Nine Ways to Boost Collaboration on Corporate Training Using dominKnow | ONE

One of the strongest reasons to use a cloud-based authoring tool is better collaboration.  

Effective eLearning takes a village – from authors and designers to reviewers and subject matter experts (SMEs). Well-designed corporate training requires a lot of hands.  

But while a larger team lends expertise, it also borrows time and trouble. At dominKnow, we've spent a lot of time thinking about eLearning and the art of collaboration: the benefits, the pitfalls, and the places where productivity can hit a snag.

Below, you'll find nine ways our authoring tool, dominKnow | ONE, can boost the power of collaboration on your corporate eLearning projects.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #1: User and Role Management

If you have a large eLearning team touching corporate training projects, you need robust control over users and permissions to secure your intellectual property.

dominKnow | ONE lets you assign each user a different level of access, including:

• Administrative Authors, who can access everything and assign content to authors

• Authors, who can work on specific projects to which they are assigned
• Reviewers, who are authorized to provide feedback on assigned courses

Authors and reviewers are restricted to their assigned content – when they browse or search the database, they'll only see the items for which they have permissions.

If you're thinking that level of granular control might get tedious, don't worry – you can mass assign access to corporate training assets at the team level.  Don't want everyone within the team to have access? You can leave out selected users or remove them as well.  

Our adaptive user interfaces provide an additional level of control over what users can or cannot do within your eLearning.  You can limit authors by setting their author mode to either Essentials, Essentials Plus or Designer.

Users will only see the tools and functions relevant to their role, and you'll rest easy knowing that everyone has an environment that will meet their needs and enable you to empower a greater number of people on your team.  

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #2: Communication in Context

Built-in communication tools allow you to keep all conversations attached to an eLearning project on the record – no more juggling plug-ins or other applications. Use page notes, in-line comments and more to discuss specific content. See who's online in real time for easy contact and collaboration.  

Keep everyone in the loop on your corporate training projects by messaging every user on a particular team or project simultaneously.  

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #3: Give Credit and Get Accountability

One of the pitfalls of a large eLearning team? Mistakes become whodunnits. On the flip side, it can be hard to see who deserves praise for an outstanding effort.

dominKnow | ONE's tracking and reporting functions nip both problems in the bud.  All eLearning development is tracked for easy records of who did what and when.  Comments are logged and tracked, as well. Authorized parties can view project reporting to quickly see all content, activity, user history, and logs at a glance.

You'll spend less time amateur sleuthing so you can maximize productivity on corporate training and other eLearning projects.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #4: Safeguard Against Loss of Your Work Product

There are a lot of ways a catastrophic oops can happen – and they grow exponentially as you add more collaborators to your corporate training development team.

You're already protected from hardware failure and keepaway (Carol's on vacation, you say? In Antarctica? With her laptop which has the only copy of a critical eLearning file?) just by using cloud-based authoring software.

But dominKnow | ONE goes further.  You'll get automatic, incremental backups to protect your data.  Version control will give you a lot of power, as well.  You can check older versions, even roll back entire projects individual pages if necessary, or even transfer part of older versions into your current draftproject.

And within the same versionproject, you can recover previously deleted pages.  You can also limit the scope of undo and redo actions to apply to one page without impacting others.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #5: Co-Author in Comfort

In dominKnow | ONE, co-authors can split an eLearning project in real time. Avoid stepping on each other's toes with our check-in/check-out system (alongside features like that limited undo). Use page notes and inline comments to discuss development issues in context.

More of a lone wolf? No problem.  Authors can lock their eLearning content, instead.  This will allow other users to view or reuse content without the ability to make changes.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #6: Get Reviewer Feedback, Headache-Free

dominKnow | ONE's native integrated review workflow will allow you to collect and process more feedback on your corporate training…without making you want to tear your hair out.

First: no more herding cats.  Schedule reviews and send reminders automatically.  Was that a sigh of relief we just heard?  

Second, no juggling separate or "integrated" tools.  The review functionality is part of the package. Comments can be written and addressed within the same interface where editing will happen.  

Plus, in dominKnow | ONE, reviewers use a slimmed-down user interface that lets them concentrate on the corporate training content, not the mechanics of eLearning development software. They can leave comments at the page or element level, so no one is confused about what they're referring to specifically. Reviewers' comments can link directly to specific parts of a page, so it's easy to see exactly what the comment refers to.  Then other reviewers can like these comments or add their own input on the same issue.

The authors' end of the process is also streamlined.

Authors can use the review feature even when the course isn't in review mode. They can see feedback on corporate training in context. They can add notes, send replies, and notify reviewers of updates while editing.  

We don't limit you to picking through reviewer comments one by one, however.  Authors have the option to compile comments and make mass changes for easier tracking and resolution.  These reports can be exported as a spreadsheet or text file, making it simple to spot outstanding issues.    

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #7: Reuse or Repurpose Existing Corporate Training Assets

Content reuse is just collaboration with eLearning authors past, present, and future.  

At least, we like to think so.  Because that would make us Doc Brown and dominKnow | ONE our time-traveling DeLorean (we can dream).

That's because dominKnow | ONE isn't just an authoring tool. It's also a Learning Content Management System with robust capabilities for content reuse and repurposing. Using centralized storage and organization, your corporate training assets can remain in active circulation for years in dozens of projects.  

Authors can easily locate existing resources to prevent redundant effort. Dynamic content production makes it easy to update critical eLearning assets and have the latest version instantly available in all related projects.  You'll also be able to track usage statistics, so you know which projects use each piece of content, when it was last updated, and by whom.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #8: Track and Improve Your Corporate Training Development Cycle

Insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. That's why we've built tools into dominKnow | ONE that can help you improve your teamwork with every project.

Use templated or custom life cycles to track your eLearning development process.  See progress through development stages in real time and compare life cycle data between projects, teams, and protocols.  Use the data to tweak your process and measure improvements over time.  

Become a lean, mean corporate training development team.

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eLearning Collaboration Boost #9: Build on External Corporate Training Resources

In some cases, the smartest use of resources is to seek expertise outside your organization.

dominKnow | ONE recently began offering options for you to transform off-the-shelf corporate training from the best in the biz into unique, personalized courseware.  It's like collaborating with the best SMEs on safety training, compliance training, and professional development…only, without the custom-content price tag.

Editable off-the-shelf content lets you fast-track your development schedule and rapidly expand your corporate training catalog. And since your team can use the editing power of dominKnow | ONE on these courses, you can customize to your heart's content.

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Want to Learn More?

dominKnow | ONE's collaborative tools are just one way we're able to improve your authoring experience. Reach out today to learn more – you can get a demo with friendly experts or sign up for a free 14-day trial and discover for yourself.    

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