You might be wondering what Malaysia has contributed in terms of Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Learning Institutions?Well, now there is an e-Book published exploring exactly that. Yes, I did contribute a bit to it, too (the first 3 chapters with Prof. Amin, who was the book editor).I shall write no more, but please scan, read, reflect and enjoy the e-Book in two (2) formats:SCRIBD Open Educational Resources in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions by ProfDrAminSLIDESHARE Open Educational Resources in Malaysian Higher Learning Institutions from Mohamed Amin Embi Let's just say this is only the beginning! OER is a burning topic in Malaysia, and many more institutions are in the process of embracing this movement. Yes, some are even planning to launch a MOOC in the very near future, but I shall write no more :)

Looking forward to the upcoming 1-day MOOC workshop at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) on the 13 April, 2013. Although, I have been exploring MOOCs in my OER workshops over the last 2 years, this is the first one I am facilitating that is focusing totally on this disruptive learning beast. Let's MOOC! WORKSHOPImagine facilitating an online course that has more than 230,000 registered students. Welcome to the MOOC world! In this 1-day workshop, we will explore the latest global trend in online learning known as MOOCs or Massive Open Online Courses. We will explore how MOOCs are designed, and how they can potentially play a vital role in the democratization of education to the world. During the hands-on session, participants will be divided into groups to conceptualize and design a prototype MOOC (strategy). Are you ready to MOOC your University to the next frontier of online learning? Be there to find out! LEARNING OUTCOMESAfter this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss the benefits and challenges of implementing MOOCs;Differentiate between cMOOCs and xMOOCs;Identify a variety of social media/web 2.0 tools to engage learners during MOOCs;Conceptualize a MOOC strategy for your University.PRESENTATION SLIDESPresentation slides for the MOOC workshop: Demystifying MOOCs! from Zaid Alsagoff GROUP PHOTO CHALLENGE 1st Challenge:2nd Challenge (Group work): RESOURCESHere are most of the MOOC resources (URLs) explored during the workshop:Udacity CourseraedX P2PU Futurelearn UdemyOnline Educational Delivery Models: A Descriptive View MOOC Guide What is a MOOC? Three Kinds of MOOCs  Dark side of MOOCs (Infographic)  What are we Learning from Online Education? (Daphne Koller)Online Courses Look for a Business Model Four Barriers That MOOCs Must Overcome To Build a Sustainable Model The March of the MOOCs: Monstrous Open Online Courses MOOCs: Learning PointsMOOC List Sharing to Connect, Interact and Learn!            (Online Talk by Zaid Ali Alsagoff)So, what are your MOOC plans? :)

CLICK HERE TO DISCOVER...WOW! LEARNING INNOVATION TALKS 03 LEARNING HISTORY is coming to you on the 22nd May! Do you want to be part of it?Join us for this really exciting upcoming Learning Innovation Talks 3 (LIT 03), which will be FULLY ONLINE.5 BIG REASONS to attend LIT 03:FIRST 1-Day Online Seminar held by a University in Malaysia.Opportunity to connect and engage with AWESOME EDUCATORS.Learn SIZZLING NEW TRICKS and tips on how to use technology to transform learning.Exposure to the LATEST TRENDS in e-learning.Will Get a DIGITAL CERTIFICATE OF ATTENDANCE if you register and attend. Oops, I forgot to mention that this online seminar is FREE! What are you waiting for?ORGANIZER The 3rd Learning Innovation Talks (LIT) is organized by the International Medical University (IMU). This is the first LIT (history) to be done fully online. And this is totally inline with IMU's 3I's, which are Insight, Imagination and Innovation.Here is IMU's e-Learning Team masterminding this mission:     For more details:Program & SpeakersOnline Registration FormLIT History FAQsLearning Innovation Talks 3 (#LIT03) by zaidlearnLooking forward to YOUR PARTICIPATION! Thanks :)

ONLINE TALKThe inspiring Prof. Vasudha Kamat (Vice Chancellor, SNDTWU) invited me recently to do a webinar (11 May) entitled 'Social Media for Research' for the Online Course in Research methodology for PhD scholars at the Shreemati Nathibai Damodar Thackersey Women's University (SNDTWU), India. How could I say no? WEBINAR DETAILSTitle: Social Media for ResearchDate: 11 May (Saturday)Time: 7:00 PM (SNDT time or 9:30 PM KL time...Check Timezone differences)Platform: WizIQDescription:Today, more than a Billion people use Facebook, and more than 200 million use Twitter actively to connect, network, interact and share with one another. YouTube receives more than 4 Billion video views per day, millions of people blog, and there are more than 14 million articles on Wikipedia. Social Media today is impacting every aspect of our lives whether it is our social, working, education or family life. However, what about using social media for academic research and sharing scientific knowledge?  For example today, many doctors are using various Social Media tools to share and discuss their latest research with their fellow professionals and the public. By doing so, their work is sometimes being peer-reviewed and promoted by hundreds of experts around the world, empowering a more impactful learning and research experience. During this webinar, we will explore various social media tools we can use to discover new knowledge, collaborate with other researchers, and promote our research within and beyond the academic world.PRESENTATION SLIDES Social Media For Research at SNDT! from Zaid Alsagoff RECORDINGCLICK HERE to view the recording.Please skip the first 30 minutes, as there was a mix-up regarding the scheduled time. Still learning :)Yes, we went on for more than 2 hours, so it was a long webinar session with a lot of discussions. Have fun discovering the hidden wisdom nuggets within all the noise and who-ha :)

The C2S2C (pronounced See-Es-See) method can be applied to gamify any type of learning activity! WOW! This is my second learning friendly innovation for 2013 (First one: L2T3SEA learning framework)! Not bad, Al-Hamdulilla :)CONFERENCEOn May 17, I will be giving a talk (30 min) and then facilitating a workshop (2 hours) exploring how we can gamify classroom learning at the 5th National Dental Students’ Scientific Conference (May 17-19th, 2013). The conference is organized by the International Medical University (IMU). Description: What if learning could be as engaging and addictive as Angry Birds? In this workshop, we will explore how we can use game mechanics to facilitate more engaging and inspiring learning experiences for our students. During the hands-on session we will explore three web 2.0 tools we can use to gamify classroom learning. Learning Outcomes:After this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss how game mechanics can be applied to facilitate more engaging student learning experiences.Apply game mechanics to any learning activity.Use three web 2.0 tools to gamify classroom learning.PRESENTATION SLIDESHere we go: Gamify Classroom Learning with the C2S2C Method! from Zaid Alsagoff RESOURCES Here is easy access to the relevant resources for the workshop:*$ = No Free VersionTools:SocrativeInfuse LearningPoll Everywhere ClasstoolsRaptivity ($) Knowledge Guru ($) 102 Free EduGamesResources:From Flipped to Gamified Classroom Learning!Gamification Wiki  Gamification Co10 Best Colleges for Game-Based LearningGamification CourseThe Gamification of Learning & Instruction (Book) ($)Gamification by Design (Book) ($)Web 2.0 Interactive Tools: A Quick Guide Game on? :)

LEARNING INNOVATION TALKS 03  (LIT03)The 3rd Learning Innovation Talks (LIT03) on the 22 May (2013) was organized by the International Medical University (IMU). This was the first LIT to be done fully online. And this is totally inline with IMU's 3I's, which are Insight, Imagination and Innovation.More about LIT History...Here is IMU's e-Learning Team that masterminded this successful mission....Congratulations!    As far as I know, this was also the first 1-Day Online Seminar held by a University in Malaysia. WE MADE HISTORY, TOO! Congratulations!Also, we would like to thank the WizIQ management and Dr. Nellie Deutsch for supporting the event by ensuring that the WizIQ platform was in tip-top condition for the online seminar. Finally, we would like to thank everyone involved in the online seminar for making it such a success, and that includes the IMU ITS personnel, speakers and participants. ONLINE SEMINARWOW! LIT03 was AWESOME! Not only my words...Just finished morning session of the Learning Innovation Talk 03. It was awesome @zaidlearn— Mommy Yina(@melamyra) May 22, 2013 kudos to @zaidlearn n team for #LIT03. Great speakers and awesome participants too!— Zainal Abidin Sayadi (@zainals) May 22, 2013 LIT03 was very fortunate to have a collection of exceptional educators and experts (8 Malaysians and 2 International) to start with, and they certainly lived up to that during LIT03. They were all exceptional, inspiring and unique in their own ways, so instead of me babbling about them, please enjoy the unedited recordings below of all the sessions during LIT03.RECORDINGS Click on the morning and afternoon session links (URLs) below to be rocked by awesome and inspiring LIT03 speakers:*Unedited versions below, so please skip the first 15 minutes for both session to view the online talks.*Edited versions will be published on YouTube in the coming weeks.LIT 03 Morning Session LIT 03 Afternoon Session  Click Here to view the LIT03 Resource page. All resources shared by the speakers can be found there.STATS & REFLECTIONS225 people from 21 countries registered for LIT03. As expected not everyone turned up (which is totally normal for free online events). For the morning session 89 participants turned up (39.6% out of 225), and 81 participants (36%) for the afternoon session. However, what I found most astonishing was where the registered participants are attached to...So, the promotion and awareness of LIT03 was really good (The LIT03 website: 3,100+ page-views).  67 participants at LIT03 fulfilled the attendance requirements to get the Digital 'Certificate of Attendance', and once they complete the evaluation and mystery quiz form, they will be e-mailed the certificates on the 29 May (2013). If we compare LIT03 to our previous Learning Webinar Series 2012, which had 12 world renowned educators giving online talks, LIT03 has been a SMASHING SUCCESS. None of the previous webinars organized by IMU last year (2012) reached more than 50+ participants (each session was for only one hour, too). However, LIT03 had 80+ participants for both morning and afternoon sessions (3 hours each), and 67 attended both. WOW!All IMU webinars since we started (Feb 2012) have had great local and International speakers, but besides good viral promotion, I believe the introduction of giving a digital certificate for (real) participation is an important extrinsic factor to increase the attendance.  Besides learning, people also want to get recognition for their attendance and participation.Compared to other educational webinar series around the world in terms of attendee numbers, we still have a long way to go. But, if we talk about quality, engagement and excitement, LIT03 was exceptional.Although, we had some technical glitches on the way, it was a memorable and inspiring learning event, which will be remembered for years to come by many of the participants and speakers (and those that watch the recordings).Overall, LIT03 was AWESOME! Why?Passionate Speakers, Active Participants and Great Organizers! The revealed triple secret to great online learning events! For all of you that participated in LIT03 and making it a success...Thank you! WE DID IT!Looking forward to LIT04 :)#LIT03 The ONE message echoed from all the awesome presenters is : "Technology is JUST a tool. Focus must be given to Pedagogy." :-)— Norhayati Maskat (@NorMaskat) May 22, 2013

Looking forward to facilitating a 2-day hands-on workshop entitled '21st Century Educators' at Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM) from 4-5 June, 2013. It is always fun to explore the past, present and future of learning and teaching with educators! Here we go:WORKSHOPThis 2-day hands-on workshop will explore the key ingredients to become a successful 21st century educator. We will actively look at how we can transform face-to-face (F2F) learning using the ‘Flipped Classroom’ and ‘Gamification’ methods.  Then we will explore how we can use social media, web 2.0 and iPads to engage students and development content. During the 2nd day, we will explore how we can reuse and remix Open Educational Resources (OER) for learning and teaching. Finally, we will explore the latest big trend in online learning known as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Participants will be engaged throughout the workshop with learning activities, including the gamified group challenge during the 2nd day. It will be fun, engaging, and participants will get a taste of how they can use technology to transform the learning process. LEARNING OUTCOMESAfter this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss the attributes (ingredients) of a 21st Century Educator.Apply Flipped Classroom and Gamification methods to your teaching and learning.Use Social Media/Web 2.0 to engage students and develop content.Use iPad for learning, teaching and content development.Find, reuse and remix Open Educational Resources (OER) for content development. PRESENTATION SLIDESPresentation slides for the 21st Century Educators workshop: 21st Century Educators Workshop at UTHM! from Zaid Alsagoff Click Here to download the PowerPoint version.CHALLENGEBelow is the big Group Project Challenge. Small learning challenges and activities will be revealed during the workshop.           RESOURCES DNA of a 21st Century EducatorDNA of a 21st Century Educator Simplified! Route 21 Brain Rules Bloom’s Digital Taxonomies IMU Webinar Series Brain-Targeted TeachingLearning Spaces Augmented Reality Resources IMU Student Blogging Project to Promote a Healthy Lifestyle!  Authentic Learning Tin Can ApiConstructive Alignment SETT Framework TPACK Framework Technogogy SAMR ModelFlipped Classroom & GamificationC2S2C Method: Gamifying Classroom Learning Tools Poll Everywhere Socrative (Student Login  -  Teacher Login)Infuse Learning (Student Login - Teacher Login)ResourcesThe 10,000 Hour Rule! Flipped Classroom (Infographic) Flipped Classroom (Video) Flipped Classroom The Full Picture (Jackie Gerstein) Game MechanicsGamification (Infographic) Mathland Case Study (Kate Fanelli) Mr. Pai and Gamification (Video) World Peace Game (John Hunter) Khan Academy BozemanScience (Paul Andersen) Western Oklahoma State College BadgesiPad for Learning & Teaching iPad for Learning & Teaching (Full) Best Starting Point for finding iPad Apps for learning & Teaching  *$: Means ‘NO FREE VERSION’LearningiTunes U TED Keeping Yourself Updated?Zite Feedly Flipboard Taking Notes? Notes Evernote Notability($) Annotate Notes & Documents? iBooks Subtext PaperPort Notes DocAS($) Pages($) Notability ($) Storing & Accessing Files? Dropbox Google Drive Box iCloud CreatingCreating Presentations?Haiku DeckPrezi CloudOnKeynote($) Tactilize MovenotePresenting Slides with Animations?SlideShark Keynote($)Writing Content?  EvernoteCloudOn  GoDocs($)Pages($)Creating, Editing & Sharing Images? SkitchFlickrExplain Everything($)Visualize($) Recording & Editing Videos? Videos VideoliciousiMovie($) FiLMiC Pro($) Creating Screencasts? Explain Everything($) Educreations ScreenChomp ShowMe Teach Doodlecast Pro($) Digital Story Telling?Animoto  VoiceThread Creating e-Books?Book Creator($) Book Writer($) Comic Life($) iBooks Author (for MAC only) CollaboratingTwitter Facebook Google+  LinkedIn Box Google Drive Edmodo PinterestAssessingPoll Everywhere Socrative Infuse LearningSocial Media for ResearchTwitterFacebookGoogle+ LinkedInSocial Curation ToolsZite Scoop.itDelicious DiigoPinterestFeedlyMore Curation Tools... Social Citation ToolsRefWorks MendeleyCiteulikeZotero WikiGoogle DocsGoogle SitesWikispacesWetpaintPbwikiBlogging BloggerWordPressTumblr CommunitiesResearchGate Methodspace Nature Network Academia.edu  Open AccessOpen Access (SlideShare) Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)More on Social Media Social Media For Research Twitter for Learning Facebook for Learning Blogging for Learning Empowering PLE Social Media & Web 2.0 for Learning Open Educational ResourcesEmbracing OER & MOOCs to TRANSFORM EDUCATION...?Google Custom Search OER Commons Why Open Education Matters! (Videos) OpenCourseWare Consortium MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW) OpenLearn (The Open University) All OCWOER MalaysiaCreative Commons (CC)Creative Commons Video (Qatar) Creative Commons (CC) Licenses CC License Selection ToolAuthoring ToolsSlideshare (slidecast example)PreziCreate Online Crossword Puzzles!WizIQ (web conferencing)Create Cartoons, Movies & Animations:XtranormalGo AnimateToondooDesktop Authoring Tools:CourselabExeUse your iPad to Create OER On-The-Fly:EducreationsExplain EverythingSocial Media Tools and tips200+ Learning ToolsMassive Open Online CoursesDemystifying MOOCs  Udacity Coursera edX FuturelearnUdemyMOOC2DegreeFour Barriers That MOOCs Must Overcome To Build a Sustainable ModelThe March of the MOOCs: Monstrous Open Online Courses MOOC ListCan't wait :)

CLICK HERE TO DISCOVER THE PROJECTINTRODUCTIONMISSIONThe mission of the '1-Minute Learning Nuggets'project is to explore and discover theart of creating 1-minute multimedia learning nuggets (or within the 1-minute spectrum: anywhere from 1 second to 1:59 min) , which are perfect for mobile learning or learning-on-the-fly.If we dissect a lecture or module (or whatever you want to call it). There are probably only 5-10 essential items (or chunks) in a lecture that really needs to be visualized into multimedia with audio narration to have an impact or simplify the learning for students. So, instead converting the whole lecture into multimedia with narration, why not focus our time on building quality learning nuggets that really matter.Not only will the learning nuggets be great for mobile learning, lecturers will have more time to focus on the critical content that needs to be converted to multimedia. And from a design-point-of-view, your content now also becomes more reusable beyond your lecture.NOTHING NEW!Creating learning nuggets, snippets, objects or chunks is nothing new! Today, Udacity prides itself for creating learning videos that on the average are one minute long (These learning snippets are then clustered into lessons). During the eLi3 Conference (in Saudi Arabia) I met Roger Schank, who told me during a short chat that people in general only pay real attention to something for max 1 and half minutes. Penn State University has something called the 60-second lecture series. Google demo videos today are usually no longer than one minute. And we can go on and on and on!Whether it is a trend or not, less content in smaller learning chunks makes sense in today's disruptive and busy world. But, we still need to figure out how to do this efficiently with effective learning output. In a nutshell, this project is about exploring and rethinking content design and discovering authoring  tools and methods to create learning nuggets perfect for mobile learning (or multi-device learning) and reuse. By doing so, we can empower and inspire educators at IMU and beyond to do the same!You are most welcome to join us on this adventure by creating your own learning nuggets and sharing with us how you did it. LEARNING NUGGET 01 - REFLECTIONThe introduction video to the 1-Minute Learning Nuggets Project  (above)  is certainly not perfect. After I uploaded it to YouTube, I noticed first that the picture frame was too aligned to the right (supposed to be in the middle). The audio was so, so! My drawing was simply ____! I was about to redo the introduction video, and then upload a better version to YouTube. But then I thought, let it be as it is, and use it for learning purposes. As this project evolves, it will be fun to look back at the first published learning nugget and see how much I have improved (or not).So, how did I create this first learning nugget (in brief)?Created a few slides in PowerPoint 2013.Converted the slides to PDF (to keep the images and text intact). I could have saved it as a 'PowerPoint Picture Presentation', but when importing that format (using PowerPoint 2013) into Explain Everything, the slides got messed up.The PDF version was then uploaded (synched) to Google Drive.Imported the PDF version into Explain Everything ($2.99 USD) on my iPad.Used Explain Everything on my iPad to record audio and add the visual animations to the slides. No headset with microphone was used. Sat in a reasonably quiet room to avoid background noise (a bit air-con noise can be heard). Not great audio, but not bad either!Once completed, the content was uploaded directly to YouTube from Explain Everything (cool feature).Mission accomplished! Alright, the output was only so, so. However, I did achieve one target, which was the 1 minute spectrum for a learning nugget (anywhere from 1 second to 1:59 min). The introduction video is: 1:59 min...WOW! That was a close call!Yes, I did prepare a script for the first learning nugget and even deleted a section (Nothing New! above) to meet the 1-minute spectrum target. Anyway, creating scripts (or just headers) for 1-minute learning nuggets is no big deal, compared to scripts for full-blown lectures. In general, if you can do it faster and more natural without a script, then skip it. However, if you can't get started, or keep on changing your mind on what to say, it could actually be faster to prepare a script before recording your learning nugget.  Try both ways to find your flavor to speed up the output and quality.Free alternatives tools to Explain Everything:Educreations ScreenChomp ShowMe Teach Explain Everything is a pretty cool and user-friendly iPad (only) authoring tool. It is not free, but $2.99 USD for a content authoring tool is pretty cheap if you compare to Articulate and Adobe products. Yes, these products have more features, but do we really need most them for creating learning nuggets? It depends...Stay tuned to my second learning nugget! Need to at least create one more learning nugget with Explain Everything, before I explore other free or cheap authoring tools to create learning nuggets. What authoring tools do you use to create learning nuggets? Do you create learning nuggets in the first place? Or are you still bombarding your learners with never ending 15 minute lectures online...How learning times have changed :)

Just completed my second Learning Nugget (LN) entitled: 'How to Become an Expert?'! Oops, I failed the the golden 1-minute spectrum rule (1:59 minutes or less)! This learning nugget is 2:52 minutes! But, besides that this one is certainly an improvement compared to the first one. CLICK HERE to visit the 1-Minute Learning Nuggets Project site.LEARNING NUGGET 01 In my next learning nugget, I will explore another authoring tool. Stay tuned for that! Now, let's reflect in brief how this learning nugget was developed...TOOLS USED?Tools used to create this learning nugget:iPadPowerPoint (2013) Google Drive Explain EverythingReferences used:How to be an expert? (diagram)The 10,000 Hour Rule!(Infographic)HOW?This is how this learning nugget was created (in brief):Created quickly a visual storyboard in PowerPoint (2013). No narration scripts were created this time. Created or mashed-up all the graphics in PowerPoint (2013). 'Remove Background', 'Group' (items) and 'Save as Picture'  are really useful PowerPoint features to cook up your own graphics.Graphics created or mashed-up were grouped (if needed) and then saved using the 'Save as Picture' feature to PNG format to keep the background transparent.All the graphics were then uploaded (synched) to Google Drive.This time around, I imported the graphics from Google Drive to respective slides using the Explain Everything authoring tool on my iPad (It supports direct import from Dropbox, Evernote, iTunes and WebDAV, too).Used Explain Everything on my iPad to record audio (and video for one slide), and add the visual animations to the slides (concurrently). No headset with microphone was used. Sat in a reasonably quiet room to avoid background noise.Once completed, the content was published directly to YouTube from Explain Everything (cool feature).Mission accomplished! LESSONS LEARNED!Creating learning nuggets is fun! Alright, this time around, I failed the 1-minute learning nugget spectrum (2:52 minutes). But, besides that, I have to admit that progress is being made. I still have got a long way to create WOW, but at least there is progress (Step-by-step!). Explain Everything ($2.99 USD only) is a pretty cool authoring tool for creating learning nuggets.I really like the Explain Everything feature that empowers you to add video (head), while you present. It can be re-sized and placed anywhere on the screen. You can even run more than one video at once, while recording. Also, you can import videos, and even annotate on the video itself while playing during your recording. This is great for illustration, and when you want to highlight certain aspects in a video, while it is in motion. Thumbs up for that! Though, it should be made simpler to re-record (or edit) your video within your presentation. Otherwise, you have to always delete and create a new one, when you are not happy with the initial recording. My total production time was roughly 2 hours 30 minutes:Visual Storyboarding (20 min)Finding and mashing-up Graphics (30 min)Slide Creation in Explain Everything (10 min)Recording audio and animation (80 min)Publishing (10 min)Based on this data, obviously I need to improve the 'recording audio and animation' phase, and that is mostly because I didn't prepare a narration script. As I began recording, ideas started flowing on how to improve what I was saying here and there. In other words, next time I might as well create a narration script, which should not take more than 10-30 minutes (for a 1-minute learning nugget), and then the recording phase can be done faster (say 10-20 minutes). Best case scenario, I could save between 30 - 60 minutes on that phase alone. My target is to create quality 1-minute multimedia learning nuggets from scratch in less than an hour.  That's enough reflection for now! Stay tuned for Learning Nugget 02! What authoring tool should I explore next?

How can we write learning outcomes in more creative ways to stimulate the learner's mind to think, explore and learn? Let's explore:SlideSpeech Version:Explain Everything Version (On YouTube): Which version do you prefer? Or are both crap?SLIDESPEECHWhatever your opinion is, SlideSpeech (Invented by John Graves) with its' text-to-speech engine (converting all text in your 'Add Notes' sections in your PowerPoint slides), is a pretty cool and fast authoring tool to create audio-narrated presentations, which you can share on-the-fly.  You simply need to write the script for your slides and add them to the 'Add Notes' sections in your PowerPoint presentation. Then, you upload the presentation slides to SlideSpeech. Within minutes (or seconds for me!), the audio narrated presentation is ready to be shared to the world. It even empowers you to download the video version (zip-file format, too), and also auto-generates the QR Code for the URL to the online version. Cool!   Currently, they have a female and male voices for English, and one male for German. Here is a short introduction about  SlideSpeech:Once your slides with notes are uploaded to SlideSpeech, you can edit further by changing the voice speed, pitch, add gestures and even record or upload audio (voiceover). You can even add interactivity (after the presentation) in the form of multiple choice questions, but this feature is still very basic and has some bugs, too (at least it feels, so!).COMPARISONS & REFLECTIONSTo feel the difference, I created basically the same presentation (YouTube version above) using Explain Everything on my iPad. Production TimeIn terms of production time, SlideSpeech version was done within minutes after completing the presentation and script. Since it doesn't support animation, I did have to create different slides for each animation or change, and to avoid text and animation running in the slides, I saved the presentation to 'PowerPoint Picture Presentation'. To my surprise, all the script was lost when saved to picture presentation, so I had to copy/paste again all the script from the PowerPoint version (original one) slide-by-slide (Grrr!).On the other hand, with 'Explain Everything' I important all the slides or items (as graphics), and then needed to record the audio. This took actually more than one hour. So, in terms of production speed, SlideSpeech wins big time!Audio SlideSpeech is especially great if your English _____! Though, the output does sound still a bit robotic, and although you can manipulate the voice pitch, speed and gestures (e.g. Add: yeah+), I still prefer a human voice with passion and human touch (of mistakes) when possible.Having said that, people who speak _____ or have little time to convert their narration scripts into audio are going to love SlideSpeech.AnimationSlideSpeech is still very limited in this area. This is where Explain Everything is so exciting and flexible. You have this white-space, and basically only your imagination limits what you can do there in terms of drawing, moving stuff from here and there with your fingers (if you are using an iPad), adding video, etc.  This is an area, where SlideSpeech could learn a trick or two from tools such as Articulate Presenter and Storyline.Interactivity Both are pretty limited in terms of adding interactivity and assessment. SlideSpeech does allow you to create one multiple choice question after your presentation, but that is basically it. This feature seems to be under construction now.  PublishingExplain Everything allows you to publish directly to YouTube and other famous online cloud-based storage sites out there such as iTunes, Evernote, Dropbox, Google Drive, etc. SlideSpeech allows you to download the presentation as a video (and zip-file), and I really love the speed in which the audio-narrated presentation is ready just after upload...within seconds. The auto-generation of QR code is also cool. It would be cool if SlideSpeech presentations could be synched and uploaded directly to YouTube, too. OverallOverall, John Graves has done a great job with SlideSpeech, and it will be interesting to see how this tool evolves. It is still very much a tool under construction. So, I am looking forward to the new features. Just hope that SlideSpeech remains free for a while longer!Also, I wouldn't be surprised to see text-to-speech technology being infused into other PowerPoint-enhancement tools like Articulate Presenter. GoAnimate and Xtranormal are already using text-to-speech technology, so why aren't more PowerPoint enhancement tools doing it? Don't they realize that many can't stand their own voices, or speak good English!    1-MINUTE SPECTRUMFinally, I have come to realize that my 1-minute learning nugget challenge is getting too tough (for all kinds of content). So, now I am thinking perhaps learning nuggets should be within a 3-minute spectrum. Just like a song, but no longer!CLICK HERE to discover more learning nuggets.I am still learning :)

Looking forward to my upcoming 1/2 day seminar at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) on the 28th June, 2013. Also, looking forward to do at least 3 social media experiments with the participants, and it will be interesting to see how they respond to the challenges.SEMINAR DESCRIPTIONToday, more than a Billion people use Facebook, and more than 200 million use Twitter actively to connect, network, interact and share with one another. YouTube receives more than 4 Billion video views per day, millions of people blog, and there are more than 14 million articles on Wikipedia. Social Media today is impacting every aspect of our lives whether it is our social, working, education or family life. However, what about using social media for academic research and sharing scientific knowledge? For example today, many doctors are using various Social Media tools to share and discuss their latest research with their fellow professionals and the public. By doing so, their work is sometimes being peer-reviewed and promoted by hundreds of experts around the world, empowering a more impactful learning and research experience. During this half-day seminar, we will explore various social media tools we can use to discover new knowledge, collaborate with other researchers, and promote our research within and beyond the academic world. During the hands-on sessions, we will explore actively Facebook, Twitter, Blogs, Wikis, and various social curation tools. LEARNING OUTCOMESAfter this seminar, you will be able to:Discuss how you can use Social Media effectively for the full academic research cycle;Use social curation tools to discover new knowledge and research;Connect, network and collaborate with other researchers and people using Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+;Share your research work through blogs and other social media tools; andCollaborate on research projects with others using Wikis.PRESENTATION SLIDESPresentation slides for the seminar: Social Media for Research & Knowledge Sharing from Zaid Alsagoff RESOURCESHere are the links (URLs) to all the important resources/tools discussed:DISCOVERCreative Commons (CC) License Selection ToolCreative Commons (CC) Intro Video (Arabic & English Versions)CC Comparison Table  Was The 'DNA of a 21st Century Educator' Plagiarised in China?Social Curation/Bookmarking ToolsSocial Citations/Referencing Tools:- RefWorks  - Mendeley  - Citeulike  - Zotero  - End Note  Twitter- Hashtags- Twitter for Learning (SlideShare)- Using Twitter in University research, teaching and impact activitiesGoogle ScholarRESEARCHFacebook- Facebook Groups- Learning Innovation Circle (LIC) Facebook Group- Facebook Pages- Facebook for Learning (SlideShare)Google+LinkedIn- LinkedIn MapsWikis for Learning- WikiversityWiki Development Tools?- Mediawiki- Google Docs- Google Sites- Wikispaces- PbwikiBlogging = e-PortfolioBlogging Tools?- Blogger- WordPress- TumblrBlogging Examples:- The University of British Columbia- Oxford Science blog - Oldaily (Newsletter) Survey Tools:- Google Forms- Qualtrics- Polldaddy - Survey Monkey  PEER-REVIEWResearchGate  Methodspace Nature Network  MedPedia  Academia.edu  colwiz PUBLISHOpen Access (SlideShare)Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)Video Sharing Sites:- YouTube Education (or YouTube)- iTunes U- MEDtube  - Vimeo  - TEDEd  - Teacher Tube  Presentation Sharing Sites:- SlideShare- Prezi - SlideRocket- Haiku Deck - Brainshark - Slideboom File Sharing Sites:- Google Drive- Dropbox- TeamBox- Box- iCloud- SkyDriveeBook Authoring/Publishing toolsSocial Media: A Guide for ResearchersWeb 2.0 Research Tools: A Quick GuideNewcastle University Social Media Guide  SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERIMENTS1. #USMcool Hashtag2. Facebook Group3. Google DocumentLooking forward to discover how USM is using social media to amplify and promote their research adventures :) 

"Awesomely Simple and Powerful!"- Zaid Ali Alsagoff(What are you waiting for?)PADLET?Padlet (early known as Wallwisher) gives you a blank wall, and you can basically put anything you want on it, anywhere. Simple, yet powerful.It basically empowers people to express their thoughts on a common topic easily. It works like an online sheet of paper where people can put any content (e.g. images, videos, documents, text) anywhere on the page, together with anyone, from any device.Here is a video tutorial to get you started: YouTube version:Yes, you can even use it to present (or curate) learning content. I am not kidding:Created with PadletPOWERFUL?This is why Padlet is simple, yet powerful:Easy-to-Use Simple interface, double click to add posts (or double tap for touch screens), drag and drop, auto save, etc.  WOW!  Instant CollaborationEveryone's activity can be seen on the wall instantly. Page reloads is history.MultimediaYou can add any kind of file/links - videos, images, documents. You can paste links (URLs) to (YouTube) videos (view-able from the wall). Can drag a document from your computer. Can take pictures with your computer devices.  EmbeddableYou can embed a wall in blogs and other websites (How?).Privacy You are empowered to keep the wall(s) private by adding password lock or specific email addresses. You can also moderate posts, by requiring approval by one of the moderators before they show up on the wall for the other readers.ExportingYou can export your Walls to PDF, Excel, and CSV formats with a single click.Customized URLEvery wall has an unique URL that you can give out. You can now also customize the ending of your URL to your Wall (E.g. http://padlet.com/wall/myawesomewall) or your Domain URL (E.g. http://myawesomewall.com ).NotificationsYou can get e-mail notifications on updates to your wall, or subscribe to them via RSS.Design & LayoutsYou can easily spice up the backgrounds with all sorts of cool designs and images. You can change your layout to 'Stream' to view group discussions more structured (linear chat like format, with time-stamps of when someone commented).Check out Padlet's user guide (Knowledge Base) to discover more.FOR LEARNING?What about Padlet for learning and teaching?While you don't need brains to use Padlet, you might need to stretch your imagination to realize how easy and powerful this tool could be to empower and energize collaborative learning experiences. Here are some examples on how Padlet can be used for:Ice breaker to get to know one another (Participants/Students upload photos of themselves and then write one or two sentences for others to get to know them better).  Brainstorming ideas, problem-solving, decision-making, or solutions.Q&A sessions before/during/after a lecture or class.Open-ended (formative) question or reflection sessions, where students all share their answers on the Padlet wall;Noticeboards or making course announcements.Bookmarking and curating resources or video playlists. Group/Class/Community Discussions.Adventure and travel maps (field trips). Developing a website. Etc.Let's not stop there, why not explore Padlet as a potential tool for organizing a student's e-portfolio.Actually, if we stretch our imagination even further, we could perhaps use Padlet even for an entire class (or even course) from the lecture (or lesson) to the assignment (Full Article):Lesson/Lecture/Tutorial Researching, collecting and curating content for your lesson does not have to be a tiresome task across folders, sites, emails and links.Group DiscussionUse Padlet for a group discussion before/during/after a lecture (or class).FeedbackYour lecture is coming to an end and you want to take check the students’ understanding of the subject or topic.Assignments/ProjectsStudents can work individually or as groups using Padlet. For example, each group sets up a wall that discusses or visualizes their project, which can later be made available to the other students when completed. You can even make it a competition!Whether you want to use Padlet for everything in online learning is probably a bit extreme, but no doubt this tool can be used in many creative ways to engage learners and have some fun while learning takes place.ALTERNATIVE TOOLS?If you want an alternative tool to teach a class or share digital content with activities, I would probably recommend Edcanvas (for now), which provides more structure, control, features and even provides a quiz engine with reporting.If you want a dedicated tool for collaborative bookmarking or social curation of online resources, I  would recommend Pinterest or Scoop.it instead. Though, if you want a simple and powerful tool to easily break the ice (of new group), brainstorm, share ideas and have some quick fun...Padlet is my tool to the rescue :)

ONLINE TALKIMU Webinar Series is back! The first speaker for this round (11:30 am, 28 Aug) will be Nor Fadzleen Sa'don, who gave an inspiring online talk during LIT03 about innovative ways we can reinvent dynamic and lively learning environment in Malaysian schools. In this webinar session, she will share some insights about Harvard Summer School (which she recently attended), and the teaching and learning ecosystem in Harvard University. Please take the time to join us to discover Nor Fadzleen Sa'don's journey to innovate learning and teaching.WEBINAR DETAILSTitle: Hacking Harvard: My Teaching & Learning ExperienceDate: 28 August (Wednesday)Time: 11:30 AM, Kuala Lumpur timePlatform: WizIQCLICK HERE to view the webinar recording.(Please skip the first 20 minutes of the recording to go straight to Nor Fadzleen Sa'don's talk...The edited version will be made available soon.)Description:"This talk will mainly focus on Harvard Summer School and the teaching and learning ecosystem in Harvard University. I will share the syllabi, projects and case studies that encompass High Order Thinking Skills and the importance of having fun with innovative ideas. At the end of the talk, I hope the knowledge sharing session would ignite the passion of ongoing learning and rediscovering ways we can teach and learn effectively." - Nor Fadzleen Sa'donSpeaker:Nor Fadzleen Sa'don is currently a fulltime postgraduate student, majoring in IT Management at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Prior to this, she taught for 11 years as a Master Teacher of English Language at local government school in Johor. Her research focuses on VLE governance and implementation in Malaysian schools. She is the committee member of Malaysian Educational Technology Association (META). Her main interests are E-Learning, Creativity, Materials Development and Systems Thinking. Discover more about the speaker here:Twitter ID: @nfadzleen Website: Learn, Teach, Love SlideShare: Presentations LinkedIn Although, we don't take official registration for this webinar session, we have set up a Padlet Wall for you to register creatively and perhaps say hi to the speaker and even ask a question before the webinar:Created with Padlet5 Important lessons, I learned from this inspiring talk by Nor Fadzleen Sa'don about Harvard Summer School:At Harvard you are encouraged to learn, think and have group discussions outdoors. Class participation is highly valued. 30% of the course evaluation is based on student's class participation (at least for Nor's 2 courses). Students learn through attending/facilitating workshops, giving presentations and doing projects on real companies or ideas that can be applied to the real world. A lot of emphasis is given on students to speak up, articulate and share their ideas, opinions and thoughts. Students are required to mostly find their own resources for the learning activities, and spoon-feeding or regurgitation of the Professors' notes is simply a No No! The Professors are not there to tell you what is right and wrong, but to provoke you to think and challenge one another to find your own path in a myriad of possibilities. You have to be prepared to get constructive feedback from your peers and Professors at all times. Finally, although learning is tough at Harvard, you are recommended to have fun while you try to innovate or find creative solutions to the biggest problems and issues that the world is facing today.And amazingly, Nor Fadzleen Sa'don attended Harvard Summer School while fasting, and one of her team project reports scored the highest (Al-Hamdulilla). Insya-Allah, she is destined to do great things for education in Malaysia and beyond :)

by Jennie Ruby    I got an interesting call from my friend Samantha S. the other day. She was in the car and passed a Ruth's Chris Steak House. Wait a minute, she thought. If Chris owned a steak house, and then Ruth bought it from him, shouldn't the name be Ruth's Chris's Steak House? As she discussed the question with her car-mates, they speculated whether there was a rule against having two possessive words in a row, each with an apostrophe. Since there were no grammarians in the car, I received the call. First, I verified (via Wikipedia) that Ruth did indeed buy a steakhouse previously owned by Chris. The name of that steakhouse? Chris Steakhouse. Why not Chris's Steakhouse or Chris' Steakhouse? Was the owner grammatically challenged? Or was there possibly a method to his madness? One clue is that there is a tradition in English of sometimes using a name as an identifier or label, instead of treating the name as the owner of an item. Thus, the Joneses' house may be called simply the Jones house. You may especially notice this in historic houses, such as the Calvert House Inn, located in College Park, Maryland, or the Warfield Building at the hospital where my mother worked, or the Stephen D. Lee Home Museum in Columbus, Mississippi. Thus Chris's Steakhouse becomes Chris Steakhouse (although without the word the. Hmmm. And Chris was his first name.) Another related fact may be this one. I recently read an article on Merriam-Webster.com about why we may sometimes say "probly" instead of "probably." The article said that in the spoken language we tend to omit duplicate syllables. So "prob-bob-ly" becomes "probly." In the same way, "Chris-es Steakhouse" may become "Chris Steakhouse." So the reason for the single apostrophe in Ruth's Chris Steakhouse is not from any particular grammar rule about two apostrophes. But now that I 've said that, what is the rule for compound possessive? Are we allowed to say something like this?  The dog's collar's buckle is broken. Maybe we would change dog's collar into dog collar[identifier instead of possessive] or revise the sentence: The dog collar's buckle is broken. The buckle on the dog's collar is broken. But I don't see any need to change this one:  Cathy's mother's name is Sue. In 10 pages of rules about possessives, my grammar book does not seem to address this question either way. So I put it to you, dear readers. Which way shall we go on these examples? The book's cover's paper was worn. The widow's son's car was totaled. My father's favorite cousin's visit was scheduled for May. Sam's dog's collar is broken. My best friend's car's tires are all flat. The software's manual's page's numbers were too small. The island's tallest tree's trunk was covered with moss. As always, please post your answers below as comments. *** Answers to the Challenge on Which versus That The winners of this week's challenge, with all answers correct, are (in no particular order) Jay Herman, Kay Honaker, Trudy Dave, Gail A. Kelleher, Geri Moran, Christine Larson, Jenny Zoffuto, Julie Sharma, and Lorna McLellan. These answers to which versus that are brought to you by Lorna McLellan and Kay Honaker: The east coast weather, which had been unseasonably cold, finally warmed up. A pile of snow lingered until recently on one side of the parking lot. That snow, which had been piled there by the snowplow back in March, finally melted. Joggers' shorts and tank tops that had been languishing in closets all winter finally made an appearance this weekend. (Alternative answer by Kay Honaker: Joggers' shorts and tank tops, which had been languishing in closets all winter, finally made an appearance this weekend.*) The spring bird that arrived back before all of the others was the white-throated sparrow. The tree that showed the earliest buds of spring was the maple. Our one and only cherry tree, which had been pruned carefully last fall, bloomed magnificently last week. The only bush that did not make it through the winter intact was the rhododendron in the exposed northwest corner of the yard. *I had already decided number 3 could go either way, depending on whether joggers had used their shorts at the indoor track all winter, when I found Julie Sharma's perfect explanation in the next email message I opened: "This could go either way: which, meaning the weather was so bad that no joggers' shorts or tank tops were worn all winter; that, meaning those shorts and tank tops that languished in closets--some might have been worn to the gym, for example, even in the winter." Krista Allen made another interesting comment on number 2: "My main reason for selecting "which" was to eliminate the double usage of "that." I'm not sure if that's the grammatically correct answer, but "That snow that had..." sounds clunky and desperately in need of a thesaurus." You are right about the fact that the word that is redundant here--not because it is duplicated, but because the specific snow has already been precisely identified by the first use of that, so a second one is incorrect. But it is sometimes correct to use two thats in a row: From Lincoln's Gettysburg address: "We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live." 

  En Nuestro cuarto episodio, abordamos los siguientes temas: 1- Historias destacadas de la semana a- Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) y Adobe Creative Cloud. Un lanzamiento exitoso, nuevas características, la importancia de estas características así como también la importancia de la nube para el aprendizaje móvil y algunas desventajas. Puedes encontrar más información en este post: "The New Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) is a Sign of the Mobile Times" (RJ Jacquez). También, algunas aplicaciones como Adobe Photoshop Touch, Adobe Proto, Adobe Collage, Adobe Kuler y comentarios acerca de la ausencia de Adobe Captivate de la Adobe Creative Suite. b- Google Drive: un servicio de almacenamiento en la nube y sincronización de archivos que puede utilizarse a través de distintos dispositivos. 2- La revolución del video: algunas estadísticas 3- Mejores prácticas y el uso actual de videos en el aprendizaje móvil 4- SceneChat: videos más interactivos. Puedes encontrar un ejemplo de la implementación de esta tecnología aquí: #eLearnChat 44 5- Khan Academy, el aula al revés (the Flipped classroom) y las lecciones de TED-ed: educación basada en videos 6- Aplicaciones de la Semana: iA Writer. Your browser does not support the audio element.

In this webinar we'll discuss how to make the performance review process less painful by focusing on continuous feedback and learning opportunities. View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.

Great article from Harvard Business.org - (via Big Dog, Little Dog) ...Overcome ObjectionsWhy Doing Things Half Right Gives You the Best ResultsOne key idea is when rolling something out ... :Halfway through each training, after describing the process, I always asked the same question: Why won't this work for you?Then he overcomes the objections one by one by allowing modification of what is planned. Clearly, we can't always do this in our role, but certainly asking the question is a great idea. In fact, when I do presentations, this is often the question that really gets audiences going. And I've said before that they are really good at defining the barriers. I need to get better at enlisting them to overcome those barriers.Embrace ChaosThis reminds me a bit of the adoption trick of letting everyone know how chaotic things are going to be when the new system rolls out. The more you trumpet, almost celebrate, the chaos and the problems - the more people are willing to help to make it happen.FlexibilitySo maybe this gets me back to the same bottom line that the author has ...Make it half a solution or a partial solution or a flexible solution so that it can be adopted in ways that work for the individuals who have to do it. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

"Fifteen years from now more than half of the universities will be in bankruptcy, including the state schools (in US)" - Clayton Christensen Kodak? Walkman (Sony)? Are we ready for the changes required to survive the disruptive and global learning innovations invading the world of education today?Looking forward to my talk and participating in the 2nd Blended Learning Symposium on 28 November 2013 at UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur. Al-Hamdulilla, life is getting back to normal, and looking forward to Insya-Allah a productive period in the coming months exploring new ideas to spark the learning brain back to life. However, first let's...TALKThis talk, focuses first on Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and how they will play a critical role in triggering Higher Education institutions around the world to accelerate the urgency to innovate their learning and teaching models. The second half of the talk will focus on how we can transform the students’ learning experiences using a blended approach infusing Flipped Classroom, Brain-Designed learning, Gamification, more authentic assessment methods, etc.MISSION IMPOSSIBLE?1 Super Brain Yoga session, 2 online activities, 2 short videos and 92 slides in 60 minutes (including 15 minutes for Q&A). Mission impossible? Not really, because my mission is not to finish, but trigger participants to rethink how they learn and teach in a disruptive, uncertain and learning overloaded world. Mission accomplished...Insya-Allah :)  ONLINE ACTIVITIESCHALLENGE 1Go to this PADLET URL: http://padlet.com/wall/ucsi13.DOUBLE CLICK/TAP anywhere on the wall.Add your NAME.WRITE anything (Question, Idea, Comment, etc.).Add a PICTURE of you, or the event (Optional). CONGRATULATIONS!!!CHALLENGE 2Go to the SOCRATIVE Student Login site: http://m.socrative.com/student/Enter the room number: 331107Choose your favorite (team) COLOR.Wait for me to start the SPACE RACE.Did Your Team WIN?Did you get all CORRECT?SLIDES Blending Quality Learning to Survive the MOOC Invasion from Zaid Alsagoff Happy and grateful to be back, Al-Hamdulilla :)

by Tony Self   It doesn't quite sound believable, but it's true. In 21st Century Australia, there isn't a standard national rail gauge. (Gauge is the gap between railway tracks.) In some states, narrow gauge is used, in others broad gauge, and ironically in just one state, standard gauge. This means that rail cars and locomotives can't travel between states. This schmozzle started in 1847, before the independent colonies of the Australia continent became states in a federated nation in 1901. It was in 1847 that the first railway lines (in South Australia) were built. It started well, with a decision by the British Government's Secretary of State for the Colonies that all colonies should adopt standard gauge. But what does this obscure historical anecdote have to do with technical communication? Let's think standards, and how standard adoption by an industry can go horribly wrong with enormous, long-term financial consequences. A private company building a railway line in New South Wales lobbied for the standard to be changed to broad gauge. Broad gauge became the new standard in 1854. A year later, the chief rail track engineer in New South Wales was replaced, and the new chief convinced the New South Wales government to unilaterally change the NSW "standard" back to standard gauge. And the same pattern continued until there was no standard left. You may be awestruck by these decisions, but in context, having a standard made little difference. Australia is a big continent, and the mooted railway lines were short and were contained well within the colony. There were no plans for railway lines to cross borders, so as long as all lines within a colony used the same gauge, there would be no problem. There are many standards in technical communication, and their adoption is haphazard and parochial, to put it kindly.ISO/IEC 82079 is an international standard for technical communication, covering all types of product, software, and service related instructions for use. ISO/IEC 26514 provides requirements for the design and development of software user documentation. Both these standards arouse very little discussion in online forums or at technical communication conferences. The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards, OASIS, approved the DITA standard in 2005, and although its adoption is growing, it is still nowhere near widespread in technical communication. Are technical communicators generally reluctant to adopt standards? It is undeniable that technical communicators love some standards, such as spelling and grammar, and argue strongly for the benefits of such language standards and conventions. But it seems to me that beyond language standards, we collectively show the same attitudes as the late 19th century colonial railway engineers. The consequences of the Australian railway gauge decisions are still being felt, and paid for, 130 years later. Interstate tracks are slowly being changed to standard gauge, often by duplicating tracks. Blame for the decisions of the late 1800s is often sheeted to "politics." Rivalries between companies and colonies and even individuals, power struggles, and deep-seated prejudices were the cause. We have to be non-standard because our requirements are special. These same arguments are used by some technical communicators to avoid adoption of standards and as an excuse to implement a custom solution. Perhaps we, as a profession, need to move beyond the politics of standards and work together in a standard way. Have anything to add when it comes to standards in technical communication? Feel free to post your comments below.

This Q&A Thursday video discusses steps to incorporate 3rd-party training content with an existing training program. Plus, what to look for in third party content to ensure success!     Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 5,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   Harnessing the Power of Online Video to Improve Employee Training This free ebook discusses the rising trend of short video usage, and gives you reasons for why your employee training program should use online video training. BizLibrary's Mobile Learning App meets the needs of today's digital learners. Employees no longer wait for training departments to push learning content to them. Employees are used to pulling information to themselves, when they need it, on their own terms and conditions, and on their own devices. - See more at: /technology/bizmobile.aspx#sthash.umjsk4e5.dpuf Video Transcription   Hi, Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing with BizLIbrary and today's Q&A comes from Sarah. She's an HR manager from a mid-sized professional services company and she has a question about something that everybody that does employee training and development confronts at some time or another and it has to do with training content. She wants to know: are there effective ways to incorporate third party content into an existing training program?   And I want to start with a fundamental statement about that, about the value of incorporating third party content. You can increase the reach of your training significantly by using an online solution. Typically when we're talking about our own content we're talking about instructor-led content we develop on our own. One course, one learning object at a time. We bring in a third party to help us out, we gain access to a whole range of resources that we simply don't have the time and resources to generate. So right out of the shoot, we gain access to an enormous volume of resources that we're never going to have time to pull together.   So how do we incorporate these resources into our program? Well, the first thing you want to do is identify areas where you have the need to improve performance. And stay focused on that! Stay focused on the need to improve performance. Don't get bogged down with doing a needs analysis. All you're going to focus on there is training inputs. What you want to focus on are training outcomes. And that's improved performance. Focus there, and you're going to start to really find places where that third party content can really start to make a difference.   We also want to make sure you're looking for, as you're looking at third partners, look for selection. Do you have a broad selection of content? Do you have a selection of different styles of content? What's the quality of the content that's available to you? And how's the content going to be delivered? Can this content be delivered on a mobile platform? Can my employees get at it any way they want to, any time they're at, on any device of their choosing?   And I don't do this very often in our blogs, but I'm going to today. Cue shameless plug: BizLibrary has the solution - the BizLibrary Collection that I would invite you to take a free trial of. If you're considering third party content for your solution, this could be a great opportunity for you. So, when you're contemplating incorporating third party content into your training solution, make sure you focus on areas for improved performance, make sure you're picking a solution with a great selection, great quality, and the ability to deliver it to your employees anytime, anywhere, on the devices of their choosing.

Mayra Aixa Villar: As Instructional Designers, every day, we look for that spark of inspiration that can help us design our next eLearning project. We strongly believe in simple but still engaging designs, and for that reason, we’re always trying to find creative ideas to present learning content in order to get our message across. By reading about different techniques, trying different tools and exploring mobile apps, it’s amazing how much new insight one can gain. Our main goal is to transform any piece of information into an endearing, meaningful learning experience. This is why I agree with Kasper Spiro as he makes a case for finding a new metaphor for eLearning: I’m convinced that we have to find a new metaphor for e-Learning in order to bring e-Learning to the next level. The old book-metaphor with chapters and pages is well suited for linear courses, but it doesn’t work for more flexible individual approaches of e-Learning. via A new methaphor for e-Learning - Challenge to learn. In my opinion, the need to look for new metaphors for learning becomes even more crucial if we seek to make a successful transition from eLearning to mobile learning (mLearning). Because of that constant pursuit of new ideas, metaphors and new tools, what started as a simple project in order to try out the shiny new Articulate Storyline product, ended up being an interesting demo that includes plenty in the way of interactivity. Easy-to-use triggers, powerful interactive objects as well as slide layers allowed me to create an interactive infographic with a software application that as Tom Kuhlmann describes it, democratizes eLearning. Rapid elearning played a role in the evolution of elearning mostly because it took course creation out of the hands of a few programmers and placed it into the hands of anyone who wanted to create a course. I see this as the democratization of elearning. And it runs parallel to how digital media’s empowered people all over the world to create and deliver content using a host of online tools and social media applications. via The Next Generation of E-Learning » The Rapid eLearning Blog. RJ Jacquez: I continue to be very impressed with the new Articulate Storyline product. I’m especially impressed with how straightforward it is to publish any project for consumption on the iPad using the new Articulate Mobile Player iPad app. During my last year at Adobe, one of the questions I heard over and over, was how could eLearning developers enable learners to consume learning content on their iPads. I believe Articulate has been able to address this need with the launch of Storyline and their iPad app. Obviously mobile means much more than the iPad, and much work needs to be done beyond an iPad app, but I think having an iPad strategy is an excellent start and I expect that Articulate will continue to strengthen their mobile learning story in future versions of Storyline and Studio. The other challenge we have as we continue to embrace mobile learning is thinking outside the eLearning box. I have written before that it’s human nature to bring existing principals we feel comfortable with, as we face new paradigm shifts. In eLearning and mLearning terms, this means that as we transition to mLearning, it might seem obvious to try and apply what has traditionally worked in eLearning into the smaller screen, but I would advice against that. Instead we need to figure out new ways of engaging the next generation of mobile learners. This is why I liked the interactive infographic project that Mayra shared with me because it shows that she’s starting to think outside the eLearning box, as she looks for new ways to present content. I also found it very interesting just how much one can do using very few slides in Storyline. I have been looking for an opportunity to do a screencast on some of the features I really like about Storyline and also demo the ease with which one can publish a project for consumption on the iPad using the Articulate Mobile Player app. Below are two screencasts I recorded using this infographic project. The first is an overview of Articulate Storyline based on my experience with Adobe Captivate, and the second is a demo of how to publish for iPad and, what it’s like to interact with the content using the app. In closing, if you have an iPad and want to try this infographic project yourself click the button below using your iPad’s mobile safari browser. I recommend you watch the videos first in order to better understand the entire process:   Please check them out and let us know what you think.          

"Learning speed matters for watching videos, too! The Rewind and Forward buttons are not enough!" - Zaid Ali AlsagoffLEARNING SPEEDDo you read fast? Say, 400 words per minute. Or perhaps you read more than a 1000 words per minute! Or perhaps your reading speed is really slow (250 words or less)? Can you imagine if you were forced to read at a specific pace to learn, wouldn't that be terrible? What about when watching learning videos, doesn't the same apply here? It is great that we can rewind and forward learning videos, but wouldn't it be cool if we had tools to control the pace of the talking professor (or whatever we are listening or watching). Some Professors speak so slowly that they put us to sleep even before they start. Some MIT and Harvard Professors speaks so fast only aliens and 'IQ' geniuses can understand. And that is when perhaps we need to slow down the pace to decipher their super complex algorithms explained at the word of light (Well, we still might not understand, but at least we can capture the words said).   Alright, auto-translated audio to text (in multiple languages) is fine, but I like to listen also the passionate voice of the Professor, too (even if he or she might sound like Mickey Mouse when paced faster).COURSERA GETS IT!Have you ever taken a Coursera course? If you have, you might have noticed that you can decrease (.75x) or increase up to two times the speed (2x) of the learning videos, so that you can pace it to your liking. Personally, I would like it to be even more flexible, so that we can increase the speed further to even three times or more. For example, blind people can usually listen extremely fast to narrated speech, so 2 times faster might seem quite slow for their preferred learning speed pace. Also, I would like to highlight here that I can't see the video pace buttons, or know how to speed it up on my iPad (Only on my laptop!), so that is kind of frustrating! So, Coursera what are you doing about that?  YouTube gets it, too! It even allows you to slowdown to 0.25 (though, sound seems to only work from 0.5 and upwards) and increase up to 2 times the original video speed. Though, I would love to be able to increase the video speed further, especially for people with accessibility issues and super learners!ARTICULATE What about Rapid e-Learning tools such as Articulate Presenter, Articulate Storyline, Camtasia and Captivate? Do they empower you to speed up the video pace to your personalized learning speed? Well, Articulate player interfaces don't, and that is a shame. As we at our University (IMU) use Articulate tools a lot, we would like to see such features embedded really soon.To speed up the process, I tweeted my request right to the Articulate (Super) man...Tom Kuhlmann (and Articulate):@tomkuhlmann @Articulate Presenter (interface) should empower users to increase the audio/presentation speed...Learn from Coursera :)— Zaid Ali Alsagoff (@zaidlearn) December 4, 2013 An then I quickly realized, perhaps I should a create a Screenr (screen recording) clarifying visually what I want, so Articulate are perfectly clear what I want. @tomkuhlmann @Articulate This is what I want! Can you do it? Enlighten us how it can be done! Thanks @coursera http://t.co/m2v0RIIttd— Zaid Ali Alsagoff (@zaidlearn) December 4, 2013 TOM RESPONDS WITHIN 8 HOURS!Tom being Tom, responds within 8 hours: 'I've added it as a feature request :)" (as a comment to the Screenr video).Thumbs up! That is why Tom Kuhlmann is the RAPID E-LEARNING GUY (in the world)!WHEN?Wait a second! Until I can publish Articulate content with learning video speed features, I am not going to celebrate! So, Articulate the waiting period has begun!Now, it is time for Articulate to show us HOW RAPID THEY CAN BE!Well, it might take longer than I had initially hoped, because Tom e-mailed me that "the challenge with this type of functionality is that it works well for video, but if the course content is audio synced to other elements it's not easy, especially interactive content."I am (still) waiting eagerly to speed learn Articulate content at my personalized learning pace :)

by Kevin Siegel      I received an email last week from a Captivate developer who was concerned with how long it was taking for a published lesson to begin playing for his learners. The lesson wasn't all that big and wasn't that long (both things can lead to lesson bloat and increase how long it takes for a lesson to begin to play). He also verified that his web server wasn't the issue. In fact, lessons created by other Captivate developers in his company downloaded faster than his.   Once he told me that other content loaded with decent speed, I had a likely culprit: the Preloader and/or the Preloader percentage. I helped him tweak both, and he reported that his lesson is loading much faster.   Of course, if one Captivate developer can overlook the role of the Preloader, it's possible others have as well. So read on folks and let's delve into Preloaders and how to control them.   What's a Preloader?   When a learner clicks the link to start an eLearning lesson, the lesson will rarely begin playing right away. Why? A specific percentage of the lesson needs to download before the lesson will play. The time it takes for that percentage to be reached depends on a few things: the size of the lesson, the speed of the learner's internet connection, and the capacity of the server to send the data to the learner (bandwidth).Captivate's Preloader feature allows you to both control what the learner sees as they wait for the lesson to begin playing, and the percentage of the lesson that must be downloaded before the lesson will begin to play. Captivate ships with a few Preloaders you can use when you publish your lesson. However, many of my corporate customers prefer to brand the lesson and use their corporate logos as the Preloader. You can accomplish the task easily enough. First, with a project open, display Captivate's Preferences (Edit > Preferences for Windows users; Adobe Captivate > Preferences for Macintosh users). Then select the Start and End category from the Project group.To load your corporate logo and use it as a Preloader, click the Browse button to the right of Preloader. Find and open your logo. You can use any of the following formats as a Preloader: jpeg, gif, bmp, wmf, or swf.To control how much of the lesson must be downloaded before it will begin to play, change the Preloader % value. The higher the Preloader percentage, the longer the learner will have to wait before seeing the lesson. If you set the Preloader % lower, the lesson will play sooner. However, since little of the lesson will have been received by the learner, the lesson with sputter along instead of playing smoothly. If you set the percentage too high, the learner will have to wait for the lesson to begin playing at all. A best practice would be to set the Preloader somewhere in the middle. I typically set my Preloader % to 50, which tends to work quite well.Once you publish your lesson, the Preloader image will appear for your learners until the Preloader % is reached.   If you'd like to see a demonstration on adding a preloader to a Captivate project, check out the video I created on IconLogic's YouTube channel. *** Looking for instructor-led training on the top eLearning tools? We offer live, online training on Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Presenter, and TechSmith Camtasia Studio.We can also bring the same great training onsite to your facility. Interested? Contact us for details.  

Two of my eLearning Predictions for 2009 were:#5 - Virtual Classroom Tipping Point... we've reached a point where virtual classroom training is no longer seen as inherently inferior and a lower value ... 2009 will be the year when we realize that we should be justifying any in-person training.#11 - Micro Virtual ConferencesThe move towards acceptance of virtual classroom means ... acceptance of online conferences ... we won't have time to go for several days ... in between a full online conference and something that's a few sessions.Already this year, I'm seeing a lot of this ...And I think there's a fairly substantial implication for workplace learning organizations...Online Conference Associated with Major In-Person ConferencesIt was interesting to see that ASTD TechKnowledge offer an online conference. The experience sounds like it was okay (TK 09 Virtual Experience). They opened that up late in the process. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if they had offered it earlier. Would attendance have been even lower for in-person?And I'm not the only one: Online conferences - the future is now.Both talk about: great value.Online Conference on ConferencesI was asked to participate in a recent online conference: AACE - Spaces of Interaction: An Online Conversation on Improving Traditional Conferences. The event was held purely online with sessions spaced about 6 hours apart, 3 times per day, for 3 days (9 total sessions). They were recorded. And there was a discussion group.Think about how having it as an online conference allowed:Narrow focusAttend without interrupting my job. Get people involved who would never participate in-person in such a narrow topic.Organize quicklyLow cost Side note: It was somewhat ironic to hear all the discussion about how to improve "traditional conferences" while we were participating in something that was not really traditional - but was fairly effective.New Organizers and New DesignsNow, I'm not saying that there's anything new about holding an online conference. The eLearningGuild has been doing this for years with monthly, for-fee online conferences structured around particular topics. These are held over two days with a structure very similar to in-person conferences. Part of the reason that the eLearningGuild structures their online conferences to be similar to in-person conferences to make it more obvious that it's similar and thus is worth the money.Once you go to an online conference it suddenly allows all sorts of new conferences, new organizers and new designs to flourish.I've really not spent a lot of time looking at different models, but it seems like there are several common design questions that come into play:Number of Sessions - You can go anywhere from Single Event Webinars (e.g., Tapping the Social Grid) to complete conferences with many sessions across many topics.Tracks - Is there a single series or do you have multiple sessions at the same time?Synchronous / Asynchronous - Do you design for live sessions or more for recording and viewing later with interaction pushed to discussion groups?Schedule - When in the day do you schedule your sessions?Spacing - Do you block sessions to occur back-to-back or do you leave room for discussion and work to occur in-between?Exhibitors / Sponsors - How do you integrate exhibitors and sponsors? Are there demonstration sessions?Discussion MechanismNetworking Start-up Support / Training - How do you help participants participate effectively?Conference End / Follow-on - What do you do at the end?Targeted Online ConferencesWhen I did my online session Tapping the Social Grid - I primarily focused on establishing 1-to-1 conversations. I probably used the phrase "30 minute conversation" more than any other phrase. But what get's me excite about online conferences is that we can easily make this a many-to-many conversation.If you look at what we are doing with SharePoint in Corporate Learning - Free Micro Virtual Conference, the reality is that I've tapped into the Social Grid to find people Using SharePoint. We are turning that into an amazing online conversation with:High quality speakers / participants (HP, Intel, Thomson Reuters, Administaff, ...)Focused topicMore discussion and less presentationWe've structured it to hopefully encourage lots of sharing and discussion. The bottom line:I would go have each of these conversations 1-on-1 if I didn't have this way of doing it. We might as well make it many-to-many.Implication for Workplace Learning OrganizationsWhen you look at the dynamic here, I believe there's an incredible opportunity for workplace learning organizations to become a new kind of organizer as well. I get asked to come speak at various in-house conferences. That's generally a fairly expensive proposition. And I would guess that the number of in-person, in-house conferences is going down right now. Just a guess. ;)Maybe you can create something much better. Create an online conference. Invite people from outside the organization who share similar issues. Invite the "experts" but reduce the costs greatly by allowing it to occur without travel. You really don't need George, Jay and I to organize these things for you.Or do you? Literally as I'm composing this, I'm wondering if there's possibly a great new service offering here. Would you like help pulling together an online conference around a topic for your organization?I know people who are really good at pulling together online conferences. I know how to network to get lots of interesting folks together. I'm sure there are plenty of corporate event organizers who would organize an online conference. But I sense there's something a little different here.What do you think? Is there need among workplace learning organizations? Is there a new business here? eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content