Over the past few years, our country has been subject to massive change. Properties and corporate offices are tightening the budget belts and unfortunately education and training have given up several notches to tighten the bulge. A truly effective learning plan does not have to be expensive but it will take some planning and cooperation with all levels of management. Use these tips to develop a plan that ensures consistency in policies and helps you meet performance and property objectives:

· Develop a continuous, blended learning track for each position

· Personalize learning

· Use collaboration in learning

· Use knowledge banks and message boards to distribute learning

Develop a continuous, blended learning track for each position

A continuous, blended approach to training allows learning to be broken into segments, rather

than one long course. A training track or plan is developed by position and is based on each learner accomplishing and demonstrating behavioral-based objectives (you can “see” the behavior change). Here is an example of behavioral-based Fair Housing objectives for a new maintenance technician:

1. To define all “protected” groups under the federal fair housing law.

2. To describe whom is included in each of these groups.

3. To recognize lost property opportunities as a result of intolerance toward diverse customers.

4. To demonstrate how attitudes, biases and assumptions toward customers impact the level of service they receive.

5. To identify the behaviors associated with discrimination toward customers.

Notice how verbs are used to define how you will observe the behavior.

Personalize learning

Every learner comes to you with a different level of experience, knowledge and skill. A lot of training dollars are spent on supplying people with skills they already own. New technologies enable learning to be tailored to each individual learner. For example, learners can be directed to courses that are suitable to their specific needs, based on learner profile, test results, previous knowledge, personal learning goals and preferences, learner traits and behaviors, or other criteria. Learners are more motivated to use learning that focuses on their needs. Studies indicate that personalized learning provides 60% faster learning compared to traditional instructor-led training alone.

Choose a computer-based learning program that has segmented courses. A course should have features such as bookmarking to indicate areas of interest or areas to review within a lesson or course; notes fields within courses allow learners to highlight specific items they want to remember. Learners can also identify links to other sources of information and annotate them in a course. Features like these make for more effective learning on an individual level. Online training for multifamily professionals are available for a minimal monthly property fee or as a “pay-per-course” fee. Our company, e-Training Solutions, Inc., offers a monthly membership to e-University with over 100 courses. Gracehill offers a “pay-per-course” or monthly fee for online courses.

The course content should be separated in small, as-needed, chunks instead of in a single, formal “learning event”. Learners can take a course, or part of a course, and then practice what they learned. The learner should have a performance support tool, like a workbook, checklist or visual aid, which helps them through the process as they practice on the job. Studies indicate that segmented learning such as this can increase retention by 25-60%.

Personalizing learning through the use of this technology results in significant savings.

First, with the same e-Learning investment, the content is able to fill the needs of a larger number

of users with individual needs. Second, personalization through e-Learning provides a

faster learning curve, enabling learners to be faster and more agile in responding to key

property-specific needs in a company, and to be more effective in all interactions.

Collaboration in learning

The learner should be assigned to a mentor or field trainer who can answer questions, clarify procedures and observe the new behavior. Learners should collaborate with peers and mentors throughout a course. A learner can send a message via email or message boards to a peer or a mentor while taking a course, and the peer or mentor can respond, initiating discussion about a given course subject. These threaded discussion groups enhance the learning experience and reinforce the fact that learning is a process, rather than an event. Companies who capitalize on collaboration tools are well placed to meet performance improvement goals that help achieve real property results.

Use knowledge banks and message boards to distribute learning

As learners, peers, and mentors collaborate, new unspoken knowledge is made open and can then be shared with others. For example, one of your learners may work through a course and have a question for a mentor. The mentor’s knowledge and experience, which was previously implicit, is made explicit when the mentor answers the question. This information can then be captured, stored, and used in future courses.

This ability to capture, store, and distribute information is an incredibly powerful tool. It enables your company to take knowledge that currently resides with only a handful of people and make it available to a much larger population. In addition, this knowledge can then be quickly captured

and stored, and new content or courses created in a short time without the need for a long development process, helping to offer learning right when it is needed, not after the fact.

The benefits of such knowledge sharing are enormous, and provide a company with a huge competitive advantage. Companies that can quickly capture, share, and apply new knowledge will significantly improve performance and achieve long term property goals. Those that are able to continuously generate new knowledge are incredibly well-placed in our industry to succeed relative to their competitors.

A Trainer’s Search for the Perfect Computer-Based-Training Program

Before we founded e-Training Solutions, Inc. we were Trainers, just like you. And just like you, we were in search of the perfect Computer-Based Training program. There was so much out there! How could we choose? There was such a variety of design, content, and delivery formats that after a three-month investigation, I was more confused than when I began my search. It took another year to really determine what was best for my on-site customer. I wanted to share some of my research and observations with you in hopes you will save some time and money in your own search for the perfect Computer-Based Training program.

What every trainer should know about CBT’s:

1. CBT Design is Imperative for Effective Learning

The key elements that work in a classroom are the same key elements that make training effective in Computer Based Training. “Tell - Test”, or in CBT’s case, “Text - Test” just doesn’t work. Most adult educators agree that the key elements necessary to make learning occur are:

 The learner must be engaged. Engagement is the motivating learning environment.

Academic research strongly backs up the common sense notion that when students are engaged in the learning process, they learn and retain more. Engagement in CBT can come through emotion, relaxation, and especially through fun. Games are a strong motivating and engaging factor. Programs that have a game-based or question-based, task-led approach are the most engaging. These are difficult to find.

 Experiential learning fosters accelerated, effective learning.

Once learners are motivated, a number of elements have been found to accelerate learning and make it more effective. They include questions, mistakes, and multiple senses; feedback and reinforcement; challenge, involvement and relevance and “doing’ through simulation. The programs that give the learner the ability to ask and answer questions, make mistakes in safety, and have multiple senses stimulated are most effective. Immediate and relevant feedback and positive reinforcement are additional keys to effective learning.

 The old “Tell-Test” or in CBT’s case, “Text-Test” doesn’t work.

Most of the programs available on the Internet and CD-ROM are in effect a series of text sections followed by a test. The experience is similar to sitting in a classroom, listening to a lecture with an occasional transparency or Power Point slide and then being tested at the end. There is little-to- no interaction.

2. Speed of Delivery is imperative

 Download Speed

Even though we were on a “network” in the corporate office, most of our properties were still on a dial up system. If we wanted any video or animation in our training, we needed our training on CD ROM. Even with 56 K modems, the frustration of waiting for downloads and streaming video was too much of a distraction for the “Nintendo” generation.

Transfer Rate for a 10-Megabyte File

MODEM SPEED / TYPE	TRANSFER TIME
9.6-Kbps Telephone Modem	2.3 hours
14.4-Kbps Telephone Modem	1.5 hours
28.8-Kbps Telephone Modem	46 minutes
56-Kbps Telephone Modem	24 minutes
128-Kbps ISDN Modem	10 minutes
1.54-Mbps T-1 Connection	52 seconds
4-Mbps Cable Modem	20 seconds
10-Mbps Cable Modem	8 seconds

 Speed - they expect it

The “Nintendo” generation expects it. Every parent, educator, and manager knows that the “Nintendo” generation - those born after 1970 (a large portion of our on-site customer) and raised on video and computer games, Walkmans, the Internet, etc. - are different. This generation grew up on video games, MTV (more than 100 images a minute), and the ultra-fast speed of action films. Their developing minds learned to adapt to speed and thrive on it. Yet when they join our companies, we typically begin by putting them in corporate classrooms, bringing in poor speakers to lecture at them, and making them sit through an endless series of corporate videos.

My 14-year-old daughter told me she had to “power down” when she went to school. At home she is constantly learning through several medias simultaneously. She is on the Internet, doing research for a paper, chatting to friends in a chat room, talking to another friend on the telephone, and watching MTV all at the same time. She is effectively learning through all sources at once. Her brain has been programmed this way. Speed-wise, we effectively give them depressants. And then we wonder why they’re bored. It’s important that managers (as well as educators and parents) recognize that these changes exist so that we can deal with the younger generation effectively.

3. Content

There are some generic programs on compliance (Safety, HazCom, Fair Housing, Sexual Harassment) and maintenance topics (A/C troubleshooting, Electricity Basics) that are effective for all learners.

As far as sales, leasing, marketing, customer service, supervision, hiring, firing, team building, train-the-trainer and orientation, I prefer a customized course or at least a course that has been developed by industry experts.

4. Price – There are some affordable options

You may be surprised to see the huge range of pricing for computer-based training. CD-ROM training ranges from $50 to over $1,000 per user liscense. Online courses range from $0 to over $300 per user. The average online course is $70 per 2 hour course. We’ve just introduced an affordable option for companies with a high-speed Internet connection, the e-University. This online university has over 150 management, leasing, and maintenance courses for management professionals. It is a membership-based program that allows all employees to have full access to all courses for a low annual membership fee. Each employee’s progress is tracked and reported to management each month. Custom development and HTML versions are the most expensive alternative. You can expect to pay between $5,000 to over $80,000 for a full customized program.

5. Final Conclusion of Research and Checklist for any program:

Does the program have:

 Ability to ask and answer questions, make mistakes in safety, and have multiple senses stimulated?

 Immediate and relevant feedback and positive reinforcement?

 Challenges, goals and problems which are involving and relevant to learners?

 Opportunity for simulation, experiential learning?

Does the program allow learners to not just be “told” information, but to use it - to actually perform tasks? Is there opportunity for simulation, experiential learning?

 SPEED - SPEED - AND MORE SPEED?

The programs that are engaging have a lot of video, animation, and sound. I decided to go with CD ROM programs since our properties were still on a dial up system. Any customized program can be re-packaged for HTML or DHTML delivery for a minimal cost when you’re ready.

 Content?

My recommendation is to buy an off-the-shelf program for compliance programs (Safety, HazCom, Fair Housing, Sexual Harassment) and maintenance topics (A/C Troubleshooting, Electricity Basics). The content of these courses do not change often and accuracy is imperative.

If possible, have your content customized for your sales, leasing, marketing, and customer service programs. If customization is not possible, look for industry specific courses that meet our needs as management professionals.

I want to encourage you to NOT wait for the “Perfect Computer-Based Training Program,” there isn’t one. But the fact is, CBT (both CD-Rom based, and Internet-based) offers training solutions that didn’t exist even 5 years ago. It’s made learning faster, better and more efficient. And it combines all the benefits of ILT into a package that easily customizes to your learning style, schedule, personal needs, and preferences. CBT gives you the ability to train and retrain. Its offers an engaging environment that delivers the knowledge you need, when you need it, where you need it. You might want to consider Computer-Based Training (CBT) and some of the benefits it can provide, including lower costs, improved morale, increased productivity, and flexible scheduling.

Shelley Conroy and Michelle Ellsworth are owners of e-Training Solutions, Inc. - a full-service training organization that provides classroom instruction, consulting services, instruction design and development, and e-learning solutions for small and large companies. Both women have been featured presenters for national events including the Multi-Housing World Conference and Sales and Marketing Magic Brainstorming Conference. Together, their combined training experience spans over 30 years.

Leadership is Like a Bag of Potato Chips

By: Michelle Ellsworth, eTraining Solutions, Inc.

I’ve been working on a Leadership course and wanted to share an important finding: Complements are like potato chips. Once you’ve had one you look for more.

Offering compliments based on a person’s character or actions inspire them to perform in such a manner that invites additional praise. People tend to live up to the compliments they receive. Combine my potato chip research with the psycholinguistic research that indicates a person’s mind takes 48 percent longer to understand a negative statement than a positive one and compliments become a dynamic force in motivating others.

“There are high spots in all of our lives, “ wrote Geourge Matthew Adams, “and most of them come about through encouragement from someone else. Encouragement is oxygen to the soul.”

A few years ago a television newscaster happened upon a man dressed up in a stupid-looking red Spiderman suit. He had placed suction cups on his hands and feet to climb the side of one of the tallest buildings in the world. He climbed 125 stories. When he came over the top, there was thunderous applause, as well as police and reporters waiting for him. They asked, “Why in the world would you risk you life climbing this tall building?” He thought for a moment and then responded, “I love to hear the applause.”

It seems hard to believe that this man felt he had to climb 125 stories in a silly comic strip suit to get the applause of people. Yet how many times do people we live and work with feel the same way? They struggle to accomplish great, unusual things just to be noticed and receive encouragement through a complement.

Are you a barer of potato chips or is your bag empty? This may be the most important question facing you in your career and life. According to Kahlil Gibran, “Our worst fault is our preoccupation with the faults of others.” If you want to get the best out of someone, you must look for the best that is in them. People can only use their strengths to excel, not their limitations.

How are you bringing other people up? What specific things do you do every day to show others their importance to you? One of the most difficult, yet meaningful actions we can take to encourage others is celebrate their success. Goethe believed, “The way you see people is the way you treat them and the way you treat them is what they become.” Become a talent scout among people and put your discoveries into words of appreciation. Remember, it’s O.K. to send flowers, but they have a limited vocabulary.

Perhaps all these thoughts about leadership, showing appreciation, and encouraging people boils down to a simple personal commitment. We need to acquire the attitude of believing in others. Operation Potato Chips is something anyone can do and everyone needs. A compliment or encouraging word can help dreams and ambitions become reality.

Selecting the Right e-Learning Vendor

It is just recently that leading companies have realized that maintaining a high quality workforce is a competitive advantage not easily matched by competitors. In addition, many companies have realized the great potential that lies in educating the value chain for products and services as a way to increase sales and customer loyalty. These two trends have increased the focus on the effective delivery of training and learning to a broad audience. With constant advancements in technology and improvements to corporate Internet infrastructures, the traditional ideas of training and education are now being replaced or supplemented with e-Learning.

Improvements in e-learning technology have encouraged companies to move quickly toward e-learning and seek out e-learning vendors to help jump-start their new training initiatives. Selecting an e-Learning vendor that will deliver bottom-line benefits for your organization is a multi-faceted task that demands serious attention. By following these simple criteria in your selection process, you greatly improve the chances that you will find a vendor that suits you, and that you will get the most out of your e-Learning initiative - both now and in the future.

Your ultimate goal is to find a single vendor that will provide a solution to meet all of your needs. Their platforms and services should satisfy your requirements and provide additional value-added functionality that you may implement at a future date. Using a single vendor simplifies your implementation, reduces costs, and limits ongoing management requirements.

If you find that you do need to use multiple vendors to meet all of your e-learning needs, it is imperative that you pick vendors that can tightly integrate their solutions without significant management and integration from your own company. Remember that anything you can do to simplify the implementation and its on-going management will be vital to your overall success.

When evaluating the scope and breadth of a vendor’s products and services, offering can be categorized into the following areas:

· Systems providers

· Consulting support services

· Custom content developers

· Implementation and integration services

Some vendors offer solutions in several of these areas, but very few provide solutions in each category.

Look for vendors that provide an integrated platform that allows you enough flexibility to assemble a tailored solution. They should be able to provide you with a full-featured learning management system (LMS), a flexible learning content development system, and a delivery system that allows content to be presented in a customized, personalized manner.

To help ensure success and provide the maximum benefit to your company, the vendor should also be able to assist you with consulting services. Consulting services you may find useful include instructional design, organizational development, skill and competency development, curriculum plan development, business plan development, internal communication and marketing strategies, and project and change management.

Vendors that offer content, platforms or services that focus only on online or Web-based learning will not provide the flexibility and control that you ultimately will need to achieve the best results. Look for companies that offer services or advice surrounding the best mix of learning approaches for your particular needs, and make sure that their platform allows you to track, manage, and deliver all the types of learning required by your organization.

As part of your research, you must determine which vendor has the skills and capabilities you require, along with a proven record of successfully implementing e-Learning. Key questions that you should ask are:

Do they deliver a solution that will meet all of your needs, from conception through ongoing technical support?
Do they stand behind their products?
Are they committed to customer satisfaction?
Do they make a practice of soliciting and integrating customer feedback into their product and service development?

Be sure to follow up on customer references. Most vendors are happy to provide references to customers they know will speak highly of their organization and its work, but it is important to seek out references that have experienced implementation problems. These will give you a better sense of the vendor’s commitment to overcoming obstacles to attain ultimate success for their customers.

Finally, it is important to note that you need to buy on quality, not on cost. Base your decisions on the capabilities, flexibility and the proven track record of the vendor. If you buy on cost alone, you will buy long-term problems, and won’t achieve the goals that you set out to obtain.

Selecting an e-Learning vendor that has the ability to deliver bottom-line benefits is one of the most important elements in determining if e-learning will be successful for your organization. By following these suggestions, you will greatly improve your chances of selecting the right vendor to implement your e-Learning solution.

If You Build It, Will They Come?

Overcoming Human Obstacles to E-Learning

By Julia Geisman

E-learning: eliminating the classroom forever! Of course, everyone will want to use our whiz-bang Website, learning portal, or learning management system. Virtual classrooms, desktop conferences, 24/7. They'll all come flocking. Ah, the misconceptions run rampant.

In a recent poll, Forrester Research identified these three most common obstacles to a successful e-learning strategy:

 lack of interactivity, 56 percent

 cultural resistance, 41 percent

 lack of bandwidth, 36 percent.

Much has been said about e-learning's interactivity and bandwidth issues. But subtler and more frequently ignored issues revolve around the human side of e-learning implementation.

Traditionally, e-learning implementation strategies have focused on technical issues. However, the human element is the most influential aspect of any technology solution. Technical infrastructures can always be upgraded or replaced; altering human perceptions and attitudes requires almost divine intervention. Thus, the success of an e-learning program depends on the people using it. That's especially true for enterprise-wide solutions that represent a significant change in the work process and the role of learning within an organization. Another curve: it's a well-known fact that a majority of people resist change regardless of its benefits.

So what's to be done? The motivators that cause people to embrace change are multidimensional. In order to understand how e-learning initiatives succeed, it's necessary to first understand the obstacles that cause failures.

Organizational obstacles

Online learning is all the buzz, but are organizations willing to walk the talk? Numerous cultural issues can affect e-learning adoption in organizations; four of the most significant are

 the accepted use of computers for job tasks only

 an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" mentality

 an unwillingness to invest in new technology, especially for training-related activities

 a love/hate relationship with training.

The accepted use of computers for job tasks only. Here's an example of a subtle cultural obstacle: One of our client companies had an unspoken policy that any type of computer use outside of daily job functions was not allowed. Extensive use of the corporate intranet or Internet was considered unrelated to the job function and, therefore, unacceptable. No one ever explicitly stated this policy; it was simply understood by staff. What's the likelihood of a successful e-learning initiative in that environment?

That type of corporate obstacle can be managed by public support from executive-level management. Find a champion for the intervention who will promote it to the middle and executive management team. That person needs to have a 30-second "elevator speech" about the e-learning solution that is replayed whenever possible. In addition to gaining management support, it's critical to have a well thought out plan for involving people throughout the organization as stakeholders. These individuals can be engaged through advisory boards and focus groups and serve as an excellent resource for determining content, validating and testing, providing feedback, and championing the project among their peers. They, too, need a 30-second elevator speech to shop the solution.

"If it ain't broke; don't fix it." This mentality about training persists because many companies fail to ask questions about the bottom-line impact of a shorter learning curve or the ways in which increased accuracy and improved quality can affect revenues. Organizations spend millions of dollars to install ERP systems that promise increased productivity by integrating operational information into one system. But when it comes to investing in new training technology, people often resist. Historically (or maybe hysterically), training has been considered an expense rather than an investment. Management knows they have to train their people, but are loath to allocate the resources to do so. Consequently, their love/hate relationship with training.

What's the solution? Money talks. Decision makers have difficulty recognizing a return on investment in training, so you must make a strong financial case that demonstrates a substantive ROI. Even better, show the correlation between your learning initiative and the company's competitive advantage. Quantify the financial implications of your program. If there's a payback, people will listen.

The foundation for establishing ROI is good metrics. The following is a list of training results that can be measured and then translated into financial terms:

increased:

 accuracy

 quality

 sales

 productivity

 customer satisfaction

 immediate and direct access to information.

decreased:

 classroom time

 help desk calls

 recalls

 travel expenses

 printing and distribution costs

 sexual harassment cases

 employee turnover.

Learner obstacles

Learner obstacles to an e-learning initiative can be harder to pinpoint than organizational obstacles because people often keep their opinions to themselves. Attitudes towards training and technology run the gamut from enthusiasm to utter fear and loathing. Here are some obstacles to watch for:

 resistance to taking on the responsibility for one's own learning

 preference for learning through social interaction

 fear of others having access to personal information

 desire for direct access to experts

 discomfort with learning new methods and tools.

Suggestions for managing those learner obstacles are found in the chart below.

Obstacle Method for managing

Resistance to taking on the responsibility for one's own learning Well-designed WBT demands interaction, critical thinking, and synthesis. The learner cannot simply "check out" mentally as he or she might do during classroom training. Positioning e-learning as an extension of job responsibilities can help reduce resistance to taking on the responsibility for learning. Make self-paced learning fun and integrate learning accountability into performance appraisals. There needs to be individual accountability for all learning regardless of the delivery method.

Preference for learning through social interaction Create collaborative work groups (online and offline), online chats, threaded discussions, and live collaborative learning events via phone. The telephone is still a sophisticated piece of technology; take advantage of it.

Fear of others having access to personal information Demonstrate security measures and tell people how their information is being used and who has access to it. Treat all information as sensitively as HR.

Desire for direct access to experts Incorporate "e-mail the expert" or hold Webcasts. E-learning actually offers more opportunities to access experts, via email and other collaborative methods.

Discomfort with learning new methods and tools Keep it simple. Once people take the first step, the subsequent ones are easier.

Those obstacles represent the tip of the iceberg. Conduct a thorough needs assessment and factor the findings into your solution. There's an old saying that may be helpful to remember: Lemons can always be used to make lemonade--just add sugar. In other words, if your needs assessment reveals obstacles and points of resistance, you can work to leverage them so they contribute to your overall strategy rather than serve as deterrents.

Successful implementation of an e-learning initiative is a massive undertaking. The monetary investment is significant, but it has the potential to generate up to a 400 percent ROI and increase a company's competitive advantage. Remember that, ultimately, the success of the system is up to the individuals who use it. Integrating the human element into your e-learning strategy is the most overlooked, and yet the most critical, step for an enterprise-wide solution to fulfill its promise. When individuals succeed at their jobs, organizations realize their business goals.

So, if you build it, will they come? You bet. And they'll use it with great enthusiasm!