Career Mantra’s Official Blog

Today, learn­ers are pro­lif­er­at­ing, but the instruc­tor pop­u­la­tion is strug­gling to match learner growth rates. Learn­ers are in every city, town and vil­lage. And, all yearn for qual­ity edu­ca­tion. But the qual­ity edu­ca­tion givers are few and far between. So how do edu­ca­tion plan­ners and imple­menters rec­on­cile with this mis­match?
Dis­tance learn­ing was thought to be the answer. Indeed, it still is. But there is a dif­fer­ence today in the deliv­er­ance because of tech­nol­ogy and Inter­net. The qual­ity gap between face-to-face learn­ing has been bridged as has the dis­tance gap been vir­tu­ally bridged.

Learner Cen­tric Edu­ca­tion

The way we learn has evolved. Users have truly become the cen­ter of the learn­ing process. Often times the learn­ers iden­tify the appro­pri­ate mate­r­ial and way they want to learn. The time avail­able for learn­ing courses has been tele­scoped for want of time. The good news is that the time period for online learn­ing is shorter and learn­ers apply the learn­ing directly to their work sit­u­a­tion to remain com­pet­i­tive. The oppor­tu­ni­ties for learn­ing are expand­ing. Tech­nol­ogy pro­vides access to new ways to learn both for­mally and infor­mally. The younger gen­er­a­tion grew up with tech­nol­ogy — and demands online access to infor­ma­tion, research, processes, and new skills. Step in e-learning.

What is dif­fer­ent about e-learning?

e-learning helps learn­ers to reach pred­i­cated lev­els of com­pe­tency faster. e-learning allows learn­ers to assim­i­late con­tent at their own speed. If they under­stand mate­r­ial, they can skim; if it’s new mate­r­ial, they can spend time on the unfa­mil­iar con­tent. Con­trast it with the class­room; instruc­tion moves at the will of the instruc­tor, who gears the class pace to meet needs of the major­ity of learn­ers, not the needs of indi­vid­ual learn­ers.
Learn­ers can engage in learn­ing any­time, any­where, and from any loca­tion. Learn­ers con­trol when and where they want to do their learn­ing. Some choose to learn from home while oth­ers take a “learn­ing break” that breaks the monot­ony of the work­day. Some even access learn­ing from their mobile devices as they travel. This free­dom to learn based on per­sonal pref­er­ence makes for hap­pier, more engaged learn­ers who find it eas­ier to stay up-to-date on their knowl­edge and skills.
Con­sis­tency of eLearn­ing deliv­ers uni­form con­tent to all learn­ers. No mat­ter where the learn­ers are located, they receive the same con­tent, elim­i­nat­ing con­tent vari­ance that is often present with instructor-led learn­ing.
Travel sav­ings are sig­nif­i­cant. e-learning elim­i­nates a sig­nif­i­cant amount of air, train and auto travel.

But what of the qual­ity of e-learning, vis-à-vis face-to-face learn­ing?

Class­room And Online Self-Study Prove Equally Effec­tive.Out­side of sub­ject areas where face-to-face inter­ac­tion is inescapable — for exam­ple, say a med­ical stu­dent is doing the rounds of the ward with her instruc­tor — recent research indi­cates that no sig­nif­i­cant dif­fer­ences exist in the effec­tive­ness of learn­ing through class­room, online, or self-study. This is because of the fol­low­ing:
Metic­u­lously crafted graph­ics and visu­als help explain new con­cepts. Visu­als, graph­ics, sim­ple sim­u­la­tions, and even short videos con­tribute to a more visual approach to under­stand­ing con­cepts. This, com­bined with instructor’s audio help, ensure good learn­ing. In fact, some ani­mated sequences in eLearn­ing would be dif­fi­cult to dupli­cate in the class­room.
Responses through blogs, wikis, and dis­cus­sion boards help learn­ers see other points of view. The dan­ger of iso­la­tion of online learn­ers is mit­i­gated by a plethora of inter­ac­tive tools used to rein­force the learn­ing.
Con­tent is avail­able to review mul­ti­ple times. The oppor­tu­nity to access spe­cific sec­tions of the learn­ing con­tent as many times as nec­es­sary to grasp key con­cepts pro­vides for a bet­ter over­all under­stand­ing of the topic. Also, choos­ing the best time to learn puts the learner in a bet­ter frame of mind to learn.

The end note there­fore is that while e-learning maps eas­ily with fast for­ward learn­ing, the learner has the power to press the pause but­ton at her will. Clearly, e-learning has arrived.

Recall that in my pre­vi­ous arti­­cle ‚I pointed out that there are hun­­dreds of e-Learning author­ing tools in the mar­ket today. Selec­t­ing the proper tool for devel­op­ing con­­tent is not a triv­ial task.

In this arti­­cle let us look at some dom­i­­nant fac­­tors that should influ­ence your deci­­sion while choos­ing the best con­­tent author­ing tool that is right for your Learn­ing Man­age­­ment Sys­tems.

Here is a list of ques­­tions you should ask dur­ing the eval­u­a­­tion process of con­­tent author­ing tool. This will save you time and money.

• What type of train­ing are you pro­vid­ing?
• Is it a blended learn­ing (partly online and partly class­­room) expe­ri­ence?
• Will you pro­­vide train­ing on CD/DVD or other media?
• Do you aim to get your learn­ers cer­ti­­fied on a prod­uct, ser­vice, or pro­ce­­dure?
• Is a cer­­tain soft­­ware appli­­ca­­tion being taught?
• Do you have the resources to sup­­port the type of online train­ing you wish to develop and con­duct?
• Do you have graphic design­ers?
• Do you have appro­pri­ate sub­­­ject mat­ter experts?
• Does the train­ing needs to be refreshed per­i­od­i­­cally? Say, any­where from 6 months to a year or beyond?
• Do you have resources for ren­di­­tion of voice over?
• Do you have video pro­­duc­ers?
• Do you have mod­­els to ani­­mate the con­­tent that you want to develop?
• Do you have pro­­duc­­tion Design­ers?
• What hap­pens after the train­ing has been devel­oped?
• Will any tests be asso­­ci­ated with the train­ing changes?
• Will you have the right resources and sup­­port in place for any ongo­ing e-leaning con­­tent devel­op­­ment needs?
• Does the author­ing tool sup­­port all mul­ti­me­­dia file for­­mats which are required by your e-Learning course con­­tent?
• What level of inter­ac­­tiv­ity is required for the train­ing?
• Sim­u­la­­tions and other dynamic learn­ing activ­i­ties are great to have, but are they really appro­pri­ate or needed for the type of Com­­puter Based Train­ing that you are devel­op­ing?

Flash has become the stan­­dard tool used for many inter­ac­­tive e-learning activ­i­ties. Do a rain check to see whether your tools are com­­pat­i­ble with Flash.

• How much is bud­geted for the project?
• What things are spe­­cific to the type of train­ing and may be com­pro­mised if out­­­sourced?
• How steep is the learn­ing curve asso­­ci­ated with the tools you are think­ing of using for the project?
• What plat­­forms will the train­ing be deliv­­ered on?
• Does the online train­ing have to work across a com­bi­­na­­tion of plat­­forms such as Win­­dows, MAC, Linux or oth­­ers?
• Does e-learning con­­tent have to work across a var­i­ety of browsers?

Total sys­tem cost

It is always best to eval­u­ate any soft­­ware by look­ing at the total cost of own­er­­ship (TCO). TCO is a finan­­cial esti­­mate. Its pur­­pose is to help con­­sumers and enter­prise man­agers deter­mine direct and indi­rect costs of a prod­uct or sys­tem.

The TCO would include the cost of the appli­­ca­­tion, train­ing, upgrades, main­te­­nance, and any other costs asso­­ci­ated with the own­er­­ship of the prod­uct over its life­­time.

Some Sit­u­a­­tional Para­me­ters: Be mind­­ful that not all tools are appro­pri­ate for a given train­ing deliv­­ery method. It is impor­­tant to con­sider the con­­text in which con­­tent author­ing tools will be used. As you gather infor­­ma­­tion, keep in mind that as long as your com­­puter based train­ing (CBT) is founded on good instruc­­tional design prin­­ci­­ples, the inter­ac­­tiv­ity pro­­duced by the author­ing tool you choose will strengthen the learner’s expe­ri­ence. So con­sider train­ing objec­­tives while choos­ing the author­ing tool.

In next part of the series we will take a closer look at some of the pop­u­lar e-Learning Con­­tent Author­ing Tools.

There is now com­pelling evi­dence that online learn­ing has pipped face-to-face learn­ing at the post. The nose is just ahead though. But this is sig­nif­i­cant since till now it was felt that the race between online learn­ing and face-to-face learn­ing was a dead heat at best.
A study con­ducted by U.S. Depart­ment of Edu­ca­tion Office of Plan­ning, Eval­u­a­tion, and Pol­icy Devel­op­ment Pol­icy and Pro­gram Stud­ies Ser­vice has con­cluded that online learn­ing has surged ahead of face-to-face learn­ing. The report is now in the pub­lic domain.

The moti­va­tion of this study was: Online learn­ing — for stu­dents and for teach­ers — is one of the fastest grow­ing trends in edu­ca­tional uses of tech­nol­ogy. The National Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Sta­tis­tics (2008) esti­mated that the num­ber of K-12 pub­lic school stu­dents enrolling in a technology-based dis­tance edu­ca­tion course grew by 65 per­cent in the two years from 2002 – 03 to 2004 – 05. On the basis of a more recent dis­trict sur­vey, Pic­ciano and Sea­man (2009) esti­mated that more than a mil­lion K – 12 stu­dents took online courses in school year 2007 – 08. (Page 12)

The gen­e­sis of online learn­ing is dis­tance learn­ing. Dis­tance learn­ing has been around for over a cen­tury now. But the advan­tage of the World Wide Web has caused the online learn­ing to explode.

The study focuses on the two main pur­poses of online learn­ing:

(a) Learn­ing con­ducted totally online as a sub­sti­tute or alter­na­tive to face-to-face learn­ing
(b) Online learn­ing com­po­nents that are com­bined or blended (some­times called “hybrid”)
with face-to-face instruc­tion to pro­vide learn­ing enhance­ment

Find­ings:
The over­all find­ing of the meta-analysis is that classes with online learn­ing (whether taught com­pletely online or blended) on aver­age pro­duce stronger stu­dent learn­ing out­comes than do classes with solely face-to-face instruc­tion. (Page 38)

This is a sig­nif­i­cant tilt towards online learn­ing. Ear­lier stud­ies had con­cluded that online learn­ing is only as effec­tive as face-to-face learn­ing. The sec­ond area of study also gave thumbs up to online learn­ing. It said:

Blends of online and face-to-face instruc­tion, on aver­age, had stronger learn­ing out­comes than did face-to-face instruc­tion alone (Page 39)

Clearly, it makes sense for com­pa­nies to move over to online learn­ing and elearn­ing, where pos­si­ble. Not only will it cut costs but will also be a sub­stan­tially bet­ter expe­ri­ence both for learn­ers and teach­ers.

Over the last months we’ve been pay­ing closer atten­tion to e-Learing con­tent cre­ation tech­niques and con­tent author­ing tools and have tried to under­stand how each of these tools work and how they can ben­e­fit other learn­ing con­tent cre­ators. Such techniques/tools are often hard to find much less the method­ol­ogy to use them. It would worth explor­ing all these tools in detail. Career Mantra team will cover these in a series of posts.

In these series of arti­cles will help you to under­stand  the top e-learning author­ing tools that can be use­ful for your upcom­ing courses. There are many soft wares that can help you to weave learn­ing con­tent  faster and effec­tively.

First, let us look at the glos­sary of some e-learning terms; their def­i­n­i­tions and descrip­tions.

Learn­ing Man­age­ment System(LMS)

Learn­ing man­age­ment sys­tem is an appli­ca­tion used to plan, imple­ment and assess learn­ing processes related to online and offline train­ing, admin­is­tra­tion and per­for­mance man­age­ment.

LMS pro­vides a teacher, trainer or instruc­tor a means by which s/he can cre­ate con­tent, deliver con­tent, mon­i­tor learn­ers’ par­tic­i­pa­tion, and assess stu­dent per­for­mance. LMS also pro­vide learn­ers with inter­ac­tive fea­tures, such as inter­nal mes­sag­ing, video con­fer­enc­ing , event/calendar man­age­ment , dis­cus­sion forums, and other meth­ods of com­mu­ni­ca­tion.

In gen­eral LMS has its own online con­tent author­ing tool as part of the over­all sys­tem. There are many con­tent author­ing tools in the market.Although they call them­selves Learn­ing Man­age­ment Sys­tem they are  really just front end author­ing tools with lit­tle or almost no LMS func­tion­al­i­ties.  So the bot­tom line here is that a good Learn­ing Man­age­ment Sys­tem should be able to deliver the con­tent cre­ated using any con­tent  author­ing tool.

Con­tent Author­ing Tool

A con­tent author­ing tool is a soft­ware appli­ca­tion used to cre­ate a rich learn­ing con­tent typ­i­cally for deliv­ery on the World Wide Web. Con­tent author­ing tools may also cre­ate con­tent in other file for­mats so that con­tent can be deliv­ered on a CD or in other for­mats for var­i­ous uses.The pack­age of con­tent author­ing tools include HTML, Flash, and other types of e-Learning author­ing libraries.

Course Author­ing Tool

A course author­ing tool is sim­i­lar to con­tent author­ing tool. The only dif­fer­ence in course author­ing tool is that it can cre­ate a com­plete  course pack­age while con­tent author­ing tools cre­ate sub­ject spe­cific online con­tent. Sub­ject spe­cific online con­tent  has less fea­tures and func­tion­al­ity than  online course. Of course this also depends on the soft­ware used to cre­ate the con­tent.

SCORM/AICC com­pli­ant

SCORM is an acronym for Sharable Course­ware Object Ref­er­ence Model , which is a set of spec­i­fi­ca­tions , when applied to course con­tent, pro­duces small, reusable eLearn­ing objects. A result of the US Depart­ment of Defense’s Advanced Dis­trib­uted Learn­ing (ADL) ini­tia­tive, SCORM-compliant course­ware ele­ments are eas­ily merged with other com­pli­ant ele­ments to pro­duce a highly mod­u­lar set of train­ing courses.

AICC stands for the Avi­a­tion Indus­try CBT [Computer-Based Train­ing] Com­mit­tee, which is an inter­na­tional asso­ci­a­tion of technology-based train­ing pro­fes­sion­als that develop train­ing guide­lines for the e-Learning indus­try. They are very few e-Learning content-authoring tools that are fully SCORM/AICC com­pli­ant.  The point to be noted is , as long as the content-authoring tool is SCORM/AICC com­pli­ant (cre­ates SCORM/AICC com­pli­ant courses) and the Learn­ing Man­age­ment Sys­tem is SCORM/AICC com­pli­ant (works with SCORM/AICC courses), they always  work together seam­lessly.

In next part of the series we will take a closer look at the fac­tors to be con­sid­ered while choos­ing the con­tent author­ing tools.