CLC Newsletter Winter 2015

www.charitylearning.org

B R O A D C A S TB R O A D C A S TCLC’s quarterly newsletter - keeping you connected

@CharityLearning

I would like to wish everybody a fantastic 2015! I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and are excited about a busy year ahead - I know am.We’ve got a really exciting year ahead of us with a full technology team - five in total - we will be introducing our new services Admin+ and Flex, as well as our exciting Membership+ developments. Thank you to those who helped out with the Flex testing at the end of last year; it’s an incredible piece of technology that will ensure the stability we need as we scale. You should be hearing lots from the CLC team about Flex throughout the next few weeks, so please keep your eyes and ears open for updates.

Rounding up from last year, a couple key highlights for me were in fact this newsletter - lots of great feedback and content from you and our partners - so thank you to those involved; the way the Members’ Seminars have grown in terms of both numbers but also the introduction of dual streams giving you more choice; and our Conference, our biggest and best yet. It really is amazing the support that we get and I do ask myself how we will top it this year, but I know we will! If you have any suggestions for speakers and topics, please do get in touch.

What’s exciting me this year? For those of you at the November Members’ Seminar you would have seen Ed Monk from the LPI launch the CLC Advisory Board. A group of 12 people, of which Ed will be the chair, and including six leading industry figures and six CLC Members. This will shape the Consortium and make sure we continue to evolve in the interests of all members. We will launch the application process after

the Learning Technologies Conference & Exhibition so look out for communications.

The other project that I’m really excited about is GivebackUK. This has now turned into something real and something that can potentially touch all 170,000 charities in the UK. At the last Members’ Seminar we launched the video library to you all via CLTV and I would love to hear your thoughts as we prepare to officially launch this year. As part of the launch we are hosting a special, invitation-only, fringe event at Learning Technologies so please let me know if you would like to come along and pledge some of your time to help see this really take off.

There is going to be a lot of great things going on this year and we would love to be there to support you so let us know what you are planning, which events you will be presenting at, and what awards you will be entering!

And one final thing, it’s time to make sure your diaries are up to date so please see the back page of this newsletter where you’ll find all the important dates you need this year. If you have something to add be sure to let us know for next time.

I look forward to working with you all and seeing you at our next Members Seminar on Thursday 5th March. Booked a place yet? Go to www.charitylearning.org

LOVE LEARNING

[email protected] www.charitylearning.org/awards www.charitylearning.org/conference

WINTER

WHAT EXCITES ME FOR 2015

DUMMY TEXTDUMMY TEXT ETCLEARNING LIVE’S 2 SOCIAL NETWORKEFFECTIVE INDUCTION 3INCREASING LEARNER ENGAGEMENT 4EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH 5COMMUNITY CATCH UP 6FREE RESOURCES 7DATES FOR YOUR DIARY 8

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

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@CharityLearning

P A R T N E R P I E C E

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CREATE YOUR HIGH-PERFORMING L&D TEAM Ed Monk, Managing Director of The Learning and

Performance Institute introduces another service aimed at the learning and development community


Those of you familiar with the work of the Learning and Performance Institute (LPI) will be aware that two years ago the Capability Map for Learning Professionals was launched. The aim of this tool is to allow learning professionals from any discipline to be able to self-assess their own skills against a framework which has been developed by many of the senior figures from our industry. The Capability Map has proven to be hugely successful, producing thousands of reports for individuals all over the world, allowing the learning community to discover their skills gaps and work on filling them.

Since the launch of this self-assessment tool, the LPI has been working on another service; this time aimed at the learning and development function. Again, the LPI has gleaned knowledge and skills from many of the most respected figures in learning worldwide to develop a framework that is freely available to use.

Pathways to Excellence has been specifically designed to rapidly accelerate learning and development departments to a high standard of capability and maximise its contribution to overall business performance:

• Identifying strengths and weaknesses against a comprehensive maturity model

• Recognising leading practice

• Facilitating a “direction of travel” that enables the department to quickly excel

Whereas other models have focused purely on the benchmarking of teams, Pathways provides much more. You can choose to simply access a free, bespoke report for your L&D function or you can work on driving high performance by engaging fully with all three steps of the programme.


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PATHWAYS’THREE STEPS EVALUATE YOUR OVERALL CAPABILITIES

First, you need to identify your department’s current strengths, skills gaps and opportunities by taking an online self-assessment. This takes about an hour and you’ll start to get feedback in as little as 30 minutes. Once you complete the evaluation, you’ll receive a scorecard showing precisely how your department compares against your peers - and the areas you need to prioritise.

UNCOVER THE OPPORTUNITIES, FOCUS ON THE CRITICAL & PLAN FOR ACTION

Knowing where the priorities are is simply the first step; the key issue is what to do about them! That is the critical value-add at this second level. This involves drilling down beyond the overall scorecard and looking at the metrics in greater detail. It’s then that the LPI’s skilled consultants can help you to put together a detailed action plan that will fast-track your department to excellence - and maximise the value-add that you create.

ACHIEVE COMMUNITY RECOGNITION & INSTITUTE ACCREDITATION

There’s a vast difference between self-assessment and a formal assessment process, both in terms of self-delusion and the subjective nature of many assessments. Evidence from the Pathways program shows that people do tend to respond to the diagnostic tool as they would like the situation to be - as opposed to what it actually is. In this highest level of engagement with Pathways, the responses that participants have made are formally analysed with them and any inconsistencies are fully reviewed.

You can find out more about driving your L&D function to high performance at: learningandperformanceinstitute.com/pathways3.htm

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ed Monk has two decades of experience in the learning profession and is renowned as a visionary leader and industry figurehead. Founder and Managing Director of the global body The Learning and Performance Institute; Ed is synonymous with the Learning Professional Network, the Learning Awards, Learning Live and thousands of LPI members worldwide.

@CharityLearning

E-Learning is now part of life and has some great advantages - it is cost-effective, enables learners to go at their own pace, and is accessible 24/7. For an organisation like Advance, with its large geographical spread, it can be invaluable. And there seems little doubt that it’s here to stay.

But anyone who has used it knows there are drawbacks too. For many people (including me, a typical Activist learner!), it can sometimes be not only tedious, but simply ineffective. Learning alone, with no one to exchange ideas with, no discussion and no answers to specific questions, can be challenging. And it is often too easy to ‘cheat’ - to race through the subject matter and leap to the multiple choice questions with little real learning taking place. I recently did a ‘forty-minute’ course (not a CLC one), about which I knew virtually nothing, in ten minutes, guessed half the answers - and passed with flying colours and a ‘very well done, Christine’! Sadly, I think this said more about the course than it

did about my learning genius ….

I’m a member of a training network for organisations similar to ourselves. They recently conducted a survey that found that, although e-learning was increasingly being bought and used by members, it was also among the least popular learning methods with individuals - largely, I think, because we are all very ‘people’ oriented organisations. Many years ago, I worked in L&D for a high-tech company, where people were much happier to sit and learn alone at their computers - although even there the most successful learning seemed to be classroom-based.

While solitary e-learning suits many people and many subjects; is great for refreshers,

G U E S T A R T I C L E

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By Christine Dunford, Learning & Development Business Partner at Advance

Not Just “Me Time”Adapting eLearning for teams



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filling in learning gaps, back-up material and instant accessibility; it can also be adapted really well in another way - and that is to present to groups.

Recently, one of our team managers realised that many of his team were having time management issues - pressure of work, having to be very responsive and reactive (as well as pro-active), and the variety of different characters in the team were all having an effect on their workload and

ability to prioritise effectively. So instead of all sitting down separately to do the CLC Time Management course, the team booked a meeting room and logged in with a projector and screen so that everyone could see the presentation together.

They went through the course in the usual way, but stopped for discussion and answered questions together. Of course, the disadvantage to this is that only one certificate can be printed (although this can

of course be easily overcome), and it takes longer - but it was time very well spent and proved to be a huge success.

What happened was that the course itself provided a fantastic framework for the group to discuss together real issues that were affecting them. Addressing these issues together made the material far more meaningful and relevant to the learners and the challenges they faced.

Because they learned together as a group, it meant they could open up to each other about any problems they had with time management and be far more understanding and tolerant of each others’ viewpoints. Instead of feeling hard-done-by and seeing things in an insular way, they could share and compare similar experiences and issues. At the end of the course, they put together a group action plan that they could work on both individually and together - and the result has been a happier team that uses and manages its time more effectively - to the advantage of all of us in Advance!

So not only did the course have a far better impact, but it also improved team spirit and

relations. And, of course, it has the added advantage that it is still there for individuals to refer to afterwards and will therefore have more meaning and interest.

We’ve recently bought Articulate Storyline, so we can use this to create or adapt our own courses too. Next year, we are hoping to use e-learning more effectively by encouraging managers to present it more in team settings, as well as using it ourselves in L&D to back up our face-to-face learning.

Time management was a great subject for adapting to group training, and it may not always be suitable - but it can also be far more effective than individual learning. I’d definitely recommend giving it a try!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Christine Dunford is the Learning & Development Business Partner at Advance, a not-for-profit organisation that primarily provides

support, housing and employment opportunities to people with learning disabilities and/or mental health conditions. Christine was a latecomer to the world of learning, having worked in a variety of organisations, from merchant banks, to the music industry, but is thrilled to be working within L&D, especially for an organisation like Advance.

@CharityLearning

In our fourth CLC Broadcast article on engagement, we turn our focus to managers and leaders - critical stakeholders in the successful adoption of learning technologies and the new approaches for learning and performance that they enable.

In 2014, 58% of L&D professionals say that line manager reluctance is a real barrier to change (up from 47% in 2013) but on the other hand, 40% of learners say that their manager is the only one whose opinion counts when it comes to engaging in technology enabled learning.

In our studies over the years we’ve found that those in the top ranges of implementation maturity report that they are now more responsive to ongoing business change, engage more learners,

save more time and money and deliver more business results. They also report fewer barriers to adoption and perceive more management engagement than other organisations.

The Towards Maturity model highlights six work streams of effective practice that correlate to results and that top performers consistently exhibit more than others. We mined the data to uncover six tips from their experience that directly relates to management engagement for you to apply in your workplace:


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By Laura Overton, Managing Director of Towards Maturity

1 CLC members can benchmark their implementation activity for free at http://mybenchmark.towardsmaturity.org

How to ENGAGE with line managers and leaders



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engage before executing

integrate with existing team practices

get real: get relevant

apply learning

gather feedback, share good news

equip managers through experiences

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Laura Overton is the MD of Towards Maturity, an independent, not-for-profit benchmark organisation that helps

business examine their learning culture, with a view to improving their bottom line. Laura has more than 25 years of practical experience looking at learning innovation for business advantage and of implementing learning technologies in the workplace.

Engage before executingInvolve line managers in the design of learning solutions before building them. This generates up-front engagement, provides an opportunity to listen to the real challenges that they are facing, and creates new ideas to bring into your solution design.

Questions to ask at this stage in the process include:

•Whatdoyouwanttochange?•Whatwillsuccesslooklike?•Whatneedstobedifferentinsix

months’ time?•Howdoesyourteamcurrentlywork?•Whatdoyouwantyourpeopletostop,

start, or carry on doing?•Whathaveyoutriedbeforeandwhy

didn’t it work?•Whatsupportdoyourstaffneedin

the workplace?•Whatsupportdoyouneed?•Whatdoyouthinkaboutthis

approach, will it work in your team?

iNtegrate with existing team practicesDon’t isolate learning from other HR and talent initiatives. Where possible link back to the day job of the manager and individual.

Get real: Get relevantOnly three in five of us agree that our business leaders recognise that our learning is aligned to the overall business plan - this jumps to nine in ten of the top deck performers who are also more likely to be e-enabling programmes to directly support important work initiatives. For these organisations online learning is not just about compliance.

Communication also has to be relevant - using the vocabulary of business picked up from the questions above. Managers need to know they have been heard so be clear.

Apply learningTop Deck learning companies are twice as likely to equip their managers to help their teams get the most from learning. This could be done by:

•Supportcoachingskillsandpeergroups•Provideresourcestousebackatthe

desk (check lists etc.)•Supportmechanismslikeforums/in

house social networking•Growacultureoflearning

conversations •Helpthemsetprojectsthatwill

encourage staff to apply new skills•Gatherfeedback,sharegoodnews

Equip managers through innovative experiencesFinally if you are providing any form of management or leadership development, do it in a way that models great online learning experiences. Check out our new study on innovative new approaches to leadership training to compare your leadership programmes with others.

ENGAGE provides six tips to help you connect with line managers, but ultimately top performers get the best results because they put these tips into action!

So how does this work?

@CharityLearning

an initiative byThe vast majority of the 700,000 people working in the third sector - as well as the millions of volunteers - have no access to learning and development. It’s something that has been troubling Martin Baker, founder and Chief Executive of the Charity Learning Consortium. He’s been looking for a way to deliver knowledge and expertise en masse, but at low cost - and video seemed like the perfect answer.

“Companies like BT and Google are known for using video to share best practice within their organisations. Both organisations shared their stories at the annual Charity Learning Conference and this really got me thinking” MB

Inspired by these great examples, he came up with the idea of GivebackUK - a not for profit initiative to provide free video learning.

“Using online video is the ideal solution to reach such vast numbers of people to share learning cost-effectively,” said Martin. “It’s the perfect marriage of technology and information: using technology to reach the greatest number of people, so they can access information ‘anytime, anyplace, anywhere’.”

It’s a sentiment that’s shared by Donald H Taylor - Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, and now an Ambassador for GivebackUK: “It’s hard to believe that less than 10 years ago YouTube didn’t exist. Today video is such a popular and powerful way to share knowledge. To my mind it’s the perfect medium for GivebackUK to reach a massive audience of charity staff and volunteers, so I’m looking forward to getting more involved.”

Using talented filmmaker Dr Mark Davies, around 250 ‘talking heads’

videos have being created in order to - initially - freely share L&D best practice. These will form The Expert Series - the first video learning library from GivebackUK, designed to inspire charity learning practitioners.

Well known ‘movers and shakers’ from L&D have got involved, such as Steve Rayson, Jane Hart, Charles Jennings, Clive Shepherd, Liggy Webb, Nigel Paine, Laura Overton and the irrepressible Perry Timms - social media and engagement advisor to the CIPD. Like Donald, Perry has been so impressed with the project that he’s also become a GivebackUK Ambassador.

L&D professionals working at the coalface of L&D have also been enthusiastic about getting involved in the GivebackUK video learning project. Amongst the learning and development professionals who’ve been filmed for The Expert Series are Denise Hudson-Lawson from UK Parliament; Abigail Bracken from O2; Kristofor Swanson from JPMorgan Chase, Darren Bartlett from RSA and Niall Gavin from First Group.

Susie Finch talks about a free online video learning library for charities - the brainchild of Martin Baker, Chief Executive of the Charity Learning Consortium which is set to revolutionise L&D in the third sector. Called GivebackUK, the creative, not for profit initiative has wide support from the L&D industry. It’s the perfect way for practitioners to pass on their knowledge and expertise to a potential audience of millions of charity staff and volunteers. So go on, get involved - and give something back!


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GET INVOLVED:GIVE SOMETHING BACK!


Consortium members already have access to most of these videos through CLtv - so go and take a look if you haven’t already! Members have access to the videos first, while a platform to enable content to be freely shared with the entire third sector is being developed. This also means that content can be evaluated by members of the Consortium before going live to a far bigger audience.

The GivebackUK filming team - made up of Mark Davies, Rosie Haighton, Community Manager at the Charity Learning Consortium, and Martin Baker - have become well known fixtures at conferences, interviewing experts and learning practitioners.

Plans are already in place to start filming this year for the next two video learning libraries. The Everyday Series, as the name suggests, will focus on everyday skills, such as presentations, interview tips and time management. The Charity Series will cover bespoke charity topics, such as trustees and fundraising, to support the day-to-day running of charitable organisations.

Martin hopes that 500 videos will have been created by the close of 2015, and that GivebackUK can then enter its second, significant stage - offering free video learning resources to the UK’s 164,000 charities, and their huge army of staff and volunteers:

“I’ve seen the overwhelming power of collaboration from forming the Charity Learning Consortium, so I’d love every learning and development professional to get involved, in order to pass their knowledge on to a potentially massive audience. If you love learning - and I’ve yet to meet an L&D practitioner who doesn’t - then do please join in.” MB

GET INVOLVEDThe Charity Series: What do you specialise in? Please offer to share your knowledge and expertise of working within a charity. Can you also nominate other charity staff, from other departments, that we can approach? Can you introduce us to your charity CEO, so we can ask them to get involved?

Help submit funding applications: GivebackUK is looking for someone with experience of applying for grants and funding - can you help?

For more information please get in touch with Rosie Haighton: email [email protected] call 08451 707 702 or tweet @GivebackUK


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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Susie Finch is a writer and editor who specialises in learning and

development. And of course she works with the Charity Learning Consortium! Connect with Susie on Twitter @SusieFinch or on LinkedIn

@CharityLearning

C O M M U N I T Y

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Share it!I recently ran a Twitter workshop at the November Members Seminar with Levi Phillips from Towards Maturity. I love Twitter and use it constantly for my professional development, networking, and sharing.

The workshop focused on getting you started on Twitter, with the basic jargon and creating an account, and finishes with how you can start using it as a learning tool. It goes through why I, and why I think you, should join Twitter. I have uploaded my presentation (now a PDF) onto the Share tab on the Community. Please take a look at it, download it, and share it with others. This is for you if you fear Twitter and think

it only holds irrelevant information, like a celebrity’s current relationship status or what they’ve had for breakfast. It doesn’t. It’s a great tool that you shouldn’t be missing out on- especially as L&D professionals!

Have you recently run a workshop you’d like to share? Is there something you think EVERYONE should be doing but they just aren’t?! Let me know and we can work on them together. Write or tweet me at [email protected] or @RosieHaighton1

FLEXMany members recently took time out of their Friday afternoons to briefly help us test the Flex solution. The test system started with no users online and had hundreds within minutes, this pressure made the system scale up. This was a huge success, after many smaller tests we were able to push the system enough to make an impact. When

Server 1 reached its maximum capacity, Server 2 started to build itself, so it proved that our system worked!

When the system expanded users were accessing the new area while it was still being built, this issue had been highlighted during the test and has now shown where improvements are needed. It is important to ensure the server is built before we add it to the network. Situations

like this illustrate why user testing is so

important. A solution is already being

implemented to ensure that it does not

happen again and that there is sufficient

error information if ever needed. While

monitoring the usage information the

team have been fine tuning the system

to ensure it runs smoother and more

efficiently, it’s not ready yet, but we’re

almost there!

Ian’s been a busy bee and has created dozens of new Moodle guides. These new and improved manuals delve deeper into the administration side of Moodle and take you through each part step-by-step- he’s even thrown in a couple of pictures! J

Find these in the Community Site under the Moodle tab and for your convenience you’ll find four subcategories; User Management, Course Management, Reporting, Classrooms and Webinars. We have uploaded user guides, videos, and webinar training session, to make your Moodle experience as easy as possible, so check them out- you’ll all be Moodle geniuses before you know it!

Moodle Did you know?The CLC have created an Induction course template and have made it available to all members. This means you can edit the course to suit your organisation and use it on your Moodle site. You’ll need an authoring tool downloaded and the three that are compatible are Perform, Storyline and Captivate. This is FREE and ready to download from the Community Site, just go to ‘Content Downloads’ and ‘Download Induction Template’.

MEMBERSHIP+HIERARCHY & REPORT BUILDER

The hierarchy tool will allow administrators to ‘promote’ users to managers, who will then be able to access additional information of particular learners. Managers will therefore have access to their teams data, and will be able to report using a comprehensive tagging process Your organisation can utilise the system

in as much simplicity or complexity as it desires. Offering the opportunity to have an unlimited number of tags, the system is able to work for smaller organisations and the world’s largest organisations. The hierarchy tool is not built into the report builder it is a dedicated tool. This ensures that for future developments such as the revised ‘my learning tool’, previewed at the CLC conference, can also utilize this tool.

After spending months in planning,

developing, and internal testing, we have reached a stage where we feel the solution is almost ready. With help from some members with the testing, we are now able to introduce other features earlier than expected. This has put the project in a great position, allowing future developments to go smoothly and as planned. The team has been working around the clock to get this ready and we are pleased to say you will have access to this tool in the New Year.

T E C H U P D A T E

Rosie Haighton Community Manager at the Charity Learning Consortium


F R E E R E S O U R C E S

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Martin has negotiated all CLC members a huge 10% discount off Training Journal magazine subscriptions. To take advantage of this great discount, just email [email protected]

FREE video learningRecently launched to all CLC members, these videos aim to support you in your L&D journey by sharing with you industry leaders knowledge and expertise.

We’ve filmed huge names in the industry including Donald H Taylor, Nigel Paine, Jane Hart and organisations including Marks & Spencer, Barclays, Barnardo’s, BT and Action Aid.

Take a look at the videos on CLTV now - accessed via your Moodle site, then choose Library and select the GivebackUK category.

Towards Maturity Premium Benchmark Centre FREE to all CLC Members

Help your organisation see better results from learning technologies - benchmark against those organisations delivering the best results and learn from their experience to shortcut the journey to your own success.

Go to mybenchmark.towardsmaturity.org to sign up and to upgrade your account to the premium centre for your full personalised report email with subject line, ‘CLC member requesting premium access’ to [email protected]

Inspiration for eLearning designYou may have seen Gill Chester, MD of Little Man Project, present at the July Members’ Seminar on ideas for your eLearning projects, so we thought it would be useful to direct you to their Pinterest boards for a bit of extra inspiration…

pinterest.com/littlemanproj/creativity

pinterest.com/littlemanproj/design-thinking

pinterest.com/littlemanproj/elearning-stuff

pinterest.com/littlemanproj/elearning-examples

MOOC from CIPDWorking Digitally: social media and HRSign up for free and complete this four module course over 6 weeks showing you how to reach, engage and inspire through social media.

http://shop.cipd.co.uk/shop/cipd-training/working-digitally-social-media-and-hr

an initiative by

@CharityLearning

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Great eLearning activies coming up this year!

E V E N T S

CLC VIRTUAL TRAINING Community site walk-through webinars with Rosie Haighton, CLC Community Manager

13 January at 2pm 10 February at 2pm 10 March at 2pm 7 April at 2pm

CLC VIRTUAL TRAININGMoodle 2 Basic Admin Training with Rosie Haighton, CLC Community Manager


CLC VIRTUAL TRAINING Moodle 2 Ask The Expert with Ian Ross, CLC Learning Technologies Manager


Membership+Membership+ Conference Calls

23 January at 11am 27 February at 11am 5 March at the Members’ Seminar (face-to-face) 24 April at 11am

Members’ Seminars Grange Holborn, London 5 March 9am - 4pm 4 June 9am - 4pm 3 September 9am - 4pm

CLC Conference 2015 Grange City Hotel London

CLC Awards Ceremony 18th November 5pm - 10pm

Conference 19th November 9am - 4pm

learning technologies Get up close and personal with Learning Technologies Conference speakers - FREE27th & 28th of JanuaryTowards Maturity and Training Journal are bringing together prestigious speakers to provide you with eXchanges. Face-to-face group conversation looking at answers to practical questions that will stimulate innovation and creativity.

Spaces are limited to ten people per session. To see the full line-up and book please visit: www.research.net/s/LT15eXchange

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COME AND SEE US ON STAND 215 AT THE learning technologies EXHIBITION 28 & 29 January 2015 Start the New Year the right way with inspiration and energy to keep you on the right track. LT have kindly offered a whopping 20% DISCOUNT on conference places for all Charity Learning Consortium members and a 15% discount for all Corporate eLearning Consortium members! Let us know if you’re interested by emailing [email protected] There are 150 free L&D seminars so if you can’t afford a conference ticket, book your exhibition visitor pass now for free.

P.S. Going to the conference? Why not go and see CLC Member Velda Barnes, Head of Learning and Development at Addaction.

Documents

CLC Newsletter Winter 2015