A Note from the CEO
Jim Everidge
Synchronous Learning. Virtual Classroom. Business
Collaboration. Online Meetings. All of these terms point to a
toolset that is becoming pervasive in business today (see Microsoft
Live Meeting under 'What's Cool, What's Hot' below). Compared to the
gradual evolution that we have seen in the online content arena, the
use of these collaboration tools has exploded in the eLearning
space.
There are a couple of compelling reasons why this has
happened:
1) Immediate payback - reduction in real travel costs
is a quantifiable justification for the acquisition of collaboration
tools; we have one customer that completely paid for the acquisition
AND deployment of both a virtual classroom tool AND a Learning
Management System with four months of travel expense reduction; this
does not include indirect costs associated with reduced time off of
the job
2) Easy transition from traditional classroom training -
because the flow of virtual classroom activities closely resembles
traditional classroom activities (set time to start, live
instructor, classroom feedback), the end users more easily accept
the virtual classroom; this compares to a completely different
modality in learning through online, self-study programs;
3)
Serves two broad audiences - not only can collaboration tools be
used effectively in development activities with internal
employees/contractors, but the same tools can be used in
sales/marketing activities with customers; this allows the buyer to
effectively use the licensed tool for separate projects (and
probably separate budgets)
If you haven't investigated
collaboration tools, now is the time to start. Even a cursory pass
at a Business Case will most likely result in a compelling reason to
consider these products. If you are already a user of collaboration
tools, I would challenge you to think about additional ways to use
these tools (business collaboration, customer education) that would
significantly impact your existing ROI assessments.
What do we do? rapidLD provides consulting services focused in
the learning industry. Our consulting offerings evolve around four
Customer questions:
1) Where do I start? (Strategy
and Business Plan Development),
2) Who do I
partner with? (Vendor Analysis and Selection),
3)
How do I maximize my investment? (Deployment) and
4) How do I manage the implementation that I have?
(Outsourcing).
If you think that we might collaborate
on one of these topics and want more information, edit your
Interests (at the bottom of the page) and we will send you more
information.
We have seen many customers realize fabulous benefits from
learning technologies. We hope that you have that same success!
Visit our Home on the
Web!
|
|
Managing Your Dispersed
Workforce |
| |
 Ed Thompson
Creative Services Manager, First
Virtual Communications
Beyond the realm of sharing presentations, rich media web
conferencing provides an interactive and engaging environment
for managing a globally dispersed organization.
To meet
increased expectations with the same or reduced resources, you
need to develop expertise in managing remote resources.
Implementing a dispersed team methodology can bring people
closer to the markets they serve, and also create multiple
centers of operation to ensure continuity of business. In
order to maintain effective communications among those
dispersed workers, many companies are seeking out web
conferencing solutions. Rich media web conferencing can
provide a foundation for ensuring your company's operational
capabilities are maintained, competitive advantages are
maximized and communications are clear no matter what
challenges arise.
Web conferencing services,
teleconferencing and videoconferencing systems alone do not
meet the demands of the dispersed team. True, you can give a
presentation to your team or collaborate on a document,
however, that's not the face-to-face communication that is
part of a manager's responsibility. Teleconferences are good
for a group discussion, but lack a way to share data, and you
certainly can't see someone's expression. Videoconferencing
systems are expensive to buy and complicated to use, you
certainly would not put one in every employee's home, and even
if you did, the ability to share data is not present.
Increasingly, communications are moving to the
desktop. Business has become incredibly dependent on email,
instant messaging and web applications such as corporate
intranets and portals to share and disseminate information.
These tools must be leveraged in order to effectively complete
the migration of voice, video and data communications to the
desktop.
To integrate a dispersed workforce you need a
more powerful tool than traditional web conferencing services
- you need rich media web conferencing that integrates your
choice of audio, video, data collaboration or all three. This
choice completes the migration of business communications to
the desktop. Leveraging the use of email, instant messaging,
the Internet, and even standard telephones, rich media web
conferencing utilizes familiar applications to deliver next
generation communications solutions that are easy to use and
scale for widespread adoption.
Rather than having the
"one-to-many" periodic broadcast of information, rich media
web conferencing enables a fully interactive experience for
all attendees - each person can see the video and hear the
audio of every other attendee in the meeting. This enables you
to truly have the interactive, personal and engaging online
meetings that in some instances exceed face-to- face meetings
due to improved collaboration and document sharing abilities.
At first glance, web conferencing is seen as a way to
present to customers, but as rich media web conferencing
continues its rapid adoption, managers are utilizing it to
improve their business practices, not just sales. Improving
productivity, reducing costs associated with travel, improving
communications, and reducing costs associated with
teleconferencing or data conferencing services are just some
of the practical benefits of rich media web conferencing.
To
learn more about First Virtual and their web conferencing
capabilities, click here>>
|
|
|
Synchronous Learning - Always a
First! |
| |
 Henry Liebling
Principal, SBTA,
Inc.
Imagine building a company's first-ever distance
learning program, that included four 2-hour live sessions,
including Voice over IP. The company, a telecom company
with operations globally, converted a two-day traditional
course to a blended learning format that also included the
participants getting their pre- and post-course content and
assignments from an asynchronous learning content
server. Here are a few "lessons learned" that I hope will add
to, or reinforces, your own experiences using blended
learning.
1.Instructional Design and Course
Development
a) Tools: How can you make the
course interesting and engaging? If, for example, a
synchronous questionnaire or breakout room tool is available,
make a decision if using these will make your course that much
better. Some of the tools will take more time to master - the
effort may be worth it.
b) Questions: Plan ahead and write
down questions ahead of time that you, or others, will use to
elicit participation during a synchronous session. Do you want
to get participants to give examples, agree or disagree with
the content, and ask questions of each other and the
instructor(s)?
c) Be Willing To Experiment. We were able
to "re- purpose" video clips and send these clips in real time
to the participants. Although there was some technical
difficulty with this experiment, using these clips was a
definite hit.
2.Technical Preparation
a) Technical Resources: When you match technical
resources to a task checklist, it is important to verify the
technical person's availability and ensure they understand, in
detail, what is expected of them.
b) Participant System
Testing: The project sponsor talked about system testing at
the project kickoff. Still, we encountered problems with
people testing their PC/network well before the sessions
started. Suggestion: Assign someone to add a personal touch
and work with the participants.
3.Redundancy -
Having a Back-Up Plan
a) Co-Facilitators in
Different Locations: Just in case the instructor's PC didn't
work.
b) Content on CDs: Each participant received all the
content on a CD.
c) Meeting Room Alternative: In one of
the facilities, the client set up a room where participants
could join in, if they had desktop difficulties. When used,
this limits individual participant feedback.
d) Telephone
Reach Numbers: Participants were given our land-line and
cell-phone numbers to supplement the software's chat feature
and other instant messaging methods.
4.Synchronous Facilitation (Instruction)
a) Balance the Expertise: Stress was reduced
because one of the co-instructors was the subject matter
expert of the content, but he was relatively new in using a
synchronous eLearning. The other co- instructor was very
familiar with using synchronous instruction, but he had to get
up to speed on the content. This balance was helpful.
b)
Practice: We practiced, using friends, colleagues, and a
stop-watch.
c) Keep Your Calendar Open: We discovered the
need to keep one's calendar free "before" and "after" the
actual 2-hour session. For some of the sessions, the
participants "stayed on" for an extra hour, with great
discussions and additional learning.
For more
information about Henry Liebling, click here >>
|
|
|
What's COOL...What's
HOT... |
| |
 Microsoft Office Live
In late July, Microsoft announced the addition of its first
eLearning product for customers - Microsoft Office Live
Meeting. This joins the Microsoft Office Communications Server
product already in the market. These two products offer
Microsoft customers an expansive platform to do real-time
collaboration and communication.
The Live Meeting
product enables businesses to conduct real-time, interactive
presentations and meetings over the Internet. A multimedia
platform and application service for Web-based communication
and collaboration, Live Meeting is a natural fit in the
Microsoft Office System, which is designed to better connect
people, information and business processes across an
organization to transform information for business impact. It
will be the first fully hosted collaboration service for the
Microsoft Office System. Live Meeting is built on a scalable
browser-based architecture.
Microsoft has identified
ten key reasons to own the Live Meeting product:
1) Travel
Less
2) Easily Collaborate with Others
3) Get a
significant Return on your Investment
4) Increase
Productivity
5) Visually collaborate
6) Easily access
previous meetings
7) Extend your customer base without
geographical limits
8) Collaborate in real time
9) Get
reliability you can count on
10) Enhance
security
Live Communications Server provides presence-
awareness, instant messaging (IM) and real-time communications
capabilities all on an extensible platform. For example, with
Microsoft Office SharePoint (TM) Portal Server 2003, users can
see whether portal members are online and available for an IM
chat. Live Meeting will allow information workers to see
SharePoint Portals via application sharing.
For those
of you that follow M&A activity in the eLearning space,
the Live Meeting product was formerly known as Placeware
Conference Center. It just has a different aura when you
attach the Microsoft brand. It will be interesting to see
where this product goes in the coming years.
To
get a Preview of Microsoft Office Live, click here>>
|
|
|
Let's Get Personal |
| |
Did you know you can receive personalized supplements
to the eLearning evolution?
Click on Update
your profile at the bottom of this email and select
Consulting Tools within your 'Areas of Interest'.
Beginning in September, we will be distributing a second email
with Consulting Tools to those people that have selected an
appropriate category. Note that we have now added Business
Process Outsourcing of Learning Technology to our interest
categories!
But Note - you only get the link if you select 'Consulting
Tools' when you 'Update your profile'. So click on Update
your profile now to 'get Personal' with rapidLD!
Also - note that we have added a link at the bottom,
'Forward email' - this allows you to send this
newsletter to up to FIVE friends with one click. Go ahead -
try it!!
|
|
|
rapidLD eLearning evolution (e2)
Overview |
| |
If you haven't been to our web site recently, check out
the latest updates, including the new eLearning evolution
(e2) overview.
More
info>>
|
| |
