To appreciate the true potential of mobile devices we need to consider what Tomi Ahonen has to say. He calls Mobiles as the 7^th Mass Media and lists their unique characteristics:

• It’s the first personal mass media. It brings two almost opposite words together.
• It is permanently carried almost everywhere you go.
• It is always on and connected
• It has a built in payment mechanism
• It is available at the point of creative imagination
• It has the most accurate audience measurement
• It captures the social context of media consumption
• It allows Augmented Reality to be used in media

Mobiles devices today are extremely capable – working as a phone, camera, audio/video recorder, mp3 / video player, computer, internet device, GPS device, eBook readers, game console, bar code, QR code scanner, motion sensor and more. If you consider these capabilities you can do much more on mobile devices than just deliver learning content.

There’s so much to do with mobiles, I prefer calling it Mobile Everything. Mobile Learning is just too restrictive a term.

While the demand for HTML5 courses is yet to catch up, the demand is growing stronger nevertheless.

This hardly comes as a surprise given that the iPad dominates the worldwide tablet market.

As per data published by Good Technology in their Good Technology Device Activations Report | Q1 2012, the iPad 2 averaged 17.7 percent of their enterprise activations in the first quarter of 2012 in the US. In just a month since its release, the iPad 3 snagged 4.3 percent of Good Technology’s enterprise activations. The only two devices to do better than the iPads were the iPhone 4s and the iPhone4. Worldwide, Samsung probably sells more smartphones than anyone else, Looking into the future – this article predicts that iPads will retain more than 50% of the installed base of all tablets in 2016, but Android and Windows Metro will be the other two dominant platforms. We believe at this stage it is the iPad driving eLearning to HTML5.

Given this trend, it is but obvious that the demand for rapid authoring tools which can publish content in HTML5 will also increase. In this post, we examine 5 rapid authoring tools which show tremendous promise.

1) Adobe Captivate 5.5 with HTML5 Converter
The HTML5 Converter for Adobe Captivate 5.5 is an experimental technology that converts SWFs generated by Adobe Captivate 5.5 into HTML5 format. Once these files are converted to HTML5, you can edit them with an HTML editing tool, such as Adobe Dreamweaver. You can view the output in any browser that displays HTML5 content, including iOS (iPhone and iPad) devices.
Please note that not all Adobe Captivate features are supported in the HTML5 format. For more details, please refer to the Release Notes of the HTML5 Convertor, which describe supported features, known issues and the roadmap for upcoming features.

2) Lectora Inspire
Lectora Inspire can help you to quickly create dynamic video and Flash content as well as transform your e-Learning to HTML5 for mobile delivery. It enables you to automatically push your e-Learning to HTML5 and other publishing options.

3) Claro from dominKnow
Claro outputs HTML5-based content, so all of its authoring features can be used to create engaging and interactive content for delivery on smart phones or tablet devices. Claro comes complete with layout themes to get you started quickly, and a robust set of in-tool authoring features to help you create mobile learning courses.

4) mLearning Studio from Rapid Intake
Rapid Intake’s mLearning Studio is a cloud-based solution that can help you build mobile learning in a matter of minutes. It provides you with the option to publish to both HTML5 for mobile browsers and Flash for desktop browsers at the same time.

5) Sencha Animator
Sencha Animator is a desktop app to create CSS3 animations for WebKit browsers and touchscreen mobile devices. Since CSS3 consistently works across iOS, Android and BlackBerry OS6, this gives Animator projects a big step-up for use on mobile platforms.

Upcoming Tools
Two other tools to watch out for are Adobe Edge and Magetta.

1. Adobe Edge is a new web motion and interaction design tool that allows designers to bring animated content to websites, using web standards like HTML5, JavaScript, and CSS3.
2. Maqetta is an open source project that provides WYSIWYG visual authoring of HTML5 user interfaces. The Maqetta application itself is authored in HTML, and therefore runs in the browser without requiring additional plugins or downloads.

Another rapid authoring tool that the entire industry is waiting for eagerly is Articulate Storyline. Storyline is a standalone desktop authoring tool that will be able to publish iOS-compatible output via HTML5.

A Word of Caution!
Judy Unrein makes a very valid point in her blog post Publishes to HTML5? Buyer, Beware. To quote Judy: Any authoring tool and any output is only good if it serves your design, which serves the learning/business need. Flawless publishing to HTML5 doesn’t do you any good if the tool isn’t capable of creating – and publishing – the interactivity you’ve designed.

If you know of any other rapid authoring tools that output HTML5 content, leave a comment. We’d really like to know more about them. Thanks!

I think it went very well though we could have done with a little more time on hand discussing the points in more details.

Here’s the slide deck of the same.

We also released a ebook on getting started with mobile learning last week which you may find useful. Download here.

Share your thoughts or comments below or get in touch at amitgarg@upsidelearning.com

‘Bring Your Own Device’ or BYOD, refers to an organizations employees using their personal devices (usually Smartphones/Tablets) at the workplace to access company resources for business use.

What makes BYOD popular?

In its Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2012, Deloitte predicts that by the end of the year 2012, 500 million smartphones with a retail price of $100 or less will likely be in use worldwide. With the almost insatiable need for information and communication increasing across the global workforce, most of them are turning to mobile devices.

As these employees use more advanced devices and business apps to catapult their productivity, their impatience with technology at their workplace is also understandably increasing. They have understood the usefulness and the power of the devices that they use, and want to leverage them at the workplace as well. Mid and senior level executives the world over want their organizations IT departments to allow them to access company resources through their personal devices.

As per a survey conducted by Good Technology in October 2011, 72 percent of its customers were already formally supporting BYOD programs. Another 19 percent of the respondents indicated that they were either planning to support BYOD within the next 6-12 months or were considering, but did not have a specific timeframe for support. You can read more about the survey findings here.

Why are organizations apprehensive?

While the BYOD trend may save organizations a substantial amount of money, what they are really concerned about is data security. BYOD could be the IT department’s worst nightmare.

Their concerns are quite understandable given the problem of enforcing security and compliance at such a large scale. However, by using Mobile Device Management (MDM) and Mobile Application Management (MAM) platforms, organizations may be able to manage the security risks posed by BYOD.

What does this mean for mlearning?

Security concerns notwithstanding, it is undeniable that organizations will eventually have to buckle under the pressure and open their doors to the BYOD movement. They simply cannot afford to ignore the demands of an increasing mobile workforce, and will have to get a new security strategy in place.

As BYOD gains momentum, we’d probably see a positive effect on mobile learning adoption. Mobile learning will help organizations to leverage the BYOD trend to distribute ‘just-in-time’ training snippets that are both targeted and tracked.

I certainly believe that the BYOD movement is a step in the right direction and will also speed up mlearning adoption tremendously. I’d love to know your views on this. Feel free to comment.

It’s only a matter of time before you will need to be invovled in it.

As fascinating as mobile learning is, it is extremely dynamic; and evolves at a blinding pace.

This leads to organizations being unsure of how to formulate even a basic mLearning Strategy.

We’ve shared some of our thinking on mobile learning through blogs posts in the recent past and thought it worthwhile to collect the information into a single booklet for you. This eBook called ‘Mobile Learning – A Quick Start Guide’ can help you understand when to use, how to design, develop and implement mLearning in a way that works for your organization. It gives suggestions on strategy, illustrates a planning framework, lists the tools and approaches available. Ultimately, it will help you design and implement an mLearning strategy that works for your organization and delivers results. A sneak peek into the eBook

Some topics you can look forward to reading about:

• Understanding mLearning
• Key Considerations in Mobile Learning
• The Basics of mLearning Strategy
• Determining mLearning Strategy
• The Technical Approach

Please  download your copy now. Hope you enjoy reading it.

Feel free to tweet about it, share it on Facebook, email it and share it with your friends and colleagues.

Today, in 2012, we have come a long way, but still treading the same path of providing innovative learning solutions.

We feel proud of our achievements so far.

Our 8 year story could be summarized as below:

28 awards & recognitions won in 8 years.

200+ clients in 13 countries.

2 world-class products – UpsideLMS & Upside2Go.

Award-winning Custom Learning Solutions.

Few misses. Many hits.

An innovator. A leader.  A legend in the making.

It’s a significant achievement for us both in terms of completing 8 successful years and having earned a name for ourselves in the global market. This has been possible with the trust our clients, partners and you – our readers – have put in and continue to put in us, and the hard work of our team. I thank everyone who has been a part of our journey for their support, and congratulate all our staff members who have helped us get here.

As we complete 8 successful years, we reminisce our journey so far. Here’s a quick video put together by our marketing folks highlighting the important milestones.

IDC projects the mobile workforce to reach 1.3 billion, up from 1 billion in 2010, which is a staggering 37.2% of the workforce worldwide.

75% of North America’s workforce will be mobile by 2010.

A few months ago Mashable posted this interesting infographic on the mobile workforce.

I think this adoption of mobile technologies by the workforce  will have a profound impact on the skills needed by the employees and employers. It requires news sets of skills empowering employees to become self-reliant and self-motivated. Organizations need systems, processes, and managers who can manage the growing mobile workforce effectively. The training strategy will also need to evolve to accommodate these changes. The biggest change will be in the L&D mindsets: from ‘Push’ to ‘Pull’. We’d need to think how to make the right information / material available just in time for our staff to be productive. Needless to say the mobile phone and tablets will feature prominently in your learning and training plans – or call it performance support plans if you will.

For those who are looking to switch, it may be easier, but not really easy, as they may have a list of things they want the new LMS to DO or NOT do. While for the ones looking to buy a new one, it may be a tad more difficult.

So how does one go about evaluating an LMS? The process (overall) seems to be standard: Send out RFPs, give each respondent scores on various aspects, shortlist a few, get demonstrations and proposals, compare and award contract. Yes, I agree, the process is indeed simple and logical. However, the success of the process depends on a critical thing – the phase where your team is audience to vendor LMS demonstrations. This post of mine focuses on this particular phase more than the others and this doesn’t intend to diminish the importance of any other phase in the process.

One may wonder what it is with vendor demonstrations. In most cases skilled sales people come with their presales/technical colleagues and demonstrate the system in detail. Well, yes! But isn’t this kind of one-way? You may have asked a few questions and those were answered but how do you ensure the single most important thing – that this LMS solution/service will work for you for a good number of years? Even though you had a detailed RFP, the chances that the vendor skipped a few things are high as there are almost invariably time constraints in demos. The perception of importance could be different for a few of your requirements as you see them, and as the vendors see them. So how do you ensure demonstrations capture what you are looking for to help you qualify (or disqualify) the LMS being demonstrated?

The answer lies in using USE CASE SCENARIOS for demonstrations. The good thing about using Use Case Scenarios is they are simple to employ. Use case scenarios are typically high level scenarios where the need is to define a work flow in the desired LMS system which includes:

a. End user experience (could be the learner, line manager, training manager, instructor, training administrator, system administrator or a mix of these profiles). All these workflows must map an existing or desired workflow in your organization as a process. The key idea here is to break down the requirements into logical workflows:
e.g. Curriculum Request Workflow:
- Learner views the catalog; In the catalog section learner needs an easy way to filter through the available learning curriculums to identify the one(s) s/he needs access to; Learner places the request along with a reason and forwards it to his/her line manager; an email is sent to the learner for notification and CC’ed to the line manager for action; and so on and so forth. The key is to describe these workflows to the vendor prior to demonstrations so the vendors could prepare data and also be ready to demonstrate how their LMS maps to these workflows. Ensure that you cover ALL critical workflows which will make or break your LMS system’s acceptance with the end users.

b. Data flow and visual representation. This part focuses on what and how the data flows across the workflow and how is it visually represented – you may be more comfortable with matrix reports or dashboards, you may want the end users to see confirmation messages, automated emails, etc.

c. MIS (Reports) Impact. Most workflows would impact one or the other report. How the reports are expected, at times, depict the gaps, if any, between your desired workflow(s) and what the LMS offers. In the context of the workflow example, you may need a report of all requests made with their current status and all iterations made on them. It is extremely critical to be able to view all these during the demonstrations.

As a summary, during the vendor demonstrations, apart from the usual aesthetic and usability evaluation parameters, the focus should be on allowing vendors to demonstrate the LMS not how they want to do it but how you would like to see your use case scenarios being handled by the system.

Once the use case scenarios are all demonstrated, the vendors and you will have a clear picture of how much the system offers out of the box, how much needs configuration and how much needs customization. This not only allows you to confidently evaluate the LMS systems effectively but also allows vendors to clearly understand the needs and helps them submit clear and accurate proposals. In the long run this also ensures a smooth implementation and a long haul of usage without hassle. Isn’t this what you were looking for in the first place – an LMS that meets your needs, doesn’t become a headache while implementing and when implemented doesn’t look like a misfit?

As I said earlier, there are many ways to go about the evaluation but using Use Case Scenarios in your method would make it easier to evaluate and select the right LMS.

The video shows an augmented reality concept that is integrated with Google’s services, with voice commands, video chat, location check-ins, maps (outside and in-store), weather, etc. I’m looking forward to the day when you and I will have access to such technologies. Imagine using glasses like this in the workplace; rather than being connected to Google’s services, the glasses connect with your own organization’s web services. The possibilities that emerge are quite remarkable.

Check out this concept video:

Such technology will change the learning landscape, in the sense it changes how we access information and use it in the real world. As a learning designer, I’m thrilled with such advances and will eventually face the challenge of designing learning services using such technologies. The future is now!

And for those of you who did attend, well, you may want to relook at the fab 60 odd minutes again.

Just to recap, we discussed the current LMS landscape and environments, shared research insights on LMS usability in a global market, touched upon Mobile and Social Learning experiences required in Learning Management Systems today and spoke about ways to gather learner expectations. We also discussed an interesting implementation done for one of our clients, Global Knowledge, that echoed the webinar idea to the tee.

Note: Jason Clymer, VP (Sales) for North America at Upside Learning, who was slotted to co-host the webinar with Stacey Harris, VP, Research and Advisory Services at Brandon Hall Group, had to drop out due to a family emergency. Amit Gautam, Director of Technology Solutions at Upside Learning, filled in for Jason.

The idea is quite simple really – anyone can create and upload a step-by-step guide using text, photos, and videos for a particular task/topic then others can search and find a relevant guide when they need one.  What’s great about this is you can do all of this using your phone.

In my opinion, this is also the most impactful aspect of mobile learning in the workplace.  The link between training and actual performance is often long drawn and fuzzy, while the one between performance support and performance is quite direct and immediate. As adults your staff does not learn when the L&D wants them to, but they do when they are stuck doing a task. And that’s where I believe mobile is going to be very helpful. Organizations will leverage this in a big way to make available repositories of small how-to-assets – to be accessed by their staff just when and where they need it. That’s a true just-in-time support-plus-learning ecosystem helping staff perform better enabled by learning assets.

Last year we had written about how mobile learning platforms can be leveraged as performance support systems. We’re currently implementing a solution for a large cleaning products company in Europe which will be making how-to-videos for its products available to its staff on mobile devices using Upside Learning’s mobile learning platform. We’ll share a case study on that soon.

I soon realized that I had only discovered the tip of the iceberg, and that there is a lot of thought that needs to go into designing an interactive timeline.

This blog-post is an attempt to put together what I learnt about the design of timelines.

What is a Timeline?

A timeline is an actual picture of events that happened in history. Timelines can be linear or comparative.

A linear timeline shows a picture of events as they occurred in a certain period of time. Use a linear timeline for one subject and time frame.  A linear timeline can be written horizontally or vertically.

A comparative timeline shows two or more subject areas which occurred at the same time; it shows readers the “big picture.” A comparative timeline might compare historical events in two or more countries or compare two or more subjects like Music and Science.

Why Use Timelines In eLearning?

You can use timelines in your elearning courses in order to provide a framework within which content can be presented. Timelines ensure that your content is chunked and make your courses interactive. Chunking delays mental fatigue and increases comprehension.

The Trap: Chronology Or Timeline?

Sometimes, what you think is a timeline, may not actually be a timeline. Often, what passes for a timeline is actually a chronology.

A timeline shows actual spans of time, with proportional measurements for days, months, years, decades or centuries, depending on quantum of time involved.
On the other hand, a chronology shows the momentum of a series of events. It may make more sense to present the information as a list, or as a series of images with associated text labels.

Essential Design Questions To Ask

Here’s a small list of essential questions that we should ask ourselves when designing our timelines.

• Is this timeline about events that unfolded over hours, days, months, years, decades or centuries?
• Should equal periods of time be represented by equal space on the timeline?
• Does it make sense to combine the timeline with other visuals such as maps, graphs or pictures?
• How much text do you need to make the timeline understandable?
• Is the timeline helpful and easy to understand?
• Do the visuals add any value? Are they conveying something that text alone cannot convey?
• Does it really need to be a timeline, or would a series of images with text labels be equally effective?

Designing an effective timeline is much tougher than it seems. Don’t just try to use a timeline because it looks cool, instead make it meaningful and interactive so that the information that you present is crisp and crystal clear.

I’d love to hear about your experiences with designing timelines. Feel free to drop me a line.