Welcome to the Atrixware E-Learning Solutions Blog

9 Handy Tips for Effective E-Learning Slideshows

In the past we have spent time talking about how the fatal flaw of many E-Learning PowerPoints is found not with the audience, but with the presentation itself.  They are boring!  And boredom my dear friends is NOT an effective teaching technique!

So today we are going to take things one step further.  Instead of looking at what makes PowerPoint bad, we are going to spend our time learning about what we can do to make it good.  And we are going to do that by taking a closer look at Gange’s Nine Steps of Instructional Design.

Never heard of it?  You’ll love it.  See, Gange has done a good bit of the work for us and has laid out a pretty great plan when it comes to building an effective presentation.   His steps are concise, they are well thought out and they create an ideal foundation for us to build from when creating our own E-Learning initiatives.  So without further ado, let’s go see what Gange has to say about building that perfect E-Learning presentation!

Continue reading 9 Handy Tips for Effective E-Learning Slideshows

Is it Time to Say Yes to Virtual Classrooms?

In the world of E-Learning, no issue seems to be hotter than that of the virtual classroom.  The debate, on both sides of the table, is as to which side offers more benefit to its participants and which option is able to facilitate a higher level of learning.

Can you guess where I stand?

But this post isn’t really about my own personal opinion.  It’s about the reality that for a variety of reasons, virtual is the wave of the future.  Travel costs are up and revenues are down, meaning that for many companies on-site training initiatives are being forced to evolve and change along with the rest of the organization. Plus, as companies are changing, cutting back and installing less bodies in a single geography, they are having to rethink how they approach their workforce.  On site training is no longer realistic in many cases and definitely not cost effective. Continue reading Is it Time to Say Yes to Virtual Classrooms?

Trends for the Future of E-Learning

Have you ever wished for you very own crystal ball?  I’ll admit, its a dream that I hold near and dear to my humble heart.  Doesn’t have to be big, just something that I can carry around in my pocket to let me know what’s coming….and what I can do about it!

I mean just think about how handy that would be.  Want an inside look at tomorrow’s weather?  No problem!  How about a clear picture of the morning commute for the next 6 weeks?  Piece of cake!  Truly the uses are endless and that is before we even get to the over-the-top craziness of lotto numbers and sports scores! Continue reading Trends for the Future of E-Learning

Study Mode Quizzes Now Available in Weblearning LMS

Here is a short video that shows a preview of our new Study Mode Quiz plug-in for Weblearning LMS - just released as I write this. As always, our LMS learning modules are designed to work on mobile devices (meaning, they do not use Flash).

In this case, if you are one of our Test Pro Developer customers, the study mode quiz should seem familiar - since Test Pro Developer has had the ‘Practice Mode’ tests for quite some time - and we have used those as our model for this plugin. So, if you are looking to move your users from Windows Desktop Software learning to Online Learning, and want to give them a similar experience, you can now leverage Weblearning, with this Study Mode Quiz plugin (as well as the recently released Flash Card Plugin which mimics Test Pro Developer’s Flashcard mode).

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The Weblearning LMS is a powerful, budget-friendly, easy-to-use Online E-Learning System for authoring, managing, and tracking online learning presentations and tests (including your E-Learning Lessons). To try it FREE, go to the Weblearning E-Learning System Sign-up Form.

How to Leverage Social Media into E-Learning

Social Media.   The big buzz word.  The one that everyone’s talking about, but almost no one is ready to face.  It’s like this huge elephant has set up shop in the world of E-Learning and we are all doing our very best to ignore that it ever showed up in the first place.

My question is simple…..why? Continue reading How to Leverage Social Media into E-Learning

Say Hello to the Mobile E-Learning Revolution

Not long ago, the iPad was nothing more than speculation.  It was spec drawings on techie blogs and whispers at conventions that drew our interest and peaked our curiosity.

Some claimed that this would be the device that finally ended Apple’s reign of supremacy. Others thought that this device would open up a whole new market segment that revolutionized the way we viewed personal computing as a whole.

One year later, the iPad - and tablet devices in general (and even smartphones) have in fact changed the way we look at, and think about computing.  It has made us realize that computers can be created to fully reflect their users, and that devices can be customized to meet their needs.

Continue reading Say Hello to the Mobile E-Learning Revolution

Death by PowerPoint?

There is a great debate going on in the world of learning.  Not just E-Learning, but the educational community as a whole.

The argument? That our generation is managing to single-handedly demolish the learning process through the use (or misuse as the case may be!) of a single powerful tool.

The great offender?

No other than our tried and trustworthy friend, PowerPoint.

This debate was brought to my attention in the last week as I sat through a presentation on this very subject.  What struck me as odd (even a bit surreal) about the whole situation was that the presenter of the day was making his argument against PowerPoint….with PowerPoint!  He stood there in front of us spouting off reason after reason as to why we should abandon this tool as a whole even as he himself  was using it to make his point. Continue reading Death by PowerPoint?

Weblearning LMS Hosted Plans with SCORM Now Available

A few weeks ago, we released the Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition, our first LMS offering that includes the ability to use SCORM content. The Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition is essentially a Weblearning LMS license for your own server.

This week, we have released two new Weblearning Annual Hosted plans that include SCORM - the Weblearning Ultimate Plan, and Weblearning Server Plan (the Server plan includes a dedicated managed server for high volume e-learning delivery).

You can check out the plans (along with our new plans that don’t include SCORM) on our Weblearning Packages page.

For those of you that don’t know what SCORM is, I will write up a few articles in the near future explaining how it can benefit you and your Weblearning system, but for now, you can read about SCORM here.

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The Weblearning Learning Management System is a powerful, budget-friendly, easy-to-use Online E-Learning System for authoring, managing, and tracking online learning presentations and tests. To try it FREE,  go to the Weblearning E-Learning System Sign-up Form.

Are You Designing Effective Questions for E-Learning?

Over the years we have come to think of tests as necessary bench marks.  Ones that, right, wrong or indifferent are part of the learning process and an indispensable facet of progressing through any type of education.

And, while this may be true, some of us probably are not stopping to think about whether or not we are doing it right.  I mean, sure, the students have to worry about that each and every time they sit down for an exam … but what about us (the teachers/trainers of the world)?

It is our responsibility to share the information, so is it not also our responsibility to also test effectively?  To not just throw out questions, but to test for comprehension?  For true understanding and mastery? Continue reading Are You Designing Effective Questions for E-Learning?

Weblearning LMS version 9.62 New Features

Each time we release an update to Weblearning, we usually include a handful of new features. A typical update will include a dozen or less items.

In this case, there are actually almost 50 Additions, Changes and Bug Fixes in Weblearning version 9.62, which makes it a very large update.

For this article, I had to choose a few of the new features that are likely to be ones that most of you would want to be aware of and/or you are likely to use. All of these are actual feature requests we have received, so I know some of you will be excited to hear about them.

If you are interested in learning about the SCORM compatibility, you can read about that here.

Continue reading Weblearning LMS version 9.62 New Features

SCORM Now Available in Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition

We have been working very hard this year to bring you SCORM support in our Weblearning LMS.

Finally, I am happy to report that it is ready, and is now available in our newest edition of Weblearning Enterprise - the Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition.

Although the new Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition LMS is slightly more expensive than our standard Weblearning Enterprise Edition LMS, it is still thousands (actually tens of thousands) less than other LMS options on the market.

We are also working hard to bring you a hosted monthly and hosted annual options that offer SCORM capabilities as well. Our goal is to offer you the best value for a hosted SCORM solution. We have yet to work out the pricing and implementation details on the hosted plans though (more to come on this in the weeks ahead).

Below, I have posted some screen shots and comments here to give you a sneak peek at what it looks like and what it can do.

Continue reading SCORM Now Available in Weblearning Enterprise Gold Edition

Addressing Multi-Generational Users in E-Learning

The other day I was asked by a colleague of mine if I would give a type of information technology guest lecture at one of the local colleges.  As the topic was one that I have worked with extensively, SEO and how to maximize its effectiveness, I agreed, thinking that it would be a nice break from my standard day of logging hours in front of the computer.

It was, but it also brought a few very interesting realizations to light in a very short amount of time.  In fact, you could say that I had an epiphany of sorts as I stood there under the flickering florescent lights enjoying the endless expanses of Berber carpet that boasted a shade somewhere between gray and blue. Continue reading Addressing Multi-Generational Users in E-Learning

How To Convert PowerPoint E-Learning Presentations into Movies

One of the greatest things about PowerPoint is that they are always working to make it better.  A new version means new changes.  New features and options that give the user more freedom than ever before.  With PowerPoint 2010 those of us in the E-Learning community have even more to be excited about.  Because with this new version we finally have the ability to covert our E-Learning presentations into movies with one simple step.

The reality is that it has always been possible to create a movie from a PowerPoint presentation.  The problem is that up until now the process was long, laborious and complicated.  It also required the use of additional software as well as some level of technical know-how.

Today?  This is no longer the case and I am thrilled!  Now with one simple step you can save your presentation into a movie format that you can use again and again.

What to know how its done?  No problem! Continue reading How To Convert PowerPoint E-Learning Presentations into Movies

Building the Right E-Learning Initiatives for Your Client Base

As I sit down to write to all of you this week, there is one question that keeps flying around in my head. I want to know is how do you, those in charge of both creating and facilitating the E-Learning initiatives for your organizations, choose what those initiatives will be?

Do you make the choice based on what you feel will be the most effective option for your client or participants?

~or~

Do you make the choice based on what you like? Continue reading Building the Right E-Learning Initiatives for Your Client Base

How to Edit a Photo Using PowerPoint

I came across this short video which show a fairly easy yet useful way to edit and re-purpose images inside PowerPoint (instead of, for example, having to fire up PhotoShop or some other high-powered image editor).

While certainly not a full replacement for your favorite image editor, once you watch it, I think you may be as surprised as I was to find out this was even possible in PowerPoint:

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The Weblearning Learning Management System is a powerful, budget-friendly, easy-to-use Online E-Learning System for authoring, managing, and tracking online learning presentations and tests (including your PowerPoint Presentations). To try it FREE, go to the Weblearning E-Learning System Sign-up Form.

Using CSS Tricks in Your Online Quizzes

With the plethora of settings and configurations available to your quizzes inside of your Weblearning LMS account, you may have passed over or discounted the Extra CSS Field.

While it’s not obvious by looking at it (just a big empty white text box), you can do some pretty cool things using it - and I am going to show you a few in this article!

Where the heck is this EXTRA CSS box?
When you edit a quiz ( Learning Modules > List All > Edit [pencil icon] ), click on the Continue reading Using CSS Tricks in Your Online Quizzes

Championing Self-Directed Learning

When we talk about learning, and by this I mean all learning and not just that of the E-Learning variety, we are often spouting off buzz words relevant to our own current time and place.  These words tend to come and go quickly, often falling out of style before the majority of us even know what they really mean.  With that in mind, what if I told you that there was a huge buzzword in the field of adult education that has been hanging around for over a decade?

Unbelievable?  Astounding?  Nope….true!  Because self-directed learning has done just that.

Pretty impressive right?  I’m thinking you might want to know what all the fuss was about!

Continue reading Championing Self-Directed Learning

Flashcards Plugin for Weblearning LMS - Preview

Here is a short video that shows a preview of our new Flashcards plug-in for Weblearning LMS - which should be available very soon (a few weeks). Despite all the fancy animations going on, the Flashcards plug-in is pure HTML, so it is mobile-learning compatible (phones, tablets).

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The Weblearning LMS is a powerful, budget-friendly, easy-to-use Online E-Learning System for authoring, managing, and tracking online learning presentations and tests (including your E-Learning Lessons). To try it FREE,  go to the Weblearning E-Learning System Sign-up Form.

Leveraging Subject Matter Expertise into Effective E-Learning

Buzz words….gotta love them.  They grow and stretch until it seems like they take on a life of their own as they work their way into every day conversation.

But what do they really mean?  Sure, we all use them, they’re catchy and a bit fun, but how often do we really take a deeper look into what we are saying and how these phrases apply to real world situations?

Such as the term, “Subject Matter Expert.”  Have you ever taken the time to sit down and think about what it means to be considered a Subject Matter Expert?  You could start by saying that it means you are good at something; that you have a talent and maybe even a strong skill set in a certain area.  But I think that’s a bit bland if you truly want to label either yourself or even someone else to be an “expert.”

Continue reading Leveraging Subject Matter Expertise into Effective E-Learning

LMS Plug-in Development Inside Look

Things are extremely busy here at Atrixware E-Learning Solutions these days - across all departments. I thought I’d provide you with a sneak peek into the product development happenings (at the risk of being boring for some), and give you some information on some cool Weblearning LMS plug-ins (currently available plug-ins are here) we are readying for 2011 release.

Flash Cards
This is a new module type that can co-exist with the learning presentations, practice quizzes, and graded quizzes you can already create inside of your Weblearning LMS account. This plug-in will enable you to create online flashcard style learning modules, where users can view questions on the front of a card, and then flip the card to view the answer.

Continue reading LMS Plug-in Development Inside Look

Making Your E-Learning Lessons Meaningful

Before we get started with today’s post, I want to ask one quick question….

How many of you have ever taken the time to ask your friends or colleagues about their experiences with E-Learning?

If the answer is “never,” then I highly recommend that you do just that.

Why?  Well, because chances are good that you will be amazed at their answers.

See, the other day I had this great conversation with a good friend of mine about just this topic.  When he asked me about my E-Learning projects, I excitedly shared all of the different things that I am working on right now.

So imagine my surprise when he responded with an adamant, “I hate when I have to do those things! They are nothing but busy work!” Continue reading Making Your E-Learning Lessons Meaningful

Five Ways to Get Users to Your Online Courses

There are numerous ways you can get users to your Online E-Learning Courses inside the Weblearning E-Learning System. In this article, I will show you 5 ways.

1. Send them an Invitation

The invitation mechanism inside your Weblearning E-Learning System account is very capable. You can use it to both send invitations, and track who has / has not yet been invited. Continue reading Five Ways to Get Users to Your Online Courses

10 Helpful Tips for Using PowerPoint for E-Learning

We all know that PowerPoint is an amazing tool in the world of E-Learning software.  It allows us to connect directly with users, as well as share our message in a wholly unique and fully customizable way.  But, as with any tool, there are good ways (and therefore not-so-good ways) to use it.

So today, in hopes of helping you to solve the PowerPoint puzzle, I’d like to share a few tips that have worked for me along the way.  Nothing too fancy, just a great place to start when it comes to building presentations of your own!

1. Keep it Simple

Let’s face it…PowerPoint is fun!  It’s packed with all of these happy little features that let you make your slides move, bounce and shimmy to the beat of your favorite music.

The problem with this is that all those extras can detract from your message.  Users will spend their time focused on the fun instead of the lesson you are trying to teach.  Simple slides may seem boring, but they are the best way to deliver a targeted and tailored E-Learning experience.

Continue reading 10 Helpful Tips for Using PowerPoint for E-Learning

Great Ways to Prevent Cheating on Online Quizzes

Delivering Online Quizzes is becoming more and more common, so here are 5 great ways to help prevent cheating and ensure the user answers are their own.

Shuffle the Question Order

This is a no-brain-er. By doing this, you make sure that passing the quiz is not a simple list of letters (like 1-a, 2-c, 3-b, 4-b, etc). Most quiz authoring software (including our Weblearning E-Learning System as well as our Online Quiz Maker System) enable you to do this.

Continue reading Great Ways to Prevent Cheating on Online Quizzes

How To Enable Pause and Resume on Your Online Quizzes

One of the benefits of authoring your online quizzes inside your Weblearning E-Learning System (as opposed to using quizzes from some other source) is the ability for your users to pause the online quiz and then resume the quiz at a later date. In this article I’m going to show you how easy it is to enable the Pause/Resume feature on one or all of your online quizzes just by adding one line of CSS.

Continue reading How To Enable Pause and Resume on Your Online Quizzes

Create E-Learning with Instant Feedback Questions

A relatively unknown (but useful) feature in the Weblearning Training Management System the ability to include quiz questions (currently multiple-option, true/false and yes/no) inside your authored learning presentations - which adds interactivity to your learning materials.

When you include questions inside presentations however, the operate a bit differently than they do inside of an online quiz.

First, when your user first encounters a question inside a learning presentation, the navigation buttons will be disabled - thereby forcing them to choose an answer to the question.

Continue reading Create E-Learning with Instant Feedback Questions

3 Ways to Get Users to Your Online Quizzes

Here is a short video that shows 3 easy ways to get your users to your online quizzes using Online Quiz Maker.

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Online Quiz Maker is a budget-friendly, easy-to-use Online Quiz Maker system. To get a FREE account, go to the Online Quiz Maker Sign-up Form. You may also be interested in the Online Quiz Maker for Schools system.

Add Live Chat to Your Online Courses

The Chat plug-in for the Weblearning E-Learning System enables you to integrate a live chat room directly into your Weblearning courses where you (the Course Admin or Instructor) can chat in real-time with your users. The chat room itself can be utilized in multiple ways - simply chatting with users, answering question in real time, administering online oral exams, or enhancing the overall distance-learning experience.

In this article I’ll show you how to integrate the most basic form of the chat room plug-in into one of your courses (there are multiple ways to integrate the chat room, for more information on the different methods you can use with this plug-in please refer to the plug-in documentation).

To get started let’s take a look at how you can access the chat plugin in your account that will allow you to chat with your users, configure the chat settings, and view the plug-in documentation.

Continue reading Add Live Chat to Your Online Courses

How to Extract Text from Images so You Can Edit the Text

I can’t tell you how many times I have come across this scenario: Our users have content as a PDF, or as Images, but not the source document so they can edit it. They essentially have to re-enter all the text - yikes!

Well, here is a handy tip to save you (and them) the grief. Continue reading How to Extract Text from Images so You Can Edit the Text

Importance of Usability in E-Learning

Usability is a very important thing to take into account when designing your e-learning content (says ‘captain obvious’). No really, have you looked around? This simple principle has seemingly escaped the attention of many e-learning offerings (I suppose in exchange for the “let’s just get something out there” mentality).

One of the best resources on web usability standards (and you are creating e-learning for the web, right?) is a site called useit.com and I urge anyone interested in this topic to visit this site.

The ultimate goal is to enable the same online learning presentations, online quizzes or study guides to be used by anyone in your target audience. Online learning presentations and online quizzes have to accommodate for this diversity to create a pleasant experience for all users. With mLearning now in the mix, consideration for all kinds of devices (in all shapes and sizes) needs to come into play. Continue reading Importance of Usability in E-Learning