It’s not just athletes and actors who doesn’t have time to go for regular high schools, are benefiting from virtual high school; slowly a good bunch of regular school goers are also considering the benefits of a virtual high school. Indeed, a whole new experience in attending a classroom with students from different parts of the world! Why would you then leave the comfort of your home when the education you want is coming to you?   Prominent universities like Stanford University, Indiana University, George Washington University have already joined this emerging trend, offering online classes to students and virtual high school diploma programs. A lot has been invested for the upliftment of virtual education off lately. Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation have donated $20 million to develop online courses and supportive tools and applications for them.   Virtual high schools around the world   The Virtual High School, started in 1996 was one of the first virtual high school to function. The school has 850 students registered from 13 states, allowing students from around the world to come online and learn together. A similar kind of model can be seen at Electronic High School in Utah, USA where teachers and students communicate with each other through online chat and email, after the completion of assignments. Not just the communication part, Electronic High School does not offer typical curriculum; instead, teachers create class content and with the help of high school students, develop graphics and web pages for the content.   E-School in Hawaii uses a multi-user community called MOO in their school, whereas, Fraser Valley Distance Education School, Canada uses real-time instructions for the learning of 500 students. The Internet Academy in south Seattle allows its students to go, either for class with a group or individually. Students who opt for group sessions sit in chat room and discuss questions and assignments. Whereas, individual students submit their projects and assignments via mail, chat or even communicate through telephone conversations.   How virtual high school is beneficial?   We all know, how comfortable and at ease students can be if they study at their own pace. Without holding back a class, the student has the liberty to listen to an audio lesson many number of times for more convenience. Moreover, the easy access to variety of other sources of information during study takes virtual learning one step ahead to actual classroom learning. Students from rural or non-city areas can opt for specialized courses that are otherwise not available to them.   The financial advantage of virtual high school cannot be ignored too. With every passing day, schools are getting overcrowded and expensive at the same time. This is where virtual high school concept can help students to attain their degree minus the skyrocketing expenses, as online education neither require infrastructure upgradation nor any other cost involved in maintaining an actual school.   Home schooled students gain a lot through virtual education as they can learn foreign languages and stuffs that may not be an easy cup of tea for their parents. Virtual high school is definitely a  big plus point for students who are unable to attend schools due to unavoidable circumstances to carry on with their education.   The concept of virtual high school still might sound new to many while, some consider it ineffective for students for it might give undue advantage to students learning online. But those who have already joined the bandwagon, would stand by the ease with which education can be imparted through this method. Still, we have wait and see how virtual education unfurls its wings to bring about new changes in education.   The post Virtual High School: The Changing Face of High School Education appeared first on Fedena Blog.

As published via TrainingIndustry.com, in this blog we discuss advantages and disadvantages of Cloud-Based technology for eLearning. Having your head in the clouds now holds a whole new meaning with the development of cloud-based technology. The recent evolution of the internet has seen it move from a place to visit web pages to an environment […]

As published via ATD.org, in this blog we discuss the advantages of incorporating multi-branching scenarios in your eLearning Sales Training.   I loved pick-a-path adventure books as a child; I’m sure you did too. Why? Because I was in control of my reality and the outcomes. Adding multi-branching scenarios (MBS) to your eLearning allows you […]

Creating great eLearning is a lot like baking your favourite cake. All the ingredients should work together to produce a delicious result; however, get one ingredient wrong and you’ve got a culinary fail on your hands. Effective audio can be the sugar and spice that transforms eLearning into a multisensory experience, increasing engagement for complex […]

PulseLearning, a Global Learning Solutions provider, announced today that it has been chosen by a global oil and gas service company to create online 3D training courses for Field Service Engineers (FSEs). Under contract, PulseLearning will partner with the company to create two online interactive 3D training modules for FSEs. Providing learners with sufficient access […]

As part of my doctoral course work, I read Dewey’s Experience and Education (1938) lecture series this summer. As an instructional design (ID) practitioner, I noticed numerous connections between what Dewey suggested for optimal learning and the current practices of ID. For example, in his chapter comparing traditional and progressive education, he warned progressive programs […]

Filed under: e-learning, Instructional Design, Research, Teaching Tips Tagged: higher ed, metacognitive strategies, portfolios

Pixlr Tech Teaser (15 min) Instructional Sequence based on Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction Prep: Download Pixlr software to desktop. Open picture editor. Preload folder with images for practice. Locate some great images edited with the software to illustrate as examples. Software constraints: • Not compatible with Mozilla Firefox; Use Google Chrome or Internet Explorer […]

Or, can we have stories with claws, please? Today’s post comes from David Cameron, one of our Learning Consultants specialising in Instructional Design. David has a background as an author and a poet and as such brings a useful and unqiue perspective to the concept of storytelling in eLearning. We are fortunate to have a real live storyteller in our midst! Over to David… I want to tell you a story. How did it feel to read that? And how disappointed were you to read a question after it rather than the promised story? Stories have hooks. No - being alive, they have claws. They don’t easily let go, if they are strong enough. The strength of real storytelling in eLearning I know the strength of the words I want to tell you a story. They form the opening line of a surreally daft Syd Barrett song I’ve sung to my children to get them to sleep. It kept them awake. Because the promise of a story is like a hard thump on the brain, demanding attention. No matter that, in this case, the only dramatic event is a gnome seeing the sky and a river and saying ‘Hooray!’ Here, the initial promise of a story overrides the resulting absence of one. Even children like their daftness to have some shape, and Barrett gives them that. Storytelling is an important but underused, or perhaps ill-used, aspect of workplace learning. Here I’m going to focus narrowly on its use in the design of eLearning courses, mindful of my colleague Fiona Quigley’s cautionary note in an earlier blog here, that ‘stories are much more useful and can bring better results if you consider them outside of the boundaries of a structured course.’ And to compensate for this narrowness of focus, I will wheel in (for comparison) that notable grande dame, Literature. Too lofty a standard for something so functional and commercial as an eLearning course? At school our art teacher sat us in front of his reproduction of Picasso’s Guernica and said ‘Paint like that.’ Naturally, being totally ignorant of modern art, we thought nothing could be simpler. We were wrong, but it was good to try. Much of the best literature is, in fact, anti-literary, and to write good eLearning stories we have to be a bit anti-eLearning (or, at least, eLearning as we know it). So, make nothing up if you needn’t. Real people tell real stories. You need only listen. And then listen. Developing your dialogue ear It helps to have an ear for dialogue, but reproducing conversation is one skill that can be self-taught, again by (first of all) listening. And you are more than likely in the best place to hear the kind of workplace dialogue you will be writing for a course. Let’s save our learners from the kind of bouncy, hammer-the-point-home stuff that’s been inflicted on them for so long. The kind of ‘conversation’ that goes like this: James: Hi Jenny, it’s great to see you! Jenny: You too, James! James: I know you’re awesome at statistical analysis, and I have this report I’m struggling with. I get what kurtosis is, but what the heck is skewness? Jenny: I’d be happy to answer that, James. Skewness is a measure of symmetry, or more precisely, the lack of symmetry. James: Ah, I get it now! Thanks a bunch, Jenny. Jenny: You’re welcome, James. Getting to natural dialogue and stories OK, nothing out there’s quite this bad (right?), but the same vices are prevalent. And can be hard to avoid. In fiction, a character grows, takes time to develop. There might be a dozen, maybe a hundred, discarded pages before a character’s voice starts to ring true. Almost all characters born of instructional design live only fleetingly - maybe just the space of a paragraph or two. The designer takes little interest in them, perhaps a smidgeon more than the learner does. Each workplace character has a purpose to serve. Like the Roman dancer mentioned in Ford Madox Ford’s novel The Rash Act, whose epitaph was ‘He danced. He gave pleasure. He is dead.’ Except that pleasure rarely comes into it. It doesn’t have to be this way. No, really. For one thing, good fiction writing is densely populated by very minor characters - which really only means human beings glimpsed rather than scrutinised. All it takes is a sharp observation, a turn of phrase picked up on the street, and you’re away. Tip: To make your speech less halting, you could try writing the dialogue just before and after the piece of dialogue you will actually use, and so avoid those awkward beginnings and endings. There’s no need to beat yourself up because a character in your workplace dialogue doesn’t seem as fully human as Anna Karenina. And Tolstoy’s tragic heroine brings me back to the bouncy, relentlessly upbeat aspect of poor eLearning dialogue. As the novel’s famous opening sentence puts it: ‘All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.’ Happiness writes white. As we all know, stories worth reading involve conflict, challenge, failure along the way. Learners will appreciate that you’ve researched and expressed the complexities of their workplace and the obstacles and pitfalls they face, where often there are wrong answers but not necessarily an obviously right one. Fine to use a fable-like story to make a single point if a single point needs to be made. But how often does life, or work-life, fall quite so neatly into single-pointedness? You also have more space for storytelling than you might think. A whole topic might be told as a story, and of course characters can reappear throughout a course. Not everything is best told in story form, so don’t force it. You have more tools at your disposal than the traditional author does. No need for visual descriptions of characters when you can show them; no need to slow things down with backstory that a learner could access through optional links (a tip courtesy of Cathy Moore). Getting help on storytelling There is plenty of online advice on using and structuring stories in eLearning. Some of it is good, some isn’t, so root around. I must confess to feeling dismayed by this kind of thing - by no means untypical - from a TrainingZone blog: ‘Research discovered by monitoring the brain activity of monkeys [showed] that whenever a researcher picked up a banana whilst being observed by a monkey, it had the same effect on the activation of neurons as when the monkey itself picked up a banana. Stories that are vivid and appeal to the various sensory cortices in the brain will increase neuro-engagement.’ In other words, learners are dumb animals, feed them stories. If we’re going to draw on this ancient and never outdated human means of communication and understanding, then let’s respect it. Our jargon includes the term ‘learning outcomes’, and we know that the eLearning stories we tell need to be tied to these, but perhaps they are not so different from the moments of illumination - Joyce called them ‘epiphanies’ - on which a short story turns. It all comes back to the question of writing and designing for the whole person rather than a mere cipher. Or a gnome named Grimble Grumble. So back to you. What stories could you pick up in your workplace that could make learning more real? How do we develop our inner Joyce? Logicearth Learning Services specialise in designing, delivering and supporting modern workplace learning solutions, which brings results for individuals and organisations. We are learning technology experts and along with specialist interactive multi-device content development skills, we can provide a complete service for all your organisation’s modern learning needs. Logicearth has offices in Belfast and Dublin but deliver services worldwide, including Ireland, UK, USA and throughout Europe. The post Real storytelling in eLearning appeared first on Logicearth.

Why are visual design skills important? Communication is the foundation of all human interactions. Visual communication is older than reading and writing. Neanderthal man drew shapes and forms on cave walls long before we wrote words and proper sentences. The caves of Altamira in Spain and Lascaux caves in France are the evidence of human progress in the form of visual stories etched on stone. Experimenting with colors and textures is an innate human ability, as our Neanderthal forefathers used a variety of pigments from coal to red and yellowochre extracted from plants in order to create animal forms. So saying artists are born not made can be challenged! We definitely have come a long way in terms of advanced visual literacy from our ancient predecessors. We live in a more visual society than ever, yet design literacy lags behind most other skills. What are the pitfalls of bad design? What are the simple steps you can take to improve your visual design skills and visual literacy? You will find the answers to these questions in our list below. We explain design essentials for a better understanding of what makes visually engaging content. You can jump to a visual summary at the bottom of this post. 1. Creative sparks Inspiration can be derived from the smallest of things in life. Water lilies inspired Monet, while the irregularities and unfairness of life inspired Van Gogh to paint in such exaggerated and intense strokes. You can broaden your horizons by studying books on not only visual literacy, but anything that gets your creative juices flowing. The peculiar thing about inspiration is that it often strikes you at the most unexpected hours, so keep your pen and paper ready at all times to jot down the ideas and draw images to support them, and build upon those ideas by adding details later on. 2. Negative and positive space Balanced negative and positive spaces make the eye travel to the object of attention with ease. Negative space is the background, while positive space is the foreground if you are working on a bi-layered design layout. A very busy negative space may cause fatigue to the eyes and may divert the viewers’ attention from the primary subject of your content. You can create an illusion of a third dimension and depth on a two dimensional surface by overlapping, shading, highlighting and shadowing, building up on linear and atmospheric perspective by changing how air and fog perceive distant objects. For example, for a kids’ website, a negative space that is fluid and without any block images is preferable for easy eye movement. 3. The color scheme Color psychology plays a pivotal role in brand selling and retaining a wide client base. Picking a color is not an easy task, as many options seem to work together just fine, so it is important that you make several color layouts that you think represent the philosophy behind your brand sufficiently. You may have noticed that food brands usually range from hues of yellow to oranges and reds, while social media sites are predominantly blue, like Facebook, Tumblr, Instagram, Twitter, and Skype. Know your target market, and then proceed accordingly with your color scheme. To create a strong color palate for the visual content, Adobe Kuler color wheel tool will help you create shades and find complementary colors with ease. 4. Textures in design Textures in a design are used to create depth and warmth to the overall layout. In digital art, texture means the way a surface is perceived to feel, and can be added to gain or avoid attention for an element. Visual textures include adding the illusion of peaks and valleys, or adding lush leaves to a tree. Repeating a motif or a linear form throughout is also termed as adding texture. Texture can be used as a tool to harmonize negative and positive space as well. But make sure you don’t use too much of texture in your design because it creates a highly busy space and can put a strain on the eyes. Moreover, ensure that the focal point of your design is enhanced, and not diminished by adding a certain texture. 5. Harmony in designs After you are done with your form, space, colors, and texture, focus on the balance and harmony of your layout. Do you feel your design appears heavier on one end and lighter on the other? Or you think the base of your design is not wide enough to support heavy motifs on top? These details need to be addressed accordingly if a visually appealing design is to be created. Achieving visual unity is the main goal in graphic designing, and all elements need to be in agreement. Pay special attention to the perspective, continuation, repetition, and rhythm to create a unified design. This doesn’t mean your designs should always be strictly symmetrical, as asymmetrical designs can also be a way to strike an informal balance in a layout. Think order in chaos. 6. Design hierarchy Hierarchy guides the eye movement of the viewer. It gives you the power to make viewers look at one place, and then guide their eyes to fall on the next. This can be achieved by various methods including using complementary colors, fluid negative space, and interactive foreground. For example, for a kids’ website, you can form a hierarchy in your text by using a specific font for a specific subject. You can also achieve this by using particular colors. 7. Scale and proportion Scale and proportion are significant in keeping the balance and harmony of your design. Make sure that the forms, motifs, and texts in your design don’t downplay the importance of your focal point.This is because using the relative size of elements against each other can attract attention to a focal point. When it comes to scale, if elements are designed larger than life or incredibly diminished, scale is being used to show drama. Disproportionate designs and misplaced elements put off the viewer. Also, it is a rookie mistake to not follow the scale and proportion guidelines. You can enhance your understanding of scale and proportion by drawing design elements and forms manually on a paper. Moreover, studying and understanding the golden ratio may also prove to be helpful in this regard. 8. Dominance and emphasis Ideally, every design should have a key area of interest or focal point that assists as a way into the design. Moving along from this primary dominant design element, a layout flow can be achieved by creating elements with secondary and tertiary dominance.Dominance of a focal point depends on contrast, as without contrast everything would be identical. The absence of dominance between elements leads to competition between them. If there are three yellow squares of equal size in your design, which one should the viewer look at first? It takes away the chance of an interactive communication between the viewer and your design. 9. Using similarity and contrast creatively Developing a consistent and similar design is a vital facet of a designer’s job to make their focal point stand out. Too much similarity is uninteresting, but without similarity key elements will not exist. An image without contrast is flat and mundane, thus the key here is to strike a balance between similarity and contrast. To create a similar design, you can manipulate images and text to correlate, and develop a style manual that remains consistent in all your layouts. Also, you can express continuity in your web pages by including the same headers, borders, footers, and themes. To develop contrast in your layout, you can control space, position, form, direction, structure, size, color, texture, and density by positioning the contrasting characters of stability/movement, organized/chaotic, isolated/grouped, grey scale/color, and transparent/opaque together. 10. Keeping it simple Piling up too much on your plate, and then regretting it later will not prove to be a fruitful work strategy. So instead of adding all the textures, and colors in one layout, follow the less is more mantra. With its slogan of being the ‘New Normal,’ 2015 is the year of making things hassle free and easy to consume, thus your design must not feature too many contrasting elements and tacky textures piled on top of each other. Remember, effective designs are clear cut, balanced, and follow the rules of simplicity. Learning the art of visual communication and design requires patience, and you are going to make many mistakes before finally grasping the science behind this digital art. Follow blogs like Aisle One, Design Observer and Dexigner in order to get in depth knowledge of graphic design and visual literacy. Logicearth Learning Services specialise in designing, delivering and supporting modern workplace learning solutions, which brings results for individuals and organisations. We are learning technology experts and along with specialist interactive multi-device content development skills, we can provide a complete service for all your organisation’s modern learning needs. Logicearth has offices in Belfast and Dublin but deliver services worldwide, including Ireland, UK, USA and throughout Europe. Visual summary of our 10 visual design tips   The post 10 tips to improve your visual design skills and visual literacy for non-designers appeared first on Logicearth.