Now I've long been particularly interested in how technology can be applied to the transfer of learning back into the workplace. For although the e-learning industry has grown up around the concept of delivering learning, all forms of training have suffered from poor rates of learning transfer. So regardless of whether your organisation is behind the delivery of content via e-learning or not, there should be room to use systems that reinforce the full learning cycle.
One particular application of technology is to support coaching programmes. So a new reference to a US-based tool reminded me of a long established UK-based service, so I thought I'd use this posting to highlight both.
Starting closer to home, mye-coach offers a range of featuresto support the organisational coach in keeping on top of their coaching programme and providing the follow-through for each coachee. As well as offering a written record of coaching conversations, the service offers 165 tools to support all aspects of the coaching process and for coaching in many different areas. Each tool will either provide a summary of a given topic, a diagnostic instrument, a post-coaching session activity, a knowledge handout or a coach's session guide.
As an added bonus for visiting their website, the team at mye-coach also offer a range of free coaching resources.
Over in the States, Coach Assistantoffers an online resource that similarly captures a record of the relationship between the coach and their coachee. But whereas mye-coach looks at the one-to-one aspects of coaching, Coach Assistant also picks up on the sometimes collaborate nature of coaching with a range of features targeting groups of learners working with a facilitator/coach. You can also upload your own attachments that could provide both educational and follow-up resources for your coachees.
In some ways both tools are similar in that they are hubs for a wealth of supporting resources. From my own personal knowledge of mye-coach, this tool very much leans to the true field of coaching, whereas Coach Assistant would look particularly strong in the field of coaching as part of an integrated distance learning approach.
With internal coaching in particular showing itself to be good development option when training expenditure is under pressure, tools such as these will help to leverage this process.

