by Aubrey Mellos | Nov 19, 2015 | Blog
You know what’s almost as delicious as Thanksgiving dinner? Designing an LMS. Ok wait, that metaphor doesn’t really work. How about this, planning a Thanksgiving dinner may provide some insights in developing an engaging, impactful, and delicious…ok, maybe not delicious…learning management system.
The presentation of the Thanksgiving dinner typically includes many different dishes, colors and textures. Yes the turkey is a centerpiece, however when you view the buffet or dinner table it becomes a component of a what is typically a large display of the ridiculously generous spread of appetizers, side dishes and desserts that accompany said turkey that gives Thanksgiving its truly festive feel. In fact many people will say they enjoy the side items the most.
In designing an LMS, consider that the items you have put the most effort into, courses, webinars, conferences, etc., represent the turkey. They’re some of the LMS’s major selling points, and you wouldn’t have the LMS without them. However similar to the side items and desserts at our Thanksgiving dinner, LMS’s can be created to provide a blend of different experiences that “make the meal.” These might be in the form of blogs, Podcasts, peer to peer learning, polls, and resource libraries. This blend makes our LMS feel less like a stagnant website and more like a real learning community, where there is always something interesting and current to participate in.
So, after this year’s Thanksgiving meal, whether you’re satisfied or uncomfortably full, think about what “side dishes” you could add to your LMS to make the user experience more fulfilling and engaging.
by Aubrey Mellos | Aug 10, 2015 | News
(Columbia, MD – August 10, 2015) CommPartners, a leader in online learning and events, is pleased to announce the launch of Event Producer, our second education platform from the Elevate Learning Management Suite.
Event Producer was designed specifically to build community and engagement through live and on-demand webinar programs. The platform integrates with a client’s database, content management system, branding and merchant services to provide a seamless experience for both the host organization and its participants. Processing of continuing education credits through assessment, survey and certificate components are included.
Benefits for Webinar Hosts
- Integrated Web Conferencing: Event Producer comes with web conferencing eliminating the need for an external license.
- Project Plans: Hosts are supported by integrated project plans that manage all the details for each webinar. The platform provides timelines leading up to an event and will notify host and presenters when tasks are due.
- Relevancy to Each Member of Your Community: Tag content based on interest areas or roles and promote those programs to subsets of your community.
Benefits for Participants
- Event Forums: As soon as a participant registers they can engage other registrants and the presenters through interactive discussions before and after the event. A one hour webinar becomes several weeks of peer sharing and social learning.
- Pre Event Polls: Polls before the event provides the presenter a sense of where the audience is to produce a more relevant and informative event.
- Access to a Library of Events: All upcoming and past events are available through a participant’s dashboard.
Rich Finstein, CEO of CommPartners, shared, “We realized through our years of producing online events that clients were looking for a more effective platform for webinars and other live programs. Event Producer delivers a true social learning environment, integrating expert content with peer ideas and experiences. We believe it’s the perfect way to engage a new generation of learners.”
For more information, please visit www.commpartners.com or email info@commpartners.com
About CommPartners
CommPartners provides online education and event services to the association community. The company‘s mission is focused on providing a well-planned and intelligent approach to sharing of knowledge, with a core focus on creating positive user experiences. Over 1,300 organizations have selected CommPartners to manage their eLearning programs. The CommPartners team is diverse, but together they share a common passion: to be strategic thinkers, dedicated to advancing a client’s mission through exceptional education programs.
Downloadable Release
###
by Aubrey Mellos | Jun 17, 2015 | Blog
There are so many AMS offerings available. Most of us know the companies serving the association community. Names like: Abila, Personify, iMIS, Aptify, Association Anywhere and Protech, to list a few. Why is integration with these systems and others so critical to the success of an association’s learning management system (LMS)? After all, AMS integration done well will go completely unnoticed by the end-user. It is, if you will, the “unsung hero” of learning management systems – and this is why we at CommPartners have worked to ensure that our Learning Platform, Elevate, can be integrated with any AMS. Though the benefits of integration are not necessarily seen, they are very much felt. Here are some of the benefits:
Personalization – Cutting Through the Noise
If a learner is signed in with appropriate credentials to your AMS through your website, they are signed into Elevate. AMS integration allows for seamless movement with the proper access and credentials. In Elevate, this means the user will be greeted by name and is provided designated content, pages, rates, and their history; all keyed on their member record.
Relevancy – Building a Unique Experience
Through integration, specific content is presented to a learner based on their member-role, position, location, etc. Integration also allows an admin to display specific pricing based on the user’s role (ex. member v. non-member, student, faculty, seniors). Automatic authentication also provides for an added level of security and privacy – relevant content can be created to display specifically to a user group, or limited to a specific role or status. Additionally, every user has a home dashboard, which allows him/her to easily track their work within Elevate.
Reporting – Made Easy
Finally, AMS integration provides for ease in reporting. Elevate provides 30+ unique reports admins can run to gather data and receive feedback on member and product activity. This information is available through Elevate’s API to be pulled by the AMS.
If you have questions regarding your specific AMS or how it can integrate with our learning management system, Elevate, please reach out to Eve Finstein at efinstein@commpartners.com.
By: Eve Finstein, Elevate Project Manager
by Aubrey Mellos | Jun 11, 2015 | Blog
“Social learning” is quite the buzzword today, isn’t it? With access to information on literally any topic, and the immediate thoughts and reactions of our friends, family, influencers, and favorite strangers all contained in a device we carry around in our back pocket – it’s a wonder we even need books anymore. (kidding of course, I’m still in the book fan club, (v. e-reader), but that’s for a different piece).
By its name, social learning may seem less important than instructional learning. The word social leads many to think “socialize,” which seems something best saved for Friday happy hour and not business. However, today’s online learning systems and social portals, like Higher Logic’s Connected Communities, are turning this whole notion on its head.
Certainly seeking insight from experts and thought leaders is important, particularly when one is looking to grow his or her knowledge base or understanding around a particular topic. However, in today’s dynamic economy, more and more it’s not what you know or do, but how you do it that can have the most substantial impact on organizational success. And this is an area where social learning can really shine.
For those of us who are not in the cognitive sciences field, it may interest you to know that social learning is a social science theory (and not just an excuse to waste a half-hour on Twitter). Social Learning Theory proposes that learning is a cognitive process that takes place in a social context, it is based upon observation and the information extracted from these observations, in particular, observing behaviors and the consequences of those behaviors.
In the business world, social learning is involved in the development of best practices and new initiatives, innovations or methods. Here, successful plans come to life after looking at what others have done, or are doing, and evaluating the consequences of those schemes – they are rarely, if ever, created in a vacuum. In the world of online learning – which, overall, is mostly populated with instructional learning – adding methods for social learning can add a significant perk for your users by providing a way to embed the facts and figures from instructional learning into the real world.
At CommPartners, we are specifically seeking to meld instructional and social learning through a collaborative with Higher Logic’s Connected Communities. CommPartners’ LMS Platform, Elevate, now allows administrators to create RSS feeds for any products housed within it for display in an association’s Higher Logic platform. This collaboration seeks to facilitate social learning around and about other education pieces by embedding the instructional learning in a place where social learning is already taking place (as opposed to the other way around). In this way, members can engage in social learning and access related e-learning products concurrently. It’s not just discussions, it’s not just expert instruction, it’s both and much more.
Eve Finstein is an Elevate Project Manager with CommPartners. She can be reached at: efinstein@commpartners.com
