January 23, 2012  

M-Learning & The Evolution of HTML

by Lee Reilly, Senior Web Designer

HTML5 logo

My first real foray into the realm of coding over a decade ago pertained to making a text box on my page a solid colour, positioning it to the right and making the text white. After much musing (by which I mean searching around the internet) I fumbled a solution and had inadvertently coded something! In this case it was a <div> container to hold my text, which was aligned right and coloured accordingly. The beginnings of my first HTML site, though perhaps not as grand as I might have liked.

Over the years my HTML and CSS skills have improved, as has my understanding of the underlying processes involved. With the upcoming publication of the highly anticipated HTML 5 specification I find myself feeling like I did over a decade ago; is the difference between HTML 4 and 5 so great that I must start creating little text boxes on a page again in order to understand this new version?

The answer, mercifully, is no. HTML 5, in its simplest form, is a revised version of HTML 4. Sure, it has the ability to be so much more, but it does not have to be. I could take the latest project I am working on, amend line 1 to <!DOCTYPE html> and I would have an HTML 5 project. I would obviously not do that as it would be cheating and not advisable for compatibility of content within that project.

The real power of HTML5
The real power of HTML 5 (and CSS 3) comes from the improvements within. HTML 5 is created to improve the interoperability of HTML based documents. This means it is designed to work across multiple platforms and software setups. Numerous elements have been added such as <article>, <header>, <footer> and <section> to make the lives of developers easier. If nothing else these new elements reduce the quantity of <div> elements required for layout. These and other elements have been created to help add meaning to the content within. An example of this would be creating a news article:

In HTML 4 I might create something like:

<div class=”newsarticle”>
<h2>Why am I making this site in HTML4?!</h2>
<p class=”newsdate”>09-12-11</p>
</div>

In HTML 5 this could be created as:

<article>
<h2>HTML 5: That’s the ticket!</h2>
<date>09-12-11</date>
</article>

The benefits to creating this in HTML 5 are two-fold. First, there is less coding involved. Second, and more importantly, the elements used are created for the purposes illustrated; <article> is used for independent, self-contained content and <date> is used for defining dates and times. The freedom that HTML 5 allows in creating element names might at first make it appear to be less structured and potentially more prone to variation between developers. What this flexibility does, when combined with new elements and attributes, is allow for greater control of structure.

Can it make a difference?
Everything mentioned above give HTML 5 the potential to improve the way websites and web apps are built. The real power of  HTML 5, however, comes from its integrated Application Programming Interfaces, or APIs. They have been designed to make developing web apps easier across multiple platforms. These include new APIs for audio and video, which will act to provide a uniform (and non-flash based) approach to getting rich media easily on to the web. Great in theory but these are still a long way off being perfect. In its current incarnation, HTML 5 has no full cross-browser support for video file formats. This means if you were to use the <video> element in a project today you would need to encode your video as both mp4 and ogg file formats to ensure all modern browsers would play them; a large overhead to say the least.

M-Learning
When evaluating how good HTML 5 is we must consider that it is still only a draft specification and elements and attributes are still subject to change. That said, it has the potential to deliver on numerous fronts and the thought of a fully interoperable web app or website across numerous platforms, complete with rich media and animation without the need for user-installed plugins makes its success all the more appealing. So much so that we have already begun project work using HTML 5. These E-learning projects have been designed to work cross-platform, from the traditional desktop E-learning to tablets and smartphones (so called M-learning or mobile learning). The benefit of using HTML 5 as the backbone is that the same pages are served up to each platform, the only difference being how they are styled. This technique of catering for different platforms using the same pages is called responsive design.

In future blog posts we will look at responsive design as well as the hugely anticipated <canvas> element in HTML 5 and its potential for usurping flash for cross-platform animation. We will also look at what new features CSS 3 brings to the party.

January 13, 2012  

Top Tips for Hosting Webinars

by Noleen Turner, Marketing Manager

Choosing the right tools
There are lots of webinar tools out there – each with their own benefits and drawbacks – but bear in mind – none is 100% reliable. Most offer a free trial before you buy, so find one that’s easy to use; works with a variety of operating systems and your in-house technology; and is scalable.

Some of my favourite webinar tools gotomeeting, gotowebinar, webex, Adobe Connect –and anymeeting (which is FREE!). Online Meeting Tools Review have a list of webinar tools with peer reviews.
Preparing for the webinar

  • Get familiar with the technology. Make sure you know how to use the webinar tools inside out before the live event. This will eliminate nerves and the chance of any problems occurring.
  • Choose the right topic and deliver what you promise: Make sure your webinar topic is interesting and of genuine value to your potential clients – and stick to it. If you promise your audience A (genuine value webinar) – and deliver B (sales pitch) – they have a right to be angry and disappointed.
  • Have a co-presenter – invite an industry expert, customer or partner to co-present. This will generate more interest and could even double your attendance. It also takes the pressure off you when you’re trying to answer questions, conduct polls or fix technology hiccups.
  • Write a script/outline and use this to structure the learning content. Don’t cram too much into the webinar – it’s better to have a small amount of really high quality content than a large amount of poor quality content.
  • Practice: do a couple of dry runs, record it and play it back to hear how you sound.  If possible, practice with co-presenters.  Time yourself so you know if you are going to be able to cover all the content within the time slot. Don’t rush through – take your time and cover points fully.

Timing:

  • Start promoting the webinar at least five weeks in advance.
  • Choose the time and date of your webinar carefully. Avoid Mondays and Fridays as these are peak conferencing days, meeting days and annual leave days and attendance can be lower. Consider where your audience is based – and what time it is most suitable for their region. Start at 15 minutes past the hour rather than on the hour. Give attendees time to move between meetings and join the webinar.
  • Send two reminders only — 1 week and 1 day before the webinar.
  • Leave at least 15 minutes at the end of the webinar for a Question & Answer session.

During the event

  • Begin the session at least 15 minutes early to test the video and audio connections of all the presenters and panellists.
  • Join your meeting early and check that all links and presentations are working. Share a “welcome” slide to let attendees know that the webinar will be starting soon. Provide attendees with an overview of how to use key webinar features – such as chat, raise hand, questions and answers etc. Provide an overview of what the webinar will cover and how it will be structured. Introduce all speakers. Remember to mute all lines until the question and answer session begins.
  • Use more than just PowerPoint to keep your audience engaged. Include multimedia such as animation, flash, photos, web-demos and video.
  • Don’t just talk at your audience – invite them to join in the conversation. Conduct polls at regular intervals and host a question and answer session at the end.
  • If things go wrong – stay calm. Take a minute and try to fix it, but if you can’t, apologise and move on.
  • Leave lots of time for questions and answers.
  • Record your webinar and make it available on your website or blog afterwards.

Afterwards

  • Conduct a survey at the end of the webinar to get feedback from the attendees.
  • Follow up with all registrants one week after the event – both attendees and non-attendees. Include relevant links such as a recording of the webinar, case studies, white papers, survey results, feedback etc. Invite people to your next event.
  • Pass details of all registrants to your sales team for detailed follow up.
  • Review all feedback and work on lessons learned to make sure your next webinar is even better.

And finally, don’t be afraid of the technology and good luck!

January 5, 2012  

2011 E-learning Market Review: Mergers and Acquisitions

By Glynn Jung, Non-Executive Director 

The big-scale version of training outsourcing – LBPO (Learning Business Process Outsourcing) – continues to grow as a financially attractive option for employers with large and distributed workforces. Chats with some employers suggest there may be a gap for new mid-range LBPO suppliers who not only manage the contracts and services from a number of suppliers to an organisation, but also offer platforms, systems and rapid content development services.Well, acquisition and consolidation in the e-Learning market have been hotting up through 2011, (as in fact has happened during previous recessions), as investors look to exploit opportunities in new tools, technologies and sectors for workforce skilling, as major suppliers look to extend market reach and as niche suppliers find development funds being switched off.

In terms of mergers, strategic investments & consolidations in 2011 we witnessed upheaval in all sectors and territories.

These included Lumesse acquiring Edvantage, SkillSoft acquiring Element K from former owners NIIT and BB acquiring both Elluminate & Wimba.

Taleo acquired learn.com and SuccessFactors acquired Plateau Systems, subsequently themselves being taken over in December by SAP.

Kaplan never seem far from their next purchase and LBPOs such as GP (formerly GenPhysics), KnowledgePool and Demos are no slouches in the consolidations markets; GP in fact acquired R.W.D. Technology’s consulting business earlier in 2011.

EPM and BPM giant OpenText picked up Operitel for its e-Learning management expertise that will be bolted into OpenText products in the future. Operitel’s LearnFlex includes social and mobile learning management fully integrated into SharePoint.

Trivantis also announced the official acquisition of its partner, Flypaper Studio. The deal couples Lectora authoring software with Flypaper, a full-featured Flash interactions builder and digital signage platform.

Investment Group acquisitions included UfI Ltd. and learndirect by LDC, GlobalKnowledge by MidOcean and with BB itself being acquired by Providence Equity.

Earlier hopes of SkillSoft’s intentions in terms of protecting and integrating the best of E-K’s products into their own portfolio now seem to have been a tad optimistic … anecdotally what I’m hearing is that all E-K products, including the third-party products, will be taken off the market as soon as practical and that SkillSoft are energetically pursuing a campaign of converting E-K clients to the SkillSoft services.

As the number of large generic catalogue suppliers continues to diminish I’ve increasingly received questions from my clients about their future supplier strategies and seeking my thoughts on how I see the market shaping up.

My first observation is that new portal suppliers will enter the mid-size catalogue sector, offering a limited number of value-for-money suppliers’ products.

I further suggest that clients will either return to contracting directly with preferred niche suppliers such as Happy, CrossKnowledge, ILX, Flow or Cegos, (those are just top-of-my-head examples), or will sign up with a new breed of smaller scale LBO partners. Certainly the issue of same look and feel for all materials seems to be largely irrelevant these days and increasingly people are weighing the pain of managing multiple suppliers against the value of getting exactly what they want. I’d like to hope that this will ultimately deliver smaller content libraries targeting real needs in an organisation rather than “just-in-case”.

Finally I suggest that there’s always room for new suppliers, both in existing generic sectors and to exploit the convergence of Higher Education,CommercialColleges,BusinessSchools, Business and Industry. Some of the most exciting innovations in blended learning are taking place in the public and education sectors where we see new commercial spin-offs or partnerships delivering much needed revenues.

In this I anticipate the emergence of generic content reflecting particular industry sectors or jobs, with scenarios, vocabularies and graphics relevant to these sectors and roles. Many of us had anticipated that this could be a spin-off from National Skills Academies but that didn’t really happen.

December 7, 2011  

Finding the Right Content Management System for Education

Umbraco – a CMS to bring designers and developers together – by Andrew McCaughan, Web Developer

NES Palliative Care PortalLike a lot of young developers, my misspent youth involved learning to program and build websites.  Once I heard of the concept of the Content Management System (CMS) I knew that I could bring these skills together and that I would make my fortune.

Alas, this was not meant to be.  Of course I made the CMS.  It was really good. You could add new pages, write blogs, add photos and you could even define the meta tags on each page.  Many incarnations of my personal website were powered by that wonderful little CMS but the time to develop it into a product was something that I did not have, or more accurately, I just didn’t want to spend the time developing it.  So, looking back at the subversion repository my last commit was 31st August 2007 at 3:40am.  It hasn’t been touched since.

Some people, though, had the intention to develop their CMS further.  In the world of .NET, there have been a number of successful CMS projects.  The bigger names come to mind – DotNetNuke (DNN) and Kentico.  These projects have been praised for their power but both projects have their drawbacks.

DotNetNuke has been praised for its power, its wealth of add-ons and the community that supports it are some of the smartest in the business but the experience for a web designer in DotNetNuke leaves a lot to be desired.

Kentico also has the power, the add-ons and the really talented people behind it.  It even bridges the gap between designer and developer but it can cost anything between £1299 and £9700.  They do have small business licence options if you call them and request a quote.

Since joining Aurion Learning, I have been challenged with finding the best CMS to deliver online learning and development.

For me, the best all round CMS built on .NET is Umbraco [http://www.umbraco.com].  Umbraco is the simplest, most powerful .NET CMS I have come across.  It’s also open source which means no additional licence costs other than the Windows Server it will run on.  One downside of course is the lack of support structure that you get from DNN and Kentico, however, the community that uses Umbraco is all you will ever need.  The developers are active in the community and there are plenty of local user groups starting to pop up all around the world.

Designers have the freedom to define their templates the way they want to.  They are not restricted by content areas defined by Umbraco, but can define the content area themselves.   CSS and images can be easily uploaded and managed within the CMS admin.  Our designers have remarked that Umbraco is as easy to use as WordPress but is more powerful.  Even non-technical staff, can maintain and update content easily.

Umbraco is highly extensible.  It comes with an API that allows you to develop your own features.  Before you decide to do this however, check the add-ons section on the ‘Our Umbraco’ community site [http://our.umbraco.org/projects].  There’s everything from blog modules to form generation plug-ins.

The results of building a website in Umbraco can be seen across the web.  Wired UK, Peugeot and Microsoft all rely on Umbraco for delivering content.  Aurion Learning have used it for our own website and for our customers. This past year we have developed two learning portals for the NHS Education for Scotland using Umbraco; Palliative Care in Practice  and Advanced Anticipatory Care and we have a few more in the pipeline for other customers.  We are also using it for our new Intranet and so far, it’s looking good.

In short, I definitely recommend considering  Umbraco for websites and particularly for delivering educational content.   If you need some more convincing, take a look at this useful whitepaper:  http://umbraco.com/media/197460/umbraco%20convince%20your%20boss.pdf

In future blog posts, we will look at Umbraco further and provide some useful tips in how to get the best out of  this fantastic CMS, particularly for e-learning.

November 29, 2011  

Do We Need SCORM?

By Glynn Jung, Non-Executive Director

Tracking E-learning

At a recent CEdMA Europe I was asked “what use is SCORM going to be in the future?”

Now, as this was in a discussion group composed entirely of the commercial Training Services divisions of the top IT hardware & software companies in Europe with a historically important revenue stream from Certification products, the question was pretty loaded.

I’d been reporting on trends amongst my clients who have recently been questioning the automatic assumption that all e-learning content must be (a) SCORM compliant, ensuring tracking and reporting and (b) delivered on an learning management system (LMS) of one sort or another.

We’ve been seeing a new philosophy developing, one which suggests that not all learning needs to be tracked: certainly personal development programmes falling out of performance reviews should be recorded and reported, as should continuing professional development (CPD) and certification or accreditation status. But with the certified/accredited status… effectively “license to operate” stuff, there’s a growing consensus that it’s the official assessment that matters and that SCORM hinders the design of engaging, effective learning programmes.

We know that those brilliant people at Rustici (www.scorm.com) are forging ahead with “Project Tin Can”, (essentially research of the ADL Consortium into next generation SCORM, including “Is there a need for a new SCORM?”) and that they regularly post new information on research and development, but they’ve recently launched their cloud version of IMS BLTI. BLTI provides a simple way for LMS users to incorporate remote tools into their system.

SCORM is underutilised in the education market. This is partly because the tracking that SCORM provides hasn’t always been valued in academic circles the way it is in corporate circles.

While it’s unlikely that Rustici will drop out of the world of SCORM, it’s clear also that IMS – including the MTI guidelines – and AICC are coming back into the picture as organisations choose to separate eLearning from mastery assessment and concentrate on assessment and learning as separate design activities.

In my own clients I am further seeing the use of pre-test or test-prep versions of the assessment, which includes feedback to the learner, whilst the master assessment simply posts either a Pass or Fail (or final marking) to SCORM.

Finally some of my clients involved in commercial certification and accreditation services are now discussing whether or not to make the e-learning content free-to-download or use online, whilst concentrating on enhancing the design and value of the assessments, which will then become as the principle revenue earning products.

 

November 22, 2011  

Aurion Learning forms a Scrum

Article by Barry Kelly, Product Development Manager

I know the rugby world cup is over and The Six Nations doesn’t start until next February, so why am I writing a blog about scrum?

Well for starters, it’s not that type of scrum. The scrum Aurion Learning is seeking to form, implement and adopt is an agile framework for completing complex projects.

What is agile project management?
Agile project management refers to methodologies for developing complex software; characterised by flexible and adaptive working processes, rapid response to change, iterative and incremental development.

There are many agile methodologies in practice today, such as Crystal Clear, Extreme Programming (XP), Feature Driven Development (FDD), Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM) each with their own merits. However I have selected scrum as in my experience, it’s the best agile development methodology (and if you don’t believe me ask the leading Fortune 500 companies who use it.)

What is Scrum?
Jeff Sutherland and Ken Schwaber created the scrum process in 1993, and the name “scrum” comes from a 1986 study in which Takeuchi and Nonaka compared high-performing, cross-functional teams to the scrum formation used by rugby teams. Scrum is now used by 75% of agile teams worldwide.

Ok, so what really is scrum? Well Scrum Alliance explain it very well in 30 seconds:

  • A product owner creates a prioritized wish list called a product backlog.
  • During sprint planning, the team pulls a small chunk from the top of that wish list, a sprint backlog, and decides how to implement those pieces.
  • The team has a certain amount of time, a sprint, to complete its work – usually two to four weeks – but meets each day to assess its progress (daily scrum).
  • Along the way, the Scrum Master keeps the team focused on its goal.
  • At the end of the sprint, the work should be potentially shippable, as in ready to hand to a customer, put on a store shelf, or show to a stakeholder.
  • The sprint ends with a sprint review and retrospective.
  • As the next sprint begins, the team chooses another chunk of the product backlog and begins working again.
  • The cycle repeats until enough items in the product backlog have been completed, the budget is depleted, or a deadline arrives.
  • Which of these milestones marks the end of the work is entirely specific to the project.
  • No matter which impetus stops work, Scrum ensures that the most valuable work has been completed when the project ends.

Scrum originally was formalised for software development projects, but works well for any complex, innovative scope of work. The possibilities are endless and the framework is deceptively simple.

My Scrum Hopes for 2012
In 2012, I hope to complete and deliver several large scale product development projects for Aurion Learning using scrum.

So what qualifications or skills do you need to rollout scrum in your organisation? Well first of all you need a Scrum Master. That’s me (second right).  I gained my CSM certification in Dublin, Ireland on June 05, 2009 under the excellent tutelage of Jens Ostergaard.

It’s now time to walk the walk. It will take a while to adopt and run smoothly and will certainly require a change to the status quo, but I have great hopes for its success and hopefully we can achieve the Toyota effect: (well-run scrums) four times industry average productivity and twelve times better quality.

I will provide you all with an update at the end of the first quarter and let you know how our scrum experiment is progressing.

Regards Barry

For Further Information on Scrum
If you would like to know more about scrum, check out the following video and website links which will give you all the information and certification details you require to get started.

Scrum dk
Scrum Alliance
Scrum Alliance Facebook Page
Scrum Basics (5 minute YouTube Video)

November 14, 2011  

Health Sector Focus: Identifying the Biggest Challenges in Delivering Learning

by Noleen Turner, Marketing Manager

In summer 2011, Aurion Learning hosted an e-learning masterclass in Dublin. Delegates came from the Irish Health Services Executive (national health service), health agencies, hospitals, and pharmaceutical companies from across Ireland, and included human resources, IT and training professionals. They all had one thing in common – responsibility for delivering learning and development across their organisations. Several delegates were already experienced in delivering e-learning and blended learning projects, while others hadn’t yet started the journey of online learning.

During the event, we wanted to get a better understanding of the challenges learning and development professionals in the health sector are facing today and so we carried out some market research with our delegates.

Here are our findings:

What is the biggest learning & development challenge facing your organisation today?

Management Issues

  • Lack of funding /resources/manpower
  • Lack of time to develop training
  • Securing management commitment
  • Learners not being given enough time to actually participate in training
  • Lack of structured training / continuing professional development

Developing Training

  • Identify what we want to do and can do – moving from strategy to implementation
  • Responding to learning needs with small training budgets
  • Achieving relevance
  • Adopting a coherent coordinated approach across a large organisation – multiple departments & contacting trainees.
  • Speed of delivery
  • Lack of confidence/competence in use of e-learning

Getting others on-board / Culture change

  • Changing the organisational culture into a learning culture
  • Securing buy-in from management & staff to blended and e-learning programmes
  • Low staff motivation
  • Resistance to change (moving from traditional face-to-face model to e-learning)

IT Issues

  • Knowing which technology to choose to support learning (learning management systems, e-learning authoring tools, learning portals etc.)
  • IT support
  • Staff access to IT systems and technologies (restriction to many educational websites/firewalls)
  • Administration support & maintenance of any systems developed.
November 7, 2011  

Top Tips: Marketing Your E-learning Programme

E-learning successIt doesn’t matter how great your e-learning programme is, if you don’t market it to the right people, get buy-in and get people to actually complete it, it will be a complete waste of time and money (two commodities that are in short enough supply today!)

So assuming you’ve got educationally sound content and your online delivery is engaging, how do you market your e-learning programmes, particularly when it isn’t mandatory or compliance based?

In my mind there are five key points to remember: start early; get support from the top; secure buy-in from your managers; get buy-in from your learners; and don’t stop.


1.    Start early

Don’t wait until you have a shiny new e-learning package ready to roll-out across the organisation. The marketing communications plan should start at the same time as project implementation. Inform people that the project is under way, highlight project milestones and tell them when it’s due to be delivered. Most importantly – explain why you are investing in e-learning in the first place and sell the benefits of this mode of learning. Use internal communications campaigns such as staff magazine, intranet, staff briefings, posters etc. to inform staff. Use external communications campaigns such as website, posters, leaflets etc. to inform external stakeholders, if necessary.

2.    Get support from the top

Get support from whoever is in charge of your organisation, for example your Chief Executive or Managing Director.  Make sure they know why you are doing the training in the first place – for example what changes or improvements to behaviour you are going to achieve as a result of the e-learning. Get them to lead by example by being the first to complete the e-learning programme, and show everyone that this is something the company is seriously committed to.

3.    Secure buy-in from your managers

Inform and involve your managers and team leaders about the e-learning programme from the very beginning. Sell the benefits of the training and of e-learning as this will help you get early buy-in and support from the people who work closest to front line staff.

 4.     Get buy-in from your learners

No-one likes being the last to know what’s going on. If you start raising awareness from the very start of the project, you’re more likely to get support from your learners. Tell them what’s going on and why. Use internal communications such as staff briefings, posters, staff magazine etc. to inform staff that the project is underway, and let them know when it will be rolled out across the company. Give regular progress updates.

 5.     Don’t stop

Remember – the marketing communications campaign doesn’t come to a stop when you roll-out the e-learning. It’s important to have sustained communications to remind everyone of why and when they should complete the training – and to chase up late completers. Some organisations publish completion statistics on a departmental basis – to encourage late completers to finish the training. Provide real feedback on how the training has been received by individuals in the organisation. This will convince others of the benefits of the learning. Most importantly of all – make sure you inform everyone of success stories – improved competence, cost savings, change in behaviour, return in investment etc.

November 7, 2011  

Welcome to the Aurion Learning Blog

Hello and welcome the Aurion Learning Blog.

Aurion Learning is an award winning online learning solutions company, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. We design, develop and deliver custom e-learning programmes, off-the-shelf e-learning catalogues, learning management systems, learning portals and continuing professional development (CPD) tools.

We’ve been around since 2000 but our staff have been designing and developing online learning solutions and software for many years.

In this blog we’ll be sharing some of our experiences (both good and bad) of designing, developing, project managing and marketing e-learning projects to help organisations bring about culture change, behaviour change, deliver compliance-based training, standardise training and improve performance.

We’ll bring you regular updates from our instructional designers, web designers, developers and project managers. We’ll also feature guest bloggers time to time.

Meet some of our regular contributors below:

Dr. Maureen Murphy

Dr. Maureen Murphy
Managing Director

Glynn Jung

Glynn Jung
Non-Executive Director

Barry Kelly

Barry Kelly
Project Manager

Noleen Turner
Marketing Manager

Lee Reilly
Web Designer

Andrew Mc Caughan
Web Developer

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