Simulations make learning experiential as the learner is actively engaged in the process. They provide“real-life” situations to learners in which they can connect with a platform and experiment with different options. Simulations can be used for technical training such as software training or for helping an employee to learn about the correct procedure to accomplish a task.

We at CommLab handle four different levels of courseware development services. The instructional strategies used to engage the learners are different at each level. Level 1 courseware is simple with minimal learner interaction. Level II courseware refers to courses which focus on simple skill development which may be achieved with very basic animation or simulation with very limited complexity. However, level III courseware is very interactive with extensive practice sessions or complex self-assessments which could involve more than 20 steps. Advanced simulations fall under this category of courseware. Broadly speaking, you need to make sure of the following while reviewing a simulation that is part of an eLearning course:

• A simulation should map to respective learning objectives.
• Every step should be explained, perhaps through callouts and the learner should have enough scope to go through the steps to perform the action.
• Ensure that the screen is not cluttered with text.
• An introduction page should be given for the Watch, Try and Do scenarios, along with the respective instructions.

Simulations can enhance the learning experience of the learners. However, quality analysts need to make sure that they are effective in providing the required learning experience. You could check out some of our previous blogs that provide checklists and guidelines for the quality assessment team in different scenarios such as the watch scenario, try scenario and do scenario.

Related posts:

1. QA Checklist for Assessments in Simulation-based Courses
2. Developing Simulations for the Watch Scenario
3. Ensuring Effective TRY Scenarios in Simulations

Lectora is a very user-friendly authoring tool, used to develop rapid, highly engaging and interactive eLearning courses. What is good about it is that it is not a plugin but an authoring tool that is self-contained and functions independently. It may appear to be complex for a novice, but once you are familiar with the interface and tools, you will be surprised at the extent to which you can customize your eLearning course.

The main advantage of developing courseware with Lectora is that it does not require programming skills such as HTML, CSS or Javascript to develop the courses. If you have creative designers in-house Lectora provides all the features where they can put their creativity to good use. The latest version C.6 has a tool that makes it even easier for designers to create online courses such as websites or presentations.

eLearning courses developed and published in Lectora are supported by multiple browsers and can have multi-lingual support. With a publishing option in the newer version, it is easy to prepare material that is compatible with section 508. All video controller buttons can now be read by screen reading software. There is also another feature where one can check if all images and buttons have alt tags.

One of the biggest benefits of using Lectora is that it has highly customizable Templates, Interactivities and Quizzes. It comes with additional tools such as an image editor, audio and video editor, making you less dependable on external software resources such as those provided by Adobe.

It is also very easy to integrate and control flash interactivities through Lectora. Lectora also makes it easy to publish content in dynamic html which may be the limiting factor in other authoring tools. Lectora delivers all formats of eLearning such as SCORM, AICC, which can run successfully on any learning management system that complies with the required standard. No additional programming is required.

Most developers feel that Lectora has a very low learning curve and an average instructional designer or developer can get comfortable with using the tool in less than a week. In short, Lectora scores high on the fact that it is easy to develop a course that is compatible with all industry norms and it is easy to integrate existing content in any format such as ppt, swf or images.

Related posts:

1. Customizing Table of Content Easy with Lectora
2. Tips on Using Lectora for eLearning Courseware Development
3. Pros and Cons of Articulate Studio ‘09, Lectora, and Adobe Captivate

Simulations would be incomplete if the learner is not tested on the knowledge he/she has acquired. The DO scenario provides such an opportunity. Here, I would like to share a checklist to assess the simulation quality of the course developed for the DO scenario.

DO Scenario:

• 1) The Intro page should inform learners that as they practice performing the actions, they will also have an opportunity test their knowledge.
• 2) Instructions are not to be given in advance , but learners can d be provided with hints or feedback when they perform wrong steps, until the right action is performed.
• 3) Learners can click “Restart” to begin the activity again.
• 4) The course should allow learners to return to the previous Watch and Try activities to consolidate their knowledge and go back to the DO challenge.
• 5) The ‘Hit’ area of each button should be correctly given.
• 6) The hint step should be given exactly where the learner has to perform the action.

• 7) Each page should have an intro step given to intimate the learner on what happens when an action is performed.

• 8) Once the task is completed, an alert window should get displayed with a message “You have successfully completed the task. Click Next to continue”.

It is important to ensure that the learner knows what to do in case he is stuck. Instructions should be clear so that he is not frustrated. If you have any further suggestions please do share them with us.

In our earlier blogs, we talked about checklists in the WATCH and TRY scenarios – you might want to take a look at them as well.

Related posts:

1. Developing Simulations for the Watch Scenario
2. Ensuring Effective TRY Scenarios in Simulations
3. Watch, Try & DO (WTD) Approach for Simulations

Lectora is an authoring tool that is popular because it is user-friendly and can be used to develop rapid, interactive and engaging eLearning courses. It is also popular because of its highly customizable Templates, Interactivities and Quizzes. Here, we would like to introduce the manner in which an Audioscript can be customized through Lectora.

In the given example, we added additional actions to the buttons “INDEX” and “SCRIPT”. On clicking the Index button, the table of contents is displayed and on clicking the Script button, in the same place, the Audioscript is displayed.

Please download the PDF file by clicking on the link below, for a step-by-step instructions on customizing an Audioscript in Lectora.

Download PDF

Related posts:

1. Customizing Table of Content Easy with Lectora
2. Using Lectora to Build Custom Functionality for eLearning Courses
3. Steps to Customize Rollover Component in Lectora

For those who have good technical skills, Lectora offers many features that can be customized. One such feature is the ability to customize the final quiz in an eLearning course instead of using the default final quiz.

In this quiz, we created our own questions and presented the layout changing the ‘look and feel’ to suit the client’s specifications. Our client also requested for a customized “Summary Page” at the end of the Quiz, displaying the number of questions given and the correct and incorrect answers. A completion status was to be sent to the Learning Management System, based on the passing grade. We were to control access to the certificate based on the score secured.

So how did we set up this interactivity? This was a little more complex than other interactivities, because we needed to use variables for each question to store the score of each question and add conditional action to control the navigation and force the learner to complete the question to proceed to the next question. At the end of the course, we needed to set up other actions to calculate the number of correct/ incorrect answers and the total score. These additional actions would send the score and completion status to the Learning Management System to track the Quiz data.

Click on the link below to check out the step-by-step instructions to the method adopted.

Download Pdf

Related posts:

1. Checklist for QA Process at the Storyboard stage
2. How to Customize the Questions Functionality using Variables in Lectora?
3. Using Lectora to Build Custom Functionality for eLearning Courses

Lectora is being increasingly used in eLearning development. The fact that it is easy to convert Microsoft PowerPoint presentations into eLearning course makes it even more attractive. Apart from that, content developed using Lectora can be published into a wide variety of formats such as HTML, exe files or in CD-Rom format. Let’s look at a few best practices that help in maximizing the benefits of this tool.

Instructional design: We recommend that instructional designers keep the following tips in mind when using Lectora as the authoring tool:

• Do not use images with large file sizes. It is best to break them into several images to avoid slow loading.
• Text on images should be separated from the graphics. They should be typed separately in Lectora. This will help in easy localization.

File Management – Below are a few suggestions for managing files:

• Configure the auto save option available in preferences to suit your individual requirements.
• At the time of development, manually take back ups of the course files.
• Remove unused resources using the Resource Manager. This will reduce the file size.

Development: Here are a few guidelines for development.

• Avoid unnecessary actions to avoid complexity.
• Group related objects together so that it becomes easy to add actions.
• If large-sized videos are used in the course, adjust the quality accordingly for quick download.
• When using variables, trace them using a dummy textbox if you want to see the value of the variable.
• It is best to create your own variable naming convention. This will help in modifying them easily.

We hope that you would find these recommendations useful. If you have anything to add to these tips please do share with us.

Related posts:

1. How to Customize the Questions Functionality using Variables in Lectora?
2. Adding Effective Interactions with Lectora [Click on Tabs]
3. How to make Lectora Courses Compatible to Cross LMS?

If you are planning to develop an eLearning solution, based on the kind of courses you need, you will have to evaluate whether your training need can be best met by ready-to-use or off-the-shelf content – or whether you need customized content. Let’s define these terms.

Ready-to-Use Courses: is off the shelf courseware that can help meet some part of your organization’s learning needs. These courses are deployed from the LMS.

Custom Courseware: is organization-specific content. You can use authoring tools to build internal capability of designing and developing your own custom courseware or outsource it to eLearning specialists.

Based on the deployment option you choose, you can decide if you want to develop this content in-house or whether to outsource it to content development vendors. Alternatively, while examining your existing ILT materials, you might want to see which of the courses are best suited for a blended learning approach and proceed accordingly.

Related posts:

1. Do you Build or Buy? Questions in the eLearning Context
2. Are you Ready for eLearning? – Do you have CONTENT?
3. Defining the Initial Scope of an eLearning Solution

The world is changing real fast, complex information is all over the place and software technologies are developing at warp speed. All businesses are successfully implementing the use of software applications for their work to the fullest extent possible. They are willing to shell out a significant amount of money to implement software solutions, and an equal amount simultaneously on the required software training for their employees. To achieve this, companies are increasingly using eLearning.

Among various trainings, software training through eLearning is one of the most challenging jobs as everything has to be as realistic as possible. The end users of the software/ application should understand concepts by using the developed interface. To meet these challenges, many simulations (through tools) are extensively used. Simulations enable end users to perform an action in a virtual environment, which simulates the live environment. The use of these simulations makes it very easy to understand the actual applications and build the required end-user competency.

There are specific authoring tools for developing simulations for software training such as Articulate, Captivate, Camtasia, Viewlet and many more. Each of these tools has a specific purpose and serves a specific need.

A few tips to keep in mind for the development of simulations:

• It is important to keep the interactivity for the user as real as possible.
• Each step in the process should follow the watch-try-do approach.
• A rich graphic interface has to be used for the user to be engaged.
• High-end applications require detailed steps on how to open, modify and close the files (formats).
• The simulation should give the learner the opportunity to experiment and observe the corresponding result.
• The course should include demonstrations that are close to real scenarios.
• Simulations should be repeatable so that user can replay any step.
• Embedding simulations in role-plays is a strategy that can be used for scenario-based simulations.
• High-skilled professionals are required for developing simulations as the effort and money that goes for it are valuable.
• Practice sessions should be in-built into the course for the learner to gain confidence on using the application.

The ability to develop simulations is an advanced feature of eLearning development tools. Simulations must be presented in such a way that they can be integrated and interacted with at the level of each course module. The objectives of simulations are to help end-users avoid serious mistakes while handling the applications and thereby avoiding losses for the business. Apart from this, they provide a great learning experience and hence they are gaining increasing demand.

Related posts:

1. 7 Reasons Why Online Training Solutions are best for Software Applications
2. Software Product Simulation – Captivate or Flash?
3. The Unique Benefits and Limitations of Adobe Captivate

As we are entering into a new year, I thought of having quick review of the most appreciated blogs in the year 2009. The list represents some of the most interesting and active learning topics.

Training Needs Analysis: To Skip or Not to Skip is the Question

Usually, training needs are identified during an annual performance appraisal done by HRD. These needs are handed over to corporate training to initiate involvement to address them. The needs are classified and collated; training calendars drawn; training budgets projected and so on. Most line managers want the training to be delivered yesterday! There is always a dearth of time, resources and money, which makes us think twice before we jump into a full-fledged analysis. So, the question is when can we skip and when can we not?

How can you learn, unlearn and relearn?

There is so much we unlearn without much effort. Knowledge not often revised, skills not regularly practiced and beliefs shattered by contradictory experience are all day-to-day examples of unlearning. But what about a situation where person’s knowledge, skills and beliefs serve him well and is therefore reinforced? How can he unlearn them in the face of a superior learning, which will serve him better?

Singular delivery environment for instruction (i.e. class-room only) versus a blended delivery instructional environment – when to use them?

In today’s technology and availability of multiple delivery media days, we are tempted to use a blended approach (more than one medium of delivery) to deliver training. In corporate training, many a times, singular delivery method is enough to do the job. Before we zero down on the criteria for selecting a delivery environment, let us know more about the typical singular and blended learning environments.

Sage on the Stage or Guide on the Side?

A leader motivates, envisions, inspires, communicates, cajoles, reprimands… so does a teacher. A leader is driven by his ego. Who among us can deny the thrill of self-gratification when we stand in front of a group and lead them? So, why belittle the ‘sage’ in us? On the other hand, how much of empathy does trainer need to relate to his flock? Does being a ‘guide by the side’ depend upon the kind of learners, the trainer is dealing with? Or are we just donning the role of ‘guide’ only to mollify the egos of learners? What exactly we mean by ‘facilitating’ learning?

Learning Styles and Instructional Design: Do they go hand in hand?

Kolb’s learning theory introduces us to four distinct learning styles (or preferences), which are based on a four-stage learning cycle – learning by feeling, watching, thinking and doing. My question is how practicable or feasible it is to try and accommodate various learning styles while designing a course, be it classroom or online?

How much of ‘Entertaining’ is advisable in Training?

We know the humor is an extremely powerful force, sometimes even life saving (Anatomy of an Illness, Norman Cousins).We tend to agree with Elliott Massie when he says that every great classroom-based class that he had attended contained humor and laughter. Off hand, we agree that positive humor will help establish a climate conducive to learning, reduce stress, aids retention of information, breaks down barriers between facilitators and learners, and foster cohesiveness. But the question is how?

Sales Training in a Classroom or Online?

Sales Training can comprise product knowledge, sales procedures & reports and selling skills. We have been developing sales training courses for automobile major in Europe, with market presence in Europe and Asia. During the development, we realized that this client company is using a blended approach by addressing certain aspects of training via online delivery and certain others in the classroom. What do you think? Is eLearning or online mode of delivery suitable for selling skills training?

Software Product Simulation – Captivate or Flash?

Software product training using authoring tools like Captivate or Adobe Flash is an effective mode of eLearning. Screenshots of the software acts as a raw content for developing an online course. The learner is taught on how to use the software by creating a simulated environment. The effectiveness of learning can be enhanced by using audio. Both Captivate and Flash can impart training. Let’s see, which one is more suitable.

What Are The Real Elearning Standards?

In the eLearning field, we usually come across SCORM/AICC as the standards to which the courseware should adhere to. But how far are these standards learner-centric? Are these standards impeding learning?

How to market social media as a learning tool?

How do we ‘market’ the use of social media as a new tool or avatar of learning? First, are we sold on it? Many of us have mixed experiences and opinions about using social media in an organizational setting to learn and improve workplace performance. I think I find blogging and LinkedIn more useful than Face book or Twitter. I am sure many of you have opposing views.

Wishing all a Happy, Prosperous and Peaceful New Year!

RK Prasad

CEO

Related posts:

1. Singular delivery environment for instruction (i.e. class-room only) versus a blended delivery instructional environment – when to use them?
2. Sales Training in a Classroom or Online?
3. “Which is better for Sales Training? Classroom or Online?” – A summary of 100 responses in LinkedIn

A month ago, Connie Malamed posted a discussion in LinkedIn inviting readers to donate storyboard formats to be offered as a resource to the eLearning fraternity. Many have offered the formats they were using. You can find them at the eLearning coach. I too sent a couple of them (yet to be uploaded; Connie is a terribly busy person but still finds time to maintain an extremely useful site for learning professionals like us).

That started my thinking about this fairly “low-tech” component in a high tech world of technology-based learning and corporate training. I was amazed to discover that our ubiquitous storyboard is actually an 80-year old Ancient . The humble word document that serves us in developing eLearning courseware has an interesting history. According to Wikipedia, the first storyboard was developed at the Walt Disney studio during the early 1930s for the 1933 Disney’s Three Little Pigs! I also learnt that it is used in many ways by many professions – Film, Theater, Advertising, TV, Publishing, Business, eLearning…

We at CommLab use MS Word to make our storyboards. PowerPoint is also used by some and Authoring tools by a few. But I think ‘MS Word’ is by far the most extensively used in developing online course storyboards. Connie has a very useful section, “Storyboards for eLearning” on her site for those who wish to pick up some tips.

I wonder if we can give the ol’ storyboard a ‘makeover? Can we come up with a tool that offers all the following.

• Desktop Publishing software like Ventura or PageMaker to build a tailor-made formats with ease
• PowerPoint to create some elementary animation
• Clip Art Gallery for images / photographs
• Various Assessment Components that can just be selected and populated
• Audio / Video Gallery of music, standard instructions, video clips…
• Dictionary and Thesaurus

Any more ideas?

Thank you for reading my blog. I look forward to your comments.

RK Prasad

CEO

Related posts:

1. Elements of Storyboards
2. Translating and Localizing eLearning to Reach Global Audience – CommLab’s Experience
3. Templates For Creating Online Courses