Category: Education

As the scientist in him mulled this over, he also looked inward. “I noticed them in myself. Oh my God, I’ve got them too,” he recalls.

The premise of the IFS model is that our minds are not one-dimensional. “We’re all multiple,” Schwartz says. We all have multiple perspectives within — for example, people often identify an inner critic, worrier, or striver. And some parts tend to dominate our lives, while others are more hidden. IFS teaches a process to embrace all your parts, bring them into balance and find a sense of wholeness.

Parts work has exploded in popularity recently — with a growing number of books, apps and social media accounts highlighting the system. There are now more than 6,000 IFS-certified therapists and practitioners. 

IFS is used by therapists working on a range of issues, from couples therapy, to coping with the death of a loved one, or other traumas.

Some therapists say the popularity has gotten ahead of the evidence base and are calling for more research. There are several small studies showing IFS can benefit people with specific problems, including symptoms of PTSD and stress; the pain, discomfort and depression from living with rheumatoid arthritis; and depression. And more studies are underway.

For Seth Kopald, parts work was key to taming his anxiety, as he began to recognize that it stemmed from fears of feeling unloved in childhood.

With IFS, he could now acknowledge the hurt child within, and begin to unburden from the pain and shame.

“There’s a big difference between, ‘I am the anxiety and fear versus I am here with the fear, I’m here with the anxiety,’” he says. And in that realization his natural state of “confidence, courage and compassion” resurfaced. “It’s almost like I have a new operating system now,” Kopald says.

So, if you’re dealing with stress — around relationships, tragedy, or any life challenge — you may want to learn more about parts work. Here are highlights of how the IFS process works.

1. Quiet your mind and look within

One way to begin to get to know your parts is to listen.

Sit still, as if you were about to meditate and notice any bodily sensations that arise. Do you feel a sore neck, a tight chest, sick to your stomach? Do you see scenes or images from the past? What comes up first are parts that may need your attention. Focus on one sensation or image — tune in and ask it what it wants you to know.

When Seth Kopald tried this, he sensed a nervousness throughout his body and he saw images from old movies in his mind — scenes of bad divorces, couples fighting over kids. He was getting in touch with a worrier part that was dominating his life at the time.

2. Start a dialogue with your parts

In IFS, the rule is that none of our parts are bad. Each of them can give us useful information.

Kopald started to realize that his worry and anxiety were what IFS calls “protector” parts, which help us get through tough situations. “They were trying to make me do something — to figure out a solution to help my kids,” he says.

But these parts were causing so much anxiety, he was stuck.

The worrier was telling him “do something.” Then there was a critic questioning what he’d done to contribute to the bad situation. And another part was jumping in to try to numb him from the pain.

These multiple parts were teaming up, a pattern that can happen to many of us in moments of crisis. It’s like noisy instruments playing out of tune, Kopald says, citing a metaphor frequently used in IFS.

If you find yourself overwhelmed by a cacophony, try to start a dialogue with your parts: What do you want me to know? What do you want to show me?

And the more you learn to work with your parts, you can start to become the leader, or the conductor, Kopald says, bringing up each instrument in harmony.

3. Take some space

IFS teaches you to “separate” from the noise of these competing parts. Kopald recalls the moment he started to get some perspective on his anxiety about his kids, by seeing it as just one part.

“When it really hit me that the anxiety I’d been feeling was one aspect of me, but not all of me, I felt this calm come over me,” he says.

This was the beginning of a breakthrough for him.

If you want to try this, ask your noisy part: “Can you give me some space so we can talk?” For Kopald, instead of feeling like he was that scared, anxious kid, he got to the place where he felt he was sitting with that kid, helping to comfort him.

4. Get in touch with pain from childhood

IFS teaches that we all have exile parts, which hold onto hurtful memories, many from childhood. Since it’s easier to bury negative feelings than deal with them, these exiles — as the name suggests — can stay locked deep within.

IFS founder Dick Schwartz says the exile parts can get triggered in times of difficulty. But he says, “these are often our most sensitive and loving parts.”

As a kid, Schwartz struggled in school, which frustrated his father — a prominent physician and researcher. “So he piled on a lot of shame,” Schwartz says. He could recall his father saying things like, “Dicky, you’re good for nothing,” and the hurt was buried deep within.

He allowed himself to relive those experiences from childhood. “I could actually enter that scene and be with” the hurt boy, Schwartz says. In doing so he could feel the mistrust and fear and shame lifting, what IFS calls “an unburdening.”

For Schwartz this opened up a playful inner child. “That was lacking in my life back before I actually unburdened that part,” he says.

This part can be tricky to do alone. Exiles will sometimes take you back to painful scenes, and show you traumatic memories. Kopald says if you feel the pain of an exile arise, you can say: “I know you’re there – I’m not pushing you away.” You can ask it to share its story, and if this gets too intense, you may want to contact an IFS therapist.

5. Take a U-turn

Kopald says his life is much better now. He has a loving relationship with his children and he’s remarried. Now an IFS-certified practitioner, he’s written a book on IFS, Self-Led: Living a Connected Life With Yourself and With Others. But, he still has moments when life is very stressful or throws too much at him. When this happens, he uses a technique called a U-Turn. The U-turn is an exercise to gain perspective.

If you find yourself engaging in negative self-talk — or you are feeling like everything is falling apart, take a moment to notice what’s happening inside, look inward. Kopald says he’ll ask himself: “Wait a minute, who’s taking me over right now?”

In other words, you observe which part inside you is triggering your anxiety, fear or negativity. And then you can tell it, “Hey, I got it. Can you just trust me to be here?” Kopald says.

6. Uncover the light within

When you’re no longer dominated by the cacophony of parts, then your true self can emerge, according to IFS.

In IFS, Self is the parent or leader of your system, offering love and protection to all your parts.

Seth says you can think of Self as the sun, which is often covered by clouds, i.e., your parts. Remember the sun is always in its full power, even on a cloudy day. So Kopald says, like clouds parting, we can “remove the things that block our light.”

For Kopald, this has made a big difference. “I tend to live more in the light of myself,” he says. And he feels more clarity, compassion, creativity and calm.

As Jennifer Hill’s eldest child was heading into fifth grade, she began to wonder how she would communicate with him in the hour between his school bus drop-off and her arrival home from work in downtown Cleveland.

“There’s no phone in this house if something goes wrong,” she remembers thinking. “It’s not safe.”

When Hill was a kid, there were no cellphones, sure, but there were landlines. And friendly neighbors keeping an eye out. And close-knit communities where everyone knew each other.

“It’s not the way it is anymore,” she says. “I can’t imagine my kid walking up to somebody’s house, knocking on a door, and saying, ‘My friend fell off his bike. Can I use your phone?’ We teach kids not to do that anymore.”

She wasn’t ready to get her 10-year-old a smartphone, not by a long shot. Nor did she intend to install a home phone. She wanted her son to be able to ride his bike around the neighborhood in the afternoons, too—not just be cooped up in their house.

She quickly whittled her options down to just one: a smartwatch.

Hill knew of another family that had just purchased their child one of these high-tech wearables. Back then, in 2018, the kid-focused options were fairly limited, as were their capabilities. Hill got her son a Verizon Gizmo watch, which, at the time, had only rudimentary features, storing up to 10 parent-approved phone numbers and allowing the user to send only a handful of preset text messages (think: “Where are you?” and “Call me”). The smartwatch also had some simple location-tracking capabilities.

Fast-forward six years, and Hill’s two oldest children, now high schoolers, both have graduated to smartphones. Her youngest, a 10-year-old daughter, wears a Gizmo watch, only hers comes with all the technological advancements and upgrades accumulated over the prior years: photo and video capture, video calling, access to a full keyboard for texting, voice messaging, group chats, geofencing, and up to 20 parent-approved phone numbers.

Today, says George Koroneos, a spokesperson for Verizon, the smartwatch is “truly a phone replacement on their wrist.”

And the product category is booming. A decade ago, only a few tech companies made smartwatches for kids. Today, the market is bloated with players, new and veteran, vying for kids’ and parents’ loyalty—and advertising smartwatches to children as young as 5.

“They are becoming increasingly popular,” says Kris Perry, executive director of Children and Screens: Institute of Digital Media and Child Development. “They are becoming a child’s first device.”

Families are noticing, too—after all, they’re the ones driving this “explosion,” as Shelley Pasnik, former director of the Center for Children and Technology, describes it.

Hill has seen the evolution since her first watch purchase. When her sons were younger, she says, only a handful of their friends and classmates had smartwatches. Now, the devices are “huge” in her affluent suburban community of Westlake, Ohio.

“With my daughter, everyone’s got them. They’re as popular as Stanleys and Owalas,” she says, referring to the colorful, reusable water bottles that children have helped popularize. “All the little girls have watches.”

Kids clamoring for their first digital device are easily winning over adults who, let’s face it, aren’t putting up much of a fight in the first place, when always-on communication and precise location-tracking are part of the package that comes with modern parenting.

In fact, parent fears may be the real force propelling smartwatch proliferation.

T-Mobile, which makes the SyncUp watch, conducted a consumer insights study and found that 92 percent of parents of children ages 4 through 12 felt it was important to “always know where their child was,” says Clint Patterson, senior vice president of product marketing at T-Mobile.

Today’s tools make such tracking possible.

“The way that parents monitor their kids has changed dramatically in just a generation or two,” says Mitch Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “Parents are monitoring their kids far more closely, really wanting to be aware of their location [and] concerned about their safety.”

This heightened surveillance has trade-offs. The trend has seeped into schools, where teachers and leaders have grown frustrated by the introduction of yet another digital distraction to students’ learning, even as more districts enact cellphone bans.

Yet no one really knows where these gadgets fit into the larger conversation around children and screens. Research on kids and smartwatches is thin. Even data about adoption and use is lacking. This has left digital media and child development experts to extrapolate and hypothesize about the possible pitfalls and benefits.

“If this is a way of parents or kids achieving their goals and delaying their kids on social media, this might not be such a bad thing,” says Prinstein, who codirects the Winston National Center on Technology Use, Brain, and Psychological Development and whose research focuses on adolescents and younger children.

“On the other hand,” Prinstein adds, “we don’t have a lot of research yet. It’s possible there are ways in which smartwatches are creating an electronic umbilical cord. That has possible risks as well.”

Technology ‘Training Wheels’

When the Apple Watch was released in 2015, it was seen—and priced—as a luxury good, notes Girard Kelly, the head of privacy at Common Sense Media.

It was also, back then, marketed to adults. But as new generations of the Apple Watch came out, some parents handed down older models to their children, says Pasnik of the Center for Children and Technology.

“Naturally, kids like to do things adults are doing,” says Jon Watkins, senior product manager for Bounce, a kid-focused smartwatch made by Garmin. “There’s a natural tendency for kids to want a watch like they see Mom and Dad wearing.”

Noting the trend—and in some cases, helping to grow it—other companies began to release kid-specific smartwatches with more limitations than an adult device. Apple, too, released a version, the Apple Watch SE, in 2020, with restricted features and a lower price.

Around that time, demand for kids’ smartwatches spiked, says Perry of Children and Screens. Educators, too, note a bump in adoption around the pandemic—one that has been sustained in the years since. The smartwatch market for kids is estimated to be worth more than $1 billion in 2024—and it’s growing rapidly, Perry adds.

A typical kids’ smartwatch today costs around $150 up front, plus an ongoing monthly subscription fee of $10 to $15. That’s certainly no pack of bubble gum, but it does put the device within reach for many families, particularly those who view the product as one that enhances their child’s safety, says Kelly of Common Sense.

“Parents are, like, halfway in between giving their child or teen a phone, and the watch makes sense,” he says. “It’s cheaper.”

To adults feeling pressure to introduce their kids to technology, a smartwatch may feel like a safer starting point than a cellphone that grants exposure to the entire internet, argues Kelly’s colleague Laura Ordoñez, executive editor and head of digital media family advice at Common Sense.

“What is the low-hanging fruit that doesn’t feel like it’s doing the most damage?” Ordoñez asks. “I believe that’s what’s motivating these parents.”

Numerous people cited social psychologist Jonathan Haidt’s new book, “The Anxious Generation,” in interviews, noting the harm that smartphones and social media may be causing young people. Most smartwatches don’t have web browsers or social media applications. That in itself gives many parents an enormous sense of relief.

“Parents are increasingly aware of the problematic designs of smartphones and the troubling data on social media apps,” says Perry. “They want the connection, but they don’t want their child scrolling and online constantly.”

As the price of kids’ smartwatches has come down, though, it may have muddled how the wearable fits into a family’s overall technology goals. What started as a consolation prize offered to an older preteen or young teenager who craves technology, communication, and social inclusion has evolved into a sort of gateway device. Like bowling with bumpers.

“It’s a great way to ease into tech,” says Hill, the Ohio parent. “You can learn to take care of the technology in a small way before you are given it in a bigger way.”

That seems to be how the smartwatch makers view it, too. In interviews with executives at Verizon, Garmin, and T-Mobile, they describe their target users as ages 5 to 12, with the core customer base as parents of 8- to 10-year-olds.

“This is a very safe way to have a means of communication with a child,” claims Watkins of Garmin.

Patterson, at T-Mobile, describes kids’ smartwatches as “training wheels in the adoption of technology.”

“Just like you wouldn’t throw your kid on a bicycle, you don’t throw them at a smartphone or tablet with unfettered access,” Patterson adds.

What exactly are these training wheels preparing kids for? The bicycle metaphor suggests that someday, children will be allowed to zoom off on their own, liberated from their parents’ purview.

Yet untethering is not the trajectory families seem to have in mind when they buy their young kids entry-level digital tools. It’s not why Tim Huber, principal at Harris Creek Elementary School, part of North Carolina’s Wake County Public School System, is seeing more and more children in the early grades show up to school wearing smartwatches.

“It has been just a steady increase of kids, at younger grade levels, all the way down to kindergarten,” Huber notes.

To be sure, the reason that 5- and 6-year-olds—children who may not even be literate—have smartwatches is not to delay the purchase of their first smartphone or to ward off social media. For them, the watches are serving another purpose entirely.

‘Better Be Safe Than Sorry’

When Kristi Calderon’s daughter was in fifth grade, one of her classmates made a bomb threat.

“I rushed to them,” says Calderon, referring to her three school-age kids. “It was very scary.”

She saw only one of her children walk out of the building as the school was evacuated. In those next moments, she did not know where two of her children were or if they were OK.

“That’s what, like, killed me,” says Calderon, who lives in Long Beach, California.

The experience rattled her. Ever since, she says, she has ignored school policies around devices. She would rather know where her kids are and be able to communicate with them, to know that they are safe, than to be left to wonder and worry.

The youngest of her four children, now an 8-year-old in third grade, wears a smartwatch. He’s had one since he was in first grade.

Experiences like Calderon’s—and the seemingly ever-present possibility of children encountering violence in schools—have driven parents to seek out location-tracking devices for their kids. Some settle for a simple AirTag fastened to a child’s backpack, but many also want the ability to communicate with their child, as Calderon does with her son during and outside of school hours.

Tina Laudando, a parent of two in Park Ridge, Illinois, just outside of Chicago, says she got her older son a smartwatch when he was 11 “so we could stay in touch with him and give him a little bit more freedom.”

His friends were getting together at the park, and she wanted him to be able to join them. And at his age, she didn’t want him to have to come with her every time she needed to make a trip to the grocery store. The watch, she figured, would allow him to stay home alone or meet his friends and communicate with his parents in case of an emergency.

Did she ever consider letting him join his friends at the park without a communication device? No, she says. That was never an option in her mind.

“The idea of him going to the park alone, going for a bike ride with his friends, without adult supervision, I think for me as an adult is scary,” Laudando says. “Being able to just, for myself, have that comfort level, knowing he’s OK, it gives me peace of mind.”

It’s a win-win, Laudando believes. Her son gets the feeling of more freedom and independence, and his parents feel confident giving that to him.

Laudando, like most of the parents interviewed for this story, grew up during a time when many kids would leave home on their bikes and be gone, unreachable, for hours, returning only for dinner. That was normal.

“It’s kind of sad, right? Because we lived without technology for so many years, and as I’m explaining this, I’m like, I don’t know what we would do without it,” Laudando says. “We’ve become reliant on it.”

But Laudando feels the world her children inhabit today is less safe than the one she was raised in.

Tara Riggs, a parent of two in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, can relate. She sees videos on social media, hears stories from friends, reads the news. She feels “inundated” with negative information. It wears her down, she says.

“I’m constantly worrying,” Riggs admits.

Indeed, the internet—and social media in particular—can leave many with the sense that the physical world is more dangerous today than ever, when in fact, by a number of measures, it is notably safer. (What has gotten worse, in the past few decades, is child and adolescent psychological and emotional well-being. Some researchers and leaders, including the US surgeon general, attribute this shift to high use of technology and social media among youth. Others cite intensive parenting practices that, ironically, seem to undermine the normal development of resilience in kids.)

“The perception of danger versus the actual danger is a distinction that’s probably important here,” says Prinstein, chief science officer at the American Psychological Association. “The perception of danger is heightened for a lot of parents.”

It’s a consequence of how much more connected our society is than it was a few decades ago, he adds. People can find out, in real time, about violent or disturbing events that happened many communities away. It leaves them with a sense that trouble—no matter how remote the possibility nor how many miles separate their families and the latest crisis making headlines—is looming.

Perhaps no tragedy feels more present and pernicious to a parent than a school shooting. One can take place on the other end of the United States, yet parents everywhere are reminded, viscerally, that their child, too, is at risk. It may have happened elsewhere, in Georgia, or Florida, or Texas, but the next one could be at their kid’s school.

“The psychology of fear—it’s extremely powerful,” says Huber, the elementary school principal. “We face that constantly. We are asking hundreds and hundreds of families every day to trust us with the safety and wellness of their child for seven to eight hours.”

Katie Joseph, assistant superintendent of Regional School Unit 1 in Bath, Maine, understands that school safety is a palpable concern for many families. Yet she urges those in her school community not to be overtaken by it.

“I try to remind parents what I always tell myself: There is what is possible, and there is what is probable. Probably, all the things you’re worried about are not actually the things you should be worried about. You should be worried about the [device] in your child’s hand.”

Joseph believes the kind of “independence” a child attains by donning a smartwatch only runs skin deep.

If a child’s parent is constantly monitoring them, in touch with their every move, then really they are not developing a strong sense of responsibility, she says. Everyday situations that might allow for a child to experience and overcome challenges, to take risks and build resilience, become virtually frictionless when their parents are just one tap away.

“If my child is riding his bike and something happens, he needs to be able to figure out, ‘What am I supposed to do in this situation?’” says Joseph, who has an 8-year-old. “The first thing we should want our kids to do is not to call us and have us do the thinking for them.”

Because of the relative affordability of the smartwatch, and its limitations, many families may not be asking themselves how likely it is that their child would be caught up in a violent event, Prinstein notes. Rather, they may be thinking, “Will I feel regret if I spend that 200 bucks on Starbucks versus just getting the device, just in case?” he says.

“I think the calculus there is a little bit like, ‘Better be safe than sorry,’ even though logic might follow that it’s not truly necessary,” he adds.

Yet Hill, the parent in Ohio, believes that her decision, years ago, to buy her kid a smartwatch as a safety precaution has been vindicated.

One afternoon, riding his bicycle home from swim practice, her oldest son was hit by a car. He wasn’t run over, Hill says, but the driver sideswiped him and he landed hard, with his bike toppling over him. With a few taps of his watch, he was able to make a quick call to his parents. Hill’s husband drove the mile to reach him and took him to the hospital.

“If that hadn’t been there,” Hill says of the watch, “I don’t know that he would have had the wherewithal to give my number to somebody with him. He was scared. He was 13. He was by himself. As much as we drill it into him, that’s a lot to ask of a kid.”

The smartwatch, in that moment, was a “resounding success,” she adds.

‘Opening Pandora’s Box’

Late last summer, Riggs, the parent who lives near Detroit, began to research smartwatches. She was considering buying one for her then 10-year-old daughter.

Riggs and her husband had recently caught their daughter disobeying them. One afternoon, their daughter was supposed to be at a friend’s house around the corner from their own, a block away. But when Riggs’ husband passed that friend’s house on his way home from work, he noticed their daughter’s bike wasn’t in the yard. Riggs sprang into action. She got in her car and drove around the neighborhood, going up and down each street until she found her daughter at another house.

“I didn’t like that feeling—that panicked feeling,” she says. “Where did they go? Did they cross the main road like they’re not supposed to? What are they getting up to?”

Her impulse was to prevent a similar situation by putting a tracker on her daughter. She spent months researching different smartwatch models, consulting other parents, scouring tech-focused parenting groups for insights. “I rabbit-holed that,” she says.

Then it occurred to her that maybe she was trying to solve the wrong problem. Riggs didn’t need a better strategy for monitoring her daughter. Rather, she needed to teach her child not to break the rules in the first place.

---

Get EdSurge journalism delivered free to your inbox. Sign up for our newsletters.

---

“It seemed like I was opening Pandora’s box, when it wasn’t absolutely necessary,” she says of purchasing a smartwatch. (Still, she didn’t forswear technology entirely. Her daughter now bikes with a Wi-Fi–only tablet, connects it to the internet when she arrives at a friend’s house, and sends her mom a message on Facebook Messenger Kids letting her know she arrived safely.)

The possible drawbacks of smartwatch use extend beyond stunting character growth. Even though smartwatches are virtually unexplored in academic research and will require further study before anyone can say, conclusively, how they may affect kids and childhood, it’s clear that screens, in general, can cause children harm, Perry of Children and Screens argues.

“They interfere with so many aspects of child development,” she says, rattling off some examples: cognitive development, language development, social emotional and behavioral development, mental health.

True, the screen of a smartwatch is much smaller than that of a phone. Its functionalities are more limited. Some of the “irresistible” qualities of other devices are missing from smartwatches, Perry concedes. And even though most kids’ smartwatches come with games, they can be difficult to use and may deter kids from playing for long, or at all.

Still, that doesn’t make smartwatches safe from some of the addictive, distracting tendencies of phones, experts say. Watches vibrate, chime, and ping with notifications. They, like other devices, are built with persuasive design.

“The evidence is really clear that the notifications—the visual cues to look at your watch—those things are really disruptive and provide a real distraction from something else the child should be doing,” Perry says.

Teachers and school leaders would vouch for that.

“They’re disruptive, distracting,” says Joseph, the district leader in Maine. “It all just gets in the way of what teachers are trying to do.”

She doesn’t see watches and phones as being wholly different from one another, especially in middle and high school settings where, increasingly, students have both devices with them during the school day. A phone may be put away, out of sight, but the watch on a student’s wrist will still be buzzing with news alerts, incoming text messages and photos, social media notifications, and the like.

Joseph’s school district, RSU 1, encompassing a small coastal region of Maine, updated its device policy over the summer, at a time when many schools and districts opted to do the same. Except, unlike RSU 1, most districts are narrowly focused on the potential harms of smartphones, multiple people shared in interviews. Their revised policies may not even mention smartwatches, creating a loophole for those devices.

For leaders at RSU 1, whose school board voted to “eliminate” both smartphones and smartwatches in grades six to 12, it was an attempt to increase student connection—real-life, in-person connection—and by extension improve their mental health. They’ll enforce this by collecting all watches and phones at the start of the school day, placing them in lockable Yondr pouches, and distributing them at dismissal.

Huber, the elementary school principal in North Carolina, also recently wrote smartwatches into his school’s device policy, requiring that they be in airplane mode—functioning only as a watch, not as a connected device—during the school day. “The watch is considered a cellphone UNLESS airplane mode is activated,” the policy reads.

He would take the policy a step further if he felt he could. Airplane mode can be disabled with one touch, and truthfully he’d rather not see the devices in his elementary school at all.

“There has not been one time I have ever heard from anybody, ‘I’m so glad this kid had a smartwatch,’” he says. “I can’t think of any scenario where there is a need or benefit to having it.”

Still, he’s not sure how much additional harm they could be causing for a generation of children who “have already been raised on tablets,” glued to parents’ smartphones at the dinner table. What’s one more screen?

Perry invites parents and families to think about it another way. Once a child is given their own personal device, their digital life begins. The child’s data is collected. Algorithms are built around their preferences and practices. An online profile is developed.

That can seem relatively innocuous—it’s just a watch, right?—but what people may not realize is that smartwatches collect thousands of data points, “easily,” per day, per user, according to Kelly of Common Sense.

“The younger you’re connecting your child to that world, the more risk there is to them than if you didn’t,” Perry says. “That’s a tough calculation as a parent.”

Is it better to stay out of touch with a child, trusting that they’ll be safe enough as they move about the physical world? Or to invest in a tool that enables constant monitoring and communication, albeit through the shadows of the emerging digital world?

The big question today’s parents must wrestle with, Perry says, is, “Which risks can I tolerate?”

Are You Feeling Overwhelmed By Your L&D Workload?

Join us for the Ultimate L&D Toolkit Online Conference: a fast-paced, action-packed event designed to help L&D professionals streamline their workflows, enhance their skills, and create more impactful learning experiences. Through user-led demonstrations and expert insights, you’ll discover innovative tools, techniques, and strategies to boost your productivity and deliver exceptional results.

What you’ll gain:

• Accelerated learning: Dive into fast-paced, user-led demonstrations showcasing the latest L&D tools and techniques.
• Real-world solutions: Learn from industry experts who share their insights and experiences in tackling common L&D challenges.
• Streamlined workflows: Discover time-saving tools and techniques to optimize your processes and boost productivity.
• Enhanced impact: Gain actionable insights to create more engaging and effective learning experiences.

Don’t miss this opportunity to unlock your full potential as an L&D professional.

Register now.

(Pssst! Want to connect with a larger audience, share your wisdom, and gain recognition in the L&D community? This is your chance! The Learning Guild is now looking for speakers for their 2025 online conferences.

Look through the 2025 events and share your session submission for the online conference that best aligns with your expertise!)

Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learning

by Terrell Heick

In 20 Words That Can Affect How Students Think,, we said “Tone affects how students see themselves and their role in the learning process. In fact, a student’s own ongoing internal dialogue and thoughts about themselves and their self-identity as learners isn’t just a ‘factor’ in learning but one of the single most important factors.”

This is central to the principle and practice of Social-Emotional Learning (and strategies for social-emotional learning). It might be useful to take a quick look at some of the key ideas and underlying assumptions about tone in learning.

Tone As A Cause And Effect Of Learning

I. Tone matters. It affects human beings and students are human beings.

II. Tone can be notable in its ‘tenor’ and value as well as in its abundance or absence. That is, tone can be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ and there can be a ‘lot’ or a ‘little’ of it.

III. Tone can be both a cause and an effect. That is to say, tone can cause ‘something’ or be caused by something. For example, a lack of confidence can create an uncertain tone while another tone might create a distinct lack of confidence.

IV. As a factor in ‘climate,’ tone is closely related to mood and together they contribute greatly to that climate.

VI. Any climate created either is or is not intentionally conducive to creativity, collaboration, and learning.

VII. Students experience some kind of tone in every interaction (even if that tone seems more or less unremarkable—that’s a ‘clinical’ tone). That is, almost everything a student experiences in the learning process has ‘tone.’

VIII. Having established that tone affects students and is (through our word choice, among other factors) adjustable, that means that as teachers, we can adjust something that affects students.

IX. To make these adjustments, we have to know what tone is and how it’s adjustable.

X. Tone is complex and is explicitly and implicitly created through countless sources above and beyond our words but because our words are so easily adjustable, it makes sense to make that simple adjustment while we sort out the other factors that affect tone in the learning process.

Private school parents could face a further fee hike if a national insurance increase is announced in the Budget in what has been called an “extra tax” on top of the government’s controversial new VAT policy.

With one warning that “there is only so far that the system can be squeezed before it starts to fall apart”, independent school leaders fear the sector will be hit twice – first, by Labour’s removal of private schools’ 20 per cent VAT exemption, which will start in January, and now, by a potential rise in employers’ national insurance contributions, which the chancellor has not ruled out ahead of her first Budget on 30 October.

Headteachers of smaller, specialist private schools say they have little room in already-squeezed budgets to make cuts, leaving them little option but to hike fees to cover VAT charges. They fear they may need to raise fees even higher if employers’ national insurance contributions are increased.

Rachel Reeves is set to increase employers’ national insurance to help fund the NHS and balance the government’s books, reports suggest. The current national insurance rate paid by employers is 13.8 per cent, with the chancellor expected to increase this by between one and two percentage points.

David Woodgate, chief executive of the Independent Schools Bursars Association (ISBA), has described any national insurance hike as an “extra tax” on private schools and, in turn, parents with children who attend them.

Mr Woodgate told The Independent: “Any rise in national insurance employer contributions would have to be funded by independent schools, which would not qualify for any funding offered to state schools to cover the rise. This would be an extra tax that schools would have no choice but to pass on to parents and also risks being an additional in-year tax, further stretching budgets set before the general election was even called.”

The chancellor is set to increase the tax by up to 2 per cent, as well as cutting the earnings threshold at which businesses start making national insurance contributions, The Times reported. The combined measures will raise about £20bn and represent the ­biggest tax rise in Labour’s first budget in 15 years.

A 1 per cent increase in the Class 1 rate of national insurance for employers could raise £8.45bn over the 2025 to 2026 tax year, and a 2 per cent hike could raise £16.9bn, according to data compiled by HMRC and EY – which would go some way to closing the £22bn “black hole” that Ms Reeves said had been inherited by the previous Conservative government, as well as help fund spending promises.

According to guidance from the Department for Education, staff pay is the most expensive cost in a school budget, representing more than 70 per cent of expenditure.

A 1 or 2 per cent increase in national insurance for employers could increase school budgets by more than 0.7 per cent or 1.4 per cent, respectively. If schools are unable to make cuts, these costs are set to be put on parents in the form of a fee hike.

Christine Cuniffe, the principal of LVS Ascot in Berkshire, warned: “Any increases to costs such as a rise in national insurance will inevitably have an impact on fee structures across the sector.”

Diarmid Mackenzie, the chair of governors at Sands School in Devon, who has been working with many other independent schools on this issue, said further fee increases caused by a national insurance hike would also increase the amount of VAT parents pay on fees.

Mr Mackenzie said: “If employer national insurance contributions are increased, these costs go directly onto a school’s staffing costs. A 2 per cent increase in employers’ national insurance will result in a direct 2 per cent increase in staffing costs.

“There’s no way for most schools to cover these costs without a further increase in fees, and every time fees go up, that increases the VAT that parents will have to pay as well.”

In a policy that has drawn much criticism and is facing ongoing backlash from the sector, from January, the government will remove independent schools’ VAT exemption and business rates relief in a move Labour says will fund 6,500 new teachers for state schools.

There has also been speculation that the government was considering introducing national insurance on employer pension contributions as a way of raising additional revenue, with the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) calculating that this could raise around £17bn per year if taxed at the same 13.8 per cent rate.

Mr Woodgate said this move would threaten more withdrawals from the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (TPS) because it would “become increasingly unaffordable for independent schools”.

Mr Mackenzie warned: “Independent schools are already under immense financial pressures. TPS contributions went up 5 points in April to over 28 per cent of salaries. Now we’re having to put VAT on our fees, and deal with a 400 per cent increase in business rates for many this April, together with around 20 per cent inflation since 2021. Between them, in cash terms, that adds up to a 50 per cent increase in costs over four years.

“Most small schools don’t make a significant surplus or profit, and most don’t have any sources of income other than fees, so there’s no option but to pass these costs on to parents. But the families that use small independent schools aren’t especially wealthy either. There’s only so far that the system can be squeezed before it starts to fall apart.”

A government spokesperson said: “We want to ensure all children have the best chance in life to succeed. Ending tax breaks on private schools will help to raise the revenue needed to fund our education priorities for next year.”

The fact that students with dual enrollment credits are faring better than students without dual enrollment credits isn’t terribly persuasive. In order to qualify for the classes, students usually need to have done well on a test, earned high grades or be on an advanced or honors track in school. These high-achieving students would likely have graduated college in much higher numbers without any dual enrollment courses.

“Are we subsidizing students who were always going to go to college anyway?” asked Kristen Hengtgen, a policy analyst at EdTrust, a nonprofit research and advocacy organization that lobbies for racial and economic equity in education. “Could we have spent the time and energy and effort differently on higher quality teachers or something else? I think that’s a really important question.”

Hengtgen was not involved in this latest analysis, but she is concerned about the severe underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students that the report highlights. A data dashboard accompanying the new report documents that only 9 percent of the high schoolers in dual enrollment classes were Black, while Black students made up 16 percent of high school students. Only 17 percent of dual enrollment students were Hispanic at a time when Hispanic students made up almost a quarter of the high school population. White students, by contrast, took 65 percent of the dual enrollment seats but represented only half of the high school population. Asian students were the only group whose participation in dual enrollment matched their share of the student population: 5 percent of each.

Advocates of dual enrollment have made the argument that an early taste of college can motivate students to go to college, and the fact that so few Black and Hispanic students are enrolling is perhaps is the most troubling sign that the giant public-and-private investment in education isn’t fulfilling one of its main objectives: to expand the college-educated workforce.

Hengtgen of EdTrust argues that Black, Hispanic and low-income students of all races need better high school advising to help them sign up for the classes. Sometimes, she said, students don’t know they have to have a prerequisite class in 10th grade in order to be eligible for a dual enrollment class in 11th grade, and by the time they find out, it’s too late. Cost is another barrier. Depending upon the state and county, a family may have to pay fees to take the classes. Though these fees are generally much cheaper than what college students pay per course, low-income families may still not be able to afford them.

Tatiana Velasco, an economist at CCRC and lead author of the October 2024 dual enrollment report, makes the argument that dual enrollment may be most beneficial to Black and Hispanic students and low-income students of all races and ethnicities. In her data analysis, she noted that dual enrollment credits were only providing a modest boost to students overall, but very large boosts to some demographic groups.

Among all high school students who enrolled in college straight after high school, 36 percent of those with dual enrollment credits earned a bachelor’s degree within four years compared with 34 percent without any dual enrollment credits. Arguably, dual enrollment credits are not making a huge difference in time to completion, on average.

However, Velasco found much larger benefits from dual enrollment when she sliced the data by race and income. Among only Black students who enrolled in college straight away, 29 percent of those who had earned dual enrollment credits completed a bachelor’s degree within four years, compared to only 18 percent of those without dual enrollment credits. That’s more than a 50 percent increase in college attainment. “The difference is massive,” said Velasco.

Among Hispanic students who went straight to college, 25 percent of those with dual enrollment credits earned a bachelor’s degree within four years. Only 19 percent of Hispanic college students without dual enrollment credits did. Dual enrollment also seemed particularly helpful for college students from low-income neighborhoods; 28 percent of them earned a bachelor’s degree within four years compared with only 20 percent without dual enrollment.

Again, it’s still unclear if dual enrollment is driving these differences. It could be that Black students who opt to take dual enrollment classes were already more motivated and higher achieving and still would have graduated college in much higher numbers. (Notably, Black students with dual enrollment credits were more likely to attend selective four-year institutions.)

There is a wide variation across the nation in how dual enrollment operates in high schools. In most cases, high schoolers never step foot on a college campus. Often the class is taught in a high school classroom by a high school teacher. Sometimes community colleges supply the instructors. English composition and college algebra are popular offerings. The courses are generally designed and the credits awarded by a local community college, though 30 percent of dual enrollment credits are awarded by four-year institutions.

A few other takeaways from the CCRC and National Student Clearinghouse report:

• States with very high rates of college completion from their dual enrollment programs, such as Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi and New Jersey, tend to serve fewer Black, Hispanic and low-income students. Florida stood out as an exception. CCRC’s Velasco noted it had both strong college completion rates while serving a somewhat higher proportion of Hispanic students.
• In Iowa, Texas and Washington, half of all dual enrollment students ended up going to the college that awarded their dual enrollment credits.
• In Montana, New Hampshire, Ohio, and Wisconsin, dual enrollment students have become a huge source of future students for community colleges. (A separate cost study shows that some community colleges are providing dual enrollment courses to a nearby high school at a loss, but if these students subsequently matriculate, their future tuition dollars can offset those losses.)

And that perhaps is the most worrisome unintended consequence of the explosion of dual enrollment credits. Many bright high school students are racking up credits from three, four or even five college classes and they’re feeling pressure to take advantage of these credits by enrolling in the community college that partners with their high school. That might seem like a sensible decision. It’s iffy whether these dual enrollment credits can be transferred to another school, or, more importantly, count toward a student’s requirements in a major, which is what really matters and holds students back from graduating on time.

But a lot of these students could get into their state flagship or even a highly selective private college on scholarship. And they’d be better off. Dual enrollment students who started at a community college, the report found, were much less likely than those who enrolled at a four-year institution to complete a bachelor’s degree four years after high school.

Family engagement plays a vital role in helping first-generation college students overcome barriers to success. While these students may struggle to navigate the complexities of higher education, institutions are recognizing that families, even if unfamiliar with the college process themselves, are central to providing guidance, support, and encouragement. Ensuring that families are informed and involved has proven to boost retention rates and foster a sense of belonging, critical for student success.

First-generation students make up around 56% of the student population in the U.S., but they face higher dropout rates, especially within the first two years. These students frequently report feelings of isolation, and many struggle with financial, academic, and social challenges.

Help first-gen parents fulfill their role as an advisor

This is where family engagement can make a profound difference. First-gen students look to their families for support more than their continuing gen peers. In fact, 59% of first-gen families talk with their students daily, vs 41% of their peers.

One of the biggest gaps for first-gen students is the “information void” their families experience. Unlike parents who attended college themselves, many first-gen families are unfamiliar with processes like financial aid, academic expectations, and navigating campus life.

When families stay engaged and have valuable content accessible to them, they are more equipped to guide and support their first-gen students through the ups and downs of college life.

Renée Marquez, Assistant Director of Parent & Family Programs from the University of Arizona, stressed the impact of clear and simple communication on first-gen families. Understanding the need for repetition and clarity, she emphasized how platforms like CampusESP facilitate connections and empower students and their families.

“We want families to feel empowered to send their students to experts who know how to navigate the issues they don’t know how to,” she said

Fill the gap: provide first-gen families with the information they need

The key to supporting first-gen students is recognizing that families don’t need to have all the answers; they just need to be connected. A report from CampusESP found that 76% of first-generation families want more direct communication from the college, but many don’t know what questions to ask — in fact, first-generation families exhibit approximately a 21% contrast with continuing-generation families regarding their awareness of where to access information such as costs, tuition, and account services.

Javier Flores, VP of Enrollment Management at Texas Women’s University and a former first-generation student himself, recognizes the importance of building a community of support. 

“My father was illiterate, so he was not able to support me as a first-gen student in the traditional sense. These parents still want to be supportive and provide guidance, so how do we help them help their students?”

Flores shared that providing a variety of types of content allows their viewers to absorb it in their own way.

“You cannot afford not to use CampusESP. I have not been able to find a more effective way to disseminate information, build community, and create a culture of completion among first-generation college students than with this tool.”

Lean into first-gen preferences like text messaging

When reaching families of any demographic, email is the most often employed, and the most requested by parents. However, text messaging is the second most preferred method of communication for families, with first-gen families naming it a top preference 47% of the time.

However, despite its popularity, only 18% of institutions currently offer text messaging as a communication channel, indicating a gap in meeting the communication preferences of first-gen families.

The impact? Family engagement improves student retention

Building community and providing resources with any family member is always rooted in the goal of student success. With first-generation families that is even more important — both because of their greater needs as well as the potential for even greater outcomes.

In an annual case study reviewing the connection between increased family engagement and student retention outcomes, the results showed that when a parent received updates from CampusESP on student progress, the student was more likely to remain enrolled. On average, student retention was 8.3% higher for students of parents receiving alerts from CampusESP.

Data collected by Auburn University and Duquesne University showed that parent engagement had an even larger impact on retention for first-generation students.

Family engagement isn’t just beneficial — it’s essential for first-generation students’ success. By providing the right resources, fostering communication, and building partnerships with families, colleges can create environments where first-gen students thrive, ensuring they not only enroll in college but graduate as well.

Gamification is used in many fields and industries. It is meant to promote customer loyalty in business: ” Find a discount among our 5 latest emails to get 50% off dedicated server hosting.”

It’s a little different in education. Gamification in education aims to provide a more interactive learning experience for students while providing evidence of their progress through rewards.

Gamification plays a key role in modern education and offers many benefits besides just making the learning process fun.

About Gamification

Gamification is the process of making various activities more entertaining by making them into games.

See also The Difference Between Game-Based Learning and Gamification

In education, gamification involves incorporating game elements (usually game design) into educational settings and learning materials to boost students’ enthusiasm for learning and skills such as analytical thinking, problem-solving, communication, and collaboration. Educational gamification doesn’t mean turning every lesson into a game but rather using game features to enrich lessons.

Games can help educators determine the strategy they need to apply to promote a certain skill or activity. For example, they can propose activities involving competition to promote social interaction or customization to encourage creativity.

In short, gamification is there to increase motivation and interest in learning.

See also How To Remove The Gamification From Your Classroom

Benefits of Gamification

The gamification benefits are hard to deny and very visible; thus, we mention the most substantial ones below.

Better Cognitive Development

Gamification is proven to activate the brain areas associated with cognitive development. Moreover, gamified learning accelerates brain activity and speeds up the development of various skills.

The diversity of ways the task is presented through gamification helps expand the range of situational analysis and problem-solving too.

Higher Engagement Levels

Increased engagement in a classroom is one of the most profound effects of gamification. Conventional learning methods often struggle to maintain the student’s attention and focus frequently leading to worse learning results.

Gamification uses challenges, leaderboards, points, badges, etc., to encourage exploration and curiosity and keep students engaged.

Making Learning Visible

One of the reasons why students aren’t as invested in the learning process as they could be is because it’s hard to define the learning journey without specific milestones and something that represents them.

Gamification helps make the learning process visible. Rewards or points are often acquired after completing a certain task, or there’s a physical result of collaboration to remind students of a certain activity.

Promoting Growth Mindset

Feeling ashamed or embarrassed is very real for students of various ages. There’s also a fear of failure that could potentially be witnessed by other classmates, which is translated into pressure.

Introducing game elements into the learning process creates an atmosphere of effortless self-expression. Plus, it makes failing fun and even something to bond over.

Like in a video game, where you fail but get to try again, this time knowing what you can expect, gamification introduces a perspective where failing is just a part of the process. This way, gamification helps build persistence and confidence. 

How Effective is Gamification?

Gamification has many benefits, and thanks to them is very effective. Based on research and statistics, gamification leads to:

• Almost 90% increase in student performance.
• 68% increase in motivation towards learning.
• 300% homework completion rate.
• Faster task completion in more than 50% of cases.
• Continuous study improvement for 73% of students with ADHD.
• Students desire to be a part of improving the learning process.

How Gamification Can Help Different Students

Gamification can promote an equal environment for innately unique students.

The reality is that the classroom is diverse and students will find one task of different complexity. Gamified lessons can help students approach and complete tasks that seem too difficult or too easy in an enjoyable way, all the while helping learners stay on track with the curriculum.

Gamification can help:

-Break down difficult material. Gamification can put difficult material into an easy-to-digest form for all students to understand it. And even if they don’t understand it entirely, gamified lesson invites them to follow those parts that are easier for them to follow at their own pace.

-Make easy tasks interesting. On the other hand, if the material is too easy for other students, they can lose interest and focus. Gamification, using rewards and challenges they can take on at their own pace, can help those students be more present with their progress.

-Overwhelmed students relax. The reward system is a great tool gamification offers. It can help overwhelmed students feel better about their progress, keeping their focus on one step at a time instead of being overwhelmed by the big picture.

-Anxious and stressed students to focus. Gamified lessons take away the “seriousness” of formal education and bring more fun to learning.

Continuing Professional Education With LMS Support

In an era of exponential technological change, continuous learning has become essential for career success. Gone are the days when academic credentials were enough to ensure a lifetime of professional growth. Today, professionals must constantly upskill to stay relevant and competitive in their fields. Enter Learning Management Systems (LMSs), the digital solution that fuels continuous professional development (CPD) by enabling self-directed learning and offering flexibility. With the right LMS, professionals can access continuing professional education (CPE) which keeps them ahead of industry demands, fostering both career advancement and personal growth.

The Importance Of Continuing Professional Education And Development

• Dynamic skill demand
  The modern workforce is evolving rapidly, and the skills in demand today might be obsolete tomorrow. Continuous professional development ensures professionals remain competitive by learning the latest tools, techniques, and industry trends through Learning Management Systems.
• Career advancement
  In today’s competitive job market, professionals who prioritize continuous Learning and Development are more likely to advance in their careers. Many organizations value ongoing professional education and development, often linking it to promotions, salary increases, and new job opportunities.
• Personal growth
  Beyond professional implications, CPD encourages a mindset of lifelong learning. This is critical for personal development, which ultimately leads to well-rounded, adaptable individuals who are more capable of handling the uncertainties of the modern world.

Exploring LMSs Beyond eLearning Tools

An LMS serves as the backbone for CPD, offering a range of tools and resources for professional development today. However, it’s much more than just an online training platform. Learning Management Systems provide:

• Flexibility
  Professionals can access training materials at their own pace, allowing them to balance work, personal commitments, and continuing education. This flexibility is crucial in maintaining continuous professional development.
• Diverse content libraries
  LMS platforms host vast libraries of courses, ranging from technical skills to soft skills, ensuring that professionals can continuously learn and grow in various domains. Whether seeking continuing professional education credit or exploring new areas of interest, the right course is always within reach.
• Tracking and reporting
  LMS platforms allow both individuals and employers to track progress. For professionals, this means monitoring their own growth, while organizations can assess the Return On Investment from training initiatives.

LMSs As A Catalyst For Continuing Professional Education And Growth

1. Customized Learning Pathways

Not all professionals have the same goals or learning needs. LMS platforms enable personalized learning pathways, allowing individuals to tailor their learning experience to their unique career aspirations. This level of customization enhances engagement and retention, contributing to more effective professional education and development.

2. Collaborative Learning

Many of the best LMS platforms offer collaborative learning features such as discussion boards, peer reviews, and chat rooms. These tools foster a community of learners where professionals can share knowledge, discuss topics, and deepen their understanding through collective experiences.

3. Gamified Learning

One way LMS platforms improve engagement is through gamification. By incorporating badges, points, and leaderboards, professionals are motivated to complete courses and participate in discussions. This gamification approach adds an element of fun to the learning process, improving retention and practical application.

4. Seamless Integration

Modern LMS platforms integrate with current systems such as HR software, CRM tools, and other workplace applications, streamlining the learning process. This makes it easier for professionals to link their learning efforts to everyday tasks, enhancing the relevance of their education.

5. Mobile Learning

With mobile-optimized LMS platforms, professionals can learn on the go. Whether commuting or taking a break, access to professional development content is no longer confined to the desktop. Mobile learning ensures that continuing professional education is possible anytime, anywhere.

Key Advantages Of Using LMSs For Professional Development

• Cost-effectiveness
  One of the major advantages of using LMS platforms for CPD is cost-effectiveness. Once digital courses are created, they can be reused, updated, and scaled without significant additional costs. This makes LMS platforms a valuable investment for both individuals and organizations.
• Consistent training
  By delivering standardized content, LMS platforms ensure that all professionals receive consistent training. Whether you’re in a global company or a smaller organization, an LMS facilitates uniformity in Learning and Development.
• Instant feedback and continuous feedback loop
  LMS platforms offer real-time assessments, quizzes, and instant feedback, enabling professionals to immediately gauge their understanding and identify areas for improvement. This continuous feedback loop is vital for optimizing learning outcomes and ensuring skills are continuously developed.

Adapting To A Diverse Workforce With An LMS

In today’s multigenerational workforce, professionals have different learning preferences. LMS platforms accommodate this diversity by offering various types of content:

• Video modules
  Ideal for younger professionals who prefer interactive, visual content.
• Readable content
  For those who learn best through traditional reading methods.
• Interactive simulations
  For hands-on learners who benefit from practice-based learning.

This diversity ensures that CPD remains accessible and effective for all types of learners.

Advanced LMS Features Driving Modern Professional Learning

1. Social Learning And Networking Opportunities

A key benefit of modern LMS platforms is the integration of social learning features. Through professional networking sites embedded in the platform, professionals can connect, share resources, and collaborate on projects, fostering a sense of community.

2. AI-Powered Adaptive Learning

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in LMS platforms personalizes the learning experience by offering adaptive learning paths. AI analyzes a professional’s performance and adapts the content in real time, focusing on areas that need improvement while enhancing strengths.

3. Data-Driven Insights

Advanced LMS platforms provide detailed analytics on engagement metrics and skill gaps. These insights help professionals understand where they excel and where they need further development, creating a data-driven approach to CPD.

Conclusion

By embracing the power of Learning Management Systems, professionals can access continuing professional education credit, engage in lifelong learning, and stay competitive in their industries. In a world that’s constantly evolving, those who invest in their own professional education and development through LMSs will lead the way into the future.

Why Do You Need To Measure COI Alongside ROI?

When making a decision about whether to invest in a new training solution, most organizations follow a similar set of steps. Regardless of their starting point or end goal, they need to assess their needs, set goals for the future, develop and implement a strategy, and calculate the Return On Investment (ROI). This metric, in particular, is crucial for decision making, as it helps leadership estimate the profitability of a venture and effectively allocate their restricted resources. But what happens when the promise of a successful investment is not enough to motivate a business to change its set ways? If that’s the case, they need to look into the negative impact of doing nothing or, in other words, the Cost Of Inaction (COI). This article will explore the differences between eLearning ROI and COI and discuss the importance of integrating COI into your decision-making process.

ROI Vs. COI

To better understand the differences between ROI and COI, let’s first examine their definitions and a few factors that set them apart.

What Is ROI?

ROI, or Return On Investment, is a very widespread and useful term in the business world. It refers to a financial metric that measures the profitability of an investment, venture, or action in relation to its overall cost. Businesses always opt to calculate ROI to guide their decision-making process by establishing whether an investment is worth pursuing.

What Is COI?

The Cost Of Inaction is less specific than ROI, but it is equally important. It refers to missed opportunities and negative consequences, such as lost revenue, reduced competitiveness, and shrinking market presence. These can occur when businesses choose to take no action and maintain the status quo. Although these aren’t easy to measure, they are extremely important for businesses to understand and consider.

More ROI And COI Differences To Consider

A key difference between ROI and COI is how they are used in decision making and the perspective they can unlock. Specifically, ROI is used to quantify the value of a certain action. It identifies the benefits and returns you can expect from an investment. COI looks at the other side of the coin, which is the risk, negative impact, or even cost of not taking action.

Due to that, these two metrics often have different uses. ROI is typically used to identify the most profitable investment among many, while COI is better suited as a precautionary measure, warning businesses about the long-term effects of inaction. As for when you need them, you should remember that ROI must be calculated regularly every time a new investment opportunity arises. In contrast, COI is required whenever an organization is struggling to keep up with competitors or the industry as a whole.

3 Reasons It Is Important To Measure COI

1. More Balanced Decision Making

As mentioned in the previous section, ROI and COI help businesses make beneficial decisions by approaching problems from different angles. Naturally, putting more factors on the table can result in more effective decision making. For example, a business might want to invest in a new training solution but hesitate to do so due to uncertainty about the benefits. However, looking into the Cost Of Inaction might provide them with additional insights regarding the best course of action, as it might reveal an even bigger risk in not upgrading.

2. Maintaining A Competitive Edge

Nowadays, most industries are experiencing rapid change due to technological advancements. Despite seeing this shift, many businesses fail to keep up either because they don’t know how or because they choose to rely on their existing clientele and reputation. But if your competitors are taking steps to improve their services and adapt to market needs, your company’s past successes won’t be able to keep you afloat for long. COI can highlight that you are losing market relevance and the reasons behind it, motivating you to make the necessary changes to maintain or regain your competitive edge.

3. Achieving Long-Term Success And Sustainability

Many leaders don’t realize that while ROI is great for assessing the short-term benefits of an investment, COI pushes you to consider what your organization will look like in years to come. Although a failed investment with low ROI may impact your annual budget, continued inaction can put your company in a cycle of stagnation, declining quality of services, and decreasing revenue that might take longer to show and even longer to tackle. Incorporating the Cost Of Inaction into the metrics that your organization regularly monitors and analyzes will promote the longevity and continued improvement of your business.

Conclusion

It is evident that there are differences between ROI and COI that businesses need to be aware of. The most important one is that ROI focuses on the benefits of a certain venture or action, while COI highlights the negative impact of doing nothing. As they approach issues from two opposite sides, ROI and COI can provide leaders with valuable insights that will help them take the best course of action. By combining these two metrics, they can improve decision making and ensure long-term success.

Tested Elementary AI Recommendations

Teacher Tools