First eLearning

This month's question comes from a series of questions I've received recently on my blog all asking some form of, "I'm interested in eLearning. What should I do first?"

Thus, for October we are exploring:

First e-Learning

An example is shown in my post - First Authoring Tool.

I am an educator in Arizona about to graduate with my Masters in Instructional Design. I wish to apply my experience designing courses for online learning; however I've searched and don't know where to begin to actually learn how to use the LMS and course design software available. I came across your blog and thought you might be able to offer some suggestions.

I have great computer skills but am not experienced in creating web courses. I've seen all sorts of elearning software- Dreamweaver, Lectora, Captivate, Flash etc etc mentioned in job ads, but don't really know which ones to choose in order to get a well rounded working knowledge of how to build a course. Do you have any suggestions where to start? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Now, several people took the opportunity to politely bash their masters program for not giving them this experience as part of their education. Let's avoid this here. Instead, let's focus on the real point of the question.

So, what advice would you give to someone new to the field. Where do you start?

• Particular tools you should explore?
• Resources you should read? Videos/screencasts you should watch?
• What would your To Learn List look like?
  

How to Respond:

Option 1 - Simply put your thoughts in a comment below. This may be hard given the complexity of the topic.

Option 2 -

Step 1 - Post in your blog (please link to this post).
Step 2 - Put a comment in this blog with an HTML ready link that I can simply copy and paste (an HTML anchor tag). I will only copy and past, thus, I would also recommend you include your NAME immediately before your link. So, it should look like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0

or you could also include your blog name with something like:

Tony Karrer - e-Learning 2.0 : eLearningTechnology

Posts so far (and read comments as well):

• Getting Started With Instructional Design.
• Kapp Notes: Help, I have an Instructional Design Master's Degree and I Can't Create E-Learning (read some of the comments on Karl's post for addl ideas)
  
• Learnlets - First eLearning
• Ken Allan - The Elearning Apprentice
• Clive Shepherd - http://clive-shepherd.blogspot.com/2008/10/big-question-making-start-in-e-learning.html
• Brandon Hall Research: Janet Clarey, E-Learning for Newbies
• Vinnie - How To Get Started in E-learning- The Big Question
• BLP - Lessons on Learning
• Wendy - My thoughts
• Gina Minks - Learning Circuits Blog Big Question: E-Learning
• Kevin - Learn to eLearn
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