The Learned Man!

When The Cows Come Home: eLearning Houston

This article examines the professional development approach followed by the University of Houston System in preparing faculty for the e-learning transformation.

The eLearning Queen Blog

Here's what The eLearning Queen had to say about The Learned Man Blog:

The Learned Man! -- http://elearning.typepad.com/A unique perspective is provided by focusing on the Indian e-learning community. This is an area of great potential, with amazingly fruitful discussions and linkages available. Needless to say, the notion of open source and shared innovation is pushed to the limit here. A recent discussion addresses the shortage of trained instructional designers (and, in parallel form, the shortage of robust instructional design training overseas). The uncomfortable reality is that most formal ID programs are 3 - 5 years behind the times. Granted, fundamentals do not change; but in my opinion, it is pretty irresponsible of educational institutions to offer instructional technology and design courses that do not incorporate the latest research, trends, evolving needs, or software/systems. As in the case of video game designers, the best ones tend to be multi-disciplinary and self-taught, or receive training within the development company itself, which is an issue fraught with its own intellectual property & ethics dilemmas.

"The E-Learning Queen explores all manner of online and distributed training and education, from instructional design to the construction and implementation of entire e-learning solutions. "

Interactive eLearning by the BBC

Great Stuff this! Take a moment to have a look at these interactive games - organs, muscles, skeleton, nervous system, puberty from the BBC.

BBC > Science & Nature > Human Body & Mind > The Body

Time To Outsource?

Many CEOs prefer outsourced learning because it may cost less and can help align training to business goals. Training professionals are interested for the same reasons—and because outsourcing may mean they change employers. When a company outsources learning, trainers may move to the outsourcing provider's payroll, or outsourcing may cost them their jobs outright. Heres a nice article by Mr. Brandon Hall that talks about the burgeoning training outsourcing industry. Download Article

Kevin Kruse's eLearning Dashboard

Drum rolls..........The Learned Man is now listed on Kevin Kruse's eLearning Dashboard! I would like to thank Kevin, my mother, my readers, and Google for making this possible!

Its a great concept, very nifty indeed. Check it out at:

Dashboard

eLearning Readiness Rankings

Check out this ranking of e-learning readiness across 60 countries by the Economist Intelligence Unit. E-learning readiness indicates a country’s ability to produce, use and expand Internet-based learning—both informal and formal, at work, at school, in government and throughout society. Being Indian, I was surprised to see India ranked 45 on this list, especially now with custom eLearning development companies mushrooming all over the country. I guess this goes to the lack of infrastructure within the country. We can produce it as well as the best, but can't use it ourselves!

eLearning Across Industry Verticals

Has anyone come across any resources that deal with research into eLearning across verticals. For example: The BFSI and Pharma sectors may spend more on custom eLearning initiatives than the Hotels and Shipping sectors. If any of you are aware of any research, articles or numbers that discuss this please email me at the_learned_man@yahoo.com

Partnerships of Indian and Western eLearning Producers

Given the potential for labour arbitrage and the high quality of work being put out by offshore vendors it is not surprising that eLearning companies and corporations are slowly discovering that the best way to stretch their training dollars is to offshore their custom work to vendors in countries like India. This unique partnership though brings along with it several cultural issues which may sometimes need to be addressed for the partnership to work smoothly. This is examined by Patrick Dunn in a very interesting article titled Partnerships of Indian and Western e-learning producers: cultural issues

Managing eLearning

Heres a nice piece on Managing e-Learning (A Beginner's Guide to Harmonious Buyer - Supplier Relationships) by Kevin Kruse for www.e-learningguru.com
Download file

Have a great weekend!