How To Reduce eLearning Development Costs Once upon a time, I was commissioned to work as part of a team on an extensive set of learning courses for a well-known business school in the USA. We are talking turn of the century here, so it’s some time ago in terms of learning technology. Back then it took us 18 months -and tens of thousands of dollars- to design, build, and deliver 60 hours of high value learning content. It was cutting edge at the time, but in today’s world it would be considered too costly and would be out of date before it was even deployed. Since the old tricks no longer work, let’s look at 3 ways modern eLearning tools can help you reduce eLearning development costs and deliver your eLearning quickly, cheaply, and without compromising quality. 1. Use pre-built themes. Instead of spending time and resources on eLearning design, use a pre-built theme that has been designed using instructional best practices and with learner experience in mind. Ready-to-go themes help you start authoring content faster, which means you can get your courses out to learners more quickly. A theme is a set of basic building blocks for your project. You’ll want a theme where everything on the page is editable so you can add your own branding, colors, fonts, and imagery. Pre-built themes let you build afresh or modify existing themes so you don’t have to waste time (and money) setting up your courses from scratch each time. Some authoring tools like Elucidat come with pre-built themes and also give you complete flexibility to create your own bespoke themes. Here's a quick look at Elucidat's themes: 2. Use Master courses. Master courses are reusable courses that you can use to base any new project on. Any changes that you make to a Master course will automatically update to all of the linked projects. This feature saves you heaps of time because you don’t have to manually go through and make changes to each project one at a time. Why is this good? Well, here are two examples to show you how Master courses can save you time and money: Example 1: You need to create and maintain similar projects for different internal departments. Imagine you need to personalize each course with each department’s colors and contact details. By using a Master course, you can make the course once and then release slightly different versions for each department. If you need to update all these courses, you can make the change to the content in your Master course and that change will automatically push to each of the linked projects. Example 2: You need to create courses in multiple languages. A Master course is a time saver for when you need to release courses in multiple languages. You can create your Master course with the pages and assessments set up and then create a project for each language you need to release. Now instead of starting from scratch for each language, you use the base structure and edit the content accordingly. 3. Build once, deliver on multiple devices. The Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) phenomenon is enabling more and more learners to use their own devices to take courses online. Here are the 4 reasons why I’m a big advocate of BYOD learning: It increases engagement with your content. It saves time and money: A sales person out on the road can learn without physically being in the office. Learners can complete courses while commuting to and from work. Learners can focus more on the learning if they are using a device they are comfortable using. Whether you like it or not, BYOD learning is here. This means you need to make sure your courses are accessible on all devices. You need responsive designs that adapt to the screen size on which it is being viewed. Instead of creating multiple versions of eLearning for different devices, you can reduce eLearning development costs by using a tool that is multi-device compatible. Authoring tools that let you create and test responsive eLearning can save a lot of duplicate work. Take a look at this screenshot that shows how Elucidat enables you quickly test responsive eLearning: eLearning inspiration: Learn how Utility Warehouse used Elucidat to deliver responsive eLearning to 46,000 leaders Final takeaways Instead of building brand new designs each and every time, use pre-built themes to get started quickly. Instead of starting from scratch for every new course, use a Master course with a base structure that can be used and tweaked for your future projects. Instead of creating multiple versions of eLearning for different devices, use Elucidat's authoring tool which makes it easy to build and test responsive eLearning. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Litmos LMS Tutorial: Litmos LMS Reports Overview This Litmos LMS Tutorial is an overview of Litmos LMS Reports including Quick Reports, Usage Reports, Ecommerce Reports and Creating a Report. The post Litmos LMS Tutorial: Litmos LMS Reports Overview appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

What Your Learning Management System Doesn't Do (But TalentLMS Does) eLearning is a very competitive industry. Vendors compete on features, performance, ease of use, stability, extensibility, support, pricing, and lots of other things. That’s part of what keeps us motivated to work on new TalentLMS features, enhancements, and updates (like the recent update about TalentLMS in Cloud that we've released mid-May). And, judging from the results, we are probably doing a few things right. Besides the seamless Cloud-based turnkey experience and our well praised support, here are 14 things TalentLMS does that your Learning Management System doesn’t. Converts presentations to videos. If you've been doing seminars, internal training, and so on, you probably have tons of PowerPoint presentations. Problem is, they are not that exciting as a training material, and they also require a compatible viewer program. TalentLMS lets you automatically convert these presentations to video for incorporation in your online lessons. Consumes content directly from Wikipedia, YouTube, Prezi, etc. Speaking of incorporating external content into your courses, internet is filled to the brim with excellent eLearning material in all kinds of formats. Instead of manually copying and pasting or making do with links to it, TalentLMS allows you to directly consume content from Wikipedia, YouTube, Prezi, SlideShare, and many more sources. Content can be seamlessly integrated with your own material and reused in many lessons and courses. Sends reports at scheduled intervals (to anyone you choose). You probably know that TalentLMS has a powerful reporting system that gives you insights to all aspects of your eLearning portal and its users. But did you know that you can also automate your learning reports in TalentLMS and have them sent at scheduled intervals to specific recipients? Perfect for keeping your instructors or pointy-haired boss in the loop. Lets you build custom reports and perform mass actions. Besides the default report types that TalentLMS provides, you can also go wild creating your own custom Learning Managent System reports (using the same powerful filters and tools that are available for the default report types). Even better, TalentLMS lets you perform mass actions on the results of a report, updating, notifying, or even deleting multiple items (students, instructors, groups, courses, etc.) at once. Integrates video conferences. Web based eLearning is great for giving students the freedom to study at their own pace. Sometimes though, a little face-to-face (or "real time") session is indispensable. With the video conference tools TalentLMS offers, you can have the best of both worlds. You get not only audio and video conference capabilities, but also real time chat and a virtual whiteboard to boot. Even better, video sessions can be scheduled and handled just like normal lessons, through TalentLMS’ support for instructor-led training. What distinguishes us is that video conferencing comes as part of the main TalentLMS offering. You do not have to integrate, install, or buy a 3rd party video conference subscription; it just works for you! Lets you collect subscription payments. While TalentLMS is ideal for internal training inside a business, it also allows you to build your own full blown eLearning school and sell courses. And when it comes to getting paid, it also allows you to offer subscription based courses. Subscriptions allow your end-users to have access to all of your paid courses by paying a single monthly fee, as opposed to a per course, one time purchase. Subscriptions currently only work with the Stripe payment service, but they will soon be available through PayPal too. Lets you build custom user types. Besides the default built-in user types (Instructor, Student, and Administrator) TalentLMS comes with, the software also lets you build your own custom user types. You can add your own fields and information to these custom user types (depending on your business needs) and define their privileges and permissions in excruciating detail (if that’s your thing). Integrates with Stripe. For those of you selling courses, TalentLMS offers built-in integration with Stripe, the fastest growing payment processor in the world. And for those whose region is not covered by Stripe, we also offer PayPal support. Between the two services, TalentLMS covers 99% of the world (the rest is probably Antarctica, so not much business interest there) and allows you to handle payments from all major credit card companies. Offers gamification. Adding a little bit of competition makes for a more interesting and challenging learning experience. In modern web terms this is called "gamification" and TalentLMS offers that too (surprise, surprise). Gamification takes the techniques that game designers use to engage players, and applies them to non-gaming experiences such as learning. TalentLMS's built-in gamification options include "points" (score), "badges" (medals), "levels", "leaderboards" (high score lists), and "rewards" (bonuses). Connects with 200+ services through Zapier. TalentLMS was the first learning platform to offer integration with the Zapier platform, a service that enables web apps to communicate letting the user easily build coordinated tasks. This enables TalentLMS to integrate with any Zapier-compatible web app, a list which includes Dropbox, Evernote, Salesforce, Gmail, Twitter, MailChimp, and Trello. Lets you share courses even with non-registered users. TalentLMS was designed with flexibility in mind, and the knowledge that one-size doesn't always fit all. So while some other platforms may force an impenetrable wall between registered and non-registered users, TalentLMS allows you to share a course with anybody, regardless of his registration status, if you so wish. Offers social signups for your end-users.  Why force new users to open another account for your eLearning portal? TalentLMS lets them register through their social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.), removing one extra step that doesn’t offer much (if anything) to their experience. Offers a free account for life. While we run a commercial service (and a very successful one at that), we still understand that some people want to evaluate our offering risk-free, while some small businesses, especially in developing countries, might not be able to afford our full featured plans. Instead of just offering a limited-period demo account, we did something better: we offer a starting plan that allows for up to 5 users and up to 10 courses, free for life. TalentLMS isn't superstitious. But we added a 14th item in this list, just in case you are :-) Conclusion Here we are: 14 things TalentLMS does but your Learning Management System doesn't. Sure, you may find that the latest version of some competitive Learning Management System does a few of them. But I guarantee you that it doesn’t do most. And then there’s our ease of use, performance, stability, and pricing to consider. So, take TalentLMS for a test online drive (now, with our free-for-life starting plan) and see for yourself. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Instructional design is the most significant aspect of a good eLearning course. Being an instructional designer or a learning technology professional, you need to design the course in such a way that it should assist the learner in applying what he has learnt to his work. So, how do you get better? Well, one way is by reading and learning. In the process of designing a successful eLearning course,you need to refer many resources that can help you. I would now like to share an info-graphic which lists 7 must read eBooks for Learning Technology Professionals. I hope you like this post. Do share your thoughts! Related PostsOur Top 4 Blogs that you Might Have Missed this Week7 Tips to Design Better E-learning Courses - An Infographic5 Ways to Make E-learning Interesting - An Infographic

According to a report published by Docebo, eLearning revenues from Europe are likely to touch $ 8.1 billion by 2016. Small and mid-sized businesses are finding it easy to provide technology-enabled learning to their employees at affordable prices. Moreover, online courses can be taken anywhere, anytime, and this useful feature helps overcome barriers such as availability of time and space. Training managers of many small and mid-sized business firms think that eLearning is not a viable option to train their employees as it is costly and does not fit in their allotted budget. But, the fact is that eLearning courses can be developed quickly, at low cost, without compromising on the quality. Do you wish to know why eLearning is a viable option for small and mid-sized businesses? Then, check out this info-graphic. Thus, eLearning not only saves your time and money but also enables you to focus on other business activities. Hope you find this post useful. Do share your views. Related PostsLMS for Your Organization - How to Select The Best Fit? Part2: WordPress OptionRequired Skills for Project Managers!Why Is It Easier for Small and Mid-Sized Businesses to Adopt ELearning than Ever Before?

What is Divergent Thinking? Divergent thinking is a problem solving approach wherein learners are encouraged to consider a variety of different solutions, rather than just providing them with a limited number of conclusions. By doing this, learners have the opportunity to analyze a myriad of solutions and strategies to find out which one will work best for the particular problem or challenge. At its core, divergent thinking is all about using creative, analytical, and lateral thinking skills to arrive at a viable answer. According to Hudson (1967), divergent thinking learners are able to elaborate upon ideas and concepts when a stimulus is provided, which allows them to open their minds up to a number of different possibilities and outcomes. Applied to eLearning, this not only helps them to more effectively solve problem autonomously in the virtual classroom, but also in the real world. In this article, I’ll share 4 best practices and 5 tips for integrating divergent thinking into your next eLearning course. 4 Best Practices For Applying Divergent Thinking In eLearning To create an eLearning environment that encourages creative problem solving, keep the following divergent thinking best practices in mind: Observation comes before feedback. Constructive criticism, praise, and all other forms of feedback should only come after observing the learner and their thinking processes. Every idea counts. No matter whether the idea seems completely random or off-topic, it still holds value in a divergent thinking learning environment. Encourage learners to gather as many ideas as possible throughout the problem-solving process. Encourage differing opinions. Every learner is going to have their own opinion, and that’s the beauty of divergent thinking. Encourage all members of your audience to share their experience, insights, and opinions in order to view the problem from multiple perspectives. Combine unique ideas. In some cases there may be multiple different solutions to a single problem. Divergent thinking is all about collaborating, sharing, and combining unique ideas to arrive at a creative solution that works. One idea might even lead to another, which leads to another, and so on, until the problem is resolved. 5 Tips To Use Divergent Thinking In eLearning Turn the tables on your learners. Rather than presenting your learners with a question, why not take their creativity a step further by encouraging them to come up with their own problems to solve. This gives them the opportunity to solve real world issues and challenges they may encounter on a daily basis, while sharpening their lateral thinking skills. Foster a divergent thinking online community. If you want your learners to broaden their thinking horizons and share every idea that comes to mind, they must feel supported. They simply won’t be willing to provide input if they feel as though they will be judged or criticized for their opinions. For this very reason, it’s important to cultivate a divergent thinking environment where learners feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and experience with their peers. Let them know that they divergent thinking is not only welcomed, but a necessary part of the learning process. Hold frequent brainstorming sessions. Throughout the duration of the eLearning course hold brainstorming sessions that center on the subject matter. Incorporate a brainstorming session into a group collaboration exercise, or ask your learners to brainstorm before they begin a self-guided assignment. Firstly, however, you will want to set up the ground rules of the brainstorming session. Ask your learners to begin by analyzing the problem at-hand for a few moments and clearly stating what needs to be resolved. Also, encourage them to respect the ideas and thoughts of others by giving everyone the opportunity to speak. Challenge the status quo. This tip is actually two-fold. Not only should you challenge commonly accepted ideas, but you should also encourage your learners to challenge the ideas of their peers in a respectful manner. Prompt your learners to question the status quo by asking them to examine why a task or problem is approached in a particular way, and why this approach is often the most popular. If learners have ideas that conflict, encourage them to explain further why their idea is better and how they believe it will solve the problem. You can also spark the discussion yourself, by adding a shocking or contradictory statement that prompts your learners to question "the norm". Make the most of mistakes. Mistakes can be powerful instruments of learning, if we know how to use them effectively. Encourage your learners to reflect upon mistakes they make during the learning process, as well as solutions that led to undesirable or unexpected outcomes. Let them know that it’s perfectly acceptable to take risks, as long as they know how to make the most out of the mistakes that may result from those risks. Use divergent thinking to your advantage by using these best practices and tips when creating your eLearning course. By encouraging your learners to think outside the box and consider multiple different solutions to the problem, you are equipping them with the skills they need to tackle any task in and out of the virtual learning environment. Divergent thinking goes hand-in-hand with creative thinking. If you’d like to learn how to use creativity to your advantage when designing your next eLearning course, the article 7 Tips To Use Learners' Creativity In eLearning features 7 tips that will help you develop a compelling creativity-driven eLearning experience. References: Hudson, L. (1967), Contrary Imaginations; a psychological study of the English Schoolboy Harmondsworth: Penguin This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Litmos LMS Tutorial: Export Reports With A Custom Data Format This Litmos LMS Tutorial presents how to export almost any information in the LMS by using custom data reports. This video explains the steps to export this report and import it into Excel in a CSV format for importing into another system or to sort through data. The post Litmos LMS Tutorial: Export Reports With A Custom Data Format appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

It is an accepted truth that employees are the valued resources of any organization. Organizational success depends entirely on the performance of the employees. In order to face their competitors, organizations have to ensure efficient employees who are capable of updating themselves in the continuously changing business environment. Now, companies spend lots of money to train and educate their employees. The importance of training and developing the employees’ skills is rapidly growing. As organizations are spread across different parts of the world, it becomes difficult to train their employees with the outdated and conventional methods of learning. Therefore, eLearning is increasingly considered as the ideal medium to train the employees of these global organizations. The online medium enables anytime, anywhere learning and allows companies to provide the latest updates to their employees. According to a report by IBM, for every $1 that a company spends on eLearning tools and strategies, it can receive $30 worth of productivity. Understand the benefits of eLearning  E-learning provides many benefits to the organization. It will reduce overall training budgets and saves 50% of the training time. Also, there is no need of printing training manuals, and the online medium helps enhance course completion rates. Apart from the cost benefits, eLearning enhances employee retention. The rapid authoring tools allow updates which enable the employees to keep themselves up-to-date with their training. Organizations should devise a comprehensive approach to train their employees, which includes eLearning. Last but not the least, it is to be noted that eLearning is not appropriate for all training needs. You should check which of your training programs can go online. For example, the ‘e-course’ on ‘Violence, Conflict and Fragility’ costs 10 times less and reached 13 times more participants than a regular face-to-face course (World Bank, 2013).  Check for appropriate technology to deliver effective eLearning  E-learning implementation needs a good technological platform like the latest browser versions, software accessibility, minimum hardware, etc. In order to avoid interruptions and distractions while taking up the online course, the employees should be provided with the right technology. Also, online learning is vulnerable to technological failures. In order to overcome the technological failures, good bandwidth and the latest browser versions must be installed. Search for appropriate leadership that supports eLearning  It is a well-known fact that the primary force behind all fruitful initiatives is leadership. A higher authority in the organization should take the initiative to educate employees on the importance and benefits of eLearning. A leader should be able to monitor and track the performance of the employees undergoing the eLearning course. Simultaneously, leaders in the organisation should be able to help the employees undergoing eLearning courses, by clarifying their doubts. Check whether eLearning is a part of your training strategy  The main thing before opting for eLearning for your organization is to check whether eLearning is an existing training strategy of your organization. When you opt for eLearning, you should provide your learners with other opportunities in order to incorporate other aspects such as socialization, enculturation, etc., apart from training. This makes the acceptance of online learning as a feasible, reliable learning environment easy. These are a few things that need to be considered before opting for eLearning. In my next blog, I will list 3 other aspects to be borne in mind. Please do share your thoughts and stay tuned for the second post. Related PostsHow to Develop Effective Online Courses to Impart Product TrainingE-learning Outsourcing - Free E-bookBenefits of Using E-learning in Organizations - An Infographic

Why Using Storytelling For Compliance Is Effective If you reach into the depths of your memory, chances are that the first words you remember from childhood are "Once upon a time…". You loved a great story back then; you probably still do! And that’s why storytelling is such a vital component of any eLearning program that we develop at Interactive Services. A story taps into something very primal - the promise of a narrative that will reward us simply for listening. The attention span of the learner is assailed on all sides, from text messages or email to TV; whatever may be happening right then in the life of the learner. So to demand attention, the "hook" of a great story is extremely powerful. What Sort Of Stories Work Best? 4 Tips On How To Use Storytelling For Compliance A starting point to developing a story is to make it realistic to your audience. Develop a main character who belongs in the world of the learner, and give him/her a background, a problem to solve, and a positive outcome. For example, for an Insider Trading eLearning course, create an everyman character - it could be you or me - who has no intent to breach compliance rules, but who may trip up due to lack of knowledge, or lack of care. In filling out the details of the story, keep it conversational. Write as you would speak, keeping it as informal as possible. Remember, too, that you can localize your stories, placing them in a context that will be most recognizable to the learner. For example, you could set your Insider Trading story in a pharmaceutical firm, but don’t assume that everyone will know all the complex medical jargon and language used by the Pharma industry. Another key to successful storytelling is to keep the story short. You need to do this particularly when it comes to eLearning, when there are so many other demands on the learner’s time. The moral or learning point of the story can be just as powerful if you keep it brief. For example, in our Insider Trading example, present a dilemma and give the learner a choice of actions. You don’t need a lengthy preamble. It’s enough to say "You meet a friend who tells you his firm is about to acquire a competitor…" and get straight into the story. Make sure the story has a beginning, middle, and an end. Typically, this will involve the hero/heroine being faced with a challenge, teasing out how best to address the problem, then implementing the action needed to solve the problem - and creating a better reality in the process. For example, the consequences of a breach of Insider Trading rules can be severe. So make sure you leave enough time to outline the outcomes. And try to finish on a positive. Focus on the disaster averted rather than the crime discovered. Finally, remember that using storytelling for compliance is a powerful method of getting the compliance learner to change behavior rather than simply absorbing information. A great story can motivate, encourage, and inspire - leading to a new way of thinking and a new way of behaving. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

According to the Horizon Report, 2011, by 2015, about 80% of people will be accessing the Internet from mobile devices only, with the main focus on education. Many organizations have developed their online courses using Flash and older authoring tools. However, courses developed using these software may not be compatible with mobile devices. But, today, most people use mobile devices to access information. So, it’s necessary to convert you legacy online courses to HTML5, a format that works well on mobile devices. But, how can you transform your existing eLearning courses into mobile-friendly training content which can be accessed anytime, anywhere? Well, you can make legacy online courses mobile compatible, quickly and effectively, using Articulate Storyline. Articulate Storyline is a widely used rapid authoring tool. According to a survey, conducted by the E-learning Guild, in 2013, this powerful eLearning development software is the preferred choice of most online course developers. It has several in-built features which make it ideal to migrate your legacy eLearning content to HTML5. To find out what they are, check out the presentation Articulate Storyline for Converting Legacy Online Courses into HTML5. Click here to download this presentation Hope you find this post informative. Please do share your views. Related PostsRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key Features5 Reasons to Convert Legacy E-learning Courses Using Articulate StorylineHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?