A few weeks back we received Gary Woodill’s latest book ‘The Mobile Learning Edge’; after a few weeks of hanging around on my desk, I’ve found the time to read it. Let me dive straight in and make some comments about it.

This is perhaps the first book I’m reading that looks at mobile learning from more than just a pedagogical perspective, it has a definite business focus. It’s evidently written for business managers and executives looking to see if mobile learning can align with their business goals and necessities. Dr. Woodill covers the mobile technology and it’s applications in fair detail. Every element that might go into a mobile learning solution is described and pieced together to give a whole picture.

The eLearning industry has its roots in innovation, as a disruptive technology for education and training. At Upside, we strive to innovate in our product and service range, and find it’s a bit of a hit and miss affair.

It often makes me wonder, is there a set of rules we can use to foster innovation?

The final list of top 100 tools for learning for 2010 is now out on Jane Hart’s website. I understand this list is more inclined towards tools that learning professionals use for their own learning as opposed to those used for creating learning programs or training sessions. I see great gains made by some of the tools while I have not even experienced them as yet.

A quick look at the top 10:

Last month our ID team got their feet wet with the learning campaigns in the Age of Empires II – Age of Kings. I’d recommended that all IDs play the game for a few hours to understand how different ‘gamey’ elements are from the conventional ‘interaction’ we use in conventional courseware.

How much does one hour of Level 2 elearning cost? and what about Level 3?

If you have been involved with custom eLearning development you have either asked these questions yourself or have been asked these by a client. The concept of ‘levels’ of custom eLearning development is a commonly used standard matrix for comparing vendors; sadly, this is a much abused concept too.. Every vendor (and client) has a unique definition of levels and they seldom match.

Welcome to our new look blog!

If you have been a regular reader of our blog, you would have noticed that we’ve changed our identity!

As a dynamic and innovative organization, we have always kept pace with the changing times, evolving with technology, and customer requirements. Today, we have changed our corporate identity to reflect our ‘you-centric’ approach and our focus on growth.

As designers of electronic learning and information, we often find ourselves confronted by the purpose of the learning. Electronic Learning is about performance and content; in a sense instructional design is not purely creative; it is design with intent.

Our storyboards and design documents need to be an extension of this intent. Design documentation may not be about solving problems, but it can help avoid them by providing an elegant way to document design intent.

In continuation to our series of monthly roundup posts, here is a collection of our top 7 posts for September, each accompanied by a quick brief.

1. Will Mobile Apps Change Training Forever?
Discusses how Mobile Learning (Mobile Apps, in particular) would change the game for training, instigating the need for a new approach in designing the training strategy. Also includes a few examples of Workplace Learning (Performance Support) Apps.

After the recent recognition of Upside Learning as one of the top 20 Learning portal companies in the world by trainingindustry.com, Sébastien FRAYSSE of lms-selection.com interviewed us and put it up here on his blog with the title LMS Vendor interview: Upside Learning.

In his post Sébastien highlights what is part of our core philosophy – innovation – “Upside Learning is a very innovative vendor”.

Our customers account for a number of factors before taking the plunge into e-Learning. I was trying to put together some of the key change factors leading organizations to adopt e-learning stand-alone and as a part of the training blend. I arrived at these factors driving the change:

1. Business Strategy
2. Geographical Expansion Of Business
3. New Business Opportunities (which may lead to new skill development)
4. Cost and Benefits
5. Organizational Culture/Demographics
6. Infrastructural Readiness
7. Management Support