mLearning marches ahead: new trends in mobile learning

Robert Gadd has written an insightful post on emerging trends in enterprise mobile learning for 2011. His predictions are backed by his long experience with mobile learning. They ring true, given the telltale signs of some of the changes he discusses.

His predictions are, in brief:

• mLearning projects get bigger, 
• device diversity is the "new normal", 
• apps trump browser-delivered content, 
• authoring tools evolve to deal with mobility,
• tablets explode, 
• private social networks support business centric social interactions, 
• mobile device/os vendors consolidate, 
• new experts provide consulting on mLearning and 
• new features exploit technology capabilities inherent in devices.

In his prediction concerning authoring tools he points out the possibility of authoring tools providing 'publish to HTML5' option. Gadd follows this up with another post titled New mlearning Authoring Offerings - Wave #1 where he discusses two leading tools that have already provided HTML5 capability.

Celebrating 5 years of Raptivity : Form is Temporary, Class is Timeless

In the game of cricket, they say a player's form is temporary, but the class is timeless. Likewise, when a product stands the test of time, it deepens your belief in the innovation and quality underlying it.

Five years is a long time in the software industry. As we celebrate 5 successful and growing years of Raptivity, the world's first and leading rapid interactivity building tool for eLearning creators, it gives me and the team at Harbinger Group immense joy and a sense of fulfillment.

At the same time, Raptivity's growing customer base and growing sales charts imbue us with a sense of expectancy towards the future.

Raptivity started as an innovative solution to the eLearning developers dilemma - how to create interesting and engaging content without spending the time and money for programming interactivity. 

As we developed the solution and patented the key invention that underpins its working, we realized that the market not only loved the concept, but they were hungry for more and more ready-made interactive templates. So we developed games, simulations, exercises, 3D elements, visuals, job aids, presentation aids and dozens of other interaction models. The Raptivity library today boasts of 249 such interactions, the largest anywhere in the world.

At the same time we realized our customers needed flexibility and features. So we added SCORM tracking, unicode compliance, accessibility, advanced editing, voice-over recording and loads of other features. Raptivity's ground-breaking enhancements continue unabated, with support for HTML5 and mobile publishing for smart-phones, tablets and so on.

The biggest reward for us has been the overwhelming acceptance by our user community, now spread in 57 countries at the last count, the 57th being Nepal. The product has made eLearning interactivity quick and easy for thousands of instructional designers, subject matter experts, course creators, trainers and educators in corporations, government and education.  Every time we receive an email from a customer how much they appreciate the product, or our customer support - it is a moment of celebration for us.

Raptivity has brought many accolades to Harbinger Group. The list consists of over a couple of dozen international awards including Red Herring Global 100, Deloitte Asia Pacific Fast 500 (three years in a row), eLearning Guild (Platinum and Gold), LearnX Australia (Platinum and Gold), Software Satisfaction Award (UK) and several others.

Last but not the least, the young and talented team working on Raptivity (and our other innovative brands such as Elicitus, Raptivity Presenter, YawnBuster, SiteJazzer, TeemingPod) deserves a mention. Their sincere and hard work has made this dream come into reality. The most beautiful pieces of architecture are built one brick at a time, and they know this better than anyone else.

Business wire and several other publications cover this milestone here.

Interesting Business Scenarios Found while Going Down the e-learning Path

Over several years of working with clients in corporate, educational and government organizations, we have noticed that some business scenarios come up time and again, when it comes to e-learning content development. Here is a short list for you to review, and perhaps you can identify with one or more.

1. We have lots of course material in PowerPoint and would like to use it for e-learning, without necessarily converting it all to Flash.
2. I have just rolled out in-house e-learning development, and my content authors must get up to speed fast. They are new to technology, and they get overwhelmed by too many options.
3. My team has learned their tools, but they need to churn out courses faster.
4. My authors only understand Spanish (or Chinese, or Arabic).

Elicitus Express, a lightweight content authoring tool, helps overcome these dilemmas. The web site offers a 14-day free trial. You can check it out here.   There is also a product called Elicitus Studio where one can author content around Raptivity interactions - without spending a lot of money on an authoring tool.