Tag Archives: Labyrinth Learning

Turning Education On Its Head: The Flipped Classroom Model

August 21, 2013Featurede-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, teaching tips, teaching tips for online course instructorslablearning

The flipped classroom model is gaining popularity across the country. It’s the ultimate merging of technology and education, requiring the use of computers, videos and presentation software, in addition to traditional teacher-student classroom instruction.

Here’s how it works:

Teachers use programs like PowerPoint to create lectures. These presentations can be as creative as teachers want to make them, including video links and live links to supplemental resources. Teachers also have the option of recording themselves giving lectures and posting the videos on YouTube, or embedding them within their PowerPoint presentations. These lectures are all hosted online, where students can access them remotely.

Rather than coming to school to listen to a lecture and then do homework, students are required to access lessons beforehand. This gives them the opportunity to listen, read, and tap resources at their own pace. or to re-watch something over and over again. Students can use online portals to chat with other students and/or the instructor, regarding observations, questions, or comments. When they arrive to class, the instructor can begin the class by answering any remaining questions and utilize the rest of the class time by doing activities and hands-on work to reinforce the lesson’s key points.

The flipped classroom model allows students to have access to lessons and materials 24/7, and increases their efficiency and productivity in class.

Contact Labyrinth Learning to learn more about our wide range of products, including Course Management Systems, that include internet hosted software and supplemental learning resources for your flipped classroom.

Video: Enhancing Classroom Education

August 11, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, video educationlablearning

Videos can be a powerful addition to your “Technology Education” toolbox. This is especially true for your visual learners, for whom oral lectures or written notes may not be enough to truly convey the nuances of a particular lesson. While videos are often used at the lower levels, they are usually undervalued at the community college or adult education level.

Here are ways you can use videos to enhance your classroom education.

Embed into your lecture. If you use PowerPoint or another slide presentation program, videos can easily be embedded into your slides, to highlight certain points in your lecture, or provide a how-to lesson. For example, a lesson on a historical figure can be enhanced with a documentary showing the way people lived during that period, allowing students to form a more realistic image as they read.

Supplement the textbook. Videos bring textbook lessons to life. At Labyrinth Learning, our textbooks and online learning resources incorporate videos on a regular basis. They help visual learners to see the instructions or tasks from their perspective on the screen, which can help them to better understand how to utilize a particular skill.

Subtitles. You can enhance your use of videos by selecting the subtitles to be displayed. This helps to reinforce the words students are hearing, and ensures your hearing-impaired students aren’t missing out on valuable information. They can also help to keep students anchored in the experience.

Contact Labyrinth Learning to find programs and videos to enhance technology education in your classroom.

Photo Source: Shutterstock

The Hidden Benefits of LMS

August 1, 2013Featured, Teaching Tips & Strategiescourse management software, e-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, learning management systems, teaching tips for computer instructors, teaching tips for online course instructors, tips for teaching computer skillslablearning

Learning management systems (LMS) are becoming increasingly popular. From community college courses to corporate training programs, there are multiple benefits to using an LMS, including these 6 highlighted by the Training Zone:

Comprehensive management. From email text reminders to full course management, a good learning management system takes a holistic approach, including sign-in sheets and certification.
Simple reports. Your reporting shouldn’t have to be complex. Whether it’s remembering upcoming certificate expiration dates or handling compliance issues, an LMS should be set up so simple, easy-to-access reports are delivered right to a manager’s inbox.
Department training expenses. At a single glance, managers should be able to see which funds are being allocated to each department to better facilitate the training budget.
Meet your regulatory requirements. Regulations and compliance continue to become ever more complicated. An LMS can help to eliminate human error. Even complex healthcare and financial industry regulations and compliance can be managed using a good LMS.
Empower Employees. No need to schedule mass training sessions or a month of Saturdays to keep certifications, training, and compliance up-to-date. Your employees can navigate the LMS on their own clock in order to meet deadlines and keep their education and training current.
Say goodbye to IT nightmares. A good LMS will be web-based or hosted by the LMS provider, meaning you can allocate costly IT management costs elsewhere.

Is your institution using a Learning Management System? Browse Labyrinth Learning’s selection of learning solutions that easily integrate with your LMS.

Speed Up Your Work With These Simple Excel Tricks

June 28, 2013FeaturedExcel course materials, Excel keyboard shortcuts, Labyrinth Learning, Microsoft Excel 2013lablearning

If it has been a while since you attended a brush-up course on Microsoft Excel, you’ll know this feeling; you leave the seminar inspired. You can’t wait to get to work and use the new tricks at work, but over the course of a few weeks, you’re lucky if three or four of the new shortcuts you learned make it into your daily rotation. Sound familiar?

Here are some simple Microsoft Excel 2013 tricks you can share at your weekly meeting to keep coworkers up to speed.

Select All. Quick keyboard commands can shave seconds, which quickly add up to minutes and hours, off of your everyday computer tasks. [Ctrl]+A can be used to select all of the data in your Excel spreadsheet at one time. It also works in Word and other Windows applications.

Copy/Transfer Formatting. Here’s a trick you’ll really thank us for. The Excel Format Painter Tool is often neglected, but not for long. When you want to transfer the cell formatting (not formula), simply select the cell and right click. See the paint brush in the bottom-right corner? Select it. Then click on any other cell(s) and the identical formatting will be copied.

Display formulas. When you hit [Ctrl] + ~, all of the formulas in a spreadsheet will be visible, allowing you to edit/tweak them as needed.

Labyrinth Learning has a host of Microsoft Excel 2013 products that can teach your employees basic and advanced skills, or can be used for a FastCourse refresher at your next training seminar.

Discover Some of The Most Underused Features of Microsoft Office

June 26, 2013FeaturedLabyrinth Learning, Microsoft Office 2013, new features, teaching computer literacylablearning

While a single computer course can teach you the basics, seminars, additional training sessions, and advanced computer courses are the best way to break out of your routines and learn new tricks to enhance your performance.

To prove a point, we thought we’d share some of the most underused features of Microsoft Office 2013, compliments of TechRepublic.com.

Find a recent file. How many times have you saved a file one day, and then struggled to find it the next? The search feature can take forever, which contributes to the frustration. Instead, you can click on “File” and then select “Recent.” Voila! Your most recent saves will appear. This works in both Word and Excel.
Create your own templates. If you find you use the same format over and over again, it will save time if you simply create your own template. In older versions of Word, this was a bit complicated. The new Microsoft Office 2013 Suite has simplified the process. Click here to learn how to make easy templates of your own.
Quick Excel tables. If you use Microsoft Excel on a regular basis, you will save a good deal of time and energy by learning all you can about the table features. It is easy to transform a range of data into a table for easier data formulating and manipulation.

Maybe it’s time for you company to splurge on a Microsoft Office seminar for your trainers and employees. Contact Labyrinth Learning to discuss software options that will enhance employee performance.

MOOCs Role in Today’s Community Colleges

June 24, 2013Featuredassessing student performance, course management software, e-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, teaching tips for online course instructorslablearning

Community college MOOCs, or Massive Open Online Courses, are being scrutinized as more community colleges strive to meet the needs of their students while managing significant budget cuts. The online publication Community College Week recently published an article titled, “Survey: Community Colleges Remain Wary of MOOCs,” summarizing the results of a recent survey regarding MOOCs and their role in community colleges.

Here are two survey findings we feel are particularly interesting.

Completion rates of MOOCs are low. While completion of MOOCs may be low, students who participate in traditional distance learning methods seem to do just fine, “The gap between distance learning and face-to-face student completion rates has significantly narrowed.” This tells us that distance learning is doing something right, and MOOCs need to find the right combination of learning materials and method before their completion gaps will catch up.

Learning materials matter. The key to student success, whether it be face-to-face or online, is directly related to, “…course quality and design, faculty training and preparation, course assessment, and improvements in student readiness and retention.” The materials we create here at Labyrinth Learning are designed to do just that. Our textbook and eLearning tools incorporate self-paced, hands-on learning strategies, effective assessments, and ample resources for students and instructors.

Labyrinth Learning textbooks and online resources are designed for both face to face and MOOC environments. Contact Labyrinth Learning to learn more.

Photo Source: Shutterstock

Divide for Disadvantaged College Students Continues to Grow

June 20, 2013Featuredassessing student performance, e-learning resources, Labyrinth Learninglablearning

The divide for disadvantaged students at community colleges continues to widen. Reasons for this are complex. However, if one were pressed to define the problem it boils down to resources. “Government funding skews toward universities with more advantaged students, due in part to research support and tax breaks,” says Paul Fain in his article, Equity Gaps Widen, published on InsideHigherEd.com.

Students attending community colleges have far fewer resources than their four-year college counterparts. And, because community colleges are more affordable, a larger sector of their student populations are from underprivileged backgrounds. So, what are the resources that community college students lack?

Per student costs. When you eliminate the higher cost of on-campus housing and faculty research funding typically found at 4-year institutions, 2-year colleges are able to spend about $5,000 per student. That figure is doubled to $10,000 at public research colleges, and quadrupled to $20,000 at most private research colleges.

Access to learning resources. While a community college is able to supply a moderate amount of technology for students and their learning process, students often have to rely on their own technology to complete online courses, write papers, do research, etc. Most large universities provide a more ample supply of technology for students, even though the general student population comes from more affluent backgrounds, and already has access to technology at home.

As a company that prioritizes streamlining the learning process, Labyrinth Learning is hopeful that emerging reports on existing disparities will help to shift to create a more equitable funding solution.

Photo Source: Shutterstock

Excel Makes Quick Work for Your Accounting Needs

June 13, 2013Featurede-learning resources, Excel keyboard shortcuts, Labyrinth Learninglablearning

It’s easy to get comfortable in a work routine, but that doesn’t mean the routine is efficient. This is why it’s important for management personnel to encourage the accounting team to keep up to date in accounting software and programming updates. For example, the shortcuts available in the new Microsoft Excel 2013 software can up your company’s accounting game and make quicker work of your day-to-day procedures. Here are some Excel shortcuts that can help.

Select an entire table. Ctrl+Shift+Space Bar. This handy shortcut allows you to select all of the data in an Excel table so the it can be quickly copy/pasted/manipulated elsewhere. This won’t work if one of the active cells is outside of the specified range.
Formula reconnaissance. New to a set of data and aren’t quite sure which cells are linked to which formulas? You can click into formulated cell, and press Ctrl+Shift+{ and the linked cells will be highlighted, giving you a deeper understanding of the unfamiliar data.
Mouse-free Selection Extend. Tired of selecting an the accurate spreadsheet selection only to bump a key or mouse and have it disappear? Then you’ll love the keyboard shortcut for extended selections: F8. Hit the F8 button on your keyboard, then use the directional arrows to click left to right, and up or down, to select the appropriate cells. You can’t go wrong.

The best way to learn Microsoft Excel 2013 shortcuts is to host a company-wide training seminar using Labyrinth Learning’s FastCourse Series for the serious professional. Contact Labyrinth Learning today.

Online Tools for Teachers

March 18, 2013News & Events, Teaching Tips & Strategiese-learning resources, Labyrinth Learning, teaching tips for computer instructors, tips for teaching computer skillskwalker

Are you beginning to feel like your attention to course management, such as creating assessments, analyzing student performance, and updating grade books, is taking away from the
thing you love best – teaching? Here at Labyrinth Learning we love teaching too, which is why we have spent the last two decades creating one-of-a-kind online tools for teachers. Shop our eLab products and experience the most innovative and engaging course management system (CMS) on the market.

Our textbooks are geared towards students at every level of computer and software literacy, and dozens of them are enabled to work with our eLab skills evaluation tool.

Hands-on assessments: Whether you choose to use our pre-built assessments or prefer to customize your own, you and your students will receive immediate feedback on their computer literacy, which materials need reinforcing, and how much students have improved their skills through the duration of the course. Individual and group progress can be analyzed in seconds.
Grade Books. Keeping track of grades has never been easier because our CMS does it for you. eLab CMS is a tool that complements our textbooks and provides automated grading and online training tools as a supplemental component for courses. (It is not an online course.) Students use their individual license keys and work online. All completed work and test scores will be deposited right into your grade book.
Communication. Students who need specialized help and training have a direct communication line with you, which keeps your teaching time relevant and on point.

For more information on how online tools for teachers will enhance your classroom experience, visit Labyrinth Learning and register to view our online catalog.