Lots of ways and tools to capture the expertise of a subject matter expert.Post from: The eLearning CoachTools For Capturing SME Knowledge

This article first appeared in e-Learning Insights from the E-Learning Network (ELN) as part of their 24 Tips series. If you are interested in web and UI design it’s likely you will have come across the great skeuomorphism debate that’s currently raging around Apple. Until a few months ago I didn’t know what skeuomorphism meant but now that I understand the concept I think it’s useful to explore its relevance to e-learning design. So what is skeuomorphism? Wikipedia defines it as: A skeuomorph is a physical ornament or design on an object copied from a form of the object when made from another material or by other techniques. For example a calendar application which displays the days organised on animated month pages in imitation of a paper wall calendar. Skeuomorphic designs are ones that mimic real world objects. Here are some classic examples - all of them iOS apps. Skeuomorphism is popular because people are familiar with the real world objects mimicked and also because they have a certain warm and comfy aesthetic. However it’s an approach that has some failings. Firstly, not all of the replicated real world objects worked very well in the first place. My password app Mecrets uses a safe tumbler which although initially fun to play with becomes a real pain when trying to get access to a password in a hurry. And why should an address book look like a Rolodex when most users will never have used a Rolodex in their lives. More significantly, skeuomorphism is at odds with responsive designs - all that lovely wood and leather is a problem since it usually relies on bitmap images not vector shapes. Windows 8 takes a non-skeuomorpic approach and its tile based minimalist look works well across a wide range of devices. Although we never referred to it using a skeuomorphic label, skeuomorphism has been popular in e-learning design. I’ve worked on many projects that have adopted a skeuomorphic approach and generally if you present designs that echo real world objects clients like them better than more minimalist designs. But have we taken skeuomorphism as far as it will go? Professionally I think we have but e-learning design newcomers - and especially those using rapid tools like Articulate Studio or Storyline will undoubtedly continue to favour the approach. Tom Kuhlmann regularly posts free resources that are skeuomorphic - the desktop, post-it notes, photo frames and the blackboard all being particular popular in rapid e-learning designs. Kineo have recently been championing the responsive approach for e-learning design primarily because of the need to present learning content on a wide range of devices, but responsive designs are also inherently non-skeuomorphic (the need to re-flow content and interface elements such as buttons and data entry fields makes skeuomorphic tricky to implement). If other content developers follow this trend, and it’s very likely now that clients want their e-learning on all devices, then it’s likely we will be seeing fewer skeuomorphic designs across the board. My next e-learning storyboard is definitely going to much more minimalist - provided I can persuade the client to ditch all that wood, metal and leather. The post Skeuomorphism in e-Learning appeared first on Designed For Learning.

How to adapt in-person classroom training to a virtual learning experience.Post from: The eLearning CoachELC 006: Creating Virtual Classrooms And Webinars

These resources may give you ideas and strategies for approaches to visual design.Post from: The eLearning Coach21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas

The post Learning Technologies 2013 Show Tour appeared first on Designed For Learning.

Help learners transfer previous knowledge to a new concept with analogies.Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Write Better Analogies For Learning

Learning Technologies is the main conference/show for the e-learning industry in the UK. This year it neatly overlapped with the educational technology show BETT so I managed to get to both of them over a couple of days in January. Learning Technologies is both a conference and a trade show. I didn’t get to the conference this year but there is lots going on in the show to keep anyone busy for a full day. I actually presented one of the free show seminars with the team from Sponge - our subject was ‘Brain friendly e-learning’ and specifically what we can do in an e-learning course to help the brain retain more stuff. There’s another blog post on this soon. If like me you missed the conference you can see the videos/presentations here: Learning Technologies 2013 Conference Videos and Presentations This year there were six seminar theatres within the show and mostly they appeared pretty busy with seats full and others standing in the aisles. I always use the show to catch-up on the various companies in the e-learning business. Learning Technologies is one of those shows that you simply have to be seen at so as you can expect all the major players were there, and usually in their hard won stand locations. So was there anything new this year? Not much actually. It seems that m-learning is being dropped as something separate to e-learning - the aim of the game now is multi-device compatibility. Kineo are promoting a responsive web design approach while others are sticking to more conventional layouts based of course on HTML5. There were a few new e-learning design and development companies exhibiting so clearly DIY authoring hasn’t completely killed the market for custom development at £10k-£15k per fully interactive hour. E-Learning Brothers at Learning Technologies 2013 As far as DIY tools are concerned Articulate had a bigger stand this year and the Articulate guru Tom Kuhlmann was there to sing the praises of Storyline and to give us little tasters of Studio 13. I actually saw a version of Engage 13 in action on Tom’s laptop so clearly we can’t be too far away from full beta testing. e-Learning Brothers were also there all the way from Utah promoting their bolt on templates, players, and other stuff for the most popular DIY authoring tools. There was a new UK authoring tool called Bricklayer from Training Bricks. It’s entirely browser based and looks pretty powerful but the fact that it’s priced similarly to Storyline and not yet HTML5 capable is likely to mean that it will struggle to get a hold in the DIY market. A short video review coming soon. On the platform front there was nothing significant but one new entrant in the market is LearnUpon from my home town of Dublin. Their LMS is aimed primarily at training companies and is priced very competitively for those looking for a starter LMS. Of particular value from a learning business perspective is the fact that it supports multiple portals so a training company can deliver a branded online learning experience to a number of different customers using the same LMS instance. You can get started with LearnUpon for $99 for up to 250 active users - that’s an attractive start point for a small training company who are just getting started with e-learning. Full review to follow. Talking Brain Friendly Learning with the Sponge Team For a quick video tour of the show see: Learning Technologies 2013 Show Tour   The post Learning Technologies 2013 appeared first on Designed For Learning.

Align your instructional design with the latest research findings.Post from: The eLearning CoachELC007: Leverage How The Brain Works

Use the comic style to motivate and sustain attention.Post from: The eLearning CoachCreating A Comic Style For Learning

A social learning guru once suggested that my company name was misleading since it was impossible to design learning. Her  argument was that learning is something that happens instinctively and that you can’t design it or force it in any way. Was she right? Is it not possible to design learning? Maybe not but we can design for learning. We may not be able to design the actual learning that people do but what we can do is design a resource, an experience or an intervention that encourages, stimulates or facilitates learning - and this applies equally to the classroom and the online environment. When clients buy e-learning they often start by giving us a list of learning objectives. Our task as learning designers is then to design a resource that will result in learning by those who go through it. Ultimately clients want their learners to have all learnt the same thing, but in practice what they learn will depend to a large extent on what they already know. Learners will have different ‘aha!’ moments as they work their way through the learning material. As learning designers our key role is to design scaffolds for learning. We take information and knowledge and present it in ways that help learners make sense of it all and which help map the new knowledge to their existing knowledge. To do this we use a wide range of devices, tactics, and strategies. Sometimes these devices, tactics and strategies are embedded in learning design methodologies. Sometimes they are just intuitive approaches honed over years of experience in helping people understand stuff. Learning design isn’t rocket science - every day teachers design learning experiences within a classroom environment. They aren’t designing the learning but they are designing the activities and interventions that will encourage and stimulate learning. And this takes us back to social learning. Social learning is clearly not designed learning. Social learning does happen naturally. However left to its own devices it’s very inefficient and virtually impossible to manage or monitor.  For social learning to be truly effective the environment (technical and cultural) needs to be right and this will need the hand of a designer in its widest sense.   The post Designing for Learning appeared first on Designed For Learning.