New advancement for Online Students, with the use of Apps

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In a natural evolution from printed books to online study materials, with the emergence of online courses, students are finding it much easier to continue their academic studies alongside other household responsibilities, even jobs. Simultaneously, they are taking the responsibility of daily practical life and remaining engaged in their own academic pursuit. Apps, the application softwares specifically designed to address the peculair case-based needs of users, are helping out college students in their studies in online courses. This is only possible in the virtual environment of the internet, be it via mobile or conventional computer, where information can be produced just by typing and due to elegant solution of information technology, can be transmitted just in a click of a button without the hazards of outdated print and distribution mode.

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Study and the use of Apps

Study has many aspects. First a standard study-material is given, based on that reference, new research and novel information opens up new information and the mind along with it. Synthesis from thesis, anti-thesis .. reconciliation between seemingly contradictory information, marks the progress in study and essesnce of it, for enlightenment. Apps, practically help in all that. Providing basic text and the management of it, along with research tools to investigate more, brings with it the need to manage all these in short time. That time management facility is provided by the same Apps as well. 

A convenient list 

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The following are the names of some of the most widely used Apps, that provide solutions of various obstacles faced by students .. making it a complete package all-in-all.

• Self-control

The first App that comes in mind is Self-control, that's appropriate for it's name. It blocks the distracting websites, and helps the student to focus on study, making it much more deep and efficient.

• Luminosity

Luminosity is designed by neuroscientists, for students, for honig their skills. In sharpens the students and keeps them in that shape, with continuous interactive games, that are scientifically designed specifically keeping in mind the improvement of thinking ability, focus, concentration and other cognitive necessities, that are instrumental in achieving academic success.

• Socrative

Socrative is a similar App, that uses riddles and intelligent questions to promote objective thinking, required for acquiring knowledge and understanding. It's also a made-easy, that allows posting of anonymous questions by students, simplifying complex theories.

• Knowledge

Knowledge is another one, that provides information on subjects starting from mathematics, to the core science of chemistry .. to the social sciences of arts. It lives upto its name, providing comprehensive knowledge that can be used whenever the time comes.

• Equate Formula Solver

Concluding the list, comes Equate Formula Solver, a personal choice,that's an encyclopaedic coverage of math fomulas, and related fields like chemistry and physics. Apart from confirming answers, it provides help when the problem seems unsolvable.

Apart from the mentioned, there are countless other that provide practical help in submitting assignments sometimes, or working as manual for Photoshop use. In it's current state, Apps seem an essential tool in this state-of-the-art age of online education.

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Is Studying Postgraduate Diploma in Business Worth The Time, Money And Effort You Invest?

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Are you looking to shift to a management role? Do you want to earn more money? Are you planning a career change? Wondering if an MBA can help your career to boost? Well, an MBA degree can certainly help you acquire the right business skills and knowledge to give your career the push it needs. But with rising tuition fees in B-schools and universities worldwide, is an MBA worth the time, money and effort or you are looking for something different like Postgraduate Diploma in Business ? Let's find out...

What Is An MBA?

The MBA or Master of Business Administration degree is a master's degree in business management. These are usually one or two years graduate programmes offered by business schools or universities. During your study you will learn about the theoretical concepts as well as practical applications of business management. The MBA degree certifies that you have acquired generic competency in the most important management roles prevalent in contemporary corporations. An MBA is often considered as career booster that leads to management roles and higher salaries in different industries.

What An MBA Can Do For You

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 The MBA is perhaps the most popular degree in the world which is widely accepted by leading employers. During your study, you will learn about various business subjects such as management, marketing, statistics, accounting, finance, human resources, communications, entrepreneurship, economics etc. This will enable you to learn how a business works and improve your employability. Hence, you will get a wide range of lucrative job opportunities in different sectors.

Is An MBA Worth It?

Now the question you need to ask why you need to get an MBA? The obvious answer is career development. But does it make sense to quit your current job and take out 2 years from your career to earn a degree? With rising tuition fees in most institutes, does it make sense to take out a crippling student loan to study business? For me, the answer is no. Many business leaders and experts believe that pursuing an MBA by investing so much money and time can surely be worth it if you can get admitted in the Top 10 business schools worldwide. Deepak Chopra, public speaker and bestselling author believes that business education can help us cope with different corporate and social challenges. He said “We have immense problems right now- social injustice, economic injustice, climate change, war, terrorism, new epidemics of all kinds … and business is in a position to help.” Moreover, CEO of Lane Bryant, Linda Heasley, believes that “It’s an amazing networking opportunity.”

However, others think that is obviously better to work and remain employed and progress your career by moving ahead in your organisation. Joanna Coles, Editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, doubts if business education can actually offer the benefits it claims. She said “I wonder sometimes if business school is the corporatisation of education.”

The fact remains that an MBA is no guarantee for getting a lucrative job and earning high salaries. It all depends on your own skills, education, determination and performance. Business education can only help you acquire the rights skills and knowledge needed for career development.

Study Business Effectively 

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If you want to study business and improve your professional skills and boost your career, then I would suggest that you go for an online business diploma. Why? Online postgraduate diploma in business management programmes provide you excellent flexibility, convenience and affordability so that you can study business without affecting your current job and lifestyle. With an online MBA, you will not only be able to work in your existing employment, but also avoid student debt. Moreover, you can effectively choose to study while you work with ease. This will allow you to further hone your management skills and apply them at your immediate workplace.

An online postgraduate diploma in business will help you imbibe leadership & management skills and make you eligible for a wide range of managerial roles. This will allow you to start your career in your desired field, land the next big promotion or completely change your career. A recognised online business diploma from a reputed university or B-school will augment your career opportunities in different leadership and management positions across various business and industry.

Words Of Wisdom

Postgraduate Diploma in Business education can provide you a number of benefits for your professional as well as personal development. There is no doubt that business education is highly advantageous for your career, but you need to choose the right and smart way to learn what you want.

Do you think an MBA is worth your time, effort and money? Feel free to comment below and share your views with us.

Online Learning - A Better Way To Study Business Management

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Planning to pursue a business degree? Then I am sure you are already looking for the best online business programmes available out there. If not, then it's time for you to go online. Nowadays an increasing number of aspiring entrepreneurs and business leaders are opting for quality online business management courses instead of traditional B-school programmes. Why? Keep reading to find out....

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 Is Online Education A Threat?

As higher education becomes more and more expensive, learners across the world are now enrolling for online business education courses to earn accredited degrees in an affordable way. In fact the demand for online business study is so strong that most of the leading business schools and universities have started to offer their programmes online. Many institutes fear that online courses and MOOCs have become a threat for expensive executive programmes as most professionals are now moving towards e-learning courses due to their affordability and high levels of flexibility. So if you are planning to earn a business degree or diploma to land the next big promotion, then an online Level 5 extended management diploma will enable you to work and study at the same time. You can easily find a number of recognised courses online offered by reputed business schools and colleges which follow the same curriculum as the on-campus programmes and are held by in-house faculty.

Online Is Simply Better

Heraldo Sales-Cavalcante, head of learning and director of strategic analysis at Ericsson, initially had doubts about the quality of education offered by online courses. He believes that learning in the classroom was a much better alternative as “there is magic when you meet face-to-face. You form great networks.” However, he was open to experiment with online learning and ended up changing his mind. The fact is online business courses cost you only “a fraction of the cost” of studying executive programmes. Moreover, as these highly flexible you will need to invest much less time on your education and effectively balance your work and family. With more than 120 employees pursuing online courses at Columbia Business School since January 2014, Sales-Cavalcante now believes that these courses are highly effective and encourages more staff to study online.

He says that more business will think twice about sending their staff to traditional B-schools as unless there is a strict need for “experiential learning”. He adds “Business schools need to think about how they reinvent themselves and how they leverage technology.” There is no doubt that leading institutes like Wharton, Harvard and Columbia, are now feeling threatened with the vast array of benefits offered by online business study. With advancement of technology and growing credibility of online learning, most schools are introducing a line-up of online programmes. However, I must admit, that these courses are not intended to replace traditional executive courses, but to supplement them.

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Making Education Affordable And Accessible 

Bharat N. Anand, Faculty Chair at Harvard Business School's online learning initiative HBX says that the rise in affordable and free online content may result in a drop in student enrollment in traditional programmes. This might also affect the revenue stream as well. But as businesses have various requirements, a number of models will eventually coexist, he says.

Another advantage on online business education is that it has substantially expanded the reach of education to numerous students from different parts of the world. Shilpa Patwardhan, connected learning director at Wharton Executive Education, says “In the past, the only option was to send people to campus. But (the costs) limited the number of people who could take the class. The reach that online education has is what organisations find attractive.”

I have no doubt that if you wish to gain the right business skills and knowledge and build your career as a successful business leader, then pursuing an extended diploma in management online is the perfect way to go about it. You can not only earn a degree without running into heavy student debts, nut you will also be able to hone your skills by working and studying simultaneously and getting the best employment opportunities.

What do you think? Are you ready for your online learning experience? Feel free to share your thoughts and views with me by commenting below.

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Education & Happiness - Are They Related?

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Having a college degree can certainly boost your chances of getting a lucrative job. But does it actually make your happier? Well a new study says that your level of happiness is not really affected by the number of degrees you earn. The study, published by the British Journal of Psychiatry, revealed that whether you studied a university programme or not, the prospects of your happiness and mental well-being remains more or less the same.

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 Does education make you happier?

The researchers of the University of Warwick in the UK analysed a number of socioeconomic factors and found that level of education has no relation with how happy they are in real life. A press release stated that the Warwick Medical School researchers were initially inspired to conduct the study by the prominent relation between mental illness and poor education. Hence, they planned to evaluate if the relation held true in the opposite way. However, they discovered that the chances of someone's happiness are equal across every level of academic accomplishment.

Lead author on the study, Professor Sarah Stewart-Brown, said “These findings are quite controversial because we expected to find the socioeconomic factors that are associated with mental illness would also be correlated with mental well being. So if low educational attainment was strongly associated with mental illness, high educational attainment would be strongly connected to mental well-being. But that is not the case.”

According to researchers happiness is regarded as a state of high mental well-being where individuals “feel good and function well.” This was applied to data available from Health Survey for England that included 17,030 people from 2010 to 2011. Professor Stewart-Brown believes that these finding point that socioeconomic factors are probably not applicable to programmes targeted at improving mental well-being.

Happiness comes from many things, not just education 

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However, according to psychiatrist Norman E. Rosenthal, MD, the finding of the new research was rather obvious. Although he was not involved in the study, he said “The basic finding that socioeconomic status is not correlated with happiness is consistent with all of the past literature. One thing we need to remember is that those people who are classified as mentally ill are only a small proportion of the population. And even among the lowest of the socioeconomic classes, they’re not mostly mentally ill — they’re mostly well.”

Rosenthal believes the study raises a number of important questions like why people from lower socioeconomic status are equally happy. He added “Study after study has shown that once you’ve got your basic needs covered, extra money does not correlate with more happiness. Happiness can be derived from many things, including family, friends, religion, having a sense of community, and a sense of purpose, which are all perfectly accessible to people of low socioeconomic status.”

According to Rosenthal the study was made rather confusing by the researchers by considering unhappiness, low socioeconomic status and mental illness. He said “Surely mental illness will be associated with unhappiness, and mental illness is correlated with lower socioeconomic status because those who are mentally ill are less able to make a living. But again, the fact is that’s only a small percent of the population.”

What do you think about the study? Does your college degree make you feel happier? Share your thoughts and experiences with us by commenting in the box below.

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Social Innovation Education - Create The Desired Social Impact.

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Social innovation has been gaining importance worldwide at a rapid pace and this the reason why more and more institutes need to provide proper training to aspiring learners and empower them to bring about the necessary changes in society.

Educating Social Innovators

Almost a decade, most universities barely offered any official support for aspiring social entrepreneurs and innovators. Although students could pursue courses on social issues, political science and policy; there was a lack of real-world skills training on social innovation, strategy, management and leadership. However the scenario is changing drastically now.

Derek Ellerman, co-founder of Polaris Project and graduate of Brown University, said “Today, a remarkable shift is underway. Brown and dozens of other universities across the country are part of a growing movement in higher education to make the social impact of their graduates a central institutional priority.” He added that “One of the main organizations pushing this trend is Ashoka U, which has created the Changemaker Campus Consortium to recognize and support universities at the leading edge of this change. ” Ellerman is geared up to launch his initiative SHIFT which will support the new breed of social innovators and entrepreneurs.

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 But What Do You Mean By A Social Innovator?

A social innovator is motivated to develop skills which you simply cannot outsource which are inherently human. These skills are highly important especially in the conceptual age. They promote the key values advocated by the United Nations: we are a single family who live in a fragile and interdependent world. The truth is we need new thinking to counter the challenges of the 21st Century. Hence social innovators are dedicated to bring about a positive change in the society and add meaning and value to their respective lives.

Need For Social Innovation Education

This is the reason why there is a strong need providing quality social innovation education so that we can develop the upcoming generation of innovators. Ellerman said “I had the opportunity this summer to serve on the selection panel for the newest members of the Changemaker Campus Consortium – Portland State University, Rollins College, Brigham Young University, and, yes, Brown – which joined the current 15 members, among them Duke, Arizona State, Middlebury, and The New School. Hearing about some of the groundbreaking new initiatives these colleges and universities are advancing was incredibly heartening. ”

This is certainly a great news not only for social entrepreneurs but also for the business sector in general. Companies will now have better access better trained and skilled graduates and re-trained mid-career executives and professionals. That will not only have real experience as managers, leaders and innovators, but they will also know how to effectively focus on the environmental and social impact of their efforts.

Moreover, this news will also be especially great for the new breed of social innovators who can now receive the required training and education that will enable them to reach their goals and create the desired social impact.

What are your thoughts on social innovation education? Feel free to share your opinions with us by commenting below.

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Whatsapp: A Learning Tool That Amends The Education Path

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With the constant and rapid pace of technological advancement, the way we learn and teach is getting transformed and revolutionised in a drastic way. Now students can easily access multimedia content, online education, the internet and various social networking tools that can facilitate their learning and personal development. With growing importance on mobile learning, many EdTech experts now believe that its time to analyse the significance of the messaging tool Whatsapp in education.

In the past few years Whatsapp has become a crowd pleaser primarily because of its ease of use; and this is why many people think that the app will be great as a learning tool. Let's have a look...

Learning With Whatsapp – A Learning Revolution

There is no doubt that Whatsapp is a remarkable messaging tool that has innumerable users from around the globe. It allows you to easily connect with your relatives and friends, whether near or far. You can also connect with different groups from your school, college or community. The truth is Whatsapp has completely modified the way we communicate, interact and share information with our near ones.

But can we use Whatsapp as a useful learning tool? Yes, we can. Students can instantly share educational video and audio files in a simple yet affordable way. Moreover it can also help students in learning different languages like English. According to a 2013 study, it was found that 90.63 per cent of respondents among 95 students who use WhatsApp reported that the tool encouraged them to learn English.

 Creating A Learning Circle

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Want to create your own learning circle? Then let Whatsapp help you. Educators can now easily build learning groups using this app which can be used for sharing concise tutorials, quizzes, audio recording files of lectures and various educational videos. It can also allow the learners to connect easily with fellow students and teachers to discuss their problems. This will motivate learners to utilise their time more productively instead of simply chatting online.

Creating Discussion Forums

Using Whatsapp to create your own discussion forums is another great way of building an excellent learning environment. You can choose to post a quiz or a fun question and encourage your students to reply with the right answer. You may also allow the learners to ask questions and share their problems regarding learning a particular subject. It can be a great place for detailed discussions with simple interface and outstanding interactivity.

Create Broadcast Lists 

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You can easily create broadcast lists on Whatsapp and share files and documents easily with the members present on the list. This feature can be effectively used as a learning tool to help your students. Many educators and schools have already started using Whatsapp for a better learning experience.

This excellent messaging tool is now enabling students to share their opinions, seek solutions and help fellow students by creating an efficient learning environment. Learners can choose to start a discussion on any relevant topic at anytime and anywhere using this helpful tool which has become widely popular among most teen school-goers as well as college students.

How else can we use Whatsapp to improve learning? Do have your own ideas that you want to share? Then feel free to comment in the box below. We would love to hear from you.

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Be A Mindful Leader To Take Your Business To New Heights

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Since the global financial crisis of 2008, many business leaders are striving to become a better leader with regards to their unique personal values. The crisis pointed out the misconceptions of calculating success in terms of money which made many leaders uneasy as it challenged their authentic leadership. With the developing markets and rising revenues, numerous leaders in the corporate world ended up focussing more on their personal interests than the interests of the company. This affected the business, employees, shareholders and the customers. Hence I believe that today’s business leaders need to practice Mindful Leadership. Let’s find out more....

 Why Practice Mindful Leadership

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By becoming a mindful leader you will be able to use tools to manage and measure your life in the exact way you are living. Mindful leadership enables you to pay attention to the current moment, identify and understand your emotions and feelings and to keep them in control, particularly when you deal with extremely stressful scenarios. Being a mindful leader you will become better aware of your existence, recognise the depth of your action and how they affect others. This will help you to both participate and observe every moment and understand the repercussion of all your actions in the long term. As a result you will be able to lead a life where you can practice and hone your values.

Mindful Leadership Can Help You Professionally

Practicing mindful leadership helps you to be conscious and modify the manner in which you realise, react and interpret different occurrences. If you are a business leader or aspire to become one, then mindful leadership practices can empower you to not only advance your business, but to help all the parties involved. You will develop abilities to think from new perspectives, find out creative and effective solutions, form effectual daily schedules, product development and recruitment policies. Nowadays increasing numbers of business leaders and entrepreneurs are opting to learn mindful leadership practices as it has become an essential component for overall success and to improve their leadership skills.

How You Can Become A Mindful Leader 

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To develop mindful leadership skills, you will need to pursue a meaningful training programme that will boost your awareness and mindfulness. If you are an aspiring entrepreneur working on your start-up or a working professional, then studying a traditional college programme might not be the best option for you. What you need is a programme that will facilitate your training and learning and allow you to become the right of leader you want to be. If you ask me, studying an online business management programme will be the most beneficial for you. Why?

When you study an accredited Level 5 diploma or a Level 7 diploma online, you will be able to learn various management and leadership skills without compromising on your current full time job or your start-up. This will allow you to acquire the required leadership abilities and improve your focus, productivity, creativity and resilience. As a result you will be able to enhance your performance and lead your team and your company more effectively. If you run a start-up, then your online level 7 or level 5 diploma in management will allow you to better lead and manage your business and expand your operations.

Be The Leader You Want To Be

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In today’s business world, business leaders face a number of new challenges and need to steer their business through a rapidly evolving market. Mindful Leadership skills can help you face these challenges successfully and enable you to become a compassionate and focussed leader determined to boost business prospects.

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