Universal Design Principles Checklist

The Universal Design Principal Checklist is a tool for VET providers to assess materials and communications and enhance accessibility for everyone. It was designed by the Qld Department of Education and Training. These principals apply to face to face, hard copy, elearning and mlearning design and delivery.

Roles of the e-tutor

How does an online trainer differ from a face to face one? Sorry I don't have a punch line to that one (yet), but An examination of the role of the e-tutor by Annegret Goold, Jo Coldwell and Annemieke Craig from Australasian Journal of Educational Technology Vol 26, No. 5, 2010 outlines some of the key areas we can at least see emerging in this new kind of teaching role.


What's interesting is see how much time is spent by online trainers in each of the roles outlined in the diagram above. A good exercise would be to see what roles are the most critical for learning and to find weaknesses in a team or individual that can be improved on. Although I agree that online trainers need to have skills in all these roles, in most cases the roles are shared across a team.

Read the full article here

5 'Time Wasters' or Gap Fillers for Presenters

Sometimes you need, um, how do I put this, a 'pause' between content in a demonstration or presentation. Also, most audiences get bored while waiting for you to set up your audio/visuals and the rest.

Here are 5 things you can do for your audience to fill the gaps between the real stuff, and keep them engaged.

1. Take a Poll with their mobile phones
   
2. Visualize Tweets Live!
   
3. Slide show of Meme's
4. Optical Illusions
5. Logic Puzzles
   

You Tube Channel streams subject introductions

I am currently part of a project that aims to produce around 10X 5min videos that introduce clustered units in a Youth Work course.



As you can see we have used chroma key, animation and music to create an engaging introduction to "Responding to Critical Incidence", but what really makes the video worth while is the clear content and stories that place the learner in a context. This reinforces my SCAR theory.

Our video's will be embedded into a content wiki, to provide a framework of support articles, podcasts and other media. We also host the video's on a YouTube "ymismovies" channel, which makes for easy sharing through other social networking sites.

Top 5+ LMS tips and tricks

A top 5 is usually a random list of ideas that you can take or leave, so feel free to take what you want from this random tips and tricks for managing a learning experience through an LMS. Here is my top 5.

1. Make external links open in a NEW window please, so the learner can still stay logged into the LMS and NOT lose half their work eg. discussion posts. All it takes is one click and your users will navigate away from their learning space. Let them explore a link in a new window and you will keep them happy. So always set links to "Open in New Window", or in HTML, type target="_blank" in side the link tag.

eg. Same Window or New Window

In the near future you should be able to specify opening new tabs or new windows through CSS.



2. Discussion Groups/Forums, need to have critical mass to be affective. Obvious. But how do you build a healthy level of participation from learners?.

What has worked for me so far, is making Discussion posting a compulsory part of the course. This may sound extreme, but a discussion forum without discussion is dead. Some training organisations simply use a participation point system.

The other way to keep forums alive is to give relevant, current and stimulating material for learners to talk about. Add a little spice to your topic headings, invite some controversy and/or play the Devils Advocate.

Lastly, get involved. Learners want their teachers to join in discussion and be part of the online learning experience. After all we are all learning together and it shows you actually care about what people are posting!

3. Keep it fresh and personal. Learner don't want to visit the same old looking site week after week. Add student photos, funny videos, interesting posts on your front page and in your course areas. Pick the 'forum post of the week' and put it at the top of your course page for all to see. Change the style of your page, just a little, a couple of times a year, or even better, some sites allow for custom color schemes for users. I also invite learners to contribute to blogs, and content to give users ownership of the site.

4. Keep your pages and menus simple, and don't assume just because you know where to find everything on the site that learners will too. Before we started using Accordion, and drop down style menus, our pages looked like a maze of links confusing learners and sometimes even myself. The worst course area we had at one stage, was a list of topics down a 2 meter page that had forums, links and pdf's icons scattered all over the place, and embedded video content of all shapes and sizes making matter worse. Never again.

What you want to do is break down your core course elements and only display what users need to find under clearly defined headings and sub headings. All your menu headings should be consistent throughout the site to help build intuitive navigation amongst your users.

5. Be open and available for feedback, in fact go further, and invite feedback from user on how to make the LMS experience better. Learners are more forgiving with a 'system error' error or a login issue, if they know that you are dedicated to improving your LMS for learners all the time. Plus, users are in the best position to find what works or doesn't work for them in your LMS.


+ I invite comments from others to continue this list.

E-learning VET vs HEP

Today I attended the opening of the CEIT centre at UQ, that is the Centre of Education, Innovation and Technology, at the University of Qld.

As well as meeting some Canadians, who I'm convinced are leading the world in dynamic learning content, and an old School friend, I heard some great discussion relating to the use of and future of E-learning in Educational Institutions.



What occurred to me is that open source, flexible, affordable, web 2.0 integrated E-learning is encouraged as the way forward, but HEP (Higher Ed Providers) are less able to implement these strategies than the VET sector (Vocational Ed Training).

With the emergence of closer ties between the two sectors i think this is worth exploring.

What might be the reasons for the difference in uptake? I suggest a few;

• HEP providers have a slow large administrative process, therefore change is slow.
  
  
• VET sector is smaller, run as small business and have close links to industry, so are closer to the forefront of adaptation of new technology.
  
  
• VET adapts out of necessity, to deliver externally and to stay financially viable.
  

Way Cool

Successful RTO	Emerging technology	Details of project
Charles Darwin University (NT)	E-portfolios/web 2.0 tools: "Engaging student self-directed learning through the use of e-portfolios"	The CDU trial will explore e-portfolio access issues and the use of social networking/web 2.0 tools with e-portfolios. The implications of social networking on policy and best practice; and required features of VET e-portfolio systems will also be explored.
Canberra Institute of Technology (ACT)	Virtual worlds: "Eduversal Studios – virtual worlds in VET"	The CIT trial will provide VET practitioners with strategies to develop virtual teaching spaces and practices and lower the barriers to incorporating virtual worlds into VET for teachers and learners.
TAFE Tasmania (TAS)	Video: "Technology assisted workplace training, assessment and recognition"	The TAFE Tasmania trial will use the Framework's QTImPlayer with 'camera glasses' to enable apprentices and trainees to record video of tasks to provide evidence of their competency. The camera glasses are worn by students to record their activity when doing remote workplace assessment.
Wodonga TAFE (VIC)	Mobile devices: "RFID and the asynchronous student"	The Wodonga TAFE trial will make use of RFID (radio frequency identification) technology to create a self-guided induction tour of a workshop used by metal fabrication and cabinet making students. Similar in concept to the self-guided tours in museums and art galleries, the trial team will use a combination of online, PDAs (personal digital assistants) and RFID technology to create an interactive induction journey through the department.

Modality

I made this diagram to demonstrate that we often label E-learning as Flexible Delivery; a separate mode of Training and Assessment in regards to it’s neighbours, the Class Room, and the Work Place.

I think in the future we will see E-learning solutions become ever present in all of these areas.