8 Tips To Get The Best Value For Money From Your eLearning Translations  You are using eLearning to train your global workforce and you wish to translate your online learning content into the languages of your people. But, how can you produce eLearning translations of high quality without burning a hole in your pocket? Well, here are a few tips. Start creating the eLearning course with multilingual learners in mind. The translation of your online training content shouldn’t be an afterthought. You need to plan and build your online course with your global workforce in mind. This helps you formulate the right strategy to develop a translation-friendly course, which goes a long way in reducing the cost of rendering the eLearning content in multiple languages. We’ll see more about strategies in the next point. Come up with a translation-friendly Instructional and Visual Design strategy. Use the right language and visuals in your eLearning courses, as these aspects play a key role in reducing the cost of their translation. Avoid using idioms, references, symbols, and colors that are culture specific. You need to focus more on visual content to convey the message. It is important not to place the text "inside" the visual as it takes time and effort (and as a result more money) to translate it. Cut down on audio and video elements. Staying on with instructional strategy, minimizing the use of audio and video components in the online course can help reduce the cost of its translation considerably. For example, if there are three audio or video clips in the course and you want to translate them into three different languages, you have to produce nine different dubbings. It’s better to use only those clips that support the content. You can use more content on screen and interactivities to enhance the effectiveness of learning. Use rapid authoring tools or the text-layout format (TLF) to develop online courses. The advent of rapid authoring tools such as Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate, and Lectora Inspire has simplified the process of eLearning translations. These tools can be used to export the content of online courses as an MS-Word document or an XML file, which can be handed over to the translator. And, once the translation is completed, the translated file can be imported into the tool and the course in the target language can be published. When it comes to creating courses in Flash, it’s better to go in for TLF as it provides good support to languages with complex scripts, such as Arabic, Hebrew, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. Choose the languages into which you want to translate the courses carefully. Many a time, organizations get their online training content rendered in languages that are not popular and have a few takers. This results in precious dollars being wasted. You can reduce the cost of your eLearning course translations by identifying the languages into which their content needs to be rendered and those that are not required. One of our customers found that the traditional Chinese version of his course had no takers and it could have done with just the simplified Chinese course. Develop a glossary of terms and a style guide for quality management. Creating a glossary and a style guide greatly aids the translator in understanding the learning content. They ensure consistency in the use of terms and ensure adherence to linguistic style rules, which reduces the number of revisions, and thereby, the cost of the translation. You can ask your eLearning vendor to include the glossary in his quality assurance (QA) software to reduce the time taken for and cost of the translation. Utilize computer-aided translation software tools. Most computer-aided translation software tools come with translation memory capabilities, which are very useful to cut down the cost of the translation. Translation memory stores the sentences in English and the target language while the translator is rendering the learning content in the latter. These sentences can be reused later in future translations. The software tools not only help reduce the expenditure on translation, but also lend consistency to the quality of the online course translation. Appoint a knowledgeable person to oversee the translation and ensure coordination. A good online course translation is much more than rendering of words in the target language. The context and purpose of a digital course often play an important role in its translation. The firm, which created the eLearning content, knows what it wants to achieve through its translation better than anyone else. Therefore, the organization needs to explain the purpose of the translation and clarify the doubts of the translator effectively. It is better to assign a knowledgeable person as the Single Point of Contact (SPOC) to ensure effective coordination and communication. Conclusion  It is important to start developing the eLearning course with its translations in mind. It is necessary to come up with a translation-friendly instructional and visual design strategy. The audio and video elements need to be kept to a minimum. It is better to use rapid authoring tools and TLF to develop the online course. The choice of the languages into which the course needs to be translated needs to be made carefully. It is essential to develop a glossary and a style guide. It is advisable to use computer-aided translation software tools and appoint a knowledgeable person to oversee the translation process. Hope you find this article interesting. Do share your views. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Elective Vs Directive eLearning  Consumer trends point directly at a powerful and fast paced on-demand content consumption movement. Whether it be Google, Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, or YouTube, the trend is real and here to stay. Training organizations have taken notice and are increasingly moving towards on-demand eLearning libraries to align with this trend. These on-demand eLearning libraries are leveraging curated content and internal content and being served up on a lightweight mobile learning platform outside of their traditional Learning Management System (LMS). However there are still companies that are struggling to decide whether to keep their Learning Management System and their traditional mandatory (directive) content and or move to an on-demand (elective) or use a combination of both. These aren't easy decisions to make because of the time, energy, and money invested in previous programs. Using the points found in the infographic, let’s compare and contrast each of these and look at how they impact a company when exploring the dilemma elective vs directive eLearning. A Visual Guide To Elective Vs Directive eLearning Learner Completion Rate Elective When asking, not telling, a learner to consume content there will be a lower completion rate. Elective training is just that; elective. Directive If a learner knows that they must complete a training program, 9/10 will. Having said that, let’s not confuse completion with engagement and understanding. Learner Engagement Elective A learner who seeks out specific content is likely to be more engaged. They understand the power of knowledge and subsequently took the time to seek it out. Of course there’s always the chance that the content won’t be viewed at all, in which case engagement will be zero. Directive Unfortunately, many directive programs start with negative learner connotation before the programs even get started, mainly due to a history of poor programs or flavor of the month training programs. It’s important to get learner buy-in before assigning directive learning. This will allow the learner to open their minds to engaging with the content. Suited For Which Type Of Training  Elective "Just in time": When the learner wants knowledge on a specific subject at the moment of need. Similar to how people search google or an intranet. Directive Compliance: Great for organizations to ensure that they have educated their employees on specific regulatory compliances. An elective training simply can’t guarantee participation. Learner Appreciation Elective High: Think about how frustrating it can be looking through old workbooks or training material trying to find the information needed. When learners are able to quickly and precisely find the information they want or need it puts a smile on their face. Directive Low: Now think of a time you’ve been made take an eLearning course that takes 6-10 hours to complete. Most likely you didn’t need to spend a whole day taking a course, or you felt like your time would have been better spent elsewhere. Learners tend to not appreciate mandatory training because they don’t always see the instant benefits of participating in it. Obviously, this isn’t always the case, but it seems to be the most common feedback. Runway To Success Elective Long: Organizations can create or curate all this great content and it may sit on the e-shelf gathering e-dust because employees aren’t used to having elective training. Therefore, on average the runway to success tends to be longer. If the content is aligned to the current needs of the employees, and is constantly being marketed and promoted to them this runway can be drastically reduced. Directive Short: Success in directive training is typically measured by answering the question "did the training program get completed, yes or no?". If a learner is required to take training content and its purposed is to be tracked and measured this way runway to success is short. Selecting the right type of training approach (directive or elective) can go a long way to determining organizational training program success, for years to come. So next time you’re looking at your organization’s learning strategy, take a moment to run through this list and decide what’s the most important to you, your learners, and your organization for now and in the future. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Learn Web Design With These 9 Online Sources  Web design is an excellent skill to know in the digital age. More companies than ever realize they are going to fall behind if they do not have a strong web presence. Still others may have been online for years and know they need to upgrade to stay ahead of their competitors. Luckily the internet is a digital library at your service. However, with all of the web design online schools, how in the world do you know which ones to pick? Save yourself a headache, we have you covered! Udemy For those just starting out in web design to those wanting to expand their knowledge, Udemy can be an excellent resource. Courses range from free to hundreds of dollars, and the training varies as widely as the cost. Lynda If you are looking for instructor-led web design tutorials, CSS online training or even photography or 3D animation skills, this LinkedIn company can provide the tools you need for success. The site hosts thousands of videos that can be viewed anywhere at your convenience for the ultimate in on-the-go learning. W3 Schools Perhaps the Holy Grail of learning all things web design online, W3 schools have been around since what seems like the beginning of the internet itself. While they have not, of course, they are still the go-to site for those starting out in learning, anyone needing quick refreshers, up to and including the experienced professional. Codecademy If all you want to do is learn to code in various languages without breaking the bank, Codecademy may be the best choice. Over 25 million online learners worldwide have put them to the test. Tuts+ This site offers over 20 thousand free tutorials - way more than enough to get your feet wet and decide if coding is for you. When you are ready to commit to your learning, you can pick a paid plan as well. Dev.Opera Dev.Opera offers a vast digital library of articles that can expand your knowledge on everything Opera-related and on topics ranging from 3D to X86 and everything in between. Khan Academy This is one site you will want to bookmark not only for design skills but as a digital library for anything you could want to learn. Only a few years old, it is setting the pace for eLearning. Bonus: If you have kids, you are going to want to share this site with them as well; no more algebra headaches for you! Smashing Magazine This site is not a school, per se; they do however offer a wealth of information to designers who want to stay on top of new trends. Google, Bing, and Yahoo Go to your favorite search engine and type in "web design schools online". This may sound redundant in this article, but it isn't. Doing this will open your eyes to all available options including those that offer legitimate learning experiences in hands-on classroom settings. Which site you choose is dependent on your answers to certain questions. Do you want the skills and the degree or diploma to back it up that companies may look for? Do you just want to build sites for yourself and maybe a few clients as a freelancer? If you are undecided about becoming a web designer read this, it is an excellent article that may help solidify and guide your decision! Share us your eLearning resources below! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Technology As A Training Resource And American Training Companies  Findcourses.com surveyed 250 of the top professional training providers in the United States. Across the board, the majority of U.S. training providers ranked the use of technology among the least important factors for success as a training provider. The survey included 100 top-ranked training companies based in the United States, ranging from small privately owned companies to non-profit organizations and large public enterprises. The U.S. training industry is not alone in its aversion to adapting its programs to eLearning. Of the most popular 50 professional training courses listed on Findcourses’ UK site, over 50% are delivered online. Yet when surveyed, only 33.3% of UK training providers planned to put focus on their eLearning and blended learning programs. In addition to being adverse to developing technology in course delivery, 70% of UK training providers surveyed still collected course reviews using a pen and paper system.   How Does Technology Fit Into Professional Development?  Despite the perceptions of training companies, technology has absolutely changed the way we learn, explore, and develop. The online learning industry was predicted to grow to a $107 billion industry in 2015 by Forbes magazine. When you look at the opportunities provided by online learning courses and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses), it’s clear that this learning revolution is here to stay. Where education was previously just out of reach, millions of people use online resources to develop their skills each day. Being open to using technology in professional training can have more applications than an online platform for delivering courses. Simply improving online marketing can make a tremendous difference in the number of potential participants enrolling in a course. Online reviews are proving just as significant in marketing professional training as they are in marketing a product online. In a recent Findcourses study of the conversion rate of 2600 courses, conversion being from clicking on a course to contacting the training provider, the average conversion rate for courses listing reviews is 25.4% while the site average for courses is a 7% conversion rate. MOOCs And Online Learning Takes Off In Corporate Training The accessibility and affordability of online training programs present obvious benefits to companies needing to train many employees at once - and with as little inconvenience as possible. Flexible online courses and MOOCs offer high-quality learning opportunities at a lower cost to the company and with added scheduling flexibility for employees. This year, an estimated 8% of companies used MOOCs and 77% used online alternatives for employee development, according to eLearning Industry. The great majority of employers are open to using MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) for professional development purposes of training employees on specific skill sets according to a study by the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning. MOOC providers have taken notice of MOOCs’ role in professional development noting approximately two thirds of those enrolling in courses are currently employed, according to the same study. How Companies Utilize Online Education How companies are using eLearning for development is undergoing a period of experimentation. Building talent pipelines through top-performing MOOC participants, inducting brand-new employees to the company, or developing the capabilities of current employees are all applications of eLearning major companies are trying out. The affordability and ability of online courses to cater to a large number of participants allows for experimentation in how learning and development looks in the 21st century workplace with minimal risk. This year, Findcourses has switched its internal learning and development scheme from in-house trainers to online courses chosen by employees to match their area of interest. This move is anticipated to help employees differentiate their skills-sets to bring more value to the organization. We’ve begun our trial year, but if it proves valuable, online courses at the company will be here to stay. So Why Is The Training Industry So Technology-Averse? Change can be difficult - and American training companies maintain that the benefits of traditional courses outweigh the benefits of highly accessible, highly affordable online solutions. Personally, we're interested in seeing the results of next year's survey. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Social Intelligence In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Need To Know Genetics is often linked to IQ, but social intelligence is a skill developed over time, learning from life experiences and interactions with others. Edward Thorndike introduced the idea of interpersonal intelligence, or social intelligence, to the world in the 1920's as part of his multiple intelligences theory. It pertains to a person's ability to connect with those around them and make pivotal decisions that impact our lives on a daily basis. Social Intelligence in eLearning can help learners to better understand human psychology, behavior, and communication, which opens up a world of opportunities in and out of the online learning environment. Dimensions Of Learners’ Intelligence According to Karl Albrecht, humans have six dimensions of intelligence that should be considered when developing eLearning experiences. Even if you plan on focusing on social intelligence in your next eLearning course, there are other forms of learners’ intelligence you should also take into consideration. Abstract. Logical reasoning, verbal manipulation, and mathematical concepts all fall into the abstract category. This is the type of intelligence that often comes to mind when you think of online learning, or any educational experience for that matter. Social. How well we can interact with others in social situations, especially when those around us are from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. This deals with communication and teamwork skills. Practical. Our ability to tackle challenges and take action in order to get the job done. Practical intelligence typically involves "common sense" and critical thinking skills, as well as figuring out how to use all of the tools in our arsenal to solve the problem. Emotional. Self-awareness and emotional recognition are two important aspects of emotional intelligence. It also involves regulating emotions and reacting to others’ emotions in a respectful manner. Aesthetic. This is one of the more creative intelligence types, as it pertains to design and form. An individual who possesses aesthetic intelligence has an "eye" for art and can determine if individual elements of the design will fit into the overall theme of the work. Kinesthetic. This is the mastery of the entire body and knowing the role that each part must play in order to carry out a specific task. Athletes and high-level professionals, such as surgeons and pilots, are examples of kinesthetically intelligent people. How Social Intelligence Affects eLearning To fully understand how social intelligence affects eLearning, we must delve into the main aspects of Social Intelligence, which are included in the "SPACE" formula. SPACE is a collection of behaviors that are divided into five distinct skill sets: situational awareness, presence, authenticity, clarity, and empathy. By integrating these into your eLearning course, you have the opportunity to develop a learner’s social skills and cultivate social intelligence. Situational Awareness. This skill refers to a learner’s ability to understand the dynamics of a situation, including how the situation itself impacts the behaviors and thoughts of those involved. For example, if a learner finds themselves in a stressful situation, they should be able to comprehend that tension and anxiety may be negatively affecting those in the group. As such, they can take measures to minimize stress in order to boost productivity. Role-playing and group collaboration projects are ideal situational awareness exercises. Give learners a task or problem and ask them to solve it together. This gives them the chance to see group dynamics firsthand and how social situations impact the behaviors and thoughts of each member. Presence. A person’s presence is the overall impression they give to others. This may involve their appearance, attitude, behavior, body language, or any other indicator of their personality. One of the most visual and powerful ways to emphasize the significance of presence is the "first-impression" exercise. Create an interactive presentation that features a number of different characters, each with subtle nuances or traits that portray a certain image. For example, one character might be slouching and wearing shabby clothing. Ask your learners to give their first impressions of the character based upon that initial image. Then reveal the "truth" behind the character, such as a brief bio that might surprise your audience. This will show your learners just how important presence is, and encourage them to examine every aspect of a person’s presence before making a judgment. Authenticity. This is all a matter of "talking the talk and walking the walk". Learners can act one way, but may lack the authenticity that it takes to possess true social intelligence. Others must perceive them as being honest, ethical, and genuine. They must also be able to see that someone’s actions are in-line with those perceptions. To cover this aspect of social intelligence in eLearning you can develop reflective online exercises that encourage learners to think about their thoughts and beliefs versus their behaviors. Ask thought provoking questions that prompt them to challenge their assumptions of themselves or societal norms. Get them thinking so that they are able to determine if their actions truly support their personal ideologies. Clarity. Clarity is all about articulation and communication skills. Can the learner concisely stare their ideas and get their point across in a diverse range of social situations? This also involves active listening and language skills. This can be practiced in a variety of different ways in eLearning environments, from blog creation projects wherein learners must paraphrase key topics to presenting virtual lectures to their peers. Clarity requires learners to not only know the information, but be able to share their knowledge with others effectively. Empathy. Connecting with people and being able to understand and respect their motions are the main elements of empathy. Any group collaboration activities are ideally suited for empathy building, as they require learners to work with others productively in order to achieve a learning goal. During the activities, encourage learners to share their viewpoints and identify commonalities that they share. Have them pay close attention the group dynamics, as well as the feelings of others, so that they can cultivate their empathetic abilities. Social Intelligence has a wide range of applications in eLearning design. However, before delving into a eLearning strategy that focuses solely on social intelligence, take a careful look at the types of intelligence mentioned above to see if any others can be integrated into your curriculum. This gives you the ability to offer a well-rounded eLearning experience that provides even more advantages to your online learners. What is the theory of multiple intelligences and how it affects eLearning? In the article, Multiple Intelligences In eLearning: The Theory And Its Impact, your will find the key points you need to know about multiple intelligences in eLearning and how they can impact your eLearning course development and success. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Learning Forward 2015 provides educators with outstanding content and valuable tools to bring the most powerful forms of professional learning back home to the educators with whom they work. What Makes Learning Forward's Annual Conference THE Learning Conference? Learning Forward conference participants become a community of learners as they experience cutting-edge keynotes and general sessions, participate in interactive learning sessions, and form lasting relationships. THE PROGRAM Attend preconference sessions to delve deeply into priority areas. Hear from thought leaders in professional learning and school improvement. Acquire strategies, tools, and skills to apply immediately to your own work with teachers and students in 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-hour concurrent sessions. Be inspired by keynote speakers who will motivate, inform, and engage you. Share meals with other participants in the spirit of camaraderie and networking. Kick off the conference with live music, food, prizes, drinks and more on Sunday. Pick up CEUs for attending the conference. WHAT'S NEW THIS YEAR PD Redesign Track where participants can begin to reimagine and rethink professional learning in new ways. Technology Showcase and Smart Choices Experience vendor demonstrations on Tuesday afternoon in the exhibit hall with the latest technology solutions to your professional learning challenges. Summit sessions on Wednesday afternoon provide a 3-hour, in-depth look at topics ranging from leadership to 21st-century skills. Field trips offer a chance to explore the DC area with a hands-on experience. FastForward, Pecha-Kucha-style presentations Monday afternoon during the exhibit hall reception. Online discussion groups where you can share your successes and challenges on topics such as PD Redesign, strategies for Common Core implementation, Visible Learning, and more. Networking meet ups for superintendents, principals, and the Big 50 districts with skilled facilitators. Learning Forward 2015 Annual Conference will take place at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center ( Washington, D.C.) on December 5-9, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Extend Articulate Storyline Using Web Objects  In order to engage learners in today’s age, it’s important to go beyond the default templates and quizzes that live in the authoring environment to offer engaging, up-to-date, and interactive eLearning capabilities. One method to enable eLearning professionals to go above and beyond is by incorporating external web objects into Storyline projects, enabling augmentation with new features - which can lead to even more successful learning outcomes. Below are 7 concepts that you can leverage for your learning projects utilizing Storyline with Web Objects. The Basics: What Are Web Objects?  For background, Storyline’s Web Objects feature provides a versatile way of leveraging web-based resources by embedding them as part of a learning project, whether online or stored on a local computer. Web objects can enhance courses with web-based applications, games, videos, and reference material, among other programs. In a nutshell, Web Objects are external content that can be added into a course and, if it interoperates with that course, the user cannot tell the difference between what is innately Storyline and what is external content. 7 Ways To Infuse Your Content With Web Objects  1. Integrate quality assurance systems with Google Docs.  Adding a quality assurance (QA) system to your eLearning project creates a smooth and seamless review process for those assessing the project. While Storyline doesn’t have built in QA functionality, you can use Web Objects’ lightbox feature to host a live Google Doc spreadsheet that can be updated on a screen-per-screen basis. After creating the spreadsheet utilizing lightbox, you can simply build in a button to the course user interface that can be turned on during alpha and beta reviews. As the reviewer clicks through screens, the feature will send the ID of the screen over to the hosted Google Doc and pre-populate reviewer comments with the ID. Once you have implemented this feature, all of your Storyline course deliveries can have a fully functional QA review tool built into them - streamlining the review process and enabling you to make improvements based on reviewer feedback. Figure 1: QA Reviewer Tool built into Storyline 2 project. 2. Direct interaction with complex calculations. In order to showcase advanced interactivity for learners not possible with the default Storyline interface, you can utilize advanced calculation libraries such as Handsontable and math.js. By utilizing these tools to obtain advanced interactivity information, you are able to model, interact and assess learners at a much higher level - leading to more robust learning experiences. Figure 2: "Calculation Toolset" Web Object using Math.js library 3. Employ advanced custom interactivity. While Storyline 2 and the addition of motion paths offered a great way to increase interaction and provide more animation options, there are more ways to enhance your eLearning project utilizing Web Objects. For example, if you built learning content for your project using HTML5 tools such as CreateJS, Tumult Hype, and Edge, you can use Web Objects to add additional custom interactivity that best suits your specific course within Storyline. Figure 3 : HTML5 Web Object insert using Tumult Hype 3 Pro. 4. Incorporate hardware accelerated graphics. Have you ever wanted graphics like those found on gaming systems like XBOX or Playstation in your course? Now that WebGL is supported on all major browser platforms including iOS, you can add WebGL content to your Storyline courses - a great benefit for courses that focus on specific object or devices. The incorporation of WebGL can be done in the form of exploration exercises, first person walkabout and multimedia rooms where the learner can interact in 3D space. For example, if you have a course focused on training utilizing a cable meter, you can now create interactive and 3D imagery that enables the learner to view the meter at multiple angles and press buttons as part of the course training. In addition to this, 3D navigation launch screens and interactive maps can take your content to the next level. Figure 4 : WebGL interactive graphics using Coppercube 5.3 and Storyline 2. 5. Gamify Mozilla Open Badges.  Linking achievements is a proven gamification strategy that has seen success in the gaming world and is quickly being brought into the eLearning industry. By integrating Web Objects, you can integrate achievements into your eLearning project with Mozilla Open Badges. For background, Mozilla Open Badges are a new online standard to recognize and verify learning. This gamification methodology is not proprietary and can be used as an anchor for a gamification strategy for your curriculum. Web Objects enables the project to communicate with display HTML-based content that reflects achievement awards with training. Users can then extend their badges outside the courseware into their learner profile and within other learning environments. Figure 5: Mozilla Open Badges. 6. Engage social learning. Though this may be repeating what every eLearning blog and article has been saying for the last five years, it’s important - integrate social media for learning into your eLearning project. And, with Web Objects you can complete this integration easily, including sharing, Twitter feeds, Facebook, and Leaderboards - enabling you to integrate up-to-date information from these platforms without making changes to the course itself. For background, when linking to external web content, you can effortlessly curate social learning features from a central location on your own server and make changes to scale up and down with the features that are available. By employing Storyline line variables, you can hold specific switches to, for example, turn Twitter on and off for the rollout of a particular program. Figure 6: Web Object integrating live Twitter feed. 7. Update volatile content. Volatile content, material that changes frequently or on an ad-hoc basis, can be some of the hardest content to manage in an eLearning project. By making the most volatile content about your eLearning courses and offerings easily updatable, you can create course resources and pricing sheets that are stored in a central, secure web server. So, for example, as a price change comes in, you can update the price sheet once, and it is then reflected in all instances of your training. Figure 7: Resource price sheet show as external Web Object. Discount needs to change to 50% Figure 7a: Resource price sheet updated for all course instances without an LMS republish. Pro-tip: Make sure your web object content is pointing to an external resource, and is not content you’ve ingested into your Articulate Storyline project (local web content). When it is stored locally and you want to make changes, you will then need to republish the course. While this list is in no way an exhaustive look at what you can achieve with Storyline and external Web Objects, it offers a look into some interesting things you can do. By taking some, or all, of these tips into practice, you can improve user outcomes and experience - creating a better eLearning environment and more engaged learners. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Make Your eLearning Course Stand Out  The continued growth of eLearning industry is dependent on just one single thing; effective, elegant content. There are many quality tools available to eLearning course developers now, each with its own unique advantages. Creators have access to a plethora of pre-existing templates which can easily be used to build their own eLearning courses. All of this makes the job very easy for the eLearning developers. A little too easy, I dare say. You see, the problem with having too many resources is that it confuses people. The people involved tend to get a touch too creative, adding features just for the heck of it and paying less attention to their functionality and their effect on the user experience. This sets them up for failure. So what’s the solution? Not being creative and using the same cookie-cutter approach to develop each and every eLearning course? No, of eLearning course not. Creativity is essential, and you can never have a one-size-fits-all template that you may apply to all your projects. You want to make your eLearning course to stand out, but not at the expense of user experience or learning objectives. I’m going to tell you 6 things -yep, just 6- to build a rockstar eLearning course that stands out the right way. 1. Make it motivating and interactive. This is extremely important because I have seen so many people (mostly adults) lose motivation early in the eLearning course. Heck, even I have put off eLearning courses for later and never touched them simply because I didn’t find them interesting. Learning something new is a difficult process and you don’t want to make it harder on the student by creating a bland eLearning course. Get creative and add interactive elements to your eLearning course. Even if they’re small things, the student will appreciate it. And make sure you provide clear instructions for the interactive elements wherever necessary. You can also use gamification techniques to make things interesting. But again, don’t use it just for the sake of using it or because it’s the in thing right now. Do it to solve a problem or to impart a vital lesson. 2. Test rigorously and review often. You want your eLearning course to look polished and your data to be as accurate as possible. Besides that, you also want to ensure that everything functions smoothly, from the sync-up between audio and video to that little button on the last slide. For this, you need to test your eLearning course thoroughly and review it many times with all of your stakeholders: Subject Matter Experts, designers, developers, managers, and clients. zipBoard and Litmos Author Review Tool are some of the best tools you can use to test and review your eLearning courses. 3. Structure your content. What if your driving instructor told you to take the wheel from the get go and that he’ll tell you about the traffic rules and gears later? Or what if you enrolled in a robotics class and the teacher asked you to build a robot on the very first day without telling you about the basics? It doesn’t work that way. You’ll get frustrated and leave; or if you’re feeling a little adventurous, you’ll try your hand at it, fail, get frustrated, and leave. My point? You need to structure your content well if you want the student to understand everything and stay engaged. You can change little things in it, but the basic structure of your eLearning course more or less remains the same. Here's a standard layout for an eLearning course. 4. Chunk it down. If you are a Subject Matter Expert, you really want to transfer all your knowledge, so it’s easy to go overboard with information when designing an eLearning course. You will be tempted to add facts, figures, graphs, and everything. But don’t go for it unless completely necessary. You may think that you’re helping the students, but really, you’ll just be overwhelming them. Take your content and divide it into small chunks of data that you’ll give to the student at every step. Think of creative and powerful ways to deliver those chunks, so the student can digest them well. This will make your eLearning course so much better. 5. Mix and match different media. Adding graphics and other media is a great way to keep the student engaged. Try to incorporate useful and clever images in your text every now and then. You can also add infographics, videos, audio, and other media. Our brains are designed to remember these things much more vividly than plain text, so it’s always a breath of fresh air when you see the text accompanied by relevant media - stress on "relevant". Unnecessary media is a waste of both the student’s and your time. That cat photo may be funny, but without a clear purpose for it, you’re not doing anyone a favor by adding it to your eLearning course. 6. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate! I can’t stress this one enough. Evaluation of your eLearning courses is so tremendously important because, without that, your whole development process is flawed and incomplete. Without evaluation, you can’t find out what works and what doesn’t. You can’t gain insights into what the students like and what they don’t. You can’t analyze which elements and ways of presentation work best for different demographics. All of this information allows you to grow fast and develop better eLearning courses each time. So take time to frame questions that you want users to answer and politely ask them after the end of every eLearning course. So go ahead and follow these simple ways to make your eLearning course stand out of the crowd. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Apply The Goldilocks Principle Ιn eLearning Whether you’re talking about a bowl of fairy tale porridge or a real world eLearning experience, digestibility is an all-important factor. Your eLearning course should offer learners just enough challenge to pique their interest and keep them fully engaged, but not so much that they become frustrated or overwhelmed, which hinders their ability to consume and absorb subject matter. The Goldilocks Principle in eLearning stipulates that an eLearning experience must fall in the middle of the challenge spectrum, and steer clear of the extremes. The term hails from the ever-popular tale, "The Three Bears," which stars porridge-loving Goldilocks and three house-dwelling bears. She doesn’t care for the breakfast that is too hot or cold, nor the beds that are too big or small. Instead, she goes for the items that are "just right." In this article, I’ll share 6 tips that can help you create eLearning courses that are "just right" for your audience by applying the Goldilocks Principle in eLearning. Research your audience. To create eLearning courses that are challenging, but still easily digestible, you have to first define what "challenging" is for your learners. Conduct surveys, interviews, focus groups, and diagnostic assessments to determine their prior level of knowledge, cultural and educational background, and their expectations. What may be overly difficult for one group of learners may be easy for those who are familiar with the subject matter, for example. Include key takeaways without causing cognitive overload. We’ve all encountered an eLearning course in the past that seemed to cover every sub-topic under the sun. Rather than giving us the key pieces of information we needed to know, it explored virtually every idea and concept that pertained to the subject matter. Chances are, you walked away from that eLearning experience feeling overwhelmed, and probably didn’t remember any of the essential information. To avoid cognitive overload, focus your eLearning course around the key takeaways that are aligned with the learning goals and objectives. There may be ideas that you think your learners will find interesting, but if they don’t serve the end goal then it’s best to leave them out. Conversely, you should also enrich your eLearning experiences by offering more than just the bare minimum. For example, if you only cover the core ideas of the online lesson, but don’t tie the subject matter to real world applications, your learners aren’t going to know how to use the information outside of the eLearning environment. Carefully camouflage the correct answer. eLearning assessment  responses, such as multiple choice, must walk the fine line between challenging and absurd. All of the responses should be similar in length and structure, but have key differences that set them apart. Avoid using double negatives to trick your learners, and make sure that all of the responses have clear and concise wording. In other words, don’t be vague just for the sake of making the eLearning assessment more challenging, as it will only confuse and frustrate learners who actually know the subject matter. These same rules apply to branching scenario options. Camouflage the answer, but don’t make it impossible to choose the correct solution. Offer a good mix of interactive activities. From scenarios and simulations to clickable timelines, there are a wide range of interactive activities you can integrate into your eLearning course. In fact, including a good mix of activities gives you the opportunity to appeal to a variety of different learning styles and preferences, which makes it easy for your diverse audience to benefit from your eLearning course. If a learner has trouble completing scenarios, they can simply use another interactive exercise to get the information they need. Essentially, they can find the activity that offers them the ideal amount of challenge, without overwhelming or boring them. Ask open-ended questions to trigger self-guided learning. Open-ended questions are an invaluable tool when following the Goldilocks Principle in eLearning. An open-ended question allows learners to explore a concept or idea on their own, as well as to examine presuppositions and assumptions. You can pose an open-ended question at the beginning of the eLearning course to get them thinking, or use it as an online assessment tool to figure out how much they’ve learned during their eLearning experience. This form of inquiry gives learners the chance to explore their expectations and personal learning goals, as well as challenge their mental processes. Different learners will have different responses for an open-ended question, as well as different approaches to solving the problem. This means that they can choose their own level of challenge based upon previously acquired knowledge and experience. Provide supplemental online resources. Supplemental resources give more advanced or experienced learners the power to explore the topic on their own and research additional information. Likewise, if the learning seems to be struggling, links to extra articles, videos, and tutorials can help them catch up with their peers and get the most out of their time in the virtual classroom. Learners who fall somewhere in the middle can pick-and-choose which links they want to access, as the supplemental learning resources are optional. As a result, you won’t have to worry about frustrating and overwhelming learners who are already performing well. Give your audience a heaping bowlful of "just right" learning to steer clear of boredom and offer them real value. A happily ever after is within reach if you can create a challenging eLearning experience! Offering the right amount of challenge engages learners and gets them involved in the educational experience. Read the article 6 Tips To Engage Passive Learners In eLearning to learn how to engage, excite and motivate your audience, converting your eLearning course into a memorable online experience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Evaluating Mobile Learning Is Necessary (And Should Be Continuous)  Over the past decade, mobile learning has grown monumentally in educational institutions as well as in corporate houses around the world. It started with simple text based short lessons sent over to mobile devices for revision or a quick recap; now mobile learning is growing in scope and capability that offer new opportunities for learning that extend beyond the traditional eLearning or instructor-led classroom. During the early days of mobile learning, developers became aware of significant issues that came with the adoption of mobile devices for learning. Technical issues such as managing learning technology with short battery life were on one side. On the other were pedagogical issues, such as delivering teaching content through a small device. With the immense popularity and easy availability of mobile devices, they are now being utilized for shopping, banking, gaming, entertainment, and even advertising. There is a huge opportunity to design learning differently through learning communities, just-in-time, and on demand learning as well as encourage the habit of lifetime learning. Coupled with the internet revolution which enables people to access, create, and share media across the world, mobile learning is the way that the learners of the modern generation prefer to learn. 4 Ways Of Evaluating Mobile Learning Since considerable budgets are spent on mobile learning development, it is necessary to find effective ways of evaluating mobile learning and ensure that learners are not just fascinated by the new devices in a way which they may find interesting, but here is a lasting valuable impact of mobile learning on their work practices as well. The success of technology-aided learning is closely related to the learner’s achievement in pre-identified learning outcomes. This is true for mobile learning as well, but the nature of learning outcomes in the mobile age needs to be adaptive. Here are 4 ways to measure the effectiveness of mobile learning: Analyzing the learners’ contribution on online forums. Learners may assimilate information into their own experience and development, rather than reproducing knowledge in a pre-post questionnaire or traditional test. Practical opportunities of sharing and applying knowledge should be provided to ascertain the effectiveness of learning. A very sound way of doing this is by analyzing the learners’ contribution to the topic on online forums. Such forums can be specially created to encourage the learners’ online contributions. Evaluation can be conducted on the basis of how many times the learner has answered a query in the forum. Or it can also be deduced by analyzing how many experiences or findings has he or she posted. Peers can "like" these posts or tag them as useful to fellow learners. The number of times a learners’ post tagged or forwarded by his or her peers can also be an effective measure of learning effectiveness. Measuring how and how much learners use their mobile devices. The number of times that a learner logs on to the Learning Management System (LMS) using the mobile device or searches for relevant course content on his handheld device can be a sign that the mobile learning endeavor is effective. Increased learning time on the mobile device is a definite sign that learners are keen on learning on these devices. Analyzing the quality of a text report or assignment. The same happens when the course is delivered through traditional eLearning or even through classroom sessions. In the case of mobile learning, the text reports can be written on mobile devices themselves and submitted online. The textual content does not have to be extended to present a clear picture of learning effectiveness. Short descriptive questions or objective test papers can also be utilized to throw light upon learning evaluation. Collecting actual log data, with respective to the interactivities built within the mobile learning course.  For instance, the fact that a learner accesses a particular section of the course more than one time is an indicator that the section contains material which definitely garners his attention or he finds it useful. This is especially true if the course is fortified with audio-visuals or even short skill-based games which the learner wants to experience more and then apply to his work. Not only does this throw light on the effectiveness of content, it also reveals what kind of content most appeals to learners. Evaluation needs to respond to the challenges of mobile learning and create more avenues of effective data collection as well as analysis. In the continuous process of creating more effective ways of delivering mobile learning, stringent methods of evaluation also need to be developed to ascertain the true worth of mobile learning in the modern context. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.