March 11 Newsletter

KINEO NEWSLETTER
Issue 64 – March 2011 

Contents this month:

>> Editor's note:

There’s a fresh spring wind blowing through Kineo this month. Ok, so maybe it’s because we’ve left the windows open, but look what’s breezed in:

• A new case study, showcasing a great Moodle implementation for the Co-operative 
• A new country – welcome to the team, Kineo Sweden!
• A refreshing look at what’s happening in Virtual Classrooms in our free white paper 
• A new take on an old challenge – how can we make e-learning better? Find out what the community is saying 
• Totara code out there for sharing in the open source community

All this (and more!) waiting for you on the Kineo website – now in Swedish, Mandarin and Hebrew too. Yes, we stayed behind after school this month. 
With top tips, a new audio interview, market updates and more, you’ll be glad of the extra hour in the day to get through it all. Looks like we’re going to need it too...

Stephen

** DATES for your diary **

Totara Webinars: 17th March & 7th April @ 2pm UK / 2pm NZ / 3pm CST
Register for a Totata demo here.

Join the discussion and start your own: eLearning Professionals Group on LinkedIn.

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1. Case study: The Co-operative leadership development zone

We’ve partnered with the great team at the Co-operative to create a Moodle-based online portal as a focus for leadership development. We take you through the challenge of designing a solution to reach out to the Co-operative’s top 500 leaders, through a collaborative development process and to the delivery, implementation and marketing of an engaging solution. As we’ve always said, building it is (kind of) the easy part. Driving uptake and getting results – that’s the bit you really need to invest in. Find out how we achieved both, in this month’s case study. 

Get the Co-operative case study here.


2. Kineo Sweden: Welcome aboard!

It’s great to welcome another member to the Kineo family. This week we open the doors in Kineo Sweden. The Kineo Sweden team has years of experience in e-learning design and delivery, and are looking forward to partnering with clients across Scandinavia. The more Euro-astute of you will notice that our site is now available in Swedish too.

Find out more about Kineo Sweden and meet some of the Kineo Sweden Team. 


3. Kineo white paper: Virtual classrooms guide

One of the ways we like to work together with colleagues from China to Gothenburg is through the use of virtual classrooms. From what you tell us, you like them too. It’s a shifting market – we just saw Dimdim’s lights go out after Salesforce acquired it. So what are your options in this market, from the old reliables to the up-and-coming? Let us school you in this month’s free guide.

View the latest Virtual Classrooms Guide


4. Totara update: Come and see it, partners welcome…

We’ve been thrilled with the response so far, with more and more companies turning on to Totara, and more partners coming on board.

Arriving late to the party? Totara is a new kind of LMS for business. It’s built in collaboration between Kineo, Catalyst and Flexible Learning (now Kineo Pacific). It’s a distribution of Moodle, the world’s leading open source LMS, so you know it’s built on a great foundation.

With additional 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 www.totaralms.com.

Join the LMS revolution by taking the next steps: 

• Sign up for a demo: We’re running webinar demos on March 17th and April 7th. Sign up for a Totara demo.
• Buy it now! Totara is available right now from Totara Partners, including Kineo. Contact us now at: info@kineo.com
• Become a Partner: We are also seeking Totara Partners, who can support and implement Totara around the world. We are keen to help companies grow their services and revenues through being a Totara Partner. We have 10 Partners already, including several Moodle Partners. Find out more about becoming a Totara Partner.
• See for yourself. Ready to have a go? Try out our new Totara demo. 

5.  What’s wrong with e-learning? From inside the eLearning Professionals Group

Complete this sentence in 20 words or less: “If there’s one thing I never want to see again in an e-learning module, it’s…”

That was the starter for 10 (well, 20) that we kicked off a few weeks ago in the eLearning Professionals Group (eLP) on LinkedIn. So far we’ve received over 100 responses. They range from the simple to the profound, to the oppositional (Fight! Fight!), to the surprisingly funny (for e-learning). Some people used more than 20 words. That’s ok. You’ve made your views on instructional text quite clear.

Here’s a little taster from the eLP group discussion.

Got something to add to the list? Join over 1,500 of your learning colleagues, right here: eLearning Professionals on LinkedIn

6. Audio Interview: David Wilson of Elearnity on Moodle, authoring tools and more

Long before there was LinkedIn, there was David Wilson. As Managing Director of Elearnity, he’s one of the most respected voices on learning technology in the game. You can hear him sound off about Moodle, authoring tools, and a whole lot more in this month’s audio interview.

Listen in to the David Wilson interview

7. Top tip: Don’t get legal

Over 50 top tips in our list now – but who’s counting? Probably someone in our legal team who will tell us it’s actually 53. Never mind that. Find out why you should keep the legalese out of your e-learning in this month's Top Tip.

8. Market update: The view from Scandinavia
Newsletter theme alert – it’s more from Sweden. With the opening of our new office this month, we thought we’d take a look at the Scandinavian e-learning market. With around 20 million people in Sweden, Norway and Denmark, and some of the highest internet usage and IT maturity in the world, these are our kind of people. So what’s their take on learning technology? Bengt Gustafsson, director of Kineo Sweden, takes us on a tour. Please keep your hands inside the vehicle.

Read the March Market Update

9. Kineo news: Kineo’s Adobe video case study; US expansion, Now hiring

Kineo Adobe Video Case Study

We’ve been working with Adobe to help showcase what Captivate 5 can do. And now you can watch Kineo and Captivate: the motion picture. Well, the 5-minute video.

See the Adobe Kineo Video - No need for 3D glasses (…maybe in the next Captivate version?)

US expansion

The Kineo US business continues to grow, with great clients including ARAMARK, Hewlett Packard, McDonald’s and many more. We’re moving into a new larger office in downtown Chicago, and hiring both over there and in our Phoenix office. It’s great to be adding to the team in the US.

Get in touch with our US team, or email: info@kineo.com.

Now hiring

We’re continuing to grow our team in the UK and the US, and some positions in New Zealand.

We’re looking for passionate, creative, enthusiastic people to join us as:

• E-learning designers
• Project managers and co-ordinators
• Technical consultants
• Art directors  

As we spread our wings we are particularly seeking staff in London at the moment, as we look to create a Kineo London team.

Find out more via Kineo Jobs 

(No agencies please)