UK universities need an alternative to the US technology meme that says higher education is broken, says Saint John WalkerAn avalanche is coming. Education is broken. Classrooms kill creativity. Higher education is a rotten tree being hit by lightning.All these things have been said about higher education recently (Clay Shirky wrote the last one if you're interested). In fact, when I playfully did a Google search on "higher education is doomed", it returned some 2 million results. Those who work in teaching, especially in higher education, have had a rough time of it recently. It seems…
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Most Topular Stories
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UK higher education: let's not follow the leader but develop our own vision
Education: Online learning | guardian.co.uk21 May 2013 | 6:57 am -
New: How Google Fiber will Change Online Education
About.com Distance Learning30 Apr 2013 | 1:13 pmThis month, Google announced my city (Provo, Utah) as the third Google Fiber city. As my neighbors and I collectively rejoiced about our good fortune, a lot of the attention was on how the super fast speeds and free services will improve our community schools. With a connection to every household and the ability to stream multimedia that may be hindered by slower speeds, our students have a lot to look forward to....Read Full Post -
Elsevier distances itself from open-access article
Distance-Educator.com22 May 2013 | 7:44 pmThe publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states. Times Higher Educatioin Full Article -
How to Use PowerPoint to Create Custom Stock Images
The Rapid eLearning Blog21 May 2013 | 12:30 amMany of the blog’s readers are forced to work with limited resources especially when it comes to building the assets for their elearning courses. As many of you have discovered, when working with limited resources we have to MacGyver much of our production. In a recent post on how to create templates for online training, I used the image below. While the image is simple, it is a combination of three graphics and all of the editing was done in PowerPoint. Today I’ll show you how to use PowerPoint to modify your stock images. Free Stock Images from Microsoft Office Microsoft Online… -
The Tale of Two Cultures
Internet Time Blog22 May 2013 | 2:12 amEffectiveness, Chief Learning Officer magazine, June 2013. This is the article as submitted; the printed version may vary. Most columnists in CLO magazine advocate something they’re sure of. This column is different: it’s about an issue I’m not at all sure of but I think it important and would enjoy getting your opinion. In 1959, British scientist/novelist C.P. Snow wrote an essay describing the “two cultures, whose thesis was that ‘the intellectual life of the whole of western society’ was split into two cultures — namely the sciences and the humanities — and that this…
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Education: Online learning | guardian.co.uk
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UK higher education: let's not follow the leader but develop our own vision
21 May 2013 | 6:57 amUK universities need an alternative to the US technology meme that says higher education is broken, says Saint John WalkerAn avalanche is coming. Education is broken. Classrooms kill creativity. Higher education is a rotten tree being hit by lightning.All these things have been said about higher education recently (Clay Shirky wrote the last one if you're interested). In fact, when I playfully did a Google search on "higher education is doomed", it returned some 2 million results. Those who work in teaching, especially in higher education, have had a rough time of it recently. It seems… -
A teacher's graduation wish: remember the value of face-to-face interaction | Kristina Chew
12 May 2013 | 6:00 amIn our increasingly high-tech world, I hope my students never forget to look beyond their many screensI teach classics at a small, Jesuit university on a well-trafficked boulevard in Jersey City, across from lower Manhattan. With another school year ending, I'm feeling wistful to be saying goodbye to my graduating students. But in our technological age it might be said that there are no real goodbyes anymore. I've been friended and followed by students via Facebook and Twitter, and some read my blog. They ask for recommendation letters and tell me about graduate school acceptances via text… -
Online students and teachers are no different from the rest of academia
8 May 2013 | 3:45 amDemand for online higher education is at record levels – yet the model remains a mystery for many. For David Newton, the only mystery is why everyone thinks it's so unusualMy name is David Newton, professor of business studies. I'm an online higher education tutor. Some of you may read that last sentence as a confession, rather than a simple statement of fact. Why? In my view, it is because – despite its growing popularity and valuable role in the future of higher education – online learning is still a mystery to many in academia, and viewed with prejudice by some.Take me, for example. -
Hakitzu: the app teaching kids to code - video
2 May 2013 | 3:00 amThe British startup hoping to create the next generation of coders by playing gamesScott CawleyPaul Boyd -
Open online courses – an avalanche that might just get stopped
29 Apr 2013 | 11:45 amCould massive online open courses – moocs – lead to back-door privatisation in higher education? The UK should watch what is happening in California very closely, says James VernonThese days there are plenty of prophets preaching hi-tech and digital solutions to the problems of expanding access to knowledge and higher education. Barely a week goes by without some new hymn to education technology, open-source software or open-access publishing. In the US, the growing chorus for online education through massive open online courses, or moocs, has been deafening. But in Britain, it has barely…
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About.com Distance Learning
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New: How Google Fiber will Change Online Education
30 Apr 2013 | 1:13 pmThis month, Google announced my city (Provo, Utah) as the third Google Fiber city. As my neighbors and I collectively rejoiced about our good fortune, a lot of the attention was on how the super fast speeds and free services will improve our community schools. With a connection to every household and the ability to stream multimedia that may be hindered by slower speeds, our students have a lot to look forward to....Read Full Post -
New: 7 Horrible, Awful, No-Good Reasons to Enroll in an Online College
30 Apr 2013 | 1:08 pmNot every reason to enroll in an online college is a good one. In fact, online college isn't the right choice for a lot of learners. Before you enroll, make sure your motives and expectations are in the right place. And, make sure you're not just signing up for one of these horrible, awful, no-good reasons. -
How to Find a Local Online Charter School
28 Apr 2013 | 2:11 pmIf you're considering enrolling your child in an online charter high school, middle school, or elementary school, you'll need to know how to find one that enrolls students in your area. Online charter schools are publicly funded, but they are not managed nationally. Instead, these schools are governed by state or local school districts and only enroll students within their boundaries. Here's how to find an online charter school for your child. -
Online Professors Tell All: Student Pet Peeves
21 Apr 2013 | 2:30 pmWhat annoys, angers, or frustrates your online professors? Find out in this article. Or, if you're a professor with student pet peeves, join in with your own stories. -
How to Take Your Summer Semester Online
21 Apr 2013 | 2:27 pmEven if you're enrolled in a traditional college, you may be able to spend the next few months studying in the sun. Many colleges will allow students to take summer classes online, even if those classes aren't available at your school. By following these online summer semester steps, you can find out what your school's policy is for taking online classes and transferring them for credit.
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Distance-Educator.com
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Elsevier distances itself from open-access article
22 May 2013 | 7:44 pmThe publisher Elsevier has disassociated itself from an article by a trade association it belongs to that condemns proposed open-access mandates in several US states. Times Higher Educatioin Full Article -
EdX signs up 15 new members
22 May 2013 | 7:42 pmThe US massive open online course platform edX has signed up 15 more universities, more than doubling its number of higher education partners. Times Higher Education Full Article -
MOOCs Provider in Higher Ed. Targets K-12 Teacher PD
20 May 2013 | 9:22 pmIn attempting to bring “MOOCs” to the world of teacher training, the Silicon Valley company Coursera and its partners at universities and other institutions are courting a new and potentially vast audience, one that is becoming increasingly accustomed to receiving professional training via the Web. Education Week Full Article -
Califa Launches Enki, a Lending Platform for Direct Ebook Distribution
20 May 2013 | 7:49 pmThe Califa Library Group and Contra Costa County Library (CCCL) today officially announced the beta launch of Enki Library, a new ebook platform designed to host and lend library-managed ebooks using the Douglas County model. Named after the Sumerian god of mischief, creativity, and intelligence, Enki went live at CCCL and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) on May 6, and will soon serve multiple libraries in California, beginning with members of the Bay Area Library and Information System (BALIS) consortium. Library Journal Full Article -
Planning and Managing Distance Education Systems: Building the Model
19 May 2013 | 3:07 pmDr. Fred Saba Farhad Saba, Ph. D. Founder and Editor, Distance-Educator.com In this series of articles, I presented a hierarchical model of distance education consisting of seven interrelated nested systems levels. These systems have been present in most distance education organizations that I observed, or planned and built over the past 30 years. In the previous weeks, I discussed Hardware, Software, Telecommunications, Instructional, Educational, Societal and Global Systems Levels. Last week I started to explain the process of system modeling so that you could start the planning process for…
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The Rapid eLearning Blog
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How to Use PowerPoint to Create Custom Stock Images
21 May 2013 | 12:30 amMany of the blog’s readers are forced to work with limited resources especially when it comes to building the assets for their elearning courses. As many of you have discovered, when working with limited resources we have to MacGyver much of our production. In a recent post on how to create templates for online training, I used the image below. While the image is simple, it is a combination of three graphics and all of the editing was done in PowerPoint. Today I’ll show you how to use PowerPoint to modify your stock images. Free Stock Images from Microsoft Office Microsoft Online… -
Here’s How to Build an E-Learning Template That Will Rock Your World
14 May 2013 | 12:30 amOkay, if an elearning template’s going to rock your world you need to get out of your cubicle and go take a walk outside. Enjoy the life around you. Then come back and finish reading this blog post. I’ll be waiting. Ready? Now that things are in perspective let’s drop the hyperbole and look at what it takes to build the world’s best elearning template. Create a Starter Template Earlier we looked at how to create an elearning template that works. In that post we discussed how to build a starter template for your online training courses by identifying the major parts or elements of an… -
How to Build Your Own Graphics for Online Training Courses
7 May 2013 | 12:30 amAt a recent workshop I was showing someone how I make some of the graphics I use for the blog. As I was showing her an idea, she said that while she already knew the basic steps what she really found valuable was watching me do it and then explain why I did what I did. I think she’s right. It is helpful to not only know how to do something, but to also know what the person’s thinking while doing it. So in today’s post, I’ll show you how I created some graphics for a few recent blog posts. You’ll learn some production tips and gain some perspective on the choices I make. Modify… -
3 Ways to Improve Your E-learning Design Skills
30 Apr 2013 | 12:30 amI get lots of questions about improving skills and becoming better at elearning. Usually people ask about good school programs and book recommendations. Going to school is an option and it may be a good one. However, it’s not always the best option if you really want to learn to build better courses. We debated whether or not you need an instructional design degree to be successful in elearning. Be sure to read through the comments. There are some good pro and con opinions. If you’re interested in getting a formal education, Tess Farley compiled a list of schools that offer degrees and… -
How to Create an E-Learning Template That Works
23 Apr 2013 | 12:30 amTemplates are great because they provide some structure to the design of your online training. But many times templates become so rigid that instead of helping the training design, they inhibit it. In today’s post we’ll look at ways to build an elearning template that will guide the course design, but leave enough flexibility to create a course that best meets your needs. How are Books and E-Learning Courses Similar? Go to a bookstore and you’ll find thousands of books. They look different and cover different topics. Yet, most books follow a similar structure. They have an…
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Internet Time Blog
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The Tale of Two Cultures
22 May 2013 | 2:12 amEffectiveness, Chief Learning Officer magazine, June 2013. This is the article as submitted; the printed version may vary. Most columnists in CLO magazine advocate something they’re sure of. This column is different: it’s about an issue I’m not at all sure of but I think it important and would enjoy getting your opinion. In 1959, British scientist/novelist C.P. Snow wrote an essay describing the “two cultures, whose thesis was that ‘the intellectual life of the whole of western society’ was split into two cultures — namely the sciences and the humanities — and that this… -
Making Learning Stick
6 May 2013 | 9:32 amThere’s no point learning something in the first place if you forget it before you can put it to use. Here’s a recording of my recent webinar on making learning stick. I’ll be in Italy the next two weeks, then in the UK for a week, and wrapping up with a week in the Netherlands. Anyone up for a rendezvous? -
13 books on learning, people, organizations, corporate culture, and change
30 Apr 2013 | 5:09 pmThis morning I conducted a webinar on Making Learning Stick. Funny, isn’t it, that we invest so much to help people learn and so little to help them remember? Lots of what we learn goes down the drain before becoming converted to action. To encourage participation, I gave away my favorite books for making the most of learning. It’s a biased list. All but three are by friends and colleagues. I like what I know. This baker’s dozen have influenced my thinking enormously, sometimes by the act of writing them. Informal Learning by Jay Cross A New Culture of Learning by Douglas… -
Innovation. Maybe.
20 Apr 2013 | 1:08 pm“All human institutions since the dawn of prehistory or earlier had always been designed to prevent change–all of them: family, government, church, army. Change has always been a catastrophic threat to human security.” Peter R. Drucker “The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends upon the unreasonable man.” G. B. Shaw “The disturbing fact is that the vast majority of people, including educated and otherwise sophisticated people find the idea of change… -
On vacation
19 Apr 2013 | 11:15 pmAlexa reports that “Based on internet averages, internettime.com is visited more frequently by females who are in the age range 55-64, have no children, have no college education and browse this site from work.” Go figger. This is for them. My wife Uta, dog Flirt, and I are taking a week off the grid getting to know the North Coast of California better. Mendocino, Lost Cost, Redwoods, So. Oregon, Eureka, home.
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Harold Jarche
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Notes from the edge
24 May 2013 | 3:20 amFriday’s Finds: “I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over; on the edge you find things you can’t see from the center.” - KurtVonnegut. – via @JenniferSertl “Everyone is a born leader … We were all leaders until we were sent to school to be commanded, controlled, and taught to do likewise.” – Dee Hock – via @Jan Höglund “By the excessive promotion of leadership, we demote everyone else.” – Henry Mintzberg – via @flowchainsensei “Privacy is a side effect of people not being… -
Networked individuals trump organizations
21 May 2013 | 8:00 am2005 was the year when more than 50% of US workers’ occupations involved non-routine cognitive work, that long-awaited milestone. - Stowe Boyd “Work has become distributed, discontinuous, and decentralized, hence, 3D”, says Stowe. As hyperlinks subvert hierarchy, so does work fragmentation subvert organizations. Given the nature of 3D work, it may be possible that we are witnessing the end of the corporation as a wealth-generation machine, just as its current power seems to have no limits. In knowledge-based work the primary unit of value creation has shifted from the… -
Social tools or tools that are social?
20 May 2013 | 12:30 amThey might all be called ‘social networks’, but Facebook is very different from Twitter, which is very different from Instagram, which is very different from Foursquare. It’s quite likely that we’ll see a rise of niche-specific solutions, because a social intranet for realtors, who don’t spend much time in the office, must be very different from social intranet for software developers. The logic of business simply dictates it. – Dmitry Valyanov (Venture Beat) Is there a need for a wide variety of enterprise social tools? This is what Valyanov, CEO of a cloud-based social… -
Shifting work
16 May 2013 | 8:29 amNote: this is a synthesis of several previous posts. The death of middle class jobs (Associated Press): As software becomes even more sophisticated, victims are expected to include those who juggle tasks, such as supervisors and managers — workers who thought they were protected by a college degree. At the beginning of the 20th century, about 50% of of the American workforce was employed in agriculture. Today it is less than 10%. Yet there is still food for consumption and export, notwithstanding the major issues with some industrial agricultural practices. A similar shift is happening… -
London Summer Picnic
14 May 2013 | 12:30 amFor the past 18 months, Jane Hart has been hosting the Social Learning Centre, offering a wide variety of resources, coaching, and workshops. I have run several workshops as well, some alone, and others jointly with Jane. We have learned much in supporting social learning with hundreds of participants from around the globe. Last year, we decided to offer a workshop series, which will be ending with our second Summer Camp in June. The series consisted of workshops on: Personal Knowledge Management Social Media for Professional Development Social Learning in the Workplace From Training to…
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Litmos LMS
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10 Things I Learned at C3 2013
15 May 2013 | 5:45 amLast week was C3, the sales, marketing, hiring and learning conference put on by our parent company, CallidusCloud. It included keynotes by industry leaders, break out sessions, certificate programs and networking opportunities. I met a ton of awesome people and I learned so much my head feels like it’s going to explode with information. Two of the main themes that kept coming up during C3 and hit hard for me were mobile applications and gamification. These are two subjects that both interest me and are also the future of eLearning. For those of you who didn’t make it… -
It’s the end of the quarter, do you know where your Sales Team is?
2 May 2013 | 5:45 amThe best way to sell a product is to build a relationship and gain the prospect’s trust. It is hard for anyone, company or individual, to purchase a product when they are unsure what they will receive in return. A sales person’s job is not only to get them interested in the product but to show them how it solves their current issues and how the product is a good value. An effective sales professional will solve your prospect’s pain points, understand their needs and gain their trust. But any good sales professional will tell you, it takes skills and experience to… -
The One Thing to Know About Hiring and Retaining the Y Generation
30 Apr 2013 | 5:45 amI thought I was a rare bird in my craving to Learn. My bio on Quora is “Looking for new ways to grow.” I have joined and participated in education sites such as Udemy, the Khan Academy, Saylor, iTunes U and about a million others. I chose my career in the elearning industry because I want to help others in the learning industry. I have found that I have become obsessed with learning. As I was reading a few articles based on Generation Y for another blog post, What to Know about the Next Generation in the Workplace, I kept reading the same thing over and over again:… -
Have You Voted in the 2013 ELearning Awards?
25 Apr 2013 | 5:45 amThe polls for the ELearning awards are approaching the end and they are approaching fast. The polls close May 1st, so if you have not done so already, I want to ask for your help. If you think Litmos is the bees knees, please vote for Litmos as the Best Learning Management System (SaaS, Cloud-Based, or Open-Source Only), the first category. It only takes a minute and I would much appreciate it. Vote Here! -Madeline -
Robots May Grade Your Next Essay Exam
24 Apr 2013 | 5:45 amI have been noticing a heated debate wandering around the internet that has perked my interest. The debate is based on a recently released study and asks the question: Do computers have the capability to grade essays as accurately as a human grader? The report starts with a basic explanation of the study: “This study compared the results from nine automated essay scoring engines on eight essay scoring prompts drawn from six states that annually administer high-stakes writing assessments.” (pg. 2) The report explains the basic criteria that each of the nine computer…
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Cathy Moore
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Can we use training to motivate?
19 May 2013 | 4:45 pmIn my previous post, I showed a flowchart that could help you find the best solution to a performance problem. Thanks to your comments and questions, I’ve improved the chart to make clear two of my opinions: Training is rarely the solution for low motivation When training could help, it’s best to let learners become motivated through experience (decision-making scenarios) rather than preaching at them (presentations) First, you might want to download the revamped flowchart. Here’s how the motivation bit looks now: I’ve added a new loop that sends you back to the main… -
Is training really the answer? Ask the flowchart.
7 May 2013 | 7:43 pmHere’s a flowchart that will help you identify the best solution to a performance problem, whether it’s a job aid, a workflow improvement, training, or something else. It’s based on action mapping, my streamlined approach to instructional design. First, download the flowchart. Then consider watching the following 8-minute video, which walks you through a short discussion with a client, showing you how some quick questions can save you days of unnecessary training development. Blurry? Click the little gear and choose HD. Not allowed to watch YouTube? Here’s the video on… -
Feedback in scenarios: Let them think!
29 Jan 2013 | 8:28 pmYou’re at the county fair. Your kids are off watching the pig race, and you’re starving. There are only two food carts nearby. One sells deep-fried pork skins from a pot of bubbling grease, and the other sells sushi from a styrofoam cooler. You decide to buy the sushi. As you hand over your money, a disembodied voice suddenly booms from the clouds above. “Incorrect!” it intones. “Unrefrigerated sushi can harbor zygodread, which can cause severe vomiting. You should never assume that a cooler at a county fair contains ice. It’s always safer to buy hot food… -
What to do if they just want “awareness”
12 Dec 2012 | 9:16 am“We just need everyone to be aware of the policy,” your client says. “I’ve sent you the 97 slides that we use in the face-to-face training. Could you have it ready by next Monday?” Which of the following should you do next? a) Clear your schedule and open your PowerPoint converter software. b) Ask the client some questions. If you want to avoid cranking out yet another information dump, you’ll ask questions. The questions will be designed to: Uncover the client’s business goal… -
Scenarios: What are they good for?
2 May 2012 | 4:50 pm“Why do you want to use scenarios?” your client asks. “Why can’t we use the quizzes that we’ve always used?” Sometimes the best way to convince a client is to show them through examples. Present one of their quiz questions three ways, so the client can see for themselves the deeper thought required by a scenario-style question. Here’s an example. What kind of thinking is required by each type of question? 1. Quiz question Which of the following is the most secure way to carry sensitive data? A. On a laptop…
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Online Learning Update
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Open online learning courses are changing higher education.
25 May 2013 | 5:04 pmby André Dua, McKinsey Quarterly Something big is up in higher education thanks to the advent of “massive open online courses” (MOOCs), which can reach millions around the world. What most people—including university leaders—don’t yet realize is that this new way of teaching and learning, together with employers’ growing frustration with the skills of graduates, is poised to usher in a new credentialing system that may compete with college degrees within a decade. This emerging delivery regime is more than just a distribution mechanism; done right, it promises students faster,… -
Solving the skills gap: Udemy, TechCrunch launch online learning platform for the tech world
25 May 2013 | 5:02 pmBy Davide Savenije, Education Dive “The trends are clear. More and more, people are going to be able to educate themselves on an as-needed basis as they progress through life. Where the universities stand in that is a question the universities need to answer.” -Ned Desmond, COO at TechCrunch. On Wednesday, TechCrunch, an online publication for the tech and startup world, announced it has teamed up with online learning provider Udemy to launch CrunchU, an online learning platform for startups and tech companies. s I noted when Udemy launched its platform for organizations, there’s… -
MOOC Professors Claim No Responsibility for How Online Learning Courses Are Used
25 May 2013 | 5:01 pmBy Steve Kolowich, Chronicle of Higher Ed “I have long ago dealt with the issue of: What if something I create is put to bad use?” the mathematician says. “And I have found that, throughout history, the benefit of building good things outweighed the hazards,” he says, citing lasers and the Internet as net-positive inventions despite ample opportunity for abuse. “That’s true in my research; it’s also true in my teaching.” That ethical dilemma became relevant to Mr. Ghrist’s teaching only recently, when he began teaching a massive open online course on single-variable calculus… -
Challenge your online learning expectations
24 May 2013 | 5:10 pmBy: Kathryn Landers, Wired Cosmos It’s the 21st century and one-third of all college students are taking at least one online course during their college careers. For students who’ve never taken an online course, especially those who are returning to school several years after graduation, fears about taking an online course are understandable. Many unfamiliar with the format believe that online learning will be drastically different from traditional in-class experiences, that they won’t be able to interact with professors and classmates, or that online courses may not be as valuable to a… -
The connection: BYOM and personalized learning
24 May 2013 | 5:05 pmby Maggie Hos-McGrane, Tech Transformation This week I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about and preparing for ASB’s presentation at ISTE on our BYOD laptop programme. At the same time I’ve also been involved with one of our R&D teams investigating the value of students bringing in and using their secondary (mobile) devices, which we are now calling BYOM. I’ve been synthesizing all of our experiences and all the research and thinking about how the BYO programme is leading us closer to our goal of personalizing learning for all our students.
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E-Learning Journeys
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Global Education Highlights (weekly)
19 May 2013 | 3:31 am6 Steps to Add Voice Comments to Google Docs ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning tags: googleapps education Inspired by Finland – 5 Goals I’m Setting Now « Penn-Finn Learnings 2013 tags: education Finland Global Education Leaders' Program | The Global Education Leaders’ Program is a community of key education system leaders, policy-makers, thought-leaders and world-class consultants collaborating to transform education at local, national and international levels. The aim of these transformations is to equip every learner with the skills, expertise and knowledge to survive and… -
Flat and Connected Learning: A Recipe for Success
15 May 2013 | 4:32 amMy proposition today, and for many years past, is that learning is 'flat' and has to be 'flat'. Learners need to connect themselves to networks, many networks, and learn from and with the immediate as well as wider world. I am talking about a change in mindset, a shift in pedagogy and an essential purpose for the integration of technology across the curriculum - including mobile computing.'Flat' or 'Connected' learning is the use of technology to virtually eliminate the walls of the classroom. The walls are 'flattened' through bringing the world into the classroom and opening the classroom,… -
Global Education Highlights (weekly)
12 May 2013 | 3:31 amiTunes U: A Course Creation Guide for Educators - Download Free Content from The Ohio State University on iTunes tags: iTunes education course tgstech_learning The Teacher's Guide To Google Glass | Edudemic tags: tgstech_ubiq tgstech_learning education Google wearabletechnology Qatar Academy teachers fret as former colleague jailed over alleged insults to Islam | Doha News A not so good story about international teaching. This is the school I was IT Director in for 2 years. A reminder that education for cross-cultural understanding needs to be applied for all ages. tags: culturalawareness… -
Global Education Highlights (weekly)
5 May 2013 | 3:31 amInfographic: What Will It Take to Achieve Learning For All? tags: challengebasedlearning education 10 Key Components of Customized Learning | Multiple Pathways tags: education customization Maine picks laptops – but not Apples Interesting decision made by Maine to go with HP rather than Apple next year.tags: laptop 1:1 education apple tgstech_ubiq 11 Steps to Create A Google Plus Community for your Class ~ Educational Technology and Mobile Learning "One of the best services Google+ provides to its users is called " communities ". Any Google Plus user can easily create and host his/her… -
Digital Portfolio Journey - A story of change in an online world
28 Apr 2013 | 5:24 pmSharing my passion and involvement with digital portfolios across 10+ yearsIn 2002, as part of my Masters degree in Educational Technology Leadership at the George Washington University, I completed a subject called 'Digital Portfolios'. There was no going back! I was totally engaged and driven to create and maintain an online portfolio. I was also totally driven to share my knowledge with others. My first digital portfolio was created using Dreamweaver - yes, can you believe it...there was no access to Web 2.0 tools back then. So, I did my apprenticeship with HTML and tools where…
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Betchablog
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My Other Computer is a Data Centre
20 May 2013 | 11:15 pmOne of the most common questions I get asked by teachers is how to include video in their online resources. Whether it’s including video clips in Moodle or embedding a video into a wiki or blog, the use of video can be a powerful tool for helping students learn. As someone once said to me “Give me 3 minutes and the right piece of video, and I can teach you almost anything”. Working with video has a reputation for being complicated. I remember doing an online video project about 13 years ago with a school in Japan and we were literally air-mailing VHS cassettes to each other… -
Changing the Bathwater, Keeping the Baby
9 May 2013 | 8:06 amIt’s clear that there is quite a lot about this thing we call “school” that probably needs to change and that there are many schools around the world that are embracing and leading that change with some really innovative ideas about teaching and learning. However, from what I can tell, innovation and genuine change for the better in education is still rather patchy and relies greatly on the passion and drive of individual teachers, many of whom fly “under the radar” in order to make positive change in their own educational circumstance. There are certainly… -
I’m a Horribly Inefficient Teacher
27 Mar 2013 | 6:25 amI’m a horribly inefficient teacher. Honestly. I look around at what other teachers do, and I’m amazed at their productivity and efficiency. They get so much more done than me. It makes me embarrassed at just how inefficient I am as a teacher. I hate to have to admit it but it takes me literally hours to plan courseware, projects and assessments. I’d be a whole lot better if I just resisted the temptation to reinvent everything each year. Can you believe that I’ve been teaching now for over 25 years and I still haven’t really latched onto the idea that I could… -
Being Visible Is Hard
14 Mar 2013 | 6:53 amI was talking to a couple of people today about the way we use blogs with our students. At my school we have a number of students and classes blogging, and every one of these blogs is completely open and visible to the public web. These folk were asking, with an obvious degree of concern, how we deal with this public visibility of student blogs and what steps were we taking to prevent them being seen by “just anyone”. I’ve tried to convince many people to try blogging over the years. Usually, their biggest objection is “why would anyone want to read what I… -
Why I don’t want to lose Google Reader
13 Mar 2013 | 10:03 pmI just left a comment on Larry Ferlazzo’s blog Websites of the Day, in response to a post called The Best Alternatives To Google Reader Now That It’s Being Shut Down. As the title suggests, after Google dropped the bombshell today about closing down Google Reader, Larry was very helpfully suggesting some alternatives. And they are good suggestions of course, but I think this decision to shut down Reader is more far-reaching than just finding an alternative tool. Anyway, I left quite a long comment on the post with a few ideas that were on my mind, so I thought I’d crosspost it…
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In the Middle of the Curve
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Termites
23 May 2013 | 2:24 pmI've been hearing something very promising as I wander around the University and talk to people. "Hey Wendy - it would be awesome if we could get together with other folks who are also doing training here!""Wendy, if you know of anyone doing (x) - I think I have some ways to help them.""You know, I've been meaning to talk to (other group) - but I didn't really know anyone. Who should I talk to?"I didn't hear these comments when I did my last "inventory" of our terrorist training network.Could it be the termites of collaboration gnawing away at the silos? -
Trying to get out of "Survival Mode"
22 May 2013 | 7:00 amI keep staring at my triangle of purpose. At that big green Compliance section at the bottom.So much of what is crossing my desk these days is driven by fear.Tracking of "mandatory" activities to cover our tails.Is any of this "mandatory" training reducing the number of legal cases we have?Increasing our "win" rates if we have cases?Making any impact whatsoever on our "business" (which is, ostensibly, education)?Making any impact on our culture (other than to make the audience even MORE jaded and cynical about the value of compliance and compliance training and, by association, training in… -
JFDI - the Bucket List version
21 May 2013 | 7:45 amOne of those peak moments that appear in life....when everything comes together just so. -
#skillsoft Perspectives 2013 - Higher Ed Track
15 May 2013 | 2:21 pmThis year I decided to hang out in the higher ed track. See what other institutions using SkillPort are doing.---------------- 2 of the 3 higher ed presentations I saw used either another LMS or a portal to access and curate SkillPort content. The 3rd that went to SkillPort directly had a very targeted audience (IT folks).- The big theme at ALL of these sessions was curation and curriculum. General finding - the free-for-all model just didn't work when it came to driving adoption. People got too overwhelmed.Our Organizational Development and Effectiveness group does their curation… -
#skillsoft Perspectives 2013 - other stuff
14 May 2013 | 3:12 pmThe other sessions I attended focused on talent development.To be clear - my job centers around IT training. I am not directly responsible for developing talent.Some cool ideas though....----------------The University of Alberta created an interesting Pathways program leveraging various resources and focused on the 7 competencies they defined for being a successful employee at their organization.I liked their first go at an interactive map.http://www.orientation.hrs.ualberta.ca/pathways/player.htmlThey also give away patches and blankets.Wonder if we could get away with "scout sashes"…
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Assistive Technology
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Just Keep Moving-LG-HBS-700 Bluetooth Stereo Headset
21 May 2013 | 4:40 pmIn my effort to walk towards better health I was a little stymied when I wanted to listen to my music on my iPhone as I was walking tethered to the supplied Apple Ear-buds. Looking for a better solution, I came across the LG-HBS-700 Bluetooth Stereo Headset which looked like it could foot the bill. I was able to find them for about $46 dollars online and ordered a pair to try out. The LG-HBS-700 Bluetooth Stereo LG-HBS-700 Bluetooth Stereo Headset Headset has a unique design which is makes it ideal for anyone that may be walking or running. The LG-HBS-700 Bluetooth Stereo Headset goes… -
Walking to Health
10 May 2013 | 8:27 pmOh the years do catch up to you and when I turned and looked at myself in October 2012, I knew I had to chart a new course with regards to my weight and health, and so I decided to make some changes. I joined Weight Watchers in mid October and have been attending the meetings religiously which has helped to keep me focused and on track with their program. Each week our Weight Watcher leader encourages us to talk about a topic that pertains to changing behaviors and thinking about food differently. Having a group of supportive members in the meeting allows us to share new… -
Tools of the Trade- A Day of iPad Training
24 Apr 2013 | 7:22 pmMaxCases Educator Today I set off to do an iPad Training and thought it would be interesting for you to find out what I packed for the workshop. Of course, I packed my trusty Apple iPad which I have been using for the last 2 years and it has treated me well. I also used my Epson Powerlite 915W projector which not only supports VGA but HDMI which is great for using with the Apple TV. If you really want to experience the iPad when doing training then you need to carry your Apple TV with you, so that you can move around the room with the iPad as you are projecting the screen. Apple's Airplay… -
Clicker Docs for iPad Updated to Version 1.2
17 Apr 2013 | 5:58 amFor those of you who are using Clicker Docs for the iPad it was just recently updated to version 1.2 and some really nice features which include: Clicker Docs- Large Size Prediction Bar & Word Count What's New in Version 1.2 - Option to set a bigger size for the Predictor/Spell Checker suggestions - Improved predictor performance - Improved hardware keyboard support – predicted words, spell checker suggestions and SoundShift button can now be accessed while the virtual keyboard is minimized - Word count added to Document menu - Thumbnails of Word Banks are shown in Explorer, Favourites… -
iReadWrite for iPad-Powerful Tools for Writing
16 Apr 2013 | 4:22 pmIt is really exciting to see the traditional publishers of assistive technology jumping into the app marketplace and providing end users with powerful new apps that pack a lot of features. I had the good fortune to be able to review iReadWrite from TextHelp, Inc. which was recently released and am very impressed with the feature set. This is TextHelp's first foray into the iPad marketplace but they have been long standing publishers of Read Write Gold on the Windows/Mac platform and have a great deal of experience providing students with assistive technology supports.
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ASTD Philadelphia e-SIG
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Taking Your Training to Tahiti (or Tel Aviv) by Frank Felsburg
6 May 2013 | 7:50 amFrank Felsburg will be presenting “Taking Your Training to Tahiti (or Tel Aviv) on Thursday evening, May 16th, starting at 6:00 PM at the LaSalle University Metroplex Center in Plymouth Meeting. Felsburg’s presentation addresses such issues as cross-cultural differences, global human resource development and language barriers. Using a collaborative approach and experiential learning, ways to […] -
Captivate Joe Presentation Recap!
23 Apr 2013 | 6:46 pmOn Thursday, April 18, the Philadelphia ASTD E-learning SIG was treated to a fantastic demonstration on Captivate 6 Tips and Tricks by non other than Joe Ganci, AKA Captivate Joe. His fascinating 1-hour webinar provided cool and huge time-saving tips in the popular simulation tool. Joe was kind enough to provide a job aid […] -
Captivate 6: Very Cool Tips and Tricks!
1 Apr 2013 | 9:04 amProgram Description: Ladies and gentlemen, if you use Adobe Captivate, or even if you’re just interested in seeing what it can do, you really want to come see what is possible under the hood. These aren’t just cool, they can be huge time-savers and make you one of the most efficient Captivate developers around. We’re […] -
Recap of the Tin Can Presentation by Megan Bowe
26 Mar 2013 | 4:12 pmMegan Bowe, from Rustici Software, gave a tremendous presentation on the short-comings of SCORM and Learning Management Systems, and how the Tin Can API can open up an entire world of learning experiences for employees, both online and offline. Megan discussed how this API captures the activities and went over which systems are on board […] -
Designing Beyond SCORM: What is the Tin Can API? with Megan Bowe; Thursday March 21, 2013 from 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM EDT
12 Mar 2013 | 3:55 amProgram Description: Megan will explain how SCORM has impacted instructional design over time. She will describe Tin Can at a high level, what it is and how it’s being used. She will discuss the new possibilities that Tin Can opens up in designing for learning beyond courseware. There will be examples of ways that Tin […]
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Bottom Line Performance » Blog
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How to Design Learning Games With Knowledge Guru (Free Webinar)
21 May 2013 | 12:06 amYou’ve asked for it – and now we’ve delivered! You can now create your own Knowledge Guru games. We are offering a free webinar to help you get started creating amazing games using our Game Creation Wizard. It’s currently available to try free for 30 days. Not familiar with Knowledge Guru? Knowledge Guru is a game engine that lets you create quiz-style games that leverage the principles of repetition and spaced learning to help people learn facts fast – and remember them over time. It’s an ideal tool for reinforcing training that has already been delivered… -
Game Based Learning Efficacy and ROI (INFOGRAPHIC)
18 May 2013 | 2:27 amOur team has always embraced game based learning and gamification– even before exciting events like the launch of our brand new Knowledge Guru Game Creation Wizard. It’s our mission to provide the best learning solutions for our clients, and because of that we’ve gathered an extensive amount of information on the subject— information that we’d like to share with you. So the Knowledge Guru team got to work on Getting the Facts on Game Based Learning, a really cool infographic we put together to educate the Instructional Design community on game based learning. -
This Week on #TalkTech: Big Data in Education, Gamification, and the Workplace
16 May 2013 | 5:53 am#TalkTech is the “flipped” approach to Twitter chats. We publish all the topics a few hours before the chat so you can show up at 3 pm EST / 12 pm PST on Thursdays ready to discuss. We discuss three topics a week and the chat lasts around 30 minutes. We’re shaking things up in 2013 here at #TalkTech! Every couple of weeks, a guest curator will be picking our topics and leading the discussion. Not much will change format-wise… we’ll still publish the weekly post here and the topics will still be tweeted by @BLPIndy, but a guest curator (besides yours truly) will pick the topics and… -
Knowledge Guru Game Creation Wizard Unveiled at ASTD ICE
14 May 2013 | 1:00 amWe are taking our show on the road to ASTD ICE, May 20 – 22 in Dallas, Texas to unveil the Knowledge Guru Game Creation Wizard. It takes the guesswork out of game based learning with a proven game design you can use for your instructional games. The Wizard allows users to create and edit their own Knowledge Guru games.The beta version is live now…. and version 1.0 will be live in June.In the past, Knowledge Guru clients have relied on us to design and develop their games for them. Now, clients can purchase a complete do-it-yourself game based learning experience. Stop by Booth… -
Agile vs ADDIE: Which Is Better for Learning Design?
11 May 2013 | 3:08 amMy last post was about Agile Learning Design, an iterative model of instructional design that focuses on collaboration and rapid prototyping. And it’s become quite a hot topic this past year. It is the hot new alternative to the old, and some have argued outdated, ADDIE model that has been the ultimate instructional design model for years. The most welcome change is the fact that an Agile model has you sharing your mockups, prototypes, and early suggestions with the client—right off the bat! This way you can adjust on the fly. No more building a course only to realize the client hates…
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Clive on Learning
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The vision: 1. Learning and development that is aligned
24 May 2013 | 8:44 amIn the first post in this series, I expressed a vision for learning and development that is aligned, economical, scalable, flexible, engaging and, above all, powerful in terms of the results it achieves. In this and the five posts that follow, I'll take each of these in turn, starting with the need for learning and development that is aligned. In this case, we'll use an extract from The New Learning Architect:It is nothing new to be told that training should be aligned to the needs of the business, but that doesn't mean that it 'goes without saying' or is 'common sense'. All too often, common… -
The vision: 2. Learning and development that is economical
24 May 2013 | 2:00 amIn the first post in this series, I expressed a vision for learning and development that is aligned, economical, scalable, flexible, engaging and, above all, powerful in terms of the results it achieves. In this post, I look at the argument for l&d to be economical.It almost goes without saying in today's testing times that learning and development needs to be economical. In fact, there has always been this need. It is incumbent on any manager, regardless of function, to utilise as few of the organisation's resources as possible in fulfilling their responsibilities. L&D is no… -
Transforming learning and development: the need
21 May 2013 | 10:06 amFor the first time in eight years of Clive on Learning I've been too busy to blog. That's not a bad thing, when you work as a consultant, but it has left me feeling a little guilty. So, as the workload shows no sign of abating for a couple of months, I've decided to share over the coming weeks some work I did for Onlignment last year on Transforming Learning & Development. We start by exploring the need for transformation.Do any of the following apply to you?Budgets for training are flat or reducing.Managers are finding it harder to release their staff for days at a time to attend… -
Compliance is such an ugly word
12 Apr 2013 | 9:52 amTowards Maturity has just launched a new benchmark study looking at compliance training, particularly the ways in which learning technologies are used to support this. It should take about 15 minutes to complete and will be open until 8th May. Everyone who participates will get a free copy of the report when it is launched in July. If you're in any way involved in compliance training, I'd urge you to take part.Which has got me thinking again about the whole nature of compliance training and what an ugly word 'compliance' is. Here's how Dictionary.com defined it:the act of conforming,… -
Why scenarios aren't there yet
28 Mar 2013 | 8:07 amI really like interactive scenarios, particularly the branching sort which require learners to make decisions in response to an evolving situation or to engage in a dialogue with an on-screen character. Designed well, they provide the learner with the opportunity to engage in a sort of experiment from which insights can emerge into key principles. Although it's great when these scenarios can unfold as a series of video scenes or as 3D graphics, I'm not too unhappy if the stimulus for each decision is a simple photo or illustration.So what's the problem? As I rediscovered this week as I tied…
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Derek's Blog
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Disruptive Technologies that will transform us
24 May 2013 | 12:41 pmHaving recently spoken in Hamilton about the Ten Trends at a CORE Breakfast my mind is already thinking forward to what lies on the horizon for 2013, so it was with interest I read this morning the latest McKinsey report on Disruptive Technologies: advances that will transorm life, business, and the global economy. What I like about the McKinsey report is that it attempts to look beyond the usual hype and speculation that comes with an emerging technology, and dig a little deeper to examine the potential impact of that technology, why they consider it disruptive, and what both the… -
Teaching kids to code
24 May 2013 | 2:08 amI have a 15 year old son who is in year 11 at high school this year. Since age 10 he has been keen on learning how to program computers, beginning with Scratch while he was at intermediate school, and moving onto building his own mods for Minecraft and teaching himself a bit of Java by watching videos on YouTube in more recent years. He had to wait until this year however, his third at high school, before a course was available for him to participate in at school, where he could receive credits for one of the areas he is passionate about learning in. He's not alone… -
Drivers for change in the 21st Century
14 May 2013 | 8:21 pmUbiquity-agency-connectedness from CORE Education Digital Media on Vimeo. I've been developing some thoughts for some time now about what I see as the key drivers of change for 21st Century learning – the things that will differentiate how learning occurs and how our learning insitutions and structures from what they were just a few decades ago. The framework I've come up with consists of three key ideas: Ubiquity - Anywhere, anytime, any pace, any device Agency - ‘the power to act’ –informed/empowered/enabled learners Connectedness -… -
This guy’s mad – but worth listening to…
9 May 2013 | 8:12 pmI took a moment over lunch today to watch this recently released TED talk video. It's of Dr Geoffrey Canada, President of the Harlem Children's Zone in New York. Raised in poverty and the son of an alcoholic father, Canada introduces himself as black and mad. What he's mad about is the state of education, and the fact that few people seem to be bothered to do anything about it. He recognises that our traditional system caters well for the top achievers, who go on to be successful as leaders in our communities etc., but that it is hopelessly inadequate in dealing with a vast number… -
The first web page
30 Apr 2013 | 1:48 pmIt's now 20 years since the WWW was brought into the world, and to celebrate,The European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) has recreated the website that launched it. CERN is not only preserving the original site, but also a range of information and artefacts associated with the origins of the web, including Tim Berners-Lee’s original proposal for the web. Preserving this unique piece of the world's history is really important. As Dan Noyes, the web manager for CERN’s communication group says: I want my children to be able to understand…
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Donald Clark Plan B
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Report on 6 MOOCs turns up 10 surprises
21 May 2013 | 3:04 amGreat report from the University of Edinburgh on their six 2013 Coursera MOOCs. The report has good data, tries to separate out active learners from window shoppers and not short on surprises. It’s a rich resource and a follow up report is promised. Well done Edinburgh – this is in the true spirit of HE – open, transparent and looking to innovate and improve. Six courses Introduction to Philosophy: 98,129 Critical Thinking: 75,884 E-learning & Digital Cultures: 42,844 Astrobiology: 39,556 AI Planning: 29,894 Equine Nutrition: 23,332 Ten surprises Rather than summarise the report,… -
Futurelearn MOOC: 10 Qestions: When, who, what, cost, funding, courses, look, pedagogy?
20 May 2013 | 2:02 amPaid top dollar to attend a MOOC conference by UK Universities in which Martin Bean (Vice Chancellor of Open University) and Simon Nelson (CEO of Futurelearn) were to give talks. Although the conference was about MOOCs and online learning, most of Simon’s talk was about the BBC. That was fine but not entirely relevant. However, his other public interview on Futurelearn are not short of ambition: “In three years’ time we hope to be offering a level of online learning that we can’t dream about at the moment” says Simon, “It may sound ridiculous in ambition, but one of my team… -
MOOC on Human-Computer Interaction: videos have 7 fails in HCI
18 May 2013 | 2:28 amEnjoying Stanford’s Coursera MOOC on Human-Computer Interaction but (oh the irony) the screen design and pedagogy of the many videos, is awful. Don’t get me wrong, it’s easy to use, has good content and I’m getting what I thought I’d get - a reasonable course. It is very video heavy, which is OK; let’s face it most HE courses are lecture heavy - at least they’re not an hour long, I can watch these when I want, repeat them and, in Coursera fashion, I get a bit of formative assessment during the videos, something students rarely get in real institutions. But it could have… -
Education Debate: Bun fight with Baker, Benn, rosen & Gibb
15 May 2013 | 12:19 pmA hostile and baying audience, of largely teachers, Nick Gibb (ex Minister for Schools), Kenneth Baker (Thatcherite turned vocational learning evangelist), Melissa Benn (critic of Govism) and Michael Rosen (Gove’s bête noir). My friend Mathew Clayton organised the debate and we spoke about the need to get the juices flowing, by finding adversaries, he did, and it worked. Nick Gibb wants facts and more facts Nick Gibb was first out of the blue corner, with the usual statistics around failure – large numbers of children not achieving 5 reasonable GCSEs and low levels of numeracy and… -
MOOCs: old narratives v new narrative - open, scalable, diverse & relevant
9 May 2013 | 6:14 amNarratives There’s been a lots of different reactions to MOOCs and a few fixed narratives have emerged: 1. ‘US Valley’ narrative around Khan, Stanford, not-for-profits, investors, Coursera, Udacity, NovoED and so on. 2. ‘Canadian connectivist’ narrative that MOOCs originated with Siemens & Downes and have been usurped by the ‘US valley’ folks. 3. ‘Out of OER’ narrative, where MOOCs are seen as building upon the Open Educational Resource culture. 4. ‘Traditional backlash’ narrative, that MOOCs dangerously undermine the traditional values and funding of…
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E-Learning Acupuncture
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Find out what 40 universities in Canada are doing about copyright
10 May 2013 | 12:35 pmLisa Di Valentino at the University of Western Ontario had the idea of studying what Canadian universities are doing with respect to the series of recent changes in copyright legislation in Canada. She decided to go all out and she collected data from a whopping 40 Canadian universities. She selected all non-Quebec university members of the Association of Universities and Colleges in Canada that have an enrollment of 5,000 students or greater. So you will agree that her sample is very representative of the Canadian university landscape. For her Doctoral thesis, Lisa prepared a paper entitled… -
The future of online learning for higher education is here today ... and it's FREE!
5 Apr 2013 | 12:27 pmHow did this slip under my radar? Posted to YouTube on the 1st of August, 2012, Computer Science professor Daphne Koller of Standford University talks about the Coursera project. Massively open and free course-ware that enables learners from anywhere to study online. It's not computer-based training. It's group-paced web-enabled learning. Great features like peer grading, student-to-student interaction, short video chunks by masterful instructors, recall practice and real assignments and exams. As of April 2013, more than 62 universities are contributing in order to offer more than 334… -
The Big Current Issue in Educational Technology - how to fix it?
7 Mar 2013 | 12:01 pmMichelle Marshall, a student at the University of Texas, asked me a question for her project involving talking to some people who work in the field of Instructional Design. She asks my opinion on what the “biggest current issues or controversial topics are in relation to Educational Technology”. Great question Michelle. There’s no magic bullet in the educational technology realm so there are always ‘issues’. The absolute biggest one in my opinion is how quickly educational technology changes. Teachers have always been very busy people. Despite what they might tell you, over time… -
The Importance of Video in e-Learning
5 Mar 2013 | 6:31 amLet’s consider distance education for a bit. First there were correspondence courses: you know – read a bunch of stuff, write a bunch of stuff, and your instructor mails you your grade. Sometimes in the setting of a correspondence course there was media involved. Things like audiocassette tapes or VHS videotapes. These audio and video media types took the edge off of correspondence courses and many students found these courses to be slightly less boring due to the variety of media used. Then there was e-Learning: where student-to-instructor and student-to-student interaction could be… -
Dear Professors: Please think like a Student sometimes. Thanks!
6 Feb 2013 | 8:56 amWe are changing Learning Management Systems (LMS) at my school. Lately I have been very busy transferring content from one LMS to another and prettying up courses. You must envy me right? (*smile*) Anyway, I am working on distance courses where the instructor and the students never meet face to face. So the primary method of communication of the course materials is via the course website on the LMS. I’ve seen some crazy things in my course conversion tasks. Sometime, I have to ask myself this simple question: Do professors ever put their ‘Student Hat’ on and consider what it must be…
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Learning Reflections
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Real Insights ... from the horse's mouth!?
13 May 2013 | 2:39 amTomorrow sees us hold our annual Symposium in London. We’re delighted to be joined by so many members of our Corporate Research Network, including organisations such as Aviva, BT, Lloyds Banking Group, Shell and Vodafone.Hosting roundtable style events is something we’ve been doing for over 10 years now, as they’re a fantastic format for stimulating insight and debate. The Elearnity team is lucky enough to get to a lot of industry events, and it’s always interesting to hear thought leaders tell us what the next big trend is. But nothing really beats listening to those who are walking… -
1/3rd of Corporates - FAIL - to get a Positive Impact from their LMS!
19 Apr 2013 | 8:53 amWith two weeks to go until it closes - Our Customer Satisfaction Survey is throwing up some interesting results.Initial data is pointing to the fact that at least one third of organisations are failing to make a positive impact with their Learning Management Systems. Business impact is clearly a a critical measure of success for any system. And it is concerning that, so far, our research is highlighting how low satisfaction levels can be with some LMS deployments - especially as others appear to be getting it right. As we dig deeper into the responses, I expect we'll find some… -
"I can't get No (European) Satisfaction" ?
14 Mar 2013 | 10:45 amWho provides the best customer satisfaction for Learning Technology in Europe?You would think that it's a relatively easy question to answer, but unfortunately it isn't. You can, with the right conversations, build an anecdotal view. And true lots of vendors conduct "private" surveys and there are sporadic "global surveys". But, as we know from the debacle over Apple's Maps - the real issue is how well an application operates in your region. Service delivery and solutions capabilities often vary - considerably - from region to region. And, in reality, most of the… -
6 Feb 2013 | 2:50 am
6 Feb 2013 | 2:50 amThe Learning Technologies 2013 Head Bang!! Earlier this week we once again found ourselves at the Learning Technogies conference in Olympia. We’ve presented many times at the conference and are always delighted to go along as it is a great opportunity to share our thoughts and also hear from the attendees their view on what is happening in corporate learning. Image courtesy of @learnpatchThis year though, when David was invited to talk in the conference, we were determined to do things a little differently, instead of just doing yet another presentation. All too often at… -
LPI Learning Live 2012 - Is Mobile Learning finally here?
20 Sep 2012 | 9:21 amFollowing on from my presentation at the Learning and Performance Institute "Learning Live" event last week, I wanted to provide a summary of my thoughts and provide access to the presentation.Is it time to get Mobile?There is little doubt that our view of computing and what it means to be connected has changed dramatically over the past 5 years. The increased availability of wi-fi along with higher mobile network data speed and the rise of the smart-phone and tablet pcs, have and will continue to shape and change our expectations, of what and how we use computers.So, what has…
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Cammy Bean's Learning Visions
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Tips! Get your elearning tips!
23 May 2013 | 12:56 pmI love tips. They're short, sharp and stuff you can use. The eLearning Guild has just published a new ebook available to Guild Members: 68 Tips for eLearning Engagement and Interactivity. It's a compilation of practical ideas and tips from 11 individuals, myself included, who will be presenting in an eLearning Guild Online Forum this July. And if 68 tips isn't enough for you, be sure to check out the Kineo website for another 79+ elearning tips. -
John Seeley Brown Keynote at #ASTD2013
21 May 2013 | 7:28 amThese are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference and Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice. Forgive any typos or incoherence! This morning's keynote with John Seely Brown: http://www.johnseelybrown.com How to turn any situation into a learning moment? If you can do that, you’ll become an entrepreneurial learner. We have been in a period of instability and it won’t be stable for a long, long time… Corporations have yet to organize in high-end… -
Sir Ken Robinson Opening Keynote #ASTD2013
20 May 2013 | 7:42 am@sirkenrobinson These are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference & Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice. We all have deep talents, but it’s often the case that we don’t discover them. Human talent are like the world’s natural resources – they are often buried beneath the surface. And if you don’t go looking for them you’ll never find them. You need circumstances for talent to demonstrate themselves… Whether you actually discover your… -
Tony Bingham Opening Keynote #ASTD2013
20 May 2013 | 7:10 amThese are my live blogged notes from the opening session at the ASTD International Conference & Expo (ICE) -- happening this week in Dallas, TX. 10,000 or so training and development people here to extend their practice. Tony is the President and CEO of ASTD. He shared a lot of date and useful info on current trends with mobile. I only captured some if, but hope someone else took better notes! Only 30% of orgs have put mobile content out there. In 2013! Security concerns have been the biggest barriers – some content needs to be more protected than others. OK to… -
Learning Theories
13 May 2013 | 6:45 pmThe amazing Jane Bozarth (@janebozarth) shared this today and it looks like a great resource if you're looking to learn more about learning theories. With hyperlinks galore, you can drill down to learn about Vygotsky (and possibly even how to say it!), scaffolding, experiential learning and more. What are the established learning theories?
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Learnlets
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Extending Learning
23 May 2013 | 4:25 amAt the just concluded ASTD International Conference and Exhibition, on exhibit were, finally, two instances of something that should’ve been obvious. And I’m not alone in having waited. Several years ago, Dr. Will Thalheimer was touting a ‘learning follow-on’ solution, a mechanism to continue to reactivate knowledge after a learning experience. He’s talked about the spacing effect (even providing the basis for a diagram in Designing mLearning), drawing upon his experience as one of our best proponents of evidence-based learning design. We know that reactivation… -
JSB #astd2013 Keynote Mindmap
21 May 2013 | 7:26 amJohn Seely Brown spoke eloquently on extreme learning for coping with extreme change, e.g. now. He talked about how extreme learning resembles play and challenged us to create environments where imagination could flourish. -
Contextifying
16 May 2013 | 6:04 amIn creating a presentation for the Guild’s upcoming mLearnCon, I was thinking about ways we go wrong, and one is thinking that it’s just about content. Really, context is the new opportunity. So what are the opportunities? I thought of three possible ways in which we might use context: where, when, and what’s near. Most of mobile context is about where we are. With GPS chips in many devices, and other information potentially useful (what wifi networks you’re near and their location is known), we’ve been able to do lots. Look at things like Yelp and Google… -
Starting Strategy
15 May 2013 | 6:46 amIf you’re going to move towards the performance ecosystem, a technology-enabled workplace, where do you start? Partly it depends on where you’re at, as well as where you’re going, but it also likely depends on what type of org you are. While the longer term customization is very unique, I wondered if there were some meaningful categorizations. What would characterize the reasons why you might start with formal learning, versus performance support, versus social? My initial reaction, after working with my ITA colleagues, would be that you should start with social. As… -
Assessing online assessments
9 May 2013 | 5:00 amGood formal learning consists of an engaging introductions, rich presentation of concepts, annotated examples, and meaningful practice, all aligned on cognitive skills. As we start seeing user-generated online c, publishers and online schools are feeling the pressure. Particularly as MOOCs come into play, with (decreasingly) government funded institutions giving online content and courses for free. Are we seeing the demise of for-profit institutions and publishers? I will suggest that there’s one thing that is harder to get out of the user-generated content environment, and that’s…
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The Bamboo Project Blog
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Dear Unemployed Job Seekers: A Thank You Would Be Nice
22 May 2013 | 7:55 amIn the past few weeks, I've had occasion to email several people who are unemployed. Some had emailed me for advice or connections. Others had participated in live events with me and I'd followed up by emailing them some resources they'd requested. A few wanted me to review their resumes or cover letters. In each case, I took the time to craft a helpful response, including links to relevant information. Some took me only 5 minutes to respond, but several required up to 30 minutes, including reviewing materials and providing specific feedback. I emailed these off and then. . . -
Antidotes to Imposter Syndrome
20 May 2013 | 7:16 amLast week, one of the women I've been working with in a Career Club sent me an email asking me about what it was like when I first started working for myself--was I as freaked out about self-employment as she is now by a stretch position she'll soon be taking on. At the end of her email, she asked me this: What I want to know is, how long does it take to turn into the person who actually 'feels' comfortable, confident, and competent on the inside, rather than the person who believes they are a fraud in these three categories, and taking a new setting hour by hour and hoping they don't get… -
Career Resilience Tool: The Career Journal
17 May 2013 | 5:46 amAwhile back, I wrote about the value of having a career journal and discussed some of the ways that I used my own journal. I'm a huge proponent of reflective practice and a journal is a critical tool for that work. A lot of people think of journaling as a "nice to do," but as Harvard researcher Teresa Amabile has found, a career journal, especially for anyone who does creative work, is really more of a "must have." It becomes a tool not only for managing what's going on today, but for thinking about the future and gaining perspective on the past. The video above is a synoposis of what… -
Building Career Resilience: Networks vs. "Circles of Connection"
15 May 2013 | 12:41 pmOne of the issues that is clear to me when it comes to career resilience is that we need to build our connections to other people. Humans are social creatures, built for attachment and primed from birth to connect with others, and the more isolated and alone we feel, the more fragile and rigid we become. Caring for and being cared for by other people is critical to our emotional and mental well-being. Typically when we talk about our connections in a career sense, we use the term "networks" to describe the people we are connecting to. We talk about living in a "networked world" and how it's… -
Sanctuary and Healing Our Relationships with Work
6 May 2013 | 8:19 amMany of the people I talk to and many I work with are in pain about work. They have been treated poorly by toxic bosses, stressed out colleagues and uncaring organizations that regard them as disposable. Job requirements are constantly shifting and they live with daily uncertainty about the stability of their jobs. And as I've discussed before, the quality of many jobs from an employee perspective is trending downward, with expectations at all-time highs and wages and working conditions at some all-time lows. I work with a lot of people who are unemployed and their lay-offs have been…
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Will at Work Learning
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Rethinking Instructional Objectives
13 May 2013 | 7:09 amClark Quinn (blog, website, Twitter) recently cited some of my thinking about instructional objectives in the instructional technology forum of AECT (ITFORUM). I wrote a long email to Clark in response, thanking him, and going into more detail. I am reprising my response to Clark here: In a recent post to this list, Clark Quinn rightly notes that objectives for learners and objectives for instructional designers need not be identical. Indeed, as both Clark and I have previously noted, the probably shouldn’t be identical. Here’s the thinking: Objectives are designed to guide behavior. -
Support Elliott Masie's War on Frivolous LMS Trademarks
9 May 2013 | 9:56 amI urge you to support Elliott Masie's war on frivolous LMS Trademarks. Here's what Elliott wrote in his newsletter: Help! Defend Learning Field from Patent Suit! The learning "patent trolls" are at it again. There is a company called IPLearn that has unfortunately successfully sued over a dozen learning management system - claiming they have invented many of the core elements of technology delivered learning. Sure, they wrote several clever patents that claim to have created much of the field - and, with an understaffed patent office, it was approved - though there were… -
Measuring Social Media as a Learning Tool
3 Apr 2013 | 1:28 pmA while back, I wrote an article for the eLearning Guild which was essentially about measuring social media as a learning tool. We called social media "Learning 2.0" but the issue is the same. Here is the article. I'm reprising that here, because I just read Ettiene Wenger's (2011) article where he talks about measuring social media, and I am once again disappointed that opportunity costs and costs of bad-information are not recognized. -
CEO's Do NOT Successfully Transfer Their Skills to Other Companies!
30 Sep 2012 | 8:54 amIn a recent, NY Time Article, GRETCHEN MORGENSON cited a paper (Executive Superstars, Peer Groups and Over-‐Compensation –Cause, Effect and Solution) by Charles M. Elson and Craig K. Ferrere who compile research from others (see citations below) that basically shows that CEO's do NOT successfully transfer their skills from one company to another. CEO's who are hired from within tend to do a much better job than CEO's brought in from the outside. We in the learning-and-performance field should take note. The reason this is true is because it takes real-world expertise,… -
A Better Youth Soccer Evaluation Form
26 Sep 2012 | 6:35 pmAs a youth soccer coach for many years I have struggled to evaluate my own players and have seen how my soccer league evaluates players to place them on teams. As a professional learning-and-performance consultant who has focused extensively on measurement and evaluation, I think we can all do better, me included. To this end, I have spent the last two years creating a series of evaluation tools for use by coaches and youth soccer leagues. I’m sure these forms are not perfect, but I’m absolutely positive that they will be a huge improvement over the typical forms utilized by most youth…
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The Upside Learning Blog
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5 Reasons You Should Check Out Upside2Go’s New Version
21 May 2013 | 2:43 amJust yesterday we released the new version of Upside2Go, our revolutionary mLearning platform. A first, major release since Upside2Go’s launch back in 2011, the new version takes mLearning delivery and performance support to a whole new level. As mentioned in one of our previous blog posts, “A ‘Performance Support System’ or PSS refers to any system that improves worker productivity by providing on-the-job access to integrated information, advice and learning experiences.” A definition that describes Upside2Go to a T. Upside2Go’s Ask an Expert feature… -
Stop Evaluating Training!
2 May 2013 | 3:01 am"So how do you evaluate the success of eLearning that you create?" As a learning solutions vendor, I’ve been asked this question countless times and have also encountered it in many an RFP. Proving the effectiveness of training and showing ROI is no walk in the park and still keeps L&D up at night. Kirkpatrick’s evaluation model has long been the holy grail of training effectiveness measurement to businesses. My response to clients has typically been: If you are referring to Kirkpatrick Levels 1 & 2 it’s not very difficult; ‘smiley sheets’ will… -
10 Advantages Of Leveraging LMS For Blended Learning
30 Apr 2013 | 2:41 amEarlier I had shared the 8 things to follow while implementing blended learning via an LMS. For some of you the question might still be – why should my, or any organization for that matter, implement blended learning via an LMS? What advantages would it bring to my current training outputs? I am sure that nothing but a few foreseeable merits of leveraging an LMS for blended learning will encourage and motivate you to think about implementing it in your organization. Learning about these advantages will also help you in setting your expectations from it correctly and devising a plan… -
3 Ways To Get ‘More’ Out Of Your LMS Training Delivery
24 Apr 2013 | 2:30 amIt was the need to be able to store and deliver online learning courses to the workforce that gave birth to the Learning Management System or LMS. This was back in the 1920s. Today, the LMS has metamorphosed into a technologically advanced, cloud-based software that has grown beyond a mere eLearning delivery platform. This metamorphosis has been brought in by introduction of new features and functionalities, new training delivery modes and methods. But the LMS’ perception (of being a mere eLearning delivery platform) has somehow preceded it, thereby preventing it from being used to its… -
Wearable Computing Technology In Learning
23 Apr 2013 | 3:02 amWe’ve been tracking the growth of wearable computing devices and associated technology as they are likely to have interesting implications for learning technology. As more and more such devices and broadly platforms emerge on the market, they will provide a developer options just as the mobile operating systems do today. Right now, most of these devices seem to tethered to a phone or other mobile device, but as miniaturization continues this tethering will no longer be required. It isn’t really a stretch of imagination to consider how this technology can be put for learning…
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The eLearning Coach
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ELC007: Leverage How The Brain Works
22 May 2013 | 6:00 amListen and learn about ways to align your learning experience designs with research findings.Post from: The eLearning CoachELC007: Leverage How The Brain Works -
How To Write Better Analogies For Learning
14 May 2013 | 5:00 amHelp learners transfer previous knowledge to a new concept with analogies.Post from: The eLearning CoachHow To Write Better Analogies For Learning -
21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas
29 Apr 2013 | 6:00 amThese resources may give you ideas and strategies for approaches to visual design.Post from: The eLearning Coach21 Ways To Get Visual Ideas
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Accredited Distance learning Colleges and Universities | Mottobiz
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Making the Leap: LPN to RN Bridge Programs Online
21 May 2013 | 10:12 pmDeciding to make the leap from Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) to Registered Nurse (RN) can be quite scary. It’s important to remember that you’re not the only one taking that leap. In fact, most RN’s start out as an LPN, which is actually smarter for people who don’t have a lot of money to spend on college, or are already supporting a family and don’t have the option to quit working for two to -
College Scholarships For Children of Veterans
21 May 2013 | 10:11 pmBeing a military brat can be difficult for a kid. You’re constantly moving, it’s hard to develop the feeling of a “home,” and you miss out on the fun of developing long-lasting childhood friendships. On their website, The American Legion Auxiliary has the following statement posted: “It is important to acknowledge the sacrifices of our service members who preserve our freedom, but that is -
Distance Learning Mobile Apps – Furthering Your Education on the Go
6 May 2013 | 3:14 amIt’s a new age, and with that comes new integrated technology. Things we couldn’t imagine as short as 5 years ago are now moving to the forefront and helping people not only stay connected but tapped into real-time events. With students thriving to study, obtain exceptional grades and ultimately graduate, traditional campus based courses (brick & mortar) don’t have to be their only option -
The Benefits of a Physical Therapy Assistant Certification
30 Apr 2013 | 11:46 pmIf you’ve been considering a career as a physical therapy assistant, now is the time to act! The field is expected to grow 45% by 2020 – which is huge compared to the national growth average of 14% for all occupations. After training to be an assistant or aide, getting certified will help you to become employable and more attractive to prospective medical organizations. How to Become -
How to Get a Sterile Processing Technician Certification
30 Apr 2013 | 11:45 pmSterile processing technicians are members of medical teams. Like the title suggests, these individuals are tasked with sterilizing medical equipment for use in various healthcare settings. Sterilization is vital to the success of the medical industry, as it prevents the spread of dangerous and damaging bacteria and other infections. If you are interested in becoming certified in this field,
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Janet Clarey
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So how do you show that you can learn and adapt – and master – constant change?
15 May 2013 | 4:56 amMy colleague, Bill Brandon, brought Brian Hall’s post 10 Technology Skills That Will No Longer Help You Get A Job to my attention when I was looking for feedback on what the most relevant and valuable professional development needs are of today’s training and learning technologies practitioners. Hall’s post ends with this: “To justify any salary, it’s not only about what you know – now – but what you can learn going forward. The key to a long career in Silicon Valley, or anywhere in the tech world, is showing that you can learn and adapt –… -
Ten Lessons Over Ten Years
2 May 2013 | 11:09 amI was in San Francisco in 2003 at a conference that was held at the same time as The eLearning Guild’s “Annual Conference.” I remember sitting in a cable car that was loaded with the Guild’s conference attendees and wondered how I could bail on my conference and attend the Guild’s conference instead. The eLearning Guild’s conference seemed to be much cooler – lots of instructional design and e-Learning types. The theme of the conference I was trapped in was blended learning. I sat in a room and watched PowerPoint presentation after PowerPoint… -
Is there value in defining mobile learning and classifying mobile devices?
14 Feb 2013 | 12:20 pmWhile writing our Mobile Learning Cookbook, I tweeted that… This simple statement served as a catalyst for debate of sorts that extended to Facebook and then back to Twitter. Andy Black jabbed at me a bit saying mobile learning has been around for a long time and that wearable integrated tech is the next wave. (There’s almost always a snark.) Yup, mobile learning has been around a long time but in reality, mobile learning hasn’t been implemented at the majority of organizations hence my discussion. (I don’t disagree that wearable integrated tech is here now and probably in… -
Hello 2013
2 Jan 2013 | 2:34 pmFor me, 2012 will go down as a year I basically went dark publicly. While I wrote a lot for my work, I think I posted here just 5 times. Good grief, three or four years ago I probably was posting 5 times in a week! As 2013 begins, it seems an ideal time to reflect back on 2012, share some observations and predictions, and get blogging again. LCMSs are alive and well and the market will grow. In December, I wrote about Bankia’s learning content management architecture and how its use of a single source, asset-based approach to content led to huge cost savings and greater efficiency. -
A Glimpse of Your Future Workforce – Now in Middle School
7 May 2012 | 6:29 amSix months ago Thomas Suarez, a 6th grader from Los Angeles, spoke at a TEDS event about the making and sale of an “app” he created on his own – “Bustin Jieber” (a whack-a-mole type anti-Justin-Bieber game.) (There’s nearly 2 million views of the video on YouTube so you may have seen it.) Anyway, he’s quite eloquent and now owns his own company. While he’s clearly much further ahead than the majority of 6th graders I know, his actions offer a glimpse of our future workforce. Suarez, who is self taught, started to build, create and sell his…
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lynda.blog
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The Practicing Photographer: Light as a subject
24 May 2013 | 8:45 amLight can offer much more to your compositions than illumination—and Ben Long challenges you to make light the subject of your image, as this week’s The Practicing Photographer exercise. -
InDesign FX: Creating custom frames
23 May 2013 | 8:44 amIn this week’s InDesign FX, Mike Rankin demonstrates how you can create custom frames in your page layouts using simple shapes and outlines. -
Oh my, how Flickr has changed!
22 May 2013 | 10:34 amThe popular photo sharing service Flickr recently launched a bold new look and feel, and lynda.com author Derrick Story is updating our Flickr Essential Training course to highlight the new features—coming soon to lynda.com. -
Deke’s Techniques: Animate wings with the Puppet Warp Tool
21 May 2013 | 3:20 pmIn this week's Deke's Techniques, learn how to animate a falcon's wings using Photoshop's Puppet Warp tool. -
Monday Productivity Pointers: Measuring influence with Klout
20 May 2013 | 9:40 amAre you influencing your social media followers? In this week's Monday Productivity Pointers, Jess Stratton explains how you can measure and expand your social influence using the Klout service.
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Managing eLearning
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A Review of a Coursera Course
15 May 2013 | 6:44 amA Lesson for all eLearning Practitioners My blog team recently completed a Coursera MOOC (Massive open online course) on the concept and practice of Gamification. If you haven’t yet been introduced to MOOCs, they are college level on-line courses offered for free from major universities. Coursera, specifically, offers numerous courses in a wide range of […] -
Part 2: Games as Part of the Curriculum
18 Apr 2013 | 10:03 amMy Interview on the May 17th Excelsior College Games Symposium As a follow up to last week’s post on Excelsior College’s coming up webinar on games in education, I was happy to speak with Mike Lesczinski on my thoughts about this year’s symposium topics. Prepared for answers, Mike asked me to share my favorite aspects […] -
Games as Part of the Curriculum
15 Apr 2013 | 9:25 amMay 17th On-line Panel to Discuss the Role of Games in Education This coming May, Excelsior College will be hosting a webinar on games in education. I am extremely honored to have been chosen to be part of the panel that will get to discuss this topic and will hopefully be part of a team […] -
Learning Games Intrigue Association Executives at Great Ideas
28 Mar 2013 | 2:17 pmAs stated in a recent blog post of mine, I was able to attend ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs March 10th through the 12th. Furthermore, I presented a session with a friend and client of ours, Bill Schankel, CAE from the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers and am excited to say the session […] -
Leading the Learning Revolution: A Review
7 Mar 2013 | 8:53 amI must admit that I was pretty excited to receive a copy of Jeff Cobb’s new book, Leading the Learning Revolution, in the mail recently. While not necessarily association, or even eLearning specific, Jeff drives home the point that the Learning Revolution is here, and that it’s time to capitalize on it. Although this book […]
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New Think Tank
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Android Development Tutorial 9
22 May 2013 | 10:56 amI cover the Android XmlPullParser for parsing xml files. Google recommends it because it is fast, requires the least amount of memory and battery life -
Android Development Tutorial 8
19 May 2013 | 4:34 pmI cover how to make an android xml parser, using AsyncTask to execute threads in the background, writing to the GUI from a thread, Log.d, connecting to a web service -
Android Development Tutorial 7
16 May 2013 | 8:16 pmI cover how to Pass values between activities, Save key value pairs, OnClickListeners, Retrieve saved data, ScrollViews, Alert Dialog Boxes, Intents ... -
Android Development Tutorial 6
14 May 2013 | 6:56 pmI cover a tremendous amount of information about making Android Apps as I make a stock quote xml parsing app -
Android Development Tutorial 5
4 May 2013 | 9:21 amI cover how to use numerous Android event listeners, how to change components, the chronometer and much more
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Vistas: Geri Stengels Blog
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Women-led Businesses Bring Better Returns
22 May 2013 | 9:20 pmWhy are Warren Buffett and other men bullish on women? Warren Buffett recognizes value when he sees it. His style of investing in high-quality, underpriced companies has made him one of the richest men in the world. Women are an under valued resource who are key to America’s prosperity wrote Buffett in an essay in Fortune. read more -
How Nonprofit Boards Can Use Dashboards to Focus on What's Important
20 May 2013 | 9:30 pmby Michael Davidson Cheshire Puss, Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here? That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,’ said the Cat. I don’t much care where—’ said Alice. Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,’ said the Cat. —so long as I get SOMEWHERE,’ Alice added as an explanation. Oh, you’re sure to do that,’ said the Cat, `if you only walk long enough. read more -
Asking “Why?” Can Build Bigger Business, Better Marketing
15 May 2013 | 9:20 pmDo you want to know why some companies are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? It’s because they start by asking “why,” according to Simon Sinek, an ethnographer, author of Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action and speaker (his TED speech is among my favorites). read more -
Click Here – Or Maybe Not
13 May 2013 | 9:20 pmby Mardy Sitzer Oh how I hate to see ‘click here’ it is so unimaginative, screams potential scam or worse – malware. So why oh why are marketers still relying on ‘click here’ as a call to action? read more -
Immigrant Finds US Land of Opportunity for Business
8 May 2013 | 9:20 pmby Karin Kamp Nada Kiblawi was born in a refugee camp, lived through regional wars and finally found safe haven and economic independence as an entrepreneur in the U.S. As a child born and raised in a Palestinian refugee camp, she suffered from low self-esteem, despite feeling love and affection from her parents. Nada’s family fled to Lebanon during the 1948 Arab-Israel war, losing all of their possessions and the land they owned in the process. They ended up north of Beirut, in a United Nations refugee camp, which was meant to be a stopgap solution to their crisis. Nada, her six…
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Helge Scherlund's eLearning News
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50 Ideas for iPads in the Classroom by Michelle Vance
25 May 2013 | 3:33 amTake a closer look at these 50 Ideas for iPads in the Classroom by Michelle Vance, Technology Director, Ontario Local Schools. First lesson should focus on teaching the basics about using the iPad. Create classroom procedures for handling and choosing an iPad from a cart. Invite another classroom to your room and teach them how to use the iPad or a specific app. Use the Notes App to type vocabulary words. Teach students to tap each word and select “define” to read the definition. Read a story together. Choose a free eBook. Use the Maps App to find directions and specific locations. Use… -
Upcoming webinars Brandon Hall Group
25 May 2013 | 2:50 amJoin Brandon Hall Group for their upcoming events For detailed descriptions of their webinars visit their website here May 30 Beyond the Mobile Hype:Making Learning Fit in a Mobile World David Wentworth, Brandon Hall GroupAra Ohanian, Infor/CERTPOINT Systems Jun 6 Global Learning Trends: Unexpected Findings that Could Impact Your StrategiesStacey Harris, Brandon Hall GroupJeremy Blain, Cegos Jun 18 Imbedded Learning: How a Sales Portal Became a Competitive AdvantageDavid Wentworth, Brandon Hall GroupBob Sullivan, PinPoint Global CommunicationsBarbara Brooks, PrudentialKaren… -
The new MSc in Learning Innovation by Distance Learning, University of Leicester School of Education
24 May 2013 | 3:29 amPhoto: Gráinne Conol Professor of learning innovation, Gráinne Conole and Director of the Institute of Learning Innovation University of Leicester Launches MSc Learning Innovation, in October 2013. The new MSc in Learning Innovation offered through the University of Leicester School of Education, encompasses a unique state-of-the-art survey of the field and provides learners with both theoretical pedagogical underpinnings and practical hands-on applications of the technologies in different learning contexts. The course is being offered by distance learning. -
Blended Learning Webinar--Elementary School Math in the Classroom
22 May 2013 | 2:58 pmAttend this free live webinar below. Blended Learning in the Math Classroom May 30, 2013 @ 2 p.m. ET Schools around the country are starting to blend online learning into their instructional design as a means of personalizing students’ learning experiences. But with the myriad options for structuring the combination of online and face-to-face learning, teachers and administrators are faced with tough decisions on how to best implement technology for their students. In this webinar, our guests will explore the different blended-learning models that schools are using to support… -
Links to E-learning, Teaching and Learning Conferences
22 May 2013 | 3:07 amHere are some list of forthcoming conferences: How to use Conference Alerts site Upcoming events in internet-based education, educational technology and related fields. E-learning Conferences Worldwide Upcoming events in Teaching and Learning, including primary and secondary education. Teaching and Learning Conferences Worldwide Upcoming events in mathematics and related fields. Mathematics Conferences Worldwide Upcoming events in statistics and related fields. Statistics Conferences Worldwide Enjoy your conference with coffee breaks and networking! Source: Conference Alerts
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E-learning Examples
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Boston Marathon Bombing – Interactive Timeline
28 Apr 2013 | 9:31 amBoston Marathon Bombing Interactive timeline for the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt. View the interactive timeline The post Boston Marathon Bombing – Interactive Timeline appeared first on E-learning Examples. -
Boston Marathon Bombings: From Terror to Manhunt
19 Apr 2013 | 9:44 amBoston Marathon Bombings: From Terror to Manhunt As Boston Marathon runners crossed the finish line on April 15, 2013, three people were killed and at least 133 people were injured, when bombs exploded almost simultaneously. View the interactive timeline The post Boston Marathon Bombings: From Terror to Manhunt appeared first on E-learning Examples. -
Investigation into Boston Marathon bombings
19 Apr 2013 | 9:31 amInvestigation into Boston Marathon bombings One week after the Boston Marathon bombings, federal authorities charged the surviving suspect with using a “weapon of mass destruction” in connection with the blasts that resulted in the deaths of three people and injuries to more than 200 others. View the interactive timeline The post Investigation into Boston Marathon bombings appeared first on E-learning Examples. -
Evidence from the Boston bombings
17 Apr 2013 | 3:03 amEvidence from the Boston bombings Parts recovered from bomb believed to have been made from a pressure cooker. View the interactive graphic The post Evidence from the Boston bombings appeared first on E-learning Examples. -
Caught in the Blasts at the Boston Marathon
17 Apr 2013 | 2:51 amCaught in the Blasts at the Boston Marathon An examination of the injuries and damage in the blast areas. View the interactive feature The post Caught in the Blasts at the Boston Marathon appeared first on E-learning Examples.
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Learning Ecosystems
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Higher Ed in 2018 [Jeb Bush/Randy Best]
24 May 2013 | 11:17 amHigher Ed in 2018 — from InsideHigherEd.com by Jeb Bush and Randy Best Excerpts (emphasis DSC): Half a decade from now, almost all universities will offer their students the option of undertaking their coursework in high-demand degree programs online. However, online offerings will no longer be the competitive advantage they are today. … This unprecedented competition and the availability of many high-quality, low-priced options will have caused the tuition bubble to burst and the cost of attending college to tumble, putting even greater pressure on institutional budgets. While… -
Is the student loan debt “bubble” bursting? [Worthington]
24 May 2013 | 8:59 am -
Disruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy [McKinsey & Co]
24 May 2013 | 7:08 amDisruptive technologies: Advances that will transform life, business, and the global economy — from mckinsey.com by James Manyika, Michael Chui, Jacques Bughin, Richard Dobbs, Peter Bisson, and Alex Marrs -
UK University deploys open source video platform for teaching and learning [Meyer]
23 May 2013 | 4:55 amUK University deploys open source video platform for teaching and learning – from campustechnology.com by Leila Meyer -
Apple introduces “Learning in Action” resources
22 May 2013 | 2:13 pm
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E-Learning 24/7 Blog
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ASTD International trade show wrap up day 2
21 May 2013 | 7:14 pmBack for another installment of the ASTD international trade show. In this amazing episode we find out that not all mobile devices are really mobile (according to a vendor), the new six letter word is Tin Can, mobile only products still exist, my game is your game and ASTD did not offer a breakfast for us. My mobile is not your mobile Let me paint you a picture. I am checking out a soft skills course specifically for mobile. I see that they are showing smartphones in their booth will their product. I inquire about tablets, and this comes out of their mouths ( ok, 1 mouth, is just happens to… -
ASTD International Conference Day 1 Wrap-Up
20 May 2013 | 1:57 pmWelcome one and all to the wrap up of the ASTD international conference and expo. It was an exciting first day, with lots of vendors hitting the entire training spectrum. Please note that the text might be squished since I am writing from the WordPress app. First day cool product of the show Leapfactor Ideal for sales training and point of sales It’s a mobile app, that comes as a shell You add your content, drag and drop, add video, images, etc. The look and feel sort of reminds me of an online magazine Your app has your name on it and works with iOS, Android and Blackberry, both… -
E-Learning Musings
14 May 2013 | 4:49 pmAs an honored tradition for the ASTD International Trade Show and whatever else they call it, I present my latest news and notes in the world of e-learning. T&D I know what you are thinking – T&D means training and development – yes you are correct, but in this case you are not. I’m referring to trials and demos for a learning management system/talent mgt. system and so on. You would think that after years and years of having trials and demos, the process to get a trial and see a demo would be as simple as me typing these words. Oh, you would be so wrong. While… -
Special Post – Why the Big Four are not on my latest Top 10 LMS List
7 May 2013 | 12:21 pmSince my Top 10 list of LMS vendors has been posted online, I have received quite a bit of e-mail wondering why the biggest names: Cornerstone On Demand, Saba, SumTotal and SuccessFactors are not on the list. A LMS should first be a LMS When I talk about a LMS, I am saying specifically a learning management system and the vendors themselves should see their own product first and foremost as a LMS, not as a TM/PM or whatever. You can have TM features – regardless if it is an add-on or included (turn on/off), but it shouldn’t really be the core. Best Selling doesn’t mean the… -
Best of the Best – Extended Enterprise or multi-tenant LMSs
5 May 2013 | 1:08 pmYou may heard the term, “extended enterprise” and immediately thought to yourself that it does not apply to you. You may have thought it only applies to large size companies with lots of employees. Actually it means many things which is why the term itself should be kicked to the curb with serious force. Just because a system lists itself as an extended enterprise does not mean it comes with multiple domains (which with some vendors includes customized) nor with multiple portals or my preferable term – “multi-tenant”. You may see an “extended…
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onehundredfortywords
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ASTD-Cascadia and the CPLP
20 May 2013 | 9:29 pmIn March, both ASTD-Cascadia and PSU (Portland’s provider of CPLP study courses) announced that they are suspending support of the CPLP program. Regrettably, I haven’t even been involved enough lately to know that this was under discussion until after it was announced, but I am proud of my chapter for this decision. Their concerns, which I share, seem to focus mainly on the work product process; I have additional issues with the content of the knowledge exam (which, for the record, I passed easily last year). ASTD-Cascadia President Pam Moore reports in her most recent leadership… -
Is training really the answer? Ask Cathy Moore’s flowchart.
7 May 2013 | 9:45 pmCathy Moore is one of my heroes in the L&D world because she releases a lot really helpful stuff for designers. I’ve written some here about how her Action Mapping method often plays a part in my process, and her Elearning samples collection is the most comprehensive answer to What does good look like? in our field. Today she released another gem — a flowchart to help L&D professionals determine whether training is really the answer to any particular problem. A couple of the really great things about this: 1) Often, L&D professionals who are aware that training… -
Crowdsourcing Concrete-ization
7 May 2013 | 4:55 pmEarlier this week, I was putting together a slideshow, and it involved taking some abstract ideas and putting an image that represented each one onscreen. Concrete-ization, because I can’t think of a better name. Simple. Something we do all the time in creating presentations and web content. But I wanted the effect to be more surprising, more unexpected, more stylized than most of the images I found. Stock sites are good at tagging photos by concept, but the results can be rather generic; searching for Creative Commons-licensed content on Flickr turned up more realistic, often more… -
Style Tiles
4 May 2013 | 6:56 amHere’s a new (to me) resource: Style Tiles, a template that helps communicate the look and feel of a web design project. I prototype interactions completely without graphic treatment, so doing something like this separately shows stakeholders that I also have the visual aspect of the experience in mind and allows us to discuss those components separately. As useful as the template, though, is the collection of design resources on the website: See “Step 1: Listen” in particular. Good design advice. The template is a PSD offered under a CC 3.0 license, but there’s… -
Startups, This Is How Design Works
27 Apr 2013 | 10:05 pmA few weeks ago, a number of friends and colleagues shared Startups, This Is How Design Works, a primer on design for entrepreneurs. It’s no less relevant for instructional designers and in particular, those who design online experiences; we often work as single-person “teams”, the lone individual responsible for “starting elearning” at our organizations. What I love about this more than anything is the separation of design as the discipline of solving problems from graphic design. I’ve often seen that as an effective starting point for showing design is…
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Criminal Justice Degree, College, and Career Blog
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Best Criminal Justice Schools in Florida
25 May 2013 | 11:03 amEmail from blog readers: What are the best criminal justice schools in Florida? There’s no shortage of top criminal justice schools in Florida. The Sunshine State delivers some of the best colleges and universities in the Nation. best criminal justice schools in Florida Florida State University University of Central Florida University of Florida University of South Florida Florida State University and University of Florida were rated highly on usnews.com – US News & World Report in the Criminal Justice/Criminology category. UCF and USF were on that list of best criminology… -
Can I Become a Police Officer with Bad Credit?
10 Feb 2013 | 1:41 amQ: John from New York writes: Hi Radek, I fell on some hard times and now my credit is bad. I want to work in law enforcement, but given my credit, do you think I can become a police officer with bad credit? Q: Tracy from Illinois writes: I have a poor credit rating and I want to become a police officer or a federal agent. Do you think I can get a police officer job with bad credit? A: Probably… John and Tracy are two long-time CJOB readers who comment or email me with questions about how credit (good or bad) affects their chances of obtaining jobs in law enforcement. I’ll try to… -
Thinking of a Law Degree Online? Think Twice About Online Law Schools
7 Nov 2012 | 1:34 pmIf you’re thinking of taking on a law degree online (JD), at an online law school, then I know that’s a recipe for disaster – at least it is for right now. I’m going to keep it short and sweet. OK, I’m not… 3 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Attend Law School Online 1. Accreditation and academic standards As of right now, no online law school has the backing of the American Bar Association (ABA). This accreditation is crucial if you want to take the Bar Exam. Yes, those who graduate from an online school like Concord Law School or Abraham Lincoln University… -
Top 15 Criminal Justice Minors
30 Jul 2012 | 1:59 amTara from Minnesota asked: what are the most desirable criminal justice minors to supplement my Bachelor’s degree? Jerry from Texas asked: what is the best minor to take with a criminal justice degree? So, what is the best criminal justice minor? There isn’t one. Heck, some schools don’t even offer minors at all. And… I lost you! Top Criminal Justice Minors Revealed So, I may not have the best CJ minor on the platter for you, but it’s for your own good. I swear. The thing is there’s no single minor that is the best. Each minor has its purpose, and in the… -
Best Criminal Justice Schools in Illinois
12 Jun 2012 | 12:22 pmEmail: Hey Radek, what are the best criminal justice schools in Illinois? Illinois has a few of the best Criminal Justice schools in the United States; one in a more rural setting and the other can even be called the best criminal justice school in Chicago. Illinois has one of the best university networks in the US, but only a small portion of criminal justice schools can make the best criminal justice universities list. best criminal justice schools in Illinois University of Illinois – Chicago Western Illinois University University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC) was rated well by US News…
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Learn and Lead
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Lessons in Professionalism
24 May 2013 | 8:14 pmI love watching Grey’s Anatomy, an American television medical drama series. While the human drama in the series makes it a gripping watch, what I find really amazing is the professionalism of characters in the series. The surgeons and interns are intensely competitive, and yet are completely professional about their jobs, irrespective of the positions they hold, or not hold for that matter. I feel there are many life management lessons to be learned from the series. What do you do when a peer becomes your boss? What do you do when a junior becomes your boss? How do you handle… -
Delivery Led or Sales Led Redux
23 Apr 2013 | 12:52 amAbout two years ago I had pondered over the question of who is a better leader for business. Is it someone rooted in delivery and operations or someone with a sales background ( http://manishmo.blogspot.in/2011/01/delivery-led-or-sales-led.html)? I think for a business to really grow, the leader has to be sales led. Having a sales oriented leader is all the more critical when the organization is in the business of service delivery. Perhaps in a products business where the product is evolving, a delivery oriented leader who is entrenched in product development and vision of the product might… -
Storytelling: Transforming through tales!
16 Feb 2013 | 11:40 pmAnother great session I attended at NASSCOM ILF 2013 was by Devdutt Patnaik. Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik is an Indian physician turned leadership consultant, mythologist and author whose works focus largely on the areas of myth, mythology, and also management. He has written a number of books related to Hindu mythology. He is the chief belief officer of Future Group, one of India’s largest retailers, bringing the wisdom of Indian mythology into Indian business, especially in human resource management. He writes a column for the newspaper MiD DAY. There are many videos of him on Youtube that you… -
Listening to Industry Leaders
16 Feb 2013 | 9:39 pmIt was great listening to industry leaders in this year's NASSCOM India Leadership Forum. One of the sessions I enjoyed was listening to Vineet Nayar and R Gopalakrishnan. While the session was titled Cross Border Leadership, the discussion was not limited to that. Vineet Nayar is Vice Chairman and Joint Managing Director of HCL Technologies Ltd., a $4.3 billion global information technology services company and author of the highly acclaimed management book “Employees First, Customers Second". R Gopalakrishnan is an Executive Director with one of the largest Indian business… -
What Kept Training Managers Awake in 2012?
30 Dec 2012 | 10:50 amSo what kept training managers awake during 2012? What challenges they have been facing? During last year I was fortunate enough to be in touch with training managers of various companies in India. While not statistically conclusive, here are some general trends I noticed from my various conversations. Cost: Almost all training managers are pressurized to show some cost savings. Mostly this is resulting in passing on pressure to reduce costs on their training vendors. Cost seems to be their single biggest challenge these days. Uncertain Business Environment: There’s a constant challenge in…
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Managing eLearning
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A Review of a Coursera Course
15 May 2013 | 6:44 amA Lesson for all eLearning Practitioners My blog team recently completed a Coursera MOOC (Massive open online course) on the concept and practice of Gamification. If you haven’t yet been introduced to MOOCs, they are college level on-line courses offered for free from major universities. Coursera, specifically, offers numerous courses in a wide range of […] -
Part 2: Games as Part of the Curriculum
18 Apr 2013 | 10:03 amMy Interview on the May 17th Excelsior College Games Symposium As a follow up to last week’s post on Excelsior College’s coming up webinar on games in education, I was happy to speak with Mike Lesczinski on my thoughts about this year’s symposium topics. Prepared for answers, Mike asked me to share my favorite aspects […] -
Games as Part of the Curriculum
15 Apr 2013 | 9:25 amMay 17th On-line Panel to Discuss the Role of Games in Education This coming May, Excelsior College will be hosting a webinar on games in education. I am extremely honored to have been chosen to be part of the panel that will get to discuss this topic and will hopefully be part of a team […] -
Learning Games Intrigue Association Executives at Great Ideas
28 Mar 2013 | 2:17 pmAs stated in a recent blog post of mine, I was able to attend ASAE’s Great Ideas Conference in Colorado Springs March 10th through the 12th. Furthermore, I presented a session with a friend and client of ours, Bill Schankel, CAE from the Society of Cable Telecommunications Engineers and am excited to say the session […] -
Leading the Learning Revolution: A Review
7 Mar 2013 | 8:53 amI must admit that I was pretty excited to receive a copy of Jeff Cobb’s new book, Leading the Learning Revolution, in the mail recently. While not necessarily association, or even eLearning specific, Jeff drives home the point that the Learning Revolution is here, and that it’s time to capitalize on it. Although this book […]
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E-Learning Uncovered
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Concise Writing: Kick weak works out of your e-learning courses
22 May 2013 | 2:40 pmIn his last blog, Nick described his struggle with moving from scholastic writing where length is rewarded to a more concise writing style. Nick posed the question, “Which is better?” He suggested “better” was somewhere in the middle. I agree–and so does Purdue University! One of my favorite explanations of concise writing is from the Purdue Online Writing Lab as published in The Owl: “The goal of concise writing is to use the most effective words. Concise writing does not always have to have the fewest words, but it always uses the strongest ones.” Let’s take a look at how… -
Update to ZebraZapps Makes It More Appealing
16 May 2013 | 6:14 amWhile we regularly write about Articulate, Lectora, and Captivate, we are often asked our opinion about ZebraZapps. I’ve been impressed with the power and ease of use of that tool since I first saw it demo’d about four years ago. I’ve always been hesitant from giving it my full recommendation for one key reason: up until now, your published course resides on their servers. With their new release of Pro Plus, you can now download your published courses to run directly from your desktop, LMS, or web server. So what’s the big deal? Because of early experiences from some… -
Academia Rewards Length, Business Rewards Brevity
8 May 2013 | 11:20 amIt amazes me how large the difference is between academic language and business writing. The following two segments of writing illustrate how different the two worlds of writing really are. Academia Rewards Length When I sat down to write my first blog post for E-Learning Uncovered, I took a bunch of time to try to figure out what I wanted to say. I spent a while outlining my thoughts, and then I wrote a first draft. After reading through my draft and tweaking it a little to where I was comfortable with sending it to someone else to read, I sent it to Diane for review. What I got back was… -
A Chromebook and Claro: One Man’s E-Learning Day Out
2 May 2013 | 1:55 pmI’ve been intrigued lately by the idea of living my digital life entirely “in the cloud”. Could I function effectively as an e-learning developer without being tethered to a local hard drive or locally installed software? Two recent innovations seem to make that possible – the Google Chromebook and dominKnow’s Claro e-learning authoring tool. So I decided to spend a day out on the town living and working entirely in the cloud. Starbucks: 8:38 a.m. I’ve borrowed my friend Vickie’s Chromebook for the day, and I’m sitting comfortably at a table outside. Then it hits me – I… -
Working with E-Learning Vendors: Tips for Working with Vendors
25 Apr 2013 | 8:40 amOver the last few blogs, I’ve given some tips on how to find a vendor through a Request for Information (RFI) and Request for Proposal (RFP), and then how to evaluate the responses you get to select the best vendor to meet your needs. Now what? Here are some tips for you. Get everything in writing. If the sales person makes promises over the phone – make sure the promises are in the contract. During development, always keep your design document and other guidelines up-to-date with anything the vendor promised they would do. Put protections in the contract for you! If the vendor…
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Learn to Suceed - Bits and Bytes of e-learning by G-Cube
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E-learning in the Telecommunications Industry
23 May 2013 | 11:51 amTelecommunications is one of the largest and most fast-growing industries worldwide. Strongly driven by technology, the industry is evolving at a rapid rate and is forever in a state of flux. Not long ago, telecommunications was largely about fixed lines and telephone calls were the largest revenue generators for telecom companies. This scenario has changed drastically over the years. Great advances in network technologies now allow the industry to deliver so much more than just the means to talk to each other. High-speed internet is now reaching our homes and offices through digital… -
Social Learning can help you Sell Better – Here’s How
30 Apr 2013 | 7:34 amMany of the forward looking corporate are now beginning to warm up to social learning within their networks. With the easy availability and affordability mobile devices, social learning can now be delivered through mobile phones, smart phones or tablets. The added advantage of the mobile platform provides accessibility of social learning for learners – anytime and anywhere. While social learning is beginning to make its presence felt within corporate walls, it can also be fruitfully utilized for the sales personnel who are out in the field and need just-in-time learning. The challenges of… -
Deriving the Best out of E-learning Outsourcing: Creating Impactful Courseware
29 Apr 2013 | 12:17 amWith the growing popularity and success of e-learning in the corporate circles, the need for high-quality course-ware development is ever-increasing. Many organizations thus prefer the route of developing their course-ware through external resources in order to keep up with the pace of demand and restrictive time-lines. But the quintessential question that they have to ask themselves is how will it impact the quality of the course-ware? G-Cube works with many organizations, assisting them to develop e-courses for their varying needs. Looking into our rich and varied experience, we bring forth… -
Creating Impactful Learning: Experiences in the BFSI
3 Apr 2013 | 12:04 amTechnology-aided learning has permeated every leading industry in the world. The Banking and Financial Services Industry (BFSI) has been a forerunner in adopting the newer ways of imparting training for its ever-increasing and ever-changing training needs. But, as often happens with many early-adopters, the initial elation of discovering the new is followed by the inevitable question, ‘What else?’ In our experience of working with the BFSI, we have often been asked this question. The answer to this can be found with a little introspection – of what the learning needs to achieve, the… -
Making use of the basics in m-learning – utilizing the strength of an SMS
31 Mar 2013 | 9:01 pmThe benefits of mobile learning, or m-learning, are many. Learning-content is available for the learner at all times, creating an opportunity to learn ‘just-in-time’. Also, learning is learner-driven, providing a learning opportunity whenever the learner needs it the most. In the last few years, m-learning has made immense progress – both in content as well as the technology needed to support the content. But amidst all this progress, the biggest benefit that stands out is the ubiquitous support that the mobile platform provides for the learner. Searching for some early adaptations to…
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lynda.blog
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The Practicing Photographer: Light as a subject
24 May 2013 | 8:45 amLight can offer much more to your compositions than illumination—and Ben Long challenges you to make light the subject of your image, as this week’s The Practicing Photographer exercise. -
InDesign FX: Creating custom frames
23 May 2013 | 8:44 amIn this week’s InDesign FX, Mike Rankin demonstrates how you can create custom frames in your page layouts using simple shapes and outlines. -
Oh my, how Flickr has changed!
22 May 2013 | 10:34 amThe popular photo sharing service Flickr recently launched a bold new look and feel, and lynda.com author Derrick Story is updating our Flickr Essential Training course to highlight the new features—coming soon to lynda.com. -
Deke’s Techniques: Animate wings with the Puppet Warp Tool
21 May 2013 | 3:20 pmIn this week's Deke's Techniques, learn how to animate a falcon's wings using Photoshop's Puppet Warp tool. -
Monday Productivity Pointers: Measuring influence with Klout
20 May 2013 | 9:40 amAre you influencing your social media followers? In this week's Monday Productivity Pointers, Jess Stratton explains how you can measure and expand your social influence using the Klout service.
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Custom training and elearning, anywhere anytime!
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Levels of Interactivity in eLearning- Which One to Choose & Why?
25 May 2013 | 4:30 amThere is always a debate on “Levels of Interactivity” in eLearning. I have seen some clients (Learning and Training Managers) who strongly believe that an eLearning course without high interactivities cannot generate interest or grab learner’s attention while some others believe interactivities to be some nonsensical items that waste learner’s time and company’s training budget. I don’t agree with either of the statements because “All eLearning projects are not equal” and shouldn’t be treated in the same way. Some courses may be designed… -
Ways to Use Emotional Design in eLearning
24 May 2013 | 1:30 pmIt is a known fact that we all feel drawn to something with which we have an emotional connection. By creating a motivational and memorable learning experience, we can engage the learners emotionally. Let us see a few ways in which courses can be designed with emotional connect. 1. Telling a story This is an effective and proven method of teaching that motivates even as it engages learners. An emotional impact created on the hearts of the learners makes them remember the content. Thereby it influences learners to execute the daily operations through the motivation thus developed in them. You… -
Instructional Strategy for Designing a Power-packed Online Product training for Sales People
24 May 2013 | 4:30 amWe get lots of inputs from Stakeholders, but we just can’t take all the information and make an eLearning course. Sometimes the Stakeholders want an eLearning with a fewer number of slides but learners should be able to imbibe maximum information. How do we go about designing an instructional strategy for product training with such requirements? I had a similar challenge, and I would like to share my experience with you. As an Instructional Designer our skill lies in discerning relevant information for the sales people from the given inputs. We should always put ourselves in the shoes… -
List of Authoring Tools that can Assist you in Creating MLearning
23 May 2013 | 9:30 pmAre you in a dilemma about choosing the right authoring tool for converting your e-learning courses to mLearning? Are you looking for a tool that is more effective in meeting your mLearning demands? For those who have the above questions, I thought of pulling out a list of Authoring tools that assists developers in creating mLearning. Since, there are many tools in the market that support mobile learning, I pulled out the one’s that are more popular in the e-learning world. This list is arranged in alphabetical order. Adobe Captivate: Adobe Captivate has publishing options to Flash and… -
Using Storytelling – The Secret to Designing Engaging eLearning
23 May 2013 | 1:30 pm“Great design is storytelling at its finest; it is insightful, sincere and evokes emotion and change. Design is at the center of the user experience and it is the designer’s responsibility to make the experience remarkable for both the client and their audience.” -Jim Antonopoulos Everyone from a child to an adult loves to read and tell stories. Learning can often be done through storytelling. It is a powerful tool that could be used in designing classroom training, eLearning courses, mobile learning or any other presentation. Storytelling in eLearning helps to grab learners attention,…
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Learning and Living in the Online World
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Got Questions? We’ve Got Answers!
20 May 2013 | 7:15 amThe GCF Answers apps for Word, PowerPoint, and Excel are companion apps created to provide you with all the answers you need while working within Microsoft Office. -
How to Survive the Hotmail to Outlook.com Transition
16 May 2013 | 7:00 amFrustrated about the recent upgrade from Hotmail to Outlook.com? Check out our survival guide to help make the transition easier. -
5 Free Instant Messenger Services
9 May 2013 | 7:00 amFeeling a little frustrated with the MSN Messenger and Skype merger? Here's five alternative instant messenger services. -
10 Everyday Uses for Your Phone’s Camera
2 May 2013 | 7:09 amYour phone's built-in camera is actually a really useful tool - not just for snapshots, but also for many other tasks. Here are 10 tips that you can use. -
How to Remove the Background from Pictures with Word and PowerPoint 2010
25 Apr 2013 | 8:02 amDid you know you can use Word and PowerPoint to remove the background from photos? We'll show you how.
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Get Educated eLearning and Education Blog
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Georgia Tech to Use MOOCs to Deliver Cheap Online Degree to 10,000 Computer Geeks
20 May 2013 | 12:28 pmEvanLovely/Flickr I recently complained that the MOOC party animals (aka: Udacity, Coursera and Udemy) would not be the ones to help drive down the cost of a college degree. Turns out I was wrong about that. Maybe. … Continue reading → -
Degree of Freedom One-Year Degree: The MOOC Experiment
24 Apr 2013 | 7:19 amillustir (flickr) I wanted to thank Vicky Phillips for introducing Get Educated readers to my Degree of Freedom One-Year BA project, and thought it would be worth stopping by to describe what I’m doing in more detail (especially since much of … Continue reading → -
MOOCs, Online Learning and the Broken Promise of a Free College Degree
15 Apr 2013 | 10:52 amTheDarkThing/Flickr Last week Jonathan Haber, an ed blogger, decided to spend the rest of this year taking MOOCs that correspond to the college courses required to earn a traditional bachelor’s degree in philosophy. Go, Jonathan. Three cheers for low-cost online … Continue reading → -
Four Ways to Handle Bad Reviews on Professor Rating Sites
18 Mar 2013 | 1:11 pmntr23 (flickr) Have you ever searched ratemyprofessors.com or a similar site to see how your students rank you? The results can be enlightening—or disheartening. I recently received the following comment: “Worst Professor, i ever had. Avoid him.” The problem with … Continue reading → -
5 Super Time Management Strategies for Online College Students
11 Mar 2013 | 9:07 amdoistrakh (flickr) We are all guilty of it: cyber dawdling. It begins innocently enough, usually with one amusing cat video. Before you know it, you’ve cyberstalked your high school sweetheart, pinned 25 images on Pinterest and have nothing to show … Continue reading →
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Education Insights
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The Best 2013 Commencement Speeches
23 May 2013 | 4:11 pmAnother year of hard work, sacrifice, studying, and learning has passed, and college students are graduating with their degrees. These years of effort are celebrated at the commencement ceremonies, and each school is at liberty to choose their keynote speaker. Government leaders, celebrities, humanitarians, famous athletes and local figures have been imparting their wisdom upon … Continue reading “The Best 2013 Commencement Speeches” » -
Bike Maintenance 101
15 May 2013 | 2:39 pmNow that you’ve got bike safety under your belt, it’s time to move on to another important aspect of bike riding: bike maintenance. Your car probably gets this sort of attention – tune-ups, oil changes, car washes, etc – but do you give your bike the same kind of care? Just as your car … Continue reading “Bike Maintenance 101” » -
Bike Safety 101
6 May 2013 | 1:19 pmSpring is finally here, or so it seems. (Spring’s been awfully fickle this year, so it’s hard to tell if it’s really here or not.) With spring come birds singing, leaves budding, love (that’s a thing, right?) and bicyclists galore. Sharing the road is the responsibility of both the bikers and the drivers, so it’s … Continue reading “Bike Safety 101” » -
Ten Funny Memes About Finals
2 May 2013 | 2:18 pmCollege students around the country are in the thick of finals, and stress levels are high. Students are cramming for exams and figuring out ways to survive an all-nighter study session. With tensions high, stressed studiers need a break. And what a better way to get away from the stress than with a … Continue reading “Ten Funny Memes About Finals” » -
What To Do With a Communications Degree
29 Apr 2013 | 11:05 amCommunications students study a variety of skills that are highly sought after in the job market. Here is an in-depth list of potential careers that communications majors can pursue. Continue reading “What To Do With a Communications Degree” »
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Cogentys
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Medical Marijuana in the Workplace
1 May 2013 | 5:46 pmMarijuana is legal in some states, but that doesn’t mean it belongs in your workplace. Does your company need Drug-Free Workplace training? Will your employees still be drug tested for... [click link to visit website for full episode, links, other content and more!] -
4 Business Lessons I Wish I’d Learned Earlier in my Restaurant Training Career
8 Apr 2013 | 11:53 amIn restaurant training, our mistakes, as much as our successes, define us and can help steer us forward today. With this in mind, here are 10 lessons learned over the last 20 years of doing business... [click link to visit website for full episode, links, other content and more!] -
The Secret to Success in Corporate Training and Development?
26 Mar 2013 | 4:31 pmI read an interesting article written by Jason Nazar on Forbes.com this week titled“Counter intuitive Things the Most Successful People Do.” I thought it would be interesting to apply these traits to... [click link to visit website for full episode, links, other content and more!] -
Why You Need Antitrust Essentials Compliance Training
26 Mar 2013 | 11:38 amWatch the video for an example of what not to do by violating compliance Antitrust Essentials. [click link to visit website for full episode, links, other content and more!] -
Training Humor – The Worst Salesperson in the World!
13 Feb 2013 | 3:23 pmEver wonder what it takes to become the worst salesperson in the world? Watch the video to find out. Hint…it’s related to the training department. John [click link to visit website for full episode, links, other content and more!]
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Career With Online Degrees
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Why Small Business Owners are Quite the Villains for Online Business Students!
22 May 2013 | 11:12 pmAsk any MBA student, and their likely dream job will be to work at an executive position for a large multinational company. Ask any small business owner, and they’ll likely be very displeased with the MBA students’ attitude. The conflict between small business owners and business students has existed for a long time. Whether it’s a business student from a traditional college, or an online business student at one of the top online colleges in the US, there’s always some issue which makes small businesses not-so-popular with business students. Here’s why the clash between the two… -
How to Become a Financial Manager
21 May 2013 | 4:21 amAre you the analytical sort with an interest in fiscal trends; do you enjoy reading up on the developments in the capital market? Would you like to be involved in handling the financial matters of a company, and in suggesting strategies on how to maximize profits? Then finance is the field for you. For all the ambitious finance students out there, we have charted out a map on how you can quickly move up the ladder and reach a managerial position; have a look. Embed in your site: Courtesy of: careerwithonlinedegrees.com -
Online Criminal Justice Degree in New York
19 May 2013 | 11:50 pmFor those who’ve always been interested in crime, justice and law enforcement, choosing criminal justice as your college major is an instinctive idea, indeed. However, going for this degree in New York is like hitting the jackpot because the state promises great employment prospects for many criminal justice careers. New York, the Land of Opportunities for Criminal Justice Careers New York is amongst the top states in terms of employment levels for careers in this field. There are various promising careers one could go for in this state, such as: Court Reporters, 1,430 jobs in NY… -
Why Online Paralegal Studies Students Shouldn’t Have A Facebook Page…
15 May 2013 | 11:50 pmLawyers and everyone in the legal world are beginning to see the potential that Facebook has; not just as an awesome ‘staying-in-touch’ or marketing tool, but as an entire universe of public information that can come handy in the courtroom. No wonder people are on and off advised to stay wary of disclosing too much on the Facebook Walls. But if you are in the legal profession, and are on your way to becoming a paralegal, you ought to be aware of how your Facebook page can actually lead to some unpleasant consequences. You Need to be Careful of Friend Requests Last year, two New Jersey… -
Why I don’t Want to be an Online Healthcare Student
13 May 2013 | 2:21 amOnline classes, due to their inherent flexibility and convenience, are increasingly becoming popular among students. Healthcare is one of the field whose degrees are offered online by various accredited institutes. Before signing up for an Online Healthcare Degree , however it may help you to go through the procedures as a lot of individuals still prefer traditional healthcare degrees as compared to online. Limited Interaction with Instructor Many believe communication and interaction among students and professors is an important aspect of the learning process. When healthcare students…
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The Learning Dispatch
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Webinar Recording: Why Public Facing Training?
19 May 2013 | 8:31 amLinda Warren, MicroAssist's lead instructional designer, will be presenting What Makes Good Public Facing Training at E-Learning Symposium 2013 in Austin. Register now. -
First Impressions: Books Are Judged by the Cover
16 May 2013 | 7:48 amWhy do people say, “You can’t judge a book by its cover?” We make snap decisions all the time and those decisions are based on the first impression, which metaphorically speaking, is the book cover. Books by Chip Heath and Dan Heath got me thinking about their high impact book covers and how important first impressions are to online training.Estimated reading time: 3 minutesFor the uninitiated, Chip Heath and Dan Heath are the authors of Made to Stick, Switch, and Decisive. I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Dan Heath last week and, of course, that got me thinking about his… -
Register for E-Learning Symposium 2013 - Austin - Save $50
11 May 2013 | 1:53 pmMicroAssist customers can save $50 by using discount code CAA13BMicroAssist's Linda Warren is going to present on What makes Good Public Facing Training at Texas's premier E-Learning Conference. E-Learning can be designed for employees in your organization and it can also be designed for people who never step foot on your premises. In fact, E-Learning is a great strategy when you want to influence people outside your organization by improving their knowledge of something you care about and/or changing their behavior in support of your organization’s goals.In her… -
Managers Leverage Their Most Valuable Asset by Finding the Value in Training
23 Apr 2013 | 1:15 pmby Brandy SommerManagers have a great responsibility to their companies, employees and clients. It’s an unending challenge to balance client, organizational and employee needs. One potentially overlooked, but powerful tool managers can leverage to encourage employees and boost company expertise is developing a strategy for ongoing training.When a manager responds to employee accomplishments by suggesting training, he/she demonstrates that employees are viewed as valuable assets to the company, worthy of investment.This can:Reinforce company values and desired behavior throughout the… -
How to Make the Most of Your Time on the Titanic
8 Apr 2013 | 1:24 pmby Kelly RossiOh, the ill-fated project. You know what I mean: the one your boss’ boss wants you to manage although it makes no sense, the project you think you may have seen in a Dilbert cartoon or an episode of The Office. It comes across your desk, and you wonder if you’re the only one who can see that everyone is boarding the Titanic. And yet, you’ve been elected project manager, so you don your captain’s hat and set sail…At some point, almost everyone has been there. Here are a few of my personal insights into keeping your chin up even when you think the ship’s going down.You…
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e-Learning Leadership Blog
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Live from ASTD ICE - Day 2 Recap
22 May 2013 | 7:13 amAngel Green, senior instructional strategist@learneradvocate The second day of ASTD ICE 2013 was once again all about connecting! The day started with the keynote speech by John Seely Brown. His advice to us, as learning professionals, is to organizationally embrace the culture necessary for learning today. Through a series of examples ranging from surfers learning tricks from online videos to organizations, like SAP, creating networks and communities of practice; Dr. Brown drove home the point that learners today are entrepreneurial. They seek information from their personal learning… -
Live from ASTD ICE 2013
21 May 2013 | 5:20 amAngel Green, senior instructional strategist@learneradvocate Yesterday was the first official day of the ASTD ICE 2013 conference here in Dallas, Texas and we are off to a great start to the conference. Though my feet were aching at the end of the day, I was glad to have the chance to spend the majority of my time in the Allen Interactions booth. I love getting to meet people, talking to them about their unique and interesting companies and jobs. Where else but at an international conference do you have the opportunity to talk to someone from Saudi Arabia who is developing leadership… -
Iterations: What Makes Award-Winning e-Learning [Ep. 6]
14 May 2013 | 8:19 amIn this episode of Iterations, Richard Sites and Angel Green discuss AutoNation’s award-winning e-learning course and the CCAF Design Model consisting of Context, Challenge, Activity, and Feedback and how this approach created an effective learning environment for AutoNation’s Sales Associates. Download the AutoNation case study Richard Sitesvice president - client services and co-author of Leaving ADDIE for SAMFollow Richard on Twitter ▶ Angel Greensenior instructional strategistFollow Angel on Twitter ▶ -
Give Us AdvICE on What to Check Out at ICE!
10 May 2013 | 11:10 amby Richard Sites, vice president - client services@rhillsites It is May and that means it is once again time to come together at the annual ASTD International Conference & Exposition (ICE). This year, many from the Allen Interactions team are headed to Dallas and we look forward to meeting our blog readers. Last year I started a conversation about Leaving ADDIE. Since then, there have been a lot of things happening in our industry and our company. Leaving ADDIE for SAM was published, we hosted countless webinars, created Iterations, our new video blog, and our… -
Celebrating Award-Winning e-Learning!
8 May 2013 | 11:39 amWe are proud to announce award-winning recognition to the tune of 6 awards – 3 Communicator Awards & 3 Horizon Interactive Awards! Congratulations to our wonderful clients and studios for creating award-winning e-learning experiences that are meaningful, memorable, and motivational for their employees! You can view our case studies and course demos or get a glimpse of the Gold award-winning Manhattan Associates course by checking out the on-demand webinar here. Communicator AwardsGold, Manhattan Associates, Supply Chain Fundamentals Silver, HD Supply, Lessons for Sales…
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SHIFT's eLearning Blog
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3 Expert-Endorsed Ways to Create Engaging eLearning Courses TODAY
23 May 2013 | 9:45 amEveryone wants to create eLearning courses that engage their learners. Right? Yet there’s a lot of debate about how to do it better. So we figured we’d list some expert-endorsed ways to engage learners and see how you can use them to make better eLearning courses. Below we’ve outlined tips from top experts on tactics and strategies you can employ in the next 24 hours to improve your eLearning for the long haul. We'v written this post considering the latest ebook from the eLearning Guild, 68 Tips for eLearning Engagement and Interactivity, where class experts were recruited,… -
eLearning Programs That Crashed and Burned: Why Did They Fail?
21 May 2013 | 7:54 amIn the rush to implement eLearning, many companies are making unfortunatemistakes—missteps caused by their unfamiliarity with the proper uses andrequirements of this technology. In most cases, eLearning programs are guilty of not having a clear business model. This post will keep you far from the common grenades that can burn your eLearning efforts. Below are some specific mistakes to avoid and prepare for when planning for your next program: 1) Failure to clearly identify the most pressing business needs. This sounds obvious, if not basic, but you’d be surprised… -
12 Sure-Fire Ways to Make People Hate Your eLearning
16 May 2013 | 1:51 pmOne of the tenets of eLearning is not to annoy. So why it is that many courses are still chock full of the elements that so many learners have regrets over and over? If you’re planning on creating a course– or if you’re doing a review of your existing ones – take a peak at this list of some of the top things people hate about eLearning. We have compiled this list to act as a sort of guide for what not to do when designing your courses. People Hate it When Your eLearning Courses… 1) Are boring or sucky: With most people having a fast connection to… -
7 Killer Features for Creating Awesome eLearning Courses
9 May 2013 | 1:51 pmOne of the biggest time-saving tactics you can use is creating standardized and reusable content. eLearning teams waste so much time every day creating screens from scratch. It’s time to stop reinventing the wheel. We know there's no magic formula you can use to develop highly interactive eLearningcourses. But if you want to create outstanding courseware in no time and with no programming skills, you'll want to check out these awesome features. Here are six features to use when creating your eLearning courses in SHIFT that will help your team get more work done, better… -
Before and After: How To Fix 3 Dreadful eLearning Design Errors
7 May 2013 | 9:58 amThe challenges for designing eLearning courses are more than just developing course content. Distractions are everywhere and if you plan to attract and keep learners, there are certain design strategies you need to focus on. Your course needs to be easy to navigate, appealing to the eye without being cluttered and contain quality graphics. Here are three possible problems with your eLearning design along with suggestions of ways to improve the structure, content and graphics. 1) Poor Course Structure: Before and After Course structure refers to how a course is designed. eLearning courses…
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eLearning Industry
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6 Tips for Using Social Media to Stay Up-to-Date on e-Learning
24 May 2013 | 1:20 amSocial media isn’t just for following your favorite celebrities—it’s also an amazing way to stay up-to-date on e-Learning trends and e-Learning tips. Would you like to share your expertise with 120,000 readers? Do you want to get your name out there? http://elearningindustry.com/post-here -
109 eLearning Events taking place in July 2013
23 May 2013 | 12:54 amWould you like to attend an eLearning event or elearning conference during July 2013? At the following list you will find 109 eLearning events that taking place in July 2013. Would you like to share your expertise with 120,000 readers? Do you want to get your name out there? http://elearningindustry.com/post-here -
Can online education contribute to overcome the economic crisis?
22 May 2013 | 10:17 am“The Global Economic Crisis and its consequences on the national educational systems: Can online education contribute to overcome the crisis?”. This is the main question the VI International GUIDE... Would you like to share your expertise with 120,000 readers? Do you want to get your name out there? http://elearningindustry.com/post-here -
Memory: Types, Facts, and Myths
22 May 2013 | 7:51 amWould you like to know the types of memory? What are the characteristics and operations of short-term and long-term memory? What is working memory? Sure you do if you are involved at the eLearning... Would you like to share your expertise with 120,000 readers? Do you want to get your name out there? http://elearningindustry.com/post-here -
Top 10 Instructional Designer Skills
20 May 2013 | 8:48 amAll jobs require a certain set of talents and skills, whether natural or acquired. But what skills does an instructional designer need in order to be successful and stand out? Check out the following... Would you like to share your expertise with 120,000 readers? Do you want to get your name out there? http://elearningindustry.com/post-here
