LearnUpon will be exhibiting at Booth #325 as part of DevLearn 2015 Conference & Expo, The eLearning Guild’s largest annual event. DevLearn is the most cutting-edge training and learning event in North America, featuring the largest exposition focused exclusively on learning technologies. DevLearn 2015 will be held from September 30 to October 2, at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.   Since exhibiting at The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Conference & Expo in March, we’ve launched an iOS app, introduced Tin Can support, won three SME awards one of which went to our amazing Customer Support team, and we’ve also been featured in TrainingIndustry.com’s Top 20 Learning Portal Companies Watch List for 2015. We now have a customer base of over 400 organizations worldwide, with 150 of these new customers choosing LearnUpon as their LMS in the last 6 months alone.   We are very excited to exhibit at DevLearn for the first time as it provides us with a great opportunity to meet some of our customers and share what LearnUpon has to offer with those looking to implement a new LMS. Brendan, Caoimhín and Phily from the LearnUpon team will be on hand to demonstrate all of LearnUpon’s latest features to attendees who visit Booth #325.   To get a demo of LearnUpon’s learning management system visit Booth #325 from 9.30am to 6.30pm on September, 30 and 9.30am to 3.00pm on October, 1. The post LearnUpon exhibiting at DevLearn for the first time appeared first on LearnUpon.

Engaged members are one of your association’s most valuable assets. Most associations understand that engagement is essential for member retention. Disinterested members are less likely to renew once subscription time comes around again. But engaged members can also help your association to grow, most obviously through word-of-mouth and personal recommendations. Associations can be less aware of online learning as a powerful tool that can boost member engagement from that critical first day of sign-up. Try these simple but effective tips to ensure your online training programs are engaging members all year round.   Engaged members are active members, aware of your association’s investment in their professional development. But without a good reason to stay in touch, it can be difficult to find a reason to stay top of your members’ minds. Online learning transmits one of the clearest signals of your interest in member development. It provides a real value add to learners and gives your association a valid reason to stay in regular contact throughout the cycle. Because members are usually at their most engaged in the early days of membership, that makes it the ideal time to start educating them about the catalog of learning and training offerings they won’t want to miss.   Day 1: Engage members from the day they join Engagement must begin with membership. It’s a lot more difficult to win back the lost attention and interest of association members than to create and maintain it from the beginning. On the day they join your association, members have made a psychological investment and are ready to be impressed by the value of your learning and training offerings. But that process shouldn’t start with sign-up. You will need to have already established a clear program for how and when to introduce members to their new continuing professional development options. If you have invested in a learning management system, you are already a few steps ahead. A good LMS will include a suite of tools you can use to keep learners engaged for the lifetime of their membership. Start by integrating online learning into your onboarding and induction processes. Include information about learning and training programs in introductory documents and communications. Create consistency between offline materials, your association website and learning management system. By branding your LMS and having it tightly integrated with your Association Management System (AMS), you help members to experience it as an extension of your association that they can easily access whenever they want.   Day 2: Reach out to members across channels It isn’t enough to present members with URLS for your website and learning management system and expect them to use them. Give them a good reason to visit. Informing members about the full range of relevant online and training programs provides a great reason to reach out at first and check in later. By making new members aware of all your online channels, you make it easier for them to stay on top of deadlines and due dates. Some associations avoid using social media to engage members as they fear they won’t have sufficient content to keep communication consistent. But the nature and structure of online training provides a great reason for regularly communicating helpful information that has real value for learners.   Day 3: Share engaging learning and training resources Members look to associations for thought leadership. One simple way to communicate value in the early stages of membership is to share access to a library of resources that are updated regularly. Instead of sending files, which can be risky, time-consuming and impractical, upload resources to a shared location, like your LMS. By storing resources in a shared location, you encourage new members to visit your website, activate their credentials and introduce themselves to your range of industry expertise. You also create a library of valuable resources you can use to engage members throughout the year. Excellent searching capabilities and the ability to browse by different categories, such as topics and certification programs, will make it easy for members to quickly find the content of most interest to them.     Day 5: Enroll new members early When members enroll in an online learning or training program, they are more likely to engage with your association for the lifetime of their membership. Once you have made new members aware of your website and learning management system, email them a link to a catalog where they can browse relevant courses. Start dates and deadlines create a natural sense of urgency that you can reference to drive action and engagement in those crucial first months of membership. Schedule course start dates throughout the year. A regular calendar gives your courses the best chance of engaging new members and reminding lapsing members of the tangible value your association provides when the time comes to renew.   Day 7: Engaging content engages association members Keeping learners engaged is a lot easier if your learning and training content is itself engaging. Courses in themselves won’t engage members. Clear and informative content is essential to retaining the interest of your audiences. Course content should be tailored to member segments in your association. Engaging content also needs to be interactive and available in a range of media types, including visual and video, to suit different styles of learners. You might want to consider using an authoring tool like Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, Elucidat or iSpringPro to build some interactive content which can be imported to your LMS in SCORM or Tin Can format.   Day 10: Create a collaborative learning community One of the most successful methods for engaging learners is to help them to communicate and collaborate with each other. Collaborative learning is truly engaged. Members are more likely to value their continuing professional development and online learning if they can see their peers also value it. Members frequently mention community when asked about what they value most from their association. Open up your online and social profiles to facilitate learner discussion. Forums can help circulate expertise through your association by allowing members to answer each others’ questions and share their real-life experiences and war stories.   Day 30: Measure the engagement of your online learning Even if you have done an amazing job engaging new members, you will still need to make a consistent effort to engage them throughout the year. A good place to start is by measuring the engagement rates of recent courses and training programs. Assess enrollment and completion rates as a ratio of total membership. Send a survey after the completion of course components and tweak your offerings accordingly. At an individual level, retarget courses to members yet to complete them. You can use the reporting features in your LMS to single out members most in need of re-engagement and most in risk of lapsing.   Day 45: Engage association advocates Take note of your biggest fans and incentivize them to share their experiences. Look out for bloggers, thought leaders and influencers in your community who can be incentivized to share their positive experiences online. Advocates might deserve free membership, depending on how many new sign-ups they refer, or consider awarding a prize or gift voucher for the most popular contributor to your forum each month. Always offer an incentive to your most passionate advocates and influencers so they remember you appreciate their engagement.   Day 60: Re-engage members Use the findings from learning and training reports to develop a re-engagement strategy for members most likely to lapse. If a member has enrolled in a course but not completed it, reach out and learn why. Provide members with alternative ways of completing courses if your current structure isn’t convenient. Repurpose course content for mobile for members who find desktop learning inconvenient, for example. When designing learning and training programs, build in communications to coincide with key dates such as deadlines and assessments. Keeping members informed also gives you a reason to drive them to engage with your website and learning management system so your association stays top of mind.   Day 90: Get inspired by other associations Inspiration from industry peers will help you to stay up-to-date with the latest ways to engage your members. The ASAE has a great range of resources in which experts from a huge range of associations share ideas about how to keep members actively involved after sign up. Maintain a folder of ideas and tips to implement when the time comes to reassess your association offerings.   Day 180: Transform individual courses into designations Learning paths provide a great opportunity to structure courses so that they encourage members to stay with and renew membership. Instead of viewing continuing professional development credits as individual units, structure complementary courses into learning paths, designations or formal certification programmes that will give your members some longer term goals to work towards as part of their continuing professional development.   Day 330: Structure courses strategically Support the good work you have done throughout the year with an extra push a month before membership comes up for renewal. This is the time to communicate news about updated offerings and their relevance to changes in your industry. Use learnings from reports about member behavior to create targeted and personalized messages most likely to entice your most valuable member segments at the point of renewal.   Engaged members are ambassadors for your association who are more likely to stay with you for the long haul. Investment in online learning is a win-win that creates more effective members who are passionately engaged with their association.   Learn more about how LearnUpon can engage your association members. Sign-up for a free 30 day trial or schedule a demo with one of our account managers. The post How to engage association members with online learning appeared first on LearnUpon.

If you use Articulate Storyline 2 and want to track results for your learners via the Tin Can API (xAPI), you need to know how to convert your courses to a Tin Can format. In this step-by-step tutorial, we guide you through everything you need to do to publish your course from Articulate Storyline 2 to an xAPI course format.   Before you start Confirm that Tin Can support is available with your LMS. Check that you are using the latest version of Articulate Storyline 2.   How it works Once your course has been created, click the "Publish" button on the Articulate Storyline ribbon as shown in the below screenshot.     Publish screen Select "LMS" from the menu on the left-hand side of the publish screen as shown in the screenshot below. Give your project a "Title" and "Description". Click the ellipses to the right of the "Folder" field to select the location where your project will be saved.    Publishing for HTML5 and mobile devices Check the box beside "Include HTML5 output" so that your content will work on mobile devices that do not support Flash. For example iPads do not support flash, so exporting to HTML5 will ensure that mobile learners can access your courses without experiencing issues downloading flash plugins. Check the box beside "Use Articulate Mobile Player for iOS or Android" if you would like to use Articulate’s mobile player. The difference here is that your course will be launched in the Articulate mobile app rather than from within you LMS. The learner will be prompted to download the Articulate mobile app when they try to access your course. ​"Allow downloading for offline viewing" can remain unchecked as you choose. Exporting your course to HTML5 does not mean that your course will be automatically usable on a mobile device. Due consideration should be given to your course design. It is particularly important to consider the course’s responsiveness and ability to adapt to various mobile device resolutions and screen sizes. Exporting to Tin Can and/or HTML5 does not automatically do this for you. Ask your course designer to review your course’s mobile responsiveness as required.   Output Options Select "Tin Can" from the "LMS" drop-down menu under  "Output Options". ​Click "Reporting and Tracking" to proceed to the next step.     Reporting and Tracking Options screen This screen presents settings that decide when the program will tell your LMS that the learner has completed the course. Click the "Tracking" tab shown in the below screenshot to specify how you would like to track a user’s progress. These options define the point at which a user is deemed to have completed the course. The first option measures completion by the number of slides a learner has viewed. By choosing the "Track using number of slides viewed" option, you can select any given number of slides that must be viewed before the course is deemed complete. In our screenshot example, we set the option so that 29 out of 29 slides must be viewed before the course is considered complete.   If your course contains a quiz, you can select the second option on the below screenshot. By choosing the "Track using quiz result" option, the course will be marked complete once the learner reaches the results slide for the quiz.   Click OK when you have selected your preferred option to return to the Publish screen   Publishing your course to the Tin Can API format Click the "Publish" button in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen to finish publishing your course. Once your course is published, you need to store it as a zip file so it can be uploaded to LearnUpon or another learning management system. Click the "Zip" symbol shown on the below screenshot to select the location where you would like to save your file. Click "Save" and "Close".     And that’s it, you’re done! Your course can now use Tin Can API to track results for learners with your LMS of choice.   Learn more about LearnUpon’s full range of SCORM and Tin Can supported features. Sign-up for a free 30 day trial or schedule a demo with one of our account managers.   The post How to publish to Tin Can API with Articulate Storyline 2 appeared first on LearnUpon.

Choosing between an open source and cloud-based learning management system is one of the most important eLearning decisions many organizations face. In LearnUpon, we frequently hear from businesses that chose the open source Moodle solution as their first LMS, only to quickly find that it wasn’t the right fit. Moodle can be the right eLearning solution in some specific learning and training environments. But despite its low cost and flexibility, Moodle is not the best choice of LMS for every organization. Moodle’s limitations can even make it a potentially costly choice for businesses and associations with conflicting needs and requirements. If you are thinking about switching from Moodle to a commercial LMS like LearnUpon, this analysis of the pros and cons of both options will help you reach a fully informed selection.   Moodle - or Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment - is mostly found in education settings, used by thousands of schools, colleges and universities to deliver courses to students. Decision makers from commercial organizations are often attracted to Moodle when they hear that it’s free (kind of) and can be endlessly customized (if you have the resources). But with great benefits come some serious cons that can prove punishing in less than ideal environments. Organizations need to be skeptical of the suitability of a "free" learning platform and aware of the real costs accrued by the resources required to maintain, update and support a truly effective learning management system.   If you have experienced these difficulties and are considering switching from Moodle, there are a handful of crucial factors you need to consider. By remaining focused on the specific nature of your organization’s learning and training needs, you will be fully equipped to make the best decision for you and your learners.   Moodle v. LearnUpon: make the right choice for your organization Requirement Moodle LearnUpon Do you have a budget for an LMS?  No  Yes Does your team include a Moodle expert?  Yes  No Do you have a dedicated Moodle resource?  Yes  No Would you benefit from quick and easy set up?  No  Yes Could you use free 24/7 technical support?  No  Yes Do you want a simple interface admins and learners enjoy using?  No  Yes Are your admins and learners highly technical?  Yes  No Do you want to constantly customize your LMS?  Yes  No Do you need to easily manage groups of users and learners?  No  Yes 20 organizations moved from Moodle to LearnUpon after answering these questions.   Brian Cahill, CEO at Sound Training Online says: Being an online learning provider, LearnUpon has been invaluable in allowing our business to get up and running. From day one, LearnUpon has provided both the technical and personal support that has enabled us to get to where we are today, and will continue to help us to grow in the future.   Moodle might be a good learning solution for your organization if: You have no budget to purchase an LMS. Moodle’s apparent inexpensiveness is the main driver of its popularity. For those without an eLearning budget, an open source solution like Moodle can be the only option. But if your organization does have a budget, remember to factor in the considerable hidden costs that quickly add up when your team must spend hours installing, configuring and maintaining open source software. Remember that you will need to purchase servers to host Moodle to ensure the platform can handle content for all of your learners. With a SaaS solution like LearnUpon, you don’t need to worry about technical specifications. Your LMS provider will manage that for you. You already have a large in-house IT team that includes a dedicated resource with Moodle expertise. Even Moodle’s advocates admit that the learning platform is not for the faint-hearted. Although Moodle is readily available for free download, someone must still be available to install, configure, maintain and update the platform. Because Moodle is not a commercial product, you can’t expect to turn the key on an intuitive feature set that’s ready to use. While the breadth of customization options is attractive to some organizations, it also generates a lot of superfluous design choices that must be made and implemented by your team. The freedom to fully customize an LMS comes at a cost. You lose the benefit of a team of professional experts who have worked to refine features over multiple iterations and have already tested the most user-friendly design choices for you. You do not need technical support. Lack of support is a universally acknowledged Moodle limitation. Your in-house team will need to own all Moodle-related work, from designing the platform at the highest level to managing all technical issues, breakages and bugs. All future updates to and security patches for the platform must also be managed and implemented by your team. Every time a new version of Moodle is released, all courses, modules and components must be individually updated to remain compatible. You should only confirm that Moodle is the right option for you if you are comfortable proceeding without technical support. You require a lot of customization. Freedom is one of Moodle’s most-loved features. If your needs are complex and unpredictable, an open source solution like Moodle is probably the best option. You will have access to an extensive library of free plugins that allow you to tailor the interface in almost any way you like. But if that sounds attractive, remember that customization can be time-consuming and must be properly resourced. You manage sophisticated users and learners with good technical skills. Even Moodle’s most passionate advocates admit that the interface is not easy to use. This technical difficulty makes Moodle a poor choice for businesses and associations charged with delivering courses to a range of learners of varying backgrounds and skill-levels. One serious risk of selecting an open source option like Moodle is that learners become distracted from completing their courses by the complexity of the LMS itself, jeopardizing results and completion rates. Reporting does not matter. Reporting is widely acknowledged as a major Moodle weakness. You should only select Moodle if you are happy to proceed with the most limited of reporting options that give you a partial sense of user, course and system performance.   LearnUpon is the best fit for your organization if: You have a budget to invest in a learning management system. If your organization has an assigned budget for learning and training, purchasing a commercial LMS is a wise move. By spending some of your budget on an LMS, you benefit from the security of a commercial platform that includes professional development, service and support. Not all learning management systems are expensive either. You should find one that fits your budget, however limited. Pricing for LearnUpon starts at $149 per month, for example. You would like the reassurance of technical support. As with any software installation, there are a number of technical issues that can arise during the setup and operation of a learning management system. With an open source solution like Moodle, your team is left to resolve these alone. A good commercial LMS provider, on the other hand, should include support in their packages. If you select LearnUpon, for example, you can rely on free 24/7 technical support as standard. You need quick and simple set up. A commercial LMS is a product that is designed to be easy to set up and use. Many of the basic decisions you face when you select an open source solution like Moodle will already have been tried and tested for you. With a commercial LMS, a full set of features will be ready to use as soon as you purchase, requiring no additional configuration or customization. LearnUpon customers are up and running delivering courses minutes after they purchase, for example. You need a learning management system that’s easy to use. A good commercial LMS provider will have invested significant resources in researching and developing features that make delivering and completing courses easy for users, admins and learners. Time will have been spent researching and developing UX and UI, so that the interface is as intuitive and attractive as possible. Open source solutions like Moodle tend to be more difficult to navigate, lacking the resources to invest in impactful research and development processes. You need robust reporting features. Most commercial LMS providers should understand the nature of your learning and training environment. As a business, they should know that measurement is essential to the successful provision of eLearning and provide a full set of reporting features that allow you to measure and improve the effectiveness of all of your courses.   Neither an open source nor a commercial learning management system is the right fit for every learning and training environment. If you are still struggling to choose, think about where most of your needs fit with the strengths and weaknesses outlined above. A clear understanding of your requirements will make the decision easier for you.   Learn more about why 20 customers moved from Moodle to LearnUpon. Sign-up for a free 30 day trial or schedule a demo with one of our account managers.   The post Moodle vs. LearnUpon LMS - How to choose? appeared first on LearnUpon.

iSpring QuizMaker 7 can be a very useful authoring tool when you need to create rich-media tests that learners can complete on desktop, tablet and smartphone devices. One of the key strengths of iSpring QuizMaker 7 is that it is compatible with HTML5, Tin Can and a range of formats that allow greater flexibility for learners and admins sitting and reporting on quizzes. Tin Can API, also known as the Experience API or xAPI, is particularly good at capturing consistently-formatted data about learner and group activity across multiple platforms and devices. If this flexibility sounds useful, then read our quick guide to publishing iSpring Quizmaker 7 course content to Tin Can xAPI.   If you are using iSpring QuizMaker 7 to create course content,  publishing to Tin Can xAPI can benefit both you and your learners. Tin Can has become an increasingly popular learning technology due to the growth in demand for mobile learning or "mLearning". Mobile learning does not just mean that audiences are engaging with course content on smaller devices or phablets. It also includes learning on the job or learning onsite without cloud connectivity. Tin Can excels in these scenarios, helping to capture learning in the field - the true sense of mobile learning.   Many learning and training professionals now consider it essential to provide mobile options for learners accustomed to using multiple devices. Because Tin Can is capable of communicating with cross-platform technologies and is highly interoperable, it works very well in these environments. Tin Can can also provide trainers with more detailed information about learner behavior and performance. Detailed exam analysis data is just one area in which Tin Can improves upon SCORM and other learning technologies that preceded it. Tin Can content created with iSpring QuizMaker 7 can also be uploaded to LearnUpon in one simple step. If you currently use an alternative learning management system, make sure it supports Tin Can content before proceeding with this tutorial.   Once your iSpring QuizMaker content has been created The process of publishing to Tin Can begins once you have created your test in iSpring QuizMaker 7. The sample quiz created in this screenshot contains 7 different question types.     Click on the ‘Properties’ icon to check that you have set a passing score.     In this example, our quiz is set with a passing score of 80%. Click ‘OK’ to save your settings.     Your quiz is now ready to be published to the Tin Can API format. Click the ‘Publish’ button in the toolbar to proceed.     In the ‘Publish Quiz’ screen Select ‘LMS’ from the left-hand menu. Select ‘Combined (Flash+HTML5)’ from ‘Output’, as shown in the below screenshot. Selecting HTML5 enables your course to play on a range of browser types and ensures your course will play on mobile devices that do not support Flash, e.g. iPads and iPhones. Leave the ‘Use iSpring Viewer’ option unchecked. Make sure ‘Zip Output’ is selected.     Next, click the ‘Advanced’ tab, as shown in the below screenshot. Under ‘Content Properties’, select the ‘Fit to Window’ option. This setting tells the course to fill all available screen space when your learners view the content. Under ‘HTML5 Properties’, select the option for ‘Extended audio and video compatibility’. This setting increases the number of supported audio and video codecs to boost the performance of your quiz across multiple browser types. Now click the ‘Learning Course’ tab.     Select Experience API from the drop-down menu. Click ‘Publish’.     Nice work, you’re done! Your course will be exported as a zip file, ready to be imported into LearnUpon or your chosen LMS.   Read more about LearnUpon’s SCORM and Tin Can supported features. Or start your free 30 day trial now.   The post How to publish to Tin Can API with iSpring Quizmaker 7 appeared first on LearnUpon.

Brendan, Caoimhín and Phily are back in the office after a jam-packed few days exhibiting at DevLearn 2015, one of the biggest eLearning events of the year. This year’s conference and expo took place in Las Vegas and attracted training and learning professionals from all over the world. If you want to find out more about what’s shaping the future of organizational learning and performance, then DevLearn is the place to be!   Here’s what we learned…   Universal learning management system frustrations Attendees were happy to share their learning management system experiences with us and their feedback was mixed. The majority of attendees we spoke with were currently using larger enterprise or legacy learning management systems and were frustrated. We noticed three common frustrations that were mentioned again and again - insufficient customer support, lack of new feature releases and high costs. What’s really interesting is that these frustrations were universal to all organization types, from large enterprises and multinational corporations to software companies and professional training companies. The attendees we met were delighted to find out that LearnUpon offers 24/7 customer support, releases new features every month and is available at a fraction of the cost of their current LMS.   An opportunity to meet our customers and partners As always we were delighted to get the opportunity to catch up with some of our customers, including Lisa from Denver Water, Mickey from BeauteSchool, Kendra from WideOrbit and Tom from Zipline Performance. We’re used to keeping in contact with our customers over the phone, by email or go-to-meeting so we love getting the chance to meet them in person. Lisa even voted LearnUpon as her favorite vendor on the DevLearn app! Thanks Lisa! We also caught up with Ali and Russell from Wax LRS by Saltbox. LearnUpon is one of Saltbox’s LRS Connectors and it’s great to get the chance to meet with our industry partners to discuss the latest LRS and Tin Can API news.   Lead retrieval units are not so easy to operate We’re not joking! But we did manage to get the hang of it, just in time for the expo kick-off….   All in all we had a very enjoyable trip and we’re sure we’ll be back in Vegas next year for DevLearn 2016.   What’s next… Our final conference of 2015 is the ASAE Technology Conference & Expo in Maryland from December 14th to 16th. Brendan, Caoimhín and Phily are looking forward to reconnecting with attendees that they met at ASAE Annual in August. Conferences offer us an invaluable opportunity to learn more about our customers’ industries and what they’re looking for in a learning management system.   Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest updates on new tools and technologies revolutionizing training today! The post DevLearn 2015 - what we learned appeared first on LearnUpon.

Aurion Learning’s annual masterclass is becoming an unmissable event for the UK and Irish learning and training industries. The theme for the 2015 session held in October was "Getting the most out of eLearning" and focused on three core topics: learning platforms, creating efficiencies in eLearning, and using video in online learning programs. We went along last week to spend an invaluable morning with Learning and Development managers, trainers, facilitators, consultants, and HR practitioners from leading organizations, to explore some of the most effective ways to deliver online learning today. Here’s what we learned.   The next big thing in eLearning Aurion’s eLearning masterclasses are known for delivering an inspiring mix of high-level strategy and practical tactics that enhance participants’ use of learning design, tools, and technology. The first 2015 presentation touched on both, as John Curran, Chairman of eLearning Network, introduced us to the major trends we can expect to see transforming eLearning in 2016.   3 top eLearning trends for 2016 Explosion in devices - We’ve been anticipating the effects of the explosion in devices for a few years now - usually in the guise of mobile learning or "mLearning". But John urged that the time really is now, with users currently accessing content on an average of 4 devices. John’s best practice tips included encouraging organizations to adopt a "bottom up" response to the trend. Designing for multiple devices shouldn’t be arbitrary. Course and content responsiveness can’t really be successfully bolted on as an afterthought, or in hindsight. Responsiveness should, instead, be integrated into the deep design of content and programs from the beginning. Instructional designers are advised to begin with a list of the most common devices course content will be accessed on and an understanding of its role in the learner’s journey. While this attention to device type may make for slightly longer design and planning phases, it will also create a superior learner experience that does more than make a nod to a range of screen sizes. The explosion in devices is also driving a number of smaller trends, including the creation of bite-sized microlearning tailored for different environments and mobile-friendly authoring tools that work from the cloud, such as LearnUpon favorite Elucidat.   Tin Can xAPI (or life after SCORM) - We’ve been exploring the potential of Tin Can technology for a while here at LearnUpon. So we were very interested to hear John’s thoughts on the Tin Can API, also known as the Experience xAPI. The rise of Tin Can overlaps with the explosion in use of device types, with the technology working to capture the full potential of mobile learning. Developed with the understanding that learners can learn anywhere, Tin Can provides tools for capturing and reporting on the full range of mobile learning options. If you are interested in Tin Can, check out the tutorials we have created for exporting content in xAPI format for upload to LearnUpon or any compatible learning management system.   The new blend - John moved beyond the familiar blended learning of yesteryear to discuss new developments in the trend. At the heart of the "new blend" is a figure John names "the self-directed learner". The new blend of learning responds to the distinct behaviors of this emerging style of learner. John also introduced us to a new word with the concept of "heutagogy". Making the concept of pedagogy seem positively reductive, heutagogy advocates learning by a process of trial and error. Learners are encouraged to be active and self-directed in place of the passive role of watching and listening.   How to select your online learning platform In both the main presentations and our chats with attendees, the importance of clearly understanding your requirements when selecting a learning management system was a recurring theme. The question of how to match requirements with an online learning solution was the subject of a presentation made by Gavin Woods, Business Development Manager at Aurion. Gavin’s advice was familiar to us at LearnUpon, as he argued that no eLearning platform is the best solution for every kind of organization. From open source solutions to proprietary and SaaS platforms, Gavin unveiled a patent-pending requirements wheel to illustrate decisions made in three real-life use cases. We were thrilled to see LearnUpon featured as Gavin’s preferred SaaS online learning solution, of course! Law Society requirements that saw LearnUpon chosen as best LMS solution A number of attendees we spoke with also described familiar Moodle challenges we reviewed recently. These conversations were a reminder to all eLearning professionals that, whichever solution you choose, open source does not, at the very least, mean free. As Gavin’s presentation suggested, the best online learning solution for your organization will match your budget against a set of carefully prioritized requirements.   Creating eLearning efficiencies Dr. Maureen Murphy, Aurion’s Managing Director, presented us with a masterclass in creating eLearning efficiencies. Maureen’s pragmatic presentation combined fresh insights into recent developments in eLearning with a roundup of best practices we all know we should be implementing. Maureen sees eLearning efficiencies everywhere and began by alerting us to a number of quick and simple starting points in real-world environments. Efficient eLearning processes should be learner-centric, focused on outcomes and the measurement of results. Inefficient eLearning is often, on the other hand, weighed down by the daily practicalities of delivering learning and training. Maureen’s vision ushered us away from from outdated static processes towards an agile approach to developing learning content and programs. Instead of the old-fashioned "Linear - Knowledge - Long" model, an agile approach allows you to respond quickly to changes within your organization and learner behavior. We were challenged to assess our own eLearning efficiency with a series of probing questions, including: What is the driver for your learning and training? What do you want learners to be able to do once training is complete? What is the learner’s motivation? Why is the behavior not happening? Remaining focused on these key questions will help you to understand the behaviors you want to "Keep, Improve, Stop, Start" - integral to developing efficient eLearning programs for your organization.   Using videos in online learning The closing presentation outlined a series of practical tips on interesting ways to use video in online learning. Mairin Murray, Learning Services Manager at Aurion, played a range of video snippets from Aurion’s vast library, all developed to enhance and support eLearning content. Samples moved beyond the few forms typically associated with video to include variations like animated content, digital stories, product simulations, and explainer videos. Mairin advised a thoughtful approach to the use of video, focusing on how the format can be used to enhance, rather than distract from, the learning experience. This final presentation also returned to the question of platform. The use of multiple eLearning formats is not supported by every learning management system. LearnUpon, for example, offers high-quality streaming that is compatible with YouTube, Vimeo, Wistia and Brainshark video content. Things to consider when developing video content Begin with an understanding of the learner behavior you aim to change Keep the idea and execution as simple as possible Look for ways to make learners active rather than passive Bring your Subject Matter Expert to the shoot Make your video accessible to all - consider accents, offer subtitles and transcripts where possible   We left Aurion’s Learning Masterclass filled with excitement about the year ahead in eLearning. Many of the key trends were familiar to us here at LearnUpon, as the team is working to deliver the features that keep our customers a step ahead in the swiftly changing eLearning landscape.   Sign up to our newsletter to get the latest news and releases from LearnUpon The post Aurion eLearning Masterclass - what we learned appeared first on LearnUpon.

How to scale your company culture while experiencing rapid growth is a question most successful technology companies eventually face. It’s a question that matters a lot to LearnUpon, an online learning company that is only three years old but has seen its customer base expand by over 200% in the past year alone. I interviewed LearnUpon’s account management team about the culture that has driven the company to become the fastest-growing online learning platform in the world. I got an insight into the clear thinking it takes to scale fast and the kinds of personalities that can help drive young businesses to succeed.   With a team now split across bases in Europe and Australia, LearnUpon hired its first account manager a brief 18 months ago. These first hires - Caoimhín, Phily and Eoghan - worked closely with CEO Brendan Noud in the original Dublin office. The company culture that drew the three to LearnUpon was already there in the atmosphere when they started, fostered by the vision and values of Brendan and technical co-founder Des Anderson. That LearnUpon culture was one of trust and support for both employees and customers. Brendan and Des believed in a process more like consultation than the traditional "get ’em over the line" sales pitch. Before scheduling a demo, each account manager researches the organization’s business, brand and existing learning and training environment. This gives them an acute understanding of the features the organization needs in a cloud-based eLearning platform for the partnership to succeed.   The seeds of a great company culture The core account management team has seen the process evolve and deepen with the company’s success. Establishing the team was an exciting and challenging moment for CEO Brendan. These would be the first hires to work closely with prospects and first customers, educating them about the company’s rapidly developing product.   "It was an exciting time, when we started to grow the team", says Brendan. "But a nervous one too. It had been clear for a while that we needed a lot more help to respond to the volume of enquiries the original team couldn’t handle anymore. But Des and I were aware that those first hires needed to believe in the product and share our approach to the Software-as-a-Service business. Des and I already had 20 years’ experience in the learning technology business between us. We wanted our account managers to be more than salespeople, not really salespeople at all in the old-fashioned sense. And that was what we saw in the guys. From the first interviews we could see they had the right attitude and enthusiasm and a really interesting mix of backgrounds. We struck it lucky. It was the right fit and our customers have been singing their praises ever since!"   Belief in the right fit runs through LearnUpon where both team members and customers are treated almost like partners who both benefit from and contribute to the business’s success.   Account managers are not salespeople The title of Account Manager isn’t incidental. It was carefully chosen to focus the approach of what would elsewhere be called the sales team. LearnUpon sells its product, of course. But it does not sell indiscriminately. Instead the team works closely with new prospects to help assess if LearnUpon is a good fit for their needs. If the team feels the fit isn’t right for some reason they will openly say so, explaining the reasons why, and even suggesting alternative solutions.   "We don’t just make a sale", Eoghan explains. "That’s short-term thinking. It doesn’t benefit anyone in the end. There are different kinds of solutions available in the eLearning market - open source, proprietary software, and cloud-based software (SaaS) like LearnUpon. We are totally confident in the platform Brendan and Des built after experiencing the limitations of other systems for years. LearnUpon’s LMS has a feature set that works perfectly for lots of different organizations. In a product demo, I will have scoped out the company’s requirements and made an assessment about whether LearnUpon is the right fit. I set up the platform to help them visualize that. They can see how the LearnUpon learning management system will work if they go with us. And they usually know instantly if LearnUpon is the right fit for them."   Belief in the team’s talent was echoed externally when Caoimhín was named a top 10 learning management system (LMS) demonstrator by learning industry thought leader, John Leh. The wider LearnUpon team saw the accolade as a validation of the company culture - the care and effort put into the product demo and its commitment to the ethos that the LMS must be the right solution for any potential customer.   Scaling company culture through big growth 2015 has seen big changes at LearnUpon and new challenges to sustaining and growing its company culture on new continents and in new languages. Dave, LearnUpon’s first Australian hire, joined in April 2015. I asked him if he shares the sense of company culture I had observed among the original team. Surely it’s a little harder for him, I suggest, working remotely from Australia.   "It’s different!" Dave admits. "But LearnUpon already had an office in Belgrade when I started. Des and his team were based there. So they’d already done a great job of keeping their vision and values alive in two separate locations. We’re a cloud software company and we’re all used to collaborating and chatting online anyway. With tools like Slack and Skype, I almost feel like I’m there in the office half the time. And with the team’s dedication, the timezone divide becomes irrelevant. The team is quite literally 24/7!"   Chatting to Dave on Slack really is just like chatting to any of the other members of the team. There’s a strong sense of the same attitude and passion, just that bit further away, on another continent. Having the same presence and passion in these markets is important to LearnUpon, as they offer customers 24/7 local support.   For the account managers, it’s really important that LearnUpon succeeds at retaining this culture as it scales over the coming years. It’s something they helped create after all. Phily says it was the culture that attracted him to LearnUpon over other software companies. He believes that culture is a key quality that distinguishes the company in the marketplace.   "You can sense it both in the way we treat each other and the way we respond to our customers" Phily explains. "You’re treated as an adult and a professional while still being encouraged to have a lot of fun. Brendan and Des know that if you’re the right person for the job, they can trust you. I have the freedom to make judgement calls, just as the rest of the team does."   This honesty and modesty could strike a reader as a little unusual for a team that still, after all sells, I suggest. Are you guys even competitive?   "We are alright! But not so much in the way you might expect", Phily continues. "The competitive streak comes out in … who’s right about what, and sport, and on company nights out. But as a team, it isn’t just about the sale, and who got there. There’s no fighting over leads. There’s no leaderboard."   The more time I spend with the account managers, the more I believe that this vision and values are, indeed, driving LearnUpon’s remarkable growth.   "I suppose it’s a validation of a real team culture", agrees Caoimhín. "It’s not at all hierarchical. That’s one of the things that makes it so different from other jobs I’ve had. You’re trusted and supported so you grow to trust your instincts. You don’t need to be involved with LearnUpon for very long to really believe in the value of the solution we offer to our customers."   Coming up next I ask Dave what he is looking forward to most and he speaks of LearnUpon’s plans to further grow our customer base and expand the account management team. Eoghan hints at some exciting updates for the product that he can’t wait for customers to experience. The whole company, across all locations and continents, takes part in a weekly product knowledge session where everyone is treated to a sneak peek at upcoming updates and prototype features that never fail to provoke excitement. Passion for a technology that is growing and changing is certainly an important element in the company culture that has so successfully driven the account management team.   LearnUpon will be available in Brazilian Portuguese in a number of weeks, a first step in serving the interest the company has received across South America. With recruitment actively underway in Dublin and Australia and whispers of LearnUpon opening a first US office early next year, there will be more challenges to scaling the company culture across continents. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or more of the first account managers were entrusted with the task. And I couldn’t think of better ambassadors to lead LearnUpon’s inspiring culture out west.   LearnUpon is actively recruiting both at home and abroad. If you think you have what it takes to join the team, send your CV to jobs@learnupon.com.   Experience LearnUpon for yourself. Sign-up for your free 30 day trial or schedule a demo with one of our account managers. The post When is a sales team not a sales team? appeared first on LearnUpon.

LearnUpon is the world’s fastest growing LMS, making learning and training simple for over 400 happy customers. Over 10,000 users complete courses on LearnUpon’s learning management system every day. With such a busy platform, we receive lots of valuable feedback from the administrators and instructors who use our LMS to deliver their training programs. That feedback plays an important role. It helps us decide where to invest our development resources and which features our customers need next. Hearing eLearning success stories always makes our day. Here’s a taste of the LMS reviews our customers have shared since choosing LearnUpon.   Unbeatable Customer Support   "Entering the online learning world was very new for us and in a matter of a few short months we have been able to develop a whole library for our participants. The support team is unlike any other company I have ever dealt with. They respond immediately and with practical solutions and are always willing to go the extra mile to help in any way they can. The response time in terms of extra needs for our business were treated in a timely manner and the whole team really takes the time to learn the business. I have loved my experience working with the LearnUpon team and would recommend them to anyone." Alison Winton, Director of Operations, AJAG Online   "I have found the Customer Service at LearnUpon to be stellar. Whenever we have questions or need support it is offered immediately and with great clarity. Our clients enjoy the flexibility and ease with which they are able to complete their training sessions. Many clients are preparing to return as customers to complete required training next year. It is our privilege to recommend LearnUpon to any company that is looking to incorporate an LMS for their training needs." Tracy McGee, Trainer and Consultant, The TJac Educational Consulting Group   "LearnUpon has been the perfect solution for our current training needs. The system is easy to use, the customer support is amazing and they are willing to work with us to improve the system to fit our business needs. Great company and a great LMS." Hannah Bessell, Associate Product Manager, SNL Financial   "The customer service stands out the most. Phily, Ian and Lisa have always answered or fixed anything so quickly. We couldn’t be happier." Tatum Bandy, Owner, American Technical Institute   "LearnUpon combines a great product with second-to-none customer support. It was a no-brainer for our company to use LearnUpon’s LMS to deliver our courses." David E. Davis, President, ProCert Training, LLC     "The support provided by LearnUpon is exceptional! They provided us with support that really helped us through an intense roll out of our internal training package." Richard Hamlyn, Global Training Manager, SDL     "The LearnUpon LMS is quite impressive, but the real value of LearnUpon is the tremendous support the LearnUpon staff has provided us. We have had a real partner in helping us meet our business goals." James Weaver, IT Support Specialist, Avant Healthcare Professionals   "The technical support I’ve received from LearnUpon has been absolutely top notch! Whether simply answering a question or digging in to investigate a problem, these guys are always responsive, fast, friendly and thorough." Richard Crouse, From Fatigued to Fantastic, LLC     "Having a good product is one thing, but LearnUpon also provide a fantastic level of customer support. Thanks to all the team." Ray Fletcher, Head of IT, Dimensions   Easy to Use LMS   "Metrics show that our external customer learners are pleased with the system and courses available within it. More than 90% responded that they "Strongly Agree" that the system and modules were easy to navigate." Layne Northsea, Director of Global Education and Training, Xoft, Inc   "LearnUpon’s mission was to build an LMS that is quick to setup, super easy to use and backed up by exceptional customer support. They have, without a doubt, succeeded on all three goals." Amanda Kizer, Owner, Bright Idea Multimedia   "We have been using LearnUpon for over 12 months now and have found the product, customer service and support excellent. The product is easy to use and it has enabled BVM to offer a more comprehensive blended learning product." Steven Buchan, Director, BVM Solutions     "LearnUpon provides an easy to use and professional platform that is flexible and adaptable. A cost effective training facility, it is well supported by both customer service and technical teams. We give an unreserved endorsement." Lloyd Hodkinson, Director, CLC International   "LearnUpon was the best update we did over the past year. It’s an easy tool to use, and so helpful! Our trainer was doing one-on-one training, which takes a long time when you’re 24/7/365. Training all of our agents is not a problem anymore. Online training makes sure that everybody gets the same level of training and information, and you can make sure the content is understood by testing your staff. LearnUpon simply changed our lives, for the better!" Sabrina Perron, Operations Manager, Image-24     "LearnUpon houses several of our courses used in blended learning for our training centers (clients), and the ease of use is very high for the end user. Key to its value, for us, is the customer support we receive from LearnUpon representatives on the rare occasions when we do have a question or need assistance. LearnUpon agents without fail always provide immediate, courteous and effective responses." Sara Poe, Director of Operations, Starfish Aquatics Institute     "LearnUpon LMS is elegant simplicity coupled to robust capability, reliable performance and effective, stress free delivery and setup. A great LMS built by some outstanding folks. They took the time to bring me from a no-nothing LMS newbie to LMS administrator in a couple of days. Every question was answered and every problem was solved. It’s the LMS I plan to use when I expand my education program." Christopher Davies, E-railtrain®   The Ideal Online Learning Partner   "Brendan and Des from LearnUpon have been ideal partners for our LMS needs. They are open to working with us on finding fixes to our unique client needs. Feature updates are well thought out, ready for prime time and frequent. LearnUpon is the best learning management service for training companies that we know (and we’ve searched far and wide)." Tracy Barill, Director of Instructional Design & Development, Healthpoint Institute Inc.   "What makes LearnUpon stand out above other learning platforms is their commitment to supporting each client in achieving their goals. Their system is easy to learn, easy to implement and behind it stands a dedicated team ready to provide assistance. Very pleased to have chosen LearnUpon as our learning platform." Camelia Symes, CEO & Founder, SMART Majority   "LearnUpon is a great partner. They provide seamless support and customer service. I would rate them a 10 on any NPS survey. I feel as if they are a part of my team. They believe in support with excellence, I have the greatest confidence in their ability to deliver." Chris Christenson, Director of Education, Noria   "Our company has used other online training portals in the past and switched over to LearnUpon for a number of reasons, starting with the exceptional support we receive. In a short period of time using LearnUpon has helped us save time, energy and money." John McMahon, Senior Marketing Advisor, Ideal Technology Inc   "I have been searching for just over 10 years for a product like LearnUpon. I’ve always understood that in order to accelerate our growth, we had to automate our learning abilities and provide objective material for our staff and clients to use. Every product that I attempted to use in the past fell short and subsequently the project failed to get off the ground, that is until we found LearnUpon. This product was so intuitive, easy to use, and the price made it a very simple decision. We took the leap with LearnUpon and haven’t looked back. Thanks, Brendan!" Andy Feltmate, Director of Client Services, PBS Systems     "When we were searching for a LMS two things were important to us: 1) Simplicity for our students and 2) Support that would be there when we needed them. LearnUpon has exceeded our expectations! Thanks for making us look great." Jeremy Reets, Owner, Reets Drying Academy   "Being an online learning provider, LearnUpon has been invaluable in allowing our business to get up and running. From day 1, LearnUpon has provided both the technical and personal support that has enabled us to get to where we are today, and will continue to help us to grow in the future." Brian Cahill, CEO, Sound Training Online   "Your service is second-to-none and every day we are glad that we’ve partnered with you." Terry Aurit, Chief of Instructional Design, Savvy Training and Consulting   Always Improving Learning Management System   "They are quick to answer questions and get you the help you need, as well as constantly updating and improving the system based on what their customers are looking for and submitting to them. I would recommend LearnUpon to anyone looking for an LMS system." Ryan Carnes, Partner, Cornerstone Learning House   "A constantly evolving, simple and cost effective LMS with a second to none support team. Even throughout our trial period Brendan and the LearnUpon team couldn’t do enough and the quality, support and level of customer service really is unbeatable and like nothing I have experienced before." Charles Cain, IT Technician, The Harley Medical Group   "After extensive research I found only one LMS that met our requirements. LearnUpon was not just the best option, it was the only option. There is simply no other LMS suitable for commercial training companies that even comes close. Intuitive, smart, affordable and flexible, with an impressive range of features, backed up by first class service and support. In less than 3 years the LearnUpon team have built the best LMS for training companies in the marketplace, and it’s still getting better with new features released every month. I highly recommend LearnUpon to any training company serious about providing its customers with a superb eLearning experience." Richard Smith, Chief Executive, Maybo Ltd.   "If you’re looking for an LMS system you won’t go far wrong with LearnUpon. Their system is powerful yet intuitively simple to use. All the features have been really well thought out by the experience of the staff, and the developers are constantly working hard to improve the system." Paul Randle, Product Marketing Manager, Coachwise Ltd   Affordable LMS for all Customers   "We switched to LearnUpon in early 2014, thereby reducing our LMS costs by 2/3 of the previous cost, and acquiring functions we had not had before, such as integrated eshop and certificate issue. LearnUpon support is excellent: fast and friendly." Jon Cousens, Owner, Cloud Aero Training Ltd     "We needed a hosted system that was affordable, customizable, and allowed for several different training modalities (documents, videos, SCORM content, and Instructor-led sessions). We also needed something that didn’t require us to have dedicated IT staff to manage it. We found ALL of this in LearnUpon." Leslie Dollman, MIS Administrator, Milestone HCQU West   "I am a retired Dean of STEM and have been a Blackboard user and Administrator for over twenty years. I joined this Association 4 years ago and have created a nationally recognized and credentialed training program using the LearnUpon portal and I have to say I could not be happier. Their Customer Support is prompt and very comprehensive, the cost is less than 1/3 of the cost for Blackboard, my 200+ students enjoy the ease of navigating the coursework, and there is so much more! I can’t say enough about how LearnUpon is exceeding everything that I had hoped for." Ken McCreight, Vice President, National Tooling and Machining Association   "With LearnUpon we received an excellent product, within budget and with excellent support along the way. I couldn’t be happier with our decision to select them as our LMS." Mo Qutub, Education Manager, World Obesity Federation   That’s the word from our customers. If you want to experience a learning management system that offers unbeatable customer support, is easy to use, always improving, and affordable, LearnUpon could be the ideal online partner for you too.   Try LearnUpon for yourself. Start your free 30 day trial now. The post Read our LMS reviews appeared first on LearnUpon.

This is a guest post by Sinead Murphy, Instructional Designer and Lecturer at Dublin City University. Sinead is an expert in the development of eLearning strategies and course materials. Creating eLearning courses is like everything else, easy when you know how! Many training professionals find creating effective eLearning content to be one of the most challenging parts of developing online courses. With so much to do at the beginning, it can be tempting to dive straight in and start executing as quickly as possible. But this can also be a risky approach. Spending some time defining the ‘Wheres, Whos and Whats’ of your course helps create a more efficient process that minimizes time wasted on unnecessary work and changes in direction. Take 20 minutes to answer the big questions you need to consider to develop effective SCORM or Tin Can (xAPI) compliant eLearning courses that deliver your learning objectives.   Where to start? The most efficient starting point is a schedule that allows sufficient time to map out your content needs and align them with overall learning objectives and learner expectations. It’s a mistake to underestimate the work you need to do before you actually start commissioning or creating learning content. A comprehensive planning session early in the process will help ensure all of the learning content you create is goal-driven and developed in formats appropriate to both your learning objectives and learner needs. Thinking about the questions in this section will help develop a clear brief that you can use when you move on to working with course developers and authoring software tools. Key question: How much learning content do you already have? What type of content is it? The amount of content you require will be informed both by the length of your course and the volume of existing content you can repurpose. Courses generally shouldn’t be more than one hour long. You should also break learning content into manageable ‘chunks’. ‘Chunking’ content into bite-sized microlearning avoids inducing learner fatigue. Other questions to start with Who are you building the course for? What are the learning objectives etc? What is your budget? The answers to these questions will guide your course design. Developing a course for an online audience is little different to preparing a course for a face-to-face audience. While the design process and how the course is accessed may differ significantly, the need for clear learning objectives and high-quality content is the same. Understanding who you are creating learning content for, and how learners will use it, will help guide decisions about design and content types. The size of your budget will also determine the volume and types of content you can afford to create.   Who are you creating eLearning content for? This second round of questions will help define the first ‘Who’ of your online learning program - your learners. Thinking about these questions will help ensure your course is aligned to the needs of all learners who undertake it. Questions about your learners Who are your learners? How tech savvy are they? How much prior knowledge of the subject matter do they have? Thinking about these questions in the early stages of course development will allow the answers to inform many aspects of your course design. Who your learners are, and their familiarity with technology, should impact most course design decisions - from which navigational features to choose, to how content should be visually presented. For example, If you are designing a course for children, you will use more color and imagery than in a course developed for adult learners. Corporate online training will clearly differ from courses for children, most obviously in terms of objectives and learner needs. That is not to say that corporate or business courses should be rigid in design. You will often hear people say that corporate training courses need to be very polished, clean and professional looking. All courses should be professional looking but that doesn’t mean they should lack imagination and fun. Business professionals are not without imagination and a sense of fun. Online courses created for them should be designed accordingly.   What type of course are you designing? There are a number of guidelines that apply to all courses, regardless of type. Every course should be learner-centric, for example. And you should always aim to be as clear as possible in your understanding of your course rationale. Key question: What is your course rationale? Are you simply trying to pass on information? Or change behavior? Or motivate learners? The answers to these questions will also influence how your course should be designed. If you are simply passing on information, you may just need to develop a straightforward information transference type of course. In that case, a simple, neat linear course structure will suffice. Learners will not thank you for asking them to press extra buttons to access simple information, so keep your course design straightforward wherever possible. If you are trying to motivate learners and change behavior, you may need to assess the degree of learning gained at the end of the course. In that case, planning, development time and costs will increase accordingly. Effective methods for motivating learners to change behavior include the use of storytelling or carefully scripted scenarios in which learners choose an outcome based on the content they have read, watched or listened to. Each outcome must include a degree of feedback that can then branch to another scenario, and so on. While these methods can be very effective ways to learn, they require considerable planning, and the help of a subject matter expert who can relate to the learner’s needs. If you plan to assess learning, you will need to consider what form the assessment should take. Options range from the use of Multiple Choice Questions, to qualitative feedback, or the outcomes returned from scenario choices. You can review some of the assessment options LearnUpon’s LMS offers here. Above all, you must be very clear about what your course needs to achieve and then design accordingly.   Who will design your course? Once you understand who your learners are and what kind of course you need, it’s time to decide who will create it. With so many rapid eLearning authoring software tools available, it’s becoming easier and more cost-effective for organizations to develop courses internally rather than outsource to external developers. If you are new to delivering online learning, it’s crucial to ensure that your chosen course developer has experience using relevant software tools before you proceed. Key question: Is your content creator familiar with the ADDIE or AGILE Instructional Design Models? Which model best suits your organizational culture? Knowledge of the ADDIE or AGILE Instructional Design Models is crucial if you want to develop educationally sound courses. Almost anyone can present information and pictures to develop a ‘course’, but achieving learning outcomes through the delivery of carefully constructed content is a skill. Once you have selected a model your course developer is familiar with, there are many ways your content can be presented.   Which content types should you create? Learning content usually takes the form of text, audio, video and images. The selection of content types should be deliberate and thoughtful. You will also need to consider the range of course content types your chosen LMS can support. The following questions will help you decide which content types are better suited to your learning objectives and learner needs. Questions for content creation Is your course developer skilled in the creation of content of this type? Is the content of good quality? Does the content type actually enhance learning? Is the content format supported by your LMS? Audio, visual or video content should only ever be used to enhance learning. Consider these best practice guidelines before selecting which content types to create. Video When used correctly, video is a powerful learning medium. Video is particularly effective for demonstrating complex tasks, allowing the learner to pause or re-watch particular sections as needed. The creation of video content shouldn’t be undertaken without good reason, however. Producing video content can be costly and there are user experience factors to consider. The use of video increases file size, for example, increasing the time it takes a course to download for learners. It’s also worth remembering that video makes your audience passive. Apart from starting, stopping, pausing, rewinding or fast-forwarding the video, the learner has little opportunity to interact with the content. If content can be presented in another format that the learner can interact with, opt for that instead. Other forms of content can be more cost-effective and actually increase learner engagement. Audio Like video, audio content has a rightful place within course design. The skill is knowing when to use audio content to really maximize learning. There are conflicting views on the use of audio to narrate content on every slide. Consider the value the use of narrated audio adds if identical content can be read on the slide by the learner. If the learner needs to use both the sense of hearing and vision to consume the content, you risk overloading the senses and undermining learning. Audio can certainly be a great way to introduce a course. But once you consider the cost of producing high-quality audio, you must have a compelling educational argument for its inclusion on every course slide. As with the use of video, over-reliance on audio risks making your learner passive, especially if the audio content dictates the pace at which they progress through the course. Imagery Pictures or images can act as powerful learning tools but, as with video and audio content, only if used correctly. All images should be clearly and logically related to the rest of the onscreen learning content, for example. If you have an image on your screen that does not relate to the content for the purpose of learning, it is best to remove it. Decorative imagery can actually detract from learning, as the learner (often subconsciously) works to create a meaningful link between an image and the rest of the slide’s content, such as a paragraph of text. If there is no such link, you have detracted from their learning. Where imagery does logically link with the rest of the slide’s content and add to learning, make sure the quality is good. A poorly pixelated image screams design indifference and risks undermining the authority of your course. Design Choose your font and color scheme carefully as the overall look of your course will have a massive impact on learning. Font should be easy to read, both in terms of the font design and the color selected. Bold, loud colors can be harsh on the eyes and induce fatigue. Don’t be afraid to leave empty white spaces on slides. Clean, uncluttered slides are far more conducive to learning. You may already have a corporate color palette, which can be easily integrated into your courses. This not only save times time but also creates brand consistency between courses and other corporate assets. Poorly designed courses create a negative first impression that will fail to win the confidence of learners. For your first few courses, working with an external expert or providing expert training for your own developer in advance may be a wise investment. This short-term investment can yield positive long-term outcomes if you are considering migrating a lot of your training materials to an online platform.   What platform are you designing for? The accessibility of online courses has changed the way people learn. This accessibility is being further enhanced with the emergence of mobile learning or ‘mLearning’ as it is commonly called. An understanding of mLearning is crucial for course developers. Developers should make note of the range of devices a course may be accessed on, consider how the course should respond, and design accordingly. You will also need to consider the mobile responsiveness of your chosen LMS. LearnUpon’s learning management system includes an iOS app, for example. Attention to responsiveness requires additional planning and increases production time but avoids the need to produce the same course in different formats for different devices. The emergence of mLearning is linked to the evolution of Tin Can (also known as Experience API or xAPI). The xAPI can be viewed as a progression from SCORM, capturing learning activity in a range of mobile settings and scenarios. Deciding whether to create SCORM or xAPI compliant courses can be a very important point of consideration if your organization needs to track ‘mobile’ learner activities. You should first ensure your authoring software has xAPI publishing capabilities, and that your chosen LMS has matching capabilities. You can review LearnUpon’s SCORM and Tin Can features here.   Now you are finally ready to start creating course content! Once you have fully considered the ‘Wheres, Whos, and Whats’ of your course, you will have a clear brief you can use to collaborate with content developers. The more experienced you become at developing courses, the quicker the process will become. Clear thinking at the start of your learning development process will help deliver a better user experience and support the achievement of your learning objectives.   This is a guest post by Sinead Murphy, Instructional Designer and Lecturer. Sinead has an MSc in Education and Training Management from Dublin City University. With expertise in the development of eLearning strategies and course materials, Sinead lectures on Instructional Design. The post Developing online learning content: Ask these questions first appeared first on LearnUpon.

With almost 2,000 members in 50 chapters throughout the United States, The National Tooling and Machining Association (NTMA) is the national representative of the precision custom manufacturing industry. Dedicated to supporting the profitable growth of members in industries from aerospace to electronics and nuclear power, NTMA represents more than $40 billion in sales. Like all of the best associations and professional bodies, NTMA believes that supporting the Continuing Professional Development of members helps everyone in the organization to thrive. We spoke to Ken McCreight, Vice President of NTMA, about the changes the association has enjoyed since choosing LearnUpon as their learning management system two years ago.   Meet the association A retired Dean of STEM, Ken McCreight was a Blackboard user and administrator for over 20 years. Since joining NTMA as Vice President, Ken has used LearnUpon’s LMS to create a nationally recognized and credentialed training program for the association.   What business challenge did NTMA need LearnUpon to address? As a fast growing business, NTMA faced a wide range of challenges at the time we moved to LearnUpon. When a business grows quickly, different problems and opportunities demand different solutions. Without continual support, that growth can become very challenging, a nightmare, even. NTMA is always alert to the need to pursue new solutions to manage the challenges created by growth. What worked for us as a non-profit association a year ago is not always still the best approach, as our customers’ needs are constantly changing. We believe that recognizing and overcoming the common dangers associated with growth is essential as we continue to thrive. It’s also vitally important to us to ensure the steps we take today don’t in themselves create additional problems for the association in future. All of this was especially relevant to our Learning and Development programs, which faced challenges specifically associated with expansion. NTMA is a non-profit organization that provides workforce development training to members. Within a short four year period, we moved from selling 30 training modules to selling over 1,200 modules to members this year alone. LearnUpon played a vital role in driving and supporting our expansion. The team met us via conference calls, virtual meetings, and email to continually guide us on how to maximize the opportunity as we transitioned to the successful Learning and Development programs we offer today. We also had a number of technical requirements we needed the online learning platform to meet. At the time we moved to LearnUpon, we had over 600 educational YouTube videos we wanted to migrate. Our chosen online learning solution needed the ability to handle a range of multimedia and rich content, such as these video and MP4 files. We also needed the LMS to be able to manage students at different learning levels to match the structure of the courses we offer. Finally, we required considerable automation around features like the grading of assessments and the awarding of certificates.   Why did you decide to move from Blackboard to LearnUpon? I had used Blackboard previously within a very different Learning and Training environment, as a Dean of STEM. My contrasting experiences with Blackboard in a college versus association organization has been instructive. While Blackboard can be very useful within environments that have a specific set of requirements, it’s not the best choice for an association like NTMA. I am well aware of the vast needs colleges can face. Blackboard has the ‘bells and whistles’ a college might need to serve multiple divisions and uses within its varied environment. At an association level, however, many of Blackboard’s features were superfluous to our needs and actually distracted from the learning experience. I would compare it to buying a new computer that’s loaded with software we would never need to use. LearnUpon was far more equipped to meet the real needs of association users. Above all, our students needed a user-friendly system that wasn’t loaded with unnecessary features that complicated their navigation through courses - a problem we experienced with Blackboard. When I went in search of an alternative, I found that LearnUpon had all the features a student would need as well as all the features I needed to be a successful Administrator. Yet LearnUpon was only a third of the cost of Blackboard. We quickly realized that LearnUpon was the right choice and we have been very happy with our selection ever since.   How did you find LearnUpon? As an organization, we needed to evaluate several LMS products and vendors. Finding the learning management system that best met our association’s needs was not easy. There are hundreds of LMS products available. The investment of time and cost that our association made in the search for a learning management system was significant. We took the process very seriously, as I was aware of the risk of disruption caused by selecting the wrong solution.  We had experienced that ourselves by starting with Blackboard, which turned out to be a poor match for NTMA’s training needs. We found LearnUpon via a Google web search and we could not be happier with our selection.   What benefits has NTMA seen since implementing LearnUpon? One of LearnUpon’s great strengths as a learning management platform is their support team. The way they respond almost instantly helps us to manage the administration, delivery, tracking and reporting of our online classes very effectively. LearnUpon’s features have also proven highly beneficial for us. Automation is very important, for example. We now enjoy the ability to issue certificates that identify a student’s grade upon successful completion of a module or course. Automation minimizes time-consuming manual work, saving countless hours in resourcing. LearnUpon also enables us to organize different content for a range of learner audiences. And LearnUpon’s LMS provides data and reports on learner behavior and performance that helps us to measure results and forecast demand for future modules in the next semester. All of these features and benefits help make our Learning and Development processes far more efficient and successful than they were before we moved to LearnUpon.   Why would you recommend LearnUpon over other LMSes? I have to say I could not be happier. LearnUpon’s customer support is outstanding - prompt and very comprehensive. The cost and value of the learning management system is unbeatable - less than a third of the cost of Blackboard, as I mentioned. More importantly, the ease of use for both students and administrators is unmatched by any other LMS. My students enjoy the ease of navigating the coursework - and there is so much more! I can’t say enough about how LearnUpon is exceeding everything that I had hoped for.   Try LearnUpon for yourself. Start your free 30 day trial now.     The post How LearnUpon’s LMS helps a growing association to succeed appeared first on LearnUpon.

If you manage the delivery of training and Continuing Professional Development (CPD) within an association, you’ll know that learning credits can be essential to the success of members. Providing learning credits can create structure, meaning and professional recognition for programs that really incentivize and reward the efforts of participants. Association members are also likely to consider integration with industry standards an essential element of the service you provide. But not all learning management systems are equally equipped to handle the range of internal and external credits your members may require. Read this guide to consider the key features your online learning platform should include to make managing CPD as simple as possible for all learners in your association or professional body.   Manage all learning credits together An LMS that can only manage a limited range of learning credits is of little use to associations. The support of successful members demands a learning platform with the ability to fully integrate with all standardized credits, including CPD, CEUs and CMEs. Your association’s learning and development programs do not exist in isolation. To truly deliver value, they must have the capacity to fully integrate with members’ external training programs to form one cohesive learning experience. What this means in the most practical sense, is that learners should be able to track the progress of all learning credits when they login to your association’s LMS. The alternative scenario in which members can only manage a portion of their credits risks creating a fragmented experience that undermines learner confidence and growth. Your online learning platform should also allow you to narrow the range of credits offered, so that learners are not confused by those irrelevant to their professional development. If your LMS is appropriately flexible, you will be able to choose exactly which credits to support and issue through your programs. The ideal solution offers an open credit system that integrates with industry standards yet remains fully customizable by your admininstrators. The most flexible learning management systems, like LearnUpon, enable users to track internal and external credits, awarded both within and beyond the LMS. LearnUpon, for example, allows users to manage all external learning credits, including CPD, CEU, CME and CLE, and avoids the need for intervention by a support team or administrator.   Learning Credits settings screen in LearnUpon’s LMS for associations and professional bodies Credits for all learning activities The need for flexibility extends beyond the types of learning credits supported. An effective LMS must also be able to award any number of credits to the full range of potential courses. It’s crucial that your learning management system can recognize and reward both online and offline learning. Your training and development programs may assess performance on quizzes and assessments delivered within the LMS itself. But you may also need to assign credits to other kinds of activities - the reading of technical journals or other industry publications, attendance at mandatory events, or the submission of notes or reflections on an annual basis. Not all learning management systems are able to offer the requisite level of flexibility, so it’s important to ask these questions early in the process. In LearnUpon, each course dynamically displays a list of credit options that can be easily implemented with a few clicks. To properly assess this requirement, you will need to explore the related features of your chosen LMS. Depending on the structure of your learning and training programs, you may need to ensure that the learning platform includes features like ILT functionality or is compatible with Tin Can API (xAPI) technology. The most flexible learning solutions will allow you to issue credits in the desired format for a full range of behaviors and activities, from the completion of online and classroom-based courses to reading relevant materials and attending conferences.   Automated features  For associations, in particular, the ability to award credits and certificates automatically on the successful completion of courses can be essential. Ken McCreight, Vice President of NTMA, described LearnUpon’s automation functionality as one of the key reasons the association switched from Blackboard to our LMS. Automation removes resource-intensive manual interventions from managing learning credits for your members. An LMS with this level of functionality will automatically award learners who successfully complete a course with a certificate which they can download, save or print. You will also need to ensure that the automation features of the LMS are themselves flexible, able to link the awarding of credits and certificates with all courses, certification programs, learning paths, and events. If branding is important to your association, you should ensure that the LMS will allow you to customize certificates awarded. With LearnUpon, for example, you can import existing certificates into the platform, and link them to whichever course or path is most relevant. This feature also makes it easy to edit certificate design and layout, tailoring the inclusion of dynamic data variables, such as first name, last name, course title, score achieved, completion date, as well as the type and number of learning credits awarded.   The ability to effectively manage learning credits is one of the key features most associations require from a learning management system. If external training obligations matter to your members, you should align your offerings to create the most seamless experience possible. But not all learning platforms have been developed with the specific needs of associations in mind. The ability to effectively manage learning credits is an area where some fail to perform. This oversight is why LearnUpon built an LMS specifically to provide a scalable solution for the training challenges of association management.   Learn more about LearnUpon’s LMS for associations and professional bodies   Common learning credits explained CPD: Continuing Professional Development describes the lifelong learning of those active in the professions. Most CPD programs are designed to help professionals stay up-to-date with developments in their field after tertiary or postgraduate training has concluded. Also known as Continuing Professional Education (CPE), CPD is the means by which professionals maintain their knowledge and skills throughout their working lives. CPD obligations are common in many professions and can include a broad range of activities, including formal, informal, structured and self-directed learning approaches. CEU: A Continuing Education Unit or Continuing Education Credit (CEC) is a measure frequently used in the administration of CPDs for licensed professions, including architects, engineers, educators, health professionals and social workers. Professionals in these fields are sometimes obliged to complete a set number of CEUs to retain or renew their license. A CEU usually equals 10 hours of participation in a recognized Continuing Education Program. CEU records are very important in highly regulated fields and kept as evidence of completion of mandatory training required by certification bodies or governmental licensing boards. CME: Continuing Medical Education describes the form of continuing professional education specific to those who work in medical fields. Activities involved can include attending events, reading publications, or participating in online training programs. CLE: Continuing Legal Education can also be known as Mandatory or Minimum Continuing Legal Education (MCLE). Both terms describe the lifelong professional education of lawyers that takes place in the years after passing the bar. In a number of US states, participation in CLE is mandatory for attorneys to retain their license to practice. The post Why Learning Credits should be a key feature of your LMS appeared first on LearnUpon.

Dublin, Ireland November 11th 2015 - LearnUpon, the world’s fastest growing learning management system, today announces their integration with Salesforce Cloud CRM. This seamless integration will provide LearnUpon customers with direct access to all of their training data within the world’s number one CRM.   Enrollment, commencement, completion and other training data can now be automatically synced in real-time between LearnUpon and Salesforce. Administrators can quickly see what courses their users and contacts are signed up to using the real-time information display and widgets. The LearnUpon for Salesforce app also makes it super-easy to generate custom reports within the Salesforce environment. Administrators can simply drag and drop training history and required fields into their own reports, Visualforce pages or user/contact profiles - the possibilities are endless.   Other features include single sign-on (SSO) and the ability to easily create and update users as learners gain traction in LearnUpon. Salesforce users and contacts can simply click on a learning tab, right within Salesforce, without ever needing to login to other applications or leave Salesforce in order to complete their training. This creates a truly seamless training environment for Salesforce organizations and communities. As learners access training materials, videos, exams and more, tracking and completion data is readily available to administrators directly within their Salesforce organization. Administrators will also benefit from having all of LearnUpon’s functionality readily available. LearnUpon’s portal management features make it even easier for Salesforce administrators to manage clients’ training needs, the licensing of courses and branding configurations.   Commenting on the announcement LearnUpon’s CEO, Brendan Noud, said "We are delighted to announce the release of LearnUpon’s integration with Salesforce. With so many of LearnUpon’s customers using Salesforce as their CRM we see this integration as a great opportunity for them to assign training out to their sales staff, customers and partners directly from within Salesforce as well as giving them quick visibility on what training has been completed without ever needing to leave Salesforce and log into LearnUpon."   Try LearnUpon for free today or email sales@learnupon.com to schedule a personalized demonstration of LearnUpon’s Salesforce integration. The post LearnUpon announces release of Salesforce integration appeared first on LearnUpon.

For those on the hunt for course design tips, Tom Kuhlmann’s blog and the Articulate E-Learning Heroes community overseen by David Anderson are a must read. Articulate Storyline 2 is also really useful for quickly turning eLearning content into engaging interactive courses. So when we heard two of Articulate’s eLearning stars were taking their expertise on the road, we had to be there. And not only did we pick up some nifty production tips, we learned that Tom and David are as generous with their time and knowledge as their work led us to expect. If you weren’t able to make it along to Articulate’s road trip, catch up on the morning’s highlights in this post.   Session 1: Beginner’s Guide to eLearning - David Anderson (Community Manager, Articulate) As Community Manager of E-Learning Heroes, with over 250,000 members, David’s very familiar with the challenges instructional designers face when adapting content to develop new courses. David’s tips are particularly useful in situations where you have limited scope to edit content prepared by a Subject Matter Expert but would still like to add interactive elements.   How to make existing content interactive David chose PowerPoint as a format that often needs to be transformed from a static eLearning document into an interactive course. Storyline works really well in this scenario, retaining the exact contents of the PowerPoint document on import. But by converting a PowerPoint presentation to Storyline, you gain the ability to add interactive elements that enhance learner experience. Some quick ways to enhance existing eLearning content include: Chunking Adding learner interactions Adding design improvements All of these enhancements can be easily made to your course in Storyline, without radically altering the essence of the content prepared by your Subject Matter Expert.   Make changes to the template When working with existing content, you’ll often need to make design changes to enhance user experience. David demonstrated how simply changing the slide background can alter the entire look and feel of a course, for example. With design details moving in and out of fashion, a change from a beveled to a flat style might be essential to remaining consistent with your brand. It can be tempting to make these kinds of design changes to individual slides in isolation. But making local changes risks undermining the consistency of course design. To keep course development efficient, make changes to the template itself wherever possible. Primary text changes should be tied to heading and body settings, for example. Making global instead of local changes helps avoid the need to re-do work and repeat actions later. Bonus tip: It can be challenging to keep courses consistent with a style guide when working across multiple programs, like PowerPoint and Storyline. In this scenario, try embedding the details of your style guide into the settings of PowerPoint and Storyline before you begin to develop your course.   Layers, States and Triggers Some of the most useful Storyline features for transitioning from static to interactive content include the use of states, slide layers, and triggers. These three features allow you to add interactive elements to help engage learners without changing the learning content itself. Layers: Course building starts with a single layer, in David’s example, the static slides imported from PowerPoint. As a course is developed, layers can be added to increase interactivity. States: States can be added to on-screen objects like images, shapes, captions, characters, and buttons. States are most useful in scenarios where you don’t want a learner to proceed without taking an action. Common states include hover, click, drag and drop, visited, selected, and disabled. Each state provides a different view of the content, triggered when a learner takes an action. Triggers: Triggers can be added to similar kinds of objects on slide layers in the Trigger Wizard. All of a course’s interactive elements will include one or more triggers. Triggers tell Storyline when to reveal additional slide layers, usually after a learner has taken an action.   Responsive course design Interactive course design must also be alert to the demands of mobile and tablet responsiveness. Responsive design is essential to creating a positive experience for contemporary learners. All course development processes should consider usability implications for the fullest range of devices and screen sizes possible. The use of layers, states and triggers should be balanced against the limitations of responsiveness. While adding slide layers might make your course interactive, it may also increase file size, risking the creation of usability difficulties for learners. If your course contains a lot of video content, it may be best to limit the use of slide layers. If memory shortages lead screens to time out, learners may not appreciate your efforts to make a course interactive. Think about the range of devices learners will use first and allow that understanding to inform course design. It’s also important to keep responsiveness in mind when exporting course content from Storyline. While Web is a versatile format, it isn’t always the best option for supporting responsiveness. The LMS output format supports SCORM and Tin Can API options that are better equipped to track learner progress across devices and environments. Remember to check the HTML5 box on the screen below if you intend to serve courses to users on iOS devices.     Session 2: Common Interactions & How to Build Them - Tom Kuhlmann (Chief Learning Architect, Articulate) Tom’s Rapid E-Learning Blog is one of the best practical resources for course designers. In our second session with Articulate, Tom went deeper into the subject of learner interactions. Tom outlined the most common types of interaction and showed us how to create reusable versions to make course design efficient. Interactions shouldn’t be added to courses arbitrarily, however. The objective of using them should be to engage learners’ senses and create an active learning experience that moves beyond the simple use of multimedia content.   Before you create interactions Tom advocates allowing time for planning before you begin creating interactions. Start by thinking about a course structure that suits your objectives and learner requirements. Determining a style at the beginning will speed up decision making throughout the development process. Understanding the limits of course development will also help you to make informed design decisions. To create an interaction you will need space for a character onscreen and space for your learner to make a decision. Identify the most common types of interaction you can accomplish in Storyline and map those options to your course development.   How interactions engage learners Adding interactions should aim to further engage learners. Instead of passively receiving information, interactions push learners to make decisions. Tom emphasized the value of a thoughtful approach to course design. Interactions are best used as part of a considered approach that works to improve the learner’s ability to absorb and consider information. Adding unnecessary interactions risks creating a frustrating experience that distracts learners from your shared goal. Tom’s eLearning philosophy focuses on three Cs: Challenging learners’ understanding Giving learners choices Having those choices produce consequences When used effectively, interactions give learners control over their experience. Interactions challenge learners by pushing them to make decisions relevant to their experience. Asking learners to make choices in this way encourages them to analyze situations, making assessments they are more likely to remember.   Common interactions Although some interactions might look impressive, Tom encouraged us not to overthink their design. Most interactions are surprisingly similar. 90% of learner interactions with a screen are click-based, for example. Other common interactions include hovering and dragging and dropping. After a learner interacts with a screen in one of these ways, information relevant to their progress can be revealed by a trigger. Tabs interactions are an effective method for chunking learning content in Storyline. Adding tabs to a slide is particularly useful for breaking up large volumes of content so that it can be revealed in sequence to learners. Less common kinds of tabs interactions include FAQs and Checklists. Once you have prepared the most useful interactions for your course type, Tom recommends saving them for reuse as Storyline templates to speed up course development later.   After a morning filled with top production tips, we’re looking forward to the next road trip already. As David said, a day with our E-LearningHeroes is like eLearning school - but a lot more fun!   Get more eLearning tips and tricks. Sign up to our newsletter.     The post What we learned from a morning with Articulate appeared first on LearnUpon.

At LearnUpon, we frequently speak to prospects requesting to see our Application Program Interface (API) documentation because they want to implement single sign-on (SSO). And we also encounter the reverse. We hear from prospects inquiring about SSO when their needs are more suited to uses of the API. While API and SSO can work really well together, they are in fact two very different tools. I’d compare it to the difference between a knife and fork. While the tools complement each other really well, they also serve VERY different purposes, and should be used to accomplish different tasks. In this post, I run through some of the main differences between how an API and SSO can be used to enhance the performance of your learning management system.   SSO Single sign-on describes a single set of credentials that allows users to access multiple applications across your organization while only needing to log in once. In this scenario, users might arrive at work and log in to their workstation. If SSO has been implemented, they won’t need to log in again to access separate applications, including their LMS, during the day. Answer the questions below to decide if implementing SSO could work for you.   APIs and eLearning An API provides an interface that allows developers to literally interact with programs and apps, including learning management systems. Each API has a set of credentials used by admins and developers that are known as keys. These keys are similar to a username and password pair that allows developers to use the API to interact with the data in your LMS. But ‘interact’ - say what? In this context, ‘interact’ describes actions such as creating, updating, deleting, or retrieving data. An API can speed up processes by automating time-consuming manual steps. Without an API, an admin who wants to create a user in an LMS may need to log in, access the create user screen, fill in a form, and click save. Or instead, your developer can simply code an API to automatically create users based on rules relevant to your needs. Using the API like this frees admins from managing the process manually or via batch file uploads. It’s that simple! A decent API can allow you to automate lots of other actions, like updating, deleting, or exporting lists of users. The API can allow you to create courses, enroll users on to courses, and get a list of their progress statuses, all automatically. This data can then be managed together in one central location. And you can use the data to build reports or keep users in sync. Real-world example Some customers use LearnUpon’s API to generate enrollments in courses from third-party apps. Some customers have also used the progress made by learners in LearnUpon to build gamification and leaderboards on third-party apps, making for a streamlined setup that’s easy to manage.   So, API or SSO? Answer 3 questions Still unsure if you should implement an API or SSO? The following three questions will help you to decide if you should go with either, both, or neither types of integration.     Question 1: Do you need users to access your LMS without logging in? If the answer is Yes, then you need SSO. Once you implement SSO, users will only need one set of credentials to access all applications. If you decide to use SSO in this context, you could include an "Access my Learning" button on your website or intranet. Once users click the button, they will be transported into the LMS to launch and complete their training, without needing to login again. If the answer is No, then you do not need SSO. You may still need an API, depending on your answers to the two questions below. I’ll also go into SSO in more detail for those who require extra functionality or to use an API to further help with automation requirements.   Question 2: Do you need users from a separate system to be created in your LMS? If the answer is Yes - Before we dive deeper into the API itself let’s consider a follow-up question: Did you need to implement SSO already? This question is worth considering because some systems, including LearnUpon, support simplified user synchronizations when implementing SSO. That means that SSO will not only seamlessly log users into the LMS, it can also provide additional settings that allow you to create or update users on the fly as well! That’s really neat because it means you might not even need to implement an API in order to sync users. There are many varieties of SSO but one is SAML SSO, which is supported by LearnUpon. The SAML SSO module allows you to create or update users on the fly and automatically assign them to groups in LearnUpon, increasing the types of automation you can use to manage your user list. Before you jump into API, it’s worth asking your LMS vendor, or preferred third-party app, if they offer any type of user synchronization as part of their SSO modules. If the answer is No, then you don’t need to use an API with SSO. You might still find an API useful for reasons discussed in our third question below.   Question 3: Do you need to push data into or pull data from your LMS? Yes, you do! You may need, for example, to export enrollment statuses, training history, or other types of data. You might also need to manage user group memberships or user lists in other applications. Most LMS applications include reporting features that meet many of these needs. In LearnUpon, for example, we offer automated report scheduling, so you don’t need to remember to run reports! We email them directly to your inbox as required. However, in some cases that level of functionality doesn’t quite cut it. You may still need to pull extra data and push it to external applications for further crunching. Perhaps you would like to pull lists of users and groups and send the data to a managerial meeting to inform team restructuring. The list of potential uses really is endless. The question about whether to implement an API is all about automation. The most important point to remember is that implementing an API enables you to access data in an automated way, avoiding the need for administrators to login, search, and report on data in a manual fashion.   TL;DR rule of thumb SSO is for streamlining user experience when accessing other applications. It’s a set of single sign-On credentials associated with each user. API is all about data automation, keeping data in sync, and automatically pulling data out of a system to generate reports. It is, and really should be, that simple. If it’s not, then you’re probably asking the wrong questions for your implementation and hopefully the above answers will help demystify some of the confusion for you.   Sign up to our newsletter to get more eLearning help from LearnUpon The post Should you use SSO or an API with your LMS? appeared first on LearnUpon.

About the Role The Accounts Administrator is a key member of the Accounts team and will have an important role not only overseeing the accounts administration function for the company, but also managing the successfully day to day running of the office. Reporting to the Operations Manager, the Accounts Administrator will play an integral role in developing accounting processes for the company and assisting in managing an office that supports LearnUpon’s rapidly growing team. This is a challenging role which has great career progression opportunities for the right candidate. Specifically the role will involve: Processing of Sales Invoices on a daily basis Managing the Aged Accounts to collect payments from Creditors Processing and allocation of Customer Payments Dealing with Account Queries from Customers Posting of Purchase Invoices to the Accounting System Assisting with preparation of Payment Runs Performing Bank Reconciliations Managing Employee Expense Claims Bi-Monthly VAT Return / Monthly P.30 Return / Annual P.35 Return Answering of office telephone General office administration duties Overseeing Travel arrangements for Staff Running adhoc reports for teams Other projects, as needed   Who We Are Looking For The person we are looking for will have the following qualities: Minimum of 2 years’ experience working in an accounts position Excellent computer skills are necessary for the role:  Accounting software (Xero experience is an advantage), Microsoft Excel, Word, etc. Strong numerical skills Excellent attention to detail and organisation skills Team player with a sense of ownership and "get things done" attitude - self- motivated and able to thrive in a fast-paced and self-directed environment Excellent communication skills (written, verbal, presentation, and interpersonal), exemplary customer facing skills able to build good internal and external relationships Knowledge of accounting practises and Revenue policies is an advantage Ability to make business decisions and champion new ideas and processes   Benefits Competitive salary and benefits 22 days annual leave Exciting start-up environment with rapidly expanding superstar team Excellent career progression opportunities for the right candidate Team building events   If you are interested in applying for this role please send your CV in confidence to jobs@learnupon.com. We look forward to hearing from you!   About LearnUpon LearnUpon is a new, exciting cloud based software company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Our mission is to change the way online learning is delivered by developing a Learning Management System (LMS) that companies love to use. We are addressing the common frustrations with traditional learning management systems by developing a platform that can be set-up in minutes, is easy and intuitive to use, looks amazing and doesn’t cost a fortune. Since launching LearnUpon nearly three years ago we are now one of the fastest growing LMS platforms in the world with new customers signing up for our platform every day. LearnUpon now has over 400 customers based in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, Sweden and here in Ireland.   LearnUpon is growing incredibly fast with established and increasing revenue. The company is a very open, collaborative environment where team and individual accomplishments are celebrated and encouraged. Our product is on the path to being very successful and the people who join now will be critical contributors to its ongoing adoption throughout the world.   Life at LearnUpon is fun and challenging. You will get to work with a great team in a Dublin city centre location. We are constantly making LearnUpon better for our customers and never adopt an "it will do" attitude when it comes to our platform. We love releasing new features which make our customers go "wow". All the team are given time-out each month to go off and think and come up with amazing new ideas which will make LearnUpon even better. Everyone contributes and everyone’s ideas are respected. We treat our staff like our customers, they are the most important elements in our business without whom we would just be another run of the mill, boring, clunky LMS. The post We’re hiring! Accounts Administrator appeared first on LearnUpon.

About the Role The Business Development Representatives will be at the forefront of the Sales team in LearnUpon, responsible for engaging with future LearnUpon customers to understand their LMS requirements. The candidate will also have great career opportunities in LearnUpon to progress into an Account Manager role. We’re looking for people who love to win, have strong integrity, and great communication skills. Specifically the role will involve: Playing an active role in developing, altering and improving processes for the Sales team. Understanding the business requirements of our future customers and creating a relationship with them in order to identify how LearnUpon will fit their business needs. Scheduling introduction calls and demonstrations. Preparing demo materials. Preparing call lists and maintaining a clean and accurate record of account information.   Who We Are Looking For The person we are looking for will have the following qualities: Drive and energy. Self-motivated with a high attention to detail and ability to multitask. Applicants need to be comfortable working with others and in a team environment. An unwavering positive attitude, strong drive for results, and the ability to deal with ambiguity are a must. Excellent communication skills. Must be open to receiving constructive criticism and applying and integrating the feedback in an effort to improve their performance. Demonstrates good judgment in analyzing information to make routine decisions. Enjoys the challenge delivering on monthly and quarterly revenue targets. 1-2 years software or enterprise selling a plus (but not required). A business studies or technology qualification is a plus.   Benefits Competitive salary (base + commission) and benefits 22 days annual leave Exciting start-up environment with rapidly expanding superstar team One-on-one training and mentoring from a seasoned Account Manager in the LMS space Excellent career progression opportunities for the right candidate Team building events   If you are interested in applying for this role please send your CV in confidence to jobs@learnupon.com. We look forward to hearing from you!   About LearnUpon LearnUpon is a new, exciting cloud based software company headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. Our mission is to change the way online learning is delivered by developing a Learning Management System (LMS) that companies love to use. We are addressing the common frustrations with traditional learning management systems by developing a platform that can be set-up in minutes, is easy and intuitive to use, looks amazing and doesn’t cost a fortune. Since launching LearnUpon nearly three years ago we are now one of the fastest growing LMS platforms in the world with new customers signing up for our platform every day. LearnUpon now has over 400 customers based in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, South Africa, Netherlands, Sweden and here in Ireland.   LearnUpon is growing incredibly fast with established and increasing revenue. The company is a very open, collaborative environment where team and individual accomplishments are celebrated and encouraged. Our product is on the path to being very successful and the people who join now will be critical contributors to its ongoing adoption throughout the world.   Life at LearnUpon is fun and challenging. You will get to work with a great team in a Dublin city centre location. We are constantly making LearnUpon better for our customers and never adopt an "it will do" attitude when it comes to our platform. We love releasing new features which make our customers go "wow". All the team are given time-out each month to go off and think and come up with amazing new ideas which will make LearnUpon even better. Everyone contributes and everyone’s ideas are respected. We treat our staff like our customers, they are the most important elements in our business without whom we would just be another run of the mill, boring, clunky LMS. The post We’re hiring! Business Development Representatives appeared first on LearnUpon.

Dublin has said so long, farewell to the Web Summit (for now). So what did we think of what Forbes have called the "best technology conference on the planet"? What did we learn from it? And will we miss it? Here are our five takeaways from Web Summit 2015… Long live the classroom revolution The Society Summit offered an insight into how technology is affecting our everyday lives. Over the three days I spent most of my time at this small stage and to be honest I think the majority of discussions warranted the platform of the Centre Stage as the topics covered have implications for everyone. A fascinating panel discussion on how technology is disrupting the classroom as we know it featured CoderDojo CEO Mary Moloney, The Holberton School’s Julien Barbier, 3d4Medical’s Robert Cairnduff and Alan Dargan from the Digital Skills Academy. The discussion kicked off by asking how can we prepare children for the jobs of the future when we’re not even sure what those jobs are going to be. The general consensus was that providing children of today with problem solving skills is the best way to prepare them for the jobs of tomorrow. What we really need is to get creativity back into the classroom and I’m not just talking about art, craft and music. Technology can be used to make academic subjects more exciting, engaging and thought provoking for children. Mary Moloney admitted that it will take a while to disrupt formal education and believes that education through devices can play a part in the revolution. These devices, whether used inside or outside of the school environment, create an ongoing learning ecosystem. Naturally there’s concern around the tech skills available to kids and school teachers are not always best equipped, or have the necessary experience, to transfer these skills. But again Mary Moloney believes providing outlets outside of school, as is created by CoderDojo, can result in confident and competent children who truly understand the possibilities of technology. At a Dojo meet-up young people from 7 to 17 explore technology in an informal and creative environment where they learn how to code, develop websites, apps, programs and games. There are currently 830 CoderDojo programmes located in 61 countries worldwide and those figures are constantly growing. They’re also just about to launch their first ever MOOC on building games which means the expert knowledge of their mentors will be accessible around the world.   Skills vs. knowledge Returning to the idea of focusing on skills instead of knowledge, when a child joins a Dojo the first thing the mentors do is talk to them and ask them what they’re interested in. From this they find out if there’s something in the world that the child doesn’t like. They then tell them that they can use technology to fix that problem. Children are instinctively creative, fearless, explorative and have a natural ability to work in teams…us adults could learn a lot from them! They also understand concepts that adults can’t comprehend. For example, five 11-year olds decided they wanted to eradicate bullying in Irish schools. With the help of their mentors they created an anti-bullying device called BullyBug. Children know all too well the day to day implications of bullying, whereas adults focus more on the fact that bullying is a negative behaviour. As a result they’re better equipped to brainstorm ideas around how this problem can be solved. Undertaking these challenging projects allows them to experience and work through the associated frustrations, hiccups and problems. So will these technology savvy students have different expectations or learning in the workplace when they become the CEO’s, CTO’s, developers, managers and employees of the future? It can be assumed the answer to this question is yes but it’s not so easy to speculate exactly how these changes in the classroom learning environment will affect the workplace learning environment. With all of these tech savvy kids using their smartphones, tablets, laptops and other connected devices it’s our responsibility, as adults, to ensure that they are protected online. Mary Aiken, CyberPsychologist and Director of the RCSI CyberPsychology Research Centre, believes that it is our collective responsibility to protect minors online. She believes we are sleepwalking our way into this new technological age without considering the fact that for every positive technology brings there is a corresponding negative. We need to safeguard children from the negative aspects of living online like cyberbullying and viewing age inappropriate and potentially traumatising content when they are accessing the internet. In her analogy she concludes that we don’t expect parents to man the doors of pubs and nightclubs to ensure their children aren’t somewhere they’re not supposed to be. So why should we expect them to be solely responsible for protecting their children online. We need to take collective responsibility to protect minors on the web. After all, it takes a village to raise a child.   Blurring the lines On the marketing stage, Benedict Evans held forth on mobile as an ecosystem, and how it’s becoming harder and harder to distinguish where mobile ends and desktop begins. As Apple roll out the 12" iPad, that becomes even more true. We need to switch to thinking of design and usability as being mobile first, and desktop second, and make sure that the essential information for any interface is clear on any medium. These blurring lines also have implications for online learning. Currently these are seen as two different delivery formats but as the lines between desktop and handheld devices blur will this lead to eLearning and mLearning being seen as one and the same?   Technology is killing our empathy You’re going to have to stay with me on this takeaway as I bring you into the distant, or maybe not so distant, future. A vast number of talks covered topics such as virtual reality, avatars, robots and artificial intelligence. There’s a belief that as we turn more and more to our devices to communicate with one another our technology is killing our empathy. However virtual reality is being hailed as a new "empathy machine" that will tip the balance back and it’s interesting to see charities such as charity: water using virtual reality to appeal to donors. They place the donor in a virtual reconstruction of a small village in Ethiopia and, through the power of storytelling, tmake an emotional appeal by showing them how their donation can bring a clean water source where previously there was none. The empathy debate was addressed by Jacki Ford Morie (The Augmented Traveler), Nell Watson (Singularity University), Kathleen Richardson (De Montfort University) and Andra Keay (Silicon Valley Robotics) as part of their panel on humanity as a digital construct. While it’s believed that virtual reality could make news coverage more accessible and relatable, other than sending donations there is not much that the witnesses, those wearing the head mounted displays to enter the virtual environment, can really do to change the situation they are witnessing. With all of these new technologies it’s hard to know what the ultimate outcome of it all will be on society. When it comes to using technology in our everyday lives it’s all about getting the balance right. As we move further into the digital age we could learn a lot from Goldilocks in order to manage the time we spend online. Try to aim for the "just right".     Should one conference appeal to all? So who said there needs to be one conference to fit all interests? My colleague Drew shared his thoughts on this in his post The Web Summit can’t please anyone anymore. It’s an understatement to say the event offered something for everyone, it really did! But it’s been argued that there was just TOO much to choose from. It’s fair to say that to get the most out of the schedule you had to be prepared. Talks pretty much ran to schedule and while some felt a little like sales pitches and product announcements, there were some interesting in-depth conversations that had my head spinning by the end of the three days. So will it be missed - yes and no. While the Web Summit was great for getting individuals from every facet of the technology industry together in one place I think there is now an opportunity for smaller, more focused tech orientated conferences and gatherings to fill the very big gap that’s been left behind. In 2016 the tech world will meet in Lisbon, but wouldn’t we live in a very boring world altogether if nothing ever changed.   Want to read more? Sign up to get our latest posts! The post Five takeaways from Web Summit 2015 appeared first on LearnUpon.

Some of work’s biggest realizations happen outside the office. While taking a flight to London earlier this month, I found my seat and began to observe the rest of the passengers boarding. Some were stretching their legs into the aisle of the economy cabin. Others needed help to get their bags into overhead storage bins. These passengers were uncomfortable because the airplane was designed to suit the ‘average’ person, of medium build and medium height. Many organizations experience similar problems with their LMS, I realized.   To return to my analogy, a person of average height, build or shoe size can stroll into any department store and find endless options tailored for them. In an effort to keep costs low, most products are designed to fit a group of people that can be described as the lucky ones. This group can find exactly what they want without paying a premium or spending extra for alterations and customization. Of course, there are times when it helps to be on the taller or shorter end of the spectrum. As I looked around the airplane, it was clear that transport is one area where there are benefits to being a little more "Danny DeVito" and a little less "Arnold Schwarzenegger" - a lot more leg room! But unless you want to pay a premium for a first class ticket on a flight or a front row seat at a concert, most of the time the majority of us will be slightly uncomfortable in a world built for average.   How we built a flexible LMS  Organizations create similar difficulties by investing in an LMS that can’t adapt to their unique needs. But there is an alternative. At LearnUpon, we don’t want customers to be forced into paying a premium for a special workflow or use case. The result is that the people I speak to as an Account Manager can’t believe the level of flexibility our LMS offers "out of the box". How do we deliver flexibility in a world built for average? It’s by understanding that each customer is unique, by being there when they need our support, and by really listening to them. Listening, in particular, allows us to learn from customers whose needs and requirements can never be described as average. Our customers have the same Account Manager from their first correspondence the whole way through their time with us. That helps me to really get to know them as individuals and understand what’s unique about their learning environments. It’s equally important to us that we offer the most responsive and efficient 24/7 Customer Support team on the market. You don’t have to take my word for it. The value of excellent support is mentioned throughout our customer reviews. We don’t wait until you need us to speak to you either. We also provide a dedicated Customer Success team who are always on your side, making sure you’re using the platform to get the results you need to meet your unique learning and development objectives. These three services allow us and our customers to be much more than average. The process ensures that we aren’t just working to make LearnUpon fit you perfectly right now. We use everything you tell us to make your LMS work harder for you in the near future. Each point of contact generates invaluable feedback that we invest in the development of our learning management system. The results can be seen in the more than 50 major enhancements we made to our online learning platform in 2013 and 2014, with almost double the requested features released this year. We can’t promise to implement every new feature suggestion we receive from our customers. But your request will be considered carefully during our weekly product meeting where we prioritize the next set of enhancements.   So, no matter how unusual your organization’s learning requirements are, take 1 hour of an Account Manager’s time for a personalized demo. We’ll create your online learning portal so you can see exactly how LearnUpon is making "out of the box" the new custom. The post The world is built for average but your LMS shouldn’t be appeared first on LearnUpon.

The Management and Strategy Institute (MSI) enjoyed a sudden surge in demand when they expanded their certification offerings in early 2014. While the management team was pleased with the success of their new training programs, growth exposed serious weaknesses in the organization’s LMS. Most worryingly, the learning management system proved incapable of delivering the flexibility the business urgently needed. When MSI went in search of a learning solution that could deliver through rapid growth, they chose LearnUpon. Here’s why.   Meet MSI MSI delivers certified courses to professionals who want to enhance their knowledge of management and business-related fields. MSI’s courses are particularly popular with corporate clients and individuals who want to update their resume with new professional skills. When MSI launched a series of Six Sigma certifications, including a Six Sigma Black Belt certification, two years ago, their existing LMS struggled to cope with the rise in demand they quickly experienced.   What business challenge did you need your learning management system to address? We were using an inferior LMS when we launched our expanded Six Sigma certification offerings. That learning management system couldn’t scale to support the growing number of learners who relied on it. The pricing structure offered by our LMS provider turned out to be a big problem too. It was impractical in the situation we experienced and didn’t make sense for a quickly growing business. We needed an LMS that could handle a high volume of new customer registrations while also offering a flexible pricing model. Functionality was equally important. From previous experience, we knew high-quality LMS features such as SCORM compatibility were essential. And the LMS had to be intuitive and easy-to-use for both administrators and learners.   Why did you choose LearnUpon as your new LMS? Our search for a replacement learning solution took months. There are so many learning management systems on the market and the differences between them can be confusing. So we focused on the features we knew we needed to support the most important people in our business - our learners. That’s what drew us to LearnUpon. The LMS had a simple, intuitive interface and a broad range of features that hit all of our requirements. We were particularly excited about the white label option that allowed us to completely integrate the LMS into our website to offer a seamless user experience. LearnUpon’s tiered pricing structure also really suited us. This flexible pricing model assured us that we could scale affordably as our learner base continued to expand. The final factor in our decision-making was the highly personalized customer service we received. We saw that LearnUpon really cared about MSI and our business. From our first call, it was clear that it wasn’t just about getting us over the line as a customer. The account managers took time to understand our business and show how the LMS would work if we chose LearnUpon. The team was even able to customize some features we required.   What benefits have MSI enjoyed since implementing LearnUpon? Everyone in MSI has benefited in some way from the move to LearnUpon. The implementation of the LMS itself went incredibly smoothly. The learning platform worked perfectly from the beginning. The user registration process is as simple as we had hoped. We’ve enjoyed fast and efficient customer service throughout. Our managers and admins love how easy to use the platform is. Management is also pleased with the financial saving LearnUpon’s sensible pricing model delivers. But the real winners of the switch to LearnUpon are the students who now enjoy a superior learning experience.   Would you recommend LearnUpon? Definitely. Having experienced two learning management systems, MSI knows how critical the right solution is to supporting growth. LearnUpon’s LMS is easy to use for learners, administrators and managers. That’s important to any organization invested in customer service and user experience. We’ve also found LearnUpon’s LMS to be incredibly flexible. The platform is simple, yet powerful enough to handle the swiftly evolving requirements of an expanding eLearning company. The personal, prompt customer service we receive has made our experience with LearnUpon a pleasure. Given our experience of two learning management systems, LearnUpon is by far the superior option.   See what LearnUpon can do for you. Sign up for a free 30 day trial. The post How MSI used an LMS to drive rapid growth appeared first on LearnUpon.

Adobe Flash technology has helped support the delivery of online multimedia content for nearly two decades. Three popular eLearning formats are also largely dependent on Flash technology for their delivery medium: SCORM, Tin Can (xAPI), and video. Extensive use of Flash makes rumors of its decline a concern for those of us working in the eLearning industry. With doubts about the security of the technology continuing to surface, the implications for eLearning are unclear. Many of us will continue to rely on some combination of SCORM, Tin Can and video content when developing courses. While files can be exported for equivalent HTML5 compatibility, the movement away from Flash is certain to generate cost and complexity for online learning professionals. How is the decline of Flash likely to impact you and your LMS?   The troubled history of Flash Flash has been a useful technology for developers working with a broad range of online content types for many years - 20 maybe? Wow! So why the fall? The two most commonly cited reasons are security and performance. For the second half of its history, it has been plagued by serious security bugs that made it possible to control a user’s device once it had visited a website that contained Flash content. These security holes are routinely fixed but, in many cases, the damage has already been done. Operating systems manufacturers like Microsoft, Ubuntu and Apple tired of the overheads accrued by keeping their systems secure with frequent patches. And Flash developed a poor security reputation as a result. Flash’s position was also compromised by the hardware requirements it needs to play heavily animated or video content. Although not an issue for most desktop PCs these days, mobile devices and smaller laptops still struggle to deliver a smooth user experience that includes Flash. Apple famously, or perhaps infamously, excluded Flash from iOS devices by default. Android tried, and largely failed, to deliver a rich Flash experience on mobile devices. Adobe has implemented many changes to combat these performance issues but has still suffered reputational damage in the interim. Web browsers ultimately stepped forward to deal with the growing frustrations of end-users, hardware manufacturers, and software providers. Modern browsers like Safari, Chrome, Firefox, and eventually, Internet Explorer, became equipped to provide the powerful features associated with Flash, like animation, scripting, and video playback. These browsers continue to evolve today, with Flash still offering some advantages for video playback on desktop hardware. But the demise of Flash was only slightly exaggerated!   The rise of HTML5? The good news is that HTML5 technology provides many tools urgently needed to fill the gap left by the decline of Flash. HTML5 enables video and audio content to render directly in the browser, for example. It also offers "fun stuff" that enhances animations and what I’ll describe as "wizardry in the UI". HTML5 is also more efficient than Flash, using less processing power. That sounds great! All of the bells and whistles we enjoyed with Flash can simply be replaced by HTML5. While I agree with the HTML5 movement in general, I still have a problem. I can’t overlook the bugbear that video content in HTML5 format is handled differently in every browser. Browsers still have some work to do to improve the experience of playback over poor internet connections. And the feature-incomplete players embedded in browsers most undergo further development to deliver a truly smooth user experience. In the meantime, eLearning course developers must endure mixed results. At worst, learners become frustrated by attempting to absorb information from videos that struggle to buffer thanks to poor connections coupled with their browser’s specific HTML5 implementation. There are solutions to these problems. Some issues can be tackled using CDNs, for example. But it’s a battle that looks set to continue until browser and HTML5 technologies mature further.   What it means for your LMS Most of the impacts for LMS users relate to the production of SCORM and Tin Can courses that are exported into Flash formats. While the rendering and streaming of eLearning video content will also be affected, SCORM and Tin Can courseware is most vulnerable, built as it is on Flash technology. It’s certainly helpful that SCORM and Tin Can modules can be rendered using HTML5 as an alternative. But the falling away of default compatibility with Flash will create problems for all who use an LMS to deliver eLearning. Migrating course content to HTML5 is one solution that’s been simplified by enhancements made to the newest generation of authoring tools. The alternative may be a drastically diminished user experience for learners unable to access Flash. And the ultimate result of that is likely to be unhappy customers and unhappy learners. A less frequently discussed problem concerns support for Internet Explorer 8 and 9. At LearnUpon, we also offer support for IE7 in cases where customers request it for specific clients. But as LMS vendors, we generally have no control over performance issues experienced with browsers installed on clients networks. There’s limited HTML5 support for versions earlier than IE9, while support available for IE9 is itself poor. For many organizations, upgrading from IE9 can generate significant upheaval. Both scenarios lead to considerable inconvenience for developers and users in affected organizations. In some ways, I hope that the movement away from Flash encourages upgrades to more recent versions of IE. Whether that will actually happen or not remains to be seen. With Microsoft dropping support for old versions of Internet Explorer in 2016, this wish may be granted sooner than expected.   The future of Flash vs. HTML5 There’s no question that the end is in sight for Flash. Its growing reputation as a vulnerable technology will eventually dominate, even if developers continue to release updates and fixes. Flash might continue to serve some purpose until browsers finally make it obsolete by discontinuing support altogether. I guess Apple called it correctly all those years ago. Should we ever have doubted them?! In the meantime, the adoption of video and mobile content will continue to grow within eLearning. All of these factors support the rise of HTML5, just as the technology will continue to improve. My advice for eLearning professionals and organizations is to plan for the future. In LearnUpon, we offer customers alternatives to using Flash for video content. Most admin users continue to use our video streaming service that works with Flash players. But we’re seeing that usage pattern change with the development of mobile learning or mLearning, based on HTML5 video and courseware. If you’re an LMS admin, it’s time to begin gradually migrating existing courses to HTML5 formats. Authoring tools now allow you to export to both Flash and HTML5, delivering the best of both options. In scenarios where a course determines Flash is not supported, the HTML5 version kicks in instead. A gradual move towards HTML5 is best, far better than waiting for the big "flash in the pan" that’s surely coming down the tracks.   Update: The relaunch of Flash Professional as Animate CC confirms Adobe’s agreement with our prognosis. Even Flash’s founders are finally ready to move beyond legacy issues and into an improved HTML5 future. The post Flash is dead: long live HTML5 for eLearning? appeared first on LearnUpon.

Dublin, Ireland December 3rd 2015 - LearnUpon, the world’s fastest growing cloud LMS, has expanded its global operations with the release of a localized version of the learning portal in Brazilian Portuguese. The launch coincides with the signing of LearnUpon’s first Latin American customer in Brazil. LearnUpon now serves more than 450 existing customers, as it approaches the end of another year of rapid growth. The announcement builds on LearnUpon’s expansion as a multilingual platform supporting a growing international customer base. LearnUpon’s cloud LMS is loved and trusted by over 2 million active users in 15 countries worldwide. Brazilian Portuguese is the sixth language that LearnUpon’s cloud-based LMS software officially supports.   A Brazilian Portuguese language option is available to all users of LearnUpon’s cloud LMS. Administrators can set Brazilian Portuguese as the default language of the cloud LMS portal. Or an organization’s learners can select their preferred language directly from the dashboard. All of LearnUpon’s existing and future features, including SCORM and Tin Can API support, ecommerce and reports, will be available to use in the Brazilian Portuguese language.   LearnUpon’s cloud LMS Courses screen in Brazilian Portuguese   Commenting on the announcement, LearnUpon’s CEO Brendan Noud, said As we continue to grow our customer base internationally, we are delighted to now offer support for Brazilian Portuguese. In addition to helping to grow our customer base in Brazil, this feature will also be of great benefit to many of our multinational enterprise customers who have operations in Brazil. We are looking forward to adding support for more languages throughout 2016.   LearnUpon is represented in Brazil by Latam Connection. In addition to Brazilian Portuguese, LearnUpon is also available in English, Dutch, French, German and Spanish. Pricing for the cloud LMS starts at US $149 per month.   For more information contact hello@learnupon.com The post LearnUpon’s cloud LMS released in Brazilian Portuguese appeared first on LearnUpon.

This week, Peter van Leusen, PhD, addresses a question from our Grad TA Mike Holter, on what to do when things aren't working. Peter is an instructional designer in CLAS, and former Assistant Director in the Office of Instructional Consulting in the School of Education at Indiana University. He teaches both face-to-face and online classes.Peter van Leusen, PhDWhat a mess! The blank stare in my students‘ eyes told me that the lesson that I meticulously prepared all weekend long did not have the desired learning outcomes for which I had hoped! What should I change?From my own teaching and observing other instructors, I quickly learned that there is not a "perfect way" to teach. I found that each class has different characteristics due to students (e.g., personalities, number) or contexts (e.g., online, time of the day). To make learning experiences meaningful despite these variables, I like to reflect on my own teaching regularly and make changes, if necessary. The hard question is to know what to change and when to do it?Use Formative Assessments Frequently In my classes, I tend to use formative assessment frequently to see whether my students "are getting it". I’m a big fan of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), developed by Thomas Angelo and Patricia Cross (1993), because they provide feedback about lesson effectiveness and student understanding. While CATs were developed with face-to-face teaching in mind, these quick, easy-to-use, and often non-graded techniques can be easily adapted to any teaching context (e.g., online). The feedback collected from these activities helps me to decide whether I can move on to the next concept or need to spend more time on the current topic. Popular CATs are Minute-Paper, Muddiest Point, or Pro-Con Grids, but Angelo and Cross developed more than 50 CATs that promote active and often collaborative learning. Make Changes at the Right TimeAlthough CATs provide good insights about the class, making changes is actually quite complicated because it might impact other aspects of the course. For example, removing an exam can have significant impact on the overall grade. Therefore, I take notes on my lesson plans about what did or did not work. If I decide that something needs changing and it is a minor "tweak", I will do this in the ongoing class and explain it to my students. If it is something major, I generally wait until the unit or course is over since it might influence too many other parts of the class. The key is not to forget about these as soon as final grades are submitted or wait until the beginning of a new semester!Helpful Resources:Angelo, T. A., & Cross, K. P. (1993). Classroom assessment techniques: A handbook for college teachers. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.Barkley, E. F., Cross, K. P., & Major, C. H. (2004). Collaborative learning techniques: A handbook for college faculty. Wiley.com.van Leusen, P. (2014). Gauging student understanding: CATs are puuuuur-fect. ASU TeachOnline.

Google Docs and Forms are terrific tools for teaching!Did you know that each ASU instructor and student get unlimited space on our ASU Google Drive (requires login with your ASURITE@asu.edu account)? It's a great way to share files and collaborate. Three words specifically describe why you should use Google Drive, Efficiency, Collaboration, and Engagement.Google Docs are documents that can be shared with your students. There are a number of ways to use them to engage your students. You can have specific students be required to take notes for the class, or build a study guide for exams. Student teams can share a document, and you can leave comments, or start a 'chat' while everyone synchronously is working on it.  Google Docs are also easy to publish to the web for quick and fast websites.Google Forms are a survey tool that can be used for getting quick feeback from students. You could set them up for "Bell Ringer" activities, like "Ticket In/Out" activities. It's a great way to get students to reflect on homework or the class take-aways. You can use them as a rubric for presentations that allows peers to evaluate each other and give feedback. They can even be set up for adaptive mini-quizzes.Our Workshop had participants build and share documents, create forms with branching questions and test out some of the new "Add-Ons" for Google apps. We also shared a template for Google Sites that downloads everything you need to host a conference, and a template for Google Sheets that is a random name generator for making sure you call on all your students equally. Check out the resources below for some more engaging ideas, and don't forget to sign up for our Spring Workshops and Webinars!Resources:Video Tutorial to create a Rubric with Google FormsStep-by-Step Guides for our workshop assignments: Google Forms, Google Docs, Google SitesSlide Presentation Google Drive Basics HandoutGoogle ChromeStore: https://chrome.google.com/webstoreSuggested Add-onsAwesome Screen ShotSave to Google DriveExtension URL ShortnerEasyBibBioDigial HumanVoiceNoteKaizena Mini