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Below are the slides from my presentation at DevLearn 2009. I co-presented this session along with my colleague, John Polaschek. The presentation had two main areas of focus: How micro-blogging can be used to help facilitate discussions and knowledge-sharing between employees. How Qualcomm is using Yammer to help employees connect across divisions and geographic regions. I hope you enjoy it, even though you won’t have our charming personalities to accompany the slides! MORE
This article, by Eric Matas, is the first of a three part series on the Psychology of Elearning. Eric is an Instructional Designer at the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis. Thanks, Eric!! Designers love a little cognitive load theory. Any glimpse into the brains of learners sparks a trainer’s curiosity. It makes sense: if you want to influence brains with new knowledge, it helps to know how brains function best while learning. MORE
Experience tells me that elearning people do not have a lot of time to go back to the vault of existing training and revise it. New projects dripping with deadlines take priority. Still, it’s not easy knowing that the older elearning is out there and that new hires will be required to take those courses–or worse: that whole teams or the entire company will retake one of those old modules every year. MORE
I feel some guilty pleasure when other trainers and elearning developers become jealous of my elearning app for the iPad. Because the Mac iOS doesn’t support Flash, many of my colleagues haven’t been able to take advantage of the best elearning tool ever: the iPad. My app did not cost that much ($7,000 developed in 2010 and $4000 for upgrades in 2011). Still, even those costs are not readily available to many training teams. MORE
By the time school let out each summer, I was already done learning. Sure, classes were wrapping up and testing was done, but I was intellectually checked-out because it was too hot for learning. Right now, in the midwest especially, the heat and humidity are collaborating to ruin everyone’s days. The dew point is so high that windows and glasses are sweating. Everyone is so sticky in the muggy air that nothing seems like a good idea. Except maybe a thunderstorm. MORE
Mark Lassoff of LearnToProgram.tv. I was very lucky to catch Mark Lassoff in between speaking at DevLearn, working on his forthcoming book from Focal Press, and producing his next training video for the company he founded, LearnToProgram.tv. Mark is an anomoly in the world of elearning these days, because he knows how to code. I’m not just talking about the two big programming languages, HTML and Flash. MORE
One of eLearningWeekly.com’s most popular posts is eLearning Jobs. It is even far more popular than the follow-up that B.J. posted called More eLearning Job Resources. Both posts offer links to sites that show elearning job listings galore. But what do you do once you’ve found a job you want? We’re here to help with that. MORE
Ding-dong. Girls. Girls’ club. An organization for young girls, young women, powerful women. And it’s for the kids! Delicious cookies. (It It teaches them about business. About selling. Money. Honesty.). I’d like to sell to you, for $3.50, a box of thin chocolaty-minty learning cookies. Learning that you would enjoy. Binge on. Freeze for later. And even share with friends and family. (I I am talking about elearning.). MORE
I interviewed the guys at OpenSesame to find out what they are up to and why everyone is talking about the hoodies from DevLearn. They are changing the way elearning, module-by-module, is bought and sold online. eLearning Weekly Interview with Josh Blank, SVP/General Manager, and Tom Turnbull, VP/Community Development at Open Sesame. eLW: I go to OpenSesame.com and see that you are the elearning marketplace — what does that mean? MORE
Conference News! This April, in Chicago, I will be speaking about mlearning design and strategy at Learning Tech 2012. I love Chicago. It’s a city with an energy that makes events especially invigorating. I hope to see you there, April 23-25. MORE
As part of my research on LMS options, I found one that is so inexpensive that it still boggles my brain. Let me get right to the price before I share the features: $15,000 per year. For Topyx, that’s it. If you have been a part of purchasing an LMS, you know that 15 grand a year is practically unbelievable. MORE
eLearning Weekly welcomes our newest contributor, Kevin Thorn. Following up on last week’s post titled, “Top 5 Skills for eLearning in 2011,” I’d like to explore this at a different angle. We could go two ways with this: Brand new to the eLearning industry, or a seasoned veteran honing their skills. MORE
The face of the LMS is quickly changing. Five years ago, I could name only a half-dozen LMS options. Today I find new ones every week, and I estimate that there are more than 200 viable LMS choices. I just completed an investigation of 35 LMS solutions, and found many cool companies and versatile tools. What I saw, and what I liked to see, was that many new LMS companies are trimming the fat off the traditional LMS behemoth. The newer LMS software offers only the options people actually use. MORE
One of the best pieces of advice my father gave me was, “Discover what you’re good at and then learn how to make money at it.” Just like most obedient young boys, I totally ignored my father’s advice. Even though I’ve been drawing and cartooning my whole life and developing elearning for the past ten years, I never put the two together. I’m a decent artist but most artists are their own worst critics, and even though I was passionate about it, I never once considered earning a living doing it. MORE
My career in learning and technology happened by total chance. I started in the world of computer science and web programming, but quickly transitioned to educational technology and then eLearning. Building eLearning courses came naturally to me because I was used to building web sites and web applications. I built custom interactions in Flash, tamed SCORM, and wrote a ton of HTML and JavaScript. MORE
Don’t worry: no Flash is required. You don’t need to know how to program in Flash, and you don’t even need to own Flash software. You just need to head to eLearningInteractions.com and use the intuitive online tool. Once online, you are five steps away from having a beautiful Flash file (.SWF) SWF) to insert into your elearning. Click to launch the eLearning Interaction Builder. MORE
Tom Kuhlmann is VP of Community at Articulate. I can’t think of a cooler thing to be VP of—especially right now. Community and elearning are trending big time. You can visit the Community page on Articulate’s web site and learn that, as VP of community, Kuhlmann’s “ job is simple — to turn our users into rapid e-learning pros.&# MORE
What Can You Learn from This Guy? If you haven’t heard of Eric Bort, or don’t follow him on Twitter, don’t be surprised. He’s not ubiquitous online like other thought leaders. But his elearning has been seen by millions and it speaks for itself. This interview, perhaps more than any other we’ve done, will appeal to small business owners or those who are thinking about striking out on their own. MORE
It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. - James Thurber. You hear about the next training project you and your team have to manage. What questions come to mind? After questions about the main content, you’ll probably have questions about time, people and money. How long do you have to prep the course? How long should the course be? Who is the audience? What’s the budget? MORE
I was never really good in art class growing up. I’d immerse myself in the project of the day and be proud of what I’d made, only to look up at the end and discover that everyone else had glued their macaroni or painted their plate just a little better than I. I particularly liked collages, I think, because they offered the less talented more room for error — mistakes just look like creativity in a collage. Maybe elearning is like a collage. Some text here, a photo there. MORE
The landscape of learning management system (LMS) vendors is constantly changing. There have been dozens of acquisitions in the past decade, including a big one this week. This can be a scary time if your organization happens to be using an LMS that gets acquired by or merged with another company. After all, you’ve most likely invested thousands of dollars and many hours getting it set up and configured to work well. So, if your LMS vendor gets acquired by another. MORE
I cursed myself in a current post ( What I Like About eLearning ) when I included a semi-sarcastic comment about having umpteen programs open on my computer every day in order to get my elearning work done. Since then I have articulated at least one non-HR-approved word in reaction to slow computer action or even crashes. I need more memory. I need dedicated video memory. I need software that doesn’t take so much of my computer’s resources! (I I love you Adobe.). MORE
I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Rustici this year at DevLearn. Mike runs Rustici Software and he’s a total SCORM ninja. In our conversation, Mike mentioned a new service that is offered by his company – the service is called the SCORM Cloud. It was easy to see Mike was pretty excited about this, and after hearing some of the details, I think it definitely provides us with some interesting new ways to deliver and track learning content. MORE
Jane Bozarth likes social media. She lives on Twitter and Facebook whether online at a computer or connected through an app on a mobile device. Her latest book is Social Media for Trainers. Bozarth will be at DevLearn , November 3-5, so we thought it would be good to interview her as a preview to such an industry leading conference, hosted by the eLearning Guild. MORE
Sales reps should appreciate this post. This post has been ruminating around in my head ever since an executive suggested turning some classroom training into podcasts back in 2005. But this is not a rant–a long time in the making. It’s a turning point piece, toward a fresh era of elearning. The executive’s reasoning for podcasts was simple: so sales reps out on the road could listen to the training in their free time between sales calls. . Traffic from eLearning. . Really? MORE
Many people recognize the potential of elearning and want to know more about how to get into the industry. I get asked how I got into elearning. For me, it started with being a techy, then a writing teacher, then an online course designer and developer, then an instructional designer, and finally to an elearning specialist and LMS administrator. I think it’s helpful to see career paths in case yours might evolve similarly. MORE
Larry Ober has been nominated as Best eLearning Designer in the Maestro eLearning Awards , dubbed the OSCARS of the eLearning industry. What follows is an interview between Steve and the award’s organizers, Maestro eLearning. How did you get your start with eLearning design? Several years ago we engaged a vendor to create three eLearning modules for a new product launch. As you know, good quality eLearning modules are expensive. MORE
Jeanne Meister , author of the New Learning Playbook blog , wrote a post yesterday on the five words she predicts will describe corporate learning in 2010. I think she’s right on target… Here’s a brief summary, but be sure to check out her full post for more info. Social The word ’social’ is overplayed, but what it represents is still relevant and will continue to be in 2010 (i.e. collaboration, information sharing, etc.). MORE
So much work has been done to take code out of the equation. We’ve become a WYSIWYG generation with all the convenient tools for web and elearning development. This WordPress blog you are reading is a perfect example, and the proliferation of blogs in the past 5 years is a direct result of WYSIWYG tools. These DIY tools are getting better and better, and there are more and more of them. Still, I see coding making a comeback. Why is code going to become more important and popular? MORE
What are the skills you need to land an elearning job? Working in elearning taps into many skill sets. Designing or developing elearning requires experience in training and project management as much as audio and video production. I focus here on what I think are the top skills for elearning now, in 2011. These are skills that will show up on job descriptions where they list job criteria, requirements or experience. MORE
Can you make elearning that successfully serves 100 students? When I think about my experience in college classrooms and, as a parent, about my children’s classrooms, ideal class size has never been 100. My daughter’s elementary school averages 18 students per teacher according to Trulia. Although, that ratio, 18:1, might mean that a class with two teachers could have 36 students. MORE
eLearning Weekly
FEBRUARY 27, 2011
What are the skills you need to land an elearning job? Working in elearning taps into many skill sets. Designing or developing elearning requires experience in training and project management as much as audio and video production. I focus here on what I think are the top skills for elearning now, in 2011. These are skills that will show up on job descriptions where they list job criteria, requirements or experience.
eLearning Weekly
MARCH 7, 2011
eLearning Weekly welcomes our newest contributor, Kevin Thorn. Following up on last week’s post titled, “Top 5 Skills for eLearning in 2011,” I’d like to explore this at a different angle. We could go two ways with this: Brand new to the eLearning industry, or a seasoned veteran honing their skills.
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eLearning Weekly
JULY 26, 2011
One of the best pieces of advice my father gave me was, “Discover what you’re good at and then learn how to make money at it.” Just like most obedient young boys, I totally ignored my father’s advice. Even though I’ve been drawing and cartooning my whole life and developing elearning for the past ten years, I never put the two together. I’m a decent artist but most artists are their own worst critics, and even though I was passionate about it, I never once considered earning a living doing it.
eLearning Weekly
MAY 6, 2011
Larry Ober has been nominated as Best eLearning Designer in the Maestro eLearning Awards , dubbed the OSCARS of the eLearning industry. What follows is an interview between Steve and the award’s organizers, Maestro eLearning. How did you get your start with eLearning design? Several years ago we engaged a vendor to create three eLearning modules for a new product launch. As you know, good quality eLearning modules are expensive.
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eLearning Weekly
NOVEMBER 11, 2011
Mark Lassoff of LearnToProgram.tv. I was very lucky to catch Mark Lassoff in between speaking at DevLearn, working on his forthcoming book from Focal Press, and producing his next training video for the company he founded, LearnToProgram.tv. Mark is an anomoly in the world of elearning these days, because he knows how to code. I’m not just talking about the two big programming languages, HTML and Flash.
eLearning Weekly
DECEMBER 23, 2008
My career in learning and technology happened by total chance. I started in the world of computer science and web programming, but quickly transitioned to educational technology and then eLearning. Building eLearning courses came naturally to me because I was used to building web sites and web applications. I built custom interactions in Flash, tamed SCORM, and wrote a ton of HTML and JavaScript.
eLearning Weekly
SEPTEMBER 24, 2010
Experience tells me that elearning people do not have a lot of time to go back to the vault of existing training and revise it. New projects dripping with deadlines take priority. Still, it’s not easy knowing that the older elearning is out there and that new hires will be required to take those courses–or worse: that whole teams or the entire company will retake one of those old modules every year.
eLearning Weekly
JULY 14, 2011
I feel some guilty pleasure when other trainers and elearning developers become jealous of my elearning app for the iPad. Because the Mac iOS doesn’t support Flash, many of my colleagues haven’t been able to take advantage of the best elearning tool ever: the iPad. My app did not cost that much ($7,000 developed in 2010 and $4000 for upgrades in 2011). Still, even those costs are not readily available to many training teams.
eLearning Weekly
MARCH 2, 2011
It’s better to know some of the questions than all of the answers. - James Thurber. You hear about the next training project you and your team have to manage. What questions come to mind? After questions about the main content, you’ll probably have questions about time, people and money. How long do you have to prep the course? How long should the course be? Who is the audience? What’s the budget?
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eLearning Weekly
JULY 19, 2011
By the time school let out each summer, I was already done learning. Sure, classes were wrapping up and testing was done, but I was intellectually checked-out because it was too hot for learning. Right now, in the midwest especially, the heat and humidity are collaborating to ruin everyone’s days. The dew point is so high that windows and glasses are sweating. Everyone is so sticky in the muggy air that nothing seems like a good idea. Except maybe a thunderstorm.
eLearning Weekly
MARCH 22, 2011
I was never really good in art class growing up. I’d immerse myself in the project of the day and be proud of what I’d made, only to look up at the end and discover that everyone else had glued their macaroni or painted their plate just a little better than I. I particularly liked collages, I think, because they offered the less talented more room for error — mistakes just look like creativity in a collage. Maybe elearning is like a collage. Some text here, a photo there.
eLearning Weekly
OCTOBER 29, 2010
Jane Bozarth likes social media. She lives on Twitter and Facebook whether online at a computer or connected through an app on a mobile device. Her latest book is Social Media for Trainers. Bozarth will be at DevLearn , November 3-5, so we thought it would be good to interview her as a preview to such an industry leading conference, hosted by the eLearning Guild.
eLearning Weekly
FEBRUARY 16, 2011
Don’t worry: no Flash is required. You don’t need to know how to program in Flash, and you don’t even need to own Flash software. You just need to head to eLearningInteractions.com and use the intuitive online tool. Once online, you are five steps away from having a beautiful Flash file (.SWF) SWF) to insert into your elearning. Click to launch the eLearning Interaction Builder.
Advertisement
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eLearning Weekly
SEPTEMBER 10, 2010
The face of the LMS is quickly changing. Five years ago, I could name only a half-dozen LMS options. Today I find new ones every week, and I estimate that there are more than 200 viable LMS choices. I just completed an investigation of 35 LMS solutions, and found many cool companies and versatile tools. What I saw, and what I liked to see, was that many new LMS companies are trimming the fat off the traditional LMS behemoth. The newer LMS software offers only the options people actually use.
eLearning Weekly
FEBRUARY 3, 2011
Many people recognize the potential of elearning and want to know more about how to get into the industry. I get asked how I got into elearning. For me, it started with being a techy, then a writing teacher, then an online course designer and developer, then an instructional designer, and finally to an elearning specialist and LMS administrator. I think it’s helpful to see career paths in case yours might evolve similarly.
eLearning Weekly
OCTOBER 13, 2010
Can you make elearning that successfully serves 100 students? When I think about my experience in college classrooms and, as a parent, about my children’s classrooms, ideal class size has never been 100. My daughter’s elementary school averages 18 students per teacher according to Trulia. Although, that ratio, 18:1, might mean that a class with two teachers could have 36 students.
eLearning Weekly
JANUARY 27, 2012
Conference News! This April, in Chicago, I will be speaking about mlearning design and strategy at Learning Tech 2012. I love Chicago. It’s a city with an energy that makes events especially invigorating. I hope to see you there, April 23-25.
Speaker: Dr. Amy Titus, Managing Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Consulting
Join Dr. Amy Titus, Managing Director in Human Capital at Deloitte Consulting, for her exclusive session where she will be discussing the 3 guiding principles for the future of learning, and how these can affect the design of work in organizations.
eLearning Weekly
SEPTEMBER 15, 2010
Tom Kuhlmann is VP of Community at Articulate. I can’t think of a cooler thing to be VP of—especially right now. Community and elearning are trending big time. You can visit the Community page on Articulate’s web site and learn that, as VP of community, Kuhlmann’s “ job is simple — to turn our users into rapid e-learning pros.&#
eLearning Weekly
DECEMBER 18, 2009
Jeanne Meister , author of the New Learning Playbook blog , wrote a post yesterday on the five words she predicts will describe corporate learning in 2010. I think she’s right on target… Here’s a brief summary, but be sure to check out her full post for more info. Social The word ’social’ is overplayed, but what it represents is still relevant and will continue to be in 2010 (i.e. collaboration, information sharing, etc.).
eLearning Weekly
DECEMBER 9, 2009
I had the pleasure of meeting Mike Rustici this year at DevLearn. Mike runs Rustici Software and he’s a total SCORM ninja. In our conversation, Mike mentioned a new service that is offered by his company – the service is called the SCORM Cloud. It was easy to see Mike was pretty excited about this, and after hearing some of the details, I think it definitely provides us with some interesting new ways to deliver and track learning content.
eLearning Weekly
JANUARY 31, 2011
As part of my research on LMS options, I found one that is so inexpensive that it still boggles my brain. Let me get right to the price before I share the features: $15,000 per year. For Topyx, that’s it. If you have been a part of purchasing an LMS, you know that 15 grand a year is practically unbelievable.
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eLearning Weekly
SEPTEMBER 28, 2010
Sales reps should appreciate this post. This post has been ruminating around in my head ever since an executive suggested turning some classroom training into podcasts back in 2005. But this is not a rant–a long time in the making. It’s a turning point piece, toward a fresh era of elearning. The executive’s reasoning for podcasts was simple: so sales reps out on the road could listen to the training in their free time between sales calls. . Traffic from eLearning. . Really?
eLearning Weekly
APRIL 28, 2011
The landscape of learning management system (LMS) vendors is constantly changing. There have been dozens of acquisitions in the past decade, including a big one this week. This can be a scary time if your organization happens to be using an LMS that gets acquired by or merged with another company. After all, you’ve most likely invested thousands of dollars and many hours getting it set up and configured to work well. So, if your LMS vendor gets acquired by another.
eLearning Weekly
NOVEMBER 19, 2009
Below are the slides from my presentation at DevLearn 2009. I co-presented this session along with my colleague, John Polaschek. The presentation had two main areas of focus: How micro-blogging can be used to help facilitate discussions and knowledge-sharing between employees. How Qualcomm is using Yammer to help employees connect across divisions and geographic regions. I hope you enjoy it, even though you won’t have our charming personalities to accompany the slides!
eLearning Weekly
MARCH 14, 2011
So much work has been done to take code out of the equation. We’ve become a WYSIWYG generation with all the convenient tools for web and elearning development. This WordPress blog you are reading is a perfect example, and the proliferation of blogs in the past 5 years is a direct result of WYSIWYG tools. These DIY tools are getting better and better, and there are more and more of them. Still, I see coding making a comeback. Why is code going to become more important and popular?
Speaker: TJ Seabrooks, former CEO at Rustici Software
Have you ended up with a collection of content inputs and data outputs that might be hard to wrangle? If your organization uses multiple LMSs and has content coming from many different places, or you’re heading in this direction, this webinar is for you.
eLearning Weekly
FEBRUARY 9, 2011
I interviewed the guys at OpenSesame to find out what they are up to and why everyone is talking about the hoodies from DevLearn. They are changing the way elearning, module-by-module, is bought and sold online. eLearning Weekly Interview with Josh Blank, SVP/General Manager, and Tom Turnbull, VP/Community Development at Open Sesame. eLW: I go to OpenSesame.com and see that you are the elearning marketplace — what does that mean?
eLearning Weekly
FEBRUARY 21, 2011
Ding-dong. Girls. Girls’ club. An organization for young girls, young women, powerful women. And it’s for the kids! Delicious cookies. (It It teaches them about business. About selling. Money. Honesty.). I’d like to sell to you, for $3.50, a box of thin chocolaty-minty learning cookies. Learning that you would enjoy. Binge on. Freeze for later. And even share with friends and family. (I I am talking about elearning.).
eLearning Weekly
MAY 13, 2011
I cursed myself in a current post ( What I Like About eLearning ) when I included a semi-sarcastic comment about having umpteen programs open on my computer every day in order to get my elearning work done. Since then I have articulated at least one non-HR-approved word in reaction to slow computer action or even crashes. I need more memory. I need dedicated video memory. I need software that doesn’t take so much of my computer’s resources! (I I love you Adobe.).
eLearning Weekly
JANUARY 26, 2011
One of eLearningWeekly.com’s most popular posts is eLearning Jobs. It is even far more popular than the follow-up that B.J. posted called More eLearning Job Resources. Both posts offer links to sites that show elearning job listings galore. But what do you do once you’ve found a job you want? We’re here to help with that.
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eLearning Weekly
JANUARY 18, 2011
What Can You Learn from This Guy? If you haven’t heard of Eric Bort, or don’t follow him on Twitter, don’t be surprised. He’s not ubiquitous online like other thought leaders. But his elearning has been seen by millions and it speaks for itself. This interview, perhaps more than any other we’ve done, will appeal to small business owners or those who are thinking about striking out on their own.
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