Tuesday 15 July 2008

The Perfect Sitemap

I wanted to add a brief comment about a training course I went to last week hosted by Mark P. Summers of Monkey Design House. The course was on how to optimise small business websites and he was great at explaining the ins and outs of getting the most out of small scale websites. I don't want to go into detail and give away all of his trade secrets but a great point he made was that every site should have a Sitemap, so I researched this and found a great site on Adding A Google Sitemap To Your Blog, for Blogger sites. The steps are very straightforward and will ensure that you create a great sitemap for your site.
Feel free to comment if you have any questions.

ECDL - A Case Study

The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) is an internationally recognised qualification, available in over 125 countries. ECDL is designed to give anyone a chance to improve competency and confidence across a range of IT skills.

ECDL is motivational, flexible, and fun, and is suitable for any learning level - you could be a computer novice and still be able to build neccessary skills and gain a qualification. ECDL works as a stepping stone towards your career path by improving computer speed and efficiency and by providing vital IT skills.

Case Study
A study by the Trinity College ECDL Foundation in an article called “The Costs for Europe of the Lack of Recognition of Certification” by Dudley Dolan, of Manchester NHS Agency with 18,500 staff of different literacy levels, using a blended learning solution including ECDL, showed the following results:

  • Staff morale increased from 65% to 83% after ECDL.
  • The average time saved by staff was 38 minutes a day, equalling 3 hours per week.
  • The Agency had a return on investment of 162%, based on the time saved by employees with an average annual salary of £15,000.
  • Before using ECDL, 44% of staff asked for help several times a week - after, less than 10% asked for help at all.