The second or third time you facilitate an online course, you’ll notice that you start to repeat yourself. There are only so many ways to illicit more feedback or reply to the same questions. You’ll see combinations of words appearing over and over again and notice which trigger the liveliest discussions. For example:

“Make sure to respond to a couple other people before moving on.”

“What do you think? Do you agree or disagree?”

Make your job easier by saving your responses for the next time you facilitate that course. It’s a big time-saver, because with a couple small changes, you’re set to respond to future sections with less typing and thinking. You’ll be glad you have good responses at your fingertips that save time in the future.

[Photo credit: sean dreilinger on Flickr]

Join Mariuca Tuxbury and me for a free webinar next Tuesday, March 26.

Mariuca is a trainer for the patient navigator/community health worker e-learning program developed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, and is extremely knowledgeable about training up a group of health workers.

Together we’re going to talk about the fundamentals of putting together an online program that can help health agencies and service providers provide professional development.

Program administrators can count on learning practical, in-the-trenches tips that you can put to use in structuring your program. We’ll give a brief history of the program, lessons learned from programs around the country and a technical tour of the online training platform.

The details:

• Date: Tuesday, March 26
• Time: 2-3 PM ET
• Cost: Free
• Register: Sign up here

How Talance built a website that’s sophisticated, friendly and worth exploring for the Patient Navigator Program in Boston, MA.

Government websites have a bad reputation. Sadly, it’s a reputation that’s justified. Just click through a few official templates and you’ll see far too many are stodgy, rife with outdated information and a decade behind design trends.

When the team behind the Patient Navigator Program at the Massachusetts Department of Public Health decided to embark on a website, they knew they wanted to break stereotype.

Marilyn Gardner, lead of the Women’s Health Network /Men’s Health Partnership at the Care Coordination Program, which commissioned the website from Talance, said she wanted something different. “Something you’d want to spend time playing around with and investigating.”

So we set about creating a website that was “clean, sophisticated and fresh”—in other words, something completely different from the run-of-the-mill government website.

Read the whole case study, including each major phase of the project from building identity to building the site on Drupal, over at our website.

If you’re not sure where to make improvements on your website, just ask. The people at HowTo.gov are wondering how to make their site better, so they put a little pop-up survey on their homepage.

A short survey is an easy way to show the people who visit your site that you actually care about their experience there, which spreads good will. Plus, this is one of the best ways to learn more about what you’re doing right and wrong.

Every proud owner of an e-learning program needs a marketing push to succeed. Without support from key stakeholders, funders and learners, that program may fizzle.

Talance has hands-on experience developing marketing plans for e-learning, so here are six of our proven strategies for making a project grow.

1. Focus on the benefits

Before you start explaining what your program is, think about why it’s a great program, and then relay that information. Think who else would benefit from your training, and what problem it would solve. Put those into solid concepts, and then think about how you can tell them.

2. Motivate learners

The secret to enticing your learners to enroll and keep coming back is to make sure they’re properly motivated. Is it relevant to what they’re doing now? Do they need CEUs? Do they need new skills? Do they have to satisfy compliance? Find out what the best motivators are, and they’ll keep coming back.

3. Enlist supervisors

Supervisor support is critical, especially since they can influence (or require) staff to follow training. They are also more likely to mention it to their peers, who might see a need for the program.

4. Feature participants

Did a learner tell you about a valuable skill they learned through the trainer? Did a manager say something relevant to the subject matter? Include examples of real people directly involved in your marketing materials, and they’ll help promote for you.

5. Give it away

Make it easy for people to sample your e-learning program with small snippets. Give a demo, make the first module available to everyone and print examples as part of case studies.

6. Call reinforcements

Remember to look at other internal resources for help. Does your organization have a marketing department? Schedule a meeting so they can help you brainstorm and ask them if they can help with developing marketing resources.

Want more tips? Sign up for our newsletter, and receive tips and advice on starting your e-learning program.

Our Website Pre-Launch Checklist will guide you as you gear up for your website’s big launch day, whether you’re debuting a new site or some exciting updates. The55-point list allows you to plan your big day in advance, so you can implement your launch strategy step-by-step without forgetting anything.

Print out a copy and keep it next to your computer so you can track your progress.

This Website Pre-Launch Checklist covers:

• Polishing your copy so everything is consistent and clean
• Tips for fixing the formatting so the site looks attractive
• The most important technical quality assurance points
• Accessibility musts for an inclusive website
• A marketing planner so you can brag about your hard work
• Support preparation so you’re prepared for any circumstance

Get ready for launch, and request your copy now!

[Photo credit: Launch of Discovery by DLR_de]

Some sins feel good, but I don’t understand why making hyperlinks open in new windows is so seductive.

This act leaves so many website visitors befuddled (“The back button doesn’t work!”), or mistaken (“Pesky pop-up ad!”) that it should be avoided. Yet I spend more time than you can imagine explaining this.

That’s why I was glad to read in “Small but significant usability sins that websites should never commit” that this no-no tops the list there too:

Don’t open links in new browser tabs. Tabbed browsing is for advanced users. If you open a page in a new tab, most users will get lost, start clicking the back button, and then not understand why they can’t get back to where they started. Remember that they’re not focused on the chrome when they click a link, they’re focused on where they’re clicking. So it’s very easy to miss the fact that a new tab has opened.

The article is worth a read if you aim to put your online project on a righteous path.

[Photo credit: Observe the Commandments by Lawrence OP, on Flickr]

Snag learners early if you want them to be engaged in your online course. And by “early,” I mean before your course even launches. Start with a welcome letter, and you’ll find it much easier to make a lasting connection with students.

Welcome letters help you set expectations and highlight anything important when people are most attentive. Use your welcome letter to give students a quick preview of the course, give them contact information, state prerequisites, and give them major deadlines they can copy into their calendars.

Paper or e-mail is fine, although e-mail is cheaper. Just make sure to send it a week or two before launch.

Here are a few welcome letters from other organizations that can help you draft your e-learning missive:

Welcome to Linn-Benton Community College eLearning Courses – Clearly spells out expectations

Cascadia Online Classes Welcome Letter – Simple, but gives helpful information

Gloucester County College eLearning Welcome Letters – A host of PDF welcome letters written by instructors

Why Send a Welcome Letter? – Spells out the anatomy of a welcome letter, from University of Alaska at Fairbanks

[Photo credit: Welcome to opensource.com/education by opensourceway, on Flickr]

Course scheduling is notoriously fiddly. Picking begin and end dates is a pain, with all that module and activity scheduling. But to be fair to your learners, you’ve got to be as specific as possible.

The PDF Assignment Builder (PDF), developed by George Joeckel and his colleagues at Faculty Assistance Center for Teaching (FACT) at Utah State University, aims to make the chore a little easier. The tool lets you build a tidy PDF-formatted syllabus, which is also helpful when planning your course.

It’s easy enough to use, but here’s a video that shows step-by-step instructions.

We at Talance have no problem with public displays of affection, which is why we’re laying it out there this month with our annual Customer Appreciation Month.

How’s it work?

Work with us on any new or existing development or design this month and mention the Customer Appreciation Month discount. We’ll automatically give you $150 off through August 2012.

Take it as a token of our love that it’s so darn easy.

With love,

Talance