The eLearning Connection

One of the most used technologies to increase my effiency is desktop sharing.  In case you are not familiar with the term, desktop sharing simply allows you to share your desktop with one or more people.  I use it often for training people far away or in different locations, collaborating with colleagues or to troubleshoot technology problems.

If you are interested in giving desktop sharing a try, there are no shortage of available applications.  Among them include:

• GoToMeeting
• Windows Live Meeting
• Vyew
• ShowMYPC
• WebEx
• TeamViewer

There are plenty more options out there, but this is a start.  A few things to note:

• Not all options are free.  GoToMeeting, Windows Live Meeting, and WebEX may offer free trials, but do cost money to keep.  Others, like TeamViewer may offer a free version for non-commercial use.
• Know what you are looking for.  Some options only allow one user to view your computer.  That may work for simple collaboration or technical support, but will hardly work for trainings.

What do I recommend?  Although free is great, I like GoToMeeting.  The cost is low enough and it offers several features that are great for training small groups.  If you need to train a larger group, you can upgrade or purchase GoToWebinar, which allows you to have hundreds of participants and provides advanced features like polling, access levels and more.

I’ve tried many of the other options out there, and while they usually work fine, I find most slow to load and react.  This may work for collaborating with a colleague, but if you are working with a client I recommend spending the $400 or $500 extra a year and use GoToMeeting.  Their newest version has integrated voice capabilities, which is a huge advantage over using a land or mobile line to call a long distance number to communicate (I always just used skype).  Finally, GoToMeeting does allow those you are connecting with to show their screen.  You can take control of their mouse and keyboard or vice versa as well.  Others may offer this same feature, but it’s worth mentioning either way.

Through working with groups and agencies who are solely supported by grant funds to create e-learning solutions, we have discovered the existence of a graveyard full of incredible processes, products, and tools that are wasting away in boxes and on bookshelves. As e -learning tools have become more effective and cost efficient, there are significant benefits for your grant funded work.

1. “Fundability” is essential when applying for a highly competitive grant, because you can not accomplish your next great adventure without financial support. One attractive feature to set your project apart from the rest is to incorporate e-learning solutions. It is no longer cost prohibitive to develop and disseminate your findings and products on the web. The ability to do this well allows funding sources to see that your project has the potential to impact a large geographic area long after the funding is complete.

2. “Accessibility” to the benefits from the grant outcomes have typically been limited by how close you were to where the work was done or your connection with the people who did it. With e-learning solutions, people all across the globe can benefit from the efforts of your organization at anytime and at anyplace.

3. “Timelessness” is essential because once the funding is spent, projects are typically over and never seen again. However with e-learning solutions, the work accomplished through your project can be made available through web-based tools even after the funding is over. Extend the life of your project by finding a partner up front that will commit to hosting your work for you once the project is complete. Consider approaching colleges, universities, businesses, and other non-profit agencies as potential partners. The cost of hosting is relatively insignificant and the benefits for everyone are endless. If you are having trouble finding those partners, there are many no-cost solutions on the web that can accomplish this. Take time to dig through our blog to investigate a few that we have highlighted.

The possibilities are endless with the tools available to all of us. If you have a success story incorporating e-learning solutions in your grant funded work, take a minute to comment on this post.

If you haven’t taken the time to check out zoho.com yet, you need to stop whatever you are doing and visit their site right now. They offer almost any online collaboration tool you can imagine and the vast majority of them are all free. That’s right, free! Here’s just a small list of some of the web based services they offer:

• Zoho Writer - Word Processing application
• Zoho Sheets - Spreadsheet Application
• Zoho Show - Presentation tool similar to PowerPoint
• Zoho Wiki
• Zoho Planner
• Zoho Database and Reports

These are just a few of the options. Others include a customer relationship, project management, mail, and even an online meeting application. Not only does zoho offer several additional options than their competitors, but they are even working to overcome the biggest barrier with online services - their ability to work offline. Currently with the word processing application, you can choose to work offline, then sync up when you re-establish an internet connection. All applications also give you the ability to share with others in multiple ways.

Apart from a few useful tools for video conferencing, we’ve gave little attention to new useful applications that can make your life easier. The purpose of this short post is to bring attention to a new free web based application for collaboration.

Sosius is different from competitors in several ways. First, it’s web based, so no installation on servers or computers is necessary. Second, it’s free and is feature packed. Need I say more? According to the company’s website Sosius is

an online workspace accessible from any PC, that lets you create and collaborate. No software to buy and set up. Powerful and flexible yet easy to use. Your free account gives you 200 MB of online storage and you can collaborate with an unlimited number of other users.

Sosius offers more features than I care to mention in this post so you should check it out yourself at www.sosius.com