Live Webinars: How do they work in an Online Course?

Why would you want to integrate live webinar or conference capabilities into your e-learning course?

In the world of online learning, part of the appeal to many learners is that they can learn any time they want, from anywhere. In traditional courses if you need to be home for whatever reason, you’ll have to miss class, meaning you’ll miss the information provided in the lecture given by the instructor.

The great thing about live webinars is that you can log into the LMS and tune in to a lecture or seminar any time you want.

See related post: E-learning Course Fundamentals: SCORM, Webinars and Integration

Distance Learning for Web Editing

Anyone engaged in distance learning knows that online courses vary in style and content. An e-learning course in web editing, proofreading, or copy-editing is no exception.

If you are thinking of learning how to proofread traditional or web-based text, make sure you take into consideration the style that your employer or client is expecting.

Check out books, websites or other resources that coach you in the various editorial styles such as the Economist or the Chicago Manual of style.

See related post: Devil’s in the Details: Distance Learning for Picky Proofreaders

PowerPoint Online Lessons

PowerPoint remains the number one program for creating a dazzling presentation that involves your own data, slides, motion, sound, and a simple and clearly organized format for everything you want to communicate. And learning how to use this app doesn’t need to cost a fortune.

Learning management systems and other content providers like Coggno’s feature content provider Kalliance offer PowerPoint online learning courses that are simple to use and effective, preparing you with the skills you need to deliver a dynamite presentation.

See related post: Online Learning Tools for Microsoft App Expertise

Generational Gap: Online Learning in Schools and Beyond

Unless you’re in your early twenties or under, you might not have had a lot of—if any—experience with online learning. Personally, high school didn’t prepare me for the business world as well as it preps young people today. This is why many adults (myself included) seek online education to pick up a little slack.

Vocational courses are one option for many people who want a real, concrete and marketable skill. Vocational courses provide the skill basis for a specific kind of work. In an online vocational course, learners complete a series of assignments that prep them for a real laboral experience.

See related post: Master Online Learning in Your Free Time

Dealing with Failure

At some point or another, we’ve all experienced failure in our personal and professional lives. Everyone hates the experience of failing, but for better or for worse, failure is a part of life and exists to help us to make better decisions and come up with better approaches.

For an organization or business, a problematic event or a failure can affect many people all at once. And it’s not always easy to determine what was at the root of the failure. Root cause analysis can help organizations to get to the bottom of an event and to prevent it from happening again in the future.

See related post: You failed. What Now? Root Cause Analysis: How Organizations Rebound

Online learning makes language acquisition a possibility for more Americans

When Obama said in 2008 that more Americans should learn a second language, he confessed that he himself doesn’t speak a second one, which made him embarrassed to admit.

As the country becomes more culturally diverse, having a second language is a huge bonus for many people seeking job opportunities. It looks great on a resume, and these days there are so many cost-effective learning systems that provide language learning courses.

Learning management systems (LMSs) like Coggno also provide user interfaces with multi-language capacity, making any kind of training easier to distribute to anyone, anywhere across the globe.

See related post: Online Courses make Language Learning Easy and Fun

Looking to Branch Out from Traditional Teaching? Try Contributing to a Learning Management System

Learning Management Systems are becoming the hottest way to gain knowledge. If you’re a teacher or professor who is growing tired of the traditional classroom learning experience, why not contribute your materials to a learning management system. People of all ages, including those “mature” students are embracing online education to get ahead in their current jobs, or to embark on brand new career paths.

Online technologies are augmenting traditional classroom education by giving full-time professionals the opportunity to receive training that does not involve travel or endless hours spent in seminar rooms, away from important tasks. This includes individuals who have been long removed from an academic environment, who are eager to raise their skill levels. There are endless options and online course libraries are growing by leaps and bounds.

It’s never too late for the student to learn, or for the teacher to teach. Consider submitting course materials to a Learning Management System today.

See Related Post: Embracing a Learning Management System Proves You’re Never Too Old for Education

State-Wide Unemployment and Online Universities

Surprisingly, many women are finding post-recession time to be the most difficult financially. During the recession, men lost more jobs than women overall. However, now that the recession is over, and we are supposedly enjoying an economic recovery, women are losing more jobs. Why is this the case? Part of the reason is government funding—state money has been quickly running out. Government payrolls are shrinking, programs are being cut, and jobs are being eliminated left and right.

So how are women more affected by state budget cuts? Women make up some 57% of the government work force. And among the public jobs that were cut recently, two-thirds of them were held by women.

LMS online education is helping to bridge the gender gap and equip job-seekers with the skills they need to find employment. However, without a concerted nation-wide effort in both the private and public sector to generate more work, education alone isn’t enough to solve the unemployment problem.

See Related Post: Post-Recession Unemployment and LMS Education

Webinars and Web Training for Beginners

Webinars and LMS online training provide a dynamic and environmentally friendly alternative toin-person training conferences. In both methods, the more explicit and simple your directions, as well as the effort you put in to make the experience an exciting and interesting one will make all the difference in their success.

Remember, in a webinar you’re only able to control your end—the presentation of the webinar.That means that you should tell participants at the beginning of the event what to expect and where they can find all the materials of the webinar. Provide the slides from the webinar on your  website so people can access them later. Additionally, record the event and provide the recordings afterward.

Let participants know they can ask questions via twitter if you are using it. The key is to be specific in all directions. Tell attendees they can use the question panel to submit questions,including their name, title, and location.

Provide a number to call in case people are having trouble logging in to webinar. Tell around what time there will be breaks, and when you will be taking calls.

There are many avenues available in implementing online training and hosting your own training webinars. You can host training via a learning management system (LMS), providing learners with a common space for building their skills and knowledge as well as interacting with each other.

See Related Post: Webinar and LMS Training: Clear and Dynamic

In Requesting Skill Training, Don’t Hesitate

Perhaps just the idea of talking to your employer about the possibility of picking up a course teaching some work-related skill makes you feel slightly nauseous.

I once decided to take a Spanish language class offered at a university location near my workplace. I knew that other employees were taking language classes, since our organization is an international one which organizes a meetings held in various languages, but it never even occurred to me to ask my boss if my course could be covered until a coworker brought up the possibility.

Women especially have a difficult time approaching their boss for salary raises or training and LMS courses. Several recent studies, including a 2010 study in the U.S. of gender in the workplace, show that when asking for a salary raise, women are much weaker than men, and less likely to even state their case to their employer. And since classes that are paid for by an employer basically mean a raise in pay, even if they are work related, the same applies for LMS courses and other work-related education.

See Related Post: Skip the Hestitation: Approach your Employer and Expand your Skills