Sunday, November 8, 2009

Learning Management System Hierarchies

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What is a hierarchy? Why use one?


Many businesses use different departments, organizations, locations, or other structures to distribute and organize their personnel. And when fitting their users into a learning management system, they’ll want to use corresponding hierarchy information, to allow the system to manage how it distributes reports and other training information. For example, a franchised business may use a location-based hierarchy, with one section for corporate-owned stores and another for private franchises. Or a global business may want to manage, and report on, user training by country, city, facility, and department.

Based on user positions in a hierarchy, learning-management-system reports can show certifications achieved by country (at a higher level in the hierarchy) or department (at a lower level in the hierarchy). In the same way, hierarchy-based reports could list transcript results by franchisee or store.

Each hierarchy level can also have an administrator for that level: by store, by department, by function, and so on. Administrators at each hierarchy level and location can receive permission to enter, edit, deactivate, and otherwise manage users within their level and location.

Similarly, reports for each hierarchy level can be generated by users with “reporter” roles in their levels, as well as by higher administrators. For example, to determine who still needs to finish training, store managers can generate reports of how many people passed, failed, or did not finish courses over a selected period of time. These reports could also show who achieved what grades, to help store managers see who still needs to recertify in required skills. Such reports also allow administrators higher in the hierarchy than store managers to see how well the store managers are handling their training responsibilities.

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Who’s got the rights?

Another item that must be decided prior to implementing a learning management systems hierarchy is which operational rights you want to grant at each hierarchy level. You may allow only system administrators to enter new user profiles into the LMS. Or you may let only site administrators edit user profiles, assign job roles, and authorize users to take courses.

You also may want to allow some managers at the lowest hierarchy levels (and at levels above them) to run certain reports, but not to administer users in their levels. Instead of making these managers “level administrators,” you could make them “level reporters.” In a typical hierarchy, “level reporters” are associated with specific locations and users in the hierarchy, and can only run reports for these locations and users. Their access to administrative functions is restricted.

Remember that learning management systems hierarchy is a way of organizing and managing the training of your people. It requires some thought. The business rules that you establish for your LMS hierarchy must mirror your organization’s framework and your e-Learning program’s goals and objectives. For this reason, there are many different ways to organize, implement, and manage organizational training, including by online “campuses,” training facilities, classes, user “monitoring groups,” and required job roles, competencies, and learning events. We will address these other groupings in subsequent articles.

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Get Ahead Of The Recession With Elearning

Today everyone is aware of the recession and it has become the topic of discussion everywhere. The most hit by the global recession are the students and young professionals who are trying to make it big, but losing hope in the current situation. But-everything is not over yet. You don’t have to be disheartened. It may not be possible for everyone now to make huge investment in their academics, keeping in mind the market trends now, then what do the students do? Well!! In such a situation elearning is a solution and is fast becoming popular among the students and job seekers. Studying in these web based training courses ( as they are popularly known) is easy and hasslefree. The most important factor in e-learning is that your investment is very less. Since everything is available online you do not need to spend any amount on the purchase of stationery and other materials that is usually done in other cases. Your considerable amount of money is spent in these course. Submission of assignments and examinations are also often held online, which adds to the convenience of the learner.

During such times of recession, traveling to foreign lands or even different states maybe difficult. Next comes the residential charges, course fees, purchasing of books etc, what does a student do? With elearning, you don’t need to spend a dollar on such things. You need a computer with an internet connection. Once you login to your website, you enter a whole new world of studies and books. Everything is available online. Training material is prepared by the experts who know how to explain even small details to a student who is studying at a distant place. The courses and study materials, websites and hyper links provided in the online computer training videos, encourages the students to brush up their skills and know more in the process. The online training videos are the best ways to explain some intricate details which may appear a bit confusing to the student.

Most of the elearning modules make implementation of many kinds of learning styles for the student who is trying to learn from a distant place. The students are encouraged to learn on their own, through self help. These computer based trainings are not only suitable for students and freshers but are also considered to be best for the professionals who are already working in some establishments, and are in serious needs to brush up their skills. Usually working professionals do not have the time to spend time to visit classes to learn. Under such circumstances, such web based training provides them the opportunity to access the study material as per their convenient time and duration. E-learning modules are specially prepared to take care of these professionals who wish to battle such times as recession, which is currently looming over the world. So, if you have lost hope in the current situation, you can think once more, whether you should update your skills or let the recession have a negative effect on you.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Elearning

As the Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest is the order of the day, more and more people are getting inclined towards looking for training and certification opportunity to upgrade their skills and knowledge. So with the growth in the Information Technologies (IT) field and advancements in the world of technology more and more people are in a lookout for new computer skills and accommodating to the needs of the employers in the IT field. In the recent past IT has been a fast growing area of expertise. So to keep pace with the advancement a lot of IT training courses has been developed.

The most important thing of these training programs is to get a clear understanding and view of your needs, identifying the utility of the program and to fit all of these in the suitable budget fitting once pocket. Whether there are training programs to meet the information technology needs or you are looking for basic skills in different types of desktop software or you undertake the soft skills training, there are myriads of options to choose from. These training modules are packages in such a way that these turn out to be actually beneficial for the takers. The unique selling point of most of these courses is that these are video based training courses with simulations and various ways in which e-learning is made beneficial and for the trainee and doing away with the need of attending classroom training. There are lots of CD format training, online computer training courses and online computer training videos ensuring that understanding has been passed till the application level. This virtual training method has been picking up quite fast and has been quite popular among professionals. The biggest attraction being that the course teachings can be molded and altered as per a person’s convenience and time availability. Now changing your career graph and mending you success chart is simplified by these training providers and skills up gradation gives you the competitive edge over your colleagues or even your peers for that matter.

The online training programs are suitable for all, whether it is a small business owner looking to increase his productivity at work, corporate training manager looking for complete e-learning solution to meet the organizational requirements or just an individual having a desire to gain competitive edge through enhanced technical and career skills, there are training courses for one and all. In the constant race to gain success it has become quintessential to keep pace with the dynamic business requirements. As competition at the skilled manpower forefront is quite high we end with what we began, we are led by the Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Most of these training courses are offered for a nominal fees or purchase price, so in that perspective as well the packages offered for online training courses is quite lucrative and attractive and also not creating a whole in the employer’s or individual’s pocket. Now this time! Take charge of your career and acquire skills and put out your best foot forward to ensure that you are not just always in the race but always at the helm of it as well.