Web Circle Web Design and Elearning Blog

Wow its been too long, we've been working on this new site for ages so will hopefully get some more time to keep this blog more up to date.

We have also recently created Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn accounts which we monitor regularly.  Check them out below.

We have also recently acquired a small startup in Melbourne called A Website Designer (we've re-built that site too). There were no staff (just the director who has moved overseas) just a great little website that brings in a lot of work and some great existing clients.

Lots of exciting stuff happening here, we've had a great start to the year.

More details on all of the above to come!

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I've recently written an article for the site on Elearning Delivery Mediums covering Learning Systems, Internet CD ROMs etc. Unfortunately my coverage of CD ROMs turned into more of a rant so I felt it more appropriate to write a blog post specifically on the issue of CDs.

One of the first questions we ask clients when beginning an elearning project is how they want the course delivered when complete. It is surprising the amount of clients that suggest CD ROM as the delivery mechanism.

Now I better say at the outset that there is still a role for CDs and I know they can be useful in certain situations. It is my view though that they should be the last method considered for rolling out elearning.

There are even still some elearning experts around the world suggesting CDs as a viable alternative to the web. I say get with the times people! Put the word CD Rom into Google Trends and see what you find. Actually I've already done it, see the chart below comparing the searches for the term CD ROM in Google with the All Ordinaries index over the last year - you get the picture!

CDs have 3 significant downfalls: :

1. With a CD you lose one of the best features of the web which is that a virtually unlimited amount of people can all access the 1 piece of content. With CDs you are creating a duplicate of the content every time you send a CD out. Once it goes out there is no way to change it and you end up with different versions all over the place. What if its an induction and you get a new CEO? Compare changing 1 file to chasing up copies of CDs from all around the organisation.
2. There is virtually no way to reliably track completion using CDs. You don't know who is completing them, you don't know how long they are taking, you can't grade assessments - at least not in a reliable way.
3. CDs are now 3 or 4 steps older than the current technologies for storing data. How long before computes don't even have CD Players? Actually it's a trick question, check out the MacBook Air for the answer.
   

As soon as information is printed to a CD the content is dead. Not to say that this form of content delivery is not going to hang around for a while in various industries but the web has well and truly moved into the area of constantly updated and refined content and user interaction - the opposite of what CDs offer.

So the next time you are considering options for delivering your elearning content, at least consider the other options before running with a CD.

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In the elearning and training industry we still haven't really worked out what to call ourselves. Do we use terms like elearning, flexible learning, online learning? Is there a need for all these terms? What about training and development vs. learning and development.

There are a lot of ways to try to get your head around where things are going in relation to the language. Google trends provides some interesting information.

Google Trends charts how often a particular search term is entered relative the total search volume across various regions of the world.

Elearning and Online Learning

Consider the above chart that compares Elearning, online learning, online training, CBT, WBT.

It freaked me out a bit at first to think that CBT was the most searched for term until I realised that CBT also stood for cognitive behavioural therapy so we can take that one out.

The trend for WBT seems to be going gradually downwards which is good - that's one term we just don't need.

Online training and online learning seem to be fairly steady although grading generally downwards.

Elearning is surprisingly below them all for most of the last few years and is only now creeping up to the level of online learning and online training. Further analysis of different regions shows that most of Asia put elearning well above the other two whereas the US and UK are well below.

It will be interesting to track it over the next few years to see if the term Elearning continues its upwards trend in relation to the other terms used.

Blended Learning vs. Flexible learning

When I did this one initially I was half expecting flexible learning to be the more searched term however I was mistaken with blended learning being well above flexible learning in the searches.

Interestingly if you do the same search just by Australia, the term flexible learning is well above blended learning - perhaps due to our Government funding body being called the Australian Flexible Learning Framework. They have chosen to adopt the word but is the rest of the world doing the same?

Training and development vs. learning and development

Finally what about training and development vs. learning and development. I suppose not surprisingly training and development still beats learning and development in the searches considerably. While the trend among corporates seems to be leaning towards using the term learning and development, the industry still has a bit of catching up to do. However the trend in learning and development seem to be grading generally upwards vs a general downwards trend for training an development.

In the UK, interestingly learning and development eclipses training and development after overtaking it mid 2006.

Once again this will be an interesting one to track over time.

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I was reading a news release from a leading web design business portal last week that was dedicated to encouraging web design firms to offer web design products instead of services. The issue outlined a number of businesses that had successfully made the transition from working for an hourly rate in a service capacity for clients to offering web based products instead.

I've noticed a trend throughout the past few years of web design firms offering websites and systems for low up front costs but for a set monthly fee. So rather than making their money on hours spent from a service perspective they have been increasing their monthly retainers by charging clients monthly fees on an ongoing basis and effectively locking them into a long term contract.

This particular news release outlined the benefits including giving the web designer unlimited income potential because of the lack of time constraints, affording better opportunity for residual income in continual license fees and providing a better opportunity to sell the web design business that has a product rather than one that just provides a service.

Of course this situation may suit some businesses and may work well for some web developers however there is 2 sides to the argument. I didn't think it was a coincidence that in the same week of the news release we got 2 separate calls from potential clients looking for a provider that would simply build them a web based product that they could own themselves. They were both in a position where they had been paying monthly leasing fees to their past provider and now wanted to change providers only to find that they could not access the source files for their site and they effectively had to build the site from scratch again. One of these businesses had in mind themselves that they one day might sell their business and a business with full ownership over a well built asset (their website) is likely to be worth more than one that has an ongoing liability of monthly website management fees.

The obvious problem that I see with the above approach is that the benefits are benefits only to the web design firm and not the client business. It results in a situation where clients are paying each month to be locked into the 1 company. The downsides are obvious for the consumer - the provider has no competition and can charge and behave as they like.

In our business we have a policy of using Open Source software to provide underlying functionality and have no lock in contracts for anything. We find that this is good for the client as they have full ownership of their site and they can demand a competitive service every time they want anything done to the site.

I would also argue that it is better for the web design firm. A business that locks its customers in and has no motivation to impress its customers through improved service and innovation is a risky business!

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I thought I'd start my blogging career with some information on other web design blogs around the world.

We always recommend to our clients to look for sites that they like the look of before they come to us that way they have an idea of where they want to go. Web Design blogs are a great place to start. There are also many other places which I will go into in future posts. For now If you are here you must be interested in web design or designing a website for your business so check out some of the blogs below. A good place to start is Daily Blog Tips who compile blog lists on various topics including Web Design , SEO and blogging itself!

Also worth checking out are:

Brendon Sinclair's Blog - Brendon runs Tailored Consulting here on the Gold Coast. Don't expect it to be updated in a while he is currently cycling across Australia with his son!

Sitepoint - A site for web designers and their web design blog is worth a look.

SEO Moz is worth a look for SEO related topics. We use SEO Moz as part of our SEO Program and they know their stuff.

Heaps of really nice designs at this web designer wall blog.

Feel free to leave any comments you wish here especially if you know of any other blogs worth including.

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What is next for Elearning?

Well the Elearning Guild have recently released a report which goes some way to answering this. I talk about Elearning 2.0 briefly in my article on elearning terminology a Glossary for newcomers but basically it is the term used for new ways of learning that have emerged with the "Social" aspect of the web or Web 2.0.

The new Guild Report is an interesting read - ok I'm lying I didn't read all of it being 104 pages but some of the key findings are worth pointing out.

Elearning 2.0 is growing

Perhaps this is not a surprise but some of the growth rates are staggering. Blogs up 20.7%, podcasts up 22.5% Communities of Practice up 12.3%.

Not everything is increasing

In case you thought that everything was increasing just as quickly think again. Some elearning techniques are decreasing including mobile learning (down 10%)!, games (down 6%) and simulations down 3.6%.

40% of respondents indicating use of some Elearning 2.0 approaches and 70% plan to apply more in the next 12 months.

I suppose given the target audience of elearning guild members you would expect a large uptake but 40% is pretty high I reckon and 70% have big plans for the next 12 months. I'm always a little dubious about such claims. Consider that in their July report on Mobile Learning 37.5% claimed that they would be doing more mobile learning in the next 12 months but according to the above stats it has decreased by 10%!

But how?

When no one can access it? 10% of companies over 10,000 people have banned corporate networking site Linked In, 40% for MySpace or Facebook. It will be interesting to keep an eye on this one. MySpace and Facebook I can understand but I'm unsure why companies wouldn't want their staff developing professional networks using Linked In.

Of course over 104 pages there is a lot more info in there but they were the big ones for me.

Feel free to post a comment on your thoughts. I might come back and update this one next year when they do the next report.

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Welcome to the Web Circle.

The Blog contains updated info on our business, our clients and the web and elearning industry.

This blog will be updated over time along with our resource articles and news items to become another resource for people looking to learn more about our business and using the web in their business.

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