Quick Clicks

So much has been happening at aLearning we haven’t been able to post in a few weeks… Such delays mean these links are bit old, but like all great resources — they’re still useful and worth a look:

Using PowerPoint Well

Excellent “how-to’s” for leveraging PowerPoint from Trina Rimmer at Mindflash (I can’t wait to try some of these out!): http://onlignment.com/2010/10/white-boardom-part-3-some-new-examples/

LMS/LCMS Directory

Craig Weiss has done it again — providing excellent LMS info at the perfect price. He’s released his latest LMS/LCMS directory, covering 242 vendors. Whew! Note that this is a general directory, not specific to association needs, which the Tagoras report does better than any other we know about, but it’s worth a look for the price to be sure: http://elearninfo.com/2010/09/29/latest-lms/

Report on the Time It Takes to Develop eLearning

Let’s say you’ve decided to develop elearning for your association. How much time can you expect it will take? This post from Electronic Papyrus gives you a summary of a report from Chapman Alliance citing estimated number of hours it could take: http://blogs.oregonstate.edu/instructionaldesign/2010/09/29/how-long-does-it-take-to-create-e-learning/

Low-Cost Options

Looking for a summary of low-cost options for everything from LMSes to social networking platforms? Take a look at Janet Clarey’s article on this topic in E!Learning magazine, found free here: http://www.nxtbook.com/nxtbooks/b2bmediaco/elearning_20100910/index.php#/39/OnePage

Non-Profits and the Economy

Guidestar has released its October “Nonprofits and the Economy Report,” available free here: http://www2.guidestar.org/rxg/news/publications/nonprofits-and-economy-october-2010.aspx

Wisdom from the Experts

The Masie Center has released this free, open source e-book, “Learning Perspectives,” with contributions by “40 Global Learning Leaders” (of course, these contributors are nearly all from the corporate world): http://www.learning2010.com/images/stories/learning%20perspectives%20ebook.pdf

Focus on YOUR PD Lately?

ASTD has designated this as Employee Learning Week, “an awareness campaign highlighting the important connection between learning and achieving organizational results.”

Great idea!

We focus a lot on providing the BEST learning our association members can get — they deserve it from us, don’t you think?

If only we were as generous with our own professional development!

In light of Employee Learning Week — call it Staff Professional Development Week if you want — give yourself the gift of learning.

• Scope out a new blog or Twitterfeed to follow
• Invest in a new book (how about aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning? Just click the links on the left for more info)
• Find a conference or education event that will fill a gap for you
• Subscribe to a new magazine
• Search YouTube for relevant videos on a topic you want to learn more about
• Register for an online course (or view the aLearning tutorials for FREE — click the “aLearning Fundamentals” tag on the left to see the choices)
• Post a question on LinkedIn or another professional social networking site or search for another topic you want to explore

The possibilities are endless!!

Feed your mind.

You can’t nourish your members educationally if your own head is empty!