About Guild Articles
Find practical, solution-oriented information—on design, development, management, technology, and executive matters—that you can use to make well-informed business decisions to ensure your organization’s success with learning.
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Leveling the Software-procurement Playing Field
Procurement practices often tend to favor (not always intentionally) the proprietary software business model. This means that organizations may miss out on the benefits of looking at all the source options. In this article, the author presents the case for modifying the practices to consider the factors influencing the purchasing decision.
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Beginning Instructional Authoring: Getting the Content You Need from SMEs, Part 1
Getting content from your subject matter experts (SMEs) can be a bit of a nightmare. This situation is a common one and it’s a problem that does have a solution, although not a solution that is used as often as it could be. Here’s Part One of a short series on dealing with reluctant SMEs.
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Marc My Words: Qualifying eLearning Vendors
No matter how good you are at building eLearning, sooner or later you will likely have to rely on an outside provider. But how do you separate the good vendors from the bad? Here are seven vendor qualities you should look for.
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The Thing about Multiple-Choice Tests …
How do you determine whether learners “got it” in an eLearning program? The most common method is to give them a multiple-choice test. However, developing a test that gives a valid measure of the learner’s knowledge requires considerable care. Here is a guide that will save you a lot of effort as you design tests!
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Nuts and Bolts: Buy or Build?
Is it always necessary to create a custom, in-house solution? Jane looks at the cases when an outsourced or off-the-shelf product makes more sense, and provides a job aid.
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Photos + Movement = Photeo (Part 1 of 5)
A photeo is a video-like experience that creates a sense of movement and emotion out of still photographs, short video clips from other productions, music, and narration. Readers in North America may be familiar with photeos from Ken Burns’ series on Public Television, “The Civil War.” This three-part series will show you how to use the low-cost photeo technique appropriately in eLearning.
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Leveraging Talent in a Difficult Economic Environment
Not-for-profit organizations always have the challenge of reducing costs and streamlining operations, and this is even truer in times of economic uncertainty. A key support for this is the way that these organizations manage and develop their people. Here’s how Sutter Health is meeting the challenge with the help of talent management technology.
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Well Read: A Theory of Fun for Game Design
Why are there so many games in eLearning? Why do so few of those games actually contribute to or support learning? Ralph Koster has some definite ideas about those questions, and others as well. This month’s review introduces you to what game designers understand about learning.
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Development Tips: A Little CSS
To make your Web content look and work as you require, you will need to learn another language: Cascading Style Sheet language, usually just referred to as CSS. While this may sound a little daunting, the basics are really quite simple. This month’s tutorial and video will get you started!
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The Human Factor: Building Strategic Partnerships in Your Organization
Last-minute training requests make many training departments wish they had a seat at the table when projects are being developed. If your training group wants to partner with other areas in the organization, here are some ways to accomplish that goal.