Take your Elluminate Recordings off-line with Elluminate Publish!

If you are like me, I would expect you don’t spend a lot of time reviewingt data charts embedded in quarterly reports.  However, I do want to highlight a table from the LINGOS Q1-2008 Report (click cancel if you are prompted for a password) that documents the rise in usage of Elluminate Live! over the past two years. Between January and March, 2008, nearly 3,500 people attended events on the Elluminate platform.  This is an outstanding feat on its own, but when you recognize that just two years earlier, less than 1,000 people attended synchronous on-line events over the entire calendar year, this progress is especially impressive. These statistics underscore the rapid adoption on-line synchrronous communication technologies among international NGOs.  This is why I will be devoting several posts over the coming month to Elluminate-related issues.  Next week, I will focus on the skills reguired to become an expert Elluminate trouble-shooter (stay tuned for this especially important post.)  This week, however, I will focus on a relatively new product named Elluminate Publish! Elluminate Publish! allows users to convert your Elluminate Live! recordings into formats that no longer require a web connection.  For example, you can create standalone recordings that can be sent to your learners around the world via CD-ROM, e-mail attachments or loaded as files to your intranet – no more wondering whether your user in Swaziland has the bandwidth to view your session recording off of the server.  Furthermore, you create audio podcasts in just seconds from any recorded Elluminate Live! session and store them on your content management system, portal, or website. One of the many ways that the Elluminate company supports teh work of LINGOs member agencies is by providign access to to Elluminate Publish! licenses at the considerably reduced price of $50 dollars.  For more information, visit the Elluminate Publish! section of the LINGOs website. Next Week:  Becoming an Expert Troubleshooter in Elluminate LIve!

Increase Training Impact Through Mind Mapping

Does this photograph look familiar?   When international NGOs host training workshops, we rely extensively on brainstorming, flip charts and affinity diagramming (think sticky sheets) approaches as a/the primary facilitation tool.  And yet, I would imagine that many of you have wondered (as have I) what happens to all those sticky sheets and flip chart pages once the event is over?

In theory, the sticky sheet diagrams are photographed, and the flip charts are transcribed so that the data can be converted into knowledge, documented and then shared.  Too often, however, this is not the case!  Whether due to resource limitations, competing priorities, and/or the unwieldy nature of flip chart paper and sticky sheets, often the knowledge from these events is never documented, or is documented and shared weeks later – frequently with significant transcription errors.

Introducing Mind Mapping applications – software that allows trainers to easily collect brainstorming ideas,   organize them into visual diagrams, and at the push of a button save the image into a .pdf file.  These .pdf files are ready seconds after your session is complete and can be shared via e-mail, uploaded to your intranet, or distributed any way you would exchange a computer file.  Furthermore, many of these Mind Mapping applications have features that allow you to convert your map into a Word document that is organized in outline format.  Envision your visual brainstorming results converted into a Word format that is immediately ready to embed in the minutes of your meeting or workshop!

There are many mind map software vendors , and a quick Google search will identify at least a dozen options to choose from.  One that I find particularly strong is MindManager (sold by Mindjet  for about $349.00 (windows) and $129 (Mac).)  In the words of Frank Ryan, Head of Library and Information Services at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, “MindManager has saved me countless hours in planning reports and presentations and I have used it very successfully to simplify complex issues. It is very easy to use and Mind Maps can be converted into low-memory PDFs.”

A free, open-source alternative is FreeMind.  While I have no personal experience using the Free Mind product, it comes highly recommended by the people on the Knowledge Management for Development List Serve.  If any of you have experimented with FreeMind, let us know about your experience by adding a comment to this blog post.

A 60 Minute Masters in Instructional Design

One of the more insightful assessments I have heard regarding technology assisted learning came from a colleague after he attended his first on-line synchronous meeting.  He said, “This is an incredible technology!  I hope we don’t use it to host more bad meetings.” 

 

This assessment has become my guiding principle as I continue learning and working in this field.  While recent innovations in technology are truly incredible (on-line classrooms, rapid e-learning development tools, RSS feeds, streaming video, YouContent, collaboration software, etc.), we must be careful not to become blinded by the “wow-factor” of the technology.  The secret to high quality learning, remains high quality content. 

Clive Shepherd, a UK-based e-learning designer who has worked with LINGOs and its member agencies, asserts that a central requirement for high quality content is high quality instructional designers.  Furthermore, he recognizes that for many organizations it is the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), with little or no training in instructional design, who design the majority of training content.

To help organizations improve the instructional design skills of their SMEs, Clive (and a group of professional instructional designers from around the world) has created a course entitled “The 60 Masters”, designed to train SMEs in the basics of instructional design ( Note- Originally Clive set off to create a 30 minute masters, but soon realized that even a high-level overview course would require 60 minutes.)
 

I highly recommend these materials for a number of reasons.  In addition to the fact that they are excellent, relevant and freely available (although you must register to access the content), Clive also outlines an articulate argument why organizations should invest in building the capacity of instructional designers.  Furthermore, the course (built in coordination with Kineo) is a great example of good instructional design employing Articulate Presenter and Articulate Engage  . 

Link 1:  Clive Shepherd’s Presentation on “Why We Need More Instructional Designers”
http://www.fastrak-consulting.co.uk/30mins/player.html

 

Link 2:  The “60 Minute Masters” Course (audio enabled; registration required)
http://www.kineolearning.com/60minutemasters/

Link3:  The “60 Minute Masters” Course (no audio; no registration required)
http://www.articulate.com/products/demos/blog/60-Minute-Masters-no-audio/player.html

Creating High Impact Graphics for your Courses (and Presentations)

Learning theorists have repeatedly and consistently found that quality graphics have great potential to enhance the impact of courses.  The challenge, however, is identifying relevant, appropriate graphics.  Furthermore, even if you are able to find five or ten excellent images, how do you ensure that the graphics throughout the entirety of a 30-slide PowerPoint show or a 25-page e-learning product are consistent?  How do you avoid the appearance that your courses were “cobbled” together using random graphics harvested from Google Images?

Tom Kuhlman’s Rapid e-Learning Blog   has a series of excellent posts on how to leverage Microsoft clipart to develop a catalogue of images for your courses. 

 

I can imagine the reader’s reaction, “ClipArt??  Are you kidding?”  However, before you dismiss the idea, recognize that we are not talking about the black and white stick figures that dominated PowerPoint presentations in 1998. 

 

Kuhlman is doing some amazing manipulation of stock images using innovative approaches that I would have never realized existed if I had not read his posts. 

Over the past six months,  the Rapid e-Learning Blog has published a series of 5 posts on this topic.  They are enlightening and highly recommended to anyone who needs to incorporate graphics in their learning:

1. Little Known Ways to Create Your Own Graphics Using PowerPoint
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/little-known-ways-to-create-your-own-graphics-using-powerpoint/

2. See How Easily You Can Design a Consistent Look for Your E-Learning Courses
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/see-how-easily-you-can-design-a-consistent-look-for-your-e-learning-courses/

3. Three Sure-Fire Ways to Make Your E-Learning Graphics Sizzle
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/3-sure-fire-ways-to-make-your-e-learning-graphics-sizzle/

4. Create Custom Characters for Your E-Learning Scenarios
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/create-custom-characters-for-your-e-learning-scenarios/

5. What You Need to Know When Working with Grouped Clip Art
http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/what-you-need-to-know-when-working-with-grouped-clip-art/