View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.

LOOKING FORWARD!Looking forward to visit Universiti Kuala Lumpur (UniKL) on 16 December (2014), for the first time. Insya-Allah, my 1-day workshop can inspire a few (or more) UniKL's lecturers to take up the learning transformation challenge. You only need one to spark a transformation.Hmm, I am sure there are already learning transformers at UniKL, so I am also looking forward to discover a few new learning tricks, too. Of course, we will be juggling balls!Yes, I did facilitate the similar workshops with the same title at UNIMAS (26/11) and UKM (29/11).HI!If you are attending this workshop, could you please add your name, picture (optional) and what you think is the ingredients for empowering engaging and effective student learning experiences (in a sentence or two) to the Padlet wall below (Direct link). Just double click/tap to add yourself (no login required). That would simply be awesome! Thanks! Created with PadletWORKSHOPIn this 1-day hands-on workshop, we will explore how to design interactive and engaging student learning experiences using technology. First, we will examine how the brain learns, and then learn a few tricks on how to speed read and curate information in an information overloaded world. After that, 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 and web 2.0 to engage students, empower collaborative online learning spaces, and development interactive content. Participants will be engaged throughout the workshop with learning activities, including the gamified group challenge during the afternoon. It will be fun, engaging, and participants will get a taste of how they can use technology to transform the students’ learning process.After this workshop, you will be able to:Discuss how the brain learns.Use at least 3 techniques to increase your reading speed with comprehension.Apply Gagne’s 9 events of instruction to design more engaging learning content and environments.Use web 2.0 tools to design and publish interactive and engaging learning content. Apply Flipped Classroom and Gamification methods to your teaching and learning.Use interactive web tools to engage and assess students during face-to-face learning sessions.Use Social Media to interact and empower students to collaborate online.Key resources:150+ Awesome Learning ToolsBest Quick Reference Guides to Web 2.0Bloom’s Digital Taxonomies!Blended & Flipped Learning: Case Studies in Malaysian Higher Education InstitutionsSLIDESHere we go:re Designing 21st Century Learning Experiences from Zaid Alsagoff In addition, we will also explore Speed Reading briefly during this workshop, and whatever discussed (and much more) is found in this SlideShare presentation: Learning How to Speed Read in an Information Overloaded World from Zaid Alsagoff CHALLENGEInteractive Web Tools (recommended):PadletPoll EverywhereKahootSocrativeContent Development Tools (recommended):PowToonGoAnimateExplain EverythingTouchCast VideoScribeQuizletScreenr Screencast-O-MaticEDPuzzleOffice Mix (for PowerPoint 2013)Social Learning (recommended):WhatsAppTelegramFacebookGoogle DocsBlendSpaceSchoologyBenchmark challenge sample using Blendspace.TOOLSHere is a collection of 150+ awesome learning tools to spice up your learning and teaching. Please use the 'Filter (tags)' to narrow down on the type of tool you are looking for (authoring, quiz, LMS, etc.). Top 100+ Learning Tools on Planet Earth!View more lists from Zaid Ali AlsagoffCan't wait!!! :)

Here are the top items via eLearning Learning. Top Items Communities of Practice Online Education - Introducing the Microlecture Format — Open Education Tips for facilitators in Ning Social vs. Not - Pictorally 50 Practical Tips & Tricks to Build Better E-Learning Desire2Blog: Student Introductions in Online Courses IRIS Model New roles for former trainers Aggregation Types Workplace Learning in 10 Years Manchester United embraces m-learning elearning, strategically M-Learning: Challenges to E-Learning Pro’s Are you playing the role of the Subject Matter Expert instead of the Instructional Designer? Adult Learning in the Workplace - Research Findings Top Keywords PKM eLearning Tools Informal Learning Swish Adobe Captivate Twitter LinkedIn Tools Harbinger Adobe Google Articulate Microsoft eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

From all the amazing news Google shared at this year’s I|O conference, to me the biggest one was the availability of the Google Chrome browser for iPad and iPhone. While most Reviewers are focusing on what it can and cannot do on IOs devices, like the fact that it’s 2-3 times slower than Safari (likely because Apple does not provide third party developers access to their Nitro Javascript engine), to me that’s irrelevant. I still immediately made it my mobile web browser of choice. To me, the real killer app is that it allows me to have a singular browsing experience across most of my connected desktop PCs and mobile devices. As we become more and more inseparable with our mobile devices, coupled with the fact that those of us who own multiple devices and desktop computers and laptops, it’s important to build a future where our information follows us wherever we go and regardless of what device(s) we grab and bring with us. I no longer have to use Google extensions like "Chrome to Phone" to send myself pages I’m reading on my desktop and that I’d like to continue reading on my Android device of choice, or email links to articles. With Google Chrome now virtually everywhere, I can now continue browsing where I left off using the "Other Devices" feature, which allows me to get a list of pages that are currently opened in every single one of my PCs and devices where I’m logged in using my Google credentials. Netflix and Whispersync from Amazon are two great examples of this singular watching and reading experiences, respectively. Netflix for example is available virtually everywhere, I can start watching a movie on my PC, pause it, grab my iPad and continue it there and then finish it in my living room later that night. Same thing for reading a book using the Kindle Fire from Amazon and then continue reading on many devices using the Kindle app from Amazon. I realize having this singular computing experience for everything we do today is easier said than done, mainly because most big companies are building their own ecosystems and walled gardens, but kudos to Google for extending the browsing experience through Google Chrome beyond their Android platform. When I think about the future of computing, I envision having my data with me whenever and wherever I go and regardless of what device(s) I grab as I walk out the door. Share your thoughts on what the future of computing looks like to you.

by Jennie Ruby    The answers that follow the guidelines set forth in my article from a few weeks ago are brought to you by Geri Moran. It is very tedious, in my opinion, to type on a flat screen. The blog--even after the extensive upgrade we purchased last quarter--was still slow to load on mobile devices. The most widely accessible option, according to the magazine, is still the print version. The company that provides the fastest downloads is still XYZ. Norman, who arrived at the classroom before the computers were turned on, noticed the change in temperature right away. A more extended listing (see Appendix B) has been compiled by XYZ Press. Note that the representation of the long dash--the em dash--as two hyphens or as "space hyphen space" are only acceptable when the software you are using does not support the standard long dash character. Other respondents had varying opinions on whether the interruptions should be marked with parentheses rather than commas. Here are some additional thoughts on that: On number 3, the words "according to the magazine" are an independent comment on the entire sentence, and they indicate that the magazine is the source of the entire statement. You are not necessarily saying that you agree with the magazine's opinion. If you put those words inside parentheses, then you are making the assertion yourself, and merely citing the magazine as a supporting source. On number 2, it is difficult for me to see how the information about an upgrade could be seen as totally parenthetical and placed in parentheses. It is not merely reference or support material. I think the person who wrote the sentence is expressing outrage, or at least disappointment, that the blog is still slow. The interruption carries a good bit of the point of the sentences, and thus needs emphasis, rather than de-emphasis. To those readers still waiting for more on the who/whom issue, here is an update. Many respondents treated the exercise as a standard challenge rather than giving an opinion. Some said it is not an opinion, but a matter of following a well-established grammar rule. Others agree with me, that this rule is so often broken in spoken English, that following it in written English can result in awkward constructions. Once I untangle all the opinions and calibrate the right/wrong answers, I'll give a full report. In the mean time, more data is needed. Here is the who/whom challenge again. Please answer each one, this time, by indicating the way you most often say it or hear it said, rather than the way you calculate is the right answer by analyzing whether the usage is nominative or objective (subject or verb). What I am trying to get at is whether actual everyday usage follows any logic. Give a try to punctuating the interruptions in the sentences below. Feel free to post your answers as comments below. Who are you giving the scholarship to, after all? Who is that young man in the cap and gown? Who spilled the grape punch on the white carpet? Who are we celebrating here--him or his parents? Who do you think we should elect as the class president? Who did the instructor select as the first to play a recital piece? Who do we want for our soloist at the concert? Who should they give the award to? Who is the party for, anyway? Who's your favorite nephew? *** If you love Jennie's grammar articles, you'll love her classes. Check out some of Jennie's mini courses.

Written by Jessica Batz View and download the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.

CLICK HEREHow do I post on the Wall?Created with PadletThanks for considering to participate! You are awesome anyway!DESIGNING ENGAGING PRESENTATIONSIn this 2-hour workshop (6 April, 2015) at IMU, we explore how to design engaging presentations for e-learning and flipped classroom sessions based on good instructional design practices. In the process, we will explore PowToon, PowerPoint, Gagne’s 9 Events of instruction and other tools to engage students to think, learn and do.After the workshop, participants should be able to:Discuss how the brain learns.Apply ‘Gagne’s 9 events of instruction’ to design effective and engaging presentations.Use PowToon to create short animations (e.g. attention grabber).Design visually attractive slides using PowerPoint.SLIDESHere are the slides: Designing Engaging Presentations at IMU! from Zaid Alsagoff The key to remember is that you can always get better at whatever you are doing, including designing presentations...I am still learning :)

Robert Kennedy recently posted 100 Conversations and Hot Wheels where he addressed one of my 100 Conversation Topics that you can find aggregated on eLearning Learning as 100 Conversations.  He chose to write about how he works differently from 10 years ago … one of my favorite topics.  Some good stuff in his post, but something that caught my eye was: Have my work skills changed? Well, I use different tools now and I think my general approach to things has morphed slightly.  However, I still look to incorporate the "oh that was fun" factor into learning.  As I learn new software and new technologies, in some cases that becomes a bit more difficult.  The video game factor has made it harder to have the "wow" factor in some learning software.  But there are still ways to include some fun still. This is always a good reminder to make sure that while we are moving towards smaller pieces of content, self-directed learning, informal learning support, social learning solutions, etc. - we don't lose one of the aspects that I believe learning professionals often possess.  They know how to make learning fun. It also made me realize that I've not thought a whole lot about social learning and fun.  Do I even need to make it fun?  Isn't it already a kind of fun - interaction and conversation?  But maybe that's me?  What do you think? Is Social Learning Fun? eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by AJ Walther     Want to design something that looks fresh and modern? You may want to consider Flat Design. Flat design is an aesthetic that rids the design of any three dimensional attributes. Generally, drop shadows, gradients, outlines, and textures are avoided. When gradients are used, they subtly fade from one color to a slightly different hue of the same color. It is common to see a heavy reliance on icons and banners with close attention to the color palette and font choice. Many of us are working with shoestring budgets while creating eLearning. This means we are often relegated to the world of free clip art for our eLearning images. Here are a few examples of how clip art images can be reimagined into flat design. For these examples I just used shapes without lines, gradients, or shadows to create new, flat images resembling the original clip art images.    The great thing about flat design is that with careful attention to detail, most anyone can produce their own form of attractive flat design. All of the redesigned clip art images above took very little time, effort, and PowerPoint technical expertise. But, want to know a secret? You could even take an existing clip art image and bend it into your own flat design creation without building anything from scratch. Let's look at an example. Find a clip art image that you like, but that could use a bit of help.   With the image selected, press [ctrl] [shift] [g] on your keyboard twice to ungroup the image.Note: The first time you ungroup, you will be asked if you would like to convert the image to a drawing object. Click yes and then ungroup again.  Select and delete unwanted elements. Here, I deleted each of the black lines.   Working one shape at a time, right-click and select Edit Points to smooth each shape by editing its points. When possible, I like to get rid of as many points as possible and to set the majority of the remaining points as Smooth Points. For this particular image, I also adjusted the point of the tack to be pointier and extended the "metal" part so that the green section overlapped it.   Note: New to editing points? Check out this quick tip here.  Apply your color scheme to the image by selecting each shape individually, right-clicking, and choosing Format Shape.   If you're going for more of a Jony Ive look (a la iPhone's OS), you can take this a bit further by adding a subtle gradient to the shapes.   Integrate the image into your design.   Need some more flat design inspiration? Check out the Flat UI Design site. 

One of the questions I get asked frequently is whether I’d recommend Storyline or Captivate 6 to a company who needs to publish their desktop eLearning specifically for learners to consume it on the iPad. This is an interesting question to answer for so many reasons. First off I think this question is fairly shortsighted because I believe real multi-screen design and deployment of "learning" should go beyond just publishing for iPad consumption. In other words, I don’t believe that you can call having an iPad-only solution a real mLearning strategy. What about other screens, like the iPhone, Android smartphones and tablets, and other devices like the Kindle Fire for example? In fact, according to this "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD) research, entitled Dispelling Six Myths of Consumerization of IT, which took place in January, 2012, one of the key findings is that personal devices coming into the workplace are broad and diverse and in fact, the most popular consumer device that employees are bringing into the enterprise is not an Apple product, it turns out the single most popular device is the Android phone. One Size does Not Fit All And then there’s the fact that I don’t believe we should literally convert the same exact desktop eLearning to HTML for mobile devices, including the iPad. The experiences between a desktop computer with a mouse and a touch-enabled devices are simply too different. Take a traditional software ‘try-it simulation’ in Captivate 6 that is scored, convert it to HTML5 and then use your finger to try and find the right tap-target and you will see what I mean. It’s very likely that you will fail the assessment and not because you don’t know where to tap, but rather because these simulations are created for the very small and narrow mouse arrow and not for the finger tap, which typically requires about a 30-pixel tap-target. I think the reason why eLearning tools vendors are rushing to market with a "one size fits all" solution for eLearning and mLearning, where the tools are simply converting existing desktop eLearning to HTML5, is because when they asked their customers what they wanted next in their software, for the most part what they heard was "I just want to have my learners access my stuff on the iPad." Having said that, I do understand why people are asking others and me this question and I suppose I also see why eLearning tools vendors are promoting the popular iPad as the device of choice for publishing to in their marketing materials. So for the sake of answering this very specific question, here’s how I see Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate 6 addressing this particular need. Both Storyline and Captivate have an HTML5 story, however neither is a very good story. There are many features in both applications that are not carried over when a user publishes to HTML5. You can see the list of things that won’t work in Storyline HERE and for Captivate 6; you can see it HERE and HERE. With all due respect to both of these companies, I think they need to do much better in an upcoming version of their software. When I look at apps entirely created in HTML5, such as Boom Town and Sketchpad (try it on iPad Safari) I think to myself, surely there must be a way to overcome most of the limitations currently listed by these two eLearning vendors. Ok so we all know that for most eLearning tools vendors this is they first foray into the HTML5 world and of course we can expect the next versions to be more thorough when it comes to publishing to HTML5. But what about right now? Answer to this FAQ Here’s how I see it. While both companies have a list of features that are not supported in their HTML5 export, only one company went the extra mile to ensure that their users and their users’ users could fully consume their courses on the iPad. That company is Articulate with Storyline and the Articulate Mobile Player iPad app. You have to admire a company that after assessing the situation of a platform (i.e. HTML5) says, we are not satisfied with the experience we are providing our users, and sets out to build an innovative way to extend that experience. If you have never seen this app in action and you own an iPad, take a look at two screencasts I published a while back on how the process works, and try a sample course using the app I mentioned above. So there you go, that’s how I answer when people ask me about publishing eLearning courses to the iPad. Share your thoughts.

This workshop has now been facilitated for IMU students (16/04/2015) and staff (06/05/2015). I am still learning, but Al-Hamdulilla this is Insya-Allah just a start to unleash and empower everyone to discover the potential in brain power covering everything from focus to creative thinking.However, this particular workshop focuses only on memory and reading skills. The creative thinking session, will be coming in the next version :)WORKSHOPIn this workshop, we will explore various techniques to stimulate and empower the brain and senses to be more focused, remember faster, speed read, and improve the understanding of whatever we are learning. In the process, we will discuss how the brain learns, and how we can apply various focus and memorization techniques to improve our ability to remember through visualization, association and imagination. Then, we will learn how to apply the SQ3R method to enhance our reading skills, and finally we will explore various techniques to speed read. By applying these super memory and reading techniques, we will learn more effectively, and be empowered with more time to focus on achieving our targets and being productive at IMU.OUTCOMESAt the end of this workshop, you will  be able to:Discuss how the brain learns;Use at least 2 techniques to optimize your learning senses to improve focus;Use at least 3 techniques to improve your memory;Apply the SQ3R method to enhance your reading skills; andUse at least 3 techniques to increase your reading speed with comprehension.SLIDESHere we go: Super Memory & Reading Skills from Zaid Ali Alsagoff Yes, Yoda is one of the facilitators :)PARTICIPANTSPlease add your name, picture and something about yourself on this Padlet Wall:Created with Padlet

Written by Chris Osborn   In today's Q&A Thursday video, Chris Osborn discusses the most common complaints with performance reviews, and offers advice on how to make them more effective tools.     Stay Up-to-Date on the Most Current Business Training Trends BizLibrary offers 6,000+ training videos in various business training topics, with new courses added every day.   How to Build a Business Case for Online Employee Training This complimentary eBook will help you get your online training proposal approved. It identifies the 5 key elements of a business case, discusses best practices, and includes examples to help you make your case solid. 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 today's Q&A. This has to do with performance reviews. We had an interesting webinar with performance reviews and we started the webinar by talking about the five most common problems that employees complain about with respect to performance reviews. We also asked our participants to tell us their most painful experience with performance reviews and we got some interesting responses. They included they didn't cover my entire work year, didn't really talk about my work ethic, it only related to the last two weeks before the performance review, I'd been there for nine years and every review had been exactly the same. Managers weren't really trained to do the review. It was more about blame. Some complaints were that the compliments were always the same, so they felt insincere and very artificial. Do any of these things sound familiar to you? Do these sound like the performance reviews you've dealt with over the course of your career, do these sound like the performance reviews that happen at your organization? Well, if that's the case, maybe you need to rethink what you're doing. Because if you take a real look at what performance reviews are supposed to do, aren't they supposed to help your employees perform better? Isn't it supposed to be about improving the overall performance of your entire organization, and motivating your employees to do better? In a poll conducted by TLNT, employees identified their five most common complaints with performance reviews, and they were they were demotivating, they weren't goal focused, they were subjective, they weren't frequent enough, and they were inconvenient. Sound familiar? Pretty much the same as what we heard from the audience, right? But we had an exception! Sam, a service manager at a large public professional services firm, said he only does them once a year, but he loves doing them because he works and coaches with his employees every single day. So why the difference? Why does that annual review work? Well, think about what Sam said. I work and coach my employees every single day. So think about what that turns that annual conversation into. Rather than a blame game or something subjective or the employee doesn't know what's going on, it turns into a celebration of the past year. A true conversation about a career! A true conversation about performance and improvement, where you've been and where you need the employee to go and what the plan is for the future. THAT is a performance review, and that's an effective way to do it. So Sam had it exactly right. Working with your employees day to day, being engaged with them, really connecting with them, and helping them succeed on a day to day basis. That's the secret to improved performance. That's how you get to where you need to go. So whether you call it a performance review, whether you call it an annual meeting to talk about goals, it doesn't make any difference. The key to improved performance is meeting your employees on a regular basis, working with them on goals, goals that are transparent, that everybody can understand, celebrating successes, but most importantly being engaged day to day and coaching for improvement.

by Kevin Siegel      Here's an interesting scenario: You create a Captivate project that contains 12 slides: 10 question slides, each worth 10 points, and two "transitional" slides containing simple navigation buttons.   During the testing phase, beta-testers who answer all of the questions correctly should be awarded 100 points. However, every beta-tester who answers the questions correctly receives a score of 96 from the LMS. Huh?   How about this one? You have a five-question Captivate project. As with the first example, the project also has a couple of "transitional" slides containing navigation buttons. During the testing phase, the progress indicator on each of the question slides indicates that you are on slide 2 of 6, when you are actually on the first question slide. Keep in mind that the project only contains five questions so the first question slide should have indicated that you were on slide 1 of 5.   I've seen both problems described before. The issues aren't with the question slides and they're not a problem with your beta testers. The problem is typically found with the interactive objects on non-question slides.   If you were to select a button and observe the Reporting area on the Properties Inspector, you'd see that many objects (click boxes, buttons, text entry boxes, etc.) can report interactivity. In essence, any interactive object can be treated like it's part of a quiz.       If you select Include in Quiz, your question number counts will be thrown off. If you select Report answers and Add to total, your quiz score will likely be thrown off.   Here's the real challenge: Imagine you have 100 slides. Some of the slides are question slides; the majority are simply interactive or contain buttons. It's going to be a real pain to open each of your slides, show the properties of objects and ensure the Reporting options are set correctly. What's a developer to do? Read on...   Choose Project > Advanced Interaction to open the Advanced Interaction window.     You can use this handy window to control all of the reporting objects in your project. For instance, if you wanted to stop a button from being added to the quiz total, all you would need to do is select the object in the Advanced Interaction window and then, on the Properties Inspector, deselect Add to total.   *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

TOP 10The ‘Top Ten’ most influential people in the corporate e-learning sector World (2014) was according to Bob Little's annual list (Click their name to visit their SlideShare homepage. Not all could be found!): Craig WeissAn e-learning analyst, expert, author, speaker and thought leader who is CEO of E-Learning 24/7. Elliott MasieHead of The MASIE Center, a New York think-tank focused on how organisations can support learning and knowledge within the workforce. Christopher PappasGreece-based founder and CEO of the eLearning Industry's Network elearningindustry.com.Tom Kuhlmann (?) One of the world’s best known e-learning designers. Laura OvertonA speaker; member of ELIG, and managing director of Towards Maturity, a not-for-profit company that provides research and online resources to help organisations deliver effective learning interventions at work.Harold Jarche The Canada-based ‘thought catalyst’, writer and blogger who is also chairman of the Internet Time Alliance. Patti Shank (?) Founder of Learning Peaks, and an internationally recognised expert on, and advocate for, the pragmatics of the design of information and instruction to help people do what they need to do. Rebecca Stromeyer (?)Owner of ICWE, which runs Online Educa as well as E-Learning Africa. Sahana ChattopadhyayConsultant and Deputy Head at Tata Interactive Systems and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blog. Sunder RamachandranBlogger and also head of sales training at Pfizer in Mumbai, with over 11 years’ enterprise learning space experience. RESULTSWith the exception of Christopher Pappas (as of today), the Top 10 e-Learning Movers & Shakers (2014) of the World have a surprisingly LOW NUMBER OF FOLLOWERS on SlideShare. Why? Not getting into that!So, the WINNER of this category has to go instead to Jane Hart (No. 2 on the UK List), who outshines the top 10 big time (refer to the picture above)! Their total number of followers combined is not even close to her total. The same applies to Zaid Ali Alsagoff, which happens to be me! So, let's enjoy Jane Hart and Zaid Ali Alsagoff's awesome collections of presentations on SlideShare. We might not be the best overall, but when it comes to SlideShare...WE ROCK! Al-Hamdulilla!Also, let's not forget that Tom Kuhlmann is the IRON MAN for swooshing awesome PowerPoint related juice (with Articulate), but sadly I couldn't locate his SlideShare account.Finally, it is important here to highlight that the Top 10 e-Learning professionals (Corporate Sector) on the list above, have contributed to the e-learning world in so many other ways beyond SlideShare, and that is something we must keep in mind. SlideShare is just one of many tools, we can use to share our ideas, experiences, learning content, etc.In part 2, we will explore the Top 10's presence in ______....to be revealed :)@zaidlearn Thank you for creating this. I am a fan of your and @C4LPT 's presentations. @SlideShare @BobLittlePR @hjarche— Sahana Chattopadhyay (@sahana2802) April 21, 2015

Just got through reading - Long Live Instructor-Led Learning - by Saul Carliner, who is a person I know, like and respect. Wow, did he step in it on this one. Was his purpose link-bait by putting up something that is so horribly wrong as to cause us to want to respond? He had me scratching my head about Long Live what? Long Live - is actually an important issue being raised through this discussion that I'll get to below… Let me start with the fact that Saul and his article made no attempt to directly engage with any of the "bloggers" who he so quickly lumps together and dismisses. His article included citations with links, but included no links to the Learning Circuits Blog, nor to the post Workplace Learning in 10 Years that he discusses, nor to any of the individual responses several by well known and respect people from the industry. Death of the Classroom? You sometimes will run across posts or presentations that have the title - the Death of the Classroom. I'm guessing that Saul somehow assumed that this is what people were saying in their posts, but didn't actually read the 20+ individual posts when he said: Nearly all of the contributors predicted the death of the classroom For a person who is claiming to have done a better analysis and thus has a better prediction of the future he completely botched that. Instead, what the common theme was that organizations will likely have reduced the amount of classroom and courseware times. I would argue that today all classroom or courseware should be questioned. Can you reduce it by 50%? Can you make it 5 minutes long and just teach them how to use the rest of the resources? - Tony Karrer Formal learning will still be going strong but somewhat de-emphasised. Clive Shepherd we will continue to see ILT, eLearning courses (some of them page turners), and all the other stuff that we see today - Upside Learning And the list goes on. There were a couple of outliers who predicting bigger change, but that "nearly all" "predicted … death" is flat out a gross misrepresentation. To be fair to Saul, he points us to some important numbers from the ASTD State of the Industry Report: Despite a steady climb in the availability of e-learning, the overall percentage of instructor-led training is nearly unchanged: 71.97 percent in 2003 and 70.58 percent in 2008 (the most recent year for which statistics are available). What has changed, though not as significantly as one might expect, is the percentage of instructor-led training offered online, rising from 2.92 percent of all training in 2003 to 6.39 percent in 2008. This aligns with the eLearning Guild's numbers that I discussed last fall in Training Method Trends. However, the question was not a current state question - it was a future question. Saul seems to believe that total instructor-led training (f2f and online) will remain essentially unchanged as an expenditure or hours. I don't know that any of us has a perfect crystal ball. All we can look at is what's been happening and what the environmental forces are and try to predict what will happen in the future. Saul seems to think the future - 10 years from now - will be relatively the same. I believe that most of the voices you will see responding to the big question predict (for a variety of reasons) that time and expenditure on instructor-led classroom workplace learning will be lower in the future (again almost no one said dead, but many predicted lower). A few said relatively unchanged. I do think it's worth diving into some of the specific posts and thinking about it yourself. What do you think? Informal Learning After his questionable call on levels of instructor-led, classroom training in the future, Saul then tells us… More flawed than the analysis of the numbers is the proposition that formal classroom learning will be replaced by informal learning, which will primarily occur online through blogs and social computing tools. Although it sounds exciting at first, and certainly appeals to the emotions, several practical issues—all of which are ignored by the contributors to the ASTD 2019 discussion—limit the likelihood that organizations would primarily rely on informal learning. Hmmm …. don't organizations already primarily rely on informal learning? Is most of what we learn via formal learning or informal learning today? But I think I understand what he is trying to say with this, but again it's his tone that gets in the way of actual discourse. The common theme in the responses via the ASTD blog are: We are already seeing organizations look at how they can enable greater informal and social learning opportunities. As compared to today, there will be greater emphasis on support for informal and social learning in the workplace. So, it's a fair question - do we see a greater emphasis in the future for informal and social learning in workplace learning? Oh, actually, that was the question being raised and soliciting input from various sources. Blogs and Informal Learning Are Unreliable? Probably the funniest aspect of Saul's post is when he tells us that informal learning is unreliable. Another flaw is that informal learning can be inaccurate. In some cases, it's the learner's fault. Research on reading suggests that people tend to read inaccurately, especially online. So someone might interpret a point incorrectly, or mistakenly remember a fact. (As a result of this lack of credibility, people like President Obama don't rely on blogs [2]). But sometimes the errors in content result from the publication of erroneous content or opinion that is not properly labeled. The potential for those is high in blogs, which many people cite as an excellent learning resource. In her qualitative study of people who keep blogs on training and development topics, Kristina Schneider found that few of the bloggers differentiated between fact and opinion; nor did they verify the information they published; nor did the bloggers provide disclaimers about the nature of the content they published [3]. As a result, readers might believe the content they're reading is true when, in fact, there's also a chance that it's not. This is first funny because he's writing an opinion piece himself that is not properly labeled. If anything it is completely mislabeled. eLearn Magazine suggests this is some kind of vetted "Feature Article". But I know that T+D would not have let this out as an article without series editing. It's an opinion piece with no human editor vetting some of the statements that clearly don't pass muster. A few things from Schneider's thesis - all 5 bloggers write in the first person and none of them write in an academic style … The bloggers write in a mainly business writing style which is direct and open to opinion-based comments some blog posts are more editorial in fashion. However, there are rarely no statements such as "in my opinion" or "these are my own thoughts" to indicate what is opinion and what is fact. None of the bloggers studied have PhDs, yet many want to be seen as, or perceived themselves to be, experts There is no data to validate or invalidate their expert status—the only thing that can be garnered from the interview is their own emic perspective; that is, what they say about themselves and the permission they give themselves to analyse and give their opinions about certain issues within their area of knowledge. Though some participate in conferences, they speak more about their experiences holding conferences or speaking at them rather than about participating in them to learn. In these cases, then conferences serve marketing purposes first, not professional development purposes. Should we give her a pass on PhD implies expert? Should I assume that this means that Saul himself goes to lots of workplace training and attends lots of conference sessions himself. Kristina doesn't realize that she's describing most of the consultants / authors who have been in the industry for 20+ years. Saul should be a bit embarrassed citing this stuff without big time caveats around what the piece is and what it is really saying. Basically, she accurately describes blogging as not having the same quality control standards that a well-edited publication or professional journalist has. That's about it. When you read the responses to the ASTD Learning Circuits Blog Big Question - these folks are all writing their responses in a blog. I would claim the labeling is actually much better than eLearn Magazine and particularly Saul's piece. Yes, you should be suspicious of any content you find anywhere (including in a classroom). Oh and when it appears in a magazine and in a presentation at a conference. Did I mention that many of us bloggers are also people writing articles and doing presentations. Do we really need to revisit this conversation? How Do We Learn? Saul later tells us … Another flaw with informal learning is that people only learn it when they find it or stumble onto it, which might not occur when people actually need the material. In the case of getting to content when they need it, one of the problems with material on the Web is that people do not find it when they need it, or they find material that seems to be appropriate, even when it is not. They might not have assistance in verifying the selection or they might not seek it because they might not appreciate the need. Saul is right that if you need to ensure that someone has learned something specific - like you need to ensure that they meet a compliance requirement, then formal learning of some form (like courseware) is probably a good bet. What I don't quite get is how Saul proposes that formal learning can be used. The whole problem is Long Tail Learning. There is just way too much stuff that people need to learn that we have to make choices about what we spend our time publishing into formal learning events. The audience has to be large enough. As concept workers, we quickly go past formal learning opportunities. There's no course on what I do every day. And you cannot Separate Knowledge Work from Learning. One option is to say that limit of training / workplace Learning Responsibility is formal learning. Once you go beyond formal learning, then there's an immediate question of what else you will provide. I know from Data Driven performance improvement solutions that often informal learning can be very effective in driving results. To me, the answer is pretty clear. You've got to look beyond formal. Saul is right that it's sometimes hard to find the right information on the web when you need it. I would claim that we need to help people with their Search Skills. I would also claim that this is exactly why Network Learning is so important. I just don't get what Saul thinks is the alternative here? Similarly, informal learners might need the information, but can only learn when their time permits. Too often, however, the time set aside for learning is interrupted by something more immediate. Perhaps that's one of the reasons why the completion rates for tutorial-style e-learning are often disappointing. I'm guessing that Saul wants us to learn absolutely everything via classroom instruction before we ever do anything? I know he doesn't mean this, but … I would claim that if anything, Saul is pointing out the importance of teach informal learning skills so that they can get the information when they need it. Network Learning? Next up for Saul is questioning the value of social networking tools for informal learning… The contributors to the discussion also suggest that social networking tools (also known as Web 2.0) will play an important role in training. But that, too, might be an overstatement. … even the experts admit that the numbers merely indicate the quantity of people who have access to these tools; the numbers do not indicate the quality of participation. For learning purposes, it's the latter that matters. I had to check back. Yes, Saul is on LinkedIn and has 226 connections. And he's a first level connection for me. Saul can you Network Learning and get back to me on the value of being able to reach into a network like LinkedIn to reach high quality individuals for help with specific needs. Saul tells us … No single social computing tool is likely to meet every organization's learning needs. That's some pretty incredible insight. Did anyone suggest that there was a single answer or that any of this wasn't a terribly messy, complex problem? Further, I believe that this is highly personal. Different people will find different styles of use that are effective. But my point is always, that doesn't mean you can/should ignore them. Long Live? The real question that is behind the Big Question - Workplace Learning in Ten Years is where we should be putting our time and attention today. I had the opportunity to work with Stedman Graham and one of his favorite lines that I will paraphrase: We are all equal in this world. We all have 24 hours. What makes us different is how we choose to spend it. The problem I have with Saul's Long Live article (? or is it a blog post that was not edited ?) is that he's suggesting … what? He exhorts Long Live instructor led. Yes, go team go. You should double your bets on instructor-led training. Don't worry about reducing your spend on instructor-led for the next ten years. And ignore all that informal and social learning stuff. What? Long Live what? He cites an example of a public foundation that is the primary source of funding for more than 300 nonprofits in a metro area. They use a blended classroom, social learning and performance support solution to helping them. When I think about the particular situation I realize that it would be important for whomever is defining the specifics of the approach to be very much aware of things beyond instructor led learning. For example … There's a wonderful social learning solution that I believe would fit this situation very well from America Learns. As part of this solution, the normal kinds of reporting done by the individual nonprofits feeds into a knowledge base that then can be tapped by people in other nonprofits. It helps share effective patterns. I'm sure that there's already a fair bit of informal and social learning that's occurring. I wonder if there's more that could be done to help them better share beyond the formal learning opportunities that Saul describes? My guess is that the answer is very much a yes. Or maybe even it would be that we should give them more classroom training on how to become better social learners. Or maybe it's more time networking. It could be a lot of different things. And therein lies my main criticism with Saul's piece. He didn't help me understand what he believe is the important places we should spend our time. His main points seem to be: Don't worry instructor-led training is okay (hence the title - Long Live Instructor-Led Learning) Ignore social and informal learning. It has a lot of flaws. Bloggers produce poor quality and misleading information. Long Live what? If his point was only to say that people claiming the death of the classroom in 10 years are wrong … and that the classroom will still be around in ten years … then I agree. But it just seemed that his argument quickly left that and into a bunch of dubious statements. I would claim that it's probably much more instructive to go look at some of the individual posts cited and make up your own mind. And I would still ask you to answer the core question: Where will you spend your time? eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

Written by Jessica Batz View and dowload the webinar slides. View the webinar recording.

1. En mLearnCon 2012, se destacó el proyecto Tin Can. Para saber más acerca de este interesante proyecto, puedes escuchar nuestro episodio anterior:http://rjacquez.com/esta-semana-en-el-aprendizaje-movil-episodio-07-proyecto-tin-can/ 2. Apple´s World Wide Developers Conference: se presentó el MacBook Pro y el nuevo sistema operativo iOS 6. RJ Jacquez escribió más acerca de la historia móvil de Apple´s aquí: http://rjacquez.com/apple-proves-mobile-makes-the-desktop-better-a-lesson-for-us-in-mlearning-and-elearning/ 3. Surface de Microsoft: una nueva tableta. Puedes encontrar las impresiones de RJ aquí: http://rjacquez.com/the-new-microsoft-surface-tablet-and-the-rear-view-mirror-effect-mobile/ 4. Google I/O 2012: Google Nexus 7, Google Chrome para iOS, Google Drive en la tienda de Apple, Google+ (aplicación), Google Now y las tecnologías predictivas. 5. Adobe no soportará Flash en Jelly Bean (en dispositivos Android) 6. Adobe Captivate versión 6: no cumplió con las expectativas. RJ escribió su sincera opinión aquí http://rjacquez.com/an-honest-assessment-of-adobe-captivate-6-first-impressions/ y una secuela con sugerencias http://rjacquez.com/heres-how-adobe-captivate-6-could-have-been-a-game-changer-for-mlearning/ 7. Camtasia Studio 8 de TechSmith: una herramienta indispensable para crear videos interactivos. Encuentra un análisis más detallado aquí:http://rjacquez.com/the-new-camtasia-studio-8-the-flipped-classroom-and-mobile-learning-review/ 8. Aplicaciones de la Semana: Idea Sketch y Google Chrome Your browser does not support the audio element. Podcast Powered By Podbean

by AJ Walther   Previously I shared some tips for creating your own great looking flat design eLearning. A recurring trend in flat design is the use of simplified icons in lieu of detailed drawings, images, or photos. Many icons can be found by inserting symbols or certain Clip Art images from within PowerPoint. Creating your own icons from scratch is also not terribly difficult. As an alternative, I'd like to share a fun (and free!) tool for quickly creating and customizing icons for use in eLearning. Iconion is a free download that is still currently in Beta. After you've downloaded Iconion, you can choose from a large array of icons from four different icon font sets: Typeicons, Linecons, Font Awesome, and Entypo.   To create an icon, simply select an icon from the left of the Iconion window, preview it in the center panel, and then add a style from the right panel. The styles are many and varied and, in addition to looking great in your eLearning, would blend seamlessly with Windows and iOS. After you've chosen a style, you can make stylistic tweaks to fills, background colors, gradients, blurs, etc. From there you can save your icon to your desktop in a number of fully scalable sizes. Fast, easy, and great looking! Here's an example of how I incorporated some icons from Iconion into the slide deck for an online training course here at IconLogic:

Welcome to my NEW RM 69 Rapid e-Learning Studio (19 US Dollars) for rapid e-learning content development. RM 69When I saw the Gear Datura S2 (RM 69 or 19 US Dollars) at the IT One Superstore at 1Utama's Old Wing, I felt....WOW! If you look at the box cover, it kind of indicates that this is the ultimate leisure and consumption tool, but for me I immediately realized that this is the ultimate rapid content authoring tool (or enabler) that I have been looking for (for years! Though, in my mind passively!), which empowers any smartphone and tablet to be used for rapid video content development in many creative ways. RAPID E-LEARNING STUDIOThe first picture above, illustrates how I have used an iPhone and iPad to create content rapidly (within minutes). I believe that this LOON HOLDER (as it is called!) can empower you to develop awesome learning content on-the-fly within minutes. Of course, it is not appropriate for all kinds of content development, but it is excellent for concepts and ideas that need to be illustrated (chunked step-by-step), and empower us NOT to experience cognitive overload, which for example PowerPoint slides often do (unless the designer knows what to do).Using an iPad (Air 2) to record: Using iPhone (5) to record: This is just two examples on how you can create electrifying animated learning content within minutes using this approach. With your imagination, you can use this approach to create all sorts of learning content rapidly.Of course, animation tools like VideoScribe and PowToon empower you with a lot more features to create awesome animated stuff. But, if you use the method above, you will be empowered with more flexibility to customise and develop more relevant content on-the-fly rapidly!Try it out for yourself to find out. Please share your experiences. I am still learning! Stay tuned for the next article (post), which will discuss in more details, how I created the above videos...Insya-Allah :)  @zaidlearn That's pretty cool. How is the quality? I was just visiting with someone who had a similar contraption, but it cost a lot more.— Tom Kuhlmann (@tomkuhlmann) April 27, 2015

Harassment and Discrimination The workplace requirements surrounding discrimination are well-established and have been for more than a generation. Further, we have a "gold standard" fixed for employee and manager training for harassment and discrimination prevention with the enactment of AB1825 in California in 2004.   Now California, Connecticut, and Maine require private employers train their managers on preventing workplace harassment, especially sexual harassment. A.B. 1825 goes beyond the relatively straightforward requirements of these other states by significantly regulating the subject matter, quality, and delivery method of training. The impact of AB1825 is that organizations all over the country now essentially face a harassment prevention training mandate for managers and supervisors.   But the whole area of discrimination is being stood on its head recently by the confusing mess of state laws, federal and state court decisions, executive actions, and general political rhetoric surrounding gay marriage. The reality for organizations is that this issue creates very real issues in terms of how HR teams and management teams will react to and handle a whole host of issues from family medical leave to benefits administration.   A good rule of thumb, until the whole issue is finally settled, is to educate our manages on sensitivity to sexual orientation issues, and to teach sound management fundamentals to do our best to ensure that every employee is treated as fairly as possible. In other words, management best practices will likely trump any other form of risk avoidance or mitigation efforts.   Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) On June 26, 2013, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Windsor v. United States that Section 3 of the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law that denies legally married same-sex couples over 1,100 protections and responsibilities of marriage, is unconstitutional. By striking down Section 3 of DOMA, the Supreme Court has affirmed that all loving and committed couples who marry deserve equal legal respect and treatment. Recommended Resources   This program is part of The HR Law for Managers Series. This series provides a comprehensive resource that will orient managers to components of key employment laws; provide details, relevant to managers, for each of these laws; and explain in practical terms, how to apply the laws in context with specific situations as relate to a manager’s duties. 7 HR Laws Training Topics for New Managers (and Experienced Ones Too!) Are your managers and supervisors aware of the anti-discrimination laws? Do they knowwhat the protected classes are and how they apply to the workplace? Do they know what their responsibilities are for compliance with these laws and their protected classes? Click here to download the complimentary eBook!

There is so much that happens in a week in this great field of eLearning and mLearning, so today I’m launching a weekly newsletter in order to bring the very best eLearning and mLearning articles for a given week directly to your inbox. I am working with my friend and business partner, Mayra Aixa Villar (@MayraAixaVillar), who curates arguably the best scoop.it page focused on eLearning and mLearning, and together we want to curate the very best the web has to offer and deliver it directly to you each week. Our weekly newsletter will consist of hand-picked articles by us, but most importantly we will share WHY we picked each article and WHY we believe it’s important to you. As an incentive and a small token of appreciation, once we reach our first 500 subscribers, we will select a winner, who will receive a free, full copy of the recently announced new version of TechSmith Camtasia Studio 8, which I reviewed here. You can find the simple subscription form on the right panel of this blog, as well as below this post. Thanks in advance for subscribing to our newsletter. Subscribe to our newsletter UPDATE: We have now launched our very first newsletter issue. Thanks to all who have subscribed!

As a follow on to the discussion of social learning and formal learning in Long Live … great post by BJ Schone - Have LMSs Jumped The Shark? I constantly hear people (across many organizations) complain about their learning management system (LMS). They complain that their LMS has a terrible interface that is nearly unusable. Upgrades are difficult and cumbersome. Their employees’ data is locked in to a proprietary system. Users hate the system. It’s ugly. (Did I miss anything?) We’ve recently seen LMSs shift to include more functionality, such as wikis, blogs, social networking, etc. I think they’re heading in the wrong direction. I don’t really understand why LMS vendors are now thinking they need to build in every possible 2.0 tool. If I want a great blogging platform, I’m going to download WordPress (it’s free and has a huge support community). If I want a great wiki platform, I’m going to download MediaWiki or DokuWiki (also free and they have huge support communities). And when it comes to social networking, as a co-worker put it, "Do they really think I’m going to create a ‘friends’ list in the LMS? Seriously?" I've wondered the same thing. Mzinga seems to have jumped out early with a strong social platform that also has an LMS capability. But there does seem to be a difference between what you expect with an LMS and what you expect from your social learning / work platform. Dave Wilkins from Mzinga talks about the two models of social learning as depicted by the diagram on the right. There's social learning wrapped around the formal learning resources. He calls it the Amazon model with the learning being like a book. Lots of stuff wrapped around the book on Amazon. Then there's a model when the community is first and foremost and the formal learning is part of this overall model. BJ's point is that trying to get people to spend enough time in the LMS so that you have a vibrant social learning community is problematic. We will see some level of social interaction going along with a formal learning event. But you really are much more likely to success when the social tools are the same tools that will exist beyond the formal learning. And I don't think that many of us expect our LMS vendor to provide the solution that organizations will adopt more broadly. Thus, the question … Why aren't the LMS vendors looking at deeper integration with other offerings? In some ways they are. SharePoint and LMS seems to be a more common discussion: SharePoint and the LMS - Time to Converge? Increased Interest in SharePoint as a Learning Technology Extending elearning? Likely this is the beginning of a wave of this kind of approach. eLearning Technology Browse eLearning Content

by Kevin Siegel    From a new user perspective, one of the major complaints about Adobe Captivate has always been its cluttered user interface. There are so many panels and toolbars in Captivate (and most are open and visible when the program starts), some people feel that the program is more difficult to learn than other tools like Articulate Storyline and TechSmith Camtasia Studio.  People using Captivate versions 5, 6, and 7 have the ability to undock most of Captivate's panels and move them around the screen. Users can also save the location of the panels as custom workspaces (via Window > Workspaces > New Workspace).    While being able to customize Captivate's workspace is great, if you aren't careful things can quickly become a hot mess. I can't tell you how many emails I get from developers who can't find this panel or that. In almost every instance it turns out they either closed the panel by mistake, or moved it to a second display and forgot.    You can easily reset a Workspace (Window > Workspace > Reset) and get every panel back to its default location. However, many developers (even some with plenty of experience using the tool), don't know about resetting a Captivate workspace. When Adobe released Adobe Captivate 8, the interface was totally overhauled--and simplified. To prevent new users from getting overwhelmed by Captivate's many toolbars and panels, toolbars have been consolidated and most of the panels are closed by default. To keep the interface from getting cluttered, it's now impossible to undock the panels. And, for the ultimate in interface simplification, you can no longer create a custom workspace. The simpler interface is great for new users. But what about veteran developers who are upgrading from a legacy version of Captivate? As a long-time Captivate developer, I'll admit that I had a hard time navigating the new workspace. And I was upset with Adobe for taking away my ability to create a custom workspace. I understand that a simpler workspace is easier for new users... but I want complex. Give me back my workspaces!   If you're like me and you're missing the ability to customize your workspace, you'll be happy to learn that the option is still available... you'll just have to activate it. In the image below, you can see Captivate's Workspace menu. There's really only one menu item: Reset 'Classic.' If you choose the Reset 'Classic' menu item, the Timeline and the Properties panel will hide (which is the default). If you'd like to create your own workspace, open Captivate's Preferences dialog box (Windows users, choose Edit > Preferences; Mac users, choose Adobe Captivate > Preferences.) Select Enable custom workspaces/panel undocking. Restart Captivate and you'll find that you can now undock Captivate's panels and move them around your display (just like legacy versions of the program). And if you choose the Window > Workspace menu item, you'll see that you also have the ability to create a New Workspace.  If you tire of your custom workspace you can, at any time, return to Captivate's 'Classic' workspace (which will always be available in the Workspace menu).   *** Looking for instructor-led training on Adobe Captivate? Check out our live, online, instructor-led Captivate classes.

CLICK HERE TO JOIN US!LEARNING INNOVATION CIRCLE (LIC) A passionate group of (top) educators from Malaysia and beyond, rethinking and transforming educational practices.The most notable contribution to be materialized up until today from LIC, is the ‘Learning Innovation Talks’ (LIT) series.LEARNING INNOVATION TALKS (LIT)The idea behind Learning Innovation Talks LIT is to organize 1-2 events per year, whereby educators can get together to share their learning and teaching innovations with one another in a more informal, relaxed, learning enriched, and innovative manner compared to traditional conferences and seminars. There is NO FIXED FORMAT, and it is up to the organizer to explore and innovate how sharing and learning should take place. LIT 01 - StoryUniversity of Malaya (7 March, 2012) LIT 02 - StoryTaylor's University (20 November, 2012) LIT 03 - Story (LIT 03 website)International Medical University (22 May, 2013)LIT 04 - StoryUNITAR International University (15 January, 2014)LIT 05 - 9 June (2015)CLICK HERE to register NOW!!!UNDER CONSTRUCTIONBesides LIT, LIC is becoming to life...LIC Website (Under construction)LIC Memberlist (Based on areas of expertise)LIC Introduction (Padlet)e-Book: Secrets Recipes to Engage (Learning)Can we inspire 10,000 passionate educators to join LIC by 31 December, 2016? Now that is a challenge worth pursuing :)