Better Training Through Better Visuals: Using “Special Views”

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

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We have been writing a series of posts over at the OpenSesame blog about how to design visuals within training materials to help your learners learn more effectively. The series has included posts on the following graphic techniques:

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Use Visuals to Add a Spark of Interest to Your Training Materials

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

It’s an exciting world full of bling-bling, right? There’s a lot of stuff that catches our attention, grabs our focus, and compels us to stay engaged.

Sadly, that’s often not the case with workplace training. Even now, training materials often lean on text-heavy PowerPoint presentations. But you can change that by adding well-designed visuals to your training materials.

Want to know more? Check out the post we just wrote at OpenSesame’s blog. It focuses on different techniques for adding a “spark” of interest to your training–using emotions, using visuals to help tell stories, using visual metaphors, and using unexpected and/or humorous visual elements.

Not only that, the post includes some cool examples from the Convergence Training retail training course libraries. Go check it out now!

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Blended Learning Best Practices for Job Training

Jeffrey Dalto 2 Comments
Blended Learning for Job Training Image

“Blended learning” is one of the hot buzz phrases in learning circles these days. The concept means nothing more than delivering training using multiple instructional methods (instructor-led training, elearning, written materials, field-based training, etc.). Most commonly, it’s used specifically to refer to mixing both instructor-led and online training, although we feel that’s an unnecessarily limited way to look at it.

The idea’s been around a long time, but it’s gained momentum over the past decade as online learning has become more accessible and easier to pair with more traditional instructor-led courses, OJT, and other forms of training.

There are many learning management systems (LMSs) on the market designed specifically for workforce training and most of them offer blended learning support – delivering online training while also allowing you to assign, track, and report on other forms of training, including face-to-face/instructor-led training. And blended learning solutions are becoming even easier to track and report on with the advent of the Experience API (xAPI).

But what are we really talking about when we’re talking about blended learning for job training, and how is it supposed to benefit you? Let’s take a closer look.

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Ladder Safety Information: OSHA Citation Data, Free Online Word Game, FAQs, and More

Jeffrey Dalto 4 Comments
Ladder Safety Online Safety Training Course Image

We’ve got samples of online ladder safety training materials for you and a lot more in this article, so if you’re looking for help with ladder safety, read on.

Every year, OSHA puts out a list of the ten most commonly cited standard violations. Here’s OSHA’s Top Ten Citations List for 2016. Ladders, 1926.1053, is #7 on the list for 2016, and so we’ve got some online ladder training resources for you in this article–plus more.

Many of the same standards appear on the list again and again (that’s true of the Ladder standard, by the way–it’s on the list every year). And as a result, we’ve pulled together a series of blogs to help you train your workers about each of the ten most cited standards. Below, we’ve got a bunch of materials to help with ladder training.

Let us know if you’ve got some other resources you’d suggest. The comments field awaits.

Before you dig into the information about ladder training below, feel free to check out our short sample video that demonstrates a few highlights of our safety and health courses.


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Convergence Wins ISHN Reader’s Choice Award for Safety Training

Convergence Training Leave a comment
ISHN Safety Training Award

Industrial Safety and Health News (ISHN) has announced the winners of their annual Reader’s Choice award, and lo-and-behold, we won our category! The Convergence Crane and Hoist Rigging Safety course is the 2014 ISHN Reader’s Choice Award winner for Best Safety Training Product. We’ve been developing a ton of new training content over the past couple years, in addition to continuing to add features to our learning management system. We’re a busy group and don’t often take the time to pat ourselves on the back, so it’s nice to receive a little recognition from our peers and customers. Thanks to everyone who voted.

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Dog Days of Summer Heat: How to Avoid Heat Stress

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment
Heat Stress Image

Summer Is Heat Stress Season

Well, it’s summer again and we should be thinking about heat stress to make sure workers don’t overheat this year. Heat stress is a risk for people working outdoors but also for those working inside.

What Is Heat Stress?

So what is heat stress? When the body can’t cool itself by sweating, a range of heat-related issues can occur, including heat rashes, heat cramps, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke (which is the most dangerous). These are collectively known as heat stress.

Heat Stress Training Materials

We’ve got a bunch of materials that should help you train your workers on heat stress, so let’s get to listing them below.

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Using Visuals In Training Materials to Reduce Complexity

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

Today’s workers have to learn many complex things. The visuals in your training materials can help level the odds and make it easier to learn all those complexities.

Want to know more? Check out the post we just wrote at OpenSesame’s blog.

The post gives some great tips for using visuals this way. Plus, it includes some cool examples from the Convergence Training retail training course libraries. Brilliant!

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Graphics for Training Example: Using Maps

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

Recently, we’ve been writing a series of posts about using visuals to improve the effectiveness of your training materials. You can check out articles about organizing visuals to aid perception, directing the learner’s eyes, reducing realism, and making abstract concepts more concrete. There are two more to come in this series, and then we’ll be creating something that summarizes them all in one handy guide–so wait for that.

That post on making the abstract more concretes lists several techniques for doing just that. One of those is using maps and mapping concepts within your training visuals. We saw a really great and fun example of that in a New York Times visual called “Up Close on Baseball’s Borders,” which uses colored regions on a map to show where the fans of different major league baseball teams live. Seeing this information laid out on a map is a great example of how effective this technique is. Just imagine trying to digest this same information if it were presented in numbers within in a table.

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Tornado Safety Tips for the Workplace: How to Be Prepared

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment
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It’s tornado season once again. And each year around this time, we get a sobering reminder of how powerful, destructive, and deadly tornadoes can be.

To help you prepare, we’ve pulled together a bunch of tornado-related resources for you in this article. From a safety-perspective, this may well be one of the better tornado-related articles you’ll read this year.

But to top it off, we’ve thrown in some more tornado-related information, including videos of the largest tornado ever filmed, a classic movie clip featuring a famous tornado, and an interesting factoid about tornadoes and the King of Rock and Roll himself, Elvis Aaron Presley.

Dive on in if we’ve piqued your curiosity.

If this article on tornadoes seems too serious for you, check our alternate humorous article on Sharknado Safety Training (or just keep that in mind for later).

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6 Must-Have LMS Features That Make Workforce Training a Breeze

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

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If you’re currently using, or considering using a learning management system to help deliver and administer your workforce training, you’ve probably come across applications so stuffed full of features that you can’t possibly imagine using them all. In this post we’ll cut out all the fluff and focus on the six LMS features we feel are essential for effective workforce training.

If you’re looking for a system that will actually save you time and help you do your job better, make sure it’s capable of performing the following functions.

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Convergence Paper Training Catalog Continues to Grow

Convergence Training Leave a comment

The new courses just keep on coming. We’re in the middle of a year-long push to produce over 200 new paper manufacturing training courses. We’re releasing about 50 new courses each quarter until the end of 2014. The first 50 courses, which include our new Introduction to Paper and Board Machines, Recausticizing Fundamentals, and Continuous Cooking Introduction courses, are available now and provide expert instruction on many complex paper manufacturing processes.

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Free Online Lockout Tagout Resources: Word Game, FAQs, Course Samples, and More

Jeffrey Dalto Leave a comment

online lockout tagout training course image

Every year, OSHA puts out a lot of the 10 standards that are most frequently cited. Here’s a list of OSHA’s Top Ten in 2016. Lockout-Tagout/Hazard Energy Control is on that 2016 list, and so we’ve got some online lockout tagout training resources for you here–plus more.

Many of the same standards appear on the list again and again, year after year. As a result, we’ve pulled together a series of blogs to help you train your workers about each of the ten most cited standards. In this one, as we said, we’ve got lots of information about lockout tagout, and lots of online lockout tagout training materials for you.

Let us know if you’ve got some other resources you’d suggest. The comments field awaits your input.

Before you dig into the information about lockout tagout and hazardous energy control below, feel free to check out our short sample video that demonstrates a few highlights of our online safety and health courses.

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