February 11 NewsletterKINEO NEWSLETTER Contents this month:
>> Editor's note: Is 2011 only six weeks old? Feels like 60. It’s been a busy few weeks for us – and you, from what you’ve been telling us from China to California. It was great to meet so many of you at the Learning Technologies show in London at the end of January. We had so many great discussions with old friends and new, and it looks like you felt the same; voting us the company you wanted to talk to the most, and the ones you had the best discussions with. Cheers – we love you too. I am not just saying that. We share top tips and insights from the show this month. We officially launched Totara LMS, the custom distribution of Moodle developed by Totara (a joint venture between Kineo, Flexible Learning and Catalyst, at Learning Technologies in the UK and at ASTD in San Jose this month. It’s a labour of love, and we’re overwhelmed by the response. It’s available right now from Totara Partners. Come and take a look – it’s going to change what you think about the LMS. We love to talk, in case that’s not coming across. And with so much to talk about, why don’t we all join in the discussion? We’ve set up a new ELearning Professionals Group on LinkedIn to do just that. 800 of your friends are there already. Maybe they’re talking about you. Only one way to find out… We’ve got more for you this month: a new case study of our work with the Royal Yachting Association, a market update on mobile learning, tool reviews and more. Take a break after all of the conferences? You’ve got to be kidding. Well maybe a little break for Valentine’s weekend. We already used the word ‘love’ three times in this intro. Any more and people will start talking. Stephen
** DATES for your diary** Totara Webinars: 24th February at 2pm UK / 2pm NZ / 3pm CST Take control of your email: Free joint seminar with Kineo and Emailogic: 16th March, London 10-12pm or 2-4pm. Sign up here. Join the discussion and start your own: Elearning Professional Group on LinkedIn --------------------------------------------------- 1. Case study: Royal Yachting Association: ahoy, e-learning… The RYA (Royal Yachting Association) is the national body for all forms of boating. When they decided it was time to move beyond face to face training for their highly popular courses, and explore e-learning, we were delighted to be chosen as their partner. It’s complex content, so we knew it was going to need to be some pretty special stuff .We’re really pleased (and, more importantly, so are they) with how it’s worked out. Find out more about the approach we took, and see a sample module here. If this is making you want to take to the high seas for yourself, well plot yourself a course to the RYA to enrol in the whole course. Avast, ahoy, etc…
2. Totara LMS: Now launched, sign up for a demo Of the many great things that happened at Learning Technologies, the official launch in the UK of Totara LMS is a stand-out for us. Launching a new kind of LMS takes just a little coordination and hard work (yeah, we kind of knew it would). Massive thanks to the whole team at Kineo UK and US, Catalyst and Flexible Learning (now Kineo Pacific). The Totara team now spans three continents – which, if you balance yourself carefully, is easier than it sounds. We were overwhelmed by the interest in Totara at our launch seminar and at the stand at Learning Technologies, and then once again at the US launch at ASTD in San Jose a week later. For those of you who couldn’t make it: Totara is a new kind of LMS for business. It’s a distribution of Moodle, the world’s leading open source LMS, so you know it’s built on a great foundation. With enterprise features including individual development plans, competencies, team management, classroom management and dashboard reporting, Totara is designed specifically to meet the needs of corporates. Totara is fully open source and available on an annual subscription basis for support, updates and patches. Find out more about Totara at http://www.totaralms.com/. Join the LMS revolution by taking the next step with Totara:
3. ELearning Professionals Group: Join up, get involved – maybe win an iPad… One of the great things that happens at conferences like Learning Technologies and ASTD is we get to chew the fat, and shoot the breeze (not at the same time, that could cause choking) with colleagues from all across the learning world. But we don’t have to wait until next year to pick up the discussion. If you’re on LinkedIn, you can continue the discussion right now. We’ve set up ELearning Professionals Group to do just that. Trending discussions right now:
Over 800 of your colleagues are discussing these and much more besides right now. Don’t be left out – come and join them. If you need even more incentive, we’re going to hold a draw at the end of this week, and one member of the group will win an iPad. If you have one already, you know that one is not enough. You can sign up here.
4. Tool review: Wondershare Wondershare offers to “Enhance your learning content development with an intuitive work environment”. That sounds like it means something. What exactly? Your wondering days are over. We share our take on the tool in our review. You can find it here.
5. Top tips: Take three from Learning Technologies Learning Technologies was awash with interesting talks. We’re not talking about ourselves, for once. We had a good look around and in this month’s top tips, we share some key pointers from three sessions that made an impact on us:
Find these and 50 more top tips here. Were you at the show? What did you think? Let us know – you know where.
6. Market update: Mobile learning – are you moving too fast? From San Jose to Kensington Olympia, the learning world had its tablets out this month. We saw a lot of talk, and a few demos, of mobile learning for iPads and others. But, in all the excitement, we hate to be a bit of a killjoy, it’s really not in our nature - but can we ask: are you sure you know what you’re doing here? Find out why you might want to stop and think in this month’s market update. Violently disagree? Are you using fantastic apps on iPads in your business? Well, come right back at us. Guess where…
7. ASTD TechKnowledge review: where is learning headed? We had a great couple of days at ASTD TechKnowledge in San Jose earlier this month. A buzzy show as always. We launched Totara LMS in the US, and took the temperature of the US learning trends. We share a round up here.
8. Kineo news: Learning Technologies success, upcoming seminar with Emailogic, Kineo Pacific does it free for schools, now hiring Learning Technologies: topping the exit polls We’re not running for election. But if we were, we’d be pretty pleased with the exit polls at this year’s Learning Technologies, with Kineo coming in the top 5 in 5 categories. Great to see we’ve come first again as company you had the most profitable conversation with, for the second year running. We must talk more often. Pollsters among you can rake over all the results here. Emailogic and Kineo: Take control of your email in a free seminar on March 16th Is your email out of control? Is your inbox your new boss? Conscious of the irony of getting an email to ask you these questions? Good, good. We’ve been working with the team at Emailogic, who have a great approach (and now, some great e-learning and a Moodle site) to help you become an expert email user, reduce stress, save time and boost productivity. Come along to our free joint seminar in London on March 16th, where we’ll showcase the e-learning and give you some tips to show your email who’s boss. This is an invite only event, and places are limited so get your dibs in fast and learn more about it here: Kineo Pacific does it free for schools Kineo Pacific runs the great open source e-Portfolio tool Mahara. We’re delighted to announce that Kineo Pacific is extending the free myPortfolio service to schools across New Zealand. Great project, find out more about it here. Now hiring We’re continuing to grow our team in the UK and the US. It is a great time to join this industry. We’re looking for passionate, creative, enthusiastic people to join us as:
Find out more here. (No agencies please.) |
