Understanding how your employees, team and project members think is one of the key success drivers of managing resources and creating a strong team that work efficiently together to achieve strategic objectives. It takes more than dolling out a couple of high-fives at a team building event to produce a well-oiled team. Clashing opinions and egos can spark off internal politics, create despondence and lower morale. Understanding how someone approaches their day-to-day tasks, communicates with others and deals with pressure and conflict is key to a managing an effective team, especially on executive level.
E-LEARNING: BRAVE NEW MAGNIFICENT WORLD!
Want to take the plunge into e-learning? You'd better do it soon or you'll get left behind! Get set to discover a world of wonder like you've never known, and there's no better experts to guide you on your way than the folk at EOH E-learning Specialist Services.
By Terry Owen
"My passion about learning is that it is the most awesome journey you can ever take."
These words come from Lenka Strick, the Manager, Technology and e-learning Specialist Services at EOH in the Learning Design & Technologies division.
When I first met Lenka, this statement resounded like a brilliant neon light from the skies had begun to shine, illuminating everything with a startling intensity. I know it sounds clichéd, and I thought such moments were impossibly twee, or maybe you were about to be transported to an alien spacecraft, but there you go.
It happened –or in other words, the seemingly mundane became the magnificent. Such is the passion of Lenka. It blazes out of her eyes. It is evident in a marvellous way, in everything she says about education and learning. In fact, if we'd have had the time, we could have spent all day talking about it.
"I have spent 15 years in the learning environment, and it was focused specifically for the corporate market. The change in the way learning was conducted came when it became too expensive to send trainers all over the country. The challenge was how we were to get everyone trained, and that's when we started to investigate e-learning," she says.
Lenka says there was a conversion to the online format of training and they were able to distribute content to 15 000 employees at a major client using a LMS (Learning Management System).
"The great advantage with e-learning is everyone gets the training at exactly the same time. This was my first taste of the technology – and from then on I was totally hooked! From the beginning, it has evolved to not just having online content but also, among other incredible innovations, to virtual-led instructor training."
Another huge plus for LMS's has been induction training for new employees. "This is one of the biggest challenges for any corporate. It is the first impression that a new employee has of the company, and in combining e-learning and virtual training, the employee gets taken on a virtual tour of the building, and is introduced fully to all departments, people and services. It really is a terrific boon for any company and to new employees."
Lenka says that learning has become fun and exciting. She says that in the past there was no real link between the training that people received to their competencies in various posts, but with e-learning this has all changed.
"Now, everyone is so thoroughly trained, at their own time and own pace, that there is much more learning going on than ever before. The beauty of the system is that it takes the pressure off those who feel that they have to keep pace with everyone else. Also, as the trainer, the system lets you keep track of any employee's progress and what they've accomplished at any given time. So the new credo is own place, own pace, own time, and that's very much an integral part of the ethos of a modern workplace. Employees are still measured at the required competency level, but could arrive at this stage at different times. The fact is that they will arrive with the necessary knowledge and skills and have been carefully monitored in the process.
"With this technology, the US is naturally very advanced, as is Europe. However, slowly but surely the infrastructure is coming to South Africa. For a start, we don't have those massive bandwidth problems that we used to have. That used to be our big bugbear, but especially with fibre and LTE being rolled out everywhere, this is something thankfully of the past.
"I think that corporates are fast beginning to realise that millennials expect e-systems to be in place. They expect a company to be technology-equipped with the latest systems and that online learning is immediately available. They all have smartphones, and they can access apps anywhere and at any time."
She says that webinars also form a major part of the learning cycle, and are powerful and very popular, attracting wide audiences. "E-learning is backed by adult learning principles. Learning becomes the responsibility of the employees, and they are well aware that their performances are being tracked and monitored. There is also a recognition and award system in place, and this has become essential have-to achieve levels on the part of all those in the e-learning process. It's fun, the achievables are within reach, and for me it's a delight to watch the people thrive and grow.
"I am really having the time of my life!"
The systems in focus
EOH LMS is a software application for the administration, documentation, tracking, reporting and delivery of educational technology (also called e-learning) courses or training programmes. Moodle is a free, open-source LMS distributed under general Public Licence. It forms the foundations of what EOH has done with EOH LMS. The system also provides integration with ELIS (Enterprise Learning Intelligence System) for Moodle.
EOH LMS provides the most flexible toolset to support both blended learning and 100% online courses.
EOH Learning Design & Technologies offers LMS implementation, LMS hosting, LMS customisation and development, LMS integration, LMS training and support.
The ELIS (Enterprise Learning Intelligence System) integration offers the full toolset for instance to schedule online classrooms, blended and synchronous webinar courses, advanced reports, course reports and class reports, notifications and tracking progress. EOH LMS also offers multimedia integration, which allows video and audio files to be inserted into the course.
EOH provides for customised online learning programs designed and managed to meet various bespoke requirements. Classes can be instructor-led, self-paced, blended or entirely online course activity reporting.
Who is using EOH LMS? Among others….
• SALGA (South African Local Government Association)
• EOH Human Resources
• Camargue Underwriting Managers
• Vuselela TVET College
• Genasys
• Novon Retail (Pty) Ltd
Corporate Learning Trends
• Almost 100% of mobile learners believe the mobile format enhanced their learning experience.
• Nearly all millennial employees under 25 expect to find a virtual learning platform within their employer's work environment.
• E-learning is using technology to integrate learning into the workplace, increase learning relevance, reduce costs, and increase efficiency.
• Story-telling helps to motivate learners and create a more immersive experience and feel more emotionally connected to the subject matter.
• System simulation – we design modules which simulates typical business processes, functions and macro factors.
• E-learning accessed via multiple devices.
Virtual Utilisation in Training
• Virtual instructor-led training or virtual classroom training.
• Virtual Reality.
• Virtual simulation.
• Virtual game-based learning.
Virtual Reality offers the best of both worlds – online and distance learning in a real-world classroom.
Virtual and Augmented Reality
Virtual Reality (VR) surrounds you in a 360-degree digital world with simulated people, objects and environment.
Augmented Reality (AR) adds extra layer of interactive 3D content to the actual surroundings.
VR and AR – how it can benefit staff training
• Employee onboarding – VR can acclimatise new employees to their new environment with a VR simulation of their new environment.
• Making training better and safer – apps can help prevent accidents and damage to expensive equipment, while giving trainees valuable experience they can draw on while working.
• Making it "real" – opens up new ways for trainees to have important hands-on experiences not allowed them in traditional training.
• Improved customer service – can immerse customer-service employees in collaborative scenarios featuring perceptive conversations and problem-solving. Remote experts can see what field reps see and provide guidance as they perform maintenance or mechanical tasks.
Stunning sense of Reality and Presence
• Increase trainee safety by exposing them to virtual risks prior to real scenarios.
• Make informed early-stage design decisions on aerospace and defence technology.
• Takes vehicle maintenance and repair ops to the next level.
• Test effectiveness of combat strategies in collaborative virtual environments.
• Simulate and review full missions, or deploy part-time trainers.
• Train combatants with immersive and interactive simulations to respond to foreign country missions.
Augmented Reality is quickly coming into the mainstream. Leaders of the technology are using AR for amazing and revolutionary applications with innovations such as holograms and motion-activated commands.
Both AR and VR make remote surgery an exciting new reality. In all, it's truly a brave new world that's waiting to be discovered with E-learning! Let Lenka Strick and EOH show you the way – and take it from me….it's a world you'll never want to leave!
For more information on all the exciting possibilities with e-learning, contact Lenka Strick at EOH Learning Design & Technologies on:
Tel: +27 87 405 1808
Cell: +27 83 222 9908
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
| www.eoh.co.za
