Um vídeo (17m) com um extrato de um webinar promovido pela Badgeville que relata uma experiência de gamification na educação, na Kaplan University. Nesta experiência, o elemento de jogo usado são as badges. Nesta experiência foram aplicadas badges automáticas (atribuídas pela plataforma usada) e badges manuais (atribuídas pelos professores). As badges automáticas foram definidas com base em dados históricos (quais os comportamentos dos alunos de sucesso e como se comparam com os comportamentos dos alunos com insucesso) e com base em dados recolhidos junto dos professores (qual o tipo de comportamentos que os alunos devem exibir de forma a aumentar o seu envolvimento nas aulas). As badges manuais podem ser atribuídas pelos pares (para criar uma envolvente social) e pelos professores (para que estes também participem ativamente). Nesta experiência foram, de acordo com os autores, observados os seguintes resultados: Maiores índices de satisfação dos alunos; Maior participação; Mais tempo passado pelos alunos na sala de aula; Melhores classificações; Menor número de desistências; Menor número de alunos com insucesso. A gravação completa do webinar e e as questões colocadas pela audiência estão também disponíveis.

Last year during March 1st week,  Writers Gateway had kick started its Game of the Week series. A lot of people appreciated and enjoyed the games posted in this blog. The series went on for 8 months and it came to an end after that. I wanted to continue posting games atleast on a monthly basis, but then I guess some things are nice when they are short-lived. Otherwise it becomes an overdose or gets redundant. This year Writers Gateway presents T-Bites to its readers. T-Bites?  What does this mean? Is that what you ask? Well, its just a name and nothing more than that. Lets go on to the real matter. What’s T-bites all about?  Let me explain. Well, there is so much talk about technology and new training/learning models and methodologies these days. The role of an Instructional Designer is changing with times.  Instructional Design is about designing a training solution indeed. However training solutions these days are not just restricted to e-learning or Instructor Led Training programs. Web 2.0, the Immersive Internet, Virtual Classrooms and other technologies are changing the way people learn or train. T-Bites is going to give you small doses of  information sourced from the web on the field of training/learning. The information could be  innovative training approaches/models, corporate training examples, trends in existing learning/training approaches, variations or insight into existing training approaches and much more. Each T-bite will have a short write-up with additional resources and pointers to articles on the web. T-bites would be a fortnightly series. You should expect the first T-bite on April 12th. How you can contribute? Get Featured : Mail me some quick interesting facts/information from the training/learning industry and I will post the information in one of the T-bites series with due credit given to you. Submit add-ons : You check a T-bite and have thoughts/ ideas or more resources/articles on the topic. Please feel free to submit the resource links or your thoughts/ideas. Hope you enjoy T-bites series. Looking forward to your contribution and feedback. Cheers, Rupa

Mais um case study proposto pelo GamFed. Desta vez trata-se de um site gamificado para promoção e venda de bilhetes para um espectáculo da Broadway: The Book of Mormon.  O site usa o BigDoor’s Gamified Loyalty Platform para aumentar o nível de envolvimento dos utilizadores que são essencialmente pessoas que pretendem comprar bilhetes on-line para o espetáculo. A adoção de uma estratégia de gamification tem em vista que os utilizadores divulguem o espectáculo nas redes sociais.  Essencialmente, são usados pontos, leaderboards, badges e desafios (challenges). O prazo para participação no peer review termina a 26 de maio. Posteriormente será disponibilizado o respetivo white paper. Ver as contribuições anteriores para o GamFed: - Disco Flipper. - TechHub Google Campus Noise Meter.

In organizations, when groups of people are working on a project, how they effectively collaborate and support each other is very critical to the success of the project. Let us consider an example of how collaboration might occur in an organization. A team of 4  people are working on a report which includes one writer who sits in India and 3 Subject Matter Experts (SME) who sit in the US. Now the writer has to effectively collaborate with the Subject Matter Experts to write a high quality report. How would the writer go about it? He would start writing the draft version of the report in a Word document. To get inputs and clarify his doubts with the SMEs the writer would use any or all of the following: Email Instant Messaging tool such as MSN messenger Web Conferencing tool such as Skype While working on the Word document, he needs to get out of the application and log into MSN or Skype to clarify his doubts. Basically he will be switching between applications to do his work. Above all the writer will keep mailing versions of the report for review to the SMEs. What if this is possible? The writer keeps writing the draft version of the report in an application. This  has a word processing software, document sharing facility, instant messaging and VOIP all integrated within the application. Let’s say the writer needs a quick input on a particular section and what he does is he checks if the SME is available online. He then invites the SME to join him using instant messaging from  and requests the SME to review portion of the text he has written. The SME views the draft version of the report real time and suggests quick changes. The writer quickly makes the changes to the actual report. He  then has some more questions and thinks he must have a quick conversation with the SME to sort it out. He enables the VOIP and has a quick talk with the SME. The writer does all this within the application and never ever once moves out of the application. This is what Contextual Collaboration is about. Contextual collaboration is a new approach to collaborative software that involves embedding all the relevant applications, such as word processors, enterprise instant messaging (EIM), shared calendars, andgroupware, into a unified user interface that uses presence technology to enhance collaboration. This means that from within any of the applications people could communicate and instantly share any resources at their disposal. The goal of contextual collaboration is to make online collaboration as simple and intuitive as it is to work with people in the same room, while enabling that capacity between people anywhere in the world. Here are some useful resources on Contextual Collaboration: Improve Productivity with Contextual Collaboration - Derek Ruths Contextual Collaboration Is The Future Of Real-Time Conferencing Technologies From ICE Age to Contextual Collaboration Related: The Future of Online Collaboration: Interview with Jay Cross

Na sequência de um post anterior - Leaderboards & Educação - aborda-se aqui mais um elemento de jogos - as badges - que integra o conjunto conhecido por PBL (Points, Badges e Leaderboards) ou BLAP (Badges, Levels and Leaderboads, Achievements e Points). (fonte: http://www.flickr.com/photos/inkytwist/3707964045/) O que são badges? Segundo um white paper da Mozilla são: "a symbol or indicator of an accomplishment, skill, quality or interest" ou, citando o Dictionary.com, "a special or distinctive mark, token, or device worn as a sign of allegiance, membership, authority, achievement, etc". Uma "digital badge" é "an online record of achievements, tracking the recipient’s communities of interaction that issued the badge and the work completed to get it". As badges (que podemos traduzir por insígnias ou distintivos) são um dos elementos de jogos que podem ser aplicados em estratégias de gamification (que, segundo algumas opiniões, se poderia traduzir por joguificação). As badges digitais são então ícones que representam uma determinada proeza ou conquista. As badges existem desde há muito tempo no mundo não digital. É o caso dos escuteiros que as atribuem, os cintos de cores diferentes atribuídas nas artes marciais ou mesmo as medalhas e divisas usadas nos meios militares. Alguns ícones que podem ser usados em badges estão disponíveis no Simbly Project. O site social Foursquare popularizou a utilização destas insígnias digitais premiando os seus utilizadores por estarem presentes em determinados locais (os utilizadores podem obter insígnias por visitarem várias vezes o mesmo local, por visitarem locais diferentes mas do mesmo tipo, por exemplo, um cinema ou uma loja). As badges podem ser usadas como mecanismos de recompensa e de feedback. Usadas como mecanismos de recompensa apelam sobretudo à motivação extrínseca. Qual o interesse para o setor da educação? "Digital badges can support connected learning environments by motivating learning and signaling achievement both within particular communities as well as across communities and institutions".   Ver mais em: Gamifying Student Engagement ("educators have also begun to adopt the reward structures of video games, such as badges for meaningful achievements, into their lesson planning"); How to Use Badges for Positive Growth ("six ways badging systems can be used for achieving goals related to personal growth and learning"); ver ponto seguinte; Six Ways to Look at Badging Systems Designed for Learning ("for over four years, Global Kids has developed badging systems within, after and outside of schools"); What if Badges Replace Grades ("what if we just scrap the entire concept of grades and replace them with one gaming element - badges?"); We’ve Been Gamifying All Along?!? ("but what if it is this system that finally gets through to that student?"). Como usar badges no contexto educativo e de formação? O white paper referido acima inclui ainda um Badge System Framework, um guia de aplicação de badges. O Open Badges Project da Mozilla tem também ferramentas para auxiliar os professores na criação de badges. Para além do projeto da Mozilla existem ferramentas disponíveis para os professores e formadores atribuírem badges. É o caso do ClassBadges que explica no vídeo abaixo de que forma se podem usar em sala de aula: (ver também este outro vídeo de ClassBadges). Outra ferramenta anunciada mas da qual ainda se sabe pouco é a Beye Badges. Por ter lido este post, possivelmente já terá ganho uma badge, atribuída pelos componentes instalados no blogue (CaptainUp, Uplaude) ou pontos (PunchTab). Todas estas aplicações são gratuitas e podem ser usadas em contexto de formação.

I found this interesting webinar on using puzzles in training. In this webinar, Thiagi and Tracy introduce different kinds of puzzles and their application in training.  To access the webinar, click on the screeenshot below. Hope you enjoy the webinar as much as I did.

As badges e a sua aplicação na educação foram já abordadas neste post. As formas de as aplicar em contexto educativo e de formação têm sido muito discutidas e existem algumas experiências concretas na sua utilização. No entanto, evidências concretas e cientificamente validadas sobre o uso desta ou de outras mecânicas de jogos são escassas. Tendo isso em conta, Juho Hamari da Universidade de Tampere na Finlândia, levou a cabo uma experiência durante um ano e meio (dezembro de 2010 a julho de 2012). Esta experiência foi usada para avaliar se a aplicação de badges, numa perspetiva de definirem objetivos e proporcionarem uma envolvente social assim como a necessidade dos utilizadores em obterem badges, estariam positivamente relacionadas com o aumento de utilização de um serviço. Desta experiência resultou uma publicação científica. Huotari é um dos autores de uma definição de gamification que gerou alguma polémica (ver este post). Neste seu último artigo, essa definição já aparece em paralelo com a cada vez mais consensual e citada definição de Sebastian Deterding: the use of game elements in non-game contexts. Hamari refere que as badges são a face mais visível da gamification, ao ponto deste conceito ser muitas vezes referido como badgification. Hamari define badge, numa perspetiva sistémica, como um conjunto formado por um signo ou ícone (que fornece as pistas visuais e textuais sobre o significado da badge), uma recompensa (a própria badge) e as condições que determinam a forma de obter a badge.     A experiência de Hamari teve como população alvo (3234 indivíduos) os utilizadores de um serviço de trocas peer-to-peer, o Sharetribe. Foi usado um primeiro conjunto de hipóteses relacionadas com a comparação social (social comparison) no sentido de avaliar se o facto dos utilizadores compararem as badges obtidas e observarem os comportamentos que levavam os outros a obtê-las implicaria um aumento de atividade dos utilizadores.  As variáveis usadas para medir esse aumento de atividade foram: número de propostas de troca, número de transações completadas, número de comentários no site e número de page views. A facto das badges poderem ser usadas para estabelecer um conjunto bem definido de objetivos (clear goals), quantificando esses objetivos e proporcionando feedback imediato (uma das condições para se atingir um estado de fluxo) foi usado para estabelecer um segundo conjunto de hipóteses. A principal conclusão deste estudo foi que a simples introdução de uma mecânica de jogo não conduziu automaticamente a um aumento da atividade dos utilizadores mas o facto dos utilizadores poderem ativamente monitorar as suas badges e observar as dos outros implicou um aumento de atividade desses utilizadores.  Esta conclusão está em linha com o que já tem sido defendido aqui. A simples introdução de mecânicas de jogos em contextos não lúdico não tem efeito significativo para uma mudança de comportamento a longo prazo. A introdução desses elementos tem de ser feita de forma a proporcionar uma experiência com significado (meaningful gamification) e apelar à motivação intrínseca, procurando manter os utilizadores num estado de fluxo (ver Meaningful Gamification, Leaderboards & Educação, Gamification e Comportamento e Teoria do Fluxo). Referências: Hamari, J. (2013). Transforming homo economicus into homo ludens: A field experiment on gamification in a utilitarian peer-to-peer trading service. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 12. doi: 10.1016/j.elerap.2013.01.004

 ECGBL 2013: The 7th European Conference on Games Based Learning,  Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto (ISEP), Porto, Portugal  
3-4 October 2013 Games have been shown to promote learning and the development of personal and social skills like socialization, teamwork, leadership, decision making and collaborative learning. Games have been successfully used in three distinct areas: training (professional and social context); formal education (classroom and school context), non-formal education (outside the school context). However, there is still a limited use of game-based learning. This has mainly to do with social concerns and stereotypes about the relation of games and education. But this limited use is also related to the lack of extended evidence of effective application. Throughout the years, ECGBL has been addressing this issue by providing a forum to exchange ideas and best practice among researchers and practitioners therefore contributing to a wider adoption of Game-Based Learning (GBL) in Europe. Mini track on Gamifiying the classroom: The impact of learning through the gamification approach; Giving rewards to people who share experiences related to their progress in curriculum; Implementing systems for rewarding student's visibility and status; Gamifiying grading; Designing challenges between users through embedding small casual games-like activities within academic tasks; Reflecting on the intrinsic/extrinsic motivations that promote learning engagement in a gamified context. The overall objective of this mini-track is to increase knowledge about utilizing gamification in educational settings. The mini track welcomes both conceptual and empirical work on the use of gamification strategies embedded in the regular dynamics of learners. (See selected abstracts)

By ruparajgo | View this Toon at ToonDoo | Create your own Toon Though Instructional Design is a fast growing field, I still come across people who do understand what Instructional Design is about. Technical Writing is much better known than Instructional Design in India. I am not sure how it is in the rest of the world. Have you tried to explain Instructional Design to someone who has no clue what you are talking about? If so, how did you do it? This is going to be interesting especially today when the face of Instructional Design and the role of Instructional Designers are changing. Wikipedia defines Instructional Design as the practice of maximizing the effectiveness, efficiency and appeal of instruction and other learning experiences. The process consists broadly of determining the current state and needs of the learner, defining the end goal of instruction, and creating some "intervention" to assist in the transition. I am not sure how much someone can understand what Instructional Design is about from such a definition. To me, Instructional Design is about designing effective learning experiences irrespective of the tools and methodologies used. I will try to explain this using an example. Let’s say you have to teach a few rhymes to a 2 year old kid. What are the options available? Sing a few rhymes to the kid yourself and get the kid to learn a few rhymes. Play a few audio cassettes or audio files and allow the kid to listen and learn. Allow the kid to play a few games or watch a few videos on the computer. While there are many options, it is important to use the right content, an effective approach that appeals to the kid  and the perfect learning environment where the kid learns the best. This is where an Instructional Designer can help. An Instructional Designer is someone who designs effective learning experiences that engages learners and helps them learn well. You have instructional designers in custom e-learning companies who deal with wide range of subjects,  industries and develop learning content as and when demand arises. You also have Instructional Designers in software companies who focus on specific technologies and create learning content only for those technologies. You find templatized learning material and also creative learning material. All said and done everyone everywhere needs learning material in all forms be it physical workshops, online sessions, e-learning or virtual training programs. With the available tools and technologies today, instructional design know-how, creative ideas and of course restrictions and limitations an Instructional Designer tries to design effective learning experiences for the classroom or online environment. Well I am not sure if a layman would get this explanation of mine. Err! This is challenging. Why don’t you try?

I am sure you must have read a lot about how audio and visuals must complement each other in e-learning courses. You must have heard experts say that voice-over used in e-learning must never read on-screen text. If you are using voice-over, try to minimize on-screen text and use a lot of visual elements. Of course, this makes a lot of sense because no one can read and listen at the same time with ease. That’s why a lot of e-learning courses these days provide Mute ON/OFF button so that the learner can choose to either listen or read. However I notice a common problem with the use of Mute ON/OFF button. I would like to discuss the impact of this button and show an example of a possible solution in this post. The Impact of Mute On/Off buttons As mentioned earlier, most e-learning courses these days provide this toggle button using which you can choose to turn on or off the voice-over.  Now what causes the hitch? It does happen that after you turn off the voice over, things shown on-screen make no sense at all and the learner is completely disoriented. In spite of using voice over, some e-learning courses do use on-screen text in the form of call-outs, small dialog boxes or labels.  These e-learning courses use a combination of voice over, onscreen text, visuals and also have this Mute On/Off button. Now when you go through such a course you are faced with this challenge of looking at the visuals,  reading onscreen text and listening at the same time. If you turn off the voice over, you have to read the voice over script at the bottom of the screen, the onscreen text and decipher the visual elements to understand what the content is all about. How do you solve this problem? How do you design your e-learning courses in such a way that visual elements and voice over complement each other? How do you ensure that the Mute ON/OFF button does not ruin your e-learning course? This is what I think, all of us must keep in mind while designing our e-learning courses: If you are using voice over, please try to avoid on-screen text. If you want to highlight the key learning points, give it to the learner towards the end of the topic or lesson in a printable format. If you are providing the Mute On/Off button, make sure that your slide content makes sense when you turn off the voice- over. It is a good idea to give the voice-over script at the bottom of the screen but then it should not happen that the learner reads only the voice-over script and pays no attention to visuals elements or on-screen text. Then the whole purpose of using visual elements is not met. I would like to cite a good example for illustration purpose. Here is a snapshot of a slide from the course: BBC Computer Tutor. In BBC Computer Tutor, you can choose to bring the volume to zero and switch on the subtitles. When you do this, the first thing you do is read the text at the bottom of the screen. You do not pay much attention to the anchor though you know she still exists. After you read the subtitles, you then move on to the visuals on-screen. The course gives enough time for you to read the subtitles and then pay attention to the visuals on-screen. The visual elements keep repeating till you choose to move forward. For example the visual you see in the screenshot is a demonstration of mouse movement. The demonstration keeps repeating till you choose to go forward. You do not face the pressure of paying attention to both the visual elements and the subtitles at once. Here the Mute ON/OFF button makes no negative impact on the course. There cannot be any fixed solution to the problems discussed in this post. However if you continuously test your e-learning courses and you know what to test for, a lot of such problems can be avoided at an early stage. Now it’s your turn to speak: What’s your take? How do you test your e-learning courses that have Mute ON/OFF button? What are the things that you keep in mind while designing such courses? Please share your thoughts.

The Games and Learning Alliance Conference (GALA 2013) is an international conference dedicated to the science and application of serious games. The conference aims at bringing together researchers, developers, practitioners and stakeholders. The goal is to share the state of the art of research and market, analysing the most significant trends and discussing visions on the future of serious games. The conference also includes an exhibition, where developers can showcase their latest products. The Serious Games Society is building a scientific community at international level for shaping future research in the field. This community represents a significant blend of industrial and academic professionals committed to the study, development and deployment of serious games as really useful and effective tools to support better teaching, learning, training and assessment. Important dates: Papers (10 pages) submission: June 19 2013
 Call for Workshops (4 pages) submission: May 31 2013 
Call for Tutorials (4 pages) submission: June 19 2013

Instructional Design saw its rapid growth only during World War II though it existed as early as 1905. As mentioned in Wikipedia much of the foundation of the field of instructional design was laid in World War II, when the U.S. military faced the need to rapidly train large numbers of people to perform complex technical tasks, from field-stripping a carbine to navigating across the ocean to building a bomber…… Drawing on the research and theories of B.F. Skinner on operant conditioning, training programs focused on observable behaviors. Tasks were broken down into subtasks, and each subtask treated as a separate learning goal. Training was designed to reward correct performance and remediate incorrect performance. Mastery was assumed to be possible for every learner, given enough repetition and feedback. After the war, the success of the wartime training model was replicated in business and industrial training, and to a lesser extent in the primary and secondary classroom. The approach is still common in the U.S. military. Here is a timeline capturing the History of Instructional Design and Technology: If you have any interesting information to share, please leave a comment.

Já está disponível o programa preliminar para The PLE Conference 2013 - Personal Learning Environments: Learning and Diversity in the Cities of the Future (10 - 12 July 2013, Berlin, Germany &  Melbourne, Australia). Uma das sessões tem como tema "PLE e Gamification" com uma contribuição (paper #58) em co-autoria com Ana Vilas e Rebeca Redondo, da Universidade de Vigo  e Ademar Aguiar da Universidade do Porto.

Recently Linda Williams posted a discussion in the PINOT network. Linda in this discussion item talks about the importance of clarity of expectations. Let me repost the discussion here for you to quickly read it without signing into the network. Linda Williams: The last two years of my mother’s life she was in a nursing facility and I visited her practically every day.  Each day for months I witnessed the same thing happening and I am assuming it was because directions were given, but expectations were not expressed. Each day I visited, I noticed that volunteers and entry level staff came around to each room twice a day to put ice and fresh water in pitchers for the resident.  The pitcher was always left by the sink in the room.  Like clockwork, the pitchers were filled. The problem was, however, that there was no way my mother could get to the pitcher of water because she was not ambulatory and the sink was ten feet away from the chair she always sat in and she couldn’t see well enough to know that the pitcher was on the sink.  She thought they always forgot to give her water. Since more than one person put the water across the room by the sink, I think their directions had been to "make sure the pitchers were filled twice a day" and they were following directions.  My mother would have been better served if the directions had been to "ensure each resident has  easy access to fresh water twice a day." It took months for me to get the water-providers to consistently put the pitcher by my mother. This is indeed a wonderful example that indicates the importance of setting clear expectations. I would like to speak about the clarity of expectations in training programs here. If you have checked my blog closely, you must be aware that I conduct training programs on Instructional Design for individuals as well as corporates. While I teach Instructional Design, it is also a great opportunity for me to learn more about Instructional Design, training effectiveness, learner motivation and learning styles. My attempt has been to offer personalized training programs and I continuously evaluate and improve my training programs. With every training program, I learn quite a few lessons. I would like to share one of the lessons I learnt: Set Clear Expectations for Your Learners. When I say Set Clear Expectations , I really mean every word of it. What happens when you do not set clear expectations? Your learners are not aligned. They do not meet their learning objectives. There is no scope for meaningful dialogue or discussion. You cannot track progress. There is no learning. Let me explain this with an example. My training programs are completely hands-on. Anyone who enrolls for my training programs has to work hard and do a lot of exercises. I design exercises to engage my learners in a meaningful activity and so that they learn along the way. When I design I have specific objectives in my mind such as with this exercise my learners must be able to design an effective content outline. With such an objective in mind, I design a focused exercise. While I am designing my exercises, I have a set of expectations for my learners and my attempt is to check how far my learners have met those expectations. I am very clear about my expectations. Now is that enough? No. I need to communicate my expectations clearly to my learners. So what to I do? Spend 10 minutes verbally explaining my expectations to my learners before they start an exercise. This sounds a good idea. But does it work? NO. It doesn’t. Because every learner interprets the expectations in his/her own way and executes the task in his/her own way. When you realize your learner is not on track and is not bringing out the desired results, you stop and try to clarify expectations. But then it is too late. Your learner thinks you are setting new rules and is likely to get frustrated. How do I solve this problem? To clearly communicate what I expect of my learners, I set design guidelines for every exercise and give a printed copy of these guidelines to my learners. I put in a lot of thought and follow an iterative process while setting these design guidelines. I also take up the same exercise and come up with a possible solution.  So for every exercise I design, I have raw material, design guidelines and a possible solution ready. I set design guidelines because I think when you are learning design, you need to first learn how to design within constraints and then take off from there. My design guidelines also act as a review checklist for my learners. With the guidelines in focus, I get my learners to do the exercise and indulge them in a meaningful discussion, get them to think,  learn and perform. For example, if I want to teach my learners how to  write production notes and audio scripts. I design a storyboarding exercise that would focus a lot  on these. I set expectations upfront in the form of design guidelines (Printed Hand-Outs). The design guidelines indicate the macro strategy, micro strategies, storyboarding guidelines, storyboard flow, formatting rules and so on. I support my learners to perform and  make sure I score every exercise my learner takes up which helps me evaluate learning effectiveness. Finally I share my storyboard with them so that they can refer to a possible and yet another solution for the same problem. This works really well in a group. The learners are focused on the activity, they are aligned and when discussions happen everyone is reflecting and thinking about a specific problem. If expectations are not clear and if you do not support, you cannot expect your learner to perform! What do you say?

Consider this: You are trying to understand a technical concept/ a complex concept/ a complex technology. You are at your wits end and you think there is no way you will understand it and then you find an article, a blog post,  a video or a podcast that make things simple for you. How do you feel? Thrilled/Happy/Relaxed/Grateful. You feel nice and there is a sense of achievement. I love simplicity! I love articles/web resources that speak layman’s language. There have been umpteen occasions when I failed to understand a concept or technology and quite a few web resources came to my rescue. One thing was common among all these web resources. They were SIMPLE, simple enough for me to understand. When concepts/ideas/technologies are made SIMPLE: You are receptive. You do not feel threatened. You do not feel less knowledgeable. You learn better. For example,you do not know what is Augmented Reality and go through this video below, you feel so thrilled to have learnt something new. The word "Augmented Reality" doesn’t seem alien anymore. When you go through this e-book on C-Sharp, you feel programming concepts are not rocket science after all. This post is a tribute to all web based resources that make things simple for all of us. Did you find a resource/an article or a video that solved your problem, helped you understand a difficult concept and made life easy for you? Share it here! Let’s celebrate SIMPLICITY!

Colóquio a realizar em Lisboa, Portugal, em 6 e 7 de dezembro - III Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro de Educação a Distância e Elearning.O III Colóquio Luso-Brasileiro de Educação a Distância e Elearning tem como objetivo central promover a aproximação e colaboração entre o Brasil e Portugal, designadamente entre as suas universidades e centros de investigação, sob a égide de um interesse comum, a Educação a Distância.Pretende-se promover a reflexão e o intercâmbio de práticas e experiências sobre Educação a Distância, Elearning e Educação Online; partilhar conhecimento e desenvolvimento tecnológico e promover parcerias de investigação e de colaboração docente entre universidades portuguesas e brasileiras.Destacam-se as linhas temáticas consideradas para a apresentação de trabalhos:1.     EaD e Políticas educativas2.     Boas Práticas em Educação Online3.     Modelos e Processos Pedagógicos em Educação online4.     Web 2.0 e tecnologias emergentes5.     Pedagogias emergentes (PLEs, MOOCs, REAs, …)6.     Realidade Virtual em EaD7.     Jogos e gamification em EaD8.     Mobile Learning9.     EaD e Inclusão Digital10.  Avaliação em contextos online É de realçar que uma das linhas temáticas é "Jogos e gamification em EaD" o que demonstra o destaque que este tema tem vindo a merecer na área da educação em geral e na área da EaD em particular. Outras linhas temáticas são a Realidade Virtual e o Mobile Learning, ambas também já abordadas neste blogue (ver, por exemplo, o post Mobile Learning e o post Mundos Virtuais, Realidade Aumentada e Virtualidade Aumentada).Datas Importantes para o Colóquio:Submissão das propostas: 30 de junhoInformação sobre a aprovação das propostas: 31 de agostoEnvio de textos finais para publicação: 26 de setembroRegisto e confirmação da presença dos autores: 30 de setembro

What if this  happens? You enter this sentence in Google:  "I want to know where the best momos are available in Bangalore."  Instead of throwing umpteen search results, Google gives you exactly the information you are looking for without you spending a lot of time on the web. This is something that might happen in the future. This is what Web 3.0 might be about. Web 3.0 - The Future of the Internet Web 3.0 also known as the Semantic Web is futuristic and yet to come. According to Wikipedia, the Semantic Web is an evolving development of the World Wide Web in which the meaning (semantics) of information on the web is defined, making it possible for machines to process it. Here is an interesting and simple presentation on Web 3.0: Web 3.0 explained with a stamp (pt I: the basics) View more presentations from Freek Bijl. Here is a good video on Web 3.0: Web 3.0 from Kate Ray on Vimeo. More References: Web 3.0 Concepts Explained in Plain English How Web 3.0 will work?

CISTI'2013 (8th Iberian Conference on Information Systems and Technologies), to be held between the 19th and 22th of June 2013, in Lisbon, Portugal. The final programa is available.The program includes a workshop on Serious Games: SGaMePlay 2013 - Third Iberian Workshop on Serious Games and Meaningful Play. Under the theme Information Technologies in Education, there are some potential interesting papers on gamification, game-based learning and motivation:- Immersive Learning: Metaversos e Games na Educação, Eliane Schlemmer, 
Unisinos, 
Brazil and Fernando Marson, 
Unisinos, 
BrazilAbstract: 
O artigo, a partir de uma reflexão sobre a Cultura Digital e novo sujeito da aprendizagem, apresenta e discute o uso de Metaversos e Jogos Digitais na Educação, envolvendo conceitos como: estado de flow, experimentação e significação para problematizar a questão da aprendizagem. Nesse contexto, propõe o Immersive Learning - i-Learning, por meio do desenvolvimento de Experiências de Realidade Virtual e Experiências de Virtualidade Real, como uma das possibilidades educacionais que pode ser propiciada para os novos sujeitos da aprendizagem, que fazem parte da Cultura Digital.- What’s in it for me? Enlightening motivation within a social network decision-making, Francisco Antunes, 
INESC Coimbra - Universidade da Beira Interior
 Portugal and João Paulo Costa, 
INESC Coimbra - Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra
, PortugalAbstract:
 This paper addresses the motivations by which people engage in social networking, according to the existing literature. Understanding these motivations allows firms to set processes to explore them, in order to establish and develop a decision support social network, supported by social network sites. Participating in social networks draws upon the interaction of intrinsic and extrinsic factors. On one hand, intrinsic factors refer to motivation embedded in the action itself (comes within the individual), rather than from external rewards such as money or recognition. On the other hand, extrinsic factors refer to the motivation coming outside the individual. Considering that solutions to problems are expected within a decision support social network, some potential problems are identified and addressed.- Gamification for Productive Interaction. Reading and Working with the Gamification Debate in Education, Razvan Rughinis
 University Politehnica of Bucharest 
RomaniaAbstract:
 We examine the gamification debate of recent years and we propose an alternative, heuristic definition for gamification in learning situations. After considering several critiques of the gamification concept, we privilege in our definition 'interaction' over 'motivation', 'simple gameplay' over 'game mechanics', and we highlight the diverse and changing behaviors of user/players. We re-define gamification in learning contexts as 'simple gameplay to support productive interaction for expected types of learners and instructors'. We argue that this definition offers a lowest common denominator to inform gamification in education.The abstract of the first one has a reference to the state of flow (is it the flow theory of Csikszentmihalyi?).  The second papers deals with motivation in social networks. Does the approach involves any gamification features? The third abstract includes a new definition for gamification in learning contexts: simple gameplay to support productive interaction for expected types of learners and instructors. It will be interesting to read the full paper.

A lot of people frequently ask me about the difference between Technical Writing and Instructional Design. I had written a post about this earlier and also argued that you require more or less the same kind of skills for both these fields and it was completely my standpoint on these two professions. In this post, I am going to talk about the differences between the job of a Technical Writer and an Instructional Designer, as people look at it today. So here we go! Technical Writing Technical Writing also called Information Development pertains to the software/hardware industries and basically involves writing documents for software/hardware products. Technical Writers in a software/hardware companies design/develop documents such as: Help/Instruction Manuals (Open any application in your system and go to Help. You should see a help manual) Installation Guides API Manuals FAQs Troubleshooting Guides Technical Writers work with: Standard templates Documentation Guidelines These days Technical Writers also design and develop: Tutorials Demonstrations Technical Writers who work in the Marketing Communication department design and develop: Brochures Technical Whitepapers Technical Blogs Case Studies Marketing Presentations Technical Writers use the following tools: Dreamweaver Robohelp Framemaker Snagit Camtasia Documentation Management Systems If you are applying for a Technical Writing job (fresher position)  in India, you will be tested for your: Research Skills Know-how of technical writing tools Language and Grammar Skills Aptitude for Technology If you want to become a Technical Writer, you must really be comfortable and understand technology. For example, if you are working on a BPM product, you will not be able to write effective documentation without getting a good understanding of concepts such as Web Services, SOA, Mapping and so on.  And remember SME support will be very less. Today the job market in India  for Technical Writers is really good because I see a lot of openings everywhere. Technical Writing is also a high paying job because it pertains to the software industry. Instructional Design Instructional Designing is about designing a training approach or a training solution depending on the requirements of a specific target audience. Instructional Designing pertains to a variety of industries including healthcare, aviation, software and umpteen others. Instructional Designers design and develop: E-learning Programs Instructor Led Training programs Blended Training Programs Instructional Designers might or might not work with: Standard Templates Design guidelines/standards Instructional Designers use the following tools: PowerPoint MS Word E-learning Tools such as Articulate, Captivate Learning Management Systems If you are applying for Instructional Design job (fresher position)  in India, you will be tested for: Instructional Design concepts Good writing skills Good storyboarding skills Creative skills Visualization skills Research skills If you want to be an Instructional Designer, you should understand Instructional Design concepts/principles and  have creative skills (depends on the requirement of the training material). The job market for Instructional Designer is improving and better than what we saw during recession.

Depois do da Higher Education Edition do Horizon Report de 2013, foi recentemente disponibilizada a Horizon Report 2013 K12 Edition.As tecnologias em destaque são as seguintes: Time-to-Adoption Horizon: One Year or LessCloud ComputingMobile LearningTime-to-Adoption Horizon: Two to Three Years
Learning AnalyticsOpen ContentTime-to-Adoption Horizon: Four to Five Years3D PrintingVirtual and Remote Laboratories Learning Analytics foi já abordada aqui neste post e é também mencionada na Higher Education Edition. 3D Printing aparece também em ambos os relatórios.

Foi publicado o white paper do último case study proposto pelo GamFed: um site gamificado para promoção e venda de bilhetes para um espectáculo da Broadway: The Book of Mormon (ver este post).The Book of Mormon Case Study
The Book of Mormon is a satirical musical developed and directed by Trey Parker, Robert Lopez, Matt Stone and Casey Nicholaw. The production has won 9 Tony awards including Best Musical in 2011.Supercharging Online EngagementWith the musical’s Broadway success rapidly gaining momentum, The Book of Mormon team aimed to increase online engagement and social sharing of tour dates, exclusive interviews and other important content available on the musical’s website. Being savvy about current trends in digital marketing, The Book of Mormon wanted to use social media to build online buzz for the production and boost interaction on the site.Building a Rewards Program for FansKnowing that many people visit a production’s website to buy tickets, The Book of Mormon implemented BigDoor’s Gamified Loyalty Platform to launch site "missions" that prompt and incentivize visitors to check out videos, behind the scenes photos and The Book of Mormon in the news. Joining the program allows users to earn "golden plates", a currency customized by the Book of Mormon team, which were redeemable for tickets to the show and Book of Mormon merchandise. As a white label product, the BigDoor platform easily aligned with The Book of Mormon’s satirical themes.The site also launched BigDoor powered "Street Team missions", which load a timed messages for fans to retweet, rewarding higher point values for those who do so the fastest.Since social media engagement is the ultimate goal, The Book of Mormon uses BigDoor’s social stream feature, which highlights real-time fan achievements earned in the program. Visitors to the site can see who is earning achievements, badges and rewards. The social stream prompts them to join and participate in the program.The ResultsSimply watching the social stream on The Book of Mormon’s website proves how active participants are in the program. Valuable site actions have increased by 10X and participants in the program view 2X as many pages. Fans of the program are learning more about the production, building excitement for tour dates and recruiting their friends to help them earn rewards. "Mission" accomplished!Whitepaper BigDoor - The Book of Mormon by GamFed

According to Wikipedia " HTML5 is currently being developed as the next major revision of HTML (HyperText Markup Language), the core markup language of the World Wide Web. HTML5 is the proposed next standard for HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.0 and DOM Level 2 HTML. It aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-in-based rich internet application (RIA) technologies such as Adobe Flash and Microsoft Silverlight." There has been lot of talk about HTML 5 in the e-learning industry. Some of the burning questions have been: Will HTML 5 replace Adobe Flash? Is HTML 5 ready for e-learning development? What will be the challenges with HTML 5? Will HTML 5 work? Here are some interesting posts from the web that try to answer such questions: What is HTML 5? Is HTML 5 Ready for E-learning Development? HTML 5 and E-learning Development

Foi apresentado ontem, pelo Ademar Aguiar, o artigo que enviámos para a PLE 2013 - Personal Learning Environments: Learning and Diversity in the Cities of the Future,  em Berlim. O artigo, Using Gamification to Improve Participation in a Social Learning Environment, foi feito em co-autoria com Rebeca Redondo e Ana Vilas da Universidade de Vigo, para além do Ademar Aguiar. A redação do artigo contou ainda com o apoio de de um shepherd, Kamakshi Rajagopal.Abstract do artigo: This paper presents a gamification framework applied in the integration of game elements in a K6 Social Learning Environment leading to a gamified system. With this gamified system it is expected to achieve a raise in the motivation to use the platform with students becaming more loyal users. It is also expected that they will be deeper involved and engaged in educational activities supported by the environment. The proposed gamification framework includes an architecture for a gamified system and a guide to help the development of gamified activities.

Here are the top 5 sites that give you good examples of e-learning: Enspire Learning: Demonstrations E-learning Examples MedlinePlus: Interactive Health Tutorials Cathy Moore’s E-learning Samples SkillSoft: Demonstrations