This is a guest post from Kate Wilson (@KateWilson13) of EdTechTeacher, an advertiser on this site. Google Forms can be one of the best tools in the classroom for data collection and assessment as well as a great resources for teachers to use in order to get information from parents. In this Back-to-School season, you may need to coordinate times for parent-teacher conferences or the donation of shared classroom school supplies. While Google Forms offers a simple solution, teachers still need to spend time sifting through all the various responses - particularly when parents are trying to select a time or sign up for a single resource. What if there was a way to eliminate choices from a question so as not to have sign-up conflicts? There is! Choice Eliminator is a Google Forms Add-On that removes options from a Google Form as they are selected by users. Need more than one quantity of an option? Advanced options allow Form creators to set the number selections available. Implementing this function requires just a few steps. The first time you want to use this Add-On with Forms, you must give permission for your Google Account to use the Choice Eliminator by going to "Get Add Ons" under the Add-Ons menu. Search for "Choice Eliminator" and select the "+Free" button. You will get a permission pop up. Be sure to hit "Accept." Next, you need to create a form with options such as Multiple Choice, Drop Down, or Checkboxes. Once you have all your custom options, select "Start" under the Choice Eliminator menu under the Add Ons. This will open a sidebar application within the form. Select each question you wish to customize and check "Eliminate choices." If you would like a choice to disappear only after a certain quantity has been selected, select "Choice Options" to set the quantities. Every Google Form automatically generates a Google Sheet, so once responses start filling in, your appointment book or sign-up sheet is automatically created. Now that the information is in your Sheet, you can use the arrow buttons for each column to sort the data. With just these few steps, you can create an efficient and easy way to coordinate with your parents and students. Looking to learn more for Back to School? EdTechTeacher is hosting a FREE Back-to-School Webinar Series. They also have a number of great resources about working with Google Apps for Education on their site. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesShare What's Obvious...It Might Not Be Obvious to EveryoneHow to Quickly Create Vocabulary Lists from a DocumentRiddle Adds More Features Teachers Will Like for Creating Online Quizzes 

The National Archives Experience Digital Vaults is one of the resources that I almost always share in my workshop on teaching history with technology primary sources. The Digital Vaults offers good tools that students and teachers can use to create content using images and documents from the National Archives. In the video embedded below I demonstrate how students can create digital posters and movies in the National Archives Experience Digital Vaults. Applications for Education Creating a short video featuring artifacts from the National Archives could be a great way for students to summarize a topic or theme in US History. When I've used it with students in the past I have asked them to demonstrate an understanding of the connections between the artifacts that they chose to use in their videos. Please note that the Digital Vaults website loads a lot of media when you visit it for the first time. Give it ten seconds or more to load everything before you start to create and investigate. It also helps to be using an updated browser (Chrome or Firefox are best).  This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related StoriesRiddle Adds More Features Teachers Will Like for Creating Online Quizzes135 Practical Ed Tech TipsA Quick Way to Access a Countdown Timer on Your Computer 

Last week Padlet launched an iPad app to complement the outstanding web tool that they've offered for years. This morning someone on my Facebook page asked about an alternative that students could use if they didn't have email addresses. I replied with a short explanation of how Padlet can be used by students without using an email address. To further that explanation, I created the short video that is embedded below. I've added this video to my playlist of Practical Ed Tech Tips and my playlist of Padlet tutorials. This post originally appeared on Free Technology for Teachers if you see it elsewhere, it has been used without permission.              Related Stories135 Practical Ed Tech TipsHow Students Can Create Movies and Digital Posters With Artifacts from the National ArchivesRiddle Adds More Features Teachers Will Like for Creating Online Quizzes 

Creating Student-Centered Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students by TeachThought Staff For Professional Development or consulting around this or other ideas you read about on TeachThought, contact us. This is part 2 of our #iteachthought series (because we refuse to say "back to school"-well, except for just then). Part 1 looked at classroom design, specifically offering alternatives to rows of desks. Today, we’re going to help you create smarter, student-centered learning profiles. What Great Teachers Know About Their Students If you’re creating a learning profile, what kind of information should be included? What’s the point of such a profile? How will it be used? Most learning profiles are quick glances of academic data. Something like this at the classroom level. And there’s nothing wrong with this-it’s quick., useful, and basic. But it’s also limited. To take another approach, as Grant Wiggins might suggest, let’s work backwards. And further, let’s do so from a single big idea that unifies everything. Specifying a single idea that’s broad and accessible enough to be useful may be a challenge, but let’s try, starting with a few underlying assumptions. 1. Teachers plan learning experiences for students. 2. Different students have different needs. This implies a need for differentiation of instruction, personalization of curriculum, or both. 3. In this way, teachers are like designers. The data teachers use to make these kinds of design decisions varies. 4. An additional challenge? Teachers have a finite ability to process data, which implies a need to be selective with the data that is sought out and adjusted for. 5. At the classroom level, data is broadly considered in terms of content and performance. 6. Another way of thinking about this is to consider data quality-and not quality as it relates to accuracy or reliability, but rather what sort of information do I need about students to help them learn? Though I disagree with what might be the fundamental premise that this post rests on-that teachers alone are responsible for the miracle of learning, and can even begin to know everything about every student-the idea here has to do with rethinking how we see students and how they relate to curriculum, and then designing both curriculum and learning models that fit these personalized learning needs. What Good Teachers Know About Their Students 1. Native language 2. Critical medical needs 3. IEP/504s/Giftedness, and other services 4. Living Situation", including religious beliefs, safety, food, family, access to books, technology, etc. 5. Grade Point Average & academic strengths 6. Favorite subjects 7. Reading levels & reading habits 8. How they respond to accountability 9. Relative strengths and weaknesses as a student 10. Classroom citizenship habits 11. Academic expectations (inc. difference between own goals and those of family) 12. How to "motivate" them 13. Trend of general academic progress over last 1-3 years 14. Progress towards mastery of power standards/data from relevant standardized assessments 15. How to help them do well in your class What Great Teachers Know About Their Students 1. Critical thinking habits 2. Ideal learning environment & circumstances 3. Which challenges they’ll respond to most powerfully 4. Their personal histories (e.g., what they’ve overcome) 5. Personal strengths 6. Insecurities about school 7. How they respond to structure 8. How they respond to open-endedness 9. What "school" means to them 10. Digital citizenship habits 11. Intellectual and human affections 12. How to help them find their own motivation 13. View of self as a reader, writer, and a person 14. Progress towards mastery of personal goals (creative, professional, familiar, or other) 15. How to help them succeed as people *Age appropriate Additional Reading How-tos Of Differentiation Lesson Planning Learning Profile Cards Learning Profile (embedded above) by Jessica Winston Creating Student-Centered Learning Profiles: What Great Teachers Know About Their Students The post What Great Teachers Know About Their Students appeared first on TeachThought.

World Population might be 7.5 billion this year with corrected counting errors http://nextbigfuture.com/2015/05/world-population-counts-have-one-to-two.html That’s a lot of library users. Stephen

Anatomy of a Grammar Nerd http://mentalfloss.com/article/65070/anatomy-grammar-nerd My guess is that a lot of my readers identify with this… (If you’ve ever taken a pencil to correct signage …   Stephen

Well, well, well. Today is the 10th anniversary of this blog - my so-called blogiversary. It has been a fun run and I hope to keep going. My first post stated the theme of this blog and it hasn’t changed much. "The lighthouse theme is based on what lighthouses do - shine a light on the waters and/or sound a horn to help ships navigate the course. They don’t always stop the ships from crashing onto the rocks but they help most of the time.  So, arrogant or not, I hope that this blog contributes in some small way to helping the good ship Library World navigate to their vision of the future." I’m also finding that, as I get older, it serves as a great memory tool for tracking the things I’ve read.  If I want to find a post I can just go to the Google and search "Stephen’s Lighthouse" and whatever report or link I want to find. There have been a lot of changes over these ten years.  I started the blog when I was at SirsiDynix and then continued it while I was at Gale Cengage.  It traveled with me into my consulting practice - Lighthouse Consulting Inc. - see what I did there? Every day it’s been a part of my coffee in the morning and I’ve loved seeing my posts wend their way through the blogosphere and social media networks. Anyway, it’s always useful to note these anniversaries and then just keep on truckin’ on. Stephen      

Understanding and Serving People Experiencing Homelessness: A Trauma-Informed Approach to Library Service  http://www.ala.org/pla/onlinelearning/webinars/archive/homelessness A Two-Part Webinar Series In January of 2014, there were 578,424 people experiencing homelessness on any given night in the United States. Homelessness among children and families has risen to an historic high. Adults, youth, and families experiencing homelessness face a wide range of challenges including lack of affordable housing, employment opportunities, healthcare, social connections, and other needed services, as well as high rates of exposure to traumatic stressors that impact health and well-being. As homelessness increases, so does the significant intersection between homelessness and library service. This two-part series addresses the prevalence, causes, and impact of homelessness and related trauma on children and adults, while exploring ways to address homelessness in public libraries. Part I Part I covers prevalence and causes of homelessness and also the impact of these traumatic experiences on adults and children, with a link to the intersection between homelessness and public libraries. Originally presented June 3, 2015. Part II Part II continues with ways to respond to homelessness in a public library setting—including some of the models that currently exist, as well as the concept of "trauma-informed" library services and what the core principles of this approach look like. Originally presented June 10, 2015." More: Stephen

Fast Reads: INFOGRAPHIC http://www.adweek.com/galleycat/fast-reads-infographic/107883 Stephen

Fascinating research reported in HBR that asked how many people would you have to ask before you got someone to deface a library book. Ack! You’re Already More Persuasive than You Think https://hbr.org/2015/08/research-were-much-more-powerful-and-persuasive-than-we-know "Research my colleagues and I have conducted offers some practical suggestions on how to make requests. Just ask. The number one mistake people make is psyching themselves out before even asking for something. Be direct. Another common mistake is asking indirectly by dropping hints ("Hey Bob, what are you doing this weekend? I’m going to be working on a big project. I wish I had some more help…"). We think we’re being polite by doing so and that people will therefore be more likely to agree to our requests. But my colleagues’ and my research shows that people respond more positively to direct requests. ("Hey Bob, would you mind helping me out with a project this weekend if you have time?") Go back and ask again. Another assumption people make is that you shouldn’t ask a person who has previously said "no." After all, if they said "no" once, they are likely to say "no" again, right? But another line of research by my colleagues and me shows that this assumption is not necessarily true; in fact, saying "no" can sometimes make people more likely to say "yes" to a subsequent request because they feel so guilty about having previously said "no." Incentives are not needed. Finally, we tend to think we need to offer someone something in return for a favor — a few dollars for the trouble. However, my research shows that people are just as likely to comply with certain requests for free as they would be in exchange for an incentive. People feel good when they can do something to help someone else out. We tend to have a lot of misconceptions about influence — how much of it we have, the best way to wield it. Fortunately, the reality is more encouraging than we imagine. The power of a simple, direct request is much greater than we realize." Stephen

Beloit College 2019 Mindset List http://www.beloit.edu/mindset/2019/ https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2015/08/18/beloit-releases-annual-mind-set-list-what-freshmen-know-and-dont-know "Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released its "mind-set list" to help faculty and administrators understand what a new class of freshmen have experienced and not experienced. Here is the list for the entering college class of 2019, most of whom were born in 1997. Among those who have never been alive in this group of students’ lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau and Mother Teresa. Since these students have been on the planet:" "2019 LIST Students heading into their first year of college this year are mostly 18 and were born in 1997.  Among those who have never been alive in their lifetimes are Princess Diana, Notorious B.I.G., Jacques Cousteau, and Mother Teresa. Joining them in the world the year they were born were Dolly the sheep, The McCaughey septuplets, and Michael "Prince" Jackson Jr. Since they have been on the planet: 1. Hybrid automobiles have always been mass produced. 2. Google has always been there, in its founding words, "to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible." 3. They have never licked a postage stamp. 4. Email has become the new "formal" communication, while texts and tweets remain enclaves for the casual. 5. Four foul-mouthed kids have always been playing in South Park. 6. Hong Kong has always been under Chinese rule. 7. They have grown up treating Wi-Fi as an entitlement. 8. The NCAA has always had a precise means to determine a national champion in college football. 9. The announcement of someone being the "first woman" to hold a position has only impressed their parents. 10. Charlton Heston is recognized for waving a rifle over his head as much as for waving his staff over the Red Sea. 11. Color photos have always adorned the front page of The New York Times. 12. Ellis Island has always been primarily in New Jersey. 13. "No means no" has always been morphing, slowly, into "only yes means yes." 14. Cell phones have become so ubiquitous in class that teachers don’t know which students are using them to take notes and which ones are planning a party. 15. The Airport in Washington, D.C., has always been Reagan National Airport. 16. Their parents have gone from encouraging them to use the Internet to begging them to get off it. 17. If you say "around the turn of the century," they may well ask you, "which one?" 18. They have avidly joined Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione as they built their reading skills through all seven volumes. 19. Attempts at human cloning have never been federally funded but do require FDA approval. 20. "Crosstown Classic" and the "Battle of the Bay" have always been among the most popular interleague rivalries in Major League Baseball. 21. Carry Me Back to Old Virginny has never been the official song of the Virginia Commonwealth. 22. Phish Food has always been available from Ben and Jerry. 23. Kyoto has always symbolized inactivity about global climate change. 24. When they were born, cell phone usage was so expensive that families only used their large phones, usually in cars, for emergencies. 25. The therapeutic use of marijuana has always been legal in a growing number of American states. 26. The eyes of Texas have never looked upon The Houston Oilers. 27. Teachers have always had to insist that term papers employ sources in addition to those found online. 28. In a world of DNA testing, the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington has never included a Vietnam War veteran "known only to God." 29. Playhouse Disney was a place where they could play growing up. 30. Surgeons have always used "super glue" in the operating room. 31. Fifteen nations have always been constructing the International Space Station. 32. The Lion King has always been on Broadway. 33. Phoenix Lights is a series of UFO sightings, not a filtered cigarette. 34. Scotland and Wales have always had their own parliaments and assemblies. 35. At least Mom and Dad had their new Nintendo 64 to help them get through long nights sitting up with the baby. 36. First Responders have always been heroes. 37. Sir Paul and Sir Elton have always been knights of the same musical roundtable. 38. CNN has always been available en Español. 39. Heaven’s Gate has always been more a trip to Comet Hale-Bopp and less a film flop. 40. Splenda has always been a sweet option in the U.S. 41. The Atlanta Braves have always played at Turner Field. 42. Poland, Hungary, and the Czech Republic have always been members of NATO. 43. Humans have always had implanted radio frequency ID chips—slightly larger than a grain of rice. 44. TV has always been in such high definition that they could see the pores of actors and the grimaces of quarterbacks. 45. Mr. Jones and Mr. Smith have always been Men in Black, not their next-door neighbors. 46. The proud parents recorded their first steps on camcorders, mounted on their shoulders like bazookas. 47. They had no idea how fortunate they were to enjoy the final four years of Federal budget surpluses. 48. Amoco gas stations have steadily vanished from the American highway. 49. Vote-by-mail has always been the official way to vote in Oregon. 50. …and there has always been a Beloit College Mindset List." Stephen

NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition http://www.nmc.org/publication/nmc-horizon-report-2015-library-edition/ "What is on the five-year horizon for academic and research libraries? The NMC Horizon Report: 2015 Library Edition examines key trends, significant challenges, and important developments in technology for their impact on academic and research libraries worldwide. This publication was produced by the NMC in collaboration with University of Applied Sciences (HTW) Chur, Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB) Hannover, and ETH-Bibliothek Zurich. To create the report, an international body of experts from library management, education, technology, and other fields was convened as a panel. Over the course of three months, the 2015 NMC Horizon Project Library Expert Panel came to a consensus about the topics that would appear here. View the work that produced the report on the project wiki." >Download the NMC Horizon Report > 2015 Library Edition (PDF) Stephen

Zarina Subhan is an experienced teacher and teacher trainer. She has taught and delivered teacher training at all levels, across the world. She joins us on the blog today for the fifth article in a series focused on boosting classroom participation. Last week, she explored asking better questions and improving questioning style to allow for different learning styles in class. This week, Zarina focuses on improving your own listening skills as a teacher. "Are you really listening…or are you just waiting for your turn to talk?" Robert Montgomery Last week in the previous article in this series, I explored how you can get more out of your students by improving your questioning technique - but it’s just as important to work on how you listen and respond to their answers. In an average, busy lesson when the teacher has planned a set of activities, it is easy to ask questions of our students, knowing what the answers should be. This sometimes results in ‘half listening’ to their responses. Students often answer with a lack of confidence in themselves, so they speak quietly, or purposefully mumble certain vocabulary that they feel they can’t pronounce properly. As teachers, we sometimes fill in the gaps of what we have heard, or think we have heard. This may appear to save time in the short-run, but it does not build the trust required to help students gain confidence. In the long-run, students who don’t fully trust their teacher and lack confidence in their abilities in another language take much longer to answer oral questions or offer opinions. It is in this kind of situation that a language lesson can often seem like a monologue and lack that important two-way communication. We therefore need to practise active listening. What is active listening? We can demonstrate that we are listening actively by the way that we respond to what someone is saying. First, how can we respond more positively to correct answers? If we just accept the answer as correct or acceptable and move on, we haven’t let the student know what we heard. Instead, show that you think the answer is a good one, by saying things such as "Exactly!" "Well done, you really thought about that" "Just what I was looking for". Ask the rest of the class "Did everybody hear x’s answer?" then ask the student to repeat it, adding "What you said is really important, I’d like everyone to hear it." This values an answer, boosts confidence and gives recognition to those who give it a try. It should also encourage others within the group to get involved too. But what do you do if you can’t hear, or don’t understand what a student is saying? Don’t move on after guessing what they meant, thinking that you are saving them from embarrassment. Tell them you couldn’t hear their answer and ask them to repeat it. If it’s the meaning that’s the problem, when they repeat the answer then it is useful to rephrase their response and ask them "Did you mean _______?" Surprisingly, rather than dying of embarrassment, the student will probably realise you actually want to know what they mean, and try to communicate their idea differently. If you follow with an apology for misunderstanding them (and state that you now understand what they mean), rephrase if necessary or restate the answer for the rest of the class. This demonstrates that you are willing to work with them on an answer and that you are truly interested in understanding their response. What can we do if students are struggling to answer? Students may try very hard to answer a question or give an opinion, but struggle to get their idea across in another language. In such cases we need to try to piece together and summarise what they are trying to say, with their consent. This illustrates that the message being conveyed is more important than accuracy of language and that inaccuracies don’t make an idea or opinion invalid. So if they stumble over whether to include an article or not, for example, quickly add "That’s right, we say on THE street," then bring them back to the content of what they were saying. "So what was happening on the street?" How can we explore students’ answers in more detail? It’s also important to check that the thought processes behind students’ answers are correct - in fact, this part is actually more important than the final answer! We can do this by asking questions such as "Tell me why you think that?" or "Where did you find that answer?" This also has the benefit of helping students who have been struggling to come to an answer, because they will hopefully be able to follow the thinking behind their classmate’s answer. In summary, teachers who listen actively do so by clarifying and rephrasing their students’ answers, and reflecting on their students’ thought processes. By concentrating on the thinking behind students’ answers, not just the answers themselves, we can foster a more trusting relationship between ourselves and our students, giving them greater confidence, and reducing their fear of making mistakes. After all, active listening leads to active communication, which should be every language teacher’s goal. This article was first published in the October 2014 issue of Teaching Adults. To find out more about the newsletter and to sign up, click here. Filed under: Adults / Young Adults Tagged: classroom participation, EAP, listening skills, Teaching adults, Teaching Adults newsletter

Rod discusses his experience at Bb World 2015, especially what he learned about the new SaaS offerings and Ultra Experience. Listen to the audio podcast as usual or listen and watch accompanying slides via Youtube. Thanks go to Jim Chalex, Sr. Director of Product Management, and Greg Ritter, Product Management Director at Blackboard Inc, for their BbWorld presentations on this topic. I hope I got it right!View Rod's #bbworld15 TweetsSaaS vs UltraBb Learn 9.1 & Ultra RoadmapsBb Collaborate Ultra RoadmapBb Mobile Ultra RoadmapNew Persona-based AppsBenefits of SaaSSaaS: Standard, Plus & AdvantageTransition and Migration OptionsUltra Tabs and ModulesBlackboard up for sale!Linkstry.blackboard.comwww.bbworldlive.comPodsafe music selection from Music AlleyDon't Be Long: The Beatles v Elken, a mashup of George Harrison's Blue Jay Way by Elken, a 60's influenced band from Dublin, Ireland. Duration: 21:58

I have a dilemma. I teach American Government, arguably one of the most important courses in the Social Studies content area for obvious reasons…you know, teaching students about how their government works, how to be a part of it, and of course, what characteristics a good citizen embodies. No big deal, right? ? In the […] The post Current Events + Common Core = Curriculet! appeared first on Teaching with Technology.

In a nutshell, ADDIE is an acronym where every letter corresponds to one of the model’s main phases: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation. The ADDIE methodology was developed in Florida State University’s Center for Educational Technology back in the seventies. Initially, the model was meant to be used in the US armed forces, a fact to which it owes its streamlined processes and clear delineation of phases. Despite being nearly forty years old, the methodology has not fallen out of use; indeed, it has remained the leading eLearning methodology to this day.This popularity is owed to the fact that ADDIE is simple to use, flexible, and versatile. It is easy to learn, whether you are an eLearning master, or have just recently entered the industry. Another benefit of ADDIE is that it is cyclical; that is, it enables you to correct the errors made in previous iterations, thus improving the quality of the end product.Of course, the model is not without its drawbacks. The linearity of the content creation process is considered its main drawback, as it can negatively affect both the course creation cost and the time requirements. This led to the development of alternative, agile development-based course building methodologies, which lack this drawback, but have other drawbacks of their own. Besides, they are neither as easy to use nor as well-known as ADDIE, so let us get back to ADDIE for now and see what makes it tick. A Is For Analysis The first ADDIE phase we will examine is Analysis. Unsurprisingly, the better you study the requirements prior to the course creation, the more effective the resulting course will be. Analysis helps you gain a clear understanding of the following:Who is the primary target audience for the course. Who will be using the learning materials you produce for studying? Are those learners domain experts looking to broaden their knowledge, or newcomers just making their first steps? Certain common traits shared by the members of the target audience (e.g. knowledge from an adjacent domain, or the overall computer literacy level) can greatly impact the way the finished course looks. Age, gender, socioeconomic status, experience, education; all of those inform the way the learning materials have to be presented to achieve maximum learning efficiency. What are the learning goals you aim to achieve. Before starting to work on teaching materials, it is vital to determine the main learning goals and clearly communicate them to everyone involved in the creation of the course. What does your course aim to teach? What knowledge and skills it will impart to the learners who complete it? Having unambiguously set these goals right at the beginning, you will make your life much easier, as it will enable you to ask yourself "Does this page meet the needs of the course? Do the materials presented on it help advance one of the course’s goals?". The goals must be described in detail from the outset, and they must be measurable. Another way analysis can help you is by enabling you to discover early that skills you aim to impart in your course are ill-suited for eLearning and require live courses with workshops. Thus, establishing this early will help save you a lot of time that would have been wasted otherwise. What are the physical and organizational constraints. It is important to understand in what environment the course will be consumed. Ask yourself the following questions: Are there any limitations imposed by the rules of the organization you design for that need to be taken into account? Is the overall length of the course or the time allotted to the study of individual modules limited in any way? In what setting the education will take place? In a physical classroom/auditorium, or remotely? Do the physical rooms meet all the requirements of the course, or can those requirements be met should the need arise? Will the setting impact the effectiveness of education? What are the technical requirements of the course. During the analysis phase it is necessary to formulate any technical requirements and limitations of the course, especially if it is planned to use the course for online learning. Make sure that you know the following details before starting to work on the course and take them into account:The bandwidth of the learners’ internet connections. Whether the learners are equipped with the devices necessary for audio playback (sound cards, speakers, headphones, and/or microphones). The list of software pre-installed on the learners’ computers. The list of browser plugins necessary for participating in the course (Java Virtual Machine, Flash, etc). What browser(s) the learners will be using to access the course. What are the structural characteristics of the course. Information gathered during the preceding steps of analysis will help you establish the structure of the course. Have answers to the following questions ready before you begin: Do you need to split the course into individual modules and include step-by-step instructions? At what key points do you need to test the acquisition and retention of knowledge? What weight is to be assigned to each test? Will the modules differ in size and importance? How will the learners use the course material in the future? How accessible are the requisite knowledge sources. During the analysis phase it is important to assess the accessibility of materials you will use during the creation of the course. Answer the following questions: Who or what will serve as the main source of information? Are the necessary information sources available in-house, or will they have to be found elsewhere? Is information about the course’s topic available on the Internet? Is it easily accessible? Are there any materials on the topic that have already been written/created? Perhaps a different course that was used in the organization before? Are there Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) within the organization that can help you work on the course by sharing their knowledge and expertise? Will the said Subject Matter Experts be available to assist you with preparing the course? What criteria will be used for assessment. You need to determine the way to assess the knowledge acquired by the learners. Having answers to the following questions will be helpful: How exactly the students will be graded after the completion of the course? Will you use small timed tests that will be graded, or will the effectiveness of the course measured by the practical skills the learners acquire after completing it and the corresponding increase in productivity? If you plan to assign grades to learners, what will be the passing grade, and will a learner be able to pass a failed test again to improve their result? This will be all for today. In my next article I will tell you about the second ADDIE stage - Design. And if this article was of interest to you, you may also be interested in learning about alternative Instructional Design models in the meantime. Try searching for information on RAD (Rapid Application Development) or SAM (Successive Approximation Model).

Photo credit: Blake Richard Verdoorn, published under CC Trainers report only very few situations where they have to deal with difficult trainees, fortunately. Participants may challenge what you say, but that’s actually a good thing. It means that they’re engaged and care what you tell them. Use the opportunity to spark a discussion. Ask the other trainees for their thoughts on the matter: "What is your opinion on what Jane just said?" This usually turns the discussion into a fruitful exchange of ideas between co-workers, instead of making it about Jane versus you. If the discussion veers too much off course, make a note on the board and promise to get back to the issue after the session is over - provided you’ve got time left. For those cases where you have to deal with trainees who are actually difficult, here are a few effective tips, collected from experienced trainers. Don’t Give Them Any Ammunition Design your training to circumvent or anticipate any objections. In other words, don’t provide potentially disruptive participants with any ammunition. Says Shaun, a seasoned trainer: "In our customer service training programs when we would talk about the importance of a smile, we used to occasionally get the cynic who would say, ‘I hate people who just have fake smiles.’ This, of course, had the effect of sidetracking the conversation into a negative and unproductive area. All we did was add, early on, a lighthearted story about a service person with a grouchy look on their face and the impact it had on people. The we say something like, ‘Jeepers - even if this person could work up a FAKE smile it would have been better!’ It gets a laugh, and nobody feels inclined to argue that a fake smile is worse than a genuine frown." Photo credit: Blake Richard Verdoorn, published under CC Another strategy is to present the course content as advice. So instead of using absolute terms, "If you encounter that situation, you need to follow this approach", I advise you to say: "We hear that employees in similar situations have had a lot of success with this method. To the best of my knowledge, this works 99% of the time." De-escalate The Situation Call for a break, speak to them in private. There’s no need to give others a chance to get involved, let alone take sides. Once you’re talking to the "offenders" in private, ask something along the lines of "My impression was that you didn’t enjoy the session. What’s wrong with it, how can I improve it?" In other words, try not to escalate things, approach them with an open mind. Remove Fear, Uncertainty And Doubt Many people are naturally resistant to change because it leads to fear, uncertainty and doubt. If you are seen as a change agent, for example because your training introduces change in the organization, people might also resist your training. A solution may be to show how they stand to benefit from the changes. If there are no obvious benefits to the employees, it may help to at least explain the reasons behind the change. Kristopher, a professional trainer and coach, delivers training in a new technology. His strategy for dealing with resistance: "I have designed my training and facilitation to relate a lot more to the learners’ experiences so that they can relate the material to something familiar. By taking this approach, I find that I can grab the learners attention and open their mind to technology or a task that will make their job easier. It doesn’t always work, but the common response from the learner is that they understand how it can relate to their job, they just don’t seem themselves benefiting from a task or device. I am fine with the response so long as they have stopped being disruptive." Photo credit: Blake Richard Verdoorn, published under CC By explaining the benefits of change and the reasons behind it, you diminish the potential cause of disruptive behavior: fear, uncertainty and doubt. Change The Group’s Dynamics If you encounter a disruptive trainee, try to change the group’s dynamics. One simple way of doing this is by moving them, tactfully, next to somebody else who you think might be able to play the role of mentor. Lesley, an experienced coach and trainer, explains: "I had a recent experience where in the first session the trainee was uncooperative, disruptive and totally uninterested , however in the second session she sat next to by coincidence one of the most enthusiastic guys in the class and he acted as a facilitator and managed to catch her interest by involving her in various discussions. This was helped also by group work , so I suggest find a trainee who is willing to act as a mentor , someone whose enthusiasm is contagious. It really works." To get the right trainees together in one group, i.e. the disruptive participant paired up with the "mentor", Lal Mathews suggests: "Break for an activity : have the participants count 1 - 5 . Group 1s, 2s, 3s …. 5s together and so on. A little math and some calculation, can get the desired participants together. Hence, as I suggested earlier : Take a break , don’t battle the situation right-away. Plan the numbering combination and then resume the session with an activity or just regrouping." Photo credit: Blake Richard Verdoorn, published under CC Set up A Straw Man Another way to design your training with the aim to avoid disruptive behavior, is to elicit the reasons for training from the group itself. Shaun explains: "One technique that can work is using a ‘straw man’ to highlight the importance of a specific skill or principle. For example, if I’m doing training with a group of civil servants, I might play the devil’s advocate and ask the group, ‘So why should we even care about customer service? I mean, it’s not like our customers are going to go someplace else - so why even bother?’ Typically, the group responds exceeding well, and identifies all of the reasons customer service is important in their roles. This often has the effect of settling disengaged people down, when they realize that all of their peers in the room are serious about the topic." What this does, in effect, is introducing an element of peer pressure to your advantage. Share this post: LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, or Google+. Further Reading Dean Reed has put together a Word document called How to Handle Disruptive Learner Behaviors. The post How Do You Deal with Difficult Trainees? appeared first on TrainerTops Blog.

Email is one of your greatest assets for attracting, converting, and maintaining students for your online courses. In this LMScast Joshua Millage and Christopher Badgett explain how to understand email options in learning management systems, especially with the LifterLMS platform. There are 3 types of email you should use at critical stages of interaction: Marketing Transactional Onboarding Related categories include fulfillment, referral, and engagement emails, but let’s begin with understanding the basic three types. Marketing emails are sent to prospective students. This is your opportunity to describe your course offerings and answer any questions your customers have to help them make a decision about courses they want to take. The transactional email is sent upon purchase of a course and includes welcome and purchase verification messages. Your system may also be set up to add the new student to an email list and interactive class group. Next is the onboarding email, which initiates new students into the course. This includes emails to check in with the student after they begin the course to see how they are doing and whether they may have new questions or concerns. These messages can add up to a lot of emails as your courses expand, so you need to set up automation from the start. Our LifterLMS learning management system has email handling built in, and is also compatible with more advanced systems like MailChimp and Infusionsoft. There are so many options it’s easy to overcomplicate, but keep your systems simple by focusing on what you really need to accomplish. Of course, the way you structure your message content is important. A simple, effective approach is to write your messages as though you are talking with a customer face to face. For online courses, consider the student experience in a conventional campus setting. How would you present your courses to a student walking into your campus offices? First you would describe the courses you offer in response to what the student wants to learn. When they are ready to enroll, you perform the transaction, hand them a tuition receipt, and give them their schedule and room numbers. After they have attended a few classes, follow up with them to make sure everything is working out for them. Then you can introduce new courses related to their chosen subjects. With online courses you are basically encapsulating an entire university into your learning management system: marketing department, admissions office, students, instructors, and areas where students can gather and interact. Every part is vital to the whole. With LifterLMS you can start out with one or two courses using the options and capacity already built in. As you learn more about how to understand email options in learning management systems, LifterLMS allows you to expand your platform through compatibility with other larger systems and platforms. Try a demo of lifterLMS and see for yourself what it can do for you. Remember that you can post comments and also subscribe to our newsletter for updates, developments, and future episodes of LMScast. Thank you for joining us. Joshua: Hello, Everyone. Welcome back to another episode of LMScast. I’m Joshua Millage. I’m joined today with Christopher Badgett. Today we’re talking about how to understand email options in learning management systems. What does that even mean, Chris? Christopher: I think we all take for granted what an email is, or what it is in the context of something. With LifterLMS, our learning management system plugin, it comes with these engagement emails that you can set up which are triggered based on an action. I just want to rattle off and brainstorm with you all the different types of emails there are. They’re very different, so it’s important to understand what that email option is in the context of what you’re trying to do. You can have marketing emails that maybe go to prospects that haven’t bought your course or enrolled in your online school yet, or whatever. You’ve got marketing emails that may go to people who are already enrolled, telling them about a new course available or something like that. You have transactional emails which happen if somebody purchases something. LifterLMS can send you a welcome email, or if you’re using the WooCommerce integration, it’s going to send you that transactional email. We’ve done and looked at advanced transactional email for high volume learning management systems with Mandrill, which is another part of MailChimp. We’ve created our own MailChimp extension that allows you to add … when someone joins your platform or joins a course, you can add them to a group or an email list. We’ve done the same with Infusionsoft. There’s just so many different types of email. It’s important to look at what are you trying to do. Don’t overcomplicate your email, but if you’re ready to do some advanced email marketing and email engagement, we’re there for you. Joshua: Right, absolutely, absolutely. I think email is really important. It’s also important to understand, like you were saying, the difference between a marketing email, a transactional email, an onboarding email. I look at it as your email communications … Just forget about email for a second, but how do you talk to someone if you’re at the checkout? You’re buying a coffee. How would you talk to someone if they’re trying to decide on what coffee to buy? Then, what would you say to someone after they purchase the coffee, and you maybe just wanted to check in on them as they’re sitting in the café enjoying the coffee. You have the marketing email as how you would talk to them if they’re deciding, the transactional email in the process of purchasing, and the onboarding or fulfillment or maybe referral email that happens as they’re enjoying the coffee after the purchase. Just take it back into human touch interaction … Christopher: That’s a great example. Joshua: … and break it down into how you would speak to people in those, and you have them in each category. I think also because we’re talking about learning management systems, maybe a better analogy would be a classroom. Go figure, right? How would you talk to someone who’s trying to figure out what class to register for? How would you talk to someone as they’ve registered in the class and they’re a part of the class. That’s really important. I think it’s breaking it down for each phase and then really putting yourself in the mindset and visualizing the experience that you would want to have with someone in person, and then beginning writing. That’s what I try and do when I write emails. I just forget that I’m writing email, and I sit back and I zone in on what’s the experience that I want them to have and go from there. Christopher: Absolutely. I think that’s a really neat analogy. If you look at it with a university, there’s these different departments. There’s the marketing department, the admissions office, the teachers themselves as they’re interacting with students in the class. There’s the way students interact with each other. As a education entrepreneur with these modern technology tools at your fingertips, you can now combine all that functionality and architect your own platform and take over on that kind of messaging. You’ve got to play at all levels, because if you build great inside the course communications but you don’t have great marketing, you might not be able to grow your platform. Joshua: Right, every piece of the puzzle needs to be connected. It’s really important to do that. That’s great, Chris. I think this is a shorter episode, but I feel like it’s really jam-packed and to the point. I hope that everyone starts to break up their email communications into these phases, because I think they’re going to have a much better experience connecting with their customers and students. We want to know what you think about this. If you’re on YouTube, leave us a comment. If you’re on the blog, leave us a comment underneath this post. I know that Chris and I would love to get some insights into how you’re viewing this content and what you think about this idea. Chris, you have any final thoughts for the crew? Christopher: Yeah, I would just give an example of how to think about emails if you are using LifterLMS. With our plugin, I would consider using engagement emails for, let’s say, after a student completes a lesson and so on, or the reengagement if they haven’t logged in 14 days. Use LifterLMS. If I was going to do a big platform with a lot of courses and options moving forward, I might consider purchasing our MailChimp extension. That doesn’t mean I will stop using the engagements, but I would want to be building targeted email lists and use the MailChimp group functionality that I know if this person bought this cooking video, and I want to send more of a marketing message, that’s what MailChimp does really well. I would divide. Put my marketing with MailChimp and my engagement with Lifter if I was planning on building a bigger, more complex platform. Joshua: Yeah, that’s really helpful. Right on. Thank you Everyone for listening. We’ll see you next week. The post How to Understand Email Options in Learning Management Systems appeared first on LMScast.

Since the first iPhone hit the streets, Smart Phones have transformed the way people access information and the internet. In 2011, Mobile web access in the U.S.A exceeded traditional desktop web browsing for the first time. The same year, smartphone and tablet shipments exceeded those of desktop and laptops. (Source: http://thetechjournal.com/internet/mobile-web-vs-desktop-web.xhtml) Mobile internet access is transforming the way individuals and organisations communicate and interact. So its little surprise that the world of e-learning is following this trend and with this comes a range of challenges including effective use of available screen size, bandwidth and standards. Given that Mobile/Tablet devices offer greater accessibility and affordability, the demand for m-Learning, a term often tagged to e-learning on a device other than a desktop, is growing continuously. The beginning of the m-learning transformation began with in 2010 with the introduction of the iPad. Suddenly there was a portable and affordable device on which to access quality multi-media. This, combined with widespread access to Wi-Fi, was a game changer. However the popularity of the iPad also forced e-learning developers to change of the rules of delivery. Until the iPad, the most popular tool for e-learning development was Adobe Flash. Apple decided not to support Flash on its iPhone and IPad devices for a range of reasons, rather opting for open standards including H.264 (Video), HTML-5, CSS and JavaScript. The upside is that HTML-5 works across all devices regardless of vendor. The downside is that HTML-5 lacks many of the animation and interaction capability that Flash offered. A key challenge when delivering engaging and meaningful e-learning to smaller devices is the effective design of content to suit the available screen space and functionality. Key Design Factors for m-Learning: Optimizing the User Experience Mobile devices by their very design are smaller, have smaller screens and in the case of Smartphones default to ‘Portrait’ view as opposed to the landscape view of a desktop computer or tablet. As importantly, mobile devices are designed for touch interaction and not keyboard. Hence when designing for mobile delivery, clever instructional design needs to be deployed to take advantage of the available screen space and device functionality. Gamification: Engaging the User Clever and entertaining content that is designed for touch can really enhance the user experience and engagement. The term gamification is often used. Gamification is engaging and mobile learning is convenient. When you combine the two successfully, you can create a measurable learning experience. Design for Bite Size Learning Typically when delivering mobile learning, you need to consider the usage patterns of mobile devices. Usage is often short but regular. Scenario based games are a great way to achieve this where you provide the user small bite size learning nuggets that are relevant, real and available just in time. A design factor should be "is the something you can access and complete on a train, bus or whilst standing in a shopping centre?" Make it Social Using features that share ‘scores’ such as leaderboards or offer some type of interaction with others has proven successful. Designing m-learning needs a rethink in terms of the style of content delivered, instructional design and product development. Simply re-purposing content and delivery style of desktop content for a mobile device typically will fail to meet the grade. The post mLearning - The Challenges appeared first on Swift eLearning Pyt Ltd.

I’m Leah Goldstein Moses, Founder and CEO of The Improve Group and adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota’s Humphrey School of Public Affairs. The Improve Group’s evaluation practice embeds capacity building - building the skills, systems and tools needed for organizations to conduct evaluations. In the last few years, we teach more and more in academic and community settings. To put it bluntly, when I was a novice teacher, I stunk: my pace, content, and activities were off mark. Hot Tips (through observation, trial and error, and wise advice from veteran teachers). Learn about your audience. In a session at a leadership conference years ago, I mistakenly assumed that attendees were nonprofit leaders who just needed an overview about evaluation so they could delegate tasks to others. Instead, attendees were managers who would be directly involved in implementing evaluations. If I had been better prepared, I would have designed activities more focused on practical tips for evaluation. Now, I learn about attendees ahead of time by talking to session organizers, interviewing prior participants, or surveying attendees ahead of time. Set the learning agenda with participants to make sure the content is relevant. Depending on how the lessons are structured, I might ask them to share specific things they are working on via email ahead of time or have them start with an informal conversation in pairs about what they hope to learn. As ideas come in, I sort them (e.g., issues about design, data collection, and reporting) and adapt. Make expectations clear. At one of the very first workshops I taught, a woman right in front spent the entire session checking her email. It was a small group and her inattention was noticeable and distracting. Now, at the beginning of each session, I lay groundwork to help participants engage fully: Scheduled breaks will be substantial enough to check email or return calls and participants can step out if needed. Tell stories. You can give as much content as you want, but it needs to be clear how it can be applied to participants’ work. I’ve learned stories bring the content to life. Some are short vignettes to briefly illustrate something like non-response bias. Longer stories explore more complex issues, like cultural responsiveness. I encourage participants to share their own stories to help others understand what they are facing or model their successes. Use a rule of thirds. Students have different ways of hearing, processing, and thinking about using information. Time is divided equally between presentation, interactive large group activities, and individual or small group reflection. They also need time to rest; I build in a 15-minute break after 90 minutes of content. Interested in further conversation? Join us at the conference: http://bit.ly/1MSzH95 Do you have questions, concerns, kudos, or content to extend this aea365 contribution? Please add them in the comments section for this post on the aea365 webpage so that we may enrich our community of practice. Would you like to submit an aea365 Tip? Please send a note of interest to aea365@eval.org . aea365 is sponsored by the American Evaluation Association and provides a Tip-a-Day by and for evaluators.

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Do’s and Don’ts of Sales Prospecting During my 20 years in sales, I’ve seen more than enough examples of best practices, fair practices, and I-can’t-believe-it practices related to sales prospecting. I’ve worked in technology sales, leading high-performance teams, and I’ve been responsible for generating engagement with clients who weren’t actively in partnership with me or my then-employer. Based on my experience, I’ve developed a short list of things that you should do to be effective in sales prospecting and, conversely, things not to do. DO: Be disciplined. If you are methodical in using a consistent process over time to contact prospects, you will be more successful with your prospecting. It is as simple as it sounds. Set aside a certain amount of time each week to reach out to prospects, be it an hour a day or a half-day each week. By scheduling the time, you can develop a rhythm that includes pre-call preparation and follow-through dedicated to specific clients. DO: Leverage your account-planning process. Specifically, use the process to understand two things about each targeted account: 1) What is relevant to that organization? What is happening internally and also within the industry? 2) What messaging can you put together that will resonate with those factors in mind? What this information will give you is a roadmap for how to prepare for your prospecting call. DON’T: Lead with your product or capabilities. Your opening should focus on what’s happening in the prospect’s world. Only then can you begin to present your offerings as a solution to their challenges. When I led the healthcare service team for a technology company, we never called the compliance officer to talk about fax server integration within his/her network. Instead, we would ask how he/she was addressing the HIPAA Omnibus Rule and implementing an audit trail for patient health information. We might then offer to share how we’ve helped other clients deal with the same issue. Now we had the client’s attention, because we tapped into a relevant issue. DO: Conduct due diligence on the front end so that you can tailor a message that resonates with the specific person you’re calling. On the healthcare services team mentioned earlier, we would not talk with the CFO about HIPAA Omnibus compliance. Rather, we would focus our conversation on ways to increase cash flow by reducing "days not final billed" in accounts receivable. This is a key measurement in billing efficiency within health systems: it is the time between patient discharge, coding of the chart, and final screen completion. The point was to bring insight into areas of relevance for each prospect, matching our message to what the client considered to be most important. DON’T: Discount a prospect because the first call didn’t lead to an appointment. It can take several touch points before you earn the right to call on the prospect. Some sales teams conduct a calling blitz, where the success rate is based on a ratio of phone calls and appointments made during a specific period. Personally, I think it’s more important to measure the quality of calls, based on prospect engagement and positioning for follow-up dialogue, even if fewer appointments are scheduled. There certainly are many more things that you can do to improve your sales prospecting approach, but these do’s and don’ts set a firm foundation. By adhering to a disciplined process and using account planning to inform your messaging, you are sure to improve your success rates in converting prospects into clients. What are some of your do’s and don’ts? Let us know! Learn more about Richardson’s Consultative Selling Sales Training Solutions. The post Do’s and Don’ts of Sales Prospecting appeared first on Richardson Sales Enablement Blog.