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By admin, January 3, 2012 2:58 pm

Today’s technology has allowed people to do the impossible. Now, thanks to internet and computer, people are able to continue their study online, so whenever they want to continue their learning process, they won’t be restricted to certain schedule, geographical boundaries, or time. If you live in America, and you want to take part in certain French cultural study from a French university, for instance, you can always have it. Having the easiness in study is certainly beneficial and handy. That’s why when you want to take the RN to BSN online programs, you can always do it.

RN to BSN programs are just one of the many programs available for professional nurses. Nowadays, nurses are having more important and crucial role in the medical worlds. They are no longer the doctors’ helpers anymore; they’re able to be responsible other fields, such as management, administration, and even public speaking and communication. Today’s nursing health workers are given the option and chance to continue their study and to learn about other areas, including administration and management so when they have advanced career, they’re able to handle the administrative procedures as well as other nursing workers management. That’s why most nurses will also learn about Masters of Public Administration subject when they continue their study to the advanced level.

Having higher degree will also open up newer possibilities as well as better career and also better earning for these nurses. It doesn’t matter whether they can take their study online or offline; as long as they manage to have higher degree and enhanced knowledge concerning the subjects they’re studying about, they have opened up new possibility and chance for themselves. When these nurses want to take RN to BSN programs, they can certainly do it. Continuing the study to improve career and have better life quality is always a good option for everyone, isn’t it?

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By admin, April 18, 2011 12:32 am

Profession Engineer and Management Continuing Education

Are you like many engineers; highly trained to solve technical problems but not as confident with your people skills? There is a big difference between engineering design and business management. In the engineering profession engineers are constantly studying to stay current on the latest technologies and engineering strategies. For many engineers it is extremely difficult to transition from engineer to manager. Since business and management are not usually classes in engineering college, engineers are expected to obtain their business skills through experience and continuing education. Unless you have a MBA, you will probably find it difficult to locate qualified continuing education sources with management courses tailored for engineers.

Most of the State Licensing Boards require Professional Engineers to renew their professional licenses periodically with a minimum number of continuing education units. These units are usually Professional Development Hours (PDH) or Continuing Education Units (CEU). One PDH is equivalent to one hour of course education, and one CEU is equivalent to ten PDH or ten hours of course education. To obtain these units of continuing education the professional engineer will attend or teach the seminars, classes, or courses, write articles, or sit on professional boards or committees. The majority of engineers obtain their credits by attending conferences or seminars.

Nearly all of the states that require continuing education credits accept business or managerial courses as long as they are related to engineering. In other words you can not take a class in “How to start your own Retail Business” and expect to receive continuing education credit for renewing your professional engineering license. But you can take a course in “Engineering Business Marketing Techniques” and receive full credit.

In addition, most State Licensure Boards do not pre-approve courses for continuing education credit. This responsibility is usually left to the engineer to understand the state codes and to screen the courses appropriately. The Board will either accept or decline the courses after the engineer has submitted the license renewal application and listed the completed and credits received.

Engineering managerial courses can include topics on Engineering Business Plan, Engineering Operations, Engineering Marketing, Financials, Proposals, Leadership, and many others. To acquire the necessary continuing education units, engineers can find these courses in the following sources;

Community College and University Continuing Education Courses – These institutions regularly offer courses on numerous topics. Since the courses have to appeal to a wide audience, they usually do not cover technical topics that would be of interest to engineers. You can find business topics, but these courses are very general. Management courses that can apply to engineers my have words like “professional services” and “technical industry” in the course title.

Vendor Seminar (Lunch Presentation) – This has been one my favorite sources. It usually starts by a product vendor giving you a call. He will ask if you would be interested in a presentation at your office. If you are interested you may say “Yes, but I will need for the presentation to be made at my office during lunch our hour. The attendees will be my engineers and designers, and I will need for you to bring lunch.” Your team will listen to the vendor’s presentation, review his products and literature, ask technical questions, and enjoy lunch. Each of your Professional Engineers gains about 0.5 PDH.

On-the-Job Training – Some firms actually have monthly training sessions for their engineers and support staff. The subjects can be on a wide array of technical, ethical, and managerial topics. As long as the subject covered, who made the presentation, who attended the training, date of the training session, and time spent training is documented, these sessions can count as continuing education.

Seminars – These courses are often held in a hotel conference room for a few hours to several days. Usually the courses offer continuing education credit of 8 PDH per day. If you have to travel to attend the seminar, your additional expenses beyond the cost of the seminar will include lodging, air fares, rental car, and dining. A three-day course can easily exceed several thousands dollars. Also take into account that during this time you will not be working on any contracts, your company will loss billable hours.

Convention and Conferences – These events offers the attendee a multitude of course topics. Attending one four-day convention, you can easily obtain all of the continuing education credits needed to renew your professional license. Like seminars if the convention is away from your home town, you will have additional expenses including lodging, air fares, rental car, and dining. Also since you are away from your office, you will loss billable hours. Again, a convention can cost you or your office thousands of dollars.

Home Study Courses – These courses have been around for a long time; long before the computer. The course material is sent to your home. You study the material, answer the quiz, and return the quiz. A week or two later a Course Completion certificate is sent to you. These types of course are being replaced by Online Courses as discussed below.

Online seminars – This is becoming a very popular program. Seminars that are online are often quite a bit less expensive than actually attending a seminar. Not only are the courses cheaper, but the attendee also saves due to no traveling, lodging, dining, or other expenses. Of course, the attendee will have to find a quite area to sit-up the computer and speakers, and to post a sign on the door saying “Do Not Disturb”. Once the seminar is completed you receive a Certificate of Completion with the number of PDH or CEU earned.

Online Courses – These courses are much like the home study course but everything is done over the internet. You can take the course 24/7, and you usually have instant access to the quiz and the certificate of completion. These courses are the most economical and convenient for the engineer. You can just about study any topic; technical, ethical, or managerial. Most websites tend toward the technical topics. While only a few websites specialize in the business of engineering. Since most of these courses are written by engineers, it is understandable that most of the courses are technical.

Most engineers have excellent technical skills, but not necessarily the same level of expertise in business management and marketing. It is the responsibility of the engineer to develop these management skills through continuing education. Continuing education can be obtained through Community Colleges, Universities, Professional Training Programs, Professional Organizations, and online training courses. In most states continuing education courses qualify for continuing education units (CEU) or Professional Development Hours (PDH).

In this article we have discussed the different sources for engineering continuing education. The transition from engineer to manager can be difficult, but there are resources available to obtain the necessary knowledge. Acquiring the necessary management skills can be the difference between a good and a bad manager.

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By admin, September 25, 2010 2:50 pm

Atutor ? Online Learning Management System

The emergence of the internet and the prevalence of personal computers in almost every sphere of human activity has also made its foray into the academic sector and a new concept has been introduced, this latest innovation is referred to as online learning or e-learning and it promotes online education to all those individuals having access to a computer and it involves learning through interaction with qualified tutors online and upon the conclusion of the course, online degrees are handed over to the selected successful candidates. It is interesting to note that unlike traditional educational system by means of which knowledge is imparted to the students manually, here interaction is based on a medium which facilitates transfer of knowledge. Therefore there is required certain tools which would aid in this mode of online learning. Such tools are known as learning management systems which comprise of a set of software applications which in their turn provide certain functions which are extremely beneficial in contributing to the cause of online learning. One of the most popular among the various learning management content systems or LCMS is known as ATutor and it is also an open source application which came into being for the first time in 2002 and there are multifarious reasons because of which ATutor is considered to be one of the most prominent online learning management systems. ATutor is distinguished to be the first among the learning content management systems to abide by the various accessibility specifications laid down by the W3C WCAG 1.0 and XHTML 1.0. While the latter allows ATutor to be displayed in all similar technological specifications, the former enables this learning content management system to gain access to the various categories of its operation at any point of time by any user.

In terms of adaptability functions, it is to be noted that ATutor can function in any given learning or teaching environment and there are certain features which reflect its mode fo functioning. These include themes and tool modules as well as study groups and other privileges. For long, it was considered to be a shortcoming on the part of the learning management systems as they were unable to provide the benefits of online learning to the blind and disabled candidates. But applications at ATutor has enabled these disabled candidates in gaining the advantages of online learning and it also provides various professional development courses designed for the teachers and researchers as well.

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By admin, September 24, 2010 1:08 am

Talent Management – Enhancing Performance With Online Learning or E-learning Tools

Talent Management has started to leverage greatly on learning and knowledge management approaches to enhance the performance of talents. Many learning platforms are incorporating online learning or e-learning as delivery channels. This has greatly impacted how knowledge information is managed as well.

Learning Management System or LMS is software for delivering, tracking and managing training. A complete LMS or learning management system tracks both online learning and physical training attended by the learner. More dynamic systems are developed with the learner’s KPIs or Key Performance Indicators incorporated within. Linking directly to the learner’s KPIs would give the evaluator better gauge of the learner’s ability to apply what was learnt, thereby indicating the Learning ROI or Learning Return On Investment.

This ties in well with the measurement of expected learning outcomes. Companies who have the budget would leverage on the the LMS or learning management system to semi-automate the learning process and manage the efficiency of each training program.

Benefits of the LMS is that it tracks the learning progress of the learner, with reminders to complete select programs applicable to the learner’s work requirements and progression path. When used as a talent management tool, the linking of KPIs or key performance indicators to the learning outcomes are most crucial as it forms part of the overall evaluation or appraisal system of work performance.

Closely intertwined within the LMS learning management system is the hosting of online learning or e-learning programs. Online learning or E-learning is most effective for access of static information which the learner previews the background and foundation of the topic in discussion.

As discussed, the LMS is capable of tracking both online learning and physical training programs. Blended with both forms of learning, it greatly enhances the learning curve of the learner.

Despite issues comprising of external factors which could render the measurement of Learning ROI less accurate, there are schools of thoughts supporting this trend. Many companies with the budget do leverage their Talent Management performance evaluation process on online learning and measuring the Learning ROI.

Stay tuned for the next articles featuring Talent Management on Compensation and Succession Planning.

A brief analysis of online learning.

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