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How to provide effective feedback in clinical supervision

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How to provide effective feedback in clinical supervision

Ahead of the course from UEA, Clinical Supervision with Confidence, the team behind the course take a look at exactly what makes feedback unhelpful or effective when it comes to clinical supervision.

The Scenario

You have a new trainee in your clinical department or service. You’ve heard from others that this trainee seems quite slow in performing clinical tasks. This has led to their peers and other colleagues having to pick up and help with tasks to complete them in time.

effective-clinical-supervision-1-futurelearn

An example of unhelpful feedback

The supervisor encounters an example of the trainee’s slow progress one day and remarks loudly to the trainee that they should really hurry up and finish their tasks so that other colleagues don’t have to end up covering for them. The trainee is startled and seeing that patients and staff have stopped what they were doing when they heard the supervisor shout, turns and walks out of the ward in embarrassment.

Why is this unhelpful?

This type of feedback is unhelpful because although it is timely (immediate), the trainee is taken by surprise and the comment was made loudly, in an inappropriate setting (where patients and staff were present and could hear). The trainee might have felt that they were doing their best to complete their tasks properly. As they lacked self-confidence, they might have tended to go over things again and again, as they were worried that they might miss something. None of the trainee’s colleagues had previously mentioned that they felt unduly burdened so the trainee had assumed that others were happy to help out a newbie. The trainee becomes embarrassed to go back to the ward to complete their remaining tasks.

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An example of effective feedback

The supervisor encounters an example of the trainee’s slow progress one day, and during a quiet, private moment, asks the trainee how they feel they are getting on in the new placement. The trainee tells them that they think they are doing fine as they are doing their best to complete everything properly, even going over things again and again to make sure they had not missed anything. The supervisor then asks them whether going over things repeatedly had been helpful and the trainee looking relieved says that they hadn’t missed anything so far. They also ask the trainee if they felt they were managing to keep up to speed with tasks or whether there were times when the tasks built up and other colleagues had to get involved and help. The trainee says that as nobody had said anything about it they had assumed that others were happy to help out the newbie.

The supervisor and the trainee discuss a few of the tasks carried out that day with the supervisor reassuring the trainee that they had followed the correct procedure each time and that perhaps there was no need for them to keep going over things repeatedly. The supervisor then asks the trainee if they could think of anything that might help them stop worrying so much. The trainee can’t immediately think of anything so the supervisor suggests that they could ask them or a more senior trainee for advice on anything they found difficult so that the trainee could finish tasks in a timely manner, saying that it was ‘normal’ to feel worried while they were new to the placement.

Why is this effective?

We would say this is effective feedback because it was timely and done sensitively, asking the trainee to reflect on their performance first, and reassuring them to improve their self-confidence. Finally, the supervisor also supported the trainee in identifying solutions themselves, making suggestions where appropriate, to help the trainee feel safe; this included offering to support and advise on tricky issues.

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To find out more about clinical supervision, and to improve your confidence supervising others – join Clinical Supervision with Confidence today.

Introducing upgrading on FutureLearn courses

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Introducing upgrading on FutureLearn courses

From today, we’re making some changes to the way FutureLearn courses work. Now you’ll be able to upgrade your courses, giving you a set of benefits, instead of only being able to buy a Certificate when you finish a course.

You can now upgrade your courses

On FutureLearn courses starting from 6 March 2017, you will have the option to upgrade a course. 

When you upgrade you get:

Upgrading usually costs between £24-£69, depending on the course (the same price as the certificates you could buy before). If you choose not to upgrade, you can still access the majority of the course for free, for the duration of the course plus two weeks – regardless of when you join. We still want to be sure everyone can benefit from high-quality education from leading organisations and universities.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison:

FreeUpgraded
✓ Access to the course for its length + 14 days, regardless of when you join (this includes access to articles, videos, peer review steps, quizzes)✓ Unlimited access to the course, for as long as it exists on FutureLearn (this includes access to articles, videos, peer review steps, quizzes)
x No access to course tests✓ Access to course tests
x No certificate✓ A Certificate of Achievement when you complete the course

Useful things to know

You can upgrade a course at any time – before, during or after the course to get the benefits mentioned above. For example if you decide to upgrade your course after it ends, and want a certificate – you’ll be able to go back and do any tests to make sure you qualify for one.

Upgrading won’t affect courses that started before 6 March 2017 – you’ll still have access to previous courses you’ve joined and/or completed.

Why are we introducing upgrading?

We want to give as many people as we can the benefits of great learning. That’s what drives us, and why FutureLearn was created.

But producing high-quality courses and maintaining FutureLearn costs a lot and requires a lot of work from us and our partners. The UK’s Open University made an initial investment to get us up and running, but we’re a business and we need to be financially sustainable to be able to keep making education available to as many people as possible.

Our business model relies on a small number of people purchasing something that they value in order to keep the courses free for everyone to access.

But research we carried out showed that a certificate on its own doesn’t offer enough value for money and that some people don’t want or need a certificate. That’s why we want to create a more useful package of features that we think provides great value to as many people as possible.

These new features should offer you, our learners, a better set of benefits – and ensure we’re able to keep offering free learning to millions of people.

Over the coming months we’re likely to experiment with other benefits to help support your learning. Please get in touch if you have ideas for things that you would like to see us offer.

Why should you upgrade?

Take the course at your own pace
Being able to access the course for as long as it exists on FutureLearn gives you ability the to learn at your own pace and refer back to course content whenever you like.

Validate your learning
When you upgrade, you’ll have access to any tests during the course. This allows you to ensure you have mastered the course material.

Prove your success
By taking tests you can qualify for a Certificate of Achievement or Statement of Participation to prove what you’ve learned. This is great for demonstrating your learning and commitment to your manager, potential employer or educational institutions.

Still got questions? Find answers in our Help Centre or the questions and answers in the comments below. If we’ve missed anything, feel free to ask in the comments and we will answer as best we can.

*UPDATE*
Thanks for all your comments. Comments on this post are now closed.

Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Ask a Data Engineer: Warby Parker Edition 👓

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Codecademy’s very own Nick Duckwiler (left) and Ryan Tuck from Warby Parker (right) in our office. (📷: Mitch Boyer)

Last month, Codecademy and Warby Parker came together to work on a special Learn SQL from Scratch Capstone Project. It was during this time when I met Ryan Tuck, a Data Engineer at Warby, who played a major part in this partnership. So when he decided to drop by our office for the final QA round, I had to break out my notebook and ask some questions. Enjoy.

Hey Ryan, let’s start off with a question I’ve had for a while — what is a Data Engineer? (Is it similar to a Data Analyst or a Software Engineer?)

At Warby Parker, data engineers are responsible for creating and maintaining the plumbing required to support the data and reporting needs of the business. We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.

What languages/frameworks do you use at Warby?

On data engineering, we use Python as our general purpose programming language, as do most of the other teams in our Technology department. When it comes to databases, we use PostgreSQL for the majority of our SQL needs, and are beginning to use Amazon Athena and Google BigQuery for some of our larger datasets. We use Looker as our exclusive business intelligence entry point to all of this data.

What are some of the projects you worked on?

I’ve had the privilege of working with a lot of of smart people in every department at our company to help them solve their varied data needs, from reconciling financial data with the Accounting team to automating and modeling standardized performance metrics for our team of over 200 customer experience advisors.

As part of a team of five supporting the data needs of a rapidly growing company, I’ve tried where possible to focus on helping our analysts solve their own problems. This includes helping people learn Python and commit to our codebase, guiding the creation of data models in SQL, and encouraging people to submit pull requests to add features in Looker, our BI tool.

Seeing dozens of otherwise “non-technical” colleagues opening up PRs on a daily basis, and consequently being part of the democratization of tech that we value at Warby Parker, is probably the most rewarding “project” I’ve been a part of.

One project finished recently during our first annual “Hackweek” is called Pipes, which allows anyone at the company to easily move large amounts of data from wherever to wherever (Looker, Google Sheets, PostgreSQL, BigQuery, etc) on a regular cadence, or manually through a simple one-line chatbot interface. The adoption has been overwhelmingly positive and we’re looking to grow this sort of tooling out even more.

“We use software engineering practices to automate the work of data cleaning, normalizing, and model building so that data is always ready to be consumed by data analysts in every department.”

What got you into the data field?

I’ve always been drawn to analytical fields like math, and became pretty proficient in Excel during some internships in college. Once I had learned to program and learned more about data science and its applications in artificial intelligence, I knew that anything I could do to immerse myself in the world of data would be a step in the right direction.

Three and a half years ago, I landed a job as a junior software engineer at Warby Parker not fully knowing what I was in for, but am so glad I got the opportunity to help build tools to support an interesting and ever-changing data-driven culture here.

Where did you learn SQL and Python?

I had a background in C++, and was exposed to Python through an Intro to Data Science course. When Warby Parker hired me onto the Data team in 2015, I had never written a SQL query in my life, but picked it up quickly and within a few months started up internal SQL training classes, which I still teach on a monthly basis.

What does your tattoo say?


The ultimate cheatsheet.

This is Bayes’ Theorem, which is an equation that describes how to update probabilities given new evidence. Two summers ago I worked on building a tool to help predict weekly fantasy football performance. Some colleagues suggested a Bayesian approach would be appropriate, since there aren’t really enough data points in an NFL season to be able to use statistical approaches that require larger datasets, and I’d want to regularly update my predictions after each player’s latest performance.

I did a deep dive into understanding the (simple) math underlying Bayes’ Theorem and came out of that experience with a whole new worldview, understanding my entire knowledge of the world as a big and intricate probabilistic model that I was continuously updating with every experience I ever have. It was pretty transformative, and I figured that was worth a tattoo.

What is a concept in SQL/Python that’s essential to your work?

Donald Knuth said, “Premature optimization is the root of all evil.” I’ve generally found this to be true, and try to live by it in my work. For example, I’ll generally prefer to keep a data model simple by rebuilding it for all time on a daily basis using a single SQL query instead of making a more complicated model that requires iteratively adding to a table, keeping track of state, updated timestamps, when something last ran, etc.

A wise man once said, “Duplicating data makes things go fast,” but databases are already impressively fast to begin with, without implementing anything to improve performance. Ultimately, I almost always approach a problem thinking about optimizing for my time over machine time, for readability over performance, and for introducing as little cognitive overhead as is required by the problem at hand. Only once performance issues or readability issues present themselves will some code be worth a rewrite.

Last question! Since you wrote Warby Parker’s internal SQL training courses, I know there gotta be some inner Curriculum Developer in you. Can you teach a SQL concept in 2 minutes?

Sure! Have you ever written a query that yields some result set and you think, “I’d love to query the stuff I just produced like it was a table?” Enter the WITH clause.

Suppose I have a mega query that gives the transaction summaries:

select
    transactions.date as transaction_date,
    sum(items.price) as total_cost,
    count(*) as number_of_items
from
    transactions
inner join
    customers
    on
    customers.id = transactions.customer_id
inner join
    transaction_items
    on
    transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
inner join
    items
    on
    items.id = transaction_items.item_id

Using WITH, I can create a temporary table within my query that I can SELECT from and treat it just like a regular old table.

I will put everything from the previous query in a parentheses and use WITH to give it the name transaction_summaries.

Then I’ll apply the date and customer filtering down below for a more readable query, to separate out all the JOIN logic from the actual WHERE filters that I want to apply on that data.

with transaction_summaries as (
  select
      transactions.date as transaction_date,
      sum(items.price) as total_cost,
      count(*) as number_of_items
  from
      transactions
  inner join
      customers
      on
      customers.id = transactions.customer_id
  inner join
      transaction_items
      on
      transactions.id = transaction_items.transaction_id
  inner join
      items
      on
      items.id = transaction_items.item_id
)

select 
        * 
from 
        transaction_summaries
where 
        first_name = 'beyonce'
        and 
        transaction_date > '2018–01–01'
order by 
        total_cost desc
limit 
        5

If you’re familiar with subqueries, this does a similar thing but makes the SQL far more readable, even if your query isn’t quite as performant as it would have been. This is essentially an implementation of the mantra “Don’t Repeat Yourself” that’s common in the world of programming.

Incredible. And love the SQL styling! 😍

Huge shout out to Ryan and the whole Warby Parker team for making this partnership happen. Special hat tips for behind-the-scenes support from:

  • Lon Binder, Chief Technology Officer, Warby Parker
  • Maddie Tierney, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kayla Robbins, Executive Assistant, Warby Parker
  • Kaki Read, Senior Communications Manager, Warby Parker
  • Isabel Seely, Senior Brand Manager, Warby Parker

It’s been an absolute pleasure. And of course, the fam at Codecademy. You know who you are. Couldn’t do it without you.

Ask a Software Engineer: Airbnb Edition 🏡

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Ask a Software Engineer: Airbnb Edition 🏡
A Day in the Life of a Software Engineer (via Life of Luba)

With Airbnb came a revolution of sorts in the world of vacation travel and culture. We sat down with Luba Yudasina, a YouTuber, an opera singer, and a Software Engineer on the Airbnb’s Homes Platform team, to discuss software engineering and her programming journey—from Codecademy to Airbnb!

Hey Luba, let’s start with the basics! What does a Software Engineer on the Platform team do at Airbnb?

Homes Platform’s mission is to create the building blocks to power all Homes categories. Any project undertaken by our team should be reusable and extensible in some way. This means that as a backend engineer, I have a lot of opportunities to work on impactful technical projects that create systems and services to support Homes, as well as collaborate across teams to come up with the best architectural decisions and designs.

Recently, our team wrote a blog post on classifying Room Types into categories using Machine Learning and computer vision. The room-type classification problem largely resembles the ImageNet classification problem, except our team’s model outcomes are customized room-types.

After a few experiments with various models, the team chose ResNet50 due to its good balance between model performance and computation time. To make it compatible with our use case, we added two extra fully connected layers and a Softmax activation in the end.

Categorizing listing photos into room types (via the Airbnb Engineering & Data Science blog)

What languages/frameworks do you use at Airbnb?

At Airbnb we use Ruby, Java, Kotlin, JavaScript, Swift, Ruby on Rails, React for frontend, iOS and Android for native development.

Let’s rewind a little bit. Coming from a chemical engineering background in college, how did you make the switch into programming?

I went to the University of Waterloo in Canada—a university with the biggest co-op program in the world. Co-op means that to obtain a bachelor’s degree you must complete a certain number of internships. If you are in Engineering at Waterloo, you must complete 5 internships to graduate.

In my first and second years, I interned at chemical engineering companies and afterwards I couldn’t see myself working in the field full-time. That’s why I’m particularly grateful that I studied at Waterloo: if not for co-op, I probably would not have realized I didn’t want to work in chemical engineering until getting a full-time job after graduation.

I happened to have a lot of friends in Computer Science and Software Engineering right when I realized Chem Eng wasn’t for me. They really encouraged me to try coding, and when I decided to follow their lead I never looked back! My first online programming course was Web Development on Codecademy 🙂

“It’s a really cool time to be a software engineer and even cooler to be a female software engineer, because this is the time when women start to embrace their own unique identities and be ok with not being ‘one of the dudes.'”
-Luba Yudasina

How did you land an internship at Yelp?

When I decided I wanted to learn computer science on my own, my goal was to get an internship in the field because working as a software engineer at a tech company would be the best test to really know if it was for me.

I happened to be in Munich, Germany on academic exchange for a whole year when I was learning how to code, so I hustled as much as I could while being there to get experience to learn quicker and have something to put down on my tech resume.

Almost immediately after arriving in Germany, I got a part time job as a developer at a game publishing company. I had a good friend in Computer Science at my German university: her and I ended up working on an Android app as a side project, etc. When I was ready, I started preparing for technical interviews. I then leveraged my network to refer me to companies and do mock technical interviews with me.

Yelp was really random though—a Yelp recruiter looked at my LinkedIn profile and didn’t even message me, but I messaged them anyway asking about internship opportunities, and that’s how I got my interview there!

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Airbnb HQ in San Franciso

What is an essential app/item in your day-to-day?

Code searching! A lot of software engineering is problem solving and a lot of it is understanding other people’s code and the reasoning behind writing it a certain way. Searching through the codebases is almost essential to my day to day. Whenever I build something new or build on top of already existing tech, I need to understand how it works and is written, and code search is vital to this.

At Airbnb we use Google’s Codesearch for these purposes, but developers (myself included) also frequently use their IDEs to search for relevant code. I mostly use RubyMine or IntelliJ (depending on the codebase I’m working with).

In your videos, you’ve mentioned the intersection of gender and technology. Can you speak a bit more about that?

It’s a really cool time to be a software engineer and even cooler to be a female software engineer, because this is the time when women start to embrace their own unique identities and be ok with not being “one of the dudes.”

I think it’s particularly important to redefine the stereotypes, and I hope that with my own example I can show young girls and women interested in the field that you don’t have to give up your feminine side to be a software engineer and still be into fashion, or makeup, or art (I personally sing opera) and have other interests outside of coding and be successful in the field.

Before we wrap up, do you have anything else you would like to say to our learners?

Don’t be discouraged, learn and absorb as much as you can! If you don’t understand a concept or can’t build a project right away, know that with practice, perseverance and concentration you will get there!

Take advantage of such amazing tools as Codecademy that are there for you to take and learn. Learning anything new can be frustrating, but knowing that you can do it, staying curious, asking questions and not losing your motivation is the key to success.

Huge shoutout to Luba for this insightful interview. It’s always incredibly moving to see a Codecademy learner go on to do bigger things. Go subscribe to her YouTube channel, Life of Luba.

And thank you to the whole Homes Platform/Engineering team at Airbnb for the support. Check out their wonderful open source projects on airbnb.io.

Brushing Beagle

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Brushing Beagle

On Feb. 11 and 12, dogs like the beagle pictured above competed to win the title of “best in show” at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show. Did you watch the competition? Which dogs were your favorites?

What are the best dog breeds, in your opinion? What are the best “good dogs” that you have ever known?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related articles to see more photos from the show and find out which dog won.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan.

Word + Quiz: pittance

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Word + Quiz: pittance

Note: Our Sixth Annual 15-Second Vocabulary Video Challenge is underway. It will run until Feb. 20.

: an inadequate payment

_________

The word pittance has appeared in 37 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on June 22 in the Opinion essay “The Perfect Soundtrack for My Grief” by Kathleen O’Brien:

When we started our search for her successor, we were astounded by the number of applicants willing to move cross-country for an extremely modest salary. At first, we assumed these out-of-state applicants didn’t grasp our likely salary range and the cost of living in our neck of suburban New York.

But no, it turned out there are so few conductor openings, and the job is so rewarding, the applicants were willing to upend their lives for a pittance. When I mentioned my surprise to one of the applicants, he answered, “Conducting is such a fulfilling act: When things go right, it truly makes you feel much greater than just one mortal person.”

_________

How Do You Apologize?

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How Do You Apologize?

When was the last time you gave or received an apology?

How was the apology delivered? Was it in person? Handwritten? Digital?

How sincere or meaningful was the apology? Did it soothe hurt feelings or remedy the situation?

In “How We Apologize Now,” Lindsey Weber writes about the growing phenomenon of digital apologies from celebrities:

To be famous in 2019 one must possess (in addition to talent, or at least popularity) a patina of authenticity and a willingness to admit wrongdoing. Also: an iPhone.

Lady Gaga makes for a perfect case study. On Thursday, she sent an apologetic message to her more than 77 million Twitter followers. The singer wanted to let her Little Monsters know that, after renewed criticism of R. Kelly, she had decided to pull a track she had recorded with him in 2013 from streaming music services. “I’m sorry,” she wrote, her words cast against a grayish faux-paper background familiar to Apple users and celebrity news consumers, “both for my poor judgment when I was young, and for not speaking out sooner. I love you.”

Her statement was written using Notes, a free app that is preloaded onto Apple devices for the purpose of storing personal memories and to-do lists. In recent years, though, it has become the medium of choice for celebrity mass communication.

The reasons for writing these Notes vary, but oftentimes they are mea culpas for public errors. Armie Hammer apologized with a Notes app note for criticizing his peers for posting grief selfies after Stan Lee’s death (“I want to apologize from the bottom of my heart and will be working on my Twitter impulse control”). Kendall Jenner apologized for her clothing line’s insensitive use of the Notorious B.I.G.’s and Tupac Shakur’s likenesses (“we are huge fans of their music”). Logan Paul apologized for videotaping a dead body in Japan (“I intended to raise awareness for suicide and suicide prevention”). Cardi B notably did not apologize for secretly marrying Offset (“at least ya can stop saying i had a baby out of wedlock”). Ariana Grande once apologized for licking a doughnut (“I will strive to be better”).

Other public figures who have used Notes to make statements include Taylor Swift, Lena Dunham, Drake, Pete Davidson and Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Part of the medium’s appeal is the ease with which its contents may be shared. Notes app apologies are screenshotted and dispersed, first on Twitter and Instagram, and then in entertainment news reporting. They are embedded into tabloid websites and quoted by magazines, as polished statements coming directly from publicists might be.

The article continues with some advice on what makes a good — and bad — digital apology:

The best Notes app statements follow the same guiding principles of any good apology: get in and get out; be direct; don’t try too hard to defend yourself; and (this is a bonus!) maybe say what you’re doing moving forward. “Folks are more likely to give you a second shot if you are just willing to say you made a mistake, and that you are going to do better,” Ms. Rahim said.

… Sharing a Notes app apology does have its pitfalls. If fans suspect an apology isn’t as heartfelt or genuine as its straight-from-my-personal-device format implies, the entire thing could backfire. But even worse is a completely unapologetic apology. After the music-retreat-for-one-percenters known as Fyre Festival proved to be a scam, Ja Rule, its co-organizer, made sure to relinquish himself of blame: “I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT.”

“You want to avoid the Notes app spiral, long and short,” Ms. Rahim said, referring to the age-old tendency to get defensive, blowing out what should be a simple “sorry” into a long and winding tale of excuses.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

— Have you ever given or received a digital apology? Is a digital one just as good as any other form of apology? Why or why not? (If you never received one, how would you feel if you did?)

— What makes a good apology? What’s the best apology you have ever given or received? What happened, and how did you feel afterward? Did the apology help to remedy the situation?

— What makes a bad apology? What was the worst apology you have given or received? Why was it so bad?

— Which celebrity apology in the article do you think was the best? Which was the worst? Do any of the apologies change how you feel about the celebrities who gave them?

— Why are apologies important — for the person who gives them and for the person who receives them? Do you think digital apologies can help strengthen human bonds and relationships, or do they have a corrosive affect? After reading the article, are you more or less likely to give a digital apology in the future?

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.

Learning With: ‘“A Woman, Just Not That Woman”: How Sexism Plays Out on the Trail’

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Learning With: ‘“A Woman, Just Not That Woman”: How Sexism Plays Out on the Trail’

Before reading the article:

Draw what you think an effective president looks like. You can make a stick figure, if that feels most comfortable, but in your drawing, include words that describe the appearance, qualities and behaviors of a leader.

Now, read the article, “‘A Woman, Just Not That Woman’: How Sexism Plays Out on the Trail,” and answer the following questions:

1. According to the article, what are some of the stereotypes and double standards female candidates face when running for political office?

2. “For 20 years, we’ve heard participants in our focus groups say they would vote for a woman, just not that woman,” said Amanda Hunter, research and communications director at the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, which supports women in politics. Why is that statement being put to the test in the 2020 presidential primary?

3. How is “likability” influenced by gender bias? Give one example from the article to support your answer.

4. What are some of the assumptions voters make about female candidates? How do voters respond when women try to defy those stereotypes?

5. What are some of the ways female candidates are judged differently than male candidates on their appearance? How do these judgments affect voters’ perceptions of them as leaders?

6. Why is women’s representation in government crucial for the future success of female candidates?

Finally, tell us more about what you think:

In the past few months, five Democratic women currently serving in Congress have announced they are running for president in 2020. Choose one or more of these three videos to watch, each featuring one of these women: Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris and Amy Klobuchar.

Do you think the politician featured in the video you watched might make an effective president, based on the criteria you described above? Why or why not? Does the candidate’s gender in any way affect your answer?

What is your biggest takeaway from this article? How can you apply this information to your own life? How might it help you better assess the leadership abilities of the girls and boys or women and men that you know?

Top 10 Learning Systems for 2019

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Top 10 Learning Systems for 2019

When ever I travel on an airplane, my typical MO is to get to my seat, turn on my music connect my headphones and ignore the person next to me.  I readily admit this.  On my last flight over here to London, I couldn’t do it, because the person started to have a conversation right after I sat down.   The downside to this, is I wasn’t able to listen to Death Cab for Cutie (a band), but on the upside, I learned that this person was one of the first 100 employees ever to work at Microsoft.  He noted the things he created at the company, who was the guy behind Excel and that everyone was a genius back then. 

But one thing he said to me, okay, two things, really stood out.  First, when our discussion turned to machine learning,  he said, “People forget that computers are really dumb,” and in the end of everything, its all binary  – i.e. 1’s and 0s.  That comment really stuck with me, because in my Top 50 Learning Systems for 2019, the best of the best are listed, so let’s call them 1’s.   The Top 10, you could argue are the cream of the crop, and I wouldn’t disagree, and learning systems is more than just a set of programming components, they are and will forever be – an ecosystem whereas learning and training can co-exist along with various other functionality to deliver top tier learning/training to your employees, customers, members or all the above.  

The key to success though for each one of you isn’t just selecting the best system, but one that truly delivers what you want it to do.  I look at multiple variables and factors when identifying the top 10 systems, and thus, please, please do your due diligence.  Every one of these vendors can be found on my platform, FindAnLMS.com. Registration takes about a minute. Then you authenticate your e-mail address and then jump into the system.  In less than five minutes you could enagage with them, and for many, even schedule a demo.  Systems that have “demo” capability will be noted below. 

At the end of all this, I will give you a couple of tips that I strongly and I cannot stress this enough, strongly, recommend you do when it comes to your demo.  And if you find your computer not complying with you, as my fellow traveler once said, don’t blame your machine. They are after all, dumb.

Now on to the rankings.

#10 Brainier LMS

A robust system that contains everything from a perfect score in my learning environment functionaliy to administration (also a perfect score) to content curation, video management (with auto detection FPS) to the ability to accept course standards including xAPI and PENS. UI/UX is above average, implementation on average is about three months. 

The system lacks the ability to import skill dictionaries and job definitions and link definitions to competencies, doesn’t support a couple of languages including Russian and Dutch, and is missing mobile apps (i.e in iTunes and Google Play).  While they accept any size of customer (and the system does come with e-commerce – it does lack subscription bundling though), I see them best suited for mid-size on the employee front.  Their verticals are medical, manufacturing, financial services and professional services.

Support is above average. Implementation time frame (depending on complexities) is about three months.

#9 Coorpacademy (LXP) (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

A secret of a system, from the aspect, you may have never heard of them, since they are in my opinion, an LXP under the radar. A shame really, because this is one heck of an LXP.  Features on the LXP that stand out include

  • The system uses learner’s profile (skills, topics of interest, etc.) to identify most popular content or suggested content
  • The system able to push out higher level of content (learner interest or “recommended”) as learner expands their skill sets/knowledge
  • Can create a learning path based upon recommendations using algorithm over a period of time
  • Ability for development paths or curriculum/learning paths to have content placed in a specific order/hierarchy of learning
  • Ability to move the “recommended”, “trending” etc. to different areas, i.e. your system has “my topics of interest” – last, but we want it to be first, and want “recommended” to be last.

The system thankfully does not support “assignments” and I am so glad.  Many LXPs are accepting the capability or option to offer “Assignments i.e. requried training,” which sorts of defeats the purpose of learner-centric.

UI/UX is quite good and while their algorithim is tied to completed content, a minus in my book, Coorpacademy says it does not penalize or hurt the learner if they do not complete the content. 

Supports a wide swath of verticals, setup is very quick – usually no more than one month. Course standard support is only xAPI (thus no SCORM, etc.).   Support is above average.

#8 Docebo Learn (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

A constant top ten learning system, Docebo is a system that has a lot to offer. The first vendor in the industry to offer one-click content (i.e. you buy or select it – some are free) and click it goes right into the LMS.

UI/UX has always been quite good.  Marketplace is good too. I love their playlists capability and their coach/share module is wonderful (it is part of the Enterprise system version), but you can also purchase it as a standalone if you say, buy just the base version and not enterprise. For example in the module learners can view a list of mentors(tutors/coaches) profiles, and select one or as many as they want, to help them. They can web cam record themselves and share it with the coach too.

The perform, which should be IMO rebranded as Skills module, is very good too. It scored a perfect 100.  Machine learning is there too.  That said, while Docebo has added some very NexGen functionality its weaknesses is in data visualization and analyticals that comes from it.   The admin side is solid, but could use a tweak here and there.  

Setup timeframe for Enterprise is anywhere from one to six months depending on complexitites. They also offer a buy now, go live now option too (i.e. you buy the system with your credit card and zoom, you are live – it is for the base system).  Supports all course standards including xAPI and PENS, and yes, SCORM too.  Pretty much supports all verticals.  System can be employees, B2B and B2C.  Support is average.

#7 TIE – TIE

As noted a few weeks back I ended up with a tie, so rather than the tie covering 7-8 (listed though as seven), I went with both vendors listed as seventh.

#7 Growth Engineering  (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Multiple winner in the Top 10 Learning Systems for 2019, including one for gamification.

An extremely robust LMS whose UI and UX is very good on the front-end. On the back-end (admin side) it is good, but does need an update, which is occuring as we speak (thus to launch sometime in 2019).  Administration and Learning Environment both scored 100%.  Mobile apps are available and include on/off synch. Compliance management is solid. Competency and Skills components overall, are above average.   Classroom and event management are quite good. 

While the system has a built-in LRS it is not activate (again, why?).  Analytical data tied to data visualization is a weak spot here and the lack of machine learning is a major downer.

They do plan to add a course/content marketplace in 2019. 

Knowledge Arcade (mobile) is very good especially with battles. The bummer factor is that in order to use it with “your content”, you have to buy Genie, their authoring tool, which is a separate price point.  

Implementation time frame on average is about a month.  Supports nearly all verticals, but strong spots tend to be software/hardware technology, retail, hospitality and manufacturing.  Employees, B2B and B2C is doable, although their e-commerce is tied thru Stripe. 

Support is good.

#7 Learn Amp (LXP) (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Hello. Are you seeking the best LXP on the market today? Wish there was an LXP with a very good – game changer SaaS authoring tool with it?  Hope you had an LXP whose content marketplace continues to add content from vendors who are not the same as every single LXP out there?  Desire one with an outstanding UI/UX front and back-end?  Well, you are in for a treat – because Learn Amp scores 100% across the board in all those areas.

Content curation is outstanding. Scored a perfect 100% in my learning environment and administration functionality.  Offers classroom management not a usual feature you find in an LXP, so for those folks who want your MTV, err ILT, you can have it with this LXP.

Analytical data exists, could be better, and the system is missing an LRS (but it is on its roadmap for 2019).  Supports SCORM, SCORM 1.2 and SCORM 2004 3rd edition. At this time, does not support xAPI. Plans to push to the next tier of skill development and capabilities in 2019, that will really make it shine (expect by Q4). 

While they do have knowledge reinforcement via a m-learning, they are missing mobile apps for iOS and Android.

Implementation time frame is 1 to 3 months, depending on complexitieis, although for the most part, one month is very doable.  Support has been outstanding.

One of my “Systems to Watch in 2019”.

#6 Fuse

Frankly, a very good system.  Perfect score in learning environment, administration, classroom management, manager/instructor capabilities, video management including auto-detection frames per second, notifications – including ability to send text notifications and mobile.

Content curation is good, albeit not perfect. Machine learning exists in the system, as does compliance and skill management. On the skill management side, they scored high, but one of the items they are missing is the inability to import skill dictionaries and job definitions and link definitions to competencies. They have a built-in assessement tool, but are missing a quiz bank, which is really a feature many systems had even back in 2000.

In social, you can’t follow/unfollow folks (not a huge deal for me, but for those seeking that) and in event management they are missing auto waitlisting, which to me, is a necessity for anyone who is doing webinars/F2F seminars.  Analytical data is good. Data visualization is mixed. 

Support is good. System course standards acceptance include SCORM, AICC, xAPI, but no PENS.  Implementation time frame is anywhere from one month to 12 (depending on complexities, with on avg. about three months). 

For those folks who still want their LMS to sit on their own servers (Legacy Activated!) –  Fuse can be self-hosted. 

2019 #5LMS

SumTotal Learning Management (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

I know what you are thinking. How, Craig – how can you pick them to be so high in your rankings, when you repeatedly in the past, noted how they did this poor and that poor. 

My retort is to blame Shakespeare. Actually, I can’t stand his plays – I mean, who really gets the whole thing anyway?  That said, what I have seen with STLM in the past several months, has opened my eyes to really a very good LMS.  I can’t and won’t speak about the other mods that exist in the SumTotal world, but for the learning management piece, SumTotal has done a masterful job in the overall of the whole UI and UX. 

The system has always been quite robust and thus, it is all set on that front.  The Learner side is crisp and very intuitive. On the administration side it has gotten a lot better, but still needs a refresh to it, especially when it comes to the whole data visualization tied to analytical data thing.   I will concur that the data that exists within the system is good, but the view from above as I say, is in need of a new coat of paint err fresheness.

In my second tier level of learning environment features, SumTotal Learning Management scored 100%.

On the NexGen Tier 2 functionality, Big wins include

  • Digital/Electronic signature capability on mobile device (although right now this is only for instructors)
  • Administrator can change weights, points and other items to assist in the deep learning process – more accurate info (YEAH – plenty of systems do not allow administrators this capability in their machine learning, resulting in skewed data)
  • Standalone Support mobile app – YEAH.  Still needs some fixes to it, and too much tech jargon, but compared to other vendor support mobile apps, by far the best.
  • Browser extensions via a bookmarklet availble for Chrome, FireFox, Edge and I believe Safari (but ask on that one).  Ties into xAPI.

Video sharing by Learners is coming in the next upgrade, so another wonderful win.  For folks who want ADA 508, your all set – STLM support that (as do many other vendors, but here’s the kicker – there are way too many vendors who do not. I should note that in the UK they follow the ADA 508 guidelines, and I surmise that in your own country, they do as well.)

Implementation time frame ranges from one month to up to 24 months, but on average around three to six months.  I mean if it 24 months, build your own – ha I kid! All course standards except PENS are supported (so, yes on xAPI and SCORM). 

Support is still average, but has improved quite a bit in just the past six months (I base this on the metrics SumTotal provided me as well as a call with their VP who oversees support).  Oh, and they support nearly every vertical out there.

2019 #4LMS

Unicorn LMS (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Best LMS for FS period.  (FS means financial services).   Minds-I now comes as part of the Unicorn LMS and is the best knowledge reinforcement tool I have seen on the market. Compliance and regulatory is fantastic on the platform.   Unicorn scored a perfect 100% on learning environment and administration. For fans of vendor built-in authoring tools, Unicorn’s could easily be sold as a standalone, it is that good.  Competency and skill management is very good.

UI and UX is quite good, although a few mini improvements needed on the workflow feature (but many vendors do not offer that feature, so there is that too).  Mobile learning is rock and roll hall of fame level, with apps for iTunes, Google Play and comes with on/off synch.  You can get an on/off synch mobile app for the system, for Minds-I and a mobile app for CPD with on/off synch too.   You also get Quizdom which is fun to play and as you can read from its title is an assessment tool in a game-based learning experience. 

Analytical data is quite good, albeit data visualization could be better. System lacks machine learning at the present time as well as coaching.

Supports all course standards including SCORM and xAPI, although it lacks PENS.  Implementation time frame is one to two months.  Has their own training department (not something you find with every LMS vendor).  Support is outstanding.

2019 #3LMS

eLogic Learning (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Last year #1 LMS in the rankings, they slide just down from there not because they did anything bad or wrong, rather, the other final two, just did a little bit more.

Super Robust LMS.  They scored 100% in learning environment, administration, event management, classroom management, social, compliance management, competency and skill management, and Tier 1 NexGen functionality.

Reporting and analytical data is fantastic.  Mobile learning is another big win with apps in the iTunes and Google Play stores with on/off synch.

The system is launching this quarter (Feb-March) a brand new UI, which I have seen as was like “WOW”.  For fans of the Netflix UI – somewhat similar with the eLogic twist to it. Each end user can still select their own theme and look for the system – a monster win in my book.

On the Tier Two NexGen functionality, eLogic is well on their way with content curation, machine learning (it exists already in the system) and coming later in 2019 Tier 2 in skill building and development (majority of vendors are still in Tier 1).  

System comes with free content, and they offer a course marketplace.  They have a coaching component (needs some enhancements), and video management is tight.  Analytical data has always been quite good, but data visualization is a need – beyond what they have now.

Supports all course standards including SCORM, xAPI and PENS.  Has an LRS too.  Implementation time frame is one to three months, depending on complexitities. Support is #1 IMO – so let’s say beyond awesome.  Has a training department.  BTW, comes with a sandbox (for free) after you go-live.

2019 #2LMS

CrossKnowledge Learning Suite (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Robust system that shocks the system – uh, your system, not the system itself, in a great way.  Scores perfect in nearly every category. Scores 100% in administration and learning environment.  The administration side of the house is fantastic. Best data visualization and analytical data capabilities I have seen so far out of the box, despite the fact they lack an LRS (so, just imagine when they add that to the mix, since an LRS pushes metrics to a whole new level). 

Building up their content marketplace, so I place it as average.  Mobile app is now FREE – so yeah on that.  It is available in iTunes and Google Play with on/off synch.  Front end UI is wonderful.  This is just a really, really good system.  Okay, better than good. 

Compliance mangement is strong. Competency and skill management is top tier too.  On NexGen Tier 1 nearly 100% (the lack of an LRS stops it from 100).  For Tier Two I place them at good.  Content curation is solid. Video management is good.  Machine Learning is solid, could be better.  

Implementation time frame is one to three months.  Course standards are SCORM, SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 3rd edition, thus they need to add xAPI.   Support has been above average.

2019 #1LMS

SAP Litmos   (DEMO in FindAnLMS)

Even though the fine folks at SAP are telling customers at the large enterprise level they should go to SuccessFactors and not Litmos, I’m telling you that SAP is wrong!   Litmos can handle large enterprises, in fact they have one client with 1.5M users.  Normally, this isn’t an area I jump into when identifying a top system, but I’ve heard from folks who are told by SAP this exact scenario, so just be aware that if you have SAP and talk to them, they may pull this with you.   Ignore them.

Now on to the system. 

I often cite robust, but let’s be frank here (may my Dad, Frank, RIP), this is an awesome system.  I could go thru it all, but it would just be a lot of WOW, amazing, great, can I have a free piece of pie with that and so forth.

#1 NexGen Tier 2 Learning System in the industry.  #1 LMS for the mid-size market. You can choose to have the system come with content or not, but I strongly recommend you select “the content option”.  Has a content marketplace which includes additional assets such as workbooks.  Has an app store (think auto-connectors APIs).   UI/UX on front and back end is outstanding. 

Scored 100% on learning environment and administration both at Tier 1 and Tier 2 levels. 100% on classroom management, skill and competency management, event management, social, content curation and machine learning. 

If there was a weakness (and I will admit, no system is 100% perfect), they need to improve on a tiny bit of Tier 2 gamification (which only a couple of vendors have), they need a bit more on coaching/ask a mentor and data visuliation needs to get to the next level (it’s not there yet).  Analytical data is good, but I’d like it go to a bit up, and an LRS, which they have could really do that if it turned out to stream out all those amazing metrics.

Implementation time frame is one to three months. Supports SCORM, SCORM 1.2. and xAPI.  Support has been outstanding.  They do support a wide variety of verticals and employee, B2B/B2C – and now comes with e-commerce as well.

Bottom Line

There they are as Bert Price would say (70’s pagent host, who looked like he smoked about six packs a day). And I say back at him –

Yes, there they are.

The best of the best.

For those of you attending LTUK,  all vendors with the exceptions of Brainier, Growth Engineering and eLogic Learning are at the show.  Based on my unbiased opinion, the best booth is Unicorn – you can win a free unicorn playing Quizdom, but the booth itself it quite nice. SumTotal is nice too, lots of places to sit and people are smiling when you see them. 

Worst is Fuse. I walked around multiple salespeople looked at me, and did nothing, until I kept walking and finally found someone who would talk to me.  Nice booth, but what’s the point of having salespeople, who are not doing anything, except standing there like tree stumps.

E-Learning 24/7

I do want to give a quick shot out to Savannah G. from Udemy, who I saw at their booth last week at ATDTK. Smiling. Extremely nice, knew the product inside and out and listened to each question and was able to answer. If every vendor at a trade show, had someone like her, you would sell a lot.  Udemy needs to give her a raise.

Money, Brexit, China: Current issues in the world of football

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Money, Brexit, China: Current issues in the world of football

Ahead of the course Football: More than a Game, which starts on Monday, Grant Jarvie, the lead educator, explores some of the current issues facing the world of football.

current issues in football futurelearn

Kick Off

Welcome to today’s match: football vs the world’s challenges. There are some big players on the field, let’s see what’s what…

Money, Money, Money

Manchester United regain the top spot in the money league for the first time since 2003/4 with a record revenue of £515m. The top three clubs Manchester United, Barcelona and Real Madrid are the same three clubs that topped the first edition of the money league in 1996. Between 1996 and 2017 they have generated over 7 times the revenue accumulated in 1996/7. The 2015-16 revenues for top six in the Euros are:

Manchester United – €689m (up on the year before)
FC Barcelona – €620.2m (the same as the year before)
Real Madrid – €620.1m (down on the year before)
Bayern Munich – €592.m (up on the year before)
Manchester City – €524.9m (up on the year before)
Paris-Saint-Germain – €520.9m (down on the year before)
(source: Deloitte)

Is wealth the most important factor in what makes a great club? We’ll take a closer look on the course.

Brexit

Under UEFA football rules if England had been out of the Europe Union at the time Gareth Bale moved from Tottenham Hotspur to Real Madrid then the move could not have taken place – Real already had their quota of 3 non EU players.

These broader political changes impact upon football in a number of ways, raising some interesting questions:

  • What happens to the free movement of players across Europe?
  • What happens to football players rights as European workers?
  • How will the number of youths from Non-EU countries that clubs can have in the academies be affected
  • Will this mean a smaller talent pool? Some 50 players from 15 different European countries were due to start in the Scottish Premiership 2016-17 season but the number could have been as high as 400 in the first two leagues of the English Premier League.
  • How big will the increase in bureaucracy around visa regulations when teams travel abroad be?
  • Will human rights in sport be affected?
  • Will TV rights, sponsorship deals and football resource be as high?

Football is not generally highlighted within talks about Brexit but there is no doubt football in the UK be affected.

Increasing the positive impact of football

The United Nations Commission on Human rights estimates that there are over 100 million homeless people worldwide – but how is that relevant to football?

The answer is the Homeless World Cup – one way football is making a positive impact on the world. The 2017 Homeless World Cup will kick of in Oslo in 2017 having been held in Glasgow 2016, Amsterdam in 2015 and Chile in 2014. The  tournament is for men and women who have no fixed address and it’s helping to change lives:

  • Since 2003 the Homeless World Cup has impacted the lives of 1 million people globally.
  • 94% say the Homeless World Cup positively impacted their lives
  • 83% improved social relations with family and friends
  • 77% changed their lives significantly because of their involvement with football
  • 71% continue to play the sport

Governance and Integrity

There’s been no shortage of football controversy recently – but have the recent governance scandals involving football undermined the integrity of the game? Has the response resulted in football becoming more accountable, diverse and transparent?

Things are certainly looking more positive – FIFA has concluded an agreement with Sportradar Integrity Services to provide world football’s governing body with a full suite of monitoring, education and intelligence services to further strengthen the integrity of football around the globe.

UK sport also has a charter that is designed to improve governance arrangements in UK sport with future funding for governing bodies likely to be affected if they are not compliant with UK Sport Governance standards.

A Bigger World Cup

In January 2017 FIFA backed the development of a 48 team Men’s World Cup. So far each of the 20 Word Cup competitions has been won by a side from Europe (collectively represented by UEFA) or South America (CONMEBOL). A country from elsewhere has progressed past the quarter-finals just once, when hosts South Korea reached the last four in 2002. The new plans are designed to provide other continents a fairer chance of progression but will they?

Increasing the size of the World Cup, the facts:

  • The world cup has been expanded 3 times since 1904
  • 2026 is the year the new format could be introduced
  • Mainly benefits non-European countries
  • Proposed 16 groups of 3
  • Number of games played increased from 64 to 80
  • To reach the final a team will have to play seven times

On the course we’ll look to see who are the football champions of the world, but clearly plans are in motion to challenge the dominance of Europe and South America.

China on the pitch

Chinese football club spending has increased by an astonishing 60% since the last winter transfer window. Highly paid soccer stars are heading east as Chinese business backs President XI Jinping’s vision of China becoming a football giant.

At the end of March 2017 China were ranked in the FIFA World rankings

But China spent more in the 2016 January transfer window that English Premier league clubs and 50,000 soccer schools are planned over the next 10 years…

This raises plenty of questions: is the football league of nations about to change dramatically as China launches a new football plan? Are we about to witness the rise of a great footballing nation? Is football more than a game for China? Why is the country embarking upon such an ambitious plan?

Extra Time

And that’s all for today. We look forward to discussing football issues more on the course, as we examine why football is so much more than a game in many parts of the world.

Join the course Football: More than a Game now.

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