3 Ways to Identify Inspiring Ideas from Global Giveback 3

Posted by Mike Culligan, LINGOs Director of Content and Impact

It’s awards season once again!  No, not the Grammys, the Oscars or Golden Globes – but the Global Giveback Competition, where the cream of the crop of custom courses developed for the humanitarian sector are showcased and recognized.

One of the reasons why the Global Giveback Competition is especially exciting is because it provides the opportunity to identify inspiring ideas for developing eLearning in our sector.  This year is no exception!  The competition finalists include a wide array of learning approaches (simulation, immersive environments, mobile learning, readiness assessments and more.)

So, if you are in the market for fresh ideas, here are three ways you can learn more about the courses your colleagues at other agencies are developing through the Global Giveback Competition:

• Attend the eLearning Guild Learning Solution Conference –Winners of the GG3 competition will be announced live at the Learning Solutions Conference and Expo (Orlando, March 21-23) and GG3 course demonstrations will be provided during the LINGOs Learning Showcase event. 
  REMEMBER:  LINGOs member agencies receive one paid attendance for an eLearning Guild event, so be sure to join Eric Berg, Marian Abernathy and others from the LINGOs learning community  as they learn fresh ideas and new ideas for high impact learning.

• The GG3 LMS Showcase –  All Global Giveback 3 finalists will be posted to the LINGOs Learning Management System on March 22^nd.  If you can’t wait until then, be sure to visit the course showcases from Global Giveback 1 and Global Giveback 2!
• The LINGOS On-Line DemoFest – Each month (more or less) LINGOS hosts an on-line DemoFest event that digs deep into the design and development approaches used to create LINGOs member agency courses.  This year, a number of events will look at courses developed in GG3.  The first finalist course will be FHI 360’s simulation on IPT Therapy for HIV and Tuberculosis.  This webinar will be held on March 8^th and will be led by FHI 360′s Paige Winn and Course Developer, GG2 Winner, Amanda Warner.  To learn more about the March 8^th event and other LINGOs On-Line DemoFest events, be sure to sign up to the LINGOs LinkedIn Community so that you receive updates on events as they are announced.

And finally, an important update about Global Giveback4.  Already a number of LINGOs member agencies have expressed interest in connecting with volunteers to develop  courses for next year’s competition.  The good news is “It’s never too early to start!”  If you are with a LINGOs member agency interested in developing courses or a learning professional interested in volunteering your talents, be sure to sign up for the Global Giveback LinkedIn Community.  The conversation is already underway, and we look forward to receiving more great submissions in December, 2012.

Maximize your agency’s ROE in Learning

Posted by Marian Abernathy, LINGOs Director of Member Services & Communications

You’ve set up your learning portal, selected the courses to include, enrolled your learners, identified learning champions, and even designed and published some e-courses… Congratulations! Your launch is under way. Here are four tips from fellow members to help you to increase your organization’s return on investment (ROI) and YOUR return on effort (ROE).

Engage with your learners: Think about web sites that visit frequently they interact with YOU! (Think Facebook, LinkedIn, Membership sites)… They send you updates and allow you to connect with others. Share some of your learners’ stories about how their learning is helping your agency achieve its mission. Check out the PSI University Voice, a regular e-newsletter that highlights fellow learners: ttps://gallery.mailchimp.com/ac2ff5a03c3fa8ac9e157d738/files/Sept_2011_PSI_U_Voice.pdf

Communicate individually with your learners: send a personalized message when you approve registration for a course, suggest a time-frame for completion, and follow up. IJM (International Justice Mission), a Level 1 member, uses the shared LINGOsLearning portal, and as such doesn’t have the Order Manager functionality in place. Thus, an LMS Registrar processes each request manually. In doing so, the registrar sends the staffer a personalized email (from a template) noting the course title, availability for a defined period of time, and promises to check back on progress.

Support your learning liaisons or champions: Most learning in an organization happens informally. Help your learners share resources with one another; make it easy for them to tell each other about useful resources. CARE is one of several agencies work strategically with learning liaisons or champions. Approximately 60 CARE field-based employees serve in a global network of CARE Academy Liaisons.  As such, the field-based Liaisons collaborate with the CARE Academy team to promote CARE Academy courses in their locations. CARE Academy provides the Liaisons with a series of resources to do this important work. Check out the Liaison Center here. CARE engages with Liaisons with a monthly newsletter, and has fun pop-quizzes. For an example, see the January edition.

Follow-up with your learners: Pull reports regularly and contact learners to remind them of the course they requested, ask about their experience with it, ask how they’ve applied what they learned. IJM’s learning registrar regularly sends messages to staffers a set number of weeks after enrollment to note the learner’s progress with the course (not opened, in progress, or completed) and to encourage utilization of the course and sharing info on application of learning.

LINGOs members shared additional ideas and approaches to build interest, excitement and utilization of learning resources globally in INGOs at December’s Virtual Coffee Break “Engaging your Staff: Marketing Learning to Global Colleagues.” Watch the recorded session, led by Barista Catriona Moriarty of Conservation International. 

What other ideas do you have to increase an international NGO’s ROE and ROI on learning? Please share here in comments or in the LINGOs group on Linked In

We hope to see you at the February Virtual Coffee Break “More than Uno, Dos, Tres: Launching Language Learning Resources at an international NGO” on Thursday, February 9 from 11am- noon eastern US time (for information on the session and login link click here). Check Events on our Member Site for upcoming in-person and virtual events!