Moodle 1.9 eLearning Course Development by William Rice

As I have been working my way through a Moodle implementation I have used several different resources to find answers for my Moodle questions. While the moodle community is fantastic for finding quick answers to random issues, I have found that Moodle 1.9 by William Rice is a great resource for support from installation to setting up class pages.

Other Moodle books I have used in the past are either directed to the LMS admin installing and maintaining the database or the Trainer/Teacher creating class pages. William Rice does a great job of covering all aspects for those of you out there who are doing it all which I am sure is more and more in the current economy.

Something I like about this book is the plain language it is written in. Often times when I am reading forum posts in the Moodle Community I get lost in the "Techno Speak" and it seems like some of the Moodle gurus out there are trying to show off how much they know by explaining in a way that few people will understand. The downside to this plain language is that in many cases you don't get the whole story from the instructions in the book and will need to refer to the Moodle community to fill in the blanks.

Overall it's a good book to get you started with Moodle but it's also important to know that not all of the issues you will come across are covered in this book. It's a great reference to have on your desk while working your way through a Moodle implementation but you will also want to have the Moodle community bookmarked for the unique situations that are not covered in detail in the book.

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.

Train the Trainer

I am responsible for an upcoming software rollout for a retail organization and I am looking for ideas for structuring a train the trainer course. The training plan involves the learners completing a series of eLearning courses which will be followed by a one day instructor led course. I have finished developing the eLearning courses and the instructor led course so now I need to prepare SME’s to facilitate the instructor led classes on their own.

The ILT course is largely based on completing a workbook filled with exercises that build on what they learned in the eLearning courses. I have also developed a facilitator guide to go along with this workbook. It should be relatively easy to facilitate the class by just using the facilitators guide but I would like to develop some activities that will help build their confidence in facilitating the course.

I have scheduled a 2 day meeting with the SME’s where I will introduce them to the course and prepare them to facilitate it on their own. At this point I am planning on having them participate in the ILT course as a participant on day 1 then going into the train the trainer content on day 2. I have designed similar train the trainer courses before but I am looking for some new ideas to make it more effective.

One of the challenges I am faced with is that there will be 12 SME’s to train and only me as the facilitator. The ideal situation for me would to be able to break them into groups so that they can practice facilitating the course with each other but I’m not sure how feasible or effective that will be with just me as the facilitator.

All this leads to the question of “How can I maximize the time I have on day 2 to prepare them to teach the course on their own?”

Software Implementation Training Plan

I've been working on what I consider a large project and I am hoping to use this post as a sounding board for my plan. The project involves training approximately 180 users on a ERP software program in a chain of retail stores. Please leave a comment if you have any suggestions that can contribute to the success of this software implementation.

The overall plan consists of a blend of training solutions including eLearning, Instructor Led Training, and Job Aids. Each phase of this blended solution is designed to further the learners understanding of the software and ensure transference after the training has taken place.

One month before the software is implemented, users will begin completing a series of weekly eLearning assignments covering the basics of the system. eLearning is an ideal solution due to the fact that it is a geographically distributed workforce and we do not have the resources for a multi day instructor led course. The eLearning tutorials developed in Adobe Captivate and delivered through Moodle provide the learner with the skills required to complete common everyday tasks.

Instructor led classes will begin 2 weeks prior to the implementation. The ILT classes pick up from where the eLearning courses left off by covering more advanced topics and providing the opportunity to discuss unique situations. The eLearning classes will help the learners to gain pre requisite knowledge while the ILT course will help them achieve fluency in the program. A major benefit of the ILT class is that it will provide what the eLearning was missing by covering the "what if" situations.

The ILT classes will conclude by introducing the learners to a job aid in the form of a Wiki. Rather than developing a standard technical manual with detailed instructions I have created a Wiki using MediaWiki. The Wiki is packed with step by step instructions covering everything in the system. In previous software implementations this has been a big help in reducing tech support calls post implementation. That first couple of weeks after the implementation is always hectic but the Wiki helps the users with quick and easy access to step by step instructions just in case they don't remember everything from the eLearning and ILT courses.

There's the plan now I just need to execute. After a lot of hard work I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and can't wait to finish off this project.

The dreaded Right Click

I am working on developing eLearning technical training courses for an ERP software application being implemented within a division of the company I work for using Adobe Captivate 3. If you are familiar with Adobe Captivate then you are familiar with "Assesment Simulations." I love assessment simulations because they require the learner to do the clicking rather than just viewing a screen recording of the process. This is great because they can actually practice using the software in a safe environment where they can't mess anything up and they will receive constructive feedback based on where they click. This is particularly great for my situation because in this software implementation, learners will be expected to be using the application full time the day the switch is flipped and the software is available to them. Captivate and the assessment simulations are a life saver for me because I can train them on the software without them actually having access to it.

Problem is that the software application has a lot of features that are accessed through right clicking and Captivate has no answer for the right click. I am on a deep dive for ideas of how to simulate the right click in a captivate simulation. I have heard that Captivate 4 is the answer for the right click in a post on Wendy Wickhams blog. Unfortunately Captivate 4 is not out yet and it's going to be a while before I have the budget to upgrade.

There's got to be some creative instructional designers out there who have come up with a way to cover right clicking in a Captivate assessment simulation but I haven't found them yet.
Please post a comment or send me an email if you have any ideas. Look for future posts on my solution to this issue

eLearning Learning Widget

In a previous post I mentioned a new eLearning community I am taking part in called eLearning Learning. If you haven't already, you really should check out this site. Dr. Tony Karrer has really done some amazing things with the keyword widget making it easy to dig deep into a research topic.

You can actually dive in right here from my blog. In my sidebar you will see the eLearning Learning keyword widget which lists common topics I talk about on my blog. If you click on one of those topics not only will you be brought to posts related to that topic but the keyword list available on the left side of the screen will re sort and display topics related to the previous selected topic. This is a great tool which helps do the research for you. Tony has a much better explanation of how the keyword widget functions in this post.

Diving into this widget I was surprised how often I talk about and research freeware. Guess that goes to show what matters to an instructional designer in this current economic climate. I look forward to spending more time diving into other topics and seeing how relationships emerge.

Moodle: Increasing Max File Upload Size

One of the first hurdles myself and other rookie Moodle implementers have to overcome is increasing the maximum file upload size. Moodle defaults to a measly 2 MB maximum file upload size which is pretty limiting. Through my research I found that many other people struggle with the same problem especially when Moodle is installed on a hosted non dedicated server which is the situation I am in. Here's a brief rundown of how I was able to increase the max file upload size for moodle on a hosted server.

The key to confusion is when you search for answers to this problem on Moodle forums most of the posts instruct to edit the "Max Upload Size" settings (there's 3 of them) in the php.ini file. Problem is that if you are on a hosted server sometimes you don't have access to this file through the Cpanel. But because of the fantastic Moodle community, I finally found more specific instructions for accomplishing this task on a hosted server.

On a hosted server you need to access these settings through FTP. By accessing Moodles files through FTP I was able to access both the .htaccess file and the php.ini file. Once I found the files it was easy to find the line of code to change. Many of the posts on Moodle forums recommend changing these settings in both the .ht access and php.ini files so make sure you check both. The screen shot below points out the files that contain these settings.