Wow!  All if you must be really excited to be back at school or getting ready to go; my last blog was a big hit, not because I am a great writer but because you all like resources.  I too like resources and when I come across a great resource or deal I like to share them.

This is part two of the “Back to School with the Class of Web 2.0″ series.  In this blog, Brian Benzinger (http://www.solutionwatch.com/512/back-to-school-with-the-class-of-web-20-part-2/) will cover web-based alternatives to desktop office applications including: word processing, presentations, diagrams, spreadsheets, and more. If you are new to the series and want to learn more about educations tools, I recommend reading Part 1 of the series. If you enjoy Part 1 and Part 2, I hope you will stick around for Part 3 where we will cover real cases of Web 2.0 used in classrooms around the world.

There are a few office applications I have left out in this series. First, many would argue email applications are part of an office suite, and I agree to that, but I have not included a category for them in this post because most colleges and schools provide email to students as is. If I were to recommend one, I’d say Gmail for its features and offered space. I have also left out database applications as I don’t feel they are essential to a student unless they are majoring in computer science or related, in which case they would likely use Microsoft Access or a school DBMS (Database Management System) – not to mention that the Web 2.0 database applications are more geared towards a completely different ball park. Additionally, I have decided to leave out imaging and project management applications.

This article has three sections to it: “Office Applications,” “Web-based Word Processors Compared,” and “Are Web-based Office Applications Ready for Education?” Also, be sure to check out the comparison grid, or feature matrix, in the “Web-based Word Processors Compared” section.

Note:
Products may appear more than once if related to multiple categories.

Part 2: Office Applications

Word Processing

• Writely: Online Word Processor allowing users to create and edit documents collaboratively online, import Word documents, publicly or privately share documents, publish to a blog, and more.
• Zoho Writer: Similar to Writely, Zoho Writer is an Online Word Processor where you can create, share, and collaborate on documents. Users can also publish to a blog, import and export documents, and make documents public.
• Writeboard: Writeboard is a collaborative writing tool where users can write, share, revise, and compare their documents online with others. It is not an advanced system featuring a WYSIWYG editor, Ajax, and flashy effects, but that’s what I like about it. Writeboard is a personal favorite of mine and as a matter of fact I am using it right now for this very post. It includes version control with text comparing and is great for essays and writeups of any kind. More on Writeboard.
• ThinkFree Write: ThinkFree Write is a free word processor that, at this time, is probably the closest you can get to an online version of Microsoft Office with features and appearance in mind. You can perform formatting options, create tables, add a header/footer, and spell check as you type just like your average desktop word processor. Pretty impressive. You can also open and save Microsoft Word and OpenOffice documents as well as share documents online with others. Note: There are two versions of ThinkFree Write: Quick Edit (Ajax-based) and Power Edit (Java-based).
• AjaxWrite: Lightweight word processor that can read and write Microsoft Word and other standard document formats, display multiple documents at once in tabs, and feature basic formatting. However, feature wise, it just does not cut it for me. What I do like about it is that it’s very quick and there are no signups – get in and get out.

Presentations

• Zoho Show: Web-based presentation tool to create, edit, publish, and show presentations. Zoho Show is very feature packed allowing users to create presentations full of text, images, shapes, lists, and pre-formated content templates. Users can also import their existing PowerPoint and OpenOffice presentations, view presentations online, and export as HTML.
• Thumbstacks: With Thumbstacks, create and share web-based presentations over the web. Thumbstacks provides a clean and easy to use presentation builder, although not as feature rich as Zoho Show, and allows users to export presentations in HTMLformat.
• SlideShare: Great new service, currently available by invitation only, that consists of an YouTube-like site for Powerpoint and OpenOffice presentations displaying presentations through Flash players. Users can even place the Flash presentation players on their own websites. I’ve been waiting for a site similar to this for some time now; perfect for students and educators wanting to store presentations online for sharing and receiving feedback.
• Empressr: Empressr is an Ajax and Flash-based service that lets you create and share presentations online. One advantage on the feature side is that it uses Flash and Ajax rather than HTML and Ajax allowing you to add more media then other tools including audio and video, although I personally prefer HTML presentations.
• ThinkFree Show: Excellent Java-based presentation application that feels much like Microsoft Powerpoint. Create rich presentations and play them through the online editor or by graphic. You can also save your presentations for viewing in Microsoft Powerpoint and share them with others online.

Diagrams and Mind Mapping

• Mayomi: Mayomi is a free flash-based mind mapping tool that lets you map out ideas, projects, research topics, or anything else that can be dug into. Great for students when it comes to writing essays. More on Mayomi.
• Gliffy: Draw and share diagrams online using Gliffy. You get all of your basic functionality that you would in an offline diagram application but with a few extra bonuses like working online collaboratively and dynamic publishing of diagrams. Create flow charts, floor plans, technical diagrams, and more.
• mxGraph: mxGraph is a very impressive JavaScript based diagramming library where users can create advanced diagrams within their browser. The only catch is that it is not a hosted solution where users can create and save diagrams. It is a library in which companies, and probably schools, can use under the mxGraph license. I’d love for it to be a hosted solution, like Gliffy.

Spreadsheets

• Google Spreadsheets: Create, store and share spreadsheets on the web. Includes real time editing and chatting with others as well as import and export options. Google Spreadsheets is my web-based spreadsheet application of choice, although on the negative side, it does not provide chart functionality.
• EditGrid: “An online spreadsheet featuring real-time-update and extensive collaboration features.” EditGrid has support for more then 500 functions, includes remote data update, access control, and more.
• iRows: Create and share spreadsheets online, create charts, include dynamic information, and upload and save Excel, CSV and OpenDocument files. More on iRows.
• Zoho Sheet: “Zoho Sheet is a web based alternative to traditional spreadsheet applications, like MS Excel or Openoffice Calc. It provides basic spreadsheet functionalities coupled with web based features like sharing, tagging, publishing and more.”
• Num Sum: Possibly the first web-based spreadsheet service launched that introduced social spreadsheets where users can tag their spreadsheets and share with others.
• ThinkFree Calc: Java-based spreadsheet application that has the look and feel of Microsoft Excel. Users can share their spreadsheets and work on them collaboratively online.
• Numbler: Simple online spreadsheet solution with great real-time editing and chatting with multiple users. Nice and clean interface although not as feature packed as some of the other options.

Calendars

• 30 Boxes: 30 Boxes is an online calendar that I feel works great for students due to its simplicity and sharing options. It also features RSS subscription to automatically populate the calendar with feed items on the day they were published – great for tracking teacher blogs and academic feeds. Furthermore, users can access their calendars on the go with 30 Boxes Mobile.
• Google Calendar: A bit on the advanced side, but once you get used to it, you’ll find it’s quite powerful. Users can create multiple calendars; view by day, week, or month; share their calendars with the web or a select few; subscribe to other shared calendars; and more. More on Google Calendar.
• Spongecell: “A free and easy to use calendar for you and your friends.” Features a simple drag and drop interface where events can be created and viewed on calendars in multiple formats. Users can also share their calendars with others.
• CalendarHub: CalendarHub offers a great service for personal and group use offering a simple drag and drop interface, calendar subscribing, reminder notification, and more. More on CalendarHub.

Miscellaneous

• Scanr: Scanr is an interesting product great for those without access to a scanner. Scan, copy and fax whiteboards, documents, and business cards with just a camera phone or digital camera! Great for research at the library and creating a backup of printed class handouts on the computer.
• eFax: Although this may not be that useful for students, I felt it’s worth mentioning. eFax lets users receive faxes through email for free simply by providing them with a temporary phone number that senders can use to send their documents. eFax is free for receiving faxes but will cost you to send them out (eFax Plans).
• Gmail: Generally, most colleges and schools provide email, but if you’re an High School student, chances are you weren’t given one. I’d personally recommend Gmail for its features and space, however you may have trouble using it in schools due to its chat functionality.
• Google Page Creator: Users can create quality sites without learning HTML or any other technical knowledge, although they can use them if they wish. You get 100MB of space for yoursite.googlepages.com and can upload files and attach gadgets to your pages. Here’s an example site I created in just a minute with Part 1 of this series. Dead simple, but presentable.
• Zoho Creator: Can’t find a product that does what you want? Try creating your own. Zoho Creator allows its users to structure a database, insert and connect data, and publically share it with others.

Web-based Word Processors Compared

Throughout my educational career as a student, I know that the program I spent most of my time in was Microsoft Word. In college, every teacher requested that we type our assignments up and send them to their email address so they can “easily” download, review, and email back with changes. It’s a process, and it works, but with today’s technology and offerings, things can be much simpler. Imagine one location where students compose and publish papers accessible online and a place where teachers can collaborate with their students without the need to download or email a single document.

After compiling a list of online word processors for this series, I decided to separately research each one to find if they are ready for educational use. 

Time to put web-based word processors to the test! First, I created an account over at Competitious to easily list common word processor features and view a comparison grid displaying features from each product. I then went through features of Writely, Zoho Writer, AjaxWrite, and ThinkFree Write (Online). After viewing the results, it was clear which were capable of following common writing and paper guidelines.

Page & Text Formatting

Student papers don’t require too much formatting, but there are guidelines and structures to be followed – for example, MLA Formatting on research papers. Will we be using web-based products to work on these kinds of papers? I can’t say, but I would imagine that we would need to if there are hopes for entire web office suites in the future. During my High School and College career, I’ve had to change document margins, add headers and footers, double space sentences (or often 1.5 space), and enable page numbering. Are web-based word processors capable of such formatting? To find out, I have tested each one looking for text formatting options and page formatting options. Can user’s bold text, add paragraph styles (Heading 1, Paragraph, Blockquote), double space lines, make page breaks, and add page numbers to the header of each page?

Writely and Zoho Writer are similar in that they offer all of your basic text formatting options, including: bold, italic, paragraph styles (Normal, Heading, Paragraph), and line spacing, but lacked when it came to page formatting only allowing for page breaks. AjaxWrite fell behind when it came to paragraph styling, line spacing, and document formatting. Lastly, ThinkFree passed with flying colors featuring text formatting options and page formatting options. It had margins, page breaks, page numbering, and even custom headers and footers. It’s practically Microsoft Word online in appearance and functionality.

Functionality

I want in a word processor, in terms of functionality, spell checking, copy & paste, undo & redo, find & replace, auto-save/backup, and at times, word count. These are functions that I use regularly when working on papers and I assume others as well. Fortunately, all the processors had these functions, except for Zoho Writer not having word count and AjaxLaunch without spell checking, backup options, or word count – didn’t even prompt me when “accidently” closing an unsaved document.

Collaborative Value and Sharing

One advantage is that these products are web based. You can access your documents anywhere at any time and work on them as you normally would. Being web-based also allows you to share documents with others and work on them collaboratively. Users can even work on documents together in real-time from different locations or even post to their blog.

Writely has five stars in this department making it very simple for anyone to publicly or privately share documents, tag documents, compare versions, add comments, subscribe to RSS, and best of all, collaborate in real-time. Zoho Writer had similar results, except I found it a little more confusing to use and had a rough time finding an RSS feed. AjaxWrite had no collaborative functionality or sharing options at all, though its purpose is to simply act as a word processor. Lastly, ThinkFree featured public sharing, tagging, version control, and commenting, but no real-time collaboration like Writely and Zoho.

Feature Matrix

Thanks to Competitious for their great service (expect a review soon), I was able to easily create and manage a Feature Matrix. Competitious does not offer exporting of the Feature Matrix at this time, but they have kindly allowed me to use it for this post.

The matrix covers formatting, document structure, functionality, document objects, collaboration, exporting, and importing. If you have any suggestions about this feature matrix, please feel free to pass it by me and I will change it. I tried to only include common features in word processors, so if you think something is missing that should be there, please let me know.

Summary

These applications are impressive, but not quite there yet. ThinkFree is the only one that was capable of producing an MLAformatted document with double spaced lines, 1-inch margins and headers with my last name and page number. The only problem I had with it though was the fact the interface was so similar to Microsoft Word (confusing and intimidating) and that is was Java-based. Writely on the other hand had an excellent interface that was very inviting with great collaborative features. Zoho Writer had similar results as Writely, but I found the interface to be a little confusing and I deeply missed the top menus you see in applications these days (File, Edit, View, Help, etc.) which made it harder to look for specific functionality. Finally, AjaxWrite did fair in my opinion, acting as a basic word processor but just didn’t cut it for me due to the lack of features.

Are Web-based Office Applications Ready for Education?

As you can tell by the compilation above, Web Office is nearing. But are these applications ready for any main-stream attention? Should we just drop the desktop counterparts and start using Web 2.0 (or Office 2.0) products? In my opinion, not yet, but we’re certainly getting closer to the possibility.

Who knows when it will happen? Maybe in a couple years, or maybe five. What I do know is that right now, web-based office products are on a roll with new enhancements week after week because of technology improving day after day. Not to mention, they’ve got some pretty convincing features to switch for already including collaborative editing, document sharing, online storage, and so on. Did I mention they’re free? At the same time, they lack some important functionality, such as: document formatting (margins, headers, footers, page numbering); adding sounds and video to presentations; and advanced spread-sheeting with charts and forms. Also keep in mind dependence on Internet connection and possible security issues.

I recommend you start considering WEB 2.0 as an option and try some of the solutions it has to offer. Try the applications for a week or two and find if they work for you. If you’re a teacher, see if your class prefers writing in the friendly and social Writely, or the intimidating and feature packed Microsoft Word. Some teachers are already doing it (you will see real cases of this in Part 3 of the series). Why not you?

Stay tuned for Part 3 and 4

Part 3 - Blogging, photo sharing, podcasting, wikis, video sharing, and more

Part 4 – Bringing it all together with the iPad

Happy New School Year and Happy Labor Day!

Jodi Harrison
VP, Business Development and Partnership Programs 
Interactyx Limited

jodi.harrison@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

If you are interested in using web 2.0 technology in the classroom, check out TOPYX.  TOPYX brings social eLearning easily and affordably into the classroom.  Get a free, personal demonstration at : http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html

As social learning continues to grow, LMS/LCMS vendors are taking various approaches.  While some view themselves as "social learning" savvy, incorporating various components, others seem to see themselves as just sitting on the sidelines.

Equally interesting, is that those who incorporate it, for the most part, are re-treading the same components as others, which when you consider the marketplace, makes no sense, especially in the current economic times.

LMS/LCMS vendors are following one of three approaches when it comes to social learning

• Do nothing - avoid it and leave it to other competitors
• Dip their feet in it - just a bit, a little here, a little there - oh and call it a full social learning platform
• Jump right in - trying out new things, yet in some cases incorporating features everyone else is doing

Do Nothing

In any other market, the goal is to be number one, yet for whatever reason, in this market when it comes to social learning, there are a significant number of vendors, who would rather just sit on the sidelines.  While, I can understand vendors who would rather not offer a "talent management or performance management" option, the decision to ignore social learning, is strange.

It is not as though, social learning is going to disappear. Nor is it likely that social media types are going to vanish off the planet. If you are trying to be a global player, and people are accessing from everywhere, why ignore the collaboration, content generating, communication sharing approach?

The idea that only 20 somethings, are interested in this feature is plain nonsense. Let's set the record straight on a couple of details

• The fastest growing segment on Facebook is 55 to 65 year old women
• The age range of people using social media is 35 to 54, with a college or post graduate degree

Now, tell me where are the "young crowd" on this data?

When so many potential customers are seeing the advantages of open source, creating their own learning or VLE portals or seeing the value of various social media types and incorporating them into some type of social learning community, the "do nothing" spin is well, a time warp into the past. The days are gone, when everyone is going to use a LMS. Time for these vendors to wake up, or see your audience share disappear.

Stick your feet into the water, just a bit

There is a mid segment of the vendors  in the LMS/LCMS or learning portal markets that offer some features of social learning, as part of their standard system or as their "add on modules".

They do not want to jump into the water, for fear I of the social learning shark. They offer the repetitive features of what they deem to be social learning

• Facebook like page - where people can follow others, create a profile, post on a discussion board or wall or something similar so that others in their "friends" group can see and respond or post their own comments, includes a profile - upload your image, tell a little about yourself, perhaps add a job title
• Micro-blogging - similar to Twitter, again learners in the system can "followers" other learners, see their micro blog posts, and their friends can respond. Not everyone can see the micro blog comments, just your "followers"
• RSS feed - not all offer this, but enough do
• Wiki- looks nothing like Wikipedia
• Blog - looks nothing like Blogger or Wordpress
• Widgets and APIs (albeit, the widgets are not really a social media type)
• Chat room - text based (enough vendors offer this - it is just scary -"text" chat was very popular in the late 90's - heck I had a text chat room on my web site in 95)
• Discussion board - enough vendors offer this and call it social learning. Yes it is a social media type, but come on, a discussion board with threads; some add the "forum" angle - again it is a social media type; how many people are really going to get excited seeing this and saying to themselves - wow, this is cutting edge?

Some offer a "YouTube" like feature, where people can upload videos and others can comment on it.  Others offer a pseudo app share offering - where people can upload documents, pdfs, PowerPoints and other group members can download them or view them or both - it is basically a COP (community of practice) wrapped as social learning.

I have seen enough vendors that actually offer this fine package to their end users and think they have hit the social learning ball out of the park:

• Blog
• Wiki
• Ability to upload and download files - in various formats to a degree (rarely offering .mp4, and never offering .aac)
• RSS feed

Then they charge extra for amazing features like

• Chat room - text based
• Discussion board/whiteboard
• Micro blogging feature

Jump right in and just start swimming

Not only do the offer all the above, excluding the forum, pure text chat room with no web conferencing - see the person in real time, and often the discussion board with threads; they add various other cool features - slick social media types and in some cases, really scream - "innovator"

• Videos - the real thing - Link to YouTube videos, upload their own videos, learners then can add comments; system identifies number of people who view their video and last time it was viewed.  Formats include .wmv, .avi, .mp4, even .flv
• Complete app sharing between learners - video, audio (.mp3, .mpeg), .pdf, documents including PowerPoint and Excel; learners can then view/preview and can download them; again the items are uploaded into the system
• Group pages that mimic what people see in Linkedin, including responding.. they see their picture too - it looks exactly like the Linkedin groups
• Links to Twitter, Facebook, Linkedin accounts right in the LMS, so the user signs in, and it is now working in the system
• Twitter - the real thing, and not only can learners in the system - "followers" and respond within the LMS, but the end user's tweets are seen externally by their "followers" and their followers tweets are seen back in the system, in real time - no delay
• Incorporate the Wordpress blog, so learners can write posts on the blog, and then externally it is seen on the Wordpress blog - complete open environment
• Wikipedia that actually looks like Wikipedia - 100%, they use mediawiki kit - available for free
• After taking a course - even if it is a midway and not fully complete, learners can rate the course, leave comments
• Ratings on other content in the system and comments from learners
• Web conferencing in the system, and 100% free - built by the vendor; real time webinars, see the person presenting in real time via their webcam, whiteboarding, web tours, desktop sharing,  full interaction - text chat is included as part of the system, but is not the only feature - i.e. it is a chat room with text only)
• Social Q/A - question is posted by the end user, and then x number of people who are knowledgeable about that specific topic, respond; but after one responds, the other two cannot; a mentor option can be created
• Mashups and APIs (again, some people in the social media space, see them as social media types)
• Event management

What is missing

Here are the basics

• Social bookmarking
• Social news or network aggregators
• Links to other video web site, i.e. blip.tv for example
• Niche social communities, within their own system, i.e. one general FB page or perhaps using a combination of other social networking sites with various features that may not exist on FB; and then a social networking feature geared towards only HR people or IT people, or job roles, etc.
• Meetups - it is one part social networking, but end users can setup meetings or get together will their fellow end users and meet - off site or at the workplace; date and time is set, e-mail reminders are sent out and follow-ups

Taking it to the next level

Just a few options, by no means the entire kitchen sink

• Livecasting or Livestreaming - it could be done by end users uploading videos or media files and then stream them in real time, to everyone or just their specific learner group
• Social Bookmarking, but with a twist - for videos and audio
• Extended Enterprise feature - sell courses to your sales agents, customers, wholesalers, whomever and enable them in real time to chat, cool option I think for sales agents across the country or globe
• Personalized recommendations of web sites or media (in the LMS, if u so choose) by learners, can be seen by everyone; possibly listed in a list, created by the end user
• Send e-mail reminders of courses needed to be taken, completed to mobile phones or tablets; offer the option to end users to accept SMS (text messages)
• Take your micro blog to the next level - enable end users to send video clips, photographs, etc. to other followers
• Gallery of photographs by end users, where other end users vote - using the thumb up/thumb down, then a top ten appears
• 3D worlds

Social Learning Systems or Social Learning Management Systems

There are two (that I know of), who pitch themselves as a Social Learning Management System.  They are heavy into social learning with the standard features of a LMS.

The two are:

• UpsideLearning LMS Enterprise version
  
• TOPYX LMS by Interactyx - Full version
  

Social Learning Systems

It would be great to see a system identify themselves as a Social Learning System, with no LMS features. Pure 100% social learning. Think it is impossible? Think again. With so many social media types out there, open source code (thus any one can build one), and the on-going growth of new social media capabilities coming out every day; it would change the industry. Oh, 100% standalone and not integrated into a LMS.

Mzinga's OmniSocial product sort of fits the build, but it lacks some components, to what I see as a true system, specifically 100% standalone, since it can also be integrated into a LMS or used in their own LMS.

In The Cloud - zinged into your Learning Portal or even a social networking site or group

If you want to add courses, you can - BUT it is done via the cloud. Thus you create your courses via your own authoring tool and upload them into the cloud. Then wherever you are, the are launched within the cloud. No need to have a LMS.  You can also build courses within the cloud and launch - FB page, social networking site, Wordpress blog, learning portal, etc.

I will admit that the one of the best products I have seen this year, does what I am listing above - SCORM Cloud.  I rarely recommend 100%, a product, but I will on this one. It is that amazing.  The courses are tested in their system to verify they meet the SCORM requirements; plus the system works and their own content authoring tool works with SCORM 1.2, 2004 3rd edition.  As I said before this is a game changer.

Bottom Line

I am reminded of a poem by John Donne, "No Man is an Island". The poem's meaning is that people cannot thrive when isolated. Social learning eliminates this isolation. So, for those LMS systems that decided on standing on the sidelines or just barely putting their feet into the water, it will not be your learners, but yourselves that will be isolated.

Isn't a free marketplace, great?

by Craig Weiss, E-Learning 24/7 (www.elearninfo.com) 

** Guest Blogger **

To see the social LMS, TOPYX, in action - request a demonstration of TOPYX. Visit http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html.

We know you are out there. Over 40% of those surveyed by ELearning! magazine recently intend to drop their current LMSs. Moreover, larger companies are looking to spend over $780,000 on the replacement.

In the movie The Graduate, Dustin Hoffman’s character was provided invaluable, brief advice: “Just one word – plastics.”

If you are one of those executives contemplating throwing out your old legacy clunker of an LMS – and you should, may I offer you similar sage advice “Just one word – SaaS.”

And given less than 10% of LMS owners are utilizing the SaaS model for LMSs right now and considering spending three-quarters of a millions dollars in this economic environment – there are a number of you staring at that number and not replacing the smelly old LMS that you know you should. This is also a no brainer for the 60% of US and 75% of UK companies (according to Bersin & Associates) that do not have LMSs.

We offer an LMS that exploits the current Web 2.0 technology, embraces social learning and offers a total cost of ownership at a significant fraction of $780,000 through our SaaS subscription model. If you want a 100% turnkey solution, we can do that as well.

We are also offering a free, two week installation program to get you up and running fast and painlessly. We launching a total outsourced eLearning program as well, so you do not even need to add staff – just improve the productivity of your team by training them better.

So do what you know is right… Improve your environment by tossing the legacy, costly LMS and drive away with a brand new social LMS that you will impact your favorability to plan in 2010.

TOPYX has gained acceptance as the affordable, easy-to-use eLearning technology that combines traditional learning management system functionality with integrated social learning and eCommerce tools, all-in-one user-friendly, feature-rich software as a service (SaaS) application. The result is a collaborative, engaging learning experience for users, whenever they wish and wherever they may be. Learn more about TOPYX business software solutions for corporations, small and medium-sized businesses, associations, not-for-profit organizations, and academic institutions of any size at www.interactyx.com.To find out more about Interactyx and its social eLearning solutions, visit www.interactyx.com or call 888.575.2266.

About Interactyx Limited:

Founded in 1995, Interactyx Limited is a global eLearning software company providing engaging and collaborative learning experiences to learners whenever and wherever they want it.

Interactyx, the developer of TOPYX®, is at the forefront of developing social eLearning software solutions that provide an engaging, online learning environment by integrating collaborative learning resources into traditional learning management system (social LMS) functionality.  The result is TOPYX, an easy to use, fully-hosted social LMS that allows learners to collaborate and communicate like never before, including mobile devices (mLearning). TOPYX has gained acceptance as an innovative, affordable solution for businesses, academic institutions and associations of any size to deliver a complete eLearning software solution to meet the needs of today’s learner that is the best value in eLearning today.

Alfred R. Novas
Chief Executive Officer
+1.888.575.2266 x205 or +44.020.7084.6244 x205
al.novas@interactyx.com

The increase of teachers using blogs and wikis, and students networking and utilizing online tools, the demand for easier and more efficient ways of learning is on the rise.  So what's new?

I came across a great list of fun and helpful tools from Solution Watch by Brian Benzinger (http://www.solutionwatch.com/512/back-to-school-with-the-class-of-web-20-part-1/) that I think you will find useful as you head back to school or just back to work after a great summer –

Organizers

• Stu.dicio.us: Student organizer and social notetaking tool where students can create a schedule, track their grades, manage a to do list, store files for classes, and write public notes in an outline-like format. Stu.dicio.us also allows students to connect with friends and soon will include Facebook integration. More on Stu.dicio.us.
• Gradefix: Best described by Gradefix, "Gradefix intelligently organizes and prioritizes all of your homework so you are always on top of it." Students that use Gradefix create a study schedule used to best spreadout and prioritize homework throughout the week in hopes to decrease stress and improve grades.
• Engrade (Teachers): Similar to Chalksite, Engrade allows teachers to create an account and have direct communication with students and their parents. Teachers can manage student grades, track attendance, schedule upcoming homework, and provide students and parents progress reports.
• mynoteIT: (New release came out the other day) An online note taking tool for students including a WYSIWYG note editor, assignment reminders, grade management, to do lists, and more. Students can also share notes with friends and receive feedback through commenting on notes.
• CollegeRuled: Academic organizer, class scheduler, and message board area for students. Students can either create a schedule or connect to their Facebook schedule with CollegeRuled and take notes and manage a to do list for each class. Note: I have not been able to test CollegeRuled as it requires an .edu email address.
• Backpack: Backpack is an all around great organizer including note taking, file storage, to do lists, a calendar, and more. An example use could be that students can create pages in their organizer for each class and manage notes on class discussions as well as upload related files and class documents.
• PocketMod: This isn't really a "Web 2.0″ product, but I felt it's worth mentioning. Pocketmod is a small tool for creating disposable paper organizers using print out templates covering just about anything from note paper to reference sheets. It's perfect for students that prefer keeping organized on paper. Also, it's just helpful to carry around with you for whenever you may need to jot some things down.
• JotSpot: JotSpot is a free wiki allowing users to create and share documents, spreadsheets, calendars, and more. It is my top pick for a wiki and provides a great set of features. Users can even install other applications from an application gallery to extend their wiki with project managers, to do lists, photo galleries, and other applications. It may be a little on the advanced side for students and teachers, but if your tech savvy, have at it.

Gradebooks

• Teacher! (Teachers): Teacher, formerly known as Teacherly, is an online grading tool for teachers where they can create classes, add students, and track grades for all assignments and test scores. I would imagine it would work out fine for students as well wanting to track their own grades in classes. Unfortunately, Teacher is not accepting new users at this time but you can signup to be notified when they do and check out a demo in the meantime.
• Stu.dicio.us: Built into the Stu.dicio.us organizer comes a very simple grade manager allowing students to assign grade categories (homework, quiz, tests, etc.) and grades to each of their classes.
• mynoteIT: Students with an mynoteIT account can login and access their classes where they can add grade sections and grades. What's nice too is that unlike Stu.dicio.us, mynoteIT gives the student a clear look with letter grades rather then just percentages and averages.
• Engrade (Teachers): The Engrade online gradebook is built to be flexible to a teachers needs where they can add assignments, create weighted grading categories, customize grading scales (A, B, C, Pass, Fail, etc.), and more. Students and parents can also login and view their grade report.

For Teachers, Clubs, and Management

• Groupvine: A service designed to help bring group members together to keep track of events, tasks, and news. Great for students in clubs, professors teaching specific topics, and campus management. For a screencast, view Screeniac.
• Nuvvo: Teachers wanting to teach online can use Nuvvo providing them with their own online learning portal. Teachers can can add courses that anyone can find and enroll in as well as charge for the online courses. They can manage students, class curriculum, quizzes, and more importantly, learn pages (allowing for headings, text, files, images, and video) that their students will be reading throughout the course.
• Schoopy: Built to strengthen community communication, Schoopy provides a system in which teachers can manage participating teachers, students, and parents and send messages, ask questions, keep up with assignments and even take quizes. Communities/Schools also can create a public website making it easy for students and parents to keep up with recent updates.
• Tuggle: Tuggle, launching Fall 2006, is a web-based organization tool for student leaders to manage groups, online payments, bulk email and texting, and more.
• Engrade: "Engrade is a free online gradebook that allows teachers to manage their classes online as well as post grades, assignments, attendance, and upcoming homework online for students and parents to see."
• Zoho Challenge: Online test tool where you can easily create tests, send tests to candidates (students, in this case), and view results with visual reports and straight forward grading (pass or fail).
• TOPYX: Unique learning management software that has integrated social learning tools to keep students engaged and collaborating on classroom assignments. It is very easy to use and affordable for classrooms to implement quickly to bring a new dynamic to classroom interaction.

Mathematics

• Calcoolate: Calcoolate provides users with a simple calculator with advanced expression support, mathematic functions, and history for viewing past calculations.
• Calcr: Similar to Calcoolate, Calcr is a web-based calculator with mathematic expression and function support as well as history logging in a very minimalist design.
• Create a Graph: Create a Graph is a free tool by Students' Classroom that aims to make it easy for students to create bar graphs, line graphs, area graphs, pie charts, and point graphs. Navigate through its easy to understand visual interface to add data and customize graphs.
• e-Tutor Graphing Calculator: Advanced web-based graphing calculator allowing students to enter one or more equations and view them with position/intersection indicators and zooming functionality.

Resume Building

• Emurse: Great service built for job hunters that want to create, send, and share a professional resume. Users can view their resume's statistics, send out their resume via fax and ground mail, and receive a public or private web address. One of my favorite applications of the year. More on Emurse.
• hResume Creator: Helpful tool for the tech savvy crowd that want to create a Microformat compatible resume for their website. Simply fill out the hResume form covering basic resume information and retrieve an HTML file which you can use to copy-n-paste into your website. You can then style the resume as you wish with basic CSS if your not thrilled with the default appearance.
• Amiko: Amiko does not appear to work or be officially launched yet, but I have been keeping an eye on it for the last month or so and hope to try it out soon. It appears to be a service that allows users to create and manage an online resume although it's feature set does not look all that promising compared to Emurse. Note: The signup form doesn't seem to work for me and I've tried reporting it as a bug, but the bug form did not work either. I'll keep my eye on it.

To Do's and Note Taking

• 25 To Do Lists to Stay Productive: Solution Watch roundup of 25 web-based task managers that can be helpful for students wanting to keep track of homework and upcoming quizzes. Be sure to check visitor comments for more.
• Fifty Ways to Take Notes: Another Solution Watch roundup including over 50 ways to take notes using various web-based tools in seven categories.
• NoteMesh: Best described by NoteMesh, "There are plenty of notes services out there; NoteMesh is a different way of thinking about your notes. Collaborate with your classmates to create a unified set of notes for your class. It's like Wikipedia for your notes." Note: School email address required when registering.
• Notecentric: Notecentric is a new notetaking site designed to help university students have their notes wherever they are and easily share them with fellow classmates. You can add multiple classes to your account and save notes to them using aWYSIWYG editor. Note: School email address required when registering.
• NoteTango: Free and collaborative note sharing site, launched just days ago, that allows students to create and share notes online and search notes created by other students.

Learning and Research

• EasyBib: An "automatic bibliography composer" that lets users enter sources and fill out a simple forms to be given MLA style bibliographies. I've used this multiple times in the past for research papers.
• Ottobib: Similar to EasyBib, Ottobib is a simple bibliography tool that allows users to enter multiple ISBN numbers for books at a time and retrieve the bibliographies in MLA, APA, AMA, or Chicago/Turabian format.
• Nuvvo: Nuvvo offers a service where students can search for courses to enroll in online on any just about any topic. It's a fun and easy way for students to learn and they can select from free or paid courses.
• Diigo: Social annotation and bookmarking service where users can bookmark sites and add highlights and notes to them. Great for research. In fact, I used Diigo to help organize bookmarks and notes for this post.
• Wizlite: "Wizlite allows you to highlight text (like on real paper) on any page on the Internet and share it with everybody (or just your friends)."
• Mindpicnic: Similar to Nuvvo, Mindpicnic offers a service where users can create courses and find and study interesting courses full of media, links, flash cards, and more.
• Answers.com: Excellent site for researching anything at all. Make a search and receive results from dictionaries, encyclopedias, and other information sources.
• Wikipedia: Wikipedia is a collaborative encyclopedia under a Wiki platform that is written and maintained by volunteers. It has possibly grown to be todays largest reference site and encyclopedia on the Internet.
• Del.icio.us: Social bookmarking site where users can save bookmarks and organize them with tags. Users can also take advantage of their del.icio.us network allowing them to add friends to their account and keep track of bookmarks left by each friend.
• Zotero: Next-generation research tool for Firefox that is currently in private beta. With Zotero, users can capture citation information, store media and websites, take notes, and more all within their browser. Note: Zotero is in private beta and I have not had the chance to try it out and will keep my eye on it.
• Newsvine: I could have picked any ol' news site for this post, but Newsvine is, in my opinion, the best news source for students. It's a clean and friendly social news site containing articles from the Associated Press, ESPN, and New Scientist as well as user contributions. Students can browse the site comfortably, rate news articles, participate in article discussion, and even start their own news column where they can write and publish articles. More on Newsvine.

Media Sharing

• Youtube: YouTube has quickly grown to be one of the most popular websites on the Internet. I personally use it for entertainment, although you can find a great deal of educational videos as well as create an account to upload your own videos for free. Students can research the site (may come across inappropriate content here and there) and even create projects with video and share them on the web.
• Google Video: Similar to YouTube, Google Video allows users to search, upload, and share videos online for free. I'm a fan of YouTube, but Google comes on top when it comes to quality educational videos. Google Video even has an educational categoryproviding hour long videos and caption/subtitled videos (new).
• Flickr: Explore, upload, and share photos online. Includes commenting and neat note functionality where users can add blocks of notes on the photos themselves for others to see.
• Eyespot: Neat site where users can actually create video mixes online and share them with others. You can add up to 100 clips or photos to a movie as well as add transition effects and video effects. Reminds me of videos I had to create back in High School for Graphic Communications class. More on Eyespot.
• TOPYX: see above - For Teachers, Clubs, and Management section

This is just the start of the book as they say; stayed tuned over the next few weeks for more WEB2.0 tools that you can use for school and work.

Part 2 - Web-based alternatives to desktop office applications

Part 3 - Blogging, photo sharing, podcasting, wikis, video sharing, and more

Part 4 – Bringing it all together with the iPad

With my freshly sharpened pencil raised high I am wishing you a Happy New School Year!

jodi.harrison@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

I can start using social eLearning software and be up and running in 2 weeks with TOPYX? And, implementation is free?

The answer is: Yes. Not only can you have your very own fully hosted, branded instance of social eLearning software in 2 weeks, the implementation is free.

Let me make sure that was clear: You can have your own instance of social eLearning software up and running in 2 week, and the implementation is FREE!

Today, there are options available to you regarding the software you use to create online learning environments (business training, classrooms, etc). If you are looking for a solution that is affordable and built to engage your users with modern social learning resources, make sure you check out the best value in eLearning software available today - TOPYX.

According to Elearning! Magazine, 40% of current LMS owners plan to add, change or replace current, indicating lack of satisfaction with legacy LMSs. Make sure you have the information you need to make an informed decision when reviewing eLearning platform solutions.

With TOPYX, we make sure you have the following:

Unlimited users and bandwidth included in most instances
Implementation, customer service, branding and all upgrades included
Suite of features that are SCORM certified, award winning, and ranked as a top emerging LMS
Available mobile learning and eCommerce options

With TOPYX, you can:

Reduce training and education costs
Leverage engaging social / collaborative learning resources
Use your current content in virtually any format, collaboratively create new content, or select existing, professional content from our library
Reduce administration time by using a solution that is intuitive, flexible, easy to set up and administer

See everything TOPYX has to offer with a live, personal demonstration. We can answer any question you may have and show you how you can easily get started with TOPYX.

Visit http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html to sign up for a demonstration or contact us at information@interactyx.com.

Remember, implementation is FREE and you can be up & running in just two weeks with SCORM compliant, fully hosted, award-winning social eLearning software, TOPYX! Get a quick demonstration today (click here).

Social media types are being created, identified and defined constantly. With the exception of crowdsourcing, all other social media types can be used in social learning. Many of these are new, rather than repeats from a previous post.

Please be aware that this blog is not responsible for any communication/collaboration/image/video or any other item that is seen, read, viewed or heard or in any other manner, as a result of clicking on these links, which go to sites outside of this blog.

Social Media type is listed first followed by an example of that media type:

• Social Bookmarking - Delicious -  spelled often as del.icio.us Wists - social shopping with image bookmarking and creation of lists - ditch the shopping part, keep the image bookmarking and creating of lists, Yoono
• Social Learning Management System (LMS) - TOPYX
• Social Network Aggregator -    Netvibes
• Vlogging (Video blogging) - Blip.tv
• Geolocating -  foursquare,  brightkite
• Virtual Worlds/Reality -  Second Life
• Social eMail - Google Buzz
• Crowdsourcing - Chaordix
• Photo/Image sharing - Flickr
• Forums & Message Boards -  (Something Awful - If you visit the site, please be aware that the language and topics varies from G to PG to R and Beyond)
• Livecasting - USTREAM
• Blogs - Wordpress, Blogger
• Social Discovery - Stumble Upon (Wikipedia likes to stick this into social bookmarking, however IMO it does more than that)
• Events - Meetup
• Wikis - Wikipedia
• Social Professional Networks -  LinkedIn
• Media Sharing (Video, Audio, Application) -  (Video - YouTube,  Audio- Last.fm, Application - P2P)
• Social Networking - Facebook , Twitter
• Product & Blogging & Niche Communities (Amazon.com - Product; LiveJournal - Blogging, Nibbledish - Niche)
• Social News Aggregator -  Digg
• RSS Reader - Google Reader Bloglines
• Reviews & Recommendations - Yelp or Epinions (the granddaddy)
• Social Q&A - Askville or Answers.com
• Social Search -Samepoint WhosTalkin BingTwitter Scour - My favorite
• Presentation Sharing - SlideShare
• Social Measuring - Technorati
• Open Source/Mashups- APIs, open source - while open source and APIs are not social media, they will enable multi-faceted social media features and capabilities.  Hence, I placed it in here, because it can cross into so many areas, and do so many things. Actually, in some circles, mashups are considered a form of social media.
• Yet to be Defined - Squidoo Diigo

by Craig Weiss, E-Learning 24/7 (www.elearninfo.com) 

** Guest Blogger **

To see the social LMS, TOPYX, in action -  request a demonstration of TOPYX and get a 30-day trial site. Visit http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html.

I know that there are quite a few out there right now going HUH?? What about the smart phone, I mean they have been pitching the smart phone.  Yeah, I am well aware of it. But while the smart phone will be involved and be utilized in the mobile learning scene, IMO the eReader will become more of a beneficial partner with mLearning because it offers soooo many more capabilities than the smartphone.  Case in point:

One Person's Thoughts

I was chatting with someone the other day on this topic and she said to me (and btw she is an end user, not someone in the industry), why would I want to access a course on my Blackberry? The screen is too small.  However with an eReader, I would be able to see the course since the screens are larger (more in a sec. on that).  She added, I have no desire to take a course on my Blackberry and never would.  Now, think about that for a second.  Would you take a course on a Blackberry?  Would you find it enjoyable?  A smart phone is an amazing product and in the mLearning sector will compliment learning, but her statement, makes just another reason, why an eReader can change the market.  So, without further adieu:

Screen, Color, uh I don't know file format?

I hear the snickering, what is this guy talking about. Everyone knows that eReaders are in that gray screen (some 4, 8 or 16 shades) using that e-ink thing, the screen size - come on, give me a break and the file format..wow, can they have any more and what is it?

Color

There is already a couple of eReaders out there that offer color. Yes, you heard me, color. And not crummy color either. Rich 1024x768 LCD in one case with high frame per second, the other has equally superb color.  No they are not your Nook, Kindle or Sony eReader.  You can be assured that in the not too distant future, other eReaders will follow. Oh, another key reason: the iPad. Do you think Amazon is going to let Apple have a color tablet with eReader capabilities and Amazon will stay in non-color field?  I don't think so!

Screen Size

The true "eReader" field, they range (for the most part) in the 6" to 7" field, but the Kindle DX is 9.7".  Now, a new player hit the market with a 10.7" screen. Again, brand new into the marketplace. How many other eReaders will increase their screen size by the end of 2011?

File Formats

Before I blaze into this glorious land, let's setup a quick term you may have seen or heard - DRM, which stands for Digital Rights Management. In a nutshell it was created to thwart piracy of the vendor's file format i.e. to pirate e-books.

While I won't get into all the file formats and this and that, I will focus on the ones that will matter to us - first - the e-book format, next the other formats which add to the changing of the landscape.

Epub

This is already and soon will become even more so the most dominant e-book format. Sony uses it, so does the Nook, Ipad too, and many other eReaders.  eReaders do not have a one only format.

Who doesn't use it..Amazon. Why not? They want their proprietary format .azw.  I surmise for awhile Amazon will stick with .azw as their format and keep the monopoly going, especially for Kindle users who cannot purchase e-books anywhere else, unless they use Amazon. 

Other File Formats - Relevant to Us

Umm, lets see:

• .Swf (yes, Flash and not Flash lite either) - An eReader already boosts this as a new feature into the marketplace.
• .PPT - Another eReader player has it; many offer .txt, .pdf; some offer .doc as well
• .WMV, .AVI, MP3, .MP4, .ASF - eReaders hitting the marketplace are starting to offer these features as well. So, you now add audio/video capabilities too. Again, eventually the big guys will have to follow suit.
• .GIF, .JPG, .BMP

Cool Bonus Features

• Text to Speech - Many eReaders offer this already. Lots of possibilities here for our industry.
• SD cards - Expansion city.
• Hard Drive - Plastic Logic offers this in 6b, and 8gb respectively. Price point is outrageous in the eReader market, but still intriguing, nevertheless.
• Surf the Internet: Alex anyone? If you are curious Google "Alex eReader".

Wi-Fi

eReaders most powerful arsenal against the smart phone industry. FREE 3G Wi-Fi. Repeat it. FREE 3G. For those eReaders who offer it (all the big guns do), wow..thank you! No more having to pay extra for data or extra for the privvy of using 3G with your smart phone.

Yeah you are stuck with you the eReader company went with, but hey you are paying for the eReader and its features and uh, e-books (the original premise of an eReader), so this is like extra sprinkles on an ice cream cone.

eReaders + Possibilities

There are so many out there, too many to say in one blog column, but here is just a quick few tied to a LMS.

1. End users can access select courses, course catalog or courses themselves, download them and take them on their eReader.
2. End users can grab sims and download them, training templates, mini quick reference guides, manuals (which should be banned..really 20 pages? Who is going to read that?), whatever. Download and take it with them. Read them on their time, anytime, plane, auto (not driving of course), wherever. Unlimited access.
   
3. You can add a "Library" to your LMS and offer the same features and capabilities to your end users. Check out materials, items, remember that webinar you recorded last month? Download the audio version of it, or video or both? Take it with you.  Smorgasbord of possibilities. All available, plus you can fully track. How about sections in your library? One for this topic, or that topic.. People go to that section, find what they are looking for and whalla.
4. Bookstore, anyone? You can sell any type of materials, content, courses you can think of, your customers buy it via a bookstore with e-comm on your LMS.  Same as the library, they pick what they want - templates, mini guides, social media offerings, you name it, it can be done. Heck sims using .swf , audio/video, etc.
   

Last Word

I often think back to my friend's statement about smart phones and using them with learning. When I mentioned to her all these features and possibilities, she looked at me, and said this makes sense.  mLearning is here, and it is only going to get better, but compare your devices and ask yourself a simple question. Will Wally Widget of the general masses more likely to purchase a smartphone or an eReader?

Toss out the only twenty year-olds are using this thing. According to Tech Crunchies: Average age: 35 to 54; College or post grad degree.

by Craig Weiss, E-Learning 24/7 (www.elearninfo.com) 

** Guest Blogger **

To see the mLearning / eLearning software solution TOPYX in action, request a demonstration of TOPYX and get a 30-day trial site. Visit http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html.

The Protocol Institute™ has chosen social eLearning software, TOPYX®, as the market-facing eCommerce platform to provide integrated social learning features into their library of etiquette, manners and behavior eLearning courses . The use of TOPYX will provide state of the art social learning platform designed to enhance the online learning experience and to keep users engaged.

TOPYX , is an award winning, affordable eLearning software as a service (SaaS) solution with integrated social learning, mobile learning (including iPads™), eCommerce and multi-language localization functionality fulfilling the eLearning needs for corporate training, academic institutions, associations and small to midsize businesses.  TOPYX was just recognized by Brandon Hall, chairman of Brandon Hall Research, as one of the top "Five Emerging Learning Management Systems (LMS) to Watch" in the July 2010 edition of Chief Learning Officer magazine.

“We are pleased to be recognized as a diverse eLearning solution that is right for most eCommerce needs. The TOPYX eLearning solution integrates modern social learning tools into the learning process to help support, promote and provide incredible value to eLearning content unlike anything else available today. It's like having a secure, branded Facebook® around unique learning content to increase collaboration, communication and to strengthen brand awareness,” stated Alfred R. Novas, Chief Executive Officer of Interactyx Limited.  “The Protocol Institute offers professional eLearning courses to the marketplace. We look forward to a long and successful relation with the good people at The Protocol Institute."

Jocelyn Woo, CCO at The Protocol Institute stated, “After seeing how TOPYX integrates social learning into the learning process, we recognized that their eCommerce solution was right for us to better reach our market with relevant and professional eLearning materials. And, it will help increase engagement and participation which is key to applying the life lessons needed by so many people today. We feel that TOPYX was the perfect choice to help us deliver our courses in a modern and effective way to support our mission to build confidence and preparedness in children and adults to act in an appropriate, considerate and truthful manner."

See how TOPYX integrates social networking resources with eCommerce to help drive sales and keep customers focused on your brand.  Get a free, personal demonstration : http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html

It's that time of year again. Elearning! magazine has opened the nominations for the Best of Elearning! 2010 awards. Elearning! magazine asks the market to weigh in on the best eLearning solution available and want to hear from you.

The balloting period has officially opened and runs through Sept. 30, 2010. In its sixth year, the Best ofElearning! Awards are the exclusive reader’s choice awards program for a diverse range of learning products and services. Nominations of technology and solution providers can be made by clicking on the Ballot or by visiting http://www.2elearning.com/fileadmin/php/selectBallot.html.

Please nominate TOPYX today!

TOPYX is best suited to be recognized in the following categories:

#1: Best Learning Management System
#16: Best Social Learning Platform
#17: Best Mobile Learning Solution

"The Best of Elearning! Awards program is the only reader’s-choice awards in the market, and we are excited to host separate nominations for the public and private sectors, “reports Catherine Upton, Group Publisher of Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines. “Altogether, this audience represents $160 billion in learning services and technology investment, and the awards program honors vendor excellence."

We would like to thank everyone who nominated our eLearning software solution, TOPYX, last year and made us a 2009 Best of Elearning! award winner. We are proud of this recognition and would like your help to once again make TOPYX a winner of this prestigious award.

Remember to visit http://www.2elearning.com/fileadmin/php/selectBallot.html before Sept. 30, 2010 for your vote to be counted.

Sincerely,

The Interactyx Team
information@interactyx.com
www.interactyx.com

 Looking for affordable, professional educational and training materials online?

 Can you benefit from online learning in a social environment leveraging modern, informal collaboration tools?

 Are you ready to take the next step to get the information you want, when you want it, wherever you may be?

The TOPYX Online Learning Center (TOPYXolc™) is now available for everyone to access state of the art training and educational content that is fully integrated with social learning resources to significantly enhance the learning experience. And, because we know you will love it, we are offering a 50% off coupon for your purchases until August 22, 2010. Here's the coupon:

Yes, 50% off professional training and educational content with integrated social learning features designed to enhance the entire learning process.

The TOPYXolc brings thousands of online accessible learning modules from a wide and diverse spectrum to market in a unique manner that leverages the social learning resources - such as communities, forums, live chat and much more - of TOPYX so that learners get the most out of the learning experience. Within the TOPYXolc, learners can share knowledge and experiences informally, peer to peer, whenever they want, wherever they may be via the Internet.

“We are proud to bring the TOPYXolc to market as a solution for those looking to easily find and use relevant learning content available online. TOPYX is based on the idea that knowledge is socially constructed. By incorporating all of the social learning benefits of TOPYX with outstanding content, TOPYXolc provides a very unique, 24/7 online learning environment. We blend traditional educational resources and content with collaborative learning tools, allowing for dynamic discussions and communities that supports the social learning experience,” stated Jodi Harrison, Vice President of Business Development at Interactyx Limited. “We encourage people to see how the TOPYXolc is redefining how learners can access rich content and combined with the benefit from social learning, first-hand by visiting and exploring the TOPYXolc at http://topyxolc.interactyx.com."

The TOPYXolc is powered by the award winning TOPYX, social eLearning software which is known as an affordable eLearning platform with integrated social learning, mobile learning (including iPads™), eCommerce and multi-language localization functionality fulfilling the training, education and communication needs for corporate training, academic institutions, associations and small to midsize businesses.  TOPYX was just recognized by Brandon Hall, chairman of Brandon Hall Research, as one of the top "Five Emerging Learning Management Systems (LMS)" in the July 2010 edition of Chief Learning Officer magazine.

Content providers seeking to expand distribution, enhance eLearning sales and provide learners an enhanced service level offering may request consideration to be added to the TOPYXolc library at http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-OLC.html.

So, check out the TOPYXolc and contact us at customer.care@interactyx.com with any questions.

In today's work environment, it is becoming more and more important for every employee to have access to the information they need to perform their jobs. Having the right information can help save time and money (and critical errors). This is especially true in overcoming the learning curve with new employees or if new processes are added.

In a perfect world, we could train and test all employees to make sure they have what they need to perform their jobs to the optimal level. Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world.

There are costs involved that make training employees difficult to justify. There is time lost. There can be high monetary costs involved. There are retention, changes and testing issues that need to be addressed. There are many obstacles that stop companies from providing training that could directly affect employee performance, and thus, company performance.

Luckily, we live in a time where the technology exists to overcome this problem.

By incorporating the right business eLearning software into the training process, companies can increase training return on investment (ROI). Here are some points on the benefits of implementing training software:

• Reduce the need for costly in-person training which carries high travel and time-lost costs.
• Training information can be stored electronically and administered to whomever, whenever in a centralized repository that is secure
• Individual training performance can be easily managed, tested and reported on
• Leverage informal information from the experiences of senior employees in a method that can applied as best practices (social eLearning software only)
• Access to information on-demand and even remotely (via mobile devices) when it is needed

These benefits just scratch the surface of how the right eLearning / training software can greatly enhance the training process of just about any organization.

One important item to note is the ease of implementation to set up your very own eLearning solution. Now, you can get up and running in just a few weeks (free implementation is available with leading training solutions) with a branded, hosted training system that is easy to use and cost significantly less than most in-person training sessions. And, don't forget, you would be able to control and repurpose any training information quickly to change evolving business needs.

If you haven't looked into just how much you can save with an eLearning software solution, this simple calculator may help:

 

While I would recommend the TOPYX eLearning solution for any size businesses training needs (because it is the best value in eLearning available today), I suggest you review the options available to you and do the math.

If you'd like to see just how a social eLearning solution may benefit your training program, get a personal demonstration of TOPYX. It's always good to have as much information as possible.

Jeffrey A. Roth
Interactyx Limited
www.interactyx.com

If you want to take a peek into the future, then you should look no further than APIs and what they bring to the table. Unfortunately, too many vendors in the eLearning space have failed to see the power and potential of this capability, and have decided to ignore them.  It is too bad, because what they can do far exceeds what is available today, and enables YOU the end user to have the power and control to unlock possibilities for your learners – regardless if they are your employees, customers, wholesalers, etc.

API

An API (Application Program Interface) enables an interface from a piece of software to communicate with another piece of software (in its simplest form) or multiple pieces of software (called a mashup).  Facilitation now exists between the pieces of software, similar to interaction between a human and a computer (again, in a basic example).

Open Architecture

APIs are open source code, so that developers (inc. your IS/IT people) can make modifications or changes in the code to suit your needs. Some APIs are pre-built and thus, code access is not possible (depends on the API).   Google code is open source code, so you can manipulate. If you choose not to manipulate the code, you do not have to.  Twitter has APIs, so does Facebook, even Linkedin.

Typically APIs are free. However there are vendors who sell their API solution wrapped in a piece of software.

APIs are not just for social media. You can use them to incorporate a shopping cart into your learning portal or LMS; a catalog, SCORM Player, etc.

API Protocols

For people who want to manipulate or change the code or want to create their own APIs.

• AIM
• Atom
• Blogger
• DTC-XML
• Gdata
• GET
• hCalendar
• iCal
• Javascript
• JSON-RPC
• POST
• REST
• RSS
• SMS
• SOAP
• XML-RPC
• XMPP

APIs available in popular programs – SAAS

Include:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• YouTube
• Google
• Flickr
• SCORM Player communicating with your vendor’s solution, for example, if you were creating your own LMS and Rapid Intake’s rapid e-learning authoring tool, it includes a SCORM Player API

APIs available today

There are thousands available, ready for download and you do not have to manipulate the code, or for some you can, it is completely optional.  Here is just a few of ones I like, that are unique and you could use in your LMS/LCMS/CMS, Learning Portal (caveat: your vendor must be able to accept APIs, otherwise it won’t work)

• After the Deadline -  checks spelling, misused words, style, and grammar with advanced AI and NLP techniques
• hiogi.com – mobile search based on the knowledge of a worldwide community. Users ask questions and get answers via SMS. Use the API to access the database of answered questions, unanswered questions, add new questions, and manipulate a user account. Hmm, mobile learning pushed to the next level?
• Hunch – questions and answers service that offers solutions to user-entered problems. Hunch’s answers are based on the collective knowledge of the entire Hunch community. Hunch is designed so that every time it’s used, it learns something new.  Adaptive Learning with a Social Q/A twist.
• Cliqset -social web service that helps users share and discover content and discuss it with other users. The RESTful API allows developers to create accounts, edit profiles, monitor real-time comments and more. Responses may be formatted in either XML or JSON

Let’s say though you do not want to add the specific site in your LMS, etc. No problem. You could create your own API and develop something similar.  The point is, you can see the capabilities, the options, the “huh” cool factor and the light bulb, hmm factor.

Mashups

Are taking multiple APIs – API + API and creating a new application that power boosts the combination. Can you have more than one + one? Yes, you can have as many APIs + APIs as you want.  Though it would be API + API + API, etc.

Examples:

• Post your status update in Linkedin and it appears in Twitter
• Post your blog and status -  appears in Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo
• Search for restaurants in Google and Google Maps shows up with the various restaurants on the map

Social Media Solutions that have multiple APIs built in their system, basically they are a mashup in a sense

• FourSquare – a social networking platform that intertwines the power of geolocation, other vendors in this space include Loopt
• Layer – platform that combines visual, geolocation, social network capability, and other features in one solution – its real power is as an app on smart phones, incl. Droid

Why would I want to have an API in my LMS/LCMS or CMS?

Simple, it gives you lots of features and capabilities that may not exist in your current solution. Let’s say you want your own web conferencing solution and not the one the vendor has partnered with. You can find a web conferencing api (free) and integrate it with your solution. Maybe, you want to incorporate some micro-blogging features in your LMS, which does not offer it as part of their platform.

Locate some micro-blogging APIs. Twitter is an example of a micro-blogger, btw.  You want e-commerce, but your vendor doesn’t offer it or wants you to pay for an add-on module. Uh, forget that.  You can find an e-commerce API, plus APIs for a shopping cart. Want to accept PayPal? No prob. API.  Facebook like features? No prob. API. Wikipedia capabilities? MediaWiki API.

Mashups Possibilities

After a quick scan, here is a brief list of some cool Mashups you can use..without having to change the code – and remember you integrate these with your LMS/LCMS, CMS, Learning Portal, etc. Integrate for our terms, means interface. Thus your LMS is the one piece of software and the mashup is a combination of other pieces of software (multiple APIs).

These are just examples that do exist today and available to download, with many showing examples on respective directories.  Again, either incorporate into your LMS/LCMS/CMS or your learning portal. Create your own Mashups based on these examples or along these lines or whatever.

• Noterize and Box.net – a note-taking app for the iPad that allows you to view and annotate PDFs and PowerPoint presentations. Its integration with Box.net enables you to save annotated documents to Box from within the Noterize environment
• letmesleep.in – allows professors to connect with their students when students need them the most: a class cancellation.

Now what if you create a Mashup that takes this premise but sends a SMS to the student or sends information in the LMS to that specific end user or end users in a synchronous based learning environment.

• Elodexa – an e-learning document search engine and online viewer. Uses Google Docs
• printfriendly.net – can create printer friendly versions of any blog and select articles to print
• MyVidster – social bookmarking plus videos. Collects videos from the entire web and shares with friends or a larger audience
• Producteev- cross-platform task management application

If your users can upload YouTube videos into your portal or LMS, or create their own videos, and you develop something along these lines, what is the learner power for them? Collaborative? Yeah.  Social Learning? Yep. Remember in order to have social learning, you must have a social media type incorporated and social bookmarking is a type of social media.

API and Mashup Directories

• Programmable Web
• WebMashup.com

HTML5 Player

Longtailvideo created a HTML5 player that contains a simple javascript API which can be used to request the various playback states(position, volume, state). Control the player through a number of available methods (play, pause, stop). Track the player state by listening to certain events (buffer, complete, time).

Moodle and Drupal

Moodle has quite a few APIs, including a SCORM Player. Drupal has a significant quantity of APIs, including shopping carts.

Rapid E-Learning Authoring Tools

As forementioned, Articulate offers an API for Articulate Online, Captive has one for a SCORM Player and does Rapid Intake.

LMS Vendors

So who uses APIs in this space? Many do, because surprisingly they do not mention it on their web site or literature. You have to ask them. [**The TOPYX social eLearning software solution offers API access**]

Questions

When I worked at companies and was exploring LMS vendors, one of my top three questions was if they accepted APIs and Mashups.  Responses always were the following:

• Yes
• No
• What’s that?

If it was the last two, the phone call ended. If they do not offer them, why would I want to use them? They are not cutting edge, they do not see where the market needs to go or is going.   So, what do you do? Ask them. And then ask them if there is a cost for integrating APIs. It should be free, albeit I do know a vendor or two who charges a one-time fee for setting it up and doing this.  Why?  Really, how much of a cost impact is it to you in relation to pleasing a client who is purchasing your system, possible add-ons and might recommend your solution to someone else? Especially in the social media age of instant communication.  Is the fee worth it?  I think not.

Vendor Reasons

There are only a few reasons I can see why they do not want or do not offer API or Mashup integration.

• Greed. They want you to stay with their preferred vendors that exist in their system or use only their add-on mods
• Fear. They are worried of potential problems to their system, even though they – the vendor works with the customer – to integrate the API or Mashup. BTW, always have the vendor test to make sure it works, and you do as well. Never, assume it works after the integration.
• Partnerships. Ties back to the financial stake angle. They sign deals with other vendors to be integrated into their system. Do they really want to enable you to have a similar type of offering, which is free, and thus you are not using their preferred vendor or partner?  Partnerships are often seen in web conferencing solutions, but they can exist with other solutions embedded in the platform.
• Buggy Whip Syndrome.  They love to say they understand the market, you have that client angle, plus they believe their solution does not need to offer the capability, after all they know more than you do.  If you doubt me on this point, how many vendors in 2008 offered a social learning platform, even though the buzzword Web 2.0 appeared in 2004?  Now the new buzzword is Web 3.0 (I hate buzzwords). But, pitch that to them and hear their answer. If they say, yes..say okay what is it? You will hear crickets.
• Price. Ties back to greed and financial spin.  Totally bogus. Trust me, they will find other ways to recoup the alleged cost.

End of the Day

Open source and end users becoming content producers is the next evolution of the net and thus learning. APIs and Mashups (depending on what you pick) offer these options. Trust me, your learners will thank you, you will be seen as “getting it”, and best of all, from a ROI standpoint, the cost will be zero.  More importantly, the benefits will soar for your audience, and after all isn’t that what it is all about?

by Craig Weiss, E-Learning 24/7 (www.elearninfo.com) 

** Guest Blogger **

To see the SCORM certified, social LMS / eLearning software solution TOPYX (and how APIs enrich the learning environment), request a demonstration of TOPYX and get a 30-day trial site.  Visit http://www.interactyx.com/eLearning/Request-Information.html