We’re thrilled to announce Tom Kuhlmann and David Anderson will be visiting Australia and New Zealand to conduct Articulate Roadshows in 2019 and 2020.

Spend a day (or two) with them and B Online Learning Certified Articulate Trainers to learn more about e-learning design and how to get more from your Articulate tools.

The workshop sessions are informal, fun, and packed with tricks, tips, and ideas you can use immediately to help take your e-learning skills to the next level. And if that’s not enough, you’ll get access to the source files and video tutorials shared during the workshop.

Our workshops are designed for users of all skill levels from beginners to those with years of course building experience. However, they do anticipate at least a functional understanding of basic Storyline authoring.

You can sign up for one or both days. Sign up for both days and get a discount. Numbers are limited so register soon.

DATES AND LOCATIONS

Sydney 9 – 10 September 2019 click here to register

Auckland 12 – 13 September 2019 click here to register

Christchurch 16 – 17 September 2019 click here to register

Brisbane 20 – 21 April 2020 click here to register

Melbourne 23 -24 April 2020 click here to register

DAY 1 AGENDA

Tom likes to break e-learning course development into three core focal points: what content needs to be in the course, what should it look like, and what’s the learner to do. This forms the foundation for all of our sessions as we look at using the Articulate software to build courses. These tend to be quick hit sessions where we show a boatload of tips and tricks. Some topics* include:

• 10 Things to Know About Drag & Drop Interactions.
• How to Use PowerPoint with Rise 360
• Using Lightbox Slides in E-Learning
• Create an Engaging Parallax Slider Interaction.
• Finding the Right Look and Feel for your Course
• Everything You Wanted to Know About Object States But Were Afraid to Ask
• Nip and Tuck Your Slides Using the 5-Point Makeover Process
• Build Interactive Scenarios in Rise 360
• How to Update Old Courses When You No Longer Have the Source Files

DAY 2 AGENDA

This day focuses on moving past click-and-read courses by reworking the content to make it more engaging and interactive. In a series of hands-on activities, we review existing content and learn some technique that when applied will completely transform your slides from standard click-and-read content to something more interactive and engaging.

Topics* include:

• How to Gamify Content Library Templates
• Background Slide Makeovers
• Customize Drag & Drop Interactions
• From Static to Interactive
• Interactive Quiz Makeovers

*Session topics subject to change.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

While we use the Articulate software, anyone is welcome to join. The sessions have general application regardless of the software. Here’s who usually attends:

• Subject matter experts who build rapid e-learning courses
• Trainers transitioning to e-learning roles
• Instructional designers
• E-learning designers & developers

WHY YOU SHOULD ATTEND

• This is not a sales event. It’s a practical tips & tricks workshop
• Learn how to save time and money with more efficient development
• Take your courses past the standard click & read model
• Lots of post-conference resources including tutorials & templates

For more information visit the links above or our professional development page here.

Birch Learning Platform combines online learning with talent management so that compliance training can be linked directly to employee performance.

• Monitor and assess each individual’s progress as well as your team.
• Reduce the risk of non-compliance by monitoring training levels and maintaining accurate records as evidence of compliance
• Alerts inform training managers (as well as team members) when goals require renewal. 
• Show your team members exactly which course they need to take in order to maintain their compliance, allow them to obtain permission or to register in the course they need from their Dashboard.

Using a cutting edge responsive design to provide a turnkey learning solution, the Birch Learning Platform eLearning catalogue delivers a perfect experience for everyone across all devices.  Featuring, media, interactions, workplace scenarios, bookmarking and knowledge checks.  Kept up to date with the latest legislative changes to ensure your organisation meets its compliance requirements.

Built using Articulate Rise or Articulate Storyline, means we can easily contextualise the content to include your organisations logo, policies, procedures, videos, images and weblinks.  Designed and developed by our awarded winning team and widely used by government and organisations.

The best news is that the catalogue is growing driven by suggested topics or subjects from our thriving Birch community. All courses are available to Birch clients at no additional cost. Administrators can easily register learners to any courses they need or learners can self register.

A Perfect Experience for Everyone

Current titles include:

Compliance Collection

• Equal Employment Opportunity
• Work Health & Safety 
• Diversity
• Conduct & Ethics
• IT Security Essentials
• Privacy Awareness
• Workplace Bullying and Harassment
• Fraud Awareness

Business Collection

• Work Priorities
• Operational Plans
• Workplace Relationships
• Show Leadership
• Team Effectiveness
• Manage Work Health and Safety
• Customer Service Management
• Continuous Improvement
• Workplace Learning
• Project Management
• Promote innovation and continuous improvement
• Delivering Successful Presentations
• Provide Coaching and Mentoring
• Conflict Management
• Give and Receive Feedback
• Effective Communication
• Manual Handling
• Manage Personal Work Priorities and Professional Development
• Identify Risk and Risk Management Processes

Need more content? Rapid Course^™ is the eLearning industry’s first customisable off-the-shelf content marketplace, built in the award-winning Articulate^®.  With 13 categories and 81 courses (and growing), we’re sure you’ll find what you need. What makes Rapid Course™ unique is that when you buy a course, the download includes the Articulate source files, so you can quickly customise the course for your needs! Find out more about Rapid Course here.

For more information please download the Birch Learning Platform Brochure or contact us. 

Sydney, Australia – One of the most frequent things we’ve heard over the years is, “I do so much training just to learn how to use my new Learning Management System (LMS)?” As frustrating as that sounds, it really is accurate to how many administrators and managers feel when they are getting started with a new business tool that is supposed to be making their life easier. In reality, an organisation’s decision on an LMS is largely driven by the usability for the end user rather than the people maintaining the system.

Being aware of this frustration, we set out to create something that focuses just as much on the back end experience as it does on the learner’s. We want to keep the hard working and passionate learning administrator as happy and productive as possible. But also lighten their load by giving Managers and Trainers more access to what they need.  This is why, we built Birch – a digital learning experience for everyone – administrators, learners, managers, trainers and more.

The 4 Key Components of Birch make life very easy for our clients:

• GOALS are made up of elements which a user completes to maintain compliance or achieve completion. Use goals to easily control the flow from one element to another.
• ELEMENTS are learning activities such as SCORM, reading a file, on the job assessment, watching a video, attending a workshop/class, taking an assessment, manager signoff, completing surveys with various types of results.
• CONNECTIONS remove the limits of traditional user and course structure. Connect things together in a way that works for you. Create dynamic target audiences, automate compliance, group users, make teams, build workflows, and enhance reporting.
• TAGS amplify reporting, simplify searching, showcase featured learning activities and enhance reports. Add tags to users, Goals, Elements and Connections.

Keeping in line with making an administrator’s life easier and more productive, a simple combination of these Key Components is all you need to build and design learning programs for your organisation. This configuration can be as simple as a single activity that needs to be completed by a learner or as complex as a compliance workflow with multiple elements that renews each year. Either way, the setup and configuration is the same and very easy and intuitive to setup. Here’s an example of what a simple goal (such as a new employee program) could look like:

If you have any questions about this or just want to learn more about B Online Learning, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We’d love to connect with you!

Sydney, Australia – B Online Learning are pleased to announce we have won the LearnX Platinum Award for Best eLearning Adoption with SA Water.

Due to the transient and often field-based nature of many areas of SA Water, the ability of staff to physically attend face to face training sessions is sometimes difficult. SA Water was keen to make training more accessible through improved visibility of employee training completion, making materials more consistent and offering less time-consuming and effective training packages.

B Online Learning met this criteria because of the flexibility and adaptability of the systems used for both content development and learning management.

Articulate Storyline was used to develop the eLearning course content to provide highly interactive and engaging courses using both linear and non-linear concept development methodologies.  It allowed for templates to be easily created and updated to provide a more visually dynamic but consistent approach to content appearance and functionality. For SA Water, this took the form of interchangeable content colour schemes that represent SA Water’s training categories:

• work health & safety
• compliance
• leadership
• technology
• technical and water quality
• professional development

This approach provided the users with greater focus on the training outcomes through consistent application of interactivity and through the colour scheme changes. These elements kept the users informed of the nature of the subject and the expectation for their involvement, allowing their focus to narrow down to the actual content.

We were also able to take advantage of some other easily incorporated eLearning elements to give the content a dynamic visual appeal, this helped to create a contemporary, interactive and immersive learning experience, which included:

• the use of layers to display objects progressively as well as using triggers and conditions that make things happen based on other events
• the selective use of images, video files, audio files and links to websites
• the inclusion of animated software simulations – to demonstrate the use of IT systems
• the inclusion of real life scenarios to reinforce learning in a context that is relevant to the specific audience for the course.

B Online is also the Certified Training Partner for Articulate products exclusively in Australia and New Zealand and we use those products exclusively in our solutions team to build top quality eLearning courses. A few members of the SA Water team completed our training so they can maintain their own courses moving forward.

Our LMS provided a robust, highly scalable system offering extensive functionality as well as its very user friendly interface and virtually unlimited configurability.  Some of the key features configured to support the key LMS criteria initially included:

• the automation of user record creation
• flexibility in defining and applying user structures
• easy management of training records
• the ability to use both standardised and self-built reports
• the ability for the LMS to allocate training to learners utilising both automated logic and manual interventions.

More specifically, we the LMS allowed for:

• automatically create or update SA Water user accounts regular data import from other SA Water Human Resource (HR) systems
• reporting within the LMS uses the SA Water organisation hierarchy as a standardised basis that allows for consistent report results and comparative review
• reporting within the LMS is geared towards course completions, including results and course renewal dates:
  • reporting options within the LMS included standard reports which were visible based on the report users roles and position in the hierarchy and also custom reports built by administrators
• use of course delivery structures that allow online course deployment via:
  • automated logic
  • manual allocation by SA Water LMS administrators
  • a user self-service model where specified courses were made available to users through a browse able catalogue structure.

When this project went live in SA Water, the feedback received was overwhelmingly positive.

“The biggest success has been the fact that it’s available upon request. Employees/Learners can really drive their own development and quench their own thirst for knowledge in a way that is historically unprecedented. Traditionally, they’ve had to wait, now it’s available on demand!”

For more information on our Learning Platform, Articulate eLearning content development or Certified Articulate Training please contact us to learn more.

Sydney, Australia – What a magnificent day it was as B Online Learning kicked off its Insight Conference to celebrate its 10 year birthday!

The client exclusive affair was held at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, with a gorgeous backdrop of blue skies, water and sunshine.

With our valued partners in tow, we sat down for a great day discussing a whole raft of online learning and development opportunities including: building online communities, creating learning solutions, building learning eco-systems, setting goals and creating the right look and feel for any eLearning project.

It was also exciting to have eLearning ‘rockstars’ Tom Kuhlmann and David Anderson from Articulate, to share their knowledge and experience with a room eager for conversation and collaboration.

Great day to celebrate @bonlinelearning‘s 10-yr anniversary w/ @MattGuyan @tomkuhlmann @mattybee #bonline pic.twitter.com/3TJmfvAIx3

— David Anderson (@elearning) May 26, 2016

The day kicked off with our very own Ruth McElhone (Learning Director for B Online Learning) taking on MC duties to keep the day moving, and ensuring plenty of opportunities for questions and knowledge sharing. Ruth introduced our first speaker of the day was Tom Kuhlmann, Vice President, Articulate, sharing with us his experiences about How to Make Community Part of Your Training.

@ruthmcelhone kicking off the #bonline conference! With @tomkuhlmann and @Articulate pic.twitter.com/KlaOlIiBkt

— Matt Blackstock (@mattybee) May 26, 2016

Tom stressed that community is all about sharing, if you want to encourage it you need to share the knowledge. That’s one of the underlying reasons that the E-learning Heroes community works so well, whether it is sharing advice, examples or downloads.

Tom went on to discuss how community is also made up of two groups: Participators and Gleaners. Participators want a sense of belonging and connection. To provide that as a community manager you need to affirm, encourage, recognise and reward them. The Gleaners are after convenience; they want quick access to resources and information to help them solve a problem. As a Community Manager we need to make community easy for them to find things, self-serve as required, and get back to their day to day jobs; don’t expect them to hang around. If we can create an easy mechanism for the gleaners to find things, chances are they will be back, hang around and spread the word to others. Who knows? They may become participators or attract new participators for you. That’s how community grows!

Organisations tend to want to control communities @tomkuhlmann #bonline pic.twitter.com/9q7jKmjfPS

— Matthew Guyan (@MattGuyan) May 27, 2016

How to address both groups in the community @tomkuhlmann #bonline pic.twitter.com/McN5coXfWc

— Beck Verity (@bonlinelearning) May 26, 2016

Ruth had some great key messages for attendees during her talk. She kicked off with the statement that learning is NOT a onetime event. Learning needs to be reinforced through other channels. It’s more than an 8 hour workshop, or a 1 hour online module, you need an ecosystem that ensures that your learning environment is an interactive self – sustaining system. The ecosystem can be made up of talent management, performance support, knowledge management, access to experts, social networking & collaboration and structured learning.

Good start for developing a learning&performance ecosystem NB: One size doesn’t fit all-stay flexible! #bonline pic.twitter.com/SrxhdACXJb

— Matt Blackstock (@mattybee) May 27, 2016

The great news about an ecosystem is that you don’t necessarily need to have all six components! Even 2-3 of them if done well, are enough to establish a functional and efficient learning ecosystem. Ruth went on to give an example of an ecosystem by breaking down B Online Learning’s Master E-Learning Course, which embodies the concept of an ecosystem in its design.

Our Master #eLearning Course embodies the characteristics of a learning ecosystem @ruthmcelhone #bonline pic.twitter.com/iVGYwilfVy

— Beck Verity (@bonlinelearning) May 27, 2016

We then got really ‘hands on’, and conference participants created a design map for the VIVID Festival that was kicking off in Sydney that night!

Our last two events of the day, started with our expert Q&A panel made up of Tom Kuhlmann, John Kouzaba, Chris Rankin and Ben Saunders, B Online Learning’s own Solutions Manager. MC’d again by Ruth, our experts answered questions from the attendees about eLearning, learning solutions and their experiences.  The session also had a fantastic discussion around innovation, and what it means to our industry, its impacts and what changes we might possibly see over the next 3-5 years.

Expert Panel discussing #innovation Insight Conference @tomkuhlmann @SaundersBenji Chris Rankin @atgroundup #bonline pic.twitter.com/gA6wL6zJrb

— Beck Verity (@bonlinelearning) May 27, 2016

Our final session of the day was hosted by Ben Saunders and Belinda Wetenhall, eLearning Specialist & Trainer, Blackmores. Their presentation Blackmores – A Successful Learning Model Across Multiple Channels discussed how Blackmores implement and manage learning, across all four of their main learning channels. The presentation also discussed how they use the B Online Learning LMS to successfully manage multiple entry points for their learners, and provide a customised experience for each of their four primary audiences.

The key message that came out of the presentation was that to a user, the LMS should be simple, quick and easy to use.

How @Blackmores engages learners #bonline Insight Conference pic.twitter.com/OelwLT6vtF

— Beck Verity (@bonlinelearning) May 27, 2016

Belinda and Ben also shared with attendees the types of graphical reporting that can be pulled out of the LMS, with reports taken over multiple courses, time and by different groups of users, making the reporting extensive, but above all, easy!

That brought our Insight Conference to a close, with attendees discussing excitedly the opportunities and learnings the day had provided.

With the day itself coming to a close and the VIVID festival starting to kick in, the celebration was by no means over! Attendees and the team from B Online, moved onto The Terrace at the Australian National Maritime Museum to enjoy an opportunity to mingle and celebrate all that B Online has achieved over the past 10 years with the clients, team and partners that made it possible.

A BIG thank you to all our supporters who have been with us on this journey, and we look forward to continuing the journey with you as we move into our next ten years and beyond!

Happy 10^th Birthday B Online Learning!

Celebrating 10 amazing years of #Elearning success w/ @bonlinelearning pic.twitter.com/ZxmG5LdiGw

— David Anderson (@elearning) May 27, 2016

Sydney, Australia – Defence Housing Australia (DHA) with B Online Learning have won the PLATINUM LearnX Impact Award 2015 for Best New Technology Implementation – Deployment of a Hosted LMS.

DHA has more than 650 employees throughout Australia with 16 regional offices and four call centres. Prior to 2012 training was decentralised with minimal record keeping. DHA made a decision to create a centralised Learning and Development (L&D) team. Over two years DHA L&D has implemented more than 100 eLearning modules and many workshops and courses, particularly around building leadership capability and compliance. There was a need to be able to manage and track this training. Also their WHS team needed to provide training to more than 3,000 external contractors. This was not possible with the limited LMS DHA had.

Key LMS features DHA were looking for:

• Utility to upload and manage SCORM custom content without vendor assistance
• Capability to manage course registrations for all learning media types
• Ability for staff to enroll in a course
• Registration approval workflow
• Flexible extensive reporting accessible by L&D and managers
• Controlled access
• Integration with the HR system – Aurion

Watch Barry Moore from DHA present at LearnX 2015 here.

Barry Moore – Learning and Development Specialist

We previously managed training through spreadsheets and a basic LMS that could only manage eLearning, but this was limited in its capability. Hours of time and energy was spent producing reports that could not be regarded as accurate. Maintaining records was also very labour intensive. We had two full-time administration staff struggling to keep up with record keeping. Communication and engagement with managers and staff was always initiated by L&D with us having to spend a lot of time explaining what we had to offer and how it all links to staff professional development.

Being a new initiative in DHA our strategy early on was to improve engagement with the business and make training easily available to staff. Being able to customise banners, give it a DHA corporate look and tweak the user interface to make it simple for our staff to use was inline and supportive of our strategy.

For our external contractors we were able to manage the training to more than 3,000 contractors seamlessly. From DHA’s contractor management application, we are able to add contractor organisations into the LMS real time directly from the contractor management application, with no manual input at all. This was vital for contractors when creating their account to validate and to be assigned to these organisations for reporting purposes. After the contractor created their account with a simplified form, they are assigned their compliance training automatically and were able to access this training in the field.

This allowed DHA safety and project officers to check contractors’ compliance on the job. The process of managing this large group of learners involves no manual intervention at all, and is managed in the one instance of the LMS via communities allowing us to provide different business rules than we have for internal employees.

In the future, we will be able to target different types of learning activities based on trades through the LMS. For example any learning content that is based on electricity content, will be targeted to those contractor organisations who are electrical contractors.

It has had an enormous impact on staff and the business. Staff now actively seek out training to improve their skills and knowledge. Managers are more engaged with L&D and the ability to view their staff’s achievement has increased their engagement with L&D. Managers and staff are now referring to the LMS for information when completing development plans as part of the performance development agreement process.

The fact that we could implement and track our compliance played a role in our WHS team gaining national accreditation.

It’s proved very cost effective. We have gone from two full-time administration staff to one. The one administrator not only managers the LMS but now has time to assist with eLearning development, increasing their skill set.

B Online Learning LMS has more capability than we need at our early stage of development as a centralised L&D department. We take comfort in the fact that as we grow and require more capability from our LMS, it can meet those needs.