aLearning Trail Guide Now Available on Amazon

Though I’d thought it was time to retire aLearning: A Trail Guide for Association eLearning, I continue to see sales and interest in the book — a great sign that online learning is alive and well and growing in the world of nonprofit and trade associations!

Much has changed in the technology of elearning since the trail guide was originally published in 2009, but the step-by-step instructions for gathering what you need to develop, and then create, your association’s elearning strategy are still valid. When the book came out, it was the only place to get such detailed information in a practical, useful format.

Whether your online learning strategy needs an overhaul or you’re just getting started, the aLearning trail guide can help.

And that help is easier to get than ever.

While I still believe the book is best used in print format, those who’d prefer a copy on their Kindle or other device can now purchase and download it. And the e-book can be given as a gift: with a few clicks, you can purchase it and have it sent to someone else via their e-mail address. How cool is that?

Order now, for just $9.99.

Oh, and tell your friends!

 

aLearning Trail Guide Going Dark

Not my choice, but the days for ordering e-versions of aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning are numbered.* The e-reader enabled versions and possibly the PDF version will no longer be available after the end of this month.

If you’ve been putting off purchasing the aLearning Trail Guide, don’t wait much longer. You can order here.

For info on this book and others, click here.

The print version will continue to be available (with its accompanying postage and shipping fees) for the foreseeable future.

*Lulu.com has decided to no longer support DRM, which provides certain protections for the way e-versions are made available.

Indefinite Hiatus

Regular aLearning blog readers have probably noticed a sudden drop in activity here. No worries! We’re fine. But we are involved in some other areas these days and providing up-to-date insight on association-related elearning topics hasn’t been at the top of the list, sorry to say.

Previous posts on various topics continue to garner so many hits daily that the blog will sit, waiting and ready for new posts, when the time comes.

In the meantime, please know that the aLearning Fundamentals tutorials — always free and never requiring registration — are still live and will remain available here: http://www.ellenbooks.com/alearning.html

And the book aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning also continues to be available for purchase (in print, PDF, or e-book format) via http://www.lulu.com. Just click the image or button on the left for more information on how to order your copy.

As ever, you’re welcome to send me an e-mail directly via the link on the left (below “Contact Ellen” on the left).

I appreciate your support!

 

How Time Flies…

…when you’re having fun, right?!?

And we have been having fun here at the aLearning Blog! Suddenly, it seems, we’re publishing our 250th post and celebrating five years.

Yep, five years. And so much has changed!

When aLearning published its first post back on January 27, 2007:

• no LMS systems (that we know of at the time) were designed especially to meet the needs of associations and nonprofits

• few (if any) research endeavors about online learning focused on associations and nonprofits

• few (if any) organizations bothered to survey association learning leaders to find out what we’re doing in the field and how things were going

• the number of association-specific blogs could be counted on the fingers of one person’s hands

• social learning and virtual learning environments were mysterious, hocus-pocus, scary entities

A lot has changed over just five changes of the seasons, hasn’t it?!?

Top 100 aLearning Blog Posts

To celebrate this milestone, we’ve compiled an ebook of our Top 100 aLearning Blog Posts. Just skimming through these selections made us realize how quickly the elearning sands shift, affecting the landscape, even moving the horizon.

At over 200 pages, this compilation brings together in one place the best — and most controversial — writing from the aLearning Blog. We’ve included most comments (the fine print is that we’ve deleted pingpacks, backtracks, and outright sales pitches) and are proud of the attention the aLearning Blog has garnered over the years by elearning and education experts.

To Get Your Copy

We’ve made this e-publication very affordable at just $5. To order, go to www.ellenbooks.com/store.html and click the “Buy Now” PayPal button. You should be able to read this PDF from any device with a PDF reader (such as Adobe Reader).

Special Offer

If you’ve purchased aLearning: A Trail Guide to Association eLearning, we’ll send you a copy of the Top 100 Posts for free. Just send Ellen an e-mail at ellenbehr@aol.com and attach an electronic copy of your Lulu receipt, and we’ll send you the Top 100 Posts by return e-mail. We appreciate your support and are happy to say “thank you” in this small way.

Thank You!

The Danger of Data (Even When It’s Accurate)

You know I love data. You know I believe in the power it has to convince TPTB (The Powers That Be) in the need for elearning, for improved instructional design in face-to-face training, and all other related matters.

We worry a lot about getting our data wrong and about the dissemination of incorrect information. But when’s the last time you worried that accurate data could lead you — or your association leaders or your members or your other constituents — in the wrong direction?

Yes, it’s possible.

Here’s a perfect example, courtesy of Mark Twain:

“In the space of 176 years the Lower Mississippi has shortened itself 242 miles. Therefore… in the Old Silurian Period, the Mississippi River was upward of one million three hundred thousand miles long and … 742 years from now the Lower Mississippi will be only a mile and three-quarters long…. There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesome returns of conjecture out of such a trifling investment of fact.”

Moral of Mr. Twain’s story? Use facts and data wisely.

If you’re projecting the results of something, project something that’s realistic. If you’re drawing a causal relationship to examine what might have caused X, Y or Z to have happened, then do so logically.

Accurate data, wielded irresponsibly, could be more disastrous than not having data at all. Remember that.