Last week, we hosted a live panel discussion on ‘MOOCs from Academia to Corporate’ - during that webinar we received an overwhelming number of requests to explain how to build MOOCs for corporations, and more specifically how to build MOOCs using the Docebo Learning Management System (LMS). Whilst the first question will be addressed in a follow up webinar on MOOCs early next year, we would like to address the more specific question of how to build MOOCs using the Docebo LMS in this blog post. Incidentally, if you missed the ‘MOOCs from Academia to Corporate’ webinar and would like to see it, you can contact us to receive a link. Also check out the #MOOCSchat blog post. Building MOOCs with Docebo Academic institutions, cultural foundations, non-profit organizations and other businesses are now adopting MOOCs to help them achieve their goals. Thanks to the flexibility of cloud technology and an integrated ecosystem of add-on apps and cool features, the Docebo LMS is an effective solution to develop Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). Start by defining your strategy In the image below, you can see our six basic steps to building an effective strategy:   Get started To try this out using Docebo, activate the Docebo free trial here, and then start customizing your system by activating these apps: Courses catalog; E-commerce; Gamification; Once completed, follow our suggestions on how to make your LMS an open system, and then start creating content by adding videos and allowing learners to leave comments. Engage your users by creating a gamification system inside your platform: learners will be motivated to complete as much content as possible in order to rise in rankings. Create a template for the certificates that users can earn once they complete the required content. Remember, the goal is to monetize your business! In order to do that, you should create a Business Intelligence System to measure the ROI of your platform. The following simple steps allow you to create a complete and effective MOOCs program How to manage free self-registration To activate self-registration, select the Admin icon from the sidebar and choose the Advanced settings option. You will be redirected to the Advanced settings page, where you will select Self-registration from the menu on the left. Select Free self-registration and set the following options: Add a registrations and lost passwords email sender; Choose if you want to send a confirmation email to the users or not; Establish a limit for the expiration of the subscription request; Decide if first and last names are required, if the privacy policy is accepted, and if you would like to use an advanced registration form;   Once you have completed these options, click Save. Let’s see how a user can register and access the platform: Once on the login page, they will see the register button, shown as in the picture below. To register into Docebo, the user must fill in the form according to the settings you have selected. Docebo also offers moderated self-registration if that is preferred! How to create and add content Docebo allows you to add new contents of any kind by structuring them into one (or more) root "courses" (i.e. baskets of raw contents). The best strategy for a MOOC library is to create one course for each piece of raw content you wish to make available to your end users. Each user will be then allowed to structure his/her own learning path by selecting courses from the library according to his/her own specific training needs. How to create a course Docebo allows you to create, and categorize courses quickly and easily. By using a single interface, you can create the course, change the layout at any time, upload, manage contents, and much more! Select the Admin icon from the main menu, and click Course from the E-Learning area. To begin, click the New Course tab. Add the course name, and choose an image. In order to turn your Docebo platform into a MOOCs system, make sure you provide a very clear description of the course when you are creating it so that users can decide if they are interested in the course or not. Please note that the description will be visible in the public catalog. Once you are finished, click Confirm. The course you have created will appear in the courses list. From here, you are now able to manage it. You can also set advanced options in the Docebo Course Management area, where you have an Advanced Settings section. There you can: Edit course details: change the language, associate a label to the course, and if necessary, assign a certain number of credits and a difficulty level. Set catalog options: decide who can see this course, choose a max subscription quota, if overbooking is allowed, add demo material, establish a subscription’s availability, and set the enrollment policy. Manage the E-commerce tool: decide if you would like to sell the course and establish its price. This tool is available only if you have activated the E-Commerce APP. Set time options: decide if the course will be visible always, or if it will be valid just for a determined number of days. Associate a certificate to the course Once you have created your courses, you can start to add content; then create catalogs to maximize the ROI of your MOOCs. You can add certificates, gamification, and use sophisticated reporting to monitor the ROI of your MOOCs investment. By simply configuring the Reports option, a fully-fledged reporting section can be set up within minutes. To read in further detail how to build MOOCs using the Docebo LMS, please consult the online manual. Now you are ready to start your MOOC’s project using your Docebo LMS! If you’d like to test-drive Docebo for yourself, sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! The post Creating MOOCs with Docebo LMS appeared first on Docebo.

  We will be showcasing Docebo 6.4 and our latest Mobile apps at the Training & Development Show ME 2014 at the Dubai World Trade Centre, in stand 245, on December 8 and 9. Claudio Erba, Docebo’s CEO, will also be speaking on the subject of ‘E-learning in the Middle East: trends and user cases’ on December 8th, from 1-1.30pm in Theater 3. Come check out our recently launched apps for mobile learning - Docebo Mobile for iOS and Android. To learn more about this release check out this blog post. "If you’re coming to the show, please call in at the Docebo stand - number 245 - to see an example of what is, according to independent U.S.- and U.K.-based LMS analysts, one of the world’s top LMSs. Docebo staff will be delighted to discuss with you how your organization can improve its operational efficiency with help from a top-performing LMS." Josh Squires, Docebo’s Chief Operating Officer, EMEA If you would like to make an appointment with one of our consultants at the show and/or see a demo, please contact us. The post Meet us @ Dubai’s Training & Development Show, Dec 8-9 appeared first on Docebo.

Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) without a doubt are one of the hottest topics within the eLearning world. Having recently wrapped up moderating an online panel discussion on MOOCs I felt it would be a great opportunity to jump in with a blog post that includes my personal opinions on where the MOOC concept stands and possibilities for the future. To begin I would like to offer a heartfelt thanks to our Panelists: Aaron Silvers of MakingBetter™, Erica Leblanc with Thomson Reuters, John Leh of Talented Learning, and Michael Orey with the University of Georgia,  for providing an articulate and very informative discussion about a wide range of MOOC topics. There were a few topics that while covered in the webinar I feel still may cause some confusion and disagreement in the larger community. There is a lot of mixed branding in our industry about what constitutes a MOOC and about MOOC offerings within corporate America and I wanted to take some time to provide my opinion. Many industry pundits are using the term MOOC almost synonymously these days with any elearning course that they are offering. I feel that this should be reevaluated. The functional definition of MOOCs are Massively Open (large enrollments and free) Online Courses (web based curricula) and I feel that everyone can easily accept this definition as it is exactly what MOOC stands for. My concern is that we see many groups trying to apply the "hot label" of MOOC to their traditional eLearning and while I understand the marketing value of doing this I feel that it may be done under false pretenses.  The "working definition" of a MOOC is very narrow and very specific and in my honest opinion not a very great fit for most corporate practices as it is very difficult to monetize the free nature of MOOCs. Most of our panelists touched on this point as well. If you’d like to view the panel discussion on MOOCs from Academia to Corporate click here Now many of you will probably debate my definition of MOOCs saying that they have evolved beyond the original definition and now have taken on a life of their own naturally evolving according to market influence. I would also agree with this point of view maintaining that definitions are important as long as the wide body of users of the definition maintain a shared meaning.  The only exception I will take is that many groups are using traditional eLearning courses and promoting them as MOOCs. To these I will say all MOOCs are eLearning but not all eLearning are a MOOC! Definitional philosophy aside, if we widen the scope a bit on what a MOOC is, there really are some interesting points on how to utilize a MOOC framework within corporate America both from implementing existing MOOC curricula as a model of professional development or building one for internal and external stakeholders within your existing infrastructure. We see many corporate groups offering Massively Online Courses (MOC) at a cost and doing it very successfully in a B2B/B2C (Business to Business/Business to Consumer) model that really works.  The main difference between these and the traditional MOOC model is these are usually for targeted skills and typically aren’t constrained by a defined time model (and usually cost money). They also don’t have the level of discussion-based engagement that most of the traditional MOOCs offer (connectivest design model). While these don’t fit a traditional definition of a MOOC they none the less have a Massive reach, are offering Online Courses and are market influencers in their industry (think Skillsoft, Lynda.com, or Cegos). While they don’t fit the traditional definition of a MOOC as all are offering courseware for a fee to be used according to your needs, they come close (especially in the Massive department). Most importantly these courses are professionally designed with Instructional Designers, Developers, and Subject Matter Experts all contributing to the product, where many MOOC courses are just videos of a Professor pontificating on their subjects (though the above mentioned lack in the social components). You also have Udemy which bills itself more of a learning meetup platform allowing experts to build courses to offer either for free or a fee to students interested in their topics. The question then arises are these MOOCs or just examples of eLearning. As business ideas go these are all very successful. Implementing a MOOC concept within your organization however will require some thought as the biggest question really should be: do I want to build a MOOC or just offer some really good eLearning to my team? There is a difference! For those of you who want to get some practical tips and understand more of the functionalities of how to build MOOCs - or just really good eLearning - we are going to be holding another MOOC webinar in the first part of Quarter 1 2015. During this webcast we will have our experts discussing some practical applications of corporate MOOCs as well as some tips on how to build one and some best practices in building out really good eLearning. In addition we will have a Q&A session at the end in which we will engage directly with our audience on some best practices in building engaging eLearning to promote as a MOOC or leaving it alone and promoting it as engaging eLearning. To be notified of this upcoming webinar, please sign up for our newsletter! Author: Josh Squires Josh Squires is currently serving as the Chief Operating Officer of Docebo EMEA.  Josh has spent the past 15 years researching and implementing creative learning solutions within corporate and higher education environments. With clients ranging from Motorola to Disney, he has been on the designing and implementing stage of a wide range of learning scenarios with customers spanning the globe. Josh has also taught Instructional Technology theory and tools as a consultant and faculty member for over 8 years in both Corporate and Higher Education environments. You can contact him directly at josh.squires@docebo.com or connect with him via LinkedIn   The post Is it a MOOC or just eLearning? appeared first on Docebo.

The Middle East is going through a very delicate yet complicated period. After 30 years of great wealth derived from oil exportation, the time has come to innovate in order to guarantee a stable future in, and for, the region. As Claudio Erba, CEO of Docebo, explained during his speech at the "T&D Show Middle East 2014" in Dubai, it is now crystal clear that real market leaders distinguish themselves from others by offering outstanding training in their organizations. We offer more insight into the Middle East’s elearning and mobile learning market in this infographic. [/vc_column_text] During yesterday’s speech Claudio presented many useful statistics on the elearning and mobile learning markets in the Middle East, quoting the two reports published by Docebo this year: "E-learning market trends and forecast 2014-2016" and "Learning on the Go: trends and tips in mobile learning". If you would like to take a look at either report, you can download them for free here: E-learning market trends and forecast 2014-2016 Learning on the Go: trends and tips in mobile learning[/vc_column][/vc_row] The post Reflections on Dubai’s Training & Development Show appeared first on Docebo.

This article, offers a variety of tips on how to become a successful full-time eLearning freelancer. If you’re currently doing side jobs or part-time freelancing work, these bits of advice will help you to transition to a rewarding full-time eLearning freelance career.  How to Become a Successful Full-Time eLearning Freelancer No doubt, there are a number of benefits associated with becoming a full-time eLearning freelancer. However, making the leap from part-time to full-time work comes with its own set of challenges. Not only is a greater time commitment involved, but there are also financial issues to consider, due to the fact that you’re now banking on the eLearning industry as your sole source of income. However, there are a number of tips and tricks that can help to make the switch less stressful and more profitable! This article, offers a variety of tips on how to become a successful full-time eLearning freelancer. If you’re currently doing side jobs or part-time freelancing work, these bits of advice will help you to transition to a rewarding full-time eLearning freelance career.   How to Become a Successful Full-Time eLearning Freelancer No doubt, there are a number of benefits associated with becoming a full-time eLearning freelancer. However, making the leap from part-time to full-time work comes with its own set of challenges. Not only is a greater time commitment involved, but there are also financial issues to consider, due to the fact that you’re now banking on the eLearning industry as your sole source of income. However, there are a number of tips and tricks that can help to make the switch less stressful and more profitable! Make a commitment to work a specific number of hours per week. One of the most challenging aspects of making the switch to become a full-time eLearning freelancer is to create the work schedule that is the most effective for you and your lifestyle. It can be tempting to work as many hours a week as possible in the beginning, but that will inevitably lead to burn out. On the other hand, not working enough hours won’t allow you to be as productive and profitable as you could. So, it’s always a good idea to make a commitment to work a specific number of hours per week, and to give yourself some time off. Ease yourself into working full-time, so that the transition is as stress-free as humanly possible. Mark your working hours down on a calendar and decide which days you’re going to take off from work. This will offer you the opportunity to achieve the structure that many freelancers may lack. Keep in mind that there should always be a balance between work and life, and that working to the point of exhaustion can ultimately hinder your eLearning freelance career rather than help it. Update your online eLearning portfolio to showcase your diverse talents and experience. Pay attention to your online eLearning portfolio and ensure that it’s always updated. Now that you’re a full-time eLearning freelancer, you’ll want your online eLearning portfolio http://elearningindustry.com/6-top-tips-build-solid-elearning-portfolio to effectively showcase your skill sets and diverse talents so that you have the potential to land more eLearning jobs. Mention that you are a full-time eLearning freelancer, so that potential employers or clients will know that their project will receive your complete attention and dedication. Perfect your service description and determine your eLearning niche. If you haven’t already found your eLearning niche, now is definitely the time to discover your specialty and fine tune your list of services. This will allow you to build your brand image and appeal to the right target audience. Choosing a eLearning niche that gives you the opportunity to utilize your skills and talents can lead to a rewarding full-time freelance eLearning career, and also help you to market to clients who are most likely to hire you for their projects. Perfect your "sales pitch" by learning how to describe the products or services that you offer concisely, and include all of them on your site or blog so that potential clients can find you online. Boost your online presence and network through social media. If you don’t already have a website, then you should definitely consider creating one and even managing a blog where you can post regular updates. This will help you to develop a solid online presence. You’ll also want to network online, especially through social media platforms, like Facebook and LinkedIn. There are several groups about eLearning on LinkedIn that you could join, such as the Instructional Design & E-Learning Professionals’ Group with more than 75,000 members. Joining groups will also give you the chance to find out about new projects or build connections with those who can put in a good word for you with their eLearning employers or clients. Outsource as you take on more eLearning projects. The issue that any full-time eLearning freelancer may face is trying to take on too much of a workload. As you begin to take on more projects, you’re probably going to need to enlist the aid of other eLearning professionals. This is yet another reason why you’ll want to network, as building a list of talented and skilled contacts can also allow you to increase your workload without feeling the stress and strain of juggling multiple tasks at once. You can also look on freelancing sites, such as Odesk, Elance and eLearning Jobs to find experienced eLearning professionals who can help you along the way. Keep in mind that, while outsourcing content and work may require an investment, you will be able to take on more projects and get the job done more quickly which equals to more profit! Remember that success takes time. It takes time to create a thriving eLearning business. Things typically don’t happen overnight. So, just keep in mind that success takes time. Often making the move to become a full-time eLearning freelancer is a gradual process that requires a lot of dedication and patience. It will take time to hear back from clients regarding bids and proposal requests. If at all possible, have some money set aside prior making the transition, or hang onto a side job that can help you make the switch less stressful. This way you can focus on collecting that invaluable set of skills and developing a key marketing strategy, rather than worrying about the financial aspect of things. Also, be prepared for a slight learning curve. If you’ve been working as a part-time eLearning freelancer, then there will be a few hurdles as you move to full-time. For example, you may find that achieving a work - life balance is more challenging that you expected, or that marketing and promotion is turning out to be a bit daunting. Just remember that all of the hard work and commitment you are putting in is going to pay off. Hopefully this article has given you the inspiration and insight that will make your switch to a full-time eLearning freelancer go smoothly. While there are always going to be unforeseen bumps in the road, staying focused and dedicated to your profession will always pay off in the end. Still unsure whether to become a full-time eLearning freelancer? The article 10 Advantages To Becoming an eLearning Freelancer highlights the top 10 advantages to becoming an eLearning freelancer that you may want to consider. In addition, in the article 7 Questions You Need To Answer Before Becoming A Full-Time eLearning Freelancer you will find 7 all-important questions that will allow you to weigh the pros and cons involved with making the leap to full-time eLearning freelancing.   About the author: Christopher Pappas is founder of The eLearning Industry’s Network, which is the largest online community of professionals involved in the eLearning Industry. Christopher holds an MBA, and an MEd (Learning Design) from BGSU. eLearning Blogger | EduTechpreneur | eLearning Analyst | Speaker | Social Media Addict Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post 6 Tips to Become a Successful Full-Time eLearning Freelancer appeared first on Docebo.

We will be at the Learning Technologies Expo at Olympia Central in London on January 28th and 29th, in stand 25. There are only 47 days to go, and counting! 00 days 00 hours 00 minutes 00 seconds As you are probably already aware, Learning Technologies is Europe’s leading showcase of organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. And it continues to grow in importance, value and attendance year on year. Learning technologies attracts over 7000 visitors, and will run 150 free L&D seminars. There are two exhibition halls (we will be in the main hall in stand 25) packed with the latest learning technologies, innovation and best practices. It provides a unique and exciting environment for all those involved in workplace learning. If you’re considering doing more with elearning in your organization in 2015 you would gain a lot by attending. And what’s more, entrance to the expo is free. If you decide to attend we’d be delighted to schedule a specific time at our stand to meet, answer all your questions, and give you a tailored demo of our latest release. Simply contact us and we’ll book you in! Hope to see you in London in January. The post It’s just around the corner: Learning Technologies 2015 appeared first on Docebo.

In today’s business environment the demand for agile, affordable HR systems that help businesses manage their people better is continually growing - and elearning solutions are an integral part of the mix. With this context in mind, we are happy to announce a strategic partnership with Cezanne HR to provide an integrated human resources management system (HRMS) and elearning/ LMS solution to companies worldwide. Together with Cezanne we will provide configurable and scalable Cloud solutions that are quick to deploy, easy to manage and cost-effective - whatever the size or location of the customers. This partnership marks another step in our mission to continue to expand our operations and give more organizations the opportunity to experience the benefits of a Cloud-based LMS. The need for an ecosystem of cloud solutions that allow companies to achieve better business results is becoming stronger by the day. The integration between Docebo and Cezanne HR answers this need. Valentina Piccioli, Partner Network Manager, Docebo "The demand for agile, affordable HR systems that help businesses manage their people better is growing fast - and e-learning solutions are an increasingly important part of the mix. We’re delighted to be partnering with Docebo. Not only do we share the same vision, but Docebo’s impressive LMS strongly complements the functionality provided by our HR solutions." - Alberto Gabbai, CEO, Cezanne HR The post Announcement: Cezanne HR and Docebo partnership appeared first on Docebo.

2014 was a big year in elearning - we’ve seen a rise in the adoption of SaaS, increased interest in corporate MOOCs, gamification, social learning, and mobile learning. We’ve seen recent interest in "wearable elearning" - and more and more personalization in elearning (i.e. learning tailored to proficiency level, interests, motivators etc.). We sat down recently with some of our friends in the elearning industry, and asked what their thoughts are on the year ahead in elearning. In this post we share their insight. 2015 is going to be the year that organizations focus on their extended enterprise audiences of channel partners, distributors, customers and prospects to achieve competitive separation.  Training and certifying your extended enterprise audiences provides a measurable return on investment and a serious impact to a business.  Most talent management LMS vendors ignore this non-employee segment and as a result many new LMS vendors have evolved solutions to service this unique need with unique feature sets and pricing.  Look forward to year of heated competition and LMS vendor specialization! John Leh, CEO & Lead Analyst, Talented Learning User generated content is what I expect to burst onto the scene next year. What we have clearly seen in 2014 is the astonishing growth of social learning and mobile learning, especially in combination. I think that learners, at any level, are ready to start creating and share their own content following the same training path that they have passively followed till now. It’s time to turn the camera from front to rear and start creating our own learning objects! Valentina Piccioli, Partner Manager, Docebo The really interesting industry move we’ve seen in 2014 is the increase in people using video.  The barriers to entry of putting together video are lower than ever. Systems like Docebo allow you to host, serve, secure and track your learning video globally at a cost and quality that wouldn’t have been possible in the past. The challenge though is quality of the content. Video may be cheaper to produce but that doesn’t change that its hard to make the content good and to land key learning points in this medium. Into 2015 I expect to see the rise of more ‘interactive video’. We’re excited to be piloting this with clients now. Guy McEvoy, CEO of GuyKat Online learning is a cost-effective and time-efficient solution to corporate training. When employees need information quickly, utilizing technology to deliver materials is the most efficient and effective way to meet that need. As technology continues to evolve, e-learning will remain a relevant and reliable method to meet learners where they are. Doug Harward, CEO and Founder, Training Industry IncThe reaction to the launch of our mobile application has been very positive. I am excited to see how clients will begin using mobile capabilities in 2015 to enhance learning. Some of the ideas that I am already hearing for mobile learning are amazing! Corey Marcel, Senior Account Executive, DoceboAccording to Docebo’s research the elearning sector will show fast and significant growth over the next three years. The worldwide market for self-paced elearning, said to be $35.6bn in 2011, is estimated to be growing, overall, at some 7.6% a year. The Asian market is showing the highest annual growth rate (at 17.3%); followed by Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America at 16.9%, 15.2%, and 14.6%, respectively. Among other things, this growth is being fuelled by the continuing growth of the LMS market - currently worth some $2.55bn worldwide. Moreover, SaaS is helping to increase the size of the elearning market, especially where LMSs are concerned. The current speed of change means that employees need to be trained continuously in order to keep companies competitive. These training initiatives are likely to remain being spearheaded by compliance and regulatory topics but other general topics are also growing in popularity among learners. Increasingly this learning is being delivered via mobile and informal, performance support type learning. Claudio Erba, CEO of DoceboAfter having been in the field of Instructional Technology for over 30 years, I was always looking for the ultimate use of technology for learning.  The ultimate solution would be one that is both effective and scalable.  Effective means that all or most students would be successful at learning the content, given enough time.  Scalable means that it can work just as well with 25 as it can with 250,000 or a million.  Unfortunately, over those years, I have come to realize that the most important aspect of learning is the relationship between the teacher and the student as well as the relationships among the students.  The problem is that as you increase scale, you decrease the interaction between teachers and students and sometimes among the students.  Large classes or scaled instruction almost always is bad instruction.  The 500 student lecture hall is just as ineffective as the 500 student online course.  This does not mean that a well motivated and intelligent student cannot be successful in such situations — many of us are products of the 500 student lecture hall and a small percentage of students can successfully complete a MOOC - it simply means that it is ineffective.  So, when I think about the potential of eLearning, I look for tools that will foster Communication and Collaboration, two essential processes to foster relationships among students and between students and teachers. Michael Orey, Assoc. Professor Learning, Design & Technology Program, University of Georgia Tin Can is proving to be a challenge to the e-learning community in the corporate learning world. But new data sets are emerging, giving greater levels of validity by adding extensions (time-stamped, authoring, authority and the ability to void) as well context and results. The academic sector sees the potential for Adaptive learning in the close monitoring of learner performance across a wider range of metrics than the more one-dimensional recording of learning by Tin Can statements. Adaptive learning is about improving overall learner performance; preventing failure and drop out. Adaptive platforms not only record marks and learning achievements, but measure metrics such as time spent in aligned social media environments, attendance at lectures, and work submission patterns. The third key trend involves Badges, particularly Open Badges, breaking through in the education market and playing a role in supporting and rewarding learners. Badges may be driven into the corporate learning market by both MOOCs becoming more widely used in the corporate sector, and by learners’ desire to manage and publish their own digital credentials and achievements in social media. These three trends could combine to strengthen each other - or they could form chasms of complexity and buyer confusion. Bob Little, Senior Partner, Bob Little Press & PR UK2014 was the year of MOOCs, Gamification, Extended Enterprise, and Mobile Learning. In 2015, I see all of these areas continuing strong. I hope to see some better business cases for MOOCs. With Gamification I see this will become an industry mainstay. The Extended Enterprise concept will continue to be developed and matured, and Mobile platforms will continue to develop. For some new developments in 2015, I see short Learning Pills (3-5 minute content objects) being heavily integrated into mobile delivery strategies. I think video based content will begin to rapidly outpace traditional learning objects as switching from HTML 5.0 is still cumbersome and the BYOD dream is taking longer to materialize than hoped. I also expect to see some more in-depth learning analytics to begin to make an appearance hopefully with some innovative usage of the TinCan/xAPI Standards. In all I see 2015 is going to be an eLearning adoption explosion that will quickly outpace 2014 especially in the developing world. Josh Squires, COO EMEA, DoceboThe eLearning Industry is volatile and highly innovative and these couple of years various new trends have emerged. Responsive design is definitely an eLearning trend with great potential if you consider that mobile phone and tablet sales are expected to rapidly grow in 2015. Another eLearning trend that will dominate the market in 2015 is Cloud Based LMS. They are secure, they have low initial costs, and they are easily accessible from anywhere and anytime. Not to mention that they do not require storage space on your devices and are fully customizable and scalable! We can talk about innovations and trends in our industry for hours; HTML5, Gamification, Content Reusability, Emphasis on User Experience (UX), and so on. But what is really important to remember is that no matter how innovative these eLearning trends may be (and they really are!), eLearning professionals should keep in mind that eLearning trends only have value if they enable eLearning professionals to provide the best possible eLearning experience to their learners! Chris Pappas, Founder of The eLearning Industry NetworkThe relative importance learning delivery technologies is increasing. The need and opportunities for learning are expanding. We know how best to teach people, and how - and why - people learn best. We have the wisdom of the giants of the education profession over the last 2,500 years. To use a simile first employed by Bernard of Chartres in the 12th century and most famously used, in 1676, by the British scientist, Sir Isaac Newton, we’re like dwarfs perched on the shoulders of giants. We can see more and further than our predecessors - not because of our keener vision or greater height but because we can build on their pioneering work. It’s an exciting time for learning technologies - but a word of caution amid the euphoria: if we’re standing on the shoulders of giants, we appear to be doing so while looking at an extremely foggy landscape. Bob Little, Senior Partner, Bob Little Press & PR UKElearning is not something that happens on accident. It’s more than a buzzword. No matter what path you take, elearning has to be intentional on the part of the company that implements it or it doesn’t work. You owe the effort it takes to create a decent learning experience to your learners. Their success depends on it. Marquis Dugger, Customer Success Manager, Docebo NA The post Elearning 2015: what’s in store for elearning in the year ahead? appeared first on Docebo.

We recently had the pleasure of interviewing SkyMeeting Founder and CEO Antonio Sanguinetti. SkyMeeting is a web conferencing tool that was founded by Antonio. It’s designed to help individuals and companies be more productive, and save time and money to run business meetings, virtual classrooms and large webinars. Docebo is designed to allow third party applications to be integrated using standard web 2.0 technologies (aka APIs). The set of integrated applications in Docebo LMS grows by the day - the wide choice of plug-and-play integrations is a real added value for the end user. SkyMeeting is a story such as this. Q. Please tell us a little about your organization and product SkyMeeting was founded in 2005 by me (Antonio Sanguinetti). The company is headquartered in Italy and has more than 3,000 customers, amongst them freelancers, businesses of all sizes, public admin, non-profits. Q. What is SkyMeeting? SkyMeeting is a cloud-based web conferencing solution that enables more effective collaboration at work, at home and on the move for any organization that can benefit from online meetings. Its features include: HD multipoint video conferencing; multi-screen sharing system & remote control; YouTube video sharing; an interactive whiteboard; allows for multiple moderators; polling and Q&A; recording & archiving; iOS/Android mobile apps. Also SkyMeeting offers flexible plans up to 500 participants and corporate solutions - for more information about SkyMeeting visit our website. Q. What are the differentiators between SkyMeeting and other similar applications? Here are some of our strengths that make the difference when compared with other competitors: All-in-One web conferencing solution: SkyMeeting is a truly all-in-one solution for online communication needs: hosts can launch business meetings, virtual classrooms, large webinars using the same account. No Download: While other competitors require installing a client, our users don’t need to download or install anything since SkyMeeting is totally flash-based. HD Multipoint Video Conferencing: SkyMeeting provides unlimited live video feeds allowing a superior user experience (other competitors up to 7 at least). Full-Featured Presenter Tools: Moderators have a personal Media Library to present and share files; file transfer is very easy, as is inviting additional participants during a live meeting or passing session controls to others. Q.- Please describe how your platform works within Docebo We are very excited to allow our customers to integrate SkyMeeting with Docebo LMS. Docebo provides a brief manual    in order to show how to combine Docebo LMS with the SkyMeeting video conferencing platform. The control panel allows users to setup a maximum number of rooms per course and a maximum number of total sessions. When the video conference starts, a new tab will be shown, and both users and administrators will be connected to it by pressing the "Join" button. Q. What is the benefit to end users? With this new App, Docebo users can easily create unlimited live meetings directly from their course page in order to provide synchronous virtual classrooms. Users can directly create a new video conference session from the course area by activating the video conference module. Hosts can collaborate in real-time with participants, sharing files, presentations, HD images and videos, sharing their desktop or a specific application, creating instant polling and Q&A sessions and much more. Other top benefits provided by SkyMeeting for Docebo users: Easy to Use: The clean design and intuitive usability make SkyMeeting enjoyable and hassle-free. Flexible & Intuitive Interface: SkyMeeting provides a highly dynamic, easy-to-learn interface, where key features are clearly displayed in order to allow presenters to host a meeting in minutes. No Account Needed For Guests: Customers guests can access the meeting simply clicking on a link embedded  in their invitation - no SkyMeeting account required. Mobile friendly: With the SkyMeeting mobile apps for iOS and Android, users can host or join video conferences from a tablet or a smartphone. Wi-Fi and 4G/LTE optimized. Connect with Antonio Sanguinetti on LinkedIn. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Docebo integrations: SkyMeeting web conferencing tool appeared first on Docebo.

The worst thing you can do when delivering training, especially online, is forget about reports. No matter how good your T&D strategy is, you can’t assess the outcome of your activities without reports - they are without a doubt the best way to get the "pulse" of your elearning project. By analysing parameters such as attendance rate, completion rate and other key indicators that can vary, you will be able to understand which part/s of your elearning strategy is performing better and which are not. This kind of data it’s obviously useless if there is no follow-up. The information collected through LMS reports will be fundamental to assessing and improving on training outcomes. Success relies on correct execution, analysis, optimisation and iteration, and the key to optimisation is to have sufficient data to understand what works and what doesn’t work for your learners. The Docebo LMS offers an extremely flexible reporting tool that will allow you to closely monitor the performance of your learners and the efficiency of your training materials in order to ultimately provide the best learning experience possible. Below you can check out a video tutorial about how to use reports within the Docebo LMS; you can also click here to access the related manual. The post Docebo Video Tutorials: How to create reports appeared first on Docebo.

2014 has been an amazing year in elearning! The time has come to take a look at what happened in the last 365 days in elearning and draw some conclusions. In this blog post we will show you some graphs and stats about the most trending topics in the elearning industry, and how the different trends were perceived around the world.  Earlier in the year we created a report with predictions for 2014 to 2016 - DOWNLOAD THE FREE REPORT The "Elearning Market trends and forecast 2014-2016" analyst report Now we will look at how this panned out using Google stats. The following table was produced using Google Keyword planner, which allows you to gather information regarding Search Volume (number of people searching the exact term on Google) for specific keywords and regions. Keyword/Region Europe N. America S. America Asia Africa  E-learning 15000 40500 9900  33100  1600 MOOCs 1000 14800 1000  4400  260 Mobile Learning 140 880 400 140  80 As you can see in the previous table, North America leads the global search for all keywords indicated.  These results also highlight a strong interest in mobile learning in South America. What’s especially interesting is that in North America we see a special interest in MOOCs, in fact search volume is about one third of the total search volume for elearning, which is enormous. If you compare with other regions you’ll see that MOOCs search volume is about one tenth of elearning total volume - so this indicates that interest in MOOCs is very high in this "elearning mature" market. Now let’s take a look at interest over time: ELearning MOOCs Mobile Learning Trends comparison From looking at these graphs we can draw some conclusions: Elearning is still very much growing! MOOCs has seen a huge exponential increase in interest since 2012 Mobile learning has been a stable and growing trend in the past few years Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Elearning 2014: summing up the year appeared first on Docebo.

MOOCs interest over time, via Google Trends During the past few weeks we have been talking a lot about MOOCs. I always find it useful to have a context, some history, so in this blog post I will try to give an overview of how MOOCs were born, developed, and what their future may look like. Let me define MOOCs to start with: Massive Open Online Courses. We have published a few articles on MOOCs recently - do check them out for further context. As a matter of fact, the first Massive Open Course, delivered Online, was created by University of Pennsylvania Professor O’Donnell by using a primitive internet protocol (Gopher) and emails. Nonetheless, the term MOOC itself was coined in 2008 by Professor Cormier (University of Prince Edward Island). The main difference between Professor Cormier’s course and the one presented by Professor O’Donnell was the presence of social elements like a blog. It took a while for people to catch on regarding the huge potential of MOOCs, and eventually, in 2012, a massive spread of websites like Udemy, Coursera and edX joined the Learning & Development market. These kinds of platforms were seen as disruptive as they made knowledge accessible to anyone with an internet connection. In fact it looked like people could finally learn and improve their lives, for free. Things however are never as simple as they seem. As the data collected from these MOOCs started to come in, analysts realized that the dropout rate was extremely high as a result of low student motivation, possibly (and ironically) due to the fact that they’re free, and also because of inadequate reward systems, amongst other reasons. On the other hand, it was also evident that sustaining this kind of business was going to be a challenge as it was not clear how to monetize this audience of people hungry for knowledge. MOOCs have now evolved with gamification elements and are even leveraged by Corporate Training. During our last webinar, "MOOCs from Academia to Corporate" (email us to access the recording), a group of top industry thought leaders discussed the nature of MOOCs, different types of implementations, the way MOOCs could fit into a corporate environment, the future of elearning and MOOCs part in it. Do check out that webcast if you happened to miss it! MOOCs future MOOCs will undoubtedly continue to be a hot trend in 2015. What is universally agreed is that MOOCs evangelists will have to find a way to improve user engagement and motivation to improve completion rates, and also find a business model capable of taking this strategy to the masses and making it economically sustainable. It’s absolutely possible for MOOCs to reshape teaching or the economic structure of teaching if MOOC content can achieve consistent high quality and give people a viable alternate business model. Upcoming MOOCs webinar: how to create a Corporate MOOC In February we will be presenting a second webinar on how to create a Corporate MOOC with the Docebo LMS, and how the MOOC model can be adopted and simulated in corporate environments to enhance the corporate learning space (if you want to be invited to the webinar, email us to let us know!). In the meantime, you can test out Docebo’s MOOC capabilities with this free 14-day trial of the LMS. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post The story of MOOCs appeared first on Docebo.

Bandwidth is not always a given Nowadays being connected and able to access the web anywhere, anytime (especially in the West) is pretty much taken for granted however there are circumstances when this is not always the case - in other words, bandwidth is not always a given. Someone might say that with 4G people can stay connected whenever they want (depending of course on location) but if you are an instructional designer you certainly know how "heavy" your .mp4 training videos are, therefore using your smartphone to access online videos might be a good solution depending on the circumstances and/or in case of urgent need, but not your default solution for watching online courses - especially when wifi may not be not available. To help with such dilemmas Docebo created the Offline Player App. This new App allows learners to use the Docebo LMS from their computers (running Windows OS) even when offline. Of course, being offline doesn’t mean that learner progress is lost - the system records all activities performed offline until an internet connection is made available and data synchronized. Use case scenarios In the last few years a new kind of professional was born: the digital nomad. Digital nomads are people that can work basically anywhere, as long as they have their laptop and wifi. There are however a great proportion of workers whose jobs are strictly related to a physical location in order to perform their duties, and in these physical areas wifi may not always available. Think about Oil & Gas extraction facilities (rigs), hospitals, factories, rural areas, schools (many countries don’t have wifi connections available for everyone) or even war zones. Basically any company with lots of users that take courses in places with unreliable net connections would benefit from an LMS offline player such as Docebo’s! Try it out! In order to try out this new app we have created a manual in our Knowledge Base which describes how to use it, and we have published the following video tutorial (see below). If you’d like to test the latest version Docebo LMS including the offline player, just contact us and we will set up a free 14-day trial for you! The post How to use the Docebo LMS Offline Player appeared first on Docebo.

Docebo 6.5 is integrated with Okta, an integrated identity and mobility management platform that connects people to their applications from any device. How does Okta work? Okta offers a modern approach to identity and mobility management. Integrated identity and mobility management enables new automation scenarios (check this Okta paper for ideas) and achieves better security and efficiency than standalone tools. The Okta identity platform provides a standalone cloud directory and supports the full user lifecycle, password management and groups. Developers can create one centralized view of your users that can evolve with changing requirements, create, store and update user passwords, and organize groups to control access privileges. The Okta identity platform can help: Manage users and groups Secure access to your application Integrate with customers’ and partners’ identity infrastructure Create a seamless user experience across services How does Okta work with Docebo? Customers can take advantage of integration with Okta - they can create a Docebo app inside Okta, and by clicking on the app, learners logged in to Okta can automatically single-sign on (SSO) to Docebo - both behind the firewall and in the cloud. Learners can then get to work immediately since they are presented with all of their apps quickly! For more details on this integration check out our manual! Try it out! We invite you to try out the latest Docebo version 6.5 during a 14-day free trial. You get to test drive all of Docebo’s latest release features such as the MOOC builder, gamification app, and more! Interested in trying out Okta? Contact us directly. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Docebo 6.5 is now integrated with the Okta identity platform! appeared first on Docebo.

A startup approach to Elearning In this post I will take you through some basic startup principles that can apply to elearning projects - in the end, every project in the making can be considered a startup, it all depends on the approach! ‘Get out of the building’ The first step in any startup is to find an idea. Creativity is a mysterious beast, but the best way to find ideas is to ‘get out of the building’, i.e. stop making assumptions, and go out and start looking at people’s real-life problems. Henry Ford used to say, "If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse." This is probably true, but getting feedback from people with different viewpoints can only improve your project. When it comes to elearning projects we could use the same kind of approach by reaching out directly to learners in order to understand what they need and if there’s anything in particular that they would like to experience during the course. You might be surprised by the good ideas that come from from this activity! 1+1=3 - or - ‘team is king’ One of the first things you learn when building a startup is that you just can’t do it alone. I am not simply talking about workload or the practical issues of getting things done in a limited amount of time, I am talking about the value of different viewpoints and expertise in a team, and the incredible things that two different brains can create. Moreover, you have to deal with the fact that no one person is proficient at everything, therefore you will need people with different skill sets. When building your training materials you are going to need a solid team in order to execute your ideas. Remember: poor execution can kill even the best ideas, and execution is a direct consequence of your team’s quality. Of course you can try to do everything on your own or ask a friend to help you with the graphic design, but nothing will produce better results than a good, experienced, well-integrated team. Minimum Viable Product & the power of validation So let’s say we have an idea and a team to execute it: now we need to start building the product! In the last few years a few new approaches to this challenge were born, thanks to a new kind of business environment. In fact, thanks to modern technologies, becoming an entrepreneur has never been easier; this has resulted in a dramatic increase in the number of businesses and  innovative technology-based projects (which we call startups). As every businessperson knows, greater competition means a potential struggle, and getting funds to run a startup project has become a lot more complicated than what it used to be. While in the past entrepreneurs were able to pitch ideas, get money and build a product, nowadays you need to show "something" in order to convince someone to give you an investment. As a result, entrepreneurs started presenting Minimum Viable Products or MVPs. An MVP is basically a prototype of your project, it’s a product big enough to convince someone that what you have in mind can work, but not too big to wreck your finances or sap too much time. You can use the same approach for your elearning project. Instead of building your full 500 lessons course, you could start with a pilot, a few lessons that you can show to a group of learners. This process is also called validation and allows you to gain a lot of time and resources by letting your end users understand what you want to create and collecting feedback when you still have the chance to steer your project to ‘learn-vana’ Measure, analyze, pivot, iterate Once your MVP has been rolled out and validated by your end users, it’s time to make the magic happen, it’s time to build your amazing elearning project, or startup. One of the most relevant approaches developed in the last few years is the Agile project management approach. This approach consists of developing your project (or software) one (minor) release at a time, in order to allow proper measurement and analysis of the results. By studying the outcome of each improvement of your project you can easily "pivot", which is the startup term for changing direction, and then iterate this process in order to continuously improve your learning experience. These project management strategies developed by the latest generation of entrepreneurs can be extremely useful to elearning designers and will help you to improve the learner experience. If you want to discuss how to implement these strategies you can contact us directly, comment on this post, or simply get started by activating your 14-day free trial of the Docebo LMS. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post 4 steps to "startup" your elearning projects appeared first on Docebo.

Docebo’s Cloud-based, SaaS Enterprise LMS will be on show at this year’s Learning Technologies exhibition in London’s Olympia on January 28 and 29. If you will be in London for Europe’s biggest event in L&D, we invite you to drop by! You will find us on stand 25 in the main hall of the exhibition - where we  will be showcasing Docebo version 6.5 which includes a MOOC Builder (which helps administrators setup a Corporate MOOC), an Offline player app (which allows users to download SCORM courses onto their Windows desktop computers and run them offline), and is integrated with Okta (an integrated identity and mobility management platform). Join the Extended Enterprise LMS Seminar What’s more, on Thursday January 29, from 14.45 to 15.15, our COO of North America, Alessio Artuffo, will join world-renowned market analyst, Craig Weiss, to present a seminar in ‘Theatre 3’ entitled ‘The Extended Enterprise LMS: Benefits for the organization and how to implement with success‘, the seminar is free to attend. Meet us for a demo! If you’d like a customized demo at the Learning Technologies exhibition, contact us to make an appointment! Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Docebo at Learning Technologies 2015 appeared first on Docebo.

World-renowned independent market analyst Craig Weiss, along with Docebo’s COO in North America, Alessio Artuffo, will be conducting a free seminar on day two of the Learning Technologies event in London’s Olympia at the end of January. Seminar details Title: The Extended Enterprise LMS: Benefits for the organisation & how to implement with success When: January 29, 14.45-15.15 Where: Theatre 3, at the Learning Technologies Exhibition in London’s Olympia This seminar  will cover how the Extended Enterprise LMS responds to a massively growing business need in today’s Learning & Development market. In order to maximize the internal knowledge base and stay ahead of the competition, successful organizations are investing in learning programs for partners, suppliers, clients, and online communities. This is quickly turning training activities that were once a pure internal cost center into a new source of recurring revenue. Seminar attendees will hear about the evolution of the Extended Enterprise concept in the LMS market, as well as how global organisations have implemented Docebo’s Extended Enterprise solution to benefit themselves and their customer bases. About the presenters Craig Weiss Craig Weiss is an elearning analyst, expert, blogger, international speaker and thought leader who was recently named as the most influential person in the world for corporate elearning. He is the founder and CEO of E-Learning 24/7, and his blog is read weekly in 152 countries. Alessio Artuffo Before becoming Docebo’s COO in North America last year (with responsibility for managing the company’s growth in the Americas) Alessio Artuffo had been the company’s head of International Business Operations. He has extensive experience in many industries and functions, including operation, sales and marketing. If at the event, drop by our stand! We’ll be on stand 25 in the exhibition’s main hall where we’ll be showcasing Docebo LMS version 6.5. If you’d like to book an appointment for a customized demo at the show contact us! Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Seminar: Docebo & market analyst Craig Weiss on the Extended Enterprise LMS appeared first on Docebo.

The advent of software development caused a great demand for project management strategies and tools. At first the most famous approach to Project Management (or PM) was called Waterfall development, which was just perfect for industrial projects of big dimensions, but that was not dynamic enough for the quickly growing economy of the Internet era. Last week I wrote about how to "startup" your elearning project using four simple strategies, and one of these was called "Measure, Analyze, Pivot, Iterate". These four verbs are the foundation of what is called Agile Development, which was invented to give developers a smarter and more flexible way to create software. As this strategy became more and more popular, people started using it in different contexts and eventually also instructional designers began to apply it to create what is now called Agile Learning. According to Edutech wiki: Agile learning is a relatively recent buzzword that can take several meanings. There seems to be quite a confusion between "agile planning of instruction" (as one may find on commercial e-learning web sites), introducing "agile design methodology" in the project-oriented and/or reflective classroom and finally introducing "agile thinking" in a given population (e.g. a company). In order to give you a better understanding of the potential of Agile Learning, I will now describe both Waterfall Development and Agile Development, give you some pros and cons, and possible applications for elearning. Waterfall development Over the past 40 years, projects were handled with what is called the Waterfall development approach. Basically this meant using a step by step approach, in which each progressive step should be easier than the previous one. As a result of this strategy a lot of effort is usually put into analyzing the problem and designing a solution - execution and measurement are easier thanks to accurate planning. Once all the stakeholders agree on a solution, the team focuses on the actual development of the solution from end to end. At the end of the development phase the product or project is evaluated, and if everything works fine the only phase left is maintenance, which means making sure that the solution keeps running smoothly throughout its entire lifecycle. This approach works perfectly for big companies and "stable products", where stable means that you can easily understand what problems you might face during development. The bottomline is that the time and effort spent at the beginning of the project in order to design and avoid possible bugs will help you to save a lot of money and time, as it’s easier to fix a bug during the design phase rather than during the evaluation phase.   On the other hand the Waterfall Development is not flexible at all. If you are not skilled or focused enough to spot possible issues or bugs at the beginning of this process, it is extremely expensive to modify your finished product or course. Luckily in the past few years a new approach has become increasingly popular among designers and project managers. This new approach is called Agile project management. Agile gives you wings One way we can describe using an agile approach is developing a project, a software, an elearning course, by using iterative cycles. Each cycle consists of problem analysis in the first phase, followed by the development of a single feature of the final product. Once this single small part of your course is finished you can start testing and evaluating the efficiency and the return on investment of this part. If the results are satisfying a new iteration begins, until the course or the project are fully finished, otherwise the designer has to take one step back, understand what went wrong, and correct. This method is an extremely efficient way of managing activities. In fact this approach allows you to understand very quickly if there is any problem with your elearning course, and at the same time it gives you the ability to measure what is most effective, allowing you to optimize your course. One of the most relevant techniques used in the Agile Learning approach consists in creating Learning Pills, which are basically micro elearning courses. So if you want to use Agile Learning you could easily design and create a Learning Pill, analyze its performance on a small user group and then evaluate the results. Once you have completed this phase, you can easily choose if you want to edit your Learning Pill or proceed to the next one. By iterating this process you will obtain a full, complex and optimized course. How is Agile Learning defined? Edutech Wiki defines Agile Learning as follows:: Using agile design methodology for instructional design, as for example in the rapid prototyping approach. I.e. we talk about an "agile professor" who will design and redesign a course in function of emerging "parameters". E.g. see the R2D2 model. A similar idea is to favor dynamic planning of learner activities in teaching. Many inquiry-based learning settings require dynamic (agile planning) for both the teacher and his students. An very typical example would be the knowledge-building community model. Agile learning also can to refer to running a class like a development group. This implies that one has to provide students with practice in agile development, regardless of their subject area and to use agile principles in working together with students to achieve the learning objectives of the module. Agile learning also can refer to supporting emerging individual learning path, i.e. how students progress through a set of learning objects in traditional e-learning. From the teaching perspective, this can be summarized as "give students what they need when they need it". Agile learning can refer to introducing agile thinking in companies. This perspective is frequently found in talks and papers that deal with innovation and organizational learning. If you want to test these strategies you can activate a 14 day free trial of the Docebo LMS - see below. Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Waterfall Learning vs Agile Learning appeared first on Docebo.

Mobile learning is redefining education - "learning made mobile" is accessible to most (with approx. 77% of families having at least one smartphone) and the mobile learning market is estimated to reach $70 billion by 2020. This is supported by the fact that mobile technology is the fastest spreading technology in human history - it is quickly becoming the easiest way to reach the world’s population. While only 79% of the world has access to electricity, it is estimated that 75% of the world has a mobile phone. It is estimated that 2.3 billion cell phones have access to internet. Source: Buzzsprout Mobile technology not only helps educators reach around the globe, it helps them better engage with students both in and out of the physical classroom. Mobile learning is cost effective, enables the tracking of student performance (using for example a LMS, apps etc.) and provides an increasing amount of resources (along with quality) - consider for example the sheer amount of podcasts and videos that now provide supplemental educational materials. Videos and podcasts epitomize mobile, on-demand learning -by definition they are "mobile ready". Today, more than ever before, creating video or podcast learning content is easier, quicker, and more cost effective thanks to the ready availability of good software and apps.  Videos and podcasts can be used for on-demand performance support, an on-the-job knowledge check, or simply as an additional resource. The benefits of adding "mobile" to learning are multifold: portability, anytime/anyplace connectivity, flexible and timely access to elearning resources, immediacy of communication, empowerment and engagement of learners, active learning experiences. On-demand learning has some distinct benefits, such as integrated learning on the job, timeliness and learner control. We have examined video learning before on this blog, and today’s infographic (courtesy of Buzzsprout) takes us through "the podcast advantage" and why tech savvy educators are turning to podcasts:   If you’re interested in how Docebo can support mobile learning check out this blog and try our free mobile apps in a 14-day free trial! Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Why podcasting is primed for mlearning appeared first on Docebo.

In case you missed it, over the weekend an annual, independent review of 642 LMSs by the well-known corporate online learning industry analyst (and arguably the most influential person in the world for corporate elearning) Craig Weiss, was published by E-Learning 24/7.  The LMS Industry Rankings Report 2015 is intended for those looking for a new LMS or who’re researching in preparation for buying their organization’s first LMS. In last year’s report, the Docebo platform was ranked seventh out of the 600 LMSs then on sale in the world. In Craig Weiss’ mid-year update of the report, the Docebo LMS was ranked in sixth place - and the Docebo LMS retains this position in the new report (of 642 ranked LMSs). According to Craig Weiss: The current trends in the LMS world including gamification is growing fast but many systems currently limit its use, and modern user interfaces are growing in importance, notably with the move towards greater personalisation of the learning experience. User interface; support and service; speed of innovation; adoptability and adaptability, as well as acting upon consumer feedback are key components of a world-leading LMS. Docebo has taken all this on board and that is a key reason why the Docebo LMS is currently in the world’s top ten. To view the report (paid) please click here. And if you’d like to test-drive a world’s top 10 ranked LMS, sign up for a free trial! Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post Docebo LMS in the Top Ten LMSs in the world appeared first on Docebo.

Even if you are not particularly into math or science, you might know that formulas are used to simplify the description of complex phenomenas such as movement or chemical reactions. We all agree that elearning is not simple at all as it requires great effort in order to produce satisfactory results. We know that elearning is not just about uploading courses online, it’s a completely different approach to learning  when compared with traditional face to face learning. Therefore we thought that a formula might be appropriate in order to describe it in a simple way: the complex world of elearning, the price it takes to make it work and the benefits that a company usually gains when creating a healthy online learning environment. Time factors ToI: this is the Time of Implementation, which means the time spent in developing the content / learning materials and uploading it, creating the users and setting up the required online tools RT: Research Time corresponds to the time spent looking for the right solution, both in terms of strategy and technology OP: Onboarding process is the time you spend on transitioning from your previous training system to elearning. These first 3 terms represent the "time" expenses that you will have to consider while switching from a different kind of training, such as face to face, or when you implement your first training strategy. Economic factors PE: Platform expenses are basically the economical expenses linked to the employment of a Learning Management System. If you are using a SaaS software this means paying for a certain number of users, otherwise you also have to include server expenses. CE: Content expenses cover the necessity of having quality content on your platform; you can have an in-house instructional designer or you can buy courses from a third party content supplier, but in the end you will always need to spend a lot of money on this particular aspect, in order to achieve successful training. TC: Transition cost are always a hidden variable as not everyone considers the cost of switching from a platform to another, such as time and resources spent in moving users and courses to the new system. If you are using elearning for the first time, this term might be regarded as FIP (First Implementation Cost). This second group of variables takes into account the economic expenses that you will have in order to get started with your new elearning platform. Last but not least, you should consider your HR cost, which means the Human Resources you will have to use; this doesn’t simply mean the people from the IT department that you will need for the technical part or the Instructional designer that you will need for content, but also people from the Human Resources team that will help your employees to adapt to this new tool in order to smooth the transition. Now that we have described all the "downsides" of using an elearning platform, it’s finally time to talk about the benefits that your company will get. We strongly hope that these variables (i.e. the lower part of the fraction, or the lower "term") will be way more influential than the numerator (the upper term of the fraction). First of all, I need to explain what an integral is, for those who are not familiar with this concept. An integral is basically the sum of a great number of items. In this scenario we are going to sum the benefits of elearning over time, as it’s important to consider how this technology is going to impact the future of your company. Benefits of elearning CT: by using a software instead of a group of trainers, you are definitely going to reduce the total cost of training. IT: using elearning platforms usually helps to reduce the total Instructional Time as it’s proven to be more efficient and to require less time. LI: imagine flying your trainers all over the world to the different branches of your company, reserving hotels, restaurants, car rentals. Now imagine cancelling all of these expenses, including the research time that some of your employees will have to pay in order to keep your training active, and you will have an approximate idea of the logistic benefits of using an elearning platform. GB: at the same time LMSs completely remove geographical barriers. Say goodbye to exhausting airplane trips to the other side of the planet and welcome technologies such as video-conferencing and asynchronous learning. R: while traditional trainers and teachers might have a more personal approach to evaluation, imagine how powerful software can be in order to create extensive reports on your learner’s activities. All you need to know about your users and their courses performance is just one click away!   As you can see, elearning is something complex, a journey that you need to evaluate carefully before embarking on the journey, but which can also result in great benefits over time for your company. If you are thinking about adopting an elearning platform, we invite you to test Docebo for free for 14 days! Sign up for a free 14-day trial or contact one of our consultants directly! START NOW SCHEDULE A DEMO CONTACT US The post The elearning ‘formula’ appeared first on Docebo.

Social Media presence has never been more important. When you apply for a job, when you look for an expert, when you check an opinion about something. In all of these situations Social Media presence determines people’s (or an organization’s) trustworthiness. Afterall it’s extremely important to follow the advice of the right people! eLearning on Twitter In order to help you to understand who to follow in the elearning market on Twitter, we created a list of top accounts according to Twitter following: @elearninindustry: Elearning Industry blog is the most read blog on the topic and will provide you with tons of great articles and insights. @elearning (David Anderson): David is the Community Manager at Articulate, the leader Authoring Tool @eLearningGuild: eLearning Guild is an iconic community for elearning and training experts. By following this account you will get fresh news and updates on trending topics and interesting discussions on the L&D sector. @TheElSite (The Elearning Site): this website (and its associated Twitter account) provides some great independent insights on the elearning industry, and it’s a great read for those who are approaching the market for the first time. @2Elearning (Elearning Magazine): creators of the Best of Elearning! award, of the Enterprise Learning! Conference and leveraging a great community of trainers and L&D Specialists, Elearning Magazine is probably the go-to place for the elearning professionals looking for updates on the market and events. If you want to take a look at the entire list of top eLearning accounts on Twitter you can check this page. eLearning on Facebook If, instead, you prefer using Facebook here you can find 5 top elearning pages (source: Elearning Industry) Instructional Design and E-Learning Professionals’ GroupThe Instructional Design and eLearning Professionals’ Group connects professionals in the field of Instructional Design and eLearning. Elearning! Magazine: this is the official fan page of the Elearning! Magazine. The eLearning Guild: this is the official fan page for The eLearning Guild, a community of practice for eLearning professionals. eLearning Africa Meeting the networking needs of the pan-African eLearning and distance education sector, the annual eLearning Africa conference is the key networking venue for practitioners and professionals from Africa and all over the world. Association for Talent Development (ATD, formerly ASTD, American Society for Training & Development) is the world’s largest association dedicated to workplace learning and development professionals The post Social media’s top elearning accounts appeared first on Docebo.

This time last week we were at the most important L&D event on the calendar in Europe (and arguably worldwide with over 7000 elearning professionals in attendance!) - Learning Technologies, which takes place every year at Olympia in London. This year’s event was hugely successful, and we’d like to thank partners, clients and all those who stopped by the stand for taking the time to speak with us. We’d also like to thank well-known, independent elearning analyst  Craig Weiss for presenting ‘The Extended Enterprise LMS’ with us on the second day of the event! Here we share with you our photo album of the 2015 event as we gear towards an even bigger event next year! The post London calling: Pictures of Docebo at LT15UK appeared first on Docebo.

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) have their detractors and their skeptics; while those offering MOOCs are wondering how to make money from the intellectual property that comprises these courses. Nonetheless, despite being relative newcomers to the online learning scene, MOOCs have already shown their potential to disrupt the academic and corporate learning worlds — in terms of price, technology and even pedagogy. There’s a great deal to be said in favor of MOOCs - not least that they provide greater access to learning and a wider range of knowledge from different cultures and countries - but technology isn’t beneficial merely because it’s there. Digital-based learning activities can be inauthentic and not relate well to everyday uses. Moreover, you can now get lots of digital learning materials for free - and not exclusively from MOOCs. Furthermore, research from the MOOC provider, Coursera, has revealed that some 85% of their MOOC users have degrees. This suggests that MOOC students tend to be drawn from the already privileged in society. Those signing up for MOOCs tend to be confident, top achievers - not the poor, and certainly not those who’re unable, for whatever reason, to access the internet. These were some of the issues that we addressed in a webinar organized by us at the end of last year with four leading industry experts: John Leh, CEO and Lead Analyst at Talented Learning. Dr Mike Orey, Associate Professor at the University of Georgia. Aaron Silvers, designer, technologist and strategist responsible for helping to bring massively adopted learning technologies into organizations around the world, notably SCORM and xAPI. Erica LeBlanc, the Operations Development Manager for the IP and science business at Thomson Reuters. In that webinar they considered ten key questions about MOOCs, and in this post we look at the first two questions presented in that webinar (if you’d like to view the webinar please email us!): Q1: What’s a MOOC? Mike Orey explained that MOOCs stands for massively open online courses. Focusing on the first two of these words, he said that ‘open’ means that they’re free to learners - and asked, "So what does that mean for companies that want to make a profit?" He said that most MOOCs involve watching some sort of a video - sometimes a long video. Students take a multiple choice test and discuss things with other students in a largely unproctored discussion forum. In his view, it’s not really a conversation and it’s really not relationship building.  He pointed out that the first MOOC attracted some 100,000 students but only 1000 or so completed the course. Today, you see people calling things MOOCs that have between 100 and 300 students. As the ‘M’ becomes smaller, you’re left with the ‘O’ (online) and the ‘C’ (courses), he said. ‘Online courses’ means e-learning - and when it comes to creating highly interactive e-learning experiences on a smaller scale, the key to effectiveness is less about technology and more about how you form relationships between teachers and students - and among students. John Leh said that the original idea of MOOCs was that university professors would capture their live course content over a semester and then put it online for free - allowing anybody in the world with access to the internet to consume this content. Today, MOOCs tend to refer to a collection of individual courses from one source, such as a university. MOOCs can also be defined as the learning management system (LMS) platform that allows people or organizations to create, host and deploy content. So there’s a variety of evolving definitions of MOOCs, he said. He stated that there are now for-profit and non-profit MOOCs. Examples include Udacity or Coursera (for-profits) and university MOOCs such as edX (non-profits).  Furthermore, since MOOCs come from academia, they’re often categorized by their instructional approach. A video-based MOOC with online grading is known as a broadcast MOOC. A MOOC with group grading and which focuses on a collaborative experience where learners share with each other - via social learning for example - is referred to as a connectivist MOOC.  Q2: What’s the future for MOOCs? Erica LeBlanc believes that a sustainable business model for MOOCS involves them partnering with businesses to offer their platform either as an internal service for employee development or as a customized MOOC that has material related to the product or service of the businesses. In Aaron Silvers’ view, MOOCs provide a way to sell academic text and reference materials to ‘non-traditional students’. They also provide an ancillary market for the kinds of materials that universities need to sell in order to provide the student experience. However, the term MOOC may be misapplied in the corporate world - since, there, it’s neither ‘massive’ nor ‘open’. John commented: "Free is tough to sustain - and something has to give in the process. That could be the quality of the individual courses. From a corporate, academic and an e-learning standpoint, just watching a video for an hour of somebody speaking in front of a classroom is extremely dull. Yet, to do it better requires time, money and effort - and, to get it up to the standards that we’re used to, costs money to buy the software to create and then host it.  "If, potentially, you have hundreds of thousands of learners, you’ve got to have an environment that can support that type of traffic. That costs money. So, whether they’re for profit or not-for-profit, MOOCs aren’t driven to generate revenue because, otherwise, they’re a complete cost center - and that’s unsustainable in the long-term. The easiest way is this freemium approach. "Currently, you don’t get college credit for attending a MOOC class," John added. "You get to attend it. You get to learn the knowledge, and you can take an assessment - which can get you a certificate once you’ve completed it. However, the value of this certificate is debatable - and you don’t get the college credits. It’s not the same as actually going to Harvard. So MOOCs are offering this freemium approach where the content is free but, then, something is paid for. Currently that’s mainly at the certificate level but I predict that, one day, you’ll be able to take a MOOC online and obtain college credit. That will be when MOOCs go more mainstream."  Mike pointed out that a university is a business in the sense that it’s selling its product. He continued: "MOOCs are giving people a free trial of the experience of taking a university class and, at the end, you can get the continuing education credits for a small fee. Some smaller universities are now offering MOOC students the opportunity to get college credits but, mostly, they’re using these MOOCs to attract students to come to the university full-time and pay full tuition fees."  In the coming week we will be releasing a free whitepaper on "MOOCs, From Academic to Corporate" - if you would like to receive notification of its release via our newsletter, please let us know! The post MOOCs - what are they and what’s the future for them? appeared first on Docebo.