5 Ways to Personalize Online Learning

One reluctance to self-paced online learning, or elearning, is the perception that its not personal; it lacks that face-to-face human interaction that keep students motivated to complete the training. To overcome this challenge, try applying one of the following personal touches to your presentations:

• Create engaging multimedia presentations. Don't just have the learner sit down and look at still images next to text. Add in some music, animation, video and interactive elements to pull them into the experience.
  
• Add some faces. People connect to people. Even if you need to train on technical topics, such as software, capture some video of the presenter conquering the workflow. On-screen talent should be personable and professional with a conversational tone.
  
• Add some interactivity. Your training should include some type of interactivity every 3-4 minutes. Even a simple quiz question or button that links to an external website will involve your learner in what they are learning. Add segment breaks with a "Next" button that allows them to process information in their own time before manually proceeding through the program. Interacting with the training may satisfy their need to interact with a trainer.
  
• Allow the learner to choose his or her own path. You can take the previous interactivity tip a little further by presenting a number of subtopics related to your main topic, and then allowing the learner to choose when and how they learn it. This forces them to take ownership of and personalize their learning experience. You can define some topics as "critical to know," "a good idea to know," and "good to know" to help guide them to appropriate content.
  
• Consider social learning tools. Equip your content with features that allow learners to share with friends and colleagues via email or social network sites. You can also take advantage of discussion forums that allow learners to interact with each other and subject matter experts.
  

Manage All of Your Social Accounts from One Website

When you post to multiple social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, you can save time by managing all of your accounts from one application. Many of these applications are Web-based. They allow you to view your feeds and post to your followers and friends from a single interface. Some also allow you to schedule your posts for future distribution.

Alternion Manages Networks and Email Alternion not only provides a single interface for managing your social networks, but it allows you to manage multiple email accounts, too. You can link Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, YouTube, Picasa, Blogger, Instagram, and more than 200 other social networks. Adding accounts is as simple as clicking the social network option, logging in to your network, and then granting Alternion permission to post on your behalf. You can then selecting privacy settings for each network. Alternion also provides a single inbox to manage Yahoo!, Gmail, Windows Live and your POP3 email accounts.

Schedule Distribution With Buffer Buffer allows you to schedule your posts to each social network site. It also includes a Firefox add-on that allows you to share content from webpages you visit. The free version allows you to connect a single personal profile on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, App.net and Google+. For Facebook and LinkedIn, you can opt to link a business page rather than your personal profile in the free account. You can increase the number of linked profiles to 12 with a monthly subscription upgrade, which also entitles you to buffer an unlimited number of posts while collaborating with a colleague.

HootSuite Offers Custom Views HootSuite lets you design custom tabs that display content from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Mixi, Foursquare, Wordpress and others. The free account includes up to five profiles, with additional monthly subscription plans for enhanced accounts. HootSuite also offers analytics and reports to track your post clicks, likes and fans. Collaborative teams can use the built-in Conversations tools to share and discuss posts internally. Schedule posts for distribution, and watch your feeds through one of the HootSuite mobile apps.

OneAll Integrates With Your Website
If you need a solution that integrates with your existing website, OneAll may be it. In addition to allowing you to distribute your message to your social networking sites, this service provides tools to gather demographic information about your visitors. It also streamlines your website registration by allowing visitors to log in with their social media accounts. Manage and view analytics related your Facebook, PayPal, Google+, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media sites from this single Web-based application. A "freemium" plan is available, but various monthly subscription plans allow you to reach out to more visitors and further customize your OneAll account.