Learning Management: eLearning Landmines

Defusing Landmines in eLearning Projects
Notes from #CETS11 - Chicago eLearning and Technology Showcase

There are many ways eLearning designers and developers can prevent potential project "landmines". In her keynote speech, Jennifer DeVries outlined several "landmines," as well as tasks and tips to prevent them toward helping keep your eLearning project a success. Some of these tips are as follows:

** Test authoring tool and delivery platform (LMS) early in the process, preferrably on target audience computer.
** Schedule SME meetings, and set time expectations early and often.
** Compare scope to status regularly (i.e. course length, content, media).
** Build several revision cycles into your eLearning plan; base the number of revisions on the number of reviewers.
** Use a project tracker to gauge deliverable stages, and budget vs. actual hours.

The document accompanying the presentation, eLearning Scoping Questions, can be found here on the CETS11 Slideshare page. This document outlines 5 questions to ask your client in order to set the project scope and expectations prior to all your hard work.

These 5 areas are:
1) Stakeholders/ Owners and Results Needed
2) Previous eLearning Projects and Expectations
3) Target Audience and Course Delivery
4) Existing Content
5) Course Development/ Production

Reference:
DeVries, J. (2011) Defusing Landmines in eLearning Projects. Keynote Address - http://chicagoelearningshowcase.com/

Learning Research: Innovations in eLearning

Personal Reflection Exercise:

What does it mean to be innovative?
How does innovation apply to education in the U.S.?
What are the attributes of innovative ideas and persons?
What elements make an innovation successful?

Here are some great examples of current and future innovations in learning and training:

Personalized textbooks with the Utah open textbooks project
The future of mobile technology: Nokia HumanForm
The future of business at Microsoft in 2019
Personal Learning Environments at Coldwell Banker University
Mechanic training using Augmented reality at BMW

Learning Design: Writing Learning Objectives

Learning objectives can also be referred to as behavioral, instructional, or performance objectives, but in any case, a learning objective refers to an observable behavior or performance as the outcome of learning.

Learning objectives contain 3 components:
1. Condition - specify the circumstance, command, material, or direction given to initiate intended behavior
2. Behavior - Action desired (always a verb!)
3. Criterion - declarative statement to describe how well the behavior must be performed to satisy intent

Bloom's Taxonomoy (as seen below) is used to classify instructional activities based on their level of difficulty and is a great reference tool for writing learning objectives.

Here are some commonly used verbs for each of the six levels, listed in increasing order of the level of thinking skills required:

Knowledge- Define, Memorize, Repeat, Record, Label, Specify
Comprehension- Summarize, Describe, Explain, Identify, Translate
Application- Solve, Simulate, Apply, Illustrate, Exhibit
Analysis- Interpret, Compare, Categorize, Investigate, Discover
Synthesis- Plan, Imagine, Produce, Design, Predict
Evaluation- Judge, Assess, Measure, Conclude, Criticize

Resources:
NERC(2007) Guide to writing Learning Objectives. Retrieved from: http://www.nerc.com/files/Instructional_guide_writing_Objectives.pdf

Photo: http://www.odu.edu/educ/roverbau/Bloom/blooms_taxonomy.htm

Learning Tool: AdeLE

Adaptive eLearning with Eye-tracking

Adaptive eLearning is a hot topic right now. Perhaps you have heard it referred to as adaptive training, intelligent tutoring system (ITS), or cognitive tutor, but in any case, adaptive eLearning is a learning system that intelligently adapts learning content to suit learner needs via a computer.

To learn more about adaptive learning, there is a great video and adaptive learning samples posted on the Adaptive eLearning website at UNSW.

In this post, however, I would like to take adaptive eLearning to the next level and advocate for the use of real-time eye-tracking in combination with the content-analysis tracking used by basic adaptive eLearning systems.

Lead by a research team in Austria, a protoype for Adaptive eLearning with eye-tracking is being developed. It is aptly named "AdeLE".



Resources:
Pivec, M, Trummer, & C. Pripfl, J. (2006). Eye-Tracking Adaptable e-Learning and Content Authoring Support. Informatica, 30, 83-86

Al-Khalifa, H.S. & George, R.P. (2010) Eye Tracking and e-Learning: Seeing Through Your Students' Eyes. ELearn Magazine, June 2010.

Gütl, C., Pivec, M., Trummer, C., García-Barrios, V.M., Mödritscher, F., Pripfl, J., & Umgeher, M. (2005). AdeLE (Adaptive e-Learning with Eye-Tracking): Theoretical Background, System Architecture and Application Scenarios. EURRODL 12-05.