Resources

We offer a variety of free resources to support organizations in the business of continuing education and professional development. We add to and update these regularly, so we encourage you to bookmark and share this page.  If you find these kinds of resources valuable, we’d be grateful if you would sign up for the Tagoras Research Community list. Your participation in the community helps make it possible for us to conduct research and continue offering our findings back to the continuing education and professional development community.

• Newsletter and LinkedIn Group
• Association E-learning Trends
• Strategy and Marketing
• Social Learning -  Learning 2.0
• Learning Management Systems
• Learning and Instructional Design
• Virtual Conferences and Events
• Free Webinars!
• External Resources

Newsletter and LinkedIn Group

• ALT Digest (E-Newsletter)
  The Association Learning/Technology Digest is a free monthly e-newsletter that provides insights and resources related to how trade and professional associations are using technology to increase the reach, revenue, and impact of their educational offerings.
• ALT Network (LinkedIn Group)
  The Association Learning/Technology Network is a LinkedIn group for networking and knowledge sharing among individuals who lead, manage, and support learning initiatives for associations and other membership organizations.
• ALT Digest News Feed
  In addition to mentioning new initiatives in the monthly e-newsletter, we also provide an ongoing stream of news about new learning + technology happenings in the association sector at http://altdigest.tumblr.com/.

Association E-learning Trends

• Association E-learning: State of the Sector Update (Blog Post | Article)
  A brief (and free) update on some of the trends that we noted in our 2009 report Association E-learning: State of the Sector
• An Association E-learning Conversation (Text | Audio)
  Jeff Cobb and Ellen Behrens  discuss the current state of association e-learning.  Topics range from social media and informal learning, to learning management systems, to instructional design.
• Association E-learning: Six Snapshot Case Studies
  A set of brief case studies extracted from our 2009 Association E-learning: State of the Sector report.

Strategy and Marketing

• Selling E-learning to Members: Basic Success Factors (Article)
  An overview of five imperatives that successful organizations tend to follow when planning and implementing their e-learning initiatives.

• 3 Tips for Selling More E-learning (Article)
  Three areas to focus on if increasing sales of online learning is one of your goals.

• Pricing Online Learning (Article)
  A discussion of some of the fundamental principles of pricing as they apply to sales of e-learning products and services. Read as blog post >>

• Webinar Marketing Survey Data (Blog Post with Summary Data PDF link)
  Data from 146 responses to our Webinar marketing survey. We asked participants about how they are marketing and selling their Webinars – including pricing – as well as about how they use Webinars as a marketing tool.

• The Capacity Continuum (Article)
  Thoughts on how to understand and impact the process of capacity building across individuals, organizations, and communities.

Social Learning – Learning 2.0

• Learning 2.0 for Associations (Free report and resource page)
  Learning 2.0 for Associations offers a basic overview of how the rise of new Internet technologies have impacted the way that learning happens and how organizations can begin incorporating social media approaches into their traditional online and offline learning activities.

• Association Social Media & Professional Development (Summary Data)
  Summary data from a brief, informal survey conducted by Tagoras in July 2009 on the use of social media in association professional development programs (in general, not just online).

Learning Management Systems

• Association Learning Management Systems: Sector Overview (Report Section)
  Section from the Association Learning Management Systems report providing an overview of learning management system usage in the association sector.

• Essentials of LMS Selection for Associations (Video)
  In this 30 minute video, Tagoras managing director Jeff Cobb takes viewers through our 7-step process for LMS selection.

• A List of LMS Providers (Blog Post)
  A complete list of all of the LMS providers we currently track along with links to brief profiles (as available) and interviews.

• Key E-learning Standards (Article)
  This article offers a brief overview of five organizations and the standards or models they provide for e-learning. Included are AICC, SCORM (ADL), IMS Global, Medbiquitous, and Section 508. PDF version | Word version

• Learning Management Systems Interviews (Audio Interviews)
  We are conducting an ongoing series of interviews with representatives from major providers of LMS software to the association sector. These provide good information about the companies, but more importantly, they also provides a range of insights into the challenges and opportunities associations encounter as they implement e-learning.

Learning and Instructional Design

• Writing Effective Multiple-Choice Questions (Article)
  A brief look at the critical tie between learning objectives and assessment, 3 tips for writing assessments in general, 6 tips for writing multiple-choice questions specifically, and a simple worksheet for authoring multiple-choice questions (part of the PDF and available as a separate, editable .doc Word file)

External Resources

There are any number of great sites out there that provide resources related to social media and e-learning. Here are a few we recommend.

Developing E-learning

• The Rapid E-learning Blog (Tom Kuhlman)
• Making Change (Cathy Moore)

What Tom Kuhlman has managed to do for Articulate with his Rapid E-learning Blog would make just about any CEO salivate. Every day he brings thousands of visitors to the company’s Web site, and deservedly so – he offers great, simple, effective tips on how to create e-learning. And the vast majority of them are applicable regardless of whether you use Articulate products.  Similarly, Cathy Moore serves up idea after innovative idea on how you can design e-learning that is not just run-of-the-mill page-turning stuff.

E-learning Tools

• Jane’s E-learning Pick of the Day

When it comes to keeping up with the latest in e-learning tools, Jane Hart pretty much has the market cornered. She posts a new pick daily, maintains a Top 100 Tools list, and polls industry experts annually for their favorite tools. (Be sure to check out managing director Jeff Cobb’s list.)

In Plain English Series

This series of videos from Commoncraft illustrates the principles of key social media technologies in terms that even the most non-technical users can comprehend. Whether you need to educate yourself or need good tools for educating others, look no further:

• RSS In Plain English
• Blogs In Plain English
• Wikis In Plain English
• Social Networking In Plain English
• Twitter In Plain English
• Twitter Search in Plain English
• Online Photo Sharing In Plain English
• Podcasting In Plain English
• Social Bookmarking In Plain English
• Social Media In Plain English
• Websearch Strategies In Plain English

If you have questions or comments concerning any of the resources here, please contact us and let us know your thoughts. And again, we’d be grateful if you would sign up for the Tagoras Research Community list.