Getting Started with Rapid E-Learning

Hi
I have had some experience in developing an e-learning program but am really a novice in this area. Looking forward to further information and good reading in this book.
Ann

Hi Tom,
You have hit the nail. Good points about context and scenario based learning along with interactivity.
I wanted to know things like Instructional design and more about
variety of models for doing it.

Cheers
Nilesh Joglekar

Hi Tom,

I am really looking forward to learning here. I primarily use Articulate software for developing e-Learning and have had some specific issues I have been trying to fix. For instance, how to keep the size small so the content is accessible in countries where internet connections are slow!

Let me know about Articulate

I like the comment made by James K’s dad, abt the 3 parts to a job: “Prep it, do it, clean up.” I’d like to add a 4th part: go back later and check that it is still working/valid.
The paradox with any learning material is that it should be specific to a need – that usually limits the time frame for which the content will be valid.
Conversely, the very generic content will probably be valid for a long time period, but usually adds little value to the learner.
Tom, you are so right: Find out what the learner group needs now, deliver it rapidly in an educational and fun way, and determine when the product has outlived its usefulness. That approach enhances cash-flow and keeps customers(=learners) happy.
regards, Martin

E-learning is an emerging tool in the recent years. It provides a lot of awesome inforamtions and tips that helps in developing our creative skills

Great, practical advice! I have been an ID and PM for 25 years. Your suggestions are sooooo real world practical. I have a question less about instruction and more about quiz software.

I ahve been searching for ny weeks for solution. It seems ALL quiz makers, assessment generators, and survey tools (including the Articualte Quiz trial software I downloaded) requires the author (ME) choose ONE correct answer.

However, I want to create a “profile assessment” that has 20 stem sentences, with four possible endings each. Depending on the ending chosen, the software would deposits a counter into one of four possible “buckets” so at the end of the 20 questions, I can provide the respondent with a profile analysis regarding their dominant style:

S= 2 C= 1 I = 13 T= 4 (total is 20; but the dispersion will differ for each respondent). There are many of these profiles available on the internet…but how are they created? Do I have to hire a programmer?

Thanks

Well, I’ve seen a lot of new and better programs than what we have here and now I’m getting involved in making our learning program much better and bring it into the 21st Century. I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can to help my learners get enjoyment out of learning.

Hi Tom,
I’ve just discovered your site and will read it all ASAP.

My job is the Training Officer at Thursday Island Hospital in the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea.

Many years ago I was trained in Instructional Design, and I am now moving into eLearning.

I spent three years in the States in the 70’s, and was a member of ASTD, and NSPI among other Professional bodies.

Thank you Tom for your great contribution to performance improvement.

Sincerely,
John Vidgen

Hi Tom,
I am the Training Officer at the Thursday Island Hospital in the Torres Strait between Australia and New Guinea.

I have supplied my private email address instead of the hospital’s email, since their software may filter out external email??

I was trained as an Instruction Designer many years ago, and in the 1970’s, spent three years in the States, where I was a member of ASTD and NSPI, and met folk like Robert Mager, Joe Harless and Geary Rummler.

Thank you for your very great contribution to this field of training and development.

Kind Regards,
John

Hi All

Iam tring to develop some rapid elearning content. I would like to know if there are any ways to track my course without hosting it on an LMS

Regards
Ramesh

Ramesh, I’m with you. I am a Learning & Development Manager in a law firm in Australia. Despite it being a commercial sector business and a reasonably large firm as well, we do not have a training budget, so I need to get very creative with not very much in the way of resources. (So I have been very happy to hear Tom addressing the issue of using PowerPoint – I agree, provided you use it creatively and it doesn’t LOOK like PowerPoint, it can be very effective.)

Certainly I do not have access to anything as sophisticated (or expensive) as an LMS, and the biggest issue we have with our very basic e-Learning courses is tracking them. At the moment we are relying on our learners clicking an email link at the end of the course to notify us that they’ve done the course, but clearly this is not giving us accurate data. Most of them can’t be bothered to click it, so we have no way of knowing how many people are actually accessing our ecourses, and of course no way of collecting or collating results. Although they access them through our intranet, we can’t track hits through there either.

I did discover some information about MOODLE on the web last week, which I gather is an open-source LMS. I’m in the process of exploring this and seeing whether we would be able to utlise it in our organisation.

If anyone has any comments to make about MOODLE, or any other suggestions (bearing in mind that I have NO money to spend!), I’d be interested in hearing what you have to say.

Ellen

I’ve recently set up my own Moodle site and am quite pleased with the flexibility Moodle offers.

If your organization has it’s own intranet, you could have someone in IT look into setting up a Moodle site on your own server.

If you have an internet website, like I do, you can install Moodle on that server and administer it remotely. I don’t get a tremendous amout of traffic, so for $20 a month hosting charges (or less), I get a SCORM compliant LMS, with tons of other features as well, forums, blogs, etc.

If you need customer support, you could look into using one of the hosting companies listed on the Moodle.com website. Plus they take care of all the upgrades.

Hope this helps.

Thanks Tom and Rick for your replies. Very helpful. I hadn’t thought about the database concept, so I’ll get cracking comparing all these options!

Ellen

Tom I am about to head up a huge project using an Oracle LMS any tips or suggestions. I look forward to learning!

Greetings all,

I am the CLO for a large property management company in Florida. We I started our training department 10 years ago,and, like everyone else, I had a small budget, but saw the need for an LMS. Very few options were available at that time, so I chose Microsoft Access as our LMS platform. It takes a bit of work to set up, but it performs well for tracking, running queries and reports. We now use Articulate as out OLT LMS. Access is still used for ILT tracking, but we will migrate this to Articulate next year.

We starting our online learning adventures this year and I look forward to all I will learn from this site. Thanks Tom!

Hi Tom,

I will be heading the E-Learning project of our company. This part of the company’s strategy in providing online learning services that will complement the company’s existing IT services to its clients. Although I have had a background in the academe and in operating an IT school, I have realized that setting up a LMS is a huge project. I’m looking forward to learning useful and practical tips to get me up to speed in managing this huge project. Thanks Tom!

Tom,
loved the “what everybody ought to know…” item a couple of weeks ago. I have been totally unable to reproduce the direct access to web pages such as a wikki in either Articulate or Breeze, nor can I find help on their websites or other forums. I’m not a novice at this but, how the hell did you do it?

I’m working hard here to get rapid e-learning off the ground by showing it can add immense value, but I’ve stumbled and fallen at this hurdle. Help, direction, hints or whatever please.

PS Keep up the good work – I love being challenged to try new stuff.

David

Tom,
thanks for the prompt response. What version of PowerPoint are you using as I still can’t reproduce this access to a webscreen.

Hi Tom,

Loved your Insiders Guide! I appreciate your insight and great tips. I’m new to this site, and can’t wait to read more.

BTW, on page 45, should “YOUR” replace “YOU” in the “TEMPLATE YOU PRODUCTION STAFF” paragraph?

Keep up the great work!

-Venus

I LOVE the book and printed it off and loaned it to a colleague (in another part of the USA). I now regret that because I would like to keep it in my office for a reference. I have tried to get another copy (didn’t save it on my hard drive) but I don’t want to resubscribe to the newsletter/blog (which by the way is the BEST). How can I accomplish this?

HI,Tom
I am pleased to get your book and learn from it , i am from Egypt and speaks Arabic and want to learn English
i hope that your book be useful to me
and thank you

i have started to feel the excitment of this subject.
frankly, i need to start to build my own E-learning
best wishes
AEK

hi again Tom!
what is next
AEK from Algeria

Hi Tom,
Many thanks for sending download “coordinates” for your book. I am in private consulting / training practice, veteran by age but rookie in e-learning authoring. Hope with the help of the book and your blog the struggle will not be that painful.

i would want to be be your student

I have been developing graphics and animations that are designed and developed in flash, for various eLearning content development companies.

I have not done SCORM compliant learning objectives yet.
I understand that most of the eLearning projects are SCORM compliant.
Is there a set of standards that I need to follow before I prepare the SME script to make the learning objective SCORM compliant?
I prefer doing learning objects in flash; output file format will be swf. Are there any other formats that eLearning companies prepare contents in?
How is SCORM 1.2 different from SCORM 2004? If I need to update, how do I do that?

Hi Tom,

I am Professional Development Resource Head and I have to work around creating online (as well as face to face) materials for our learners (esp. the educators). Your book is really engrossing. Our organisation believes that the future of education is in technology. However, many educators (here in India) are novice in the tech area and it becomes difficult for them to get used to the jargons and the usage of the net to undergo the entire training process.

Any ideas to start with?

Interesting

Hi,

Thanks much for providing me with an opportunity to be a part of this blog. This, by-far has been the most useful blog I’ve registered with. Thanks Tom.

I’m the founding partner of a Delaware Elearning startup focussed on Asian markets. I reside in India while my partner resides in the US.

I’m currently looking for a good LMS that could support my coursewares ofcourse at the least cost possible…..I did test eLMS Pro, but not very convinced with the LMS presentability. seems too simple..Unsure if it lacks anything that may cost me in the future..Looking to try out other LMS (free of low cost ones)…If anyone wishes to share any thoughts…plz do so…

I’m also seeking Elearning experts to join my Company’s Management / Board of Directors..lemme know if anyone may be interested….A strong background in content management or elearning is sought. I’m a Management Consultant by profession..So the Business strategy, Business plan and the Financial model – company vision etc..and where we wish to be in 5 years is well laid out…

Investors in line..might end up with one soon 🙂

Also if someone has some gud curicullum material on General & Business English, please do get in touch with me.

Hi,
I am a trainer who has been following trends in eLearning. I am a novice trying to get myself familiar with this exciting fields. I do wish to be a pro. I am not a developer – will it affect my aspirations? Here (Nigeria) it is totally a new field. Do you mentor?

I am also a trainer who is a novice trying to make myself familiar with e learning tools. I have downloaded a trial version of Articulate’s ‘Engage’. I have started a project using the ‘Tabs’ interaction and would like to make tabs within tabs. I found a post on this which suggested I create 2 interactions a + b then copy the folder of a into folder b however I don’t know how to access the folders. I have no knowledge of software development so need simple easy to follow instructions can you tell me where to get these from please?

It’s nice

I have a strong command of content management. I can also help you with Business English training.

I tried to open Articulate Engage but it is showing the following error.

AP5.exe has encountered a problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.

Help me out in solving this.

I published a PPT having some screen shots. The clarity of the screen shots are better than compared to the published course (the screen shots are not readable). Can you guide me how to increase the clarity in the published course?

Hi Tom,
I am absolutely blown away by the kind of information I have gained reading your posts. I am currently part of a elearning development team using mostly lectora, photoshop and a little bit of flash to develop WBT’s. I have a previous background in graphics and web design using dreamweaver etc, could you please suggest a certification course in “Instructional design” for me which could help me further my career and increase my understanding of this feild of work.

Thanks,
Niranjan

Nice link to additional references.

A linear has been captured in Captivate and has been converted to a flash file. When importing that in Articulate, the movie is not playing. Kindly guide me in proceeding with this.

Hi All,

I have only just come across this community. I work in Liverpool (UK), I was wondering if anyone could assistance me. I am currently investigating various e-learning packages to intruduce into my work place to assistance with the training offered by my department. However, the issue with have it the users do not have access to email systems and there will need a stand alone package. I am currently reading the options of Articulate and Verint Wintness. Has anyone any expereince with these packages??

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Hey Tom, I have been a fan of your site for a while. This is a great guide.

i am Neda from Iran ….
i have learned many thing from your blog.thanks so much .
thanks thanks and thanks

Great resource blog. Thanks for some new insights. ~am

Tom,

I love “SCREENR”! When I saw your preview, it brought back to mind that age old question..”What microphone do you use?”. It’s very quiet. The one I use has noise in the recording. I usually clean it up with “Audio Cleaning Lab”, but not able to do it with screenr. Great job to that worked on and brought about screenr.

-Keith