Professional Education

We’ve all experienced it before: professional training that feels like information overload, where instructors pile on as much information as they can in a short period of time with the hope that something sticks. While this may seem like the only way to give employees all of the information they need during limited training time, it’s evident that learning is more impactful when the focus shifts to identifying  the most pertinent information and breaking it down through the “bite-sized” training method.

Blackboard’s own Paul Terry recently discussed his thoughts on this new approach to learning in a Training Industry Quarterly article entitled “Improving Learning Outcomes with a Bite-Sized Strategy.” In the article, Paul discusses key best practices in bite-sized training that can help companies overcome the “data dump” method with more effective, engaging corporate learning.  These strategies include moving training to mobile devices and fostering in social learning, both of which help to streamline information in a way that is more relevant to the way today’s employees learn and work in their daily lives.

You can read the entire article in Training Industry Quarterly by clicking here, and tell us about your experiences with bite-sized corporate training in the comments below!

When it comes to finding the right learning management system (LMS), many associations struggle to find the right solution to meet their needs.  But in their new Association Learning Management Systems report, the leaders of Tagoras highlight some of the top LMS’s that can help associations educate and engage with their members. Those of us at Blackboard were proud to be featured in this list, and our own Paul Terry had the opportunity expand upon our work with associations in a recent interview with Tagoras Managing Director Celisa Steele.

In his interview, Paul emphasized the importance of social learning in associations, as this peer-to-peer engagement is critical to fostering strong relationships between association members. By capturing the highly relevant information shared through such social learning, LMS solutions like Blackboard can help associations meet their constituents’ needs while unifying the group towards their common goals.

You can listen to Paul’s entire interview with Tagoras by clicking here, or visit our website to learn how Blackboard can help foster social learning at your association.

In the corporate training space, we often discuss the importance of learning in companies that operate on a large scale. However, we also know that small and medium businesses employ the majority (nearly 60%!) of the private workforce in the U.S. , and between 60-80% of all new jobs come from small businesses. Training is equally important at these small businesses as it is with their larger counterparts, though the training itself must meet the unique needs and characteristics of companies with fewer than 500 employees.

With this in mind, here are some best practices for professional training in your small business:

1. Train early: One of the best ways to onboard new employees to your company is through effective training that is engaging and immediately invests them in the company. Provide training that is not only useful, but allows new hires to get to know their colleagues and the mission of your company so they can feel like a part of the team from day one.

2. Train often: Just because your employees have been successfully onboarded to the company doesn’t mean that training is over. Continuous training and new learning opportunities can give your employees the ability to participate in leadership development while staying up-to-date in your industry. This not only insures employees will have the knowledge they need for success, but it also cultivates talent that can grow with your business.

We are excited to announce that one of our clients, ADP, has been ranked among the top 20 in Training magazine’s Training Top 125 rankings for 2013. This is the sixth consecutive year ADP has earned this distinction, which recognizes companies that go above and beyond to offer their employees high-quality training and development opportunities.

It wasn’t too long ago that ADP had a lengthy, expensive sales training process that not only fell short on employee engagement, but also kept employees away from maintaining relationships with customers and prospects. With their switch to Blackboard Angel, however, ADP was able to streamline the training process while boosting employee interaction and retention. What’s more, they were able to save over $1.5 million in training expenses and led to a 12% increase in first year annual sales.

We are proud to work with so many companies like ADP that are leveraging training for the benefit their entire business.  You can read more about Blackboard’s partnership with ADP here, and can also learn more about their recognition at Training magazine and on the ADP website.

With a new semester kicking off at many professional colleges and universities, we’ve
been thinking about the ways these institutions will evolve over the coming year.  There’s no doubt that technology will continue to play a pivotal role in the way career colleges educate learners – helping these schools maintain their leadership in leveraging technology for student success.

Here are the top five ways professional colleges and universities will continue to get the most out of technology in 2013:

MORE hybrid and online-only classes
Did you know that 30% of today’s higher education students take at least one class online? Recent studies show that those numbers are growing, and we believe professional and career colleges continue to lead in the pack when it comes to transitioning classes to the online environment. Of the many benefits to online learning, perhaps the most pertinent to career colleges is that e-learning will allow more non-traditional students to gain access to higher education.

MORE mobile course content
We’ve written before that nearly half of all students already use smartphones for school-related tasks, and with increasing adoption of smartphones and tablet PCs alike, we expect this number to grow in 2013.  Professional colleges and universities are already delivering campus news and information, as well as course content, on mobile devices, and we look forward to seeing how they develop mobile-specific content such as lectures and exam delivery this year.