I have taught many eLearning classes in the last 32 years atconferences, online (live and as eLearning), and at client sites, primarily inthe use of eLearning development tools. The one aspect of teaching that hasalways frustrated me a bit is the fact that my students often don’t retain alot of what they learn in class once they get back to their work desks. Worse,the more time passes between the time they learn a tool that I’ve taught themand when they actually start to use it to create learning applications, theless they remember. My guess is that you share that frustration.
For every problem, there’s a solution (if only we can find it)
We all know that when we take a class or go through aneLearning course, we are not instant experts at the end of the class or course;we have simply graduated. At best, the class acts as a springboard so that wereach expertise faster than we may have otherwise. Once we’ve graduated, thetime it takes to become experts will vary tremendously and is dependent on thecomplexity of the material, the number of opportunities we have to practicewhile on the job, and the availability of resources that can help.
After having recognized the problem years ago, I startedlooking for ways to shorten the time it takes between graduation and expertise.I wanted to be able to deliver to my learners some ways to keep fresh in theirminds what they learned and perhaps even follow up with more information aboutthe topic they learned. I’ve researched several products to find ones thatmight help.
LearningStone: a small social networks, online resource, and collaborativeplatform
A few months ago, I discovered a product calledLearningStone and thought it might prove useful in helping me help my learners.I started to experiment by using it in a few of my larger classes, telling mystudents about the LearningStone platform and how it would work.
In short, LearningStone combines the ideas behind LinkedIn,Facebook, Dropbox and other online resources and social networks but focused onsmaller groups, usually 100 or fewer. What LearningStone lets me do is to setup each group separately and provide the group members with several resources:new examples and other files, the ability to ask and answer questions, andmore. See Figure 1.
Figure 1: LearningStoneoptions
In essence, learners can start to collaborate and help eachother more easily and I, of course, can help them as well. The system is easyto use so you don’t have to be a tech expert, or rely on one. You can use itfrom any device ranging from mobile phone to desktop.
Features and benefits
I really enjoy having one central location (see Figure 2) whereI can monitor and share with my learners with everything in one place. Thissaves me a lot of time and allows me to stay on one page to do it all.
- If I have filesI want to send them I don’t have to post them on my own server and providelog-in credentials to my learners, I don’t have to put them in Dropbox or otheronline storage, I put them in the LearningStone group and can then send anautomatic email to group members to alert them to the new content. I can uploadany kind of file and my learners can subsequently download it: authoring toolsource files, videos or images that they can watch within LearningStone ordownload, or any other file I may wish to share. Huge storage is included, (20to 100 GB per workspace) so you really have to have a ton of material to startfeeling the limits. Even the free version gives you lots of storage space.
- If I want to schedule some follow-up sessionsonline I can use the Calendar to setup my session and alert members to it. Members can have my sessions link totheir own calendars too.
- If I need to add or remove folks It’s easy to doin the People area.
- If I would like to add photos there is no needfor Flickr or other site. I just post them in the Gallery area to share only with group members.
- If I have a need to send out automatic reminders,LearningStone automatically sends out daily digest email to all members aboutwhat has changed, posted, or uploaded in their group. They can change remindersettings if they wish.
Figure 2: TheLearningStone timeline
Using LearningStone
Over time, I and my group members build a course timelinewith a history that members can peruse, filter, and so on. I can permit membersto upload their own videos, screencasts, files, photos, etc. It’s not just one-to-many,the whole group can get involved. See Figure 3.
Here are some other facts I like about LearningStone.
- I can set up a separate public site that anyonecan access, besides setting up private groups for individual classes.
- I can post resources across classes and courseswhen I know that they should go to more than one. In the Documents area, I canupload material for one group or I can upload general material for all thegroups I serve. That way I can build up a library with background info for my learners.
- I can copy a course timeline to a new group andchange any details about it, saving me a lot of time.
- I can stay in touch with all my learners usingthe built-in mail system, which seems to work flawlessly and quickly.
Figure 3: Learners can collaborate and upload theirown materials
Cost
Pricing is reasonable for all the services provided. It’sdifferent because it’s not based on the number of learners but only per activegroup, which means you don’t have to worry about the price changing justbecause you add or remove members in a group (see Figure 4). In most cases,you’ll find that translates to under $2.00 per month for each learner, but withmany learners the price can drop to around $0.55 each. There’s even a free version. See: https://www.learningstone.com/en/plans.
Figure 4: Addingand removing members
LearningStone improves results for learners
Is LearningStone absolutely essential? We’vesurvived without it until now, but like many tools, until we start using them,we may not realize what we’ve been missing. I now count LearningStone asanother tool in my toolbox to ensure that my learners, whether they are sittingin a classroom of mine or they are taking one of my eLearning courses, have agreater chance of success.
