General

SHIFT Wins Silver Brandon Hall Learning Technology Awards
PR.com (press release)
SHIFT a leader in innovative in the eLearning environment, won a coveted Brandon Hall Silver award for excellence in the Technology for Testing or Learning Evaluation category. Doral, FL, February 03, 2012 --(PR.com)-- SHIFT's win was announced on ...

SHIFT wins Silver Brandon Hall Learning Technology Awards
PR Urgent (press release)
SHIFT a leader in innovative in the eLearning environment, won a coveted Brandon Hall Silver award for excellence in the Technology for Testing or Learning Evaluation category. SHIFT's win was announced on January 25, 2012. The winners are listed at ...
ICS Learning Group's LMS, Inquisiq R3, Wins Gold for Excellence in Technology ...PR Web (press release)

all 2 news articles »

Lectora e-Learning Software Ranked as #1 Top Rated Media Tool by Importance
DigitalJournal.com (press release)
The latest eLearning Guild research report ranks Lectora® e-Learning software as number one in the Top Rated Media Tools by Importance in Toolkit category. The recent e-Learning industry research report, “Media for eLearning: Top Tools,” indicates ...

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Raptivity Wins Readers' Choice Awards Announced by eSchool Media
SBWire (press release)
We are excited to receive this recognition of being a 2012 Readers' Choice Awards winner” said Seema Chaudhary, President of Harbinger Knowledge Products Inc. “Raptivity team is always on fore-front to serve customers and meet their changing eLearning ...

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US university upgrades e-learning offerings
Virtual College
Blackboard Learn is the new system to be used by students at the university and it has been described by Dr Darren Crone, UT Dallas eLearning director as less of a "walled garden" than the scheme it has replaced. Selected summer classes will be used to ...

eLearning, Mobile Technology, and Talent Development Companies Announce Merger
PR Web (press release)
BLS is positioning itself to take advantage of the growing eLearning industry. Abient Insight research notes the US market for self-paced eLearning products and services reached $18.2 billion in 2010. The demand is growing at a five-year compound ...

PR Web (press release)
Builders Campus Announces Partnerships with AGC Chapters in Idaho, Tennessee ...
PR Web (press release)
Builders Campus, an eLearning company providing continuing education to the construction industry, is pleased to announce the signing of of three new Associated General Contractors chapters in its partner program: Idaho AGC, AGC of Tennessee, ...

University of Texas at Dallas (press release)
Electronic Course System to Get a Technological Makeover
University of Texas at Dallas (press release)
The University's new eLearning system will include mobile applications so students can keep up with course material on smartphones and more. The next-generation system will be tested in selected summer and fall classes in preparation for a campuswide ...

Learn2Serve Goes Mobile with New Android App
PR Web (press release)
Learn2Serve.com is a part of the 360training.com group—an enterprise compliance eLearning solutions and content company which serves over 2500 e-Learning partners and 3 million users worldwide through 26 industry-specific learning websites.

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New "Nuts & Bolts" column today: Watch for opportunities to quickly solve a performance problem or encourage use of a new idea, approach or tool. Warning: this may not have a thing to do with your job.

StormWind Secures $4 Million in Series Preferred Funding to Grow HD Video ...
MarketWatch (press release)
31, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- StormWind, an online IT and custom training company founded by industry pioneers, has reframed eLearning with its new approach to HD live and interactive video training. The company, founded by Tom Graunke and Corey ...

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UK-based learning and talent analysts Elearnity have come up with a new service geared specifically to the UK and European e-learning market. Called Vendor Perspectives (slightly ironic as 'vendor' is very much a US expression, where we tend to say 'supplier') the service provides intelligence about available solutions to potential buyers in all the usual product and service categories, including custom content providers, authoring tools, learning management platforms, etc.
Vendors pay to be included, although this buys them no influence on the ratings they receive, which are calculated by Elearnity based on their own knowledge of the market and interviews with a selection of the vendor's clients. Customers get to see Summary Perspectives for free but must pay for 'Deep Perspectives' (is that a mixed metaphor?).
In principle, I like the idea, because it is really hard for potential customers to make sense of all the competing solutions available and objective advice is hard to come by. I know this service is already available in the USA from Brandon Hall, Bersin and others, but the European market is different and local suppliers may not get much of a look in.
For this service to really take off it must first of all get buy-in from vendors. I know that quite a few LMS providers are on-board but this is not enough, because in many ways products like these are truly global in scope. The main regional variation come in terms of services, particularly content development. It will be interesting to see whether Elearnity will be able to persuade enough developers to throw their hat in the ring. The next big question is whether they will stay on board if they get rated harshly.
Another complication is how Elearnity treats open source products. Can you really get a true picture of the LMS market without an appreciation of what Moodle has to offer?
I hope the service takes off, because customers could do with the help. What it mustn't do is crowd out the smaller, niche players without the big marketing budgets.

In a previous post, we looked at five free desktop image editors.  Here are a couple of additional free desktop applications shared by some blog readers. They both look very capable.

• PhotoPlus SE
• PhotoFiltre

A challenge with free software is that sometimes your organization isn’t comfortable with you downloading and installing applications that aren’t approved. This is where the online graphics applications come in handy. Of course, you’ll need an internet connection and hope that your organization isn’t blocking its use.

If you do a search, you’ll find that there are a lot of online image editing products. The problem is that many are spammy or full of ads that they’re useless for real work.

In today’s post we’ll look at five very capable online image editors. I tried to stay clear of the ones that were too ad heavy or seemed kind of spammy. I only added the apps I’d be comfortable using for my own work. 

Aviary

Aviary has a few image editing tools and offers a pretty complete solution for most of what you need to do. They also have a very active user community which is a plus and lots of tutorials.

• Aviary Feather is a basic image editing tool. You can crop, adjust the image, add some text, and apply filters.
• Aviary Phoenix is a more robust application and close to something like Photoshop with the layering and more complex editing capabilities.
• Aviary Raven is a vector editor similar to the free Inkscape or Adobe Illustrator.

Pixlr

Pixlr has all of the standard features you’d need. I like some of the pencil drawing effects and it can output to Flickr and Picasa. I find it really easy to use and one of my favorites of the online tools. They also offer Pixlr Express, a streamlined editing tool.

Splashup

Splashup is an image editing tool and photo manager. I like that I can bring in images from sites like Flickr and Picasa, which I already use. It has all of the core features you’d expect in an image editing application. They also offer Splashup Light for download.

• Tour of features

Sumo Paint

Sumo Paint is a very capable tool and comes with all of the core editing features. They also offer a Pro upgrade that gives you a desktop version with additional features.

• User community
• Tutorials

Simpler Tools

The following tools are honorable mentions. They do a decent job with simple edits but don’t have all of the features of the applications above.

• Photoshop.com offers simple image editing, but not the layering that you get with its desktop cousins. 
• Picnik is already integrated into a number of sites. You’ll find it in Flickr and Picasa.  It’s easy to use and has a lot of filters. Of course, I just found out that Picnik is being shut down. I believe that it will make its way back in Google+.
• Dr.Pic seems to have all of the basic features. I like the framing feature. My guess is the Polaroid frame would work well with some elearning screens.

As you can see, there are plenty of options for free graphics editing. And you have a good choice between desktop applications like I mentioned in the previous post, or go with an online solution.

Tidbits

The early bird discount for the workshop in St. Louis expires today. Make sure you sign up to get the best price.

Had lots of people ask about the Articulate Storyline at the recent conference. If you’re interested in learning more, you can add your name to this link and we’ll update you when more information is available.

Upcoming Events

• February 13-14: Atlanta (Training Magazine).  I’ll be doing a session on PowerPoint and we’ll have two Build-A-Course sessions.

• February 22-23: St. Louis (ASTD). Rapid E-Learning Workshop.  This is a great deal for a full-day workshop that also includes a full breakfast and lunch. PowerPoint Doesn’t Have to Be Boring.  We’ll follow the presentation with a free Articulate jam session.

• March 21-23: Orlando, FL (Learning Solutions Conference)

• April 10: Jacksonville, FL (NEFL ASTD). Details coming.

• April 17: Virginia (SEVA ASTD). Details coming.

• April 5: Portland, OR (OpenSesame). An E-Learning Heroes Roadshow workshop where we’ll look at ways to build elearning courses and learn some great PowerPoint tips. Excellent price and great coffee!

• May 17: Orange County California. Details coming.

• May 24: Articulate Conference hosted by Leeds.  Also will present a rapid elearning workshop.  Details coming.

• October 4: Seattle, WA (ASTDPS). Details coming.

• October 17: Bloomington, IL (CIC-ASTD). Details coming.

Download your free 46-page ebook: The Insider's Guide to Becoming a Rapid E-Learning Pro

Canudo eLearning Agency Announced as Official Lectora e-Learning Software Reseller
DigitalJournal.com (press release)
Lectora® e-Learning software announces its partnership with Canudo eLearning Agency to offer Lectora e-Learning authoring tools in Germany. Canudo has been creating outstanding and interactive e-Learning courses with Lectora for years, ...

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Understanding eLearning in Maritime Job Training and Familiarization - Part 3
Maritime Professional (blog)
by Murray Goldberg This is the third installment of a series of articles intended to cover eLearning in the maritime industry - what it is, what are its strengths and what are its limitations. In this installment I will cover some of the practical ...

Canada's Pioneering eLearning Company Goes Public
PR Web (press release)
A recently completed business transaction with Serebra Learning Corporation will see Bluedrop, long recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in eLearning, become Canada's largest full service eLearning company. It becomes one of the few technology ...

and more »

Canada's Pioneering ELearning Company Goes Public
Daily Markets (press release)
A recently completed business transaction with Serebra Learning Corporation will see Bluedrop, long recognized as a pioneer and thought leader in eLearning, become Canada's largest full service eLearning company. It becomes one of the few technology ...

and more »

NetLearning Expands Courseware Offerings From the American Heart Association
MarketWatch (press release)
30, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- NetLearning, part of Cengage Learning and a leading provider of online courses and eLearning software for healthcare workers and hospital administrators, today announced an expanded relationship with the American ...

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The concept of a job, as we know it, is starting to go away.

Over the last year I’ve been speaking with many corporate business and human resource leaders and hearing a common theme: we need our organizations to be more agile. We need to redesign organizations so we can learn faster, communicate better, ... Read more»

Bored to death by elearning? Part 2
TrainingZone.co.uk
In his second article on elearning, Andrew Jackson explores a radically different approach to elearning development which helps make courses truly engaging and relevant for learners. 'Engaging' and 'interactive' are two words much used (and abused) ...