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. Client Demand: The provider’s clients have started demanding eLearning solutions (and training providers want to retain them). This is a pure survival and growth reason which I blogged about earlier. Undoubtedly, in the current economic situation there is a BIG push for training companies to move towards eLearning.
2. Cost of Training Delivery: To reduce cost of delivery for training companies and their clients. This is mentioned universally and has come into focus even more due to the recession where budgetary constraints (especially on travel) have impacted the off-take of classroom training in big way
3. Flexibility: Increase flexibility of access (anytime, anywhere). Most training companies mention it’s becoming difficult to pull employees out of their jobs for 2-5 day instructor-led sessions. With managers forced to do more with less people (several organizations have retrenched people) letting anyone off for even a day can become difficult.
4. Increase delivery options: Blended learning options to cater to the unique requirements of different clients. Some want more eLearning and some want less of it, others want mobile learning. This helps training providers reach client companies who otherwise had not been able to afford their classroom training – opening up a new stream of business. I’ve blogged before about why Blended Learning is the best option for training companies.
5. Improve efficiency: Improve efficiency & effectiveness of instructor led training with technology enabled components. Adding pre-workshop eLearning modules, post-workshop eLearning sessions (can be synchronous), mobile learning components for follow-ups that help increase retention. Using technology such as ARS (Audience Response Systems) in classrooms & providing collaborative environments can create learning opportunities for users. As training providers, they want to make their courses the ‘best in class’ using technology enabled learning affords them that opportunity.
6. Learning Management: Making management of reporting easier and be able to check off some important checkboxes (guess more relevant to compliance type training). As the paradigm shifts, Learning Management Systems will change and focus would be on truly managing learning and not just checkbox compliance.
7. It is better now: ELearning has improved since the time they last considered it. There is NO doubt about this; eLearning has come a long way. The addition of games, simulations, mobile based learning, social learning frameworks, collaborative tools and much more has come to instructional technology.  Rather than simple page-turners the industry is slowly turning to provide instructional experiences, both interactive and online.
8. Am I late: Don’t want to miss the boat. Well none of our prospects said this but it seems to be the overriding feeling amongst training providers. All of them realize that the days of classroom-training only are limited and they’d better start now.

The post Top 8 Reasons Why Training Providers Are Adopting eLearning first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

Training companies are now adopting eLearning for survival & growth. Bersin & Associates in a report earlier this year said about 40% of training organizations have an LMS. For training companies considering offering eLearning solutions, Blended Learning is the best bet too – albeit for a slightly different reason.

We have had several meetings earlier this month with prospective customers (training companies) about how we could help them with their eLearning initiatives. Some of these training companies are very new to the world of eLearning. Their interest in eLearning is due to several reasons, of which the most common ones are how to reduce costs and reduce time away from job. Their clients have slashed travel budgets, while managers in client organizations are not willing to let their employees go for training – as they are already managing with less manpower. Such factors are pushing training companies to look for alternatives to long classroom training programs.

eLearning fits in very well here – to the extent the content and program objectives allow.
However, from the training companies’ perspective, there is this big decision to be made – How much to let go (to eLearning)?

Training Companies would ideally want to hang on to all of their classroom training as that’s their core competency – something they really excel in and have relied on to satisfy & retain clients for years. Balancing market demand and the desire to retain the core competence leads to ‘blended learning’ emerging as a natural choice. It gives them the flexibility to customize programs to suit their clients’ budgets and time availability. We believe by doing blended learning well (and sooner than their competitors) training companies can further their competitive advantage.

The post Blended Learning is The Best Option first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

The common theme emerging from these meetings is that their clients have started asking for eLearning solutions or blended solutions. As an owner of a small training company said –“My clients could have stopped training last year and I could have been in big trouble” (his actual statement). Resonating but with a different tone some of bigger training companies mention –“We need to consider eLearning to maintain our leadership position and avoid losing clients. It helps make our offerings more competitive in the marketplace. It also helps us appear more progressive offering all possible options of training delivery.” (my interpretation of their statements)

That doesn’t surprise us at all. We’ve foreseen this kind of growth in demand for eLearning in the wake of recent widespread recession (which is not over yet!). Last quarter we saw growing indications of Training Companies Adopting eLearning and now we see that trend gaining momentum. We actually expect eLearning to grow well over the next couple of years and beyond.  We’re not suggesting face–to-face training is dead. It’s just that eLearning is growing and you need to sit up and take notice. We’d recommend Training Companies take a hard look at how the training market is re-shaping itself and how eLearning is beginning to take centre stage in the training portfolio of many organizations. It would be prudent to re-align your offering to suit your clients changing needs in order to retain your client-base.

If you’ve no experience with eLearning development yourself, you could align with an eLearning development vendor like us. Conduct some basic website review, sample reviews, reference checks, cost analysis, and even a small pilot. Even if your current clients are not demanding eLearning right now, it may make sense to develop eLearning options just to be ready. Of course, it makes sense to start small and gain some experience of how it works.

Needless to say we are happy to help if you have any questions or need assistance. Please feel free to write a comment here or email at info@upsidelearning.com.

The post eLearning Outsourcing: Training Companies Turn to eLearning for Survival & Growth first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.

In the past, many Training Companies have been reluctant to adopt eLearning as a medium for training delivery. They have viewed this as compromising on their core competency –human mediated training. Most training companies have been successful in selling their trainers’ expertise (and charisma) as a USP. While this has limited them from expanding, it has helped them hold on to their regular clientele and survive through earlier downturns. However, this recession is markedly different, no one can doubt it is more severe than any of the earlier ones. More importantly – this slump has occurred at a time when the very structure of training and learning is undergoing change. Corporates today are considering multiple technology-enabled-training options as part of their long term strategy. The lower costs of eLearning, the foreseeable ubiquity of mLearning, the promise of Social Learning, are all forcing a major reshuffle in focus (and budgets) in corporate training. Training Companies seem to be realizing that when we come out of this recession, human mediated training would not be in demand as much. They are now exploring options to keep running their business profitably by cutting the cost of training for their clients, while adapting to the changing nature of training and learning itself.

At Upside Learning, we are seeing great interest amongst training companies to put their training programs – in part or full – online, and to offer eLearning or blended learning solutions to reduce recurring costs. With seven new clients signing up for our flagship product UpsideLMS in the last 4 months, sales of the LMS – as proportion of our total sales – is up quite a bit. We anticipate this will grow further as more training companies consider blended learning options to deliver greater value to their clients and customers.

UpsideLMS: Read about Upside Learning’s solutions for training companies OR get in touch with us if you need more information or have questions.

What we are seeing is a trend based on our discussions with many Training Companies in the last six months. We’d like to hear from you if you are seeing the same or a different trend.

The post Training Companies Are Adopting eLearning first appeared on The Upside Learning Blog.