It seems that the days in which employers look down on job candidates who earn their degrees through accredited online universities is coming to an end. According to a recent SHrM poll, “76 percent of human resources professionals said online degrees are viewed more favorably than five years ago.”

A major reason for this is due to the proliferation of the web in our ever day lives. In the past 10 years, the business world has changed before our very eyes (can you imagine an office setting without email?). It should come as no surprise that there is a direct positive correlation between the growth of the web and the acceptance of online learning.

Another reason employers are looking more favorably at online degrees is because of the use of online learning in the corporate environment. Companies have been investing heavily in custom Learning Management Systems and Learning Content Management Systems for some time now.

We here at Aspen Organization Development Consulting have seen the power the web can bring to a multitude of areas in business, not least of is employee training and development and organizational development. That’s why we launched Learning @…

Till now, small, emerging companies that do not have the budgets of their larger counterparts have forgone the benefits online learning tools can bring to the party. However, with a tool like Learning @… even the smallest company can do things such as:

• Deliver key messages from management
• Provide employee performance information
• Share company policies and procedures
• Host an online learning resources library
• Publicize company learning events and seminars
• And, probably most importantly, deliver online training courses

If you haven’t taken a look at our landing pages yet, I encourage you to do so. Check them out here: www.learning-at.com. And be sure to sign-up for our complimentary newsletter to see how Learning @… can benefit you employees and organization.

According to a recent article on MSNBC, more than half of the employers polled in a recent survey said that they will be hiring employees within the next year. This is no doubt great news for those who have been struggling to find a job during the recession. It will however present some “growing pains” for the hiring organizations. For months now, many companies have cut deep into the proverbial bone of their workforce and may not immediately be in the right mind set for onboarding an influx of “fresh blood”.

This is where having a tool like Learning @… Professional in place can really give organizations a helping hand in integrating new employees to the organization. With Learning @… Professional a company can easily provide to all incoming employees important organizational information ranging from the company vision, mission, and goals to the Code of Conduct Policy. Additionally, instead of holding numerous orientation sessions for the new arrivals, the human resources department, or who ever manages the hiring for the company, can host a virtual online orientation module.

The upcoming months will be prove to be interesting times for many organizations—in order to hold their competitive edge at the upturn of the economy and to have their new workforce hit the ground running, it is in a company’s best interest to have an application that can provide the necessary communication and learning tools. That application is Learning @… Professional

So far I have posted a bunch of information on this crazy sounding thing called Learning @… I’ve posted all this info about the product that states that it is a “a customizable, cost-effective online employee learning tool designed to fit your company’s learning and development needs…” and a cost effective alternative to “expensive Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)”.

But what’s with the name? What does Learning @… mean?

The answer is simple. Think of it this way: An employee, Jane Q. Learner, walks into work one day at an organization called The XYZ Company. She sits down at her computer and logs-on to her company’s online learning portal provided by the best organization development consulting firm around (biased opinion? Maybe a little). Jane begins her day by checking the Learning Seminars Calendar to see if there are any training events she needs to attend for the week and after finding the Business Acumen course she has signed up for she quickly and easily scrolls over to the Online Learning Module section to go through the conflict resolution training module the HR department has asked you to complete. Finally, before she has even completed her morning cup of coffee, Jane looks up The XYZ Company’s Paid Time Off policy in the Policies and Procedures section of the online learning portal so that she can begin planning her next vacation at lunch time.

So what is Jane Q. Learner doing while cruising through the online application? She is:

Learning @ The XYZ Company!!!

Get it?

This is a screen shot of what employees see upon logging into their Learning @… account. On the left is the menu with all the features and in the middle is a letter straight from the CEO of XYZ Company, detailing what it is they have just logged into as well as how they are supposed to use it. Sorry, I had to blur out some text - I don’t want to give away all our secrets :)

Ok - these are going to be the last posts for the night, but I wanted to make sure I got these screen shots up of a demo version of Learning @…Professional that I have set up. This first one is of the login screen for an imaginary enterprise called XYZ Company

Welcome to the Learning @… Blog, the place to get all the news and updates around the new organizational online learning product from Aspen Organization Development Consulting.

My name is Ben Nash and I am the Creative Director at Aspen Organization Development Consulting and a developer of Learning @… On this blog I will post news and events surrounding Learning @… as well as commentary and my thoughts on human resources and organizational development news that I feel connect with our great new employee learning product.

I will post news and pictures here a couple times a week, but if you’re looking for more HR and OD news and commentary, check out our other blogs: the Aspen Organization Development Consulting Blog and DailyHRTips.com.

One last thing—this blog may look a little sparse right now, but i’ll spruce it up as soon as I can. Oh, and if any of you are looking to get a blog up and running in a hurry, I highly recommend tumblr. This is my first time using it after building several other blogs on the Wordpress and Blogger platforms and, I have to say, this is probably the best user experience I’ve ever had with getting a robust blog up and active. Just an FYI

Ok, I already said one last thing, but I just wanted to say—before anyone asks—yes, that is my ugly mug up there in the right hand corner