So I have been training and developing for 5+ years ( former teacher) but I don’t have a lot of experience with LMS or e-learning design. Anybody got any tips on where I can start learning different elements of this? I have built training courses using PowerPoint and guides with Screenshots on word.
But looking to expand my knowledge base. Any tips, books, or resources are helpful! - Happy Friday!
Are you looking to build technical skills or improve your online pedagogy? Or both!
Technical skills first. Are you happy to jump in and give things a go or would you rather take lessons then apply that knowledge? I’m a Moodle user and Moodle Cloud offers a free tier that’s good for learning how the system works, although you don’t get full access to the vast array of plug-ins.
Pedagogy? I undertook postgrad study through USQ and did an excellent module on Online Pedagogy and another on Informal Learning. Together they really helped me understand the power of an LMS as a tool for education.
This is a really complex question. E-learning is such a broad field there are a many ways you can go about doing it. Online pedagogy is probably the most important thing to learn, such as how to keep remote students engaged, how to build communities, how to provide meaningful feedback, especially on large courses. If you want to build training materials, that’s a small part of the skillset and you can use any technology from Powerpoint, Articulate or WordPress with Youtube videos but active online course development (rather than a set and forget approach) is a really challenging and interesting field. There are also certain skills you can teach the fundamentals of through simulations and computer games. The LMS is just a container for course materials with a gradebook, they are all very similar (Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard etc.) once you’ve learned one you should be able to get a handle on any LMS.
Teach yourself Articulate Storyline. There’s a strong online community with threads that answer a lot of common questions, so that’ll be helpful. Also, make sure to sign up for Articulate’s “E-learning Heroes” newsletters.
There is a ruth clark book on designing elearning.
personally I like to look at other people’s work and ahem… borrow their layout, interactions, etc.
since there are different authoring platforms you probably want to start with one of them and go from there. last I checked the most popular was the articulate suite.
I would suggest looking into ui/ux design, web design and educational media design