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.

Organizational Clarity: "PowerPoint: Brain Think Template"

From the Articulate community dedicated to increasing a professional’s knowledge of E-Learning, giving out free tips and free resources on how to implement E-Learning in the workplace or how to easily find cheap solutions to organizational needs. In this week’s email, I received a link to: “PowerPoint: Brain Think Template” this is a great visual template that you can use for free when creating a Microsoft PowerPoint slide deck for training purposes.

Just click on the link here: https://community.articulate.com/download/powerpoint-brain-think-template

In the article, there is another link to the article that supplements the one up above: “Storyline 2: Brain Think Template” which has a link to a YouTube tutorial by the author but instead of having you become a clinking monster here are the links here:

The 2^nd article (“Storyline 2”): https://community.articulate.com/download/storyline-2-brain-think-template

“How to Create a Simple Quiz in Storyline” tutorial on YouTube although you need the articulate software you can try it free for 30 days:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEcZEUnAnnc&feature=youtu.be

I suggest trying the software first and then figuring out how you can use the templates listed as downloads in the articles above with PowerPoint, later on, to give you the “look’ for the training purposes that meets your organization’s needs.