Teaching and education has always been about more than just the subject matter. It’s also about how the material is packaged and presented to learners. With eLearning, students might never see their teachers or meet in a group with their peers. Because eLearning lacks some of these components of traditional education, the visual aspect has become more important than ever. Good graphic design is a key part of creating effective eLearning material.

There are plenty of eLearning creators who are excellent educators, but might not have been trained in visual communication. Even if you’re not a graphic designer by trade, you can incorporate these graphic design principles to instantly improve the effectiveness of your eLearning courses.

1. Use images with purpose.

This means using images when they add something to the content, not when they distract from what students are meant to learn. Images should complement and enrich the text.

Image quality is just as important as image content. Your eLearning content should project a professional appearance, and it can’t do that with out-of-focus, pixelated images. Using low quality images devalues your content. It can make learners doubt that your course is a reputable source of information.

2. Incorporate color psychology.

Whether or not they realize it, your learners strongly associate colors with certain concepts and ideas. To make sure your message is getting across the way you want it to, it’s important to understand those associations and use colors accordingly.

Here are some of the most common color associations:

Red: Red might be used to represent love, passion, and romance (think Valentine’s Day hearts, roses, etc.). More commonly in this context, it’s used to represent a warning or danger (it’s the color of stop signs, blood, etc.). Either way, we’re conditioned to immediately give our attention to text or accents in red.

Green: Green is generally considered a “safe” color (think of green on a stoplight or a green check mark indicating approval on a form). It’s also commonly associated with health, nature, and in some contexts, money and finance.

Blue: Blue tends to be associated with authority: It’s frequently used in bank logos, branding for health and drug companies, and in many other professional contexts to indicate reliability and trustworthiness. This is a great color to use for emphasis without drawing attention away from your main message.

3. Know your fonts.

Fonts are an underappreciated aspect of good graphic design for eLearning. After all, whatever font you choose, your learners are going to spend quite a lot of time staring at it. There are literally thousands of font options out there. But your best bet as an eLearning course designer is to stick to the basics.

A clean, sans serif font like Verdana, Arial, or Helvetica is always a safe choice. (Sans serif simply means that the letters don’t have little extensions, called serifs, at the end of the line strokes. Times New Roman is a serif font. The default font on your phone or tablet is almost certainly sans serif.)

You can deviate from these standard sans serif fonts in your titles or headings, but use other fonts sparingly. Generally speaking, you should only use two or, at most, three fonts in your entire course. It’s important to use fonts consistently as well. One font for all of the text body and another easy-to-read font for the titles and headers is a good format.

4. Keep your layout clean and logical.

When it comes to the overlap of graphic design and eLearning, cognitive load is an especially important aspect to keep in mind. Per Psychologist World, cognitive load “is a theory which aims to understand how the cognitive load produced by learning tasks can impede students’ ability to process new information and to create long-term memories. Cognitive load is typically increased when unnecessary demands are imposed on a learner, making the task of processing information overly complex.”

What does this mean for eLearning? Essentially, it means that the harder your learners have to work to understand the flow of your course, the less attention they can devote to actually learning the material.

Part of this comes from the technical implementation and method of delivery for the course. But graphic design is a large component as well. A couple of tips for reducing cognitive load:

• Utilize white space (also known as negative space). This literally means blank, empty space that isn’t occupied by text or images. Including plenty of white space makes your course appear neat and organized.
• Build your layout around key focal points. As soon as your learners open a new page or module, their eyes should be drawn to a specific element that captures what the page is all about. If your layout has too many focal points, learners will find it hard to make sense of the information on the page. The same is true if your layout has no focal points.
• Incorporate visuals. This relates to our first graphic design principle: Images should reflect the core message of the module. But visuals don’t have to mean photographs. Consider replacing chunks of text with infographics, charts, or graphs, which are often much easier for learners to process. Even when you are using text, create a visual hierarchy with the use of headings, subheadings, and bullet points.

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In late September, Northeastern University announced a new collaboration with IBM, one of the world’s leading global technology companies. Through the new collaboration, students with IBM digital badges will be able to apply their badges toward Northeastern academic credit.

The partnership is designed to address the skills gap in the modern workforce. Learners will now have a clear path to academic recognition of their skills as well as increased incentive to study topics such as analytics, cybersecurity, artificial intelligence, and other emerging in-demand fields.

Northeastern Integrates Pathways to Professional Learning

Northeastern is the first institution of higher learning to recognize IBM digital badges toward graduate degrees and certificates. The partnership with IBM builds on Northeastern’s collaboration with other major employers, including Major League Baseball and General Electric. These partner programs ensure the knowledge that students are responsible for learning is directly tied to critical workplace skills.

This was the driving force behind the partnership with IBM. “We must eliminate the gap between learning and work,” said Philomena Mantella, who serves as the senior vice president and CEO of the Professional Advancement Network at Northeastern. “This new collaboration with IBM illustrates our commitment to partnering with employers to design innovative pathways for learners to continuously advance their skills and achieve their professional goals.”

Global and Multigenerational Learners at IBM

The population of IBM learners represents 190 countries around the world. In 2016, “IBMers” — including employees, customers, and members of the public — worked through over 26 million hours of learning content. The pool of IBMers extends far beyond traditional college-age students or entry-level professionals. Among American learners, more than half of the logged learning hours were completed by IBMers over the age of 50.

Each year, IBM invests $500 million in the education and professional development of its employees. This robust education strategy has made IBM an ideal candidate for a partnership with a Tier I university like Northeastern.

IBM has already issued nearly 500,000 digital badges in more than 1,000 areas, such as data analytics and design thinking. More than half of those 1,000 areas have been matched to academic programs at IBM. In the near future, qualified badge holders will have the Northeastern credit program made available to them.

Partnership Bridges Workplace Learning and Academic Recognition

Through the pilot program, IBM badge holders will be able to earn prior learning credit toward numerous Northeastern degrees. Utilizing these badges as evidence of learning achievement means that graduate students can accelerate their degree path. Currently, the digital credentials can be counted towards three master’s degrees: Data Analytics, Project Management, and Professional Management.

Specifically, IBMers who have taken a Cognitive Class through the Analytics Program can receive advanced standing for one three-credit elective through Northeastern. Individuals who hold any one of IBM’s Project Management badges are eligible for advanced standing in a range of graduate-level programs.

These credentials-for-credit opportunities are just the beginning for the Northeastern partnership. Another 51 graduate degrees and 17 certificate programs will be incorporated into the program in the near future.

The program provides a seamless pathway between workplace learning and traditional academic achievement. Robert McDonald, vice president for support transformation and training at IBM, discussed the importance of the program to employees and to the technology industry.

“This program advances the already strong partnership between Northeastern and IBM,” McDonald said in an article from Northeastern University. “To be successful in today’s workforce every one of us must be on a continuous learning path throughout our careers as virtually every profession is changing with the introduction of technologies like artificial intelligence and the cloud. This program will enable IBMers and others to enhance their skills and apply them in the workplace, which benefits clients and employees’ careers.”

Individuals who have earned an IBM badge can visit the Northeastern University website to find out how their credentials can be used toward prior learning credit.

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On September 26, Anagram Group announced the launch of a series of new workshops. The training programs will focus on developing management and leadership in the digital age.

Singapore-based Anagram Group is a training and communications company. Founded by Liyana and Mark Stuart, Anagram provides management training, team-building support, and personality profiling services. Through a combination of eLearning and face-to-face instruction, Anagram Group will be providing a suite of future-focused workshops that are designed to prepare leaders for change in the workplace.

Topics Covered by the New Workshops

Anagram’s new workshops were prompted by a startling statistic: Experts believe that half of all jobs will disappear in the next ten years because of artificial intelligence. With this in mind, Anagram created a series of training programs in order for organizations to “future-proof” their leaders. 

Topics for the newly announced series include “Leadership in the Digital Age,” “Design Thinking and Innovation” and “Change Management.”

A new workshop on “Emotional Intelligence” is also part of the series. This workshop is designed to equip leaders with empathy and the ability to appropriately respond to emotion in others.

These workshops will be offered in numerous formats. Most of the topics are available as a keynote speech for up to 100 people, a one- or two-day workshop for up to 20 people, or both. The signature program in the series, “Leadership in the Digital Age,” will be available as a keynote speech, a workshop, and a yearlong program.

Adaptability as an Asset

Mark Stuart has provided training to over 2,000 individuals across more than 100 organizations. Through Anagram, Mark has provided training in places like London, Cambodia, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, and more. He’s the author of the 2016 ebook “Leadership In The Digital Age” (available for free download).

As Managing Director and Head Trainer for Anagram Group, Stuart emphasizes that change is coming, and in a big way. The increase in digitization and automation will have wide-ranging impacts across nearly every industry in the coming years. Artificial intelligence, he believes, will radically transform the business landscape as we know it — and it’s a matter of when, not if.

Because these changes are in the pipeline already, Stuart explains that now is the time to prepare.

“In the future, many studies have cited that 50% of jobs could disappear due to AI. As business costs rise, more employers could hire freelancers from a global pool rather than local employees. This will mean increased competition for jobs, flatter organization structures, and more pressure for leaders to innovate and drive change within companies,” Stuart said in a press release about the new workshop series. “To stand out from the pack, leaders will need superior soft skills and technological know-how to manage humans and the increasing involvement of technology.”

The solution, Stuart explains, lies in focusing on what technology can’t do. There are plenty of human elements that artificial intelligence can’t replace (at least at any time in the near future).

“As soft skills become even more critical for managers, Anagram’s workshops will cater to behaviors that are more challenging for artificial intelligence to replicate – such as understanding, motivating, and interacting with human beings,” Stuart explained. “Skills like persuasion, social understanding, complex problem solving and empathy will become increasingly important.”

Preparing for the Progress of Technology

Liyana Stuart, Marketing Director for Anagram, recognized the present moment as a crucial juncture for businesses.

“We cannot fight the progress of technology – we can only prepare for it,” she said. “We have seen a 45% surge in workshop requests catering towards preparing managers for change, innovation and the digital era. The challenge for future leaders would be how to use their soft skills and creativity to innovate in the workplace, and that is what we aim to provide. We are also seeking partners and collaborators who are focused on delivering this need.”

More information about the new series of workshops, including pricing details, is available on the Anagram Group website.

Featured Image: Charles Forerunner, Unsplash.

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Some say there’s no such thing as a free lunch. The open-source movement begs to differ. The prevalence of eLearning has made it easier than ever to create and share open-source resources. Whether it’s lesson plans, a software program, or a collection of media content, teachers might not need to pay for the resources that can help bridge the education gap around the world.

What Does Open-Source Really Mean?

Although the term “open-source” appears often, it’s not always used to mean the same thing.

Open-source typically indicates that the content is being shared under a Creative Commons license. There are two important factors for something to qualify as open-source: It doesn’t have a single designated creator, and it’s free to share and distribute.

Probably the best known example of this kind of material is Wikipedia. In this example, the two key components of open-source are readily apparent. Anyone can access all of Wikipedia for free, and at the same time, anyone can contribute to it.

To be effective, the content needs an efficient way for creators to communicate, and a channel to move through. Essentially, this means that open resources could not have existed 30 years ago at nearly the scale that it does today. The worldwide web is now the perfect method of connecting a vast network of teachers and educators. With the increasing integration of eLearning into education, there’s a ready-made opportunity to utilize these resources in every classroom.

How Open-Source Can Address the Education Gap

There is a vast range of open-source resources specifically geared toward educators and trainers. Teachers who don’t take advantage of these tools risk reinventing the wheel, so to speak; they may spend precious time and resources re-doing work that other teachers have already done.

“The move to open education practice (OEP) is more than a shift in content, it is an immersive experience in collaborative teaching and learning,” explains the website for OER Commons, one of the leading places to find open-source educational content. “OEP leverages open education resources (OER) to expand the role of educators, allowing teachers to become curators, curriculum designers, and content creators. In sharing teaching tools and strategies, educators network their strengths and improve the quality of education for their students.”

Open resources are especially powerful in education for a number of reasons. For one, the underfunded condition of many schools means that free resources are the only kind of resources that teachers can access. Because of the huge disparity in educational opportunity in America, and even more pronounced disparity throughout the world, many teachers have to rely on outdated or impractical teaching materials simply because no others are available.

Undertrained teachers and poorly designed teaching material are both significant factors in the educational achievement gap. Resources that are free and, importantly, easily modifiable provide a way to address this disparity for students around the world.

How Open-Source Changes Education for Students

Besides providing desperately needed training and support to teachers, open educational resources can also have a powerful impact directly on students. Open-source software is an excellent example.

Many software programs exist on two distinct levels. One is the interface that users encounter, and the other is the back-end design that makes the software work. For most commercial software, users will only ever see the interface.

However, open-source programs are different. They encourage anyone to look under the hood, tinker around, pull things apart and put them back together again. For students interested in technology, this software provides an opportunity to learn on a deeply practical level.

In recent years, a number of citizen science initiatives have allowed students to directly participate in open-source science projects, from crowdsourcing cultural heritage reconstruction to exploring the oceans. This encourages students not just to complete projects within the context of their classrooms, but also to engage with a worldwide community of other students and scientists. The feeling of contributing to a community encourages a global perspective. In short, incorporating open-source projects into the classroom can give students a chance to see the real-world impact of their work.

For more information about open-source educational resources, including a directory of such resources, visit OpenSource.com.

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On Thursday, September 21, Dutch eLearning company aNewSpring announced the opening of a new office in Johannesburg. The announcement was made during the E-learning Insights 2017 conference, held in Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa.

Rene Persoon, co-owner of aNewSpring, revealed that the Johannesburg office would serve as a base of operations for the launch of aNewSpring Africa. The office is opening in collaboration with aNewSpring’s exclusive distributor, New Leaf Technologies.

aNewSpring Offers Training Solutions

Based in Rotterdam, aNewSpring is an eLearning platform with over 400 clients training more than a million learners. The company specializes in working with clients to create custom training programs, integrating social learning, blended learning, and adaptive learning.

The payment model for aNewSpring is a particularly strong draw for training developers. Through aNewSpring, developers can create content for free. Instead of paying upfront or for tiered access for learners, developers will pay for each learner that enrolls in their course. The pay-per-use model is a unique alternative to many other companies in the training development space.

aNewSpring also offers a catalog and webshop that enables clients to enroll learners and sell their content directly online.

Clients can use the aNewSpring online editor to develop content, or they can incorporate external content from another builder. aNewSpring training courses may feature videos, assessments, surveys, and other types of assignments. Training developers can even add webcam assignments or webinars through the aNewSpring platform.

Collaboration with New Leaf Technologies

The partnership with New Leaf Technologies paved the way for aNewSpring’s expansion into the African market. New Leaf was established in 2013 as the learning technology division of LA Intronet, a well-known human resources firm founded in 1999. The company joined forces with aNewSpring in 2016.

New Leaf specializes in the rapid deployment of low-cost, cutting-edge learning and development solutions. Specifically, New Leaf offers corporate learning courseware, adaptive training programs, and knowledge retention strategies. 

“We have been working with New Leaf Technologies for over a year. The company has been instrumental in the success of aNewSpring in Africa and we thought the timing was perfect to open a local office,” Persoon said in an article from IT News Africa.

aNewSpring Africa

Paul Hanly, newly appointed Managing Director of aNewSpring Africa and CEO of New Leaf Technologies, expressed his optimism about the unique opportunities that the new office will open up, both for aNewSpring and for the companies in the surrounding region.

“This is really good news for the South African industry,” Hanly said. “aNewSpring is an innovative company with a really inspiring product and I am delighted that they have the confidence to invest in the African market.”

Although so much of the world’s business and commerce happens digitally these days, Hanly explained that there’s still no replacement for personal connections. 

“We can now build long-lasting relationships with clients as we’re able to provide local support, local onboarding as well as localized pricing,” Hanly said. “We’re not just another faceless cloud-based software solution. We are on the ground with a really good understanding of the African market.”

Persoon, who spent two weeks in both Johannesburg and Cape Town, reflected similar excitement about the possibilities of corporate eLearning in Africa.

“Africa is such an interesting place. I have met a vast number of people and there is so much potential,” Persoon said.

But that potential doesn’t come without challenges. “Our learning platform is ideal for this market where low bandwidth and high data costs are a reality,” Persoon noted. “We deliver training providers and corporate academies in Africa the technology to build inspiring and effective learning journeys without having to use data-intensive solutions.”

“We look forward to our clients using our platform to reach more people to upskill and cross skill,” Persoon said. “There is a definite need and with cutting-edge functionality like adaptivity, personalization, collaborative and blended learning with knowledge retention, aNewSpring can really make a difference.”

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On September 18, leading eLearning company Skillsoft announced a significant expansion of its library of ebooks. The corporate training company will now work with over 230 publishers to offer more than 40,000 titles, including digital books and audiobooks.

The move to further expand the Skillsoft digital library builds on the results of a March 2017 white paper. This study found that ebooks remain an essential component of the learning experience.

“A Modern Modality for Modern Learners”

While digital content is largely trending toward interactive media, video, infographics, and similarly “modern” modes of communication, Skillsoft has found that books are just as valuable as they ever were.

In a white paper entitled “Digital books: A modern modality for modern learners,” Skillsoft examined how numerous types of media supported learners while they developed new skills. The study compiled information from over 2,000 end users along with interviews with clients and industry experts. Researchers also dug into millions of data points to determine consumption patterns and user preferences.

The outcomes of this analysis highlighted the differences among content modalities such as books, audio books, videos, and self-study courseware. 

White Paper Findings

The results of the study were striking. Many had expected millennials to favor video or other more “modern” content modalities. However, millennials actually placed a higher value on books than other generations for learning certain skills. For example, 83% of millennials ranked books as important when learning a new IT skill. Baby boomers came in at 79% and Generation X at 73%.

Among all survey respondents, fully 80% described books as an important part of the learning experience. This includes respondents across a variety of job titles, industries, and generational groups.

Bill Donoghue, Skillsoft chairman and CEO, emphasized that when it comes to modern eLearning, books are anything but dead.

“There is an overwhelming appetite for authoritative referencing alongside modern learning modalities. Nothing provides this better than books,” Donoghue said in the press release for the white paper. “With five generations of employees in any given organization, there are bound to be differences in how they learn. However, we discovered that all modern learners crave relevance and substance, which is exactly what books provide.”

The full text of the Skillsoft white paper is available for download on the Skillsoft website.

Books Aren’t Just for Words

It’s important to note that, in this context, “book” doesn’t always just mean words and pictures. In the white paper, the term “book” is used to describe content that is fully searchable and optimized for desktop and mobile devices. This alone sets it apart from traditional ink-and-paper books.

The study found that the preference for books was sometimes highest when it was paired with a complementary content modality. For example, up to 82% of IT and business users indicated a strong interest in hybrid learning paths. These hybrid learning paths include books that are integrated with self-study courseware.

For other subjects, such as soft skills and leadership skills, users identified audiobooks and book summaries as some of the most important complementary material.

Skillsoft’s Percipio Offers Cloud-based Platform for Books

The newly announced expansions to the Skillsoft library will be available through the company’s cloud-based learning platform, Percipio. The platform offers personalized pathways across over 450 channels of curated learning and development content. These channels incorporate more than 50,000 competencies, carefully aligned to the expectations and requirements of industry-leading organizations.

Books on Windows 10, Scrivener, iPad, iPhone, Access 2013, SharePoint 2013, and SLR Photography are among the latest additions to Percipio.

“Today’s modern learners demand integrated content experiences that fit their preferred learning styles and their busy lives,” Donoghue said in a press release about the library expansion. “This means having books in an array of modalities, including digital and audiobooks and allowing users to search over 450,000 authoritative content chapters. Our commitment to the best, most accessible multi-modal learning content ensures that we continue to lead the industry while guiding learners to the next phase of their careers.”

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The Opportunity by Design Initiative was launched in 2013. A product of the Carnegie Corporation of New York (CCNY), the initiative was created to encourage the adoption of personalized eLearning and other innovative practices in high-poverty areas.

Recently, RAND Corporation released a report detailing the performance of the initiative’s first two years in practice. The report is part of a five-year summative evaluation of the program’s success.

Initiative Goals and Key Findings from the Study

The Opportunity by Design Initiative funded the launch of a network of small high schools of choice. RAND’s study focuses on ten of these Opportunity by Design schools. 

The curriculum and learning experience of the schools were to be fundamentally based on ten design principles. Of the principles outlined by the initiative, three of them are defined as “ObD Power Principles.” These are:

• Prioritizing Mastery: Students are expected to demonstrate deep understanding of well-defined, rigorous competencies.
• Personalized Learning: Students will experience learning pathways that are tailored to their individual needs and interests.
• Positive Youth Development: Students have access to experiences and relationships that promote the skills and mindset for success.

The study included classroom observations, parent and student focus groups, and a sample of artifacts from each school. Researchers also conducted interviews with teachers, principals, and district staff.

JoEllen Lynch is the executive director of Springpoint Partners in School Design, an independent nonprofit that provides technical support and assistance to the ObD Schools.

“These results are very preliminary, but they do provide a valuable assessment of what is going on at the classroom level, including daily challenges and possible solutions,” Lynch said. “This will inform our work, and we hope, provide lessons for the field as more and more schools employ these types of approaches.”

Preliminary Successes and Strengths

The report found a number of promising results. The implementation of the design principles was strong across the schools. In fact, the implementation improved over the two years of the study. This was especially true of the Personalized Learning and Prioritizing Mastery principles.

Data and information from Springpoint was widely used to help identify and spread best practices. This method of aligning the school systems could help facilitate and capitalize on innovation throughout the network of schools.

The RAND study found that Cohort II schools (which started in 2015-2016) were able to successfully build on the foundations and adapt to the challenges experienced by Cohort I schools (which opened the previous year). For example, Cohort II teachers reported fewer obstacles to adopting personalized instructional and mastery-based teaching practices.

Early Challenges for Opportunity by Design

The Opportunity by Design schools faced a number of unique obstacles as a result of their innovative model.

“There’s a pretty steep learning curve when you’re adjusting your practice to teach in a more innovative, tech-based environment,” said Laura S. Hamilton, an associate director of RAND Education and one of the study’s authors. “We need to be thinking about whether teachers have the training, support, and time they need to implement these models and use these tools.”

Teachers often valued the autonomy to create their own course material. However, many felt they had too little time and support from the district to effectively complete the task. Similarly, teachers lacked consistent access to meaningful data that would have allowed them to further personalize their teaching material.

A significant number of teachers also felt constrained by external pressures to meet benchmarks. As a result, some students were forced to move through the material at a designated pace, regardless of mastery.

The Future of Opportunity by Design Schools

Despite the setbacks and obstacles, many remain optimistic about the potential of educational technology to continue to increase student mastery and improve personalized learning.

“Overall, we’re encouraged that these schools’ grassroots efforts have gotten as much traction as RAND describes, despite a lack of off-the-shelf tools and the challenges associated with being one of the first out of the gate,” JoEllen Lynch said. “This is a nascent initiative, but we feel that there is a strong foundation to build upon.”

The full report is available for free download from the RAND Corporation website.

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The idea behind online universities is extremely appealing: Spend some money, do some work on your computer, and earn a college degree. As news reports about the skyrocketing cost of traditional colleges continue making the rounds, online universities seem like a welcome respite from the rising cost of higher education. Add that to the huge degree of flexibility that’s so valuable to working adults with families, and it’s easy to see why online-only degrees seem like the perfect solution.

But the combination of online anonymity and large amounts of money changing hands have also made online universities a breeding ground for scams. Unaccredited institutions handing out bogus degrees are a major threat to the legitimacy and success of eLearning.

The Business Model of Diploma Mills

Diploma mills typically follow a fairly consistent model. They have polished, professional-looking websites, often with accreditation seals prominently displayed. Sometimes the websites include articles published by real news outlets like CNN. Most feature video testimonials from faculty and students.

However, almost every aspect of these websites is fictional. The photos of “campus” come from stock photography websites. The accreditation seals are either entirely fake or they come from “accreditation mills,” organizations that exist solely to appoint these websites with the appearance of legitimacy. The news articles are often planted by employees of the diploma mill in “citizen journalism” sections of news websites. The video testimonials feature paid actors, not real students or professors.

These websites are in the business of separating would-be students from their money in a number of ways. Some people pay to receive a diploma knowing full well that the “university” is just a front. They buy bachelor’s, master’s, or even doctorate degrees to land a job or secure a promotion.

Others, however, are duped into believing the university is real. Many of these fake universities collect a resume or statement, supposedly so they can use the information to evaluate how much academic credit an applicant can earn for their life or work experience. Prior learning assessments are a legitimate and valuable aspect of many real online universities. But in this case, they are simply a way to add a veneer of authenticity.

Still others are told that they will receive course material after they’ve paid enrollment and registration fees. Unwary consumers pay larger and larger sums of money for classes that don’t exist.

Diploma Mills Remain a Consistent Problem

The most notorious diploma mill scheme is associated with Pakistani company Axact. This shadowy conglomerate was reputed to run over 370 bogus universities at its height. After a 2015 investigative report from the New York Times, authorities raided the Axact headquarters and the company was shut down — at least nominally.

However, none of the senior staff of Axact were ever convicted. Many fake universities associated with Axact continue operations today. In fact, just last week, Manitoba-based CBC News discovered that 800 Canadians may have purchased degrees from Axact-affiliated universities. More than 100 schools and accreditation bodies are said to be a part of the ongoing scheme.

Those that had purchased phony degrees included professionals in the finance and health care industry, as well as numerous business owners. Other fake degrees were associated with nurses, engineers, and counselors. Master’s degrees and doctorate degrees were the most popular purchases, among other certifications and credentials.

What Fake Universities Mean for Real eLearning

The presence of diploma mills could be hugely damaging to the reputation and success of legitimate online schools. These fake universities cast suspicion on those who have earned degrees through an accredited course of study. As a result of increased uncertainty, HR officials could be changing the way they look at credentials.

Barbara Bowes, president at Legacy Bowes Group, reflected on what the recent revelations about the fake degrees purchased in Canada mean for the hiring process.

“We, in HR, have to start getting more cognizant of the variety of what is out there and what is credible,” Bowes said in the CBC News article. “Is it an accredited university? Who is accrediting it? And is the accrediting agency itself credible? But that’s a lot of work for us, to be honest, and I’m sure that some — a lot of things — are going to slip through the cracks.”

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Trainers teach material, and employees absorb new knowledge — at least long enough to pass the test at the end of the module. And then it’s gone. All those new skills slip away almost as fast as they were learned.

Although modern technology has done a great deal for education — increasing access, lowering training costs, increasing flexibility — learning decay is one problem that persists. Why has learning decay remained such a stubborn issue, and what can we do about it?

Why We Forget

To understand what learning decay really means, it’s helpful to know a little bit about the psychology of forgetting.

“There are many reasons we forget things and often these reasons overlap,” explains Dr. Christopher L. Heffner in an article from AllPsych. “Some information never makes it to LTM [long term memory]. Other times, the information gets there, but is lost before it can attach itself to our LTM. Other reasons include decay, which means that information that is not used for an extended period of time decays or fades away over time. It is possible that we are physiologically preprogrammed to eventually erase data that no longer appears pertinent to us.”

When the information is first taught, it’s fresh in the minds of the learners. A week goes by, and in most cases, learners aren’t directly applying what they’ve learned — so it fades away.

This can be especially important for training in industry compliance, emergency preparedness, and harassment or discrimination. The information in these training sessions aren’t necessarily intended to be used on a day-to-day basis. But if a situation arises where this training becomes relevant, all too often, an employee won’t be able to recall what they learned in a long-ago workshop.

The Impact of Learning Decay

Eduardo Salas is a professor of organizational psychology at the University of Central Florida. He’s a program director at the university’s Institute for Simulation and Training, and has studied corporate training programs for over 20 years.

In a Wall Street Journal interview, Dr. Salas describes what learning decay means for the efficacy of corporate training.

“The American Society for Training and Development says that by the time you go back to your job, you’ve lost 90% of what you’ve learned in training. You only retain 10%,” Dr. Salas says. “If you don’t use the skills very quickly, you will have big decay very quickly. That’s why you need to reinforce, you need to assess. If you learn something and you don’t have the opportunity to practice, eventually you are going to lose it.”

How Technology Can Help

We might not have a silver bullet to prevent learning decay, but Dr. Salas has some suggestions.

“Testing is an integral part of training,” Dr. Salas says. “It is paramount for recognizing skills decay. Assessment should be done on a continuous basis, both formally and informally. Your direct supervisor often has the most intimate knowledge of important skills and whether you need to go back to training.”

But what training really needs to do, Dr. Salas argues, is emphasize how to use resources instead of forcing rote memorization. “Companies need to teach employees how and where to access facts,” he explains. “What training ought to do is help you get access to that information—databases, manuals, checklists—when you need it on the job. They cannot memorize everything.”

This is where technology can become an important weapon in the fight against learning decay. It’s become easier than ever to have large numbers of employees take a test on a computer, and then digitally crunch the data to pinpoint specific areas where knowledge is lacking.

Managers can take the assessment data and use it to implement relevant training. The training, in turn, can focus on educating employees about how to utilize resources and access information as needed. All of the databases, manuals, and checklists that anyone could want are now as easily accessible as the nearest smartphone.

In the past, training might have been about ensuring that employees could rattle off information that might or might not become relevant at any given time. But today, we can use technology to diagnose exactly when and where training is needed. Then, it’s a matter of teaching employees to effectively leverage technology so that they can do better, smarter work.

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Each year, Elearning! Magazine, a well-respected print and digital publication in the eLearning industry, publishes the Learning! 100. This list highlights the groundbreaking work of organizations that are shaping the field of eLearning. In late August, the magazine published the 2017 edition of the Learning! 100.

The winners range from corporate leaders like T-Mobile and Salesforce to Last Mile Health, an organization that trained over 1,300 Liberian health workers to stop the spread of the Ebola epidemic.

What Makes a Learning! 100 Winner

The honorees of the Learning! 100 list are chosen based on a number of factors. Each nominated company or organization is evaluated for three criteria:  Collaborative Strategies’ Collaboration Index, Darden School’s Learning Culture Index, and overall organizational performance. 

This methodology incorporates both qualitative and quantitative considerations, and allows the nominees to be ranked without bias for organization size.

2017 Top Ten Winners

Elearning! Magazine publishes a profile on each of the top five winners in both the private and public sectors. These featured winners are honored for a specific area of excellence.

The top five winners in the private sector are:

1. T-Mobile (Area of Excellence: Culture)
2. Amazon Web Services (Area of Excellence: Performance)
3. Salesforce (Area of Excellence: Performance)
4. Cisco (Area of Excellence: Innovation)
5. Ingersoll Rand (Area of Excellence: Culture)

The top five winners in the public sector are:

1. Defense Acquisition University (Area of Excellence: Performance)
2. American Heart Association (Area of Excellence: Culture)
3. Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (Area of Excellence: Collaboration)
4. Last Mile Health (Area of Excellence: Collaboration)
5. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Acquisition Academy (Area of Excellence: Culture)

The full list of all 100 winners is available on the Elearning! website.

Winner Profile: Last Mile Health

Many of the 2017 winners have appeared on the Learning! 100 list before. In fact, the only newcomer to the top five list is Last Mile Health. This organization was founded in 2007 under the name Tiyatien Health, or “justice in health.” With just $6,000 in seed money, Tiyatien Health launched the first rural, public HIV program in Liberia.

The very first patients of Tiyatien Health were treated in a converted closet in the war-damaged city of Zwedru. However, the organization’s founders quickly realized that their help was most needed in Liberia’s “last mile.” This term describes the people who are out of reach of the standard healthcare system because of poverty or distance. It’s not uncommon for these individuals to walk two days to get access to modern health care. In 2013, Tiyatien Health became Last Mile Health.

The organization now supports 38 clinics in southeastern Liberia, where they recruit, train, equip, manage, and hire locals to provide health services for their neighbors. As of 2017, Last Mile Health has trained over 1,300 health care workers.

The organization provided support for these workers to “keep safe, keep serving” in the midst of the Ebola epidemic. Last Mile clinics helped to educate workers and community members about how to prevent the spread of disease and how to report and manage suspected cases. Thanks to the efforts of Last Mile Health and other organizations like it, the Ebola epidemic was brought to a halt in 2016.

Applications for the 2018 Learning! 100

The application period for the 2018 Learning! 100 list will open on January 1, 2018 and run through March 31. The companies and organizations who are named to the top 100 will be notified by April 15.

Final rankings, including the coveted top five slots in the public and private sectors, will be announced during the Annual Learning! 100 Award Ceremony, which is a part of the Enterprise Learning! Conference 2018. The date for the 2018 conference is to be determined.

About Elearning! Magazine

Elearning! Magazine is published under a Creative Commons license. The magazine encourages the free distribution of its content. Contributions from readers are welcome in the form of case studies, how-to features, product news, and announcements, which will be considered for publication in Elearning! Magazine, websites, and email newsletters. More information about Elearning! is available on the magazine’s Publication Profile page.

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