Organizational Clarity: Free E-book (download) "Calculate the Effectiveness of E-learning Calculate ROI"

This is another free download from CommlabIndia which is great for students Organizational Development Professionals and Organizations alike in this is a free e-book in pdf format from the 7 books series called “Calculate the Effectiveness of E-learning Calculate ROI”. This short e-book talks about calculating the Return of Investment (ROI) of e-learning and the values of evaluating training programs, talks about Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four-Level Training Evaluation Model and the four step of applying the formula of ROI.

I would even recommend using it as an academic resource for the occasional quick paper you have to write for class regarding ROI if you needed the extra resource!

After reviewing the E-book and you see that the information is useful for your purposes in figuring out the ROI for your organization’s training programs and download. Just click on the link here for your free download:

https://www.commlabindia.com/elearning-components/ebook/7ebooks-4-calculate-the-effectiveness-of-elearning-calculate-roi-commlab.pdf

Please note there is a misspelling in the title but do not let that deter you!

Organizational Clarity: Free E-book (download) "Get Your Course Development On Track Choose the Right Authoring Tool"

I have found another free download from CommlabIndia which is great for us cash strapped professionals and organizations!  This is a free e-book in pdf format from the 7 books series called “Get Your Course Development On Track Choose the Right Authoring Tool” this short e-book talks about choosing the right authoring tool (of course) to get your organization’s e-learning processes up to speed, started or even updated.

The article starts with the five major influences to your decision in picking the right tool for the job:

• Training requirement
• Nature of content
• Multilingual requirements
• Publishing options
• User-accessibility features

After listing these major factors the e-book looks at nine authoring tools which are:

1. Articulate Storyline 2
2. Articulate 360
3. Adobe Captivate 9
4. Adobe Presenter 11
5. Lectora Inspire 16
6. Lectora Online 3
7. iSpring Suite
8. Claro
9. Gomo Learning Suite

Then the article goes on to listing the five major challenges businesses face and then links up the program that will be the best solution (tool) for that challenge. The E-book also has a comparison chart that that is great for additional comparison if necessary so that when you choose the right authoring tool you will be able to explain why the decision or recommendation was made.

Here are the challenges that are listed in the E-Book:

Challenge 1: Rapid Conversions

Challenge 2: Interactive E-learning

Challenge 3: Quick Translations

Challenge 4: Responsive E-learning

Challenge 5: Ease of Online Review

After reviewing the E-book and you see that the information is useful for your purposes in choosing the right authoring tool go ahead and download. Just click on the link here for your free download:

https://www.commlabindia.com/elearning-components/ebook/7ebooks-5-get-your-course-development-on-track-choose-the-right-authoring-tool-commlab.pdf

Writing of the Blog Organization Clarity from an OD Perspective

For the posts on Organization Clarity, I usually do not have a straight forward plan or monthly schedule of what I am going to write about or when I will write about it. Everything is very fluid I write at my desktop, text content to my main email via phone and even hand write some of the posts with pen and paper (pad) the reason why I am posting this information is because as any Organizational Development professional can tell you nothing goes as planned. 

Life happens, family, holidays, school, work, etc., these all become or can become major deterrents to writing blogs or planning an effective training schedule for your organization. For example, we have all seen employees that had to reschedule mandatory training sessions from a prior time, separate from other employee sessions because of the reasons that I aforementioned.

So with this in mind, I try to keep as versatile and flexible as I can with anything I do, as should any Organizational Development professional should, when it comes to completing projects or working on continuous like this blog. So please remember to be flexible as possible and will be successfully in all you do.

Organizational Clarity: Free E-book (download) "Id strategies and e-learning"

Guess what? here is a Free download from CommlabIndia!  This is a free e-book in pdf format from the 7 books series called “id strategies and e-learning” this short e-book talks about e-learning through different types of learning:

• Guided Learning
• Scenario-based Learning
• Game-based Learning

Also, it talks about different types of strategies to use for E-learning:

• Visual Strategy
• Audio and Media Strategy
• Assessment Strategy

Of course, all these approaches and strategies are based upon your organization’s capabilities, resources (budget!) and the organization’s needs. So although these are brief commentaries on the aspects of E-learning it is still all based on your situation to apply them as you see fit.

Just click on the link here for your free download: 

https://www.commlabindia.com/elearning-components/ebook/7ebooks-3-id-strategies-and-elearning-commlab.pdf

Organizational Clarity: Explanation of the OCAI Assessment presentation

To explain the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument even further there is a slide share presentation by Yeliena Prokhorova from Enterprise’s Strategy Department, called “Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI): Practical Training” each slide is chockfull of information. The slides go from “What is Organizational Culture?” to a short analysis of Edgar Schein’s three levels of culture this helps explains what Organizational Culture is, what the assessment is about and basically why you should take the assessment.

Even though the slide share usually requires a LinkedIn account to download you can still view the slideshow by clicking on the link below. I really like how in-depth and brief the presentation was detailed the sequence of tasks of the OCAI assessment, knowing what the OCAI assessment is about may change your answers a bit, knowing about it, the assessment or with anything actually beforehand changes the outcome of what a person may decide.  

In this case, it may change how the person answers the questions naturally to with some type of skepticism or more analysis of a question, than if there was no or was a lack of knowledge when taking the assessment.

Click upon the presentation here:

http://www.slideshare.net/annaskiteva/encolloquium

Organizational Clarity: The OCAI assessment online

The OCAI assessment divides organizations into four primary structures or groups but most organizations are a mixture of these groups if you do the online questionnaire/assessment you will see the type you prefer or belong to currently.

This assessment is great to understanding where the average employee is and where they want to be. We all have preferences some based on cultural influences some based on professional goals or even experiences, this assessment gives you the insight to help one figure out the best fit for them.

So try it today: https://www.ocai-online.com/

Be careful comparing the results with fellow co-workers who also take the assessment it may lead to heavy debate or heavy eye rolling sessions as you may find out that you have more in common with your co-workers than you possibly want to acknowledge.

Organizational Clarity: Transcultural Collaboration: are you Competent? | OCAI online article

This is a great article by Marcella Bremer from OCAI this article discusses Cultural difference, diversity and why it is important to collaborate within an Organization. It does mention a couple of classes you can take to further your education and get an online degree in regards to being Culturally Adaptive as a leader.  But the real deal here is the mention regarding cultural differences and the fact that it does impact organizations that are trying to reach out in to the global market. 

This is very important from the Organizational Development viewpoint as a Professional, understanding that an employee's culture does determine how they view their place in the organization and how the operate within it.

Click on the article about Transcultural Collaboration here:

  Transcultural Collaboration: are you Competent? | OCAI online

Organizational Clarity: "PowerPoint: City Silhouettes" free download

You know Microsoft PowerPoint is a staple for training presentation in any organization and again the Articulate community has another great free download to assist in your E-Learning, and organizational needs. This is called: “PowerPoint: City Silhouettes” it is another great visual template that you can use for free when creating PowerPoint slide deck for training purposes.

Just click on the link here: https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-city-silhouettes

Enjoy!

Organizational Clarity: Having anonymous interactions can be a great thing when you need feedback for your organization.

Having an Online presence does give one a sense of online anonymity and gives one a sense of freedom this can enhance the interaction process between an organization and its employees by giving an open forum to discuss issues with a strong sense of truth than if the employees were asked face to face (Allen, 2011). 

One of the issues that faces the Organizational Development professional is the challenge of getting a major quantity of feedback that is mired in truth and has nothing held back. Using an unknown identity or alias for this purpose can take out the factors found in the workplace environment and the pressure to conform to socially and/or organizationally established norms.

This allows for active collaboration and the user to openly be creative in their expression upon subject matters cover during these interactions. This new Self-definition in where one can be themselves is in the end very helpful and meaningful for the OD professional with employees not hindered by necessary social graces and the fear of retaliation can get the data they so desperately need (Allen, 2011).

Employees completing anonymous surveys or using anonymous aliases on Organizational forums can expose issues that deal with possible unknown problems with productivity to inter-office lapses of communication between departments that are not uncovered for the fear of being ousted as a trouble maker by management or a snitch by fellow coworkers.

 In all, giving employees the option to express their voice(s) collectively in an anonymous way gives them the ability to be Autonomous and shows the organization trusts them enough to go the distance in giving feedback, that was not there before (Allen, 2011). Meanwhile, it also provides a way to learn express, and gain an increased amount of data that was not an option in the traditional sense and free of the constriction of the workplace environment.

Reference

Allen, M. W. (2011). Michael Allen's 2012 e-learning annual (Vol. 54). John Wiley & Sons.

Organizational Clarity: “5 Handy Tips That Help You Personalize Your Online Learning [Infographic]” article

I was reading an article about online learning in an effort to make any programs I may develop in the future become more user-friendly and inviting to the trainees I want to reach. So I read an article called: “5 Handy Tips That Help You Personalize Your Online Learning [Infographic]” by Saritha Esaboyuna this article is again straightforward and to the point (the way I like it), listing 5 ways to draw in learners and to have effective e-learning sessions.

These are simple everyday things that we simply forget about when creating training sessions in general and helps give the session that personalized touch that learners actually appreciate when learning new material, or having to brush up upon current organizational practices,

Please click on the link for more information:

http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/personalize-online-learning-tips-infographic

I hope these tips work for you and have a good day!

Organizational Clarity as a Blog is A+ material

Good news I started this blog as part of a final project for my Learning Technologies class at Roosevelt University, and when I created the proposal for the project I wanted something with wide berth and something that would amaze my fellow students and the Professor. Great news it worked! I got an A for the class!

I knew I mentioned tech issues, free downloads commentary about issues facing Organizational Development in my proposal so covering it all in one or two posts I knew was impossible. So writing 30 plus posts was a challenge but alas I got my A! and a successful blog.

I will still, will be posting and talking about OD related issues in the near future. I will hopefully have more designs, logo, for free downloading purposes in the near future so happy reading and thanks to all of you who helped make this blog great!

Organizational Clarity: "Top 8 E-learning Tips to Help You Succeed in 2017" article

When building an effective e-learning course we must keep in mind that the learner is ultimately the audience that we must please. Yes, the client or organization that we creating the e-learning for is first, but the learner is the audience we are trying to reach, the customer we are really trying to satisfy. The organization may love what we have created, but if the course is not effective or not “enjoyable’ to the learner then issues may arise.

In this article, “Top 8 E-learning Tips to Help You Succeed in 2017” by Madhusudhan Madaram what is covered is simple, effective ways to ensure the learner’s attention, thereby increasing the effectiveness of the e-learning program that was created for the organization’s purposes. These are some of the tips covered and explained more in the article:

·         Use Style Guides

·         Go ‘Mobile First’

·         Use a Clean Design

·         Use Large Fonts

·         Create Enough Space

·         Adopt Responsive Design

·         Simplify Navigation

·         Use Quality Images

If any of these tips are sound right up your alley and you want to know more, please click onto this link:

http://blog.commlabindia.com/elearning-design/top-elearning-tips-to-succeed-in-2017

Organizational Clarity: "Don’t Fall into the Capability Trap: Does your organization work harder or smarter?" article

During my studies at Roosevelt University, I had the chance to look at their Training and Development blog site, which has a lot of great articles done by Staff, Faculty and Students that are themed along the lines of Organization Development. In this article by (Professor) Kathleen Iverson called: “Don’t Fall into the Capability Trap: Does your organization work harder or smarter?” the author discusses how organizations deal with hard times or competition in a violate market. The article gives some great tips that as a professional you can deliver or repeat to any organizational head and sound like a genius or a “go to” person during times like these.

Give the reader five principles to learn by and follow:

• Don’t expect a quick turnaround
• Metrics are important
• Avoid silos of improvement
• Invest in capabilities, even when times are tough
• Invest in capabilities, even when times are good

Here is the link for the article I am talking about:

https://rutraining.org/2016/05/02/dont-fall-into-the-capability-trap-does-your-organization-work-harder-or-smarter/

It has been my experience in the organizations that I have worked for those organizations usually work harder and they simply ignore these principles discussed in the article. The major of the time organizations lay off employees, experienced employees ruining their overall productivity and their Return on Investment (ROI) in the long run. Following these simple principles would allow any organization to bypass such an action and keep the majority of the seasoned employees while investing in the future during these tough, lean times.

Happy reading!

Organizational Clarity: "How to Manage the Course Authoring Process Like a Pro" article

Although the article is based on the assumption that you are using Articulate programs for Course Authoring it does have three great tips in time management since most of the time during this process is focused on project management. In this article: “How to Manage the Course Authoring Process Like a Pro” by Trina Rimmer there is a brief three tips (with additional quick tips given) listed in the article on how to streamline this process and make it less challenging of the course author.

As we all know time is one of the scarcest resources that we may have especially when a client is very motivated or desperately needs an e- learning program to teach its employees new methods and procedures so that the client maintains its hold onto or increases its market share, increases productivity or even increases its ROI.

This article covers three tips:

• ·         Prep Like a Project Manager
• ·         Get Organized
• ·         Streamline Communications

Although these sound like common sense tips, under the gun and rushed for time we may forget these basic procedures. So if you want to know more, please click on this link for the article:

https://community.articulate.com/articles/how-to-manage-the-course-authoring-process-like-a-pro

Organizational Clarity: Download.com for your Organization Clarity needs

I mentioned in a post for my Learning Technologies class at Roosevelt University to another student that in response to their wish for more free software to work with when it came to training sessions, video creation, and to enhance presentations they should go to download.com.

Don’t worry this is not a commercial for the site, and I do not like some of the programs on there but it is a site that tests and posts: paid, free to try and free programs to install on your PC or Mac for your own individual usage. From audio recording program to video editing this site literally as it all, plus it has reviews and ratings from the editors of cnet.com and the users of the programs. 

Which such details readily available and online site organization that will make your head spin, you will most likely find what you need when it comes to enhancing that Monday morning presentation that just looks flat. So I recommend giving it a go and check out the download site on Cnet.com, oh, they have apps for mobile too! I have divided the links for your convenience into the various systems they cover:

For PC: http://download.cnet.com/windows/

For Mac: http://download.cnet.com/mac/

For Android:  http://download.cnet.com/android/

For IOS (Apple phone): http://download.cnet.com/ios/

Organizational Clarity: Microsoft PowerPoint Templates

I know using Microsoft PowerPoint is essential to the workplace, so anything free that  help make presentations great is a plus. Now Microsoft has its own site for PowerPoint downloads that you probably have already installed on your PC but in case you do not have these templates you may go here to check:

• https://templates.office.com/

If you already have all the templates for PowerPoint from the Microsoft company site, there are other 3^rd party sites that have templates made for different organizational functions for free. For the Organization or small business working on a budget and wanting a free or cheap alternative to add spice to PowerPoint presentations one can peruse these websites for free downloads:

• http://www.free-powerpoint-templates-design.com/free-powerpoint-templates-design/
• http://www.free-power-point-templates.com/themes/
• http://www.slidegeeks.com/free-downloads
• http://ppttemplate.net/

Hopefully, you can find something for your organization or personal usage on these sites to liven up your PowerPoint presentations either for training sessions or materials, to even meeting or publication purposes.