Increasing the Quality and Consistency of User Access to LMS Content

As more agencies adopt Outstart Trainer and the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Suite to develop custom-made content for their Learning Management System (LMS), the frequency with which users encounter challenges accessing this content will increase.  This is due to the complexity of the LMS’ task- processing SCORM code, managing interactions, and tracking learner progress through a variety of operating systems, software versions, pop-up windows, browser configurations, firewalls and security settings. 

 

Despite the complexity of the challenge, however, there are some best practices that are highly recommended to increase the quality and consistency of  user access to LMS-loaded content.  These  recommendations are the following:

1. Ensure that end-user workstations meet the minimum requirements for operating the LMS – The best way to ensure that learners’ workstations are configured so as to avoid problems with pop-up blockers, tracking cookies, managing Java applets, and accessing ActiveX commands is to require users to complete a minimum requirements test.  LINGOs provides access to a “Plug-In Test” that checks user workstation configurations to ensure that they are compatible with the IntraLearn LMS and its courses.  All LMS users should check their workstation configurations by accessing the Plug-In Test at the following URL:   http://lingoscatalog.org/vhelpdesk/index.cfm .
2. Ensure that end-users understand how to install the Java plug-in and accept session cookies – While a user might have no problem accessing a course outside the LMS, once a course is embedded inside a sub-portal, the LMS needs to track the user’s progress in the course.  In order for this functionality to work correctly, users need to ensure that Java is installed on their machine and that their browsers are configured to accept cookies.  If the results of the Plug-In Test reveal that the machine does not meet these minimum standards, instructions on how to allow Cookies permissions and install Java plug-ins are found at the following link:  http://lingoscatalog.org/vhelpdesk/docs/browser_settings.pdf
3. Avoid loading custom-developed courses into pop-up windows-  Experienced LMS users might have noticed that the pre-loaded off-the-shelf courses available on LINGOs’ LMS sub-portals generally do not open in pop-up windows.  Instead, they are embedded in a frame of the LMS.  When courses are loaded in pop-up windows, the complexity of the communication between the course and the LMS increases significantly and there is a much higher likelihood of running into access problems.  Given the increased complexity resulting from loading courses in pop-up windows, it is highly recommended that all custom-made courses be loaded as embedded content in the LMS frame.

These three recommendations will not prevent agencies from having any problems with user access to their custom-made courses.  However, they should  significantly improve the consistency with which users can successfully access your content. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Synchronous Learning Systems – 2008

Recently, one of the more frequent requests LINGOs receives from its members is assistance in developing a synchronous learning strategy for the organization.   One of the best sources of information on this topic is from LINGOs’ partner, The E-Learning Guild. 

This week, the Guild published “Synchronous Learning Systems:  Benchmarks, Best Practices, and Real-Time Analysis about Real-Time Learning.”  Available for download to Guild Members who are logged on to the site (LINGOs member agencies receive one free Premium Membership to the e-Learning Guild) – this 150+page report includes survey data from 1,500 Guild members who share their experiences on:

What do users that report a very good ROI do differently from everybody else?

What do users that are able to deliver learning that is as effective as good face-to-face classroom instruction do differently from everyone else?

What is the total cost-of-ownership for a particular SLS?  What is the industry average?

Are your needs and priorities in alignment with your peers that work in similar organizations?

This data provides valuable base-line information for organizations as they develop synchronous on-line strategies and allow synchronous facilitators the opportunity to compare their practices to those of industry leaders. 

Futhermore, the e-Learning Guild will host a webinar on June 19th (11:30-12:30 EDT) that will present on the findings in the report and provide opportunities for exchange on these findings.  Register to attend the webinar via the following link or visit the Guild website to access the event recording (you do not need to be a Guild member to attend the webinar or view the recording.)

REMINDER – A cornerstone of successful on-line synchronous strategies is ensuring that moderators are trained in the design and faciltiation of on-line courses.  Anyone interested in developing these skills is invited to attend the next session of the LINGOs On-Line Virtual Mastery Series.  To register for the course, visit the following links:  1.  Designing a Virtual Class and 2:  Facilitating and Managing a Virtual Class

Case Study: Troubleshooting SCORM, IntraLearn’s LMS and Articulate Presenter

ACCION International has developed a series of asynchronous courses using the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Studio application. The courses are rich in their design and content, addressing a variety of training topics in the areas of general management, financial management and project management.  Recently, however, as ACCION prepared to load one of its courses into their IntraLearn LMS sub-portal, they found that the course was experiencing loading problems – running on some machines, failing to launch on others, and freezing up a few computers.

ACCION’s experience is not unusual among LINGOs member agencies working with asynchronous on-line training. Deploying asynchronous courses in international development, relief and conservation organizations is complex. Users work off a variety of operating systems and service packs; There is no standard browser configuration among field offices; Firewalls differ from region to region; and bandwidth can be a serious constraint. Furthermore, even organizations that work in a single standard environment with uniformly high-speed internet connectivity  (and there are none that I am aware of), are still challenged to ensure that the SCORM packages (the code that allow agencies to track learner progress) generated by course development tools like Articulate Presenter are communicating correctly with the learning management system that tracks learner progress.

In this case, LINGOs and ACCION worked together to discover that the course was being loaded as a pop up window in ACCION’s IntraLearn LMS sub-portal.  As a result, SCORM code transfers were interrupted between the course and the LMS.  At this point, I can imagine the reader’s eyes have just glossed over and you are overcome with a desire to go to sleep. But wait! Before you close this browser and move on to a more interesting article on www.people.com, hear me out for just one more minute!

There are two crucial lessons to be learned from this case:

LESSON 1 - TEST EARLY; TEST OFTEN!   ACCION’s testing process uncovered the problem early enough so that it could be addressed before the courses had been deployed to learners around the world.  If a Country Represenative had been the one uncovering this problem, it could have resulted in serious adoption repercussions that might have been avoided.  As indicated earlier in this post, deploying asynchronous learning is a complex process and developers should ensure that their courses are tested thoroughly, inside the LMS environment, with SCORM tracking operational, and on a variety of system/browser/firewall configurations.  As is always the case in project management, correcting problems is always more cost effective early on in the development process.

LESSON TWO – LEARN FROM YOUR LINGOs COMMUNITY  What wasn’t shared in the case study above, is the fact that this same pop up problem was encountered by another LINGOs member agency several months earlier.  As a result, the diagnosis and troubleshooting process to resolve the ACCION challenge only took about 30 minutes.  This underscores one of the central advantages of working within the LINGOs Learning Tools Community. Rather than each agency having to test, diagnose, troubleshoot and resolve course development problems individually, each of the agencies can learn from the previous work of other agencies.   In this case, the “Fix” to the problem was posted to the Articulate Presenter Workspace of the LINGOs website, allowing other agencies to learn more quickly and efficiently.

These two lessons apply to all of the Learning Tools (Outstart Trainer, Elluminate Live, IntraLearn LMS, the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Suite) supported by LINGOs.   The Learning Tools section of the LINGOs web site is continuously updated to reflect the most recent knowledge of the LINGOs member community.  Take some time to explore!

Learning Resources for On-Line Synchronous Training

In the last Learning Tools Blog post, I presented statistics illustrating the rapid pace at which LINGOs member organizations have adopted Elluminate Live for on-line synchronous training.  One of the ways LINGOs supports agencies as they adopt synchronous on-line learning, is through our work with the Elluminate company to identify a variety of learning resources that enhance the capacity of staff who attend and lead on-line synchronous training. 

These learning resources fall into the following general categories:

Elluminate Live! Participants can visit the Elluminate Support Site

• to complete an  on-line orientation program
• to view the recorded Elluminate Participant training webinar
• to access quick reference guides and tools
•  to check their system configuration compatibility for the Elluminate product.

Elluminate Moderators can

• Participate  in four different live webinars that Elluminate schedules on a regular basis to learn how to use the many features of Elluminate Live!

• View recorded videos (averaging 4-10 minutes each) that instruct moderators on how to use the most common features of Elluminate Live!
• Visit the Elluminate Support Ste to access resources, tools and technical information to support Elluminate Moderators

On-Line Curriculum Designers and On-Line Facilititors

·      Can attend LINGOs’ On-line Virtual Mastery Series which introduces best practices for designing and facilitating courses in the on-line synchronous environment.

Elluminate Troubleshooting is another area in which moderators will inevitably need to develop skills.  As a frequent moderator of Elluminate sessions, many times I have found myself In the position where a participant is unable  to fully participate in an event due to problems with bandwidth, audio, Java plug-ins, systems compatibility and/or firewalls.  To address these challenges, Elluminate moderators need to develop skills to identify and address some of the most common problems encountered when when managing on-line events. 

Over the next six months, LINGOs and Elluminate are collaborating closely to develop troubleshooting resources that help moderators analyze and resolve these challenges.  As one of the first steps in this process, LINGOs will host a webinar on June 12, 2008, entitled Are You a Skilled Elluminate TroubleShooter?  (for details on this event click here) This webinar is  highly recommended to all Elluminate Moderators, as it will include a number of practical tips that can be used immediately. 

In addition to the upcoming webinar, Elluminate has documented solutions to the most frequently occurring technical problems on their Help Desk Website  and LINGOs is documenting the most useful troubleshooting tips on its  Elluminate Workspace.

 

UPCOMING OUTSTART TRAINER WEBCAST

 

LINGOs’ partner, Outstart, is hosting a Live Webcast: Rapidly Developing e-Courses with Impact, Using OutStart Trainer.  The Trainer authoring tool provides the capacity to develop rich learning content without programming; with the potential to easily add Flash, audio, video or streaming media and more. 

June 10th, 1:30 p.m. Eastern (EDT) REGISTER TODAY