Collaborative learning may play an important role in training employees or channel partners. Collaborative learning enables your people to obtain vital information which they may not be able to obtain through formal training programs. Collaborative learning can be provided using various tools. In this blog, I am going to talk about "Discussion Forums" in Moodle. In my coming blogs, I will try to cover tools which can be used for collaborative learning. Good news for Moodle users they need not go for paid or free 3rd party discussion forum applications as it is already available in the LMS. Many other LMSs do have this feature. The main advantage of using an in-built discussion forum is you can include the forum in the course curriculum easily. Whereas, to integrate external discussion forums, you may have to put in extra effort and spend money. Here is a list of features available, for collaborative learning, in the Moodle discussion forum plug-in. 1. Create roles and give permissions: It is possible to create any type of role by giving appropriate permissions to add new topics, view, subscribe, reply, edit and delete. Administrator Moderator Participants 2. Add discussion forums: Administrators and instructors can add new discussion topics. You may have two types of discussion forums. - one, open to all registered LMS users, where everyone can participate, and the other which is specific one is specific to the course which can be accessed by learners who are enrolled to that particular course. 3. Moderate discussions: As an administrator, you can set selected instructor as a moderator to a particular course discussion forum who will moderate and monitor all the discussions happening. 4. Track discussions: The moderator can know how many responses are received and who has responded. You can view all the responses in a nested format as shown in the image. 5. Respond: As a learner/participant, you can view the topics and respond to them. You can also respond to a specific reply from another user on the same topic. 6. Subscribe and receive notifications: Authorized users can subscribe to a discussion to receive e-mail notifications whenever an update takes place in the forum. If a user unsubscribes, then no email notifications will be received. You can force subscription, give a choice to subscribe or configure automatic subscription. 7. Attach resources: It has WYSIWYG text entry option to respond. Audio, videos, images, PowerPoint presentations, MS-Word documents and other resources can be attached. If required, file size limitations can also be configured. 8. Rate forums: Instructors can rate the discussion on a scale of 10. This helps them motivate learners to have informative discussions. All these features will help learners and instructors to learn and train through discussion forums. It is the instructor’s job to moderate discussion topics and motivate learners to keep the discussion active. Learners can ask specific question or share their real time experiences on a particular aspect, which may benefit other users in the same domain. You can give it a try to explore its advantages. Related PostsHow to Implement Chat Rooms into LMS for Collaborative Learning?3 Reasons Why Organizations Fail to Fully Utilize LMS FeaturesLMS Features for Effective Administration

The Top eLearning Trends For 2015 Gamification It’s been around a while, but it’s just warming up. Gamification makes learning motivating, engaging, and (dare I say it) fun. Gamification in eLearning follows exciting technologies and innovations within the gaming industry; think even more realistic learning experience potential using virtual and augmented reality. Expect to see more simulation, animations, and narrative based games. Corporate MOOCs (Massive Online Open Courses)  It’s been foreseen that in the near future universities will award degrees with 100% content on MOOCs. Currently students learning via MOOCs are getting certificates that will soon translate into credit. A growth area to watch for is the rise of co-branded MOOCs between corporations and established academic universities, which will see students paying fees to study rather than accessing free courses. Personalized learning  Traditionally, content is "pushed" at learners; however, personalized learning puts the learners in control, allowing them to "pull" information as needed, creating their own learning path. Learners are also offered choices as to how they prefer to learn and can choose mediums that suit their learning style and pace. M-learning and BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)  With mobile use growing, being desk bound is not necessary for accessing eLearning. Learners are opting to BYOD so they can access training anywhere, anytime. Small screen size means instructional designers need to accommodate appropriately chunking content. Augmented learning  Augmented or virtual reality experiences are a growth area in eLearning. Learners can be placed in a replica of their work space, or a modeled 3D environment, with content pop-ups and features superimposed. It’s the ultimate in taking the practical! APIs (Application Programming Interface)  SCORM and Tin Can are examples of APIs in eLearning; basically these programs have inbuilt instructions for applications to talk to each other, such as allowing content to flow easily between different LMS platforms. Tin Can takes it a step further, allowing user data collection both online and offline. APIs open up new opportunities in learner progress tracking. Cloud LMS  Cloud computing is now a major technology trend. In relation to eLearning, cloud based LMS services are gaining popularity and have the capacity to reduce operation costs. Flash HTML5 conversion  Two words: responsive design. Clients want the value of a single build that performs across multiple devices, since Flash is largely incompatible. HTML5 can play audio, video, 2D/3D graphics, and animation, all without a plug-in. In addition, HTML5 also gives hardware access, offline storage, and supports cloud-based applications. Wearable learning  Watch this space… er, literally. Smart watches could soon be considered another "BYOD". Obviously screen real estate is an issue, but the humble watch has applications for in-the-moment, on-the-job performance improvement such as alerting a worker when they are performing a task incorrectly or unsafely through motion-sensor technologies and offering personal coaching. Video in learning  You’re at home and you want to learn something fast, where do you go? My bet is: YouTube. People love to watch stuff. Video with audio and overlaid text can cater for many learning types and is becoming much more of a must have in eLearning.   This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Articulate Storyline’s default features enable eLearning developers to create an eLearning course in quick time. The Final Quiz is an important part of an online course and used to test the learner. The score of the learner will be displayed by default. Consider a scenario in which the learner fails to complete the quiz. He must have an option to re-take the quiz. The re-take option should be enabled only when the score of learner is less than the passing score. So, how to set these criteria in the course using Storyline? Well, you need to follow the below mentioned steps. Step 1: Create a quiz with some questions and assign marks for each. I have created with 5 questions as shown below. Step2: Import the quiz into a question bank by clicking the "Create Question Bank" option under Question Banks option in Story View. Step 3: Insert the default Result slide and add the question bank containing final quiz. Step 4: Click the Edit Result Slide button and add the Passing Score percent you want. Under the options tab, you can check Allow user retry quiz option and click the OK button. Step 5: Change the state of retry quiz button, hidden initially, as shown in screenshot below. Step 6: Add trigger for the retry quiz button to change state of retry button to normal when the timeline starts for Result slide when score percent value is less than passing percent value. Look at the below screenshot to understand better. Note: Results. ScorePercent variable will be created by default Step 7: Preview the quiz and check the output. It’s done. The re-take button will appear only when the learner fails to achieve the passing score. Hope you find this post useful. Do share your views. Related PostsRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key FeaturesHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?Varying Scores Based on Number of Attempts: How to do it in Articulate Storyline

Many of us start our day early in the morning with a cup of hot coffee and reading our favorite newspaper. We go through all the sections in the newspaper and try to know what’s happening around the world. Suddenly, we may find an interesting article and start reading it. You find that many words in the article are spelt wrongly and the text and images overlap. How do we feel? We lose our interest in the article. Right? The same thing applies to eLearning courses as well. Your learners may lose the interest if they such errors in the course. Here is an infographic which shares three things to check to improve the quality of an eLearning course. Hope you find this post interesting. Do share your views. Related PostsImproving the Quality of Your E-learning Courses: 3 Basic Things to Check4 Effective Ways of Presenting Scenarios in E-learning CoursesPrototypes in E-learning - An Infographic

Custom eLearning Development Benefits For Your Organization No matter how many employees you have on the payroll or what your specific training needs may be, custom eLearning development offers a wide range of benefits. One of the most notable advantages of opting for custom training over pre-made eLearning courses is a measurable boost in employee performance. This is the primary reason why so many businesses are now building their online training courses from the ground-up. In this article, I’ll highlight 7 benefits of developing custom eLearning for your organization in order to maximize the effectiveness of your online training. Focuses on key skill sets and subject matter. Rather than using a pre-built online course that covers a wide range of skills and topics, you can develop custom eLearning that caters to the specific needs of your corporate learners. For example, if your customer service associates need to learn how to carry out basic POS transactions, you can create scenarios that feature your particular check-out system, and integrate company-specific procedures and processes. This gives your employees the chance to gather the information they need and master the tools they will be using on a daily basis. Gives employees access to information when and where they need it. With custom eLearning development, training no longer has to take place during set hours or in a specific location. Performance development can happen whenever and wherever the employees need it, even on-the-go. You can customize your online training resources to provide employees with reference guides, scenarios, tutorials and other multimedia elements that allow them to access information quickly and conveniently. For instance, if you need to give your mobile sales team a way to brush up on company policies or interactive manuals they can use to complete purchase orders, this is all possible if you develop custom eLearning. Ties into real world benefits and applications. To offer your corporate learners real value your online training course must definitely tie into real world situations. Create customized eLearning courses to teach them how to apply the knowledge they have learned when they leave the virtual classroom. Also emphasize the benefits they can expect to receive by actively participating. Custom eLearning courses give you the ability to check all of these boxes, so that your employees can immediately see why they should take the online course and how the knowledge will be useful to them on-the-job. They can also participate in custom tailored activities that pertain to work related tasks and processes, which enables them to fine tune their skills and expand their knowledge base. Personalization creates an all-important emotional connection. Developing custom eLearning courses allows organizations to integrate stories, real world examples and other elements that create an emotional connection with their corporate learners. Rather than reading through generic eLearning content or participating in scenarios that are not relevant for their specific learning needs, employees can feel immersed in the training process. They can feel connected to the subject matter and understand why it is important for them to absorb the information, which helps them to more effectively develop their skills and broaden their professional knowledge. Improves knowledge retention and information recall. Developing custom eLearning courses also leads to improved knowledge retention, thanks to the fact that corporate learners are more likely to remember emotionally-centered training experiences which they find relevant and relatable. Thus, they will be able to recall information while at work, and perform their job responsibilities to the best of their ability, given that they have committed the subject matter to their long term memory. In fact, organizations can make custom online training experiences even more memorable by creating eLearning courses for specific job skills or departments. Instead of asking every employee to participate in a "one size fits all" course, you can develop personalized eLearning courses that offer them key pieces of information they will need while performing their work duties. Brand integration sets expectations. Custom eLearning development can also be customized to include branding, which creates an even deeper connection with your corporate learners and makes them aware of the company’s expectations. In most cases, your employees are the "face" of the organization. They are the individuals who help your customers and clients on a daily basis and serve as representatives for your brand. Participating in online training courses that clearly convey your message and image gives your employees the ability to align their work behaviors with company expectations. For example, if you stress the importance of customer service throughout your custom eLearning course, your employees will know that excellent customer care is one of their top priorities. Cuts down on training time. Custom eLearning development provides you with the opportunity to create online training courses that can be completed in a fraction of the time, while still improving employee performance. This is due to the fact that employees no longer have to sit through eLearning courses that contain an abundance of unnecessary information, as it is often the case with pre-built online courses. Your eLearning content can be customized to include only what they need to know, based upon their particular learning needs and the desired results, as defined by the learning objectives of the eLearning course. This means they can get back to their other job responsibilities more quickly, without having to worry about lengthy online training courses setting them back. Custom eLearning development can offer your employees the information and specific skill sets they need to boost their performance and ensure that your organization is making the most of its online training. Want to know the true cost of custom eLearning development for your organization? Read the article Factors To Consider When Assessing the Cost of Custom eLearning Content Development to go over the factors that come into play when determining the overall cost of custom eLearning content. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Moodle is the most widely used open source learning management systems, according to the eLearning Guild. It is highly flexible and can be customized based on our needs. I got opportunities to attend brainstorming sessions with customers to identify their specific requirements to manage trainings on the LMS. One of the common requirements which is not available in Moodle is domains. They wanted to have multiple domains in the same LMS. Users or the administrator belonging to Domain-A should not be allowed to view/access the courses or users of Domain-B. There should be a chief administrator who should have access to all the users of or courses available in the LMS, irrespective of domains. Using our expertise in Moodle customization, we have come up with a feature which will meet all customer requirements. We have created a plugin which will create domains and sub-domains, and these can be integrated with respective courses and users. Based on the domain, courses and user access will be provided.We also created a global domain which will provide access to users and courses in all domains. We have recently setup this domain feature for one of our customers who conducts online exams and has many divisions across the world. The customer’s main requirement is to restrict a division from accessing other divisions’ exams and users because there are chances that divisions can assign wrong exams to users, and this could lead to confusion. They should assign the exams which they have created for their participants. This domain feature is ideal for them. We created multiple domains based on their divisions and gave appropriate permissions to manage the exams and users. One division cannot view users and exams of other divisions, and so, there is no chance of assigning the wrong assignment. This domain feature can be used in various ways. One of our customers used the same feature in a different way. They wanted to sell their courses to organizations for a certain period and provide admin access to manage training programs and provide administration support, themselves, within the organizations. They create courses customized to a particular organization and assign them to a specific domain to enable the organization manage the training. As there is a domain restriction, one organization cannot access the courses or users of other organizations. The domain for some generic courses which can be shared with all organizations is set as Global. As the chief administrator, our customer has full access to all the courses and users. It is easier to manage the courses and users for various organizations in this way than setting up multiple LMSs. If you are using a separate LMS for each customer, then you may consider this customized features to save time and effort. Hope you find this blog useful. Do share your views. Related PostsPossibilities in customizing open source LMS for organizationsCustomizing the Self-Enrollment Feature in LMSAdministrator Level Customizations Possible in Moodle - Part 1

The Usefulness Of A Learning Management System  Since technology is leveraged for learning purposes, students and teachers interact with each other via online forums, threaded discussions, and videoconferencing, as well as emails and chats. These tools serve several functions including course documentation, administration, and evaluation that allow both the teachers and students to maximize the use of a Learning Management System. Your company will benefit from the installation of an effective and efficient Learning Management System. Centralized, simplified and blended learning First, a Learning Management System provides for a centralized source for information and education. The development, training, and performance content can be offered anywhere, anytime to the target beneficiaries from the same source, thus allowing multiple users to access the learning tools at the same time. The organization can ensure consistency in the delivery of the materials from the formulation to the evaluation of the system. Second, a Learning Management System simplifies the learning process and procedures to make it more responsive to the client’s specific needs and wants. It is easy to use with new users figuring out the system easily, while old users will find new challenges as they progress through the system. It also accommodates multiple features necessary for the satisfactory to excellent delivery of the learning modules, including documenting, recording, and tracking. Its scalable platforms also mean that the learning modules can be adapted depending on present and future requirements. Third, a Learning Management System makes blended learning possible. Blended learning means having the opportunity to combine multiple forms of learning including eLearning, simulation-based learning, and mobile learning, even classroom-based learning. This is because a Learning Management System is a central repository for all the modules and materials. The bottom line: A Learning Management System significantly improves on the learning rates of employees, managers, and executives. The more reliable and relevant knowledge and skills these people acquire, the more productive and profitable the organization as a whole can be. Technology leverage for better learning Even in education, technology is increasingly becoming the preferred method for learning among students and teachers, for obvious reasons. Technology, after all, provides for tools and techniques that make for better cost efficiency and results effectiveness, even for client-responsive programs. A Learning Management System leverages technology for the mutual benefit of students and teachers as well as the educational institutions and client organizations. As well as managing the back-end work, the combination of a Learning Management System and technology means establishing a reputation for being a tech-savvy, learning-savvy organization, thus attracting better people. The benefits of technology in organizations   Geographically independent learning wherein employees have access to their learning accounts anywhere and anytime. This increases productivity and decreases downtime, both of which will eventually redound to the organization’s benefit. Social learning can be increased, as a learning system can be designed with social learning elements, such as Twitter and Facebook being used as platforms for communication. Blogs, videos, and links can also be added to the system, thus expanding the students’ resources and making collaborative learning possible. Engaged learning also increases, because the students have greater control and freedom over their lessons. This usually involves the opportunity to set their own pace (i.e., view, organize, and schedule their activities) while still complying with the deadlines. With technological advances Learning Management Systems will only become better as the years go by, thus students can learn more, too. Range of evaluation tools Furthermore, using a Learning Management System enhances work performance via the use of effective and efficient tracking and recording tools including apps. The progress of all the users can be monitored, recorded, and evaluated to determine that everything is on track or to resolve issues as soon as possible. The organization can then analyze the areas for improvement in a timely manner, ensuring that the students actually benefit from the system. The wide range of evaluation tools makes evaluation of the students before taking the course (i.e., screening), during the course (i.e., training), and after the course (i.e., performance) better. Add the easy-to-install upgrades to the system and a Learning Management System becomes a must for employers and their employees. Of course, the right choice in a Learning Management System matters in the enjoyment of these benefits. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

As an Instructional designer, you might want to provide lots of important information in your eLearning course in order to provide your learners with better learning. But, you can never ensure that your learners make the most out of training. Hence, interactivities are a great way to engage the learners and break the monotony. Here are a few reasons why it is important to include interactivities in your eLearning course. Interactivities: Engage the learner: As eLearning is self-paced, it is essential to actively involve learners in the learning process. Interactivities, to a great extent , help maintain the interest of the learners. Interactivities allow the learners to explore, think, make decisions and, thereby, participate actively in the learning process. Attract the learner’s attention: Including Interactivities helps grab the learner’s attention. They make learners to participate actively in the course by doing things. Interactivities such as hotspots and click-on-tabs are a great way for learners to practice what they have learned and also explore knowledge. Help the learner retain knowledge: Learners are more likely to remember things when they are allowed to interact with the content. As the quote says "Tell me and I’ll forget; show me and I will remember; involve me and I will understand." This way, your learners can retain information for a longer period of time. Motivate the learner: Including interactivities such as animations, graphics, scenarios and simulations motivate learners and urge them to take the course with great zeal. They make the learners understand the core concept and thus reinforce learning. Create excitement: Interactivities in eLearning courses excite learners. Adding graphics, animations, scenarios and game-based assessments makes eLearning courses engaging and evokes the curiosity in learners. Including scenarios that resemble real job situations makes learners fully immersed in the course. Have you used any interactivities in your course? If so, do share your views on same. Related Posts5 Ways to Make E-learning Interesting - An InfographicHow Effective is it to Use Gaming Interactivities in E-learning?Extending the Boundaries of E-learning Interactivities

A consultant is an expert who is proficient in certain areas. As an eLearning consultant, you need to have business experience and operational experience. You need to be curious about how things work and educate yourself about the overall process of the eLearning. Also, you need to clearly communicate your ideas to the client and be able to provide creative solutions to any problem that may arise during the execution of a project. Here are 5 things that successful eLearning consultants do. 1. Provide recommendations to the client As an eLearning consultant, you can’t just listen to whatever the client says and start developing the course. Instead of directly transforming the inputs into an eLearning course, as a consultant, you need to listen to the client requirements, analyze the situation and clarify your queries with the stakeholder. After understanding the situation and getting your answers clarified, you may come to a conclusion that eLearning might not be the best possible solution to their current need. 2. State facts clearly and convincingly As an eLearning professional, you need to be clear about all possibilities with the client. When analyzing the client requirements, if you think a particular solution is not feasible, you can politely tell them that it won’t work by sharing your previous experiences. 3. Stay up-to-date with current eLearning trends In order to suggest the best solution to the client, you need to be aware of the current eLearning developments which add value to your business. You need to keep yourself abreast of the latest online training trends and understand how they help meet the requirements of your client. 4. Comprehend the goals and purpose of the business Well-chosen objectives and goals set the business in the right direction and keep the company on track. So, as a consultant, you need to clearly understand the goals and purpose of your business as they are important for your company’s future. 5. Enhance communication skills As a consultant, you need to possess good interpersonal and communication skills (both written and oral). Sometimes, to communicate your ideas to the client, you need to be a part of a healthy argument with them. Arguing doesn’t mean force-feeding your ideas. You have to educate them about learning as a different light. A good eLearning consultant analyzes the needs of his clients and provides them with the right solutions. He stays abreast of the latest developments in the world of eLearning and articulates his thoughts very efficiently. Hope you find this post interesting. Do share your views. Related PostsHow to Create Section 508 E-learning Course Using FlashRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key Features4 Tips for Developing E-learning Course Using Rapid Authoring Tools

Setting The Foundation For Working With Your Subject Matter Expert As noted in this great article by Vicki Kunkel of Digital Wits, you’ll find the ability to work with subject matter experts listed on pretty much every instructional design job posting. Therefore, there’s no better time than now to perfect your skills. "Subject Matter Experts know who their peers, their competitors, and their colleagues are. While you may toil for hours, days, or weeks looking at material you think is comparable, your Subject Matter Expert will be able to rattle off people or projects for you to check out in the blink of an eye. Their expertise saves you time," says content strategist Amanda Costello. You need to make sure they know that you respect their expertise. Start by sitting down with your Subject Matter Expert and asking thoughtful questions that show you value their input. Questions to ask before creating a new course: 1. Who is this course for? 2. Who is this course not for? 3. What does the course need to convey? 4. What other courses are out there similar to what we want to make? Can you show me examples of courses you like? 5. What is your wish list for the course? 6. Is there an existing course to build from, or is the project to start from scratch? 7. Do you have all the reference material, course assets, and documents ready? My colleague, Christie Wroten, has talked about using ReviewLink™ to collaborate on eLearning courses. This is a great place for your Subject Matter Expert to give feedback and see how you are incorporating their ideas and feedback into the project. Some great advice on accepting feedback from a Medium.com article: "You are not your work and your work is not you. It is work product done to meet a client’s goals." At this stage, your Subject Matter Expert is your client. Don’t get defensive if he or she has changes or comments. Listen to the feedback and think about it before reacting—whether positively or negatively. Before you get to the feedback and review phase, consider using CourseMill® Wave to share planning documents and reference materials. CourseMill Wave is a fast way to share informal content publicly or privately, like video, Web-based content, and more. This is kind of like the eLearning version of an interior design mood board. Doing so helps to make sure everyone is on the same page before you spend hours creating intricate scenarios, only to find out your Subject Matter Expert was picturing a simple knowledge check! Join the new Trivantis Community, and ask how your eLearning peers work with their Subject Matter Experts! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Many organizations are using eLearning to train their employees, and they need a Learning Management System (LMS) to track and monitor learning activities. According to the Brandon Hall 2012 report, 78% of organizations are using a Learning Management System (LMS) and 33% of companies were looking to upgrade or replace their current systems. It is very important for the organization to invest in the learning and development of their staff. By using an LMS, tracking can be made effective and easy. Furthermore, training activities can be managed in a cost-effective manner. In today’s market, you can find hundreds of LMSs. Choosing the right LMS which fits your organization’s needs is a daunting task. Before implementing an LMS, you should be clear about your needs. Here is a list of questions that can help you select the right LMS which meets the needs of your organization. Hope you find this info-graphic useful. Please do share your views. Related Posts Information an LMS Tracks about an E-learning Course - An InfographicPain Points That Force an Organization to Switch to a New LMS6 Considerations For Purchasing an LMS

How eLearning Professionals Can Use LinkedIn For eLearning Unlike Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus, LinkedIn is not just a social network; it is strictly a professional one and thus, it can help you tremendously in building your eLearning online presence. LinkedIn not being a social network, in strict terms, doesn’t mean that you can’t use it for your social learning strategy; but, as it is primarily business focused, its main advantage is that it can really help you boost your eLearning career. In this LinkedIn guide for eLearning professionals, I'll share 6 invaluable tips to follow in order to enhance your LinkedIn presence, 4 tips on how to build a powerful LinkedIn network and 10 additional tips on how to create and market your own LinkedIn group. Also, I'll share 4 extra tips on how to integrate LinkedIn activities into your eLearning course design. Last but not least, you are more than welcome to join eLearning Industry's Linkedin Group and discover, share, and discuss interesting and remarkable eLearning content with more than 80,000 eLearning professionals! 6 Tips To Enhance Your LinkedIn Presence As An eLearning Professional Make sure your profile is perfect. Always proofread everything you post online in order to eliminate grammar and spelling mistakes and never leave your profile unfinished. Make sure that your profile is complete and that it includes all the necessary information; industry, current work position, professional background, at least 5 skills, at least 50 connections, summary, and, of course, contact details. In addition, choose an appropriate photo; a professional headshot should be your #1 choice. Last, but not least, keep your profile updated; People who may want to introduce you to someone will hesitate doing so, if your profile is out of date. Make your professional headline stand out Whether you set up as headline your current position or you create a new one on your own, your professional headline must reflect your work. In the second case, make sure that you use the right keywords. Furthermore, you can customize your profile URL, so it will make it easier for search engines to identify you. Create an attention grabbing summary. Make your summary memorable by beginning with a strong statement or a question. Blend your content to make it more interesting, and provide your readers with not only additional information about you via links to your company website or blog, but also reasons why they should contact you. In addition, be industry specific; otherwise, it will be difficult for the right people to find you. Get at least two recommendations. Having people taking the time to write something positive about you, your skills and expertise sends the message that working with you is a privilege. Join the best LinkedIn eLearning groups and follow the top eLearning companies. Show the other LinkedIn members that you are an expert in your field by joining the best LinkedIn groups about eLearning and participating in their online discussions. Follow the top eLearning companies, so that you can make sure that you are up-to-date with the most valuable potential business and job opportunities. Be Active.  There is little use of setting up a LinkedIn account if you are not active on the network. Make sure that you upload posts, participate in online discussions or comment on other people’s eLearning articles at least twice a week.  4 Tips On How To Build A Powerful LinkedIn Network  The truth is that it's quite easy to build a big network on LinkedIn as this professional platform allows you to easily find people via basic search, while it often suggests new connections itself. However, a big network doesn’t necessarily mean a powerful network. As it happens with most things, quantity does not always equal quality, and having more than 500 connections not directly related to you or your eLearning professional identity, will not help you expand your eLearning career opportunities. This LinkedIn guide will offer you 4 ways to build a powerful eLearning network on LinkedIn and make the most out of your LinkedIn networking experience. Realize your worth.  The more you appreciate your knowledge and skills, the more selective you become about whom you are connecting with. Foster strong professional relationships.  Invest time and attention in building relationships with LinkedIn members with whom you share the same standards and goals. Take every opportunity to reach out and stay connected, but always make sure that you stay interested in your well chosen connections. Learn how to pitch.  This is not about pitching uncontrollably every person you meet online, but rather to help you describe successfully what you do. If people don’t understand exactly what you do, it will be as difficult for them to help you, as it will be for you to ask them for help. Be generous.  Offer your help as often as possible. Make sure that you show genuine interest in other people’s work, ask questions and offer your assistance when needed. It will be appreciated and, most importantly, it is something your connections will remember. 10 Tips To Create And Promote Your Own LinkedIn eLearning Group LinkedIn eLearning groups is the best place to ask for advice, share eLearning content and look for job opportunities. Make sure that you join the most powerful eLearning groups on LinkedIn, but also consider creating and marketing your own, following the useful tips this LinkedIn guide for eLearning describes below: Choose your group’s name wisely. Make sure that you use the keywords your target audience would search for. Create a group for the eLearning industry, not your eLearning company. Simply put, it will be more likely for people to join your group if it is related to things they already care about. Design an effective group logo. Keep in mind that the display size of LinkedIn eLearning group logos is usually quite small, so make sure that your logo can be easily viewed and your text is legible. Make your LinkedIn eLearning group interesting. Create online discussions and add eLearning news and jobs to your group, so that you can encourage its members to interact with each other as much as possible. Highlight the content you want to be noticed. Hopefully, at some point your group discussions will be so many that it will become difficult to get your own threads noticed. However, as group owner, you can mark your discussions and get them at the top of the discussion board. Create a webpage for your LinkedIn eLearning group. No matter how much information you decide to put on it, an additional webpage of your LinkedIn eLearning group will not only help your audience engage more in its content, but will also help your group gain more visibility. Invite your eLearning connections to join your LinkedIn eLearning group. Take advantage of your existing network to activate your LinkedIn eLearning group. The more members you attract, the higher the chances for your group to be successful. Promote your eLearning group outside LinkedIn. Make your LinkedIn eLearning group known by sending newsletters and posting relevant information on your company's website, as well as on your Facebook, Twitter and Google Plus accounts. Connect your LinkedIn eLearning group with your Facebook eLearning group or page. Create a similar eLearning group or page on Facebook and link it to your LinkedIn eLearning group, by inviting all of your connections to join both. Track down key eLearning experts and invite them to join your LinkedIn eLearning group. Apart from being connected with the most influential eLearning professionals on LinkedIn, encouraging them to engage in your community would not only boost your group’s potential, but also would facilitate invaluable information exchange about eLearning. 4 Tips To Integrate LinkedIn Activities Into Your eLearning Course Design LinkedIn gives you the rare opportunity to integrate social learning, collaboration and communication skills into your eLearning course. Learners can achieve their eLearning objectives and get the most out of their eLearning experience by networking with peers and professionals who share their passion, opening up a world of possibilities. Ask learners to create their own online presence via LinkedIn. An online presence is essential in today’s tech-centric world. So, why not integrate online reputation management into your eLearning course design by encouraging your learners to create and expand an online presence on LinkedIn. Give them basic instructions regarding what they need to include, tips that can help them manage their profiles and any other pertinent information that can help them successfully complete this assignment. They can then maintain their profile long after they’ve finished the eLearning course, giving them a head-start in the real world. Be sure to stress the importance of staying in touch with contacts and creating a professional profile that effectively showcases their skills and talents. Encourage learners to find mentors in their field. Thanks to the immense popularity of LinkedIn, there are now experts and professionals in virtually every field and niche. Create an online course exercise that centers on interviews with LinkedIn professionals, wherein your learners must reach out to subject matter experts in order to learn more about a concept or topic. Ask them to create a site or video presentation that focuses on the information they learned and their research experience. This may even give your learners the opportunity to find a mentor in their field who becomes part of their network for years to come. Create LinkedIn research-based assignments. Aside from interviewing mentors and business professionals in the eLearning industry, learners can also conduct research for upcoming assignments and online group projects on social media. Teach them how to effectively use LinkedIn to carry out basic searches and contact groups. Then encourage them to join groups or even start one on their own, in order to learn more about a topic or to benefit from the experience of their peers. For example, learners enrolled in a hotel management course can join a group that centers around the hospitality industry, where they can learn from hotel managers, staff, and other professionals who have knowledge about running hotels and serving guests. Create groups to share the latest news and trends with your learners. You can also create a group specifically for your learners on LinkedIn, where you can all virtually congregate to discuss subject matter, keep each other updated on industry related news, and send out notifications about upcoming learning events and webinars. LinkedIn is a powerful feedback and support tool that you can use to answer learner questions, offer them constructive feedback about their assignments or learning behaviors, and enable them to reach out to their peers to discuss important topics and address concerns without having to worry about their comments being posted in a public forum. Given that LinkedIn is a global forum, your learners even have the opportunity to communicate with peers and professionals all over the world by forming groups and joining those that cater to their interests and hobbies. As such, LinkedIn is not only a learning tool that can be used in the virtual classroom, but a social learning experience that can be utilized in every aspect of their lives. Now that this LinkedIn guide for eLearning showed you how to use this professional network for the benefit of your eLearning career, you may be wondering if there are any LinkedIn traps you should also keep in mind. Read the article 10 LinkedIn Mistakes That eLearning Professionals Should Avoid and learn how you can perfectly promote yourself as a highly skilled eLearning professional on LinkedIn. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

It is common knowledge that rapid authoring tools have transformed the eLearning landscape. They have enabled instructional designers to take a greater role in the building of online courses by allowing them to develop courses without knowledge of programming. This is resulting in the creation of instructionally sound and highly effective courses. But, do you know that rapid authoring tools can be classified into 3 types? Well, here is an infographic that lists the 3 types and provides details of each. Hope you find this post interesting. Do share your views. Related Posts4 Tips for Developing E-learning Course Using Rapid Authoring ToolsGuidelines for Content Chunking to Design Effective Online Courses4 Effective Ways of Presenting Scenarios in E-learning Courses

It is common knowledge that eLearning is used extensively, to impart training, in the corporate world. According to a study by the E-learning magazine in 2012, about 50% of training hours were deployed through eLearning, blended, online or virtual medium. The number of companies, using the online medium to equip their staff members with knowledge and skills, is growing by leaps and bounds, as eLearning courses can be used to impart highly effective training anywhere, anytime, in a cost-effective manner. A good online course adds value to your business, by enhancing the productivity of your people. How can you design an excellent eLearning course that captivates your people? What are the things you need to consider to make a top-notch online course? Well, to design a first-rate online course, you need to focus on 5 critical aspects. Let us see what they are and why they are very important. Hope you find this post interesting. How do you design eLearning courses? We’d love to know. Related Posts3 Things to Get The Ball Rolling for E-learning - An InfographicHow to Make Your E-learning Initiative WorkThe E-learning Design Checklist - An Infographic

For many learning and development teams, the majority of e-learning content and personal development interventions will eventually find their way onto a learning management system (LMS). An LMS is one of the most popular ways of hosting e-learning content, it gives students and learners a central place to go for their development needs, while the back end of things allows technical teams and L&D people to do their thing. A recent report on the learning management system market by SoftwareAdvice.com highlights the popularity of mixing in-house e-learning builds with third-party, vendor lead e-learning content. 73% of LMS users employ a mix of in-house and third-party training content, which gives an interesting insight into how modern organizations are dealing with the build and learning and development. As an authoring tool, we understand that it’s a bit much to ask of HR/ L&D teams to build and service a whole organization’s learning strategy. On the other hand, the cost of outsourcing all e-learning strategy and content is going to get expensive quickly, so it certainly makes sense to divide up where your content comes from. Why mixing in-house and vendor-led e-learning content is great In-house e-learning content Vendor-led e-learning content   Complete creative control   Outside perspective   Easily edited and updated   Guaranteed, timely delivery   Cost-effective   Specialist skills (games, videos, animations)   Varying your content delivery can prove even more important when it comes to the cons of choosing between in-house and vendor-led content. For example, e-learning content built externally may focus on learning design more, but may miss company tone of voice or messaging. On the flip side, internal e-learning content may get too focused on company messaging, taking away from the purpose of the content itself. As you can see, there’s no right or wrong - it’s a real balancing act. If done right, it means your organization will get the best of both worlds, blending the two forms. But how do you know exactly what should be left to the vendors and what should take on internally? Even in mid-sized, stable organizations, learning and development budgets can remain tight year after year, so it’s important that budget is well utilized to serve the business regardless of what new challenges emerge throughout the year. In order to even consider developing e-learning content in-house, you need to be able to evaluate what your staff need, and whether you have the means within your organization to create it. It’s important to be realistic and consider what your workers need - a half-hour course to cover changes in fire safety will be much more manageable and realistic than producing an entire induction process. There’s probably some input or consulting needed from a vendor needed with the larger stuff, but your organization should still be able to feed in with content and work alongside a vendor if that’s the route you want to go down. If you plan on building e-learning content in-house, you need to be able to evaluate whether you have all the resources available so you don’t become unstuck midway through. If already on a tight budget, the last thing you want to do is let problems and shortcomings make you lose sight of end goals. Internal e-learning content checklist This is just a rough guide, but creating e-learning content internally works well when… You have all source materials… or you have a plan/ budget to commission them with You are constrained by budget and cannot afford the external costs of a vendor You have, or can create, a strong storyboard for sign-off You have the people on hand to build and project manage the course You have access to an authoring tool you know is up to the job You have the means/ platform in place to deliver it to your workforce If you have the people to carry out the scope, build and analysis of a course, there’s an argument for saving the video-led, gamified or more interactive stuff for external vendors. As outlined above, there’s really no right and wrong here - what suits your organization is dependent on a load of factors - organizational priorities, headcount, L&D/ HR team available, budget… and the list goes on. It’s great to keep all options open and work alongside any vendors to make the most effective use of your budget while constantly improving the e-learning content available to your workforce. Enjoy the read? Tweet it to your community or check out our recent post ‘6 reasons to invest in multi-device learning’. The post Is in-house or third party e-learning content best? appeared first on gomo Learning.

According to "Key work Health and Safety Statistics Australia", in 2011-12, 1,28,050 claims were filed for compensation for work related injuries or illness, which equates to 12.2 serious claims per 1000 employees. Many accidents at the workplace can be prevented by using personal protective equipment. What is personal protective equipment (PPE)? PPE refers to the equipment which protects the user from health hazards or safety risks at work. It includes protective coats, helmets, gloves, foot wear, goggles etc. An employee who is new to the company may not know how to use the machinery and protective equipment. He needs to be told about the precautions to be taken while using machines/instruments in the workplace. It is important to train workers on how to use safety gear effectively. Why is PPE training so important in the automobile industry? OSHA estimates that 90% of injuries at the workplace can be prevented by using protective goggles. Approximately 2 million U.S. workers were exposed to dangerous noise levels at work that put employees at risk (Source: Centre of Disease Control and Prevention). We know that workers in the automotive industry perform activities pertaining to design, development and manufacturing. All manufacturing organizations use several tools such as welding guns, grinding machines, cutting machines, drilling machines etc. An accident may take place if the worker is not provided with proper training to use instruments/machines safely. Personal protective equipment may not be effective if the training is not given to the workforce. The training should help them find out answers to questions such as: How to wear the protective equipment? Where to store the protective equipment? How to maintain the protective equipment? When is PPE training necessary? According to Act 1974 health and safety at work, which came into force in the UK on January 1, 1993, personal protective equipment should be provided to all employees who are exposed to safety and health risks at work. Personal protective equipment training is necessary for the employee who is new to the job. The employee should be trained on how and when to use protective equipment. In the automobile industry, workers frequently move from one work place to another and perform a variety of tasks. You can train your personnel effectively through eLearning, in a convenient manner, as online courses can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Hope you find this post informative. Please do share your views. Related PostsPromoting Safety Awareness in an Organization3 Reasons Why Problem-based Learning Is Effective Learning7 Benefits of Converting Your Safety Training to E-learning

Join us for Campus Technology 2015 and discover new ideas and tech at your fingertips! Who Attends Campus Technology The 22nd Annual Campus Technology conference for higher education technology professionals focuses on the technologies driving student success and educational advancement both on and off the campus. At Campus Technology 2015 you will find the latest information and actionable intelligence that can help position your campus on the cutting edge of 21st century education, enterprise and infrastructure technology. IT executives (CIO, CTO, CFO, VP) providing top-level leadership to all areas of technology use and integration on campus Technology directors, and academic or technology planners whose work impacts the institution at an enterprise level Faculty who teach with technology, instructional designers and developers, and academic technology program managers IT staff, technology program managers, mobile application developers, and those charged with classroom technology implementations Business, marketing, operations and finance management Top Five Reasons to Attend Campus Technology 2015 For 22 years, Campus Technology has brought together education leaders and technology experts from around the country to exchange techniques and strategies for teaching and learning success by integrating technology across the curriculum and across the campus. 1. Intensive Training Immerse yourself in four information-packed days of education technology-focused workshops, sessions, keynotes, new solutions and products in the exhibit hall and a can't-miss reception! 2. Focused Topics Designed for You An excellent selection of workshops and breakout sessions in six relevant tracks: CIO: Next Generation — NEW! • Higher Ed IT in the Digital Age — NEW! • IT Leadership & Policy • Online & Blended Learning • Teaching & Learning in the Digital Age • IT Management & Networking 3. Unparalleled Access to Experts Class-sized breakout sessions give you the opportunity to spend quality time with ed tech experts who are reshaping and defining the uses of technology in higher education. It's a great opportunity to get insightful, on-point answers to some of your most important questions. 4. Grow Your Network Between sessions, at lunch, in the exhibit hall and at the reception. You'll enjoy easy access to speakers and vendor representatives, and network with peers and colleagues—IT directors, CIOs, administrative and instructional leaders—to expand your professional development network. 5. Robust Technological Solutions Explore new advances in the marketplace and meet in the exhibit hall with hundreds of leading technology suppliers in an interactive, face-to-face setting that allows for in-depth research and product demos on the technology solutions you need. Campus Technology 2015 conference will be held at the Hynes Convention Center (Boston, US) on July 27 - 30, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

With the global e-learning industry market set to tip over the $100 billion mark in 2015 and 42% of leading companies seeing an increase in revenue through online learning alone, the power of e-learning is certainly being realized the world round today more than ever. As e-learning authoring specialists, we’re often looking at and talking about more technical aspects of e-learning - like analytics and cloud technology - but we take little time to remember exactly what it is that organizations can gain from e-learning. I’ve compiled some of the high level benefits of e-learning because it’s important to remember that many still think of it as a boring, static exercise which does little more than tick a box (and cost money). The battle for many HR and L&D teams is convincing senior budget holders that e-learning can be so much more than that, taking on many forms, increasing speed to competency, upskilling staff and having a real bottom line benefit. (Just some of) the benefits of e-learning Standardized tuition E-learning takes a user through a load of material on a particular subject, encompassing stuff like video, quizzes, games and so on, in order to improve their knowledge of whatever the course might be on. Where e-learning is being used, you can be sure that all staff have received the exact same message and tuition, despite the fact they might be in different departments, locations or even speak different languages. Face-to-face tuition can get expensive It’s an age old argument in the learning space, but taking a whole department out of the office for a day’s worth of training not only impacts the day-to-day, but the venue, transport and facilitation will all cost money… repeat that across a business and consider how many different topics staff need to be trained up on and the cost continues to rise. E-learning allows training to take place at desks, during quiet times or for an allocated period. Add a multi-device element to e-learning and that training can take place at home, on the move or be used as a refresher once completed. Scalable Despite planning and best efforts, businesses can’t predict what they might face tomorrow. Whether that’s an acquisition, recruitment drive or busy period , there are a load of times your business need to train or refresh hundreds or thousands of staff in one go. A major benefit of E-learning courses is that they can be taken by as many people as necessary without any additional cost, so the longer a course is in use/ the more staff go through it, the better value for money it will be. Updates If you’re dealing with workbooks and classroom-based learning, it’s difficult to change messaging to reflect new business goals, or even to make minor text edits, once things are sent out and being used. Doing so means reprinting everything, making sure the old ones are out of use, and so on. E-learning, being digital, can be updated, added to or improved at any point, leaving you safe in the knowledge that staff are picking up the latest and greatest version of any particular course, giving them the best and most up to date knowledge. Put downtime to use Whether it involves a bus, train or even a flight, there’s an element of travel in many jobs. E-learning, especially multi-device e-learning, is a great way of giving travelling staff something to fill their time with. One of the benefits of e-learning is the fact it’s online at all hours of the day - we all have a quiet hour here and there every few weeks, which is a perfect opportunity to seek out some personal development through e-learning. Measurement Without going into too much detail, if the correct learning infrastructure and tracking is in place, courses can be effectively measured and analysed, which is a major benefit of e-learning. It’s possible to see what percentage of learners have completed (or failed) a particular course, how they interact with courses across devices and much, much more. There are loads more benefits of e-learning we haven’t even to touching on yet. If you can think of any yourself, be sure to let me know in the comments below, I’d love to hear them. Enjoy the piece? Share it with you Twitter community or check out my last post on using a mix of in-house or third-party e-learning content to fill your LMS or VLE. The post What are the benefits of e-learning? appeared first on gomo Learning.

We use various techniques to deliver effective training online. In this post, we will look at some learning methods which are used extensively in eLearning - scenarios, role plays, practice tests, testimonials and job-aids. These techniques help engage the learner very effectively. Let us now look at each. Scenarios Scenarios play a vital role in eLearning, as they add fun, create interest in courses and help people understand the subject-matter better. They help improve the analytical skills of the learner as he can relate himself with the real life situations and apply his learning there Role Plays We don’t use role plays often in our eLearning courses, But, they are very effective instructional techniques and go a long way in improving the analytical capabilities of learners. Role plays are similar to scenarios and help the learner take a decision based on the situation. Practice Tests It is well-said that practice makes a person perfect. By including well-designed practice tests in your online course, you can ensure that the learner can evaluate his comprehension of the subject-matter and apply the learning effectively at the workplace. Testimonials:  A testimonial is a statement by a person indicating that he had used a product or service and is satisfied with it. Testimonials help your learners deepen their knowledge as they are exposed to various points of view. Job Aid: Job aids are very useful to facilitate effective transfer of knowledge to the job. You can use provide your staff members with handouts and reference documents which help them perform better. Hope you find this post useful. What techniques do you use to create good eLearning courses? We’d love to know. Related PostsThe E-learning Design Checklist - An InfographicTop 5 blogs of 2014 on Instructional Design3 Tips to Instructional Designers for Effective E-learning - An Infographic

7  Components of Compassion Training Program Scott Keller and Colin Price, in a new study entitled Beyond Performance, cite evidence that compassionate leaders outperform leaders who have a "what's in it for me" attitude and promote a culture of "each person for themselves". Furthermore, in 600 companies studied, companies who bring compassion to their method of operation actually log up twice the financial performance of those who do not. The topic is also at the center of a series of ongoing research projects, including work being done at Stanford University's Center for Compassion and Altruism Research (CCARE). Finally, there are already researchers who are extolling the value of compassion training. Here are seven components that need to be included if you are considering a compassion training program for your company: Employees will have to be introduced to the concept of lojong, which has its roots in Tibetan Buddhism. It reflects the practice of compassion training in the mind until the person being trained achieves spontaneous altruism. Lojong attempts to eradicate "what's in it for me" selfish attitudes that hurt both the person who thinks that way and those around them. Compassion training should be a strong component of mindfulness, which encourages employees to deal with their own stress by relinquishing concerns about the future or angst about the past and just live within the present moment. This brings with it the cultivation of mental stability, a foundation for compassion training. Programs should also include descriptions and examples of practices that show precisely what compassion is and how it can be blocked by certain negative behaviors in a workplace setting. Employees must focus on compassion for friends, their family, and themselves, as well as their co-workers and supervisors. They also need to consider compassion for strangers, difficult clients, and people they generally dislike. Specified steps for employees to create more connection and compassion with their clients and co-workers need to be laid out. Team members must learn methods for developing the ability to be empathetic and grateful for their team members, whether or not they like their team or consider them difficult to work with. Can you really expect that your highly individualistic employees will embrace compassion training? Frans de Waal, a Dutch pioneer in research about compassion training, believes that you can succeed, since human beings are compassionate by nature. He argues that people were originally wired for connectivity and caring about each other as a team, a motivation that is as powerful as our urge to care about ourselves. Using compassion training in the modern workplace, he suggests, is a key to encouraging creativity and an incredibly impressive team work. Do you believe compassion training will make a difference in your company's workplace productivity and creativity? Share with us your thoughts and experiences. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

For all of the buzzwords that surround the e-learning and training industries, there are some terms which are useful, here to stay and have much more purpose than simply providing bloggers and vendors with some new fodder. While not a new concept, blended learning has become super important and significant over the last five or so years, gaining real acceptance within the learning field and being put into practice left, right and centre by leading organizations the world round. What is blended learning? Where an organization may have historically favoured face-to-face or e-learning to train staff, blended learning is the idea that bringing a range training interventions together gives the best bits of both the offline and online learning together to benefit the overall experience. It aligns flexibility, variety and independence while increasing engagement, motivating staff to learn and making learning a lot more interesting. Why blended learning today? Advances in mobile technologies today allow us to work far more flexibly than we have been able to in the past. Mobile learning, mobile working and using the cloud to support work while on the move are all very real and common possibilities today, something the workplace is still fully adjusting to. This gives us loads more options for blended learning and learning in general, as we have far more opportunities to reach students and learners than ever before. Increased connectivity means we can stream videos, play games and share our informal learning experiences via internal and external social channels at the drop of a hat. In the past e-learning has been confined to the speeds of dial up internet and clunky desktop computers, so it’s no wonder that the idea of blended learning is only becoming a reality during recent times. Informal learning (and learning in your own time) is pushed forward by the rise of mobile devices in the workplace. Whether a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policy is in place or not, it’s fair to say that offices today are filled with smartphones and tablets, offering plenty of learning opportunities in their own right. Advances in multi-device authoring tools and tracking standards, namely Experience API, mean that all aspects of the learning experience can be tracked in great detail. The former not only allows multi-device content to be built cheaply, but Experience API tracking tells you exactly what devices are being used for learning, what informal learning activities are taking place and so much more, allowing you to paint a picture of how your people like to learn, informing future blended learning interventions. Making blended learning a reality (today) Blended learning, with it’s relative position to strategy, learning infrastructure, e-learning content creation and more, is often seen as something that is not only expensive, but needs the input of an e-learning vendor. While blended learning at scale does often involve stakeholders and alignment with overall company or L&D vision, there’s no reason why you can’t begin to create your own blended learning aspects to support face-to-face or e-learning interventions. HTML5 authoring tools today allow content to work across all devices, allowing users to pick your courses up when it suits them on their mobile, tablet or desktop. This begins to support the idea of blended learning, but there’s no reason why you can’t continue to encourage informal learning and performance support via the multi-device output of an authoring tool without explicitly making a full e-learning course. Making small, digital resources to sit alongside an e-learning course or face-to-face training session could be the first, simple steps you can take towards adding blended elements to your learning. It’s important to remember that this isn’t going to be a full blend, but taking aspects out of a course and making them small tasks and resources in their own right could transform how learners in your organization approach courses, taking in video’s, PDFs, quizzes and more in bitesize chunks as and when it suits. To blend or not to blend Because we’re looking at things at such a granular level, there’s no need to carry out the lengthy analysis that is typically required when creating blended learning, although there are still a number of factors to consider. Things like… The nature of the training requirement The needs and requirement of the target audience being trained The technology available and delivery (platform, authoring tool) Timescales It’s nice to have blended on the brain, but for certain topics and needs of your audience, it’s just not going to be something that you need to do. HTML5 authoring tools today allow you to create content to service all devices at once, or even to deliver to individual devices, allowing you to follow up an e-learning course with a mobile-ready one page resource or quiz. Blended learning is really big picture stuff, but with the millions of devices in the workplace being used for informal and formal learning more and more, it’s time you began to think of your authoring tool as something that creates more than just standard e-learning. Think of your authoring tool as a vehicle to create multi-device (or mobile) resources, helpbooks, refreshers, quizzes and much, much more - it’s a great way of varying your output while drip-feeding the learning support available to your workforce. Not all authoring tools are capable of such flexible tasks, more so HTML5 authoring tools with multi-device output, like gomo. I’m not going to bang on about how great it is, you can see so yourself by creating resources and courses via a 21 day free trial today… It’s credit card-detail free and there’s (obviously) no obligation. Fancy building flexible multi-device learning? Start right away. The post Blended learning and how you can do it yourself appeared first on gomo Learning.

As we know, the human brain has the capability to hold a limited amount of data at a time. Experimental psychologist George Miller found that "The Magic Number 7, plus or minus 2? Describes the number of ideas, facts, or issues that an average individual can hold in his working memory is 7 + 2. This is called the Rule of 7″. What is content chunking? Content chunking is presenting information by splitting it into small chunks or pieces. Why do we need to chunk the content of an online course?  Proper chunking of content: Enables better understanding and retention of information Facilitates effective learning Helps convey information efficiently What kind of content strategies should instructional designers follow to design effective courses? Depending on the eLearning course content, there are many strategies to split the content into chunks. To implement these strategies, you need to: Prioritize and classify the content Group the content Organize the content  1. Prioritize and classify the content  Being an instructional designer, you need to separate wheat from chaff by analyzing the content. A man asked an artist, "How do you make such a beautiful things from stone?" He replied, "Beauty is already hidden there; I just remove the extra stones…." In the same way, an instructional designer should be able to remove information which is unnecessary, meaningless, unimportant and useless without changing the meaning of the content. Don’t put unnecessary information into your leaner’s brain as its capacity to "assimilate" information is limited. 2. Group the content  Instructional designers need to maintain logical "flow" while grouping the content. We need to divide the eLearning course content into modules, lessons, and then topics. This process is known as course level chunking. It determines the content hierarchy of an eLearning course. It is advisable to explain only one ‘learning point or unit’ in each slide (lesson/topic). In other words, each slide must have only one chunk of related information that can’t be broken any further. This is called screen level chunking. The main objective of grouping the content is to facilitate effective comprehension and retention of large, complex data. Here are a few examples : 3. Organize the content This plays an important role as it has a bearing on the look and feel of a course. Here, content can be chunked on the basis of various factors such as audio, content types and visuals. Audio: It is better to show short, ‘stand-alone’ sentences on the screen and provide a detailed description using audio. Content types: Certain types of content such as processes and procedures can be taught very effectively, using interactivities (such as click on tab, click on images, click on number, slide show, hotspot, flip card etc.). And, audio can be used to describe a process in detail. Visuals: If the course needs more visuals, then more content can be chunked because visuals speak more than words. Show clear and crisp sentences on the screen. Improper chunking could lead to content redundancy. To conclude, instructional designers need to perform these three tasks to make meaningful and effective eLearning courses. Well-chunked content is understood easily by the learner, and chunking is useful when we are dealing with large pieces of information which are difficult to read and understand. Hope you find this post useful. Do share your views. Related PostsChunking Content: An Important Element in Creating Successful Online Training ProgramThree Steps to Content Chunking in eLearning - An INFOGRAPHIC3 Tips to Instructional Designers for Effective E-learning - An Infographic

It is a common knowledge that well-designed assessments go a long way in engaging learners in the online learning environment. They are used to reinforce learning as well as evaluate the learner’s comprehension of a course. In eLearning courses, assessments are provided either at the completion of each unit (formative assessments) or at the completion of the course (summative assessments). Formative assessments evaluate the learner’s understanding of the topic covered in a chapter of an online course and reinforce the learning. Whereas, summative assessments are used to evaluate the learner’s understanding after the completion of the course. There are various interactivities which can be used to make your formative assessments more engaging. One of these interactivities is drop down. In this, the learners need to choose the right answer from the options contained in a drop-down box. Here is an info-graphic that shares 5 tips to use the drop down interactivity in online course assessments. Hope you find this post interesting. Do share your views. Related Posts4 Effective Ways of Presenting Scenarios in E-learning Courses5 Tips to Engage Your Online Learners - An InfographicCreating Effective Assessments in E-learning: 5 Tips - An Infographic

6 Selection Criteria To Consider When Searching For The Best Instructional Design Master’s Degree Earning an Instructional Design Master’s degree gives you the opportunity to delve into the fields of educational psychology, eLearning technologies and instructional design theories and models that can help you create for your learners more immersive and effective online courses. It also opens up an entirely new realm of career prospects. In this article, I’ll share a number of tips that can help you find the ideal for you Instructional Design Master’s program. Ask about the orientation process. The most beneficial eLearning experiences are those that start off on the right foot. As such, when choosing the best Instructional Design Master’s program for you, ask about the new attendee orientation process. Even though you may be familiar with the overall process, thanks to the fact that you’ve already earned other Instructional Design degrees, orientation can give you the opportunity to ask any questions up front, learn more about the course structure and to acclimate yourself to the faculty, curriculum and layout. Ask your admissions coordinator about the orientation process and what, exactly, is involved. For example, will there be a new participant meet-up where you can all introduce yourself and meet your instructors? Does the program offer an overview of each class and what coursework is involved? Verify that the program’s focus is in-line with your goals. Given that you are already at the Master’s degree stage in your education, you probably already have an idea of what goals you hope to achieve by participating in the program. This applies to both career goals and learning goals. Therefore, you should ensure that the program you have in mind is going to focus on the key skills and information you need to succeed. While one Instructional Design program might concentrate on instructional tools and technologies for corporate training, another will center on K-12 curriculum design. By finding a program that is in-line with your objectives and goals, you have the opportunity to get the most out of the eLearning experience and earn a degree that allows you to pursue your desired instructional design career path. Analyze rankings and reviews. Researching the rankings and reviews of prospective universities not only enables you to find out if they offer the right program for your needs, but also whether future employers are going to place a high value on your degree. For example, if you attend an Instructional Design Master that is accredited and has a prestigious academic reputation, this lets employers know that the degree you earned is backed by a solid education and experience. You can learn a lot about academic institutions by looking for online reviews left by current program participants and those who have already earned their degrees. If a vast majority of the attendees state that they had a positive experience, then you may want to add the particular Instructional Design Master's program to your short list of candidates. Compare tuition costs and determine what is covered. Another important factor to consider has to do with tuition fees. Keep in mind that it’s also essential to determine what other expenses are involved. Support services and textbooks, for example, may or may not be included in the tuition fees, treated as supplemental expenses that you will have to cover separately. Ask the admissions coordinator about any additional fees that you are expected to pay and when you must pay them, as some academic institutions have specific deadlines for such additional fees. Also, consider comparing tuition costs for your top schools to determine which offers you the best value for your money. For example, if one may cost a bit more but is more in-line with your career goals, then you may want to move it up to the top of your list. Take online learning community and faculty into consideration. Both the faculty and the learning community, as a whole, have a direct impact upon your learning experience for the duration of the program. Do they have a strong sense of community? Do they place a strong emphasis upon eLearning technologies and tools to enrich the Instructional Design Master's program? You should also do some research on the faculty members to find out more about their background and experience level. Verify how long they have been teaching and search for student reviews to see whether they have offered the support and expertise you are looking for. Find out about support services. Student support services is a broad term that covers a great deal of things, from online libraries where you can supplement your online training to career counseling that can help you land a job that is ideally suited to your talents. Some Instructional Design Master’s degree programs include support services in their tuition costs, while others may charge an additional fee, so it may always be a good idea to check with the admissions coordinator in advance. Also, ask them about which particular services they offer and how you can access their help resources. Will you be able to email your tutors directly if there is a problem, or do they give you the opportunity to chat with them online if you need additional assistance? If there are tutoring services available, are they peer or instructor-based? Keep these tips on hand when searching for the ideal Instructional Design Master’s degree program, so that you can find the university that offers you the best value for your money and lives up to your expectations. If you’d like to learn more about how to choose the right Instructional Design Master’s program for your specific needs, read the article How To Choose The Right Instructional Design Master’s Program, which also highlights a number of universities that offer Instructional Design Master’s degrees. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.