E-Learning Resources

Tips for using Chat as an Instructional Tool

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 22:50:51 GMT

Campus Technology as an interesting article with Tips for using Chat as an Instructional Tool. Here's an excerpt

The main concepts for instructional use are:

Chat is conversation software and therefore lends itself well to the support of academic exchange;
Chat is a real-time connection, therefore takes the learning experience outside the classroom but retains the real time connection and, thus, the interactive dynamics of real-time exchange;
Chat is collaborative and not directive in essence so should be used to promote collaboration and idea sharing;
Chat is an Internet tool, therefore provides flexibility in scheduling working sessions to suit students' life challenges and provides direct access, which means students can schedule their own sessions online together without the instructor's involvement.

It's well worth a read.

Reference Card for Accessible PDF Creation from Word

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:16:28 GMT

Adobe provides a reference card for Accessible PDF creation from Word. This reference cards covers the most common issues in regards to accessibility when creating PDF's. These include:

Provide equivalent for images in Word
Use Word's styles to define structural headings
Identify table headings for simple tables
Use Word's column feature instead of text boxes
Enable generation of tagged PDF's.

The Accessible PDF creation reference card is available at http://blogs.adobe.com/accessibility/2008/03/reference_card_for_accessible.html

Creating visually accessible flash based applications

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:05:15 GMT

Hiram Kuykendall did a presentation to the Austin Adobe User's group recently on creating Visually Accessible Flash Based Applications. The presentation is available at http://www.microassist.comhttp://staging.microassist.net/ELearning/AccessibleFlashBasedApplications/tabid/165/Default.aspx

Creating accesible applications is an area of focus of MicroAssist.

Sue's Training Resources

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 20:24:37 GMT

I had the pleasure of presenting "How much does E-Learning Cost?" three times today at DIR's Learning Expo (whew!). I ran into Sue Tedford who runs the Adobe User Group and she gave me a link to her website which has a bunch of resources for Training. Check it out at www.sueresources.com

Online Testing and Cheating

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 20:56:15 GMT

I saw an interesting question on the ASTD Discussion Boards on preventing cheating with online testing. We faced this problem with numerous clients. Some of the things we did to reduce cheating included:

Create a large test bank of questions from which we drew a random subset. We also randomized the answers This prevented people from sharing answers.
Made sure that the tutorial portion of the e-learning could not be opened while the test was being taken.
Timed the test and ran reports on the students taking the test. We ended up checking on folks who ran through the test a bit too quickly.

If it is important to insure the integrity of the test then a proctored environment is necessary. It is impossible to prevent cheating in a non-proctored environment.

Learning Management System selection process at the University of the South Pacific

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 21:25:15 GMT

This paper describes how Moodle was introduced as the new Learning Management System (LMS) to the University of the South Pacific with the aim of improving teaching and learning. This whitepaper examines the development process from test and selection of the platform through to project planning, gathering of political support within the institution, technical factors, the design and roll out of training, the impact and consequences, the growth and future prospects of the platform are discussed, with a focus on the university’s redesigned online law program.

The University of the South Pacific is the only university of its type in the world, and the introduction of an online learning management system there was, in turn, a unique experience. The university is jointly owned by the governments of twelve island countries: Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Niue, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Samoa and offers almost 400 educational programmes through distance and flexible learning with a variety of media at fifteen campuses in the region.

http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/singapore07/procs/whelan.pdf

Austin ASTD CPLP Study Group

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 23:15:23 GMT

The American Society of Training and Development is offering a certification program, Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP™) for workplace learning and performance professionals. The program covers 9 areas of expertise:

Designing and Learning
Delivering Training
Improving Human Performance
Measuring and Evaluating
Facilitating Organizational Change
Managing the Learning Function
Coaching
Managing Organizational Knowledge
Career Planning and Talent Management

In Austin, We are lucky that Jane "Star" Fisher and Melissa Hotchkiss are leading a study group for ASTD members that meets once a month to help participants pass the CPLP exam.

Two MicroAssist employees are enrolled in the Austin ASTD CPLP Study group to further their professional development. If you are interested in the study group you can find more information at http://austin-astd-cplp-study-group.pbwiki.com/.

Non-Verbal Communication: 7%-38%-55% Rule

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 17:38:58 GMT

Albert Mehrabian, Professor Emeritus of Psychology, UCLA, is best known for his publications on the importance of verbal and nonverbal messages. In his studies Mehrabian comes to the conclusion that there are three elements to face-to-face communication:

Words (7%)
Tone of Voice (38%)
Body Language (55%)

The relative importance of verbal and nonverbal messages were derived from experiments dealing with communications of feelings and attiudes.

How does this effect E-learning? Does it have a different effect on E-learning dealing with the communication of information vs. professional development training such as leadership training?

http://www.kaaj.com/psych/

E-Learning Conference Listing

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:49:56 GMT

Conference Alerts offers a listing of E-Learning conferences worldwide at http://www.conferencealerts.com/elearning.htm. Be warned that the list is not comprehensive. For example the ASTD TechKnowledge 2008 conference which MicroAssist will be attending is not on the list (http://tk07.astd.org/TK2008.htm)

Qipit - Capture documents, whiteboards and handwritten notes with your camera phone

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 23:26:35 GMT

Qipit.com ("Clip It") offers a free service that allos you to copy whiteboards and documents with your camera phone (or a camera)