Analytics Deep Dive: Rewards Analytics Panel

After several data-filled weeks, we have made it to the final part of our OttoLearn analytics deep dive. 

Last week, we looked at the Mastery Points analytics panel, which highlights how points are earned and redeemed. As part of this exploration, we also discussed how learners can redeem points to purchase rewards from your Rewards Store. 

Why do I need to offer learners a reward for doing their training?

While some learners are intrinsically motivated — by a personal drive or desire to succeed — others are extrinsically motivated by tangible rewards —such as gift cards or merchandise. Using a Rewards Store, you can celebrate your learners’ achievements and incentivize them to continue engaging with your training. 

Feel like your learners need an extra incentive to engage with their training, or do you want to encourage them to finish it by the end of the year? Try using points and rewards. Award points for completing training and let learners use these points to purchase desirable rewards.

What should I offer as a reward?

Popular rewards include gift cards, company swag, and food vouchers. Our organization has found learners also really enjoy being able to redeem points for extra time off and towards charitable donations. For example, one of our rewards is a $50 donation to a charity of your choice. Learners can use 600 points to purchase this item. We then donate to their preferred cause. 

The final panel we’ll look at in our analytics deep dive is the Rewards analytics panel. This panel allows you to track your Rewards Store inventory and purchase history. Like the Mastery Points panel, this panel only displays when points and rewards are turned on in your account. 

The top four metrics provide information about your Reward Store inventory over time. 

The first metric, Active Rewards, represents the number of rewards currently in your Rewards Store.

Looking at the screenshot above, you can see that I have 11 active rewards in my account. Of these rewards, some have inventory (are in stock) and others do not (are sold out). 

Once a reward is out of stock, you can leave it in your Store so learners know it may be restocked, or you can inactivate it. Inactive rewards do not appear in your Rewards Store and are not included in this metric.

Items Redeemed represents the number of items that learners have purchased. 

Each reward can have one or more items in stock. For example, I have a reward called “$20 Starbucks Gift Card,” and ten gift cards are available for purchase (my inventory). In my metrics, this example counts as one reward and ten items.

he following two metrics in the Rewards analytics panel focus on items. 

The Items Available metric counts how many items are currently in my Rewards Store. Learners can purchase these items anytime, assuming they have enough points. 

Learners need to be able to redeem their points for rewards — otherwise, points simply become a meaningless number. Therefore, it is important to add inventory to your Rewards Store continually.

The amount of stock you add will depend on your training budget, number of learners, points economy, and the rewards you offer.

We recommend adding a variety of rewards ranging in cost. While some learners will want to save their points for high-cost items, others will prefer to spend them quickly.

When learners purchase an item from your Rewards Store, they can click a button to indicate the item has been received. This indicator is useful when providing physical rewards, such as company swag or office equipment. The Items Not Received metric represents the number of items learners have not marked as received. 

Admins can also mark items as received from the User: Rewards tab in the admin app.

Next, you’ll see a graph representing the number of items that were added and redeemed in the past three months.

The blue bars represent how many items were added to your Rewards Store each month. 

As mentioned earlier, we recommend keeping your Rewards Store stocked with items.

As you can see in the screenshot above, there has been less activity in November compared to the previous two months.

This decrease is because my organization tends to restock the store near the end of each month. By the end of November, we’ll have added close to 40 items, like in the previous months.

The orange bars represent the number of items purchased from your Rewards Store

It is common to see an increase in purchases when you add new inventory. For example, a lot of my learners like gift cards and quickly buy them whenever I add them to the Rewards Store.

You can also expect increased purchasing when you roll out new training. As learners earn more points, they will have more to redeem.

At the bottom of the Rewards Analytics panel, you can see a list of the rewards most often redeemed. 

The screenshot above shows that my most popular reward is a $10 Starbucks gift card. My learners have redeemed points to purchase this item a total of 210 times.

For more details, click within a row in the table to open the Rewards context panel. Here you can see how many items are available for purchase and how many have been redeemed. You can also add additional stock from this screen.

Rewards are a great way to motivate learners to engage with your training and recognize the time and effort training takes to complete. 

Adjust your rewards based on your learners' preferences

By looking at the Rewards analytics panel, you can determine what items are desirable (good motivators) and which are not. You can also see how your learners are redeeming their points. Are they saving them for expensive rewards? Are they spending them quickly? All this information can help you determine how best to spend your training budget in a way that promotes engagement and celebrates success.

Last week, we discussed the importance of looking at the Mastery Points analytics panel when determining your points economy (the value of a point). The data in the Rewards analytics panel supplements this information and helps you refine your economy over time. (We recommend checking out our Running a Rewards Store help page for more details.)

We hope that you’ve enjoyed our deep dive into OttoLearn’s analytics. We’ve looked at metrics that highlight where you are succeeding, where you can improve, and how you can pivot to better engage and motivate your learners. We’ve also looked at metrics that can help you to develop more effective content and identify (and close) knowledge gaps. Taken together, all the analytics we’ve looked at will help guide your training journey toward success. 

Have questions about your specific analytics? Contact us at [email protected].

ProTip: By default, the languages you add will be inactive until you finish inputting all your translations. Having each language set to inactive until it’s ready to use prevents learners from being presented with a Module in multiple languages. For example, you don’t want learners to do a Learning Session and read one Concept in English and the next in French. 

Once you have added all your translations, you can set a language to active using the toggle. You’ll also be able to change the Module’s primary language (the language in which it is presented to learners by default).

In our next post, we’ll look at how learners can set up the language(s) in which they receive content. Stay tuned!

  • For learning content to enter and remain in a learner’s long-term memory, the learner needs multiple exposures to the content. Long-term encoding “needs opportunities for rehearsal and repetition,” Jan Breckwoldt et al. wrote in a study on mass vs. spaced learning.
  • Repeated exposures alone are not as helpful as spaced repetitions that ask learners to recall and apply information — and especially when learners have to use that information in different ways, many studies have found (for example Rohrer, Lin et al., and Bjork and Bjork).
  • The ability to remember information depends on the number of times a learner encounters it and the interval between repetitions, according to Tabibian et al.

Intrinsic

Extrinsic

Access to knowledge or performance support tools

Achieving a worthwhile or meaningful goal

Achieving a reward — a grade, a badge, points, a prize

Receiving an unexpected reward

Contributing to improving a project or a product

Wanting to be perceived as a team player, wanting to be liked

Improving performance or effectiveness relative to own past performance

Improving performance or effectiveness relative to coworkers; “winning” or being the best

Knowing enough to avoid making mistakes and do better work

Losing status or levels within a gamified framework as the result of making a mistake

Feeling of completing a task, accomplishing a goal, finishing a project

Doing the “right” thing — following rules or norms, being ethical

  1. Is the corporation’s compliance training program well designed?

    Prosecutors will look at whether the training is designed to prevent and detect wrongdoing and whether management is enforcing the program by means of training, incentives and discipline.

  2. Is the program being applied earnestly and in good faith? In other words, is the program being implemented effectively?

    Prosecutors are expected to directly investigate whether a program is merely a “paper program” or a sincere effort. Evidence of a company-wide commitment to ethics and compliance, promoted by senior and middle management, is needed.

  3. Does the corporation’s compliance training program work in practice?

    Good intentions and training don’t count if they don’t work; in assessing whether the program “works in practice,” prosecutors will look at how the suspected misconduct was detected, what the company’s investigation process is and how the company is trying to correct the problem.

Microlearning delivers small, narrowly focused bits of information.

Adaptive microlearning tailors that content to each learner’s knowledge gaps and learning goals, ensuring the training is relevant.

Continuous adaptive microlearning conditions each learner to engage with relevant training every day — for just a few minutes.

Current Rank

Previous Rank

Technology

1

1

Personalization/adaptive delivery

2

3

Artificial intelligence

3

new

Learning analytics

4

2

Collaborative/social learning

5

5

Micro learning

6

new

Learning experience platforms

7

7

Virtual and augmented reality

8

10

Mobile delivery

9

4

Consulting more deeply with the business

10

6

Showing value

11

new

Performance support

12

11

Neuroscience/cognitive science

13

13

Video

14

9

Curation

15

12

Developing the L&D function

No items found.

When people have a question or don’t know how to do something, what do they do?

Whip out a smartphone and look for information. What they don’t do is sign up for a 1-hour seminar.

Microlearning brings corporate eLearning into the modern paradigm. Microlearning describes eLearning content that is:

  • Narrowly focused
  • Short
  • Available on demand
  • Mobile-first or mobile-friendly

It must answer a question, meet an immediate need, or help the learner solve a problem.

In the City of BigTown, there was held a conference,
One of training professionals — those making a difference.
A difference to company ROI by delivering training,
From many perspectives — like Manufacturing.
And, too, there were call centers, colleges, corporate sectors,
Each chiming in about outcomes and metrics.
All shipped their training through an LMS platform,
But were desperately seeking true training reform.

Antonio

One was Antonio, who hated the manuals —
For his product revisions and updates, they were annual.
Plus his printing costs? Oh, they were crazy!
And he truly believed that franchisors were hazy.

None knew how to train in an effective way,
"There’s too much to read, to do!” they’d all say.
For there were many levels of training to assign,
From the top at head office, down to those on the front-line.

Trainers Helen and Abinash nodded, “We agree!”
Said Feng, "Paper and handbooks? Just another dead tree.
On the job, not everyone will have the info they need,
Because the content changes and updates they never did read.
They never learned the content added along the way
That may apply to their region or division today.
Plus, in the field with team members in many locations,
Mobile-first training would make a stronger foundation!

Said Sales trainer Jane of her PDFs stored online,
“They’re rarely revisited after onboarding time.
I need content delivered in snack-sized bites,
And the ability to test them until they get it right.”
Ursula
chimed in, "Onboarding’s a pain for new hires,
With most feeling like their hair is on fire!
Plus, promoted reps must refresh what they know
To be properly prepared to perform their new role."

"I deal with compliance," sighed Manal the Banker.
Abinash nodded, Frank turned to thank her,
For she’d raised the ugliest concern of them all —
That certifications aren’t based on year-long recall.
“To maintain the standards and follow each rule,
We need more than one test that comes out of the blue.
When it comes to things like health & safety, it's a game-changer
Because if their training is lacking, they could be in danger.”

Antonio

Continuing he asked, “Could training be location-specific?
As learners move through the plant, alerts would be terrific!”
Helen asked who used traditional classroom training
Combined with online to keep interest from waning.
Did they have workshops, seminars, or events,
The kind that take workers away from their desk?
"They learn at that moment, then likely forget —
is there a way to get long-term retainment?”

Rachel had been quiet, she’d said not a word,
When suddenly she leaned in so her voice would be heard.
"We solved these concerns after ditching binders and books —
We use daily drip training and our learners are hooked!
When we update our content, it gets to them faster,
And metrics and KPIs reveal the content 'masters.'
We use OttoLearn for microlearning and we’ve been thrilled,
for all of our training needs — and more — are fulfilled."

So ends our tale of the nine trainers complaining
about the problems they had delivering training.
Training that mattered, with metrics and firm ROI,
Based on data analysis of prime KPIs.
Many problems they shared, with no clear resolution,
Found Agile Microlearning with Otto was the solution!
Microlearning both adaptive and agile saved them from disaster,
Making trainers and trainees learn happily ever after!

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  • Chinese
  • Dutch
  • English
  • Filipino
  • French
  • German
  • Hebrew
  • Hindi
  • Indonesian
  • Italian
  • Japanese
  • Korean
  • Persian (Farsi)
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Russian
  • Slovak
  • Spanish
  • Thai

Content Studio

  • Combining the question and activity tabs
  • New WYSIWYG editor which is “inline” with the text
  • Ability to include media (images, video, audio) within activities (question, answers and feedback)
  • Icons to indicate correct answer, position locking, whether or not the answer is visible to learners (active), and override feedback

Recently Released

  • Learner password reset
  • Streamlined data entry into the content studio, by being able to quickly add
  • Numerous small updates and bug fixes
  • Check out our most recent updates and add yourself to be automatically notified when we push updates

Option

Pros

Cons

Seats

  • Super easy to understand
  • Very predictable cost, if you have a specific number of users (eg: employees)
  • Doesn’t differentiate between users that have different volumes.
  • Have to purchase seats for your maximum number of users.‍

Active Users
(Typically the number of users that log in during a month)

  • You don’t need a license for every specific user, you can often only license half of your users (since perhaps only half ever log in during a month)
  • Typically there is a large cost for going over your licensed number of users, which can be incredibly expensive (eg: 5-10x more than your licensed cost)
  • You often have to “play games” as an administrator, not wanting to do a mass course enrollment if you have only have your users licensed in a month

Trend

What It Means

Why It Matters

Adaptive Learning

An algorithm determines each learner’s knowledge gaps and feeds them practice activities to close those gaps.

Efficiency. Learners learn the material faster because they spend less time on what they already know.

Personalized Learning

Learners can follow a scaffolded learner path or self-direct their learning.

Learners are inquisitive. We all Google for information when we need it, so why lock learners into a particular learning path?

Learners engage the most when they are allowed to deviate from a set path and explore available content.

At the end of the day, as long as each learner reaches their mastery goal, the particular path they took to reach there is unimportant.

Microlearning

Delivering content to the learner in smaller chunks.

Chunking content is important only if it is paired with the ability to search for and find specific content chunks “on demand” and the ability to consume just the chunks a learner needs. With these features, training doubles as a performance support.

Learning Experience (LX) Design

Using science and art to create experiences that help learners fulfill the learning outcomes they desire, in a user-centered and goal-directed way.1

Have you used Google? If so, then you have benefitted from Experience Design (XD): When you search for something, you rarely have to go past the first result.

With good XD, you don’t think about the design;  it “just works.”

With poor XD, your learners will disengage. They’ll say they “don’t have time.” What they are really saying is that they “don’t have time for the poor experience.”

Artificial Intelligence

Typically, when used in relation to L&D, AI actually means “machine learning.”

Machine learning algorithms learn from data and “get smarter” over time.

Have you used Netflix or Amazon recommendations? They are based on machine learning.

The algorithms look at a ton of data, including your past choices and choices made by others who are similar to you, to make predictions as to what you will want to watch or buy.

In L&D, machine learning principles are being integrated in much the same way: to provide recommended content for a learner to consume.

This reduces the burden on training administrators to try to predict or guess what is relevant for each learner. It also provides a more personalized experience for each learner.

Imagine that you are a salesperson, and your training mix subtly and automatically shifts, based on the nature of opportunities in your sales pipeline. You are offered training only on available products that you have not already mastered. That would be a training program that is driven by machine learning.

Learning Analytics

An algorithm determines each learner’s knowledge gaps and feeds them practice activities to close those gaps.

Use learning analytics to make better decisions by converting data into insights.
The true value is not just in providing more data, more charts, and more graphs. The value is in leveraging AI to search for and surface insights that you’d never think to look for.

Combine the analytics from learners’ performance with key KPIs for the outcomes you desire, and have the analytics engine generate predictions such as, “Learners who reach mastery in the Objection Handling module will close 3.4 percent more deals.”

Now that’s actionable intel.

1 learningexperiencedesign.com

14% of organizations are experimenting with artificial intelligence tools such as machine learning and live chat (up from 6% in 2016)
30% of organizations are using games and simulations (up from 20% in 2016)
Fastest growth segments include continuous learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR)
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  • German
  • Italian
  • Portuguese
  • Romanian
  • Slovak
  • Spanish
The Cognitive Science Behind OttoLearn - OttoLearn Adaptive MicrolearningThe Cognitive Science Behind OttoLearn - OttoLearn Microlearning

Hi Josh,

About a week before I began getting my Ottolearn Mastery Moments, I had a popup window from Adobe appear on my screen as I was working on another project, prompting me to update my version of Flash. We do use Flash, so like an idiot, I clicked on the popup and asked it to start the update—and only then noticed that the url was not an adobe address. Of course, I closed the popup window using the X in the upper corner, which didn’t solve anything. Our IT guys did the best they could for me, but my computer is still compromised, and is being replaced.

Fast forward to Ottolearn and your Online Security for Employees course. After completing several mastery moments, I have now learned what to do with popups like that. This morning, as I restarted my computer again, that same Adobe popup appeared and this time I was ready! I opened task manager and killed that little $%^&^ dead in its tracks.

I know the point of letting us try out OttoLearn as participants was for us to experience the power of this platform from the learner’s point of view. I can tell you that I personally am very grateful for the training you provided to me, and the fact that I was able to let others in my company know how to kill off those nasty virus-carrying popups. Yes, it works. Yes, it’s fun! And yes, I have a true feeling of accomplishment.

I can’t wait for the point at which we can talk more about developing courses for our clients.

Thank you!

Experience

Exp.

High

New accounting rules

Workplace violence & harassment prevention

Low

Framing a basement

Changing a tire

High

Low

Perceived Relevance

No items found.

Retrieval practice is the key to retention.

Your brain wants to be as efficient as possible. Why would it try to encode information for long term storage if it thinks you don’t need it? You need to actually practice retrieving memories (information) in order to have your brain store it in long-term memory.

Spaced retrieval radically improves learning efficiency.

You not only need to practice retrieving information from memory, but you need to wait until you’re on the edge of forgetting it. This is why cramming is so ineffective at generating long-term retention.

Interleaved learning feels strange at first, but dramatically improves retention and skill.

Interleaved learning—mixing up material while learning and practicing, such as mixing up practice activities while learning WHMIS and supervisory skills, will improve your retention of both.

Type of Leave 
Typical Duration
Suggested Action(s) to Manage Notifications
Local or government holiday when most employees have the day off
One day

Depending on your organization, some holidays may apply to most, if not all, of your employees. 

When this happens, we recommend the following: 

  1. Turn off notifications for your OttoLearn account. This will pause all notifications for everyone. 
  2. Set a reminder to turn notifications back on upon return to work.
Local or government holiday when some employees have the day off
One day

Suppose you have a global organization or employees located across multiple regions. In that case, you likely don’t want to turn off notifications for your entire account whenever one region has a government holiday. 

Instead, we recommend the following: 

  1. Set up and assign different engagement schedules for employees based on their region. For example, if you have employees in the United States and Australia, you should set up two engagement schedules and assign them to learners based on location. 
  2. Whenever there is a holiday in one area, edit that specific engagement schedule. An easy way to turn off notifications without your learners losing access to their training is to set the engagement schedule to “Anytime”. 
  3. Set a reminder to change the engagement schedule back to your regular settings upon return to work. 
Vacation
A few days to a few weeks

With summer in the Northern Hemisphere, you may notice more employees starting to book vacations. Everyone needs time to recharge and take a well-earned break. 

When an employee books a vacation, we recommend the following: 

  1. Turn off notifications for that specific learner, starting the day they leave. This is another time when it is helpful to set a reminder for yourself so you don’t have to remember everyone’s vacation schedule. 
  2. Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work.
Extended leave
A months or more

There may be times when employees need to take a more extended leave period. For example, when on maternity or paternity leave, a sabbatical, or medical leave. 

When an employee is gone for a longer period of time, you have a couple of options. 

If the leave is temporary, we recommend the following: 

  1. Turn off notifications for that specific learner, starting the day they leave. 
  2. Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work. 

If the employee will be gone for many months, or may not return, you might want to remove their access to your training. In these situations, we recommend the following: 

  1. Set the learner inactive in your account. To do this, edit their profile and toggle their status to inactive. This will prevent them from accessing your OttoLearn account and stop notifications. 
Single day off
One day

The most challenging scenario to manage is when an employee takes a single day off. Sometimes you may know in advance; other times, the employee may call in sick on a day they were expected to work.

In these scenarios, we recommend taking no action. Employees can simply delete any Ottolearn email notifications when they return to work, or ignore push notifications on their mobile device (or even temporarily silence them). 

If you do not want notifications to go to learners when they are off for a single day, you can also do the following: 

  1. Turn off notifications for that specific learner. 
  2. Set a reminder to turn notifications back on when the learner returns to work. 

Option

Pros

Cons

User-based
(Seats)

  • Cost predictability. Each seat costs you $x/month
  • Typically more expensive than a usage-based license

Usage-based

  • Typically less expensive than a seats license
  • Cost variability tempered by pre-purchasing usage credits that never expire and consume them over time

Engagement Factors

Experience

Exp.

High

  • Best possible quadrant for engagement 
  • Will overcome learning obstacles
  • Will find a way to learn, even if materials are poor  
  • Won’t need nudging or incentives
  • Text is great
  • Can easily learn something
  • May need to work up the energy to engage in low quality materials  
  • May procrastinate, so incentives can help motivate.
  • Text is great

Low

  • Wants to learn
  • Has little experience so can benefit from more instructional quality
  • Greatest benefit of video and other rich media
  • Worst possible quadrant  
  • May not have experience in the topic
  • May not really care about it
  • Will require a lot of motivation to see engagement
  • Video can help

High

Low

Perceived Relevance

Neovation Learning Solutions Team - OttoLearn Microlearning is a product of Neovation Learning Solutions

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