Last week I was at the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference, presenting a workshop (with Jennifer Chadwick of SiteImprove) on accessible elearning (the resources are available on Microassist’s website.) This year’s CSUN was somewhat lightly attended, due to cautions regarding COVID-19 (and I found I needed to leave earlier than expected). Still, even with the reduced number of sessions and the lighter attendance, the dedication that people have for ensuring that all experiences[…]
READ MORE about Takeaways from the 2020 CSUN Assistive Technology ConferenceInstructional Design
Project Spotlight: Verbal De-escalation Training for the National Center for Campus Public Safety
The following summarizes Microassist’s work developing a Verbal De-escalation training program for the National Center for Campus Public Safety. The project was recognized with the 2019 Leaders in Learning award from the Austin Chapter of the Association of Talent Development. Issue Today’s institutions of higher education present both new and continuing demands of professionals responsible for maintaining safety and security on campuses. The National Center for Campus Public Safety’s Verbal[…]
READ MORE about Project Spotlight: Verbal De-escalation Training for the National Center for Campus Public SafetyThe Positives of a ‘Foolish Consistency’
“A foolish consistency,” Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” I have, it seems, a very little mind. I adore consistency. And documentation, especially documentation surrounding expectations, enables a consistent approach, not only in training design, but also in working with training teams. If team members know the expectations, they also know what they need to achieve. We use[…]
READ MORE about The Positives of a ‘Foolish Consistency’Should My Training Team Use a Style Guide?
Yes. Until next time, Kevin Okay, perhaps a bit more explanation. A style guide is just one form of documentation that I talked about last month. And I’ve mentioned style guides here and there in the past. I’m a big believer in style guides. This admiration isn’t universal. Several people I’ve met think they’re too restrictive. Shouldn’t the designer have the ability to use whichever font, whichever color, whichever layout,[…]
READ MORE about Should My Training Team Use a Style Guide?The Case for Documentation
Do you hate documentation? You have to create it, keep it up-to-date, use it, make sure that other people use it. And there’s always the risk that you spend more time maintaining it than you spend working on the actual project. And yet… I adore and (attempt to) follow the Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition—we’re a bit behind the times). I know it’s 1026 pages on topics like when[…]
READ MORE about The Case for Documentation3 Tips for Raising the Quality of Your Training
Quick Tips to Improve Training Quality Creating elearning can be both time-consuming and intense. To help make it a little easier, here are three tips that can have an outsized effect. Link objectives to content. If you use an objective-driven process (and you should), include a text reference to each objective when you write the content related to the objective’s topic. How does this help? It ensures that the screen[…]
READ MORE about 3 Tips for Raising the Quality of Your TrainingDoes Your Elearning Team *Always* Need an Interaction Catalog?
When Informal Communication Succeeds: A Tale from the Trenches An interaction catalog: one way to efficiently build great elearning How do you design successful elearning while operating within constraints like budget, time, and resources? As recently discussed on our Learning Dispatch blog, one way is to have a formal template interaction catalog, and consciously ensure that designers and developers operate only within those limits (it can be more creative than it sounds!).[…]
READ MORE about Does Your Elearning Team *Always* Need an Interaction Catalog?Using Pattern Libraries for Accessible Elearning: Insights from CSUN 2018
Making elearning accessible is the right thing to do. It’s also often a project requirement. Senior Learning Architect Kevin Gumienny shares conference insights from CSUN ATC 2018 on how to include accessibility in your elearning development process. He’ll introduce using pattern libraries for accessible elearning development, explaining how they can make your development process more efficient. CSUN Session Takeaways for Developing Accessible Elearning The 33rd California State University, Northridge Assistive Technology Conference[…]
READ MORE about Using Pattern Libraries for Accessible Elearning: Insights from CSUN 2018Getting Started with Accessible Elearning (and 2018 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference Takeaways)
Accessibility can be huge, and it can be overwhelming if you’re just starting….Where do I start? Well, the answer is you just start wherever you can. Being partially accessible is better than not being accessible at all.” – Kevin Gumienny on getting started with accessible elearning A few days after returning to Austin from the 2018 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference in San Diego, Microassist colleagues Vivian Cullipher, content specialist, and Kevin Gumienny, senior[…]
READ MORE about Getting Started with Accessible Elearning (and 2018 CSUN Assistive Technology Conference Takeaways)But What Could *Possibly* Go Wrong? Testing Your Online Course
Testing Your Online Course: How to Evaluate Elearning Functionality before Launching How does testing fit into elearning development? It’s tempting to assume, when an elearning course has been created, that everything will just work. Advancing through the course will perform as expected; when questions are answered, the correct feedback will appear; completion will be properly registered with the user’s account. And yet… Here are some things that I’ve seen go[…]
READ MORE about But What Could *Possibly* Go Wrong? Testing Your Online Course