Extension Engine
Blog

As part of our ongoing exploration of how other pros approach learning experiences, we recently took a look at the newly updated YouTube Creator Academy.

From time to time, we like to take a look at the learning experiences other organizations are creating to help sharpen our own edge in instructional design and user experience.

In the pursuit of our mission to help every person get a great education, we have created a nonprofit arm of ExtensionEngine, known as ExtensionEngine.org.

Please, not another “we ought to put this online” idea….

Recently we’ve been speaking with companies that deliver training and generate revenue from it. Most of these companies deliver this training in-person. They’ve done it this way for years, they know how to get students, deliver the training and generate good revenue. And when we suggest to them that they think about moving it online, we often hear “No! We’ve tried that and it didn’t work. It was hard. The students didn’t like the experience. We never got the results we hoped for. I am not going there again.”

Every so often, a new product enters our awareness that impresses us so much we want to share it. Last week, Marc Zablatsky, Vice President and General Manager of Sitecues, came to our offices to give a talk about web accessibility and how they are approaching this problem — specifically, for those users with visual impairments, english as a second language, low literacy and other print disabilities.

ExtensionEngine has always been conscious about accessibility in the projects we have taken on and executed. After all, students can’t learn if they don’t have complete access to the material — and, in fact, public educational institutions are required by Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to provide accessibility. More on 508 compliance below.

It’s always gratifying to read an article that validates your position and provides evidence that you have, indeed, been making the right decisions and are providing a valuable and much-needed service.

For us, one such publication is a recent white paper, Report on Coursera online course for University of Chicago and Booth School of Business written by John H. Cochrane. The white paper enumerates various “lessons learned” from Cochrane’s venture into online course development as he adapted a Ph.D. level course, Asset Pricing, for the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) environment.

Last week, a diverse crowd from four continents, 25 institutions and 26 corporations gathered to attend the inaugural Business Education Online Learning Summit

 Here at ExtensionEngine, we create custom learning experiences. These are online and blended courses and programs that are custom designed specifically for each client. We work on a fee-for-service basis and never get involved in either revenue sharing or our client’s intellectual property concerns.

ExtensionEngine teamed up with Eduventures to present a webinar on “Online Learning without Revenue Sharing.” What did we learn? Well first, we learned you can cover a lot of ground in 30 minutes if you speak fast and stay focused. We love short webinars — they are better learning experiences. We also learned that many of those who attended were excited to learn about the fee-for-service and a la carte models. The OPM model, which has dominated online learning in higher education for many years, is changing — new entrants, new approaches, and new demands from institutions.