LearningZen Company Blog

LearningZen.com's API Update

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 03 May 2012 21:22:00 +0000

We are very pleased to announce the availability of LearningZen’s Application Programming Interface (API). We’ve been working hard during the past few months to create this new feature and we are excited to let our community know that it is finished and ready for use.

What is an (API)?

Put simply, an API is a process in which computer systems communicate directly with each other. This communication does not need to include human interaction and usually does not include any visual web pages. APIs are usually created to allow the automated sharing of content and data between communities and computer applications. For instance, APIs allow photos to be shared from sites like Flickr and Instagram to social network sites like Facebook. Also, any time you log into a site that asks for your Facebook account so that you can post information back to Facebook, you are using a Facebook API.

That’s great, but what can LearningZen’s API do for me?

Our API enables a number of really useful things, the most important of which is called “Single Sign On” (SSO). OK that is another acronym, but SSO just means that users already logged into one web site can navigate to another web site without having to create an account or log into the second site. This part of the API automatically and securely creates accounts on LearningZen based on information passed to it from your existing web site. So, if you already have a human resources or employee management system, it can “talk” to LearningZen in a way that will automatically create LearningZen accounts and give them the appropriate rights to see certain courses, be an author, etc. Using the API in this way can save your portal administrators and managers a lot of time creating users and assigning them to groups.

The LearningZen API also gives you a way to limit your students’ interactions within LearningZen and isolate them to the course taking experience. You can send your students over to LearningZen, directly into taking a course you specify, and then when they are finished with that course, they will be returned to your company’s web site or portal.

Finally, the LearningZen API includes functionality to publish LearningZen portal information to one of your existing company systems. For example, the API can publish your LearningZen course catalog to your own system. This is useful if you want to present your catalog of LearningZen courses right on your own internal web site and then direct people over to LearningZen to take those specific courses. This would be another way for you to direct certain employees to certain training. The API also publishes students’ course completion history, which can be useful if you track course taking progress in your own HR system.

How do I learn more about the LearningZen API and get access to it?

Please contact our sales department at 1-877-850-1214, option 1 for API pricing information. The process of implementing the LearningZen API will require a little bit of time from your IT or web development staff to they enable your system to talk to LearningZen’s API. Purchasing the API access includes several hours of our technical staff’s time to work with your technical people as they configure and set up your system.

We really appreciate our LearningZen customers. We are so proud that we are making online training easy and affordable and none of this is possible without our amazing customers and learning enthusiasts. Have a great day!

The Trouble with Training

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 22:02:00 +0000

If you search the internet for “lack of training” you will see thousands of disaffected employees talking about one of the core reasons they hate, and even have left their current job. According to the American Society for Training & Development, “41% of employees at companies with inadequate training programs plan to leave within a year versus 12% of employees at companies who provide excellent training and professional development”. That’s some troubling data.

The average cost to replace an employee starts at around 50% of annual salary and can be as much as 200% in some industries according to about.com’s Darrell Zahorsky. So with that said, why aren’t bells and whistles being sounded in every small to medium sized business (SMB) CEO’s office about the training challenge? The truth is - historically there haven’t been a lot of options for the SMBs navigating the challenging and treacherous waters of business success for organized training programs.

The Fortune 500, with their deep pockets has long invested in training, knowing the value of the investment. According to Michael Porter “industries that spend the most on employee development and training are typically the most competitive in every developed country in the world”. But let’s face it, SMBs don’t have a ton of excess cash on hand even when they are in expansion mode and the market has been oddly void of low cost training solutions that harness the power of today’s technology.

SMBs make do with “peer to peer” training, annual training seminars, training reimbursement programs, and antiquated paper based training systems. Many have no formal training programs at all. Some survive; many more would survive and even flourish if they could overcome the high costs of employee turnover with a low cost and effective training program.

With the advancement of technology one would think that affordable online training platforms would have hit the SMB market addressing this need, but the Training and Development marketplace is still chasing Fortune 500 dollars. In their desire to protect market share amongst the cash cows with deep pockets, the industry has created intricate barriers to block entry for competition, and unwittingly locked out millions of potential clients through utilizing an overly complex and outdated content compliance standard (SCORM), which facilitates high instructional design fees, and expensive complex software packages. Frankly, the current Training and Development marketplace doesn’t think there is enough money in the SMB market to service it, so it keeps things complex to protect the business elite.

The SMB market deserves better. The corporate Training and Development market needs to evolve at a faster pace, reduce costs, and become more inclusive. This can only be done through breaking down the industry barriers that created a market of complexity and confusion, and start to service the market place with simplicity and clarity. In reality, most SMB’s can create effective, low cost, easy to use training solutions if they were given a platform in which to do so. Training your people does not need to be rocket science. So for those of us at LearningZen.com we say give the people (SMBs) the tools to control their own content, people, and processes, and let the training revolution begin!

Back From ASAE 2011

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 15:57:00 +0000

The sales team at LearningZen.com has returned from the ASAE show in St. Louis. MO! A multitude of associations visited our booth and learned how LearningZen.com can offer them an easy to use, low cost online training platform. If you missed us here or want to learn more about the revolutionary online training platform click here to see a 3 minute online product demo.

We wanted to recognize a few people who helped us out this weekend. Mr. Larry Thompson of the Missouri Athletic Club was as gracious a host as you could ever hope for. The fine folks at Pappy’s BBQ made sure the team stayed satiated with plenty of delicious food and some of the best ribs we've ever tasted! We also wanted to recognize the entire staff at ASAE for putting on one of the best run conferences we’ve ever been to!

If you stopped by our booth at the ASAE Show and left us a business card, stayed tuned about our random drawing for an iPad 2.

How to Create Effective eLearning Content

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:36:00 +0000

In my time at LearningZen.com I have created a variety of courses from The Swine Flu (H1N1) to Customer Service in the Restaurant Industry. Along the way I’ve learned about what works, and what doesn’t when building courses. Here are a few of the most important things I’ve learned about creating content for online training:

1.) Use a variety of media options. Using an online training system allows you to make your course content come alive. Make video tutorials and post them via YouTube, import an interactive PowerPoint presentation. Spice up the text you do have with images, diagrams, and charts to help explain things. Use flash animations, or import a voice recording in case someone would prefer to listen than read.

2.) Utilize the option of pre-tests and post-tests. By testing how an individual responded initially and comparing it to the information gained through the course you can prove that the knowledge transfer took place – and isn’t that the ultimate goal?

3.) While the content may seem like the most important aspect of a course, the same attention should be paid introducing the course to a learner and in the review. The introduction and course description should let the learner know what to expect from the course while the review should appropriately summarize what they should take away from it. People aren’t going to remember every little detail from the content so it’s essential to highlight the key points.

4.) Think about your language. I tend to write very conversationally. While you should be able to present your information professionally, think about your audience – Would you be engaged in the course if you were the learner? Would you understand the information that is being presented?

5.) Use a platform that is user friendly. It should be easy for everyone to navigate and intuitive to use.

These are just several of the things that I keep in mind when creating an online course. LearningZen.com has been an ideal platform in regards to creating effective eLearning. It's easy to both create and take courses, and offers virtually every media enhancement possible. You can either create new content, or import your existing content. Also, not only does it gives the ability to utilize pre-test and post-tests but gives student metrics and reports.

2011 ASAE Show

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 17:56:00 +0000

Greetings Everyone, I hope that the summer has been treating you well, wherever you may be! While the LearningZen.com has been making plenty of time for play, we've also been incredibly busy at work; adding enhancements such the manager role in the portals and more detailed student reports. With the help of many of our clients, our backlog is continuously growing and we are grateful for the members who share their ideas and help our platform become to grow and become even better.

We are currently gearing up to attend the Center for Association Leadership's 2011 Annual Meeting and Exhibition in St. Louis, Missouri. The ASAE is comprised of over 22,000 association executives and industry partners. The ASAE helps these professionals by providing resources, education, ideas and advocacy to enhance the power and performance of the association and nonprofit community.

LearningZen.com ow-cost, easy to use, invaluable online training solution. By utilizing the cloud you can increase membership, and better educate your communities. To learn more, check out our demo!

Why Your Restaurant Needs eLearning

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 21:04:00 +0000

Greetings LearningZen! It’s been a while since the last update – as the sun is shining on Salt Lake City we have been working hard on various projects; including attending the National Restaurant Association Show which occurred at the end of May. Sadly I did not attend this year, and our Senior Sales Manger Scott Thompson attended in my place. I definitely missed the copious amounts of free samples made available at this convention!

Honestly, I enjoyed the show for reasons other than the endless gelato tasters. It was an excellent networking opportunity and as I’ve mentioned in regards to this show – we were the only vendor of our kind in attendance and that alone sparked a lot of interest. I found myself answering the same question over and over: Why eLearning? People at the show wanted to know why they should move their training online, and what the benefits were.

Everyone needs to train their employees – restaurants specifically have to train their employees on a variety of procedures, including customer service, food safety, and more. The truth is that the current forms of restaurant training are both ineffective and outdated. Many use training manuals or in person training. Training manuals are static and forgettable while in person training can be inconstant and overall just inadequate. Also, in this day and age the demographic of restaurant employees have grown up around computers and technology and are likely to respond well to this type of learning.

eLearning can combine the important content of traditional training manuals and information and the interactive aspect of live training. The LearningZen platform supports a media rich experience including the options to include video, flash, pictures, PDF’s, among other medias. Restaurants have used the video upload feature (in addition to the many other features and the traditional course content) to create tutorials from everything on proper hand washing techniques to food safety. Amsterdam Falafel, one of our clients, has uploaded over twenty courses that they use to train their franchises in how to correctly make their signature recipes. This is just one example of how the restaurant industry is utilizing our system and helps the company deliver standardized, consistent, and brand conforming materials to their franchises.

In the restaurant industry, it can be challenging to maintain a consistent staff. Efficient training increases employee retention by better equipping individuals to function in the workplace, making them both more productive and happier. There is certainly a correlation between the two – and an employee who feels comfortable and prepared in their environment is more apt to stay in their position. eLearning also allows learners to acquire the material on their own time. Many individuals in the industry may be students, have families, or work another job. Having the training online allows it to be assessed 24/7, and from any location. It also permits a learner to revisit the material as needed. On the other end, a course author can make edits and add or take content from a course – the content is not static! Doing your training online also protects you from possible liability. Proof of training is tracked in the system, including competition and statistics indicating their score on exams.

These are just a few examples of why moving your content online can better your workforce- to find out more view our 2 minute demo, or contact me at: Tanya@learningzen.com.

-Tanya, New Media Coordinator at LearningZen.com

Win an iPad 2.0 at the 2011 NRA Show

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 21:13:00 +0000

As we posted in March, LearningZen.com will be attending the 2011 National Restaurant Show which will be taking place in Chicago, Illinois May 21-24.

At last years show we were located in the Technology Pavilion, this year we will have booth # 1753 located in the South Hall at McCormick Place.

Last year we gave away an iPad to a random attendee who stopped by our booth and dropped off a business card into our fishbowl. We will once again be giving away a prize to anyone who stops by our booth and drops of a business card. The prize this year is a brand new iPad 2.0! Stop by our booth for a chance to win. If you would like to know more about LearningZen.com click this link to view a short two minute product demo.

New Manager Role in Portals

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 22:15:00 +0000

A new feature currently in development is a new portal Manager role. This role will allow portal users to be set up in logical groupings, such as business units, franchise locations or regions. Managers will then be able to administer the training for their own employees. Users with the manager role will be able to create accounts, assign courses, track progress, and report on their own employees. Reporting on all employees in a portal will continue to roll up and be available to portal administrators. The Manager role will be optional and will not be required for use.

If you have any questions about the manager role, please contact LearningZen support at support@learningzen.com.

National Restaurant Association Show 2011

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 22:02:00 +0000

From one show to the next, there is a lot of travel in the LearningZen.com teams plans. After an incredibly successful show last year, we have decided to once again attend the National Restaurant Associations annual conference. McCormick Place in Chicago, Illinois is to host the event, which brought in over 1,700 exhibitors.

Last year our booth was in the Technology Pavilion. We were the only company at the show who offered any type of online training platform. This year we will be located in the South Hall at booth # 1753.

LearningZen.com is perfect for small to medium sized restaurants and other related businesses. Restaurants have a high turnover rate, diverse employees, and generally use in house training that can be costly and time consuming. You can also use online training to fulfill such requirements as Food Handler’s Certification, Company Policies, Customer Service, and other areas of required training.

LearningZen.com Attends the 2011 IFA Trade Show

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:02:00 +0000

LearningZen.com recently attended the 2011 International Franchise Association Conference, which was held at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was our second time attending the conference and this year surpassed the previous for Lus. Besides attending the conference, LearningZen.com is also a proud member of the International Franchise Association. For over 50 years, the International Franchise Association has worked to protect, promote and enhance franchising by advocating on behalf of the industry and hosting exceptional educational programming and networking opportunities.

The team from LearningZen.com ended the show with over 200 promising leads. LearningZen.com is a great fit for all types of franchises. Whether you are training restaurant employees, hotel employees, retail employees, sales training or any other type of franchise employee training, employees can self train and certify using your custom training portal 24/7.

The costs of employee turnover can be staggering, ranging anywhere from 1/2 to 5 times an employee's annual wages. Our customers have streamlined employee training costs while lowering turnover, one corporation estimated that by improving employee screening and training, annual employee retention was as high as 48%.

If you have any questions about using LearningZen.com for training your franchise, the best way to learn more is to either view our short flash demonstration here, or call us at 1-800-884-8015 for a full product demonstration.

LearningZen Announces New Partnership!

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 20 Jan 2011 17:27:00 +0000

LearningZen.com is pleased to announce an exciting new partnership. Sharon Gregory from SBG Learning Strategies has partnered with LearningZen.com to create several new courses directed at management, training, and leadership. Ms. Gregory has extensive experience in organizational development and has worked throughout the United States and Canada teaching, speaking and developing courses for a vast array of corporate clients. Ms. Gregory has worked with businesses of all sizes, from small businesses start ups to major corporations, in enhancing their training programs and assisting them in achieving their performance needs.

Utilizing the pay-for-course option, Ms. Gregory has created three courses that are currently available on the LearningZen site. This option allows authors to choose whether their course will be free or fee based. The author can charge any amount they desire and have the option to donate all or a portion of their revenue to a charity or nonprofit of their choice. Authors are paid out through Paypal.

Ms. Gregory's first course: “Hire Right the First Time, is a simple but effective course on how to conduct behavioral interviews for small businesses. This course is available to the general public for $29.95. The next course, Managerial Effectiveness Through Social Style teaches managers skills to help them learn how to identify people based on their preferred observable behavior. Managers can then learn to communicate, coach, and set goals in a way that is most effective for that person. This course is also available for $29.95. The last course, Supervisory Skills for Small Business, is an introductory course for small businesses that need to train supervisors who don't have a lot of experience as a leader. This course explores some of the most critical skills supervisors need at a basic level. This course is available for $19.95.

In addition to making these courses available for purchase on the public site Ms. Gregory has partnered with LearningZen in creating a 5 course package that will be offered to all premium service customers. The final courses in this package are based on customer service skills and finally marketing and sales training. We are very excited to introduce the extremely talented and incredibly versatile, Sharon Gregory.

You can visit SBG Learning Strategies and learn more about Sharon Gregory at http://www.sbgtraining.com.

New Features for Premium Service Users!

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Wed, 03 Nov 2010 22:51:00 +0000

LearningZen.com is pleased to announce several new features that have been created for our Premium Services customers. The new features boast large improvements to an Educators and Administrators ability to train their communities.

While a pre-test option was available prior to these enhancements, you can now specify the number of questions, exam attempts allowed, and number of correct answers required for the pre-test. Users can choose to both adopt and use this new option, or simply use the current functionality which includes only one attempt at a pre-test and no required passing threshold.

In addition to further control over student testing, an administrator can now assign courses to both individual students and larger groups. This is especially helpful if there is a new course that will be necessary for your community to take. After assigning a course to students, it will appear in their bookshelves.

Another issue the current update has resolved is that of granting credit to certain individuals for certain courses. Perhaps you have a student who has either completed a course already or has equivalent knowledge to the subject matter that makes them exempt. Similarly, students can also now be withdrawn from a course or courses.

Lastly, educators can now review individual exam results for students. These new features are projected to be released by the end of this week.

Untrained Employees Are Killing Your Restaurant

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 21:00:00 +0000

The Training Problem

In a Spherion study of more than 20,000 employees, 35% said they’d leave if there were no provisions for mentorship. In that same group, 41% said they’d quit within 12 months because of inadequate training. Today in the restaurant industry, employee turnover has become an exceedingly large problem. The industry is one of the largest employers in the United States. The food service work force is predominately young without secondary training or education. In an article by Michael Farr and Laurence Shatkin in JIST Publishing they estimate over 805,360 people are currently in the food service workforce. Of those individuals, 59% are under the age of 30 and another 66% holding only a high school diploma or less. Many individuals work seasonally, or see it as a temporary means of employment. This lack of training and formal job skills puts the burden on the employer to effectively train these individuals.

Validation

The training problem is exacerbated by the fact that during a recession many companies unwisely cut their training budgets, unwilling to recognize the hidden costs of employee training. Training “on the job” can be up to 150% of an individual’s annual salary according to Laura Harris, author of “Surrender to Win –Regain Sanity.” With the high turnover rate in the restaurant industry, this is a number that could put a company out of business. There are also opportunity costs, recruitment costs, selection costs, and payroll expenses, all associated with bringing on additional staff.

Putting effective training in your arsenal Training is especially essential during a recession. According to Utah CEO Magazine, the right approach is to maintain or accelerate training efforts to improve employee retention is the right recessional tactic. Many would assume that implementing a training program means higher costs, but in many cases if done effectively, a training program can increase productivity, decrease liability, and improve employee morale.

What does the solution look like?

Training creates knowledgeable employees who are more efficient and understand the mission, vision, and values of the company. In addition employees who receive training feel their employer is invested in their career and performance and therefore will be more motivated to perform. Training your employees thoroughly can also alleviate stress which will in turn improve your retention rate and return on investment.

1. Update your training

As the industry is constantly changing and reinventing itself, training regularly is not only beneficial to employees but to your business as well. If you’re not consistently reinventing yourself you run the risk of becoming obscure or losing out to your competition. While most restaurants use old fashioned techniques such as training manuals and/or shadowing other members of the staff, many restaurants are now finding benefit in using online training platforms to educate their workforce. These systems can often save you money in the costs of printing and developing training materials alone and are easily updated.

2. Invest in an official training program.

Make your training program part of your core business and part of your company’s set calendar. You don’t need an instructional designer to build training courses, you just need the time to sit down and put your company’s best practices and policies together.

An affordable option is to invest in a low cost online training system. Online training allows individuals to do training on their own time, and at their own pace. Many systems include test and certification components so you can easily track and certify the completion of training. Videos and handbooks can’t positively guarantee an individual has actually had a knowledge transfer take place, and traditional training can take anywhere from 2-3 weeks or more.

Organized training programs also allow you to cross train your staff easier creating a more “flexible” organization. For example, being able to work multiple production statements or pieces of equipment can be invaluable in a staffing crisis or during times of high demand.

3. Document your intellectual property in your training program

Have you ever had an employee who was the only person who knew how to run the cash register or billing system? Does your organization have a particular way of doing things that separate you from the competition? Is this information documented anywhere? The perfect place for this information is in your training program, not walking out the door with your employees as they leave you for greener pastures.

4. Validate Your Training

Don’t just make your employees watch a video or read a paper, but utilize exams and student tracking tools to make sure they retain the information. A pre-test assessment of their knowledge compared to a post training exam is an effective way to judge the effectiveness of your training program.

In Summary

A well-trained employee is more likely to become fulfilled in their position, be more productive, and stay with the restaurant long term. Long term, well trained employees are your company’s best asset. Protect them with the insurance of a great training program and you will recognize the return on investment.

LearningZen.com in the Tubes!

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:32:00 +0000

YouTube™ that is! Besides having our product demo posted on the site, we also have a short interview done by Running Restaurants filmed at the National Restaurant Association Show we attended in May. Running Restaurants is a site with content built exclusively for restaurant owners, managers & chefs. The content ranges from articles and audio, to seminars and downloads.

Check out our very own Chris Allen talking about LearningZen.com here!

2010 NACCHO Conference

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 20:19:00 +0000

LearningZen.com has been hitting the trade show circuit hard in 2010! Next up on the list is the National Association of County & City Health Officials July 13-16, 2010. The annual conference is taking place in Memphis, Tennessee at Memphis Cook Convention Center.

Public health professionals from all over attend educational sessions that explore disease-prevention interventions and wellness promotion, as well as view exhibitor booths displaying the latest trends and innovations in the field.

LearningZen.com has already found success in this arena, landing a contract with the Jersey State Bureau of Vital Statistics and Registration (Bureau). They have employed the system to train their physicians and local registrars to understand the reporting requirements of cause of death information, and assist them in promoting the use of their best medical judgment to document this information.

If you are attending please stop by our booth #213 at NACCHO.

My Experience at the 2010 NRA Show

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 21:29:00 +0000

Overwhelmed was the first adjective that came into my mind when I walked into McCormick Place on May 23rd, 2010. I was exhibiting at the 91st annual National Restaurant Association Show with my co-workers. According to the post show write-up from the NRA there were approximately 1,700 exhibitors; covering more than 480,000 square-feet at the show. It was easily the largest trade show I’ve attended and I was almost happy to be exhibiting and not attending, as I probably would have gained at least ten pounds from all the delicious samples there.

I couldn’t believe the variety of individuals from the foodservice industry at the show; there were CEOS, Chefs, Restaurant Owner’s, Culinary Students, and more. I met people from all over the United States and a good number of International attendees as well.

Our booth was setup back near the Technology Pavilion. After an initial investigation we realized that we were the only company offering any type of LMS platform at the show. These were only several other training solutions, based heavily in live seminar and video training. We also had steady traffic throughout the entire show and plenty of people who were genuinely interested in our services. It’s always encouraging to have validation at the end of the day that all the hard work we have put into LearningZen has been well worth it.

We’ve already had valuable feedback and discussions with people we met since the show ended and hope to return for NRA 2011.

Tanya Sapula, New Media Coordinator

LearningZen.com Beneficial to Food and Hospitality Industries

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:35:00 +0000

LearningZen.com recently attended several conferences that were of note.

Earlier this week, we were attendees at the Interop Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Interop Conference is one of the largest and leading business and technology events. This conference was a host to many great companies such as Microsoft, Verizon, IBM, and Dell. It provided us with vast networking opportunities and a chance to see what other IT companies are developing and working on.

Before that, we had exhibited at the International Franchise Association in San Antonio, Texas. The IFA is the largest and oldest global franchising organization. The association represents more than 1,300 franchise systems and over 10,000 franchisees. The trade show turned out to be a big hit for LearningZen.com as many companies in the restaurant and hospitality field have found our services to be incredibly useful. We are working with a variety of organizations; one of which has already signed up and is currently using the system. The show was such a success that we will be attending the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago at the end of May.

LearningZen.com’s easy to use system is perfect for small to medium sized restaurants and similar organizations that have training and education needs. Such businesses have a high turnover rate, diverse employees, and a lack of time or money to employ many of the more expensive and large-scale Learning Management Systems available. It’s a great way to fulfill such requirements as Food Handler’s Certification, Company Policies, Customer Service, and other areas of required training.

We are very happy to be finding our niche, and hope to find more success at the National Restaurant Association show in a few weeks.

LearningZen.com assists the State of New Jersey in Training its Physicians

noreply@blogger.com (LearningZen) — Fri, 23 Apr 2010 21:37:00 +0000

LearningZen.com would like to announce the launch of a new LearningZen.com training solution for the New Jersey State Bureau of Vital Statistics and Registration (Bureau). The State Registrar Joseph A. Komosinski first met with LearningZen.com in early October 2010 to develop a low cost, easy to use training course to improve cause of death reporting within the State. Utilizing LearningZen.com the state was able to transfer current paper based training materials to an interactive web product reducing the need to print and ship materials, as well as the travel and opportunity costs of repeated instructor lead training across the state.

The new course “State of New Jersey Electronic Death Registration System (EDRS)” helps physicians and local registrars understand the reporting requirements of cause of death information, and assists them in promoting the use of their best medical judgment to document this information. This course will improve the quality of data provided on death certificates helping the vital records community better service the residents of the state of New Jersey. This course is provided at no cost to the physicians.

Assisting the Bureau was LearningZen.com preferred content developer, Giles Wallace from Attune Marketing Events Design. Giles Wallace specializes in providing e-learning course development, graphic design, illustration, Web design, and creative consulting services. His expertise was used to design the interactive flash content. Joseph A. Komosinski of the New Jersey State Registrar had this to say: “The entire LearningZen process was smooth and painless and the end result far exceeded our expectations.”

The Bureau employs LearningZen.com’s free site, which allows anyone to create content that can be viewed by the general public. LearningZen.com also features private portals at low cost for individuals and organizations that wish to secure their content behind a private portal and administer courses to specific groups.

Launched in 2009, LearningZen.com is a different type of training system that allows any organization the ability to deploy web based courses with its easy to use, low cost, robust training platform. LearningZen.com differs from the current Learning Management marketplace in many ways. For example, organizations can be up and running in a matter of minutes, it is streamlined for business and organizational training not academic institutions. Courses can be built right in the system and LearningZen.com accepts a wide range of content and multimedia. With the easy to use LearningZen.com course editor you don’t have to be an instructional designer to develop quality training.

Metrics, Metrics, Metrics!

noreply@blogger.com (thomaskster) — Fri, 09 Apr 2010 21:30:00 +0000

As we speak, we are launching our new course and student metrics functionality. We are pretty proud of this new view into course and student metrics. And we have new graphs. Graphs are pretty cool sometimes.

In addition, this launch gives portal administrators new visibility into courses in the portal. Previously, all course information and metrics were only available to authors. Now portal administrators can access this data as well.

Finally, here is a sneak preview into upcoming enhancements on the site. We are creating a manager role in portals, which will facilitate departmental or business unit management of groups of users in a portal. We are also building the ability to assign courses to students in portals. We believe these features will enhance user management and promote ongoing certification and education.

Frustration

noreply@blogger.com (thomaskster) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 20:08:00 +0000

Well, we've had a frustrating week here on the LZ development team.

I was out for several days with the flu, which can free and then clarify the mind (not to mention the body). Being away from the project for a couple of days did give me a perspective as to the importance of reporting. Earlier, I had not anticipated being very excited about the new reporting features. After returning to work and getting back into testing the new reporting features, I gained a new excitement about them. They are important and will be a valuable asset for our users. It is pretty interesting to organize our site's data in new ways.

Our lead developer also had a difficult week. The graphing technology initially challenged him in that it was not presenting the data as desired. I think it is also sometimes difficult to create any new feature out of thin air, not knowing for sure that all the needs are. Taking a stab in the dark is a little awkward. But, he has done well with creating a base for the functionality, which we have honed together to make an almost finished product now.

So, at the end of the week, I'm feeling much more encouraged than at the beginning of the week. I'm back at work and we have a reporting module that is taking shape and is going to be a grand addition to our feature set.

I look forward to your comments on the reporting features when you see them.

Reporting Metrics

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Greenland) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 19:44:00 +0000

We're currently designing and working on a new reporting system for authors and portal administrators. We have had some requests to improve and provide more detailed information about statistics, exam attempts, completions, and certificates. Our goal this sprint is to provide clearer, more thorough results when trying to find statistics on courses and students.

Additionally, a new portal manager role is being created. This role allows a portal administrator to delegate reporting and some user management functionality to other users. These managers would be able to report on students and courses throughout a portal and not limited to just their students as authors currently are.

We hope these changes will ring well in the community. We always welcome your comments, feedback, and suggestions. Feel free to respond!

Site Changes Just Launched

noreply@blogger.com (thomaskster) — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 20:22:00 +0000

I want to tell you about a few changes we just launched. They are small changes, but I think they will help our students, educators and portal administrators have a better experience on LearningZen.com.

New My Study Page Navigation When My Bookshelf is Empty

We've made a small change to what happens when new students navigate to My Study.

On the public site, when a student has never placed a course in their bookshelf, clicking on the Study Tab, the My Study link, or the My Bookshelf link will now navigate directly to the Highlighted Courses page. The Highlighted Courses page contains several lists that will quickly help new students find courses they might want to take. These lists include courses that are most taken, highest rated, recent, featured, and suggested.

Within a portal, new students are automatically routed to the first course category in the course catalog when their portal bookshelf is empty.

Portal Certificate Preview

Portal administrators now have the ability to preview their course certificates via a new link on the print quality logo upload page. This new feature will eliminate the need to complete a course just to see how the certificate logo looks on the course completion certificate.

This new link is located on the print quality logo upload page. Clicking the new link will show either the current print logo and certificate (if it has been already uploaded), or the temporarily uploaded, but not yet saved logo (selected during the uploading process). The link does not display if the portal does not yet have a portal certificate logo.

When uploading a certificate logo for the first time, select the file using the select button, then click the upload file button. At that point, the Preview Course Completion Certificate link will appear and may be clicked.

Resized Course Creation Media Manager Windows
We've made the media manager popup windows in the course editor wider. This change allows file names in the middle pane to more fully display, which should be helpful when the beginning of file names are similar. Please also note that the left pane on this window (the folder structure) is resizable. Grab the border between the left and middle panes and drag it left or right to resize.

Designing for the Future

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Greenland) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 23:08:00 +0000

As we prepare for our launch early next week, we have been refactoring areas of the application and implementing new design strategies - specifically in the direction of testability. This has brought some additional vision to the overall application and has helped us review the application as a whole.

One particular benefit was that some of the unit tests quickly pointed out some areas of poor performance where optimizations can be made. These are exciting discoveries because we are always looking for ways to improve performance and, by extension, the user experience.

We welcome your comments!

Great Courses on LearningZen

noreply@blogger.com (thomaskster) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 18:34:00 +0000

We've got some really great courses on LearningZen.com right now. I want to take a moment and highlight a few of them.

Customer Service in the Restaurant Industry is not only a course about providing great customer service in a restaurant, but it also contains some really good pointers for daily life for all of us, as we interact with our family, workmates, and friends.

Food Handling Safety has more specific information than you will want to know about how to safely handle food in a restaurant and also in your home.

Hockey 101 (In Conjunction with the Utah Grizzlies) provides some basic information about the great game of Ice Hockey. This course covers a short history of the game, the basic rules and elements of the game, and defines some commonly used hockey terms.

In GPS Fundamentals for VFR Pilots, you will learn how to use a GPS for ‘direct-to’ navigation, as well as why and how to enter and modify a flight plan instead of using ‘direct-to’. Other safety and situational awareness functionality such as ‘nearest’ and how to access airport information will be reviewed as well. While there are differences between the various makes and models of GPS receivers in use, we will focus on the basic functionality that is common to almost all units.

Check these out!

Thomas Klassen

The New Blog!

noreply@blogger.com (Jeff Greenland) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 16:14:00 +0000

We've officially launched our new blog, powered by Google's Blogger! We felt that separating our blog functionality and contents from the rest of LearningZen would allow us to be more blog "compliant" with regards to linking, searching, and following. It also frees up time for us to work on the product we love, rather than reinventing the blog wheel. Our new blog - as you can probably see if you're reading this - is located at http://blog.learningzen.com, or can be accessed by clicking the LearningZen Blog link in our header. This new blog went live with our LearningZen launch on January 29, 2010.

Other changes were also included in the launch, albeit mostly minor. This launch was focused mainly on maintenance items, but we have also added a few useful utilities for portal administrators.

Portal administrators now have the capability to change their members' account login (email address) and display nickname. Additionally, administrators may also delete portal user accounts if said user has not participated in other LearningZen activities. These two features give our portal administrators that much more control over the management of their users, allowing them to quickly make the changes which they need rather than being required to call LearningZen's support line.

As always, we are interested in your feedback and comments. LearningZen is a customer-driven application and we strive to incorporate requests from our user community. Feel free to post some comments!