The way a course for elearning online looks affects how well content is communicated to the learners. The reality is that looks do matter, even in education because as a whole, students tend to equate a badly designed or unprofessional looking course to something that is not worth taking. The implication is that it is highly likely students won’t be interested enough to take the time to listen and pay attention, let alone learn effectively. This calls for the need to pay close attention even to little details such as choice of pictures and even fonts.
Fonts are important visual design elements that have the power to grab audience members on a deeper level and at the same time reinforce the message being communicated. However, unlike other elements like pictures and clip arts, stylized fonts are harder to replicate for and integrate into course designs. Another difficult thing about fonts is that sometimes higher-ups tend to lean towards traditional, pre-approved templates and styles. This makes it harder for instructional designers to add personality to the course and grab the attention of learners without breaking any rules. To apply fonts in a course for elearning online, it is important to remember to set the tone well, find the right font with the right personality and audition chosen fonts before committing to or finalizing a design.
Right Tone – The right tone will help create a course that connects with learners on an emotional level. More often than not, breaking style rules are overlooked if font selections are used in a proper tone of delivery. To do this, the designer must think of it as a graphic element that must be used strategically. To determine the kind of tone that’s most appropriate for the audience, it is advisable to get to know the learners. Read more...
EDUCATION: EDUCATION: EDUCATION (BUT HOW?)
‘We don’t need no education; we don’t need no thought control.
No dark sarcasm in the classroom, teachers leave them kids alone.
Hey! Teachers! Leave them kids alone!’
So goes the lyrics from the classic Pink Floyd song Another Brick in the Wall Part 2 (R. Waters)
But we all know that we do need education, and not just during our school days but throughout our lives.
In the world of project management this is just as true as any other work area. Just because you have your Prince2 standard or your PMP certificate or your IPMA certification or any such evidence of achievement this does not mean that you should stop learning or improving your skills.
Some of this can be done through experience; working with others and observing their good behaviour, or through understanding your own performance on projects through lessons learned.
Some can be and should be achieved through more formal methods of training. There are many benefits of project management training that you should exploit in order to become the best project manager that you can.
Continuing your education is proof of your involvement in your own future. By taking courses or seminars, you are showing your interest in growing, not stagnating. Putting in the effort to attend a course, seminar or conference takes planning, research (what and how are you going to study, and why), and dedication (attend, listen, think about, and come away with something).
The beauty of continuing education is that you can choose to improve your skills in a number of different and interesting ways: you may choose a formal qualification which will require you to attend classes at a university or other form of education institute and to write exams. Read more...
Making good eLearning courses is a developing art. As a trainer, your goal is to make the training memorable. As you design the course, you must design not only the “what” (or content), but also the “how” (the delivery mechanisms). Integrating funny quiz (like “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire”) into eLearning course is an easy way to capture the attention of learners and make your course memorable. Learners will interact with key concepts for your course quickly.
A funny quiz can energize almost any content and produce powerful new understanding for your learners. Funny quiz promote learning – more than revive tension, it creates opportunities for the learners to “interact” with the quiz so as to demonstrate learners’ understanding of the course. Many benefits would funny quiz holds to course:
Funny quiz entertains learners with a purpose Funny quiz gives learners valuable feedback Funny quiz givse trainers feedback Funny quiz motivates learners Funny quiz accelerates learning process
So then, there comes into the question: how to integrate the right funny quiz into your course? Let’s take a look at the following steps.
Step 1 – Identify your course objective.
Which objective you want your lesson to achieve after training, please take careful consideration. Specifically, what skills and knowledge do you want your learners take from your lesson. Then think about it how the funny quiz will help the learners meet the course objective.
Step 2 – make the course plan
After determining the objective, what you should do is making the course plan according to the course objective. Analyze and list the task you wish to cover in your lesson plan. Supposing you are going to explain the details about swine flu in one lesson, you list would look something like this:
Lesson objective for swine flu knowledge: learners will be able to master the details about H1N1 flu.
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Today’s competitive job environment has different requirements than the past. Now enterprises require more than a four year degree in the specialized area. A person has to have additional skills and a well rounded personality to be successful in any career. With rapid technological advancements happening everywhere; a little bit of technical knowledge is also important. People can gain an edge and acquire some degrees or add some knowledge, by doing any of the online courses which are offered these days.
Whether its is computer skills, soft skills, software skills, there are a range of training courses offered today which can help you to acquire job related skills or other skills. Distance learning or elearning is one of the most effective ways to add value to your resume. It is becoming very popular these days.
Elearning also involves online training or learning apart from computer based learning.
For online learning to take place, the user is only required to have a net connection and a web browser. The users can just log in and begin the training.
For IT professionals it has been a boom, as one can gain knowledge and remain updated in this very dynamic field even if he is working full time. The main advantage of online training over other conventional classroom training is that it saves traveling time which is a major concern for people who are working. Students or new job seekers can go for a number of training courses that are offered like networking, database skills, and certification training courses. These and many technical can give a boost to your career in IT.
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Elearning is growing in popularity everyday. Companies are able to utilize it for corporate training solutions among many other uses. It has also been a great boon for the academic industry. One can find all the benefits of elearning online everywhere. However, there are not many who would admit to the disadvantages of electronic learning. Here is a list of both the advantages and disadvantages just to show a more balanced perspective.
Time Element
Cons
Students as well as trainees will be subjected to time pressure when going through most courses. However with elearning, an entire syllabus is further shortened. Therefore, one of two things can happen. Either the syllabus is crammed into a whole online course or lessons are shortened and some are cut out. The latter is most often what happens. This of course can affect the quality of a course.
Pros
The advantage here is that online learning will be a lot more practical. A lot of electronic courses can be finished at one’s own pace. Although it may take longer for some, the fact still remains that in this fast moving business environment, practicality takes precedence over everything.
The Stress Element
Cons
There are many conveniences to electronic learning (which will also be discussed later). However, despite all of these, there is also a stress element. Students and trainees often turn to elearning online because they already have a full plate and they do not have enough time to go to traditional classroom type of education or training. This means that most electronic learning trainees and students are exposed to a significant amount of pressure and stress which can lead to lower performance in either work or learning. Read more...
