In at the Deep End

As my role as a new eLearning Manager crystallises there are a few key things I have to do. The first was to get a good understanding of what the scope of my role really is. As I?m now comfortable with that situation and there are plenty of definitions of eLearning out there and they are constantly shifting so I?m not going to define the term here other than to say that I will most likely to define it myself by what I do and what I write here.

The next task is to pick a set of software tools. As I?m in a situation where we have an LMS platform, suppliers that we co-own eLearning materials with and courses in progress using those materials the immediate pressure is on upgrading our provision and extending our capabilities. As we?ve got great asynchronous tools and products but are using only a basic online chat facility my first major task is to choose a synchronous eLearning platform that allows us to facilitate eLearning live to the internet.

To that end I've compiled a wishlist of features/benefits and prioritised them.

Feature	Description	Priority
No Downloads	Must be ready to go with no user downloads	Essential
Live polling	Participant voting	Essential
Whiteboarding	Trainer drawing, typing & highlighting areas of the screen	Essential
One-way audio	Trainer talking directly to class	Essential
Session recording	Ability to playback the session and take content from it	Essential
Presentation	PowerPoint style slides & uploading	Essential
Direct Messaging	Typed text messaging (as current)	Essential
Pre-scripting	The ability to automate certain portions of the session ahead of time and simply trigger them in the session	Highly desirable
Grant control	Hand over control of the session to another participant/trainer	Highly desirable
Live video	Video streaming to participants	Highly desirable
File transfer	Send participants files	Highly desirable
Breakout rooms	Split participants into workgroups for activities	Desirable
Two way audio	Participants can reply to the trainer via audio	Desirable
Application sharing	Show participants what?s on your screen	Feature only

All the usual suspects are under consideration for purchase as well as a few from leftfield. Check back for the shortlist in about a fortnight's time.