This in from INXPO:

A digital extension can be a great way to expand the reach of your physical event. But are you getting the revenue that you should from this element of your association’s portfolio? Join bXb Online founder Tony Lorenz as he discusses best practices for covering the costs of digitally extending your event, and building significant profit over time, as well. A few areas he will cover include:

• How treating your digital extension as an asset increases the value of both your physical and online platforms
• Your membership base as a revenue source over time
• Integration of your physical and online sponsor/exhibitor opportunities
• Pay-per-view models that work in the right place at the right time
• Use of your online extension as a way to build membership in your association
• The holy grail - behavioral data and its potential impact on your business

Join us for this timely webcast. Enter the dialogue and ask your questions live! Register now.

LMS provider WBT Systems has announced a survey on mobile and social learning. Here’s what the company says:

Social learning and mobile learning are currently very topical and we are keen to understand more about what’s happening within associations today with regard to approach, strategy and what members are demanding.

We have opened an online survey, that only takes 10 minutes to complete and we’d like to hear about your association’s experience. Based on the survey findings, we will be writing a report which we will be happy to share with you. All information supplied is of course confidential.

 As an incentive we’ll be giving a Kindle e-Reader to one lucky respondent.

So if you work for an association, professional body or institute with visibility into the area of learning, we’d love to hear from you!

You can access the survey at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/57LMJCY

Tagoras and Velvet Chainsaw Consulting today released The Speaker Report: The Use of Professional and Industry Speakers in the Meetings Market. The free report offers some of the most comprehensive information available on how speakers fit into the educational landscape. Areas covered include how organizations use professional and industry speakers at their meetings, conferences, and other events—how they select them, what they expect from them, and how their educational impact is measured.

Find out more and download for free (no payment, no e-mail address) at:

http://www.tagoras.com/2011/12/15/the-speaker-report/

Digital Ignite (http://www.digitalignite.com) announced that its Crowd Wisdom™ platform was selected by The American  Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and the Mountain and Plains Education and Research Center of the University of Colorado, to run as the central professional education and development platform for their respective audiences.

This in:

Digitec Interactive (http://www.digitecinteractive.com) announced the successful launch of their Knowledge Direct platform for four new member-based organizations and welcomed one more. The Direct Marketing Association (DMA), American College of Osteopathic Family Physicians (ACOFP), Association of Property Scene Designers (APSD) and Lion’s Heart all celebrated the launch of their new online learning portals. The Australian Direct Marketing Association (ADMA) is also partnering with Digitec to offer its members professional development and training opportunities through the award-winning system.

USAID’s SHOPS e-Conference Program
The USAID SHOPS program is an ongoing series of 100% online conferences that unite individuals and organizations around the world in a dynamic collaboration effort to confront the complex health challenges faced by developing countries. Using the iCohere platform, these conferences have been highly accessible and diversely represented.

http://icohere.com/CaseStudies/USAID-CaseStudy.pdf

ASAE’s Online Professional Learning Program
In 2005, ASAE began developing 6-week self-paced online courses on association core competencies. Today, helped by iCohere’s flexible, feature-rich platform, these courses have flourished into a paid-faculty operation with in-depth curricula that enroll thousands of participants every year and report an average satisfaction rating of 4.3 out of 5.

http://icohere.com/CaseStudies/ASAE_Case_Study.pdf

CTI’s Worldwide Online Training Program
CTI’s Certified Professional Co-Active Coach® virtual Certification Program utilizes the iCohere platform to meld different technologies and experiences into a strictly structured program of supervised, self-guided study. Through this program, students from all around the world can connect with an instructor to deepen their knowledge and obtain a professional credential.

http://www.icohere.com/CaseStudies/CTI_CaseStudy.pdf

BlueVolt has announced the release of its HTML5 mobile interface. Elearning users can now access interactive courses, quizzes and videos from any mobile device, without relying on the use of Adobe Flash software.

http://www.bluevolt.com/company/news/2011/11/bluevolt-learning-management-system-goes-mobile

Web Courseworks has released ‘Distraction Dodger,’ a serious online game developed for the University of Minnesota’s ITS Institute to address the issue of distracted driving. Designed to educate teens worldwide on the importance of concentrating while driving, the game has been released publicly to the online casual games market. ‘Distraction Dodger’ is a scenario based online game that enables players to safely experience and learn about consequences associated with distracted driving.

More at:

Press Release

PDF Overview

From Peach New Media:

Freestone Social LMS™ Unites Communities with Learning Management for Collaborative E-learning

Peach New Media announced the release of Freestone Social LMS™, an online community platform integrated with a learning management system. Freestone enables individuals within organizations to collaborate and learn at all levels, internal and external. In the emerging movement to social learning online, Freestone offers organizations the ability to advance online learning in unprecedented ways.

In a Web-based world where people are identified by what they share, not by what they do, social or “participatory” learning is the 21st century classroom. Industry expert and co-founder of Tagoras, Jeff Cobb, describes social learning as “the idea that we build much of our knowledge through our interactions with other human beings.” Social learning gives organizations an advantage by widening the scope of knowledge sharing and idea generation to peers and colleagues within a community.

“Information transfer and learning are not the same thing,” says Dave Will, co-founder of Peach New Media. “We believe the actual learning happens when you interact with people. When social learning engages with traditional curriculum, you get an explosion of ideas, creativity, and engagement.”

With the Freestone Social LMS™ platform, organizations have the power to integrate a private social community into a learning management system. The platform provides a Personal Dashboard for users to access community and learning activities with one profile and login. Similar to popular social media sites, the Freestone community allows users to create relationships through contacts. But unlike other platforms, the Freestone community is centered around building knowledge in a particular skill or industry and exists within a fully configurable learning management system.

Peach New Media co-founder Johnson Cook says, “People are drawn to communities — they enjoy being recognized for what they share. Marrying our learning management system with community software was an obvious match and fills a true need.” A sampling of the Freestone Social LMS™ components includes:

• Private community, profiles, collaborative groups
• Access control, registration and e-commerce management
• Live webcasts and live webinar delivery
• On-Demand streaming content and mobile video delivery
• Subscription and package management
• Continuing education management

For more information about Freestone Social LMS from Peach New Media, visit http://www.peachnewmedia.com.

PEACH NEW MEDIA
Peach New Media (PNM) is a leader in online knowledge sharing. The “Peaches” at PNM believe that telling stories, providing access to experts and mentors within an industry is a key calling for associations. Serving associations and continuing education providers since 2001, Peach has worked with over 300 professional associations to provide platform, support, and professional services, to enable these associations to reach more people with more content. For more information, visit http://www.PeachNewMedia.com.

From WBT Systems:

WBT Systems becomes ASI iXtend Gold Partner

Partnership brings eLearning solutions to iMIS customers

New Hampshire and Dublin, Ireland October 12, 2011 – WBT Systems,
leading provider of eLearning solutions for the not-for-profit (NFP)
sector, today announced its iXtend Gold-level partnership with Advanced
Solutions International (ASI), developer of the market leading iMIS
enterprise software platform for membership and fundraising NFP
organizations. The partnership will enable iMIS customers to have an
approved learning partner that offers an integrated Learning Management
System (LMS), called TopClass, to manage and deliver education programs
online.

ASI’s iXtend Program is a business initiative for 3rd-party iMIS add-on
products. The iXtend Gold level represents the highest level of
participation in the program and WBT is the only LMS provider at this
level. Prior to entering the program, WBT had already delivered several
successful custom iMIS integrations in the past, but this partnership
will productize a standard integration in the form of a configurable
bridge. This bridge will allow customers using both TopClass and iMIS to
seamlessly integrate the two solutions using a tried, tested and fully
supported integration, which is easily configurable to suit their
business needs.

The latest version of TopClass has many features designed specifically
for NFP organizations, including, for example, trade associations,
professional societies, foundations, and charities. It includes an
eCommerce engine for selling courses and products online, certification
management, tracking and awarding of continuing education units, and
conference management.  These features, in addition to the iMIS bridge,
make TopClass an obvious choice for iMIS customers who want a completely
integrated system to manage their continuing professional development
needs online.

“ASI is pleased to have a high-quality company, WBT Systems, join our
iXtend Program as a Gold partner. More and more of our iMIS customers
around the world are requesting on-line eLearning options and the
TopClass LMS is an exceptional match for their diverse international
requirements” said Bob Alves, Chairman and CEO, ASI.

Paul Dooley, CEO at WBT Systems commented, “WBT now has the right
elements in place to be able to serve the NFP sector well. We have a
product with all the necessary features, we have a good team of people
with extensive NFP organizational knowledge, and our general approach to
working with NFP organizations is flexible with licensing options that
are suited to the way they operate.”

Dooley continued, “This new partnership positions us to provide iMIS
customers with integrated learning solutions. We are delighted to be
part of the iXtend program at Gold level and look forward to working
closely with ASI to serve their many iMIS customers not only in the
United States but globally.”


About WBT
Systems WBT Systems is the leading provider of e-learning
software to associations and professional bodies. WBT’s flagship
product, TopClass, efficiently manages the delivery of training and
education programs online and is a web-based Learning Management System
that enables employees, members, partners or any learners across an
organization and in different countries to access training and events
from a single online platform. WBT has offices in Ireland and the United
States and is owned by Avnet Inc., a Fortune 500 company with more than
100,000 customers worldwide. For more information, see
www.wbtsystems.com.

About ASI
Advanced Solutions International (ASI) is the largest,
privately-owned global provider of web-based software for member and
donor-based not-for-profits, and has served nearly 3,000 customers and
millions of users worldwide since 1991. The company has approximately
100 partners and 200 employees worldwide with offices in the U.S., U.K.,
Canada and Australia.

ASI is the developer of iMIS, an upgradeable software solution for
managing associations, membership, non-profits and fundraising. iMIS is
the most widely used association software in the world with three times
the global market share of the nearest solution and a popular choice
among a variety of other not-for-profits. iMIS 15, the latest evolution
of iMIS, leverages Microsoft’s .NET development platform to provide a
flexible and open web-based solution.