The gLearning Challenge January 31, 2009
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: AG09, Design, Development, eLearning, eLearningGuild, gLearning, Google, InstructionalDesign, Learning, productivity, ProfessionalDevelopment, software, technology, Tools, YouTube
4 comments
The eLearning Guild has announced an interesting challenge for their upcoming Annual Gathering conference in Orlando. It’s called The gLearning Challenge and the concept is to create a learning solution using ONLY Google products. Here’s a more thorough description, from their web site:
The gLearning Challenge is your chance to use the slew of free and easy-to-use Google tools to showcase your e-Learning design chops. Your entry must use any, or many, of these free Google tools to create a course, a module, or even some informal learning. Get Creative! Win Prizes! Be crowned the Master of gLearning!
The suggested list of tools includes:
- Blogger
- gMail
- YouTube
- Google Reader
- Orkut (social network like Facebook)
- Google Groups
- Google Talk
- Google Search
- Google Sites
- Google Picasa
- Google Docs (Wordprocessing, spreadsheet, Presentation)
- Google Sketchup (3D object creation tool)
- Google Calendar
- and more…
Submissions will be accepted until Friday, March 6, 2009.
Building a Learning Portal January 17, 2009
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Design, Development, eLearning, InstructionalDesign, Learning, productivity, ProfessionalDevelopment, software, technology, Tools, Training
22 comments
We implemented a learning portal at work several months back, and it has turned out to be one of the best things I could recommend to an organization for improving access to learning materials. In the past, I’ve worked at organizations where we would tell learners, “Look in the LMS” to find materials and information. I’ve realized that a learning portal creates a self-service environment for users that can’t be beat. They can go, search, find what they need, and move on. It’s a Google-like experience, for what has generally become an information-on-demand culture. Let’s take a closer look at learning portals…
What is a learning portal?
A learning portal is a web site that contains links to all different types of learning and training materials for employees at an organization. It may display upcoming classes, online courses, job aids, programs, links to web sites, etc. It may also include search functionality, a rating system, bookmarking ability, and more. The content displayed on the portal may be general to all employees at an organization, or it may be customized for that individual and the role they play. In a perfect world, the learning portal would be able to analyze the person’s department, role, and previous training history. It would then automagically determine learning resources that may be most valuable to that person. It may take a little while, but we’ll get there.
How to build a learning portal (in a nutshell)
First, analyze your users. Interview power-users and find out what resources they access on a regular basis for learning and looking up information. Find out what information is most important to them and find out how you can aggregate it in a way that is simple, clean, and useful. Look at your HR/training systems (ex. your LMS). Find out what key information should be displayed in the portal. You may want to show the learner information on their upcoming classes (if they have already signed up). You may also want to show them all upcoming classes that could be relevant to them based on their job role or specialty. Contact vendors or systems specialists at your organization to find out if this information can be extracted and displayed on a web site, such as a learning portal. (Beware that vendors may charge you for this extra work.)
Build it. Test it. Improve it.
Start small with the first version of your learning portal. Aggregate some useful resources and slowly add features and functionality based on users’ feedback. Interview users and put a poll on the portal. Get as much feedback as you can. It will improve naturally over time if you listen and respond.
More portals are coming
Some LMS vendors are introducing portals of their own, so keep an eye out. Your LMS vendor may have one coming out soon. These may be rigid at first, but I’m sure they’ll get better with time. I’d recommend you analyze the needs of your users, and then determine if it’s best to build your own or use a vendor solution. Either way, it will probably be an extremely helpful resource for your learners.
Using Metrics That Matter October 24, 2008
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Design, Development, eLearning, Evaluation, InstructionalDesign, KnowledgeAdvisors, Learning, LMS, MetricsThatMatter, software, Tools, Training
2 comments
When it comes to measuring the impact of training events (ex. instructor-led classes and online courses), there are two main types of metrics: transactional data and user data. Transactional data is all about numbers. For example, it tells you how many people completed a class in a given time period. While this data is sometimes mildly interesting, it doesn’t tell you if your students learned anything. That’s where user data comes in. User data allows you to dig a level deeper to see the true impact of your training event. This is where we get into Kirkpatrick’s levels of evaluation, the Success Case Evaluation Method (PDF), and other classification systems. User data is more likely to provide us with information to help us make decisions. User data is actionable data. It shows us where we are succeeding and where we are failing. It helps us realize what we need to change. The tough part is that it’s difficult to collect accurate user data.
Over the past few months, I’ve been researching a product from KnowledgeAdvisors called Metrics That Matter®. To put it simply, Metrics That Matter (from here on, MTM) is a system that integrates with your LMS to automate the evaluation process for training events. It records the evaluation data and then it gives you several ways to slice, dice, benchmark, and review the data once it is in the system. (The back-end of MTM provides a customizable dashboard, scorecards, and 100+ reports.)
In the past, I’ve used paper and online surveys to collect evaluation information, but I will admit that it never felt right. I wasn’t getting the information I needed, which made it tough to make decisions. This is where MTM steps up to the plate: KnowledgeAdvisors has done a great job of not only building a system that can survey learners and collect evaluation data, but they can help you develop sound evaluation instruments that you can rely on to provide actionable data. Forget "smile sheets" – they have created some serious evaluation sheets that collect great data. We haven’t bought or implemented this system, but I really like what I’ve seen so far.
Here’s how MTM works, in a nutshell:
- An individual takes an online course or attends a live class.
- (That night, some magic voodoo takes place between your LMS and MTM to communicate the names of the learners that completed classes.)
- The next day, MTM sends an email to the person requesting that they fill out an evaluation.
- The person fills out the evaluation. (MTM can be configured to send out reminder emails to the learner if they don’t fill out the evaluation.)
- The system collects the evaluation data from the person.
- You are immediately able to view this information using the dashboard, scorecards, and reports. You can also do blind comparisons of other organizations (benchmarking) to see how your organization stacks up.
- Follow-up surveys can automatically be sent at whatever interval you prefer (ex. 30 days, 90 days, etc.) to collect additional evaluation information.
And I know I’m leaving off many of the features of MTM, because I’m not that familiar with everything it can do (yet). Surf on over to the KnowledgeAdvisors site to learn more.
Additional MTM information:
Basic Mozilla Ubiquity Commands September 5, 2008
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: Development, eLearning, Learning, LMS, Mozilla, productivity, software, technology, Tools, Training, Ubiquity
add a comment
Last week I discussed Mozilla’s new project, Ubiquity. Ubiquity is an add-on for Firefox that allows you to quickly perform tasks that would normally take several extra steps (and involve you having to access other web sites). It’s a great little tool that makes power-users giddy with excitement. Ok, maybe just me… 🙂
I’ve been experimenting with the commands in Ubiquity, and I managed to create a few that will be pretty helpful at work. The three commands I’m sharing are:
- lms
Type in lms topic – and Ubiquity will take you to your LMS search results page for that topic. - cd
Type in cd name to search for somebody in your company’s directory with that name. - q
type in q searchTerm to search for information in your company’s intranet site.
(All three of these commands assume you can access these systems via the query string. If nothing else, the commands will help you understand how Ubiquity works, which may help you build your own custom commands.)
To get started, make sure you have installed Ubiquity in Firefox.
Next, go to this URL: chrome://ubiquity/content/editor.html (sorry, I couldn’t make this a link – WordPress wouldn’t let me).
Paste these code snippets into the editor:
CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
name: "lms",
takes: {"your search string": noun_arb_text},
preview: "Search the LMS for courses.",
execute: function(searchString) {
Application.activeWindow.open(Utils.url("http://
www.INSERT_YOUR_LMS_URL_HERE.com?courseName=
"+searchString.text));
}
})
CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
name: "cd",
takes: {"your search string": noun_arb_text},
preview: "Search our company directory.",
execute: function(searchString) {
Application.activeWindow.open(Utils.url("http://
www.INSERT_YOUR_COMPANY_INTERNAL_DIRECTORY_
URL_HERE.com?query="+searchString.text));
}
})
CmdUtils.CreateCommand({
name: "q",
takes: {"your search string": noun_arb_text},
preview: "Search our company intranet.",
execute: function(searchString) {
Application.activeWindow.open(Utils.url("http://
www.INSERT_YOUR_COMPANY_INTRANET_URL_
HERE.com?query="+searchString.text));
}
})
(Note that you’ll probably have to fix the line wrapping for the Application.activeWindow.open line of each command before they’ll work in Ubiquity.)
Finally, insert in your custom URLs in the 3 places where it says “http://www.INSERT_…”
Now you’ll be able to press Ctrl+Space to open Ubiquity, and then you can use the lms, cd, and q commands.
I used the Ubiquity Author Tutorial site to create these commands. I recommend that you start there if you’re interested in creating your own commands. Plus, it shows you how to package and share the commands with the rest of the world (or just your organization).
Happy command-writing!
Mozilla Ubiquity as an On-Demand Learning Tool August 28, 2008
Posted by B.J. Schone in eLearning.Tags: BlendedLearning, Development, eLearning, Learning, LMS, Mozilla, productivity, RapidELearning, software, Tools, Training, Ubiquity
7 comments
Earlier this week, Mozilla (the makers of Firefox) released Ubiquity – a small application that allows you to quickly perform web-related tasks without having to surf out to different web sites. Watch their video for a quick introduction.
So, can this relate to learning? My answer would be absolutely! My main job is to help people learn (acquire knowledge and skills) and then apply what they know on the job. Sometimes this is done by providing them with the right tools. Ubiquity is one of these tools. It gives learners faster access to a wide range of information; it empowers them.
Now here’s where things get interesting: Mozilla has built Ubiquity in a way that allows outside developers (you and me) to add commands and actions to the tool. Think of this scenario: You have a user who is interested in taking a class on leadership skills. Imagine if they could pull up Ubiquity and type lms leadership to bring up a list of classes offered at your organization related to leadership. Or imagine if they had to look up information that was specific to your organization: They could type widget XYZ to immediately pull a spec sheet for a product. Ubiquity allows them to grab information very quickly without having to surf around to different web sites. This is on-demand learning!
If you’re using Firefox, install Ubiquity and then take a look at the tutorial. (If you’re not using Firefox – get it now! It’s definitely the best web browser out there.)
Have you tried Ubiquity? What do you think?
(I plan on developing some Ubiquity commands in the coming weeks. I’ll report back on what I find. Please let me know if you do any work in this area. I’d love to know more…)
B.J. Schone
Eric Matas
kevinthorn