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In this issue:
1. New White Paper - Building Bench Strength: Trends in Leadership Development
2. If It Can't Be Measured, It Can't Be Managed
3. What Is An Authoring Tool?
4. Course Review: Coaching for Performance
1. New White Paper - Building Bench Strength: Trends in Leadership Development
Organizations nationwide are facing an unprecedented lack of management talent, and investing as much as 30% of their total training budgets in the area of leadership development. Take a look at the trends & best practices of the most successful programs in our latest free white paper!
What you can expect to learn from our white paper:
- Today's Leadership Challenges
- Why Leadership Development is Critical
- Trends & Best Practices in Leadership Development
- Creating a Competency-Based Leadership Development Program
- Multiple Learning Platforms for Leadership Development
Access our latest free white paper, "Building Bench Strength: Trends in Leadership Development."
2. If It Can't Be Measured, It Can't Be Managed
A recent article heading in Fortune Magazine caught my attention … “Made to Measure.” Working in partnership with training and HR professionals, we’re continually looking for new ways to measure training, and quantify its impact on business results. The article’s title came from a quote by Jack Welch, the former Chairman and CEO of GE. One of his management mantras states, “If it can’t be measured, it can’t be managed.” A simplistic concept that holds true in the way we manage all of our business units' efforts – including training and development.
Welch’s quote reminded me of an article I’d read months back in CLO Magazine, discussing the application of learning metrics, and why our definition of a successful e-learning initiative has changed in the past few years. With shortages in time, money, and manpower, every organizational function is picked apart and scrutinized in today’s business climate. What is its purpose? What is its contribution? Corporate learning is no exception – and we have to change the way we present our measurements. e-Learning is no longer a new tool, measured by its technology and functionality. Our senior managers’ expectations have changed, and our measurements should reflect what they want to see … how training and development improves business performance, with tangible measurements and success criteria.
Why are we concerned with e-learning metrics? Why all this talk about ROI and other types of metrics or measurements in the industry today? In business today, what gets measured gets better… and conversely what doesn’t get measured, often doesn’t get done at all. As Welch points out, how can we effectively manage our efforts unless they are quantifiable and supported by success measurements? Managing a business initiative without metrics is like aiming for a target while blind-folded. Our senior managers are rightly demanding to see the results we’re getting from the investments that we’re making in e-learning and all forms of employee development.
In regard to learning metrics, the old metrics have become stale and irrelevant in conversations about business goals and the impact of training on the organization. After all, how does cost per student, per course, relate to your organization’s strategic goals? The quick answer is they don’t relate at all. So how do we know if we’re measuring the wrong things? What are the outdated metrics? And what are the new ways to measure learning – as a strategic business partner?
Once we’ve established program goals, there are many metrics that can be used to measure the effectiveness of your training initiatives, and demonstrate the value of e-learning. Generally speaking these metrics fall into three categories. First, there are measurements of learning activity and results, things like the number of courses offered, course attendance and course completions, test scores, etc. The second type of metric commonly used is cost or efficiency metrics… measuring things such as the cost per student day for training, the reduction in costs associated with travel, etc. The third type of metric that is gaining popularity today is measuring the impact e-learning has on the bottom line of the organization – the business impact. For example, by providing our customer service team with skills for handling irate customers more effectively, we’re now seeing an increase in customer re-orders, which we can quantify and measure.
Interested in learning more about learning metrics? See how your organization can better manage your training and development efforts using metrics to quantify your successes! Sign up for our free webinar on “Redefining e-Learning Metrics,” held Wednesday, March 26, 2008 at 1:00 p.m. Central Daylight time.
3. What Is An Authoring Tool?
Brought to you in partnership with Trivantis, one of our e-learning partners.
If you are new to e-learning, you may be confused by the many types of authoring tools available. So just what is an authoring tool?
Authoring Tools and e-Learning
The term authoring tool is misleading to some people. Given the word 'authoring,' you might think that an authoring tool refers to a specialized form of word processing software used by professional writers. In the e-learning world, authoring tools which are also referred to as e-learning authoring tools, e-learning authoring software, e-learning content development tools and e-learning course development software go far beyond writing and word processing.
e-Learning authoring tools enable trainers to integrate an array of media to create professional, engaging and interactive training content. With an authoring tool, you can repurpose digitized elements or learning objects from an existing course for use in a new course. In this way, you can realize a return on investment for components that may have been developed using outside programmers or graphic design resources.
In reality, 'e-learning course creation tool' is a better term for this category of software rather than the more popular 'authoring tool.' As you begin your search for an authoring tool, you'll quickly come to find that this term embraces a wide range of development functions. You may also discover, as others have, that a combination of tools—that perform complementary functions—rather than a single tool may best fit your needs.
Why Authoring Tools?
Custom content is at the forefront of the e-learning frontier. Trainers are continually trying to identify ways to create and publish increasingly complex custom e-learning content for use on the Internet, company intranets or CD-ROMs. Some trainers seek high-speed deployment of critical information through an organization, known as rapid e-learning, while others want control of courseware and independence from programmers.
Many organizations are attempting to reduce their training costs by developing e-learning materials in-house. Some organizations want an authoring tool that is easy to learn and can be used by a large team of people with different skill sets; others want to move to a blended training solution by offering a combination of classroom and e-learning courses. Authoring tools offer a way for e-learning managers to achieve their goals.
Interested in learning about our authoring tool, Lectora? Start a free demo of our authoring tool today!
4. Course Review: Coaching for Performance
Course Group
Leadership
Course Code
LEAD0146
Media
e-Learning
Target Audience
Supervisors, managers, and coaches.
Course Overview
Barry is new at quality control. He completed three weeks of training, but he has already made two major errors that cost the firm $3000. He's obviously upset and discouraged over his shaky start. If you were Barry's supervisor, what would you do? Situations like this one can cause managers to fret and fuss and begin talking about disciplinary action. However, leaders take a different approach. A leader would take the time to coach Barry and find out what's really going on--perhaps determining that three weeks of training wasn't quite enough. Or perhaps discovering that Barry's mother died recently and he's struggling to concentrate. Or offering to find a mentor for Barry until the situation eases. Taking the time to evaluate a situation and making an action plan is part of the process of coaching for performance that you'll explore in this course. You'll learn when it's appropriate to mentor, train, counsel, or discipline an employee, and you'll be given guidelines and tips on how to perform each of these tasks in the most effective manner possible.
Expected Duration
2.5 hours
Megan's Rating
5 Stars (Out of 5)
Megan's Review
Coaching for Performance is a great course for new and seasoned managers alike. The four perspectives of strategic leadership that this course presents include: the leader as a coach, the leader as a motivator, the leader as a trainer, and the leader as a counselor. Each component is covered in detail, allowing the learner to understand when it’s appropriate to use these various techniques to engage employees and create a meaningful coaching experience. I felt that this course provided me with several effective practices for identifying situations where these leadership strategies were necessary, such as providing constructive feedback. The interactivity and repeated testing features of this course drove home the essential learning points, making this thorough and informative course easy to follow.
Megan Pack is the Marketing Manager at Business Training Library.
Preview this e-learning course today!
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