eLearning eVolution

I love shoping, but I’m not a fan of those products that claim they are “one size fits all or most.” Because, quite often, they don’t! On the other end of the spectrum, I hate those stores that have so much product you can’t navigate the display floor. I find almost endless choices overwhelming.

At Elluminate, we’ve made some additions and changes to our products that enable us to have something for everyone.

- New to the virtual classroom. Begin with Elluminate vRoom, our free, 3-person virtual room.

- Need more seats? Try one of our new single-room, entry-level products. Elluminate vOffice is a personal meeting room for 10 or more participants that starts at $999 for an annual license. Elluminate vClass is a classroom for up to 200 students, with customizable meeting/moderator names.

- Once you graduate to multiple rooms, there’s Elluminate Live!, which easily scales from department to campus to multiple institutions.

- The next step is Elluminte Next>, with new Elluminate Plan! for packaging content and activities before the live session and Elluminate Publish! for creating audio podcasts and standalone recordings from session recordings.

So there you have it. Not too big. Not too small. Just right. If Goldilocks was looking for live eLearning and web collaboration, I think she’d be pleased!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

So just what is the online instructional cycle? At Elluminate, we define it as what happens before, during, and after the live online session. While dynamic interaction in the live virtual classroom is key to transforming teaching and learning on a global level, we wanted to look at how to leverage this real-time opportunity to enhance the experience for teachers and students as well as to promote the use of the enabling technology throughout the department, campus, and institution.

Next stop: Elluminate Plan! and Elluminate Publish!
I talk to a lot of customers, and many want advice about how to promote and facilitate the use of live eLearning beyond those who enthusiastically embrace using new technology. For us, the answer was to develop Elluminate Plan! enabling instructors or course designers to organize content and activities before the Elluminate Live! session. Then during the live session, routine tasks, like starting the recording, advancing to the next slide, playing a multimedia file, or loading a quiz, are automated, so the instructor can focus on interacting with students. On an institutional level, even those less experienced online instructors can navigate the virtual classroom with confidence.

We also looked at what happens after the live session. Certainly, Elluminate Live! recordings can leverage content, but what if they could be more portable. Enter Elluminate Publish! allowing the creation of industry-standard podcasts and standalone recordings to use when not connected to the Internet. Now content is resuable and portable.

So there you have it: The Elluminate Learning Suite for planning, presenting, recording, and publishing plus the Elluminate Next> bundle, which combines Plan! and Publish! If you want to know more, here’s a few press releases and a Sneak Peek session recording. And you can try Publish! free for 30 days, too. Plan! is being formally launched at NECC 2008 at the end of June at which time a free 30-day trial for that product will also be available. So give ‘em a try.

We think we’re on to something here. Hope you think so too!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

While live interaction in the virtual classroom is key to transforming teaching and learning on a global level, Elluminate understands that the eLearning landscape is evolving to include what happens BEFORE, DURING, and AFTER the live, online session.

We believe the “next big thing” in the real-time collaboration space is a solution that addresses an entire instructional cycle that includes the design, delivery, archival, distribution, and integration of interactive content and activities on a system-wide level. At the same time, this 21st Century eLearning solution must support communities of practice where experiences are shared, creativity is embraced, and innovative ideas are formed.

In the days and weeks that follow, I’ll be sharing what’s new at Elluminate with you. So stay tuned. We hope you’ll be as excited as we are about what we call EDU 2.0!

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication

Talk about a great resource! If you don’t know about CIDER (Canadian Institute of Distance Education Research), be sure to check out their upcoming webinars.

And here’s the best part: there’s also a library of more than 40 recorded sessions on just about any topic you could think of, including:

- Online teaching in international contexts
- Use of whiteboards in synchronous online drop-in tutorials
- Using 3D virtual networks
- Problem-based learning in distance education
- Supporting collaboration and community development online
- Engagement through simulation

Take a look. I’m sure you’ll find something that interests you.

- Beth, Elluminate Goddess of Communication