In recent years, Massive Open Online Courses, also known as MOOC, have become popular. Let’s take a closer look at the MOOC education. First and foremost, MOOCs offer people an opportunity to take quality courses, further their education, and achieve goals without having to pay thousands of dollars. Since MOOCs can be taken openly by anyone who has internet access. They are mostly asynchronous. Most MOOCs are broken into 5 minute segments followed by multiple choice questions. Because many learners find this style boring to say the least, the average dropout rate is about 90 percent. While most MOOCs are not interactive in nature, truly motivated learners can obtain the needed skills, which allow them to move up the career ladder or get a step closer towards a higher-paying job. Some of the leading universities including Yale, MIT, and Harvard are now offering MOOCs in all areas ranging from Literature, Medicine, and Business, to Computer Science. While most of these MOOCs are … [Read more...] about To MOOC Or Not To MOOC?
The ELearning Course Designer’s Blog
Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Part II
In this post, we will continue talking about Subject Matter Experts. Effective communication plays a crucial role when dealing with SMEs. Just like everyone else, Subject Matter Experts have busy schedules. Sometimes, they are not even part of the team and have many other on-the-job responsibilities. Instructional Designers should ensure the SME’s time is not wasted with multiple meetings and meaningless questions. Prior to the meeting with the SME, some preparation work must be done. The goal is to get quality content, not to waste the SME’s time by asking rudimentary questions. Researching the topic before the meeting to become acquainted with basic concepts and terminology can help instructional designers achieve that goal. Meetings with SMEs will be much more productive if instructional designers inform them of the goals and objectives ahead of time. It is also helpful to prepare questions and send them electronically to the SME. Then, if there are additional questions or … [Read more...] about Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Part II
Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Part I
Sooner or later all instructional designers end up working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Since most instructional designers are not familiar with the subject area for the eLearning course they are creating, the client is typically responsible for selecting the SMEs. During the project-planning phase, project managers should provide a description of what is expected from the SME in terms of expertise and experience. The project manager should also describe in detail the SME’s responsibilities, including expected meetings and document reviews. In the project plan, the project manager should document the risks associated with having an SME that does not meet the described requirements. Subject Matter Experts should be aware of all the expectations. The role of an instructional designer is to design courses while the role of an SME is to provide expertise in a subject area. SMEs should not be expected to arrange content in order. Often, SMEs provide either too much or too little … [Read more...] about Working with Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). Part I
How To Script Your ELearning Courses
In this post, I want to talk about scriptwriting. Scripts are written to be heard, not read. Therefore, the writing style should be conversational. To add a conversational tone to the script, consider using contractions (e.g., isn’t instead of is not) and pronouns to make your eLearning content more personal (e.g., you instead of learner). If, in the script, you use word combinations that are difficult to pronounce together, the talent may have a hard time reading them, and learners may have problems understanding what they hear. One way to avoid tongue twisters is to re-read the script multiple times and make relevant changes to wording and grammar. ELearning courses should address multiple learning styles and meet accessibility requirements. When your learners hear the audio recording, they should be able to tell when the topic is changing. To achieve this goal, instructional designers should check their script for appropriate transitions. Another good practice for scriptwriting … [Read more...] about How To Script Your ELearning Courses
3 Effective Ways To Prototype ELearning Courses
In the last post, we talked about storyboarding. In this post I want to get into prototyping. While storyboards are very useful for visualizing a course, they only work well for linear courses. Because many eLearning lessons are non-linear, storyboards can be rather confusing to both SMEs and programmers. Sometimes it is excessively difficult or even impossible to describe all the interactions, non-linear navigation, scenarios, simulations, and other media-rich content in words. Storyboards do not always allow to fully capture all the nuances of the design, especially when it comes to games and interactions. Therefore, many instructional designers turn to rapid prototyping to develop an interactive model of their eLearning course. In addition to all the information found in storyboards, prototypes contain the overall course layout including buttons and navigation. There are three prototyping styles: Nonfunctional prototypes – Do not have any functional elements but still have … [Read more...] about 3 Effective Ways To Prototype ELearning Courses
4 Elements That Should Be Included In Every ELearning Storyboard
Storyboards are visual organizers that illustrate and communicate ideas to other professionals on the team. ELearning professionals use storyboarding as an aid to develop instructionally sound courses and learning materials. Instructional designers often use multiple storyboards and choose the appropriate one based on their need. For instance, the template used to design a game or simulation would be different from a template for video development. Most storyboarding templates are created either in Word or PowerPoint. Even though there is no single unique way to storyboard eLearning courses, there are certain elements common to most storyboards. These elements include the following: Content – This section contains the on-screen text as well as the instructions for learners such as Click Next for more information. Audio – This section contains the narrator’s script for each screen including the pronunciation of terms and acronyms that might be unfamiliar to the narrator. … [Read more...] about 4 Elements That Should Be Included In Every ELearning Storyboard