Toluu

The Rapid eLearning Blog

Practical, real-world tips for e-learning success.

Now You Can Design E-Learning Courses Like a ProYesterday

I love to watch the TED videos.  I usually watch them on the plane when I travel.  What I like about them is that the subject matter is really interesting, the videos are just about the right length, and I always learn something. 

Recently I was watching Gever Tulley’s TED presentation, 5 Dangerous Things You Should Let Your Kids Do.  If you haven’t seen it I highly recommend it.  His five dangerous things are:

After watching the video, I decided to get my seven-year-old son a small tool kit for Christmas so that we can work on dangerous thing number four and take some stuff apart.  My wife’s not too keen on him throwing spears or driving a car…or worse yet, throwing a flaming spear (that he sharpened with his pocket knife) out of a moving car.  So deconstructing appliances is the family-approved danger for now.

This past weekend we took apart an old toaster.   As we were dismantling it, we discussed how the toaster worked and what the different parts d

Create E-Learning Scenarios By Bringing the Virtual World into the Real WorldDecember 9 2008

This is kind of a bittersweet post.  Originally, I was going to write about using Google Lively’s virtual world to build scenes and characters for your elearning courses.  The application was free and had some potential as a learning tool.  Apparently, I was the only one who was using it, so Google decided to pull the plug.  Oh well.  If it’ll help the stock price, I’m all for it.  The 8 shares I own aren’t doing too well right now.

Even with the demise of Lively, the essence of the post still stands.  So I’m moving forward with it.  You’ll just need to find a different virtual world tool.  Any of them should work.  Make sure to read the terms of agreement.  If you’re not quite sure where to start, there’s always Second Life.  TechCrunch recently did a blog post that mentions a few of them for even more choices.

What makes this approach so compelling for rapid elearning is the cost, ease of use, and ability to create virtually any type of scenario for your courses.  Here’s a quick scenario that I built.  Check it out.  Then I’ll explain how I pulled it all together.

When It Makes Sense to Pay for Professional NarrationNovember 4 2008

Your rapid elearning software makes it easy to record your narration.  Most of the time that works for you.  However, there are times when recording your own narration doesn’t make sense.  Today we’re going to look at when it makes sense to consider professional narration for some of your elearning courses.

A Good Voice Doesn’t Equal Good Results

“Why pay for professional narration?  Joe and Samantha have good voices.  Let’s get them to do it.”  On the surface, this sounds like a good plan.  But that might not be the case.

• Joe and Samantha have good voices but they aren’t professional narrators.  It takes more than just a good speaking voice to get the inflections and tone right.  Because of this, using Joe and Samantha requires a lot more time and retakes to get it right. 
• Your recording equipment consists of a headset microphone and a less-than-state-of-the-art laptop.  And your “recording studio” is a spare conference room.  There’s a lot of ambient office noise and a really loud air conditioner. 
• Since you’re probably not an audio expert, you are less efficient when you record.  You can’t monitor the audio while you’re recording, so you only record a port

5 Common Quiz Question Mistakes (And How to Avoid Them)October 28 2008

 

Assessing the learner’s progress is important.  How else can we provide the best feedback or certify that the learner’s met a certain level of understanding?  That’s why we need to ask the right questions.  Avoid the following mistakes and you’ll create a more effective learning experience.

Here’s a simple quiz that demonstrates some of the mistakes I discuss below.

Click here to view quiz demo.

The questions are either too easy or downright stupid.

We’ve all seen them.  You take a quiz and there’s one good answer choice and all of the rest are obviously not right (or plain silly).  It’s like the course designer just went through the motions.  This type of quiz question does nothing to measure the learner.  What’s the point of the quiz?  Why’s it even there?  Put

What Everyone Should Know About Working with Subject Matter ExpertsOctober 14 2008

At a recent conference, we were asked what typically held up the production process for elearning courses.  The number one response was working with the subject matter expert.  This makes sense since they play such a critical role in the course’s success.

The subject matter experts know the content and understand the work environment.  Because of this, much of your project hinges on their time and the commitment they make to the project. The challenge is that our subject matter experts are like the rest of us and just don’t have a lot of time to spare.

Since it is so critical to your success, now’s a good time to look at some ways to manage the relationship with your subject matter expert (SME).

Don’t expect your SME to be an expert at learning theory.

I’ve been in meetings where the elearning design team goes round and round with the SME about "real learning."  They’ll throw out names like Gagne and Bloom.  A brave one might even slip in learning theorist, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.  That’s not going to work.  We don’t want to come off as elitist know-it-alls.  Instead, we want to create great elearning.  Skip the name dropping.