75 e-Learning Activities: Making Online Learning Interactive [Hardcover]

Ryan Watkins (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0787975850 | ISBN-13: 978-0787975852 | Publication Date: April 18, 2005

This invaluable resource can help transform online courses into exciting, meaningful, and active e-learning experiences. 75 e-Learning Activities is filled with scores of e-learning activities and games that offer trainers and instructors a handbook for creating interactive and engaging online courses. Much like the activities and games used in traditional classroom training, these e-learning activities can be used to increase interactivity, engage learners, accomplish learning objectives, develop online relationships, promote active learning, and create learning communities. With many examples available on the CD-ROM for easy online transfer, the activities can help elaborate on course content through the use of online technologies such as chat rooms, email, or discussion boards.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“In this unique book, Ryan Watkins brings you instant recipes for making e-learning interactive. This is a wonderful collection of ideas that will transform any virtual community.”--Mel Silberman, author, 101 Ways to Make Training Active

“Ryan Watkins now brings us a desperately needed resource book of ideas—ideas that are practical and inspired, and reach outside the confines of the prevalent e-learning designs that lead to insanely boring and ineffective e-learning.  If you’re trying to have impact with e-learning and can take advantage of today’s electronic communications capabilities among learners and on-line mentors, you need this book.”--Michael W. Allen, author, Michael Allen’s Guide to e-Learning; CEO, Allen Interactions Inc.

From the Back Cover

75 e-Learning Activities

This invaluable resource can help transform run-of-the-mill online courses into exciting, meaningful, and active e-learning experiences. 75 e-Learning Activities is filled with scores of e-learning activities and games that offer trainers and instructors a handbook for creating interactive and engaging online courses. Much like the activities and games used in traditional classroom training, these e-learning activities can be used to increase interactivity, engage learners, accomplish learning objectives, develop online relationships, promote active learning, and create learning communities. With many examples available on the CD-ROM for easy online transfer, the activities can help elaborate on course content through the use of online technologies such as chat rooms, email, or discussion boards.

The book's recipe approach makes it easy to include any of the e-learning activities into most any online course. Designed to be flexible, the book's activities can be used independently or in tandem throughout an online course. 75 e-Learning Activities also contains more than 80 tips and suggestions for increasing the interactivity in your online courses, a glossary of essential e-learning terms, and a list of useful online and text resources for instructors and trainers who want to create dynamic interactive training experiences.

Written by Ryan Watkins, an expert on e-learning and distance education, 75 e-Learning Activities also includes contributions from acclaimed trainers Mel Silberman and Steve Sugar.

Praise for 75 e-Learning Activities

"In this unique book, Ryan Watkins brings you instant recipes for making e-learning interactive. This is a wonderful collection of ideas that will transform any virtual community."
—Mel Silberman, author, 101 Ways to Make Training Active

"Ryan Watkins now brings us a desperately needed resource book of ideas—ideas that are practical and inspired, and reach outside the confines of the prevalent e-learning designs that lead to insanely boring and ineffective e-learning. If you're trying to have impact with e-learning and can take advantage of today's electronic communications capabilities among learners and on-line mentors, you need this book."
—Michael W. Allen, author, Michael Allen's Guide to e-Learning; CEO, Allen Interactions Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 352 pages
• Publisher: Pfeiffer (April 18, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0787975850
• ISBN-13: 978-0787975852
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #184,911 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Ryan Watkins, Ph.D. is an associate professor at the George Washington University in Washington DC. His most recent book is A Guide to Assessing Needs: Essential Tools for Collecting Information, Making Decisions, and Achieving Development Results (online copies available for free through the World Bank, 2011). He is also an author of the world's top-selling text on e-learning (with more than 100,000 copies in press and a 4th edition in the works), the E-learning Companion: A learner's guide to online success (Houghton Mifflin, 2005, 2007, 2010), along with other books including the Handbook for Improving Performance in the Workplace - Volume 2 (Pfieffer/Wiley, 2010), Performance By Design: The systematic selection, design, and development of performance technologies (HRD Press, 2006), and 75 E-learning Activities: Making online courses interactive (Pfieffer, 2005). The Handbook for Improving Performance in the Workplace won a 2011 ISPI Award of Excellence in the field of performance improvement. In addition, he has co-authored three other books on organizational planning and more than 95 articles on instructional design, strategic planning, needs assessment, distance education, and performance technology. His articles are frequently cited in the performance improvement literature, making him the 4th most cited author of journal articles in the field.* Ryan is an active member of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) and was a vice president of the Inter-American Distance Education Consortium (CREAD). In 2005 Ryan was a visiting scientist with the National Science Foundation, and he routinely works on projects with the World Bank on applying needs assessment, instructional design, and performance improvement to international assistance programs (including recent work in China and Laos).

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Great for savvy, creative teachers., December 30, 2011

By 

Leah MacVie "LeahMacVie" (Buffalo, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: 75 e-Learning Activities: Making Online Learning Interactive (Hardcover)

Other books of the sort are great for instructional designers and trainers, but I believe this book is more teacher-focused. And savvy, creative teachers at that.

There are a few things I really love about this book: I love the matrices at the beginning that help you evaluate the activities and whether they are a good fit for your situation. I don't think they belong exactly, but the tips at the beginning of the book are extremely worthwhile. Each chapter begins with a meaningful introduction.

There are a few things I would have done differently- mainly organization as I don't think it doesn't follow a logical sequence. However, I would still recommend it as a resource, just not a read-through. I also think readers will need some level of creativity to implement some of these activities- perhaps further directions to state HOW an individual would implement each activity into an LMS is needed.