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TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: What You Need to Know About Your Online Platform: Part 2

by Jennie Ruby, COTP, CTT

Today I was teaching an online class on GoToTraining. I use this online training platform about three to five days a week. But today, it threw me for a loop. 
 
Just two days ago, I taught a class on this platform and all was well.
 
Today, I logged in one Instructor computer to serve as my main platform. Then I logged in two additional computers: one as my Slide Display computer and the other as my Software Display computer. I was going to be going back and forth between showing slides and demonstrating software. 
 
Here’s where the loop-throwing part happened. As students are logging in, I am finishing my Instructor setup routine. I need to give the two supplemental computers “Organizer” status, so that I can have full instructor features on them. And I can’t do it.
 
I right-click, as I have done for literally years, and it’s not on the menu. WHA???
 
I hate stress when I’m setting up for a class. After all, I spent all evening last night tweaking my slides. I spent all morning making sure the sample files were correct and ready to go. And now, with students arriving, a basic function I’ve routinely done for years has vanished.
 
Between Monday and Wednesday, the GoToTraining folks had launched a new default behavior: Instead of downloading the App to view the class, computers other than the main instructor computer automatically log in with a view-only Web interface. They can’t screen share. And they can’t be made Organizers.
 
Quickly enough, I found the command for “Give me the full-service App!” and I solved the problem. I even had the satisfaction of answering their survey: “How do you like the new automatic Web login? Why are you changing to App view?” Don’t worry, I was quite restrained in my commentary. 
 
Because I knew that on some level it was my own fault. 
 
It is up to the online instructor to know everything about how the online training platform functions. No doubt I received an email or a newsletter from the GTT folks heralding the new procedure, which I should have read. At least I had done one thing right: I was logging my computers in an hour ahead of class time. Although it was true that one or two eager students were also logging in nearly an hour early, I had plenty of time to solve the problem. And even time to answer the survey!
 
Here are some things that you need to know about your online training platform, as the instructor: First, everything from my previous article on student functionality. Then, you need to know how to do the following:
 
Basics:
  • Log in as the Instructor/Organizer/Administrator
  • Log in backup computers and promote them to Presenters, or Organizers, or Administrators—different platforms have different roles available
In-Class Functions:
  • Share your screen
  • Share just a view of an app
  • Share a Whiteboard (WebEx)
  • Share any window (Adobe Connect)
  • Create Breakout Rooms
Communicate:
  • Chat
  • Audio
  • Private Messaging
Other special functions
  • Hide your screen icons and programs
  • Record the session
  • Leave the session without closing it
  • End the session
Some online training programs are harder to master than others. If you are at all shaky on any of the instructor/organizer/administrator skills, then you might need to work with a “producer.” It’s the producer’s job to operate the online training platform, help you achieve the technical setup you want, and help the students with whatever issues may come up for them. Having a producer frees you to focus on communicating and teaching, without the distraction and stress of platform issues like the one I experienced today.
 
Do you have advice to share? Stressed out moments over problems that you solved? Please share your stories below as comments.
***
 
Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.
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ARTICULATE STORYLINE 3 & 360: Forced Learner Navigation

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

There are times where you don’t want your learner to leave a slide until certain criteria have been met.
 
For instance, there's an interactive game on a slide (a credit score game you'll learn to create in my Storyline Essentials book). The learner earns 10 points by clicking on slide objects that help improve a person's credit score; they lose 10 points if they click something that hurts a credit score. In the end, learners need to get a perfect score (100%) before moving forward with the lesson. (They can reset the game as many times as needed.)
 
Preventing a learner from skipping past a slide until certain conditions have been met is known as forced navigation.
 
In my scenario, I forced the navigation by creating one trigger that hid the player's Next button until the learner earned a perfect score. At that point, another trigger allowed the Next button to magically appear.
 
Notice in the image below that there isn't a Next button on the player (there's just a Previous button).
 
 
After getting a perfect 100%, a Next button automatically appears.
 
 
To accomplish the task, I needed to create a few triggers that will hide and then show the slide's Next button based on a few conditions.
 
First, the trigger to hide the Next button:
 
With nothing on the slide selected, I created a new trigger.
 
From the Actions drop-down menu, I chose Change state of and selected the Next Button from the On Object drop-down menu.
 
To ensure that the button isn't visible when the slide appears, I clicked the To State drop-down menu and chose Hidden. Then. from the When drop-down menu, I selected Timeline starts.
 
 
At this point, the Next button is hidden and it's not ever going to appear. So to ensure that the Next button appears only after the learner earned a perfect score of 100%, I created another trigger.
 
From the Actions drop-down menu, I chose Change state of. From the On Object drop-down menu, I choose Next Button again only this time I changed the button's State from Hidden to Normal.
 
Because I was using a Variable named "percentage" to display the percentage of correct answers, I chose Variable changes from the When drop-down menu and then selected the percentage Variable.
 
I only want the Next button to appear if learners get 100% after playing the game. That requires a quick condition. I clicked the Show Conditions button and added a new condition. From the List area, I selected Variables, from the Operator drop-down menu I chose Equal to. And lastly, from the Type drop-down menu, I set the Value to 100.
 
 
To test the triggers, I previewed the slide and there wasn't a Next button on the player. After I clicked each of the correct answers in my game and got my 100% score, the Next button appeared.
***
Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the U.S. Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.
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TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: Asking Review Questions

by Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP
 
Over and over, as we teach our ICCOTP Certified Online Training Professional course on how to teach online, I see students use our techniques correctly—but on the wrong topics. For example, we teach a very specific technique—the overhead question. The purpose of the overhead question is to review material you have already delivered or covered in the class. The purpose is two-fold: you are evaluatingwhether the students learned what you presented to them; and you are encouraging them to do an extremely important part of the learning process: to apply effort in trying to remember the content or skills they just learned.
 
Let me emphasize that last statement. The two purposes of asking an overhead question—where you ask a question first (so that all of the students are trying to think of the answer), and then call on one student to answer it—are these:
  1. To evaluate whether your students are retaining the content you have delivered (to see if you need to teach it again)
  2. To ask your students to apply the effort to remember it
The neuroscience of learning tells us that the moment of learning a concept or a new skill is not when we first hear or receive it. The moment of learning begins when we try to recall it. Learning begins when we ask our brain to remember. It’s as if only at that moment does our brain tag that bit of knowledge or that new skill as something to move into long-term memory. Something to actually LEARN.
 
Over and over, I see our COTPs-in-training ask the perfectly structured question: ask a clear question; then call on one student to answer it. But those up-and-coming COTPs regularly fail at using the overhead question to do the two things enumerated above. Do you remember what the two purposes of the overhead question are? Look away from this screen and see if you remember. I’ll wait.
 
Did you do it? Did you try to remember? If not, please give it a try now. Look away, and see if you remember the two purposes of the overhead question.
 
That’s right:
  1. To evaluate learning
  2. To ask the learner to go to the effort of trying to remember it
Here’s a memory aid: “Evaluation and Effort make it Easy to learn.”
  1. Evaluation
  2. Effort
So how are my COTP students failing at these two purposes? They are using their questions to their students for the purpose of engagement only. Wait. Not another E word! Yes, another E word. And one that is a constant mantra in the field of training. “We must engage our students.” “We must create eLearning that is engaging.” “How can we engage our students in learning?” On and on. 
 
Yes, engagement is necessary. But it is only the first step in the learning process for our students. Sure, they have to be awake, paying attention, and even interested in and thinking about the topic of the lesson. That is engagement. 
But without the other two E-words, learning may not occur. And it almost certainly won’t “stick.”
 
Make sure you are asking review questions—not just engagement questions to introduce a topic and get learners thinking about it—but review questions about what you have already covered. You'll be able to evaluate whether students are learning (you might need to teach the lesson again!). And most importantly, so that you are giving your students the opportunity to do what it takes to truly learn something: to apply effort. 
 
***
 
Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.
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LMS IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES Part 2: The Team

by Ann Crane

In part one of my Learning Management System (LMS) implementation strategies series I went over the importance of defining LMS and project expectations. This week, I’d like to go over the people you’ll need on your team before moving forward with implementation. 
 
Here are the primary roles necessary for any LMS implementation team: LMS Administrator, Project Manager, Authors/Content Developers, and IT/Web Integrators.
 
The LMS Administrator is the team quarterback, choosing and leading all of the other team members, driving forward the entire implementation process, as well as having responsibility for managing, setting up, tracking, and analyzing communication with the audience (the actual learners). 
 
Next is the Project Manager. In smaller scale organizations, the LMS administrator will have a dual-role on the team, responsible for the project management tasks as well as administrator tasks. However, if the scope of the implementation is large and/or very complex, it's best to have a Project Manager on the team.
 
 
 
Authors grapple with another immense component of the implementation: content. Often organizations have pre-existing learning content that needs to be blended into existing content. That's where the authors come in. Long after the LMS has been put into place, authors continue to build and add ongoing learning content. The LMS administrator can and should delegate some of the permissions to the authors to allow for, among other things, the ability to create, modify, and delete courses, upload content packages, and assign courses to learners (and reset the lesson as necessary). 
 
It’s important to have engaged Web Integrators early in the process, perhaps even before selecting your LMS. Integrators are responsible for identifying and mapping the processes that you want to implement, and ensure it will work in conjunction with other systems.
 
Next time: Distinguishing the Urgent from the Important. Prioritizing Requirements and Expectations.
 
***
 
Ann Crane, Engage Systems, LLC., is an Adobe Captivate Prime and Adobe Connect expert. Based in San Francisco, California, Ann serves as an eLearning consultant and virtual experience guide, quickly transitioning clients to digital collaboration concepts and technologies.
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TEACHING LIVE, ONLINE CLASSES: What You Need to Know About Your Online Platform, Part 1

by Jennie Ruby, COTP

Whether you use Adobe Connect, WebEx, GoToTraining, or another online training app, you need to know the same basic features of your platform. 
 
First, you need to know everything your students will need to know to get into your classroom and participate in your class. And when I say you need to know, I mean really know. Like, “I can describe it in my sleep” know. Like, “I can describe it blindfolded” know. Because the moment you’ll need to know it most is when a student is having trouble logging in, or finding the chat panel, or finding the arrow tool—and in that moment, you can’t see their screen.
 
On most of the online platforms, the instructor view is different from the participant view of the screen. This is least true of Adobe Connect, but even there, as the Host, you may have additional functionality your viewers do not have. 
 
So here is a checklist of what you need to know—from your students’ point of view.
 
Basics
  • How to log in
  • How to get on the audio
  • How to use Chat
  • How to raise your hand
Additional communication tools (some of these vary from one platform to another)
  • Agree or check mark
  • Disagree or x
  • Away from desk
  • Speed up/slow down
  • Emoticons
Other special functions
  • Share their screen
  • Write on the screen or whiteboard
  • Type on the screen or whiteboard
  • Function within a break-out room
  • Download materials
Once you know these functions—and can explain them to your learners without seeing their screens—you are part of the way there. In future articles we will take a look at what you need to know about the instructor’s view and when and why you might want to work with a producer.
 
***
If you'd like to learn how to effectively teach live, online classes, come join me online as I co-teach the Certified Online Training Professional course at www.iccotp.com. (The course is eligible for 1.2 CEUs.)
 
***
Jennie Ruby, CTT, COTP, is a veteran eLearning developer, trainer, and author. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional. She teaches both classroom and online courses, and has authored courseware, published training books, and developed content for countless eLearning projects. She is also a publishing professional with more than 30 years of experience in writing, editing, print publishing, and eLearning.
 
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TEACHING ONLINE: Don’t Let a Computer Crash During Class Cause Panic!

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP

I've been teaching live online classes for years. And while I’ve had all sorts of technology challenges during that time, I’ve never had my main machine go down along with my backup–until yesterday! Even though I rebooted my machine in time for class, it froze again, and I couldn’t click anything.

Panic? Not me. As a certified online training professional, you’re taught to handle these kinds of bumps in the training road. In this instance, other students in the class were using Captivate (it was a hands-on session) and I simply made a participant the presenter (or leader). Class went off without a hitch after that.

What are your most embarrassing online (or in-person) training debacles? Share them here! Did you recover? Tell me how!

P.S. Learn to teach live, online classes at www.iccotp.com

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ADOBE CAPTIVATE 2019: Virtual Reality Is Literally Here!

by Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP
 
Perhaps the biggest innovation you’ll find in the recently released Adobe Captivate 2019 is the ability to easily (and I mean easily) create virtual reality projects using 360-degree photos or videos. While this is just Adobe’s first attempt at virtual reality eLearning, it's pretty awesome.
 
To create a virtual reality project, click Virtual Reality Project on the New tab (you can also insert Virtual Reality slides into existing 2019 projects via Slides > 360 slide).
 
 
Once the Virtual Reality Project is open, click in the middle of the slide to import a 360 image or video. If you have Captivate 2019, you can create 360 projects without having to first find your own 360 assets because Adobe includes a few sample 360 images in the Gallery (within the 360BGAssets folder).
 
 
 
After adding the 360 asset to the slide, you can immediately see how cool this is going to be… you can move around the virtual space by dragging your mouse up, down, left, right… there's no need to Preview the project.
 
You can add static (non-interactive) text to the slide via Text > Label. To add interactivity to the slide, visit the Hotspots menu and select an icon (or import your own icon images).
 
  
 
With the icon selected, go to the Properties Inspector and choose an Action. Beyond the usual "Go to" actions, you can also add quiz question overlays (Multiple Choice or True/False).
 
 
I created this sample Virtual Reality project in about 30 minutes. A few limitations that I’d love to see resolved down the road are a lack of customization options for the hotspot icons (in the current release of Captivate 2019, the only options are to use the supplied icons as-is or use your own images as hotspots). I’d also love to see more Actions.
 
You publish VR projects just like any other project. When publishing VR content, keep in mind that desktop and laptop learners can access and use the content, but VR projects are best when viewed with VR headsets. (If you try the link above with a smart phone, you’ll be prompted to use VR headsets and the interactivity I added won’t work as expected without them.)
 
***
Kevin Siegel, CTT, COTP, is the founder and president of IconLogic. Following a career in Public Affairs with the U.S. Coast Guard and in private industry, Kevin has spent decades as a technical communicator, classroom and online trainer, public speaker, and has written hundreds of computer training books for adult learners. He has been recognized by Adobe as one of the top trainers world-wide.
 
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eLEARNING & TRAINING DESIGN: It Just Takes a Spark to Light a Design Fire

by AJ Walther, COTP

Even the most seasoned designers can hit a design plateau. It’s hard to be inspired all the time! Here’s a tool that might help light an, ahem, spark. I played around with Adobe Spark this week. The obvious use case for Adobe Spark is to create stunning graphics, videos, and websites. If you have such needs, you should absolutely investigate the tool. But here’s maybe a less obvious use for the tool: design inspiration! 
 
Let’s say you have some “stuff” for your design. You have some text, a logo, and a graphic. Maybe you have this specific stuff and you’re creating an eLearning module or an online class about online training:
 
“ONLINE TRAINING CAN BE GREAT TRAINING”
 
 

There are, of course, endless ways one could design some training around these assets. But what isn’t endless is time, and sometimes, creative juices. Here’s where Adobe Spark can help. Start a new project at http://spark.adobe.com by clicking the plus sign and selecting Post.

You can either start with a template or from scratch. It doesn’t really matter what layout you choose, but you’ll probably want to choose a page layout that roughly resembles the proportions of your slide you’ll eventually be designing. I started from scratch. If you chose a template, you’ll want to delete all the stuff you won’t be using. 

Next, add an image.

Use the ADD button on the right to load your logo (add it as an Image, unless you have paid for the subscription—then choose Logo). 

Add your text. 

Format the text by exploring the Type, Color, Shape, and Style categories at the right. 

Voila! That already doesn’t look half bad. But what’s really exciting and impressive here is how quick and easy it is to see your assets rearranged in different fresh and modern design layouts.
 
Ensure none of the assets on your post are selected and choose the Design category on the right. Notice all the available Variations. These selections will vary based upon how many images or text boxes you have in your post and what sort of post you originally selected.
 
 
Clicking each Variation will quickly and easily reformat your content to that design style—with minimal tweaking needed on your part. And, if you pay for the service, you can automatically have your preferred or corporate color scheme preloaded and apply it with a click, as well as eliminate the Adobe Spark logo. 
 
Check out these variations I was able to quickly spin up. Imagine the time this would save if you were trying to show a client some design options!
 
 

Here I’ve quickly mocked up a training template based upon one of the quick layouts I made with Adobe Spark.
 

Remember that using the post you create isn’t really the objective here (although you certainly could use it!) —it’s to help you get out of a design rut and see your assets arranged in design formats that perhaps you would not have thought of on your own. And perhaps it will spark an idea for the rest of your training layout. Have fun playing with your new designs!

***

AJ Walther, COTP, is IconLogic's Chief Creative Officer (CCO), a seasoned online trainer, eLearning graphic designer, and author of both "PowerPoint 2007: The Essentials" and "PowerPoint 2008 for the Macintosh: The Essentials." AJ made her own interdisciplinary studies major, focusing on writing and art. Her combined expertise in PowerPoint, graphic design, and writing allows her to bring a unique skillset to the eLearning community.