The hosted vendor service option is also called SaaS.  SaaS (vendor hosted applications) stands for Software as a Service.  Vendor hosted applications/SaaS have become a very popular option in the last ten years. There are benefits to both types of configurations and it ultimately depends on the specific business case.

Licensing an LMS/LCMS

Licensing Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System software allows companies to have full control over their installation and system configuration.  They are able to internally monitor usage. In most but not all cases, it ends up being the most cost effective in the long run (over 5 years).  Generally, the disadvantages of licensing are higher upfront costs because of the purchase of the software itself, installation, set-up and configuration.  It also can take longer to deploy the system and IT employees may need training. Organizations must also pay ongoing personnel costs and training for internal operation and maintenance of the software.

Hosting an LMS/LCMS

The advantages of a Hosted Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System model are usually lower upfront costs, no installation required and shorter deployment times.  There are also no ongoing costs associated with employing technicians (IT personnel) to maintain the product.  Software upgrades and fixes are done automatically by the vendor. The company has the option to ramp up quickly or reduce usage if their business expands or contracts. In this scenario, depending upon the usage plan, companies can sometimes pay as they use the service (pay as they go). Generally, the disadvantages to hosting are the company has less control over the LMS/LCMS and maybe less-cost effective in the long run (over 5years).

Running the Numbers

So you say hosted (SaaS) is the way to go. But not so fast, you really need to look at the costs spread over a five year period.  Heck, you may even impress the guys in accounting! Below is a sample cost worksheet:

Sample Hosted vs. License LMS/LCMS Worksheet

 Hosted vs. License LMS/LCMS Calculation Assumptions and Observations

The worksheet above assumes that some of the add-on modules are included in the hosted application, but some may not.  The worksheet also accounts for personnel costs. It is by no means exhaustive and exact.  It needs to be crafted to reflect your company’s requirements. It also assumes that maintenance and support is included in the hosted arrangement.  Keep in mind that in the hosted scenario, there may be additional charges related to bandwidth usage, especially if your courses are large, graphic intensive and need to be streamed.  Finally, it’s important to compare costs on a per-user basis.

Typically the decision to license a Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System versus using a hosting service is made not a cost basis but due to other factors such as isolated networks (from the internet) or for mandated security policies (DOD).  Generally, costs over a 5 year period are comparable on a total cost per-user basis.

Good luck!

About Bob Goldschneider:

Bob Goldschneider has over 25 years experience in corporate training and educational services.  He has served as Director of Educational Services and Director of North American Sales and Service for the Open Software Foundation. He built their Educational Services division from the ground up into a multi-million dollar business. He also served as Director of Educational Services at Apollo Computer and Training Development Manager for Wang Laboratories, where he managed a staff of over 50 instructors, course developers, video producers, and graphic designers.

About SyberWorks

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in providing Learning Management Systems and custom e-Learning Solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market.  Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions for creating, managing, measuring, and improving e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.

http://syberworks.com/articles/licensevshost.htm

OJT is usually quite cost-effective, because it focuses on the tasks at hand, and requires no equipment beyond what the company already provides.  It’s also much less disruptive than other forms of training, because employees aren’t removed from their duties, but are instead trained for their work while doing it.

The actual training is usually done by a manager or supervisor who is coaching employees while they work.  Supervisor feedback tends to be immediate, and trainees often improve their job performance quickly.  Employees also feel more confident about their job performance when they are being coached by supervisors, and on-the-job training is a good way for new employees to build relationships with their comrades.

Problems to Avoid

There are, however, potential issues with on-the-job training.  Supervisors and experienced employees may not have the needed skills for training other employees.  Often, supervisors or managers were promoted because they were good at performing or managing their own work, but this doesn’t guarantee that they also possess the skills or ability to coach new employees.  Not everyone is a born teacher.

Time also can be a huge issue! Supervisors and mentors may not have the time to spare to  help new employees. And since on-the-job training usually follows no formal procedure or specified content (other than the task at hand), supervisors and mentors will need still more time, to pass on the extra knowledge, skills, and  business context that employees will need to solve future job problems and respond to business changes. So upper management must give employees who are doing this training the time they need.

During on-the-job training, trainees also need time to practice the skills they must learn.  In turn, supervisors and trainers must prepare adequate drill materials for trainees, and provide feedback early and often in the drilling process, to prevent trainees from acquiring unwanted job behaviors. So again, upper management must make sure that everyone gets the time they need.

An often-overlooked issue that can plague on-the-job training is company lingo. Trainees must receive a clear, consistent understanding of the concepts and terms used in their organizations. And even when an employee says they understand a word or concept, they may not.  They will often say they understand to avoid looking incompetent. So supervisors and mentors must keep this in mind, and constantly repeat and reinforce the terms and concepts that new employees must learn.

And on top of all the above, supervisors and mentors are only human. They can easily pass on their own counter-productive habits to other employees…and must work hard to avoid doing so.

OJT Development Techniques

Usually, OJT employs one or more of the following four techniques:

·         Coaching—This one-on-one interaction is usually done by a supervisor or someone outside the company, and is often prescriptive and corrective in nature.  It helps the trainee understand their strengths, weakness, and areas of improvement, and tends to be applied for a fixed amount of time until the employee is deemed proficient.

·         Mentoring—This too is an ongoing one-on-one technique that’s usually done by a more experienced company executive or supervisor.  The mentor works with the trainee to find their strengths, weaknesses, and areas of improvement.  The mentor provides feedback and guidance, and points out areas that may have been overlooked.

·         Job Rotation—This approach allows trainees to practice and become proficient in various aspects of the work at hand, or different roles within the company.  It helps employees because they are exposed to different work areas and learn about various company functions.  (It’s also a great opportunity for employees to try out different functions, to see what they like or don’t.)  The company also benefits, because job rotation diversifies worker skill sets in critical areas, and helps the company respond to unforeseen events like vacations, flu epidemics, and catastrophes.  Job rotation also fosters organization-wide goal- and objective-sharing, because employees better understand each other’s job responsibilities.

·         Job Instruction Techniques—There are many great online resources to help you plan, prepare, and implement on-the-job training. But most models ask trainers to plan, present, trial, and follow up.  The plan consists of a written breakdown of the work and of your training objectives.  In the trial stage, the plan is presented to the trainee(s), who are asked to try it out…with regular follow up during the process. There are variants to this method and it can be either streamlined or made more complex, depending upon the business case and the tasks to be learned.

How Can LMS and e-Learning Tools Help?

Learning Management Systems (LMSs) and e-Learning authoring tools can help with all parts of on-the-job training.  Depending on your organization’s needs, you can use an LMS to track and manage one or more parts of the OJT process, including:

.

·         Registering trainees

·         Scheduling training

·         Storing and delivering reference materials (such as company procedures, concepts,  and terms)

·         Delivering regular practice drills

·         Testing and evaluating job competencies being learned

·         Collecting and storing training results

·         Delivering and collecting follow-up employee surveys

·         And, more!

About the Author:

Mary Polley-Berte is Director of Customer Support & Training at SyberWorks, Inc., in Waltham, Massachusetts. Mary is a graduate of Boston University and resides with her family in New Hampshire.

About SyberWorks

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in providing Learning Management Systems and custom e-Learning Solutions for Fortune 1000 corporations, higher education, and other organizations. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market.  Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions for creating, managing, measuring, and improving e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and other countries.

http://syberworks.com/articles/ojt-article.htm

When I had written the article, “Recession Proof your Training Organization,” for the Chief Learning Officer back in May of 2008, the recession was just beginning.   Now, a year later, with better understanding and realization, I still strongly stand by the key points I stated in the article to help make your training organization thrive through this tough time:

1.       Right Size Now

2.       Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training

3.       Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time

4.       Outsource Noncore Activities

5.       Choose the Right Training Modality

For your training organization to survive the current recession and support long-term success, it’s crucial to understand what all of these points mean.  However,  I dropped the “right sizing point” since all organizations already reduce the size of their teams, and I doubt there is much “right sizing” left to complete.

I will dive into more detail, and also add another key point, which is to reuse the content you already have.

1. Demonstrate Clear ROI from your Training.  Simply saying that you are delivering a great training product won’t cut it these days. You have got to be able to prove your value to the company in hard, cold dollars, demonstrating an uncontestable return on investment for every penny in your budget.  If you cannot measure the ROI, you might want to question why you are doing the project before someone else asks the question. When in doubt, work on projects that drive incremental revenue or reduce costs within the next six months.

2. Deliver High-Quality Programs, On Time, that Align with Business Objectives.  During corporate belt-tightening, all things perceived as “fluff” should automatically go. Take a good hard look at the programs you offer— how well do they align with the two universal goals of increasing revenue and cutting costs? Clearly, any training that improves employees’ critical skill sets will be a must-have, such as compliance programs and other mandated training initiatives. This is what will allow you to stay in the game.

But for other programs, keeping them may be something you will want to reevaluate. Inspecting your organization for indications that training quality is slipping, and fixing those issues fast is critical. In many cases, Pulitzer-quality text or sophisticated graphics are less important than timely delivery, which lets the organization start realizing value immediately. A perception of being slow and unresponsive will doom your group, even if there are really good reasons for these delays or changes.

3. Outsource When it Makes Sense.  Like anything else, outsourced training has its pros and its cons. Bringing in contract training resources saves headcount and related fixed costs, and often allows you the flexibility of offering training programs that would not possible with just your in-house staff. However, on the other hand, outsiders often lack the industry or company-specific knowledge necessary for effective training in your particular market niche. A good solution is maintaining a small core of trainers to manage internal coordination and provide subject matter expertise.

 4. Choose the Right Training Modality.  Studies have shown that training effectiveness is heavily dependent on the way material is presented. Some topics, like diversity awareness or interpersonal communications, are best taught in a traditional instructor-led classroom setting. Others, like introducing new product features or regulatory compliance, can often be covered faster and more easily with an e-course. Webinars work well for other topics that require discussion in addition to content, such as an overview of an issue with a question-and-answer period following.

Selecting the best modality for your various training offerings demonstrates to senior management that you are a good steward of tight dollars. By explaining why one delivery method is superior to others, you substantiate your role as a leader, and prove your personal value to the company. You might point out, for example, that switching your new-hire training from an instructor-led to an online format trims orientation time by an entire day, at a savings of $1,000 per person (see the Training Calculator). Once again, this underscores the need for credible metrics and a value-driven approach to training.

5. Reuse the Investment in Content that Already Exists.  Most of the budget for developing new online training relates to the content creation.  As we work with large organizations, we usually find they have an abundant of content in the form of presentations, recorded webinars, white papers, etc.  However, often times, the content needs to be trimmed down, organized, the interactivity needs to be added, and the assessments needs to be built.   These organizations have spent historical dollars in developing the content, so this presents an opportunity to leverage their investment.   In addition, re-using and enhancing the existing content will support the turnaround time

I am in high hopes that my next follow-up article will relate to supporting your organization during the faced-paced time of the recovery.

Biographical Note:  Charlie Gillette is Managing Director of Knowledge Anywhere, an online training company in Bellevue, WA:  www.knowledgeanywhere.com.  email: charlie@knowledgeanywhere.com

With the advent of “Software as a service” (Saas), and SalesForce.com’s commitment to that technology, a rich API is available to allow integration between SalesForce.com and other client applications. And one of the client applications that can be integrated is the LMS system.

General Considerations

First, there are two primary (and competing) factors to consider for streamlining SalesForce.com transaction times:

    * Batching data

      Batching as much data as possible in an APEX API call can reduce the cross-network traffic.

    * Reducing the size of data requests

The more data that is sent to SalesForce.com, the more time it will take to process. It is best to send SalesForce.com only the data that is necessary at any time. Sending superfluous data only increases the size (and processing times) of APEX API calls.

Of course, these factors are at odds with each other. And users must often balance transaction speeds with other business requirements, to determine how optimal SalesForce.com transactions really can be.

A related factor to keep in mind is that SalesForce.com enforces a daily limit on the number of APEX API calls. This is done to balance server processing across multiple concurrent users.

From Users to Business Leads

There also may be good business reasons for turning LMS student data into business leads through the SalesForce.com application. This is especially true in situations where companies sell training to customers, vendors, or partners.

An automatic process can turn a newly registered learner in the LMS into a SalesForce.com business lead. Using the SalesForce.com APEX API WSDL (Web Service Definition Language), lead objects can be generated and directly added to the SalesForce.com leads database. And the individual who is used to authenticate into SalesForce.com becomes the owner of the newly generated lead.

And if your registration process collects data that is not inherent to the SalesForce.com application, custom data objects can be created to represent this application-specific data. A new APEX API WSDL needs to be generated when these objects are created, to make them available to your application interface.

From SalesForce.Com to LMS

The next question becomes, “How can I get to my LMS data from SalesFoce.com as seamlessly as possible?” Given the nature of Saas, SalesForce.com provides the ability to create your own application within the SalesForce.com structure. You can create custom tabs that are visible to your SalesForce.com users. These tabs can use custom S-controls of type HTM, URL, or Snippet. You can use whichever is suitable to your LMS integration and acceptable as a user-interface element for your users. This setup allows you to connect pretty easily to your LMS.

A related task is logging in to the LMS. If your LMS supports single sign-on, you may want to use the same User IDs in both SalesForce.com and the LMS. If this is done, the user can click a link in the SalesForce.com application, be automatically logged into the LMS, and presented with its starting page. Of course, you need to consider user password security here. And this again depends on the LMS. It may use a generic password for all users connecting through a single-sign-on procedure, or an MD5 hash (or similar encryption technique) of previously agreed data, which could be verified against each user’s specific LMS data for authentication.

From LMS to SalesForce.com

Communicating in the other direction-from the LMS to SalesForce.com-depends on the data that must be stored in SalesForce.com. Some examples of data that could be passed from the LMS to a SalesForce.com application are training purchases and course results. (Training purchases would assume that the LMS uses an e-Commerce module, where web- or classroom-based courses can be purchased.)

A major consideration again becomes whether this data should be transmitted on a real-time basis or by means of scheduled batch jobs.

    * The real-time option requires the LMS to support calls to the SalesForce.com interface whenever user results are updated or an LMS purchase is made. These calls would be made through a web service that transmits the data to SalesForce.com. Any data properties that SalesForce.com does not inherently support can be created as custom objects, so no data need be omitted.

The benefits of this are that the SalesForce.com application is up-to-date whenever a SalesForce.com administrator or reporter interrogates its data. The downside is the overhead for each call made to the SalesForce.com application. The number of calls made through the APEX API, though they can be estimated, cannot be predicted, since they occur as events occur.

   * Batching data does not use real-time call outs from the LMS code, but instead retrieves data directly from the LMS database at scheduled intervals.

      This naturally lends itself to the recommended batching of data to SalesForce.com’s servers, and the number of calls to do that is both predictable and low. However, there is a time lag between actual activities in the LMS and the transfer of their resulting data to the SalesForce.com application.

The decision between using a real-time interface or batch process depends on, but is definitely not limited to, the following:

    * The timeliness with which business needs to reach SalesForce.com.

    * The ability of the LMS to support real-time data collection and communications.

    * The estimated volume of data that will be transmitted to SalesForce.com (keeping in mind that SalesForce.com enforces a daily limit for API calls).

About the Author:

Stuart Campbell is Director of Software Development for SyberWorks, Inc., a privately held supplier of e-Learning software and training. A native of the United Kingdom, he had previously served as a Principle Software Engineer, Senior Consultant, Senior Software Engineer, and Development Specialist for companies such as Brooks Automation Inc. (Chelmsford, Mass.); Digital Equipment (South Queensferry, U.K.); and Honeywell Control Systems (Motherwell, U.K.). Among his many roles at SyberWorks, he leads the software-development process and helps to build new software releases and update kits.

About SyberWorks, Inc.

SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com) is a leader in the custom e-Learning Solutions and Learning Management System/Learning Content Management System (LMS/LCMS) industries for Fortune 1000 corporations, law enforcement, healthcare, and other industries. Located in Waltham, Massachusetts, the company serves the multi-billion-dollar e-Learning market. Since 1995, SyberWorks has developed and delivered unique and economical solutions to create, manage, measure, and improve e-Learning programs at companies and organizations in the United States, Canada, Europe, and around the world.

1. Read a book.
2. Watch a video.
3. Attend a speech or workshop.
4. Enroll in an online course

Now suppose that in addition to being more knowledgeable you wanted to become skillful at something. It could be anything like golf, karate, selling refrigerators, negotiating, making presentations, etc. The point is you want to become truly proficient. Your objective is not just to know something; you want to be able to do something, and do it well. If skill is your objective, then your only option is to practice with an expert coach under realistic working conditions until you achieved fluency.

When you do something repeatedly – trying to perform up to an explicit standard – your mind and body get the “feel” of doing it proficiently. And the “feel” of doing it is the skill. If you don’t acquire the feel, you haven’t acquired the skill. Further, the feel is acquired only by using the skills to produce a real result: A good golf stroke, a sale, a successful negotiation.

Coaching the actual performance shortens the time it takes for an individual to become proficient enough to achieve the desired result repeatedly. Eventually, the new behavior becomes a preferred and self-chosen way of behaving.

Yet, when it comes to interpersonal-skills training in the business world – the teaching of so-called “soft skills” such as listening, leadership and teamwork, practicing with an expert coach under realistic working conditions is the least chosen development method. And that is the real reason behind the endless hand wringing in the corporate training field about how hard it is to get “learned” skills to transfer from the classroom to the job. It is also the reason that in difficult economic times, the training budget is often the first one cut, and it’s our fault

Training vs. Education
There is a great deal of difference between training and education, though the vast majority of trainers are not aware of it. Educating is not the same as training. For most people, there is no causal relationship between education and performance. There is, indeed, a causal relationship between training and performance. Knowledge isn’t power. Competence is power. Power is the ability to create a desired effect and that is performance.

To educate is to increase intellectual awareness of a subject. To train is to assist someone become proficient at the execution of a given task. Many wonderful things can be said about education, but education doesn’t cause competence.

Try making a youngster competent at riding a bicycle by sitting her down at the kitchen table and explaining how to ride a bicycle. Try taking a one-hour golf lesson from someone who uses typical online “training” methods. He’ll meet on your computer screen far from the golf course, talk to you about a golf swing for 30 minutes, show you his swing for 10 minutes, let you take make-believe swings at an imaginary golf ball for 5 minutes, then ask you to write an “action plan” describing how you will apply what you’ve “learned.”

Skeptics will protest that some people who receive education in soft-skills areas actually do turn out higher performance as a result: They do, in fact, get better at selling or influencing or working in a team. And this is true-for maybe 10 percent to 15 percent of the trainees. In fact, that 15 percent were already skillful before they attended the latest online educational offering. If you take anyone who is already competent and add more education, you often will get better performance to some degree.

What about the other 85 percent or 90per cent? It make no sense to pretend that the training department’s job is simply to deliver some information about skills (The Five Key Practices of Famous Leaders, The Ten Fabulous Values of Team Players), and then abdicate responsibility for proficiency to the person’s manager/supervisor. If you accept the title of “trainer,” your task is to make people competent, not just more aware. Blaming managers because the “skills” you supposedly imparted in your educational event failed to transfer to the job site is irresponsible.

Real Training For Real People
Begin by abandoning notions of what people ought to know or what sort of attitudes they ought to have or even how people acquire knowledge. Instead, ask, “How does one acquire skillfulness?” The most efficient and effective way to acquire skillfulness is straight forward: 1) Spend a little time educating about the results to be achieved and the skills to be executed in order to obtain those results. 2) Spend a lot of time practicing, with a coach who can reduce trial and error time, until fluency is achieved.

In the hands of a good trainer or coach, Step 1 takes up 5 percent to 10 percent of the allotted time. Step 2 takes up the other 90 percent to 95 percent. Step 1 is purely education. Step 2 is training.

If the student isn’t doing it, it isn’t training. A day spent talking about skills will not make anyone skillful. Nobody gets the “feel” for real execution, done to a specific standard of competence, and if they don’t acquire the “feel,” they don’t acquire the skill.

Even if you agree with these points you may say: “Fine, but all of that would have to be done in the field. It can’t be done in a classroom. And even if it weren’t too expensive and difficult to put that many expert coaches in the field, we don’t want our trainees practicing on real customers. So how we do make them proficient before we send them into the real job environment?”

There is a way.

How to Do It

To do real training in soft skills, start by taking a tip from advocates of “action learning”: Invite people to a meeting room for a genuine working session—into which some coaching will be added. You can provide some online pre-meeting assignments and education to maximize your work session time.

The purpose of this working session is to evaluate and make decisions about ideas for improving the business: Real ideas for real improvement that will make a real difference to the company. Ask participants to bring their own ideas to the meeting. Stipulate that these ideas must meet two criteria. First, the people in the meeting must be capable of implementing them; that is, someone in the room must have the authority to give a real yes or no to the idea. Second, if adopted, the improvement must be both measurable and capable of producing financial consequences for the business within 90 days.

In other words, you don’t want ideas such as, “Let’s change the cafeteria’s vending machines.” That might be an improvement, all right, but it’s unlikely to produce a measurable ROI within three months. Your online pre-work gave them a quick educational overview of the skills that would most likely help them gain the commitment and support they’ll need to implement their ideas.

Next you must also clearly define what “skillful” means – not just what the skills are. For instance, you are skillful at “showing respect” if you can acknowledge another person’s point of view so well that the person begins to feel they are being taken seriously within 15 seconds.

Make this introduction as succinct as possible. Then put everyone to work on the task of trying to gain commitment and support from one another. Coach them while they do so. Make them do it over and over again, until at least 85 percent of them have become proficient at the skills and have achieved concrete desirable results.

An obvious “desirable result” is that a participant gains the needed support and approval for a good idea. A less obvious but no-less acceptable result is that the participant becomes persuaded that his idea is flawed, but accepts this with no hard feelings; that is, the participant and his “adversary” agree that the idea is a nonstarter, and emerge with their relationship undamaged or even strengthened.

You can stop worrying about “reinforcement.” Why? Because we all naturally keep doing what works. We only need the goading or encouragement or reminding of managers when we can’t produce the results we want.

Online “training” is acceptable and even preferred when the desired outcome is to educate.

Doing the real training is required and perfectly feasible, even with large groups of people when the desired outcome is acquiring skill and proficiency. This approach – Educate briefly, then train at length – is the method of martial arts trainers. It’s the method of sports teams. It’s the method of coaches in the performing arts. It works.

This formula almost always achieves measurable success, regardless of the skills you’re trying to develop: Selling, leadership, teamwork customer service, problem-solving and so on. Instead of seeing slight improvements in the performance of those 15 percent of trainees who were already capable, you’ll send 85 percent out the door with genuine skillfulness instead of mere awareness.

The group is producing real initiatives that will make or save money, your company can expect a very healthy return on investment within three months. These outcomes are critical in these difficult economic times. And nobody will have to ask you again if your training actually makes a difference.

G. Thomas Herrington and Patrick T. Malone are co-authors of the new book Cracking the Code to Leadership and Senior Partners at The PAR Group, an international training firm headquartered in Atlanta. They may be contacted at info@thepargroup.com.

I work for a company called Knowledge Anywhere that does (among other things) custom content development for e-learning. When we develop a course, content development is often a large part of the effort, and one key decision is who will write the content. Sometimes we write the content ourselves, based on source content provided by our clients, and sometimes our clients write content. Both approaches work well, and both approaches can be problematic. It depends on the situation.

So here are some things to consider if you’re working with a company like ours and aren’t sure who should write the content.

·         Do I alone have the expertise to write the content? This is the key question, because if you have to write it, you have to write it. Generally, our clients need to write content if it’s highly technical or if a writer with the specialized knowledge required is not available or it would be too expensive to secure. (Writers with specialized skills can command high rates.) Or, the client may need to write the content if it relies on specialized knowledge available only within their organization; for example, an evolving go-to-market strategy for a new product. In some organizations only one or two people have this information and it changes frequently, which can be a tough environment for a writer.

·         Do I have the time to write the content? Be honest. Most people don’t. Successful content writing requires focused blocks of free time, an uncommon commodity in most jobs. We frequently see clients volunteer to write content, with the best of intentions, then they struggle to get it done, because they don’t have the time. Writers block may be a factor as well.

·         Can I write content that’s suitable for e-learning? In other words, can I write a course that flows, has interactivity that enhances the content and is within my organization’s capabilities and budget, has good assessments, etc.? Can I communicate with the team that will be coding the course? The type of course you’re writing matters here. It’s much simpler to write a PowerPoint that will be converted straight to e-learning using a tool such as Adobe Presenter then it is to write a storyboard for a highly interactive course. The expectations for the final product are lower, too.

·         Do I have very definite ideas of what I want the course to be like? If you know exactly what you want, then you may want to write the course yourself. In the end that may be easier then iteratively working with a writer to get to the same point.

We consider these same factors when considering a project, because we don’t want to put ourselves in the situation where we can’t succeed.

That’s one of those statements that’s pretty much accepted at face value, and I certainly agree with it. But I would like to take a look at what interactivity really is, or should be, because I think that somewhere along the line we’ve taken an easy path where any mouse click is countered as interactive and if we put enough tabs, or rollovers, or instructions to click on this to see that, we can check the box and say that we’ve developed interactive training.

You’ve seen what I’m talking about: bulleted lists were you roll your mouse over an item to see related text, tab templates, graphics with associated pop-up text. Sometimes when an instructional designer to write an “interactive” course, you get a lot of that. In the worst case the online page becomes a sort of treasure hunt, where you’re clicking this and rolling over that to find all the information.  

But I don’t think that content’s really interactive, because you’re not engaging learners in a meaningful way. Further, the content actually becomes harder to understand.

·         If important information is hidden, content becomes difficult to skim, and we all know that online readers skim.

·         It becomes difficult to compare information contained in different pop-ups. I recently saw a table that showed only column headings; you would roll your mouse over a heading to see the entire column, and only one column showed at a time. That defeats one of the main reasons to put information in a table – tables allow you to compare information.

·         You run the risk of annoying learners by forcing them to click and hunt for information.

This may be a simplification, but I like to think of interactivity as being synonymous with engagement, and try to do things that I think will engage the learner. Things like narrated animations, role plays, and quizzes where learners really have to apply knowledge and solve problems are great techniques for engagement. Audio can also be good (so long as it doesn’t simply read the text!). If you have the money and the bandwidth, video can be great. Content should also be engaging. Emphasize what’s in it for the learner, why they should care. Remind them of the consequences of not knowing the information. Tell a story. Respect their time and keep the training concise.

Then I try to think of the all the rollovers, etc., as techniques for layering information, and apply those techniques  to secondary information, stuff that’s nice to know but not essential, detailed technical information, definitions, things like that. Rollovers and tabs are also useful when you need to include a lot of information on the page and want to avoid scrolling. (But when you think about, indiscriminately hiding information isn’t very different from scrolling, because in both cases you’re forcing people to click to see information they need to see. They’re just clicking on some kind of pop-up rather than a scroll bar.)

So think about what types of interactivity will really be useful, and realize that mouse clicks don’t necessarily equate to interactions.

In our series about the business aspects of training management, the first article looked at things to consider when creating a learning management system (LMS) hierarchy for your company or organization. This second article examines the use of competency management and job-role hierarchies, as an organization strives to develop training plans with their LMS.

What are competencies? What is competency management?

Competencies are personal capabilities that are demonstrated through measurable knowledge, skills, abilities, and personal attributes, which can contribute to enhanced employee performance and, ultimately, to the individual’s and organization’s success. In a learning management system, competency management is the system’s ability to connect various competencies/skill sets, job roles, and learning events, to build employee training plans and monitor each individual’s learning progress.

How does competency management help your organization to develop training plans?

Competency management hierarchies let you define employee job roles that are specific, complete, and consistent across the affected organization. This allows you to certify that employees possess required skills or competencies, and that they qualify for their job roles. It also gives users clear, specific, easily followed paths to advancement. At any time, users can see what they still need to progress, request or access training that improves their skills, and stay on a clear training track centered on company needs. The company also benefits in improved employee retention.

Defined training plans also show employees how they can improve and gain new job skills. In this way, training becomes important to the employee, easily accessible, and necessary. This certification is also a path to promotion. If all necessary training is completed for a job role, the employee can print a certificate, and offer physical proof that they have completed all requirements for the role.

Many industries must also meet federal, or other, requirements (such as government regulations) that force them to require corresponding employee certifications. Employees must meet related competencies, and execute tasks and responsibilities in ways that support the company’s mandated performance. Tracking and managing the employee-certification process is critical to the success of these types of organizations.

Where does a training manager begin, given such laudable (but broad) business goals?

A good starting point is a survey. What job roles do people possess? How are these roles defined? What is common among the roles? What skills or competencies support each role? What learning events (courses, meetings, demonstrations, on-the-job training, etc.) support and build these competencies? How does a new hire begin their training? This may seem daunting, but defining existing job roles is worthwhile, and brings many insights into the company’s needs for competent performance. The data from such surveys also helps to build measurable ways to determine when employees attain needed skills, and conversely, may identify training needs that are not yet met.

Usually, a common set of competencies runs throughout most organizations, which comes from the human resources department. Most HR organizations require an orientation, which may include courses and handouts about time clocks, harassment, benefits, and other important company-wide topics. On top of these, most organizations have sales personnel that require both technical and sales training. And specific application roles, be they cooks, cleaners, or airplane mechanics, will need to attain both HR-required competencies and their own job-specific competencies. Food-service organizations, for example, may define food-related competencies for every job role, as well as non-food competencies for hosts, servers and maintenance/repair personnel.

How do you link learning events to certification requirements?

Learning events allow employees to gain competencies, and need to be defined, along with related recertification dates. It would be useless to have job roles that did not periodically require updating, as the business needs for these roles change. You may not want to specify recertification dates at first, but you will later need to identify and inform employees, who possess certain job roles, that they must meet new needs and requirements. Thinking through these tasks requires determination of business needs, so the training department must work with all other departments that require competent personnel, to gain insights into their important job roles, competencies, and learning events.

It’s not surprising that some organizations have no idea what “makes the job” in their business. Surveying successful, competent employees is usually the best way to analyze such situations. Communicating those results, and comparing them with the department head’s own ideas, may give you a great starting point. Good luck!

About the Author:

Dave Boggs is the founder and CEO of SyberWorks, Inc. (http://www.syberworks.com). He has been involved with computer-based and web-based training for more than twelve years. Before founding SyberWorks, Dave was the VP of Sales and Business Development for Relational Courseware. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics from Union College in Schenectady, NY, and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, in Evanston, IL.

Dave also writes two blogs in the e-Learning space. The first blog, the Boggs e-Learning Chronicle (http://www.boggse-learningchronicle.typepad.com/) covers news, trends, and observations about the e-Learning and web-based-training industries. His second blog, the Online Training Content Journal (http://www.boggse-learningchronicle.typepad.com/the_online_training_conte/) discusses best practices, techniques, and trends in online training development and e-Learning instructional design.

http://www.syberworks.com/articles/comp_manage.htm

HRIS Interfaces:

A Human Resources Information System is an integrated system which provides all types of information used for Human Resources (HR) decision making.  HRIS is used to track and manage the many aspects of the HR function, such as employee information from payroll, salary information, worker demographics, time tracking, succession planning, benefits administration, talent management, and more.

For example, an HRIS interface may be needed when database maintenance activities are configured to happen automatically, such as updating employee records on a regular basis from the HRIS system to the Learning Management System.  An organization may want an employee’s test scores to appear in their overall individual personnel record in the HRIS, so the test data may need to be imported from the Learning Management System into the HRIS system.  Individual business cases will vary depending on the organization and its internal constructs.

Active Directory Interface Using LDAP:

Active Directory is a technology used in Microsoft server environments that stores information about its users. Leveraging the Microsoft .NET framework, an Active Directory Interface can be created using the LDAP protocol.  LDAP stands for Lightweight Directory Access Protocol.

For example, your company may have employee data stored on your servers in Active Directory and you want to populate the tables in the Learning Management System with the employee name and identification number.  It would be best if the information would update automatically when changes occur, so your company would need an Active Directory Interface built to transport the data into the Learning Management System. Again, individual business cases will vary depending on the organization and its internal constructs.

Considerations When Specifying the Requirements for the Interface With The Learning Management System:

The first consideration for determining the requirements for the interface to the LMS depends strongly on the company’s needs. 

• Does company personnel change on a regular or irregular basis? 
• Is there high turnover or low turnover? 
• Is there a need for keeping track of training accomplished for legal reasons or other reasons? 
• Do you need to keep track of inactive employees, employees on leave of absence, employees that have been fired, have quit, or died? 
• What are company login standards and norms?

Once you know the reasons for the exchange of data, you need to determine what data you want to store in the LMS from the HRIS or LDAP.  Do you need to store all the demographic data with the student on the LMS as well as on the HRIS?  There are security issues concerning personally identifiable information (PII).  If you need to store any PII, you will need to make sure that the exchange of data is secure.  If there is only a subset of data required for the LMS per student, then you only pass that information to the LMS.  A rule of thumb is to pass only the information required by the LMS to identify the student and provide adequate reporting criteria.  However, the business model may require more data, especially if the LMS is used to determine promotional pathways.

There are other issues as well, related to the business/ company practices regarding login standards and norms: How do you want students to log into the LMS?  Do you want single sign-on from your Active Directory login?  That is, do you want the student to only log into whatever computer system that the company is using, and then have a link to the Learning Management System that auto-logs them in?  There are advantages to this scenario – less for the student to remember, particularly if they have to log into the same computer system every day.  Training is available after they log into the normal company system without special effort.

Other considerations include: 

• Do you need to update the Learning Management System with HRIS data every day at the same time of the day?  Do you only need to update on a weekly basis? 
• Do you need to update the HRIS system with LMS data on a regular basis? 
• Do you need to update in real time? 

There are advantages and disadvantages to both approaches.  Batch updates at night can synchronize the data in one fell swoop.  Real time updates may enable students to have access to their training more quickly, especially if promotion data as well as job role information is part of the data passed to the LMS.

Suffice to say there are many considerations when contemplating an HRIS or an Active Directory Interface for Learning Management System implementations.

Dana Fine is a Senior Instructional Designer and Implementation Consultant for SyberWorks, Inc.  SyberWorks is a custom e-Learning solutions company that specializes in Learning Management Systems, e-Learning solutions, and custom online course development.  Dana is also a frequent contributor to the Online Training Content Journal.

http://www.syberworks.com/articles/hrisldap.htm