I have been involved with the EFQUEL community for a number of years now. It’s a great group and the annual conference in September is always good. Recently in addition to this we have established a new journal INNOQUAL, which will focus on quality issues in the use of technologies in education. This is an under-researched area I think and hence the journal is very timely. I am one of the editors, along with Ulf Ehlers and Jan Pawlowski. We are very fortunate indeed to have Ann Tannhauser coordinating the administrative side of things. The first edition is now out and has five great articles: Trusted Educational Networks for the Internationalization of Open Educational Resources PDF Jan Pawlowski, Kati Clements     Quality Assurance Processes in E-Learning - An Estonian Case PDF Toomas Plank, Anne Villems, Lehti Pilt, Marit Dremljuga-Telk, Merle Varendi, Eneli Sutt     Transtitution - Transforming higher educational institutions through modernization of middle management     PDF Radojka Krneta, Rolf Reinhardt, Danijela Milosevic     A view on Personal Learning Environments through approaches to learning PDF Esteban Romero-Frías, José L. Arquero     Evaluating staff led initiatives in teaching and management innovation in an online university: the case of the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya PDF Nuria Ferran, Teresa Sancho   Ulf sets the scene for the issue as follows: Openness is arriving at educational institutions. It will hit educational institutions at large and change completely the nature of their organization, profile and mission. Like an avalanche it has started already on the top of the mountain and finds its way downward. You don’t see it but it is moving faster and faster with great force underneath the surface. If you are experienced with avalanches you know that it will hit but you don’t know when, and if you are experienced with ‘old style education and training’ you know why: Organisations are giving away knowledge for free. More and more higher education institutions are opening up, in their business models in their leaning designs and in their access regulations. Training institutions and schools are beginning to change. A huge pressure on the classical 20th century education and training organisation is building up because its unique selling point - to be the sole shepherds of knowledge - no longer holds differentiating power when knowledge is made available for everybody or free. When knowledge is available one of the important future tasks of educators will be to give orientation about quality and to organize certification and assessment. The intention of this journal is to lead the way to these horizons and discuss new emerging and more open forms and methods of quality development and assessment. If you are interested in issues around quality and e-learning, do consider putting in a paper to the journal!

Filed under: In The Classroom

Wondering what it takes to develop an outclass online training of your own? Below are some tips that will help you develop a powerful and rewarding elearning course. Planning: Smart planning is a key to success. Before you start writing your course, it’s better to plan a framework of your course’s description, its learning outcomes, training goals, organization and selection of course content, assessments, interactions, students expectations and so forth. Having this information in hand will keep things well organized and moving forward smoothly. Synergy: No matter how expert you are in your field and how well-crafted your course is, it is always a good idea to share your course’s draft with colleagues and experts. The benefit of this practice is that you will get an expert’s feedback and run a quick quality check on your elearning courses, both at the same time. Do not forget to accept criticism open-heartedly during this process. Arousal of Interest in Learners: Interest is a key factor in learning. Always remember to add items of learners’ interest in your courses. Do note that interest doesn’t mean flashy pictures or humorous quotes; an interesting element can be added to an online course in the form of interactive games, animations, videos, activities, real life scenarios, case studies, etc. Interesting and relevant images in a course can also motivate learners to focus on the subject more. Sprinkle interactivity and curiosity elements throughout the course to maximize learning. Remember, interesting elements in an online training course can transform a conventional course into an interesting story that every learner would want to hear. Precision and Simplicity: The beauty of effective authoring lies in presenting complex ideas in a simple and straightforward manner. While authoring courses, ensure to make best use of the course authoring tool that you are using and create simple, precise and compelling training. Shun lengthy and complicated sentence structures and transfer complex points of your training by using built-in templates (flowcharts, diagrams and animations) of your course authoring tool.  Effective Communication: Distance and its impact on communication can be one of the greatest challenges in online training. Most instructors are under a wrong impression that online learning does not require any communication or support. This mind-set is very limiting, and can result in a non-optimal course. Communication in an online course is as important as it is in a classroom training. Overcome the communication barrier between yourself and your potential student by increasing communication in the form of feedback during assessment, clear instructions, student interactivity, and so forth. Effective Assessments: Assessing students performance is crucial to the learning process. Well-designed assessments improve instructional process and enhance learning.  Add challenging assessments, practice exams and/or knowledge checks during and at the end of each lesson of  the course to help learners revise and absorb all the key ideas that they have learned during the training. Try out the above mentioned tips while authoring online courses to create training that is exciting to learn and has the ability to educate learners in best possible way.

Image: http://libjournal.uncg.edu/ojs/index.php/jls/article/viewFile/282/278/1699  As I mentioned before, this week I am running a workshop at the EDEN conference in Olso on Learning Design and Designing TEL spaces. Below is an outline of the session, with links to all the resources. The resources are based on the 7Cs of Learning Design framework  and on iTunes U here, as well as the resources from the SKG project. The aim is to combine these resources to enable participants to design learning interventions that make effective use of both physical learning spaces and resources. One of the things I like about the SKG project is that it involved students; to elicit their views and what they needed to support their learning. There is a nice video on the site of a student John and his typical day, which is well worth a look at. By the end of the seminar, participants will have: Gained awareness and application of the range of resources, tools and methods which are available to support learning design, including learning design tools/methods and open educational resource repositories Considered a range of pedagogical approaches and the role played by different technologies in supporting these approaches Conceptualised the design process from different perspectives Developed an innovative storyboard to share with colleagues back in the office, to spark discussion around livening up a dry course Participants should have a specific course in mind that they want to design, redesign or review in terms of the effective use of technologies for learner interaction and engagement. Bring materials to session. The activities and resources are: Consider your course features (http://goo.gl/CRpc5) Apply the SKG 7 principles of design to create a Technology-Enhanced Learning space (http://tinyurl.com/jw9alcp) Consider your course map (http://goo.gl/Z5eu7 Tools to capture, communicate & collaborate Do a resource audit (http://goo.gl/C31yv) Develop your storyboard (http://goo.gl/z1VON) Analyse your activity profile (http://goo.gl/WMIzu) A more detailed outline of the workshop is on Google Drive.

Filed under: In The Classroom

Have you been thinking of making a course with 360training? In this fast-moving world, learner time is at a premium. How can we help learners get the most out of their elearning time? Here are a few handy tips to help you create time-friendly and productive elearning before you bring it to the market for sale. So let’s get started! Strategically use hyperlinks in your course Online education lacks classroom interaction and in order to bridge student-trainer gap, some course developers bombard students with numerous web-links in the name of additional information in an online course. As a course developer, we must conduct needs analysis before adding external information to our elearning and determine whether the information to which we are directing students is already covered in the course or not. One thing to consider when adding hyperlinks is their placement in the course. Some instructional designers make the mistake of sprinkling links all over the course. If presenting additional information is a must, organize that information properly. Add external links at the end of each lesson or module, or at the end of the course. Also, it would be nice to add a small note asking students to bookmark and read those links once the training is completed, so that their complete focus in on the course. Compiling and adding relevant and useful links for more information can be a service to the student as it saves them time finding the best resources themselves, but the provided links should be supplemental, and must not interrupt the course. One tip to save learners’ time is going through the recommended websites yourself and reference the supplemental material in our online courses (if time permits). Last but not least, set time expectations with the students so that they budget an appropriate amount of time spend. Provide targeted glossaries Glossaries are added in an elearning course to define certain terminologies and terms, however, unlike a grocery list, a long list of glossary can be time consuming. Avoid long lists of glossary entries and pick those terms that are relevant to your course and likely to be unfamiliar to the student. This practice will keep the glossary list short and precise. Be sure to introduce and define new terms in the slides to teach them. The glossary should simply serve as a reminder. Strategically use job aids and reference handouts in online training Job aids and reference handouts are very helpful in saving the learner’s time. They can allow students to fully concentrate on the course and can provide a handy review of the course once it is completed. One important thing to note about supplemental material is that it should support the core content presented in the course—not be used as core content. Supplemental material may be overlooked by students. If it’s important content, keep it in the main online experience flow. When adding practice material such as such as worksheets and exercises, always place them before assessments and final exams to promote in-depth understanding of the subject matter. Break video into bite-size chunks Videos are excellent audio-visual aids and can make the learning experience productive and interesting. Before you select and upload videos in your Learning Content Management System (LCMS), map out the number of videos that you would like to add and their duration. Short chunks of videos (2-5 minutes in length) tend to work better as they provide breaks, and allow users to easily fit learning moments into their schedule. Go for interesting videos with optimized length to keep students motivated in your online course. Keep content concise and pertinent Be wary of digressions and long asides. Stay focused on the content the student needs to learn in order to be successful in the real world. Captivate your students with smart visuals, short videos, and catchy activities to help them accomplish training goals, and maintain attention, both at the same time. Conclusion Maintain learner’s interest and help them get the most out of your elearning by keep things simple, pertinent and interesting. Remember: The better you meet your learners’ needs, the more value you provide, and the better your course will generally sell. Looking forward to seeing your new course in our upcoming contest. Good luck and happy elearning!

At this week’s EDEN conference one of the sessions I am involved with is a plenary for young scholars. To kick-start the discussion Eva Suba has set up a page with a number of hot topics for discussion: Using technologies effectively to meet the needs of a diverse student population How to acquire sufficient theoretical grounding in the field prior to undertaking empirical research How can assessment with e-portfolios enhance students’ performance by means of personalization? How to foster the avoiding of student drop-outs? How to motivate teachers who are not used to ICT at their lessons? How to organize the "Use 1 PC for 1 pupil model" (Moodle) at school with limited finances? From campus focused student research to distance (&blended) education How can we incorporate social media in pedagogically meaningful ways? Should be an interesting session!    

Post by ICTSFPHMS. Bringing #Twitter to the classroom! Utilizing #SocialMedia to enhance class debate! #edchat #edtech Source: www.facebook.com See on Scoop.it - InformationCommunication (ICT)

Filed under: In The Classroom

Top-rated instructors strive to create useful and engaging online training to help learners get the most out of their elearning and help them apply the knowledge in practical life. They seek to shift from the traditional learning paradigm of "knowing" to the modern learning paradigm of "knowing and doing." They explore methods and approaches, like those of Dr. David Merrill, Professor of Instructional Design at Utah University, to keep the learner engaged and incorporate interactive and real-life problem-solving elements in their online training, moving the learner away from "click-click click" course navigation mode to deeper learning and understanding of the course content. eLearning scenarios are an excellent way to engage learners, promote their decision making skills, and to help them apply the acquired knowledge through practice. Scenarios can help students get the jist of different real-life situations that they may encounter, and equip them with problem-solving skills to make sound judgments in such complex situations. The following are some of the essential components of an effective elearning scenario: Realistic: eLearning scenarios should be closely related to real-life situations so that learners see reflections of their world in that scenario, understand its relevance, and are interested in the outcome. Similarly, the answer choices should reflect the real-life dilemmas and should be thought-provoking. For example, if your elearning scenario is about a woman mistakenly eating food to which she is allergic, your answer options may expand beyond simply calling an ambulance or consulting with her family members or friends who are present. Should you open her purse to see if she carries emergency allergy medicine? Should you check her phone for an emergency contact number? Should you stay on the sidelines, hoping there is a doctor in the area, not wanting to make a wrong or misinterpreted move? Real life can have complicated choices. Relevant: Scenarios are a great way to assess students’ understanding of the subject matter. Craft scenarios according to the information presented in the course and help learners practice and apply that information by attempting the scenarios. Motivational: eLearning scenarios should be motivating and closely linked with the learning objectives of the course. Adopt a story-like approach when writing scenarios and avoid lengthy text. Grab learner’s attention by adding risk-filled situations and challenging elements and keep the students alert with unexpected outcomes. Simple: Use simple and direct language while writing elearning scenarios to avoid confusion and keep learner attention from wandering off. Luring learners through acres of dense jargon-filled description is often not successful and may diminish the effectiveness of your scenario in supporting the related learning objective. Present the case clearly and crisply. Challenge learners’ current understanding and allow that to be the focus of the scenario. Informative feedback: Good course developers strive to write interesting, informative, and useful feedback so that the learner will read it willingly and use that information successfully, whenever required. Try adding the consequence of each action (answer choices) to help learner understand the course content at a deeper level. For an incorrect attempt, feedback such as "That’s not right" or "Try Again" may not be adequate. Inform learners about the possible result of their selected course of action so that they can understand and chose the right direction. Catchy pictures: A picture is worth a thousand words. When developing elearning scenarios, use interesting and relevant images to help student to visualize the situation. We usually don’t get a second chance to correct ourselves in real-life situations, but with the help of elearning scenarios, a student is provided an opportunity to learn and practice in an authentic environment. Write effective eLearning scenarios to infuse problem-solving and strategic decision-making skills in your students. Become an elearning author. Get the best tools and the best distribution network for workforce training. Make a difference. Onwards and upwards!