tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-83398184374721460732024-03-13T04:13:15.166-07:00Learning e-LearningThis blog is my first step towards learning and sharing anything and everything that has to do with e-learning.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.comBlogger17125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-53761567397281494802008-11-06T06:08:00.000-08:002019-01-02T12:04:23.134-08:00My Work Literacy ExperienceMichele Martin wonders on her <a href="http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/11/has-the-work-literacy-course-been-successful-how-do-we-know.html">blog </a>and on the <a href="http://workliteracy.ning.com/forum/topics/was-this-course-successful-how?id=2319680%3ATopic%3A9052&page=2#comments">course's Ning site </a>whether the Work Literacy course has been successful and what defines the success of such online courses. I think the activities and discussions on the site are evidence enough to judge the ‘successfulness’ of a course like this. But, I shouldn't speak for others, so I’ll just talk about what my experience has been till now.<br /><br />I joined the Work Literacy online course only out of curiosity. I was familiar with the tools but was not sure where and how they fit into my learning and in the learning I create for others. I had initially planned to be just a spectator – just observing what people do with all these tools, etc. But, the discussions pulled me in the very first week.<br /><br />The learning community here made me realize that I need to get out of my zone and get involved in the discussions. I felt I had some experiences that I could share. For example, some of the tools featured or popular in the group were different from the ones I’d tried. So, I tried the featured/popular tools and blogged about the experience. I really enjoyed doing that apart from learning about more tools. Now, I know the differences between the various tools a little better. No one tool is absolutely the best. Each has its own pros and cons. So, when I need to use one of them to create some training, I think I’ll know which one will work best for that situation.<br /><br />The other good thing that came out of this for me is I came across several ideas and actual implementations of the Web 2.0 tools in learning. In fact, one of the best things about this course was that it was conducted through Ning. And seeing it being implemented in real time for a real online course made its usefulness so much more evident.<br /><br />The site served as a single central resource for all information and activities. This, I feel, was much better than having resources on multiple networks and multiple media. Though, there was some branching out to other sites, you could basically access whatever you need through the Ning site. So, I didn’t have to keep track of too many resources and networks.<br /><br />The fact that we could choose our level of learning/interaction helped immensely. I didn’t feel pressured to complete everything. I lurked around, popped in on discussions, fiddled with the tools, and wrote about my experiences, depending on my level of familiarity with the tools and the amount of time I had. It was true self-paced learning.<br /><br />To summarize:<br />I learned to use new Web 2.0 tools<br />I picked up new skills with tools I was already using.<br />I picked up ideas for using Web 2.0 for professional development (creating an online portfolio through delicious, LinkedIn, etc.)<br />I learned about how others implement Web 2.0 tools in<img alt="Bulleted List" border="0" class="gl_list_bullet" src="https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif"> their course designs<br />I now use Web 2.0 more regularly for my personal learning.<br />I can now think of ways to use Web 2.0 in my organization and in the courses I design.<br /><br />Basically, I am more confident about my Web 2.0 skills and I know what I can do with them. So, I guess I can say that the course was pretty successful for me. :)Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-72640270010929890512008-10-22T07:24:00.000-07:002008-10-22T07:28:22.429-07:00RSS Feeds and Aggregators - Google and Netvibes<a href="http://workliteracy.ning.com/notes/Week_4%3A_RSS_and_Aggregators">Week 4 of Work Literacy</a> is about RSS feeds and aggregators. I decided to post about it here instead of writing a long comment on the forums. (It also makes up for my blog for the week.)<br />I’ve been using Google Reader and have been quite content with it. I can see the feeds like in an e-mail inbox, which works fine for me. I use several folders to sort the feeds and am able to track what’s new for a particular subject quite easily.<br />One of the aggregators recommended on Work Literacy is Netvibes. So, I created a Netvibes page today and found that it is quite good. You can add all sorts of feeds to it. I imported my feeds from Google Reader and each folder was added as a new tab very smoothly. I was impressed. I also added other feeds like news, Delicious, and Twitter to my private page. I realized that if I add these and my other social networking feeds to my public page, I'll be able to create a pretty decent online profile. Cool! I tried to do that and here’s the <a href="http://www.netvibes.com/vineetha#General">public profile</a> I’ve created.<br />Btw, Mashable has this great piece on <a href="http://mashable.com/2008/10/13/how-to-manage-social-profiles/">How to Manage Your Social Profiles and Create Virtual Business Cards</a>. I think Netvibes is another tool you can possibly use to manage and share your multiple social profiles.<br />The only problem I faced is that I have to look through the entire page to find out what’s new on which feed. For example, I have one tab for e-learning that probably has about 20 blogs. So, there are 20 little modules on that tab and I need to search to see which ones have been updated. I found that somewhat cumbersome. If I break them into smaller groups, I’ll end up having too many tabs to scroll through. Is there an easier way to read through the feeds? Google Reader has read and unread posts and the feeds are added like new e-mails, which makes it easy to identify what has been updated. I can easily mark favorites with a star, edit tags, e-mail and share posts, etc. But, I’m just starting off with Netvibes. I’m sure it has features I don’t know about.<br />But, then again, as I’ve said before, I am a Google fan, and I think iGoogle works pretty much the same was as Netvibes does. It allows you to add all sorts of widgets, which includes direct RSS feeds. You can create tabs and arrange your widgets accordingly. I have widgets for news, reader, and e-mail on my iGoogle page. So, I only need to check that one Web page to get all updates. After I saw that Netvibes allows you to add Twitter, Delicious, etc., I looked at the Google gadgets more closely and sure enough, they too have a host of related gadgets I can add to my iGoogle page.<br />So, basically, apart from the public and private page feature of Netvibes (which I must say is a good thing to have), I don’t see anything that is radically different. I guess I’m going to continue using Reader for RSS and iGoogle as my aggregator till I find information that Netvibes has other better features I haven’t stumbled upon yet.<br /><br />P.S. I've only had time to play with one new tool this week. If I can I'll try a couple more and post my views here.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-80798274751513617512008-10-16T04:17:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:31:41.616-07:00My Social Bookmarks: Delicious, Notebook, etcI'm reproducing a <a href="http://workliteracy.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2319680%3ABlogPost%3A6077">blog post </a>I posted at the <a href="http://workliteracy.ning.com/">Work Literacy Ning site </a>as a part of the social bookmarking week.<br /><br />This workshop has been very exciting for me so far, even with my limited participation. Last week I learned some good stuff about social networking sites I was already using, but not to their full potential.<br />This week is about social bookmarking. I haven’t been big on sharing my bookmarks. Apart from the browser bookmarks, I’ve been using Google Bookmarks and Notebook from the Google toolbar on my browser to clip and organize my bookmarks. I use only my browser bookmarks for personal sites, such as banks. I use Notebook to clip and add notes to articles and blogs I find interesting or useful, and have also published them as posts on my blogs. Notebook also allows you to add links, clippings and notes to your bookmarks. You can create a “notebook” with a group of related or daily links, add your comments, and then publish it as a post to your blog or share it as an individual Web page. So, it can work as a social bookmark but not exactly in the way delicious or diigo does.<br />Since Delicious is the focus of this course, I decided to set up an account and try using it. And I quite like it. It is similar and different to Notebook in quite a few ways. Both allow you to add tags and comments to links and share them with your network. The way you group and share the links is different.<br />While anything you add to delicious is instantly shared on the public domain unless you specifically select the option to not do so, with Notebook, you have to specifically share each Notebook by publishing it and then maybe invite people to see it. But, with Notebook, I can invite others to collaborate. Instead of me just putting up my views about a particular topic or link, I can ask others to share what they think as well. So, we can probably use this as a collaborative tool for maybe a research project, a study, a book review, and so on.<br />Paradoxically, I like the openness of Delicious and the privacy of Notebook. I’ll use Delicious to just quickly share links with the world in general and my network in particular (when I build one). I’ll use Notebook when I find stuff that I find interesting but may not necessarily want to share, or when I find an article I need time to reflect and comment upon in depth. Notebook won’t force me to think up my notes and reflections immediately. I can take my time to think, rite, and then post.<br />I also tried Diigo briefly, but it gave me so much trouble with IE (we use it at work) that I stopped almost as soon as I started using it. From Melanie’s forum, I can see how useful Diigo can be in a learning environment. Maybe, when I want to implement social bookmarking as a learning/teaching strategy, I’ll consider Diigo more seriously.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-19290990974455626312008-10-10T05:11:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:29:34.554-07:00How To Get Started in E-learning- The Big Question<a href="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7726/803/1600/172437/orange,%20no%20drawer.gif"><img style="FLOAT: left; MARGIN: 0px 10px 10px 0px; WIDTH: 114px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 77px" height="189" alt="" src="http://photos1.blogger.com/x/blogger/7726/803/1600/172437/orange,%20no%20drawer.gif" border="0" /></a><br /><p></p><p></p><p>The <a href="http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2008/10/first-elearning.html">ASTD Big Question</a> this month is what advice would you give to someone new to the field. Where do you start?<br /><br /></p><p></p><p></p><p>Well, here are some of my ideas:</p><ul><li>Create a “to-learn list” for yourself. What do you think you need to learn before you can confidently say you’re ready to enter the field as a practitioner? Prioritize the list. Go at it one by one. Trying to do too much at a time can lead to information overload and pretty much ineffective. If possible, get your list whetted by an expert to weed out stuff you don’t really need to know (like maybe the technology behind an LMS or high-end graphic editing) and emphasize the stuff you should know (like which tools should be used for what).</li><br /><li>Learn to use at least 2 or 3 different tools on your own. Hands-on learning is the best. Use whatever tools you have to create a small module on any topic. Start with describing and storyboarding your design in Word, move on to PowerPoint, and then use trial versions of other rapid-authoring tools like Captivate and Articulate to develop the entire module including screencasts, audio, etc. Use different tools to design and create the same topic. This will help you explore their features and enhance your module as you go along.</li><br /><li>Create modules for different subjects. It will help you develop a variety of skills.</li><br /><li>Find resources on the Web. Look for articles, blogs, and videos that can help you with each tool. <a href="http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning">The Rapid e-learning blog</a> is a good starting point with lots of good ideas and tips.<br />Subscribe to bloggers who regularly blog about the items on your “to-learn” list. Contact the ones that inspire you most. Ask them questions, comment on their posts. You can learn a lot from just interacting with the experts.</li><br /><li>Create a Linked-in profile. You can get in touch with other professionals in the field apart from opening up job opportunities. Several organizations now look at Linked-In for potential recruits.</li><br /><li>Blog about your experiences. It helps you get things into perspective and invite thoughts and comments from others. Plus it’s a good addition to your online profile.</li><br /><li>Join an online network or community for e-learning professionals. Share your work with them and get their feedback. It will help you establish your presence and enhance your skills at the same time. You can put up your work on sites like SlideShare and YouTube.</li><br /><li>Attend online learning workshops and webinars. For example, a good online workshop that’s happening right now is <a href="http://workliteracy.ning.com/">Work Literacy</a>. It has some great resources and activities that can help you develop some neat Web 2.0 skills. You can use these skills to build your network or just get a hang of the tools that you can later use in your courseware development.</li></ul><br /><p>There are some good lists out there with more things you can do to become a better e-learning professional. A few I particularly like are:<br /><a href="http://lisaneal.wordpress.com/2008/03/10/ten-things-you-can-do-in-ten-minutes-to-be-a-more-successful-e-learning-professional/">Ten Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes To Be a More Successful e-learning Professional</a><br /><a href="http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=articles&article=60-1">Ten Web 2.0 Things You Can Do in Ten Minutes to Be a More Successful E-learning Professional</a><br /><a href="http://www.c4lpt.co.uk/articles/socialmedia.html">12 Step Plan to getting started with Social Media</a><br /><br />Finally, there’s only one thing that can really help you understand and apply all the theory you may have learned – a real, live project. That is the best way to learn. Get a job that will help you learn and grow at the same time. Easier said than done? Maybe. But, nothing works better than applying yourself to a real-world situation to actually understand how near or far you are from becoming an e-learning professional.</p>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-34510075882044587782008-09-26T08:45:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:31:31.121-07:00Big Question: To-Learn ListsMy response to this month's <a href="http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/2008/09/to-learn-lists.html">Big Question</a>:<br /><br />I’m sure few people have a formal to-learn list. We all start with a to-do list. We don’t start thinking in terms of learning; we first start thinking in terms of doing. What is it that we want to do; do we know how to do it? Only if the answer is no, does learning come into the picture. We rarely want to learn something just for the “heck” of it. Isn’t that the premise of the all too important motivation factor, the “what’s in it for me?” factor that we incorporate in every course we create? It has to have a relevance to the learner’s life and needs.<br /><br />Of course there are exceptions. I may come across something interesting that I want to learn about, even though it may not directly impact my life. But, I believe that doesn’t happen too often, unfortunately. And of course, though we may want to learn something irrelevant, we mostly end up not doing that because they’re not linked to a to do item<br /><br />So, basically we first create to-do lists and then create to-learn lists as an auxiliary document (mostly in our minds). Consequently, it’s the to learns that are associated with the to dos at the top of the list that get preference in our personal learning catalog.<br /><br />For example, I want to keep up with the new e-learning trends. I want to implement them in my courses. So, I’ve started learning and working with Web 2.0 tools. I want to create game-based learning. I have some experience with them but not enough. So, I want to learn to design and develop (at least the logic) such courses. I plan to take that up more intensively as soon as I feel I’m comfortable with e-learning 2.0. I love music and dancing. I want to learn to play the guitar, I want to learn to do the salsa. But, right now it doesn’t have an important bearing on my life (yeah, I know, it’s too focused on work). So, I will learn these skills, but I don’t have a time frame.<br /><br />We should have formal to-learn lists. That would help us be more focused and have concrete learning goals for professional and personal development. You can have lists linked to to-do lists or categorized into professional and personal learning lists. Have a time-frame fixed to each item on the list along with a reason why you should do it. Spend some time every day tracking your progress and revising the list. The sense of personal achievement that would come out of crossing items off that list would be worth the little trouble we’ll take to set it up.<br /><br />In fact, we could create shared to-learn lists online, similar to the wish lists shopping sites have. The lists can be used to form online learning communities, who share and learn through each other every day. Instead of having to rummage through hundreds of online resources to get what we need, we could learn through connectivism and collaborative learning. We do some of that now, but the lists might make it more structured and easier.<br /><br />A to-learn list, whether personal or shared, will of course only be able to document the conscious learning decisions we make. The things we learn while simply surfing the Web, reading the newspaper, etc. cannot obviously be captured. But, if you realize you’ve just learned something new, you can add it to a have-learned list. You should also not restrict your learning to the list. Learning is an ongoing continuous process. Having a list doesn’t mean you stop at the end of the list, you have to keep adding to it, as often or more often than you cross out items from it.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-26973304340296119602008-09-25T07:57:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:29:06.898-07:00Let's Spread the ID Word<p>One of the biggest challenges the e-learning industry in India faces is a lack of awareness about the industry and instructional design. As a part of the recruitment panel in my organization, I've experienced, first hand, the difficulty in finding and recruiting good IDs and writers.<br /><br /><a href="http://manishmo.blogspot.com/2008/09/getting-started-with-instructional.html">Manish Mohan</a> has written a post containing helpful resources and tips for aspiring instructional designers. The post is very useful for someone trying to break into instructional design from other careers or straight from college. On the topic of instructional design courses in India, Manish says:<br /><br /></p><blockquote>“I am not sure how good the courses in India are. I recommend getting a job<br />instead. Symbiosis is quoted more often in conversations and so must be gaining<br />some popularity as an instructional design course. But honestly, as a manager<br />who has had to recruit for ID, I look for prior experience, and if there is no<br />prior experience, I look for their core writing skills and ability to learn.<br />Having a diploma is good but not essential.”</blockquote><p><br />I couldn’t agree more. I strongly believe you can learn much more and better on the job than by taking a distance learning course that only gives you the theories and not the application. In fact I’ll go one step further and state that core writing skills and ability to learn will stand you in better stead than simply taking instructional design courses. I’ve frequently come across candidates with a certificate, diploma, or even master’s in ID, but close to zero writing skills. On the other hand, I’ve recruited several freshers with a strong command over the language, an enthusiasm to learn and above average analytical ability. I’m not saying that the courses being offered are not good. I haven’t seen the material for any of them too closely. What I’m saying is that just the course won’t help. You need to develop some basic skills above and beyond that. The theories and principles behind the strategies being used can be practiced and learnt on the job. According to me, to be a good instructional writer and designer, you need to have the following skills at the very least:</p><ul><li>Strong writing skills</li><li>Effective communication</li><li>Logical and analytical ability</li><li>Enthusiasm for learning new things</li></ul><p>It’s not that we don’t have enough talented people, the problem is that they are hardly aware that such an avenue exists. In most interviews with candidates who have no exposure to e-learning, I end up spending a chunk of the time explaining what the job of an instructional writer or designer actually entails. Most people I talk to tend to confuse it with content or technical writing. It may have some connections depending on the subject matter of your courseware. But, otherwise they are miles apart. </p><p><br />With e-learning becoming more and more accessible to people in India, people are sitting up and taking notice of this learning medium. Distance learning, which until recently meant couriering booklets of notes and assignments, is fast turning into synchronous and asynchronous e-learning modules. If people start engaging in e-learning as consumers, they may also want to become producers. And, now, with several big names entering into the e-learning domain in India or setting up their own e-learning training departments, things might change further. Maybe the day will come when people won’t give me the blank look of incomprehension when I tell them what I do for a living.</p>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-85056694111445322442008-09-23T05:59:00.000-07:002008-09-23T07:04:27.711-07:00Guilty of Inactivity!The day you get a break from work overload, the network decides to give you trouble! I’m not able to do any of the stuff I was supposed to do. I have a lot of catching up to do with CCK08. I have to respond to e-mails and reconnect with some friends. I want to update my blog. I want to tinker around with several of the new software I’ve been reading about. The list is endless.<br /><br />Hmm…maybe what I actually need to do is to set up a scheduler for myself. In doing the things that seem to be on higher priority at work and home, I seem to be losing out on time to do things for myself. I just about manage to skim through my RSS reader everyday. On some days, I manage to clip the more interesting bits and post them. But, I feel I’m restricting as well as overwhelming myself at the same time. The most activity I do online is read. I spend all my “free” time reading and bookmarking stuff that primarily shows up on my RSS reader. So, I don’t get the time to actually put the knowledge or information I get into actual use. I don’t update my blogs as often as I’d like. I don’t comment on others’ blogs as often as I like. I don’t participate in communities as much as I’d like. (Most times, I find it’s too late to say what I want to say or that someone else has said it better.) I also don't use the strategies and tools as much as I'd like.<br /><br />I know this gripe seems repetitive...I expressed similar sentiments some months ago as well. But, I have progressed a little from that state, its only that the progress could've been better and faster.<br /><br />I’ve started suffering from homophily too. Instructional design and elearning are close to my heart and I absolutely love to devour write-ups about new developments in this field. But, most times I end up spending all my time online with things only related to these. In fact, even within elearning, I feel the only things we’re talking about is eLearning 2.0. Of course it is a great new development and there are many exciting things happening in it. But, I guess it’s about information overload.<br /><br />In short, homophily and information overload are making me feel saturated and tired. Maybe I should take a break and consciously take out time to do stuff other than (just) reading about the same stuff again and again. We don’t use many elearning 2.0 tools at work or in the courses we develop. I’m, unfortunately, still working on projects that are modeled completely on elearning 1.0. And a change in strategy is not in my hands. But, yes I hope to be doing that soon. In fact, I’ve taken on myself the task of setting up wikis for my workplace colleagues to help in sharing knowledge and learnings from current and past projects. It’s been progressing in bits and pieces in between the regular workload, but I hope to be done with it soon. Let’s see how that goes.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-64881212532292149832008-09-22T07:04:00.000-07:002008-09-25T08:08:32.732-07:00Motivation FactorsA friend of mine has just joined a new office, a BPO, where she’s taking voice and accent training classes. And it seems that, most of the training is classroom training. The subject seems so apt for a good blended-learning model, I’m surprised that the organization (a pretty large one at that) has chosen to stick to the traditional model. But, what I found more interesting is that the trainer uses a version of the “reward” and “punishment” motivator. For every mistake a trainee make in class, like mispronouncing a word, using slang, etc., he/she is “charged” a fixed sum. Every error has a “fee” assigned to it depending on the gravity of the error. An account is maintained for these transactions and apparently, if the trainees complete the training successfully, the fund collected will be used to throw a party for the class.<br /><br />Frankly, initially, I was skeptical about the effectiveness of this motivator. My reasons being:<br />The trainees are not kids or teenagers; they’re adults, most with some kind of experience in the same or similar industry. This kind of motivation is (to me) a little juvenile for the audience. In the beginning it might seem a fun thing, but I think after a point, they’d stop caring too much about it.<br />There are punishments for errors, but I didn’t hear about any rewards for good performance. Where’s the balancer then? We need a positive motivator too right?<br />If we consider the end-of-training party to be a positive motivator, well it gets more interesting. To really have a good party, the trainees should in fact make as many mistakes as possible, deliberately. Because remember, that’s how the party is being financed.<br /><br />But, then when I thought about it some more, I realized that something like this would probably encourage them to follow the trainer’s guidelines at all times, irrespective of time and place. It could simply be a fun element the trainer wanted to add to the class, which also makes the trainees consciously aware of their mistakes. And that’s how most of the real-world practical learning takes place, through trial and error. If you think about what they’re trying to teach and learn- language, grammar, voice, and other spoken language issues, it seems more likely that the students would learn from their own and others’ mistakes.<br /><br />What are your thoughts? Do you think this is an effective way to get the trainees involved? Or would you try something completely different?<br /><br />P.S.: I wonder if the errors are pointed out only by the trainer or does the group also take note of the errors on their own. If the entire class is involved, it might work better.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-76522502862720058252008-08-25T04:41:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:27:03.513-07:00eLearning Myths<a class="AttributeUrl" id="k-:n1" href="http://ignatiawebs.blogspot.com/2008/08/my-top-5-list-of-agonising-elearning.html">Ignatia Webs: My top 5 list of agonising eLearn...</a><br /> eLearning is putting text online and adding multiple choice questions!<br /><a class="AttributeUrl" id="k-:n11" href="http://brandon-hall.com/janetclarey/?p=730">Myths about online learning Janet Clarey</a><br />Myth: It takes less time to create an online course than a face-to-face course.<br /><br /><blockquote>Loved these posts. They provide a great insight into some of the problems we face as e-learning professionals daily. Just about captures all of my pet peeves!</blockquote>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-26732490623047814022008-08-21T06:28:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:28:41.040-07:00Caught My Eye Today<a class="AttributeUrl" id="jx362" href="http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/is-google-making-our-e-learning-stupid/" goog_docs_charindex="48">» Is Google Making Our E-Learning Stupid? The Rapid eLearning Blog</a><br />When people are online, they tend to look at the screen and quickly scan for information. They’re not changing that habit for your course. Structure the information so that it is easy to recognize the critical pieces.<br /><blockquote>Every time I work on a project that involves simply documenting information in text pages that seem to go on and on (yes, we have a client that wants it like that!), I wonder if the learners will really have the patience to read through it all and even if they do, how much will they retain or more importantly how much will they finally use in their workplace?<br />Short capsules of information such as lists, diagrams, rollovers, etc. should be an integral part of instructional design. Listing key points, for example, is a great way to capture attention and enhance retention. Even text books and other references use lists, different formatting styles etc. to call attention to important points on a page or in a topic. This will not dilute the learning if these strategies are backed up with enough detailed information. At the very least, we should give the learner the option and ways of getting more information about the relevant topics.</blockquote><br /><a class="AttributeUrl" id="jx3615" href="http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog//2008/08/e-learning-20-c.html" goog_docs_charindex="1302">The Bamboo Project Blog: e-Learning 2.0: Coming...</a><br />People are READING blogs and wikis pretty regularly, but they arent commenting on or editing them. We still have a way to go with the interactive aspects of social media, which to my mind are the primary reasons for using these tools for learning.<br /><br /><blockquote><p>The biggest hurdle will be to first convince organizations that these tools are in fact beneficial and maybe even essential to learning. Then, there's the need to convince people to add a few more minutes to the time they spend reading and start adding their own view points. I know I don't do much of these myself although I would love to. I've been trying to change it but the process has been slow. Something or the other always comes up that seems to be more important. I'm also a bit wary of these tools because it's very easy to get carried away and end up spending hours instead of minutes in reading and contributing because there's so much good stuff out there!</p></blockquote>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-62657672423044292222008-05-29T22:42:00.000-07:002008-09-23T06:37:50.154-07:00Travel to LearnI recently came across this article in the <a href="http://www.elearnmag.org/subpage.cfm?section=opinion&article=98-1">eLearn magazine</a> about the advantages/effectiveness of learning while traveling and it brought a flood of memories from my student days.<br />For one, I remember doing a lot of my assignments while traveling. (Not sure if that qualifies as learning though!)<br />I remember writing science journals, class assignments, et al on train rides to college. But, trains are easier to work in. My most accomplished feats were when I managed to complete engineering assignments on horrendously bumpy bus rides to college. Precariously balancing the files on your knees while trying to maintain a modicum of handwriting consistency on a peak-hour crowded bus is definitely not easy!<br />More importantly, the most studying I've done for almost every college exam has also probably been on my way to the college or exam center! We called it "revision" but, well, I think I retained most information from the 30-minute train/bus ride than the long days and nights of studying I did before the exams. (I think approaching deadlines do that to me. I’m more motivated if I know that the end to the misery is close by!)<br />I’ve also done a lot of analysis and reviews for projects when traveling. Taking printouts to read and jotting down notes on them have worked quite well for me. I’ve hit upon some really neat ideas on the train. Sometimes, a break from the usual surroundings works wonders for mental/writers’/designer’s blocks.<br />However, I also believe that we should not use all our traveling time or always use our traveling time for work and study. Because, for me, the travel time was also some quality “me” time. It gave me the space and the time to reflect and plan my day, my week…my life. It gave me the time to sort out things, dream, and basically just relax inspite of the crowds and the mad jostling for seats. Come to think of it, maybe that is also learning - from life.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-10987985853392364732008-05-07T07:19:00.001-07:002008-09-23T06:39:48.721-07:00Blogging Tool TroublesIt looks like the blogging tools have decide to boycott me!<br /><br />For some reason, <a href="http://www.technorati.com/">Technorati </a>won’t let me join and <a href="http://www.cocomment.com/">Cocomment </a>won’t work in my IE browser!<br /><br />Technorati: First, the home page doesn’t display correctly. Second, if it try to fill out the form for signing up, it won’t allow me to enter my complete e-mail address in the Confirm e-mail address box. So, if I try to submit the form, it returns an error because the first and the second addresses don’t match! Don’t know if switching to Firefox will help, but I’m going to try that.<br /><br />Cocomment: I added the extension to my IE browser. It worked fine the first day or so. After that it slowed down my browser so much that I had to disable the extension when I was working. Now, if try to enable it when I’m commenting, my browser freezer and I have to open Task Manager to close the window. Maybe it’s an issue with the amount of memory I have or maybe its once again an IE versus Firefox issue.<br /><br />If Firefox doesn’t work, I guess I’ll have to give up trying to use these tools! :(Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-26804068993469881492008-05-07T03:52:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:32:15.805-07:00Comment Challenge: What I’ve LearnedIt’s Day 7 of the Comment Challenge. I’d joined in thinking that I’ll be able to take it up and follow it through religiously. And today on Day 7, when the rest of the group is writing about what they’ve learned so far, I’ll have to admit that I’ve hardly been able to do much.<br /><br />Things have been a little crazy around the office. We’ll be shifting soon to a new location and there are a lot of activities happening around it. Plus, the new project has kicked off and I’m also responsible for training new people who have joined my team. There’s so much work, I haven’t even been able to read all the new stuff showing up on my Google Reader!<br /><br />Having said all that, I should say even through minimal contribution in the challenge I have learned, to my relief, that I’m not alone. The responses to my blog through this challenge have shown me that there’s a huge supportive and encouraging community out there.<br /><br />I think one of the big e-learning mantras has been proved for me - you learn better through interaction. I’ve learned that I’ll build my knowledge and expertise better by sharing it with others and interacting with the online community instead of just browsing through blogs and websites. Active learning versus passive learning!<br /><br />I intend to follow through all the tasks and activities that I missed in the challenge. After all, the challenge doesn’t end with this Challenge event. The real challenge is to continue improving our blogging and commenting practices in our quest to become better blog citizens long after this event is over. :)<br /><br /><em>And if you are part of </em><a href="http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com/" rel="nofollow"><em>The Comment Challenge</em></a><em> remember to add the " </em><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://technorati.com/tag/comment08" rel="nofollow"><em>comment08</em></a><em> " tag to your post.</em>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-59137239313745060922008-04-29T07:32:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:32:15.806-07:00Better BloggingI've not been a very active blogger. Most of the little time I get away from work is spent catching up with other interesting blogs and websites. One of the blogs I follow is the <a href="http://michelemartin.typepad.com/thebambooprojectblog/">Bamboo Project Blog</a>. That is how I came across the <a href="http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com/">31-day Comment Challenge</a>. The concept sounds interesting and will probably give blogging newbies like me the opportunity and the motivation to connect with the rest of the world. So, I've decided to jump in.<br /><br />While reading up on this challenge, I came across the earlier one on better blogging. The tips from that challenge have now been added to my "to-do" list.<br /><br />Let's see how everything turns out. The past few days at work have been relatively relaxed...the few days of transition from one project to another. So, I've been able to read up more, write more, learn more, and basically do more. I've got myself started on a number of new things. Soon, I may go back to the days of very little time for anything. But, I hope to keep this momentum going inspite of that.<br /><br /><em>And if you are part of </em><a href="http://commentchallenge.wikispaces.com/" rel="nofollow"><em>The Comment Challenge</em></a><em> remember to add the " </em><a class="wiki_link_ext" href="http://technorati.com/tag/comment08" rel="nofollow"><em>comment08</em></a><em> " tag to your post. </em>Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-15752511363623299532008-04-22T06:54:00.000-07:002008-10-16T06:32:15.806-07:00My first steps in e-Learning 2.0E-learning 2.0, much like Web 2.0, is about communicating, collaborating, and experiencing content first-hand. Over the past year or so, I’ve been reading a lot about all the exciting new stuff happening in the industry.<br /><br />I have to admit when I first heard about and read blogs, they never quite seemed educational to me! They were more for, well “time-pass”. But, now, blogs are where I’m learning most from, especially, the new learning trends. Those blogs are what inspired this one! Just reading about what others have done, are doing, will be doing is enough to set me want to know, want to learn, want to do more! In the same “genre” are podcasts, webcasts, etc. which I’m yet to try myself...maybe some day I will.<br /><br />Then, there are wikis. I was intrigued about its potential; especially after I read someone describe an actual course they developed with a wiki as one of the elements. That’s when I thought… well, maybe this works. So, I went ahead and created one! No, its not in the public domain right now…maybe I’ll put it out there when I feel more confident about they way it is shaping up. But, I’m definitely warming up to the idea of how it may work in a classroom/community/group based learning system. There are some concerns about the authenticity and credibility of the information people put up in these wikis. There are reports that the original wiki, Wikipedia may have some accuracy issues since the content is not ratified by experts. This is also leading to serious concerns because a huge number of people, students and teachers included, are increasingly using Wikipedia as a source of reference for practically everything under the sun! That said, the power of wikis as a collaborative tool is definitely worth considering, especially in an instructor-led learning environment, where someone can ratify the wiki contributions.<br /><br />What other exciting stuff have I learned? Well, there’s rapid e-learning. I’m not a great fan of using rigid, inflexible templates to create look-alike courses, and I definitely don’t subscribe to the notion that someday anyone will be able to use them to create meaningful, effective learning. However, I do see the utility of using the rapid e-learning tools too. Especially, now that I know not all of them are as rigid as I thought they were. You can definitely create some pretty neat stuff with them. So, I’ve decided I’m going to start using some of these tools.<br /><br />The other interesting e-learning 2.0 development is Second Life or virtual worlds in general. This is an area I’ve only really read about and am itching to try. And in all probability that is going to be the thing I do next (when I manage to get enough free time of course!).<br /><br />Oh and that reminds me of the regular educational games -the serious kind that people are now thinking of calling Immersive Learning Simulations. I created a few of them some time back for a K-12 audience and well, I want to do more! I loved the concept, challenge, and creativity involved in creating them. I absolutely believe that games can be a great educational tool if designed correctly.<br /><br />I guess that’s my list of what I’ve learned and what I plan to learn about e-learning in general and e-learning 2.0 in particular.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-44837332674773765982008-02-08T15:13:00.000-08:002008-04-07T00:30:12.344-07:00How much ID do we need?I’ve been following the <a href="http://learningcircuits.blogspot.com/">LCB </a>for some time now. This time I thought instead of just being a passive audience, let me jump in with my own thoughts.<br /><br />This month's question is:<br />"For a given project, how do you determine if, when and how much an instructional designer and instructional design is needed?"<br /><br />Instructional designers definitely bring a lot of skills to the table. ID doesn’t mean taking a bunch of theories and applying them to every course. ID also doesn't mean just taking some content and entering it into a tool or slideshow without too much thought. It’s much more than that.<br /><br />First and foremost, IDs have the ability to identify with the audience. They understand what the learner needs and to what extent from a course. They apply their logical and analytical abilities to not just break down content into logical blocks but also structure and design these blocks in a way that helps learners learn more effectively. They identify when to use what kind of instructional treatment. Their ability to understand the learner’s requirements and align it with the company’s requirements is what makes them an essential part of training.<br /><br />Sure we have rapid authoring/development tools now that can make it easy to develop courseware. But then these tools are, as their name suggests, for development not design. You can’t just dump content in and then get the tools to structure it logically and insert appropriate activities and exercises. Someone should know when and where to use which feature of the tool in the course.<br /><br />Having worked with a lot of SMEs, I can say that we can probably have SME create training content if they’re going to be the ones conducting it. That way learners can ask questions for more clarity if required. Because most of the problems I’ve faced with them was either too much or too little content. We (IDs) had to constantly ask them questions to get the right content for the course. Though they were experts in their field, some of them had absolutely no clue of what or how to teach. They would sometimes forget that we might be teaching technology to people who haven’t been exposed to it before. Getting them to drop jargons and keep it simple was essential.<br /><br />Instructional designers are also involved in creating the material for courses that SMEs deliver. The moot point being that SMEs know their subject matter, but they may not know their audience and their learning needs that well. IDs help streamline the learning. I'm not saying SMEs can't do it...a lot of them can, but they do need to develop some instructional design skills if not have a full-time instructional designer helping them. I've even been on projects where IDs doubled up as SMEs.<br /><br />And yes the intensity of ID involvement may vary from project to project. Some may need only high-level input, where the ID defines the course structure and overall strategy that stands true for all courses in a program. The ID may also be involved in creating a typical proto and then create some global templates. Using these materials, maybe someone else like the SME or content writers can plug in content to create the complete courseware.<br /><br />Then there are the custom courses, which generally require more intensive and hands-on work from IDs. They need to design each course to look different yet consistent from the other. Such courses require an ID to design everything from the course structure and overall strategy to a screen-level breakup and treatment of content.<br /><br />So, basically it depends…but do we need instructional design at all? If you need an instructionally sound, complete learning experience, you definitely do!Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8339818437472146073.post-29524741068811230982008-01-29T09:09:00.001-08:002008-08-14T06:53:49.809-07:00How it All BeganSince I intend this blog to be on my experience with e-learning, let me start from the beginning. How did I get into e-learning?<br /><br />It was the June of 2002 when I passed out of college. It was also the period of an IT slowdown- the dotcom bubble had burst and there were not many jobs for fresh out-of-college kids like me.<br /><br />I wanted a job in the high-flying software industry, but nothing was quite working out. And the only ones that seemed available were the call-center ones and the marketing executive ones. In one, I’d have to answer calls from mostly irate customers all night and in the other I’d have to sell things even I wouldn’t buy. I decided both were not for me and so continued waiting for my dream job to come along. <br /><br />Then one day, I came to know about an e-learning company that was looking for Technical Writers. I was excited. I wasn't completely sure what e-learning was but it seemed like a perfect stop-gap arrangement (I was still dreaming of a software developer job). I'd always loved writing (I’d be at the top of my English class almost throughout school...in fact, my English teacher wanted me to take up writing as a career, but that was never seriously considered.) And here was an opportunity that looked like it would also involve some technical know-how. It seemed to be the perfect combination.<br /><br />I went for the test and interview and was offered the job the same day. I joined the next day. Turned out that the term “technical writer” was not entirely accurate. I was more of an Instructional writer, writing storyboards for software and other IT-training courses. That, to me, was even better! I could work with different, new software all the time!<br /><br />As I started learning and understanding what e-learning and instructional design was all about, I felt I’d found what I’d been looking for. I’d found something that appealed to several different sides of me, the writer, the thinker, the techie…it was no longer a stop-gap arrangement.<br /><br />The best part was that I was there at the right time working with the right people. I got to learn a lot and fast. My interest drove me to learn more and consequently achieve more at work. I didn’t have much of the theoretical knowledge (Maybe I still don’t). Although, I did go through some formal training at work, most of what I know has been picked up on the job. I frequently found that the ID practices I’d been using had their basis in some theories I didn’t know about. And I believe to some extent that is the best way to learn. Unless you know to apply them, theories hold little value. And that is true for whatever you want to learn, whatever you want to teach.<br /><br />Now, I’ve spent close to 5 years in this field and have moved to projects other than IT and with that has come the other revelation, it it not so much about IT anymore...it is about writing, about learning, about ID... it is all about e-learning.Vineethahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03008210494851260298noreply@blogger.com0