Finance is an essential component of any business or organization – we all know money is serious business. That’s why it’s so important, and valuable, for employees to have a good grounding in the principles of finance, even those working outside of the financial industry.

If you’re in a management or team leader role, or running a small business, knowing the basics of finance is absolutely essential, as you’ll need to prepare budgets, manage expenditure, create reports and negotiate with clients. Online courses can help you learn and improve these skills.

Setting aside a small amount of time to learn more about the world of finance can prove to be a very smart investment for your career and future.

For staff already working in the financial industry, you might be looking to refresh or up-skill as part of your professional development program. Online learning is a great staff development tool and can help you meet your goals and boost your job performance.

Whether you’re a beginner to the world of finance or a finance professional looking to improve your skill set, there’s an abundance of online courses suitable for your learning needs. With online courses, you can access high quality professional learning materials from all over the globe, offering you industry-relevant content and the fundamental skills you need to better understand this topic.

To get you started, we’ve hand-picked 5 of the best online finance courses, to suit managers and small business owners outside of the industry, as well as seasoned finance professionals. Read on to see which course could help you.

Targeted towards those working in a corporate environment, this intensive short course will bring you up to speed with the fundamental elements of finance. You’ll learn about the key financial issues related to companies and investors, as well as the interaction between them in the capital markets.

Corporate Finance Essentials will provide you with an understanding of the professional financial vocabulary of companies, allowing you to better understand what’s going on around you and in the financial press and media. After this course, you’ll really be able to hold your own around the finance table.

Perfect for managers who are responsible for the financial running of their team, without being financial managers themselves. Do you manage a HR or project team? You'll need to demonstrate a basic understanding of financial management to your own managers, even if you're not in a financial role.

Finance for Non-Financial Managers can help you grow your career and take on greater responsibility within your organization. In this course, accounting professor Jim Stice helps you develop the financial acumen necessary to:

Interpret financial reports and make decisions based on available data

Communicate your contribution to the bottom line

Keeping up with change: issues for the finance professional

Aimed at finance professionals, this 6-week online course identifies and explores a number of challenges to the finance professional arising from the ever changing business environment.

Keeping Up with Change: Issues for the Finance Professional first looks at finance in a strategic context, in terms of planning, monitoring and controlling projects and activities. It then covers Corporate Governance issues and challenges in relation to finance. Throughout the course modules, you’ll explore challenges facing finance professionals, including:

Challenges to internal control to better manage risk.

With Finance Essentials for Small Business you’ll learn to manage your small business successfully with finance essentials from accounting professors Jim and Kay Stice.

You’ll look at the 5 reasons so many small businesses fail and outline strategies that will help you manage your small business better. These include tracking your accounting, managing your operating cycle and forecasting cash flow

This information online course also provides valuable perspective on pricing strategies and the dangers of fast growth. You’ll cover:

Last, but not least, is a series of online courses. And as their name suggests, these courses focus on making finance accessible to everyone, whether they work in the finance industry or not.

Gain a better understanding of the financial world and what’s going on in the media, and learn the practical skills you need to run your own household and potentially a small business. The series contains titles such as: 

Finance for Everyone – Markets explores the world of interest rates, explaining how interest rates change the value of all financial instruments, while highlighting the role of the bond and stock markets. You’ll also look at the impact of interest rates on consumption, investment and economic growth, and the bizarre realities of negative interest rates.

Finance for Everyone – Value is a fascinating course about the universal frameworks that determine how ideas and money interact, leading to the allocation of financial resources. Through this course, you’ll identify components of cash flow for any project, business or venture as the most essential ingredients of value.

Finance for Everyone – Decisions looks at how to simplify important financial calculations and apply that knowledge to real-life decisions that can influence your life and business.

Get your finance journey started with online learning

Whichever online finance course you decide is best for your personal or professional development, you’ll know it’s been specifically built to get you up to speed within the shortest amount of time.

You may think you don’t have the time to take on more learning, between full-time work and your busy family or social life, but even one hour a week can be enough to greatly improve your knowledge and skills. As we said before, setting aside a small amount of time to learn more about the world of finance can prove to be a very smart investment for your career and future.

You can also take a look through more great courses, many of them free, in Go1’s marketplace – simply enrol and complete training modules online, at your own pace, in the convenience of your own home or office.

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Learn more about finance with these courses

Do you seem to be dragging yourself to work every day? Feeling constantly tired, struggling to find any energy or motivation for your job, and running on coffee and adrenaline to get through the day?

If any of this resonates with you, there’s a chance you could be at serious risk of burning out – a state of physical, emotional and mental exhaustion that brings with it a lack of motivation, low efficiency and feelings of helplessness for sufferers.

Look over this list of 13 signs of burnout, outlined by Vanessa Loder for Forbes – or read through the first four below: 

Feeling frequently on edge, with adrenaline constantly coursing through your body

Lack of engagement – you don’t feel motivated at work

Increased cynicism – feelings more negative, cranky and defensive or snapping at people easily

Distracted eating – eating your meals in front of a computer or on the go

Sound familiar? If you’re a manager or team leader, this could bring to mind someone in your team, or even yourself.

It’s really important for individuals, as well as managers, to be aware of any signs of job burnout and take action before it has any further effects on a person’s mental and physical health.

The impacts of employee burnout are considerable – organizations can expect to suffer from reduced productivity, higher employee turnover, financial burdens from absenteeism and the possibility of medical, legal, and insurance expenses.

For individuals, burnout can contribute to serious mental health issues, such as anxiety, insomnia, hyper vigilance and depression. These can in turn lead to problems with physical health, manifesting in high blood pressure, heart disease, gastrointestinal issues, adrenal exhaustion and chronic fatigue.

On top of all this, your physical and mental exhaustion can very likely lead to doubts about your competence and the value of your work, causing you more stress and creating a vicious circle. Basically, you’re not having a very good time at this point.

There are many factors that can contribute to burnout, including poor work-life balance, stress, mismatched needs or values, or a disharmonious workplace environment. Let’s take a closer look at the five major causes for employee burnout.   

Most people are aware of the importance of keeping a healthy work-life balance.

Striking a satisfying balance between work and family/social life is very important for an individual’s health and overall wellbeing. But many of us are still guilty of putting in an unhealthy amount of time and energy into our jobs, leading to poor work-life balance.

If you find that your work takes up so much of your time and effort that you don't have any energy to spend time with your family and friends, you’re at an increased risk of burning out.

Another factor that can strongly contribute to burnout is not taking the time to disconnect from work to renew your energy.

In the workplace, most of us are conscious of being switched “on” while on the job – especially if we’re dealing with time pressures, tight deadlines, high workloads and lots of meetings or negotiations.

Failing to fully disengage from work, by switching off at home after hours, puts you at risk of chronic stress and other elements of burnout. Earlier this year, France passed a labor reform law that banned checking emails on weekends, in the interest of employee health and productivity. This highlights the important link between disconnecting from work and maintaining positive emotional and physical health.

A recent study, released in August 2016, considers one of the main causes of burnout to be a mismatch between a person's unconscious needs and the opportunities and demands of their workplace.

These “unconscious needs” take into account our unique personalities – who we are and what motivates us as individuals. For example, you may have an unconscious need to feel in charge, to maintain discipline or to engage in strong discussions or negotiations. On the other side of the scales, we have people who seek a sense of warmth and welcoming from their workplace, needing positive personal relations, trust and a feeling of belonging.

Neither one of these two examples is right or wrong – humans are complex, with all of us needing very different things from our place of work. However, working in a job that doesn’t match up with your needs can cause problems, with the greater the mismatch, the higher the risk of burnout.

To address this issue, you can look at ways to improve the correlation between your job and your needs through “job crafting”. For example, an employee with a strong need for collaboration and personal relations might find ways to include more teamwork in their role. Talk to your manager about this. A good manager should be interested in understanding their team members’ differences and working with them in a positive way.

It’s also important to think about your values and whether they align with those of the company or organization you work for. If you’re passionate about the environment, or animal welfare, working for a company with no understanding of those values or ethics could prove unsustainable.

Trying to suppress your true thoughts and feelings at a job where your values don’t match up is exhausting and will wear anyone down, leaving you feeling emotionally drained.

Working in a negative environment with bad vibes between team mates, or any form of bullying or harassment, is another big contributor to job stress.

Unsupportive managers, bullying colleagues, micromanaging supervisors – any form of interpersonal conflict will have a huge impact on an individual’s resilience and increase their likelihood of burnout.

Your role as a manager in preventing staff burnout

As a manager, particularly if you’re in HR, it’s your responsibility to recognize the signs of chronic stress, exhaustion or burnout in your employees and help them to understand and manage it. It’s also vital that you do this for yourself – you can’t look after others unless you’re looking after yourself first.

Taking a short online course such as Avoiding Burnout will help you to recognize and deal with some of the most common causes of burnout. This course also offers practical advice for figuring out how to prevent stress from building up and tips on how to recover. Talk to your team about the risks of burning out and engage them in positive, open discussion.

Staff turnover is inevitable. Unfortunately, it’s also very costly for your business.

One of the easiest ways to prevent turnover is by cultivating a committed employer-to-employee relationship at the outset. Making new staff members feel as comfortable and as well informed as possible from day one helps set expectations  If you’re trying to avoid having your personnel abandon ship, you might want to start by taking a long, hard look at your onboarding program.

Approximately 45% of companies reportedly estimate their total turnover costs (i.e., costs necessary to replace and train a lost employee) to be more than $25,000 per person – a shockingly significant amount. From advertising to interviewing candidates and educating new hires, filling an empty position can add up to an enormous expense. And, when so much time, effort and money are devoted to the process of hiring new staff members, it can be quite distressing to see an employee give notice after a short period of time. Unfortunately, however, it appears as though large numbers of people within the business world are doing just that; half of all employees who left their job in the past year allegedly did so within the first twelve months of their new position. 

This lightning-fast turnaround is just one of the many reasons why it’s so crucial for organisations to develop a good onboarding program. After all, your staff retention rate is only as good as the first impression you make. With an effective onboarding process, you can reduce turnover, increase employee engagement and allow staff members to reach their full potential in a faster, more efficient manner.

Let’s take a look at a few key ideas that can revolutionise your onboarding culture and start you on the road to securing a loyal business team—a team that you’ll be able to depend upon for years to come.

Initial impressions of a new position are formulated during those all-important first few days on the job. These early assessments are based on a variety of factors, each of which has the power to make or break the employer/employee bond. This “early days” period is a critical time for both employer and employee as it allows each party to consider whether the partnership is an ideal fit. This is where onboarding comes in.

The purpose of onboarding is to help new team members become acclimatised to their working environment and to welcome them into the fold—all while providing them with the information and resources they’ll need to do their job and do it well.

Consider this: The way in which an organisation brings new team members on board says a lot about the company as a whole. As such, it’s essential to view onboarding as being separate from orientation. While orientation may involve little more than a few hours spent signing some paperwork and reading over company policies, onboarding is a long-term process that encompasses elements of both administrative induction and ongoing training.

  Friendly, informative one-on-one meetings

  Hands-on exercises that simulate real-world experiences

  A complete online learning management system for comprehensive training (see below)

Pledge to support professional development

Think of onboarding not only as an overall training system, but also as a chance for you to show how well you engage with your staff and how much energy you’re willing to invest in your employees’ professional development. Make sure your staff members know that you want them to succeed and that you’d like to see them go far. Let them know their training is just the first step in a long and prosperous journey. This type of active involvement on your part will foster a healthy work environment and provide your employees with an added incentive to stay by your side.

Engage in an online learning management system

A learning management system (LMS) can be used very effectively as part of your onboarding program. These systems enable new hires to access educational training materials from the comfort of their own desk. A carefully prepared LMS can also allow new employees to work through their training at their own pace with the help of a mobile device. In addition, online onboarding can be far more interactive, particularly as many online courses can be customised according to your company’s specific needs. And—at the risk of stating the obvious—a smoother, more enjoyable onboarding program means fewer turnovers and the ultimate improvement of your bottom line.

You don’t necessarily need to overhaul your entire onboarding process to get started. Begin with one or two courses, incorporate them into your current onboarding program and get a feel for what you and your organisation will need. And remember: It’s never a bad idea to onboard your onboarders. You may wish to enroll your HR managers in an online training course such as Go1’s “Onboarding New Hires” in order to furnish them with more practical information on this vital topic. (This course shows managers how to integrate new hires into their teams and how to prepare these teams for future successes. The class also includes some helpful tips on how to make the first day, week, month or year a positive and productive time for your new employee, which can lead to a long and fruitful partnership with your company.)

Once you’ve made the switch to an LMS, you’ll most likely never look back. The immense convenience and streamlined techniques of these systems will give you sufficient tools to help build and expand your learning programs as your business continues to grow.

Hopefully this article has made you think more about the importance of comprehensive onboarding processes and the benefits they can bring to your organisation as well as to your new staff members.

If you wish to learn more or would like to explore a competitive LMS course catalogue, there are many valuable resources available on the Go1 website. 

Why a good employee onboarding program will reduce staff turnover

The end of August is nearing and we have just released the second installment of our updates and improvements to the Go1 Platform for the month. In this update we have more filtering options to reports in the new Administrator Dashboard, updated notification settings for when you leave a portal, added new tools to sort your courses by enrollment status, and have improved our password straight settings when signing up or updating information.

Find out more about all of the updates below:


If you log into your portal and don't see all of your courses appearing, don't worry, they are still there, they have just been filtered to display your In Progress courses.

We are continuing to improve the way that you manages your enrollments through new filtering tools through the administrator dashboard.

When creating or updating passwords relating to Go1 accounts, users will now see a password strength meter in addition to all passwords requiring a lowercase letter, an uppercase letter and a number to be accepted.

If a user leaves, or is removed from a portal they will no longer see notifications for that portal. This ensures that all notifications displayed are relevant to the users current courses and learning material.

Profile fields correct order display has been updated and you can add descriptions to groups

The functionality around using audio in questions has been improved

Users are now required to confirm assignments with uploading their own work

Functionality for private courses to be displayed in JSEmbed websites has been updated

Feedback bar appearing Quiz has been updated

Loading issues around private LearningPathway have been resolved

Portal configuration is now saved correctly

Blocked users logic has been updated. Blocked users now can access courses outside the blocked portal

Android users can now switch between  portals

If you have any questions about any of the updates and improvements listed above, please let us know and our Customer Success Team can help you out!

What's new in the Go1 end of August release

Dealing with difficult people is an unfortunate yet unavoidable part of life. It would be fantastic if we got along with everyone we met. However, sadly, this isn’t realistic. Whether we like it or not, most of us have probably encountered a colleague, manager, or classmate with whom we struggle to get along. Managing our responses to these difficult situations can be challenging, particularly if we have to interact with that person regularly. 

Thankfully, dealing with difficult people is a skill that can be mastered. Like most things in life, you can mitigate the power these 'difficult' people have over you. With a few simple strategies, you can work more effectively with difficult people and find resolution and harmony in the workplace, at home, and in other interpersonal relationships. 

In some cases, so-called ‘difficult people’ may not even realise their effects on others — what’s annoying to one person is commonplace to another. As such, it’s vital to approach any situation with care, understanding, and a high degree of empathy and emotional intelligence. 

 We’ll start by asking why some people are more difficult than others, before looking at how you should approach a difficult person, and offering concrete strategies for dealing with difficult situations.

Why are some people more difficult than others?

As social creatures with diverse backgrounds, interests, opinions, and personalities, human beings can't maintain good relationships with everyone they meet. It is a simple fact of life that not everyone will like you, and you will not like everyone you meet. Inevitably, some individuals will experience personality clashes that lead to stress, worry, and anxiety. With others, you just won’t see eye-to-eye, no matter how hard you try. 

As such, dealing with difficult people is unavoidable, especially in a large workplace. Respectfully managing and resolving these clashes when they arise is vital.

According to Science of People, there are three types of difficult people that you will commonly encounter in the workplace:

Downers are constantly negative, always offering criticism, complaints and judgement while putting others down.

Better Thans are always looking to show off or one-up you. They try to get the last word in and undermine you at every opportunity.

Finally, Tanks are explosive, aggressive, and bossy. They want everything to be their way or the highway and will use bullying tactics to achieve their desired outcome. 

Sometimes, a difficult person is just that: objectively difficult to get along with. Maybe they’re acting like a bully, calling you hurtful names, or undermining you in front of colleagues. 

On other occasions, this line can be blurry. It can help to remember that it’s not just you who has a personal reaction to the situation. Try to consider multiple perspectives before reacting, as ‘difficult’ behaviours can be subjective, especially in a workplace with people from many diverse backgrounds. Something that you might think is unreasonable or unfair may be viewed as entirely just and reasonable by a third party. 

For example, you might find it annoying when a co-worker plays their music out loud or eats a particular meal at their desk. However, others might have no problem with this behaviour or even enjoy it.  As such, perspective is vitally important when dealing with ‘difficult’ people. 

Try to view ‘difficult’ situations from multiple angles to determine the most appropriate response. In these examples, a calm, respectful conversation is probably the best course of action. Usually, most people will react reasonably and take your feelings into account. 

Having said this, it is critical to distinguish between people you find slightly grating or don’t quite see eye-to-eye with and those who exhibit genuinely inappropriate behaviours, such as bullying, sexism, racism, discrimination, and harassment. These behaviours have no place at work or in society at large. Such behaviours are unacceptable and should be swiftly dealt with when they arise.

To summarise, humans are wildly individual, meaning it’s natural to clash from time to time on personal thoughts, experiences, and actions. Encountering difficult people is an annoying yet natural part of life. How we deal with these clashes is what’s important. 

What’s not okay is when someone goes out of their way to be difficult, cause problems with others, or exhibit behaviours that cross a line, such as those outlined above. In these instances, the situation must be resolved accordingly by either calling their behaviour out or escalating the conflict to a manager. 

How should you approach a difficult person?

Unfortunately, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when dealing with difficult people. Every situation is unique. Thus, you need to approach each encounter with an open mind and assess it on its merits.

Even so, there are several helpful strategies you can remember to reach an effective and professional resolution with difficult colleagues. When faced with a difficult situation, follow the STOP acronym to give yourself time to think about your response and react appropriately.

S – Stop what you’re doing immediately.

T – Take three deep breaths and concentrate on your breathing.

O – Observe how you’re feeling both physically and mentally.

P – Proceed with kindness and avoid negative reactions.

Strategies for dealing with difficult people

In any high-functioning workplace, there are a diverse array of backgrounds, perspectives, and personalities. While this diversity is usually a huge positive, it does mean there's no single, unilateral approach to conflict resolution. As mentioned, personality clashes are inevitable when working closely with others, so context and perspective are vital.

When dealing with difficult people, your reaction can be just as impactful as their initial action or comment. A reactive response can add fuel to the fire, causing the situation to spiral out of control. 

We’ve compiled several strategies to approach difficult people. Applying these strategies may help disarm the situation, leading to fair, rational discussions.

Remaining calm is often easier said than done — especially when you’re in the heat of the moment. However, the STOP model illustrated above can ensure you keep a level head when dealing with difficult people. 

Once our emotions are heightened, our judgment can become clouded. It’s a good idea to take a step back if you feel yourself getting heated when clashing with a difficult colleague. Removing yourself from the situation until you have calmed down may be your best course of action, allowing you to gain a fresh perspective on the interaction. 

Staying as calm as possible will help you reach an amicable resolution and avoid overreacting or stooping to inappropriate behaviours such as yelling or name-calling. 

One of the worst traits of difficult people is their propensity to shift blame and responsibility onto others. If you’re on the receiving end of this behaviour, it can make you feel inadequate and even cause you to question your worth. 

Rather than acting defensively, turn the situation around and question the aggressor to put the spotlight back on them. For example, ask them how they want things done or what specific results they are looking for. 

As Psychology Today explains, “keep your questions constructive and probing. By putting the difficult person in the spotlight, you can help neutralise her or his undue influence over you.“ 

Sometimes, it’s best to pick your battles. Before reacting, decide if a situation is worth your time and energy. If the situation is merely annoying, rather than inappropriate or offensive, it may be better to let it go. 

As SCMP explains, “decide when someone is worth your time and patience, and when it’s best to simply walk away. If it’s possible to keep your distance from the person in question, then do so. Don’t feel guilty about putting your own well-being first, and cutting off contact with someone you know is going to upset you.” 

Other times, it may be impossible to pick your battles and walk away — especially if you have to work closely with someone. In these instances, apply the other coping strategies we have outlined and remind yourself that difficult people often have good qualities too, rather than focussing solely on the negatives.

Finally, ‘picking your battles’ can vary from situation to situation. Use your judgment and discretion, as it is essential to set clear boundaries at work and call out any inappropriate behaviours that cross a line. A co-worker chewing too loudly at their desk may be something you can let go of. On the other hand, harassment, bullying, and discrimination should always be called out.

In extreme cases, where difficult people have verged into being bullies, you’ll need to confront them safely. Difficult people are dangerous when they act like bullies, whether it’s using verbal or physical abuse or other methods such as intimidation. 

At work, you may want to provide evidence of the bully’s behaviour to a higher-up or confront them respectfully with others present to ensure your safety.

According to Psychology Today: “when confronting bullies, be sure to place yourself in a position where you can safely protect yourself, whether it’s standing tall on your own, having other people present to witness and support, or keeping a paper trail of the bully’s inappropriate behavior. In cases of physical, verbal, or emotional abuse, consult with counseling, legal, law enforcement, or administrative professionals on the matter. It’s very important to stand up to bullies, and you don’t have to do it alone.” 

When someone offends you, avoid reactive responses, as these can add fuel to the fire. Instead, take a step back, use the STOP method, and think about the situation holistically to see if there are alternate interpretations. Doing so can help you avoid jumping to conclusions and minimise potential misunderstandings. 

As Psychology Today recommends, “when you feel offended by someone’s words or deeds, come up with multiple ways of viewing the situation before reacting.” 

For example, a co-worker hasn’t responded to your email as quickly as you would like. A reactive response would be to assume they’re intentionally ignoring you. In contrast, you can consider the situation from their perspective and realise they’re probably just busy and will respond to your message soon. 

Understand that people often do things for their own reasons, and their actions don’t necessarily reflect on you. Consider this before reacting to avoid acting in the heat of the moment or doing anything you might regret. 

As Rick Kirschner, the co-author of Dealing with People You Can’t Stand, says, “we must first change how we react to people before we can change how we interact with them.”

Finally, if you’re ever unsure how to react to a difficult person, there’s no harm in removing yourself from the situation until you can deal with it respectfully and fairly. Our emotions can often cloud our judgment when we are in a heightened state of anger or frustration. By giving yourself a time out to cool down and get some distance from the situation, you can come back with a fresh, calm perspective, leading to a more effective and amicable resolution.

For more insights, be sure to subscribe to the Go1 newsletter to stay on top of all the latest L&D trends. Or, you can book a demo today to find out how Go1 can help with your team’s learning needs. 

Dealing with difficult people is an unfortunate yet unavoidable part of life. With this in mind, we’ll take you step-by-step through how to deal with difficult people.

How to deal with difficult people

As our mobile devices become more intuitive and our reliance on them grows stronger, it makes sense that more and more students are looking towards mobile learning to help with their education. In fact, a recent study found that 59 percent of students had completed some sort of coursework on their mobile device, indicating a huge surge towards this new style of learning.

Not just limited to just your cell phone, mobile learning can also incorporate a wide range of devices on the go which can be used to complete coursework or enquire about your education. Tablets and smartphones are a simple way to stay connected to your training and keep on top of changing requirements or upcoming assignments.

Whether it’s corporate training provided by an employer or coursework for college students, the popularity of mobile learning is clearly increasing. With some trends indicating the current style of this mode of learning, it’s exciting to think about what the future may hold.

Although still a relatively new approach to learning, it’s clear there are already numerous benefits to be found with the mobile model. Here are just a few ways in which mobile learning offers a more tailored style to each individual student:

The number one benefit to mobile learning comes from the amount of flexibility you have to study anywhere and anytime. Mobile learning allows you to study on the train, your work break, even in the bathroom—so you can work from where it suits you best.

Due to the nature of the actual mobile learning content, students may find it easier to retain the information. This is because mobile learning offers “bite size” and manageable pieces of information and data that may be easier to process and recall.

Mobile learning is very much a convenience-based model—a great way to ensure you can access information when it suits you best. If you’re working on your computer and need to check something, mobile learning allows you to do this without interfering with your daily tasks.

Using mobile learning doesn’t just mean reading notes on your smartphone. Podcasts, PDFs, images, and video can all be accessed from your mobile device now, which ensures you won’t get bored with the coursework delivery.

As more and more people embrace mobile learning, it’s no surprise that learners are starting earlier and earlier. In 2012, for example, the average age of an undergrad online was 34, but today it has dropped all the way to 29!

Traditionally, distance education and eLearning were thought to be favored by the older student, but new evidence seems to be showing the contrary. This trend indicates that mobile learning will brow exponentially as the younger population clearly prefers a mobile-based approach to many aspects of their lives. An entire generation has now grown up with the convenience of information, entertainment and education right at their fingertips.

One obvious trend regarding mobile learning is how the current profile of the online learner has changed. Millennials are using their phones on the commute to work or in their downtime, and many are using this as an opportunity to get an edge by learning new skills.

A recent study by KPCB found that millennials valued training over any other office perk, including cash bonuses and flexible hours. By tapping into this demand, mobile learning can offer employers a way to improve the skills of their staff in a time that might otherwise be used frivolously.

The recent innovation of wearable tech doesn’t just reach the entertainment industries. Current trends of this model of learning see students using real life simulations to give them a hands-on approach to their studies, all thanks to mobile devices.

Using a virtual classroom can engage students like never before and give them valuable experience in real life situations. Whether it’s learning how to interact with customers or using augmented reality to simulate a workplace, there are countless opportunities for wearable tech to integrate with mobile learning.

According to Global Workplace Analytics, employees these days only spend about 50 percent of their day at their desk. This recent call for work-life balance has completely shifted the way we work and also has great implications for our training and education sectors.

Traditional training methods offered in the workplace such as day-long seminars and workshops are rarely flexible and force the employees to learn at a time and with a method that may not be suitable to them. By utilizing mobile learning, employers can stay on top of trends and aim to educate staff with a model that suits their individual needs and schedules.

The future trends of mobile learning are certainly exciting. Clearly, a continued focus on convenience and flexibility will continue to allow the student to study where and how they choose.

A major area of interest for the future of mobile learning comes with augmented and virtual reality, which allow the student to experience a simulated environment from the comfort of their own home or space of their choosing. These realities will take mobile learning to a whole new level and give the student access to virtual environments that were once only available in flight simulators and other high-tech learning arenas.

User generated content may also become a major factor in mobile learning, with students able to upload their own valuable content and contribute to the coursework. As this sharing of information is already prominent in other areas of social media and the internet, there’s no doubt that it will be useful in the education sphere as well.

Forbes: Five Trends Driving The Growth Of Mobile Learning In Corporate Education

US News Study: Many Online Students Use Mobile Devices for Coursework

Why you need to start thinking about mobile learning

Ever taken a photo while watching one of your favorite bands play? Or filmed part of a concert or performance on your phone?

If you’ve got a smartphone, and an active social media account, it’s very likely you’ve used both at some point – to capture, preserve and share an experience. However, with so many people keen to document these memories through a quick pic, many venues and artists are finding their polite “No Cameras” requests are being largely ignored.

Apple’s new patent for signal blocking device technology could soon change this, by removing the camera ability from our smartphones and taking the capability right out of our hands.

Some artists, such as Alicia Keys and comedians Dave Chappelle, Louis CK and Chris Rock, have already turned to devices such as Yondr, as a way of promoting a no phone policy at their shows. Yondr works by locking away attendees’ phones in soft pouches, removing the temptation to snap any photos and giving venues and artists the tools they need for phone-free spaces.

On entering the event or venue, audience members place their phones inside the Yondr soft case – when they step into the phone-free zone the case will lock.  Each audience member still carries their own phone on them, but won’t be able to remove it from the Yondr case to use it.

If attendees need to use their phone at any time, or in an emergency situation, they simply step out of the no phone zone and the case will unlock.

Introducing Apple’s Signal Blocking Device Technology

With its recently patented signal blocking device technology, Apple is taking this concept one step further, to effectively disable the cameras in smartphones at specific venues or locations. This means that in the not so distant future, our smartphone cameras may simply no longer work in certain situations, such as concerts, art exhibitions or events.

With signal blocking technology, infrared rays are used to force iPhone cameras to shut off at any venues where video, photo and audio recording is prohibited. As described in an article by The Atlantic, Apple’s new patent uses infrared technology, which can be picked up by the camera and interpreted by the smartphone as a command to block the user from taking any photos or videos.

For example, a venue could use an emitter placed on stage that would disable photography and recording in any phones that are pointed towards the stage, stopping people from taking pics and footage of the band or artist throughout the show. 

Using Signal Blocking Devices in the Classroom

This technology could also prove very interesting for learning environments, in that it has the potential to be used for all manner of applications other than photography.

In certain situations, such as a classroom or staff training room, smartphones have become a huge distraction. Teachers everywhere are frustrated by students’ addictions to smartphones, with students using their phones in class for texting, browsing and even cheating on exams. A similar scenario can be seen in workplaces, with employees wasting more time on their smartphones than before.

Just as musicians and artists ask attendees to switch off their phones during their concerts, teachers and managers can ask students and staff to put down their phones in class – but how effective is this method?

Signal blocking devices could remove this distraction from the classroom and workplace entirely, allowing students and staff to focus and become more engaged.

Keeping Staff and Students Focused and Engaged

Whether or not Apple’s signal blocking device technology can be considered effective and appropriate for learning environments, it opens up an interesting discussion around the distractions of smartphones for students and staff and the importance of keeping individuals engaged.

There are many excellent online training resources that can help you to make your learning environment as engaging as possible for your class or team members.

In the absence of signal blocking devices, why not check out some of the great courses in Go1’s marketplace – you can simply enroll and complete training modules online, at your own pace, using the Go1 platform.

How signal blocking devices will change learning environments

There are a number of reasons why an elearning course might fail. You might have chosen a poor user interface that your learners find difficult to navigate, for example. Or you might have chosen the wrong development team and the presentation of your content just doesn’t hit it’s mark. Maybe there was a communication breakdown between management and your learners that you failed to identify before you created your course and the topic isn’t as relevant as you imagined before. Here’s the problem: even if you get all of these elements correct, your content still might fail to gain traction if it’s not engaging enough for the learner.

In fact, this might be the #1 challenge that educators are faced with today. If you want to create elearning courses and content that are engaging (and have a real impact on your learners), then you need to take into account a few critical points.

To help you make sure you’re on the right path, here are a few guidelines to creating educational content that your learners will love:

1: Take the time to truly understand your audience

Far too many organizations develop content without taking the time to discover what their learners really want and will respond to. Before you start creating your content, it’s important to interview members of your target demographic and find out what they like and dislike when studying online. Find out what they’re most interested in and what they have liked in previous classes they’ve taken.

Also, it’s important to keep in mind when you’re creating your content that not all of your learners will be arriving at your course with the same amount of experience or knowledge of the subject. This means you’ll likely need to tailor the material to fit the needs of a broader audience

According to a recent study funded by Microsoft, the average human attention span has fallen from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. That’s over a 30% drop! Studies suggest that this dramatic shift began taking place around the time smartphones entered the mass market, so the trend is likely to continue. This presents educators with a challenge: how can we keep our audience focused long enough to actually learn the material?

Multimedia helps solve this problem. By adding resources like audio clips, videos and interactive quizzes, you can shift the delivery and pacing of your material with enough frequency that each segment comes across as both novel and interesting. Keep things exciting and you won’t have a problem holding your learner’s attention.

If your material reads like an academic journal entry then your audience simply won’t be motivated enough to work through the materials. The best educational content is relatable to the learner and written in a way that they can easily access it.

For some audiences this might mean you need to write in a more conversational tone. Others might be looking for narrators and industry jargon they can relate to. Either way, it’s very critical to consider the right tone, style and language you use before you begin producing your content.

Humans are social animals and our instinct to share goes back thousands of years. Educators who understand this instinct can dramatically improve the learning experience for their audience. Some course designers, for example, have found that creating a private forum is an effective away to keep their learners engaged.