The Disabled American Veterans’ DAV Magazine recently came out with a two page article covering the DAV iTRAK education system. DAV partnered with Illumen to bring this learning solution to life and we are proud to link to their article, which describes what DAV iTRAK is and how it benefits the lives of disabled American veterans.
You can also link directly to DAV’s digital version of the magazine (page 8): DAV Magazine – July/August
Illumen Group is proud to announce our sponsorship of the Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase this year. This event, with more than 30 contributing speakers is setting the bar for eLearning based events.
This year, the Showcase celebrates the evolution of adult learning and performance, with an emphasis on the role of new media and interactive methods in business and institutional training. The Showcase provides a full day of educational sessions for all levels of experience. More than 30 speakers will explore all aspects of elearning—instructional design, development tools, media resources, virtual classrooms, social and interactive applications, mobile learning, rapid elearning, and more. Attendees will have an opportunity to create their own schedules from a variety of topics or follow one of four Showcase Tracks, including Simulations & Social Media, eLearning Tools & LMS, Online Design, and Management of eLearning.
More information about the event and registration can be found at the Chicago eLearning & Technology Website.
Illumen will be at the event showcasing our eLearning applications and offering information on the process and development of technology and learning based solutions. We hope to see you all there.
We feel, and hope you agree, that waking up at 2 in the morning to handle a learning module issue is not always as fun as it sounds. To keep our phones quite at 2am, we always check our modules to make sure the required compliance is working properly.
Whether it is a custom HTML/HTML5 or Flash based course or a course built from one of the many packages available (Storyline, Captivate, Lectora, etc.), it is always important to test SCORM, AICC, and the new Tin Can API compliant modules and make sure they work properly. This includes, for a SCORM compliant module for instance, the ZIP file and manifest are prepared properly, the calls and gets are initializing the module and pulling in data and sending out data (user info, location/bookmark, completion, status, attempts, language, suspended data), and that the data is configured the way you need (setting the user as complete/incomplete, passed, and/or sending specific score information).
By the time we test a module, we have documented our client’s requirements. We will use this as a checklist. We have several Learning Management Systems (LMS) available to us for testing, usually including our client’s LMS, which is the best way to make sure there are no problems. If you need a quick and free way to test your modules we recommend SCORM Cloud.
SCORM Cloud is a fantastic magical site that lets your module run the gauntlet. Use this site to upload your module (SCORM, AICC, or Tin Can API) and find out how well it works…or doesn’t. You can launch your module, use it as your learner would, check the state of the data, adjust properties to fit the final LMS configuration, and re-upload your […]
We are often asked, “Can you give us a few examples of eLearning and eMarketing projects?”. The terms ‘eLearning’ and ‘eMarketing’ cover a wide variety of types of projects. We have many people who need our services, and they all search for us in different ways. We often see:
Not only are there many ways to say it, there are many more types of projects. Below are a series of examples of eLearning and eMarketing projects:
New and existing warehouse employees required training and refresher courses for all aspects of their day-to-day job tasks. These tasks included using a RF scanner and its software to properly catalog incoming products, locate and shelve products, comprehend new orders, locate and box products, prepare inventory reports, and prepare products for shipping. Employees also had to learn the process for handling exceptions to their general processes, such as incorrect inventory, products too high or large to gather for packaging, and damaged products or boxes.
Illumen developed a custom LMS and seven training modules for certification within each role.
With a high turnover in employees, and thus, an increasing amount of time, energy, and cost was being spent on training live in store with a manager.
Illumen developed a plan focused on building the level of experience both in making drinks and food by providing preparatory steps […]
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Testing = Learning
In what seems likely to be an “ah ha” moment for education development, researchers at Purdue University’s Department of Psychological Sciences, explored the possibility that testing isn’t just an assessment of learning, but is a component that facilitates learning just like studying – but better.*
“Practicing retrieval (testing) produces greater gains in meaningful learning than elaborative studying with concept mapping.*”
In an article published last month in Science magazine, a total of 200 students studied texts on topics from different science disciplines. One group engaged in elaborative studying by creating concept maps – diagrams that illustrate the complicated connections and relationships in the material. The second group read the texts and then practiced retrieval (unassisted recall of material). The students returned to the lab a week later for the actual assessment of long-term learning. The group that studied by practicing retrieval showed a 50% improvement in long-term retention scores above and beyond the group that studied by creating concept maps.
“Retrieval practice enhances learning by retrieval-specific mechanisms rather than by elaborative study processes.*”
When dealing with training, education, and marketing solutions, it doesn’t take long before we start hearing words we may not know. Below is a list of 20 common terms and definitions.
More people are using mobile devices to handle their everyday computer tasks. Given three minutes and my iPhone, I can check my work and personal emails, my schedule, the news, the weather, and sometimes even get in a game of Tetris. It, like so many mobile devices, is usable, engaging, efficient, informative, and scalable. This mobile convenience should carry through training and marketing solutions as well. Unfortunately, often due to certain limitations of each mobile device and their short shelf life, there is often not a credible mobile counterpart to most training applications. To bridge the gaps, here are 6 ways to extend the user experience of your web or CD-ROM based app through mobile devices.
When defining the best solution to any project, one step within the discovery process is the creation and use of personas. User personas are fictitious characters who represent unique groups of users. We use personas to understand how different groups of users will use a website and application. By focusing on how a persona interacts with a website, navigates to content and through content, understands and retains the content, we can begin to understand the different user experiences that occur. These user experiences must fulfill the goals, objectives, and needs. This step can also help determine new goals, objectives, and needs as well as limitations users may have.
It is a good practice to find two or three user personas and one or two administrative personas. But each opportunity is unique and can derive any number of unique persona. First we must understand the different user personas. To do this we must understand the audience(s). This can be done by talking with our clients, their audiences, defining surveys, focus groups, looking at demographics, and general research. A lot of specific information can arise such as (to name a few):
Our journey begins by first understanding why we are taking a journey in the first place. Goals are the core when developing a learning program and the strategy, all information, activities, and assessments orbit this core. Defined goals give us a basis for what is important and what would make the end results of our program a success. Goals are often two-fold. Not only do we have goals and objectives, but so should our audience. Our goals are often financial, important to business, important to health and safety, analytical, required by law, and/or political, while our audience may just want to learn, is required to learn because of their education or job, or, like in the case of our bike enthusiast broken down on the side of the road or a homeowner who suddenly has a broken furnace, placed in a situation where learning is imperative. Goals have levels too. We might have one all encompassing goal for the learner as well as goals that specify what we want to see in our program. Here is a quick listing of my goals:
A […]
