-generation innovative value.

KnowledgeBoosters: Rebuilding Trust

By Russ Howard

A few months ago, we introduced our series of KnowledgeBoosters.  These posts are skills development tips and techniques delivered in "quick hit" fashion – we know you’re busy so we want to keep them short but useful!  Each one also includes reference to a relevant course from our e-learning courseware collection, a book and an online article on the topic to allow you to learn more. 

This KnowledgeBooster is on rebuilding trust 

 

2011 Perspectives Australia Industry Award Winners Announced!

By Glenn Nott, Vice President and Managing Director, Asia Pacific 

We all love an awards ceremony and SkillSoft’s 2011 Perspectives Australia Industry Awards, which awards leading organizations with top e-learning and industry distinctions, is no exception.

The awards identify the SkillSoft customers who have made outstanding efforts in e-learning and acknowledge their ground-breaking ideas, powerful programs and inspiring leaders who are helping to transform the learning platform in Australia and New Zealand.

A Visual Guide to Social Learning

Download the info graphic here: http://www.skillsoft.com/infographic/social_learning_infographic.pdf

Tweet

By John Ambrose

Social learning - other than the global financial scene, no topic creates more lines of news these days. It is also the single most asked question I get when discussing the future of learning. The next most frequent question is: “Where do I start?”

The list of social tools available is long, growing and downright confusing. Many have comprehensive feature sets and may overlap with other technologies your company is already using. The vast majority are empty technology drums that require you to pour in the community and the content. Your IT organization is likely already evaluating an enterprise-wide social application.

But that doesn’t mean it will do all you need from a learning perspective.