Operating a Business in the “Learning Space.”

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Operating a Business in the “Learning Space.”

For the week’s blog on Lifelong Learning, our Founder Ron Slee addresses the topic of operating a business in the “Learning Space.”

Our backgrounds, Caroline and I, are in education. More specifically in Classroom Face-to-Face Teaching. As teachers we are concerned with our students and their growth and learning in the specific subjects that we are teaching. We have tests, quizzes, and discussion groups to help us in tracking the learning levels and growth of each student. And, please, never forget that all of these different aspects of teaching allow us to understand what is working and what is not. Many people overlook that aspect of tests and report cards.

In the e-learning world there are many more challenges in the creation of products that will help in employee development. The first question we must ask ourselves is “does our current offering, the assessments, classes and lectures match what the market needs?” This is an ongoing challenge as the market is constantly changing. The question becomes “are we delivering the proper learning products to the proper people in a manner that they find interesting and productive?”

Of course, we have to first define our purpose which with us is very straightforward “We want to assist people in the identification of their individual potential.” However, as you will no doubt realize, that is a challenge all by itself. We also add that our goal goes further in that we want to offer products and services that allow each of the interested people to realize that potential.

That meant that we had to identify the specific aspect of the employee population that we could help with the most. Our conclusion was that we wanted to touch everyone who led people and everyone who interacted with customers or supported people who did interact with customers. That covers nearly everyone in the product support disciplines, the distribution channel, in the capital goods industry. We recognized that although there is different jargon and some different practices that most of the capital goods industries needed similar things. Construction, Agricultural, Light Industrial, Material Handling, Engine, On Highway Truck and Trailer, Marine are some of the industries we are focused on today.

We have a lot of operational experience in these industries and we have multiplied that experience with our large group of Contributors who contribute to our market with blog posts and podcasts and assist in our newsletters. These Contributors, all forty eight of them, have deep understanding of all aspects of the operations of dealers and distributors.

One of our challenges is to bring our product to the market. It is a rather daunting task to attempt to cover all of these companies by ourselves. In order to penetrate this huge market worldwide we have created a smaller group of specialists to help us. They are aimed at educators, the industry associations, the manufacturers of the equipment as well as influential dealers and distributors.

We first communicated directly with industry associations. This is, of course, where I was first teaching in the distribution channel, with the Associated Equipment Distributors (AED). I personally did all of their parts and service operational training from the early 1990’s through 2015. We did Parts Management, Service Management, Product Support Selling and Parts and Service Marketing training. We also provide training services to manufacturers, in some cases worldwide. Companies such as Caterpillar, Deere, Komatsu, Volvo, Ditch Witch and Vermeer to name a few. I also was involved in many industries convention and annual meetings. 

We recognized that we need to have a community of influencers. 

We were very fortunate to have the help of Steve Johnson. Steve, until he retired was the Vice President of the AED Foundation. This foundation was the area of training and employee development for the association. Steve has been in touch with a large number of schools across the US and Canada establishing, what he calls, Centers of Excellence. These are the schools that he has selected to represent Learning Without Scars across Canada and the United States of America. We are extremely excited about this aspect of our business. 

We have established two streams of learning products: one for academic credit and the other for workforce development. For the academic credit stream, we have created classes that will earn seven academic credits (that is fourteen classes as two of our classes earn an academic credit). For the workforce development stream, we have one hundred and eight classes; thirty-six for the parts business, thirty-six for the selling and marketing businesses, and thirty-six for the service business. We also have eighteen job function skills assessments for the workforce development stream. We are currently working with university professors to create a selection of Lecture Series. We hope to have the Lecture Service earning Academic Credits as well. There is a lot of work involved and a lot of effort put in by a lot of people. This is not an easy thing to get done.

One of the challenges for industry is being able to identify the individuals who are the best fit to help companies succeed in their businesses. Universities do this will various tests, such as the Executive Function Test. Businesses do this with various personality profiles such as Briggs Meyers, Personalysis, Caliper and many others. Associations do this with their individual “certification” programs. Manufacturers do this with their technician training and certifications.

As an Accredited Provider with IACET, The International Accreditors of Continuing Education and Training. We are the only ones in the world with this accreditation. We are going to be pursuing further accreditations this year to make our products even more unique to the marketplace. 

I hope this gives you a more complete understanding of the “business” we have been building for the parts thirty plus years. I would like to extend my thanks to all of the students, the more than twenty-five thousand of you, that we have had in our classes all around the world. I sincerely mean it when I tell you that this would not have been possible without the contributions that each and every one of you have made I the classrooms with me. Thank you all so very much.

The Time is Now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Learning Management Software (LMS) is a Critical Part in eLearning

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Learning Management Software (LMS) is a Critical Part in eLearning

For this week’s blog post on Lifelong Learning our Founder, Ron Slee, shares the ways in which Learning Management Software (LMS) is a Critical Part in eLearning.

Building a series of learning products for academic credit and workforce development is our foundational responsibility. We attempt to keep up with the rapid pace of changes taking place in the educational world. That is keeping us very busy. From developing audio tracks to go with our recommended reading to closed captioning on our film clips and videos. From adapting to the class requirements for face-face time and homework to ensuring that adult education is not overpowering employees. We are remarkably busy. Without a Learning Management Software tool we would be at a serious disadvantage.

Many of you know that one of my educational foundations was Computer Science. I ran a couple of “Data Processing” department for equipment dealers. I also ran a software business when we first arrived in the US that served the equipment dealer world. So I was at one time quite familiar with how everything worked and what was required to use to get the best results. How that world has changed. It got to the point in the early 1990’s that I finally threw my hands up in the air and said that I would have to be dependent on professionals in certain aspects of the technology world that was coming out fast and furious. That is clearly the case with Learning Management Software. Our Job Function Skills Assessments, Subject Specific Classes and Lectures all need to have a platform which would allow us to offer our products to the marketplace.

If in our market we are serving the students at vocational and technical schools or even students enrolled in community colleges or public and private universities, time would not be so much of an element. The US Department of Education says that there needs to be two hours of homework for every hour of face-to-face earning. Many states have differing standards. As an Approved Supplier of IACET we have to have ten hours of learning to earn one CEU (Continuing Education Units). At Learning Without Scars (LWS) we offer academic credit classes to the schools and also to employees already in the workforce.

For the vocational schools our classes are built to provide six and a half hours of face-to-face learning and thirteen hours of homework. In this way two of our classes earn academic credits across most of the US. These classes are all for our “Centers of Excellence.” The CoE is a school that has agreed to take on the responsibility for a specific geography in the country. We aim to have ten in the US and three in Canada by year end 2023. Our CoE’s will have fourteen classes for the parts business and fourteen classes for the service business. Seven academic credits will be available at each of these CoE’s. 

For workforce development (WD) we have adjusted our classes as well to allow the same qualification for our classes. In this manner we are working towards having two classes earning an academic credit. This will allow all employees in the workforce to earn at a similar level to the vocational schools.

There are also significant changes in the attitudes and outlook of employees in the workforce. The role of the leader, the lead hands and foremen, the managers, supervisors and executives is more important that seemingly ever before. Litmos, our LMS provider, has indicated that 86% of employees would change jobs if the new job offered more opportunities for development. 45% of employees do not believe that their employer promotes a healthy work-life balance. Sixty-six percent of professionals said that there isn’t much support for those wishing to take on leadership roles.

It has become quite clear that the world is changing too fast for business to be able to keep up and develop their own training programs. The classes that many are taking today will be out-of-date by the time they complete them. That is a serious problem. Each of our classes, whether it be for Centers of Excellence or Workforce Development, ends with surveys for our students to let us know what they liked, what they didn’t like, what they felt was missing, and many other important comments for us. We take these comments seriously. We also receive statistical reporting on answers to our quizzes for reading lists, learning segments or homework. In this manner we are able to ensure that the homework is in fact completed. Many schools and businesses recognize that if they can obtain a class without having to build it themselves that they can better focus on their core requirement. That is true with schools as well. Teaching is a difficult profession. But ask any adult who their teachers were in grade school, or middle school, or even high school and they will be able to talk about them. Most cannot tell who was the Speaker of House of Representatives when they were in school. Who is more important? In my mind their teachers are more important.

At LWS we have built classes that we believe you will want to take. You can take them everywhere you are as long as you have a computer, tablet, laptop, or cell phone and an internet connection. We have tried to keep the classes as short as we can as long as they communicate and transfer the learning that is required. We are very pleased with how we have done over the past two years. We have made many changes and taken large strides in our purpose of helping people both professionally and personally identify and then realize their potential.

We extend to you our hand when you enroll and complete our learning products. Welcome Aboard.

The Time is Now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Strategic Partners in Employee Development

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Strategic Partners in Employee Development

Ron Slee makes an important announcement in his blog post, “Strategic Partners in Employee Development.”

An important step in the employee training world is taking place. Learning Without Scars is joining into a Strategic Partnership with four other businesses involved in employee development and training.

The McDonald Group, Inc.

Over the past four decades of collaborating with dealer management teams to help them improve profitability, market share, cash flow, and customer retention Walter McDonald has built a series of powerful learning tools. The focus of the McDonald Group is on working with and coaching dealer leadership teams worldwide to build their knowledge and skills on how to employ world-class best practices and achieve high-profit dealer benchmark performance levels The Group has recently published their 10-volume Master’s Program in Dealer Management book set. McDonaldGroupinc.com 

Winsbyinc.com. 

Winsby offers machinery dealer marketing services that work. They will build your customer email lists, create, and send effective emails, conduct customer satisfaction surveys, manage your website, and produce all the creative. The results of their work are phenomenal: customer retention is 30% higher, customer spending increases 2-3 times and customer purchase frequency increases 2-3 times. Contact Debbie Frakes, Managing Director, Winsby, Inc. 312-870-5678, dfrakes@winsbyinc.com.

HIVEQR.com. 

HIVE Quick Response. First-trip service job completion is essential for improved customer satisfaction and technician productivity. The HIVE quick response system starts with placing encrypted decals with unique identifiers on each piece of equipment. These include model and serial numbers, GPS location, and other vital information. In 45 seconds, a service request can be submitted and your team will have all the vital information they need from the start. No more spending countless hours on the phone tracking down information and no more frustrated customers stuck waiting on hold. Results? 60% increase in first-time completion. 200% reduction on follow-up phone calls. Fifteen percent increase in technician utilization. 100% accurate equipment information. Contact: Steve Ross, President, HIVEQR, 407-234-4150. Steve.ross@hiveqr.com. 

LearningWithoutScars.com. 

For Dealers in need of job function-based online training classes, seminars, and webinars, LWS has developed an extensive catalog of relevant classes and job function training. LWS supports six distinct PartsDepartment employee categories with 36 individual courses and six Service Department positions with 36 individual courses. Overall LSW has eighteen job function skills assessments and 108 subject-specific classes available today. I highly recommend Ron Slee and his team for his highly popular dealer training resources. Contact: Ron Slee, 760-413-0708, ron@learningwithoutscars.com

BCAKC.com. 

For manufacturers interested in customized support for dealer service and parts department training programs, Burgio, Cooney & Associates offers facilitator-led workshops, interactive web-based training, self-study workbooks, and video technologies. BCA designs gap assessments, curriculum development, training material production, and expert delivery. The BCA team members are experts in training—sales and customer service, technical skills, product knowledge, and supervisory skills. When your front-line employees are well-trained, they are better prepared to answer customers’ questions and offer solutions, making customers more likely to return and again.  Contact: Michael Cooney, 816-979-1414, mike.cooney@bcakc.com.

In 45 seconds, a service request can be submitted and your team will have all of the vital information they need from the start. No more spending countless hours on the phone tracking down information, and no more frustrated customers stuck waiting on hold. In 45 seconds, a service request can be submitted and your team will have all of the vital information they need from the start. No more spending countless hours on the phone tracking down information, and no more frustrated customers stuck waiting on hold.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

How Has the Internet Changed the Role of Education?

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How Has the Internet Changed the Role of Education?

In this week’s post on Lifelong Learning, our Founder, Ron Slee, takes a deep dive into the worldwide web with, “How Has the Internet Changed the Role of Education?”

The Internet is transforming education by changing the way students learn and the way teachers teach. This is true in both public and private education. 

  1. Online learning: The Internet has made online learning accessible to everyone. Students can now attend classes and complete assignments from anywhere, anytime.
  2. Personalized learning: With the Internet students have access to a wide range of resources that allow personalized learning experiences.
  3. Collaboration: The Internet enables students and teachers to collaborate in real time from different locations, making it easier for students to work together on projects and assignments.
  4. Access to information: The Internet provides students with instant access to a vast amount of information, making it easier for them to research and learn about various topics.
  5. Improved communication: The Internet has made communication between teachers and students as well as between schools much easier and more efficient.

Overall, the Internet has greatly improved the education experience for students and teachers alike providing them with new tools and resources to enhance their learning and teaching experiences.

Learning Without Scars is a company that aims to improve the education system, by making learning a positive and enjoyable experience for students at schools or in the workforce. The company uses a variety of methods to achieve this goal. Reading material with audio tracks and quizzes; a series of segmented video classes using power point slides with text and audio tracks and strategically inserted film clips that are closed captioned.

Today there are a variety of companies providing Internet based learning. Kahn Academy for students from Preschool through High School through to EdX and Coursera for business applications. There is a lot available out there.

Our goal is to provide employees and students access to tools that can measure their skills and knowledge: the Job Function Skills Assessments. With these Comprehensive Assessments the individual has an opportunity to objectively measure their skills and knowledge and how it applies to their jobs. This is the first such assessment in our industry. This is viewed by the Workforce Development side to Technical and Vocational Schools to evaluate the needs of the employees working at businesses in their area that also are a potential employer for the students of the school.

We are experiencing difficulties, particularly with the group of technicians in dealers. Turnover rates are extremely high. A recent article in the New York Times by Christina Caron poses the question, “When is it time to quit your job?” The author covers the usual issues such as burnout. Burnout, according to Dennis Stolle, the senior director of applied psychology at the American Psychological Association is three symptoms; emotional exhaustion, negativity, and the feeling that no matter how hard you try you cannot be effective at your job.

There is another area of interest. Technicians have seen an amazing amount of change in the equipment that they perform repairs and maintenance. The job has become a serious challenge for advances in computers and telematics, allowing us to track the condition of equipment when it is working in the field using sensors everywhere. Many of the older technicians are struggling to keep up with these changes. In many cases a technician’s job defined who they were as people.

On the other hand, younger technicians, say under thirty-five years of age, are looking for different things in the workplace than the older generations. Laura Putnam, author of the book “Workplace Wellness That Works” addresses how the workplace functions. The younger workers want to have more control over how they work. They resist the old command and control style of leadership common in previous times. The employees are looking to organizations that support various aspects of wellness including physical, emotional, social as well as financial.

These younger technicians are leaving their jobs within six months at alarming rates. This is when the market is struggling to find qualified technicians to hire. Imagine spending all that time and money hiring someone and they choose to leave before they have been with you for six months. Billy Greenlee, Service Operations Manager/Rental Manager commented “I think retaining them becomes the next huge hurdle if you can get technicians on a good path. I’ve watched for years as my entry level techs start to mature it is all but impossible as a manager to bring their wages up, once they cross that threshold of being a “good” technician. It’s hard for a service manager to increase their salary to keep up with their market value when you start entry level techs at those lower hourly rates. I’ve been fortunate in my current position to not get pushback when I’ve gone to our ownership and request a 15-20% pay increase to bring my team up to their true market value as a technician. It’s paid dividends as most of my techs are at, or we’re just at, that transition point of being entry level to a seasoned tech. My other tool was moving to a rotating 4-10 schedule. But between those two things I have been able to keep my shop stable the last few years and get that return on investment on all of that education and training expense.”

Isaac Rollor recently posted a blog talking about technicians. He started as follows “Recently out of curiosity I used Indeed.com and searched “Heavy Equipment Mechanic.” For location I specified “USA.” Immediately there were 30,000 opportunities that populated my screen. Pretty amazing. Many of these job postings were urgently hiring. I saw many job openings for technicians at heavy equipment dealers. Isn’t it amazing that the focus of education for the past forty years has been on getting a University Degree? You will earn more money over your lifetime if you have a degree. Of course, they were making reference to high school graduation as the comparison. NOT technicians.

Bill Pyles took it further when we addressed the “On-Boarding” of new technicians. 

I feel it’s important to note that entry-level tech does not mean you’ve hired a technician to whom you can pay minimum wage for the next few years. The first two items a dealer needs are a developmental pay plan (earn while you learn) and a career-building training plan, from entry-level to Top Gun. Be sure part of the hiring process is a copy of your training and wage scale. Spend quality time with the new tech in explaining the “earn while you learn” approach. Remember, training never ends. 

Similarly, it helps to assign a “mentor” to these new employees. This is true whether you are hiring straight from a vocational or technical school or hiring a working technician. A mentor can be a great help in ensuring the new employees feel part of a team. An important member of the team.

I thought it would be worthwhile in Lifelong Learning to point out that it is not solely the responsibility of the employee to improve themselves through learning programs, but also how the business accepts new employees and how they are treated. One thing is certain: Technician turnover rates today are unacceptable. It is in every company’s best interest to address this issue soon.

The time is now.

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The Structure and Development of Our Learning On Demand Classes

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The Structure and Development of our Learning On Demand Classes

For this week’s installment on Lifelong Learning, our Founder, Ron Slee, is taking you on a walkthrough of the process that goes into the structure and development of our Learning On Demand classes.

Over our time in providing classroom teaching at Universities, High Schools, Business related Management Training, Webinars and most recently internet-based learning paths we have changed and adapted to the reality of the research provided to educators worldwide.

Research continues and learning results continue to improve for most. But it is indeed a challenge to both keep up and continue to be on the leading edge of internet based adult learning and the requirement of schools worldwide. One of our major advances in the past two years has been to develop segmented learning. We use slides with audio tracks and film clips in our learning videos. The students can go back and forth as often as they like. These segments happen in the range of ten to fifteen minutes of learning. At the end of each segment, we insert a “quiz” to evaluate both the student’s ability to understand our content as well as our presentation methods. 

Not surprisingly we have seen a significant change on how the student results have changed. The first time a student takes one of our classes the first segment the successful results might be about 50%. The send segment the success rate goes to 75% and from that point on the success stays above 90%. This is proof positive, in my mind, that the student pays more attention when they know there will be a “check” of their understanding of the material. It truly works and our results prove it rather conclusively.

Similarly, we added reading materials before the video learning segments. These reading assignments have an audio track with them so that we are ADA compliant but that also gives us a time check. We provide ninety to one hundred and ten minutes of audio with each subject specific class. Then we have three multiple choice quizzes for each reading assignment. This puts the reading portion in the range of two hours or more for each class. Again, research has shown that “scanning” reading material in a learning environment helps in the retention and understanding of the material involved. We are noticing the same thing when we have students taking more than one subject specific class as the scores are noticeably higher.

Recently, in the past two months we have added Homework to our classes. We provide more than five hundred pages of reference books for the student to read. With each of our reference books we again have what is called a “Check for Understanding.” Contrary to most education institutions we verify that the student has in fact done the homework. That is the purpose of our Check for Understanding. The homework with the reference books amounts to thirteen hours of time. This is in line with the Department of Education need statement that for each face-to-face hour of learning there needs to be two hours of homework. Each of our subject specific classes now consist of six and a half hours of face-to-face learning and thirteen hours of homework. 

That allows us to comply with the academic requirements of most states. Two of our learning on demand classes offered in vocational and technical schools, junior colleges as well as public and private universities offer one academic credit to students. This is what we offer through our Centers of Excellence across Noth America. For adult education, in the workforce development business of schools, we still have the shorter class options. However, we also offer a path for the students should they wish to follow the academic credit path.     

I have to admit that it is a lot of work to stay current with educational changes. Research continues to push educators to get better at delivering learning to students. That is our goal and purpose at Learning Without Scars. 

The Time is Now.

Did you enjoy this blog? Read more great blog posts here.
For our course lists, please click here.

Academic Credits

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Academic Credits

For this week’s blog on Lifelong Learning, our Founder, Ron Slee, tackles one of those pesky, behind-the-scenes aspects of education: Academic Credits. Please note that this blog post will be published in English, Spanish, and French.

As an IACET accredited provider, Learning Without Scars has certain very specific rules to follow. For instance, to earn an official CEU we have to have ten hours of learning. This gets a touch more complicated when we look at the US Department of Education requirement of fifteen to sixteen hours for a single CEU.  However, they bury the lede in that statement.  This is all modeled on traditional, in-person learning. So many hours of face-to-face instruction, and so many hours of homework. 1 hour of facetime, 2 hours of homework.  That has been the “rule of thumb.” This cannot be “mandated” by the federal government here in the United States, it is only a guideline. However, in order for students to be able to obtain Federal loans or grants, the school MUST follow these rules. Since the United States federal government is secondary to state laws and policies, the number of course “hours” for Academic Credit can vary from state-to-state. Even further, the states give institutions of learning their own latitude when it comes to determining those course “hours.” That means each school can establish their own criteria for Academic Credits.

That is where it gets complicated for all of us here. Our classes offer six and a half hours of “face-to-face,” but asynchronous, learning. Albeit, it is not in a traditional classroom, it is on the internet. That means that there are six and a half hours of specific learning per class. We have been told that we must add a “homework” component to make it easier for the “Academic Credit” schools to add our classes to their curriculums. In line with that we are creating homework assignments for each of our classes following the “rule of thumb” of two hours of homework for each hour of face-to-face learning. In other words, for each class, we are adding thirteen hours of homework.

I have had a problem with this with several schools in that I have always asked questions about how the schools track that the students did the homework? The answer I consistently get is “we don’t.” That doesn’t account for the fact that an individual instructor may very well be tracking the homework. Or, an individual instructor might be following research-based practices and realizing that homework is not an effective tool for understanding. That research has been guiding a movement to phase out homework. I anticipate that this will also shake up the course hours model that is so widely varied here in the U.S.

I, as an educator, have always been more concerned that the student leaves my classes with a solid understanding of the subject matter. I use quizzes, snap exams, oral debates in other words everything I can to give the student the opportunity to show me that they “get it.” Caroline is of the same mind which led us to perhaps a different approach on the homework we assign. We provide the homework hours as “Close Reading and Annotation” assignments. If you follow research-based practices, reading is solid method for increasing knowledge and understanding. For each element of the assigned reading, we provide a “Check for Understanding.” This we do with a Quiz for each homework assignment. Obviously, we score the Quiz and provide that feedback to the student. We have established a level of 60% or higher as proof that our “Check for Understanding” goal has been met. This is another step we take to make us different from the traditional education model in use across the world and establish our internet-based learning as a viable model to be used everywhere by everyone.  

Through each of our Subject Specific Classes we have a similar structure and methodology. From the enrollment of the student from our website, or from the registration process at a school, the student receives from us the notice that they have been registered in one of our classes. They receive an email with a short slide show with audio explaining how the learning experience works. They will then receive an email allowing them to establish a password to our Learning Management Software system. From there they will see the full Learning Without Scars homepage. Once they have signed in, they will receive another email explaining what that home page is showing them and how it works. They can then proceed to their class.

Each class is a series of videos. Each video can be started and stopped multiple times and the student will always be brought back to their last position. We have short videos all of which end with a Quiz. That quiz is to test comprehension of the subject matter – it is a “Check for Understanding.” There is a quiz at the conclusion of each segment of the class. At the completion of each class, we have a twenty question, multiple choice, Final Assessment that the student has to pass if they want to obtain their certificate. The passing grade is 80%. The student can take the Final Assessment. Then we ask the student to give us their opinions on the class they just took. Finally, they then can get their certificate.

Now we are adding the Homework piece. We are selecting books that are pertinent to the class and providing the students with this list of books. Once this has been completed then we will add another check point prior to the receipt of the certificate. The student must have achieved 80% on the final assessment as well has receiving 60% on each of the “Check for Understanding” quizzes for each homework assignment.

We are truly providing a “school” experience with our internet based Subject Specific Classes.

Each LWS Class consists of 6 ½ hours of classroom and 13 hours of homework.

Two of our classes then earn an academic credit consisting of 13 hours of face-to-face learning and 26 hours of homework providing 39 hours of education to the student. That works for most schools but there will be others that have different requirements. We will adapt to the conditions and situations we come across so that our Classes will qualify everywhere. We already have Accreditation Internationally so that will allow us to continue with our work to offer all of our classes in English, French and Spanish. We will expand that language offering as required.

We continue to push forward. We have audio tracks to match our class reading assignments. We have closed captioning for all of our film clips. We have the multiple language platform underway. We are adding now the homework element. We have come a long way. That is true. However, we still have a long way to go and many more learning elements to add to our portfolio. Next is “Half” classes. We will address that more in the coming months. 

The Time is Now.

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For our course lists, please click here.

Creditos Academicos

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Creditos Academicos

Como Proveedor Aprobado, acreditado por IACET, tenemos ciertas reglas muy específicas a seguir. Por ejemplo, para obtener un CEU oficial tenemos que tener diez horas de aprendizaje. Esto se vuelve un poco más complicado cuando observamos el requisito del Departamento de Educación de EE. UU. de quince a dieciséis horas para una sola CEU. Sin embargo, entierran el plomo en esa declaración. Todo esto se basa en el aprendizaje tradicional en persona. Tantas horas de instrucción presencial y tantas horas de trabajo en clase. 1 hora de facetime, 2 horas de tarea. Esa es la “regla general”. Esto no puede ser “obligado” por el gobierno federal, es una guía. Sin embargo, para poder obtener préstamos o subvenciones, la escuela DEBE seguir estas reglas. Eso significa que cada escuela puede establecer sus propios criterios para los Créditos Académicos.

Ahí es donde se complica para nosotros en Learning Without Scars. Nuestras clases ofrecen seis horas y media de aprendizaje “presencial”. Aunque no es en un salón de clases tradicional, es en Internet. Eso significa que hay seis horas y media de aprendizaje específico por clase. Nos han dicho que debemos agregar un componente de “tarea” para que sea más fácil para las escuelas de “Crédito Académico” agregar nuestras clases a sus planes de estudio. De acuerdo con eso, estamos creando asignaciones de tarea para cada una de nuestras clases siguiendo la “regla general” de dos horas de tarea por cada hora de aprendizaje presencial. En otras palabras, para cada clase, estamos agregando trece horas de tarea.

He tenido un problema con esto con varias escuelas en las que siempre he hecho la pregunta “Está bien, asignas dos horas de tarea a cada hora de aprendizaje presencial de clase”. ¿Cómo rastreas que los estudiantes hicieron la tarea? La respuesta que obtengo constantemente es “no lo hacemos”.

Yo, como educador, siempre me he preocupado más de que el alumno salga de mis clases con un conocimiento sólido de la materia. Uso cuestionarios, exámenes instantáneos, debates orales, en otras palabras, todo lo que puedo para darle al estudiante la oportunidad de demostrarme que “lo entiende”. Caroline es de la misma opinión que nos llevó a quizás un enfoque diferente en la tarea que asignamos. Proporcionamos las horas de tarea como asignaciones de “Lectura detallada y anotación”. Para cada elemento de la tarea, le asignamos una “Verificación de comprensión”. Esto lo hacemos con un Quiz para cada tarea asignada. Obviamente, calificamos el cuestionario y proporcionamos esa retroalimentación al estudiante. Hemos establecido un nivel del 60 % o superior como prueba de que se ha cumplido nuestro objetivo de “Comprobación de la comprensión”. Este es otro paso que damos para diferenciarnos del modelo de educación tradicional que se usa en todo el mundo y establecer nuestro aprendizaje basado en Internet como un modelo viable para que todos lo usen en todas partes.

A través de cada una de nuestras Clases Específicas de Materia tenemos una estructura y construcción similar. Desde la inscripción del estudiante desde nuestro sitio web, o desde el proceso de registro en una escuela, el estudiante recibe de nosotros el aviso de que ha sido registrado en una de nuestras clases. Reciben un correo electrónico con una breve presentación de diapositivas con audio que explica cómo funciona la experiencia de aprendizaje. Luego recibirán un correo electrónico que les permitirá establecer una contraseña para nuestro sistema de software de gestión de aprendizaje. Desde allí, verán la página de inicio completa de Learning Without Scars. Una vez que hayan iniciado sesión, recibirán otro correo electrónico explicando qué les muestra esa página de inicio y cómo funciona. A continuación, pueden proceder a su clase.

Cada clase es una serie de videos. Cada video se puede iniciar y detener varias veces y el estudiante siempre regresará a su última posición. Tenemos videos cortos que terminan con un cuestionario. Ese cuestionario es para evaluar la comprensión del tema: es una “verificación de comprensión”. Hay un cuestionario al final de cada segmento de la clase. Al finalizar cada clase, tenemos una evaluación final de veinte preguntas de opción múltiple que el estudiante debe aprobar si desea obtener su certificado. La calificación aprobatoria es del 80%. El alumno puede realizar la Evaluación Final. Luego le pedimos al estudiante que nos dé su opinión sobre la clase que acaba de tomar. Finalmente, pueden obtener su certificado.

Ahora estamos agregando la pieza de tarea. Estamos seleccionando libros que son relevantes para la clase y brindando a los estudiantes esta lista de libros. Una vez que esto se haya completado, agregaremos otro punto de control antes de recibir el certificado. El estudiante debe haber obtenido un 80 % en la evaluación final y haber recibido un 60 % en cada una de las pruebas de “Verificación de comprensión” para cada tarea asignada.

Realmente estamos brindando una experiencia de “escuela” con nuestras clases específicas de materias basadas en Internet.

Cada clase de LWS consta de 6 ½ horas de clase y 13 horas de tarea.

Luego, dos de nuestras clases obtienen un crédito académico que consta de 13 horas de aprendizaje presencial y 26 horas de trabajo en el hogar que brindan 39 horas de educación.para el estudiante. Eso funciona para la mayoría de las escuelas, pero habrá otras que tengan requisitos diferentes. Nos adaptaremos a las condiciones y situaciones que nos encontremos para que nuestras Clases califiquen en todas partes. Ya contamos con Acreditación Internacional por lo que nos permitirá continuar con nuestro trabajo de ofrecer todas nuestras clases en inglés, francés y español. Ampliaremos esa oferta de idiomas según sea necesario.

Seguimos empujando hacia adelante. Tenemos pistas de audio para que coincidan con las tareas de lectura de nuestra clase. Tenemos subtítulos para todos nuestros clips de película. Tenemos la plataforma multilingüe en marcha. Ahora estamos agregando el elemento de tarea. Hemos recorrido un largo camino. Eso es verdad. Sin embargo, todavía tenemos un largo camino por recorrer y muchos más elementos de aprendizaje para agregar a nuestra cartera. Lo siguiente es “medias” clases. Abordaremos eso más en los próximos meses.

El tiempo es ahora.

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Crédits académiques

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Crédits académiques

Dans le billet de blogue de cette semaine sur l’apprentissage continu, Ron Slee nous guide à travers le processus d’obtention de crédits académiques.

En tant que fournisseur agréé, accrédité par IACET, nous avons certaines règles très précises à suivre. Par exemple, pour gagner un CEU officiel, nous devons avoir dix heures d’apprentissage. Cela devient un peu plus compliqué lorsque nous examinons l’exigence du Département américain de l’éducation de quinze à seize heures pour une seule CEU. Cependant, ils enterrent le plomb dans cette déclaration. Tout cela est calqué sur l’apprentissage traditionnel en personne. Tant d’heures d’enseignement en face à face et tant d’heures de travail en classe. 1h de facetime, 2h de devoirs. C’est la “règle générale”. Cela ne peut pas être « mandaté » par le gouvernement fédéral, il s’agit d’une ligne directrice. Cependant, afin de pouvoir obtenir des prêts ou des bourses, l’école DOIT suivre ces règles. Cela signifie que chaque école peut établir ses propres critères pour les crédits académiques.

C’est là que ça se complique pour nous à Learning Without Scars. Nos cours offrent six heures et demie d’apprentissage “en face à face”. Bien que ce ne soit pas dans une salle de classe traditionnelle, c’est sur Internet. Cela signifie qu’il y a six heures et demie d’apprentissage spécifique par classe. On nous a dit que nous devions ajouter une composante «devoirs» pour faciliter l’ajout de nos classes à leurs programmes par les écoles «à crédit académique». Conformément à cela, nous créons des devoirs pour chacune de nos classes en suivant la «règle empirique» de deux heures de devoirs pour chaque heure d’apprentissage en face à face. Autrement dit, pour chaque cours, nous ajoutons treize heures de devoirs.

J’ai eu un problème avec cela avec plusieurs écoles en ce sens que j’ai toujours posé la question “OK, vous attribuez deux heures de devoirs à chaque heure d’apprentissage en classe en face à face” comment suivez-vous que les élèves ont fait les devoirs ? La réponse que j’obtiens constamment est “nous ne le faisons pas”.

En tant qu’éducateur, j’ai toujours été plus soucieux que l’élève quitte mes cours avec une solide compréhension de la matière. J’utilise des quiz, des examens instantanés, des débats oraux, bref tout ce que je peux pour donner à l’élève l’occasion de me montrer qu’il « comprend ». Caroline est du même avis, ce qui nous a peut-être amenés à une approche différente des devoirs que nous donnons. Nous fournissons les heures de devoirs sous forme de devoirs de “lecture approfondie et d’annotation”. Pour chaque élément du devoir, nous attribuons une « Vérification de la compréhension ». C’est ce que nous faisons avec un quiz pour chaque devoir. Évidemment, nous notons le quiz et fournissons cette rétroaction à l’étudiant. Nous avons établi un niveau de 60 % ou plus comme preuve que notre objectif “Vérifier la compréhension” a été atteint. C’est une autre étape que nous franchissons pour nous différencier du modèle d’éducation traditionnel utilisé dans le monde et établir notre apprentissage basé sur Internet comme un modèle viable pouvant être utilisé partout par tous.

À travers chacune de nos classes spécifiques à un sujet, nous avons une structure et une construction similaires. Dès l’inscription de l’élève depuis notre site internet, ou dès le processus d’inscription dans une école, l’élève reçoit de notre part l’avis qu’il a été inscrit dans l’une de nos classes. Ils reçoivent un e-mail avec un court diaporama audio expliquant le fonctionnement de l’expérience d’apprentissage. Ils recevront alors un e-mail leur permettant d’établir un mot de passe pour notre système de logiciel de gestion de l’apprentissage. De là, ils verront la page d’accueil complète de Learning Without Scars. Une fois qu’ils se sont connectés, ils recevront un autre e-mail expliquant ce que cette page d’accueil leur montre et comment cela fonctionne. Ils peuvent ensuite rejoindre leur classe.

Chaque classe est une série de vidéos. Chaque vidéo peut être démarrée et arrêtée plusieurs fois et l’étudiant sera toujours ramené à sa dernière position. Nous avons de courtes vidéos qui se terminent toutes par un quiz. Ce quiz sert à tester la compréhension du sujet-c’est un “vérifier la compréhension”. Il y a un quiz à la fin de chaque segment de la classe. À la fin de chaque cours, nous avons une évaluation finale de vingt questions à choix multiples que l’étudiant doit réussir s’il souhaite obtenir son certificat. La note de passage est de 80 %. L’étudiant peut passer l’évaluation finale. Ensuite, nous demandons à l’élève de nous donner son avis sur le cours qu’il vient de suivre. Enfin, ils peuvent ensuite obtenir leur certificat.

Maintenant, nous ajoutons la pièce Devoirs. Nous sélectionnons des livres pertinents pour la classe et fournissons aux élèves cette liste de livres. Une fois cela terminé, nous ajouterons un autre point de contrôle avant la réception du certificat. L’étudiant doit avoir obtenu 80 % à l’évaluation finale et avoir reçu 60 % à chacun des quiz “Vérifier la compréhension” pour chaque devoir.

Nous offrons vraiment une expérience « scolaire » avec nos cours spécifiques à une matière basés sur Internet.

Chaque classe LWS comprend 6 heures et demie de cours et 13 heures de devoirs.

Deux de nos classes gagnent ensuite un crédit académique composé de 13 heures d’apprentissage en face à face et de 26 heures de travail à domicile offrant 39 heures d’enseignementà l’étudiant. Cela fonctionne pour la plupart des écoles, mais il y en aura d’autres qui auront des exigences différentes. Nous nous adapterons aux conditions et situations que nous rencontrerons pour que nos Classes se qualifient partout. Nous avons déjà une accréditation internationale, ce qui nous permettra de continuer notre travail pour offrir tous nos cours en anglais, français et espagnol. Nous élargirons cette offre linguistique au besoin.

Nous continuons à avancer. Nous avons des pistes audio pour correspondre à nos devoirs de lecture en classe. Nous avons des sous-titres codés pour tous nos extraits de films. Nous avons la plate-forme multilingue en cours. Nous ajoutons maintenant l’élément devoirs. Nous sommes venus de loin. C’est vrai. Cependant, nous avons encore un long chemin à parcourir et de nombreux autres éléments d’apprentissage à ajouter à notre portefeuille. Viennent ensuite les cours “Demi”. Nous en parlerons davantage dans les mois à venir.

C’est maintenant.

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Five Things

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Five Things

For this week’s Lifelong Learning blog, Founder Ron Slee talks to us about performance reviews and leading teams – both in a classroom and in a business setting. He describes for us five things that prompt thoughtful conversations.

Five Things

Many of you know that I am almost fanatical about providing great performance reviews with each and every employee I touch. Regularly. Not annually rather as the opportunity arises. But frequently to say the least. Then this came up as I was running through my time allocated to social media and my email and texts. That allotted time is my recognition of distractions that Nir Eyal pointed out to me that changed how I work. That recognition came from his excellent book “Indistractable.”

A post by Harvard Business School on LinkedIn brought to mind a few things I used to do, as a matter of common practice, when I was leading teams at dealerships or software companies.

I called them my “Five Things.” They went like this:

  • Please list the “Five Things” that are the most significant items in each of the categories. 
    • Five Things to Improve Operations
    • That are a pain for you to do
    • To Make Your Job Better for you personally

It was an interesting exercise. Everyone on the team had a week to make their lists and we tried to ensure they didn’t work together on their lists. Then we got together as a team, at a break or after work and put them on a flip chart. We compared the lists. It was remarkable how there werem any items that were on all of the lists. As you can imagine my question was rather simple. If they make operations better AND they are a pain for you to do AND they will make your own job better THEN why haven’t we done them. Think about that for a moment.

I also regularly asked each member of the team three simple questions.

  • My “Check Up from the Neck Up.”
    • What do I do that you like, and you want me to continue doing?
    • What do I do that you don’t like, and want me to stop doing?
    • What do I do that doesn’t really matter to you or impact your job?

That gave me a very upfront and personal performance review by my team members.

Then this morning I find the following on LinkedIn from Harvard Business School.

“If you’re worried that your employees are eyeing the door, it’s time to start having some important, career-defining conversations.  Here are five key questions to ask your direct reports at your next one-on-one to ensure that they feel seen and valued — before it’s too late.

  1. How would you like to grow within this organization?   Identify the career development opportunities they need — whether that’s coaching, mentoring, increased visibility, or more challenging projects.  They’re more likely to stay if they feel like they’re growing.
  2. Do you feel a sense of purpose in your job?   Tap into what’s meaningful to them — and connect it with the values of the organization.
  3. What do you need from me to do your best work?   Be prepared to devote more time and resources to help your employee feel fulfilled. 
  4. What are we currently not doing as a company that you feel we should do?   Asking what they feel the company could be doing better — what market opportunities it might be overlooking, how to leverage resources more effectively, etc. — conveys that their thoughts and opinions matter.
  5. Are you able to do your best work every day?   This allows you to determine whether they’re optimizing their strengths. You might follow up with, “What part of your job would you eliminate if you could?” Don’t make promises but knowing which aspects of their job are least and most enjoyable will help you make any necessary changes to ensure they stick around.”

As many of you know I am quite critical about our skills in performing a performance review with your team members. Typically, no one has trained any of you on how to do a review. In many cases the review is what I call a “hygiene” review. Is the employee on time or late, are they absent a lot, are they dressed properly. Oh, and then some metrics. In many cases the individual employee does not have any control over the metrics so why are they in their performance review. It is almost that I have to check off another of the boxes on the things I should do.

Many of you know that we have Job Function Skills Assessments for most parts and service and product support selling jobs. Ninety-Six Multiple Choice questions. Your knowledge and skill level will be seriously evaluated with these assessments. This is about getting an objective measure of the “gaps” in the skills and knowledge that are present with an employee. The employee and their team leader sit down and talk about the assessment. With the score that the employee has achieved on the assessment we can provide a “Learning Skill Level.” The Skill Levels follow the education system categories: Developing, Beginning, Intermediate and Advanced. With each Skill Level we have eight class recommendations for the employee to continue to grow and develop their skills. We recommend that the team leader and the employee come to a joint decision on the classes that the employee should take to continue on their “career path.” This is a very different performance review. This is about treating each employee as an asset not an expense. They are people that we want to operate “aspirationally” (our word) not transactionally. We want employees that are engaged in their work.

For more in this direction please read David Jensen’s recent post on PTO. 

The Time is Now.

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Intellectual Capital

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Intellectual Capital

In this week’s Lifelong Learning post, Founder and Managing Member Ron Slee continues to look at employees as assets. Read on to learn about Intellectual Capital.

In an earlier post on Lifelong Learning, I posed a question to you – “Are your employee’s assets or expenses?” I hope every one of you said they are assets. Today I am wanting to look at your employees from a different perspective. I want to look at your employees as an “Asset on your Balance Sheet.” Imagine if you took all of the knowledge, skills and experiences of your employees and were able to put it into a container?

Look at the skills required to operate your business.

Selling. Leading. Buying. Repairing. Maintaining. Data Storage. Warehousing. Shipping. Receiving. Transportation. Ordering. Purchasing. Stocking. Paying Bills. Payroll. And there are many more.

On top of that you have the specific skills within each discipline. Take selling as an example. The function requires Research, Goal Setting, Asking Questions, Overcoming Objections, Explaining Benefits, and Closing the Sale. Each job function can be dissected into the differing skills required to perform it. That is one of the byproducts of our Job Function Skills Assessments. Most of us view a job simply as that. I would ask that you look at it in a different manner. Each job is a composite of a lot of different items. Let me go in a different direction for a moment. Let’s look at the job of a surgeon. What is it? Is it simply using a scalpel and cutting. Or are the years of training given to the surgeon expecting that they will see with trained eyes and identify problems inside our body and then knowing what to do about it? Of course, it is the latter, isn’t it?

So, when people take our assessments, they are taken aback at some of the questions. A typical comment coming back to us after the employee completes their assessment is that I wasn’t aware that was part of my job. If we look at the telephone and counter selling job function, most of the employees have done it for a long time. They typically are on autopilot. However, they are often extremely busy. They don’t have time for many niceties. That is a shame. That is a result of not having enough people to do the job properly. That is the negative result of sales per employee. (Too many “bosses” think that a high sales per employee is a good thing. That is totally wrong. Completely wrong) Customer retention. Customer loyalty. They are critical measures of your success as a business. Market share is another.

Well in the parts business over the past forty years market share in parts and service has dropped by more than 50%. Many of you will argue with me as a result of your sales revenue continuing to go up. Perhaps many of you will point to the proliferation of competitors as the cause of this reduction. I will respectfully disagree. This drop in market share is a direct result of too few people serving customers doing too much work. 

Look at your service department as a good example. Surveys done by industry associations point out that 15% of the customers who purchase labor from an equipment dealer “defect” each year. Let me express that another way for you to better make my point. 15% of your service customers STOP buying labor from you on an annual basis. That means that you lose 50% of your customers over a five-year period. Don’t believe me? Check it out. Get a report in name sequence. Alphabetically. Compare the list from five years ago in a calendar year to the current year. In our case today compare 2021 to 2016. That is a gap of five years. Get the total number of customers in 2016 and compare that to 2021. In many cases the number will be very close to the same. Now go through and compare the two lists side by side. Name by name. How many names purchased labor in 2016 that did not purchase in 2021. I suspect you will find the number to be a very sobering illustration of the point I am trying to make with you.

In parts it is not as stark a defection rate but it is equally as disturbing.

Your employees are assets for your business. They are the people that create the glue, that bond your customers to your business. Too many of you view, these employees, your heroes, simply as tools in a toolbox. Nothing could be further from the truth. The sales per employee metric is given lip service. It is not the trigger that it should be used to hire people. In the 1980’s the sales per employee number, widely accepted in the industry was $600,000/parts employee/year. That number did not include the Parts Management nor the Product Support Sales team. For many of the dealers with which I have worked over the past five years that sales per employee number exceeds $1,000,000/employee. That means that the people working on your counters and telephones serving your customers are overworked. From the 1980 metric 5 people were required to do $3,000,000 per year. That job today it is being done by 3 people. How can this be allowed to happen? 

There is a very old expression. “You reap what you sow” The market share reduction is a direct result of this excessive sales per employee. It is a result of the employee NOT being viewed as an asset but as simply a tool to be used. This is wrong. It needs to change.

The time is now.     

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