The wait is finally over! We are absolutely delighted to announce that our multi-device authoring tool is live and ready to use. We know that many of you have been keen to get your hands on gomo since our very first live demos at Learning Technologies back in January, and we’ve been overwhelmed by the positive feedback we have received. It really has gone from strength to strength, and we are all extremely proud of the finished product. Why the industry needs gomo Over the last few months our development team has worked incredibly hard to get us a beautiful looking product that delivers content to almost any device. Our responsive and adaptive player is the best in the industry and has consistently ‘wowed’ people when they’ve seen it. Our authoring environment looks fantastic and is also incredibly intuitive and easy to use - a real achievement for a product based in the cloud and not on a desktop. Having spoken to many e-learning professional at exhibitions and conferences, it’s clear that there’s a huge demand for an online authoring e-learning tool that creates truly responsive and adaptive HTML5 content. Our marketing team has been helping to generate huge interest in gomo, both online and at events around the world. We have lost count of the times people have told us they need gomo and they need it right now, so we’re ecstatic that we can finally give you what you want. A final thank you So, to celebrate our launch, Gavin and I would like to thank everyone involved in the creation of gomo, including the production team, the marketing and sales teams, the testers at Epicentre, Epic’s systems team, the management team and the beta testers, who provided us with incredibly useful feedback and helped us craft the product you can buy today. And, of course, a massive thank you to everyone who has shown so much interest in our authoring tool and to all of our soon-to-be gomo customers. Sign up for your 21 day trial to get started. It really is time to meet your new authoring tool.   The post gomo is live - it’s time to meet your new authoring tool appeared first on gomo Learning.

In a post from last week, Intro to Continuing Education and the Admin Nightmare, I started exploring the world of managing complex continuing education and the associated administrative challenges for both learners and organizations. My point in looking at how organizations manage complex continuing education is to help buyers of an LMS understand what to look for if they are tasked with delivering and tracking professional continuing education in multifaceted industries like financial, healthcare and legal. Why focus on these industries?  They are the biggest and as it turns out they have some of the most sophisticated requirements and administrative challenges.  They don’t have an oligopoly on the CEU frustration though - there is plenty to spread around in many industries. Mainly, if there is no national or global standard on credit requirements, continuing education is governed by states, provinces or other local jurisdictions.  If organizations have employees that are licensed in multiple jurisdictions, they must adhere to the standards of all and so must their accredited training. Managing all this gets complicated in a hurry for everyone involved including organizations managing, providing or consuming continuing education.  Here are some key requirements that vary certification to certification and jurisdiction to jurisdiction that [...] The post Under the Hood of Complex CEU Management appeared first on Talented Learning.

A common perception in the learning, talent and extended enterprise industries is that 80% of LMS functionality is common to all 600+ vendors. Based on my in-depth review of 81 LMS solutions in the last year and a half, I think 50% is a more accurate estimate in 2015.    I’m amazed by the diversity of targeted functional and industry use, technological approach, pricing strategies, implementation support, user experience, mobile readiness, social prowess, ecommerce, reporting, gamification and support of informal learning to name a few areas of differentiation. Just like in nature, every living LMS has found a specialty in which it competes better than most.  Similar to Carl Linnaeus, I’m addicted to identifying, grouping, defining and writing about the living LMS species and their characteristics. Today’s topic is one of the biggest areas of LMS differentiation I have found and the cause of much LMS buyer confusion and eventual dissatisfaction -the support of employee compliance management and how it is different from employee continuing education (CE) and extended enterprise CE. It’s easy for both vendors and buyers to be confused because there is a crossover of LMS functionality and terminology that is used in all three scenarios but the business [...] The post The Important LMS Differences between Compliance, Continuing Ed and Selling CEUs appeared first on Talented Learning.

First, a disclaimer: I love gadgets, gizmos and new technology, but I’m the first to admit I’m not always a natural with new programs and often lose my patience. That is why I was very excited to be given the opportunity to play with the super-easy gomo authoring tool. It’s designed to be used with no programming skills necessary - perfect for me with my basic knowledge of Powerpoint and little else. All the hard work happens behind the scenes, leaving users with a clean interface which isn’t overloaded with fiddly options or complicated steps Once I had signed up and logged in, I was faced with a blank screen with all the potential to create my own beautiful multi-device learning. But first things first - a trip to the gomo knowledge base. The team have put together some fantastically helpful tips and videos to help beginners find their feet, and it’s really handy if you want to hit the ground running. I took a look at the introductory video, and then off I went. Building a new course with gomo’s easy drag and drop content creation interface I’m incredibly pleased to say that the claims are all absolutely true: gomo really is easy to use. I decided to put together a very simple, three-topic piece of learning, and the whole process really couldn’t have been more straightforward. I got to grips with the drag and drop interface in no time at all, and everything is very intuitive. In just 45 minutes, I had created a basic course with multiple choice questions, hotspot pictures and text-based input, all using subscreens to give customised feedback on all the answers and relevant images. One of my favourite features of gomo is the ability to preview your course on different devices to see the way your content will adapt and respond based on the screen real estate. For my first experience with an authoring tool, I have to say, I’m very impressed. If I, with no real background in learning design, can get the hang of it all in less than an hour, I’m confident that anyone can manage it. The potential for designers with years of experience behind them is massive, and I’m really excited to see the creative ways people are using gomo to create their own beautiful multi-device e-learning. If you want to try gomo for yourself, sign up today for a free 21 day trial. Make sure you let us know how you’re getting on by tweeting us @gomolearning! The post Getting to grips with gomo: a beginner’s guide appeared first on gomo Learning.

Digital Education: Scope And Challenges - A Perspective Of A Developing Society Present State of Education: India Context Although, India scored well in improving from mere 12% literacy at the time of independence to 74% as per 2011 census, it still lags behind the world average of 84%. Targeted programs at primary and secondary education like SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan) have definitely proved beneficial to some extent but a lot needs to be done to truly educate India. Data figures and enrollment ratios might have presented a rosy picture but one needs to invigilate the dark corners of Indian education. Apart from the basic twin ills of ACCESS & AFFORDABILITY which keeps a significant child population at bay from school doors, we need to enquire about the level and quality of education one gets imparted with. India has a significant drop out ratio with some BIMARU states exceeding 50% before Std. X. Primary reasons relate to student’s personal and family interventions. As per a 2014 study by a Delhi based NGO Pratham, which surveyed school children across 500 districts, a fifth of 10 year olds could not read sentences, 50% of 7 year olds surveyed, could not read letters and more than 50% of 14 year olds could not perform simple arithmetic like division of numbers. A similar study on higher education last year estimated that fewer than 10% of graduates with Masters Degree were employable. Prevailing wide differences in India in terms of economic, social and gender divide makes the situation further worse. Quality of education in government run schools with a skewed teacher-student ratio is not appropriate. The lack of basic amenities like library, clean toilets, and playgrounds further add to the drop out ratio. Private schools in a rat-race to raise margins commercialize education and display a pathetic apathy towards admitting children from the weaker sections as specified by the RTE act. In the present ambience of poor teacher-student value connect and stress on conventional rote-learning the student is actually immune to the passion, zeal and excitement that must be part of their learning. The few leftovers of natural curiosity in children are muted by ignorant parents who stress on heavy schools bags and out of school tuitions. Without paying any heed to innovative learning and practical aspects we are shrinking the magnanimity of academicians and researcher brains into small potholes of job-seekers. Degradation of talent in this vicious silent manner in the past few years has amassed a huge pool of degree-holder, unemployed youth in India. Poor state of research in the country is a true reflection of this fact. Digital Education: A Positive Intervention In this gloomy picture of education in India, the ICT (Information & Communication Technology) revolution has paved the way to introduce some breakthroughs in different spheres like banking, education, health and the like. Education globally is one of the significant sectors to witness revolutionary changes in recent times. Digital Education is the panacea for this anathema of education all over the globe. It is in particular a blessing for developing countries which chronically suffer from ailments of access and affordability. With wise coverage over various means of communication it becomes a natural choice to learn even for those in the hinterlands. Primarily Digital Education has 3 components: The content The technology platforms The delivery infrastructure The Indian IT sector organically or otherwise holds enough capacity and character to provide excellent digital content and supporting technological platforms. With the advent of several corporate giants like TATA, BSNL & RELIANCE in digital education and the subsequent money flow this sector is gearing up for some quality movement. But innovation is one thing that has no end and therefore would always invite different stakeholders like Government, Content experts, Technology firms, Users, Teaching community etc. to come together to collaborate and invent cutting edge technologies and methods to facilitate this sector’s meaningful growth. Government and private players need to come together to bridge connectivity and accessibility issues. Digital Education showed its face in the 90s in developed economies like the US. With device manufacturers mushrooming early in USA and other developed countries it started penetrating gradually. Developed nations have started realizing the cost benefits of going digital and are acting with an eye on the future. For example, Stanford University has introduced a digital course in masters in electrical engineering. According to research by Harvard University, more professors are selling their lectures and notes to digital campuses. Society, with some challenges related to internet connectivity though, is ready to accept the change in the developed nations. Hanging Fruits in India In India, where mobile penetration is nearing a billion people with over 200 million connected to the internet, and this expected to reach 550 million by 2018, the potential to digitally educate the masses seems very rich. In the past few years there has been a considerable rise in Digital and Live Virtual Classrooms at different levels of learning. With evolution of technologies such as cloud, data centers and virtualization there is huge potential for technology to be integrated with the Education Industry. Besides its cost and access advantages, digital education comes as a win-win for all. Education institutions see the rapid rise in enrollments and added revenue. Students view this as a flexible option allowing them to study as per their time and pace. Teachers too find it convenient to prepare their learning plans well aided by technology. Teaching becomes a smoother experience with a perfect mesh of personalized packages having a blend of animations, gamification and elaborate audio-visual effects. Digital education is fun learning for all cadres and particularly effective for child learning as the innovative audio-video feature boosts the cognitive elements in a child’s brain. The INFO-TAINMENT combination involved in digital learning makes it more practical, applicable and relatable to our life and surroundings in an interesting manner. The Reform Push, expanding eLearning, reduction in costs due to satellite technology (VSAT) are all strong catalysts for a high potential business opportunity in India. This is where EdTech companies like Magic Software can add to the growing repository of Digital learning Objects (DLOs) and technological platforms available to learning. Some data to help tap the Indian potential… India Market Size- Rs 3.3 trillion (2011), Rs 5.9 trillion (2015), as reported by FITCH Highest growth rate area is Asia (India being the key) at 17.3% well ahead of Eastern Europe, Africa and Latin America, according to Docebo Report 2014. Internet users to double by 2018; rural users to rise by almost 40% of the total, by Internet & Mobile Association of India The Way Ahead: Challenges and Measures Yet, there is a long way to tread before realizing the actual potential of Digital Education in India. Some of the prominent hurdles are Digital Literacy & Infrastructure. The majority of the Indian population still does not have the required internet bandwidth and many are illiterate in digital terminologies and devices. Less than predicted results are achieved through ventures like e-chaupals because of audience ignorance of the technology. Government of India initiatives like NOFN (National Optical Fiber Network) connecting 5 lac villages via broadband till 2017, 25 cities by Wi-Fi by the end of 2015, is a significant step in this direction. But a lot needs to be done in mobile wireless internet and setting up skill centers especially in rural areas. Innovation should also be poured into making digital education more interactive and robust. Limitation in teaching numerical analytics and empirical subjects like Mathematics can be overcome by appropriate classification of content and tutors trained and specialized in responding to dynamic and spontaneous queries of students. In developing countries like India, digital education comes with a premonition of "Digital Divide" and therefore government should make efforts to include all stakeholders in this initiative to make it "inclusive & sustainable" for all. Almost 85% of the Indian population does not speak or write English. Creation of a Hindi (other supported local languages) internet to tap the sub urban or rural market potential can prove to be a key element to penetrate deeper. Also, affordable internet access, data enabled devices and appropriate internet plans can play a significant role in tapping the market. Here, a special emphasis must be laid on Security features like examinee verification, plagiarism etc. to uphold the independence and integrity of the education system. Active campaigning, informative sessions, technical workshops and a multi-pronged approach by all stakeholders is needed to bring about Digital awareness and change trends like Distance Education to Digital Education. Note: Facts and Impressions carried out while writing this article is reference to some daily newspapers likes "The Hindu" and magazines like"India Today" This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

  Ernest Hemingway is my favorite author.  I’ve read all of his books multiple times.  One of the best is "By-Line" which is a compilation of actual news reports he wrote from the front lines as a war correspondent in the Spanish Civil War and then in World War II.  Hemingway has the awe inspiring ability to transport you to where he is and the lucky reader can see, hear, feel and smell the story around you in a way no other author can accomplish.    I’m no Hemingway, but I’ve been on the front lines of the LMS sales battle for almost 15 years and I too like to share stories. I’ve seen a lot of the LMS front - more than most.  Educated as an economist and then an instructional technologist, I transitioned to LMS sales within the first few years of my career. I became an insane student of the LMS sales cycle and how to maximize effectiveness in each and every step to up my winning odds.  My insanity led to one hundred new clients, a few hundred losses and over $50,000,000 of revenue. Eighteen months ago I hung up my combat sales boots to become an independent [...] The post LMS Vendor Eyes Only — Dispatch from the Front Lines appeared first on Talented Learning.

For those of you still debating whether or not to sign up for your free trial of gomo (we promise it’s worth it!) or if you’re keen to see what all the fuss is about, you will be pleased to hear that we will be running another popular ‘Introducing gomo’ webinar on 30th April at 3pm UK time. These webinars have been designed to give you an overview of our new authoring tool, which officially launched at the start of April. They cover everything from: starting from scratch with creating your own multi-device learning the difference between responsive and adaptive design customising your content previewing your courses on different devices pricing plans signing up for a 21 day free trial. Don’t worry if you are already trialling gomo and want to find out more about how to use it. You can register for an introductory webinar from the link in your registration email to give you a range of helpful tips so you can hit the ground running and make the most of the trial experience. There are also lots of resources available on the gomo knowledge base to help you get to grips with building your own e-learning. Don’t miss your chance to register for the next ‘Introducing gomo’ webinar if you want to see for yourself how easy it is to get up and running with our new e-learning authoring tool. The post Want to create your own beautiful multi-device learning? appeared first on gomo Learning.

Learn all about the benefits of slidetalk.net and the "show, describe, share" method. SlideTalk helps you authoring videos for eLearning, tutorials, marketing and entertainment by converting PowerPoint presentations and collection of slides into talking videos, with an automatic voiceover created by high-quality and multilingual text-to-speech. SlideTalk video created by SlideTalk at http://slidetalk.net The post Turn presentations into talking videos with SlideTalk appeared first on VivaeLearning: The Best Free Video Tutorials Online.

Choosing The Right eLearning Methods Lately, we have been using the Instructional Design model called ADDIE Model which has five phases: Analysis, Design, Develop, Implementation, and Evaluation. My favorite is Analysis Phase which plays a very important role in training delivery and performing all kind of analyses like need, task, topic and training evaluation. Learning Content Types There are many Content Types focused on eLearning. Those are totally based on the need analysis and the type of learners. Let us start, with the type of contents we are creating while we think of eLearning as an option. Here are the most common Learning Content Types: Learner-centred content. eLearning curriculum should be relevant and specific to learner’s needs, roles and responsibilities in professional life. This kind of content like skills, knowledge and all kind of learning media provided to keep the focus on learner’s end. Engaging content. Instructional methods and techniques should be used creatively to develop an engaging and motivating learning experience. It depends upon developing the storyboard that has to be based on a very engaging way of learning programs. Interactive content. Frequent learner interaction is needed to sustain attention and promote learning. Scenario based learning is a good example for this kind of learning media. Personalization. Self-paced courses should be customizable to reflect learner’s interests and needs; in instructor‑led courses, tutors and facilitators should be able to follow the learners’ progress and performance individually. The Learning Pyramid Designing Learning Contents also depends upon the type of eLearning methods which we choose on the analysis phase. Now let us know the details about the learning pyramid with following diagram: The Learning Pyramid, researched and created by the National Training Laboratories in Betel, Maine. It illustrates the percentage of learner recall that is associated with various approaches. The first four levels lecture, reading, audiovisual and demonstration are the passive learning methods. In contrast, the bottom three levels discussion group, practice by doing and teach others are participatory (active) learning methods. The Learning Pyramid really helps me to identify the right methods when choosing eLearning methods. I insist you to refer to this pyramid on your analysis phase while you are choosing the right eLearning methods. Many types of eLearning can be created with advanced development tools, which are suited to the needs of the modern workplace learners. There are various types of eLearning solutions that can be employed to train the learners. Choose the type that best suits the needs of the learner, keeping in mind the available technologies that would help them access eLearning methods. Most of the eLearning methods are Synchronous and Asynchronous in nature, It depends upon the learner’s need and the learning objectives you choose. Synchronous and Asynchronous Learning Synchronous Learning. Synchronous events take place in real time. Synchronous communication between two people requires them to both be present at a given time. Examples of Synchronous Learning are chat and IM, video and audio conference, live webcasting, application sharing, whiteboard, polling, and virtual classrooms. This I will not cover in detail as these are basic methods that most of the organizations are already familiar with. Asynchronous Learning. Asynchronous events are time-independent. A self-paced course is an example of Asynchronous Learning because online learning takes place at any time. E-mail or discussion forums are examples of asynchronous communication tools. In such cases, students ideally complete the course at their own pace, by using a Learning Platform like an LMS. Examples of Asynchronous Learning are Self-paced (SCORM), Audio/Video, E-mail, Discussion forum, Wiki/Blog, Webcasting/Conferencing, CBT and WBT, Simulations, Game-based learning. Most of the Instructional Designers now choose the Learning Methods from the Asynchronous mode of learning. Here, I present you the following areas where you can choose eLearning methods based on your requirement and Learning Pyramid Analysis. Self-study. Nowadays this is the most common method which uses wiki, blog and any reading material like ppt, pdf files to offer the initial knowledge to the employees. This also allows Subject Matter experts to the group of learners on the classroom training to resolve their queries and doubts. Video/audio tape: This is the second most common method to create demo video to train the learners. It also helps to create one way of learning assets which help the learner know about the basics by watching. CBTs and WBTs. In this type of learning, E-Courses are made available to the learners in the form of a CD or a Computer-based training (CBT), which can be run on the learner’s system. E- courses can also be made available through Web-based training (WBT), which utilize the internet as a platform like  a Learning Management System. The courses are self-paced, and the learner has no interaction with an instructor or fellow learners. This works very well for adult learners who are more motivated to learn, in order to learn new skills, update their resumes and attain professional excellence. Blended eLearning /Instructor-led (ILT). This combines both the Synchronous and the Asynchronous ways of learning. Some training, like soft-skills or sales training, have to have a face-to-face component in order to be truly impactful. A blended approach works best here -where the classroom is utilized to conduct exercises and interactions. These exercises cannot be conducted in eLearning delivery as peer interaction is limited. Short e-courses can be created to help learners prepare a background for the lesson before they come to class. Mobile Learning. The easy availability and affordability of mobile devices has created the space for mobile-enabled learning or mobile learning. Simply converting e-courses to mobile compatible modules is not enough. The capabilities of the mobile device, including disk space, internet connectivity, and the screen size has to be taken into consideration. Authoring tools like captivate 8 provide responsive designs for the e-course. This is a huge benefit, as it cuts down the costs of production as well as the time taken to develop e-courses for mobile delivery. Social Learning. The impact of social media is very strong and it can be utilized for corporate learning as well. More and more organizations are realizing the true power of social learning and encouraging their employees to interact more within themselves and other like-minded people. Employees collaborate and network on social platforms to discuss problems, queries, and experiences. Social collaboration platforms are also built within the LMS so that the learners do not have to discuss on public platforms and the learning which emerges from mutual collaboration resides and grows within the LMS. Simulation. Simulation eLearning is highly interactive and relies heavily upon graphics, video, audio. Importantly, there are often custom simulations videos or games, which could very well include 3D components. New software training is an example of a course that often includes a high degree of interactivity and simulations. Game-based learning. Games are considered to be fun by all, but they can be a powerful medium of experiential learning as well. Nowadays many organizations focus on the term Gamification which helps them to increase employee productivity and knowledge by motivating them to learn with game-based courses. Such courses focus on creating engagement and motivation for the learners to learn the things while they play. Choosing the right eLearning Methods, totally depends upon the proper need analysis of the organization and upon the nature of the audiences and their collaboration methods. Knowing all of the benefits of choosing the right eLearning methods for your needs, you may want to think about implementing it when designing your next eLearning course. It can not only make the development process more streamlined and productive, but it will also provide a better eLearning experience for your audience. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Whether you’re freelance, part of an in-house e-learning team or someone who has never created your own e-learning before, there’s a gomo package for you. Once you’ve finished your free trial, monthly subscriptions start at just £49 a month (leaving you with money to spare from your £50 note), making gomo an affordable option for businesses of all sizes. What’s more, if you opt for an annual subscription, you will only pay for 10 months, giving you another two months free. But which package is right for you? Personal The personal subscription is perfect for freelance learning designers who work alone. With unlimited projects and 1GB storage, you can create e-learning for all your clients, and you can take advantage of gomo’s full range of customisation options to create different branding for each client. Each theme can be saved and reused for future projects, meaning you can be up and ready to go in no time. The personal subscription is also ideal for small companies taking their first step into e-learning. Small team If you are a freelancer who sometimes works with others, gomo’s small team subscription means you can collaborate with others to pool your ideas and resources. It’s also perfect for teams of up to four people, who can work together to create beautiful multi-device learning. Whether you work in-house for a single organisation or you offer your services to multiple clients, this is a great way to get the job done quicker without compromising on quality, as the sophisticated content locking system allows everyone to work on a different part of the course without overwriting anything. Enterprise If you are a larger e-learning organisation or have a big in-house e-learning department, you should opt for the enterprise subscription. These are priced individually, and offer large teams a flexible way to collaborate on projects with as much space as they need. For example, if your e-learning design company has teams creating content for five clients, or fifty, or five hundred, this is the most scalable solution. Team leaders can act as administrators to allow access only to the courses each member of the team is working on, meaning there is no overlap, but everyone will have access to a central resource library for easy access to your multimedia assets and themes. If you want to try the personal or small team subscriptions out for yourself, we encourage you to sign up for a free 21 day trial. If you’re interested in an enterprise solution, please get in touch and we will be in touch very soon to discuss your organisation’s individual requirements. The post Which gomo package is right for you? appeared first on gomo Learning.