What to Look for When Choosing an Online Course

Learning online is a great way to add to your qualifications whilst still keeping a full time job, or looking after your family.  It is a great option for people who don’t have the time or money to go to regular college courses or nightschool, but there are good courses and bad courses out there!  Here’s our guide for finding the perfect online course for you.

Focus on learning by doing: Practical courses are the best way to learn skills, particularly things like programming, or web design for example.  There’s not much use just reading about a topic, it won’t necessarily help you understand HOW to do the thing!  Think about the skills you want to develop and find courses which have an emphasis on actually doing those skills.

 

The course gets you in front of employers – For an online course to be really effective, it needs to directly connect the learner with the tools they need to gain employment.  This could be vocational skills, it could be actual employers or simple job ideas which could benefit from that course.

 

Less like lectures, more like tutorials – most online courses are made up of lots of reading followed by testing that knowledge.  This is ok, but it is better if the course offers a mix of lecture style reading, videos and clips which can help the learner to really dig into the topic.

Training to Get Information

Elicitation is an effective way to gain knowledge and has multiple uses that can include including helping build a competitive advantage, conducting due diligence and getting to know your client when building relationships, getting investment reassurance or gaining a more informed understanding of any area of interest. The programs are also designed to help in building skills designed to improve the impact you have.

Influence and persuasion training workshops are facilitated by ex-members of the UK government, military and law enforcement. Elicitation and influencing skills are particularly useful if you are a business analyst whose main role is to implement organisational change. Part of the business analysis the analyst may carry out is to gather information and data from senior stakeholders to better understand the business requirements. Being able to elicit information out of these individuals are giving themselves more information and a better platform to work from when implementing the business change. The workshops are suitable for both the private and public sector and would benefit personnel.

The Positives Of VLE In Assisting Learning

The massive explosion in online learning platforms and finding alternative ways of presenting teaching courses has meant a greater reliance on VLE software for many providers.   The term just means virtual learning environment and generically describes a totally integrated system allowing learners, parents, teachers and other providers involvd in education to participate via the web based applications.   The resources are designed to enhance an revolutionise delivery of education and the management of it.    It has streamlined what could often be seen as a hotchpotch of systems within one area.  So VLE software is a tremendously powerful tool to allow the administation of learner engagement – giving them managed access to learner information to track progress and achievements.   The ability to integrate with external networking technologies is a truly exciting and promising step forward.   As more VLEs are becoming established in educational institutions as a means to structure and deliver content and learning activities.

 

VLE & MLE – Learning Via Online Environments

We hear a great deal about virtual reality in the gaming and entertainment arena.  This wizardry has really taken the world by storm in the last four or five years and instead of being the preserve of the ultra rich and savvy, it’s now open and available to every Tom, Dick and Harry in the high street.   However there is another virtual environment that has evern more impact.  Indviduals can register with very good providers of VLE, virtual learning environment to convey all the modules needed for say a hospital nutritional screening programme, the training of staff to be able to operate within those disciplines is immense and a dedicated learning environment is essential.   The use of a VLE is usually allied to an existing MLE – managed learning environment and again these are tailored and finely honed to suit the industry area – be it medical or educational.  A MLE is a secuire web based system which is completely managed by the supplying team and it takes a huge chink of organisation out of the buyers system.

What Are The Main Benefits of E-Learning as An Educational Tool?

There’s no doubt that e-learning or online learning has changed the face of education!  We think it is a great way to get more people qualified and accredited.  Here are the main reason e-learning is such a booming subject.

  1. It is a quick way for students to learn, scalable to different organisations
  2. All learners have access to the same materials, and subjects can be covered thoroughly
  3. There is a high knowledge retention rate among e-learners – you can go back over topics if need be
  4. Save time and money!  There’s no travel costs and expensive tutors to pay for
  5. It’s possible to track leaning activities, ideal for monitoring your progress on a given topic
  6. Reduce your carbon footprint!  Online learning and testing cuts down on paper use which means less waste overall
  7. It’s flexible!  Online learning allows people who might not be able to get to face to face courses a chance to partake.  It also means you can work at your own pace, since there aren’t other people in a class to worry about

Virtual Learning Can Really Enhance Performance

There are so many different ways of learning.  The old fashioned having just teacher at the front of the class with the chalk board, or blackboard as it was known originally, has a tendency to turn students right off learning.  The dullness of some teacher presentations is a problem – that monologue can seem like a long stream of being talked at rather than to.  The beauty of online e-learning is the variety of presentations, be it a click and respond or simultaneous one to one engagement over video – there is something happening all the time to encourage thought processes whilst emphasising the subject matter.   Virtual learning enviornment is a set of teaching tools which have been developed to really boost the learner’s experience by involving all sorts of other facilities such as computers, curriculum mapping and means of breaking down the curriculum to be able to track and assess.  Online support for and from teachers via email, threaded discussions.  The teacher has additonal user rights and will create or modify the curriculum contemt so as to enhance and track the student performance and result.

CPD – What Does it Mean and Do I Need It?

CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development.  It is the intentional maintenance and development of knowledge and skills which are needed to perform your job successfully.  This might mean brushing up on current skills, or increasing the knowledge you have, or even learning new skills which will allow you to progress up the career ladder.

Most professions require their employees to take part in CPD courses to ensure their staff are fully trained in the necessary skills they require.

A good CDP structure gives employees a clear path to success with their current role and shows the potential progression to future jobs.  If you work in a regulated industry such as the healthcare, accountancy or legal industries, employers can get in a lot of trouble if they do not keep their staff up with their CPD!

CPD activities could include formal educational activities like instructor led training courses, workshops and seminars, or CPD could include self directed learning through online courses and structured reading.

What Makes a Great E-Learning Course? Things to Look Out For!

Good E-Learning usually features at least some of the below items, demonstrating it’s awesomeness!

It grabs your attention – a good course will let you know what you’ll be doing and what you’ll get out of it, to inspire you to take the course

It makes you think – a good course will get you to really think properly and feature interesting questions

It is presented in small chunks – if you’ve done online courses before, you’ll know that a large block of text just turns you off!  A good course will be broken down into bite sized chunks for you to read easily.

It frequently checks your knowledge – this could be through little questions or quizzes, but a good course will periodically check you understand what you’ve just learnt, that way you know you’ve got it!

It tells stories – everyone loves a good story, and a great e-learning course will deliver information through relatable stories

They summarise information clearly and show you where to look for more information – being able to clearly sum up the key points is a great e-learning tool, and even better if they point you in the direction of further reading on the topic!

Learning Resources Include Video Conferencing

The world of learning is so vast these days.  No longer do we just go through juior then senior school and if we’re very bright, get a place at University.  Everyone has the opportunity to study at university and get that batchelors or masters degree in almost any subject we care to study.    However it is not always necessary, in fact, rarely absolutely necessary, for the student to up sticks to move right away to study.  There are so many absolutely fantastic onlune learinng resources.  Almost every university of note will have a massive online presence these days.  They offer everything that lecture room based learning offers but with no need to travel and a chance to learn in your own time, at your own pace.   The online learning tools are vast now.  They have been developed to enhance the learning experience and to ensure you benefit from the craft of the course designers.  Video conference gives distance learning students equal high quality tutoring, connecting staff and students at any and all of their campuses or elsewhere – worldwide.

Work Experience With Online Back Up Succeeds

The autumn tide is here – we’ve had those wonderful long summer holidays. . . .  welll several thousand harrassed families have endured them.    Now the students are safely back at work and the real business of learning can begin again.  I do know several families who are feeling that uiversity may not necesssarily be the only course for their youngster.  Many young people baulk at the prospect of yet more learning having to be undertaken.  A lot of chaps feel once they’ve done the obligatory GCSEs that time should be taken to do other things.  They never then return to the fold.  Going for online courses and all sorts of fantastic software education resources is a really good way of keeping in the loop and also finding what they want to finally start working on or with.  Many a very bright lad slips through the education net because of the formality of schooling.  An online e-learning course would probably be exactly what they seek and desire.  A lad we know is taking a course in business marketing simply through his work experience being properly focused and him being placed in the right arena.