Soft skills "Survey with Professor G. Yovanof"

In a survey conducted by our team members titled “Soft skills & E-learning” with Professor Gregory S. Yovanof (Our respected and expert professor at AIT) he answered:

What do soft skills mean to you?

They are people’s skills, presentations, communication skills, team players, and openness to cultural diversity. Personal traits (such as time management, leadership ability, being dependable and honest) all fall under soft skills.

Are soft skills as important as “Hard skills”?

Yes, they are equally important since they contribute towards establishing an overall healthy working environment.

Do you believe that soft skills can be taught through internet means (E-learning)?

No! They are primarily social skills developed through personal relationships. The virtual world is a poor substitute for social networking.

When you interview a possible employee or a student, how do you measure his/her soft skills generally?

Through direct questions, but also relying on observation of body language clues, eye contact…etc.

Do you recommend AIT to include core subject about “Soft skills” in its curriculum?

It should be an integral part of “Human Resource Management” elective course, recently added to the MBIT curriculum (to be offered first time in the summer 2008)!

Tomorrow we will publish the AIT’s Managing Director’s Answers (visit us again)!

Enjoy & Learn,

Amjad Alqaisi

Soft Skills "Survey"

In a survey conducted by our team members titled “Soft skills & E-learning” with Professor L. David Brown (Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government) when he visited the AIT last month he answered:

What do soft skills mean to you?

Soft skills are personal skills, emotional skills, and managerial skills. It is different from hard science capacities.

Are soft skills as important as “Hard skills”?

Sure, they are a lot more important in our social life (at home). Technical people might require more hard skills than soft skills to carry out their jobs, but soft skills are of so importance if they want to pursue managerial positions.

Do you believe that soft skills can be taught through internet means (E-learning)?

Its hard, soft skills cannot be broadcasted; it should be transferred through interactive learning (i.e. face to face)

When you interview a possible employee or a student, how do you measure his/her soft skills generally?

CVs would tell something but not so much. Direct questions, body language and oral interaction will tell a lot more.

Do you recommend AIT to include core subject about “Soft skills” in its curriculum?

Yes very much recommended. In the MPA and MBA of Harvard business school, we have core courses about leadership, negotiation and other soft skills.

Tomorrow we will publish Professor G. Yovanof 's Answers (Visit us again)!

Enjoy & Learn,

Amjad Alqaisi

www.online-learning.com Survey HW#2

As part of our Home Work #2 in the E-business please follow th link below to answer the questions of the survey.

Believe me its less than 2 Minutes of you valuable time!



Click here to take our Online Survey


Enjoy,

Amjad T. Alqaisi

How To Gain Recognition for Your Hard Work

To ensure you get the full recognition you deserve for your work, the following strategies can improve your on-the-job recognition factor:

-First and foremost, you have to be liked

-Make it a point to tell your supervisor what you have done, and offer some well-thought-out new ideas and suggestions for improving the bottom line.

-Without making it appear that you are bucking for a promotion, volunteer for additional assignments.

-Keep your own personal performance chart and review it regularly to see how you can improve your contributions to the company.

-If you do not feel you are getting the recognition you deserve, do not complain about it to co-workers

Full article can be found http://www.jobjournal.com/article_full_text.asp?artid=2285

Technological component Vs. Business needs for Oracle University

Click here to take our Online Survey to evaluate Oracle University e-learning site



As a part of our study for the e-business course and since our blog theme is related to e- learning area, as a homework we had to do a study about an e-learning website (The site technological component corresponding business needs ) for Oracle University (http://education.oracle.com/).

You can download the file from here
Enjoy
Fadi
P.S Please take time to fill our survey



Click here to take our Online Survey to evaluate Oracle University e-learning site

How to improve your memory: 5 simple tips

Believe in yourself

Don't let negative expectations defeat you. If you expect to fail, you won't even try. If you find yourself thinking, "I can't remember names," substitute "I may forget some names.

Focus your attention on what you really want to remember

No one can remember everything. So put effort and energy into those areas that are most important to you. Much of what is called forgetting is a lack of attention. Before you blame your memory, ask yourself if you were really paying attention.

Relax

Tension interferes with the memory process; relaxing often lets the memory come to the surface. When you feel anxious about the possibility of forgetting, you may become preoccupied with the anxiety and unable to concentrate on recalling the needed information. The solution is to take a deep breath and relax; often the information will come to you.

Give yourself plenty of time

People of all ages forget more frequently when they are rushing. In general, if you have enough time to think about what you need to accomplish, you are less likely to forget something. You may also find that you need more time for learning new information and for recalling information from long-term memory. Give yourself a little additional time and see if it helps in encoding and retrieving information.

Be organized

The old saying, "A place for everything, and everything in its place" is good advice for memory improvement. Make a decision to improve your organizational skills in whatever ways are important to you. If you routinely put your keys, glasses, purse, and bills in the same place, you will not waste time searching for them.

Reference www.bayt.com

Improve your Self-esteem

Self-esteem is a personal quality that plays an affective role in our lives. In psychology, self-esteem reflects a person’s overall self-appraisal of their own worth. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs and emotions. Our behaviour may reflect our self-esteem. Psychologists usually regard self-esteem as an enduring personality characteristic. Self-esteem can apply specifically to a particular dimension or have global extent.

In order to improve your self-esteem you must first believe that you can change it. Change doesn't necessarily happen quickly or easily, but it can happen. You are not powerless! Once you have accepted, or are at least willing to entertain the possibility that you are not powerless, there are three steps you can take to begin to change your self-esteem:

· Step 1: Rebut the Inner Critic

The first important step in improving self-esteem is to begin to challenge the negative messages of the critical inner voice. Here are some typical examples of the inner critic's voice and how you can "rebut" that voice.

The Inner Critic's Voice:

Is Unfairly Harsh:

"People said they liked my presentation, but it was nowhere near as good as it should have been. I can't believe no-one noticed all the places I messed up. I'm such an impostor."

Be Reassuring:

"Wow, they really liked it! Maybe it wasn't perfect, but I worked hard on that presentation and did a good job. I'm proud of myself. This was a great success."

Generalizes Unrealistically:

"I got an F on the test. I don't understand anything in this class. I'm such an idiot. Who am I fooling? I shouldn't be taking this class. I'm stupid and I don't belong in college."

Be Specific:

"I did poorly on this one test, but I've done O.K. on all the homework. There are some things here that I don't understand as well as I thought I did, but I can do the material-I've done fine in other classes that were just as tough.

· Step 2: Practice Self-Nurturing

Rebutting your critical inner voice is an important first step, but it is not enough. Since our self-esteem is in part due to how others have treated us in the past, the second step to more healthy self-esteem is to begin to treat yourself as a worthwhile person. Start to challenge past negative experiences or messages by nurturing and caring for yourself in ways that show that you are valuable, competent, deserving and lovable.

· Step 3: Get Help from Others

Getting help from others is often the most important step a person can take to improve his or her self-esteem, but it can also be the most difficult. People with low self-esteem often don't ask for help because they feel they don't deserve it. But since low self-esteem is often caused by how other people treated you in the past, you may need the help of other people in the present to challenge the critical messages that come from negative past experiences.

Reference:

http://www.utexas.edu/student/cmhc/booklets/selfesteem/selfest.html#anchor1648307