6 Reasons For Selling eLearning Courses Through Talent LMS  Want to have a slice of a booming multi-billion dollar worldwide market that's only getting bigger? If you're involved in eLearning, then you already are. From its humble beginnings a few decades ago, to its estimated 110 billion dollar revenue in 2015, eLearning not only has taken the enterprise training world by storm, but the LMSs have also changed how we approach education in general. And the best thing is, you don’t need to be some well known educational establishment like the MIT or some massive online learning business to take part in the eLearning boom. In fact, you can reach a world-wide audience with your eLearning courses with just an LMS server; which, if you go for TalentLMS, you don't even need to host yourself, as it comes as a cloud-based, turn-key solution. Interested? In this article we'll have a look at the eCommerce options that eLearning platform TalentLMS offers and how you can leverage them to sell your eLearning content. 1. Sells Hard.  Like the rest of TalentLMS, its eCommerce feature was designed to be simple but flexible, letting you, at its most basic level, two well defined things: Courses and subscriptions. For the former case, the user can select one more specific courses and pay your set price to access them. For the latter, a user has access to all of your paid eLearning courses by paying a single monthly fee, as opposed to a per-course one‐time purchase. 2. Discounts Hard. Merely selling things for a fixed price is no fun; just ask any used-car salesman. Special deals and promotions are powerful weapons of customer persuasion and TalentLMS supports several different kinds of these. Specifically, TalentLMS allows you to have global discounts that are applied across your store, lets you market special offers to specific users (and for specific courses) through coupon codes, and supports the creation of sales bundles with special pricing for certain groups or categories of courses. Between these and the subscription options that we already covered, you have all the tools you need to make offers your users just can't refuse. 3. Gets Paid.   When it comes to getting paid, TalentLMS integrates with Stripe, the fast growing payment processor that's currently catering to the US, Canada, and western Europe, and PayPal, the established payments behemoth that covers most of the known world (some unmapped areas of the Amazon excluded). Between these two services, TalentLMS lets you set up business and accept customers from all over the world, and allows you handle payments from all major credit card companies. To configure either service, your administrator just has to enter your PayPal or Stripe credentials in TalentLMS’ eCommerce settings screen. 4. Integrates.  While you can sell your courses directly from your TalentLMS-based eLearning portal or integrate it to your separate website (if you prefer a fancier web presence), TalentLMS also lets you integrate it into eCommerce platforms such as Shopify (see integration LMS with Shopify) and WooCommerce (see LMS and WooCommerce integration). Shopify, a cloud-based eCommerce service which boasts over 150,000 merchants and billions in sales, can be used as a marketplace for your TalentLMS courses, while our Zapier-based integration middleware makes the sharing of customer information between the two platforms a breeze. WooCommerce, on the other hand, is an open source plugin that sits upon the leading CMS/blogging platform WordPress giving it full eCommerce capabilities. Hooking up TalentLMS with WordPress/WooCommerce is quite easy, and allows you to have the best of both -well, actually all three-, worlds: TalentLMS for eLearning, WordPress to handle your webpage, and WooCommerce for advanced eCommerce options on top of both. If you already have a working WooCommerce installation, then you just need to install our TalentLMS-WP plugin to have your TalentLMS courses available for sale as WooCommerce products, and your TalentLMS course categories shown as WooCommerce product categories. 5. Customer experience friendly. TalentLMS lets users register through their already existing social accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc.). This removes another small, but important, barrier to entry, and lets potential paid users register and check-out your eLearning offerings without having to create yet another web account. And while some other platforms force an impenetrable wall between registered and non-registered users, TalentLMS can be configured to show some courses to all users, regardless of their registration status. 6. Scales courses with ease. As a turn-key, cloud-based service, TalentLMS lets you set up shop and start accepting users within minutes. It also allows you to accept more users as your needs grow; from a few dozen to hundreds of thousands, there are plans to cover all your needs. Of special interest to TalentLMS users who wish to sell their courses are its 4 Unlimited Plans. Those, as the name implies, allow for an unlimited number of online users to be registered. Each of the plans comes with a number of active users that can be connected for free; above that number it's only $4 for each additional active user per month (inactive users, e.g. abandoned demo accounts are not charged). Closing The Deal  In this post we had a look at how TalentLMS handles selling courses and the integration options it offers with popular eCommerce services and tools. There are many more features and details in TalentLMS to help you create, organize and sell your eLearning courses but not enough digital ink to cover them all in this article. Take TalentLMS, a turn-key Learning Management System, for a test drive, start selling your courses, and claim your own slice of this $110 billion eLearning industry pie today. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Enhancing Your Teaching With Comic Strip Making Websites  I have always believed that learning should be fun. That was my own experience since childhood. When I was a kid, I began learning how to read while looking at the beautifully drawn cartoon characters in the Sunday funny pages. I was challenged to decipher the white balloons coming from the characters mouths or above their heads. I knew instinctively that if I could begin to understand what the black printed letters in the balloons meant, I could better understand what the amazing stories were about. And with help from my parents, I began sounding out the letters which made words. In a short time I became a good reader. I never forgot the pleasure of reading comic strips and joke books and when I grew up I began working with cartoonists and illustrators to create art for the newspaper I edited and for the books I began to write. I knew that comic illustrations would provide a way to draw in people to read and saw in the computer the power to generate comics. A few years ago, I launched a website -http://www.makebeliefscomix.com- to empower teachers, trainers, and students to create their own comic strips online. Since then more digital comic strip generators have become available. Comics To Build English Language Skills As a teacher in ESOL and literacy programs, I understood that enabling struggling students to write and tell stories by building comic strips online would be a way of strengthening their emerging English language skills and make the difficult job of learning English a much more enjoyable experience.  If students are having fun they can accomplish anything they want in learning. The MakeBeliefsComix.com site works this way: Users can select from more than 200 fun characters with different moods; happy, sad, angry, worried. The characters are a combination of human and animal characters with human characteristics. The characters are meant to be diverse and inclusive and are of various skin colors and types, including one who is in a wheelchair. All are friendly and engaging so that users will want to play with them and create words for them in the blank talk and thought balloons to make their characters talk and think. There also are story ideas and prompts provided to help users create graphic stories. This site can be used by educators to teach language, reading, and writing skills, and also for students in English-as-a-second-language programs to facilitate self-expression and storytelling. A teacher, for example, could use the strip to practice dialogue spoken by characters. And with computer literacy so emphasized today in ESOL and literacy programs, the very act of encouraging a student to create a simple comic strip online also provides a way for students to become more comfortable in using the computer. As they learn to negotiate the site and move characters and thought balloons around, they are also improving their computer skills. Helping People Who Are Autistic Some educational therapists also use the site with people who are deaf or autistic and trauma victims to help them understand concepts and communicate. Teachers can create scripts to help people practice certain situations, such as greeting someone, or interviewing for a job, or talking with a teacher about their children’s problems. Some teachers use the strips as storyboards to help students more easily understand books that their students may be reading in class. One teacher in Australia told me, for instance, that she created story boards with the site to help her students better understand Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Students reading a book might use MakeBeliefsComix to extend the story by writing about a character whose life and adventures continue after the book is closed, or even to write a different ending. Better yet, they can use the online comix-maker to write their own story. Educators who are teaching new vocabulary might have students create a comic strip in which the characters use the new words that have been learned that day in class. Having to write sentences for characters to speak also provides a way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar. Students who have been assigned a book to read might create a comic strip or strip series summarizing the book’s ideas. In making comic strips, we also have an easy, fun way to engage in make-believe conversations that allow students to practice speaking, to work individually or collaboratively, as well as to practice creative writing. A teacher also could put together a comic strip with characters and blank thought or talk balloons, print it out, and ask students to fill in the balloons with words and narration. Better yet, a student can choose his or her own characters and develop stories alone or with a partner. One teacher I know who was teaching prepositional phrases had her students use online comics to include sentences with such phrases. Having to write sentences for characters to speak provides an engaging way to practice sentence structure and learn grammar. After a student completes her comic strip, she is encouraged to publish or print out copies to keep of her work. This validates her creative writing effort. The site also allows her to email a copy to a friend or relative. The students love seeing the finished comic strips and can keep them in their portfolios to look at and enjoy their hard-earned effort to create something new. Students like showing their families and friends what they have created. The creation of the comics, thus, becomes an empowering experience for many students and reinforces the learning they have accomplished. Creating Comics To Draw Families Closer Parents and children in family literacy programs can also create stories together, print them to create comic books or email them to friends and family. Generating strips also becomes a tool to help parents and children work jointly and communicate effectively in creating something new. Others will find the site a resource to be creative, calm down and have fun - something that is needed as students struggle so mighty in class to master a new language. I have been conducting workshops both for students who are learning English as a second language and with those who as struggling to be literate. Generally, in showing students how to use the site, I will create with them a group comic strip incorporating their ideas. This becomes a great class collaboration. We’ll choose a subject for example, such as going for a job interview, or making conversation with a friend, or going on a date, or deciding what we want to do this coming weekend or where we want to go on a vacation. Then we’ll create a story together, using one or two characters in each panel. The characters become surrogates for ourselves and can be used, too, to help students work out problems or situations that are troubling them in their lives, such as bullying. I might then start a dialogue in one of the talk balloons, asking the students to choose a character and for suggestions for dialogue, and then I’ll ask for more dialogue for another character to speak. Then we’ll try to move the story along by moving to a second panel. Later, when students start their own comic strips, I encourage them to work with a partner to help each other along. Such collaboration gives students more confidence and ideas in creating a story, and in working together the students improve their language skills as they come up with words and ideas for the characters to say and execute. I remember working with a group of Chinese and Hispanic students who were first learning English. For almost three hours at one session they worked collaboratively at the computer site for almost three hours until they had fully shaped and completed their comic story. Each student helped the other put the words together into sentences for the dialogue balloons. Just the experience of having to talk together and create make-believe dialogue for the characters enhances communication skills. There also are story prompts included on the site to give students ideas for themes, such as Travel to a Mysterious Place, A Day at School, Write a Love Story, Finding Your Courage, Making Wishes Come True, and A New Fairy Tale. I have yet to see a frown or a tear shed in the language learning process of creating and working with digital comics. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Democratizing Higher Education In Africa With eLearning Sub-Saharan Africa’s higher education sector has expanded exponentially since the 1970s. The number of tertiary education students increased approximately 50-fold from 200,000 in 1970 to over 10 million currently. For Africa to accommodate students who will reach university enrolment age over the next 12 years, the continent would have to build four universities every week with a capacity for 30,000 people. With already stretched resources, the majority of African countries is unable to meet the demands of increased student enrolments and unable to invest in the building of new universities. The adoption of modern technology presents an opportunity to increase tertiary education access. By shifting from the "brick and mortar" approach, universities will be able to maximize on the output they derive from existing physical and human resources. eLearning is the best possible solution to the problem of access to quality higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa. Only about eight percent of tertiary school-aged youths and adults in Sub-Saharan Africa are enrolled in tertiary institutions, compared to the global average of 32 percent. eLearning may be the most effective answer to democratizing higher education in Africa. How eLearning Is Democratizes Higher Education Unlimited Geographical Reach. The demand for learning has never been so high, and this in conjunction with the need to geographically broaden learning has prompted universities to introduce eLearning initiatives. The number of distance learning institutions has increased dramatically in Sub-Saharan Africa. The African Virtual University (AVU) for example has grown from five countries at inception in 1997 to 27 today. Most universities however have been static in their structure and delivery of higher education courses. Distance learning via eLearning will allow universities to reach students in multiple geographical locations using pre-recorded lectures and Learning Management Systems. The University of the People (UoPeople) has built a model that has transformed access to higher education. As the world's first non-profit, tuition-free, accredited online university, UoPeople has admitted more than 2,000 students from over 150 countries to date. With eLearning even the rural populations in Sub-Saharan countries can be reached with higher education. There is massive potential to use mobile smart phones in connecting higher education institutions more effectively with distance learners. By communicating and sending course materials via mobile smartphones, students receive more frequent support from their educators and can pursue their education wherever and whenever they want. Geographical location will cease to be a limitation. Lower Tuition Costs. eLearning allows institutions of higher learning to provide students with affordable high quality education. The decline in public expenditure per student and projected increase in population suggest the need for a systematic approach that addresses the issue of higher education quality in conjunction with a flow management policy at secondary and primary education levels. The expansion of higher education systems will require considerable investment for increasing the capacity of existing establishments such as libraries, laboratories, workshops, and lecture halls and this investment will likely result in the increase of tuition fees. eLearning also makes it possible to respond to steep increases in the number of students at a marginal cost significantly lower than that of face to face teaching. Online courses generally cost less in tuition and fees than traditional courses, thus reducing the average cost of attendance. Online courses provide unlimited educational opportunities which drastically reduce tuition costs. Access To Quality Academic Resources. eLearning ensures the democratization of higher education by giving students universal access to quality academic content. It is possible for high quality academic resources to be accessible by anyone, anywhere, anytime. Recently the City of Johannesburg in South Africa rolled out online university education in partnership with international institutions through the city’s public libraries known as Massive Open Online Varsity (MOOV). The University of Adelaide in Australia, Rice University, Wharton Business School, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have come on board to offer their courses on MOOV. Students now have an alternative method of getting a tertiary education without having to deal with the high costs. Through the use of advanced technology, students who previously had no access to higher education will now have the opportunity to study at the location that best suits their needs. eLearning brings a new model to how higher education is designed, implemented, and delivered. African universities have been static in their structure and delivery of higher education courses, but with demand for higher education being so high, there is need to geographically broaden and democratize education; and eLearning is the solution. References: Fred Hayward and Daniel Ncayiyana Confronting the Challenges of Graduate Education in Sub-Saharan Africa and Prospects for the Future (Chronicle of African Higher Education March 2014) The World Bank Financing Higher Education in Africa, 2010 Gurmak Singh, John O’Donoghue, Harvey Worton A Study Into The Effects Of eLearning On Higher Education (The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2005) David E. Bloom, David Canning, Kevin Chan, and Dara Lee Luca Spurring Economic Growth in Africa: The Role of Higher Education Sixth Issue: December 2014 Africa’s Post-2015 Development: The Role of Mobile Phones in Higher Education 7 October, 2015 Making higher education work for Africa: Facts and figures This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Is Classroom Technology Changing The Landscape Of Student Engagement?   Technology is entangled with every part of our life. It dictates our way of shopping, socializing, connecting to others, and playing, so it is quite logical that it is going to have a significant influence on the way we learn. Students generally have a favorable attitude toward technology. However, according to Eden Dahlstrom from EDUCASE, technology has only a moderate influence on students’ active involvement in particular courses or as a connector with other students and faculty. The rest is still up to the teacher and how they can inspire their students. Introducing technology into your classroom does not just include bringing a netbook or iPad. Teachers need to use technology to enhance their and their students’ performance. There are several ways to go about this, for example assigning online course content and using adaptive software for students with special needs has had a great positive impact. Equally beneficial is the usage of online student assessments and other available digital tools. Along with the tablets and iPads and Kindles, smartphones have also been given a place in a classroom. A recent study on the mobile device use has shown that this has opened a door to some negative influences. For example students who spend more than four hours using their smartphones get less sleep, while students who did not use smartphones at all and studied 30 minutes a day had higher scores on a math exam than those who spent two hours a day both studying and using mobile devices. Based on this data it can be concluded that the use of technology does not directly increase students’ productivity. How Have The Roles Changed?  In their pursuit to keep up with their students and to keep their interest more and more, educators are implementing technology in their lectures. From the simple visual means like PowerPoint presentations to more advanced methods like Voice Thread or Moodle Glossary that enable students to actively participate and mold their own learning experience. Another major benefit of the usage of technology in the classroom is that it changes the role of a student from a passive to an active one. Students are no more just recipients of knowledge; they have become seekers, makers, and distributors. They are put in a position where they can define their own goals, have an impact on design decisions, and even evaluate their own progress. This change has proven to have a positive impact on both their self-esteem and their motivation. Do Social Media Belong In The Classroom?  The views on whether social media belong in a classroom vary. Most educators these days use platforms like YouTube on daily basis to enrich their lectures and make them more engaging. Many university professors have admitted to also using Facebook and Twitter to inform their students about some changes or to assign tasks. Jim Newman, a Ph.D. student and instructor at Northern Illinois University, says that he uses Twitter not as a news source for his class, but as a bulletin board: "I use it as an additional way to let students know if there’s some last-minute news, like class being cancelled." On the other hand there have been some negative outcomes from the usage of social media in the classroom. Slang terms and text-speak have become common in the classrooms. Student assignments are filled with things like IDK (I don’t know), SMH (shaking my head), and BTW (by the way) and teachers are still uncertain how to deal with these issues. Also punctuation and capitalization have sadly gone out the classroom window, and the students are not even aware that they are doing it. The lack of acre that they give to punctuation and spelling when using text messages and social media has now been transferred to school assignments and writing tasks. Conclusions  The fact that technology has entered our classrooms and is here to stay is undeniable. What is left is finding the best possible way to navigate through the sea of pros and cons finding the best possible solutions for your students and their needs. Educators on all levels need to be alert and to at least try to nip all the negative outcomes in the bud before they let their students out into the real world. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Global Expansion = Training Expansion - Insider Insights Into Localization "The economic recovery is clearly here: Spending on corporate training is soaring (…) and the research is striking: US spending on corporate training grew by 15% last year (the highest growth rate in seven years) to over $70 Billion in the US and over $130 Billion worldwide." - Forbes, Feb. 2014. Companies are investing internally first, through training, to fill in the skill gaps within their own companies. This is great news for Training and Development teams! Most of us don’t have the luxury, however, of being capable of developing training outside of our own native language. As a result, we depend on internal employees or outside language service providers to help us develop this training on a much broader scale. With rare exception, you will be dealing with text expansion when converting your training to other languages. This is important to know when planning and developing your courses. Ultimately this will affect your seat-time. For most languages, you can expect a 25-30% increase. For some languages like German, for example, you can expect a 40% increase. It’s the nature of the target languages. For eLearning courses developed in most authoring tools, the text expansion may increase the overall number of slides you have. It will also increase the running time of your audio scripts. During the engineering builds, the slides will be synced to your new audio. From a technical standpoint, it’s not a big deal. The real concern is the new seat time for the end user. A one-hour English course could easily become a 1.25 - 1.5 hour course in another language. The real challenge comes in with video training. Text expansion for on-screen text, subtitles or captions, and much longer audio files can be an issue with this type of training. Most often, we commonly see final edited videos that are based on the English. There’s only so far you can stretch a video to accommodate the new language without compromising its quality. The other option is to try to match the translated scripts to the actual running time of the English. Often, due to text trimming by necessity, you end up with a video that is less impactful than the original and ultimately sounds more unnatural. With some strategic planning up front, you can alleviate the majority of this challenges and maintain the integrity of your original training: Don’t edit your final English video too tightly. Leave some breathing room since you know another language version will be longer. Even with subtitles, your viewer needs to have time to read the subtitle while watching what’s happening in the video. Choose your voice-talent wisely based on your target audience. Accents can vary greatly by geographic area. Audio production will most likely be your biggest expense during the localization phase. If you have a limited production budget, this can be a concern for localization. Each voice talent typically comes with a minimum charge as does studio time. Do you really need 5 different narrators in your video? Or, can you live with 1 male and 1 female? Maximize your dollars. Try to group your smaller videos together as a single project if you’re outsourcing. Typically, you want to pull together around 30 minutes of source video to maximize your investment in the minimum charges to studio time and voice talent. Be cognizant of your framing when shooting your video. If you plan to use subtitles or captions rather than record audio, remember that the lower third of your screen will be covered up. You don’t want to cover up what people need to see. Talk to your language partner during the planning stage if you can. Your language expert can help guide you in the development based on your specific target languages. Localization of training content should be a fun experience and not a painful one. Hopefully, these tips will help guide you in the right direction in planning well for your next global training initiative. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

IICTC-HAWAII2016 Theme: "Convergence and Divergence" The International Academic Forum, in conjunction with its global university and institutional partners, is proud to announce the Inaugural IAFOR International Conference on Technology in the Classroom in Hawaii. This international and interdisciplinary conference will act as a centre for academics, practitioners and professionals to discuss new research in education. IICTC-HAWAII2016 will create opportunities for the internationalization of higher education and sharing of expertise. We invite professionals from all corners of the world to develop policies, exchange ideas, and promote new partnerships with organizations and peers. The Inaugural IAFOR International Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2016 - Hawaii will be held alongside the Inaugural IAFOR International Conference on Language Learning 2016 - Hawaii and the Inaugural IAFOR International Conference on Education 2016 - Hawaii. Registration for either conference will allow attendees to attend sessions in the other. This open and exploratory theme of "Convergence|Divergence" asks at us to look at the many and varied collisions and frictions involved in the coming together of individuals, cultures, ideas, as well as teaching and learning contexts and approaches, that we negotiate as educators. In language education we have best practices that can be seen as a type of convergence. We want a solid foundation to our teaching that is based upon important shared principles, but we also see many areas where beliefs diverge or where areas of interests are different. For example, over the years some teachers focused on task based language education, others are doing motivation research, and still others have looked at critical pedagogy. These are examples of divergence, but they are overlaid on converging values such as creating safe spaces for learners, respecting all in our classes, and having a deep commitment to our profession. Take the changes in digital communication over the past 20 years. We have moved from the open World Wide Web of Tim Berners-Lee to a more contained online experience that is found in mobile phone apps or social media. Some decry this filtering into "walled gardens" as stultifying and robbing the future of open inquiry because when everyone accessed the same Internet, they could roam widely and make discoveries. However, as we are funneled into application silos that do not interact with each other, we become isolated, leaving the open bazaar of the Internet, and are-dare we say-forced to gather in niche communities. Moreover, at each convergence and divergence is the possibility of connection. The connection or connector is the human intelligence that we apply to our creative work. It is our humanness that ultimately connects us whether we are converging or diverging. Are you on the inside of a supportive community that wants to make itself understood to those outside? Or, are you on the outside watching as schools of thought and competing values seem to draw colleagues in different directions? The reality is many of us find ourselves in both situations-continuously converging and then diverging. This International Academic Forum can be the medium that brings us together to negotiate the vibrant appeal of openness and the power of a concentrated coherent view. Through an interdisciplinary approach, we can embrace the ebb and flow of these contradictions to better understand our way forward as we develop as educators. We look forward to converging on Hawaii, Dubai, the UK, and Japan in 2016, and to an exciting divergence of ideas. IICTC-HAWAII2016 Keynote Speakers Dr Paul Lowe, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London Professor Chung-Ying Cheng, Professor of Philosophy, University of Hawai’i at Manoa, USA The IAFOR International Conference on Technology in the Classroom 2016 (IICTC-HAWAII2016) will be held at the Hawaii Convention Center on January 8 - 15, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Grab Your Learner’s Attention  According to Gagne’s nine events of instruction, "Gain Attention" is the first key step taken into consideration when designing a training program/course. The basic idea is to grab the learner’s attention. I am a great fan of this "Gain attention" strategy. The first few seconds/minutes of a training program plays a crucial role in deciding its fate. The learner may just leave the training in the middle or click "Next" continuously to complete it. If the first impression is not positive, the great Instructional Design strategies may just fall on deaf ears. "Gain Attention" strategies play an effective role in eLearning. It has the power to increase the motivational level of your learner. Gaining attention: Arouses the learner’s curiosity. Sets an expectation in the learner’s mind: What’s in the training for me?/ What is the training all about? Makes the learner think about a particular concept: Really?/ No way!/ So true! Helps the learner grasp what is going to be covered during training. Basically, a Gain Attention strategy will build a curiosity in the learner’s mind to see what comes ahead. The learner will actually be interested in taking the training program. Now, the question arises: "What qualifies as a Gain Attention strategy?" 11 Key Elements Of "Gain Attention" Strategies All of the following can qualify as a Gain Attention strategy: Pretests. Ideal for learners who believe they know everything and there is nothing more to learn. The objective is to enable the learners to understand where they stand at the beginning of the training program. Example: Before staring the training, let us answer a few questions.  Throwing a challenge. This holds good for demotivated learners. Example: You are a technical assistant. You have several customers who require your assistance. How many customers can you serve in a day?  Presenting a problem to be solved. Builds the curiosity in the learner to solve the problem. Example: You have been appointed as a manager of a team whose performance has been very poor over the past few months. How will you motivate your team and ensure that each member gives his/her best?  "Did you know?" Share facts that will really inspire and surprise the learners. Comic strips. Use comic characters to talk about a particular topic/situation. Scenarios. Make the learners understand with a scenario or through characters in a scenario. Example: There’s a city where many school going children have been missing over the last two months. You, being a part of the investigation department, have been assigned this case. You need to go to the city and solve the mystery. Minimal onscreen text. Present information in a concise and accurate manner. Stories. Making the learners understand through a story is a great tool to impart knowledge. Explaining the concept with the help of a story conveys learning through emotions. Images. Depicting the concept using relevant images makes the training program interesting. Videos. Videos act as the easiest form of instruction to explain a complicated process. Activity. No doubt, doing is better than seeing. Activity reinforces the process of learning. Using the different types of Gain Attention strategies stated above, one can develop an effective eLearning course that is highly engaging and of learner’s delight. There are several other innovative ways to design grabbing attention screens. If you have come across any of these, please feel free to share them. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

9 Key Factors That Affect The Success Of Your Online Course  It sounds odd, but providing great content doesn’t automatically turn your online course into a great one. The reason is a great course is not only information. It is also an experience. To form an outstanding online experience, every single aspect of your product matters - from materials and structure to superficially insignificant things as technical and design elements. Here are the key success factors to work out. 1. Title Sells.  Your course title is your sales pitch. It answers in matter of seconds the most important question potential learners have: "What is in it for me?". Depending on your answer, they may consider enrolling. Or they may bypass all your efforts and keep browsing. The course title has two main functions - to grab attention and to make a promise. To differentiate your course from the others, don’t just state what it is about. Tell the potential student exactly what you will help them achieve. Create an exclusive offer they cannot miss. Suggestions for improving your course title: Spur excitement about the benefits your students will gain. Incite curiosity by asking a thought provoking question. Make an emotional statement that resonates with your audience’s struggles. Define a specific solution for a problem people face. Address your student directly. If they are specialists in a certain field, for example, include their professional jargon in the title. Be creative! But don’t sacrifice clarity for creativity. And do not make promises you cannot keep. 2. Build Up To Success.  A great online course is a journey. It’s up to you to create a map your students can follow - from beginning to end. This is what the course structure is about. Plan and describe it in as much detail as you can. 3. Introduction.  They say people need less than 5 minutes to form an impression. The first minutes of your course are meant to do just that. Those who enrolled could still leave, if you bore them during the course introduction. Start of by generating anticipation and motivation with your welcoming message. Describe your expertise, the course objectives and the benefits for those who finish it. Create realistic expectations. 4. Instruction.  Plan and describe in detail all course sections - objectives, milestones, lectures, and assignments schedule. If different topics are covered by different lecturers, introduce them and their expertise. Aim for a balance between friendliness, accessibility and professionalism when presenting the mentors. Structure your instructional part so that it is challenging, but not overwhelming to your students. 5. Conclusion.  Discuss the aftermath and achievements of your students at the end. The skills they gained and their real-life application. Don’t forget to provoke discussion and ask for feedback. Use learners’ experience to improve your material even further. 6. Style Matters.  You surely have a lot to teach. The course experience, however, needs showing (at least) as much as telling. All graphic elements in your course shape the eLearning environment. Is yours attractive and memorable? Have a close look and polish the following elements: User interface must be clear and intuitive. All resource maps have to be easy to navigate. Optimize your web design for mobile devices. Video lectures - supplement narration with lots of relevant images, charts, print screens, etc. Additional materials (handouts, worksheets) - keep consistency in the basic design elements (logos, color scheme, fonts) throughout the whole course, including the bonus materials. Many brush visual design elements off as purely decorative and non-essential. That is a fundamental mistake. Visually appealing and stimulating learning environment can create emotional response, raise student engagement and make the lectures more enjoyable. Even details like alignment, color usage, and font size can affect how students evaluate the course. 7. Content Rules.  Whatever the discussed topics in your course are, if you present them in a creative and engaging way, your student audience will keep growing and coming back for more. What makes content engaging? Everything your learners can relate to. Center your teaching on your students’ lives. Make sure the lectures are delivered in short chunks via various formats - in written form, as well as audio and visual methods. If you don't consider yourself a great writer, try a professional college paper writing service or proofreading website for the best content quality. Highlight your key points. Provide summaries. Create lots of discussions and take an active part in them. Minimize the chance for technical difficulties in accessing the content. Backup options and prompt technical assistance are a must. Be very transparent when it comes to course policies, student evaluation, and feedback. Describe the assignments process, your grading rubrics, and dispute mechanisms. If possible, provide model assignments and tests. 8. Sparkle Engagement.  The beauty of online learning is that anybody anywhere can take part at their own convenience. Sometimes that is the problem - people can easily lose interest. It is up to you to keep eLearners engaged and motivated throughout your entire course. Here are some tips to achieve that: Design your students’ journey from novice to master.  You can design your course using game elements and mechanics to keep people "checking in". When done properly, gamification turns learning into an exciting and memorable experience. Some game elements you can easily incorporate in your lessons: achievements, avatars, badges, content unlocking, progress bars, teams, and leaderboards. The point is to help learners build competency in a fun way. Provide 24/7 communication channels. Discussions not only help students learn more, but they also get to know each other. This builds a community. And community means engagement. Define the ways for learners to contact you and to interact with each other in a friendly and constructive way. Direct communication leads towards support and feedback. Forums, live chats, webinars are just a few communication options. 9. Bonuses And Extra Resources.  Suggest as many extracurricular resources and bonus materials as you can. The more people gain from your course, the happier they would be with the experience. And that will bring more new learners and opportunities for you. The difference between regular online courses and the great ones is that the best courses meet or even exceed expectations. To achieve that, you have to polish every detail of your course. But don’t stop there; pay attention to students’ feedback and keep improving. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

2016 Technology Institute for Developmental Educators (TIDE 2016) More than 90% of students have smart phones that are rarely tapped into for instructional purposes. There is rarely enough time in your workday or at a standard conference to learn how to integrate these devices into your classrooms or support services. TIDE 2016 provides four days of face-to-face mentoring and hands-on practice to hone your technology expertise whether you are a developmental educator or a core curriculum faculty member. You begin technology projects during the week and then receive a year of individualized support to help you complete these projects. Whether you have beginning or advanced technology skills—come enjoy a technology vacation while networking with other educators. What To Expect at TIDE 2016? You will attend four minicourse sessions throughout the week's schedule and one independent study (or if you choose five minicourses) to work on your project. These sessions are learning opportunities with expert instructors giving you a chance to hone your technology skills and complete projects you design. Each morning you will meet with your mentoring group to preview the day's activities. Most afternoons you'll debrief with your mentoring group and review your productive learning sessions. Choose from 14 different workshops some offered SYNCHRONOUSLY ONLINE (those with the @ sign): Teaching with Social Networking @ Mobile Apps for Academic Success @ Mobile Apps for Integrated Reading and Writing @ Google Docs & Google+ @ Technology and Developmental Math @ Teaching with Mobile Devices Mobile Apps for Developmental Math Best Practices for Online & Hybrid Classes Creating Audio and Video Podcasts Best Practices for Online Learning Centers Tutoring Online Assistive Technology Independent Study We hope you like good cooking as we will have various restaurants in and around San Marco cater our lunch and suppers. Breakfast is continental style. Please note that we will offer vegetarian and gluten free options! We also want you to enjoy all that Central Texas has to offer as we have events planned each evening from shopping in the biggest outlet mall in the U.S. to visiting the eclectic South Austin shops. Who should attend TIDE 2016? Developmental educators at or preparing for the postsecondary level (e.g., Early College, technical school, community college, junior college, four year college, university) who want to learn more about how to integrate technology into their and their students' personal and professional lives. Core curriculum faculty who want to enhance their classrooms with technology and expand their instruction beyond their classrooms through mobile learning apps. All levels of expertise are welcome. While some of the mini-courses are labeled advanced, we will help beginners while addressing the needs of those with more experience. Windows, Android, and/or Mac desktop and mobile platforms users will be addressed, and please bring your own laptop, smartphone, and/or tablet. Propose projects and receive expert support in each of the five mini-courses for which you are enrolled. We have special arrangements for participants to earn three hours of continuing education credit. Who will mentor me? Dave Caverly, Professor, Graduate Program in Developmental Education Department of Curriculum and  Instruction, Texas State University-San Marcos Lucy MacDonald, Associate Professor Emeritus,Chemeketa Community College, Salem, Oregon Chris Woods, Picture of Chris WoodsCoordinator of Instructional Technologies Projects South Texas College,  McAllen, TX Tina Swiniarski College Readiness Lead Mathematics Instructor Triton College, River Grove, IL The 2016 Technology Institute for Developmental Educators Conference (TIDE 2016) will take place at the Hampton Inn & Suites San Marcos (San Marcos, TX, US) on January 4-8, 2016. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

The Blue Ocean Strategy Of Landing An eLearning Internship: The Feeding Frenzy Begins  A friend of a friend reached out to me recently on LinkedIn. She’s nearing the end of her graduate program in Instructional Design and looking to land a summer internship here in Pittsburgh. In a small-to-medium sized city, though, this will be one hell of a battle. Dozens of qualified students will be fighting over a handful of eLearning internships. This is what W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne call a "red ocean strategy". The water is filled with sharks turning the water bloody as they compete for an ever-shrinking supply of fish. If you don’t want to be another body churning up these waters, you’ll have to do something even more bold and daring than fighting the other sharks. You’ll have to swim away toward… The Blue Ocean The blue ocean is the new, unexplored market, completely untouched by competition. There’s plenty of room in these waters for growth, and no other sharks to fight. Of course, there is a reason those other sharks aren’t swimming here. The fighting may be ferocious back in the red ocean, but at least there are rules, boundaries, and a conventional path to success. Out here in the blue, though, you’re on your own. Rather than fighting with other sharks over a limited supply of advertised jobs, you’ll have to create demand for your services. You’ll do this by reaching out to people and organizations that are not advertising for eLearning internships and convincing them that you’re worth talking to. Once you have your foot in the door, you’ll have to demonstrate so much value that they’ll create a position just for you. Feeding Grounds Linda is a successful executive coach who just finished writing her first book. She wants to share her ideas with a larger audience to drum up business for her coaching practice and to create interest in her book, but she’s not sure how. Jordan’s been working with his pastor to develop a parenting skills training program for low-income workers in his neighborhood. Due to the unpredictable work schedules of the parents, though, he’s found it impossible to schedule live classes at a time when everyone can attend. After a few years of struggling, Justin and Kyle’s startup is growing faster than they could imagine. In a matter of months, they’ve gone from having three employees working at their office downtown to having twenty three employees working from home offices in different parts of the country. They know they need to get their new hires up to speed on company policies, but the teleconferences they’ve been hosting haven’t been effective. Alyssa is the sole full-time employee at a tiny community library. Lately she’s been spending most of her time showing borrowers how to use a new website to request books from other libraries. Repeating this one-on-one tutorial for everyone who comes in is eating into the time she needs for other work. Nathan inherited a small chain of diners from his father last year and he’s struggling to keep the family businesses afloat. Due to the high staff turnover, Nathan is spending most of his time travelling from location to location training new employees on basic sanitation, food preparation, and customer service skills. All of these people have two things in common: None of them are even thinking about eLearning, much less about hiring an eLearning intern. They could all benefit tremendously if they did. The blue ocean strategy involves finding these people and helping them solve their problems. Here’s how. First, Cast Your Net. Instructional Design firms, universities, and large corporations are the red ocean of eLearning. Everything else is blue ocean. Small businesses, family firms, non-profit organizations, consultants, religious ministries, dentist’s offices, artist co-ops, local government agencies, organic farms… you get the idea. Don’t just send your resume out scatter-shot, though. Do some research first. Read websites and learn what these organizations do. If you see an opening where you might be able to add value, then send a resume and a personalized letter explaining how you can help them. An even more effective approach is to ask around among friends and family to see who they know or work with who might be in need of your help. People are much more likely to take a chance on someone they know -even just a friend of a friend- than someone they have no connection with. Now, Offer The Bait. Let’s say you get a call-back and someone from the organization wants to meet with you. Get busy and create a work sample before you even walk in the door. Go to the organization’s website and pull down their logo, colors, and other branding elements. Use this information to create a short, simple eLearning on a topic that might be important for them. Bring along a laptop to demonstrate the course at the end of the interview. (Even if you don't get the job, you'll have another asset that you can re-brand and place in your portfolio. You do have a portfolio, right?) Finally, Set The Hook. Assuming you’ve impressed them with your interview and work sample, make it easy for them to hire you. Remember, many of these folks have never hired interns before. (That’s why they’re in blue water!) The more hoops they have to jump through and the more intimidated they feel, the less likely they are to do it. Offer to do some of the legal or regulatory legwork, if you can. Keep your expectations reasonable. No one gets rich at an internship - the point is to gain experience. Your experiences in blue water will probably be more valuable than your friends’ experience churning things up in the red ocean. Sailor, Be Warned If you think the blue ocean strategy sounds like a lot of work, you’re right. If you think it’s going to involve chasing down a bunch of leads that go nowhere before finding the right one, you're probably right about that, too. You’ll also have to face puzzled looks, being blown off and ignored, and a good deal of flat-out rejection. If you have the guts, however, you may find treasure in these blue waters. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

MI Moodle Moot 2016 features preconference workshops and 30 different breakout sessions at the Moot, along with Hands-On Help Rooms for teachers and administrators for one-on-one support to try out what you've learned. MI Moodle Moot 2016 begins with a opening keynote by Michelle Moore, followed by 45 minute breakout sessions (you can attend 5). Bring a laptop or Chromebook and have a course in Moodle to edit (laptops and courses available on site by request.) Preconference Workshops, January 7, 2016 Registration, 7:45 - 8:30 am Full Day $40, includes lunch Half Day $20, includes lunch Morning Workshops 8:30 - 11:45am Enhance and Engage with Embedded Content Moodle for Beginners - Foundation Moodle Admins: Extending Moodle Reporting Taking Moodle to the Next Level Think Again: Reframing Moodle Course Design Afternoon Workshops 12:30 - 3:45pm All Together Better: Collaborative Course Improvement Get Ready! Get Set! Gamify! Moodle for Beginners - Next Steps Moodle Intermediate - Stacking Activities - Using Books & Lessons to Clean up Your Moodle Moodle Admins: Getting Started with Moodle Development Click Here for a List of Preconference Workshop Titles and Description MI Moodle Moot, January 8, 2016 Registration, 7:45 - 8:20 am $40, includes light breakfast and lunch ($50 on site registration) Breakout Session Strands Getting Started with Blended Instruction & Moodle (Beginners) Taking Moodle to the Next Level - (Experienced Moodle Users) Teaching & Training Totally Online with Moodle (Virtual Teacher) For Moodle System Administrators (Technical & Support Staff) Friday Opening Keynote, 8:20 - 9:00a Rising Above Moodle Mediocrity with Michelle Moore, International eLearning Expert and Author Breakout Sessions, 9:15a - 3:15p 10 Need to Know Settings in Moodle Admin Avoid the Scroll of Death! Best Practices in Moodle Administration Blended Formative Assessment Blended Learning in a Remedial Math Environment Classroom Testing with Moodle Completion Tracking for Online Preparation Tutorials Creating Dynamic Math Questions Creating Interactive Classrooms Cuz Quizzes [Can] Increase Quality Learning Delivering Personalized Learning Experiences with Moodle Demystifying the Moodle Tracker Developing a Template for Effective Course Design Differentiate Learning with Moodle "Lessons" Git for Moodle Administrators Glossary - It's More Than Just Words Gradebook: Using Rubrics to Meet Educational Standards Hook, Line & Sinker - Reel in Teachers with Socialwall How We Automated Cumbersome Progress Reports Illuminating Moodle I'm Ten and I Can Blend: A PBL Journey in 5th Grade Learn a Lesson! Mahoodle - ePortfolios in Blended Environments Moodle in a CTE Classroom Restrict Access Opens Up New Possibilities Welcome to the MiLearns Online Portal What's Your HTTPS Grade? Why You Should Stop Using Forums You Added *WHAT* to Your Moodle? The fourth annual MI Moodle Moot (MI Moodle Moot 2016) will take place at the Mid Michigan Community College on January 7-8, 2016. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

3 Ways To Create An Effective eLearning Ending  In the words of Stephen Covey: Begin with an end in mind. In terms of eLearning design, that means having a direction that guides the structure of your course. Having a clear end in mind can help you visualize an overview of the course before you even begin. Developing a script or storyboard provides a framework for the beginning, the middle and the end of your course, it creates a clear pathway for your learners. Very much like a story. Being clear about your objectives and the outcomes to be achieved will drive your ending. Let’s look at 3 ways you can create an effective eLearning ending: 1. Set a "real world" challenge. If your eLearning has included a scenario or case study, try to bring it to a conclusion with a "real" problem for the learners to solve. This can be done in a multiple-choice format. You can position the results in relation to the original learning goal, using the final screen to recap on the original goal and to report on how well the learner has done. Here’s a quick example to show you what I mean: Another effective technique is to end your eLearning course with a call to action. Design activities that learners can do offline using the information and skills they’ve taken from the course. Encourage them to apply these skills in their everyday work or function. Here’s a good example of a call to action: Key points to remember: If the eLearning course has involved systems training, invite the learners to move on to apply what they’ve practiced using the real system. Include a "next steps" or "to do" list that learners can download, work on, and take with them. This could involve a template for a personal development plan, or for SMART goals. Create a screen summarizing key learning points, possibly from a scenario or case study, and ask learners to draw parallels with their own context. For example, invite them to rank points in order of relevance to their own role. This will help them to reflect on key learning points and this will improve retention. End with a task that reinforces the key learning points and rewards learners with personalized feedback and possibly lets them compare their results with others’. For example, by using a poll or quiz screen, you can design a task like the one shown below. Including a "share this" function can also cement engagement by allowing learners to share their results and see how others performed. 2. Personalize the learning. Everything is more memorable if it relates directly to you and your personal context. The same is true of eLearning courses. At the start of a course, it’s a good idea to let learners choose their own pathways through the material, especially if the course is aimed at a range of learners where not all of the content is relevant to everyone. The same principle is true for good endings. Consider designing the end of your course so that it speaks to the individual. For example, if your course contains an assessment or quiz, the summary screen could show the learner’s score and provide some advice about next steps. Are there more topics they should revisit if they scored low on certain questions, or is there a way to improve their score and retry the assessment? I particularly like this example below that provides a link to a take-away summary document. This gives the learner something tangible that recognizes his or her achievement. Key points to remember: Design courses that are personalized to individual learners. Let users choose their pathways so they can focus on learning what is relevant to them. Provide a personalized takeaway document that highlights scores and key points the learner needs to work on. 3. Link to further support and/or resources. An eLearning module is often part of a blended learning experience. The end of a module is a great opportunity to point to further learning opportunities and to encourage the learner to act on what they have learned. Think of the final screen as a launch pad to go and do something else. The example course below demonstrates how you can present personalized results, using badges to indicate the tasks or topics that this learner has completed successfully. I also like how the final screen links to further learning resources. Key points to remember: Provide a link to post-course information. Point learners to additional resources such as job aids, links to helpful websites, or a list of key contacts. Give learners any follow-up information, for example, if a certificate is available. Final Thoughts Every good story needs a good ending. Your eLearning program is no different. Good endings offer a resolution, provide a reward, and stand out from the crowd. A good resolution makes the learner feel like they’ve completed the journey. You can go back to your course objectives and summarize how the journey has achieved these. A reward gives your learners a pat on the back and feedback on how they’ve done. This may come in the form of a certificate or badge, and advice be accompanied by some next steps and how to continue improving. A memorable eLearning program stands out by being creative. The last screen should break the mold and do something different. Try something different like this fun example: Did you like this article? Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Apply The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning: 6 Tips For eLearning Professionals  While many blended learning approaches may strive to incorporate technology into the ILT environment, at PulseLearning we believe the ASSURE model takes it one step further by catering on the specific needs of the every learner. Rather than offering general tech tools or resources, it focuses on giving each learner the specific technology they require to achieve their personal goals and objectives. What Is The ASSURE Model? The ASSURE model gets its name from the following six stages involved in the process: A: Analyze learners. Identify your learners’ expectations, goals, preferences, and needs, so that you can create a blended learning strategy that offers them real world benefits. S: State goals and objectives. Determine the objectives for your blended learning course, including performance goals. These goals and objectives should clearly state what the learner will be able to do once they complete the class. S: Select methods and media. Choose online learning content, multimedia, both online and classroom exercises and materials that will serve your training goals and objectives. This may also pertain to modifying current training content in order to meet the changing needs of your audience. U: Utilize media and technology. After choosing the online training content and materials, eLearning professionals must then decide how they are going to utilize these tech tools and online resources most effectively. R: Require learner participation. Determine how you can engage learners to encourage them to actively participate in the blended training experience. E: Evaluate and revise the blended learning strategy. All eLearning strategies are a work in progress, due to the fact that technology and learner needs are always evolving. Thus, the final step in the ASSURE model is to evaluate and revise your blended learning strategy to ensure that it is as beneficial as possible. 6 Tips To Use The ASSURE Model In Blended Learning Conduct surveys and online assessments to research audience. To focus on the specific needs of your learners, you will first have to know what those needs are. Surveys, focus groups, interviews, and eLearning assessments are all valuable tools that can help you analyze your audience’s traits and experience levels. They can also give you a good indication of their learning styles, such as which exercises will appeal to them and how they absorb information. Create custom-tailored objectives. Aside from the organization-wide objectives and goals that you’ve created, you should also develop goals that are learner-specific. What learning behaviors do they need to display? What knowledge do they need to know by the end of the blended learning course? Is there a particular task they need to master or skills sets they must build? You must also have a way to test their knowledge and determine if they have actually met their goals and objectives. Choose tech tools that align with common goals. One of the most common blended learning strategy mistakes is using technology just for the sake of technology, rather than finding the tools that are ideal for the particular audience and training goals. Ideally, you should choose tools that your learners are already familiar with or have a minor learning curve, rather than those that may be difficult to master. For example, if you are developing a group collaboration online assignment that utilizes a project management platform, you must be sure that your learners can actually use the online platform when it’s time to work with their peers. Give the tech tools and materials a test-run. To verify that all of your tech tools are in working order and that your learners can use them effectively, it’s always a good idea to give your technology a test-run before you offer them to your learners. For example, if you are using tablets in the classroom, you should ensure that all of the devices are working properly, fully charged, and loaded with the right applications. If you are using an online tool, verify that your learners have all the information they need to access the online platform and that there aren’t any issues with logging into the site. Get learners involved. As is the case with all learning strategies, it is important to get your learners onboard and make sure they are all excited about the process. Start your discussions with thought-provoking questions that prompt them to seek out answers online and expand their knowledge. Create an online community forum where they can go to address concerns, get help from their peers, and stay in touch with their online facilitators. Ask for their feedback so that you can figure out what’s working effectively and what may need to be modified as you move forward with your ASSURE blended learning strategy. Get them involved, so that they feel as though they are a vital part of the blended learning experience and that their opinion matters. Understand that your ASSURE strategy is a work in progress. After you’ve created your ASSURE plan, you must keep in mind that it has to adapt with the changing needs of your learners. It must also adapt to the ever-evolving technologies, so that you can offer your future learners the best resources you have at your disposal. If there is a learning activity that is no longer serving the needs or goals of your learners, they you may want to consider modifying or omitting it from your training curriculum altogether. The same goes for your eLearning assessments, online training content, or even the level of tech integration. For instance, you may discover that your learners might benefit from even more tech tool usage. The ASSURE model can help you not only blend technology with traditional classroom training, but give your learners the customized experience they need to broaden their horizons. Use this article to integrate technology tools and resources into your blended learning strategy while still catering to the specific needs of your corporate audience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

IC4E2016 is the premier forum for the presentation of new advances and research results in the fields of theoretical, experimental, and applied E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning. IC4E 2016 aims to bring together researchers, scientists, engineers, and scholar students to exchange and share their experiences, new ideas, and research results about all aspects of E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning, and discuss the practical challenges encountered and the solutions adopted. IC4E 2016 Keynote Speakers Prof. Ahmad R. Songip is a Professor in Innovation Management at the Management of Technology Department, Malaysia-Japan International Institute of Technology (MJIIT), UTM Kuala Lumpur since May 2012. Currently he heads the Marketing Team of MJIIT with the aim to quantum leap the MJIIT’s brand capital in the market place. He is also a Consultant in Breaking Pattern at Uni-Technology Sdn. Bhd. (UTSB), the consulting arm of UTM. Prof. Ahmad was the Founding Director of UTM Transformation & Risk Management, UTM (2010-2013). He was also a member of the UTM Central Executive Committee and a member in the UTM Board of Director Sub-Committee on UTM Enterprise Risk Management. Prof. Ahmad was formerly the Director of the Academic Program at Business Advanced Technology Center (2002-2005), managing the whole value chain of the unique Experience Based Learning (EBL) Programs at BATC. The EBL provides an alternative to the working population who did not have the opportunity to go through the normal academic and skill-based education channels. EBL starts with the Executive Development and re-GEneration (EDGE) Program and continuing up to the highest Engineering Doctorate level. Professor Dr. Ananda Kumar Palaniappan is an Educational Psychologist at the Faculty of Education, University of Malaya. He obtained his doctorate in Creativity from University of Malaya in 1994. He specializes in Creative & Innovative Thinking, Organizational Creativity and Creative Problem Solving. Dr. Ananda also lectures in Research Methods and Statistics and has been conducting SPSS and AMOS workshops since 1995 for both academic and non-academic researchers in both public and private organizations. He has also conducted workshops and presented papers on Creativity for numerous groups including managers, magistrates, legal officers and educational administrators in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Spain, UK and the United States of America. He has researched and published internationally on creativity and on the validation of several instruments He has published in many international journals including Perceptual and Motor Skills and Journal of Psychology. Dr. Ananda Kumar Palaniappan is a member of American Psychological Association (APA), American Creativity Association (ACA) and International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology (IACCP). Dr YIP MUM WAI was born in Penang, Malaysia in 1973. Dr. YIP holds a Diploma in Materials Engineering and MSc in Manufacturing Systems Engineering from University of Warwick, United Kingdom. In 2008, he was awarded an Engineering Doctorate in Engineering Business Management (specialized in Knowledge Management) from Business Advanced Technology Centre, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia. Dr. YIP is an Associate Dean of Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Built Environment, Tunku Abdul Rahman University College. He is a certified Train the Trainer of PBSM Malaysia, TRIZ Practitioner with Level II certified, certified Knowledge Management Facilitator and Practitioner, Senior Member of International Association of Computer Science and Information (IACSIT), Senior Member of IEDRC and member of Malaysia TRIZ Innovation Association (MyTRIZ). Dr.Yip is very keen and specialized in TRIZ, Knowledge Management (KM), Quality Management (QM), and Strategy Management (SM). Dr. Yip has experiences in conducting professional training (in house and public programs) such as Knowledge Management (KM), Quality Management (ISO 9001, ISO 17025), Total Productive Maintenance (TPM), Lean Manufacturing, 5S, TRIZ, effective communication skills, leadership skills, team building, customer service excellence for many corporations in Malaysia. Currently, he is an advisor for Zheng Yang Steel Works Sdn. Bhd. Dr. Yip has a lot of experience in research. His research areas include Knowledge Management. TRIZ, Strategy Management, Innovation Management and Materials Science and Engineering. He is given a grant by Ministry of Higher Learning Institution to conduct a research in the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) in SME in Malaysia. Besides, he has presented many papers in the field of engineering management especially in KM in many international conferences in China and Indonesia. He is also a reviewer, editorial board member and keynote speaker for International Journals and International Conferences. 2016 7th International Conference on E-Education, E-Business, E-Management and E-Learning (IC4E 2016) will be held in Penang, Malaysia on January 09-10, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Low-Cost Gamification: Remembering The Gamification Essentials As the popularity of gamification in eLearning continues to grow, I find myself watching for its appearance in other parts of my life. Last week, my daughter and her friends had a Star Wars movie party where they somehow decided to start with Episode 1 (kids today). When they got to the pod-racing scene, life began to imitate art. They headed to the garage, and, within minutes, turned old boxes into pods and were running around the house, screaming and laughing in piles of Star Wars-geekiness. The entire event was a success, but the most engaging, exciting part of it wasn’t the movie or the food (not even the TIE-fighter-shaped snacks) but the spontaneous, completely free game they created themselves. The moral of the story is not only that our corporate training should involve more pod-racing than it currently does, but also that gamification doesn’t have to be an expensive, complicated venture. Here are 3 keys to successful, low-cost gamification: Tap into learners’ creativity. Psychologists Richard Ryan and Edward Deci argue that self-determination is one of the most important variables in engaging activities. They found participants need to have some sense of control over the action to be truly engaged; perhaps one reason video games have brought in more than double the revenue of movies in recent years. We can enhance self-determination in gamified training by focusing on three principles described by Amy Bucher: Autonomy, competence, and relatedness. By helping learners feel in control, gain a sense of accomplishment, and connect to others in the game, we can achieve the stickiness that will make our training truly effective. More open-ended activities help learners feel more like invested participants and less like experimental subjects. Provide goals that are just hard enough. A recent study by Manu Kapur and June Lee compared the performance of students who received directed math instruction with those who were given "complex, ill-structured problems" and allowed to fail in their attempts to solve them. The latter group performed significantly better on future math tests, suggesting there is a strong learning value in "productive failure". Struggling forces us to consider a variety of options, and we are often pushed outside our usual perspective. Too often we are afraid to make learning difficult, lest our learners get discouraged and give up. And though we probably don’t want to ask our learners to solve Goldbach’s Conjecture, we shouldn’t shy away from giving them challenging problems. Paired with the previous principle, this can be especially effective: As we offer difficult, open-ended problems, we may be surprised at the creative solutions they find. Design for competition. James Banfield and Brad Wilkerson recently conducted a study in which they measured the effect of the intrinsic motivation provided by games on learning and confidence to solve future problems. They discovered that gamification principles made learners almost 20 times as likely to "organize knowledge and relate it to existing knowledge". This ability to connect new information with existing knowledge significantly increases the likelihood the training will lead to true performance change. Perhaps even more importantly, the intrinsic motivation of games can help learners believe they can tackle new challenges. In the same study, Banfield and Wilkerson reported that 90% of students who had taken a gamified course about the Windows operating system believed they could "figure out how to do anything in Windows". Only 28% of those who took a traditional lecture-based course agreed. This confidence in facing new tasks is one of the most important outcomes of any training, and it seems to be independent of the technological sophistication of the game - it’s all about the competition. The social interaction of competition helps build learners’ intrinsic motivation, leading them to want to learn more for their own satisfaction. Gamification is an important tool in corporate training, but many people think it’s out of reach because it’s too complex or costly. But effectively gamified training does not have to be prohibitively expensive. We can build cost-effective gamification principles into web-based training if we focus on the three concepts above: Learner creativity, productive failure, and competition. With some thoughtful design, we can develop gamified training that will help you produce the most creative, motivated, and engaged employees your company has ever had. And those pod races are always fun to watch. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Free Webinar: Mapping Your Organizational Learning Architecture Understanding your learning architecture is critical to the success of major learning technology projects. If you don’t, you could be missing critical connections in how your organizational learning technology components work together causing your projects to become delayed due to confusion and unnecessary time spent reviewing details. Your organizational learning architecture can be complex and confusing. So where do you start? This complimentary webinar, Best of Ecosystem: Mapping Your Organizational Learning Architecture, from The eLearning Guild, will show you how to create a map that explains the connections between all the moving parts of your learning architecture and enables you to get buy-in on your plans and strategy. You’ll learn how to find and choose images to represent components of your architecture, and how to clearly show the relationships between systems and the various data feeds. You’ll leave this session able to build your own map, clearly explain your plans, and show what a successful solution looks like. Join Adam Weisblatt, head of learning technology at Nielsen, on December 9 at 10:00 AM PT to learn how to map your organizational learning architecture so you can successful explain your system to your stakeholders. Learn more or register now! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Create Personal Learning Paths In eLearning A personal learning path is a learner-centered eLearning approach that emphasizes learner-specific goals and objectives, as well as preferences. It also refers to the path that a learner elects on their own, such as which eLearning activities and exercises they choose to participate in during the eLearning experience. Each eLearning activity gives them a better understanding of the topic, and gives eLearning professionals the opportunity to pinpoint the individual’s learning style and needs. Personal learning paths give learners control over their own eLearning experience, so that they can more effectively acquire and retain knowledge and skills that will help them in the real world. 7 Tips To Create Personal Learning Paths In eLearning Consider the overall learning goals. Even when creating personal learning paths for each individual learner, the goals and objectives of the eLearning course must still be an integral part of the eLearning experience. The key to creating a successful personal learning path strategy is to develop a plan that seamlessly blends the eLearning course essentials with the needs and wants of each learner. In addition to the individualized goals and objectives they set for themselves, they must also walk away from the eLearning experience with the key subject matter. Empowerment is key. For a personal learning path to be truly successful, online learners must feel as though they are in control of their eLearning experience. This can be achieved by allowing them to choose which eLearning activities they complete next, how they receive the eLearning content, and even which eLearning assessments they will take. For example, you can offer them the chance to test their knowledge via online scenarios, multiple choice exams, or essay online assessments. The key is to make them feel like they have a direct say in the learning process, rather than telling them how, what, and when they are going to learn. Stress the importance of online self-assessments. In addition to the mandatory eLearning assessments that learners must complete throughout the eLearning course, it’s also important to offer them online self-assessments that they can take on their own. Provide them with one or two quizzes or simulations that enable them to test their own progress and knowledge comprehension. Include a self-grading rubric or answer sheet that offers them the opportunity to correct their mistakes and receive the right information. Also, don’t forget to make them aware of the fact that you are there to offer support, should they need it. Create periodic milestones. Periodic milestones give learners the chance to check their progress along the way and ensure that they are on the proper path. In fact, it’s a great idea to make weekly checklists that your online learners can follow in order to stay on-track and up to date. If you want to give your learners more control, simply create one list of mandatory online assignments, exercises, and assessments, and then another that features optional tasks. You can even use project management online platforms to keep them organized, or integrate the checklists right into the homepage of the eLearning course. Cater to multiple different learning styles. Not all of your online learners have the same personal preferences or learning styles. This is why it’s important to integrate a wide range of online activities and exercises into your eLearning course, so that your learners have the ability to choose what works best for them. Auditory learners can listen to virtual lectures or podcasts, while visual learners can watch eLearning videos and view image-rich content. Those who prefer to read their way through an eLearning course can opt for text-based modules. Variety gives every learner the opportunity to benefit from the eLearning course and create a learning path that is ideally suited for their needs. Offer immediate constructive feedback. Even though a personal learning path is, well, personal, learners still need some form of direction and feedback. If they complete an online assessment, you must let them know what they need to correct as soon as possible so that they do not memorize incorrect information or pick up unfavorable learning behaviors. They key is to give them the constructive criticism they require, while still allowing them to learn from their mistakes. Likewise, you should also solicit their feedback so that you can fine tune your eLearning strategy and ensure that every learner is getting the personal support they need. Learning pathways offer invaluable data. A personal learning path in eLearning offers online learners a wide range of advantages. However, eLearning professionals can also use them to discover more about their audience and eLearning course design. For example, if you closely examine the learning path of a single learner, you can find out what online activities they prefer, how they are progressing, how they like to receive their information, and if the individual eLearning exercises are successful. Thanks to the analytics and tracking abilities of modern learning management systems, you can view all of this with the click of a button. In many respects, personal learning paths in eLearning give us the rare chance to see learning behaviors, first hand, so that we can improve our eLearning strategy moving forward. Allowing your learners to embark on their own personal learning paths can make your eLearning course even more meaningful and powerful. Use these 7 tips to successfully integrate personalized paths into your next eLearning experience and empower your audience to take control of the learning process. Now that you know about personal learning paths in eLearning, read the article 8 Tips To Use Personal Experiences In eLearning Course Design to learn how you can incorporate personal experiences into your eLearning course design so that learners can benefit from the wisdom and know-how you have to offer. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Create eLearning For Modern Learners: 5 Tips For eLearning Professionals The bad news? Modern learners’ attention span and desire for in depth analysis is increasingly diminishing. You now have only a few seconds to grab their attention before they click away or their mind wanders off. The good news? The methods for grabbing learners' attention and making the key points easily accessible and digestible are nothing new. They are called effective learning techniques. The critical difference between modern learners and the rest? Modern learners literally despise waiting for information; therefore, you shouldn’t make them wait. And here is how to create eLearning that appeals to modern learners’ personalities and learning preferences: Engage them ASAP As already mentioned, the first thing you need to have in mind when trying to capture your modern learners’ attention is this: Don’t make them wait. This means you have to make your point right away, otherwise they will get distracted and you’ll lose them. What’s your point? The learning objectives of the eLearning course. Instead of starting your eLearning course by listing them, present them in a way that make them relevant to your modern learners audience. Grab their attention by explaining exactly how the eLearning course will improve their individual performance and how it will benefit their personal or professional lives. In addition, make it brief; modern learners don’t have time to lose, so tell them what they need, and want to know and nothing more. This goes for the rest of eLearning course too; use bite sized chunks of eLearning content to get your message across, include only the most relevant data, and consider using infographics which are very popular among modern learners, as they make information very easy to grasp. Motivate them to achieve performance goals Modern learners are achievement driven; thus, they are highly interested in improving their performance to achieve success. They don’t mind working hard, as long as it pays off, that is, as long as their work has a purpose. To achieve this, you need to offer them meaningful eLearning experiences that encourage them and allow them to develop and practice creative thinking, problem solving, and decision making skills. Make clear that the eLearning course aims to help them grow; use performance goals to provide them with opportunities to practice their newly acquired behaviors and link what they are learning to real world scenarios. And don’t forget to offer your audience gratification; use a reward and recognition system that allows them to know that they are making progress. This way they will see the value of the eLearning course and become active participants throughout the eLearning process. Let them control their pace of learning Not only modern learners don’t have time to waste, but they also want things to go their way; this is why you need to allow them to decide when and where they can take the eLearning course, assigning them full control over their learning pace. Avoid creating eLearning environments that require a lot of seat time. Instead, design mobile learning courses that your learners can take on the go. Encourage a BYOD policy where each member of your audience can use their own device, whether it is a smartphone, a tablet, a laptop, a phablet, etc., and learn within a familiar, comfortable environment. Furthermore, make sure that the Learning Management System you are using can accommodate a responsive web design, so your eLearning course can adapt to any screen size it’s being viewed on. Make their eLearning experience informal and fun. This audience is mostly composed of people who are used to expressing themselves in Tweets of 140 characters, and read blogs to learn new things; formal language, therefore, can alienate and disengage them. Consider using a conversational tone in your eLearning courses to attract modern learners: Avoid slang, of course, but keep things simple with an informal, more personalized, style. In addition, gamification is an excellent tool when designing eLearning for modern learners, as this generation is highly competitive, thirsty for recognition and rewards, and loves to play games. Can you think of another audience to embrace more the benefits of gamification? Show them, don’t tell them. Finally, forget PowerPoint if you want to attract modern learners. To engage them in your eLearning content you need to offer them interactive online activities that require them to think, act, and try out alternative solutions. Follow the "Don’t tell them, show them" approach: Use demonstration videos which allow your audience to sit back and see how things work, simulations that offer them the opportunity to practice their skills in a risk free environment, and eLearning scenarios that offer real life benefits. The more your learners are encouraged to put what they are learning into use, the more eager and motivated they will be to learn. The traditional linear way of delivering content may not meet the exact needs of modern learners. It's time to understand what modern learners expect from a paperless class. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

5 Facts About Gamification For Serious Learning That Will Impress Your Boss   In this article, I will share 5 facts about gamification for serious learning through a series of questions and answers. I am sure these pointers will help you in evaluating and embracing gamification soon. Q1. What is gamification? Gamification is an alternate approach (to traditional eLearning) to provide engaging, immersive, and effective learning experiences to your learners. By using gaming principles, elements, and innovative strategies, learners can be engaged and encouraged to apply this learning at work. It provides an effective informal learning environment and helps learners practice real life situations and challenges in a safe environment. Typical components of gamification-based learning courses are shown here. Q2. What are the advantages of using gamification vis-a-vis traditional eLearning? Unlike traditional eLearning, gamification: Evokes friendly competition. Brings in a spirit of achievement. Enhances user engagement and can be used as a behavior change tool. Encourages learners to progress through the content, motivates action, influences behavior, and drives innovation. You can refer to my article Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning for more details. Q3. How does gamification impact learning? There are several aspects of learning, notably its retention, and eventual application on the job that can be influenced by gamification. Specifically: Gamification puts scientific principles of repeated retrieval and spaced repetition to good effect and brings about a remarkable change in behavior. Games can be "fun" for the learner but still have a significant impact on learning. (The player can experience "fun" during the game and still experience "learning" during gameplay if the level of engagement is high.) Playing games with high levels of engagement leads to an increase in retention. The diagram shown here reaffirms the power of gamification in learning. Q4. Can gamification be applied to any training or is it successful when used in certain kinds of trainings? We have an established practice featuring "gamification for serious learning" and have worked on gamifying diverse concepts like: Professional skills training. Product training. Soft skills. Induction and on-boarding. Compliance. Social collaboration - featuring Performance Support Tools. So far, we have not faced a challenge in arriving at a suitable gamified approach to varied training needs. You can refer to my article 6 Killer Examples On Gamification In eLearning that illustrates the use of gamification for diverse training needs. Q5. Can gamified trainings meet specific learning outcomes like the traditional online/ILT programs? Certainly. Our gamification approach is aligned to meet specific learning outcomes (gamification for serious learning). We achieve this through the following: We apply game mechanics in a non-game situation. We provide immersive learning and a safe environment to handle the challenges of a real-life situation. All our solutions feature "serious game-based" concepts wherein the game objectives are aligned to the learning objectives. We offer a gamification platform to train learners through: Approach 1: An overall gamified concept. Approach 2: Partial gamification techniques. Approach 1: Complete Gamification. The entire learning is driven by interactive scenarios in which the learners progress through a series of challenges (that map to each level in the game). Specifically: Learners may be provided with an option to refer to the content at any time in the game as a lifeline. Their responses to the challenges based on the scenarios they encounter will promote them to the subsequent levels to eventually master the concept and meet the learning objectives. We specialize in building up an engaging gaming experience through multiple levels. This helps us ensure better retention of learning plus test the learners’ application of the learning. Approach 2: Partial Gamification Techniques. This approach can be used to introduce gamification to an organization and can be applied to enhance both online as well as ILT trainings. We use two components to introduce Gamified elements to a traditional eLearning course or ILT program: 1. Identify key check points (knowledge checks) and quizzes (assessments) and integrate game mechanics in knowledge checks and assessments. 2. Add gamified activities. I hope this article helps demystify the gamification concept and provides insight on its benefits. More significantly, it guides you on how you can apply it in your organization and see its impact on your learners. At EI Design, we have a large practice on gamification for serious learning and if you have any specific queries, do contact me. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Apply The Redundancy Principle In eLearning The Redundancy Principle suggests that learners have difficulty focusing on the key takeaways of the eLearning course when multimedia presentations are accompanied by a word for word text script. In short, they are so busy trying to read, listen, and watch the images at the same time that they are unable to collect the information they need from any of the sources. As an unfortunate result, learning goals may not be achieved and cognitive overload is likely to occur. On the other hand, eLearning courses that pair audio with visuals or text with visuals are more effective, as learners are not forced to choose how they will receive the information. When The Redundancy Principle Is Recommended There are some instances, however, that the Redundancy Principle may not be applicable. Here are some of the most common exceptions to the redundancy rule: The online presentation lacks visual imagery. When the online presentation contains no images, graphics, or diagrams, there can be both audio and text on the screen. This is primarily due to the fact that online learners will not be forced to choose between the visuals or the text. Leaners have ample time to absorb the eLearning content. If learners have plenty of time to absorb the information that is being presented on the screen, then it is acceptable to include both text and audio narration. Just make sure that they have a gap between screens to effectively absorb the information. Localized eLearning courses or hard of hearing audiences. In case some learners are unable to physically hear the narration or cannot understand the language, it is best to pair verbatim text with audio. This rule can also apply to eLearning courses wherein the narrator may be difficult to understand. 4 Tips For Applying The Redundancy Principle In eLearning Give your online learners control over the audio and text. Rather than deciding for your online learners, why not give them control over whether they listen to the audio or read the text. Include captions that can be turned on or off, as well as audio that can be muted. This is also ideal for mobile learners who need to be able to adjust the volume of the eLearning course when they are in public spaces, such as crowded break rooms. There are times when slipping on a pair of headphones simply isn’t an option, and opting for text over audio may be the best bet. Use text to highlight the key points. Text and audio can go hand in hand, if used properly. Rather than repeating the audio verbatim, you can use text to simply highlight the key points of the eLearning course. This draws your learners’ attention to the core concepts and ideas, without overwhelming them with too much information. When you do this, the text becomes a support tool for the audio instead of conflicting with it. There is also another way to integrate text with audio, which is offering your audience helpful tips that are not mentioned in the narration. Just make sure that you offer these tips after the audio has ended or include "in between" screens that give them a chance to read the tips without having to focus on the audio component. Omit navigation instructions from your audio. The navigation icons are already on the screen. Therefore, you do not need to repeat them in the audio narration. There is a caveat to this, however. Your navigation icons or buttons should be clearly visible on the screen so that your online learners don’t have to search for them after the audio has ended. There is nothing more frustrating than wanting to move onto the next page of the eLearning course, only to discover that you can’t find the navigation button amid all of the images and text. If you aren’t including any text on the screen and are steering clear of navigation icons, then you probably should bend the rule a bit by verbally explaining how your learners should proceed. With that being said, keep in mind that this may exclude your on-the-go learners who have the audio muted. Create two versions to cater for different learning needs. Some online learners prefer reading their way through an eLearning course while others may enjoy listening to the eLearning content. You also have online learners who are more visual, by nature, and need images and graphics to immerse themselves in the eLearning experience. For this very reason, you may want to consider creating at least two different versions of the eLearning course to cater for different learning needs. This doesn’t have to involve a total redesign. In fact, you can simply include a static image in your audio-based eLearning course so that they devote their full attention to listening. You do have to make sure, however, that your learners can pick and choose whichever version best suits their needs, and that you don’t create an eLearning course that limits accessibility for those who have special learning needs or disabilities. While repetition can help your learners commit information to long-term memory, redundancy can have the opposite effect. Use these 4 Redundancy Principle tips to create memorable eLearning courses that boost knowledge retention, rather than overwhelming your learners' mental processes. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

FETC 2016 will be the epicenter for breakthrough education technology solutions. There's simply no better place than FETC to get up-close and hands-on with today's most innovative technologies and applications. From 3D printing to robotics, and from assessment solutions to educational software, FETC’s Expo Hall will host more than 500 leading manufacturers — each featuring the latest technologies and newest products on the market. Plus, you can explore special areas built in and around the Expo Hall, allowing you to see, feel and experience the latest education technology firsthand. You’ll be blown away by the hands-on demos and all the ideas you'll take home with you! Don't miss this opportunity to meet face-to-face with suppliers, ask questions, and see the latest products and services in action. FETC 2016 offers a wealth of information for all education professionals: Superintendents Principals and Vice Principals Technology-using Educators District-level Leaders Curriculum Designers Media Specialists Technology Directors/Technologists Instructional Support Staff Non-instructional Support Staff FETC 2016 Focus Areas Communication and Collaboration Presentations address how educators can manage and utilize technology to communicate with colleagues, parents, students and the broader community, as well as to create mutually beneficial school-community partnerships using a variety of communication tools including Web portals, wikis, websites, email and electronic notifications. These presentations also showcase how educators are utilizing technology to incorporate global activities that connect students internationally through project-based learning, e-pals, online projects, virtual communication, multi-cultural application development and on-site visits. Digital Teaching Tools and Game-Based Learning Presentations address electronic content and digitized materials for students, as well as instructional technologies and digital toolkit enabling instructors to customize learning materials, introduce content and engage students with Web 2.0 creativity tools. Presenters will demonstrate how to leverage growing online resources, Web tools and burgeoning digital knowledge base. Educational Policy and Leadership Presentations focus on educational policy and the use of technology as a strategic tool for school improvement and transformation, including: state/federal technology grants, data-driven decision making, teacher evaluation tools, how to make purchasing and budgeting decisions, facilities management, and implications of the national standards. Presentation topics will also feature data and communications for instructional information processing and reporting, including Web development, dashboards, databases and student information systems. Emerging Technologies and Maker Tools Presentations explore how to incorporate emergent technologies, nascent digital tools and technological resources to enhance education and the learning environment as well as to solve educational issues. These initiatives represent the most innovative thinking in the application of technology and technology strategy in education and are highly regarded models of adoption in the education technology community. Instructional Design Presentations address how educators and students are using available technologies to expand their learning environment beyond the classroom and engage all learners. Presenters will share practical strategies used by effective faculty to plan, integrate curriculum and manage technology in their classrooms. You’ll also learn how educators and students are using the online and hybrid learning environments to promote high academic performance. Mobile Learning Presentations spotlight how educators and learners utilize tablets, eReaders, Netbooks, laptops, smartphones, iPads and other mobile devices to enhance the learning environment, deliver curriculum and content using an untethered method to foster student engagement, and build learning communities. Best practices shared will highlight effective teacher technology integration training and just-in-time technology solutions to common problems. Online and Blended Learning Presentations describe methods of teaching and learning in which the online delivery of content is facilitated by various technologies including video, voice, audio, online collaboration tools and correspondence over the Internet. Highlighting technologies that offer a great deal of flexibility in when, where and how education is distributed, presentations feature ways to improve interactive communication, assessment, feedback, support and content delivery whether it is synchronous or asynchronous. Professional Development Presentations include a variety of specialized training, formal education or advanced professional learning to help administrators, teachers and other educators improve their professional knowledge, competence, skill and effectiveness. Presenters will demonstrate effective professional development programs including furthering education and knowledge in a teacher's subject area, funding models, delivery methods, action research, mentoring structures, specialized techniques, certification approaches, technological utilization and training procedures. Technology Infrastructure Presentations focus on the use of technology infrastructure to support the management of information systems and learning environments such as desktop virtualization, implementation of 1:1 computing, solutions to bandwidth issues, implementation of wireless environments and the roll out of mobile devices. Presentations can also focus on campus safety and security (i.e. cyberbullying and security within social networking, as well as campus-wide security issues). STEM Excellence Awards STEM is a curriculum based on the idea of educating students in four specific disciplines — science, technology, engineering and mathematics — in an interdisciplinary and applied approach. The FETC STEM Excellence Awards recognize excellence and innovation in the field of STEM education at the primary, middle and high school levels, with winners selected from each level. STEM Excellence Awards applications will be evaluated based on the use of Interdisciplinary Curriculum, Collaboration, Design, Problem Solving and the STEM Experiences offered. The FETC STEM Advisory Board will select three finalists in each grade level. All finalists will be invited to and recognized at FETC 2016, with the winners announced live during the Thursday morning keynote. Each school will present their exemplar program in the STEM Theater at FETC LIVE on Thursday. The 36th Annual National Future of Education Technology Conference (FETC 2016) will be held at the Orange County Convention Center on January 12 - 15, 2016. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Changing The Face Of Education And Fun With An Interactive Play Platform  During early years, children obtain an understanding of skills that provide the foundation for later learning. Schools, play areas in malls, hospitals, family centers, etc. are incorporating technology for various purposes like education, entertainment, edutainment, and fitness. Technology applied for such purposes in these sectors evidently requires interactivity as a main element, which generates children’s participation, which is important for participative learning. Low attention span of kids requires use of specialized systems and interactive content for their total engagement. MotionMagix™ is a revolutionary next generation interactive play platform that specifically addresses children learning and plays with endless possibilities! Interactive Floors and Interactive Walls can convert any space into an unforgettable, involved, learning-rich, fun-filled experience. "MotionMagix™ interactive floor has proven to be a healthy way to blend mental and physical activity unlike other traditional methods. It improves collaboration, participation, and cognitive skills in children." says a teacher at JumpStart-India, a school which was an early adopter of this new age system. We at MotionMagix have developed a wide variety of technologies and games specifically for learning, play, and fitness. Children tend to intuitively play games, and in turn learn while having loads of fun. Our recent research amongst teachers and parents, suggests that children's access to good play provision can: Give them the opportunity to mix with other children, interact, and collaborate. Promote their imagination, independence, and creativity. Offer opportunities for children of all abilities and backgrounds to play together. Provide opportunities for developing social skills and learning. Build resilience through risk taking, challenge, problem solving, and dealing with new and novel situations. Improve and maintain their physical and mental health. This is the beginning of a new age where technology enabled learning has a potential to grow to a great extent. There is lot of research that goes behind creating simplified experiences that engage children. We are proud to be a part of this revolution. Kid Playing With Interactive Floor Games Technology provides innumerable tools that teachers can use in and out of the classroom to enhance student learning. Chris Gathers teaches kindergarten in Fredonia, Kansas. He once said "A kindergarten teacher shares best practices and examples of exciting activities she does using technology to enhance learning in her kindergarten classroom". He also stated "Technology is one of the biggest and most exciting changes I have seen during my teaching career". Not only him, but most of the teachers will accept that the technology is playing a predominant role in education. At the age of 4-6 years, we’ve struggled to learn A-B-Cs. But now the time has come for our next generation to breeze through out of it. Schools are getting incredible progress in their teaching after the youngsters begin using the technology. By seeing this progress, many schools are now approving new technology for every kindergartner. MotionMagix™ technology can create large Interactive Wall and Interactive Floor surfaces with mere projectors or any other display technology. Interactive Floors and Interactive Walls created with MotionMagix™ can convert any space into an unforgettable fun-filled experience, thus validating its ease and usability to suit any situation. With such an engaging technology kids will learn with enthusiasm. The themes and games that MotionMagix™ offers are fun in nature, so kids will pay more attention to learn something new in a new way. Kid Playing With Interactive Floor Games What could be better than engaging than in a good game that is used well? A game will lead to deeper learning! When it comes to the modern-day kindergarten class, questions like "does a classroom have enough technology" and "should it have any at all" are more easily asked than answered. Young children's brains and bodies grow best when all of their senses are engaged. A math-based game, like Digit Burst and Math Catch among others, provides that sensory engagement on a physical as well mental level. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Plan For An Effective Blended Learning Planning for an effective blended learning program requires a good deal of preparation. Let us see a few tips in which we can achieve this objective. Emphasize on identifying clear learning objectives. Like any other training program, it is very important in blended learning to identify the right course goals and objectives before you start creating the content. The objectives serve the purpose of a roadmap and help you in understanding where the learning is headed and what topics you need to cover to successfully achieve the course objectives. Prepare a comprehensive course outline to guide the learners. Having a proper outline and syllabus for your blended learning program will provide multiple benefits for your learners. The learners can make use of the outline to keep a track of their learning. Ask yourself all the probable questions - what skills you expect your learners to develop by the end of the program, what information should be included in the course, etc. On the other hand, the developer or the facilitator of the program can ensure that the course is progressing on the right track and at the desired stride. Determine the level of interactivities for greater engagement. The best part about developing a blended learning program is that you have complete control over determining how engaging you want your course to be. This would again depend on two factors - the first is how much of the learning would take place online and how much of it would be self-paced activities. While opting for a blended learning strategy, you could choose from a variety of tools and delivery methods to impart instructions to your learners. These tools also come with a host of interactive elements that make learning all the more fun and engaging. Plan your group activities to enhance the learning curve. Collaborating with the group is absolutely necessary when planning for an effective blended learning program. When the learners exchange their ideas, experiences, skills, and perspectives, it creates an enhanced knowledge sharing environment which benefits one and all in the study group.  For instance, you could ask the group to log into an online chat forum to discuss a particular topic or question. They will get an opportunity to share their views through a social media platform which will further enhance their motivation and learning curve. Determine how learners should communicate with facilitators. While developing a blended learning program, you must make sure that the learners are aware of how they should communicate with their facilitator regarding any question or concern they may have related to the topic. This will make them feel they have a strong support system to rely at times of need. At the same time, you must also determine ways in which you could gather feedback from the program participants. Put down a list of links and resources for future reference. Since a part of your blended learning program is conducted online, it is good to offer your learners a list of valuable resources that they can refer post the session. For instance, you can point them to links and other web resources which they can refer in order to delve deeper into the topic. Determine which assessment strategy works best to track progress. Like every learning program, a blended learning program too is incomplete without a proper assessment strategy in place. As a developer, you need to determine how you would test the knowledge of the participants at the end of each module, whether it should be through a quiz, or a summary that they need to complete, or even engaging themselves in a lively discussion through different web forums. Assessments strategies help the participants to mark their improvement areas and use the knowledge and skills gained from the program in their daily job roles. It is true that planning an effective blended learning is slightly complex, but if you have great organization skills and can let your creative juices flow, then your blended learning program is sure to be a great success. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Create Better eLearning Beginnings  People make split-second judgments about an eLearning course. If your program gets off to a slow start, learners won’t continue. Let’s look at how to design programs with great beginnings that get your learners off to a good start. 1. Set Objectives. A good beginning informs learners about the program’s objectives. Rather than listing learning objectives, try to grab their attention and make them care about the subject. There is a number of ways to do this: A wake-up call: Instead of throwing bottles in the regular garbage, have you considered recycling? A challenge: Can you help Dave save money?  A target or goal: Can you achieve a 90% success rating? Through these approaches, the learner engages with the program, understanding what is going to be required of them and, crucially, what they will get out of it. Take a look at the example below: You can see the scenario draws the learner into the topic. The goal is to help a fictional character increase his investment, and the challenge is set quickly and simply. Here’s another example: Here you can see that objectives are communicated as challenges: the learner is invited to become actively involved and to explore each one further. 2. Describe What’s In It For The Learner. A question or call-to-action is a great way to entice learners at the start of your eLearning. They can be encouraged to take a specific action and offered something irresistible as a reward for completion. I particularly like to use thought-provoking challenges where learners compete against the clock. Here’s a great example of an opening scene that invites learners to take up a challenge: In this example, the five-minute time limit helps to create a sense of urgency and competition. 3. Challenge Preconceptions. A good beginning presents compelling information that challenges learners’ preconceptions. For example, take a look at this opening used in Joanna Kurpieska’s Global Food Waste: I love the way Joanna uses full-screen, impactful graphics that pose interactive, myth-busting questions. They pack a punch and help challenge preconceptions about food waste. Here’s another example: Here learners are presented with a compelling fact and then challenged to recognize how much they actually know about the topic. Challenging preconceptions is a fun way to get learners engaged in finding out more about a topic. If they get it right, they get an instant reward -a sense of achievement- and want to go on to see how much more they know. Alternatively, if they get it wrong, they have discovered a surprising fact that challenges their preconceptions and entices them to go on to learn more. Here’s the response screen: Final Thoughts  A good beginning motivates learners and gives them a reason to engage further with the program. If you want to catch and keep the attention of your learners, you should consider applying these ideas to the start of your eLearning programs. Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.