6 Selection Criteria To Consider When Searching For The Best Instructional Design PhD Degree You’ve spent years earning your Instructional Design degrees and now it’s time to search for the PhD program that will offer you the opportunity to pursue a high-level career in the world of online education. But how do you find the best Instructional Design PhD Degree that offers you the benefits and outcomes you’re looking for? Below you’ll find a variety of tips that can help you choose the ideal for you Instructional Design PhD program. Research the program’s structure. As PhD programs offer a more advanced and in depth education, they often involve a number of different components. Residencies, thesis or dissertations and end-of-term exams are just a few of the most common curriculum elements you should expect. However, every program has different requirements. As such, you should speak with the admissions coordinator to find out about the program’s structure, as well as how the online courses are delivered.  Will you be receiving your instruction primarily through virtual lectures and online videos, or are there a number of live online classes you will be expected to attend? You need to ensure that the structure of the eLearning course is in-line with your preferred learning style, and that it won’t conflict with other commitments of yours. For instance, if you work full-time and have a busy schedule, you may want to opt for an asynchronous eLearning program that requires very little face-to-face instruction or internships. Inquire about the residency requirements. Although Online Instructional Design PhD programs are supposed to be held at a distance, certain online Instructional Design PhD programs may also require that you complete a residency, which involves face-to-face classes that are held periodically. While some may ask you to attend in-person classes once every semester, others can make it mandatory to come in every month. This can be a major consideration when choosing the best online Instructional Design PhD program for you, especially if you don’t live near the university’s physical location. Therefore, you should inquire about the residency requirements, where the events are held, how often, and if there are any alternatives ways to skip them, such as online chats or virtual classroom sessions. In addition to the program’s residency requirements, you may also want to look into their internship opportunities. Verify whether you will get the chance to gain real world experience by interning, how long the internship will be and where it will be held. Verify whether there is a thesis component to the program. Most of the Instructional Design PhD programs have a thesis or dissertation component. If the program you have in mind does require a thesis, find out what exactly it consists of and how it will be reviewed. Given that a thesis or dissertation is often a prerequisite for graduating, you will probably want to ask about the thesis requirements up front so that you can prepare in time. Look up reviews and online references for faculty members. Most candidates who are pursuing their Instructional Design PhD degrees will look up reviews and ratings for the academic institution under consideration, but searching for references about faculty members can offer a great deal of insight into your search. Find out if they have been published in any notable journals or magazines, and whether they have any areas of expertise that may be in-line with your career objectives. See if there are reviews about them left by past program participants in order to determine if they can offer you the experience and guidance to help you achieve your academic goals. Seek out accredited schools. When employers are looking at your resume, a PhD earned from an accredited school will typically carry more weight than one that is not. Choosing an accredited school also ensures that you are more likely to get a high quality education that meets all academic standards. There are three different types of accreditation: regional, national and specialized. If you are unsure about whether an academic institution on your list is accredited, ask the admissions coordinator or do some online research to check if the university is listed on any accreditation databases. Determine whether the particular program is going to prepare you for desired career outcomes. The education you will be receiving during the PhD program must have practical, real world application, or else it really doesn’t hold any value. As such, it’s important to find a program that is going to prepare you for your desired career path. Regardless of whether you want eventually become a Dean of distance education at a prestigious university or a VP of eLearning for K-12 programs, the program you choose should provide you with the skills and knowledge you need to achieve your goal. To get the best possible education, ensure that every aspect of the program offers you the experience you need to achieve your career outcome. The faculty members, online curriculum and eLearning course structure are all pivotal to not only receiving your PhD degree, but also landing the job that you’ve always wanted. After all, you’ve worked so hard to take your Instructional Design education to the highest level and enrolling in a program that prepares you for real world challenges and situations, can help to ensure your future success. These tips can help you to find the best Instructional Design PhD program that broadens your understanding of eLearning methodologies and technologies. Whether you are pursuing a career in Instructional Design research or as a Director of Education at an online university, earning a PhD opens up a wealth of opportunities in the eLearning industry. Read the article How To Choose The Right PhD Program to find out more tips about how to choose the most suitable for you Ph.D. You will also find a list of some of the Universities you may want to consider. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

"The limits of my language mean the limits of my world." - Ludwig Wittgenstein It is common knowledge that information is conveyed effectively when it is delivered in the native languages of its recipients. Therefore, it did not come as a surprise when Common Sense Advisory reported that Fortune 500 organizations which expanded their translation budgets are 1.5 times more likely than their peers to report an increase in total revenue. One of the key components of the translation expenditure incurred by multinational organizations is the amount spent on rendering their online courses into the native languages of their learners. This is because eLearning is used extensively by these firms. According to Docebo, large and affirmed companies are the primary buyers of eLearning products and services. They account for more than 30% of the online training market clientele, purchasing eLearning solutions worth nearly $17 billion. So, how can firms maximize the ROI on eLearning translations? Let us see. Hope you find this post interesting. How do you translate your eLearning courses? We’d love to know Related Posts3 Things to Consider while Translating Your E-learning Course - An Infographic5 Proven Tips for Better E-learning Translations - An Infographic4 Steps That Simplifies E-learning Translation and Localization Process - An Infographic

Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: How do I use the Canvas in-depth? This Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial presents in-depth how to use the Canvas. Specifically, it covers the following topics: 0:20 - What is the canvas? 0:30 - Understanding the canvas and scaling 1:15 - What will end up in my produced video? 1:25 - Interacting with the canvas 1:30 - Direct manipulation 2:05 - Center by snapping 2:25 - Rotating an image or video 2:40 - Zooming in and out of the canvas 3:30 - Arranging media on the timeline 3:55 - Proceed to "Timeline In-Depth" tutorial or leave feedback The post Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: How do I use the Canvas in-depth? appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

So, why just use technology, when you can build it, right? But first—students need the programming know-how… And that begins with you! Whether you choose to embrace the concept or not, it’s becoming more and more important to equip students with coding skills. Having this knowledge not only strengthens general skills such as critical thinking and problem solving, but it will become invaluable in their future as a wide range of industries are eager to hire individuals with programming abilities. Furthermore, this field that is projected to have 1,000,000 more jobs than there are qualified people to fill them by the year 2020! Seriously! That said—here’s a cool inforgraphic denoting 10 reasons to teach students how to code. A shout out to Brian Aspinall for giving me the green light to share his work (illustrated by the sketchnote guru Sylvia Duckworth) on my space! Classroom Connection: The founders of Google, Microsoft and Facebook all started their journeys with just one line of code. Like these successful entrepreneurs, our students should have the opportunity to create the technology of the future, not just use it! And by the way—I realize that coding sounds intimidating to some, but if your students can type, they can code! And you know what? You can even learn, too! It’s summer! Time to relax and recharge the batteries indeed, but it’s also time to gear up for another year of making a difference in the lives of our students. Why not make a plan to incorporate some coding into your classroom activities!

The Art Of Grabbing Compliance Learners’ Attention Remember the last adventure movie you watched? We’re pretty confident that the first two minutes involved all-out action, with rapid-fire camerawork that seemed to make the action even more frantic. Why did the director do this? Because it set up expectations on your part that the remainder of the movie would be equally rewarding and action-packed. It’s the oldest trick in the book: get people’s attention as quickly as you can, if you want them to listen to you. At Interactive Services we specialize in developing compliance learning programs that engage from the first minute - maximizing the likelihood of getting across your key messages. This is important in any learning program - but particularly in cases where the core content is relatively mundane. In training that’s centered on legislation, compliance or policy, for example, the learner may sometimes be tempted to see the program as a box ticking exercise. Here are 3 key tips to ensure your audience is fully focused throughout the training program. Make it Interactive. Whether in a classroom or eLearning, simply reading or presenting content can fail to grab your learners’ attention. Instead, try to get learners to engage with the content. Make sure that the interaction is meaningful and related to their job in some way and that reflects their role. And rather than giving them a list of bullets to click on in an eLearning course, put the learners in a role play where they are asked to react to a situation and state what they would do next. For example, in your Anti-Money Laundering course, ask the learners to help identify the red flags in a transaction that could indicate money-laundering. Test to see if the learners can do the right thing in the right way, and report the situation appropriately. Focus on Key Points. Companies can be tempted to put everything into the course content - especially when it relates to legislation. It’s understandable. They’re worried that they won’t be covered if someone hasn’t been trained on every aspect of the legislation. But to hold learners’ attention, it's much more impactful to cover the critical points - and show them how to find the detail they need. Focus ruthlessly on what they need to know, what they have to do differently, and what they need to do right now. The emphasis should be on getting someone to do something differently - not simply acknowledge they’ve read something. For example, you can ask a learner to read a policy, but you can’t expect them to remember every word. In your Anti-Money Laundering course, present the learner with a question about dealing with a customer who cannot provide appropriate identification documentation. The question should be hard enough that the learner is forced to open the policy document and find the right answer. That way, you teach the behavior of referring to the policy when in doubt. Keep it Visual. A picture is worth a thousand words - particularly when it comes to learning. But it's not a matter of using ANY picture - you need to look for images that are truly inspirational. If you're running an AML legislative training course, a typical image that is often used is of a washing line with money pegged to it. But if this image has been seen many times before, then the learner will feel that "there’s nothing new going on here". In the age of Instagram, where anyone is capable of taking really great pictures, make sure you invest enough time in getting your pictorial element correct. Use imagery that makes the audience sit up and take notice. For example, avoid the clichés and pick images that resonate. Money laundering impacts individuals, companies and communities. Images that reflect this -an employee being fired, a negative newspaper headline, a community suffering high crime- will show your learners that AML is a vital part of their role. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

"Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn." - Benjamin Franklin Learner engagement is vital to the success of an eLearning course. Involving your learners in online training courses using different activities like games goes a long way in making the courses learner-friendly and engaging. Gamification is the process of including game-based mechanics in non-gaming contexts such as education, work and training etc. The main idea of creating/ using gamification in eLearning courses is to create an interactive and competitive environment which facilitates better comprehension of the subject-matter and retention of knowledge. Here is an info-graphic which lists 5 advantages of developing game-based eLearning courses. Hope you find this post useful. Do share your views. Related PostsWant to Create Winning E-learning Courses? 6 Tips - An InfographicTop 5 Blogs on the Best Practices in Instructional Design How Effective is it to Use Gaming Interactivities in E-learning?

Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Gesture Support for Adobe Captivate 8 Courses This Adobe Captivate 8 tutorial presents how to leverage the instinctive gestures that allow learners to tap, scroll, pinch, and swipe their way through courses. The post Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Gesture Support for Adobe Captivate 8 Courses appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

"People expect to be bored by eLearning - let’s show them it doesn’t have to be like that!" - Cammy Bean How can you develop a top-notch online course that enthralls your people? What are the aspects you need to focus on to create learner delight? Well, before you commence the development of your online course, you need to ask yourself 5 important questions. Here is an info-graphic that lists them and explains why you need to find the right answers to the questions. Hope you find this post interesting. How do you create eLearning courses? We would love to know. Related PostsRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key Features5 Ways to Make E-learning Interesting - An InfographicAssessment Strategy for M-learning

ICFET 2015 is the premier forum for the presentation of technological advances and research results in the fields of Information and Knowledge Management. The idea of  ICFET 2015 is for the scientists, scholars, engineers and students from the Universities all around the world and the industry to present ongoing research activities, and hence to foster research relations between the Universities and the industry. ICFET 2015 Keynote Speakers Prof. Chen-Huei Chou, College of Charleston, SC, USA Prof. Liansheng Tan, Department of Computer Science Central China Normal University，Wuhan 430079，PR. China Prof. D P Sharma, AMIT, AMU MOEFDRE under UNDP & Faculty Ambassador (AI) under IBM’s Cloud Computing Offering -USA The 2015 International Conference on Frontiers of Educational Technologies (ICFET 2015) will be held at the Shanghai Yalong International Hotel (Shangai, China) on July 29-30, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Even though there is always a mind-boggling amount of invaluable info shared on the Discovery Educator Network (DEN), one of the best resources available is the Spotlight on Strategies (S.O.S) series, a must-see DEN favorite designed to provide teachers with simple yet effective instructional practices for using digital content to support student learning. To date, there are 70+ teacher tried and tested strategies featured on the DEN blog and now thanks to Lance Rougeux, Vice President of Learning Communities and Educational Consultants at Discovery Education and all-around DEN tech guru, I am now featuring some of these techniques on my space. Two thumbs up to this guy! So, enough of that. Let’s fast forward to the really good stuff… This week’s spotlight—MVP—is an instructional strategy that reinforces the concept of identifying main idea and supporting details, a super important set of comprehension skills. Big Idea The purpose of this strategy is for students to analyze information to determine the MVP or Most Valuable Point within song lyrics. Dividing a song into verses enables students to analyze smaller pieces of a song and dive deeper for specific information.  By brainstorming and discussing important ideas in a small group setting, students will strengthen skills in the areas of listening, speaking, writing, and summarizing.   Now that I have your attention, all you have to do is click here to snag a PDF version of this super cool strategy which includes info related to materials needed, steps for integrating the MVP strategy into lessons, an example, a graphic organizer for use during instruction and extension activities. There’s even a video overview you can check out here. Pretty cool, eh? And last but certainly not least, here’s a visual to get those wheels turning… Better yet—click here to check out the entire S.O.S. series on the DEN blog! So, there you have it: Another S.O.S. trick to add to your edtech toolbox. Stay tuned for additional ways to activate learning in your classroom… Like what you see? Then take the digital integration challenge by trying to implement the MVP strategy and/or one of these additional ideas into a classroom lesson: » Reading Between the Lines » ABC Summary » 6-Word Stories » What Did They Say? » A-E-I-O-U » Snowball Fight » Whittle It Down » Concept Circles » The Envelope Please » Get Venn-y with It!