Does eLearning Work? It's Time to Put This Question Behind Us. Does eLearning work? The question has been carefully analysed and a reliable answer has been found. The answer is “yes”. It is now time to use this new knowledge as a foundation, and begin asking the next series of important questions. Maritime Training : The full library of maritime training articles can be found here . Blog Notifications : For notifications of new maritime training articles, please follow this blog . Maritime Mentoring : International Maritime Mentoring Community - Find a Mentor, Be a Mentor Does eLearning Work? As a former academic, I have always been taught to look at any new information with a critical eye. Knowledge is Power (and Progress) This is the current situation in some parts of the maritime industry surrounding the question of whether eLearning works. To that end, this article will revisit the topic of whether eLearning works. Let’s start with some quick answers and then present some of the most compelling evidence. Does eLearning work? About The Author:
All your favorite things, side-by-side. Do Universities Think Online Education is the Future? 179 Flares Twitter 39 Facebook 104 Google+ 15 LinkedIn 21 inShare21 179 Flares × Changing Course: A New Report on the State of Online Education Recently Babson Survey Research Group, Pearson and the Sloan Consortium collaborated on the publication of a new report on online education called Changing Course: Ten Years of Tracking Online Education in the United States. The report gives a picture not only of where online education was ten years ago and where it is now, but where this transformative method of teaching/learning may well be headed. The Data Below is an infographic that I made—my first ever thanks to the wonderful folks at easel.ly. From the Students’ Perspective Five million more university students in the United States were reported to have taken at least one online course in 2012 than in 2002. It’s Not Just About Courses, It’s Online Programs Too Issues of Quality and Student Participation Faculty Skepticism What Worries Traditional Faculty The Moment of Transformation
Our Three eSteps to Lasting Behavioral Change by Mukta Raut “In order to keep the training relevant and fresh in the learners’ minds, we worked on bringing training close to the task. We developed a strong repository of job aids that learners could use in the field. These aids included checklists, diagram configurations, and do’s and don’ts on how to respond to customers. This way, there would be constant reinforcement of the training.” These are demanding times for eLearning courses. The course must: Meet an ROI threshold Make valuable use of learners’ time Disseminate information on subjects ranging from hard facts about policies to the softer aspects of customer service Change learner behavior, improving their performance on the job A case study Changing behavior, in the best of times, is tough. The client is a large energy and public utility company. Work Area Protection –where workers learn how to execute maintenance projects on roads efficiently and safely. The strategy We took our design approach from Switch by Chip and Dan Heath.
Why Big Data, Not MOOCs, Will Revolutionize Education Massive open online courses, or MOOCs, are hailed as a new innovation so disruptive for academia today that they will do to higher education what the Internet has done to newspapers or what Napster did to music. There's only one problem with this bold hypothesis: It's simply not true. Don't get me wrong, online learning will fundamentally transform higher education, bridging distances and creating access in ways that have not been possible before. But, in this arena, MOOCs are not a transformative innovation that will forever remake academia. That honor belongs to a more disruptive and far-reaching innovation – "big data." Big data in the online learning space will give institutions the predictive tools they need to improve learning outcomes for individual students. [See a collection of political cartoons on the economy.] Imagine how such knowledge can be used to give instructors the necessary intelligence to directly address a student's learning style or deficits. [See the U.S.
Mobile Learning Supports Global Health by Inge de Waard “As the population in Europe and North America gets older, and as the population in the developing world continues to grow, health becomes all the more crucial for sustained, happy living. Luckily, mobility is all around us and we, as developers and training managers, can make a difference in achieving this goal. Optimized health quality is always something to strive for!” Affordable mobile devices, access to wireless networks in much of the world, more mobile lifestyles, and the demand from employers for increased availability of workers are changing the world. Human performance receives significant support through mobile devices, including training, management, guidance, and reference material. One of the fastest-growing areas of mobile technology application is health, so much so that GSMA (the Association of the Groupe Spéciale Mobile) refers to this area as “mHealth.” Let’s begin by looking at mHealth overall. Why is mHealth growing so fast? mHealth diversity and requirements GSMA.
Leveraging the E-Learning Advantage in Healthcare by Peggy Salvatore In e-Learning, as in most corporate learning modalities, we are singing the same old song: no time, no money, and no interest in training. But wait! This time it’s different! So, how does a healthcare learning professional capitalize on the advantages we have today to help build tomorrow? You can do it easily with the technological training tools we are already using. Leveraging the time Hospitals, medical offices, clinics, and long-term care facilities find themselves downsizing and right sizing, just like most other businesses in this economic climate. In an economic downturn, it is inevitable that people have less discretionary income. Healthcare is not immune to the downturn. Effective training increases the productivity of remaining staff. Train now. Leveraging the money Stimulus money abounds, especially in healthcare where $19 billion is circulating in the system to bring electronic health records online across the country. Leveraging the interest You already know how.
Research for Practitioners: When It's Not a Knowledge Problem by Julie Dirksen “If you are trying to change a particularly challenging or important behavior, you can consider first-person active experiences as a tool in your instructional design toolbox, even without access to a virtual-reality environment.” For me, the most interesting instructional design challenges are the ones where it’s not a knowledge problem. If simply giving people information resolves the challenge, problem, or opportunity, then that’s pretty straightforward, and we have a lot of tools to use for that. I’m most interested in the situations where the person knows the right thing to do, but doesn’t do it for some reason. One of the interesting theories is the idea that people can know something intellectually, without believing it viscerally, and that can impact their behavior. Can visceral experiences change behavior? Cutting down virtual trees The study looked at the result of learning about the negative impact on deforestation of using non-recycled paper goods. How’d the two groups do?
Putting Out Fires, Part 4: Setting eLearning Standards by Jennifer De Vries & Joe Ganci “We all follow standards, whether we realize it or not. If we can document the standards that we used in each project, then someone who comes after us will be more likely to revise our courses in the intended style” In part 1 of this series, we discussed 10 questions to ask before you start to modify someone else’s eLearning project. In part 2, we discussed what to look for once you open the files. Jennifer De Vries & Joe Ganci's 4-part article on picking up someone else's eLearning project In this article, the final one of the series, we’re going to switch gears and talk about eLearning standards. Why have standards? Most courses follow a set of standards, whether they are documented or not, even those developed by one person. When someone has to revise another developer’s course, if standards are not documented, then during revisions they will likely be missed. What kind of standards should we have? There are five types of standards for eLearning development projects.
Marc My Words: Back to School (Killing and Reigniting the Learning Flame) by Marc J. Rosenberg “The only time my education was interrupted was when I was in school.”—George Bernard Shaw For this year’s back-to-school column, let’s first go back to a dark place, a place of learning nightmares … your freshman college lecture hall. But don’t worry: there is light at the end. We used to know how to learn. Like many of you, I found learning in college both a pleasant and a disheartening experience. Things generally got better as we moved on. Then we got jobs and were inflicted with corporate training. Welcome back to large meeting rooms, rows of tables and chairs, days of lecture, and hundreds of PowerPoint slides. We know better. One way to change mindsets and think differently about learning is to recall our early years of college and those large lecture halls. Table 1: Nightmares and Peak Experiences From knowing better to doing better. Okay, blinding-flash-of-the-obvious time. Do you remember the crappy courses and teachers you endured back in school?
5-Steps for Creating Effective Employee Training There can be a variety of reasons why an organization needs to create training for their employees. Sometimes it is for standard processes (think orientation training), but other times it is to ultimately change the behavior of the workforce to better the company. If you have never created training before, or are new to the field, your first stop is probably to do a Google search for a valid training design approach. As a warning, there are many out there, and they can sometimes be quite confusing and theoretical. Luckily, there are some higher-level approaches you can take when creating employee training. Remember, these process steps are meant to provide you with the framework for your particular situation. 5-Step Process 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
The Best K-12 Education Technology Blogs If it takes a village to raise a child, how many people does it take to train an educator? It’s hard to say, but 50 helping hands seems like a good place to start. In the spirit of community, collaboration and information sharing, EdTech: Focus on K–12 has rounded up 50 ed-tech blogs that we deem must-reads for the K–12 community. These blogs are a mix of voices and include blogs authored by teachers, administrators and technology vendors. This list was built in part by you, our readers. Without further ado, here is the 2013 Honor Roll: Purely Paperless We are living in a world that is becoming increasingly digital, and Montana elementary school teacher Kate Peila is a paperless girl. Read the blog: purelypaperless.blogspot.com The Daring Librarian Who says librarians can’t have fun? Read the blog: thedaringlibrarian.com EdReach EdReach strives to be a beacon of light in these changing times and “provides a platform for passionate, outspoken innovators.” Read the blog: edreach.us Getting Smart
Blended Learning What is blended learning? Blended learning is not the same as technology-rich instruction. It goes beyond one-to-one computers and high-tech gadgets. Blended learning involves leveraging the Internet to afford each student a more personalized learning experience, meaning increased student control over the time, place, path, and/or pace of his or her learning. The definition of blended learning is a formal education program in which a student learns: at least in part through online learning, with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace; at least in part in a supervised brick-and-mortar location away from home; and the modalities along each student’s learning path within a course or subject are connected to provide an integrated learning experience. What are the most common models of blended learning? The majority of blended-learning programs resemble one of four models: Rotation, Flex, A La Carte, and Enriched Virtual. Blended Learning Universe (beta) May 2013