What if training wasn’t just a chore but something genuinely engaging? Maybe interactive, gamified content that actually gets people excited? It’s not just a nice idea; it’s backed by numbers. A 2019 study saw a whopping 89 percent of employees report feeling more productive at work when gamification is incorporated into their tasks, and 88 percent even say it makes them happier.

Even more important, one-third of respondents said they were keen on more game-like training features. But the real kicker? While 83 percent of those who experience gamified training said they’re more motivated and energized, 61 percent of respondents experiencing traditional, non-gamified version end up feeling bored. It’s clear: Making training interactive is not just a win; it’s a game-changer.

With this in mind, OpenSesame is thrilled to announce the addition of a new publisher to our OpenSesame Plus subscription: E-SEC, a pioneer in compliance and business skills training.

Essential training with an interactive twist

E-SEC stands out in the elearning landscape with over a decade of experience in crafting innovative 3D elearning and training products. Their courses are offered in multiple languages, including English, French, German, and Italian. These materials aren’t just informative, they’re also designed to be engaging and concise, with an average course length of just 15 minutes.

Here’s why we’re so excited about adding E-SEC to our marketplace. First, their use of 3D animations and simulations takes elearning to a new dimension. This immersive approach not only enhances engagement but also aids in better retention of complex concepts. E-SEC’s gamification with branching choices introduces a level of interactivity that’s rare in elearning—this method aligns with the evidence that gamified learning can boost motivation and enhance retention.

E-SEC also understands the importance of assessment and supplemental resources. Post-assessment tools check learner comprehension, while supplemental resources provide more avenues to explore topics in depth.

Among their top courses are timely and relevant subjects like:

• Cyber Security
• Working from Home: Digital Security
• Whistleblowing

These courses embody E-SEC’s belief that elearning experiences should be more than educational, they need to be engaging and relevant to today’s corporate landscape, too.

At OpenSesame, we share that belief whole-heartedly, and are so pleased to welcome E-SEC into the Plus subscription. Browse our catalog and preview the innovative and engaging courses from E-SEC—compliance and business skill training just got a whole lot more interesting.

The post Engaging Training Redefined: E-SEC’s Gamified Courses Now in OpenSesame Plus appeared first on OpenSesame.

Engaging content isn’t merely a trend; it’s a fundamental shift in how we approach education. The immersive nature of animation and gamification does more than just capture attention; it creates an environment where learners actively participate in their own knowledge acquisition, dramatically enhancing learner retention.

Studies consistently show that when learners are drawn into a narrative, or when they become protagonists in a gamified scenario, information isn’t just learned; it’s internalized. And in the realm of online training—where distractions are just a click or ping away—the power of engagement cannot be overstated. 

Engaging content doesn’t just compete for attention; it holds it, guiding learners through a seamless and memorable educational journey. It translates into improved information recall, ensuring that the knowledge gained becomes a lasting asset rather than a fleeting memory. This, in turn, has been shown to boost motivation, increase participation, and encourage active problem-solving.

Expanding our engaging offerings with Dracolex

Clearly, engaging content isn’t a luxury—it’s a necessity for organizations committed to staying ahead. Which is why we’re thrilled to announce the latest addition to the OpenSesame Plus subscription: Dracolex! 

Dracolex is a pioneer in developing top-notch, interactive, animated content that seamlessly weaves together the worlds of storytelling, gaming, and elearning. Whether you’re looking to enhance adaptability, champion sustainability, or conquer stress management, this publisher has you covered.

Some notable aspects of their courses are:

• Comprehensive storytelling: Dracolex breathes life into characters, offering a storytelling approach that goes beyond the conventional. Each course is a narrative adventure, making learning an immersive experience.
• Award-winning courses: Dracolex has garnered accolades for its commitment to excellence. Their courses cover a wide array of topics, including leadership, sustainability, presentation skills, and much more.
• Bite-sized learning: Dracolex understands the value of time. While their average course length is around 20 minutes, shorter courses are also available to enable quick, digestible learning for those on a tight schedule.

Ready to send your learners on a transformative training journey? Get started with Dracolex’s captivating courses, available now as part of OpenSesame Plus.

The post From Boredom to Brilliance: Transform Online Training with Dracolex appeared first on OpenSesame.

• Enhanced Skill Sets: Mandatory training courses, when thoughtfully designed, offer employees valuable skill enhancements. For example, obligatory cybersecurity training not only safeguards data but also equips employees with crucial digital literacy skills that can be applied in their day-to-day tasks. The right format and style go a long way in driving completions and engagement.
• Consistent Knowledge Base: Standardized mandatory training ensures that all employees have a consistent knowledge base, where they can easily seek out additional, non-required training when desired. This can be especially crucial in industries where safety and compliance are paramount, as it minimizes errors and reduces risks.
• Employee Engagement: There is a  perception that mandatory training is tedious (it can be), but engaging and interactive sessions can actually make employees feel more valued and engaged. This can lead to higher morale and increased job satisfaction, which in turn lets L&D impact employee retention rate.
• Demonstrating Commitment: Adding modern Diversity, Equality and Inclusion content to required training sends a powerful message that the organization is committed to these principles. It promotes a respectful workplace and is increasingly a core tenet that employees expect from an employer.

Our customers are able to experience these benefits by implementing fresh, high-quality courses into their L&D programs. Our curation team can help build customized learning paths for compliance training, personalized to your learners, so they are enhancing their skill sets while meeting organizational requirements. 

Below are the most-completed compliance courses amongst our customers this year. Not surprising, Cybersecurity and Harassment training make the list. We expect to see an increase in cybersecurity training in 2024 due to the increase in data breaches this past year. 

OpenSesame Customer’s Top 10 Compliance Courses of 2023 (by completions):

1. Workplace Harassment (US – Office – Employee – 40-Minute) 
2. Workplace Harassment (US – Office – California – Employee)
3. Cybersecurity: 08. Email Phishing
4. Common Ground: Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention (Gated: for Employees in all US States Except CT) 
5. Cybersecurity: 11. Social Engineering
6. Preventing Discrimination and Harassment (US – Employee)
7. Security Awareness Essentials Challenge 
8. Sexual Harassment and Abusive Conduct Prevention (For Employees in all US States Except CA and CT)
9. Workplace Harassment (US – Office – New York – Employee)
10. Healthcare Fraud, Waste, and Abuse: An Introduction

Partnering with a content provider that offers a well-curated selection of courses is crucial. OpenSesame’s curation team can carefully select learning paths to help learners actually enhance their skill sets while meeting regulatory requirements. Mitigating risk through mandatory training is more than ticking boxes; it can help foster growth and a culture of continuous improvement throughout the organization.

Learn more about how OpenSesame can take the pressure off your learning and development team to meet Federal and State requirements (even in continuous change) in this Harassment Compliance Agility webinar, or start your free trial today to see the best compliance content yourself.

The post Compliance and Risk Management: Surprising Benefits Beyond ‘Required’ Training appeared first on OpenSesame.

This month, we’re delighted to introduce two distinguished publishers to the OpenSesame Plus subscription: Blanchard, a titan in the space of leadership training, and HowToo, a leader in science and evidence-based learning. Here’s a look at how they can help you round out and improve your learning initiatives.

Blanchard: Shaping the Future of Leadership Development

Blanchard stands as a global authority in leadership development, consulting, and coaching. With a remarkable 40-plus-year track record, they’ve collaborated with organizations worldwide, driving individual achievement and ushering in transformation at the organizational level. Notably, their SLII®️ model serves as the global gold standard in leadership, inspiring leaders in over 10,000 organizations. 

Blanchard’s expertise shines through impactful micro courses, tailored to meet the needs of organizations striving for fulfillment, service, and growth. And their commitment to empowering individuals and driving organizational success makes them a trusted partner in the learning and development industry. 

What Sets Blanchard Apart

• Relevant, Research-Backed Content: Their courses are founded on comprehensive research and real-world relevance.
• Accessible and Inclusive Learning: Inclusivity is a central tenet of their approach, ensuring every learner enjoys a productive learning experience.
• Proven Powerful Models: Blanchard’s models aren’t mere theories; they’re tried, tested, and proven to deliver results.

HowToo: Elevating Learning through Evidence-Based Excellence

HowToo is on a mission to expedite individual and organizational growth through data-driven learning. Plus, their courses are meticulously designed to provide each learner with a rewarding educational experience. With this approach, HowToo has earned over 60 awards, many of which recognize their content creation expertise. 

What distinguishes HowToo is their utilization of the Attention, Generation, Emotion, and Spacing (AGES) Model of learning. This neuroscience-based framework aids learners in focusing on content, engaging with it, experiencing positive emotions, and affording them time to process and absorb the material. This model helps organizations maximize their teams’ learning and fast-track those “aha!” moments. 

Some HowToo Highlights:

• Highly Interactive Experiential Learning: Their courses prioritize active engagement, featuring assessments, video, and audio components.
• Accessibility: They comply with WCAG 2.1 AA standards, ensuring inclusivity.
• Global content: Their courses cater to a diverse international audience.

In today’s fast-paced world, where learning is the linchpin of success, these two new publishers offer dynamic solutions to the daily challenges of developing effective leaders and ensuring training material makes an impact.

We hope you’re as excited as we are about these publishers being added to our marketplace. By folding them into your training initiatives, you’ll be that much more effective at creating a culture of learning and development that stands out in today’s competitive landscape.

The post Meeting Modern Challenges with Innovative Solutions: Blanchard and HowToo Join OpenSesame Plus appeared first on OpenSesame.

Last week at Workday Rising, we presented a session called “Boost Worker Productivity and Transform Training Strategy with Curated Learning Frameworks”. It was so well received we turned it into a blog post! 

When it comes to e-learning content, more options are not always better. Whenever possible, learners need to be directed to the best course for them, at the point of need. 

Most of us can relate to the experience of opening an entertainment or shopping site (think Netflix, Spotify, Amazon), and immediately finding something that piques your interest, without having to look for it. Those items were often curated for us, are the things we consume, and what keeps us coming back for more. We apply that same concept to your organization’s needs, in a way that customizes the experience for your learners. 

Curation is Key 

In today’s world, curation is the expectation, and it is no different in L&D. No matter the industry, the challenges and demands of today’s workforce demand that employee training is relevant, timely, and engaging. With over 30,000 courses in the OpenSesame catalog, finding those just right options for your learners can feel daunting (and it is, if you’re doing it alone). Because we know that investing the time to curate meaningful learning is one of the most powerful actions you can take to find long-term success, we offer several tools to make the process accessible (and hopefully, even enjoyable!) for your team.

Curation Alignment: The Framework 

Our curation alignment framework is based on four key building blocks:

Foundational: the essential elements of any curation exercise—the nonnegotiables. Foundational attributes ensure that your learning initiative meets basic needs and addresses regulatory requirements.

Preference-based: Content is selected with learner preferences

in mind. Style, format, modality, and length are all taken into consideration, as well as learner demographics.

Contextualized: Individual learning objects are part of a broader competency structure, curriculum, or skills taxonomy. Purpose and desired outcomes are clearly defined, providing a clear context for learning.

Adaptive: Learning programs adapt over time to meet changing needs, preferences, and goals. Learning becomes more tailored over time through regular evaluation and iteration.

Curation Alignment: The Process 

Our suggested process includes the four steps below, but this approach is not prescriptive for everyone, and should be modified to meet your needs. No matter the specific steps, the most important considerations are to engage multiple stakeholders and offer opportunities for continuous feedback, so your program improves over time. 

1. Gather Input
   There are many ways to solicit input from learners, both formal and informal. Many organizations offer regular engagement surveys, which can be a rich source of data for L&D. It may also make sense to design a survey specific for learning, or incorporate a feedback component into existing learning sessions, whether in person or online.

2. Aggregate Feedback
   Regardless of the source of the feedback, if it’s going to be useful, it must be aggregated in some way. Just like the previous phase, this can be formal (e.g., data visualization software), or informal (e.g. Excel or an internal or shared document). 

3. Curate
   This is where the fun begins! Once the feedback has been aggregated, L&D can use the themes that emerge (or share them with OpenSesame) to create competency frameworks, identify courses, and get courses in front of employees. 

4. Improve 
   In this phase, the cycle repeats. We know that learner needs change regularly, so while your process must be sustainable, it’s crucial to solicit feedback (and apply it to your program!) on a regular basis.  

Lighten the Load: Smartpath by OpenSesame

We know this work is challenging, so we’ve created tools to simplify the curation process, and maximize the return on investment. OpenSesame’s curation team is made up of a group of subject matter experts who will help you build the best curriculum for each part of your business. 

Our Curation Alignment Process (CAP) survey is a simple to complete, easy to administer tool that you can share widely to allow multiple stakeholders an opportunity to provide input. The survey includes questions to gather information on the topics that are most important to your team, but also on how people learn best (e.g., courses that are interactive, scenario-based, audio-only, instructor-led, etc.). The survey leverages the power of AI to make recommendations, which are interpreted and refined by our team.  

OpenSesame will use your CAP results to custom-create a curriculum for each part of your business, and we will share the results with you so you can continue to make data-informed decisions for employee learning. 

Collaboration and Support 

In addition to these tools, your OpenSesame Customer Success Manager is here to support you every step of the way, not just with the initial curation, but as a consistent source of support to help you keep your learning options fresh and engaging. Together, we can help you achieve your learning & development goals, optimize your budget and increase your return on investment with training. 

The post Boost Worker Productivity and Transform Training Strategy with Curated Learning Frameworks appeared first on OpenSesame.

Exciting news for organizations looking to supercharge their leadership training initiatives: We’ve just added the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) to our growing list of OpenSesame Plus publishers.

At OpenSesame, we’re all about empowering organizations of all sizes and industries to thrive through comprehensive online learning. Our goal is to ensure that you have the right courses at your fingertips, aligned perfectly with your core competencies and business goals. Now, with the inclusion of CCL in OpenSesame Plus, we’re taking your leadership training to a whole new level.

Comprehensive, trusted leadership development

For over five decades, the Center for Creative Leadership has stood at the forefront of leadership development, earning a reputation synonymous with excellence. Their courses are thoughtfully designed to address the unique challenges and skills required at every organizational level, delivering practical, real-world solutions to modern leadership challenges.

CCL has courses for managers just starting out, managing from the middle, or running the show. These trainings are packed with valuable resources, including animated videos, audio narration, inline activities, supplemental materials, and post-assessments. By incorporating CCL courses into your training regimen through OpenSesame Plus, you’re providing your managers with the tools they need to lead effectively in today’s complex environment.

Today, your leaders need your help

Leadership isn’t just a buzzword—it’s the glue that holds teams together and steers organizations toward success. Managers are tasked with fostering productivity, collaboration, engagement, and equity at the team level while embodying their company’s culture and values. In today’s working world, effective leadership is non-negotiable.

But consider this: Nearly 20 percent of emerging leaders’ direct reports have contemplated leaving their roles due to their leader’s ineffectiveness. And a staggering 42 percent of new leaders feel they’ve had inadequate professional development for their current positions. When you recognize how high the stakes are, there’s clearly a need for modernized leadership training. 

The challenges managers face today are intense; the pandemic, the shift to remote work, and the partial return to the office have placed unprecedented demands on them. They’ve become the translators and scapegoats, often having to navigate between a team that feels undervalued or unheard, and higher ups anxious about an uncertain economic outlook. To successfully chart a course forward, your leaders need support, guidance, and the right training to excel in their pivotal roles. 

That’s why we couldn’t be more thrilled to welcome the Center for Creative Leadership to the OpenSesame Plus family. Leadership matters, and with OpenSesame Plus and CCL, you’re well-equipped to lead the way.

The post Elevate Your Leadership Training with OpenSesame Plus and the Center for Creative Leadership appeared first on OpenSesame.

“We are excited to deepen our collaboration with OpenSesame. Our existing partnership has already delivered exceptional learning opportunities for our customers. With the recent updates from OpenSesame, the integration process has become even more seamless and user-friendly, ensuring a smooth experience for our valued customers.”

Jonna Ward, CEO at Meridian

Expanded Content Library 

With the integration of OpenSesame and Meridian LMS, organizations gain access to an expanded course library. Customers can now explore thousands of high-quality courses available in OpenSesame’s marketplace. This includes courses on compliance, safety, leadership development, and business skills, catering to diverse training needs. 

Seamless Content Integration

The integration streamlines the process of sending OpenSesame courses to the Meridian LMS. Customers can browse the course library, select desired courses, and seamlessly deliver them to the Meridian platform with just a few clicks. This eliminates the need for manual content uploading and ensures a smooth training workflow. 

Automated Course Management

Automatic syncing of updates ensures that any improvements made to courses are reflected in the Meridian LMS within 24 hours. This includes completion reporting, course retirements, and metadata updates to allow admins to keep their training content up-to-date and relevant with minimal effort. 

Enhanced Reporting and Analytics

The integration provinces enhanced reporting and analytics capabilities through Meridian’s LMS. Admins can track learner progress, monitor completion rates, and gather valuable performance metrics. This data empowers organizations to make informed decisions, identify skill gaps, and optimize training programs for maximum impact. 

The integration between OpenSesame and Meridian empowers organizations to deliver enhanced training solutions. By combining OpenSesame’s expensive course library with Meridian’s powerful learning management capabilities, we provide a seamless and comprehensive training experience for organizations worldwide. Schedule a demo today to see how the OpenSesame and Meridian Knowledge Solutions integration can optimize your training program.

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About Meridian LMS

Powering progress with compliance training, branded and blended learning environments, and eCommerce solutions, Meridian Learning Management System (LMS) addresses complex learning challenges for customers such as Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), Commonwealth of Virginia, Johnson Controls, Abbott and Auto Club Group.  Our award-winning enterprise-level learning management platform offers our proprietary Learning Record Store (LRS), Career Explorer, and content authoring tools, and it natively integrates content provided by our partner OpenSesame. The Meridian LMS is available in the cloud, on-premise, or as a private cloud. For more information, visit www.meridianks.com or follow @MeridianKS on Twitter. 

The post OpenSesame and Meridian LMS Combine Forces for Enhanced Training Capabilities appeared first on OpenSesame.

In today’s market and economy, cost-effective and impactful L&D that engages learners in our remote environment is more important than ever.

But when we’re asked to tighten the belt on our L&D efforts, we must find innovative ways to deliver impactful learning experiences that meet the needs of learners while still staying within our budget.

In our ‘What You Missed at ATD’ webinar (get your replay here), Paige Kracke, Senior Manager of Curation at OpenSesame, and Leslie Kelley, Chief Revenue Officer at 360Learning, discuss how through our partnership, we are collaborating with our customers to approach learning and development in a different but impactful way. 

Read on to hear how 360Learning and OpenSesame are working to help customers build a learning system that empowers L&D as a strategic business partner, plus five quick wins for making an impact, and the three pillars of a future-proof learning system. 

First, let’s explore the definition of a learning system, as explained by Paige and Leslie.

A future-proof learning system that makes an impact

As Paige explains, the exciting part of the discussion is that they are talking about learning systems—the real focus. 

When they talk about a learning system, Paige and Leslie mean a specific comprehensive system that empowers people to transition from being the typical L&D admin and content manager to a true strategic partner in your company.

“One of the key reasons why we are here together,” she says, “is that we have created this system and integration where you can bring this marriage between off-the-shelf eLearning content, which is the OpenSesame world, and this innovative platform for content delivery and content creation in the 360Learning space.”

And what Leslie loves about our partnership is we can dive deep into how we will build this learning system together. “When you start to build that system and adopt the mindset, you can take it anywhere you go in the future,” Leslie explains.

Step away from the ‘doing more with less’ conversation

In the past year, many learning and development professionals were asked to do more with less due to budget cuts, hiring freezes, and layoffs.

But the big question resonating with L&D leaders is how do you do more with less? Because you still need the resources and tools that the L&D function requires to fulfill your role within an organization: to make an impact and meet learners’ needs. 

“We have to stop talking about doing more with less and make it possible for L&D teams to be super effective no matter what,” Leslie explains. 

So, let’s discuss how you can be effective with five quick wins you can generate today.

5 quick wins for L&D teams for impactful learning

Leslie has five quick tips for generating more wins for your learning system in a cost-effective and impactful way.

First, your L&D practice must avoid long, complex projects to stay relevant and make a regular impact. 

1. Stay visible

When you commit to long and complex projects, you and your team can become hidden from the business. 

In today’s market, it’s super important that people know what you are working on and that you are making an impact regularly. Senior leaders and influential stakeholders need to see you every quarter, not once a year.

2. Don’t expect to achieve less

Learning and development teams can’t take a day off because they’ve been asked to do more with fewer resources and tools. 

Even with squeezed L&D budgets, employees will still expect to grow in their careers. Therefore, it’s crucial that you know what your employees want and need from you and your learning system.

3. Use data and evidence to prove value and improve performance

Gathering data and evidence helps you make the right decisions that are impactful for your people today.

When building your perspective on your employees’ learning needs, the data will help you stay visible within the organization and empower you to regularly discuss your impact on business goals.

4. Leverage subject-matter experts alongside content integrations

Our data shows that you only need 2% of your employee base to be willing participants to build a robust learning system.

Additionally, 64% of learners say that learning from their peers and colleagues is the most effective way for them to learn. Therefore, your SMEs will be your win-win way to make the biggest impact.

5. Free up your team to make time for high-value work

Keep your focus on high-value work like securing stakeholder buy-in and developing your internal mobility strategy, and don’t let resource loss distract you from those tasks.

“The administration of running an L&D function will never go away,” Leslie explains. “Especially when you have evergreen problems like compliance training and onboarding.” 

How you strategically leverage AI and automation to cover administrative processes to free up time for you and your team will make a measurable difference.

The 3 pillars to increase L&D impact

As Paige and Leslie explain, there are three pillars you can leverage to increase the impact of your learning interventions. 

First up, automate the low-value busywork of daily L&D. 

1. Automate the busywork

You should divide all the tasks your team is responsible for into high-value, low-value, easy-to-automate, and hard-to-automate quadrants.

For example, what you will find in the quadrant of high-value, hard-to-automate tasks are those we love to do. They are why we got into learning and development in the first place, such as developing your L&D roadmap and strategy.

Tasks like scheduled reporting and booking rooms will be in the low-value, easy-to-automate quadrant. There are no low-value tasks that can’t or shouldn’t be automated and don’t forget about the high-value and easy-to-automate tasks.

When looking at your learning platform, here is how you can leverage automation and AI:

• Administration: Automate reporting, reminders & manual tasks.
• Recommendations: Increase learner engagement with personalized and automated content recommendations.
• Content: Use Generative AI and integrated course catalogs to develop highly relevant SME-led courses and extensive learning resources.

2. Close skills gaps

With more and more L&D teams focusing on skills this year, we have to think about our employees and ensure we are engaging and upskilling them from within.

Upskilling from within means we are:

• Recognizing and rewarding existing staff rather than hiring internally.
• Creating upskilling opportunities with SME-driven learning experiences.
• Promoting internal mobility and reducing ‘brain drain.’

To get started closing your skills gaps, map out your company’s skills, identify those jobs that are becoming redundant, and foster internal mobility with reskilling programs, training recommendations, and other tailored learning experiences. 

You can also use course catalogs to curate learning experiences for different skills gaps and for levels by building role-specific learning journeys and making learning accessible in the flow of work. 

And you can tailor these learning paths to develop and nurture skills while leveraging AI curation tools to automate the content selection process.

3. Curate blended learning experiences

Finally, to drive impactful L&D and help build your learning system, you will need to curate impactful learning experiences that boost business outcomes.

The problems L&D faces include that skilled labor is scarce and resigning, skills are the number one bottleneck to innovation, and top-down learning won’t empower you and your team to upskill employees fast enough.

So, how do you create that fast and engaging environment or pass those skills to new employees?

The solution is a fundamental shift in mindset from top-down L&D to a collaborative learning approach where experts and learners shape the content and agenda, which ramps up engagement through tailored content and fast and continuous upskilling for the jobs of today and tomorrow. 

To make this happen, you will need your SMEs. Here are three quick tips for creating impactful learning in collaboration with SMEs:

1. Engage your subject-matter experts by showing them the data.
2. Make it easy for them to share their expertise.
3. Let them know the impact they helped to make and reward their contributions.

With a content integration like OpenSesame, you can also directly leverage curated off-the-shelf learning to quickly address skills gaps, curate learning pathways using AI tools and SME expertise, and reinforce instructor-led training sessions using off-the-shelf resources.

Quick recap: maximize L&D impact with 3 key pillars

Maximizing L&D impact through these three key pillars will help you build and ramp up your learning system. 

Once you have automation in your corner and put the repeatable actions on autopilot, you can focus your time and energy on closing skills gaps and internal mobility. You can also improve your company’s bottom line and create a learning culture in which employees are happy to participate.

And most importantly, you can build a system that secures your seat at the table at your current organization and at every company you will be at in the future.

Keen for a deeper dive into how to curate cost-effective and impactful L&D? Get your replay of Paige and Leslie’s discussion of what you missed at ATD today!

The post Curating A Future-Proof Learning System: 3 Pillars to Increase L&D Impact appeared first on OpenSesame.

Effective online courses do more than just present information. A good training is an experience that speaks to learners and fosters engagement; an experience that every learner can access, and that feels directly relevant to their day-to-day work. 

So, what should you think about when it comes to selecting quality content? Here are five essential aspects of well-designed courses that enhance learning outcomes and contribute to a culture of inclusivity at your organization:

1. Learners truly feel the course is relevant

Your content should hit home. Learners are much more likely to connect with courses showcasing examples that directly apply to their roles, or that have strong alignment with their career goals. Don’t underestimate how far real-world scenarios can go in building those connections.

2. The content is accessible for all

Accessibility matters—if your learners can’t fully experience the content in a course, how can you expect them to get the full value of the training? Look for courses that are colorblind-friendly and compatible with assistive technologies to ensure every learner has full access to the information being conveyed.

What’s more, everyone should be able to learn in their preferred language. This access increases learning comprehension and retention, which is why courses that offer the same content in multiple languages are more suited to the needs of diverse or globally distributed workforces.

3. The experience feels first class

Today, there’s no shortage of well-produced content. Online courses now have to compete for attention with streaming platforms and YouTube channels that have raised the collective bar on what’s considered high quality. Courses need to be wrapped in top-tier visual design or a cinematic experience if they’re going to stand out and stick in learners’ minds. 

4. The information is the latest and greatest

Nothing demotivates learners like the feeling that the information they’re being given is old, doesn’t teach them anything new, or is just plain inaccurate. The best courses are those that are regularly refreshed to incorporate the latest information and advances in learning technologies, so your learners never settle for stale content.

5. Learners can track their progress

A sense of accomplishment drives engagement. This is true at all levels, whether it’s progress indicators signaling how far a learner has made it through the training, a knowledge check that lets them demonstrate their new understanding, or courses that build on one another in a learning path. Giving individuals a sense of how far they’ve come is critical to maintaining motivation for continued skill building. 

Design your own inclusive training with Simon

When it comes to finding quality courses, we’re proud of the caliber we’ve established in the OpenSesame marketplace. The depth and breadth of our course library covers many, many bases for organizations of all kinds—both in terms of the training formats and topics their learners need. But there will always be subjects so niche to an organization that the best fit for them doesn’t exist yet. In these instances, learners shouldn’t have to settle for less, and L&D professionals shouldn’t have to become expert course designers, either. 

Enter Simon, our game-changing content creation platform. Simon caters to elearning publishers, L&D teams, and any subject matter experts seeking a user-friendly way to create visually appealing, responsive, accessible, and fully translated courses. 

Simon’s intuitive interface ensures a seamless experience for both course creators and learners. Quickly craft courses with text, images, audio, video, and even quizzes; the resulting course’s cinematic design mirrors popular streaming platforms, offering a familiar and engaging experience that sets the tone for impactful learning.

Next, say goodbye to the complexities of managing multiple translated versions. With its built-in translation capabilities, Simon ensures that all employees, regardless of their native language, can benefit from the same high-quality training content. In a matter of minutes, Simon will effortlessly translate courses into multiple languages—including text and narration—bridging language barriers and fostering a sense of belonging. And, of course, Simon is designed in accordance with WCAG and 508 accessibility standards, so your courses adhere to best practices for online content. 

Need to make an update? With Simon, modifying course content across languages is no longer a chore. Update course content once, and Simon automatically syncs changes across all language versions, ensuring everyone is always on the same page.

See Simon in action

Want to learn more about Simon? Recently, OpenSesame’s Chief Product Officer, Josh Blank, and several members of the Simon team were joined by Cody Winn, Director of Platform Experience for TED@Work. On their joint webinar, the group looked at how to create engaging courses effortlessly with Simon, and how TED has used the tool to really scale their learning program. 

It was a great discussion, and one not to be missed by anyone who’s invested in creating a culture of inclusive, impactful learning at their organization.

The post 5 Key Elements of Well-Designed Online Training appeared first on OpenSesame.

This month, we’re delighted to share that The Moxie Exchange is now an OpenSesame Plus publisher. With courses that can truly reshape your approach to workplace inclusivity, including The Moxie Exchange in the OpenSesame Plus catalog is a strong step forward in our shared commitment to fostering diverse and equitable workplaces.

The Moxie Exchange isn’t just another player in the training arena—they’re industry pioneers, recognized for their exceptional work in promoting inclusivity within professional environments. Their Everyday Inclusion App has earned well-deserved attention for its innovative approach to helping build workplace cultures that value and respect every individual.

But the true strength of The Moxie Exchange lies in their robust diversity, equity, and inclusion training content. This isn’t just about ticking boxes; it’s about equipping organizations with actionable tools to cultivate company cultures that celebrate diversity and prioritize equity. Now, as part of OpenSesame Plus, this impactful content is more easily available than ever.

“The collaboration with Moxie is really exciting for us. Their unwavering dedication to fostering inclusive workplaces perfectly aligns with OpenSesame’s goal of providing engaging content that spurs meaningful, positive growth across any organization.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

With over a decade of experience, The Moxie Exchange has dedicated themselves to creating workplaces that embrace understanding, respect, and belonging. The crux of their approach lies in acknowledging that people genuinely want to contribute positively, they simply need the proper tools. This is where Moxie and OpenSesame excel together. With Moxie as our newest Plus Publisher, Learning and Development leaders can more effectively deliver practical, actionable content that resonates with real-world challenges, and guides individuals towards meaningful change in the workplace.

The post OpenSesame Partners with The Moxie Exchange, Elevating Workplace Inclusivity Together appeared first on OpenSesame.

In a rapidly evolving world, the demand for power skills (also known as soft skills or interpersonal skills) is at an all-time high. Employers realize technical expertise alone won’t generate success in the modern workplace: You need skills like communication, collaboration, leadership, and empathy just as much. They’re what truly help move the needle on engagement, teamwork, and overall employee effectiveness. And, as we look to the future, virtual reality (VR) training is emerging as a groundbreaking tool to develop and refine these essential power skills.

The power of virtual reality training

VR training uses immersive and realistic simulations to mimic real-life scenarios. Unlike traditional training methods, VR gives learners an interactive and engaging way to develop their skills in a safe and controlled environment. This could revolutionize power skills development for a number of reasons:

• Realistic and immersive environments: Virtual reality provides access to diverse and challenging scenarios, helping learners experience a range of situations  and cultures. Employees can practice cross-cultural communication, for example, by interacting with photo realistic avatars from different backgrounds.  Immersive experiences like this help to bridge the gap between theory and practice, enhancing skill acquisition and retention.
• A safe and controlled learning experience: Virtual reality provides a low-risk setting for employees to experiment, make mistakes, and learn. Whether practicing public speaking, conflict resolution, or negotiation, individuals can refine their skills in situations that feel less intimidating, allowing them to focus on learning the basics first.. And VR simulations can provide immediate feedback, helping learners identify areas for improvement and iterate on their performance.
• Enhanced engagement and motivation: Traditional training methods can often be passive and uninspiring. Virtual reality, though, offers an interactive learning experience that’s more likely to keep learners engaged throughout the entire course. VR experiences are an exciting way to add new life and interest to your existing training toolbox.
• Scalability and cost-effectiveness: Virtual reality has the potential to reach a large number of learners simultaneously, regardless of their physical location. With a headsetor web-browser—and a wi-fi connection, your learners can access these learning experiences anywhere, any time. This makes VR training a cost-effective solution, reducing the need for expensive in-person workshops, travel expenses, location coordination, or hiring external trainers. Especially as VR headsets and hardware are becoming increasingly affordable, VR training is increasingly a scalable and affordable direction to go. 
• Data-driven insights and analytics: Virtual reality training platforms can gather valuable data and analytics on learner performance. By tracking individuals’ behavior, interactions, and decision-making patterns, organizations can gain actionable insights into individual and group skill development. This data-driven approach enables more personalized learning paths, maximizing the effectiveness of power skills training.

In short, virtual reality training holds tremendous potential for power skills development. By providing immersive, safe, and engaging learning experiences, VR enables individuals to better practice and refine their communication, collaboration, leadership, and other essential skills. And, as the technology evolves, virtual reality will only continue to transform how we develop and enhance these crucial skill sets.

Looking for immersive VR training? Browse these courses in our catalog.

The post The Future of Power Skills Development: Virtual Reality Training appeared first on OpenSesame.

“I am thrilled about the addition of 360 Immersive and The URL dr. to OpenSesame Plus. These esteemed publishers bring unique expertise and valuable content that will empower learners to explore new dimensions of learning and personal development.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

360 Immersive specializes in creating captivating VR training experiences. Through innovative VR technology, learners can engage in lifelike simulations and interactive environments. From technical skills to soft skill development, 360 Immersive courses offer a learning journey that goes beyond traditional methods that enhances engagement and knowledge retention.

The URL dr. focuses on holistic growth and development. Their course offerings cover a wide range of topics including soft skills, health and wellbeing, and self-development. Learners can explore courses on communication skills, stress management techniques, personal productivity, and much more. The URL dr.’s comprehensive content empowered individuals to thrive in various aspects of their personal and professional lives. 

With the addition of 360 Immersive and The URL dr. to OpenSesame Plus, organizations gain a diverse range of valuable learning resources. Unlock the power of VR training and holistic personal development. To learn more about OpenSesame Plus, schedule a demo and explore the extensive course library of courses from 360 Immersive, The URL Dr, and other world-class publishers.

The post July 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

We won! For the second year in a row, OpenSesame has been honored as a recipient of one of Prosper Portland’s Inspiring Diversity Grants. 

There are many instances in life where people—especially members of historically marginalized communities—do not feel seen or heard. Since 2018, Prosper Portland, through the State of Oregon, has been awarding Inspiring Diversity Grants to organizations working to change that narrative. According to Prosper Portland, the purpose of these grants “is to inspire creative, equity-related best practices around the workforce and build new community partnerships with underrepresented populations.” They’ve given OpenSesame $10,000 to support this essential work, which will be dedicated to expanding the capacity of our Employee Resource Groups (ERGs). 

Supporting ERG leaders with new initiatives

I joined OpenSesame’s People Team six months after they launched the ERGs in 2021. Currently, we have six: 

• Asian Pacific Islanders of OpenSesame
• Black Folx of OpenSesame
• Juntos of OpenSesame
• Neurodiversity at OpenSesame
• Queers of OpenSesame
• Women of OpenSesame

I’ve dedicated myself to supporting and empowering the leaders of these groups, and it has been the most rewarding work. The world was not built with their communities in mind, so overcoming obstacles and meeting the diverse needs of the ERGs on a daily basis is always a victory. But being acknowledged by Prosper Portland for the committed work towards positive changes in inclusion is as exciting as winning the lottery—as we continue to construct bridges towards a more psychologically safe and equitable workplace, the entire company will benefit.

When OpenSesame received our initial $10,000 Inspiring Diversity Grant in 2022, we used it to host our first-ever ERG leadership summit. The event included training workshops to empower ERG leaders with new skills and resources to support their communities. We also successfully launched ERG Week, a five-day event where the ERGs promote inclusive spaces by organizing activities for the entire company. The week builds on our previous Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) efforts by giving members of ERG communities dedicated space to share their unique and often-underrepresented insights and experiences with the rest of their colleagues.

DEI training driven by ERGs

For this year, we are using our Inspiring Diversity Grant to double down on training. While Learning & Development departments often develop DEI training, we believe it is essential to give the microphone to the communities most affected by DEI. During ERG Week 2024, our ERGs will invite speakers and organize events to reflect the perspectives of their respective communities. Each ERG will present a 45-minute workshop open to the entire company, addressing a topic they find important. And we’re encouraging collaboration among the ERGs as we strive to address the intersectionality of these communities and create even more inclusive and safe spaces.

It’s been an incredible experience witnessing OpenSesame’s journey toward fostering inclusion and diversity throughout the entire company culture. These Inspiring Diversity Grants go a long way in helping us empower our ERGs and amplify the voices of underrepresented communities. As we look ahead, my colleagues and I are committed to continuing this important work, building bridges, and creating even more inclusive and safe spaces within our company. Together, we’ll create a workplace where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued. With each step we take, we move closer to a future where diversity is celebrated, equity is upheld, and positive change is embraced. I can’t wait to see where we end up.

Learn more about the role of ERGs in fostering culture and belonging in organizations in the recorded webinar ERGs for Culture and Belonging: Unpacking Employee Resource Groups.

The post Letting ERGs Lead at OpenSesame, Thanks to An Inspiring Diversity Grant appeared first on OpenSesame.

Portland, OR, July 11, 2023 – OpenSesame, the business training platform for L&D professionals seeking innovative solutions and world-class courses, is proud to announce the launch of Simon, a first-of-its-kind course creation and translation platform. The launch of Simon marks the beginning of a new chapter for the elearning industry. Organizations who do not have the time or money to invest in language translations for multilingual staff are now able to develop high-quality courses quickly and translate them just as easily with this powerful course creation platform.

“Simon represents a significant milestone in global workforce training and embodies our commitment to innovation. By integrating course creation, multilingual translations, and immersive learning experiences, Simon empowers organizations to deliver inclusive, impactful learning that transcends language and accessibility barriers. It’s a testament to our mission to help companies develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces.”

Josh Blank, President and Chief Product Officer at OpenSesame

Unlike any existing tool today, Simon offers a game-changing approach to course creation and translation. Leveraging its intuitive interface, L&D professionals and subject matter experts can easily create courses that are as enticing and engaging as the content learners interact with on social media and other parts of the web—with no extensive instructional design or technical expertise required. 

When a course is created, with just one click Simon will translate its text, audio, and video into multiple languages. As a cloud-based software tool, Simon can be accessed from any browser and changes to course content will be automatically updated for learners in any learning platform. This streamlines workflows, reduces costs, and enables organizations to quickly scale up the inclusivity of their training offerings. And, by offering more training in learners’ preferred languages, they increase the efficacy and relevancy of the material, too. 

Simon is already redefining elearning success. Publishers like TED@Work, Axonify, and ej4 have started using Simon to create, translate, and publish their courses in OpenSesame’s marketplace. In terms of course ratings, Simon courses consistently outperform those created using other publishing tools, reinforcing its effectiveness and quality. 

Simon will save organizations with diverse workforces—especially enterprise organizations—immense time and money, while also giving their learners more engaging and personally relevant training. You can learn more about Simon during the virtual launch event on Tuesday, July 18. 

About OpenSesame:

OpenSesame, the leading provider of online business training, is the choice for L&D professionals wanting to drive learning initiatives forward with innovation, agility, and care. We offer the world’s most comprehensive digital learning catalog, with regularly updated content from expert publishers in a variety of formats and languages. By providing comprehensive learning resources and innovative tools like Simon, OpenSesame empowers L&D professionals to exceed their goals and champion learning across their entire organization.

The post OpenSesame Revolutionizes Inclusive Learning at Scale for Global Workforces with the Launch of Simon appeared first on OpenSesame.

“We are honored to be recognized by Training Industry as a top online learning library company. This recognition reflects our commitment to excellence and motivates us to continue pushing the boundaries of what’s possible in online learning. We are grateful for the continued support of our customers and partners, as well as the hard work and dedication of our team.”

Don Spear, CEO at OpenSesame

The selection process for this year’s top online learning library companies was based on several key criteria: These include: 

• Breadth and Quality of Courses, Features, and Capabilities: OpenSesame’s extensive library of courses covering a wide range of topics, from professional skills to compliance and safety training. Our commitment to providing high-quality content in various languages and formats ensures that learners have access to engaging and relevant training materials.
• Industry Visibility, Innovation, and Impact: OpenSesame’s continuous pursuit of innovation and staying at the forefront of technology ensures that our platform remains robust, secure, and user-friendly. Our newest product, Simon, a powerful content creation platform, showcases our dedication to innovation. Simon’s easy-to-use tools and robust translation capabilities empower organizations to create compelling learning experiences at scale, elevating the impact and effectiveness of online training.
• Client and User Representation: We take pride in the ability to understand and address the unique needs of our customers ensuring their success in delivering effective training solutions. We have consistently received high course ratings and maintained a 77 Net Promoter Score. Their satisfaction and success stories are a true testament to our commitment to delivering exceptional content and user experiences.
• Business Performance and Growth: Our strong business performance and consistent growth have been key factors in our recognition as one of the top online learning library companies. By aligning ourselves with industry-leading organizations through strategic partnerships, we have been able to leverage their expertise, expand our reach, and unlock new opportunities. Our partnerships with world-class publishers and learning platforms have enabled us to continuously enhance our content offerings, access new markets, and establish ourselves as a trusted name in the online learning industry. 

OpenSesame’s recognition as a top online learning library company by Training Industry is a testament to our commitment to delivering high-quality courses, innovative solutions, and exceptional learning experiences. We are proud to be at the forefront of the industry, consistently providing organizations and learners with the tools they need to succeed. Schedule a demo to explore the full potential of OpenSesame. Discover firsthand how our suite of online training solutions can meet your organization’s unique learning needs.

The post OpenSesame Earns Top Recognition as a 2023 Online Learning Library Leader appeared first on OpenSesame.

If you’re just learning about Simon, be sure to check out our previous posts that walk through Simon’s key features and why they matter for training a diverse workforce. If you have a specific question, keep on reading—we’ve answered the FAQs we’re hearing below. (Don’t see your question answered? Feel free to get in touch!)

About Simon & getting access

What is Simon?

Simon is a new platform from OpenSesame that enables easy course creation and translation into multiple languages. You can learn more about its powerful features in this article and on the platform website. 

Who is Simon for?

Simon caters to eLearning publishers, L&D teams, and subject matter experts seeking user-friendly tools to create visually appealing, responsive, accessible, and fully translated courses. 

While the OpenSesame course catalog has thousands of best-in-class trainings across industries and skillsets, we know there are some learning areas that are so specific to an individual organization, that the requisite content simply won’t exist elsewhere. With Simon, those teams can now quickly create that training themselves, and trust it will match—or exceed—the caliber of content their learners have come to expect.

How do I access Simon?

Simon is currently available through an early access program—you can sign up on this page. Later this summer, it will be available for purchase as an enhancement to the OpenSesame Plus subscription. 

About course creation

Does Simon adhere to accessibility standards and best practices?

Yes, Simon complies with WCAG and 508 requirements, ensuring that your courses meet accessibility standards.

Can I sync updates across multiple versions of the same course?

Absolutely! When authoring, as you make modifications to course content, you can automatically sync them across the different language versions of that course. Simon’s cloud-based technology enables instantaneous updates to courses in the background, so both you and learners always have the latest version available, even if the course has already been delivered to your Learning Management System.

Can I provide a SCORM/AICC file for a course?

Yes, you can download the AICC file directly from the Course Manager in the platform. For SCORM files, you can send them to OpenSesame and download them there, just like you would with any OpenSesame course.

Can I collaborate with other people? How many authors can I have?

Yes, collaboration is encouraged! Simon doesn’t have any limits on the number of authors within your organization. You can add as many colleagues as you want, granting them the ability to edit existing courses and create their own courses within your organization.

How do I get courses from Simon to my learning platform?

Courses created in Simon will be stored in a private “My Courses” section within the OpenSesame Catalog. To upload them to your LMS, follow your standard course upload procedure (e.g. SCORM package upload or integration).

About course translation

How does Simon’s translation feature work? Is it accurate?

With a single click, Simon leverages AI technology to translate all aspects of your course, including its text, interface, video, and audio assets. While neither human nor AI translators achieve 100 percent accuracy, Simon provides simple tools for proofreading and editing both human and AI-translated course content. We recommend having qualified fluent speakers review translated courses before publication. 

How long does it take to translate a course in Simon?

Asset translation usually takes as long as the assets’ duration. For instance, a 10-minute video will take approximately 10 minutes to process and translate per language. Once a course is translated and published, learners can seamlessly switch between languages, experiencing instantaneous language changes.

Can I use human translators to translate the courses?

Of course; Simon fully supports human translations. We follow industry-standard formats for uploading translated files, providing a template and an easy process for uploading it into the platform when completed. 

Want to learn more about Simon?

Great! Check out this webinar recording for an in-depth demonstration of Simon’s groundbreaking capabilities for course creation. Cody Winn, Director of Product Experiences from TED@Work, also shared how they’ve built hundreds of multilingual TED Talks for learners worldwide with Simon. It’s a great way to learn firsthand how Simon can revolutionize your learning development processes—give it a watch!

The post Frequently Asked Questions about Simon: Your Course Creation Companion appeared first on OpenSesame.

“Learnsoft is committed to meeting the needs of our clients and their learners. This partnership between Learnsoft and OpenSesame delivers on our commitment to help organizations drive growth and success through learning opportunities.”

Robbie Abt, CEO, Learnsoft

Expanded Content Library 

One of the most significant advantages of this integration is the expanded access to high-quality training content. OpenSesame’s vast content marketplace, offering a wide range of courses from award-winning publishers, is now seamlessly integrated into the Learnsoft platform. This means that admins can access a rich library of courses covering topics from compliance and leadership development to safety, business skills and so much more. The expanded content library ensures that Learnsoft customers can cater to their learners’ diverse needs and provide training to drive professional growth. 

Accelerated Content Curation 

OpenSesame’s pre-curated lists allow administrators to save time and effort in the course selection process having easy access to collections of courses for a particular theme or topic to meet specific training goals. Additionally, admins can create Smart Lists to gain instant, tailored recommendations that use artificial intelligence and machine learning to suggest courses based on their organization’s training preferences including languages, formats, publishers, and seat time. 

Automation for Efficiency 

At the heart of the OpenSesame and Learnsoft integration is automation to drive efficiency and time savings for L&D teams. Manual tasks such as downloading and uploading courses into Learnsoft, tracking and monitoring course updates and retirements are all automated, freeing up valuable time and resources. The integration’s automation capabilities eliminate administrative bottlenecks and enable L&D teams to focus on strategic initiatives and deliver impactful learning experiences. 

By driving automated and accelerated learning, the OpenSesame and Learnsoft integration empowers organizations to streamline their training processes, access a broader range of training content, and leverage automation for efficiency gains. As companies strive to develop a highly skilled workforce and stay ahead of the rapidly evolving business landscape, the integration is a powerful solution to meet their learning and development needs. To learn more about how the OpenSesame and Learnsoft integration can accelerate your organization’s training initiatives, schedule a demo today.

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About Learnsoft

Learnsoft offers organizations in highly regulated industries comprehensive training technology solutions. Learnsoft delivers a fully configurable, SaaS-based enterprise learning technology platform encompassing LMS (Learning Management System) and TMS (Talent Management System) capabilities. Designed for ease of use, content integration, and intelligent reporting, Learnsoft provides a complete, integrated view of an organization’s learners and their learning progress.

The post OpenSesame and Learnsoft Unveil Integration to Drive Automated and Accelerated Learning appeared first on OpenSesame.

Emotional Storytelling and Engaging Interactions

mybreev offers a wide range of meticulously crafted courses that cover crucial topics in today’s professional world. Collaborating with subject matter experts and their elearning studio, mybreev ensures their courses are created with the highest level of expertise and relevance. What sets mybreev apart is their innovative use of emotional storytelling techniques, capturing learners’ attention and making the learning experience more relatable and memorable. Through interactive elements and engaging content, mybreev’s courses not only provide valuable knowledge but also equip learners with practical skills they can immediately apply to real-world scenarios. 

As an added bonus, each course includes downloadable resources such as interactive activities and key takeaways, enhancing the overall learning journey. With mybreev, you gain access to comprehensive coverage areas that address the key challenges professionals face in today’s ever-changing business landscape. From cybersecurity and sustainability to compliance, safety, and more.

Top courses by mybreev:

• Vishing (Voice Phishing)
• Human Rights
• Climate Clever at Work
• Anti-Corruption
• Information Security Basics

Practical Solutions for Everyday Challenges

IsEazy Skills is dedicated to delivering practical solutions for professional development, addressing everyday challenges faced by professionals. Each course is thoughtfully designed to offer actionable insights, enabling learners to quickly grasp key concepts and immediately implement them in their work. Additionally, IsEazy courses offer a wide variety of resources,  including video presenters, interactives, video templates, success stories, self-assessment games, tool kits, and more. This diverse range of resources encourage active learning and engagement, providing learners with multiple avenues to enhance their skills and knowledge. 

IsEazy’s courses cover a wide range of subjects relevant to professionals across industries, including business skills, leadership and management, customer service, project management, sales, marketing, and more. With IsEazy, professionals gain the tools and knowledge they need to excel in their respective field.

Top courses by IsEazy Skills: 

• Emotional Intelligence for Top Leadership
• Enhance Your Persuasive Communication Skills
• Promoting Gender Equality in Your Environment
• Do More in Less Time

“We are thrilled to welcome mybreev and IsEazy to OpenSesame Plus. Their courses bring fresh perspectives and practical problem-solving, meeting the evolving needs of our learners. We believe these additions will provide immense value and enhance the learning experience for everyone.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

OpenSesame Plus continues to expand its offerings with the addition of mybreev and IsEazy Skills as its newest publishers. Their courses provide invaluable insights, practical solutions, and engaging learning experiences that cater to professionals across various industries.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post June 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

With over 30,000 courses covering a wide range of topics in a variety of formats and languages, our extensive content library ensures that learners have access to the most relevant and engaging training content, tailored to their specific learning styles and needs. The integration makes it easy for customers to browse and send OpenSesame courses directly to Engagedly, providing learners with a convenient place to access training content.

“OpenSesame and Engagedly are empowering organizations to drive growth and success by providing a seamless, and effective solution for employee development. The integration is a game-changer for organizations looking to create a high-development culture for the future of work.”

Sri Chellappa, CEO, President & Co-Founder of Engagedly

During performance reviews, managers can seamlessly leverage OpenSesame courses to track their team’s performance and professional development, all in one place. Training recommendations are listed in the performance review area, making it easy for managers to assign relevant courses to their employees for targeted training needs and goals. This integrated approach to performance reviews simplifies the process of tracking employee growth and development, while also providing employees with personalized training opportunities that align with their career goals. 

Engagedly also offers activity badges that can be redeemed for points, providing an extra incentive for employees to complete their training. These points can then be used to purchase popular gift cards from leading brands. This gamification element adds an extra layer of engagement and motivation, keeping employees excited and committed to their professional development. 

Transparency and accountability are crucial components of any successful training program, and the integration delivers on both fronts. The tracking and reporting capabilities of this integrated solution allows administrators to access the complete learning histories of each employee, directly in the Engagedly platform. This allows them to view the status of each employee’s training from course completions, courses in progress, and courses that haven’t been started. These valuable insights empower administrators to demonstrate the ROI of their training program and identify areas for improvement to drive employee growth and performance. 

The OpenSesame and Engagedly integration is a seamless and effective solution for organizations. The integration gives employees the tools and resources they need to excel in their roles and empowers admins and managers to foster a thriving workplace that drives success. Schedule a demo to learn more and start building the high-performance culture at your organization.

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About Engagedly

Engagedly is a fast-paced growth provider, and an award-winning talent management solution built for the future of work. Built upon best practices and decades of research, Engagedly’s People + Strategy platform is evolving performance management, development and engagement to drive successful organizational outcomes across the globe. Engagedly’s E3 unified platform combines the power of business strategy execution, talent enablement, and employee engagement into one easy-to-use software solution. To learn more about Engagedly, visit: https://engagedly.com/.

The post OpenSesame and Engagedly Integration Creates a Culture of High-Performance appeared first on OpenSesame.

“We are thrilled to partner with LIT Videobooks and offer their innovative and impactful format as a part of OpenSesame Plus. Our goal is to provide a wide range of learning content that meets the needs of every learner, and LIT Videobooks is an excellent addition to our library.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

Imagine learning about the latest leadership trends in leadership, marketing, productivity, or psychology while watching expert interviews, illustrations of key concepts, and hearing the author’s voice and perspective. With LIT VIdeobooks, your learners can enjoy a cinematic and thought-provoking experience that sparks curiosity and expands knowledge. 

Some of the most popular courses include:

• Radical Candor
• Your Next Five Moves: Master the Art of Business Strategy by Patrick Bet-David
• The Innovation Stack: Building an Unbeatable Business One Crazy Idea at a Time by Jim McKelvey 

If you have employees who love reading but sometimes struggle to find the time or motivation to dive into long-form books, or if you’re looking for a fresh and engaging way for your employees to learn, then LIT Videobooks is for you. LIT’s videobook format makes it easier for anyone to learn faster, retain more information, and have fun in the process.

If you’re already an OpenSesame Plus customer, you can start exploring LIT Videobooks today. If you’re not yet a customer, now is a great time to schedule a demo and discover how OpenSesame Plus and LIT Videobooks can help you achieve your organization’s learning goals.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post May 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

We thought it might be helpful to share how we’re ensuring OpenSesame is preparing for an unpredictable market. So, we sat down with Tina Jones, OpenSesame’s Talent Development and Learning Programs Manager, to chat about adjusting learning strategies, helping employees succeed in the unpredictable world of career navigation, and the impact skill-building efforts have had on the OpenSesame team. (The conversation below has been edited slightly for length and clarity.).

Tina! Thanks so much for your time, it’s exciting to get to learn more about how OpenSesame is adjusting to the circumstances of today. Let’s start with the big picture: How are we at OpenSesame helping our staff navigate the unpredictable world they face today?

Tina Jones: Hey, yeah, happy to be here! 

You know, navigating an unpredictable world is an interesting concept to me: Before the pandemic we believed that our world was predictable, but I don’t think it really was. We just let ourselves think that. And related to that, I think we often underestimate the power of self-awareness—how it’s a key part of our being able to navigate hard circumstances, and how crucial it is to the foundation of successful communication. 

When I think about how that relates to L&D at OpenSesame, it tells me I need to look for opportunities that help my colleagues pause and think about themselves differently. The better they understand themselves, the better they will be able to show up for whatever problem we are trying to solve, no matter the complexity level. 

This is a pretty essential part of our strategy, regardless of the economic outlook—it’s an effective message for getting leadership buy-in. But, today, self-reflection skills are more critical than ever. Across the company, we’re prioritizing skills that relate to building self-awareness and career advancement (think cross-skilling and reskilling). And we remain focused on the foundational courses that influence organizational culture, since our staff will lean on this culture to support them as things get more turbulent outside of the workplace. Our philosophy of care, communication, and collaboration needs to be really strongly felt right now. 

Whew, that seems like a tall order. How do you know where to start?

TJ: Great question. It starts with listening: When deciding what to prioritize and where the most impact can be made, I listen to those who will be affected at all levels of the organization, including managers, leadership and individual contributors. I ask managers what their teams need, I ask leadership what our organization needs to be successful in the future, and I ask everyone what they think would make them perform better in their roles. 

Now, listening is more than just having a conversation. To listen means to follow through and provide learners with the content that’s important to them. And to always be asking for feedback. The hardest part about my role is removing my own ego and bias on what I think is most important right now, and instead focusing on what I’m hearing is important to my colleagues. I rely on candid conversations and feedback to empower me to deliver material learners actually want to engage in. Because when the material matters to learners, that’s when you’ll see consistent engagement, even in uncertain economic times.  

Since you mentioned managers specifically, let’s dig in there a little.  What tools are you providing managers and leaders to help them set their teams up for success during these times? 

TJ: Oh, so we actually have a few different programs that help team leads develop the skills needed to be successful (even before taking on a management role). 

First, we have an Emerging Leaders Program designed to help those interested in leadership and management explore what those roles really mean. It’s also an opportunity to do some self-discovery—remember, I said that was important!—to ensure that the role is the right fit for them. And if it’s not, that’s ok! Management isn’t the right alignment of skills and interests for everyone; I think it’s so important for folks to be able to explore the technical and emotional requirements of leadership before a team is depending on them to do the work. 

Ok, so after completing the Emerging Leaders Program, the next opportunity is our Leadership Skills Development Program. This is the next step for those who decide they do want to lead a team, so it focuses on building skills related to managing people and applying those skills in practical situations. 

And, something I’m really excited about, our People Team is starting new, ongoing manager training, too. So, on a regular basis, we’re providing targeted training on the issues we hear our managers are facing right now. Again, this is where the listening piece comes in: Right now I need to be really, really listening to ensure managers feel equipped to help their teams navigate change.

The last thing I want to mention is our Career Ladders project, which aims to help managers develop their teams. We’ve broken down each role in each department and mapped out the trajectories to get there. Each individual team member’s career ladder goes over the key competencies for success in the role, as well as a transparent way those skills are measured and scored. 

Most importantly, though, the career ladder framework shows individuals future roles they can grow into, and the skills they’ll need to get there. This helps learners see potential areas where their skills would be transferable—so if they find themselves growing and loving a different area of their role than what they’re currently responsible for, career ladders can give them ideas of how to effectively transfer those skills to another department and succeed in a different role. 

This gives managers a clearer picture of the roles within their department and what their team members need to be successful. It also helps them work more effectively with individual team members on their long-term vision for their professional development. All of these things are tremendously important for employee engagement and retention, and we all know how crucial retaining your top talent is when times are tough.

Wow, we keep you pretty busy don’t we?

TJ: There’s never a dull moment, that’s for sure! 

Any tips for those wondering how you get it all done?

TJ: Well, as OpenSesame’s L&D Manager, I have the luxury of using our own product for employee development, and I’ve found we have a number of features and resources available that help me to get the most of our elearning catalog. One example is the Smart Lists feature, it saves me tons of time by narrowing down the content related to the learning objectives I’m trying to achieve. Then there are the pre-curated lists made by our Curation team, which they can turn around at incredible speed. Just like any OpenSesame customer, I can reach out to them directly when I need additional guidance or ideas on what content is the best fit for my learners, and their expertise is so helpful. 

These two things save me so much time. So rather than spending hours looking for quality content, I can focus on more specialized and strategic L&D work while having peace of mind that the foundational training we need across the organization is being delivered in an effective, timely way. Especially in these “do more with less” days, reclaiming your time like this is key.

Ok, so back to the big picture—what effects do you see these efforts having on the OpenSesame team?

TJ: The most important question of all, right? 

For me, it’s been encouraging to see how our investment in the longer-term picture is helping employees. As we give managers more clarity on the skills and expectations associated with each role, they’re better able to communicate those expectations to their teams. And their team members not only get to feel more secure in their current role, but can better envision what their future at OpenSesame looks like. 

Retention is such a critical part of organizational success, and we know managers have a huge impact on retention. That’s where I see us having one of our biggest impacts, especially as economic recession looms: We’re using L&D opportunities to help our staff not just feel supported here right now, but for the long haul. That ultimately helps us keep recruiting, hiring, and onboarding costs down. And it makes it a lot more enjoyable to come to work, too.  

Hey, who doesn’t want work to be more enjoyable, right? 

TJ: Exactly! Especially when the world can be stressful enough on its own. Helping people navigate those stressors here and see a bright future ahead—that’s really what Learning and Development is all about. 

So, is your L&D department ready for the economic uncertainty of today? We put together this free workbook to help you prepare, whether that’s making the case for preserving your budget, finding areas where you could save money without compromising quality, or prioritizing the activities that will make the biggest difference for your learners.

The post How OpenSesame is Recession-Proofing Our L&D Program appeared first on OpenSesame.

Ally Safety is an exclusive OpenSesame publisher who specializes in providing workplace safety training solutions and cover a range of topics, including OSHA compliance, hazard communication, and emergency response. Their training materials are designed to help organizations promote a culture of safety, reduce workplace accidents, and maintain regulatory compliance. With Ally Safety’s courses, learners can improve their knowledge and skills to work safely and efficiently in their jobs. 

Ally Safety’s most popular courses: 

• Driving Safety and Defensive Driving
• Hazard vs. Risk
• OSHA Competent and Qualified Roles
• Emergency Roles and Responsibilities
• Personal Protective Equipment

Simon Sez IT offers courses for a wide range of software programs and business skills. From Microsoft to project management, their courses are designed to help learners develop practical skills that can be applied to their work environments. Simon Sez IT courses are easy to follow and include step-by-step instructions, making them accessible to learners of all levels. Customers can now explore 70 courses covering topics ranging from Adobe, business skills, Microsoft Office to data analysis, project management, and QuickBooks.

Simon Sez IT’s most popular courses: 

• Microsoft Excel 2021/365 Advanced Training
• Microsoft Power BI for Beginners: Get Started with Power BI
• Master Microsoft PowerPoint 2021/365
• Microsoft Excel: Advanced Pivot Tables
• Microsoft Project 2021 for Beginners: Master the Essentials

“We’re excited to welcome Ally Safety and Simon Sez IT to the OpenSesame Plus family. Both companies have a strong reputation for creating high-quality courses that we know will help learners build critical skills needed in the workplace.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

With these new partnerships, OpenSesame Plus continues to grow and diversify, providing an even greater range of training solutions for our customers. Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of courses available from OpenSesame.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post April 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

And these days, as Learning and Development professionals are asked to tackle increasingly complex challenges, finding ways to save time on routine tasks is critical. That’s where OpenSesame’s relationships with world class partners come into play. By integrating directly with many of the top learning platforms out there, we make it easier to find the right courses for your workforce, ensure a smooth delivery to your learners, and get regular, actionable reporting on how your training program is working. 

OpenSesame’s integration basics

Whether your organization uses a learning management system (LMS) or a learning experience platform (LXP), so long as it is standards-compliant, it’s compatible with OpenSesame courses. Course packages can be downloaded in the appropriate format and uploaded into those tools. 

But OpenSesame also integrates directly with many of the leading learning platforms, like Ceridian Dayforce, Docebo, Workday, and more. The complete list is available here, and it’s growing all the time—we added 20 new integrations in 2022 alone. 

This direct integration removes much of the manual work required to administer an L&D program, enabling a simpler, more convenient way to acquire and deliver new courses. Here are three ways OpenSesame and direct integration will make your L&D job easier:

Find relevant, quality courses faster

An L&D program is only as strong as the training it provides to learners. But creating high quality courses that are both accurate and engaging is no small task—it takes a lot of time and resources! 

When you pair OpenSesame with your learning platform, you have more than 30,000 courses from world class publishers available to choose from, so you can find the training that best aligns with your organization’s objectives. Our catalog categories span compliance, DEI, leadership and management, safety, technology, and more, with courses available in a variety of formats and languages to meet the needs of your learners. You can mix and match content from a variety of publishers, creating a curriculum that’s perfectly tailored to your organization.

And while you have access to all of this top-notch training, you don’t have to spend hours finding the material that’s right for your workforce. OpenSesame uses cutting-edge tech to create lists of recommended courses on critical topics, like how to foster inclusive leadership, OSHA 10 equivalencies, or preparing for project management certification. And our team of curators—each an expert in one of our catalog categories—is always standing by to recommend the best fit for your specific objectives.

Automate routine tasks

Finding quality training is one thing, but making it accessible to your learners and monitoring its utility long-term are their own distinct challenges. Typically, this can mean manually downloading and uploading course packages, or remembering to check the original sources regularly to see if any of the course metadata has been updated—or if the course itself is being retired! These are all critical tasks, but they can be time consuming and tedious. Not with OpenSesame, though.

When a learning platform partners with OpenSesame, that direct integration automates this routine maintenance work. Courses can be added to your training library in seconds with just a few clicks, no downloads required. And all the courses in your library are synced daily with the OpenSesame catalog, so any changes in course description or other metadata are reflected in your system. 

If a course is set to be retired, not only will you be alerted to this in advance, but our sophisticated AI will recommend appropriate replacements. You can easily view the status of all the courses in your learning platform through the My Courses dashboard, and archive, remove, or restore courses from this view, too. 

Easily monitor your program’s progress

When a learning platform is integrated with OpenSesame, the daily syncs that occur don’t just look at course information—they look at learner engagement too. This gives you detailed reporting into key metrics like course completions, ratings, and learner engagement. 

Having this data neatly presented in a dashboard makes it easy to identify trends and evaluate the effectiveness of your learning program. You’ll spend less time trying to interpret the data, so you’ll have more time to act on the patterns that data is communicating. 

In a nutshell, OpenSesame’s direct integration with many of the world’s top learning platforms is a critical time saver for anyone managing an L&D program. Take the hassle out of finding, managing, and tracking the completion of the right training for your team, and focus more on what really matters—making your L&D program that much more effective.

The post 3 Ways OpenSesame Integration Makes Your L&D Job Easier appeared first on OpenSesame.

OpenSesame is an elearning marketplace that provides companies with access to thousands of courses from renowned course providers like Harvard ManageMentor, TED@Work, FutureThink, Amplify Voices, and many more. Our platform allows companies to quickly find and curate courses for their employees and send it to their learning platform in just a few clicks. 

SparkLearn is a macro-adaptive learning experience platform (LXP) for businesses of all types and sizes. The platform enables companies to create impactful training programs by providing interactive, modern, and mobile-first learning experiences. It also provides robust analytics and insights so that companies can track learner engagement and performance on each course they offer.

“Partnering with OpenSesame has been great for us, as it opens our platform to an awesome library of curated content that’s seamlessly available to our customers. Their team has been great to work with and we look forward to improving employee learning outcomes for our customers by teaming up.”

Chad Udell, Chief Strategy Officer, SparkLearn

By joining forces with SparkLearn, OpenSesame now has the ability to offer customers even more value than before. With this integration, SparkLearn customers can access over 30,000 courses and add them directly into SparkLearn. Organizations can access diverse topics from subject matter experts on safety, business skills, leadership and management, and more or even curate their own courses and enhance it with their own custom content in SparkLearn.

With this integration, administrators can save time and effort with automatic course updates sent to SparkLearn daily to ensure courses are always up to date. The integration also ensures that organizations have full visibility into course completion data from both OpenSesame and SparkLearn courses in one centralized place. 

We are thrilled about our new partnership with SparkLearn because it gives us the opportunity to offer even more value to our customers. With this integration, companies can now source the highest quality of training content while taking advantage of all the features available through SparkLearn’s LXP—all in one place!

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About SparkLearn

SparkLearn® is a core product offering from the great team at Float®. Float mobilizes people, processes, and software in high-performing organizations through custom apps, digital strategy, and human-centered design. Built on a foundation of integrity and passion for excellence, SparkLearn is powered by the collaboration of people who care about the quality and substance of what they deliver. These qualities have helped us become recognized experts in enterprise learning ecosystems. Learn more at https://www.sparklearn.com/.

The post OpenSesame and SparkLearn Partner to Transform Learning Experiences appeared first on OpenSesame.

The integration between OpenSesame and TalentQuest empowers organizations to seamlessly access a vast library of over 30,000 courses, available in multiple formats and languages. OpenSesame’s extensive catalog and TalentQuest’s focus on employee engagement through talent software, behavioral science, and personalization work together to offer a powerful tool for organizations seeking to enhance their learning and development programs. With this direct integration, organizations can easily incorporate OpenSesame’s course offerings into their TalentQuest platform, creating a comprehensive and customized approach to employee training and development.

The integration will allow organizations to:

• Easily choose courses, create lists, and deliver training to your employees – all within a single platform
• Daily syncs to TalentQuest that ensures completion reporting, course deactivations, removes courses, and maintains metadata updates
• Gain improved visibility into the status of your courses including when courses are sent to TalentQuest, removed, replaced or no longer available 
• Quickly identify and take action on retired course

Integrating OpenSesame with TalentQuest offers a powerful solution to automate manual tasks and create effective training programs that enhance employee performance that ultimately drive better business outcomes.

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About TalentQuest

TalentQuest provides talent and learning management solutions, anchored in behavioral science, to inform and guide leaders as they hire, manage, coach, and develop their teams. The SaaS platform provides modular capabilities that can be added as business needs change and Ph.D. consultants work side-by-side with clients to address their biggest talent challenges.

The post OpenSesame and TalentQuest Integration Boosts Employee Training & Engagement appeared first on OpenSesame.

OpenSesame is a leading provider of elearning content, offering a diverse range of courses on topics such as leadership, safety, diversity, equity, and inclusion, and more. With its comprehensive library, OpenSesame provides organizations with the resources they need to train their employees and keep them up-to-date with the latest skills and knowledge.

Disprz, on the other hand, is an AI-powered learning experience and upskilling platform that streamlines the training process and helps organizations drive employee engagement and performance. 

With this integration, both platforms are now better positioned to deliver an end-to-end solution that covers all aspects of employee training and development.

“We are glad to integrate with a content powerhouse like OpenSesame. This association will help enterprises make learning and development all the more holistic for their organizations. From the ease of content curation to developing nuggets that support multi-lingual learning and keeping tabs on content analytics, the L&D teams can now manage it all seamlessly from one platform without any hassle.”

Pradeep Arora, VP of Corporate Developments and Partnerships, Disprz

The integration will allow customers to:

• Access OpenSesame’s catalog of thousands of courses from award-winning publishers
• Create a learning journey curated with OpenSesame courses that can be published on the Disprz platform
• View real-time content analytics and consummation reporting in Disprz
• Access multilingual courses that can be easily located in Disprz with catalog filters
• Use OpenSesame courses in the skill building quadrant of Disprz’s skilling lifecycle 

Whether you’re looking to train employees on new skills, upskill current employees, or meet compliance requirements, OpenSesame and Disprz have the technology, resources and expertise to help you achieve your learning goals.

About OpenSesame

With a library of more than 30,000 courses, OpenSesame offers the world’s most comprehensive elearning catalog. Content from expert publishers is available in a variety of formats and languages, and is routinely updated to provide the best information possible across a broad range of categories and industries. But more than just a content provider, OpenSesame is your elearning partner and advisor. We’re a strategic addition to your team, providing hands-on curation that ensures the right courses are going to the right learners, and helping you reach your desired business outcomes. From aligning courses with core competencies, syncing content with your LMS, to increasing training completion, we’re here to help at every turn.

About Disprz

Disprz is an AI-powered, mobile upskilling and reskilling suite, helping enterprises unlock business potential by enabling organization-wide skilling, while personalizing learning for the individual. 

Be it knowledge or frontline workers, Disprz identifies and benchmarks employees’ skills needed for different job roles, assesses their current levels, creates impactful learning pathways, drives hyper-personalized learning to bridge skill gaps and drives learning adoption. Disprz makes available insightful analytics that link back skilling to business performance.

Our goal is to empower organizations to drive the right skills to create immediate and sustained business impact – be it higher sales, better customer service, impactful leadership, or digital transformation.

In addition to Disprz’s LMS and LXP platforms, our unique frontline enablement solution (FLE) is a  mobile learning platform designed to address the unique needs of the distributed workforce. With multilingual options and a mobile-first approach, it helps keep the deskless workforce engaged & productive while learning. It includes features such as KPI-linked coaching, proctored assessments and on-the-job training workflows to enable them to be job-ready from Day 1.

Our capability-building platform powers 250+ leading organizations like Amazon, Uber, Airtel, Bajaj Allianz, and Tata Motors, to name a few. 1.8 million + learners across the United States, India, Southeast Asia, and the Middle East, leverage our skills enhancement platform.

The post OpenSesame and Disprz Partner to Offer a Unified Learning Experience appeared first on OpenSesame.

The My Courses Dashboard provides administrators with a clear view of the status of their courses to help them easily monitor and manage courses in their training program. This feature is now available to customers with the direct integration, as well integrations including CourseCloud, SuccessFactors and Degreed (legacy customers will not have access).

Improved visibility into the status of your courses

At a glance, admins can identify which courses have been downloaded or delivered to their LMS, remove unwanted courses, as well as easily replace courses that are up for retirement, and view courses that are no longer available, so that you can confidently take action as needed to manage your training program with efficiency.

Real-Time Course Status Tracking

Statuses on the My Courses Dashboard allows admins to quickly view the status of their courses, track their progress, and ensure that admins are up-to-date with any changes. Those statuses includes:

• Pending: The course has been selected by the learning admin but has not been added to their platform catalog yet
• Delivered: The selected course is now available for the learning admin to leverage in their platform catalog
• Retiring: The course is scheduled to be retired 
• Retired: The course has been retired
• Archived: The course has been archived by the customer
• Removed: The course has been removed by the customer
• Expired: The customer’s licenses are no longer active and their courses have moved to the archived tab

Quickly find and take action on retired courses

Admins don’t have to spend time searching through the entire catalog to replace retired courses. Admins will automatically receive a notification and be given suitable replacement courses based on recommendations from our expert curation team and artificial intelligence technology. This streamlines the process of finding suitable replacements, saving time and minimizing manual tasks.

Say goodbye to the time-consuming task of wondering about the status of your courses in your training program. With the My Courses Dashboard, you can easily view the status of each course, stay informed, and improve your overall efficiency and make the learning process smoother for everyone.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post Manage Your Courses with Higher Efficiency appeared first on OpenSesame.

Easy-to-understand compliance training from legal experts

lawpilots offers a variety of high-quality training including data protection, compliance, IT security, and occupational health and safety with more than 45 courses available in over 35 languages. Each course is led by esteemed legal experts and management consultants to ensure employees receive the most up-to-date information of laws and regulations. Their unique curriculum combines a mix of real-world scenarios, expert interviews, explanatory videos, infographics, storytelling and gamification to give learners a truly immersive experience that aids in fully understanding complex and abstract challenges. 

Stay ahead of compliance regulations with ease

American Medical Compliance’s comprehensive training programs can help organizations navigate the ever-changing healthcare and dental regulatory landscape through their expertise in various state-specific requirements including OSHA, HIPAA, infection control, waste management, and facility safety standards. With the use of interactive audio guides and interactive card games, learners can easily understand complex concepts and retain key information. AMC’s courses immediately correct answers to questions, ensuring that learners stay engaged and effectively retain the necessary information. 

Learn practical skills from experts in minutes

ORO is an OpenSesame exclusive publisher offering short, story-based lessons taught by experts across disciplines from business success, leadership and climate change. What sets ORO apart are their high-quality, interview-style formats to allow learners to engage with the material in a way that feels conversational and approachable, while still providing valuable bite-sized insights and information. In addition to the videos, each course is supplemented with downloadable resources to allow offline review and continued study.

Develop essential skills through microlearning courses

Sponge Learning provides a comprehensive microlearning program that allows organizations to invest in their employees’ professional development while simultaneously enhancing their overall skill set. Learners can tap into over 30 soft and business skills and equip themselves with the tools they need to succeed in the real world. Their courses are tailored to meet the needs of individuals from various backgrounds, sectors, locations, and levels of experience. The bite-sized nature of the video-centered courses makes it easy for employees to fit learning into their busy schedules without disrupting their workflow. This approach empowers learners to develop and grow at their own pace, in a way that best suits their learning style and needs.

A variety of training topics covering diverse needs

Access Learning, part of The Access Group, offers training solutions catering to the learning needs of organizations. As a trusted provider of managed, personalized, and self-directed learning programs, they have established a reputation of excellence in the industry. They offer a wide range of elearning content created by subject matter experts and accredited by the Continual Professional Development (CPD) and other leading industry bodies. Their courses cover a diverse range of topics from health, safety and compliance to personal and professional development to help businesses meet compliance requirements and drive professional development. 

“Cultivating a diverse and extensive library of high-quality content is at the heart of our mission at OpenSesame. We’re thrilled to welcome American Medical Compliance, lawpilots, Sponge Learning, ORO, and The Access Group as our newest OpenSesame Plus publishers, bringing their unique expertise and perspectives to our ever-expanding collection of courses. With their valuable contributions, we can continue to provide our customers with the most comprehensive and innovative elearning solutions on the market.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

With OpenSesame Plus, your organization can access a whole new world of learning and benefit from the knowledge our publishers bring to their courses. If you would like to learn more about how OpenSesame Plus can help your organization, schedule a demo today to discover how you can arm your employees with essential skills and the knowledge needed to reach their goals.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post March 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

Now, we have a solution to those challenges. We’re excited to introduce the new OpenSesame and Workday integration!

With this new integration, we’re bringing together our world-class elearning marketplace with Workday’s cloud-based human resources and financial management platform to allow customers the ability to provide high-quality training content to their employees directly in Workday.

“We are thrilled to partner with Workday to provide customers with access to high-quality elearning courses directly in the Workday Learning ecosystem. Our customers can now seamlessly integrate their employee training and development programs into their existing Workday workflows, resulting in improved efficiencies and enhanced learning outcomes.”

Kelli De Los Rios, Senior Manager of Partnerships, OpenSesame

Improved Learning Experience

Employees no longer need to switch between platforms to access training content. Instead, they can access OpenSesame’s extensive library of courses directly from Workday Learning, making training more accessible than ever. Customers can easily send courses from the OpenSesame catalog directly to Workday to create tailored learning experiences for their employees through a wide range of topics, styles, languages, and formats.

Real-Time Reporting and Tracking

By integrating Workday and OpenSesame, customers can benefit from reporting and tracking through detailed analytics and reporting to view completion progress, course ratings, learner engagement and other key metrics. With this information, customers can identify trends, evaluate the effectiveness of their training programs, and make data-driven decisions to improve the learning experience for their employees.

Automatic Catalog Updates

Course updates are automatically synced to Workday on a daily basis, ensuring that courses in Workday are always accurate and up-to-date. This reduces the administrative burden by eliminating the need to search and apply course updates manually, and also reduces the chance of errors or confusion among employees. Customers can feel confident knowing that their employees are receiving the latest information and training, and ultimately improving their performance and productivity. 

Whether you need to upskill your workforce, onboard new employees or stay ahead of industry trends and compliance training, the OpenSesame and Workday integration offers a powerful solution that can help you achieve your goals.

If you’re already an OpenSesame customer, you can get started today by reaching out to your Customer Success Manager. If you’re ready to start benefiting from OpenSesame and Workday integration, schedule a demo today to see how it works.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post Announcing OpenSesame and Workday Integration: Bringing Employee Training to One Convenient Place appeared first on OpenSesame.

“This exciting opportunity increases our commitment to keep up with the ever-changing demands for skill development and gives our customers the most updated knowledge and tools they need to stay competitive in their respective industries.”

Spencer Thornton, SVP of Curation, OpenSesame

Increase IT knowledge and skills

Integrity Training delivers in-depth IT training with a strong emphasis on expert instructors and high quality teaching. With this new addition to OpenSesame Plus, customers gain access to a diverse selection of technical and IT certification preparation courses covering topics such as cyber security, cloud computing, networking, blockchain and more. What sets Integrity Training apart are its exceptional video quality, access to niche IT subjects, project-based programming courses and comprehensive practice exams and quizzes.

Advance your organization’s DEI initiatives

The Nova Collective is dedicated to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace by providing elearning courses to help organizations of all sizes advance their DEI initiatives. Their courses and programs are designed to educate and empower employees and support DEI and People leaders in building sustainable DEI programs that create real and lasting change. Its most popular courses are Race & Ethnicity, What is Diversity & What is Inclusion, and Global Cultural Awareness.

Technology training that’s easy to understand  

Framework Tech Media is a leading developer of online courses specializing in technology, web development, and digital design. With a focus on practical exercises, interactive labs, and expert-led instructors, customers can expect a dynamic and enriching learning experience elevated by its high-quality broadcast video production. Its most popular courses include HTML5 Authoring, JavaScript Specialist, and Rock Out with Photoshop.

OpenSesame Plus, now equipped with Integrity Training, Framework Tech Media, and The Nova Collective, offers an unmatched elearning experience for skill development, staying up-to-date with industry standards, and deepening employee knowledge.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post February 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

Make the most out of limited time

Soundview courses are designed to save you time by concisely providing key points from business books in 20 minutes or less through narrated audio summaries. As an added bonus, each course includes a 3-to-8-page downloadable PDF containing a summary of the book along with key takeaways that can be easily referenced later when needed. Soundview makes it easier than ever to expand your knowledge and grow as a professional. 

“We are delighted to have an opportunity to offer learners an engaging way to develop essential skills needed to be successful without sacrificing hours of their day with courses by Soundview.”

Mega Ysassi, Curation Specialist, OpenSesame

Explore books that have become staples in professional development: The First 90 Days, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, The Leadership Challenge, Crucial Conversations, and more.

Tackle workplace training and compliance with ease

Kineo helps you meet workplace compliance demands head-on with modern, innovative learning experiences that will engage learners with animation, audio narration, post-assessment quizzes, and inline activities with subject matter experts who are well acquainted in local legislation and industry standards.

“We are proud to offer courses by Kineo to help our customers confidently meet compliance standards and ultimately achieve success.”

Amanda Sessions, Enterprise Curator, OpenSesame

Improve employee safety by exploring Kineo’s most popular courses Bullying and Harassment, General Evacuation Training , and Fire Awareness and Extinguisher Training.

Strengthen employee cybersecurity knowledge 

The Security Company offers short, interactive training modules ranging from 5 to 10 minutes on topics on cybersecurity and data protection. Each module provides clear objectives and real-life situations, giving employees the tools they need to safeguard their organization’s reputation and information.  At the end of each course, there is a 5-question quiz designed to assess the learner’s understanding of the key points covered in the lesson.

“We are thrilled to provide our customers with training resources to deepen their knowledge in information security and awareness with interactive courses from The Security Company.”

Paige Kracke, Senior Manager of Curation, OpenSesame

Uncover the tools you need to keep your data safe and secure with these popular courses: Protect personal and company information , Identify risks and threats and Work securely wherever I am.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of elearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post January 2023 OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

“We’re excited to offer courses by Assemble You to provide learners with a library of podcast-style courses to cater to various learning styles.”

Spencer Thornton, Vice President of Curation, OpenSesame

OpenSesame is also excited to bring you new courses by Dr. Roger Firestien who has taught more people to lead the creative process than anyone else in the world. All courses use real-life examples, backed by solid research and provide practical skills to become deliberately creative. Activities after the video lessons are designed to extend the viewers’ learning to help them apply their newly acquired Creative Problem-Solving skills in their professional or personal lives. His courses cover topics such as Innovation, Creative Problem-Solving, Leadership, Creativity, Business, & Education.

“At OpenSesame, we strive to constantly upgrade our OpenSesame Plus library with engaging content. Dr. Roger Firestien’s courses will give you practical methods to approach problems and unleash your creative powers”

Spencer Thornton, Vice President of Curation, OpenSesame

With the additions of Assemble You and Dr. Roger Firestien, OpenSesame has expanded our already wide range of courses and training, offering you and your team up-to-date eLearning in whatever you need to know.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of eLearning courses available from OpenSesame.

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Healthy Minds was launched in 2014, by the esteemed neuroscientist Dr. Richard Davidson. Through training, mindfulness practices, and other guided activities Healthy Minds offers a variety of learning materials in helping employees improve how they feel. 

“Self-care and bettering well-being are so important and often get overlooked in the workplace. Healthy Minds’ training helps your team members to be healthier and happier.”

Spencer Thornton, Vice President of Curation, OpenSesame

Healthy Minds adds to OpenSesame Plus’ already wide range of courses and training, offering you and your team up-to-date wellness eLearning in whatever you need to know.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of eLearning courses available from OpenSesame.

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LearnNowOnline is an award-winning technical learning company. They offer training in Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), programming, OWASP, cloud computing, project management, Microsoft Office, and other topics related to technology. With 1000+ courses they offer learning materials for ongoing training or upskilling of your team members. 

With this new partnership Spencer Thornton, Vice President of Curation says, “For teams of any size, LearnNowOnline provides technical training in the key technologies that help people expand their expertise and better succeed in their careers.”

OpenSesame is also excited to bring you new and exclusive e-learning courses by award-winning RW3 CultureWizard to help you and your team in having better relationships with your clients or colleagues wherever they may be across the globe. Whether you’re having an in-person meeting or over video, it’s important to have an understanding of the people you work with for better collaboration and communication. Since 2001, RW3 CultureWizard has helped over 1000 global companies and 5+ million employees around the world develop the type of inclusive and collaborative work environments that drive business success.

Spencer Thornton, Vice President of Curation adds, “We’re excited to offer RW3 CultureWizard’s e-learning courses in helping your team in gaining a greater appreciation and understanding of those from differing backgrounds, cultivate better collaboration and communication, and help you and your organization in achieving more.”

With the addition of LearnNowOnline and RW3 CultureWizard OpenSesame has expanded our already wide range of courses and training, offering you and you team up-to-date eLearning in whatever you need to know.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of eLearning courses available from OpenSesame.

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OpenSesame, a market-leading SaaS global eLearning innovator, announced an integration with SumTotal—learning, talent, and workforce management company. 

The integration allows Learning & Development administrators to send OpenSesame content to their SumTotal LMS quickly and effortlessly. The collaboration removes the administrative burden of manually downloading and uploading courses. 

Together, the two companies have created a path to a better workplace training experience. With OpenSesame, the content is always fresh and current. The course is updated as soon as a course’s metadata is updated. Retired courses are automatically removed from the LMS.

OpenSesame content, accessed via SumTotal’s Learning Management System, maximizes resources and provides learners with a variety of topics and styles of content. The collaboration also saves valuable professional time and money for SumTotal customers.

“Our partnership with OpenSesame will enable us to provide important new training and personal development opportunities to our customers. Talent retention is at the forefront of our customer’s minds post-pandemic. Being able to offer world-class content to foster and support their employees, and provide new opportunities for advancement and growth is invaluable.”

Morne Swart, Vice President of Global Product Strategy & Transformation.

Without high-quality training content, a quality LMS is useless. Manually downloading and uploading courses makes upskilling and reskilling employees difficult. Integrations are increasingly a must-have for customers. The OpenSesame integration with SumTotal provides over 25,000 high-quality courses to assist enterprises worldwide in developing more analytical and actionable learning. 

About SumTotal

SumTotal goes beyond traditional talent management and HCM applications. We are the only HR software provider to deliver solutions that help organizations discover, develop, and unleash the hidden potential within their workforce and the entire business ecosystem. We offer contextual and pervasive HR solutions that actually help improve employee performance in real-time. Our solutions provide a unique ability to link performance management, compensation, and succession planning processes to learning management systems (LMS) and workforce management data to provide the HR metrics and workforce analytics they need. Visit https://www.sumtotalsystems.com/ for more information.

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OpenSesame, a market-leading SaaS global eLearning innovator, has announced a partnership with YOOBIC, a pioneering digital workplace provider trusted by 300+ global companies, to expand their eLearning offerings and provide frontline organizations with comprehensive, digitally-optimized communication and training.

Designed to give frontline teams seamless access to the performance tools they need to communicate, learn, and work, YOOBIC drives engagement and boosts performance for vital workers in retail, restaurant, fashion, luxury, grocery, beauty, pharmaceutical, and specialized retail. 

The OpenSesame collaboration with YOOBIC provides frontline teams with over 25,000+ courses to help organizations stay on top of vital workforce training topics. OpenSesame is known for its commitment to delivering job-specific training, education, and support around critical areas, including mental health, wellness, diversity, and inclusion.

YOOBIC customers will have direct access to the full range of OpenSesame training resources and access to rich, actionable eLearning and insights across business skills, mental health, workplace safety, wellness, and more.

Like OpenSesame, YOOBIC knows that frontline teams are essential to every company’s success, regardless of the industry. YOOBIC’s all-in-one digital workplace provides Communication, Learning and Development, Operations, and HR teams with the tools they need to drive operational excellence while drastically improving the frontline employee working experience. And now, OpenSesame’s content is at employees’ fingertips, allowing them to get the information and support they need to excel and thrive within today’s most challenging work environments.

“One-third of frontline workers in retail and hospitality do not feel their organization is investing enough in them,” said Fabrice Haiat, CEO at YOOBIC. “Onboarding and training are a crucial part of the frontline employee experience. This is why we think our partnership with OpenSesame brings significant value for our clients, enabling them to deliver superior learning to drive a better employee experience.”

“YOOBIC is the industry’s top provider of digital workplace solutions. This integration will make our digital content with a variety of styles and formats more easily accessible to a wide range of frontline teams across many different industries,” said Josh Blank, OpenSesame President, and Chief Product Officer. There has never been a greater need for skills and education in mental health, wellness, and safety. By partnering with YOOBIC, we’re delivering the flexible, in-workflow training that today’s workers need to succeed.”

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces through powerful workforce eLearning in every industry. With the most comprehensive catalog of eLearning courses from the world’s top publishers, OpenSesame’s learning experts guide global companies every step of the way. From finding the right courses to mapping them to core competencies, syncing them with an LMS to increasing utilization and improving L&D programs. OpenSesame provides the flexibility of multiple purchasing options with simple to use and administer eLearning courses. In a moment of an increasingly virtual workforce, OpenSesame has added even more Global 2000 brands. And with over 25,000+ courses, the eLearning platform touches all industries in all markets. The company is defining a new era of engaging a people-first talent force. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About YOOBIC

YOOBIC is an all-in-one digital workplace for frontline teams. Our mobile app gives business leaders and frontline teams the performance tools they need to communicate, learn, and work – all in one place. With streamlined communications, mobile learning, and digitized task management, YOOBIC drives operational excellence while drastically improving the frontline employee working experience. 300+ companies around the world including Boots, BurgerFi, Lancôme, Lacoste, Logitech, Peloton, Puma, Vans, and Sanofi trust YOOBIC to improve operational consistency and agility, get real-time visibility into multi-location business execution and improve their customer experience. To learn more about YOOBIC visit www.yoobic.com or follow us on LinkedIn.

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“Have you eaten yet?” This is a question we get from our families as a form of greeting whenever we get together. The question is really asking if our health is good and if we are happy because they assume as long as we’ve been eating well, all must be fine. It’s a very special kind of love language. In Asian culture, food is what centers family and builds community.

In our Asian & Pacific Islander ERG at OpenSesame we open a lot of conversations inquiring what the other person ate or is planning to eat. Many of the events we throw tend to be focused on a dish we all love. For example, we’ve hosted dumpling folding classes and an okonomiyaki tutorial for OpenSesame. We’ve shared some of our favorite foods from our heritages below.

Charise Frias | Senior Curation Specialist, Wellness

One of my favorite sweet treats growing up in a Filipino family is Turon. Turon is traditionally a street food snack in the Philippines made of ripe plantain banana and jackfruit wrapped in lumpia (egg roll) wrapper then deep fried with latik (coconut milk). My dad has a big sweet tooth, so he would make it a lot for us when I was a kid. Now, Filipino food is starting to trend in my current city of Portland, Oregon and I’m always thrilled to see Turon included in menus of nearby Filipino pop-ups, carts, and restaurants. It’s the perfect way to give me a small taste of home.

Gavin Tsutsumi | Associate Product Support Engineer

There’s nothing quite like a nice, hot bowl of Japanese curry. Compared to other curries, this particular flavor of curry is typically mild with a touch of sweetness that pairs perfectly with fresh rice, but it is also very adaptable and can be found with tonkatsu and even in udon broth. Japanese curry is a quintessential comfort food, warming you from the inside out, leaving you full and satisfied (and in my case, ready for a nap). This is the sort of dish that reminds me of my grandma’s house, where she’d have a huge pot of curry on the stove and always wanted us to eat just one more bowl.

Ashley Lee | Product Support Team Lead

One of my earliest memories of riding in a car is when my Dad would make me ride with him to pick up Chinese take out. The smell of my favorite dish, chicken chow mein, would be wafting throughout the car and made the ride wonderful yet also miserable because I would be so hungry. Whenever I eat this dish, I think of the car rides home and how happy I was to be in a place that just smelled like crispy noodles covered in deliciousness.

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When I was asked to share my story for the Asian American Heritage month, I caught a glimpse of myself frozen at a blank paper consumed by the feeling of guilt. As a 1st generation immigrant from Korea, I felt unworthy of writing about the culture that “I had left back home.”

This feeling of guilt—with a generous amount of “identity crisis” mixed in—is something most of us 1st generation immigrants are all too familiar with. There is a fine print in our pursuit of the American Dream. It reads, “Must relinquish your culture in order to fully acclimate to American culture. Possible side effects may include internal turmoil and a constant feeling of self-uncertainty.”

For a long time, I carried this with me. I even legally changed my name to something so simple that no one could ever mispronounce it. In order to “hide” my accent, I stopped speaking Korean completely—for so long now that I have to turn on the English subtitles to watch a Korean movie. To fully integrate with American culture, I thought I had to either erase or change certain parts of myself that made me who I was. In the process, I had lost myself somewhere in between a Korean boy and an American man.

Even through all of this, there was one thing I never gave up about my culture: food. Maybe because food is such a prominent part of Korean culture, or maybe because it has a way of healing one’s soul. Even in the most mind-bending times of identity crisis, a bowl of rice, some kimchi and Doenjang Guk could always remind me of who I was.

Enter the era of Postmates. I was suddenly given the power to summon any type of food with a push of a button. The kitchens of the world at my fingertips. Gradually, I let eating become a daily chore of decision-making. The very thing that kept me grounded and reminded me who I was had now become something I dreaded.

It was not until I joined OpenSesame that I was reminded of the relationship I had with food. One of the most exciting discoveries I made was the vivid celebration of food within the Asian & Pacific Islander ERG. I immediately felt right at home with folks of all Asian backgrounds coming together to, simply, appreciate food. Even further, OpenSesame not only provides space for this, but also celebrates it with us. I believe that this is why many of us feel such a strong sense of community here.

Now as I sit here at the entrance of the Asian Heritage Month, I am once again reminded of who I am and where I come from. No matter how far away I may be, Korean food has always been the compass for my soul to find its way back home. The smell of Gomguk as Omma (“mom” in Korean) dances her way about the kitchen on the first day of winter; the sound of freshly diced green onions mingling with salt and pepper as they burrow into the rich bone broth; the overwhelming sensation of being alive as each sip of warm, savory magic hugs you from the inside. These memories imprinted so viscerally into my core are the true treasure that no American Dream can promise, nor any amount of cultural acclimation can erase.

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Learn from leaders at Lumofy how a strong learning culture and a feeling of inclusion through personalized learning paths can drive employee retention. 

Getting Clear on DEI

In order to build an organization based on diversity, equity and inclusion, organizations need to be clear on what it means. 

Diversity is the collective of different experiences that people bring to workplace culture. This includes not only race, gender, age, etc., but also personality characteristics such as introvert vs. extrovert, working styles, and more.

Inclusion means how we value people with their diversity – making sure they feel welcome and creating a culture of belonging where everyone can thrive.

Equity tends to be confused with equality. Equality means giving people the same tools and same rights – treating everyone the same, regardless of differences. Equity, on the other hand,  means considering each person’s unique characteristics and needs, and giving them personalized tools and resources based on these differences.

Once organizations are clear on the definition of DEI, they can begin incorporating it into their learning strategies.

How to Incorporate DEI into the Workplace Learning Culture

A common strategy regarding DEI is for organizations to start creating programs and strategies based on what they think they know about diversity, equity and inclusion. But unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out as intended. In fact, billions of dollars are spent on ineffective DEI-based programs. 

3 Common DEI Derailers 

Here are three common reasons why organizations fail to see results from their DEI efforts. 

DEI derailer #1: Creating initiatives based on assumptions

As previously mentioned, if organizations create DEI initiatives based on common assumptions of what DEI means, or what they think they understand about DEI, their efforts will fall short. 

DEI derailer #2: Focusing on standalone programs

It’s great to create programs based on diversity, but they shouldn’t be created just for the sake of checking a box – they need to be tied to corporate initiatives. 

Let’s take ERGs (employee resource groups) as an example. Many companies have various ERGs – popular ones include resource groups for the LGBTQ community, Black employees, and women. These groups provide a safe space where like folks can discuss issues specific to their identities and feel that sense of belonging needed to thrive at work. 

However, leadership should also work with these groups to move the needle forward with business goals: What recruitment practices can we put in place to attract members of the LGBTQ community? How can the organization be more inclusive of Black employees? What percentage of women in leadership do we currently have, and where does it need to be? These are the types of questions organizations should consider.

To be effective, DEI initiatives need to align with business objectives. 

DEI Derailer #3: Focusing on Behaviors

Focusing on changing behaviors isn’t enough for a strong DEI culture. Companies must incorporate a structural component to DEI initiatives that’s embedded across the organization.

The Impact of Solid DEI Initiatives and the Importance of Learning Cultures

On the positive side, organizations who effectively implement DEI into their cultures see strong benefits. Well-devised DEI initiatives maximize performance of individuals, teams, and the entire company. 

The organization is more likely to: 

• Capture new markets 

• See products become ideas

• Outperform on profitability

• Receive higher innovation revenue

In addition, diverse and inclusive teams make better decisions 87% of the time, and see the same percentage of effectiveness on the company’s business performance.

We see the same benefits from companies with strong learning cultures. Employees who work where there’s a strong workplace learning culture report being:

• More productive

• More likely to innovate

• More likely to stay at the company

• Part of a culture of belonging

Providing learning opportunities is part of an organization’s core DNA – and these opportunities should be essential, meaningful, and accessible…which is where DEI comes in.

Incorporate DEI Using the Four Core Methodology: Map, Assess, Learn, Measure

To incorporate DEI into learning culture and align both to strategic business objectives, Lumofy developed the Four Core Methodology outlined below. 

MAP

• Strategy: Map job competencies to the organization’s objectives and job requirements. 

• DEI element: Help organizations determine which DEI initiatives to prioritize and how to implement them. 

ASSESS

• Strategy: Assess the talent within your organization to determine strengths and gaps, and who fits best in which roles. Use psychometric analysis to determine learners’ aptitudes.

• DEI element: Determine where to focus your efforts to make the biggest impact on DEI initiatives. 

LEARN

• Strategy: Create customized, targeted learning paths based on assessments.

• DEI element: Develop inclusive people with an inclusive mindset. Be a role model and inspire others.

MEASURE

• Strategy: Measure progress and build an organization with potential to innovate. Provide targeted feedback in the form of coaching, webinars, and live sessions.

• DEI element: Leverage diversity within teams to achieve performance outcomes.

Using this methodology can help your employees to be more effective, help you attract the best talent, and build an inclusive and engaging culture where DEI is part of your core DNA. 

For a deeper dive into leveraging DEI for workplace learning, download the Lumofy webinar.

To learn more about incorporating diversity, equity and inclusion into your workplace, check out our DEI-based courses, or book a demo. 

Source

https://www.kornferry.com/insights/featured-topics/diversity-equity-inclusion/guide-to-dei-in-the-workplace/download-pdf

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Though the methodology of how people learn best remains the same over time, trends in learning techniques change based on the current cultural, social, and economic environment. 

So, just what are the current hottest trends in workplace learning?

We asked L&D expert Donald Taylor – Chairman of the Learning Technologies Conference and researcher and writer in workplace learning and performance technologies – to break it down for us. So, just what are the current hottest trends in workplace learning?

In the Global Sentiment Survey, we asked the global HR and L&D community – “What will be hot in workplace learning in 2022?” from the list of 15 options above, and they delivered! Here are the results.

Digital Learning Trends of 2022

For 2022, the top three workplace learning trends include reskilling/upskilling, collaborative or social learning, and personalization/adaptive delivery. Let’s examine each of these more closely. 

Learning Trend #1: Reskilling/Upskilling

The #1 learning trend for 2022 is reskilling and upskilling – in the same position as 2021, but not as “hot” – in other words, not as many people voted for this as they did the year before (down by 0.5%).  

Reskilling involves learning new skills to do a different job, or training employees to do a different job, while upskilling means learning additional skills to advance one’s skill set, close talent gaps, or move further along an employee’s career path. 

Learning Trend #2: Collaborative or Social Learning

Collaborative or social learning comes in at the #2 learning trend for this year (up by 0.2%). Just like it sounds, collaborative learning involves people working together to solve problems, learn new ideas and concepts, or complete specific tasks. Learning collaboratively means people can draw on each other’s skills and resources to reach outcomes. 

Learning Trend #3: Personalization/Adaptive Delivery 

The #3 learning trend for the year – personalized learning/adaptive delivery – involves customizing the training and delivery methods to the needs of the learner. It means tailoring the content and platforms to each person’s unique skills, abilities, and interests. 

Pushing content via adaptive delivery means moving away from the traditional, one-size-fits-all approach and instead creating pathways and feedback specific to each individual.

 The L&D Global Sentiment Survey takes the pulse of the L&D community worldwide, annually. The one-minute online poll asks L&D professionals internationally what they think will be hot in the following year. Each person votes for 3 of 15 options, presented in random order. These answers provide a fascinating look at trends in what people in L&D are thinking. Published each year in February and in its ninth year, the survey attracts responses from thousands of respondents in over 100 countries.

The One Pitfall to Avoid

For the first time this year, respondents could reply in free text to an optional question ‘What is your biggest L&D challenge in 2022?’  

Three categories accounted for almost half of the comments: learner engagement (17%), going hybrid (15%) and proving value to stakeholders (15%). These results show the impact of the last two years of pandemic. COVID-19 forced many to work online, and it reduced budgets and resources for L&D. 

Those in workplace L&D will turn to reskilling, upskilling, personalization and particularly on coaching and mentoring to avoid these challenges. Focusing on helping individuals build their skills for the future will certainly help with the issue of engagement. 

Regional Differences in Learning Trends

As you can see in the graph below, there are some key regional differences in how L&D professionals from around the world responded to what’s hot in learning. Although the results are subjective, we can do our best to interpret the data based on cultural and geographic information from each region. 

Key Observations

• In regions that favor individualism or have a strong culture of the self (such as North America and, to an extent, Europe) personalization and adaptive delivery is more valued. 

• In regions that favor a collective cultural mentality, such as South America and Africa, collaborative learning is valued over personalization.

• All regions value both social learning and personalization – perhaps indicating the intersection of technology with the need for human connection via learning. 

The Pandemic’s Affect on Learning Trends

COVID-19 has definitely had an impact on learning trends. 

A Google trends search for rescaling and upskilling shows that it became more popular in the latter part of 2019. The initial conversation around these topics was all about automation and AI – people needed new jobs for a new future of work. 

Then COVID hit, and companies were forced to adapt to virtual environments with new skills required to perform – or to new jobs altogether. Then, they were called back into the office and asked to learn new skills or perform different roles. Now, the current workplace environment is a mixture of the past and present – automation/AI and learning new skills – thus the need for both reskilling and upskilling.

In addition, the promotion of collaborative learning to the #2 spot could indicate that people are craving social interaction and human connection more than ever before. 

It should also be noted that collaborative learning (up 0.2%) and coaching and mentoring (up 0.6%) were the only options to rise last year. In fact, Donald predicts coaching and mentoring to rally for the next year at least (70% confidence). Backed by technology, it’s time has come. 

Finally, COVID required us to adapt to new solutions and environments, but now we have to decide whether to adopt these solutions moving forward. 

All of these factors likely played a role in determining the positions of learning trends on the survey.

As we move further into the second decade of the 21st century post-pandemic, it will be interesting to see if these learning trends remain the same or if others take their place.

For a deeper dive into the content within this article, access the webinar or download the 2022 Global Sentiment Survey Report

Do you have a need to reskill or upskill employees in your organization? Check out our catalog of curated courses or book a demo to learn how you can customize courses for your needs. 

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To reduce the risk of a cyberattack, organizations must confront the fact that humans are their biggest risk. With limited memories and susceptibility to emotional pressure, employees are prone to making mistakes that make companies vulnerable. The best way to protect your organization from cyberattacks is to train your employees regularly, so they have the relevant knowledge and skills to remember what to do if confronted with a potential attack.

Increasing costs of cyberattacks 

Cyberattacks are everywhere. The IBM/Ponemon Institute’s 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report calculated the average data breach costs in 2021 to be $4.24 million, a 10% rise from 2020 findings. Moreover, costs were even higher when remote working was a factor in causing the breach, increasing to $4.96 million. The United States was the top country for average total cost of a data breach for the 11th year in a row. 

Business email compromise (BEC) was responsible for only 4% of breaches but had the highest average total cost of the 10 initial attack vectors in the 2021 study, at $5.01 million. The second costliest was phishing ($4.65 million), followed by malicious insiders ($4.61 million), social engineering ($4.47 million), and compromised credentials ($4.37 million). All of these statistics could be decreased with proper security awareness and anti-phishing training. 

What is security awareness training?

Security awareness training (SAT) is an indisputable need for any company with employees and an online presence. SAT programs play a significant role in creating a security culture by teaching all aspects of cybersecurity and regulatory compliance procedures that are crucial to protecting organizational computers and other devices, systems and data. Leading courses present best practices in an engaging and memorable way, so learners understand the methods and are motivated to carry them out daily. A comprehensive program should cover the following topics, including the whys and hows of:

• Basic security hygiene, including IT policies
• Remote workspace and home office security
• Business email compromise
• Mobile device security
• Cybersecurity while in public (proper use of VPN)
• Data privacy, classification, handling and protection
• Spotting and thwarting malware
• Passwords protection
• Social engineering scams
• Online security

Numerous laws and industry regulations require security awareness training to ensure that employees have been taught basic security practices that protect organizational data. For example, HIPAA and the Gramm Leach Bliley Act (GLBA) both have security awareness training requirements, as do PCI DSS and ISO/IEC 27002. In addition, employees of the federal government and many state governments are also required to take annual SAT.

What is anti-phishing training?

Anti-phishing training is another essential cybersecurity topic for employees. Phishing attacks have increased exponentially over the last decade and now can be quite sophisticated and difficult to detect. Targeted messages, known as spear phishing and business email compromise, deliberately use tactics that evade anti-phishing software filters and often come from hijacked legitimate business email accounts. They are commonly used for information gathering, and people share confidential details because there are so few indicators that the messages are illegitimate. 

While security awareness training usually touches on the risks of social engineering scams, the volume of learning material and practice opportunities in an SAT course focuses on protecting hardware, networks and data. In contrast, anti-phishing training is laser-focused on explaining the many common types of phishing messages, how to spot them and the actions to take to fend off their tricks and scams. This targeted attention is quite useful considering BEC scams caused the highest financial losses of all scams, as reported in the 2021 Cost of a Data Breach Report. 

Fortunately, research indicates that training employees to recognize and report phishing messages is an effective mitigation strategy, especially when repeated at regular intervals to keep it top of mind for all employees. 

Combining security awareness training and anti-phishing training

As we mentioned earlier, employee error is the most common cause of data breaches. People without IT expertise often don’t recognize threats when they occur, nor do they have a good understanding of the daily actions that leave a company vulnerable to an attack. Almost every list of data breach protections includes regular employee training – because it works. 

When considering security awareness training and anti-phishing training, recognize that it is not an either/or decision. Both types of courses are proven means of changing risky employee IT behaviors that can lead to security compromises. 

Use security awareness training to educate your staff about common dangers like unsecured networks and password reuse, while also demonstrating secure behaviors like using multi-factor authentication, regularly backing up data and avoiding printing sensitive data – especially when working from home. 

Meanwhile, anti-phishing training is decisive for focusing users on the various types of phishing messages and their risks (fraudulent links, malware, credential harvesting, etc.) and providing targeted practice in identifying these messages among the volumes of daily emails they regularly filter. 

All brains have an element of plasticity to them that allows us to learn by creating new neural pathways. As we age, our brains become less plastic, sometimes causing adult learners to require additional review to maintain new knowledge. Alternating courses so that employees receive training – ideally, in different formats – every few months is a practical means of addressing this fact of life while also reinforcing your organizational security culture and improving your company’s security posture.

For more information on Security Awareness Training and Anti-Phishing Training, check out available courses from Global Learning Systems in the OpenSesame course catalog.

Suzanne Gorman, CISSP, CRISC, is Vice President – Information Security and Risk Management Evangelist at Global Learning Systems, a leader in security awareness training and OpenSesame partner. 

Watch OpenSesame’s on-demand webinar with Susan Gorman to hear more from the cybersecurity expert

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Where It All Began

Like many children, I had a lot of questions about the world. I was fortunate to have a family who humored this interest of mine. 

At this time in my life, my family would often make trips to my grandparent’s cabin on the Washington coast. As we drove down highway 101 to Bay Center, my curiosity kicked into high gear. I inquired about everything I could see out the car window. (See Appendix: Photos)

What type of trees are those? Are they like the ones back home? What kind of cow is that? Do you think they also have goats on their farm? With each question asked, my mother would have an answer. 

Then on one of these trips I had a question that at the time seemed harmless, but turned into much more than just a question. Pointing out the car window at a sign, I asked my mother “what does that blue sign mean?”. My mother, being my mother, told me the truth; it was a Tsunami Hazard Zone sign. 

The line of questioning about tsunamis didn’t end for quite some time. I wanted to know everything I could about tsunamis. In particular, I was very interested in how to survive a tsunami.

Even though my family lived hundreds of miles away from the ocean – on the other side of the Cascade mountain range – my fear of tsunamis continued to grow once we got home. Eventually it became evident to my mother that not only was I a curious child, but one with anxiety as well.

Within a few weeks time, I was on a regular schedule seeing a therapist for my long list of “worries”. From my memory, this is the point in which I began my journey as a person who is neurodivergent.

Neurodivergent

What does it mean to be neurodivergent? Neurodivergence “describes someone who processes information in a different way” (Marc S. Lener, MD). A person who is neurodivergent often refers to person who experiences:

• Autism spectrum disorder
• ADHD
• Dyslexia
• Dyspraxia
• Tourette’s syndrome
• Synesthesia
• Chronic mental health illnesses
• Other learning disabilities

Over the years of working with a therapist it became clear that I not only had anxiety, but also lived with other internal challenges. This includes depression and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). 

Having a diagnosis that identifies you as different from the typical person can have the connotation that there may be something wrong with you. Being diagnosed as neurodivergent can be tough and can come with doubt of your ability. 

While the way I process the world has created challenges for myself, it has also been an opportunity to learn and grow. It would be remiss of me if I did not acknowledge that this opportunity has been a result of the people I have in my life, especially those I get to work with.

Lessons

At OpenSesame, I get to work with many amazing neurodivergent people and am supported every day by our Neurodiversity Employee Resource Group. 

According to ADHD Aware, “between 30% and 40% of the population are thought to be neurodiverse”. This means it is more than likely that you are or you work with someone who can identify as neurodivergent. 

As a neurodivergent person, there are a few lessons I have learned about how organizations can support neurodiverse people. These lessons include:

Encourage your employees to connect

As an employee, you should be reminded that you are not alone in this journey. There are many people in this world who also face similar challenges to you. 

Every person should feel comfortable in their workplace with who they are, even with a diagnosis of being different. To feel comfortable, it requires an environment where employees feel safe to express who they are inside and out. This is easier said than done, but it is possible to cultivate.

Organizations can bridge the gap through cultural initiatives. For example you can establish employee resource groups, conduct workshops, train people managers on how to best support neurodivergent persons, and start the conversation around mental health and neurodiversity. By normalizing neurodiversity, employees will feel more supported and capable in their roles. 

Facilitate learning new skill sets

Living with ADHD, depression, and anxiety has been a wild combination. I have to proactively remind myself that the thoughts of “I am not good enough” or “I could just be better if I was normal” are all wrong. Recognizing that my internal dialog can lie to me is a skill I have learned over time.

From access to mental health resources to courses on handling stress, there are endless possibilities for organizations to support their employees in learning skills to navigate being neurodivergent.

A benefit of working at OpenSesame is that I get access to various thought leaders. One such person is Wellness expert, Mike Veny. In his TEDxNormal presentation, he says that “if you choose to see mental illness as an asset, you open up a great opportunity to find happiness, more success, and serve the people in your life more effectively”. We can all agree that every organization desires each of these opportunities to become a reality. We can accomplish this by giving employees tools to overcome challenges and find their own success. For example, sharing ways to reframe one’s perceived weaknesses as strengths. 

Fill yourself and others up

Balance is key to everyone’s success. You can’t do great work if you aren’t in a good place. 

Just like being physically ill, facing the challenges of being neurodivergent can drain you as a person. That is why it is important to find ways to fill yourself up and recharge. 

Recharging can be different for everyone. It could mean just a simple break in the day to get fresh air or taking time off to do something that you love. What matters most is figuring out what helps you recharge and do it enough to be your best self in and out of work. 

I will be the first to admit that I am not always the best at taking time to recharge myself. However, when I do so I am reminded I can keep on going and there are many aspects of life to continue to look forward to.

As organizations we should celebrate when someone takes time for themselves. This is because it allows us to have the energy to do our best work in our best head space.

At the same time it is also important to fill others up in the process. When was the last time someone told you how much they appreciate you or that you are doing a good job? If you can’t recall the last time you heard something like that, there is a problem!

It is easy in the workplace to be transactional and forget to thank others for their work. However a moment of appreciation may help change the course for someone else who is having a terrible day.

Conclusion

To this day, I am still terrified of Tsunamis. But I have learned ways to navigate this aspect of who I am.

There have been many times in my life where I have wished I was not neurodivergent due to all the challenges that come with it. But in hindsight, being neurodivergent has been one of the best things that has ever happened to me.

I hope these lessons will help you and your organization find ways to embrace being neurodivergent. While we may process the world a little differently, we add a little bit of spice to life.

The post Lessons from a Neurodivergent | Peter Collier appeared first on OpenSesame.

I sit comfortably in my room on my MacBook Pro, proceeding to write what it means to me to be a woman of color in Marketing for a West-Coast based Tech company. As I reflect on the opportunities given to me, I can only think of my parents. They sacrificed an insurmountable amount for me to live this American dream. 

My dad spent 16 hours a day studying, without the help of Apple laptops and reliable electricity. This was all so he could earn acceptance into the Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee to become an electrical engineer—an institution known to have a more fiercely competitive acceptance rate than that of MIT. It was one choice in a narrow pool of options (e.g. medicine) in India that allowed anyone to dream of settling in America.

Due to various constraints associated with the fact that she was a young woman in India, my mother did not have the opportunity to fulfill her dream to become a doctor. So instead, she spent countless hours tutoring me and instilling the value of hardwork and excellence within. All in hopes that when I grew up, I could limitlessly follow my passions, dreams, and the pursuit of financial independence. 

My parents left their entire families behind and came to a country they knew nothing about to actualize a legacy for their children. After years of my dad’s hard work, my family was finally granted a pathway to American citizenship. Through it all, they ensured that I was given the exposure and education to be anything I wanted to be. But above all else, they encouraged me to follow my passions and guided me accordingly, regardless of my gender. 

Today, both my parents have become successful business people through their perseverance and through their pursuit of the American dream. This has given me a strong blueprint as I’ve ventured out into the business world myself. My path hasn’t been linear and I’ve often found myself lost when it comes to career goals, passions, and ambitions. Yet, through some alchemy and through my parents’ survivor spirit within me, I ultimately landed in the field of my dreams – marketing. 

I’m grateful for my first manager, who took a chance on me with no marketing experience. He simply recognized and appreciated raw talent. I’m furthermore grateful to OpenSesame for the continued recognition and the space to feel celebrated and to develop my craft. Today, I work not only as an artist for myself, but also to venerate my parents and their struggles. Now, I represent Indian women in the marketing and tech worlds. Here’s to breaking barriers against all odds. 

The post Living The American Dream Through Tech Marketing  appeared first on OpenSesame.

People are finding it challenging to discover and prioritize learning.

People are finding it harder to identify and prioritize learning, and employee retention is decreasing as organizations struggle to invest in their employees’ learning and development. Despite the importance put on education, employees report that less than an hour of their work week is spent on training and development.

Viva Learning and OpenSesame are working together to tackle this issue.

By integrating OpenSesame with Viva Learning, organizations can bring OpenSesame’s content library – the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers – into the flow of work throughout Microsoft Teams and Microsoft 365. This eliminates barriers to accessing and engaging with learning content, and leverages Microsoft Teams collaboration features to make learning social – essential for people reaching their potential and for organizations achieving their goals.

“We are pleased that OpenSesame is now integrated with Microsoft Viva Learning to bring OpenSesame’s extensive library of learning content into the flow of work. The partnership helps eliminate barriers to employee growth and development, supporting Microsoft’s mission to help people and organizations achieve more.”

• Seth Patton, General Manager, Microsoft 365 Next Gen Productivity & Employee Experience

With new quick launch links coupled with single sign-on (SSO), launching courses is faster and more efficient. For your employees, this results in eliminating friction accessing and engaging with the learning content they seek. And for your team, manual downloads and uploads disappear. Now courses and select metadata are automatically provided to your learning platform creating more time to focus on your strategy.

Together let’s fuel the power your workforce needs to learn and grow.

The post Microsoft Viva Digital Integration appeared first on OpenSesame.

Each of these publishers offers engaging and impactful training. The topics covered address some of the biggest challenges global organizations are facing today. Be sure to take advantage of their quality content.

Shatterproof A national nonprofit organization dedicated to reversing the addiction crisis in the United States, Shatterproof’s Addiction Education series is an online learning tool for general addiction education. Anonymous, self-paced, and mobile enabled, it offers short lessons that can transform lives. Participants learn the risk factors for addiction, how to protect themselves and those they care about, and how to identify the signs of addiction and help those in need.

Lou Adler’s Performance-based Hiring provides a blueprint for sourcing, interviewing, hiring, and retaining top talent. This unique, six-step process is aimed at finding talent that has a demonstrated ability to perform the job you are hiring for. Unlike traditional approaches to hiring, which seek to match a set of skills to a person, Performance-based Hiring starts by defining the real work involved, not skills or experiences. This real work includes the challenges and critical deliverables expected of a top performer. 

Lumofy is an emerging leader in accelerating capability building initiatives in organizations. With +1700 bilingual (Arabic\English) learning items on core, cross-functional, and functional competencies aimed to implement the right interventions and build needed skills in learners. Lumofy’s unique competency-based learning offers organizations relevant, gamified and bite-sized learning items to develop and assess employees’ capabilities and minimize skills gap in organizations to grow together.

Schedule a demo to learn more about the thousands of eLearning courses available from OpenSesame.

The post March 2022 New OpenSesame Plus Publishers appeared first on OpenSesame.

What does Women’s History Month mean to you? How do you recognize it?

Women’s History Month gives me an opportunity to pause and reflect on the accomplishments of so many women before me who have had to fight so hard for rights and respect. As frustrating as the persistent gender-based pay and opportunity gaps are today, things have come so far because of the hard work of women before me.

I wish we didn’t need a Women’s History Month, but it’s a good reminder to all of us that history and much of western society today are based on male-normed structures.

I participate in a number of women’s leadership events throughout Women’s History Month each year. This gives me the opportunity to engage with other leaders, as well as to share my story with as much authenticity and vulnerability as I can. I feel that senior women leaders like me have an opportunity and a responsibility to use our voices, share our stories, and open the doors for others.

This month is also an opportunity to take in the celebrations of women’s successes in business, education, science, and the arts. It allows us to intentionally have this celebration and acknowledge these contributions.

What successes and challenges have you faced as a woman and business owner?

This is such a hard question to answer! It’s all mixed in together.

I have to say that growing up and throughout high school and university, I didn’t feel like I bumped up against gender bias regularly. So it was interesting when I started my own business that I was not fully taken seriously. Many of the slights came in small ways that don’t seem significant on their own, but added up to a pattern over time. 

The family member who considered my business a short-term curiosity that would look good on my resume. The bank that didn’t reach out to me with business banking services, despite setting up a business account with them. The dozens of people along the way who have assumed that the business was founded by my husband. 

It was going to a business accelerator conference and seeing panel discussions full of white men talking about what it takes to be successful – with none of them addressing their privilege as part of their success. All these messages say, “You don’t belong here. We don’t expect you to do this. This isn’t what women do.”

At the same time, I’ve had such amazing support from leaders – both male and female – along the way who believed in me and what our team was doing. 

I’ve had the opportunity to work with mentors and be a mentor to others. I’ve seen the community of support that inclusive leaders can create and the innovation and creativity that can come from that. One of the things I love about my work so much is the opportunity to meet people, hear their story, and help them believe they can reach their goals.

I’ve also had the opportunity to coach girls’ ice hockey. I love seeing them explore their strength, their physical toughness, and their competitive edge, and watch them balance those with their support and friendship for each other.

And I facilitate courses in eCornell’s executive leadership program. That is such a gift to have the opportunity to work with women at a critical period in their careers as they advance into senior leadership positions.

What has surprised you along the course of your career?

The power of community and building a network is something that was not covered much in my university experience, yet it’s been so important in my career. 

Often girls and women are told to put our heads down and work hard in order to get ahead. But there’s a point at which simply working hard is not enough. That’s where the network that you create can be so powerful.

Years ago, a business owner friend of mine and I were lamenting the lack of a women’s leadership experience in which we could explore and reflect on a number of societal changes that we were seeing. We decided to create for ourselves the learning and networking experience that we were seeking. 

Over the next three months, we pulled together a dozen women from a variety of industries, walks of life, and career stages. We created topics, generated discussions, and held space for the group to discuss and learn together. Nearly a decade later, I still have connections to many of the women in that group, and it’s been so amazing to see their careers flourish! We draw on each other and give back to the network when we can.

Despite advances, men still dominate CEO and other leadership roles in business. What advancement have you seen for women in leadership? Where do we still need to improve, and how do we get there? 

While the number of women in the upper levels of leadership has grown, it’s still far less than 50%. What’s more, often women in senior leadership positions are in support functions, not the line functions that have the true decision making and budget power in most organizations.

What cannot be missed in any discussion of women in leadership is the intersection of gender race, age, LGBTQ status, ethnicity, and disability. When considering these dimensions of our identities, the fullness of women’s experience is not being realized.

As organizations grapple with a demand for talent, the ones who can tap into the intellect and expertise of the widest variety of humanity will succeed.

EleventureⓇ by TorranceLearning offers elearning courses that focus on racial equity and diversity in the workplace. How do these courses (and the work you do in general) help empower women and other underrepresented populations?

Our goal with our diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging courses within the Eleventure® series has always been to give people very practical tools in order to work with each other in collaborative and professional supportive ways every day. It’s one thing to have the best intentions in mind when interacting with others; it’s another to have the tools at your disposal to actually do so.

For example, while we may define microaggressions and discuss why they can be so harmful, we also offer strategies for preventing them and dealing with them in the moment they occur.

I’m a firm believer that to make advances in our equitable treatment of each other at work, we need to not only provide skills to women and other underrepresented populations, but we must also provide skills for the historically centered populations so that they can make the types of changes that build a more inclusive workplace.

A diverse, equitable, and inclusive workforce has been shown to improve innovation, productivity, and wellbeing. To learn more about how you can incorporate DEI courses into your organization, book a demo.

The post Celebrating Women in Leadership with Megan Torrance of TorranceLearning appeared first on OpenSesame.

Senior Learning & Development Advisor

Las Vegas, NV

Pronouns: he/him

The expertise and coaching offered by Matt Bradley, Senior Learning and Development Advisor, is an invaluable resource for all OpenSesame customers. Matt identifies the most in-demand skills and training programs, leading global teams to sustainable L&D outcomes. He increases the value of existing learning programs and strengthens individuals while viewing every customer interaction as a learning opportunity. ”I’ve never been in that exact conversation before,” Matt said. “Understanding their situation helps me understand and help another company down the line.” What future trends does Matt see coming for L&D? “Employees don’t want to be treated like robots …. we will need more learning that addresses the human condition and what’s going on in the world,” Matt said. “The difference between telling your employee you care and showing them you care is huge. L&D plays a role in it by backing up what leadership is saying.”

Describe your role. 

Technology and entire industries are rapidly changing, and I help organizations adapt by reimagining a growth learning culture. I help OpenSesame customers identify the ideal training program or the next steps in their existing training program. I clarify what knowledge they’ll need to get there. Wherever they are in the process, I advise where there’s room for improvement or how to start from scratch. While I’m always available to talk to customers about their immediate needs, my real goal is to take the time to understand what they are trying to accomplish.

How does your expertise in Learning & Development help your customers? 

I’m always looking at everything from your users’ point of view. I encourage customers to ask questions, get feedback, make changes and flow with the data you’re getting from your learners to make sure it aligns with what they want. Also, when you build an L&D program, the people using it should have a hand in its design. One of the keys to making an employee feel welcome and valued is to ensure they can use their voice without repercussions. Every company should strive to empower employees without the need to hide behind confidentiality. Also, being able to help learners understand the “why” of what we’re going to accomplish, not just “what” we’re going to accomplish. Sometimes I hear people say, “we have to accomplish XYZ” but they’re not looking at the learner. 

How did you get into the field you’re in? 

My degree is in Behavioral Psychology, and I’ve always been passionate about adult learning. I started training as an Applied Behavior Analyst working with children and teens on the autism spectrum. Before working at OpenSesame, I worked for three years in customer support, onboarding and training. Now, with over seven years of employee training experience, my track record includes successful outcomes using revolutionary training and materials. I have consulted, advised, and coached in OpenSesame’s field service and sales through a new economic era, work-from-home onboarding, COVID-19, and social injustice. 

What has been the best part of working in your role? 

Having conversations where learning goes both ways is the best. I love knowledge and understanding exactly what any given L&D professional is going through. I’ve never been in that exact conversation before. Understanding their situation helps me understand and help another company down the line. If we’re not doing some kind of learning on both ends of the conversations we’re having, we’re doing something wrong. Everyone has something to learn from someone else. Also, OpenSesame’s leadership understands that we’re human beings and not just revenue generators behind a screen. Our senior team makes sure we know we’re all here for the same goal, and they tie it directly into what people do each day. 

How do you balance the needs of a customer’s organization and goals with the needs of an individual? 

You have to have a good level of empathy if you’re going to build something someone else will use. Part of the reason we’re currently seeing an issue with retention is that organizations aren’t providing clear avenues for growth. Transferable skills are key. The growth aspect is crucial in retaining employees. Most companies will say there are plenty of opportunities for you to grow – “here and here” – but we need to say, “here’s exactly what that looks like and a roadmap for how you’re going to get there. These are the skills you need to grow. Talk about the destination and the journey. 

What trends do you see in L&D over the next five years? 

I predict a transition away from the traditional focus of learning. A good example is a shift away from soft skills. A lot of customer feedback tells us we need to focus and address what’s going on in the real world. L&D has been a little hesitant to get into that. Mental well-being and psychological safety need to be priorities now; helping employees adjust to the new working world. We’re looking more at ergonomics, mental breaks, and meditation. Employees don’t want to be treated like robots. We will need more learning that addresses the human condition and what’s going on in the world. The difference between telling your employee you care and showing them you care is huge. L&D plays a role in it by backing up what leadership is saying.

How do you identify the in-demand skills? 

A lot of what I tend to focus on are the skills that transcend across industries. I look at everything from a design thinking approach and the learner population. I also help customers use data, but the best data we get is feedback from the learners and stakeholders. Asking for and being open to constructive feedback is essential to an L&D role. Make sure you’re asking the right questions. Instead of saying, “tell us what we’re doing well.”— you should be saying, “tell us where we can improve and make our program better.”

How do you shift a learning culture? 

First, make sure the employees/learners feel they have a voice. When they feel empowered, employees feel their ability to make changes is strong—demonstration of buy-in from the top-down needs to permeate all aspects of the business. Second, you need to actively demonstrate buy-in from leadership, marketing, and management. I always apply design thinking; a concept made popular by Tim Brown, the CEO of IDEO. Design thinking to look at things from your users’ perspectives. Ask yourself: “what is this going to look like from a learner’s point of view?” Let’s ask them what they think will be most effective for them, then ask them for feedback, analyze the data and adjust accordingly.  

How has your role and OpenSesame changed since you’ve joined?

I’ve transitioned from an in-person training/presenter to having a fundamental understanding of what successful training looks like when done right. I now share how practical training can improve employee retention. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we were trying to make sure the training we were doing was applicable and relevant to the world at that moment. If L&D isn’t paying attention to the things going on in the news or society, it’s easy to disconnect with learners fast. Once you have two or three courses that have no relevance to the person taking them, you lose a lot of power as an L&D professional. 

What enneagram type are you?

3w2. The ability to connect with others is a natural strength of the 3w2. That’s one of the aspects I identify with the most. 

What advice would you give to new OS hires?

Seek wise counsel and always be willing to share and accept feedback.

What is your favorite course in the OS catalog?

 The Happy Secret to Happy Work by Shawn Anchor

The post Matt Bradley: Employee Spotlight appeared first on OpenSesame.

When I was asked to share my story in celebration of women’s history month, my initial feelings of honor gave way to a sense of hesitancy. Will others find it compelling? Do people care about my lived experience? I tend to undervalue my capabilities and minimize my accomplishments. This is not unique, as studies show women tend to consistently underestimate their capabilities and contributions. In my past, I’ve struggled with confidence and self-compassion as I strived to be the best version of myself. 

Then, I began to think about what Women’s History Month meant to me. It’s a time to celebrate incredible, hardworking, changemaker women and those who’ve advocated for women in our history. It gives me the space to celebrate the strong women in my life who have helped shape who I am and where I am today—family, friends, mentors, colleagues, customers, and my personal mentor and hero, my mother. Many of whom, like my mother, tend to be the glue of their family, organization, or team, who have sacrificed personal wants for others and worked hard at everything they put their mind to. After this consideration, I felt compelled to share my story. 

I’m honored to represent many other women who share my story. As I write this, I am 37 weeks pregnant, expecting our first little one to join our family in just a few short weeks. Two months ago, I was promoted to a Customer Success Manager and joined a new team. In this role, I have the privilege of working with customers daily to enhance the elearning opportunities at their organization to ensure their employees have access to the training they need to advance their purpose. 

When I started my journey at OpenSesame almost two years ago, I had these goals in mind. I had a desire to build relationships with our customers and have always dreamed of becoming a mother. Back then, I was hesitant to share my personal goals of starting a family in fear that others would think it would get in the way of my work or derail my career advancement potential. This fear is unfortunately something that many still experience today in the workplace. The hesitation to bring their full selves to work in fear of judgment. 

What I soon came to realize was that OpenSesame had a different culture, one that is open and accepting. A company that encourages authenticity, openness and bringing your whole self to work. Even a few months back when I was getting ready to share the news I was pregnant, that fear crept back in. Upon sharing the news, I received nothing but words of support and encouragement. I realized that the individuals that make up OpenSesame cared as much about my personal aspirations as they did about my professional ones. The fact that I would eventually be taking maternity leave didn’t interrupt my professional advancement either. I was transparent with all involved and was offered a promotion to a new team while 7 months pregnant. 

This experience taught me that in order to be your best self, it’s important to show up and be transparent about what makes you uniquely you. Find a company culture where that is celebrated and supported. Where you’re not afraid to have a voice, in fact you are encouraged to use it. This is true for all individuals; women, men, pregnant, not-pregnant. Every human should feel valued when they show up to work, be encouraged to share their voice and bring their whole selves to work. 

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate women’s history month and the unique position of working mothers than to welcome a new life into the world this month. I look forward to the opportunity to guide and teach them what it means to be a caring, confident and curious individual. To share the morals and values I’ve developed and the confidence to share their voice to add value to this world. Thank you to all of the women in my life, who have taught me so much about what it means to be a strong woman, in my personal and professional life. 

The post Celebrating women in the workplace: The balance of pregnancy and promotions | by Brenna Behnke appeared first on OpenSesame.

Hallie Janssen | Vice President of Marketing 

Deborah Dang | Vice President of Finance 

Ria Delamere | Vice President of Engineering 

Melanie Goldstein | Vice President of Product Development 

Marta Altree | Senior Director of Customer Success 

Abby Miles | Senior Director of People 

Kolene Hammer | Director of Sales, North America 

Katerina Maerefat | Director of Digital Marketing and Operations 

What does International Women’s Day mean to you?

Hallie: International Women’s Day means two things to me. First, the day is to celebrate and acknowledge the sacrifices that women across the world have made to further women’s rights and equality. It also serves as a reminder that not all women are treated the same across the world. I think Americans can easily forget how hard it is for other women in other countries. 

Kolene:  It means thanking those that yesterday paved the path, supporting those that are continuing to do so, and encouraging those that are yet to find their path. The day to me is a reminder that I have had to prove myself in business at times, twice as hard as a male has had to.  But it also is a day to reflect on all the men that have supported women in our request for equality.   It is also a day to remember that I want to pave the path for others….with a chair at the table that was earned. 

Deborah: International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate and recognize all the advances made by women to achieve gender equality in this world and the amazing achievements of women.  But at the same time, there is still work to be done both in America and the rest of the world.

Katerina: I believe International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate the path that has been forged throughout history for the advancement of women. While we have made great strides to close the gender gap, there is still work to be done in other countries to ensure the same equality. 

Ria:  This day symbolizes the progress many women have made to allow us to have role models to look up to.  Even though we haven’t gotten to the end of the road it is important to recognize the struggles and triumphs many have gone through to make progress in gender equality, women’s empowerment.  This day reminds us that we still have hills and mountains to climb to gain a greater momentum towards gender equality worldwide.

What advice would you give to women who want to be future leaders?

Marta: practice self-confidence – know and trust your strengths, knowledge and experience. Tell imposter syndrome to beat it. 

Abby: That your work product, life experience and past challenges make you uniquely qualified to be a leader. Women at every level should know that there is always someone with less experience, confidence or ability than you. Seek them out and offer them support on their journey – coach a team, mentor an intern, take a new hire to coffee – there are little opportunities that allow you to strengthen your leadership muscles around every corner. 

Deborah: Don’t let imposter syndrome stop you from seizing opportunities or trying something new.  Stretch yourself – so you can grow and learn. Get comfortable with being uncomfortable. Celebrate the achievements of others and help others grow too. 

Katerina: You are more than capable of anything you set your mind to. Learn from others, learn from your own mistakes, and never stop growing and striving to be better for yourself and others. 

Ria:  You will get a lot of advice and some contradictory advice to help further your career.  Remember that being your authentic self is the most important.  You are like a magnet. The same traits that attract people to you and want to work with you are also the same traits that can repel others.  Do not lessen those traits just to attract more likes, because you are also weakening those traits that initially attracted people to you.

Melanie: You can succeed as a leader without changing your beliefs or your approach to working with others. Leadership can be more diverse, inclusive and collaborative than the models we have all seen on the world stage. You can contribute to that trend and bring others along with you. 

What characteristics do you feel make women great leaders?

Hallie: When I think of great women leaders that I’ve had the privilege to work for and with, they were humble, self-aware, empathetic, and focused on elevating others. They acknowledged their mistakes and were willing to change and had a learning mindset. They knew their limitations and weren’t overconfident or narcissistic. I saw them be kind and caring and effective at leading without carrots and sticks. And they were great mentors, quick to find motivations and goals in order to create career paths. 

Kolene:  I believe that what makes up the best women leaders is an ability to bring out the best in others. That can be done through empathy, through challenging others, for being the voice for those who aren’t confident in their own, and for being able to see the importance of work/life balance.  Great women leaders make others realize their strengths they may not know they have, and they take what others may see as a weakness and turn that into an asset.  I also believe that the absolute best women leaders are those that show vulnerability.  Vulnerability takes a great deal of strength and it also allows other women the space to realize that we are still in fact women! 

Ria:  When I think of great women leaders a common theme I see is she knows she is enough.  She doesn’t allow anyone to make her feel insufficient or insignificant.  She knows what she has to offer and what she is able to give.  She creates an environment of inclusion, encourages participation and shares information so others feel empowered to also take the lead.  She is a multiplier leading with empathy and encouragement.

Melanie: The great women leaders that I have seen are listeners, empathetic, driven, and highly collaborative. They are not trying to go it alone. They work hard alongside others and encourage their teams to challenge them with new ideas and approaches. The right answer doesn’t have to come from them for the team to succeed. 

What are the benefits to having women leaders in an organization?

Marta: Empowered women empower women – women in leadership roles serve not only as role models but also as advocates and sponsors who can champion other women wanting to pursue a leadership path. 

Abby: Women leaders add great value to organizations – the benefits that I see and appreciate in the women around me are that they lead with empathy and kindness while being some of the most intelligent and effective performers on the team. This is a powerful combination that leads to highly engaged teams to be led by smart people that also are aware of the more human feelings & elements of work. 

Ria:  The obvious answer would be for diversity in lived experience and thought, but I think it goes deeper than that.  History has shown that societies who valued a matriarchal society based their values and decisions on care-tracking, nurturing and creating a community with excellent support structures.  We know the value of team dynamics as a result this type of mindset that women leaders bring to the table 

The post International Women’s Day: Celebrating Our Women Leaders appeared first on OpenSesame.

The truth is, to understand why almost half of employees are currently seeking new opportunities, we need to understand who’s leaving and why. 

Recent analysis has shown that the following groups of people are the most likely to leave their current roles: 

• Mid-career employees (ages 30-45)

• Women in general

• Those who work in the health care and technology industries 

The reasons cited for leaving include burnout, lifestyle reevaluation, and to seek remote opportunities and better work-life balance.

To combat this, it’s important to determine who’s most likely to leave. By identifying the root causes for these trends within your organization, you can build your recruitment and retention strategies around them.

How to retain employees during the Great Resignation

Conduct an initial data analysis

In order to effectively retain your workforce, you need to know where the issues lie and determine if your attrition trends follow the national patterns outlined above. The best way to understand this information is through conducting data analysis. Anonymous surveys, questionnaires, and focus groups can help you capture how employees are feeling about their jobs and unearth how likely they are to stay with you. From there, you can analyze these trends and develop strategies around it. 

As an example, let’s say you conduct a survey and the results show that a significant percentage of parents with children feel that their work schedules are too rigid and don’t allow flexibility for childcare needs. And when you dig deeper into the data, you discover that a large percentage of these parents are women who are strongly considering leaving the organization within the next six months. From these results, you could consider implementing a flex work arrangement option. 

Listen to your employees

After you’ve done your initial research, take it a step further and talk to your people one-on-one. Ask your top performers what they enjoy, what they think could be improved, or even what they would consider leaving the organization for. Ask your lower-level employees what they appreciate about their roles, how they’re feeling day to day, and what they’d like to see changed.

Develop a people-first approach

People need to know they matter, and sometimes it’s the little things that make all the difference. 

Anything your organization can do to show daily appreciation can cause a huge boost in morale. This can range from thank-you cards to company-wide rewards or recognition programs. (After all, everyone is motivated by rewards!)

Call centers (or anyone working with the public) can reward points for excellent customer service – for example – which then go towards a charity donation of their choice or a small prize from the company store.

Boost your employee development opportunities

This strategy may be the most effective yet simplest one to implement. 

Regardless of the type of industry they work in, employees desire to improve their skills and follow a clear career roadmap.  

Self-paced, online training is a great way to provide various types of skill-building and career development opportunities that employees can complete at their own pace, on their own schedules. 

At OpenSesame, we help with this by offering curated elearning courses for all ages and demographics. Losing women to other opportunities? Or just lacking a diverse workforce in general? Try our DEI courses. Mostly Gen Z employees? Have fun while learning with some gamification courses.

Conduct exit interviews

Despite your best efforts, some employees will still leave. Capture their perceptions on their way out the door by conducting exit interviews. 

We know – it’s not always fun to do these. But think of it as a learning experience. You have a valuable opportunity to gain insight on what your people think of your organization that you can use to improve. After conducting enough of these interviews, you’ll start to notice trends and patterns emerge that you can use to improve your organization’s culture and offerings.

Learn how OpenSesame can help your specific organization achieve its training goals.

–

Sources:

Cook, Ian. “Who Is Driving the Great Resignation?” Harvard Business Review, 15 Sept. 2021, https://hbr.org/2021/09/who-is-driving-the-great-resignation. 

Derler, Andrea. “These Are the People Still Most Likely to Quit during the next Wave of the Great Resignation.” Fast Company, Fast Company, 2 Nov. 2021, https://www.fastcompany.com/90692090/these-are-the-people-still-most-likely-to-quit-during-the-next-wave-of-the-great-resignation. 

O’Connell, Brian. “How to Retain Employees during the Great Resignation.” SHRM, SHRM, 9 Feb. 2022, https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/people-managers/pages/great-resignation-and-retention-.aspx. 

Panel®, Expert. “13 Ways Managers Can Keep Valuable Employees during (and beyond) the ‘Great Resignation’.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 10 Dec. 2021, https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2021/12/06/13-ways-managers-can-keep-valuable-employees-during-and-beyond-the-great-resignation/?sh=42ab16067eeb. 

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A Senior Curation Specialist specializing in Safety and Compliance, Amanda Sessions assists publishers and customers in complying with regulations and mandates and taking new courses to the next level for learners. Amanda relies on OpenSesame’s exhaustive data and her deep knowledge of the 25,000 courses available. Her curated course lists are custom-created for the exact moment in an organization’s Safety and Compliance initiatives. She’s a futurist in many ways — always staying one step ahead of her customers’ needs and regulatory changes. 

Describe your role.

As a Senior Curation Specialist, I work with publishers to help them succeed and ensure we have the latest and greatest safety and compliance content. When I’m not working with publishers, I’m helping recommend the course lists for customers to meet their very specific requirements and preferences.

What makes your role unique at OpenSesame?

Custom curation feels like power when there are 25,000 opportunities to help improve and inspire learning in a workforce

How did the move to a work-from-home economy affect your work? 

As workforces have been transitioning from live training to online training, the first thing they needed was Safety and Compliance training. In the peak of 2020, customers were turning to us as the experts of what they should be ready for next. The essential topics needed to be deployed right away, and that included COVID safety and workplace guidelines. It felt good to be a trusted guide and have a solid roadmap for our customers and our publishers in such a historic time. The publishers wanted to know what they ought to create, and the customers wanted to know what they needed to be trained on. It was all easily prescribed by OpenSesame. And, while being compliant with COVID safety became a priority, something that has not gone away has been sexual harassment training. The #MeToo movement began right before I started, and the demand for this important content has not slowed down. 

How do you curate the best possible course lists for your customers? 

By leveraging all our data—and we have so much. I use our CAP and our comprehensive data to compare it to the personal data and the customer’s requirements. Then I add in language and accessibility requirements and make sure we’re hitting all those. I put all of it together and make the perfect cake. I’m very comfortable as a Safety and Compliance expert. I came from a background of Safety and Compliance in healthcare, and my time at OpenSesame has only helped me establish myself as a specialist in that role. 

What does a typical day look like for you?  

Our team receives such a wide range of questions, and each one is a challenge and an opportunity to learn. I’ll have a call or two a day with publishers. The other half of the day is spent building customized curated course lists for customers. Much of my work involves supporting customers internally. I love supporting my team in helping our customers. Turning in a curated list to a customer success manager and hearing how I could help the customer is great. Getting to review new publisher content is a delight, and I use my attention to detail to spot opportunities for improvement. I give very specific feedback on details, including terminology and audio/video quality.  Previewing a wide range of topics enriches my understanding of professional development. 

What is your favorite TED course?

10 Ways to Have a Better Conversation by Celeste Headlee.

How has your role grown since starting at OpenSesame?

I have experienced relationship building and account management on a whole new level in daily work with our publishers and customers. The autonomy we have in our roles allows us to customize our customers’ experience.  Not only have I become exposed to a broader range of training content, I feel I have a greater understanding of how a highly successful customer and employee-focused company operates.

Want to know more about how Amanda can curate for you? Check out Amanda’s pre-curated list of courses on Promoting a Culture of Ethics.

To get a better idea of how OpenSesame’s curation team can work with you to help you get the most out of your budget and accelerate engagement, connect with one of our experts for a personalized, guided demo.

Get a Personalized Demo →

Access The Pre-Curated List →

Avoid Overpaying on Employee Training – webinar →

The post Employee Spotlight: Curation appeared first on OpenSesame.

In her role as Business Development Manager Team Lead on OpenSesame’s Curation team, Abbie Paul follows a demanding 39-point quality checklist to assess every single new publisher that crosses her desk.

Stringent content standards at OpenSesame maximize learner engagement and drive the best possible customer results. With these standards in mind, Abbie seeks out the globe’s top publishers in each of OpenSesame’s core categories. And, finding the exact content her customers need – as it is needed – has become a priority over the past few unprecedented years.

New workplace topics such as “wellness” and “fully remote workforces” peaked in demand during the pandemic. If a course doesn’t exist, Abbie works directly with trusted publishers to build new content and vet it against OpenSesame’s unrelenting standards.

Describe your role.

My role is to find ideal new publishing partners and bring them into the OpenSesame marketplace. I evaluate training courses, determine if they will be a good fit, and consult with our existing publishing partners to help them improve and expand their offerings to our customers. Every week, we have several publishing organizations reach out to work with us. They range from small independent shops to well-known publishers like TED. All are vetted against the same strict standards and demanding OpenSesame quality checklist. My job is to oversee the quality control of every course we make available to our customers.

What makes your role unique at OpenSesame?

I have to keep pushing the envelope to find unique and engaging courses for our customers. Sometimes it feels like mining for a diamond in the rough.  We’ve built a stringent checklist of Course Quality Standards in the form of an assessment for evaluating each new publisher, and we’re constantly taking in feedback. This allows us to review content in a nonsubjective manner. The OpenSesame checklist tells us what works and what doesn’t work for our customers. Every publisher must meet the same guiding principles: be reputable, innovative, flexible, diverse and inclusive, global, and provide unparalleled support. Our goal is to ensure every learner has a smooth and engaging learning experience.

If a customer needs training on a topic we don’t have courses for; I first reach out to our existing publishing partners. We’ve built a network of strong relationships, and if we don’t have a publisher with expertise in a particular subject, we look to either expand that network, or partner with subject matter experts to create the content in-house. We are fortunate to work with high-quality publishing partners ready to work with us and ultimately help our customers see engagement and results. 

How did hybrid work-from-home workforce models change your offerings and your role?

We strengthened our relationships with our publishers and asked for timely courses — like “virtual onboarding,” “remote employees,” and “mask conflict de-escalation.” Those courses simply didn’t exist before. Believe it or not, a course called “Proper Handwashing” became one of the most popular COVID mitigation courses we offer. As we saw demand change, we reached out to all our publishers, and they were able to jump right in. Wellness continues to be a valuable and critical topic and is produced by many publishers — but finding the most effective wellness content is what we strive for. Within other topics, business skills are forever popular, compliance is critical, and sexual harassment courses are in constant demand. We have all of those courses, and now we also have specialists focused on securing the best courses in DEI, Business Skills, Technology, Wellness, Safety, Compliance. 

What is your favorite TED course?

The Power of Believing You Can Improve by Carol Dweck and The Power of Vulnerability by Brene Brown.

What is your favorite course in the OS catalog?

Choosing one course would be like picking a favorite child. It’s impossible. I prefer scenario-based courses where videos show the right and wrong way to address a situation. I enjoy humor, so when a course plays like a television show, I stay engaged. 

How has your role grown since starting at the company?

My first role at OpenSesame was as a Senior Curation Specialist. At the time, our team was small, and we wore a lot of hats. Since then, the hats have become roles and teams. In 2019, I started the Business Development team, where the focus was to build-out a process for evaluating prospective publishers in a nonsubjective manner; to ensure a strong partnership with successful onboarding. Since then, we have put several processes into place and expanded the team. Our ratings have improved, and our relationships are stronger than ever. 

To get a better idea of how OpenSesame’s curation team can work with you to help you get the most out of your budget and accelerate engagement, connect with one of our experts for a personalized, guided demo. 

Get a Personalized Demo →

Access The 39 point Quality checklist →

Avoid Overpaying on Employee Training – webinar →

The post Employee Spotlight: Curation appeared first on OpenSesame.

Portland, OR – 21 September 2021 – OpenSesame, a market-leading SaaS global elearning innovator, today announced the addition of Eleventure to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription. With this announcement, OpenSesame is adding significant expertise to its robust catalog that will boost on-the-job skills in a variety of subject areas. 

Eleventure provides high-quality, microlearning courses designed to help learners enhance the skills they use on a daily basis from communicating with others, setting goals, or managing their time effectively. 

The learner-centered microlearning approach that Eleventure takes enables the learner to retain knowledge, while addressing critical topics like Resocialization after Covid-19 and Creating Racial Equity in the Workplace (CREW). These courses dive beyond the surface to provide true value for learners and their organizations. Some of Eleventure’s most popular courses center around reducing workplace anxiety and conflict management, critical topics that can shape an organization’s environment and culture.

“We are excited to welcome Eleventure and their 50+ courses to the OpenSesame Plus catalog. Their fast, action-focused courses fill critical gaps in our ever evolving workplaces,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “In addition the need for learner-centered microlearning courses has grown even more critical.” 

“Eleventure helps people learn and apply new skills quickly, offering high quality content in a casual, refreshing micro format that learners love,” said Megan Torrance, CEO of TorranceLearning. “We’re thrilled to make these courses available to OpenSesame’s customers.” 

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces through powerful online learning in every industry. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, OpenSesame helps global companies every step of the way. In a moment of an increasingly virtual workforce, OpenSesame has added even more Global 2000 companies to its customer base. With over 20,000+ courses, the platform touches all industries in all markets. For more information, visit opensesame.com

About Eleventure

Eleventure® takes a learner-centered microlearning approach, addressing critical topics that learners need now. From courses on Covid-19, Resocialization after Covid-19, and Virtual Selling to Creating Racial Equity in the Workplace (CREW), Eleventure courses dive beyond the surface level to provide true value for learners and their organizations. In addition, the courses on reducing workplace anxiety, workplace communication and conflict management, and coaching are time-tested popular offerings. Eleventure teaches critical, on-the-job skills people need. It’s fast. It’s fresh. It’s action based. And it’s designed and developed by the award-winning team at TorranceLearning.

To learn more about Eleventure’s training, visit www.opensesame.com/s/eleventure

Media contact:

Hallie Janssen

hallie.janssen@opensesame.com

(917) 253-7355

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Voices of OpenSesame Juntos Employee Resource Group (ERG): 

I spent most of my childhood summers visiting my abuela who lived in the foothills of a mountain in the southwestern part of the United States. I loved to run through the arroyos, eat from her apricot trees, and catch lizards who became my summer companions. Whenever I went inside her house, I was met with love from her big, warm hugs, her large plates of food with her homemade tortillas, and her affectionate “mijita.” Outside of her affectionate address, I was rarely met with one thing: Spanish. 

Even though my abuela was bilingual in Spanish and English, she never spoke Spanish with me. This was the same at home; my mom never spoke Spanish with me either. There are many contributing factors, with one being that I lived in a multicultural home, and my dad didn’t speak the language, nor was he Hispanic. Thus, our language at home was only English with a sprinkle of Spanish words and phrases. However, the main reason I never grew up speaking Spanish was because of the generation I was born into. 

My mom’s family is part of the Hispanic community in the U.S. who predates the United States itself. They lived on the land in the southwest that eventually became a state. My family never immigrated to the U.S., but were instead living in areas where “the border crossed us.” For my mom, she faced discrimination for speaking Spanish, especially in school, and was faced with all aspects of assimilation. My mom’s perspectives on Spanish grew from this experience and impacted how my sister and I would grow up without it. 

I went through my childhood never questioning my lack of Spanish and thought of it as something fun to listen to when overhearing my mom on the phone, for example. I even took high school Spanish because I thought, “Mom speaks it. It should be an easy class.” It wasn’t until I was older and when my abuela passed away that I began to truly contemplate the important relationship between language and cultural identity. Whenever I asked my mom why my sister and I never learned Spanish, she would always respond by saying, “I felt English was more important because I wanted you to have opportunities.”

Into my adulthood, I began to feel like something was missing, like I wasn’t a “real” Hispanic because I couldn’t speak the language. And from interactions with some Spanish-speaking Hispanics, that became more obvious as they would usually shame my mom for not teaching me our cultural language. But they didn’t understand what contributed to my mom’s decision. My generation didn’t grow up speaking Spanish. My sister didn’t. My first cousins didn’t. We were the result of the effects of discrimination and assimilation that our parents grew up with, where English trumped Spanish at every turn. 

Now, as an adult, I’ve been trying to learn my cultural language with the disheartening fact that I’ll never be a fluent Spanish speaker like my abuela’s generation or even my mom’s — as she jokingly calls it — “Spanglish” generation. I still question if I’m Hispanic enough. But with that comes an additional question: How do I self-identify now?

Latinx is one option.

The term Latinx is something I see and hear all the time. It’s in the news, in textbooks, on social media, and even in our company’s courses. However, I don’t use the term. Honestly, I don’t even like it. If there is one way I would not self-identify, it’s as Latinx. 

According to Pew Research, most Latinos don’t use the term. And for someone like my mom, along with 76% of the adult Latino population, they haven’t even heard of it. The term is more commonly known among young adults and college graduates. 

I can understand how adding an “x” is trying to make the term gender-inclusive. However, the “x” represents another form of erasure to me. My cultural language was taken from me because of the assimilation that tried to erase the language from my mom and her generation, and that assimilation met its goal with many in my generation. The addition of the “x” is just another reminder of that. 

The “x” doesn’t follow the grammatical conventions of the Spanish language, and that is the very reason for its use. The “x” attempts to erase the gendered conventions of a language spoken by over 550 million people — in the name of inclusion. However, there are other inclusive equivalents that I believe are more respectful to the Spanish language. There is a term that already exists in English: Latin, as in Latin music and Latin America. There’s even a Spanish version that fits its grammatical conventions, Latine. It uses –e instead of –o or –a. These are more favorable options that don’t try to erase the Spanish language. The “x” seems like a way to fix something that isn’t even broken. 

What’s truly broken is the continued prejudice and discrimination against Spanish speakers and the idea that if they don’t speak English in the U.S., they should go back “home.” But that ignores the reality of the U.S. having “the second largest population of Spanish speakers in the world,” and for people like my family, we are home. We’ve been home for generations. We’ve never left.

For various reasons — with some being very personal ones — not all of us may agree with or even like the term Latinx, while some do. This is because the Hispanic and Latino population is not monolithic. We all don’t identify in the same way, and that includes the terms we choose for ourselves and for being more inclusive.

So, how do I choose to self-identify? For me, it’s complicated, but I’ll always be my abuela’s mijita.

By a Member of Juntos ERG

To learn more about how you can propel your DEI initiatives, use the resources below:

Essential DEI Resources →

DEI Progress Survey →

ERG Curated Course List →

The post Why Some of Us Don’t Use the Term “Latinx” appeared first on OpenSesame.

For many leaders and training professionals, building and launching a successful learning and development strategy is an arduous journey, filled with essential elements and components that demand consideration during the purchasing and planning process. Will my learners engage in the content? Will my program solve the challenges my team is facing? Will I see a return on my investment? There are many ways you can measure the effectiveness of your program, but how do you know if you’re overpaying for it? To help answer that question, let’s examine the biggest antagonist to ROI and a damaging, but sometimes, silent adversary to L&D success: rogue spending, and what areas are affected by it and steps that can be taken to avoid or fix it.

What is rogue spending? And how does it happen?

Rogue spending, also referred to as “maverick or tail end spending,” refers to the unexpected and unpredictable spending that can happen outside of negotiated contracts. With learning and development having such a direct correlation and impact on business success, and with elearning becoming an essential method to drive L&D programs, there are many ways you or your company can easily become rogue spenders. The popularity of elearning reached an all-time high this past year, increasing the accessibility to elearning content while presenting many opportunities to find the right provider and many opportunities to become a rogue spender. One of the main reasons L&D professionals fall into this trap is the lack of time they have to research the value of what some publishers are providing, and how the materials will meet the needs of their team. In many cases, leaders are stuck in the present, focused on immediate needs and trying to find a quick remedy, rather than searching for a solution that can be used to meet both the current and future needs of the organization. 

Perhaps the most common reason for rogue spending is lack of communication and coordination between teams. With HR, I.T., and other essential departments scrambling and searching through the many choices to find training that they believe are specifically related to their different focus areas, it’s easy for a company to purchase multiple learning solutions, including different LMS’, to cover them. The training areas that are typically the root of this problem are usually ones that are used across multiple departments and are intended for a broader audience like business skill development or leadership training. 

The consequences of rogue spending

Companies taking the time and effort to invest in training their greatest asset (their workforce) should be cause for celebration, but no matter how positive the intention might be, taking an unfocused approach could have damaging effects with immediate impact to the learning and development budget. When departments spend various amounts on different providers and systems, it’s difficult to measure the quality of each training. And if the training is in a broad topical area, like sexual harassment prevention, for example, the organization may end up becoming misaligned due to the differences in what is being taught, and how it is being taught. This could not only increase the likelihood that an organization’s compliance would be at risk, but will almost certainly have a direct, negative impact on the learners themselves, restricting both their growth and the growth of the organization.

Three steps to prevent rogue spending

So how can you prevent rogue spending? The experts at McKinsey cite one comprehensive way of solving this problem by recommending that L&D leaders take on a broader role within their organization and establish their vision around a holistic, coordinated L&D strategy that engages the organization and encourages collaboration. But in order to solve the problem, you have to first know where the problem is occurring in the first place. Conduct an audit and uncover what training programs each department is using and for what purposes. If there are similarities in the topical areas, you can choose one based on cost-value or user feedback. 

Speaking of feedback, perhaps the most effective tool is having regular, informative communication between your teams and stakeholders. Building awareness and understanding around each team’s needs, both present and in the future, can help create a strategic approach behind the learning and development program. 

With this knowledge, you can work with your procurement team and leaders to evaluate training technology and content and see if what you currently have matches everyone’s needs. After following these steps, you’ll be positioned to formulate a learning and development strategy that will drive meaningful conversations, build engagement, keep everyone safe and compliant, and above all, keep your budget spending manageable.

What’s next? 

So what steps can you immediately take to get started? OpenSesame’s learning experts are ready to do the work for you by providing a no-cost assessment. Our team speaks with learning managers from different departments on a daily basis, partnering with them to identify where duplicate purchasing is happening, while sharing our customer’s best practices on where our all-encompassing, singular catalog of elearning content can help. 

OpenSesame is ready to do all of the coordinating for you, bringing in all relevant stakeholders, including your procurement team, to evaluate your needs and provide you with a strategic solution that is designed for employees in specific roles, departments, locations, and industries. Above all, OpenSesame works to make sure that our customers are maximizing their budget, mitigating rogue spending, and obtaining ROI by getting everything they need from one source.

Schedule your no-cost Assessment of your Training →

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OpenSesame Plus welcomes four new, global publishers this month

Axonify’s interactive, micro-courses have been built for key verticals such as Retail, Grocery, Contact Centers, Financial Services, and Distribution. With a growing library of courses on subjects such as: Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI), Business Skills, Effective Communication, Leadership, Sales, Harassment Prevention, and Safety, Axonify’s library helps keep learners engaged and performing at their best. Some courses that can help you immediately include Employee Health: Am I Healthy Enough to Go to Work?: Identifying Possible Symptoms of COVID-19 and New Leader: Change Management: Implementing Change.

Global eTraining offers a wide range of Autodesk and other BIM software and skills training for managers, leaders, and employees in the AEC (Architecture, Engineering, and Construction) industries. Their award-winning course creation tool, ‘The Generator,’ was built to support all combinations of learning styles and learning cycles, and places focus on subject matter experts needing to convey knowledge quickly and efficiently. If this is relevant to your industry and role, one course you should check out is Autodesk AutoCAD: Civil 3D – The Complete Guide which is available as part of the exclusive GeT Everything Library.

Pink University’s 130+ eurocentric business skills, leadership, communication, and sales courses, offered in both German and English, expertly uses live actors to drive narratives forward, while incorporating blended learning materials, such as reflection beats and downloadable resources into each course. If you’re looking to strengthen your team’s communication skills, take a look at the course around Giving Feedback.

OpenDoors provides expert knowledge and dynamic content featuring descriptive scenarios, performed by actors, to display vivid examples of Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) issues in the workplace. Covering critical topics from microaggressions, to allyship, to hiring for DEI, to measuring success of DEI programs, these courses will inspire meaningful conversations and bolster DEI initiatives. Some game-changing courses include Defining Your “Why” in DEI and Measuring DEI Impact.

Additional highlights from the newest courses added to OpenSesame’s course catalog

Mind Channel continues to build on their hybrid working course library with a new course that provides managers with the tools needed to effectively lead a hybrid team.

Intellezy has come out with a course to help learners get an introductory overview about Virtual Training. During this course, they will discover the tools necessary for interactive design, how to structure their courses, matching methods with content, using voice and visuals to engage their learners, dealing with questions, difficult situations, and overall time management and preparation tips.

Our publisher, Real Projects, has produced a series of courses focused around preparation and safety for work travel, while one of our top publishers for customer service, ServiceSkills, has released a series of courses around Neurodiversity at work. These courses can help your team members learn how to be a more mindful and supportive ally in a way that benefits everyone.

Access the OpenSesame course catalog to check out every course offered and make sure to register for our monthly OpenSesame Customer Conversation series, if you would like to receive further insights from our team.

To get a better idea of how you can incorporate all of OpenSesame’s innovative tools and features into your L&D experience, connect with one of our experts for a personalized, guided demo.

ACCESS THE COURSE CATALOG →

Register for Customer Conversation Series →

Get a Personalized Demo →

The post What’s New and Trending in OpenSesame’s Course Catalog in the Month of August appeared first on OpenSesame.

Senior Manager of Content

Portland, Oregon

He/His

For Dave McFarland, arriving at Senior Manager of Content for OpenSesame in early 2020 was the culmination of a teaching, design, and video production career. Dave has a discerning eye for the highest quality educational content and diverse voices. Today, he uses his experience to assemble best-in-class elearning, empowering all types of learners across the globe to grow their skills and knowledge. “It’s my team’s job to ensure the talent and experts in our catalog truly represent the diversity of our customer base,” Dave said. “It’s incredibly important the learners and our customers see themselves reflected in our courses and material.”

Briefly describe your role.

I lead a team that brings courses into the OpenSesame catalog that are exclusively available from us. We produce content for our catalog by working with subject matter experts and elearning developers to bring in new courses that match our customers’ topic and feature needs.

How did you get into the field you’re in?

I’ve been an instructor and trainer of adult learners for — well, let’s just say a long time. I was initially a web developer and designer as a magazine art director. I was interested in teaching people new skills. That led to teaching adult learners at universities, corporations, and continuing education programs. From there, I got into online video instruction, teaching computer programming and managed an educational programming and video team. At OpenSesame, we review lots of visual footage; I bring a design eye to producing courses. 

How has your OpenSesame team maintained a sense of community through the pandemic era?

I manage folks who work remotely — even before the pandemic — and the change to a remote culture has helped them feel more included in the organization and build stronger ties with their colleagues. Being a more remote company has certainly opened up avenues for hiring. It’s a positive we are increasing our talent pool. 

In what ways have you been supported by the OpenSesame team or culture?

The company’s response to the pandemic was terrific. The leadership team acted quickly to protect everyone’s safety. We’ve all worked hard to build an inclusive and vibrant remote culture to replace the in-person office life. The new programs — morning meditation, afternoon yoga, monthly online activities, and team virtual happy hours — have energized me during these difficult times. 

What has been the best part of working in your role? 

I get to work with so many fascinating subject matter experts and creatives outside our organization. I’ve talked to folks worldwide about their work, research, and the creative process of building exciting elearning opportunities.

How has the work you do changed following 2020? 

We’ve increased our publisher quality standards. We’ve been growing diversity in the content we produce. It’s my team’s job to ensure the talent and experts in our catalog truly represent the diversity of our customer base. It’s incredibly important the learners and our customers see themselves reflected in our courses and material.

What is your favorite course in the OS catalog?

The Power of Journaling by OpenMind – I’ve learned so many great techniques to focus, embrace gratitude, and explore my thoughts, and get organized.

What is your favorite TED course?

The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown I’m a people manager. It’s okay to be vulnerable, and it’s powerful to be vulnerable. You can become more human and create deeper bonds of trust. It flips the traditional narrative. 

What is the most unique thing about working at OpenSesame?

The leadership is fantastic. They have embraced transparency, empathy, and diversity and are willing to share so much with employees. The company structure was described to me as an inverted functional pyramid. At the top are the customers, then front-line folks, and then down to leadership at the bottom. Customers drive what we do. Our support people hear and communicate the customers’ needs down the chain. The people on the team who work closely with our customers are the real value of the organization. Leadership is here to support them. 

What advice would you give to new OS hires?

Ask lots of questions, seek help and meet as many people as possible — especially across teams. We have a friendly, giving, and collaborative culture. The sooner you learn the things you don’t know by reaching out, the sooner you’ll build working relationships that match our culture.

What makes a team member successful at OpenSesame?

Initiative, inquisitiveness, and humility

What’s something people may not know about you?

I dropped out of college for a semester and was a short-order cook at a breakfast place. It was the single best training I could have received in project management, prioritization, and customer service. 

The post OpenSesame Employee Spotlight: Dave McFarland appeared first on OpenSesame.

Portland, OR – 11 March 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of The Galvanizing Group to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription. The partnership expands OpenSesame’s curated library of courses designed to sharpen critical business relationship building skills.

“Strong, trust-based relationships are key to personal and professional success,” said Patrick Galvin, Chief Galvanizer of The Galvanizing Group. “Relationship building is integral to the advancement of successful and productive teams in every industry worldwide. Together with OpenSesame, we will transform organizations by transforming the way people build and maintain relationships.”

Applying the timeless principles of Patrick Galvin’s best-selling book, The Connector’s Way, The Galvanizing Group helps high-performance companies and teams grow bottom line results through better internal and external relationships. In OpenSesame, it sees a global partner committed to developing online learning programs that deliver a systematic and measurable approach to business relationship building.

“Relationship building—specifically, connecting—is a skilled activity that can be learned, improved, and measured,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “In an increasingly virtual world, making meaningful connections is more important than ever.  We are delighted to make The Galvanizing Group’s interactive and user-friendly elearning courses available to our OpenSesame Plus subscription customers.” 

“Everything in business is connected to other people,” concluded Galvin. “We’re thrilled to be working with OpenSesame and its team of smart and talented individuals who are committed to building strong relationships and serving the needs of its customers and publishers.”

###

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About The Galvanizing Group

The Galvanizing Group, www.thegalvanizinggroup.com, is a Portland, Oregon-based learning and development company that helps high-performance companies and teams grow bottom line results through better internal and external relationships. Our innovative coaching, training, and online learning programs deliver a systematic and measurable approach to business relationship building that is used by growing businesses and Fortune 100 companies selling products and services B2B and B2C.

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This has been a tough year for everyone, but when it comes to working, the negative impact on women has been significantly greater than it has been on men. Some of the data is truly startling. In Don’t Let the Pandemic Set Back Gender Equality, published in the Harvard Business Review last September, the authors shared analysis which found that, while women make up 39% of global employment, as of May 2020, they accounted for a staggering 54% of overall pandemic-related job loss. 

For women still in the workforce, the pandemic is making things harder

While many women have lost their jobs entirely, life in a time of pandemic is making things more difficult for women who remain in the workforce. This was detailed in the most recent Women in the Workplace Report, an annual study of corporate America conducted by McKinsey & Company and LeanIn.Org. One of their most interesting findings was that senior-level women “are 1.5 times more likely than senior-level men to think about downshifting their careers or leaving the workforce because of Covid-19. Almost 3 in 4 cite burnout as a main reason.” This is thanks to the additional caregiving burdens that have fallen on mothers with children at home during the pandemic. 

This finding should be a wakeup call to organizations that they need to, in the 1776 words of Abigail Adams to her husband John, “remember the ladies.”

Why does this matter? And what can we do about it?

It has been proven time and time again that organizations that leverage diversity at all levels perform better than those that do not. This is not, of course, confined to gender diversity. Racial diversity matters. A lot. As do age, geography, and socioeconomic and educational background. The more diverse, the better! But if the pandemic is driving women to draw back from the workforce, we need to take heed of this situation. 

There’s no one simple fix to ensuring gender diversity, but there are a few steps organizations can make that will improve things for women in the workplace:

1. Take advantage of technology: With millions of professionals working from home this past year, technology that enables meetings and collaboration has certainly been a major factor. Post-pandemic, technology can continue to support a more flexible work environment. But let’s make sure we’re taking advantage of technology, rather than having technology take advantage of us. Organizations should revise work policies and communications standards outlining expectations of when people need to be working. The fact that technology allows for “always on” doesn’t mean that employees need to be available 24/7. Many organizations are starting to institute policies that establish timeout periods when employees are NOT expected to respond to calls, texts, and emails. 
2. Be flexible in terms of adapting to specific needs: Once corporate policies are revised, allow managers and employees to adapt them to their specific needs. For example, for one-on-one meetings, allow some latitude on meeting times that work best, which may not be during a typical 9-5 workday. And allowing for occasional non-video calls may take the pressure off mothers of young ones concerned that their children might make an unexpected guest appearance. 
3. Leverage diversity of thought: Organizations should be encouraging employees at all levels to innovate. Providing opportunities to do so can drive gender equity, both internally and externally. Instead of expecting the innovation hub or strategy team to come up with all the new ideas themselves, organizations should ask the people doing the work what would be most helpful for the company and for its customers. If you ask the women in your workforce for ideas on how your company can adapt existing products or services to drive gender equity, they’ll likely have plenty of good answers!

When it comes to women in the workforce, the pandemic is providing a good loud wakeup call. We don’t want to undo the progress that’s been made to date with respect to gender diversity.

What steps has your organization taken to help close the gender gap? 

Ellen Bailey is senior advisor for diversity, inclusion, and belonging at Harvard Business Publishing Corporate Learning. Email her at ellen.bailey@harvardbusiness.org. 

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An employee-run book club can be a great way for coworkers to share information, personal stories, ideas, and discuss DEI topics in depth, especially as it relates to the workplace. 

Employees can choose to participate and take turns leading discussions around specific chapters or themes. Whatever you decide, make sure you have people who are interested, accountable, and willing to have conversations that can help you build trust and create positive change within the workplace. 

How to Create and Run DEI Book Clubs

Running a DEI book club is not only a fun way to enjoy books and meet new people, it’s also a great way to learn new perspectives and participate in some healthy DEI conversations.

1. Figure out Who to Invite:
   • Whether you want to host a DEI Book Club for just you and your team or bring together a larger group of people, the book club should be open to all, however, it will be helpful to identify a group of committed readers to get the club going.
   • It can be daunting to find people to join your book club, but books really do have a way of connecting people.
2. Identify Your Form of Communication:
   • How often you meet may depend on the group or the books you choose. When to meet may need to be adjusted as your DEI book club develops. But all of that will be impossible to coordinate without a way to communicate with your fellow members.
   • Email, communication tools like Slack, social media, and texting are all valid options. Just make sure to choose one or you might find yourself hosting a book club that no one knows about, and that’s no fun at all.
3. Decide How Often You Will Meet:
   • The club’s regularly scheduled meetings should maintain momentum and strengthen the relationships between the club. The frequency of these regular meetings sets the club’s cadence. Set a pace that keeps the club working together fast enough to finish the book, but not so fast that they wear out before they cross the finish line.
   • If you go too long between meetings, the club will suffer. Members may start to drift apart between meetings. If you have too much time between meetings the club begins to head in different directions. 
   • You can use a free scheduling tool like www.doodle.com to find the ideal time for your members.
4. Decide Where Your Book Club Will Meet:
   • Some book clubs run both virtually and physically, either alternating online and in-person discussions or running both at the same time. Think about what will work best for your group of book lovers.
5. Think About How Members Will Access the Books:
   • You should also think about how everyone will access the book. You can have everyone get the book in the best version they prefer (Physical Book, E-Book, Audio Book) and reimburse them, if allowable at your organization.
   • Visit your local library to get access to the books.
   • Buy a few copies of the book and make them available for check out in your organization.
6. Identify the DEI Books to Select From:
   • It may be helpful to have a list of books to select from ahead of time. We’ve hand-picked DEI-related books to get you started:
     • Courageous Conversations About Race by Glenn E. Singleton
       • Buy on Amazon
     • The Culture Map: Breaking Through the Invisible Boundaries of Global Business by Erin Meyer
       • Buy on Amazon
     • We Can’t Talk about That at Work! How to Talk about Race, Religion, Politics, and Other Polarizing Topics by Mary-Frances Winters
       • Buy on Amazon
     • The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias by Dolly Chugh 
       • Buy on Amazon
     • Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult
       • Buy on Amazon
     • How to be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi
       • Buy on Amazon
     • White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo 
       • Buy on Amazon
     • We Are Not Here to Be Bystanders by Linda Sarsour
       • Buy on Amazon
7. Set Up the Discussion:
   • Once you start reading the book, it will be helpful to have access to discussion guides for the books. There are a number of wonderful resources available to help you guide your book club:
     • LitLovers contains over 3,000 book discussion guides, generic questions and information about how to talk about books
     • Reading Group Guides has over 4,000 discussion guides with reviews and questions
     • Check out the authors and publishers’ websites—many will have interesting news about the books, discussion guides and even author answers to book club questions
     • Check the back of the book—the kinds of titles that tend to be popular with book clubs increasingly come equipped with discussion questions printed at the end of the actual book
8. Access Book Insights:
   • OpenSesame has access to book insights for popular DEI courses.
   • The inability to retain information is a common problem and in fact, the forgetting curve shows that people forget 50 to 80 percent of what they learn after one day and 97 to 98 percent after a month. While constant practice is one way to ensure learning sticks, you can also use e-learning courses to reinforce the knowledge and skills gained by reading the book and participating in discussions. 
   • You can improve learning retention levels considerably by spacing out the courses assigned in the same cadence as your team meetings.  By accessing OpenSesame’s book insights, this will be a great way to reinforce knowledge. Proper retention of information in the DEI books plays a vital role in enhancing performance and behaviour change in the workplace. 

Sources:

https://www.epl.ca/blogs/post/how-to-start-a-book-club/ 

https://shegeeksout.com/recommended-books-to-start-a-dei-book-club-at-your-workplace  

https://blog.lucidmeetings.com/blog/how-often-should-you-meet-selecting-the-right-meeting-cadence-for-your-team 

https://trainingindustry.com/articles/e-learning/use-microlearning-when-learning-reinforcement-is-critical/

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A father and his son are in a car accident. The father is killed and the son is seriously injured. The son is taken to the hospital where the surgeon says, “I cannot operate, because this boy is my son.”

This popular brain teaser dates back many years, but it remains relevant today; 40 to 75 percent of people still can’t figure it out. Those who do solve it usually take a few minutes to guess that the boy’s mother is the surgeon. Even with the best of intentions, when we hear “surgeon” or “boss,” the image that pops into our minds is usually a male.

The assumption is that when people realise that biases are widespread, they will be more likely to overcome them. However, new research suggests that if we’re not careful, making people aware of bias can backfire, leading them to discriminate more rather than less.

In several experiments, Professor Michelle Duguid of Washington University in St. Louis and Professor Melissa Thomas-Hunt of the University of Virginia studied whether making people aware of bias would lessen it. They informed some participants that stereotypes were rare and told others that stereotypes were common, then asked for their perceptions of women. Those who read that stereotypes were common rated women as significantly less career-oriented and more family-oriented. Even when instructed to “try to avoid thinking about others in such a manner,” participants still viewed women more traditionally after reading that a vast majority of people held stereotypes.

Professors Duguid and Thomas-Hunt conducted a similar study and told managers that stereotypes were either common or rare. Then, asked managers to read a transcript from a job interview of a candidate described as either female or male. At the end of the interview, the candidate asked for higher compensation and a nonstandard bonus. When the managers read that many people held stereotypes, they were 28%less interested in hiring the female candidate. They also judged her as 27% less likable. The same information did not alter their judgments of male candidates.

Based on these findings, Professors Duguid and Thomas-Hunt used a new approach to prevent bias awareness from backfiring.

Rather than merely informing managers that stereotypes persisted, they added that a vast majority of people try to overcome their stereotypic preconceptions. With this adjustment, discrimination nearly vanished in their studies. After reading this message, managers were 28% more interested in working with the female candidate who negotiated assertively and judged her as 25% more likable.

When we communicate that a vast majority of people hold some biases, we need to make sure that we’re not legitimating prejudice. By reinforcing the idea that people want to conquer their biases and that there are benefits to doing so, we send a more effective message: Most people don’t want to discriminate, and you shouldn’t either.

To break down the barriers that hold women back, it’s not enough to spread awareness. If we don’t reinforce that people need — and want — to overcome their biases, we end up silently condoning the status quo.

Enberin has conducted numerous experiments on challenging leaders to action to counteract bias by practicing new behaviours. We have found that setting leaders up to be accountable to each other on progress around these experiments – starts a positive wave of ‘peer group pressure’ – which creates the reinforcement of INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP behaviours. This approach is working!

Blog Author: Maureen Frank at Emberin
Maureen Frank is the Chief Disruption Officer at Emberin which is an organization that challenges leaders and organizations to get real about inclusion and diversity. Emberin is a global leading organization in diversity and inclusion training, working with over 250 of the largest organizations in the world. Maureen comes to the world of inclusion and diversity from a strong commercial background with a focus on ROI and results. Over the last 12 years, she is proud to have mentored over 32,000 participants from all over the world through the award-winning program at Emberin. To find out more about Maureen and Emberin, visit: https://www.emberin.com

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Portland, OR – 24 March 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of Trüpp to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to further expand its library of business skills, management and compliance training. 

Trüpp’s online courses are at the forefront of modern instructional design; incorporating contemporary imagery, video, and interactive design elements, that provide a user experience similar to the way a person generally navigates and consumes web content. The curriculum takes a refreshing and action-oriented approach, with effective tools and takeaways that can be applied in any workplace.

“As we continue to grow our catalog, modern interfaces that cover key topics are essential for next-generation learners,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “By using an approachable tone and relevant examples grounded in real-world experiences, Trüpp creates elearning content that resonates with and inspires learners. We’re excited to make their engaging and interactive courses available to our customers as part of the OpenSesame Plus catalog.” 

“OpenSesame’s dedication to providing high-quality content and an engaging learner experience aligns perfectly with Trüpp’s commitment to making premier elearning courses for HR compliance, manager development, and other workplace topics,” said Jean Roque, President/CEO of Trüpp. “Unlike elearning aggregators that prioritize quantity over quality, we appreciate how OpenSesame sets itself apart by providing a carefully curated course library that reflects the modern-day workplace. Trüpp’s partnership with OpenSesame enables our elearning courses to easily reach a broader audience, and the feedback from OpenSesame and its customers informs our course development priorities.” 

Click here to view all Trüpp courses available exclusively from OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com

About Trüpp

Trüpp is an HR service provider focused on helping your business thrive! We offer a fresh, modern approach to online learning, presenting meaningful content that is both engaging and practical. Built upon the combined knowledge of an entire team of specialists with decades of experience in HR-related fields, Trüpp delivers reliable, compliant, and in-depth training that supports the success of your organization and its employees. Trüpp provides an eLearning curriculum focused on a range of employment and workplace topics, including manager training, respectful workplace training, compliance, and human resources training. To learn more, visit www.trupphr.com. 

Media contact:

Jessica Layfield

Customer Marketing and PR Manager

jessica.layfield@opensesame.com 

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Portland, OR – 23 March 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of Mind Tools for Business to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to expand its selection of leadership, management and personal effectiveness online training courses.

“At Mind Tools for Business, we are proud of the essential role that our digital learning resources and tools play in so many of our clients’ learning ecosystem,” said Nahdia Khan, Head of Learning Community and Customer Voice at Mind Tools for Business. “We recognize that learning leaders worldwide are challenged to select the ‘best’ resources from a wide range of specialist providers, each excelling in their particular fields.”

Building on the belief that learning is a motivating enterprise, Mind Tools for Business offers interactive, relevant and thought-provoking content to stimulate employees, support change, and enable problem-solving. Mind Tools for Business views the inclusion of its content and tools in the OpenSesame Plus library as a testament to the quality and utility of its ready-to-use catalogue of learning content, tools and resources. 

“With its refreshingly rigorous standards of quality and effectiveness, only the best learning resources make it into OpenSesame Plus,” added Khan, “which means that learning leaders can be confident that the resources they source through this avenue will hit the mark for their people.”

“With the world of work constantly changing and evolving, companies need leaders who can confidently motivate and manage their teams in any situation or environment,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “We are pleased to partner with Mind Tools for Business to make a selection of their vibrant and engaging leadership, management and personal effectiveness resources available to enterprise organisations everywhere through our OpenSesame Plus library.”

Click here to view all MindTools for Business courses available from OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About Mind Tools for Business

Mind Tools for Business by Emerald Works is a global business with a passion for making a difference and changing lives through learning. Working in partnership with our clients, we provide opportunities for people to grow and impact society in a way that helps build a prosperous future for all. 

Mind Tools for Business by Emerald Works believes when people are inspired to learn they are empowered to thrive and develop – achieving more for themselves, for their communities and for their economies. This motivates us, unites us and inspires us in pursuit of our mission to empower people to flourish at work through practical workplace performance tools and resources.

Visit www.emeraldworks.com/mind-tools-for-business to learn more about our performance tools and resources.

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Product Operations Team Lead – Portland, Oregon

After a global pandemic, Danielle Rubio knows exactly what it takes to make change happen fast for OpenSesame clients. Danielle expertly leads the product operations team for customers. During the lockdown height, her team worked cross-functionally to quickly launch an unprecedented catalog of public courses focused on “Wellness” and “COVID Preparedness” — available to anyone, for free. “Things don’t usually change that rapidly. Not in eLearning,” she said. “We were dealing with shifting priorities and trying to do the right thing for our community and the world.”

Briefly describe your role.

I am the team lead of the product operations team, which currently includes our support engineers, implementation specialists, and product operations specialists. I’m responsible for the technical onboarding of new customers, order fulfillment, and supporting our sales team with any pre-sales needs.

How did you get into the field you’re in?

I’m passionate about teaching folks to get the most of the product they’re using, and it turns out that translates pretty well into many other disciplines. 

What has been the best part of working in your role? 

I get to work with almost every department. I’m able to help those departments or have them help me. When you’re in support, things are always changing — but with the resources to support us. This job keeps you busy learning and growing in a way that has to be targeted and intentional. 

In what ways have you been supported by the OpenSesame team or culture?

OpenSesame allows you to grow into what you’re capable of. There is always more to learn if you’re looking for it. I’m always supported in taking on more responsibility and growing my skills.

What is your favorite course in the OpenSesame catalog?

Fostering Mutual Understanding: Identify Biased Filters in Hiring | Valerie Purdie-Vaughns Greenaway: This course spoke to me personally. It’s all about how we can be better and do better. I’m currently hiring, and it helped me understand where my leadership team is at, where I’m at, and where my candidates are at. 

How has life changed for your role since the pandemic? 

OpenSesame decided early on to do whatever we could to allow the public to access content around “COVID Preparedness” and “Wellness” — for free. That was huge. Things don’t usually change that rapidly. Not in eLearning. We were dealing with shifting priorities and trying to do the right thing for our community and the world. 

Where do you get your energy, or what do you enjoy? 

Pre-pandemic, I played soccer a couple of times a week, but lately, I’ve been relegated to juggling (poorly) in my living room. Otherwise, I enjoy reading YA, outdoor activities, puttering around my house, growing succulents, and driving my truck.

What makes working with OpenSesame rewarding?

Work-wise, I love the ability to choose your own adventure. I’ve learned from every department by working on cross-functional projects in so many different business areas. Community-wise, there is a lot of attention to helping employees learn about other business areas not related to their specific job. 

How has your OpenSesame team maintained a sense of community through the pandemic era?

We’ve got several things that help take away the isolation. We have regular Friday meetings with interactive activities. There’s also a virtual coffee break and a virtual lunch room. The company is really open about how we don’t know when we will return to the office and what it might look like when we do. There’s a sense of trust in the communication. Trust is crucial to a community. 

What’s something people may not know about you?

I was born in Sweden and just became a U.S. citizen in 2015. My dad still lives in Sweden. He was a political refugee from Chile, and my mom was born in England and grew up in the U.S. She met my dad in Sweden. They met in Swedish class because neither of them spoke Swedish. 

How has OpenSesame changed since you’ve joined?

We’ve almost doubled in size, and we’ve gone fully remote due to the pandemic. The company and leadership have also become more open to new ideas as we grow and the world changes.

What advice would you give to new Open Sesame hires?

Take your time. Soak it all in. Focus on whatever you were hired to do, but look around and keep an open eye for things that are interesting to you. You’ll have a chance to pursue other things. We don’t expect people to stay in one place forever. Don’t be shy, don’t be afraid to ask questions.

What makes a team member successful at OpenSesame?

Things are changing rapidly, and you have to interface with a lot of departments. An openness to interfacing with people different from you is critical. People who are successful here are open to learning and interacting with other teams. 

What enneagram type are you? 

I am an enneagram type seven. I like to think of my brain as the real seven; it’s always trying to get to the next adventure, which often means getting into a specific subject or work project and learning a little too much.

The post OpenSesame Employee Spotlight: Danielle Rubio appeared first on OpenSesame.

Portland, OR – 16 March 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of Everything is on the Record to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to deliver timely training about communicating in a digital world that sees all, hears all and tells all.

Everything Is On The Record leverages the decades of experience its training coaches have had in boardrooms, locker rooms and newsrooms to teach professional athletes and sports teams how to use the press and social media to their advantage. Working with the elearning experts at OpenSesame, they turned Everything Is On The Record’s coaching sessions into engaging on-demand online courses that help leaders, managers, and employees become more effective communicators both online and in person.

“We have known for a while that our media training, executive consultation and insight into effectively and safely using social media platforms could be extremely beneficial to an audience well beyond the highly demanding people and organizations we’ve worked with over the years in professional sports,” said Ric Bucher, well-known sports personality and partner in Everything Is On The Record. “OpenSesame provided the ideal platform to reach that audience. Their guidance and technical expertise in shaping our content to be digestible, informative and entertaining was indispensable. We are excited about becoming an ever-growing part of their global catalogue.”   

Everything Is On The Record’s courses engage learners with presenter-style videos that draw cautionary tales from real-world social media events, as well as quizzes, prompts and self-reflection activities. Subjects include understanding the crossover between a corporate and personal brand, simple steps to help you post more effectively and safely, scrubbing your social media, controlling media interviews, presenting yourself in meetings, and handling inappropriate social media posts by employees.

“Even though these platforms have been part of our daily routines for years now, very few people have actually had any formal instruction about how to harness the power of social media while avoiding the pitfalls of accidentally going viral,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “We are delighted to bring Everything Is On The Record’s unique perspective on media relations, social media and branding to our customers as elearning courses in our catalog.”

Click here to view all Everything Is On The Record courses available exclusively from OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com

About Everything Is On The Record

Everything Is On The Record is a media training consultancy. Their team of experts educates CEOs, coaches, athletes and media personalities how not only to survive but thrive in a world where EVERYTHING is on the record. To learn more visit www.everythingisontherecord.com.

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Portland, OR – 16 March 2021 – OpenSesame, the global elearning innovator, today celebrates its inclusion in Oregon Business’s 2021 list of the “100 Best Companies to Work For in Oregon.” In its debut year, OpenSesame ranked No. 27 in the large company (100 or more employees) category.

The 100 Best Companies to Work For program ranks employers based on confidential responses from employees residing in Oregon to survey questions across several categories, including work environment, decision-making and trust, benefits and compensation, career development and learning. 

“In this past pandemic year, the 100 Best Companies survey takes on more meaning and importance than ever before,” the Oregon Business Journal stated in its announcement recognizing the winners. “These employers are evidence that there are businesses that care about keeping their workforces happy whatever the circumstances, and that despite one of the biggest changes to workplace norms ever experienced in a generation, companies can make it work and even come out better from the experience.”

Oregon Business highlighted OpenSesame’s professional development program as a standout based on employee feedback. In addition to its robust onboarding and company-wide training program, all full-time employees receive a full week of paid time off for continuing education, along with an reimbursement allowance equivalent to one week’s salary for conferences, courses, books and other expenses. 

“This recognition means a lot to us, especially because it’s based on feedback from our employees,” said Don Spear, CEO of OpenSesame. “Despite all the challenges of the past year, our employees continued to deliver exceptional support to our customers and learners, and we are extremely thankful to every member of our team for all they do to make OpenSesame a great place to work, even when we’re all working remotely.”

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

Media contacts

Jessica Layfield

Customer Marketing and PR Manager

jessica.layfield@opensesame.com

(971) 512-7742

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Sounds simple right? Yet why do so many of us still struggle to do so?

Controlling the uncontrollable

In our day to day lives, our wellbeing is impacted by many circumstances, from getting stuck in heavy traffic and missing work deadlines to facing technological failures like our laptop not turning on in the morning. But how many of those things are within our control? And how many are not? 

Research has suggested that wellbeing is primarily nurture (determined by our environment) as opposed to nature (determined by our genes) with studies showing that only 36% of variation in our wellbeing can be attributed to genetic factors*. In plain English, this means how we feel each day is more about what happens to us and what we do with that information. The more we feel that we can influence our own wellbeing, the more likely we are to feel happy**. Recognising those factors that are within our control and those that are out of our control can act as the first step in owning our wellbeing. Without being aware of them, we can’t begin to influence what healthy thoughts, attitudes and behaviours we should grab onto and what unhealthy ones we should let go of.

Grabbing hold and letting go

Imagine starting work on a Monday morning and your boss asks for your help urgently on a task. Before you know it, the work piles on and there aren’t enough hours in the day to achieve all you wanted to. Many of us are guilty of diving in and adopting the ‘go, go, go’ mentality despite this being proven to be ineffective. Research has shown that by letting go of those ineffective behaviours and instead deploying strategies focused on your mind, body and environment, you’re much more likely to be productive and have a balanced state of wellbeing***. 

But in order to deploy those strategies effectively, it’s fundamental that we take a measure of our current wellbeing. It’s only then we can truly begin to understand our wellbeing state and know what strategies will effectively develop it.

Remember, wellbeing isn’t a luxury, it’s a necessity. So how might you start to take back ownership of yours today?

Check out the wellness courses available from Lane4 in the OpenSesame catalog. 

About the author:

Shalina is a Consultant with vast experience in occupational psychology and is  part of the Digital Learning Team at Lane4. Lane4 understands the psychology of people performance. Their approach develops inspirational leaders and managers who can drive performance in a volatile and uncertain world, equipping them with the skills and mindset to achieve things they never thought were possible. 

 *Bartels, M. (2015). Genetics of Wellbeing and Its Components Satisfaction with Life, Happiness, and Quality of Life: A Review and Meta-analysis of Heritability Studies. Behavior genetics, 45, 137-156. 

 **Quadros-Wander, S., McGillivray, J., & Broadbent, J. (2014). The influence of perceived control on subjective wellbeing in later life. Social Indicators Research, 115, 999 –1010.

 ***Pink, S., Fors, V. (2017) Being in a mediated world: Self tracking and the mind-body-environment. Cultural Geographies 24(3), 375–388.

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“The highest result of education is tolerance”

Some notable and famous professors include Mary Jane McLeod Bethune, Helen Keller and Dr. Hayat Sindi. Let’s take a look at their influence and how they have changed the world. 

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune (1875-1955)

Mary Jane McLeod Bethune was an American educator and stateswoman. She was a philanthropist, humanitarian, and civil rights activist as she believed that education was the key to racial advancement. Mary Jane started a private school for African-American students in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1904 that later became known as Bethune-Cookman University. Her story inspired many and enacted real change. She became the national adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his Black Cabinet. Mary Jane McLeod Bethune is an icon that will be forever celebrated for her racial advancement initiatives. 

Helen Keller (1880-1968)

“The highest result of education is tolerance,” says Helen Keller. Helen Keller was known for her influence on the blind and deaf community. She was the 20th century’s leading humanitarians. In 1920, she helped found the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a nonpartisan, non-profit organization with the leading statement: “to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States.” She mastered touch-lip reading, Braille, speech, typing, sign language, and finger spelling. There wasn’t anything this woman couldn’t achieve in her lifetime. 

Dr. Hayat Sindi (1967-present)

Dr. Hayat Sindi, a medical scientist, was the first Saudi woman accepted at Cambridge University in the field of biotechnology. She was also the very first woman from the Arab States of the Persian Gulf to complete her doctoral degree in her respected field. Dr. Sindi is the co-founder of Diagnostics for All, an NGO that provides medical care in remote and impoverished areas. She says that, “a true scientist should focus on affordable simple solutions to reach everyone in the world.” A true hero to all. 

Coaching is just one part of it, breaking barriers is another

Although we see more female coaches in college and professional sports now, this wasn’t always the case. Women like Tara VanDerveer, Kim Mulkey, and Patty Gasso have had to face huge odds and obstacles to prove their higher position in sports. These powerful women have stories to tell of their own, with extremely impressive backgrounds. 

Tara VanDerveer

Tara VanDerveer has been the head coach of women’s basketball at Stanford University since 1985. She took one year off in 1996 to coach the U.S. national team in preparation for the Olympic Games in Atlantic, Georgia. In 1990, VanDerveer was awarded the Naismith National Coach of the Year award, and the following year led the Stanford Cardinal to NCAA Women’s Division I Basketball Championships. Impressive right? As if that weren’t impressive enough, she has won over 900 games for her team. Beat that!

Kim Mulkey

Kim Mulkey has been a name in basketball since she was young. She was one of the first players in the country to join the boys on an organized team. At Louisiana Tech University, she was an All-American Point Guard. Mulkey is currently the head coach of women’s basketball at Baylor University, a top-ranked school. She has won two NCAA National Championships. Kim Mulkey is simply undefeatable. 

Patty Gasso

Patty Gasso played softball at California State University Long Beach growing up, then began coaching at Long Beach City College. She led her team to an impressive record of 161-59-1. After, she spent twenty seasons coaching the women’s softball team at University of Oklahoma and compiled a record of 901-281-2 with a winning percentage of .762, the highest all-time among all softball coaches. Gasso’s team played in the Women’s College World Series seven times and won the national championship in 2000. Incredible to say the least. 

Celebrating their legacy

What do all of these women have in common? They are legends, icons, and barrier-breakers. If you are wanting to uphold their legacy by celebrating their accomplishments, check out OpenSesame’s list of courses for Women’s History Month. The courses range from women-led leadership skills to assertion techniques. Look no further for courses that will improve your organization by empowering the women within them:

https://www.opensesame.com/lists/detail/1064581

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. Check out our free course of the week, and if you have any questions contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

Sources:

https://cudoo.com/blog/female-educators-who-changed-the-world/

https://www.sports-management-degrees.com/30-most-influential-women-in-college-sports/

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Where it all started

The origins of Women’s History Month began in 1981 when Congress passed Pub. L. 97-28 which authorized the President to proclaim March 7, 1982 as “Women’s History Week.” In the 1970’s, local groups were celebrating Women’s History Week. One of the most notable celebrations was organized in Santa Rosa, California by the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County Commission on the Status of Women in 1978. 

March 8th, International Women’s Day, was chosen as a point of observance. Dozens of schools planned special programs for the week. Over 100 community women participated in presentations in classrooms throughout the country and organized an annual “Real Woman” essay contest.

After petitions were signed from the National Women’s History Project in 1987, Congress passed Pub. L. 100-9 which officially designated the month of March as “Women’s History Month.” (Source: March is Women’s History Month). Women’s History was no longer a week-long celebration but the entire month of March marking the celebration of women, their feats, milestones, and their true power. 

Celebrating women in the workplace

It is an indisputable fact that women and men remain unequal in the workplace. The general wage gap between women of all races and men of all races is about 18 cents (Source: Quick Facts About the Gender Wage Gap). This number significantly differs when comparing women of color, along with LGBTQIA+ women. Women of all race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, and religious affiliation should be celebrated and empowered in the workplace. Across the world, employers are leaning into diversity and inclusion for a better work environment for all. This is a special month, in particular, to fight and advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion. 

So what can we do to celebrate women in the workplace in March? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

• • Craft a get-to-know-you post for the women in your organization and post on corporate social media platforms
  • Run a daily social media takeover where different women in your organization post on your corporate social media accounts for the day
  • Interview the women in your organization or invite guests to go live on Instagram and answer public questions
  • Buy the ladies of your office a coffee (doubleshot energy!)
  • As a company, invest in nonprofit organizations that support women and girls (e.g. Girls Who Code, The Malala Fund, Invisible Girl Project, Girls Not Brides USA, Global Fund For Women). For an extensive list, click here: Women’s History Month & Nonprofits Focused on Women & Girls
  • Start a book club and share inspiring books from female authors
  • Female-focused roundtable: Go around and talk about the women/woman/womxn you are most inspired by and why
  • Support BIPOC women-owned small business and give a small gift to the office
  • Identify and stop using gender-biased language in meetings, job postings, day-to-day conversations 

Treat every month as Women’s History Month

Although March is specifically dedicated to Women’s History Month, check in with yourself and your organization to make sure you are advocating for the women in your office, especially women of color. Are you giving them the right platform, voice, opportunity, creative input, and respect? OpenSesame provides your organization with engaging courses you can take to inspire, educate, and boost confidence to stand out as a leader. Check these out now:

• • Getting Equality with Men: Don’t Let your Organization Work Against Diversity 
  • Assertive Communication Skills for Women
  • Leading with Gender Inclusivity
  • Small Acts of Confidence: You are Not an Imposter
  • Influencing in Meetings

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. Check out our free course of the week, and if you have any questions contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

Sources:

https://womenshistorymonth.gov/about/

https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/womens-history-month/womens-history-month-history/

https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/01/us/womens-history-month-why-march-explainer-trnd/index.html

https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/women/reports/2020/03/24/482141/quick-facts-gender-wage-gap/

https://www.charitynavigator.org/index.cfm?bay=content.view&cpid=2133&c_src=E200305AXXXXXX0&

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What it’s like to work in hospitality right now

“This is an industry where you help people. You please people. It gives great satisfaction to fill that need — and to feel needed,” said Greater Boston Concierge Association founder Amy Finsilver (Bostonglobe.com). Many have reported that working in hospitality right now looks like low pay, long hours, and lots of pressure. Whether you’re a store owner or employee, there’s a lot of strain on mental health and financial stability. Fear of permanent closure plagues all restaurant owners as there is no immunity during this uncertain time, along with the persisting fear of catching the coronavirus while hospitality workers are actually working. 

What does the future of hospitality look like?

All restaurants have health inspections, but the future of restaurants has a much greater focus on cleanliness, and customers are seeking full transparency on just how clean they really are. Aside from certified health inspectors, some customers are posing a similar role as they are skeptical of contracting the coronavirus at one of these establishments. Hotels alike, customers are weary. The future of hospitality workers looks like extra initiatives for a clean workplace, as well as full transparency to customers and residents (Forbes.com). Things like QR code menus, single-use menus, and take out will continue into the future, as they limit the risk of passing the coronavirus. Hospitality workers may be required to attend classes on health practices and cope with increased stress in the workplace. 

How can I support the hospitality industry while still being safe?

There are people that support local restaurants by doing take out dining during lockdowns. Ordering from your favorite local restaurant(s) is a great and safe way to support their business and ensure they can put their own food on the table for their families. If you can’t afford take out dining, spreading the word about different restaurants and establishments is another way to show your support. The world of hospitality has changed and will continue to, so it is important to stand with small business owners and help out one another. 

Resources

Check out these courses OpenSesame offers for hospitality workers during the pandemic:

• Covid-19 Retail and Hospitality: Why Safety Rules Matter

• Coronavirus and Working in the Restaurant Sector 

• Food Safety for Food Handlers 

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. Check out our free course of the week, and if you have any questions contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

Sources used:

https://www.bostonglobe.com./2020/12/30/lifestyle/i-feel-like-im-always-edge-hospitality-workers-covid-19-hasnt-just-ravaged-their-industry-also-their-mental-health/

https://www.forbes.com./sites/blakemorgan/2021/01/07/what-will-restaurants-look-like-after-covid/?sh=7043dcce2a97

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Portland, OR – 23 February 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of SunShower Learning to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to further expand the curated offering of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) training.

SunShower Learning is the expression of founder Joel Lesko’s passion for film, online learning and diversity, equity and inclusion. Lesko is a documentary filmmaker, author and speaker on unconscious bias and creating a more respectful workplace who has worked with leading organizations including Liberty Mutual Insurance, AT&T, UCLA and others to support their DEI initiatives.

“OpenSesame believes that diversity, equity, and inclusion are fundamental human rights issues — not compliance requirements,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “As the world leader in curated enterprise learning, we are committed to using the powerful tools of training and education to help our customers drive meaningful change within their organizations. Partnering with SunShower Learning, an award-winning DEI course publisher, allows us to continue setting the standard for online DEI training content.”

“I’m excited about being part of OpenSesame Plus so that our programs are more readily available to organizations who are eager to walk their diversity, equity and inclusion talk,” said Lesko about SunShower Learning’s partnership with OpenSesame. “I appreciate OpenSesame’s commitment to DEI training and with their support, we’ll be able to accelerate our development of courses. Our goal is to create learning experiences that deliver emotional impact and concrete skills that people can practice to disrupt unconscious bias, disarm microaggressions and help create more inclusive, respectful workplaces where people feel like they belong.”

Click here to view all SunShower Learning courses available from OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About SunShower Learning

SunShower Learning produces emotionally impactful Diversity, Equity & Inclusion training that not only raise awareness about unconscious bias, microaggressions and stereotypes, but also give you tools that your people can learn and practice. Real skills. The goal? To help you create a more respectful workplace made up of individuals who respect each other individually and collectively. A workplace where people feel like they belong. At SunShower, they focus on DEI and how better communication across differences fuels collaboration and innovation. Diverse companies perform better. Inclusive companies perform even better! You can look at the research! SunShower’s programs have won many awards and received high praise for excellence. Most of all, they routinely get feedback from trainers and managers in the workplace who value the HBO-level quality, the “no cringe” scenarios and the skills that change behaviors, not just attitudes. To learn more, visit https://www.sunshowerlearning.com.

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Portland, OR – 18 February 2021 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced the addition of Management Pocketbooks to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to add accessible, micro-courses on a wide range of topics for managers, leaders and employees.

Management Pocketbooks has published dozens of books on a wide range of topics including communication, people management, finance, teambuilding, sustainability, sales, professional development, coaching, managing change and many more subjects. Working with OpenSesame, they’ve brought their books to life in engaging video-based courses that meet the accessibility requirement of Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 AA standards, and which offer supplemental downloadable resources for continue individual or group study, blended-learning and in-person or virtual instructor-led training.

“Employees have more demands on their time today than ever before, so employers are looking for content that allows learners to quickly consume information and immediately apply it to their roles,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “Management Pocketbooks’ focus on creating training that is simple, accessible and of real practical value made them a perfect fit for the OpenSesame catalog.

“The concept of bitesize learning was barely known when Management Pocketbooks published its first accelerated learning resources,” said Adrian Hunt, Director of e-Publishing, Management Pocketbooks. “Now, in partnership with OpenSesame, we’ll be bringing our acclaimed body of work to an even wider audience. Bitesize just became even more mouth-watering!”

There are 17 Management Pocketbooks courses currently available exclusively in the OpenSesame catalog, with more than 50 additional courses in production and scheduled to be released later this year. Click here to view all Management Pocketbooks courses available from OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame
OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com

About Management Pocketbooks
Speed of learning and transfer of knowledge lie at the heart of the Management Pocketbook courses. They are developed by skilled communicators, management and L&D professionals who know how to make their messages simple, accessible and of real practical value. Management Pocketbooks delivers bite-sized learning — courses average around 12 minutes seat-time apiece — on a wide variety of topics of importance to managers, leaders and employees in every industry. Their highly-visual approach combines presenter-style videos with informative graphics. In addition, downloadable resources help the learner as well as facilitators continue their education offline, individually, in groups, or as part of virtual or in-person instructor-lead training. To learn more, visit www.pocketbook.co.uk.

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Finding a mentor

Outline your career goals both in the short term and the long term. The more specific you are with your goals, the easier it will be to find the right mentor. A useful way to find who would be a helpful mentor is finding someone whose job would you like to have in the next five, 10, or 15 years. Look for mentors both inside and outside of your workplace. 

Asking for mentorship 

Before COVID-19, asking for mentorship was best in-person but considering current circumstances video is just fine. If they’re someone you haven’t met before you can always start off with an email asking for an informational interview to learn more. Be clear of your goals and why you think this person is the right mentor for you. Come prepared by researching their work, be specific about what you like about it and why you want to meet. It is also important to remember that not everyone you ask will say yes. Mentoring takes time and commitment on both sides that they may not have the bandwidth for. Be gracious and thank them for considering, this leaves the door open for a future relationship.

Here at OpenSesame, mentorship is a part of the fabric of our organization. In addition to less formal forms of mentoring, OpenSesame’s “Step Into Tech” provides valuable work experience and mentorship to high school students from underserved communities. First started in 2018, his program provides these students with the opportunity to increase their exposure to technology and grow their skills in all areas of tech, innovation, and teamwork.

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, we help companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. For more information on how OpenSesame can save you time and money by curating the right courses for your organization, contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

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Inclusion in this program is based on the confidential input of employees who answered questions about workplace satisfaction concerning topics such as benefits, management, trust, work environment, and career development. OpenSesame’s exact placement on the list will be revealed in the March edition of Oregon Business.

“Like many organizations, OpenSesame’s work environment changed significantly as a result of the pandemic. We transitioned to a fully remote workforce in mid-March to protect the health of our employees and their families, and don’t plan to bring people back into our beloved Portland office until we are completely confident it is safe to do so” said Abby Miles, Senior Director of People at OpenSesame. “Despite the extra challenges 2020 presented, OpenSesame continued to thrive, finding new and creative ways to continue supporting our customers and their learners, but also our people. We are incredibly proud of our team, and OpenSesame’s inclusion in the ‘2021 100 Best Companies to Work for in Oregon’ program is truly a testament to the amazing culture our employees and leadership have built together.”

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. To get started, check out our free course of the week, and if you have any questions contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

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When overwhelmed by the news and the many injustices plaguing our country, especially faced by Black Americans, it feels impossible to know where to start. One Martin Luther King Jr quote that strikes at the heart of our mission and our purpose is “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?” At OpenSesame we strive to better ourselves and help our community with the spread of knowledge, this drive and purpose is reflected in our diversity statement: 

Become the Best Version of Yourself

We want OpenSesame to reflect the diversity of the communities we serve and the world we live in.

We know that a variety of perspectives and voices strengthen our ability to deliver the spark of learning to everyone. 

We hold ourselves accountable to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities through continuous learning, personal growth, and working to support our customers.

We welcome you to bring your authentic self to our team and grow beyond your expectations. 

 

OpenSesame believes Black lives matter and we strive to be anti-racist. We are committed to working with our employees, customers, business partners, and communities to use the powerful tools of training and education to eliminate racism. We do not have all the answers but we currently strive to make a difference by:

• • Elevating Diversity, Equity & Inclusion courses to a top-level category in the OpenSesame catalog and hiring an expert in this field to manage this category. 
  • Continuing our commitment to the De La Salle North Catholic High School Corporate Work-Study program. “The School That Works.” Supporting systems that accelerate the advancement of students of color and other underrepresented communities. 
  • Increasing our investment into our own Step-into-Tech high school mentoring program. Early and significant exposure for students of color and other underrepresented communities to mentors and careers in technology.
  • Continuing our commitment as a founding member in the TechTown Diversity Pledge to create a more inclusive tech community in Portland and improve our recruiting and hiring practices to build a more diverse and inclusive work environment.

Make diversity, equity, and inclusion part of your organization’s framework. Get started by making DEI part of your training curriculum all year long with our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Monthly Training Calendar. 

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices, we help companies like yours develop the world’s most productive and admired global workforces. For more information on how OpenSesame can save you time and money by curating the right courses for your organization, contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

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OpenSesame offers a wide variety of online sexual harassment prevention courses applicable in any business context. For states without specific requirements, many OpenSesame sexual harassment prevention courses will help you meet your training needs. Learn more about the requirements in the states you operate to ensure your organization is in compliance, and your employees stay safe, happy, and productive. 

To learn more about how OpenSesame can help your organization meet your sexual harassment prevention training needs, contact us at (503) 808-1268 or visit www.opensesame.com.

The post 2021 State-specific sexual harassment training requirements (United States) appeared first on OpenSesame.

Here are three ways to incorporate TED’s courses into your workplace learning initiatives in order to drive organizational change:

TED@Work

A growing library of TED@Work courses covers critical topics such as leadership, collaboration, emotional intelligence, embracing change, and digital transformation. Each interactive course includes an Ideas into Action framework to inspire new ways of working at the individual and team level.

TED Masterclass

Bring TED’s approach to sharing ideas to your workforce. With this course, learners can master the art of public speaking and improve communication skills by learning to identify, refine, and deliver ideas so they make an impact. This action-oriented course guides learners through TED’s process as they develop their own TED-style talks. But don’t just take it from us, hear from the experts at TED Masterclass directly by checking out this webinar on it. 

OpenSesame Plus 

If you’re feeling overwhelmed by the amount of TED courses available, look to our OpenSesame Plus product. It includes a subset of courses that have been curated into ready-to-play lists by our in-house experts. From TED@Work to TED Talks to short, animated TED-Ed lessons, you’ll have many areas for your workforce covered.

Visit our dedicated TED page to learn more about how you can incorporate the expertise and inspiration TED offers into your learning experience, as well as to catch any upcoming events or exclusive offerings.

To get a better idea of how you can incorporate TED and all of OpenSesame’s innovative tools and features into your L&D experience, connect with one of our experts for a personalized, guided demo.

The post Spark Change and Inspire Action with TED appeared first on OpenSesame.

What’s new with the Course Details Page:

Simplified purchasing options

• • Clicking the new Buy Now button starts an easy-to-navigate purchasing process.

Improved course preview.

• • Click the large thumbnail image to watch a demo of the course. 

Easy access to Publisher information

• • Check out the information about the course publisher now directly on the Course Detail page, such as publisher description, core competencies and quick access to all of the publisher’s courses available on OpenSesame.

Additional course details

• • Access more course details, if relevant, such as available subtitle languages and applicable regions. Seat time, accreditation information and a link to the System Requirements document can be found here as well.

Course ratings

• • Quickly see user ratings of the course on the right side of the page.

Curated Lists

• • Quickly access the Curated List that features this course to find other courses related to the topic curated by our Curation team.
    

Course recommendations

• • View and access related courses recommended by OpenSesame.

For more information about how you can evaluate which courses are best for your training program, contact your Customer Success Manager or our Support team.

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At OpenSesame, we’ve always believed that elearning presents the best option for organizations to scalably and effectively train their workforces. 

But the staggering impact of the coronavirus on corporate training — McKinsey estimates 50% of in-person programs in North America (and nearly 100% of programs in Asia and Europe) scheduled for the first half of 2020 have been postponed or canceled — has made it clear that every organization needs to incorporate digital learning into their training strategy. 

We understand that rapidly moving to a completely online training environment while working remotely during a pandemic might be overwhelming.

To help companies now facing substantial gaps in their L&D programs adapt or replace planned in-person training with digital learning, we invite you to share how you are delivering effective employee training virtually during this crisis through our #LearnInPlace video contest!

How to participate:

1. Create a short video (1 to 2 minutes) explaining how your organization is continuing its training efforts virtually during the coronavirus pandemic. No need to worry about making it look like a professional movie — feel free to just use your smartphone or computer webcam!

Consider these questions when making your video:

• • • How did your organization deliver employee training before COVID-19?
    • How has your organization had to adapt its training efforts in response to this crisis?
    • What tools or programs does your company use to deliver learning content virtually?
    • What have you personally learned as a result of your efforts to transition your organization to a completely online training environment?

2. Post your video to social media by 15 May, making sure to tag OpenSesame and include the hashtag #LearnInPlace.

• • • Tag us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn: @OpenSesame
    • Tag us on Instagram: @OpenSesameNow

3. Don’t forget to follow OpenSesame on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram, where we’ll be sharing our favorite #LearnInPlace submissions and more tips for achieving success with elearning.

Prize

The person who submits the winning video chooses from these prize options:

• • • 2 complimentary passes to the 2020 OpenSesame User Conference 13-15 October in Portland, Oregon (value of $598); OR
    • $500 to use toward the professional development training of your choice

Contest eligibility

Only posts that are visible/public will be accepted as submissions for this video contest. For more information on how to view or update privacy settings for specific posts, click on the links below:

• • • Twitter: How to protect and unprotect your Tweets
    • Facebook: Basic Privacy Settings & Tools
    • LinkedIn: Sharing Public Posts On and Off LinkedIn
    • Instagram: Controlling Your Visibility

Looking for curated content to help you deliver effective online training to your employees? We curated several lists of elearning courses to help you and your team stay healthy and productive during this crisis. These courses are made available as a public service free of charge through 15 June 2020.

Sign up for these free courses at go.opensesame.com/free-offer. 

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“At OpenSesame, we strive to fully support our customers, and any company, in protecting their employees as well as ensuring productivity of their workforce,” said Don Spear, CEO. “With the impact of COVID-19 growing exponentially every day, travel bans widening and instructor-led training no longer an option, elearning presents the best option for organizations to train and safeguard their workforces.”

Through 15 May 2020, any organization can gain access to these free courses on coronavirus preparedness and remote working best practices to deploy to its workforce.

For more information and free access to the courses, visit go.opensesame.com/free-offer.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

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Portland, OR – 10 March 2020 – OpenSesame, the global elearning innovator, announced a partnership with Northpass to deliver its curated 20,000+ elearning courses on Northpass’ learner-first platform. From fast-growing companies to the Fortune 500, modern companies looking to integrate and scale learning across distributed workforces trust Northpass to educate their workforce.

“We’re excited to partner with OpenSesame, the leading content provider for professional elearning to power Northpass’ built-in Course Marketplace,” said Rob Krystyniak, VP of Product and Engineering at Northpass. “The synergy between OpenSesame’s extensive course content and Northpass’ intuitive and engaging learning experience will help accelerate the learning and training process for our customers.”

OpenSesame’s partnership with Northpass makes impactful and high quality learning easily accessible for organizations who already understand the digital world best. Through the integration now available to Northpass customers, internet-first companies like Uber, Lyft, Airbnb and Rover can enhance their organizational training and overall learner experience. 

“OpenSesame helps companies upskill and train distributed workforces by enabling access to elearning anywhere, anytime and on any device,” said Tom Turnbull, Vice President of Partnerships at OpenSesame. “We are excited about partnering with Northpass to empower companies across the gig economy to grow and scale their businesses.”

About Northpass 

Northpass is a new breed of learning technology designed specifically for today’s digital economy. Founded in 2013, Northpass delivers learning that works for internet-first companies like Uber, Shopify, and BambooHR. Today’s top digital brands leverage the Northpass learning platform to accelerate growth, improve service quality, and increase brand loyalty.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

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Learning Technologies London brings together 8,500+ learning and development professionals to showcase organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. OpenSesame will speak on best practices for building global elearning programs on 12 February from 13:15 – 13:45 PM in Theatre 10 and showcase its machine learning-driven curation tools on 13 February from 15:30 – 16:00 PM in Theatre 7. 

At Learning Technologies London, OpenSesame will host elearning consultations at stand J55 to share best practices for curating courses for training programs and increasing elearning utilization.

“With the opening of our London office last year, we are thrilled to be at Learning Technologies UK again this year to share how we can provide regional support for European organisations and their training needs,” said Mehdi Tounsi, Sr. Regional Director Europe of OpenSesame.

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

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Learning Technologies France builds on the success of Learning Technologies UK by bringing together 7,000+ learning and development professionals to showcase organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. Attendees enjoy showcases that include the latest technologies, learning solutions, and hands-on features. In addition to the largest free L&D seminar programme of any learning event in Europe, the conference programme includes speakers such as Muriel Penicause, Minister of Labor, and many more.

OpenSesame will showcase its machine learning driven curation tools at stand G44 and speak on best practices for building global elearning programs on 6 February from 12:30 – 12:50 in Théâtre 4.

“With the opening of our office in London earlier this year, we can help European organisations meet their compliance, safety, and leadership development goals and objectives with our machine learning and expert curation,” said Mehdi Tounsi, Sr Regional Director Europe at OpenSesame. “We look forward to attending more regional events in Europe to connect with our European customers, publishers and partners.”   

To register and for more information on Learning Technologies France, please visit: https://www.learningtechnologiesfrance.com/welcome

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

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Portland, OR – 31 January 2020 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, announced The Jeff Havens Company has been added to its popular OpenSesame Plus subscription to expand its curated library of business skills, safety, and compliance courses. 

Global 2000 companies leverage the OpenSesame Plus subscription with over 6,000 curated courses—now including The Jeff Havens Company’s highly engaging business training—to help address critical skills gaps, position talent for successful long-term careers, and future-proof their organization.

Over the past 15 years, The Jeff Havens Company has applied its uniquely humorous training approach to a wide range of the modern business world’s most pressing issues including customer service, leadership, and safety. With the belief that nobody ever learns anything if they’re too bored to listen, The Jeff Havens Company aims to improve businesses worldwide—while having fun doing it. 

“As the driving force behind The Jeff Havens Company content, Jeff delivers high-energy, highly engaging, and hilarious content,” said Spencer Thornton,  Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “His extraordinary business insight and memorable delivery ensure high learner engagement and training to remember.” 

“OpenSesame is one of the most responsive companies we’ve ever partnered with,” says Jeff Havens, Founder and CEO, The Jeff Havens Company. “OpenSesame provides us with real-time feedback on course adoption to inform how we continue to grow. It’s fantastic to partner with a company that takes an active role in partner success and will be equally dedicated to our customers’ success as lifelong learners.”

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About The Jeff Havens Company

With a mission to provide serious solutions in a seriously funny way, The Jeff Havens Company is unique in the world of corporate training and L&D. Their video-based courses tackle everything from industrial safety to corporate ethics to customer service, and their content will provide your employees with the skills they need to become better employees, salespeople, and leaders. And it will all happen while your people are actually enjoying the process of becoming better. Countless studies have shown that people remember information better and longer if that information is delivered in a humorous way, and so The Jeff Havens Company has made it their mission to incorporate as much entertainment as possible into our training products without interfering with the learning process. To put it another way, you’ll receive all the education of a more traditional training course with all the entertainment value of a comedy show. That’s something most training companies can’t do, and it’s the reason that The Jeff Havens Company content has found favor with thousands of companies across virtually every industry. For additional information, visit JeffHavens.com, follow us on Twitter @iamjeffhavens or connect with us on LinkedIn.

Media contact:

Diane Haines

Vice President of Marketing

(503) 808-1268

diane.haines@opensesame.com

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Portland, OR – 20 December 2019 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, today announced a partnership with Traliant, a provider of award-winning sexual harassment elearning courses, to expand its offering of interactive compliance training within the OpenSesame Plus subscription. 

Enterprise organizations leverage the OpenSesame Plus subscription—now including Traliant’s behavior-based training—to help create an ethical, compliance-based workplace culture. 

Traliant combines the best elements of video storytelling and elearning tools in its award-winning discrimination and harassment prevention training for office environments, hotels, restaurants, healthcare, retail, construction, and industrial/manufacturing organizations. Additionally, all Traliant courses are available in multiple languages to help global organizations meet their complex training requirements. 

“From small organizations to Global 2000 enterprises, meeting compliance requirements has grown increasingly more complex with ever-changing regulations,” said Spencer Thornton, Senior Vice President of Curation at OpenSesame. “Adding Traliant content to the OpenSesame Plus subscription helps organizations meet the compliance needs of their multi-lingual and diverse workforces.”

“We partnered with OpenSesame because they share our commitment to world-class customer service and engaging learning content,” said Mike Pallatta, Traliant CEO and Co-Founder. “We look forward to expanding the delivery of our compliance and HR courses to more organizations, whether their workforce is local or international.”

About OpenSesame
OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com

About Traliant
Traliant was founded by industry veterans from some of the world’s most successful compliance training companies to meet the challenge of transforming compliance training from boring to brilliant. Backed by Martinson Ventures, Traliant delivers award-winning, bite-sized compliance training on an eLearning platform that enables fast and easy customization. Courses are available on numerous workplace topics including Diversity Training and Sensitivity Training. For more information, visit www.traliant.com.

Media contacts:

OpenSesame
Diane Haines
Senior Vice President of Marketing
(503) 808-1268
diane.haines@opensesame.com

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You naturally want to choose the training software that offers maximum advantages to your workers participating in the training and to the organization as a whole.

Regardless of which eLearning software you choose, each of them offers a plethora of benefits, especially for mid-sized businesses that have a limited budget for employee L&D initiatives. 

We’ve compiled the top 7 benefits that an online training software can offer to your employees and the organization. Knowing these benefits will help you determine whether or not you should invest in training software.

1. Reduced Costs

Online training software considerably reduces the cost of conventional training methodologies, such as class-based training. You no longer need a physical space for training, either in your office or having to rent a space externally. This saves you from the cost of setting up the necessary infrastructure. 

Since employees can attend training sessions in the comfort of their home or workplace, it also cuts down the expenses of commuting, hotel reservations, food, and other traveling costs.

Here’s another cost-saving aspect: All your training content is already uploaded in the online training software. This means you (or your employees) don’t have to buy learning materials, books, and other resources that conventional training methods often need.

2. Flexible and on-demand learning 

When your employees travel to attend any training program or you hire an instructor to come onsite, you strongly depend on other people’s schedules. 

But, by using an online training software, you offer a more flexible and on-demand training. It allows you to schedule training in groups so that it’s more convenient for your company as a whole. Plus, your employees also enjoy the flexibility to individually choose their training times as per their convenience and work schedules.

This is especially effective if you have a remote and physically dispersed workforce. Each employee can attend training according to his/her availability and learning pace, without worrying about different time zones.

3. Better engagement and retention

Online training software is more effective as compared to the class-based training program. This is because your employees have to retain the information they learn in a classroom setting. But, with online training software, the information is always at their fingertips. 

They can easily retain the information as they go through the learning material. And, they also have the option to access the content later on, whenever needed. Plus, as an online training software offers self-paced learning, they can consume as much content as they want and take a break whenever they feel burnt out.

4. Suitable for full-time employees

One of the main reasons full-time employees find it challenging to focus on learning is the lack of time. Often, training sessions are scheduled during work hours and are very rigid, making it difficult for all employees to actively participate. 

An online training software helps learners access content whenever they have the time to do so. It could be during normal work hours, during the downtimes in the day, or in the evenings.

Also, as your employees aren’t compelled to complete training in one sitting, they can opt to take the sessions in time increments that work well with the rest of their schedule and workload.

5. Removes nervousness among learners

Traditional training methods put workers together in a face-to-face setting. An online training software removes this face-to-face interaction. This is advantageous to learners who are generally shy or feel awkward around others. 

Online learning creates an environment where trainees are almost anonymous. So, they can freely ask questions or share comments online without the fear of being judged by a class full of people.

6. Reporting and analytics

When implementing an employee training program, the biggest concern many medium-sized organizations have is regarding the measurement of their ROI.

How do you ensure that your employee training initiatives are successful? And, how do you justify your investment in online training software? 

This is where the analytics and reporting feature of eLearning software steps in. It helps you monitor the progress of your employees in real-time so that you know how effective your training program is. Also, you can identify any knowledge gaps that may exist in your business. 

Depending on which industry you work in, your company may be required to fulfill certain compliance requirements. Online training software offers robust reporting in the industry-compliant format so that you are inspection-ready 24/7.

7. Improved onboarding process 

Having a successful onboarding process is key to employee satisfaction and retention. An online training software helps you simplify your employee onboarding process by leveraging technology. 

You only have to create and upload training content once into your training tool. And, your new hires can access them at any time. Plus, you can recycle some of your old content to upgrade your training. There’s no need to create a course from scratch or dedicate a mentor to train every new employee. 

Key Takeaway

When it comes to elevating your employee training program, medium-sized businesses will find several different online training software available commercially. This is how you can determine if it’s the right tool for what you’re trying to accomplish with the training and development of your workers.

Ehsan Memari is a blogger for SkyPrep, a provider of leading online training software for organizations to train employees’ partners and customers. Ehsan is a regular contributor to blog posts related to knowledge sharing, L&D, and eLearning.

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Investing your time and energy in a mentorship program at work not only helps employees to be their best at their current position, but it also helps develop your organization’s future leaders. Mentors help to:

• • Provide sounding boards for ideas
  • provide professional feedback
  • can help you grow your network

75% of executives say mentoring has been critical to their career development according to a survey by the American Society for Training and Development. 

Traits of a good mentor: how to be one and how to find one

Having a great mentor can have an immense positive impact on your career but how do you not just find one, but find the one that’s right for you? A tricky thing about mentoring is that it’s often informal which can make it difficult to find an entry point. 

Check out these OpenSesame courses to make the most of being a mentee and paying it forward as a great mentor: 

• • What is a Mentoring Program?
  • Creating a Successful Mentoring Relationship
  • How to Match Mentors and Mentees

OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired workforces. For more information on how we can help you save time, money, and curate the right courses for your training program, contact us today at info@opensesame.com. 

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When it comes to professional development, traditional in-person training can be costly. 85% of dollars spent on classroom training is on delivery (instructor time, travel, rental space, etc), while switching to elearning can eliminate these costs entirely. 

eLearning also saves time by increasing the productivity of your workforce. Due to its flexibility and ability to customize, elearning demonstrates a 60% faster learning curve than instructor-led training. Allowing each learner to complete the training at their own pace means that employees can complete courses in their downtime rather than having to fit a training into their already busy schedules. eLearning also supports a geographically widespread workforce since employees can access courses wherever they are. 

OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired workforces. For more information on how using elearning can help you save time and money, contact us today at info@opensesame.com. 

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The eLearning Coach

Connie Malamed is something of a superstar of instructional design in the US, and her relaxed style makes The eLearning Coach one of the most enjoyable learning podcasts out there. Episodes are released on an ad hoc basis but are always a treat, with informal conversation and a deep dive into topics like gamification, agile development and storyboarding. If you develop e-learning, this is the podcast for you.

The Learning and Development Podcast

This new addition to 2019 offers studio-quality production with host David James’s expert insights into all things Learning and Development. Guests this season have included Sukh Pabial, Kate Graham, Nick Shackleton-Jones and Barbara Thompson, each sharing their views on topics shaping – or damaging – the learning and development industry.

Emotion at Work

The Emotion at Work podcast hasn’t been active for a while, but we think that its back catalogue is such a rich resource that we’re recommending it anyway. Host Phil Willcox explores the role that emotion plays in our relationships, our reactions to conflict, and how we perform at work, providing a safe space to explore these topics in conversations that are thoughtful and revealing, backed up by research and evidence.

Freakonomics

Although not strictly an L&D podcast, behaviour economics plays such an important role in the design of learning and the workplace that we think Freakonomics is a crucial entry on this list. Launched as an extension to the global bestseller of the same name, Freakonomics has since dropped nearly 400 episodes. Don’t be fooled if it sounds dry: host Stephen Dubner recently tackled topics like sports gambling, the future of meat and an interview with Dr Marijuana Pepsi (her real name). If you’re looking to assess how incentives and systems support or hinder your learning interventions, this is a great place to start.

The GoodPractice podcast

Obviously, we have to mention our own podcast. Now into its third year, our weekly podcast has been downloaded over 160,000 times and occasionally takes to the road for live shows with real, honest-to-goodness human audiences. Each week, hosts Ross Garner, Ross Dickie and Nicola Boyle chat with regular contributor Owen Ferguson and a special guest about topics such as evidence-based practice, performance support, challenges to face-to-face learning and (wherever possible) libertarian paternalism. And, of course, we always finish with our regular feature ‘What I Learned This Week’, a fan favourite that we hear has become a fixture at team meetings across the world.

Since 2000, GoodPractice has been creating inspiring learning and performance resources for blue-chip organizations across the globe. They inspire managers to overcome their challenges and improve their performance. The Management 101 Suite of elearning helps build key management skills through the insight and practice in the fun format. Learners can apply new skills immediately. The Management 101 Suite is ideal for new and emerging managers, as well as seasoned managers who want to refresh their skillset.

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Common Challenges

According to Deloitte, only 1 in 9 companies rate their learning culture as excellent, which means that there is plenty of room for growth. 

When training a global workforce, challenges range from: 

• • workers being decentralized
  • located in different timezones
  • speaking different languages

Solving Common Challenges of Global Workforces

• • Transitioning to communicating and training in local languages or providing alternatives: Even if your business has an official language, language comprehension levels may vary among your employees. So while they may have conversational skills in one language, following a complex training might be difficult so it is crucial that courses are offered in local languages. 
  • Soft launch your new learning program with champions in each area: A soft launch allows for your program to build momentum. Tounsi highlighted one case study where an organization had a very competitive company culture, so slowly giving everyone access to the new learning program worked in their favor because it increased interest. Working with local champions also ensures that the program has advocates at multiple levels of business and in multiple locations which further contributes to a collaborative learning atmosphere. 
  • Pair learning initiatives with incentives: Using tools like leaderboards, publicising who has completed the most trainings, and other incentives are a great way to boost participation. In one case study, Tounsi shared that learners completed on average 2.4 courses over what was mandatory when an incentive program was being used. 
  • Involve leadership but also ask your learners what they need and want: Only 24% of learning leaders listen to their learners according to the Towards Maturity Annual Report, which can lead to an “us vs. them” mentality rather than a collaborative environment that fosters a culture of learning. 

You can watch the full webinar “Deploying a Global Workforce” here. 

With courses offered in multiple languages, and available on multiple devices we help companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired global workforces. For more information on how OpenSesame can save you time and money by curating the right courses for your organization, contact us at info@opensesame.com today.

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PORTLAND, OR – 3 December 2019 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, has announced an expanded partnership with Degreed, the cloud-based skills tracking and development platform to deliver curated elearning courses (20,000+) to Degreed customers. Enterprise companies can now access OpenSesame elearning courses within Degreed’s built-in index of open learning resources, which includes millions of videos, articles, blog posts, books, podcasts and subject matter experts.

Learning experience platforms such as Degreed help companies unlock and deliver a broad range of learning content without the burden of managing multiple systems or providers. Degreed brings together educational resources, including OpenSesame’s curated course library, so they can be curated together, recommended and tracked in a more holistic learning experience for employees as part of their everyday routines and workflows. 

“We pride ourselves in enabling learners to take control of their learning using a highly personalized platform,” said Rob Wellington, Director of Business Development for Degreed. “OpenSesame has become an industry standard for aggregating and curating elearning content which complements Degreed’s value proposition to deliver a broad range of learning through our platform.”

“OpenSesame and Degreed have frequently partnered together over the past few years to solve the training challenges of our mutual customers,” said Tom Turnbull, Vice President of Partnerships at OpenSesame. “We are excited to expand our partnership by formally integrating our curated library into the Degreed platform.” 

About Degreed 

Degreed is a better, smarter way to discover, learn and measure the skills you need for the future. Degreed connects all the resources people use to learn and grow, including corporate learning systems and millions of courses, videos, books, articles, podcasts, and subject experts from thousands of sources. Then we add data science and machine learning to provide people and businesses with the tools, analytics and feedback they need next. Founded in 2012, Degreed is headquartered in San Francisco, with additional offices in Salt Lake City, New York and Amsterdam.

Rob Wellington

Degreed

rwellington@degreed.com

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

Diane Haines

OpenSesame

(503) 808-1268

diane.haines@opensesame.com

The post OpenSesame expands Degreed partnership to integrate curated elearning into learning experience platform appeared first on OpenSesame.

OEB brings together 2,500+ participants from multinational companies to SMEs, from higher education and research institutions to schools. Together, the attendees explore the opportunities and challenges that are changing the world of learning and how to choose and use various technologies. Registrants attend over 120 breakout sessions to discover proven practices, approaches and strategies from leading institutions and organisations. 

“With the opening of our office in London earlier this year, we can help European organisations meet their compliance, safety, and leadership development goals and objectives with our machine learning and expert curation,” said Tom Turnbull, Vice President of Partnerships at OpenSesame. “We look forward to attending more regional events in Europe such as OEB to connect with our European customers, publishers and partners.”   

To register and for more information on OEB Berlin, please visit: https://oeb.global/

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your elearning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

Diane Haines

OpenSesame

+1 (503) 808-1268

diane.haines@opensesame.com

The post OpenSesame Presents Machine Learning-Driven Curation Tools at OEB Global appeared first on OpenSesame.

Common areas of vulnerability

While technology has helped automate many  business processes, the opportunities for breaches has multiplied as a result. It is essential that your employees are not only cautious with their computers, but also with their cell phones and USB connections. Something as simple as using a USB plug to charge your phone in a public place can leave your information vulnerable if you don’t take necessary precautions.   

52% of businesses admit that their employees’ biggest weakness is in IT security. Furthermore 46% of cyber security incidents are from careless or under trained staff. 

Check out these courses offered through OpenSesame to get your workforce up to speed: 

• • Data Privacy and Information Security
  • Data Protection: General Data Protection Regulation
  • Privacy and Data Protection Essentials

In addition, be sure to check out this recent OpenSesame webinar with expert Dr. Robert K. Minitti from OpenSesame course publisher Wolters Kluwer where he outlines how to incorporate fraud and IT security as part of your learning and development strategy. 

OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired workforces. For more information on how we can help you save time, money, and curate the right courses for your training program, contact us today at info@opensesame.com. 

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Proper employee training can prevent your company from falling victim to the most common types of fraud, including asset misappropriation, corruption, and financial statement fraud. Furthermore, dedicating time to train your entire workforce on fraud sends the message that this is an issue that your company takes seriously and will not be tolerated. 

It is equally important to educate your employees on how to prevent fraud from sources outside your company as it is to recognize potential red flags within it. Threats like ransomware, spoofing, and phishing are on the rise and every employee that uses a computer, company smartphone, or email is a potential entryway for these dangerous types of malware. 

OpenSesame helps protect companies like yours with the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses to train and develop your workforce on topics such as fraud and IT security. Check out these courses, offered through OpenSesame, today to get started. 

• • Introduction to Cyber Fraud
  • Fraud, Bribery, and Corruption Awareness
  • International Fraud, Bribery, and Corruption

Be sure to also check out this recent OpenSesame webinar with expert Dr. Robert K. Minitti from OpenSesame course publisher Wolters Kluwer to gain additional insights on multiple types of fraud schemes, including asset misappropriations, corruption, financial statement fraud and cyber frauds, as well as methods of employee fraud prevention training to keep your company compliant and how to incorporate fraud as part of your learning and development strategy. 

For more information on how OpenSesame can help you save time, money, and curate the right courses for your training program, contact us today at info@opensesame.com. 

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We know how valuable your time is and how limited your resources can be in L&D. In early 2019, we created OpenSesame Curated Lists to help you get a head start on curating courses for your training program. 

We’re excited to announce that we are adding more Curated Lists to help you save even more time curating the courses you need. Our Curation Team has been busy researching the latest training trends to create timely, relevant, and impactful course lists that you can easily add to your LMS and quickly deploy to your learners.

And the best part—we’ll be releasing 5–10 new Curated Lists per week to help you tackle new and emerging training needs in record speed. Topics may include:

• • Finding and Maintaining Top Talent
  • Interpersonal Communication
  • 21st Century Skills
  • Multigenerational Business Operations
  • Organizational Agility
  • Microsoft Office® 2019
  • CompTIA Certifications

Our goal is to make your job easier and help you set up your organization for success through effective training. So, we want to hear from you! Share your ideas for new Curated Lists with us by emailing curationrequests@opensesame.com and let us know what training topics can help your organization.

Find Curated Lists and new content in a flash.

But wait, there’s more! Along with more Curated Lists, we’re continuing to enhance our catalog search to make finding content easy and provide recommendations that engage your learners. If you haven’t already, check out our last blog article on the recent catalog search enhancements or the recording of the October Customer Conversations webinar to learn more about recent enhancements as well as what’s to come.

Available in mid-November 2019, new enhancements to the catalog search will help you find and identify Curated Lists more easily. First, the Curated Lists will have a new look to help you easily distinguish them from individual courses.

You’ll also be able to filter for Lists, courses, or see all results using a new Product Type filter. Selecting All will show you recommended Curated Lists along with popular and new course recommendations. Selecting Lists will show only Curated Lists, and selecting Courses will show only course results that match your search criteria.

We want to hear from you on these and upcoming product enhancements to help you streamline processes and work more efficiently. To submit a product enhancement requests or join the OpenSesame Customer Beta Group and be the first to see and try new enhancements, email us at featurerequests@opensesame.com.  

For more information on how OpenSesame can help you find the right elearning courses for your training program, contact your Customer Success Manager, our Customer Support team, or call (503) 808-1268. 

And don’t forget to check out the OpenSesame Community to get answers to your questions, find tips and tricks for your training program, and network with other OpenSesame customers.

The post Train on hot topics and trends more easily with OpenSesame Curated Lists appeared first on OpenSesame.

There’s no doubt that the further a person crawls up the corporate ladder, they should be spending more time thinking and less time doing. It’s a very important mindset to understand that thinking is not doing nothing. It might not seem like you’re busy but it’s an essential part of a leader’s role.

We don’t need to be ‘busy’ in order to think we are progressing or accomplishing something. Have you noticed how many people’s response to “How are things going?” is simply, “Busy!”. Why isn’t it something like, “Very well, thank you”?

If you are running an organization, there will always be another meeting to attend or place to be. However, a major role of a CEO or senior manager is to think and reflect, consider and adapt. If you’re too busy to think, you probably haven’t organized your team very well. You might not be able to control everything that happens but you can choose what you give your attention to. A manager I knew took a regular one hour lunch break where they thought about their afternoon and that’s where all the planning took place.

The Strategic Thinking Institute found through their research that 44% of managers spent most of their time firefighting in cultures that rewarded reactivity and discouraged thoughtfulness. 96% of leaders said they lacked time for strategic thinking because they were too busy putting out fires.

5 Tips

So, here are five things you can do to create thinking time:

1. 1. Schedule it in your calendar – just as you would schedule a meeting. Block regular time out to be alone and think things through, reflect and consider what’s most important
   2. Start your scheduling with something manageable like 10-20 minutes. That’s surely doable. Smokers can do that regularly!
   3. Make notes of ideas that come when you are doing something else. Inspiration comes often at times when your mind is relaxed like in the shower or while driving. As soon as you can, when it’s safe and convenient, make a note to capture those thoughts and return to them during a scheduled thinking slot.
   4. You can’t force inspiration but you can reflect on what is already on your mind. You might need to stimulate thinking by reading an article, reviewing the organisational business plan or strategy or even think about your team. Who’s doing what? Who needs help? Who haven’t you spoken to lately?
   5. Think out loud. If you’re the kind of person that likes to think by sharing, then ask someone to join you. Spout ideas and brainstorm with them. Just bounce some ideas around and see what happens.

For more details check out leadership courses from LearningPlanet in the OpenSesame course catalog.

About the Author:

Derek Good has been in leadership roles for over 25 years and since 2002 has been involved in corporate training and consulting. He has won Awards for Customer Service Excellence and innovation for general education and is the author of seven books.

The post 5 ways for leaders to spend more time thinking appeared first on OpenSesame.

As most of us are aware, phishing attacks can take many different forms, from Business Email Compromise scams that mimic employee emails and request money or information, to fake emails from trusted business that use bad links or attachments to steal data. Ransomware takes a more direct route by installing malware, stealing data, and then requesting some form of payment to—ostensibly—restore the data to its owner. In some attacks, the data is in fact restored after the ransom is paid. Other times, hackers accept the ransom but never give the files back—which is why security professionals typically advise against paying the ransom. Either way, ransomware means a huge risk to personal data and—more likely than not—exorbitant costs to get systems up and running again. It’s important that we be able to protect ourselves and our organizations against these scams—but how do we do that?

First of all, like other phishing scams, email is the most common attack vector for ransomware. When a malicious link or attachment is clicked on, the virus runs a payload on the computer and encrypts files so that the owner can’t access them. What this means is that—typically, at least—preventing ransomware is as simple as preventing any other phishing attack. Don’t click on any strange links or attachments in unexpected emails, and remember to check for warning signs that the email may be malicious. If it’s unexpected, comes from a strange or incorrect email address, or requests unusual information, it’s probably a scam. When in doubt, delete the email and verify its contents externally—it could mean the difference between continued security and a ransomware nightmare.  

Second of all, in the event you do fall victim to a ransomware attack, it’s critical to have certain security measures in place to help you deal with the fallout. As IT expert Sean Gallagher notes, backups are key when it comes to surviving ransomware. If data is properly backed up to an external location, it can be recovered in the event that it’s stolen from the device itself. In addition, companies need a “disaster recovery (DR) plan,” something that plans for a potential worst-case scenario—not just low-level security snafus—and lays out ahead of time how the recovery process would work. A good DR plan minimizes loss and allows for a smoother recovery process in the event that a disaster does occur. (For more information on how to create a solid disaster recovery plan, see this article.)

What happened in Baltimore and Riviera Beach should serve as a serious wake up call. Ransomware attacks not only happen, they’re on the rise—and they could mean financial ruin or irrecoverable loss of data. As organizations or even as individuals, it’s important that we take the appropriate steps to recognize and prevent—or at least be able to deal with the consequences of —a breach. And the first step is awareness. Company leadership needs to be aware that ransomware could be a serious threat, and that concrete steps are needed to avoid disaster. Similarly, all company employees, down to the lowest level, must be familiar with phishing attacks and how to prevent ransomware from the first click. With that awareness in place, alongside strong communication between teams, maintaining and strengthening security—and keeping ransomware at bay—becomes much easier.

For more information on ransomware and cybersecurity check out available courses from Global Learning Systems in the OpenSesame course catalog.

Global Learning Systems provides security awareness and compliance training programs for employees that effectively promote behavior change, protect your organization and Strengthen Your Human Firewall®. In addition to carefully tailoring program materials to client needs, we offer an online learning platform, phishing simulation tool, courseware customization and high-touch customer service.

The post What is ransomware? appeared first on OpenSesame.

In this era of digital disruption, businesses need to make plans to match their mission and vision. Leadership plays a vital role in making significant impact on the strategic management process. Competent leadership is of utmost importance to guide the organization through prodigious changes. To make leaders future-ready, new skills to improve behaviors and competencies are needed to be incorporated in leadership development programs. For aspiring leaders, it is paramount to learn and adapt to new conducts to deal with unforeseen business challenges.

Only 56% of organizations take steps to ensure overall goals of leaders are closely aligned with business goals of the organizations

– Leadership Development Research, Brandon Hall Group, 2019

As L&D departments are looking for new methodologies to modernize their leadership programs, let’s dig deep into the characteristics that make up for an ensemble to take up leadership role and bring agility from strategizing to executing:

Leadership and Management

Willingness to learn and self-awareness activities enable leaders to effectively reach across teams and move strategically into the layers of business to unlock success. With hierarchical structure being dissolved rapidly, it becomes necessary for leaders to go beyond dedicated role and undertake tasks cross-functionally. This leads to more employees take up responsibilities and learn various leadership qualities in order to supersede their job functions.

Critical Thinking

Unquestionably the most critical function of a leader’s role is thinking. A leader needs to plan and foresee circumstances before anyone else to ensure that the steps taken derive results which are best suited for the business. Definitive methodology helps in breaking down the problem, implement strategy and generate alternative solutions through critical thinking. Our Ultimate CLO Toolkit for Leaders lists the resources that support them navigate through this process.

Communication

Effectively transferring information is the cornerstone for any business accomplishment. The productivity, results, morale, relationships and expectations are directly affected basis how the communication has taken place. To ensure worthwhile communication, writing also plays a very important role because a lot of messaging happen over emails, collaterals and other documents. Sharing information regarding the project within the team is also a major part of a leader’s role, where effective communication becomes crucial.

Diversity and Inclusion

Leaders that display company’s culture in their work ethics tend to influence more workforce than those who don’t. Portraying organizational values by leaders build trust in employees and shows their improved ability to recruit and retain talent with better leadership effectiveness. Good corporate leaders identify the importance of diversity and inclusion to fuel enthusiasm and encourage the teams involved to outperform their tasks. 

Project Management

Leadership development must have a direct influence in grasping the issues behind the problem. In addition to that, scenario planning is also one of the most efficient tools for project planning. As part of this process, leaders need to focus upon preparing various scenarios of what the business might look like in the coming years. Once these scenarios are outlined, teams can work backwards to achieve the objectives of the best-suited scenarios.

Sales and Customer Support

Customer needs are constantly growing and changing even rapidly, and companies are bound to meet those expectations. Effective leaders empower teams by not only improving team’s potential but also increasing their current performance in existing roles. One of the prime area of concerns of leaders in sales and customer support is to focus and enhance communication skills. For being a strong communicator, it becomes essential for the workforce to stay focused on delivering the right message. 

Team Building

Working across cross-functional teams is a very common ask for leaders. This is beneficial from a business standpoint as it brings diverse minds to pool in for solutions on a specific need. Leaders work in such scenarios that push the workforce outside of their functional roles to develop strategies and achieve productive results. At times when challenges surface, the right leadership style outweighs obstacles to focus on better ideas and outcomes.

Based on the requirements and business demands, organizations need to understand the value of leadership styles, and proliferate communication more effectively. For better understanding, download our free eBook: High-potential Leadership Programs that talks about developing the right kind of leadership skills for a rock-solid talent bench.

Infopro Learning, a leading provider in corporate training outsourcing and human capital transformation, helps organizations create an exceptional employee and customer experience through bespoke eLearning solutions. For more than 25 years, the company has designed and implemented engaging learning experiences that attract, develop and retain talent across the entire employee lifecycle. To learn more, visit www.infoprolearning.com.

About the author: Divesh Srivastava is currently working as the Marketing Manager at Infopro Learning, a leading provider in corporate training outsourcing and human capital transformation. He has over 5 years of experience in marketing strategy development and is a certified Content Marketing professional. His interest lies in conducting market researches to understand learning business needs and develop best practices to benefit organizations and amplify their return on investment.

The post Leadership Development – Bridging the Gap from Strategy to Execution appeared first on OpenSesame.

This year’s conference centered on themes surrounding future skilling and developing leaders for a 21st century workforce, leveraging learning technology advancements in machine learning and artificial intelligence, maximizing elearning utilization, finding training budgets and saving time managing and administering training programs. Customers spent two days networking with peers, meeting the OpenSesame team, sharing insights during roundtables and other sessions, learning from other OpenSesame customers, meeting new publishers at the Publisher Expo and more. 

Keynote speaker Donald H Taylor kicks off conference 

This year’s conference featured a keynote by Donald Taylor, Chairman of the Learning and Performance Institute, on the past, current and future state of learning technologies and our industry. Donald shared the results of his annual Learning & Development (L&D) Global Sentiment Survey which asks L&D professionals across the globe: “What do you think will be hot in L&D next year?” For a full recap of the results of the 2019 survey, check this blog post. 

Customer sessions and panel connect attendees

Four OpenSesame customers presented this year, sharing the intricate workings of their training program challenges, budget, how OpenSesame helps them and future goals. Speakers this year included EnerSys Inc., InComm, Carrington Mortgage, and Toshiba America Business Solutions. 

A customer panel, hosted by Donald Taylor, was a highlight for attendees this year! Attendees heard from L&D peers from WCA Waste Corporation, Pacific Seafood, and EnerSys. The discussion was interactive, thoughtful and covered topics such as leadership development, growing training programs, how to find elearning, their favorite professional development books, and more. 

Publisher expo

OpenSesame curates courses from our comprehensive library of 20,000+ courses from the world’s top course publishers. Eighteen of OpenSesame’s publishers joined us at the user conference in our first ever Publisher Expo. During the Expo,  customers met with publishers to learn and demo new courses offered through OpenSesame. In addition, two course publishers were featured speakers this year, Shawn Hunter from Mindscaling and Jeff Havens from The Jeff Havens Company. 

Networking at the OpenSesame office followed by world-class women’s soccer

After a busy first day of sessions and meetings, conference attendees visited the OpenSesame’s office in the heart of downtown Portland. After light snacks and office tours (as well as a greeting by an office dog!) attendees headed to Portland’s Providence Park to watch the Portland Thorns take on the North Carolina Courage, two defending NWLS champions! It was a beautiful night for soccer and networking with speakers, peers, the OpenSesame team and more.

Honoring the first ever OpenSesame Learning Excellence Award winners

The Learning Excellence Awards program recognizes OpenSesame customers that leverage learning technology, creativity, innovation and blended learning in developing successful training programs. OpenSesame CEO Don Spear and SVP Marketing Diane Haines hosted the award ceremony, which highlighted unique training programs and showcased the relationship OpenSesame customers have with their OpenSesame customer success team. It was a celebratory event to remember!

Winners this year included:

• • Most Creative Launch of a Training Program or Initiative – Incomm
  • Most Innovative Training Program – EnerSys Inc.
  • Most Successful Training Program or Initiative – GenesisCare
  • Successful Use of Blended Learning – Aimbridge Hospitality
  • Most Innovative Learning Culture – Choctaw Nation

Closing remarks and farewell until next year

After a busy two days it came time to say goodbye. After closing with the 2019 OpenSesame Learning Excellence Awards, OpenSesame CEO Don Spear closed the event by thanking attendees, our publishers and partners for joining. we hope you join us in Portland next year for the 2020 OpenSesame User Conference!

The post Highlights from 2019 OpenSesame User Conference appeared first on OpenSesame.

• • Have annual gross revenues over $25 million.
  • Annually buy, receive, sell, or share personal information of over 50,000 California consumers, households, or devices.
  • Derive at least 50% of annual revenue from selling California consumers’ personal information.

How does the law work?

Californians will be able to request information from your company about what data is collected about them, why it was collected, how you received their information and who it was shared with or sold to. California residents will also have the right to bring a direct lawsuit if their unencrypted or unredacted personal information is subject to a data breach as the result of a business’s failure to implement reasonable security. If a company is found to be in violation of the CCPA, they have 30 days to comply with the law once regulators notify them of a violation. If the issue isn’t resolved, there’s a fine of up to $7,500 per record which can add up quickly when the volume of consumer records at a company is considered.

Start preparing now for the law to limit penalty 

The new law goes into effect 1 January 2020, with an enforcement date of 1 July 2020. Don’t scramble at the last minute to keep your company compliant and customer data legally safe. Now is the time to guarantee your employees are well-versed in consumer privacy and data security best practices.  Check out these courses offered through OpenSesame to get your workforce up to speed: 

• • California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA)
  • Cyber Security Overview
  • Privacy and Data Protection Essentials
  • Information Security Essentials

OpenSesame helps companies like yours develop the world’s most developed and admired workforces. For more information on how we can help you save time, money, and curate the right courses for your training program, contact us today at info@opensesame.com.

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PORTLAND, OR – 30 September 2019 – OpenSesame, the elearning innovator, has announced a partnership with Appinium, a leading provider of content distribution and tracking solutions on the Salesforce App Cloud, to deliver its curated 20,000+ elearning courses on the Salesforce platform. As enterprise organizations look to close skill gaps, training needs to occur within everyday workflows to maximize employee uptake, engagement and impact.

Global 2000 companies trust OpenSesame to design training programs to make their workforces more productive. It is challenging to show a direct link between training and productivity. However, by providing contextual, targeted training in a Salesforce deployment strategy and environment, learning can be woven into the learners’ natural workflow and no longer isolated in a learning management system (LMS).

Appinium combines modern video and learning management in the Salesforce Lightning Platform to drive unparalleled audience engagement, analytics, and outcomes. Their 100% native apps are designed to empower their clients with unique content access control and consumption analytics so they can directly show the relationship of training engagement on profitability and performance. 

“Our world is in the middle of the 4th industrial revolution. With the rise of automation and artificial intelligence, it’s more important than ever to adapt our skills to stay competitive,” said Steve Jacobson, co-founder and Managing Director of Appinium. “By partnering with an industry leader like OpenSesame, it allows us to use our 100% native Salesforce video and learning distribution platform to advance employee skills and improve both individual and company financial performance.”

“OpenSesame’s curated catalog of the world’s best elearning courses helps companies design and deploy impactful training programs through their learning management systems,” said Tom Turnbull, Vice President of Partnerships at OpenSesame. “We are excited to partner with Appinium to deliver the same tremendous value on the Salesforce platform.” 

OpenSesame elearning natively in Salesforce Community Cloud leveraging Appinium Lightning Components

About OpenSesame

OpenSesame helps develop the world’s most productive and admired workforces. With the most comprehensive catalog of elearning courses from the world’s top publishers, we are here to help you every step of the way, from finding courses, mapping them to your core competencies, syncing them with your LMS to increasing utilization and improving your L&D programs. Not only will you have the flexibility of multiple purchasing options from OpenSesame, you’ll find it simple to use and administer your e-learning courses. To learn more, visit www.opensesame.com.

About Appinium

Appinium is the brainchild of Learning Management System (LMS) and Salesforce ecosystem veterans, developed with the specific objective of making video and multimedia content come to life across the Salesforce platform. We have brought to market two unique, but complementary, solutions: ViewTrac and LearnTrac. Our video/multimedia application and LMS are the only 100% native Salesforce apps to enable the full spectrum of learning and video engagement analytics throughout all elements of the Salesforce environment. Appinium is disrupting how and when content can be consumed and tracked all on top of the Salesforce Platform with singular goal of providing the exact right content, to the exact right person, at the exact right time to drive behavior change using cutting edge analytics and insights. To learn more, visit www.appinium.com. 

For more information:

Diane Haines

OpenSesame

(503) 808-1268