Growing up in a single parent home in Arkansas, Monthodsha Burl found grade school to be an outlet for her. But, when she started high school, she also started to struggle with her coursework—and she didn’t have anyone at home to turn to for support. In her senior year of high school, Monthodsha dropped out.
Now, 23-year-old Monthodsha wants a better future for her 3-year-old son.
“When my son’s father passed away a year ago, I knew I would need to complete my high school education in order to get a higher paying job—and create a better life for my son,” she said.
Getting back on track with help from her employer
At work, she spotted a flyer promoting the opportunity to earn her diploma for free through Career Online High School (COHS). McDonald’s offers COHS to restaurant employees as part of the Archways to Opportunity educational benefits program. After Monthodsha considered the GED and other online high school options, she knew COHS would be the right fit for her.
“COHS immediately felt like a better fit to earn my high school diploma. It’s more like real life—and it meets students where they already are,” she said. “They accepted transfer credits from my other school, so I was able to start my program with credits already under my belt.”
And with those credits, Monthodsha earned her diploma—the stepping stone she needed to be accepted at the University of Arkansas Community College at Morrilton. She’ll pursue an associate’s degree starting in the fall.
Finding support when and where she needed it
Monthodsha credits her success to working with an Academic Coach and having access to tools that helped her progress in her coursework. Whether it was texts and emails from her Coach or online tutorials, she was never without support.
“Having an Academic Coach is better than having a counselor,” she said. “My Coach was very hands-on and always available to answer my questions—whether they were about coursework, going to college, or just advice about life.”
She also appreciated the ability to work at her own pace. “At first I was overwhelmed, but as long as you take notes, you’ll be fine. And if you fail a test, you’ll learn why—so you can understand better for the next time.”
Reaching for her goals—and inspiring others along the way
“If I can do it, you can do it” is more than just Monthodsha’s parting advice. She shared that a friend of hers who works at another McDonald’s restaurant is now planning to apply to the COHS program after seeing Monthodsha’s success.
“I told her, in addition to a diploma, you also earn a career certificate. I am so proud of that accomplishment. It makes me official,” she beamed.

Smart Horizons Career Online High School (SHCOHS) is part of the world’s first accredited private, national online school district. SHCOHS offers affordable, career-based online high schools that serve adults and young adults who need high school diplomas in order to access better career and educational opportunities. The SHCOHS is a NexPort Solutions Partner and their program is managed and delivered using the NexPort Learning Management Platform.

Our team has decades of experience assisting organizations in delivering their training online. Our Learning Management Platform, NexPort, is trusted by Fortune 500 Companies and educational institutions, managing millions of enrollments. NexPort is a high availability, cloud based service that allows our partners to host one or many campuses. NexPort Analytics allows in-depth analysis of student behavior and progress while NexPort Campus allows partners to manage students, instructors, and curriculum for online delivery. To learn more about what we can do for your organization contact us today.

For 43-year-old Marvin Sandoval, the journey to earning his high school diploma started in his home country of Guatemala. When he left home to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers and immigrate to the United States, Marvin was just 17—and had not been to school in a number of years.

“In Guatemala, education is only free through middle school,” Marvin says. “I am the youngest of nine sons; my family did not have money to pay for my studies.”

Soon after arriving in the U.S., Marvin found employment with McDonald’s—a company he’s proud to still work for more than 25 years later.

Education that works for the full-time employee
During that time, completing his high school education was never far from Marvin’s mind. Yet, many of the avenues he explored felt more like dead ends. “I pursued various adult education opportunities, including the GED, but I struggled to complete them while working.”

Through a McDonald’s restaurant employee benefit, Marvin enrolled in Career Online High School (COHS). “COHS was the perfect solution,” he says. “The program allowed me to juggle work and family—and complete assignments at my own pace.”

Finding success through academic support
Flexibility is just one of the aspects of COHS that helped Marvin achieve his academic goals. He also credits both his manager at McDonald’s and his COHS Academic Coach with helping him stay motivated throughout his program.

“My COHS coach was so supportive, always sending me messages of encouragement,” he says. “She would tell me: ‘Even though it feels like no one is watching, I am here.’ Those messages kept the fire in me.”

Completing his degree wasn’t without its challenges. Marvin often felt like he was starting his education from scratch, having no school records or transfer credits to build upon. He recalls the many nights he’d fall asleep with his computer on his chest, exhausted from working but eager to stay on the path to graduation.

He persevered—and his hard work paid off. He completed all 18 credits, four months ahead of schedule. “Looking back, I know my coach’s support made all the difference.”

A stepping stone to what comes next
Today, not only is Marvin a valued area supervisor for five McDonald’s restaurants, he’s a proud graduate of the COHS program.

“Earning my high school diploma has given me a sense of purpose and accomplishment. Next, I plan to continue my education with a focus on criminal justice.”

And as for Marvin’s family? “My 83-year-old mother is my inspiration—she learned to read at the age of 63,” he shares. “She’s so proud to hang my graduation photo on her wall for everyone to see.”

​Smart Horizons Career Online High School (SHCOHS) is part of the world’s first accredited private, national online school district. SHCOHS offers affordable, career-based online high schools that serve adults and young adults who need high school diplomas in order to access better career and educational opportunities. The SHCOHS is a NexPort Solutions Partner and their program is managed and delivered using the NexPort Learning Management Platform.

​Our team has decades of experience assisting organization in delivering their training online. Our Learning Management Platform, NexPort, is trusted by Fortune 500 Companies and educational institutions, managing millions of enrollments. NexPort is a high availability, cloud based service that allows our partners to host one or many campuses. NexPort Analytics allows in-depth analysis of student behavior and progress while NexPort Campus allows partners to manage students, instructors, and curriculum for online delivery. To learn more about what we can do for your organization contact us today.

Many online learning courses cover complex and technical topics. Learners are often compelled to undergo training for their jobs. They may, for example, be required to attend compliance training or learn to operate certain programs. In order to be effective, training needs to hold people's attention. It isn't enough to bombard learners with data. Bored users are seldom successful. Here are some ways to make even the driest topics more interesting.

• Social learning. Working together helps learners stay focused. When two or more people combine their efforts, they can discuss questions and clarify points for each other. Provide tools for learners to collaborate on your platform and encourage them to connect on social media. 
• Gamification. Transforming a learning exercise into a game makes it more fun for everyone. Just about any subject can be gamified with compelling visuals and creating an interesting challenge such as a race, treasure hunt, or fighting zombies. Users are then motivated to get through the material to improve their scores. 
• Microlearning. Breaking up complex information into smaller chunks makes it more accessible.  
• Complement online training with live training and informal learning activities such as company outings, mentoring and encouraging social media engagement.

​Not everyone learns the same way. There are visual, aural, and kinesthetic learners. Of course, many people are a mixture but most have a dominant learning style. Accommodating different learning styles is a challenge for classroom instructors as well as creators of e-learning programs. With online learning, however, there's the danger of creating an oversimplified course that only addresses one learning style. For example, if your course is mainly composed of graphs, charts, and other images you're focusing on visual learning.

It's important to create a diversity of tools for all types of learners. One of the benefits of e-learning is that learners can access material at their own pace. Thus, a visual learner might re-watch videos while an aural learner can re-play audio files. Kinesthetic learners might prefer hands-on material such as games.

In many industries, employees come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences. Not everyone is tech-savvy. If learning applications are too difficult to use, it defeats the purpose. You want learners focusing on absorbing the material, not having to spend hours learning how to use the platform. Another issue is that people use a variety of devices and operating systems. 

• The platform should be intuitive and easy to navigate. Learners should be able to easily adjust controls such as volume and go back or forward on videos and other presentations. 
• Choose a platform that's accessible from all widely-used devices and platforms. It should be mobile-friendly, for example. 
• Support should be available if learners have questions or run into problems. A FAQ is good for answering common questions. There should also be reliable support by phone, email, and/or chat.

​If the course material is too theoretical and abstract, learners may not come away with the real-world skills they require to apply what they've learned. Some e-learning content is heavy with data and theory but doesn't really illustrate how the information can be utilized. You can bridge the gap between theory and practice by introducing role-play and interactive videos. Dramatizations can work for certain topics such as compliance training for harassment. With interactive videos, learners can provide feedback and test their knowledge. Simulations and gamification can also bring issues to life in a realistic way.

With any type of training, it's important to evaluate the results. You want to know what is and isn't working so you can make improvements. On the one hand, e-learning is the perfect environment for tracking certain types of data. If users are taking tests or assessments, for example, it's simple to score the results. In other ways, however, it may be more difficult to evaluate the training's effectiveness. For example, if a course is covering many topics, you may not be clear about what people are absorbing. Additionally, assessments taken right after training don't reveal how long users retain the information. 

• Use a learning management system (LMS) that provides ample resources for evaluating the effectiveness of the training.  
• Incorporate quizzes and tests into training as much as possible. Aside from helping you track results, these are useful for the learners to let them track their progress.  
• For training that's not mandatory, track the drop-off rate of courses.  
• Ask for feedback after each course. Learners can often provide insights into issues with training that might not be obvious to developers.  
• Offer refresher courses regularly to keep the material fresh in learners' minds.

Industries are transforming faster than ever. Training material, to be effective, must contain the very latest information. In some cases, such as compliance training, it's essential to include the most recent compliance rules. In all cases, you want to make sure learners are getting the most relevant and timely training. You may also want to make changes to improve the overall effectiveness of the course. You might want to include new features and remove ones that proved ineffective. 

• Make changes based on evaluations. We already noted the need to track results. It's equally important to make improvements when appropriate.  
• Stay current with the latest changes in your industry. Make note of any crucial changes that should be included in the coursework. There should be consistent feedback between team members who track recent changes and e-learning course developers.   
• Create master courses that contain the fundamentals and evergreen content. You can then supplement and re-purpose the master course as necessary.

​All types of learning and training come with certain challenges. In many ways, e-learning is more efficient than traditional learning.  For example, it's generally faster to update material with online platforms than to publish hard copies of books and other printed materials. However, if you want to get the most out of your e-learning courses, it's necessary to carefully assess learners' needs and strive to consistently improve the platform.

Our team has decades of experience assisting organization in delivering their training online. Our Learning Management Platform, NexPort, is trusted by Fortune 500 Companies and educational institutions, managing millions of enrollments. NexPort is a high availability, cloud based service that allows our partners to host one or many campuses. NexPort Analytics allows in-depth analysis of student behavior and progress while NexPort Campus allows partners to manage students, instructors, and curriculum for online delivery. To learn more about what we can do for your organization contact us today. 

Once again the team at NexPort Solutions has celebrated the holiday season by gathering together to enjoy each others company and play a few competitive games. This year, in light of the pandemic, we gathered virtually on Zoom. We started in the morning with a quarterly retrospective and gathered for the holiday party in the afternoon.

At the party, we played a combination Christmas Trivia/Scavenger Hunt and held an Ugly Christmas Sweater Contest. The winner of the sweater contest was selected by a vote and received 10 points. Each trivia question was worth 1 point and each scavenger hunt puzzle was worth 2 points. The person with the most points won a $50 Amazon gift card. This year's winner was our intern Will Hughes!

You can check out the trivia/scavenger hunt here. Look below for pictures of our Ugly Sweater entrants.

​From the entire NexPort Team we hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday season!

We are pleased to announce the release of Nexport Marketplace v0.2. This release is a part of our normal point release schedule.

The release consists of handling previously purchased products as well as extension products, enhanced administration product mapping workflow, and request pending order cancellation.

Below is a list of cases resolved in this release.

EMPLOYEES GAIN ACCESS TO ACCREDITED HIGH SCHOOL DIPLOMA PROGRAM
Kroger, America’s largest grocery retailer, has partnered with Career Online High School, a NexPort Solutions Partner, to provide online education for Kroger’s nearly half a million employees. The program is offered through Kroger’s education assistance program, Feed Your Future, and will be rolled out initially to their Fred Meyer and KingSoopers brands, as well as eight Kroger divisions across the U.S.

The Kroger program is hosted and delivered using the NexPort Learning Platform and  joins other leading organizations, including McDonald’s, Hilton, Goodwill Industries, Checker’s & Rally’s, Hopdoddy Burger Bar, and First Watch, in delivering education and upskilling opportunities to employees through the NexPort Learning Platform.

You can read the full announcement here.

About Kroger

At The Kroger Co. (NYSE: KR), we are Fresh for Everyone™ and dedicated to our Purpose: To Feed the Human Spirit®. We are, across our family of companies, nearly half a million associates who serve over 11 million customers daily through a seamless shopping experience under a variety of banner names. We are committed to creating #ZeroHungerZeroWaste communities by 2025. To learn more about us, visit our newsroom and investor relations site.

About Career Online High School
Founded in 2009, Smart Horizons Career Online High School (COHS) is the world’s first private accredited online school district. SHCOE offers online high school diploma programs designed to re-engage adults and older youth in the educational system and prepare them for the workplace or postsecondary education. The high school program includes a vocational certificate in career pathways such as home care professional, child care, office management, certified protection officer, homeland security, commercial driving, retail customer service, food services, hospitality, and general career preparation. For more information, visit https://smarthorizonsonline.org/​.

Employees at corporate-owned locations of the national drive-thru restaurant franchise can now earn a diploma and entry-level workforce certificate through Career Online High School and access English language learning

Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants, an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its exceptional value, people-first attitude and “Crazy Good Food,” has announced an expansion of the ed2go Career Online High School (COHS) program and myTimeENGLISH (MTE) online ESL program to employees nationwide.

The Career Online High School (COHS) program is hosted and delivered through the NexPort Learning Platform. Thanks to Checkers & Rally's partnership with the COHS, eligible employees at all corporate-owned U.S. locations can now earn an accredited high school diploma, along with a workforce training certificate in fields such as food services, customer service, hospitality and general career preparation.

Checkers & Rally’s is one of a growing number of companies, including Hilton, Goodwill and First Watch, partnering with ed2go, part of Cengage, to offer education and upskilling opportunities to employees utilizing the NexPort Learning Platform and the COHS curriculum. Benefits like COHS and MTE can help improve employee retention, reduce turnover, enhance the ability to promote from within and increase return on educational investment.

You can read the full announcement here.

About Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants, Inc.
Based in Tampa, Fla., Checkers & Rally’s Restaurants, Inc., an iconic and innovative drive-thru restaurant chain known for its “Crazy Good Food,” exceptional value, and people-first attitude, operates and franchises both Checkers® and Rally’s® restaurants. With nearly 900 restaurants and room to grow, Checkers & Rally’s is a proven brand with flexible building formats that is aggressively expanding across the country. Checkers & Rally’s is dedicated to being a place where franchisees and employees who work hard can create opportunities for themselves, their families, and their communities. In recent years, the brand has earned several of the industry’s most prestigious awards including: “#1 Most Craveable Fries” by Restaurant Business; Best Franchise Deal and “Best Drive-Thru in America” by QSR Magazine; Top Food and Beverage Franchise by Franchise Business Review; the “Hot! Again” award from Nation’s Restaurant News and has consistently been ranked on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500.

About Career Online High School
Founded in 2009, Smart Horizons Career Online High School (COHS) is the world’s first private accredited online school district. SHCOE offers online high school diploma programs designed to re-engage adults and older youth in the educational system and prepare them for the workplace or postsecondary education. The high school program includes a vocational certificate in career pathways such as home care professional, child care, office management, certified protection officer, homeland security, commercial driving, retail customer service, food services, hospitality, and general career preparation. For more information, visit https://smarthorizonsonline.org/​
​
About myTimeENGLISH
myTimeENGLISH is an easy-to-use, online General English program that empowers learners to achieve their personal language goals on their own, at their own pace. For more information visit NGL.Cengage.com/myTimeENGLISH.

​NexPort Solutions is excited to announce the release of NexPort Campus 6.5.0. This release introduces Proctoring capabilities for all assignments including test assignments.

Working with our Partners, NexPort Solutions has developed a complete suite  of Proctoring capabilities. Partners can easily assign Proctors at the Organization or Section level. Proctors are able to administer tests and assignments as required. Proctor activities are tracked for Admins to review. Permissions are delineated at a very granular level.

Below is a list of all cases resolved in this release.