A Note from the CEO
Thanks to those that wrote and congratulated me on ushering
OUT 2003 last month! I guess I was in a hurry to get on to
new things in a new year! I hope that you have had a safe Holiday
and ushered IN 2003 with family and friends.
Did you ever lose something valuable, realize the value, and then
find it again? Generally something short of elation. Well - I found
Trace Urdan again. Or better phrased - his newsletter. For those of
you who read the Trace Urdan eLearning 'bible' every week in the WR
Hambrecht newsletter, you will understand how I became addicted to
his content. Every week I would stop what I was doing to read what
Trace had to say. I knew that Trace had moved from WR Hambrecht to
ThinkEquity Partners in late 2001 but didn't know he had resumed his
newsletter. For years, Trace has followed the learning technology
industry and has captured the essence of the business side of
eLearning. Yesterday, someone sent me a note to 'make sure that I
read Trace's newsletter'. Wow - what a great way to start the New
Year. You too can subscribe to 'Knowledge Notes' by sending an email
to 'knowledgenotes@thinkequity.com'. I encourage you to do so.
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) Am I getting the most out of my current tools?
(Optimization).
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!
Have a Great New Year!!
Visit our Home on the
Web!
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Dear Guest,
Welcome to rapidLD's January issue of The eLearning
evolution (e2). We have a lot in store for you
in 2003. We look forward to keeping you informed. Have a
Happy New Year...and refer a friend!
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Counting What Counts |
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By J. Bahlis, PhD, PE
President, BNH Expert
Software
Globalization, technology and demographics are affecting
the way organizations are running their businesses and in-turn
workplace learning and performance. "Success in today's
economy depends more than anything else on knowledge and
learning" - a view shared by both senior executives and HRD
professionals. The problem, however, arises in the way the
results are being measured. From the perspective of senior
executives, training is a strategic investment that is
expected to create opportunities and increase the competitive
advantage of the organization. HRD professionals, on the other
hand, "often value people development for its own sake rather
than something that should be linked to business strategy."
The critical issue is to decide on what to measure.
Although a number of intermediary tools - including
participants' feedback, testing and observation - is used to
measure the effectiveness of learning initiatives, ultimately,
the only meaningful measure is the impact on the
organization's bottom line - i.e., what changes in business
results can be expected as a result of the training effort?
To achieve this objective, we should examine why
employees are being trained in the first place. If we have
done our homework, a training course "which is a solution"
should have been designed to address a specific performance
deficiency "the problem", and the results of the training
program "performance indicators" (which may include employee
productivity, retention, revenue, customer services, etc. -
versus skills/competencies) should be well defined.
Consequently, the impact of the training program should be
easy to measure. If for any reason potential gains
"performance indicators" cannot be defined, then the need for
training - whether instructor-led or eLearning-based - should
be questioned. Peter Drucker summed it best when he pointed
out that "if you cannot measure it, you cannot manage it."
Think about what you are measuring and 'Count What
Counts'.
For
more information about how BNH approaches the measurement
problem, click here>>
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Cutting Corners with
Licensing |
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 Getting the most from your software licensing
dollars
The question was innocent enough - "How do you justify
paying for eLearning software licenses when you are not sure
who will use it?". My reply in Online Learning eNews
(www.vnulearning.com) got more responses that I
imagined - and not all of them were enthused about my answers.
However, I still believe that there is not yet maturity in how
eLearning tools are licensed which presents a great
opportunity to experiment until we find the right approach.
In summary, I gave the following guidance:
o
Purchase only as many licenses as you know you will use --
"but don't expect a volume discount if you don't buy the
volume up front".
o Negotiate a contract addendum that
lets you buy more licenses at an incremental cost. "Try to
factor in the volume discount on future purchases."
o
Create two types of users and negotiate a separate price for
each. A "full-use" license allows full access. A "casual-use"
license lets someone enroll, see a catalog and take maybe one
course.
o Casual-use licenses cost a fraction of what
you would pay for a full-use license.
o Find a way to
induce learners to go from casual use to full use -- perhaps
by setting the casual-use license to expire after a short
time. This will entice the vendors to work with you knowing
that, if you are successful, they will get more licensing
dollars.
o Contract for all licenses up front -- but
negotiate for payment based on use.
Bottom line - be
creative. As the technology matures, 'Feature Match' among
vendors will inevitably happen. This allows you, the customer,
to put more weight into other variables which ultimately will
allow you to make your vendor selection. Pricing is an
important variable - push hard to get what you want.
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What's COOL...What's
HOT... |
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 OLAP Tools in eLearning
So, you've successfully deployed some learning technology!
This probably means you are capturing events, people, test
scores, materials, skills, and many other items in your
relational database(s). You've even figured out how to access
multiple databases using your data warehouse to develop some
reports for your Managers and Students.
So, why is it
still difficult to make decisions about the future of your
training organization? What is missing from that report that
is keeping you from quickly making the changes necessary to
meet the needs of your audience? The answer could be On-Line
Analytical Processing (OLAP).
OLAP has recently
emerged, as our needs for complex data analysis have grown.
According to the OLAP Council, this technology provides people
with valuable information via a "slice, dice and rotate"
method of data mining, augmenting or replacing the more
complicated relational query. OLAP enables your organization
to gain insight into data through fast, consistent,
interactive access to a wide variety of possible views of
information.
OLAP compliant systems are being
developed and deployed in a variety of functional areas, but
they all require the same key features:
·
Multidimensional Views of Data: Representative of an
actual business model where data is analyzed by organization,
line item, product, geography, channel, time, etc.
·
Calculation-Intensive Capabilities: Can break down
information based on complex trend algorithms such as moving
averages.
· Time Intelligence: System understands
the sequential nature of time (this month vs. last month - or
- this month vs. the same month last year)
OLAP
systems have the ability to answer "who?" and "what?"
questions, but it is their ability to answer "what if?" and
"why?" that differentiates them from the traditional Data
Warehouse.
By providing the ability to analyze real
business issues, OLAP enables the organization to respond
quickly to customer and other market demands. This
responsiveness often yields improved revenue, profitability
and customer satisfaction.
Several eLearning
Technology vendors have developed OLAP compliant systems to
complement their current product suites. One such tool is the
new Docent Analytics. This analytical processing tool will
allow your organization to monitor trends in training,
certification, compliance, partner channels, sales and more.
Visit the
Docent website for a more comprehensive view of the Analytics
tool >>
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Let's Get Personal |
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Did you know you can receive personalized supplements
to the eLearning evolution?
Click on edit
your interests at the bottom of this email and select
Consulting Tools within your 'Areas of Interest'. Each
month you'll automatically receive a link to a consulting tool
that can add value to your training projects. Included are
directions on how to use the tool in your business.
But Note - you only get the link if you select 'Consulting
Tools' when you 'edit your interests'. So click on edit
your interests now to 'get Personal' with rapidLD!
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rapidLD eLearning evolution (e2)
Overview |
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If you haven't been to our web site recently, check out
the latest updates, including the new eLearning evolution
(e2) overview.
More
info>>
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