Week 5 - eLearning

Back in my poly days, everyone looks forward to eLearning week because it meant 1 week of holiday for all of us. I never really understood the use of eLearning until now. 

Here is my list of pros for using eLearning:

More Flexible – eLearning can be done in short chunks of time that can fit around your daily schedule. Unlike public scheduled and in-house training, you don’t have to dedicate an entire day to the training that has been organised by the school. Instead, you will have a set amount of learning, normally divided into modules, with a deadline in which to do them in. This way, if you want to do all of the learning in one day as you work better this way, you can. However if your schedule doesn’t allow you an entire day off your everyday tasks – then you can easily spend an hour or 2 here and there at times that suit you.

Mobile – As eLearning can be done on laptops, tablets and phones – it is a very mobile method. Learning can be done on the train, on a plane or any other time that could normally be wasted. Whilst you used to be confined to the classroom, the whole world can now be your classroom.

No Travel– As just mentioned, eLearning can be done wherever you have a device capable of doing so. Therefore again you can fit it in to your schedule, but also save money on the costs of travel. Furthermore, it saves the time getting dressed and travelling to school!

Lower cost – As you aren’t using a trainer’s time or any room or equipment, eLearning tends to be the much cheaper option. If you already have a device capable of carrying out the training on, then the savings can be considerable. Therefore if you and your company are on a budget, this can be the ideal option for you.  Equally for companies that have thousands of employees then it can reduce the cost per head especially on areas such as Money Laundering, Compliance and Microsoft Office training.

Tailor it to you – eLearning courses aren’t confined to be fixed to try and suit the needs of the majority. If you feel you already know a particular area well and don’t need to spend an hour on it again, then you can skim over it and concentrate that time on something you feel you need to work more at. Everyone is able to learn at their own pace – a massive factor that only eLearning can provide for.

However, all these are not without its cons:

Lack of Control– Learners with low motivation tend to fall behind when using eLearning as there are no set times to be doing it and they are responsible for the organisation themselves. A lack of routine or fixed schedule can mean eLearning becomes complicated with various deadlines often given to different people at different stages of their learning.

Learning Approach – It doesn’t appeal to all learning styles so some learners will not enjoy the experience – especially strong activists and pragmatists.  It is still a challenge to make eLearning appeal fully to these groups as different people learn better or worse using different styles. Some may prefer images, some prefer just reading words and some prefer to talk about or actually do a task in order to learn.

Isolated – A lot of questions are a lot easily answered when face to face with someone when you can guarantee an instant answer. eLearning often doesn’t allow that with trainers often having to answer numerous questions all of the time and only doing it within working hours – where a lot of learners may prefer to do their learning out of working hours. This feeling of isolation can often demotivate individuals as they feel they don’t have the support and reassurance that the physical presence of a trainer or friend provides. 

Technology Issues – With heavy reliance on computers that eLearning brings, comes the potential risks that comes with it. Firstly, you need to ensure that all learners have a device that is able to support the training modules. Some eLearning tools require software such as Flash that devices like iPads don’t support. So all requirements need to be set out at the beginning. Poor internet connection and unavoidable general random faults also can interrupt learning and so need to be planned around.  This is especially true if it is a global roll out as Internet connections and power reliability changes dramatically between countries.

Week 4 - eBusiness

The internet has made many things easier such as communicating with friends and family and
banking. In these examples the internet saves time which in this day and age is a big convenience. 
The internet has allowed the development on online businesses which sell their products to a 
worldwide audience. Online businesses don’t have overheads associated with a shop front meaning 
they often have lower prices than a traditional shop. However lower prices don’t always mean you 
are getting the best value or that it will be the most convenient shopping experience. 

I have a love hate relationship with businesses that are online. I mean, people used to have to leave the house to go out and shop and buy things. And these small shopping trips, unknowingly, give you some form of exercise (or at least i believe so). You have to walk, climb stairs and maybe perspire a little because you're on the sunny island of Singapore.  

This happens to ALL of us, sadly.

With most of the businesses going online, my level of laziness has increased. Im turning more and more into a sloth each day. 

Here's a list of the pros Ive came up with of eBusiness and Online Shopping:

1. You dont have to leave the house and you can doing your shopping in your PJs.

2. No perspiring, no squeezing with the crowd, NO QUEUES. 

3. All your stuff, delivered to your door step.  

4. There is soooo many thing available online. You can get food to clothes to even cotton buds. 
5. Everything is sorted so nicely for you online, no need to flip through the racks of clothes individually.
6. For the really shy people, NO need to speak to the sales people to find your size! And no one trying to talk you into additional purchases.
7. Its open, 24/7. 

Okay, maybe i have more love for online shopping than expected. 

I guess what makes a good website to shop at is the interface. Compare these two clothing shops http://www.lovebonito.com/ vs http://fashionmartini.livejournal.com/

Lovebonito seems so much more professional and its so must easier to navigate doesn't it? Another important thing to note is the checkout process. Why? Because studies have shown that a whopping 63% of online orders collapse after people add products or services to their shopping carts.

When your checkout is easy to use:

• less visitors get frustrated and leave before paying
• more visitors who start out thinking "maybe", end up clicking ‘buy’
• people keep coming back for more AND tell their friends about you too
• you spend less time and money fixing customer problems.

A lot of research has been done to find out what makes a good web checkout. Here’s what online shopper/s say (aka ME):

Make it quick
The fewer clicks the better. Ask customers for the minimum information you need and only ask once. Offer a “Save for later” option so they can come back and finish another time.

Avoid surprises
Half way through checkout, don’t tell your customers they need to create an account to continue. And don’t try to sell them something extra or better.

Provide information at every step
From the start of checkout, all the way to the end, show the cost including tax and delivery charges. And provide details on your delivery and payment options.

Be clear and detailed
Give customers all the details they need during checkout and when you confirm their payment – including delivery charges, returns policy, how to contact customer service, etc.

Instill trust
People are more likely to buy if they know their personal and financial information is secure. So display a trusted payment option like Paypal on your homepage and through checkout.

So what are the other things you feel make a blogshop good? Do leave some comments! (:

Till next week.

Week 3 - Social Networking

Nowadays, Networking isn't just going out for drinks or coffee with people and hope that they would give you business. That still works for maybe the contractors who mostly speak hokkien and uses that phone just to call and text. (Maybe im being stereotypical but hey, you get what I mean) .

Because of the rise of the Internet, many people and businesses have made used of that platform to expand their network. This is called social networking. It makes the world more open and connected.

Social Media is probably one of the easiest topic to blog about since my generation uses it e.v.e.r.y.d.a.y. It can be the equivalent of insulin to a diabetic person. Social Media allows us to express ourselves, allows anonymity, and because it is so diverse, the possibilities are endless. Heres a picture that explains the different type of social media in a nut shell!

Social Media has become massively popular in recent years and for good reasons. There are a lot of benefits from using social media. While not everyone will agree that it is a good thing and that there certainly are some cons to it, on the whole, it would be fair to say that the benefits outweigh the negatives. This is a big part of why social media has become so popular. 

The main pro of social media is that it allows you to interact with far more people than you would otherwise be able to. This means that you can be exposed to a far wider array of opinions than you normally would be able to. Furthermore, you will be able to share your opinions with so much more people.



These interactions have certainly made the world smaller since the Internet has allowed people to connect with one another so much easier. That being said, there are people like me for example, who only interact with the people I know in real life over the Internet. This could be due to my upbringing with my parents constantly drilling to me that the Internet is a scary place and that I should not talk to strangers. 

Another great benefit of the social media is that it makes it so much easier to organize events. In the past, getting the information out to the people was such a chore. Nowadays, with things like Facebook Events, all one has to do is to type the details of the event into the box and invite all their friends to the event and voila! The word is out and all you have to do is to wait for people to RSVP to the event. 

However, this is not all perfect. One of the setbacks about this is, how to prevent the people that you dont like from turning up to your event? How do you stop them from seeing the event on fb? Despite this setback, it is definitely one of the easiest and fastest way to get the word of an event out.  

A lot of people are starting to use social networking for business reasons and this is proving to be one of the most valuable uses of the internet. Social networking is just another means to network and its open news that networking is critical for things like finding a job. This is why we are starting to see a rise of sites that specifically for networking professional reasons. The advantage here would be that once again, you would be able to network with a lot more people that you would normally do in person. 

Perhaps the best reason for social networking is that it is fun. People can and do spend hours a day on social networking sites interacting with their friends. It is a good way to stay in touch and to find out what is going on in their lives. In addition, there are all kinds of games and similar things that you can do on these sites. There isn't really a useful purpose for using social media, but you use it simply because you enjoy using it. Ultimately, this is why most people use it.

This is probably the scariest thing one can say to a gen-y kid. haha!


Till next week.

Week 2 ; Everyone knows/has/needs Social Media

Everyone needs to read/know this.

The Social Media Generation by Marc Maron

"Have you ever had that moment when you’re updating your status… And you realise that every status update is just a variation on a single request:Would someone please acknowledge me?”

"We’re all adults but emotionally, we’re a culture of seven-year-olds."

Credits to Hui En for this! :D

Damn, that comic strip is so true. Unknowingly, we've all became slaves/addicts to social media. I too, am guilty of it as well ): I got an instagram account recently and after reading that comic, I realised that I was exactly like that guy, waiting for likes on my pictures. I was constantly checking it and with each like, I found myself smiling, enjoying the virtual attention that people gave to me. But in reality, people probably looked at my picture for 2 seconds, double click on it for a 'like' and move on to the next picture. 

Before I launch a whole "we-should-stop-using-technology-so-much, look-around-at-the-people-around-you-instead-of-your-phone" tirade, y'all probably get what im saying right? Its hard to just drop all these technology/social media and leave it behind but we should make more conscientious effort to pay more attention to the people around us.

Getting back on track to this week's revelation!

THIS ICON HAS CHANGED MY LIFE. 

Not literally. But it was pretty amazing because i read a lot of stuff online and this saves me sooooo much time. 

Let me enlighten you what this is. The above logo is the RSS sign aka Rich Site Summary. Its basically like a subscription button except that you don't have to pay for subscription heh! All the latest updates from all the different sites that you subcribe too will end up on your google page. Or whichever account that you used. It can be google, bloglines, newsgator or yahoo. 

This video from youtube explains more about what the RSS is and how to use it.

Trust me, this thing really is addictive!

I wouldn't say that the Internet has changed the world because it isn't entirely true. What about 3rd world countries that have no access to the Internet? Or the tribes that are still living the way they have been more than a century ago? The Internet is only changing the lifestyle and interaction of the people living in 1st world countries. It has allowed us to be professional 'stalkers' I'd say. Im sure everyone is guilty of stalking that cute guy/girl in class or the ex that you have not gotten over yet. 

Stalking people aside, social media has allowed many of us to have access to instantaneous news. Things like the Boston bombing, floodings in SG malls etc, we get it right away. We no longer have to wait for Channel 5 news at 9pm to find out things that are going on around us. 

However, all these are not without its cons. Research has shown that kids nowadays have a shorten attention span as compared to before. Children these generation no longer play with Barbie dolls and lego blocks, instead, they are all playing apps on an Apple product. They are so much better at using an iPhone as compared to my elderly aunt. In my opinion, i feel that this may lead to a lack of creativity. 

As I've said before above, it is impossible to completely cut yourself of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn etc, etc. All these platforms has enabled us to stay connected (in one way or another) despite our busy schedules. There are always two sides to a coin and therefore, moderation is of utmost importance! 

Do not become an addict, guys. Nobody likes one. 

So now, i'll leave you with Joseph's brooding to laughing face! (PS, it was because of Caroline, so cute!)

Till next week.