Learning Services

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Fri, 10 Feb 2012 08:58:02 +0000

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iPads in Education

Tue, 01 Mar 2011 10:03:29 +0000

Recently, I met my friend from Singapore. She was saying that a few Singapore schools have given iPads to students as part of a pilot program. Singapore's Ministry of Education is a pretty progressive one. They are always experimenting with using technology for improving education. But apparently the constant interventions are putting a lot of pressure on the teachers. While kids adapt easily and adjust to changes much faster, it is the teachers who find it difficult to adapt to changing ways of teaching all the time. Maybe it will be a good idea to allow the students to teach a few things to the teachers, when it comes to technology. I am waiting to hear about the experiences of the pilot. It may have some lessons for corporate learning.

E-Learning- Is it a substitute?

Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:14:28 +0000

With the rapid pace of technological advancements, the field of education also could not remain untouched and unaffected. The technology had cast a revolutionary impact on the way education could be imparted and also made available to the millions of students across the globe.

Maximising Learning Usage Part 1

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 13:15:16 +0000

It is important to know your audience, their motivational factors, their cultural background and their personal interests to cater the same learning content in different style and flavour. For instance I always fall asleep reading books on history while same topic shown on TV captures my attention.

To talk about a real time scenario; my previous organisation had a customised Learning Management System(LMS); a great learning portal linking to online library, thousands of E-learnings, podcasts, videocasts, blogs and all of Web 2.0 aspects. Every quarter when we pulled reports, the statistic showed as predicted that Consulting service groups took the most advantage of this portal, followed by Audit, Tax and least being utilized by the Financial Services. The global report further showed that US, Mexico, Canada utilised these resources more than any other country. It was time to boost and motivate the UK employee to become avid learners. The strategies followed were the ten fold path listed below:-

1. Through Managers : - Tying the online learning content to Personal Development Plans

2. Through HR :- Making relevant resources as mandatory and to be part of compliance with HR policies

3. Through Challenges :- Assessments, Quizzes and Game based learning contents were part of weekly challengers on every Industry portals.

4. Through Rewards :- Motivating by rewarding with certificates/gift etc on course completions

5. Through Active Marketing: - Showcasing the Top ten books of the month, the new online resources, videos, podcast etc.

6. Through Promoting within Service Lines: - Each Service line had a learning curriculum where the online content was mapped, this gave a clear guidance to the learner on what learning was mapped for them. Similarly each Service lines and Industry learning portal had their own bookshelves mapped to online library.

7. Through Blended Learning: - Introducing online resources as prerequisite for classroom session or as good after read content.

8. Through Innovative technologies : - helping to enable learning portal to be accessed through company mobile.

9. Through Leadership : By introducing and re-introducing company's learning capabilities and resources during induction, orientation and other seminars and meetings.

10. Through Learning Community: - A learning network of blogs, wiki and profiles to spread learning across the organisation.

Do you think the measures above helped the statistic get better? Watch out for part 2 .

Choosing an eLearning Provider - Part 3

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 16:33:51 +0000

There are many eLearning providers to choose from. In an on-going set of FAQs, your decision-making process should include:

Q - Can the course be easily upgraded, edited, or modified?

The best e-learning solution is one that provides you the opportunity to make changes as needed. Industry standards can change at the drop of a hat, particularly when software or other technological progress is involved.

Choosing an eLearning Provider - Part 2

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 16:35:11 +0000

There are many eLearning providers to choose from. In an on-going set of FAQs, your decision-making process should include:

Q - Will the course be identical to your company's look and feel?

A - That depends on you. If you go with a boilerplate from the development application, there is some leeway in adding logos or changing color. However,

Choosing an eLearning Provider

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 23:09:08 +0000

There are many eLearning providers to choose from. In an on-going set of FAQs, your decision-making process should include:

Q - How does the eLearning solutions company approach course design?

A - As in all forms of education, the most effective Web-based courses are learner-focused.

Electronic Health Records (EHR)--Can the Infosys SEAL solution help with end user adoption?

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 19:36:24 +0000

The American Recovery and Reinvestment (ARRA) Act 2009 includes huge investments for the effective use of Healthcare Information Technology. Included in the legislation are significant provisions to encourage physicians, hospitals, and other providers to adopt and use electronic health records (EHR) to advance the delivery of healthcare. Can the Infosys SEAL solution help health care providers earn these incentives?

Training Needs Assessment

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:50:03 +0000

Many organizations have gaps in their business processes and operations which lead to inefficiencies and lost revenue. Training programs are critical business initiatives that drive performance and may also have gaps in content and delivery methods.
Training programs need to be continuously maintained to remain effective and targeted to the ever changing needs of the end-user population. To ensure long-term end user adoption and retention of a given program, an assessment of the training elements should be analyzed on a regular basis that aligns to the changing needs of the audience being targeted.
A straight forward methodology that I have used for a number of clients encompasses a gap analysis of multiple training elements to hone in on problematic areas in training and support. The approach consists of the following five phases:
1.     Define - Define the scope and success criteria for the training program being assessed
2.     Collect - Gather data points on training plans and content
3.     Analyze - Analyze core applications and processes and audience/end-user population
4.     Validate - Validate existing gaps in training and highlight missing training content/support
5.     Recommend - Recommend training mitigation plan to address gaps
An important caveat to note here from an Infosys colleague, Ted Ross, is to use a smaller sub set of elements regarding a given program to analyze. The recommendation is not analyze all system application training programs or processes but a targeted sub-set of training events on a specific system application or sub-set of related processes. The logic of a targeted analysis is that the increases of data points dilute the identification of potential root causes of a given training issue and many times a single root cause is creating a problematic issue across multiple training programs.

The Tyranny of Competencies

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 16:21:15 +0000

I’m not a Ph.D. in industrial/organizational psychology, but I believe that the purpose of Competencies is to define exactly what it takes to perform in a given role, and to use this definition as the underpinning of all key talent management initiatives: recruiting, hiring, training, managing performance, promoting, and sometimes (more controversially) compensating.

How well has this system served us?

The Business Case for LMS at Small and Mid-size Companies

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:31:59 +0000

Most large companies can justify the business case for Learning Management Systems based on cost savings. By automating manual processes and, often, centralizing them, companies can take a big bite out of their administrative overhead.

But what happens in a small or mid-size company, when the headcount numbers aren’t large enough to generate enough savings to offset the investment in an LMS? We’ve run into this situation a number of times.

Learning at the Edges

Mon, 22 Feb 2010 18:10:08 +0000

While U.S. companies continue to focus growth strategies globally, studies show that employees outside North America receive only 15 to 25 percent of the learning opportunities available to employees within the United States. This should be an important goal for U.S.-based multinationals: increase by a factor of five to 10 the availability of learning to non-North American populations.

Case for an integrated OR method

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 23:58:54 +0000

I had blogged about the value of an integrated and holistic Change, Communications and Learning approach earlier (Jan 19) in this forum (http://www.infosysblogs.com/learning-services/2010/01/a_holistic_and_integrated_or_s.html#more). On this blog I would like to offer my thoughts around an integrated methodology that can act as the bonding agent for the three tracks, and shape them into an integrated and wholesome solution.

If we agree that within the context of OR (Organizational Readiness) activities for business transformation projects; Change, Communications and Learning inputs and outputs are highly inter-related and drive towards the same goal, we can make a strong case for an integrated methodology that can act as the bonding agent for the three tracks of Change, Communications and Learning - with optimized, coordinated and streamlined activities, tools and accelerators.

GxP Compliant Learning Management System – Is that what you’re looking for?

Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:00:38 +0000

In choosing a Learning Management solution out of the several befitting the other business requirements and constraints, one question that is generally tossed up, particularly by customers in the more regulated industries such as life sciences, healthcare, medical device manufacturing, biotechnology, is – whether a product / system under consideration is compliant with FDA 21 CFR Part 11 (the standards mandated by FDA to set a product apart as GxP ("Good Practices") compliant, and standards for electronic records). Oftentimes, the onus of delivering a regulatory compliant system is put on the software vendor.

A holistic and integrated OR solution is a powerful differentiator

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 23:20:54 +0000

People-related issues are consistently cited as one of the primary challenges to the success of major technology-based initiatives.

Organizational Readiness’ (OR) goal is to integrate the “people” component of transformation with the “process” and “technology” components to ensure a successful business transformation endeavor.