On July 25th the Austin ASTD Instructional Design SIG members heard a presentation by Dr. James Caras, President of Sapling Systems on "Characteristics of e-learning 2.0." Sapling Systems has developed their own sophisticated Flash-based authoring tools for math and science courses. You can learn more here at the company web site.
He coined his own term for e-learning 2.0 by calling it "we-learning" which has the following desirable characteristics:
* simple authoring tools that incorporate symbols and activities that are as good as, and hopefully better, than existing teaching methods * engaging interactivity with rich media * convergence - available on all OS and mobile devices * promotes sharing and collaboration to develop new content and peer review of learning efforts * transparency to promote trust * measurement of learning new knowledge; tracking progress gains * promotes effective and efficient learning * mentors struggling learners by incorporating intelligent feedback, tutoring, and adaptive testing.
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