1976. VHS VCR comes home – literally if you bought one.  Beta is better, but VHS wins.  Beta player owners realize the game is up – and decide to cryogenically freeze players until the masses realize what they are missing.

1978 – Laserdisc debuts in Atlanta, GA.  Far superior to anything before.  Beta folks run out and buy it.  VHS still dominates. Beta folks strike out again.

1981 – MTV arrives. Video Killed the Radio Star debuts. Everyone watches it – because it is the first video to be seen on the station.

Flashback

1980′s – VCRs are huge – I mean big as in large items on top of your TV. They are also big in the market – people are buying them.

Flashback

1990′s – VHS still dominates. Masses own a VCR.  DVD players appear in 1994.  The masses start buying them in droves in 1998.

1995 – Real Media arrives on the internet scene streaming an entire baseball game that probably no one watched.

Flashback

2000′s – HD-DVD shows up, so does Blu-Ray. Beta and Lasderdisc fans rejoice! Blu-Ray wins. People who bought HD-DVD players – learn that they make great flying objects out of five story buildings.  Beta folks still waiting for Beta to return.

2012 – Mobile video consumption rises up to 5.4 percent, which may seem nominal, but it is a 64 percent increase from April of the same year. (Ooyala, Nov. 2012)

2013 -  LMSs are not the only learning system in town. The new kids of the block (please no jokes here) are Video Learning Platforms. While they have been making roads in the educational markets for the past few years, some solutions start to target the corporate market too.

Grab your Video

Video in e-learning means something quite different than video in its usual term.

• Screen recording and capture – often seen in demos or software or web tutorials
• Screen recording and capture with audio narration
• Live broadcasting – Steve is in Long Beach, Anna is in Moscow – the communicate in real time with or without a live audience – i.e. watching via their computers or mobile device (may include synched slides, but not a requirement)
• Taped live broadcast – taped earlier at some point and then posted for people to view
• Video itself -  streamed, recorded, edited then posted, posted without editing,  etc.  – may/may not include audio incl. background
• Video captured with a smartphone, tablet, digital camera (if available), DV and HD DVC (digital video camcorders), web cam, etc. – may/may not include audio incl. background

Not your Mom and Dad’s VCR

While a video learning platform might have multiple products at the end of the day it is built upon two key components (which they all have in some form)

• Recording device – Some call it a recorder
• Video content management system – this is where all your wonderful videos get housed, including audio podcasts (some offer this feature too), audio, slides, etc. – this is the backbone of the platform

On the recorder side you have a device that can record a variety of things – from your web cam to live broadcasting to screen recording and captures to meetings and much more.  All the VLPs have a recorder (they may call it something else though).

Recorders also

• Stream your video
• Publish your video  – more on this in a sec.
• Deliver live presentations/events/meetings/webcast – to name a few
• Synch documents, slides with your presentation
• Other options – depends on the vendor

VCMS

The video content management platform is a requirement if you are going to use the VLP as a standalone and not in a LMS – yes you can interface (more on that shortly).  The other requirement is that..uh, you know.. uh RECORDER!

Typically the video content management platform consists of (please note: that some vendors call their VCMS something else)

• Media Library – Where your videos, audio, etc. is housed
• Folders – think categories – you can put videos in each folder depending on topic, company (if you are offering a B2B angle), departments, events, basically however you want it
• Encoding  and Processing
• M-Learning support – all devices including iPad and other tablets
• Can interface with learning management systems – including educational focused LMSs – always contact your vendor if you want to go this route — i.e. interface/integration/extension
• Ability for end user to see the videos – i.e. check out which videos they want to view, click on them, watch them, and yes even buy them (some vendors offer e-commerce)
• Analytics and Reporting – If you are expecting similar to a LMS it is not going to happen, but for most folks they want to know how many times did Sue watch the video, which videos did she watch, how long did she watch, video rankings – can include “most popular”, “highest rated”, “most commented”, “most liked”
• Access control – Think Admin control
• Can group a set of learners/viewers to see ABC videos and then set a group of learners or even one learner to see a totally different set of videos
• User names/passwords, etc. – similar in many ways to the LMS side of the house in terms of user names/passwords
• Video search – think video search engine
• A sharing function of some sort – might be via social media
• Slide synching
• HTML5 support
• SaaS or on your own servers – they can do both, but ideally prefer SaaS (they host it)

Optional (not all VLPs offer this, hence optional)

• Video transcript – this is a must IMO because it enables your viewers to see the text below (not as close caption)
• Narrative transcript – When the person says “dog” it goes right to the video text transcript where the word “dog” is shown, often this is displayed on the VLP screen (not on your video) with specific clips, so you just click the clip which already contains the word or words and watch it – and yes see it

This is great because you no longer have to watch the entire video or try to hit rewind to go right where the person talks about what you want to hear. Narrative is a must feature IMO.

• SCORM compliant
• 508c compliant
• Offline viewing
• Video editing
• Plugins
• E-commerce
• APIs – as in their (video learning platform itself) API is open
• Player templates
• Playlists
• Close captions support
• Social components – beyond the share functionality
• Users can “like”, “rate”, “leave comments”, “share”
• Users can download videos
• Transcription services – already in the platform. Vendor has an agreement with a 3rd party which will transcribe your entire video and publish the text to match the video. This is a nice feature because you do not have to do it yourself – which is available to you as well.

It is all done within the platform, so you do not have to send the video to be transcribed to the 3rd party vendor, wait for it to get back and then publish. It is all self-contained.  This is typically an additional cost – i.e. having an actual human (which is how it works) transcribes your video.

Another capability of transcription services is the ability to change the language. So if your video text initially is in English and you want to change it to German you can via the platform. Again, similar to how the transcription service works, with a real human being translating the text.

Always an additional cost.  Please note that this is in reference to the video text transcript and not the user interface or VLP layout.

• Supports H.264, MP4, MOV, WMA, AICC, etc. – always check with the vendor – they all support HD
• Skinning and Branding inc. your own logo (not all the vendors offer this option. If they do it is often included at no charge.) If your VLP is on your own servers most of the vendors will allow you to customize the CSS.
• Custom domain
• Multiple layouts. Knowledge Vision offers 85 different layouts – that is a lot
• Multilingual – as in the user interface, labels, etc. – again not everyone supports multiple languages (besides English). Don’t assume that when they say “we support multiple languages” it means they support nine languages. One vendor supports 25 languages, another supports two.
• Can change labels, headers, fonts – not everyone offers this ability

Video Break

Uh it is an actual video break. So here is a video for you:

Video Break is over

Video V-Costs

You might be thinking wow this sounds great, but I bet it costs a fortune and you would be incorrect.

VLPs are actually very inexpensive when compared to the LMS market.

Fees are not necessarily charged by seats (i.e. active users) which can create confusion when trying to compare pricing apples to apples.

Costs

• Charging by the number of recorders you purchase and the number of usage hours.  A recorder is tied to a machine (computer). So if you have five people using one computer for the recorder, you get charged only for one license. If the same five are all using recorders on five different computers it equals five licenses.  The usage hours  (which are quite high) equate to the number of hours which can be recorded/viewing. Using this pricing model, the number of people viewing is unlimited.
• Charging by active users
• Charging by active presentations.  Active presentations are defined by the number of videos on the platform. The time of each video is irrelevant.  For example, you have 20 videos uploaded, of which eight are ten minutes in length and the rest are 85 minutes in length. Number of active presentations is 20.

With this pricing model – unlimited viewership, unlimited people accessing the system. 

• One flat fee – Appears in open source platforms. Be aware that an open source platform is just how you imagine it – you have to fully customize it.
• Charging by number of users, storage and bandwidth

Many of the vendors have a setup fee – but this is not universal.  The same with support – can be the whole thing or just parts and then you pay extra for additional support levels.

Top Five Video Players

1. Panopto - Very finesse, but lacks the ability to remove their own logo, skinning – as in your colors not doable, no social. Offers recorders pricing model and also active users model – you choose. Does offer educational pricing.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets.  SCORM Compliant.
2. KnowledgeVision - Wonderful platform, loads of features – uses the active presentation pricing model.  Offers three editions – may offer educational pricing – please ask.  The KV Studio is the product to look at.  Targets education, non-profit and corporate markets. SCORM Compliant.
3. Kaltura – Open source platform, extremely robust.  The platform is not free – you have to pay. They do also additional packages and add-ons, and there is a cost.  What I love is their Exchange marketplace which lists an extensive list of partners that can integrate, support or work with their product. Reminds me of similar marketplaces like Google Apps or Intuit. No SCORM support. Can create a channel in the Roku store.
   
4. Vidizmo – Has a nice set of features. Back end is easy to use. Pricing model is active users. Has potential. SCORM Compliant. 
5. MediaCore - UI is similar to YouTube, but they lack video text transcript, narrative search and a few other feature sets. Heavily focused on education market.  Not sure if they have any corporate clients. While the site says you can customize the colors of your system that is incorrect (according to a person I spoke with at MediaCore).

Bottom Line

Video Learning Platforms are here to stay and more importantly, ready to take off both in terms of usage and feature sets.

If I was looking at entering the e-learning market as a vendor, I’d take a hard look at the VLP space and then I would jump in feet first.

Just making sure that I don’t hit a beta video player that someone has finally realized isn’t coming back.

Because it isn’t.

E-Learning 24/7

Jargon

The industry uses a lot of jargon and it is easy to become confused. Let’s break down the most common terms and two new terms hitting the space.

• LMS – Learning Management System – most commonly sought out by folks. Can include talent management/performance management features or add-on modules (which are often built into the system, but turned off)
• LCMS – Learning Content Management System – going the way of the dodo bird
• M-Learning- Mobile Learning. This means the system can be viewed via a mobile device. It does not mean that the system comes with a native app nor offers online/offline synchronization
• E-Learning – Online Learning. Many people confuse the term thinking it means electronic learning and thus will boost that they were doing e-learning 20 years ago or even longer. Not true.
• TM/PM – Talent Management/Performance Management. Used interchangeably. The most common features within this area for a LMS, include 360 feedback, skill gap analysis, performance reviews and skill paths.
• HCM – Human Capital Management. A HCM will include such modules as compensation, payroll, recruiting (which may include career planning, job postings, etc.), benefits and HRIS (Human Resources Information Systems). You do not have to purchase all the modules. You can pick and choose or buy just one.
• RCAT – Rapid Content Authoring Tool. This is a product where you build e-learning courses. It is called rapid because you can build quickly without any real tech skill sets. Some tools offer more advanced capabilities and features for folks who have a strong ID (instructional design) or e-learning developer skill sets. Common brands under RCAT – Articulate, Lectora, Captivate, Rapid Intake, dominKnow Claro.
• Sim Tool – Simulation Tool. Geared towards ID and e-learning developer folks. Tech skill set is required. Not for novices.
• Authoring Tool. See RCAT.
• SCORM/SCORM 2004, 1.2, AICC – Please read post covering this topic
• PENS – Created by AICC in 2005. Offers some nice capabilities compared to SCORM, but not widely used.
• Users/Seats – This approach is still widely used in the industry. A seat means one user name and one password. So if you have 500 employees who will access the system every month or for the year, then you need 500 seats. Some vendors (and it is gaining steam) offer “active users”.
• Active users – People who are taking at least one course during the month. Let’s say you have 500 users, but only 100 are taking one course in May. You pay only for those 100 users. The next month, 85 use it. You pay only for 85. There are a few vendors who will charge only when the end user completes a course (but this is rare)
• E-Commerce model – It is rare, but there are vendors who offer it. It is ideal for B2B and B2C channels. The vendors who offer it (and those who do – do not make it public – so if you want it – you have to ask) tend to charge per course sold. The charge – is a percentile of the sale. You set the price of the course, video, etc. The percentiles are not outrageous.
• Tin Can API – Better known as Tin Can. Communicates instances between a system and a device. Right now works with mobile devices. Could in the future work with XBox 360, SMART TV and other items of that nature.

Requires a native app (self-contained) on the mobile device and enables online/offline synchronization. Online/Offline synchronization allows the learner to take courses, etc. offline, without an internet connection and then when they have a net connection all instances (data) is communicated back to the LMS or other SaaS product. Some RCAT vendors have the Tin Can API as well as some LMS vendors.

• API – Application Program Interface. Many systems offer you the ability to add your own APIs and vice versa.
• LRS – Learning Record Stores. The newest kid on the block. In its simplest terms:

1. Tied to the Tin Can API.
2. Stores learning activites which are records
3. The records are housed in a learning store (repository)
4. While it can be a standalone it is more likely to be a part of a LMS
5. If an employee or whomever leaves the company/org., etc. and thus the LMS, and then goes to another system (another company) their learning record can go with them. This will enable the record to be stored in the new LMS of their new employer. The same could apply to customers (although not sure why you would allow it).
6. If you decide to switch to another system who supports LRSs, the employees/customers records could be moved into the new system, assuming you are having the same courses in the new system. You can have just a few of the previous courses or some materials that they have previously used or even completed test results.
7. Reported to be the next generation for e-learning and opens up the possibility of true interoperability from one system to the next

At this point, LRSs are really not ready for prime time. As one vendor who has LRS told me, it is still a work in progress and they do not offer it to their customers.

While it has amazing potential, I have some concerns tied to privacy and security, which I believe need to be resolved. These concerns are

• Would a company want their x-employee to have their learning record which would contain information that exists within your own system? Granted it would be of learning, but I know plenty of companies who do not allow former employees to take any materials, work that was created while employed at the firm.
• How many clients -i.e. businesses would allow their employees’ learning move from their solution into another, without their consent? Again, it ties back into the previous.
• Compliance issues and privacy. What about countries who have staunch laws regarding privacy. How would this work?
• Security concerns. How much data stored in the learning record would be moved? Honestly, if I was a training director for a financial firm or aerospace/defense, I wouldn’t be likely to allow them to take their own learning record. It opens up real security issues.

Do it yourself or Hire a consultant

When it comes time to do the leg work and identify systems that you are interested in and thus take a deeper dive leading to purchasing, the first thing you must do is decide whether to go it alone or hire a consultant.

What are the advantages of hiring a consultant

• Knowledge and expertise already exists. Assuming the consultant has vast experience in finding systems for clients, the time saved is tremendous. Many consultants, including myself know the market and thus are able to jump right in and move at a quicker pace than say someone who is new or in the process of looking around.
• Looking for a system or authoring tool can be overwhelming. With over 511 LMSs on the market and more than 140 authoring tools finding the right one can be an exercise in pain and confusion. A consultant will handle it for you and thus enable you to do other things, without having to worry about finding the right system or product.
• Assist with business processes. If you have never implemented a system, needing assistance in this area will reduce resources and productivity challenges. Not all consultants can offer this, but a few like myself do.
• Eliminates creating RFPs, shooting them out everywhere and waiting for a response. Plus it eliminates the sales people following up with you and for many people they do not want to deal with that.
• Time equals money and if you can lower the time spent, the cost for hiring some consultants will be well spent.

Going to Alone

I’ve done it many times – as a training director/manager – and haven’t had any problems. I never did a RFP nor spent more time than necessary to find a system. Sure things have changed – more systems than in any previous year – but if you are willing to take the time to do it – it can be done.

You should have a plan ahead of time of what you want to do and how you want to go about it. Many people don’t and that is where you will find yourself facing challenges.

Always follow these steps, which are essential to finding a system.

• Try to avoid using a RFP template. There is one vendor out there who has it and many people use it. The problem is that it contains so much information and it is geared toward that said vendor, it will be impossible for other vendors to match every item. Plus, nowadays many vendors can tell when someone is using “said” template and will not respond.

If you are going to use a template (I will be creating one in the near future for folks to use), focus on the key features you will need. Ask them for the price of the system and have it based on the projected number of users (seats) for the first year.

Also have them list the pricing for other items such as setup, SSO (Single Sign On), additional skins (if you plan to have an extended enterprise product), additional languages (the first one is always free) and any additional modules – if you are interested in them.

You always want the items to be listed – i.e. itemized and not one lump price. Find out what is included in the setup fee and whether it is one time or yearly. Make sure to tell them to be very specific when it comes to pricing and seats. Some vendors will tell you they cannot give you a price point. That is totally bogus.

Ask them if they will provide a sandbox (trial) with full access if they are in the top three. Ask them who would be your point of contact – it may not be the person who is doing the RFP.

Even if you choose not to use a RFP, make sure to create a quick spreadsheet listing the features you want – being specific. For example: you want a calendar. But do you want to be able to have the calendar on the home page? Do you want to offer people to register for ILT or webinars on their own? Do you want a wait-list? What about e-mail notifications?

Do you need to have a template within the system? Can you track to see who opened the e-mail notifications and who did not? Do you want to have SMS (text messages), which is growing in popularity? Do you want the ability to color code different sessions, add a brief description, include pricing (if applicable)?

As you can see, just saying one item and assuming the vendor knows what you want is not enough.

Similar to using the RFP, i.e. pricing, setup, training, etc. and the other information presented above, you should do the same if you are talking directly with the sales person.

Ask for specifics. There are some vendors who will refrain from giving you pricing as if their system is a secret project for only a select few.

It makes absolutely no sense. With so many products out there – you have the leverage so use it. I know of only two vendors who fought me on pricing and I ended up walking away. If they are doing this now, what happens when I get the system.

Speaking of features, if you want mobile learning ask them for specifics. There are plenty of vendors who say they offer mobile, but really want they are saying is you can view the system via your mobile web browser.

To me this is not mobile learning. If you want on/off synch ask them. That said, I have vendors who said yes or what do you mean, so expect to provide them information.

Forecast for three years

When you are preparing your game plan, you should focus on three years. This is because that is how long it will take you to build mass. Sure, you might do it earlier, but on average it takes three years.

Let’s say you find your system and want to get down and dirty with the pricing. To score a lower price point, provide estimates on how many users will be in year two and year three. If you have 1,500 employees right now, do you think you will have the same number in three years? If you are rolling it out in stages and in year one only 75 employees will be using it, how many do you think in year two?

Many vendors are now offering/going with “active users”, which is quite beneficial to those of us who do not want to pay for folks not using the system in any given month.

Demos

Only look at products you are seriously interested in. Salespeople will want to ask you some questions ahead of time before scheduling a demo, even if you want one. You will always want to have the demo with only yourself or team and no one else.

Some vendors schedule demos, which means that anyone including you/your team can be on it. I hate that. If you are important to them, they will go one on one with you. Also there are vendors who have demos online for you to see.

The problem is that they are not full demos, but rather pieces. You want the full one and you want to see front and back end of the system. The back end is the administrator’s side.

A vendor who knows what they are doing will ask you questions ahead of time (before the demo) so it can be tailored to what you want to see and need.

Always ask to see a few systems that are skinned/branded so you can get an idea on what a system could look like because the demos are typically vanilla (i.e. no real skins).

Make sure that the designs you are seeing are ones that are included in the price and are not an additional cost i.e. heavily customized by the customer. I’ve seen a few of these and then had to ask the vendor if the client paid extra for such a design.

A vendor who does not want to show you at least the front look and feel of another client, is not worth your time.

Negotiations and Contracts

I have an extensive blog article on this topic, but in a nutshell:

• Sign only a three year deal. Nothing more, nothing less. You can renew after the three years if you like the system. Some folks who bought the Learn.com system did not care for the Taleo purchase and thus were stuck.
• Opt out clause at the end of each year of the contract. Before the next year kicks in, you want that opt out clause, which says you can leave the system without any additional penalties or fees. Vendors do not put these into contracts, so you have to negotiate for it. I have only had one vendor who refused to do this – and guess what? I said goodbye. If they aren’t willing to do this for you, how rigid are they going to be or difficult when you need some other things.
• You want a discount. Never pay street price. Within the industry the discount tends to be 15%, although some vendors are now doing only 10%. If you are a non-profit, education institution or government entity you may get an automatic discount. This is quite common with non-profits but you need to ask and will need to provide a 501 C3.
• The bigger you are – i.e. size of users/employees the better the discount should be. If you have 50,000 seats you should have a better deal than someone who has 5,00 seats (sadly, this is the case). And that deal should include a better discount.
• Always have them itemize everything. I’ve seen vendors who have said the discount is in the total price, but how do you really know? You don’t.
• Also find out if the discount is yearly or only for the first year. What I have done in the past is break out the discount over my three years. One time I had a 20% discount. So what I did was pay full price the first year (when I had less seats), take 5% the 2nd year and then 15% the third year (when I had more seats). Again, some vendors will offer the split, some won’t but you won’t know unless you ask.
• If the salesperson says he/she cannot offer a discount ask to speak to the sales manager/VP of Sales or whoever is in charge. Nothing against the salesperson, but many cannot offer great deals. However the sales executive can.

Bottom Line

Buying a LMS requires some leg work on your part.

There are more advantages for you than in the past because there are more systems. Not surprisingly there are plenty who do the same if not better than the extremely well known vendors.

More importantly, you do not have to spend 250K or higher on a system. Nor do you have to spend 60K or higher for 500 seats.

The keys to success are right there for you.

It is what you do with them that will make the difference.

E-Learning 24/7

Thankfully, rather than just one person looking back and seeing what happened, we can all do so. 

I like that because it tells a story. The question though is will it be a happy or sad one?

On Fire

The year kicked off with lots of potential, lots of excitement in the air and lots of customers gearing up to purchase new systems, despite global economic woes.

Mobile Learning

• LMSs – Finally vendors took notice. Sadly though many still are in the dark on true mobile learning – i.e. not accessing their platform via a mobile web browser
• Authoring Tools – With only a small sample of vendors that are SaaS based, pickings are slim. Sure there were exceptions on the desktop side – most notably Articulate Storyline, but overall until desktop vendors see the advantages of SaaS, especially with real time collaboration and peer review, tablets will be slow going
• Web Conferencing – You would think that all these services would have a native app for tablets. You would think that they would maximize the power of the iPad 2 and iPad 3? You would be wrong. Frankly a few deserve coal in their stockings.

Market as a whole

Despite overall consumer demand (not just within e-learning) for tablets, and numbers showing that tablets are outselling notebooks, e-learning vendors as whole are sitting back and waiting. Those who aren’t are either offering native apps with online/offline synch or performing the shell game via the mobile web browser and calling it mobile learning.

The number of vendors who went mobile with tablets at the start of the year was extremely small compared to where it stands at the end of 2012.  A win in my book.

Online/Offline Synch

I am quite amazed at the number of vendors who really have zero idea on what the terminology of online/offline synchronization. I still get the yeah we do that, only to find out upon further discussion, that they don’t have it.  In the simplest terms:

• Joe EndUser (and yes, I know it is two words, but that is his last name), who is currently online is accessing the system or tool via his mobile device (preferably a tablet). He leaves the office or the coffee shop or his house and loses his internet connection. The courses are still on his device. He decides to bounce around the course and complete a few sections or goes linear and completes the entire course.

The next day or whenever he has a connection to the Internet, his data gets pushed out from the device and pulled into the platform or tool.

Synchronization has now been completed. All that data and information is now within the system and nothing is lost.

Here is a list of LMS vendors who offer online/offline synchronization via a mobile device, although there are a few who offer this but only via a laptop/desktop)

• AJ Square – but it is a separate module you have to purchase
• CertPoint VLS Portals – but only to a laptop or CD Rom – so not a mobile device
• Edubrite
• eLogic Learning
• Expertus One
• exact learning
• G-Cube
• IMC-Clix
• Learn Dash – a LMS on WordPress – but you must add TinCan API on your own
• All the Open source systems – again you must add TinCan API on your own
• Litmos – but only assessments
• Latitude Learning – only if you have the open source solution and you must add TinCan API on your own
• OnPoint Digital – M-Learning platform
• Pelesys – but the m-learning platform – available only for aviation industry
• Saba
• Steag
• Sum Total Systems
• Sum Total Maestro
• Syberworks
• TestTrack
• Upside Learning
• WBT Systems
• WordLearn
• VTraining Room

Cognetys offers it too but it is via their authoring tool partner, dominKnow Claro.

Authoring Tools

• Templates
• Avatars, Image characters, backgrounds that are business or work oriented
• Audio editing – still no match to Audacity, a free program
• Collaborative/Peer Review – but only one vendor enables the ability to work on the same course in real time with multiple authors – they just have to be in separate pages
• Notes/Notepad/Note taking
• Leaving comments with date/time stamps, making corrections, editing
• Increase in number of vendors

Social Learning

Overall, it wins the Grinch award for continued stagnation. Enough already with FB like pages.

Create your own news board, beyond just some RSS feeds? What about adding Goolge+1, video hangouts, or perhaps coming up with something on your own without replicating what is out there?

Thankfully, there were some concepts that were fresh and worked.

• Communities tied to courses rather than the entire platform. However those that followed this approach provided groups – with group chat, file repositories, discussion boards, forums, blogs, wikis and so on.
• Standalone platforms that were designed for their system but could be used either as a pure social learning standalone or via an API part of your own LMS. Best example? Ensemba by Media Defined.
• APIs of various social sites with Linkedin growing at a quick pace. Standards are Facebook and Twitter

APIs

A really nice upswing with more and more vendors having APIs readily available for end users (without the end user having to go find it). Favorites included:

• Skype
• Dropbox
• Yammer
• Salesforce
• Paypal

Newbies:

• Office 365
• Google – including Google Maps, Google Charts, Google Docs, etc.
• Mailchimp – e-mail marketing
• Google Calendar

Once Cold, now gaining steam

• Widgets
• Courses included in LMSs without you paying extra for them
• Selling courses online via your Next Gen Lite LMS, e-learning marketplace or even your LMS
• Video platforms, including video streaming – but still only a handful offering video editing
• Built in SEO (search engine optimization), e-mail marketing, marketing tools, CRMs (customer relationship mgt – used for sales)
• iCal – enabling integration of Outlook, Gmail and other internet e-mail providers tied to calendars within the LMS, thus webinars, seminars, etc. auto show up in their preferred e-mail calendar

My Forecasts for 2012

In looking back, six out of seven turned out to be on the mark. 

The ones that came to fruition were:

• Talent management – continued growth, rapid at that. 
• Social learning – forecast was that it would remain flat. It did.
• M-Learning – expecting it to be hot, and it hasn’t disappointed. Sure you could argue that not everyone has gone online/offline synch. Considering that the number was zero at the start of 2012. I would say that there definitely was a boost.

 As for m-learning in general related to tablets, there are a lot of systems offering it, even if it is via the mobile web browser. Numbers at the start of 2012 were dismal.  

• SaaS systems – i.e. LMSs – Roughly 95% are SaaS based at the end of 2012, with a percentile offering both options but pushing more for SaaS only.
• Online Authoring systems – the forecast stated that there would be a huge upswing and continued growth. Again, the numbers show this to be true.

The vast majority of these OASs are now next gen lite LMSs, but there are those who list themselves as collaborative learning environments, and an authoring system that is pure SaaS.  

One sort of did

• My forecast on Kinect identified that it would be quite slow out of the gate in 2012, but that there would be some growth by the end of the year with some vendors. The forecast stating growth in K-12 did.
• Kinect vendors in the consumer space did show up, they just didn’t cross over to the e-learning side, with the exception of two. 

One dud

• Augmented Reality. Everything indicated that this was going to show up in 2012, and it did in the consumer marketplace, but not really on the e-learning side. Sure there were some exceptions with people doing their own thing, but from an e-learning vendor standpoint, just did not happen. 

While I did stipulate that I saw Kinect technology more so than AR in e-learning, the truth be told, vendors stayed away. 

Bottom Line

Overall the e-learning market continued to show gains and benefits across the board.  This really could be seen at the ASTD International show which has always been known as a true ILT (instructor led training) angle, with materials.  

This year the show by my estimation was 60% pure instructor led/classroom based products and 40% e-learning. Some of the ILT vendors were providing components and offerings that were pure online. 

Based on conversations I had with vendors across the space, everyone told me that the broke sales numbers. Not just in comparison to the past couple of years, but all time (for those who were more than three years old). 

To me, this is the real story. 

And who doesn’t like happy endings?

Please note: There will not be a blog next week. The next blog will be on January 3, 2013 and will cover Learning Record Stores. 

E-Learning 24/7

A Mr. L.M. System had passed away. He was recognized throughout the e-learning and learning communities. Apparently he was loved by millions and hated by thousands. He tended to wear different colors and apparently wore logos – I surmise they were on t-shirts.

He was online quite a bit and provided a wealth of information to his clients.  LMS as his friends called him was known for being a workaholic.

There was something about him becoming formal and informal, which I took to mean he enjoyed going to the opera and such affairs or just chilling by the pool with his friends.

The obit was written by a Ms. T.M. System which must be a distant cousin.

Survival of the Fittest

I read and constantly research all the time. I live it, perhaps too much, yet the other day I came across a learning blog informing its readers that in order for the LMS to survive:

• Must become modular
• Must adapt to the new way of doing business
• Must evolve as technology evolves

Funny thing is that it the LMS market has been doing that for more than a decade.

Modular

Go back a decade or more and check out the number of systems that offered modules you could add to your system. Just as it was back then and is today – they are extra as in $$$.

Just as it was back then, most modules were actually in the system but turned off. When you bought the module it was turned on.

What Modules are being seen today as they were back in the early 200os?

• Talent and performance mgt
• Web conferencing or chat rooms – I know it might come as a shock but WebEx was alive and in full mode in 2000 and so was Centra – remember them?
• Forums and discussion boards
• E-Commerce
• Customized skinning – albeit in today’s market there are some vendors who charge for skins – disgusting!

Modules in 2012

Excluding the above, there are vendors out there who charge extra for

• Social learning – in many cases it is a more robust than your standard chat, discussion, etc.
• More robust talent management – for some clients succession planning, 360 feedback and learning development will not do – they need more -it is interesting to note that rarely do you see extensive HRIS or OD analytics as part of that additional services
• Widgets or Gadgets (as a module)
• Web conferencing module
• HRIS module
• Compensation, payroll management module
• Benefits module

Meeting the new ways of doing business

When a vendor offers the ability to add APIs, offer personalization, increases multilingual capabilities and provides

• Built-in marketing tools
• Invoice generating and billing functions
• SEO (Search Engine Optimization) including affiliate linking
• Multi-tenent with different skins and logo
• eBook platforms
• TinCan with online/offline synchronization or something similar with online/offline synchronization
• Lower pricing
• Compliance and regulatory
• Mobile with tablets
• HTML5
• Native self contained apps
• iCal – which synchs scheduling of events to your Outlook, G-mail accounts
• OpenID
• SIS integration (Student Information Systems)
• ERP integration (has always been available – as in over a decade)
• Crisp, clean and modern interface

I’d say they are clearly meeting the demands of today’s business and educational needs (for those systems targeting that market).  Even those who offer a pure open source system are meeting the needs of some businesses and educational institutions.

I’d go further and say that those systems who are targeting K-12 are clearly meeting the demand out there in the marketplace, more so that higher education (which also exists, but for many folks they focus not on community/junior colleges rather on 4 year).

Please explain to me, how systems today are not meeting those needs?

I mean sure there are plenty who are not doing a darn thing and if they are it is so minimal it is a joke (ahem – you know who you are), but overall the market is meeting the minimal needs of their target audiences.

Yeah, there are those who are doing more and they should get a major KUDOS for going beyond the minimum requirements.

As Technology Evolves

Again, without repeating the above, there are plenty of vendors who are doing just that and have been doing it over the past several years – i.e. keeping up with the technology and expanding their capabilities. 

Myth Building

I see many reasons for why such myths are out there and why so many people buy it as fact. After all, you see it everyday in your life.  Advertising and Politics are leaders of perpetuating myths to their audiences  (and no, I’m not talking about e-learning or learning).

In our e-learning slice of life, the myth builders and those who expand it are similar in nature to those folks hundreds and even thousands of years ago, who grabbed one idea and spread it as fact with each new audience adding a bit more to create a new reality.

The myth builders that exist in our space include:

• People who espouse views and terms that are better suited for MENSA than the general audience.

I am happy you know multi-syllable words, but honestly when did monolithic become part of the e-learning vernacular? (look a big word!)

• People who are ill informed.

They read Linkedin groups, various blogs and even newspaper/magazine articles, with folks who have no real life experience with e-learning, let alone a LMS, but have zero problem griping about it and its impact often negatively with learning.

• Some misguided vendors whose products are heavily geared toward something other than learning and who want people to believe that end of the LMS is near, so why use it?
• People who perceive online learning as doomsday to learning, especially classroom based.

I get it, you love instructor led, but come on read the research, read the data – of course, if you really dislike it – you can see dozens upon dozens of real facts and still see it as false. Can we say moon landing? (you would be surprised at the number of people who believe it was created at an Arizona movie stage)

Bottom Line

Let’s be real clear here

• Learning management systems are growing at a huge rate. In my latest LMS directory (to be published later this week), over 500 are listed.  My estimate is that close to 600 are in play, not including those who build custom systems as part of their consulting business.
• If the market was dying why are vendors paying huge sums of money to purchase other LMS vendors – whether in the same market or someone new to the LMS space?
• Why are many LMS vendors breaking sales records?
• Why are many LMS vendors who do not offer any talent/performance management features or functionality increasing their user base exponentially?
• Why are so many new customers entering the space and purchasing their first LMS?
• Why are attendees at trade shows geared to e-learning and LMSs showing up in greater numbers than ever before?

I’ll tell you why.

The LMS is not dead. It is not dying. It is not requiring an extensive set of variables in order for it grow.

It is not requiring talent/performance management to be an essential feature. It is not becoming a human capital management system.

It is becoming something people need and want.

And that is a fact, not a myth.

E-Learning 24/7

Its nearly Halloween and with that comes the shocking and fearful excitement or lack thereof of the scariest things on the plane appearing at the movie theaters, in costumes, television and for us, the course authoring tool market.

Fear #1 – Evil Clown Pricing

Just in the past two years the per license cost of authoring tools has skyrocketed. Long has tools such as Studio and Captivate been on the higher side, the same can be said for vendors such as Rapid Intake and dominKnow.

So why the fear? Because other vendors are getting into the act as well. I must have missed something because I could have sworn that we are in a slow growing economy and previously a global recession.

With budgets at an all time low – granted some are going back up – the pricing seems to be out of alignment.

Compare the authoring tool market with the LMS space and you can clearly see the difference. There are more vendors in the LMS space under 10K then in the past – thus meeting the markets’ needs yet the authoring tool space is seeing a spike in prices.

Yes there are still enough lower priced per license authoring tools but when you view the landscape as a whole, the shock screams loud and clear.

• Articulate Storyline – $1,398 per license (they seem to be into the “everything must go” marketing angle where a “until the end of the month” is becoming a staple. Of course the “we have to sell everything” is often a ruse, so is this pitch.
• Articulate Studio – also offering a special deal at $1,398 but you also get Studio 13 for free – limited deal. They do mention in the past the price was over $1,800 but for some reason I had bought it in the past for lower. Regardless, if you are not upgrading its not cheap.
• Rapid Intake – Talk about price increase. They were never inexpensive but come on – $2,299 for their rapid e-learning authoring suite – includes mobile (prices do drop if you purchase multiple but still 10-25 licenses runs at $1,954).
• dominKnow – $997 for the LTE/STD/Pro (for less than five licenses) (at 5-10, the cost is $2,497 – but you do get a lot of more features and capabilities.  Compared to the other big players – dominKnow Claro is a steal. (Please note: the pricing is per year, per license)
• Captivate 6 – $899 (per license), you want the full e-learning suite? $1,799 – per license.
• Lectora X.6 inc. support $1,790 (per license), no support ($1,595)
• SH!FT by Aura Interactive – $3,500 (1 license)
• PowerTrainer Professional – $3,295 (1 license)
• EduWiz $1,299
• SoftChalk 7 $1,200 (desktop), $795 (cloud) – per license mind you, again at $795 a bargain!
• NexLearn (Simulation tool) – their uber robust sim version will cost you nearly 13K for one license, their base version  (Simplicity) $999
• Platte Canyon – Toolbook 11 (full version) $2,795 per license

All prices are U.S.D. (United States dollars)

I’d rather get smashed in the face with a small pumpkin then pay over $1,000 for an authoring tool. Let alone $999.

What is an equal frightening event is when authoring tool vendors do not even list their pricing on their page. It is as though they are the AREA 51 of the authoring space, so every thing is hush-hush.

Fear of the Mobile Bogeyman aka HTML5

Hmm.. one vendor debuts PowerPoint, the entire market adds PowerPoint. One vendor adds avatars, the whole market runs to add avatars. One vendor adds image libraries, the market starts adding image libraries. One vendor debuts with collaborative peer review, the market starts to add peer review.

What do all these have in common? Speed. Its like offering a la carte cable and then everyone else does it. But when you offer fiber optics, silence.

Yet when it comes to m-learning and HTML5 output, it is as though you are eating stale candy from 1997 shoved into your bag by an unsuspecting neighbor.

The spin around this of course is to say “we have mobile learning” but it is accessing via the mobile web browser. Not an app mind you. And in regards specifically to the output of HTML5, the numbers offering it are slim.

What’s the Hold up?

Fear and Tin Can

Fear for the HTML5 output – many vendors still believe that tablets and they mention the iPad is not going to be strong and I’ve even heard some tell me it is just a fad.  On the latter it isn’t a fad. On the former, every tablet in the market accepts HTML5. Since there are over a few hundred tablets out there with more coming, I’d say that HTML5 is huge.

Granted the others accept Flash, but when the folks who make Flash say they are moving over to HTML5, you don’t need a witch doctor to tell you to watch out for that Zombie next to you.

Halloween Fun Fact

Peanut butter candies wrapped in orange/black paper, popcorn balls, fruits and coins are tell-tell signs that you will be toilet papered later that evening.

Now back to the post.

HTML5 Part 2 – better than the sequel to many horror films

HTML5 is not going anywhere. Over the past month, the number of people who have told me they are seeking an authoring tool that outputs to HTML5 has been enormous.  No one says to me, “oh can it output to flash?”. 

They say, we want an authoring tool that supports mobile and outputs to HTML5 (and the mobile they are referring to are tablets).

A Haunting in SaaS

Referring back to the other e-learning solutions inc. LMSs, authoring tools are still way behind moving to SaaS. Again, why this is not going quicker is beyond me, when you realize that over 90% of the LMS market offers SaaS and roughly 60% are SaaS only.

Today’s workplace works remote and travels more than in the past.

Before you shout out that the people who build the courses are at the workplace (physically) think again. I know of several huge companies – both in employees and in brand name – whose instructional designers are remote (many in other states).

When you factor in the number of freelancers, contractors who are out there, there is real demand for SaaS.

But I’ve seen this before – it was called CBT (Computer based training with a CD-ROM). Even though WBT was out in full force by 2000, there were still plenty of vendors offering tools to build CBT. Heck, even in the mid 2000′s you could find folks.

Better yet – there are plenty of authoring tools today who offer outputs for CD-ROM and DVD, which is saying CBT (granted with DVD).  Why would someone want to take a rapid authoring tool course on a CD player?

Oh and were you aware that some laptops and desktops no longer have a CD-ROM player, rather they have only DVD?  What’s next? Bringing back Commodore 64 output?

Not being afraid

Only a couple of authoring tool vendors enable output to a Sony PSP (portable gaming device) and I have seen a couple who can output to PlayStation 3. Thus it is only a matter of time before you will see folks who can output to the X-Box 360.

Halloween Fun Fact #2

In Los Angeles, when you turn off your lights at your house, people still come to the front door and ring it.

Authoring Tool Treat

Yes, I have checked my calendar and I am well aware that the end of the year is not October 31st, but that doesn’t mean I can’t announce my authoring tools of 2012.

(eerie laugh)

Number 1 – Best Authoring Tool of 2012

dominKnow Claro - This is the best authoring tool on the market today.

With an extensive amount of features including HTML5 output, collaborative peer review, avatars, templates, image libraries, notes and the ability to work on the same course in real time (the authors just have to be on different pages) it stands out among the crowd.

SaaS, reusable learning objects, simulations, HTML widgets, assessment tool, on device review (great for mobile devices including the iPad), screen recording and capturing, web cam recording and desktop meeting and scheduling makes this product shine.

#2 Articulate Storyline - Fantastic product. With lots of great features. You can read my review of the product here.  Why not #1?

Well features aside – Claro just destroys it, the lack of SaaS is huge. Sure you can re-synch it with Articulate Online, but that is not the same. Another knock is that the product is geared more to e-learning developers (nothing wrong with that) rather than both – beginners/not heavy tech folks and e-learning developers, which Claro offers.

#3. Rapid Intake - This has always been one of my favorite products but it seems to be more focused on pricing then on the next tier of features. Once they were extremely cutting edge – first to output to HTML5, first to have collaborative peer review, first to have on/off synch for an authoring tool. Now, I’m not sure where they are going.

Rather then offering avatars whose mouths matched your voice (which another vendor Sh!FT offers), they seem to be in cloud mode (no pun intended).

Newcomer of the Year

Right now it is Storyline, but I won’t make it official until after I attend DevLearn and see some of the new shiny tools. 

Bottom Line

Fears are often unwarranted but it doesn’t mean they are not real.

And in the course authoring tool market, it is far too real to even stomach.

E-Learning 24/7

When you view the painting “Ceci n’est pas une pipe” – “this is not a pipe”, you would think to yourself  “how could this be”?

After all, you are looking at a pipe, therefore a contradiction has taken place. If you are seeing a pipe, it therefore must be a pipe.

But it isn’t.  What you are viewing is an image of a pipe, not the pipe itself.

This same contradiction is now happening in the e-learning world at a frightening pace.   While many items appear to be one thing, in reality they are something completely different.

The people who suffer the most from this contradiction are the consumers and a vast majority of vendors.

HTML5 or is it?

While mobile learning is moving at an incredible speed, faster than anticipated by some of my colleagues, it does not come without a cost.

That cost is in the pitch of HTML5

If you listen to content authoring tool vendors who have added the capability of HTML5 it is easy to misunderstand what some are saying is not what you assume to be true.

The assumption is that the product can output to HTML5, yet this is hardly true for the vast majority of authoring tools.

What is true is that you can view the courses you have created on any mobile device that supports HTML5 including the iPad series. 

This can be via

• Your mobile web browser
• An app that goes to the SaaS authoring tool – but uses a url to get there
• A native app that enables you view the courses on your mobile device with online/offline synch. Even if the product is a desktop product all you need to do is upload the course to your own web server, use the vendor’s web server or via a LMS.

A few vendors are bending the pitch a tad further by saying you can view and take the courses on an iPad which you then assume the course is in HTML5, but in reality it is in HTML which can be viewed on any tablet.

It reminds of of an article I read yesterday in the SF Chronicle. The article’s content was about tour brochures.

People who read that they will “view” the famous area, believe that they will actually visit the area and go into the area or location. This is erroneous.  What it means is you will be able to take a photo on the outside of the location, but not actually go in and take a tour.

However, if the brochure says “visit” than it means you enter the building or whatever.

Is it bending the truth?

I think not, is it however creating an assumption one would think would mean view and visit are the same thing, just as one would assume that HTML5 means that you can output the course in HTML5 (which only a few vendors at this time offer the ability to do s0).

Online/Offline synch

Regardless of whatever e-learning product you are using that states the ability to view and take assessments, courses, etc. on a mobile device unless you can re-synch it, I find it useless.

After all you can do this today with a significant number of vendor products who are in the cloud, via your mobile web browser. 

The key is online/offline synch since this truly offers the person on the go to take courses or assessments offline and then when they have access to an internet connection, a synching occurs pulling the data from the device back into the learning platform.

Yet as in the HTML5 case, online/offline synch is not able for the vast majority of learning platforms – especially in the LMS space.

It will change once TinCan rolls out, however the speed of which to integrate TinCan will be slow.  The vendors who are testing TinCan will roll it out first and quickly at that, but the others I believe will follow to modes of operandi:

• Wait and see – most often used by vendors anytime a new capability or technology appears in the space
• Hold until the following years – using the pitch that their current clients have not asked for it, therefore they are not doing it – again, extremely common
• Move forward – not at the speed which you want because it takes time to learn TinCan, make sure it works and then implement it into their system

For those who are not familar with TinCan, in a nutshell it

• Enables the ability to communicate instances between a mobile device and a LMS or any product that is SaaS based – i.e. authoring tools for example
• Utilizes a self-contained native app which the vendor will create for a mobile device, ideally a tablet (for right now it will be the iPad series, since they know it will work with iOS devices)
• Provides the ability for online/offline synch – which is huge
• In theory, down the road be able to communicate instances with whatever device, such as an Xbox or Smart TV – with the online/offline synch functionality

Talent/Performance Management

Unless you have been sleeping like Rip Van Winkle, there is a heavy push to offer talent/performance management features within LMSs.

For the consumer is seeking such capabilities (and not everyone is) the need as such is so great, that what you assume it not always the case.

When a system offers performance management or talent management features (which IMO is now the same) two spins occur

• It is included in the system at no charge
• It is extra or can be a standalone – some vendors offer this capability

The included component can be the huge “it is not a” angle. Many times a vendor will show you a demo that has all the features activated including talent management. Thus it is easy to believe that it is included in the product.

Unless you specifically ask if this is the case, some vendors (in my experience more than you think) will not openly state as such.

They allow you to believe what you want to believe. Then when you buy the system a rude awakening shows up, much to the disappointment of the new client.

For vendors who offer compensation, payroll, job capabilities and other similar human resource functions, it is easy to assume that this is the standard bearer for all TM systems.

Again it is not.

What it is though is a human capital management system which is a fast growing market. For those who believe that the commitment on part of the vendor is a LMS they are already caught in the web of perception.

Let me be clear on this

• If the “hot” features a HCM and the product as a whole is advertised as a HCM or TM, than the LMS is secondary, not the primary
• If their product line is 3/4 TM/HCM, than their focus is on the space

Two vendors who pulled this “perception” is not reality come to mind.

In 2009, a well known and highly respected vendor was advertising on their site that their focus was their LMS, yet behind the scenes told me that they perceived their system as a performance management system.

In fact they told me that 63% of their customers were using the system as a TM/PM and not as a LMS.

In 2011, another well respected vendor had the gall to tell me that they were committed to the LMS market and had poured money into this endeavor and yet when you viewed their site it clearly focused on TM/PM.

When you view their system it is heavily geared toward HCM. Sure they offer a LMS, but unless you believe in Santa Claus (and who doesn’t), their main focus IMO is on the HCM.

I’m not saying that all HCM or even TM systems are pulling the “rabbit out of the hat” trick, rather what I am saying is if your primary focus is a LMS and not a HCM or TM system, it would be extremely wise to really take a deep dive on the vendor’s web site, marketing materials and even the salesperson.

Bottom Line

We all fall into the trap of assuming “what you see” is “what it is”, but in today’s e-learning world this may not be the case.

Unless you are willing to ask the hard questions and probe more than you have in the past, it is easy to be caught into hype.

Today we are in a greater hurry to find something quickly, rather than explore.

We shoot out RFPs without taking time to drill down and do due diligence.

As a result, we are adding to the spin.

Because what we see is not always what it is.

And that my friends is the pudding in the pie.

E-Learning 24/7

However with hope comes disappointment, and that disappointment appeared numerous times.

There were vendors that had nice LMSs and cool features. There were some very slick products.

Yet, overall the show was lame.

It just wasn’t me thinking this, I heard it from attendees and even other vendors who were trolling the floor.

Time to hit the floor

The Show Angle

In the past this show has been heavily geared to instructor led training in the corporate space. E-Learning has been minimal. However, this clearly had changed in 2012.

I would estimate that there was a 60-40 split, still instructor led driven, but even a significant number of the ILT vendors were offering subsets or capabilities to turn their ILT into online via webinars or online courses.

Trends on the Expo Floor

Very Cool

• Mobile Learning
• ILT heading into the online path in one way or another
• LMS vendors who had a significant number of leads – amazing when you consider the show typically brings quite a large contingency of ILT folks
• Lots of giveaways for iPads, Kindle Fire – etc. Downside: Many required you to be present at the time of the giveaway
• Some angle to game based learning – either an app or actual product
• Many salespeople who were polite, asked questions without being intrusive or hard pitched, listened and genuinely seemed to care – KUDOS

Yeah it works, but you can do better

• Social Learning
• Demos – 50% of the time, but 50% of the time – vendor sends you to their web site – specifically you can visit us at blah blah

The downside to the latter is how many people after the end of the day, many of whom attended the seminar sessions, remembered the url of your web site? If you think they used the ASTD app and wrote down some notes, I think you would be surprised.

I would love to see a survey from ASTD sent one week after the show to attendees asking them what vendors they visited online with specific requirements that they did so, without visiting the ASTD app, ASTD online site showing the exhibitors and their web sites and the heavy book.

• Giving out books to attendees after they listened to the the vendors’ sales pitch. The problem with that angle – no mention of the vendor, thus its poor marketing. I got a book and can’t recall the vendor who gave it to me. Great idea, major backfire.
• Marketing materials that showed screens of the product, had the vendor’s url, a contact section – whom to contact, etc. – This is very good – so why did I have it in this area? Because there were plenty of vendors who had marketing materials but it was all text, and contained no info on whom to contact.

I heard from a couple of vendors who told me that they were fixing the materials and it would be better next show. The funny thing about that pitch – I heard it at the previous show from the same vendors.

This show draws huge and if you can’t spend one week updating your marketing materials – you have bigger problems then you think. Here is a hint

• If you are a LMS vendor and they are looking at you – they have some inkling on e-learning and a LMS – so why do you have some lame pitch about what is a LMS, what is e-learning, etc.
• Marketing drives business especially in this space – its about buzz and excitement not about you writing War and Peace

Yuck!

• No materials – really?
• Many vendors focused more on the person’s badge than on the person themselves inquiring about stuff – I heard this from numerous attendees
• Huge booths, lots of salespeople and they are not on the sides – i.e. front, left, right, back – rather they are congregating next to one another, even though people are walking around
• Small booths – lots of salespeople – more then needed – it actually hurts you – because it intimidates people
• Eating their lunch at their booth – the number one thing you should never do
• Salespeople who were indifferent – I saw this a lot – you could clearly see on their faces they were bored and did not want to be there
• Salespeople who had their backs turned away from the expo attendees walking around

What you should never do

• Pearson not letting people know about their open source LMS that is in the works – you had to specifically ask them. I get it that you are focused on sales, but how about letting people know about the other – especially since you are marketing it on the web
• Blackboard Learn for Sales – Let’s talk about these guys in particular

Blackboard Learn for Sales – a wonderful (j/k) experience (not really)

This is a new feature set in the Blackboard Learn for Corporations which is tied into the Salesforce.com system. Makes sense, and it will be effective.

What stunned me was their booth and in particular the salesperson I talked to and the system i.e. what the product looked like.

You can’t make this stuff up

• The salesperson told me they have been in the commercial space for years – Yeah, I know that – but when you think Blackboard you think education
• The course they show you uses educational terms, not corporate terms – which is funny since the product i.e. integration with Salesforce.com is purely corporate

Education you say?

The salesperson showed me the course example which contained on the left side of the screen – the table of contents – very common with WBT and really a requirement for end users.

But with this course example terminology included

• Course Syllabus
• Course Units i.e. Unit 1 and its title, unit 2 and so on

As a former college faculty member and high school teacher, these are terms used in education – not in the corporate side of the plate.

When I stated as such to the salesperson he told me the course was created by (I can’t recall whom) and this is what they are using. On a side note, the right side was pure text. Snoozeville.

When I asked the salesperson to show me the administration side, he seemed surprised. I repeated it again, saying I wanted to see the admin side, which a tab stating as such was clearly visible on the screen.

His reply – “it’s customizable”. Great, but that is not what I am asking nor seeking. Requested it again to the salesperson.

His retort – “It’s not active”. Which means that you could not see it, because it was turned off. Well done (not really).

It’s all about “mobile”

It is about time! I was very excited to see the number of vendors who showed off mobile capabilities with tablets and even smartphones. The bottom line – they were finally realizing that mobile learning was the place to go. Many vendors stated as such to me. SWEET!

I was surprised at the number of vendors who had no idea on what is Tin Can. I was equally surprised that a couple of vendors did not see the value in online/offline synch nor were aware that end users wanted this feature.

Many of the mobile learning features, had apps, but when you clicked the app – you could see that it was taking you to the system or site on the mobile web browser. IMO, this is not mobile learning.

Yes, you can access your courses, but why use the app, when I can go directly to my browser

Best Product I saw

This one, has real potential and honestly it contained a wow factor, especially since it was a game for learning.

The company: GameLearn

Features

• Looks like a game that people would want to play – i.e. cool graphics, interactive, engaging, fun
• The game I saw was for time management and personal productivity
• I would play this at home – too many game based learning solutions look like freeware or the old Atari games from the 80s
• Works with mobile devices

Two Negatives (I wish there wasn’t)

• Its all in Flash. Thus in order for it to work on the iPad series or iOS mobile devices you need to have the SkyFire app or something similar which can run flash on your device
• They give you the app for free – it comes with the game. While that is a positive, I wonder how many people wouldn’t understand how to use it – since it is a mobile browser. Thus you do not use Safari.
• Cost – for some people it won’t be an issue, for others it could be a big issue, depending on your budget.

The cost is $325 per license, but a minimum of 25 licenses. I surmise that when you get into the high number of licenses they give you a discount. Thus if you purchased 25, the cost would be $8,125.

Final Word

I saw a couple of prototypes with mobile that looked extremely cool and would be wins for the vendors.

Bottom Line

As with any trade show expo, you will have the good, bad and downright ugly when it comes to products, the show itself, vendors and such.

Overall, I believe this show was a winner for vendors, because the lead gen for the majority of them was very high compared to other trade shows.

Additionally, there seemed to be an extremely high interest in e-learning, which is awesome.

ILT folks are getting it – albeit there are still enough people who refuse to jump into the e-learning waters.

They see ILT as the only way. They ignore the data and research which shows e-learning is better for learners and students.

It has another name though

The Emperor wears no clothes.

E-Learning 24/7

That is why there is an uptick in the number of commercial systems available in the education sector.

With that comes trends.

Available at your local college and school – NOT!

Trend 1

Mobile Learning

This is one of the most shocking trends in the space – the significant lack of mobile learning in these systems. What makes this so bizarre is the extensive amount of data, that clearly shows students of all ages are using mobile devices.

• Access to smartphones has more than tripled among high school students since 2006, according to a survey report from Project Tomorrow®  350,000 U.S. K-12 students
• 50% of all college students are using mobile devices to access on a daily basis the Internet (Educause)
• In the first week of the semester, the number of students using mobile devices like tablets instead of computers to access the Internet, went from 22% to 71% between 2010 and 2011 (ITS)

So why the delay in using mobile learning, especially with tablets in education focused LMSs?

An even more disturbing trend is the lack of SMS (text messaging) in education systems, even though numerous reports have found that students of all ages are using text messaging more than e-mail. 

The irony of course, is that systems are heavily focused on e-mail notifications and built-in email systems for students.

Trend 2

File Repositories

There is often a level of confusion when it comes to file repositories.

A file repository in the LMS world is the ability for end users/administrators to places files into a library or folder if you will whereas students can access, view and download the files (documents, video/audio etc.).

For many education systems this is becoming the norm rather than the rarity. 

I am seeing an increase in the ability to send these files to fellow students (virtually non-existent in corporate systems) and the ability to track in the back end – how many times the file has been viewed and downloaded.

I am projecting the analytical part to significantly increase and to expand the capability to use solutions such as online storage (which a few vendors are offering) and product like Dropbox and CalenGoo.

Why?  Because students are already using such products in their daily lives.

Trend 3

Social Learning

Continuance of lack of new capabilities with social learning.   For the life of me, I can’t figure out why systems on this side of the space are sticking with the same garbage as the corporate side.

That said, this has become the norm in these systems.

What are they using?

• Ancient features such as discussion boards/text chat/forums – I offered these babies back in 1995 on my web site. Time to move on!
• Facebook like page with profiles — snooze-ville
• Built-in text chat – awesome – okay not really

At a minimal why not offer solutions similar to Instagram or Pinterest?

Trend 4

Integrated e-mail

A huge number of vendors are offering this feature in their system. We are not talking about e-mail notifications here, nor being able to send an e-mail to one person and e-mails to a group of folks, we are talking about actual e-mail messaging going from teachers to students.

Trend 5

Parent Portal

Clearly this exists in the K-12 sector. Some systems offer parents the ability to see their students homework – including what needs to be accomplished, communicate with teachers and even chat with other parents.

Staying with the portal angle, many systems offer them for teachers. On the teacher side, they can communicate with fellow teachers around the world, often within their own subject.

Kudos.

Trend 6

Mentoring

What really disturbs me is the general lack of this feature set on the corporate side. It should be mandatory, but on the education side it is growing exponentially.

Everything from teachers/professors offering something similar to answering students questions via a Social Q/A angle to having students mentor other students (a peer to peer approach).

Another feature that is seeing growth is the use of Skype – built into these systems, which data has found is popular with teachers because it enables their students to communicate with fellow students around the world.

More trends than you can shake a ruler at

• Ability to integrate with a SIS (student information system) or SMS (student management system)
• Google apps – free for education – as long as you follow their specific guidelines
• Exam management – no big surprise here

Something strange is going on here

There are two trends in the space that is quite surprising, because in the brick and mortar setting is just doesn’t exist.

E-Commerce

Another uptick with systems offering e-commerce including built-in shopping carts, ability to accept credit cards/Paypal, discounts/promo codes and various types of currencies.

All at no cost.

This trend is being seen at the higher education/academia level and it makes sense, especially when you are able to purchase courses – i.e. online courses.

What is really cool is that it is going beyond the college to student angle – to the B2C or B2B – in this case the university/college selling courses to anyone (not necessarily enrolled) and companies. 

At the brick and mortar level, many colleges offered the opportunity to partner up with a company, so that their employees could take a variety of courses, so it is a natural fit on the online side.

Talent Management

In just the past few months, I am seeing education systems offering something similar to talent management features. One system actually is an education talent management system.

I get it from a market standpoint – revenue wise, but I don’t get it as a whole.

As a former educator at both the high school and college level, the succession planning, 360 feedback and alike really never existed.

Oh sure, you would have a colleague come in and observe your class – i.e. teaching – and rate it for our yearly review, but who in the heck is offering leadership development at the high school level for teachers (unless you are enrolled at a university and are working on an educational administration degree).

On the principal side, many systems fail to understand, is that often an assistant principal will leave the school to become a principal at another school – so the leadership development – often used to identify leaders within that institution doesn’t apply.

A few systems are offering the HRIS angle.

The majority of school districts, universities on the administration side – have zero idea on what a HRIS solution is, let alone the advancement of technology within their own schools.

I would rather see an on-going focus targeting the students, rather then this bizarre component.

Fun Facts

Comparison Time!

• Corporate side – still focusing on text dashboards, heck even the lack of dashboards
• Education side – dashboards with graphs, pie charts, etc.
• Corporate side – still awful navigation and UI – on both sides (front and back end)
• Education side – similar
• Corporate side – a lack of the “wow” factor on the front end
• Education side – similar
• Corporate side – ad-hoc  reports
• Education side – rare, not the norm – heavily focused on canned reports

Online Learning vs. ILT

Interesting data, showing why schools and universities are moving heavily into the online space.

• International Association for K-12 Online Learning, or iNACOL, estimates that more than 1.5 million K-12 students were engaged in some form of online or blended learning in the 2009-10 school year
• 48 of the 50 states including the District of Columbia offer some type of online learning
• A meta-analysis of thousands of studies conducted by the Department of Education (2009 and updated in 2010) concluded that students in online only instruction performed modestly better than their face to face counterparts

Bottom Line

Education as a whole is getting a bad rap and it shouldn’t at least when it comes to online learning.

The reason behind this is simple, educational learning management systems.

While these systems continue to offer a wonderful set of features, they still have a long way to go.

User interface should be a priority for all involved, especially with ease of use as the cornerstone.

Because when you focus on what is really important for the students, educators and even administrators on the back end, the rest will follow.

Which will change the way brick and mortar schools/universities educate.

For the better.

E-Learning 24/7

We often tell our employees, customers and ourselves, that e-learning is learning without borders. That you can learn wherever you are, at whatever time you want, and that you can gain knowledge without the previous conditions.

I wonder if we have truly achieved this premise, i.e. learning without borders or are we stating something that is not yet accurate?

Social Engagement

Go onto any social media site: Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Quora or any of the thousands of sites, and you will see people engaging with total strangers. Sure they say they are followers or friends, but the vast majority are people they just met – via online.

In their day to day conversations or posts, how often are they telling each other about your company’s secrets? Your day to day operations or products coming down the line?

How many tell their fellow posters, that next week a layoff is coming or that the university is out of money and everyone is doomed?

Answer: Virtually nil. If that is the case, then why has the e-learning market failed to grasp the concept of real social exchange based upon job role or new employees by connecting them with fellow folks tied to those areas, but at different companies or businesses?

The common reason of course, is fear of company secrets or information, but again, if you use the various social media, you will see this rarely happens on these sites.

From the academia/education standpoint, this form of social exchange is already in play. Vendors such as Edmodo, enables teachers at various schools across the world to communicate with each other.

They can discuss best ways to teach a certain topic, seek insight, identify new instructional methods, etc, and no surprise here: they love it.

While it is true there are corporate solutions who follow this same premise: but from the business standpoint, what they are both (inc. educational) lacking: is an interface for a LMS or learning platform.

LMS

I have a sales department and have made some recent hires. These new employees have no sales experience, but they have potential. I place them into my LMS and have them take courses tied to sales: “how to pitch”, “prospecting”, “closing”.

I might have a social learning component in my system, with the standard FB like page or something similar and with “groups”.

They can share and discuss among themselves and with fellow employees.

What though, have they really learned? How can they understand the challenges and issues they may or already have faced, without the fear of going to the department head or higher, and worrying they might can terminated or be perceived in some negative light?

What if though, instead of having these employees communicate only with themselves, they can within your LMS, communicate with other “new employees” to “sales” from other companies?

Now, they are connected with their peers, specifically tied to their job role or their predicament. If I am new to management, why only enable them to communicate and learn from within, when they can (and most likely do so via social media) communicate and learn from others, outside your company?

Now before you argue about “security” or “privacy”, you can create (even now using mashups or some APIs) the ability to lock down or block certain areas.

A vendor who sees real value in this approach, can create an interface so that if a company or business, choose to do so, they could “connect” with another LMS client, who has the same interface.

Hub

I always saw my LMS (when I purchased them) as a hub, but not as merely a LMS. It was the brain, if you will, the central component of my “learning community”. Pods which were off the hub included a bookstore, library, event center, courses (to sign up and take), chat rooms and other items.

They were skinned appropriately, but when designed, implemented and used, they were seen in my eyes as pods. I had pods dedicated only to my employees, and ones for my customers, and yes, some that they could cross over with one another.

Yes, it was a LMS, and yes these pods, where really just areas within the LMS, but when I decided to add a new component to my LMS, using a mashup, it in a sense was an “addition” (if you think of it as a house) to the system.

So, why do we see a LMS only as a LMS, but not as a hub for learning?

The reason I mention this angle, is with it, one pod can be your social exchange pod. It can be locked down from the rest of your system, and thus, you can connect it with another pod from another system.

Sure, the vendor can create a social exchange within their main site, with access to those who are interested in such an area and are clients of the same system, but why stop there?

Maybe, the have a group for leadership or new employees to sales, but what if they don’t?

Worse, how many areas or groups is too many? With my own hub (LMS) and pod(s), I can identify the areas of interest, specifically targeted to my employees and their needs.

Another client (company) can do the same thing.

They identify via a social exchange site contained within the LMS vendor’s site (access required) what areas or groups they would like to connect with: 1st year management, new employees, etc. Then other companies can explore and choose whom to they wish to connect with and use.

As a result, you now have another channel for learning. You can still have your security and privacy, and again, if your employees are using social media (and most are), then the argument of business secrets, doesn’t hold water.

Best of all, as technology evolves, this form of learning evolves too. Augmented Reality – check. Gaming sims with social exchange: check.

Mobile learning with tablets – in of itself border free- and now with social exchange: wow, lots of possibilities.

You may ask, but what if I have a learning platform, can I do this as well? Absolutely, especially because you can have even more options and possibilities.

Social Learning: Social Exchanges

Let me make this clear: a social exchange can be everything social learning wants to be and desires to be, but has failed to live up to.

We are dying here with social learning, not because its premise is flawed, but because it does not maximize what it can do – which is enable people to collaborate, engage and learn without borders.

We are collaborating and engaging among ourselves. Stuck in a bubble, if you will. Our bubble? Your own company. Business. Location – even if you are a multi-conglomerate and global – it is still your “own” company.

Where is the exchange of learning and ideas in that?

Bottom Line

We cannot tell ourselves any longer, nor pitch it to others, that e-learning is truly learning without borders. It isn’t.

What it is however, is learning within our own border: our own company, school, institution, association, firm and business. We may cross out of it, when we have customers, but they themselves are limited within the bubble as well.

We can change that. It may take awhile, after all, it is not a quick fix, but it can be done, because without, we need to face reality:

- Social Learning is struggling

- Our employees/students/customers really are being provided with limited knowledge – the knowledge we provide to them, offer to them or “allow” them to choose

- The true exchange of knowledge is being held back, not because of lack of desire, but rather restraints that while they were fine, five years ago, are no longer acceptable

This isn’t about smashing e-learning. It is about adding additional value.

We can gripe all we want, about how our employees are not using the system, but let’s be real here – if you use social media frequently, do you use its “approach” within your LMS as frequently? I would surmise the answer to be no.

Let’s change it. Let’s truly open the borders for learning.

Let’s show our learners, they can learn without the barriers or the confines of our own company or institution.

When we do that, then will we achieve our real premise: to learn without any limitations: regardless of your location, your time zone and now, your bubble.

Note: Please excuse the lack of “bolding” or “colors”, as this piece is written via my WordPress app on my iPad.

I will be posting in real time via my Twitter account (diegoinstudio) and my Linkedin Group (E-Learning 24/7) happenings at EduTech Russia 2011 on Sept. 20th/21st in Moscow.

E-Learning 24/7

There are 124 authoring tools in my latest directory, of which 30 are SaaS or a combination of desktop and SaaS – which really what is the point of that?

Trend 1

Slow growth of SaaS

Even though more tools are adding the features of collaborative and peer review (more on that in a sec) they are still heavy geared towards a desktop solution.

• Desktop: Software is installed on your hard drive of your computer and you work on your computer

• SaaS:  Software is in the cloud, on the internet. You work online via the servers of your vendor. Everything is saved online

I had thought that this trend would be dying out, but it is amazing at the number of vendors who are entering the space and still focused on the desktop approach.

Let me make this very clear: you will lose market share, because if you look at consumer behavior and its favorably towards using apps in the cloud, the companies focused on having their solution in the “cloud” will win it. 

Adobe Photoshop Express – in the cloud and very popular. Google Docs – ever heard of em?  Microsoft Live – same thing.  The list goes on and on.

With the ever growing telecomm or working remote approach (and I am even talking about FT employees), globalization and the push to in the “cloud”, it makes strong business sense to follow suit.

Projection

Despite the overwhelmingly number of vendors who have a “desktop only” solution, based on what I am seeing- a result of new feature sets – this will change.  If you use the previous year numbers of vendors and the total who were in the cloud as a predicator, then at its current growth, expect by mid 2012, a minimum of 20 vendors switching to a “in the cloud” solution only. 

I believe though, that will be higher, especially with these tools meeting and honestly beating some major league competitors. Vendors who are already in the SaaS only space, should continue to offer features that maximize its power.

Trend 2

Collaboration and Peer Review

At the end of Dec. 2010, there was only a tiny few vendors who offered online collaborative and peer review features.  In just six months since then, the numbers have grown rapidly. Even one vendor who only offers desktop has a forum setup for collaborative and peer review services.

The collaboration – enabling instructional designers or every day folk to work on a course or courses together, is smart. The ability to offer the additional feature, so that SMEs or higher ups can review or take a glance at the courses whenever, is equally smart.  If you think about it – how often does this happen when it comes to reviewing courses?

It is a pain when you have to send them a copy of the course via your email or a link via the intranet.  Worse, printing it out and handing it off to be marked up by your SME or another staff person.

This eliminates that issue.

One vendor says people can work on the course remotely – in real time, rather then Susan working on it in Tel Aviv and Joe who is in Phoenix having to wait until she signs off, so he can begin working on it.

Projection

Continued growth. This feature set will become a standard for systems in the “cloud” because of the reasons stated above – everyone hates those options, at T&D departments at their businesses.  If anything because it delays rollout.

While there are SaaS tools that do not yet offer this feature, it will change.  Remember when only a few offered the PPT to Flash option in their tools? What happened? Everyone started to include it.  Same thing.

Trend 3

Mobile Learning

Let’s see – what is the fastest e-learning subset ever to garner audience interest for all solutions? Hmm, oh yeah mobile learning. It has blown past social learning, and continues to roll. Yet, surprisingly for content authoring tools, it is still in infant stage.  Now, some of you may say, well it takes a long time to add this feature.

The rapid increase in mobile learning is tied directly to tablets. I know, smartphone lovers will disagree, but if you go back into 2010, how many authoring tools or platforms were offering m-learning despite the extensive growth of smartphones (which has been increasing for years)?

Yet, today it is gaining fast adoption across all e-learning lines.

In the content authoring tool market, the number of vendors who offered either mobile learning build capabilities within their tool or offered a stand-alone mobile course authoring tool is 28, of which two are free open source solutions.

Going back into 2010, there were less than nine, of which there was one who could output to HTML5, although it wasn’t really true HTML5 output.

at the numbers in just 7 months. Solid, not great, but solid.

What I found interesting in 2010 and still a couple of vendors are following the approach today – their m-learning capabilites are only for the Blackberry smartphone. I’m not sure they follow the financials or business news of late, but RIM (who makes the Blackberry) laid off folks and is no longer the number one smartphone.  Another vendor accepts Palm, which just a few weeks ago, HP (who now owns Palm) announced it was dropping Palm OS from its plans.

A couple of vendors offer SDK development tools with their SaaS authoring tool. Genius.

Projection

Despite a few vendors who are living in 2009 in the mobile learning space, overall growth while solid, will continue to grow. The tablets will drive it. Keys to success will be based on the following offerings within the m-learning tool

 Self contained app on a tablet or I hate to say it – smartphones – bottom line everything can be done within the app, no need to click the app and go to the vendor’s online tool – after all, if that is the capability today, why would I even want the app, since I can just click my browser?

Online/Offline synch, Push capabilities – has to exist. Look at the consumer market as a whole and not just within the space, not everyone has access 24/7 via the net through 3G or higher. Most folks are using wi-fi only, and it continues to grow.

Output to HTML5 – HTML5 across the tech space is continuing to grow – at a strong clip. There recently was a big time company who announced they were going to develop their solution only in HTML5, not flash.  

 Who dominates market share in the tablet space? Apple. They output only to HTML5. The Xoom by Motorola still outputs only to HTML5, although they are waiting for a Flash feature.  Overall, all tablets, even those who accept Flash, accepts HTML5.

Trend 4

Built in assessment tool, inc. surveys

Becoming a standard in the industry. Whether it is a stand alone product that comes with the authoring tool or built in (which is increasing, rather than the stand alone), this is becoming the norm.  The goal of course, is a one stop shop, rather than going with an assessment tool vendor and then selecting a content authoring tool vendor.

Projection

Continued growth, not much more to say to that.

Trend 5

Gaming features and sims

I’m not talking output to WoW or a Medal of Honor, but the ability to create games – real gaming capabilities – not “activites” such as Jeopardy or Wheel of Fortune type.

Sims – built in simulation tools targeting the rapid content authoring tool market and thus experience within that space, is expanding. Sim tools as standalones have always existed, but one negative has always existed – they are difficult to use and your tech skill sets really need to be intermediate or you are an elearning developer or have a background in instructional technology.

These tools are simple to use and offer some nice features. Their output can only go so far, so if you are expecting a sim tool that is the same as a very robust and thus higher tech skills required tool, it is not going to happen.

Projection

Gaming and sims are intertwined. At the end of the day, to have a great gaming course, you need to have a strong sim.

Trend 6

Hybrid systems

A hybrid system has the following features

• Content Authoring Tool is its main component
• Offers some reports, tracking, notifications, occasional assessment (but not the norm)
• SaaS
• Inability to accept 3rd party off the shelf courses or courses not build with their authoring tool

These systems have grown over the past several months, because there are people who are seeking a solution, that offers the bare minimums of a learning management platform.

I would argue that vendors such as Mindflash.com and Knoodle are hybrid solutions, after all their main feature is their content authoring tool. Although, I would state from Knoodle’s perspective the tool is equally a presentation solution.

Projection

On going growth. These systems are not going to disappear any time soon. The demand is there.

Vendors to Watch

In 2010, I listed a few vendors to watch in 2011.  All the vendors listed below offer a robust set of features and in a couple of cases, their tools are strong in UI and capabilities.

Rapid Intake – their launch of mLearning studio is another fine example of a vendor that is going places. Solution is easy to use and can output to not only Flash but also HTML5. They offer Unision, SaaS based and were the first to offer collaborative and peer review features.

Composica – Always strong in feature sets and was a vendor to watch in 2010. My opinion has not changed.

Courselab – The best free open source product on the market. Feature set is impressive and they are strong both for newbies and those with intermediate tech skill sets.

Kookaburra Studios – Their previous version of Professional Presenter was underwhelming in features, but their latest incarnation shows they are finally getting it and blowing past it.

Thinking Worlds – Ability to create 3D games and sims. Enough said.

Bottom Line

Most people assume that Articulate, Lectora and Captivate are the best tools out there, that is no longer the case. It can be said that for many folks they are unaware of the other 121 vendors in the market, some of which match and even blow by these vendors.

When you are seeking out a solution ask yourself, the following questions:

1. It meets my needs today, but will it in one to two years?
2. Are they constantly adding feature sets that follow the overall consumer market, as well as the e-learning industry?
3. From a cost standpoint, do the features and capabilities match it or surpass it?
4. What is my goal for my learners? Do you want full engagement and interactivity?

When you examine the content authoring tool market, some of these vendors are not sustainable, from a growth standpoint. In some cases they are already falling steps behind.

Thus, you need to ask yourself one more question.

Times are changing. Are they?

E-Learning 24/7