LearnCentrix - Practitioner Watercooler

Customer Service

Sun, 16 Jul 2006 17:36:01 -0600

Customer Service is so important! In many fields, customer service may well be the deciding factor in choosing new tools. For example, if any wireless company can master customer service, they'll beat the competition hands down.

The customer service provided by LearnCentrix is exemplary. I worked with LearnCentrix for at least six years. There was never a time that I was disappointed in customer service. Any time I needed an answer, I could be sure Roger would be available to help.

Two weeks ago I was laid off from a company that uses LearnCentrix extensively in training. As I prepare and send out resumes, I can only hope that I'll find another company that uses LearnCentrix. I miss Scott, Deb, and Roger already.

Use the forum or story?

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 12:17:03 -0700

As a contributor to this site and others, I am unclear why we would "Submit forum topic" vs "Create a story". Technically, they are nearly identical, both having the capability of creating a document to which others can add their own comments and discussion. So, the difference must be more philosophical and user expectations about how these are to be used. The intent for any forum (aka discussion list, message board) is to have a place for ongoing discussions within a community around certain topics. In our case, online learning is the broad category for the topics. Places where this works well that I have experienced are where users have questions or problems, and there is a community of experts or experienced persons willing to monitor and respond to these postings. That, I think could work well here, but the question is how to get it "off the ground" and possibly the bigger question is whether there is real benefit to the effort that this might take. Another use of forums is where a topic is discussed that is controversial in some way or there are a variety of ideas about the topic. Political, "flame baiting", discussions about Linux vs Windows or taxing the rich come to mind, although these and others can have genuine substance as well as just tired ranting. I don't see that this is likely to be the kind of thing that would have much longevity or value on a site like this one.

Do you like the name "Practitioner Watercooler"?

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:56:58 -0700

Rhea suggested something more creative than just "Discussion List" and I agree with her. She is a creative person. She likes the analogy of chatting at the office around the watercooler. And so she coined the phrase Practitioner Watercooler.

I like it, but I'm wondering if it is too obtuse for the online community to quickly grasp it's meaning. I received a comment today from someone that couldn't find the discussion forum. They saw the Practitioner Watercooler link, but didn't know what it was.

So, should we change the name? If so, do you have a suggestion?

What are some good topics to discuss?

Tue, 29 Nov 2005 11:44:50 -0700

Since this community is brand new, we need to seed the discussion forum (Practitioner Watercooler) with some topics.

I will start a couple of topics now. It would be great to have you reply to this topic with ideas regarding what you would like to see some discussion around.

Nothing elaborate or complicated. Just post your thoughts. Don't worry about spelling or punctuation. One key rule in an online community is to not be critical of others and not be afraid to speak your mind.

Site layout problems

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 18:13:03 -0600

Here are a few things that I have noticed or others have mentioned, which are either odd or problems.

Header:
Site name does not link to home
Site slogan does not display
Site name needs a little more whitespace (blue) above it
edit primary links

Sidebars:
Logon/Menu should be in roughly the same place, so that you don't get the effect of logging on in one place and then your logon name appears in another.

Body:
Middle column is too big in some cases, pushing the right column off the screen

Fonts:
The author name and date/time for postings are in a color that is to hard to read.

Suggestions for making the community better

Tue, 20 Sep 2005 17:49:54 -0600

We need your help. A community is only as good as its contributors. Please let us know if you have any suggestions, feedback, complaints, comments, or requests. Just reply to this discussion topic around the Practitioner Watercooler.

Specifically, we are adjusting the look and feel of the design to make the site easy to use and visually appealing. Is there a color that is bothering you? Do we need more explanatory help to guide new users in the system?

Also, we would like to hear your input on the content. There aren't many articles written yet, but are the news feeds useful? Do you like the categories we created? Do you know of any outstanding e-Learning sites we should link to?