July 29th, 2009 by Robin Green

More learning management systems are focusing on making e-learning course creation more accessible for the ordinary person.

As company budgets take a hit from the recession, and finding reliable in-house IT support becomes less cost-effective, it’s critical that training and other e-learning objectives are possible to maintain without outside help.

Coggno is one e-learning solution that continues to show that although an LMS is a large and complicated tool, it does not need to be complicated to use.

Coggno has recently collected the responses from a customer satisfaction survey, whose purpose was to gauge customer sentiment, as well as the top issues expressed by users.

High marks for Coggno included ease of upload of curriculum, simple adding of new learners, and ease of reporting. According to the survey, Coggno’s LMS was reported to be very user-friendly and straightforward. Respondents noted fast uploading from spreadsheets, as well as fast reaction times.

Dynamic and simple course creation tools such as text and video, quiz, question bank, text and video tools, template, assessment, and SCORM publishing tools are some features that Coggno offers to make course creation simple, efficient, and even pleasurable.

Another positive response was regarding Coggno’s pay-per-use business model, which ensures that all e-learning courses and training programs stay fresh, and do not become outdated or irrelevant. Companies and schools are able to create and deploy content on an as-needed basis, providing convenient and cost-effective e-learning solutions.

Course creators and administrators maintain full control over their learning material. Coggno allows course creators to create and brand their own learning content, customizing it for in-house purposes and comfortable for deployment inside a user cluster.

Creating and incorporating videos using an LMS can transform lessons, activities and even entire courses. Coggno’s simple format allows video creation with just a few clicks, making it accessible for any user. And other relevant tools in Coggno’s toolkit offer a check-and-balance system. In other words, learning content featured in videos can be checked for understanding using other course features like quiz and assessments.

According to the survey, privacy was another important factor. Coggno’s system does not require administrators to send invitations, but rather allows access based on a secret code.

Coggno’s user-friendly, flexible, straightforward user interface is a breeze to navigate and users are walked through every step of the course creation. The whole idea of e-learning courses hosted on learning management systems is centered around convenience and usability for all users–including and especially the students themselves.

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Coggno.com offers high-quality online training courses.

July 22nd, 2009 by Robin Green

When I think about how e-learning and learning management systems need to respond to changing times, I think about Scrabble. Yes, Scrabble, the board game that tests your word knowledge and skill at arranging those words on a board in a way that gains you points, has undergone a dramatic transformation.

I used to consider myself rather adept at the game, reaching into the muddy backwaters of my brain for words that I’d probably used only once or twice in my lifetime. You only received seven numbers to work with, but I can usually make do and come up with something. Truth be told, I’ve always been rather proud of my healthy vocabulary.

With the internet, of course, everything has changed. In face-to-face Scrabble, if I’m not sure the word I want to use is a real word, I either refrain from playing it or play it and take my chances. If you aren’t familiar with the game, the chances were this: if a person wants to challenge my iffy word, they can do so–grab a standard dictionary and look for the word. If it isn’t there, I have to take my non-word off and forfeit my next turn as punishment. If the word does exist, the challenger has to forfeit their next turn. This part of the game was always, for me, quite essential–one could almost say it was at the heart of Scrabble.

But you couldn’t say it. Because in online Scrabble, this part of the game is no longer relevant. And yet people are still playing and loving cyber Scrabble. I don’t play it myself, but I asked a friend who does how it works, and why it’s still fun. “Can’t you just look up words?” I asked her. “Can’t people just cheat?” “Well, it’s not cheating to look up words on online Scrabble,” she replied. “So, of course you can.”

E-learning may run into the same conundrum. From online training and learning content to the use of discussion boards and other Web 2.0 tools for educational purposes, who’s to say a student isn’t simply looking up the answer, copying and pasting responses, learning nothing? This is possible in some settings, and depending on the content, it may have a profound impact on the course effectiveness.

But just as online Scrabble involved a shift in priorities, skills, strategy, and format, education in its online form must undergo the same growing pains. One of the most common complaints I hear from e-learning students is that courses are simply too easy. Peer originality becomes dubious. And for educators, student effort becomes harder to monitor. But does it have to be this way?

What we really need is smarter e-learning design and deployment. It’s not enough to create good content, get it out there, and expect students to be engaged. The effective use of Web 2.0 programs, learning management systems, and online courseware in an online learning context requires strategy.

This strategy can be built into the course, developed and maintained by a course administrator or educator, and/or enforced in a face-to-face learning environment if one exists. Tools like Coggno’s Activities feature allows LMS administrators to track student activity. Another strategy is to build exams that effectively test student knowledge, rather than asking them to solve problems and post them on a board.

If you’re choosing a learning management system for e-learning training or a virtual classroom, choose one based on its built-in solutions to an evolving, information-heavy world.

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Coggno.com provides high-quality e-learning education.

July 15th, 2009 by Robin Green

Back in the day, before we had simple e-learning tools like learning management systems and online courseware, it wasn’t so easy to create instructional material. Those who wanted to do so had to go through the necessary material writing, gathering, and organizing, and then transfer it to paper to be auditioned in publishing houses, or printed hundreds or thousands of times for employees. Video and audio supplements were often created and deployed willy-nilly. All that paper, all those old tapes.

Textbooks, of course, are still in circulation. And the concept of making (and/or saving) a dime off creating knowledge and instructional material is still compelling to a lot of people. Many of these people are experts in some area. Or they have training to take care of within an organization, and need the tools to do so.

But the life of a textbook writer is not and never has been smooth sailing, between the competitive industry, getting published, and being taken advantage of by publishing companies.

For many subject matter experts with a knack for explaining their field and with the desire to share their knowledge, learning management systems (LMSs) and other elearning tools are a great option. The tools LMSs like Coggno provide include video, simulations, demos, animations, screen recordings, audio recordings, podcast creators, and the integration of Web 2.0 tools for student collaboration. Nowadays learning content creators have a wealth of tools at hand to make their students’ learning experience a dynamic and effective one.

Unlike textbook writers, elearning content creators are also given full ownership and a great deal of power over their course material. For example, Coggno allows authors first to create and migrate content free of charge. The writer maintains ownership and copyright of their learning content. And once a course is migrated, it isn’t set in stone.

Authors have a number of options regarding their learning content, which can be chosen at any time they like: to modify it, delete it, keep it as it is for a while, modify or delete only parts, etc.

Another option is to syndicate your learning content. This means that other relevant web publishers can publish and sell your online courseware on their websites. But it’s your choice which sites you want to allow, how much revenue you’d like to share each time you sell your courseware, and how long you would like the website to publish it.

If you are able to, syndicating your courseware is a wise move. Why? A few reasons: first, syndicating your content gets it out there on the market. And second, it’s a great way to expand not only your audience, but your revenue.

Ultimately, elearning content creators have a much better deal than textbook authors. Both get to do what they love, but elearning authors have the power and freedom to do what they please with their material. And using all the tools that learning management systems offer, have fun while doing it.

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Coggno.com offers world-class e-learning courses.

July 10th, 2009 by Robin Green

It’s something many LMS students often lament; depending on their position, they may need to undergo compliance training. However, greater complaints down the line can be prevented if compliance training is completed in a serious and effective way.

Compliance training may cover issues ranging from sexual harassment prevention, workplace safety, cultural sensitivity, or respect in the workplace. Oftentimes, to someone taking mandatory compliance training, a topic may feel like common sense, or not worth his or her time. This common attitude towards required training can lead to learning content skimming, skipping of entire sections, and ultimately, guessing on exams and retaking quizzes until the correct answers are guessed.

Students’ lack of interest in a training topic is often due to a bland training course, as well as the sheer fact that the course is mandatory. This lack of interest can lead to students’ failure to process the learning content, and to spend the time required to truly learn the material. But gaps in employee understanding on key issues (such as those listed above) which compliance training covers can end with trouble down the road. For this reason, supervisors are smart to ensure that trainees are completing course material correctly, and spending the appropriate amount of time on each section.

Coggno’s Activities feature helps solve this problem that is so common to online training. Coggno now offers supervisors, educators, and all LMS administrators its Activities tool to aid the administrative responsibility of overseeing and guiding students in their learning process. The feature provides training administrators with a simple tool to track, in real time, the online course activities of students through a tab in the Coggno LMS interface.

Not only does the Activities feature help supervisors ensure that employees are succeeding in a training program, but it saves organizations valuable time and energy in the future. Organizations can avoid conflict and protect employees. And productivity is always increased when employees are well educated on workplace issues that are meant to facilitate communication and prevent clashes.

The Activities feature serves a very practical purpose: tracking student progress. Using the feature, administrators can track student progress and activities to find out where each one is exceeding, and in what areas extra attention may be needed.

The Activities feature can also help educators who want to integrate Web 2.0 tools into a classroom, but may feel uncomfortable doing so. Although many schools do not permit the use of Web 2.0 technologies like social networking sites, podcasts and wikis in the classroom, more schools and their educators are embracing them. In fact, how to effectively use collaborative technologies and LMSs is a topic now included in many IT courses for educators.

Unfortunately, online education tools for children and teenagers are sometimes avoided because of supervision issues. In some cases, mishandling and/or lack of supervision of online programs can even become a source of litigation against educators and schools.Because of the hazards involved with including Web 2.0 technologies in many LMS and classroom learning systems, educators who use them must take extra precautions, supervising the use of these technologies to ensure that students stay on track.

Educators can find creative ways for students to remain within the confines of an online activity, such as navigating a site while students observe. However, using LMS online tools like Activities, educators can concentrate on the learning content and effective teaching, rather than policing internet use.

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Coggno.com offers high-quality online training.