Building professional development around Open LMS 2.6
Before joining the Learning Solutions team here at Open LMS , I worked as the Training and Development Coordinator for a Open LMS ’ client. I remember eagerly anticipating the arrival of the new features and functionality delivered through the bi-annual updates. However, as a professional development team of one, the task of maintaining and delivering training and support materials had me meeting myself coming and going. Fortunately, Open LMS provides some fantastic resources to aid in these efforts. With the release of Open LMS 2.6 just hours away, I thought I would highlight some of the existing resources you can put to work for you.
Open LMS knowledge base
The Knowledge Base is your one-stop-shop for all documentation and self-help resources for Joule. Here you have access to a world of how-to guides video tutorials product manuals release notes and FAQs. In preparing your Open LMS 2.6 training material consider how you might take advantage of the following:
- Video Guides: Our Open LMS video guides provide "how-to" lessons on certain features and tools within Joule. Check back regularly as new videos are added all of the time!
- How to Guides: Need a quick answer on how to do something within Joule? Whether you are a course participant instructor or designer you can find answers in our How to Guides that will help you on your way!
- Joule 2 Product Manuals: Need more in-depth info on Joule or features within Joule? Browse our online product manuals to find answers on anything you need to know!
Open LMS TRAIN packages
Open LMS TRAIN packages provide the resources institutions need to build a self-sustaining Joule training program at their organization. Designed to take the burden of creating and maintaining training and support material off of your training team these packages put up-to-date training materials into your hands through bi-annual updates which coincide with the Open LMS ’ Joule releases. The packages include a variety of materials that your master instructional team can use to train your learning constituents including several of Open LMS most popular online courses workshops tutorials demo courses job aids and more.
All of our TRAIN packages include:
- Access to the Open LMS TRAIN Community
- Our Launch Package: A series of webinars designed to provide knowledge transfer and expert guidance to help you to implement your TRAIN package.
- Access to Open LMS TRAIN Support team for ongoing package support
- Implementation Tools designed to support you in your use of the package
Open LMS currently offers two TRAIN Packages TRAIN Select and TRAIN Lite with a la carte options available allowing clients to customize their training package.
TRAIN Select
TRAIN Select is a comprehensive professional development package that provides you with the resources needed for a self-sustaining training program centered on the effective implementation of Moodle™ and Joule.
One of the benefits of TRAIN Select is that it is housed on your Moodle™ instance where it is facilitated by you. This gives you unlimited seating in many of our most popular online courses and access to the material used in our most popular webinars. Because the content is housed on your Moodle™ instance you have the freedom to rebrand and modify the material to fit your needs. You can download additional instances of each included course as needed giving you complete control of your training pathway.
The Open LMS 2.6 TRAIN Select package includes:
- Open LMS Online Training Courses
- 7 Learning Solutions Webinars
- 15 Workshops
- 5 Interactive Games
- 3 Self-Paced Tutorials
- 5 Demo Courses
- Course Conversion/Migration Materials
- A Local Community of Practice for Your Institution
- Help and How To Handouts
- Quick Links to Video Tutorials and How To Guides
TRAIN Lite
TRAIN Lite provides a slimmed down version of our TRAIN Select package. Open LMS will install host and create a new version of the package bi-annually to keep your audience informed of updates made to Moodle™ and Joule. As a hosted offering TRAIN Lite saves you time and money by minimizing administrative costs and eliminating the use of space on your Moodle™ instance; however the TRAIN Lite package is still facilitated by you giving you unlimited seating in some of our most popular online courses. As with our more comprehensive package TRAIN Lite offers you the freedom to rebrand and modify the material within the course shells to fit your needs.
The Open LMS 2.6 TRAIN Lite package includes:
- 4 Open LMS Online Training Courses
- 1 Learning Solutions Webinar
- 3 Self-Paced Tutorials
- 2 Demo Courses
- A Local Community of Practice for Your Institution
- Help and How To Handouts
- Quick Links to Video Tutorials and How To Guides
A La Carte add ons
Open LMS also offers TRAIN Plus options which allow you to expand on your TRAIN package by adding a la carte options from the online course list below:
- Mastering the Gradebook in Moodle™ and Joule
- Advanced Course Building
- Introduction to Moodle™ for Students
Open LMS training
Learning from the experts can help your master training team identify which new features to focus on. Single seats can be purchased for any of our online courses and webinars via PayPal making it easy to pick up training seats as needed without having to go through the contract process. For information on Open LMS online courses and webinars including schedules and signup information visit our training center.
While you’re there be sure to enroll in our What's New in 2: Open Resources course. This free online course will allow you to learn more about the new features present in Moodle™ 2. This is a great opportunity to get your team familiarized with the latest version of Moodle™. The enrollment key for this course is "joule2freecourse".
As you prepare to roll full steam ahead into Open LMS 2.6 I hope you find these resources as helpful as I did in.
Enjoy!
Tara Thompson, Senior Instructional Designer/ Trainer
TRAIN Support Team