Thursday, March 21, 2013

Tips for Online Training Designers

So, what is elearning? Very simply, elearning is utilizing technology to increase the effectiveness and accessibility of learning. This may include CD ROMs, or a discussion thread to enrich a regular classroom, or a course delivered completely online. To define or describe e-learning, it is best to first define learning. Learning is the act of developing skills or obtaining knowledge. So e-learning just means that you develop skills and obtain knowledge electronically, hence the "e."
technological developments affecting the e-learning landscape, as well. Some of these approaches include:
  • Learning Management Systems that integrate more closely with corporate computing environments, or utilize methods of delivery borrowed from social media, including the use of smartphones and tablet computers as platforms.
  • Crowdsourcing parts of the training process to create a more interactive, team-building experience, creating a kind of social learning environment.
  • Using techniques borrowed from the video game industry to reach learners who have grown up immersed in those worlds, a trend sometimes called “Gamification.”

 Create Quizzes to Ensure Understanding

The eLearning Coach is where YOU CAN FIND actionable strategies, practical content, product reviews and resources to help you design, develop and understand online learning.  The eLearning Coach were shared hundreds of times. 

Here’s a Bucketful of Free Office Themed E-Learning Templates & Media Assets

 
 E-learning Website Templates All Templates for the keyword E-learning There are 62 templates available

eLearning Templates – 20 Resources

Enhance your eLearning efforts with professional elements that are affordable and easy to use!

Articulate Rapid E-Learning Blog - free elearning templates and PowerPoint As a matter of habit I review design sites looking for inspiration

2D animation software for businesses and individuals. Offers vector-based, resolution independent and multi-layer software systems

Integrated Course Design: A Self-Directed Guide to Designing Courses for Significant Learning, a guide to plotting out learning goals, activities, and assessments from Creating Significant Learning Experiences PDF

Course and Syllabus Design
Gathering Background Information

When you plan a new course, a good first step is to gather as much background information as possible. The following information may be available from your department and colleagues.



Course Information

What are the course goals?
Examples
At the end of the course, I want by students to be able to...
  • analyze the modern geologic processes in an unfamiliar area and assess potential hazards to humans (which is different from recalling those covered in class).
  • evaluate the historical context of an unfamiliar event.
  • access and analyze climate and paleoclimate data sets in various formats (tabulated, graphical, simple strat. column, satellite photo, etc.) and make logical inferences about climate and environmental change from the data.
  • analyze an unfamiliar epidemic.
  • develop and test age-appropriate lesson plans.
  • use data from recent Mars missions to re-evaluate pre-2004 hypotheses about Mars geologic processes and history/evolution
  • predict the outcome of ____
  • research and evaluate news reports of a natural disaster and communicate analyses to someone else
  • find and evaluate information/data on ____

  
Student Information

    Who takes this course (majors/non-majors, year in school, etc.)?
    Why do they take it?
    What do they already know about the material?
    What experience do they have with potential course methods (e.g. team projects, active learning, labs, technology)?
 
 
E learning Magazine

Monthly newspaper developed to provide news and information necessary to help K-12 decision-makers use technology and the Internet to transform schools

The Resource for Education Technology Leaders focusing on K-12 educators. Site contains a Software Reviews Database, articles from Technology & Learning ...

HOW Design's online design university: Online design workshops, graphic design courses, design classes, and design study for creative professionals.

The Society for Technical Communication is a non-profit membership organization dedicated to the promotion of all aspects of Technical Communication.

Saba is an industry leader providing cloud e-learning solutions, talent management, and unified learning platforms to train and certify your employees.

A non-profit association formed to promote the development and application of distance learning for education and training. Includes K-12 education, higher ...

American Association of Community Colleges (AACC)
Features academic resources, community college finders, research, and publications for higher education administrators and students worldwide.

ADEC is the American Distance Education Consortium, providing and connecting online programs through universities globally.

 At Bisk Education, we live and breathe online education. For over 40 years we've been guided by a fundamental belief that learning is much more than a casual ...

Huge List of Resources for Teaching Geo science Courses

Universal Course Design Tutorials

links on assignment design and course assessment and videos on instructional design with numerous examples.
  
7 Widely-Used And Open Source E-Learning Applications

online tutorials are intended to assist the professional development of course-providers, course-designers, course-managers and online instrutors.

There are five eLearning Components that are essential for all successful online courses. Understanding these components will help you design and develop a course that meets computer-based training objectives. The diagram above illustrates how these components are connected. Each elearning component plays an important role in designing an online course. Among all of the components, none plays a larger role than the Audience.

 Examples of eLearning–Ten Great Resources
I was just asked for some examples of eLearning.  I had collected up eLearning Examples a couple years ago, but thought it was worth going back to look for more.  The following are some very good lists of widely varying examples of eLearning.



Please include attribution to OnlineCollege.org with this graphic.

What Type of Learner Are You?