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5 Ways E-Learning Can Improve Your Leadership Development Program

Why Leadership Development is Important
Leadership development is a high priority and increasing as an overall percentage of training delivered in many organizations because of several positive business benefits:

  • Financial return.
  • Employee satisfaction and retention.
  • Building bench strength.
  • Strategic and competitive advantage.
  • Enhanced productivity and faster resolution of problems.
  • Continuous innovation.
  • Organizational agility.

Leaders drive performance, and the higher the leader and the broader the scope of his or her responsibility, the greater the impact that the individual can have on an organization. So while it may difficult to measure exactly now much leadership development programs contribute to something like financial return, it is generally accepted that good leaders and managers produce higher performing teams that produce better results.

Demographic shifts are also forcing companies to focus on their leadership development efforts. With almost 80 million baby boomers approaching retirement in the next decade, there will be significant impact on pipeline of available leadership talent, and the cost of recruiting and retaining competent managers is going to increase.

E-Learning Can Improve Leadership Development Programs
While e-learning is not a complete solution when it comes to leadership development, it can be used to increase its effectiveness in several important ways:

Increased Reach
Traditionally, leadership training has been confined to employees who can attend a classroom event. This makes it difficult and/or expensive to reach geographically dispersed employees. The increasingly global and mobile nature of today’s workforce means that many employees may be left out of traditional classroom-based leadership training programs.

But technology-based learning content can provide basic soft skills training and information to any learner with an Internet connection. E-learning can effectively eliminate the barriers of time and geography.

Consistency
Ensuring a consistent approach to leadership often means instituting a talent management process based on a system of competencies that align with specific company objectives. If leadership competencies are identified for all levels and job roles, there can be a systematic process for assessing employees and recommending training interventions based on job role and level. Competency management gives organizations better visibility into their leadership strengths and weaknesses, and aids in long-term planning.

Speed & Efficiency
While leadership training must include “high touch” activities to be effective, e-learning can often be used to reach the training goal quicker and at a lower cost. There are numerous models for blended learning ranging from the very simple to complex. One of the most common is to use e-learning as a pre-requisite to classroom training. This can shorten the overall time needed for employees to complete training. It also ensures that learners arrive at the training event with a common understanding and baseline of knowledge, ready to take advantage of the unique benefits of being with other students and a live instructor.

E-Learning also shortens the amount of time that employees are physically away from their jobs. Online learning also offers the opportunity for learners to take classes when it is most convenient for them, and to progress as quickly or slowly as necessary.

Skills can also be assessed online prior to training, which may allow some learners to test-out of certain parts of training. Shortening time away from the job can be an especially important benefit in leadership training, which often involves key employees with significant responsibilities.

Reinforcement Over Time
Training impact tends to fade over time. But research shows that when learning is reinforced before and after the training event, the positive effects are greater and last longer. Managers can use e-learning to reinforce key points of training, thereby taking leadership development from a series of disconnected events to more of a continuous development process.

Support Collaboration & Relationship Building
Managing global teams is a reality in today’s workplace, and also one of the greatest challenges managers face. Technology such as the virtual classroom, blogs, wikis and social networks are being used to support collaboration for geographically dispersed teams. “Blended” does not have to imply “classroom.” Many of today’s leadership programs are exclusively conducted virtually. In this format, participants take online courses that are augmented with online collaboration sessions, conference calls or virtual collaboration exercises.

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An Experiment Takes Off

When Karen Symms Gallagher ran into fellow education deans last year, many of them were “politely skeptical,” the University of Southern California dean says (politely), about her institution’s experiment to take its master’s program in teaching online.

Many of them seemed to appreciate Gallagher’s argument that the traditional model of teacher education programs had largely failed to produce the many more top-notch teachers that California (and so many other states) desperately needed. But could a high-quality MAT program be delivered online? And through a partnership with a for-profit entity (2Tor), no less? Really?

Early results about the program known as MAT@USC have greatly pleased Gallagher and USC. One hundred forty-four students enrolled in the Rossier School of Education program’s first full cohort in May, 50 percent more than anticipated and significantly larger than the 100 students who started at that time in the traditional master’s in teaching program on the university’s Los Angeles campus.

And this month, a new group of 302 students started in the second of three planned “starts” per year, meaning that USC has already quadrupled the number of would-be teachers it is educating this year and, depending on how many students enroll in January, is on track to increase it a few times more than that.

It will be a while — years, probably, until outcomes on teacher certification exams are in and the program’s graduates have been successful (or not) in the classroom — before questions about the program’s quality and performance are fully answered (though officials there point out that the technology platform, like much online learning software, provides steady insight into how successfully students are staying on track). But USC officials say that short of quantitative measures such as those, they believe the online program is attracting equally qualified students and is providing an education that is fully equivalent to Rossier’s on-ground master’s program — goals that the institution viewed as essential so as not to “dilute the brand” of USC’s well-regarded program.

Read the full article.

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eCornell Announces New High Performance Leadership Certificate

eCornell has announced the launch of Cornell University Professor Samuel Bacharach’s newest online certificate program, High Performance Leadership.  Bacharach, the McKelvey-Grant Professor of Organizational Behavior at Cornell’s ILR School and director of Cornell ILR’s Institute for Workplace Studies, developed this ten-course certificate program to develop the critical skills leaders need to execute and get things done in organizations.

“This program is for managers and leaders who are already experts in their functional areas,” says Bacharach. “It is for people who know what they want to do but don’t have the proactive leadership skills to do it. In order to operate and succeed in their organizations, high-performance leaders need to be able to be able to mobilize coalitions, maintain momentum, negotiate for results, coach others to achieve their potential, and above all, execute. This program teaches those skills.”

High Potential Leadership continues Bacharach’s work asking “What makes leadership work?” and developing rigorous and relevant courses to develop the skills necessary to lead at the highest levels. This program complements Bacharach’s first eCornell certificate program, Change Leadership, by adding courses in negotiations and coaching.

Bacharach is an active blogger on leadership issues at the Bacharach Blog.

Read the certificate description to learn more about High Performance Leadership.

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The Equal Opportunity Library

Google’s ambitious book digitization project will democratize access to knowledge for members of minority and other underrepresented groups, said scholars and activists gathered at the Howard University School of Law on Wednesday.

Panel members at the historically black university applauded Google’s plan to scan and index 10 million books for the Web. Among those who will benefit are African Americans and Latinos who attend inner-city schools and lack a quality education, said Wade Henderson, president and CEO of the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights.

“This project is so incredible because it helps level the playing field at the fundamental intersections of rights, knowledge and advocacy,” he said.

Read the full article.

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Blackboard Loses on Appeal

On July 27, 2009, a federal appeals court invalidated Blackboard Inc.’s 1999 patent for its learning management software, overturning a lower court’s decision last year finding that the Blackboard competitor Desire2Learn had infringed the giant’s intellectual property.

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Monday’s ruling by the appeals court is the latest development in a several-year court battle initiated by Blackboard in July 2006. The behemoth accused Desire2Learn of infringing dozens of Blackboard patents for online course management and e-learning technologies, and sought $17 million in damages and an injunction barring the Canadian company from continuing to infringe the patent.

After a two-week trial in Lufkin, Texas, a jury in a district court seen as friendly to patent holders ruled that Desire2Learn’s learning platform used technologies for which Blackboard received U.S. patents, known collectively as the ” ‘138 patent,” in January 2006. But its verdict gave the company far less than it was asking for, awarding Blackboard $2.5 million for lost profits and $630,000 in royalties. The district court invalidated 35 of the 38 claims that Blackboard made against Desire2Learn, but backed three other claims related to what constitutes a “user” of a learning management system.

Both companies appealed the parts of the case they’d lost to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, which has nationwide jurisdiction over U.S. patent claims. Its highly technical decision upheld the lower court’s conclusion that Blackboard’s claims 1-35 were invalid. But the three-judge panel rejected the lower court’s finding that Blackboard’s patented learning system had originated the approach of giving a single user with a single log-in multiple roles, such as being a teacher in one course and a student in another.

But Blackboard has already initiated another lawsuit against Desire2Learn, accusing the Canadian firm in April of infringing new U.S. patents that the company received on its software. So while company officials continue to reassure higher education technology officials and others that Blackboard has no intention of asserting its patent rights against “open source or home-grown course management systems that are not bundled with proprietary software,” they show no signs of retreating in the wake of Monday’s stinging defeat.

Read the full article.

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Feedback From Project Leadership Students

Cornell University’s Project Leadership Certificate launched in the late fall of 2008.  Here’s some feedback from a few of the students who have taken courses in this certificate.

“One of the best Courses I have ever taken. Opened my eyes to ideas, myself and my-co-workers I have never considered. Will be a huge benefit to me and my company.”

“Very interesting course.  I always focus on the functional requirements of tasks and the assignment of people to those tasks.  This course will help me look at cultural and learning style differences as well.  Each module is more rewarding than the last.  I believe that, thus far, the course has been presented in the best way to help me improve my leadership skills.  I look at the course, not just from a traditional project” standpoint, but also from an everyday magagement standpoint.  Employee development, building an ethical and profitable culture, and other everyday management challenges, are all projects, in a sense. ”

“Great insights and course material.  I love the continued focus of this overall certificate program on leadership rather than management.  Well done!”

“Great course. Expertly designed. Class material was invaluable.Systematic and easy for the participants to go to one chapter to another easily.  Graphics, work-flow illustrated in the course makes the course content more interesting.”

“Good exposure to models and techniques.  As from now on after having been introduced with the tools and techniques necessary to spearhead my next project and bring it on time, on budget and at performance levels that will add directly to my company’s bottom line.  I must say that even though I work a full time job and do night get home to study until 930 pm Italian time, the division of information and the use of real world examples has help me fit this into my already tight life schedule.  Real life experiences work well, especially since they help to reduce my doubt that cannot be aided by asking a direct question in person.”

“Beautiful content, eye-opening and I particularly enjoy the practical nature. It captures a lot of work place realities.  I practice most of what has been taught but I gathered more details and a reason behind it.”

Please contact info@ecornell.com for more information.

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Is the money I spent on my eCornell coursework tax deductible?

As tax season approaches, and the April 15th deadline creeps upon us, it’s a great time to ask the question, “Is the money I spent on my eCornell coursework tax deductible?”

Well, that is a question your accountant can answer for you – however, if you do your own legwork, you might find some great tips that the IRS has available online to get you on your way.  According to the IRS website there are ways to have your eCornell education work in your favor, tax-wise, and deduct it as a work-related educational expense as an itemized deduction on your 1040.

Again, you should consult with your accountant before claiming your eCornell coursework as a work-related educational deduction, but according to the IRS website you are able to use educational expenses as a deductible work-related educational expense when your eCornell courses are used for (1) education that maintains or improves your job performance or (2) serves the purpose of your employer and is required by the employer or by law to keep your salary, status or job, and (3) the education is not part of a program that will qualify you for a new trade or business.

Most of our students that pay for their eCornell education out of pocket, and are using their studies to enrich their own career, could qualify for a legitimate and significant work-related deduction, and who couldn’t use some extra money nowadays?

Please consult with your accountant before making any tax decisions, or visit the IRS website, or call the IRS TeleTax line at 800-829-4477, topic 513, for more information.

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eCornell to Present with IBM India at Chief Learning Officer Symposium 2009

On  Tuesday April 7, eCornell will be co-presenting with IBM India on the success of IBM’s blended learning program Bright Blue.  The presentation, titled Accelerating the Development of the Executive Leadership, will be delivered by Radhika Singh, IBM India’s Growth Markets Leader, Executive Development, Centre for Learning & Development.

The presentation will discuss how the Bright Blue program is designed to build and strengthen IBM’s pipeline of executive leaders in line with the company’s rapid growth into the future. Bright Blue integrates online financial management and leadership training from eCornell with the strategic use of IBM’s existing global learning assets. Ms. Singh will discuss the strategy, approach and results of this innovative program that already has trained more than 120 managers and how it  has improved business acumen, provided exposure to industry expertise and best practices, delivered quantifiable ROI in its first six months, significantly increased key leadership competencies and helped fill the leadership pipeline.

eCornell is a proud sponsor of the Spring 2009 CLO Symposium: Beyond Boundaries: Learning’s Impact Across the Organization being held April 6 – 8 at the Lowes Miami Beach Hotel, Miami Beach, Florida.

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The Proactive Leader: Skills for Sustaining Momentum in Uncertain Times with Professor Samuel Bacharach

eCornell, in partnership with the Cornell Entrepreneur Network, sponsored a breakfast seminar on March 20 with Cornell University ILR Professor Samuel Bacharach, Ph.D.  The event was held at the Cornell Club in New York City with over 80 attendees , primarily Cornell University alumni and eCornell clients.

Professor Bacharach’s dynamic 60-minute presentation focused on the skills that all successful leaders need to possess in order to execute on strategic plans, motivate others, and sustain momentum.  His interactive talk highlighted the skills and deficits apparent in corporate and governmental leaders that are making headline news every day. In particular, he emphasized the declining role of charisma in leadership and the renewed emphasis at the organizational level of the need for integrated strategic visions and capacity to execute.

Professor Bacharach is a frequent writer on leadership and blogs frequently on the topic. Video from the eCornell/CEN event is expected to be posted shortly on his blog.