Course Admin Information
Putting course admin information online makes it easily accessible and readily available.

There was a lot of admin information (location maps, timings, agenda, etc) that was sent via e-mail prior to attending the course.  As this was a personal piece of training for me the information was sent to my personal e-mail account which does not receive the same level of attention (largely thanks to my social life being conducted on facebook) as my business account.  Inevitably it got lost within the masses of updates, personal e-mails and junk mail I receive.  A series of follow up e-mails met the same fate with only a last minute panicked telephone call eventually saving the day.

Background Information
Making background information available online pre-course frees up valuable face to face time in the classroom

A lot of day 1 was spent covering child protection issues which is a critical part of the training.  This raised a number of questions which needed further discussion and input from the training consultant.  Sharing the background information on this topic pre-course would have freed up valuable face to face time

Post-Course Reading
Further recommended reading and handout support provides the learner with access to additional information if they feel they need it

Again, taking the subject of child protection this is not something that can be covered in an afternoon session.  It is a huge and complex area but one which is critically important when working within schools.  As someone who is a Reflective learner further recommended post course reading would have been invaluable to me.

Learner Forum
An online forum where learners can stay in touch as they progress with their learning experience back in the workplace can reap huge rewards

I’m a people person and like to stay in touch with interesting people I meet.  Facebook and Co have made this process much easier and of course I have connected with some of the people who I met during the training through this medium.  However, connecting with them in an online environment specifically designed for the training I attended would have encouraged us to share our experiences back in the workplace.

Now you could argue that all of the above information could have easily been sent by e-mail and you’d be quite right.  However, collecting all of this information in a dedicated online portal would give a richness to the learning experience that e-mail just couldn’t replicate.

iTunes U brings together a whole range of educational resources (including lectures, videos, films) which you can access through the iTunes store.  You can download the resources and organise them as you would your music library making them easy to use and completely mobile.

Here’s a quick overview:

• Differentiating yourself in the marketplace. As anyone who has worked as a freelancer knows, the training marketplace place can be very competitive.  Anything which can enhance your portfolio and provide a richness to your offering is a benefit.  Providing e-learning courses to your customers can help you achieve both of these things.
• Generating additional revenue from traditional classroom based projects. In today’s difficult financial climate tools to help you generate additional revenue has got to be a good thing.  E-learning can not only enhance the learning experience for the participant but can also increase the revenue potential for you as the training consultant.
• Providing the ability for a faster roll out. One of the key issues which can face freelance training consultants is a lack of time.  By using e-learning as part of a blended programme, you can push the learning out to the participants faster without being restricted by for dates when you can schedule in face to face training.
• Enhancing the learner experience. Done well e-learning can enhance the learner experience by increasing retention, allowing learners to work at their own pace, acting as a source of continued reference, addressing different learning styles – the list is endless.

All of the above depends on an e-learning programme which is relevant, engaging and contains rich content.  A key part of this is to ensure that the subject matter expert is at the heart of the development process.  ClickClass has been specifically designed to make it easy for training consultants to author, deliver and manage their own e-learning content.  We handle the technology so you can handle the content.

Fastforward a couple of decades (give or take a few years) and E-learning has advanced enormously.  The days of wading through glorified PowerPoint slides are (or at least should be) long gone.  Instead today’s e-learning puts the learner at the heart of the process giving them the opportunity to tailor their own e-learning experience by being:

http://www.lindsayabbottvoiceover.com/2011/02/audio-and-the-e-learning-industry/

One great source of opinion and advice comes from the groups on Linkedin.  They are made up of people who have experiences (good and bad) of e-learning, work in that field or are simply interested in the subject.  They provide good, honest feedback and advice and when I wanted an opinion on who I should be listening to in the e-learning marketplace, Linkedin was my first stop for suggestions.  Here’s the list that they came up with (the comments on each one are from the person that suggested the blog):

Jane Hart at C4LPT – a great blog and source of information

Guy Kawasaki – not just elearning, but learning with technology, instigating change, big picture

Karl Kapp – great info on gaming, Second Life. Karl is a great practitioner. He doesn’t just write about it, he lives it.

http://lrnchat.wordpress.com/about/ a place for people interested in the topic of learning who use the social messaging service Twitter to learn from one another

Patti Shank author of the “Online Learning Idea Book” and a very talented and knowledgeable consultant in the field

http://blog.cathy-moore.com/ Cathy Moore author of the blog “Making Change”:  and many entertaining yet informative presentations on making meaningful yet engaging elearning

Marc Rosenburg comes to mind because he is moving forward in mLearning.

Colum McAndrew has a technical writing background.

Richard MacManus of www.ReadWriteWeb.com

Clark Quinn

Now, I can’t tell you whether or not these blogs are good, bad or indifferent.  That, as a reader, is for you to decide.  What I can say is that all of these people are out there, getting their opinions heard and are being read and rated by other likeminded folk.  Over to you!

PS:  I would, of course, like to add ClickClass to that list and hope that you will to!

1. Start with the basics.  What are your learning objectives?  What are you trying to achieve?  Don’t be too ambitious here, one or two points covered well are much better then five or six points covered badly.

2. Who is your target audience?  Really important.  You need to ensure that your e-learning is developed to appeal to them (obviously).  Use of language, various types of media and recognisable visuals can all help in participant engagement with different groups of learners.  As with the development of more traditional learning interventions keeping an eye on learning styles is also important.

3. Know your subject or enlist the services of someone who knows the subject.  In our experience in the rapid e-learning development arena what works particularly well is a learning professional (ideally with instructional design skills but not a show stopper) working in partnership with a subject expert.  That way you have someone ‘protecting’ the learning experience and someone ‘protecting’ the validity of the content.

4.  Consider assessment.  As with any learning programme, it is important to provide some way of checking the learner’s understanding.  So you should consider some kind of assessment, usually in the form of a series of questions to be completed after each module or at the end of the course.

5.  Development within the context of your broader training strategy.  E-learning should never be developed in isolation.  It needs to fit within your broader training strategy or plan even if that simply means recognising where the link points are between the e-learning and other learning interventions you offer.

6.  Getting your learners ready for your e-learning.  It is important to think about how you are going to ‘launch’ your e-learning with your learning population.  However are they going to engage with it?  How are you going to introduce it to them?  What is  your proposed communication strategy?

All of the above may sound pretty basic, particularly to someone who has been operating in a more traditional learning environment.  However, each step is important and should be considered fully when developing e-learning within a rapid development environment.

If you are looking for more input you may be interested in attending our free half day workshop.