E-learning tools and technologies
What
tools and technologies does your organization need for e-learning? This workshop
will guide you in preparing a detailed technology plan to support your organization’s
business goals and your learning objectives.
You will learn how browsers, plug-ins, servers, LMSs, LCMSs and other software
components work and how they are interdependent. You will also learn about networks,
servers, development workstations, accessing workstations, and all the other
pieces of equipment that are needed to prepare, offer, and take an e-learning
product.
This workshop is your opportunity to learn and ask questions about the hardware
and software needed to author, offer, and access e-learning.
You will learn to:
- Identify the types of tools necessary to support specific business and
learning goals.
- Research and evaluate candidate tools and technologies.
- Incorporate industry standards to safeguard your investments in technology.
- Cost-justify major system purchases.
- Avoid being fooled by fast-talking sales representatives, slick brochures,
or staged demos.
- Integrate e-learning technology with other corporate systems and policies.
- Develop a technology plan that specifies the tools and technologies needed
and how they will work together.
Length: 2 days
Taught by: William Horton
William Horton helps people make the transition to e-learning. His books include D helps people make the transition to
e-learning. His books include Designing Web-Based Training,
E-learning by Design,
Getting Started with Online Learningtingbook.aspx">Evaluating E-learning, Using E-learning, and E-learning Tools and Technologies. He also created www.DesigningWBT.com, and designed a network-based knowledge-management system. William Horton is a registered Professional Engineer, an MIT graduate, and served on ASTD's E-learning Certification Commission.
Base price: US$9,000, inside North America, for 25 students. For customization
and variations, see our classroom
training overview.
Who should attend?
This workshop is for chief learning officers, training managers and executives,
human resources managers and executives, information technology managers, and
others responsible for e-learning initiatives in their organizations, especially
those involved in selecting, justifying, and integrating e-learning technologies.
It is also for training supervisors, empowered team leaders, and others who
want to participate in decisions about e-learning tools and technologies.
Technical people will learn about the business and political issues surrounding
choosing tools and technology. Business managers will learn the terms and concepts
necessary to speak “technicalese” to their IT staff.
What does this workshop cover?
In this workshop you will prepare a comprehensive technology strategy custom-tailored
to the business goals and constraints of your organization. This workshop will
guide you in making the key strategic decisions necessary to identify, justify,
evaluate, and integrate tools and technologies for e-learning. We will answers
questions such as:
- What is e-learning and what technology does it
require? What are the different
forms of e-learning and what technology does each require? How do I decide
among dozens of categories and thousands of products?
- What do I really need? How do my business goals and my role determine what
tools I need? What technologies are needed for developing, assembling, and
offering e-learning? What can I outsource?
- What technology do learners need? What combination of browsers, viewers,
and players do learners need to take e-learning? Can I control what learners
use to take my e-learning? How will learner’s choices of technology
constrain my e-learning designs?
- What hardware and network resources will I need? What types of computers
and networks are needed to create, offer, and take e-learning? Is my network
fast enough? What do I do when the information technology department says
no?
- What do I need to author e-learning? What tools will my organization need
to create and integrate the media needed for e-learning? How do I set up an
efficient workflow? How can I convert PowerPoint slides, Word documents, and
other existing training materials for use in e-learning?
- How do I support online collaboration? How can conferencing and communications
systems make e-learning as interactive as the best classroom training? What
collaboration capabilities are needed for e-learning? Do I need a dedicated
conferencing system or service? Should I purchase a virtual classroom system
that integrates many separate capabilities?
- Do I need a learning management system? Will a LMS make my training efforts
more efficient and effective—enough to pay for the system in this lifetime?
- Do I need a learning content management system? How is a LCMS different
from a LMS? How can it help me create reusable learning objects? And what
exactly are reusable learning objects?
- What standards should I follow? What are AICC, SCORM, IMS, IEEE-LTSC, and
the rest of the alphabet soup? Which apply to what I do? How do I build standards
into my requests for proposals? Into my e-learning products? And what about
quality standards, such as ASTD’s e-learning certification?
- How do I justify purchases? How do I calculate the costs, benefits, and
return on investment for e-learning tools? How do I convince my management
to fund the project?
- How do I avoid getting bamboozled? What are the two magic words that stop
technology salesmen and zealots in their tracks? How do I see through slick
brochures and staged demos? Which vendors will be in business a year from
now? When should I just wait for prices to drop and products to evolve?
- How do I integrate e-learning into my organization? How must e-learning
tools integrate with enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management,
and human resources information systems?
- What the L is XML? XML is just for geeks, right? What does XML do for the
organization? How can it help me meet regulatory requirements?
How will I learn?
When you enter the classroom, you will be entering a hype-free zone. Your instructors
have no brand loyalty and receive no stipend from any vendor. They will present
a panoramic catalog of the software and hardware you and your learners will
need. And, they will suggest specific techniques to evaluate and choose them.
Variants and customizations
We can adapt the basic workshop to better fit your specific needs:
- Base major activities on your materials (+ $1000 USD).
- Use your materials as examples throughout (Call for price).
- Critique your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
- Base workshop on a critique of your work (+ $4000 USD).
- Redesign your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
- Video-recording for replay by other members of your department (+ $4000 USD).
- Follow-up Webinars (+ $1000 USD per 90-minute Webinar).
- Hands-on computer exercises using laptop computers or a computer lab. (Call for pricing and requirements).
What else will I receive?
Besides the knowledge and skills you acquire, you will receive:
- Access to spreadsheets for calculating the benefits return on investment,
network speeds for e-learning technologies.
- A copy of the book E-Learning Tools and Technologies by William
Horton and Katherine Horton.
- Worksheets, planning forms, and resource lists.
Audiovisual requirements
To successfully present this course at your location, we will need the following:
- Computer screen projector with 1024 x 768 NATIVE resolution. Some
projectors can project 1024 x 768, but only by stretching or shrinking the
output to a different scale. These projectors will not work.
- Speaker and amplifier for computer sounds. Must be able to take output
from the computer's stereo-mini plug.
It would be nice to also have high-speed Internet access for showing live examples. We will need to get through your routers and around your firewall.