by Brian Clark | Announcements, DOTS LMS, DOTS Percepium, learning and development, learning management systems, LMS
Percepium LMS has had a major upgrade to 6.0 and an update to 6.0.5. The enhancements included in these updates to the learning management system are delivering some powerful new features and functions for our customers around the world. Below is just a short summary of the LMS enhancements. If you would like a comprehensive Release Notes document, please get in touch using our contact details on this website.
Some of the most exciting enhancements deliver a far better user experience for our LMS customers.
The Forum has been completely redesigned and includes shortcuts to make finding posts easier. We also added a new HTML editor, attachments can be added to posts and quoted posts are much easier to follow. Forum moderators can lock a forum thread. Forums can be linked to a specific learning activity or locally to a specific activity.
The Calendar now has agenda and timeline views. Development Plan and Competency Assessments are now shown as events in the Calendar making it much easier for users to stay on top of their own learning and development. Clicking on an item in the Calendar takes a user directly to the Activity.
Percepium has a Learning Journal that now supports file attachments to users’ Journal entries.
The News feature also supports file attachments and includes our new HTML editor.
Search functionality has been enhanced with users having the ability to search in catalogues directly after logging in to the LMS. If your LMS has multiple Catalogs, users can select from a drop-down to search specific Catalogs.
Our current LMS customers always comment on how flexible the Hubs feature is to deliver user experiences that are individualised and relevant to users. We have added more Hubs to our LMS so that users may be offered more tools and features.
Percepium LMS has added four reports that virtually every LMS customer will use. We have added three analytics reports for Competency Profiles and one Organisation Learning Activity Status report.
A minor improvement but one that makes Percepium LMS more fun for users is the rolling dashboard banners. These banner images can be set to timer and can be very effective for mass communication, inspiration and other purposes.
Percepium LMS is an enterprise Learning Management System that can support a large number of domains within the one installation. The Percepium LMS excels at offering many options for user experience, learning delivery and user management.
Check out our other new software platform that builds engagement, productivity and innovation in your business.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, learning management systems, LMS
This list is only a simple primer to help you cross check your Learning Management System selection process. We have developed a very detailed requirement analysis for undertaking a selection process for companies researching a new or replacement LMS.
Features are usually front of mind. It is easy to go for the LMS with the most features, however these features may not map to your requirements. Features that are poorly designed and lack usability will only bring frustration to your administrators and users. Be clear on the features and functions you require and then test them out with scenarios. I recommend you ask the potential LMS vendors about their product development roadmap. When you review the roadmap you will be able to identify current gaps (if any) as well as where the vendor is focusing their development resources.
Customer support has a great deal of variability in the LMS world. Most of the larger enterprise vendors have documented service level agreements as part of their licensing documents. There are some enterprise vendors that will also negotiate service level agreements and this may incur additional costs. On the other end of the spectrum are vendors that offer a standard level of customer support and more lengthy response and escalation times. The main point here is to ensure you will get the support level that makes sense for your business and its requirements.
Integration with your existing and future information systems may not be on your initial selection criteria, however it should be. Whether you wish to integrate as part of the initial roll-out or later on, you do not want to be restricted in the future when you need to share data with your payroll, HRIS, CRM or other type of platform. You may also want to integrate using LDAP, SAML, Active Directory etc. These integrations may make populating and keeping your users up to date much easier.
Pricing models in the LMS market are highly variable. For the most part they are based on user numbers but there are vendors that throw other variables in the mix such as number of administrators, number of courses, enrolments etc. You may discover at some point in the future that these extra variables may be restrictive from a cost point of view. If you need to scale your system, it is best to be very clear on what costs are going to be incurred.
Mobile friendly learning management systems are the norm now. A web based LMS should be accessible by learners using mobile phones and tablet devices. The differences here tend to be based on solutions that use apps or those that have an online portal or a responsive design. You want to make sure the user interface for the mobile user is still easy to navigate.
If you are considering your first LMS or seeking a replacement, we can help you out with our research and selection services. We have comprehensive documentation on system requirements, workflows and business case models. We have assisted a wide range of clients in a number of industries select and implement the right Learning Management solution.
- Mining
- Construction
- Banking and Finance
- Energy
- Healthcare
- Government
- Aviation
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, DOTS webinar
Join us for our first webinar of 2015. These webinars are offered monthly on a range of topics to help you get the most out of your DOTS LMS.
Webinar Invitation for Tuesday 24 February:
12.00 pm AEDT (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra)
11.30 am ACST (Adelaide)
11.00 am AEST (Brisbane)
9.00 am AWST (Perth)
Is your organisational structure accurately reflected in your DOTS LMS?
Do you need to update your organisation structure and user data?
Join us for our first webinar in 2015.
We are going to show you how you can update your organisational structure and update your users and the process to minimise any data integrity issues and risk.
Our webinar will show you:
• The benefits having an organisational structure to manage your users
• How to know what you may need to change based on 2 scenarios –
o I just need to add a couple of departments and move some users around
o I need to start from scratch because “it’s a mess”
• What other considerations you need know before you get started
• How to minimise any data integrity issues and risk prior to performing any actions
We are focused on helping you get the most out of the DOTS LMS. We know how hard it is to juggle the demands of your position as well as knowing all the features and tools in DOTS. We are giving you an opportunity to take 60 minutes out of your day to learn and refresh your knowledge in using DOTS LMS.
This webinar is hosted Kathleen Bosworth.
Block out one hour in your calendar on Tuesday 24 February.
You may have received an email invitation with registration details. If not, please contact our office on 1300 726 708 [Int’l +61 7 3220 2229]
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
by Brian Clark | coaching, competency frameworks, DOTS LMS, LMS, Performance, performance management
Make performance reviews an effective contributor to your organisation’s health. You can utilise features within the DOTS LMS to help you create and deliver performance reviews without the dread and and trepidation so often part of this business process.
- Don’t accept a 6 or 12 month review cycle as default. You can set the system for shorter periods for review meetings that may include some ‘course correction’, praise and recognition and re-focusing on new objectives.
- Create scales for your key result areas [objectives] that are clear and descriptive. You can create as many points in your scale and add as much text as you need to make the scale very descriptive. The more accurate your scale the less likely there will be ambiguity and misunderstandings during the review process.
- The same goes for your competency scales. There may be a number of competency frameworks operating in your organisation so make the scales as extensive and descriptive to meet the needs of your workforce.
- Encourage the use of the Development Planning module for post-review action plans. You can use both pre-set plans and enable custom plans for people with specific needs or ambitions. One of the biggest complaints about performance appraisals is the lack of follow up actions.
- Show managers how to enter interim notes into to review system. These notes ensure information, ideas and observations are collected in one place and available for the review meetings. Interim notes are a great way to ensure your people receive the recognition they deserve.
- Explore the use of the 360 Profiling module. Many clients are using the 360 module for their senior leadership and developing a range of assessment types. You can also use the 360 profile as a self-assessment tool that is a great re-enforcer for development and learning plans.
- You can assist managers by enabling other managers to ‘review the reviews.’ This is very effective as a coaching tool to help mangers improve their delivery of performance appraisals.
Performance reviews are often met with trepidation by both employees and their managers. This contributes to both a reluctance to conduct them and if they are conducted the quality of the experience and the follow up often destroys any good that could flow from this activity. We recommend that managers meet regularly with their team members and build performance coaching ‘all the time.’ When it comes to review time there will be less friction to having the conversations necessary to help your team to performance improvement.
If you would like some help setting up performance reviews in DOTS LMS, other systems or even on paper, we can help you out. For an initial discussion please get in touch.
by Brian Clark | Announcements, DOTS LMS, Knowledge Management
Welcome to our 2014 webinar information series. These webinars are offered monthly on a range of topics to help you get the most out of your DOTS LMS.
This online webinar is the final webinar in the series on ‘Everything You Wanted to Know About Managing Your Users.’ In this session we will cover:
• Import User Enrolments – for current and historical enrolments
• Import User Competencies
• Import User Certificates (Training Programs)
This webinar will be hosted by Kathleen Bosworth.
Block out one hour in your calendar on Tuesday 25 March.
• 11.00am AEST (Brisbane)
• 12.00pm AEDT (Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra)
• 11.30am ACDT (Adelaide)
• 09.00am AWST (Perth)
You can register by sending an email to dotsinvitation@dotstalentsolutions.com
Your registration will be confirmed by email with a link to the online webinar.
Places are limited so book your spot as soon as you can.
