LearnCentrix - a place where e-Learning practitioners share, exchange, and network

Assessment and question enhancements

Fri, 30 Dec 2005 13:23:57 -0700

LearnCentrix University is adding some new features to improve the system's assessment capabilities. The following is a brief overview of the upcoming enhancements and the target release date for production implementation:

More complex scoring mechanism by allowing each question to be assigned a point value (2/24/06)

Questions will have relative weighted value
Scores will be determined by calculating total points received by correct answers divided by total points possible

Creation of 'question databases' of an unlimited number or type of questions (1/27/06)

Keyword search of question databases that return results ranked by most keywords matched
Questions from the question databases may be shared or copied into course assessments

Retaking assessments may be limited to a specific number of tries by students (4/1/06)
Sections of assessments will allow groupings of questions for randomization within question categories (2/10/06)
New types of questions will be available to assessment developers (4/1/06)

Matching
Ranking/ordering
Likert scale

Assign point values to each choice of a multiple answer or multiple choice question type (3/24/06)

Allows students to receive partial credit for choosing less than the best answer
Option for developer to disallow partial credit on multiple answer questions

Item Analysis reporting (3/24/06)

Shows each student's responses to each question and correctness indicator
Calculates percentage of students that selected each choice
Summary lines by month and quarter

Report Wizard will have new fields of raw question response data to run custom reports for item analysis (4/1/06)

We are excited to offer these new features to our customers. If you have any questions about the upcoming features, please contact support@learncentrix.com.

E-learning is just not the right word anymore

Tue, 20 Dec 2005 09:25:03 -0700

As I was clicking through the news feeds on our community, I spotted this article. In the posting, Jane Knight is attributed with this idea:

"...she lamented that people still don’t see beyond the idea of e-learning as a formal course. 'E-learning is so much more than that, it’s about collaboration, communication between learners and the sharing of knowledge and experiences…people think of e-learning as formal courses and all this other stuff as something else'. She noted that it may be a definition problem: 'E-learning is just not the right word anymore…it’s got more to do with e-working and performance support'."

Must Learning Leaders Provide Tools to Equip Sales Force?

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 15:47:10 -0700

I must disagree with an article I read today on CLO magazine's site. It says that sales reps don't prepare enough before a sales call. And somehow the make the stretch that the training department should be doing more or better to fix this problem.

My goodness! It's not the trainer's fault. It's not a factor of instructional design. I've spent a good deal of my career in some form of sales, and I can tell you that sales people wouldn't take the time if you handed them all the info on a silver platter.

This is just another case of someone thinking that training is the solution to a process or personality problem.

Webinar about blogs and wikis

Wed, 14 Dec 2005 12:15:13 -0700

Event:

Creating Learner Communities with Blogs & Wikis

Date and Time:

Thursday, December 15, 2005
10:00 am, Pacific Standard Time (GMT -08:00, San Francisco) Change time zone

Panelist(s) Info:

Bob Lee, Senior Product Marketing Manager, WebEx Communications, Inc
Steven Thiessen, Senior Project Marketing Manager, Professional Services, WebEx Communications, Inc.,
Mark Oehlert,Director, Learning Innovations, The MASIE Center

Duration:

1 hour

Description:

In this session, we'll look at blogs and wikis from a learning, design and collaboration perspective and discuss the following topics:

What the heck is a wiki or a blog?
Where can they be helpful in a learning context?
How are they most useful? (Presenting ideas, discussing opposing viewpoints, gaining group consensus, etc.)
Are they beneficial in development and design of training? Online group collaboration?
And we'll take a quick look at some positive examples of blogs and wikis at work.

All you need to attend is:

A 56Kbps Internet connection or better
A separate telephone line for the audio
Netscape 4.x or Internet Explorer 4.x + (AOL users: AOL 5.0 and above only)
Linux Users Please Note: To use the current Java client you will need to update to the latest version of Mozilla 1.7.3.
Firefox/Mozilla. Using FireFox. Click Here To Set Up
The WebEx Event Manager installed before the event Click Here To Set Up.
NOTE: This plug-in will not install if your browser has high security settings or you do not have administrative rights on your PC.

Event Materials:

None

Developing Your First Course - Quick Tips!

Tue, 13 Dec 2005 15:11:28 -0700

So you're a first time user ... welcome! If you're like most people, you want to quickly get up and running without having to spend a whole lot of time fussing with a learning curve. Me too! Which is why I'm putting this Quick Tip together. So here's your first tip:

If you haven't taken the LearnCentrix Student Orientation course - you need to! This will give you an overview of the system and then you will be set to develop your own courses. You are automatically enrolled in this course when you get your User Name and Password so there is nothing stopping you. Unless, you're like me, in which case just proceed with course development and go back later to the Student Orientation course!

e-Learning Interoperability

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:48:07 -0700

Wilbert Kraan on the e-Learning Scotland site has an article that discusses the theory versus reality of interoperability between virtual learning environments. He makes some good points, but seems a little too obtuse and academic to be useful in my world.

The article can be found here: http://www.elearningscotland.org/SnippetAccess.aspx?id=422

He talks about how open source plays a role too. Even open source communities with prototypes are insufficient to get a perfect standard. There is just too much specialty need by too many constituents. That's why I am somewhat jaded by the SCORM spec. Too many people to please; thus, a standard with too much flexibility. It can't stand up in the real information technology world.

SCORM - marketing or technology standard?

Mon, 12 Dec 2005 14:24:44 -0700

It has been about two years since someone asked me if LearnCentrix University is AICC-compliant. Nowadays, everyone is more interested in SCORM. And recently I had a client tell me that they considered LearnCentrix to not be SCORM-compliant because some off-the-shelf content that they bought wouldn't work without some tweaking.

I'm not going to attempt to defend (directly) LearnCentrix in relation to its SCORM-compliance. I would rather focus on what that truly means. Now, I'm no expert, but I have spent some time with the SCORM specs, and it appears to me that there are hundreds of ways to implement the "specification". In fact, I contend that the vast number of optional methods (programming pieces) that may or may not be implemented by either the system or the reusable learning object content make the "standard specification" merely a set of guidelines. The built-in flexibility dilutes its value.

Can Questions be the Answer?

Fri, 09 Dec 2005 17:03:38 -0700

Asking questions is something we all learn to do as children. Why is the sky blue Daddy? How does this work? If you have children, you are familiar with the routine.

But as we grow older, we tend to ask less frequently. There are probably many very profound reasons this is the case, and I'm not smart enough to understand them, however I'm certain that we don't ask questions as much as we used to.

In learning, questions are critical. As a trainer, I ask questions of my students to keep them awake. I include questions in my e-Learning to check that students are paying attention to the material. Instructional design colleagues tell me that asking questions between each topic in an online course reinforces the concepts to be learned. Makes sense to me.

How Synchronous On-line Learning Fits into an Overall Distance Learning Program

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 12:17:10 -0700

Here is an upcoming online event that is FREE and only 30 minutes. It may be useful.

Thursday, December 15, 1:00 Eastern.

Details clipped from an email announcement that I received:

"Live training via the Web is an important part of any distance learning program. Join us as Josh Bersin outlines how virtual classrooms are best utilized in the training mix and offers suggestions on how to best implement live, Web-based programs to supplement self-paced (asynchronous) and in-person classroom learning. Gain practical, usable tips to help you expand your overall learning strategy.

Online "training" tutorials

Thu, 08 Dec 2005 10:13:10 -0700

It has been my experience that most people want to learn in small, quick ways. My theory is that anytime a shortcut can be taken in life, including learning, it is human nature to take the "easy" way. If I can get a lesson in 5 minutes that answers my question and allows me to move on with my task at hand, I'll take the brief lesson and sacrifice a deeper understanding of the broader concepts - even to the point of losing any context in which the lesson exists.

There is a new website that provides short tutorials on technical subjects (more below). They are mostly nicely done in Flash. But I haven't seen any with audio; nor any with actual simulation interactivity. I looked up about 5 technical terms. All were visually appealing, however there was a lack of depth that left me wanting a bit more explanation. I learned some information and liked the quickness. It didn't make me feel like I learned enough to do anything with the information.

Corporate e-Learning eligible for Tuition Reimbursement

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:40:26 -0700

A press release for a company called Intuita last week announces that they are letting corporate employees buy online learning in their system at corporate rates. They tie this to a tuition reimbursement program. What I don't understand is how would this qualify for reimbursement. Isn't tuition reimbursement normally for universities and colleges to get an advanced degree?

Second question: Would we as corporate e-Learning practitioners see this as a good opportunity to start selling our courses to the public? Or would we see this as just a lame marketing gimmick that got posted on the CLO website?

Leading Corporate Learning Into the Future

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 12:12:40 -0700

Wednesday, December 14, 2005 – 11 a.m. Pacific/2 p.m. Eastern
Click here to register for this event

Corporate learning officers know that the workforce has changed, and so have their job demands. The workforce of tomorrow will have to be savvy at processing and synthesizing diverse information to understand current conditions and remain flexible in the face of certain change. CLOs need to offer future-focused education programs that prepare thinkers and leaders to support their companies. It’s not just about skills—who can predict what skills will be required tomorrow in a quickly changing world? It’s about leadership, team-building, change management and flexibility. This e-Seminar will address how CLOs can adapt their functions and departments to the requirements of dynamic change in order to better serve their companies.

Sexual Harassment in Webinar

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 11:31:43 -0700

I read a press release on the CLO site this morning about how some states have set requirements for sexual harassment training. The article says that "...sexual harassment training has become mandatory at many companies. In fact, California, Maine and Connecticut now require all managers in companies with 50 or more employees to attend a certified sexual harassment training course by the end of the calendar year."

The rest of the piece was a promo for the providers - Parachute, a HR-risk management company. What I found interesting was that they are going to use Webex. That would imply to me that the training is PowerPoint via conferencing. But they go on to say the session includes "...an award-winning TV-style docudrama that highlights real-world examples. ...All program materials, including video docudrama and companion handbook, can be customized to support a company's exact harassment policy."

Inactive Courses are Invisible - Except to Administrators

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 10:52:05 -0700

As a LearnCentrix administrator, you can inactivate courses that you no longer need - instead of deleting the courses. Students are not taking the courses, but management still wants the student data for reporting purposes. Inactivating a course is the answer. And it is simple to do. Here are the steps:

Enter Course Administration
Click on the course name link for the course you wish to inactivate
uncheck the Active checkbox
Click the Save button

That's it!

Awesome new feature

Tue, 06 Dec 2005 07:40:52 -0700

I just went into the User Admin to do some work and saw the search feature with the additional fields. That is so awesome! This is a wonderful enhancement.

Thanks so much!

Thanks!

Kelly A. Cutler
Alltel University
Training Specialist II