eLearning Design and Development

July 22, 2015

Factual Questions In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know

The famous author, Mark Twain, once said “Get your facts first, then you can distort them as you please”. As eLearning professionals, it is our duty to give our learners the facts, and to ensure that they comprehend these facts, so that they have the power to apply the information in whatever way they wish. In this article, I’ll explore the types of factual questions and how you can use them to gauge learner progress, improve knowledge retention, and build cognitive thinking skills in your eLearning course.

by Christopher Pappas

July 22, 2015

Teaching About Plagiarism In The Online Classroom

How do you help students understand, and avoid, plagiarism? Teachers have reams of tutorials and steps to take to avoid the trap of plagiarism, but many students tune out the advice. I’ve had some success getting students to understand plagiarism in the online classroom by using a short video that illustrates do’s and don’ts by example.

by Oliver Hedgepeth

July 21, 2015

Typography In eLearning: 5 Key Tips For eLearning Professionals

Typography is critical for eLearning design and development; it can make your eLearning course look professional and well organized, or amateurish and sloppy. Most importantly, it affects your learners’ attention. In this article, I’ll share 5 key tips for great typography in eLearning, so that you can make sure that you use it effectively in all of your eLearning courses.

by Christopher Pappas

July 20, 2015

Who Stole My eLearning Audience?

In my experience, the biggest step a teacher makes when first engaging with online learning is the one where they understand that their eLearning audience is behind a soundproof wall! No quick classroom polls to gauge how much the group knows, no show of hands for an indication of comprehension, and no-one calling out the answer to a question on a topic about to be covered. Online content creation is a skill that teachers have to learn.

by Caryl Oliver

July 19, 2015

Higher Order Questions In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know

Multiple choice and true or false questions have their uses, but higher order questions take learning to the next level. Rather than giving simple one word responses, your learners must think abstractly and search their knowledge banks to arrive at the correct conclusion. In this article, I’ll delve into the basics of higher order questions, as well as the various types you can use in your eLearning course. Finally, I’ll give you 4 tips on how to properly integrate them into your eLearning experience.

by Christopher Pappas

July 19, 2015

Storyboarding: A Simple Way To Get Professional In Course Authoring

You will be well served by making a habit of drafting a rough scheme of the course before starting any actual work on it. This draft should outline the main pages of the course, and will aid you all the way throughout the course creation. eLearning professionals call such drafts “storyboards” and use them extensively. Let’s take a closer look at what storyboards are, and how you can use them to start building better courses in a more efficient manner.

by Michael Treser

July 17, 2015

Summative Assessment In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know

A successful eLearning experience gives learners the gift of mastery, whether it be skill sets, knowledge, or a specific task. The question is: how do you put your learners to the test in order to determine their proficiency level? In this article, I’ll present 5 different types of summative assessment and I'll reveal 4 tips for using summative assessment in eLearning.

by Christopher Pappas

July 14, 2015

How To Use Master Courses (Templates) To Deliver eLearning Faster

Under pressure to deliver more for less? Reusing elements from projects such as design, interactions, logos, look and feel, media, assessments, and content can really help you save time. Let’s look at how you can use Master Courses to create eLearning themes that will allow you to reuse these elements over and over again.

by Li Whybrow

July 13, 2015

12 Tips To Create Effective eLearning Storyboards

A storyboard is a map that guides eLearning professionals through every twist and turn of their eLearning course design. eLearning storyboards make the eLearning design and development process much more efficient, as they can not only help eLearning professionals to illustrate their ideas, but also to deliver engaging and visually rich eLearning experiences to their audience. In this article, I’ll share 12 tips that will help you create eLearning storyboards, so that you can effectively develop and communicate your eLearning vision.

by Christopher Pappas

July 11, 2015

Matching Test Items: Getting Them Right

Matching test questions present learners with two items separated into two columns and ask them to match items from the first column to the corresponding items in the second. The number of items in the first column does not necessarily have to match that in the second - it is totally possible to have more items in the second column than in the first one.

by Michael Treser

July 10, 2015

The Art Of Giving Feedback In eLearning

Have you ever seen feedback to a quiz of an eLearning module consisting of only one or two words? I have seen many courses in which “Bravo!” or “Wrong answer” were typical responses to all learning efforts for completing a challenge. Such an approach is definitely a bad practice; in this article I will discuss the 3 roles of feedback and how to give effective feedback in eLearning courses.

by Marek Hyla

July 7, 2015

Formative Assessment In eLearning: What eLearning Professionals Should Know

Diagnostic assessment in eLearning can determine what a learner needs to learn BEFORE the eLearning course, though summative assessment gauges knowledge mastery AFTER the eLearning course. But how do you track learner progress in between? In this article, I’ll present 6 different types of formative assessment and I'll share 4 tips on how to use formative assessment in eLearning.

by Christopher Pappas