Professional Documents
Culture Documents
StratBeans Consulting
Consulting. IT Products. IT Services
In the partial fulfillment for the award of Post Graduate Program from School of Business & Entrepreneurship Submitted by SABNAM HAZARIKA PG20102315
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JULY,2010
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2. Company Profile
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3. Introduction
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4. Procedures of E-Learning content
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5. Technical procedures
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6. Tools required for E-Learning content
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7. E-Learning in Indian and International markets
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8. Computer based trainings (CBT)
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9. Conclusion
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10. References
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DECLARATION
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The material provided in this report is original and has not been submitted anywhere for any other diploma or degree.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
E learning industry in India is still in its infant stage. E learning is yet to penetrate Indian education system and hence there is ample opportunity for private players to invest in this. Industry. E-learning or electronic learning in India is gaining prominence slowly, but indeed steadily. This is due to the fact that more than half the population of India today is below 25 years of age and the number of Internet users is growing continuously. The tremendous growth of the economy in the recent past has also helped in the growth of online education in India. E-learning in India is especially popular with the young professionals who have joined the work force quite early but still would like to continue their education that may help them move up their career ladder quickly and safely. StratBeans Consulting is a Management Consulting Company. It provides innovative IT products, IT services / consulting for Enterprises. It also provides BPO consulting to organizations requiring outsourcing services. StratBeans Consulting is a leading provider of Customized Online Elearnings, Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Marketing Communications to prestigious clients worldwide. Our clientele includes The Royal Bank of Scotland, WNS, MetLife, ITC, Thomson Reuters, Cognizant, Patni, Unitedlex , Deutsche Post bank , Dominos, Optima , EXL Services among others. Focus is on unlocking hidden potential of great organizations. Every organization strives to serve their customers by utilizing existing resources and thoughts in the best possible ways. They believe that great organizations can pick small beans of innovation from within and weave them into a winning strategy. They work with organizations in exploring and flowering those strategy beans. They have forged alliances with smart companies to deepen our offerings and create an environment built on mutual excellence. Our clients include some of the most respected names in the industry
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I wish to express my gratitude to management for giving us an opportunity to be a part of their esteem organization and enhance our knowledge by granting permission to do our Summer Internship Program under their kind guidance. I am grateful to Mr. Prasoon Nigam our guide, for his invaluable guidance and cooperation during the course of the program. He provided us with his assistance and support whenever needed that has been instrumental in completion of this program. I am also sincerely thankful to Mr. Sameer Nigam (MD- STRATBEANS CONSULTING) who had an immense patience to take up my all queries and suggest me his invaluable suggestions. His guidance and encouragement has showed the path of fulfillment to my project. I am grateful to Mr. Rahul Mishra (Faculty, IILM-Gurgaon) for his helpful guidance to stick to the right path in the project.
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COMPANY PROFILE
StratBeans Consulting is a leading provider of Customized Online Elearnings, Learning Management Systems (LMS) and Marketing Communications to prestigious clients worldwide. Our clientele includes The Royal Bank of Scotland, WNS, MetLife, ITC, Thomson Reuters, Cognizant, Patni , Unitedlex , Deutsche Post bank , Dominos, Optima , EXL Services among others. Focus is on unlocking hidden potential of great organizations. Every organization strives to serve their customers by utilizing existing resources and thoughts in the best possible ways. They believe that great organizations can pick small beans of innovation from within and weave them into a winning strategy. They work with organizations in exploring and flowering those strategy beans. We have forged alliances with smart companies to deepen our offerings and create an environment built on mutual excellence. Our clients include some of the most respected names in the industry It develop customized E-learnings for process training. We also offer a robust Learning Management System (LMS). Using our services Training and L&D teams can automate most of the training process and reduce impact of attrition. Their Business Analysts are from top most engineering and management schools and they are expert in process mapping and analysis. The technical writers and instructional designers are proficient in content authoring
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technologies such as Adobe Captivate, Epiplex500, Articulate, Captivate etc. It creates online test papers, standard operating procedures (SOPs) and simulations for many large industrial clients. The Computer / Internet based training modules can be used for new hire training, refresher training or screening purposes. Explore more about online audio-visual content.
INTRODUCTION
Individualized self-paced e-learning online refers to situations where an individual learner is accessing learning resources such as a database or course content online via an Intranet or the Internet. A typical example of this is a learner studying alone or conducting some research on the Internet or a local network. Individualized self-paced e-learning offline refers to situations where an individual learner is using learning resources such as a database or a computer-assisted learning package offline (i.e., while not connected to an Intranet or the Internet). An example of this is a learner working alone off a hard drive, a CD or DVD. Group-based e-learning synchronously refers to situations where groups of learners are working together in real time via an Intranet or the Internet. It may include text-based conferencing, and one or two-way audio and videoconferencing. Examples of this include learners engaged in a real-time chat or an audiovideoconference. Group-based e-learning asynchronously refers to situations where groups of learners are working over an Intranet or the Internet where exchanges among participants occur with a time delay (i.e., not in real time). Typical examples of this kind of activity include on-line discussions via electronic mailing lists and text-based conferencing within learning managements systems.
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The growing interest in e-learning seems to be coming from several directions. These include organizations that have traditionally offered distance education programs either in a single, dual or mixed mode setting. They see the incorporation of online learning in their repertoire as a logical extension of their distance education activities. The corporate sector, on the other hand, is interested in e-learning as a way of rationalizing the costs of their in-house staff training activities. E-learning is of interest to residential campus-based educational organizations as well. They see e-learning as a way of improving access to their programs and also as a way of tapping into growing niche markets. The growth of e-learning is directly related to the increasing access to information and communications technology, as well its decreasing cost. The capacity of information and communications technology to support multimedia resource-based learning and teaching is
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also relevant to the growing interest in e-learning. Growing numbers of teachers are increasingly using information and communications technology to support their teaching. The contemporary student populations (often called the Next Generation, or Millennial) who have grown up using information and communications technology also expect to see it being used in their educational experiences. Educational organizations to see advantages in making their programs accessible via a range of distributed locations, including on campus, home and other community learning or resource centers. Despite this level of interest in e-learning, it is not without constraints and limitations. The fundamental obstacle to the growth of elearning is lack of access to the necessary technology infrastructure. Poor or insufficient technology infrastructure is just as bad, as it can lead to unsavory experiences that can cause more damage than good to teachers, students and the learning experience. While the costs of the hardware and software are falling, often there are other costs that have often not been factored into the deployment of e-learning ventures. The most important of these include the costs of infrastructure support and its maintenance, and appropriate training of staff to enable them.
the constraints of conventional residential educational settings. They would not be required to live or attend lectures in locations away from where they may be living and working. The printed distance study materials, which each distance learner received, would carry the core subject matter content they would need including all their learning activities and assessment tasks. Students would be required to complete these tasks, submit their assignments and take their examinations within a set time frame. While these printed study materials allowed distance learners a great deal of freedom from time, place and pace of study, it had its limitations. For one thing, non-printed subject matter content and simulations etc. could not be easily represented in print form. Access to information and communications technology changed all that as it offered a range of possibilities for capturing and delivering all types of subject matter content to learners and teachers in distributed educational settings. This meant access to subject matter content and learning resources via networked information and communications technologies across a range of settings such as conventional classrooms, workplaces, homes, and various forms of community centers . Contemporary educational institutions, including conventional distance education providers, often pride themselves in being able to meet the learning needs of their students and staff at a time, place and pace that is most convenient to them. They have been able to do this with the help of information and communications technologies which afford learners access to up to-date information as and when they need them, and also the opportunity to discuss this information with their peers and teachers at their convenience. This is becoming increasingly affordable and palatable with a wide range of software applications and computer conferencing technologies for collaborative inquiry among students and asynchronous discussion. These applications enable learners and teachers to engage in synchronous as well as asynchronous interaction across space, time, and pace
A crisp e-learning content with rich media, voice over, animation, intuitive user interface and simulation is demand of the day. The company has a genre of content writers, instructional designers, interface designers and animation experts while being adapt in their own areas of expertise, together routinely create masterpieces.
Unlike traditional content writing, e-learning content development is a multistep process which requires deep expertise and quality control at every step. Every e-learning content goes through our instructional designers, content writers, subject matters experts (SMEs), graphic designers, voice-over artists and animation experts.
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INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN:
The purpose of an instructional design is to ensure that an e-learning content/module satisfies needs of an end learner and is in accordance with
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cognitive theories of learning behavior. Instructional design helps in creating modules which are crisp, effective, optimized and give the best learning experience.
We follow a five phased standard model for instructional design. Instructional designer gives suggestions, feedback and design guidelines throughout the development of a CBT or e-learning module. Instructional designer and subject matter expert (SME) get involved with the customer in getting the requirement, understanding the training objectives and the learners' needs. In the design phase the learning objective is formalized. Based on the learning objective and learners' demography, instructional designer creates an instructional model. The instructional model typically describes flow, rich media content, animation and interactive content for the elearning module. In the development phase of the e-learning module/CBT, instructional designer interacts with content writer, SME, and the interface designer provides feedback. After the development is over, instructional designer approves the content. We take feedback from the customer/end user through our in-built processes. The feedback is evaluated for criticality and the relevance by the SME and the instructional designer who then suggest course correction,
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if any. Instructional design of a instructor led course content is quite different from that of a CBT and e-learning module. Our instructional designers have indepth knowledge of cognitive and behavioral sciences and factor these important elements in the e-learning and CBT modules. All this helps us optimize the level of interactivity, rich media insertion and the assessment criteria. What this does for you is that you get a best of breed solution.
TECHNICAL PROCEDURES
For a good E-Learning module the following steps are followed: 1. First and foremost is the collateral that we get it from the client. 2. Feedback from the client as to how they want their CBT/ELearning module to be. 3. Experts plan further as what to do and how to implement. 4. Storyboarding/scripting. 5. Power Point deliveries based on the storyboarding. 6. Animating the Presentations. 7. Voice over. 8. Articulate. 9. Syncing. 10. Reviewing. 11.Publishing.
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2) STORYBOARDING/SCRIPTING:
Generally, a storyboard for eLearning is a document that specifies the visual elements, text elements, audio elements, interactions and branching (where the system or user will go next) of every screen in an online course. Many people also add the learning objectives to the storyboard. Storyboarding is typically part of the Development Phase. Start after youve done Analysis and Design. In the rapid development approach, however, you may start to storyboard as you are designing. If you are part of a development team, the storyboard specifies what the graphic designer will create, what the illustrator will draw, what the narrator will say and the interactions that the programmer will produce. The storyboard is usually reviewed by the subject matter expert and your client. Its the central document of eLearning development. A visual approach to story boarding, is essential. Some prefer storyboarding in all text, which may be quicker but may not be as informative. There are four main ways to go about creating a visual storyboard. Create a template in Word (in landscape mode) and let each page represent one screen.
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Create a template in PowerPoint and let each slide represent one screen. Create a template in a commercial storyboarding application. There are many of these. For the rapid development approach, begin writing the course directly in the authoring tool, such as Captivate or PowerPoint (for Articulate and others). In both Captivate and PowerPoint, you can write the script and other notes in the Notes section below the slide. This integrates storyboarding with actual development. Into the storyboard template we create an area for the storyboard title. Then create the following labeled boxes or regions in your template: 1) a box to represent the screen number in your numbering scheme, 2) a box to represent the screen itself, meaning the visual components of the course, 3) an area for the on-screen text (this can be combined with #2, 4) an area for the audio, 5) an area for the interactions and 6) an area to describe branching. Some people add an area for miscellaneous notes, learning objectives and also for reviewer comments. Heres a storyboard template you can modify to fit your needs. Then fill in the template as follows: Title Area: Add the unit, module, lesson or topic name. Screen Number Area: Enter a unique identifier for each screen. Something like m1l2s3 for module 1, lesson 2, screen3. Visual Area: Describe in words, sketch or show the visual, such as the graphic, video clip, etc. You can include the text that will be on the screen or make another area for text. Audio Area: Write out the script, the name of a music file and the sound effects that will play on each screen. If you want to be really cool, use the acronym SFX for sound effects. Interaction Area: Describe the interactions that occur on each screen. Take advantage of the medium and provide lots of activities. Specifying these can be tricky and it often helps to write it out in the logic of programming. For example, If button 1 is clicked, go to screen m1l24 or If choice 1 is dragged to correct target, display this response.
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Branching Area: Define all the system branching that might occur. Branching differs from interactions, as it refers to navigating the whole system. There are standard navigation events, such as Next and Back, as well as more complex branching, such as what happens as a result of a user interaction. For example, you will need to define what happens when a user fails self-check, clicks on a hyperlinked term or opts to retake a test. An essential talent for storyboarding one page per screen is squeezing in everything you need. What we really need is a three dimensional storyboard space. Scientists are working on that as we speak.
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apples Mac OS X operating system. The current versions are Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac. PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is a reference to the slide projector. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely. PowerPoint, however, facilitates the use of a consistent style in a presentation using a template or "Slide Master". The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts. PowerPoint provides three types of movements:
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controlled by what PowerPoint calls Custom Animations. 2. Transitions, on the other hand are movements between slides. These can be animated in a variety of ways 3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter, exit or move.
Custom Animation is a set of effects which can be applied to objects in PowerPoint so that they will animate in the Slide Show. They can be added under the Custom Animation function or through the use of Visual Basic for Applications (VBA). PowerPoint 2000 and earlier versions introduced basic effects such as Appear, Dissolve, Fly In and so forth. In PowerPoint 2002/XP and later versions, the Custom Animation feature was improved, adding new animation effects grouped into four categories: Entrance, Emphasis, Exit, and Motion Paths.[1] The effects were later modified in Power Point 2010. Transitions are effects similar to Custom Animation, but are different in that they can only be applied singularly to individual slides as they change from one slide to another and are limited in options. More slide transitions were added to the selection in PowerPoint 2010. Entrance effects can be set to objects so that they enter with animations during Slide Show. Emphasis effects animate the objects on the spot. Exit effects allow objects to leave the Slide Show with animations. Motion Paths allow objects to move around the Slide Show. Each effect contains variables such as start (On click, With previous, After previous), delay, speed, repeat and trigger. This makes animations more flexible and interactive, similar to Adobe Flash. PowerPoint can also function as a movie maker program. The animator using PowerPoint works similarly to an animator using cels, using a succession of
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slides to create the illusion of movement. Many tools within the PowerPoint program can be easily used for maximum effect. Drawing tools such as AutoShapes, contains lines, connectors, basic shapes, block arrows, flowchart components, 'free forms' (AutoShapes drawn by the mouse on pen tool) and banners, callouts and action buttons, help draw out a slide. Custom Animations and sound tools can also be used to help add excitement to the project and create interest in what might have been an otherwise dull presentation. The process of drawing out multiple slides takes time, but, again, it is considered to be less expensive and easier to use than buying and using professional graphics animation software. Another way to produce these animations is by animating a cartoon as a single slide acting as a frame of film. This allows the slide show to run like an animated film. This is time consuming, but the artist has much more control and can do much more detailed and precise animation. It also allows control over the timing of the animation. This also makes editing of the animation easier afterward. On average, month's work of such animation usually ends up at about a minute in length. A three minute animation can take around three to four months to complete depending on the amount of detail, these lengthy cartoons usually run around 1,800 slides. Using Custom Animation, cartoons or movies similar to those created in Adobe Flash can be done with PowerPoint. With minimum time, an animator can produce a simple show similar to a stick figure movie, where the body movements are animated using Motion Paths and Emphasis effects. An example released under PowerPoint Heaven, has a section called the Shadow Fighter series which demonstrates PowerPoint movies.
2) VOICE OVER :
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In film, the film-maker places the sound of a human voice (or voices) over images shown on the screen that may or may not be related to the images being shown. Consequently, voice-overs are sometimes used to create ironic counterpoint. Also, sometimes they can be random voices not directly connected to the people seen on the screen. In works of fiction, the voiceover is often by a character reflecting back on his or her past, or by a person external to the story who usually has a more complete knowledge of the events in the film than the other characters. Voice-overs are often used to create the effect of storytelling by a character/omniscient narrator. When you listen to any type of story you can almost bet that a narrator is the one telling the story or has something to do with the story in general. A narrator can set the mood and place the listener in a particular place just be describing a particular scene. A narrator may mention the year, if it is cold or not, if the character is inside or outside, what the character is doing and who is in the room or the house with the character. Everything that you need to know in order to put you at that moment is the ultimate goal of the narrator. A narrator can tell a story or describe a product in any view they decide. They can tell you in their point of view so you can see it just as they do. The description can make you feel how the character feels. It can make you feel the mood that is being set with each character. There are different types of narrators; first person and third person omniscient. The first person narration is done at a more closer point of view on the character. The first person narrator takes you right there to feel and see what the character is seeing. The third person omniscient narration will give you a looks into a broader area through the eyes of the character. A third person narrator is the better choice if there are many characters that will be described. You can also use a narrator to voice over your description of your >products or your services that you are offering. Today in the tech world there are several different ways to make money. You can make money on line working for yourself or for someone else. You can sell your own products or sell someone else's products. No matter what you go to do you can be in control of your financial freedom. It's easy to see how you can make money on line but why just settle for getting by when you can sell your products or services more by
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having a narrator talk to your clients on an ultimate level. A narrator can help your clients understand why they should consider your products or services. When you hire a narrator to talk about your products or services you can pre-record the description in the narrators voice so that your clients will be able to click on the product at anytime day or night to get the description through a detailed prospective. This is very important to your client. When choosing your narrator finds a voice that is more appealing to you. It may be a male voice with an accent or a normal everyday Joe voice that will sell your products the most. It's not an easy choice to make when finding the right narrator but one thing is for sure, if you are not happy with your selection you can always change it to a voice that you like the most.
3) ARTICULATE :
Articulate is one the world's favorite desktop elearning authoring tools. Articulate enables you to rapidly create high quality e-learning quickly and easily. The base Articulate Presenter product uses PowerPoint as the authoring interface. You can combine Articulate Presenter with the Quiz maker and Engage products to create quizzes and flash animations that can put custom content developers to shame. Articulate Presenter is a powerful and splendid application that can be used to generate wonderful Flash Presentation and e-learning courses. The ultimate tool gives you the power to change PowerPoint content into Flash content with total flexibility and ease. You can use this tool to add an animated annotation, record a commentary, insert learning games, insert web objects into the presentation, use player templates and presentation options, sync animations, add FLV video to slides and edit them accordingly and much more functions. It is a user friendly tool and anybody can work with it very easily. All the included features make you capable to add comments to a slide using lot of effects, shapes and stylish colors, import audios to presentation, add logos, presenters, add tracks, choose quality options, apply proxy settings, add test labels, use number of navigation options, select and edit color schemes and so on. Make your presentations more interactive and publish them on web, Articulate Online, LMS, CD, Word
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and Podcast. With 11 built in languages the tool is just wonderful and can be used by multiple linguistic users. Including many more powerful features, the tool is the best authoring tool one can rely on.
4)SYNCING :
Sync is a short form for synchronization. It means making things to work together and be well matched. It is also the degree to which sound and picture is lined up to match exactly. In this step we upload the voice over files in the articulate system and then accordingly synchronize it with the animations on the slides. For this purpose the articulate software is used.
5) REVIEWING :
It means to review and analyze the text /document of the other person according the views of yours. The presentation slides after completion gets reviewed by oneself, peers and the senior employees. Peer review is very important to get the mistakes out from the document because the writer when writing thinks that the every word written is relevant and according to the topic but the fact is that due to this image it is difficult for the writer to get the mistakes from the documents. The person who is performing peer preview exercise should be honest to the feedback because it helps the writer to eliminate unnecessary information. The author should questions with the symbol W to get the reason of exercising peer review like who is going to review the document. Following are the people who can review the writing of the writer: 1. Peers, help in finding the real mistakes in a very less time because they are in the position to think like the writer. 2. Instructors can find the errors because they are the one who teaches the students every day and they knew what should be in the document. 3. Friends, they are very close to the person so they can easily find the error because they know where you can make a mistake while writing. 4. Trained Writers are the one who basically know about the requirements of the writers.
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PUBLISHING :
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or informationthe activity of making information available to the general public. In some cases, authors may be their own publishers, meaning: originators and developers of content also provide media to deliver and display the content. Traditionally, the term
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refers to the distribution of printed works such as books (the "book trade") and newspapers. With the advent of digital information systems and the Internet, the scope of publishing has expanded to include electronic resources, such as the electronic versions of books and periodicals, as well as micropublishing, websites, blogs, video games and the like. Publishing includes the stages of the development, acquisition, copyediting, graphic design, production printing (and its electronic equivalents), and marketing and distribution of newspapers, magazines, books, literary works, musical works, software and other works dealing with information, including the electronic media. Publication is also important as a legal concept:
1. As the process of giving formal notice to the world of a significant
of published and unpublished works. Once a work is accepted, commissioning editors negotiate the purchase of intellectual property rights and agree on royalty rates. The authors of traditional printed materials typically sell exclusive territorial intellectual property rights that match the list of countries in which distribution is proposed (i.e. the rights match the legal systems under which copyright protections can be enforced). In the case of books, the publisher and writer must also agree on the intended formats of publication mass-market paperback, "trade" paperback and hardback are the most common options. The situation is slightly more complex, if electronic formatting is to be used. Where distribution is to be by CD-ROM or other physical media, there is no reason to treat this form differently from a paper format, and a national copyright is an acceptable approach. But the possibility of Internet download without the ability to restrict physical distribution within national boundaries presents legal problems that are usually solved by selling language or translation rights rather than national rights. Thus, Internet access across
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the European Union is relatively open because of the laws forbidding discrimination based on nationality, but the fact of publication in, say, France, limits the target market to those who read French. Having agreed on the scope of the publication and the formats, the parties in a book agreement must then agree on royalty rates, the percentage of the gross retail price that will be paid to the author, and the advance payment. This is difficult because the publisher must estimate the potential sales in each market and balance projected revenue against production costs. Royalties usually range between 10-12% of recommended retail price. An advance is usually 1/3 of first print run total royalties. For example, if a book has a print run of 5000 copies and will be sold at $14.95 and the author receives 10% royalties, the total sum payable to the author, if all copies are sold is $7475 (10% x $14.95 x 5000). The advance in this instance would roughly be $2490. Advances vary greatly between books, with established authors commanding large advances.
Although listed as distinct stages, parts of these occur concurrently. As editing of text progresses, front cover design and initial layout takes place and sales and marketing of the book begins. Editorial stage A decision is taken to publish a work, and the technical legal issues resolved, the author may be asked to improve the quality of the work through rewriting or smaller changes, and the staff will edit the work. Publishers may maintain a house style, and staff will copy edit to ensure that the work matches the style and grammatical requirements of each market. Editors often choose or refine titles and headlines. Editing may also involve structural changes and requests for more information. Some publishers employ fact checkers, particularly regarding non-fiction works. Design stage When a final text is agreed upon, the next phase is design. This may include artwork being commissioned or confirmation of layout. In publishing, the word "art" also indicates photographs. This process prepares the work
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for printing through processes such as typesetting, dust jacket composition, specification of paper quality, binding method and casing, and proofreading. The type of book being produced determines the amount of design required. For standard fiction titles, design is usually restricted to typography and cover design. For books containing illustrations or images, design takes on a much larger role in laying out how the page looks, how chapters begin and end, colors, typography, cover design and ancillary materials such as posters, catalogue images and other sales materials. Non-fiction illustrated titles are the most design intensive books, requiring extensive use of images and illustrations, captions, typography and a deep involvement and consideration of the reader experience. The activities of typesetting, page layout, the production of negatives, plates from the negatives and, for hardbacks, the preparation of brasses for the spine legend and imprint are now all computerized. Prepress computerization evolved mainly in about the last twenty years of the 20th century. If the work is to be distributed electronically, the final files are saved as formats appropriate to the target operating systems of the hardware used for reading. These may include PDF files. Sales and marketing stage The sales and marketing stage is closely intertwined with the editorial process. As front cover images are produced or chapters are edited, sales people may start talking about the book with their customers to build early interest. Publishing companies often produce advanced information sheets that may be sent to customers or overseas publishers to gauge possible sales. As early interest is measured, this information feeds back through the editorial process and may affect the formatting of the book and the strategy employed to sell it. For example, if interest from foreign publishers is high, co-publishing deals may be established whereby publishers share printing costs in producing large print runs thereby lowering the per-unit cost of the books. Conversely, if initial feedback is not strong, the print-run of the book may be reduced, the marketing budget cut or, in some cases, the book is dropped from publication altogether.
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LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM (LMS). CAPTIVATE. ADOBE FLASH PLAYER. MS POWER POINT. ARTICULATE. TEXT ALOUD.
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LMSs range from systems for managing training and educational records, to software for distributing courses over the Internet with features for online collaboration. Corporate training use LMSs to automate record-keeping and employee registration. Student self-service (e.g., self-registration on instructor-led training), training workflow (e.g., user notification, manager approval, wait-list management), the provision of on-line learning (e.g., Computer-Based Training, read & understand), on-line assessment, management of continuous professional education (CPE), collaborative learning(e.g., application sharing, discussion threads), and training resource management (e.g., instructors, facilities, equipment), are dimensions to Learning Management Systems. Some LMSs are Web-based to facilitate access to learning content and administration. LMSs are used by regulated industries (e.g. financial services and biopharma) for compliance training. They are also used by educational institutions to enhance and support classroom teaching and offering courses to a larger population of learners across the globe. Some LMS providers include "performance management systems", which encompass employee appraisals, competency management, skills-gap analysis, succession planning, and multi-rater assessments (i.e., 360 degree reviews). Modern techniques now employ Competency-based learning to discover learning gaps and guide training material selection. For the commercial market, some Learning and Performance Management Systems include recruitment and reward functionality.
CHARACTERISTICS: LMSs cater to educational, administrative, and deployment requirements. While an LMS for corporate learning, for example, may share many characteristics with a VLE, or virtual learning environment, used by educational institutions, they each meet unique needs. The virtual learning
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environment used by universities and colleges allow instructors to manage their courses and exchange information with students for a course that in most cases will last several weeks and will meet several times during those weeks. In the corporate setting a course may be much shorter in length, completed in a single instructor-led event or online session. The characteristics shared by both types of LMSs include: Manage users, roles, courses, instructors, facilities, and generate reports Course calendar
Learning Path
Student messaging and notifications Assessment and testing handling before and after testing Display scores and transcripts Grading of coursework and roster processing, including wait listing Web-based or blended course delivery Characteristics more specific to corporate learning, which sometimes includes franchisees or other business partners include: Auto enrollment (enrolling Students in courses when required according to predefined criteria, such as job title or work location) Manager enrollment and approval Boolean definitions for prerequisites or equivalencies Integration with performance tracking and management systems Planning tools to identify skill gaps at departmental and individual level Curriculum, required and elective training requirements at an individual and organizational level Grouping students according to demographic units (geographic region, product line, business size, etc.) Assign corporate and partner employees to more than one job title at more than one demographic unit
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CAPTIVATE :
Adobe Captivate (formerly Robo Demo) is an electronic learning tool for Microsoft Windows, and from v.5 Mac OS X which can be used to author software demonstrations, software simulations, branched scenarios, and randomized quizzes in .swf format. It can also convert Adobe Captivate generated .swf to .avi which can be uploaded to video hosting websites. For software simulations, Captivate can use left or right mouse clicks, key presses and rollover images. It can also be used for screen casts, podcasts, and the conversion of Microsoft PowerPoint presentations to the Adobe Flash format. VERSIONS:
Adobe Captivate 5.5 (May 2011) New features include gradients, shadows, and object rotation, enhanced quiz/assessment templates, MP4 output option, YouTube publishing option, pay-as-you go subscription licensing option. Available as a stand-alone product or as part of the Adobe eLearning Suite 2.5 bundle.[1] Adobe Captivate 5 (July 2010) Unlike previous versions that were derivative of Captivate 2 and carried over notable bugs and technological limitations, Captivate 5 was written from scratch. Features include a new GUI similar to other Adobe CS family products, built-in animation effects, extended Microsoft PowerPoint support, extended video embedding and control (it functions similarly to audio in older versions), master slides and object styles. Developers are able to publish their content to Acrobat.com and use it as a quasi-Learning management system. Adobe Captivate 5 is available separately or as part of Adobe eLearning Suite 2.[2] Adobe Captivate 4 (Jan 2009) New features included SWF commenting, professional project templates, customizable widgets, roundtrip PowerPoint workflow, table of contents and aggregator, text-to-speech functionality, variables and advanced actions, expanded output options,
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Adobe Photoshop layer support. This version has features for collaboration, extends Adobe Captivate and interacts with other Adobe products like Bridge, Sound booth, Photoshop, Adobe Device Central, etc. This version of Adobe Captivate is also part of the new Adobe eLearning Suite. Note: There is a bug in aggregator that sometimes interferes with the playback controls of embedded live-action video.
Adobe Captivate 3 (July 2007) New features included multimode recording, automatic rerecording, XML export/import (XLIFF) for localization, find and replace, audio recording with preview, randomized quizzes, answer shuffle, new question types (sequence/hotspot), PPT import with animations, rollover slide let, and slide transition effects. This version has an Adobe Captivate logo preloaded added to the beginning of all simulations, but this can be changed to a generic preloaded. It would eventually be included in the Adobe Technical Communication Suite. Adobe Captivate 2 (October 2006) New features included branching view, simulation wizard, library, interaction dialog, zoom, skins and menus, Flash Video (FLV) support, export to Flash 8, step-by-step documentation output, customization options, and PENS. Macromedia Captivate (October 2004) New features included timeline, audio editing, demonstration and simulation recording modes, customizable quiz questions, export to Flash MX 2004, smart full motion recording, 508 compliance, SCORM 2004, and Breeze integration. Robo Demo 5 and eLearning Edition (Fall 2003 by eHelp Corporation) New features included tighter integration with Flash via FLA and SWF import, full-motion (real-time) recording, SCORM 1.2., video import, multiple copy/paste, undo, shortcut controls, grid, alignment toolbar, filmstrip view, background audio, animated highlighters, and project resize. Robo Demo 4 and eLearning Edition (Spring 2003 by e Help Corporation) New features included AutoText Captions, Animated Text Effects, PowerPoint style interface, publish as email attachment,
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customize capture key, SCORM, Quiz question slides, support for Question mark Perception.
Robo Demo 3 (Fall 2002 by e Help Corporation) New features included PowerPoint and AVI import, interactive text entry boxes, interactive click boxes, JavaScript options, and scoring. RoboDemo 2 (May 2002 by eHelp Corporation) First version with major Flash Cam bug fixes (therefore it was called version "2").
Microsoft PowerPoint, usually just called PowerPoint, is a commercial presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is part of the Microsoft Office suite, and runs on Microsoft Windows and Apple's Mac OS X operating system. The current versions are Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 for Windows and 2011 for Mac. PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". The "slide" analogy is a reference to the slide projector. Slides may contain text, graphics, sound, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged freely. PowerPoint, however, facilitates the use of a consistent style in a presentation using a template or "Slide Master". The presentation can be printed, displayed live on a computer, or navigated through at the command of the presenter. For larger audiences the computer display is often projected using a video projector. Slides can also form the basis of webcasts. PowerPoint provides three types of movements:
1. Entrance, emphasis, and exit of elements on a slide itself are
controlled by what PowerPoint calls Custom Animations 2. Transitions, on the other hand are movements between slides. These can be animated in a variety of ways 3. Custom animation can be used to create small story boards by animating pictures to enter, exit or move.
ARTICULATE :
Articulate is one the world's favorite desktop e-learning authoring tools. Articulate enables you to rapidly create high quality e-learning quickly and easily. The base Articulate Presenter product uses PowerPoint as the authoring interface. You can combine Articulate Presenter with the Quiz maker and Engage products to create quizzes and flash animations that can put custom content developers to shame. Articulate Presenter is a powerful and splendid application that can be used to generate wonderful Flash Presentation and e-learning courses. The ultimate tool gives you the power
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to change PowerPoint content into Flash content with total flexibility and ease. You can use this tool to add an animated annotation, record a commentary, insert learning games, insert web objects into the presentation, use player templates and presentation options, sync animations, add FLV video to slides and edit them accordingly and much more functions. It is a user friendly tool and anybody can work with it very easily. All the included features make you capable to add comments to a slide using lot of effects, shapes and stylish colors, import audios to presentation, add logos, presenters, add tracks, choose quality options, apply proxy settings, add test labels, use number of navigation options, select and edit color schemes and so on. Make your presentations more interactive and publish them on web, Articulate Online, LMS, CD, Word and Podcast. With 11 built in languages the tool is just wonderful and can be used by multiple linguistic users. Including many more powerful features, the tool is the best authoring tool one can rely on.
TEXT ALOUD :
The use of computer generated, synthetic speech is getting more and more mainstream. Popular operating systems such as Windows and MacOs X include built-in text to speech (TTS) capabilities and synthetic speech is also used in automated weather reports and numerous telephone services to name but a few applications. Text file readers are a common class of speech apps and as a nifty extra many of them let you turn text files into spoken audio directly. The audio file or files can then be listened on the road using some hardware mp3 player, efficiently stored on the computer for later listening or burned on a set of regular audio Cds. TextAloud is a very useful and easy-to-use text to speech utility for an attractively low price (about 20 US dollars). It shines in turning multiple files to compressed audio very quickly and also offers basic text editing, pronunciation and voice changing features. Unlike most free readers, it supports both SAPI 4 and SAPI 5 for maximal coverage and offers some low-vision features, too. As for improvements, the keybord interface, menu logic and implementation of skinning is a bit patchy in places and TextAloud could do with some extra features. In brief a nice and feature-rich text to audio reader for Windows.
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The worldwide e-learning industry is estimated to be worth over $48 billion according to conservative estimates. Developments in internet and multimedia technologies are the basic enabler of e-learning, with consulting, content, technologies, services and support being identified as the five key sectors of the e-learning industry. By 2006, 3.5 million students were participating in on-line learning at institutions of higher education in the United States. According to the Sloan Foundation reports, there has been an increase of around 1214 percent per year on average in enrollments for fully online learning over the five years 20042009 in the US post-secondary system, compared with an average of
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approximately 2 per cent increase per year in enrollments overall. Allen and Seamen (2009) claim that almost a quarter of all students in post-secondary education were taking fully online courses in 2008, and a report by Ambient Insight Research suggests that in 2009, 44 per cent of post-secondary students in the USA were taking some or all of their courses online, and projected that this figure would rise to 81 percent by 2014. Thus it can be seen that e-learning is moving rapidly from the margins to being a predominant form of post-secondary education, at least in the USA. Many higher educations, for-profit institutions, now offer on-line classes. By contrast, only about half of private, non-profit schools offer them. The Sloan report, based on a poll of academic leaders, indicated that students generally appear to be at least as satisfied with their on-line classes as they are with traditional ones. Private institutions may become more involved with on-line presentations as the cost of instituting such a system decreases. Properly trained staff must also be hired to work with students on-line. These staff members need to understand the content area, and also be highly trained in the use of the computer and Internet. Online education is rapidly increasing, and online doctoral programs have even developed at leading research universities. K-12 Learning E-learning is also utilized by public K-12 schools in the United States. Some E-Learning environments take place in a traditional classroom; others allow students to attend classes from home or other locations. There are several states that are utilizing cyber and virtual school platforms for E-learning across the country that continued to increase. Virtual school enables students to log into synchronous learning or asynchronous learning courses anywhere there is an internet connection. Technologies kits are usually provided that include computers, printers, and reimbursement for home internet use. Students are to use technology for school use only and must meet weekly work submission requirements. Teachers employed by K-12 online public cyber schools must be certified teachers in the state they are teaching in. Cyber schools allow for students to maintain their own pacing
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and progress course selection, and provide the flexibility for students to create their own schedule.
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matter expert or teacher is able to use. In addition, the lack of human interaction can limit both the type of content that can be presented as well as the type of assessment that can be performed. Many learning organizations are beginning to use smaller CBT/WBT activities as part of a broader online learning program which may include online discussion or other interactive elements. Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) Computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) is one of the most promising innovations to improve teaching and learning with the help of modern information and communication technology. Most recent developments in CSCL have been called E-Learning 2.0, but the concept of collaborative or group learning whereby instructional methods are designed to encourage or require students to work together on learning tasks has existed much longer. It is widely agreed to distinguish collaborative learning from the traditional 'direct transfer' model in which the instructor is assumed to be the distributor of knowledge and skills, which is often given the neologism E-Learning 1.0, even though this direct transfer method most accurately reflects Computer-Based Learning systems (CBL). Locus of Control remains an important consideration in successful engagement of Elearners. According to the work of Cassandra B. Whyte, the continuing attention to aspects of motivation and success in regard to E-learning should be kept in context and concert with other educational efforts. Information about motivational tendencies can help educators, psychologists, and technologists develop insights to help students perform better academically. Technology-enhanced learning (TEL) Technology enhanced learning (TEL) has the goal to provide socio-technical innovations (also improving efficiency and cost effectiveness) for e-learning practices, regarding individuals and organizations, independent of time, place and pace. The field of TEL therefore applies to the support of any learning activity through technology.
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CONCLUSION
The e-learning era appears to have finally dawned in India. From being a largely outward looking industry, where Indian companies primarily served as a service provider for clients in US and Europe, Indian companies are becoming inward looking a clear reversal of trend. Leading this transformation are several Indian companies that have lined up with some very innovative offerings. Educomp has announced that it has joined hands with Great Lakes Institute of Management to provide e-learning education. The two partners are poised to invest around Rs 150 crores (15 million USD) in the next five years and the duo are planning to roll out elearning management courses which will cost about 10 percent of the cost that a student spends in the regular courses. Sify meanwhile is planning to introduce a learning management system in India and they already have a couple of customers who are interested in its products. At a corporate level Harvard Business Publishings (HBP) is planning to begin elearning for Indian managers this year. The courseware will be delivered through the mobile platform. Close on its heal are other institutes like the Wharton's Executive Education Division that have also shown a keen interest in beginning such initiatives for the Indian manager.
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Even iProf, which claims to be Indias first and largest e-learning superstore for IIT, CAT, PMT and other high-stakes tests on tablet computers, has announced an investment by Kaplan Ventures to enable the iProf platform to offer test preparation in GMAT and GRE, two exams required for admissions to most competitive U.S. business or graduate schools. The Indian NGO sector too is not far behind and many have already begun using e-learning for furthering the cause of education for the marginalized and the disadvantaged sections of the society. Smile foundation of Ahmedabad has begun a innovative program called the Twin e-learning Programme (Step) which is designed to offer job-oriented skills to youth from the less privileged sections of society living in urban slums and peripheral rural areas. In Kolkata, a Jesuit-run media center is promoting e-learning in schools using audio-visual material in a bid to make lessons more interesting. Called Chitrabani, the center, named began its Bichitra Pathsala (innovative school) a year ago. With so many different e-earning initiatives in the country, the service-driven mindset is rapidly getting replaced with an innovation-driven mindset. This however, brings forth a new challenge of gathering next level e-learning professionals who possess strong grounding in innovation. What it also requires is the need for the industry to enrich itself by drawing in the academic fraternity which has for long been kept out of the commercially-driven service industry. At the government level, IGNOU, Indias largest Open University, has announced the details of the virtual university for Africa after the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh promised such an institution in May, 2011, at a summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The Pan-African Elearning Network of IGNOU will be devised as a robust e-learning network that will go a long way in alleviating the needs of African nations.
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REFERENCES
WEBSITES:
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1) 2) 3) 4)
BOOKS :
1) E-Learning, Online and Distance Education Books 2) Classic, Popular and Current Instructional Design and
Technology Books
3) Training, Project Management, Human Performance
Education Books
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