Here’s a list of 20 inspirational elearning examples from Elearning Superstars. Virgin Atlantic: Animated flight safety film Why we like it: Story telling approach Fresh and stylish use of well-known movie genres to get the message across Attention grabbing (and holding) Strong script and storyboard Stylish sophisticated design and animation Memorable, simple and fun! Visit elearning Resuscitation Council UK: Lifesaver is a simulation game the tests your CPR skills Why we like it: Fully immersive, game-based and experiential design Timed decision-making activities Good use of branching scenarios Strong storyboarding and scripting Real time game-style progress stats and points Formative feedback at each decision level Raises the blood pressure! Visit elearning Utility Warehouse: Training for new employees Why we like it: A great example of strong visual design with bold contemporary contrasting colors. Good proximity of content and use of contrast to help chunk the material. Clean and clear templated approach with clean layouts and consistent use of styles, alignment and interactions. Great use of video on response layers in interactive question screens helps situate the learner into the heart of the business and introduce real colleagues. Visit elearning BBC: Mi Vida Loca helps you learn Spanish with interactive TV mini series Why we like it: Good use of interactive video drama - takes you on a mystery adventure. Episodic - 22 episodes in all, 10 minutes each, covering basic learning points for beginner level Spanish. A learning section complements each episode and provides practice activities and opportunities to go through grammar and vocabulary in more detail at your own pace. Includes a speaking phrasebook which is a real person! Lots of audio practice and chance to listen and repeat. Visit elearning Broken Co-Worker: Not your typical learning experience Why we like it: Good use of video for context and feedback Careful use of music helps set the scene Inspired by the printed comic book layout gives it good visual appeal and a strong story-based structure Interactive video - with some strong scripting gives users real problems to solve and uses video effectively for feedback Allows users to share progress on social sites Visit elearning BBC: Finance for non-financial managers Why we like it Dynamic scoring allows for points to be lost and well as won across a range of skills. Each stage is timed - a dynamic counter ups the ante and piles on the pressure to be decisive. Scenario-based - situates the user in the role of decision-maker in front of which a series of characters come to bid for time, money and resources. Tailored feedback at each decision point - once you’ve made up your mind, you get your rankings in all four categories. Good use of multi-media including animated sequences, audio dialogue, fun game-like graphical style of the characters. Branching logic designed into the levels of the game unlock more choices if you make a good selection on the first round. Visit elearning Linda Dong: The Dangers of Fracking Why we like it: Nice example of some website design elements that could be applied to elearning courses. The downward scrolling provides a sense of digging down into the earth to learn about the fracking process. The design is user centred letting the user control the navigation. Interactive elements at certain points lets the user explore and drill down deeper. Background graphics are contemporary and create a good canvas for the content to be displayed on. Visit elearning City Witness: Medieval Swansea Why we like it: Fully responsive, looks good and works well on all platforms and devices. Scenario driven with branching - interactive challenges take learns on a quests to solve a medieval mystery. Story-based - narrative stages, character witnesses. Feedback - at each stage of the investigation. Progression - a dynamic map allows the player-learner to see what stage they are at and what’s left to do. Scoring - opportunities to gather points and bonuses, unlocking the next stage. Dynamic polling - get to vote on solving the mystery and see how other players are voting. Visit elearning Lloyds Bank: Induction for telephone banking staff Why we like it: Flexible, self-paced with clear progression. Integrated Assima simulations of the actual bank’s system provided wall-garden for safely practising systems training for new staff. High-end video using a road trip concept to take new recruits through onboarding. Strong scripting and storyboarding using real world scenarios to help learners build empathy with customers. Visit elearning Connect Group: The Golden Rules (compliance training) Why we like it: Immersive and engaging approach in order to create memorable learning experience. Good use of humor, games, leaderboards and strong visual design to grab attention and motivate learners to interact with the course. Visit elearning Heineken: Capability Academy Why we like it: Progression - a Tube-type map keeps play-learners abreast of their progress and shows them where they are headed. Engaging - leaderboard, competition, quests and challenges. Scoring - earn point as you progress through the learning to push you up the leaderboard. Feedback - gives an overall ranking as well as feedback on how you’re doing at each step. A real board games accompanies the course! Visit elearning US Army: Connect with Haji Kamal Why we like it: Good example of complex branching with 12 paths through the material which cross at several points, so one bad choice doesn’t necessarily lead to failure. Authentic storyline built in collaboration with SME’s Dialogue driven - the whole scenario is based around debate Looks great - using graphic novel style illustration, the images are comic-ified photos. Good use of audio for the discussion. Forms part of a toolkit to help soldiers practice specific cross-cultural capabilities. Visit elearning DrugTreatment.com: Essential information about rehabilitation Why we like it: There are two routes available for users to select the content aimed at them or for a friend/relative. Users can select from personalized lists along the way and their choice is added to their personalized list at the bottom of the screen. Interactive drop-down menu is available to skip directly to specific topics. Clear interactive progress bar lets the user skip back and forth to different parts of the module. Some nice simple animated images add depth to the site without being distracting. Pop ups and layers provide a deeper dive into the topics at each point. Visit elearning New York Times: Amazing Girls Why we like it: Really effective use of full screen still imagery and voice over to create effective program. The style is very authentic, using real voices and imagery that can be captured on any mobile device. Nice use of a really simple menu to let you select the different voices and stories. Visit elearning Sky: Employee induction portal Why we like it: Multi channel learning with a variety of content to suit a large and diverse audience. More than an induction program. This course is part of a five year strategic relationship for transformation at the heart of the client’s business. A leaderboard style scoring system offers an element of competition, together with social media networking tools, games, activities and quizzes. Visit elearning Channel 4: Learning to take risks Why we like it: Successfully links the "important but dull" messages of compliance to the aspirational goals of taking risks and pushing boundaries. Builds competence, not just compliance by focussing less on knowledge and more on actions. Captures and reflects client culture and brand, using bold images from well-known broadcast output. Uses audio voice-over narration provided by the familiar and popular voice of Channel 4 continuity announcer Corie Brown. Draws on authentic scenarios with video-based ‘mini documentaries’ and dynamic scrolling stories Highly visual learning experience, with minimal text on screen, a simple interface, and contemporary touch-screen design styles. Visit elearning McDonald’s: Popular till training game Why we like it: Realistic - game centers around using a simulation of the new till system. Game mechanics - use of stories for context and emotional engagement, Setting is realistic (restaurant) Characters (customers) and narrative (the orders and the different customers). Uses gaming features such as lifelines, bonuses and panel elements to enhance the gamification feel and engage the learner. Scores, levels, count-down, challenges, simulated till environment, sound effects and customer voices all create a gaming feel. Feedback - little and often (satisfaction, scores, levels, customer response, flashing red,) - shows choices the learner is making is having consequence all the time - dynamic feedback. Gives learners an opportunity to learn in a safe environment to practise and learn from mistakes, without customers getting frustrated. Levels - smooth learning curve with lots of attention to achievement. Scoring - goes up to 9 million! Lots of bonus and rewards, only one winner. Visit elearning Tesco: Learning Leap Why we like it: Good example of how the elearning vendor used detailed data and feedback from target audience for the previous course to help design an improved programme. Uses a fun and easy to understand narrative where each learner is represented graphically as a parachutist getting ready to jump into the learning (Leapers) Interesting example of a whole campaign approach around three bite-sized, 20 minute modules with branded emails to notify and encourage staff of the course, and post-event knowledge checks Utilizes gaming techniques such as real time, animated leader boards showing the number of learners at each stage of the training. After course completion, staff receive bi-monthly emails, known as ‘PiPs’ or ‘Putting into Practice’. These micro-learning quizzes are related to the course topics and help reinforce the learning. Visit elearning Treehouse: The classroom from the future Why we like it: Clear progression - uses the idea of ‘achievements’ in a course. Clear structure with timings. Raises the bar with high quality studio produced video lessons hosted by in-house team of trainers and contemporary visuals. Courses organized into ‘Tracks’. These are pre-selected sequences of training topics that you complete in a specific order. Visit elearning PETSYNC: Living with a dog in a shared community Why we like it: Developed in HTML5, it’s responsive design is accessible on desktops as well as mobile devices. Effect use of 3D images and animations, dynamic scenarios, interactive assessments. Provides links to external resources and customizable documents that learners can download for their specific community. 3d virtual environment lets learners pan around, zoom in and out and click on areas to explore more. Includes an integrated glossary and expressive dialogue. Uses fun avatars for the people and dogs. Visit elearning The post Best of 2015: 20 excellent elearning examples to inspire your next project appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Today, we’re focusing on the production phase, the fourth step in the five-step elearning production process. Production is the point at which your planning and design come together. Here are some key steps you can follow to make sure the production runs smoothly. Related: Read more about the analysis phase, design phase or specification phase. 1. Map out content Previously, in the design phase, you mapped out the big idea and now it’s time to get into details. Use a mind map or flowchart to map out the overall flow or 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. In the analysis phase, you developed a clear idea of one or two key outcomes and looked at any source content that was available. Now you can start pulling together and organizing what you’ve got already into a series of chunks. Once that is done, you can refine it and give it more focus. In this phase, you must be very disciplined, 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. Recently, the Elucidat team was involved in a complex health care project that had a range of experts involved. To keep things structured, we sent SMEs really targeted mini questionnaires, so that each of them could give their input. The questionnaires included queries designed to provoke insightful feedback from our recipients, like: how do you communicate your complex subject matter to a different audience of caregivers? By giving SMEs a set of questions, we were able to structure and constrain the feedback that we wanted to get back from them. 2. Storyboard Storyboarding is the method of orchestrating all the elements that will make up the elearning 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. Some people may choose to create storyboards with applications such as PowerPoint or Word. I prefer to work directly in rapid development tools such as Elucidat. The advantage of working inside a tool like Elucidat is that you have a more visual layout (instead of words in a documents). This makes it a lot easier for all stakeholders to interpret the screens and interactions. Peer-to-peer/stakeholder review Instead of creating Word documents and using the ‘track changes’ feature to add comments and suggestions, authoring tools - like Elucidat - include inbuilt features which help keep reviews and bug tracking all in one place inside the project files. For example, if you do your storyboarding inside Elucidat, your team can click directly on the screen element they want to feedback on. This makes it really easy to interpret the issue or feedback and manage any changes and updates. 3. Create screens and templates Your map and storyboard will give you a list of the interaction and screen types for the project. Sometimes developers will create each of these from scratch. But, tools like Elucidat can now ship with a range of screen and interaction types already fully built and tested. The benefit of using these themes is that you don’t need to spend time and money on costly development. You can set up a project and very quickly select a pre-built template that lets you see the whole project mapped out. You can use project view to see all the branching and navigation right from the start. 4. Involve graphic designers Graphic designers should work closely with your team. They must be involved at the early stages and contribute through the elearning process. Involve graphic designers at the storyboarding stage, so they can create graphics that support what the text is communicating. For any key overarching concepts that get reinforced and used across a module, consider asking your designer to create graphics that visually represent these ideas, so you can make them memorable. Visual memory hooks can help to reinforce your core points. 5. Bring it all together and build Now it’s time to bring all the elements together - a little like an assembly line. The production phase becomes really simple if you’ve completed the work in the previous three stages (analysis, design, and specification). If you haven’t done the upfront work you can easily waste a lot of time tinkering around and feeling lost. Some tools allow you to voice record narrative on the fly, but, for best results, have a voice over artist record in a studio and then integrate the sound files into the course at the build stage. Video, graphics and any other media can be assembled along with the text. Use Elucidat’s responsive slider to test different mobile screen sizes as you go. This saves heaps of time, as you only need to develop the course once for different devices. And finally, if you plan to deploy your elearning in an LMS or LRS or need it to track the learning in any way, development tools that automatically build compliant LMS/LRS ready elearning, such as Elucidat, will really speed up this process. In conclusion The production phase should be short and simple. If you’ve done all the work necessary in the design and specification phases, then this phase will just be about assembling the output. The most important thing here is to have a clear set of easy-to-interpret instructions that your team can follow. Consider using tools - like Elucidat - that allow multiple people to work simultaneously on projects, eliminating the need to package up files and send them around your team. This is a real time-saver that compresses the duration of the production phase and reduces the stress of managing multiple versions of project files. The post Production: How to approach the 4th phase in the elearning production process appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

It can be challenging to find images for your eLearning courses that are stunning, high-resolution and most importantly, free. With the availability of current resources, it’s no longer necessary to use clip art or the type of generic (or cliché) images that make training look dated. Whether you lack the skill or simply the time to create the images for your eLearning courses, we have compiled a list, of what we consider the best free stock photos on the Internet right now. Each of the following websites contains free high-resolution images that can be used for personal and commercial use. We encourage your to visit and bookmark any (or all) of these sites today!

With the unwanted presents stuffed under the bed and all the leftover turkey used up in curries and stews, it is time to focus on the year ahead. This means cracking on with your 2016 training strategy. Does it include acquiring or upgrading training software? If it doesn't then it is definitely something that you should consider. 

Cross channel communication can sometimes feel like a puzzle. Which communication mediums should you be using to provide the highest quality of customer service and more importantly which methods do customers prefer to use? This infographic created by Talkdesk takes a look at some best practice tips for boosting customer service across different channels including telephone, social media and online support. 

There is a myth (or opinion) shared by some entrepreneurs and media commentators that "before you can launch a startup, you need a great idea to pursue". This isn’t true. Whilst a great idea will be important later, if you don’t have it from the beginning, don’t let it stop you getting started (in fact, you are highly unlikely to have the right idea to begin with anyway!) I know that when you look at Facebook, Uber, Twitter, Airbnb, Youtube, etc. they all look like amazing ideas that were always destined to be successful, and through good execution have achieved huge success… But in many cases, the phenomenal success we see now isn’t with the idea they started with! For example, let’s look at Youtube. The co-founders were very smart, experienced entrepreneurs (previously at Paypal). Their big idea was to provide a dating site that used video rather than just pictures to match couples, inspired by ‘Hot or Not’. They created their video dating site called ‘Tune in Hook up’ and launched soon after leaving Paypal (after it’s acquisition by eBay in 2002). As a dating site, the start-up was failing. However, they saw that some users shared links to funny videos of potential matches, and even used the site to upload and share their own (non-dating) videos. The founders learned, and later relaunched as Youtube in 2005. Interestingly Facebook had a similar beginning in the form of ‘Facemash’ in 2003 which asked users to rate which of two faces was ‘hotter’. Airbnb was the result of the founders renting space on air mattresses in their own apartments so they could pay their rent in 2007. It was after creating a site and marketing to get their initial customers that they realized there was an opportunity to enable others to list their rooms too. It took another two years for them to understand and overcome the issues preventing their growth (including bad photos of rooms). Twitter started it’s life as an internal messaging tool for a podcasting company, Odeo. Uber started as a luxury car company for getting to nightclubs. So, whilst some successful start-ups (LinkedIn?) may have had a strong idea of what their product would be very early on, many more didn’t. Don’t wait until you come up with your ‘killer idea’. Instead, FIND your idea through a process of speaking to people about their problems, sharing conceptual solutions, getting feedback, testing ideas, and making changes. I’m running a webinar about how to do this on the 7th January 2016 - click here to find out more (and register).

A decade ago, as a young entrepreneur, I would often look at successful businesspeople and marvel at their resourcefulness, tenacity and vision. I wished I had the same internal mechanics that enabled them to overcome self-limiting beliefs, dream big, and find the right path. I thought I needed to put in more hours to get the results they were getting, but when I was maxing myself out, my results got worse! I now think the big difference was that they had a mentor / coach. As Richard Branson said: "Whenever I am asked what is the missing link between a promising businessperson and a successful one, mentoring comes to mind. […] If you ask any successful businessperson, they will always have had a great mentor at some point along the road." It’s actually pretty startling - identify any successful entrepreneur and you’ll find a coach or mentor that helped them to stretch their goals, identify the right path, and make progress along it. Here’s some I found: Mark Zuckerberg was mentored by Steve Jobs and Donald Graham Steve Jobs by Andy Grove Robert Kiyosaki by Keith Cunningham Richard Branson by Sir Freddie Laker Bill Gates by Dr Ed Roberts and Warren Buffet Jack Dorsey by Ray Chambers Marissa Mayer by Larry Page & other Google Execs (Any many more!) As entrepreneurs I think we often think we have to be the trailblazer, setting the world alight with our crazy ideas, persistence, and massive action. Instead, we’d be better getting help. For example, for my teenage years and the first 10 years of my adult life I struggled with my weight. It slowly went up and up, until I hit 15 stone (95.25kg), making me technically ‘Obese’ according to my BMI’. I had tried to lose weight, but ‘nothing worked’. In 2015, I finally got serious about getting fitter, and hired a Personal Trainer. Wow. What a difference! Not only was I able to lose weight (losing 2 stone in 6 months), but I’m now in the best shape of my life. (And I’m confident that by April 2016 I will be in the ‘Normal’ range - something I had previously resigned to never being able to achieve!) I now have coaches and/or mentors for all the areas of my life where I am serious about improvement and achieving great things - and the impact has been huge. Now, this is an important point… I didn’t need the personal trainer to tell me how to lose weight. (I know that eating less and exercising more will achieve that result!). Instead I needed help to: Set goals that had the right balance between being stretching and realistic Identify the path that would help me achieve my goals most quickly and enjoyably Keep me accountable for keeping to the path / plan Maintain momentum and keep things interesting over the long haul Get up and get going again when I fell off track For entrepreneurs, having a coach can help us do the above with our start-ups, and work smarter (not longer!) as a result. This is particularly important for parentpreneurs, where more hours spent working is likely to damage your relationships, and as a result your motivation, support and ability to think clearly. I’m running a webinar on the 7th January 2016 where I’ll share a process you can use to work smarter with your start-up, and tell you how you can get access to support to help you achieve your dreams in 2016 - click here to find out more (and register). Right, I better go - I’m booked for a session with my personal trainer!

In the last post, it was suggested that for busy corporate learners, putting their learning in a practical context is a first step to building acceptance and engagement in their learning. It is therefore necessary to prove to them the relevance of their E-Learning to giving direction in their role related performance within the business. With this in mind the following two suggestions for building interactivity can be summarized as follows:From an educational point of view, to accomplish knowledge transfer and skill set development, there should be meaningful opportunities for learners to see and test out what they are learning as it applies to real life settings. One way that this may be accomplished using a blended E-Learning format is through well designed simulations and scenarios where the learner is the main character.It is important to establish a readily seen connection between theory and practical application of the E-Learning content. Using a variety of irresistibly engaging learning experiences such as scenarios, case studies, simulations and most importantly, collaborative problem solving scenarios where a group of employees are tasked to engage a problem in an online environment is important to developing engagement. Such E-Learning experiences that involve collaborative problem solving where decisions made, lead to immediate feedback and branching scenarios created as a result of decisions that were made are valuable. They lead to the development of important skillsets that can be readily measured and assessed. Immediate feedback to learners throughout the experience is more valuable than a test at the end.The Importance of Challenge in Building InteractivityAll E-Learning interactions should be challenging enough to involve learners and motivate them at the same time for them to become engaged in the learning process.Learners should have a powerful purpose for engaging in E-Learning experiences. One of the most powerful motivators is the realization by every learner that the role that I perform within the business organization is important to the organization; my work is appreciated and my contributions are respected by decisions makers; my striving to improve my learning by engaging in experiences that challenge and grow my skillsets is an investment in the health of my organization and in my own professional development.Another way to challenge learners is to design into the learning experiences what may be described as "unforeseen distractors". The challenge in this instance is how a collaborative problem solving group are able to use divergent thinking that leads to innovative solutions to a problem when the previously decided upon solution can't work. This is a skillset that every business organization should commit to fostering and nurturing within its business organization. It is a pathway to the development of systemic innovative thinking throughout the organization. An example of such a distractor within a business simulation might be as simple as a new flash to the group that a crucial supplier has been unable to deliver on promised materials crucial to you meeting an impending deadline or it could be a case where a company responsible for creating vaccines for a specific illness discovers that their producing lab has not being operating according to the required protocols for a sterile environment. The decisions made by participants in such a scenario where they are thoroughly engaged will yield "big data" that can enhance the learning culture within the business organization.Another useful challenge, is to teach learners to use online media tools to search for useful information for tasks. One of the problems of the past is declaring in an uncritical fashion that "content is king". The fact that content was delivered to the learner and then all that was expected of them was to memorize the content is a throw back to the "operant conditioning model" mentioned in the previous post. In a learning and information age, being able to use online tools to search, analyze, evaluate and authenticate the truth value of information is far more important. "Well developed online critical thinking skills are king".Next...Lessons from serious games that apply to the hybrid model

Whether you develop eLearning for a corporation, academic institution, or government agency, you’ve likely encountered the challenge of developing accessible content. In this post, we’ll cover some basic best practices you can and should follow when developing eLearning that is accessible to learners with disabilities. In fact, following accessibility best practices will also help you to create more usable courses for all learners. As background, government agencies in the United States are required by law to follow Section 508, a set of requirements for making electronic resources and information technology accessible to people with disabilities. These standards are based on guidelines originally developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative, known as the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, or WCAG. WCAG is a global set of guidelines followed around the world. For the purposes of this post, we’ll define accessible eLearning as web-based courses that can be taken and completed successfully by learners with disabilities. Accessible eLearning creates an online learning experience that includes as many people as possible regardless of their limitations—whether physical, sensory, or cognitive. Keep in mind that a learner with a disability may experience blindness, low vision, color blindness, deafness, hearing loss, or mobility impairments. Further, learners may use assistive technology, such as a screen reader, to interpret content on the screen. By employing these best practices as you design and develop eLearning, you can work to create accessible content: Keyboard Accessibility Rather than using a mouse, a learner may navigate through a course and the content on a page relying strictly on a keyboard. One of the best ways to test a course for accessibility is to unplug your mouse and ensure you can access all of the content and complete the course using only a keyboard. Determine if you can: Navigate through the course with your keyboard Access keyboard shortcuts when necessary Tab between fields like buttons, entry fields, and question controls Stop, pause, and play audio and video using the keyboard Some learners depend on a keyboard tonavigate a course Alternative Text A learner with a visual disability cannot interpret images and multimedia if they are not configured properly in your course. One of the most essential and straightforward methods for creating accessible content is to provide alternative text, or text equivalents, for course elements like graphics, audio, and video. Most authoring tools, like Lectora®, provide a way to define the alternative text or ALT text for visual elements in your course. Be sure to consider appropriate and descriptive alternative text as you develop content. Provide short, descriptive alternative text for images Images that act as links to a new page or window need even more descriptive alternative text. Provide the purpose of the link and indicate that selecting the image will navigate the user away from the page. Captions Similarly, a learner with an auditory disability cannot interpret narration or sound that is part of a video or audio file. In this case, you need to provide synchronized captioning. Use synchronized captions for any video in your course If your course has only audio, remember to provide a transcript. Video may also need to include an audio description as well. Reading Order and Labels Well-designed courses include a consistent layout with routine navigation placed in a standard location. Learners can easily glance at a page, find the navigation links, and quickly focus on the main content. Students who are using screen readers don’t have this advantage. A screen reader will interpret the HTML markup used to generate the page, rather than the page itself. For this reason, it’s important to pay careful attention to the reading order of the elements used on a page. For example, paragraphs should be announced in logical order, and page titles should be read first, rather than last. Consider reading order as you develop and design your course, rather than after you have already added all of the content. This will save you time and rework down the road. Further, remember to employ proper labels for text, form controls, and tables: Use text headers (H1, H2, H3, etc.) to identify and structure the text on a page. Identify header rows in data tables. Ensure questions and forms use labels to identify checkboxes, radio buttons, and entry fields. Identify header rows when using data tables Learner Controlled Interactions When developing interactions in your course, ensure that the learner can initiate and control what happens on the page. Different disabilities can affect the time it takes or the means used to read a page, fill out a form, answer a test question, or complete an interaction. As you develop interactive scenarios, remember these tips: Avoid timed games and tests. (If you must provide timed access to a page, be sure to provide a warning to the learner that time is about to run out, give them plenty of time to read the message, and provide the option to extend the time limit.) Avoid changing or updating content on the page automatically. Rather, let the learner initiate this change. Avoid flashing images and text. Not only can these be extremely dangerous to a learner with photosensitive epilepsy, but it can be distracting and unnecessary. Allow the learner to easily begin, complete, and exit a game, test, or interaction. This dialog allows the learner to extend his or her time in the course Color Like images, audio, and video, color is an equally important part of creating an attractive and visually interesting course. For students with visual disabilities, however, color can create confusion and barriers to accessibility. To create accessible courses, always use color as the secondary indicator of meaning. For example, if you’re providing directions or options, explain those options with text and color. This creates a better and more usable course for all students. Use color as a secondary indicator of meaning While these best practices are by no means comprehensive, they will hopefully provide you with a basic foundation to use as you begin to design and develop accessible eLearning. Stay tuned for an upcoming post that will take a deeper dive into the specific accessibility options and objects you can use in Lectora. For more information and resources concerning accessibility, follow these links: http://www.access-board.gov/ http://www.w3.org/WAI/intro/wcag community.trivantis.com/shared-content/how-to-course-developing-accessible-content-in-lectora The post Creating Accessible eLearning: What You Need to Know appeared first on .

Cross-Posted from ImagineEasy.Rolland Chidiac is a Google Certified Innovator from Waterloo, Canada. He is currently teaching at Sir Edgar Bauer Catholic Elementary School (Waterloo Catholic District School Board). Connect with Rolland on Google + and Twitter. It feels like it was just yesterday that I introduced Google Apps for Education (GAFE, the full suite of free productivity tools) to my students. In reality, it has been about a year and a half since I started integrating GAFE in my classroom. Needless to say, it has been a huge success - for my students and for myself.Part of the fun for me revolves around documenting and sharing our learning so that others can benefit from our experiences. I recently took some time to reflect on what I consider to be the major benefits of using GAFE with students, particularly primary students. Here are my top 5:1. It's EmpoweringThere is nothing more exciting than taking a step back in your classroom to watch and listen to your students as they work on a given task/assignment. It is one thing to have a group of students engaged in a task but it is another to see that they are empowered. What started with engagement has moved to empowerment. The students have moved from being interested in what they are doing to using GAFE to express their interests. I first noticed this last year and thought that maybe it was an anomaly but the same thing is happening with my students this year. They have discovered that the tools allow them to express themselves in ways that they weren't aware of before using GAFE. They have quickly learned how to leverage the technology to create, collaborate, and express themselves and are doing so often. Feeling empowered is a game changer and my students are experiencing what it is like to be intrinsically motivated and to act on that motivation. 2. Allows for Dynamic FeedbackMy students are constantly sharing the work they are doing in their GAFE accounts with their friends, family, and myself. They want me (and others) to see what they are working on. They want to know what we think of their work and how they can make their work better. GAFE makes it easy for them to share their work anytime, anywhere, from almost any device and the people they have shared their work with can respond/provide feedback anytime, anywhere, from almost any device. This experience, the ability to gather feedback from whoever you want without having to hand your work over to them has been very beneficial to my students and myself. Here is a good example for you: while a student is actively working on a task in class they will provide their friends, parents, and teacher with commenting rights to their work. As they are actually working in their document, a classmate of two will jump into their work (document/drawing/slide), see what they are doing, and provide some feedback*. I might also get a chance during the day to check their work and leave a comment. I will make sure to check in again in the evening and see how they have (or have not) used my feedback and that of others to improve their work. Instead of physically handing their work to me or someone else, their work lives in one place where many people can offer suggestions for improvement. GAFE allows me to provide my students with feedback without having to take their work away from them and it allows them to gather feedback without interrupting their work flow.3. Builds Capacity around Technological Literacy & Digital CitizenshipOur society is ever changing, more so today then when I was 7 years old. GAFE is helping my students build capacity around technological literacy and digital citizenship. They are learning how to effectively use technological tools to benefit their learning and their lives. They recognize that technology and cloud computing is constantly changing and that it can offer them fun and innovative ways to learn and create artifacts that are helpful to themselves and to others. They are also becoming more aware of their digital identities - how to protect them and how to interact with others. With the ease of sharing and interaction there is a responsibility to be good people and to make the right choices. GAFE provides my students with a relatively safe experience that they can build upon as new technologies arise. Their expertise and openness leaves them primed for the future - they are ready to harness what comes next in order to be successful. 4. Allows for Natural CollaborationMy students don't do a lot of work in isolation, they generally want to work with their classmates. When working in their GAFE accounts, on what I would deem an "individual" task, I will see them calling each other over to take a look at what they are working on and I will hear them asking for suggestions, providing ideas to each other, and I will even see them editing each others work. Then I start to hear "I'm going to share this with you so you can work together when you are at home". I have seen all my students doing this - from the shy introverts to the loud extroverts. This is when things go to the next level, their time at home. They will work on slides or documents together! I asked a few of my students about working together - why they want to work with others and why they invite others to work with them. Their response was that "it is fun...you get better ideas when others help....and...sometimes people helping know more about how to do something than I do". Wow. There are times when a student or two will be off in a corner working away on solving a problem on their own, but generally GAFE brings them together to work on tasks that I have assigned and tasks that they have initiated on their own.5. Promotes Creativity & InnovationSome of the things my students have created via GAFE have been mind blowing. It turns out that they had great ideas and just didn't know how to get those ideas out. For example, using the slides and drawing app they took their ideas and used the tools to bring their ideas to life. The students enjoy taking time to play around with the apps and experiment (technological literacy). Once they realize that they can do things using the technology that they couldn't do without it, they are off to the races. Combine this with the natural collaboration, dynamic feedback, and feelings of empowerment I referred to earlier and you have a recipe for innovation. Ideas start to flow more readily and students start to take more risks because they are comfortable doing so.Like what you're hearing? Check out an EdTechTeam Summit featuring Google for Education and learn how to change your classroom and your students' learning with GAFE. Visit gafesummit.com to find a Summit near you!