Four elearning experts share their predictions and ideas on elearning design in 2015. Try implementing some of these ideas in your own elearning courses. Connie Malamed: 8 learning design trends to watch in 2015 Global internet access, shifts in workplace power structures and wider dissemination of cognitive research are some factors contributing to new design trends this year. In this article, Connie shares her eight design trends to look out for in 2015. Learn about Connie’s eight design trends Shawn Scivally: 6 hot graphic design trends for elearning gurus in 2015 The visual aspect is a huge part of the elearning experience. Research tells us that 65 percent of the population are visual learners, so keeping up with the latest graphic design trends may be the difference between capturing your users attention or not. Read Shawn’s hot graphic design trends Tim Buff: Top 5 Design Considerations for Creating Mobile Learning Have you ever used a mobile device to take an eLearning course that was originally designed for computer-based training? If so, how did you feel about the overall learning and user experience? Read Tim’s ideas of mobile learning design Steve Lee: 3 Design Guidelines to Consider for Mobile Learning Have you ever used a mobile device to take an eLearning course that was originally designed for computer-based training? If so, how did you feel about the overall learning and user experience? Read Steve’s design guidelines for mobile learning The post Connie Malamed, Shawn Scivally, Tim Buff and Steve Lee share their elearning design predictions and ideas appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. This week we have some great elearning by HP, St Mungo’s, and Heineken. We’ve also curated a list of the 10 most popular elearning examples. Showcase your elearning: Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars. HP LIFE: Online courses to help you gain real-life business and technology skills to start or grow your business St Mungo’s: Elearning induction program Heineken: Game-based elearning Top 10: This is a collection of the most popular elearning examples on ElearningSuperstars.com The post Elearning inspiration: HP, St Mungo’s, Heineken appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. Here’s a list of the 10 most inspiring examples on Elearning Superstars. 1. PETSYNC: LIVING WITH A DOG IN A SHARED COMMUNITY 2. CHANNEL 4: LEARNING TO TAKE RISKS 3. DRUG TREATMENT: ESSENTIAL INFORMATION ABOUT REHABILITATION 4. THE DANGERS OF FRACKING 5. US ARMY: CONNECT WITH HAJI KAMAL 6. MEDIEVAL SWANSEA: CITY WITNESS USE ELUCIDAT TO DEVELOP AN INTERACTIVE ELEARNING GAME 7. HEINEKEN CAPABILITY ACADEMY 8. MCDONALD’S: TILL TRAINING GAME 9. LIFESAVER "CRISIS SIMULATOR" 10. TRAIN4TRADESKILLS: VIRTUAL REALITY HOUSE   The post Top 10 most inspiring elearning examples (Elearning Superstars) appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

If you’re a training manager in a global organization looking to make sure your educational materials reach all your employees, eLearning translation and localization may just be the answer. In this article, I’ll show you how to save time and money in your eLearning translation projects. Although eLearning is highly extensible because it can be localized into your target audiences’ own languages, it can also be tricky. In this article, we’ll consider a few key points and simple guidelines you can follow to save time and money on even the most complex eLearning translation projects. 1. Planning Phase Plan ahead. Before you create your course, factor in all the languages that the course will be needed in. This will help you schedule the project and allow time for the course to be translated. Inform your team. Inform your team so they can design course materials that make it easy to translate. For example, use images that appeal to a range of cultures and audiences, not just a single group of learners. Involve stakeholders. Get input from all the stakeholders, including colleagues from the target countries. They can alert you to specific regional requirements that you can factor in from the start. They may have additional resources such as local office or site imagery that you can use. Create a Master course. Tools like Elucidat let you create multiple courses from one template. This saves you heaps of time. All you do is create the course one time as a Master, then for each language that the course is required in, you create projects from the Master course. This ensures all the content is included in each, ready to be sent for translation. No need to start from scratch when you create the course for each new language. [Related: How to use Master Courses (templates)] 2. Development Phase Once you are into the development, there are few basic points to keep in mind. Take care with your fonts. When you create your Master course (from which all your translations will be built), make sure you select a universal font that can be converted easily to other languages. Unicode fonts like Arial will retain integrity when translated to languages that don’t use the Latin alphabet, such as Chinese or Russian. Use a universal theme. When you create your Master course, design the interface so that it can be usable by anyone regardless of their native language. For example, use icons or symbols on buttons rather than text to explain its function. Designing buttons that can be understood by all cultures and languages will save time versus having new buttons created for each of your required languages. Imagery. Steer clear of using or producing imagery that has text in it. Why? Because it will need to be reworked for each language the course is required in. Instead, use images that convey meaning without words. Media. For rich eLearning experiences, video, animation and voice over can be really effective media. You’ll need to consider the best way to handle these in translated courses if you don’t have the budget to have these re-recorded in local languages. Subtitles are one option, but costs will vary depending on the length and style of the video. The most cost-effective option is to provide a transcript in the target language to accompany audio or video content. Some eLearning tools, such as Elucidat, make it possible for you to integrate a transcript as an STR file so it behaves like closed captions with video content. This is really very user friendly, as learners are familiar with using closed captions for web-based applications. Room for expansion. Be aware that when you translate courses, the amount of text on the screen can increase. Screen real estate needs to be taken into consideration. For example, when you translate an English text to a language such as German, the character count can be as much as 30% higher. This could cause issues of overrun and make formatting a nightmare. eLearning tools that are responsive or let you easily adjust the point size of text at a global level can be real time savers. This will allow the text to automatically realign on the screen to accommodate the extra character or allow you to reduce the text size once, rather than have to format each screen manually. 3. Post Development Phase Unless you have people in your organisation who can translate professionally from the source to the target language, you may need to employ an agency. The benefit of using an agency is that they will be experienced and have a pool of talent that will be able to cover all the languages you require. They’ll manage the process through for you, which will save you lots of time, but there are still a few ways you can help streamline the process. Translation tools. Some eLearning tools make localization very easy. Translation features in Elucidat allow you to create a project for each of your target languages and export a file that can be sent to translation agencies. This file has all the content that is needed by the agency to translate into target languages. Once your agency is done, they just send back the file and you can import the correct one to your courses. The course is automatically populated with all the content in the target language. Some tools also allow you to automatically translate any text directly inside the user interface (anything on the screen that isn’t content, e.g., ‘Menu’). Stakeholder and Subject Matter Experts (SME). Prime your stakeholders and Subject Matter Experts to be your proofreaders and quality controllers for the courses developed in their languages. All they need to do is go through the course and sense check the text for accuracy and meaning. Tools like Elucidat enable you to share your projects with stakeholders while assigning roles, which restrict their access. This stops them from deleting courses! Furthermore, tools with inbuilt commenting make it easy for your colleagues to quickly and easily point out any issues of concern. Final Thoughts As the global economy expands, more organizations will find themselves grappling with the logistics of delivering online training to staff around the world. By taking into account these guidelines, you can help to ensure you can deliver on your eLearning translation requirements. If you’d like to read more on the topic, head over to our article that explores more eLearning translation tips. The post Elearning translation projects: Save time and money with these ideas appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Innovative elearning can increase user engagement and improve the effectiveness of your elearning projects. Below we’ve curated five articles on the latest innovative ideas from leading elearning experts. For further inspiration, head over to Elearning Superstars - a great resource that curates some of the most innovative elearning examples from all over the world. Li Whybrow: Is your elearning boring? Spice it up with these 3 innovative elearning ideas Consider using new, innovative techniques when creating your next elearning course. In this article, Li shares her three innovative elearning ideas. Use these ideas to create elearning that that is more engaging and interactive for the user. Here are Li’s three innovative elearning tips Aleksandr Peterson: 4 innovative companies that gamified elearning Science has proven the short term, achievable goals and rewards process of games is perfect framework for learning new material. It’s no surprise to see major enterprises catching on with the gamification trend in elearning. In this article, Aleksandr explores four innovative companies that gamified their elearning. Read about the four innovative companies Asha Pandey: Top 5 tips for innovative elearning development In this article, Asha’s explains how to improve the "stickiness" of your elearning material through innovative learning strategies. The use of gamification and interactive videos are two of the five tips she’s talks about. Read Asha’s five tips for innovative elearning development Roz Bahrami: How do you infuse a culture of innovation? Innovative ideas flow naturally innovative environments. The culture of your organization may be effecting the level of innovative ideas your employees are producing. In this article, Roz discusses ways to infuse innovation into your organization’s culture. Learn how you can infuse a culture of innovation Sean Hougan: 2014’s top three innovations in elearning pedagogy   In this article, Sean takes a closer look at how Massive Open Social Learning, Learning Analytics and Blended Learning will influence the way we learn in the future. Read Sean’s top three innovations in elearning   Innovative elearning can increase user engagement & improve the effectiveness of courses.Click To Tweet   The post 5 elearning experts show you how to create innovative elearning that engages learners appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

Elearning Superstars is a curated list of inspiring elearning examples, published every Tuesday. Subscribe to get weekly updates via email. This week we have some great elearning by Oxfam, Tesla Statue, and Codecademy. We’ve also curated a list of the six most popular Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) examples. Showcase your elearning: Have you created a great piece of elearning that you’re really proud of? Showcase your elearning here to win awards and get published on Elearning Superstars. Oxfam: Wash emergency training (Silver Award Winner at Elearning Awards 2013) Tesla Statue: Creative video learning made for Kickstarter campaign (GoAnimate) Codecademy: Self-guided coding courses Top 6 Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) examples: This is a collection of the most popular MOOC’s The post Elearning inspiration: Oxfam, Tesla Statue, Codecademy, Top MOOC examples appeared first on Elucidat Blog.

This is technology Era where everybody wants to learn the new way of learning. If we talk about Cloud, various companies now moving forward to train their employee about cloud computing. While training, there are many techniques which they can… Read more › The post E-Learning on Cloud - Tools and Techniques appeared first on Amit K Soni | E-Learning Professional.

This blog is based on my personal 6 year of experience in eLearning domain. Base on my experience and working style I thought that I should share my knowledge and style with all e-learning peoples. This will really help for… Read more › The post 9 Steps for creating successful E-Learning Project appeared first on Amit K Soni | E-Learning Professional.

This article was 1st published at eLearning Industry In today’s IT era many organizations and institutions are using eLearning because it can be as effective as traditional training but at a lower cost. Developing eLearning is more expensive than preparing… Read more › The post eLearning Insights: "Do You Really Need eLearning?" appeared first on Amit K Soni | E-Learning Professional.

    While Banking and Finance industries have been early adopters of eLearning, only in recent times is mLearning being considered. In this article, I will outline how mLearning can be one of the most meaningful training solutions for Banking and Financial Services. Additionally, I will share my insight on "learning as a continuum" and how eLearning or mLearning-based formal training can be effectively supplemented through Performance Support Tools (PSTs). Innovative Training Solutions For Banking And Financial Services: Featuring mLearning And Performance Support Tools In this rapidly changing world of technologies, banking and financial organizations have a continuous need to train and develop their employees on new processes, financial instruments, technologies, soft skills, and so on. Although the majority of them rely on instructor-led training, eLearning has become a key component of the overall training delivery. The trend is gradually extending to mLearning. Alongside this transition, there is a clear shift towards evaluating innovative learning strategies to improve efficacy of training. What are the typical training needs in Banks and Financial Services organizations? The training needs can be categorized into the following primary areas: Compliance Training. Both Banks and Financial Services organizations need to comply with many regulatory bodies (national and international), and they need to be trained on how to comply with these bodies. Employees also need to comply with the code of conduct that is specific to the organization. Process Training. This involves training of various processes in handling banking functions or a specific financial services delivery. Application Software Training. Financial software applications are the foundation for both Banking and Financial Services, and the employees need to be trained on these applications. Sales Training. This would include both products and solutions training. Soft Skills Training. In this industry, soft skill training is very important as the common public is their direct client. The representatives should not only be equipped with the right product knowledge but should also be able to discuss it correctly with the customers. Apart from the product knowledge, they should have excellent telephone etiquette, which includes listening skills, conversational ability, enthusiasm, energy, and so on. Induction and onboarding training. Where does mLearning find the right fit? Sales training is certainly the best fit wherein the products and solutions-related collateral can be made available to professionals on the go on tablets and smartphones. However, we are now seeing a clear shift in providing the other training programs through mLearning as well. These now include: Induction and onboarding training. Compliance training. You may refer to: Gamification Of Compliance Training Through A Serious Game Concept How To Create A Sticky Learning Experience In Compliance Training Soft Skills. How can innovative mLearning approaches be applied in training for Banks and Financial Services organizations? My personal experience shows that most Banks and Financial Services organizations tend to opt for more traditional approaches to offer learning. Yet, with changing learner demographics (includes Gen Y in significant numbers), these organizations need to factor for learning strategies that are different and are deployable on devices of the learners’ choice (tablets and smartphones). While information security aspects are critical to these organizations, today technology effectively supports managing mLearning roll-outs without compromising this crucial aspect. Moving forward, more and more organizations will support Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in a secure environment leading to significant mLearning needs in this sector. Over last four years, we have created wide ranging mLearning solutions successfully. These include Instructional Design strategies featuring: Gamification. Story-based learning (with linear narrative). Story-based learning (with branched scenarios). Narrative through discussion featuring discussions and analysis of dynamics through different perspectives. Entire narrative based on Q&A. Case study/master scenarios featuring real-world situations and examples, also featuring guided exploration and active learning. Scenario-based learning (SBL) featuring multiple paths, examples, and non-examples. Branching scenarios and simulations. How can intervention of Performance Support Tools (PSTs) help Banks and Financial Services organizations? Today, organizations must look beyond formal training and look at approaches that create "learning as a continuum". Performance Support Tools are a great way to push the learning from mere "knowledge acquisition" to "knowledge application". These learning aids are available within the learners’ workflow and cause little or no disruption. These short nuggets can enhance the productivity, push the application of learning, and create a tangible gain for both employees and the organization. Banks and Financial Services companies can integrate Performance Support Tools in multiple ways: As a supplement to online training. As interesting learning aids to supplement instructor-led / virtual instructor-led training. As stand-alone knowledge assets/nuggets. I hope this article is useful in identifying how mLearning and Performance Support Tools can be innovative training solutions for Banking and Financial Services organizations and help them create a sticky learning experience for their employees. Also refer to: Gamification In Learning: Featuring Gains Through A Serious Game Concept Gamification In Learning Through An Avatar-based Serious Game Concept Story-Based Learning Strategy In A Course For Instructional Designers Learner Engagement: How To Create Effective Assessment Strategies The post Innovative Training Solutions For Banking And Financial Services appeared first on EI Design.

48 Shared Your company is big into mobile learning and e-courses that offer employees the opportunity to take their game to the next level using all the latest technology. You’ve got PowerPoint down to a science and know how to use PowerPoint converters to create great slideshows, presentations, and independent learning modules. You’ve even learned a few tricks of the trade, like how to integrate multimedia into your lessons and link to different PowerPoint slides. There’s just one problem: You’re using the same old Clip Art images you’ve been relying on for the last 20 years, and it’s no longer cutting the mustard. Listen, we get it. Clip Art is free, it’s easy, and you’re already totally familiar with it. Change is hard. And so on and so forth. But your employees want to see forward movement — and presentations that don’t look like they’re from the early ‘90s.Read more »

12 Shared This July, 2015, we analyzed the best free apps that allow you to view PowerPoint on iPad. For this comparison, we examined four market leaders: iSpring Present appPowerPoint iPad app by MicrosoftSlideShare app by LinkedInSlideShark app by BrainsharkAll these solutions let you view and save PowerPoint presentations on an Apple tablet, while providing a variety of other extra features for free.Read more »

10 Shared In order to keep our clients tuned in and circumvent some common questions, every so often we choose the most interesting case that our Support Team has resolved. We believe that it will help iSpringers surmount some of the obstacles that may come up while authoring. Today we discovered a case from Julia Stolyarova, senior technical support engineer: Client uses: iSpring Pro 7 Case description: Client needed to customize the presentation player so that its skin incorporates with the style and design of her website. Issue: In order to create the player, she contacted a third party organization. As a result, the player was saved in a different format from the one that can be used for iSpring projects. Case solution: Our technical specialist resolved the issue via a remote session. It took one business day to recover the original version of the custom player. The player template was saved in a native format for future use. Read more »

6 Shared APA Style is a set of rules for publishing scientific papers at the highest level of clarity and accessibility. You can cite a PowerPoint presentation in another document using APA Style, or you can use APA citations within an actual PowerPoint presentation. Citing a PowerPoint presentation in another document is easy. However, the APA Manual (6th Edition) has nothing to say about placing APA citations in PowerPoint presentations. Read on and see how to do both.Read more »

66 Shared Many course authors are interested to know the key differences between the top e-Learning authoring tools on the market. We surveyed e-Learning developers about their experiences with the popular e-Learning authoring software Articulate Storyline 2 and Adobe Captivate 8, and compared their feature sets with iSpring Suite 7.1. Overview Each of the compared tools is well-suited for a particular type of content authoring. Some users prefer to work within the familiar PowerPoint interface, while others require more complex functionality and are comfortable with standalone authoring software and a new interface.Read more »

29 Shared SCORM content is widely used in the e-Learning, instructional design and online training industries. But what exactly is it? Well, SCORM stands for Shareable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM). It is a set of technical standards for presenting content on online training platforms and learning management systems (like DigitalChalk or iSpring Learn). The key is to have a learning management system (LMS) that is SCORM compliant. Not all systems are, in which case you would not be able to use any of your SCORM content. A wide range of content can be created using SCORM, including presentations, videos, interactive activities, testing and more. Although PowerPoint presentations are among the most widely used, you can create just about anything using a SCORM authoring tool, such as iSpring.Read more »

26 Shared This episode of iSpring’s Leadership Series was so compelling, we produced a full text of the interview for your reading pleasure. You can expect full transcripts of all our Google Hangouts in the future. Here, Clark Quinn and Gina Schreck discuss the all-too-common stagnation of Learning and Development culture in organizations, and the steps L&D personnel can take to initiate a change in that culture: in so many words, a revolution. Gina Schreck: How long have you been in the learning environment? Clark Quinn: Learning and technology, I’ve been in for over 35 years. I noticed the connection between computers and learning as an undergraduate, and I ended up designing my own major, and it’s been my career ever since, and my passion, and what I love. GS: Which is ironic, with the topic we’re going to talk about today, because you have been in this learning and development space for so long, and you wrote a book called The Learning and Development Revolution, and you’re really on this mission to help change the way organizations do learning. Is that right? Read more »

18 Shared E-Learning is all the rage these days. You can’t turn around without seeing another blog post about the benefits of e-Learning, or another free downloadable program for creating your own e-Learning materials. However, many of these sources ignore a crucial aspect of pedagogy, which is necessary if your courses are to be successful and improve your organization overall: engagement. Engagement is a tricky concept, and it isn’t just there for the taking. You can’t hand employees an e-course and hope they will be engaged simply because they care about their jobs or because they innately love the material. Likely, most employees will not innately be happy to engage with it, and will want to rush through it or check it off their list — that’s just human nature. Okay, that’s the bad news. The good news is that if you take the time to create materials that trigger people’s interest, they will no longer want to rush or push it aside in favor of more interesting tasks. Drawing them into the material will not only keep them present and actually learning, but will improve the amount they take away from it overall.Read more »

14 Shared iSpring Learn has become even more optimized for easy e-Learning! The fresh new user portal invites your learners to access their content from an intuitive library, showing how far they’ve progressed in their courses. Each content item features a comments section for learners and instructors, and your users can leave you general feedback about their experiences. Let’s take a look at some of the cool features of your user portal:Read more »

22 Shared iSpring developers have released an update for iSpring Learn LMS. The system now features a new user portal and an extended feature set. Check out these seven powerful new capabilities of iSpring Learn which make it an even more effective tool for e-Learning. Content Thumbnails and Descriptions Email Notifications for Completed Courses Improved HotSpot Question Report ...and more! Read more »

13 Shared We’re pleased to share another successful case study with you, this time about a senior trainer who needed to combine two projects into one via Single Source Publishing. As their initial authoring tool, Dimitri Roman and his team chose PowerPoint, satisfied with its capabilities for producing richly interactive training content. But then they faced the problem of sharing that carefully prepared module on multiple platforms. Having used iSpring in the past, Dimitri knew about the extremely high quality of publishing to online format, and was eager to test out the latest version for use in his current project. Here is the success story shared by Dimitri:Read more »

42 Shared After 10 years on the market, iSpring will release the 8th version of iSpring Suite this October. The new version, with the brand-new Conversation Trainer and Screen Recording Tool, puts even more power into the hands of busy developers. This unique functionality, delivered with a state-of-the-art user experience, can’t be found in standard e-Learning packages. New authoring options are implemented at the highest quality level, which is traditional for all iSpring software.Read more »

7 Shared Nalin Dubey is an e-Learning Architect in New Delhi, India. He has been an iSpring User since 2009. Nalin has been developing and delivering rich media courses for offline school education on CDs and DVDs using iSpring, while being sure of content security with iSpring’s remarkable protection features. Let’s discover his success story first hand. How did I discover iSpring? Being an enthusiastic e-Learning developer for a long time, I have been a part of various online e-Learning development communities. Many of those who shared their experience in using e-Learning authoring tools...Read more »

5 Shared When you record audio and video narrations, it can be a real bummer to have to open a 3rd-party tool to make them look and sound great. Trimming clips, removing noise, applying fade effects, etc. Now all these capabilities are yours in iSpring Suite 8 — that really makes it the all-in-one tool that every e-Learner must have!Read more »