Tech skills are no longer exclusive to the IT department. They are now used by anyone from administrative assistants to factory employees. Simple computer skills, such as quick typing, basic research, and MS Office knowledge, are required for almost every job. To you, what does “tech-savvy” imply? Is it someone who can fix a programming problem or edit an Excel spreadsheet? Or someone who can build an email marketing campaign and update a blog page once a week?

Checking a candidate’s tech knowledge is crucial, since they should be able to use the most popular resources for the job, or at the very least be willing to learn how to use them. This will also assist you in narrowing down the applicant list to the best candidates.

Let us list down the questions you can ask to identify whether the candidate you are looking to hire is tech savvy or not.

 

Do you use any online tools or resources to find answers to the problems you encounter at work?

This query assesses a candidate’s ability to use a search engine. How-to guides and basic research can be found in abundance on Google and other online resources. A tech-savvy employee can use these tools to solve problems efficiently at home and at work on a daily basis.

 

What technologies do you utilize on a day-to-day basis?

This question can be used to determine whether or not an applicant is familiar with the technologies used at your company.

Candidates who are unfamiliar with the hardware and software you use would almost certainly need training before they can perform at their best. An applicant who uses the efficiency software in your home office, on the other hand, will be familiar with each application’s ins and outs.

They’ll arrive more productive than the average employee on day one. You can ask about specific technologies with this question if there’s a key technology that you want a candidate to have experience using.

 

Looking from the perspective of your last job, were there technologies that would have made you more productive?

Employees who are tech-savvy aren’t just knowledgeable about how to use and troubleshoot technology. They also consider how technology will help them be more efficient during their day. They make recommendations to their bosses when they find a workplace or team that isn’t using technology to its full potential.

When an employer falls behind in technology, tech-savvy workers are more aware of it, and some will leave as a result. Listen for clues on how a candidate’s previous employers used or didn’t use technology during their response and employees who are tech-savvy are more likely to notice ways to develop business processes and applications first.

 

Tell us about the time you had to troubleshoot a computer program. How did you resolve it?

For this question, you can fill in the program with any application that you’d expect the candidate to use daily.

The technical support load that employees place on a company’s IT department impacts its ability to develop more productive information systems.  A candidate who can demonstrate basic troubleshooting skills with computer software will solve common glitches themselves instead of calling the IT department.

 

What sort ways do you expect technology to change how you work into the future?

Another way to assess a candidate’s technical aptitude is to inquire about their thoughts on how technology will impact the workplace. Employees who are tech-savvy are also the first to embrace emerging technology before the rest of the business.

They think about future technology and how it will affect their lives more than the average person. A tech-savvy candidate should be eager to share their ideas about where technology is going in the future.

 

When you create presentations, what software do you use?

If the job requires you to give presentations, you should inquire about the candidate’s approach to developing visual aids and planning for them. You may learn about online slideshow apps rather than the default Microsoft PowerPoint responses, depending on how tech savvy they are.

You can give them bonus points if they mention looking for models online or researching their presentation subject.

If your business has switched to cloud-based applications, candidates who are used to online or cloud apps will have the necessary skills.

 

What Software Problems Have You Faced in the Past, and How Did You Solve Them?

No matter how knowledgeable, eventually everyone will have to troubleshoot a pesky program.

Employees who can problem-solve on their own will save you valuable time. Even if they can’t find a solution to every issue, they can narrow down the list of possibilities for tech support.

Ask the applicant to guide you through a technical problem they’ve already solved. Making the question more general would enable applicants to demonstrate their ability to think creatively. The aim isn’t to offer a “right” response, but to show how they can look for answers on their own first and know when they need support.

 

How Do You Stay Up-to-date with Changes in the Technical Field?

Even if a position only uses a few software programs, it’s likely that they’ll upgrade and adjust their settings at some point. Microsoft Office Suite and Adobe Photoshop are well-known for updating their user interfaces and functionality on a regular basis.

Candidates should be comfortable adapting to changes, whether in the software itself or in company workflow. An ideal candidate works to solve issues themselves and knows where to seek help when they are stuck.

Some questions you can ask to determine how well the candidate handles change include:

• How would you respond if you opened your app to find the layout had changed?
• Do you know how to upgrade apps or switch on auto-update features?
• What kinds of problems can you want to tackle on your own? When would you go to management with a problem?

Some useful responses include trial-and-error for a new software upgrade, looking for a support guide in the program or on the internet, and consulting company documents for guidance. A tech-savvy candidate would be willing to try out features on their own and will know who to contact if they are unable to resolve their problem. They’ll even know when to take a problem to the next level. Security threats, changes that could result in lost data, or updates that go against the current company guidelines are all good examples of when an employee should seek out management or IT for guidance.

 

How Would You Describe a Tech-savvy Employee?

You will figure out what abilities they already have and what they consider valuable by listening to their own definition of tech-savvy. And if their current abilities aren’t quite up to par, this may give your insight into what areas they want to develop. You may also inquire about their favorite gadgets and services. If you like Adobe Photoshop, you’ll probably enjoy learning other image editing applications as well. QuickBooks users can learn how to use a variety of accounting tools.

An applicant who is familiar with a particular program will usually pick up similar software easily. It isn’t necessarily important to recruit someone who is knowledgeable about the specific services you use. Rather you want someone who can adapt their skills to your preferred choices.

 

Conclusion

 

Tech-savvy employees are a true asset to each workplace. They bring a problem-solving mindset to work and increase the business’s bottom line dramatically as they recover quickly from problems and realize new ways to get more done.

Meeting your company’s specific requirements

Many businesses have some goals and needs that traditional L&D courses cannot address. It is thus essential to invest in custom eLearning solutions.

Asking employees to invest their time into learning a course that makes little benefit to what they do makes little sense. Instead by customizing the courses to fit the need to specific employees, you can increase engagement multi fold and at the same time increase their productivity. Having the right information and inputs for their specific roles can greatly expedite the onboarding process

Rapid deployment and development of content

Having custom courses can be highly beneficial in the sense they can quickly and conveniently be rolled out to new employees, hence streamlining their learning process. Also, this will enable you to rapidly increase the pace at which you can create new content and thus improve their productivity even more.

Learning at their Own pace

One of the key benefits of online customized courses can be the flexible, on the go access that enables the employee to be free and comfortable. When working with tight schedules and deadlines, it is imperative that we give employees the flexibility to learn at their own pace.

Dividing the content into various modules and submodules that consist of smaller packets of knowledge so that they can complete a lesson in lesser amount of time and thus improving their retention. Structuring your online course is crucial to the success of it and the more customizability that you have, the better.

Gamification

Gamification is a concept which has proven to increase engagement and retention rate with the users. Implementing the feature in all your learning courses will boost motivation and the willingness to learn. This can be done by incorporating elements like badges, super badges and reward them for completing a particular task with a good score.

You can read more about Gamification here –

Scalability

One of the main advantages of custom eLearning is that it can be scaled to suit your specific needs. Getting the right knowledge to your audience consistently as well as in scale and making it flow as your organization grows.

Implementing within your budget and reaping long term benefits

When many people think about custom eLearning, they have the impression that it has enormous costs and extensive efforts. What they don’t realize is customizability of doing this within your budget and the long-term benefit is brings it

While it may be true that the initial investment might be bigger, the profitability that it brings in the long run is huge. Many times, traditional off the shelf courses have enormous fees associated to it which custom eLearning can be fitted into your specific budget. It is proven by our study to have 65% increase in skill development while at the same time reducing costs massively. All that you have to do is discuss with the eLearning provider of specific needs that you have and they will provide you with customized eLearning solutions

The COVID-19 outbreak has massively sent shockwaves across the globe as the spread and panic has reached pandemic propositions. It has brough many economies, industries and even countries to a near standstill and owning to strict quarantine measures and disrupted transport links, millions of students continue to remain holed up inside their homes, unable to attend schools, colleges or their universities. However, educational institutions are now turning to e-learning and online proctoring to safely administer their exams and lectures. Let’s find out how

Why Online Proctoring is Key to Conducting High-Stake Online Exams

According to Oxford Bibliographies, a high-stakes exam is an exam where the outcome is used to make decisions about promotion, admissions, graduation, and salaries of the test taker. Some examples would be entrance/admission tests, final term exams, certifications, and recruitment tests.

While the pandemic forced several schools and universities to cancel or postpone examinations, this decision proved to be the anchor of a much-needed upgrade in the education industry. It forced many universities to take the leap of faith in technology to evolve the way education took place and start exploring online proctored examinations.

For any high-stakes exams and recruitment tests, there is a huge apprehension to adopt remotely proctored examinations as an authentic and reliable way of assessing students because of the fear of cheating, as such exams make or break a student’s future.

But many advanced proctoring tools, such as iamNeo’s Live Proctoring, ensure in numerous ways that your test-takers do not cheat on proctored exams. Having mechanisms such as a 180-degree environment check, automated plus manual flagging of malpractice, browser policing, face and voice detection, etc., along with carefully selected and well-trained proctors ensure that any exams conducted through these platforms are highly reliable and efficient.

 

How does online proctoring work?

The introduction of online education has been welcomed by many but an important question still remains unanswered. How can schools and colleges conduct online exams for remotely located students? Surprisingly, the answer has been in plain view for quite some time- online proctoring. With the help of online proctoring services, teachers can deliver assessments without the risk of cheating, impersonation and most importantly, catching the coronavirus.

Sending students to their universities or physical test taking centers isn’t practical when they are spread around the world and during a pandemic, it might not be the safest or most responsible option. Online proctoring from companies such as iamNeo.ai, (competitor) and other providers uses live proctors, artificial intelligence, and a combination of the two to discourage students from cheating during online exams — and to catch them if they do.

iamNeo.ai, for instance offers many highly effective proctoring solutions for its customers.

• The students should verify their identity before they take the test with the help of their camera
• The AI scans the environment continuously to ensure there is no cheating aids or obstructions
• Eye contact, multiple persons in the room, full system monitoring including tab switches are monitored continuously and reported back to the proctor
• Advanced Plagiarism checker can be employed on every question to ensure neither the descriptive nor the programming questions are copy pasted from anywhere
• It can also flag potentially suspicious behaviour to the administrator for later review and all the data can be collected and analysed at any moment in time

In all the cases, the testing sessions are recorded using a student own webcam as well as microphone.

How Live Proctoring Can Help Conduct Secure High-Stakes Exams

On-Demand Testing – One of the setbacks of having online exams is its scheduling.

Even before the pandemic, test centres were usually open only specific days in a week and in colleges there should be a particular time to conduct the examination.

An advanced live proctoring software today, can help you virtually schedule exams at any point in time. Since the test takers don’t have to travel to the centre or college, scheduling exams with a click of the button, saves much of your and the students’ time and effort.

Security – One of the main concerns of today is security, or specifically digital security. A good online-proctoring platform can be extremely secure with the latest security implementations. A smart and efficient proctoring platform will provide you with full transparency on all the data being used, where and why it is being used and stored and how it is being discarded after an exam is over.

Scalability – To conduct online high-stakes exams, the service that a client use must be scalable. That means, the platform should be able to hold multiple exam at a time, regardless of geographies.

With the Ed-tech industry developing rapidly, it has become essential for a proctoring service to be able to hold large scale examinations hassle-free.

An effective live proctoring tool like iamneo.ai, today can ensure that you are able to conduct any type of exam (from MCQ tests for internal or mid-term to essay or programming type finals) for as many as 1000-2000 students concurrently.

Authentic, Error-Free Results – There are many ways in which students try to cheat in an exam — be it online or offline. But with technology, it has also become easier to catch them and/or stop them from doing so.

Human Touch – As students attempt their exams alone in a room with no physical proctor looking over them, online exams might make the students anxious and the exam-taking experience creepy. But, the method of live proctoring is the closest to making the online test-taking experience more humane.

The fact that you can attempt high-stakes examinations from the comfort of your homes and can reach out to a live proctor at any point in your examination for any guidance makes this method very suitable for high-stakes exams.

Non-Intrusive – Live proctoring method enables the proctor or administrator to analyse from 1-40 students’ exam screens at a time, depending on how advanced the proctoring tool is. The focus of the proctor will be divided among many students and not just one.

When the proctor feels the need to focus on one student’s feed — because of an indication of suspicious activity, or for doubt clarification, the proctor can intervene and help them if the proctoring tool allows them to.

 

The Future of Online Education

The online exam proctoring can be easily integrated onto any website or Learning management system according to the needs and wants of the client. Nowadays, monitoring candidates from the remotest areas with the help of the latest AI powered online proctoring technology is lending much needed credibility to the assessments.

Furthermore, e-learning is being continuously adopted in higher education institutions and corporations and it is also being progressively adopted in many K-12 institutions. The flexibility, functionality and robust security of online learning allows the users to complete courses efficiently, and more importantly, stay engaged. With the huge rise in the demand for e-learning, online proctoring has become a significant solution among all the end users. The e-learning platforms are providing much needed flexibility of use, which is adding to the selling point for online courses.

A high-stakes exam holds the power to change someone’s whole life and professional career. So, making the exam-taking process as comfortable as possible works best for both you and the students. Having a robust live proctoring platform with the latest features, security measures and reliability makes live proctoring method an excellent and reliable choice.
To know more about the platform which is trusted by clients across the country, check out https://iamneo.ai/about-us/

Gamification is a term you have surely heard about if you are up to date with the happenings of the Education industry. It has taken the world of Ed-Tech by storm in the recent years with rapidly evolving technology, as well as pushing toward a digital tomorrow contributing significantly towards its rise

 

What is Gamification

Karl Kapp, who is a professor of Instructional Technology and a renowned gamification guru, states gamification as using game-based mechanics, aesthetics, as well as game thinking to engage people, motivate action, ensure learning, and solve their problems. Gamification is the process of using game-based designs and elements to enhance the non-game contexts. It benefits from the traditional approach by increasing participation, engagement, competition and much more. Taking some of the elements that makes games fun and motivate people to keep playing can go a long way in keeping them engaged in a learning situation.

Mendeleev was known to have been an avid card player, so it was logical for him to use cards as a way to categorize the elements in a way he could understand. Mendeleev turned the classification process into a card game by listing each element and other information on a card and placing them face up on a table. By doing this, he was able to have a better grasp on the relationship of each element. Mendeleev published his findings, which led scientists to discover new elements to fill in the gaps of Mendeleev’s work as well as further developing the table. Growing up, Mendeleev was not the most successful student, but he became a historical scientific figure because of gamification. This proves as an exemplary example of the benefits of gamification and the impact it can have on all students despite their prior academic achievement.

Gamification include points, leader boards, direct competitions, stickers, badges or a variety of other elements, and these can be found in a variety of industries such as healthcare, retail and of course – education. We have all seen gamification in a variety of places in our lives: trying to win a coupon to get a free sandwich, receiving a badge because you completed a, or in fact increasing your profile completion bar to a 100 in your LinkedIn Profile. So, the question is, how will gamification impact the education sector

Gamification in Education

 

Games, may that be in any form, increase user motivation through engagement. Nowhere else has it been more important to gamify things than in the educational sector. In Ed-Tech, gamification involves introducing game-like elements into the learning environment of students to motivate and make the process more engaging. This is achieved by taking the elements that makes the games fun and motivates people to keep playing and using those elements in a learning situation.

Let’s take a look at the gamification solutions available on the AI-powered assessment platform iamneo.ai!

 

Badges and Super Badges

 

The use of points and badges provides tangible evidence of accomplishment. Iamneo has incorporated badges seamlessly into the workflow with every course and recruitment having an option to include badges to rank students as well as create a criterion for making them eligible for the next task or test

 

 

Entry/Exit Criteria

Want to design your course in such a way as to make your students complete a module first before going to the next? Want them to unlock the next session after scoring 80% of marks for the previous evaluation. The world is your oyster with the diverse set of gamification functions available in the platform to leverage the most of every course curriculum

 

Engaging Leader board

One of the most engaging ways to engage students is invoke a sense of competition and achievement in them. Having an engaging real time updating leader board is an excellent way to incorporate that to their educational courses

 

Progress Tracker in percentage (Learner)

 

A built-in progress tracker which dynamically shows how much progress you have made in the course, module or submodule incentivises the students to progress further and adds subtle gamification elements throughout the UI

 

Overall Comparative Performance Report

The professor/admin would be able to compare, rank and assess the performances of all the students who have attended the test or assessment while also being able to use a wide variety of filters to evaluate who are yet to take it, the date at which they have taken and a plethora of other data to go with it

 

 

Notification and reminders

Notification and reminders will be sent to the students so they have visual confirmation when they have completed a particular task thus having a seamless flow throughout the gamified UI

 

Benefits of Gamification and Game-Based Learning

 

Increased engagement: One of the most touted benefits of the gamification element is that it is able to increase student engagement multifold. Studies have indeed shown that adding game elements inside a non-game or learning concept will increase engagement. It will also lead to more retention as student are more concentrated on the matter at hand

Instant feedback: Receiving feedback through dashboards and leader boards as it is incorporated on the iamneo.ai platform provides immediate feedback and tends to motivate the students. They can view how they perform with respect to their peers, wherein they get motivated to retry the tests and achieve better scores. It will thus provide them motivation to move ahead in the forthcoming lessons.

Collaboration/Social Connection: Gamifying elements may help to further the bond of students, and can promote friendly competition. In this current scenario of online learning and distance education, the students need a way to socially interact and gamification provides a channel through which they can look to help each other and engage in friendly competition

Increase enthusiasm: For some students learning alone is enough to generate enthusiasm but for many others that is just not the case. Gamification thus, helps in generating this enthusiasm in students through the badges, super badges and other sense of achievements. It makes the learning process more intuitive and fun

 

Without Gamification

Even though these stats are extra promising, there is also the other side of the coin which tells you that gamifying a whole course or streamlining the learning experience is not easy, especially if you want to do it successfully. It has a lot of complexities, high cost involved, long development and creation times. Because of these factors, for many it’s not a viable solution unless you have a significant budget

That is where a solution like iamneo.ai comes in. With its wide array of practical product line-up, endless customization options and an unmatched customer service experience, every aspiring person who would like to gamify their online courses would feel at ease when setting up and using the platform to better their venture. Visit https://iamneo.ai/ to know more