Pre-Conference Events with the Special Interest Groups For me, the high point of the conference is always the Pre-Conference Day with my chosen Special Interest Group. Since 2015, I have been a member of the Learning Technologies SIG and have enjoyed the activities, the talks and the subsequent communication through the members’ website and yahoo group. Special Interest Groups organize their own day of events, usually in a different location to the main conference. This year, the LTSIG took place at the University of Manchester, a fitting place as Gary Motteram, LTSIG coordinator and committee member for a long time, teaches there!! It was on this very first day that I heard some of the most interesting talks all related to innovative uses of technology, for instance, a great talk about how to connect immigrant women and help them acquire English for their daily lives via mobile technology outside the classroom. This year, the LTSIG day had a new feature, a number of short talks happening simultaneously in which colleagues shared a tool they had experience with. I was fascinated by the new Google Classroom which was presented by Carla Arena and Swivl which a colleague teacher trainer introduced to us as the motion sensitive video camera base which follows the teacher (or whoever wears it) around the classroom. It was interesting to see an example of one student wearing it and how many times his attention strayed away from the teacher in just a couple of minutes! I was also asked to contribute with a short presentation […]

Before making the leap to full-time independent contractor-ship I freelanced for about three years. The work I did ranged as I built up my confidence with the freelance game, and in addition to some sites to check out, I’ll provide you with some tips and tricks I learned from my time as a freelancer. I’ll make my way down the list chronologically (based on which sites I used first). Freelancer.com Freelancer.com was my jumping off point for finding freelance work. It’s a site that operates on bidding - the freelancer will bid on jobs and the client will choose a contract winner. It’s tough to build your reputation on freelance sites as there are loads of freelancers out there who will more or less work for peanuts. Peanuts can’t pay your rent, so this can be discouraging. I spent a lot of time on this site doing things that weren’t necessarily my finest freelance moments, and I will caution you to strongly consider how much time it will take to complete a project before bidding - 1) because you’ll end up working for peanuts if you don’t, and 2) it will save you a lot of tears down the road. One of my first bids was for transcription of audio files; I actually really enjoyed the content (I was transcribing interviews for a lady’s Master thesis), but I grossly underbid the amount of time I would have to spend doing the transcription. I completed the job, but definitely didn’t make any profit. My favourite jobs on this website were Proofreading gigs; I’m good at proofreading and I enjoy it, so it worked out well. I also made the most amount of profit from these jobs. One downside is that the initial payment period has a delay (unless it’s changed in recent years) of about 3 weeks after initial withdrawal and another is that they take a cut of your profits (depending on which membership you have - if I remember correctly, the free membership takes a 10% cut). A third downside is that there are very few e-learning or Instructional Design gigs posted on this site. Odesk.com I really enjoyed working with Odesk; I know a lot of folks harp on it (likely in the design world) because it’s another bid site where you can easily end up working for peanuts. However, I have found a lot of my best long-term clients through Odesk. There are a TON of Instructional Design and e-learning jobs posted (daily for the most part), and I found it really easy to build a solid reputation using the site. Of course there are some flops with clients, but overall, the quality of my clients were pretty good and they were willing to pay a reasonable rate for my services. I will say that I was unable to get to my current hourly rate with clients through Odesk, but I was able to get pretty darn close. Withdrawals can be made using PayPal, and they were usually processed immediately (or close to immediately)…factor in PayPal processing times and you’d be paid within 2-3 business days, which is certainly reasonable. Elance.com Elance is yet another bid site, and this one I have found little success with. I can’t even write too much about it, but I will say that they have a very high job post percentage relevant to Instructional Designers or those working within the e-learning industry. The main reason I can’t speak too much to this one is because I found it incredibly difficult to get established on this site. I think I had two clients total, neither of which were repeat clients (because they could get similar services for cheaper through the site). If I had jumped on the Elance bandwagon when they first emerged on the market, I may have found it a lot easier to establish myself…let me know if you’ve had any success! Research and Cold Emailing I spent MANY hours researching companies I would love to work with and then cold emailing folks working within these companies. I originally started doing this when I was trying to break out into the post-secondary education sector within my province. I would cold-email the relevant department heads of local universities pitching myself as a solution to their problem. This turned up several very interesting meetings, some great networking opportunities, and really allowed me to extend myself outside of my comfort zone. My role within one of the local universities is attributed to this technique, and I have recently been offered a full-time permanent role within the university which I honestly don’t believe would have happened had I gone the traditional route of waiting for a position to come up and then applying - even my best friend couldn’t revise a cover letter successful enough to score me such a gig as our province is wrought with educators and most of them have many more moons of professional experience than me…and in this particular university, there is only one Instructional Developer role…so think of the competition…barf! While the success rate of my cold emailing is very small, I’ve experienced multiple 8-12 month after the fact follow ups that have resulted in working relationships. I would definitely recommend researching and cold emailing potential clients; some of them may not even know they need you until you explain what you do and how you can make it work for them! Craigslist.org When I tell folks that I found some of my best long-term clients on Craigslist, they are beside themselves with disbelief. I actually found one of my repeat clients through there (working with colleges within the health sector) and I was also able to gain significant experience within the K-12 and Higher Education sectors with another client I had found through Craigslist. Instructional Design jobs are hit or miss for posting, and it really takes a lot of dedication (to the hustle) to find relevant roles through the site. Why? Because you either have to try googling a specific-enough search phrase and hope for the best or you need to visit individual city sites searching for your desired role. The other downside to Craigslist is that there aren’t a lot of remote positions - this can be a good thing if your city has a lot of Instructional Design opportunities, but that’s seldom the way. It’s odd that there’s still a resistance to remote work when our society is moving further away from being tethered to cubicles. E-Learning Heroes Community Forums I’ve found quite a few short-term Instructional Design gigs through the ELH community forums, but I will say that many have not lead to long-term working relationships. With that being said, I have had quite a few organizations (or individuals) reach out to me through the forums based on what they’ve seen of my participation within the community. Basically, the more active you are within the community (specifically when it comes to demonstrating your technical competencies), the greater the opportunity you make in being contacted by prospective clients. Another good thing about the ELH community is that every Friday, Mike Taylor posts a compilation of e-learning jobs he’s found within the forum and online. It’s nice to have them compiled within one neatly organized post. LinkedIn.com I’ve found several repeat clients by applying for posts on LinkedIn, one of which has been one of my most profitable endeavours. However, it was for a large corporate client and once the higher powers within their organization realized that they weren’t as organized as they originally thought (which created a lot of work for their in-house resources, of which they had few), they cancelled the contract for all involved, realizing that until they got their butt in gear and got organized, they would be losing profits. Smart - yes. The good thing about this contract is that I know I’ll be kept in mind when they do decide to kick off the project again, but until then, it’s on hold. The thing about LinkedIn is that if you really want to be successful at finding work through the site, you need to optimize your profile and actively participate in communities, blogging, or maintaining up-to-date samples. My Website! Honestly - Do not sleep on building (or having someone else build) your website and portfolio. The people who want to hire you are visual creatures. They want to see what you can do! It helps them make up their mind. Over the past month and a half I’ve been working with a fantastic client who came to find me through my website. They liked my samples and had even read some of my blog posts (because they complimented me on a sample I hadn’t showcased in my portfolio), and it’s turned into a long-term working relationship! I understand there’s a lot to promoting yourself through your website, but if you make an honest effort, it will truly pay off. My blog is maintained primarily for an audience of my peers and not my clients. I do this because it generates interest and provides help, some of which I wish I had when I was just starting out. This inadvertently drives traffic to my site, of which a small percentage may be prospective clients. I include my portfolio and work with me sections not as an afterthought, but certainly not as a focus, and I’ve found the indirect promotion of my services has landed me some more genuine clients than I may have found hustling my services unabashedly. Did any of this help? I really hope this post helps some of you Instructional Designers lusting after a life of being location independent. That’s the second reason I wanted to take my freelancing full-time (the first reason was that I was sick of ‘working for the man’ and dealing with the politics of being a cog in an organization), and I’ve been able to achieve that in a very short period of time. If anyone has found any other places to source freelance Instructional Design or e-learning jobs, please let me know in the comments!

As someone who suffers from Generalized Anxiety Disorder, it’s really important for me to make an effort at balancing my life, work, and mental health. As a new small business owner, this can often times be a difficult task. That’s why I’m deciding to take this week to make a conscious effort to better manage myself in an effort to counter feelings of overwhelm. Make Yourself Accountable For me, this meant using my fancy project management software (shoutout PancakeApp) to set up all of my current projects and their individual tasks. This was somewhat counterproductive in that it initially made me feel more overwhelmed - oh my goodness, look at all of the tasks I need to complete (by Monday, by Wednesday, by the end of next week)…ugh. But when I stepped back, I felt refreshed, organized, and I now have an interactive to do list that will make me accountable for each of my tasks. Find Peace Within my work life, this means finding a quiet place where I can be productive; I haven’t perfected this yet (we have a beagle), but I’ve come pretty darn close, and I really enjoy the routine I have working from my home office, work office, or certain cafes. Finding peace usually involves some relaxing music (I’m a frequently listener of Songza’s Mellow Indie Playlist) or a podcast (e.g. Totally Laime or Alison Rosen is Your New Bestfriend) that allows me to listen passively. A calm environment can lead to an increase in productivity, which stands to decrease your feelings of overwhelm considerably! Within my daily life, this means dog walks or exercising or reading a few chapters of a book before resting your head on your pillow and catching some sleep. Be Active - CONSISTENTLY I used to be so good at this, almost to the point of obsession. Obsession isn’t a great thing, but I’ll be the first to admit that I do miss my five day per week gym routine. I’ve been haphazard in ramping up my activity levels over the past few months and it’s really catching up to me. I’m not as in shape as I once was, my anxiety is a lot less predictable and extreme, I’m easily tired, and I just don’t feel on top of my game. Being active is a great way to counter feelings of overwhelm because activity gets your endorphins chugging along and then all of the happier feelings buzz through your body, making your daunting to do list seem a lot more manageable.

I very often talk to teachers about online apps and great new tools and the standard question always is: "Is it free?'" And of course it’s natural for teachers - who are amongst the world’s worst paid people for the amount and quality of the work they have to do - to look for free apps and tools. Reasons? On a UK pay scale, a colleague recently told me that they make 23 pounds an hour. In Athens, if you  have training and experience, you will be lucky if you make 9 or 10 euros - the average is 6 per hour while the official hourly rate is 4,5 euros per hour  for only 8 months a year; in the summer you can live off the sun and the sea and unemployment benefit of 300 euros per month  (for some people, not even that). So if most of my better paid colleagues look for free apps, why would the low-paid colleague do anything different? Teachers look for freebies because Their school won’t pay They can’t afford to pay themselves If it’s free, why pay? So we all flock to the free options and use them, create accounts, create materials, until one day, the company goes bust and we lose everything! Of course, the paying users lose even more! A typical example was one of my favourite online animation tools Xtranormal  I loved this app and used the free version along with thousands of other teachers, then started paying to buy more scenes and more characters and to have the option […]

I first came across the concept of adaptive learning when working at my last corporate gig. Someone had a pie-in-the-sky type of idea for moving into adjacent markets, and adaptive learning would give us a HUGE competitive edge. I say pie-in-the-sky because, at the time, the organization could certainly not fund something so new to us. This past weekend, I came across the term again - this time in the context of its increasing popularity. If it’s becoming more popular, I figured we should probably talk about and get to know the term a little bit more. What is Adaptive Learning? Adaptive learning is an educational approach which uses technology to create individualized learning experiences. Computer programs, which work diligently to collect data, adapt the material presented based on the user’s learning needs (which are dictated by their responses and interactions with the computer program). Sounds creepy? Yeah, a little. I sort of liken adaptive learning to the way in which advertisements on websites are adapted based on your browsing history. While it might be creepy, it’s also really cool! Why is Adaptive Learning Cool? Adaptive learning is pretty neat, in my opinion, because it allows students to step outside of the traditional face-to-face classroom environments, where teachers are often times over-saturated with the amount of students per class, leading to very generalized teaching (in most cases). Teachers have it tough! And it can be incredibly difficult for them to veer from traditional teaching methods to make learning an individualized experience for each and every student. Many teacher friends of mine who have taught in the K-12 school system are incredibly frustrated; because of the ‘no child left behind’ concept, kids are being pushed through, regardless of which grade level they’re functioning at. This results in lower-level learners struggling further with the curriculum. Another problem is that it’s getting to the point where teachers are becoming responsible for developing Individualized Education Plans for more than half of their students per class - Doing this is understandable in that the education system wants to cater (as much as possible) to student’s needs, but it also takes a lot of time on the individual teacher’s side of things, which may lead to increased rate of teacher burn-out. Frustrating, no?! Adaptive learning may be a solution to such a problem, saving teacher resources and frustration! The only questionable aspect of adaptive learning that I have found is that implementation may be incredibly costly, so institutions really need to recognize the need and the ultimate cost savings on human resources (and ultimately increase in return on investment), before it will ever gain mainstream traction. Examples, please! There’s really only one key example that I want to share - Knewton is a technological platform designed to personalize "digital courses so every student is engaged and no one slips through the cracks." Using analytics, learning gaps are predicted and the presentation of educational materials are adapted to satisfy these learning gaps. HOW COOL IS THAT?! A more rudimentary example could be a choose your own adventure book; while not necessarily ‘learned’, the outcome is dependent  on (or predicted by) the reader’s choices. Who didn’t enjoy a good choose your own adventure book? Come on!

There’s a reason children could sit in front of cartoons for hours—they’re engaging. Just because your trainees are all grown up doesn’t mean they have to stop enjoying the power of animation. In fact, when used correctly, animation can have some sizeable benefits for eLearning. 

What’s this we have here? A process post? Sort of! Exciting, no? Note: If you want to avoid reading my drivel, just scroll down to the video and watch - you’ll get to hear my drivel instead! It’s my hope that this feature will continue, but we’ll see how it goes! I love reading all about what my friends and colleagues are working on, so I figured it was time to put together a similar type of post.  I usually find this a difficult task as some projects are hindered by Non-Disclosure Agreements and/or it’s difficult to describe exactly what you did. However, this project was fairly straight forward, and I’ve been fortunate enough to work with some amazing clients who really value my experience and let me take their concepts and bring them to life! I’ve been working with the folks at QueBIT for a few months now - you can see some of my other work with them in the Portfolio section - and they have been fantastic clients! Their instruction is based around a program, specifically the SPSS Modeller. If you’re like me, you might cringe at the term ‘SPSS’, having flashbacks to your undergraduate degree’s Statistics requirement. However, this particular program is useful in terms of Data Mining, which is actually really cool! For this project, I was provided with a prototype version and asked to base my Articulate Storyline development on the prototype, taking creative liberties wherever I saw appropriate. The end product was a Node Glossary, which is basically a glossary of various functions within the program. First I designed the template, then I sought about organizing each ‘Palette’ into a scene, and branching the nodes from the navigation menus (the shapes you’ll see in the video) to a video related to the specific ‘Node’. There are two versions; essentially one was saved out as an internal, standalone version for employees and the other version will be integrated into a larger Computer-Based Training (CBT) program (which I’ll probably post about once it’s finished in a month or so)  - I’m excited to be working on these projects with such supportive clients, and I’m happy to be able to share some of my internal process with you! What I’ve Been Working On! What I’ve Been Working On - QueBIT Node Glossary from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.

You’d be hard pressed to find a more results-oriented business than sales. With only two potential outcomes—making the sale or failing to make the sale—there is little room for gray area. Either you succeed or you don’t.

Phew! This week’s challenge was an easier one. I figured I could definitely squeeze this challenge in between the swamp of work I’ve been wading through. The Concept This week’s challenge was more of an informative type of challenge, and it was all about how you setup your recording space to record audio for online training. For me, this was an easier challenge because I don’t have a whole lot of setup that goes into my audio recording…because I don’t tend to do a lot of audio recording - this is typically a task I sub out to other e-learning professionals because 1 - I find recording audio tedious, 2 - I’m not an audio learner so I find it extra tedious, 3 - I don’t have nearly enough time to prep things as I’d like to have, and 4 - I’m Canadian (and many of my clients aren’t), so the revision cycle tends to be a bit more frustrating with me trying to take on a different dialect for just a couple of words (which is SO HARD if those words are in the middle of sentences…you know…like people use). The Method For this challenge, I took a photo (with my iPhone) of my setup, and then I took a screen capture of my software setup. Presto! Tada! The Result There were three questions for this challenge: 1. Tell us about your recording setup. I will say that the setup I have at home versus setups I’ve used in the past is quite different. I’ve married into some software (shout out Camtasia) that I love using, but haven’t taken the leap into purchasing a professional microphone or anything. At the university, there is a real fancy microphone - I don’t even know what brand it is, but it requires a line-in input and it’s HEAVY! Needless to say, a post-secondary institution can definitely afford these luxuries…but I’ll digress! Basically, my set up is the opposite of what you’d find at a university. When recording audio, I use my Macbook Pro’s internal microphone. I open Camtasia up to create a ‘new recording’. When you do this, a little window pops up (see below), and I turn the screen off and the camera off, but leave the microphone on. Unless I’m doing a screencast, in which case I leave the screen on and the microphone on. I record in my office, and once I finish recording, I often have to edit out background noise and/or my beagle’s barking, in Camtasia. Once I finish my recordings, I export the audio files to MP3 (or MP4 in the case of screencasts) format. 2. Show us your audio setup. 3. Share your three favourite audio recording tips. Here are my tips: 1 - If you’re recording audio often, invest in a professional microphone. I would recommend Blue Microphone’s Yeti Pro or Audio-Technica AT2020 - I’ve heard good things about both of these and have used the Yeti Pro. 2 - Create an audio script - Sure; you might think you can wing it and for a lot of things you can…just not professional anything. Especially not training courses. Especially not if the training course is procedural and the steps are exact. Trust me, it will save you a lot of heartache (and revisions) in the long run. 3 - Be consistent. Try to use a consistent voice, tone, and background whenever you record. It may also be good to record all audio in one fell swoop, if possible. I’ve found in my experience that if I record audio for the same project in different sessions, my tone tends to vary more. When I say background, I mean record in the same space for all recordings. This is important for anyone using their laptop. 4 - Bonus tip: Don’t feel obligated, by a client’s needs, to record the audio yourself. If audio is a component and you really aren’t the best person for the job, sub-contract the audio portion out to someone who knows what’s up. The result will be a lot more professional, and you’ll be able to focus your attention on more important aspects of your role.

"We are using some instructional videos in our training today, but they are rather poor quality because we are shooting them ourselves." This was the comment made to me recently by a senior manager tasked with training for his $50 million company. He, like many people I’ve spoken with, feels all corporate training videos should be highly polished and professional.

This week’s term was prompted by a thread I read recently about acronyms. Don’t see the connection? I’ll explain it to you in a few - don’t worry! Target Audience Your target audience is anyone who will be participating in the e-learning program you are developing. This is a very small detail, usually discussed in a client’s Statement of Work or a Design Document (or sometimes not at all), but it makes a huge impact on the development of your training materials. For example, the training materials you develop for a group of 18-21 year old students will likely be different than those developed for a group of 50-60 year old women. For the 18-21 year olds, you might use a more colloquial manner of text or you might use a more interactive, game-based interface. For the 50-60 year old women, you would likely recognize their prior learning experiences and explain the content in a more professional manner. It is essential to understand and consider your target audience in order to create effective learning experiences! I’m a huge supporter of conducting an instructional analysis, and while not all clients will see the benefits of paying for anything indicative of an ‘analysis’ phase (many clients may feel as though they’ve conducted this portion), it’s still important as an Instructional Designer to ensure you’re conducting a brief instructional analysis - even if it’s just in your head. If the target audience hasn’t been defined by the client, ASK! Alright. So how does this connect with acronyms? Regardless of your target audience  you need to avoid use of industry jargon whenever possible. You need to take yourself outside of your industry body and put yourself in the shoes of your target audience. Do they know what TNA means? Because to you, it’s a Training Needs Analysis, but to them it could be an offensive term used to describe several body parts or a popular retail store. When using acronyms, ensure you are spelling out the first instance of each acronym; this will ensure that your target audience does not become lost in a sea of acronyms, leaving the training more confused than anything. Another suggestion, in acronym or jargon heavy training materials, would be to include a glossary of acronyms or terms; this will provide your target audience with a resource to consult if ever they find themselves confused.

Training your employees takes up valuable time, money and resources. It can be frustrating to put forth all that effort, only to feel like your investment hasn’t been worth it. You don’t want to finish a training session thinking, "Well, that could have been better."

My reading has really been placed on the back burner because I’ve been way too exhausted to read at the end of the night lately - not good, I know! Buuuut, I’ve really enjoyed working with my clients, so I won’t argue too much! I have a huge stack of books on my night table, and I’m currently working my way through The Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown…so you’ll surely see a review for that in the coming month or so. However, the large stack is predominantly fiction, and I’ll save you from those reviews. ANYHOW! Today I’m reviewing Seth Godin’s The Icarus Deception, a book I truly enjoyed. I will say that I didn’t whiz through it as quickly as I did Linchpin, but I’m really not sure why. His writing style is always very easy to read and enjoyable, and he provides creative anecdotes throughout all of his books. The basic message of this book is that you don’t need to find the fine balance between crashing and burning, you just need to dare yourself to create your art. Screw what you’ve previously been taught and challenge societal norms. Have fun watching my awkward recap; I’ll apologize for the lighting situation now - it’s hard to find a time of day when the dog isn’t barking : P Icarus Deception from Ashley Chiasson on Vimeo.  

Allow us to paint you a picture: Hard Worker Wally hates taking time off to go to the doctor’s office, but that pain in his back just hasn’t gone away. He reluctantly makes an appointment and crosses his fingers for a short wait time so he can get back to the office. There’s a new eLearning training option he’s eager to complete as soon as he gets back to his computer. Wally watches the clock tick past his scheduled appointment time…10 minutes…20 minutes…30 minutes. Impatient, Wally scrolls through his Facebook feed on his smart phone and updates his status on Twitter. He finally beats that level of Angry Birds that he’s been stuck on for weeks. And still, he waits.

Today I participated in an orientation session, and the folks putting it on had a wonderful slide about work-life balance. As they talked through the slide, I likely stared at them looking confused. Work-life balance? Yeah. I know what it means. But does anyone actually have it?! Can it be purchased? Can I locate it within some lifestyle section of a big box store? All of the other orientation participants seemed to understand the concept, but I certainly did not. Ever since I can remember, I have enjoyed being busy. I mean…I do enjoy my downtime, but I prefer filling my downtime with other activities - even if those activities are binge watching shows on Netflix. I attribute this quality to living with Generalized Anxiety Disorder. When I was completing my undergraduate degree, I was working 40-60+ hours per week, managing 25 university kids at a local Starbucks; in the mere moments I had between classes and shifts, I pounded out 25 page papers and got As like a boss. When I started my career, I tacked on ‘getting a graduate degree in a year and a half’ to my regularly scheduled 40 hour work week and the freelance work I had grown accustomed too. When I finished school, I let running consume me, training for race after race after race. Before leaving my first big corporate gig, I began collecting a solid clientele for my small business, and now as a small business owner I often juggle 5+ clients at a time. Upon accepting a full-time role at a university I had been working for on part-time contract, I’ve recently begun to recognize and appreciate my limitations. I can’t do it all, and trying to do so will result in sub-par products. Instead of subjecting myself to that (and there have been a few small hiccups in the offloading process), I have passed along some fantastic clients to former colleagues and other freelancers (or small business owners), knowing that they will have the time to better suit my former clients. Maybe I’ll get to work with some clients again down the road, but right now it’s just not fair for me to subject them to my schedule. That’s not to say that I’m not accepting new work, because I definitely am! It’s just to say that I’ve scaled back a bit on long-term projects (which are the ones I’ve handed off) and have instead focused on smaller, short-term projects with fewer clients. This allows me to focus on my client’s needs and achieve something closer to work-life balance (according to that orientation presentation at least). I’ve ramped up my fitness level again, and I’m really starting to focus on being happy and healthy in my work life and personal life, and that doesn’t mean I need to sacrifice quality (in any aspect of my life)! Right now I have several regular clients and I’m still accepting smaller project work between late September and December of 2014. I’ve talked a lot about what keeps me busy (work, work, work), but it’s also important to enjoy friends and family, stimulate your mind (through reading/research/exercise), and maintain a healthy lifestyle. So I’m trying! How are you achieving work-life balance? Let me know in the comments!

"You can’t teach that through eLearning. It’s too complicated." "I’d just feel better if an actual person was teaching this skill since it’s so intricate." "An online course can’t possibly explain this concept as well as an instructor." 

This week’s e-learning challenge is a fun one that’s near and dear to my heart! Why? Well - Since building what small portfolio I have, my job prospects have increased exponentially (and therefore so has my profitability) and I’ve been able to become more selective with the projects and clients with whom I engage. Portfolios are also dear to me because my very first professional presentation (at the E-learning Heroes Community Roadshow: Toronto) was on how to build your portfolio. Portfolios are essential to any e-learning developer and you really shouldn’t sleep on building one out. Even if it’s sparse and not the most well put together portfolio, it’s a jumping off point, and you’ll be able to grow your portfolio and evolve its presentation as time goes on. Truth be told - My website and portfolio page will be undergoing an overhaul in the coming months, and I’m excited to share the new design just as soon as it’s complete! The Concept This week, we’re being challenged to share our portfolios, create a header image for the E-Learning Heroes Challenge recap post, create social media images for Twitter/Facebook/Pinterest, and then share our portfolios through various social media postings - WHAT A DOOZIE! So many components! The Method First things first, I grabbed the link to my portfolio page. Next, I opened a new document in Photoshop and created a header image for my section of the recap post. Then, I sought after the social media image dimensions from this site and began creating appropriately size social media images. Finally, I went ahead and started sharing these posts all over the social media sphere (Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest) The Result Click here (or in the navigation bar above) to access my live portfolio. Challenge Header Image: Twitter Post Image: Facebook Post Image: Pinterest Thumbnail Image: Pinterest Post Image:

Quality not quantity. It’s a good rule of thumb for just about everything. For example, you’d probably rather have fewer delicious pizzas than boxes upon boxes of mediocre pizza, right? So when I say your employees would much prefer fewer quality training courses than hordes of so-so learning courses, that makes sense, right? But here’s the issue: You have years’ worth of existing training materials—materials that you don’t want to go to waste. For many companies, the sheer amount of time and money already spent on existing training materials is reason enough not to work with an outside agency to create new learning courses. (After all, who’s to say they won’t end up with even more mediocre pizza?)

Some of my first freelance roles were writing assessment items for various training materials. Namely, I wrote new driver training tests for each and every single state. This was a very profitable endeavour, and assessment item writing comes pretty easy to me, but you multiple each state by 100 (or more) and tell me how sore your fingers are after typing out all of those assessment items…that being said, I do still hold a place in my heart for assessment item writing. What is this ‘assessment item’ you speak of? Well. An assessment item is any item, able to be measured, which tests what (or whether) your learner has learned the material you have presented to them. Basically, each question in a quiz/test/exam/knowledge check, etc. Most of us distinctly remember hand-writing detailed responses to long answer essay questions in high school…or filling out bubble sheet upon bubble sheet upon bubble sheet in our undergraduate degrees (at least if you majored in Psychology). Multiple choice, true/false, drag and drop, essays, long answer, short answer, fill-in-the-blanks - these are all types of assessment items (but certainly not the whole gamut). Assessment items have different bits. Assessment items consist of several variables: The stem (question) and the answer (either provided or needing to be written out) - in the case of multiple choice questions, there are also distractors . In writing the new driver tests, I considered an assessment item to be the Stem, the Answer, and three Distractors. The stem would be the question (e.g. You arrive at a flashing red light. What does this mean?), the answer (e.g. you must come to a complete stop before proceeding when it is safe to do so), and three distractors (e.g. you must come to a complete stop and wait for the light to turn green before proceeding, you may proceed - slowly, you may only make a left hand turn). There is much to consider when writing assessment items. In the case of the new driver tests, the only real consideration was to be cognizant of the target audience (14-22 year olds) and write in a language for which they would understand, and to develop assessment items based on the individual state driver’s handbook. However, I also have experience developing assessment items for college-level text books. For these items, I had to consider the content (the relevant chapter of the textbook) and write meaningful assessment items to test the learner, but I also had to consider the learning objectives for that chapter (to ensure I was assessing the learner in order to meet the learning objectives) and I had to consider Bloom levels. I previously wrote about Bloom’s Taxonomy here, and in relation to assessment item writing, there was typically a requirement to test to higher-levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. No good college-level assessment is comprised entirely of recall (in my honest opinion). But…how do I know I’m writing high-quality assessment items? Don’t panic - Here are some resources: 20+ Tips for Writing Great Quiz Questions and Response Options Improving your Quizzes with Immediate Feedback Constructing a Bloom’s Taxonomy Assessment Assessment and Bloom’s Taxonomy Best Practices: 30 Tips for Creating Quiz Questions The Anatomy of Great e-Learning Quiz Questions

Just because the majority of our blogs focus on training your employees doesn’t mean there aren’t other groups that benefit from eLearning. Take a hospital, for example. In healthcare, employees aren’t the only audience that can take advantage of eLearning—patients are also prime potential learners. A hospital or health system can only run as smoothly as its least informed participant. In many cases, a little upfront knowledge can make all the difference in day-to-day operations. Plus, entering into a hospital or dealing with a significant health problem is almost always confusing and stressful for a patient. By providing more opportunities for learning, you can help ease their concerns and make them feel as prepared as possible.

I figured I’d pop in for a quick update; this week has been bananas for me, as I race toward the finish line with some deliverables. However, I am easing into a bit more of a routine, and I’ve been able to consider some things I’ve been thinking about for a long time. I’m being really cryptic here, aren’t I? Basically - I have something in the works that will be of interest to anyone mildly interested in developing their own e-courses down the line. I’ve probably already said too much! Stay tuned!

We’re living in the age of short attention spans. The age of multiple web browsers open at the same time. The age of checking your mobile device every few minutes. The age of skimming news articles and fast-forwarding through commercials. Now, when it comes to your eLearning, the concept of a short attention span doesn’t have to be a deal breaker. In fact, society’s desire for quick and efficient information can work in the favor of your eLearning program—if you let it.

I get a lot of questions about the products and resources I use the most, so I thought it might be easiest to develop a resource site that I can add and subtract from as it evolves. Full disclosure: there are several affiliate links throughout, but these are all products and/or resources that I’ve used, trust, and love. You’ll see this page featured in my navigation, so if you leave the site and come back, it will be very easy to find Tools Articulate Storyline and Studio - I am a huge lover and supporter of both suites of software; however, I have to admit that I prefer to develop within Articulate Storyline, often using Studio-developed assets to supplement aspects of my Storyline courses. The Articulate E-Learning Heroes community is one of the most active community I’ve been apart of, and I really appreciate how supportive everyone seems to be. Both suites of software are worth the investment, and if you or your organization are on the fence about purchasing licenses, I encourage you to try out the 30 day free trials. Adobe Captivate - I won’t be the first to admit that this is not my favourite tool to develop in; I tend to find Adobe’s interfaces more difficult to navigate, but I will say that once you’ve mastered one of their program interfaces, you likely won’t have a hard time with others. I like using Captivate to develop software simulations and the most often used feature (which is silly given the robust-ness of the program) for me is the text to speech audio recording…I said it was a silly feature to use the most, didn’t I? Working with a military audience, I gained loads of experience using Adobe Captivate, and once you get the swing of it, it really can do prove to be a great authoring investment, especially given the reasonable licensing cost. TechSmith Camtasia and SnagIt- I use Camtasia almost on a daily basis, and I love it! I will admit that rendering video is not one of my favourite tasks, but it definitely is a reasonably priced and robust program given the features it provides. You really can create some amazing videos using Camtasia, and I use it almost exclusively to record screencasts (because this allows me to avoid javascript update prompts and errors - which I would often run into as a Mac user, when using screencastomatic and screenr.com - sorry guys!). SnagIt was a life-altering piece of software that I first grew to love about five years ago. SnagIt allowed me to easily take screen captures and mark them up, or better yet (!) have my subject matter expert do - this made some incredibly complicated and headache-inducing projects (e.g. tracing electrical flow throughout aircraft components) INCREDIBLY easier. I know I will never get that year of my life back, but SnagIt helped keep me sane. Both of these products are amazing, and if you bundle them together, you get a discount. If you don’t want to bundle, they’re both great on their own - so great, that I have licenses for both my Mac and PC. So nice, I bought it twice! Parallels - I haven’t been using Parallels long, but I’ve been bowing down to it since DAY ONE! Prior to Parallels, I was using Mac Boot Camp, booting to my Windows OS separately to work on all of my Windows-specific projects. Doing things this way created a bumpy workflow process - I would have to either dual boot multiple times a day (incredibly frustrating when a client called and wanted to do an unexpected screen share and you had a ton of Mac windows open with work in progress) or I would have to hoard all of my OS-specific tasks to group together, which became quite unwieldy. Parallels honestly changed my life. Now, I can operate ‘in coherence’, and selecting a Windows-specific item will automatically open in Windows. I can have both OS’ open at the same time, and I’ve experienced no lag. PancakeApp - PancakeApp is my project management software of choice; it has an aesthetically pleasing interface and is surprisingly easy to use. I will admit that it was head-bashing-on-my-keyboard frustrating to setup, but the support team is very quick to respond to any concerns, and the fifth install was the charm for me. This program allows me to easily manage my projects, clients, hours, and invoices - taking the fuss out of small business management and administrative poo poo out of my daily life. Storage Articulate TempShare - Articulate TempShare takes the fuss out of getting your Articulate projects online; just upload and pass along the link - the only catch is that the links will expire, so it’s definitely not a long-term solution (but still good for most uses). Dropbox - Dropbox is fantastic! I use dropbox to share project files between myself and clients, to deliver projects, and even as a tertiary backup for my hard drive. The subscriptions (for the amount of space you get) are silly cheap, and you likely won’t fill it all up for a long while. Google Drive - Google Drive is RIDICULOUSLY cheap for space, and is widely used. I do find my clients are gravitating more toward dropbox nowadays, but it’s still a fantastic resource and storage solution. Education/Lifelong Learning Lynda.com (Get 7 days of free, unlimited access to lynda.com) - Lynda.com is a fantastic resource for learning, and is SUPER affordable (given the enormous course selection); for instructional designers or developers, I would specifically recommend: Up and Running with Articulate Storyline (by David Rivers) Articulate Storyline Advanced Techniques (by Daniel Brigham) Camtasia Studio 8 Essential Techniques (by Chris Mattia) Screencast Fundamentals (by David Rivers) Instructional Design Essentials: Storyboarding (by Daniel Brigham) Up and Running with Captivate 7 (by David Rivers) Captivate Advanced Techniques (by Anastasia McCune) Udemy.com - I was a user of Udemy before I began working with the interface. As a developer, Udemy is an extremely easy user interface and has a large-enough following that you can easily make passive (or active, depending on your goals) income publishing courses through the site. As a user, I find the interface very manageable - the information is presented in bite-sized chunks, and Udemy’s quality regulations ensures that all users are getting the best possible experience. Courses range in price, but there are many fantastic options; for instructional designers or developers, I would recommend: Adobe Captivate 6 and 7 Training for Beginners (by VHOT Training Inc.) Create Interactive Courses with Articulate Storyline (by Jeff Batt) Learn to Create eLearning Courses using Articulate Storyline (by Prashant Kumar Gupta) The ABCs of Instructional Design (by Debra Scott) The Ultimate Mind Map Course for Education (by Sean Mitton) Resources for use in E-Learning Creative Market - I LOVE using Creative Market - there are tons of modern visuals available for purchase (e.g. illustrations, stock photos, hero images, fonts, etc.), and every week they offer a handful of free downloads (which ends up building into quite the repository if you hang around for awhile). But I think my favourite aspect of this site is that designers and developers are getting paid for what they’re producing…which sure, maybe you can get it for free somewhere, but everyone deserves a payday! istockphoto.com - I remember searching Getty Images at the beginning of my web-design hobby as a teenager; now on the cusp of thirty, I can appreciate this membership approach to royalty-free images. Memberships range from 250-750 downloads per month, and are reasonably priced, especially if being used often for larger organizations. E-Learning Heroes Download Section - The download section has been developed largely from submissions by E-Learning Heroes community participants. There are LOADS of resources for all Articulate products, in addition to course assets and administrative templates (e.g. storyboard templates). This is an invaluable resource and is constantly growing! E-Learning Heroes Community - As previously mentioned, the Articulate E-Learning Heroes community is one of the most active communities I have been fortunate enough to be a part of, and you can find almost ANYTHING (related to instructional design and/or Articulate products) on this forum. And if you can’t, someone can definitely answer your questions! ColourLovers - This isn’t necessarily an e-learning resource; anyone needing to select colours can really benefit from this site. I specifically like looking at palettes, because sometimes I’m not creative when coming up with colour palettes and there are a lot of folks out there who are - why exhaust yourself?! I’ve used these colour palettes in e-learning courses, on websites, and when painting the interior of my home. E-Learning Books Design for how People Learn - Julie Dirksen The Accidental Instructional Designer: Learning Design for the Digital Age - Cammy Bean Learning Articulate Storyline - Stephanie Harnett E-Learning Uncovered: Articulate Storyline - Diane Elkins and Desiree Pinder Small Business Designer Scripts - Email Templates for Sticky Client Situations - My good friend Erin created this swipe file of email scripts for dealing with various sticky client situations; while you may not be a designer (perhaps you’re a business coach or a software developer), but if you run any sort of freelance operation or small business, these email templates are adaptable for almost any industry. And at $17 dollars, it is a steal. Just think of all of the cringe-worthy client situations you’ve been in…and how frustrated you were because you just couldn’t think of a way to deal with the situation. One of my favourite situations outlined has to do with a client requesting more revisions than originally agreed upon (come on, instructional designers, I know you feel me on the revision apocalypse). In any event, this is an ESSENTIAL investment in your business and will save you a ton of headache in the end! Stress Less & Impress (by Leah Kalamakis) - Sometimes the hardest part of doing freelance work and/or running a small business is ironing out your processes. In Stress Less & Impress, Leah takes you through the steps (and provides helpful worksheets and a Facebook community) of streamlining your process, and while it may not be industry-specific, streamlining your basic processes will allow you to spend less time with administrative schtuff, and more time focusing on your clients and providing solutions to their problems. Helpful Websites The Freelance to Freedom Project - This is a website developed by Leah Kalamakis, wherein she provides helpful freelance information - from the trenches. She has an incredibly Facebook community that I participate in weekly, and of which I’ve been able to sub-contract out overflow work, when necessary. Leah is incredibly honest and supportive, and her blog posts address common freelance questions or concerns. Be Free, Lance - Much like Leah’s site, Breanna provides a witty blog category, periodically updated with helpful freelance information. Her posts are informative and engaging, and I’m looking forward to her upcoming course (of the same name). Random How to Undo the Damage of Sitting - or what many may refer to as Desk-er-cize. Seriously - these exercises can help. A LOT. Stop complaining about your back pain now and do these exercises!

The concepts and information your employees learn during training are important and deserve to be taken seriously. However, there’s nothing that says you can’t have a little fun while getting serious. eLearning has opened a world of possibilities for learning games and simulations. While some might worry gamifying eLearning will give employees a license to slack off, I’d like to argue the opposite. To help make my point, I’ve taken the three biggest arguments against games and simulations and given my reply.