May

15

Beware of “vaporware.” You will recognize this because these guys over indulge in the “gee whiz” of their technology, often promising everything under the sun. You need to be able to walk away from vendors who just enjoy hearing the sound of their own voices. The learning management system or the training software should serve your business and educational needs. If it does not, you are probably headed for disaster and frustration not to mention lost of time and money.

If then the goal of the LMS or training software system, is to serve your business and education needs, does the vendor you are dealing with understand this basic requirement in a fundamental way? Yes the LMS system or training software should be the best in terms of the technology – after all you don’t want a crappy system which breaks down every other day. Having said this, you and your vendor should display an alignment of vision in terms of understanding the business needs, the teaching and learning objectives and methodologies and the design or content creation and management interface that is needed to accomplish your needs.

I can’t tell you how many times I have had to caution potential customers about this one. KNOW THY COSTS — ALL OF THY COSTS. Many organizations have plunged into e-learning and web-based training with a zest not seen since the tech bubble of the 90’s. Don’t get me wrong. This is all so exciting. However, one needs to pause and ask all the right questions. Ask about the costs for setup. How about maintenance and support? Inquire about costs to upgrade or have special features implemented. If the vendor’s pricing is based on usage license, you need to ask about overage charges. Are you charged extra if you decide to create extra classes? These are critical questions you need to ask and get answers before you plow into vendor selection. Trust me, you don’t want any surprises.

Do me a favor and ask your vendor if the system is designed to be run or operated by regular folks…erm I mean educators or only the IT department has the resources and skills to manage your learning management system or training software program? Why you might ask? Because this is a big deal. IT departments are becoming woefully understaffed or even worse outsourced. Do you really want to depend on IT for every single thing you need done in your e-learning software? Another way of looking at this question is. How simple is your training software to operate? If you a PhD in computer science, you are probably not talking with the right vendor.

The last question you might want to consider is support and reliability. Many simply assume this or worse get the standard vendor spin. You need to take the free e-learning software trials some vendors offer and test drive the whole system including the support and technical help functions. If you can’t get support before they have had a chance to take your money, believe me, its going to be a whole lot more difficult after you have paid them. So, do your home work and take the system for a spin. Utilize the phone, fax, email, online support system etc and make sure your vendor has passed the test.

View from the window:

Flowers from e-learning software tips article

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Nov

7

For Immediate Release:

eLeaP and MedSenses announce partnership,
giving access to a complete e-learning solution for both individual
nurses and their healthcare organizations

LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY & NEW BRUNSWICK 11/01/2007: Telania,
whose expertise range from e-Learning Management Technologies
(eLeaP™) and Healthcare Training Solutions to Custom
Software Development and MedSenses, an emerging eLearning
company that focuses on all things nursing, announce a partnership
in delivering web-based healthcare content through the eLeaP
Learning Management Platform.

The co-founders of MedSenses, Trisha Coady and Lynn Casey,
combine their invaluable nursing experience with a real passion
for continuing education to develop some of the most clinically
relevant and interactive content for nurses worldwide. “We
are thrilled to see the MedSenses content in the eLeaP system,
a very easy to use, yet intuitive learning management system.
We know our peers in healthcare who want the choice to purchase
either individual licenses or a corporate package will enjoy
embarking on their journey of learning with this combined
solution”, says Trisha Coady. MedSenses hopes the payoff
will be nurses with greater job satisfaction and sense of
value, attributes that both nursing and hospital administrators
can readily endorse.

The American Journal of Nursing reported that offering training
and educational opportunities to hospital personnel is increasingly
recommended as a retention and recruitment incentive. The
combination of content from MedSenses and the LMS platform
- eLeaP by Telania will provide hospitals with the ability
to efficiently and effectively train and educate their healthcare
staff.
“Telania is passionate about building robust and easy
to use software applications. MedSenses delivers rich, instructive
and quality nursing education. The combination of the eLeaP
Platform and MedSenses courseware presents a unique and powerful
educational tool for hospitals and healthcare providers.”

About Telania & eLeaP:
eLeaP™ LMS/LCMS is one of the first e-learning platforms
to deliver easy to use web-based training in a totally secure
128-Bit encrypted environment. eLeaP™ is designed to
allow any company training manager or supervisor, consultants
& other training professionals to quickly & painlessly
manage all of their online training needs in one secure, easy
to use web platform. You get your own unique learning portal
or URL. The eLeaP e-learning plafform enables anyone to easily
and quickly create, manage and track training and e-learning
programs.. You don’t have to spend time and huge investment
of money to have your own unique training system. eLeaP™
does it for you. And it is totally secure! Additional information
is available at www.eleapsoftware.com or www.telania.com

About MedSenses Inc.:
MedSenses Inc. is an emerging content provider focused on
building courseware BY nurses FOR nurses. Having developed
a proprietary method for building educational content for
the nursing community, MedSenses offers a variety of titles
in the following sectors: Medical-Surgical, Cardiac, Critical
Care, Compliance, Pediatrics, Newborn, Neonatal, Emergency,
Ground Transport and Flight Transport. The courses integrate
solid medical and technical information with insight and stories
from real-world clinical experiences; complimented by medical
animations, interactivities and 3D graphics. Healthcare organizations
can now offer a high quality, cost-effective solution for
their continuing education programs. Additional information
is available at www.medsenses.com.

Contact:

MedSenses Inc.
Lynn Casey, VP Marketing
506.384.7033
lynn.casey@medsenses.com

Telania, Inc.
Don Weobong, President
(502) 291-4650
donatus@eleapsoftware

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Oct

27

Most organizations don’t consider the security of the online learning systems or learning management systems. As the web has matured into a stable and reliable medium for the deployment of services and applications, how can companies and organizations ensure the integrity of the learning management systems and online training software applications?

Don Weobong, President of Telania, Inc. a provider of training software solutions and learning management systems said of this issue, “the problem with non-secure learning systems and unencrypted web training software programs is a real threat to companies and organizations. Serious steps need to be taken to address this unsustainable situation”.

If your organization is deploying sensitive training materials or proprietary company information over a web-based training software application, you have to ensure that the wrong kind of people do not have access to it. While learning management systems can provide server-side software encryption, you need to also ensure the integrity of the user-side management interfaces. Does the system provide SSL (secure socket layer) encryption? Is the application hosted in-house or do you an external hosting partners hosting your learning management system? Does the application server use anti-virus, anti-spyware software or data encryption and firewalls to protect against unauthorized access and intrusions?

If all this sounds a bit confusing, then its time to get a learning management system partner who specializes in secure online learning systems. One of the few reliable companies in this space is Telania, Inc. with the eLeaP Learning Management System platform.

Because eLeaP is a hosted secure training solution, you don’t need to worry about the nuts and bolts of all the security concerns outlines above. Of course you still want to make sure the wrong people in your organization don’t get access to your secure content.

So to recap:

How secure is your online learning system?

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Oct

15

Learning Summit 2007

“Tools for SCORM®: What We Have and What We Need”

Tuesday 30 October – Wednesday 31 October 2007

Pre-conference Workshop: “Implementing SCORM®”

Monday 29 October 2007

FedEx Institute of Technology, Memphis, TN

http://els.workforcecolab.org

You don’t want to miss the chance to actively participate in this open forum addressing current issues in the SCORM® community. Facilitated focus and panel group discussions will address the theme “Tools for SCORM®: What We Have and What We Need” in this meeting which brings together eLearning organizations and experts from around the world to highlight some of the latest technologies and project areas for growth and development in SCORM®.

What:
eLearning Summit 2007

When:
30/­31 October 2007

October 29, 2007 – Pre-conference Workshop

Where:
University of Memphis in
Memphis, Tennessee, USA

Host:
Workforce ADL
Co-Laboratory

Website:
http://els.workforcecolab.org

Why You Should Attend

No other conference in ADL history has been especially designed to address the particular needs of the SCORM user: Instructional Designers, Training Managers, Learning Officers, and Representatives of the industry and education sectors. ELearning Summit 2007 is a great opportunity for you to:

*  network and build relationships within the community
*  critically evaluate tools/utilities for SCORM
*  participate in discussion groups addressing future needs
*  understand the advanced technical underpinnings for future learning systems

eLearning terms & resources:

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Oct

12

Have you been tasked to create employee training? Do you need to
deliver your solution like yesterday? eLeaP is throwing down the
gauntlet!

Use the eLeaP training software and learning management system to create employee training in less than 30 minutes or its free for 60 days!

The process is very simple:

  1. Create an eLeaP Account: Click here for free account
  2. Build or upload your training courses (use your existing training if you want)
  3. Deploy and track completion certification

Are you up for the challenge? Try the eLeaP 30 Minute Employee Training Challenge today!

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Oct

6

I recently came across DarfurisDying.com. No its not just another advocacy website. This website uses gaming to introduce visitors to the simulations of living and surviving in a refugee camp in Darfur. Needless to say, I ended up loosing all members of my camp. But the experience, virtual though it was, was truly surreal.

This brings me to this post. How can organizations use simulations or games to engage employees or staff to discuss and strategize various scenarios.

Have you used immersive learning simulations or games in your training or e-learning programs. How can training software systems be leveraged to produce high powered trainings such as saving a refugee camp? I can see virtual “apprentice” simulations.

In many ways the military has used simulations in training for foreign deployment. These games have no doubt saved many lives and enhanced many outcomes.

Let us know how you use immersive learning simulations or games in your e-learning or corporate training programs. Does your learning management system enable you load games or simulations? If not tell us what your experiences have been.

Jul

20

Just when you thought things couldn’t get any weirder … I hear BlackBoard is talking to developers at Second Life (the Internet’s alternative universe .. or virtual civilization) to use Learning Management Systems in tracking user activity and also doing some prototyping and testing.

Sounds fantastic till you actually stop to think about this for a second. If you could test elearning content creation and prototyping before putting it out in the real world scenario, maybe you can learn a thing or two … its all good right? How about user authentication and quality assurance after all “no one knows you are a dog on the Internet.”

While I am excited about the possibilities for elearning — I would have to hold off jumping into “elearning virtual” till we have worked the bugs out. I would like to think that the need for real world elearning and talent management or just personal self improvement means we have plenty of work right here on terra firma.

See you next time on virtual e-learning …. isn’t that even an oxymoron?

Don Amacheba

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Jul

19

For the longest time, e-learning was considered “top down” knowledge dissemination. An instructor or HR or Training Director creates training, loads this training, mainly PowerPoint presentations, into a learning management system and waits for quizzes to be completed. While this is a good first step, I consider it very wasteful … talking about buying a Ferrari and only doing 30 miles per hour on the highway.

In today’s learning and knowledge management environment the focus has shifted to skills development, talent nurturing and holistic employee development. How do we accomplish this? Use BLENDED learning. Blended learning can include in-person instruction, e-learning and most importantly informal learning via social networks, discussion boards and forums. Believe me, those ‘eureka” moments are probably going to happen in a discussion environment. That million dollar cost savings idea can very well happen when employees are out enjoying a break from your in-class training.
“Those “Aha!” moments are much more likely with the advent of the new social
networking technologies, says Colleen Carmean, director of research at
the Applied Learning
Technologies Institute at Arizona State University. Blogs, wikis and
other content that remains online and is searchable mean that employees
can tap into colleagues’ knowledge no matter when the entries were
made. And given the way search engines rank pages by their popularity,
smart ideas can rise over time, she says.” Workforce Management

Bottom line, find ways to foster, enhance and document these informal learning opportunities. In looking for a learning management system provider, make sure to check on whether the LMS provides for forums, discussion boards or even social networks. Few do and they are worth checking out. See www.eleapsoftware.com for one such systems.

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