We believe in being up front. Honesty. Transparency. Frankness.
So we’re a bit disappointed that we won’t be joining you guys for some conferences this year. We could, but … well, we’d have to pay to be there. I’m not talking about the registration fee. I’m talking paying to be up on the stage.
Yep. There were several conferences we looked at that were eager for us to speak – as long as we were willing to pay for the privilege. Whether we had something good to say wasn’t the criteria, and that just didn’t sit well with us. Kind of a switcharoo on those who want to hear from people of substance and not just those of means and opportunity.
That kind of wheeling and dealing certainly doesn’t increase credibility for vendors who do take the stage. And hurts attendees by not focusing on what makes for good content first. Our call to conferences would be to cut the games and judge presentations on the fit for the audience first and foremost and only. (And for you, the attendees, to demand and expect that!)
Understand, we’re not trying to whine about it… or whinny. We’re just sorry we won’t have as many opportunities to “spread the gospel” of learning standards and meet as many of you as we originally hoped. However, we will be able to catch you at a few places in the next few months:
- Learning Solutions – Not a speaking gig, but you can hook up with Mike next month in Orlando.
- e-Learning DevCon 2010 – Mike gets the really technical, heavy-lifting presentations. He’s got two at this conference, one talking about what to include about SCORM in an RFP for an LMS (based on his white paper) and a hands-on technical session showing how to take advantage of our open platform to develop modules and plugins and extensions that take learning anywhere.
- International Conference on e-Learning in the Workplace – Tim and I (or one or both) are scheduled to present here. Two sessions, one explaining SCORM in plain English (as plain as I can make it) and one looking at the kind of reporting you can get out of SCORM.
- Campus Technology 2010 – Mike will be in Boston for this one with a longer version of our SCORM in plain English presentation. Check him out on Wednesday afternoon (July 21) and be sure to ask a lot of questions.
Got something specific you’d love to see us cover in a session? Let me know and we’ll make sure to answer it! (Well, OK, I’ll try to make sure it’s on the agenda. Can’t control what happens after that sometimes.) Going to be at the same conference? Definitely let us know because we love putting face/voices/reality to online connections.
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SCORM isn’t easy. Everywhere you turn, someone’s having a challenge making it work, whether through human, system or developer error.
Which is why we make such a big deal about encouraging people to ask us questions. The best way to get SCORM to work is to ask people who know. It helps you get what you need, it helps us because people stop (hopefully) cursing SCORM, and well, we just like talking with you to see how you’re using SCORM.
Most of our questions come in via the contact form on the website. Some come from current customers. Some come up in conversations with prospective customers. We try to bring questions and answers together over in our support forum to provide a resource for everyone struggling with SCORM issues.
And since I love video, I’ve started turning some questions into video resources over on our YouTube channel. Short answers to quick questions, most of which I had when I started working here and had no clue about SCORM. (I have one solitary clue now.) Look for more videos from me and our fabulous support dude Joe with answers to your SCORM questions.
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Lots and lots and lots of blog posts everywhere wrapping up 2009 and making predictions for 2010.
A key thing I see popping up frequently on lists from e-learning consultants is the idea of learning moving from the highly controlled environment of the LMS to the less controllable (and more mobile) web. Social/informal/self-directed/ubiquitous learning is about as buzzy as words get these days.
Which certainly leaves learning departments in a bit of a bind. They’re trying to show value for what they do and ensure certain specific things are being taught/learned/shared. There’s a push toward interoperability of systems within a company (where’s the LMS fit in?) and sensitivity to the high costs of pretty much everything. Many are attempting to embrace the new social movement, but scrambling to figure out how to show ROI.
As an avid life-long self-directed learner and strong believer in weak central control, I’m all for the less rigid future. It’s why the part of our SCORM Cloud product that gets me most excited is the learning anywhere aspect. And as a data geek, I love that SCORM lets you take learning where learners already are and still get the information you need to see what’s happening without an LMS.
So I’m interested to see if the e-learning oracles are right on this one for this year. And excited to see how people use SCORM Cloud to make the jump more comfortable.
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Whoops! Realize I never said hi or introduced myself. Just kind of jumped into the blog. So hi. Glad to meet you.
We’ve been heading back to school for a couple of weeks now in these parts. (I realize most of you Yankees won’t be in school until next week. Slackers.) Lots of meet the teacher, find your locker, figure out where your new homeroom is, buy books and supplies.
I’m a long time out of school myself, but the past month or so has been a similar experience for me. New homeroom (literally, since I’m working out of my house), new teachers and classmates to figure out, new subjects to tackle. Suddenly, my reading material includes words like pedagogy, sequencing, manifest, interactions, learning objectives, and my head is swimming.
My new teachers not only include Mike and Tim but Aaron Silvers, Mary Cooch, Tony Karrer, Cammy Bean and about 100 others. I’m absorbing what SCORM is and does while also exploring what makes e-learning tick and tock.
It’s an interesting crossroads – applying something I know and love (marketing and social media) to a field I’ve never played in before (Wait! What is it we do again?). Kind of like attending a new school, but taking the same classes you had the year before.
So … all my pencils are sharpened and I’m ready to learn, take notes and mostly listen to what you have to say. What would you like to teach me?
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Can’t want what we don’t know about
Categories: SCORM Cloud, SCORM Engine, Software Development
1 Sep 2009
Once upon a time, there was no sliced bread*. And people were happy because they didn’t know they wanted sliced bread.
Then someone gave them sliced bread. Suspicion, amazement and eventually joy erupted. Suddenly, they wanted, no needed, sliced bread. These days, it’s tough to sell bread that isn’t pre-sliced.
It’s a common problem in product development – delivering something amazing you know people will want but can’t ask for because they don’t even know it is possible. (Face it, did you know you needed TIVO before it came along? I’m waiting for a radio version, pretty please!)
I’m seeing a little of this as I explore the LMS world. Lots of talk about reporting and what should be there and whether anyone cares and who should care. I see admins refusing to bother because no one asks for anything other than the bare bones already provided. I see trainers who would love to know more but figure their LMS just can’t deliver so they suffer in silence. I see instructional designers who feel there has to be a better way to judge the success of a course than just a single score at the end.
Lots of talking, not much asking, very little doing.
One of the nice things about SCORM (yes, there are a few) is the amount of data that just naturally gets created. As we wrap up integrating the SCORM Cloud with various open-source LMS packages, the question of reporting has come up. Not whether to report, but just what and how to format the reports. We already know we can slice the bread; we just have to figure out how thick to make the slices and whether to toss in some butter and jam.
Wanna help us shape up LMS reporting? How would you want the SCORM Cloud (and likely the SCORM Engine by default) to deliver reports and what do you think you want to know? We have some devilishly clever ideas but welcome yours.
*After Tim wrote about bread on a software company blog, I had to figure out a way to include it as well. Bread. With butter and jam. Seriously. These posts make me hungry.
