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• 57% of respondents to one study described their e-learning experience as "frustrating, lonely, and stressful;"
• The best e-learning environment (which includes audio and visual techniques) yields only about 40% retention of the material covered;
• Humans, by nature, learn best through social interaction - a critical element removed by e-learning;
• Much of e-learning course material is simply live lecture material posted to the Internet, resulting in a poor learning experience in which crucial context is removed because there is no human instructor to impart it."

"As the overall online experience becomes richer and more varied with each technological advance, the debate over live training versus e-learning will continue. But at the end of the day, IT training is all about developing competency, not just completing a course or achieving certification. For any IT training participant to achieve true competency and confidence in the skills they are learning, they must take part in a program that provides extensive, hands-on lab exercises where they can practice and hone their newly-developed skills, enabling them to put these skills to immediate use upon return to the workplace. Until the day arrives that e-learning provides an equally rich, personally-interactive experience, the ability to gain true competence in IT training will remain firmly entrenched in the classroom."

URL: http://courselab.com/
Download: http://courselab.com/db/cle/root_id/download/doc.html
Showcase Samples: http://courselab.com/db/cle/root_id/examples/doc.html

"CourseLab is a powerful, yet easy-to-use, e-learning authoring tool that offers programming-free WYSIWYG environment for creating high-quality interactive e-learning content which can be published on the Internet, Learning Management Systems (LMS), CD-ROMS and other devices...It can be used in a variety of learning initiatives including technical training, soft skills training and compliance certifications.

• Familiar PowerPoint-like authoring environment;
• WYSIWYG environment for creating and managing high-quality interactive e-learning content - no HTML or other programming skills required;
• Unicode support - use any font and encoding supported by the Windows® operating system, including double-byte character sets;
• Object-oriented Model allows constructing e-learning content of almost any complexity just as easy as you put together the building blocks;
• Objects are highly customizable;
• Dynamic HTML based output can be played by most browsers - no Java® or other special player software required for playing created e-learning content;
• Built-in assessments and tests creation capabilities;
• Software Simulations - Embedded Screen Capturing mechanism (without using Adobe Flash® technology) (Costs $99);
• Import PowerPoint® presentations into the learning material (Costs $99).
• Additional module templates pack (Costs $9 Only)"

Having been away from researching learning technologies for more than one year, I am really thrilled with all the new free learning tools available to educators and learners. During this period of technology ignorance, I have been struggling learning the art of higher-order thinking skills and teaching (or coaching) it to students. Not sure if I have learnt that much, except for asking questions in a more systematic way using tools such as six thinking hats and CoRT.

CourseLab got me excited first (due to its easy-to-use authoring environment) and the super claim posted on its home page "100% FREE e-learning authoring tool! No time limits. No demo versions (What about no cost for Extras?)", provides the kind of happiness that can turn into frustration if you do not read between the lines.

However, when you realize that you need to fork out a whopping $198 (or 207) to get the really juicy features enabling you to do things that you really want to do (Check the bullets above in red). Although, CourseLab might argue it is not deception or against the law to state that the authoring tool is 100% , it could make it a bit more obvious that you need to pay if you really want to get the juicy stuff (Extras). They might argue that the authoring tool is free, but you need to pay for the Extras. Though, to me the extras is really the reason why I would be interested in using this tool in the first place. In short, the Extras is the real deal. Also, one could argue that this is a great marketing strategy, but overall it is better to get people excited (about 100% free) without indirectly tricking them into it (otherwise they might give CourseLab negative publicity like now). We all know that a company needs money to survive, and that is understandable, but dont use misleading statements such as "100% FREE e-learning authoring tool", which is perhaps legally right, but in my opinion it is an unethical misusage of the original meaning of this phrase.

However, for those of you who do not find the CourseLab Extras important or can survive without them, I do recommend using CourseLab. Though, if you are going to spend money, I would actually recommend that you add a bit more (a few hundred) and invest in either Adobe Captivate or Articulate :)

Note to CourseLab: I really like your authoring tool, and hopefully you could be more creative about your marketing catch phrase (get rid of the 100% nonsense), I would support and promote this product more. Yes, if you make the Extras free and create sufficient revenue using another creative approach then you would have the education world at your feet.

Link to 701 e-learning tips
"Thanks to The MASIE Center?s TRENDS readers and e-Learning Consortium Members, over 1000 e-Learning tips were received, analyzed, and categorized. These tips are from senior managers and training professionals from major corporations around the world. We have edited and compiled 141 pages and 14 chapters covering the ABC?s of getting started to global implementation strategies. We hope you enjoy this free digital book !"

Great! The complete book is a bit heavy (13.3 mb, PDF). However, the wait is worth every second, even on a dial-up. Masie Elliott is a knowledge sharing genius. He must surely give Brandon Hall and Bersin a real headache. With this, you have a enough e-learning tips to ponder upon for the next couple of months. Print out page 138, which has Elliott Masies 12 Personal e-learning tips, and read them 12 times .