Nowadays, there are so many rapid eLearning authoring tools on the market that selecting the best one is often challenging. At the end, it comes down to personal preference, but the following tips can help you make an appropriate selection. Make a list of functionalities important to you - As you “play” with authoring tools, see which software best meets your needs. If you are unsure, you can always call a vendor and ask questions about the required features. However, keep in mind that vendors are salespeople whose ultimate goal is to make their piece of software standout among the rest and lead you into purchasing it. Therefore, always double-check the information provided by the vendor by asking people already using the tool about their experiences. Figuring out what’s important to you should always be your first step. As you evaluate each tool, you must know what you are looking for. Consider prioritizing your list by placing the must-have features on the top of the list and … [Read more...] about How To Choose ELearning Authoring Tool That Meets Your Needs
Designing Games For ELearning: The World Of Gamification And Virtual Reality
In this modern time driven by technology, instructional designers and eLearning professionals have constantly explored virtual worlds as an effective medium for education. Since virtual worlds provide synched interactions between individuals and the environment, they are considered a powerful eLearning tool. Furthermore, users can easily customize virtual worlds to make them even more effective for online education. People play games because they are fun and engaging. Games take players to an imaginary world where they take challenges or win over opponents. Instead of just viewing games as an effective way to pass time, they can be viewed as learning events. In a game, learners can achieve high scores by taking on challenges, they are able to take different roles, as well as experiment and see the results. Gamers are also able to express feelings reflecting on certain situations. Training professionals often offer games to introduce a new learning topic to raise the learners’ … [Read more...] about Designing Games For ELearning: The World Of Gamification And Virtual Reality
How To Avoid Cognitive Overload When Designing Training Courses
Memory is the key concept when dealing with learning. When we are trying to learn something new, we store the information surrounding the concept in the working memory. Once in the working memory space, we begin to process the information. Unfortunately, memory is not infinite and its capacities varies from person to person. This means that some people are able to remember more items during a learning process than others. However, the working memory may in fact be overloaded. Cognitive load theory was first described by G.A. Miller. He stated that there is always a limit as for how many ideas we can hold at a time. He supported his theory with an experiment that showed that people may retain “seven plus or minus two digits”. John Sweller developed cognitive load theory or CLT. This theory applies to all learners and delivery methods. There are at least three main types of cognitive load: intrinsic, extraneous, and the germane. The intrinsic load is determined by instructional goals … [Read more...] about How To Avoid Cognitive Overload When Designing Training Courses
How To Use Generational Learning Styles To Design Training Courses
Throughout the years, the transmission of knowledge from one generation to the next has been vital to keeping our civilizations alive. From the Greek schools in which the professor would profess or recite his knowledge to the students to ELearning, the methods have clearly changed a lot. From the various methods and learning styles, perhaps the most popular one is the traditional method. This ideology follows the precept that the students should simply listen and memorize what the professor is teaching. Moving on and trying to leave traditionalists behind, progressive ways of teaching appeared in the scene to revolutionize the way we teach. A lesson with progressive tendencies tries to involve the student in the class. The learner should be an active learner rather just a listener. What it proposes is that students use critical thinking and solve problems on their own. In this method, it is favorable to use alternative resources instead of textbooks and the traditional … [Read more...] about How To Use Generational Learning Styles To Design Training Courses
