How do Instructional Designers support and add to teacher knowledge

As online learning becomes more known, the quality of the delivered online materials become more essential, as learners can (partly) decide which courses they will follow based on the quality of the course material. One of the challenges is to give teachers and trainers an idea of how instructional designers can help (IDs are schooled in online learning options) and what instructional designers can bring to the interdisciplinary learning/teaching team (a broader online and blended learning knowledge, specifically aimed at online or blended interactions, this relies on specific theoretical frameworks that facilitate practical implementations). So, being asked by EIT InnoEnergy to provide an overview of why Instructional Designers are an important Human Resource profile to ensure high quality online or digital learning material, I put together this brief presentation. The slides are text rich so course partners (SELECT) can have another look after the presentation and an ongoing conversation with local Instructional Designers might be started.

In the meantime I am continuing the inspiring work on the Instructional Design Variation Matrix (a practical guide for Instructional Designers, a bit of an extended job aid).

(picture: deeply thinking teachers from KTH Sweden, Polito Italy, UPC Spain, IST Portugal, Aalto Uni Finland listening to online learning experiences at InnoEnergy SELECT kick-off meeting)

How can an Instructional Designer help? from Inge de Waard

An overview on the benefits of social media for researchers

This powerpoint is part of a presentation I gave during the emerging voices conference preparation week at Antwerpen, Belgium.

It covers the basic reasons on why to dive into social media tools if you are a researcher.

Benefits of social media for researchers 2010 slideshare

View more presentations from ignatia.

Big Question: big impact learning examples: and why they work

In the Big Question launched by Tony Karrer this month, he wonders what the success factors are of our successful learning projects? Why did they have an impact and why do we think it worked? He also links to some great eLearning examples: : Elearning samples and eLearning Examples. There are a few more to be found via eLearning Case Studies on the eLearning Learning site.

This is my list of factors that optimize eLearning or mLearning projects and ensure impact:

Management related
Strategic planning: if possible participative planning with all motivated stakeholders (only the motivated one's, see also a bit further on why I emphasize this).

Scalability: you need to plan ahead, also to scale up any potential successful project. It will also make your complete plan stronger.

Sustainability: as I work a lot in low resource areas, I have listed 12 sustainability issues.
Monitoring and evaluation throughout the course: identify measurable indicators that you will monitor throughout the course and which fit your strategic plan. Evaluate the course formatively (allows you to tailor to possible problems from early on, increasing chances of success) and summatively (the later is essential for scaling up the course).

Put in a time-line: but also put in time for readjustments (really, do it, give yourself time to create an impact).

Go ahead with the right (read motivated and strong) executive persons: Nigel Barlow made a wonderful presentation pointing out four sponsor styles, the spectators (enthusiastic, but they sit on the sidelines and as such they do not pave any ways), the walking dead (totally non-supportive executives, trying to bring these people around is probably a waste of time), the obstructionists (they can be supportive, if the project fits their hidden agenda) and last, but the only ones you want to start with: the players (players are willing to invest their time, money, and resources). So work with players even if you have a small project, it will increase your chances of success enormously. Working with players will most likely result in success stories which will attract the interest of some spectators and obstructionists. At our institute, a key player is Lut Lynen. She offers support and motivation, which leads to success. For non-profit or government eLearning projects it might be a good idea to involve the respective Ministry/ies from early on. This way you increase the chance of future scalability and/or support for future similar projects

Learner and content related
Motivate by clarification (clear framework): Provide very clear reasons to the learners on why you provide content, ask feedback, or give assessments prior to any course module. This will allow learners to put them n the right meta-cognitive mindset. Be rigorous, if you provide learning objectives, link them to real and tested learning actions. If you are unsure about what learning actions can be taken with which social media, reread Bloom’s digital taxonomy I wrote about earlier.

Take into account your international learners: culture is a motivational factor, catering to it will influence the project positively (this is what I take into account for our international elearners).

Use the right learning affordances no matter what technology: choosing a clear learning purpose and goal before choosing technology is essential. No matter how hyped a technology is, if you only use it for hype’s sake the learning results might be poor. Do not plan ‘an iPad project’, but plan ubiquitous learning which might benefit from a wifi/3G mobile device with a large screen because that fits the learning that will be build.

So why go for big impact?
Big impact will pave your way to scaling up projects and open doors for collaborative projects with strong partners.

Great book on the subject: Beyond e-learning by Marc J. Rosenberg

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)

spread the word: Telemedicine/eHealth Training Workshop at the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp - Belgium

Looking for a one week workshop that covers the basics for setting up a telemedicine website in low-resource settings? Than this might be what you are looking for (The registration fee is 750 € which covers tuition, all course materials and accommodation but not living expenses). Spread the word, but be sure to be quick because the amount of places available are limited and the requirements are strict. I am one of the teachers. The workshop has a strong and good outcome, so feel free to send a request if you are interested.

The coordinator of the Telemedicine week is my wonderful and very brainy colleague Maria Zolfo (see picture).

For the complete info look at this pdf, a short overview below. Deadline 28 July 2008.

Since 2003, the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM) in Antwerp has organized an annual
Telemedicine Workshop on the practical use of the ITM Telemedicine website (second opinion tool) and ITM library document delivery service. Topics as access to free online literature, management of databases of references to the literature and computer skills were also taught. In 2007 and in collaboration with Norwegian Center for Telemedicine (NST) of Tromsø (Norway), WHO Collaborating Centre, the Telemedicine Workshop has taken a new connotation, using a more interactive case-based approach with hands-on sessions on how to develop Telemedicine and eHealth systems in low resource settings and aiming at the development and discussion of specific projects proposals of participants.

The workshop targets professionals who are responsible for eHealth projects and policies or
for coaching junior staff using ICT for health.

PROGRAM

• -Needs assessment and “Country feasibility study for Telemedicine”: the needs for pre-studies and context awareness
• eHealth in low resource settings: templates and examples of proven practices
• Design and architecture of a telemedicine system – adaptations and contextualization
• District Health Information Systems; data management: examples, software,
• implementation requirements
• Electronic patient records: examples, software, implementation requirements
• Legal/ethical issues in telemedicine: practical implications?
• Fixed and wireless telecommunication networks
• Tele-education, distance learning: tools, courses
• Still-images versus on-line tools; low cost videoconferencing systems for medical application
• Developing a framework for evaluation
• Funding opportunities and partnerships (e.g., telemedicine associations)
  
  

TEACHING METHOD
Teaching will consist of lectures, seminars, group discussions, critical reading sessions,
exercises on the computer and practical sessions.
NST Tromsø and ITM Antwerp staff will deliver most of the training. Internationally
renowned experts from academic institutions and the field will be invited to complement
specific areas of expertise (i.e., RAFT, iPath and IFI/University of Oslo).

ADMISSION REQUIREMENTS AND APPLICATION PROCEDURE
The course is intended for the following persons:
• holders of a health degree or working in health management for at least three years
• with basic computer skills: Word, PowerPoint, Excel basics and Internet
• being involved in organization of health management systems
No more than 15 participants will be admitted. A selection will be made through the
following criteria:
• motivation
• involvement in actual or past Telemedicine/eHealth projects
• future career perspectives in the field of Telemedicine/eHealth

Interested? Contact us:
Eva Vervecken
evervecken(at)itg.be
Institute of Tropical Medicine
Nationalestraat 155
B-2000 Antwerp
Belgium
Tel: +(32)3 2476300
Fax: +(32)3 2476452
http://telemedicine.itg.be

How to plan a phased pilot course in an eLearning start-up project

Third post on the collaboration between the INAS and ITM.

Future steps to take that enable a strong and successful collaboration while starting up a pilot course in eLearning.

This was a wonderful and very fruitful collaboration with a strong, small team of eLearning professionals(Mr Belarbi and Mr Karmi). It is encouraging to be able to cooperate with inspiring, motivated people that want to take action.

Our collaboratively developed action plan

Actions	Deadlines	Discussions/decisions
Choosing a course that will feature as a pilot course for the concrete start-up of the eLearning program. Essential: choosing a course that already exists and that is well structured (= clear learning objectives) choosing a very motivated SME (subject matter expert) to push the course.	Mid June 2008	Communicating the decision of which teacher and which course is choosen to serve as the content of the pilot course to the ITM consultant.
2. focussing on the target learner group	June 2008	This group must be of the same diversity or uniformity as the eventual ‘real’ learner target group
Buying the necessary software based on experienced eLearning professionals and linked to the infrastructure of both learners and course developers. (open source whenever possible).	June 2008	This purchase could take some time.
training weeks for the actors of INAS at ITM (we will be working with the subject matter that was choosen to be the pilot course)	End of July 2008 / August 2008	Two weeks are sufficiant in a first stage to start to learn how to develop courses, get used to the softwares involved and applying eLearning guidelines to the content at hand and implement it in the methodology of choice (constructivist). This demands the debit (Internet connectivity) to be well adhanced by October.
return of the actors of INAS for continued work and development of the pilot course.	September/ October 2008	After the training period at ITM the pedagogical and technological team of INAS will work on the pilot course ones back in Rabat. They will work on the course during 1 up to 2 months. During this time a group of Subject Matter Experts will be revising the first modules that were developped to make sure the content is understandable and fits the learners they were meant to address. Based on the remarks of the SME, the course will be adapted..
during the period in which this pilot course is developed the ITM consultant will return to the INAS to give assistance or guidance if necessary.	October 2008	Evaluating the project before launching the pilot and Implementing changes if necessary
7. evaluation of the course by other SME before launching the course (the SME will have a look at the activities linked to the learning objectives and how much time it takes to go through the course (and work on it) in order to be able to put SIT (student investment time on it, which will hopefully enable us to put credits on these courses)
8. building a course schedule which does not surpass the 5, max 8 hours a week for the learner.	November 2008	It needs to be well balanced and looked at. The testing group of SME can take it into account while they are going through the course.
9. training the tutor that will guide the students through the course (the tutor could be the SME)	November 2008	Identifying the tutor that will guide the learners through the course (this is set in a later stage because of the lack of human resources at this moment, but maybe by then extra personal will be available. (the SME/teacher him- or herself? Might also be an option)
10. identifying the concrete group of learners that will follow the pilot course.	November 2008	Taken into account a drop out rate of 50% due to people underestimating the work load of an eLearning course and the fact that the response rate to a free pilot course might attract less motivated learners we start with a maximum of 40 participants, hoping to keep 20 – 25 learners that can give strong feedback on the pilot course. The pilot course will be free, BUT in exchange the learners will have to respond to more evaluation questionnairs then the eventual learners.
11. if possible (resources) a meeting will be organized ante-course with all the learners. This will help them establish a sound and realistic idea of what the course will be like, and it will give necessary feedback to the tutors on the profile and skill of the learners.	December 2008
12. distribution and launching of the pilot course	December 2008

Now let's see if this is a time schedule that all parties can keep up with, it is going to be some heavy workload!

Why newbie’s doubt jumping into eLearning - INAS’ biggest concerns

During one of the afternoons of my first work visit to the INAS in Rabat, Morocco there was a meeting in which I would present the methodology of ITM and focus on eLearning. I choose to start from the concerns people in INAS had to build an informal presentation build on Q&A and nourished with examples from medical courses and methods we have build at ITM which were running on my computer. By running the examples on my computer without having to connect I could assure the participants that sending a CDRom with the courses on them would be an option for low connected areas. If the remote areas would have access to a computer with CDRom, that is.

All the participants in the meeting were in favor of eLearning.

Questions that came up (and some of them are very familiar questions that come up globally – maybe we should build a FAQ with answers that all of us professionals can use while addressing a new group of future eLearners):

• Is Morocco, meaning specifically the technical conditions needed for eLearning, ready for eLearning?
• Are learning results the same for face-2-face courses and TELearning courses?
• How do we cope with the lack of non-verbal communication that some teachers use to reconstruct their lesson as they are giving it in a face-2-face environment?
• How do we cope with the diverse connectivity issues throughout the country?
• How can we make sure the learners are in fact the ones that do the tests/exams?
• What can we do to avoid a feeling of loneliness with the learners when the only contact they have with their peers is through online communication?
• Is eLearning interesting for all kinds of learning, or is it unusable for certain educational fields?

I tried to give comforting answers wherever possible, but of course engaging in eLearning has so many factors, that a lot depends on the preparation and the willingness of all the professionals involved to succeed. But as long as a small group stays motivated, it will work.

Pointers for me for future presentations on this topic:

Ask for who is learning through the computer in an informal way (to build a case that people are gaining up on their knowledge by the use of a computer anyway).

The answers I gave to the Q/A session will be posted later on. Jetlag is getting to me.

INAS, Rabat, Morocco – starting an eLearning project – the basics

ITM has a lot of South partners with whom we have what we call institutional collaborations. One of these partners is the INAS (Institute National d’Administration de Santé) in Rabat, Morocco. In the collaboration it was mentioned that an eLearning project would be build in close collaboration with ITM. So I flew to Rabat to exchange needs and possibilities on eLearning.

Morocco has a great variety of regions that have very diverse technology, connectivity wise.

INAS has gone through some changes in the last couple of years. At this moment they are understaffed for that future tasks that lie ahead which means that every professional that works there has a serious and very varied workload. At the same time the INAS just became the major players in health education throughout the nation. They need to reach out to 45000 health care workers of different levels (medical doctors, nurses, health care workers, trainers in the different clinics…) and they only have limited resources.

Educational history: Morocco is a very hierarchical country, which results in the wish of teachers wanting to track their learners in an eLearning environment. Changes in government have immediate effect on health care guidelines and human resources, which in some cases can result in a change of staff (= a loss of continuity).

Main reason to start an eLearning project at INAS: limited resources which do not allow reaching out to the large group of health care workers on a face-to-face basis.

INAS did a survey amongst their learners to see whether their learners were eager to start eLearning courses and they were. BUT most of those learners have no idea what it means to be eLearning and although most of them indicated that they would love to be able to learn at their own pace and on their own time schedule, the motivational part and the realistic framework of the learner is uncertain.

Human resources: 1 pedagogue (who is following a master on distance education), 2 IT, 7 teachers, no design people and a couple of physicians that are only working there on an interim basis. But all of which are working on different (face-2-face) projects.

Technical resources:

• An internal server (HP with 5 HD with a capacity of 146 GB each). This server is directly linked to the server park at the Ministry of Health through a VPN, so autonomy is limited and all the internet traffic passes through the server park at the ministry. Some autonomy would be needed so the system administrator can get all the students logged in and organize all the courses. This also effects the speed of the internet access;
• 15 computers (all with internet connection (slow broadband and unstable, it has a connectivity of 128kps for the complete institute, so if everyone is on, it slows down immediately) and Windows XP) for people from outside and for training the trainers in a face-2-face environment;
• A videoconferencing unit, but will hear today what the compatibility is with regular computers.
• A conference room which can be used as an aula for teaching.

Needs:

• Choosing an eLearning platform which is easy to use, low cost and allows tracking the students.
• An affordable means to track students offline (offline player);
• Choosing the teacher that will deliver the first online pilot course (it should be a motivated teacher, with a strong educational experience that will assure strong content and a solid didactic approach);
• Getting a stable internet connection going (what ever type) with a strong debit;
• Building a strategy that allows continued eLearning feedback on how to make eLearning courses: who is in charge of the content, who will look at the eLearning methodology, how will the content be updateable in a quick and sound way after the initial course is build, do the teachers use the software to build eLearning courses, or will the courses be build by an eLearning methodologist or a general tutor?...);
• If resources allow it, adding new people to the educational team.
• Assuring continued education even if staff changes, but this is a very difficult thing to achieve. (personal remark: if I would not be sure of my job, I am not sure if I would want to make it easier for the colleague that would be appointed after me… this is a human factor which can make continuity a difficult thing to tackle especially if there is no visible security net for those who loose their job).

It is going to be a huge job to get everything implemented, but ... every challenge is motivating, but eLearning is not a magic potion. Luckily both Mr Belarbi and Mr Karmi are great eLearning professionals to work with and Mr Maaroufi is a man with vision.

(I am the wrinkly dressed one)