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on Usingthe Cloudfor eLearning

Contributing Editor,Karen Forni,

The eLearning Guild

53 TIPS

53 Tips on Using the Cloud for eLearning i

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53 Tips on Using the Cloud for eLearning ii

53 Tips on Using the Cloud for eLearning

Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

About Our Tipsters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

Twenty-One Tips on Planning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5

Nine Tips on Cost . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10

Eleven Tips on Content and the User Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

Twelve Tips on Support and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

53 Tips on Using the Cloud for eLearning 1

Introduction

Dear Colleagues,

The cloud is the latest technology to rock the eLearning world. Essentially shared or shareable space beyond the desktop, the cloud offers services, such as applications and virtualization, as well as data storage and integration. The technology offers so much promise … but it also comes with risks. With that in mind, our upcoming eLearn-ing Guild Online Forum on “Using the Cloud for eLearning” (June 7 & 8) will explore the avenues available to eLearning professionals interested in the possibilities inherent in the cloud, and the issues you might face.

We asked the presenters for that forum – among the top eLearning-technology and instructional design experts – to give us their top tips on getting the most out of the cloud. What follows are 53 tips from 11 contributors, focusing on topics such as whether moving to a cloud-based system will save your organization money, the wis-dom of launching a pilot program, and how the cloud can allow for more individualized learning. We edited the tips and organized them into four categories: Planning, Cost, Content and the User Experience, and Support and Security.

I hope you find a great deal of valuable information in this eBook, and are able to use many of the tips to enhance your use of the cloud. I also hope you consider attending or presenting at an upcoming eLearning Guild Online Forum!

Sincerely,

Chris BenzDirector of Online Events, The eLearning Guild


About Our Tipsters

Robbe Addis, ALMS CMT Courseware Director, Global Business Services, IBM

Robbe Addis is experienced in leading high-energy teams in the development of inter-active training solutions. Robbe is actively involved in the research and deployment of cloud-based, virtual, and mobile solutions to meet various client needs. He has more than 15 years of experience in the education and eLearning industries, and has a pas-sion for applying new technologies to complex problems. Robbe holds a BS degree in education and an MBA degree with a focus on eBusiness, and is completing a MS degree in education from Boise State.

Christopher Johnson, Instructional Technologist, Crummer Graduate School, Rollins College

Christopher Johnson has nearly 10 years’ experience in instructional design and tech-nology, in both higher education and the training industry. He has helped create award-winning computer-based and classroom-based instructional materials for several East Coast schools, including New York Law School and Brookdale Community College. NJEdge.net recognized his work developing a training module for cardiac pharmacol-ogy with the nursing department at Brookdale for “Best Practices.” He currently works at Rollins College, where the Crummer Graduate School of Business brought him on board to help with their first blended-learning MBA degree.

Christin Manning, Instructional Design Consultant, Manning Associates

Christin Manning has been an instructional design consultant for almost 10 years. Previously, she served as a training manager for two different start-ups. She holds an ME degree in instructional design/instructional technology, and is currently pursuing a doctorate in adult learning. Christin’s research focuses on how best to leverage new and emerging technologies in adult learning and workplace education.

David Nilsen, Founder, Corporation for Learning Research

For over 30 years Dave Nilsen has helped advance eLearning technology, and is cur-rently leading an effort to leverage existing and emerging technologies for learning. Starting as a teacher at General Electric in 1979, he designed General Electric’s first computer-based learning experience. In 1995, Dave joined an enterprise-technology consulting firm, and in 2001, he founded his own consulting firm. In 2010 Dave fo-cused his efforts on learning technology R&D and founded the Corporation for Learn-ing Research. Dave holds a BS degree in physics, and both MS and MBA degrees.


TJ Palazzolo, Senior Principal Curriculum Developer, Oracle Corporation

TJ Palazzolo has spent the past 10 years consulting on and implementing training development and evaluation processes for the enterprise software industry, including the introduction and integration of cloud technologies and rapid eLearning tools. TJ’s passions include hands-on learning and continuous process improvement.

Robby Robson, President, Eduworks Corporation

Dr. Robby Robson is an internationally recognized innovator in online learning. He began developing Web-based learning content and learning management systems in 1995, chaired the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee from 2000 – 2008, and has helped dozens of organizations develop eLearning technology strate-gies. He has served as principal investigator and lead scientist on multiple federally funded projects that explored new technologies for learning, education, and training. Robby co-founded Eduworks in 2001, where he has guided research, services, and product development.

Kris Rockwell, President/CEO, Hybrid Learning Systems

Prior to founding Hybrid Learning Systems, a company dedicated to the development of innovative eLearning solutions for aviation and military organizations, Kris Rockwell spent several years developing and implementing CBT and desktop simulation systems for the flight training department at US Airways. Kris has served as co-chair of the Avia-tion Industry CBT Committee (AICC) Smart Graphics Sub-Committee. His work with Smart Graphics, using the Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) format, has been featured on the Adobe Systems Website, and Kris has been featured in Civil Aviation Train-ing Magazine, Military Simulation & Training Magazine, and the Defense Management Journal in the UK.

Henry Ryng, President, inXsol

Henry Ryng has 30 years’ experience in technology-based training delivery – spanning full-flight simulations, desktop simulations, and interactive eLearning titles. Henry has managed large-scale production and conversion projects, and has developed enter-prise-class authoring and workflow tools and utilities.


Reuben Tozman, Chief Learning Officer, edCetra Training

Reuben Tozman is the president and founder of edCetra, a learning services com-pany. Reuben has worked as an instructional designer, project manager, consultant, and product manager within a variety of organizations, including post-secondary edu-cation, retail, manufacturing, IT, pharmaceutical, and government. A former member of the board of directors for CeLEA, a Canadian eLearning industry organization, Reuben speaks at industry events and is a contributing writer to industry publications. He holds an MA degree in educational technology from Concordia University in Montreal.

Adam Vandover, Learning Consultant, Global Business Services, IBM

Adam Vandover has five years of eLearning experience and a background in com-puter science. Adam’s experience includes object-oriented programming, scripting lan-guages, and Web technologies. He currently works as part of a team that deals with standards-based eLearning on a daily basis. Adam presently works with several mobile application development teams and is interested in building on current learning tech-nologies, Web, and social application technologies.

Bret Weinraub, CEO, Aura Software LLC

Bret Weinraub has more than 20 years of professional experience in the information-technology industry. Before co-founding Aura Software, Bret worked for some of the world’s largest and most recognized software and technology companies, including BEA/Oracle, IBM, Comcast, and Sun Microsystems. He holds a BA degree from Colgate University.

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June 7 & 8, 2012

Using the Cloud for eLearningWhat is the cloud, and what does it offer the world of eLearning? What new opportunities for learning does the cloud enable? Can an LMS operate with and within the cloud? How can the cloud support collaboration? This Online Forum will provide you a wide range of ideas, checklists, and strategies for leveraging the cloud for your eLearning programs and deliverables. Learn more at http://bit.ly/olf95-info

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How to Attend...

OPENING SESSION

101 - Understanding the Cloud: What It Is, What It Means, and How You Can Leverage It, Kris Rockwell, Hybrid Learning Systems

CLOSING SESSION

601 - The Cloud: A Distributed Network of Learning Opportunities, Reuben Tozman, edCetra Training

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

201 - Cloudy with a Chance of Knowledge: Using CLAs to Enhance the Educational Experience, Adam Vandover & Robbe Addis, IBM

301 - Cloud Cover: Empowering Team Learning with the Cloud, Christopher Johnson, Rollins College, Crummer Graduate School

IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES AND ISSUES

202 - Using a Cloud Platform to Deliver Software Training, TJ Palazzolo, Oracle Corporation

302 - Creating a Collaborative Learning Environment with Sakai, David Nilsen, Corporation for Learning Research

MOVING TO THE CLOUD

401 - Weaving eLearning Experiences in the Cloud, Dr. Robby Robson, Eduworks Corporation

501 - What Is a MOOC & How Will It Change Learning?, Christin Manning, Manning Associates

IMPLEMENTATION TECHNIQUES AND ISSUES

402 - Beyond the LMS: Cloud-based Integration in Action, Bret Weinraub, Aura Software, LLC

502 - Designing Simulations and Gaming for the Cloud, Henry Ryng, inXsol

THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2012 FRIDAY, JUNE 8, 2012

Register for this Online Forum Best Value — All Online Forums

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Twenty-One Tips on Planning

The cloud holds tremendous promise, but it’s important to find the right fit for your needs; there are so many choices when it comes to cloud-based environments that it’s easy to become confused. Our tipsters advise you on what to keep in mind when considering a move to the cloud.

Plan your cloud-based environment depending on your organizational needs. Public cloud services such as Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, or Google might be fine for non-sensi-tive eLearning requirements, but may not be suitable for all situations.

Adam Vandover

Decision-makers should first understand that “cloud computing” is a multi-layered con-cept, so the term might mean one thing when used by your CIO, and another when used by a faculty member or an instructional designer. ELearning developers usually use the term “cloud” to refer to free and popular software as a service (SaaS) and plat-form as a service (PaaS) products such as Google Docs, Prezi, etc. The benefits of these sorts of free cloud services are self-evident.

However, when your CIO or other high-level IT personnel mentions cloud computing, they are almost certainly using the term to mean infrastructure as a service (IaaS) – for example, using cloud services or data storage, or migrating other major systems to a third-party service. Obviously, this is a far weightier topic than the neat things you can do on Google+, so each individual school or organization must carefully consider the benefits of moving to the cloud.

Christopher Johnson

Granularity matters. The cloud is not just about technology; it is also about a SaaS business model in which consumers pay for exactly what they use. To make this work, providers must measure what was consumed. As you think about developing course-ware, applications, or learning environments for the cloud, consider what you can mea-sure and what constitutes a reasonable unit of consumption.

Robby Robson

ELearning systems are useless if there’s no content to put in them. Develop your con-tent strategy first, and then decide where to host it.

Bret Weinraub


Learn to speak the cloud language. It all ends with “aaS,” that is, as a service. From e-mail to learning management systems, you can find almost any software product available as a service today:

• SaaS, software as a service, is already familiar to most. SaaS vendors host a particu-lar software product.

• IaaS, infrastructure as a service, has also gained in popularity with the explosive growth of virtualization. Geared toward more technical users, IaaS allows users to put whatever software they want in the cloud using a vendor’s virtualized hardware.

• Finally, falling somewhere in between SaaS and IaaS is platform as a service, PaaS. Microsoft’s Windows Azure platform is the best example to describe PaaS. Azure gives developers a common platform for developing an unlimited variety of applica-tions to run in the Azure environment. The advantage to users of this service is the potential integration capabilities. You can easily integrate PaaS applications with other applications running on the platform, and you can readily integrate them with back-end systems like human resource systems that may be running internally in your organization.

David Nilsen

Be aware of EU Internet privacy rules or Canada’s Freedom of Information and Protec-tion of Privacy Act and the USA PATRIOT Act. These regulations have some gover-nance on what information you store and where you store it.

Henry Ryng

When registering your domain name, a service such as DynDNS.com will update in-stantly. This type of service will allow you to move your domain name from server to server instantly in the event there is an issue.

Kris Rockwell

Think outside the box, but don’t throw away the box just yet. The battle cry of the 1990s was “anywhere anytime learning.” The cloud and mobility are joined at the hip, and it is inspiring to envision new ubiquitous cloud learning paradigms. However, change usually comes through technology substitution rather than technology revolu-tion. You have time to learn and experiment before you shut down your LMS and paint over your PowerPoint.

Robby Robson

Consider the risks of moving data into cloud-based environments. What specific privacy needs does your organization require?

Robbe Addis


To those who regularly use cloud-based services, it’s quite familiar to use online provid-ers for tooling around business functions like training and competency development. But some IT departments, and potentially other parts of your organization, may oppose these initiatives for a variety of reasons. Be prepared for some internal IT politics. You may encounter resistance because your solution is “different,” “scary,” or because it shifts jobs out of the company. If you have incumbent systems, your cloud-based initia-tive is sure to kick up some dust.

Bret Weinraub

Find the cloud platform(s) that works best for you. Identify the needs of the students, the organization, and the volume of users, and then create a list and prioritize. You might be surprised by the free-of-cost cloud services that could meet your eLearning needs.

Adam Vandover

One cloud computing model is a private cloud where all infrastructure is operated solely for your organization. Your own IT department may provide many cloud services as part of a private cloud offering.

David Nilsen

Consider the pros and cons of building your own private cloud infrastructure versus outsourcing your infrastructure needs to a public cloud organization. If the average number of hands-on learners per week is relatively small (less than 100) and your prac-tice applications aren’t exposing lots of sensitive or confidential information, a public cloud subscription may be the better choice and provide greater ROI.

TJ Palazzolo

Whenever possible, work with your IT shop. If they are good, they will have the exper-tise to help you find your way through the labyrinth of vendors and offerings.

David Nilsen

Launch a pilot before you get in too deep on a cloud-based system. Generally this involves creating an internal working group assigned to use the system for a month or two and give feedback. Of course, this only works if the working group is actually working. That said, if you have disgruntled users by the end of the pilot, you are prob-ably digging in the wrong place.

Bret Weinraub


If you would like to incorporate high-definition video into your training without break-ing the budget, consider utilizing a cloud video-hosting provider such as Vimeo. This straightforward application simply requires you to upload a video to generate the embedded HTML code. You can then drop this code into a Web page or into most learning management systems.

David Nilsen

There are a lot of different moving parts to think about when trying to build a flexible, scalable training cloud infrastructure. Don’t assume your IT personnel have the neces-sary skills to accomplish this feat. They’ll likely need specialized training in managing virtualized data centers and in provisioning applications for training events. It’s also just as likely that some custom programming and scripting will be necessary.

TJ Palazzolo

When looking for an eLearning cloud-based solution, consider the three essential S’s of cloud computing:

1. Security: How secure is my information in the cloud? If you only store learning con-tent intended for public consumption in the cloud, then security is less of an issue; however, if your organization’s employee data resides in the cloud, security is of pri-mary concern.

2. Support: Does the cloud supplier provide the type of support you require? Do they specify the level of service they will provide? Do they have an up-time guarantee? If you need functional support for an LMS, don’t look for it from a generic hosting pro-vider.

3. Services: What specific services does the vendor offer? Cloud services vary greatly from one vendor to another. Some offer a basket of services while many are highly specialized. You may be able to get everything you need from a single vendor or you may want to use several vendors. Service aggregation is beginning to appear, where a single vendor will aggregate services from multiple cloud suppliers and wrap it up with high levels of support.

David Nilsen

Do you need a public or a private cloud? Fee-based services such as Amazon, IBM, and Akamai offer cloud-based solutions that fit private or hybrid cloud needs. These fee-based services cater to information that is sensitive or that requires secure environ-ments.

Adam Vandover


Although it’s not exclusive to the cloud, maintaining your user lists in an eLearning sys-tem can be quite a chore. Therefore, the functionality provided around maintaining and segmenting your users will become very dear to you, so try to find a system with pow-erful management features in this area. Ultimately you may want to just “sync” your master user list into your learning system, which means adding users who don’t exist and deactivating users who have left the organization. Sounds easy, but it can be quite complex in practice.

Bret Weinraub

You may want to look to your own in-house IT department for providing the three S’s of cloud computing – security, support, and services. IT departments can function as aggregators of cloud services, bear the burden of managing the vendor interactions, and at the same time provide value-added support while maintaining responsibility for security.

David Nilsen

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Nine Tips on Cost

It’s always best to be prepared when it comes to cost. The cloud can be expensive, but there are tremendous variables. What are they? What choic-es could save your organization time and money? Our tipsters offer some unexpected advice on improving your bottom line.

You can usually expect to incur significant costs when building a cloud system from scratch to host your training events; there’s both hardware and software to buy or build. To help spread these costs throughout the organization, a core requirement for any cloud should be the ability to meter the usage of individual business units (your customers, in effect). This approach gives you the opportunity to not only report on usage, but to also limit it, and even automatically charge based on it as well. A usage-based chargeback policy avoids the appearance of being unfair, arbitrary, or biased.

TJ Palazzolo

Do not assume that moving to the cloud will save you money. In many cases it can, but you need to evaluate each case on its own merits. Consider the following common scenarios where a cloud environment may be more costly than using your own internal IT organization:

• When security is paramount and a matter of policy in your organization, moving to a cloud envi-ronment can be more costly, since many public cloud service providers cannot easily meet lo-cal security policy requirements.

• When you can already acquire the service you need from an internal IT organization, duplica-tion of the service will ultimately cost your organization more money.

• When your requirements go beyond the basics, and the complexity of the solution in the cloud requires a layer of management and administration, you now have to provide what your IT orga-nization formerly did and paid for. Cloud-based systems do not manage themselves.

• When your organization already licenses the software you will need to run in the cloud. Some vendors may require you to duplicate the cost of these licenses, such as those for databases. Some database licenses can run hundreds of thousands of dollars, and your organization may already have a significant investment in these products.

David Nilsen

Financial challenges often find education programs cut as a first measure of reduction. Cloud-based service models such as SaaS, PaaS, or IaaS can help ease the financial burden on organizations by enabling lower costs, scalability, security, and flexibility.

Robbe Addis


The “elephant-in-the-room” issue in technology and higher education is, in my opinion, the inevitable demise of the large, expensive, “walled garden” learning management system. (I won’t name names – it’s a very short list.) Both the pricing structure and the architecture of that LMS must radically change, or end up consigned to the ash heap of history.

Christopher Johnson

You may have tried delivering video content to a geographically dispersed audience but were disappointed with substandard graphics and intermittent streaming. Insufficient bandwidth provided by your in-house network or by a SaaS LMS vendor is often the source of this problem.

Consider using a content delivery network (CDN) to stage and deliver your videos. CDNs such as Akamai and Limelight have servers strategically placed around the globe with technology that enables delivery of high-bandwidth content. Large media companies use these CDNs and others to deliver much of their video content. If you do not have enough video content to justify working directly with one of the big CDNs, there are smaller companies and resellers. For example, we have used Rackspace, which currently is a reseller of Akamai’s CDN, to deliver video content. With a reseller, you generally can pay-as-you-go and not enter into a long-term contract. This cost-ef-fective solution will enable you to deliver even a single video to a global audience for just a few cents a play.

David Nilsen

A MOOC is a massive open online course. Access to a MOOC is open to non-formal learners who are able to participate to the level of their time and interest. Since there is no cost to participate, the only true investment is your time. You can locate a num-ber of universities that sponsor MOOCs by conducting a simple search. As a designer, you can leverage MOOCs as an aspect of your curriculum design. Rather than hav-ing to invest in developing courseware that a MOOC might already address, you can point your learners to one or more weekly sessions. Or, you can easily create your own MOOC using readily available Web 2.0 tools and freeware. You can create an environ-ment of sharing for a group. This allows you to include more learners in your courses, and expand the number of voices who contribute to the learning conversation.

Christin Manning

You are committed to video content, and may even use a CDN to deliver content, but you need a video platform to manage all aspects of video delivery from uploading and transcoding to streaming and analytics. Consider using Kaltura, an open-source video solution used by HBO, ABC News, and over 150,000 other sites. It is a 100 percent free software product, but you can also purchase it as a SaaS solution. A low-cost way to get into video in a big way is to run the free version (called the community edition) at a hosting provider.

David Nilsen


Creating and distributing content is easier now than ever before. Using Apple’s iBooks for publishing and Google Docs for collaborating on documents are both inexpensive means for producing content. Authors are able to keep their work relevant by easily editing, updating, and republishing content on demand.

Adam Vandover

At some point, someone in executive management will ask the question: “What is the cloud really costing us, and is it worth it?” Be prepared!

David Nilsen

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Eleven Tips on Content and the User Experience

There’s no point in moving to a cloud environment unless it enhanc-es the learning experience. The cloud is an exceptional vehicle for in-dividualized learning, putting the content in the hands of the learner, easily lending itself to mobile computing, and encouraging explora-tion. Our tipsters tell you how to provide the most effective content for the best possible learning experience.

One of the greatest fallacies in the academic education world, as well as the corporate training world, is this notion that we can somehow transfer a singular planned piece of learning directly into someone’s brain through the right design. This is why we anchor our analysis and designs in “competencies and skills.” We look to construct the learn-ing material in a way that will be impervious to individual experiences of the content and the degradation of meaning as it travels from one person to another.

The cloud is a network of links that encourages exploration and the development of in-dividual experiences. Widen the path of instruction to allow learners to digress, while still moving them in the direction you want them to go. Allow them to explore interests along the way and demonstrate how those interests apply to what you are teaching. Provide an experience instead of an event.

Reuben Tozman

How can you engage today’s socially connected and media-savvy learner? Cloud-based social environments such as Facebook, Google+, and Twitter can facilitate seamless and socially interactive environments where communication and collaborative idea sharing is both relevant and timely.

Robbe Addis

A goal of any cloud infrastructure should be self-service. In other words, taking the tasks of classroom setup out of the hands of IT and putting it directly into the hands of your learners. The self-service cloud typically takes the form of a Website that lets the learner select the training they need, and that subsequently directs him or her to an en-vironment in which to work. And of course, despite the complexity of the work this site is doing behind the scenes, the interface needs to be simple and intuitive enough for anyone to use.

TJ Palazzolo


Mobile computing is hot. A quick response code (QR code) is a matrix barcode that links to a Web URL. The novelty and functionality of presenting a QR code on screen or in print materials provides a convenient entry point to your content, or equips your users with a reference resource on their phone or tablet.

Henry Ryng

Several universities are using MOOCs to address the process of learning in a more formal environment. MOOCs offer the opportunity to perform readings, activities, and discussions with large numbers of other learners beyond those who would normally be part of a university-offered course. This allows for a wider range of voices outside of the formal institution to add to the learning community. Much more than a highly struc-tured course, the learner has more varied choices about his or her own learning in this environment. The challenge then is how to determine if a learner has achieved the for-mal goals of the course. This is accomplished, according to Siemens, by defining a set of minimum requirements that will be measured by the facilitator. The formal learner can then use this set of requirements as a jumping-off point to start their learning.

Christin Manning

Allow referencing of content outside of the initial context. Think about it: How much is forgotten after training? Regardless of design, learners need repetition. They need practice and they need points of reference. Designing content for use in a singular context limits the applicability of that content to the learner’s ability to consume the content. The trick is to design the content so that you don’t need to store and manage it in various places for different contexts.

Consider content APIs that allow cloud-based apps to make use of the same content in different ways.

Reuben Tozman

In the cloud, no one knows you’re an author. Mobility has made it hard to control the time, place, and device on which content will be delivered. Cloud applications can also access user-generated content and dynamic data streams, so it is also getting hard to control the content itself. If you are an author, think in terms of dynamic experiences rather than static content. The content isn’t yours to control anyway.

Robby Robson


Build content into workflow whenever possible. Yes, this is all about learning on de-mand. However, outside of a learning-on-demand context, this is all about performance. You can find one of my favorite examples near a toilet in almost every restaurant: a sign instructing employees to wash their hands before returning to work. This isn’t learning on demand, so to speak; it’s embedding information into the work environment that will ultimately help the performance of the organization. Think about the last time you built an eLearning course – how much of the information could have simply been embedded into the work environment? And where are we spending a lot of our workday? In the clouds!

Reuben Tozman

OpenID is a single sign-on (SSO) mechanism that will help an online experience be more seamless for your users. Once authenticated, you can readily traverse the “mashup” of site services you may have formulated for your cloud instance without additional log-ins.

If your cloud design retrieves data, or posts data to a remote or third-party site or service, then OAuth technology provides a methodology that makes interconnectivity in the cloud trusted.

Henry Ryng

Don’t build events – build fluid content. Building fluid content means building bridges between what may come before a training course and what may come after. Building fluid content also implies a little bit of everything that preceded this – allowing learn-ers to digress, allowing for content access outside its original context, and building in-formation into the work environment. All of these things get away from a model where learning is a singular event. The fluidity of content is about extending formal learning in-terventions past the intervention point. It’s about making connections and allowing the content to be part of the network of support for an individual’s performance.

The cloud is about fluid experiences harnessed over time. Content in the cloud isn’t meant for one-time use – it’s meant to be accessed and re-accessed over extended periods of time. Build content to be experienced!

Reuben Tozman

Your lesson code likely contains supporting JavaScript libraries to enable SCORM or interactivity. Software minification removes whitespace to optimize the file size; it can also automatically pack several separate script files into one. This speeds up the re-sponsiveness of your download. Software obfuscation removes comments and re-names functions and variables to be more compact – the functionality remains intact, but it is harder for a student to reverse-engineer your answer key or number-of-tries logic.

Henry Ryng


Twelve Tips on Support and Security

So you’ve moved to a cloud-based system … now what? Who keeps the cloud optimized and running smoothly? Where can you find additional tools without overburdening your IT department? And what if you decide to change your vendor – what happens to your content? Our tipsters provide the direction you need.

When load balancing your servers on a hosting provider, try to set the instances across different data centers.

When the Amazon Cloud Hosting system failure occurred in 2011, it was limited to their East Coast data center. Having load-balancing instances set at different data cen-ters allowed us to quickly reroute traffic to the centers that were still up, so our servers kept running. When possible, try to set up instances across geographic locations so you can quickly shift traffic in the event something goes wrong in one location.

Kris Rockwell

Video and audio can substantially bloat the file sizes of most eLearning products. In these situations, it might be better for organizations to reduce heavy data requirements for media resources by leveraging cloud-based applications. For example:

• YouTube (youtube.com)• Vimeo (vimeo.com)• SoundCloud (soundcloud.com)• Ustream (ustream.tv)

Robbe Addis

Even if you opt for using a public cloud and avoid those IT costs, don’t forget that someone still needs to actually build and maintain the training templates that you de-ploy to the cloud. This involves installing and configuring the application environments that learners will access. Depending on how stretched your IT resources already are, you may need to add new headcount to help perform this critical job.

TJ Palazzolo

The cloud is an innovator’s dream and a practitioner’s delight. If you need a tool for doing something special, search for it in an app market; there is a good chance that someone has built it. If it is hosted in the cloud, it is also likely that it can be integrated into your system. If you don’t find it, why not build it yourself and share it?

Robby Robson


Create an image and store it for quick startup. It’s easy to create a server image with all of your customizations and store it so it can be the basis of each new server. This will save you a great deal of time when you need to build a new instance.

Kris Rockwell

While your new cloud-based eLearning system may have some compelling features, remem-ber that if you decide to switch vendors later, extensive use of those features may lock you in to a place you no longer want to be. Using a transportable content format like SCORM helps en-sure that you can at least migrate your content should you decide to move along.

Bret Weinraub

Read your terms of service for any functionality you plan to rely on as part of your cloud-based formulation. Typical are transaction limits, injection of advertising, and restrictions on “free” use. If you are charging for access, you may need a commercial license. Also, terms-of-service agreements are subject to change, and you need to factor them into your business plan.

Consider if cloud resources like Facebook are appropriate. You may be opting to trans-fer ownership of content collected on those platforms. Your employee or vendor net-work as a structured contact list may become a resource to headhunters or spammers.

Henry Ryng

Data security and privacy are issues you should address when seeking a cloud SaaS solu-tion. To ask the right questions, you must understand the difference between multi-tenancy and virtualization as it applies to learning software such as a LMS.

Multi-tenancy is when a single instance of software runs on a server and multiple clients share it. Virtualization provides a much higher degree of isolation in that there is a dedicated in-stance of software for a specific client. In a virtualized environment, every dedicated instance of software runs in its own operating system.

You can find a common example of multi-tenancy on a typical Windows desktop. A Windows desktop can support multiple users, each with his or her own log-in and separate file space. It is a single installation of Windows with multiple tenants.

Virtualization is also available for a desktop. Companies such as VMWare and Oracle provide desktop virtualization where you can actually run multiple operating systems on one piece of hardware. For example, the free open-source desktop product Oracle VirtualBox allows you to run Windows 7, Windows XP, and Linux on a Mac or PC all at the same time. Each system is isolated from the other and each can support its own set of applications.

Many SaaS LMS vendors run as a multi-tenant solution. While many are very secure and do an excellent job at partitioning your data from other clients, it may not meet your organization’s standards for data privacy and security. Ask the hard questions, and if this is a concern, be sure to get expert advice from someone that specializes in data security and privacy issues.

David Nilsen


Be kind to your friends in IT: They have a lot to consider when it comes to cloud com-puting. They are worried about costs, security, and stability. Be sensitive to this before you ask them to implement the latest and greatest thing in the cloud. Remember, they are still having headaches because you brought your personal tablet to work!

Robby Robson

Putting your eLearning in the cloud means some of your content and data now resides in systems you don’t completely control. The best thing you can do to protect yourself is to identify and implement basic security procedures. Simple things like using hard-to-guess passwords and deactivating unused accounts can go a long way. Have a secu-rity review before you launch.

Bret Weinraub

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft clouds have all experienced some form of outage in 2011. Also, your cloud-based eLearning may be dependent on some Web service, LMS, or third-party site. When you deploy in the cloud it’s a good idea to enlist a sup-plemental Web monitoring service. Server access from multiple global endpoints can be monitored – if any issue arises, have it text your phone. Monitoring is more sophisti-cated than a simple “ping”; monitoring is capable of reading screen content so you can configure a periodic read of data-driven Web-page elements that validates site avail-ability as well as the back-end functionality. Alternatively, “crowd sourcing” the monitor-ing to your user community is a less desirable method to learn about service outages.

Henry Ryng

In the end, we need standards. As it stands today, the cloud lacks standardization of service levels, security, Web service quality, and many other basics. People are working on that. If you want to know what they are thinking, check out http://standards.ieee.org/news/2011/cloud.html. Yeah, they are all about standards, but so were Wi-Fi, HTML, and lots of other things that didn’t work out that badly for us.

Robby Robson

http://standards.ieee.org/news/2011/cloud.html

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