Multiple choice and true or false questions have their uses, but higher order questions take learning to the next level. Rather than giving simple one word responses, your learners must think abstractly and search their knowledge banks to arrive at the correct conclusion. In this article, I’ll delve into the basics of higher order questions, as well as the various types you can use in your online course. Finally, I’ll give you 4 tips on how to properly integrate them into your eLearning experience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

With the recent upgrade to Blackboard Learn 9.1 April 2014 release at Northern Illinois University, we enabled the Blackboard Portfolio tool, designed to help students maintain documentation of their education, samples of their work, and evidence of their skills. ePortfolios, such as the Blackboard Portfolio, contain an organized collection of artifacts (for example, assignments, photos, video) as evidence of accomplishments. To help students and faculty get a better feel for the layout options as well as media elements that can be included in a Blackboard Portfolio, I created the following sample Blackboard Portfolios to demonstrate the layout and organizational options available: Sample Layout 1: Left Vertical Navigation View portfolio using layout 1 Sample Layout 2: Right Vertical Navigation View portfolio using layout 2 Sample Layout 3: Right Navigation Navigation Box View portfolio using layout 3 Sample Layout 4: Top Horizontal Navigation View portfolio using layout 4 The layouts shown above all use the same default color scheme, which can be customized in any layout to a wide variety of color palettes. Here are a few additional screenshots shared by Blackboard showing a few additional sample portfolios. More Blackboard Portfolio Resources The NIU Faculty Development and Instructional Design Center is developing a comprehensive set of documentation, guides, and tutorials for faculty and students in their use of the Blackboard Portfolio tool. Visit niu.edu/blackboard/students/portfolios for more info. Has your institutional implemented the Blackboard Portfolio tool? Leave a comment and let’s connect.

You will be well served by making a habit of drafting a rough scheme of the course before starting any actual work on it. This draft should outline the main pages of the course, and will aid you all the way throughout the course creation. eLearning professionals call such drafts "storyboards" and use them extensively. Let’s take a closer look at what storyboards are, and how you can use them to start building better courses in a more efficient manner. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

It’s time to reimagine everything about what you believed education to be. 300 schools and universities joined us for the launch of the Digital Education Show. This year will see double that figure packed into the Keynote Theatre in Hall 1 at the Dubai World Trade Centre. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Follow on Twitter as @4OnlineLearningPatricia Pedraza-Nafziger, BellaOnline's Distance Learning Editor reports, "There are a variety of learning theories that exist today. Each conceptual framework is based on the emotional, cognitive, and environmental influences on how a particular group of individuals may understand and learn."Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.netFeminist learning theory places women's issues and those related to gender at the center of educational discussions. Topics surrounding politics, social relationships, inequality in the workplace, and philosophies are all main points of interest. However, technology has had a direct effect on changes in learning theories, particularly for women. Women have the desire to learn and grow, so much so that the number of female college students in the United States exceeds the number of male students. Women have also surpassed men in the number of bachelor’s degrees earned, and their achievements in master’s and professional degrees are not too far behind. However, the types of institutions women earn their degrees vary considerably from those of men. Elite colleges tend to have a higher number of males than females enrolled. One reason for this is that women have a propensity to enroll in lower-status schools that offer part-time attendance programs, which may better accommodate their lifestyles. Their demand for convenience and flexibility also flows into career aspirations, to fulfill both family and professional responsibilities in the most efficient and convenient ways possible.Read more... Source: BellaOnline

"The Department of Basic Education (DBE), under the leadership of Minister Angie Motshekga is committed to strengthening the quality and participation of Mathematics education in all schools across the country." continues AllAfrica.com. Photo: FreeDigitalPhotos.netIt is not acceptable for any public ordinary high school not to offer Mathematics to learners. In a democratic South Africa much has been done to transform the education system, we are at a point where almost all schools offer mathematics, and great strides have been made to reintroduce Mathematics in the Further Education and Training (FET) Phase (Grade 10, 11 and 12). The DBE is committed to supporting all schools in this endeavour.As part of the strategy to increase learner participation and performance in the MST, the DBE developed the Mathematics, Science and Technology (MST) Sector Plan pronouncing national and provincial targets. The targets are a deliberate move by the DBE to increase the number of learners taking Mathematics in order to meet the National Development Plan (NDP) targets of increasing the number of learners eligible for bachelors programme with Mathematics and Science to 450 000 by 2030. Setting of targets revealed that there were schools in the country that had dropped the offering of Mathematics in preference to Mathematical Literacy. The Audit conducted identified 353 of such schools. These schools were not offering Mathematics in Grades 10-12. In verifying these numbers, the analysis of the 2013 DBE EMIS data confirmed that the number was not 353 but 227. The reasons for the differences in numbers were that some of the schools had been merged as part of the rationalisation process.The Minister issued a directive actioned by the Acting Director General, that all public ordinary schools had to offer at least one Mathematics class from grade 10. Through the various interventions of the DBE the number of schools not offering mathematics has already been drastically reduced, with many of the schools already as early as 2015 reintroducing mathematics. The DBE is working closely with the remaining schools to ensure that they are able to implement the directive come 2016.A Plan has been developed for monitoring and support Curriculum Coverage (2015-2019):Schools which are being supported, offering Mathematics in Grade 10 for the first time will receive special support.Trained teachers will also be supported on-site and guidance will also be provided in their classrooms, in addition to scheduled, pre-training diagnostic assessment and remedial, group training sessions, including post-training impact assessments of teachers and learners.Read more... Source: AllAfrica.com

Follow on Twitter as @drdouggreen Dr. Doug Green, former teacher of chemistry, physics, and computer science writes in a guest post via Starr Sackstein, teaches writing and journalism in New York City, "The only way to close achievement gaps is to slow down the fast learners."Compared to other disciplines, mathematics has a much smaller number of concepts to learn. As a result, the students with high math ability are often needlessly held back. They also run the risk of boredom during math classes.At the other end, students with poor math skills get dragged on to new concepts before they master current lessons. Since much of math is hierarchical in nature, not mastering early lessons can make later lessons impossible to comprehend. This is less of an issue in other content areas.While other lessons often rely on background knowledge from previous lessons, students who don't master previous lessons can still appreciate new material to some degree.The one-size-fits-all single pace approach that many teachers still use is, therefore, more of a problem in math class than elsewhere. By the time middle school rolls around, most schools sort students into advanced and regular math classes. This is done so that the top students can take some variation of algebra in eighth grade for which they receive high school credit.It allows those that wish to take four more years of math during their high school career for a total of five credits. The final credit is usually some variation of calculus that may include an Advanced Placement class, at the end of which is the national AP exam in May. Catching the Calculus TrainStudents who take calculus in high school are well positioned to major in engineering or physical science in college. Students who miss the eighth grade algebra train most likely won't be able to take calculus their senior year, and will be at a huge disadvantage if they want to pursue engineering or physical science. This so-called train actually leaves the station for most students at the beginning of seventh grade. In order to take what amounts to math 9 in eighth grade, teachers have to cram math 7 and math 8 into the seventh grade year. This requires schools to identify candidates for the advanced math program near the end of sixth grade. In my case, my school gave some standardized tests to sixth graders. As fate would have it, I was absent for these tests. Rather than ask the teacher if I was advanced math material, I was dumped into the seventh grade section that was one notch above the class that contained students with major cognitive issues. This meant that I couldn't take calculus my senior year, but that didn't stop me from majoring in chemistry. During my calculus I class in my freshman college year, the teacher asked the class if they had calculus in high school. As I looked around I noticed that I was one of only two students who didn't raise his hand. Ouch! I struggled, of course, but managed to graduate none the less. My lack of calculus in high school, however, affected not only my math grades but grades in physics and physical chemistry. This meant that my career options did not include a PhD in chemistry. I decided to pick up a masters in education and go into teaching. I guess I can't complain as I have enjoyed a great deal of success as an educator...Top Math Students Seldom Go Into TeachingStudents who are good at math have a lot of options. As a result, few of them go into teaching. Since the US educates more teachers than it needs, education is often seen as an easy major on most campuses. This is just the opposite of Finland where you need to be in the top 10% to be accepted in a teacher preparation program and they only prepares as many teachers as they need. People who major in elementary education tend to have even lower math skills and the teacher prep programs do little to address this. If you are wondering why the Common Core math results seem to be stuck at low levels, keep in mind that a few days of staff development will not turn teachers with poor or average math skills into math whizzes. The other big problem in the math area shows up when students head off to college. This shows up to the greatest degree at the community college level. Community colleges tend to be open enrollment so anyone who wants to go and finds the money can enroll. Since these colleges know that their incoming students aren't all of the blue chip variety, they make them take placement tests in language arts and math. When I asked the math chair at my local community college how students do on the placement test, he told me that two thirds don't pass. This means that they have to take what amounts to high school math in college for which the have to pay but they don't receive college credit. Many of these same students also flunk the language arts test. What this means is that these students have very little chance of picking up a two-year degree in two years. Studies I have seen indicate that my local college is typical of other two-year schools in the US in this regard.Read more...Source: Education Week (blog)

This week I combined two Articulate challenges to make one conversational icebreaker. Read more...

On July 15 President Barack Obama announced the launch of the "ConnectHome" broadband initiative, which will provide high speed home Internet access to nearly 200,000 children in more than 275,000 low-income households. ConnectHome is the next step in Obama’s Connecting America initiative. Library Journal

The Senate’s version of a revised Elementary and Secondary Education Act could help schools and libraries with digital learning. Center for Digital Education

by Nicole Gorman, Education World Though blended learning is a key buzzword in the current world of education, experts are torn on its benefits as a learning model. Yesterday, the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) released a report detailing the evolution and the success of blended learning from 2008-2015 and predicted its future in education. [...]

By Sarah Kuta, Daily Camera The University of Colorado is moving ahead on its new online education initiative, with a name and a website set to launch next month. With the initiative, for now called University of Colorado On Demand, the university hopes to be able to compete with other, well-established online programs such as those [...]

by Cathryn Domrose, Nurse.com Enrollment in degree programs has been increasing at all levels as nurses and employers develop higher expectations of advanced education for the profession, according to healthcare researchers. Online learning is increasingly becoming the method of choice for many. About 7.1 million students took at least one online course in 2013, reflecting [...]

We’re excited to share our brand new infographic on driving customer success with knowledge management. Click on the image below to open a larger version of the infographic for easy viewing. To see how you can drive customer success, check … The post Driving Customer Success (Infographic) appeared first on Bloomfire.

"Children who struggle with mathematics will benefit from an innovative new Vanderbilt research project soon to launch in Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools." according to Joan Brasher, Editor.Photo: Vanderbilt University NewsThe National Center for Special Education Research (part of the U.S. Department of Education’s the Institute on Education Sciences) has awarded $3.5 million to faculty at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development to study working memory training for students at risk for math difficulties.Working memory—the ability to hold information in short-term memory while performing other tasks—is a function of central importance in a wide range of cognitive tasks. Working memory supports learning in multiple areas, including reading comprehension and mathematics problem-solving. Students who struggle with learning in these areas often demonstrate weaknesses in working memory.Douglas and Lynn Fuchs. Photo: Vanderbilt University NewsLead investigators are Lynn Fuchs and Doug Fuchs, Nicholas Hobbs Professors of Special Education and Human Development; and Sonya Sterba, assistant professor of psychology and human development.Read more... Source: Vanderbilt University News

Creating global eLearning solutions is full of challenges; in this article I will share some of the best practices in eLearning content development that a corporation can follow in order to avoid mistakes and create effective eLearning content for international learners. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

The European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning (EC-TEL) is a unique opportunity for researchers, practitioners, educational developers, and policy makers to address current challenges and advances in the field. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

There are many models which should be taken into account while designing instructions. As an Instructional Designer you know them all; you can mix and match ADDIE with Kolb Cycle, 9 Events of instruction with Bloom's taxonomy... You may even know how to use brain rules and take care of your development process' Flow. Ok, so you are an Instructional Designer expert. But don't you feel overwhelmed with all these new tools and methods, which may be used for learning but you don't know them well enough to fit them into your development process? This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Follow on Twitter as @LeeMeixianBTLee Meixian writes, "Aon Hewitt's global CEO of consulting, Yvan Legris, is in the business of predictions - predicting risks, human behaviour, organisational needs and industry shifts in human resource." 'You need to have a mix between short-term incentives for achievements of objectives in one year, versus longer-term performance which tends to be delivered through share awards.' Photo: THE BUSINESS TIMES  YOU can take a man out of Mauritius, but perhaps you can never take Mauritius out of the man.Aon Hewitt's global CEO of consulting, Yvan Legris, left his birthplace on the African island-nation when he was 19 on a bond-free government scholarship to study economics and actuarial science in London.Actuarial science was, and still is, his passion, and pensions would later become his specialisation. Mr Legris wanted to be an actuary - someone who evaluates risks and designs ways to control their likelihood of happening and eventual impact - because at that time, there were no actuaries where he came from."I wanted to be the first actuary (in Mauritius) and I remember feeling a little bit cheated when someone qualified before me," he says with a chuckle.His strong interest in pension programmes is plain as he discusses them. Specifically, this has to do with the art and science of financial modelling to project how much money a company needs to put into a pension pot in order to pay its retirees to maintain a certain standard of living for as long as they live."There are all sorts of unknowns such as life expectancies, interest rates, asset returns. That is really what fascinated me: how to use financial tools to manage and predict those things."You don't know what the exact answer is. You've done an approximation and you track things as they progress and as the pension plans mature, how they are doing versus what needs to be paid out. And then you make recommendations on whether companies should put more money in, or whether they should change how they invest the money."In most countries, actuarial graduates have to join a professional institute and take exams for the next six years, on average.Mr Legris doesn't have a practising certificate as an actuary any more because in his client-facing consultancy role today, he is not doing enough technical work to maintain that qualification. But he finds that the discipline has continued to help him in developing strategies and gives him credibility with his teams and clients.Aon Hewitt designs and executes people programmes - such as for compensation, engagement, retirement and health benefits - for big organisations. The company, along with Mercer and Towers Watson, form the so-called "Big Three" in the human capital consulting world.And Mr Legris' forte in pensions fits right into human resource (HR) programmes as people are living longer and want to retire better.Read more... Source: THE BUSINESS TIMES 

"A local business is giving the gift of music to organizations in need through a piano give-away program." continues WSIL TV.http://www.wsiltv.com/news/unsung-hero/Baldwin-Piano-and-Organ-Center-315825201.htmlTurning notes on paper, into a tune we hear is an art that takes dedication.Playing the piano can sometimes be expensive too. That's where Baldwin Piano and Organ Center in Herrin comes in. "We have kids who know how to play the piano and don't have one," said Marketing and Sales Director at Baldwin Piano Tammy Gwaltney, "Or kids who have always wanted to play the piano and just don't have access to that. So It was a pretty easy marriage. We had the product, they had the need, and we put them together."When Tammy Gwaltney started working at the piano store in April, she asked owner Bruce Steh if she could start a give away with some of the used pianos at the store.  Bruce was eager to help others and told Tammy to go ahead with her idea.In just a couple of months, they've donated more than a dozen pianos to various organizations in need such as T.M.A.D. youth center in Herrin."They were very excited," remembers T.M.A.D. Executive Director Julia Jordan, "Immediately the ones that have that gift of being able to play the piano or being interested in playing the piano were drawn to it they went to it they sat down they started playing it. It was great." Tammy says the response has been overwhelming from churches, senior centers, schools and even day cares.."We know that kids who learn to play music or sing, often perform better academically in school in all other subject areas. So we're happy to be a small part of keeping that going."Read more...  Source: WSIL TV

Follow on Twitter as @DearestDevineJacqueline Devine reports, "New way to learn: Space history museum introduces small-scale replicas of craft, meteors."New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired campers Kaden Calahan, 15, and Marisa Pierce, 12, use braille to interpret photographs from space at the New Mexico Museum of Space History Thursday morning. (photos by Jacqueline Devine — Daily News)Having five senses is something most people take for granted, but for the blind and visually impaired lacking the sense of vision is what keeps them from really understanding the world and beyond. It's why the New Mexico Museum of Space History has begun introducing small scale models and replicas of spacecraft, rockets and meteors to help them visualize the magnitude of the universe. The New Mexico School for the Blind and Visually Impaired hosted a week long camp for visually impaired students from across the state to learn important life skills and astronomy among many other activities. NMSBVI science teacher Jeffery Killebrew said the campers traveled from Clovis, Gallup, Albuquerque and Santa Fe to participate. "We've been doing other activities this week and we ended it with a fun trip to the space museum so they can experience things they have not been able to experience before. They got to hear and feel models that helped them learn about astronomy," Killebrew said. "The activities we offered involved science, math, assisted technology, mobility and life skills. We split them up during the day and students got to experience certain learning environments. They cooked their own meals, and for some it was the first time they've been able to cook by themselves."He said the models help students understand space better because it was concrete and not abstract, learning by touching and hearing helps them conceptualize how big the universe really is."We can talk about size but to a visually impaired person who has never experienced sight before in life, distance and length is very arbitrary. Being able to see the down scale size of the models lets them see the different size differentials," Killebrew said. "The 3-D models of the Eta Carinae was really cool for the students because they got to be able to feel something that's in outer space and a representation of that is great."Read more... Source: Alamogordo Daily News

"Roffey Park is a charitable trust based in Singapore and the UK, recognised for developing innovative learning approaches. Photo: Gary MilesWe catch-up with Gary Miles, Director of International Operations and Associate Relations to discover his view on the future of robots." according to Kathryn Cave, Editor at IDG Connect.Photo: IDG Connect What are the most interesting uses of robots you’ve seen in the current workplace?In the caring profession. In the East, China and Japan, robots are being seen as a potential blessing with family members regarding this kind of automation as serving to help caring for elderly and sick relatives and removing the monotony from many menial and dissatisfying tasks.In the West, in contrast, the main use of robots is still in industry such as highly advanced manufacturing facilities or high volume assembly lines. Other interesting uses of robots are in aerospace industry for outer space exploration enabling scientists to explore in outer space without putting themselves in danger, and Healthcare Delivery in robotic surgery, even if the patient is located in remote areas.How do you think they’ll be used in the future workplace? We will see a continuation of the use of robots in manufacturing, aerospace, and defence industries in the short-term, but in the medium-term a greater proportion will be used in medical and caring professions and delivering helping/waiting functions, as can be seen in some restaurants in China.Longer term we will move to a situation where robots are taking on human behaviour and emotions. Cynthia Breazeal from MIT, for example, has created Kismet, an autonomous robot designed for social interactions with humans.Kismet the AI Robot Kismet apparently has a repertoire of responses driven by emotive and behavioural systems. Crucial to its drives are behaviours it uses to keep its emotional balance so when there are no visual cues to stimulate it, such as a face or a toy, it will become increasingly sad and lonely and look for people to play with. This is just one example of a robotics project that in the long-term will lead to improvements and innovations in the application of robotics to medicine, personal service as well as space and underwater exploration.Read more... Source: IDG Connect

"How to get instruments into the hands of more high school students was the dilemma on Yuba City High Principal Martin Ramirez's mind." continues Appeal-Democrat.Photo: Appeal-DemocratYCHS offered orchestra and band classes, both classes better suited for students with previous experience playing and reading music. "Typically, if you haven't had a music class and been learning music in elementary school, you're already done by the time you get to high school," Ramirez said.Ramirez brought the problem to band director Ted Zalkind, who is starting his third year at the school, and they devised a plan to reach musical novices through a guitar class. They hoped to get 25 students interested, enough to have one class period — 58 signed up.Zalkind will teach two classes of guitar when school begins Aug. 12, but there is a problem: He needs more instruments.So far, Zalkind has 10 guitars for the class, but he needs at least 25 for a full classroom set and hopes to have enough so each student can be assigned his or her own guitar."We want the students to be able to check out their guitar, take it home and practice," Zalkind said. "If we only have one set, we can maybe send one home on the weekend."Zalkind is looking into possible funding sources to purchase some guitars, but he hopes people with unused guitars will donate to the program.Read more... Source: Appeal-Democrat

Photo: Merisenda AlatorreMerisenda Alatorre, award-winning educator and Interactive Media Producer at KQED writes, "KQED will be hosting Make Cycle 5 for CLMOOC on Monday, July 20 through Friday, July 24."Photo: KQED (blog) CLMOOC stands for Connected Learning MOOC - a massively open online collaboration. CLMOOC is an open space for educators of all backgrounds to connect with each other and engage with new tools. Each week there is a make cycle, which is an open invitation to make, play, learn, and connect.Here are the events to look out for:Monday, July 20: A CLMOOC newsletter will announce the make cycle theme on the CLMOOC website Tuesday, July 21: KQED will host a "Make With Me" live broadcast and synchronous chat at 1 PM PST Thursday, July 23: KQED will host a Twitter chat at 1 PM PST. Follow #clmooc to follow the conversation.You can participate in CLMOOC on Google +, Facebook, and Twitter.Source: KQED (blog)