This is a compilation of recommendations by the members of the eLearning Guild in LinkedIn on how to record the best audio possible, for eLearning or any other purpose:

• First and foremost, look for the most quiet environment possible, far from conversations, opening doors, computers..., and without echo;
• Write a script and repeat it several times before the actual recording (it will avoid the 'uhmms'). Make sure that the main points come across, rather than say every word in the script;
• Stand if you can, your voice will sound more natural;
• Sound natural and conversational. Use your own words (without slang) and pronounce clearly. Make your pauses;
• Smile and keep a positive, animated, engaging attitude. Gesticulate as if in a normal conversation. The listeners will notice it;
• Bear in mind that you are addressing people: use a mirror or have someone in the room to listen to you. You can also ask questions (did you know that...?).
• Place your microphone to the side,  slightly higher than your nose and close to you to record directly your voice and not the reflections in the room walls. But not too close to avoid recording your breathing;
• Use a pop shield, if possible.
• Record preferably in the morning, when your voice is fresh;
• Drink water or eat an apple before the recording; and
• If you make a mistake, start the sentence from the beginning instead of re-record. Deleting sections in an audio file is one of the easiest post-recording editions you can make.

In this time, a test server have been set up and a company specialized in eLearning has been contracted to help us construct our first course. We are working with them at present to ensure that we take the most effective eLearning approach providing the nature of GBIF and the training initiatives we are already involved in.

The thematic area chosen for this first approach is biodiversity data quality and we will center our initial efforts in a eLearning course on georeferencing. This topic has been part of the GBIF training offer for quite a long time so there are plenty of resources available on the topic. It also includes many of the activities and capacities that the GBIF stakeholders deal with daily: location and use of internet resources and tools, biodiversity and geographical data management, metadata production and analysis, etc.

At the moment we are invited those interested in getting involved early in this process to join the biodiversity data quality interest group in the GBIF Community Site. The members of the group will have the opportunity to follow the project closer, test early prototypes, provide early feedback and influence the process. Join us if you are interested in the topic!!

Meanwhile, the GBIF Secretariat will work with the eLearning company a small group of experts with extensive experience in data quality issues to define and develop the initial contents of the course.

More info on this in June!

In this blog post I will include a comparison on the results of the two years for the training area. It's important to highlight that the questions in the two years were not exactly the same, as in 2010 more precision was sought in the information requested. This is particularly evident in the system used to calculate the number of events hold (in 2009 the figures were approximate, in 2010 accurate), and the number of people trained in the events (also more accurate in 2010, although still an estimation).

In general terms, the level of collaboration and interaction between GBIF Participants is increasing in relation to training. This is especially evident in the number of Participants involved in international training events (from 24 to 31). 21 Participants opened their 2010 activities to others, showing a clear advancement towards greater regional engagement.

On the other hand, the number of Participants that have reported national training activities and their involvement in adapting training materials is nearly the same in the two years. The numbers or events and people trained are lower, but this may be related to an inaccurate estimation in 2009.

Regarding the topics of training reported, the 2010 report is much more accurate in this regard, but confirms the interest of nodes in GBIF classic topics as data quality, mobilization and use, while there's diversity of other topics where the number of activities reported is lower.

As a short analysis, we can say that there's a very encouraging and positive trend in the level of interaction and collaboration between Participants regarding training, but there's no significant increase on those who are taking an active role as producers of training opportunities.

We need to understand which are the reasons for this and which measures we can take increase the active involvement of GBIF Participants in training.

Best

Samy ;-)

With this service, you can very easily broadcast a video (with audio) live! Anyone in the internet can follow the stream without the need of creating and account and the resulting video is available for others to see for at least 6 days. The service is for free but advertisement will be shown to the viewers.

It is extremelly easy to set up and does not require any application to be installed when using it from a computer. You just need a webcam and a web browser: the applications is based in Flash. They also provide an application for android phones.

I am making some tests right now, but if it works we may be broadcasting live some presentations from GBIF Secretariat very soon!

If you have any experience with this system, please let me know!

This was a very busy conference with lots of parallel sessions. I have tried to summarise the most relevant ones I participated in. I hope other poeple find this useful and gives some food for thoughts:

1. Social Media for Trainers, by Jane Bozarth
   This session was centred on the potential use of social media for those who do distance training. They allow a shift from broadcasting information (past) to rich interaction (present). They can be used to propose work previous to the sessions, to conduct/continue conversations, start debates among students, propose topics for reflexion, to invite students to show what they have learnt and to perform evaluations of the training.
   These technologies can be a challenge for teachers. Try to address their concerns without centring on the platform/software, as usually their concerns are at a higher level.
   Good ideas do not require complicated implementations. It is better to give serious thought to what to communicate and how to make it simple and straight to the point, than embark in long, complicated developments. The design phase is key.
   Put enough effort in motivating and engaging your students. Make them enjoy the learning process and take an active role.
   Good examples: http://www.delicious.com/jbo27712/uwisc
        
2. Foundations of Training Evaluation, by Donald Kirkpatrick
   The author of the talk was the creator of a training evaluation system based in four levels: reaction (by participants), learning (change of attitude, increase knowledge and increase on skills), behaviour (how they apply it to real life) and results (final measurable results, Return of Investment/Expectations).
   When evaluating training, we need to have certain resources: evaluation specialists, trainers that want to collaborate, HR personnel with time and interest in the evaluation, line managers that are willing to help and budget to hire evaluation consultants. The less resources we have for the evaluation, the less (meaningful) results we can expect.
   The rest of the session was devoted to understand the reasons to analyse the results of training, to provide guidelines and good practices for the evaluation.
   Recommended reading: Kirkpatrick D. & Kirkpatrick J, Evaluating Training Programs: The Four Levels, 3rd Ed., Berrekk-Koehler Publishers, Inc. San Francisco, CA, 2006.
      
3. Using a design framework to create a sense of presence, by Rosemary Lehman and Simone C. O. Conceição.
   One of the most frequent reasons for drop-out in distance education is the lack of interaction. Students feel alone, not supported by teachers and colleagues. It is a specific challenge of this kind of education. It is necessary to create a sense of presence.
   The trainers need to make an special effort at the beginning of the course. Later on the process the interaction among students will take over creating the sense of presence.
   Some best practices: create an facilitate introductions. Use audio and preferably video, as they transmit better the human touch. During the course facilitate discussions, group work, group discussions. That will force students to interact and know each other. They will continue the interaction afterwards.
   On the other side, it is also important to set boundaries. State very clearly what students can and cannot expect in terms of interaction, time you will devote to the course, etc. And then be consequent with them.
   Recommended reading: Lehman R.M. & Conceição, S.C.O., Creating a Sense of Presence in Online Teaching: How to "Be There" for Dintance Learners, Jossey-Bass Publishers.
        
4. Engaging the Online Faculty, By J. Ana Donaldson
   To have engaged learners you need to have engaged teachers first. For a start, it is important that they understand and share the philosophy of teaching: why are they teaching?
   The idea of presence is highlighted (again), but also that of the teachers/facilitators rights and the importance of setting clear boundaries. Teachers must feel comfortable with the interaction. Set clear and reasonable guidelines AND communicate them: what is the expected time of response depending on the question/task, look for others that can assist with some of the questions, set what kinds of interactions are allowed so personal spaces are not invaded (it happens very easily with social networking sites such as facebook). Some successful solutions are to create professional profiles for interactions or limit the interactions to the learning or corporate environments.
   Planning is essential: prepare as much as you can in advance so you can adapt in the real sessions (even discussion sessions can be prepared: you can at least pre-empt the most reasonable outcomes).
   Keep a track of those students that have not participated and actively encourage them to do so.
   Use preferably images, audio, video... and humor!
        
5. Best Practices for Social Networking Tools and Collaborative Learning, by Brian Solis
   During the session the presenter shared good practices when leading work using wikis and other collaborative environments:
   - Create a home page, with a list of resources and a summary (not created by default in some systems)
   - Do not delete content: make suggestions to the author instead.
   - Each contribution should be identifiable and accountable for.
   - Invite featured bloggers/contributors: specialists that will raise expectations.
   - Suggestion: http://voicethread.com/
        
6. Build an on-demand searchable video tutorial database with free tools, by Terence Armentano
   The most interesting point of this short session is to see how one can build successful projects with low budget but good thinking.
   The proposed system used Screenr (online, no software installation needed, cross platform) to record the videos and publish them in the internet. Then they installed the Wordpress free version as a CMS to create manage all the metadata. The Wordpress system takes care of indexing, presenting the information, etc. Besides, Feedburner is used to publish complete RSS interfaces.
   Example: https://blogs.bgsu.edu/blackboard/
    
7. Use those phones!, by Joan Hanor
   Short session to highlight the potential of mobile technologies. Students are going to use their portable devices anyway so you can redirect that passion in the benefit of the training programme: live polls (http://www.polleverywhere.com/), instant twittering, follow ups after the course. You have to 'speak their language'. More and more sites have 'mobile' interfaces and services: explore them and make the most of them.