December 12, 2006
LMS Consolidation as Way to Centralize Learner Data, Says Survey
Expertus, a provider of strategic training outsourcing services, and TrainingOutsourcing.com, a company that offers guidance and consulting to buyers and sellers of outsourcing services, recently announced the results of their joint survey on LMS consolidation.
The survey verified that LMS consolidation is indeed a factor in enterprise learning. More than 25 percent of the survey’s respondents currently use multiple LMSs within their organizations. Of these, more than 75 percent said they plan on consolidating systems. As part of the consolidation process, 40 percent of respondents say they plan on purchasing and implementing a new LMS; 35.6 percent say they will make major upgrades to an existing LMS during consolidation.
The top factors cited as driving the need to consolidate are the centralization of learner data (77.8 percent), improved reporting (68.9 percent), improved content integration (64.4 percent) and improved integration with other enterprise applications (62.2percent). Surprisingly, only 40 percent of respondents cited reduction of technology costs as a business driver.
“Companies recognize the value of centralized reporting, content management, and talent management—none of which is usually possible when operating multiple LMSs. However, consolidation is a complex process and one that requires expertise in many technical areas, as well as in program management,” said Ramesh Ramani, CEO of Expertus. “LMS consolidation is a major application initiative and must be carefully planned and managed in order to be successful.”
Other survey findings include:
· More than 10 percent of survey respondents had three or more operating LMSs in their organizations.
· Nearly half (46.7 percent) of the respondents estimated that consolidation would take six months to one year; 22.2 percent estimated consolidation projects would take from one to two years.
· Almost 40 percent of respondents anticipated using outside services for help with consolidation projects.
· The biggest challenges anticipated by respondents were data issues (58.7 percent), technology (56.5 percent), and user acceptance and customization (both at 43.5 percent).
· Almost half of consolidation projects are driven by training organizations.
“LMS consolidation can offer significant enterprise-wide benefits,” said Doug Harward, CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com. “However, the projects typically require advanced technology and integration expertise. We recommend that anyone considering a consolidation initiative first talk with others who have completed similar projects in order to obtain a full understanding of project’s scope.”
An analysis of all survey results is available at www.expertus.com/about/pressroom.html.
Young Workers Lack Critical Skills
Do America’s high school and college graduates enter the workforce with the skills they need to succeed?
Not according to a survey jointly conducted by the Conference Board, the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management.
In the report, Are They Really Ready to Work?, more than 400 employers identified professionalism and work ethic, teamwork, and oral communication as the most important current and future skill sets for a competitive workforce. They also believe that critical thinking and problem solving, information technology, teamwork, and creativity skills will increase in importance during the next five years.
More than 40 percent of respondents believe that current high school graduates are deficient in overall preparation for entry into the workforce, while less than 1 percent rated graduates as excellent. Employers say that more than 80 percent of high school graduates struggle with written communications and 70 percent lack professionalism and work ethic.
Graduates of four-year collegiate programs fared better: Twenty-four percent of employers rated their preparation as excellent. Nearly 50 percent of respondents gave four-year graduates excellent marks in information technology application, and 27 percent classified graduates as excellent at critical thinking. Interestingly, however, more than a quarter ranked these graduates as deficient in written communication and 24 percent said they do not have adequate leadership skills.
The findings are similar to those highlighted in ASTD’s new white paper, Bridging the Skills Gap, in which learning professionals identified communication and interpersonal, managerial and supervisory, and process and project management skills as the most critical gaps to fill within their organizations.
The Conference Board report recommends that businesses work with the academic community to ensure that educators understand the needs of the future workforce. It encourages businesses to consider the types of training to provide new employees with the necessary skills to succeed in the workplace.
--Alexandra Griffin and Kermit Kaleba, ASTD Policy and Public Leadership
Websoft and ARGO form Partnership
Websoft Systems and ARGO Data Resource Corporation have entered into a partnership to offer tailored end-to-end learning management and knowledge management solutions to the retail financial services industry, which includes major banks, regional banks, community banks, credit aggregators, as well as credit originators and processors.
The agreement allows organizations within the retail financial services industry to streamline their training initiatives leveraging ARGO’s e-learning course content and course development services and Websoft’s Fortune 100 Enterprise KnowledgeBridge® LMS and LCMS. Under the agreement Websoft and ARGO will be able to offer a unified solution tailored for the financial services industry combining comprehensive learning management, knowledge management, performance management, learning content management, course authoring and tailored, industry-specific courses.
BlackBerry Lawsuits?
The increasing use of wireless devices, such as the BlackBerry, in the workplace could result in lawsuits against employers. Experts assert that employees can sue for creating an allegedly dangerous environment where unpaid overwork is required for success, promotion, and job security. “Any sort of device that arguably significantly affects an employee outside the workplace could pose a tricky legal area for employers,” says Frank C. Morris, Jr., an employment attorney at Epstein Becker and Green, a firm representing employers.
More buzz about the topic was generated by Gayle Porter, a management professor at Rutgers University. In her recent study, she suggests possible liability for companies if they keep their employees on “electronic leashes” as part of their job requirements.
Porter theorizes employers may be responsible for supposed physical and psychological fallout due to potential dependency. “In light of possible claims involving dependency, stress-related illnesses, carpal tunnel, and overtime, companies need to be proactive to avert possible serious monetary consequences, Morris cautions employers.
In Japan, the theory of “karoshi” or death by overwork has recently fueled lawsuits on behalf of the deceased’s relatives who seek compensation. Some studies assert a link between the stress of constant labor to strokes, heart attacks, and mental illness. “While a person simply carrying an employer-provided wireless device is not actually performing any duties, the argument is that the perception employees may have of being tied to the office is psychologically damaging,” Morris explains. He also adds that many employees constantly check their BlackBerry without any employer requirement to do so.
Some view it as a badge of status. Another issue for employers is whether an employee is eligible for overtime pay. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act, certain employees can claim that they should be paid for time spent checking their BlackBerrys outside of normal work hours.
--Josie Rossi
November 20, 2006
SumTotal Systems Acquires MindSolve Technologies
SumTotal® Systems, a major provider provider of learning management systems, has acquired Gainesville, Florida-based MindSolve® Technologies, a privately held provider of performance management software.
“We are buying MindSolve because our strategy is to transform SumTotal by offering best-of-breed solutions for each segment of talent management, both in pure-play market opportunities as well as integrated suite opportunities,” said Don Fowler, chief executive officer of SumTotal in a press release.
According to The Yankee Group, the market for talent management software – which deals with employee learning, performance, compensation and recruitment – will expand “at a compound annual growth rate of 17 percent.” Researchers expect that market to be worth approximately $2 billion by 2008.
“By developing and selling solutions for each segment of talent management, we believe we will address customers’ demands, grow our business and shape the market’s vision for these products,” added Fowler. “We believe that once we are through the initial integration activities, MindSolve will add a quarterly revenue run-rate of between $1.5 million and $2 million and generate positive cash flow from operations.”
By acquiring MindSolve, SumTotal adds its own performance management capability to an award-winning learning management suite, which delivers and tracks training over the Internet. According to industry analysts, the MindSolve solution provides best-in-class, patented technology for analyzing employee “bench strength,” creating and managing succession plans, aligning goals, appraising performance and evaluating compensation.
For example, Bersin & Associates, states that MindSolve offers a “unique and compelling approach to performance management.” Bersin says that MindSolve’s technology offers “integration with ‘balanced scorecard’ applications and a patented user interface with proven efficiency and accuracy,” which customers such as Ernst & Young, Pfizer, and Sonoco Products Corp. have purchased.
And Gartner writes in a report titled “MarketScope for Employee Performance Management Software, 2005” that “MindSolve has strong overall functionality. MindSolve is most appropriate for large companies that want deep performance management functionality and value strong manager support tools.”
“Over the years, we’ve made considerable investments in R&D, so we feel our technology is very strong,” said Dan Boccabella, general manager for MindSolve. “This merger, in the minds of MindSolve’s shareholders and management team, gives us a worldwide distribution channel and access to the industry’s leading learning solutions.”
“SumTotal has acquired a proven, best-of-breed solution, which SumTotal customers can benefit from immediately,” said Josh Bersin, president and founder of Bersin & Associates. “We believe that performance management solutions are becoming the core of integrated talent management.2 SumTotal now has the opportunity to integrate the MindSolve solution with SumTotal’s learning management suite to deliver a complete solution for integrated performance and learning management.”
Under terms of the transaction, MindSolve shareholders will receive approximately $5.2 million in cash along with 925,000 shares of SumTotal common stock. The company will also incur additional cash obligations due to deal-related and retention expenses of approximately $1.5 million.
Podcasts for Small Businesses
In addition to free courses, workshops, and resources, the United States Small Business Administration has recently added podcasting to its training arsenal for small business owners.
These new podcasts were developed to introduce busy entrepreneurs to various small business topics, and provide advice on all aspects of starting, expanding, and financing a small business, and on business protection.
Each broadcast is less than 10 minutes long and features interviews with experts from the SBA, the Service Corps of retired executives, and the Small Business Development Centers, the Women’s Business Centers, as well as various industry experts.
The podcast files can be listened to on a computer or downloaded onto a MP3 player. Additional feeds on new topics will be added regularly. To learn more, go to www.sba.gov/tools/resourcelibrary/Podcasts/index.html.
Execution Is Missing in Action
The November issue of T+D magazine reports that 49 percent of business leaders report a gap between their organization’s ability to articulate a strategic vision and their effectiveness in executing that vision, according to a recent survey by OnPoint Consulting. Of the 49 percent who noted an internal gap, 64 percent lacked confidence that their company could change course.
More than 400 companies participated in the survey; 240 of which have annual revenues exceeding $250 million. Two-thirds of the respondents employ 2,500 workers. “Over the last 10 to 15 years it’s become apparent that most organizations are quite capable of developing a strategic vision,” says Richard Lepsinger, president of OnPoint Consulting. “Where the breakdown occurs is many companies are not achieving their desired outcomes, which then causes frustration.”
A wide range of industry leaders were queried. The pharmaceutical industry fared better than other sectors—fewer acknowledged a gap between vision and execution and fewer were pessimistic about being able to change course. Leaders in the chemical, manufacturing, and financial services who reported a gap were particularly pessimistic about reversing their fortunes.
Perspectives about whether an organization is living up to its ideals did not vary by rank. Senior managers and middle managers generally agreed about the direction of their organizations. Lepsinger cites five factors that separate high-performing organizations from those that are struggling to achieve their goals: change management, an appropriate organizational structure to achieve goals, appropriate participation in decision making, leadership consistency in abiding by the mission, and coordination of actions across departments.
Despite the hand wringing about the failed objectives, there is little need to start from scratch and rewrite or rethink the organization’s mission statement, Lepsinger believes. “Mission statements are written at a high level,” Lepsinger explains. “They are meant to be inspirational and to drive strategy. In my opinion, companies should not put more detail in their mission and vision statements because that would make them unwieldy.”
Many of the suggestions offered in the report seem obvious, but the study reveals that sound management practices are still lacking in key areas. One often-cited failure is management’s maintenance of two sets of priorities: one for the organization as a whole and a separate one for themselves.
If employees see that their leaders do not abide by the ideals they preach, that is a contributing factor to the breakdown between vision and execution. The report cites an instance when the former president of American Airlines offered huge “stay” bonuses to senior executives, while asking the rest of the staff to accept deep pay cuts.
--By Michael Laff
Google Buys a Wiki Company
Google has just bought JotSpot, an emerging wiki company. JotSpot, a privately held company headquartered in Palo Alto, California, was founded in 2004 by Excite.com co-founders Joe Kraus and Graham Spencer.
While other wikis typically support plain text, JotSpot's wiki enables users to create rich web-based spreadsheets, calendars, documents and photo galleries. According to Elliot Masie’s newsletter, Learning Trends, “JotSpot had one of the most application-rich wikis on the market, targeted to organizations that wanted collective documents with more user access controls and embedded applications.”
Why is Google acquiring JotSpot?According to JotSpot’s website, “Google shares JotSpot's vision for helping people collaborate, share and work together online. JotSpot's team and technology are a strong fit with existing Google products like Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Google Apps for Your Domain, and Google Groups.”
The terms of the acquisition are confidential and the deal is officially closed. Learn more at www.jotspot.com
November 6, 2006
SkillSoft to Acquire NETg from Thomson
SkillSoft, a leading provider of content resources and complementary technologies for integrated enterprise learning, has announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire NETg from The Thomson Corporation. Under the terms of the agreement, unanimously approved by the Board of Directors of SkillSoft and also by The Thomson Corporation, SkillSoft will pay approximately $285 million to acquire NETg.
The acquisition will add to SkillSoft's existing offerings in e-learning content, Referenceware(TM) and learning platform technology, through the addition of NETg's complementary offerings in live virtual ILT, blended learning, content authoring/LCMS technology, learning content and custom development services.
According to the press release, “the acquisition supports the company's overall strategy to continually increase the quality and flexibility of learning solutions available to corporate, government, education, and small-to-medium size business customers from SkillSoft.” More important, SkillSoft expects that the addition of NETg capabilities will strengthen the company’s ability to compete for a greater share of the $13.2 billion corporate training market that includes many larger players with more comprehensive product offerings.
"The combination of SkillSoft and NETg will immediately bring a wider range of solutions to the customers of both SkillSoft and NETg. In addition, by combining the two organizations we will be able to optimize our development focus and deliver a wider range of e-learning solutions to customers than either organization has delivered in the past. This is key to increasing our ability to compete with the many larger players in the global corporate training market," said Chuck Moran, CEO of SkillSoft.
Under the terms of the acquisition agreement, SkillSoft expects to issue approximately 11.1 million SkillSoft ADSs and $216 million in cash to Thomson, subject to certain adjustments at closing. The cash portion of the consideration will be financed through available cash balances and committed bank financing from Credit Suisse of approximately $180 million. SkillSoft retains the right to substitute additional cash at closing in exchange for ADS's to be delivered, at a value of $6.24 per share.
Industry analyst Josh Bersin commented on the deal, “This highly strategic acquisition creates a corporate e-learning powerhouse: a single company with leading market share in online IT and soft skills training, online references, and a variety of other professional training resources and supporting technologies.”
Bersin added, “[Bersin & Assocaites] believe the company will manage the merger well. Through prior acquisitions, SkillSoft has shown great discipline in incorporating acquired assets into its portfolio, and making end-of-life decisions for various products and technologies. While the acquisition price seems high (nearly 1.8 times revenues for a company that was losing money), this will be a very profitable acquisition for SkillSoft. Instead of spending dollars to try to catch or leapfrog NETg, SkillSoft can focus on new modalities and technologies for e-learning (video, for example), more technology features, and increasing the breadth of the company’s content catalog.”
But what impact will the acquisition have on customers? Bersin is optimistic: “NETg customers will see more content, technology and resources available to them. SkillSoft customers will benefit from this availability of the LCMS, LearnFlow and complementary content titles.”
Bill Could Enhance U.S. Competitiveness
The United States Senate appears poised to advance a new bill designed to improve America’s economic competitiveness, by providing significant and needed enhancements in scientific research and education.
The bipartisan National Competitiveness Investment Act combines elements of three other bills: the American Innovation and Competitiveness Act, the Protecting America’s Competitive Edge (PACE)-Energy Act, and the PACE-Education Act. The bill provides for substantial investment in commerce and science, education, the Department of Energy, and the National Science Foundation. The legislation focuses on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by authorizing billions of dollars for basic scientific research and creating numerous programs geared toward math and science teachers and professors.
“This bill is an important first step to help protect America’s competitive edge in science and technology,” says Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tennessee), a co-sponsor of the proposal. “It will double our investment in basic research and help the next generation of American scientists and engineers learn the skills they need to succeed.”
But there is still work to be done when it comes to competitiveness legislation. The proposed bill does not include a number of provisions to address nonSTEM skills gaps that the profession had been seeking. Instead, these provisions will have to come in a separate bill because they deal with tax and financial issues. Some notable absences were several proposed tax credits that would have permitted employers to deduct some or all of their expenses for employee training and lifelong learning accounts, which would have helped individuals save for training opportunities.
Another proposal that may be included in future competitiveness legislation is the Digital Opportunity Investment Trust (DO IT) Act, a bipartisan bill that provides funding for training, research, and development projects that use advanced information technologies. Funded through a portion of the revenues the government receives from the sale of the electromagnetic spectrum, these investments in education and development could support such projects as the development of authentic assessment methods and digital training tools for educators and trainers, content, and interactive training methods.
Newton Minow, former Federal Communications Commission chairman and co-chairman of Digital Promise, the coalition leading efforts to enact the bill, said during a recent C-SPAN interview that “to keep us competitive as a nation, we’ve got to take part of the (spectrum) money and invest it in our future for education and new technologies.”
According to Minow, an important part of this initiative includes using innovative technologies and digital resources to train people because new technology developments are allowing people to learn more quickly and thoroughly than traditional learning methods.
As the 109th Congress comes to a close this year, it is unclear when lawmakers will address these initiatives. If they are unable to produce legislation by the end of the term, WLP professionals must be prepared to educate the 110th Congress on the vital role that workplace learning and performance plays in maintaining a highly skilled workforce that’s globally competitive.
–Alexandra Griffin and Kermit Kaleba ASTD Policy and Public Leadership
Meridian KSI Acquired by Visionary Integration Professionals
Meridian Knowledge Solutions, Inc., a provider of knowledge management and e-learning solutions, recently announced that it has been acquired by Visionary Integration Professionals (VIP) of Folsom, California.
“We were looking for a strong partner with deep expertise in business intelligence and analytics as well as world class enterprise integration experience,” said Meridian CEO Paul Somerville. “We see a growing demand for business intelligence, data integration, and data warehousing to integrate disparate information well beyond that captured by the LMS or analytics capabilities of our competitors. This demand is driven by the desire to accomplish true performance management across the enterprise,” Somerville added. “While we considered alliances as an alternative, we decided a long-term strategic partner with ‘skin in the game’ was better for our customers. VIP provides this capability, as well as strong expertise in system integration and quality assurance.”
According to Jonna Ward, CEO of VIP, “VIP fully understands that the playing field of ‘information’ is where organizations will win or lose competitive advantage in years to come. We believe the combined force of our core competencies and Meridian’s proven LMS platform will close the gap between the performance data an enterprise possesses and the data it uses to manage its human capital.”
“The learning management space has seen a number of recent acquisitions and mergers, almost all of which have been focused on the software capabilities with little regard for the customer,” stated Somerville. “Unlike those transactions, our decision was focused on providing a higher level of service and broader offerings to meet the expanding learning and performance management needs of our customers.”
Meridian will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of VIP. Paul Somerville will continue to manage Meridian within the VIP enterprise. Although terms of the deal were not disclosed, the acquisition will bring VIP’s staff base to over 500 professionals with 2007 projected results of nearly $100 Million.
Good Boss, Bad Boss?
The November issue of T+D magazine reports that nearly all managers—92 percent—consider themselves to be excellent or good bosses. However, the latest Hudson survey found that employees do not necessarily agree with them. Only 67 percent rated their managers positively, and 10 percent even said that their bosses are poor managers.
The survey also revealed that many bosses may not have a clue about how their employees feel about their managerial skills. That’s because only a quarter of the workforce is given the opportunity to formally review their managers’ performances.
“Reviews cannot provide a complete picture of a manager’s performance if you are not looking at how they are perceived by workers reporting to them,” says Robert Morgan, chief operating officer of Hudson Talent Management. “Not only are 360-degree reviews a good opportunity to assess an employee’s capabilities as a manager, but they also let workers know that their opinions are valued, regardless of where they sit in the organization.”
The survey results also pointed to training as a solution. Even though none of the managers said that they are doing a poor job, many admitted they could use some help. Twenty-six ercent said they do not receive adequate training to handle their managerial responsibilities.
October 24, 2006
ASTD Announces BEST Award Winners
The American Society for Training & Development recently announced that 39 organizations from India, South Africa, and the United States are winners in the 2006 ASTD BEST Awards competition. Booz Allen Hamilton of McLean, Virginia holds the first place ranking.
The BEST Awards recognize organizations that demonstrate enterprise-wide success through employee learning and development. According to Tony Bingham, ASTD’s president and CEO, “The winners set the standard of excellence for exceptional learning practices, and demonstrate that a skilled workforce is vital to achieving results. The 2006 BEST winners use learning as a strategic tool and have the support of senior leaders who champion a learning culture.”
Through an online survey, the 2006 BEST Awards welcomed applications from 78 organizations in seven countries. These organizations submitted quantitative and qualitative information to ASTD about their learning and development practices and programs. Their applications were assessed by members of the BEST Awards advisory committee, a group of experts in the learning and performance field.
The 2006 ASTD BEST Award winners and rankings:
1 Booz Allen Hamilton
2 Ascension Health
3 Reliance Industries Limited, Jamnagar Refinery Division
4 NCR Corporation
5 Deloitte & Touche USA LLP
6 Wipro Technologies
7 Ruby Tuesday Inc.
8 South African Breweries Limited
9 American Express Travel Related Services Inc.
10 JetBlue Airways Corporation
11 Nemours
12 Computer Sciences Corporation
13 Hewlett-Packard Company
14 Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited
15 Satyam Computer Services Limited
16 Caterpillar Inc.
17 EMC Corporation
18 The Schwan Food Company
19 Johnson Controls Inc
20 Wal-Mart Stores Inc.
21 sanofi-aventis U.S.
22 Equity Residential
23 U.S. Engine Valve
24 Tata Consultancy Services Limited
25 Microsoft Corporation
26 Merck & Company Inc.–Merck Manufacturing Division
27 U.S. Security Associates, Inc.
28 Vermeer Manufacturing Company
29 CheckFree Services Inc.
30 Infosys Technologies Limited
31 Florida Department of Revenue
32 Avnet, Inc.
33 Reliance Industries Limited–Patalganga Manufacturing Division
34 Randstad United States
35 Telkom SA Limited
36 ICICI Bank Limited
37 Equifax Inc.
38 QUALCOMM Inc.
39 Verizon Communications Inc.
More information about the 2006 ASTD BEST Award winners may be found in the October 2006 issue of T+D magazine. Details about the 2007 ASTD BEST Awards program will be available next February.
More Companies Involved in Global Training, Says TrainingOutsourcing.com
TrainingOutsourcing.com, a company that offers guidance and consulting to buyers and sellers of outsourcing services, and outsourcing provider Expertus jointly announced the results of their latest survey focused on global training.
The survey, which defined global training as training provided to employees, customers, and partners outside of an organization’s home country found that 82 percent of companies are involved in global efforts. Questions explored a variety of issues, including
- percentage of current budget spent on training outside of home countries
- governance of global training
- use of e-learning and LMSs
- language translations.
A total of 268 responses were received and analyzed by company size. Approximately 31 percent of survey respondents had between 5 and 50 locations outside of home countries, and almost 20 percent had more than 50 locations outside of home countries. However, while a vast majority of companies are now involved in global training, most training dollars are still spent on training delivered within home countries. Nearly half of responding companies spend less than 10 percent of their annual training budgets on training delivered outside of home countries. And in 36.7 percent of responding companies, employees outside of home countries receive less training than those employees located within home countries.
Additional survey highlights:
- Almost two-thirds (62.2 percent) of companies managed global training through a centralized learning organization. But 42 percent of respondents had training staff located in the United States and non-U.S. countries.
- English is by far the most commonly used language for training among respondents (95 percent). But some 40 percent of companies translate training into Spanish, 30 percent translate into French, 25 percent translate into Chinese, and 25 percent translate into German.
- In 57.7 percent of companies, all employees have access to e-learning.
The top challenges identified by respondents are budget constraints, content localization and translation, effective learning delivery, and maximization of e-learning. Respondents identified the major challenges related to channel training as
- budget constraints, 50.5 percent
- lack of control, 46.3 percent
- distributed locations, 42.1 percent
- staffing constraints 33.2 percent.
“Global training presents a whole new range of challenges to most companies,” said Ramesh Ramani, president of Expertus. “While most companies recognize that all employees should have equal access to corporate training resources, few know how to meet this goal with existing budgets and technology infrastructures. We’ve seen demonstrable results from those companies that have made global training a priority, including increased revenues, reduced spending, and improved utilization of workforce resources.”
“Just in the last three years, we’ve seen a definite increase in global training initiatives,” said Doug Harward, CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com. “We expect that this trend will continue, as companies open more locations worldwide and depend on the optimum use of a worldwide workforce.”
An analysis of all survey results is available at www.expertus.com/survey/results2/globaltraining.pdf.
Common Cartridge Standard Announced at Educause
Three dozen academic publishers, providers of learning management software, and others have agreed on a common, open standard that will make it possible to move digital content into and out of widely divergent online education systems without expensive and time consuming reengineering.
The protocol is called Common Cartridge, and as a standard many believe it holds promise because so many of the key players have been involved in creating it. Working through the IMS Global Learning Consortium, leading publishers like Pearson Education and McGraw-Hill Education and course management system makers, such as Blackboard, ANGEL Learning, and open-source Sakai, have worked to develop the technical specifications for the common cartridge. All have vowed to begin incorporating the new standard into their products by next spring, except Blackboard, which has not set a specific timeline.
The Common Cartridge approach is designed to deal with two major issues:
- the significant cost and time to produce the material for multiple, differing learning management systems
- the inability to move courses produced in one course platform to another, which makes it difficult for professors to move their courses from one college to another and for campuses to consider switching course management providers.
According to the Inside Higher Ed article “Opening Up Online Learning,” the clearest and surest upside of the new standard, most observers agree, is that it could help lower publishers’ production costs and, in turn, allow them to focus their energies on producing more and better content.
Catherine Burdt, an analyst at Eduventures, an education research firm tells Inside Higher Ed, “This should have the result of broadening choice in content to institutions.” She adds, “Colleges would no longer be limited to the content that’s supported by their LMS platform, but could now go out and choose the best content that aligns with what’s happening in their curriculum.”
ASTD TechKnowledge® 2007 Early-Bird Registration Ends October 31st
ASTD TechKnowledge® 2007 Conference & Exposition, held January 31-February 2 in Las Vegas, Nevada, is ASTD’s conference focusing on e-learning design, platforms and authoring tools, virtual delivery and facilitation, and emerging technologies and methods used for learning. Register for the conference by October 31st and receive $250 off the regular member rate.
Learn More at the official ASTD TechKnowledge® 2007 website.
October 9, 2006
Wired Up for Learning
CNN.com reports on an initiative at Duke University's Fuqua School of Business that allows students to use Apple's iTunes Web sites to download speeches, interviews and conference presentations. Early material available includes a speech by Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co and an interview with Duke professor John Graham.
"New learning technologies allow us to think differently about the ways we design and deliver learning programs to busy executives around the world and allow us to enter new markets in new ways," said Raymond Smith, Fuqua's associate dean for executive education.
You can read the full article at
Frontline managers are low-level or middle managers who work directly with staff members. "There’s a lot of emphasis on talent management and retention, and the frontline manager bears a lot of responsibility for whether employees like the organization or not," says Paul Terry, a Novations vice president.
While the survey did not ask specifically what kinds of training that the organizations selected for frontline mangers, Terry believes it is for the intangible people management skills, such as giving coaching support and motivating staff. When he asks clients about the types of individuals who are most often promoted to management, Terry reports that the overwhelming response is the "technically brilliant." A side effect of such decisions is that many of the same high achievers do not possess innate leadership skills or past experience managing a staff.
"A psychological transition has to take place where the manager goes from being an individual contributor to one who contributes through others," Terry says. Terry believes that the high percentage of survey respondents who said training will be offered is a true portrait and not simply an inflated figure proffered by organizations wanting to say they offer training. The healthy economic climate and changing workplace demographics, along with the pending retirement of baby boomers, contributes to increased calls for training. "We’ve noticed a heightened interest in training," Terry says.
"It dropped off a few years ago, but now the economy is in better shape." As the demands for training have heated up in recent years, Terry notes that more organizations are outsourcing their training functions, either because HR departments are smaller or because they lack the in-house resources to handle training and development. He added that while the buzz regarding e-learning may be hot, it has not replaced the classroom as the preferred training mechanism.
Nine out of 10 (89 percent) respondents said that the benefits of higher education are equal to or greater than the time, money, and energy invested. Among the reasons respondents cited for prospectively returning to school, 71 percent pointed to greater earning power. However, higher wages was not the sole, or even most frequently cited reason. In addition, 81 percent associated higher education with a personal sense of accomplishment, and 78 percent believed education would help them better develop their talents or pursue their interests.
Only a third of those who said they wanted more education said they were likely to pursue it. Time management was the greatest barrier—73 percent of those who wanted to pursue additional education rated this issue as a concern. Financial considerations were also an issue for many: Finally, 70 percent said it would be difficult to find the money to pay for school, but 57 percent of those who have gone back to school say they wish they had done it sooner.
Included on the list are content management products, information search products, document sharing tools, Web portals, and competitive intelligence content vendors. Notable "e-learning" vendors on the list are SumTotal Systems 7.2 and OutStart Evolution LCMS.
Expertus, a provider of strategic training outsourcing services, and TrainingOutsourcing.com, a company that offers guidance and consulting to buyers and sellers of outsourcing services, recently announced the results of the first of six surveys designed to provide market data on all aspects of today’s corporate training challenges.
The first survey in the Training Challenges Survey Series, which focused on channel partner training, explored a variety of issues, including percentage of current budget spent on channel training, planned investments over the next 12 months, importance of channel training as compared to employee and customer training, use of LMSs, and use of outsourcing. A total of 244 responses were received and analyzed by company size.
"We’ve seen firsthand some of the major challenges related to channel training," said Mohana Radhakrishhnan, vice president of client services for Expertus. "Many companies have limited staff and budget resources, technology issues, and need for multi-language support. These challenges are exacerbated with extreme time to market and revenue pressures. The results of this survey demonstrate that companies of all sizes share these and related challenges."
"We find that channel training is often outside the responsibility of corporate training," said Doug Harward, CEO of TrainingOutsourcing.com. "This often means that learning management technologies are not used to advantage and consistency in course materials can be problematic. Training is often conducted informally, with no tracking or reporting."
"The content management market grew nearly 10 percent in 2005, considerably outperforming the software industry as a whole," said Melissa Webster, program director for Content Technologies and Digital Media research at IDC. "Although growth slowed somewhat for some of the leading vendors as they worked to consolidate their many acquisitions, we continued to see strong demand for content management solutions. Many of the pure-play vendors that are addressing content management, capture and image management, Web content management, records management, and digital asset management posted extremely strong growth in 2005."
Although the content management market has continued to consolidate, the study reveals that many organizations still lack content management systems or are relying on homegrown solutions that are ripe for replacement. IDC believes that the market is still in the early days of next-generation content applications, and cites ample opportunity for smaller, innovative players to grow at an accelerated rate.
Webster adds, "As the content management market continues to mature, enterprises will increasingly seek out solutions that integrate with their IT infrastructure and enterprise applications. IDC expects to see growth in content-centric applications that are built atop the platforms of the leading content management vendors, or atop the content management and records management services of Microsoft, IBM, and Oracle."