by Brian Clark | Business Process, DOTS LMS, e-learning, learning management systems, utilisation
In the spirit of the reflection and planning that is going on as we start 2012, I thought it a good idea to discuss some reflection and planning for those of us in the e-learning community. Here are some questions you might ask as you plan your coming 12 months and the utilisation of learning technology to achieve your objectives.
- Do you know the level of utilisation of your LMS?
- If yes, is it acceptable? If no, do you know how to measure utilisation?
- Have the business requirements for the LMS changed or do you expect them to this year?
- Are the LMS administrators adequately trained to manage the LMS effectively?
- Is your LMS aligned operationally with strategy execution in your business?
- Is your online courseware and content delivering value to the business?
- What are the gaps in our learning delivery and how can you address them?
Of course there are many more diagnostic questions you may ask. These are a good start to cross check on where you are now and support some visualisation of where you wish to drive your LMS project. It is common for LMS projects to lose a bit of momentum once they have achieved the initial business requirements that motivated the acquisition of the LMS In the first place. To regain the momentum of your LMS project you may consider a few of these points:
- Is there scope for more people in your organisation to access the LMS?
- How has our business strategy/focus evolved and how can we support this with our LMS?
- Has the LMS been refreshed in look and feel?
- Are there LMS features or tools that are not utilised but could be?
- Can we extend our LMS capabilities to external stakeholders?
Would you like some help undertaking an evaluation of your LMS project? We can have an initial discussion to understand where you are now and explore some options to give you a simple clear roadmap to increase the utilisation of your LMS technology, no matter which system you are using.
by Brian Clark | DOTS LMS, e-learning
We at DOTS are looking forward to 2012. It has been a good break for the team over the holidays (except the hardcore who worked through). We have created a new client portal that will ‘go live’ in February. Stay tuned here and you will also receive an email with an invitation to attend an introduction to the portal and how you can use it to collaborate with other members of our fantastic client community. We will also post information about DOTS LMS and hot topics in e-learning, collaboration, compliance and anything else we think you might be interested in.
by Brian Clark | Business Process, DOTS LMS, Innovation
The first part of this Innovation in DOTS topic gave a brief outline of the use of DOTS LMS as an ‘innovation incubator’ to support and sustain innovation processes in an organisation. I discussed how a client began the process with a learning and communication strategy to align their people with the purpose of the new focus on innovation in their organisation. It is important to emphasise that this company is looking for innovation at all levels of the organisation and to as many different business processes as possible. The obvious targets for innovation tend to be products and services, however this company identified that many of their systems and processes were no longer ‘best practices’ and tended to be the way they had been doing things for quite some time.
The company established a simple electronic form for capturing ideas. This form was developed and deployed using the DOTS Survey Tool. People can go to the form and enter in some basic information about the idea using simple click and short text responses. The surveys are reviewed and vetted by senior managers who are able to access these in DOTS. The review cycle is fortnightly currently with a montly cycle planned after the first twelve months. The current ratio is 8 out of 10 ideas submitted warrant further development. The current rate of submitted ideas is between 4 and 6 per month.
Once and idea has been approved to be developed, it is entered into DOTS LMS as a ‘course’ to facilitate communication and distribution. The courses vary in quality. At the outset they were mainly text based with an imgage or two. Now there are short videos, pictures, diagrams, mindmaps etc. that are used to illustrate the status quo and the forecast changes if this ideas were implemented. Most of the ideas/courses are distributed company wide although a few have been very specific warranting viewing only by direct stakeholders; e.g. changes to data entry procedures in the ERP system.
Once the courses are completed, each person is enrolled in the course and are able to view the course within a timeframe using DOTS Sessions. Once they have viewed the course they undertake an ‘assessment’ that provides immediate feedback. Attached to the course are a Discussion Forum and a Library. The Discussion Forum permits those with some passion for the idea to further engage in its development or otherwise. The Libary provides background information, papers, research and other materials to provide a comprehensive means of documenting the innovation project. If you are in the market for superclone , Super Clone Rolex is the place to go! The largest collection of fake Rolex watches online!
If an idea continues to be developed based on feedback and assessed worth/benefit to the company, a Group is established in DOTS that included persons comprising the project implementation team for that idea. In most cases the project teams have included a wide variety of membes with particular passions and interests; in a couple of cases the team has been comprised of persons with specialised expertise or skills.
Ultimately the innovation will be communicated and training undertaken in DOTS LMS. We have linked some of the innovations to the Position Management feature in DOTS as well as linking behavioural and skill based Competencies to the Performance Appraisal system in DOTS. This comprehensive approach provides further scope to ensuring this vital strategic initiative is not lost or wayward due to lack of visibility or poor execution.
by Brian Clark | Business Process, DOTS LMS, Innovation, Performance
Innovation is often identified as a key strategic advantage for organisations who have instilled innovation into their culture. Innovation need not be on the scale of a major new product and service, often it is creating a new process or tool that works within the business to support greater effectiveness and performance. One of our clients determined that innovation was going to be a strategic focus for their business. This client has successfully implemented a learning and development strategy that has driven higher levels of performance both at individual, team and enterprise levels. Now they wish to translate this learning culture to support one that includes innovation as well. DOTS LMS is the backbone for the learning and development processes and it was our challenge to explore how we can utilise DOTS to support innovation. This first entry explores the first phase of the innovation project plan and in the second entry I will illustrate the tools used in DOTS LMS and how they were configured to create an effective ‘innovation incubator.’
The first phase was focused on communication and awareness. The management team determined that there was a need to ensure a pervasive understanding of the strategic plan throughout the enterprise. An online course was developed using the DOTS Content Creator that included videos, images, Excel spreadsheets and other file types. This course is approximately 20 to 25 minutes in duration and included an enrolment so that attendance could be tracked. The course included a feedback form and a DOTS Survey to gauge reactions and collect ideas. The other courses in phase one included a course on how the innovation project was going to be undertaken, a course on the concept of innovation and examples of how innovation drives better performance at all leves of an organisation. These courses were developed using a combination of the DOTS Content Creator and Microsoft PowerPoint with Articulate. All of the courses included online feedback and a survey so that ideas could be captured even at this early stage of the roll-out. Since the client already had the employee population in DOTS the course was catalogued so that all persons could access it. In addition to employees, a couple of the courses were made available to key partners and suppliers to encourage their participation in the innovation process. These external users were granted access to the courses but did not have access to any another feature or function within the LMS.
DOTS Libraries were used to provide support resources such as links to external sites, articles, presentations and information about key people involved in this project. To encourage people to engage and participate in the process a number of DOTS Discussion Groups were established. Some Discussions were open across the Enterprise while others were available to specific teams and departments. The phase one timeline was designed for 8 weeks to ensure a good pace is established. The pace ensured there was a prevailing sense of importance attached to this project as well as an energetic level of activity.
In the next entry I will explain the use of DOTS LMS to support the innovation processes.
