e-learning design, development, and trends

Learner-centric. Organize
things for the good of the learner, not the instructor and not the institution.
The core tenet of eLearning.

Learning. To gain knowledge or information of; to ascertain by inquiry,
study, or investigation; to acquire understanding of, or skill; as, to
learn the way; to learn a lesson; to learn dancing; to learn to skate;
to learn the violin; to learn the truth about something.

LMS or Learning management system. eLearning infrastructure. At the simplest
level, a tracking system. LMS’s range from simple course-by-course registration
systems to humongous, real-time databases that deal with personalization,
learning prescriptions, job competencies, and parsing learning objects.

LCMS.
Learning content management system. An LCMS is a multi-user environment
where learning developers can create, store, reuse, manage, and deliver
digital learning content from a central object repository.

Learning
object. A machine-addressible “chunk” of
learning. When labeled with metadata, an eLearning system can mix and
match learning objects to create individualized learning experiences.
Controversy swirls around the question, “How large is a chunk?”
A course is too large — that’s yesterday’s object. A couple of sentences
is too small — you would lose the context that provides meaning. Think
five or ten minutes.

Learning service provider. Delivers eLearning - including learning
management — over the Internet. A learning ASP. Focus in-house IT on
core processes; outsource eLearning to an LSP.

LOMBARD.
Lots Of Money But A Real Dickhead. Coined by The Economist. Sometimes
applied to vulture capitalists.

Low-hanging
fruit: In an apple
orchard, itâ??s the apples on the low branches. In business, itâ??s
the easy sales to get. Problem: You run out of low-hanging fruit long
before you become profitable.

Megasite. On the Web, a destination site
that links to other worthy sources of information.

Meme.
A self-replicating idea that propogates through people and networks, much
like comptuer viruses. A thought-gene. Coined by Richard Dawkins.

Metadata.
Information about information. Often, “metatags” that describe
what’s inside a chunk of learning. Generally machine-readable. Analogous
to a barcode on an incoming shipment.

Meta-Learning.
The process of learning. Learning to learn is a major component. See Meta-Learning
Lab.

Meta-tags
- Descriptive labels applied to media assets, pages, information objects
and/or learning objects that describe the object so it can be managed
more effectively. Machine-readable.

M-learning.
Mobile learning. Learning delivered or augmented by an untethered
device, for example by cell phone, WiFi PDA, wearable with headmounted
display, or wireless tablet.

Moblog.
Combination of “mobile” with “blog,” moblogs are websites where people
can post pictures taken with mobile phones in real time.

Nurnburg funnel.
Source of the metaphor of training being akin to pouring knowledge
into a person’s head.

Ontology.
The capstone of the Semantic Web. XML describes what the data is. RDF
explains what the XML tag means in our context. An Ontology describes
how all the pieces fit together.

Paradigm drag. When old thinking holds back new.
From David Gelernter’s Machine Beauty: Elegance and the Heart of Technology.

Peer to peer.
When the PC is both client and server, able to swap resources directly
with other PCs. Resources? Files, songs, videos, processor cycles, disk
space. This wil be big for self-organizing teams.

Performance. The goal of learning. AKA productivity, results. It’s relative
to context. Decide what constitutes performance, then design the learning
to support it.

Performance support.
Learning imbedded in work. Microsoft’s talking paperclip and ‘Wizards’
that guide users through applications are examples.

Permalink.
A permanent marker
or reference point to a certain document on the world wide web. Most
commonly used for weblogs, news sites and newspapers. A permalink is denoted
through the use of a symbol (pound sign, arrow, dot), date of content
creation, the word permalink or image.

Personalization. Learning opportunities tailored to the learner’s background,
style, previous knowledge, etc. ‘Mass customization’ and ‘1:1 marketing’
applied to learning. Results are saved time, accelerated learning, more
wheat/less chaff, phenomenal performance gain.

Portal.
1. Synonyn for entry screen. Widely hyped 1998-1999 because anyone can
imagine the utility of an in-house Yahoo. 2. Transactional portal. A front-end
which lets you do as well as see things.

Problem.
Sometimes, a way of blinding oneself to new opportunities. Dr David Cooperrider
says â??Once we describe something as a problem, we assume that we
know what the ideal is - what should be - and we go in search of ways
to close any â??gapsâ?? - not to expand our knowledge or to build
better ideals.�

Pronoia.
The belief that the world is conspiring to make you happy and successful.

RDF -
Resource Description Framework. A dictionary and thesaurus for XML tags
that sits between XML and an ontology.

RLO -
Reusable Learning Object. A discrete chunk of reusable learning that teaches
one or more terminal objectives.

RSS
- Real Simple Syndication, among other definitions. A format for syndicating
blogs.

Search learning.
When you learn from perusing Amazon, looking up topics on Google, or paging
through business magazines on the airplane.

Semantic Web.
Will enable computers to talk with one another. How we will address “the
difference between information produced primarily for human consumption
and that produced mainly for machines. At one end of the scale we have
everything from the five-second TV commercial to poetry. At the other
end we have databases, programs and sensor output. To date, the Web has
developed most rapidly as a medium of documents for people rather than
for data and information that can be processed automatically. The Semantic
Web aims to make up for this.” Tim Berners-Lee in Scientific
American.

SCORM. Sharable
Content Object Reference Model. Standards are very popular; that’s why
there are so many of them. SCORM is the Federal government’s standard.
It seeks to track and manage courseware developed by various authoring
tools using a single system. The objective is to bring together diverse
and disparate learning content and products to ensure reusability, accessibility,
durability, and interoperability. Built on the work of AICC, IMS, the
IEEE, and others. See www.adlnet.org
for the latest. Coming under fire for narrow focus on self-directed learning
as well as for military backing.

Shelf-life.
Knowledge is perishable. Some suggest it be labeled with pull-dates, like
cartons of milk. (And others point out that spoiled milk may have been
put in the eLearning bottle to being with.)

SOAP - simple object access
protocol. Describes how one application talks to a Web service and asks
it to perform a task and return an answer. SOAP makes it possible to use
Web services for transactionsâ??say, credit card authorization or
checking inventory in real-time and placing an order. See Web
services.

Synchronous.
[pretentious] Live event.

Tacit/explicit
knowledge. Tacit knowledge is knowing how; it’s impossible
to transfer to it you in words. Explicit knowledge is the opposite —
you’re reading it right now.

Technophilia.
The belief that technology will solve all ills. Especially prevalent during
the dot-com delusion, fostered by Wired magazine.

Timing. The
first 90% of a development project takes 90% of the time. The remaining
10% also takes 90% of the time.

Training. An attempt to impose learning, often more at the convenience
of the provider than the learner.