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Resources for E-Learning Articles

Use this guide to e-learning articles for resources on best practices, analysis, consultants, user groups, tools, forecasts, standards, and more.

Best Practices in e-Learning

Brandon Hall Research.
For over a decade, Dr. Hall and his team have published the e-learning equivalent of Consumer Reports. Free of advertising, Hall's reports and website take an objective view of e-learning best practices in the enterprise setting. Free of the hype found in technology trade magazines, Hall provides rigorous evaluations of tools and technologies with an emphasis on outcomes.
United Nations - A Report on e-Learning and Best Practices (PDF).
This groundbreaking report from 2002 illustrates the need for private developers to work with educators and foundations to help e-learning spread throughout the world. The UN report identifies model uses for e-learning technology, while documenting a mandate for schools in developed countries to distribute quality online content to the rest of the world.
University of Calgary.
The University of Calgary maintains an online guide to best practices in e-learning, including featured tools, books, and events. In addition, Calgary hosts an annual online conference that allows e-learning professionals from around the world to connect and collaborate on the next generation of best practices.

e-Learning Analysis

eLearnSpace.
Canadian educator George Siemens launched a weblog and newsletter covering developments in e-learning technology and deployment. The website also includes comprehensive guides for educators that want to integrate e-learning tools and techniques into their institutions.
Training Watch.
Numerous volunteers contribute to this weblog and database for the corporate e-learning community. The front page of this site offers visitors a rolling feed of e-learning news and analysis from a variety of sources. Readers provide instant feedback and ratings, highlighting some of the critical debates within the e-learning industry. The Training Watch database also contains numerous product reviews and field reports, ideal for managers that want to evaluate potential e-learning solutions for their organizations.

e-Learning Briefs and White Papers

eLearningPost.
This online news feed points to the latest e-learning briefs and white papers. Editor Maish R. Nichani offers insightful digests of the latest research findings and best practices for busy e-learning professionals in both the corporate and the education sectors.
Forum Corporation.
In addition to serving the needs of its own client companies, this e-learning specialist company publishes key research findings in white papers and briefs on their website. Clients and subscribers can receive even more hard data that they can use to evaluate and implement their own e-learning solutions.
ITPapers.
Along with a comprehensive selection of white papers for the entire information technology industry, this website offers key reports and other critical data of interest to e-learning providers and clients.
Online Computer Library Center.
The OCLC offers a wealth of briefs and white papers on e-learning, submitted by educators from around the world. Many of the OCLC's reports focus on the impact of standardization on e-learning and the challenges that non-English speakers face when implementing off-the-shelf e-learning software at their institutions.

e-Learning Tools

CLO Sourcebook.
Chief Learning Officer Magazine maintains an online database of over 440 e-learning tools and service providers. Site visitors can search this wealth of information by feature, by company, or by country.
CourseShare.
Professional development specialists and trainers collaborate on e-learning content on this open forum. Experts catalog key resources for learning in the workplace using a combination of online tools and traditional training methods.
E-Learning Centre Resource Guide.
The UK's most prominent online source for e-learning information offers a comprehensive guide to commonly available tools, software, and other resources. In addition to listing highly specialized resources, this e-learning guide offers tutorials for creating educational and professional development content using common, off-the-shelf computer software packages.
Winning E-Learning Proposals.
The comprehensive guide to identifying the critical professional development needs within organizations and developing clear proposals for implementing e-learning solutions. Written for e-learning providers, professional development specialists can benefit by understanding the kinds of proposals that providers and developers submit, especially during open bid processes.

e-Learning Consultants

Jay Cross.
As director of the Workflow Institute, Jay Cross helps companies implement e-learning solutions while measuring their effectiveness in relation to the informal learning that takes place in businesses. Cross authored one of the very first books to use the term e-learning, and maintains a daily weblog where he shares recent findings and discusses industry developments.
William Horton Consulting, Inc.
William and Katherine Horton travel the globe, helping businesses, schools, and governments implement effective e-learning programs. In addition to their site visits and seminars, the Hortons have made many of their workshops, publications, and research findings available for download on their website.
Leo Lucas.
In his third decade as an e-learning expert, Leo Lucas helped design some of the very first multimedia authoring tools for Windows. After helping launch a major online learning solutions provider, Lucas started consulting with businesses that want to quickly add e-learning to their professional development and training regimen.
Maxine Morse.
One of the leading e-learning consultants in Europe, Maxine Morse has helped large organizations like the British Broadcasting Corporation develop effective e-learning strategies both for employees and for students. Morse has developed numerous frameworks and software tools for training managers, with an emphasis on tailoring core software to meet the specific needs of client organizations.

e-Learning User Groups

Blackboard User Groups.
One of the most prominent e-learning companies, Blackboard, provides resources for users to share best practices and troubleshoot problems. Users meet both online and in person at regional user group meetings. Special interest groups suggest new features to developers, while analyzing the effectiveness of their e-learning tools.
The E-Learning Guild.
Developers and users of e-learning systems unite at this online community devoted to pushing the boundaries of learning technology. Members publish a weekly journal that investigates new techniques and celebrates best practices by designers, teachers, and leaders.

e-Learning Standards Bodies

Advanced Distributed Learning.
An offshoot of a United States Department of Defense initiative, ADL has evolved into a unique, public-private partnership dedicated to advancing common standards in e-learning. The ADL Initiative helped shepherd the Shared Content Object Reference Model, a standard now used by the majority of e-learning developers around the world.
IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee.
This committee of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers charts the best practices of e-learning developers. The LTSC coordinates the efforts of other standards organizations around the world to identify and promote common standards among e-learning providers.
Instructional Management Systems Project.
This trade association promotes the adoption and development of open and interchangeable standards for e-learning data around the world. With members from the academic and private sectors, this public-private partnership encourages schools and businesses to invest in e-learning projects without the fear of making huge commitments to a single technology platform.

e-Learning Trends And Forecasts

New Media Consortium.
This Texas-based think-tank publishes the annual Horizon Report. In each edition, the NMC's researchers identify key technologies that will play a major role in expanding or shifting the role of e-learning over the coming years. Funded by membership dues from engineering companies, educational institutions, and large corporations, the NMC uses its resources to lobby for expanded e-learning deployment in all facets of everyday life.
Bryan Chapman's E-Learning Stock Tracker.
Internet analyst Bryan Chapman watches the stock prices of key, publicly traded e-learning providers. By watching the ebb and flow of his virtual portfolio over the past few years, Chapman has been able to predict the relative health of the commercial e-learning market. Though this analysis does not include open source projects or development at privately held companies, the index mirrors the relative demand for e-learning in the corporate market.

The Fortune 50 View

Chief Learning Officer.
The most prominent trade publication for e-learning in the enterprise, CLO offers subscribers access to detailed industry reports that emphasize return on investment. Major companies send their top professional development and human resources officers to CLO's seminars and conferences, where they learn about new e-learning trends and how they can help companies improve their bottom lines.
The Economist Intelligence Unit.
In conjunction with IBM, the well-respected, global magazine publishes an annual report of e-learning deployment and effectiveness. Researchers measure how well e-learning solutions have been implemented in business and university settings throughout the world.
Forbes' Overview of E-Learning.
Forbes Magazine published a special advertising section that summarizes key e-learning principles and opportunities for large companies. The special edition, available for free online, highlights the results of key benchmarking studies showing the potential return on investment for companies that deploy e-learning solutions.
Training Magazine.
Published by trade magazine powerhouse VNU Media, Training covers breaking news in the e-learning and professional training fields. Subscribers receive detailed reports on the effects of e-learning deployment at large organizations, along with forecasts and analysis of effective professional development programs.
Workforce Performance Solutions.
This trade magazine features editorial and insight from industry leaders, emphasizing success stories from large corporations that deploy effective e-learning solutions. Each issue presents case studies that analyze the specific challenges faced by professional development specialists, along with the technology and training solutions they used to meet their goals.