The Upside Learning blog holds a very special place in my heart. Especially because I am the curator (if you’d like to call it that) of the blog. We started blogging on March 03, 2009, and have never looked back since. Today, 575 posts later, it makes me proud to see the blog bloom into a knowledge hub for people in the eLearning industry and otherwise too. Below are some stats that speak volumes about our blog and us as a company too.

STATS

1. 1,000,000 Views All Time
2. 575 Blog Posts
3. 2500+ No. Of Followers / Subscribers
4. 1500+ Comments
5. 31,624 Best Ever Views In A Month
6. 1,693 Best Ever Views In A Single Day

And since this achievement has made me a bit nostalgic about the days gone by, I have compiled a list of our 50 all time, most-read posts.

1. Tools for Developing Augmented Reality Applications
2. Top 50 Mobile Learning Resources
3. Top 100 Learning Game Resources
4. Top 13 LMS (and Learning Technology) Blogs
5. Creating 3D Graphics – Isometric Views With Orthographic Projection
6. iPad Applications In Bloom’s Taxonomy
7. Five Tips for Creating Graphics for Mobile Devices
8. This Flash Player (Frash) Runs On iPad
9. 5 Rapid Authoring Tools To Publish Courses For Your iPads
10. 22 Books For Beginner Instructional Designers
11. 30 Top Online Resources For Instructional Designers To Keep Up With
12. Top 47 eLearning & Workplace Learning Blogs
13. The Ten Commandments of eLearning
14. Training Plan For iPhone Application Development
15. Elements For Constructing Social Learning Environments
16. Learning Creativity and About Creativity From Lego
17. Instructional Design for Beginners – What Motivates People To Learn?
18. IPhone- User Interface Guidelines- Part I
19. Is HTML5 Ready for eLearning Development?
20. The Real Cost of a Free (Open Source) LMS!
21. Tools For Mobile Learning Development
22. Mobile Learning: A Quick SWOT Analysis
23. Five Mobile Learning Implementation Tips
24. 15 Authoring Tools For mEnabling Your eLearning For iPads
25. What Is Mobile Learning?
26. Future of Learning Technology – 2015
27. Developing A Layar Application
28. Rapid Authoring Tools For Creating mLearning
29. Interesting Mobile Statistics By Tomi Ahonen: mLearnCon
30. Mobile Learning (mLearning) Applications – An Example
31. SCORM Implementation For Mobile Devices
32. 5 Good TED Talks On Games
33. 22 Great Free ActionScript 3.0 Learning Resources
34. LMS: A Quick SWOT Analysis
35. HTML 5 and eLearning Development
36. Apple iPad Disappoints eLearning Industry
37. Instructional Design Basics: Designing A Timeline
38. Will Mobile Apps Change Training Forever?
39. Blending Learning with Social Technology Components
40. Custom eLearning Development Costs – Results From Chapman Alliance Study
41. Mobile Learning in India
42. A List of Interesting Mobile Learning Links
43. Eight Tips for LMS Implementation
44. What Is Game Based Learning?
45. eLearning Development: How long does it Really take?
46. Why Use ActionScript 3.0 in Flash Based eLearning Development?
47. eLearning Australia
48. Using Silverlight/Expression Blend for eLearning Development
49. How Long Does It Take To Develop An Hour Of Elearning?
50. How To Create Successful M-Learning Strategy: mLearnCon – Part I

On a final note, I would love to hear what you find the most interesting on our blog and what you would like to read about in our future posts. Let us know in the comments section below.

The post A Million Thanks From The Upside Learning Blog first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

And for those of you who love to hate the pad, fret not, there’s something beyond the big Apple too. Learn how you can stay on top of current events, eLearning market stats, the future of education, the evolving role of an Instructional Designer and more. Find it all here in our Weekly Digest – a collection of our top 18 links from the week gone by, each accompanied by a quick brief.

Need to quench your thirst for the latest in learning, technology and media links further? You can dig into our previous lists here.

1. What do Students Think of Using iPads in Class?
It’s almost a year since the iPad was first released. With an intent to explore different ways in which the iPad could be used by students and with a hope of transitioning to e-Books instead of paper textbooks, a pilot survey is conducted in one of the high schools. Read the results here.

2. 10 Sites to Learn Something New in 10 Minutes a Day
This list of web-based resources will point you toward web sites that will help you learn how to do new things, stay on top of current events, and learn about topics where your current knowledge may be lacking.

3. A Day in the Life of the iPad Class
If the goal of learning is to figure out the “how” and not just the correct answer, then the gadget is doing its job. This article takes you through a day in the life of an iPad class.

4. Nuts and Bolts: SURPRISE!
Incorporating what we understand about the role of surprise can help us overcome several common challenges in e-Learning design. Read this article to know how.

5. 20 Tips to Get Started With Your First E-learning Project
A must-read for those venturing into custom e-learning business or people who are getting started with their first e-learning project. Here are some guidelines for startups and individuals alike.

6. First Impressions Using Android Honeycomb, Google’s iPad Rival
Google has finally launched Android Honeycomb, the new version of the mobile OS that is focused on tablets. See some of the features and apps in action.

7. 7 Hot Trends in Mobile App Design
The mobile application space is exploding. Users increasingly turn to smartphones and tablets to consume and create content, whether on the go or on the couch. Here are seven of the hottest trends in mobile app design as found on App Store and Android Market.

8. Classroom iPod touches & iPads: Dos and Don’ts
Bringing iPods and iPads into the classroom is a great way to give students access to learning tools. However, there are so many things to keep in mind to make the devices work smoothly in the classroom. While this list of dos and don’ts mainly addresses iPod touch, the same advice goes for iPod touch and iPhone.

9. Learning occurs in many contexts
Learning may or may not be the reason we go to work, but it is an inevitable consequence, whether or not the employer or employee makes a deliberate attempt to promote it. The learning architect has to appreciate the many contexts in which learning takes place within the working environment. Read this article to know these contexts.

10. The New Age Instructional Designer
The role of an instructional designer is essentially driven by a need to find appropriate solutions by applying instructional design strategies and models to transfer information to users who use a particular product or service to perform their jobs. However with the changing learning methods, the role of the instructional designer as we understood it several years back is undergoing a paradigm shift. Take a journey down this road.

11. Infographic: See the Future of Education
As education reform becomes a more and more prominent topic in the national discourse, there is a phenomenon that hasn’t received much coverage though it’s silently transforming learning. Luckily, this infographic simply sums it up.

12. Survey reveals educators’ must-have technologies
Interactive whiteboards are the classroom technology that teachers say they most value, and though tablet-style eReader devices such as Apple’s iPad haven’t been around for long, they’re already considered the second most useful mobile classroom technology behind laptops, according to a national survey of teachers’ digital media use. This article reveals the must-have technologies in classrooms.

13. Making It a Mobile Web App
Ask any interactive agency nowadays what their clients are asking for when they need a mobile experience — the answer will inevitably be “an iPhone and/or an iPad app.” Native Apple apps are a hot commodity, and in today’s mobile application ecosystem, mobile web apps are not sexy. Read about the challenges and possibilities in making a mobile web app.

14. Importance Of Having A Design Methodology
A guide and tips and tricks for designers to improve their productivity and cost effectively using time management techniques.

15. The Components of True Collaboration
Dan Pontefract has a wonderfully clear and thought out model on The Collaboration Cycle. In fact, to summarize it wouldn’t really do it justice. Highlights the 3 basic components of true collaboration.

16. eLearning Market Grows 16.8 Percent Over 5 Years
A new report released by market research firm Ambient Insight has found that the U.S. market for self-paced e-learning products and services in preK-12 education has increased 16.8 percent over the past five years.

17. Mobile OS Adoption: A Tale of Two Graphs
When it comes to statistics, it seems that you can find anyone to back whatever opinion you might have. The competition between smartphone operating systems is a heated one” with a three-way tie between Blackberry, Android and iOS. Check out this article which will help you get a better perspective on these warring OSs.

18. Video Search Engine Qwiki Is Now Available To The Public
Qwiki, for those of you who haven’t been following the hype, basically reads heavily Wikipedia-sourced articles out loud with photo and video accompaniments. Here’s the lowdown on this new engine.

The post 18 Top Learning, Technology & Media Links: Weekly Digest –12 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Talking of bloggers, it was also a month where we saw two of our team members jumping onto the blogging bandwagon – Aneesh Bhat and Abhijeet Valke . Two guys with immense potential, I promise you. You can look forward to some hardcore ID gyan from Aneesh, while Abhijeet would be the one feeding you with your weekly dose of the best of Learning, Technology and Media links .

So without much ado, lets get on to our collection of the top 12 posts for January, each accompanied by a quick brief.

1. Game Based Learning Isn’t Always Electronic
Debunks a very popular myth surrounding game-based learning – that it involves learning through video games. This article showcases a card game which is slowly gaining popularity among medical students in the United States, and also contains links to a couple of other board and card games.

2. This LMS Has No Traps!
Lists the possible traps that might arise in the sales process of an LMS, and views each from the point of view of UpsideLMS.

3. LMS Wikis: Unharnessed Potential
Wiki, although one of the most powerful sources of information, is one of the most under-utilized and underestimated feature of an LMS. This post is an endeavor to explore the various uses of the LMS Wiki.

4. How e-Learning Is Flowering?
An interesting graphic from the e-learningcentre.co.uk’s report ‘The UK e-learning market 2010’ depicts how e-learning is flowering.

5. Tell Me A Story…
The fact remains that, stories are an important part of our past and will be an important part of our future. An article that discusses the importance of stories in learning.

6. Assume Nothing. Nothing!
Lists learnings from a blog-post by veteran LucasArts and Telltale Games designer Dave Grossman, describing how gaming’s limited appeal could come down to some very basic assumptions we make about the audience versus the actual thought processes of that audience.

7. Instructional Design And The Six Thinking Hats
Describes the philosophy of Six Thinking Hats, interpolates it to Instructional Design and discusses how we can apply the process to eLearning projects for excellent results, especially in situations when we are working in groups.

8. Beginner Instructional Designers – In Pursuit Of Awareness
Manna from heaven for beginner Instructional Designers, this article lists a few resources that will help learn about the basic concepts of Instructional Design and ELearning.

9. Performance Support In Our Daily Lives
Discusses about two performance support tools that would enable us to do everyday tasks more effectively and with less effort – probably with better results.

10. Microlearning – A Paradigm Shift In The Way We Learn
Discusses the importance of microlearning in today’s day and age of increasing value of time and waning patience levels.

11. 9 Essential Elements for Fun in Games
Lists and explains the 9 essential elements in fun games.

12. LMS for Training Companies – Then & Now: Get The Free eBook
Our first eBook is out. What’s more, it’s up for grabs. Get yours here – absolutely free.

The post 12 Most Popular eLearning Posts: January 2011 Monthly Roundup first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

• LMS- Is It Still About Classroom Training Management?
  Discusses various reasons why an LMS is still bound to the realms of Classroom Training Management and the possible disconnect that prevents companies from harnessing its full power.
• This Flash Player (Frash) Runs On iPad
  That iPhone/ iPad doesn’t support Flash is no secret, and developers are constantly developing new software to run Flash content on these devices. This post talks of one such player – Frash – that runs Flash content on iPad/ iPhone in a Safari browser.
• IPhone- User Interface Guidelines – Part II
  In continuation to the first post of this series that spoke about types of applications, fundamental human interface design principles and the iPhone OS environment, this article covers the various components available for developing the user interface of your iPhone application.
• How To Create Successful M-Learning Strategy: mLearnCon – Part II
  This post talks about the three important things from the 2^nd part of the mLearnCon workshop – Planning Framework, When To Use Mobile Learning and ADL Mobile Learning.
• LMS For SMBs And Training Companies – A Year On, Is It Still The Same?
  Comparative discussion on change in needs of Training Companies (& SMBs) vis-à-vis a year ago.
• Google App Inventor – Can It Boost mLearning?
  Talks about Google App Inventor – a visual development tool that will allow anyone to create an Android app without writing even a single line of code, and debates if it can help in the development of mLearning apps.
• 22 Books For Beginner Instructional Designers
  Lists top 28 books for beginning instructional designers that provide an overall perspective on ID.
• SCORM Implementation Strategies For Mobile: mLearnCon
  A great resource for anyone who wants to implement SCORM for mobile devices, this blog post discusses some interesting use cases, common technical challenges and the best practices in SCORM implementation.
• Future Of Flash Is Open Source
  Being one of major consumers of Flash platform, the eLearning developer community will anyways benefit from open-source developments around Flash. Know more about Adobe’s various open source initiatives here.
• Web 3.0 Presentation – The Way Forward?
  A clear presentation about Web 3.0 detailing how eLearning will actually transform from a content delivery and tracking mechanism.

The post July 2010 Monthly Roundup: 10 Most Popular Posts first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

1. Expectations From eLearning Authoring Tools
Lists some features and functions that eLearning professionals normally expect from authoring tools.

2. How To Create Successful M-Learning Strategy: mLearnCon – Part I
A short summary of an mLearning strategy workshop (from mLearnCon) listing elements that one should consider when creating mLearning strategy.

3. Rapid Authoring Tools For Creating mLearning
Discusses some rapid authoring tools that let authors develop content targeted at mobile devices.

4. LMS: A Quick SWOT Analysis
What does the future hold for the LMS as we know it? This post provides a quick analysis.

5. Three Reasons To Focus On Media Design In Learning
Instructional design is the first step in making a learning solution instructionally sound. However, it is equally important to ensure that the learning is interesting, engaging and interactive. Know the three reasons why eLearning should focus more on the media design besides instructional design.

6. Ten Must-Have Features In A Mobile-LMS
The future of eLearning is mobile. As mobile learning gains ground there will be (and already is) a growing need to look beyond notifications for users and quick-follow-up assessments through mobile devices. This post lists 10 useful (need to have) features in a mobile version of an LMS (segregated into Learner and Administrator functions).

7. Top 7 Things To Consider Before Implementing SCORM For Mobile Devices
Lists the 7 key points to be kept in mind before considering SCROM implementation for mobile devices.

8. Smokescreen – The Future Of Flash Player?
Debates if Smokescreen, an open source project implemented in HTML5 and JavaScript, would effectively allow complex animations and interactions developed in Flash to work on Flash disabled mobile platforms.

9. SCORM Cloud- Will It Really Change The Game?
Debates if SCORM Cloud has the potential to change the scene on the Learning Management domain. Get a mini-quick-review of the SCORM Cloud here.

10. Dan Pink Talks About Motivation
An insightful video about what motivates and what doesn’t, visualized in a great cartoon animation style.

The post June 2010 Monthly Roundup: 10 Most Popular Posts first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

1. Identify the target device(s) like IPhone, Android based devices, Blackberry, J2ME based device(s) etc,
2. Identify the Device OS version. e.g. Blackberry 4.6 and 5.0 has very different browser implementations.
3. Does your targeted mobile device browser support the popup window functionality?
4. Does your targeted mobile device browser have iframe or frameset support?
5. Identify the implementation method of SCORM.  e.g. we considered –
   1. JavaScript plus Google Gears API
   2. JavaScript plus HTML 5 database
   3. JavaScript plus native device language
   4. JavaScript plus MIDP profile i.e. J2ME
6. Consider the application’s running mode; will it be
   1. Online: Requires continuous internet connection
      1. You may like to consider intermittent  internet connection while attempting a course
   2. Offline: Doesn’t require continuous internet connection
7. Are you planning for cross platform SCORM player
   1. Currently this is possibly only using a web based SCORM player.
   2. Right now it seems offline applications cannot achieve cross-platform SCORM implementation

Keep these in mind before considering SCROM implementation for mobile devices.

The post Top 7 Things To Consider Before Implementing SCORM For Mobile Devices first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Again, as in implementation of SCORM for mobile devices, we encountered some interesting issues in its implementation for Blackberry.

Find our experience on the same.

Target Platform:

After a good amount of R&D and feasibility study on available device software for Blackberry devices, we selected device software 5.0+ as our target platform. Device software 5.0 has good inbuilt browser support (some of the features are from HTML 5.0) and, also has Widget SDK, which is used to create native applications in HTML.

Implementation:

1. Development tools required:

• Normal J2EE development environment like Eclipse and Java SDK.
• Blackberry Widget SDK: You can get more information about Widget SDK here.

We created a Blackberry Widget, which is a combination of two parts:

• Actual Widget
• Custom JavaScript Extension

• Actual Widget
  • The complete UI of solution is defined (in HTML and JavaScript) in the Actual Widget.

• Custom JavaScript Extension
  • A JavaScript Extension is Java code that is built into a BlackBerry Widget, and can be accessed through JavaScript. This capability allows you to extend the functionality of your BlackBerry Widget application to include native BlackBerry functionality.
  • We used it as a backend of our solution to communicate with online database/LMS.

2. Solution:

• We implemented SCORM standard in JavaScript files. These files were then included in the widget.
• As mentioned before, this was an offline solution hence course content was residing in the device itself. We built JavaScript extension to download the actual course content.
• After launching the SCORM complaint course content, the communication took place with JavaScript files, as it would happen in a normal desktop browser.
• We used Google Gears API to store the tracking information of the user. Google Gears API provides ability to create database/tables which greatly simplify storing of tracking data. It uses the open source SQLite database system. (Note: Recently Google has decided to drop Gears in support of HTML 5 database and Blackberry has also decided to use Google backed webkit in their new device OS 6). To sync tracking data back to online LMS, you can use normal browser based method or you can use JavaScript extension built in Java.
• The widget name, icon image, start file etc. were defined in the config.xml file of the widget.
• The final solution was built using command line (bbwp.exe). Alternatively, you can use Eclipse to build the solution.

3. Problems encountered while trying to implement SCORM for Device software 4.6:

• Online mode:
• There was no problem in running SCORM complaint mobile LMS in Blackberry browser.

• Offline mode:
  • Device software 4.6 doesn’t have widget support, so we had to create everything in native Java language including invoking the browser instance for running the courses.
  • While running the courses we had to manually tell the browser which type of file it is rendering like HTML or JavaScript.
  • Till this point everything seemed fine, but we got stuck at a point where actual SCORM communication occurs, using frameset or iframe. We were not able to make API calls or normal JavaScript calls from one frame to another frame.
  • As yet, we haven’t been able to find any solution to this problem nor do we know if the problem lies with Blackberry.(Blackberry  browser has had a very bad reputation until Device software 5.0)

I hope our experience helps you in implementing SCORM for Blackberry devices. Have you followed some different approach? Or implemented it for Device software 4.6? We would like to hear your experience too.

The post SCORM Implementation For Blackberry first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

The question is inspired from a post by Derek Morrsion – Technology to Enhance Learning in 2015, quite an interesting post, a must read.

I can only wonder at the pace of change of technology that the world has seen in last decade. Various domains have their own pace of change – as this graphic from this article shows:

Did you notice the pace of change? It is governed by community law and it’s an astronomical number as more people join the community. Isn’t that what the Internet really is all about?

Here’s another interesting graphic from theequitykicker.com, which shows how much computing power we’ll be able to buy for $1000 in the years to come.

As you can see, by around 2025 that amount should let us buy equivalent of one human brain and by around 2050 an equivalent of all human brains!  I share the two graphs just to emphasize that the pace of change will only increase and all our predictions about evolution of Learning Technology could come true sooner than later.

What have we witnessed in last 5 years?

Before I get into predicting what the future holds let’s look at what we have witnessed in the last 5 years:

• Acceptance of LMS systems (rightly or wrongly) to be the central piece in Workplace Learning strategy
• Establishment of Flash as the de-facto development platform for custom eLearning creation allowing use of streaming audio/video over the web
• Evolution of authoring tools like Articulate to become better & easier to work with reducing the cost of development
• Increase in capacity of mobile phones and networks to make them potent devices for learning bringing Mobile Learning on the horizon
• Emergence of social media (and reviewed focus on social and informal learning)

What can we expect in next 5 years?

So what can we expect in the next 5 Years?  I think a lot more than what we’ve seen in the last 5 years or 10.  Here’s what I think will happen:

1. Mobiles will become the platform of choice for workplace learning delivery (or learning/knowledge management system access). Learners would be able to access content nuggets (videos, documents, or mini courses) from corporate information systems just when they need them. They will collaborate with colleagues and even contribute their own content using mobiles devices.

2. Performance Support will increase many-fold and we will see a lot of training take the shape of performance support. Mobile devices will again be the driver for this change as learners start accessing learning content just when they need it. Augmented Reality would also play an important role in sophisticated advanced performance support systems. Imagine walking into a manufacturing unit with a local layar that tells you about the location of each equipment and makes available all the related documents on the click of a button. (example: Pune Layar)

3. Tablets as support devices. Even though the iPad disappoints in its current version, I are sure this will change with future versions of iPad itself and various other tablets. Personally, I am excited about RIM’s ‘BlackPad’. Tablets have larger screens and are uniquely positioned as field staff’s support device for trouble shooting problems by referring to product manuals and operational procedures.

4. The LMS will evolve to support (not manage) Formal + Informal + Social + Non-Formal learning components. With this we will see a big shift in the way we see assessments. The ability to measure informal learning may be done through the system itself, and constant tracking of some metrics will help learning designers monitor the ‘learning/performance health’ of the system and its users. Learning designers can then design appropriate intervention within this framework to align with learning needs and business goals.
Brandon Hall recently declared awards for LMS systems in various categories including those that made significant advances in Informal or Blended Learning and in Social Learning. This suggests that LMS systems are evolving to accommodate newer tools and techniques, as they should.

5. Games (and simulations) will become integral part of workplace learning. Overall the culture of gaming is becoming pervasive and the cost of game development is decreasing. Both these trends are increasing the acceptance of games for workplace learning, an area where cost of development and delivery have always been a concern. As the focus of learning departments change to being facilitators rather than providers of training, engaging solutions like games will become crucial.

6. Birth of new Authoring Tools. We will also see new authoring tools which allow designers to make application scenarios easily and quickly. Tools like thinking worlds are great for quickly creating 3D based decision simulations (or even simple 3D games). Dr. Michael Allen (creator of Authorware) is working on a new tool called Zebra (which he talks about here) that would make engaging eLearning creation easy with drag and drop objects.

7. Emergence of Personal Learning Agents. As the semantic web finally starts to form and common ontologies for various types learning content are developed, intelligent personal learning software agents will emerge as learning content mediators. Having a software agent that runs on a personal computing device such as a mobile phone or tablet and constantly monitors content streams on the internet to provide up-to-date information based on personal preferences, workplace conditions, or for the task at hand will make a good performance support and learning assistance system.

The post Future of Learning Technology – 2015 first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

We talked on various topics in April – from LMS to Augmented Reality, from Games to AS 3.0 Resources. Below are our Top 10 posts for the month, each accompanied by a quick brief:

1. Top 13 LMS (and Learning Technology) Blogs
   Lists top 13 blogs that we follow for LMS and learning technology. There have been some suggestions to include a few more and we are looking for more suggestions.
2. Top 25 Rapid eLearning Blog Posts
   Lists top 25 blog posts on varied topics around rapid eLearning, including authoring tools, effective techniques and decision considerations.
3. 22 Great Free ActionScript 3.0 Learning Resources
   Lists good tutorials and blogs on ActionScript 3.0 from around the web. Certainly a great resource for anyone looking to learn AS 3.0.
4. The Real Cost of a Free (Open Source) LMS!
   Debates if Moodle or any other open source LMS is really free. Read it to find out what all costs one needs to consider when comparing Open Source with a Commercial LMS.
5. Five Ways to Use an LMS for Effective Learning Measurement
   Discusses how, by adopting some simple methods, you could use the LMS better and also get some aid in learning measurement.
6. 5 Good TED Talks On Games
   5 interesting talks from TED’s past, focusing on games. Each one of them is simply brilliant.
7. Narrative for Engaging eLearning
   Discusses important elements that should form a part of narratives/stories in learning.
8. Tools for Developing Augmented Reality Applications
   Lists development tools and SDKs for developing Augmented Reality applications.
9. Tablet Computers for Learning in India
   Explores iProf – India’s first personal education tablet computer.
10. Developing A Layar Application
    Narrates our development experience of creating the Pune Layar – the first Layar for India.

The post April 2010 Monthly Roundup: 10 Most Popular Posts first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.