Tagoras » Association E-learning

Virtual Conferences – Take the Survey, Get Some Data

Jeff Cobb — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 17:14:24 +0000

Today we launched a survey aimed at finding out more about how membership organizations are making use of virtual conferences. If you represent a membership organization and are the right person to provide input on this topic for your organization, we would be really grateful if you would participate. The survey applies to:

Organizations that have no current plans to offer a virtual conference
Organizations that have already offered one or more virtual conferences
Organizations that plan to offer a virtual conference at some point in the future

In other words, it applies to pretty much all membership organizations. We will share summary data from the survey with all participants who elect to receive it and will also be presenting findings from the survey in August at the ASAE & the Center for Association Leadership annual meeting (which features a virtual conference component this year!). Here’s the link to the survey followed by a few other notes that we recommend reading:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/virtual-conferences

Notes worth reading:

For organizations that have already offered a virtual conference or plan to, the survey should take about 10 to 12 minutes of your time. For organizations that have no plans to offer a virtual conference (we really need to hear from you too!) it will take significantly less.

The survey should be completed only by individuals who represent a nonprofit membership organization and can reply to questions about virtual conferences accurately on its behalf.

Only one person from an organization should complete the survey. Before beginning, please consult with your colleagues as appropriate to determine who will complete the survey on behalf of your organization.

We say this in the survey, but I thought it would also be helpful to note here the definition that we are using for “virtual conference.” In our experience, the meaning of the term can vary greatly from individual to individual and organization to organization, but here is our definition (feel free to quibble as much as you would like in the comments to this post:

A virtual conference is a Web-based event that replicates many aspects of a traditional place-based conference. It features multiple sessions (not just a single Webinar or Webcast) and may include keynote presentations, training and education workshops, discussion areas, social networking opportunities, exhibit areas for vendors, and various other features. Activities in a virtual conference may take place in real time (synchronously), on demand (asynchronously), or some combination of the two.

We hope you will participate, and we would also be grateful if you would help spread the word – on Twitter, on Facebook, on your blog, in your e-mail newsletters, etc. Just send folks to this post, or directly to the survey at:

http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/virtual-conferences

Jeff

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When Picking an LMS, Use Cases Don’t Lie

Jeff Cobb — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 11:20:58 +0000

This is a slight revamp of a post I did a couple of years ago on a different blog. I’ve seen interest in LMS adoption by associations grow in the meantime, but I still see relatively little attention given to use cases.

***

I recently received a regular e-mail update from one of the corporate e-learning research firms, with the subject line “Are all of these LMS reps really telling the truth?” The premise was that organizations often purchase learning management systems based on claims made by the sales representative about particular online learning features or functionalities only to discover that the finalized product does not really work in quite the way expected. In an effort to sell one of its recent reports, the research firm suggests that the issue is not really one of sales representatives telling the truth, but rather of differences in how LMS companies approach fulfillment of specific feature requests. In its review of more than 200 features across dozens of learning management systems, the firm assigns one of six classifications to each feature reviewed:

Automatic: Built-in, out-of-the-box functionality that can be simply switched on and ready to be used.
Semi-automatic: The feature is mostly available in the system but requires some programming and/or customization to activate.
Semi-custom: This feature is partially available in the system and can be adapted through some moderate custom program.
Custom: This feature is not available in the current system but can somewhat easily be added through custom programming services at the time of implementation.
NA; not a current feature: This feature is not available in the current release of the software.
Third-party add-on: This feature can be added upon implementation using third-party software.

This list of categories is followed with the impressive claim “The result is that you know exactly what you’re getting when selecting a learning management system.” In a word: nonsense.

Don’t misunderstand me: There is indeed a lot of confusion around how LMS companies articulate and implement similar features. And we are big believers that good solid research reports can eliminate a lot of needless time that is spent during the average RFP process gathering basic feature information from LMS providers. But knowing the feature is there, or even that it is “automatic” or “semi-custom” – as helpful as that may be – only gets you a fraction of the way to knowing whether you will end up with a deployed system that truly meets your business needs. Even with these categorizations, there is still a great deal of interpretation involved in how a feature works. In my opinion, a more critical step is the development of detailed use cases or user scenarios that accurately describe the most critical functions you expect an online learning system to support. Ideally this exercise should precede any focus on specific features and should then drive your review of features during vendor demonstrations.

I am not an IT guy by training, so I will not pretend to know the best approaches and practices for the development of formal software development use cases. Having been on both the buy and the sell side of learning technologies many times, however, I know the practical steps any organization can take to help ensure a good business choice through use case development. To start with, be absolutely certain that you understand your overall strategy and business goals for e-learning. A key part of your strategy and goal formulation should be developing a thorough understanding of who your end users are and which online learning products and services will be of most value to them. Uses cases are only valid to the extent that they map back to actual user needs that correspond with your organization’s business goals. With these factors in mind, the next step is to invoke and document your imagination.

Imagine yourself in the place of your most typical end user or administrative user, actually sitting at the keyboard and on the verge of interacting with the learning management system environment. Now, in your mind, start walking through the specific actions you would expect to take and what you would expect the result of each action to be. A simple three column table like the following can serve to capture the actions you take and the corresponding results.

ID	User Action	Desired Outcome
A	An end user navigates to her personal menu in the learning management system.	By default, all of the courses that the user is currently enrolled in or has ever been enrolled in are listed in ascending alphabetical order by title. For each title, an icon indicates the status of the course: not started, complete, in progress. For each title there is also an option to view additional details about the course.
B	An end user follows use case A. The user clicks a link or icon to view additional details about a	The view for the course expands to show additional information associated with the course, including course description information scores for any assessments associated with the course. a link to print a certificate for the course (visible only when course is completed successfully)
C	An end user follows use case B. The end user clicks “print certificate”.	A PDF document launches that displays the following: (Detail certificate contents)

As you can probably already sense, the above can become a very detailed and ultimately very tedious exercise. The goal as a business decision-maker, however, is not to think through every possible variation that can occur. Rather, working with the dozen or so “must-have” scenarios that you can imagine, make sure you have walked through the broad set of actions that comprise that scenario. Even doing this at a relatively broad level requires discipline and time, but the process inevitably clarifies your vision and identifies challenges and opportunities of which you were previously unaware. Ideally, once you have gone through the process, you should also walk through the results with a handful of target users.

A set of use cases that as been reviewed and verified by target end users is one of the most valuable tools you can have in determining the features your learning management system must have and can serve as the roadmap for vendor demonstrations. Having prospective vendors speak to and demonstrate against your specific use cases in real time will be more valuable than any information you are likely to gather through an RFP. And as a bonus, the use cases you develop during the technology selection process also serve as the basis for test cases that can be used to verify that a vendor ultimately delivers what you pay for.

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ACEP Launches Certification Prep on SpacedEd

Jeff Cobb — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 19:06:28 +0000

One of the standard parts of the Association Learning/Technology Digest that we send out each month is news about any new association or vendor initiatives in the world of association learning and technology. I received the following note from the American College of Emergency Physicians (reprinted here with permission) shortly after sending out the newsletter and have decided to go ahead and highlight it on the blog because I found it interesting and don’t want to hold it for a month:

The American College of Emergency Physicians has recently launched a new e-learning product, PEER VII on SpacedEd. It’s a content review and self-assessment tool for emergency physicians to help them prepare for their written board certification exams. It’s 410 questions and answers delivered by e-mail using “spaced education” – a methodology developed by Harvard educators. We’re getting a lot of positive feedback from users. We launched a free sampler edition in December and the “paid for” product earlier this month. The SpacedEd folks are great to work with. We think (so far!) this is a nice opportunity for associations. It was originally designed for use on a computer, but the developers have since made it work beautifully on iPhone, iPod, BlackBerry, and Android smartphones.

More information here: http://acep.spaceded.com/

I’d had it on my list for some time to connect with the SpacedEd folks to have a look at their product and finally did so after receiving the announcement above. While we don’t endorse specific products or vendors here at Tagoras, I’d say this is well worth taking a look at if you are considering practice exams, content review, or test prep as part of your e-learning strategy. The SpacedEd approach is simple, elegant, and even without the research to support it, I can see intuitively how it would be effective. In particular, I think this is one of the more natural ways to make use of mobile technologies for e-learning – again, even without the research, it’s not much of a leap to envision people doing something like this while standing in line for Starbucks or waiting for the subway.

Have a look and try out one of the free offerings. (I’m on day four of music theory myself.)

http://www.spaceded.com/

Jeff

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Learning Management System Pricing

Jeff Cobb — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 14:47:06 +0000

I just posted the following information on average LMS pricing on the ASAE profesional development listserve and then realized that I should post a version of it here. Basically, an earlier question to the list about the costs of Web-based learning systems prompted me to re-calculate some of the pricing averages in our learning management system (LMS) report based on some new companies entering the field. Here’s what we come up with for Year 1 cost averages for various user levels. These are all for solutions hosted by the LMS company (i.e., software as a service) and they include e-commerce capabilities (though transaction fees are not covered):

Up to 500: $22,083 (Low: $1,740, High: 43,500)
Up to 2500: $43,395 (Low: $3,540, High $123,000)
Up to 5000: $62,203 (Low: $4,440, High $183,000)
Up to 10,000: $93,103 (Low: $8,940, High: $300,000)
Up to 25,000: $125,220 (Low: $14,400, High $430,750)
Unlimited: $163,650 (Low: $14,400, High: $300,000)

LMS pricing has always been all over the map – as the big gap between low and high prices above reflects – but the very encouraging change in the past few years is that there have been a number of high quality entrants at a much lower price range. So, you have to be careful about putting too much weight on the averages – a solid, full featured LMS is actually well within the reach of even smaller organizations at this point.

The above averages, I should note, are based on pricing from the following providers which we have found to be very active in the association sector:

A free copy of the overview from our LMS report – which contains the old version of the numbers above and variety of other information about web-based learning systems is available on our resources page. Anyone interested in learning management systems might also be interested in our ongoing series of audio interviews with LMS providers.

Jeff

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State of Association E-learning Webcast

Jeff Cobb — Tue, 25 May 2010 11:49:49 +0000

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak at Blackboard’s Association Day in Washington, DC. Here is a slidecast (slides plus audio synched using Slideshare.net) from that session that draws upon data from our Association E-learning: State of the Sector report along with general experience in working with association clients over the years. You can also view this in a full screen version by going to Association E-learning Today on Slideshare and clicking the full screen icon in the bottom right of the presentation. (For some reason that doesn’t work in the version embedded on the Tagoras blog.)

I welcome any comments you may have.

Jeff

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Association LMS Interview – iCohere

Jeff Cobb — Thu, 13 May 2010 14:10:23 +0000

Pascal Kaplan

We are getting towards the end of our series of interviews with learning management system (LMS) providers. In this one I talk with Pascal Kaplan and Lance Simon who are, respectively, the CEO and Vice President of Client Services for iCohere, one of the companies that participated in our Association Learning Management Systems report. (Note: I incorrectly identify Lance as the VP of Sales in the interview.)

Lance Simon

iCohere’s platform was built from the ground up to support collaborative learning experiences – and that was well before the current social media craze. Not surprisingly, much of the discussion in this interview is focused on collaborative learning and the challenges and opportunities it presents for associations. As an extension of that discussion, Pascal makes the point – one I believe is believe is absolutely essential to how associations need to be thinking about e-learning – that distinctions between different types of association learning activities – seminars, conferences, Webinars, online courses – are becoming increasingly “arbitrary.” (See also our thoughts on this “blurring” of lines in the free Association E-learning: State of the Sector update.)

You will definitely want to give this one a listen. To hear everything that Pascal and Lance have to say you can download the audio clip or use the player below to play it right here on the site. The interview is about 16 minutes long.

Enjoy, and as always, please let me know if there is anything I could do that might make these interviews more useful to you. (And if you want to be sure to know as soon as the next one becomes available, I encourage you to subscribe by RSS or by e-mail.)

Jeff

P.S. – You can easily access all of the interviews at: http://www.tagoras.com/tag/association-lms

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Spark Idea Series: Free – and Not Your Same Ol’ Webinar

Jeff Cobb — Mon, 10 May 2010 20:09:26 +0000

Just a quick post to note that CommPartners has launched a new Webinar series called “Spark” that will cover a range of topics related to professional development (including a number in the area of e-learning). These appear to be filling up fast, so you may want to go check them out and sign up as soon as you are able. Here’s a bit of info clipped from the CommPartners Web site:

Spark courses are weekly, interactive, webinar-based idea sessions led by industry experts across a variety of topics.

Rather than just sit and listen, you get to join an industry-leading author, consultant, speaker, CEO or thoughtleader for a lively hour of topical information, with interactive discussion, idea swaps, questions, and shared experiences.

Yours truly will be doing one on one of my favorite topics: Learning 2.0. Hope to see you there.

Jeff

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Association LMS Interview – Interactyx

Jeff Cobb — Tue, 04 May 2010 12:11:22 +0000

Jodi Harrison of Interactyx

Time for another installment in our series of interviews with learning management system (LMS) providers. This time around I talk with Jodi Harrison, vice president of business development for Interactyx, makers of the TOPYX learning management system.

Interactyx is one of the companies in our line up that has chosen to focus on blending a variety of social learning tools into its platform. Some of these tools – like discussion boards and blogs – are internal to the system, but the company has also created hooks into popular social networks like Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn. One of the topics Jodi and I discuss in the interview is how – or if - organizations are really making use of social tools as part of their e-learning initiatives.

Notably, this is also the first interview in which the iPad – released just a few weeks ago – has come up. Interactyx views the iPad as a potential game-changer for e-learning and will be putting a lot of emphasis on it at the upcoming ASTD conference. To hear what Jodi has to say about the iPad, social learning, and the TOPYX LMS you can download the audio clip or use the player below to play it right here on the site. The interview is about 14 minutes long.

Jeff

P.S. – You can easily access all of the interviews at: http://www.tagoras.com/tag/association-lms. Also, check out our resources page for some great free resources on the state of e-learning in the association sector, Webinars, LMSes, and more.

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Association LMS Interview – Educadium

Jeff Cobb — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 12:11:48 +0000

In this latest installment of our series of interviews with learning management systems (LMS) providers I talk with Todd Harris, President of Educadium. Among the companies I have interviewed so far, Educadium holds the distinction of being the only one that offers a fully-functional free version of its platform, Easy Campus. Up to 25 users may use the platform for free – and I know from my own experience that signing up for and getting started on the free version is a breeze, so be sure to check it out. If this is new terrain for you, it’s an especially good way to kick the tires on an LMS.

Pricing for additional levels of usage of Easy Campus is clearly published on the company’s Web site – another detail that distinguishes Educadium from the other companies I have interviewed. Not surprisingly, one of the points that Todd and I discuss in the interview is LMS pricing and what he feels will happen to traditional LMSes with annual license fees that range from tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars. Todd’s view is that many of the legacy companies are surviving because customers don’t have full information. That situation is changing quickly. “The market will continue to consolidate,” he says, ” and associations will benefit.”

As far as associations go, Educadium serves organizations of all sizes, but has chosen to place particular emphasis on regional and state level associations. Unlike larger national and international organizations, these smaller groups have typically not had the budget or the staff resources to make much headway with e-learning. Educadium hopes to change that by providing not just a low-cost software platform but also a complete “ecosystem” of support, as Harris puts it, to help smaller organizations be successful.

As with all of the LMS interviews, you will get some good information about the company in this one, but our discussion also branches into broader areas that should be of interest even to listeners who are not necessarily shopping for an LMS right now. To hear all of what Todd has to say you can download the audio clip or use the player below to play it right here on the site. The interview is about 15 minutes long.

Jeff

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What Will They Buy?

Jeff Cobb — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 13:59:14 +0000

A heavy load of client work has left little time for creating new content for the Tagoblog lately, so I thought this might be a good time to post an article I wrote a while back for the Avectra Academy. Enjoy – and I’ll be back soon with new content. – Jeff

***

If you are about to expand your e-learning efforts or take the plunge into e-learning for the first time, there is a good chance you are worried about whether your program will attract enough enrollments to pay for itself. A properly executed market assessment can help you not only gauge overall demand but also make better decisions about what offerings to build and how to market them.

The following results from assessments across three different organizations illustrate the ways in which slight differences in market needs can have a significant impact on strategic decision-making.

For the first organization, an association focused on serving business operations professionals, survey responses collected from more than a quarter of the membership base made it clear that the two market characteristics most relevant to e-learning demand were a combination of “time scarcity” – both lack of available time and also difficulty with scheduling – and a growing unwillingness on the part of employers to foot the bill for training.

Members of the second organization, which serves corporate advisors, have a high level of control over their own time and relatively little price sensitivity. For this group, interviews and focus groups suggested that value perception would be a critical factor for the success of an e-learning initiative. Potential purchasers would need to have little doubt that e-learning would deliver a high degree of “bang for the buck.”

Finally, for the third group, which serves contractors and others in the building industry, survey responses indicated that a high level of interaction with an instructor would be important for making e-learning attractive. Additionally, interviews with representative stakeholders revealed that organizations might find e-learning to be a valuable support tool for in-office training of salespeople and other key staff.

What implications do these results have on product strategy decisions?

For the operations professionals, short, on-demand e-learning courses at a relatively low price point per content or credit hour are most likely to fit the bill.

For the advisors, format is less important than ensuring that the content is delivered by trusted authorities and is highly practical and actionable.

For the contractors, there will clearly need to be a way to interact with instructors – and further probing suggested that e-mail or a discussion board might be the most appropriate approach. Additionally, it will be valuable to offer tools – like, for example, a facilitators guide – for using the e-learning content in a classroom setting.

In reaching these conclusions, it is important to recognize that the demand factors highlighted are not the only ones that impact product strategy – they are simply the most important ones. Interaction with an instructor, for example, was an important secondary factor for the operations professionals, and it should be taken into account as part of product design. But while a product that offers relatively little instructor interaction might still sell well, it was clear that offerings that presented time and budget challenges would not.

Organizations face a growing amount of competition for the educational “mind share” of their stakeholders, so knowing what to emphasize in product design and in the promotion of products is critical. In all of the cases above, pre-existing assumptions and biases would most likely have led the organizations down a different path, resulting in wasted time and money as well as a potential loss of market share.

It is tempting when starting a new e-learning initiative to dive into product development based on the assumptions of staff and board members. Resist that temptation and take the time to assess your market well. A little knowledge can go a long way.

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