5 tips on Design & Delivery of Impactful E Learning ( Asynchronous mostly )

 5 tips on Design & Delivery of Impactful E Learning ( Asynchronous mostly )

The learner needs to  (a) experience real-life scenarios, (b) try out tasks, and (c) obtain feedback along the way. A smiley face and a thumbs-up icon at the end of the training effort aren’t enough.

1. Choose Quality Training Resources.
A resource that delivers research-based content and personalized learning experince ;  allows for peer-to-peer interactions.
A course that takes a practical, actionable approach to instructional design. Our learners  should learn methods that they  can apply to their  work immediately and effectively.

2. Assess The Size And Diversity Of Your Skillset ( we all have limitations . No one is perfect or self succient ! )
Apart from being in Instructional Designer of an E Learning Course  , you are a  Narration actor!  Graphic designer. Investigative journalist !  QA tester. Writer.
 You may need to play all these roles when designing and developing an eLearning course. Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses. It’s OK to outsource one or two elements of the project—like voice-overs or graphic creation—to experts.

3. Check Your Work Before You Deploy

Before you launch an E Learning Course , ask an intended or prospectrtive  learner to take the course while you observe over their shoulder or via screen share. You’ll be amazed at the small hiccups that arise when someone else is navigating the course. Iron them out before actual launch.

4. File Management Is Key To Long-Term Success ( A real-life anecdote on this ! )

All organizations have process changes, so updates will be needed. If you don’t have access to the original eLearning course files, you are back at square one !!
It happend to me sometime ago .  When a team member of mine went out on maternity leave, I was asked to fix one quiz question. Easy—if I had the file. It was on my team member’s desktop, and I had no way to get it.
I had to completely rebuild the course to emend a single quiz question. Store files in an accessible, central location !


5. Authoring Tool Expertise Is Not Enough !!  
 What does your organization want the learner to be able to do at the end of the eLearning course?  Always keep this in mind while designing .
 Use design to expand the learning experience, not distract from it.

CONCLUSIVE COMMENTS :
Have your remote learners practice with you in real time. Do a screen simulation with a try-it mode and have them perform the steps. And don’t create a complicated quiz !
That memory test is not what they will end up doing back on the job! Hopefully, these tips will help you design and develop more successful asynchronous eLearning programs.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR :

Nikki O’Keeffe is a senior internal ATD Facilitator. She has experience creating strategies and visions to ensure training requirements and deliveries are in line with quality, probability, and client needs.

Connectivism

George Siemens describes connectivism as “a learning theory for the digital age”. He maintains that in today’s world, there’s simply too much knowledge to take in – and it changes too quickly anyway.

So forget about trying to know everything; instead, exploit technology to extend your knowledge beyond your own brain. Build a network of knowledge sources which you can access as the need arises. 

Recognising meaningful patterns among distributed sets of information, rather than storing it all in your head, re-defines what it means to “learn”.

7 types of learners , an online program should accommodate

Everyone learns differently, that’s nothing new. However, over the years the different styles of learning have usually been cut down to visual, physical (learn-by-doing), or audible. Truth is, we could probably dissect each of these learning three styles down even further and arrive at a handful of sub-levels.

Learning is a complicated concept as everyone is unique in their own way, and learns in their own way as well. That said, it is still very much possible to classify a learning style into one of seven categories. Perhaps you fall into one of the following:

1. Visual: These people prefer to use pictures, images, diagrams, colors, and mind maps.
2. Physical: These are the “learn by doing” people that use their body to assist in their learning. Drawing diagrams, using physical objects, or role playing are all strategies of the Physical learner.
3. Aural: People who prefer using sound (obviously), rhythms, music, recordings, clever rhymes, and so on.
4. Verbal: The verbal learner is someone who prefers using words, both in speech and in writing to assist in their learning. They make the most of word based techniques, scripting, and reading content aloud.
5. Logical: The people who prefer using logic, reasoning, and “systems” to explain or understand concepts. They aim to understand the reasons behind the learning, and have a good ability to understand the bigger picture.
6. Social: These people are the ones who enjoy learning in groups or with other people, and aim to work with others as much as possible.
7. Solitary: The solitary learner prefers to learn alone and through self-study.

In reality, we all probably fall into each category, depending on the learning that is taking place. Some topics lend themselves better to select styles, and a combination of multiple styles helps to solidify the learning that takes place. When possible, you should always strive to create learning that engages a variety of these styles. Not only will it be helpful for the learner, but it also will go a long way in learning retention.

Using an online learning approach that includes videos, reading, audio, exercises, social forums, and the like is a great way to hit on multiple learning styles. If you create learning for a living as an instructional designer or teacher, then blending your learning approaches is an effective way to make your learning stick.

Courtesy : Learn Dash dot com 

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C.V.Ramana. +91.98855.74112.  ###  12-2-709/C/105,Padma Nabha Nagar, Near Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad - 500028.

5 ways to evaluate E Learning , formative assessment

5 ways to evaluate E Learning , formative assessment 

 If you want to ensure your eLearning content delivers, you can’t sit around and wait for somebody to evaluate your content or give you feedback. You need to be proactive about gathering feedback that helps you assess the effectiveness of your training programs.
Here are five easy ways to evaluate if your eLearning is hitting the mark:

(1) Include a brief survey at the end of each course.
 Include a satisfaction survey on the last page. And a 10 point rating scale , in terms of utiity value of the content to their profession. 
Use that feedback to further investigate what’s not working.

(2) Conduct focus groups with participants.

When ? After 25% completion of the course. Encourage learners / participants to give both positve & constructive feedback. Have a thir party facilitator  to evaluate. 

(3) Track and analyze completion rates.
 Find out which courses participants are and aren’t finishing. 
Use LMS for this.  Are some course more appealing than other ones ? 

(4) Gather feedback from managers after participants complete a course.

Talk / interact with the immediate superiors & bosses of  your participants . 
Ask their managers to provide feedback about whether or not the course had a positive impact on their work performance. This information will help test the effectiveness of your design regarding learning objectives and will provide insight into any necessary revisions or changes in your future content.

(5) Ask another designer for feedback.

Ask another eLearning designer to review your course. They will give inputs on your course from Technical standpoint. 
That designer will be able to provide insight and advice regarding how to change the design or improve the delivery so that your content is as compelling as possible.

 When you’re proactive about gathering feedback, and you take course evaluation seriously, the effectiveness of your training programs will skyrocket.

( Author Liz Sheffield is a freelance writer with a background in training and development. She specializes in writing about everything related to the human side of business. You can contact her via LinkedIn or Twitter.)

Free LMS for 25 users ; suggested by Sanjay Nannaparaju

Sanjay is a very resourceful person. 

Our PGDEL course faculty have equipped us with the right skills set, provided us the right hands-on experience, and turned us into effective E-Learning teachers. 

Now, with their guidelines, and my focused efforts, I have created 3 Free LMSs.

Content Writing - http://campus.educadium.com/riseco/

Spoken English - http://campus.educadium.com/spokenenglishclasses/

Soft Skills - http://campus.educadium.com/softskillsclasses/

You too can create an LMS at Educadium, and add up to 25 users for FREE. 

Beneficially, this LMS is almost similar to our Moodle platform where we did our Project Work.

Check with their website for details, http://www.educadium.com/products.html

How to put Text matter on picture - using paint - youTube link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zjw1V_qhlk

And

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zjw1V_qhlk

Suggested by Sat Feed, friend of Uma Anmangandla

best/free online conferencing software - suggested by Vimala Vembu

I am conducting virtual class (VC) using anymeeting service and wiziq services.Please check www.anymeeting.com and www.wiziq.com for giving  online lecture. First check anymeeting services which is free for 200 students. All the best.

Regards,

Vimala