• Listened to stakeholders (P4)
• Identified champions   ( P4)
• Aligned with workflow and infrastructure   (P5)
• Think as marketers  (P5)
• Tested the water first (P7)
• Delivered results (P10)

Top tips to take away

If you don't have time to download the full story, here are the top tips from Cambian to help you ensure that e-learning becomes widely adopted into the organisation:

1.    Establish the business need for e-learning, and why traditional classroom learning wasn’t sufficient
2.    Be aware of the challenges of rolling out technology in a care environment

Devise a strategy to go about winning hearts and minds, including:

3.    Conduct consultations to ensure that stakeholders are listened to and that major needs and issues are understood and incorporated into the final design
4.    Identify e-learning champions and how to use them most effectively
5.    Ensure that the system is kept simple and the content relevant to the work environment
6.    Make sure that communication and marketing strategies work to convey message and win people over
 
7.    To ensure staff get a sense of familiarity and localisation with the e-learning, ensure that the content uses in-house terminology and is integrated with offline activities
8.    Take time to implement the e-learning using a phased-in pilot, where user experience can be evaluated, and changes made
9.    Interview managers approx 10 weeks post implementation to understand the operational impact of e-learning
10.    To ensure that e-learning becomes embedded into an organisation, it is critical to provide on-going communication and change management support to staff.

This case study was developed as part of Towards Maturity’s Good Practice Partnership with e.learning age Magazine and the E-Learning awards. It was originally published in the Dec/Jan 12 Edition of e.learning age.

New perspectives from Europe's largest learning technology benchmark to help you and your colleagues Think again about the use of learning technologies in your organisation.

Please download the full report below for more details on how top performers are delivering results.

The graphic can also be downloaded below for use on your own site but please use with a link back to the original research at www.towardsmaturity.org/2011benchmark

This research is freely available to all registered members of our Research Community thanks to the support of our ambassadors   . Thank you to founding ambassador, Brightwave, for creating this resource.

Eversheds is in the top 25% of businesses successfully implementing learning technologies, as measured by the Towards Maturity Index.

This in depth story outlines lessons learned from its award winning approach to innovative learning and outlines 7 questions that you can ask if you are considering a mobile learning  pilot and 10 top tips for embedding learning innovation.

Download this case study below to investigate further, here is a list of content that is covered

• In the beginning – responding to change  - p2
• Driving leadership and innovation for competitive advantage p2
• Building an ‘expert driven’ approach to blended learning p4
• New approaches for building leadership capabilityp 6
• New approaches to develop innovative thinking p7
• Softly, softly approach to engaging stakeholders p7
• Making an impact p9
• The next phase – mobile, social and more! p10
• Seven questions for the Eversheds mobile learning pilot p10
• Eversheds 10 top tips for embedding learning innovation 12

This case study has been independently developed by Towards Maturity and supported by LMMatters.

 You will need to log in or register to download the full story below

The full report, executive summary and Longitudinal data tables is now available for download at www.towardsmaturity.org/2011benchmark.

The study looks at effective learning technology practices across 600 organisations and explores lessons learned from the top performers.

The foreword has been written by Craig McCoy, HR Director of Bupa Health and Wellbeing who says:

'If HR is looking to establish a credible relationship with the business, we can’t afford to ignore the tangible business benefits illustrated by this report. Investment in innovative learning approaches facilitates business agility and can support business generation, improve customer service and increase organisational efficiency.'

1 Introduction p8

• 1.1 8 years of benchmarks – the story so far p8
• 1.2 Methodology and participant demographics p9

2 Adding value p13

• 2.1 Shifting budgets p13
• 2.2 Drivers for investment in learning technologies p14
• 2.3 Enabling business agility p17
• 2.4 Bottom line benefits 20
• 2.5 Improving results through maturity p23

3 Building skills p26

• 3.1 A quick overview of learning technology adoption p26
• 3.2 Evolving content strategies p27
• 3.3 Delivery strategies p31
• 3.4 Engaging learners and improving talent p35
• 3.5 Working with external training providers p37

4 Harnessing technology to improve performance p39

• 4.1 Adopting social learning p39
• 4.2 Barriers to uptake of social media p41
• 4.3 Promoting a performance culture p42
• 4.4 The role of learning and development p43

5 Building confidence in new approaches to learning 45

• 5.1 Overcoming reluctance to change p45
• 5.2 Improving business partnerships p48
• 5.3 Managing change p49
• 5.4 Developing the skills of the learning professionals p51

6 Taking action p54

• Annex A - Survey design and participant demographics p57
• Annex B - Sample of participating organisations p61
• Annex C – The Towards Maturity Model p63
• Annex D - About Towards Maturity Ambassadors p65
• Annex E – About Towards Maturity p67

The full report is free to download here but you do need to be registered to the Towards Maturity site to access it.

Providing safety training is not a matter of choice it is a legal requirement and more importantly it helps build a strong health and safety culture.This case study highlights how Atos has used an e-learning solution that has delivered intangible improvements in performance from a workforce that is less likely to complain of health issues which could be attributable to workstation use. The organisation estimates savings of £43,000 due to fewer lost working days.

• e-Learning testing proves reliable, there is an 80% probability of DSE assessors agreed with users judgements.
• One-third of managers and H & S professionals observed improvements in productivity.
  Over three-quarters of managers observed that DSE training makes a difference to their team members.
• About one-third of learners feel changes they made following completion of DSE training and workstation assessment was beneficial to them.
• Two-thirds recommend this training to their colleagues.
• Some individuals stated specific and significant benefits in how they feel, in their productivity and in their health.
• Six out of ten learners initiated some change in the way they worked or in their work environment.

The case study provides an insight into:

• Improvements in health
• Adminstrative advantage
• The importance of management involvement
• The role of marketing and effective communications plans
• How DSE assessors were engaged

To learn more about the success of this project and to take away 7 lessons learned that you can apply to help you, please download the case study below.

Who participated?

This new study collates the thoughts, opinions and intentions of over 180 Learning and Development professionals across the UK. 

Contents

The 33 page report looks at

• Adoption trends for virtual meetings, virtual classroom and immersive learning environments
• Business Drivers
• Barriers to adoption
• Business benefits delivered (ideal for those looking to build a business case)
• Implementation recommendations - how this fits within overall blends and hints and tips from benchmark participants.

The full report is available to download below.

REDTRAY are a founding member of the Towards Maturity Ambassador group supporting the 2011 Towards Maturity Benchmark,

This study was conducted by Towards Maturity in accordance with our confidentiality policy. All responses to the survey are confidential but we will share the email address of those who have downloaded the report from this with our benchmark partner REDTRAY so that you can keep up to date with ongoing news in this area.

Macmillan implemented an overarching Learning and Development Strategy that brought together a number of separate strands. The strategy made it clear that Macmillan wanted to go further than just offering eLearning courses, its objective was to make full use of learning technologies to develop, deliver, support and manage learning, both face to face and virtually.  In 2007  the charity established the post of a Learning Technology Manager who created Learn Zone, a virtual learning environment initially providing learning opportunities for Macmillan Health and Social Care Professionals.  However Macmillan’s long term objective was to provide learning and development opportunities to all those who are affected by cancer, so there was a long way to go!

During the last four years, Learn Zone has gone from strength to strength and now has more than 15,700 registered users. From its small beginnings, Learn Zone now has three ‘entry points’: one for Health and Social Care Professionals; one for members of the public; and another for staff and volunteers - all of which allow those who register on the site access to an amazing wealth of resources, eLearning content and the ability to connect with others through the online spaces that have been set up to share good practice and resources.

Macmillan have commissioned and created some bespoke content, however with the help of the Charity Learning Consortium, they have been able to negotiate licence agreements with a range of providers. From the outset, the aim was to make Learn Zone as easy to use as possible.  Users only need to login once to access any of the resources, so moving between different resources and courses is seamless. 

Macmillan also realised the importance of establishing how online and face-to-face learning can work together to give learners the best possible experience. Pre-course materials for conferences and events are made available through Learn Zone, resources referred to at face to face training events can be downloaded from the site.

Implementing an effective technology based learning solution has had a number of positive benefits for the charity.  It has been able to reduce training and associated accommodation costs, allow direct communication between learners and trainers and most importantly it has extended its reach to a much wider audience offer learning and development opportunities to all those affected by cancer.
No small feat, particularly when you consider the whole team still only consists of three people! 

Top tips for success:

• Negotiate with content providers to get the best deal.... if you don’t ask you don’t get!

• Keep it simple....the fewer clicks the better.

• Integrate your Virtual Learning Environment into wider learning and development activities by using it to provide pre and post support for face to face events.

• Bring your users into the VLE for practical activities, such as applying for grants, event registration and face-to-face pre-course tasks. This ensures that they get used to navigating the environment on a regular basis.

• Invite content suppliers to demonstrate their resources when you hold events and conferences.  They will often bring along ‘freebies’ which attract people to their stands and the suppliers are very often able to enthuse people in a way that L&D people can’t.

• Don’t underestimate the importance of marketing and communicating the service you are offering to existing users. Getting people to register on a site is relatively easy; it’s much harder to get people using it on a regular basis.

• Lack of time is often identified as a barrier to usage: let learners know that the eLearning you are offering can save them time by quickly and easily providing solutions to issues or concerns they may have

• When you communicate with learners, use language that resonates with them, don’t use L&D jargon

• Celebrate achievement....even if your courses are not accredited, allowing learners to print out Certificates of Completion provides the learner with evidence of CPD which improves motivation, resulting in increased uptake and better completion rates.

Macmillan are members of the Charity Learning Consortium , one of Towards Maturity's founding ambassadors. Find out more at www.towardsmaturity.org/ambassadors

When compared to other sectors, the automotive sector is relatively experienced in the use of learning technologies with the majority of the sector using some form of technology enabled learning for over three years.
 
 
This report investigates:

• Drivers behind learning technology usage
• What technologies are being used in learning
• How is technology being used
• What impact learning technologies are making to business
• Barriers to change
• Implementation approaches
• Models for engaging the dealer network.

Whilst it focuses on the automotive sector, the report shares many practical insights for any business looking to improve customer service for a diverse audience spread across multiple countries.
 
If you are interested in finding out how you can improve the take up and impact of learning technologies in your own organisation and sector then do visit www.towardsmaturity.org/mybenchmark.

This report was publically launched on December 1st 2011.

The report below is free to download but you will need to login or register to download it. Please note that Towards Maturity will not share your contact details, even with our trusted partners!

The organisation has nearly 8,000 employees and 60,000 volunteers.  Most representatives work in the field, making a difference to the lives of more than 1.5 million children and their families.

Just over four years ago, Plan launched an innovative blended management development programme to improve the behaviours of managers, based around the globe, in developing countries. (see original story here) So has it done what it set out to achieve?

Overall, there has been improvement in all areas that were initially identified as being urgent for development need.  However, Plan, like many organisations was mindful of the recession and, as a result of budget constraints, reduced the number of programmes that were run during 2009 and 2010. During this time the programme has been consistently reviewed and fine-tuned; some things have stayed the same but there have also been some refinements.

Plan gave itself a challenging and ambitious task of implementing an e-enabled course that would result in improved results and new behaviours. Graduates of the programme and the impact they have seen first-hand on projects they are delivering are a testimony to what can be achieved by adopting a holistic blended approach.

Download the case study below for more information about how they went about engaging with managers and learners and lessons learned along the way

Lessons learned

• Line manager engagement: don’t just expect it to happen, give your line managers the coaching skills they will need to make it work.
• Choose partners carefully: if you are offering a blended approach, you may need different partners to provide you with different elements of your mix.
• Practice, practice, practice: behaviour change does not happen overnight, allow learners time to develop new skills in the workplace and make any assignments relevant to day to day tasks.
• Blend the technologies: using a combination of learning materials, webinars and online forums adds interest as well as interactivity.
• Review and refine: don’t expect everything to be perfect from the outset, its ok to make changes to the programme.
• 360°feedback: it’s a really useful process to support and encourage behavioural change and it too can be e-enabled.

Find out how others are implementing technology to support leadership development in our new benchmark at www.towardsmaturity.org/leadership.

In the meantime, we were really pleased to see this research study looking at the potential benefits of mobile learning to meet the needs and preferences of the healthcare workforcereleased from one of our founding Ambassadors, Epic.

http://www.epic.co.uk/assets/files/Mobile_learning_NHS_Research_Report.pdf

This study was commissioned by the NHS South Central it provides many useful pointers for anyone looking to use mobile technology to support learning. E-learning is widely used within healthcare but this report looks at how they might address the needs of staff without computer access. We'd thoroughly recommend it as it draws on desk research and focusses on the views of potential learners (practitioners and managers within health

The research study investigated three key areas:

1. Mobile learning and success for the learner - benefits and how and why mobile learning can contribute to statutory and mandatory training and assessment
2. Mobile learning and technology - what devises are currently in use, how can the integrate with existing infrastructure?
3. Mobile learning readiness for the organisation

Note: For the purposes of this research study, mobile learning and assessment is defined as any training done on a device that is handheld, and so is portable and can be easily carried for long periods of time while undertaking work.

Some observations from participants in this study include:

Potential benefits:

• Convenience of learning location and timelyness)
• Reassurance- timely access to the right information
• Relevance - taking place in the work setting
• Control of learning
• Speedy access
• Confidence - supporting decision making
• Choice

Concerns  and challenges

• Reluctance to accept mobile learning ( although desk research highlighted less of an issue once devises had been used for some weeks).
• Transfer of poor perception of e-learnng to mobile learning.
• Concerns that moblile will be used for everything - all or nothing panic!
• Preference of laptop vs mobile - Despite more than 75% of practitioners being positive about the benefits of mobile devices for learning for all kinds of reasons only 25% opted for a mobile device over a laptop or a PC when explicitly asked which they would prefer to learn on (main concerns screen size and security).
• Only 44% felt proficiant enought to  use mobile without training
• The ablility to operate one handed!
• The importance of device agnosticism
• Contribution of mobile technology to learning

Contribution to learning

The study identified a number of contributions that mobile can make to learning:

Learning:

• Reading ( words and pictures)
• Watching  - video
• Listening - podcast or animations
• Working through decision trees
• Integrated with clinical practice - gathering patient data at the bedside

Assessment:

• Intelligent pre assessment
• Multichoice
• Chosing correct photograph
• Rating own skills and commenting on output
• Collecting photographic video evidence

The report identified that moving forward it was important to consider:

• Strategy - collaborative stakeholder strategy
• Audience - in this case they recommended trials with clinical mobile staff first
• Piloting  for co-design and securing buy in.