The Ultimate L&D Podcast Guide - Training Industry
Extensive list of podcasts related to learning, training, instructional design, and technology
Donald Clark Plan B: Video for learning –15 things the research says – some may shock you…
Summary of research on using videos for learning. Video length, using "talking heads," cuts, screen size, and more.
Ger’s Learning Notes #32 - From Classroom Learning to Blended Learning - aNewSpring
Ger Driesen's curated collection of resources on elearning, blended learning, and moving training from classroom to online. Two of my blog posts on converting content are included.
Resources for Creating Branching Scenarios - E-Learning Uncovered
Diane Elkin's curated resources on creating branching scenarios, including examples, books, blog posts, and templates.
How to Copy Text from Flash Courses When You Don't have the Original File | The Rapid E-Learning Blog
Images and audio files are relatively easy to recover from a published SCORM package, but text is hard to get from courses if they were published in Flash only. This shows two methods for using OCR to get text from Flash images.
Extract content from SCORM package - Building Better Courses Discussions - E-Learning Heroes
I'm bookmarking this for Matthew Bibby's reply. If you have only the published SCORM files for a course published in Storyline 3 or 360, you can use this Javascript code snippet to select the onscreen text. That at least lets you copy and paste rather than retyping everything.
<p>If the course was published with SL3 or SL360 then dropping this code in the JS console will allow you to select the text onscreen (so it can be copied):</p>
<pre>document.querySelectorAll('text').forEach(node => {<br> node.style.pointerEvents = 'all';<br> node.style.userSelect = 'all'<br>});</pre>
<p><a href="https://blogs.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/how-to-copy-text-from-flash-e-learning-courses-html5/" target="_blank">This article</a> may also be helpful.</p>
How to Update an Old Course Without the Source Files
With the impending demise of Flash, organizations will need to upgrade their libraries of old Flash elearning to HTML5. If you can't recreate them from scratch, Tom Kuhlmann shares this method using screen captures to quickly convert old courses. You still have to manually add interactions, but you can bring in a lot of content as screen capture images.
Finding Your Place In an Instructional Design Career
"Instructional design" is a big umbrella that can mean different things in different organizations. This post describes a number of options for the focus of instructional design and related roles.
Scenario examples for training – Learn instructional design for the workplace from Cathy Moore
A collection of example scenarios from multiple sources, built in multiple tools. Cathy describes each scenario and asks questions to help you reflect about the design.
Yo Scenario | The branching scenario builder
A browser-based branching scenario builder. Free for 5 scenarios to try it out. Paid plans start at £20/ month.
Learning Technology Mystery Series Presents “The Case of the Disengaged Learner” with Cara North - The Training, Learning, and Development Community
Cara North's recorded presentation on engagement in learning. Engagement can be cognitive, behavioral, or emotional. Additional resources at go.osu.edu/disengaged
4 Design Principles that DON’T Live Up to Their Acronym – eLearningArt
Bryan Jones demonstrates the design principles of CRAP (contrast, repetition, alignment, and proximity) by taking some boring, text-only slides and gradually improving them.
Products - Kognito
This vendor has a library of scenario-based courses using virtual coaches. One interesting note is how each decision has two parts. First, you choose which strategy to use. Second, you choose which sentence within that strategy to try in the conversation. You can ask for help from the virtual coach or undo your last action. While the 3D virtual characters are great, you could use that two-part technique in simulations built in other tools as well. Watch the trailers to get an idea of how the interactions work.
13 eLearning Scenario Tips that 60 Experts Agree On – eLearningArt
Bryan Jones asked 60 people for their #1 tip for creating scenarios. He noted the top trends and collected these tips all in a single post. My tip is #23 about aligning the scenario to the objectives.
<p>these are the 13 most important elements:</p>
<ol>
<li><a href="#real">Keep it real</a></li>
<li><a href="#relevant">Make it relevant</a></li>
<li><a href="#structure">Follow a structured approach</a></li>
<li><a href="#plan">Plan and analyze before you build</a></li>
<li><a href="#objectives">Keep the learning objectives and outcomes in mind</a></li>
<li><a href="#story">Tell a story</a></li>
<li><a href="#context">Provide accurate context</a></li>
<li><a href="#nuance">Find nuance in the scenario</a></li>
<li><a href="#choice">Consider scenario choices carefully</a></li>
<li><a href="#sme">Collaborate with your subject matter experts</a></li>
<li><a href="#learner">Collaborate with your actual learners</a></li>
<li><a href="#challenge">Challenge your learners</a></li>
<li><a href="#consequences">Let learners experience consequences</a></li></ol>
<h3>Use your objectives to drive the action in your scenarios</h3>
<blockquote><p>Align your scenario with your objectives. An engaging scenario that doesn’t help learners practice relevant decisions tied to your objectives is a waste of time and resources. Use scenarios to provide learners with a realistic context where they can make choices. In a scenario, the main character’s goal often reflects achieving or demonstrating the learning objective. Use your objectives to drive the action in your scenarios.</p></blockquote>
<p>— <span style="text-decoration: underline;"><a href="https://www.syniadlearning.com/">Christy Tucker</a></span></p>
Branching Scenario (beta) | H5P
H5P has a tool for branching scenarios now. The sample is a well-done interactive video scenario for home visitors.
eLEARNING DEVELOPMENT: How Much Time Does It Take to Create eLearning?
IconLogic's estimate for development, including time for other tasks like storyboarding.
POP(99); - Overview
Zsolt Olah's collection of JavaScript ideas and code snippets to use with elearning
Great Storytelling and Compliance Training an Obvious Match | Learning Solutions Magazine
Weaving stories into compliance training helps keeps learners engaged. Includes quotes and descriptions of examples used by several companies on how they implemented it. These aren't straightforward traditional elearning; one is a podcast, another uses episodic training with characters who return over time to build their story.
How to pre sell your online course — and make it a success - Design Academy
This article explains how the author sold effectively a pilot version of her course at a discounted rate (and with some bonus coaching) before it launched. This method helped her have some income while she was spending time developing the course, rather than doing all the development before earning anything. There are some good tips here on email marketing and gathering information on audience needs too.
Next Level Course — Zen Courses
Zen courses offers a "course blueprint" product to help teams map out a curriculum. The scope is very well defined, with a fixed price of $2500 ($500 deposit to secure a spot, the rest paid before the 1st call), 3-4 weeks timeline, booked in advance. Nice use of scarcity ("only 2 spots left for 2018!"). She has a "who is this for" and "who is this not for" list--not for solo entrepreneurs. If they decide to book her for a full course dev, she gives them a credit to that work.
Inclusive and Universal Design Resources for Accessibility in eLearning
An extensive collection of resources and archived presentations by Brian Dusablon regarding accessibility for elearning
Clive on Learning: Gender equality and the design dilemma
Do you think about gender representation when selecting images for elearning? This post doesn't mention other forms of representation, but I think the discussion of organizational culture applies to other dimensions of inclusion too.
The 2018 Learning Solutions Conference Backchannel - Curated Resources #LSCon - David Kelly
David Kelly's collected resources from the 2018 Learning Solutions Conference
Think Like a Programmer, Act Like a Designer!
Zsolt Olah shares the mindset programmers use that IDs can benefit from (not just technical skills): flexibility, conditional logic, troubleshooting, commenting so others understand, etc. There's a nice mention of one of my blog posts from 2007 (complete with dated technology references).
Understanding Attention and eLearning: A Primer on the Science of Eye-Tracking - ArcheMedX
I asked in Julie Dirksen's Facebook group if there was any eye tracking research specific to elearning. I've read research related to general web reading and usability, but I wondered if there are any differences in attention when people are reading to deliberately and consciously learn. Brian McGowan helpfully pulled together this list of resources as a starting point for research.
LearnletsSolutions for Tight Cycles of Assessment - Learnlets
Mini-scenarios and branching scenarios provide better assessment than traditional multiple choice, but this provides some other options for deeper assessment that can still be scored by a computer.
Scenario-Based Training for Workforce L&D
How scenario-based training reduces the time required to develop expertise, plus links to other articles and resources (including my blog posts)
What Do You Know: About Brain Science and Adult Learning
When people claim they are designing learning based on "neuroscience" or "brain science," be skeptical. Sometimes it's real cognitive psychology research mislabeled as neuroscience. Sometimes it's fake research.
Cognitive science has to do with the mind and mental processes, such as thinking, learning, and problem solving at the human (or other organism) level.<em> </em>Neuroscience has to do with the biology of the nervous system, including how the brain works, at the anatomical level such as neurons.
Bottom line: When you hear claims about <em>neuro</em> or <em>brain</em> related to training, you should ask: Is it cognitive science or is it made up?
Elearning Superstars - Weekly inspiration for your ELEARNING
Looking for inspiration in elearning? This is a library of elearning examples to spark ideas
Will at Work Learning: Major Research Review on eLearning Effectiveness
Will Thalheimer reviews the research on workplace learning to answer the question, "Does eLearning work?" He concludes that elearning does work, and blended learning works even better. The difference is based mostly on the instructional methods used, not the media.