Each year there are more online courses out there – but how many of them are actually fostering learning? The ASTD 2009 annual report suggests that between 2006 and 2008 e-learning investments grew by nearly a tenth, from 30.3% to 32.3% (Paradise, 2008).

On the one hand, this is good news because of e-learning’s many advantages, including ease of distribution, cost benefits over a traditional classroom, and, when designed properly, the enhancement of learning and the transfer of training.

Is it all good news, though? That depends on the quality of the materials produced. Let’s be honest – how many times have you taken an e-learning course and found yourself hitting the “Next” button repeatedly to get to the end or to the exam so you could be done with the course? Have you ever looked for a menu option that would let you go right to the exam and see if you could test out of the course? Have you ever tried taking the exam, knowing you would likely do poorly, but you just kept retaking the exam until you met the magic score needed to pass it? And finally, were you ever working on something else, such as a teleconference, while taking a required course?

Even if you didn’t do any of these things, others clearly do and the questions here are: how often do they do this and – maybe even more importantly – does it matter?

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Things are changing fast in the world of Learning and Development (L&D), but sometimes it seems we’re oblivious to the fact. It’s almost as if we’re ostriches – our response to an oncoming threat is to bury our heads in the sand rather than face it.

Soon that won’t be an option.

Once L&D’s work was simple and predictable. Training was a schedule of events, part of the calendar. Following an initial period of intensive induction training, employees received regular training measured in days or even in weeks per year. Today, this isn’t an option. Given how fast information flows and changes, the business demands faster ways of keeping employees up-to-speed.

The worrying news for L&D: increasingly the business is not turning to L&D for skill and knowledge support, but doing it alone, using social media and other tools.

The result is a challenging environment for L&D. CERPOINT Systems’ new white paper highlights three key ways that L&D can respond to these challenges and thrive.

What are the three ways in which L&D must change?

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