Years ago, I struggled with self-image. I struggled so bad that I made excuses as to why I could not go to public events or speak in front of people, other than my students. I was afraid that people would not think that I was "worthy" enough to listen to because I did not look the part. I needed to lose weight and I knew that when people saw me…that’s what they saw. It’s been years since those days and thankfully I no longer feel prisoner to my own self-doubt. As a matter of fact, I would probably consider the last year of my professional life, the best that I have ever had because I have made a point to be ME and proud of it. And then I had a phone call today… It was a person that I know in this industry who wanted to give "ME" advice on branding. I humored him because those calls are always interesting but then he said these words… "I’m going to tell you something that someone told me one day. It hurt me to hear it but I needed to hear it. You are going to need to lose weight to be competitive in this industry. People want someone who is well put together and who is visually appealing. You need to be someone that people want to see on a stage and they want to see someone who takes care of themselves." I paused for a second and after ending the conversation, allowed myself to honestly reflect on what he said and in that moment, I knew that this would be the last time that I took that call. Unless I am missing something, I’ve never signed up for a beauty contest and yet even as grossly inappropriate as this entire conversation is, I know that it happens because in the aftermath of this conversation, I compared notes with friends and a few have talked about how they were told that they need to be more "visually put together" for bigger speaking engagements. One was even told that she used to be "pretty" but is no longer really taking care of herself. Is this where we are? Really??? Talking to someone about health, because honestly we should all care about it…is one thing. Telling someone that they need to look a certain way in order to have a voice is another. It’s wrong and it happens far too often. If you are one who values what you see over what you hear, read and learn…shame on you a million times over. In case you were wondering, many of my friends who are black women in tech get this a great deal except "visually appealing" is translated to "angry looking" and even further that our names should be changed to be more pronounceable or if we have natural hair, we should straighten it to be taken seriously. And here I was thinking that this work we do was about thoughtful ideas and innovation.

Once again #BYOD4L is back to brighten up the dark, wet January days and nights with 5 days of 5C’s getting people connecting, communicating, curating, collaborating and creating. I’m delighted to be part of the organisation team this year along with Neil Withnell, Alex Spiers (with some help from Chrissi). We have a great team of community mentors too, so I’m sure the week is going to be another whirlwind of activity.  The BYOD4L open model really is a great way to get people to share their practice, experiment with new things and get swept up in the twitter chats each evening. There is of course the opportunity to earn a digital badge or two too. So even if you only have 5 minutes over the next five days, I’d urge you to have a look at the #byod4l twitter stream, check out the website, and google+ community. I think you’ll find it worth it. I’ve had a really worth while CPD experience from being a participant, facilitator and now organiser of the event. You can read more about my, and others. experience of open facilitation, in this special edition of Learning and Teaching in Action.  As Alex says in his video introduction to the event it really does bring a little ray of sunshine to January.       Tagged: byod4l

For many of us, the new year represents the perfect opportunity to reflect on where we are, think about where we’d like to go, and make a plan for how we can get there. This is particularly true of students that are looking to make the most of their study… Read More The post 10 Study Tips to Achieve your Goals in 2016 appeared first on ExamTime.

Getting an elearning project off the ground in the New Year? Need some guidance about how to approach the final phase of the process? In this article we’ll look at key steps in evaluating your project. To kick off the New Year, we are examining good practice in setting up an elearning production process. So far we’ve looked at the first four phases: analysis, design, specification and production. In this week’s post we’ll look at the final phase, evaluation. Evaluation involves checking the project against your original specification. It’s important to test the product in all the technical environments that you specified at the start. 1. QA (Quality Assurance) Testing Let’s have a look at QA testing, which typically covers two broad areas: content and functionality. Content is mostly about proofing at this stage, checking that the ‘t’s are crossed and the ‘i’s are dotted. Make sure you check against a style guide. Functionality is mainly technical: does the project behave correctly in all required technical environments? With more browsers and platforms coming onto the market, it’s important you restrict testing to those most appropriate for the project, and ideally, to those you specified at the beginning of the elearning production process. Depending on what you are doing, QA testing can fall under any of the following categories: Multi device learning In 2016, your project may need to work on different devices. Thus, you must test on each device type. Services, such as Browser Stack, enable you to test in different environments, but if the project needs to run on a touch screen device, you should test it on the actual device so you can see how the touch screen behaves. Multi browser testing Browser Stack can help you to quickly test your course on different operating systems and browsers. Remember to test both portrait and landscape views. You can learn more about this in a great article by Elucidat’s Debbie Hill. Stress testing: try to break it Stress testing lets you see how your course performs beyond the specified number of concurrent users. For example, there are services that can help you bombard your course with requests from servers so you can analyze how it handles the increase in traffic. If you are deploying your project on an LMS, you can test the course in situ. Localization If your course needs to be in different languages, make sure you test by both exporting and important the course so you can see if the languages are translated correctly. In most cases you will need to engage someone who can read and write in the target language to check this effectively. 2. Acceptance testing Acceptance testing is done to determine if the course meets the requirements originally set out in the specification. So go back to your spec and test against all the aspects listed there. Ideally, these should include use cases, which set out how actual users might interact with the course. For example, test against the workflow that a group of people might embark on. This is really about making sure the course has the integrity to support a valid learning experience, and that it works in the real world. Use the workflow or a use case to create a test plan to help you drive the testing. Here are some examples of things you might build into the plan: First impressions: is it clear what the user is being asked to do? Navigation: is the layout intuitive, and were users able to find what they needed? Functionality: did users experience any technical issues? 3. Engagement Too much elearning is released and then forgotten about. With Google Analytics you can get very detailed stats about how your course is performing, providing valuable information about how people are using it and how you can improve it. Here are some things you should analyze from Google Analytics: How long is someone spending on a page? Are some pages more popular than others? How long does your course really take, if you’re saying it takes 10 minutes and it takes people 30 minutes it may be over-scoped and you can scope the next project more accurately. Where are people accessing the course from? Are people doing this in their own time, or are they doing it in work time? You can look at daily and weekly patterns to identify spikes. This kind of data allows you to make tweaks to improve the learning experience. For example, you may decide to provide extra information to support a task or decision. The data may also allow you to see correlations so you can start looking for interesting trends. It might be the time of day versus the pass rate, and you can use this information to suggest the ideal time for people to be working on the course. You can take it one step further and start to correlate data against other systems you have in your organization, such as Salesforce. For example, an Elucidat customer may be exploring correlations between Salesforce data and real sales in the field. This data enables them to measure how effective the training materials are in delivering ROI. Data is powerful, and it provides real intelligence to help improve learning. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Final thoughts The more disciplined you were about the specification and having a real understanding of your audience at the beginning of the process, the simpler the evaluation phase will be. Create a test plan that sets out exactly what has to be tested, and in what order, and discover that the evaluation process can be surprisingly manageable. The post Setting up a successful elearning process: Evaluation (5th phase) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Are you looking for new ways to create online training faster? Concerned that your processes and systems are holding back efficiency? In this article, we’ll take a look at how some simple changes to your processes and systems can help you create online training faster. Here are three simple ways to save time and create online training faster: 1. Use a content map to structure your ideas Before you do anything else, you need to map out the big ideas for your training. Use a mind map or flowchart to map out the overall experience. For example, let’s say that there are going to be ten core interactions. Map out what will go into each of those interactions. Think about the discussion point, your objective, and the experience that’s going to fall into each component. You should already have a clear idea of one or two key outcomes you want to achieve with this training. If you don’t know why you’re creating this training, go back to the analysis phase in the eLearning production process. Pull together and organize your ideas and content into a series of chunks. Make sure you are very disciplined here so you can get rid of any extraneous bits you don’t need. Coggle is the mind map I like to use. Paste in your chunks, ideas, and snippets to see how everything fits together. Identify where there are questions for which you need help from your Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). The best way to get information from SMEs is to be very specific about what you want. 2. Use storyboards to visualize your end product Storyboarding is the method of orchestrating all the elements that will make up the training to create a score. This is much like in musical composition, where all team members can follow along the same "notes". Here are 10 storyboarding elements you will include: Text. Graphics. Animations. Video. Audio. Resources. Links. References. Interactions. Activities. A storyboard explains how all the elements fit together. In other words, it acts like an instruction manual for the team. Related: Why storyboarding is important (4 reasons) Some people may choose to create storyboards with applications such as PowerPoint or Word. I prefer to work directly in authoring tools such as Elucidat. The advantage of working inside an authoring tool is that you have a visual layout to work with (instead of words in a document). This makes it a lot easier for all stakeholders to interpret the screens and interactions. For example, take a look at this storyboard screen created in Elucidat. Stakeholders can see the visual screens and make comments directly on the areas they want to leave feedback. This can help you can get accurate feedback and faster approval from your stakeholders. 3. Use prebuilt page types and interactions Your map and storyboard will give you a list of the page types and interactions for the project. You may be tempted to create each of these components from scratch. But, this can be a lengthy process. Instead, use a tool -like Elucidat- that comes with a range of built-in page types and interactions that have already been tested. The benefit here is you don’t need to spend time and money on costly development. You can set up a project and very quickly add in page types and interactions. For example, take a look at these different page types and interactions you can create out of the box with Elucidat: As you add the page types and interactions, they are automatically created inside your project. The project builder then gives you 100% flexibility to customize these pages to meet your requirements. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. Conclusion To create online training faster, you need to find new ways to streamline your processes and systems: Why not try some of the ideas presented in this article? Consider using tools -like Elucidat- that can streamline your processes. Elucidat’s prebuilt page types and interactions can speed up the time it takes your team to create online training. The post Online training providers: Here are 3 simple ways to create online training faster appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

The modern learner is no longer chained to her office desk. She is on-the-go, working remotely, and using her own device to carry out day-to-day work. In this article, I’ll show you why and how Johnson & Johnson Vision Care is using mobile learning to meet their audience’s needs and wants. Significant growth in smartphone ownership has ushered in a new way of consuming training material. 91% of the US population now owns a smartphone device with 3G/4G connectivity; the mobile revolution is changing the way your audience learns. Instead of blocking off a day to partake in compliance training, modern learners now complete it in small, bite-sized chunks. Your learners’ behaviors are changing, but are you changing the way you deliver eLearning? If you are stuck delivering desktop-only eLearning, you are ignoring the needs and wants of modern learners. In this article, I’ll show you how Johnson & Johnson Vision Care has used Elucidat to build interactive mobile learning that learners actually want to consume. Why mobile learning? Mobile learning is often undertaken by people away from the office. They might be travelling to-or-from work, waiting for an airplane, or sitting on the couch at home. With less time to put aside for training, modern learners want mobile learning to be bite-sized. Trainings need to be smaller and focused on specific learning topics. Bite-sized learning is easier to digest when a learner only has an occasional 15 minutes to focus on training. This training style gives learners flexibility in what they learn and when they learn it. For example, they don’t have to spend an hour going through a detailed course; instead, they can opt for a five-minute video focusing on the specific area they seek to master. Modern learners also want to use their own familiar devices. Instead of wasting hours trying to learn a new operating system, learners prefer to consume mobile learning via their personal smartphones or tablets. In response, you need to deliver eLearning via mobile-friendly browsers and applications that can be accessed across mobile operating systems. Introducing The Eye Education App A great example of mobile learning in action is the award-winning piece of eLearning created by Johnson & Johnson Vision Care (JJVC) and Elucidat. The Eye Education App takes its inspiration from its audience’s busy schedule. Eye practitioners do not have time to complete cumbersome trainings due to patient schedules. They also lack access to desktop computers in their workplaces. JJVC used Elucidat to create interactive, bite-sized training modules that made it easy for eye practitioners to complete learning modules during breaks between patients. Elucidat’s responsive slider helped JJVC design mobile-friendly learning that worked across all smartphone and tablet devices. The Eye Education App has been a big hit. JJVC is now delivering twice as much training to its eye practitioners and has increased course completion by 740%. Why JJVC chose Elucidat: Multi-device compatible. Elucidat’s responsive slider made it easy for JJVC to create mobile learning that eye practitioners could access on their mobile devices. Hosted in the cloud. Elucidat’s cloud hosting made it possible for JJVC to instantly make and publish changes, allowing them to stay in step with any new regulatory requirements. API. Elucidat’s API made it possible for JJVC to embed content into a smartphone/tablet app, thus taking advantage of native app functionalities like push notifications. Related: Elucidat & JJVC win eLearning award for best use of mobile learning What makes Elucidat an award-winning authoring tool? Elucidat’s award-winning authoring tool (Gold Brandon Hall Award and 2015 UK eLearning Award) helps large companies, training providers and publishers streamline eLearning design, production and deployment, enabling them to deliver multi-device eLearning 50% faster. In addition, Elucidat’s simple point and edit functionality empowers all team members (even non-technical ones) to create beautiful eLearning that stands out from the crowd. Interested in learning more? Take the 80 second video tour or sign up for a free 14-day trial. The post Modern learners want the convenience and flexibility of mobile learning appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Ardour 4.6, our first release of 2016, is now available. 4.6 includes some notable new features - deep support for the Presonus FaderPort control surface, Track/Bus duplication, a new Plugin sidebar for the Mixer window - as well as the usual dozens of fixes and improvements to all aspects of the application, particularly automation editing. The full list of changes is shown below. Download   For the curious, there was no 4.5 release. This just happens sometimes. read more

This article explores 3 steps to help you create effective training that will improve employee development and help your company increase its profit margins. 3 Key Steps To Help Gain Competitive Advantage Through Employee Development  Let’s face it: Globalization is making business a tougher game. Most companies are now competing in a global market rather than […] The post Gain Competitive Advantage Through Employee Development appeared first on PulseLearning.

The age of Information! Educators and learners alike are increasingly involved in creating meaningful projects online - but where do we go to find images that we are allowed to use? How do we properly cite them? How do we promote digital citizenship? Check out the following links that can help: Creative Commons:  This is […]

Innovation is truly an evolution of ideas. It is so much more than the great ideas that spring from our ‘aha’ moments. I think that we are in the midst of an evolution of old ways of doing things in the library, toward new models of meeting new demands, exploring new ways of allowing ideas […]