Using games in eLearning courses is the new trend, and they add value to the eLearning courses. But, why should we use games in our eLearning courses? Games, in eLearning, are used for motivation and reinforcement. According to Ambient research, the market for game-based learning is expected to grow from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $2.3 billion in 2017. As we know, games are great tools to engage and reinforce learning. They help comprehend and recall complex content easily. Games help learners stay focused on important and relevant content. So, let’s have a look at the motives to use games in your eLearning courses. 1. Games make courses interactive and effective Games are great way to reinforce learning as they are effective and interactive. The learner does everything in a "consequential" manner, and this makes game-based training methods very effective when compared to traditional online training methods. A good, interactive game encourages the thinking capabilities of learners and makes them feel interested. 2. Games help measure performance of learners Games are measurable as they automatically track the learner’s progress in the assessments And, assessments help learners apply their knowledge and skills to real-world challenges and measure the learner’s achievements of the learning outcomes. 3. Games reinforce and motivate learners Games motivate learners to stay focused on the content. Games are highly engaging and interesting because they help provide hands-on-activities and motivate learners by giving positive feedback. Game elements (such as backgrounds, images, scores or points, sound clips, and feedback) motivate learners to acquire knowledge in an engaging manner and also enhance the effectiveness of eLearning courses. Using rapid authoring tools such as Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate, we can develop highly effective games. Here are some games developed with Articulate Storyline. These are some of the reasons to use games in your eLearning courses. Please share your thoughts! Related PostsInstructional Designers Keep it Simple! 3 Awesome Ways to Simplify E-learning DesignHow Descriptive is Your E-learning Course Description? Right or Wrong!3 Tips to Instructional Designers for Effective E-learning - An Infographic

There’s no doubt that technology can have a significant impact on our students and their learning environment; however, as much as the use of edtech tools can be beneficial, like anything else, they can also be a detriment if not utilized effectively. It’s all about the… Nope not that! Wait for it….. It’s all about the way in which technology is integrated into lessons, activities and projects. Is it meaningful? Relevant? Real-world? As you probably are aware, a lot of people have a lot to say about what constitutes best practices when it comes to incorporating various tools and apps into the classroom. Of course, that’s all well and good, but honestly—it’s not rocket science like "they say". Actually, in my humble (and experienced) opinion, much of what needs to be done involves exercising some good ol’ fashioned common sense—similar to the tips shown on the infographic below. Check em’ out! I bet you’ll be nodding your head in that "yep" motion as you read them—just like I did! A shout out to Kasey Bell for creating and sharing this useful reminder for teachers. For many more really swell edtech ideas, visit her awesome web site—Shake Up Learning! Classroom Connection: Educators can use these tips to help them make better use of technology tools for instruction and to assist students with improving their technology skills within the context of the regular curriculum.

Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Editing in-depth This Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial takes a closer look at Camtasia Editor and some of the functions that are most commonly used when editing videos. Specifically, it covers the following topics: 0:00 - Intro 0:20 - Trimming review 0:45 - Splitting review 1:05 - Clip speed 1:55 - Closing gaps with a ripple move 2:15 - Creating space with a ripple move 2:40 - Extend Frame 3:40 - Wrap-up The post Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Editing in-depth appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

Every organization has a lot of PowerPoint presentations, developed for classroom training programs. These PowerPoint presentations cannot serve as self-paced learning material in the absence of an instructor. So, publishing PPT files as eLearning courses, using rapid authoring tools, doesn’t serve the purpose. In order to convert them into self-paced online courses, we need to "treat" them with effective instructional design strategies. Let’s go through the info-graphic below which shares 5 sure-fire tips to convert PowerPoint presentations into highly engaging eLearning courses. Hope you find this post interesting. Would you like to expand this list? Please do so. Related PostsRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key FeaturesHow to Convert PowerPoint Presentations to Interactive E-learning Courses: Free E-book4 Tips for Developing E-learning Course Using Rapid Authoring Tools

eLearning 2.0 Conference 2015 main theme is "The Paradigm Shift: Refocusing on the Student". The seventh eLearning 2.0 Conference 2015 will explore technology-enhanced learning and social media technologies. The conference is a collaborative space for educators, students, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policy makers to share their eLearning classroom successes, as well as new developments in their research and the workplace. The main theme of this year’s conference is "The Paradigm Shift: Refocusing on the Student". This educational paradigm shift is fuelled by the unprecedented access that students now have to information coupled with a view of learning as a constructive process consisting of selecting, organising and integrating information. The theme broadens the discussion from last year’s theme of "Flipping the Classroom." It seeks to showcase any use of technology to enhance learning which requires us to "think differently." The conference seeks contributions on evolving pedagogical approaches, as well as to raise the profile of research in technology-enhanced learning; spread good practice in the use of technology to enhance learning; and facilitate collaboration between practitioners, researchers, and policy makers. It will be held on 29 July in Brunel Business School, Brunel University London. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to: flipping the classroom, use of social media for teaching, constructivist and connectivist theories of learning, games and gamification, the maker movement, security, privacy, social networking, podcasting, wikis, blogging, video sharing, screencasting, folksonomies, MOOCs, eLearning 2.0 and people with disabilities, the potential impact of eLearning 2.0 on the Third World, creativity and Web 2.0, human-computer interaction, and business. The conference will comprise invited keynote speakers and individual presentations. The presentations will recorded and published online as a series of screencasts. There are no full papers published or required. It brings together international education, information systems and technology-enhanced learning researchers and practitioners to participate in sharing ideas and to enjoy the exciting surroundings of the historical capital of the UK - London. eLearning 2.0 Conference 2015 will be held at the Brunel University (London, UK) on July 29, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Responsive Simulations in Adobe Captivate 8 This Adobe Captivate 8 tutorial presents how to create a single screen capture project that works across devices with Adobe Captivate 8. The post Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Responsive Simulations in Adobe Captivate 8 appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

Recently, one of our clients asked us whether it is possible to display the time taken by the learner to complete the course easily, using Articulate Storyline. YES, we can. The requirement can be met using triggers or JavaScript. In my last post, I have explained it using java script. However, many instructional designers are not comfortable with coding. So, I decided to create the same with triggers/actions. Follow the steps below to know how to calculate the time learner spent on eLearning course. Below are the steps. Step 1: Design your slides with the content. Step 2: Create three variables to store hours, minutes and seconds of current time. Name them as ‘H’, ‘M’ and ‘S’ respectively. Step 3: Create two layers. I have named them as "Layer1" and "Layer2". Step 4: In Layer1, add the following triggers. Trigger1: Add ‘1’ to variable ‘S’ when timeline ends for Layer1. Trigger2: Add ‘1’ to ‘M’ when timeline ends for Layer1 if value of ‘S’ greater than or equal to 60. Trigger3: Set value of variable ‘S’ to ‘0’ when timeline ends for Layer1 if value of ‘S’ greater than or equal to 60. Trigger4: Add ‘1’ to ‘H’ when timeline ends for Layer1 if value of ‘M’ greater than or equal to 60. Trigger5: Show layer Layer2 when timeline ends for Layer1. Step 5: In Layer2, add the below triggers. Trigger1: Add ‘1’ to variable ‘S’ when timeline ends for Layer2. Trigger2: ShowLayer1 when timeline ends for Layer2. Step 6: Create a variable of Numeric type with default value ‘1’. I have named it as‘count’. Step 7: Add a trigger to show Layer1 when timeline starts for Base layer. Step 8: The last step is to add reference for variables ‘H’, ‘M’ and ‘S’ to display time the learner spent on eLearning course. In this way, we can calculate learner’s time in eLearning courses. Have anything to say? Please do share. Related Posts5 Easy Steps to Calculate Learner’s Time Using Articulate StorylineRapid E-learning through Storyline Tool: 5 Infographics Sharing Key FeaturesHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?

Even though there is always a mind-boggling amount of invaluable info shared on the Discovery Educator Network (DEN), one of the best resources available is the Spotlight on Strategies (S.O.S) series, a must-see DEN favorite designed to provide teachers with simple yet effective instructional practices for using digital content to support student learning. To date, there are 70+ teacher tried and tested strategies featured on the DEN blog and now thanks to Lance Rougeux, Vice President of Learning Communities and Educational Consultants at Discovery Education and all-around DEN tech guru, I am now featuring some of these techniques on my space. Two thumbs up to this guy! So, enough of that. Let’s fast forward to the really good stuff… This week’s spotlight—Partner Time—is a simple yet effective way to manage partnerships in your classroom. It also ensures that students are not always sharing with the same classmate. Big Idea When students have the opportunity to discuss and compare ideas and opinions with a wide variety of their peers, they develop a broader understanding of the world and are more flexible and creative in their problem-solving. That said, the Partner Time concept allows teachers to establish partnerships in advance; therefore, eliminating the management and guesswork when grouping students. Doing so, leaves more time to accomplish academic goals while also providing students with the opportunity to have choice with whom they work. Now that I have your attention, all you have to do is click here to snag a PDF version of this super cool strategy which includes info related to materials needed and step-by-step instructions for utilizing the Partner Time strategy in the classroom. There’s even a video overview you can check out here. Pretty cool, eh? And last, but certainly not least, here’s a visual to get those wheels turning… Better yet—click here to check out the entire S.O.S. series on the DEN blog! So, there you have it: Another S.O.S. trick to add to your edtech toolbox. Stay tuned for additional ways to activate learning in your classroom… Like what you see? Then take the digital integration challenge by trying to implement the Partner Time strategy and/or one of these additional ideas into a classroom lesson: » Reading Between the Lines » ABC Summary » 6-Word Stories » What Did They Say? » A-E-I-O-U » Snowball Fight » Whittle It Down » Concept Circles » The Envelope Please » Get Venn-y with It! » MVP

How To Create A Successful Employee Online Training Orientation Program Employee orientation is a demanding process, as its purpose is not only to provide onboarding employees with the information necessary to begin a successful career in your organization, but also to make them feel both proud and excited to work for you. The orientation process must promote a broad understanding of your company’s policies, culture, and values, as well as thoroughly inform new starters about their duties, and the terms and conditions of their new work environment. In this article, I'll share 8 top tips to create a successful employee online training orientation program, so that you will be able to create a solid foundation for a successful, long-term working relationship between your company and your newly hired staff. Set the goals of the online training orientation program beforehand. It may sound obvious, but having clear objectives is an important determinant for the success of your online training orientation program. Clearly outlining your learning goals before you begin developing your online training program will help you easily determine how these goals will be met. Avoid vague eLearning objectives, and instead try to focus on action; what do you want your newly hired staff to be able to do after they complete their online training course? Inform them about company’s policies, culture, and vision, concentrate on their primary duties for the next few months, and provide them with the information and resources they will need to effectively do their jobs. Connecting them with their colleagues and supervisors is also essential, so make sure that you have included your key staff’s contact details. Finally, make new starters feel welcome; while setting them off in the right direction, keep your tone professional, but friendly. Keep the information brief and to the point. Unnecessary information, abstract jargon, complicated graphs, and long sentences will only confuse your new employees. Communicate the information you want to convey as pointedly as possible by using simple language, short sentences, and bullets for learning objectives and key points. Furthermore, consider breaking your eLearning content up into smaller modules, so that your new employees can stay focused and easily find information when they need it. Chunking can be tremendously facilitated by an effective navigation system which includes submenus; just be careful not to add too many of the latter. Finally, always start each module with a clear objective, and provide your new hires with tools and resources that will help them successfully complete each section and meet the training objectives. Give your employees direct acces to online resources. Don’t expect your new employees to search for references and resources on the web. Ensure that you have included all the useful links in your employees online training orientation program so that you will enable new starters to have direct access to information related to the company’s processes and practices exactly when they need it. Increase the flexibility of your online training orientation program. By making your online training orientation program accessible from all mobile devices, you can help your new employees complete their online training orientation course at the time and place it is more convenient for them. Offering your newly hired staff the option to complete the online training orientation course at their own pace will significantly enhance their overall eLearning experience. Don't overwhelm your new employees with data. Staying short and straightforward will help your newly hired staff understand their job duties and succeed in their online training orientation course, while avoiding information that is not immediately necessary. Throughout your employee online training orientation program keep in mind to stay focused on only pertinent information; new starters get easily overwhelmed, as this is normal for people who are trying to adapt themselves to a new environment, so remember to provide them only with relevant and necessary online training material. Data not really needed during your new employees’ first days at their new jobs should be avoided. Include only information that is both necessary and easily digestible. Furthermore, incorporate interactive elements into your employee online training orientation program, so that your new hires will become more engaged and interested. Offer your employees variety. Speaking of making your newly hired staff feel more engaged, an interesting blend of different tools and resources not only will add value to your employee online training orientation program, but also will significantly increase your new starters’ engagement levels. Reduce the monotony with respect to how information is presented by integrating different kinds of media into your online training program, such as videos, audio elements, animations, and eLearning games that will trigger your new employees’ interest and attention. Furthermore, consider blending your online training course with some face to face events, for instance a mentoring session, to personalize the overall impact of your employees' online training orientation experience. Measure the success of your employee online training orientation program. Measuring the success of your employee online training orientation program will allow you to keep it updated, make improvements, and determine whether it was indeed successful. There are several ways to evaluate your online training orientation program, but the most effective way is, of course, soliciting immediate feedback. As soon as your employees finish their online training, ask them to complete surveys and inform you about which parts of their orientation process they found most and least helpful, whether they found the information offered overwhelming or, worse, insufficient, and how they would rate their overall onboarding experience. Knowing what worked and what didn’t will allow you to determine which topic areas of your employees online training orientation program need additional coverage or modifications, so that you will be able to make the necessary improvements and ensure that your online training course will gradually get more and more updated and effective. Keep in mind that employees orientation is an ongoing process. More often than not, it is really difficult for your new employees to retain all the information you want to convey at once. Apart from doing your best to convey your online training material as effectively as possible by breaking it into chunks and delivering it through a variety of media, consider following up by contacting employees and their supervisors two or three months after your employee online training orientation program is over. Ask them about their online experience, as well as other elements they would like you to add, change, or boost. Employees orientation shouldn’t be treated as a single training session or event; it is an ongoing process that supports your newly hired stuff during their first months of the job, and needs to provide a variety of experiences that meet different needs at different stages. Now that you know how to create a successful employee online training orientation program, you may be interested in learning how you can increase your employees’ engagement levels during their online training. Read the article Top 9 Reasons To Develop Custom eLearning That Engages Employees and find out how you can develop custom eLearning courses that make your online training immersive, interactive and engaging for every employee of your corporate learning audience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

What’s new this week in my Diigo bookmarks? Check out the links shown below for some really cool apps that will unleash students creativity throughout the upcoming school year! Warning Label: This stuff is highly addictive! » InAWorld…Drama A neat iOS app that allows users to create and star in their very own movie trailers. » Action Movie FX An app that allows users to add Hollywood effects to iPhone and iPad movies that they shoot. » Mojo Masks Add fun and realistic face paint effects to photos and videos with this iPhone and iPad app. » Creatures FX An app that allows users to create awesome action movies with seriously cool creatures with any iOS device. Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links can be found here.

As Training Managers, you may need to ensure that your employees complete the mandatory compliance courses. These courses, though beneficial to the organization, do not contribute directly to employees in terms of improving their work performance or addressing their learning gaps. In this context, it is a challenge to motivate learners to complete these courses. Adults have the urge to kow why they need to learn a particular thing, how it will aid them in their life - professional or personal. Your eLearning course should address these issues to motivate learners and engage their participation in the course. Various strategies can be employed to do this. There is no best method or prescribed formula to achieve results. The decision will depend on various factors such as the subject being handled, technical, finncial, time, cultural contraints, and the audience profile, to name a few. This blog suggests strategies to present a couple of mandatory compliance courses through eLearning. 1. Electrical/Fire Safety Courses on safety are very common compliance courses it is vital that every employee is familiar with them as they help prevent diasters and teach what to do is such a situation occurs despite all precautions. a. Case-study based approach A case-study based appraoch uses a common case around which the whole course is woven. The case can present the problems caused in the orgaization due to the lack of compliance to rules. The course can then present the various guidelines or steps to avoid/overcome such issues. It can also present a step-by-step approach to deal with the various situations. The case can then be used at strategic locations to test the understanding and decisio-making capabilities of learners. b. Scenario based approach This strategy is similar to the case-study appraoch but uses individual, short, stand-alone scenarios to test learners understanding. They can also be used to test learners’ understanding prior to the teaching and use the feedback to lead into the dicsussion. Scenarios thus provides great versatality and engage learner paricipation. 2. Sexual Harassment In the current global scenario, training employees on sexual harassment is the need of the hour. It is important that employees appreciate the importance of maintaining appropriate boundaries at the workplace, identify the thin line between flirting and harassment, and identify the behaviors that constitute sexual harassment. a. Story-telling Story-telling is a great way to talk about sexual harassment. A senior HR manager can guide a new hire through the course by explaining what constitutes sexual harassment, what is just harmless social flirting, and how to avoid behavior that can inadvertently lead to offending the other person. This approach supports the whole gamut of victims, villians, and the kinghts in shining armour and is bound to engross learners and drive home the message. b. Scenario based approach This strategy presents individual sceanrios to learners to help them identify the offending behavior in each scenario and the remedial measures to be taken. This approach engages the learners on an emotional level as they empathize with the victims. In either strategy, the main goal of helping learners understand the behaviors that constitute sexual harassment and aviod falling into those pitfalls is achieved. As discussed earlier, there are several strategies to present compliance courses through eLearning. Just keep your constraints in mind and let your imagination run wild! Related PostsWant to Create Winning E-learning Courses? 6 Tips - An InfographicTop 5 Blogs on the Best Practices in Instructional Design E-learning Instructional Design for the Operator Training Course

Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Animations in-depth This Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial takes a closer look at Animations. Specifically, it covers the following topics: 0:00 — Intro 0:20 — Understanding visual properties 0:35 — Visual Properties tab overview 1:05 — How visual properties affect the timeline 1:25 — How an animation works 2:05 — Adjusting an animation 2:45 — Testing an animation 3:05 — Copy and paste an animation 3:25 — Animation easing 4:20 — Wrap-up / Feedback The post Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Animations in-depth appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

Most teachers today use technology in the classroom. Many are eager to utilize more tools to enhance their lessons and give their students more opportunities to learn and create. Web tools can be used in so many ways and can make keeping up with assessments easier for the teachers while making work requirements easier. And since students today use web tools and apps on a regular basis in their personal lives, adding web tools will engage your students, and help prepare them for work in the future. One problem is that there are so many web tools available, and it can be confusing to find the right ones for your classroom. A few of them are well known, but that still leaves a vast amount of lesser known ones that may be perfect for your class. It can take hours to hunt down the tools that fit your needs and those of your students, and then you still have to research the tool to make sure it does what you want, test it, and see if it works with your technology permissions. Life may be a little easier if you use this list of valuable web tools for teachers and students. Teachers can use this list to find tools to introduce topics, to assess students’ knowledge, to collaborate on projects, to differentiate assignments, and so much more. Students can use this list to find cool web tools to use for their collaboration and final products. With so many choices, from "click and go" to "might want to read the manual," teachers can easily add more web tools to their classes and truly immerse their students in their learning. If you are one of those teachers or students looking for more web tools for your lessons, dig in! Blendspace Blendspace is a great web tool for creating a virtual classroom. You can use Blendspace to create projects and assignments, present lessons and information, share videos, and much more. Students can use Blendspace to review information, take assessments, and post questions or answers. BookWidgets BookWidgets is a super-easy-to-use tool for creating your own engaging interactive lesson material. You can choose from a broad library of activity types (including quizzes, worksheets, word games, flash cards, bingo games, jigsaw puzzles, interactive math plots, arithmetic exercises, and much more), personalize each activity with your own content, and send the activity to your students’ devices. After students finish their exercise and submit the results, the results are automatically graded for you to review. You can create and preview widgets without registration, but need to register for a free 30-day trial to share your widgets with students. Bubbl.us Bubbl.us is a brainstorming web tool. You can use it in classes to capture ideas during brainstorming sessions. Students can collaborate with group members and create maps or webs of topics or create individual maps or webs. Their work can be printed out instead of saving the maps. Bubbl.us has a limited free plan, but requires registration with email if you are going to save your map. Chatzy Chatzy is great for creating a back channel in your class. A back channel allows your students to use their personal devices to interact during a lesson by sending comments and questions in real time. You can also use it to ask questions and check for understanding. Chatzy is free, and your students do not have to register to participate. Collaborize Classroom Collaborize Classroom is your "go to" web tool for the classroom. You can register for free and create a virtual classroom with the opportunity to create blogs, assessments, assign projects, store grades, and keep a library of pertinent information. Students will not need email to register for your class on Collaborize Classroom. You can provide differentiated assignments, students can work on collaborative projects, and so much more. Collaborize Classroom is a free tool that requires registration. Looseleaves With Looseleaves, you open up a leaf and start creating thoughts and writings. You can use Looseleaves to create a document with assignment instructions, images, and links to related materials. You share your link with your audience, and they can revisit it as often as they need. Post your class syllabus or rules, and parents and students can refer to it all year. Students can use Looseleaves to create documents that summarize their learning and share links to references they used. This is a great, quick and easy web tool for any writing purpose. Looseleaves is a free web tool that does not require registration. Mqlicker Mqlicker turns your students’ phones and other devices into response devices. You will have to register for this free web tool. After entering your questions, you provide your students with a session key or code. Once students enter the code into the site, you can begin the quiz or survey. Results can be shown in graphic form and can be saved, so you can measure growth over time. Mqlicker is free, but requires teacher registration. Padlet Padlet is an excellent web tool for creating class lists, sharing ideas, sharing resources, collaborating, and collecting information. You can start a wall in Padlet instantly, share the wall link with your students, and they can view it on Padlet and add their own comments, questions, and resources. Student groups can use it to collaborate on a project design or as the final presentation of their work. Padlet is an extremely easy to use web tool. Padlet has a free plan, and requires no registration. Piratepad Piratepad is a web tool that allows you to instantly create a collaboration site for writing and editing. Once you open your pad, you share the link with your students, and you begin writing and sharing in real time. You can use this web tool to post questions, start discussions, or assign group collaborative writing activities. Students can use Piratepad to create documents for group work, take notes or create lists, or start a discussion thread. Piratepad is free, and requires no registration. Popplet Popplet can be used on a computer or on an iPad through an app. You can use Popplet as a web or mind-mapping tool to organize ideas for lessons. Students can use Popplet to create webs that show their flow of ideas and for brainstorming ideas or completing projects. Popplet is a simple web tool that is a great resource for your class. You can register and use Popplet on the web for free, but you need to buy an app to use it on mobile devices. Prezi Prezi is a web tool that allows users to create presentations on any device or computer. You can then share your presentations through a projector or online for students to access later. Students can use Prezi to create presentations and can also use Prezi for collaborative work. You can register and use Prezi on the web for free, but you need to buy an app to use it on mobile devices. Smore Smore is a web tool for designing nice looking newsletters, flyers, and posters. It is simple to use and provides you and your students with a different way to present information that is visually appealing. You can use it to create monthly newsletters for the parents and community or to create a more visual lesson for your students. Your students can design posters or flyers as part of their summative assessments. Smore has a limited free plan, and requires registration. There is an educator account for a yearly fee that allows your students free access without registration. Snap.vu Snap.vu is a QR code generator. There are numerous ways you can use QR codes in your classes. Students will need a QR scanner, easily available as an app, to access the information. You can create QR codes for documents, videos, images, websites, and so much more. Post the QR code on your webpage or your classroom wall. Students scan the code, and it takes them to information you selected. This would be a great way to randomize assignments or differentiate instruction. You can add QR codes to pages in your textbook, and students can scan the code to go to related information or a quick quiz. Snap.vu will also track how many times your codes are scanned. Snap.vu is a free web tool that requires registration. Socrative Socrative is a quiz, exam, and survey web tool, which students can access on a pc or device. Socrative will provide you with class and individual progress reports to use for adjusting teaching methods. Socrative is free and requires teacher registration. Students do not need an email to register. Storybird Storybird is a digital book making web tool.You can create books on topics related to your classes. Storybird provides students with a safe environment to express their creative writing. They can create picture books, stories, and poetry in Storybird. Students can also read and comment on their classmates’ stories. Storybird is free for teachers. Testmoz Testmoz creates simple quizzes, tests, and surveys for you to use with your students. Testmoz will supply you with reports on student progress, which can be used to individualize instruction, for reteaching, and adjusting your lessons. Testmoz is free and does not require any registration. Twiddla Twiddla is another immediate web tool. You can use Twiddla to do almost anything. It can be used as a blank slate for collaboration with a group. You can import pictures or webpages and start a conversation. You can ask your students to analyze a picture or cartoon. Students can use Twiddla to create their own pages and share pictures or websites on class topics and insert their comments right on the image. Other students can join the page and comment on the work done. Twiddla has a limited free account. Wiggio Wiggio is a web tool that provides a collaborative environment for groups and projects. You can use it to share class calendars and files, create polls and surveys, and send emails and messages to the class. You can even use Wiggio to host virtual meetings. Wiggio is free. Wikispaces Classroom Wikispaces Classroom can be used for just about anything for your classes. Teachers create a classroom where they can post announcements, assignments, resources, videos, and more. You and your students can discuss topics and comment on the work of others. Students can collaborate on projects with students in their class, or you can connect with other classes and interact with students from around the world. You can see what the students are creating as it happens and make comments and suggestions for the work. Wikispaces Classroom is an easy-to-use web tool that you can turn into something powerful for your students. Wikispaces is free. Zaption Zaption lets you add pictures, comments, and questions to videos. You can share your videos with a link or post them online for your students to access. Zaption creates a more interactive experience for your students than traditional educational videos. Students could use Zaption to make comments on videos that they create, that they want to share on a topic, or that you assign. Zaption requires registration, and has a free limited plan. About the author Natalie Mroz is an award-winning retired teacher holding a BS and MA from The Ohio State University. She currently resides in Florida where she enjoys working as an independent consultant, reading on the beach, and learning and sharing new information.

Best Of mLearning DemoFest 2015 This year at mLearnCon 2015 Conference & Expo and Performance Support Symposium 2015, over 30 conference participants showed off their latest mobile-learning and performance-support projects at mLearning DemoFest. Presenters demonstrated a wide variety of mobile-learning and performance-support solutions, and shared information about the tools, technologies, and processes used to build them. Meet the creators of these mLearning solutions and learn about their award-winning projects during the free Best of mLearning DemoFest Webinar on June 24 at 10AM PT from The eLearning Guild. In this webinar you will see a variety of mobile learning solutions and get some great ideas that you can apply to your own work. Register now and see award-winning solutions in the following categories: Best of Show: Non-Vendor Best of Show: Vendor Alternative (other) Blended Learning Game-based/Immersive/Simulation Performance Support Sales Training Social Learning Wisetail Award Can’t attend the live event? Register and we’ll send you a link to the recording! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

As Quincy Jones once remarked, "I’ve always thought that a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, "Ain’t that the truth." That said, Edu-fun Friday is a series devoted to adding some humor to the lives of teachers who visit this blog. After all, there’s nothing better than ending the week on a positive note! Plus, do we have the best topics to provide us with some comic relief or what? #toofunny #thewayit is #everywhere #can’tescapeit

It is no exaggeration to say that products are the lifeline of companies. Organizations are launching innovative products very rapidly to survive in a fiercely competitive market environment. But, how can firms ensure that the products they release into the marketplace are a big hit? Well, they need to deliver first-rate product training to their sales staff, in quick time, at low cost. The online medium is one of the most effective means to deliver product training to sales personnel who travel extensively. According to a report released by IBM, companies who utilize eLearning tools and learning strategies have the potential to boost productivity by up to 50%. For every $1 that a company spends, it’s estimated that they can receive $30 worth of productivity. Here is an info-graphic which shares 3 sure-fire tips to design excellent eLearning courses to deliver first-rate product training to your sales force. Hope you find this post interesting. How do you impart product training to your sales people? We’d love to know. Related Posts116 Sure-fire E-learning Tips from the Experts in Online Training - Free eBook3 Things to Get The Ball Rolling for E-learning - An InfographicInstructional Design Tips for Product Training Courses

How To Create Flow In eLearning Here are a few things you need to know about the state of flow and the conditions that help create it. The State Of Flow According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (a professor at the University of Chicago who has spent almost his entire career researching this phenomenon), a flow is a state of intense emotional involvement. He describes it as following: Being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one, like playing jazz. Your whole being is involved, and you're using your skills to the utmost. Flow = Games? This state is the Holy Grail of game designers and well-known by all gamers. But it shouldn't be associated with games only. We enter into the state of flow during many activities (writing a blog post, speaking, painting a wall, etc.). It is a very personal state of mind, so it is hard to predict which tasks will lead somebody to the state of flow and which will not. Of course - many of them (like games) have a bigger power over it than the others. But games seem not to be the only way of building flow in your eLearning course. My thought? Be open for looking for flow outside of the games box. Conditions Of Flow The biggest chance to find the state of flow in eLearning is where the challenge level is as high as (or even a little bit higher than) the skill level of an eLearner. According to Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi: A flow experience has got to be challenging. Anything that is not up to par is going to be irritating or ignored. We can overwhelm and scare an eLearner with a high complexity task requiring much bigger skills, or we can bore him/her to death by assigning a task which is way too easy. From my experience, the latter scenario is more frequent - eLearning designers used to seek "the least common denominator" building courses for people of the lowest skills. No wonder that the majority of their users are not engaged in this experience at all. My thought? Think about skills and competencies of the whole target group. Do not level down - provide, instead, some additional materials/paths for those who require supplementing basic skills. Flow Channel If you are a gamer, you have definitely experienced the flow channel. This technique lets you improve your skills while coping with more and more demanding challenges. At the very beginning you are challenged with easy tasks. Their complexity grows in time and, eventually, you are skillful enough to "fight with the boss" (to manage the most advanced challenge). The responsibility of an Instructional Designer is to create an eLearning course with an ability to keep the eLearner in the flow channel. It should be easy for a less skilled learner; it should be more demanding for a more skilled learner. My thought? Give learners various paths of development. Do not force skillful learners to consume the easy part of the eLearning course. Do not challenge less skillful with hard tasks. Give learners a sense of true satisfaction after completing every challenge in your eLearning course. Choices And The State Of Flow Talking about the various paths of development and choices, I will quote once again an opinion of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about flow in designing websites: A Web site that promotes flow is like a gourmet meal. You start off with the appetizers, move on to the salads and entrées, and build toward dessert. Unfortunately, most sites are built like a cafeteria. You pick whatever you want. That sounds good at first, but soon it doesn't matter what you choose to do. Everything is bland and the same. Web site designers assume that the visitor already knows what to choose. That's not true. People enter Web sites hoping to be led somewhere, hoping for a payoff. During designing eLearning courses we sometimes consider choices as cafeterias. No wonder that it is hard to build flow on this model - even the best design of flow will collapse if we will not lead eLearners through it. We have to show them the path; we have to give clear directions how to enter and stay in the flow channel. My thought? Give eLearners a sense of having choices, but limit them to keep them in the flow channel. Build a strong context for the flow channel (a story, an environment/world of a game, strong, leading metaphors, etc.). Goals And The State Of Flow A goal is another condition of building flow. Such a goal should be not only communicated to an eLearner, but also accepted by him/her. A big, general goal should be also decomposed into smaller ones. These should become the subject of challenges provided during the eLearning course. It is also very important to conclude every single challenge with meaningful feedback. My thought? Communicate goals (both general ones and goals of challenges). Be sure that eLearners internalize them. Provide growing pace/complexity of goals and challenges. Remember feedback. Multisensory Experience And The State Of Flow It seems that it is easier to build the state of flow in eLearning if we provide learners with multisensory experience. Of course - you can reach this state while reading a great book. Two hours will pass much faster, however, when you are watching a movie that you consider to be excellent. Being a part of an experience offers even bigger chances to reach flow (e.g. diving, visiting a museum, or visiting interesting places). Such activities will bring flow on condition that they are 'yours' - that we do what we love. Here is the last quote of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi about this issue: I found that if a painter relates to objects only through vision, his work is much less original than a painter who walks up to the object, smells it, throws it in the air, and manipulates it. The variety of sensory inputs allows you to create a visual image that has all kinds of dimensions bubbling up inside it. My thought? Draw eLearners from the computer. Give them additional challenges in real life/ their workplace. Stimulate other senses of eLearners - let them not only see and click, but also hear, smell, act, and interact with others. The post was written in the state of flow inspired by an interview with Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi published in Wired Magazine. The whole interview is available here. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Multi-device Preview with Adobe Captivate 8 This Adobe Captivate 8 tutorial presents how to preview your responsive courses in different devices using Adobe Edge Inspect and Adobe Captivate 8. The post Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Multi-device Preview with Adobe Captivate 8 appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

Lucidpress A free online poster maker that can be utilized for designing, printing and viewing posters. With a library of templates and a drag-and-drop interface, anyone can create an attention-grabbing poster in no time! tags: posters creativity visualization generators Stupeflix Make beautiful videos, online, easily! Just add photos, clips and music… Then watch your creation come to life! tags: digitalstorytelling creativity videos Posted from Diigo. The rest of my favorite links are here.

Rapid changes in technology have made the manufacturing industry a highly competitive one. Most importantly, people working in the manufacturing industry don’t have enough time away from the production area. Thus, employers have to implement a smart approach to help their employees learn more within the available time. What are the training needs of manufacturing firms? Organizations in the manufacturing sector need to train their personnel on: Lean and Quality Management Supply Chain Management Product Knowledge Machinery Usage and Maintenance Safety and Compliance  How can eLearning help companies meet these training needs?  1. Lean Manufacturing and Quality Management Training A Lean manufacturing system drives value, flows smoothly, maximizes production and minimizes waste. Thus, training employees on lean principles is the topmost priority for a manufacturing company. The same thing follows for quality management. Maintaining superior quality standards is a must for any industry to survive in today’s competitive market. E-learning can help employees through effective e-learning courses on Lean fundamentals and quality management. We can demonstrate the importance of these two vital elements using eLearning courses containing scenarios and case-studies. Thus, the learner gets a firsthand experience as to what can happen if these principles are not abided by. 2. Supply Chain Management Training It is true that the success of a manufacturing firm depends largely on effective and efficient supply chain management. Supply chain management includes various activities including purchasing, manufacturing, warehousing, transportation, customer service, demand planning and the overall management of all of these activities put together. E-learning can be used to impart first-rate training on supply chain management. We can use various instructional elements such as avatars to explain the concepts in an interesting manner. We have used the avatar of an ant to take the learners through a supply chain management course very effectively. 3. Product Knowledge Training Appropriate knowledge of the product is essential for sales teams to work efficiently. Good knowledge of products helps sales people to answer prospects’ queries well.  Excellent product training can be imparted to the staff of manufacturing firms through eLearning. Interactive, bite-sized online courses containing relevant content, images and animations go a long way in equipping personnel with the required knowledge of products. Furthermore, you can use videos to demonstrate the working of a product. Thus, we see that eLearning can easily supplement learning, and this technology- enabled learning helps the workforce learn with ease, and this is also beneficial as employees can learn without directly moving to the actual platform. E-learning can also be used to train ‘manufacturing personnel’ on: Machinery Usage and Maintenance Safety and Compliance We will discuss these in the coming posts and see how eLearning can help deliver training in these areas. So, stay tuned. Related PostsCreative Ways to Present Click on Tab Interactivity in E-learning Courses - An InfographicE-Learning for Various Training Needs in the Manufacturing IndustryCan you Achieve Operational Efficiency through Online Training Methods?

Always remember that design communicates the message and not the message itself. Instructional design and visual design are the critical components of communication in an eLearning course. When used effectively, these go a long way in delivering high-quality training. The design of an online course should be engaging, learner-friendly and match the objective of the course at the same time. In this post, we will look at the important aspects of good design in eLearning courses. Simple and consistent navigation: Navigation is one of the critical factors that can make or mar an online course. The eLearning course should allow learners to effortlessly sail through the course and not pose problems moving around it. Course navigation icons need to be present at the same place on all slides and in the same color, size and font. Logical flow: Organize and structure the course content by grouping the content into logical modules. Divide the content into smaller chunks, so that learners easily follow and connect to individual pieces of content. Include only the information that the learner needs to know. Less is more: Less content and graphics mean more learning. Minimal text on the screen and language that is simple and conversational will make your course lively and learner friendly. The key to using images is that they should not only support but also enhance the value of your content. Balanced text and graphics: Using too much text or only visuals may not facilitate effective retention of knowledge. Images should complement textual content and enhance learning value. Make sure that there is no cognitive load. Key take-away on every screen: Every screen should carry a summary of the content that has been discussed on the screen. And, the one key point that learners need to remember from the content shared. To conclude, the goal of a good design is to make the content more meaningful and draw the learner’s attention to important elements. An eLearning course with a good design communicates the right message to the target audience. What do you think? Related Posts3 Hallmarks of Well-designed E-learning Courses4 E-learning Design Tips You Can Use for Safety Training Videos5 Important Things To Consider For Creating Good E-learning Course - An Infographic

Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Introduction to Grouping This Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial covers the following topics related to Grouping: 0:05 - Layering callouts 0:30 - Making a group 0:50 - Benefits of grouping 1:05 - Manipulating a group 1:30 - Naming and re-using groups 1:45 - Ungrouping The post Camtasia Studio 8 Tutorial: Introduction to Grouping appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

It is said that a good eLearning course must have the right mixture of an instructional strategy and a learning event. But, what is it that goes into the creation a learning event? Is it even possible to create a learning event in an eLearning course? Yes! Absolutely. A learning event is an integral part of your instructional strategy; it takes your strategy a step ahead. In this blog, we will have a look at the three must have learning events in your eLearning courses. Keep in mind that you don’t have to use all the three events in a single course to make a good eLearning course. 1. Guide: Guidance is an age old form of encouragement, and the main aim of a guided learning event is to generate motivation and enable the application of knowledge gained through an eLearning course. Guiding is a learning event that mainly focuses on measured application. For instance, if you have to explain how to use an online portal, a guided approach helps and the takes the learner through a step-by-step procedure until the expected outcome is achieved. There are ample ways to use guided events, and to make guided events more interesting, you can add a character or an avatar that guides your learner through the course. 2. Explore: Exploration as a learning event which makes the learner curious. When a learner is set in an exploratory atmosphere, he is most likely to initiate the learning process and grasp whatever information or resources are presented during the event. For example, you can always make use of the treasure hunt theme to set an exploratory event. Explore and learn courses are highly unpredictable as you can never guess the learners’ movements. However, they are also one of the most learner-centric online courses. 3. Reflect: As the word itself suggests, reflection as a learning event is all about how the learner reflects and proceeds in the course. The best example of a reflective learning event is a scenario or a case-study. You can present your learner with a scenario, take him through the story and ask a question, and this is where the learner will reflect on his learning and give an answer. This learning event is all about self-reflection and decision making. Take a look at the example below for a reflective scenario. With the help of these learning events, you can not only enhance your instructional strategy, but also take your eLearning course to the next level! If you have more interesting learning events, feel free to post a comment. Related PostsHow to Combine Your Adobe Captivate Projects Into Single Course?4 Effective Ways of Presenting Scenarios in E-learning CoursesLevels of Content Chunking in E-learning

Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Device-aware Delivery with Adobe Captivate 8 This Adobe Captivate 8 tutorial presents how Adobe Captivate 8 enables you to serve content the learners based on their device OS and viewport size. The post Adobe Captivate 8 Tutorial: Device-aware Delivery with Adobe Captivate 8 appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.