Answer Geek
QUESTION: I'm just getting started with e-learning. How can I learn more?
It's easy to feel overwhelmed when you're beginning to research e-learning. There's a lot of information out there, with varying degrees of quality and helpfulness. Here's a list of resources that cut through the hype and provide solid information to start your learning process. Almost all of them are free.
Learning Circuits is ASTD's online magazine all about e-learning. Beginners should pay special attention to the archives of the E-Learning 1.0 and Answer Geek columns. E-Learning 1.0 offers short how-to articles on the basics of digital learning, and Answer Geek, as this column demonstrates, provides answers to readers' e-learning questions.
When you're ready to venture into deeper waters, browse the articles on LC's homepage and search for keywords in the archive. You'll find info on design and delivery, industry trends, supplier news, and more.
If e-learning terms seem like Greek to you, refer to Learning Circuits's glossary, a comprehensive listing of more than 275 e-learning terms and their definitions.
At ASTD's E-Learning Supercommunity, you can view the stops along ASTD's e-learning roadmap, with resources identified for each stop. Handholding doesn't get any better than this. Also linked to this page are ASTD's e-learning discussion board and e-learning policy and white papers.
If you're an ASTD member, you can also access Trainlit, a literature database with 17,000 book and article summaries from 1983 to the present. Search for e-learning articles from T+D magazine and a multitude of other training-related publications. You must enter in your user id (membership number) and password (last name, first letter capitalized).
Although Brandon-Hall.com offers many books, videos, and studies for sale, the site also provides a host of free resources and links. You can also subscribe to free discussion groups.
The Masie Center bills itself as the technology and learning think tank. Here you can read about the center, sign up for conferences and workshops, subscribe to a free e-learning newsletter, access research and reports, and more.
Cisco CEO John Chambers became the poster child for e-learning when he called it the next killer app that's going to "make email look like a rounding error." Cisco offers an e-learning resource page--some of the information on it is specific to the company but general information includes articles and white papers.
E-Learning Post provides feature articles on a range of e-learning topics, and also compiles a list of outside articles on corporate learning, knowledge management, community management, instructional design, personalization, and more. Subscribe to the free newsletter to get e-learning content links from all over the Web delivered fresh and hot to your mailbox every day.
The Node is a Canadian not-for-profit organization that promotes effective uses of Internet technology in training and education. It provides articles on online teaching and training, learner resources, a course database, and more.
E-Learning Zone is an information and resources forum based in the UK. Resources are grouped into three categories: strategy, learning design and development, and technology.
Web-based Training Information Center is a resource for people interested in developing and delivering Web-based training (WBT). You'll find surveys, discussion forums, resource links, a WBT primer, and lots more.
Discussion lists can be valuable sources of information. Lurk for a while to get a feel for the topics and personality of the list, then jump into the discussion. Try Web-Based Training/Online Learning (WBTOLL-L) or Online Facilitation. Members of Trdev discuss a variety of training and development issues, including e-learning technologies and design.
Still not finding what you need? If a burning e-learning question remains unanswered and you're an ASTD member, you can initiate a customized search from our information center or write to us at answergeek@astd.org and we'll send your question out to our panel of e-learning experts. Now you have no more excuses. Get researching!
Published: June 2001