Monday, 17 February 2014

It’s Time for Diverse Learning! Read the Change

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What is biggest present we have received from technology? Well, my answer would be a smaller world filled with wonders. Really, it is an amazing tiny world where we reach people, earn degrees, buy wardrobes, and consult doctors sitting at home only through a few clicks. The way technology has changed our academic and professional experience was unpredictable even a few years ago. Workers solve customer issues sitting in a car, students finish their assignments lying on sofa; no matter how hectic your work schedule gets or how huge your school curriculum is they fit smoothly in your pocket and you move easily working on them. Technology that made schools and offices available on phones and gadgets has introduced customized earning and learning system where people perform on their own terms.


A Different Way to Knowledge:


Bill Sheskey, a Teacher-Educator and a Technology Specialist advocates for the evolving educational environment in her book Essential Education for a Changing World. She says that students entering classes today are far different from what they were sometime earlier. The teachers of 21st Century realize that they require a changed environment as the generation today is capable of gathering more information faster than the other ones. So, learning institutions today rely more on vibrant equipments and playful procedures than big text-books and tedious lectures. Students today learn via video conferences, webinars, online forums, designed lessons, and exciting apps – for the entire world it’s time for smart learning.


In a changed world of education, you are offered better atmosphere as it endorses…


Faster and Easier Solutions: Students with the facility of internet have access to huge information. Only through a few clicks learners today get thousands of data in a moment. Education delivered through internet helps the students learn more effectively supported by the huge collection of supplements. 


Learning at Convenient Pace and Space

Learning, these days have become really enjoyable as people are allowed to learn on their own terms. They design their courses and create learning routine according to their convenience. Education no more requires you to run after a ticking clock, you can set it in line with your preference.


Several Opportunities:

Gone are the days when you missed lectures as you missed a class; and struggled badly to understand further chapters. Video instruction has solved the issue. You can hear to a lecture whenever you want and keep repeating it as long you don’t get a hang of it.


Technological Tools for Education:

Technological intervention is a major event in the history of education. The exciting learning tools enhance your reading and writing skills by helping you to manage information, to make notes quickly and easily, understand and review performances. These tools even help you to get tips from specialist and remain posted about current events of the world. 


More Engaging Atmosphere:

Education today has come a long way from tiresome monologue. Today, it involves vivid activities and delivers knowledge through vibrant dialogues between peers and educators. This very fresh process of learning is supported by wikis, journals, blogs, and various forums. Education in recent times in collaboration with internet has made learning a social event.

Academic aspirers have always wished for a convenient education system that will not require people to abide by hundreds of rules. And it feels good to say that the time has come. Learning today is no more designed in accordance with intuitional norms but tailored to suit the learner’s preference. Students, who didn’t like sitting on the same bench, meeting same people and turning pages of that fat text book have different option to choose this time. The changes occurring everyday confirm that going back to school is not going back to the same rules. 

Thursday, 13 February 2014

How To Design A Good E-Learning Course?

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E-learning is growing so popular all through the globe that almost every day we see many new projects initiated by the prominent educational institutions. The success of e-learning programmes is chiefly due to the lucid and simple design of curriculum and enormous flexibility one can enjoy around his course curriculum. All-round simplicity marks the huge popularity of e-learning in every sphere of learning.

Another factor playing vital behind the wide acceptance of e-learning is its lucid course content. People expect their e-learning courses to be very easily fit around their lives. So, the course content of e-learning programs must be kept as simple and user-friendly as possible. Equally important is the mobility and compatibility of online technologies that are employed in delivering course content. They should be always easy to handle and easy to access.

Let’s focus on some of the tools that can be best used to design e-learning courses:

Choose the perfect LCMS

Your wrong selection of learning content management system can take you to a trouble zone. You will have problem in integrating instructors, content tools, student comprehension and many more things. So, be absolutely careful choosing your LCMS.

Ensure your LCMS’ compatibility with MOODLE and other LMS

If you want a smooth and undisturbed process of online learning you must ensure the compatible integration between your LCMS and other LMS products.

Take careful measure in text properties

Your text content must be easily legible to the audience, so take special care of typographical characters and font sizes. You should give perfect format to your text content as well, so that everyone feels attracted to go through them.

Keep your content design attractive

Attractiveness is a vital issue in grabbing the attention of your audience, so you must design your course well-designed and well-composed.

Understand your target audience

Understanding the taste and need of your audience is essentially important to make your course successful. You need to have deep insight about the requirement of your audiences to see your course successfully going.

 Inspire participation

Every technical as well as pedagogical measure may turn fruitless if you cannot inspire your audience to actively participate in the learning process. Offer chance to external participation from different area of knowledge, as well, to enrich your curriculum.

Remain up-to-date with content authoring tools

Although it is pretty tough to make extensive use of all your tools at once, initiatives must be there to keep tabs on tools at newsletters, popular blogs, magazines and other prominent websites. You will get many good resources of potential audiences through these measures.   
    
Offer a free trial

Free trial ensures trust from the audience’s part. Once they become sure of the quality of the course content they will spontaneously jump for it. So, do not hesitate to offer free trials. It actually shows honesty from a course provider’s side.

Get more expert faculty

Expert faculty are the life of any course content, so be always enthusiastic to get more expert faculty for your e-learning course, who can deliver the best possible knowledge to your e-learners.


There are endless issues where you can continuously improve on the quality of content and mode of teaching-learning. We have discussed some of the basic issues here, following which you can successfully conduct a good online course.