Synchronous eLearning Design Overview

As I described in my last post (Help me Design Synchronous eLearning), I am working on a school project that requires the design of an eLearning course that includes at least one online synchronous session. After getting some comments with tips and doing a little more research, I have come up with a decent lesson plan for the introductory session of the course. Keep in mind that this is just an introductory session and the majority of the course is a project based lesson involving participants completing a project on their own. I've included an outline of my lesson plan for the introductory synchronous session and would love your feedback. Please let me know if you have any ideas to help improve the design or if you just have a comment about synchronous eLearning in general.

(View Video on Screenr)

Goals of Introductory Synchronous Session:
The overall goal of the course is for participants to learn how to build Moodle course sites by actually building a site on their own. Because participants will be off on their own to build a Moodle course site, it's important that they leave this session with an idea for what they want to use a course site for. Therefore the goals of this course are to introduce Moodle and what it can potentially be used for and to help participants develop an idea for the project.

Outline:

• Welcome - Brief overview of the course structure and objectives of the course. Keeping this "Broadcast" portion of the course short and sweet so that I can dive into the activities.
  
• What is Moodle? - Many of the course participants have never used Moodle and really don't know much about it's potential. Before they can fully develop an idea for their project they need to have an understanding of what they can do with Moodle. I found a great "What is Moodle" video at MoodleTuts.com that drives home this point for me so I will use that as a brief introduction to Moodle and to get the conversation started.
  
• Moodle Hopes and Dreams (Poll) - In this section we will start developing ideas for the projects by taking a poll asking them what they are hoping to use Moodle for. This will give me an idea of the participants backgrounds and the kinds of projects they will want to complete. I'll segue from this poll into a brainstorming session by discussing their expectations for Moodle.
  
• Poll Question - What are you hoping to use Moodle for?
• K12 Course Site
• Corporate Training
• Other
• Brainstorming for Project Ideas (Whiteboard) - Now we'll dive into creating project ideas. In this activity I'll be asking participants to write down potential project ideas or just uses for Moodle while I write down their common ideas using a "whiteboard" feature or simply writing them in a word doc while sharing my screen. The goal of this section is to get their wheels turning about how they can possibly use Moodle and what they want their project to be.
• Sharing Ideas - At this point participants should have a great idea of what Moodle can be used for and hopefully they will have narrowed down what they want to do for their project by taking the stage and using their mic to share their idea with the rest of class. This activity will give them the opportunity to bounce their ideas off the rest of the class and receive feedback to nail down what they want to do for their project. Participants should have an idea for their project narrowed down after sharing their idea with the class and receiving feedback.

In all I feel I have a decent plan for the structure of the course but would love to hear your ideas on how I can help course participants to realize the potential of Moodle and to nail down an idea for their project. I've done my best to keep the "broadcasting" to a minimum but still feel there is room for improvement to make this session more engaging and effective for the participants. Please share your ideas for improving this design by posting a comment.

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• Help Me Design Synchronous eLearning
  

Help Me Design Synchronous eLearning

I am working on a project for my Ed Tech class at SDSU which is putting me a little out of my comfort zone. The project requires the design of an eLearning course including a synchronous portion where the facilitator and learners meet online using web conferencing software. I have a lot of experience creating asynchronous "self paced" eLearning courses but rarely have the opportunity to work on eLearning courses with a synchronous session involved. I am excited about the opportunity to try something new and would love your input on the design of the course especially when it comes to the synchronous online meetings at the beginning and end of the course. Below you will find the syllabus which summarizes the design I have come up with so far and the direction I am headed with the project. Help me earn an A+ on this project by posting any suggestions, ideas, or questions you may have about designing synchronous elearning as a comment.

Excerpts from Syllabus

Course Description:
This course introduces Moodle, the Learning Management System and how it can be used to create an online course site and learning activities. Course participants will take a "Hands On" approach to learning Moodle by completing a project based lesson which requires the development of a Moodle course site. Through the development of this project, participants will learn how to take advantage of the Moodle features described below and finish with a course site that can be used for their own courses:

• Customize course site settings for your specific needs
• Add text and graphics to your course site
• Add resources such as web sites or documents to your course site
• Create graded online activities such as quizzes and self paced online lessons.
• Create social learning activities such as Forums, Chats, Wiki's, and Blogs.
  

The course starts and ends with synchronous online discussions while the majority of learning will take place asynchronously using resources available on the course site to complete the project. The online discussions will get you started on the project and provide the opportunity to receive feedback while learning the basics of Moodle through the development of your own course site. Because the majority of the course is completed independently, it is important that you take advantage of the forums on the course site to ask questions and complete your weekly progress reports. Don't wait until the last minute to ask a question, be proactive by posting any questions or concerns on the forums so that you can build the course site of your dreams.

Course Site and Resources:
You are not on your own when it comes to completing this project. By completing weekly assignments, communicating with your instructor and classmates, and taking advantage of resources found on the course site you will learn a lot about Moodle and walk away with a finished product that you can be proud of. Everything you need to attend online meetings and complete the project is found on the course site. Prior to attending our first online meeting, familiarize yourself with the course by reading through each section on the course site.

Course Schedule:
Week 1:

• Online Meeting
• Accessed through course site
• Topics - Moodle overview, Project overview, Discuss project ideas
  
• Post your idea for project in progress report
• Use the "Progress Report" forum on the course site
• Summarize the purpose and content of your course site. Outline what content, resources, and activities will be included in your course site.
  

Week 2:

• No meeting
• Create project course site and begin adding text using resources in section 2 of course site.
• "Add a new course" using resources in section 2
• Assigning participants to the "Student" role
  
• Add instructions for students and outline content of course using resources in section 2.
  
• Post Progress Report
  
• Use the "Progress Report" forum on the course site
• Summarize what you have done so far, lessons you have learned, and any questions you have.
• Post link to your project site in forum posting.
  

Week 3:

• No meeting
• Add resources and activities to course site using resources in section 3 of course site.
• Add a resource such as a web site or document using resources.
• Add a graded activity such as a quiz or self paced lesson using resources.
• Add a social activity such as a forum, chat session, wiki, or blog
  
• Post progress report
• Use the "Progress Report" forum on the course site
• Summarize what you have done so far, lessons you have learned, and any questions you have.
• Post link to your site in forum posting
  

Week 4:

• Online Meeting
• Accessed through course site
• Topics - Project Presentations and feedback

_______________________________________________________

Any Feedback??:
So, what do you think? If you have any ideas, questions, or suggestions please let me know by posting a comment.

Distance Education - Ed Tech 650

The Spring semester has begun and I started a new class in the Educational Technology program at San Diego State called Ed Tech 650 "Distance Education" although the name may soon be changing to something like "eLearning Design and Development." I'm excited about the class taught by Dr. Bob Hoffman because it really dives into the development side of eLearning by applying principles from the textbook; "Michael Allens Guide to eLearning." To this point, most of the classes I have taken focused mainly on instructional design topics so I am eager to learn more about the tools that can make those designs happen. I've always taken a "Do it yourself" approach to eLearning development and I am looking forward to learning about different tools and methods from others in the class. Being that I am the lone instructional designer/eLearning developer in my company I don't have as many opportunities to learn from others in a formal learning environment like this class provides.

I love that the structure of the class is flexible and highly project based. Most of the semester is based around completing 2 eLearning projects that can be for any topic, audience, or in any format you would like. I think this is a great idea considering we all come from different backgrounds and have different goals for the course. The first project is to design and develop a "self paced" eLearning course and the second project is to design and develop a synchronous, instructor led eLearning course. At work, I mainly develop self paced eLearning courses so that project will provide the opportunity to use a work project and kill 2 birds with 1 stone. Due to scheduling difficulties I don't have many opportunities to develop instructor led eLearning so I am looking forward to learning more about developing that type of eLearning course in the second project.

Things are off to a good start as I am already working on a needs analysis for the first project and I am looking forward to what the rest of the semester has in store. I'm sure you will see more blog posts throughout the semester updating you on my progress on the projects. I'm hoping to keep the blog posts coming while juggling school assignments so hopefully the class will give me some hot topics to blog about.

Telecollaboration and Project Based Training

I just finished another course in the Ed Tech program at San Diego State called "Advanced Teaching with Tech." Being that the class is called "Advanced Teaching with Tech," I thought we would dive deeper into using technology but unfortunately we didn't dive much deeper than Google Apps and Questgarden. However, I did pick up some new instructional design skills that I will be able to apply at work right away. This post describes a couple of projects I developed for this class and what I learned from them.

Early in the semester we were assigned to develop a Telecollaboration lesson using Google Sites. This was the first time I had heard of a telecollaboration lesson so I was curious to hear about something with such a fancy name. A telecollaboration or telecollaborative lesson is an educational project where participants learn by sharing information with other groups of people over the internet. This is an ideal project for me because a large part of my responsibilities at work involve developing eLearning courses and I am always looking for new ways to facilitate collaboration with others through eLearning. A common hit on eLearning is that it does not have the benefits gained through face to face interaction and collaboration with others that ILT can provide. However, telecollaboration lessons can help eLearning courses overcome the challenge of facilitating interaction and collaboration online.

The telecollaboration activity I designed for this project is called the "Handling Customer Objections Showdown." I wanted to develop something that I could also use at work where the majority of my learners are retail sales professionals. Participants of the showdown will improve their ability of overcoming customer objections by competing to post the best solutions to customer objections on a discussion board. Not only will this facilitate the sharing of best practices but it will also contribute to a database of solutions to customer objections that can be used as a job aid. I've been trying to come up with way's to take advantage of forums in Moodle and this will be a great lesson to do so with. Check it out and let me know if you have any suggestions.

Another focus of the semester was designing project based lessons where participants learn through working on a project in a group or individually. I love this type of lesson because it focuses on learners demonstrating the performance and generally there is not much lecture involved. To sum it up there is less telling and more doing. Project based lessons are definitely something I can take back to work as they work well as part of a blended training approach including both instructor led and eLearning solutions. In the past I have had success using eLearning to teach the pre requisite information that learners need to know before attending an Instructor Led course where they will apply what they learned in the eLearning with a project based lesson.

The Project Based Lesson I created is called "Selling Sleep Disorder Relief" and is designed to help sleep products salespeople improve their performance with customers who suffer from Sleep Disorders. The lesson is designed so that participants are broken into groups according to the retail store or region they work in and are assigned to research a sleep disorder then deliver a presentation about the disorder to the rest of the class. The presentation must include a "Role Play" simulation of an ideal sales presentation for a person with the sleep disorder. This improves learning due to the fact that they are going out and researching the information then forming a hypothesis on their own of how that information can be used back on the sales floor to improve their performance. This lesson personifies the notion of "more doing, and less telling."

Although the class didn't cover as much technology as I was hoping for I did learn a lot about instructional design. Learning about Instructional Design may not be as fun but we have to take our medicine in order to use technology effectively. I look forward to implementing these lessons at work and please leave a comment if you have suggestions.

Personal Learning Network 3

An assignment for my "Tech for Teaching" class at SDSU requires us to follow Ed Tech related blogs on our reader than write up a summary of what we learned from reading these posts and how these lessons apply to our professional goals. This is the third of 3 Personal Learning Network reports on some lessons I have learned lately through blogs I follow in Google Reader.

Over the past year, I have been working on the major project of transitioning my organization from only instructor led training to a "Blended" training approach consisting of eLearning, Instructor Led Training(ILT), and Job Aids. The blog posts highlighted in this Personal Learning Network (PLN) report provide valuable information that will help improve the effectiveness of my organizations training solutions by transitioning to a "Blended" approach. The first article, "When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom" tells the story of a school that is maximizing the potential of a "Blended" approach by banning power point from the classroom and the second post titled, "Best Moodle Modules and Plugins" provides information on useful ways to customize Moodle. Together, these posts provide ideas for improving the effectiveness of a Blended training approach and the tools to help make those ideas happen.

I believe that there is no one best way to deliver training, and that in most cases, a blended approach is the most effective. ILT, eLearning, and job aids have different advantages that when used in combination can result in a more effective training solution. The article "When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom" featured on "The Chronicle of Higher Education" website describes what a Dean at Southern Methodist University is doing to push instructors towards a blended approach. I found this article intriguing because I think it hits the nail on the head of the best way to take advantage of ILT in combination with eLearning. By removing power point from the classroom and taking advantage of computer based resources, instructors are given the freedom to facilitate a more interactive session resulting in an improved learning experience.

A valuable tool in implementing a blended training approach is the learning management system, Moodle. As a Moodle administrator, I am always looking for customizations to help Moodle fit the needs of my organization. The post, "Best Moodle Modules and Plugins" describes tools that can improve the effectiveness of elearning. By using modules discussed in this post such as "Book" and "Questionnaire" we are improving the effectiveness of our ILT courses by making them more interactive. In the past, a portion of the ILT course would be reserved for lecture to introduce the topic. This type of information is now delivered via Moodle prior to the ILT course so that learners are familiar with the topic and ready to practice the skill they are learning when they arrive at the instructor led course.

Migrating to a "blended" training approach from nearly 100% ILT is a difficult battle and the posts highlighted in this PLN report are helping my organization's training dept reach it's goal. By taking advantage of tools such as the modules and plugins described in the blog post, "Best Moodle Modules and Plugins," while embracing the theories discussed in the article, "When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom" we are improving the effectiveness of our "Blend" of training solutions. I can't wait to see how what I have recently learned from my PLN helps my organization get closer to our goal of a blended training approach.

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Personal Learning Network 2

An assignment for my "Tech for Teaching" class at SDSU requires us to follow Ed Tech related blogs on our reader than write up a summary of what we learned from reading these posts and how these lessons apply to our professional goals. This is the second of 4 Personal Learning Network reports on some lessons I have learned lately through blogs I follow in Google Reader.

This Personal Learning Network (PLN) report highlights two blog posts found through Google Reader covering different subjects that have been catching my interest recently. The first post titled "Top 100 Learning Game Resources" provides information on how to add interaction to eLearning based training solutions while the second post, "How to build your personal brand on Twitter" covers how to make yourself more marketable by building your personal brand. The lessons learned from these blog posts will help me improve the quality of my work and help me to do a better job of marketing the results of my work.

One of the most difficult aspects of eLearning development is creating a course that is interactive and engages the learner. A great way of doing this is to build game playing into eLearning courses. While I have dabbled with online "Jeopardy" and "Who wants to be a Millionaire" type games, I have been intimidated to create anything more advanced due to the time and technical knowledge I thought was needed. Upside Learning’s "Top 100 Learning Game Resources" has helped me to realize that I may be overcomplicating game development and that with the resources they have listed; it can be easy for someone like me to easily build game play into eLearning courses.

I am currently employed with a great company but have hopes to someday become self employed or take advantage of better opportunities in the corporate training industry. An important part of reaching this goal is marketing my skills through online services such as Twitter. With roughly 6 million users and a predicted 18 million by 2010, Twitter is plentiful with opportunities to network with other professionals which can potentially lead to career opportunities. Mashable's blog post "How to build your personal brand on Twitter" by Dan Schawbel provides great tips for showcasing your brand on Twitter in an effort to create career opportunities. As a relatively new "Tweeter," I had no idea there were so many apps available specifically designed to help you build your brand. One app in particular that I found interesting was the Twitter Grader which ranks your influence in the Twitter world using an algorithm. This post inspired me to dive deeper into Twitter not only to improve the effectiveness of my personal learning network, but also to create career opportunities by building my personal brand.

The blog posts described in this personal learning network report have inspired me to go out and build fun into my eLearning courses, and excited to create career opportunities on Twitter. I used to steer away from including games in my eLearning courses out of fear it was too complicated until Upside learning's post "Top 100 Learning Game Resources" gave me the courage to increase interaction in courses by building in game play. Mashable’s post "How to build your personal brand on Twitter" has convinced me that it is worth spending time on Twitter building my personal brand in an effort to create future opportunities. After learning these valuable lessons I am excited to jump back in to my PLN to learn more about each topic.

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Personal Learning Network

An assignment for my "Tech for Teaching" class at SDSU requires us to follow Ed Tech related blogs on our reader than write up a summary of what we learned from reading these posts and how these lessons apply to our professional goals. This is the first of 4 Personal Learning Network reports on some lessons I have learned lately through blogs I follow in Google Reader.

As an Instructional Designer and eLearning developer, many of my personal development goals revolve around improving my visual design skills. While “the look” of an eLearning course is a crucial element, it is also one of the areas I am weakest in. This PLN report highlights a couple of blog posts found through Google Reader that are helping me to improve my visual design skills.

The first blog post is from the “Rapid eLearning Blog” by Tom Kuhlman who provides great advice for creating effective eLearning, rapidly. His post “5 Common Visual Design Mistakes” reviews some of the common mistakes committed by eLearning designers and how to avoid making them. One of the common mistakes that I learned from is the third mistake, “Graphics Don’t Match.” In my own work, I have found that sometimes it can be difficult to find a graphic of what you visualized in your design. Often I will find my self searching through several different resources resulting in a variety of graphics in the eLearning course that don’t necessarily match. The graphics add to the content and help to reach the objectives but some times they don’t match the overall theme of the course. This blog post helped me to realize the impact of matching graphics so that they are a part of the whole. Tom does not go into detail about how to do this but he does provide a link to another great post for custom designing graphics that match. With Tom’s tips I will be able to improve the effectiveness of my eLearning courses by using graphics that add to the course as a whole.

The second blog post is from Cathy Moore’s “Making Change” blog. I’m a long time follower of Cathy’s blog and have learned a lot from her posts about creating engaging, lively eLearning. In a recent post titled “Could Animations Hurt Learning”, Cathy reviewed the results and implications of recent research which studied the results of eLearning courses that use animations versus the results of eLearning courses which use static images. The results of the study showed that students who used the eLearning course with only static images had significantly better test results than the students who used an eLearning course using animations. This post has reinforced that often fancy animations can distract from the content of an eLearning course and in many cases you are better off using static images and in some cases you may be just as effective using a solution as simple as a PDF document.

These posts taught me valuable lessons that contribute to reaching my professional goal of improving my visual design skills. The “5 common visual design mistakes” post taught me how to use graphics that appeal to the learner while the “Could animations hurt learning post” taught me not to over use animations as they can distract the learner from the content. I look forward to learning more about visual design and creating effective eLearning from these blogs.

Exploring Second Life

This week in an Instructional Design class I am taking in the Ed Tech program at SDSU we will be discussing Second Life. I've been hearing so much about using it as an instructional design tool and now that it has come up on the class schedule my curiosity has reached it's tipping point. I decided to sign on and see what it's all about.

I was hoping to get set up with my avatar and figure out how to "teleport" around in about an hour because that is all the time I had to play around. Well, I ended up spending that whole hour trying to perfect the look of my avatar. I left frustrated trying to use the options available in the default inventory. I decided to give up on my Avatar and try and explore all the great islands I have heard about it and could not get off of "Avatar Island" when my play around time expired.

I'll be spending more time learning the ropes of Second Life because I would like to use it for eLearning projects. Tom from the Rapid eLearning Blog sparked my interest with his post "Create eLearning scenarios by bringing the virtual word into the real world." The post covers how to use virtual worlds like second life to build realistic scenarios. Just create a few avatars and set them up in different environments to create snapshots for your eLearning scenario. So far I am not finding this as easy as it sounds considering it took me an hour to play around with the look of one avatar and I am stuck on avatar island.

I am sure there are some very basic elements that I haven't caught on to yet that will make my second life much more fulfilling. The key seems to be adding landmarks and avatars to my inventory but I haven't figured out how to do that. As time was running out I found the second life showcase tutorials which got me headed in the right direction but I'll need to spend more time with the tutorials to figure how to add to my inventory. I am sure with a little more research I'll be able to whip together those scenarios that Tom makes look so easy.

Brain Based Learning

I read an interesting article titled "Behavioral, Cognitive, or Brain Based Learning" by Paul G. Whitmore and it gave me a whole new perspective in analyzing performance problems. The article discusses how when you are conducting an analysis, not only do you want to look at how the task is completed, but you also want to analyze what the audience is thinking while they are completing the task. What is going through their head while they are getting the job done? What mental cues help them complete the task without error? How does the audience mentally process how the task needs to be completed?

This opened my eyes to some things that I may be missing in performance analysis. I always conduct a thorough task analysis but I have never taken the audiences thoughts into consideration. By taking "Brain Based Learning" into consideration during the performance analysis, it is likely there may be unexpected outcomes discovered.

This "Brain Based Learning" approach highlights the importance of experiencing the performance first hand. Without completing the performance yourself it can be very difficult to understand what mental cues assist in executing the task at hand. I look forward to applying this lesson in my next performance analysis.

Behavioral, Cognitive, or Brain Based Training?

Flash Rookie

I earned rookie status in Adobe Flash by making my first GIF animation. I had always been interested in this and was surprised at how easy it is to learn Flash. After playing around with this a little I am amazed at how skilled some people are with the drawing tools. I found the drawing tools very difficult to work with. Any tips or tricks for becoming better at using the drawing tools in Adobe products?

What spurred me to get started with Flash is an assignment for a web development class I am taking. The assignment required that we use the drawing tools to draw a sunrise with a flower sprouting out of the ground. Although this is a very basic start in Flash I had fun and I am looking forward to learning more so that I am able to develop custom animations for future eLearning courses. Click here to check out my very first GIF animation.

Site Definitions

The web design class I am taking is really getting my feet wet with Dreamweaver and photoshop. I am currently working on my portfolio site which will eventually contain a gallery of my work along with some information about me.

Something that is confusing me about Dreamweaver is the need for multiple site definitions. Our teacher had us set up 3 different site definitions which makes it hard to know which one I should be working out of. Teach say's we will get a better understanding later in the semester. As of now, it seems like it's not neccessarry and only complicates the process.

So far, I have been amazed at what you can do with Dreamweaver and photoshop and I am hungry to learn more.

Progress at SDSU

So far, the Ed Tech program has been hard work but extremely rewarding. It's very exciting to find a Masters program that is catered to the line of work I have a passion for. So far, I have completed a course on Educational Technology and I am currently enrolled in a class on Web Design.

The Ed Tech class was more of an introduction to the theories of instructional design, mainly the ADDIE model. I was particularly interested in the subject of performance analysis. Prior to taking this class, I had a tendency to put the cart before the horse and jump straight to a solution without conducting a proper analysis. From this class, I have learned that trying to save time by jumping to a solution is only going to cost me more time to create an inferior product.

I just started Ed Tech 541 - Web Design and I am loving it. One of the main reasons I enrolled in the program is to build on the nuts and bolts of building eLearning and web design is a foundation. This class is really helping me to become confident in Dreamweaver and is also teaching me a thing or two about Photoshop. Sounds lame to be excited about school but honestly I am stoked because these classes are definitely providing me with tools that will help me do better at my job.

I'm Back!

After a long hiatus I am making an attempt to get back to posting. Classes in the Ed Tech program at SDSU have me swamped on top of my work schedule so it's been tough to make the blog a priority.

However, I have been learning some great stuff at SDSU and feel like I need to get back in the blogging habit so I can reflect on these lessons. So, my plan going forward is to get back to posting but I need to write shorter, quicker posts so that I can fit it in to my schedule. Here goes nothing.

First day of school

I started my first class in the ed tech program at SDSU and the first discussion topic is simply “Why are you here?” We are getting to know each other by explaining what lead us to enrolling in this program. Simple, but interesting.

The one sentence answer for me is; “I want to do better at my job.” I fell into a career that I get a kick out of and I want to make the most out of it. I love working in the field of training and performance improvement and I want to take my skills to the next level.

Up to this point I have taught myself everything I know related to educational technology by reading books and researching on the internet. I’m starving for more knowledge and the Masters in Ed Tech is my buffet of knowledge. I would like to advance my career in this field and I believe this is a very important step in doing so.

In my current position I have the opportunity to move a training dept into the 21st century by taking it from 100% instructor led training to a blended format. By strengthening my skills in educational technology I can make a big difference to the bottom line of the company and I would like to seize that opportunity.

In addition to strengthening my skills for my current position I would like to improve my marketability in the Educational Tech field. Don’t get me wrong, I love the company I work for but I am intrigued by the opportunities in the ed tech field outside of my organization. I am interested in the consulting field and look forward to opportunities to explore that career path.