Last month, as part of a craft of writing session, English and Writing students were invited to contribute to their lecture via twitter. Including a real time conversational element to the lecture seemed apt given that the nature of the session was dialogue. Prior to the lecture students were emailed a hashtag and invited to contribute should they wish. During the session the live tweets were broadcast to all in the lecture theatre. This was the first time a session like this had been run with the cohort and it was as much of a learning exercise for staff as it was for students. Purposefully no rules were implemented as part of the activity, and although conversation occasionally diverted away from the lesson having staff who were tweeting with the students meant conversations were steered towards the subject should they veer too far off topic. The addition of a digital dialogue element to the session gave an extra dimension to an already engaging lecture. Particularly interesting was that one of the most engaged students in the session via twitter wasn’t even studying on the course and had instead contributed after seeing the hashtag on his friends twitter wall and decided to get involved. The decision by academic staff to incorporate this interactive element was really encouraging, they wanted students to become involved in the session and went with a method that they had not used previously. Sometimes it is difficult to try new things because you are unsure of how they will go and if it will be a success. Hopefully the english team will build on this experience, reflecting on the dialogue session to include further methods students can contribute to taught sessions. As a team we are always happy to support academic staff wanting to introduce a technical element into their teaching, if you’ve been inspired by this session or want to discuss any ideas you have please get in touch with the team: etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk   

What comprises a superlative student?  If you could fill out an end of course survey for your students, a perfect score might look something like this... In an ongoing series, Marina Gutai, a recent IWU...Continue Reading »

 Photo credit: Frederic Legrand - COMEO / Shutterstock.com In Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Dr. Priscilla Chan’s recent letter to their newborn daughter, Max, they point to personalized learning technology as the key to helping their daughter and others in her generation achieve their goals. As a learning strategy, personalized learning recognizes that students have different needs. Learning programs adapt for each individual based on their learning process and goals so that they can be as innovative, productive, and accomplished as possible. Personalized learning technology ties together both the capabilities of improving the potential of individuals as well as the education of children all over the world. It can serve the most diverse populations whether they are in the same classroom or at different locations. In its essence, personalized learning combines the two overriding ideas that power Zuckerberg and Chan’s new philanthropic initiative of about $45 billion: "advancing human potential and promoting equality." In their letter, they write to Max about her future: …You’ll have technology that understands how you learn best and where you need to focus. You’ll advance quickly in subjects that interest you most, and get as much help as you need in your most challenging areas. You’ll explore topics that aren’t even offered in schools today. Your teachers will also have better tools and data to help you achieve your goals. Even better, students around the world will be able to use personalized learning tools over the internet, even if they don’t live near good schools. Of course it will take more than technology to give everyone a fair start in life, but personalized learning can be one scalable way to give all children a better education and more equal opportunity. Others are already advising Zuckerberg and Chan on how to go forward. Psychologist Howard Gardner, originator of the theory of multiple intelligences,  advises on learning pathways, individual choice, varied approaches to learning, and different intelligences. Anya Kamenetz at NPR, talks to education experts who remind us that with personalized learning comes redesigning schools and investing in support for teachers —which Zuckerberg and Chan are planning to do. Zuckerberg and Chan admit that there are many ways to achieve personalized or adaptive learning  but technology is key to its success. They also recognize that in order to accomplish their goals, they need to partner with leading education experts. Acrobatiq’s courseware, based on the research of learning science experts  at Carnegie Mellon, aligns with what Zuckerberg and Chan imagine for the future. And Smart Author  gives instructors the capability to personalize their entire course in a way that reflects exactly what they want to teach using Acrobatiq’s comprehensive technology platform. With this announcement and funding, Zuckerberg and Chan have reinvigorated the work of educators everywhere to explore and adopt best practices and platforms in personalized learning.

As we do every month, we’re bringing you the most interesting and insightful articles about gamification that we read this month. Gamification is really growing as an industry, so this month I thought I’d write an edition which demonstrates how gamification is being used in completely different fields. Let’s start. The gamification of cyber security "Gamification and cyber security? How is that a thing?" That’s exactly how I reacted when I came across this article. A competition which took place in London this month attempted to find the next best up and coming tech talents, to recruit to the fight against cyber threats. You might be imagining rows and rows of hackers sitting opposite bluish screens and poring over code and complex puzzles, but in reality they were actually all super focused on… games. The Cyber Security Challenge UK, organized by experts from GCHQ, BT, Lockheed Martin and the National Crime Agency (NCA) is an annual event. Interestingly, organizers say that they believe the next generation of cyber security talent is likely to come from the gaming environment, which is why the challenge shifted from a set of simple tasks that could only be accessed at limited times, to a much more immersive gaming environment called the virtual skyscraper. This gamified environment tests technical curiosity, problem solving skills, competitiveness and desire for peer recognition, which are all important traits for a successful career in the cyber security industry. Gamification in banking Yep, another surprising industry. An article in firstpost.com speaks about how gamification is an important tool in the transition to the digital banking era. The article quotes research which indicates that interest in gamification in the banking industry is rapidly growing, and that the percentage of banks that are implementing some kind of gamification solution in their organization has gone up from single digits to somewhere in the 30’s. A great example is a gamification solution used by BBVA. The game rewards usage of online services with medals, badges, and points that can be used to claim real world prizes. In essence, BBVA is using gamification to educate the market about a new solution, which will benefit the customers and offer them a much better experience once they get used to it. Another example is Rabobank, which has an internal gamification network for knowledge and idea sharing across the organization. Rabobank has also used gamification to encourage customers to complete their mortgage application documentation online. Gamifying politics You know how your grumpy uncle always says that politics is just a game? Well, yeah, he might have had a point. A local councilor from the city of Windsor in Ontario, wants to build a gamification app where citizens can digitally push levers and buttons, in order to move money around in a fun way. All this is meant to encourage people to take part in local democracy. The councilor said that he sees gamification as a way to increase citizen engagement, and that he can only see good coming from it. The game would be able to show users the consequences of an unbalanced budget (rising taxes, for example). Local politicians are thinking that through the game, they might be able to get a glimpse of how users would react to tax increases and other changes in policy. You can read more about it here. Gamification for marathon runners? Milestone sports, a sports tech company announced the launch of a new gamification program for running event organizers. The program is meant to gamify the training process for running event participants. Through different wearable devices, participants can see how they are performing in comparison to other event participants on a host of parameters which are all aimed at improving the runners’ results. Participants get rewards for sticking to their training regiment, and the program will also identify areas that need improvement in their running style or form. These gamified features assist runners in reaching their goals and prevents them from getting injured. If you’re a runner, or just interested, you might want to give the whole article a look. That’s all for November. If you’ve come across an interesting piece on gamification, we’re always interested to see if we missed something. Feel free to send us an email with the best gamification articles you came across!

Workforce gamification is on the rise, and its powerful potential is only beginning to be unlocked. The question I often get asked is what is enterprise gamification used for. Broadly speaking, many workforce gamification projects we implement are either for performance - workforce performance management - or for training/onboarding - i.e. learning. Today’s workplaces need both: real-time performance management AND better learning and collaboration. Each company can choose what it needs first, and sometimes a combination of both flavors is the best solution. Gamification for Learning The first kind of gamification we see a lot is gamification for learning, or what a lot of organizations call e-learning. This is implemented in organizations in a host of different situations - When a new product is launched and the company would want to ensure salespeople are aware of it and the company wants the employees to learn about it, when new guidelines come out as to how to handle customers (or just as periodical training to refresh employees), or even when a new employee goes through her onboarding process and is learning the ropes at the new organization that she has now joined. This kind of gamification can usually be characterized by tasks that involve completion, such as going through learning materials (typically pulled from learning management systems) and other activities that check learning and enhance it, such as quizzes, simulations, TV game show scenarios (where the questions are about relevant information) and others. Learning projects that are on-boarding centric are usually shorter, since the knowledge that is being acquired is needed for the near future in order for the employee to do their job properly. But when learning is combined with performance, as we’ll see below, learning becomes longer term. Gamification for performance management Disrupting traditional HR performance management, workforce performance gamification gives employees real-time views of their goals, objectives and KPIs, so that they can reflect on their performance. Here, the aim is first to learn about how an employee is doing, and then see what can be done to improve this performance. At GamEffective, our platform is always learning and monitoring the performance of employees. Our user interface makes it easy for both employees and managers to see how performance is developing over time. Using this data, it is also possible to create benchmarks against which an employee can measure himself, or create predictions for how we expect an employee to do in the future. But that’s only the beginning of what gamification for performance management can do for employees. Over time, we’ve noticed that making performance data available to the employees themselves, allows for a host of different positive outcomes like self-reflection and self-improvement of employees. It also allows for employees to see how they are doing in comparison to their peers, and to see what KPI’s they need to get better at in order to advance towards those who are currently performing better than them. Finally, part of performance management gamification is competition. At GamEffective we’ve learnt that competition is a great tool to increase competition, but only if it is done in the right way. It’s important to maintain a sense of competence and competitiveness also in those employees who are consistently performing at a lower standard than their peers, and we’ve developed a few mechanisms to do this. Performance gamification with learning components Sometimes it is possible to have the best of both worlds. In our case, this means creating the best environment for employees so that they can both be aware of their performance and of how they are performing in comparison to other employees and also have an opportunity to undergo learning sessions tailored specifically to the KPI’s in which they need to improve, at relevant times. One way in which we are doing this on our platform, is by integrating e-learning micro sessions in to the performance management system. So, when employees enter the platform they can see how they are performing in comparison to their own benchmark, to other employees, or to other teams. At the same time, they also have gauges that show them in real time what KPI’s they are weakest in, so that they can undergo micro learning sessions in real time and improve in the aspects of their performance which they are currently lacking. The idea is to give both a long term picture of performance, and an immediate option of improving, learning and moving forward.

The old saying Don’t work harder, work smarter might seem like common sense, but it isn’t common practice—especially during the hectic holiday season. In addition to the year-end push for revenue goals and project completion at work, everyone’s personal time is impacted with school vacations and holiday celebrations that can result in added pressure and frenzied activity. Many people approach this season with the mindset If I put in maximum time and effort 24/7, I should be able to get it all done. I’d like to suggest something a little different. Although it’s very tempting to tell yourself "Don’t just sit there, do something," please consider this: "Don’t just do something, sit there!" I know it sounds counterintuitive, but let me explain how this mindset can make things easier both at work and at home. Someone once taught me the phrase Plan your work and then work your plan. When you jump into a project without proper planning, you often make decisions without all the necessary information—which can create extra work for both you and your team. But when you take the time to think, strategize, and prioritize, you’ll actually save time, have better focus, and avoid pitfalls along the way. At work, it’s critical to take the time to create a project plan before taking action. This will allow you to be proactive at making continuous progress toward the end goal instead of being reactive when issues come up along the way and slow you down. Without a clear plan, you have no real focus. And without focus, you might be working hard—but not smart. At home, it’s important to get the whole family involved in creating a plan for the holidays. There’s nothing sadder than ruining your own holiday spirit because you feel like you have to do it all. You might be surprised at how much everyone would pitch in on holiday preparations if you simply asked for help. So sit down as a group and decide who is going to be involved in which project. Doing projects together—whether it’s cooking, shopping, or entertaining—adds to the positive holiday spirit. And you’ll spend more time together as a family. What’s more important than that? I encourage you to sit down and take a few minutes right now to plan your work and personal activities for the coming month. I guarantee it will be time well spent—and you’ll enjoy the benefits of working smarter, not harder.

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. eLearning designs should not spoon-feed learners. Developers and designers are encouraged to create modules that challenge the intelligence and creativity of the learners. Knowledge spoon-feeding would create infants out of learners. Image SourceThe job of eLearning designers should enable learners to reflect, discover and decide rather than just giving information out. Creating the proverbial comfort zone in eLearning designs is the formula for boredom. The so-called ‘comfort zone’ induces students to become passive. It dulls their minds and suppresses creativity.Facilitators and trainers shift the control of the learning from the learners to them by giving too much information and data. Overly eager designers tend to manipulate the modules to attain their desired results. They want the learners to win the ballgame according to their terms and biased outcomes. Intellectual constraints build mental muscles. Muscles are formed by consistently engaging them with artificial stress and constraints. You don’t need Arnold Schwarzenegger to tell you that. Likewise, designers must push elearners’ to critically think and carry some mental burden to arrive at or discover learning nuggets. Let them travel through a labyrinth and discover their way out in the quest to acquire knowledge.As an eLearning designer, I understand the dilemma that my fellow colleagues face in the industry. By designing lessons that give more control to learners, we make ourselves ‘obsolete’. It’s a scary thought, right? I aired this matter in my blog : Are Trainers Still Needed? In that blog, I wrote: Informal learning, social learning, or learning based on the learners’ choices or options are certainly redefining the roles of trainers, learning specialists and even learners themselves. As they take more control of their own learning on their own terms, this becomes a frightening scenario to many learning specialists."Letting go of control" pushes trainers to rethink their roles in the learning process. However, rather than balk at the prospect, it is about time that this becomes an open issue. Years ago, letting go of control was like committing suicide where trainers are concerned.Truth to say, we trainers, never had total control. We’ve always felt, thought and convinced ourselves that we control learning because we instruct and teach knowledge. However in reality, learners choose to learn based on their own personal goals. So, this openness about losing control is not entirely novel news. It should no longer be a surprise.Interestingly, this is the same concept that Adam Richardson wrote in his Harvard Business Review article entitled ‘Boosting Creativity Through Constraints’. In that article, Richardson writes: Conventional wisdom holds that the best way to boost a team's creativity is to unshackle them from constraints. The less they have to worry about, the more open they'll be with their ideas, the theory goes. Budget? Unlimited! Ideas from outside? Bring 'em on! Different business model? Consider it entertained! Unfortunately this approach can actually be counter-productive.Some constraints are realities that must to be dealt with — laws of physics, or perhaps a budget. Other constraints may seem immovable but upon inspection are actually assumptions based on the past — your business model, or which customers and needs you serve, for example.Constraints have a Goldilocks quality: too many and you will indeed suffocate in stale thinking, too few and you risk a rambling vision quest. The key to spurring creativity isn't the removal of all constraints. Ideally you should impose only those constraints (beyond the truly non-negotiable ones) that move you toward clarity of purpose.If a constraint enhances your understanding of the problem scope and why you're doing what you're doing, leave it in. Insights into user needs, for example, are great because they provide focus and rationale. If the constraint confuses or overly narrows scope without good reason, remove or replace it. Don't be afraid to experiment with different combinations of constraints; it's not always easy to tell ahead of time what the right mix will be for a particular project or circumstance.Here are some tips on how to build constraints that compel learner’s creativity:Ask or post the right questions in your modules. Target the learner’s blindside. Post unexpected questions that are not answered by yes or no. Use hyperlinks and links in your lessons. Let you eLearners navigate through other knowledge references. Present contradictory ideas and compel your students to take a stand. Opposing views fuel discussion. Collaborative learning is attained when there are clashes of ideas and concepts. Do not feed your students with your conclusions or recommendations. Guide them through but do not dictate as to how the learning should be concluded. Provide a feedback mechanism so that you can challenge the answers or conclusions of the elearners. Whenever possible, use learning games. This can make learning entertaining. Related BlogsAre Trainers Still Needed?Are you guilty of interrupting the learners learning?Reference: Boosting Creativity Through Constraints by Adam RichardsonRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story. Synthesis.Avatars are not only novelties or catchy web accessories. They provide web users with a third-person perspective of themselves. Avatars help us project ourselves during web interactivity. Recent studies show that the third-person perspective has more advance uses in eLearning and interaction.Image Source I chanced upon an EA Sports website, a gaming portal that enables players to ‘paste’ their head shots onto the body of the player of their choice. The feature is called Game Face. It gives this alluring welcome to the players: Create your EA sports avatar on the web and get to play as yourself in the games!I am not into gaming but I like the concept of personification: the users "see themselves" in the interactive zone they are engaged in. Perhaps, people tend to become more efficient in interactive games when they see themselves in it. The survival instinct kicks in: they don’t want to see their avatar lose or die right before their very eyes.As eLearning facilitators, we make it a point to require elearners to post their photos or avatars during interactive sessions. The chat room and online forum become more ‘personified’ during virtual lessons through the photos or avatars of fellow learners. An article published in the Harvard Business Review describes a breakthrough research that takes the avatar concept technology a hundred notches higher. In You Make Better Decisions If You "See" Your Senior Self, Hal Hershfield writes:"There’s a large body of literature showing that emotional responses are heightened when you give people vivid examples: Donors give more to charity when they hear from a victim; pulmonologists smoke less than other doctors because they see dirty lungs all day. So I partnered with Daniel Goldstein of Microsoft Research, Jeremy Bailenson of Stanford, and several other Stanford researchers see if giving people vivid images of their older selves would change their spending and saving preferences. We took photos of our subjects and used software to create digital avatars—half of which were aged with jowls, bags under the eyes, and gray hair. Wearing goggles and sensors, participants explored a virtual environment and came with a mirror that reflected either their current-self or future-self avatar. Afterward, we asked them to allocate $1,000 among four options—buying something nice for someone special, investing in a retirement fund, planning a fun event, or putting money into a checking account. Subjects exposed to aged avatars put nearly twice as much money into the retirement fund as the other people. Later we had some people see the older avatars of other subjects to test if that affected their choices, but it didn’t. Only those who saw their own future selves were more likely to favor long-term rewards."So, how do we apply the basic concepts of the third-person perspective in elearning design? How can we induce our elearners to "age or become more mature" in their responses? The correct and efficient use of avatars in story-based eLearning design is only part of the whole approach. To create the appropriate learning environment, designers should set a good storyline, an apt setting and a realistic script. Create the right tension and draw them into the scenario. Trust the learners and implement your lessons with the disposition that they can rise to the level of the challenge. In short, treat them as adults who are capable of being creative and responsive no matter how difficult your lessons may seem. Pace your lessons well so that learners have enough time to think, react and assess their response. We are recreating real-life scenarios. As such, there are emotions and reactions involved. While we try to draw out the spontaneous reaction from learners, it is also as important to give them space to process their own learning . The results of the above-mentioned research could be further applied to elearning development. I foresee that this third-person concept is applicable to value-based and ethics-centered lessons for NGOs, socio-civic organizations and churches. Indeed, the elearning universe is expanding because of the changing needs of global communities. Related BlogsThe Dream of Personalization - Far fetch but PossibleDesigning eLearning for Martians and Other Aliens Reference  You Make Better Decisions If You "See" Your Senior Self by Hal HershfieldRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis: Accessibility to massive content  in this Digital Information Age can be overwhelming and sidetrack even those with the best intentions. It is therefore important that designers focus on the intended context of their lessons rather than allow themselves to be distracted by too much information during elearning development.  Minimizing  content to its essentials  can be an effective way to accelerate eLearning.  It allows  context to float to the surface like oil over water. Image SourceWell developed elearning programs put premium on embedding context rather than just provding content. A critical step to achieving this is distinguishing content that learners need to know or must know. It is lean yet significant. Otherwise, it does not create the intended learning impact. As we apply the approach to creating micro-lessons with the embedded context, learners are drawn to discover it and enables them to glean the critical knowledge and retain it more easily.The quality of content and the process by which we synthesize content are factors that affect learning. Content that simply  overloads our minds and makes learning incomprehensible can even  lead to confusion. In this light, context takes precedence over content. In my blog Context is King, I wrote:"With the massive information and content growth and the speed of information change, the next generation challenge is not content but rather how to make sense, how to discover and how to apply the ideas from the content. In essence, how to find the context becomes more important. This is known as Contextual Learning - a learning that connects content with what the learners already know and benefit from its immediate usefulness. It is not the amount of information that we provide learners that is important. It is what is meaningful and immediately useful to impact their performance."Here are points to ponder for elearning designers:• Content development doesn’t work like a piggy bank. Storing too much information in one single lesson weakens the learning framework. If you keep on dumping content without providing the process on how to weave everything into one symbiotic modality, your lesson becomes good for nothing.• Context focuses on micro-lessons that lead to rapid learning. Uncovering  a single lesson from one page is more practical than unearthing  multiple lessons from  a whole book. • Contextual learning limits the scope of the lesson but it does not mean that the learner  has lesser learning. • Context enables designers to focus only on what is relevant and disregards novelty and unnecessary  information embellishments that do not contribute to the eLearning structure.In his article  4 Weapons of Exceptional  Creative Leaders, Charles Day wrote:"The context gives us the ability to say no with confidence.Great leaders are not necessarily braver leaders. They’re just better informed about the consequences of their choices, which makes it easier for them to make the hard ones. The result is they are able to keep their companies focused.When Steve Jobs returned to Apple in 1997 as its CEO, he began saying no to virtually every request by Apple’s developers. He understood that saying yes was a distraction from where he knew he needed to take the company and having context gave him the confidence to stand by his convictions.Many leaders fear saying no and see it as limiting. But more often than not, it’s the right answer when you’re clear about where you’re headed and are in a hurry to get there. Context requires that you build from the future back. Once you know where you’re headed, the decision whether to turn left or right at any given fork becomes increasingly clear. Context is only relevant if it’s based on current information. Because the world is changing in real time, exceptional leaders actively welcome disruptive thinking."What is said about contextual leadership can also be applied in contextual elearning development.   Designers who are keen on contextual learning safeguards their lessons by saying "no" to: • Information overload that defocuses the learner from the heart of the lessons • Bland, boring and conventional designs that fail to challenge the creativity and rationality of the learners • Knowledge spoon-feeding that induces procrastination rather than participationRelated BlogsContext is KingConstraints Compel eLearner to be CreativeReferences4 Weapons ofExceptional  Creative Leaders by Charles DayRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Our belief: At Vignettes Learning we use stories in eLearning; however, we make them interactive. The emphasis is getting learners involved in the story and not just telling the learners the story.Synthesis. eLearning content should be a collaboration between the client and the instructional designer and developer. Without the collaborative process, it is more difficult to produce effective and impactful elearning design. This is the reason why training needs analysis is important in elearning development. The first question a developer should ask the client is: what do you want to learn?Recently, Ikea launched an ingenuously designed shelter for refugees. In his article, A New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane Snow writes:"The Ikea Foundation (which has invested approximately 3.4 million euros in the project so far) and UNHCR will beta test the shelters in Ethiopia next month, then iterate to a final design for mass production. They currently cost $10,000 to make, but they’re hoping to get that price down to less than $1,000 when they’re in mass production. The tents cost half that, but they hope to have the cost even out, given the long life of the shelters."The same article cites that these innovative shelters are twice as large as the old-school refugee tent. They measure 17.5 square meters, take four hours to assemble and designed to last 10 times longer than the conventional ones. Take a look at the Ikea tent here.Putting on my designer’s hat, I became fully aware of the amount of research, situational-needs analysis, behavioral study and technical preparations Ikea designers went through to produce the innovative refugee shelters. The design is objective and end-user specific: for refugees.The process of developing the elearning design is similar to the design approach of the said tent. Just as the blueprint of the tent was based on the needs of the refugees, the development of elearning modalities should consider the assessed requisites of the learners. In this sense, a needs analysis is a vital step. A shotgun approach will not achieve learning goals especially in the development of the elearning design. The next key step would be the presentation and discussion of results with client. Here lies the opportunity for a collaborative approach between designer /developer and the organization’s elearning stakeholders.In my years as an eLearning developer, I am convinced with certainty that the most effective and impactful lessons are those co-designed by the client. Co-design in this respect means that the client spent collaborative sessions with the developer to analyze the needs of the organization.Entities subscribed to elearning, participate in the development of lessons. After all, the principals have better knowledge of its members than the developers. Collaborative elearning development produces contextual lessons that hit the bull’s eye.In my book 3-Minute Learning, I pointed out one of the common pitfalls in eLearning course development: designing and developing e-Learning programs without understanding the principles of elearning behaviors and the nature of internet technologies.Based on the above fact, I cite these guide points for both the developers and elearning principals:Learning needs analysis should be implemented with a critical mind. The principal should disclose relevant data and information that could help designers come up with an objective-specific lesson. Designers should be given the general background of the elearners. Prior knowledge of the contextual situation of the organization would definitely help designers customize an appropriate eLearning design. Principals should inform the designers about the strengths and weaknesses of the organization in relation to the lesson being designed. This way, the designers and developers are able to build the learning parameters. Learning results should be quantifiable and measurable. Keep in mind that the behavior of learners in an elearing environment is different. Virtual classroom solicits a different attitude and disposition from the learners. What works in a conventional learning environment would not necessarily apply in a virtual class. Conduct a Beta test of the virtual lessons and invest time in implementing trial runs to recognize the flaws and defects of the conceptual and technical elements of the design. Allow the principals and the learners to evaluate the elearning design. Record and keep the evaluation results. Knowledge benchmarks are necessary for the next phase of the elearning development. Related blogsAccelerating eLearning by Focusing on ContextSurgical Insertion of Micro-Scenarios that Beautify and Fire Up Your eLearningReferenceA New Ingeniously Designed Shelter For Refugees—Made By Ikea, Shane SnowRay Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning