Your course goes live and you’re done right? Wrong…there are always changes and updates I really don’t like spending tons of time “maintaining” course content. How can course updates be minimized? Here are some ideas: Speak in the Now – If you’re creating a course for something that will happen in the future why not [...]
I ran across the great article on Work Memory. This is an interesting topic for eLearning designers because we are typically trying to “cram” tons of information into someone’s head in less than 30 mins. There are great tips in the article that could help us build better training. The ones that jumped out to [...]
Sometimes it is very effective to add people pictures to your online courses. They could be used as a guide/narrator that directs the learner through the course or you could use people to create scenarios and graphics. Below are a few simple examples and layouts for using cut-out people pictures in eLearning. The pictures are [...]
Maybe spelling correctly is overrated. Does it really matter if a few letters are “mixed up”? Isn’t the most important thing that the concept/information is transferred? In fact we’ve probably all done the activity where only the first and last letter of each word are correct and the ones in the middle are mixed up [...]
Audio and narration are great ways to enhance e-Learning. We all know what a difference sound effects make when we watch a great action movie. Without it the movie would be terrible. All too often we forget that eLearning can also have audio. Not just narration but also sound effects that emphasize and support the [...]
I met Cris “the Thrifty Trainer” at eLearningDevCon the other day and liked free eLearning resources that he has on his website. I also like his tag line, “Good training doesn’t have to be expensive. Cheap training doesn’t have to be bad.” It’s typically not the tool that makes good eLearning, it’s the creativity and [...]
We are shallow people! Let me explain why I say that…. The other day I was on an airplane and watched the person next to me “read” a magazine. He basically flipped quickly through the pages and stopped occasionally on a pretty picture and usually started flipping again. At one point he stopped and seemed [...]
Everyone is always looking for ways to make their eLearning more interactive. There are many ways to do this. Here are just a few: 1. Interactions There are many times when you have various concepts or “chunks” of information on a page. You could break it into multiple pages or divide it into sections. For [...]
The other day I participated in a networking group and we helped other start-up companies brainstorm their businesses. One of the speakers shared ideas on branding. Branding is very important to a new company and I’d like to extend that to eLearning courses as well. Branding a course is more than just putting a logo [...]
Need pictures of cutout people and narrators for your online course? Well, you’re in luck! We just launched 30+ new series of business people. Each pack: contains 75+ layouts is “clipped out” and ready to drop into your course has multiple layouts both looking at and away from the camera is high resolution allowing you [...]
Life has “necessary evils”. For example, yesterday I was with one of my little boys in the front yard and we were looking at the blossoms on the cherry tree. There were bees everywhere and he did not like that. To him bees were “evil” but as we all know they are necessary. Do eLearning [...]
Ever been bored out of your mind while taking an online course? Of course you have. There comes a point in everyone’s life when they have to take a compliance course that they don’t like. There are 2 ways to look at this problem: 1. The learner should be responsible and find ways to motivate [...]
I always took notes when going through school. There was something about writing on paper that helped me remember things. In fact during a test I could visualize where on my notes a particular topic was written. Should our eLearning participants take notes? Yes! Shelley Gable (“How Can Note Taking Help You with Online Learning?“) [...]
Everyone is asking for more training and knowledge. (Oh and by the way, it all needs to be customized for each person and be available at any time. One last thing….don’t spend any money on it either.) Well, we might not be possible to meet all of the expectations above but we can try. There [...]
I ran across this interesting post the other day: Start and End eLearning Courses with Methods That Facilitate Learning (Integrated Learning Services) Shelley discusses that learners tend to remember the content presented first and last better than everything in the middle. (She refers to the Primacy and Recency Effects.) Now, when I first read the [...]
Is PowerPoint the most widely used tool for eLearning development? Should it be? It seems that everywhere I go in the eLearning world I run into PowerPoint. Most of the new authoring tools either use PPT as their backbone or offer the ability to import slides. Interface creation, navigation buttons, LMS tracking, and testing abilities [...]
The look and feel (branding) of your online training is VERY important. Benefits of a good course brand Makes an impact – Learners want courses that look good. It gives an impression of professionalism and expertise. Attracts attention – We look at things that attract our attention. Once we attract attention a learner may actually [...]
