There’s a reason everyone is using infographics. A casual stroll through the social media playground will show you that many people are using infographics for mundane things, such as entertainment facts. This content is shared so often because it’s interesting, and the format makes it easy to digest. When given the opportunity, people would much rather look at an image or watch a video than read, and taking advantage of that for your online course design can help improve learner engagement by appealing to the common preference of visual learning. The "why" is simple - understanding the "how" and "when" is what will allow you to use them effectively in your online courses.

Allison Miller is a member of eWorks’ team of accredited consultants, and a regular contributor to eWorks’ blog. With only a few days left until Christmas, Allison encourages us to consider what we should be doing to ensure that our Moodle courses are ready for 2016 - before we head off on our summer break. Don’t worry, just […]

Ok, you’ve been warned: this article is a stretch. But keep an open mind, and you’ll never look at eLearning the same way again. Naturally, a comparison between eLearning and coffee can only happen over a good java. So get yourself a cup, settle yourself, and read on. We all know how a well-brewed cup of coffee perks us up when we’re tired, or when we’ve got that mid-day slump. Well, eLearning perks up the most tired and slumped training programs (we told you that this would be a stretch), especially if designed and executed well. You could say that participation is key: you have to participate in a cup of coffee since it is largely an experience. This is also true of eLearning. Learners are drawn into participating actively in the learning. Coffee wakes you up and gets you going. A good eLearning program goes a long way in waking up the learner for the real-world tasks ahead. A cup of coffee can be enjoyed in a number of different ways. And the choices are many: hot or iced, black or white, sweetened or unsweetened, hyper-caffeinated or decaf. It’s thoroughly customizable within the boundaries of its purpose. With eLearning, the customizing depends on the needs of your unique organization, and on your learners. From the content to the method(s) of presentation, you get to determine what goes in your eLearning program, and what stays out. You also control how much, and how often your learners engage in the learning. And, like coffee, new program content can be developed for your changing requirements. Coffee is independently enjoyed, and often shared socially. The same is true for eLearning. While each person who engages in eLearning does so as an individual, eLearning programs often allow, and even encourage, a social discussion of the content. The synergy that happens can lead to new solutions for issues and challenges and the benefits are communal. In addition, shared experiences contribute to the creation and maintenance of a community. Individuals maintain their autonomy and independence while they share their experiences, and everyone wins. Most coffee drinkers know that a cup can range in price from the no-frills, gas-station, sits-on-the-burner-all-day (a long way of saying "cheap") cup, all the way to the designer coffees that have first, middle, family, given and last names. Well, so does eLearning… except maybe we need to work on fancier program names. At any rate, you get what you pay for. Just like coffee, eLearning systems differ from application to application, and it takes something to select the one that gives you the best bang for your cup- er… buck. While price is an important consideration, the finished product is what should demand the greater attention. Coffee is chosen based on taste, and where and how you’re going to use it. Choose your eLearning the same way: who is going to be using it? Do I need the extra flavors? Or the latest fads? Do I already have the right equipment to make it work, or will I need something different to get the "zing" I want? Coffee is a relatively simple way to show that you care about your guests, or for yourself. Similarly, eLearning is a great way to show you care for your employees. So how did we come to that conclusion? Consider: new employees can often feel disconnected or overwhelmed by the simple fact that they’re new. And shadowing a veteran employee often does little to alleviate the "newbie" condition. Meeting over coffee provides an informal, comfortable way for people to learn about each other. eLearning does the same thing for training. Employees engage the material in a neutral, informal and flexible environment. And newer/younger folks entering the workforce find the eLearning environment familiar and comfortable. You know how the offer of a cup of coffee often has guests stick around and chat for a little longer? eLearning programs empower employees to do their jobs and connect employees to the organization in a way that traditional training methods might not. Furthermore, allowing people the opportunity to encounter real-life situations in the relative comfort and safety of eLearning means that they function better when faced with the real thing. Again, this contributes to a sense of winning for your employees. And typically, happy employees do better and contribute positively to the well-being of their companies. The sheer simplicity of coffee makes it an elegant addition to any table. At its core, eLearning is simple, and you can do a lot with that simplicity. If you’re willing to experiment with a simple cup of coffee, you often discover exciting new ways to enjoy it. In the realm of eLearning, experimentation involves asking questions, and finding out as much as you can about what’s really needed, and what’s available. And, you may have to be willing to lighten up and play a little. Just as coffee offers something for every taste, so eLearning offers learning programs unique to every need. And the discovery is both educational and fun. We hope you’ve enjoyed this coffee talk about eLearning. Like you enjoy a good cup of coffee, we want you to savor your eLearning experience, and find a blend that best suits your needs. You can engage in eLearning about coffee by checking out the internet. If you’d like more information about eLearning, visit . And you’re always welcome to come back for refills! The post Coffee and eLearning: a Caffeinated Community Connection appeared first on KMI Learning.

Are you ready to get some bright new ideas from your peers at the 2016 Lectora® User Conference? The sessions just get better and better each year, but you know what would make the next conference even cooler? If YOU presented YOUR ideas at the 2016 Lectora User Conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida this May 18-19. Submit your speaker proposal now! We’re eager to see what you’ve been working on. Don’t make us wait too long: the deadline to submit your speaker proposal is February 1, 2016. You’ll hear from us by March 1, 2016 if your proposal is accepted. We’re looking for proposals that showcase exceptional new uses, ideas, and techniques for using one of our authoring tools or learning management and delivery solutions. Some suggested topics for presentations are: Instructional Design Mobile Learning/Responsive Course Design Gaming/Interactivity Social Learning Collaborative Development Learning Management Systems Emerging Technologies Business Initiatives/Case Studies How-To/Development Techniques Rapid e-Learning Development   All sessions must be presented using a recent version of the software: Lectora Publisher/Inspire 12 or higher Lectora Online 3 ReviewLink™ 2 CourseMill® 7 CourseMill Mobile 1 Full of bright ideas? Send ‘em all over! You can submit as many proposals as you like—just make sure to submit a separate form for each proposal. Submit Proposal For each proposal accepted, one complimentary conference registration will be given. If you have already registered and paid, you’ll be refunded. The post Now Accepting LUC 2016 Speaker Proposals appeared first on .

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here SecureIdentity Beta Launch SecureIdentity by Morpho Launch! SecureIdentity, the new government verification service is coming soon… In the meantime, be sure to check out our helpful FAQs to guide you through the changes coming on our website. This is brought to you by Morpho, the world leader in government ID. The SecureIdentity service is secure, easy to use and reliable, keeping all of your details safe and easily accessable to make government verification faster and easier for you. See the full story SecureIdentity Beta Launch

Content from the nowcomms.com: the B2B marketing company for tech busineses in education, sports, security & ID. See the full story here Marie’s Getting Started Blog as a new B2B Marketer Let me introduce myself…   Hello, my name is Marie Mulvaney and welcome to my first blog as a new B2B digital marketer. I have created this blog to document my learning experiences in my first marketing role and to give advice based on those experiences. Ultimately, I hope that this is a head start to new marketers beginning their B2B marketing career.   Why should you read my content?   I re-entered university as a mature student to study in a more creative and people orientated field, I have since developed skills in marketing, branding and social media. My start in B2B marketing is pretty typical, utilising this knowledge in a practical working environment and ultimately planning to improve my current skills through work in order to progress.   Just like you, I have aspirations to lead a successful career in marketing, and with on the job learning, I am able to pass along my personal experiences, challenges and new skills for those who are entering into the field.   One of the first things I realised in the marketing industry is that through a business it can be difficult to follow, especially if content production involves a management team that all have their own individual work responsibilities.   In order to efficiently and proactively monitor work tasks across a team it’s useful to implement a organisation management system. This improves communication between colleagues in relation to daily job tasks. It means everyone is informed, support is available and team members can adapt to manage workloads as efficiently as possible.   There are various ways of visually organising content. The effective method applied at Now Communications is the agile management system and the use of a KANBAN board.   The use of the KANBAN   The Kanban is a Japanese developed method of visual organisation. Established around 20 years ago by Mr. Taiichi Ohno, one of Toyota’s vice presidents. It’s a visual way for all team members to know what everyone is doing and what progress has been made on all tasks. The purpose is to reduce costs, enable quick responses to changes, ensure quality control and to create heightened connectivity between team members. Ultimately this eliminates time wasting. Kanbans help organisations adapt to changes on demand which ultimately speeds up production and ROI. The idea is to identify all tasks that need to be completed in the week, who is individually responsible for them and how long they will take to do. As the tasks are going through stages, depending on how far along they are, they will be moved into the appropriate heading on the board. Tasks are usually displayed on cards that show the individual uncompleted tasks that are assigned to each team member, an estimated number of hours/days until completion and the name of the person responsible. You can see an example of a card below: Here you can see my blog task card on the board! You can see I have my name on it, as I am responsible for completing the tasks, along with the first letter of my name in a green circle. The number of days I need to complete the tasks in is showing as one day circled in green in the top right hand corner. My tasks are shown as bullet points.   The Kanban board itself is divided into categories. At Now Communications we have headings such as hold, current sprint, in progress, test and released, as shown below: Tasks advance across the board from left to right. When work is just getting started it’s pinned inder "current sprint". When it’s done it’s pinned under X. Agile management and Kanbans are widely used organisational methods that grew out of the software development industry. It can be considered a bit geeky - So much so that the cult nerd sitcom ‘Silicon Valley’ dedicates an entire episode to the Kanban. My first impression of the Kanban was that it is an extremely visual tool in the communication of work responsibilities and very easy to read. I liked the togetherness it promotes in terms of bringing the team closer to each others work tasks and closer to employees using their own initiative regarding team member support. The sharpest and most discerning marketers are usually on top of all the latest trends and news in the industry. Is this you? Kanban is a visually stimulating way to organise your team, ultimately creating wider team connectivity, enabling adaptation to your organisations demand and for faster production. Pushing workplace teams towards success together! Thank you to Library Tech for the Kanban image See the full story Marie’s Getting Started Blog as a new B2B Marketer

How we organize and get things done as governments, communities, and companies needs to change. We are shifting to a new economy, with global surveillance, and new ways of work. As we shift from a society focused on institutions and markets and prepare to enter the network area, three areas require greater emphasis. collaborative work social learning connected leadership Change happens where these intersect, and this has been my focus for the past 12 years. Connecting work and learning through Personal Knowledge Mastery Adopting a Triple Operating System for organizational Awareness, Alternatives & Action Maintaining a perspective of Perpetual Beta  so that our networks can make better decisions

It’s here! Last month we officially announced the launch of Acrobatiq’s Smart Author - the easiest and most innovative application for educators and instructional designers to develop rich, interactive and adaptive courseware based in the learning science methodology from CMU’s Open Learning Initiative. So what’s "Smart" about Smart Author? Put simply, Smart Author enables best practices in data-driven instructional design including the development of outcomes models; rich content and assessment tied to outcomes; adaptive course delivery; and powerful analytics showing who is learning and who is not, which content works and which content does not, and where to focus time making course improvements. Institutions are using Smart Author to develop high-impact and mobile-ready seat or competency-based online learning programs; to facilitate blended instruction where foundational learning occurs online and outside the classroom; and to improve learning outcomes in "red flag" or traditionally high failure courses by developing "smart" courseware that personalizes student learning. To date we have over 30 institutions in our Smart Author beta program providing robust feedback to our software development team. Early feedback from customers has been overwhelmingly positive with many beta users commenting on how easy and intuitive the tools are for creating dynamic online lessons. More than once I’ve heard. "It’s like WordPress for educators - only better!" Here’s a quick preview of some key features: 1 Enterprise-level workflow management tools to support the scaled development of adaptive courseware: Never before has it been this easy for teams of educators and instructional designers to actively collaborate on the development of beautiful, adaptive online courseware. With support for multiple role types, projects and permissions, you control the courseware development process from initial concept to courseware release and continuous updates. 2 Support for collaboration among educators and instructional design teams (in-line commenting and courseware versioning to serve different student audiences or faculty content preferences): 3 Easy-to-use Courseware Blueprint creation tool to quickly generate Skill Graphs that align learning objectives or competencies to skills, assessments and activities contained within the Units and Modules. Now see "at a glance" what students should know and be able to do by the end of a course. 4 Robust content and page creation tools - WYSIWYG interface, support for content from multiple sources - (3rd party, OER, user-generated), page layout templates, 27 question types including support for math equations, multi-step problems and many other types of formative and summative assessment types. In addition, course designers can easily integrate multiple types of dynamic media element types including slide shows from assembled images, interactive timelines, image hot spotting, etc. The tool palette enables the development of a wide variety of creative and interactive activities.  Developing high impact and engaging lessons just got fun again! 5 Media management for tracking, organizing and tagging various media types used in courseware development. Course designers can upload and tag media, and track rights management right within the Smart Author tool set. 6 Support for Accessibility and Interoperability with LTI integration for single-sign-on with leading learning management systems. Now you can have the best of both words - a robust LMS AND a beautiful, adaptive online learning experience that actually helps students learn! In addition to these features, there are many more. But don’t take my word for it, see for yourself! Fast-forward through this great demo from Acrobatiq’s Chief Technology Officer, John Rinderle. Last, no new SAAS-based application would be complete without services to support configuration, implementation and training. And Smart Author is no exception. Our Customer Success team is ready to help you make the most of the Acrobatiq platform. When you’re ready to learn more, drop me an email at alison@acrobatiq.com. PS Happy holidays from all of us here at Acrobatiq!

It’s Monday. The frenzy of "everyone will code" is technically over and most people are back to business as usual. Last week was incredible as I was fortunate enough to participate in the first ever White House Computer Science Tech Jam where educators were paired with technology developers to ideate ways and/or products to help teachers teach Computer Science. At the same time, my district was going full throttle in making sure that every student had an opportunity to code for one hour. I have to admit that it was quite amazing to watch from afar while our students and teachers tried multiple programs and even found new friends in Dash & Dot, the "made for blockly" coding robots. The week even ended on a massive high note where the passage of ESSA established a definition of "well-rounded" which includes courses, activities, and programs across many subjects, including computer science. Today, I went back to my office and amidst a hectic day of "this is what you get for being in DC for a week", I found myself reflecting on the opportunities that we gave our kids and excitement felt across the community because we fully committed to a week of coding…a week that was felt in its entirety in this district for the first time…ever! …a week where kids who had never heard of "coding" were all of a sudden saying that they wanted to learn more. …a week where a 65 year old community member, after seeing #LufkinCodes on the news, called to ask if she could learn too. It felt good and it still does. Yet, today…post-reflection, I found myself back at a familiar spot…"business as usual". Until… I happened to see a stream of Periscopes by Black Girls Code, touting an event featuring Black women engineers, startup founders, creators , programmers, designers and activist. Still time to register! "Behind the Click: The Intersection of WoC in STEM + Social Justice" https://t.co/wfIeAj51Cj pic.twitter.com/cvqrBbNjFS — BlackGirlsCode.Com (@BlackGirlsCode) December 14, 2015 I watched every second of Periscope in its entirety and I felt moved, motivated…determined. I had never seen a panel like this before!!! I was reminded by Black Girls Code, founder, Kimberly Bryant, that it’s not about coding but about empowering kids to understand that their ideas are valid and that they too can build something that not only represents their passions and dreams but can solve problems of their communities and world…in an environment created to support them. So, I did what any person would do… I started to look at what our district was already offering in Computer Science. I made a note to check statistics of students signing up for those courses. We’ll definitely be able to see positive impact here. I checked my calendar to see when we could offer open "coding" workshops at schools for kids without access to those courses and not just code.org but courses on web development, app development and yes…gaming. We have work to do, like many districts, in evaluating and improving CS course offerings but we also have a choice. We can wait on votes and cycles of change or we can use the power that we have to spread change, awareness and opportunities…NOW. I choose now.

I first posted back in July about the H&R Block Budget Challenge and included links to financial literacy sites to use in the classroom. There is still time to enroll your high school or high-school age homeschool class in this great contest which helps students learn and, more importantly, practice personal financial literacy, as well as offering teachers and students a chance to win grants and scholarships!  The H&R Block Budget Challenge immerses high-school students in the life of a recent college graduate who has been working for six months. Each participant receives a virtual salary and must make smart budgeting decisions regarding expenses, such as rent, utilities, car payments and more. Students are challenged to balance current and future financial needs and demonstrate resourcefulness, understanding and practical application of financial concepts. There are six rounds of the H&R Block Budget Challenge, and there are still three rounds left to participate in, so sign your class up today! The closing dates for registration for the remaining three simulations are January 7, January 21, or February 4, 2016.The H&R Block Budget Challenge encourages students to learn personal finance in a fun, engaging way while competing against other classrooms and students for $3 million in classroom grants and student scholarships. These awards include 60 chances for classroom grants up to $5000, 132 chances of student scholarships of $20,000, and a grand prize student scholarship of $100,000!http://hrbds.orgSince I believe financial literacy is one of the important literacies our students should attain before they graduate high school, I have blogged about ideas to enhance this across the curriculum, and I consider financial literacy one of the thirteen essential literacies. The H&R Block Web site also includes Budget Challenge lesson plans and student activities educators can use in the classroom. The H&R Block Budget Challenge and these lesson plans target Common Core standards for English language arts and mathematics, as well as personal finance benchmarks established by the Council for Economic Education (CEE) and the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy. FINANCIAL LITERACY INFOGRAPHICSOnce students have completed the H&R Budget Challenge, you can continue the financial literacy instruction by the use of infographics. After participating in the H&R Block Budget Challenge, the students will have the knowledge base to determine the usefulness, validity, and information included in these types of infographics. In addition, you can have students re-create the infographics by including new data, a different focus, or research data they have collected. (Additional information on how to use infographics in the classroom may be found on my Web page here.)Here are some infographics and Google search links to get students started.http://newsroom.mastercard.com/photos/road-to-inclusion-money-management/http://blogs.usda.gov/2013/08/14/what-does-it-cost-to-raise-a-child/http://www.moneymanagement.org/Budgeting-Tools/InfoGraphics/Kids-and-Money.aspxInvesting infographicsPaying rent infographicsLiving expense infographicsLiving expenses infographicsMoney management infographicsSign your class up today for the H&R Block Budget Challenge!   Visit Kathy's Web pages: Kathy Schrock's Home Page Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything