Ever wonder what it takes to become the worst salesperson in the world?

Watch the video to find out.

Hint…it’s related to the training department. John

How to Deliver

Hospitality Training in 2012

Thanks to recent developments in technology , 2012 marks the year that Hospitality Training will become more affordable, efficient and well….. better then ever.

The iPad Changed Hospitality Training Forever

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in properties around the world. Now you can purchase tablet computers to deliver your training curriculum to your employees. It’s cheap, efficient and easy to implement.

Step One: Confirm Internet Connectivity in your Locations

Chances are you already have broadband connectivity in your locations but before you do anything, check with your IT department. There are several types of broadband Internet connections including  DSL, T1 and fibre optic.  All will work.  Main thing to know here is that a dial up connection won’t work.

Step Two: Creating your Hospitality Training Curriculum

There is currently a huge technology shift in technology.  In a nutshell, old eLearning material written in Flash wont play on mobile devices. Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in. All this means to you is that your eLearning material needs to be in a format that will play eLearning content in HTML5 format.

Category  1, Off the Shelf Hospitality Training Courses you can purchase

The most popular off the shelf courses in Hospitality Training are…

■ Code of Conduct
■ Fraud Awareness and Detection
■ PCI-DSS Compliance
■ Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
■ Preventing Workplace Violence
■ Responsible Social Media Use
■ Safe Driving
■ Workplace Diversity

Category  2, Custom eLearning

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate will create HTML5 eLearning content.  Also, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Click Below to Download Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material that will play on multiple devices including the iPhone and iPad.

Click Below to Download a free trial of Claro

http://www.cogentys.com/lms/mobile-learning/

Articulate Storyline

The soon to be released Articulate Storyline will enable beginners all the way through seasoned instructional designers to create professional looking highly interactive very customizable eLearning.

Click Below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

http://www.articulate.com/storyline/

Step Three: Deliver and Measure your Hospitality Training On-line

This is where you need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and measure your Hospitality Training curriculum.  There are many many many many options here.  You can get a free download of Moodle and figure it our yourself or you can work with a company like Cogentys that will hold your hand all the way through the implementation process and beyond.

So that’s all I have for today. I hope you found this post helpful.

Always feel free to visit out WebSite at www.cogentys.com or drop me an email at john.lawrence@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

How to Deliver Hotel Training in 2012

Thanks to recent developments in technology , 2012 marks the year that Hotel Training will become more affordable, efficient and well….. better then ever.

The iPad Changed Hotel Training Forever

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in Hotel properties around the world. Now you can purchase tablet computers to deliver your training curriculum to your employees. It’s cheap, efficient and easy to implement.

Step One: Confirm Internet Connectivity in your Locations

Chances are you already have broadband connectivity in your locations but before you do anything, check with your IT department. There are several types of broadband Internet connections including  DSL, T1 and fibre optic.  All will work.  Main thing to know here is that a dial up connection won’t work.

Step Two: Creating your Hotel Training Curriculum

There is currently a huge technology shift in technology.  In a nutshell, old eLearning material written in Flash wont play on mobile devices. Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in. All this means to you is that your eLearning material needs to be in a format that will play eLearning content in HTML5 format.

Category  1, Off the Shelf Hotel Training Courses you can purchase

The most popular off the shelf courses in Hotel Training are…

■ Code of Conduct
■ Fraud Awareness and Detection
■ PCI-DSS Compliance
■ Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
■ Preventing Workplace Violence
■ Responsible Social Media Use
■ Safe Driving
■ Workplace Diversity

Category  2, Custom eLearning

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate will create HTML5 eLearning content.  Also, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Click Below to Download Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material that will play on multiple devices including the iPhone and iPad.

Click Below to Download a free trial of Claro

http://www.cogentys.com/lms/mobile-learning/

Articulate Storyline

The soon to be released Articulate Storyline will enable beginners all the way through seasoned instructional designers to create professional looking highly interactive very customizable eLearning.

Click Below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

http://www.articulate.com/storyline/

Step Three: Deliver and Measure your Hotel Training On-line

This is where you need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and measure your Hotel Training curriculum.  There are many many many many options here.  You can get a free download of Moodle and figure it our yourself or you can work with a company like Cogentys that will hold your hand all the way through the implementation process and beyond.

So that’s all I have for today. I hope you found this post valuable.

Always feel free to visit out WebSite at www.cogentys.com or drop me an email at john@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

How to Deliver Retail Training in 2012

Thanks to recent developments in technology , 2012 marks the year that Retail Training will become more affordable, efficient and well….. better then ever.

The iPad Changed Retail Training Forever

According to Apple, during the last 12 months. the company has sold 32 million iPads,  and 72 million iPhones.  These devices are everywhere and are rapidly being deployed in retail stores around the world. Now you can purchase tablet computers to deliver your training curriculum to your employees. It’s cheap, efficient and easy to implement.

Step One: Confirm Internet Connectivity in your Store Locations

Chances are you already have broadband connectivity in your locations but before you do anything, check with your IT department. There are several types of broadband Internet connections including  DSL, T1 and fibre optic.  All will work.  Main thing to know here is that a dial up connection won’t work.

Step Two: Creating your Retail Training eLearning Curriculum

There is currently a huge technology shift in technology.  In a nutshell, old eLearning material written in Flash wont play on mobile devices. Here is where HTML5,  the latest version of the core technology of the Internet comes in. All this means to you is that your eLearning material needs to be in a format that will play eLearning content in HTML5 format.

Category  1, Off the Shelf Retail Training Courses you can purchase

The most popular off the shelf courses in Retail Training are…

■ Code of Conduct
■ Fraud Awareness and Detection
■ PCI-DSS Compliance
■ Preventing Discrimination and Harassment
■ Preventing Workplace Violence
■ Responsible Social Media Use
■ Safe Driving
■ Workplace Diversity

Category  2, Custom eLearning

Adobe Captivate

Adobe Captivate will create HTML5 eLearning content.  Also, Adobe is building a tool that will convert your existing Adobe Captivate content into HTML5.

Click Below to Download Adobe Captivate 5.5

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/captivate_html5

Claro

Another option is a web based authoring tool called Claro by DominKnow.  One big advantage of Claro is your team can collaborate in multiple locations to produce eLearning material that will play on multiple devices including the iPhone and iPad.

Click Below to Download a free trial of Claro

http://www.cogentys.com/lms/mobile-learning/

Articulate Storyline

The soon to be released Articulate Storyline will enable beginners all the way through seasoned instructional designers to create professional looking highly interactive very customizable eLearning.

Click Below to sign up for the Storyline Beta

http://www.articulate.com/storyline/

Step Three: Deliver and Measure your Retail Training On-line

This is where you need a Learning Management System (LMS) to deliver and measure your Retail Training curriculum.  There are many many many many options here.  You can get a free download of Moodle and figure it our yourself or you can work with a company like Cogentys that will hold your hand all the way through the implementation process and beyond.

So that’s all I have for today. I hope you found this post valuable.

Always feel free to visit out WebSite at www.cogentys.com or drop me an email at john@cogentys.com or give me a call at 323 466 6806

John

How to get Your LMS Project Approved

So you’re ready to implement a Learning Management System (LMS).  You’ve done your homework and have created a plan that outlines how implementing a LMS for your organization will dramatically improve your corporate training program and save your organization a small fortune.  Only one small problem. You need to purchase a LMS and create your courses which will cost some money.  Then of course getting approval for capital expenditures these days is well

….difficult…..impossible…..suicide…

LMS Sponsorship

One way to get your LMS budget approved may be to offset some or all of the cost of implementation through sponsorship programs.

Let’s say you run the corporate university for a manufacturing company.  Your distributors rely on your company’s products and support.  They need training to help grow their business as well as yours. By charging your distributers for web based training you can significantly offset the costs of your LMS.  In fact you may be able to cover them entirely!  To make it a win-win, it will save your distributors internal costs by reducing the time it takes them to train their employees.  Many companies have even made it a requirement of their distributers to train their employees and track the results of their users.

Setting up a fee based training system is as easy as adding a shopping cart feature to your LMS.

Sponsored LMS by the Numbers

Here’s an example of how the numbers would work. Let’s say you have 100 distributers that need to train 10 employees each and you charge your distributers at $200 annual fee per user for training.  That’s $200,000 you can use to offset the cost of your eLearning program.  Nice!!!

Example of a Sponsored LMS

Let’s say you manage the training program for a retail chain.  Obviously your vendors want your store employees to sell their product lines.  Why not have your vendors create eLearning courses teaching your sales people how to sell their products. You can even take this a little bit further.  Have your vendors create a basic customer service program like  ”retail selling skills brought to you by Nike”

It’s a win for everybody.  Your vendors get your salesreps attention and you offset the cost of your LMS.

Bottom line….offset the cost of your LMS and you’ll be the coolest cat in the office!

I am sure we’re just scratching the surface here. So here’s where you guys come in.  We would love to hear about your experience offsetting the cost of your LMS so please enter your experiences in the form of a comment below so we can all learn.

As always we have links to additional resources below…

Click here for a Free Business Case for an LMS

How to Use Green Screen for Corporate eLearning Video Production

So let’s say you want to produce more video material for you’re training curriculum but don’t have the $1,000 a minute budget needed to make your video production look great?

To save money, you could produce a do it yourself video that will end up looking like a bad YouTube video and subject your department to endless harassment by your organization.

The secret to producing high quality cost effective eLearning videos is green screen technology

How Green Screen Works

The principal subject is filmed or photographed against a background consisting of a single color or a relatively narrow range of colors, usually blue or green because these colors are considered to be the furthest away from skin tone.The portions of the video which match the preselected color are replaced by the alternate background video. This process is commonly known as “keying”, “keying out” or simply a “key”.

How to Build a Green Screen Studio

Planning a Green Screen Studio for eLearning Video Production

Before you begin any construction, it’s a good idea to plan your studio layout and green screen size. There is nothing worse than building a green screen which ends up being not quite wide enough.

Set up your proposed studio area and camera(s). Go through every type of shot you could possibly want and measure the total required background area. Allow enough room to change your mind about framing or widen the shot more than you originally thought. Also, allow extra space to the sides of the screen to place lights.

Ideally there should be some space between the foreground subjects and the green screen — this makes lighting easier.

Green Screen Material

There is some debate over which materials are acceptable for use as a green screen. Many professionals will tell you that the color must be just the right shade of green, or that the screen must be made of certain material. It is certainly true that some materials and colours are better, but in reality you can make an effective green screen from just about any smooth, green surface.

If you really want the best possible screen you should do an Internet search for green screen material. There are numerous websites which sell specialist material and with a little research you can find something to suit your studio.

Lighting a Green Screen

In case you’re wondering, the green screen does require it’s own lighting. It’s highly unlikely that you would be able to use the screen with existing ambient light or the same light you use for the foreground subjects. As mentioned previously, you should plan your screen lights before you begin construction.

The key to lighting a green screen is consistency. The whole point is to create a single, consistent shade of colour across the entire screen.

You will need at least two lights, preferably more. The diagram below shows how you could light a green screen which is a few metres across, using a couple of 300-500w lights (one at each end) and a couple of 100-250w lights below pointing up.

Note: Diffusion filters are very handy when lighting green screens. Diffusion helps create more even lighting and reduce the impact of shadows.

You will probably want to experiment with different combinations to get the most even lighting.

Once the screen is lit to your satisfaction, add the main lighting for the subjects. At this point you may find that shadows created by these new lights are cast on the screen. Adjust the light positions and filters until you get the best compromise.

Using Green Screen Footage for Corporate eLearning Production

Once you have recorded your green screen footage you will obviously need to remove the green parts of the image and replace it with your own background. This is done through a process called chroma keying, which means selecting a color and removing every instance of that color in the image. Any image placed “behind” this image then becomes visible.

Editing Software

There are a couple of options here and it comes down to Windows vs. Mac.

Mac: We use Final Cut Pro X Final Cut Pro It is by far the best product on the market.

http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/

You can also use iMovie which is standard on all Apple desktop and laptop computers

http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/

Windows: Windows Movie Maker will do the trick. Here is a link to the free download

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows7/products/features/movie-maker

We have found TubeTape to be an excellent source for green screen stuff

http://www.tubetape.com/