Blog

Starting a blog is easy. Keeping it filled with interesting and engaging content is the tough part. 

So, are you ready to kick your blogging efforts up a notch? In this class you’ll complete a three month editorial calendar to help you map out your content and plan ahead. This will help you: 

Take this class, and you’ll walk away with much more than a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to give your blog character and help it stand out from the crowd. 

• Create quality content on a regular schedule
• Use your blog to map back to specific business strategies
• Manage multiple authors or contributors
• Track publication and marketing efforts
• Capitalize on trends and increase visibility

Section 1: Define Your Blogging Strategy
We’ll look at the fundementals of your blog, such as your style, audience, and goals. You’ll develop a comprehensive brand statement to help you smash through even the worst case of writer’s block. 

Section 2: Search For Inspiration
Like any writer, the more you read, the better you write. We’ll look at ways to source quality content that motivates you to create, but doesn’t take forever to find. 

Section 3: Create Your Calendar Template
Lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work. This class comes complete with a link to a google spreadsheet that you can immediately implement for your own content. 

Section 4: Complete Calendar Details
In this section, I’ll give you my best tips and tricks for using an editorial calendar to help you manage a team. I developed these techniques while managing the social media content of one of the world’s biggest brands. I share my mistakes so you don’t have to make them. 

Source: skillshare.com

Starting a blog is easy. Keeping it filled with interesting and engaging content is the tough part. 

So, are you ready to kick your blogging efforts up a notch? In this class you’ll complete a three month editorial calendar to help you map out your content and plan ahead. This will help you: 

Take this class, and you’ll walk away with much more than a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to give your blog character and help it stand out from the crowd. 

• Create quality content on a regular schedule
• Use your blog to map back to specific business strategies
• Manage multiple authors or contributors
• Track publication and marketing efforts
• Capitalize on trends and increase visibility

Section 1: Define Your Blogging Strategy
We’ll look at the fundementals of your blog, such as your style, audience, and goals. You’ll develop a comprehensive brand statement to help you smash through even the worst case of writer’s block. 

Section 2: Search For Inspiration
Like any writer, the more you read, the better you write. We’ll look at ways to source quality content that motivates you to create, but doesn’t take forever to find. 

Section 3: Create Your Calendar Template
Lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work. This class comes complete with a link to a google spreadsheet that you can immediately implement for your own content. 

Section 4: Complete Calendar Details
In this section, I’ll give you my best tips and tricks for using an editorial calendar to help you manage a team. I developed these techniques while managing the social media content of one of the world’s biggest brands. I share my mistakes so you don’t have to make them. 

Source: skillshare.com

Starting a blog is easy. Keeping it filled with interesting and engaging content is the tough part. 

So, are you ready to kick your blogging efforts up a notch? In this class you’ll complete a three month editorial calendar to help you map out your content and plan ahead. This will help you: 

Take this class, and you’ll walk away with much more than a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to give your blog character and help it stand out from the crowd. 

• Create quality content on a regular schedule
• Use your blog to map back to specific business strategies
• Manage multiple authors or contributors
• Track publication and marketing efforts
• Capitalize on trends and increase visibility

Section 1: Define Your Blogging Strategy
We’ll look at the fundementals of your blog, such as your style, audience, and goals. You’ll develop a comprehensive brand statement to help you smash through even the worst case of writer’s block. 

Section 2: Search For Inspiration
Like any writer, the more you read, the better you write. We’ll look at ways to source quality content that motivates you to create, but doesn’t take forever to find. 

Section 3: Create Your Calendar Template
Lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work. This class comes complete with a link to a google spreadsheet that you can immediately implement for your own content. 

Section 4: Complete Calendar Details
In this section, I’ll give you my best tips and tricks for using an editorial calendar to help you manage a team. I developed these techniques while managing the social media content of one of the world’s biggest brands. I share my mistakes so you don’t have to make them. 

Source: skillshare.com

We could all use a little self-care right now.  

Unfortunately, many people’s usual coping strategies are simply unavailable at the moment, whether that’s socializing with friends or family, playing or watching sports, going to the gym or enjoying a little retail therapy.  

On the upside, there are still plenty of ways that you and your clients can practice self-care during these troubling times, even if you’re under orders to stay at home as much as possible.  

Practice Mindfulness 

Mindfulness practices have been shown to offer a host of physical, psychological and social benefits that can lead to decreases in perceived stress, improved self-efficacy, enhanced emotional regulation and a greater sense of meaning and purpose in life. 

Relaxation counters the short-term effects of stress by decreasing blood pressure, heart rate, respiration rate and muscle tension. Over the long-term, relaxation can mitigate certain health issues, including hypertension, anxiety and even cancer (Esch, Fricchione & Stefano, 2003; Keefer & Blanchard, 2002), in addition to improving overall health and healing.  

Here are some mindful practices that you and your clients might want to try: 

• Mindful movement, such as yoga, tai chi, qigong, walking or cycling: Your clients might be surprised to learn that one of the two common aspects of practices that elicit relaxation is repetition (Benson & Klipper, 1975), as is experienced during exercises like walking and cycling. 
• Meditation: This can include any of a number of types of meditation, which you should encourage your clients to research. While some people thrive with an ongoing transcendental meditation practice, others may simply want a way to get 10 or 15 minutes of quiet time or prayer during a stressful period. This is where the second aspect of practices that elicit relaxation comes in—a passive disregard of thoughts as they arise (Benson & Klipper, 1975).  
• Breathing exercises: Again, there are a number of breathing exercises that clients can explore, including diaphragmatic breathing and pursed-lip breathing. 

Sleep 

Sleep disorders are common in modern society, with one in three U.S. adults reporting that they usually get less than the recommended amount of sleep (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2018). This is only made worse by feelings of depression or anxiety.  

Healthy sleep patterns should be part of every behavior-change program and are particularly important during these troubling times, when everyone is under heightened levels of stress. Inadequate sleep has been linked to a variety of health risks, including heart disease, weight gain, depression and reduced cognitive function. 

Share the following tips with your clients to help them get a good night’s sleep (American Sleep Foundation, 2018): 

• Create a relaxing sleep environment 

• Follow a consistent sleep schedule 
• Follow a soothing bedtime routine 
• Limit exposure to bright light, especially blue light 
• Try to be exposed to natural light early in the day 
• Exercise daily 

• Avoid caffeine and alcohol 
• Avoid eating a large meal to close to bedtime 

Social Connectedness 

So many of us are feeling isolated, lonely, anxious or depressed right now. As a health coach or exercise professional, one of the best things you can do is provide a positive experience each time you interact with a client. Also, remind them that none of us are in this alone, and that the importance of social connectedness cannot be overstated. Encourage them to use Facetime, Skype or another video conferencing tools to interact with friends and family members or to reach out to people they may have lost touch with over time.  

People all over the world are having virtual dance parties, taking classes online, attending virtual happy hours and finding other creative ways to have fun and take a break from the craziness we’re all living through. We may all be isolated in our homes at the moment, but we need each other more than ever. That’s great advice to share with clients—and to be mindful of yourself.  

Source: acefitness.org

Starting a blog is easy. Keeping it filled with interesting and engaging content is the tough part. 

So, are you ready to kick your blogging efforts up a notch? In this class you’ll complete a three month editorial calendar to help you map out your content and plan ahead. This will help you: 

Take this class, and you’ll walk away with much more than a spreadsheet. You’ll also learn how to give your blog character and help it stand out from the crowd. 

• Create quality content on a regular schedule
• Use your blog to map back to specific business strategies
• Manage multiple authors or contributors
• Track publication and marketing efforts
• Capitalize on trends and increase visibility

Section 1: Define Your Blogging Strategy
We’ll look at the fundementals of your blog, such as your style, audience, and goals. You’ll develop a comprehensive brand statement to help you smash through even the worst case of writer’s block. 

Section 2: Search For Inspiration
Like any writer, the more you read, the better you write. We’ll look at ways to source quality content that motivates you to create, but doesn’t take forever to find. 

Section 3: Create Your Calendar Template
Lucky for you, I’ve done all the hard work. This class comes complete with a link to a google spreadsheet that you can immediately implement for your own content. 

Section 4: Complete Calendar Details
In this section, I’ll give you my best tips and tricks for using an editorial calendar to help you manage a team. I developed these techniques while managing the social media content of one of the world’s biggest brands. I share my mistakes so you don’t have to make them. 

Source: skillshare.com

Online learning environment can seem intimidating to students who haven’t tried it. But, according to Dr. Jennifer Bachner, Director of the MS in Government Analytics and Certificate in Government Analytics, online learning isn’t much different than a classroom.

By employing a few essential strategies, any student can learn not only to succeed, but to flourish in the online learning environment.

Top five strategies for success in online learning:

1. Devote consistent blocs of time to the class

Online courses are often attractive to students because they offer flexibility, particularly for those with demanding professional or personal responsibilities. This flexibility, however, can lead students into trouble. It can be tempting for students to delay working through the course material, thinking they’ll find time later in the week.

2. Communicate regularly with the professor

Opening and using these lines of communication will benefit you both during and beyond the course. During the course, it’s important to ask questions when the material or assignments are unclear and discuss larger assignments such as research papers. Use the mode of communication preferred by the instructor (e.g. email, Skype, phone) but don’t shrink away from these conversations.

3. Engage with your classmates

Don’t limit your discussion postings to responding to the prompts posted by the instructor. Add your own insights and questions to the discussion. I always appreciate when students post a relevant news article or scholarly publication they’ve come across. These contributions help other students relate the course material to the real world and other areas of study.

4. Begin your work early

In an online class, particularly for first-time students, there may be technical difficulties to overcome. Take the risk of these difficulties into account, and give yourself time to acclimate to new software and hardware. Further, give your instructors a reasonable amount of time to answer your questions. In an online class, exchanging emails or arranging phone conversations takes time. In short, expect that you will encounter hurdles when completing the work and leave yourself time to overcome them.

5. Remember that online classes vary greatly

Just as with on-the-ground classes, there are many ways to design an online class. Research course offerings ahead of time to determine if the instructor, structure and material are a good fit for you. Some online classes, for example, rely largely on the discussion boards to further your learning while others make heavier use of group projects, individually-written papers or collaborative problem sets.

Source: advanced.jhu.edu

Online courses have become an incredibly popular way for students and employees to advance their education or professional development. Teaching an online course requires different methods from the traditional classroom, so it’s important that teachers adapt or develop their skills to the online learning environment, to make their materials effective and engaging for learners. 

Let’s look at 5 strategies you can implement to improve your online teaching and make your eLearning course a successful experience for both you and your learners.

1. Engage With Your Learners Online

Without your physical presence in the classroom, it’s vital that you establish a virtual presence at the very beginning of the eLearning course. Online teachers need to be engaging and supporting students right from the start and for the duration of the course, to maintain an effective learning community.

2. Create A Supportive Learning Environment

As an online teacher, you have an opportunity to create a supportive online community for your learners.

The best way to achieve this is through encouraging both teacher-to-student engagement and student-to-student interaction.

3. Use A Mix Of Learning Tools For Better Engagement

These days, we’re fortunate to have the technology to create virtual learning environments that allow us to collaborate and engage just as well as if we were in the classroom.

As Dr Boettche says, “the variety of activities that are now possible online makes it possible to create many types of effective learning environments.”

4. Provide Ongoing Feedback

Feedback is an essential component of all effective learning environments – including online.

As an online teacher, your feedback will help to create an eLearning experience that is informative, engaging, and motivational for the learner. 

5. Make eLearning Content Mobile

It’s wise to acknowledge the importance of mobile learning for online teachers, with students and employees now accustomed to using their mobile devices for learning.

Mobile learning holds key advantages for learners, allowing them to access up-to-date course materials and relevant content anywhere, anytime. With bite-sized pieces of information available to be digested quickly and easily, learners can work through course materials at their own pace, assisting both performance and productivity.

Source: elearningindustry.com

Today, organizations and academic institutes require robust and strategic learning management systems (LMS) that can automate manual processes of traditional tools. Effective learning management systems can empower departments and enable business growth, as well as further educational initiatives.

Unlike the human researchers, the computer program was able to identify about twice as many systems. However, after additional investigation, the human researchers successfully confirmed about 97% of the info provided by Kimmon’s program.

Over the years, LMS has become a vital tool to achieve enterprise learning objectives. It is no wonder the LMS market will be worth $22.4 billion by 2023. Learning management systems, for instance, can be used in several formats. You can use it as a formal, experimental, or social managerial compliance training program.

Moreover, the role of eLearning to generate revenue for enterprises continues to evolve. LMS personalizes feedback to promote a self-regulating learning process. In fact, LMS has been proven to increase the effectiveness of students’ and employees’ learning outcomes.

The Evolving Role of the Learning Management System

A revolutionary change in the LMS is the contextualization of the learning process for teachers and employers. The right LMS can enable increased interaction between instructors and learners. Consequently, a collaborative virtual learning experience improves outcomes for online learners.

Adoption of LMS by K-12 Schools

It is true – the skepticism towards LMS no longer exists. And why would it? The majority of institutions have successfully implemented the systems in higher education to improve student’s learning process. Similarly, LMS is now widely used by K-12 schools. It does, however, present an opportunity for researchers to learn the standardized testing process at such a scale.

What’s interesting is that the adoption of an LMS solution goes beyond higher standardized test scores. However, this effectiveness is interconnected with the cost and nature of the system itself. For example, an education system should have a proprietary system configuration, while an open-source solution is preferable for an organization.

Source: blogs.onlineeducation.touro.edu

Online teaching is increasingly common at many types of higher education institutions, ranging from hybrid courses that offer a combination of in-person and online instruction, to fully online experiences and distance learning. The following resources provide guidelines for creating an online course, best practices for teaching online, and strategies for assessing the quality of online education

Online references for the following topics: instructor and student roles, building online learning communities, online course design, examples of online courses and degree programs, etc.

CRLT Occasional Paper #18: Online Teaching (Zhu, Dezure, & Payette, 2003)
This paper explores key questions to consider when planning an online course and provides guidelines for effective instructional practices.

Instructional Design (Illinois Online Network)
An ever-changing collection of articles related to teaching online (including Tip of the Month), basic resources, and spotlight issues. As this site is well-maintained, it is worth occasionally checking in to see if new material has been added.

Instructional Strategies for Online Courses (Illinois Online Network)
An ever-changing collection of articles related to teaching online (including Tip of the Month), basic resources, and spotlight issues. As this site is well-maintained, it is worth occasionally checking in to see if new material has been added.

The site provides a summary of instructional strategies for online course. Effective online instruction depends on learning experiences appropriately designed and facilitated by knowledgeable educators. Because learners have different learning styles or a combination of styles, online educators should design activities that address their modes of learning in order to provide significant experiences for each class participant.

Research on Best Practices (San Juan College)
These pages present a summary of research related to best practices of teaching online. It is divided into 4 sections: content and structure, communication, assessment, and references. The symbols (described below) indicate our recommendations for application of the concepts in your course.

Source: www.crlt.umich.edu

Did you know that Pinterest has 200+ Million monthly users? And a huge portion of those users are not only clicking through on pins to get more information, but they’re also BUYING things they find there! 

When I noticed that over 60% of my own traffic was coming from Pinterest (where I have around 6600 followers) and only 3% was coming from Instagram (where I have 110k+ followers) — despite the fact that I was spending way less time on Pinterest and way too much time on Instagram I knew I needed to change my game plan.

This class is especially for artists, makers, and creatives! But it will be helpful to anyone who wants to learn more about the power of free exposure you can get on Pinterest.

Maybe you do, too?

In this class I’ll be covering:

• Perfecting Your Pinterest Profile
• Creating Eye-Catching Pinterest Boards
• The Anatomy of a Perfect Pin
• Pinning from Etsy
• Pinning from Your Website or Blog
• How to Pin? Yep! How to Pin!
• Making Your Life Easier by Scheduling Pins

And in the end we will share our class project: a Pin based on all of the information we learned in the class! (Plus I share a link to a free trial of my favorite Pinterest approved software!) 

I hope you’ll join me in the class! And if you have any questions, please feel free to post them in the class discussion area.

Source: Skillshare.com