What an amazing year! If you read on, you’re going to hear all about it… … because this post will look back at 2015 - what went well and what didn’t - and look forward to 2016. I do this to see what I have done over the past year and to set new goals for […] The post 2015 in Review - And What I’m Going to Do in 2016 appeared first on Teaching ESL Online.

It’s a very exciting time to be a front-end developer. It is the Renaissance age for JavaScript, and every day brings a new round of shiny new toys for developers to play with, each with a new set of paradigms that are good for stretching the mind in exciting new ways. As big fans of the old axiom, "the right tool for the right job," we are constantly evaluating the newest libraries and tools. There are some very shiny new players on the block that have the JavaScript world super excited, e.g., Angular and React, to name a couple. So why are we not moving to a more modern front-end framework? Part of the answer to that question is who we are and what we do. Enspire is a custom e-learning development shop focused on cutting-edge instructional design, high-end media development, and immersive simulation development. So right off the bat, we are approaching development differently than a lot of shops. We have no monolithic product that we work on day in and day out forever on end. Instead, we have to use a rip-and-burn style of development. In this day and age where a single person can build a SCORM-compliant e-learning course using only a stand-alone piece of software like Articulate, the pressures on a high-end vendor have multiplied. More for less has always been the soup-du-jour in our industry, and it is challenging to be committed to such a high level of excellence when everyone at the table is clamoring for discount rack prices. So efficacy, speed, and flexibility are really the only ways we get to bring our best ideas to life. Back in the early days, Enspire was, like most e-learning developers, heavily invested in Flash. It is now the popular opinion that Flash is the scourge of the internet and should only be approached with a large dollop of scorn and mockery. In the early days of the browser wars, before everyone had access to a computer, much less a computer that could be carried in your pocket and more powerful than the moon lander, Flash was a godsend. In the days when JavaScript was but an infant, you couldn’t trust that any user would even have it enabled. Doing something that required what we now call a single-page application was unreliable at best and downright impossible in some cases. With Flash, you could easily add state into the stateless web, as well as soothe over some of the pain of supporting the vast differences in browser implementations of the time. It also empowered designers with no coding knowledge to take on complex layout and animation. I remember reading that one developer from Macromedia (the company that owned Flash before Adobe gobbled it up) said that users were regularly showing the Flash team that it could do way more than was even dreamed of by the developers themselves. We were constantly pushing the bounds of what we could squeeze out of Flash to make new and immersive experiences. Those were the good ol’ days, when we were so ahead of the curve that we had problems like, "We need more shelves for our awards, should we go ahead and buy two"?  Around this time, we were starting to see the buzz about HTML5 and were talking about a refresh on a multiplayer simulation game that we had been running for years. It seemed like a pretty good HTML5 candidate, so we started researching which libraries and frameworks were available. There were the giants of the day: YUI, Prototype, and MooTools. We had used YUI and Prototype before, but we weren’t sold on them. A new thing, jQuery, was starting to make some waves, so we wanted to take a look at that. About that same time, I stumbled upon an article about a brand new library call Backbone.js. It was currently at version 0.3.0. It mirrored some of the design patterns of our current AS2 Flash framework around generics for models and separation of MVC concerns. After looking at some code examples and reading about Backbone’s philosophy, we knew this framework was what we had been looking for to redevelop our multiplayer simulation. So, we rolled the dice. We’re happy to say that the decision paid off, and the application is still being used in production today, although we did update it to Backbone 0.5 at some point. As time went on, it became clear to us that Flash was going to be on the ropes sooner than later. Luckily for us, we’re a shop full of developers who are hungry for new things, so we were mostly ready for the rug to pulled out from under us. I say this mostly because the accelerated death of Flash and the rise of HTML5 did not happen organically. Apple, still mad about Adobe’s decision to focus more on PC performance a decade earlier, announced the birth of the iPhone, which also served to knock a few more props out from under the old-school e-learning development toolkit. To make matters worse, even though we were looking at incredible "experiments" in HTML5 every day, they were a long way from the large-scale single-page media-heavy tour de force that we were used to producing. We took a look around, and so many of the problems that we had solved in Flash over the years were now back on the drawing board. Things like how to keep audio and animation in sync with pause/play and rewind/fast forward functionality - a problem that there is still not a good answer for in some situations. At least we weren’t caught as flat-footed as a lot of shops in the e-learning industry when our old, tattered security blanket was ripped away. We already had a good toe-hold on the cliffs of HTML5 development. It was then time to retool and get back to the business of blowing minds and pushing the bounds of the way people learn. Something I read about Backbone in the early days was that it was not a framework, but instead, it was a library for building frameworks around. This is really what a shop that works on short timelines and often says, "If we can dream it, we can build it," was needing - a way to respond to the never-ending stream of projects that could be radically different than everything that came before it. So we chose to build our framework Blaze around the core of Backbone. We looked at a couple of the other frameworks now popping up in the Backbone ecosystem, like Marionette and Layout Manager, but most of them did not really do much for our needs, and instead focused on handling complex nested views and aimed mainly at building traditional websites. What we needed was solutions around assessment, interactivity, simulation, complex branching narratives, internal legacy data formats, gamification, user tracking, and analytics. Another serious requirement was a lot of e-learning packages must run serverless and are not only expected to integrate seamlessly into a myriad different environments, but must also communicate through specifications that date back to the 1980s. So we set about the porting of our Flash framework to JavaScript. We added Mustache for templating with a thin layer wrapping it, providing template loading and global helper functionality. We used Cocktail.js for mixins since we favor composition over inheritance. Of course we get Underscore.js since it is Backbone’s one hard dependency. It’s like a Bat Belt of functionality that I would be sad to have to give up. We made heavy use of Promises through Q.js to handle async operation and sequencing. Then we built the stuff needed for our business domain, like adaptors for LMS communication, Interactive and Assessment controllers and trackers, and our Conversation Engine, which is used for extremely complex soft skill simulations. In some places, like animation, we made the framework agnostic. This allows us to choose the best animation engine for the project’s requirements. Need one that supports IE7 or one that will be screaming fast in Chrome on a Windows 8 kiosk mode set-up for a game in your mobile learning trailer? No problem. We would not advocate everyone should drop [insert fad of the week framework here] and build their own (although building a framework is great learning experience). Nor has our search for new technologies stopped (for instance, we have a couple of Meteor.js/react apps under way right now). However, if you develop in a niche like e-learning and look in your toolbox only to notice that your hammer is suspiciously shaped like a burrito that spews beans everywhere anytime you hit a nail with it, you might consider using Backbone as a tried and true place to start a framework that is more suited to your needs. The post Why We Still Use Backbone.js appeared first on Enspire.

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How prepared is your organization to deal with the mega trends of Manufacturing 4.0 and the widening variance in leadership quality?

Leadership is a profoundly human endeavor: Helping yourself and others grow. How will you use your leadership skills to make change in 2016?

We’re delighted to present you our latest white paper ‘Managing Top Talent - A Call for Better Communications’, which you can download now for free. Effective communication skills are key to finding, managing and retaining top talent across any multinational organisation. To develop a global talent pool of future leaders, HR needs a solid communications strategy. Businesses are becoming increasingly aware of how essential communication skills are for overall profitability. The Speexx Exchange 2014-15 Survey, carried out among more than 200 global corporations, revealed the clear competitive advantage of strong communication skills. 92% of the respondents rated business communication skills as important or very important, with a direct impact on business success. Managing Top Talent - A Call for Better Communications   This paper showcases they key drivers for successfully aligning communications with top talent management and leadership development and offers practical approaches for getting started. You will learn: Why talent management always goes hand in hand with communications How to empower HR with technology and the benefits of Big Data 5 steps to buidling leadership communication skills en Download Now  

Today my mojo returned. I’m not sure where it has been for the past 6 months - possibly running a pop-up beard trimming shop in Papua New Guinea - but I won’t question it. I’ll just accept the fact that, for now anyway, it has returned. I’m not sure why it left me in the first place, but I have a theory it’s something to do with camembert. Let me explain: A few years ago, I discovered camembert. As a lifelong lover of cheese this, admittedly, was a rather late discovery to make, but there you go. What’s life for if not for discovering new things? For a while, I devoured it at every opportunity, and the zenith of my camembert - love came when my partner encased a wheel of it in pastry and baked it. The resulting cheese pie was so unbelievably tasty, I all but inhaled it in 5 minutes flat. Then something odd happened. The thought of eating camembert suddenly made me feel queasy. I had overdone it, and made myself sick of it. So much so, that I still can’t go near this particular breed of cheese without my stomach roiling in protest. The same thing happened with my love of learning technology. After almost a decade of addiction to all things TEL-based, I lost interest. I think I may well have burnt myself out a little too - I found myself getting snappy with people who wanted me to help them and just felt so completely and utterly bored with anything to do with technology and education. I lost patience with people who couldn’t insert videos into their PowerPoint presentations, and remember getting quite snippy with one person who said that they didn’t like using technology. "Well, ten years ago you could have got away with saying that!" I remember ranting. "But nowadays, saying that you don’t use technology is the same as saying you don’t like using the number 2." What a smug idiot I was. And yet, at odds with this, I was longing to run away to a wooden cabin in the Highlands with a suitcase full of books and no internet connection. I abandoned this very blog because I couldn’t think of anything to write about, stopped Tweeting because I couldn’t be bothered with it, and Facebook updates became (and are still) infrequent to the point of being non-existent. The only technology I had any interest in was Fallout 4 on my PS4. I successfully managed to cock up my Masters dissertation too. This was something I had worked diligently towards accomplishing for almost 5 years, yet when it got to the dissertation stage, I just churned out 20, 000 words with as much interest as if I were writing a shopping list. I knew it was rubbish as I wrote it, and was aware of exactly where it had all gone wrong as soon as I’d finished, yet rather than proofreading and tweaking it in order to bring it up to standard, I just wanted the whole thing out of the way, so published it and sent it off knowing without a doubt that it was a fail. And when I got official notification that it HAD failed, I shrugged my shoulders and realised that I didn’t even care. Had this happened in the middle of the year, when there is usually no let up in sight, I may well have done something daft like quit my job. Thankfully, Christmas intervened, and I enjoyed a couple of technology-free weeks at home. And this week, after switching on my office machine and logging into the university network,  I felt the first stirrings of renewed interest. So this is why I’m writing my first blog post in five months. FIVE MONTHS!!! Later on today I’ll be delivering a seminar to academic staff about the benefits of Open Educational Resources, and I’m actually looking forward to it. Take a look at it here: Later on this week, I’m going to have a play with Sway and Office Mix to see what they have to offer. These are just two applications I’ve been aware of for several months but have had no interest in playing with, until now. Oh, and I’m also going to resubmit my dissertation, after giving it the attention it deserves. And this time, I swear to God…it’s going to be a pass!

If there’s one thing that’s certain about the future of learning, it’s that it will continue to play a large role in organizational success. But the shape of learning is changing. Based on conversations with top learning analysts, leading organizations and industry experts, here’s what we believe are the most credible and crucial learning trends for organizations in 2016. Trend #1:  Big Data and Learner Analytics With respect to eLearning, big data is everything that’s gathered when a learner takes an eLearning course or training module.  This not only includes large volumes of data for organization-level analysis, but also discrete pieces of data that offer insight into how each individual learner is acquiring and digesting knowledge.  We expect big data to allow both learners and learning professionals to take a more personalized, targeted approach that is more impactful for the organization.  It will also open up the discussion around predictive analytics , allowing organizations to identify which behaviors employees need to exhibit to achieve desired business outcomes. Trend #2: Gamification Gamification will remain a top learning trend in 2016. Two years ago, the industry was just getting their heads around what gamification meant. In 2015,  organizations became interested in how it could be incorporated into their learning environments. And in 2016, we forecast that organizations will take more definitive action.  While gamification in learning hasn’t met analyst projections yet, we think proof that it’s not just hype will lead to even greater adoption. Trend #3: Personalized Learning We expect to see a stronger shift towards adaptive learning and personalized learning paths this year.  This is largely driven by the availability of comprehensive data to help personalize learning to each learner’s needs and the availability and adoption of mobile learning, which will help deliver knowledge to employees when and where it’s most appropriate. The industry has long been aware of the fact that learning adjusted to the individual is far more effective and valuable. However, traditional methods haven’t been able to support this requirement. But technologies, like the Axonify Employee Knowledge Platform, now allow granular learning personalization based on a range of criteria, allowing learning content to be modified literally on the fly: based on how employees interact with learning content or how their needs change. Trend #4:  Mobile Learning We anticipate that mobile learning via a native app will more popular than learning through a standard mobile web browser. This comes as no surprise, since apps dominate everywhere else. Instead of being required to access learning from a corporate computer, mobile learning will allow employees to obtain learning content anytime and anywhere they have access to their mobile device. This provides an even bigger benefit to employees, such as retail associates and warehouse workers, who may not have access to a corporate computer or company email system, but can use an app to get the learning they need to perform at their best. Trend #5: Performance Support Although the term Performance Support has been used for a number of years now, the majority of organizations are yet to introduce a "learning at the point-of-need" strategy. We expect more businesses will start to move away from the traditional firehose method of delivering learning and, instead, separate training content into two groups: Information that employees need to know in their heads versus information they simply need at their fingertips to do their jobs better. This will change the way businesses deliver learning and pave the way for performance support methods to become mainstream. Trend #6: Microlearning We’ve seen the microlearning trend absolutely take off in the latter half of 2015 and it’s expected to continue to gain momentum throughout 2016. Organizations are looking to get a better sense for what microlearning is, whether it makes sense for them and if so, how they can to incorporate it into their business. However, we believe organizations will turn away from the narrow definition of microlearning as simply a short video or piece of learning content, and adopt a more holistic view that incorporates short learning bursts with gamification, retention techniques, personalization and ongoing measurement and analytics. Trend #7: Video Video is starting to emerge as a dominant approach to delivering learning. More profound than just watching a video, we expect businesses to use videos for all kinds of instructional uses:  onboarding new hires, supporting product launches, improving customer support and more. Video is being seen by many as driving a learning revolution. And it’s easy:  anyone with a mobile device can create and share a short instruction video. What are your big areas of focus for 2016? Share your ideas with us on our upcoming webinar with Donald Taylor and Carol Leaman, which is taking place on January 20th. You have the unique opportunity to contribute to the content of the webinar by participating in this survey on Don Taylor’s blog. We look forward to hearing what your big areas of focus for this year will be. Written by Laura Martin The post 7 Top Learning Trends for 2016 appeared first on Axonify.

The Consumer Electronics Show displays technology available today as well as dreams of future tech. And while most of the eLearning industry is driven by software, it's the hardware that changes how we interact with that software. I wrote a little more about this in last Monday's blog post, and need to revise my thoughts on the disappearance of the screen. CORNING Gorilla Glass Collaborative Table From what I saw at CES today, it's obvious that screens aren't going away any time soon. Yes, there will be new innovations in screen technology, but they are no where near disappearing. There were walls and walls of towering screens all over the event. But my favorite example was from CORNING. They displayed a massive interactive touch screen, translucent interactive display cases, and giant collaborative tables. All based on CORNING's Gorilla glass. If you thought classrooms with electronic whiteboards were cool, just wait until the walls are all covered with interactive glass. The instructional possibilities go way beyond how we currently view large screen monitors in classrooms...if at all. Consider the combination of an interactive wall of glass with collaborative interactive tables in the classroom. Not only is the screen not disappearing, but the classroom isn't going anywhere either. It's getting an upgrade. Blue becomes NEAT My favorite microphone for last few years has been the Blue Yeti. Blue was recently acquired by Gibson. Yes, the guitar company. The creators of Blue have created a new brand called NEAT that will launch new designs on a regular basis. Their first designs fall under the monicker of Bee and Widget. They are cute and quirky looking but the Gibson folks assured me that the insides are as good or better than my favorite Blue Yeti. NEAT has a little something for everyone. The entry level range is the Widget at $99. They look a little like toys, but do a great job for the podcaster or YouTuber in your family. The Bee lineup does not look much like your average microphone either. But that's what really makes them cool. They each have names like Worker Bee, Beehive, Bumblebee, and Beecaster. If you're in the market for a new microphone and have been wanting a Yeti, I'd recommend you take a look at NEAT's Bee lineup. MicroVideo and MicroLearning is Different at CES2016 2015 was filled with excitement around microlearning and microvideos. The learning content we create is getting smaller and shorter. But the tools we use to capture images and videos are getting smaller as well. So much so that they give micro video a whole new meaning. While we continue to use software to edit and publish shorter videos, the hardware manufacturers are busy creating smaller and smaller micro cameras to help us capture footage. And with micro cams comes the reality of flying 4K micro cams. That's right! You've seen drones with cameras. But I can assure you they are getting better, faster, smaller, and cheaper. Have you thought of all the ways you can use a drone cam to gather video for training? Giving your learners a new view of their environment might help give them a new perspective on their work. Several companies showed off small video cameras that you are probably familiar with, like GoPro and Polaroid. But did you know VIVITAR has a microcam product? Every where I looked development tools were getting smaller and smaller while the displays we use to view eLearning are getting bigger and bigger. And Kodak was showing off a micro camera that shoots 360 interactive video. 360 Degree Video Capture Becomes Real Kodak's micro cam that shoots 360 degree interactive video could have easily fit into the micro trend above because of its micro size. But the trend of 360 degree video capture and interactive display is just as big. The Kodak product has a free player you can download on mobile devices to interact with the video. But I was more interested in finding out if we could embed these interactive 360 degree videos into our authoring tools and LMSs. You'll be happy to know the answer is yes... sort of. March of 2015 Youtube announced that it supported interactive 360 degree video. And now we are seeing the cameras emerge that give us the ability to capture video in this amazing format. It's still a very new technology on both the hardware and software sides. But it's an interesting trend that will only get better and better. Any ideas on how this might be useful in your eLearning development? VR and Headsets Realtime VR Goggles at the Intel Booth OCULUS seems to have started a race to make VR goggles a reality. It seemed like everywhere you looked there was a booth either demoing headsets, or using headsets to show off their products. Some headsets showed pre-recorded content while others gave you a live 360 degree view of a location in realtime. I tried several of them. The one in this picture was in the Intel booth. They had a couple half pipes setup outside with BMX riders and skateboarders doing their tricks. And there was a 360 camera taking live 360 video of the action and feeding it inside to the headset I was wearing. It was a bit unnerving to feel "teleported" outside to a real location and look around as if I was actually there. And yet... it was really cool too. All day long I was asking myself why. Why are most of these products developed? And why would I use them to train/teach someone? I'm not sure the VR is quite ready for primetime just yet. But it's fun to see it moving forward. Some of the tech was old tech but highly improved. Sony cameras now shoot 20x super slow motion video, and their phone cameras have amazingly fast and accurate focus. And the new car technology on display was mostly just for show. But seeing how engineers envision the auto interface of the future is inspiring. Actually, all of the interfaces were inspiring. But some were so good I didn't even take the time to recognize them. When the interface disappears for the user, you know you got it right. Follow me on twitter @Litmos for more updates tomorrow and Friday. The post CES 2016 Trends that will Influence Your eLearning Development appeared first on Litmos.

Days before Christmas, I gathered all my empty coffee cups and prepared for my winter solstice, briefly stopping in the doorway of my friends office to wish her a merry Christmas. I asked her about her plans, assuming they would be similar to mine: a loud chaotic celebration with family. Her response caused me pause. Her plans elicited a sense of pride, admiration, surprise, and sadness in me. I felt like an underachiever, now mind you that wasn’t her intention. However, I think it was a normal response when you encounter someone who puts words into actions. Her plan was to go to a Wal-Mart, in an area that poverty is commonplace, with a stack of $25 gift cards. With her family, she would peruse the toy aisle looking for parents who were literally counting the change in their pockets in order to buy Christmas gifts for their children. I’ve been to this store and I am certain it wasn’t difficult to find recipients—people whose lives would be changed by $25. Show of hands if you spend $25 a month at Starbucks or MacDonald’s…and we don’t really think twice about it, do we? I’m not saying everyone should fling gift cards into a crowd, but it made me think of compassion. Honestly, I have thought about this gesture every night since December 22. We work in an industry that cares for the sick, oftentimes without any promise of payment, which is in part the definition of compassion. However, does that compassion end at the visit? The patient cycle begins at intake and ends when the bill is paid. If you’ve done it well, your patient will return when they need to (let’s face it, even patients shop for the best deal). There are so many factors involved in this tangled web and humans can be trying, especially when they’re sick. In the age of technology we have to remember there are eyes and ears everywhere. Are you certain your entire staff is engaging your patients with compassion? Facebook and Twitter are filled with examples that show we are not. We are device-driven, often wishing for more hours in a day. We walk away from our computers, just for a second, leaving them unlocked. One second turns to an hour. Your laptop is stashed behind the passenger’s seat and you run into the dry cleaners. You text your friend who is a dermatologist about another friend who has a suspicious mole. You vent to your circle of friends on Facebook about a rude patient who chewed you out at the office. Careless and not compassionate. Take a moment to think of ways to empower your staff. Educate them, value them, and realize everyone’s job is difficult and critical to your business. Studies show that employees who feel valued at work will strive to do a better job and increase retention rates. The compassion you extend to your staff will trickle down to your patients. Meanwhile.... Next Christmas you can find us at Wal-Mart trying to start a movement. The post The Gift of Compassion appeared first on Litmos.

Most of us have heard of e-learning and maybe you’ve even taken a few online courses, but what does it really mean and how can the benefits of e-learning apply to your business? E-learning is a generic term for electronic or online learning.  Most Universities now offer online courses and you can even earn an entire degree without ever stepping into a classroom.  Most people are familiar with this type of learning when connected to a college or university but may not think of it as applying to their business.  In fact, e-learning is one of the fastest growing parts of the business world because it is highly flexible and offers many options for training your employees. The Benefits of e-Learning for Office Staff Companies have recently started using e-learning to train office staff on topics like HR compliance, legal issues, email etiquette or company policies. The benefits of e-learning are significant: Training can be done at the employee’s convenience and is available 24/7. Content is offered exactly the same way to every employee. Each company can customize the content of the course to their needs. Employees can train from their desk, on their PC without having to assemble in a conference room and interrupt productivity. Training is automatically tracked so you know who has completed it and who may have missed it. A short quiz can be included to ensure they actually paid attention and understood the content. These are just a few of the benefits of e-learning to the office staff.  But what about the plant, warehouse or shop floor employees?  How can e-learning apply to them and how would it be conducted?  Many forward thinking companies are now starting to use e-learning to train their operations employees in a variety of ways that just a few years ago was not possible. The benefits of e-Learning in Operations Training There are primarily two types of training for plant and operations employees.   First, training new employees to do a specific job like picking orders, receiving product or assembling a part. Next there is training for current employees on new company procedures, policies or rules. Operations Managers tend to think that all training needs to be "hands on", meaning a trainer, supervisor or lead is used to show the new employee how to do a job.  For current employees who need to be updated on new policies, the expectation is they need to gather in a conference or training room where a trainer holds a class.   But what if e-learning could help in two very significant ways? Shorten the time it takes a new employee to get "up to speed" and be productive. Provide a way to train current employees on new policies and procedures more efficiently than ever before. E-learning is a tool that adds convenience and flexibility to your current training programs while enhancing the message with a more meaningful and interactive experience. So how does this all apply to your operations or plant employees? All of the benefits listed above for office employees can also apply to your warehouse or plant employees.  Let’s take the benefits of e-Learning one at a time and see how they apply to your operations. Training is done at their convenience. Operations employees can utilize a simple training station or kiosk to access online courses that introduce them to their job, what is expected, how to be efficient, safe and effective.  A kiosk is inexpensive, secure and available 24/7. Training offered the same to every employee. You have already defined the best practices for each job.  By putting those procedures online, every new employee sees and hears the right way to do the job; the way you want the job to be done. Training can be customized. You decide how the course will look and feel.  You will use your terminology, pictures of your plant, your employees, and your procedures. Training will be specific to your company practices. Employees can train from their desk. Of course warehouse or plant employees don’t have a desk or PC so the kiosk is their desk.  Employees can be sent to train at the supervisor’s convenience when production is slower or those rare days when you are fully staffed. When you need to train current employees on new policies there is no longer a need to gather everyone in the training room and bring production to a halt for an hour.  They can be sent individually to the kiosk to train while production continues. Training is automatically tracked. For new employees learning a new skill, e-learning will track their progress and report on which courses they have taken.  You can set up a list of required courses for new hires and ensure all training is completed. This includes safety training as well as job specific. For current employees being updated on new policies, e-learning will track who is complete and report on who has not taken the required training. A short quiz can be included to ensure they understand the material. It is important that new employees understand the training, especially when they are doing it online.  Interactive Q&A sessions will ensure they "get it" and if not, you can be notified via email and can retrain. When training current employees in a classroom setting do you ever really know if they understood the material or were even paying attention? Using e-learning, you will be certain they know the major points because they need to answer questions specific to the topic. E-learning is an efficient and effective way that companies are now training their office staff and it can be used just as effectively for plant, operations and warehouse employees. It is simple, convenient, is quickly catching on and will soon be the new standard for operations and production employees across many industries. The post Benefits of e-Learning (Can it really help my company?) appeared first on KMI Learning.

  Gone are the days when a classroom meant blackboards, chalks and maps. Because of the use of so many new technology in education, modern classrooms have changed dramatically. As a result, the learning experience of students have also improved. New technology in education can enhance the learning of students by the following ways:   AUDIO VISUAL MEDIA: One of the best new technology in education is the use of audio and visual media. Students tend to remember images more than texts. When the boring black and white words in books are replaced by colorful, moving objects and audio, then obviously students will remember it better than reading directly from the books. Apart from this, YouTube is also a great new technology in education. It has specialized channels designed for education and there are lots of learning materials as well. Many modern universities are using audio visual media instead of text books.   MOBILE DEVICES: Mobile phones are the favorite gadgets of students and most of them end up spending half of their day using their phones. The idea of using mobile phones as a new technology in education is great. Many schools and colleges now provide their students with phones or iPad’s to improve their learning experience. As a result, students can directly access the internet and read online books and study materials. There are also many great apps which provides great online lessons.   ONLINE CONVERSATION WITH EXPERTS FROM ALL AROUND THE WORLD: Video conferencing is probably the best new technology in education. A great way to enhance the learning experience of students is to engage them in conversation about their subjects with experts in the field. Conversing with professors in their own college is not enough. Through video chatting or other virtual platforms, students can engage in active conversation with experts.Also, with the help of video tools, students in any college can also directly listen live to a lecture given at another college.   SMART CLASSROOMS: Another great new technology in education is the use of smart classrooms. Smart Classrooms means the use of Smart Boards and other devices which will boost classroom activities. The traditional boards used can be boring for students of the digital age. Smart boards are used now in most universities. It is basically an interactive whiteboard that uses touch detection for entering any input. It is also easy for the teachers to teach via a smart board.   CLASSROOM MANAGEMENT: While investing on any new technology in education, it is important for the management of the institution to keep in mind about proper classroom management. While using Smart boards or mobile devices, it should be ensured that proper software of effective classroom management is at place. It will guarantee that all the devices are properly used to enhance learning experience of students.   TECHNOLOGY EMPOWER TEACHERS ALSO: Many teachers don’t like the use of new technology in education, but they are not aware that new technologies empowers them as well. Teachers can constantly keep in touch with their students with the help of various social networking sites. Teachers can also use mobile apps to grade and evaluate students. The post How new technology in education can enhance learning? appeared first on Fedena Blog.

What do you get when you combine Pantone's colors of the year with everyone's favorite church basement game? Pantone Bingo! Read more...

This week's challenge is to make something Star Wars happen, so I booted up BB-8 and made a mini droid quiz. Enjoy! Read more...

This week’s challenge is to share an instructional design job aid, so I turned one of my faves into a zippy little interaction. Read more...

Happy New Year from NCCE and the Tech-Savvy Teachers!  We are so excited for what 2016 will bring!  Expect more information in coming weeks concerning NCCE in Seattle in February along with professional development opportunities throughout the year! Recently, I had the opportunity to talk with three EdTech superstars (and all previous featured speakers at NCCE!), Wes Fryer, Nikki D Robertson and Eric Langhorst looking back on all educational technology 2015 and looking into the crystal ball for 2016! It was an amazing 80 minutes of interesting and challenging banter.  Check it out on YouTube: or, if you prefer, Wes has exported the audio into a podcast here. In any case, 2015 was an amazing year and 2016 should be our best year yet! Happy New Year!   The post Weekend Listen: Looking Back, Looking Forward appeared first on NCCE's Tech-Savvy Teacher Blog.

There are times when we sense a student is in need even though the details are unspecified.  In our relationship with a student, an unsolicited act of caring can touch a life in unexpected ways....Continue Reading »

Perceived Reality: Teaching can sometimes feel like a lot of thankless work. Grading the same insubstantial content issues, correcting the same obvious grammar errors, and responding to the same vexing requests for leniency can dull...Continue Reading »

Despite the fact that the term e-learning was coined in 1999, the roots of machine-based teaching can actually be traced backed decades before then. Ever since, more and more interpretations have offered to provide learners with the ultimate in education and instruction. But that doesn’t mean to say we have reached the pinnacle of e-learning. Although psychologists have used science to prove that e-learning techniques such as spaced repetition and gamification are much more effective at long-term memory retention than traditional training methods, you never know when new or novel innovations could transform knowledge acquisition yet again. So, how far has e-learning come since its inception and what does the future have in store for this teaching technique?   The history of e-learning Similar to e-learning, distance courses were in existence as early as the 1840s when Isaac Pitman taught students about symbolic writing via long-distance correspondence. However, it wasn’t until 1924 that Ohio State University professor Sidney Pressey invented a self-testing machine known as "Automatic Teacher," which to all intents and purposes failed. Fast forward 30 years and students at Harvard University were invited to follow a set of instructions on the "Teaching Machine" created by professor and pioneer BF Skinner. He also developed a more advanced system in 1960, the same year the first fully-fledged computer-based training program was developed, known as PLATO: Programmed Logic for Automated Teaching Operation. It featured learning drills and even the ability to skip questions. In the 1970s, the British Open University made plans to embrace the e-learning principle with its long-distance courses. Around this time, the computer mouse as well as the GUI was invented, while personal computers followed soon after. Before long, virtual learning environments began to thrive and educational institutions were able to deliver teaching to people unable to attend in person due to geographical or time constraints. Corporate training providers picked up on this too and the 21st century’s digital landscape meant that employees could access e-learning materials on virtually any device, in any place, and at any time.   The future of e-learning Today you could argue that e-learning has evolved just as much since the term was coined as it did from Isaac Pitman’s first long-distance courses. Thanks to rapid advancements in technology, e-learning has had to adapt to the ever-changing digital preferences of modern-day learners. Therefore, it is safe to assume that e-learning will continue to adjust its offering in order to remain relevant to learners and effective at teaching new information. But how will it do this?   Cloud-based learning We live in a world that is one big marketplace, where companies have customers all over the globe. Therefore, several organisations have members of staff in multiple locations too, which calls for a unified training solution. Rather than installing e-learning programs on separate computers, businesses want a platform where employees can access content wherever they may be. "There is an increasing demand for inexpensive, high-quality, global training," says Jeffrey Roth of Topyx. "Currently, business is transitioning from costly in-person training routines to eLearning programs. "In the coming years, any stigmas attached to online learning will be abolished. Instead, cloud-based technology will streamline corporate training procedures and open doors to customised learning options for small and medium sized businesses."   Bring Your Own Device There is no reason why e-learning should be confined to the walls of your workplace. Some employees might learn more effectively at home on their laptops, while others prefer to acquire knowledge during lunch on their smartphones. Therefore, organisations must adjust to Bring Your Own Device trends when it comes to e-learning. "Learners at colleges and in the work place are becoming smarter about the way they learn, so organisations need to continually develop e-learning content to keep ahead of market trends," notes Jane Scott Paul of AAT. "Like it or not, people of all ages are bringing their own devices into the work and learning environment and this will only continue to become more common moving forward."   Mobile-friendly The transition from e-learning to m-learning or mobile learning is not just a future prediction, it’s happening right now. A recent benchmark study by Towards Maturity found that 71 per cent of organisations now deploy mobile devices for learning. "Tablets are growing exponentially and soon they may become the preferred choice for e-learning," notes Rob Caul of Kallidus. "With the proliferation of smartphones too, HTML5 and responsive design are growing rapidly in popularity, enabling learners to access learning content at their point of need, using the device of their choice." "As we move towards the new paradigm of learning anytime, anywhere, on any device, one of the biggest challenges for L&D departments is finding the best way to ensure learning content can be viewed across any device or platform."   Online video Video is quickly becoming the most admired content medium online, as they are now easy and quick to produce yet grab the audience’s attention and keep viewers interested in what you have to say. The success of TED Talks and similar platforms only goes to show just how significant video could be for e-learning. "I reckon we’ll see an even greater use of video in the workplace," believes Clive Shepherd of Fastrack Consulting. "Learners like it and it’s much easier to produce than it ever was. [Video] is more engaging, more versatile and less impersonal. "It can be used to trigger interaction, both individual and group - and can be blended with more reflective materials such as web articles, blogs and PDFs."   Informal learning If employees want to learn a new piece of information, they no longer need to wait for a training course to roll around. They can go online and find the answer almost immediately. For this reason, e-learning needs to facilitate informal learning in the future too. "With the easy availability of new social media tools, individuals are already managing their informal learning," notes Rajesh Thambala of ValueLabs. "This trend is only likely to catch up more in the future as the users increasingly search for and access learning resources freely available on the web, such as, podcasts, videos, and blogs, whenever needed." Do you have any predictions on what the future holds for e-learning? Let us know by commenting below. Share this post with your own audience

Welcome to my first post of 2016! I thought I’d share some of my classroom goals for 2016 for two reasons. First because blogging about my goals helps me reflect and actually list my goals in an achievable way, and second because writing and sharing my goals with the world (ok,[Read more] The post Goals for My Classroom in 2016 appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

The power of association—and associations—is never more clear to me than when I’m participating in an association conference, so I’m in Association/Associations Heaven right now as the 2016 American Library Association (ALA) Midwinter Meeting is blossoming here in Boston. While I often hear colleagues—generally those who opt out of participating in the professional associations that represent and bring together colleagues within their professions—cite all the reasons why they don’t see value in joining and being active in their industry’s association, I can’t imagine not being part of ALA, ATD, and others that facilitate the critically important connections and opportunities that the act of associating and associations themselves so effectively foster. And even though I’m currently benefitting from being among thousands of colleagues arriving here in Boston, I also recognize that association is no longer something that is at all completely dependent on physical proximity. Anyone with Internet access quickly realizes that the size of our conference "room" is expansive, that the room is permeable, and that it is fairly inclusive; it includes the physical meeting spaces, as well as the extensive set of corridors in which so much important and rewarding associating occurs, and can extend to being a regional, national, and international association space if we’re a bit creative in the way we approach the act of associating. The latest associating—via the very active #alamw16 hashtag that is bringing offsite and onsite colleagues together in a variety of ways—began for me several days before I arrived. It has also been facilitated through the use of a well-designed and highly-used conference app that allows us not only to browse schedules and access a treasure-trove of conference information and learning resources, but to locate and contact conference attendees through a list of those who registered. T is for Training Logo Those who care about associating and about this Association conference also are welcome participants in the conversations via their/our exchanges on what is increasingly a incorrectly-named hashtag (#alaleftbehind), for the very act of interacting via #alaleftbehind means they are not as far out of the loop as they may initially feel they are. I have, in fact, written extensively about being on both sides of the "left behind" equation—about participating virtually and about helping draw in participants who are not onsite. I remain excited by the many opportunities we can be exploring together in an effort to make sure no interested colleague is completely left behind. And, in the spirit of bringing onsite and offsite colleagues together, a couple of us, as I’m writing this piece, just finished our latest experiment in virtual conference engagement by having a conversation that started here in the conference Networking Uncommons and linked us to our T is for Training colleague Maurice Coleman via a phone call that brought the conference into the taping of Episode 176  of his long-running podcast series. To give credit where credit is due, let’s not overlook the critically important role association management and staff play in fostering strong association through an association. ALA Marketing Director Mary Mackay, for instance, has done her usual first-rate job of reaching out to offsite Association members via LinkedIn and other social media platforms with a series of tips on how to keep up with the onsite activities via a variety of social media and Association resources (posted January 6, 2016). But much of it comes back to our own desire and longing for connection and the connections that come from being part of an association and contributing to the strength of that association through active participation. If you haven’t yet engaged in this level of association, and want to try it, there are several easy steps to take. Identify the conference hashtag (in this case, #alamw16) and interact at a meaningful level; retweet interesting tweets you see from onsite colleagues and, more importantly, comment in a way that adds to the conversation, e.g., by adding a link to a resource that extends the conversation. (Don’t be surprised when onsite colleagues, seeing your comments, ask the inevitable question: "Are you here?" And revel in the idea that in a very significant way, you are here/there.)  Watch for links to blog posts from conference attendees, then post responses and share links to those posts so the conversations—and the learning—grow rhizomatically. If you read those posts days, week, or months after they are initially posted, remember that it’s never too late to join the very-extended synchronously asynchronous conversation by posting responses and/or sharing links. And if you have onsite colleagues who are willing to be among your conduits to the onsite action, don’t hesitate to "go onsite" with them via a Google Hangout, Skype, or even a phone call. There’s a role for everyone in this process of associating and expanding the size of the room. If you’re reading this while you at the ALA Midwinter Conference (or any other conference), you can contribute by reaching out to those you know are interested. And, with any luck, you (and the rest of us) will expand the connections that already are at the heart of successful associations—and association.

Our calling here at RMA is not consulting or training. Our calling is to help our customers get to the life they want through improved work relationships, prioritization, focus  and hope  which are required to drive better leadership and business outcomes (projects). Brittney and I have talked to many people this year who are afraid to dream a better future and who feel too swamped and exhausted to muddle their way to a different place. So, I've built a little reflection-learning-grow-yourself-in-a- newsletter experience for you to play with as the New Year begins. My goal for you is that you give yourself the gift of 20 quiet minutes to seek the future you want by reading through these thoughts and re-energizing.  This newsletter will be divided into the four areas you see in the diagram. For the analytical, I have intentionally put these in order however, we will all continue to spin through them without sequence as we move through our  New Year:ReframePrepareClear RolesCollaborate… repeat

Stop asking poor multiple choice questions. In this article, Steve Penfold explains how to write better multiple choice questions that can make your assessments more meaningful. Your course is written, the activities are working beautifully and all of the graphics have been polished. Just the 10-question assessment left to do…. This is an all too common situation. And not necessarily a good one. The questions can be the trickiest, most under-thought out and, arguably, most important part of your course. Multiple choice questions, or variations on them, are a common way to assess learners, but there are good ways and bad ways of constructing them. Consider these points when writing multiple choice questions and make your assessments more meaningful and effective. Write the questions before the content This may seem counter-intuitive, but when you think about it, it makes sense. There’s often far too much unnecessary content in an elearning course; the important material gets lost in a let’s-tell-the-learner-everything avalanche. By writing solid questions that test the learning objectives and then developing content to support those questions, your content will be leaner and tighter. I.e., there’ll only be such content as is necessary to support the questions and learning objectives. If you develop the course content before writing the assessment, you may find that you’ve spent time on developing content that isn’t aligned with the learning objectives, and worse, you’ll then write questions on the unnecessary content and waste both your and the learners’ time. Test what you want people to do, not what you think they should know Let’s assume that a course has the learning objective of demonstrating the use of the Active Voice in business writing. An assessment question for such a course might be: Should you strive to use Active Voice or Passive Voice in your business writing? Active Voice. Passive Voice. Well, the learner has a 50/50 chance of getting this right and, even if they do, it doesn’t mean that they’ll be able to apply it. A better question would be: What are the advantages of using Active Voice in your business writing? Select all that apply. It’s generally clearer than Passive Voice. It’s more direct than Passive Voice. It’s less confronting than Passive Voice. It’s usually shorter than Passive Voice. At least this shows that the learner knows why they should use Active Voice. But can they apply it? Do they know what it looks like? We still don’t know, and that’s what we really want from them. An even better question would be: Which of the following sentences would be most appropriate in your business writing? An investigation has begun into the issue that you have raised. I have begun an investigation into the issue that you have raised. The issue that you raised is now under investigation. You raised an issue that I have begun an investigation into. This tests whether the learner knows what the Active Voice looks like, and therefore begins to test the learning objective. If they can identify the Active Voice, they’re well on their way to being able to write it. And always try and put the question into a workplace context. For example, give the learner a scenario and ask which of the answer options would resolve it, or ask, "Here are the opinions of four colleagues. Whose would you follow to resolve this situation?" True/False, Multiple-choice and Multiple-select I never use True/False or two-option questions. Blindfolded, the learner has a 50% chance of guessing the correct answer. It’s often a lazy option on the question writer’s part. There’s always a more meaningful way to ask this type of question. A standard Multiple-choice (i.e. the learner can choose 1 option from several presented) is a better tool. But even then, if there are four options, the learner has a 25% chance of guessing the right answer. A Multiple-select (i.e. like a Multiple-choice, but the learner can choose several options) question is a much better tool. In a four option question, the learner has a 0.4% chance of guessing the correct answer, assuming that they don’t know whether 1, 2, 3 or 4 of the options form the correct answer. And I mix them up. Some of these will have 2 correct options, others 3, some will have 1, and sometimes all 4 are correct. Writing good distractors I like to allow 30 minutes to write a question, which often surprises people. They think it should be much quicker, especially if they’re paying by the hour! Creating a good question and the right answer is relatively easy. It’s producing realistic distractors (the incorrect answers in a multiple choice type question) that takes the time. And realistic distractors are really important. Each weak distractor that the learner can discount gives them a better chance of being able to deduce or guess the correct answer.  E.g. in a 4 option Multiple-choice question, if two of the distractors are weak, the learner suddenly has a 50% chance of guessing correctly, instead of a 25% chance. A good distractor should seem like a plausible option to someone who doesn’t know the learning content, but should be clearly wrong to someone who does. It shouldn’t, however, be incorrect on a vague technicality - especially if that technicality isn’t specifically covered in the learning content. Avoid being predictable Savvy learners will assume that if the answer to question 1 is A, and the answer to question 3 is D, then the answer to question 2 is unlikely to be A or D. I.e., consecutive questions are rarely  given the same correct option. To avoid answers being easy to guess, you need to make a systematic decision to randomize your answers. Most elearning authoring tools, like Elucidat, offer the option of randomizing answers. Use it! However, if you’re not using an authoring package that automatically randomizes answers, use a dice or toss a coin to decide on the order in which your correct answers will be displayed. Randomizing answers means that "All of the above" and "None of the above" options won’t make sense when they’re randomized and therefore probably not the last option. Good! These options are often just a sign of lazy question writing. One study showed that "All of the above" and "None of the above" answers were correct over 50% of the time. Another point to bear in mind is that within a single question your correct answer(s) and distractors should be about the same length. It is all too easy for a correct answer to give itself away by being significantly longer or shorter than the distractors. Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. In conclusion You’ll want your learners to pass the assessment - but because your elearning content is powerful, not because the assessment is weak. And when your learners do pass, you want it to be based on the learning objectives, not on "knowledge" that doesn’t ensure that they can perform the tasks in the workplace. Writing good questions take a little thought, but it can add a lot of strength to your elearning and its outcomes. The post How to write great multiple choice questions for your elearning appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Let’s look at four inspiring examples of elearning. Don’t miss the chance of learning a thing or two from these organizations.   Curtin University: The Virtual Home Visit Why we like it: Good example of a VR program for learning and development available as a fully interactive demo. VR mask ready e.g. Oculus. Works on any smartphone, tablet or computer (you don’t have to have a Rift headset to have a go with it). Scales on all devices, and as you’d expect, you can pan around 360 degrees in the house and garden to assess risks to your client from falls and accidents. ‘Ambient’ (background sound) and ‘voice’ audio available with settings for each, so you can switch off the background sounds without interrupting the conversations. Scenario driven with decision objects for users to select response which drives the scenario. Uses gaming features to help users progress through the scenarios e.g. users progress through the conversations, they discover more about their client and ‘earn’ knowledge points. Visit elearning Delphi: Training that teaches counter staff how to sell Delphi fuel pumps Why we like it: Good example of customer product training. Simple learning design allows user control for exploring in depth or simply getting the basics and then take a test to see how much they’ve learned. Good example of rapid elearning - you can build multiple modules quickly re-using themes and templates. Works across platforms and devices. Good use of video and audio. Visit elearning Delphi: Training for technicians and DIY’s Why we like it: Good example of customer product training. Takes you through troubleshooting as well as product training. Uses audio narrative. Simple learning design allow user control for exploring in depth or simply getting the basics and then take a test to see how much they’ve learned. Simple branching lets users explore different scenarios. Good example of rapid elearning - you can build this module in a couple of hours and have it out to your audience before lunch. Works across platforms and devices, so users can access it on phones and mobiles whilst they are working with the product. Visit elearning Keith Freeman: Using stories to make a point (built with Prezi) Why we like it: Good example of using Prezi for elearning. Demonstrates how stories can be used for getting a message across and demonstrating points. Nice use of sketched images and handwritten style fonts. The Prezi transitions work really well for this kind of narrative, panning in on key points and highlighting specifics. Works well on a range of devices. Visit elearning  Related: Stay on top of the latest elearning ideas, trends and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter.   The post Elearning inspiration: Curtin University, Delphi, Keith Freeman appeared first on Elucidat Blog.