The current situation has hastened the uptake of online learning (and everything else!), so ready or not, educators have been thrown into teaching online. Here’s what you need to know to do it right.
The benefits of teaching online
For those who aren’t used to online education, this new virtual classroom can feel stressful and inconvenient. However, there are actually several benefits to doing it this way:
The benefits of doing your volunteer training online with Intuto are clear, so let’s begin with creating your volunteer handbook – essentially the master document of your training program – to include in your course. It should be the first thing volunteers read as they embark on your online training program, and they will refer back to it for the duration of their volunteer period.
June 21st to 27th is National Volunteer Week 2020, a week in which we celebrate the contribution of volunteers in New Zealand who enrich and support charitable organisations around the country.
Part of supporting volunteers is making their jobs easier by supporting the organisations they’re passionate about. Many of our clients are organisations who rely heavily on volunteers and who need to save time, money and valuable resources while still training them to the highest level.
Selling a business - The importance of getting your ducks in a row.
The current business climate is nothing if not one of concern. The COVID pandemic has put a magnifying glass on the short, medium and long term prospects of every business, large and small. Already there have been multiple layoffs, significant numbers of businesses applying for protection and more than a few that have already accepted the inevitable. Those in the latter category deserve to be lauded. It is a heartbreaking decision to close a business, any business and requires a cool head to accept that in most cases, this is the best course of action for staff and creditors.
If you don’t know what SCORM is, you are probably lucky, and unless you have a good reason to dig into it, I suggest you read below and never think of it again.
I remember the first time I heard about SCORM (Sharable Content Object Reference Model) - it was 2004 and we wanted to follow a standard when creating our new content authoring tool. I remember feeling excited by the concept of a standard to share content between Learning Management Systems (LMS) - it made a lot of sense that we ensured our new course content followed this standard.
I printed the hundreds of pages that made up the SCORM 2004 standard and spent the weekend trying to stay awake as I read it….
The world fundamentally changed this year, and one of the parts of our lives that was the most affected was the way that we work. Many companies have had to press pause on hiring and even let existing employees go.
However, some companies, such as organisations in the health, community support and distribution sectors, are still in a position to be bringing in new staff. They are now faced with the new problem of onboarding new team members remotely, which presents challenges both for the new hire and for the team they are joining.
Engaging and efficient onboarding is even more important than usual, so that new hires become productive staff members as quickly as possible. Hiring managers and team leaders are therefore pivoting and adapting to virtual onboarding as we try to keep businesses going in our new normal.
A good onboarding process, whether in person or virtual, not only trains new staff but also engages and builds relationships with them so they feel welcomed, valued and confident about their future with your company while still ensuring safety compliance.
As an online training company, we’re in a better position than most to help companies navigate this unusual situation. We’ve been helping companies with spread out, disparate teams manage their remote onboarding for years.
One such example is Aztec , a New Zealand North Island-based forestry transport company with more than 100 owner/driver contractors located Taupo, Rotorua, Central Waikato, King Country, Tauranga, Eastern Bay Of Plenty, Hauraki, Thames, Wellsford, Whangarei and Kerikeri. Our collaboration with employee management solutions company Engage lets Aztec onboard and provide ongoing support to their widespread team remotely and efficiently.
As such, we’ve compiled a short guide to remote onboarding to help make this new process as easy as possible for you and your new team members.
A case study in Maori language learning.
We all saw Covid-19 affecting countries overseas and we all knew that it would eventually reach New Zealand’s shores, but not many believed it would impact New Zealand’s teaching curriculum as quickly and dramatically as it did on March 23rd, when it was announced all schools were closed as at 3pm that day.
When the lockdown happened, I don’t think anybody really knew what to do. Certainly getting close to your loved ones and staying safe was step one, but after that, how could educators help the community and parents get through the four week (at least) lock down?
One of the most important functions of industry bodies and trade and professional associations is to provide members with continued professional development (CPD) while also providing a forum for members to network and learn from each other.
Working remotely allows your workforce to get the job done on their terms. There's no longer the need to coop everyone up inside of an office. Rather than dictating where they work, you can provide them with various tools and apps that allow for communication, collaboration, and more. It can reduce costs, boost productivity, and eliminate the need for everyone to commute through traffic on a daily basis.
Update to the Intuto Share page
After a lot of customer feedback and discussion we have decided to move the Share page away from the course publish process. Intuto has a number of options around sharing content including bulk upload, groups, and collections making sharing simple and elegant. Moving the Share page improves the course publish user experience.