If you’ve ever spent time copying, renaming and resizing a boatload of photos or images for e-learning courses or powerpoints you’re going to love this tool.

I’ve recently been working with a client who often needs to resize a whole bunch of photo’s and wanted a faster way to do it. I did a bit of research and came across this great free tool called Photo Resizer from RW Designer which you can download free from here http://www.rw-designer.com/picture-resize
Note:  the downloader doesn’t put an icon on your desktop automatically so you’ll have to find it using windows explorer (or similar) then copy … Continue Reading

 
“Don’t talk to Strangers”
Well, it worked when you were a kid but most adults talk to strangers all the time as part of their job. Sometimes we even meet up after chatting on LinkedIn or Twitter. (What would your mother say!) Some of us do it on our own with no one around to help us out if the stranger turns out to be “a baddie!” Lone workers often get no training in how to deal with difficult situations and are … Continue Reading

I always groan when football is on TV and I hear the manager of the losing side say “we had plenty of chances.” (Actually I generally groan when football is on the telly but that’s beside the point.) Where e-learning hasn’t worked or has failed to achieve its full potential there has usually been little or no integration with internal initiatives and processes. Don’t miss the opportunity to score!

Here’s a few ways to integrate e-learning with your … Continue Reading

 ’Blended learning’  can mean any training programme that uses different methods to teach the same subject so of course it’s nothing new to any good trainer. It’s also completely natural to us as learners. Think about how you would go about learning a language for example. You’ll almost certainly get a phrasebook or dictionary, some e-learning or audio CD’s perhaps? And maybe you’ll enrol on a short course. If funds allow, I’m sure that a holiday to practice your new skills will be pretty high up on your list too. … Continue Reading

A new report has been published this month by Sheffield based Learning Light based on research and interviews from 40 organisations. Although focussed on the UK, the report also looks into the status and potential of the European e-learning market.

Learning Light estimate that the e-learning market will be worth £472 million this year which represents growth of 4.76% on 2009.

One thing perplexing is perplexing the authors of the report though: ” …given the widespread acknowledgement that e-learning is now both effective and engaging why we are not seeing a greater drive toward the adoption of e-learning by corporate leadership?”

The … Continue Reading

If you’ve had experience of rolling out new training initiatives you’ll already know that getting your management team on board is crucial. When it comes to e-learning, it simply won’t succeed in the long term without their support.

Staff need to know that it’s ok to learn at work. Sounds obvious but do people really feel comfortable brushing up on their skills in a busy office? Especially on a topic they haven’t been asked to learn. If management are not seen to support e-learning then the answer is, probably no. e-learning works best when managers … Continue Reading

We’re all trying to be more environmentally conscious. Recycling, not letting the water run too much when we brush out teeth, resisting the urge to print off all those emails and buy shiny new folders to hoard them in. But what about learning events? What impact do they have on your carbon footprint?

Let’s look at a typical scenario

An organisation needs to train 20 of their managers, who all work in a different city. The usual approach would be to buy in the services of a trainer, get all the managers together for a … Continue Reading

Just what is e-learning anyway? Well, it depends who you ask.

E-learning to some is any training material delivered online. And the term really stands for electronic learning. So that would include webinars, screencasts, video’s and pdf’s and other online documentation. We would put some of that firmly in the ‘information’ category but it certainly has it place. Is it really e-learning though? Well, if you’re asking us – no.

If we’re giving you our definition then we might as well define good e-learning, rather than some of the stuff that would fit most definitions … Continue Reading

October of this year saw the introduction of the biggest single piece of Equality legislation in the UK. The Act brings race, disability, sex and other grounds of discrimination within one piece of legislation. It also makes changes to the law.You’ll find more information here: http://www.equalities.gov.uk/equality_act_2010.aspx

Here’s some approaches you could take to dealing with the implications of the ACT:
* Do nothing, it’s never been an issue
* Workshops/briefings
* e-learning
* Documentation (intranet, email or web)
* Blended Learning

Let’s take a closer look at each approach.

Do Nothing, it’s never been an issue
“History is no guarantee of future performance” as any … Continue Reading