News, Views and Updates from Vitalect

Need for collaboration in undergraduate education

2012-01-23T00:55:00.000-08:00

Lawrence Summers raises some interesting points in this piece in the NY Times about the need for changes in undergraduate education with greater focus on collaboration.

p.s: He says that English will take over and its not worth learning another language. I completely disagree with this. Check out this interview with a cognitive neuro-scientist which talks about how ones brain is wired differently (advantageously) when you learn multiple languages. Besides, knowing another language helps you connect so much better with people and their cultures.

More Free Online Ed. from MIT

2011-12-30T15:34:00.000-08:00

For Wall Street Occupiers or other decriers of the “social injustice” of college tuition, here’s a curveball bound to scramble your worldview: a totally free college education regardless of your academic performance or background. TheMassachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.) will announce on Monday that they intend to launch an online learning initiative called M.I.T.x,which will offer the online teaching of M.I.T. coursesfree of charge to anyone in the world.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

Happy Holidays!

2011-12-28T08:27:00.000-08:00

I want to take this opportunity to thank all our customers, partners and friends and wish all of you a happy holiday season and a great 2012.

Lessons from the life of Steve Jobs

2011-10-10T11:17:00.000-07:00

The legendary Steve Jobs passed away this past week. Everyone from billionaires to heads of state to the average Mac and PC user has praised Steve Jobs and expressed grief over his death. There is no question that Steve Jobs is an iconic figure in the technology industry, and it is saddening to lose him while still relatively young and at a time when he was absolutely at the top of his game. Under his leadership, the previously tottering Apple not only recovered but climbed its way to the very top to become the most valuable company in the world, based on market cap.

The company under his leadership (since his return to Apple) transformed the music industry, the wireless phone business, and created a whole new industry of tablet computers. He also significantly impacted the animation film industry through the success of his other company, Pixar Animation. Unlike most technologists and entrepreneurs who appear to succeed only once, Steve Jobs was distinctly different in that he constantly repeated his success. He never gave up and steadfastly pursued his dreams, and is believed to have never been driven by the riches or the fame that followed his success. He was clearly obsessed with the products that his company rolled out and pursued them to the minutest detail. He was a perfectionist and a strongly opinionated one.

His phenomenal success forces us to reflect and see what lessons the world can learn from his life and his legacy. Jobs had a fairly difficult childhood, where he was given for adoption, dropped out of school, etc. and eventually went on to start a company that practically created the personal computer industry. Also, he never had any fancy degrees. In fact, he had no degree at all! Yet he has left an eternal impact on one of the most intellectually demanding fields - Technology! If Jobs’ example is any metric, you don’t need fancy degrees in order to be successful. This does not mean that you don’t aspire and work towards fancy degrees, but fancy degrees alone won’t guarantee success.

The United States of America, for all its faults, deserves special kudos for being the country that facilitated the success of Steve Jobs. It is very likely that Steve Jobs might not have been as successful anywhere else in the world. His success is both a challenge and a message to people across the world. Those in government should be asking themselves as to what it takes for them to nurture the likes of Steve Jobs among their citizens. Those in education should be asking themselves as to what they could do to transform education in order to engage and encourage the brilliant yet unconventional and non-conforming minds. Parents should be asking themselves how they could encourage their children to pursue their dreams with limitless passion and devoid of the fear of failure.

The other debate surrounding Steve Jobs and his methods is the overall “closeness” of the Apple platform. Apple lost the desktop battle with PCs because the Mac was available only from Apple while PCs were available from a host of manufacturers. After his return to Apple, the Mac has come a long way and is rapidly gaining marketshare despite being more expensive. In the mobile world, the iPhone and the iPad are undoubtedly the best in class products, but Android-based phones and tablets are rapidly gaining market share and attracting a whole host of developers. The world outside of Apple seems to thrive on open source technology and the associated freedom. This begs the question -- is it better for hardware and software to be under the “control” of one company? Is the “Jobs-ian” approach the road to more reliable user-friendly products? Is this leadership at its best or dictatorship at its worst or is it somewhere in between?

Lastly, those in business can ponder over what might be the best management philosophy -- a centralized and tightly controlled management or a more free-wheeling approach based on equality, freedom, empowerment, and consensus. Conventional wisdom in today’s globalized world points to the latter, but Jobs clearly proved otherwise. His approach to everything, from management to Apple’s world view, seems to have revolved around “command and control.” At Apple, Jobs called the shots. He led from the front. He was the only public face of the company and the “cracker of the whip” in private. Tim Cook, who heads Apple today, was unknown to many until a few months back. Failure was not tolerated, as in the recent cases of the MobileMe service or the iPhone 4 antenna fiasco, where heads rolled.

But what does the future hold for Apple? Can it maintain Jobs’ intensity? Can it continue to churn out wonderful products like it did under his leadership? The state of Apple after a few years will serve as an excellent data point for business education and practice.

It is mind-boggling to imagine that one individual could have positively impacted the lives of so many, both directly and indirectly. In his passing, he leaves the world with plenty to think about and a deep void that is unlikely to be filled anytime soon. I have said this before in an earlier post and I’ll say it again, “Steve Jobs, Tussi sach much great ho!” (Steve Jobs you are truly great!)

This article was originally published in the Economic Times website.

Seasons Greetings & Best Wishes for 2011

2010-12-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

Online Education: Podcast and Article

2009-09-23T18:43:00.000-07:00

Interesting discussion on online education. Check out related article.

President Obama's Push for Education

2009-07-14T19:26:00.000-07:00

I was thrilled to read that President Obama strongly believes in investing in education to help the US find its way out of this economic mess.

"Time and again, when we have placed our bet for the future on education, we have prospered as a result -- by tapping the incredible innovative and generative potential of a skilled American workforce," Obama said.

President Obama is absolutely right. The future lies in investing in education. As someone in the elearning industry it is self-evident that the US has the technology know how to leverage present-day technologies (without having to invest in futuristic programs) to educate its citizens in new and innovative ways. And yes, this is an understatement.

"Now is the time to build a firmer, stronger foundation for growth that will not only withstand future economic storms, but that will help us thrive," he said on the Macomb campus.

Technologies such as WebEx Training Center from Cisco (and similar technologies), Instant Messenger (IM), Voice-over-IP (VOIP), Google Apps, Broadband Internet connection are mature and widely used, especially in the technology industry today. There is absolutely no reason why with a little assistance from the government these technologies can't be extended to average citizens, community colleges and schools. Moreover there is no shortage of open source technologies with ample following and support that can be leveraged to achieve the goal of making education and training easily available, effective and affordable to the every US citizen.

Despite the downturn and the threat of losing American jobs, there is little doubt that the US is still very much the center of technological innovation the world. The President has set the stage by emphasizing the Government's commitment, it up to Congress to follow through on his vision and for the industry to help realize this vision.

Push for Online Universities

2009-07-09T17:55:00.000-07:00

I read an interesting article recently by CHRISTOPHER EDLEY JR, Dean of UC-Berkeley School of Law suggesting that California should go in for a full-fledged Online University.

No budgetary alchemy will allow us to educate the state's future university students in the same way we do now but with less money. The budget cuts caused by the state economic crisis are real and huge, leaving two choices. Educators can do less with less, or we can explore new ways of providing value to California and the nation by doing more — albeit differently — with less.

I couldn't agree with him more. With new technologies emerging (cloud computing, netbooks, online collaboration solutions) every day and relatively established mature technologies such as Learning management systems, VOIP, desktop sharing, online meeting solutions etc. there is no reason why the state of California with all it technology potential can't make this a success.

With a computer (equipped with a headset, microphone and webcam), and Internet access, students and teachers can be pretty much located anywhere in the world. The content (homeworks, course material, tests etc.) can all be available in the cloud using technologies such as Google Apps, for instance. Recordings of each lecture can be made available after the class (much like businesses recording a Webex meeting). Students can collaborate and communicate among themselves and the teacher through IM, Message boards, Email, Twitter etc. The intent is not to replace the conventional classroom but to provide other options for education that takes advantage of available emerging technologies and is in tune with the times.

Britain's government-funded Open University, begun 40 years ago, offers some lectures in partnership with the British Broadcasting Corp. It claims 5 percent of Britain's adult population has taken at least one of its courses, and it ranks second in student satisfaction out of 258 British institutions, with high marks from government inspectors, too. Closer to home, many talented Californians opt for the pricier online University of Phoenix over California's public four-year campuses, presumably for convenience and schedules — or because of our shortage of seats

While businesses have adopted these new technologies for training, sales and marketing, the Universities have been remained slow in doing so. For example, a number of people work from home these days. Email, IM, and screen sharing technologies have become common place in most companies (and even social networking!).

Universities have been slow partly due to bureaucracy and partly because there hasn't exactly been pressure on them from any quarters in this direction. With the shortage of funds, and a dire need to educate the workforce in a globally competitive world, perhaps the time has finally come when the Universities might take more notice than ever before. The move towards Online has been a no-brainer to most people in the industry but its great to see University leadership pushing for education to go online in addition to the traditional methods.

Educational Sites: Citizen Journalists, Civics' Lessons for kids

2009-06-30T17:49:00.000-07:00

There is little doubt about the power of Internet in the field of education. I came across two useful educational sites today, each useful in its own way.

The first is a site promoted by retired Supreme Court Justice Day O'Connor, aimed at teaching kids about the Government, the Courts and Civics, in general. It a simple and informative site targeted and tuned for kids. To develop greater civic engagement there is no better place to start than with kids. Teachers can make use of this site as well to teach, develop lesson plans etc.

The second is a site aimed at educating the "citizen journalist" to be a better reporter. (I first read about this site here). In this day and age where pretty much anyone with Internet access and PC (or cell phone) can be a reporter (of some sort), a site of this nature can be of great help in learning from the experts.

As someone in the education business, it is always great to see new sites emerge to serve specific targeted educational needs.

Online Learning Gets a Boost

2009-06-21T18:17:00.000-07:00

The WSJ had a news article about Jack Welch lending his name to an Online University program.
A couple of interesting data points from the article:

Boston research firm EduVentures Inc. estimates that 11% of the roughly 18.5 million U.S. college students took most of their classes online in the fall of 2008, up from 1% a decade ago.

Online higher education will generate revenue of $11.5 billion this year, EduVentures says.

Here is another interesting article describing the threat to traditional universities from the growth of new technologies.

One thing for sure. The smartest students want to get an "A" without having ever gone to the lectures. They understand that there are better ways of learning than being the passive recipient of a one-way, one size fits all, teacher-focused model where the student is isolated in the learning process. When the cream of the crop of an entire generation is boycotting the formal model of pedagogy, the writing is in the wall.

The same author has another article on the same issue with links to related articles.

I argued that is a widening gap between the model of learning offered by many big universities and the natural way that young people who have grown up digital best learn. The reaction on Twitter, mainly from students has been enormously positive.

Gas prices boost interest in Online Learning!

2008-07-17T20:06:00.000-07:00

I was pleasantly surprised to read that the interest in online courses have risen as a result of increase in gas prices! Check out the article in the NY Times.

Don't miss the insightful comments from readers.

Moodle on Facebook

2008-01-25T05:27:00.000-08:00

If you are on Facebook try the Vitalect Moodle application. You can create courses and view courses in Moodle. We previously released the Techniq elearning app on Facebook. Both of these are experiments to test and develop our understanding of the Facebook platform.

New Year Greetings!

2007-12-25T23:11:00.000-08:00

From all of us at Vitalect, wish all of you a wonderful new year!

The Return of Online Learning?

2007-11-30T12:09:00.001-08:00

After all the hype and hoopla of the dotcomm days, it is nice to see that online learning seems to be making a come back of sorts, at least in the press! The important change is that unlike in the early days a number of people are taking classes online at schools.

clipped from www.npr.org

Online Courses Catch On in U.S. Colleges

Listen Now add to playlist

Morning Edition, November 28, 2007 · When today's college graduates get together for a reunion someday, they may decide to do it by computer. That's because right now, nearly one in five college students takes at least one class online, according to a new survey.

For professors, the growth of e-learning has meant a big shift in the way they deal with students.

SkypeIn Rocks!

2007-11-27T10:54:00.000-08:00

Skype has a SkypeIn facility which lets you pick a local number in your area code of choice. When someone call that number, your computer rings if you are online. However, the real power is the ability to forward the call to a cell phone. When you are traveling overseas (from the US) this is a terrific capability. The caller from the US pays only local phone charges while you pay the costs in the country where the call is received.

Google's File Storage Facility

2007-11-27T10:46:00.000-08:00

The WSJ reported that Google is planning to announce storage facility for users to store their files online. It makes a lot of sense and would be an excellent addition to Google Apps, especially for small businesses.

It is interesting that this news comes out shortly after Microsoft announced its Home Server product. Both products are at clearly at two extremes of the spectrum. While one tries to minimize the use of hardware, the other sells greater hardware power combined with software.

New Website Lauched

2007-11-23T10:11:00.000-08:00

I am happy to announce the launch of our new website. It is always a challenge to design and develop a new website, particular in this age of clicks and SEO. Thankfully there are new and improved technologies that help you measure where you stand with respect to your website. Besides, there is plenty of advice (for free!) available on the internet on the various trips and tricks one can follow to increase traffic on the site.

Our design this time around has been the result of some serious research on what works and what doesn't with regard to websites, keywords, and general usability. It has been a tremendous learning experience for us and hopefully you like the final result!

Technology in the Classroom

2007-11-08T08:21:00.000-08:00

There is an interesting article in the NY Times about Technology in the classroom (cell phones, IM etc.). Considering that the current generation is "so distracted" maybe it makes sense to go in for Distance Learning! The fact that students are forced to sit in a class might be the cause for distractions. When you are out there in front of the computer with no "real" physical class in front of you, perhaps the focus would be a lot better?

Another very interesting mention in the article.

The Canadian company Smart Technologies makes and sells a program called SynchronEyes. It allows a classroom teacher to monitor every student’s computer activity and to freeze it at a click. Last year, the company sold more than 10,000 licenses, which range in cost from $779 for one teacher to $3,249 for an entire school.

Never heard of this, but sounds really cool!

We are on Facebook!

2007-10-21T23:04:00.000-07:00

If you are on Facebook, try adding the Techniq eLearning application. Give us feedback if any!

UC Berkeley Courses on Youtube

2007-10-12T01:08:00.000-07:00

Ok, you now have one more way to put yourself to sleep. Tune into Youtube to see the recorded lectures from UC Berkeley!

Jokes apart, this is a very interesting and exciting move in the field of education. MIT set the stage a few years back by making its course content available on the web. This move by UC Berkeley is the next big step in the proliferation of educational content on the web. It does however raise some interesting questions.

Are faculty members signed up to teach a class or to teach the world at large?
How do faculty members feel about their relatively private classrooms being broadcast to the world?
Are other universities going to follow suit?
Is Education going to be the next big use for Youtube?
Do student get to see videos of Prof. before the decide to sign up for a class?
Is teaching going to become more of a sales pitch?
Are we going to see competing lectures on the same topic from different universities?
What is in it for the university? Are they trying to educate the world from the goodness of their heart or simply marketing their services!

Interestingly enough, there was article in the NY Times talking about how ABC news is design programs for the Web. The Press, Educational institutions and others are grappling with the best possible approach to leverage the relatively new medium while still making it commercially viable. Unfortunately, the target audience is "spoilt" on free content. After the hype and bust of the dotcomm days it sure sounds like a second coming of the Internet in various forms and shapes.

Can you make money from content on the web?

2007-09-30T09:39:00.000-07:00

Over the years the Internet seems to have perpetrated a popular belief that content on the web should be free. The NY Times recently announced that its subscription service Times Select is being abandoned (in other words it is free starting 19, September 2007), effectively admitting that the experiment met with little business success. Also, Ropert Murdoch is considering offering the WSJ, which by far has had the best (but nothing overwhelming) success as a subscription service on the web, for free. Microsoft's Slate(now part of the Washington Post) experiment also failed. These are just a few high-profile examples.

"Give content and services for free and generate revenue through ads" continues to be the mantra. Not much has changed since the dotcom days. Has it? These leading media companies giving content away for free is a clear sign that charging for content (particular content that is also available in print) is going to be a bad idea for the foreseeable future.

The future of paid content on the web might however be in slightly different forms: pay per view TV via the web, educational content on the web, online gaming (though one could argue that this is more of a service than content), films made for the internet and sold online (though there is little known success in this area), specialized content (like photographs) etc.

Pay per view TV on the web has already had a relatively good degree of success (I have purchased sports events myself!) and is likely to grow especially as end-users start spending more time in front of their computers and less time in front of their TV sets. It is not in the least bit surprising that a start-up named Joost has raised boat loads of money (not to mention that the backers had a lot of chump change lying around from their Youtube investment and the right connections). Educational content on the web has seen slow growth than wildly projected in the dotcom days but surely makes sense.

The question of can you make money selling content on the web still remains as wide open as the opportunity itself.

Google Analytics: Great Stuff!

2007-05-11T10:22:00.000-07:00

Check out the latest Google analytics. Its amazing what a dramatic difference changes in UI can do. The new UI is very user-friendly and extremely intuitive.

MIT's Online Courseware in China!

2007-04-03T16:51:00.000-07:00

There was interesting article in the NY Times about how MIT's OpenCourseware that is available online has been translated into Chinese and made available on this site. Interestingly, thirty-five of the translated courses are good enough that M.I.T. links to them directly!

Identity: Brilliant Presentation

2007-01-28T14:42:00.000-08:00

Are you sick of registering on so many different sites? Wouldn't it be wonderful if you didn't have to but were able to magically re-use your identity (which is hopefully just one!) at various different sites?

Check out this presentation on this topic by Dick Hardt, CEO of Sxip. Even if you know very little about this topic the presentation style is very interesting and impressive. Don't miss!

MS Vista & Office 2007

2007-01-18T14:44:00.000-08:00

The completely new interface in Office 2007 is shocking to say the least. A ubiquitous software like Office thrives on the fact that practically everyone knows how to use it. The dramatically new interface no matter how good is bound to scare the low skilled user and the power users are likely to stay with what they are already comfortable. All the Office file formats have an "i" at the end. Its now ".doci" instead of "doc". There are bound to be other such compatibility issues once you delve deeper.

As for Vista there are enough signs that its Mac-like OS, but a few years late. Coupled with the need for more high-powered hardware, a Vista upgrade makes little sense. MS is really starting to sound and act like IBM of the past!

Google Killer?

2007-01-18T14:25:00.000-08:00

Check out this write up on Wikia. Its an interesting concept and I think it makes a lot of sense. When you search for something very specific (on Google, Yahoo etc.) it is very painful to have to dig through the search results. There is so much content coming online every second and the search engines are using their proprietary algorithms to index and sort the content. Search would be so much more effective if "somehow" the collective knowledge of the Internet users can also be tapped to aid the search process (in addition to all the search algorithms). I think such a solution has applications even within an enterprise and not necessarily from the perspective of a generic Internet user. The open source approach to developing this solution is simply amazing.

It remains to be seen how it all plays out. Certainly a long way from becoming a Google Killer. Even if it doesn't turn into one, its highly possible that an off-shoot of it might emerge to challenge the king of search?

Btw, I didn't see any mention of how Wikia (which is for-profit as opposed to Wikipedia) plans to make money!

MS going after Linux users?

2006-11-18T20:52:00.000-08:00

Check out these recent comments (Linux users owe Microsoft) from Microsoft. Its a scary and most undesirable move for the open source community. Sounds like MS has finally devised a strategy o battle the mounting competition from Open Source -- "If you can't beat 'm sue 'm!"

SuSe Linux users appear to be covered thanks to the MS-Novell deal.

Outsourced Email

2006-11-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

A hosted email service makes a lot of sense particularly for small businesses. In this day and age, it makes no sense to maintain your own mailserver, spam protection and the works. Google's Apps for your domain, MS Office Live are both similar to Yahoo's small business offerings. All three save businesses the headache of managing their email. The best part is that its possible to pop your email when you use these services. This means that if you love MS Outlook (or any other mail client) but hate Gmail (or Yahoo Mail, Hotmail interface) , you are still in good shape! Hopefully, someday "everything" will be free provided there is still money in ads! :-)

Sitemap Unity is Great News

2006-11-17T09:25:00.000-08:00

Its great to see that the big three MS, Yahoo and Google have agreed to standardize on the Google sitemap XML protocol. We use the Google sitemap, so we are particularly thrilled to hear this!

UC Berkeley class lectures on Google Video

2006-09-27T13:11:00.000-07:00

Saw the news about UC Berkeley making lectures available on Google video. I think its a great step forward and a small peek into the future of education. Wonder how the faculty feel about this? At one level the exposure is certainly good for them. At another level they might want to actually benefit monetarily from the "open access" to their lectures. In ny case, its a great step forward by the University.

Brandon Hall goes Social Networking

2006-09-26T18:55:00.000-07:00

The Brandon Hall folks seem to be making a foray into social networking. In concept, this seems like a fine idea both for their subscribers as well as for themselves. But I suspect they have clearly ticked off a whole bunch of their potential users by phasing out their popular Yahoo Group. I think it was a bad move to squash a successful email list to start with. Not to mention that it was a PR snafu to force users to move to their new social network. A number of subscribers to the yahoogroup have now formed a new group.

Buffet's Contribution

2006-06-28T12:43:00.000-07:00

Having praised Gates for taking the lead, it will be shame if Warren Buffet is not given similar or better kudos for his recent decision to contribute to the Gates & Melinda Foundation. There is excellent column in today's WSJ (subscription required).

"...But the title should really go to Mr. Buffett. Mr. Gates, after all, is following a well-worn path, in the footsteps of Carnegie, Rockefeller and Mellon. Mr. Buffett is blazing a new trail. He is giving his massive fortune to another man's foundation, he's not asking for his name on the door, and he's insisting the money be spent as it comes in, rather than build up over generations to provide some intimation of immortality...."

Gates leads the way!

2006-06-21T15:51:00.000-07:00

Microsoft has often been criticized for not being innovative and for its hard charging ways to destroy competition. Despite such constant criticism, one must admit that Bill Gates decision to phase out of his current role to focus on philanthropy is certainly a great sign of leadership. Doling out money is one, but focusing on it full time is quite another issue. Hopefully, his business success can help him meet with great success in his philanthropic endeavors.

Firstly, announcing the change well in advance was a smart move to avoid any panic on Wall Street. What makes the timing more interesting is that it comes at time when Microsoft is severely threatened by Google and other companies. I guess the master businessman figured that Ray Ozzie was capable of living up to the challenge. Besides, perhaps he figured that business challenges come and go but you live only once. I can't think of how else one can explain a change of heart on the part of one of the world's toughest business leaders. In any case, its great news that the world's richest man has made philanthropy his primary focus. One can only hope that this inspires other business leaders to follow his lead!

Google Trends: No interest in the US for eLearning!

2006-05-11T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Google for releasing another useful service!

If you look at the cities where elearning searches are coming from, notice that no states in the US not make it to the top 10! Surprisingly, the leading the elearning search category is Tehran in Iran!

Techniq Platform: Skype Integration

2006-05-02T13:47:00.000-07:00

One of the leading "really cool" technologies that have come to the forefront in recent times is Skype. The power of free PC-PC phone calls over the Internet was unimaginable a few years back. Today, it has become quite common place with a proliferation of VOIP telephone providers.

At Vitalect we were quick to notice a clear and direct application for Skype in the web-based learning business. While taking a self-paced online course, its highly possible that learners might have queries whose answers they are unable to find anywhere in the course. I these circumstances, ther best bet is to reach the instructor of the course. On the Vitalect platform we have provided this capability though the use of the Skype's powerful and reliable technology. Thanks to this interface, the Instructor is just a click away.

Customers of the Vitalect platform can choose to enable this feature in the Vitalect Techniq Tutor dashboard at the time of initial setup. Instructors can be specified at the course level. Learners who don't have Skype installed will be prompted to install Skype before contacting the instructor. Instructors can pre-announce and schedule office hours to inform their students about their hours of availability.

Techniq Platform-MS Word Integration

2006-03-29T17:57:00.000-08:00

The Techniq platform is now integrated with Microsoft Word. Users can easily import a MS-Word file into the Techniq Platform. The content in these files are automatically indexed and hence searchable. The content can then be categorized and tagged appropriately. The content can also be edited within the Techniq Platform.

If you are looking for a common searchable repository for content from your Word files, Powerpoint as well as training content in elearning form, the Techniq platform is your answer!

New! Powerpoint import to Techniq LCMS

2006-03-17T09:45:00.000-08:00

I am happy to report that we now allow easy and seamless import of powerpoint files into the Techniq LCMS. This integration makes it possible to leverage your existing powerpoint files while getting the maximum out of the Techniq Platform. Once you import the powerpoint you can easily structure the contents, as well as add additional content like FAQ, Audio, Audio script etc. Further more, the content is automatically indexed and can be searched. Importing Powerpoint requires no Powerpoint plugins.

If you have hordes of powerpoint content and have been struggling with getting them onto the web in browser independent, searchable form, the Techniq platform is your best solution! Besides, for all those Powerpoint lovers, this is a must try feature!

Search across courses: Addressing Learner Impatience

2006-03-13T13:17:00.000-08:00

Research has shown that the attention span of most internet users is only a few seconds. With such a clear trend, expecting users to take long courses online might just be asking for too much. This does not mean that there aren't users who would not sit through an online self-paced course. The truth is there are many who simply don't have the patience. In the Internet Age we live in, its all about information and news being mere mouse clicks away. Inshort, there is universal impatience and an obsession with instant gratification.

We were quick to recognize this at Vitalect and we have tuned our platform to address this issue of "learner impatience". Very often learners would run into situations where they know that they did come across some content in a particular course but do not recall the details of the course. On other occasions learners might just want to know about a specific issue or topic. The content in these cases could be a part of a specific course. At the same time the user might not have the patience to go through the entire course. To address this challenge, we have incorporated a "search across courses" functionality. This means users can login and search for any content and retrieve the specific content as well as its larger context ("the course").

Free Ad Supported Courses!

2006-03-07T10:33:00.000-08:00

Would you like to create course content and automatically have ads appear in your content. The Techniq Platform has been turned to support this. Take a look at a handful of our free courses!

Synonym Search

2006-03-07T09:54:00.000-08:00

We have now added the synonym search capability to the Techniq platform. You could always specify keywords while adding content to the Techniq platform. Now we have added the ability to specify synonyms when categorizing the content. Thus, while searching the contents you can search for synonyms of words as well.

New! Indexing feature added to Techniq Author

2006-03-03T09:51:00.000-08:00

Automatic Index Generation! We have added this exciting new capability to the Techniq Author. Create your course and simply select "Insert Index". The system automatically creates an Index page just as you would found in a regular hard copy book. The index page is automatically cross-referenced, so you can easily click on the links and go t the relevant page.

Web 2.0: Show me the money!

2006-02-23T11:18:00.000-08:00

There is so much buzz about Web 2.0 but I am yet to come across a Web 2.0 product with a believable business model. Yet there is plenty of Venture Capital pouring into it Web 2.0 companies. Is Silicon Valley leading another bubble?

I must admit though that many of the new technologies in the so-called Web 2.0 space are really, really cool.

MS Office Live beta -- More "On Demand"

2006-02-17T16:31:00.000-08:00

Microsoft announced its beta launch for MS Office Live the other day. This is clearly one more big step towards "On Demand" software applications going mainstream. I am curious to see/hear about MS beta launch. Despite being a late entrant one can be certain that MS will be going at this market in a big way. I signed up to check out the beta version but haven't heard back from MS.

"On Demand" Software

2006-02-02T12:20:00.000-08:00

The On Demand software market just gained additional legitimacy with SAP entering the fray. It is great to see more interest in this. It makes no sense to battle installation, maintenance, support and implementation when so much can be accomplished online.

Interestingly enough it comes at a time when the leader in this space Salesforce.com has been battling some bad press for unanticipated downtime. After all these years, this is the first time this has ever happened at Salesforce. To be fair to Salesforce, its not as though software maintained and supported by in-house IT depts don't suffer outages! In fact, resolution for in-house outages might be more troublesome (because the vendor might have to pulled into resolve the issue) and expensive. Its definitely less painful to simply call and yell at a vendor for an outage.

Salesforce AppExchange: Cool Idea

2006-01-26T16:09:00.000-08:00

I have been a Salesforce user for many years and love it. Excellent stuff! The AppExchange idea is cool too, but I have my doubts about it taking off. Its hard enough developing bug free software, here you are talking about integrating software from third-parties and ensuring they all work well together. I installed the Skype feature in Salesforce (I have been using Skype standalone for quite a while) but struggled with how to use it from within Salesforce. I tried a few other apps as well but didn't find it easy to use.

Conceptually, AppExchange makes a lot of sense, but in remains to be seen how well it works in practice. Hats off to Salesforce for this innovative approach.

Ebooks are back, yet again!

2006-01-20T19:06:00.000-08:00

Check out Sony's foray into the eBook space. The process is modeled on the iPod and music. You buy the device and go to Sony's online store and buy books which get downloaded to the device. The interesting thing is that Sony has some deals with leading publishers - HarperCollins, Random House, and Penguin.

Apple with Intel Inside Ahead of Schedule!

2006-01-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

The recent announcement about Apple iMacs with Intel processors was actually achieved ahead of the schedule. This very impressive. I can't recall the last time a company delivered a product early! The WSJ had a positive writeup about the performance of software programs on the new Mac with Intel inside.

Nasdaq, Dow drop!

2006-01-20T16:46:00.000-08:00

The Nasdaq dropped 54 points today, while the Dow dropped 213 points. It was just the other day that I was wondering what had caused the Dow to cross 11,000 after almost 4 years. Some joked that the dotcomm days are returning! The drop today indicates the impact that Google is having overall. A significant drop in its share prices is bound to rag the market down overall. A great achievement for a company which has been public for such a short time. Moreover, one must admire their courage to stand up to the Justice Department.

Best Wishes!

2005-12-23T12:24:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas and Best Wishes for a Wonderful New Year!

Bill Gates comment

2005-10-27T18:22:00.000-07:00

"We are stronger than ever because we have a research lab in Cambridge, we have one now in China, one in India and that is where the top problems in computer science are going to be solved." See the full report.

Gone are the MITs and Stanfords? Its amazing how the world has changed/evolved in the last 5-10 years!

Hurricane Katrina: The force of nature

2005-09-02T10:18:00.000-07:00

The horrific news of the Tsunami in Asia in the early part of this year had barely subsided from the media when another natural disaster strikes, this time in the US. It is sad to see and hear the about the grave damage caused by the recent Hurricane in New Orleans. We extend our heartfelt sympathies to all those who have been affected by this tragedy. If you haven't already contributed towards the relief efforts, we encourage you to do so.

Its cool, its WYSIWYG!

2005-07-19T17:04:00.000-07:00

We have introduced WYSIWYG authoring capability to our Techniq Author product. What was easy to use, has become even easier! The interface lets you enter content and format it the way you please using easy to use menus and icons. If you like blogging then using this is a "no-brainer". If you have never used any blogging tools, you will find this truly fascinating.

Click here for a quick demo. If you'd like to test drive the system, click here.

New Website: This Blog has replaced our News page

2005-07-19T16:57:00.000-07:00

We just released our new website. One big change you will notice is that we no longer have a news link on our website. We expect this blog to serve the same purpose and more. No spin, no blasting of press releases to clog the internet. Just plain, simple blog postings.

Return of the eBook?

2004-12-09T18:49:00.000-08:00

Very interesting article in the NY Times about online access to library books.

"THE newest books in the New York Public Library don't take up any shelf space.

They are electronic books - 3,000 titles' worth - and the library's 1.8 million cardholders can point and click through the collection at www.nypl.org, choosing from among best sellers, nonfiction, romance novels and self-help guides. Patrons borrow them for set periods, downloading them for reading on a computer, a hand-held organizer or other device using free reader software. When they are due, the files are automatically locked out - no matter what hardware they are on - and returned to circulation, eliminating late fees......"

For the rest of the article, click Libraries Reach Out, Online" (NY Times requires registration)

Future of Digital Media

2004-11-26T09:20:00.000-08:00

Check this out. Really cool look into the future of Digital Media. If anything like this were to come true, its bound to have significant implications on practically every form of online content (highly personalized manuals, training materials, for instance)

Customized manuals and documents?

2004-11-16T16:06:00.000-08:00

I was recently at the Blue Shield Health Insurance website. I was pleasantly surprised to note that they had a mechanism to generate a customized Blue Shield of California Online Provider Directory! Fill out a bunch of options, a PDF is generated and in a matter of minutes you are notified via email to pick up your custom directory! I thought this was really cool. Wouldn't be great it tech manuals and training modules go down this path at a low level of granularity, say at the chapter or topic level as opposed to a course level or a product manual level. This is perfectly in line with the O'Reilly approach to online publishing.

In the EDA and semiconductor industry imagine if all content from various product vendors was actually made available online (with creative commons licensing of course) for end users to mix, match and modify content for their internal use, there is no question that design methodology would improve significantly. Besides, it would result in a better trained audience and a more knowledgeable user base. There is no question that this would help the industry overall. I am sure this is true for other technology disciplines as well. Most importantly, I think the positives offered by this scenario would far outweigh the negatives, if any.

Unfortunate, but true

2004-11-15T20:59:00.000-08:00

Check out this news report about the failed eUniversity in UK. Its unfortunate but true. A classic example of people (and governments too!) throwing money at projects and expecting wonders. When things like this happen, it unfortunately sends negative signals about a fundamentally powerful technology with lots of potential but ahead of its times.

Interesting discussion on tech product manuals

2004-11-06T22:35:00.000-08:00

I came across an interesting discussion on the poor quality of manuals and documentation in general in the IT industry. Some excellent points have been raised by many.

New Book on Online Learning

2004-10-27T17:12:00.000-07:00

Heard about a new book on Online Learning from Cisco. Considering that Cisco has been a big proponent of online learning, it doesn't come as a surprise. At one time Cisco's CEO John Chambers was a very visible proponent of eLearning and its potential to be the NEXT big application for the Internet. Ironically, one venture capitalist once said to me, "If I got a penny for everytime I saw a quote from Chambers about eLearning on a website or on a business plan, I would have done better than I did on all my eLearning investments combined!"

I wish Cisco had taken the Creative Commons approach to licensing and made it freely available online like some recent authors and publishers have done recently. If Cisco's leadership can spend several millions on online education and evangelizing its true poential, why not make the book freely available online? I think the mission of spreading online learning and its business case will be better served by doing this.

The sample chapter available at the Cisco site doesn't say much, unfortunately. In fact, I found it more self-serving than insightful (which I was hoping for). Hope to check out the book some time, nevertheless!

Very interesting approach from O'Reilly Media

2004-10-25T16:30:00.000-07:00

There was an interesting article in Business 2.0 magazine about how O'Reilly Media is approaching publishing with an online angle to it. (you might need registration to access the article. It appeared in the Sept 2004 issue).

Essentially, by making available lots of content online, it gives instructors an easy way to build their own custom book (including published content, their own content etc.) and students can order print versions of these custom books. If you are unable to get to the article go here to get more details about this.

MS-Word-Techniq Platform: Plug and play

2004-09-09T16:41:00.000-07:00

Microsoft dominates the desktop. MS-Office is omnipresent. Practically every computer user is capable of using MS-Word. As a technical writer you are more than convinced that Adobe Framemaker is a more powerful soution for developing manuals and books. As a software vendor, you might not be a big fan of MS-Office, but you got to learn to live with it. In other words, every solution (particularly anything involving content) must interface with MS-Office tools. At Vitalect, we have developed an easy mechanism to create content (FAQ, Glossary items) in MS-Word and seamlessly integrate it with course content on our Techniq Platform. This content can easily be cut, copied, pasted and shared across courses. In short, its truly plug and play.

To check out a demo click here.

Easy and Efficient Online Exams

2004-09-02T13:22:00.000-07:00

Have you always wanted an easy way to test your employees, partners, customers and others who impact you business so you could improve your products and services?

Have you been terrified at the thought having to speak with your IT dept. about such a requirement?

Would you love it if there was an easy, effective, efficient and yet affordable system that you could deploy almost instantaneously? Wonder what a exam would like in such a system?

In any case, check out a sample exam using Vitalect's Techniq Certifier product.

Some Cool Content Navigation Functionality

2004-08-10T18:51:00.000-07:00

The explosion of web content and particularly Flash based content, has resulted in challenges related to creating, editing and maintaining such content. Very often, Flash developers generate large Flash files which take forever to load. In the world of Online Learning, such content could turn away even the most committed learners.

To address this challenge the Vitalect Techniq Platform has been enhanced to support content navigation within Flash.

This means that content can be developed in small chunks, potentially by different users and seamlessly integrated, with each piece of content being displayed on demand.
With this functionality, you no longer have to wait forever until your entire Flash based content loads. Instead, specific components of a course are loaded and displayed on demand.
This approach also helps you easily update and edit the content since they are in smaller, more manageable chunks.
Finally, the Techniq Platform ensures that you have the ability to share these small chunks of content across courses, helping you realize the advantage of "create once, use many times over"

Click here to see a simple example describing our Techniq Platform using content naviagation feature! (I am proud to say, we eat our own dog food!)

Power Corrupts, Powerpoint Corrupts Absolutely!

2004-07-14T15:29:00.000-07:00

A recent survey showed that a large number of companies use Powerpoint for training purposes. This should not come as a big surprise given that the mighty Microsoft has practically destroyed all other presentation software alternatives. I believe that Powerpoint is a great presentation tool but not suited as a development tool for online training. It works well for instructor-led training because the instructor does all the work and the slides just help guide the flow. Unfortunately, because Powerpoint is widely used for instructor-led training, a number of organizations have extended its use for online training. This article describes the many reasons why I think Powerpoint is not suited to online learning and what I believe are key aspects of a good online learning solution.

Why Powerpoint is Not Suitable for Online Learning

Presentation vs. Training: Firstly, Powerpoint is a presentation tool and not a training tool. Hence, there is usually not much detailed content in a Powerpoint file. In fact, a presentation with a lot of detail is usually frowned upon. A presentation with limited content serves as a great supplement to a talk, but cannot be used in lieu of the talk itself. In other words, if you take a bunch of slides, slap audio on to it, and serve it as online learning, you can be certain that it won't result in effective learning!

Presentation without the Presenter: A presenter using Powerpoint slides uses bullet points in the slide to guide the flow of the talk. A presenter usually provides additional content verbally or in response to specific questions from the audience. With PowerPoint, you cannot provide the additional resources like a glossary, links to other web sites, other resources that the learner can access, and so on. Instead you have to create a separate slide for this purpose. Thus, to provide the slides to a person (or derivatives with pre-recorded voice-overs) and to expect that individual to be trained using that material is a completely misplaced expectation. Moreover, to restrict the user to a presentation format without the presence of the presenter is completely ineffective.

Navigation --"I'll get to that on slide 15": The only reason training appears to be a sequential process is because the trainer has to have a planned sequence of steps in mind in order to deliver a training session. Powerpoint follows a strictly linear sequence with a single chain of pages and does not allow sub-sections at multiple levels. This limitation is not an issue when there is a live presenter. However, in an online self-paced environment, the user must have the ability to traverse around the content without restrictions, navigate through pages, go to external references, and in general, have access to more details when desired.

Just bullets won't do: Software learning in particular requires demonstrations and not just static presentations (animated bulleted text notwithstanding). The visual aspect of showing the user how something is accomplished using a software is extremely critical to the learning process (e.g., how a tool is invoked, how to get to a certain screen, which switches to set, etc.).

Beware, it's a Microsoft World!

Standardizing on a Microsoft product is a modern day version of slavery. Thankfully, the Internet has limited this slavery to some extent. Here are some issues to bear in mind before you swear by Powerpoint as your medium of choice for development of online learning.

PowerPoint is designed for delivery from a PowerPoint player (or PowerPoint itself). It is not designed for delivery using a Web browser of unknown screen size.
HTML format from PowerPoint is not optimal for the web. When you save PowerPoint as HTML, it takes a snapshot of every slide, and stores this as a graphic. Then, it builds some navigation buttons around it. When you save it, you have to specify what screen size you desire. This means that your content is not searchable because it is just a series of graphics. Besides, if the learner's monitor has a resolution that is too high or too low, they will have trouble reading the content.
If a learner has a low bandwidth connection to the server, it will take a long time for each page to download.
Microsoft products work best with Internet Explorer. If you have end users on other browsers, Powerpoint won’t work as well.

Converting PowerPoint content to flash does address some of these issues but still carries with it all the fundamental limitations of a presentation vs. a learning solution.

Online Learning Solutions
Learning using a different medium such as the Internet clearly has its advantages. However, it also requires that the content development be approached differently from the conventional techniques used for instructor-led training. The absence of a live instructor implies a different environment and a user with a mindset that differs from someone in a classroom. Hence, using conventional tools and simply trying to extend them for the Web are likely have very poor results. The challenge is to leverage the new medium to provide a lot of information without overwhelming the learner. Instead, the learner has to be steadily drawn into the various topics and encouraged to probe and access additional information during the learning process.

An ideal online learning solution is one which has the following characteristics:

Engaging (visually with graphics, audio, video etc.)
Easy to use, with intuitive and powerful navigation (which lets the learner be in charge).
Provides plenty of information but is presented in small installments guiding the learners as they learn and probe for more information (search, glossary)
Constantly enhances content from everyday user issues (FAQ, support queries).
Provides the ability to reach out to a subject matter expert (email, chat)
Includes interaction with other learners in the community (Message board, chat).
Has plenty of examples showing actual screen shots and step-by-step instructions (Simulations).
Tests the learner at various stages, especially if there is Certification involved (Quizzes).
Seeks feedback from the learner about the content, the actual experience etc. (Evaluation)
Last but not the least, makes the access to the course easy and painless (registration, installation, browser testing etc.)

There can be no doubt that a solution with all these rich features is more suited to training and significantly differs from a conventional presentation. Ideally, you want a solution that does not force you to stick with one presentation tool but instead supports various desktop authoring tools while still remaining largely Web friendly. For example, just as Powerpoint is widely used for presentations, Adobe Framemaker is almost a de facto standard for development of manuals. Thus, you want an online solution that supports Powerpoint, Framemaker and any other desktop application of choice. This ensures that your developers are not forced into using any specific desktop application. Instead they should have the freedom of using their tool of choice but create content that still seamless integrates with your organization's online learning content.

Power certainly corrupts, but before you are absolutely corrupted by Powerpoint, think again--there are certainly better options out there!

New Software Release: Techniq Platform 4.0

2004-07-08T06:54:00.000-07:00

The latest release of Vitalect Techniq Platform is now available. This is a result of several months of hard work from the Vitalect team incorporating inputs from customers and prospects to enhance the platform and make creation and delivery of content a simpler and painless experience. This release includes several changes to various components of the Techniq Platform including:

Techniq Author: Changes have been made to the authoring system including: the ability to share, search and retrieve content at the lowest level of granularity (images, FAQ, html content etc), the ability to navigate to different parts of a course from the content area, support for print specific content, improved UI, and improved collaboration capabilities for content development.

Techniq Tutor: It is now available both online and offline (Desktop Tutor) with the unique ability to synchronize offline usage.

Techniq LMS: A number of new features have benn added to the Techniq learning management system including support for promotion codes, vastly improved UI, support for Instructor-led courses, ability to view transcript including self-paced, live online and instructor led courses, ability to easily export registration and usage infomation in MS Excel.

Techniq Surveys: An addition to the Vitalect Techniq Platform that lets users get feedback from customers through simple, easy to develop and maintain online surveys. The results of surveys can be exported to MS Excel for analysis.

Techniq Demos: An easy and effective mechanism that helps users maintain and grow their leads, through easy online registration and access to online demos. User lists can easily be exported to MS Excel for email campaigns and lead distribution.

In addition, several improvements that have been made "under the hood" which improve overall performance and reliability. If you have any specific questions, talk to your contact at Vitalect or send email to info@vitalect.com