It’s All in the Mix
I can’t seem to read a training journal, magazine, or conference abstract lately without hearing about blended learning. It seems that everyone is in search of the holy grail of the perfect mix of classroom and online, real-time and anytime, instructor-led and self-service learning. What is the perfect mix? Well, it depends. Most specifically, it…
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Harvesting Your SME’s Brain
One of the great things about working in the eLearning field is the variety it affords. In the last year, for example, I have developed eLearning courses or online job aids that teach people how to: use software; manage greenhouses; work safely with hazardous materials; provide support for individuals with special needs; design landscapes; run…
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Context + Control + Community = Learning
Some time ago I was learnnig Mandarin Chinese via ChinesePod. Based in Shanghai, ChinesePod broadcasts daily online audio lessons. These are free of charge. For a fee, however, learners anywhere with an Internet connection can also get access to lesson transcripts, dialogue breakdowns, vocabulary expansion examples, exercises, tone charts, a grammar bank, etc. On top…
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Moving Beyond “Buttonology” in eLearning
It is that time of year again – the start of a new semester. And along with the start of a new semester will come a great many training sessions and workshops for faculty and teaching assistants on how to use their organization’s learning management system. Inevitably, such sessions will focus on the mechanics of…
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Building Intuitive Online Courses
We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us. Winston Churchill I am often reminded of Churchill’s wisdom concerning architecture when conducting quality audits on online courses for clients in the post-secondary sector. By this, I mean the technology we use to create online courses greatly effects how we end up teaching online. The learning management…
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Find Your Online Teaching Voice
Over the years, I have worked with scores of university and college professors, and subject matter experts from various fields, helping them make the transition from classroom teaching to teaching online. One thing that almost always poses a challenge for those new to online instruction is finding and then including their personalized teaching voice on…
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