Here are a few pics from our booth at the BizTech conference yesterday in Wilmington NC. The conference was great. The keynote speakers made some great points concerning the importance of education in NC to small and large businesses in the state.
Category Archives: technology
Instructional Designers: Figuring out how many hours it takes to develop training
I get this question all the time and I give my students the ‘estimates’. These numbers are very useful when putting together a proposal and letting a client know just how much it is going to cost them. I have gathered these numbers from several sources which are posted at the end of this post. Now for the stats:
1.According to training magazine, money spent on training increased 13% in 2011 to $59.7 billion.
2. Average trainer (Instructional Designer) salary in 2011: $84,142 (elearning guild reports: $79,890)
3. Development times to create one-hour of e-learning (The eLearning Guild, 2002):
– Simple Asynchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 117 hours
– Simple Synchronous: (static HTML pages with text & graphics): 86 hour
– Average Asynchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF’s. etc): 191 hours
– Average Synchronous: (above plus Flash, JavaScript, animated GIF’s. etc): 147 hours
– Complex Asynchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 276 hours
– Complex Synchronous: (above plus audio, video, interactive simulations): 222 hours
4. Instructor presentation time of face to face courses:
Dugan Laird (1985), listed these instructor preparation times (based on U.S. Civil Service estimate):
– Course is five days or less, then 3 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
– Course is between five and ten days, then 2.5 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
– Course is over 10 days, then 2 hours of preparation for each hour of training.
5. Chart from ASTD 2009:
|
Type of Training per 1 hour |
Low Hours Per hour of Instruction (2009) |
High Hours Per Hour of Instruction (2009) |
Low Hours Per hour of Instruction (2003) |
High Hours Per Hour of Instruction (2003) |
|
Stand-up training (classroom) |
43 |
185 |
20 |
70 |
|
Self-instructional print |
40 |
93 |
80 |
125 |
|
Instructor-led, Web-based training delivery (using software such as Centra, Adobe Connect, or WebEx-two-way live audio with PowerPoint) |
49 |
89 |
30 |
80 |
|
E-learning Developed without a Template |
|
|
|
|
|
Text-only; limited interactivity; no animations |
93 |
152 |
100 |
150 |
|
Moderate interactivity; limited animations |
122 |
186 |
250 |
400 |
|
High interactivity; multiple animations |
154 |
243 |
400 |
600 |
|
E-learning Developed within a Template |
|
|
|
|
|
Limited interactivity; no animations (using software such as Lectora, Captivate, ToolBook, TrainerSoft) |
118 |
365 |
40 |
100 |
|
Moderate interactivity; limited animations (using software such as Lectora, Captivate, ToolBook, TrainerSoft) |
90 |
240 |
150 |
200 |
|
High interactivity; multiple animations (using software such as Lectora, Captivate, ToolBook, TrainerSoft) |
136 |
324 |
60 |
300 |
|
Limited interactivity; no animations (using software such as Articulate) |
73 |
116 |
NA |
NA |
|
Moderate interactivity; limited animations (using software such as Articulate) |
97 |
154 |
NA |
NA |
|
High interactivity; multiple animations (using software such as Articulate) |
132 |
214 |
NA |
NA |
|
Simulations |
|
|
|
|
|
Equipment or hardware (equipment emulation) |
949 |
1743 |
600 |
1000 |
|
Softskills (sales, leadership, ethics, diversity, etc.) |
320 |
731 |
NA |
NA |
Source: http://www.astd.org/LC/2009/0809_kapp.htm
Sources:
http://www.trainingmag.com/article/2011-training-industry-report
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/trainsta.html
http://www.nwlink.com/~donclark/hrd/costs.html
http://www.trainingmag.com/article/training%E2%80%99s-2011-growth-spurt
From nwlink.com: The eLearning Guild. (2002). The e-Learning Development Time Ratio Survey. Retrieved October 27, 2007 from: http://www.elearningguild.com/pdf/1/time%20to%20develop%20Survey.pdf
From nwlink.com: Laird, Dugan (1985). Approaches To Training And Development (2nd ed.). Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
http://www.elearningguild.com/research/archives/index.cfm?id=148&action=viewonly
Why you should not leave college without your own website
I tell all of my undergraduate students that they should not leave college without their own website. I also tell all of my graduate instructional technology students that they MUST have their own website, they are in a technology based field for goodness sake and Learn which UK reseller hosting is right for your brand.
Why have your own website? Well let me ask you to search for yourself on Google, what comes up on the first page? Anything about you? Do other people have your name? Does your facebook page come up? Well guess what, when you graduate and begin to interview your potential employer is going to search for you as well. So if your facebook page is coming up it’s time to make is private. So if you are going to be searched online, why not intentionally point people searching for you to a website that is designed to ‘show off’ your work? That’s right, send them to a site of your choosing on purpose. So, just as an example, search for me, ‘Ray Pastore’ and you will see that this website you are on comes up first. I WANT people to find this site.
Why else do you want a site? You can put it on your resume. Showing a potential employer that you have enough technical skills to build a website can help in almost any career. Plus if they choose to, they can go to the site and this is your chance to show them your portfolio. Show them sample writings, projects, as well as your philosophies toward your field.
Now if I buy and create a site is it automatically number one on search results? NO! You need to make it SEO friendly, with the help of SEO experts from sirlinksalot.co.
So how do you buy a website?
I always recommend Icdsoft.com because that is who I use. In fact, if you go through my link that I give my students, you can own a web address and build a site for $38.50 a year. Here is that link: http://icdsoft.com/promo-code/course359. And I do not get anything if you use that link, so don’t think I am trying to sell you something here. Another company I like is bluehost.com, however, they are more expensive, around $100 a year, which is usually out of a students price range. Godaddy tends to be another popular one however I have only had bad experiences with them, so I do not recommend them.
When you do buy a site, I recommend a .com address. You can choose from .net, .org, .info, etc.
How do I build my site?
Well that is also for another blog post. You can take classes, teach yourself online, etc. I would recommend hiring Shopify web developers though so that you are doing things correctly. Correctly means that your site will show up on all browsers, mobile phones, and be optimized to show up first in search engines.
Hope that helps, let me know if you have any questions:)
Flash file to html5 (.swf to html5) convertor
Google Swiffy
Have yet to try this tool out but since its from Google, I assume it does what it says – convert Flash .swf files to HTML5 files for use on iPhone/iPad. Let me know how it works:
UNCW – Master’s of Instructional Technology
For those interested in a Master’s of Instructional Technology or Instructional Design, please check out the video that one of our graduate students at the University of North Carolina Wilmington made which highlights our program:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5e8_Sp0VvU]
Potential for Apple’s iBooks App?
I am wondering where this app will go in the future. There is a great potential for educators to write/publish their own work. However there is one BIG question that jumps into my mind. Havent we been able to publish our own work, for use on the computer, in Word/PDF/Blog/Website form, for many years now? The answer is YES. So I am a bit confused. I would like to see this tool take off but are people going to have the time to use it? Why will this take off when regular internet/blog publishing, which is the same thing, didnt (as far as texts are concerned)?
Apple iBooks App
Apple’s big announcement today: An app that allows a teacher to create their own book and publish it to iBook. Thus you can take a Word document and the app formats it to be read on the ipad. Its supposed to be very user friendly. I am excited to use this in my courses this semester. For more info see:
Instructional Technology and Instructional Design Conferences
Many of my Master’s students ask me which conferences they should be attending so I have made a list to help them out. I have only put a few of the bigger conferences, so remember there are many more. Also I have organized them by career choice as my students go into corporate, higher ed, and K-12 fields.
Corporate
–ASTD (http://www.astd.org/)
–ISPI (http://www.ispi.org/)
–SALT (http://www.saltconference.com/)
K-12
–ISTE (http://www.iste.org/conference/ISTE-2012.aspx)
–SITE (http://site.aace.org/conf/)
Higher Education/Research
–AECT (http://www.aect.org/newsite/)
–AERA (http://www.aera.net/)
–SITE
What is SOPA?
What is SOPA?
The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), otherwise known as H.R. 3261, was started by Lamar Smith (R-TX) and other representatives (bipartisan group with their company sponsors) to the house of representatives (more info on SOPA at Google).
Here are the dangerous parts to this bill (from Mashable):
– Any site accused of supporting copyright violations can be shut down – felony to post copywritten material (without a trial)
– Attorney general has a right to take action against these sites (again without a trial)
– Once accused to copyright violations, no company is allowed to do business with this company and their site needs to be shut down
What does this do? This gives companies and the government the right to stop and shut down an internet site without due process, no court or trial involved, just being accused. So if you post something on Facebook, like a picture that is copyright protected, Facebook could be shut down. That is the extent of this law, and there are lawyers that can help with this, although if you have other issues like immigration problems, lawyers from sites as nationalpardon.org can help with this.
Many from the silicon valley are protesting SOPA, today January 18th 2012. These sites are going dark. Here is a small list of companies doing it (many more are as well and the list can found at the bottom of this post):
- Tor Project
- iSchool at Syracuse University
- Oreilly.com
- Wikipedia
- Mozilla
- WordPress.org
- Minecraft
If you go to wikipedia today this is the message you will find:
“Imagine a World Without Free Knowledge – For over a decade, we have spent millions of hours building the largest encyclopedia in human history, history is shared by people travelling and sharing these knowledge across borders but immigration laws prevent this right now, so there are legal resources to work on this now a days, click site to learn more about this. Right now, the U.S. Congress is considering legislation that could fatally damage the free and open Internet. For 24 hours, to raise awareness, we are blacking out Wikipedia.”
FYI – my site could be shut down after my post today because much of my information was paraphrased and/or taken from other internet sites…even though I am citing them here:
Well stopping privacy doesn’t sound too bad?
No it doesn’t, however, given my example above, sites like facebook and youtube could be shut down because you or I post a picture or video that is copyright protected. Under current law, the Digital Millennium Act, when copyright material is found on a site, the site owner is notified they have a copyright protected image posted on their site and they have to remove it immediately. Well that sounds reasonable, right? I mean we need to protect copyright, but SOPA takes it a step too far.
Why you should be on LinkedIn
This is mostly for my undergraduate students as none of them for the most part have heard of LinkedIn.
You have perhaps seen the following symbol lately quite a bit on the internet? This is the symbol for LinkedIn:
This site is a social networking site, very similar to facebook. The difference however is big. LinkedIn focuses on your professional life. In fact, you profile is very similar to your resume. In addition to having a profile that includes your resume, you can link to others in the same field and you can search for jobs. Many jobs are being posted on LinkedIn. LinkedIn is not complicated and is no harder to use than facebook, thus I recommend all of my students to get an account before they start applying for jobs – trust me when I say the person interviewing you will be searching for you:)
Here is a link: http://linkedin.com