The Kirkpatrick Model for training evaluation is kind of like Old Faithful. It’s been around since the 1950s and provides an easy to understand framework for evaluating your training program. Here is the model as described by the Kirkpatrick Partners: But is the Kirkpatrick Model still valid? In a recent #chat2lrn Twitter chat, Donald Clark of Plan B Learning started a bit of controversy with this tweet: Ouch. I wasn’t the only one who thought his phrasing was a little harsh: When it comes to the Kirkpatrick Model and its four levels of training evaluation, everyone has an opinion—and they’re not always flattering. Clark calls it a "useless fossil," consultant Dan Pontefract compares it to a cockroach that has stood the test of time without evolving at all, and others in the learning community refer derisively to the "smiley sheets" the model uses to procure training feedback. However, not everyone hates the Kirkpatrick Model. Another #chat2lrn participant pointed out that it’s important to use vocabulary that is meaningful to your stakeholders. Familiar evaluation terms can help those who hold the purse strings to be more comfortable with trying out a new learning method, such as gamification. But maybe that model needs a new twist? To Kirkpatrick or not to Kirkpatrick is not a new controversy. Many of the anti-Kirkpatrick articles that participants shared during the chat were a few years old. So why haven’t we found a new evaluation method yet? Well, there are a lot of ways to evaluate training programs. Then I saw this tweet about Robert Brinkerhoff’s Success Case Method: Cathy Moore is a hugely respected training designer; I knew if she was recommending an evaluation method, it was going to be good. Plus, I love her blog. Here’s the description of the Brinkerhoff Evaluation Institute (BEI) from their website: "BEI helps organizations achieve their objectives faster by conducting thorough yet practical evaluations of the key programs that contribute to their success.  We use data-driven analysis to measure and document program impact and identify actions to milk more value from program investments." For a great outline of the differences between the Kirkpatrick Model and BEI’s Success Case Method, check out this article by learning and performance consultant Tom Gram: Evaluating with the Success Case Method. Have you used either of these evaluation methods? Or, do you have a different way of determining training effectiveness? Share your techniques in the comments below—we may do a follow-up post if there is interest! Remember, the right authoring tool gives you a head start in creating the best training program possible. Download a free 30-day trial of Lectora® Inspire today! And of course, subscribe to the Everything eLearning Blog for all the best eLearning tips, free resources, and the occasional cat photo. The post Is It Time To Kill the Kirkpatrick Model? appeared first on .

August is a bittersweet month. It’s my birthday month, which is great (for me, anyway), but it also signals the end of summer, which is not so great. However, it’s been a pretty lively month here at Trivantis. Those of you who are subscribed to our monthly eNewsletter know that we launched the beta of our Responsive Course Design solution for Lectora® Online this month (sign up), and we couldn’t be more excited. What else happened in August? Take a look: 1. Responsive Course Design in Lectora Normally I stick with written articles for the Best of August, but I wasn’t going to tease you with a mention of Responsive Course Design and not give you more details! Enjoy this recorded webinar from our Chief Technology Officer, John Blackmon, filling you in on all the juicy details. 2. Template Tuesday: File Folder First off, "Template Tuesday" is a great name for a blog series, and I’m mad I didn’t think of it first. Second, this is a great Lectora template from the eLearning Brothers with easy customization options. Check it out! 3. 7 Tips to Streamline Translations We love bringing you tips ands tricks from industry experts, and this post by Jennifer Valley is full of great info for anyone who needs to translate or localize a training course. 4. eLearning Authoring: Taking the Next Step with xAPI If xAPI isn’t on your radar, it needs to be. This new standard allows you to track so many more of your learners’ activities than standards like SCORM. This article from Learning Solutions Magazine gives you some great examples of what you can track with xAPI (subscription or eLearning Guild login required to read the whole article). Bonus post! We also covered xAPI on the Everything eLearning Blog here: Why the Experience API (xAPI) Is Crucial to Your eLearning Success 5. eLearning and the Internet of Things Is the Internet of Things the next big trend in eLearning? It does correlate nicely with cloud computing and the mobile revolution… Find out more in this article. Did I miss any articles from this past month that you loved? Let me know in the comments, and don’t forget to subscribe to the Everything eLearning Blog for more monthly roundups, product news, and tutorials. The post The Best of eLearning in August 2015 appeared first on .

Name: Degreed Website: www.degreed.com Headquarters: San Francisco, USA Vertical: Higher Education, Lifelong Learning Tech: Web App Introduce your startup and give a short description of what you are doing. Degreed turns learning into skills. Our unique platform allows individuals and organizations to find, track, and recognize ALL learning. We're learning a million different things from a million different places, throughout the course of our lives. ALL of that learning should count for something, we're giving learners a new form of academic credentialing. Our mission is to jailbreak the degree. Who are the founders, how did you meet, what are your different roles in the startup. David Blake, Founder and CEO was part of the founding team at Zinch (started in 2007 and was acquired by Chegg). Eric Sharp, Co-Founder and CTO. How was the idea for your startup born? Ever since David took his SAT's in high school he's been fascinated by the model of higher education. This curiosity turned into a passion and an obsession to create better systems for the future of education and examining what that future will look like. Degreed was created because we all feel frustrations with the current higher education process and the problems with the credentials that are offered by higher ed. What is the main problem in education that you aim to solve. We believe that the college degree- the current de-facto way we measure education today, fails us in providing a totally complete picture of what we know and can do. We are helping people unlock opportunities through validating their lifelong education from any source. Who is your target audience. Individual learners and companies who are looking for a better way to track, measure and recognize all knowledge and skills. What is your business model. How much does your product / service cost. Individual profiles are free for users. Enterprise clients use Degreed as the only enterprise learning portal built for learners first. This offers Administrators the flexibility to allow employees to learn at will and a simplified way to manage and track employee learning. If you raised funding, how much did you raise. Who are your investors. If not, are you planning to raise funding. $1.8M Seed, $7M Series A. Series A round led by Signal Peak Ventures and Peak Ventures. How can people get in touch with you. social media: Twitter @degreed Email: Munk@degreed.com or David@degreed.com

In this episode of MEP, David McCool, President and CEO of Muzzy Lane, joins the program to talk about educational gaming and education technology in general. Guest Bio: David McCool has been in the software industry for over 20 years. He co-founded Muzzy Lane Software in 2002 and serves as its President and CEO. Dave has played a key role in the design of Muzzy Lane’s software and games. He led Muzzy Lane’s very successful launch of the Making History Gaming Headquarters, an interactive website that allows Making History players to chat, share game mods, review and rate content, and post After Action Reports. Prior to Muzzy Lane Dave co-founded Aptis Communications, a VC-funded developer of carrier- class networking products, in 1997. As Director of Software Dave built and ran a 25 person software group and was the architect of the Aptis software system. The company was sold to Nortel Networks in 1998 and went on to do more than $600 million dollars in revenue from its CVX product line. Dave began his career at Shiva Corporation, a developer of network-based peripherals, in 1987 as the 3rd employee. During his 10 years at Shiva he rose from Software Engineer to Business Unit Manager, also playing key software design and management roles along the way. Shiva went public in a very successful IPO in 1994. Dave graduated fromMassachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1987 with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Show Notes: (01:55) Dave’s background (04:11) I’d like to dig into the process in the development of the game. Just my assumption, tell me if I’m right or wrong, and try to elaborate on it. You kind of leverage the internal talents you have of your developers and designers, and then you also partner with these content providers and subject matter experts in the development of these games. Is that correct? (06:00) Is it just publishers that you’re working with and some instructors and subject matter experts? Do you see something that’s more commercial with some of the games that you’re coming out with or are you just focused on working inside the formal schooling? (07:00) Niall Ferguson (07:44) What are the other future projects, what are the current projects you’re working on now? (08:53) I always like to ask about the efficacy of some of these initiatives. Do you have any data or analytics that you’ve worked with the publishers on how students have engaged and how these have led to students’ success or student outcomes? (09:53) Do you see any future iterations now that we’re seeing some of these really new emerging models come in education as far as competency-based education, skills-based learning? Do you see an alignment or a fit for educational gaming as you see it with these new models? (10:29) College for America (12:17) What do you see as a future developments in the next five to six years with educational gaming? (13:35) On Nintendo and kids on iPads playing games (14:15) What gets you most excited about the future of education and learning? (15:45) What about what gets you most frustrated about the future of education and learning? (16:35) You’ve been successful in this space since 2002. With all the influx of venture capital and movement in education technology in general, what is your take on it? What do you think the implications are of the increased interest in education technology? (18:08) If you could have dinner with one person you admire, past or present, who would it be and why? *Winston Churchill  Links: http://muzzylane.com/ http://making-history.com https://www.facebook.com/pages/Muzzy-Lane-Software/11092794179 https://twitter.com/muzzylane http://www.mhpractice.com/ For more episodes featuring thought leaders in education visit MeetEducationProject.com, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and follow Nick DiNardo on Twitter.

Data analytics platform BrightBytes has raised a $33 million Series C led by Insight Venture Partners with participation of Bessemer Venture Partners, Rethink Education and Learn Capital. Nick Sinai, Venture Partner at Insight Venture Partners, will join the BrightBytes board of directors. Founded in 2012, the San Francisco-based startup previously raised $18.5 million across several rounds, bringing the total raised to $51.5 million. BrightBytes data analytics platform enables school administrators to better manage tasks like technology efficacy, dropout prevention, at-risk student identification, data privacy and safety. According to BrightBytes, approximately 1 in 5 schools in the United States use the Clarity platform. At the time of its Series B in March 2014 the ratio was 1 in ten schools. The new capital will be used to grow the product’s user base among K-12 teachers and to grow the team. Further Reading BrightBytes Receives $33 Million Series C Led by Insight Venture Partners to Further Accelerate Growth | PR Newswire Links brightbytes.net

Education Entrepreneurs, the non-profit that was part of UP Global and ran Startup Weekend EDU, merges with New Orleans-based edtech incubator 4.0 Schools. The merger is a result of the acquisition of UP Global by TechStars in June. While TechStars follows a for-profit model, UP Global and Education Entrepreneurs operated as non-profits. Under the new ownership grants by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation could no longer be operated. Under the merger, 4.0 Schools will operate and grow the Startup Weekend EDU events in the United States while the Techstars Community Programs team will continue to service Startup Weekend Education events taking place outside of the U.S. Education Entrepreneurs program manager John Baldo joins the 4.0 Schools team full-time while Mandela Schumacher-Hodge is stepping down from her role as Director. Further Reading Techstars Partners with 4.0 Schools to Grow Education Entrepreneurs | 4.0 Schools Link educationentrepreneurs.co

Sphero (formerly Orbotix) introduced a new version of its popular ball-shaped robot which specifically targets the education market. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBQ1APvIsTk The robot is called SPRK and comes with a series of apps and lessons that aim to teach coding and spark interest in science. SPRK has a clear shell, showing the inner workings of the robot. To get teachers, parents and students into learning with SPRK, Sphero created three sets of lessons, CORE, Middle School and STEM Challenges. CORE lessons explore the principles of math and science through programming. Middle school lessons challenge students in grades 6-8 and are aligned to Common Core and Next Generation Science Standards. STEM challenges are multi-day experiments foster creative problem-solving and teamwork. SPRK is available in the United States for $130 and Sphero provides some assistance for teachers who are looking for funding and grants via the company website. Founded in 2010, Sphero raised over $90 million in venture capital to date including Foundry Group and The Walt Disney Company. Link sphero.com/sphero-sprk sphero.com/education

In this episode of MEP, the founder of Soomo Learning, David Lindrum, joins us to talk about the importance of instructional design, the digital evolution or lack thereof in higher education and where he sees things going. Guest Bio: For 20 years, David has lived and worked at the intersection of transformational learning and web technology. Working to create digital assets with major publishers including Pearson, Thomson (Cengage), and McGraw, he launched both MetaText and Shadowbox before founding Soomo as a lab for learning innovation. David’s heart is in creating transformative instructional design, and he excels in utilizing web technology to meet specific instructional challenges. His recent interests have extended to the field of course analytics, where he creates tools to enable data-driven design and targeted teaching and intervention strategies to create stronger student learning experiences. Show Notes: (01:54) David’s background (03:15) What is it about books that has captivated you and what gets you interested in the art form? (04:45) Let’s dive into your current project and what you’re doing at Soomo Learning to revolutionize how people learn and how they look at a digital textbook. Tell us about Soomo Learning, its foundations and where it is today. (06:52) Let’s say somebody is just used to the ebook being what it was 10 years ago, a non-interactive material for a student to go through. What is the technology and how is the experience different from a Soomo book rather than the PDF-type ebooks? (11:38) Have you seen specific types of students that have improved their outcomes based on your delivery method for this content? What have you seen in the analytics? (14:03) It sounds like faculty really like the ability to target where students are succeeding and where they’re potentially failing and then being able to make interventions at that specific point. Is that the main reason that the faculty love the experience with Soomo? (15:08) What do you believe will be in the next 5 years, not just about innovations and e-textbooks but also innovations in business models and where institutions are? Are we making progress? (18:30) Can you give us a peek behind the curtain of some creative things that you’re thinking about as far as new functionality in the next year or 2 years? Maybe some collaborative type things?  What are you looking at for improvements? (21:25) What’s the book that you most recommend to people you care about, friends, family, colleagues? Every Good Endeavor by Tim Keller (22:37) What about documentaries? Do you watch them, and if you do, what’s your favorite? The War Room Good Hair (27:00) If you could have dinner with one person you admire, past or present, who would it be and why? Cornel West Links: http://soomolearning.com/ http://www.lindrum.net/ Contact Info: david.lindrum@soomolearning.com For more episodes featuring thought leaders in education visit MeetEducationProject.com, subscribe to the podcast on iTunes and follow Nick DiNardo on Twitter.

Name: Think Olio Website: www.thinkolio.org Headquarters: New York, USA Vertical: Higher Education, Lifelong Learning Tech: Web Introduce your startup and give a short description of what you are doing. Think Olio is a learning hub that connects teachers to hosts in their community to hold informal, in-person classes for lifelong learners. Who are the founders, how did you meet, what are your different roles in the startup. David & Chris met in a social entrepreneurship course at Baruch College. How was the idea for your startup born? It started with a sad realization as we neared graduation: We may never see some of our favorite professors again, nonetheless get the opportunity to continue learning from them. And we really weren’t ready to stop taking classes, but we also weren’t sure we wanted to commit to (and pay for) grad school. This is when we came up with the idea for Think Olio. We thought: let’s take our favorite teachers — the very best ones — and let’s put them in intimate, local venues and make it easy for them to teach accessible, affordable classes in the community. What is the main problem in education that you aim to solve. A lack of options for lifelong learning. No easy way to host lectures and classes for teachers and professionals. We also hope to make interdisciplinary learning commonplace. Who are your main competitors? What sets you apart from them? Our main competitors are either all online or they are tied down to a single location. You could think of TED talks as a competitor, but Olios are much more intimate classes rather than large auditorium-style lectures. Skillshare and Udemy are dependent upon peer to peer learning but they are entirely online. Meet-up facilitates in-person get togethers, but they are not learning focused and not curated in the same way we are. How many users / downloads does your service have? 261 learners 30 teachers 20 hosts/venues In which markets / regions are you active. What markets / regions are next. NYC. We are focusing on sustaining individual neighborhoods to perfect the model, then growing to new areas based on teacher interest. Right now we are in Brooklyn, focusing on Crown Heights, Bed-Stuy and Fort Greene. Who is your target audience. The lifelong learner: museum goer, podcast listener, book reader, with a curious mind. How do you engage with your target audience. How do you convert them into users of your product. Each class is different but we market each Olio with the help of each of the three parties (teachers, hosts, learners). The teacher brings sign-ups, the host brings sign-ups, and we also bring sign-ups. Everyone is incentivized to spread the word, so word-of-mouth marketing is very strong for us. Learning is inherently social, so it is always more fun to bring a friend to an Olio. What is your business model. How much does your product / service cost. The teacher decides the price of the class then keeps 50% of the money made. The host gets 30% and then Think Olio keeps 20%. If you raised funding, how much did you raise. Who are your investors. If not, are you planning to raise funding. We have won almost $40,000 at different pitch competitions. We have not taken any outside investments yet. We are undecided about when we will seek funding. Are there milestones you are especially proud of and would like to share. We have held over 25 classes in only our first 6 months. What are the next steps in growing your startup. We are launching a 1000 teacher campaign where we ask people to nominate their favorite teacher to use Olio. It is our 1000 thank yous campaign, and people get a chance to thank the teachers who have really impacted them and share them with friends and family by nominating them to teach a class in their community. i.thinkolio.org/thanks How can people get in touch with you. chris@thinkolio.org david@thinkolio.org @whatisolio

News Corp wrote down the value of Amplify after another disappointing sales season leading to an operating loss of $24 million, leading to a $371 write-off. In a conference call News Corp CEO Robert Thomson said the company is already in advanced negotiations to sell Amplify to a potential investor. Launched in 2012, Amplify is a tablet-based learning and analytics platform for the K-12 market. The subsidiary also manufactured its own tablet device but has now stopped the production. News Corp will stop advertising Amplify to new customers but continue to serve existing ones and develop the curriculum software. Amplify is based on the assets of Wireless Generation, an education company News Corp acquired in 2010 for $360 million. Joel Klein, CEO of Amplify, also confirmed talks with an outside investor in a memo to the employees and that the Amplify management team was considering to participate in the investment. News Corp hoped to turn its digital education business into a growing division for the company, shaking up the textbook market and compensate for declining revenues from newspapers and media. The company invested over $1 billion into Amplify and is expected to get around $100 million out of the sale. Further Reading News Corp Posts Loss on Education Write-Down | WSJ Education unit drags News Corp to loss | BDLive News Corp.'s Amplify education experiment: What went wrong? | ZDNet News Corp. Planning to Sell Off Money-Losing Education Unit | New York Times News Corp. to Exit Education Business With Amplify Sale | Bloomberg Links amplify.com