“We test because we have to test.” (Comment by Gary Wise on one of my LinkedIn discussions, “What Should a Passing Score Be?”.) That got me thinking about why I’ve put tests in some of my courses and what functions they serve. Below are some questions that ran through my head. I’ve also put down [...]
JOIN THE CRUSADE…NO MORE CHEESY, ANIMATED CLIPART! How many times have you seen images like these? Images are an important part of online courses. The trick is that the images we use must enhance the instructional qualities of the content. The images must also look professional and give the learner confidence that the material is [...]
I ran across free storyboard templates on TheELearningCoach.com and thought that I share them with you. Connie has created a Storyboard Depot: “These storyboard templates have been donated by the eLearning community for you to download and use for projects. There are a variety of types so you can pull features from one and add [...]
Recently at a round-table discussion about eLearning in the Commercial Lending industry an interesting point surfaced periodically: “Why is classroom training perceived as being more credible than online training?” I think that this varies a bit by industry (and commercial banking is not known to be pioneers in the latest technology) but many people believe [...]
Is there a difference between Knowledge and Information? As training professionals are we sharing information, teaching knowledge, or both? Last week I was discussing Commercial Lending training with various designers from financial institutions and someone mentioned how we aim to give knowledge not information. The comment made me start to think about how courses are [...]
The Learner’s Perspective When a learner launches your online training do they know that it belongs to your company? Could a customer recognize your company by looking at your course? I have always thought that training material should mimic the branding of the company and/or organization. So why do I think this way? Most companies [...]
If you’re thinking about creating eLearning courses you’ve probably started to think about standards. eLearning content needs to follow standards just like classroom manuals and material. When content is standardized it makes it easier for the learner to understand and quickly process the content. They stop noticing inconsistencies and focus on what you’d really like [...]
eLearning is better than classroom training! Ok…I’m just being sarcastic. eLearning is actually just different than classroom training. They both have their pros and cons. I want to list a few areas that are positive “pros” for eLearning. Geography At times you need to train people that are dispersed geographically. They may be in various [...]
Smaller chunks are easier to digest We’ve all gone to a website or opened a document and been in utter shock at how much text and information suddenly appeared. Our minds suddenly turn off and we close the documents or quickly navigate to another page. The truth is that learners usually don’t thoroughly read online [...]
Just published a new article on EzineArticles.com comparing the benefits of online vs. classroom training. Quickly build eLearning games and eLearning interactions. Works with your eLearning authoring tool. No programming needed.
So how do you visually indicate where or what a user should click on? How do they know when they are supposed to interact with your course content? Here are some examples of what I call “click alerts”. I like to use click alerts through out the course to help the user know when I [...]
After a few weeks of waiting….we’re proud to announce that Brother Andrew has finally achieved “Expert Author” status on EzineArticles.com. Ok, it’s not that big of a deal but it’s always fun to see your articles published somewhere online besides your own blog. The process takes about 2 weeks and their editors go through your [...]
We’ve all heard the phrase, a picture is worth a thousand words. Graphics are great training tools and can make the difference between an average course and a great course. The true test of an graphic: Can the learner look at the image and understand the concept of the training page without reading the text? If [...]
