Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays from Vretta to you and your family! What could be better than the gift of understanding? Vretta helps transform a student’s learning experience and teaches skills for life.

Face-to-Face Training vs. E-Learning

‘’Change’’ has become a mantra for literally every CEO who wants to leave a lasting impact in the way businesses have traditionally been run. This push towards transformational change within organizations, to evolve into industry leaders, has led to the constant need for employee training. From front-line sales and support to leadership teams in almost every vertical, organizations are looking to invest in their human capital.

Training may involve soft-skills, software, product knowledge, budgeting, etc. with the common objective of witnessing excellent return on investments made. With the constant need for sustainable and ongoing training, face-to-face training is becoming a bottleneck in this organizational change initiative. The table below produced by Vretta, a transformational learning company, enumerates the differences between face-to-face training and e-learning.

	Face-to-face Training	E-learning
Impact of learning materials	Mainly depends on the trainer.  Materials used are mostly animated PowerPoint presentations. Sometimes props are used.		With the advent of emerging technologies, materials can be tailored-made to provide high user engagement by using adaptive- and mastery- based learning methods.
Accessibility	Needs to be at a scheduled time and place. This calls for numerous localized training events making the training initiative expensive.		Self-paced learning. Learners can access the resources anywhere at any time.
Number of users	Limited number of users during any particular training session.		Unlimited number of users can access the system.
Scalability	Scaling is a challenge as trainers at different locations need to be trained to deliver the desired training experience.		The initial investment is in designing highly effective training modules that can be used for many years and that users can access from anywhere.
Trainer to student ratio	To get the most out of the trainer, classes contain as many users (generally 50 – 70) reducing the impact of the training.		1 : 1 through collaborative approaches.
Consistency of training	Largely depends on the trainer.		Consistent.
Interaction	Depending on the size of the class and the training style of the trainer. Collaborative training methods have been tried many times. However, ensuring that all trainers continue using these methods is a very challenging task.		Material can be created in such a way that users interact with the system all the time through engaging learning objects and mastery meters. Leaners cannot progress through the training session being passive learners. Constant activity through interactive assessment tools effectively built into the training material ensures high retention levels.
Employees buy-in	Employees are used to this training method and don’t require too much buy in.		For the success of this training, it is critical to get employees buy-in from the outset which will include endorsements from senior management.
ROI	Trainer’s fees are high. Additionally there are costs associated with booking rooms, employees working time, food, etc.  which reduce the ROI. Due to challenge of achieving a collaborative approach in the training, learners view these sessions as a “break from work” rather than a professional development program leading to reduced retention levels.		Inexpensive given that it is highly scalable and can be used over many years.  When the modules are carefully designed and the learning is mandated and tracked, this learning style has proven to significantly improve retention levels.

You Get What You Pay For: Why Companies Should Invest in Learning Solutions

Engagement is linked to real performance goals and is exactly why companies should invest in learning solutions for their employees.

Linear Learning

Read, click, scroll describes linear courses with plain click and read functionality providing little to no engagement. This is a common trap trainers fall into because the focus is solely to share information and it may be hard to move past this to consider the benefits of interactivity.

PowerPoint Authoring Tools

Then there is PowerPoint slides with audio voice over which can be said to bring a few new dimensions to learning solutions. This is usually slightly more expensive than a read, click, scroll solution but certainly scalable. The marketplace is flooded with authoring tool products and they can be found in many company learning and development departments as the sole learning solution for employees. There are user interactivity features that are adapted to improve engagement and are attractive because this solution is achievable by an in-house trainer or L&D professional.

Creating Engagement

There are three elements of interactivity that can be used as building blocks for engagement; click, hover and drag. While this is more on the design side of creating learning solutions, it is important to notice how infrequent these core elements are used. Even more relevant to how design affects interactivity, which then affects performance goals, is the use of custom learning solutions to achieve the best results through careful tailoring to the needs of the user and company.

There is a difference between the option to choose Button A, or Button B to take the user to the next part of the course, and putting the learner in control so they can choose how they would like to go through the learning experience. This requires a much deeper understanding of how design and interactivity in combination will enable the user to be more engaged and retain more content. Adaptive methodology is a key element to providing engagement and requires implementing algorithms and computer-based pedagogical agents. The presentation of educational material is adapted according to students' learning needs, as indicated by their responses to questions and tasks. An adaptive layout has its merits because it can be a more pragmatic solution that is cheaper to implement and easier to test.

Keep in mind; if it’s only an information-based course, then it may be easier to do a simple linear standard e-learning course than waste the learner’s time navigating an interactive module.

In custom e-learning solutions, real world simulations have strong potential to break down learning barriers that compromise achieving performance goals. Learners can interact with the content and make real-world decisions that optimize the learning experience to specific needs.  The content, design, user interactivity and overall experience can be tailored to achieve the most engagement from learners and solicit the best performance results through custom e-learning solutions. Read, click, scroll and PowerPoint authoring tools cannot facilitate the same learning experience and cannot be expected to return the same results as engaging customized learning solutions.

Genele Rose

E-Learning: A Means to an End

E-Learning is a means to an end. This may be a strange topic to discuss considering many of us are heavily involved in the E-Learning market, and for many of us it being our sole profession and source of sustainability. Clive Sheperd shed a light on what exactly that phrase means. It is easy to get caught up in the means we use to achieve our goal, the latest device, platform, or company birth in the e-learning space but we are to be wary of not becoming occupied with these things and to focus on the true purpose. Are we making our game simulations so visually focused that we lose the objective and only entice users to be excited and have fun rather than learn?

Now that we have pioneered several technological methodologies of delivering learning material, we must focus on the user and their performance.  Businesses are allocating budgets to learning and development to see an increase in efficiency, not merely more e-learning courses. Executives are not concerned with how learning is delivered; they want to know how it is going to impact the business.

The functionality of learning solutions should complement the content and focus largely on user needs and employ a blended-mastery approach to implementing the material. What we need are learning resources that can cater to a variety of needs and provide a plethora of information based on demographics such as career industry and location. Specialized content that is specific to an individual within the scope of their company’s objective is an area for opportunity that has yet to be fully explored. For instance, a new Sales Manager at an environmental manufacturing firm in Toronto has just been hired and is going through training using an e-learning course with simulations that make the training engaging. Great! What could be even better is if there were push notifications that suggested workshops in the Toronto area that focused on motivating and empowering employees as well as a recommendation to a LinkedIn group or blog that united similar people in the industry of environmental products. All of this information could still be transmitted through an internal LMS, for example, but now the focus is on the learner and how to increase their performance.

Here’s a question to consider: are e-learning courses a formal or informal method of learning? Naturally, a large part of learning occurs outside of formal structures and this sort of learning can be made accessible through e-learning resources. Learners need a holistic learning environment combining online courses, webinars, face-to-face instruction with forums, assuming roles in practice and user – generated content platforms.

If learners can make a self-assessment based on their level of confidence with a small qualitative portion to make comments on any areas of special interest, learners can skip to areas of need, providing a more blended, personalized approach to learning which ultimately saves time.  There is certainly much more to consider in stressing the importance of learning rather than e-learning than has been discussed, but it is important that we begin to refocus our energies on the learning objectives and in what ways we assess it.

People can pass tests or choose the right multiple choice answers through the process of elimination but the value in a learning experience comes from the change in behaviour, and that is what should be measured. Understanding that e-learning is a means to an end will prompt us to change the way we deliver learning material and how we assess learning overall.

Genele Rose 

E-Learning: To Infinity and Beyond

It is thrilling to observe a real change in the attitudes of educators towards what learning should look like. While there is no definitive right or wrong answer, the marketplace is flooded with tips, products and techniques to help improve the learning sphere. What we have yet to truly realize is the impact of changes and innovations that are being implemented in the North Western hemisphere, on countries that are developing their economy and working to educate their youth as a promise for a sustained future.

Mobile Learning

While eliciting a fair range of differing opinions from eLearning specialist, much to no one’s surprise, the general consensus seems to be that while mobile learning can potentially be beneficial, few people are actually implementing it in any respect. It is difficult to wrap the mind around relaying content in small chunks when in a more traditional setting; information is accessed in larger amounts and in a more conducive learning environment.

What we must consider is how education experts and governments are using mobile learning to address issues of international youth education and proficiency around the world. According to the World Wide Web Foundation, 90% of the world population has access to a mobile telephone device, with over five billion subscribers. This is an incredible figure to consider the implications of increasing literacy rates and making education more accessible.

Game Learning

How is gamification relevant to learning? The ideas that games are fun, engaging and exciting are all adjectives that are rarely used to describe eLearning but behold- there can be a common thread! Effective learning must provide one thing if it will at all be successful, engagement. Much of what is used to build engagement in games can also be applied to other interactive material such as eLearning.

There is certainly the science behind the way the brain processes and perceives what engagement is that largely affects how successful an application can be. In order to develop engaging eLearning, the key is to understand how learner’s brains are being rewarded and use that as an incentive for learners to want to work on the material. It is then the responsibility of the instructional designer and the rest of the team to work on developing systems that learners will like. An additional application that can be added to an eLearning program is to allow users to see how others are responding to the material as an incentive to keep mastering the game and therefore, the content.

This is less challenging to see being implemented in classrooms of affluent schools across the globe however, even in classrooms and communities that don’t have access to advanced interactive learning materials, the same approach to engagement can be used to stimulate learners.

Consider how the methods and products we are implementing in our own learning and training environments can be used to help every learner in the world. Improving quality of education is a worldwide initiative and it is imperative that we recognize the larger impacts it has on the global community.

Genele Rose

Welcome to the World of Cloud Learning

What is cloud learning? What is the difference between e-learning and cloud learning? For some that may be new to the concept of cloud technology, this is not an easy question to answer. Luckily, we have created this video to break it down for you. After all, we are the Cloud Learning people.

THE BUZZ: BYOB...er, I mean BYOD

Bring your own device (BYOD) refers to a classroom technology model where students are asked to bring their personally owned laptop, tablet, or phone to school for the purpose of learning.

Web-based tools have changed the learning landscape forever. By leveraging these resources, educators can enrich their students learning with advanced interactive content and prepare them for a tech-savvy world that steadily evolves every single day.

Using these modern devices in classrooms to facilitate learning (where applicable) seems like an obvious step forwards in teaching and learning. While we undergo this transition, however, it is crucial that those who are most impacted by this (students) are comfortable with the arrangement. Students who are familiar with the set of tools they are using to learn face a better chance of engaging themselves in their environment. When educational resource providers begin to finely tailor learning to their audience and embrace  the advances in teaching over the past 15 years, we can begin to see how we are helping to produce cultured and technologically sound citizens, who are essential to  our progress as a society.

I am not the first to suggest that students may identify most strongly with a number of different learning styles, that which best enables them to excel in their studies. The use of devices in the classroom is an opportunity to personalize learning in a way that ensures each student is fully engaged and is successful in achieving learning goals. Software and tools that are being applied in the learning environment are tools that provide users with 24/7 access to ideas, resources, and communities. Consider a classroom where students have personal devices and are perhaps using an e-textbook. There are the immediate advantages of cost-savings and a possibly lighter backpack, but beyond that, the navigational capabilities within the device allow for new innovations such as integrating online videos and quizzes with class discussion forums or to link sections of the e-textbook with feedback provided in online assessments. When learning resources are presented and made available through personal devices, students can feel they are putting forth less of a mental effort to do school work, and instead be leisurely accessing course content and utilizing tools or applications which augment their learning. Blending their personal and academic lives, students have a greater chance of actively taking an interest and excelling in their education.

Genele Rose

An Insight Into the World of Mastery Learning

The process of mastery-based learning, true to its nature, is meant to break down learning objectives so learners can master them at an individual pace. It became especially influential in the 1960’s during which time teaching methodologies were being re-developed by educators such as Benjamin Bloom with the theory of learning for mastery (LFM).

Mastery learning is a process where learners are developed to master each learning objective broken down into units. Once a unit has been successfully mastered, the learner proceeds to a more advanced learning task and from there, is led on to a journey of learning enrichment where concepts are built on the fundamentals.

Contrary to common belief, mastery-based learning does not require a significant level of commitment by any specific person apart of the process. The ultimate goal of this learning process is to achieve depth of knowledge which can be achieved in several ways. Consider a custom built program where any type of content can be adapted to this process of learning that allows a learner to move through the material at their own pace. This is all done while providing assessment feedback for both the learner and instructor. Thanks to the advancement of Cloud Learning^TM technologies, these programs have immense accessibility and added value to implementation.

This sounds like a great idea but the real question is, why adopt it?

It’s clear; mastery learning reduces performance level gaps and improves proficiency. Mastery learning programs have been shown to lead to higher achievement and increased positive attitude from learners toward the instruction they receive and content they are learning.  

Now, while many of us may not be quite ready to give up our traditional ways, change is good and innovative thinking is certainly the appropriate approach to take to new learning ideas.

Genele Rose 

Why Boring eLearning Courses Are Becoming Extinct!

Cloud learning is gaining popularity for good reason.                                                                        

It is a challenge for trainers and educators to train different types of learners simultaneously. While there is certainly no single solution to this challenge, Cloud Learning has become a critical method for engaging learners and improving the learning experience.

Accessibility & Remoteness

Cloud Learning enables users to access systems regardless of their location or what device they are using. Because the infrastructure is remotely hosted and accessed via the Internet, users can connect from anywhere and updated information can be accessed quickly. This is essential for delivering rich and engaging training sessions and simulations.

Assessment & Management

Statistical applications help to evaluate and monitor progress of learners through cloud computing. With the ease of cloud technology, trainers can access this information at any time and provide real time guidance. The management of learners becomes easier and analytical feedback can be used to highlight opportunities for revision and mastery.

The Learner Experience

PowerPoint presentations with monotone audio tracks are becoming a thing of the past, and it couldn't happen sooner! The capabilities of cloud learning significantly increase the speed of delivery, providing trainers with the ability to use cinematographic techniques, to create highly engaging business simulations to enhance the learning experience.

Genele Rose