E-learning tools and technologies

What tools and technologies does your organization need for e-learning? This workshop will guide you in preparing a detailed technology plan to support your organization’s business goals and your learning objectives.

You will learn how browsers, plug-ins, servers, LMSs, LCMSs and other software components work and how they are interdependent. You will also learn about networks, servers, development workstations, accessing workstations, and all the other pieces of equipment that are needed to prepare, offer, and take an e-learning product.

This workshop is your opportunity to learn and ask questions about the hardware and software needed to author, offer, and access e-learning.

You will learn to:

• Identify the types of tools necessary to support specific business and learning goals.
• Research and evaluate candidate tools and technologies.
• Incorporate industry standards to safeguard your investments in technology.
• Cost-justify major system purchases.
• Avoid being fooled by fast-talking sales representatives, slick brochures, or staged demos.
• Integrate e-learning technology with other corporate systems and policies.
• Develop a technology plan that specifies the tools and technologies needed and how they will work together.

Length: 2 days

Taught by: William Horton

William Horton helps people make the transition to e-learning. His books include D helps people make the transition to e-learning. His books include Designing Web-Based Training, E-learning by Design, Getting Started with Online Learning, Evaluating E-learning, Using E-learning, and E-learning Tools and Technologies. He also created www.DesigningWBT.com, and designed a network-based knowledge-management system. William Horton is a registered Professional Engineer, an MIT graduate, and served on ASTD's E-learning Certification Commission.

Base price: US$9,000, inside North America, for 25 students. For customization and variations, see our classroom training overview.

• Who should attend?
• Core topics
• How will I learn?
• Variants and customization
• What else will I receive?
• Audiovisual requirements

Who should attend?

This workshop is for chief learning officers, training managers and executives, human resources managers and executives, information technology managers, and others responsible for e-learning initiatives in their organizations, especially those involved in selecting, justifying, and integrating e-learning technologies. It is also for training supervisors, empowered team leaders, and others who want to participate in decisions about e-learning tools and technologies.

Technical people will learn about the business and political issues surrounding choosing tools and technology. Business managers will learn the terms and concepts necessary to speak “technicalese” to their IT staff.

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What does this workshop cover?

In this workshop you will prepare a comprehensive technology strategy custom-tailored to the business goals and constraints of your organization. This workshop will guide you in making the key strategic decisions necessary to identify, justify, evaluate, and integrate tools and technologies for e-learning. We will answers questions such as:

• What is e-learning and what technology does it require? What are the different forms of e-learning and what technology does each require? How do I decide among dozens of categories and thousands of products?
• What do I really need? How do my business goals and my role determine what tools I need? What technologies are needed for developing, assembling, and offering e-learning? What can I outsource?
• What technology do learners need? What combination of browsers, viewers, and players do learners need to take e-learning? Can I control what learners use to take my e-learning? How will learner’s choices of technology constrain my e-learning designs?
• What hardware and network resources will I need? What types of computers and networks are needed to create, offer, and take e-learning? Is my network fast enough? What do I do when the information technology department says no?
• What do I need to author e-learning? What tools will my organization need to create and integrate the media needed for e-learning? How do I set up an efficient workflow? How can I convert PowerPoint slides, Word documents, and other existing training materials for use in e-learning?
• How do I support online collaboration? How can conferencing and communications systems make e-learning as interactive as the best classroom training? What collaboration capabilities are needed for e-learning? Do I need a dedicated conferencing system or service? Should I purchase a virtual classroom system that integrates many separate capabilities?
• Do I need a learning management system? Will a LMS make my training efforts more efficient and effective—enough to pay for the system in this lifetime?
• Do I need a learning content management system? How is a LCMS different from a LMS? How can it help me create reusable learning objects? And what exactly are reusable learning objects?
• What standards should I follow? What are AICC, SCORM, IMS, IEEE-LTSC, and the rest of the alphabet soup? Which apply to what I do? How do I build standards into my requests for proposals? Into my e-learning products? And what about quality standards, such as ASTD’s e-learning certification?
• How do I justify purchases? How do I calculate the costs, benefits, and return on investment for e-learning tools? How do I convince my management to fund the project?
• How do I avoid getting bamboozled? What are the two magic words that stop technology salesmen and zealots in their tracks? How do I see through slick brochures and staged demos? Which vendors will be in business a year from now? When should I just wait for prices to drop and products to evolve?
• How do I integrate e-learning into my organization? How must e-learning tools integrate with enterprise resource planning, customer relationship management, and human resources information systems?
• What the L is XML? XML is just for geeks, right? What does XML do for the organization? How can it help me meet regulatory requirements?

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How will I learn?

When you enter the classroom, you will be entering a hype-free zone. Your instructors have no brand loyalty and receive no stipend from any vendor. They will present a panoramic catalog of the software and hardware you and your learners will need. And, they will suggest specific techniques to evaluate and choose them.

Variants and customizations

We can adapt the basic workshop to better fit your specific needs:

• Base major activities on your materials (+ $1000 USD).
• Use your materials as examples throughout (Call for price).
• Critique your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
• Base workshop on a critique of your work (+ $4000 USD).
• Redesign your current work (adds 1 day, $2000 USD).
• Video-recording for replay by other members of your department (+ $4000 USD).
• Follow-up Webinars (+ $1000 USD per 90-minute Webinar).
• Hands-on computer exercises using laptop computers or a computer lab. (Call for pricing and requirements).

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What else will I receive?

Besides the knowledge and skills you acquire, you will receive:

• Access to spreadsheets for calculating the benefits return on investment, network speeds for e-learning technologies.
• A copy of the book E-Learning Tools and Technologies by William Horton and Katherine Horton.
• Worksheets, planning forms, and resource lists.

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Audiovisual requirements

To successfully present this course at your location, we will need the following:

• Computer screen projector with 1024 x 768 NATIVE resolution. Some projectors can project 1024 x 768, but only by stretching or shrinking the output to a different scale. These projectors will not work.
• Speaker and amplifier for computer sounds. Must be able to take output from the computer's stereo-mini plug.

It would be nice to also have high-speed Internet access for showing live examples. We will need to get through your routers and around your firewall.

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