Conventional wisdom says that late July / August is "slow news season" (that would be "silly season" for people in the UK, and "sommerloch" for our German speaking friends). A period with few newsworthy stories in the media. Well, I for one, do have some great news for the thousands of TalentLMS users worldwide: our brand new July 2015 release just landed, and it includes a number of important new features. So, let’s open the (virtual) package and have a peek inside! Events engine Our headline feature for this release is the brand new Events Engine. If you’re familiar with our existing event-based Notifications system, the new Events Engine supersedes that, giving you the ability to go beyond email notifications and have custom Actions be performed on specific events. The process of adding a new action will be familiar to anyone who worked with the Notifications system before, as both notifications and actions are based on a simple "if this, then that" logic. Actions take responding to events beyond the simple sending of emails, to handle all kinds of automation of TalentLMS operations. Actions can also accept additional parameters to further customize their behaviour. Setting up an action to assign students to specific courses a few hours after they sign-up. The number of hours before the automatic assignment happens and the specific courses to be assigned are user configurable. Note that, while all TalentLMS users get to benefit from the revamped Events Engine-based Notications, Actions are only available for users on our Plus plan and above. Customized Badges TalentLMS now allows you to replace our existing badges (icons & description) with your own. This opens up new opportunities to customize the gamification experience for your particular organisation and its learners. Badges can be edited from the "Gamification" tab of the "Account & Setting" page. Click on any badge to edit it’s name (1) or replace it with a custom image (2). User files Administrators can now attach files to any user’s profile, for easy sharing of files inside the app. The files can also be set as invisible for the end-user (when used in this way the feature becomes a handy way of storing documents related to a user but not meant for him (e.g. his internal file as student, proof of address scans he has sent, etc). The new feature is accessible from the new "Files" tab when viewing a user’s profile page. Multi-day sessions This new release also brings new functionality related to instruction led training (or "hybrid-learning"), namely "Multi-day sessions". As you’ve probably already guessed from the name, multi-day sessions enable you to have sessions spanning multiple days, by linking individual sessions together to act as a single session. Confused? No need to, as using the feature is easier than it sounds. You just create individual sessions like you always do (e.g. "Day 1", "Day 2" and "Test" for a 3-day session), and then link them to each other in the session edit page. Multi-day sessions are grouped together in the list view under a common multi-session name, with sessions forming a multi-day session sharing the same group of registered users, capacity, and colour. Multi-day sessions are presented to the students grouped together under a common name (here, unimaginatively set to"Multi-day session" for illustration purposes). Create units by drag-and-drop Starting from this update, you can create new TalentLMS units just by dragging and dropping a file from your computer into the content area of a course. TalentLMS will handle the rest. How’s that for convenience? When viewing a course’s content page as an instructor (1), just drag and drop (2) a file directly from your computer into the course’s content area (3) and the system will convert it to a unit. Prevent multiple logins from the same user There’s a new security option to prevent users to login with the same account from different browsers. You can enable it from Security section in the "Account & settings" page. Besides the increased security this option offers (e.g. for users logging in from a public computer and forgetting to logout), it also puts up a barrier to paying users from sharing their courses with others. Print test option If you’re not particularly fond of trees, you’ll love this new feature: instructors now get to print a test with all of its questions using the "Print" button in the bottom of a test’s page. This is handy for having a print copy of tests to be given online, but especially for xeroxing and handing out physical copies of the test for instructor-led training sessions. New induction process Whether you’re new to TalentLMS or just want to learn more about its user interface, our new induction process will help you get acquainted with the available options in no time. Just click on the flashing circles around the interface to get a quick tour of the various features and usage tips. You can disable or re-enable the feature at any time. The new induction process in action: click on the flashing circles (1) around the interface, to get a popup explaining their corresponding features (2). You can hide (3) or re-enable the tour at any time from the "Help" dropdown in the top menu (4). Executive Summary (or "TL;DR;" as the youngters call it) A new TalentLMS update is out, and with it the usual assortment of new features, enhancements and fixes. Aside from the brand new Events Engine that takes TalentLMS capabilities up to eleven and sets the stage for future automation goodness, this release offers handy new features and workflow improvements across the board designed to make your job easier and your eLearning business more productive. So what are you waiting for? Log in to your favourite Cloud LMS and enjoy the smell of new. The post Stop the presses: TalentLMS Summer 2015 release is out appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Big organizations consider Training & Development a major part of their motivation and retention strategy. On the contrary, small businesses don’t seem to invest a lot of time and money -if at all- in training their staff. Startups rely on two things: an innovative product or service and the people behind it. eLearning cannot do much about the former, but it can definitely help with the latter. In this post we will look at 5 ways startups can benefit from adopting eLearning. New skills Startups grow not only when their revenues increase, but also when their employees broaden their skills. It is expected and fairly reasonable that a company of 5-20 people will have various skill gaps to cover at their earliest stages. eLearning is the easiest way to cover these gaps. There are many affordable LMS systems, like our TalentLMS, that small startups can make use of, allowing their employees to widen their expertise and develop new skillsets. Compliance I am not aware of any enterprise that does not have to abide by a framework of rules and regulations. Sooner or later, a startup will need to be audited and have their processes scrutinised by some uptight state committee or, more often, by potential investors. As an unvoiced rule goes "if it’s not documented, it never happened"; when it comes down to compliance and auditing, this is the ultimate rule. An affordable LMS can help a startup to keep accurate records of all their employees’ eLearning. Broaden your mind "eLearning is just something employees have to do to keep their managers happy". A statement like this has many -far too many- flaws, but let’s jump to the one that implies that eLearning is just a business oriented activity. This is totally and utterly wrong. eLearning comes in many forms and one of these includes MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). At no, or at a very low cost, anyone can have access to a subject they are personally interested in, from History of Art to Big Data or Game Theory - courses offered by universities such as Harvard, MIT and Stanford on platforms like Coursera, EdX, FutureLearn, Iversity and Udacity. An employer may now think: what does this have to do with my startup? Well… having well-educated employees who can demonstrate learning agility is a great benefit; a MOOC enthusiast is someone who takes initiatives and sets personal targets, a resourceful professional who never stops evolving. Who wouldn’t want to hire a person like this? Keep clients happy The core function of eLearning is that it educates a selected audience on a particular subject. By acquiring the best courses for your own business, you can offer your workforce an eLearning catalogue that can help them enhance their knowledge, improve their practices and consequently upgrade the customer service experience. Motivate the team There are primarily two ways to show your employees that you care about them: pay them well and give them room to breathe and develop. Always remember that startup employees tend to work long hours, being asked to remain innovative and creative at all times. Unless a good manager effectively monitors the energy levels within a team, it is likely that some staff will become emotionally and physically drained before the end of a project. Keeping the team motivated is the only way forward. In addition to team bonding activities and events, they need to be offered the opportunity to challenge themselves by acquiring some new knowledge or by exploring a new mental path they have not been down before. Conclusion eLearning in startups is a tool and, in these case, a very powerful one. It can help your employees stay up to date with legislation, broaden their minds, improve their skills and stay motivated; and all the above at a very low cost with great ROI. As I always say, though, don’t force eLearning onto your team. Startup employees are people who do seek out challenges and new stimuli. Make eLearning available to them and they will make use of it at their own pace and convenience.     The post 5 reasons startups should embrace eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Mythology. We use to think of it as something ancient societies did. In fact the modern world never stopped producing its own myths, and the IT sector is no exception, as it has its own share of urban legends, conspiracy theories, fear-mongers and snake-oil salesmen. In the first part of this series of posts our myth-busting team took down 5 common Cloud computing myths. Now we’re back to dispel some more Cloud-related misconceptions and FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt). Myth #6 : The cloud is for small businesses This myth, like most myths, has some basis in the truth: indeed, the Cloud is a godsent for small businesses that cannot afford dedicated IT personnel. Installation, updates, security and backups are all taken care for them by the SaaS / Cloud vendor, enabling them to be more productive, competitive and cost efficient. But this does not mean that the Cloud is not for big organizations. While the adoption of the public Cloud by larger organizations is slow (for cultural, financial and other reasons), adoption of private and hybrid clouds is already high and ever increasing. Let’s not forget that four of the biggest IT-based companies on the planet, Google, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon are all heavy users of private Cloud infrastructure (and all but one of them also sell Cloud solutions ―Azure, AWS, GAE― to third party organizations). Myth #7 : Clouds are one-size-fits all This is so removed from the truth one has to wonder how people came up with this myth (although its origin is probably the feature-restricted initial public Cloud offerings back in the day). If anything, the inverse is true: today, organizations looking to adopt the Cloud are spoilt for choice. First, there are the different deployment models: public, private and hybrid, depending on whether you connect to some third party Cloud service, deploy your own internal Cloud infrastructure, or opt for a combination of the two. Then there are the different ways that Cloud services can be packaged and sold: Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). With the first option you get the equivalent of an application over the Cloud (e.g. where you had a desktop mail app now you have Gmail). With the second, you get a platform where you can run your own applications. You have to build those apps specifically to the platform’s specifications (using the allowed programming languages, libraries and frameworks), and in return the platform takes care of things like automatic scaling, massive storage capacity, fault-tolerance, backups, etc. for you. The third option, Infrastructure as a Service, is the more flexible and, at the same time, the more demanding. In this model, the Cloud provider just gives you virtual (cloud-based) servers, and you get to manage them and build whatever you want with them, in the same way you would with physical collocated boxes. You still get some Cloud benefits, of course, like automated provisioning of new machines, backups, on-demand creation of new images, etc. Finally, there are three operating models for an organization’s Cloud: a) the customer owns and operates it, b) the cloud provider owns and operates it, or, c) the customer owns the solution but the provider operates it. Between these deployments, service provision and operating options an organization has tons of flexibility with regards to how it uses the Cloud. And we haven’t even mentioned the choice of vendors, frameworks, tooling and support options. Myth #8 : Everything should be automated in the cloud The beauty of the Cloud is that everything from the infrastructure layer upwards can be automated. This, however, takes a significant level of expertise and understanding of the tools involved. Most importantly, the fact that everything can be automated does not mean that it should. In practice, the extra effort to build and maintain a fully automated cloud service may not be worth the time and effort. In fact part of the beauty of the Cloud (and especially hybrid Cloud solutions) is that it enables you to replace parts of your existing infrastructure one at a time, while at the same time making sure that everything still works as good as before. There should be no rush to fully replace your existing operating procedures with some fully automated scheme in one go — in fact it can even be risky. The best strategy is to identify parts of your Cloud that can be automated and proceed piecemeal to automate them. Myth #9 : The cloud is not reliable Major cloud provider outages always make the news: "Amazon AWS has been down for 3 hours", "GAE down for SE Asia users", etc. But do you know what doesn’t make the news? The myriad outages experienced in smaller corporate IT services and data-centers. This gives the wrong impression that the Cloud is more unreliable than your enterprise IT department. First of all, this only concerns the public Cloud: your private Cloud IS run by your enterprise IT department anyway, so it’s just as prone to outages as your other infrastructure. The thing is, whether you’re using the Cloud or some internal IT service, outages can only be minimized, they can never be completely eliminated. What’s important is how much damage those outages can incur. For the typical enterprise, internal IT outages are usually more devastating than Cloud ones, as there isn’t the same level of backup or redundancy involved as is with the Cloud. In practice, several studies have shown that the Cloud offers improved service availability compared to the majority of local IT solutions. And for small to medium businesses, with their often average or mediocre IT departments, there’s really no comparison. Myth #10: Cloud eliminates traditional Software Statistics for Cloud vs non-Cloud software revenues show that while the Cloud market grows, it doesn’t do so in expense of the traditional software market. While you’ll adopt the Cloud for your infrastructure needs, you’ll still need Windows or OS X to run your desktop applications (at the very least a web browser to access Cloud apps), and unless you’re one of the easy-to-please users who have adopted Google Docs, you’ll still need your Word, Excel and PowerPoint (plus, there’s no Cloud substitute for Solitaire and Minesweeper). Besides, all those Cloud servers, also have to run traditional server OSes and applications: from Linux and Solaris down to Oracle DB and SQL Server. Native apps won’t go away anytime soon. Conclusion As with any emerging technology, the Cloud brings with it its own share of myths and misconceptions. In this series of posts, we tried to clear out 10 of them — but there are many more. The Cloud is neither a "silver bullet" nor something to be wary of. It’s an important part of any modern IT infrastructure, and as everything, it has its pros and cons. So, keep calm and keep adopting the Cloud. The post Top 10 Cloud myths busted, pt. 2 appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Mobile learning is rapidly becoming the norm of eLearning! mLearning has invaded the eLearning scene, regardless of the age of the learner. A successful eLearning project caters to mLearning by default. In this article, we discover why mLearning is the preferred method of learning among eLearners. Performance support or collaborative eLearning environment, mLearning has all the cards. Throw in the favorite handheld device (the smartphone) and your eLearning course becomes a favorite pastime! What’s with the enormous success of mLearning anyway? Why are learners more motivated to browse through screens and screens of mobile courses, but not the same ones on the desktop? Here are a few takes on that question: Shift in Learner Profiles In a given organization, there are traditional learners, baby-boomers, Gen X and Gen Y. Most learners prefer using tablets and smartphones for learning. Shift in Learning Patterns More and more learners now prefer multimedia to stay engaged in a learning environment, for example videos, podcasts, audio as well as access to bite-sized learning, or micro-learning on the go. They also appreciate more control over their learning sessions, i.e. being able to select which modules to complete first and which ones later. Shift in device use pattern Initiatives like BYOD (bring your own device) have created a mobile device-based learning environment. Maturing educational technologies and tools have also added to the trend of using mobile devices in a learning capacity. Ease of development and ease of use of mobile learning platforms are also major contributors towards mLearning. Shift of legacy courses to the mobile platform Older courses can be migrated easily to the mobile platform with minimal effort. This can create a better learning experience and provide the flexibility for learners to access the courses on the device of their choice. What Are The Benefits Of mLearning? So now you have it all - the reasons why mLearning is gaining swift popularity. Let’s explore the benefits now. We guarantee, you will become an mLearning believer! 1. Flexibility to learners. Flexibility is not limited to any one place or time anymore! Flexibility in mLearning also involves learning using videos, podcasts and other popular multimedia assets on smartphones. 2. Better completion rates and higher retention The content presented in the mobile platform is chunk-sized and concise. This enables learners to complete courses and initiate the next course as well. 3. Collaborative learning. Engaging learners towards the establishment of online learning communities is more effective using mobile devices. 4. Higher engagement. Extant research and statistics reveal a higher engagement rate when courses are delivered using the mobile format. 5. Multi-device support. The same course is available on variable devices ranging from PCs, laptops, tablets and smartphones. 6. Performance Support. Learners prefer methods that are as unobtrusive to their daily routine as possible. This creates a learning habit that yields higher quality of performance. This facilitates easy access to information while at work. Learners also find and retrieve just-in-time information easily using their personal mobile devices. 7. Learning path. Phone based reminders and organizers are integrated with the mLearning platforms. Learners get ongoing notifications and updates on their courses, which they check anywhere and anytime. The can also resume their course easily, without unlearning previous content. The learning path established in a mobile platform is more personalized and continuous. With the popularity of mobile devices and the ever increasing use mobile applications, eLearning will soon need a mobile application to run. Most training programs already use a mobile-friendly learning management system to host their eLearning programs. We hope that these 7 benefits of mobile learning will motivate you to create quality mobile learning programs. The post 7 Awesome mLearning Benefits appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Learning styles are not a new adult learning concept. In fact, psychologists have been discussing the categorization of learning environments according to learner types. Previously, these concepts were thought to be possible only in the live learning environments. But with the proliferation of educational technology tools, all popular learning styles can be catered. In this article, we show you how! Not all adult learners learn alike! We all are unique in our level of assimilating information, applying it, connecting it with past experiences, recalling it and even perceiving it. We all have different preferences for learning. Some of us like watching visual material to learn, some of us prefer hearing, while others want a hands on - a learning-by-doing method of learning. As adult learners, we do have one basic learning need in common: whatever learning journey we embark on, it should lead to meaningful application, a value that can be utilized in our professional and personal context. Another set of discriminating factors among learners is the preference towards testing and assessments. While some of us are comfortable with the regular multiple choice quiz, most of us resent the recalling exercises associated with these quizzes. Comprehensive tests are also a big no-no for most learners. Developing team-based projects that build over the span of the course are popular with some learners. With so many strategies available to instructional designers, how do we determine the optimal route that pleases all learners enrolled in a given course? What is the best way to determine an instructional strategy within your course? Simple. It’s called "differentiated instruction" and it meets the individual needs of learners. It involves custom tailoring the eLearning content so that it is delivered in multiple formats or styles. In short, it allows instructional content to be conveyed in a way that is preferred by individual learners. The question is, how is it possible to create instruction that caters to the individual needs of all learners? Let’s first identify the established needs of individual learners. Then we will share five best practices to include in your eLearning project design to yield a differentiated instructional aspect to your course. Diverse Learning Needs Learners have varying areas that need improvement. Some may struggle with reading comprehension, some may struggle with technological challenges. Also, learners may absorb information at their own pace. Some need more time while some need less. As an instructional designer, you need to be prepared for such diversities. Continued Support through Assessments Online instructors need to assess learners periodically to determine progress and take any remedial steps needed for improvement. Collaboration in Groups Group exercises that combine different competency levels of learners are essential to help learners connect with peers, eradicate isolation and also learn from each other’s experiences. Empowering Learners Enable your learners to decide which topics to tackle first in your course. This helps them manage their time and resources more effectively. It also creates active participants that have more control over their learning. 5 Tips for Applying Differentiated Instruction in eLearning Now that you are more aware of the differences between learners, you can easily incorporate these tips in your instructional design. 1. Create a self-paced learning environment Provide an estimated time to complete the course, but allow your learners to progress at their own speed. Enable others who move through tasks and activities more quickly to proceed through the course. Provide ample support to slower learners. For timed quizzes and other assignments, provide post reflection activities that enable slow learners to internalize concepts better. This will also enable advanced learners to share their valuable experience with others. 2. Offer extant learning resources and online tools for learning Make sure the links, supplemental guides, research papers and multimedia you provide are current and functioning. Slower learners will appreciate extra resources, while advanced learners will enjoy additional information. Offer some prerequisite material for slower learners to go through. This will help them catch up faster. Create a forum for peer-based or subject-matter support for learners to connect and receive feedback. 3. Encourage learners to create their personal road maps to complete the course Request learners to create a customized learning plan to complete the course. Review their plans with them and offer guidance and edits if needed. Also, request a timeline with milestones and their tentative dates. Towards the end of the course, ask your learners to submit a reflections statement on whether they achieved their goals or not. Provide additional support to help them achieve the desired outcome. 4. Determine any unique needs in your learners This is the most important step towards establishing a differentiated instruction for diverse learners. Before you can provide support to your learners, you will need to identify a list of individual needs. Conduct surveys to uncover expectations and learning gaps. Create action plans to meet their requirements within your course. The best time to do this is in the beginning of the course, when learners are hopeful and eager to share their concerns and aspirations from the course. 5. Establish clear learning expectations from the beginning Develop a set of clear instructions that state what real world benefits the eLearning course can provide. Also provide the value in the job market and how they can apply the knowledge in the real world settings. While it is practically impossible to cater to all of the needs of all your learners, who may be scattered worldwide, these best practices will help you create an eLearning experience that is comfortable to most of your learners. Creating an eLearning course for different learning styles is a challenge. While you don’t have to create a course three or four times for each learning style, what you can easily do is, provide something for everyone!     The post 5 Tips for Applying Differentiated Instruction in eLearning appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Never assume that online learning is easier than in-class learning. You are all alone, and the only way to get well-connected to your eLearning environment is to communicate, communicate and communicate. And also, re-program your study habits. In this article, we show you how to make these personal changes to reap greater rewards! Instructional designers and eLearning developers, this information can be relayed to your students during the introduction phase of your eLearning program. Are you a learner looking for eLearning success? Use these tips to help you perform like an ace in your next course. For starters, eLearning is not to be underestimated as the easier way to learn something new. Rather, it is a more convenient way to learn. If you have taken at least one eLearning course, or you are thinking about registering for one, know that eLearning requires a unique temperament and self-management skills. You need a sense of time-management, strong motivation as well as the love for learning. In short, you will need everything you need to complete a physical/live course and a bit more self-discipline! Let’s look into these best practices in online learning: Manage Your Expectations Be warned, eLearning is not an easier way to study. It requires dedication and focused goals that are frequently revised. Be prepared for the following: Commitment to attend a live or an asynchronous eLearning session. Check your course by logging in frequently throughout the week. Become tech-savvy. Work with your online peers effectively, through responsive communication. It is very crucial to complete your eLearning assignments on time. If you have checked all of the above, you are on your way to an enjoyable eLearning experience: Dedicate a Study Space Create a corner in your home, your office or an area that is dedicated for your eLearning. Make sure it is free of distractions. Your study environment should replicate a professional and a formal learning environment that enables you to focus and study well. Let your family and friends know when you are studying. Turn off your phone and social media to avoid any interruptions during your study time. Determine your Learning Goals Write down your personal and professional goals after completing the eLearning course. These will provide you with a meaningful roadmap with specific milestones along the way. Finally, consider starting with the most difficult tasks, as this will improve both the effectiveness of your study and your performance. Create a Study Plan Review the course syllabus and plan your course ahead. Highlight all the assignment and quiz dates and include them in your personal calendar. A study calendar will remind you when something is coming up. This will help you prepare before time. Last minute assignments hardly make up a quality deliverable. Procrastination will lead to stress and stress will prevent you from completing your tasks on time. If you have any vacation plans or seasonal holidays, you can plan and study ahead to avoid delays. Create a Checklist of Tasks Prioritizing and managing tasks in a timely manner is the crux of studying an eLearning course. Before the week begins, create a checklist (on your smartphone) of learning tasks like reading up the text resources, research papers and attempting the assignment. Estimate the time required to complete each task. Stick to your time limits when working on your tasks. Review this checklist towards the end of the week. Stay on your schedule. Any lagging behind will exacerbate quickly. Ask for Help Anytime If you have any hesitations in contacting your course mentor or peers for help, you will be in hot waters pretty soon! Working independently is constructive as long as things are smooth. The moment you realize the content is getting frustrating or you feel you are walking in circles, you need to email or call out for help. Isolation and alienation are the worst drawbacks of eLearning. Be ready to ask plenty of questions. The answers will reassure you and guide you towards the right direction. Another good way is to read your peers’ posts and instructor’s responses to similar questions. Study in your Free Time Instead of learning things the hard way or at the least desirable time, learn smartly! Review your reading material and assignments in your free time to keep on top of things. At the end of your reading sessions, simply scribble down the highlights of the week. This explicit memory jotting exercise will help you retain information for a longer duration. It will also create a favorable background to build the upcoming information on. Remember to take breaks. Your performance will improve if you allocate study times after regular breaks. Actively Participate in Online Discussions Connecting with your virtual classmates on social media or your online course’s forum will tremendously enhance your eLearning experience. This is especially true if you are an introvert. Participate actively in online discussions and group activities based on the topic of the week and projects. Provide guidance to others based on your experience. This will earn you respect among your peers. Netiquette and writing tone have to be practiced well in online discussions to avoid any negative experiences. Staying motivated throughout your eLearning experience is another trick to complete your course within the suggested time frame. Reward yourself for completing challenging tasks. Take regular breaks. Use inspirational quotes in your study area to keep your dedication strong. Above all, smile, you’re doing a great job! This list is complete and it’s the only guideline you will ever need when attempting to study in an online learning environment. As an adult learner, you are naturally wired to study online! Simply get in tune with your natural study instincts and connect them with the eLearning environment’s requirements! The post 9 Study Tips for eLearners appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Games in the form of mobile applications or desktop games have successfully merged into the adult learning environment. While eLearning games received a considerable amount of resistance, they have proven their worth through superior learning achievement results. In this article, we will explain how to boost your educational games and deeply engage your eLearners. No one who uses a computer can be unfamiliar with games. This is not a broad claim at all. Have you ever been in a game in which you compete with yourself? No? What about those phone messages that require you to message back to win extra minutes or mobile data? Your car’s GPS trying to get you to become a registered member of the application through badges and icons? What about your Facebook account sharing your last year, same date memories so that you continue to create more memories on the service? These are games in disguise. Did we mention your credit card company giving you incentives to "spend more to save more"? Let’s create such games for your eLearning environment to motivate and engage your learners and to improve learning achievement. Let’s get the managers happy with your learners’ job performance! Start Small Choose a theme, for example "Safety at the Workplace". Ask questions in a fun drag and drop exercise like, "Susan needs these five items in her first aid box". Have the learners drag the correct items in the image of the first aid box! So, start small. No need to sweat over pages and pages of games. Short bursts of excitement are motivating and engaging at the same time. Interact with Games ELearning courses can easily double as interactions with the help of the right course authoring tools. For example, you can build interactions from scratch using actions and variables, or you can customize a pre-built interaction from many eLearning templates available for free! Some templates are especially built for particular authoring tools. Take your time to explore and download templates (if needed) to create an interaction for your content. Reward Your Learners If there is one thing adult learners love, it’s recognition. If your learners make it all the way to the end of "Safety at the Workplace" game and succeed at the final challenge, award them a "Safety Star" badge of victory! Badges and points are great because an employee can put them in his or her email signature or brag about their accomplishments to colleagues on LinkedIn. Badges can also be awarded for contributing to the online community of practice for a particular eLearning course. Congrats! You just gamified your eLearning with these techniques! Games have taken over learning. Did you also realize that the status bar displayed on your course telling the learner their location on the eLearning course pathway, is also a game itself? It motivates the learner to complete the course 100%. We seriously believe that a 90% course completion status incites learners to move towards completion more than "the last chapter" remaining! What do you say? The post 3 Ways to Level Up your eLearning Games appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Who says developing an eLearning project is easy? Not with the plethora of tools and applications available, eLearning development is still a major project that needs careful implementation. In this article, we uncover the major advantages of using a cloud based authoring tool as opposed to a desktop application. A high performance eLearning development team dreams of an automated workflow with the least amount of ambiguity and repetitious tasks. Such tools are in high-demand. Since the needs of eLearning developers change rapidly, a cloud based LMS is more agile than a desktop one. The desire to make a tool as simple and hassle-free as possible is still the main driving factor for frequent updates. The goal is to take the frustration and long hours out of the development process. This is critical when multiple eLearning authors are simultaneously involved in a project. eLearning Project Management using the Desktop eLearning Tool Desktop tools for eLearning authoring lack version control of files. No one knows which version is the most current. For a large project, only one person can work on the project at a given time. Think about idle resources, eating up time and budget! Projects need to be stored in the local machine. They might not be able to be worked upon across networks. Hence authors working in different locations have to use VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). Multiple authors need to be managed across VPNs. All authors need to install the eLearning development application in their local machine. Downloading and uploading the files in turns is a common practice. Maintaining the software changes is also an added step. Unless you have a very smart plan that never breaks down, how on Earth can you get things done in time? Maintaining courses is tedious too. Files need to be relocated, changes made and the updated course needs to be published again. As you can guess, working remotely on this project is not happening! All authors and developers need to be present to ensure no issues arise. eLearning Project Management using a Cloud based eLearning Tool The cloud, as we know, is a meeting place from remote locations. Collaborations in the cloud are the norm. The collaborating point is the eLearning development tool itself! The files to be worked upon in the development environment are transparent to all team members. Authors do not need to install this tool on their machines. At any given moment there is only one up-to-date version of a file. This version has updates added by everyone and is ready to use, anywhere, anytime. It also has the capability to hold comments and suggestions by authors, subject matter experts and graphic artists. No need to track changes with names. Requests for a task or more information are fulfilled on time on an as needed basis. All of this, with one browser and an internet connection. Consider the improved productivity with this scenario! Workflow is much smoother, simple, holistic and iterative in a cloud based eLearning authoring environment. All stages of the project - design, development, testing and implementation are carried out using one tool. No need for added software for designing, prototyping or storyboarding. Cloud based eLearning tools like TalentLMS truly take the pain out of the eLearning development process and enhance creativity. The post Painless eLearning Development through a Cloud based Development Tool appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Stephanie Ryon is an Instructional Technology Coach from Texas. Stephanie's experience as a classroom teacher and instructional coach has given her a solid understanding of how to meet the needs of modern day century learner and educator. Follow Stephanie Ryon   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   House of #EdTech Recommendation: TubeChop.com   House of #EdTech VIP: Jill Dobrowansky   Complete shownotes: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/07/edtech-math-stephanie-ryon-hoet040.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi   Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Baby Nesi #2 is arriving in a few short weeks (or sooner). I wanted to make sure you were still provided with some awesome content. So this episode features an #edtech thought, #edtech recommendation, and of course a VIP!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   TodaysMeet.com   HelpHub.me   Audible.com   Recommendation: Doodle.ly   VIP: John Mason - host of beardED Podcast   Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2015/08/dog-days-of-teachers-summer-part-1.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com