LINGOs’ Support Strategy for the IntraLearn LMS

Through their participation in LINGOs, member agencies can access hundreds of e-learning courses on a variety of topics of interest to their staff around the world.  The majority of these courses are SCORM compatible and can be tracked via the IntraLearn LMS sub-portals that are provided through LINGOs.  However, for most member agencies, this is the first experience they have implementing a learning management system and there are many questions regarding the design, launch and maintenance of an LMS.

It is normal for agencies to contact LINGOs with a variety of questions regarding all aspects of their IntraLearn LMS sub-portal:   “What orientation resources can they access?”  “Is there training for Administrators?” “What usage reports can LINGOs member agencies access?”  “What if I need help troubleshooting?”  ”Can my agency sub-portal be customized?”  “What if I lose my password?”

The LINGOs Support Strategy for the IntraLearn LMS provides a single location with answers to  all these questions and more.  This workspace will evolve and expand over time, but its current state reflects the existing support structure LINGOs provides to its member agencies.   Please, If there are any points that are not covered in the strategy, add a comment to this blog post and we will address the topic.

LINGOs’ Support Strategy for Elluminate

One of the most popular learning tools employed by LINGOs members is Elluminate Live!  To date, LINGOs members have used the Elluminate on-line classroom to host over 3,200 sessions.  On any given day, staff members from all over the world sign on to learn how to do their work more efficiently and more effectively.  Tomorrow, for example, learners will log in from Afghanistan, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Pakistan, South Africa, Uganda, Vietnam, and Zimbabwe.  Who knows where we will reach in the future! 

As adoption of the tool increases, LINGOs member agency staff have questions about all aspects of the IntraLearn LMS, including:   “What orientation resources can they access?”  “Is there training for Participants? Moderators?” “What usage reports can LINGOs member agencies access?”  “What if I need help troubleshooting?”  “What if I lose my passoword?”

The LINGOs Support Strategy for Elluminate Live provides an easily accessible repository for all these questions and more.  This knowledge base will evolve and expand over time.   Furthermore, if there are any points that are not covered in the strategy, add a comment to this blog post and we will address the topic.

Articulate Flash Player Updater Ready for “Prime Time”

In two previous posts, I had indicated some of the impacts that the new version of Flash Player has had on courses developed in Articulate Presenter and on the user experience of Articulate Engage v1.

The Articulate support team has done an excellent job documenting the fix to the compatability problem, and I am happy to share that the Articulate Flash Player Updater patch is fully operational.  A previous version of this Flash Player Updater had addressed all the challenges associated with the Presenter Output files, but had not succeeded in fixing the problem that caused Engage to fail when loading in a Flash Player v10 loaded machine.  The Updater has now been tweaked and is working perfectly on my machine that is loaded with Flash Player v10.

If you are using Articulate Presenter or Articulate Engage, be sure to download the most recent Flash Player Updater.  Follow the instructions provided by the Articulate Support Team at the following site.

Articulate Engage and Flash Player v10

The release of Flash Player 10 has led to compatability problems with Articulate Presenter Version 5.  Fortunately, as indicated in the previous blog post  Articulate has provided a Flash Player 10 Updater that is very effective at revisign your Articulate Presenter output files so that they will run effectively for users with Flash Player 10 installed.  Several LINGOs members have applied the fix outlined in the blog post and the results have been very positive.

However, while the last blog post focused on the impact of the new Flash version on Articulate Presenter Users, it is important to acknowlege the impact of the version release on Engage developers as well.  According to the Articulate Knowledge Base users who have run Articulate Engage v1 will have difficulties launching the application after they install Flash Player v10.  More specifically, Flash Player 10 users will find that “Engage will prompt you to install Flash Player 6 and then discontinue working. “ 

While the Articulate Knowedge Base indicates that this problem will be resolved after the Articulate Flash Player 10 Updater is installed, my experience did not find that to be true.  While I installed, uninstalled and reinstalled the Updater multiple times, I was unable to successfully launch Engage v1 while I had Flash Player 10 installed.  Instead, I resorted to uninstalling Flash Player 10 and installing an earlier version of the Flash Player (in my case v9.)

Given the strong support that Articulate provided to resolve problems with Articulate Presenter so as to make it compatible with Flash Player 10, it is likely that the compatability issue will be addressed fully in the near term.  For now, however, I would recommend that Engage developers forego installing Flash Player 10 until this compatability problem has time to be resolved.

Important! New Flash Player Release Might Impact the Performance of Articulate Courses

Today’s posting on the Articulate Word of Mouth Blog   identifies a potential challenge Articulate course developers will have with the newest release of the Adobe Flash Player.  If you or your users upgrade to Flash Player v10 (released today), you may not be able to properly view courses created with Articulate Presenter 5.

The blog post does a good job identifying where the problem lies with the compatability of Flash 10 Player and Articulate courses.  Earlier today, I downloaded the new version of Flash Player, and was able to replicate the problem identified in the blog post.  With the new version of Flash Player, I was unable to view Articulate Courses that were previously loaded to the web and to the LINGOs LMS.

The good news is that the blog post provides instructions on how to ensure any courses you developed previously are accessible by your audience with Flash 10 Player installed.  In summary, Articulate recommends that you do  do the following:

1.       Download and install the new Articulate Presenter 5 Updater for Adobe Flash Player 10, which will update the stealthray.swf file to correctly detect the Flash Player 10 version number.

2.       Review FAQs about this updater in the Presenter 5 Knowledge Base: Why are my presentations not loading with Flash Player 10?

3.       Run the updater (look for the Flash 10 Updater icon on your desktop) on all your local and Web-based Presenter 5 presentations.

4.       Clear your browser cache (and instruct your users to do the same) and view impacted Presenter 5 presentations; they should play just fine now.

Important notes:

• The LINGOs team has tested the fix identified by Articulate and we find it is working.  NOTE – however that the automatic updater does not appear to correct the problem if your published course files are embedded in .zip folders (which is the norm with LINGOs courses loaded to the LMS.)  To update your published files that are found in .zip files, you will need to republish your course manually (which we did  and were able to successfully load content that is accessible via the Flash 10 Player on the LMS)
• The newly released Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio ‘09 (including Presenter ‘09) and other Articulate products (such as Quizmaker 2.x and Quizmaker ‘09) are not impacted by this Flash 10 issue.  LINGOs member agencies are not yet using this version of the product, but we hope to move that direction in the future.

§ The updater will also update your installed Presenter 5 files, so new presentations will not need to be updated

Learn more in the Articulate Knowledge Base

Elluminate New User Video Clip

For two years, LINGOS member agencies have endeavored to make the Elluminate Live Virtual classroom accessible to staff across the world.  During that time, two adoption challenges have been especially significant when promoting the application within organizations:

1.        Ensuring that field-based users overcome their initial apprehension of entering live on-line sessions;

2.       Ensuring that new users have the Java download that is required to participate in Elluminate.

 

Today, I received a note from a LINGOs member agency that quoted an e-mail from an employee  based in India:
“Thank you for sharing this clip. One of the reasons I did not join any session was my hesitancy with the technology. Thanks to this I have run out of this excuse. J Looking forward to participating in the next session.”

The e-mail refers to a video clip that had been sent out widely to field based staff which aimed to address both the challenges listed above.  The video clip provides a 5-minute introduction to Elluminate and summarizes everything a new participant needs to know about using the Elluminate Live Virtual Classroom.  The video clip has two clear advantages:

1.       It raises the comfort level of session participants by providing a clear, intuitive introduction to the application – within the context of an Elluminate session.

2.       It identifies a number of additional resources that users can access if they require additional information.

A further advantage of the video clip is that it requires the Elluminate plug-in to be installed before it can be viewed.  That means that anybody who has viewed the clip now has the plug-in required to attend an Elluminate session.

So, as you think about the challenge of preparing staff to attend Elluminate-based sessions, keep this video clip in mind.  The URL for the clip can be inserted as a link in session announcements and it can be presented as required viewing for first-time Elluminate sessions.

Loading Articulate Presenter Courses in the IntraLearn LMS

A previous article  discussed the interoperability of courses generated by Outstart Trainer and the IntraLearn LMS.  Now it is time to examine the same question in the context of LINGOs’ second e-Learning authoring tool – Articulate Presenter. 

Below you will find instructions to access a course that addresses the topic of “Designing Projects in the International Development, Relief and Conservation Sector.”  This course was designed using Articulate Presenter – the flagship application in the Articulate Rapid e-Learning Suite. 

As you navigate the course, be sure to view page 14 of the course – Writing Descriptive Statements.  On that page, you will see an example of the way that Articulate Engage files can be embedded in a course.  Engage provides a quick and easy alternative to developing web-based interactions  – without needing to purchase Adobe Flash.  Furthermore, unlike Adobe Flash, there is no coding to learn when developing interactions through Articulate Engage  If you would like to learn more about  Engage and/or Presenter visit the Articulate website.   

To access the Proof of Concept of an Articulate course loaded in the IntraLearn LMS follow these instructions;

go to http://lingostest.org 

username:  sample

password:  s1mple  (for clarity’s sack that password is s(the number one)mple)

 Select the course entitled “Project Management Fundamentals:  2.1 Conceptual Design”

The Virtual Training Mastery Series

While applications such as WebEx, Elluminate and Live Meeting allow just about anyone  to host a live online meeting, most of us really haven’t stopped to think about how to transfer our great (and maybe not so great) facilitation skills to these environments.  Typically, online meetings happen like this:   one person talks and then on occassions stops to say, “Are there any questions.”   Then the DREADED DEAD silence.  

 

At LINGOs we recognize that there are three sets of skills that facilitators need to develop as they begin to lead virtual events:

1. How to design on-line curricula that are interactive and effective. 
2. How to facilitate on-line classes so that you can effectively engage, manage and lead your on-line learners;
3. How to use your on-line virtual classroom application.  Here, we refer to developing the technical competency needed to use your your specific brand of on-line virtual classroom applicaion (Elluminate, WebEx, Connect, or other).  This is a very important technical skill that won’t be addressed in this blog post, but we promise will be covered in future posts.

To assist on-line facilitators with the skills outlined in points one and two above, LINGOs sponsors the On-Line Virtual Mastery Series.  The two-class Mastery Series helps you first plan out or DESIGN that virtual experience for your students and the second class will help you with the actual live event, learning how to really engage the participant.   

 

What’s really cool is the course instructor, Greg Davis, absolutely practises what he preaches:  being a student in the class will really help you think about applying the techniques because you are experiencing them first hand.   (Dare we warn you that this is an ACTIVE class!) 

 

The technology LINGOs uses to run the class is the Elluminate Live! on-line classroom.   The reality is, however, that these are skills you can use in any live, remote environment (Centra, Live Meeting, WebEx, Adobe Connect, etc.)  

 

The classes are free and you can dial in from a less than ideal Internet connection.   To check your system go to:  http://www.elluminate.com/support/index.jsp.  (You must have a working microphone to participate.) 

 

Designing a Virtual Class
September 24,  8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
November 12,  8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
December 17th, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Times are listed in:  Eastern Daylight Savings (or same time as New York)
Are you interested in designing live online classes but don’t really know where to start?  This class is excellent for people who currently teach in a classroom setting, but want to expand to a live online environment.   You will learn how to design interactivity into your class, including ice breakers, games, discussions, etc.   The instructor, Greg Davis is the former Director of eLearning for American Express.   Registration is required for this course.  http://ngolearning.org/courses/availablecourses/online/pages/Class%20One%20-%20On-Line%20Design.aspx

 

Managing and Facilitating a Virtual Classroom
September 25, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
November 13th 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
December 18th, 8:00 AM to 10:30 AM
Times are listed in:  Eastern Daylight Savings (or same time as New York)
 Are you interested in improving your onlinefacilitation skills for a live class?  This class will help you with the in-class challenges of engaging the students. So stop given boring onlineclasses where you talk, talk, talk and aren’t sure if the student is even still alive!  Learn how to call on students, ask them polling questions, and get them to interact with each other during the class.   The instructor is Greg Davis, the former Director of eLearning for American Express, who volunteers for LINGOs.    To register go to:  http://ngolearning.org/courses/availablecourses/online/pages/Class%20Two%20-%20On-Line%20Facilitation.aspx

 

More information about LINGOs can be found at:  www.lingos.org.   Questions can be directed to Linda@lingos.org. 

 

Loading OutStart Trainer courses in the IntraLearn LMS

Increasingly, LINGOs member agencies are building custom developed courses to deploy to staff around the world.  One of the initial steps in the course design process, is to review course requirements (interactivity, navigation, aesthetics, tracking) and decide which development tool to use. 

This blog post is designed to help designers as they make this decision,  Posted below is a link to a course on Instructional Design that was built using OutStart Trainer and has been loaded in the LINGOs IntraLearn LMS Test Portal.  This course provides a proof of concept of the feature  mix that can be used in Trainer-developed courses and also demonstrates the ability to track course completion of Trainer-built courses in the IntraLearn LMS.

This Proof of Concept Course is especially useful, because it includes an array of interactive features in the course design.  These include embedded video, embedded flash, at least 6 different question formats, embedded scrollable windows, learning games, links to the web, links to Microsoft Office documents and much more. 

Furthermore, the course also demonstrates the ability of Trainer-built courses to report out test scores to users and to “smart jump” test-takers to different pages based on their success with a test. 

To access the Proof of Concept Course follow these instructions;

go to http://lingostest.org 

username:  sample

password:  s1mple

(for clarity’s sack that password is s(the number one)mple)

Why We Love Jing

At LINGOs, we love JING!  When we are working on a virtual team and need to work through a complicated troubleshooting issue… … make a JING!  Need to train a group of LMS Administrators on how to complete a task on the Learning Management System… … make a JING!  About to launch a major new initiative and need to communicate with hundreds of people… … make a JING!

Why do we love JING?  First, it’s free!  Second, it is intuitive and easy to use.  Third, you can forget about struggling with the complicated effort involved with managing source files, publishing in multiple formats, and uploading to FTP sites.  Finally, did I mention it is free?

As the JING Project turns one year old, the development team has made the product even more easy to love.  JING subscribers now receive  a complimentary server account with 2 GB of storage and 2 GB of transfer bandwidth per month. 10 times the size available previously.  Furthermore, you can increase your server space at a reasonable additional price.

If you want to learn more, visit some of the links above, or go to www.jingproject.com