Collaborative Training Environment

Scenario: A new automated staff information system was recently purchased by a major corporation and needs to be implemented in six regional offices. Unfortunately, the staff is located throughout all the different offices and cannot meet at the same time or in the same location. As an instructional designer for the corporation, you have been charged with implementing a training workshop for these offices. As part of the training, you were advised how imperative it is that the staff members share information, in the form of screen captures and documents, and participate in ongoing collaboration.

Since this is a major corporation and the chance for further instruction will be needed, I would advise them to set up a Course Management System (CMS). In particularly I would recommend Edu 2.0 business edition. The website is Edu 2.0 for business. This site is a paid site that will allow the development of any courses that this corporation may need. It also allows for synchronous and asynchronous learning and collaboration. In other word the people will be able to view the content at their leisure or structured time, chat, post to a forum, and even collaborate using a wiki page. A nice feature to this site is that it is easy to use and appears like a common social site most people are using, Facebook.

The corporation might say that Edu 2.0 for business is too expensive and we do not plan on need this in the future. Another recommendation would be to use Elluminate. This site will allow the users to support the process before, during and after a real-time session. This would be to post in a forum, respond to questions, collaborate on a topic and upload a screen cast. 

Both of these solutions can work for the scenario given above. Edu 2.0 is a course management system which will allow the users to have more than one course under their umbrella (company).

References: 

Glass, G. (n.d.). Edu 2.0 for business. Retrieved from http://www.edu20.com/ 

Samanani, N. (n.d.). Elluminate. Retrieved from http://www.elluminate.com/Products/Elluminate_Learning_Suite/?id=72

Distance “Leaning”

Yes, you read it right! In today’s active, hectic, busy, double income lifestyles that most of us live, we are trying to find time to make more money. One way is to have a Bachelor's degree or higher. One job I applied for several years ago required a Masters Degree. They did not care in what. I was bold and asked “Why?”  They told me that they market that every employee in the organization has a Masters or higher degree. They had forty job openings and could not find enough people to fill them.

I took a similar job with a different company doing the same thing and this gave me the experience and financial means to go back to school. BUT, I traveled throughout the United States every other week. I could not take traditional classes, and the distance education I was familiar with consisted of correspondence through the mail with text books.  Still, this was a better alternative than to do nothing. So, I leaned toward distance education. Eventually, I came to find out that distance learning was much more advanced than what I was familiar with from the early 1990’s.  Of course, we have the internet now and eBooks.

Many people I know who are considering returning to school for higher degrees have been leaning towards distance education in one form or the other. What do I mean by forms? There are synchronous and asynchronous methods of education. The synchronous method is taking classes at the same time but in different places, whereas the asynchronous method is different times and different places. This defines Distance Education as education between a teacher and student at the same or different times but not at the same place. According to Teaching and Learning at a Distance: Foundations of Distance Learning, “Separation of the Student and the teacher is a fundamental characteristic of distance education”. (Simonson, Smaldino, Albright, & Zvacek, 2009, p. 27)

A deeper look at distance education can glean a multifaceted approach to education. The professors can create a non-traditional lecture with a Power Point, a screen cast, or a video, all with audio for the student. The communication can be traditional postal mail, email, chat, or video chat as some examples. The books can be electronic, printed, or audio. The scenarios are limited by our imagination and technology.

Who would have thought a few years ago that I would be sitting at a restaurant, reading a book on my phone while waiting for my wife and children to join me? Our technology is small and portable, fast and expansive. I believe in the future we will still have brick and mortar schools, but that distance education will be the predominate form of education. Distance education will also be more interactive for students with special needs who need to be cared for at home. I believe that the schools will have the telecommunication ability to stream interactive classrooms to the student at home.  

Reference:

Simonson, M., Smaldino, S., Albright, M., & Zvacek, S. (2009). Teaching and learning at a distance: Foundations of distan

Introduction

Good Morning!

This is something I like to say for two reasons. First it's good to start out positive. Second it's always a good morning and then it could go down hill from there.  Yes, I tend to be the morning person getting things done, then catching up in the evening. Middle of the day is work like some people. Distance Education is a great source of information because it is so diverse and flexible. When do you like to work? When do you have time?  Can you spend and hour or two after the kids go to bed and not watch TV?  Distance Education could be for you.