This year, The American Society for Training & Development (ASTD) is hosting their annual conference in Denver – will you be there? If so, be sure to add Blackboard booth #425 to your conference agenda so you don’t miss out on any of the fun!

1. Find out how to take your training & development programs social and mobile

At the Blackboard booth, you’ll find out how to use the latest technology to add a more social and mobile experience to your training programs.
We’ll showcase:
• Sales Training Integration with salesforce.com
• Mobile Training
• Live Virtual Training Sessions

2. Attend Two Breakout Sessions

Connecting Your LMS to Your CRM:
A Better Way to Bring Training to Sales
• Date: Monday, May 7, 12:30pm, Room 507

Going Virtual With Online Training During Challenging Economic Times
• Date: Tuesday, May 8, 12:45pm, Room 301

3. Fun, Magic and Prizes.

Stop by to win an iPad and other prizes, and come prepared to be entertained by the two-time Magician of the Year, the amazing Tim Hall.

We hope to see you at ASTD 2012! Even if you can’t attend the event in person, you can follow our real-time updates from the event on Twitter at @BlackboardProEd!

You may have already heard about the flipped classroom or Khan Academy concepts, which embody one form of a self-paced learning.  In these models, learners listen to lectures and read classroom texts and home while completing assignments in the classroom (under the guidance of an instructor).  In other words, homework and lectures are “flipped,” allowing learners to take in material at their own pace and maximize time spent with their instructors.

But how can we go even further to extend such self-paced learning in the workplace? We want to increasingly meet our learners’ desires for on-demand information, but still retain a high quality educational experience. Here are some of pieces of advice I recommend for organizations that plan to implement or already embrace on-demand professional training:

• Use this as an opportunity to see what kind of educational media your learners like most.  If learners prefer to watch videos or listen to podcasts when learning on their own time, find a way to integrate more of that content into your courses.
• Learners with on-the-go lifestyles will appreciate being able to access their education wherever they may be, whether that is on the road for a business trip or at the end of their busy day.  Providing a wide variety of mobile learning capabilities can greatly enhance their learning experience.
• For instructors, self-paced learning allows you to see which learners have the initiative to stay on task or even excel forward with their education plan.  For those learners who seem less engaged, find ways to improve their experience by offering a wide variety of supplemental opportunities, and follow up with an in-person discussion about ways to help them stay on task.
• Since self-paced learners will be in different places in the curriculum at different times, there will be many unique opportunities for collaboration.  Find ways to match up students with different strengths so they can learn from one another and work as a team towards common goals.

Of course, I think Blackboard is the ideal partner for organizations that want to learn more about the ways on-demand training can improve learning outcomes.  Check out our website to learn more, and leave us a comment about the ways your organization is already getting the most out of on-demand learning.

This year’s Cloudforce keynote address was delivered by the dynamic Vivek Kundra, former CIO of the U.S. federal government and current Executive Vice President of Emerging Markets at salesforce.com.  Kundra is an innovator in cloud computing technology and policy, and has a wealth of experience in helping organizations streamline digital resources to increase efficiency.

At Cloudforce, Kundra spoke on the future of cloud computing and the impact of today’s “social revolution” across industries, from governance to sales.  I was especially interested in the discussion that took place throughout the day on leveraging social networks for business, especially examples of companies that build social networks specifically to engage with their clients.  This seems like a great way to implement the social enterprise in a holistic way, allowing sales team members and clients to foster relationships and maintain open channels of communication.

Here are some of my favorite #Cloudforce tweets from the day:

Blackboard’s partnership with Salesforce.com represents the only LMS integration on the Force.com platform, which tightly integrates training with the tools needed to make sales.  This integration allows companies to deliver training in the context of the sales environment, so that sales training is more accessible and relevant than ever before.  We believe Cloudforce is always a great opportunity to learn more about leveraging these and other latest cloud computing strategies to help our clients drive sales.

If you plan on attending the Cloudforce Social Enterprise Tour, be sure to look for Blackboard.  We will be attending the upcoming events Chicago (May 3^rd) and London (May 22^nd), and we hope to see you there!

Throughout Public Parts, Jarvis argues that today’s age of openness will help business to find new opportunities while better interacting with customers.  This heighted level of engagement is made possible by new modes of communication that couldn’t exist without technology and individual openness:

“The truly public company will operate in the open because publicness affords businesses a new way to work, to collaborate with customers, to reset relationships, to build trust, and to find new efficiencies—producing better products, making fewer mistakes, spending less on marketing, building better brands together.”

These are themes we have highlighted before when discussing the social enterprise and how developments in social media is impacting business.  I undoubtedly agree with Jarvis that openness presents incredible opportunities for businesses that leverage social networks for better customer service and to maintain professional relationships.  So long as companies maintain professionalism and respect their clients’ privacy on these channels, there is a wealth of opportunity in utilizing them.

If you want to learn more about Jeff Jarvis and Public Parts, watch this video or visit his blog, Buzz Machine.  I’ll be interested to hear what thoughts you have on this engaging and timely book!

With this in mind, I thought it would be useful to discuss best practices for sales teams that implement tablets. I recently came across this article and video that gives practical advice for leveraging a tablet during sales calls and trade shows:

#1: Organize your apps for easy access: Many devices allow you to easily categorize your mobile applications.  This will give you easier access to your most important apps when you are in the middle of a sales pitch.

#2: Create a clean professional home screen: Organizing your applications can also help create a clean, streamlined home screen.  A professional-looking screen will be less distracting for customers, helping them to focus on you and your products. You can even group business apps together and move other apps off of the home screen, which will help de-clutter your tablet while directing attention to the apps you need most.

#3: Practice multi-apping:  Just as you prepare yourself for a sale, you should also prep your tablet before a trade show or meeting.  Take a few minutes to make sure your tablet is well-organized, then open the apps or web pages you plan on using for that specific meeting so they are ready to go when you need them.

In addition to these helpful tips, there are specific mobile applications that can also improve the way you conduct sales.  One of my personal favorites is EverNote, which syncs wirelessly with all of your devices so you can have seamless access to information recorded during sales calls.  Some more business-specific apps include Brainshark, which allows you to play multimedia presentations on your mobile device, and Milebug, which tracks miles driven for business trips or sales calls.  Of course, you can also take sales training to the next level with a Blackboard Mobile™ application for your company.

When used properly, tablets can be a great addition to your sales force.  They can add a sleek and modern look to your sales pitch, put powerful applications (literally) at your fingertips, and help keep you connected to your team even when you’re on the go.  Check out our Blackboard Mobile page to learn more about the ways Blackboard can help your company leveraging tablets for sales, and leave us a comment about the ways your sales team has already gone mobile.

Without a doubt, there are some aspects of sales that simply cannot be taught. Prospective sales representatives must be eager to learn about the environment in which they are selling and should have the desire to foster genuine relationships with clients.  Sales representatives should also have the confidence and motivation it takes to follow through on a sale.  Though these primary abilities can be strengthened through training, they ultimately come from within the individual.

From my experience, however, there are many lessons to be learned through an effective sales training program. Some of the most important knowledge for a salesperson focuses on their particular market, including information about competitors and recurring trends, which can be taught by those with experience in the field.  This passing down of knowledge highlights the importance of peer-to-peer collaboration and mentorship within a sales team, since those in the market can pass on their time-tested techniques and knowledge to newer team members.

It is also crucial that sales reps develop effective communications skills, no matter what their individual sales style may be.  With the advent of the Internet and social media, salespersons can open channels of real-time communication with clients that help foster genuine relationships (link to Sales Shift follow-up once it’s posted).  As a result, sales training that teaches best practices in social networking will pay dividends in the long run.  Social networking can also enhance sales training itself, since it provides an opportunity for team members to share information, collaborate, and build friendships.

Sales training should also include lessons on the tools and technologies that team members can leverage on sales calls.  Mobile devices are some of the most important technologies for all of today’s professionals, and this is especially true in sales.  Smartphones and tablet PCs, for example, allow sales reps to keep crucial information at their fingertips, even when they are on the go.  Additionally, mobile devices allow sales training to occur in context, since training platforms can be accessed anywhere in the field.

If you want to find out more about delivering effective sales training, check out Blackboard Learn for Sales to see how Blackboard and Salesforce can enhance the sales impact of your organization.

Like most companies, we at M5 see sales as the heart of our corporate growth and success. So when we learned that Blackboard’s new application on the salesforce.com platform could make our sales processes even more efficient and successful, we were eager to explore it.

As our implementation is underway, we’re very excited about the ways that Blackboard Learn for Sales™ is taking our employee and sales team training to the next level.  Its seamless integration with Salesforce and use of social and informal learning tools will not only increase knowledge retention within our sales team, but it will also engage our staff to help them meet their personal and professional goals.

Our new partnership with Blackboard fits perfectly with the launch of People Team.  This group will develop an online working environment for M5 that is fun, creative, and productive through social learning and employee collaboration.  Blackboard provides an ideal tool for People Team, allowing us to shake up the entire corporate culture and bring our focus to cultivating talent within our company.

Blackboard Learn for Sales will serve as an efficient platform for the M5 sales team to directly enroll in and complete training, measure the impact of training on sales growth, certify reps on new products, and create targeted courses for reps needing improvement.   When combined with the peer-to-peer engagement of People Team, Blackboard and Salesforce will provide our valued employees with the training they need to drive sales and maintain a high level of customer satisfaction.

Enhancing our sales training process with Salesforce and Blackboard will not only increase collaboration within M5 sales, but would also prepare our company’s sales team to close more deals.  Thanks to these developments, we will be better equipped to maintain our position as an industry leader while remaining agile for the challenges ahead.

M5’s official press release on the launch of People Team can be found here.  Also visit this website to view Blackboard’s official press release on their new partnership with M5 Networks, and be sure to check out Blackboard Learn for Sales to learn more about integrating with Salesforce.

Our experience has shown that by fostering social learning, your company can create a culture of knowledge sharing and best practices development that will have a real impact on sales growth.  Here are some of our top tips for creating an effective social learning environment within your sales team:

1.  Improve onboarding by connecting new hires with mentors and other experienced staff members:   After all, there is a strong tie between successful onboarding and employee productivity and retention!  Since your younger staff members are accustomed to a highly-connected life style due to the prominence of social media, they are likely to benefit from opportunities to engage with their peers online throughout the learning process.

Our recent blog post on social media in today’s workforce also highlighted a Cisco study that found that 1/3 of young employees prioritize social media policies over salary when choosing a job, and the numbers are growing every year. As a result, integrating social networking into your onboarding process could also help engage new employees as soon as they start.

2. Create opportunities for mobile, at-your-fingertips learning: Sales training often involves an annual meeting where a company flies in its reps at launch time to train them together on location. Sound familiar?  Enhance your training program to go above and beyond these last-minute sales meetings.  Ensure that team members have constant access to crucial information and can connect with one another from mobile devices, especially when they are on the road making sales calls.

3.  Don’t be afraid of social media: One of the top myths about informal learning is that it only serves as a liability for your company.  Though such concerns are legitimate, managing online learning through both policy and active monitoring is the best way to ensure that your sales team understands to directly align social media engagement with sales goals.

Since your team is likely using social media anyway, it could serve as a highly effective tool for staying connected and sharing insights in real-time.  This may be especially true for younger employees, who view social media and social learning as an integral part of their daily lives.

4. Engage sales team members on salesforce.com:  One of the key themes in social learning is bringing training to your employees wherever they are.  If your sales team is already using salesforce.com, consider integrating training with Salesforce to keep your team up-to-date with the knowledge and skills needed to drive sales within the social enterprise.  Because we all know – Salesforce without sales training is a train wreck!

What methods or tools is your company using to integrate social learning into sales training?  Consider solutions such as Blackboard Learn for Sales to enhance your sales impact, and be prepared to watch your sales team meet and exceed your 2012 sales goals!

The Social Workplace blog, written by HR thought leader Elizabeth Lupfer, recently highlighted a fascinating infographic on the importance of social media to today’s young professionals.   The infographic features data from a Cisco survey that asked college students and recently employed graduates about the ways they value the Internet, social media, and mobile devices, especially as these tools relate to the workplace.

As expressed in the infographic, the overall trend found in Cisco’s study is that “the majority of college students and young professionals value social media access, device freedom and a mobile work style as much [as] or more than money.” When looking at the specific findings of the study, some of the most interesting points include:

· 2/3 of current college students will ask about social media policies during job interviews

· 1/3 of students will prioritize social media freedom and device flexibility over salary during their job search.

· 71% of college students believe corporate devices should also allow for personal use, including access to social networks

· 3/5 of students believe they have the right to work remotely with a flexible schedule

These facts highlight that young professionals are entering the workplace with expectations not seen in previous generations:  they demand access to social networks when they are on the job, and believe they have the ability to be just as productive, if not more so, when they work outside of a traditional office environment with devices of their choosing.   It will be incredibly interesting to see how these expectations impact the workplace, especially as trends in mobile, social, and online capabilities continue to grow.

To view the full infographic from The Social Workplace, click this link or view it below:

]]> http://blog.blackboard.com/professional-education/infographic-social-media-and-the-workforce/feed/ 0 http://blog.blackboard.com/professional-education/best-of-2011-%e2%80%93-your-favorite-reads-from-next-level-learning/ http://blog.blackboard.com/professional-education/best-of-2011-%e2%80%93-your-favorite-reads-from-next-level-learning/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 08:59:39 +0000 Jennifer Riddle http://blog.blackboard.com/?p=5999 As we kick off another exciting year at Blackboard and on the Next Level Learning blog, we wanted to take a look back at 2011 to see which posts our readers liked the most.  Here is a list, in no particular order, of our most popular blog posts from the past year:

Capella U – A Case Study on For-Profit College Online Learning: A blog post examining one school’s successes in implementing online and continuous learning for its students.

Blackboard Learn for Sales Launch: An announcement of our exciting partnership with salesforce.com for the ultimate integration of sales and training!

What Will Army Learning Be Like in 2015? Online and Mobile:  Soldiers will soon be utilizing smart phones, tablet PCs, and other online and mobile technologies as a part of their training.  In this post, we discuss the advantages these capabilities will bring to the US Army by the year 2015.

5 Myths about Informal Learning:  How should professional educators define informal learning?  And how can informal learning impact results across your organization?  We explore these  and other questions in this much-discussed blog post.

Infographic: Online Students vs. Traditional Students : A blog post featuring an infographic that highlights the fast-growing trend towards online and blended learning across institutions of higher education.

From my perspective, these top posts show that our blog generates interest on a wide range of topics, from ways to enhance sales training to thought leadership on informal learning.  But are there any topics you want to see more of on the blog in 2012?  What types of posts interest you most?  We appreciate any feedback you have on the Next Level Learning blog, so please feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments section below!