Gatlin International Course Spotlight: Soft Skills Revisited

May 17th, 2012

If you are a regular reader at Gatlin International, you know that we recently started a Course Spotlight series.  Twice a month we like to use this Course Spotlight series to highlight some of the wonderful distance learning courses we have to offer at Gatlin International.  Earlier this month, we talked about a few of our Soft Skills courses.  As we already stated, Soft Skills can be described as the skills a person possesses that are related to a persons social graces and the quality of his or her relationships with other people.  In our first Course Spotlight about Gatlin International’s Soft Skills eLearning courses, we talked about courses that help professionals manage stressful situations.  Today we are going to share a few of our Soft Skills courses that are related to leadership.

Developing My Team’s Creativity and Initiative

Research suggests that 80% of ideas in companies come from teams working in the field. Given that people working in the field are fully familiar with their positions, most motivated to develop their skills and in daily contact with clients, suppliers and company partners, they are the ones most likely to identify problems, find solutions, or even suggest new ways for obtaining sustainable growth for the company. Managers who succeed in today’s age of knowledge and complexity are those able to tap into this extraordinary source of talent. Developed jointly with Isaac Getz, Professor at the ESCP-EAP (school of management for Europe), Associate Professor at Stanford University and one of the world’s leading specialists in innovation and creativity, this course encourages you to devise a formal approach for managing ideas, much like those already adopted by companies for cutting costs or managing quality.

After taking this leadership and management-training course, you will be able to:

• Encourage the emergence of ideas and implement them to increase your team’s performance

• Enhance your team’s self-sufficiency in its daily activity

• Become a manager who facilitates matters and who allows his or her colleagues to develop

• Use the management of ideas to leverage motivation

Leading My Team to Obtain Results

Performance management training from Gatlin International will teach students the skills you need to achieve better results from individuals throughout your organization. Whether you are new to your manager role or already experienced in managing others, you will no doubt have observed how important it is for your team to operate smoothly in order to fulfill your mission and that of your colleagues.

In addition to the methods you already apply for individual management, this course will show you the concepts, tools and techniques that can help improve your management’s effectiveness, enhance your team’s collective potential and increase its performance.

Gatlin International’s performance management training course will teach you new skills needed to:

• Identify the strengths and weaknesses in the make-up of your team and how it operates

• Create the various conditions that help to promote team cohesiveness

• Carry out effective joint actions in different circumstances: team meetings, brainstorming sessions, collective adherence to a change project

If you are a business professional who is looking to improve or enhance your leadership skills, visit http://gatlininternational.co.uk/catalogue and check out our Soft Skills leadership courses today.

eLearning News: Hot Trends in Distance Learning

May 15th, 2012

Most of us in the eLearning profession like to keep up with the latest happenings in online education.  Thanks to the progressive nature of all things related to technology, keeping up with the current news in distance learning can be a never-ending task.  Experts in the field of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) and education are often reporting on the latest trends surrounding eLearning and related topics.  Today we are sharing some of the current industry trends.

The Value of Distance Learning – This first trend is great news for all involved in the eLearning community.  With the number of people earning online degrees or participating in some type of distance learning program growing exponentially each year, the marketplace is continuously placing more and more value on online education.  As additional brick and mortar learning institutions, such as established colleges and universities, begin to add or grow their online course offerings, the value of distance learning in the marketplace will simply continue to grow as well.

Growth Rate – Speaking of the growth rate for enrollment in eLearning courses, experts predict that online education enrollment will continue to eclipse enrollment rates in traditional school settings.  One source is reporting the current distance learning enrollment growth rate to be as high as 21%, while the brick and mortar school enrollment growth is a meager 2%.  Again, eLearning enrollment is expected to continue this rapid growth as more and more distance learning courses and programs become available and technology continues to advance.

Employers Favor eLearning as Preferred Training Method – Where employers once sought to train employees using traditional classroom, seminar, or other off-site method, they are increasingly choosing online training instead.  Organizations see distance learning as an efficient and effective way to train new employees or offer current employees and updated skill set.  Distance learning allows lower training costs and requires less time away from employees’ typical job duties, which employers obviously see as two great benefits.

Social Media – It seems like you can’t read anything related to technology trends without seeing mention of social media. Trend reporting in eLearning is certainly no exception.  Expect social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to continue to increase their presence in online learning communities and to be increasingly used as learning and information sharing tools.

Open Educational Resources (OER) – Open Educational Resources (OER) are something we have written about several times here, from useful sites to help you find OER to OER usage guidelines.  Experts are predicting that the use and availability of OER is going to continue to grow as an important facet of online learning.  Advancements in mobile technology and increased usage of social media will also contribute to the growth in OER usage in eLearning forums.

The Cloud – Here is another technology buzzword that seems to be everywhere these days: The Cloud.  You can expect to see an increase in the amount of distance learning courses moving to a cloud environment, thus further increasing the mobility and accessibility of distance learning in the future.

eLearning Resource: Create Your Own Infographic

May 10th, 2012

A few weeks ago we shared an article about an increasingly popular way to share information, the infographic.  An infographic is basically a graphical or pictorial depiction of information that is visually pleasing and easy for readers to interpret.  For this reason, infographics can be a great way to share information with a large number of people.  Infographics can be an excellent tool for educators, especially those who share a lot of information with their students and colleagues online.  If you have some information you would like to share, perhaps creating an infographic of your own is the way to go.

Chances are that you have already come across an infographic or two if you have performed any sort of Internet search query recently.  Do not be intimidated by the fact that so many of the infographics you come across look very sophisticated and well put together. There are several free tools available online to help you create a nice looking and useful infographic yourself.

Visual.ly

Visual.ly is a fairly new online infographic creation tool that allows users to create their own custom infographics for free.  This site has several infographic templates that can be customized with the information you wish to share.  Infographics can also be uploaded and shared at this site if the creator is looking for feedback or promotion.  Again, this is a free tool but you will need to create an account to use Visual.ly.

Creately

Creately is an online visual collaboration tool.  Creately allows users to make all types of diagrams and flow charts to represent information in an infographic.  There is an extensive library of predesigned diagrams and charts that are easy to customize with your own data.  Users can choose to customize storyboards, fishbone diagrams, T charts, Y charts, Venn diagrams and much more.  Educators and those who find graphic organizers useful will love Creately.

Charts and Graphs

Almost all infographics contain some type of chart or graph, often more than just one.  There are several great resources online for easily creating professional looking charts and graphs using your desired data.  Hohli is one online chart and graph building tool with several chart and graph styles to choose from.  The charts available on Hohli are visually appealing and users can easily customize the charts with their own data.  Another resource for building stunning charts and graphs online is Tableau Software.  This is a free tool to easily create custom charts, graphs, and other types of data visualization for your infographic.  IBM offers a free online data visualization tool called Many Eyes.  This tool makes it easy for users to upload data and create several different types of customizable charts and graphs free of charge.

Wordle

Infographics often contain an eye catching or interesting graphical representation of data.  Typical charts and graphs are fine, but you can take your infographic to a higher level with an even more interesting or unique way of displaying data.  Wordle is an online tool that allows users to enter a list of words to generate a “word cloud”.   Any educator creating an infographic related to vocabulary or lexicon will love using Wordle.

If you have a favorite infographic creation tool we have not mentioned, feel free to share your tips in a comment below!

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