1. If you want engaged and interested students,structure content into modules. This will make it easier for learners to make use of the content in a wide variety of contexts. Also, make sure your course is broken down into sections that the learner can get through in 20 minutes or less.

2. Learners love quick facts and figures and aggregating the latest data about a topic in visual charts, infographics and/ or diagrams can increase their engagement — and here are other ideasyou should be implementing to create great eLearning courses.

3. To make sure your courses work for learners, there are 5 things you should check before you publish and deliver them.

4. People are less likely to find a course engaging if it looks unprofessional, with poor quality or it’s littered with grammatical errors and typos. Therefore, always keep the quality of your graphics, videos and audio at a consistent level. Ensure your course is not only easy to understand but also high in quality, including high standards in instructional design, media, usability, appearance and editorial.

5. Make sure you use contrasting colors for backgrounds and fonts. Color actually impacts the effectiveness of your courses. For example, overusing complex coloring such as gradients may slow down the course. Don´t forget to choose the “right” colors using this guide. 

6. Video continues to be a popular tactic in eLearning and mLearning these days. Here are some ways that video can play a role in your courses. Make video a key part of your next course by employing these five tips to know when to use it.

7. Even as eLearning gets more technologically savvy, and there is a growing number of theories, strategies, tools and applications that suggest us new ways to develop our courses, you can’t forget the basics, the essential elements of effective eLearning course design.

8. Don’t overlook the importance of content when creating eLearning. The course isn’t trying to impart information – it’s trying to alter the learner’s behavior, by teaching them to do something, or not do it, or do it differently. The content is only a means to that end.  Avoiding content-centered design is just one tip for making your courses less boring. Get more tips here.

9. If you are not sure your eLearning is remarkable (stands out and make students take notice), try using this checklist to help you find out.

10. Once a company gets started with eLearning, it’s critical to monitor and track the program’s performance. There are four eLearning metrics that should be measured— always. 

11. Remember to involve the student through the use of interactive elements, but make sure the action builds the message rather than detracts from it. Find different ways to liven up the course with the right measure of interactivity and to have learners do more than just read. 

12. One great way to meet the need for a dynamic, relevant learning program is to leverage real- time data. Here are a few tips for using real-time data to create effective learning content.

13. Eliminate all unnecessary detail. Too often, eLearning courses include page after page of unnecessary information. Make it as simple as you can, but no simpler. The extra detail won’t be remembered so why include it. If a learner genuinely wants more detail, provide additional support by adding attached documents or links within the course.

14. Motivating learners isn’t easy, but there are a few things you can do to make the process easier, including the use of this guide.

15. Writing for eLearning can feel puzzling, not only you need skills for creative, persuasive and technical writing, but also you frequently have to write about topics for which you know very little. Here’s some brief guidelines you need to know to survive it. 

16. It can be overwhelming sorting through all the information on the web, with so many blogs, ebooks and articles about eLearning out there. Here is a pinterest board with a selected group of eLearning resources— hopefully it will make it easier for you to find good stuff.

17. If you want to keep your eLearning projects on track, you need to ask the right questions before you start. If you answer these questions each time you begin a course, you will definitely increase the quality of it.

18. Don’t use media simply for the sake of using it. Make sure it applies to the training in a logical manner and reinforces the information.

19. Put the information into context using examples, cases and stories. Learners, particularly if they’re at work, want ideas that are relevant to their current problems. Use these 10 strategiesand your idea is much more likely to be understood and remembered.

20. Relevance is by far the most reported successful motivator when taking an eLearning course. Here are six ideas to inspire you.

21. Do you want your course to be attractive and to catch attention (who doesn’t)? Here are 17 Free Stock Photos Sites for eLearning  that will help you make that happen. 

22. Storytelling is a great way to get learners inspired and make learning more effective:

• Here are the key elements of eLearning Storytelling. 
• Here are ten key points on Why you need To Use Storytelling For Learning. 

The movement of learning from its traditional place in the classroom was first seen and felt with the advent of eLearning. After a period of trying to replace one with the other, “blended” learning was born, where the two mediums of delivery complemented and supplemented each other. Mobile learning now offers us a ‘third’ dimension! It gives us the ability to extend our learning and training into the area of “application” of learning and the opportunity to see the results of training and learning. It allows the learner to take their training with them and use it when most required. As an extension to the classroom and eLearning, the mobile learning component can be designed for a specific purpose or need and here are just some examples of this:

• Reference materials
• Access to experts and expert advice
• Process flow charts
• Technical drawings
• Policies and procedures

So is this the tip of the iceberg? We believe so! These are just three areas where we believe mobile learning can and will make a difference. and while most of us are already using it like this in our personal lives it hasn’t yet made an impact in our workplace. But it will!

We would love to hear your thoughts and opinions, especially if you are already using mobile learning! We look forward to hearing from you.

As social media becomes ubiquitous, schools and districts should shift from trying to control its use and toward teaching faculty and students how to build successful learning communities.

• By Ruth Reynard 
• 03/07/13

As school boards address the overall challenge of social media use within schools, they should focus on the reality that the impact no longer lies only on the individual and local schools. Social networks include students and teachers all over the world and, therefore, teaching and coaching on digital literacy for teachers and students is where the focus should rest. Knowing how to build successful communities of learning and how to integrate social connectivity within a learning environment is a much more needed outcome than finding a way to control and monitor specific users and content. I would encourage teachers to research and learn more about digital literacy and encourage students to find their voice in the digital world as it relates to education and learning. Similar to how we have taught the differences between academic and colloquial or creative language uses, we now must teach the appropriate and effective uses of digital communication and learning-based networking language and tools.

The issues of the uses of social media in schools are multifaceted. There are the technology and professional challenges of security as well as the challenges of how and when it is appropriate for teachers and students to engage socially online. Moreover, there are the benefits to teaching and learning to consider, as well as the general expectations of students in terms of the immediate and constant connectivity and networked understanding of their digital world. Most guidelines or polices that can be found on the Internet from various school boards and districts make a distinction between purpose or intent and use. The main focus of these documents is that “guidelines” are the intention rather than mandated policy and, interestingly, they read more like a professional guideline on intercommunication and appropriate professionalism in the workplace than an actual policy document on social media tools. Additionally, even the tools are listed often with the tag “and so on” or “etc.” given the fast-paced changes we experience in the world of social media.

Background
In a sense, trying to control social media use is somewhat similar to trying to stop an oncoming train. That is, while we can manage policies around setting up sites and content guidelines, we cannot control the actual connectivity of the technology itself. It is that aspect that is the essence of the “social” nature of the technology and the reason why it is so powerful. The continual connectivity and direct communication made possible through social media tools is what has essentially changed communication forever. Therefore, while I may have a specifically guided professional site, that site is present in the digital world and, as such, can be searched, linked, commented on, and posted—it can be “webbed” and that is precisely why new tools of communication are so powerful and also why their implications for teaching and learning are so amazing.

Once the access points are minimized and “secured” behind digital barriers, they lose the social aspect and, therefore, the essence of their purpose. As a result, those sites will not be utilized as it is the immediacy and constant currency of social media like Twitter and Facebook and other specific interest exchange sites such as Pinterest that keep users coming back. For the most part, policies are reactive and can only guide the use of tools and state that “tagging” and linking without permission is not advisable in the interest of security and protection of privacy and professionalism.

The reality is that when that happens, the only course of action is to react to the situation and discontinue employment. The information, however, is still linked and part of the digital web of connectivity.

Policies of Control
For the most part, policies or guidelines of control for boards of education provide a frame of reference that expands a basic “user guide” approach. For example, the Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) policy statement addresses the control of access in the following way: “Social media and networking sites must not be accessed through the MNPS network, with exceptions made for maintaining MNPS-sponsored online communities.”

Education begins and ends with the relationship between the teacher and the student.  While this idea is nothing new and has existed for thousands of years, it has undergone substantial change for better or for worse. Technology can help us, however, create an enviornment where teachers can impart more of their wisdom to more students, allowing more children to become better members of society.

The ancient Indian gurus and Greek pedagogues viewed the act of learning as something deeply personal. Children did not just learn how to read and write, they learned how to become better human beings. Ideas like the Socratic method encouraged students to challenge each other’s ideas through debate and to grow and mature into independant thinkers who aimed to learn more about the world around them. While these educational ideals nurtured some of the greatest minds and figureheads in human history, it was normally something available to a very small group of people at a very high cost.

Today in the United States, our current system of public schools allows teachers to reach a greater number of students and help them learn valuable skills, but in order for schools to keep their funding, and teachers to keep their salaries, they must appease the politicians and bean counters who control the flow of money. This has resulted in teachers “teaching to the test”—and students are missing the joy of exploring the world around them.

Now, the descriptions I have written above are by no means exhaustive, but I believe both systems have certain advantages that are essential toward creating the perfect educational system. What is needed is a way for teachers to reach and actively engage as many children as humanly possible at once. So, how can we foster an inquisitive and rational mindset in a child while making the process accessible to as many people as possible?

I believe the answer starts with teachers effectively utilizing current technology.

As I have said before, technology can only enhance learning, it can never replace a teacher. Modern tools, such as social media, however, can make a teacher’s job easier, which in turn allows a teacher to reach a greater number of students. It’s no small secret that companies like Facebook have built their business around learning everything they can about their users. By collecting information on what you like, dislike or view at any given time, they can build a nearly complete profile of your life, your personality and what you might want to buy in the next couple of weeks. Whether you find this ethical or not is entirely up to you, but even the most rabid critic has to be impressed with the number of details and conclusions that a company like Facebook can make with the information given.

So, if we can learn so much about a person utilizing this new kind of technology why not apply it to the way we teach? If teachers can understand how each individual student learns, or what excites them instantly from the comfort of their own living room, it will make the job of tailoring a lesson plan to a student’s individual needs much easier, which will allow a teacher to reach more children in a shorter period of time.

Of course, there are practical and ethical concerns that will have to be addressed before something like this is adopted on any level.  There are many risks with putting student and school information on the Internet where anyone can access them. The safety of our students is absolutely paramount. But utilizing modern tools, such as social media, can allow our teachers to foster a deep and meaningful sense of curiosity within a large number of students and, in my opinion, the benefits outweigh the risks.

Fortunately, there are several companies out there that have recognized this problem and are working on products that provide just that kind of service and help address some of the biggest concerns of adopting social media into the classroom. Companies like Schoology and Edmodoare creating safe virtual Learning Management Systems where teachers can learn more about their students in a shorter time in order to deliver a more personalized educational experience.

A better educational system is within our reach. In order to achieve it, we must give our teachers the tools to engage and foster as many young minds as humanly possible.

Bottom line: In order to improve our current educational system we must be able to adopt elements of classical education into our modern school system.  Teachers must be allowed to connect with their students and foster a deeply personal sense of curiousity about the world around them while giving students the necessary skills to exist in modern day society.  Technology, such as Learning Management Systems, will allow our teachers to reach more students quickly, efficiently and safely.

One cool aspect of multi-platfrom/ transmedia approaches is the opportunity for young readers to engage, explore and find entry into reading via numerous portals. Options continue to present themselves daily, via a myriad of distribution mediums, both online and off. Folks like Patrick Carman, as publishers, content producers, writers, and directors in their own right, are plumbing the tech to see where it leads them.

Some facets that come naturally with traditional paper book are:

• Permanence, Finality and Privacy.

Of course that means that ebooks might offer:

• Mutability, and Social/Collaborative Reading and Writing.

1. Permanence: Electronic data-storage may be theoretically longer lived than a physical paper copy.  However, ask yourself which is more likely to survive 40 years of disinterest by humanity: a bound book, or a data file?  The extra effort to create a physical copy guarantees a lifespan measured in decades or even centuries, even without making copies.
2. Finality: Be it justified, accidental or malicious, electronic copies are easily subject to change.  Even if we rule out malicious changes, opening up a work to endless revision by it’s author may not be a good thing for either the work or the author.  On the other hand, the printing of a physical copy draws a line after which making changes is difficult, and can’t be done lightly.
3. Privacy: As it stands, both reading and writing are things largely done in private.  The buck both starts and stops with a single author, and readers are exposed only to their own opinions as they read.  Currently, most ebooks operate no differently, but the potential is there to add social aspects at both ends.  Authors can release drafts or chapters as they write, and take feedback into account as they continue.  Readers can use commenting/bookmarking functions that come with their reading platforms.  Many sites are even set up to facilitate shared readings (and discussion) to multiple readers at once.

Looking at these differences in sum, it seems like ebooks could be migrating towards comminicating in ways more like natural human communication - continuously, never finishing, always subject to revision, just like life.  As was said in the documentary,Ebooks have no back cover - they are literally open ended.

I can’t help wanting to use math words - ebooks could make writing a continuum, while paper books come out in discrete, final finished works.

Perhaps the continuous, stream-like qualities possible in ebooks, we’ll find the medium more pleasing with it’s closer resemblance to the stories of our lives.  The don’t end (until they really end of course).

But there is a place for the Permanence and Finality that paper books naturally offer.  We learn most of our academics from books whose content has changed little in hundreds of years.  Making something permanent and final also adds incentive to get it right.  I will re-read this text maybe once before I post it because it is “only” an electronic blog-post.  If I were to commit the resources required to put this post into a physical form, I would let it stew in my mind, subject it to more revision and planning… I would naturally spend more effort if I knew the end result would be final.

Luckily - a point that’s seldom mentioned - we are likely considering an “and” and not an “or”.  Because of the advantages they inherently offer, I don’t think paper books will become obsolete (and the cliched fearer of change in me is secretly glad).  But I’m also looking forward to seeing where the changing medium might take us, and glad I’ll get to choose which to participate in each time I feel like reading.

Another exciting year for the publishing industry is in the books, so to speak. The ebook and digital publishing landscape changed drastically yet again. In 2012, Amazon and other retailers gained control over ebook pricing at three major publishers, ebook revenue growth hit an inflection point, and a parade of non-book-publishing companies entered the ebook business.

Nobody saw it coming. Well, almost nobody. A team of publishing experts predicted in late 2011 some of the astounding developments we saw in 2012 for Digital Book World. See their original predictions here.

Seeing as though 2012 is just about over, we’ve gathered more publishing experts to predict what extraordinary events are to come in book publishing in 2013.