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If you’re considering making the most of your eLearning strategy, you should consider authoring your own courses. 

It’s now easier than ever to create engaging courses that are convenient for anyone to access. 

If you haven’t looked into course authoring or felt that it would be too complicated, expensive, or time-consuming, you should investigate some of the reasons why this may be your best e-learning strategy right now.

The Advantages of Course Authoring

If you need to train employees, you probably already understand the benefits of e-learning. In a virtual classroom environment, learners can access the material from any location. 

You can set up coursework that trainees and staff can absorb at their own pace. They can review material at their convenience. Online courses have become a popular way to deliver corporate training for many good reasons. 

However, you may not have considered the advantages of authoring your own courses. 

Here are some reasons that course authoring is a powerful option for businesses that are innovative and forward-thinking. 

Your Course, Your Way

You can create highly customized online courses. You may be able to find some excellent courses created by third parties. 

You can also outsource course creation and have them made to your specifications. However, no one knows your material better than you do. 

Course authoring allows you to include precisely what you want and tailor the material for your particular audience. 

Powerful Branding Strategy

A powerful branding strategy. When you create your own courses, you’re helping to build your brand. You’re demonstrating that you’re a leader in your industry. 

When employees work with your custom material, your brand’s look and style will be constantly reinforced. This helps build loyalty and bolsters your image in the industry. 

An economical strategy. 

More and more companies understand how online training saves money. eLearning can be even more economical when you create your courses. 

While you need to devote some time and effort to course development, it saves you money in the long run. You don’t have to pay licensing or royalty fees when you’ve created the course yourself. 

Simple To Update

It’s simple to edit and update your courses. Coursework often needs editing and updating. In some industries, it’s common to require updates regularly. 

This is a much simpler process when you’ve created the course in-house. If you’re working with courses developed by a third party, on the other hand, it can be a drawn-out process to arrange the appropriate updates. 

Create practical assessments. 

One of the most critical features of any learning management system is getting accurate feedback and assessing your online training effectiveness. 

You, better than anyone else, know the objectives of the training. When you’ve authored the course, it’s easier to create the right kind of assessments and feedback tools. 

Identify Your Goals

Creating your own course takes careful planning. Even if you license a course, you need to do plenty of research.

Course authoring, however, is a more complex project that demands your full attention.

Here are some guidelines for creating courses that meet the needs of your organization and employees. 

The first step is to identify your objectives for the course.

These may include: 

• Teaching employees a specific process or how to use particular equipment or software. 
• Preparing employees for certification, which may require familiarity with laws and regulations in your industry. 
• Learning about your company’s policies (such as HR or sexual harassment). 

Create and Compile Content for Your Course

One of the biggest challenges of course development is finding the content. 

A practical course needs to balance learners’ needs with those of the organization. You have to consider what kind of knowledge and experience learners will have before taking the course. 

The language, style, and learning methods should be created with your learners in mind. 

When planning content development, consider your employees’ typical age, experience, and level of education. 

Create an outline for the course. 

Identify all of the areas you need to cover to accurately assess the kind of content required. 

Mine your existing content. 

By using content you already have, you can gain a head start with your course. This includes PowerPoints, infographics, PDFs, and any other training materials you’re currently using. 

You can also record live classes and lectures and incorporate that content into online courses. Alter and edit such existing content as needed. 

Use a variety of formats and styles. 

People have different learning styles, so it’s good to mix it up and provide variety. This also keeps the material engaging. You can include videos, slide presentations, visuals with charts, animations, quizzes, and games. 

These formats serve their own purposes. Quizzes measure how much learners are retaining while gamification keeps everyone stimulated. 

Brand your content. 

As long as you’re authoring your own course, you may as well reap the full benefits by branding it as much as possible. 

You can incorporate your logo as well as the typical fonts and colors associated with your brand. You can also include imagery from your business. 

This type of branding is mostly right when you’re onboarding new employees and getting them acclimated to the company culture. 

 Use the Right LMS

In this article, we compare Thinkific vs. Teachable. It’s essential to use the right tools if you want to create a customized course.

Here are some criteria to look for when choosing a learning management system (LMS). 

• Flexible templates that can be customized to the needs of any industry or company. 
• Interactive quizzes to assess learners’ progress. 
• Gamification to make learning more fun and engaging. 
• Comprehensive support and services such as hands-on guidance and consultation. 

Check Out The Following Course Platforms

• Accessally
• LearnDash
• Podia
• Thinkific
• Teachable

Enjoy the Benefits of Course Creation

When you understand the many benefits of online courses, your next challenge is to create a course that delivers learners’ appropriate content. 

Course authoring is often the most effective, efficient, and cost-effective way to reap the maximum advantages of eLearning. It allows you to create the most customized and branded content for your course.

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Rethinking careers is precisely what the coronavirus pandemic is inspiring many people to do. Unforeseen events can disrupt routine lives, force people to step out of their comfort zones, and push them to ask fundamental questions about what matters in life.

Is a pandemic the right time to reevaluate your career? Even if you and your family are healthy and are financially secure, the pandemic has made life much more uncertain.

It can be hard to tell how much longer you can count on life being predictable.

Psychologists have demonstrated how people tend to lean toward conservative choices and behavior during times of uncertainty — which is precisely the opposite of what you need to do when you pursue a career change.

It can be hard to fully involve yourself in reinventing your career if you’re worried about stability in life.

How do you reconcile the basic need for survival to do something fresh and new? It can help to keep a few simple principles in mind.

Build multiple selves

When you aren’t sure about what the future is likely to bring, or when the trajectory you thought you were on takes an unexpected turn, it can help to have a range of options to choose from, rather than just one.

Even in times of economic certainty, career changes are rarely predictable processes. They are nearly always messy and uncertain.

To handle a career change the right way, you need to develop a range of different selves that you can try out.

A self is an idea of what you believe you might become one day.

Some of these ideas come to be well-defined by experience, and others may be vague and untested.

Some may be practical, and others may be unrealistic. It’s important to imagine yourself in several possible different roles in life, and begin exploring them to arrive at several possible career futures for yourself.

Accept liminality

Liminality is the difficult condition of limbo that you need to go through when making significant life changes.

You need to give up the past that you are comfortable with and go through a period of time when your future isn’t yet with you.

People experiencing liminality tend to alternate between grasping at the past and letting go to welcome the future.

It’s essential to not prematurely attempt to end the period of liminality that you go through.

According to Bill Bridges, author of the book Transitions, brain studies suggest that embracing the uncertainty of an in-between period may be far more beneficial than a lot of apparent busywork of self-improvement.

Get started working on side-projects

Serious pursuit of side-projects is the path that most successful people take to career reinvention.

Building ideas, skills, relationships, and knowledge in a new area in the evenings and over the weekends is the way to great new directions.

People who are successful at reinventing their careers often work on several promising side-projects at once to compare the pros and cons of these activities.

Questioning who you are and what you want to become is often an essential part of working on these projects.

In the middle of the pandemic, when not having to commute leaves you with extra time on your hands, you have the opportunity to try new things.

Many people working from home during the coronavirus pandemic do admit to using the extra time to learn new skills and try new ideas.

The projects you try do not necessarily need to be closely aligned to the direction you believe your new career will be in.

The point is simply to try new kinds of work and talk to new types of people to learn new things about yourself.

It can even help volunteer in your community or volunteer to be a part of the crisis initiative with your employer.

Radically new projects can take you new directions and help you understand what you will be happy doing in life.

Get to work reviving old ties.

Networking is usually best done in person, which means that it’s hard to do during a lockdown or quarantine. Nevertheless, you need to try.

When it comes to networking, your weakest relationships’ revival is an important rule to live by. That is, you need to work hard at strengthening the most tenuous relationships that you have.

The people you know best are unlikely to be sources of new information and insights — you probably already know everything they know.

Less familiar contacts are likely to be far richer sources of valuable ideas and information. Unfortunately, these contacts are also less likely to be motivated to help you.

If you make an effort to network with cooled-off ties, you are likely to find that you come by valuable ideas when you discuss your career with them.

Talk about it

Amid all the upheaval that a change of careers can bring, you probably hope that engaging in introspection will eventually deliver moments of profound insight.

Reflection can be a risky activity when done entirely in isolation; however – it can trap you in fanciful daydreams rather than give you real-world insights.

Reflecting on your own thoughts, somewhat counterintuitively, is best done shared with close friends or family members who can question you, sympathize with you, and read your body language.

People changing careers often benefit significantly from attending training courses in different fields, simply because they can get together with their fellow students and discuss their options.

Simply talking to other people about thoughts that you already have can help clarify those ideas in your mind and take you forward.

As any experienced storyteller is likely to vouch, telling your story to a live audience can be an experience without parallel when ordering your thoughts.

Certainly, amid the self-isolation and the social distancing in place with the pandemic, socializing with anyone other than family members can be challenging.

But you can create a video conferencing group with people that you’re comfortable with, or take a walk with them, speaking across the distance that you need to maintain.

Reinventing your career in the middle of a pandemic can bring you unique opportunities to take advantage of.

There’s just one idea to keep in mind – as far as possible, do it with other people. Don’t try to do it all by yourself.

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• How to Send Media Mail
  Media Mail is a class of mail where you can ship numerous items, including CDs, books, cassettes, and more similar items for a reduced price compared to priority mail or first class mail.

Many people ship packages every day, and you might do this for business or personal use. 

While your gut response might be to ship first class packages, there are other options available. One is called media mail. 

For those who might not know, media mail is what it sounds like. 

Media Mail is a class of mail where you can ship numerous items, including CDs, books, cassettes, and more similar items for a reduced price compared to priority mail or first class mail.

If you want to learn more about shipping media mail to save you money, there are a few tips to keep in mind.

Is Media Mail Right For You?

Before you decide to send something via media mail, you need to determine whether your item is eligible to be shipped by USPS using this method. 

Some of the most common types of media that can ship media mail include:

• Books that are at least eight pages long
• Printed educational reference charts
• Printed test materials and their accessory items
• Loose-leaf pages and binders containing information for medical school, medical students, residents, attending physicians, fellows, and hospitals
• Sheet music
• CDs that contain pre-recorded information such as guides and scripts (NOT video games)
• Scripts and books, periodicals, music, plays, and musicals
• Sound recordings such as CDs and DVDs

If your item falls under one of these categories, then you might be in luck. Remember that USPS has a rule about “no advertisements.”

If your media contains ads, then you shouldn’t send it using this method.

Get Free Boxes from USPS

If you have confirmed that the item you are trying to send qualifies for media mail, you need to find a suitable package. 

The good news is that you can get free boxes from USPS. These boxes can help you further reduce the costs of mailing your items.

Wrap Your Package

Once you have your package from USPS, you need to wrap it to ensure that it stays safe. 

If you are worried that your items might move around inside the box, you should get some packing peanuts to fill the space. 

If you don’t want to buy packing peanuts, you might be able to find a free newspaper somewhere to use as a cushion. 

Just make sure that you shake the box gently to ensure your items have enough cushioning.

If you can hear them rattling, then you need more cushioning.

Write the Address on the Package

You have a few options when it comes to addressing your package. 

If you are worried that your handwriting might not be legible, you can ask USPS to print a label. Otherwise, you can use a thick pen to make sure that your writing is large, clear, and crisp.

Remember that the return address goes into the upper left-hand corner of the box or envelope. 

Write the address of the recipient in the middle.

Place a postage stamp in the upper right-hand corner of the envelope or box. 

USPS has a tool that will help you calculate the correct amount of postage for your media mail.

Seal the Package

Once you have packaged your item and correctly addressed it, seal it using two-inch packing tape. It can either be brown or clear. 

If you have a small item and are using an envelope instead, you can seal it normally. You just want to make sure that your package will not open up in transit.

Ship Your Item Via Media Mail

Once you have your package ready to ship, you should go to your nearest USPS post office. 

You can find them using any online search engine. Remember to take your package with you when you go to the store.

Once you get to the front, ask the attendant how much it will cost to send your package via media mail. 

The agent will want to confirm your package’s contents to make sure that your item sends via media mail, so be ready to answer this question. 

Furthermore, the agent will also want to know the contents of the package to make sure that you get the best price possible.

The pricing plans for media mail and first-class mail are different. 

Therefore, there might be some situations where it might be better to send your media item via priority or first class mail anyway. 

Most pricing plans go by weight. 

#faf7f2If your item is under 9 ounces, then the agent might tell you that it is cheaper to send your item via first class mail than media mail. Follow their suggestions.

Finally, it is time for you to ship your package. If you decide to send your item via media mail, then the cashier will apply the appropriate label to your parcel. 

Then, you have the option to add anything extra to your package. These include:

• Certified Mail: If you’re going to send something via certified mail, this will provide evidence upon arrival.
• USPS Tracking: Most packages sent via media mail will include USPS tracking. That way, you will know when your package will be delivered. Make sure you get a tracking number from the cashier. You’ll find it on the receipt.
• Insurance: If you want to insure the items inside your package, you might choose this option. Insurance for media mail covers items up to $5000.

Once you have accepted or declined these features, your package will be shipped!

Consider Shipping Via Media Mail

When you ship something via USPS, you have options. 

While first-class or priority mail might be the best option for you, this isn’t always the case. If your item qualifies for media mail, you might be able to save money.

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Exchange-traded funds, or ETFs, are unique investment opportunities that can be difficult to understand at first glance. This Beginning Investors Guide to ETFs should get you on your way.

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Like mutual funds, ETFs are bundles of securities – including stocks, commodities, and even sometimes bonds.

These bundles usually track one of the major indexes on the stock market, ensuring that investors get a representative share of the entire market sector that they are aiming to capitalize on.

But identifying ETFs that are likely to return profits stably and consistently across time requires in-depth knowledge of the funds and the indices they track.

In this article, you’ll find plenty of useful information on the types of ETFs that are available and under what circumstances you may want to invest in each of these types of ETFs.

But before you can understand the types of ETFs that are available, some basic information on how ETFs are structured and managed is necessary.

With this knowledge, you’ll be able to better understand exactly where your money is going when you purchase shares of an ETF. 

What Are ETFs?

ETFs can offer diversity and asset allocation because of the underlying structure of the fund. Here, the fund provider directly purchases assets like stocks, bonds, or commodities.

Then, the provider constructs a fund that represents their purchased assets. The fund represents a complete sum of those investments, and the provider creates a unique ticker for the stock market that individual investors like you can purchase from.

When investors purchase shares of that fund, they aren’t truly buying the assets – instead, they’re buying the representation.

The provider is the only group that truly owns the assets, allowing them the flexibility to upgrade their fund (with notification and permission from investors and proper authorities, of course).

This gives investors a buffer from the actual assets and a way to invest in partial sums of those assets without needing the funds to fully invest in those assets directly.

Another reason ETFs are popular is due to their generally low expense ratios, or administrative expenses that can eat into the dividend payouts or return on investment.

While similarly structured mutual funds tend to have expense ratios over 1% (generally lumped into 12b-1 fees for marketing and advertising), the passively managed ETFs do not include these fees in their overall costs.

Furthermore, because ETFs are bought and sold on the stock market rather than through fund asset management services, costs can be managed with less administrative effort. In total, this brings the expense ratio down quite significantly.

With this information in mind, it’s time to look at some of the available types of ETFs and what to pay attention to when examining each of these ETFs.

Types of ETFs

While there is seemingly an ETF for every market opportunity you can imagine, most ETFs fall into just a few main categories.

These range from the broadest of opportunities – for example, tracking the S&P 500, the largest index of United States stocks – to currency-based ETFs, effectively allowing you to mimic direct investments into foreign currencies. 

Broad-market and Total-market ETFs

Broad-market ETFs, or total-market ETFs if the fund leaders decide to be bold, are funds that attempt to give investors the largest possible diversity of fund allocation within a single purchase.

The most prominent of these are funds like the Schwab U.S. Broad Market fund and the iShares Core S&P fund, each of which attempts to capture as much of the United States stock market as possible.

These funds are great examples of unique approaches to the same market within ETFs. While the Schwab fund primarily focuses on the Dow Jones (both its large-cap and small-cap stocks), the iShares fund focuses on tracking the S&P through every single type of stock represented in that market.

But even though these funds track different representations of the U.S. stock market, they both use similar weighting strategies for the stocks – resulting in outcomes that are similar for the average investor. If you’re aiming for somewhat predictable long-term investments without allocating too much to a single company, then these are the right ETFs for you.

Commodity ETFs

Commodities are physical goods, and for investment usually refer to precious metals, resources sourced from nature, and many different agricultural products like corn and soybeans. But for most investors, it’s nearly impossible to directly invest in commodities.

Because of the increased buying power of ETFs, multiple companies have taken a stab at representing commodities markets for investors to purchase from. Commodity-focused ETFs all take extremely different approaches to fund structure, so careful research must be done to determine investment strategy.

Some focus heavily on U.S. crops like corn and wheat, while others allocate more to crude oil and gasoline. If you think that commodities are likely to increase in value substantially and are experienced in a commodity market that’s represented in these funds, then this is a good area to explore.

Fixed Income ETFs

There is a burgeoning market for investors who want some predictability in their purchases. That’s where bond market ETFs come into play.

These funds track the performance of specific bond markets (or in some cases the bond market as a whole) and generally split into sector-specific markets based on government or corporate bonds.

Investors in these ETFs have to pay careful attention to ETFs that track specific maturity dates in the short-term or if they’re long-term, market-wide ETFs.

If you’re looking for stability and aren’t secretly hoping for a jackpot payout from a surprisingly successful stock, then these are likely the right ETFs for you.

Sector-specific ETFs

Many investors are quite knowledgable in a specific sector of the market, whether that’s technology, biotechnology, financial services, or other niche areas. In those cases, investors may look towards sector-specific ETFs.

Instead of trying to capture as much of a country-wide market as possible, these ETFs really dial in on a specific sector. The most well-known sector-based ETFs are the SPDRs, which track stocks within the S&P 500 in 10 sectors.

These sectors include healthcare, general technology, real estate, utilities, and six other options. If you don’t have a good outlook on the entire market but believe a specific sector within that market will do well, then these ETFs are perhaps a good space to invest in.

Exchange-traded funds give investors great diversification of their funds with relatively little effort as compared to mutual fund investment and traditional stock market investment.

Furthermore, investors can quickly and easily access fund information, including what holdings are in that fund on any given day.

Trading costs are generally low for most ETFs, and popular ETFs are quite easy to purchase shares in. While you will need to do a significant amount of research regardless of the type of ETF you’re looking to purchase, the transparency and ease of investment make these fantastic choices for everyday investors.