Building Fortress-Level Assessment Security: What 591 Accounting Faculty Taught Us About Online Assessment Integrity

 Picture this: You've just finished designing what you think is a bulletproof online course, complete with engaging content and thoughtful assessments. But then that nagging voice in the back of your head whispers, "How do I know students aren't just Googling or ChatGPTing their way through my carefully crafted exams?"

If you're an instructional designer who's ever lost sleep over assessment security, you're not alone. A comprehensive study by researchers Nas Ahadiat and Mohamed I. Gomaa surveyed 591 accounting faculty across 921 U.S. universities to understand perceptions of security and integrity in online assessments. While their focus was accounting education, their findings offer a treasure trove of insights for any of us designing secure online assessments.

🔍 The Security Hierarchy: What Faculty Really Think

The research revealed a clear "trust hierarchy" when it comes to assessment security, and the results might surprise you with how stark the differences are.

🥇 Face-to-Face Assessments: The Trusted Champion Traditional classroom assessments remain the undisputed favorite among faculty for security. An impressive 54% of faculty rated face-to-face delivery as "most secured," while only 1% considered it "most unsecured." This overwhelming confidence speaks to the power of physical presence and direct supervision that many of us take for granted when designing in-person experiences.

🥈 Hybrid Courses: The Strategic Middle Ground Here's where things get interesting for us as instructional designers. Hybrid delivery emerged as a compelling compromise, with 35% of faculty rating it as "secured" or "most secured." What makes this approach so appealing is that it offers significantly more security than fully online options while maintaining much of the convenience that makes online education attractive. It's a thoughtful balance that doesn't force educators to choose between accessibility and integrity.

🥉 Synchronous Online: The Power of Presence When faculty had to choose between online delivery methods, synchronous options won decisively. The research showed that real-time, live online assessments were perceived as significantly more secure than their asynchronous counterparts. There's something about the immediacy and live monitoring capability that creates accountability and reassurance for faculty. It captures some of the supervisory benefits of face-to-face delivery, even when mediated through technology.

📱 Asynchronous Online: The Trust Gap Challenge Asynchronous assessments faced the biggest credibility hurdle in the study. Only 12% of faculty rated this delivery mode as "secured" or "most secured," while a concerning 35% considered it "unsecured" or "most unsecured." For those of us designing online learning experiences, this represents our biggest challenge—and our biggest opportunity to innovate around security and integrity measures.

Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D.

🎯 Beyond Accounting: Security Strategies for Every Subject

While this study focused on accounting, the principles apply beautifully across disciplines. Here's how to fortress-fy your assessments:

📊 Data-Heavy Subjects (Statistics, Economics, Analytics)

The Challenge: Easy to find formulas and solutions online 

The Solution:

• Use unique, real-world datasets for each assessment
• Require students to show their work process, not just final answers
• Implement timed assessments with randomized question pools
• Consider hybrid proctoring for high-stakes exams

🧬 STEM Fields (Biology, Chemistry, Physics)

The Challenge: Standard problems with readily available solutions 

The Solution:

• Create scenario-based problems using current events or local contexts
• Use virtual labs with unique parameters for each student
• Implement peer review components that require original thinking
• Design multi-step problems where each answer builds on the previous

📚 Literature and Writing Courses

The Challenge: AI writing tools and essay mills 

The Solution:

• Focus on personal reflection and analysis rather than summary
• Use discussion forums for peer interaction and idea development
• Implement portfolio-based assessment with draft iterations
• Require students to connect readings to personal or local experiences

🏛️ Social Sciences (Psychology, Sociology, Political Science)

The Challenge: Widely available information and opinions online 

The Solution:

• Use current events that post-date available study materials
• Require primary source analysis with specific citation requirements
• Implement case study analysis with local or regional focus
• Design collaborative projects that require real-world interaction

🛡️ The Arsenal: Top Security Tools Faculty Recommend

The study revealed faculty preferences for different security strategies:

• Live Proctoring: The Heavy Artillery
• 84% rated as "secured" or "most secured"
• Best for high-stakes assessments
• Implementation tip: Reserve for final exams or certification tests to manage costs

Remote Proctoring (ProctorU): The Smart Compromise

• 74% positive rating
• More scalable than live proctoring
• Implementation tip: Provide clear tech requirements and practice sessions

Plagiarism Detection (Turnitin): The Safety Net

• 78% positive rating for written work
• Implementation tip: Use as both detection and deterrent tool

Hybrid Delivery: The Goldilocks Solution

• Best of both worlds approach
• Implementation tip: Conduct major assessments on-campus, everything else online

💡 Smart Implementation Strategies

Start with Risk Assessment

• Not every quiz needs Fort Knox-level security. Categorize your assessments:
• Low stakes: Weekly quizzes, participation checks → Minimal security needed
• Medium stakes: Module exams, major assignments → Moderate security measures
• High stakes: Final exams, certification tests → Maximum security protocols

Build Security into Learning Design

Instead of bolting security onto existing assessments, weave it into your instructional design:

• Scaffolded assessments: Build knowledge progressively so cheating becomes harder
• Application-focused questions: Test understanding, not memorization
• Personalized content: Use student location, interests, or program focus in questions

The Transparency Approach

• Be upfront about security measures:
• Explain why academic integrity matters in their field
• Share consequences of dishonesty in professional practice
• Make security measures feel supportive rather than punitive

🔮 Looking Forward: Emerging Trends

The research highlighted some fascinating patterns:

• AACSB-accredited programs showed higher confidence in security measures
• Graduate programs were more concerned about asynchronous security than undergraduate programs
• Public institutions favored face-to-face assessments more than private institutions

These patterns suggest that institutional culture and student population significantly impact security needs and perceptions.

🎯 Your Action Plan

Ready to level up your assessment security? Here's your starter toolkit:

This Week:

• Audit your current assessments using the risk categories above
• Identify which delivery mode best fits each assessment type
• Research institutional resources for proctoring and plagiarism detection

This Month:

• Pilot one hybrid assessment approach
• Create a question bank with randomizable elements
• Develop clear academic integrity policies for your courses

This Semester:

• Implement differentiated security based on assessment stakes
• Gather student feedback on security measures
• Analyze any integrity incidents to refine your approach

🐕 The Bottom Line

The research from these 591 accounting faculty confirms what many of us suspected: there's no one-size-fits-all solution to online assessment security. The key is matching your security strategy to your specific context—your subject matter, student population, institutional resources, and assessment stakes.

Remember, the goal isn't to create an adversarial relationship with students, but to design assessments so robust and engaging that cheating becomes both difficult and pointless. When students are genuinely learning and applying knowledge to meaningful problems, academic integrity often takes care of itself.

What security strategies have worked best in your online courses? Have you noticed differences between synchronous and asynchronous assessments? Share your experiences in the comments below!

________________________________________

About the Research: This post is based on "Online accounting education: How to improve security and integrity of students' performance assessments" by Nas Ahadiat and Mohamed I. Gomaa, published in the Journal of Instructional Pedagogies, Volume 24. The study surveyed 591 accounting faculty across 921 universities in the United States.

Tags: #OnlineAssessment #AcademicIntegrity #InstructionalDesign #ELearning #AssessmentSecurity #OnlineEducation #Proctoring

Posted to E-Learning Corgi by Susan Smith Nash, Ph.D. 

Instant Online Education Using WhatsApp or WeChat

What do you do if your school is shut down for a week or even longer due to outbreaks of flu, bad weather, or a new virus?  Many schools have not budgeted to put their courses online, and even if they had the funds, many of the online commercial options do not meet the curriculum standards.  On top of that, there is simply no time.

 Further complicating the situation is the fact that many families in some school districts may not have a family computer or online service. Those who do may need the computer for other purposes during the day, particularly if a family member is working remotely from home. In addition, the students may not feel comfortable with a new learning management system, and they may not know how to proceed.

Are there any quick answers? Yes. It builds on the lesson plans and course materials you already have, but makes it possible to hold class and maintain student engagement, instead of simply having a week of homework and independent study.

Here is a bold approach that allows a school to seamlessly move to online education with very little extra cost by using smartphones.  In general, the extra cost would involve having a more robust data plan. It may be necessary to negotiate with the phone service providers to allow more data transfer each month.  If there are many children in a household, it may be necessary to have a family plan with more than one phone.

We would use WhatsApp or WeChat.  I’m selecting those two because they are extremely flexible and it is possible to create groups, use video chat, send group and private messages, share and send files for text, images, and videos.  However, the same could be done with Skype, Zoom, GoToMeeting, with just a few adjustments in considering the individual apps and their differences.

Step 1:  Modify daily lesson plans to be structured into lectures, check your knowledge quizzes (fun interactive polling), independent work, and receiving student work.

Step 2:  Review WhatsApp and familiarize yourself with video chat, group chat, photo transfer, and text messaging.

Step 3:  Build your Course Design Plan, which will be your lesson template. It will contain the following:

    Learning Objectives:  Clearly state to your students what they will learn. Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to describe the outcome.  It is best to limit your learning objectives to one or two. Keep in mind that their learning activity and assessments will tie to the learning objectives.

    Lectures:  You will talk to the students via video chat.  Plan for the video lecture to be between 10 and 15 minutes.

    Check Your Knowledge and What Do You Think?:  At least twice during the lecture, pause for a moment and ask your students to answer a question. They will send in their responses via text message. It can be an opinion (as in What Do You Think?), which could make the topic and lecture more engaging. Stress that class participation is a part of their grade.

    Independent Activity:  This will be a moment when you’ll ask your students to turn to their books and read a passage.

    Activity Review:  Doodle Polls are extremely easy to make and they are free. Most people use them for selecting schedules, but you can create multiple choice questions as well.  You can send the URL of your poll to your students via WhatsApp messaging, and when they complete them, you will see their responses in a single document. These are ideal for keeping students engaged, checking their knowledge, and giving them a class participation grade. For graded quizzes, ProProfs is a sophisticated package and also free, although the free version is limited. It takes some time to create the multiple choice questions, so you may not wish to do more than one per week.

   Assessment:  
   Multiple choice quizzes:  You can use ProProfs or one of the other free quizmaker programs to create graded multiple choice quizzes that your students can do via their phones.  You will be able to see their grades. Ideally, your quizzes will provide feedback that points them to the correct answer and also ties directly to a specific text in the lessons.

   Written Assignments: This is an opportunity for you to ask your students to complete one or two short answer questions and to turn it in via WhatsApp. 

• Student procedure:  Ask your students to write the answers on a piece of paper and then take a picture and send it to you. Alternatively, they can create a document using an app on their phone, save it, then send it via their phone.  
• 
  How you provide feedback: You will grade the work and provide feedback by recording a message in WhatsApp and sending it to each student. Your response should not be more than 2 minutes in length.  If you need to write an answer or add diagrams, you can do so on a piece of paper, and then take a photo and send it.

How you record grades:  You can record grades in the way that you normally do so. 

If you teach the same course to several different sections of students, you may wish to record your group video chat in order to save it for anyone who may have missed it due to illness.

For maximum engagement, however, it is important that all the students participate together in the group chat.

Online Classroom Management. 
As you move forward, you may have a few online classroom management challenges.  Here are the main guidelines:

•     Ask everyone to mute their phones during the lecture.
•     Do not send messages during the lecture.
•     Ask for 100% participation in the Check Your Knowledge and What Do You Think?  Sections. Make sure that you emphasize that participation is a part of their grade.
•     Shut down any possible cyberbullying or cybershaming right away.
•     Make sure that your recorded responses are succinct and positive.
•     When your students complete their graded multiple choice quizzes, put some thought into encouraging your students to work in groups.  If you do so, you will increase engagement, collaboration, and facilitate deeper learning.

   

Assistive Technologies for Online Learning

For many -- not just those with special needs -- participating in an online course is very difficult without assistive technologies. Augmentive and alternative communication products can help students with disabilities. It is useful, however, to look at some assistive technologies as effective for learners who have specific learning preferences and who may benefit from being able to access content in more than one format.

Take a look at the different assistive technologies that are available. You may be surprised how affordable they are, and how helpful they might be for you, especially with respect to keyboards, touchscreens, screen-readers (and "talking books"), and speech recognition.

Vision
BAUM Retec AG: Products and services for the visually impaired (Germany)
http://www.baum.de/cms/en/

Claro Software: speech technology, image technology and touch technology.
http://www.clarosoftware.com/

Dolphin screen-reader with Braille and speech support:
http://www.yourdolphin.com/products.asp?cat=1

Biggy:
Provides large cursors
http://rjcooper.com/biggy/

Dolphin Oceanic Ltd.: .Magnifies the screen or allows users to listen with screen readers and experience refreshable Braille. Dolphin software also creates altformat reading materials for people with vision impairments or dyslexia - Braille, large print, DAISY talking books or MP3s.
http://www.yourdolphin.com/

Enabling Technologies, Inc.: Braille embossers / printers
http://www.brailler.com/

Extra Corporation (Japanese): Jaws for Windows in Japanese
http://www.extra.co.jp/

Freedom Scientific Products
http://www.freedomscientific.com/product-portal.asp

Freedom Scientific Products for Blindness
JAWS® screen reading software
PAC Mate Omni™ accessible Pocket PC
MAGic® screen magnification software
PEARL® portable reading solution
OpenBook® scanning and reading software
SARA™ scanning and reading appliance
PAC Mate™ Portable Braille Displays
Focus Braille Displays
Focus 40 Blue Wireless Bluetooth Braille Display
FSReader DAISY player
StreetTalk™ VIP GPS solution
ScanTalker® talking barcode reader solution
FSTTY deaf-blind telephone communications
FaceToFace™ deaf-blind personal communications

Freedom Scientific Products for Low Vision

TOPAZ® desktop video magnifier
TOPAZ® Connectivity Pack
ONYX® Portable Video Magnifiers
PEARL™ portable reading solution
SAPPHIRE® Handheld Video Magnifier
RUBY® Handheld Video Magnifier
SARA™ scanning and reading appliance
MAGic® screen magnification software


GW Micro: Window-Eyes, Notetakers, DAISY Readers, Braille Displays, Low Vision
http://www.gwmicro.com/

Hearing

Close-captioning software
http://www.cpcweb.com/

Speech Recognition and Assistive Writing

Speech recognition is often considered as an assistive writing tool for people with learning disabilities such as:

Dyslexia-- a disability in which a person has trouble reading words, sentences, or paragraphs.

Dysgraphia-- a writing disability in which a person finds it hard to form letters correctly or write within a defined space.

Acapela Group: Text to speech solutions
http://www.acapela-group.com/

Dexterity and Mobility

Applied Human Factors: screen keyboard computer access
http://ahf-net.com/

Madentec Ltd.: New keyboards and joysticks
http://www.madentec.com/intro/

Origin Instruments: The HeadMouse Extreme replaces the standard computer mouse for people who cannot use or have limited use of their hands.
http://orin.com/

Tobii Technology: Tobii Technology specializes in eye tracking and eye control. This technology makes it possible for computers to know exactly where users are looking.
http://www.tobii.com/corporate/start.aspx

Learning

Metroplex Voice Computing, Inc.: Speech-recognition mathematics
http://metroplexvoice.com/

textHelp
Browsealoud is designed to improve website accessibility for those who struggle to read content online. It works by reading website content aloud in a high quality, human-sounding voice at no cost to the end user and zero implementation for the web owner.
http://www.browsealoud.com
http://www.texthelp.com/

Language and Communication

ZYGO: The Optimist-MMX is usable like a laptop from the keyboard. It can easily convert to a touch-screen tablet. It's durable, drop and spill resistent, and will withstand the demands of every day use.
http://zygo-usa.com/

Interview with Frederic Aknin, Sparkeo: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Frederic Aknin, CEO of Sparkeo, a new video platform designed to enable more flexible uses of video with e-learning.

1. What is your name, your affiliation, and your history with e-learning?

My name is Frederic Aknin, I am an internet addict and a passionate continuous learner. I believe in the power of the Internet to broadcast knowledge, fertilize ideas, and bring the means to people to excel and make the most of themselves.



I know the basics in elearning. I am a user of YouTube which I used to discover extremely good content and a total TED freak.

I believe online learning is at its dawn and that it should expand. I see several very important trends:

· The need for simple video monetization to enable people to sell their premium knowledge on the Web and to enable users with a way to find the knowledge that they seek online. Currently, the highest quality end content is not online since the experts have no motivation to give it away.

· The C2C market: The world is changing so fast that the universities cannot keep up. It is already known that what students learn in college will become irrelevant when they graduate, while new platforms appear on a daily basis. The top 10 most in demand jobs today did not exist ten years ago.

There is no formal education that teaches you how to be a social media director or community manager. I believe that a great part of learning will focus less on the universities and more and more online. A college education is fundamental in building the foundation for your future, but people must know that a formal education is no longer enough: They must continue to evolve with technology or they will be left behind, and this is where Sparkeo steps in.


· Need of simplicity: This is a result of the former element. Because people are learning more and more once they are out of college through YouTube, podcasts, and online tutorials, they need elearning applications that match their current use of the Web. LMS, CMS or complex elearning infrastructures are not addressing those needs.

· Interactivity: I believe that users are craving for interactivity.

2. What are your core beliefs about visual learning?

I believe in the essence of visual learning. As being more visual myself, I have difficulties in making the most of audio podcasts and such.

The visual contact with the educator and learning material makes it easier to remember and to reproduce our natural learning path. Moreover, graphs, charts and images create clarity and emotions that ease the learning process. If this is true for visual learners, I believe it is also true for all learners since we all learning though our three senses.



I believe that all tools developed by elearning can actually enhance the learning experience, but they should respect the visual nature of the learning process.

The iPad, the Google Tablets and all the new digital slates deliver new means to extend visual learning and make it mobile. It is a new frontier and a fascinating one.

3. What are some of the problems with using video as an elearning element?


There are many hardships:

· Video is an art: Educational content might not need the highest end means in terms of recording, but it does need to be nicely edited. A small number of the people that have knowledge really know how to film themselves. Therefore, the result is mediocre videos that are difficult to watch.


· It is difficult to watch a video on a computer for more than 15 minutes. People lose their concentration and have short attention spans because the videos can be uncomfortable to view, and the Internet is a huge distraction with social networks and online games. On the other end we have the cellular phone. Although it is becoming increasingly more connected, it has a small screen that makes it difficult to watch video in the long run. But there are solutions: TV set top boxes and smart TVs that enable viewers to watch web videos and content on their computers directly on regular TV screens or the tablets that create a new space on which they can watch some content.


· Passivity: A video is a passive experience while the Internet is an interactive one. This is another reason why people connected to the web have little patience for video. How can we transform it into a more interactive one? We need to create a link with the content provider and make the whole video experience more social.


· Navigation: It is crucial that an educational video be easy to navigate. Where am I within the video? What chapter? What is he talking about? How do I bookmark the parts I really liked for later? It is all the more decisive, as an educational video is meant to be watched a few times. By definition, learning is a requirement. Therefore, navigation is key!


· Customization: Any tool that will help me appropriate the content in some means will bring high added value.

4. What is your favorite way to use video in an online course?
Screencasting can be efficient, especially in demoing a product. I like using webcams to connect with the audience, but think that an educational video, especially one that delves deep into its particular subject, needs to be taped at a good quality, not a webcam. Using webcams or unstable photography inhibits the user’s ability to learn because their focus is on the moving background. Taping a quality video will help eliminate the distraction problem I spoke of earlier.

5. What is your favorite way to use video in mobile learning?
I like Qik and online streaming video applications. I do watch the occasional educational video on my mobile phone, however only short video snacks. If it is something that would require a video that is longer than a few minutes long, I would much rather view it on a larger screen.

6. What is Sparkeo?
Sparkeo is a flexible video platform that enables experts, consultants, teachers, and passionate entrepreneurs to promote and sell their expertise through the creation of video courses all over the Web.


It specifically meets the needs of the experts by bringing two decisive innovations: A portable payment solution for the online sales of videos and an enhanced learning experience.


Through Sparkeo, users can create paid courses, free courses and soon invitation-only courses.
Sparkeo addresses a new phenomenon: The massive emergence of knowledge entrepreneurs.



There are all kinds of experts, educators, consultants, or simply knowledgeable amateurs who are Web savvy and have the entrepreneurial drive to make money teaching what they know and love over the Web. But they all had one problem: They did not have the right tools to do it.

7. What are the reasons for developing Sparkeo?
We want to empower the expert to maximize his or her online potential.

We want to give the expert an intuitive tool that is as simple as YouTube, but that has been specifically designed to meet his needs: Building a business out of his knowledge.

We cannot expect to see the best content on the Web if we do not provide the expert the means to make money of his knowledge. How can we expect the experts and educators to give their best insights when the revenue is so low, that they are better off using offline monetization opportunities through seminars, consulting, and such? That’s what we had in mind in creating Sparkeo, one simple goal: To bring a simple solution to a real problem: The lack of real financial incentives for experts.

Our product addresses both the most famous experts who are puzzled about the way they can bring their expertise on the Web in a way that makes sense financially, and the potential amateurs who have unique knowledge, but do not know from where to start. Our solution is free and works on a revenue sharing base. There is no need to invest in building a website or developing an application. It is totally embeddable all over the Web and can be embedded on your blog, website, and social networks.

8. How does Sparkeo make the learning process more effective?
There are three components that make the learning process more effective:

Interactivity
A key strategy is transforming the video from passive content to a bridge between the expert and his users.

Users can ask the experts a question directly through the video. This question is made public and everybody will be able to see it on Sparkeo.com. The answer to the question will also be emailed directly to the user.

The idea is to create a means of communication and interactivity within the player. For the user, it is a dream to communicate with the expert directly. For the expert, interactivity is a decisive selling point. He does not just sell a video, but an interactive learning experience in which he can address his customers’ needs. This tool is also a very powerful way for the expert to push the engagement of his customers to new extents and enrich his course with qualified Q&A.

For our corporate clients, it opens new frontiers in terms of customer relations and internal learning.

Enhanced Navigation
The other part of the experience that we deliver, aside from interaction, is enhanced navigation: Educational content is longer the typical 3 minute video found on most video sites, and it is designed to be learned. Most educational videos on Sparkeo are between 20 minutes to 1 hour long.

Sparkeo emphasizes the need of navigation by the introduction of chapters. Like in a DVD or book, the user can skip from one chapter to another with ease. The correct organization of the information provided ensures a better understanding of the content taught.


We also created an index which makes it even simpler to go to the relevant chapter. From the side of the expert, the creation of chapters is intuitive.

Video Personalization
As in a regular lesson, article or book, the user is given the possibility to highlight the best parts of the video and annotate them. The video becomes personalized. The user can go back to a video he already viewed and see in a glance the parts of it that were most important to him and he can view his annotations.

Interview with Patrick Mileham, NexLearn - Innovators in E-Learning Series

Virtual worlds, simulations, and games are used in training and education in ever-expanding applications which seek to create learning experiences. Welcome to an interview with Patrick Mileham,director of editorial development for NexLearn (http://www.nexlearn.com).

What is your name, your position, and your affiliation and what is your involvement in NexLearn?

Patrick Mileham
Director of Editorial Development for NexLearn
I work closely with our partners to develop relevant, instructionally sound training experiences.

What is NexLearn and what is its mission and vision?

www.nexlearn.com

NexLearn is a custom e-Learning developer with expertise in creating immersive learning simulations. In fact, the core group that started NexLearn developed some of the first business-related e-Learning courses to include branching social simulations. Most of the company’s team members have been involved in the development of e-Learning tools or courseware for more than 15 years. We definitely excel in industry experience and knowledge.

The company’s mission evolved from its vision statement: “To advance excellence in learning technologies by combining people, technology and great ideas.” Once we decided where we wanted to go as a company, we outlined the best and most effective way to get there. By leveraging our creativity, experience and innovative development philosophy, we knew we could build strong customer relationships that would allow us to lead the technology-based education industry.

What new products and services do you have?

In 2006, NexLearn introduced SimWriter, a simulation authoring tool that gives anyone—including instructional designers, subject matter experts, trainers, managers and human resources personnel—the opportunity to develop custom, media-rich immersive learning simulations based on their company’s own content, processes and procedures. And since the tool features pull-down menus and pick-and-click functionality, SimWriter users can focus on creating engaging and instructional storylines instead of computer code. SimWriter’s ease-of-use translates into a savings of many hours of development time, effort and money.

Just last month (February 2009), we released SimWriter 3.5, the latest version of the authoring tool that includes more than 30 new enhancements. We believe it is the most robust and flexible rapid development immersive learning simulation authoring tool available today. And the feedback we’ve been receiving from SimWriter users—including experienced developers and people who are just starting to develop courses—proves that the popularity of immersive learning simulations continues to grow.

In addition, NexLearn provides a full range of custom courseware development services. We can do everything from Knowledge Engineering to Video and Audio Production in our onsite studios. We have over 1200 immersive learning projects completed in the last 14 years, including some projects as long as 183 hours of instruction and as short as 30 minutes.

What do you identify as the key new trends that have made NexLearn beneficial to people?

Well, with the current state of the economy, we’re seeing more companies putting greater emphasis on training...including those that have downsized their workforce. It’s critical for corporate leaders to realize that training isn’t a luxury that’s only valuable when business is good. Employee training and development is an investment that is critical to the success of their business—especially when they’re asking more from fewer employees. Companies are searching for help to train and cross-train their employees effectively and efficiently.

Business leaders and CLOs are attracted to NexLearn for a couple reasons. First, we offer SimWriter. Again, the benefit here is that the tool offers developers the capability to create customized, complex branching social simulations in a quarter of the time and at a fraction of the cost it normally takes to create the same project using other development methods and tools.

And second, we’ve developed a unique and beneficial three-tier process for helping our partners succeed.

For clients that have limited or no development resources to create their own training courses, NexLearn experts can create and maintain projects for them—from the spark of an idea during the initial brainstorming session, to instructional design, graphic design and media development, to the annual updates to ensure the course content is current. NexLearn is a full-service developer.

The second option for NexLearn clients is a “we create, you maintain” plan. In this scenario, NexLearn develops the program but the client makes any updates to the course. This option would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago, but with the availability of SimWriter, companies now have a tool that gives them more control over the development process. By doing more of the work, companies can save more money.

Finally, companies that purchase SimWriter can take advantage of the “you create and maintain” option plan. Many organizations have qualified internal resources to be able to create their own training programs, we’re now giving them the ultimate rapid development tool they need to create high-quality, media-rich courses.

How does NexLearn work? Can you provide one or two examples?

As I mentioned earlier, NexLearn and SimWriter are a powerful combination that provide multiple options for companies interested in creating customized training that is engaging, interactive, and very effective. We believe that simulation learning is the best approach to training today. By creating life-like scenarios, learners can experience real-world processes, procedures and decision-making opportunities in a safe learning environment. In the real world, failure is not an option. In a simulated world, it’s a learning experience.



This is an example of a customer service simulation created using avatars.


This is an example of a sales simulation created using video to allow learners to evaluate both verbal and physical cues to respond appropriately.


This example shows the unique SimWriter interface that allows users to view both the simulation map and the corresponding text and media components simultaneously.

Please describe upcoming activities.

Chief Learning Officer Summit 2009
Sawgrass Golf Resort & Spa, Ponte Vedra, FL
April 1 – April 3

ASTD 2009 International Conference and Exposition
Washington DC Convention Center
June 1 – June 3

Optional question: How can NexLearn help develop human capital and resources? How can it contribute to a global economic recovery?

The challenges of a waning economy, such as hiring freezes or layoffs—coupled with the fact that millions of baby boomers are preparing to retire—are forcing business leaders to maximize their human capital. To accomplish this feat, organizations must invest in the skills of their employees like never before. From soft skills like communication, negotiation, and leadership to more technical skills like equipment operation and even industry-specific compliance training, it’s critical to the success of every business that employees are well trained. We work closely with our partners to identify and develop the educational and training experiences employees need to do their jobs better, faster, and more effectively.

Perhaps the worst thing a business leader can do right now is to pull the plug on employee training. By drastically reducing training opportunities, workforce skills will become stagnant and companies will lose their competitive edge. On the global stage, NexLearn and SimWriter contribute to the world economy by helping organizations develop custom training, which allows them to fill job vacancies that require specific expertise.

E-Learning Queen's "Corgi Big Bark Awards" June 2008

This month marks the inauguration of E-Learning Queen's Corgi Big Bark Awards. Created to recognize innovations in e-learning, the awards are a way to encourage people who have a dream and a vision, and whose energy provides very welcome inspiration and affirmation for all involved in e-learning.



The Corgi Big Barks are awarded to products and services that achieve a high score in the following categories:

* meets a need in a new way
* is easy to use
* encourages the user think of new ways to teach and learn
* makes one think of new ways to communicate / share / collaborate
* demonstrates a sense of whimsy, humor, beauty
* is practical and affordable
* promotes social responsibility

Elluminate Publish!
http://www.elluminate.com/
Elluminate consistently innovates in a positive and useful way, and the company updates its webinar and other collaborative tools in response to evolving uses of elearning technologies.
The new product, Publish!, is an authoring tool that streamlines the process of using webinars for instructional material for asynchronous as well as synchronous courses.



Revoluminary
http://revoluminary.com/
Revoluminary is a student-based initiative to encourage grassroots tutoring and mentoring efforts. Revoluminary contains classifications of tutoring offerings, a rating system, whiteboards, and other tools that encourage interaction. The flexibility, ease of use, and profoundly inclusive approach to tutoring and mentoring are to be commended.



Narrator Files: Sparrow Interactive
http://www.sparrowia.com/
Profesional voiceovers and stock photos may not seem like a very big deal until you find yourself spending days upon days trying to generate good audio and multimedia content. Sparrow Interactive has created an approach that will work very well with programs of all scopes and sizes, from training to graduate education.

Instructional Spice
http://www.instructionalspice.com/activityspice/
Custom flash activities. Activity Spice is an online application that builds custom eLearning flash activities to be inserted in whatever eLearning platform is in use. This is a web-based application, meaning that Activity Spice be accessed from anywhere. As a result, it can be used work, at home, or at the client location. In a matter of minutes one can have a flash activity customized and downloaded, ready to insert in a course. What used to take days now takes minutes.

LearnHub
http://www.learnhub.com/
Learnhub is a social learning network that gives individuals the opportunity to use a friendly interface to upload video, audio, pdfs, images and other course content, and then to schedule courses, tutoring sessions, and more.

Learnhub incorporates Web 2.0 applications and philosophy in a very clear and straightforward way, resulting in the empowerment of instructors and students. Individuals can form communities and share content. In addition, learners can charge for courses and tutoring sessions, participate in others' sessions, and rate their experiences.

Interview with Tolga Ozdemir, E-Learning Instructional Designer, Turkey

This week's interview is with Tolga Ozdemir, an e-learning instructional designer working with BilgeAdam in Turkey, where he is involved in corporate and academic e-learning solutions. His responses to the questions give a great deal of insight into the nature of e-learning across cultures, and the ways in which technical and infrastructure challenges are being overcome.



What is your name, and what is your involvement with e-learning?

My name is Tolga Özdemir and I work as an e-learning instructional designer. My first encounter with e-learning was when I was at the university. I have a BSc degree in e-learning instructional design.

How did you get interested in distance education?

It was simply a coincidence. When I first entered the university I was not aware of the scope of my department. After a few years in the program and after taking courses, I realized the capability of internet and e-learning.

Bogazici University

Then I had chance to work as an intern one of the biggest companies interested in distance education in the internet, namely IBM and enocta. It was a lovely experience for me. After that, I decided to focus more on the internet as a tool for education. Nowadays, I am interested in and research some information about internet not for only education but also for marketing and for e-business

What is your favorite new trend in distance education?

I don't know if it is a new trend but I like social learning environments. Collaborative learning seems quite interesting to me. When I was in college, I was in such a learning environment which was quite useful experience.

I prefer more human, in other words, more natural, technology in distance education.

What is your favorite technology?

Well any open source technology :) Yes I support this because it gives underdeveloped or developing countries a chance of advancement. Besides this we use Flash technology as a development tool and it's also my favorite.

How prevalent is online learning in Turkey?

Well, online learning is quite popular in corporate and academic use. There are some online college programs which have been running for almost a decade. Companies also prefer online training courses in their training programs. Although it is popular, there are still some misunderstandings. There is still a large number of people, who think of online learning as a way to deliver supplementary material or a tool, and that it is not as good as formal learning.

Are online learning management systems used? Is Moodle used at all?

Of course, LMS is an important tool delivering online learning. There are some colleges use moodle but I do not know what the number is.

Are mp3 files used very often in education in Turkey? if so, how?

Yes, we suggest our customers to use audio in the courses we produce for them. Audio includes a significant quality in materials. But we still have cases in which audio is not an option because of bandwidth capabilities.

How are textbooks used in e-learning in Turkey? Are there many e-books?

Yes this is still a virgin market, I think. Of course there are some e-books, for example, currently I work in an e-book project for Microsoft Office 2007 but we need more samples in different subjects.

What are your favorite social networks? How do you view them in e-learning?

I visit some online sourceselearningeuropa.info quite often. I am a member of EDEN which stands for European Distance Education Network. I visit our offical page, http://www.eden-online.org, once or twice a week.

elearningeuropa.info is another informative web site to me. Besides these, I take a look at the pages of learningcircuit, elearning professionals user group on facebook and elearningmag as well.

A tea break at Afyonkocatepe University LMS project

Do you have a few favorite mashups or web applications that work together in innovative ways? Please describe them.

The basic and simple one answer, google tools! With its bunch of web based tools, google helps me a lot. I am in the last year of my MBA program. For example, searching for an article in google scholar and then writing and sharing my papers with my peers quite helpful for me and it is a kind of online learning!

What is your favorite quote? or, what's a book that caught your eye recently?

I start reading an interesting book named "Land of Spies" by Grigori Petrov. (You can use this link http://www.hs.fi/english/article/1101978058628). The book is about the development process of the people of Finland. I suggest you to read that interesting book.

Quote:

"The person who thinks he or she knows everything is difficult to teach."

Interview with Leah S. Piatt (New Series - Life in the E-Learning Organization)

Welcome to a series of interviews with e-learning and distance professionals. This week's interview is with Leah Piatt, Duke University, who is involved in corporate training and adult education.

What is your name, and what is your involvement with e-learning?
Leah S. Piatt. Relatively new to corporate training and adult education, I've been leading the way in our departmental work with e-learning. I've worked with Elluminate. I'm eagerly awaiting the day when I will get to actually moderate a class using this tool.

How did you get interested in distance education?
Some of our participants live and work an hour or more away from our training facility. We're really trying to alleviate travel and time obligations. I anticipate that e-learning will also help with the number of instructor lead classes we teach and bring about a more blended learning approach.

What is your favorite new trend in distance education?
I love the idea of continuing education via distance education. This could open up the amount of guest speakers we have both by eliminating travel time for the speaker as well as allowing someone who'd missed the session to hear the recording and view the presentation later.

What is your favorite technology?
Elluminate

What kinds of instructional materials do you use in elearning?
Power Point, Word, clip art, Snag-It, Captivate (soon, hopefully).

How do you use textbooks in e-learning?
We don't use textbooks, rather participant guides and job aids. These can be emailed before the session begins or converted to power point.

What is your favorite quote? or, what's a book that caught your eye recently?
quote: "While you teach, you learn." -- based on the words of Seneca the Younger, 4BC-65AD

book: The Primal Teen: What The New Discoveries About the Teenage Brain Tell Us About Our Kids --- Barbara Strauch

Articles of Note: What Caught the Corgi's Eye... Aug 24, 2007

We dig through databases, online journals, an e-learning magazines for online learning articles of interest. In this weekly series, we present a few articles that you might find useful, thought-provoking, or simply interesting.

Instead of simply giving you the citation, we'll provide a brief overview and synopsis of the article. We hope you find this to be helpful!

Articles that caught the Corgi’s eye this week:

Ndasi, H. (2006) The use of innovative methods to deliver technology education laboratory classes via distance learning: A strategy to increase enrollment. Journal of Technology Education 17(2): 33-42. http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/ejournals/JTE/v17n2/ndahi.html

Ndasi reports on advances in the delivery of technology education laboratory classes using distance learning. The author addresses the decline in technology education and suggests that distance education can help correct the problem. “Technology education programs with a history of hands-on learning at the undergraduate level have been slow to implement distance learning techniques and strategies” (Ndahi, 2006, p.34).

The author analzyed where attempts are being made to incorporate distance lab classes and found that they include engineering mechanics, environmental monitoring, electronics, heat transfer, thermodynamics, strength of materials.

Instructional technologies and lab course delivery methods utilized include two-way audio and video, compressed video, Internet CDs, virtual software (simulations), and videotapes.

Instructional events and activities studied included learning kits, demonstration labs (especially if / when too dangerous), field trips, and residential and summer schools. The study concludes that the effectiveness of distance learning in replicating technology education laboratories is mixed. There is a need for more technology to result in more sustained student engagement. Assessment is very important as well.

The author concludes that technology education laboratories delivered via distance learning can be effective, and that they are improving. They, however, should not replace face-to-face labs, but should represent an alternative form. The study seems to reinforce a hybrid model of education.

Simpson, V. and Oliver, M. (2007). Electronic voting systems for lectures then and now: A comparison of research and practice. Australasian Journal of Education Technology. 23(2): 187-208. http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet23/simpson.html

The authors report on the results of two separate literature reviews on the use of electronic voting systems in online education, the first conducted in 2002, the second in 2006. They also compare and contrast the results, with the goal of finding strategies to address the problem of lecture-dominated online learning: “Lectures are still seen as the dominant form of teaching and are associated with the tendency to emphasize content transmission over student engagement (Simpson & Oliver, 2007, p. 188).

The search included indexes of journals and scholarly publications, as well as web-based search engines. In 2002, the study found that electronic voting systems were often used in science and engineering disciplines. In 2006, articles had also been published on the use of electronic voting systems in economics, management, psychology, philosophy, medicine, and statistics. In 2002, electronic voting systems were used mainly in large groups. In 2006, large groups still prevailed, but small groups were also beginning to use them.

The electronic voting systems helped students and instructors know more about themselves and each other. On the instructor side, the systems helped the lecturers increase their understanding of the students and gauge effectiveness. On the student side, the systems helped them understand the material, check their knowledge, gain an idea of instructor expectations, and helped mastery of difficult materials. Pedagogically, the systems address the fact that content transmission is not the most effective way to teach, and that in order to achieve student learning goals, it is important to improve student engagement and to provide quality feedback. The electronic voting systems address those pedagogical issues. The electronic voting systems also can be used in order to provide an environment of constant attunement and to help improve teaching and teaching methods.

Falowo, R.O. (2007). Factors impeding implementation of web-based distance learning. AACE Journal, 15(3), 315-338. http://www.editlib.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=Reader.ViewAbstract&paper_id=21710

This is a good web-based distance education overview for a person who is new to web-based learning and who would like to have an idea of definitions, history, contexts, opportunities, expectations, and challenges. The article begins with current definitions of distance learning, and then follows with a discussion of the demographics of distance learning and characteristics of distance students.

The reader will find basic, yet useful discussion of student, faculty, and organizational institutional barriers. Student barriers include technological problems, lack of instructor feedback, and ambiguous directions. Faculty barriers include legal issues, copyright and ownership questions, perceived negative impact on the pursuit of tenure, lack of prestige, inadequate training. Organizational institutional barriers include undercapitalized and under-funded distance learning efforts (insufficient personnel, supplies, budgets), lack of funds, lack of training and technology, and finally, course quality concerns.

The article provides a very nice overview, especially for someone new to the field, or an administrator who is seeking to add distance education to face-to-face offerings. This is not a report on the latest research, but a useful overview for newbies.

About the Corgi (the Queen's companion animal of choice):


The Corgi digs through databases, online journals, an e-learning magazines for online learning articles of interest. In this weekly series, we present a few articles that you, dear reader & faithful E-Learning Queen (or King), might find useful, thought-provoking, or simply interesting. Instead of simply giving you the citation, we'll provide a brief overview and synopsis of the article. We hope you find this to be helpful!