Start Your Own eLearning or Training Business


Book Description

Distance learning for both the education and industry is steadily growing, creating a demand for eager entrepreneurs. Teaching methods and tools now in popular use for virtual training are covered: videos; eBooks; interactive software types; college sponsored staff training for college instructors; hardware, camera, video, sound equipment; online group forums; online events; choosing the right presentation style and linking to appropriate social media sites; and networking presentations. A range of industry examples will be given for accreditation, certifications, and credit; adding training onto an existing business as side income; how to sell media/training tools; how much to charge clients; start up costs; software types used; the legal obligations around taxes, business registration, working from home, and content confidentiality; and growth planning and writing a business plan. Relevant and fun call-outs, tip boxes, industry stats, an index, and a rich appendix and glossary is provided. An appendix offers resources in continued learning and rounded training for trainers; industry organizations and trade groups; books and eBooks; videos; software; websites; successful online trainers and online education institutions; consultants; and certification organizations.




Start Your Own Online Education Business


Book Description

Online education is experiencing a huge growth spurt. The number of students taking online classes increased 24 percent in the past year—and this growth is only expected to continue. Don’t let this lucrative opportunity pass you by. Take your teaching global by offering courses online. Learn everything you need to know to set up a successful online education business: • Find financing, write a business plan, choose a business structure and learn other business basics • Develop exciting courses in the four most popular areas—IT, health care, education and business—as well as niche markets • Promote your business and attract students through online newsletters, search engine optimization and other innovative techniques • Design a user-friendly website and provide high-quality tech support • Train instructors in this new education medium, or teach courses yourself • And more! Real-life stories from successful entrepreneurs show you exactly what you need to do to set up and run a profitable business. Now’s the perfect time to get started with an online education business—and with this book, you’re well on your way to success.




eLearning or Training Business


Book Description

Possibly credited to advancements in technology or learning behaviors, or a rise in focus on personal development, the education and training industry is steadily growing, creating a demand for eager entrepreneurs. Exploring varied opportunities aspiring business owners will be given business ideas, teaching and training methods, and an overview of essential tools.




Start Your Own Senior Services Business


Book Description

The senior population is multiplying by the millions! In fact, during the next 25 years, the senior population in America is expected to double — growing faster than the total population in every state. This means one thing: a tremendous opportunity for aspiring and compassionate entrepreneurs. From providing adult daycare or homecare to transportation or concierge needs, this guide covers today’s most requested services within the 65-and-older market. Readers learn, step by step, how to choose the right opportunity for them, legally and financially establish their business, acquire licenses and certifications, set policies and procedures, and much more! Priceless insight, advice, and tips from practicing senior care professionals help aspiring entrepreneurs to discover their specialty from within one of six growing areas of interest — adult daycare, relocation services, homecare, transportation services, concierge, and travel service; design a business to suit customers’ demographics and special needs; set rates; create a support staff who will facilitate success; use effective marketing and advertising to get the word out; build valuable business partnerships that lead to referrals; and plan for future growth. A record number of seniors are seeking help, and this guide is the key to starting a senior care service today!




The ELearning Designer's Handbook


Book Description

LEARN HOW TO DESIGN ELEARNING THAT DELIVERS RESULTS (AND DOESN'T SUCK)! When you're tasked with creating your very first eLearning course, it can be hard (and downright scary) trying to figure out where to begin. You likely have a million questions running through your head. How do you plan your project and set it up for success? How do you collect learning content from your subject matter experts? Why do you need an eLearning storyboard, and how do you write one? How do you develop a prototype of your eLearning course? And, what the heck is a prototype anyway? When and where should you include interactivity? When should you let your SMEs review your course? And what's a "SME" again? And what do you do when they don't give you feedback? Trying to get answers to all of these questions can quickly leave you saying to yourself, "I don't think I'm cut out for this eLearning thing!" But, here's some good news: you're not alone! The truth is, most eLearning designers entered fell, stumbled, and dropped into the world of eLearning entirely by accident. This is where the second edition of The eLearning Designer's Handbook can help! In this book, Tim Slade will show you that the eLearning development process doesn't have to be as complicated as it might seem. If you're new to eLearning, Tim will walk you through the complete eLearning design and development process, providing you practical tips and advice, based on his own experience working as an eLearning designer for over a decade. With the second edition of The eLearning Designer's Handbook, you'll discover how to... Plan your eLearning project by conducting a kickoff meeting with your stakeholders. Conduct a needs analysis and recommend a training solution. Draft an eLearning project plan and development timeline. Define the learning objectives and create a blended training solution. Collect and organize your learning content into a design document. Create a course outline and draft a storyboard of your eLearning course. Create a prototype and develop your course with an eLearning authoring tool. Incorporate interactivity into your eLearning course. Reduce cognitive load and increase learning retention. Deliver and measure the effectiveness of your eLearning course. Conduct a retrospective at the end of your project. So, what's new in the second edition? With the second edition of The eLearning Designer's Handbook, Tim Slade went back to the drawing board to rewrite and redesign every single page of the book. Not only does the second edition include a boatload of new content on instructional design best practices, but it also includes even more practical content geared towards new eLearning designers. With the second edition of The eLearning Designer's Handbook, you'll get... 3X more content Full-color print Real-world examples More tools and templates




The Lean Startup


Book Description

Most startups fail. But many of those failures are preventable. The Lean Startup is a new approach being adopted across the globe, changing the way companies are built and new products are launched. Eric Ries defines a startup as an organization dedicated to creating something new under conditions of extreme uncertainty. This is just as true for one person in a garage or a group of seasoned professionals in a Fortune 500 boardroom. What they have in common is a mission to penetrate that fog of uncertainty to discover a successful path to a sustainable business. The Lean Startup approach fosters companies that are both more capital efficient and that leverage human creativity more effectively. Inspired by lessons from lean manufacturing, it relies on “validated learning,” rapid scientific experimentation, as well as a number of counter-intuitive practices that shorten product development cycles, measure actual progress without resorting to vanity metrics, and learn what customers really want. It enables a company to shift directions with agility, altering plans inch by inch, minute by minute. Rather than wasting time creating elaborate business plans, The Lean Startup offers entrepreneurs—in companies of all sizes—a way to test their vision continuously, to adapt and adjust before it’s too late. Ries provides a scientific approach to creating and managing successful startups in a age when companies need to innovate more than ever.




Start Your Own Wedding Consultant Business


Book Description

Say, I Do, to Success From wedding bells to wedding bills, gain an inside look at the billion dollar wedding industry and learn how to earn a pay check coordinating the big day of today’s brides and grooms. Dive into and become an expert on wedding trends, such as destination weddings, tapas-style catering, disposable video cameras, wedding logos and more. Plus, learn everything else you need to know to start and run a successful, home-based wedding consultant business, including: How to market your services and find customers beyond family and friends Using social media to attract and communicate with clients Tips from the pros for handling the unexpected What licenses and permits you need How to avoid common mistakes How to negotiate with vendors and suppliers to get the best prices The most important contacts to make You don’t need an office or a lot of startup money. With your creativity and help from our experts, you’ll be well on your way to success!




Ultralearning


Book Description

Now a Wall Street Journal bestseller. Learn a new talent, stay relevant, reinvent yourself, and adapt to whatever the workplace throws your way. Ultralearning offers nine principles to master hard skills quickly. This is the essential guide to future-proof your career and maximize your competitive advantage through self-education. In these tumultuous times of economic and technological change, staying ahead depends on continual self-education—a lifelong mastery of fresh ideas, subjects, and skills. If you want to accomplish more and stand apart from everyone else, you need to become an ultralearner. The challenge of learning new skills is that you think you already know how best to learn, as you did as a student, so you rerun old routines and old ways of solving problems. To counter that, Ultralearning offers powerful strategies to break you out of those mental ruts and introduces new training methods to help you push through to higher levels of retention. Scott H. Young incorporates the latest research about the most effective learning methods and the stories of other ultralearners like himself—among them Benjamin Franklin, chess grandmaster Judit Polgár, and Nobel laureate physicist Richard Feynman, as well as a host of others, such as little-known modern polymath Nigel Richards, who won the French World Scrabble Championship—without knowing French. Young documents the methods he and others have used to acquire knowledge and shows that, far from being an obscure skill limited to aggressive autodidacts, ultralearning is a powerful tool anyone can use to improve their career, studies, and life. Ultralearning explores this fascinating subculture, shares a proven framework for a successful ultralearning project, and offers insights into how you can organize and exe - cute a plan to learn anything deeply and quickly, without teachers or budget-busting tuition costs. Whether the goal is to be fluent in a language (or ten languages), earn the equivalent of a college degree in a fraction of the time, or master multiple tools to build a product or business from the ground up, the principles in Ultralearning will guide you to success.




Start Your Own Travel Business


Book Description

Pack Your Bags…Full of Profits! At over a billion dollars, the travel industry is evolving, creating new trends and new opportunities for eager entrepreneurs like you. Our experts take you step-by-step as you embark on your most exciting adventure—starting a business. Discover success as an independent travel or specialty tour professional offering unique opportunities—in both geography and market niche—that even online discount travel sites can’t compete with. From exotic getaways to adrenaline-pumping extreme tours and time-saving technology to important regulations, learn how to conduct business by land, air, or sea. Plus, access an abundance of resources including important associations, travel-specific software, mailing lists, and in-the-trenches tips from successful travel specialists and tour operators. Covers: Hot travel markets including: business, leisure, adventure, honeymoons, family, men only, women only, seniors, and more Designing and pricing your services and packages Managing your finances Using efficient software systems and mobile technology for daily operations Complying with security regulations for domestic and foreign travel Advertising and promoting online and in print Growing your business From finding your clients to delivering a trip of a lifetime and everything in between, learn what you need to know to become a high-flying success!




e-Learning and the Science of Instruction


Book Description

The essential e-learning design manual, updated with the latest research, design principles, and examples e-Learning and the Science of Instruction is the ultimate handbook for evidence-based e-learning design. Since the first edition of this book, e-learning has grown to account for at least 40% of all training delivery media. However, digital courses often fail to reach their potential for learning effectiveness and efficiency. This guide provides research-based guidelines on how best to present content with text, graphics, and audio as well as the conditions under which those guidelines are most effective. This updated fourth edition describes the guidelines, psychology, and applications for ways to improve learning through personalization techniques, coherence, animations, and a new chapter on evidence-based game design. The chapter on the Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning introduces three forms of cognitive load which are revisited throughout each chapter as the psychological basis for chapter principles. A new chapter on engagement in learning lays the groundwork for in-depth reviews of how to leverage worked examples, practice, online collaboration, and learner control to optimize learning. The updated instructor's materials include a syllabus, assignments, storyboard projects, and test items that you can adapt to your own course schedule and students. Co-authored by the most productive instructional research scientist in the world, Dr. Richard E. Mayer, this book distills copious e-learning research into a practical manual for improving learning through optimal design and delivery. Get up to date on the latest e-learning research Adopt best practices for communicating information effectively Use evidence-based techniques to engage your learners Replace popular instructional ideas, such as learning styles with evidence-based guidelines Apply evidence-based design techniques to optimize learning games e-Learning continues to grow as an alternative or adjunct to the classroom, and correspondingly, has become a focus among researchers in learning-related fields. New findings from research laboratories can inform the design and development of e-learning. However, much of this research published in technical journals is inaccessible to those who actually design e-learning material. By collecting the latest evidence into a single volume and translating the theoretical into the practical, e-Learning and the Science of Instruction has become an essential resource for consumers and designers of multimedia learning.