FlexTraining Page 18
Ideas for E-Learning
Advancing E-Learning Technology
www.FlexTraining.com
5 Key Reasons Why FlexTraining is the Right Online Training Choice______3
Section 1: Bank Time and Training Dollars______4
Save Time______4
How Multi-Taskers Get It Done______4
Compare Traditional and E-Learning Approaches______5
Section 2: Leverage Key Personnel______7
Instuctor-Led or Completely Automated______7
Give Students Direct Access to the Experts______7
Instructor Collaboration Tools______7
Maintain Open Communication with Chat Server______8
Message Board Threads______9
Self-Paced Study______9
Section 3: Measure Results Instantly______11
What Do You Measure?______11
360o Training Effectiveness______11
Ad Hoc Analysis______12
Powerful “Drill-Down” Reporting & Analysis______12
Confidential & Unique Tracking______13
Section 4: Breathe New Life Into Old Content______14
Give Your Content an Online Makeover______14
Organize Your Existing Formats______14
Examples of Content Transformation______15
One-Click PowerPoint Conversion______15
Building With the Right Tools______16
Key Benefits of an E-Learning Solution______16
Section 5: Ideas for the E-Learning Generation______18
Ready – Set – Launch______18
Online Training Best Practices______18
Contact Us______21
1. Need Professional Help?
Our e-learning consultants can help you assess the scope of your e-learning training initiatives, guide you through the transition to online training and help you get the most out of your web-based training software options.
2. The Right Size for the Right Price.
FlexTraining offers you a choice of a licensed, server-based product or a monthly hosted subscription. Choose the Small Business Express, Standard Corporate, Enterprise Volume or Unlimited license to train and unite your workforce, customer base or student body.
3. Outstanding Value.
Your bottom line is our top priority. The FlexTraining Total E-Learning Solution can be licensed for limited or unlimited students at one fixed, economical price. The licensing options offer a simple, one-time payment for the best edition to fit your online training needs.
4. Convenience.
Our consultants, development and support teams are just a call or click away. FlexTraining provides everything you need in one software package so you can manage all of your e-learning training initiatives in one place.
5. Expert In-House Service and Support.
We’re here for you. The actual developers of FlexTraining manage and provide support, so you’re getting assistance from those who know our software best.
Save Time
Training specialists must keep pace with a perpetually growing volume of product details and the complexity of industry information changes. Meeting these objectives requires training for internal employees, external customers or students, but traditional classroom training can be time-consuming and expensive.
It’s your time, and as a busy professional, it’s worth saving. An online training strategy will save you time and training dollars.
Organizations are leaving no stone unturned in an effort to become more efficient, effective and productive, all the while saving time, and money. When you reduce development and classroom time, it’s like putting money in the bank.
While online training is the answer to your savings question, FlexTraining is the solution to your e-learning training opportunity. Cut training costs and save time and effort with the FlexTraining custom web-based training software for powerful delivery and dramatic results.
How Multi-Taskers Get It Done
FlexTraining can assist the content-oriented, high-functioning multi-tasker with transforming training material from the classroom to the web. Convert product manuals, procedure guidebooks or policy handbooks from instructional to interactive. Repackage your existing material, such as printed books, video, Word, PowerPoint, HTML and others, to online training to create dynamic, multimedia offerings.
Freshen up information that is less exciting or time-consuming in an innovative, new format. Put technology to work for you by running all of your training courses simultaneously. By creating online training lessons up front, you’ll save hours of preparation, travel and classroom instruction in the long-run. Your e-learning program development will enable you to run a comprehensive training program with ease. And, your e-learning program can go anywhere your students go.
The growing online training trend is here to stay, and FlexTraining offers a complete framework and delivery system for the development, assembly and management of your e-learning initiatives. The economical price at about $3 per student offers unlimited courses and is easy to install, configure and manage.
Compare Traditional and E-Learning Approaches
Traditional Classroom / e-LearningClassroom / §Physical - limited scale / §Unlimited
§Time and location dependent / §Anytime - anywhere
Content / §PowerPoint slides / §Simple text, audio, animation, video, simulation, printed and
§Textbooks / online resources, online
§Video / communities, collaboration
§Collaboration
Collaboration / §Perishable / §Reusable
§Limitless
Personalization / §One learning path - lowest common denominator / §Learning pace and path determined by user
When you take your classroom training to a web-based environment, you can
drastically reduce training costs, curtail effort and ease complexity while providing a cutting-edge, interactive and multi-medium learning experience.
FlexTraining is a learning management system powerful enough for the enterprise, yet so simple you can be delivering interactive education in hours rather than weeks. With an ease-of-use that is almost revolutionary, FlexTraining puts you on the fast track to build and manage online training courses without programming or complex setup and administration.
Instructor-Led or Completely Automated - Who’s In Charge?
When considering the benefits of a web-based training environment, companies may wonder who trains the students or employees, the computer or a subject matter expert. The answer is “both.” An e-learning milieu provides the learning platform and contains carefully prepared course material, including charts, photographs, assignments, tests and multi-media.
Whether your courses are instructor-led or completely automated, your students are still being trained by the content developer, presumably an expert in your domain or topic. Expand your learning footprint within the organization and tap into the value of a company “know-it-all.”
Reach out within your organization and invite the great thinkers to participate in course development by providing content and viewpoints on the topic, company, objective or training program. By utilizing the resident experts, your content will be enhanced and the learning experience will be enriched.
Give Students Direct Access to the Experts
When you convert your classroom teaching to online training, your learners will have direct access to the experts through the augmented subject matter without the need for on-going instructor preparation or classroom time. Once the material is integrated into your learning content, students benefit from the added value. With FlexTraining, you’re in control of the collaboration team on a class-by-class basis. Invite one expert or multiple authors to augment content and boost your message.
When you assign an instructor to a training program, the possibilities range from a high-touch solution, where the training framework primarily connects the students with an instructor, to a more high-tech, hands-off setup. The subject expert has the option of leading the class online or letting automation take the reins. Either way, students are mentored by the subject specialist in ways that might not be available in a classroom setting.
The curriculum remains intact through the clear-cut course development format. Your in-house experts open the door to an enhanced learning environment through an invaluable contribution to the course content. Whether they lead the students through a high-touch or high-tech approach, student access to the information benefits everyone.
Instructor Collaboration Tools
If you assign an instructor, he or she will use the instructor features to:
· Interact with the class
· Evaluate and update student progress and record completed assignments
· Review or print class-related information such as a Course Guide
· Access an external online collaboration/meeting facility or discussion forum, if desired.
· Access a “teacher’s lounge” facility designed to promote knowledge sharing and collaboration amongst faculty. In the lounge, instructors can:
1. Upload or download best practices, tips, white papers, photos or other learning materials for/from other faculty members
2. E-mail other faculty members
3. Enter the teacher “chat room” or post and answer messages and suggestions on the faculty message board
Maintain Open Communication with Chat Server
The FlexTraining Chat Server provides a 24-hour collaboration and interaction venue for your online learning participants and instantly adds another dimension to your organization’s e-learning experience. When you activate your integrated Chat Server, individual chat rooms will be created automatically for each course you create.Create and maintain open communication lines in an integrated chat forum.
The Chat Server feature allows you to establish synchronized, or asynchronized, chat rooms for real time collaboration and interaction among students, linking students and instructors or between instructors.
Message Board Threads
Let the FlexTraining Message Board provide 24-hour asynchronous collaboration and interaction for your online learning participants. The "asynchronous" element means that your learners do not have to be on-line at the same time to communicate. This user forum provides a secure platform for threaded discussion among students, linking students and instructors or between instructors.
Enhance the learning experience by promoting student opinion and contribution to the subject matter with postings on the Message Board. Students exchange ideas and comments as they go through the course. Administer and review assignments via the user forum and allow student ideas to shine.
Utilize the Message Board feature to create private message boards as courses are built. Multiple Message Boards may be created for each class, and additional private message boards may be established for collaboration between instructors in the "Teacher's Lounge" for instructor-led courses.
Self-Paced Study
Many organizations conduct extensive online training without ever utilizing an instructor. By converting your subject matter expertise into course content, our high-tech solution facilitates self-paced study. You may not want to staff an instructor for each time a course is offered and prefer to let automation handle the content delivery for you.
FlexTraining is designed with the automation option in mind but lets you establish the right mix of computer-based content and instructor interaction, if any. Assignments, tests, exercises, training plans, course guides, e-mail and online discussions are available to supplement your course content as needed.
What Do You Measure?
Data reporting and results analysis are critical components of establishing, achieving and maintaining organizational objectives. As mission critical goals are set, the training professional should begin the training program by asking “what do they need to know?” The response to this question defines what should be measured.
When the training content is developed and launched, the reporting tools in your online training system should be utilized to measure training effectiveness. Track and log critical data regarding student and group progress to help management in their decision-making and student assessment processes. Why wait for performance evaluations? Measure results immediately, and monitor employee progress with company-centric information and skills development.
Define skills groups and create quantifiable performance criteria by job description, occupational grading or advancement prerequisites. The FlexTraining Learning Management System offers an integrated auto testing feature that allows you to assess knowledge before and after training.
360o Training Effectiveness
The FlexTraining 360o Training Effectiveness report shows learner’s assessed skill level before and after taking each specific course. Training and communication are a two-way street, and the more efficient the training, the more students are reached, broadening the capacity for interaction and exchange of ideas.
Reporting and analysis of learning effectiveness should be integrated as soon as students have signed up and participated in classes. The moment student data is collected, it can be accessed in the reporting module and made available as necessary to assess progress and effectiveness. Your course authors can define a pre-assessment and/or a post-assessment for any course, allowing for easy measurement of knowledge transfer and progress. Also, tests are assigned a relationship to course lessons, so that assessments can occur at the proper sequence in the learning process.
Ad Hoc Analysis
Information tracking is not static, and dynamic analysis is an essential component of your online training software. Whether you want to evaluate enrollment trends, test question effectiveness or detail test results, the FlexTraining reporting functions allow for unlimited data analysis for repetitive or ad hoc reporting. Extract routine or unplanned data for spreadsheets, presentations and reports. Archive the information for review down the road. Track learner progress against short- and long-term goals and deadlines.
Store, search and retrieve documents regarding training performance and augment performance evaluation data to identify strengths and opportunities within your workforce.
Powerful “Drill-down” Reporting and Analysis Facility
Your online reporting capability should provide quick access to the specific information you need by using selection filters to target specific classes and/or learners. FlexTraining offers this and more, including:
· Eight report types with data filters to focus your results.
· An item analysis report that shows how learners are responding to your test questions by detailing percent correct and percent chosen for each candidate answer.Also provided is a feature to reprint a learner’s exact test, with results, long after it was completed.
· A custom report builder that lets you build your own report “on the fly,” selecting data filters, display columns and sort sequence.All reports can be saved, titled and run again as needed.
· An option bar on every report lets you download, print or send your report tosomeone else via e-mail.
Confidential and Unique Tracking
Student activity and training results can be tracked by a unique identifier to protect anonymity or objectivity, if desired. FlexTraining offers an option to create a unique identifier that can be imported with incoming student records and tracked through the system all the way to course completion reports.
Give Your Content an Online Makeover
For most organizations, there is a high probability that some form of training material exists already in an application such as Word or PowerPoint, Flash movies, audio, video or your favorite online authoring tool. The amount of time invested in the development, production and editing of this training content was most likely considerable, and you should not get rid of something that is working, although it may be stale or limited in its delivery options.