2 day online seminar (fee): explore opportunities for data & analytics #data

The eLearning Guild is organizing a two day online seminar on 21 - 22 September 2016 on the opportunities for data and analytics within the eLearning industry. The standard rate is 395 $, but there are discounts available (e.g. academics, non-profits, government: 35% discount). When looking at the full summit program you will see that the organizers provide a nice balance between technology, usability and theoretical frameworks on the subject.

There is a considerable amount of buzz in our industry surrounding data. Data continues to multiply, and so does the processing power available for analytics and interpretation. People are grappling with making sense of it all. At the Data & Analytics Summit, we’re inviting leaders from the data and analytics space (Ellen Wagner, Aaron Silvers & Megan Bowe, George Siemens, JD Dillon, MJ Bishop, Sean Putman, Tim Martin and a panel session putting data into perspective chaired by David Kelly) to explore the questions that our industry is struggling to answer and provide clarity around what we’re doing today and what’s possible for tomorrow. Each speaker session is about 60 min long, including Q&A. 

This Summit aims to give you a better understanding of the relationships between data and content, show you how to make data actionable within your organization, and prepare you to take advantage of the new opportunities that data is going to open up for learning in the future.

Free eBook on #mobile learning in context

The eLearning Guild keeps distributing relevant and updated eLearning information with an amazingly high frequency. They keep providing me with information that helps me keep an eye on corporate training based regularly on academic evidence-based findings and I love it.

The wonderful freely available eBook "Mobile in context" combines contemporary mobile learning insights from experts around the world, engaged in formal, informal, academic and corporate mobile learning. The contributing editor Janet Clarey assembled a 23 page booklet with 7 chapters all dedicated to mLearning:

• mobile learning: getting started (Brenda Enders)
• mobile learning: creating a shift in what we teach (Helen Crompton)
• mobile learning in a European context (John Traxler) - with a focus on rural communities and overcoming technological challenges
• using augmented reality for contextual mobile learning (Jason Haag)
• motivating learners to complete training (Phil Cowcill &Krista Hildner)
• mMOOC design: providing ubiquitous learning (Inge de Waard)
• micro-video for mobile learning (Sean Bengry)

The eBook is available in pdf, epub and mobi, making it an easy read no matter which device you have available. You do not to provide your contact details to get to the download page of the eBook.

The book is an introduction to the upcoming mLearnCon 2015 which will be held in Austin Texas, and Oh-my! How I wished I could be there! But writing on my thesis ... hoping to get more travel miles under my belt once the PhD is written. 

Free eLearning solutions at the Learning Exchange platform @eLearningGuild

The eLearning Guild has launched an interesting content creating and sharing program, called the Learning Exchange. The idea is simple: let your members share their expertise (fits any expert learning format). The nice thing is that we all get to know each other better, and it provides us a stage to share eLearning content that we make anyway. There have been similar platforms, but they sometimes faded over time. With the eLearning Guild having so many members, eLearning experts, I feel that this initiative might just work pure on the basis of its rich community. And it is more practical then for instance the Educause discussions, as it is about providing training, getting tips and solutions for real life eLearning challenges. The platform also provides a discussion area, called NOW@ as well.

The platform is being populated, so it is growing week by week, but I really like the initiative. And wondering what content I could share on it... just for fun and connecting.

So what do you need to do to get access to the platform? At this point in time, you just need to provide the eLearning Guild with your contact details and eLearning profile. And from there you can peruse the content for free, take courses, select content bits and bobs, AND even add content in a variety of media: text, articles, webinars, or multimedia. Depending on the type of media, you might be asked to download certain features (e.g. when I wanted to view content on ADDIE versus SAM, I needed to download a Blackboard Collaborate tool, but it worked smoothly). 

So you can learning from any type of content or topic you like and is available (there are a meaningful categories and tags to choose from). As you move through the content, you can mark the content you have reviewed as 'done'. If you mark specific content as done, you 'earn' points, which indicate your interest or action inside of the Learning Exchange platform. 

Not all the uploaded media is unique, I found videos which were TEDtalks, YouTube movies from eLearning companies, or blogposts from the authors... but it did not bother me that all the content had a different feel to it, as long as the content was of intereset. It is a bit of OER, but with a corporate twist - so not that open to all, as you need to login (as well as different copyright licenses). The thing I like is that this Learning Exchange platform can be explored without extra cost, that it shares content coming from people who work in eLearning, and that it connects all of us in an immediately meaningful way. 

But what about the quality of the contributions? It is simple, you share what you think is of sound quality, and peers can than add comments, like it (or not), and rate the content you share. A bit like an old school 'competence and usefulness' discussion forum approach, but with new contemporary additions. 

eLearningGuild Online forum: integrating a #MOOC in your training environment

The eLearning Guild has wonderful online forums, and tomorrow another set of interesting sessions is planned on the topic of leveraging learning infrastructure for your learners and your organization, and will run 10 sessions on the subject during 15 and 16 May 2014.

The online forums are part of the eLearning Guild membership offerings, but you can register for individual sessions as well, although I can say it is worth becoming a member.

My session information can be found here, and just adding the description below:
MOOCs (massively open online courses) offer one more training-delivery format to increase organizational knowledge transfer. But to succeed with MOOCs, we must understand what has and has not worked so far. Then, it’s just a matter of setting up and rolling out a simple MOOC, using rapid iteration and evaluation to gradually build your own “powerMOOC” that fits within your training infrastructure. In short, MOOCs are similar to music and life: They only start making sense once you practice, practice, practice, and they are open to some initial chaos.
Participants in this session will examine what MOOCs can and—as yet—cannot do, and how you can use MOOCs to improve or supplement your existing training infrastructure. You’ll explore options for starting a MOOC, from developing your own platform, to using platform partners, to using your existing LMS. You’ll also learn about the extra learning dynamics that MOOCs offer, including more diverse learner interactions, meaningful social-media options, a ubiquitous learning set at the center, reaching international learners, and creating or strengthening a community.

My presentation is scheduled for tomorrow Thursday 15 May 2014, between 12 - 13.15 PM Pacific Time (which is 8 - 9.15 PM London time). Feel free to join, or browse through the slidedeck.

Online Forum succesfully integrating MOOC in training environment from Inge Ignatia de Waard

Exploring #seamless learning for #MOOC and #mobile

Seamless learning is still a new area, and the challenges are multiple. As this discipline merges the technological and human challenges faced by the emerging new technologies of the last decade (mobile learning, social media, MOOCs, etc.), it is becoming clear that the ultimate learning environment will have to provide a smooth learner experience, with options to both consume and create content. It is a bit of unexplored territory and as such I thought it would be good to launch it to the broader eLearning community. The wonderful Bill Brandon editor of the Learning Solutions Magazine (online, free magazine with lots of practical eLearning news) allowed me to write a short introduction to seamless learning in an overall setting, combining mobile and MOOC/online features. The full feature article can be read here. 

The article combines informal learning, ubiquitous learning, collaboration, technology... and more challenges that need to be addressed in order to reach seamless learning. Getting the article written pushed my mind, now ... writing on a more elaborate research article based on this first brainstorm. Feel free to share any additional thoughts you might have, or simply push the appreciate the article button at the bottom of the article itself - if you did like it of course. 

#mHealth opportunities and planning using #mLearning

mHealth is a rapidly growing market. The interesting thing is that it actually reaches both patients and practitioners around the globe with all the people around the world using cell phones. Because of the wide variety of options that are out there, I wrote an article for always inspirational Learning Solutions magazine which is the eLearning Guild publication. The mHealth article is entitled Mobile Learning Support for Global Health.

In the article I look at the requirements to get an mHealth project started, what it takes to plan a health related project (e.g. secure data handling) and get it implemented (strategic plan, mobile content mix,...) and I look at opportunities for mHealth applications (e.g. education awareness, early warning systems for epidemic outbreaks, personal well-being...)°

With the world getting smaller by the day, mHealth is a sound and human region of eLearning to get into. And for all of us who have experience in mobile instructional design... this is a great area to explore or expand. There are also links to some free articles and papers related to mHealth for additional inspiration.  

And if you are in the neighborhood of San Jose, California, there is a wonderful mobile learning conference planned in 18 - 19 June, the mLearnCon organized by the eLearning Guild. I have been there in the past and it is a real treat, because in just 2 days you will get immersed in all things mLearning and ready to take control of a new mLearning project. 

free eBook with 61 tips for #mLearning from eLearning Guild

The eLearning Guild has published a free eBook, sharing 61 tips on mLearning from a wide variety of mobile learning experts. The report focuses on: 

• Do you know how and when people use mobile devices?
• Are you targeting the specific times your learners have access to online content and learning?

Knowing these details can be the difference between success and failure for your mLearning project.

From the importance of stakeholder buy-in to the benefits of iterative development, this complimentary eBook, 61 Tips on mLearning: Making Learning Mobile, provides ideas to help you maximize the effectiveness of your mLearning. Drawing from the experts who will be presenting at The eLearning Guild’s 100th Online Forum in December 2012, “mLearning: Making Learning Mobile,” this eBook gives valuable insights in areas including:

• The Why and How of mLearning
• Design and Content
• The AV Club: Tech, Techies, and You
• Trial and Error
• Attracting and Retaining Your Audience

Download your complimentary copy now: http://bit.ly/PR20ZA

You do not need to be a member of The eLearning Guild to access this eBook, so please feel free to share this link with your network.

Free online book with 58 tips on instructional design

The eLearning Guild always brings together eLearning people from a variety of backgrounds. This makes the Guild an interesting organization to stay updated on all things related to eLearning. Chris Benz from the eLearning Guild just released a free online book that comprizes 58 tips on eLearning. The free eBook covers tips running from research, design, over development and management. You can download it here (before the download, you do need to give some information).

It is an easy read and ... it prepares anyone who is interested in the upcoming online webinars on Advanced Instructional Design. These webinars are planned on 17 and 18 May 2012.

From the online forum site: eLearning Instructional Design: Advanced and Breakthrough Techniques

How can you take your instructional-design skills and techniques to the next level? What are some of the newest innovations in instructional design? What does the research tell us about which design techniques really work and which ones don’t? If you want to design increasingly compelling online learning experiences, or just need some fresh ideas, this Online Forum is for you.

Learning happens by sharing #knowledge, #DevLearn is an inspiring #eLearning conferences

Last year I had the pleasure of attending DevLearn and this conference is surely worth a visit. Not only because of this years location (Las Vegas!), but most of all because you will get the opportunity to get in touch with eLearning professionals that know how to inspire and it will elevate your eLearning expertise in just 3 days.

The early registration is still open for a day, so check out this wonderful set of concurrent sessions and keynote speakers in order to decide whether you want to attend or not.

When and where? November 2 - 4 at the Aria Resort & Casino in Las Vegas.

There are a lot of strong concurrent sessions (on iPad use, reaching hard to get learners, mLearning, knowledge, statistics for analysing eLearning...).

Keynote speakers
Keynote speakers should inspire and challenge you. DevLearn|11's keynotes include:

Dr. Michio Kaku
Professor, Theoretical Physics, CUNY
Host of Science Channel’s Sci Fi Science
Author, Physics of the Future

Tom Koulopoulos
Author, The Innovation Zone, and Living in the Cloud

Steve Rosenbaum
Author, Curation Nation

Register by Friday, September 16th, in order to save $100 or more with our early registration discount. Experience all the excitement, learning, and inspiration that is DevLearn for less. But hurry, there are fewer than 10 business days left to take advantage of this discount.

Free #eLearning magazines to follow with interest

This week the Learning Solutions magazine published an article I wrote on MOOCs as a new eLearning frontier. As I was writing the article, I suddenly noticed I had not mentioned my two favorite free and inspiring accessible, online eLearning magazines:

Learning Solutions magazine,
eLearn magazine.

If you have not put them in your RSS feed or if you have not connected to their e-mail newsletter, take a minute to get to know these magazines. They will keep you up to speed on various eLearning topics.

Learning Solutions magazine
This magazine is published by the knowledgeable Bill Brandon. The magazine is linked to the eLearning Guild. The eLearning Guild manages to bring together academics, the corporate world, and all of us interested in eLearning solutions. The magazine is published on a weekly basis and features a wide variety of topics, always keeping the articles brief yet filled with relevant and useful information. Since 2002 the learning solutions magazine published 430 articles.

The eLearn magazine
The eLearn magazine is published by ACM. They feature a variety of topics, including best practice and tips for online learning and research and case studies on eLearning. Their advisory board consists of eLearning experts (Jane Bozarth, Roger Schank, Lisa Gualtieri, Janet Clarey, Clark Quinn... all wonderful people that you can easily exchange ideas with as well) making their articles a good read.

Brandon Hall award for best in mLearning: gold medal!

What a wonderful feeling to get noticed by peers when developing a technology enhanced learning project! It was an honour to get gold (yes, gold! so happy!) in the best of mLearning category. When the Brandon Hall team was calling out all the winners, we sure got excited when they called out our names!

This was a team effort and everyone pitched in, but all of the content was redesigned for mobile by the team in Peru, so please let me mention some of the key people involved: Beto Castillo Llaque, Luis Fucay,Carlos Kiyan, Maria Zolfo, Lut Lynen and all of our colleagues.

For those interested in the project, underneath the ppt of the project.

Mobile Moodle and mLearning project for mLearncon in San Diego

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Yes #dl10, DevLearn 2010 has started and this is where I will present

Devlearn2010 is a blast for anyone interested in eLearning in the broad sense. Technology Enhanced learning is all the rave at this yearly conference which is organized by the eLearning Guild. I will attend, speak and of course meet many of my TELearning friends.

The pre-conference activities already started today and they will continue tomorrow. During Devlearn I will give some presentations as well, but for the full program of all the wonderful speakers click here.

To start of I will give a presentation on the benefits of voting boxes (= audience response system, or clickers) in education and training which is organized on Wednesday 3 November 2010 from 11 am until 11.40 (will publish the presentation in the next day). This is part of the mobile Jam sessions organized by the wonderful Judy Brown.

The great mobile guru Judy Brown also invited me to attend the mobile learning panel of mLearning pioneers which will take place on Wednesday 3 November 2010 at 1 pm until 1.40 pm. This panel discussion features many mobile explorers: Mobile Learning from the Pioneers: Judy Brown, Inge de Waard (me), Robert Gadd, Neil Lasher, Ellen Wagner.

Paul Clothier will be the moderator and lead for the panel discussion on the iPad for learning: hype or the future on 4th November at 10.45 am together with great co-speakers: the amazing David Metcalf (he will be presenting a brand new app), Matt Dunleavy, Neil Lasher and Ellen Wagner.

I will be meeting up with Jan Van Belle, Clark Quinn, Brent Schlenker,and many many others like you. So, if you are there, come up to me and say hello, if I do not wear glasses come up really close :-)

Enable Learning Anywhere with World’s First Portable LMS

A lot of us use LMS’s to get our documents across to the students, to track quality of content, to provide self-assessments… but on many occasions one of the key restrictions of the LMS’s is their lack of offline capabilities and autonomy. Sure, some offline LMS options are on the market and have improved over the years, but still a plug-in build option is not the same as a solution that was build to be portable. Now, mEKP will be launched and if you are interested you can get a free trial USB, follow the launch with a live webinar and all of this for free.

NetDimensions is redefining workforce learning with mEKP, a full-featured LMS that runs on inexpensive USB flash drives. It requires no installation or Internet connectivity.

Brandon Hall Research calls it “a disruptive step in the evolution of enterprise software.”

On October 21st, join NetDimensions’ CEO Jay Shaw and CIO Ray Ruff for a live behind-the-scenes presentation of mEKP and find out how to revolutionize workforce (and possibly also students in low-resource regions) support in your organization.

Register for this complimentary webinar and you will receive:

• A PDF copy of the Brandon Hall Research briefing report on mEKP, and
• A free USB drive with a trial version of mEKP

Webinar Schedule
Date: October 21, 2010
Time: 10:00am - 11:00am EDT (or 16:00 CEST), link to a world clock converter.
Click here to register for this webinar.

Why am I interested?
In the Linqed workshop that a co-organized, institutional partners came from all corners of the world: Indonesia, Morocco, Cuba, Ecuador, Peru, Uganda, India, Nepal, South-Africa. Many of us are using Moodle as a LMS, the only problem is, that we have learners in sometimes low-connected areas. Sometimes electricity and the internet crash, and learning is put to a hold. The fact that LMS's sometimes cannot be reached, also affects learner motivation, so... this might be a great opportunity to deliver continued education, even in difficult to reach areas.

preconference workshop during mLearnCon: android 101

Currently in San Diego for the mLearnCon conference, the first one! Organized by the eLearning Guild.

Eric Converse and Silke Fleischer from ATIV software were bold enough to give non-professoinal developers the chance to build an android application from scratch by using the SDK software! This was something I really wanted to be part of. And what a great experience!

These are the people you want to join up with if you are interested in building cross platform mobile applications. They work with iPhone, Blackberry, Android (and a bit of windows mobile) and they are complementary with knowledge. So contact ATIV software if you have an idea for mobile content delivery, also for mLearning, as Silke is an eLearning expert on top of mobile expert.

Although my computer absolutely challenged both Silke and Eric, they managed to fix all the quirks that came up. Quirks, because the other participants had very willing computers taking all the information and coming up with the correct configurations. The great thing about the errors was though, that I learned a lot, as I could see the logic behind bug fixing in Eclips.

The afternoon part of the workshop was hands-on (difficult to blog as my hands try to get going with all the provided guidelines). But below is a bit of the 'theory' parts that Silke and Eric gave during the morning.

what is android, what is it made off?
android is a mobile OS based on Linux (Andre!)
it is developed for mobile, so you can leverage resources that are already on the phone, so you can use what the phone has (if it is available on the phone)
apk = jar (zipped up folder of files)
assets: all of the files (where your native web stuff will go)
meta (lib of all the other files)
res (resources, drawable items...)
androidmanifest.xml: is corner piece of the architecture= what is going to launch, what type of activities are allowed to run.
classes.dex: where all the classes go (this is typically android, not java related)
resources.arsc (zipped version of resources map)

what is an app made off?
set of activities, youc and spread activities across different apps
it allows the user to have a seamless experience, although there are a lot of different parts in it.
activity = framework in which the views can run (cfr view controller of iPhone)
content provider: = allows information to be exchanged with other application, but in a structured format (=security wise, every app runs in its own space (typical linux), this prevents people from corrupting other content). e.g. gps is used and you come up with mean distance, this might be useful for another app, you can exchange it with other app.
service = everything that demands more than a bit of time, you can put it in the service section, because this will ensure the user interface will not be taken up with processor calculator time.

component Activity, what does it have inside?
view: you can add any view on the next one (the one owns the other, long branch of tree) = hierarchy of views

component Broadcast receivers: this broadcasts data from an app or an activity to be able to link outcomes with it. It is event driven and for all that are willing to listen.

design before development: needs to be VERY clear, because you want a clear design before asking the developers to go ahead with it.
(ask weblink to Silke or Eric, for they have example links)

user interface guidelines (ready mades available) you can make everything you want to design (icon, menu design, widgets, activity and task ... guidelines). Look at guidelines delivered by android, for it has solid guidelines to get the best kind of mLearning and user experience. Also important to have a similar look and feel!

(android phones have voice recognition to get google search with voice recording - Inge look it up)

Inge question: can you pull in a personalized video that you rename after having it recorded with your android phone: generic personalization is possible if you use some basic java programming

what we saw in the afternoon:

• how to install all the necessary software to build an app
• links to reference material build by them (really great and demonstrative ppt)
• how to customize the template they provided
• how to publish
• what to look out for when you will be publishing your app (legal issues: copyright, tracking possibilities...)
• what they take into account when building an application (guidelines, keep up with what is out there, listen to other developers, always connect to your users (offer them a way to contact you when using an app)
• and: great bug fixing tips

If you ever have the time (and rush) to follow one of their workshops, do it, both Eric and Silke keep good pace to get information across, as well as getting participants on track. Really amazing team work btw.

What to take into account when developing online courses for learners in low resource settings

The last two years I have been co-developing a course called eSCART (electronic Short Course in Antiretroviral Therapy), a course that is organized by the Institute of Tropical Medicine. Although this course is fully online, demands 3 months of intense learning, addresses learners in low resource areas, it is a success. Or at least I see it as a success.

The challenges to get this online course for physicians that work on HIV/AIDS going were multiple. We also needed to create bridges between all the cultures that mixed during the course and for these three months (in two sessions: 85 learners from 31 countries, mostly from the South and tropical regions). We had a drop-out rate of 5%, which to our estimate is indicative for a sound online course.

So some of my networking colleagues asked me to share what we took into account when developing the course and especially how human respect was weaved into the fabric of the course.

Now I am sure we could improve a lot, so if you have extra pointers or ways you tackle international online courses for low resource areas or aimed at multiple cultures, let me know.

This presentation will also be given live on Friday 2nd October 2009, at the eLearning Guild's Online Forum numbered 401.

Looking forward to any comments you might have.

What to take into account when developing courses for low resource areas or developing countries

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Make your knowledge shine via conferences and online fora

The eLearning Guild has launched its recent call for presenters. And if you still have some time in the fall, or you want to show off your latest eLearning accomplishment, this might just be for you.

I have put two proposals in, one on mobile learning with added social media (for the online fora) and one on the challenges of eLearning with a focus on cultural diversity (for the DevLearn conference). Hoping they will get through the selection process.

So digg in and get your proposals to the eLearning Guild as well.


The eLearning Guilds call to be a presenter in your Online Forums
"Do you have a success story to share on overcoming the challenges to designing, developing, or implementing e-Learning? Do you have insights and expertise on building e-Learning that can reach the global masses? Do you have successful tips for rapidly building engaging e-Learning? If you do, then consider sharing your ideas, experiences and expertise by presenting at one of these upcoming Online Forums:

Sept 10–11 | How I Turned my e-Learning Challenge into a Success Story
Oct 1–2 | Globalization, Localization, Translation, Oh MY!
Dec 10–11 | Tips, Tricks, and Techniques for Streamlining your e-Learning Development

Proposals are now being accepted. You don’t need experience presenting online (we have coaches who will help you). Not only do others benefit from hearing your story, but you gain professional experience and receive a free registration to the event! Submit Your Proposal Today!" as mentioned in the eLearning Guild's newsletter.


Call for speakers for the DevLearn conference
The DevLearn conference is a great conference to meet with fellow eLearning professionals from across the globe. It will be organized in San José, California, USA this year from 10 - 13 November 2009.

Just take a look at the aim of the conference and if you feel like it, put in a proposal but watch out for the deadline: 22 May 2009.

Clearly it was a proposal writing day today.

My top ten tips for getting started with eLearning:

The eLearning Guild is putting together a list with top tips for starting with eLearning. Anyone who wants to contribute can send their tips to the eZine, maybe our tips will get quoted and published.

It ain’t always easy to dive into eLearning. It always looks much easier than it ease. Although everyone learns most from their mistakes, it does save a lot of money if you keep some tips in the back of your mind.

If you are indeed considering to start with an eLearning project, you might want to demystify some eLearning myths... just read this short list of eLearning myths to get your mind focused before leaping into any project.

Here is my top ten list of things you need to consider when you start with an eLearning project.

1. Try it for yourself and learn: if you have never developed an eLearning course: follow at least one full online course and if possible with a renowned institution or company. There is no substitute for real life experience if it comes to eLearning. While following an online course, keep track of your thoughts, ideas and learning processes. You can start your Personal Learning Environment if you feel up to it. Keeping track of your knowledge at all times will facilitate retrieving your knowledge later on. This will come in handy once you start developing your own courses.

2. Clearly indicate your learning objectives: learning objectives are at the core of the activities of your eLearning course. Any content can be stripped down to its learning objectives. Analyzing your learning objectives will also increase your understanding of what it is you want your learners to achieve. This in its turn will allow you to decide which type of eLearning activity should be developed (educational games for simulations, quizzes to check information assimilation, discussion forums for looking at in-depth understanding or group work…)

3. Develop your own content: try to limit the amount of content that is outsourced. Most of the time content needs to be updated regularly; you will pay too much if you need to ask outsiders to update it for you. If you develop your own course, you will be able to keep it updated. If you do outsource it, ask the outside developers to make the course generic so you can adjust it to your need and possibly reuse it in other courses.

4. Interactivity is crucial: do not limit your project to (multiple choice) quizzes, but see if you can fit in interactions between peers and peer-to-tutor: discussion forums, letting the learner build part of a course, providing knowledge not only information.

5. Use social media: use social media as a means to increase the peer-to-peer and peer-to-tutor interactivity. In this day and age you should implement social media in your new eLearning projects. If you are not accustomed with social media (or web2.0) enroll in a couple of social media applications (Flickr, Friendfeed, blog, twitter…) to feel what it can add to a course. Social media will allow your learners to learn in an informal way, thus adding to there lifelong learning skills as well.

6. Address different learner skills: use text, pictures, video, and audio in your provided eLearning content. By diversifying the content you address different learner types which will increase your learner’s satisfaction.

7. Bite size content for easy updating: in this rapidly evolving era, it is essential that you can keep your content easily updated at all times. Especially if your content is specialized or provides just-in-time learning. Use software that makes it possible to quickly put in new information.

8. Bite size content to keep your learners focused: try to limit scrolling down webpages or multimedia courses that extend 20 minutes in total. Keep your content bits small, this will keep the learner motivated to go on and give them a sense of speed. It is much better to have ten chapters that each take up to 15 minutes to learn than to serve your learners one lengthy 150 minutes piece of content. You want to keep your learners focused, so give them time to breath.

9. Take low resource learners into account: not all learners have access to high speed broadband connectivity. If the technical reality of your learners is very diverse, it is good practice to provide your learners with a CDRom containing the eLearning content and basic plug-in’s needed to open your eLearning content.

10. Test everything in a pilot course: first you test your course on a small group of people you know, than you gather a pilot group of learners that are part of your learner target group. This pilot group of learners will allow you to learn, see if your learning objectives are indeed reached, adjust your material were needed, see whether the student investment time you had in the back of your mind is indeed realistic and … start the real course with the knowledge that it will be a rock solid eLearning course.

Yes, eLearning thrives on creativity and organizational capacities. Looking forward to reading your tips!

(image from http://lals.la.psu.edu/ling001/myths/intro/index.php)

Report on Learning 2.0 is published - interesting read

The eLearning Guild Research 360° Report on Learning 2.0 is just out. As usual the research reports of the eLearning Guild are interesting to read. They give a quick overview of some of the latest trends and results in eLearning.

This report has many authors: Steve Wexler, Jane Hart, Tony Karrer, Michele Martin, Mark Oehlert, Sanjay Parker, Brent Schlenker and Will Thalheimer. But what makes this research so interesting is that all authors will have a webinar on the findings in this report. This might be a rich extra, because it gives you the possibility of getting your questions out to them. 'Might be' I write because I am not sure if there will be a lot of time to discuss, but at least you will hear it from the report writers themselves.

This report focuses on two fundamental issues that are at the core of learning endeavors:
1) The emerging technology will obsolesce what they do now;
2) The emerging technology will be difficult to learn;
3) It will be difficult to convince colleagues and management that they should embrace the emerging technology;
4) Not embracing the technology will lead to certain doom.
This report addresses those fears and offers key findings, comprehensive survey results — and answers — to these concerns!

You can look at the abstract of this report or - if you are a payed member, you can download it completely at the same page.

The facts on this free (but you need to register) research webinar:
Duration: one hour;
Date: Thursday, October 2 at 8:30 AM Pacific Time;
Hosts and speakers: all or most of the above mentioned authors.

Attend a free webinar on Measuring Learning success

The eLearning Guild Research 360° Report on Measuring Learning Success is just out. As usual the research reports of the eLearning Guild are interesting to read. They give a quick overview of some of the latest trends and results in eLearning.

But what makes this research so interesting is that both Steve Wexler and Will Thalheimer will have a webinar on the findings in this report. This might be a rich extra, because it gives you the possibility of getting your questions out to them. 'Might be' I write because I am not sure if there will be a lot of time to discuss, but at least you will hear it from the report writers themselves.

This report focuses on two fundamental issues that are at the core of learning endeavors:
1) When you test, are you truly able to show that someone has learned something;
2) Are you able to show that your learning interventions benefit your organization?

You can look at the abstract of this report or - if you are a payed member, you can download it completely at the same page.

The facts on this free (but you need to register) research webinar:
Duration: one hour;
Date: Thursday, September 4 at 8:30 AM Pacific Time;
Hosts and speakers: Steve Wexler and Will Thalheimer.

This webinar is free but you need to register.

eLearning Guild Annual Gathering: my live blogging schedule

In preparation of the live blogging I have planned during the eLearning Guilds Annual Gathering, I list my schedule. If any of you are planning to blog on this conference, let me know your schedule, we could link to one another.

The tag I use for this conference is AG08.

Thursday 15 April:

Session 103 at 10.45 am: The Secret of Delivering Outstanding Virtual Classroom Training by Frank Gartland.

Session 206 at 01.00 pm: Evidence-based e-Learning Methods to Build Creative Thinking Skills by Ruth Clark.

Session 302 at 02.30pm: Mobile Learning Today and Tomorrow by Judy Brown.

Session 408 at 04.00 pm: Storyboarding for e-Learning Video Production by Steve Haskin and Joanna Miller.

Thursday 16 April:

Session 501 at 10.45 am: Mission Possible: Next Generation Content Transformation by Kris Rockwell and Ganesh Kumar.

Session 607 at 01.15am: I'm Busy Enough ... What Do I Need a Second Life For? By Alan Levine.

Session 704 at 02.45pm: Scanning the Globe: Connecting your Digital World to the World Around You by Brent Schlenker.

Friday 17 April:

Session 805 (my own, look further down)

Session 911 at 11.15am: 50 Web 2.0 Ways to Tell a Story by Alan Levine.

My sessions:

Thursday 17 April at 10 am session 805 “The Impact of Mobile Social Media in Developing Countries” during which I will talk about social media, mobile social media use (eLearning and activism). Roaring to go on this topic!

Wednesday 16 April at 7.15 – 8.15 am (okay, this breakfast byte will hurt that early in the morning)
Topic: “How do YOU Organize the Exploding Digital Knowledge?” these ‘breakfast bytes’ are free for all and it is meant to be an informal discussion/learning moment.

If you would like me to interview one of these speakers, let me know (add questions) and I will try to schedule an interview.