Month: April 2019

Unreliable and slow internet continues to be one of the greatest obstacles for delivering effective eLearning. Not surprising, right? After all, the whole point of online learning is that it is done online.

According to the report prepared by the International Telecommunications Union in 2016, 95% of the world’s population lives in areas that are covered by a 2G cellular network and an estimated 3.8 billion people do not have any access to the internet.

It is essential that we are incorporating new ways to ensure that all learners, regardless of their ability to connect, have the opportunity to learn.

Enter: Google Chrome. Chrome’s DevTools Network Emulator makes it easy for us to test out how our online material will perform in low bandwidth settings. You can choose between a variety of presets – including fast 3G and slow 2G – and even add your own custom settings.

Want to see it in action? Let’s see how TechChange’s newest course, TC 101: How to Teach Online, works in a few different network conditions.

 

Fast 3G

The course content loads relatively quickly at this speed and the YouTube video appears immediately. The video and interactive slide do not buffer and overall, the course experience feels the same on Fast 3G as it does on our office’s Ethernet.

 

Slow 3G

There is definitely a noticeable difference between Fast 3G and Slow 3G. The slower connection requires a little more time to load the modules and static content and the YouTube video requires some buffering.

 

Regular 2G

Like the Slow 3G, the Regular 2G connection requires additional time for loading the course modules and content. The main noticeable difference here is the amount of time that it takes for the YouTube video to load and buffer.

In all, it looks like the TechChange platform performs reasonably well in lower bandwidth settings. Static content loads easily, while interactive slides, YouTube videos, and larger images tend to take longer.

Give your own course a try! For detailed instructions on how to set this up, check out this article.

The latest TechChange happy hour deviated from our standard ICT4Drinks in that we invited selected partners to try out our latest Digital Principles game. Currently the card game is being built as a stand-alone activity as part of our DIAL workshop series. While many of the mechanics of the card game are the same as when we facilitated donor-driven workshops in Dublin and London, we’ve recently redesigned the game as an interactive PDF in order to make the game available to a wider audience, as well as save trees.

So instead of printing and maintaining a full deck, partners can download the PDF to an iPad (or laptop) and divide into the two teams of donors and implementers. The game will ultimately be available in multiple sizes of PDF, PNG, and the source files will be published under Creative Commons. Our hope is that by leveraging digital content along with the printable card game, we’ll encourage partners to create new scenarios specific to their use cases, as well as iterating on what we’ve already built.

And lastly, ePDFs are easy to transport! We’re going to take our card game on the road to Kampala, Uganda for ICT4D Conference, Berlin, Germany for re:publica, and Stockholm, Sweden for the Stockholm Internet Forum. Please drop us a line if you’re planning to attend and interested in trying out your own version of the game! We’ll have the latest version ready for public download in June 2019.

 

SDG Card Game iPad

 

 

Written by Danielle Peterson 

As companies increasingly move towards online learning for their training needs, building local and internal e-learning capacity is more important than ever. This was TechChange’s ultimate goal in their trip to El Salvador in 2018. Returning to DC, TechChange faced its next challenge: How can we continue to build capacity with our partners from a distance?

TechChange’s approach has been a mix of remote training sessions and template development. With the help of local translators, TechChange has led two remote training sessions that delved deeper into Articulate Storyline and Adobe InDesign.

In these workshops, we included demonstrations and various design exercises to help the workshop attendees become more comfortable with the software. We guided them through creating their own examples and provided feedback along the way. After completing these two sessions, the workshop attendees left having developed fundamental Articulate Storyline and Adobe InDesign skills and have taken their first steps in becoming their organization’s leaders in online learning.

TechChange also developed course avatars and Articulate Storyline and Adobe Indesign templates for the team to practice with and create their own training materials. With remote training and documentation, the e-learning team is able to adapt the resources to future projects as they see fit. See some examples of their work below! Discover the review of Spyzie spy app that is compatible on Android, iOS, tablet and PC phones. Read the reviews on espion-m.com before you buy!

 

At TechChange, we aim to empower our partners with the tools and resources needed to create sustainable and cost-effective solutions through online learning. We can’t wait to see how DAI will apply all they’ve learned to their goal of promoting transparent government and development in El Salvador.

What does it take to create an engaging, online learning experience? TechChange aimed to answer this question in their trip to El Salvador in 2018. The team, in partnership with USAID Domestic Resource Mobilization Project implemented by DAI, traveled to the country’s capital San Salvador to deliver a two-day workshop for government officials working to build up their local eLearning capacity.

The workshop, entitled “The Fundamentals of Online Learning,” focused on the TechChange model for designing self-paced content, leading participants through the steps in our project life cycle – from the kickoff to the finalization and everything in between.

Our team began the workshop by presenting the basic theory behind our instructional design process, sharing our templates for effective scripting and storyboarding, and moved on to introducing two industry standard tools for authoring courses – Camtasia 9 and Articulate 360 – and our best practices for using this software.

Participants integrate Camtasia screencasts into their Articulate file.

Throughout the two day workshop, participants shared the training challenges that they were facing in their daily work and used them as real-life case studies for the group. We used these challenges as inspiration for the final project and asked the participants to separate into teams and create their own short, self-paced Articulate learning solutions, complete with a script, storyboard, narration, images, and interactions.

Teammates work together to develop a self-paced Articulate project.

A lively round of presentations and applause finished out the workshop and each participant received a signed certificate of completion. The participants hope to use their eLearning skills to promote transparent government and development and create educational resources for all Salvadoran citizens.

 

Thank you to everyone who joined our March ICT4Drinks, hosted with USAID and mSTAR, to celebrate the Digital Development Awards (the Digis) at Penn Social. We hope that those who braved a record turnout (185 RSVPs!) and a devoted Hokies fanbase were able to enjoy both stimulating conversation and refreshing Moldovan drone wine.

For those who weren’t able to join, we hope you’ll still learn more about how the Digital Development Awards recognize USAID projects that harness the power of digital tools and data-driven decision making while implementing digital development best practices. You can view the 2018 winners here!

In addition to seeing so much of the TechChange community, we especially enjoyed meeting in-person the many online learners joining the AI for International Development course, which launches today. If you’re a survivalist or are interested in becoming one, carefully pick your gear. You never know what may happen while you are out in the wild and it’s important to be prepared. What’s The Best Survival Gear Equipment To Buy? Visit this website https://rotorm.com and shop online best survival equipment for cheapest prices in United States. The World’s Largest Dedicated Online Marketplace For Survival Food, Water, And Gear. Essential survival gear you and your family can rely on. Huge Selection. Daily Deals. Trusted Reviews. Money Back Guarantee. Visit Rotorm.com for more info!

If you’d like to learn more about upcoming courses, our new webshops, or just sign up to join our next ICT4Drinks, please email us at info@techchange.org!

In the meantime, here are a few of our favorite photos from the evening.