IMS Global Learning Consortium does the right thing this time

Posted on June 30, 2011 by Bob

eXact learning solutions and Link2ICT, a division of Service Birmingham, a partnership between Birmingham City Council and the Capita Group, won a Learning Impact Leadership Award (LIA) at this year’s IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS) LIA ceremony, which was held in Long Beach, California.

The LIA related to the Birmingham City Learning Platform an initiative which currently involves over 190 Birmingham schools – infants, primary, junior, secondary, special and extended schools – and is used by teachers, pupils, parents, governors and administrators. The Platform – which uses eXact learning solutions’ HarvestRoad Hive digital repository and Moodle – facilitates the sharing of information and is creating a Birmingham-wide social learning community.

The Platform includes such activities as:

A virtual transition programme which, for the last nine years, has helped Year 6 (ten year old) pupils, who are transferring from primary to secondary education, to make friends with others going to their new school in September, and find out more about the school from trained peer mentors (Year 7, 8 or 9 pupils).
‘Brum Talks’: a city-wide Moodle/Hive site which supports the teaching and revision of mathematics.
The Birmingham Children’s University, a Moodle/Hive initiative providing SCORM-compliant e-learning packages for non-curriculum learning to over 60 subscribing schools.

Comment: The initiatives incorporated into the Birmingham City Learning Platform – especially the virtual transition programme for Year 6 pupils – have much to recommend them. While this blog – last month – criticised the IMS Global Learning Consortium (IMS GLC) for being reluctant to include wider representation on its Board from those outside the US, Canada and UK ‘old school elite’ of learning technologists, it would appear that, in awarding this LIA, these people – whatever their cultural and business backgrounds and interests – have ‘got it right’ this time.

Conflicting signals in e-learning

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Bob

According to a report by virtual learning worlds and serious games’ specialists Ambient, there is a general slow down in spend on self-paced e-learning due to three market factors:

The commoditisation of platforms and tools, which reduces market price
Pricing pressures in the corporate e-learning sector caused by the slow economic recovery
The growing tendency for buyers to buy other types of learning technology products – such as virtual classroom technology – rather than an e-learning module

Steve Rayson, of Kineo, has gone on record as saying: “Ambient’s market report says there is slow down in the market for self-paced e-learning. We don’t see it yet, though we see the rationale.”

In response, the well known e-learning consultant, Glynn Jung, has commented: “There are reductions in generic content reported to me by most suppliers plus a lot of activity finding channel partners other than box shifters. I had lengthy discussions in March and April with CEdMA (IT commercial training managers). They are experiencing slowing in demand in certification upgrades (including e-learning). ITL and PRINCE2 continue to grow, however.

“So the pattern is there but training hasn’t stopped. It’s just different and more focused – also more pull-based by learners.”

Meanwhile, in the related sector of e-learning within the academic (education) sector, one source in Australia has revealed that, in recent months, ‘we’ve had a veritable tsunami of brilliant UK academics applying for positions out here.’

Comment: That would seem to make it 2 – 1 in favour of those seeing a slow down in the UK e-learning market or 3 – 1, if that slow down is allied to a change in focus in the market. The ‘1’ has come from the supplier sector. Of course, this sector may be thought to have a vested interest in promoting the idea that, if not continuing to boom, business isn’t at all bad.

Nonetheless, this is an interesting and illuminating insight from the Australasian market – into which the cash-strapped, recently jobless UK-based e-learning related academics are going or, at least, attempting to go. Given that we’re not only in the middle of a financial crisis but also experiencing a rather dull, dismal and rainy summer at the moment, I can’t blame them.

ISMM encourages compliance training relating to the new Bribery Act

Posted on June 20, 2011 by Bob

On 1^st July 2011 the UK Bribery Act comes into effect – creating a new raft of criminal offences. Under the new act, corporate failure to prevent bribery on the part of any employee – including third party agents – will be punishable by significant fines and, potentially, jail sentences for directors and others.

Welcoming this Act, which replaces a mixture of antiquated legislation that has made it difficult to bring successful prosecutions, The Institute of Sales and Marketing Management (ISMM) – the UK’s association for sales professionals – is anxious to clarify the implications of the Act and dispel any ‘folk myths’ that surround it. Stephen Wright, the ISMM’s Commercial Director, explained: “Contrary to some people’s views, genuine business hospitality, or similar business expenditure, is neither against the letter nor the spirit of the Act.

“Nonetheless, we’re urging all Institute members – including those who feel that their business activities may have even a tangential relationship with this Act – to undertake compliance training as part of their continuing professional development (CPD) activities. If members of our Institute want some relevant courses and training providers, we can provide them with this information, on request.”

The Bribery Act creates four new offences:

Offering or giving a bribe
Requesting or accepting a bribe
Bribing a foreign public official
Failure by an organisation to prevent bribery

The Act covers all UK individuals and companies, whether their activities take place at home or abroad. Criminal penalties include unlimited fines and up to ten years imprisonment for individuals.

Companies found guilty may also be prevented from bidding on future public tenders. Bribery in both the public and private sector is covered by the Act and an offence may be committed regardless of whether the bribery is ‘direct’ or carried out via an agent or other intermediary.

The only way that an organisation can avoid prosecution is if it can show that it had ‘adequate procedures’ in place to prevent bribery. The Government has set out six guiding principles on the procedures that should be put in place:

Create procedures that are proportionate to the size and nature of the business
Ensure a clear commitment from the top of the organisation
Assess the risks that you might face
Know exactly who you are dealing with
Communicate your policies and procedures to staff and business partners
Make sure your procedures keep pace with changes

“We believe that it’s important for anyone in the public and private sectors to understand this new legislation,” Wright said. “Government guidance states that, ‘like all procedures, training should be proportionate to risk but some training is likely to be effective in firmly establishing an anti-bribery culture whatever the level of risk.’

“There are some simple measures that organisations can take to ensure that they comply with the new law – and we would encourage them to do so,” he added. “And, as a professional institute, we remain fully committed to give advice and guidance to our members as they operate within the law’s demands.”

Comment: With the increasing wealth of business-related legislation it may be difficult to feel much enthusiasm for this new Act. Yet we would all like to feel that we conduct our business on a fair and level playing field, where merit and competence – rather than any sordid, unscrupulous, nepotistic, dishonourable skulduggery – meet with the success that they deserve. So, if the Bribery Act can contribute to this process, long may it remain in force.

Law firm champions the virtues of mobile learning

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Bob

Mobile learning has found a champion in the global law firm Eversheds. According to Eversheds’ learning and development specialist, Tim Drewitt, who was speaking at a seminar held at BMA House, Tavistock Square, in London on 15^th June and organised by LMMatters, Eversheds’ staff are using their previously unproductive ‘waiting time’ to carry out CPD activities via learning materials delivered through mobile devices.

Drewitt explained that, by May 2011, Eversheds’ lawyers had not only become used to learning at their desktop in ‘smaller chunks’ but they had also come to prefer learning that way. This means that they spend less time away from their desks on ‘learning related activities’.

They also had accrued 30,000 hours of ‘waiting time’ over the previous year – waiting in airports or train stations, travelling on trains, and so on. This has become discretionary learning time – with a consequent increase in the amount of learning materials being made available to them via mobile devices such as Blackberrys and iPods.

“We began using learning technologies to deliver leadership and management development learning materials in 2008/09,” said Drewitt. “Following a ‘soft launch’ in 2010/11, our next step – for 2011/12 – is extending and embedding this approach within the organisation.

He continued: “2008/09, with Eversheds was downsizing due to the recession, offered an ideal opportunity to introduce staff to rapid e-learning materials, along with webinars and virtual classrooms to help reduce travel costs and time away from work. In that period we delivered some 500,000 minutes of legal training via e-learning to the company’s 45,000 or so employees – including 350 partners – working from 48 offices around the world.

Comment: This is exactly the sort of ‘good news’ case study that the learning technologies world needs.

For years, theorists and apologists for the use of learning technologies have argued that this form of learning was flexible enough to be available on demand, when and where it was needed or convenient to learn. Yet rarely has any company – let alone one from the legal profession – permitted an insight into its learning practices as Eversheds has. The company’s strategy of enhancing productivity by using its staff’s inevitable waiting time to enhance their knowledge and skills via mobile learning is a shining example which other companies – particularly large ones – should take to heart and try to emulate.

Leadership development leads the way for learning technologies

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Bob

According to a recently published study by Towards Maturity’s Laura Overton and Dr Genny Dixon, leadership and management development skills is the business area that will see the greatest increase in e-learning materials over the next two years.

The study, which included the views of over 180 organisations, encompassing over 35,000 managers, concluded that the need to improve performance and lead business change is driving the adoption of leadership development programmes in some 80 per cent of organisations. This comes from the need for increase efficiency, productivity and business agility (being faster at doing things and responding to market conditions).

While the survey revealed that delivering leadership and management development learning materials via learning technologies are scheduled to increase, some 58 per cent of organisations are still delivering this learning via face-to-face (classroom-based, instructor-led) methods and only 14 per cent via learning technologies. Pessimists could point out that using learning technologies to train potential and future leaders is, thus, a poor second to the 17 per cent or so of organisations which admit doing nothing whatsoever to develop potential and future leaders.

Unsurprisingly – but encouragingly – the Towards Maturity survey has found that the biggest area of planned growth in the use of learning technologies is in the field of mobile learning, with some 25 per cent of organisations planning to use this delivery method, in addition to those which already do.

Outlining the survey’s findings at a seminar held at BMA House, Tavistock Square, in London on 15^th June and organised by Towards Maturity ‘ambassador’ LMMatters, Laura Overton revealed that, when senior managers in an organisation undertake e-learning this leads, typically, to a 37 per cent increase in the amount of e-learning undertaken by the rest of the organisation’s staff. It also leads, typically, to a 19 per cent reduction in learning and development costs.

Concluding her remarks, Laura confessed that, according to Towards Maturity’s research, few organisations currently carry out systematic studies of the return on investment in learning and development and even fewer collect financial data related to a learning and development programme’s benefits.

Comment: While this Towards Maturity study offers some encouraging signs for the learning technologies’ camp – notably in terms of the continuing popularity of e-learning and the planned rise of mobile learning – there are still causes for concern. These include learning and development apathy by a significant number of organisations; senior managers’ continued preference for the ‘less technological’ learning delivery methods, and the general lack of allying learning and development activities to ‘bottom line’ results.

It would seem that learning technologists – and apologists for learning technologies – still have quite a bit of work to do before their idiosyncratic ‘sullen art or craft’ becomes not only widely used but also appreciated.

E-learning – actually

Posted on June 16, 2011 by Bob

It seems that Laura Overton – head of Towards Maturity, the organisation that collects a great deal of learning technologies benchmarking data and industry trends – has started her own industry trend.

Speaking at a seminar held at BMA House, Tavistock Square, in London on 15^th June and organised by Towards Maturity ‘ambassador’ LMMatters, Laura liberally interspersed her opening remarks with the word ‘actually’. In fact – or, perhaps, ‘actually’ – she noticed this trend in her speech pattern, remarked on it herself and then, unabashed, continued to use the word while revealing the results of Towards Maturity’s recent leadership and management development survey.

Disturbingly, when LMMatters’ Julie Ibbott took over at the podium – to outline the Harvard ManageMentor e-learning materials which are distributed by LMMatters – she continued the trend of saying ‘actually’ as frequently as possible during her presentation.

Were Julie and Laura having an unofficial competition to see who could say that word the most times during their respective presentations? Or has ‘actually’ become the latest in-word among the UK’s learning technologists?

Maybe Towards Maturity could conduct a survey of their members about the popularity and usage of certain ‘buzzwords’ within the learning technologies community in the UK. Actually, I’d actually be interested in the results.

Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Bob

In the popular musical, ‘My Fair Lady’, the phonetics teacher, Professor Higgins, laments, ‘Why can’t the English teach their children how to speak?’ Were he a real character and alive today, Professor Higgins would probably be lamenting even louder that this trend has not only continued but has taken on an international context. Apparently, these days, British e-learning providers aren’t even the best at teaching people to speak English.

In a competition which included e-learning materials from the BBC, the British Council, and the (admittedly American) Wall Street Institute, the winner was goFLUENT. To be fair, goFLUENT is an experienced and leading provider of distance English training, but it is based in Switzerland and has offices in Paris, among other places, but not London.

The French website, ‘Pour Se Former’, analysed ten online English language materials providers recently and said of goFLUENT that: ‘In our opinion, this is one of the best offers on the web. The videos and the audio resources are focused on the company sector and current economic environment. Learners also greatly benefit from Harvard Business Review articles that deal with management research, especially those with an intermediate level. Learner level is taken into account for each exercise, and all resources require the learners’ full attention, but some of the Harvard Business Review articles might be a bit long for some individuals. Also useful are opportunities to practise for job interviews and meetings by listening to examples and doing exercises.’

Describing goFLUENT’s approach, this independent study went on to say: ‘After taking a test to determine her/his level, the learner can work on many educational resources that are related to the business world. Videos provided by AFP and the New York Times provide a significant foundation of goFLUENT’s online learning. Articles are shown with difficult words highlighted and, as the learner scrolls over them, the definition appears. Afterwards, there are exercises and quizzes that test the learner’s comprehension. These consist of open questions (not multiple-choice) where the learner must come up with the right answer. There are also spaces where the learner must write a phrase that is heard in a video. Grammar exercises that are related to words used in the video are also available. Participants can also listen to articles from the Harvard Business Review while the text scrolls on the screen. As is done with the videos, the articles are also accompanied by exercises and a vocabulary list.’

To access the full study, visit:

http://www.pourseformer.fr/dossiers/apprendre-langlais-en-ligne-notre-comparatif/h/68b16588a4/d/1145.html

and http://www.pourseformer.fr/dossiers/apprendre-langlais-en-ligne-notre-comparatif/h/fcfe4e49fb/d/1145/a/gofluent-payant.html

Comment: So, it’s happened again. We give the world organised sports – such as association football, rugby (union and league), tennis and cricket – and other nations learn to play them better than we do.

We give the world a language not only rich in poetic application but also meaningful in technological terms and it becomes the accepted international language of business. Then we can’t even be best at teaching it to others. Once again, that accolade moves overseas.

‘C’est la vie!’ As they say in France.

Reputation, reputation, reputation: the key to PR agency success

Posted on June 10, 2011 by Bob

When members of Linkedin were asked recently: ‘When you’re going to employ a PR agency, what is the most important factor in making that purchasing decision?’ the PR agency’s reputation emerged as, by far and away, the most popular key factor – attracting 50 per cent of the votes cast.

While no one chose ‘price’ or ‘third party recommendation’ as the key factor, there was no significant difference in the number of votes for:

The PR agency’s size and
Personal rapport with the account director.

However, there was a distinct gender split in opinion, with men tending to opt for the PR agency’s size and women preferring a ‘personal rapport with the account director’ as a key factor in the PR agency selection process.

Comment: The results of this poll strongly support the ‘no one got fired for buying from IBM’ view. In other words, buyers of PR services seem to be strongly influenced by a PR agency’s size and the publicity it attracts for itself. Personal relationships also count for something – especially among women – perhaps following the maxim of ‘better the devil you know than the one you don’t’.

At least all PR agencies will take heart from the fact that no one appears to be interested in the price they’re paying for PR.

Twenty tips for business success

Posted on June 8, 2011 by Bob

The current challenging economic climate is persuading many people who feel that don’t have many prospects of getting a (new) job, to start up their own businesses. Here are some tips for wannabe successful business start-ups. They have been volunteered by a number of highly successful businesspeople, from a variety of industries, who are based in and round St Albans, in Hertfordshire and who are members of the Platinum Point business breakfast group.

Self-development

You can only achieve things by doing them. Don’t spend a long time pondering: just do it!
Learn to be selfish – clear the desk of all extraneous tasks and materials.
Develop a high profile for being an expert in your field.
Be yourself and your business will be in your image.
Make your own decisions but surround yourself with trusted advisors. Find a mentor or mentors.
Don’t try to do everything. Only do what you can do well. Get others to do the rest.
Don’t be afraid to take some time out, especially if things aren’t working out as you want.
‘Eat an elephant for breakfast’: do the harder tasks first.
Keep asking yourself are you doing the most productive thing?
Persevere – there will be low periods but you’ll get through them.

Business development

Lead generation is the challenge, and needs time and focus.
Give consistency of service.
Cash flow is king.
Make your products and services easy to buy but don’t sell yourself too cheaply.
Only spend money on what’s absolutely essential.
Set weekly targets, especially sales targets.
Think about system scalability from the start.
Make your payment terms clear from the outset.
Watch your back by managing risk – especially trading terms & conditions; confirm everything in writing and have a mechanism for solving problems. Proper documentation and contracts are imperative.
Gain as many champions as you can – and promote your business by entering business awards.

There was one, final, piece of advice that didn’t seem to fit into either category. It was: ‘Don’t listen to business advice!’

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Monthly Archives: June 2011