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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
I got an email about this the other day and thought that it was fun to read. There are many times when we have to teach things that don’t make sense and don’t seem to follow rules. I’m glad that I’m not trying to teach English. Here are some “weird” things in English: The bandage [...]
There is a step in the design process that seems to be rushed-over at times: Brainstorming. Many times we are presented with information that needs to be trained. We’ve probably done a similar course in the past and/or covered a similar topic. We probably have standards, templates, colors, and other various course assets in place [...]
Awhile back I did a post on Training Prisoners and how we can help participants not feel “trapped” in class. I’ve been reading a blog called: Better Learning Better Earning and it has some interesting articles. One in particular touches on Training by Hostage. They discuss Learning Liberty, Learning Tyranny, and You-niversity. We really can’t [...]
What skills are needed to successfully learn from online training? Are there some users that will never be successful using eLearning? Are the skills needed to learn in a classroom environment different from skills needed online? Here are some thoughts. Classroom-based training requires: Listening comprehension Ability to pay attention for long spans of time Oral [...]
There is no doubt that graphics and images greatly improve online training content. The question is how to properly use them. I’ve come across some good articles lately and thought that I’d compile and list them here. (the list also includes some posts on graphics that we’ve done in the past.) Realistic Graphics and Learning: [...]
A lot of training is using video and it’s becoming very easy to create and distribute. As things become easier and cheaper we often see the quality decrease. For example, if you had to spend $10,000 to hire a camera crew to come out and do a video shoot then you’d probably have all of [...]
