Blackboard and e-Learning Systems
As stated in a recent article by Inside Higher Ed, “Between the announcement of its purchase of an iPhone application yesterday, its acquisition of Angel Learning in May, and its recently released new interface, Blackboard has made significant moves to strengthen its hold on the e-learning market. But many users aren’t happy with the basics.”
Living in the online space as a CEO and Executive Director of Operations, for the past 4 years, I have had many e-Learning vendors contact me about using their products and services. I have also been an online adjunct facilitator for the past three years. I have taught courses in Blackboard as well as Angel. My personal experience has been one that I prefer the functionality and the ease of navigation within the Blackboard system far more than that of the Angel system. I cannot speak to the functionality of WebCT, eCollege, or other delivery systems. However, having run an online program with over 37,000 students, Blackboard has more than met the faculty as well as the students needs.
Quit the Right Stuff at the Right Time!
For many of you who follow my blog and subscribe through the RSS feed, you have been wondering what’s been going on. Well here I am, back at Liberty University after 8 months away.
I know many of you are wondering why I left only to return in just under a year. The truth of the matter is…in the words of Seth Godin “Winners quit all the time, they just quit the right stuff at the right time.” As Alina Tugend states “sometimes we can feel so invested in our situation, or too embarrassed to admit that we might have chosen the wrong path that it permeates all aspects of our lives”. The truth is it sometimes shows more courage to leave than to stay. Going against the grain, and being the lone defector is hard. In this age of being politically correct or slapping a catchy label on everything we experience…let’s refer to quitting as “disengaging from our goal”. I am not giving up on my dreams, just shifting to more meaningful ones.
The trick, of course, is to know when it’s right to walk away and when it’s not. For me it was a series of events that unfolded overtime that said it was time to move on. I don’t want to get into a laundry list of those things, but at some point I had to draw a line between what was attainable and what was not, and at what cost.
Managing Organizational Momentum
Momentum definition: force or speed of movement; impetus, as of a physical object or course of events.
How do you maintain momentum within your organization once the ball starts to roll? I have tackled this very question in several positions I have had in the past. In reality momentum requires serious effort to get something moving but once it is moving it is harder to get it to stop then to keep moving. One way to keep momentum going is to have constantly greater goals. Below I have outline four additional areas that I have found beneficial to watch in order maintain organizational momentum.
Velocity
“If we weren’t still hiring great people and pushing ahead at full speed, it would be easy to fall behind and become a mediocre company.”
- Bill Gates
First, at minimum your organization needs to maintain the velocity in which the organization is currently operating, and most likely increase it due to competition from your competitors. Velocity is defined as: the rate of speed with which something happens. To continue the momentum, that you worked so hard to create, you have to continue to operate, change and recreate yourself at the minimum rate of speed in which it took to produce the current momentum. History is littered with organizations that were once industry leaders that no longer exist because they failed to change or reinvent themselves to maintain the momentum.
“The world is changing very fast. Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow.”
—Rupert Murdoch
One Mistake
As quoted by Peg Wood, “Commitment is the ignitor of momentum.” Just like a sports competition, one play can swing the momentum over to the other team and create a dramatically different outcome. Your organization is Read more
Seven Steps to Convert your leads, effectively (Part 2)
4. Identify and Qualify the Goal
Depending upon your particular business, your inquiries may not have an immediate understanding of their need for your product or services. Each contact an inquiry has with your business should help them overcome any barriers and clearly demonstrate why your product or service is their solution and is better than what may be offered by a competitor.
It is important to recognize and understand the goal of each sales touch:
• Is it to close the sale immediately?
• Is it to set the next appointment?
• Is it to build the relationship for future contacts?
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