In the Information Age, the personal computer is becoming as pervasive as the telephone and television. It accesses vast stores of constantly changing information and the ability to navigate it and the Internet has become a professional necessity for a majority of white and blue collar jobs. And the key to opening that doorway is computer-based learning—“e-learning.” Using computers for education and training, an industry that barely existed a decade ago, is a fast-growing business opportunity for enterprising people who enjoy helping others learn and who are comfortable with computers. Start Your Own e-Learning Business shows you how to become the person people turn to when they need to catch up on essential skills and knowledge. This guide covers the vast selection of roles you can choose from, including: • Teaching businesses computer basics, management techniques, or programming skills • Publishing guides to help employees understand their firm’s software • Producing interactive content that explains products to customers • Creating Web sites to help students do their homework or seniors hone their Internet skills • Providing content, marketing help, or tech services for other e-learning firms • Brokering classes, recruiting students, or reselling CD-based courses for other businesses

Our current students are digital natives, born into a world of widespread online sharing. Aligning the technologies we use in our courses with their skills and approaches to collaborative learning is an opportunity we should take. The new media share text, images, audio and video material rapidly and interactively. This volume will provide an overview of these new social media including Skype, YouTube, Flickr, blogging, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Examples and cases of how instructors around the world are meaningfully incorporating them into their management, marketing, and other business courses are provided. One of the more robust trends is the use of three-dimensional immersive virtual world interfaces for teaching and learning. The leading one is Second Life. Examples of the use of Second Life in business courses will be discussed. The use of wikis to foster collaborative development of course related material by learners will be presented with case examples. Faculty members are co-creators of course content with their learners. Among the topics covered is how faculty members can be supported in their deployment of social media projects and course structures. How social media can enable the structuring of course activities involving students, prospective students, alumni, employers, businesspersons, and others in rich sharing and support with each other will be discussed. Indeed seeing courses as networking venues beyond learning forums will be parsed.

Teaching Goes High-Tech Online education is experiencing a huge growth spurt. This book shows what you need to know to set up a successful online education business: find financing, write a business plan, choose a business structure and learn other business basics; develop exciting courses in popular areas - IT, health care, and education.

eLearning leverages interactive technology and communication systems to usher in an improved and enhanced learning experience. Alongside existing methods, it transforms the way we teach and learn, enabling every learner to achieve their potential, regardless of time and geographical boundaries. Flexibility and cost-efficiency in eLearning support both an organization’s goals and learner’s development. Online learning has paved the way for added flexibility and self-paced learning, improved virtual communication and collaboration, and helps in staying relevant from the broader global perspective. Experts with industry experience and knowledge about what skills are needed to succeed can build online learning businesses to monetize their years of experience and knowledge and help individuals and businesses succeed.

Discover the secrets and tips to get the business education you need, the faster and cheaper way. The average debt load for graduates of the top business schools has now exceeded $100,000. For most young professionals, this means spending the first half of their career in the red and feeling pressure to take the first position offered to them so that they can start paying off their debt. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Author and businesswoman Laurie Pickard discovered a way to get the business education she needed to land her dream job while avoiding the massive school loans that plague so many. In Don’t Pay for Your MBA, she shares all that she learned so that others can benefit as well. Pickard discovered that the same prestigious business schools that offer the MBAs so many covet also offer MOOCs (massive online open courses) for low or even no cost. Within these pages, you will learn how to: Define your goals and tailor a curriculum that is geared toward your dream job Master the language of business Build a strong network Choose a concentration and deepen your expertise Showcase your nontraditional education in a way that attracts companies Don’t fall for the lies that pressure countless graduates every year into MBA programs and insurmountable debt. Self-directed online learning can fill gaps in your training, position you for promotions, and open new opportunities--at a fraction of the cost!

Distance learning for both the education and industry is steadily growing, creating a demand for eager entrepreneurs. Teaching methods and tools now in popular use for virtual training are covered: videos; eBooks; interactive software types; college sponsored staff training for college instructors; hardware, camera, video, sound equipment; online group forums; online events; choosing the right presentation style and linking to appropriate social media sites; and networking presentations. A range of industry examples will be given for accreditation, certifications, and credit; adding training onto an existing business as side income; how to sell media/training tools; how much to charge clients; start up costs; software types used; the legal obligations around taxes, business registration, working from home, and content confidentiality; and growth planning and writing a business plan. Relevant and fun call-outs, tip boxes, industry stats, an index, and a rich appendix and glossary is provided. An appendix offers resources in continued learning and rounded training for trainers; industry organizations and trade groups; books and eBooks; videos; software; websites; successful online trainers and online education institutions; consultants; and certification organizations.

This work explores and explicates learner motivation in online learning environments. More specifically, it uses a case-study approach to examine undergraduate students’ motivation within two formal and separate online learning contexts. In doing so, it recognizes the mutually constitutive relationship of the learner and the learning environment in relation to motivation. This is distinctive from other approaches that tend to focus on designing and creating motivating environments or, alternatively, concentrate on motivation as a stable learner characteristic. In particular, this book identifies a range of factors that can support or undermine learner motivation and discusses each in detail. By unraveling the complexity of learner motivation in such environments, it provides useful guidelines for teachers, instructional designers and academic advisors tasked with building and teaching within online educational contexts.