Using #lrnchat as an example of the benefits of an online social group

Discussion Task for Online Course: select one effective moderating principle that you feel most comfortable with OR most challenged by, briefly explain why.

I feel most comfortable with the principle of "Moderating Takes Place in Both a Professional and Social Context" because of the numerous social online communities I am currently involved in. The first 2 questions posed in this section of the text (Facilitating Online Learning) asks "if one would see any real benefits from participating in a cyber community" and the other "can the feeling of community be created online?"

I see both of these being answered with a loud and clear yes. I currently participate in a weekly online chat that takes place through Twitter called #lrnchat. Each week 3 questions are posted to the group over the course of an hour and a half. The benefits each week are that I know I am guaranteed to learn something new or be directed to a new elearning resource that I previously was unaware. Brainstorms occur constantly as the conversation progresses through the course of the evening. One can see an increased progression in the discussion and even the energy level as the dialogue goes back and forth from one participant to another.

As for the feeling of community, I too think this group has an overwhelming sense of community as once the event is complete the same people continue to chat the remainder of the week. They continue sharing information, asking questions of one another, looking for guidance, support, and motivation in regards to the own increased learning, careers and even personal goals.
The person that moderates gives the questions to the group, keeps the group basically on track and on time. However, because the discussion quickly takes a life of it's own, they too are able to participate further increasing the knowledge of the group.

What is truly wonderful is each week the group grows little by little and because it is an online event there are participants from all over the world involved. Primarily because of the timing most are from North America, but that is not a steadfast rule and because of that we each gain increased perspective from various cultures. I'm truly thankful to have found the group and even more grateful to the moderator for creating and maintaining the group weekly.

How I Created Help Tutorials for My LMS

Since I had so few people come out to my drop-in sessions about the new LMS I was completely unable to train the 2700+ staff on how to use the system. I do think that we were able to configure it and create labels that make it fairly self-explanatory. Also, although it looks nothing like something staff here familiar with online learning would be use to, I believe the navigation is similar and this should help minimize the panic calls that will inevitably come to me.

Another step to creating this LMS more user friendly is that I am creating small one to two minute tutorial videos for learners to walk through should they need help. I've broken them into very small chunks and the reason for my thinking here is to allow the user to only have to view those sections of the system where they need assistance.

The steps to create my little videos isn't quite as streamlined as one might imagine, but after doing 4 or 5 of them now, I believe I've got the process worked out.

1. First I open up the LMS as a student would. I take many screen captures walking them through one step to the next (i.e. the screens one would see when looking to see what courses they are enrolled in). There are tons of tools to use to grab a screen capture, but I've been using the function included within Evernote.
2. I put all my screen shots into PowerPoint and then add some "pretty" text bubbles to each screen shot explaining in a few sentences what they see on that screen. I then copy the text in the bubble into the notes area to function as a script for the tutorial.
3. Next (I'm using Articulate) I open up the option to record narration and I read the "script" out loud. I am not producing my tutorials with sound because too few computers here have speakers, but it does create a good timing mechanism for advancing slides based on the spoken text.
4. After this step, I use the annotations to highlight or point out what is being shown on that screen shot.
5. I then go into the Audio Editor and "silence" the sound on each slide I just recorded text on. This is more a cosmetic aspect because I don't want the speech to be accidentally heard if I produce the tutorial in a different manner. I haven't been reading the text as perfectly as I would want to if I was expecting someone to actually listen.
6. Once this step is done, I publish the file and then view it in my browser window.
7. The next piece was finicky only because of the intranet system we use and the LMS feeds into it. The intranet does not accept FLV files it only takes SWF files. The reason I say this is it would have been very easy to capture the published file with Screenr.com (another articulate fabulous tool). But I couldn't figure out how to get the flv to swf without buying something somewhere. So instead I minimize my browser window to "just the right size" use Jing and start walking through the tutorial I created.
8. As the tutorial indicates to the learner to advance the page, I do manually and the video capture continues to capture the entire tutorial as if it is running on its own. The reason for video capturing the tutorial and not just loading it is again an intranet quirk that doesn't let me load up all of the files that are created when one publishes a "course" using Articulate. It wouldn't matter what I used, the intranet allows one file at a time and that is all.
9. Finally on my "login" screen to the LMS I have listed beside the login button all the tutorials I have created. They are not perfect in that they are only 500 px x 375 px (again an intranet limitation). Within the LMS however, I also video captured the tutorials in a larger size so that they are readable.
10. Lastly I plan on breaking down the original slides I created and minimizing them into a more handy printable version as well that learners can take away with them should they choose too.

Here is an example of one of my tutorials (captured with Screenr.com):

Blog Action Day 2009 is October 15th

This year's Blog Action Day topic is Climate Change. I hope you will consider participating this year by donating one post on your blog to this topic. Take a look at the site to register your blog. There are currently 700+ registered reaching over 4 million readers.

"First and last, the purpose of Blog Action Day is to create a discussion. We ask bloggers to take a single day out of their schedule and focus it on an important issue.

By doing so on the same day, the blogging community effectively changes the conversation on the web and focuses audiences around the globe on that issue.

Out of this discussion naturally flow ideas, advice, plans, and action. In 2007 on the theme of the Environment, we saw bloggers running environmental experiments, detailing innovative ideas on creating sustainable practices, and focusing their audience's attention on organizations and companies promoting green agendas. In 2008 we covered the theme of Poverty, and similarly focused the blogging community's energies around discussing the wide breadth of the issue from many perspectives and identifying innovative and unexpected solutions. This year we aim to do the same for Climate Change, an issue that threatens us all." - http://www.blogactionday.org/

LMS Launched with a Successful Whisper

Well I was pleasantly happy to finally get the LMS I've been working on for the last 2 years up and running for the organization. Unfortunately the organization did not seem to share my enthusiasm for the event.

My wonderful idea of having open drop in sessions all day long (30 minutes in length) for staff to stop by and see the system, brought in a huge crowd of 15 people. Not great when there is a staff of 2700+. My webinars the previous week had about 30 management staff sit in and view the demo. Also, not great when there are about 120 on the management team. Finally, my sitting in the main lobby and letting people use laptops to try out the system saw one person come by and ask why I was there. Hence my tweet yesterday about how no one cares what you are doing unless you are giving away food or a prize.

So what lessons have I learned so far. I believe that since I work in a health care environment, just in time is what we live for. People are not interested in what the "next" thing is until the absolutely need to know about it. We run Core Curriculum every January (WHMIS, ER Codes, etc) and everyone is tested on these topics. Everyone knows about them. Everyone will now have walk through the material and quizzes online through the system. This is when they will look to me asking what it is and how they use the system. So a secondary roll out will be needed then. I doubt it will take the form of a drop in session, but more so visits to dept meetings.

I am actually a little glad that it came in quietly as it allows me further time to perfect a few quirks that I still see in existence. I can complete my help videos, which feedback so far has indicated are really well done and actually allow for little extra explanation. All the extra months work into getting the system to be extremely user friendly seems to have paid of as well in that those that did see it agreed it was very easy to navigate through. Between the tutorials and the layout the need for training may be minimized.

I am disappointed that 2 years of me working diligently came to a close with little fan fare, but at least I am extremely proud at the overall end result. I have had many requests now to begin to put this course and that course online, so the next large challenge will be to start learning how to schedule and produce these in a timely manner.

I shall keep posting about the LMS journey over the next few months and as mentioned the next large hurdle will be to get everyone to access it in January for the large education blitz.

Cheers to everyone who has offered so many words of encouragement through this project. You kudos, warm thoughts, and offer to lend your expertise in my times of wonderment have been invaluable!!!

(photo credit: By OneTHilllove )

LMS Launch Happens in 11 More Sleeps

Wow, I really can't believe that the day has finally come. It's been delayed countless times since Fall 2007 for one reason or another and now in 7 short business days (including today) it will be here in all it's glory.





(image retrieved from: Nasa http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/shuttle/shuttlemissions/sts121/launch/index.html, Sept 10, 2009)

I speak of our (MY) LMS. It's mine now. I've lost much of my sight peering deeply into my computer monitors over the last many months tweaking the system, finding faults, fixing and testing. I'm alone on my side of the project, but the overall launch has much to do with the great help I eventually received through the vendor to get the system just right. Once I had one true contact on the vendor's side things really begin rolling and we come to where we are now. A system that I think will suit our needs very well as we boldly step into the new Millennium. (Oh right we've been here for a while.)

I know it won't meet all our needs. Health care training is complicated. I'm finding that staffing alone is complicated and knowing who is responsible for which nurse is not as easy as you might think. However, it will do what we need it to do for an initial system. It will test our staff to see how willing they are to train using this method, it will push some of our more seasoned staff to try new things, it will force us to look at this entire need in a much different light and perspective.

My launch plan currently is to continue to test over the next few days (there are some minor glitches still occurring). I'm conducting 10 webinars for the management team members all next week so that they may get a look at the system. They have not yet seen any piece of the tool. Flyers will be distributed electronically and posted on our message boards for staff to see. I will be hosting 30 minute drop-in sessions on the launch day all day for staff to come and see what it looks like. Finally, I'll be in our main lobby the days following the launch over the lunch time shifts with several laptops so that staff may demo the system as I sit there.

Future plans will be some greater hands on training with educators and trainers that will need to create courses, track students, etc. I'm also anticipating that there will be a need to do some hands on training with staff to get them comfortable with using the system. I may deploy this as after hours webinars so that staff may look at it from their own homes. The only issue here is that we don't yet have a home access solution yet, but I talked to the right people on the right day and have the powers-that-be (IT Dept) looking at an extranet solution.

So I haven't written much in a while here, but I think you may see why now. I've been scrambling madly to get everything working, populated, piloted and ready to go. I'll continue to post on my experiences over the next few weeks as my "years' work" begins to come to a close and a new phase begins.