Link: How to Write for E-Learning

Once in a while, you come across information that says the things so clearly that you always knew, but did not. This is one good example of that. It is a must, if you ask me, for any instructional designer, even if you go through all of it and say to yourself, “I knew it all along.”

In fact, I recommend that this be made mandatory reading on the first working day of every month. I know how easy it is to fall in the trap. And keeping your own creative juices flowing — especially if you work on an eLearning project for months, not weeks.

I got this from Cathy Moore’s site — See the Slide Show for starters:

“Dump the Drone slideshow [...]

* What makes online courses boring
* How to create compelling characters and stories
* Ideas for adding ’safe’ humor
* How to tighten flabby text
* The best uses for readability analysis

See the slides (HTML): Lots of fun pictures! Not much text.
Download the slides (5.8 MB PDF)
Download the handout (8-page PDF): Few pictures. Lots of fun text! “

(Via Making Change: Ideas for Lively Learning.)

No, please don’t miss it. However, busy you are.

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Mandatory eLearning

An interesting article at Inside Higher-ed.

“Starting this fall, all students at Northwest State Community College, in Archbold, Ohio, will be required to take at least one online course to graduate.

More than 60 percent of last year’s graduates already took one or more online courses, but administrators and college trustees want all students to be well versed in independent research and discovery — skills that employers demand, they say — and feel that online education is one way to accomplish that.”: Making Online Learning Mandatory :: Inside Higher Ed :: Higher Education’s Source for News, and Views and Jobs

What I found interesting is that instead of citing the usual worn-out and done-to-death-cliched reasons for implementing eLearning, the next paragraph says:

“Businesses are moving toward online training, and students have to learn to be self-motivated,” said Linda Carr, chief learning officer at the college. “In the workplace, you are responsible for doing what you need to do on your own time.”

The case for eLearning is refreshing. Moving a course to an online format for the benefit of saving money or accessing a larger market, the case becomes more business-specific. Which is interesting because the college recognises that eLearning is more than just another mode of learning. It is almost a life-skill required in the world of work and business.

Will this affect the way courses will be designed? Will interfaces have to evolve to include means and methods of enhancing study-skills for eLearning?

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e-LearningNow : – Learning 2.0 eBook

e-LearningNow : – Learning 2.0 eBook:

“This report considers how approaches to learning have evolved and what impact the new technologies dubbed ‘Web 2.0’ are having.”

(Via e-LearningNow.)

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E-learning can save 40% overall cost

To address the problem of trained IT professionals in India, QAI has launched a series of education, testing and certification initiatives under the Edista brand.

CXOtoday.com > Interview > “E-learning can save 40% overall cost “

Tags: eLearning, India, QAI, interview,

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£1.9m digital e-learning project launched

Interesting News in the Computer Weekly today.

A £1.9m government-supported digital e-learning initiative has been launched.

The Open University’s Knowledge Media Institute, Bridgeman Education and Lexara have joined forces to deliver the Project Silver initiative.

Project Silver will deliver next generation Web 2.0 and artificial intelligence technologies to schools, universities and businesses as part of an interactive learning experience.

£1.9m digital e-learning project launched

The interesting part isn’t so much about the funding, but more about how this system is expected to work.

Together, the organisations will develop a software learning system that builds on Web 2.0 and artificial intelligence technologies to allow teachers and trainers to collect, organise, experiment and interact with multimedia.

This is beginning to become really really interesting.

At one level we have Connexions, who are probably the first to bring open-source learning to the web. An 18-minute video presentation about about Connexions is presented by Richard Baraniuk. It makes for interesting viewing, especially the last part, where review and validation comes into play.

Wikipedia has (and is) trying hard to overcome this reliability issue for some time.

Along comes knol, from Google.

George Seimens suggests a good reason for the launch of knol:

[...] with the rise of Wikipedia, Google serves little value to its users by simply linking to the site (though as one reader commented, it’s not only the first link, but the many different search results that are of value). Why not just go directly to Wikipedia and skip Google? Well, it appears Google realizes its vulnerability.

It is obvious that content still rules and everybody who can, wants to “own” content – in some form or the other. This is probably a very interesting development for publishers – who always will remain “true” owners of content. The question , however, will always be about quality control and review. And as a colleague pointed out, that is what publishers take responsibility for (and charge you for).

Question remains, why are publishers staying away from similar initiatives? It is, I believe a question of identifying an appropriate revenue model. A related article by Scott Karp, about Why Online Advertising Economics Are So Messed Up

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TechCrunch White Label Social Networking Platforms Chart

TechCrunch White Label Social Networking Platforms Chart

Excellent resource from TechCrunch, if you are planning to create your own Social Network.

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In your Face!

Making a difference, not just in the world – in the way we look at social networks.

Since other Social Communities are profit-oriented companies, they have to maximize the return for their investors. Hence, the monetization of user data is a natural consideration. kaioo, by contrast, is a non-profit foundation and therefore has objects which are different from maximizing profits. In other words, there is no conflict of interest between the objects of kaioo and the protection of the user’s privacy and data.

kaioo

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Arrogance and Humility

I agree with Mark Oehlert, the sentence below is the best in the essay: A Brief Message: Arrogance and Humility. Thanks, Mark for pointing this.

Arrogance without humility is a recipe for high-concept irrelevance; humility without arrogance guarantees unending mediocrity.

200 words say a lot.

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Organisational 2.0 Skins

It is interesting to note that the 2.0 concept is permeating organisations and organisational thinking. People are thinking about it. I read with great interest, this article by Dion Hinchcliffe, which I found via George Siemens’ post about “The State of Enterprise 2.0” on his elearnspace blog. George’s blog is a very interesting place to go – everyday!

Then, today I noticed this post on Harold Jarache’s blog about the two versions of businesses that exist today.

Exhibit A:“There are firewalls and silos to stay inside of. There are lines of authority to conform to and procedures to execute. There are consequences for stepping out of line, going around someone or finding loopholes in the policies. There are scripts for handling phone calls, policies for handling exceptions and rules for procedural compliance.”

Exhibit B:“Networks may function with routers to redirect linear transmissions through a past of least resistance. Networks support search and find processes that come up with unforeseen options. Networks reconfigure themselves to accommodate changes. They do not go on hold because local resources are tied up. They do not overtax a reliable node and fail to spread the challenge system wide. They get things done by letting the network do its thing.”

I notice this too, the inertia in transformation, or, to extend Harold’s thoughts, ’shed the body of the dinosaur’. All noticeable changes are just “layers of skin” in most organisations, one wiki layered over another blog over another closed social network.

It will be some time before the constitution changes. Perhaps Lesson #7 in Dion’s article, then is most important:

Your organization will begin to change in new ways because of Enterprise 2.0. Be ready.

Filed under: Uncategorised , change, culture, enterprise 2.0, social

Opening Up Networking

Yesterday, Google announced the details of their OpenSocial project (More Information: TechCrunch).

For a long time now, social networks have been the center of discussion in educational institutions. Facebook was too closed, and perhaps, MySpace was too open. This did open a (albeit not so popular) avenue for social networks focused on education – ELGG is an example. Ning, though limited till now, has more opportunities, now that they have signed up for OpenSocial.

From the TechCrunch Site:

OpenSocial is a set of three common APIs, defined by Google with input from partners, that allow developers to access core functions and information at social networks:

• Profile Information (user data)
• Friends Information (social graph)
• Activities (things that happen, News Feed type stuff)

Hosts agree to accept the API calls and return appropriate data. Google won’t try to provide universal API coverage for special use cases, instead focusing on the most common uses. Specialized functions/data can be accessed from the hosts directly via their own APIs.

Unlike Facebook, OpenSocial does not have its own markup language (Facebook requires use of FBML for security reasons, but it also makes code unusable outside of Facebook). Instead, developers use normal javascript and html (and can embed Flash elements). The benefit of the Google approach is that developers can use much of their existing front end code and simply tailor it slightly for OpenSocial, so creating applications is even easier than on Facebook.

Will the ‘open-ness’ of the project reveal itself as the holy grail of including social networks in online education? Time will tell. However, it does seem that there is potential now — beyond using just the networking features of a social network (read: administrative learning features) for education.

I am especially keen to see what Ning, LinkedIn and Salesforce are able to make of it. I use all of these networks. LI and SF aren’t especially suited for educational purposes, and therefore Ning is the candidate who can possible exploit this the most.

Their update blog is the one that needs to be RSSed!

PS: Dave Winer doesn’t think it will work!

Blogged with Flock

Filed under: Uncategorised , integration, linkedin, salesforce