eLearning Roadtrip

eLearning Acronyms

I happened to see some of the chat from this morning's #Lrnchat talking about how all the acronyms in this discipline make people crazy.

Over the years I have written probably about 4 bazillion glossaries, sidebars and so on, listing acronyms and what they mean.

In the spirit of sharing with the EMEA #lrnchat crew, I have posted some of them here. I also have Acronym directories for specialized verticals in learning (e.g. mobile has its own language, as does experimental psychology, content authoring, knowledge management, etc.etc.) I will save those for subsequent posts. But these ought to get people started:

·         AICC: Aviation Industry Computer-Based Training Committee, an international association of technology-based training professionals that develops training guidelines for the aviation industry.

·       BMP (Bitmap Image): A graphic image stored as a specific arrangement of screen dots, or pixels. Web graphics are bitmap images. A graphic which is defined by specifying the colors of dots or pixels which make up the picture. Also known as raster graphics. Common types of bitmap graphics are GIF, JPEG, Photoshop, PCX, TIFF, PNG,

·       CMS (Content Management System): Software application that streamlines the process of designing, testing, approving, posting  and publishing digital content.

·       CSS (Cascading Style Sheet): A feature of HTML developed by the W3C. With Cascading Style sheets, both web designers and end users can create style templates (sheet) that specifies how different text elements (paragraphs, headings, hyperlinks, etc.) appear on a web page.

·       DHTML (Dynamic Hypertext Mark-up Language): DHTML is an HTML extension that allows web pages to react to the end users' input, such as displaying a web page based on the type of browser or computer end users are viewing a page with.

·       EPSS (Electronic Performance Support System): A program that provides on demand assistance on a discrete task. Considered to be a support tool or job aid. A good example of an EPSS is the built in help functions of many software programs.

·       F2F (face-to-face): Term used to describe the traditional classroom environment.

·       GIF (Graphics Interchange Format): A file format, and filename extension, for graphics files for display on web pages. Popular format as it provides the best picture quality to file size tradeoff. GIFs support 256 colors and are often used for Web images because they compress well.

·       GUI (Graphical User Interface): A way of representing the functions, features and contents of a program to a user by way of visual elements, such as icons, as opposed to textual elements, such as words and character strings. The Microsoft Windows operating system is the classic example of a program with a GUI.

·       HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The standard programming language for web content designed to be accessed by browsers.

·       ILT (instructor-led training): Usually refers to traditional classroom training, in which an instructor teaches a class to a room of students. The term is used synonymously with on-site training and classroom training.

·       LCMS (learning content management system): A software application that allows trainers and training directors to manage both the administrative and content-related functions of training. An LCMS combines the course management capabilities of an LMS (learning management system) with the content creation and storage capabilities of a CMS (content management system).

·       ISD (Instructional Systems Design): Term describing the systematic use of principles of instruction to ensure that learners acquire the skills and knowledge essential for successful completion of overtly specified performance goals.

·       JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group): A popular file format for photographs intended for display on web pages. The file extension is JPG. JPEG images allow for more colors than GIF images and are usually smaller in size.

·       LMS (learning management system): Software that automates the administration of learning/course delivery events. The LMS registers users, tracks courses in a catalog, and records data from learners; it also provides reports to management. An LMS is typically designed to handle courses by multiple publishers and providers. It usually doesn't include its own authoring capabilities; instead, it focuses on managing courses created by a variety of other sources.

·         MPEG (Motion Picture Experts Group) - A video file format offering excellent quality in a relatively small file. Video files found on the Internet are frequently stored in the MPEG format.

·       PDF (Portable Document Format): Created by Adobe Systems in its software program, Adobe Acrobat, read using Reader, a universal document browser.

·       RFP (Request for Proposal): The official document produced by an organization that requests vendor bids for specific products and services.

·       RLO (Reusable Learning Object): A specific chunk of content and code that represents an assessment, exercise, instructional content, etc. In theory, RLO's can be used in many different courses.

·       ROI (Return On Investment): Generally, a ratio of the benefit or profit received from a given investment to the cost of the investment itself. In e-learning, ROI is most often calculated by comparing the tangible results of training (for example, an increase in units produced or a decrease in error rate) to the cost of providing the training.

SCORM (Shareable Content Object Reference Model): SCORM is a series of e-learning specifications describing interoperable ways to store, launch and track course content and learner data.

·       SME - Subject Matter Expert: The member of a project team who is most knowledgeable about the content being instructed upon. Frequently, the SME is an expert contracted or assigned by an organization to consult on the training being created.

·       WBT (Web-based training): Any instructional event that can be accessed via the Internet or the Web.

·       WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get): Pronounced "wizzy wig," a WYSIWYG program allows designers to see text and graphics on screen exactly as they will appear when printed out or published online, rather than in programming code.

·       XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Mark-up Language): A hybrid of XML and HTML. Web pages designed in XHTML should look the same across all platforms.

·       XML (Extensible Mark-up Language) is a set of rules for encoding documents electronically. Although XML’s design focuses on documents, it is widely used for the representation of arbitrary data structures, for example in web services.

 Enjoy!

Next Week in Madison for #DTL_2010

If you are an elearning/ distance learning / online learning practitioner you should plan to join your peers and peeps at the 26th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching and Learning in Madison, WI August 4-6, 2010 at the Monona Terrace Conference Center. 

The conference has been addressing challenges facing practitioners and administrators of distance learning programs since 1984. Back in the day, a crew of learning activists from the University of Wisconsin and others were convinced that distributed education experiences were the answers for responding to the growing demand for adult education programs. They created a conference that brought together other like-minded non-traditional educators, researchers and administrators, all looking for alternatives to the traditional residential campus experience. After more than two decades, the conference has become a distance learning tradition.

Drs. Michael Allen, Jane Bozarth and Etienne Wenger are featured keynote presenters at this year's event. There are lots and lots of concurrent sessions – poster sessions – demo session – deep dives and short intensive blasts of information. Something for every learning preference and attention span.

I’m a long-time fan of the DTL conference. No attempt at objectivity here – for me the DTL conference has been a part of my summer for so long I can’t imagine not being there, except under extreme conditions.  I’ve keynoted, been a part of forums and panels and concurrent sessions, been an exhibitor and a sponsor. I am a total fan of the Conference team. I’m a University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate 2X, so I love to get back to Madison in August when the weather is magnificent.

WCET is pleased to be a part of this year’s conference exhibition – my colleague, Cali Morrison, will be on site to tell you about Transparency by Design, and College Choices for Adults an innovative “consumer education” project funded by the Lumina Foundation and managed in partnership with the Presidents’ Forum.

I’ll be wandering around, as well, so if you want to grab a coffee and talk about whatever is on your mind, ping me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/edwsonoma.

For more information about DTL 2010 click here

Hope to see you in "Mad Town"!

Back to the Future at #ET4online

Thanks again to the fine folks at Sloan C Emerging Technologies for Online Learning Symposium for inviting me to kick off the conference in San Jose this morning as the opening keynote speaker. Several people have asked for a copy of the slide deck; I have uploaded a PDF version of the slides here.  Download SLOAN C EMERGING TECH 2010 WAGNER I know that the Sloan team streamed the speech and that it will be archived later on during the conference. I believe you can find information on the archived presentation here.

Regarding the presentation....

Yes, it's true. I DID play the first opening bars of "Do You Know the Way to San Jose" and ask people if they knew the words that followed. I wanted to be sure that as long as we were all here together in San Jose that we could ALL enjoy that particular little earworm together as part of our conference experience. 

For the uninitiated....An "earworm" is a song that you can't get out of your mind.

Are you humming it yet?

And yes it is also true that I made gentle fun over the fact that - newsflash - the fine folks at Cal-Berkeley have recently discovered that there might just be something to this online learning thing. I brought my copy of last week's SF Chronicle - yes, the kind that folds up and gets newsprint on your fingers - to share that exciting news with the attendees. And yes, I am being more than a little facetious. Seriously, you Golden Bears...it's 2010. Cat's been out of the bag for, oh, I don't know....maybe 25 years or so. Seriously.

I even brought along a stack of my (paper) analyst reports from 1999 as empirical evidence to suggest that we've already been down this path a time or two.

And yes, it's also true that I poked at just about all of us in the room to mind some of the gaps that will eventually divide and conquer our collective efforts to make the world a better place for teaching and learning with technology, IF we can't get over our bad selves.   Research vs practice, academic vs corporate, innovation vs. implementation, products vs solutions, traditional elearning people vs emerging elearning people...

C'mon folks. If WE can't figure out how each of us can play our important parts in providing our stakeholders with eQuality experiences, then it calls the question - are we as good at online learning as we want to believe ourselves to be?

Gonna be a great few days. If you know the way to San Jose, c'mon over and join the fun.

Beyond "Rolling Our Own" Technology Solutions for Learning

The debates and discussions following the announcement of Blackboard's intention to purchase two of the the education-targeted web conferencing companies have been fascinating. I was particularly interested in a recent exchange between Dr. Phil Ice (who also goes by the Twitter name @technostats) and Dr. Gardner Campbell (who goes by the Twitter name @GardnerCampbell).

Here is the link to the post that Phil wrote on how Blackboard's acquisition targets and the recently announced partnership with Barnes and Noble may be good for higher education, and Gardner's thoughtful questions on said same post.

What caught my eye is the notion that the education community needs to develop the technical acumen to create to our own non-commercial, open source, community developed platforms and solutions that provide an alternative to evil corporate platforms and solutions (my words, not Gardner's or Phil's. They are both way too polite to say that.)

Not surprisingly, i DO have an opinion on the subject.

I'm all for innovation in education. It's hard to expect that we creative types wouldn't want to tinker with customizing apps to make learning better. But innovation for the sake of innovation and exploration is different from leveraging innovation to create true solutions in education that come from the application of technologies in practice. This is more than creating pilot projects and experimental programs. This is about encourage adoption of innovation in the service of teaching and learning where the impact - and value - is demonstrable, measurable and sustainable.

NO way that even the most technically proficient faculty will create commercially viable software that is able to compete on features, benefits and user support and sales/licensing/upgrade programs...because UNIVERSITY FACULTY AND STAFF ARE NOT IN THE SOFTWARE BUSINESS! Educators are in the education "business" - teaching, service, research. It's what educators do. It's really, really important. But it's just part of the bigger picture.

This is not to say that you can't start a software company...or that you can't do a nice job creating a nice little product for a niche market. It's just that it can be very very hard to serve two masters - in this case, a business agenda AND a research agenda.

Reliable, industrial-strength sustainable software solutions need more than a good idea and great intentions (and associations whose membership dues go toward funding) to succeed. Yes, I know about Sakai and other very good platforms that are being created by and for educators. Yes, I know a lot about the value of UGC, personalized learning environments, apps, etc. Great ideas. Interesting pilot programs. Great ways to test hypotheses.

But academics' day jobs are not aimed at managing platforms, architecture, code strings, patches, and APIs. (Technical documentation? We don't need no stinkin' documentation...something I did hear from one of the big-dog Sakai participant institutions not too long ago.)

At the risk of making my academic buddies cranky with me, this needs to be said out loud - Education change agents need to be okay with the fact that reliable, well-supported and maintained commercial platforms and apps are not inherently evil. They are flippin' commodities! You should expect them to work. If they don't, you stop buying them and look for other alternatives. You need to expect that your vendors will work with you to make sure you are making good decisions. If you don't feel the love from your vendor, you need to find other alternatives where you do.

 I believe this so much that I'm dedicating much personal energy to developing capacity at WCET to cut through the hyperbole surrounding emerging tech developments so that educators can quit feeling yanked by every acquisition announcement and new product release. I would so much rather see educators' energy spent on figuring out how to use what we know about motivation, pedagogy, design, assessment and so on to provide learning solutions that engage and inspire.

Educators are certainly going to find themselves/ourselves cobbling together assets and apps. But that's more like packing the car for a trip down the info-highway, not like building the roadbeds and bridges and on/off ramps that you need to actually move your well-stocked vehicle from point A to point B. We've gotta quit knee-jerk reacting about the perceived cost of licensing and start thinking about TRUE costs of ownership, and then focus on leveraging our knowledge and skills to making education work better for our various stakeholders.

Sigh. I wish there was a way to take education research peeps on field trips to the many tech companies that will be surrounding us while in San Jose for the Sloan-C conference...I expect it would be eye-opening.

Educators Beware - There's Hyperbole in the Air

For people who have to make decisions about implementing distributed programs and services, these times of impending changes and the market spin that accompanies that can be excruciating. SO much hand-wringing. Lots of sniping. It's hard to know who or what to believe.

For better or worse, there is a lot of fear, uncertainty and dread (FUD) dished in times of change...say, when a major acquisition is likely to have some impact on particular communities of practice.

So in the spirit of opening up some real dialogue on an important topic I would like to gently comment on some of the obviously heart-felt yet misinformed assertions from Valerie Schreiner, Senior Director of Product Management at Elluminate in a recent blogpost entitled Why is the true enemy getting the praise?

Huh?? True Enemy?? Seriously??

I'm assuming she is cranky that one of the very common responses from the announcement about Blackboard's intention to acquire Elluminate and Wimba is the expressed hope that WebEx and Adobe will step up their game in the education market. To which I also say "here, here".

May I offer a another perspective to inform the dialogue?

(Full disclaimers/disclosures - Blackboard is a client. So is Adobe Systems. Another client, the WICHE Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications (WCET) is an Elluminate customer, and I will soon be negotiating our ongoing services contract.  My employer, Sage Road, uses Connect for our virtual offices. All companies mentioned so far are sponsors and partners of WCET. We like them all very much, and are glad to be working with each enterprise.)

Let's be very clear. Adobe is not an elearning company. It is a software company, the biggest design software company in the world. Adobe produces tools, applications and frameworks used to build rich, engaging and empowering digital experiences of ALL kinds, including elearning in all of its various flavors. It sells platforms and tools to vertical markets including education, government, financial services, publishing, manufacturing, pharma and health care.

Even so, anyone who suggests that Adobe is not education focused isn't paying very close attention to market data. Adobe's education business is bigger than all of Blackboard, Inc. and its various impending acquisitions, several times over. Adobe's Education Leaders represent a global community of practitioners, researchers and decision-makers working at all levels of education. The Adobe Education team's portals, programs, certifications, publications and services are extensively used by institutions, agencies and governments around the world. Lots of education licensing programs, from ministries of education to individual institutions and school districts.

Adobe ceded the education market for web conferencing to Elluminate several years ago, after repeated attempts to work with Blackboard on integration efforts with Connect were pretty much spurned. (True story. Personal experience. I have scar tissue to prove.) It also seemed that every time Adobe worked to create a set of integrated apps with companies including Web CT and Angel, that Adobe got spanked by those Blackboard acquisitions just like everyone else did. Even so, 40% of the colleges and universities in the US still feature Adobe Connect implementations.

Seriously?? True Enemy?

I personally DO hope that Adobe sees this as an opportunity to re-visit its focus on providing web conferencing solutions to the education community, because I would like to see more competition in the web conferencing space now that Elluminate and Wimba will be one and the same.

But more than anything I would really like to see Elluminate show a little more restraint in name calling and put a little more energy into informing customer about what you are going to do for them going forward. Because THAT is really what your education customers want to hear.

I expect I will have a few things to say on this topic when I see many of you at the upcoming Sloan C conference in San Jose this week. Stay tuned.

Elluminate, Wimba and Adobe Connect, Oh, My

I heard from a few of my education friends after posting yesterday's report from Blackboard World. To be honest, several asked point blank what  I was thinking to take a positive stand on this particular acquisition development in higher education learning tech. I know that some were surprised because I have been such an Adobe fangirl in recent years. (And yes, it's true. I am a great fan of Adobe Connect.) Some remembered my own challenges working  to get Adobe products better integrated within the various WebCT and Blackboard platforms, and frankly asked me if I have lost my mind. And perhaps I have. But I do have a reason for this particular stand.

Here is my position on the subject. In my mind, there is no question that Adobe Connect is a great conferencing  product. I think it's the best one out there.  The challenge though, is that a good education product that lives in a non-educationally focused company doesn't get the enterprise, sales or customer service support that are essential for successful and sustained adoption. 

I would LOVE to see the rock-star Adobe .edu team leverage this with the Adobe Connect product team (hint, hint, hint). But this is where my cynicism kicks in. I just have a few too many battle scars from fighting that good fight to have much hope for that.

And so I look for silver linings. With all respect to those who want to build open systems and find open resources, sometimes its just really important to have the option of a dependable integrated product that pulls all the pieces together for those us us that don't want to "roll our own" education technology. Does that mean that I think people should rush out and buy? Well, only after you've done your due diligence and if it makes sense. Mostly what I want is for people to take a deep breath and consider alternatives for getting their work done reliably and effectively. That demands choice. There ARE choices.

(Some positive news for those that are still freaking....I have heard here is that Elluminate and Wimba - the new Collaborate platform will continue to be available  independently from Blackboard Learn.)

Blackboard Takes eLearning to the Education Enterprise

This morning's blogpost is coming to you from the fountain-filled lobby of the Gaylord Palms Hotel, the site of this year's Blackboard World, Developers' Conference and Institute. Last week's news about Blackboard's intention to acquire web conferencing companies Elluminate and Wimba has guaranteed that this week's event will be even a little more exciting than usual..When the word of the acquisitions hit the street last week, the ripples through the ether were palpable enough to pull me away from vacation and back to internet-connected devices to see what the heck was going on in the tweetstream and blog-o-spherer. I wasn't disappointed. Poor Tony Bates remarked that he was "as depressed as a Netherlands soccer supporter" about this news, noting that this was likely the end of the LMS as we know it. 

But George Siemens wrote an insightful blogpost  in which he offered a more positive perspective. Even though George noted that the company is "... is unable to write a press release that includes clear statements like “we have purchased these companies” he goes on to say that he wants to "give the company credit for their acquisition of Elluminate and Wimba. He further notes that: "Blackboard’s purchase marks an important shift in trajectory – even maturation – for the LMS marketplace. Integration, not the platform itself, is now the critical focus. LMS companies have for years formed partnerships with content producers and with synchronous tools – I believe both BB and Desire2Learn had partnerships with Elluminate and Wimba. To be effective in the long term, large LMS companies will need to pull more and more of the education experience under their umbrella. Why? Well, technology is getting complex. Very complex. Which means that decisions makers are motivated (partly out of fear of appearing ill-informed, partly out of not wanting to take risks) to adopt approaches that integrate fairly seamlessly across the education spectrum. Why buy an LMS when you can buy the educational process?"

I'm not really concerned that Blackboard is circumventing educational processes, per se...remember, people, we're still talking about platforms and tools here. I do think it's notable that for the first time in elearning history there actually is a solution provider in the distributed learning technologies that will be offering an integrated, full -service platform alternative. Especially to education customers. This is a big deal. 

Several years ago the Chronicle of Higher Ed was contracted by Adobe Systems to do some market analysis on the elearning market in education. More than half of the people responding to the Chronicle survey indicated that when they thought of elearning in education, the company that they thought of was...drumroll please...none other than Blackboard. Even though Adobe has a strong education footprint, the fact is that when it comes to elearning in education the market turns toward Blackboard. In the past couple years Blackboard has made several smart strategic acquisitions, including what is now BB Connect, BB Mobile Ed and, of course Angel / Backboard Learn. Now we see the two educationally oriented web conferencing companies about to become part of the Blackboard brand. More than anything, this tells me that elearning has come back from the margins and is now a part of mainstream educational life.

Not suggesting that this is going to be right for everyone; like George and Tony, I would be happy to see open source alternatives have their day in the sun, as well. For me this is really about giving educators and trainers the right tools for the job, so I am all about choices. But I am also serious about having learning technology practitioners see they they are just as deserving of true enterprise solutions as a major corporation. For so many people, having to figure out how to make all the various piece parts of a platform work together can such the energy for elearning out of a room faster than just about anything I can think of.

I would hope that for those educators who are thinking that the world is over can remember that there are plenty of places where education needs revolutionary zeal and commitment. There are still battles to be fought and won. Maybe it's time for our elearning energies to move beyond the platform and to focus on the things we want to DO with the platform.

Yes, I DO have a Point of View

In the few moments since I posted my rant about a recently posted article by a leading higher education newspaper publisher, I received a note from a colleague suggesting that perhaps it might not be such a good idea to poke at a major publisher in my particular vertical market space. Especially when on the verge of rolling out the first of the news things that my organization, WCET, will be launching over the next few months. (Since we're not quite launched yet I am not going to include the links here....if you are really curious you can find us on "the Google". PS - We are not the TV station in Ohio.)

Here's a little preview of what's coming up for us: The WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies is the leading higher education cooperative focused on accelerating adoption of innovation and learning technology excellence. We've been a community of practice since before community of practices were cool. In the past six months we've been preparing an  agenda for our institutional, corporate, foundation and SHEEO members that focuses on support and services needed in a time where things are changing like crazy and money is tight. We are a collective helping each other do our jobs better than we could ever do alone.

My POV about the Chronicle article and Flash is mine. Has nothing to do with WCET. 

Since WCET is a like-minded collection of fair-minded people, doing their collective best to serve the needs of learning technologies communities, I don't expect that anyone is going to get too cranky that I expressed an opinion on a subject about which I know a thing or two. 

Seriously? You Call This Flash Bashing Journalism??

This morning's digital edition of the Chronicle of Higher Education featured a story that is such a cheesy, headline-seeking piece of writing that I simply can't help calling the question - Do you guys really call this kind of brand-mongering, SEO-sucking, sensational silliness "journalism"???

Maybe I do have a soft spot for my former employer. I'm not shy about being an Adobe Systems products fangirl. Well, some products, anyway. Nonetheless, to lead with a headline about how Flash threatens the security of student records, citing a research study that is unavailable for public review that looks for ways to hack code and then suggest that Flash is at fault for the servers under faculty desks that university IT cannot control.  Wha-a-a-???? That just seems over the top to me. But maybe I am being old-fashioned.

Here, take a look and see what YOU think: 

Flash on College Websites May Pose Security Risk to Students

I will say that I was glad to see that the letters posted to the article have been calling the same general questions that I am, so I don't think I am too far off base. 

With all the real issues that education needs to deal with where learning technologies are concerned this just seems like a sad way to distract from things that really matter.

Thank you for letting me share. I feel much better. 

Have a great weekend.