Happy New Year!!

To My Readers:

I hope you are enjoying this blog, and that you have a great 2009!!

Best regards, Ted

Ted Kopp
Blogger
Courseware Development Group Manager

IT Toolbox: e-learning-select group

Many of you know that IT Toolbox is a very rich and active IT-oriented community site. Among the many groups there is one devoted to eLearning, e-learning-select.

This group has many interesting discussions on it, for example, development product comparisons such as Blackboard vs. Moodle. Also, this group is in the Knowledge Management area of IT Toolbox - if KM interests you, there are a lot of other KM-oriented groups that you can join!

Learning eLearning at eLearning Learning

eLearning Learning is a very interesting eLearning-related community (surprise!) led by Tony Karrer of TechEmpower. To reach a subset of this community dedicated to Courseware Development, click the community logo located on this blog at right, directly below the About Me section.

As usual, please post all comments here - thanks!

New Tools for Learning Club

Very interesting UK-based Ning site - in their own words:

The New Tools for Learning Club works like a Book Club. Every month we'll look at 5 new, upcoming or unrecognised tools and discuss their use for education, training or performance support. The tools will either be free or free trials of commercial tools.

Check it out and comment here!

Work Literacy and eLearning Guild Update

Work Literacy's Web 2.0 for Learning Professionals is a Ning network that supports the following effort (as described on the network's Home Page) - please take a look around and sign up if interested:

Sponsored by Work Literacy and the eLearning Guild from September 29 through November 7, 2008, this network will be THE place for you to learn about Web 2.0 and how social media tools can be used by learning professionals. The goals of the event are to: * Introduce you to new tools and methods for work and learning * Discuss implications of these tools for learning professionals * Prepare you to participate in DevLearn in new ways as an attendee or as a spectator.

LinkedIn Discussions!

now has discussions within its groups! Assuming that you are already a member of the LinkedIn Courseware Development Group, go into LinkedIn, click Groups, scroll down to Courseware Development, and click Courseware Development (the group name itself).

The group Overview page appears, which allows you to start a new discussion directly. You can also click the Discussion tab - you can also start new discussion here, as well as add comments to existing discussions.

As you know, the LinkedIn group is by far our largest branch, and I urge all members of this group to consider adding useful and interesting discussion items!

Light the Fuse!

As you may have noticed, the Courseware Development Group now has 10 branches! The latest branch is on the BrightFuse network.

What is BrightFuse? It is a new business social network with an emphasis on position-seeking (it is affiliated with CareerBuilder). BrightFuse recently added Groups capability, and since the majority of my contacts on this net are eLearning-related, I created the CwDev group there.

Therefore, if you are interested in eLearning, and are looking for a new job, assignment, gig, etc. (or for someone to fill one), I recommend that you join the BrightFuse CwDev Group!

LinkedIn 50-Group Limit

Greetings!

You may have noticed that the LinkedIn Courseware Development Group membership total has temporarily started to decline. LinkedIn has imposed a rule that no member can belong to more than 50 user-created LinkedIn groups. As a result, a lot of members have had to discontinue their membership in some groups, ours among them.

To anybody affected by this (either by the above, or by being unable to join our LinkedIn group) - please do not fret! There are eight - that's right, eight - other Courseware Development groups! If interested in this subject, please feel free to join one or more of these groups - just click the appropriate link under the Group Scoreboard on this blog.

Thank You, Ted
Courseware Development Group Manager

Rosetta Stone and Video Professor

Am I the only one out there who is constantly bombarded with TV ads for Rosetta Stone and Video Professor? Methinks not:

• Has anyone out there tried either of these products? Like? Dislike? Why?
  
• Do you think of either of these as eLearning? If so (or not), what are your reasons?
• Are you developing, or planning on developing, courseware similar to either of these?

Let's get a lively discussion going here!

Ted's first Moodle course!

To the contributors to, and the readers of, this blog:

When you get a chance, please take a few minutes out of your busy day and take my first course written in the Moodle environment:

How to Write an Interesting Blogspot Post

If you are not a Moodle member already (specifically, if you are not part of Nellie Deutsch's Moodle - thanks, Nellie!!), you can register for free - you will then be directed to the course site above. The Topic Outline (Cover Page) will appear.

Please start with Chapter 1, Introduction - then proceed sequentially, or skip around (especially if you've already proceeded in sequence). When you're ready to test your skills, do the Review Exercise (Chapter 9).

Chapter 10 is the Course Forum - please leave all comments in this forum. "Version 2.0" of this course will depend on the feedback I get.

Thanks in advance for your help!!

Oodles of Moodles

Moodle is an open-source system for creating courses. I am in the process of creating a course right now - when it is ready, I will publish it and announce its location.

Click Moodle.org for more information.

Twine - 100+ Group Members!

Congratulations to the Courseware Development Twine for becoming the 2nd group to exceed the 100-member mark!

Orkut CwDev Community

The Courseware Development Community is now available for those of you on Orkut (Google's social network). If interested, please click the link under the Group Scoreboard.

Will this be a banner year for you?

Do you need to create banners for your courses? Check out BannerFans! This site has a lot of very good features, and is free (of course, read the Terms of Service for what's permitted).

As usual, please post comments here.

By the way, I created the graphic accompanying this post using BannerFans.

Become one of the Townspeople!

LearningTown is a new Ning network started by Elliott Masie, noted training expert. This network is dedicated to learning, and has many members and groups that are eLearning-oriented.

Please take a look around, and if interested, sign up! Once signed up, you are encouraged to join the LearningTown Courseware Development Group by clicking the L'town link on this blog, under the Group Scoreboard.

For more on Elliott Masie, please click this link.

Some Antics are Better Than Others

I (along with a lot of others) am currently beta-testing Twine, a new network which, to quote their site, is "powered by semantic understanding".

Again, per their site, "Twine automatically organizes information, learns about your interests and makes connections and recommendations. The more you use Twine, the better it understands your interests and the more useful it becomes.". For a good definition of a semantic network, please see this Wikipedia entry.

One good feature is the group setup (groups are referred to as twines). Postings to one twine can be shared with another twine, if you're a member of both twines in question.

Please note that to join Twine, you either have to click the Register for Beta link on the Twine home page (this may put you on a wait-list due to Twine's popularity), or someone has to invite you (that's how I got in - if interested, contact me via email, LinkedIn, etc. - I have a few invites).

Last but not least, if you do join Twine, please also join the Courseware Development Twine (the link will be posted shortly under the Group Scoreboard).

As usual, please post your comments here.

Check out these groups!

Not quite "grouped out" yet? Take a look at the following groups, and if interested, join!

• Ecademy: e-Learning Club
• InterNations: e-Learning
  
• MyManagers: Leaders in Learning
  
• Stepoff: eLearn Community
  

As usual, please post your comments here.

LearnHub - New eLearning Site

LearnHub, which I recently joined, is an interesting new site for creating and publishing eLearning-related materials, including courses, lessons, and tests.

LearnHub also functions as a professional / social network - you can connect to other members, participate in forums, and join communities of interest.

Please give it a try! For my first piece of work, I created a test (Fun Test about Tests) that you can go ahead and take (access via my profile). Note that this site is not a substitute for more sophisticated tools, but it is excellent for mock-ups. As usual, post your experiences here, including anything you've created that you want to share with the group.

Have fun!

Do I Have Your Attention?

Now that I've got your attention, I'd like to discuss the subject of attention with respect to the creation of eLearning materials. Getting the learner to pay attention can be very difficult for various reasons, among them:

• Lack of interest in the subject matter (for example, a course mandated by the employer that is relevant to very few employees)
  
• Feeling that the material will be of no use to the person's job or career
• Distractions outside of work
• Lack of sleep (this one is big!)

Please post what you have done, or are planning to do, to increase the amount of attention that is paid to your courseware. Also, you may want to join the following groups that are dedicated to the subject of attention:

• Facebook: Attention Economy
• Plaxo: Ronald Wopereis - What is Attention?
  

If you know of other good links on this subject, please post them here, too.

Other Blogs of Interest

This new blog area contains links to other blogs that may be of interest to the readers of this blog. You can find this area at right, just below the Blog Archive.

Please take a look at these blogs, and post any comments here. Also, please post any suggestions for other blogs that you would like to see listed.

Are you content with your content?

Are you content regarding your content, or are you a content malcontent? Either way, check out the Content Wrangler Community.

I just joined this Ning community yesterday, and already have met several very nice people who are into eLearning development. The look and feel of the site is very good, and the membership seems quite knowledgeable. I definitely recommend this community to any of you who have an interest in content development and/or management!

Kudos - LinkedIn CwDev Group - 100+ members

Congratulations to the LinkedIn Courseware Development Group for reaching the 100-member mark!

eLearning can be fun - really!

What have you done to make the training you create more enjoyable for the learner? How do you balance fun vs. silly? How do you keep things from getting too juvenile, or too boring, for adult learners?

Please post your thoughts (including any links and graphics) here.

Industry Trends

Where do you feel the eLearning Industry is going in the short term? Long term? How is this going to affect the development of courseware? Is everything going so mobile that all courses are going to be presented on cell phones? Only kidding - I hope!

You get the idea - please post your comments here, including any interesting links.

Development Tools - Experiences

There are numerous tools that people use to develop courseware. These include Dreamweaver, FrontPage, Lectora, Toolbook, Flash, PowerPoint, Photoshop, FireWorks, Javascript, and others (as well as combinations of some of these).

Please post your experiences here, good and bad, with the tools you use, or have used.

Professional Groups and Societies

There are a number of groups and societies available for those people who are interested in eLearning. Among these are:

• ASTD (American Society for Training & Development)
• eLearning Guild
• ISPI (International Society for Performance Improvement)
• SALT (Society for Applied Learning Technology)
• STC (Society for Technical Communication)

Please click the desired link above for more information.

LatitudeU: Teach the World

is the world's first open training community where any person or organization can learn, teach or share knowledge for free or fee. We believe that everyone has something to teach and many things to learn. LatitudeU is an online community that easily brings those who want to teach together with those who want to learn:

• Take a look around
• Join LatitudeU
• Want more? Join the Yahoo LatitudeU Group

Welcome to the Blog

Welcome to the Courseware Development blog - please suggest anything that is relevant to this subject!

You are also invited to join one or more of the Courseware Development groups listed below:

• LinkedIn
• Facebook
• Plaxo
• Viadeo
• Konnects
• Xing