http://humanware-kt.com/news/ Consulting and Education news by HumanWare en-us Nucleus CMS v3.2 Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://humanware-kt.com/news//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://humanware-kt.com/news/ http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=179
Lean manufacturing is a management philosophy focusing on reduction of the seven wastes (Over-production, Waiting time, Transportation, Processing, Inventory, Motion and Scrap) in manufactured products or any type of business.
The five core concepts of lean are:
1. Specify value in the eyes of the customer
2. Identify the value stream and eliminate waste
3. Make value flow at the pull of the customer
4. Involve and empower employees
5. Continuously improve in the pursuit of perfection.

This is an excellent presentation (.Pdf) which describes:
1. The origins of Lean and Six Sigma,
2. What makes Lean Six Sigma effective,
3. How organizations are implementing it,
4. Some keys to success.]]> Six Sigma http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=179 Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:21:35 +0200 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=178
This paper (.PDF) aims to provide a literature survery on managers' learning in the workplace. The survey of the two authors was conducted between June and September 2007 and was mainly focused on the research questions: why, when and how managers learn whilst going about their daily work. And more specificially, how action learning can be a benefit for management development whilst an organisational problem can be solved in addition.]]> Training http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=178 Tue, 29 Apr 2008 07:57:33 +0200 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=177
Quality is an old and nevertheless current subject in the field of education. This article (.PDF) deals with the questions how to measure and continuously improve quality of online programs (for instance in distance education). Based on the so-called five pillars of quality which were published in by the Sloan Consortium in their report "Elements of Quality: The Sloan-C Framework", the author takes a closer look at the current movement towards quality assurance for online programs, reviews benchmarks recommended by accreditation agencies and provides an overview on current best practices for quality assurance. Quality assurance is not only demanded by the state and national accreditation agencies, but also by students, their parents or employers. This movement towards the need for more information may be partly due to the recognition of the knowledge worker by the economy and society, but also due to the fact that we have moved towards an information society where knowledge and information, also about educational programs, is "the key competitive advantage".
Quality assurance can provide a means for educational institutions to stand out from the growing crowd of competing providers of online programs. In the meantime, a number of guidelines, principles, and benchmarks were developed by accreditation agencies and other institutions. ]]> e-learning http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=177 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:37:55 +0200 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=176
Professor John Stein, Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, made an admirable attempt to show how knowledge about the brain is relevant to educational ICT. For example, it turns out that males are better visuospatially than verbally, which means that the visual world of ICT will favour their style of learning. Read more...]]> e-learning http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=176 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:22:57 +0200 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=175 Read more...]]> Six Sigma http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=175 Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:16:22 +0200 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=174 Read more...]]> Six Sigma http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=174 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 10:35:57 +0100 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=173
Current developments with technology and social software are
significantly altering how learners access information and knowledge,
and how learners dialogue with the instructor and each other. Read
Read more...(.PDF)]]> e-learning http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=173 Tue, 12 Feb 2008 12:45:56 +0100 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=172
Various higher education institutions in German speaking Europe are in the process of establishing educational technology support structures. Educational technology support brings together a variety of academics as well as administrative units such as IT services, multimedia shops, faculty development, or the libraries.
The following contribution describes academic and support subcultures, unfolds areas of conflict and suggests strategies to overcome cultural barriers in edtech support. The paper recommends to anticipate cultural barriers between support groups and to eliminate those through the strategic planning of structural adjustments. Furthermore leadership on various levels is considered as being critical to reach cultural reconciliation and a productive support climate. Read more...(.PDF)]]> e-learning http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=172 Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:39:00 +0100 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=171
Each year some 600 two-and four-year public and private colleges and universities in the United States participate in the annual Campus Computing Survey, which focuses on campus planning and policy issues affecting the role of information technology in teaching, learning, and scholarship. Read more...]]> e-learning http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=171 Sat, 12 Jan 2008 12:32:00 +0100 http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=170
Kaizen is seductive and efficient. It can deliver results quickly and on a significant scale, utilize the collective insight and experience of those who know most about the process and inspire employees with a relentless curiosity about and discomfort with waste, defects and constraints to throughput. But it is also overrated.
Six Sigma, or DMAIC, can assist in filling the gap that Kaizen fails to address. Six Sigma is not a substitute for Lean and does not necessarily cultivate a learning culture. It is effective in supplying the analytical discipline and rigor necessary to thoroughly understand the nature of processes and problems. Read more...]]> Six Sigma http://humanware-kt.com/news/index.php?itemid=170 Fri, 28 Dec 2007 10:52:38 +0100