04 Apr 2022

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How can management encourage a culture of continuous learning?

Companies are working hard to make their employees work hard to attain goals. But it’s not so easy because only continuous learning can make them the best. The companies can ensure that employees put their energies into learning, which is not an easy task, especially with remote employees.

Why is continuous learning needed?

For companies to get extraordinary performance from their employees, it’s paramount that they are always learning because innovation can only happen then. For example, a company may want to add a better structure to its work, implementing new production rules and the accompanying software.

And this process upgrade happens occasionally; hence the companies must encourage continuous learning which is available on-demand for employees and happens when they are free from their scheduled duties.

Remote employees don’t come to the office, and it’s a challenge to stay in touch with them. Employees also don’t like to follow up on industrial trends because they consider them a waste of time. Hence, they have to be made to realize the importance of such news. They can be sent a digital newsletter informing them of the most contemporary happenings in the form of summaries of their sector. The remote employees can also be sent birthday cards and welcome letters to new joiners. There can be weekly Teams call where the employees are congratulated for their exceptional performance and areas where there is scope for betterment.

The remote employees might not have time to access the training modules. They might be traveling a lot, especially in a target-based job. Hence, make sure that they can access the training modules offline or get them better mobile data packages to get a signal wherever they are.

Sometimes, continuous learning becomes a problem when the employees hesitate to ask questions. It’s not a good company culture when the employees have such apprehension because it can affect their performance. Such shyness comes when it gets revealed to the whole group that a particular employee has asked a question. And when all the team members know that a certain employee has problems, they start answering his question simultaneously. The solution, in this case, is that the remote employee with a query must get someone working from within the office(mentor) to support him. Such queries by remote employees can be simple, like how reports have to be prepared, but their delayed resolution can be troublesome.

However, this mentor can also support the remote worker by providing him with help on how to use the LMS for his continuous learning because the latter might face problems frequently. This is how the management can foster a culture of continuous learning in a company:

The job of managers

Managers have to encourage employees for them to pursue their learning activities. If an employee is taking time out for his work, his manager should not take it as abstinence from work. The employee can better contribute to the job with his improved skills. By making a role model of such an employee, you can inspire other employees to do the same. A lot can be achieved in a culture of continuous learning through collaboration. The managers should popularize the belief that sharing is caring. So if an employee knows something, he should share it with others.

Knowledge hoarding is a dangerous phenomenon because it does not help when employees conceal crucial information from others to get ahead. So, it is the manager’s job to see that knowledge sharing is given its credit and that such employees are acknowledged. Employees should not follow a practice of knowledge hoarding because they feel important when everyone asks them about work. A company should ensure that team victories are more important than personal success. This way, a worker hoarding knowledge will share it with the team.

Sometimes, some employees have better access to resources than others because of their education or academic contacts. Moreover, the employees should be privileged to get a paid subscription to professional magazines. The management can pay for such magazines and hold discussions about what employees have learned during lunches. The employees can also be paired in groups (task-force) to share their queries with others and get competent answers through investigation.

Social learning

Social media groups are essential to continuous learning, but they can start veering from the topic. Hence, it’s the job of a moderator to see that no one posts irrelevant memes on Facebook. Also, when any can’t answer back a question in two hours, it must be directly reported to the seniors to provide correct answers. The learners who share the most strategic posts like simulations, podcasts, or an article must be rewarded for their efforts. They could have contributed such content themselves or got it through somewhere. But a worthwhile article link can solve the problems of employees who get a reliable resource. However, there must be a schedule by which employees share such information, like once every week. If every employee posts something every day, there can be cognitive overload, and employees might miss something. Again, a moderator must approve such posts.

Weekly webinars

After an expert has conducted a webinar, the next round ensures that all the solutions are crystal clear to the attendees. There can be a moderator in their webinar-based question and answer(Q&A) session who has ample knowledge and can shortlist the important questions. Send emails to the employees about the time and the meeting link of the webinar. The script of such a webinar containing questions and answers can be given to the employees who didn’t attend the event.

In the same way, when any online discussion gets started, the moderator should inform all the employees about it. The new employees might be getting solutions to their problems, like how to tackle a tough client. When a discussion starts about an online post, the other employees should be notified about them. The employees become aware of any ongoing discussion when they click on the “Join” button. The employees who have started their jobs from home sometimes feel left out when they are not given a proper introduction. They can be given a virtual training session through an experienced manager, who can also listen to their problems online. Later, the employees can be sent an online MCQ questionnaire by the LMS admin, in which they can fill in their responses about the quality of the lecture. This survey can also contain a Likert scale where employees can rank the lecture from a rating of 1-10.

The employees also feel that providing feedback about virtual sessions is not so time-consuming in such a way. When the employees give the questionnaire results, the reports can be prepared in the form of charts and then shown to the manager, who can be given access to better resources to be a superior trainer for the juniors.

Ensure that if you have implemented an LMS for continuous learning, it sends notifications to employees as soon as an article or a video is published. If the employees have a Facebook group, as soon as someone posts a query on it approved by the moderator, he must send email notifications to all the group’s followers.

28 Mar 2022

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How are elearning solutions becoming better with AI paper graders?

There has been a high improvement in e-learning solutions all over the world. But such solutions can yield better results when AI is used. This has been proven to be highly effective. Machine learning has become a part of our daily lives. It’s true because whenever we use apps to order food, it gives an estimated cost of the delivery time. If we have ordered previously from the app, it stores such information and, based on it, provides us with an estimate. Machine learning is now also used to create better e-learning solutions. The AI is getting used to becoming a substitute for teachers for assessing exam sheets because:

AI better evaluates students

The teachers are also using machine learning because it aids them. The teachers can assess students, but computers do it better when they do the same job. Through artificial intelligence, the PCs get a deeper insight into the learning ways of students. It helps them evaluate those areas where a student needs improvement.

When you have machine learning algorithms used in eLearning solutions, they can store and evaluate data about a student, like whether he is weak in grammar or spelling.

So, when programs are developed based on such data, his assessments can be checked faster. The student can also be checked for his understanding of the subject.

Artificial intelligence is also used to detect which students have cheated. Sometimes teachers can’t detect whether the students’ assignment has been completed by someone else, but AI can do it. It can analyze the student’s handwriting and find out whether it’s original or not. Someone could have completed the test in his handwriting, which a machine learning algorithm could detect through a scanned copy of the answer sheet.

Lack of human assessors

Here, a computer-based assessment is more beneficial because it does not rate students based on their handwriting. However, Handwritten e-learning assessments are used in the case of MOOCs. But the problem is how to get assessors for checking them. The students can upload their written assessments on an LMS. Essay-based questions test the advanced cognitive processes that MCQs can’t; the former must be included.

So, AI has been helping devise better test checking in e-learning solutions because the human assessors might be in short supply. Through AI, the teachers and the instructors have more time to spend with students. This is because AI has taken over their work of grading the exams. The AI Is also helping universities grade the admission essays submitted by students. The teachers are now getting relieved from the duty of segregating scanned answer sheets of students.

AI is used in elearning solutions for checking multiple questions submitted by students/employees.

In the traditional method of checking assessments, two teachers were assigned the job of grading the same exam paper. This method ensured that the students didn’t face any bias when their exam was checked. Although this method protected students’ interests, it was quite time-consuming for teachers. But due to AI-based grading solutions, the quality of checking assessments has not been affected, although the teachers’ time has been reduced.

Saves a teacher’s time

Learners can also have problems navigating through e-learning solutions. They might have queries that have to be answered in real-time. But the teachers don’t have time. So even when the teachers are busy attending other sessions, the employees/students can get answers through chatbots. The chatbots are like virtual instructors who can browse through the entire e-learning content to find the answers for students.

The virtual tutors developed through artificial intelligence are also providing to be helpful. It’s because they can recognize any stress in the student’s voice. This way, the teachers learn when does a student need attention. The teachers understand the students’ behaviors through an emotion detection AI algorithm, which lets them know whether a student understands something or not through his facial expressions and voice.

Essays don’t provide any help to students, unlike MCQ’S

The students need to be tested for their better understanding, and essays facilitate it because they have to think before writing anything. Unlike MCQs, the students don’t get any help through the various options present. However, the students should be given a time limit to answer essay-based questions, like 10-15 minutes. Also, they should have some hints about what to write on in an answer so that they don’t write ambiguous or nonrelated essay answers. The students should not be writing crap in answer sheets to make the answer lengthy.

What is a paper grader?

A paper grader is a software solution that is used for this purpose. This software provides accurate scores even to research papers. This software collects all the parameters used for grading through assignments checked by professors. It uses the same metrics for evaluating students’ papers. The AI paper grading software never becomes outdated because it continuously updates itself by scanning an answer sheet checked by a human assessor. Also, the software does not have any problem understanding handwriting because it has an optical character recognition feature.

It also helps evaluate the answers in different languages; hence the university does not need to hire multilingual assessors.

10 Mar 2022

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How can K12 teaching methods improve corporate training?

The world is changing rapidly, with new technologies getting invented all the time. Hence, new techniques are being tried to update employees about these technologies. K12 teaching methods are getting used to ensure that the employees pay more attention to the training. These are the major K12 teaching strategies helpful in the corporate world:

Focus on employees:

These strategies are more attuned to the learners’ needs than the corporate teaching methods. In the corporate world, the ideology is that employees have to learn because this is their job. But the Great Resignation has proved that employees have to be engaged in training rather than imposing it. Employees have to be explained the benefits of why they should learn. It’s just like high school, where students often question why they are taught something because they need to know where they would apply this knowledge.

The ways humans can be motivated to learn are the same regardless of their age; whether they are 15 or 35 years old, they need to be given a reason. So, the corporate training strategies need to include the objectives and the result elements. The learners must find the learning relevant and be interested in it through such elements. They must know what learning aims to do. i.e., the objectives and how they can benefit from learning results.

Include informal assessments to understand whether learners are learning:

The informal assessments are a significant part of K12 teaching strategies, but they are not considered in corporate training.

The trainers need to focus on the quality of the learning content to be effective. If the learning is not yielding the desired results, it’s time to change it rather than adhere to it the same way. Hence, the learners can be asked whether they find learning applicable through surveys and quizzes(informal assessments). Even observing them at work lets the trainers know whether the learners have grasped anything useful from learning. In schools, too, teachers use rubrics to gauge students’ skills whether the learning has delivered any desired results.

However, observation of employees’ performance can make the L&D department understand what does training lack. It’s also vital that the employees are given modeling in training because they can’t do anything involving machinery without that. But after a demo that shows the actual technique, they become experts.

When an employee is working from home:

But it is tough to measure an employee’s performance when he is not working from the office. But when he is working from home, his performance can be also be monitored if he is using screen sharing software. Hence, in the case of software training, employers can check whether an employee is taking the proper steps. For example, The K12 teaching software allows employers to conduct online surveys about where employees have faced problems in their work, making the former know whether training needs any changes.

Include collaboration:

Collaboration is also a crucial part of making corporate training a better experience. It’s because when employees teach others, they get helpful feedback. When employees train, they develop critical thinking because learners pose questions. The existing employees also get to harness and develop their leadership skills and improve their self-image by teaching juniors or fresh recruits. When asked to train the new hires, the current employees feel a sense of recognition. Hence, to develop the best Instructional Designing strategies, it’s better to take inspiration from K12 teaching because they care about the students.

Give employees time to self-learn just like in schools:

Just like in schools, where the students are encouraged to pursue their passions, the same strategy can be applied in offices also. The employees could be given 20% off from their daily shift to study something. The employees who could come up with some innovative ideas were rewarded. When employees are given some free time to explore their ideas further, they get more interested in learning. Hence, the companies should not set up strict criteria for what an employee should learn. It’s because an employee might learn something outside his skills that could benefit the company. Hence, the employees should be given detailed reading materials, including hyperlinks and extra activities within the course, which might be more from a company’s perspective.

Kolb’s learning styles:

In Corporate e-learning, the learners have to be treated the same way as in schools. They have to be segregated as per the way they imbibe information. There are 4 kinds of learners, Assimilators, Convergers, Accommodators, and Divergers, as per Kolb’s Learning styles model of 1984. When presented with sound theories, the Assimilators understand things, but Convergers need a realistic application of topics to trust their credibility. Accommodators require practical experience to trust a theory, and Divergers need to gather proof about a concept’s truthfulness. Hence, the teachers must ensure that the e-learning material is as per students’ learning styles. For example, the Divergers and Assimilators often like to chat with other learners, and for them, an LMS must have chatting options.

Hence, the teachers must check whether the learner is an Accommodator because they learn through trial and error and hence must be given the experiential approach to learning. This means they should be shown the proof of theories through experiments first. On the other hand, Convergers prefer tasks; hence, to explain a theory, they must be given some work after it. Similarly, the Divergers must be given various examples where the theory yielded truthful results. This is how using K12 teaching strategies can yield effective results in Corporate learning.

08 Jul 2021

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How to get student attention in virtual learning?

Due to the pandemic, every educational institution started using virtual learning. This had a great impact on teachers who had to accommodate video-based learning into the syllabus. It required a lot of effort from teachers because the syllabus of a year had to be converted into video communication very quickly.

Educators were not happy with the implementation of virtual education. During the same, many teachers wanted to leave the teaching profession.
The students also felt very irritated that they had to study from home. But, Virtual learning has become a norm now.

The schools have also started shifting to hybrid learning which includes virtual learning and learning through physical presence at schools too.

However, educators can use better tools of educational technology to improve the experience of teaching students.

Controlling the Distraction: It’s important to check whether a student is listening or the lecture not. The teachers can get alerts when the students open other tabs on their PCs. The teachers can either scold the student or change the topic to get the attention of the student.

Students can reply to chat: You can make sure that the virtual learning environment is the same as a classroom’s. This implies that the students are asked a question on chat and asked to reply. Although a student’s classmates get to know his answer, this helps in building camaraderie among them.

This is much like a classroom where students can also make fun of someone over a wrong answer.

Quizzes: There can be the use of quizzing tools like apps that can be used to generate quizzes for students by teachers. The best part is that instead of just text-based questions, videos and pictures can be used as questions. Images can also be used as answers which are useful in mathematics-based quizzes. Apart from that students can be sent the game pin to access the quiz on their app. Both the students and teachers can access the app without any cost. It can be used by teachers all over the world because quizzes can be created in multiple languages.

Company employees can also use this app. Apart from that, there are already quizzes uploaded on different topics on some apps which can be used by new joiners also.

Instead of quizzes, you can also test students with true/false questions. You can also present students with polls so that they can express their opinions.

Since the quizzing software can also be used on desktop PC’s, schools can indeed get the site license and onboard as many members as they want. After you enter the site license code, you have to enter the email addresses of teachers and students whom you want to invite.

You can also ensure that you get to measure what was the student’s response to the call, whether they answered a quiz or responded to a chat question. You can make sure that in the video conferencing tool, you can set a counter for every time a student says something or types in a group discussion.

This is how you can engage student attention in virtual learning.

21 Jun 2021

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What are the problems in implementing elearning for students?

There has been a huge change in the worldwide educational scene due to the Covid-19. Educational institutions all over the world shifted to online learning and hence the focus turned to eLearning creation. The students had to suffer because of this change as lab classes were canceled. Also, it became mandatory to study from home. This change was pivotal for many institutions because they had to provide students with an eLearning LMS platform and create their credentials and monitor their performance.

Ivy League institutions also had to shift their education to an eLearning LMS platform where students could log in and attend classes and training materials etc.

Teachers don’t know how to teach online

This shift to online learning has been stressful for many teachers because it is unprecedented. Although the IT staff of educational institutions has been helping the instructors to operate the eLearning LMS platform, they are only able to help a few. It’s because online learning was implemented faster than anyone could imagine and it was unanticipated.

The faculty is also not comfortable teaching students online because of the inability to handle IT equipment. Also, the teachers have their learning curve for teaching through an eLearning LMS platform. When the teachers are teaching the same course the 2nd or 3rd time, they become efficient in delivering online classes. So, they require practice to become perfect and this time can range from a single day to weeks for different teachers.

Lack of resources

Although the IT staff is eager to help, the server of the schools doesn’t have the bandwidth to handle so many students logging in. The servers can crash down. Another problem is eLearning creation i.e. how to use the authoring tools to develop such content. If some teachers have digital fluency, only they can use such tools and they need the support of SMEs also. But all the teachers are not experts at using eLearning creation tools and have different levels of technical knowledge and require support.

Every subject can’t be taught online

Another problem is elearning creation which can be problematic because every subject now has to be taught online.

Some subjects can’t be taught online so properly. Also, instructors don’t know how to impart classes in such subjects i.e. the online content.

It’s difficult to implement online learning because many strategies are available. But the right strategy depends on the size of the class. Also, students can’t be given individualized feedback as the class size increases. There is also the question of how online learning is to be implemented because, unlike students, adults don’t have much time on their hands to take live classes.

So, for them, asynchronous learning is the best option, but students can only study in a routine.

Moreover, there is more to teaching than just face-to-face classes. Students in classroom-based learning also get to participate in extracurricular activities, which is not possible with an eLearning LMS platform. Students also can get books from libraries to enhance their knowledge about subjects, something which their teachers advise. Therefore, school-based teaching is a complete system, something which online learning lacks.

The universities will have to prepare themselves for providing more comprehensive eLearning. This requires advanced planning and then developing a course requiring a time gap of 6-9 months before it is launched.

What is the solution?

Emergency remote teaching(ERT) is the solution in which the students are imparted teaching through the blended teaching model. This teaching model involves online learning and classroom-based training, the latter involving webinars.

So, the portion of the syllabus that the students can’t learn on their own through training materials is delivered online through webinars. The main aim of this system is to cope with emergencies and is available during Covid-19.

This system does not require any planning to be implemented but can be set up quickly. Many countries have implemented this method of teaching during the Covid-19 crisis like Afghanisation. The female students were provided DVDs because they could not go to school.

When teachers are allowed to impart instruction through blended learning they can develop online teaching materials in their comfort. It’s because everything else can be taught through webinars. Although ERT does not have any planning and is developed rapidly, it is a correct solution during a crisis. But, it might not have the quality of eLearning creation which requires planning.

However, access for all students must be a necessity in ERT also and it must be based on universal design for learning(UDL). It must be focused on students and must make sure that they can get the learning material any time and understand it too.

In the end:

Any online learning approach will have to be implemented keeping different factors in mind, like how many students completed the course, how many could access it and the time invested by the faculty to develop it. This is how effective eLearning creation can be done.

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