eUniSIM

New Documents from ADL Group on SCORM

2012-01-22T04:15:00.000-08:00

The ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) Initiative has come out with two useful documents on SCORM:

1. SCORM User Guide for Instructional Designers
http://www.adlnet.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SCORM_Users_Guide_for_ISDs.pdf

2. SCORM User Guide for Programmers
http://www.adlnet.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/SCORM_Users_Guide_for_Programmers.pdf

I think these two documents will help accelerate the wider acceptance and understanding of the SCORM specification.

Regards

Kin Chew

10 Techniques to Increase Student Interactivity

2011-12-28T16:59:00.000-08:00

Dr. Joel Gendelman listed ten techniques which he felt that would encourage student interactivity in any training sessions. The ten techniques he recommended are as follows:

1. Planted Questions

2. They do the Work

3. Intelligent Interruptions

4. Explain it to a 3rd Grader

5. They do the Work

6. Once again with Feeling

7. Fill in the blanks

8. Complete the Process Diagram

9. Where is it?

10. Create a Job Aid

For more details on these recommendations, please go to his website at:

http://www.trainingindustry.com/blog/blog-entries/ten-techniques-for-increasing-interactivity.aspx)

Elearning learning website

2011-12-05T23:31:00.000-08:00

I have just found out about this wonderful website on elearning which contains much information about e-learning:

http://www.elearninglearning.com/

The following is a short list of the interesting articles found on this website:

Two Software Tools for Creating Simulations
Exception handling is complex work
The people behind Easygenerator: Kseniya Kobrum
SAP to buy SuccessFactors: Major Shift in Talent Management Market

22 Books For Beginner Instructional Designers

2011-11-29T22:21:00.000-08:00

22 Books For Beginner Instructional Designers

(Source: http://www.upsidelearning.com/blog/index.php/2010/07/20/22-books-for-beginner-instructional-designers/)

This website provides a list of 22 books which should be very useful to those starting our with instructional design:

1. e-Learning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Colvin Clark & Richard E. Mayer

2. Making Sense of Online Learning : A Guide for Beginners and the Truly Skepticalby Patti Shank & Amy Sitze

3. The Online Learning Idea Book: 95 Proven Ways to Enhance Technology-Based and Blended Learning edited by Patti Shank

4. The E-Learning Handbook: Past Promises, Present Challenges by Saul Carliner & Patti Shank

5. Designing Successful e-Learning by Michael Allen

6. Evidence-Based Training Methods by Ruth Clark

7. Preparing Instructional Objectives : A Critical Tool in the Development of Effective Instruction by Robert F. Mager

8. Instructional Design Strategies and Tactics by Cynthia B. Leshin, Joellyn Pollock, and Charles M. Reigeluth

9. ISD: From the Ground Up : A No-Nonsense Approach to Instructional Design by Chuck Hodell

10. The Art of Facilitation by Dale Hunter and Anne Bailey and Bill Taylor

11. The Systematic Design of Instruction by Walter Dick, Lou Carey, James O. Carey

12. Instructional Design by Tillman J. Ragan & Patricia L. Smith

13. eLearning by Design by William Horton

14. Graphics for Learning: Proven Guidelines for Planning, Designing, and Evaluating Visuals in Training Materials by Ruth C. Clark and Chopeta Lyons

15. Guide to eLearning by Micheal Allen

16. Creative Training Techniques Handbook: Tips, Tactics, and How-To’s for Delivering Effective Training by Robert Pike

17. Made to Stick by the Heath brothers

18. Designing Effective Instruction by Gary R. Morrison, Steven M. Ross, and Jerrold E. Kemp

19. The Principles of Instructional Design by Gagne et al

20. e-Learning and the Science of Instruction: Proven Guidelines for Consumers and Designers of Multimedia Learning by Ruth C. Clark, Richard E. Mayer

21. Train for Results by Catherine Mattiske

22. First Principles of Instruction by M David Merrill

Presentation Materials from Annual E-Learning Standards Seminar

2011-11-25T15:26:00.000-08:00

For those of you who were not able to attend the recent Annual E-learning Standards Seminar held on Friday, 11 Nov 2011, we have uploaded the presentation materials at the following site:

http://www.itsc.org.sg/index.php?option=com_eventbooking&task=view_event&event_id=48&Itemid=41

There were three presentations:

Third Masterplan for ICT in Education (from Ms Amanda Loh of the Singapore MOE's ETD - Educational Technology Department)
Open Source Software implementations of E-learning Standards (from Mr Lim Kin Chew, Chairman of the Learning Standards Technical Committee)
E-learning Initiatives in the Civil Service of Singapore (from Dr Linda Fang and Ms Lau Teh Wei, both from the Civil Service College)

We hope the presentation materials will be useful to you all.

Regards

Kin Chew

Pure JavaScript SCORM 2004 4th Edition Player

2011-11-23T17:17:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody,

There is an interesting article on a pure JavaScript SCORM 2004 4th Edition player:

http://scormpool.com/wordpress/?p=245

Regards

Kin Chew

11 Elderly Learners who are Incredibly Inspiring

2011-11-23T16:14:00.000-08:00

Hi Everybody,

Tim Handorf of Bestcollegesonline.com alerted me to this interesting and inspiring article on 11 elderly learners who are incredibly inspiring:

http://www.bestcollegesonline.com/blog/2011/11/22/11-elderly-learners-who-are-incredibly-inspiring/

I must certainly say that this is really very inspiring!

Regards

Kin Chew

Article on "Do schools really need more tech?"

2011-11-21T00:11:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article on "Do schools really need more tech?".

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC111121-0000002/Do-schools-really-need-more-tech?

The author of this article is Mr. Richard Hartung. He is a management consultant who has lived in Singapore since 1992.

Article on Web-Based and Blended Training

2011-11-12T00:50:00.000-08:00

Here is an interesting article on

"Injecting Excitement into Web-Based and Blended Training" by Dr. Joel Gendelman

Website address is at: http://www.trainingindustry.com/blog/blog-entries/injecting-excitement-into-web-based-and-blended-training-.aspx

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 40 (E-Learning Myths)

2011-11-05T20:19:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

I found this online magazine at http://www.learningsolutionsmag.com.

This website has the following categories:

Mobile Learning,
Getting Started,
Management Strategies,
Serious Games,
Instructional Design, and
Social Media

In particular, the category on Instructional Design has the following articles:

Category on Instructional Design:
Easygenerator Launches into U.S. Market at DevLearn 2011
dominKnow Announces Latest Release of Claro at DevLearn 2011
Marc My Words: eLearning Myths, Part 1
Building An Online Learning Community
Review: The Online Learning Idea Book, Vol. 2
(Patti Shank, Ed.)
Content Strategy, Part 2: Naked Truths and Fundamentals

In particular, here is a summary of the article on "My Words: eLearning Myths, Part 1":

Myth #1: You can easily convert great classroom training to great online training.
Myth #2: A great authoring tool (or suite of tools) is all you need to create great eLearning.
Myth #3: ELearning must be fun.
Myth #4: Many employees don’t finish eLearning courses; therefore the courses must be bad.
Myth #5: Getting the technology to work is the hard part.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 39 (Webinar on Sequencing & Navigation)

2011-11-04T04:12:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

I have conducted a webinar on "Sequencing and Navigation using the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Specification" this morning (4 Nov 2011). You all can access the Webex recorded video at this site: http://tinyurl.com/3zyp5cv.

It is best to use the Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser to view the recorded video. I hope you all will find this webinar useful.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 38 (Webinar on Sequencing and Navigation of E-learning Contents)

2011-10-31T02:44:00.000-07:00

Presentation Topic: Sequencing and Navigation of e-Learning Contents.

This webinar is about the sequencing and navigation of e-learning contents based on the SCORM 2004 3rd Edition Specification. The presenter will show how the same content can be sequenced in a few ways for our students to learn. Specifically, he will demonstrate the following sequences: no sequencing, linear sequencing, knowledge-paced sequencing, competency-based sequencing and remediation. There can be more than the five sequences mentioned above. He will also show some feedback from the students who have tried this approach. The following are the topics he will cover during the webinar:

Demonstration of some courses with different learning sequences
Feedback from students
Limitations of such learning sequencing
Comparison with intelligent tutoring systems
Future possibilities with sequencing and navigation of learning contents

All are welcome to attend.

To register for this webinar, please click “YES” on the voting buttons above.

Date:

Friday,
4 November 2011

Time:

10.00 am to 11.00 am

This is a presentation that will be made over the web using the WebEx software. This software allows participants to listen to the speaker’s presentation and to participate in the discussions using the “Chat” function.

Participants will need to install the WebEx software on the PC and the use of microphone and webcam, if any, would allow the participant to interact with the speaker. Instructions to install the WebEx software will be provided to interested participants.

For enquiries, please contact Hasanah at hasanahs@unisim.edu.sg

I look forward to seeing you all in this webinar on Friday, 4 Nov 2011!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 37 (E-learning Standards Seminar)

2011-10-31T02:36:00.000-07:00

In its continuous effort to raise awareness and share best practices on the current and emerging e-learning standards, the LSTC (Learning Standards Technical Committee) of ITSC (IT Standards Committee of Singapore, www.itsc.org.sg) and the School of Science and Technology (SST) of the SIM University will be holding an annual seminar on Friday, 11 November 2011, from 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. This event comprises two talks and a hands-on laboratory session.

The first presentation will be on the MOE’s 3rd Masterplan for ICT in Education. This will then be followed by a hands-on session where participants can familiarise with some open source software based e-learning standards implementations. The second presentation will be on the e-learning initiatives in the Civil Service College.

This is a free seminar and we are targeting e-learning practitioners in the education and training sectors to attend.

Do register for the event if you are interested, and please feel free to send the information to your contacts.

Date: 11 November 2011, Friday
Time: 8:30 am – 3:00 pm
Place: SIM University @ 461 Clementi Road, Singapore 599491
8:30 am – 10:45 am: Lecture Theatre 3.08, SIM HQ Building, Level 3
10:45 am – 12:30 pm: Computer Lab 3.35, Annex Building, Level 3
12:30 pm – 1:50 pm: Lunch at Staff Lounge, SIM HQ Building, Level 5
2:00 pm – 3:00 pm: Lecture Theatre 3.08, SIM HQ Building, Level 3

Registration Website: http://www.itsc.org.sg/index.php?option=com_eventbooking&task=individual_registration&event_id=48&Itemid=41

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 36 (Open Educational Resources & Khan Academy)

2011-10-30T19:29:00.000-07:00

Here are some interesting developments on the Open Educational Resources movement:

1. There is some interest in the Open Educational Resources movement. Reference: http://www.oercommons.org. You can download a free copy of the book entitled “A Free Guide to the Open Educational Resources” from this link: http://www.col.org/resources/publications/Pages/detail.aspx?PID=357

2. Both the Khan Academy and the Open Educational Resources use the Creative Commons license.

3. There is an e-Book on “Educating the Next Generation”, a publication by Educause. Please go to this link: http://www.educause.edu/educatingthenetgen.

4. PDF slides on Next Generation Learning Environment: http://www.adlnet.gov/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/poltrack_gallagher_next_gen_learn_iFest2011.pdf.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 35 (ASTD Survey and Other Events)

2011-10-28T04:05:00.000-07:00

My contribution for today are on the E-Learning Trends for the year 2011 and some other interesting e-learning news items.

I was doing some preparation for a talk on E-Learning when I came across this ASTD (American Society for Training and Development) website: E-Learning Trends 2011, http://www.astd.org/lc/0111_trends.

The survey was conducted in November and December 2010 and the results were based on 348 responses. Here are some highlights:

1. E-learning tools, functionality, and infrastructure organizations currently use are:

Learning Management System - 55.0%
Assessment / test tools - 48.8%
Authoring tools - 45.0%
Audio conferencing - 43.8%
Web conferencing - 40.0%

2. Concerns about e-learning:

Cost to implement - 48.4%
Cost to maintain - 34.4%
Culture does not support e-learning activities 31.3%
Quality of programs - 31.3%
Management buy-in - 29.7%
Employee buy-in - 29.7%

3. Primary focus of day-to-day work:

Instructional design - 28.8%
Department / Program Manager - 28.8%
Instructor - 10.6%

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On other events, please check out this website:
http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/in-victory-for-open-education-movement-blackboard-embraces-sharing/33776

Blackboard, one of the most popular course management systems, has finally embraced the open education concept. The concept of Open Education probably started with the OpenCourseWare Project of the MIT.

Will Open Education really take off - i.e. accepted by many universities? Only time will tell!

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Next is about Augmented Reality.

I found one contribution on Augmented Reality application for Education. Here is the presentation link: Augmented Reality 3D Pop-up Children Book by Dr. Poonsri Vate-U-Lan on Prezi, http://prezi.com/tpxgnnqc9pgd/augmented-reality-3d-pop-up-children-book/. This presentation was made in The 5th IEEE International Conference on E-Learning in Industrial Electronics (ICELIE 2011) in conjunction with IECON 2011. Dr. Poonsri Vate-U-Lan is now working in the Assumption University of Thailand.

I have personally seen her demonstration of some Augmented Reality applications in education and I am impressed at how this technology can really make learning really "pop" out from the flat 2-D pictures we are all so used to. For more information on Augmented Reality for Education, I would recommend the interested person to go to Youtube.com and just search for video clips on "Augmented Reality for Education".

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I attended the 25th Asian Association of Open Universities conference held in the Wawasan Open University in Penang, Malaysia, last month.

One of the keynote addresses was given by Sir John Daniel, who is the President and CEO of the Commonwealth of Learning (http://www.col.org).

One thing that I remembered very clearly about Sir John Daniel's keynote address was the "Iron Triangle". This refers to the three items - accessibility, quality and cost. According to Sir John Daniel, "The goal of most governments is to widen access to education while improving its quality and reducing its cost. This makes the simple point that with conventional classroom teaching there is little scope to alter these vectors advantageously because improving one vector will worsen the others. Pack more students into the class and quality will be perceived to suffer. Try to improve quality by providing more learning materials or better teachers and the cost will go up. Cutting costs may endanger both access and quality." I think this "iron triangle" is even true for e-learning. I think it is very difficult to attain an ideal situation where we can have all the three items in optimal condition - high accessibility, high quality and lost cost!

You can get his full paper from this website: http://www.col.org/speeches/
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That's it for this posting. I hope to share more interesting stuff in my next posting.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-learning -34 (Blended Learning)

2011-09-28T10:53:00.000-07:00

Recently, I was involved with a consultancy project on evaluating the effectiveness of an e-learning training programme. During the evaluation, blended learning is proposed as a viable way of providing training rather than resorting to pure e-learning.

Here are some simple information on blended learning:

1. There are several definitions for blended learning.

The first one is from Clive Shepherd:

“A blended learning solution combines educational and training methods within different social contexts for learning (self-study, one-to-one, group) with the aim of increasing learning effectiveness. It may also mix the learning media used to deliver the solution (face-to-face, online, offline, etc.) as a way to optimise the efficiency of the solution. These choices are made in responses to particular learning requirements and audience characteristics, as well as practical constraints and opportunities.”

Author: Clive Shepherd (2008). The Blended Learning Cookbook, p. 18.

The second one is from Josh Bersin:

Blended learning is the combination of different training “media” (technologies, activities, and types of events) to create an optimum training program for a specific audience.”

From Josh Bersin (2004) in his book “The Blended Learning Book – Best Practices, Proven Methodologies and Lessons Learned”.

2. Josh Bersin further elaborated on two proven blended learning models. These are the program flow model and the core-and-spoke model.

3, Here are some details on the program flow model:

Traditional courses have times blocked out for lectures, quizzes, group work, discussion, test, etc.

One can apply the blended learning approach to the program “flow model,” replacing some of the physical events with self study or e-learning activities.

Components of this model include:

o Kickoff Event – sets the agenda and communicates the consequences of not completing.

o Initial Learning Activity – Learners’ first experience with the content or instructor.

o Cycle of events including self-study and a live check-in process (the check-in process can be between chapters, modules or reading assignments, depending on the length of the program.

o Final Assessment – wraps up program and assesses the learner (can be interspersed throughout the program).

o Feedback and conclusions – usually a survey or a meeting that enables the learners to give direct feedback to instructors and content developers.

Remember this rule: Try not to give more than one-two hours of self-study module to complete between some live check-in process.

Benefits of this model include: It creates a deeper level of commitment and a high completion rate; enables instructor to track progress; and fits into the normal flow of classroom training that most people expect.

Easy to modify and maintain.

4. Here are some details on the core-and-spoken model:

Called core-and-spoke model because the additional exercise, materials, events and references are supplemental to the core and are used to reinforce, supplement, and complement the main course. (p. 73 of Josh Bersin's book on The Blended Learning Book).

A program is designed based on a single course using a single type of media, which is either live or electronic.

Optional and supplemental materials are provided for learners’ use but are optional rather than mandatory. These materials can be learning activities or other types of media.

Learners make their own decisions about what supplemental materials to use and when to use it.

Students do not complete the course at the same time.

The benefits of this model include: Easier to build in stages (get the core done first, and the other materials later); used with learners who are motivated and capable of self-study; some supplemental materials can be stressed by requiring the learners to submit responses for feedback; speeds the development process; and flexible.

5. Reference:

http://www.e-ope.ee/_download/euni_repository/file/610/22_blendedlearning.pdf

Quality Matters in E-learning -33 (SCORM content packages)

2011-08-24T06:24:00.000-07:00

JSH Education Ltd, a company based in the UK, has made available some SCORM-based content packages for use by teachers.

The website is at http://www.jsheducation.com/vledownloads.html.

According to the website, the resources are provided free, for use by educational establishments only. The resources are not to be offered for resale, download or distribution under any circumstances.

"Here you can download samples from our VLE compatible software. Click on a file to begin the download (if downloading the swf versions right click on your mouse to save to your computer before viewing). For most samples you can opt to download the swf version of the sample or the SCORM 1.2 or SCORM 2004 (SCORM 1.3) versions. Note, the SCORM versions are zip files (which is the format that most VLEs/LMSs require for uploads). Adobe FlashPlayer 8 or later also required.

(VLE - Virtual Learning Environment; LMS - Learning Management System; swf - Shockwave Flash)

Product: Presenting Primary Science (ages 7-11) Go

Product: Presenting KS3 Science (ages 11-14) Go

Product: Presenting Biology (ages 14-16) Go

Cells SCORM 1.2 (1.79MB).zip

Cells SCORM 2004 (1.82MB).zip

Product: Presenting Biology (ages 14-16) Go

Leaves And Photosynthesis (4.57MB).swf

Leaves And Photosynthesis SCORM 1.2 (4.59MB).zip

Leaves And Photosynthesis SCORM 2004 (4.62MB).zip

Product: Presenting Chemistry (ages 14-16) Go

Covalent Bonding (0.30MB).swf

Covalent Bonding SCORM 1.2 (0.31MB).zip

Covalent Bonding SCORM 2004 (0.32MB).zip

Product: Presenting Chemistry (ages 14-16) Go

Alkanes (3.86MB).swf

Alkanes SCORM 1.2 (3.88MB).zip

Alkanes SCORM 2004 (3.91MB).zip

The Solar System (1.53MB).swf

The Solar System SCORM 1.2 (1.55MB).zip

The Solar System SCORM 2004 (1.58MB).zip

The Earth And Moon (2.21MB).swf

The Earth And Moon SCORM 1.2 (2.23MB).zip

The Earth And Moon SCORM 2004 (2.26MB).zip

Product: Presenting Physics (ages 14-16) Go

Renewable Energy (3.97MB).swf

Renewable Energy Part One SCORM 1.2 (4.00MB).zip

Renewable Energy Part One SCORM 2004 (4.02MB).zip

Product: Presenting Physics (ages 14-16) Go

Waves SCORM 1.2 (1.28MB).zip

Waves SCORM 2004 (1.30MB).zip

Product: JSH QUIZ KS3 Science (ages 11-14) Go

Earth and Beyond SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Earth and Beyond SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Safety SCORM 1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Safety SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

Classification I SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Classification I SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Cells (1.77MB).swf

Waves (1.25MB).swf

Human and Animal Behaviour SCORM 1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Human and Animal Behaviour SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

Product: VLE KS3 Science (ages 11-14) Go

Earth and Beyond SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Earth and Beyond SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Safety SCORM 1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Safety SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

Classification I SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Classification I SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Human and Animal Behaviour SCORM 1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Human and Animal Behaviour SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

The Earth And Moon (2.21MB).swf

The Earth And Moon SCORM 1.2 (2.23MB).zip

The Earth And Moon SCORM 2004 (2.26MB).zip

Interactive presentation samples:

Quiz/assessment samples:

Drag and drop samples:

Energy chains (0.7MB).swf

Energy chains SCORM 1.2 (0.7MB) .zip

Energy chains SCORM 2004 (0.7MB).zip

Light (0.2MB).swf

Light SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Light SCORM 1.2.zip

Reactivity (<0.1MB).swf

Reactivity SCORM 1.2 (<0.1MB).zip

Reactivity SCORM 2004 (<0.1MB).zip

Puzzle samples:

Pollination puzzle (0.3MB).swf

Pollination puzzle SCORM 1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Pollination puzzle SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

Mammals matching pairs puzzle (0.4MB).swf

Mammals matching pairs puzzle SCORM 1.2 (0.4MB).zip

Mammals matching pairs puzzle SCORM 2004 (0.4MB).zip

Product: VLE Primary Science (ages 7-11) Go

The Solar System (1.53MB).swf

The Solar System SCORM 1.2 (1.55MB).zip

The Solar System SCORM 2004 (1.58MB).zip

Interactive presentations samples:

Green Plants I SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Quiz/assessment samples:

Green Plants I SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Science Revision 2 SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB) .zip

Science Revision 2 SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Electricity SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Electricity SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Drag and drop samples:

Classifying Organisms (<0.1MB).swf

Classifying Organisms SCORM 1.2 (<0.1MB).zip

Classifying Organisms SCORM 2004 (<01.MB).zip

Teeth SCORM 2004 (<0.1MB).zip

Teeth SCORM 1.2 (<0.1MB).zip

Teeth (<0.1MB).swf

Green Plants 4 (<0.1MB).swf

Green Plants 4 SCORM 1.2 (<0.1MB).zip

Green Plants 4 SCORM 2004 (<0.1MB).zip

Puzzle samples:

Bird Puzzle (0.3MB).swf

Bird Puzzle SCORM1.2 (0.3MB).zip

Bird Puzzle SCORM 2004 (0.3MB).zip

Fungi Matching Pairs (0.2MB).swf

Fungi Matching Pairs SCORM 1.2 (0.2MB).zip

Fungi Matching Pairs SCORM 2004 (0.2MB).zip

Maths Quizzes:

90+ maths quizzes on the subjects of times tables, shape and time; ideal for homeworks. You must unzip the bundle (very large files) below before attempting to upload the scorm packages to your VLE.

Maths Quizzes SCORM 1.2 (unzip before upload) (20MB).zip

Maths Quizzes SCORM 2004 (unzip before upload) (23MB).zip"

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Quality Matters in E-Learning - 32 (Content Suitability for E-learning)

2011-08-22T02:32:00.000-07:00

Someone recently asked me this question: How do you know which content is suitable for e-learning?

It seems so obvious to me but I decided to see whether there are some examples or guidelines for e-learning content suitability.

I managed to find this interesting paper from Raytheon. It was written by Dr. Susan Codone who is with Raytheon Interactive based in Pensacola in Florida.

The following is extracted from page 5 of this article titled "An E-Learning Primer":

"To determine content suitability for WBT (Web-Based Training) development, conduct content analysis using the following questions:

1. Does the number of potential users justify the cost of development?

2. Does the target audience have computers and access to the Internet?

3. Will the target audience be receptive to web-based training?

4. Will Internet distribution of the content provide a method of instruction that is easier, faster, cheaper, safer, and/or more engaging than other formats in current use?

5. Is the content suitable for chunking in small units as reusable learning objects?

6. Is the content adaptable to embedded learner control, and will the intended instruction become more effective if the user controls the pace of delivery?

7. Can the content be more effectively delivered with multiple technologies, i.e. multimedia (sound, video, animation, etc.)?

8. Will the content be strengthened from computer-generated illustrations and animation?

9. What impact will immediate assessment feedback have on users?

10. Is the content adaptable to either linear or dynamic navigation?

11. Will the content benefit from dynamic links to other external web sites?

12. Will the content be strengthened by the use of supplementary audio used as instructional commentary or explanatory sound effects?"

I think this checklist of questions is useful for e-learning practitioners doing content analysis.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 31 (E-learning examples)

2011-07-28T00:27:00.000-07:00

Cathy Moore (http://blog.cathy-moore.com/about/) puts up this blog which contains many practical ideas that can help us to create lively, powerful e-learning for adults in the business world.

Her blog on e-learning samples is at: http://blog.cathy-moore.com/elearning-samples/.

The following are some examples from her blog:

1. Simple Interactions
Most of the contributors use photographss and some illustrations. Many of these demonstrate how good visual design can make a simple animation more effective. Example: Birth of a Tornado - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37602704/

2. More advanced interactions
The samples include panoramas, multiple layers of navigation, or more sophisticated animation. Example: Blood Typing Game - http://nobelprize.org/educational/medicine/landsteiner/index.html

3. Simulations and branching scenarios
Example: Design of a cell phone - http://www.edheads.org/activities/eng_cell/

4. Vendor demonstrations
Learner-centric design - http://www.suddenlysmart.com/effective_elearning.htm#section1

5. Artistic and Political
Suspended Life - http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/07/trapeze/. This is essentially a PowerPoint-like presentation based on a comic. An interesting point to note is that the artist makes use of a small collection of images.

6. More collections
Instructional Design by Example
http://instructionaldesignbyexample.com/
Contributors may post their e-learning samples on this website.
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Quality Matters in E-Learning - 30 (Wikipedia)

2011-06-23T03:16:00.000-07:00

I have just received an interesting e-mail from Larry Dignan. He pointed me to an interesting article on "10 Ways in which Wikipedia has changed Education".

Here are the 10 ways as stated in this article:

It forces students to be more discerning about sources
More exposure for academics
Editing assignments
Encourages casual learning outside the classroom
Provides another online education conduit
Pioneered…well…wikis
Made copyright-free, public domain material even more accessible
Helps with lecture notes
Education for orphans
Provides a more comprehensive, real time encyclopedia experience

Thank you, Larry, for this contribution.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 29 (SCORM, JavaScript & ActionScript)

2011-06-23T03:07:00.000-07:00

Recently, I have been getting some questions on how to implement SCORM features in Flash-based courseware.

Actually, this is not really very hard to achieve. As long as the courseware developer is familiar with ActionScript (scripting language of Flash), JavaScript and SCORM, the courseware developer will be able to implement some SCORM features in the Flash-based courseware.

Here is an excellent resource where the courseware develop can learn more about how to go about doing this:

http://pipwerks.com/laboratory/scorm/

There is a simple tutorial on how to add basic SCORM code to a Flash movie.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 28 (Video Webinars on Visual Design in E-learning)

2011-05-25T02:45:00.000-07:00

The ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning, http://www.adlnet.gov) have presented a series of video webinars.

These webinars are on the various aspects of Visual Design in e-Learning.

You can watch the video webinars by going to the following weblinks:

Part 1: The Principles and Effects of Good Design,

Part 2: Designing for Reusability

Part 3: Designing for Usability

Part 4: Color

Part 5: Screen Layout

Part 6: Design Elements

Part 7: Type

Part 8: References and Resources

Whilst on the topic of resources, you can also download the e-book on "e-Learning Concepts and Techniques". This is a collaborative e-book project by Bloomsburg University of Pennsylvania's Department of Instructional Technology students and guest authors.

I found this e-book to be very readable. The contents are:

Chapter 1 – What is E-Learning?
Chapter 2 - Instructional Design Models for E-Learning
Chapter 3 – E-Learners
Chapter 4 – E-Learning Tools
Chapter 5 – Instructional Strategies for E-Learning
Chapter 6 - Information Ownership
Chapter 7 – Development
Chapter 8 - Delivering E-Learning
Chapter 9 – E-Learning Evaluation
Chapter 10 – Managing the Data
Chapter 11 – Web Standards

I hope you all will find this e-book on e-learning Concepts and Techniques to be useful.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 27 (The Good, the bad and the Ugly of E-Learning)

2011-04-05T22:08:00.000-07:00

Dr Richard Hyde of Atlantic Link Ltd has a presentation on "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of e-Learning".

His presentation addressed the screen design issue of e-learning.

According to him, good e-learning should be designed with the following guidelines:

Avoid long lines of text
Use good quality media not clip art
Don’t just plonk media on a page
Don’t be afraid of empty space
Be consistent in type and graphic design

He coined the following acronym for good screen design:
CRAP

Contrast - make things different
Repetition - reuse design
Alignment - line things up
Positioning - group related elements together

To reinforce his CRAP approach of evaluating screen designs, he put up 17 examples of e-learning screen designs in his presentation.

You can download his presentation file and check for yourself which screen design is good, bad or plainly ugly. Good screen design will help the student learn better whilst poor and ugly screen designs will make it difficult for students to learn better. Even

1. Fire Module - on Health and Safety (Very cluttered screen - too many things!)
2. Hotelscene Xtranet online training (Screen is pleasing to the eye.)
3. Let's Make Scotland More Activ-e: a Physical Activity eLearning course (Good and clean design)
4. Prince2 Foundation: Basic Concepts (Simple and effective design)
5. What is Money Laundering? (Engaging - use of dialogue is effective)
6. Examples of Heat Transfer Processes (Simple and effective design)
7. Terminal Emulator course: Find passenger (Poor design - too many things on the screen)
8. SPICS - Marketing Enquiries & Parts Master Enquiries (Don't know what this course is all about!)
9. Online Training System for an airline: Assessment (Oh no! The red colour is really painful to my eyes!)
10. Settlement course (probably insurance company application) (Don't know what this course is all about!)
11. Induction: Mission & Values (Pleasing layout and design)
12. PTP: Platform Transformation Programme - Guide to the New Features of Word 2003 (Minimal, just-in-time learning)
13. Module 1: How to shop (Objectives are too long! This is also page 1 or 120! Just too much content!)
14. Course on Data Protection - Legislation and Voluntary Codes (Good layout and design)
15. Order Tracking Systems Training Course - Confirm Delivery (More for training staff at the operational level)
16. Benefits of paying ONLINE (Simple and effective layout and design)
17. Why Diversity, Understanding and Valuing Differences (Attractive and stimulating design)

He has put up his comments in the presenter's notes area.

I hope this contribution can help you to differentiate good e-learning screen design from the poor ones.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 26 (Authoring & Delivering E-learning Using PowerPoint Files)

2011-04-05T02:15:00.001-07:00

Many of us are familiar with the Microsoft PowerPoint software. We use it to deliver slides in a live presentation. We also use it to create self-running standalone multimedia presentations. However, PowerPoint does have internal features that one can use to make it more interactive and effective e-learning.

The ADL (Advanced Distributed Learning) Initiative has produced a document entitled “Authoring and Delivering E-learning using PowerPoint Files”. This document was produced after their experience in creating and deploying an e-learning module for the Department of Defence Civilian Personnel Management Systems’ (CPMS) Civilian Expeditionary Worksorce (CEW) programme entitled Orientation to CEW for Supervisors.

According to the author, Peter Berking, the ADL Initiative wanted a solution for authoring and delivering e-learning that can be:

Developed inexpensively
Created rapidly
Maintained simply
Distributed flexibly and
Scaled easily

They then settled for MS PowerPoint.

When you want to consider using PowerPoint to author and deliver an e-learning solution, Peter Berking suggested you consider the following parameters:

1. Content needs to be maintained easily
2. Student progress does not need to be tracked by an LMS
3. Formal assessments are not needed
4. Rapid development time frame
5. Interactivity does not need to go higher that Level 2 (SCORM has 4 interactivity levels)

Here are some examples provided by the ADL Initiative (you need MS PowerPoint 2007 or its viewer to display the contents. If you do not have MS PowerPoint 2007 on your computer, you can download the MS PowerPoint 2007 viewer from this link.):

CEW Supervisors Topic 1

CEW Supervisors Topic 2

CEW Supervisors Topic 3

CEW Supervisors Topic 4

CEW Supervisors Topic 5

CEW Supervisors Topic 6

CEW Supervisors Topic 7

CEW Supervisors Topic 8

CEW Supervisors Topic 9

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 25 (10 Latest E-Learning Trends in K-12 Education)

2011-03-30T16:57:00.000-07:00

Ms Emma Taylor, who is currently working with Accreditedonlinecolleges.com, has informed me about an interesting article on the "10 Latest E-Learning Trends in K-12 Education".

Here is a list of the 10 Latest E-Learning Trends in K-12 Education:

1. iPads in the classroom
2. More mobile devices
3. Tech-based monitoring of student progress
4. Cloud computing
5. Truly educational gaming
6. Social networking for learning
7. Adaptive learning environments
8. Electronic, interactive textbooks
9. Online summer school
10. Simulation learning

Thank you, Ms Emma Taylor, for informing me about this interesting article.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 24 (Blended Learning)

2011-02-13T22:09:00.000-08:00

"Blended learning" has been claimed to be more effective than e-learning or traditional face-to-face classroom teaching in ensuring learners learned well. But what is "blended learning" and how different is it from the traditional face-to-face classroom teaching?

My blog today is on "blended learning" and some educational objectives associated with blended learning.

1. What is “blended learning”?

There are many definitions for "blended learning". The following definition is from Heinze and Procter [1]:

"Blended learning is learning that is facilitated by the effective combination of different modes of delivery, models of teaching and styles of learning, and is based on transparent communication amongst all parties involved with a course."

Figure 1 – Concept of Blended Learning (adapted from Heinze & Procter (2004)

Other terms that are used to refer to such a learning mode include “hybrid learning” and “mixed learning”.

2. What is involved in “blended learning”?

A blended learning approach usually combines face-to-face instruction with computer-mediated instruction. It can be considered to comprise the mixing of asynchronous and synchronous activities and using the following technologies:

• Educational technologies using computer
• Cellular or Smartphones
• Satellite television channels
• Video-conferencing
• Other emerging electronic media

3. What is the ultimate aim of blended learning?

The ultimate aim is to provide realistic practical opportunities for learners and teachers to make learning independent, useful, sustainable and ever growing.

4. Considerations for blended learning

Before we conclude whether a course should be a face-to-face session, a blended course or an online course, we need to consider these three factors:

• Analysis of learners’ competencies
• Nature and location of the learners
• Resources available

5. Eight educational considerations for Blended Learning (from Brunel University)

The Learning and Teaching Development Unit of the Brunel University has produced a booklet entitled “Educational Considerations for Blended Learning”. It is a resource booklet written to assist lecturers in their teaching in a blended learning environment for their students. Eight educational considerations were identified:

i. Outcomes-based
ii. Active
iii. Collaborative
iv. Student-centred
v. Learning Styles
vi. Independent
vii. Feedback
viii. Reflection

Figure 2 – 8 educational considerations for Blended Learning

Each educational consideration is supported by evidence from the literature of how this has been used effectively to promote innovative teaching.

You can obtained the PDF version of this booklet from this link:
Educational Considerations for Blended Learning

6. Advantages of Blended Learning

• Cost effectiveness for both the accrediting learning institution and the learner
• Accessibility to a post secondary education
• Flexibility in scheduling and timetabling of course work

7. Disadvantages of Blended Learning

• Computer and Internet access
• Limited knowledge in the use of technology
• Study skills

8. Objections

Martin Oliver and Keith Trigwell [2] raised some objections on the use of the term “Blended Learning”.

• Many people use the term “Blended learning” to mean almost any form of teaching containing “two or more different kinds of things that can then be mixed”.
• There is no agreement over the constituents that are to be mixed. For example, the constituents can be any one of the following:

o different media,
o varying pedagogical approaches, or
o the mix of theoretical with practical work.

• Generally the distinctions between e-learning and traditional classroom teaching do not exist, or are not productive. For example, the blending of e-learning with traditional learning implies that there can be an “unblended” form of e-learning in which no traditional learning occurs.
• They also objected to the use of the term "learning", when almost all of the focus is on how teaching is delivered and the implication is that receiving teaching is equivalent to learning.

References:

[1] Heinze, A.; C. Procter (2004). "Reflections on the Use of Blended Learning". Education in a Changing Environment. University of Salford, Salford, Education Development Unit. http://www.ece.salford.ac.uk/proceedings/papers/ah_04.rtf.

[2] Oliver, M; Trigwell, K (2005). “Can ‘Blended Learning’ Be Redeemed? E-Learning, Volume 2, Number 1. http://www.luispitta.com/mie/Blended_Learning_2005.pdf.

[3] Wikipedia. “Blended Learning”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blended_learning, accessed on 14 Feb 2011.

[4] Clive Shepherd (2005). "The Blended Learning Cookbook". http://onlignment.com/cookbook/. (PDF e-book can be downloaded from the link at the bottom of the page.)

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 23 (Case Study: PLDT's eLearning Experience)

2011-01-06T20:51:00.000-08:00

eLearning Experience in the Philippines Long Distance Telephone company

1. The PLDT (Philippines Long Distance Telephone) company wanted to transition from the traditional telephony business to the data and information technology business.

2. They have over 13,000 employees and they needed to re-tool and re-skill their employees to equip them with skills that the new business required.

3. The PLDT started using their first fully interactive eLearning system in April 2000. They then launched their CBT (Computer-Based Training) Campus (which was actually the SMARTforce learning management system) to their executives rather hastily.

4. Shortcomings:

- Low turnout of graduates and enrollees

- Lack of information about their CBT Campus

5. They conducted a survey and found the following shortcomings:

- Employees' lack of information about the SMARTforce system used to deliver the e-Learning courses

- The IT infrastructure was inadequate. There were not enough PCs in the company which the employees can help themselves to learn during office hours.

6. After some analysis, they identified the following needs:

- Need for massive information campaign on the eLearning programme - benefits, features, access procedures

- Need for a reward system to encourage usage by employees

- Need to prepare learners to be comfortable with technology

- Go for blended-learning

- Make trainers more comfortable with eLearning

7. How they reinvent their CBT Campus (SMARTforce system):

- Focus on 3 marketing approaches:

a. packaging

b. branding - renamed the SMARTforce system as LearNet

c. promotion

8. Results of the re-invented CBT Campus:

- dramatic increase in enrollees and graduates

- significant cost savings

9. Seven valuable lessons from PLDT's eLearning experiences:

a. Make people appreciate eLearning before asking them to use it

b. Understand users' needs well

c. Product development is key

d. Package eLearning as user-friendly

e. Find ways to make users love eLearning

f. Get top management endorsement

g. Create a bandwagon by spreading the good news

10. Some success from their eLearning revamp:

11. The following table summarizes the cost savings that PLDT claimed to have attained after introducing eLearning:

12. Having gone through this eLearning experience, the PLDT concluded that it was important to make eLearning fit the existing working culture in the PLDT company.

=============================================================

You can download the full paper from this link:

http://www.elearningap.com/eLAP2004/v12n2/pdf/p105-110-Kibanoff_pldt-LearNet.pdf

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 22 (SCORM - Sharable Content Object Reference Model)

2010-12-07T19:23:00.000-08:00

My contribution today is on the international e-learning specification known as SCORM.

1. SCORM stands for Sharable Content Object Reference Model.

2. It is part of the US Department of Defence's Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) Project which started in 1997.

3. It is called a Reference Model because it comprises not only the specification but also the software as well.

4. The software includes the conformance test suite, sample run-time environment, RELOAD editor, sample contents, guidelines, etc.

5. The specification part of SCORM is developed from specifications from other e-learning specification bodies like the AICC (Aviation Industry CBT Committee), the IMS Global Learning Consortium, the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee and the European project known as ADRIANE Project.

6. The SCORM Model was created for the following requirements: Reusability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Durability.

7. SCORM deals with web-based learning and does not take into account other delivery mechanisms.

8. There are several versions of SCORM, e.g. SCORM 1.2, SCORM 2004 1st Edition, SCORM 2004 2nd Edition, SCORM 2004 3rd Edition, SCORM 2004 4th Edition.

9. The SCORM Bookshelf (or documentation) comprises the Overview, the Content Aggregation Model and the Run-Time Environment. These books are very technical.

10. Here are some resources that you can use to help you understand and use the SCORM specification:

i. Main ADLNET.GOV's website: http://www.adlnet.gov

ii. ADL Initiative's Channel on YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ADLInitiative#p/a

(Four video clips: Part 1 - ADL & SCORM Overview; Part 2 - SCORM Terminology; Part 3 - SCORM Bookshelf; Part 4 - Conformance & Certification)

iii. SCORM 2004 Primer

www.pro-ductivity.com/Compliance21CFR/CTMW/scormintro.pdf

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 21 (Categories of E-Learning Projects)

2010-11-27T00:22:00.000-08:00

How to categorise e-learning projects has always been a contentious issue with many people, including those involved directly in the e-learning work.

There are many ways to categorise e-learning projects. One interesting way that I know of is that due to the e-learning entrepreneur Elliot Masie [1]. In 2005, Elliot Masie proposed a three-tier model. He categorised these three tiers as bronze, silver and platinum.

Assoc. Prof. Saul Carliner of the Concordia University in Montreal explained these three tiers very clearly in the web page entitled “Designing and Developing E-Learning Projects: A Three-Tiered Approach”.

To make it easy and quick to read, I have condensed this article into a comparison table. You can find this table in the attached document.

Perhaps this Three-Tiered Approach might be useful to some of us who might be handling e-learning projects.

Regards

Kin Chew

Reference

[1] Masie, E. (2005.) Keynote address to the Ottawa Centre for Research and Innovation. Ottawa, ON: September 14, 2005.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 20 (Quality website of CPCC)

2010-11-24T01:14:00.000-08:00

My contribution today is on the quality initiatives website of the Central Piedmont Community College (CPCC).

1. Here are some highlights of their website:
• This Community College uses two LMSs - Blackboard and Moodle.
• They provide training in both LMSs to faculty staff every month.
• Online tutorials are provided for both LMSs.
• They use the SafeAssign software in the Blackboard System to check for plagiarism.
• They encourage their staff members to contribute articles, news, links and resources to this website.

2. Of particular interest to me are their quality initiatives:
• Quality Rubric
• Quality Process
• Quality Seal
• Quality Showcase
• Quality Request

3. They have implemented a Quality Course Review (QCR) process utilizing the 2005 Quality Matters® rubric. The rubric provides a guide to key common elements which should be contained in every fully online course. At the same time, it allows flexibility of design for each faculty member to deliver unique educational content.

4. The Quality Course Review (QCR) Process
The QCR process is a voluntary programme. In this programme, the Instructional Development team provides feedback and support to instructors to improve course design. They have a rather rigorous process for their Quality Process.

5. Quality Seal
Faculty who have successfully completed the Quality Course Review (QCR) process and met the required elements of the rubric, may place the Quality Seal graphic image within their eLearning course.

6. Quality Showcase
They have this column where they feature contributions from faculty staff members. The other interesting thing is that they have a schedule to review the online courses that the instructors have designed and developed.

7. Only those courses that meet the quality criteria and attain the passing score are allowed to display the quality seal.

8. Finally, there is this last part in which the instructor can request for a quality review for his particular course.

============================================

That's it for today. I hope it has been useful to people who are using and implementing e-learning.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 19 (Case Study: Information Assurance Awareness Course)

2010-11-03T20:41:00.000-07:00

My contribution today is on a case study.

This case study is on an Information Assurance Awareness (IAA) course which the Defence Information Systems Agency (DISA) of the US Department of Defence (DoD) and SAIC and Carney, Inc developed.

Introduction
1. The IAA course is taken by more than 5 million DoD Service members, reservists, civilians, and contractors.
2. It won the best training exercise award from the Federal Information Systems Security Educators' Association (FISSEA, 2009).
3. It also won the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award (Brandon Hall, 2009)

The Training Course
1. The IAA is a 1-hour online course.
2. It provides interactive training on a variety of topics related to information assurance including:
a. Internet hoaxes,
b. Identity theft, and
c. Computer viruses.
3. The course has an Introduction followed by a set of lessons.
4. Lessons are scenarios that trainees are likely to encounter in the workplace.
5. Content is made up of Flash movies that combine animation, narration, and learner interaction.
6. Learner interaction is generally in the form of multiple choice knowledge checks with feedback.
7. Learners can take lessons in any order but they must complete the lessons to finish the training.
8. Content is more expensive to develop. It takes between 220 and 276 hours to develop the 1-hour e-learning course. Compared this with 117 hours for the simple asynchronous content.

Standardized Content with Flexible Deployment
1. The course was designed to be easy to update with the new policies and refreshed scenarios that arise from changing information security threats.

Some Learning Points
1. If the content will be used by many people and for a long time, it pays to spend money, effort and resources to do a good course.
2. Costs for deployment across more than 20 LMSs were kept low by requiring contents to conform to the SCORM specification.
3. Interactive multimedia, when done properly, can engage the audience effectively.

I hope you all will find this contribution useful.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 18 (Roger Schank's 7 Criteria for for Assessing the Effectiveness of an e-Learning Course)

2010-10-14T21:35:00.000-07:00

Here is another model for assessing the effectiveness of an e-Learning course.

This model is called the Roger Schank’s 7 criteria for assessing the effectiveness of an e-Learning course.

1. Who is Roger Schank?
• Roger Schank is Distinguished Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU).
• He is the founder and chairman of CognitiveArts, a leading e-Learning development firm.
• He also runs Schank Learning Consultants, and is an acclaimed author and lecturer, as well as the inventor of powerful multimedia training tools.
• He was the founder of the Institute for the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University
• He was the director of the artificial intelligence project at Yale University.
• He is one of the world’s leading artificial intelligence researchers.
• He is the author of more than 125 articles and publications.

2. What are his 7 criteria for assessing the effectiveness of an e-learning course?

Roger Schank’s 7 criteria for assessing the effectiveness of an e-learning course can be summarized by the following acronym - FREEDOM:

2.1 F – Failure
A good course must enable failures that surprise the student.
Failure is the key to learning. We learn when what we expected to happen fails to happen.

2.2 R – Reasoning
A good course encourages practice in reasoning.
It is easy to learn procedures. It’s much harder to learn what to do when those procedures fail or when there are no rules that fit the situation. Being able to handle new issues that come up is the hallmark of intelligence.

2.3 E - Emotionality
A good course must incite an emotional response in the student.
Story telling when done properly can be a powerful way to bring out emotions in the student.

2.4 E - Exploration
A good course promotes exploration and enables inquiry.
To inquire we must have something to inquire about. It there are no people to interact with in a simulation, then there must be a world with which to interact. Exploring means examining the world around us in sufficient detail to become curious about it. A good course promotes curiosity. Exploration is the starting point for curiosity.

2.5 D - Doing
A good course encourages practice in doing.
Most courses leave doing out. Most courses are a kind of preparation for a doing that never takes place. Sometimes arguing about ideas, a kind of doing, does occur in a course. Sometimes laboratory work in a course allows some practice in doing. But in a standard lecture course there is usually no doing at all.

2.6 Observation
A good course allows students to see things for themselves.
When we examine courses for their use of observation, we need to understand that the primary criterion we care about is memorability. Another purpose beyond memorability is that observations are the beginning of the data gathering from which conclusions can be drawn.

2.7 Motivation
A good course supplies motivation.
Students will not learn anything in even the best course if they cannot figure out how what they will learn applies to them. Every student in every course has the expectation that what the teacher is trying to teach will somehow be relevant to his or her present or future life.

============================================

Here is a table [1] which summarizes these 7 criteria:

3. My views

The 7 criteria look very logical and useful to use but the difficult part is to take measurements of these criteria. The measurements can also be rather subjective. In his book, “Designing World-Class e-Learning”, Roger Schank give suggestions on how to take measurements for the student-independent aspects (i.e. Doing, Reasoning, Exploration and Observation) and the student-dependent aspects (i.e. Motivation, Emotion, Failure). Ever tried to measure the motivation, emotion and failure aspects of a course from a student’s point of view? Difficult, isn’t it? That is why assessing the effectiveness of an e-learning course is not an easy task.

References:
1. Zaid Ali Alsagoff. (2005). “Reflecting the Future e-Content Development Evolution in Higher Education”
2. Schank, R.C. (2002). “Designing World-Class e-Learning”. McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 17 (Dale's Cone of Experience)

2010-09-25T14:25:00.000-07:00

Here is something I would like to share with everybody.

I am sure we all have come across diagrams like this:

Such a diagram is known as Dale's Cone of Experience. It was first developed by Edgar Dale.

Edgar Dale (April 27, 1900 – March 8, 1985) was a U.S. educationist who developed the famous Cone of Experience (from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Dale).

However, his cone of experience is often misrepresented by those who add numbers and to his cone.

Here is an example of such a diagram with the numbers added in:

The above diagram is impressive, isn’t it?

Well, according to the researcher, Will Thalheimer, the numbers are false! The original Dale’s Cone of Experience does not contain any numbers.!

For an interesting read on Will Thalheimer’s reasoning, please go to his blog at http://www.willatworklearning.com/2006/05/people_remember.html.

========================================
That's it for today!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 16 (Evolution of E-Learning)

2010-09-01T00:22:00.000-07:00

My contribution today is on the experiences of five prominent educators and experts in online education. These are all found in the article entitled “The Evolution of E-learning” which can be obtained from:

http://www.aacsb.edu/publications/archives/janfeb07/p22-29.pdf

You will find the following 5 sections:

1. "The Right Tools to Learn" by Sam Naidu, Associate Professor, University of Melbourne, Australia

2. "The Future Is Great" by Michael Rappa, Professor of Technology Management, North Carolina State University, College of Management, Raleigh, North Carolina

3. "We're Back to Square One" by Robert Zemsky, Chair and CEO, The Learning Alliance, Professor, University of Pennsylvania, West Chester, Pennsylvania

4. "A Web of Co-Creation" by Diana Oblinger, Vice President, EDUCAUSE, Raleigh, North Carolina

5. "Adopting a 'Work-Based Pedagogy'" by Lee Schlenker, Affiliate Professor of Information Systems Management, EM Lyon, Lyon, France

=======================================

The following are some useful takeaways from this article:

1. To reach a burgeoning community of e-learners, educators need to keep in mind three important E's: engagement, experience, and educational value.

2. Courses that are designed and developed without high levels of faculty engagement, interactive activities, and student involvement can provide less-than-ideal learning experiences.

3. Instead of taping my lectures for off-campus students, I created 30-minute podcast "conversations", as if I were sitting down with each of them over breakfast.

4. Michael Rappa created a website, http://www.digitalenterprise.org, to teach his students about "Managing the Digital Enterprise". A professor in West Virginia uses it as a textbook for her students. Professors in Florida and Singapore both put more students through the website than he did.

5. New technologies make it easier for professors to develop online resources; but the longer faculty wait, the harder it will be for them to take the plunge.

6. "... we didn't take the time to discover how students really use technology to further their educational goals."

"They've shifted from a lecture style to a more participatory style."

"Faculty are using the technology to post course content and encourage online discussion, but many are still not using it to teach."

7. As students take control over their own learning processes, educators are asking three important questions:

i. How can we make the online learning environment an engaging environment, in which students are active participants in the learning process?

ii. How do we create learning activities that help them truly master the information?

iii. How do we adapt the learning environment to suit students' different learning styles?

8. Too many people attempt to replicate a textbook's content on the computer screen.

9. We're moving from the 1990s' vision of the Internet as a content delivery system to the present-day vision of the Internet as an immersive environment, where learners have a great deal of control and exercise a tremendous amount of choice.

10. Some possible future scenarios:

i. Students' appetite for online educational experiences will intensify.

ii. Students might attend one school in person and another online, or choose individual courses from a variety of institutions.

iii. Students will be able to build their own personal learning environments.

iv. Frequent instructor interaction and detailed weekly outlines of instructor expectations are crucial to designing valuable online learning experiences.

Hope this will be useful to all of us on our e-learning journey!

Have a good day ahead!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 15 (Writing valid learning objectives)

2010-08-26T01:15:00.001-07:00

I was looking for materials for my regular contribution on “Quality Matters in E-Learning” when I chanced upon this simple article on “Interactive Bloom’s & Learning Objective Chart” by Kevin Kruse of the Oregon State University.

You can get this article from this website: http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/coursedev/models/id/taxonomy/#table

This article includes an interactive table for coming up with appropriate, valid learning objectives.

I find this table to be useful if I need to write valid learning objectives for an e-learning course.

Here is an example on how I can use this table:

Suppose I am developing an e-learning course on Security of Information Systems. I might want to give some case studies of security breaches in some organizations. My short course will include some factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge. Overall, I might want my students to be able to analyze security breaches. So, using this simple table, I can use verbs like “order” for factual knowledge, “explain” for conceptual knowledge and “differentiate” for procedural knowledge. I can then decide how much of factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge content that I want to include in my e-learning course.

Subsequently, with these learning objectives clearly stated, I can assess the students’ learning outcomes as I will be able to organize my assessments based on these learning objectives.

That’s it for today! Hope this has been useful to you all!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 14 (Evaluation of E-Learning Courses)

2010-08-20T02:52:00.000-07:00

My topic for today is on evaluation of e-learning courses.

We all know that evaluation of e-learning courses is important to improve existing and future e-learning courses. However, it is not done for all e-learning courses.

Perhaps we can take some time to reflect on this matter and see what we want to achieve with the evaluation of e-learning courses. One important aspect is to ascertain the quality of e-learning courses.

There are many sources of information on evaluation of e-learning courses. Here are three useful resources:

1. Evaluation of eLearning for Best Practice:

http://wikieducator.org/Evaluation_of_eLearning_for_Best_Practice

2. Evaluating Online Learning:

http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/tactix/Features/evaluate/evaluate.htm

3. Testing and Evaluation:

http://www.cognitivedesignsolutions.com/Instruction/TestingEvaluation.htm

This third resource gives summaries of the Kirkpatrick’s model of training evaluation, Brandon-Hall’s evaluation criteria and David Merrill’s 5-star evaluation.

Of particular interest are the Brandon-Hall’s evaluation criteria and a case study done using David Merrill’s 5-star rating evaluation.

Hopefully, these resources can equip us with some necessary capabilities to develop our very own evaluation model. A good evaluation model for e-learning will benefit our students and instructors tremendously. A poor evaluation model will only frustrate learners and instructors.

In closing, I like to use this quotation from Robert Stakes:

“When the cook tastes the soup, that’s formative; when the guests taste the soup, that’s summative."

That’s it for today!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 13 (Helping students to become better online learners)

2010-08-16T02:22:00.000-07:00

My contribution today is on how we can help our students to become better online learners.

Here are some questions we might want to ask about online learning:

1. How different is online learning from conventional classroom learning?

2. What do we really mean by "student-centred" learning?

3. What skills must our students possess in order to do well in online classes?

4. How can we reduce the dropout rates in online courses?

5. How can we accommodate students with special needs (i.e. people with disabilities)?

6. What are the characteristics of a successful online learner and an effective online learning environment?

Greg Kearsley, in his book entitled "Online Education - Learning and Teaching in Cyberspace", discussed issues like those I mentioned above. Here are some notes from Chapter 5 of his book.

He also provided some online resources that students can use to improve themselves before they embark on online learning:

1. The Study Skills Help site developed by Carolyn Hopper - http://www.mtsu.edu/~studskl

2. Seniornet - http://www.seniornet.org/

That’s all for today.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 12 (Case Study - University of Central Florida)

2010-08-13T23:54:00.000-07:00

My contribution today is on an e-learning case study.

This case study is on the e-learning experiences in the University of Central Florida (UCF).

Anyway, for the convenience of everyone, I have summarized the important points from this document:

Lessons learned in UCF's E-Learning Experience:

1. Faculty adopt e-learning incrementally.

2. It is important to institutionalize practices.

3. E-learning is at its core an instructional activity.

4. Successful faculty development results from an instructional approach, not from an emphasis on technology.

5. It is about teaching, learning, and pedagogy.

The document also contains recommendations from students and feedback from faculty members on the positive and negative aspects of teaching in e-learning courses.

I hope this case study will be useful to all of us.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 11 (Guidelines on MCQs)

2010-08-13T23:45:00.000-07:00

My previous e-mail was on some guidelines on MCQs.

MCQs are used very widely in online quizzes. However, we can use MCQs to test students at different levels of the cognitive domain, not just the usual knowledge recall or comprehension level. For this purpose, it is good to have a good understanding of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.

This is a fairly good Youtube video clip on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv-cL8dwaA0

After watching this video clip, you might want to go through some MCQ examples given in the attached Word document. These MCQ examples are taken from a handbook on Designing and Managing Multiple Choice Questions from the University of Cape Town, South Africa, http://web.uct.ac.za/projects/cbe/mcqman/mcqman01.html.

These examples show that you can design MCQs that can test a student at different cognitive levels, i.e. at knowledge recall, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis or evaluation levels.

That’s it for today!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 10 (More on the preparation of MCQs)

2010-08-05T22:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

For my tenth sharing session on Quality Matters in E-Learning, I want to share what I know and have experienced in the preparation of multiple-choice items.

All multiple-choice items consist of two basic parts: a stem and the responses.

• The stem is the introductory statement or question that draws out the correct answer.

• Each stem should address only one problem or content area.

• Items should assess important areas of knowledge or application of facts and problem solving

• Avoid items that assess only obscure factual information.

• Items can be written in the form of an incomplete statement, as well as in question form.

• The responses are suggested answers (provided by the learner) that complete the statement or answer the question asked in the stem.

• Only one of the responses is the correct answer.

• You must provide the distractors as well as the correct answer.

• If the response is the same as the correct answer, then the student has answered the question correctly.

Do not use “all of the above” or “none of the above” in distractors.

• Distractors should represent unsafe practices or commonly held misconceptions and should sound plausible.

• Avoid using distractors that even the most uninformed examinee would recognize as incorrect.

• Do not use excessive technical language or jargon.

• Avoid as much as possible the use of negatively stated responses.

• Also the use of humorous or absurd distractors is not appropriate.

I have included two documents for you all to follow up. The first one is on “Guidelines on writing better MCQs” and the second one are some exercises which you might want to try out. The exercises are very simple. There are five examples for each guideline. For each guideline, you choose either Zorro or Robin Hood.

Following the style of Alan, the first person who gives me all the correct answers will get a gift from me.

I hope you all will enjoy this simple game and at the same time learn something about developing better MCQs.

That’s all for today!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 5 (Gagne's 9 Events of Instruction)

2010-08-03T22:48:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

My contribution today is on the Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction.

Robert M. Gagne was a famous French education expert who first published the book on “Conditions of Learning” in 1965.

His 9 Events of Instruction can be summarized in the following table:

Here is a demonstration video on the Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction. It lasts 6.23 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OascKtHXcK0&feature=related

How do you feel about this video clip? Did you find it very exciting or a little boring?

Now watch this video clip at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_8MB9F2cts&feature=related

This is still about the Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction. It lasts 3.33 minutes.

How did you feel about this second video clip? Is it better than the first video clip? Were you a bit inspired? Could you remember what the creator wanted you to remember? Was the creator innovative? If you have taught Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction and this person came out with something slightly different like TEACH, would you penalize this person for not listing down the 9 Events of Instruction?

The second video clip is about:

Talk about your objective
Exchange knowledge
Aid learning (examples, etc)
Check learning (tests, etc)
Help fit into learner’s life

There is no right or wrong answer. If a student regurgitates all the 9 Events of Instruction correctly, he would get full marks if he were to be asked to list down all the 9 Events of Instruction. This is pure knowledge recall.

However, if we want to know whether the student has internalized the Gagne’s 9 Events of Instruction and come out with a slightly different but easy to remember version, then the second student should be given more marks than the first student.

So, what type of students do we want to produce?

That’s it for today.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 9 (3D Virtual Worlds)

2010-08-03T20:23:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

My contribution for today is on 3D Virtual Worlds.

Some of you may ask, “What is a 3D Virtual World”?

Instead of trying to answer this question, I would like to use a video clip to explain the concept of “3D Virtual World”. Please see video clip no. 2 below for a good explanation on 2D and 3D worlds.

So, if you can point your browser to the website at
http://elearningtech.blogspot.com/2008/06/second-life-learning-videos.html, you will be able to see the following video clips posted on the web page: (The video clip on “Preview Scenarios Demo” has been removed by the user.)

1. Educational Uses of Second Life (Part 1)

Some notes:

• The US government spends nearly US$815 billion every year on education.

• Yet many people complained that the education is inefficient, irrelevant and unproductive.

• This may be because the young people are brought up in the MTV age and are engrossed in games like World of WarCraft.

• So, our challenge is to develop systems to get the young people immersed in education.

Educational uses of Second Life:

Some notes:

• Role-playing
• Shakespearean play
• Immersive environment
• Scavenger hunts
• Guided tours
• Virtual sandbox
• Co-create 3D objects
• Simulation
• Hallucinations
• Moodle LMS + 3D
• Quizzing
• Tutorials – learning kiosks
• Language translators
• Whiteboard

For more information, please go to: http://www.karlkapp.blogspot.com

2.Comparing 2D and 3D Synchronous Learning (Learning in 3D)

Some notes:

How can we create 3D environments that are better than 2D environments?

3D Learning Environment:

• Synchronous learning environment
• Web 2.0
• 3D interface
• Social networking tools

3.Virtual Social Worlds and the Future of Learning

Some notes:

Learning in 3 Dimensions:

• Self
• Distance
• Presence
• Space
• Co-create
• Practice
• Experience

Some principles from this video clip:

• Flow
• Repetition
• Experimentation
• Engagement
• Doing
• Observing
• Motivation

4 Science Learning Opportunities in Second Life

Some notes:

• Real Time Data Visualization
• Learning cellular components
• Learning Anatomical Structures
• Experiential Learning environment
• Traditional Learning Space
• Engagement with content

5.Educational Uses of Second Life (Part 2)

Continuing from video clip no. 1 above.

6.EDTech Island in Second Life

Some notes:

• EDTech Island is a project started by the Boisestate University.
• For more information on this project, please go to: http://edtech.boisestate.edu.

7.I am Librarian. I am Avatar. Libraries and Second Life

Some notes:

• Presentation of 47 slides
• E.g. immersive learning – hands-on Science programs with NASA
• Some user statistics of users in Second Life.
• Second Life:
• Second Life is a free 3D virtual world where users can socialize, connect and create using free voice and text chat.
• Virtual world developed by Linden Lab.
• 3D environment
• User generated content
• Began with a game-play element.

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Games, simulations, 3D virtual worlds are the new areas that SST want to use in our e-learning journey. Collectively, these are known as “immersive learning technologies” by some people in the education technology world.

Here is a short video clip demonstration about virtual world capabilities and use in training applications: http://www.adlnet.gov/Technologies/games/default.aspx
Virtual reality presents many opportunities for SST especially in the teaching of engineering and technology courses. Virtual reality can provide many new learning opportunities which we cannot do in the usual traditional methods like using PowerPoint, text, diagrams and flash animations. However, there are several challenges:

1.Hardware requirements of the PC or laptop (usually require a high end graphics card)
2.Bandwidth consumption (probably with the Next Generation National Broadband Network we may overcome this problem)
3.Design and development of the virtual world components.
4.Incorporate the learning model into the virtual world. This is probably the most important aspect.

I believe challenges no. 1 and 2 can be overcome soon. For no. 3 and no. 4, we really need to start building our capability.

Should we abandon this direction and just stick to the usual traditional way of creating simple video clips, text, PowerPoints, PDF and maybe, Flash animations? Well, this is a very safe but unadventurous way forward.

What about our students? Do we think they will like using virtual worlds or virtual reality stuff for learning? Well, if the contents have been developed with the game-play paradigm, I believe it will appeal to our students. The challenge is really to develop engaging virtual worlds for our students to want to use them for learning. If we look at the Guerra Scale of Interactivity, virtual reality has an interactivity scale of 10. What this means is that it has the potential to engage the student, provided it has been developed properly.

That’s all for today! I hope it is not too long!

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 8 (Pedagogical Principles in Online Courses)

2010-08-03T00:11:00.000-07:00

My contribution today is on incorporating all the stuff that I have been sharing with you all into developing an online course.

So far, I have covered educational theories like Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Guerra Scale of Interactivity and David Merrill’s 5-Star rating for e-learning courseware.

It was very encouraging for me as I managed to find this article entitled “Applying Pedagogical Concepts in Online Course Development: Experiences from the Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU)”.

So, what’s so great about this article?

Well, this article talks about the development of an online course using some pedagogical concepts. These are the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Gagne’s Nine Events of Instruction, the Guerra Scale and SCORM. These are the areas that I am working on.

I must say this is really a coincidence and I feel very encouraged.

You can find this article at this link:
http://www.bolton.ac.uk/AME/eLearning/eResources/Applying%20Pedagogical%20Concepts%20in%20Online%20.pdf

I have included a diagram which illustrates the Course Development Model used in the Mediterranean Virtual University (MVU).

This paper explains the experiences of three of the nine academic partners: Ain Shams University (Egypt), Sabanci University (Turkey) and the Islamic University of Gaza.

About the only thing that is not covered in this article is the use of a quality evaluation model like the 5-star rating scheme of Prof. David Merrill.

Sheer coincidence? I will leave this to you all to decide.

That’s all for today.

Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 7 (Connexions - Open Source Repository for Open Education Resources)

2010-08-03T00:05:00.000-07:00

My contribution for today is on this project called Connexions.

1. What is Connexions?

Connexions is an open source platform and open access repository for open education resources.

It enables the creation, sharing, modification, and vetting of open educational material accessible to anyone, anywhere, anytime via the World Wide Web.

It started as project in the Rice University in 1999. Since then, Connexions has pioneered digital education.

Connexions’ global knowledge ecosystem, where anyone can create materials, is free of charge.

Connexions’ modular interactive information is in use by universities, community colleges, primary and secondary schools and life-long learners worldwide.

Connexions’ materials are available in many languages including English, Chinese, Spanish, Japanese, Vietnamese, Italian, French, Portuguese and Thai.

Through its partnership with innovative publisher QOOP (http://qoop.com), Connexions is part of a new distribution system that allows for print on demand and accelerates the delivery of educational materials into classrooms worldwide.

2. Website of Connexions

http://cnx.org

Connexions is a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules.

These modules can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute:

* authors create and collaborate
* instructors rapidly build and share custom collections
* learners find and explore content

3. How can Connexions benefit UniSIM?

Search, access and retrieve suitable contents for our courses.

As all the contents are placed under the Creative Commons license, we can use the contents free of charge.

If we want to contribute, we can sign in as members.

According to their website, they have 16610 reusable modules woven into 1008 collections. Contents are available in the following domain areas: Arts, Business, Humanities, Mathematics and Statistics, Science and Technology, Social Sciences.
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Regards

Kin Chew

Quality Matters in E-Learning - 6 (Knowles' Theory of Andragogy)

2010-08-02T23:55:00.000-07:00

Hi Everybody,

My contribution today is on Malcolm Knowles Theory of Andragogy.

1. What is andragogy?

Andragogy is the process of helping adults learn. In short, andragogy = adult learning.

2. What is the difference between andragogy and pedagogy?

Pedagogy refers to the teaching of children, where the teacher is the focal point. The teacher leads the learning. All knowledge is from the teacher to the student. In andragogy, the learner takes responsibility for his or her learning; can draw from his or her previous experiences; does not depend very much on the teacher and is motivated in his or her learning.

There are 6 assumptions in Malcolm Knowles's Theory of Andragogy:

1. Need to know – why do the learning; what benefits he or she gets from learning something; risks involved and respond positively.

2. Self-concept – being responsible for his or her actions; exercises self management; ownership; self-direction

3. Experience - active; constructive and collaborative but has ingrained bias

4. Readiness to learn - timeliness; direction – how much assistance is needed; support – how much encouragement is needed

5. Orientation to learn – life-centred; task oriented; contextualized; experiential learning; generalize from experience

6. Motivation to learn - is intrinsic rather than extrinsic

There is a Youtube video clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLoPiHUZbEw) on Andragogy.

To some people, Andragogy should be regarded as a framework for good teaching rather than a theory. In addition, there are critics who argued that this framework may not apply to all students. Adult students may suffer from lack of confidence and there are adults who do not have clear view of what they want to learn.

Whatever it is, I think we can use this framework to assist us in improving our teaching and e-learning in the SST.

That’s it for today!

Regards

Kin Chew

P.S. Did you find this way of presentation effective in understanding my message? I have text, a picture of the education researcher, a diagram and finally a Youtube video clip to reinforce the main points. I did all these within 20 minutes.