How To Grab Your Learner’s Attention  According to Gagne’s nine events of instruction, "Gain Attention" is the first key step taken into consideration when designing a training program/course. The basic idea is to grab the learner’s attention. I am a great fan of this "Gain attention" strategy. The first few seconds/minutes of a training program plays a crucial role in deciding its fate. The learner may just leave the training in the middle or click "Next" continuously to complete it. If the first impression is not positive, the great Instructional Design strategies may just fall on deaf ears. "Gain Attention" strategies play an effective role in eLearning. It has the power to increase the motivational level of your learner. Gaining attention: Arouses the learner’s curiosity. Sets an expectation in the learner’s mind: What’s in the training for me?/ What is the training all about? Makes the learner think about a particular concept: Really?/ No way!/ So true! Helps the learner grasp what is going to be covered during training. Basically, a Gain Attention strategy will build a curiosity in the learner’s mind to see what comes ahead. The learner will actually be interested in taking the training program. Now, the question arises: "What qualifies as a Gain Attention strategy?" 11 Key Elements Of "Gain Attention" Strategies All of the following can qualify as a Gain Attention strategy: Pretests. Ideal for learners who believe they know everything and there is nothing more to learn. The objective is to enable the learners to understand where they stand at the beginning of the training program. Example: Before staring the training, let us answer a few questions.  Throwing a challenge. This holds good for demotivated learners. Example: You are a technical assistant. You have several customers who require your assistance. How many customers can you serve in a day?  Presenting a problem to be solved. Builds the curiosity in the learner to solve the problem. Example: You have been appointed as a manager of a team whose performance has been very poor over the past few months. How will you motivate your team and ensure that each member gives his/her best?  "Did you know?" Share facts that will really inspire and surprise the learners. Comic strips. Use comic characters to talk about a particular topic/situation. Scenarios. Make the learners understand with a scenario or through characters in a scenario. Example: There’s a city where many school going children have been missing over the last two months. You, being a part of the investigation department, have been assigned this case. You need to go to the city and solve the mystery. Minimal onscreen text. Present information in a concise and accurate manner. Stories. Making the learners understand through a story is a great tool to impart knowledge. Explaining the concept with the help of a story conveys learning through emotions. Images. Depicting the concept using relevant images makes the training program interesting. Videos. Videos act as the easiest form of instruction to explain a complicated process. Activity. No doubt, doing is better than seeing. Activity reinforces the process of learning. Using the different types of Gain Attention strategies stated above, one can develop an effective eLearning course that is highly engaging and of learner’s delight. There are several other innovative ways to design grabbing attention screens. If you have come across any of these, please feel free to share them. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

9 Key Factors That Affect The Success Of Your Online Course  It sounds odd, but providing great content doesn’t automatically turn your online course into a great one. The reason is a great course is not only information. It is also an experience. To form an outstanding online experience, every single aspect of your product matters - from materials and structure to superficially insignificant things as technical and design elements. Here are the key success factors to work out. 1. Title Sells.  Your course title is your sales pitch. It answers in matter of seconds the most important question potential learners have: "What is in it for me?". Depending on your answer, they may consider enrolling. Or they may bypass all your efforts and keep browsing. The course title has two main functions - to grab attention and to make a promise. To differentiate your course from the others, don’t just state what it is about. Tell the potential student exactly what you will help them achieve. Create an exclusive offer they cannot miss. Suggestions for improving your course title: Spur excitement about the benefits your students will gain. Incite curiosity by asking a thought provoking question. Make an emotional statement that resonates with your audience’s struggles. Define a specific solution for a problem people face. Address your student directly. If they are specialists in a certain field, for example, include their professional jargon in the title. Be creative! But don’t sacrifice clarity for creativity. And do not make promises you cannot keep. 2. Build Up To Success.  A great online course is a journey. It’s up to you to create a map your students can follow - from beginning to end. This is what the course structure is about. Plan and describe it in as much detail as you can. 3. Introduction.  They say people need less than 5 minutes to form an impression. The first minutes of your course are meant to do just that. Those who enrolled could still leave, if you bore them during the course introduction. Start of by generating anticipation and motivation with your welcoming message. Describe your expertise, the course objectives and the benefits for those who finish it. Create realistic expectations. 4. Instruction.  Plan and describe in detail all course sections - objectives, milestones, lectures, and assignments schedule. If different topics are covered by different lecturers, introduce them and their expertise. Aim for a balance between friendliness, accessibility and professionalism when presenting the mentors. Structure your instructional part so that it is challenging, but not overwhelming to your students. 5. Conclusion.  Discuss the aftermath and achievements of your students at the end. The skills they gained and their real-life application. Don’t forget to provoke discussion and ask for feedback. Use learners’ experience to improve your material even further. 6. Style Matters.  You surely have a lot to teach. The course experience, however, needs showing (at least) as much as telling. All graphic elements in your course shape the eLearning environment. Is yours attractive and memorable? Have a close look and polish the following elements: User interface must be clear and intuitive. All resource maps have to be easy to navigate. Optimize your web design for mobile devices. Video lectures - supplement narration with lots of relevant images, charts, print screens, etc. Additional materials (handouts, worksheets) - keep consistency in the basic design elements (logos, color scheme, fonts) throughout the whole course, including the bonus materials. Many brush visual design elements off as purely decorative and non-essential. That is a fundamental mistake. Visually appealing and stimulating learning environment can create emotional response, raise student engagement and make the lectures more enjoyable. Even details like alignment, color usage, and font size can affect how students evaluate the course. 7. Content Rules.  Whatever the discussed topics in your course are, if you present them in a creative and engaging way, your student audience will keep growing and coming back for more. What makes content engaging? Everything your learners can relate to. Center your teaching on your students’ lives. Make sure the lectures are delivered in short chunks via various formats - in written form, as well as audio and visual methods. If you don't consider yourself a great writer, try a professional college paper writing service or proofreading website for the best content quality. Highlight your key points. Provide summaries. Create lots of discussions and take an active part in them. Minimize the chance for technical difficulties in accessing the content. Backup options and prompt technical assistance are a must. Be very transparent when it comes to course policies, student evaluation, and feedback. Describe the assignments process, your grading rubrics, and dispute mechanisms. If possible, provide model assignments and tests. 8. Sparkle Engagement.  The beauty of online learning is that anybody anywhere can take part at their own convenience. Sometimes that is the problem - people can easily lose interest. It is up to you to keep eLearners engaged and motivated throughout your entire course. Here are some tips to achieve that: Design your students’ journey from novice to master.  You can design your course using game elements and mechanics to keep people "checking in". When done properly, gamification turns learning into an exciting and memorable experience. Some game elements you can easily incorporate in your lessons: achievements, avatars, badges, content unlocking, progress bars, teams, and leaderboards. The point is to help learners build competency in a fun way. Provide 24/7 communication channels. Discussions not only help students learn more, but they also get to know each other. This builds a community. And community means engagement. Define the ways for learners to contact you and to interact with each other in a friendly and constructive way. Direct communication leads towards support and feedback. Forums, live chats, webinars are just a few communication options. 9. Bonuses And Extra Resources.  Suggest as many extracurricular resources and bonus materials as you can. The more people gain from your course, the happier they would be with the experience. And that will bring more new learners and opportunities for you. The difference between regular online courses and the great ones is that the best courses meet or even exceed expectations. To achieve that, you have to polish every detail of your course. But don’t stop there; pay attention to students’ feedback and keep improving. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

2016 Technology Institute for Developmental Educators (TIDE 2016) More than 90% of students have smart phones that are rarely tapped into for instructional purposes. There is rarely enough time in your workday or at a standard conference to learn how to integrate these devices into your classrooms or support services. TIDE 2016 provides four days of face-to-face mentoring and hands-on practice to hone your technology expertise whether you are a developmental educator or a core curriculum faculty member. You begin technology projects during the week and then receive a year of individualized support to help you complete these projects. Whether you have beginning or advanced technology skills—come enjoy a technology vacation while networking with other educators. What To Expect at TIDE 2016? You will attend four minicourse sessions throughout the week's schedule and one independent study (or if you choose five minicourses) to work on your project. These sessions are learning opportunities with expert instructors giving you a chance to hone your technology skills and complete projects you design. Each morning you will meet with your mentoring group to preview the day's activities. Most afternoons you'll debrief with your mentoring group and review your productive learning sessions. Choose from 14 different workshops some offered SYNCHRONOUSLY ONLINE (those with the @ sign): Teaching with Social Networking @ Mobile Apps for Academic Success @ Mobile Apps for Integrated Reading and Writing @ Google Docs & Google+ @ Technology and Developmental Math @ Teaching with Mobile Devices Mobile Apps for Developmental Math Best Practices for Online & Hybrid Classes Creating Audio and Video Podcasts Best Practices for Online Learning Centers Tutoring Online Assistive Technology Independent Study We hope you like good cooking as we will have various restaurants in and around San Marco cater our lunch and suppers. Breakfast is continental style. Please note that we will offer vegetarian and gluten free options! We also want you to enjoy all that Central Texas has to offer as we have events planned each evening from shopping in the biggest outlet mall in the U.S. to visiting the eclectic South Austin shops. Who should attend TIDE 2016? Developmental educators at or preparing for the postsecondary level (e.g., Early College, technical school, community college, junior college, four year college, university) who want to learn more about how to integrate technology into their and their students' personal and professional lives. Core curriculum faculty who want to enhance their classrooms with technology and expand their instruction beyond their classrooms through mobile learning apps. All levels of expertise are welcome. While some of the mini-courses are labeled advanced, we will help beginners while addressing the needs of those with more experience. Windows, Android, and/or Mac desktop and mobile platforms users will be addressed, and please bring your own laptop, smartphone, and/or tablet. Propose projects and receive expert support in each of the five mini-courses for which you are enrolled. We have special arrangements for participants to earn three hours of continuing education credit. Who will mentor me? Dave Caverly, Professor, Graduate Program in Developmental Education Department of Curriculum and  Instruction, Texas State University-San Marcos Lucy MacDonald, Associate Professor Emeritus,Chemeketa Community College, Salem, Oregon Chris Woods, Picture of Chris WoodsCoordinator of Instructional Technologies Projects South Texas College,  McAllen, TX Tina Swiniarski College Readiness Lead Mathematics Instructor Triton College, River Grove, IL The 2016 Technology Institute for Developmental Educators Conference (TIDE 2016) will take place at the Hampton Inn & Suites San Marcos (San Marcos, TX, US) on January 4-8, 2016. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

The Blue Ocean Strategy Of Landing An eLearning Internship: The Feeding Frenzy Begins  A friend of a friend reached out to me recently on LinkedIn. She’s nearing the end of her graduate program in Instructional Design and looking to land a summer internship here in Pittsburgh. In a small-to-medium sized city, though, this will be one hell of a battle. Dozens of qualified students will be fighting over a handful of eLearning internships. This is what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call a "red ocean strategy". The water is filled with sharks turning the water bloody as they compete for an ever-shrinking supply of fish. If you don’t want to be another body churning up these waters, you’ll have to do something even more bold and daring than fighting the other sharks. You’ll have to swim away toward… The Blue Ocean The blue ocean is the new, unexplored market, completely untouched by competition. There’s plenty of room in these waters for growth, and no other sharks to fight. Of course, there is a reason those other sharks aren’t swimming here. The fighting may be ferocious back in the red ocean, but at least there are rules, boundaries, and a conventional path to success. Out here in the blue, though, you’re on your own. Rather than fighting with other sharks over a limited supply of advertised jobs, you’ll have to create demand for your services. You’ll do this by reaching out to people and organizations that are not advertising for eLearning internships and convincing them that you’re worth talking to. Once you have your foot in the door, you’ll have to demonstrate so much value that they’ll create a position just for you. Feeding Grounds Linda is a successful executive coach who just finished writing her first book. She wants to share her ideas with a larger audience to drum up business for her coaching practice and to create interest in her book, but she’s not sure how. Jordan’s been working with his pastor to develop a parenting skills training program for low-income workers in his neighborhood. Due to the unpredictable work schedules of the parents, though, he’s found it impossible to schedule live classes at a time when everyone can attend. After a few years of struggling, Justin and Kyle’s startup is growing faster than they could imagine. In a matter of months, they’ve gone from having three employees working at their office downtown to having twenty three employees working from home offices in different parts of the country. They know they need to get their new hires up to speed on company policies, but the teleconferences they’ve been hosting haven’t been effective. Alyssa is the sole full-time employee at a tiny community library. Lately she’s been spending most of her time showing borrowers how to use a new website to request books from other libraries. Repeating this one-on-one tutorial for everyone who comes in is eating into the time she needs for other work. Nathan inherited a small chain of diners from his father last year and he’s struggling to keep the family businesses afloat. Due to the high staff turnover, Nathan is spending most of his time travelling from location to location training new employees on basic sanitation, food preparation, and customer service skills. All of these people have two things in common: None of them are even thinking about eLearning, much less about hiring an eLearning intern. They could all benefit tremendously if they did. The blue ocean strategy involves finding these people and helping them solve their problems. Here’s how. First, Cast Your Net. Instructional Design firms, universities, and large corporations are the red ocean of eLearning. Everything else is blue ocean. Small businesses, family firms, non-profit organizations, consultants, religious ministries, dentist’s offices, artist co-ops, local government agencies, organic farms… you get the idea. Don’t just send your resume out scatter-shot, though. Do some research first. Read websites and learn what these organizations do. If you see an opening where you might be able to add value, then send a resume and a personalized letter explaining how you can help them. An even more effective approach is to ask around among friends and family to see who they know or work with who might be in need of your help. People are much more likely to take a chance on someone they know -even just a friend of a friend- than someone they have no connection with. Now, Offer The Bait. Let’s say you get a call-back and someone from the organization wants to meet with you. Get busy and create a work sample before you even walk in the door. Go to the organization’s website and pull down their logo, colors, and other branding elements. Use this information to create a short, simple eLearning on a topic that might be important for them. Bring along a laptop to demonstrate the course at the end of the interview. (Even if you don't get the job, you'll have another asset that you can re-brand and place in your portfolio. You do have a portfolio, right?) Finally, Set The Hook. Assuming you’ve impressed them with your interview and work sample, make it easy for them to hire you. Remember, many of these folks have never hired interns before. (That’s why they’re in blue water!) The more hoops they have to jump through and the more intimidated they feel, the less likely they are to do it. Offer to do some of the legal or regulatory legwork, if you can. Keep your expectations reasonable. No one gets rich at an internship - the point is to gain experience. Your experiences in blue water will probably be more valuable than your friends’ experience churning things up in the red ocean. Sailor, Be Warned If you think the blue ocean strategy sounds like a lot of work, you’re right. If you think it’s going to involve chasing down a bunch of leads that go nowhere before finding the right one, you're probably right about that, too. You’ll also have to face puzzled looks, being blown off and ignored, and a good deal of flat-out rejection. If you have the guts, however, you may find treasure in these blue waters. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

MI Moodle Moot 2016 features preconference workshops and 30 different breakout sessions at the Moot, along with Hands-On Help Rooms for teachers and administrators for one-on-one support to try out what you've learned. MI Moodle Moot 2016 begins with a opening keynote by Michelle Moore, followed by 45 minute breakout sessions (you can attend 5). Bring a laptop or Chromebook and have a course in Moodle to edit (laptops and courses available on site by request.) Preconference Workshops, January 7, 2016 Registration, 7:45 - 8:30 am Full Day $40, includes lunch Half Day $20, includes lunch Morning Workshops 8:30 - 11:45am Enhance and Engage with Embedded Content Moodle for Beginners - Foundation Moodle Admins: Extending Moodle Reporting Taking Moodle to the Next Level Think Again: Reframing Moodle Course Design Afternoon Workshops 12:30 - 3:45pm All Together Better: Collaborative Course Improvement Get Ready! Get Set! Gamify! Moodle for Beginners - Next Steps Moodle Intermediate - Stacking Activities - Using Books & Lessons to Clean up Your Moodle Moodle Admins: Getting Started with Moodle Development Click Here for a List of Preconference Workshop Titles and Description MI Moodle Moot, January 8, 2016 Registration, 7:45 - 8:20 am $40, includes light breakfast and lunch ($50 on site registration) Breakout Session Strands Getting Started with Blended Instruction & Moodle (Beginners) Taking Moodle to the Next Level - (Experienced Moodle Users) Teaching & Training Totally Online with Moodle (Virtual Teacher) For Moodle System Administrators (Technical & Support Staff) Friday Opening Keynote, 8:20 - 9:00a Rising Above Moodle Mediocrity with Michelle Moore, International eLearning Expert and Author Breakout Sessions, 9:15a - 3:15p 10 Need to Know Settings in Moodle Admin Avoid the Scroll of Death! Best Practices in Moodle Administration Blended Formative Assessment Blended Learning in a Remedial Math Environment Classroom Testing with Moodle Completion Tracking for Online Preparation Tutorials Creating Dynamic Math Questions Creating Interactive Classrooms Cuz Quizzes [Can] Increase Quality Learning Delivering Personalized Learning Experiences with Moodle Demystifying the Moodle Tracker Developing a Template for Effective Course Design Differentiate Learning with Moodle "Lessons" Git for Moodle Administrators Glossary - It's More Than Just Words Gradebook: Using Rubrics to Meet Educational Standards Hook, Line & Sinker - Reel in Teachers with Socialwall How We Automated Cumbersome Progress Reports Illuminating Moodle I'm Ten and I Can Blend: A PBL Journey in 5th Grade Learn a Lesson! Mahoodle - ePortfolios in Blended Environments Moodle in a CTE Classroom Restrict Access Opens Up New Possibilities Welcome to the MiLearns Online Portal What's Your HTTPS Grade? Why You Should Stop Using Forums You Added *WHAT* to Your Moodle? The fourth annual MI Moodle Moot (MI Moodle Moot 2016) will take place at the Mid Michigan Community College on January 7-8, 2016. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

3 Ways To Create An Effective eLearning Ending  In the words of Stephen Covey: Begin with an end in mind. In terms of eLearning design, that means having a direction that guides the structure of your course. Having a clear end in mind can help you visualize an overview of the course before you even begin. Developing a script or storyboard provides a framework for the beginning, the middle and the end of your course, it creates a clear pathway for your learners. Very much like a story. Being clear about your objectives and the outcomes to be achieved will drive your ending. Let’s look at 3 ways you can create an effective eLearning ending: 1. Set a "real world" challenge. If your eLearning has included a scenario or case study, try to bring it to a conclusion with a "real" problem for the learners to solve. This can be done in a multiple-choice format. You can position the results in relation to the original learning goal, using the final screen to recap on the original goal and to report on how well the learner has done. Here’s a quick example to show you what I mean: Another effective technique is to end your eLearning course with a call to action. Design activities that learners can do offline using the information and skills they’ve taken from the course. Encourage them to apply these skills in their everyday work or function. Here’s a good example of a call to action: Key points to remember: If the eLearning course has involved systems training, invite the learners to move on to apply what they’ve practiced using the real system. Include a "next steps" or "to do" list that learners can download, work on, and take with them. This could involve a template for a personal development plan, or for SMART goals. Create a screen summarizing key learning points, possibly from a scenario or case study, and ask learners to draw parallels with their own context. For example, invite them to rank points in order of relevance to their own role. This will help them to reflect on key learning points and this will improve retention. End with a task that reinforces the key learning points and rewards learners with personalized feedback and possibly lets them compare their results with others’. For example, by using a poll or quiz screen, you can design a task like the one shown below. Including a "share this" function can also cement engagement by allowing learners to share their results and see how others performed. 2. Personalize the learning. Everything is more memorable if it relates directly to you and your personal context. The same is true of eLearning courses. At the start of a course, it’s a good idea to let learners choose their own pathways through the material, especially if the course is aimed at a range of learners where not all of the content is relevant to everyone. The same principle is true for good endings. Consider designing the end of your course so that it speaks to the individual. For example, if your course contains an assessment or quiz, the summary screen could show the learner’s score and provide some advice about next steps. Are there more topics they should revisit if they scored low on certain questions, or is there a way to improve their score and retry the assessment? I particularly like this example below that provides a link to a take-away summary document. This gives the learner something tangible that recognizes his or her achievement. Key points to remember: Design courses that are personalized to individual learners. Let users choose their pathways so they can focus on learning what is relevant to them. Provide a personalized takeaway document that highlights scores and key points the learner needs to work on. 3. Link to further support and/or resources. An eLearning module is often part of a blended learning experience. The end of a module is a great opportunity to point to further learning opportunities and to encourage the learner to act on what they have learned. Think of the final screen as a launch pad to go and do something else. The example course below demonstrates how you can present personalized results, using badges to indicate the tasks or topics that this learner has completed successfully. I also like how the final screen links to further learning resources. Key points to remember: Provide a link to post-course information. Point learners to additional resources such as job aids, links to helpful websites, or a list of key contacts. Give learners any follow-up information, for example, if a certificate is available. Final Thoughts Every good story needs a good ending. Your eLearning program is no different. Good endings offer a resolution, provide a reward, and stand out from the crowd. A good resolution makes the learner feel like they’ve completed the journey. You can go back to your course objectives and summarize how the journey has achieved these. A reward gives your learners a pat on the back and feedback on how they’ve done. This may come in the form of a certificate or badge, and advice be accompanied by some next steps and how to continue improving. A memorable eLearning program stands out by being creative. The last screen should break the mold and do something different. Try something different like this fun example: Did you like this article? Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning: 6 Tips For eLearning Professionals  While many blended learning approaches may strive to incorporate technology into the ILT environment, at PulseLearning we believe the ASSURE model takes it one step further by catering on the specific needs of the every learner. Rather than offering general tech tools or resources, it focuses on giving each learner the specific technology they require to achieve their personal goals and objectives. What Is The ASSURE Model? The ASSURE model gets its name from the following six stages involved in the process: A: Analyze learners. Identify your learners’ expectations, goals, preferences, and needs, so that you can create a blended learning strategy that offers them real world benefits. S: State goals and objectives. Determine the objectives for your blended learning course, including performance goals. These goals and objectives should clearly state what the learner will be able to do once they complete the class. S: Select methods and media. Choose online learning content, multimedia, both online and classroom exercises and materials that will serve your training goals and objectives. This may also pertain to modifying current training content in order to meet the changing needs of your audience. U: Utilize media and technology. After choosing the online training content and materials, eLearning professionals must then decide how they are going to utilize these tech tools and online resources most effectively. R: Require learner participation. Determine how you can engage learners to encourage them to actively participate in the blended training experience. E: Evaluate and revise the blended learning strategy. All eLearning strategies are a work in progress, due to the fact that technology and learner needs are always evolving. Thus, the final step in the ASSURE model is to evaluate and revise your blended learning strategy to ensure that it is as beneficial as possible. 6 Tips To Use The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning Conduct surveys and online assessments to research audience. To focus on the specific needs of your learners, you will first have to know what those needs are. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, and eLearning assessments are all valuable tools that can help you analyze your audience’s traits and experience levels. They can also give you a good indication of their learning styles, such as which exercises will appeal to them and how they absorb information. Create custom-tailored objectives. Aside from the organization-wide objectives and goals that you’ve created, you should also develop goals that are learner-specific. What learning behaviors do they need to display? What knowledge do they need to know by the end of the blended learning course? Is there a particular task they need to master or skills sets they must build? You must also have a way to test their knowledge and determine if they have actually met their goals and objectives. Choose tech tools that align with common goals. One of the most common blended learning strategy mistakes is using technology just for the sake of technology, rather than finding the tools that are ideal for the particular audience and training goals. Ideally, you should choose tools that your learners are already familiar with or have a minor learning curve, rather than those that may be difficult to master. For example, if you are developing a group collaboration online assignment that utilizes a project management platform, you must be sure that your learners can actually use the online platform when it’s time to work with their peers. Give the tech tools and materials a test-run. To verify that all of your tech tools are in working order and that your learners can use them effectively, it’s always a good idea to give your technology a test-run before you offer them to your learners. For example, if you are using tablets in the classroom, you should ensure that all of the devices are working properly, fully charged, and loaded with the right applications. If you are using an online tool, verify that your learners have all the information they need to access the online platform and that there aren’t any issues with logging into the site. Get learners involved. As is the case with all learning strategies, it is important to get your learners onboard and make sure they are all excited about the process. Start your discussions with thought-provoking questions that prompt them to seek out answers online and expand their knowledge. Create an online community forum where they can go to address concerns, get help from their peers, and stay in touch with their online facilitators. Ask for their feedback so that you can figure out what’s working effectively and what may need to be modified as you move forward with your ASSURE blended learning strategy. Get them involved, so that they feel as though they are a vital part of the blended learning experience and that their opinion matters. Understand that your ASSURE strategy is a work in progress. After you’ve created your ASSURE plan, you must keep in mind that it has to adapt with the changing needs of your learners. It must also adapt to the ever-evolving technologies, so that you can offer your future learners the best resources you have at your disposal. If there is a learning activity that is no longer serving the needs or goals of your learners, they you may want to consider modifying or omitting it from your training curriculum altogether. The same goes for your eLearning assessments, online training content, or even the level of tech integration. For instance, you may discover that your learners might benefit from even more tech tool usage. The ASSURE model can help you not only blend technology with traditional classroom training, but give your learners the customized experience they need to broaden their horizons. Use this article to integrate technology tools and resources into your blended learning strategy while still catering to the specific needs of your corporate audience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

IC4E2016 is the premier forum for the presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and applied E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning. IC4E 2016 aims to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning, and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. IC4E 2016 Keynote Speakers Prof. Ahmad R. Songip is a Professor in Innovation Management at the Management of Technology Department, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), UTM Kuala Lumpur since May 2012. Currently he heads the Marketing Team of MJIIT with the aim to quantum leap the MJIIT’s brand capital in the market place. He is also a Consultant in Breaking Pattern at Uni-Technology Sdn. Bhd. (UTSB), the consulting arm of UTM. Prof. Ahmad was the Founding Director of UTM Transformation & Risk Management, UTM (2010-2013). He was also a member of the UTM Central Executive Committee and a member in the UTM Board of Director Sub-Committee on UTM Enterprise Risk Management. Prof. Ahmad was formerly the Director of the Academic Program at Business Advanced Technology Center (2002-2005), managing the whole value chain of the unique Experience Based Learning (EBL) Programs at BATC. The EBL provides an alternative to the working population who did not have the opportunity to go through the normal academic and skill-based education channels. EBL starts with the Executive Development and re-GEneration (EDGE) Program and continuing up to the highest Engineering Doctorate level. Professor Dr. Ananda Kumar Palaniappan is an Educational Psychologist at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. He obtained his doctorate in Creativity from University of Malaya in 1994. He specializes in Creative & Innovative Thinking, Organizational Creativity and Creative Problem Solving. Dr. Ananda also lectures in Research Methods and Statistics and has been conducting SPSS and AMOS workshops since 1995 for both academic and non-academic researchers in both public and private organizations. He has also conducted workshops and presented papers on Creativity for numerous groups including managers, magistrates, legal officers and educational administrators in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, UK and the United States of America. He has researched and published internationally on creativity and on the validation of several instruments He has published in many international journals including Perceptual and Motor Skills and Journal of Psychology. Dr. Ananda Kumar Palaniappan is a member of American Psychological Association (APA), American Creativity Association (ACA) and International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). Dr YIP MUM WAI was born in Penang, Malaysia in 1973. Dr. YIP holds a Diploma in Materials Engineering and MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from University of Warwick, United Kingdom. In 2008, he was awarded an Engineering Doctorate in Engineering Business Management (specialized in Knowledge Management) from Business Advanced Technology Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Dr. YIP is an Associate Dean of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. He is a certified Train the Trainer of PBSM Malaysia, TRIZ Practitioner with Level II certified, certified Knowledge Management Facilitator and Practitioner, Senior Member of International Association of Computer Science and Information (IACSIT), Senior Member of IEDRC and member of Malaysia TRIZ Innovation Association (MyTRIZ). Dr.Yip is very keen and specialized in TRIZ, Knowledge Management (KM), Quality Management (QM), and Strategy Management (SM). Dr. Yip has experiences in conducting professional training (in house and public programs) such as Knowledge Management (KM), Quality Management (ISO 9001, ISO 17025), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Lean Manufacturing, 5S, TRIZ, effective communication skills, leadership skills, team building, customer service excellence for many corporations in Malaysia. Currently, he is an advisor for Zheng Yang Steel Works Sdn. Bhd. Dr. Yip has a lot of experience in research. His research areas include Knowledge Management. TRIZ, Strategy Management, Innovation Management and Materials Science and Engineering. He is given a grant by Ministry of Higher Learning Institution to conduct a research in the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) in SME in Malaysia. Besides, he has presented many papers in the field of engineering management especially in KM in many international conferences in China and Indonesia. He is also a reviewer, editorial board member and keynote speaker for International Journals and International Conferences. 2016 7th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning (IC4E 2016) will be held in Penang, Malaysia on January 09-10, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Low-Cost Gamification: Remembering The Gamification Essentials As the popularity of gamification in eLearning continues to grow, I find myself watching for its appearance in other parts of my life. Last week, my daughter and her friends had a Star Wars movie party where they somehow decided to start with Episode 1 (kids today). When they got to the pod-racing scene, life began to imitate art. They headed to the garage, and, within minutes, turned old boxes into pods and were running around the house, screaming and laughing in piles of Star Wars-geekiness. The entire event was a success, but the most engaging, exciting part of it wasn’t the movie or the food (not even the TIE-fighter-shaped snacks) but the spontaneous, completely free game they created themselves. The moral of the story is not only that our corporate training should involve more pod-racing than it currently does, but also that gamification doesn’t have to be an expensive, complicated venture. Here are 3 keys to successful, low-cost gamification: Tap into learners’ creativity. Psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci argue that self-determination is one of the most important variables in engaging activities. They found participants need to have some sense of control over the action to be truly engaged; perhaps one reason video games have brought in more than double the revenue of movies in recent years. We can enhance self-determination in gamified training by focusing on three principles described by Amy Bucher: Autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By helping learners feel in control, gain a sense of accomplishment, and connect to others in the game, we can achieve the stickiness that will make our training truly effective. More open-ended activities help learners feel more like invested participants and less like experimental subjects. Provide goals that are just hard enough. A recent study by Manu Kapur and June Lee compared the performance of students who received directed math instruction with those who were given "complex, ill-structured problems" and allowed to fail in their attempts to solve them. The latter group performed significantly better on future math tests, suggesting there is a strong learning value in "productive failure". Struggling forces us to consider a variety of options, and we are often pushed outside our usual perspective. Too often we are afraid to make learning difficult, lest our learners get discouraged and give up. And though we probably don’t want to ask our learners to solve Goldbach’s Conjecture, we shouldn’t shy away from giving them challenging problems. Paired with the previous principle, this can be especially effective: As we offer difficult, open-ended problems, we may be surprised at the creative solutions they find. Design for competition. James Banfield and Brad Wilkerson recently conducted a study in which they measured the effect of the intrinsic motivation provided by games on learning and confidence to solve future problems. They discovered that gamification principles made learners almost 20 times as likely to "organize knowledge and relate it to existing knowledge". This ability to connect new information with existing knowledge significantly increases the likelihood the training will lead to true performance change. Perhaps even more importantly, the intrinsic motivation of games can help learners believe they can tackle new challenges. In the same study, Banfield and Wilkerson reported that 90% of students who had taken a gamified course about the Windows operating system believed they could "figure out how to do anything in Windows". Only 28% of those who took a traditional lecture-based course agreed. This confidence in facing new tasks is one of the most important outcomes of any training, and it seems to be independent of the technological sophistication of the game - it’s all about the competition. The social interaction of competition helps build learners’ intrinsic motivation, leading them to want to learn more for their own satisfaction. Gamification is an important tool in corporate training, but many people think it’s out of reach because it’s too complex or costly. But effectively gamified training does not have to be prohibitively expensive. We can build cost-effective gamification principles into web-based training if we focus on the three concepts above: Learner creativity, productive failure, and competition. With some thoughtful design, we can develop gamified training that will help you produce the most creative, motivated, and engaged employees your company has ever had. And those pod races are always fun to watch. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Free Webinar: Mapping Your Organizational Learning Architecture Understanding your learning architecture is critical to the success of major learning technology projects. If you don’t, you could be missing critical connections in how your organizational learning technology components work together causing your projects to become delayed due to confusion and unnecessary time spent reviewing details. Your organizational learning architecture can be complex and confusing. So where do you start? This complimentary webinar, Best of Ecosystem: Mapping Your Organizational Learning Architecture, from The eLearning Guild, will show you how to create a map that explains the connections between all the moving parts of your learning architecture and enables you to get buy-in on your plans and strategy. You’ll learn how to find and choose images to represent components of your architecture, and how to clearly show the relationships between systems and the various data feeds. You’ll leave this session able to build your own map, clearly explain your plans, and show what a successful solution looks like. Join Adam Weisblatt, head of learning technology at Nielsen, on December 9 at 10:00 AM PT to learn how to map your organizational learning architecture so you can successful explain your system to your stakeholders. Learn more or register now! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.