Connectivism at J.Lodge: A Reflection

Based out of Fort Myers, FL, J. Lodge is a Quality Assurance company dedicated to providing call monitoring to its clients.  Their mission is to provide world class contact center services by employing Americans with disabilities in the virtual environment. (Schrider, 2011).  The structure of the organization begins with the President and CEO.  Underneath the President are two executives; the Vice President and Director of Operations.  Next, there are several senior managers of various departments.   This includes the training, account management and finance.  All of these departments report to the Vice President.  Underneath the Director of Operations are the Team Leads. 

The role of a Team Lead is to track and monitor the performance (audits), of the call analysts.  In addition, they ensure that the quota is attained and provide additional support whenever applicable. The call analysts work remotely throughout the United States and conduct audits on a monthly basis. They listen to a recording of a customer service interaction and evaluate the performance of the agent via a scorecard. Since the call analysts work remotely, all of the meetings, conference calls, and training classes are administered via web conferencing. 

As illustrated in the mind map, connectivism occurs within J. Lodge when I gather information from my personal learning network.  My personal learning network is comprised of Senior Executives, Team Leads, and Managers.  The digital tools that help me to learn are Quickbase, the Online Training Department, AIM Pro, and Adobe Connect Pro.  Quickbase is a web application where call analysts score calls, manage audits, and download score cards.  In addition, Quickbase has discussion boards for employees to share ideas and best practices.  This process helps all employees to learn from each other thereby building a strong online community. 

The Training Department provides access to eLearning modules, assessments, training evaluations, and information on how to audit calls.  I use this resource to obtain updated knowledge on call monitoring.   Adobe Connect Pro is a web enabled application in which participants can attend an online meeting or training session.  Some of the features are Web Conferencing, VOIP capability, and Headset and Microphone functions. The subject or topics of discussion vary per class and the type of audience.  Finally, AIM Pro is a web enabled tool used to communicate with employees throughout the company.  The main features include instant messaging, group chat, desktop sharing and file sharing.  The tool is the main communication between virtual members within the organization.  J. Lodge promotes a strong online community among its members.  All of these tools exist to foster training support and overall access to a knowledge base.  When I have questions, I am able to get answers from other members or digital tools online.

In conclusion, my personal learning network supports the connectivism theory.  “Connectivism is driven by the understanding that decisions are based on rapidly altering foundations.  New information is continually being acquired and the ability to draw distinctions between important and unimportant information is vital.  Also critical is the ability to recognize when new information alters the landscape based on decisions made yesterday” (Siemens, 2008). 

The culture of the J. Lodge is to adapt to new scoring guidelines frequently.  Information is constantly updated from the client and requires the call analysts to quickly adjust to the changes.  From these changes, knowledge is constantly evolving and the Team Leads ensure the accuracy of the changes. “Decision-making itself is a learning process.  Choosing what to learn and the meaning of incoming information is seen through the lens of a shifting reality” (Siemens, 2008).