The eLATED Blog

Enterprise Social Media - Four Seasons and Redwood Share Their Story: Notes from the Jan 20/11 eLATED

Last month we gathered for an engaging and informative case study illustrating key points to consider when contemplating and implementing a social network in business.  Lydia Sani from Redwood e-Learning led off with a look at Boost, Redwood’s own social media platform. This set the stage for Chetna Patel from Four Seasons Hotel and Resorts to share her experience over the past year implementing the platform for use by their food services managers at locations across the globe. 

From building a strong business case, having clear objectives, and selling the case for social media within the enterprise as a key first step to implementation issues such as incentives to encourage use and key learnings such as the power of user-generated video - Chetna provided a frank and articulate summary of a successful informal learning initiative.

As usual, conversation and discussion followed downstairs at the Boiler House with refreshments courtesy of our sponsor.  Information on our next event to be held March 31st will be posted soon.

Please come out and join us then.

Connecting with the World with CELEA! Notes from the March 2010 eLATED event

The eLATED community celebrated its 25th event by having Barry Nicolle of CELEA (Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance lead a discussion about the organization's history, its mission and the benefits it provides to its members.

 

 Background of CELEA

The organization was founded in 2003. It is a non-profit group that is the lone group in Canada that is focused on the commercial e-learning sector on a national basis.

The group is run by a Board of Directors that is made up of principals from a number of successful and high-profile Canadian e-learning companies including Mindshare, Operitel, Redwood, BNH, eduConsillium, etc.

To date there are 32 corporate members and 345 "directory-only" members. CELEA has a mailing list of over 750. All members and contacts are Canadian.

Corporate members include most of Canada's most well-known e-learning companies like Elluminate, Prospero, Desire2Learn, Domiknow, etc.

Mission

There are 4 critical components of CELEA's mission:

1. Marketing and Promote member companies at home and abroad

2. Identify and communicate potential business opportunities for members

3. Facilitate business relationships between members to pursue large opportunities

4. Advocate on behalf of members for a favourable business environment for e-learning

 

History

The idea for CELEA came up at a conference in 2002 in an informal discussion between several Canadian representatives at an e-learning conference in the United States. The group grew and transformed over the years as it focused on different aspects of the e-learning industry and fought for funding.

This year, CELEA is looking to upgrade its website to allow for e-learning focused job postings and automated business opportunity distribution. The group is looking to get into digital media and social media. The main pillars of CELEA will remain the same as the group continues to build through alliances. They will be a significant presence at the ModSim World Conference in Montreal later this year.

Challenges

Like eLATED, CELEA is a volunteer-led organization. Yet unlike eLATED which is anchored in the GTA, CELEA is a national organization. The Directors have found that social media is making it easier to stay in contact, but they still know they need face to face contact. There is always ferocious competition for "share of mind" with all the groups, information, online sites available to the e-learning community in Canada.

What CELEA can do for Canada's e-learning community?

 Vendors can be listed in the Directory for free. Employment opportunities can be posted and followed on their website. CELEA allows the e-learning community across Canada to stay connected. Look for CELEA on LinkedIn right now!

For vendors, the corporate membership allows relationships and connections to be made so larger pieces of business can be won earlier in a vendor's growth.

Other organizations can take advantage of CELEA by tapping into their members' expertise. CELEA can connect the right speaker to your organization.

 

Other Perspectives on CELEA from board members

Lydia Sani from Redwood: Canada does have a great reputation for e-learning internationally. CELEA has trade commissioners coming to it asking for help.

Robert from Mindshare: Mindshare is in the K-12 space and partnered with CELEA and got connected to opportunities they may have otherwise not been able to connect with. Membership also augments your own knowledge and skillset as you can learn from the group members.

Marcus Daniels of Frameworks Inc.: Partnership opportunities are available via CELEA. It's all about connections and collaborations.

eNACTECH

Long-time eLATED supporter Gary Woodhill gave an update on what is new with him. He is now working part-time for Brandon-Hall, allowing him to return home to southern Ontario and start a new venture called, eNACTECH. The goal of this new venture is to help technology companies through the innovation curve.

As a new innovation makes its way through the curve it is created by innovators and accepted by early adopters, then an early majority take on the innovation, then the late majority use the innovation and finally, the laggards adopt the new innovation.

At these different stages of the innovation lifecycle, there is a different business and sales component.

At the innovation stage there are INVENTORS and MASHUPS.

At the early adopter stage, there are STARTUPS and HIGH END SALES.

At the late adopter stage, there are MASS SALES and the beginnings of DIY.

At the laggard stage, there is full DIY and SCRAP DEALERS who try to package the remnants of the innovation/industry.

As the complexity of the innovation goes down, the price goes down. The solution for these businesses approaching the later stages of the innovation lifecycle is to reinvent yourself.

THE PARABLE OF THE SLIME MOLD

Gary had a fascinating metaphor for Canadian technology businesses. He said there are spores that in different temperatures can come together to create a larger slime mold in order to accomplish what is needed in that temperature range. When the temperature goes back, the slime mold breaks apart back into its component spores who carry on life independently as before. Gary sees this as a good metaphor for how Canadians work... We can act individually, but when business conditions change or when opportunities present themselves, we can come together to form a larger group and work together. When the opportunity has been fulfilled, we can leave the group and work independently again. He said that Europeans excel at working in groups but have trouble working independently and that Americans excel working individually but have trouble working as a group.

CELEA is a place that allows smaller business units coalesce into a larger entity for those larger opportunities as they present themselves.

CELEBRATING eLATED's 25th 

Grayson MacLeod of Sunlife Financial presented eLATED with a very yummy pineapple/carrot cake to the eLATED steering committee to celebrate the community's 25th event.

 

Next eLATED: CeLEA - Canadian eLearning Enterprise Alliance, Thursday March 25

We are pleased to announce our next event will be held on Thursday March 25, 2010. It will be facilitated and sponsored by CeLEA, Canada’s national elearning industry organization, dedicated to fostering the growth and development of the commercial elearning sector.

It is expected to be another popular event and details on topic, format and sign-up will be forthcoming. It again will be held at The Boiler House restaurant in The Distillery District, Toronto.  Hope to see you out.

Look at that @CodeBaby Character! Recent January eLATED Event

We were honoured to have Jeff Brooks and Audrey Dalton travel all the way from Colorado Springs to present to the eLATED community. The presentation was engaging and entertaining with lots of opportunities to see how companies are using CodeBaby in their e-learning.

 

Learning Theory

The theory of avatars for learning and in the workplace has largely been developed by Byron Reeves at Stanford.

 The Software

 The product that allows you to create and edit characters is called, Production Studio.

CodeBaby characters built in Production Studio can be used in virtually any course authoring tool, as the CodeBaby character can be imported as a .swf file. This format is ubiquitous and can be imported to any course authoring tool such as Flash, Captivate, Lectora, Articulate, etc.

 They can be utilized in content that is posted on an LMS, an online LMS such as Moodle or offline (CD-ROMs).

 Avatars can be switched easily. An “auto-lipsynch” feature accelerates development and is also helpful when releasing the same course in different languages as the auto-lipsynch feature will automatically make adjustments.

 There are a library of stock characters that have 300+ existing moves. Characters can be customized by yourself or for more extensive customizations, CodeBaby can customize a character. You can have an avatar wear your uniform and make specific movements or you can have a totally custom character built to look like your CEO.

 Audio is KEY to a good production and good results. Some companies have built their own studios.

 EXAMPLES

 Example 1 – Taco Bell Customer Service

 Taco Bell created customer service training for its front-line staff.

Taco Bell used CodeBaby avatars to train over 150,000 staff. Simply saving 15% on travel, Taco Bell estimates they save $1.4 million per training hour.

The background used was an existing mock-up of a Taco Bell restaurant that the developers got from their engineering dept.

Example 2 – Telstra Telecommunications

Created a character called “Lily” which was used in their training for 40,000 employees. The training was instructing employees on how to engage with social media. A “comic book” look was developed in Flash and the CodeBaby character was imported.

Example 3 - Cyber Security Training for the US Air Force

Tier 1 built a cyber-security training module using branching scenarios with avatars, including some credible authority figures.

In this course the learner interacts with the Codebaby characters

Layering with images and video can be an effective way of developing e-learning around your CodeBaby character. There are no real limits except those of the authoring tool you select. Production studio allows you to create backgrounds for your avatar. You can also use Green Screen if you want to have video behind your avatar.

Panning, close-ups, cuts are all available when you create in Production Studio.

Soft-skills Training

Soft-skills training is very effective with CodeBaby characters. It is better and easier to model behaviour than actual humans. The messaging/instruction coming from a CodeBaby character will always be totally standardized, unlike a team of trainers.

 Example 4 – BF Goodrich Sales Training

 BF Goodrich increased sales by 8% based on the training they took that featured CodeBaby characters.

 Example 5 – Grant Thornton Organizational Change

 Grant Thornton used CodeBaby characters in their training for an auditing system change. The training went out to 12,000 auditors in 12 countries. The CodeBaby characters kept their interest for the entire length of the training.

 Humour was used to good effect in this training.Several characters were used including a host, an experienced expert and a newer employee.

 
 

  Q+A

 

1. Mobile Learning? There’s nothing to prevent CodeBaby characters to be used in mobile learning, as long as your phone runs .flv files. Not many companies have gone this way so far, but some are moving in this direction now.

2. Bandwidth? About the same as running video.

3. Logos? Can be added. Only cost a few hundred dollars for that customization.

4. Props? There are a library of stock props for use. You can do your own small customizations or CodeBaby can do larger ones.

5. Used in Education? Yes. Some higher ed, some high school and some elementary. Each has its own considerations and uses.

6. Price? Sold per computer, not per person.

 

 

Thanks for Attending Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning with Tom Stone

Many thanks to all of you who attended the recent eLATED event:  Blending Web 2.0 Technologies with Traditional Formal Learning.   The audience was very engaged, the subject matter was excellent and the weather behaved. All around, the reviews have been very positive and we had one of our biggest crowds yet. 

Tom has gratefully passed along a sizeable excerpt of his presentation, Blending Web 2.0 with Traditional Formal Learning

Please check the Element K blog for more: http://blog.elementk.com and Tom on Twitter @ThomasStone.  Incidentally, he'll be speaking next Thursday at the CSTD Halifax Symposium.

Also, please follow us on Twitter:  http://twitter.com/elatedca or watch our 'Tweets' to the right in the 'TWITTER UPDATES' section in the upper right part of this screen ==>

See you at the Summer Social, 5 pm, July 9, back at the Boiler House Restaurant in The Distillery District!