Issues in the Different Elearning Online Dimensions

All elearning online features must be designed to help students understand and comprehend the lessons they must take. It must help them achieve their learning goals, however, I believe it also true that not every one is suited for this type of learning and this can also be attributed to the different issues in various dimensions of electronic learning.

The first dimension of virtual learning is of course the institutional dimension. This involves the character and the flexibility of the trainer or other teachers that takes part in the electronic course if there is one. I would ask myself, are the instructors, tutors and as well as the technical staff available during the online sessions? I should know if they hold discussions well despite the big differences in culture and background. I can attest to the fact that most online teachers of today can not handle such circumstance wherein there are racial differences in the students.


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The next is the management and technological dimension. This discusses about the nature and flow of the electronic course itself. Can it the course handle various activities? What tasks can it do and how many students can it accommodate simultaneously? The problem the most students, like me, encounter today is the slow notification from the course. This is partially due to the time differences of the students involved in a session since most programs are assigned to give instruction, examination and key answers at two or three designated time slots only. I know this would also deal with the broad descriptive aspects of the course such as its resources, design and evaluation of the whole subject during the end session.

The pedagogical and ethical dimension deals with the method of teaching and learning applied by the course or the teacher. Does the course provide a clear direction? Am I informed of what I should do at every part of the whole subject they are taking? Would it contribute to my behavior or only the methodical part of learning? The issue with this is that the ethical influence of elearning online is weak, partly to blame for its lack of physical connection on my part. “The monitor is still just a monitor with or without faces in them,” so to speak.

LiveMocha Review—an Elearning Software Solutions for Language Education

After stumbling upon LiveMocha elearning software solutions for language education, I decided to give it a shot. What did I have to lose? I was interested to learn a new language, but did not have the time, or the money to commit to a traditional classroom language class. Fortunately for me, elearning gives me the benefit of learning a language effectively and easily for a whole lot less from the comfort of my own home, at a time that’s favorable to my hectic schedule.


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It was my first time to try out an elearning software solutions, and I was both excited and doubtful. LiveMocha offers you a lot of languages to learn, which I appreciated. There are 35 languages in all to choose from. After much deliberation, I decided to take up Nihonggo because I used to study it back in college, but had to drop the class because I was falling behind in my major subjects. I took this as an opportunity to finish what I started and learn something I’ve always wanted to master ever since I was younger. Another great thing about LiveMocha is the user-friendly interface of the interactive courses. I kind of expected computer versions of my old Nihonggo class modules which are intimidating and teetering on boring. Much to my delight, the course offers a wide array of activities. There are listening, speaking, reading, and writing activities and all of them were extremely engaging. I thought that this elearning innovation is extremely useful, especially since it offers a lot of free online content, and focuses first on the use of informal language as opposed to starting on the lengthy rules of formal sentence construction.

I haven’t completely explored LiveMocha because I’ve only started using it recently, and so far, I’ve noticed only one flaw, which is that it requires you to submit output too soon. It doesn’t give you much time to master a lesson because of the immediate evaluation.

Tips to Overcome Expertise Reversal Effect for Elearning Course Design

Normally, you would assume that a certain elearning online course design would work well for everyone and that all you have to change is the content. But did you know that a course should be designed differently for novices than for experts? After all, if you think about it, you can’t expect a novice student to learn a new skill or technique as fast and as effectively as an expert. If you reverse the situation by treating advanced students as novices, it may have a detrimental effect on their learning level. This is known as the expertise reversal effect.

The expertise reversal effect is when a person’s level of prior knowledge greatly affects or influences the effectiveness of learning materials and their content. This implies that instructional approaches that are meant for beginners will be ineffective or even detrimental for advanced students. This is based on the theory of cognitive load which states that the limitations of a functional memory emphasize the need to avoid overloading it. However, the thing is that whatever induces cognitive load in an expert is different for a novice.


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How does it happen? If an advanced learner is fed redundant information given to beginners, it could induce unnecessary cognitive load. This would distract the learner from learning new material effectively.

Here are some elearning online design strategies to overcome or avoid the expertise reversal effect:
• Allow skipping of extra steps and detailed guidance
• Use a design model that encourages independent exploration
• Provide support for informal methods of learning
• Allow students to choose the level they want to enter
• Let the student perform a specific task to determine their strengths and weaknesses

There is no one size fits all in every situation; just like there is no one perfect course or curriculum for everybody. In creating elearning online material, there has to be a set rule for more advance students so they can move and learn at their own pace.

Elearning—Review of “If Instructional Designers Ran the World”

I came across an interesting web blog that talked about what would happen to the world if instructional designers ran it. Some would think that it seems like a crazy idea, but in my opinion, it is not entirely impossible considering how far the arms of elearning have extended. In fact, elearning has become so popular that diverse kinds of industries have started to implement its use in their businesses since it provides them with the benefits of ease, convenience and inefficiency. In addition to that, there are now so many software and applications available to almost everyone from all over the world thanks to the internet. So not only has elearning gone far enough to transcend the boundaries of industries, but of nations as well.

Now, the entry was not strictly formal—that is to say, it actually came across as something quite comical. However, one cannot deny that every point is actually plausible no matter how funny it sounds. What I liked about this entry the most was how it gave insight on the simple truths behind elearning. Here were the author’s points on what would happen if instructional designers ran the world taken from theelearningcoach.com:


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(1) All highway and road signs would make sense because they would be constantly revised until they are perfect.
(2) Everyone would know their objectives because if instructional designers ran the world, the analysis and identification of personal objects would be a requirement before doing anything at all.
(3) Every device would have an instructional diagram on its surface.
(4) There would be job aids or manuals for every life situation.
(5) Statistics will no longer lie because it is not instructionally appropriate. Lying about statistics violates the ID Code.
(6) Multimedia incompatibility issues would be outlawed. If instructional designers had their way, there would only be one video format and one audio format.
(7) If children misbehave, they would be required to get online attitudinal training.
(8) Instead of saying “There’s an app for that”, people would say, “There’s a course for that”.

Can I Use Joomla for Elearning Content Management?

This question has been bugging those who want to play around with Joomla for a long time. Since Moodle is taking off as the leading LMS in the industry, many Joomla users would like to know if the CRM tool could also be used in elearning. I have a quick answer to help you guys regarding this intriguing question. In this blog entry, I tried to cover various options to answer the question.

CMS tools like Joomla can also be used in elearning content management and can be used as an LMS. On the other hand, take note that Joomla, being a CMS tool, has limitations when used for LMS purposes. It just lacks so much requirements and features that one needs in putting up an elearning content management system.


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If you are already thinking of using Joomla as your LMS, you must be prepared to add an LMS package for it to work at its best. Additional packages like that are often pricey. And if I were you, I would rather buy an LMS instead of a CRM tool that requires you to buy more packages to make it complete.

However, if you are planning on giving video demonstrations instead of text-based elearning content, using Joomla would do, but using it alone may lead to limitations in the future if you happen to consider expanding your contents.

Another option that you can consider is combining Joomla with a super LMS like Moodle. The best thing about it is that you do not have to be that techy to integrate the two. I actually found this thread on Joomla! Discussions forum that talks about steps on integrating the two but you have to be a member of the forum to see the content.

If you want to know more about this interesting systems integration, you can log on to http://forum.joomla.org/viewtopic.php?t=50643.

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Learning Management System Hierarchies

What is a hierarchy? Why use one?

Many businesses use different departments, organizations, locations, or other structures to distribute and organize their personnel. And when fitting their users into a learning management system, they’ll want to use corresponding hierarchy information, to allow the system to manage how it distributes reports and other training information. For example, a franchised business may use a location-based hierarchy, with one section for corporate-owned stores and another for private franchises. Or a global business may want to manage, and report on, user training by country, city, facility, and department.

Based on user positions in a hierarchy, learning-management-system reports can show certifications achieved by country (at a higher level in the hierarchy) or department (at a lower level in the hierarchy). In the same way, hierarchy-based reports could list transcript results by franchisee or store.

Each hierarchy level can also have an administrator for that level: by store, by department, by function, and so on. Administrators at each hierarchy level and location can receive permission to enter, edit, deactivate, and otherwise manage users within their level and location.

Similarly, reports for each hierarchy level can be generated by users with “reporter” roles in their levels, as well as by higher administrators. For example, to determine who still needs to finish training, store managers can generate reports of how many people passed, failed, or did not finish courses over a selected period of time. These reports could also show who achieved what grades, to help store managers see who still needs to recertify in required skills. Such reports also allow administrators higher in the hierarchy than store managers to see how well the store managers are handling their training responsibilities.

Who’s got the rights?

Another item that must be decided prior to implementing a learning management systems hierarchy is which operational rights you want to grant at each hierarchy level. You may allow only system administrators to enter new user profiles into the LMS. Or you may let only site administrators edit user profiles, assign job roles, and authorize users to take courses.

You also may want to allow some managers at the lowest hierarchy levels (and at levels above them) to run certain reports, but not to administer users in their levels. Instead of making these managers “level administrators,” you could make them “level reporters.” In a typical hierarchy, “level reporters” are associated with specific locations and users in the hierarchy, and can only run reports for these locations and users. Their access to administrative functions is restricted.

Remember that learning management systems hierarchy is a way of organizing and managing the training of your people. It requires some thought. The business rules that you establish for your LMS hierarchy must mirror your organization’s framework and your e-Learning program’s goals and objectives. For this reason, there are many different ways to organize, implement, and manage organizational training, including by online “campuses,” training facilities, classes, user “monitoring groups,” and required job roles, competencies, and learning events. We will address these other groupings in subsequent articles.

Get Ahead Of The Recession With Elearning

Today everyone is aware of the recession and it has become the topic of discussion everywhere. The most hit by the global recession are the students and young professionals who are trying to make it big, but losing hope in the current situation. But-everything is not over yet. You don’t have to be disheartened. It may not be possible for everyone now to make huge investment in their academics, keeping in mind the market trends now, then what do the students do? Well!! In such a situation elearning is a solution and is fast becoming popular among the students and job seekers. Studying in these web based training courses ( as they are popularly known) is easy and hasslefree. The most important factor in e-learning is that your investment is very less. Since everything is available online you do not need to spend any amount on the purchase of stationery and other materials that is usually done in other cases. Your considerable amount of money is spent in these course. Submission of assignments and examinations are also often held online, which adds to the convenience of the learner.

During such times of recession, traveling to foreign lands or even different states maybe difficult. Next comes the residential charges, course fees, purchasing of books etc, what does a student do? With elearning, you don’t need to spend a dollar on such things. You need a computer with an internet connection. Once you login to your website, you enter a whole new world of studies and books. Everything is available online. Training material is prepared by the experts who know how to explain even small details to a student who is studying at a distant place. The courses and study materials, websites and hyper links provided in the online computer training videos, encourages the students to brush up their skills and know more in the process. The online training videos are the best ways to explain some intricate details which may appear a bit confusing to the student.

Most of the elearning modules make implementation of many kinds of learning styles for the student who is trying to learn from a distant place. The students are encouraged to learn on their own, through self help. These computer based trainings are not only suitable for students and freshers but are also considered to be best for the professionals who are already working in some establishments, and are in serious needs to brush up their skills. Usually working professionals do not have the time to spend time to visit classes to learn. Under such circumstances, such web based training provides them the opportunity to access the study material as per their convenient time and duration. E-learning modules are specially prepared to take care of these professionals who wish to battle such times as recession, which is currently looming over the world. So, if you have lost hope in the current situation, you can think once more, whether you should update your skills or let the recession have a negative effect on you.

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As the Darwin’s theory of the survival of the fittest is the order of the day, more and more people are getting inclined towards looking for training and certification opportunity to upgrade their skills and knowledge. So with the growth in the Information Technologies (IT) field and advancements in the world of technology more and more people are in a lookout for new computer skills and accommodating to the needs of the employers in the IT field. In the recent past IT has been a fast growing area of expertise. So to keep pace with the advancement a lot of IT training courses has been developed.

The most important thing of these training programs is to get a clear understanding and view of your needs, identifying the utility of the program and to fit all of these in the suitable budget fitting once pocket. Whether there are training programs to meet the information technology needs or you are looking for basic skills in different types of desktop software or you undertake the soft skills training, there are myriads of options to choose from. These training modules are packages in such a way that these turn out to be actually beneficial for the takers. The unique selling point of most of these courses is that these are video based training courses with simulations and various ways in which e-learning is made beneficial and for the trainee and doing away with the need of attending classroom training. There are lots of CD format training, online computer training courses and online computer training videos ensuring that understanding has been passed till the application level. This virtual training method has been picking up quite fast and has been quite popular among professionals. The biggest attraction being that the course teachings can be molded and altered as per a person’s convenience and time availability. Now changing your career graph and mending you success chart is simplified by these training providers and skills up gradation gives you the competitive edge over your colleagues or even your peers for that matter.

The online training programs are suitable for all, whether it is a small business owner looking to increase his productivity at work, corporate training manager looking for complete e-learning solution to meet the organizational requirements or just an individual having a desire to gain competitive edge through enhanced technical and career skills, there are training courses for one and all. In the constant race to gain success it has become quintessential to keep pace with the dynamic business requirements. As competition at the skilled manpower forefront is quite high we end with what we began, we are led by the Darwin’s theory of survival of the fittest. Most of these training courses are offered for a nominal fees or purchase price, so in that perspective as well the packages offered for online training courses is quite lucrative and attractive and also not creating a whole in the employer’s or individual’s pocket. Now this time! Take charge of your career and acquire skills and put out your best foot forward to ensure that you are not just always in the race but always at the helm of it as well.