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Tracking: what is it, and what purpose does it serve?

As described in our e-learning glossary,”Tracking is done via the LMS platform, to gather teaching information about learners’ progress through their e-learning course: time spent on distance training, number of log-ins, scores earned on online assessments, etc.”. This valuable intelligence, which is directly tied to a learner’s advancement through an e-learning module (or SCO, “Sharable Content Object”), will enable trainers to respond with rigorous, personalised online mentoring (following up with each learner, studying the recorded results, sending reminders, offering support, etc.).

So tracking is crucial - but not using just any distance learning tool!

Indeed, it is impossible to begin tracking with a simply average e-learning tool. In order to track a SCO on an LMS platform, the two must be compatible: this is called interoperability. Standards within the distance learning market, particularly the widely-used SCORM standard, guarantee interoperability between a SCO and an LMS. Following the SCORM standard ensures that the advanced feature of learner tracking will be available for distance learning content and LMS platforms. In short, where tracking is concerned, it’s best to use SCORM-compliant tools! The AICC standard also makes tracking possible, but it is less commonly used: a good e-learning solution will be compatible with both standards.

Tracking applied to the case of mobile learning

Although mobile learning is a developing trend in distance training, driven by growing demand from companies, few publishers of e-learning solutions offer suitable authoring tools compatible with the SCORM standard that can be used to produce m-learning modules. As such, you must carefully research the software solutions you intend to use. The inevitable distance between learner and trainer in m-learning, for example, absolutely must be compensated for with conscientious online follow-up. Failing this, distance learning will become less productive.

To design your own remote training courses, or to sub-contract their creation, go to the e-doceo website.

Together, the teaching resources (either temporary or permanent) generated by human resources departments for blended learning courses are referred to as “teaching materials.” These formally and informally generated teaching materials accumulate over time into teaching assets. Ultimately, teaching materials represent the company’s formalised expertise.

4 types of teaching material

We can distinguish between formal or “traditional” materials, and informal materials, which are innovative content often created virally. What are the 4 components of teaching material, who do they target, and what role do they play?

–>Components: formal materials intended for learners
These materials allow learners to keep a record of the course they have taken.
Examples: slide shows (PPT), duplicated notes, e-learning modules, video and audio files, etc.

–>Components: formal materials intended for trainers
This type of material is significant, because it can be used to reproduce an identical training session, with the same teaching quality.
Example: the teacher’s guide, a complete road map for the trainer, specifically defines the process to follow and steps to be taken when teaching a course.

–>Components: informal materials intended for learners
This type of content results from work by a community and is spread through social learning tools (blogs, wikis, forums, etc.).
Examples: notes, feedback, etc.

–>Components: informal intangibles intended for learners
This refers to the mentoring provided by teachers to those learning from them. “Informal intangible components, such as mentoring, represent an extremely volatile form of teaching expertise since they are generally not structured and remain ‘invisible’ ” (excerpted from the white paper  “Optimising teaching assets: the new challenge for HR”).
Examples: mentoring, coaching.

Once an entity’s teaching materials are recognized, the next step is to put them to use and optimise them as much as possible in order to convert them into a true strategic advantage… but the question is, how?

To design your own remote training courses, or to sub-contract their creation, go to the e-doceo website.

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TvLearn: your trainers on the Internet

TvLearn is a technology developed by the e-learning software publisher e-doceo for quickly producing training content. This learning methodology is part of the trend described as “rapid learning”, which simplifies e-learning design through the production of short transmissive content (see our article “Rapid learning: advantages and drawbacks”).

The TvLearn feature, available in the rapid learning software elearning animgallery, enables trainers or teachers to simultaneously record their webcam and their microphone, capture their PowerPoint or make screen films. In just a few clicks, the e-learning module is in the box and ready to be broadcast to learners.

Rapid learning and vocational training, the winning combination

For companies, the use of rapid learning presents significant advantages, first of all for trainers:

- The internalised production and broadcast of content rendered in a condensed way within a rapid learning module of a few minutes only. The impact of e-learning is thus maximised

- No waste of time for them because a rapid learning module using TvLearn technology takes only a few minutes to shoot

But also for learners:

- A round-up of important information that needs to be remembered

-Viewing at will, in any place and at any time

-A standardisation of the skills acquired by all learners

Companies which choose to combine e-learning with their so-called conventional face-to-face training, significantly optimise the strength of their training. The case of the Moser School shown in the documentary shot by Radio Télévision Suisse is a good example of the successful inclusion of e-learning, in this case in a training centre. The increasing number of organisations that are engaging in the production and broadcast of rapid learning classes proves the strength and relevance of blended learning (the kind of learning that combines face-to-face training and e-learning, also called mixed training).

To design your own remote training courses, or to sub-contract their creation, go to the e-doceo website. 

*Féfaur

An LCMS is a system designed to create and manage teaching materials for blended learning (distance or classroom-based). It is first and foremost a space used to centralise learning content, rendering it easy to search, identify and reuse at any time, whatever the training needs.
The LCMS provides tools for creating training content, that is then manipulated by the teaching design teams, not by the learners.
The LCMS platform is thus intended for training production experts and is used upstream of content dissemination (this 2nd step is performed via an LMS platform).

LCMS : definition and principle of use

Acronym of Learning Management System

The LMS platform is a training dissemination tool, with particular emphasis on distance training. As an online platform, the LMS serves learning content to learners, records training monitoring data (score, time spent, etc.) and facilitates course tutoring.
The LMS platform enables trainers to upload distance training content, but also to precisely monitor and organise the learning courses for their learners. These learners’ results are results are recorded and the LMS generates comprehensive results of their progress through the distance learning course. For learners, the LMS platform is seen as a website onto which they log and access their own distance training content.
In summary, the LCMS is not an LMS to which an authoring tool has been added, but rather a distinct software family in its own right.

LCMS vs LMS : overview of differences

To design your own remote training courses, or to sub-contract their creation, go to the e-doceo website.

What is HTML5?

HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is one of the fundamental data languages used to represent web pages by means of tags. Viewable online, HTML documents are accessed using web browsers (Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Safari, etc.).
The HTML language is about to undergo its fifth major upgrade with HTML5, aimed at preserving maximum compatibility of websites over all commercially available computer terminals (personal computers, smartphones and touch tablets). The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is currently preparing its guidelines for this standard, that it only intends to publish in 2014.

HTML5 in a transition phase

Despite the widespread interest in this technology, HTML5 remains in a state of transition, though this does not appear to discourage companies in the least. Many of these companies are progressively adopting HTML5, particularly in the distance training sector, in which this technology is used to produce mobile training content:  in this case, we refer to “m-learning”, or “mobile learning”.
Currently, most e-learning software applications use Flash, which is dedicated to PC/Mac terminals, to create and disseminate interactive and animated training content. e-Learning software publishers are progressively adapting their products to the rise in mobile learning. Training content for distance training must now be able to offer optimum compatibility with all web browsers and computer platforms. There is, however, one considerable drawback: HTML5 is a standard whose outlines have not as yet been drawn. This is thus currently causing a major tag homogeneity and interpretation problem, that varies according to the browser used.

HTML5 + Flash : a winning combination!

In distance training, the mobile learning trend is getting stronger by the day, causing an increasing demand in terms of training content production and dissemination over mobile terminals.
The main challenge for users and, consequently, for e-learning software publishers, is to offer tools able to make use both of Flash and HTML5, thus offering dual compatibility and covering the entire distance training market.

To design your own remote training courses, or to sub-contract their creation, go to the e-doceo website.

More information ? http://www.e-doceo.be/inscription.php (FR) or http://www.e-doceo.be/nl/inscription.php (NL)