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How FutureLearn is preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

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How FutureLearn is preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)

What is GDPR?

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) – the strengthening of data protection in the European Union (EU) – comes into effect on 25 May 2018. The regulation will apply to all companies located in the EU or processing the personal data of any individual residing in the EU.

How will it affect you when you use FutureLearn?

As FutureLearn collects and processes the personal information of our learners all over the world, we fall within the scope of the GDPR. This means we’ve made some changes to ensure the way we handle and store your data is GDPR compliant.

There won’t be any major changes; we’ll just be tightening up the ways we collect, store, share or otherwise process any personal data. The new regulations mean that we need to let you know and understand what happens with your personal data and why, when you use FutureLearn.

You’ll also have a greater say in how your personal data is processed. We have been working to allow you to understand exactly what will happen to the information you give FutureLearn, including allowing you to give consent to receive different emails from us, as well as the data you share with us at different stages in your journey on our platform. All of this has entailed some changes, which are detailed below.

Updates to our Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions

We’ve updated our Privacy Policy to be clearer about how, when and why we process your data. We have also made some small changes to our Terms and Conditions.

Updates to the way we send emails

Soon all of our emails will be sent from @mail.futurelearn.com rather than @futurelearn.com. Add our new email address to your address book so you don’t miss out on important information regarding your courses.

We’ve also updated our email preferences so that you can choose the emails you want to receive. You can set your email preferences to choose whether you receive extra information about your courses and other relevant information about courses and products on FutureLearn.

You can also choose whether you’d like to be contacted about new courses and recommendations from our team, receive emails about research to help improve FutureLearn, and choose whether you’d like to be notified about new followers or replies from fellow learners on your courses.

You can find your email preferences in your settings page.

Child consent

In future, you’ll be asked to tell us your age when you log in so that we can identify any children using FutureLearn. You’ll only be asked this once. You must be at least 13 years old to use FutureLearn.

We strongly believe in protecting the privacy of children. In line with this belief, we have implemented additional safeguards to ensure this, but please rest assured that we do not store your age unless you are under the age of 18, and we do not ask for your date of birth.

What happens to your data if you delete your account?

If you decide that you want to delete your account, you can now request this on your account page. When your account is deleted we remove all of your personal data that we hold. This includes your name, profile information and any comments you may have left on courses. The majority of your data is removed immediately, and the process is complete within 24 hours.

Informing you about what we do with your data

In addition to our updated Privacy Policy, we have also updated the notices we display whenever we process your data (e.g. when you post a comment or sign up to a course) so that you are always fully aware of what we will do with your data and why.

 

From the FutureLearn team

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FutureLearn news

Who are our Learners? Part 4: The ‘Leisure’ archetypes

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Who are our Learners? Part 4: The ‘Leisure’ archetypes

A research-based insight into FutureLearners.

Part 4: The ‘Leisure’ archetypes.

By Tracey Walker, User Experience Researcher at FutureLearn

In part one, Tracey explained how the research and data team at FutureLearn set out to understand more about our learners. You can read more about this in Part 1: what we did and why.

In part two, Tracey focused on the ‘Work and Study’ group of archetypes while in part three, she focused on the ‘Personal Life’ group. In this final article in the series, Tracey focuses on the last of the groups of archetypes that came out of the research, the ‘Leisure’ archetypes. Within this category, there were two different archetypes; hobbyists and vitalisers – read on to find out who these archetypes are and what they want from FutureLearn.

Hobbyists

Hobbyists learn in order to support their existing personal projects, leisure activities and pastimes. Our courses complement, inform and enable their activities. A high proportion of Hobbyists were retired and therefore more likely to be in the 56-75 age group and 61% of them were from Europe. Hobbyists had the best activation rate and the best full participation rate in comparison with other learners on the platform.

What do Hobbyists want from FutureLearn?

  • A wide variety of non-vocational courses to suit their hobbies, e.g. history topics
  • Courses they can join when needed
  • Opportunities to go into more depth
  • Packs of course content and access to related resources

Vitalisers

Vitalisers learn as a hobby and for the love of learning. They may be proud to call themselves lifelong learners, occupying themselves by learning anything of personal interest. They see learning as an enjoyable and stimulating activity, perhaps even an indulgence. The majority of vitalisers were retired and more likely to come from Europe (63%). Vitalisers had the highest number of enrolments of all archetypes.

What do Vitalisers want from FutureLearn?

  • Regular supply of diverse and interesting courses, allowing them to learn regularly
  • To spend personal and luxury time learning
  • Sound, accessible content and good reference materials
  • To feel stimulated, mentally active and entertained
  • To feel good about themselves, their identity as a learner and their good use of time

What type of learner are you?

At FutureLearn, we are obsessed with understanding our learners and will continue to do research to explore learner motivations and how they might be changing and evolving. In fact, very few of our learners in the research identified with only one archetype and it was very common for a learner that strongly identified with the Advancer archetype, for example, to also think of themselves as an Explorer to some degree.

We are very excited about the prospect of other archetypes emerging over time and exploring what we can do to cater for their needs. You never know, you may be our new Archetype. What type of learner are you?

Read more in part 1: what we did and why, part 2: The ‘Work and Study’ archetypes and part 3: Who are our learners: The ‘Personal Life’ archetypes.

Category
Research insights

Are learners learning? (and how do we know?)

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Are learners learning? (and how do we know?)

A snapshot of research into what we know about how FutureLearners learn.

By Matt Jenner SFHEA, Learning Developer at FutureLearn

Our purpose, at FutureLearn, is to help everyone fulfil their potential in a changing world, by transforming access to education. Rightfully, we’re not alone, but bold statements need to give evidence of their impact. Our approach is to understand our learners and look for patterns that provide evidence of an overall positive experience. And if a pattern shows something’s not working, we make some changes. We want to create a compelling learner experience; this is something to celebrate.

We would be lost if we didn’t know much about our learners – so we need to understand what happens with learners throughout the run of a course. Using data to improve the experience is at the root of every successful technology, without such insight there is a blindness towards what’s happening and how to make improvements.

What do we measure?

To begin discussion on aspects of learning, we need to consider what that ‘learning’ means in terms of a learner taking a FutureLearn course. So below we’re sharing some of our definitions, which help shape what happens on a typical journey of a learner:

  • Joiner – someone who registers for a course.
  • Learner – a Joiner who views at least one step in a course.
  • Active Learner – a Learner who goes on to mark at least one step as complete in a course.
  • Social Learner – a Learner who leaves at least one comment in a course.
  • Completed Learner (50%) – Active Learners who mark at least half of the steps as complete.
  • Completed Learner (90%) – Active Learners who mark at least 90% of the course as complete.  

Measuring learning is tricky – as most FutureLearn courses are open to anyone who wishes to take part. This means, perhaps bizarrely, a social learner doesn’t have to become an active learner! But nevertheless, we look for patterns that help us know what’s happening, and where we can help support learners achieving their goals.

What do we know?

The following data comes from an analysis of 1222 open (to anyone) FutureLearn courses running between August 2016 and December 2017.

50% of people who enrol become Learners

Half of all Joiners (those who register for a course) become Learners. This means, on average, 50% of the people who click the ‘Join’ button never make it into the course when it’s running. This sounds like a lot, it is! You can join a course before it starts, which then requires waiting until you can become a Learner. The longer the period of time before someone joins, to when the course starts, the less likely they may become a Learner. Related analysis shows that learning together offers a more compelling experience than alone (a cohort course vs. anytime enrolment) – so while we would like more people who join a course to become Learners, we also can’t compromise an experience we value highly – courses have a start date for a reason.

35% of people who enrol become active learners by completing at least one step

An Active Learner is someone who has completed at least one step of a course. Completion is something we’ve always wanted Learners to be in control of, which is why nearly all steps provide a ‘Mark as complete’ button for Learners. Once a Learner has completed they mark it as complete and it adds to the Learner’s overall course progress. Active Learners need to mark 90% of steps as complete, and pass assessments, to obtain a Certificate of Achievement – which helps provide demonstrable evidence of learning.

49% of Learners are social

Being social is critical to learning, and we built our platform, and every course, around this concept. Anyone taking a FutureLearn course will quickly see that social interaction is encouraged, by discussions in nearly every step and by educators. Learners will find that educators will encourage discussion within a step with leading questions and thought-provoking prompts. Learners don’t have to post comments to be social, there’s a lot of benefit from reading, liking and following as well.

30% of active learners complete at least 50% of course steps. 21% go on to complete at least 90%

This is a measure of Learners heading towards, and achieving, success in a course. Completion is where learners mark individual steps at complete (except for quizzes, which mark themselves after the first attempt). When Learners mark their first step as complete, we hope it helps them feel in control of their learning and making progress in a course. Once a Learner has marked a number of steps as complete they may be approaching the halfway point. The significance of this is shown in our headline above, upon becoming a Completing Learner, reaching half-way, the majority continue on their journey through to full completion – 90% or more.

Does social learning work?

Conversation is a fundamental mechanism for learning. To be successful it needs to be contextual, engaging and constructive. Discussion and commenting follows course content, Learners respond socially to the topics of the course, and interactions between Learners support self, and peer learning. At FutureLearn, we focus on learning as conversation which builds on the foundations of Conversation Theory (Pask, 1976) which was developed further into the Conversational Framework (Laurillard). These underlying theories and frameworks support the structure of conversations incorporated how we approach social learning in the design of courses and developing our platform.

Making the most of this data

Theory is lost without evidence, and our approach to social learning is proving effective as we explore, benchmark and analyse courses. The headlines we have shared above are a part of our reporting, measuring and strategic planning for courses, our platform and us as a company. They are only a subset and they are only indicative of the underlying activity taking place. We are very aware each learner has their own motivations and goals for taking a FutureLearn course, we make no implication that being included in a bundle of numbers says we can make firm conclusions. They are, however, still useful measures – if we made a change to how social works in courses, we can then take some measurements and ascertain if the change was a good idea. We have, in the past, taken new features away as they had a detrimental impact. The majority, we’re happy to report, do the opposite – we keep changes that make a significant positive impact on the learner experience.

Our partners also have access to a broader range of datasets for each course they run. Many use this for research purposes and we host the FutureLearn Academic Network which provides a platform for dissemination, networking and collaboration for a range of academics, researchers, students and analysts.

 

  1. Pask, G. (1976). Conversation theory: Applications in education and epistemology. Amsterdam and New York: Elsevie
  2. Laurillard, D. (2002). Rethinking university teaching (2nd Edition).  London: Routledge Falmer.

Category
Research insights

How to convince your boss you should take a FutureLearn course during work

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How to convince your boss you should take a FutureLearn course during work

With so many online learning tools out there, it’s no surprise that people are spending on average 14 hours a month learning outside of work. It’s easier than ever to access new knowledge and skills. But juggling learning, work and a life can be difficult – it’d be much better if you could do some of your learning at work, especially if it benefits your role.

There are all sorts of benefits you can get from learning at work – from being more engaged in your job to improving your personal development. It can even make you happier.

So, with that in mind, here’s my how-to guide to help you convince your boss that you should take a FutureLearn course during work hours.

  1. Find out if you’re already allowed

Before you start seeking out the perfect course to do at work, first find out if your company has a training policy or budget allowance for employees. If you can’t find anything in your contract, speak to someone in HR to find out if a policy exists. If you are allowed, great – get started on finding a course.

If not, it means you need to spend a bit more time on the next step.

  1. Do your research

Now you know where you stand, get started on your search for the perfect course. A few questions to consider:

  • What are your learning goals?
  • How long will it take?
  • How much time can you commit each week? 

…It’s worth noting that all FutureLearn course content is step by step, so won’t eat into your work time.

  • How does the course benefit your role, well-being and professional development?
  • Is it accredited?

Having good answers to these questions will be crucial in the next step: the pitch to your boss.

  1. Present a good case to your boss

Now you’re ready with all the info on the course, it’s time to state your case. We’ve found that it’s usually more effective to email first (here’s a handy e-mail template), presenting the course you’d like to do along with a quick summary of why. Then follow it up with a face-to-face meeting.

This way you have two chances to convince your boss and it gives them an opportunity to process the request in their own time. 

  1. Anticipate a struggle

It’s very possible that your boss will say no to your request or want further justification. Anticipate these questions and get your answers ready, you’ll be far more likely to get a yes. The key thing is being prepared.

Likely questions might include:

  • How much will it cost?
  • how does this benefit the organisation?
  • How will taking this course affect the projects you need to deliver?
  1. Offer to share your knowledge with other colleagues

If your boss is still wavering, it’s worth mentioning how your learnings can impact the wider business – offer to share your new skills with colleagues. Presenting back a summary of your learnings or offering to mentor other team members on that specific topic.

Alex’s pro tip: These sessions go down well with snacks

  1. Celebrate your new skills

By now, your boss has no doubt said yes. So let’s jump forward to when you’ve finished your course:

You’ve picked up new skills, grown in confidence and had some rewarding working hours learning. Now what?

It’s time to celebrate your hard work. Many of our courses offer upgrades, buying one of these (or having one bought for you) can help you prove your learning and demonstrate your commitment to a given subject and your professional development.

If all else fails and your boss needs further convincing, get in touch with us and we can help you present a convincing case.

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Using FutureLearn

Yes! Digital Learners are Emotional – Insights from the Irish 101 MOOC

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Yes! Digital Learners are Emotional – Insights from the Irish 101 MOOC

Elaine Beirne, a researcher in The Ideas Lab at the National Institute of Digital Learning (NIDL) in DCU, and inaugural OLC Emerging Scholar, is researching the emotions of beginner language learners in Irish language MOOCs.

Originally appeared on NIDL’s blog. 

Many people believe that online learning can be a lonely journey for a learner and the experience of learning online is often described in disconnected terms. However, many credible studies into learning online demonstrate that learners experience a wide range of emotions as they engage in the online environment. Elaine Beirne, a researcher in The Ideas Lab at the National Institute of Digital Learning in DCU, and inaugural OLC Emerging Scholar, is researching the emotions of beginner language learners in Irish language MOOCs.

Her findings to date have been quite revealing. Research into traditional language learning settings has identified anxiety or foreign language anxiety as one of the main emotions experienced by learners.

Elaine’s research in the Irish 101: Introduction to Irish Language and Culture course hosted on the FutureLearn platform, however, identifies curiosity, excitement and pride as the top three emotions reported by learners. Learners completed a number of short surveys following some of the course’s learning activities.  This baseline study is now being extended to a further iteration of the Irish 101 course, due to commence in May of this year.

Elaine is currently recruiting participants who would be interested in undertaking the MOOC and reporting their emotions in the short surveys as they progress through the course. Elaine explains more about the study* in the short video above and if you are interested in participating and helping the Fáilte ar Líne project to improve course design for language learners register . The Fáilte ar Líne project is co-funded by the Department of Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht under the Twenty Year Strategy for the Irish Language with support from the National Lottery and it is is a joint project of the NIDL and Fiontar & Scoil na Gaeilge.

A world without emotions would be cold and colourless. (Williams, Mercer, Ryan, 2015: 81)

References

Williams, M., Mercer, S. & Ryan, S., 2015. Exploring Psychology in Language Learning and Teaching, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp.170

*Ethical approval received from DCU’s Research Ethics Committee. Reference number: recdcu/2018/044

Category
Research insights

Happy English Language Day from FutureLearn!

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Happy English Language Day from FutureLearn!

First held in 2010, the day coincides with William Shakespeare’s birthday and celebrates English as one of six official UN languages.

To mark the occasion, we spoke to IELTS expert Chris Cavey about how the British Council’s online IELTS course helped 2.2 million students learn English last year, enabling them to live, work or study overseas.

Did you know that 193 countries are UN members? With that many members speaking so many languages, there are just six official languages – English has been used as the lingua franca or bridge language in Europe since the interwar years.

I’ve had a think about why I think taking an IELTS course with FutureLearn is worthwhile. Beyond being intellectually stimulating, it’s something which has a positive impact on your prospects in employment and movement, globally.

Here are my two key reasons for learning English skills using the IELTS course.

  1. “It really is a global test, why not learn English in a global classroom?”

You see, it’s not a test that just uses English as spoken here in the UK, but the accents and customs of English wherever it’s spoken, from Australia to the US.

It’s the world’s most popular English test for higher education and global migration – IELTS is accepted by over 10,000 organisations worldwide.

So if you’re thinking about pursuing a career or study abroad, IELTS opens doors to universities, employers and even immigration authorities to help make this a reality.

The course you will take reflects the international reach of IELTS – and English as a whole – learners from around the world share their opinions and questions, helping one another to be more confident about English language tests.

  1. “Even before your IELTS results, you’ll boost your English language confidence”

Our free online course, “Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests,” aims to help build your confidence over six weeks. The course focuses on each part of the test (listening, reading, speaking and writing), to give you the best chance to improve and get your desired IELTS score.

By the end of the course you’ll gain a clear picture of what is expected of you in the exam, developing your English language skills in the process. Videos and practice materials illustrate the format of the IELTS test, the best way to prepare for the real thing.

Useful to anyone learning English, working or studying abroad, and taking an English test – especially if your plan is to take IELTS.

Join the free online course, “Understanding IELTS: Techniques for English Language Tests,” now or find out more about today’s celebrations using #EnglishLanguageDay.

For other courses and to stay up to date with FutureLearn find us on Twitter and Facebook.

Not feeling social? Sign up for Lily’s alerts via e-mail here.

Do Moocs generate return on investment?

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Do Moocs generate return on investment?

Ang Davies, senior lecturer in clinical bioinformatics and genomics at the University of Manchester looks at the pros and cons of the University of Manchester’s recent clinical bioinformatics MOOC. Originally appeared in Times Higher Education. 

Genomics, the study of people’s genetic make-up, is revolutionising healthcare. Expanding far beyond the field of clinical genetics, it is now being used to diagnose disease, make disease prognoses and also predict potential adverse outcomes to treatments and tailor an individual’s treatment.

Clinical bioinformaticians are designing the IT infrastructure, data governance and analysis pipelines to allow the analysis of huge genomic data sets but, as a profession, clinical bioinformatics is still in its infancy (and is something of a mystery to some healthcare professionals). Because of this, we decided to create a Futurelearn massive open online course (MOOC) to raise awareness of this important new profession.

One year on (and five runs of our MOOC later), I wonder what value our course has added to the healthcare professional community, to The University of Manchester, and also to us as academics.

At what cost?

The development costs of producing a MOOC should not be underestimated. In 2015, a Times Higher Education study that looked at the real costs of developing MOOCs found figures varied from £10,000 to £50,000, with an average of £29,356. Our development costs were  £26,000, and running costs probably ran into the hundreds of pounds each time (although with genomics changing so rapidly it’s likely that the need for redevelopment will come quickly).

Early rhetoric suggested that MOOCs might threaten traditional university face-to-face provision. But the tide has turned, and the focus of many MOOCs has moved from widening participation in education to income generation. For some institutions they generate significant revenue, earning an estimated $100 million (£75 million) in 2016 according to a recent report.

FutureLearn’s financial model has recently changed, and while learners can still access the courses for free, there is now the option of a paid upgrade allowing continued access for the life of the course.  

What value have Moocs brought to us as academics?

As with any rapidly developing field, the lifetime of the material created is finite – long-term sustainability will require significant academic and learning technologist support – a cost that we will need to factor in to any future courses. The time, commitment and effort that MOOCs demand should not be trivialised – I would estimate an average of 20 hours of academic or facilitator time to respond to the discussions and write end-of-week summary emails.

Within our course, case studies and articles are interspersed with quizzes, polls and discussion topics to encourage debate and discussion among learners. Educator engagement and participation is certainly important to the learners and our experience has been that MOOC learners engage better in discussions when educators and facilitator presence is high, which of course adds to the academic pressure of running a course.

This demand from the learners does also bring advantages to us as educators, ensuring we keep up to speed with updates in the field and simultaneously developing our public engagement skills. The MOOC has provided a good forum to explore how our science interacts with the wider community – for example, learners who are carers for people with rare genetic conditions.

Value of data

From a data analytics perspective, MOOCs generate data in abundance. We can use this to discern patterns of learning in relation to the learner demographic and predict those more likely to complete a MOOC, but we can also look for the peak content that generates the most discussion. From a course-design perspective this enables an educator to test content that might be useful for the development of any further distance learning.

Comments posted within FutureLearn courses provide a rich source of data to explore public views on issues related to the content. We have used these to explore perceptions of genomic data sharing.

A useful marketing tool?

MOOCs offer an attractive opportunity to market an institution’s educational portfolio in related subjects. Following our March 2017 course we tracked visits to our MSc genomic Medicine page, included as a link in the post-course survey. Those following this link spent four minutes longer on our website than other visitors, illustrating its power as a marketing tool. Translating this to enquiries, applications and confirmed students, though, is a lot more challenging.

Value for money? Yes. Hard work? Definitely!

Investment in the development and delivery of a MOOC is significant, though the opportunities it presents for pedagogic exploration, subject specific research and promotional activity are extensive. The value we have seen come from intangibles, the ability to reuse material, engage with a wider audience and raise the profile of our discipline. We have also seen that it works well as a marketing tool.

However, other tangible benefits, such as a significant increase in extra students to existing courses or direct income from the MOOC, have not been as forthcoming. I have no doubt that our MOOC’s future will demand creativity and innovation but will continue to stimulate our development as educators.

Category
Research insights

What do MOOC learners like and dislike?

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What do MOOC learners like and dislike?

A short blogpost on the subject of what MOOC learners like and dislike, originally published on Evalu-ate

Written by Kerrie Douglas, Assistant Professor and Gaurav Nanda, Postdoctoral Research Assistant, Purdue University 

Massive open online course (MOOC) learners vary widely in background and learning objectives. MOOCs are still trying to understand their learners better and provide content that is more suited to their needs. To understand the likes and dislikes of MOOC learners at a general level, we partnered with FutureLearn to study the responses to post-course survey questions from over 800 courses on its popular social learning platform. We analyzed open-ended questions that asked the learners about their most and least favorite parts of the course and ideas for course improvement.

We used Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic model, a widely used statistical approach for exploratory analysis of large textual data, to identify underlying topics from the responses to each question. The LDA model represents each topic as a collection of closely related words and each document as a mixture of topics with associated weights. The topics identified were assessed qualitatively for coherence and relevance. Some of the main themes that emerged were:

Lecture videos: Many learners mentioned videos as their favorite part of the course. They said that they could understand the course content better and at a greater speed with videos because the information was presented to them by expert instructors in a clear and structured manner. Some learners suggested using real-life examples in lectures and providing subtitles in different languages.

Social interaction: A lot of learners greatly enjoyed interacting with peers and instructors on discussion forums and wanted more avenues of interaction, such as live sessions and chat messengers. Some learners, however, did not enjoy online discussions because of a lack of time or the limitation of the medium, which they said led to misinterpretation of thoughts.

Evaluations: Many learners wanted more quizzes and assignments, as these helped them to consolidate and retain information, and validate their understanding. While many learners were fine with peers evaluating their work, some would have preferred their work be evaluated by teaching assistants.

Access to learning material: Easy access to learning material for the course and further study was highly valued by many learners. Some learners suggested uploading access-restricted journal articles and providing specific learning material.

Time commitment: Many learners mentioned that they wanted a reasonable estimate of the time commitment at the beginning of the course, as they felt that they spent more than the expected time. They suggested that the syllabus clearly mention the prerequisites, and the list and depth of topics to be covered in the course so that they could decide and budget their time accordingly.

Lesson Learned

Overall, we gained meaningful insights about likes and dislikes of MOOC learners, which will help MOOC providers to design their courses better. We found topic modeling to be an efficient method for exploratory analysis of large and unseen textual data such as discussion forums and open-ended responses. However, it is important to note that the topics generated by the model may not always be interpretable. Therefore, qualitative assessment of topics is necessary. MALLET is an easy-to-use toolkit that can be used to start exploring topic modeling, with the help of this tutorial.

This work was originally published on Evalu-ate on March 7th, 2018.

Category
Research insights

How Much Do You Know About Your Family’s History?

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How Much Do You Know About Your Family’s History?

How much have your parents, grandparents or other relatives told you about your family’s past? Are there aspects of this history that you wish you knew more about?

Helen Zia begins “My Mother’s Secrets,” her essay about learning about her own family history, this way:

Growing up in the 1950s as one of the few Chinese-American kids in my New Jersey town, I was so often told to “go back where you came from” that I wondered about this place called China, where I had never been. But whenever I asked my mother about her young life in China, I always received the same curt answer: “That was wartime, unhappy memory.”

Over time, I stopped asking. Until one day, when she was in her 70s and we were having dinner in her small apartment, I lapsed into my childhood mantra. “Too bad you can’t tell me about my grandparents in China,” I muttered with no expectation of a reply.

But this time my mother put down her chopsticks and said: “All right, you want to know? I’ll tell you.”

I listened, transfixed, as my gentle mother launched into a tale with such clarity and force that I sat mute, fearing any sound from me would disrupt the narrative unfolding like a storybook that had never been opened:

After hearing some of the harrowing history her mother had hidden from her, Ms. Zia writes:

Learning my mother’s stories for the first time, I began to understand why so many of the refugees and migrants chose not to tell their children about their exodus from Shanghai. Why recall trauma and hardship when, after finding places of refuge, they could focus on encouraging their children to reach their full potential? They themselves had not had that opportunity.

Even a cursory look at immigrants in America shows that a disproportionate number of their offspring pay forward their parents’ sacrifices. The Shanghai exodus produced Maya Lin, the architect, Elaine Chao, the secretary of transportation, the Nobel laureate physicist Steven Chu and the novelist Amy Tan. Other migrations have brought the nation talents as varied as the former secretary of state Colin Powell, the writer Edwidge Danticat, the guitarist Carlos Santana, the actress Lupita Nyong’o and too many more to name.

My mother did not live to see herself in my book, but her secrets enabled me to see today’s migration crises through the eyes of a frightened child. It should not take another seven decades to grasp why present-day migrants risk all to face tear gas at a border, to brave rough seas in rubber rafts, to crowd into the next boat, plane, train or bus out of fear that it may be the last one out.

Or for the nation to realize that these refugees and migrants give so much more to the communities that welcome them than they will ever take away.

Students, read the entire piece, then tell us:

— Does anything in this piece remind you of your own family or background? How?

— What do you know about your family history? What stories get told over and over? Are there aspects of your parents’ or grandparents’ pasts that they seem reluctant to talk about? Why do you think that is?

— What would you like to know more about? How could you find out?

— How do you think your family’s history continues to resonate in your generation? What aspects of this history or culture are still a part of you? How?

— Ms. Zia reminds us that refugees and migrants often sacrifice to find places of refuge. If your family has ever immigrated from one place to another, do you know the details and the stories behind those journeys?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

#29 to #11 Learning Systems for 2019

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#29 to #11 Learning Systems for 2019

You may have seen in the news or heard on your favorite social media channel who has received and or raised funding.   For some people this is by far impressive on who got what, especially if it over 100M, and as an analyst, I concur.   However, I always have to remember that plenty of systems do not go out and seek raising funds/receiving funds from Private Equity firms, VCs and alike.    

As a survivor of the dot.com days, I have noted that we in the e-learning space are for all the sense of the approach back in the dot.com days from a mentality perspective.  There are hundreds of companies that are on the wasteland of what was, never to be. Dreams of IPO, left to the sands of time.   

On the e-learning front, who can forget the darling Grovo and its 73M plus of funds from equity firms and alike?  But what you do not see is their burn rate, nor their financials in the end before being acquired.   I know of vendors whose burn rates are well, bad, but who are seen by folks as darlings.

But for those of us during those frenzy days of the late 90’s and early 2000’s, once a darling, can easily fade.

Just ask Webvan.

And now on to the rankings.

This post covers #29 to #11.  The first set #29 to #20 are listed, with #19 to #11 briefs.  As with the other vendors in the Top 50 Learning Systems for 2019, nearly all of them are on findanlms.com, my learning system search engine platform.  Schedule a demo. Compare each of them to other systems.  I recommend registering first, then login and explore the catalog of systems.  

#29 360Learning – LEP/LXP

#28 Syfadis Experience – LMS. Available only in France.

#27 Thought Industries – LMS targeting B2B/B2C, customer training

#26 Kalllidus Learn – LMS, strong in the supermarket space

#25 Roundtable Learning – LMS, very solid system

#24 MATRIX – LMS, lots to offer, very slick UI/UX

#23 Eurekos – LMS, Extremely robust system, one to watch in 2019

#22 LMS365 – LMS, Built on SharePoint Online, ties strongly into Office 365, very nice system

#21 Schoox – LMS,  Really strong system, lots to offer, another vendor to watch in 2019

2019 TOP 20 Learning System

#20 Kokm – LMS,  Definitely under the radar, so much potential it screams let me out and show the world.  Well, it screams that to me. 

#19 to #11

#19 glo Learn – LMS.  What’s not to like. Very good UI/UX, robust system. Learning Journeys are fun and valuable, without being lame (trust me, I’ve seen lame).

glo

Big wins include a skill rating tool, where learners assess their skills and upon completion the system recommends the appropriate learning content. Other items include machine learning, but the administrator cannot change the weights and points (a minus), digital signature capability in the mobile app, can create KPIs and measure them via metrics and multiple catalog support (many vendors do not support).  Built-in scan capability is on the roadmap for 2019 (via a mobile app).

#18 GyrusAim –  Under the radar for some folks, not me though. Surprisingly, in a good way, strong in functionality.  Big wins include the ability to assign multiple certificates to a single course/content (not a common feature), skill ratings including ability for managers to review skill ratings by learners and change the rating if needed and KPIs too.   Built-in scan capability (i.e. for scanning badges, etc.) also on the roadmap for 2019 – and via the mobile app.  A minus at this point is the lack of machine learning, but it is on their roadmap for 2019.  I see the system best suited for SMB, although the do support large enterprises too.  Don’t let the UI fool you, this system has oomph behind it.

gyrusaim

#17 – Wow, this system has come a long way.  Always robust, its past has been, well, dated UI, but that has changed. A new UI that says, “Hi, take a look at me.” And when I say robust I am not kidding. From a learning environment which supports multiple catalogs, hierarchies and deep links to machine learning, where the administrator can make changes and having a built-in GAP analysis tool too for skill assessment. The skill piece is super strong, including the manager ability to review skills that the learner has rated themselves as high. In my content section (of my template) they scored nine out of nine.  Also has goal management.  Not a big fan of the “syllabus” vernacular that is doable, but that is maybe just me.  While I love the analytical data, the initial screen dashboard of some of the items seems squished – you can expand the size to solve that, but the initial is squished.

imc_mobile

#16 Instancy OnDemand – You know the song, take me to the ballgame (uh assuming you have been to an American baseball game), well, the song has nothing to do with this system, but what it does say is stand up and shout, “Wow. Wow.”  – Always have been a fan of this system, because it does so many things, quite well. Scored a perfect 100 on my learning environment. Video management includes auto frame per second detection, ability to add a quiz to an already existing video.  Has machine learning, content curation and coaching component.  Not a fan of the analytical piece showing the system traffic because well, how does that benefit or even tell me about the training/learning perspective.  Great, if I was a web site for SEO, ehh, not so much for learning.

instancy

#15 LearnUpon – SMB to mid-size is where I see this system align best to. However, at the association level, easily 50,000+ user base.  A system that packs a lot.  The learner dashboard adds to the wins in my book. Very good UI and UX. Video management includes auto frames per second detection. Offers content curation and some coaching components. Multi-tenant is doable, although they charge for additional portals, past the first one (a minus IMO).  Very affordable, which makes it extremely attractive.  Social is a weak point overall, but then again, social in this industry has become stagnant. Lacks mobile apps, but does support m-learning and mobile responsiveness. Looks good on smartphone and tablet.

dashboard_achievements_Learn

#14 Degreed – LEP/LXP.  What is there to say that hasn’t been said about this system? Skill ratings is a big win for me. The UI/UX is good, but needs some enhancements, especially since others have caught up to them.  Mobile apps are available.  A lot of content is available for purchase, likely the most of any LEP/LXP, but not all of it is good – not a minus on Degreed – that is the content provider’s fault.    While they offer direct to consumer, this system is far better for employees and as a bolt-on to your LMS, rather than a standalone. I say that because it lacks the ability for an administrator to create and assign system roles.  Event management is non-existent too.  Has an LRS which is very good, but doesn’t leverage it as it should – would do wonders with data visualization.  Still the biggest minus to me is the inability of administrators to change weights, and the requirement that you must complete the content to score higher with the weights, thus the data in terms of what content is recommended via machine learning is skewed. 

degreed

#13 Cornerstone Learning Suite – The revamped UI/UX on the learner side is well, fantastic and kudos to Cornerstone for finally making the changes.  The admin side needs though improvement. This is an extremely robust system, and for some folks especially on the admin side, can be overwhelmingly.  That said, this is a system, who has achieved impressive results in the NexGen rankings (#2).  In my LMS RFP template, Cornerstone LS scored a perfect 100 in the machine learning category, as well as mobile, including built-in scan for badges – but it requires the Tribridge Attendance Integration Module (AIM).  I’ve never been a fan of module extras, and Cornerstone does offer this, understandable, for a system that contains a performance management component (as a mod).  That said, competencies/skill management in the system is quite good, and they have built-in an LXP.  

I wish their calendar offered different views including grids, but that is on the roadmap for 2019.  They also support crowdsourcing for content, which personally I’m not a fan of it, but it is something an administrator could do if they wanted (you are not forced to). 

CornerstoneLearning_01_learner-home

As you can see they support playlists – which I believe every system should offer/include. Oh, any of the items you see above can be hidden or removed, if you so choose. 

#12 Workday Learning – First off you need the Workday HCM in order to use Workday Learning. The system was one of the first to have that Netflix experience you see with so many vendors in today’s learning system world.  On the content side, they scored 95% and frankly the lack of system crowdsourcing wasn’t an issue to me, because well, I’m not a fan of it anyway.  Machine learning is quite good, but they do not allow administrators to change weights or points, thus data is skewed in my opinion.  Video plays a big role in the system and some of the terminology can confuse (it is not universal compared to most systems, for example, lessons doesn’t mean what you think it means).  Big wins include support for multiple catalogs, the ability for development paths or curriculum/learning paths to have contents placed in a specific order/hierarchy of learning and video sharing where a learner can share video content to another learner or multiple learners.   Minus is the lack of digital signature, a surprise honestly, and the inability for managers to monitor learning paths for each team member.

workdaycatalog

#11 Spoke – Vendor to watch in 2019.  While I could go into everything this system has to offer and it has quite a bit, two big wins right out of the gate for me are

a. A built-in BI tool for reporting and analytical data.  I am a big believer that the feature to watch for in 2019 is the increase in BI tools in an LMS whether it is built-in as it is with Spoke or as an add-on.   BI stands for business intelligence. 

b. In the coaching component a manager can watch the video and provide coaching feedback on user generated content to improve skills. If the video is a success, the manager can approve the video and it post to the Spoke community where the learner can get peer feedback and earn Spoke coins. 

Overall the system scored 100% on my learning environment and 98% of administration, with the only item lacking – the inability to batch upload courses (likely to be fixed before the end of the year).  Has a built-in LRS and supports multi-tenant. Gamification is outstanding especially with the Spoke Reward Store.  Video management supports auto detection of frames per second. 

spoke

Bottom Line

There you have it, numbers 29 to number 11 in the top 50 2019 Rankings for learning systems.  Up next, in terms of next week that is, the Top 10 for 2019. And remember every vendor in these rankings are ready to be compared, viewed and researched on FindAnLMS. 

Lastly on a side note, I will be speaking at ATDTK on Friday the 8th at 8 a.m. on buying an LMS.  Hope to see you there. Bring food (j/k, don’t bring me food).

E-Learning 24/7

For those who want my LMS RFP template, find it here.   For LEP/LXP template, here.

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