Learning for Workplace Success

• Dental and medical appointments
• Create a list of things financial goals for the year
• Update my résumé and professional connections

This is a rather standard list of very basic tasks but you’d be surprised how many people don’t take care of their physical, financial, or professional wellbeing.

The medical appts probably don't surprise you and the review of financial goals probably makes sense to most people. But being proactive about your professional wellbeing is also one of the most important things you can do for yourself and your loved ones. So, every January I take an inventory of where I am professionally. This is a practice one of my mentors taught me long ago. Some years I am more on top of things than others but I try to ask myself these 4 questions every January. 

1. What did I achieve in the previous year?
2. What did I learn in the previous year?
3. Am I on the right path to reach my professional goals?
4. Am I still pursuing my professional ideal?

The answers to these questions tell me if I need to continue on the same path or make changes in order to reach my personal and professional goals. This approach has worked for me for many years. I have even passed this approach along to those I mentor so they can use it as a tool to help keep them on track.

Take a few minutes and ask yourself these 4 questions. Consider the answers thoroughly and determine if you are on the right track to reach your professional ideal. If you find that you haven’t achieved what you’d like or that you didn’t learn as much in the previous year as you needed to reach your goals, consider a change in direction. That change may mean returning to school or earning a professional certification.­ The College Network can help you earn your Six Sigma Green Belt, a Paralegal Certificate, or one of many degrees offered by our partner institutions.

Give The College Network a call at (1.800.395.1014) and talk with one of our Program Advisors about earning the education that will allow you to achieve the answers to these questions that will take you where you want to be professionally. 

cd

I recently conducted a webinar in which I grew annoyed with myself when I noticed that I was speaking in a strange manner. I used the word actually over and over again. It wasn’t misplaced use though. Each time I said the word it truly fit the situation. But I was very aware of the fact that in nearly every sentence I was saying the word actually. I tried to edit myself but I just couldn’t get it under control.

Never before had I noticed this behavior and yet, it was so obvious that I quickly became annoyed at myself. Here I was a professional who was supposed to be an experienced presenter and out of the clear blue I had developed what appeared to be a nervous tick of some sort; or was it?

As I replayed the day I was relieved to find that it wasn’t a nervous tick, at all.  Instead, it was an indicator of the underlying issue I was trying to address in my presentation.

The topic being presented was the effective design of eLearning solutions. The goal was to help people understand that presenting information isn’t enough to ensure that employees truly learn and can apply that information. There is a big difference in being exposed to information and actually learning information. This difference is the reason I kept saying the word actually.

The truth of the matter is:

--  Many students/learners are reading, but they aren’t actually learning.
-- Many employees are performing but they aren’t actually performing well.
-- Instructional content can present information without actually supporting the learning process.

In short, thinking and learning are processes that can look like they’re taking place without actually taking place at all. If a learner doesn’t know how to ensure they are learning they might actually be wasting their time, energy, and resources. 

What can be done to ensure this is not the case with you and your learning activities?  If you want to ensure that you are truly learning what you need to learn to reach your educational and professional goals, call The College Network (1.800.395.1014) and talk to one of our representatives about what we do to help our customers learn effectively and efficiently.

cd

Can you believe August has already rolled around and the start of fall semester is right around the corner? It seems like just yesterday we were all talking about our New Year’s resolutions and what we wanted to achieve this year. Now here we are, 8 months into the year with 2012 coming quickly around the bend.

All of this brought to mind some words I heard when I was a kid. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandmother and her friends. I guess I was one of those kids who was a bit older than my years. Anyway, I remember one of my grandmother’s friends telling me that as we grow older time seems to go by faster. At the time this made absolutely no sense to me. The words fell on young and confused ears.

But as I grow older I’m beginning to understand. A week is still a week and has the same number of days and hours but my how they fly by now that my time is stretched between so many commitments and responsibilities. As a kid, a month used to feel more like three months; but now feels like only two weeks.

Hhhhhmmmm, a month; what could I accomplish in a month?

I recently watched this brief video of a gentleman named Matt Cutts talking for a few minutes about the value of 30 days and how he changed his life by challenging himself 30 days at a time.

Stop reading and watch the video…you won’t regret it.

...

Did you watch it?

...

What would you like to change in 30 days? Are there things you wanted to achieve this year that have fallen by the wayside?

There are still 5 months left in this year. What could you accomplish in that time? What could you do in just 30 days?

If while reading this post, or watching Matt’s talk you found yourself thinking about your educational goals and the fact that you’d like to complete an advanced nursing degree, become a BSN, or learn more about online degrees from leading universities, call The College Network (1.800. 395.1014).

Challenge yourself. Let’s see what you can accomplish before the end of 2011.

cd 

Returning to school to earn a degree is an experience that often brings about such moments; especially when studying something that is enjoyed beyond the classroom. It can be formal or informal; required for credit or pursued for pleasure; enjoyed with friends or personal and private; instructor-led or self-directed. No matter how it’s packaged learning can be life changing.

Look for opportunities to learn. You may stumble upon a life-changing moment.

Call The College Network (1.800.395.1014) to learn more about certificate programs and degree programs that can lead you to a life-changing moment.

cd

…it’s hard on some days to keep your head above water. How do you keep everything moving forward when so many people need so much from you?

If you have ever had this thought—let’s face it, we all have at one point or another—then you probably need to take a quick inventory of what you’re balancing on your proverbial plate by engaging in this simple exercise.

The Exercise

1. Stop everything. I know this seems impossible, but make it happen or the suffering continues.
2. Examine what's on your plate. Really think about how you spend your time and what truly matters to you.
3. Remove anything that shouldn't be on your plate. This might honk some people off initially, but those who care about you will understand. Everyone else will get over it. :-D
4. Now, consider how you approach work. Are you approaching work, tasks, and life with a plan? Do you know how to develop a plan that puts you where you want to be in life?
5. Develop a plan to get the things that matter done and done well.
6. Approach life with renewed energy as you put your plan into action.

If you get stuck on item 4 you're like many people (young and old) who are being limited by the way they think or how they approach situations that require reasoning skills.

In order to accomplish MORE, BETTER, FASTER, a person has to have strong cognitive skills so that they can effectively examine, evaluate, sort, decide, plan, implement, review, and revise.

By now, you probably see where I’m headed with this post. Everything we do in life is affected by how we think. In the very near future, The College Network is going to launch a powerful new web site to help our customers become more skilled in the area of thinking and learning. If you would like to know more about how to hone your skills and increase your ability to achieve more, better, faster call The College Network (1.800.395.1014) and speak with one of our Program Advisors about steps you can take to complete your education online or earn a certificate from a leading university.

cd

At some point in your K-12 education, you probably found value in the use of flashcards. But have you thought about using them now that you’re an adult learner?

Flashcards are a GREAT tool for committing almost anything to memory. And let’s face it, when you begin any type of academic or training program, there is quite a bit of information that needs to be memorized before you can do anything more with it.

To ensure that you get the most out of your stack of flashcards, watch this brief video of Dr. Katherine Rawson (of Kent State University) as she provides tips on how to use flashcards effectively and efficiently based on what she and her team have learned via their research: http://www.kent.edu/news/video/rawsonvideo.cfm.

Dr. Rawson was recently recognized by U.S. President Obama and given the honor of being a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers.

Why does this matter to you? Well, for those of you who aren’t sure about the value and/or quality of online learning, it may make your decision to enter an online program a little easier.

The report, which was released in November 2010 and is titled Class Differences: Online Education in the United States, reveals the following:  

In addition to being of equal or greater instructional quality, online courses also provide the following benefits:

-- They take the pressure off of having to be in a traditional classroom; instead, you can study in the privacy of your home or wherever you are most comfortable. If you have trouble responding to questions in the classroom or you deal with test anxiety, learning online allows you to answer questions and take exams via computer rather than face-to-face. Some learners find this quite helpful, especially early on in their program, until they build up their confidence. NOTE: Research studies have shown that responses to study questions submitted online are often of a higher quality than those provided in a more traditional, face-to-face dialog.

-- They allow you to study at the time of day or on the days that fit you best. As long as you get your work turned in on time, when you complete the work is up to you.

-- They provide access to resources that can be viewed or completed repeatedly. This is especially helpful if you have been out of school for a while and want to ramp up your study skills by putting in some extra time and effort.

-- They increase your ability to use technology in a meaningful manner. This could turn out to be a professional benefit in the long run as online courses utilize many software packages that are also common in the workplace.

I could continue with this list, but I think you get the point. Stop putting off what could be the most important decision you’ve made in a long time. Call The College Network (1.800.395.1014) and let us help you get started completing your degree online.

So many times when we want to change where we are in life, we end up doing more of the same thing we’re already doing. I’m sure there’s a formal name for this but I generally refer to it as human nature because in most situations, people just don’t know what it is they don’t know.

The same is true when people want to improve their ability to learn. Generally, they begin by doing more of the same thing they were already doing. So, if they were already operating at the Comprehension Level they will try to comprehend more. If they have been operating at the Analysis Level they will try to analyze more. This can lead to serious frustration when the learner is exerting more effort but seeing little return on their investment from the learning perspective.  

Rather than simply doing more of the same thing, learners should ask and answer the following questions to be sure they're on target.

-- What does it take to complete the assigned learning tasks?

-- At which level does the assigned learning task align with the 6 levels of learning?

-- Am I just doing more on the same level or am I improving my ability to achieve more advanced thinking/learning? 

If you aren’t sure you know the answers to these questions as they relate to your education goals, call The College Network (1.800.395.1014) so that we can help you ensure that you get a great return on the time and money you invest in your education. We can help by showing you a better way to earn online degrees from top universities while becoming a more effective learner overall.

Books that tell you how to bring about change in your life are a dime a dozen these days. But if you’re pursuing that type of information, and you purchase and read several of those books, you will begin to see a pattern emerge.

You see, whether you’re trying to lose weight, make more money, or master a new form of expression through the arts, you have to do one single thing to initiate each of these changes in your life. You must first make a commitment to the process required to achieve your goal. 

It’s no different if you want to become more skilled in the area of learning. It will require a commitment to the process. There are no shortcuts to becoming the best learner you can be.

Depending on where you are in life, you may wonder why learning would matter to anyone over a certain age. After all, doesn’t all of that school stuff fall by the wayside once you graduate high school or college?

The answer is, DEFINITELY NOT if you want to advance in your chosen career. If you disagree with my stance on this, consider the following: 

• Open-ended review questions (with immediate feedback)
• Multiple-choice quizzes
• Multiple-choice practice exams

In addition to these mastery assessment options, The College Network's customers are also provided with instructional objectives (accompanied by appropriate behaviors/responses) for each chapter/lesson. This approach allows us to demonstrate the level of cognitive processing required for learners to adequately prepare for their end-of-course exam. The diagram below provides a visual representation of the relationship between the instructional objectives, the mastery assessment options, and the end-of-course exam.

The College Network works hard to ensure that our learners not only earn credit toward the completion of their degree but also receive instruction on how to learn more effectively and efficiently. This allows each of our customers to experience success when they transition to their institution of choice as well as in their everyday lives.

For more information on how you can earn your degree working with The College Network and our partner institutions, call 1.800.395.1014.

It’s a commonly accepted fact that any structure is only as strong as its foundation. The same is true when it comes to building a knowledge base. Whether you’re setting out to master specific course content to get your Associates Degree in Nursing, earn your Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, or complete a PMP Preparation Course, you will have a better chance at success if you begin your quest by understanding the steps you should take to ensure that you succeed. It seems obvious, but very few people consider the specific steps that should be taken to build a strong foundation for their learning.

Here are a few tips that work across several situations. Depending on your individual cognitive style and learning preferences, you may address these tasks in a different order; completing each is what’s most important.

Suggestions for Developing a Strong Foundation

• Learn the language of the topic/course you are studying. Vocabulary, key terms, and glossaries are great places to begin studying a topic.

• Don’t just read the material. Identify the concepts and principles (rules) presented in the material.

• Rather than stop at identifying the rules, know when to apply them to specific situations.

This may seem like a lot of work, but if you begin each learning experience with these three goals in mind AND you work to achieve all three, you will establish a firm foundation for your knowledge base.

cd

During my days of classroom instruction, I taught courses on a variety of topics that ranged from technical communication to 3D modeling and animation. One of my favorite courses was Advanced Interactive Media. I liked teaching this course because the students who enrolled were far enough along in their program that they were able to effectively use the information presented in the prerequisite courses to design and develop meaningful and useful products. Most of them could effectively utilize the information they had learned.

There were always at least a handful of students who had been able to complete the lower-level courses successfully but were not able to build on what they had learned in each of their courses so that they could develop meaningful interactions. This was frustrating for both them and me because as the instructor I needed to be able to operate on certain assumptions.

Instructor’s Assumptions

• You are in this class because you successfully completed the prerequisites.

• If you took the time and effort to complete the prerequisites, you understand the basic connection between the information presented in the prerequisite courses and this course.

• You are taking this series of courses so that you can build a career using the skills learned in these courses.

What I found after teaching the course once or twice was that not all students were able to make the necessary connections between what they had learned in previous courses and what they were required to do in this more advanced course. Not only were they not engaging in basic reflection as it pertained to the material and skills they were supposed to be learning in their courses, some were quite confused about the fact that I wasn’t going to RE-teach them how to develop instructional graphics, design an interface, or effectively use a cuing mechanism. Rather, it was my duty in the advanced course to provide them the opportunity to utilize what they had learned previously to new situations that were complex and lifelike.

I soon got to the point that before delving into the material for the course I would do a mini-lecture on how they should approach the semester if they wanted to be successful in building a knowledge base and skill set that would serve them well professionally. Here is the essence of the lecture: students who begin each course in their program as if they are starting at ground zero are missing a valuable opportunity to make meaningful connections that will serve as the foundation to their knowledge base.

This is true based on the fact that courses included in a program or curriculum which leads to the development of a specific skill-set or professional title are not meant to stand alone but rather to build upon one another. The information is related in some meaningful way. AND, it's true whether you're in Paralegal Training Courses, a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt course, or pursuing your MS in Nursing Management.  

Thinking about what you're learning as it relates to what you learned previously, is a very important part of the learning process. Especially when engaged in self-directed or self-paced learning.

In my next post, I will share a method for ensuring that your course-specific or even your professional knowledge base is developed in a manner that will serve you well for years to come.
 

cd

Every once in a while I find myself having a conversation that I have had several times over the past fifteen years. I have now had the conversation so often that it no longer surprises me when it occurs. It is a conversation that has the potential to be life-changing.

The focus of the conversation is based on a single word—reflection.

You see, reflection is the difference between collecting pieces of information (or experiences) and learning (growing). Stated a bit differently, reflection is the difference between collecting information and connecting information. Even more accurately, reflection is the difference between those who successfully establish a knowledge base they can build upon and those who are simply wandering aimlessly through their educational process.

Someone may be asking at this point—what exactly is the definition of reflection?

Generally speaking, reflection, in the learning context, is the deliberate act of thinking back on information previously encountered in order to make meaningful connections between that information and the information being presented currently.

For example, this blog entry on Making Meaning Through Reflection is connected to last week’s blog entry titled One Must Use It Well. Do you understand the connection between the two?

With a bit of review and reflection, you should easily be able to make the connection between the two blog entries. While this may appear a very simplistic example, it is a perfect example of how reflection helps us build our understanding or make meaningful connections between small or even large bodies of information.

Here is another way to look at it. Let’s use the analogy of laying a foundation for a house or small building. The individual pieces of information (fact, concepts, examples, etc.) could be represented by the individual cinder blocks in the image above. Each of these cinder blocks is strong as a stand-alone entity; but, a single block has only a few, limited uses.

The real potential of the cinder block becomes evident when mortar is used to bind several together so that they form a foundation for something larger and with greater purpose. Reflection is the mortar of the learning process. It binds together the individual pieces of information so that we engage in making meaningful connections that lead to the development of a strong knowledge base.

In my next entry, I'll expound further on the role of reflection as it relates to self-paced education and training or pursuing your Accelerated RN to BSN degree. This will enable you to get the most out of your online learning experience with The College Network.

cd
 

Many years ago, I took an introductory philosophy course and was exposed to the teaching of René Descartes. While Descartes is probably best known for the statement Cogito ergo sum (I think, therefore I am) he was also the inventor of the Cartesian coordinate system (which served as the basis for many mathematical advances) and far too many other major contributions to address in this format. In short, he’s known as the Father of Modern Philosophy, due to the fact that his contributions and philosophical views were so widely accepted.

In his work titled Discourse on the Method, he stated the following regarding thinking correctly:

". . .differences of opinion are not due to difference in intelligence, but merely to the fact that we use different approaches and consider different things. For it is not enough to have a good mind: one must use it well."

Because in today’s workforce this truth is more evident than ever before, I thought I'd provide some examples. For young people trying to enter the workforce, people of any age trying to re-enter the workforce, or someone who wants to transition to a new career, there are some things you will want to know sooner rather than later if you plan to succeed. Who knows, maybe this little list will help someone get that next promotion or make the decision to return to school to complete his or her degree.

1. How you think will determine how quickly (or not) you will advance in your chosen field. Stated another way, how you think today will determine your tomorrow.

Do you solve problems effectively? Do you think beyond what is required to complete assigned tasks or just enough to get by?

2. Those who reflect often are often considered wise. (Or is it, those who are considered wise reflect often?)

If you want to learn more about the power of reflection tune in next week when reflection will be the main topic.

3. Learning is not defined by the collection of random pieces of information. Rather, learning is defined by how one connects pieces of information.

Do you understand both the details as well as the big picture when it comes to your workplace responsibilities? Do you know how your work affects the work of others? How does what you do fit into bigger processes? 

If you're an LPN looking for good nursing schools, accelerated nursing courses, or a way to earn your ADN, The College Network can help you find an online nursing program to meet your needs.

Stop and take a minute to reflect on this.

So, what do you think?

Until next week.

cd

I have encountered so many people who think that post-secondary education is all about completing a series of assignments or jumping through hoops of some sort. More accurately, university-level education in the 21st century is about learning how to learn and think; and then effectively and efficiently applying that understanding to different situations in the classroom, the workplace, and life in general.

The problem--this is not how higher education is marketed to the masses.
 
For years there have been ongoing debates regarding the merits of formal education vs. common sense and on-the-job training. These debates will likely continue for generations to come. However, few people can effectively argue the following points.

• We live in an era in which information is abundant (to say the least).

• Being able to process significant amounts of information quickly and accurately is a requirement for many of today's leading professions.

• Being able to decide which information is of the greatest value then utilize that information in decision making is an ability sought by many employers.

Let's take the field of nursing for example. There’s a national focus to push education requirements for RNs to the baccalaureate level. While many think this push is about education in the generic sense it is actually more about the level of cognitive processing and decision making required to improve patient outcomes.

Unfortunately, many approach post-secondary education like it's a destination rather than a journey. Development of keen analytical skills and the ability to effectively synthesize large amounts of information is achieved through completion of exercises that take place under the supervision of educators who know how to guide learners as they begin such a journey.

In short, a quality education doesn't teach you the answers; it teaches you how to recognize them along the way.

The programs offered by The College Network and their partner institutions allow people to embark on this journey and complete their nursing degree by taking accelerated nursing courses and nursing prerequisites online. If you want to be proactive about developing skills that will advance your career and you are considering completing a Registered Nurse program, call The College Network and let the journey begin.