Review: a fun, easy manual about e-learning
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 10 15, 2012
This book is about e-learning, and more specifically, about how it's not as tough as it looks.This e-book is designed to be a fun, easy manual about e-learning. This book is designed intentionally to be short and upbeat to encourage adult learners with online education. Dr. Liz Hardy reached to to me to take a look at her e-book and write up a review. I happen to enjoy connecting directly with authors, so I had no problem doing this. She sent me a complimentary reading copy to peruse and give an honest assessment on. So, this is that review. To give you, the reader, a look at what the book is about, here is what Dr. Liz Hardy describes her book as:"E-learning 101 is the fruit of my 6 years' experience with 3,000 online learners. I'm offering an alternative to the standard long and complicated approaches to the subject, by presenting practical e-learning solutions explained in a friendly voice. I believe e-learning can actually be FUN! That's why the e-book is packed with pictures of friendly dogs..."This book covers fears of using technology, learning a busy schedule and discussing how intensive e-learning is, the discussion on procrastination self-motivation when deadlines are on the horizon, and how to connect socially and avoid e-learning isolation. In summary, this e-book is designed to take the worry out of e-learning.This book has arrived at the perfect time. With technology developing so quickly and the modern education model quickly fading, e-learning is no longer a fringe activity but rather mainstream for several institutions and community education groups. In fact, I attend Liberty University Online, and web-based platform for their physical campus. While their physical campus has an average size of 7,000 students, their online campus boasts over 40,000 students as their enrollment levels.Reviewing this book, the material is actually pretty relevant and impacting. I come from a traditional book format (despite me being a hobby blogger), where books aren't encouraging via dog pictures. As a result, I was quite skeptical of the book. But having looked through this book, there is more than meets the eye. The dog pictures add to, instead of detract from, the text. They provide a laid-back atmosphere to this topic of learning, and substitute as the graphics that would normally be part of a lecture. This makes this e-book more interactive and designed to be easier to read, having the material broken up and simplified. This is an active handbook as well, and correctly tackles the topic of technology today. Also, having several years of online education under my belt, I recognize that a book of this simplicity and knowledge could have saved me the learning curve.Truthfully, this book does what it promises. And you don't have to take my word for it - just check out the user reviews on Amazon or read more on the E-learning site. There seems to be an agreement that simple and short is the way to go on this one...Disclosure: I was contracted to write an honest review in exchange for a reviewer copy of the product. The opinions stated in this review are solely my own.