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If you are in need of a way to get your employees to work together, you should contact a professional team building company. These companies are available all over the world, and have many years of experience in the field. They have helped to improve the team building skills of companies in many different ways. One of the nice things about a team building company is that they will have many different activities that your employees can choose from. The team building activities that are available will differ from company to company, but rest assured that you will be able to find one that suits your needs because there are many to choose from.

One of the most popular team building activities is one that takes place on a boat. In this activity your team will be drilled on how well they work together. They will learn that working together to achieve a goal is much easier than trying to accomplish it on your own. Employees will be in charge of all aspects of the ship, and the activities that they have to complete will all help to make them better team players. When you have team players, productivity goes up and that means more to the bottom line. In management, we concentrate on the bottom line much of the time. With team work, the bottom line will reflect the work involved.

Another popular event is a team obstacle course. These types of team building activities will build the problem solving and decision making skills of the employees. Employees will be pressed to work together to solve both physical and mental tasks. The fact that you have to use your mind and body to complete these tasks makes the obstacle course one of the most effective team building activities. This has been used by many team building companies with great success. Once you get your people to work together as a team, the better the flow of communication, safety, and productivity.

Every company offers many different team building activities to choose from. There is no right or wrong decision. It all comes down to what your team is looking to accomplish, and what kind of activities they are interested in. Always remember one thing, team building activities are meant to be fun! When team building activities are fun, you will see more participation. More participation means better team work. Better team work leads to happier employees.

Keith Londrie II is a well known author. He has written many great articles on many topics,
including team building. For more information, please visit http://www.my-team-building.info/
You may also be interested in Keith’s other offerings at his site http://keithlondrie.com

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You’ve already decided that you’re ready to author online and you have your content organized. Now it’s time to face the ultimate challenge in online learning - making it interactive!

Interaction in online courses is a two-edged sword. On one hand you want students to participate. This enhances their learning by letting them question and discuss issues in the course. On the other hand, as the instructor, you need to decide the level of interaction you want to have with each student - and build your courses accordingly.

As an illustration, let me relate a poor choice I made in a course I wrote several years ago. Because I wanted everyone involved, I required that each student post at least one message per week to the discussion group. In addition, I required that they respond to two other messages. Simple? Yes. But because I had decided that my level of involvement was to respond to every posting, I was faced with 3 messages for every student every week - and this was only the minimum requirement! I soon found myself bogged down in responding to an overwhelming number of messages.

To decide on your level of involvement, let’s look at 5 levels of interactions you can provide.

1. Respond to every email. At this level of interaction, you are reading and responding to every email or discussion sent. Beware. While this may be effective at the beginning of a discussion when there is little interaction, you’ll soon be overwhelmed just responding to and encouraging students.

2. Respond to every nth email. This is a more rational view. Here you can decide to pick every 5th posting and respond to it. The danger is that you’ll miss a student’s best posting or that you’ll miss an important question.

3. Respond to 1 message per student per week. You can set the expectation that you’ll welcome questions from everyone, but that you’ll only guarantee a response to one per week. That will put the burden of composing an effective message on the student’s shoulders, rather than just jotting off a quick question every time they think of it.

4. Post provocative questions. This is a great way to get a discussion started. If you choose this route, you may choose not to participate in the discussion yourself - but instead, just summarize it at the end - or not.

5. Employ help. This may be a Teaching Assistant, a mentor, students who have taken the course in the past, etc. You may also choose to separate the types of correspondence - for example, one person may cover technical questions, while another handles course mechanics and you take the content questions.

Now that you’ve decided on your level of involvement, it’s time to design the exercises. Recognize that almost any type of exercise you use in face-to-face training has an online counterpart. So be creative - and try your ideas. You can even ask your fellow instructors for help by saying “In an instructor-led course we would do such-and-such for this lesson. What would you suggest we use to replicate that learning online?”

Keep in mind that the format of the course you are creating will help determine the appropriateness of an interactive exercise. For example, if you have a rolling enrollment, self-paced course where students sign up and work through the materials at their own pace, it may be difficult to assign them team activities.

To get you started here are some ideas for interactive exercises. These cover a variety of levels of interaction, so choose your favorites.

Polls and surveys - ask a series of questions, then summarize the results for the participants. This can be done with a survey tool or you can use a multiple choice exam. Poll early and often. Your first poll might be the type of computer participants use, how they connect to the Internet, and their level of expertise in computer skills. This provides good feedback to you and gives them a profile of the “average” student.

Go and do - give students an assignment to do offline. Then ask them to come back and use one of the other techniques (reflection, chat, summaries) to report on their activities.

Read and react - give students an article, a series of websites, or other assignment. Then ask them to write a short reaction paper based on their readings.

Reflection - ask each student to use their personal note space to reflect on reading/group discussions.

3-word summary - ask each student to summarize their thoughts in 3 words in the discussion group. Others can ask for clarification.

Teams - use teams to create small discussion groups. Then ask one person from each team to summarize the discussion in the larger discussion area.

Office hours - use a chat to hold weekly office hours. Just tell everyone when you’ll be “in”, then wait for the questions. As an alternative you may decide to offer a chat time to a smaller group or team of students - either to encourage more interaction or to handle what would have been an overwhelming amount of interaction.

Expert panel - invite one or more experts to participate in a live event such as a video or audio conference. Take questions from the audience. Then continue the discussion with the discussion group. If possible, invite the experts to participate in the discussion.

You will continue to discover new interactive exercises that you use with your courses. For a full course on the topic, send an email to elearning@TechTamers.com

Dr. Jeanette Cates is an Internet strategist who works with experts who are ready to turn their knowledge and their websites into Gold. Her reputation as a speaker and trainer has earned her the title of The Technology Tamer. With more than 20 years in instructional design and elearning, Jeanette shares her news and views in OnlineSuccessNews.com

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I’m not a big fan of gyms - there I’ve said it!

Here’s a quick list of what NOT to do at the gym:

1) Go - if you don’t enjoy it

2) Spend more than 45 minutes on your workout

3) Faff around on any machine because you’re not really sure what to do

4) Use the weight lifting machines (but DO lift weights, see below…)

5) Avoid the experts who actually do (or should) be able to tell you what to do

The reason I don’t like gyms is I don’t agree that people associate getting fit with going to the gym. It is NOT the only way to get fit and I am much more in favour of integrating exercise & activity into your lifestyle - doing something you enjoy - than forcing yourself to go somewhere and do something you don’t enjoy…and then feeling bad about it if you don’t!

However, for those of you who do go, here are the most common questions I get asked:

How often should I go? How long should I go for?

Well, the answer to that question depends…on what you’re trying to achieve. On average, you should aim to exercise (either in the gym or another activity) 3-5 times a week. That doesn’t mean you need to slave away for hours on end there - 20 minutes, four times a week is as good as (if not better than) spending 90 minutes once or twice.

The key to shorter, smarter sessions is following an effective programme that’s been designed especially for you, so that in that short time, you know that what you are doing is at best good for you and helping you improve and at worst, not bad for you. The optimum time for a workout - that helps you build up not break down - is 40 minutes. And the main objective for most people should be building lean muscle - especially if you’re trying to lose weight.

What’s an effective programme?

The best way to ensure what you are doing is right for you & your body is to invest in some expertise - I know a lot of people are put off by the potential investment but if you, like me, value your health, it’s worth investing a little now to make sure you stay that way.

Before you seek help, make sure you read my article How to choose the right personal fitness trainer. There are some bad ones out there, who give us all a bad name but with a little guidance, it is one of the best investments in your health you can make.

What should I do in the gym?

Again this depends on what you’re trying to achieve. As a rule, the main machines you should use are the cardio machines (exercise bike, treadmill, elliptical trainer, rower) to improve your cardiovascular (heart, lungs, circulation) fitness.

However, everyone will benefit from also including resistance work in their workout. Especially if you want to lose weight. And when you do, avoid the machines and head for the free weights and a stability ball. Sound odd? Here’s why…

The machines often force you to move in a biomechanically incorrect pattern - risking injury & damage. They also de-train key stabiliser muscles - which help to protect your back & spine, keep you stable and keep your stomach flat. Not so keen on the machines now, I bet!

And if I hate the gym???

You’re like me! But feel great because if you don’t like going to the gym, this opens up a whole world of options for you to get fit. Exercise does not have to mean a formal activity like going to the gym but includes gardening, walking, meditating - there’s lots of fun things to try. And it’s so simple to do a lot of exercises at home. All you need is a stability or gym ball, some light (or heavier) weights, a mat and a pair of trainers. Nearly all of my private clients workout at home rather than in the gym - in fact, most of them don’t “workout” at all, but have integrated many exercises into their lives, which is by far the best strategy for getting and staying fit!

Lea Woodward is a leading UK Health Coach and works with people who want to experience more energy, better health and a happier life. She runs a successful corporate wellbeing company and an exclusive private coaching practice and has a number of online courses for clients all round the world. For more information and to download your free resources, visit http://www.leawoodward.co.uk

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