Just like no two people are alike, no two customers are similar! In the day to day life of a project manager, s/he interacts with several different customers — each unique in their own way. And like them, their project requirements are quite unique as well. Can the same approach work for all? No! Let’s take the example of a customer who wants you to develop a training program that is user-friendly and very contemporary. Though this may sound simple, it is indeed a complex requirement - essentially, a combination of several unique needs. As a solution provider, you need to elicit the right needs by asking appropriate questions as well as articulating the customer’s thoughts. During many such discussions with the customer, you may often find that the requirements are much deeper and complex than stated. What is the key to managing customer requirements effectively? Understanding the unstated problems of the customer and providing solution that addresses them. In simple terms, customers have ‘problems’ and so you shouldn’t expect them to give ‘good, articulated’ requirements. Instead, the stated requirement is only a basis to get started. And therefore it becomes critical to understand the ‘problem’ the customer is trying to address with the stated need, in our example, the user-friendly and contemporary training. Many-a-times, the solution to their problem is different from the ‘requirement’ they state, sometimes subtly and sometimes drastically. Articulating a customer problem and tailoring the solution to address the ‘problem’ instead of a solution that meets their ‘requirement’ can take you a long way in customer service. As a customer facing manager for several years, I have found the following to be effective ways of managing customers and their requirements: Be their consultant: Think for them, with them. Customers often don’t know completely what they want. Define the problem, requirements, and the solution clearly: Get an agreement from the customer. Define the functional and design specifications and use these to define your user acceptance tests. Acknowledge that they are busy and often don’t have time to provide quality inputs: Offer to participate and think or review with them. This way you can block their calendars and accomplish the tasks. Work out risk/mitigation plans, with the customers: Articulating and discussing risks for both parties helps put together action plans for the successful completion of projects. Build prototypes: Plan for and build prototypes of a few screens. This can help iron out the requirements and solution. If possible, get a user testing done for the prototype to gauge the impact of your solution in addressing the problem. Don’t be afraid to ask questions: Over the course of the project, this will ensure that the solution being built stays in line with the overall objective. Along the way, be cautious of not deviating from the problem and solution established during project initiation. About the author: Kavita Lad works with InfoPro Learning as a Sr. Project Manager and Instructinal Strategist. Kavita manages high-value customer projects through her keen knowledge and experience in instructional design, project management and learning strategies. The post Managing Customer Requirements Effectively appeared first on .

Packaging Matters It isn’t important what your product is, if you can’t sell it.  Explosive dogs don’t get loved very often (look above if you don’t get it… it’s a poor translation of "Bomb Sniffing Dog" into English). Take two wonderful products and put them next to each other at an inappropriate angle…and the image my not be conducive to increased sales.  Packaging matters :) Sour tempered teachers may create awesome lessons, but if that disposition keeps students at arm’s distance…then few students will benefit from her expertise. For students, packing matters. But aren’t we all students?  Even teachers during a faculty meeting?  Packaging matters to them as well. Of course, packaging doesn’t do it alone. Multimillion dollar advertising agencies lose their clientele quickly if they sell snake oil to a steadily disbelieving mass of consumers. The pitch has to be back up with product (see our "pitch" video at the bottom of this post).  However… …packaging is the way you get others through the door. Most I.T./Integration Specialists know our tech tools. We know how to use them, when to use them, and to what degree we need to use them.  But the audiences that we "sell" to isn’t usually an audience full of Instructional Technology experts.  We earn our check with those reluctant teachers and administrator who fear or dismiss the role of technology in education.  Like our students, the packaging is crucial to sell our product to theses adults. Lesson Crashers and this blog isn’t for you, the seasoned I.T. specialist.  The real audience for this blog isn’t reading it!!!  To repeat what was said in our Lesson Crashers Session at TCEA-2014 in Austin, Texas, the Lesson Crashers crew was presenting PAST the hundreds of people in attendance to the audience NOT in attendance. The real audience for the Lesson Crashers are those teachers who are good or great at their craft, but apprehensive and reluctant to delve into the instructional technology world.  Those teachers may be highly lauded campus leaders, but are too comfortable in the lowlands of the tech world.  They are talented, but may be missing out on being able to bust down the walls in their classroom.  This is crucial because those kids are slowly, but surely helping to re-imagine everyone’s tomorrow.  To keep them entombed in a classroom that is isolated from wonderful enlightening opportunities, is to hinder those kids from fully participating in the creation of the future they will live in.  To those teachers… …The Packaging Matters! If we simply throw apps and tech tools at teachers during staff meetings or schedule trainings, the results are predictable. Teachers will shut down just as quickly as any student in the same situation. Since teachers are simply more advanced students, we can assume they will react in a similar manner (see our solution to this problem at the very bottom of this post). It’s funny that we expect our teachers to wow and zing our students with lesson hooks, but we rarely wow and zing them with PD hooks.  The same is true whether it’s a classroom we’re Crashing or a staff meetings we’re crashing in the principal’s name. Packing Matters To Them! We "train" them on tech during (from their perspective) rushed sessions.  We assume that their professionalism…which they DO have… will be enough to remind them to play with this new tech at home, during their conference time, or on the weekend.  I’d bet dollars to donuts that they WON’T  remember our rushed training sessions…however, they WILL remember that we either did or did not care enough to stop and dress up that training session in a fun and entertaining way. They will remember that we made an effort to think of them before they arrived. It’s not simply packaging, of course. We do (and must) deliver.  The packaging is a promise and our expertise is how we fulfill that promise. To be sure, the Lesson Crasher team are well versed in flipped classroom, workshop model, the fundamental  five, working on the work, and other pedagogical frameworks.  We are excellent teachers who have presented numerous times and have won teacher and I.T. awards.  But none of that matters, unless we explicitly show our audience that we care for them by handing the reigns over to them when Crashing their lessons. The Lesson Crasher ideal is all about the administrators, teachers, or students establishing tech goals for themselves. We enter their  environment and we guide them to their self-established finish lines. We don’t teach a tool we teach the process, as Integration Specialist team member Cara Carter says.  We are confident in our tech skills, social skills, creativity, and classroom management abilities enough to let go.  Just as student choice was front and center when we were teachers, it simply makes sense to allow our adult coworkers have most of the control in our Lesson Crashes.  We work within their expectations and work toward their goal. The Back Story Lesson Crashers was an idea that, nine short month prior, I had pitched to my Integration Specialist compatriot, Cara Carter.  We were talking about my up coming shift from classroom teacher to Instructional Technology.  I had not yet been hired to the I.T. team.  I was still teaching college and senior level government at Northwest High School.  I knew I’d likely be placed on a new set of campuses and wanted to find a way to introduce myself to those teachers. Cara wise suggested that I shouldn’t try to fill the shoes of the previous I.T. person.  She challenged me to look for a "Cooper" kind of way to slide into the new position. It hit me one day watching DIY’s "Yard Crashers" that people were being asked to work on their own yard with a little guidance and help from the hosts of the show.  The hosts, Ahmed Hassan and Matt Blashaw, didn’t do ALL of the work.  As a matter of fact, they did what appeared (on the surface) to be little.  They asked for the home owner’s "vision", told the home owners that they needed to collect some friends to help them achieve that vision, and guided the group to the goal.  GENIUS!!!  Why not do that with teachers!? Have strong teachers open up their weakest lessons to the I.T. team.  The I.T. team would get to work on the tech side of the lesson, adding several levels of tech resources and suggestions.  The teacher would remain the owner of the lesson and the goal.  We would simply come in and translate the teacher’s activities and lessons into a the language of education technology. The Process I certainly won’t belabor the what we did since much of it can be seen in our "feature length" video below.  But, we heavily promoted the contest on #NISDNOV8, our weekly tech centered Twitter chat session.  The application was sent out in the form of a Google Doc.  Teachers had to submit a sample lesson and a video.  Finally, we convened as a group and chose our Crashee based on a multitude of variables. I will simply add, as far as our first Crashee is concerned, that student choice and students teaching students was the focus established by our former teacher of the year applicant, Mrs. Reyff.  We came to see her when she was ready and incorporated levels of technology that she was comfortable with.  We learned lessons on how to stream line the process, of course, but the Crash went off well. A month later we Crashed a faculty meeting in one of our middle schools.  Mrs. Reyff’s Crash was so successful that people started coming to us.  We’re now getting ready to launch our second round of applications in preparation of Lesson Crashers, the sequel! Since we sold the concept as a T.V. show, we called our media academy for help.  Mr. Jeremy Rawe and his student crew put together our promo and our feature length show.  With some tweaking by Adam Bennet, we watched the final video and were blown away by the teamwork and the results. Finally This is a movement.  Like any movement, it takes a multitude of moving pieces and must be adapted to various circumstances.  Please join us in this movement by taking this approach and making it your own.  Email us, Tweet us, call us, or send smoke signals.  We don’t care.  We, Lesson Crashers, believe that this can make the consumption of technology in the classroom a state-wide endeavor.  Take the ideas, take the format, but leave the logo…that’s ours :) If you crash a lesson, and it conforms to the above parameters, send us a nicely done video documentation and we’ll send you a little gift. Rigor, transparency, comradery, and technology, that’s the Lesson Crasher way. Follow these Lesson Crashers: @Thrasymachus, @ashchapman3, @caracarter1, @teachkiwi, @Brit_Horn, @ReneEgle The Results Filed under: In The Classroom, Technology Tagged: aurasma, blog, classroom tech, classroom technology, crashers, edtech, education technology, instructional, instructional technology, iPad, iPhone, lesson, lesson crashers, moodle, moodle 2.0, padlet, pintrest, teacher, teacher technology, technology, tiki toki, Twitter, Wiki, wordpress

I haven’t made this for ages, but it’s perfect for a Winter Monday….  And it gives me an excuse to use my new casserole dish…Fry lamb’s mince, add chopped onion and garlic and chopped carrots. Add passata, a little red wine, a small amount of lamb stock cube, tomato paste, herbs, bay leave and Worcester sauce. Then season and leave to bubble…. Near the end add some frozen peas. Boil the potatoes and mash with butter and milk. Put in a casserole dish and top with the potatoes and some grated strong cheddar cheese and bak

October is National Cyber Safety Awareness Month which spotlights an array of digital security measures parents, teens, and everyone should be using and should be aware of to protect themselves vir… Source: www.suescheffblog.com See on Scoop.it - FootprintDigital

Philosophy is acidic.  It eats away at everything it touches, including itself.  Acids dissolve, but they also cleanse what has become unclean.  What I mean by this is that once the spectre of questioning is released, without a container or horizon in mind, the dissolving  begins.  Without "common sense" and a sense of self control, philosophy destroys instead of cleanses. Why not add a container, then?  Why not have a "philosophy of football" or "philosophy of cooking" and contain the questioning within the scope of a particular subject matter? Because philosophy then becomes dogma.  A "philosophy of education" for example would question everything including the effectiveness of education and whether we need education or not.  Usually, when people answer the question "What is your philosophy of education?" the answer is mostly a dogmatic response based on the buzz words of the day, that person’s experience, all the while blunted by what is seen as acceptable in that particular environment.  It’s not a philosophy (ie. an all encompassing digestion of how all things acceptable and unacceptable are related to or brought into the scope of that topic or view).  Our "philosophies" are usually thought out perspectives that don’t take "the whole" into account. But human existence is nothing but living life from a particular view established by uncontrollable "accidents" like gender, age, culture, and so on.  If humans philosophize, then isn’t all philosophy within a horizon, as Nietzche put it? If we’re true to ourselves, we can’t answer that question in any final way…I propose.  Plato, Nietzche, Kierkegaard and so many other philosophers used "characters" in plays and dialogs to flesh out this problem. In a sense, the author (re: authority as writer…re: god) of the play or book has the ability to give an account of "everything" within the scope of a horizon (the book) so that there can be an attempt at a final answer.  But, since this is done in a false world, the final answer itself is a possible final answer within that realm.  We can still question the author, when they were born, to whom they were born to, and so on.  However, through the vantage point of a fake god (author) we can begin to see the problem of "knowledge of the whole".  The book offers answers to problems posed, not by reality, but by the author’s view of reality.  Walking through that process and struggle, though, can help us attain a "higher" perspective and, possibly, some tools on how we can try to achieve clearer answers to the problems philosophy forces us to face. In many of Plato’s dialogs we find people talking while they have been drinking or while they are sitting in the dark or while the sun has gone down.  All of these allude to a blunting of the senses or a darkness.  This darkness alludes to an absence of senses while further alludes to an absence of the body.  The truest type of philosophy must negate the body and the senses that we are trapped by.  In this example, Plato uses darkness or drunkenness to achieve a state that allows for the questioning of everything.  After all, Cephalus, who represents tradition (and means ‘head of the family’ in Greek), leaves the conversation in The Republic when tradition is being questioned.  Tradition and the body must be negated when questioning everything.  Otherwise, a reordering cannot occur. However, the fullest life one can have must be a complete life that takes into account the body and the soul.  Philosophy cannot simply escape our mortal coil on this planet and play in the stars.  We are not stars. So philosophy and reason must be tempered with something that is not philosophy or reason.  Emotion seems to fit here, but emotion is short sighted and tends to want to be satisfied immediately.  In other words, emotion tends to focus too much on the body in one fashion or another. At the end of Plato’s Symposium, the drinking party ends with three people still awake late into the night.  Aristophanes (the comic), Agathon (the tragedian) and Socrates (the philosopher) are the last three.  Aristodemus, the narrator of the story (who is, in turn, commanded by Plato the true author), falls asleep at this point (another type of darkness) and awakens to Socrates being the only one left…completely sober.  The comedian (emotion) and the tragedian (emotion) can’t climb to the heights of conversation that the philosopher (reason?) can.  They need shirpas and Socrates doesn’t. Socrates then leaves and makes his way to the market place to talk to the common folk. Somehow, the comic and the tragedian eventually fall victim to their bodies (need for sleep…re: need for limitations to their horizons).  Socrates gets up, after drinking all night, and goes on to talk to, not experts, but the common folk. Socrates’ philosophy encompasses the high and the low.  He cares about the opinions of the expert and the common man.  He is somehow outside of this interplay, but is also somehow part of it (he is eventually put to death by an Athenian jury of his peers).  He allows the high to be high and the low to be low as he questions them. Socrates never claims to know too much.  This is because a true philosopher questions himself even more than he questions others.  He is always evaluating his own efforts even as he is questioning others.  The acid eats at itself. Philosophy is acidic, but is also necessary.  It is destructive, but in it’s lower form can also lead to building (re: Declaration of Independence).  Philosophy forces us to take the shattered and splintered experiences we daily collect and make an attempt at a good life.  But philosophy also questions the good life and, further, our conception of "good" and "life". We all have a philosophy in various categories (a dogmatic approach, I should say).  A philosophy of education, of marriage, of health, of everything…but we all don’t sit down and try to put those pieces together to see what our PHILOSOPHY is. It might be helpful, in the name of honesty, pursuit of Truth, and consistency, to cleanse your thoughts.  Cleanse your thoughts, habits, and processes with philosophy.  Take a second to scare the poop out of yourself by being honest and taking into account what you do and why you do it.  Then wash away the unnecessary and keep the necessary.  Repeat when needed :) Socrates was the master of philosophy and said that he knew nothing.  If someone who knows nothing can question himself, I’m sure those of us that are more clever can too :)Filed under: In The Classroom

Among several factors that influence the effectiveness of an eLearning course, choosing the right graphics have been one of my favorites. Graphics make an eLearning engagement more effective. In the entire eLearning development process, there is an important interpaly between instruction design and media development. One cannot do without the other. They share a common goal- to deliver the best learning engagement. Let us look at the three components impacting the planning and design of graphics in the eLearning development lifecycle. Component 1: Instructional Objectives An eLearning module’s instructional goal is the most important component in the planning and design of visuals. There are three major instructional goals for eLearning: To inform To support procedural outcomes To support principle-based outcomes For example, a procedural course includes many graphics that illustrate the screens or equipment the learner is being trained on. Whereas, principle-based courses use a problem centered learning approach in which the visuals illustrate a job setting in which the learner gets a virtual assignment to learn new skills. Component 2: The Learning Ecosystem ELearning development is based on a learner’s background and his/her competencies. This also effects the decisions in choosing visuals. The learner’s existing knowledge influences the type of graphic to improve learning. For example, the design and display of visuals for systems training with the objective of delivering hands-on practice will be quite different from the design and display of visuals for systems training with the objective of delivering acquaintance of process. Component 3: Functionality of the graphic. Usually we talk about graphics in terms of their salient appearance i.e. whether it is an animation, line drawing or a photograph. The effectiveness of a graphic is also determined by its functionality, i.e. what it communicates and how it impacts the learner’s psychology. I did a little research and found commendable categorization of graphic functionalities. Selecting graphics along the 7 functionalities can improve eLearning engagement significantly. 1. Decorative Graphics- These graphics add to the aesthetic appeal of the eLearning course , but should be used only in relevant scenarios. For Example, eLearning avatars help the learners compliment a trainer in a virtual world. 2. Representational Graphics- In such graphics, a virtual environment is created depicting a common work setting. Learners experience the real-work scenario without incurring the risk in learning in a real-work setup. These can be in the form of photographs, drawings or screen captures. 3.Mnemonic Graphics- These graphics aim to translate information into a form that the brain can retain better than in its original form. For example, six levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy can be referred to as below. Keep Calm At All Sporting Events Knowledge Comprehension Application Analysis Synthesis Evaluation 4.Organizational graphics- These graphics show qualitative relationships among the main ideas in a lesson and help the learners follow the eLearning course progression. 5. Relational Graphics- Relational graphics show quantitative relationships among two or more variables. These are in the form of pie charts, bar graphs line graphs etc. 6. Transformational Graphics- The major benefit of transformational graphics is to show changes in objects over time or space. They state changes in the form of processes or procedures in eLearning engagements. For example, two different graphics show the difference in space-time during operating an equipment. 7. Interpretive Graphics- Illustrating ideas or principles can be very helpful with such graphics. Interpretive graphics help in interpreting abstract concepts. For example, an interpretive animation shows the mechanism of action of Digoxin. Creating meaningful experiences in eLearning courses suddenly seems so much interesting than before. Do you know of any other examples of intelligent usage of graphics to spruce up the eLearning engagement? Share them with us here. About the author: Shikha Bhasin works with InfoPro Learning as a communications expert and brings more than 7 years of experience in content development. Shikha has worked with GE, DLF, Genpact and other companies in various roles and helped these companies in content development, training need analysis and eLearning development. The post Tips To Choosing Graphics For eLearning Development appeared first on .

I am writing a book which will be published by Routledge. It provides a description of a range of designs around the 7Cs of Learning Design framework. So far I have 81 designs which are listed below. Any more suggestions for things to include do let me know! Each learning design is anticipated to be around 2 -4 pages and consists of the following components: ·      Overview ·      Description ·      Figure ·      Example ·      Benefits ·      Time needed to implement   1.      Case studies: HEA case studies of good practice 2.      Case studies: LAMS Activity Planner 3.      Design view: Course dimensions 4.      Design view: Course features 5.      Design view: Course map 6.      Design view: Course performance view 7.      Design view: Course view: Pedagogical principles 8.      Design view: Design lifecycle 9.      Design view: Financial view 10.   Design view: Learning outcomes 11.   Design view: Pedagogy profile 12.   Design view: Pedagogy to technology map 13.   Design view: Resource audit 14.   Design view: Storyboard 15.   Design view: Task swimlane 16.   Digital literacies 17.   Framework: 7Cs of Learning Design 18.   Framework: Communication and interaction 19.   Framework: Communities of Inquiry 20.   Framework: Communities of Practice 21.   Framework: Community Indicators framework 22.   Framework: Constructivism framework 23.   Framework: Conversational framework 24.   Framework: E-Moderating framework 25.   Framework: Educational Design 26.   Framework: Pedagogy framework 27.   Framework: Personal Inquiry framework 28.   Framework: REAP framework 29.   Framework: Research-Policy intervention framework 30.   Guidelines: An overview of learning design 31.   Guidelines: Educause 7 things you should know about 32.   Guidelines: Facets of learning 33.   Guidelines: Olnet diagram 34.   Guidelines: OPAL guidelines 35.   Guidelines: Using OER repositories 36.   LMS template: Calendar view 37.   LMS template: Problem-Based Learning 38.   LMS template: Project/Case study view 39.   LMS template: Topic view 40.   Pedagogical Pattern: Discussion group 41.   Pedagogical Pattern: Jigsaw 42.   Pedagogical Pattern: Pyramid 43.   Pedagogical Pattern: Think Pair Share 44.   Pedagogical Pattern: SEMINARS (Ped Patterns Project)) 45.   Pedagogical Pattern: Learning to teach and learning to learn (Ped Patterns Project) 46.   Pedagogical Pattern: Fourteen Pedagogical Patterns (Ped Patterns Project) 47.   Pedagogical Pattern: Brainstorming 48.   Pedagogical Pattern: Simulation 49.   Pedagogical Pattern: Thinking aloud pair problem solving 50.   Pedagogical Pattern: Enriching the learning process 51.   Principles: Merrill’s Principles of Instructional Design 52.   Principles: SKG Designing for learning spaces principles 53.   Taxomony: Learning Activity Taxonomy 54.   Taxonomy: Bloom’s Taxonomy 55.   Tool: CADMOS 56.   Tool: Cloudworks 57.   Tool: CompendiumLD 58.   Tool: LAMS 59.   Tool: Learning Designer 60.   Tool: MOT+ 61.   Tool: Phoebe 62.   Tool: WebCollage 63.   Toolkit: 8LEM 64.   Toolkit: Cognet toolkit 65.   Toolkit: HEARTS toolkit 66.   Toolkit: Media Advisor 67.   Workshop: 7Cs of Learning Design 68.   Workshop: Carpe Diem 69.   Workshop: Design challenge 70.   Workshop: OER 71.   Workshop: Pedagogical Patterns 72.   Workshop: Tools for deign 73.   Personas 74.   3E framework 75.   Merrill’s 5 design principles 76.   Constructivist Learning Environments 77.   The nQuire framework 78.   3D pedagogy framework 79.   The 6 design frames 80.   A framework for Web 2.0 Learning Design 81.   Community of Inquiry framework

I think that you should be aware of what you post online because if there is something personal on the other people can see what you have posted and you might regret it later in the future.  You don’t want to post anything that would hurt anyone or even you or put you in danger or put anyone else in that situation. So I think that you should be careful about what you post because it could hurt you or someone else or even if you post something mean or send something mean it could come back to you and you could get in some big trouble. So like be careful on site’s like Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and even Twitter, because a lot of people could see that and if you hurt some one on the internet or talk bad about them they could do a lot of bad things. If you post mean things online then the other people see and then they could harm themselves or the people around them. So I think that it is very important so that we be safe online. So I think that it is very important that we think before we post or send. Its very important that you use Online Safety.

The image below is of neither a house nor a home.  Building materials serve as the foundation that is the very beginning of the structure that may become a home. In a similar fashion, why do many educators think that simply teaching isolated facts or aggregations of data IS education? You can’t do anything with facts and data unless they are glued together with the adhesiveness of meaning. Students are ill served when they can answer short sighted multiple choice questions, but can’t make sense of the information found within those questions and answers. We would all shudder to think of a child living on property where the material for a home were scattered about in pile after unattached pile.  That’s what we do, however, when we teach to a standardized test.  That’s what we do when we ask students to simply memorize facts without giving them time to reflect on how those facts might fit in relation to each other and other units or disciplines. That’s what happens when we don’t afford students choice in our lessons and activities. Why doesn’t that make us shutter? I was listening to Malcolm Gladwell a few days ago on the A.M. side of the radio dial.  He’s an interesting thinker and has crazy hair.  Both of these facts attract my attention. His little nuggets of wisdom keep it. He was asked by host Dennis Prager, "You are a big picture thinker.  How do you connect the dots and create an unique view of how the world looks or works?" Gladwell, "Most people are information rich, but theory poor." I stopped listening at that point (Danish Philosophy Sorren Kierkegaard once said that if you read his book and something meaningful occurs to you, drop the book and reflect).  Seriously, I turned the radio off. Mr. Gladwell said in that one sentence everything that bothers me about modern education. Please understand that this post isn’t a polemic against modern education.  Many things make me very happy about where we are in eduction, but our system isn’t perfect and so … some things about modern education really bother me. At the top of that list?  We watch daily as intellectually homeless students walk by with building material in hand…not knowing how to build the home they will be moving into shortly. One way to begin the home building project?  Release some power in your classroom to the students.  Another way?  Allow them to reflect on their own learning in class and then share (if they want). This post, itself, is a reflect of a discussion Jessica D. and I had earlier today on the topic of reflection. Reflecting on our successes and failures are an integral part of strengthening the connections that we initially make when we learn or take action. Get it right once and we might be lucky. Get it right twice after reflecting and we’ve learned something.Filed under: In The Classroom Tagged: education, gladwell, homeless, homeless students, malcolm gladwell, modern education, standardized testing

While accessibility has been a part of the eLearning discussion for the past several years, accessibility has come to the forefront this past year as Section 508 Compliance has been increasingly enforced across the learning industry. Section 508, an amendment to the Rehabilitation act of 1973, requires all Federal agencies to make their technology accessible to those with disabilities. The recent crackdown on agencies that haven’t adhered to Section 508 has made waves in the eLearning world, sparking action and discussion. Accessibility has long been a priority within eLearning. Whether it be for training or learning, access to information is key and should not be withheld from anyone. So here are some short term and long term goals that a learning or publishing organization should plan for: Short-term Goals Continuously improve usability for people with disabilities: Updating websites and learning assets quarterly, including accessibility improvements resulting from customer feedback as well as rigorous third-party accessibility testing. Provide access to as many titles as possible: Accessibility standards to be global for as many as learning and educational assets possible. Serve the widest possible range of disabilities: Consider the needs of people with visual impairments, learning disabilities and mobility concerns.  Long-term Goals Provide/procure a low-barrier, commercial alternative for all learning and education accessibility needs through partnerships. Go beyond content accessibility standards and adopt universal design accessibility standards.  Achieving Section 508 compliance in eLearning Elearning courses typically consist of the following components: Non-text Elements Graphical User Interface Course Pages Section 508 can be applied to the above components in many ways: As Text Embedded in Images and Graphics: Alternate text (alt text) can be provided to describe the images in totality. Example of a simple graphic- Alternate Text: "A Microsoft Project window with the Standard toolbar highlighted is displayed." Example of a complex  graphic- Alternate Text: "The Above graph shows traffic density on Ring Road and Outer Ring Road between 6:00 AM and 10:00 AM measured in cars per minute. Density on Ring Road ranges from a high of 210 at 9:00 AM, down to 100 cars per minute at 6:00 AM. On Outer Ring Road, the density increases from 92 at 6:00 AM to 165 at 8:30 AM, and then down to 120 at 10:00 AM." For Animations: Animations can be made Section 508 Compliant by Adding audio (voiceover) for the script content Adding keyboard alternatives for launching the animation Adding keyboard alternatives for the controls in the animation window Adding voiceover for the animation steps, synchronized with  the animation Adding transcript of the voiceover of the animation steps/ closed captioning For Audio: Audio used anywhere in the course can be made 508 Compliant by using text based transcripts For Video: Videos used in the screen can be made Section 508 compliant by Using audio (voiceover) for the script content Adding keyboard alternative for launching the video Adding keyboard alternatives for the controls in the video player Adding voiceover synchronized with the video steps or actions  For GUI: The GUI can be made Section 508 compliant by Keyboard-based navigation of GUI controls Keyboard-based navigation of the Table of Contents Audio cues for text, buttons, options, and other screen objects  All-in all, it is feasible to make your training Section 508 Compliant. Would suggest you to try above options and write to us about your experiences and queries about Section 508 compliance in the context of organizational learning and education. About the author: Mansi Jagga is a marketing communication specialist and drives the external communications for InfoPro Learning. She is an avid reader and is very fond of reflecting on knowledge learnt. The post Tips To Section 508 Compliance in Elearning appeared first on .