On April 7, 2009, Upside Learning turned five. It all began back in 2004, with two entrepreneurs who wanted to set up their own business for providing effective eLearning Solutions. Over a span of five years, we evolved from a 6-person team operating out of a shared office above a bank to a 150-employee organisation providing Learning Solutions to clients worldwide. Today, we are the fastest growing Learning Solutions company in India over the past three years (based on Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India 2008 ranking), and one of the 15 top companies in Training Industry, Inc.’s 2009 list of “Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing”.

We have put together a slideshow that summarizes the milestones we have crossed over the past five years, our achievements, and the recognition that has come our way so far.

Click here to view this slideshow on our “Upside Learning Completes Five Years” blog post.

You can also access it directly on SlideShare.

June 2009 – Upside Learning emerged with winning entries in the Apex Annual Awards for Publication Excellence Competition for the third year running. This year, we won two Apex 2009 Awards of Excellence. These awards were for a white paper on adopting digital game-based learning, and a custom eLearning solution for potential Branch Managers of a major chain of builders merchants.

The white paper, “Do You Need Games In Your Elearning Mix?”, was entered in the Special Purpose Brochures, Manuals, and Reports sub-category of the Brochures, Manuals, and Reports category.

Recognizing that today’s workplace generation of gamers has different expectations, the white paper recommends the use of games to interest this learning audience. The author advocates casual games as a good first step for organization setting out to include games in their eLearning mix. He then goes on to describe several types of casual games and explains what kinds of learning they can help achieve. You can download a copy of the complete white paper from here.

The “Branch Manager Commercial Skills” eLearning solution was entered in the Web and Electronic Publications sub-category of the Electronic and Video Publications category.

Targeted at potential Branch Managers of a major builders merchants chain, it is presented within the context of a typical branch manager’s day, with a clear focus on practice and application of the skills and knowledge that a branch manager must possess. The program is game-like in approach. The learner, in the shoes of a branch manager, is set a challenge to earn a target amount of money for the branch by the end of the ‘day’. This can be achieved through good performance on quizzes for ‘activities’ undertaken by branch managers as a part of a normal working day.

The Apex Awards are sponsored by the editors of Writing That Works, a newsletter published by Communications Concepts, Inc.
(www.apexawards.com). These awards are presented annually to recognize excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. This year, there were 11 major categories and 122 sub-categories. The Awards of Excellence recognize exceptional entries within these sub-categories.

This year’s competition had around 3785 entries in total. There were 378 entries in the Brochures, Manuals, and Reports category, out of which 21 won Awards of Excellence in the Special Purpose Brochures, Manuals, and Reports sub-category. The Video and Electronic Publications category had 193 entries, out of which 6 won Awards of Excellence in the Web and Electronic Publications sub-category.

Upside Learning recently sponsored the inaugural CLO Summit India, which addresses the organizational learning & development scenario in India. The summit witnessed the presence of eminent speakers and leaders from the Human Resources and Learning & Development.

The first panel which discussed whether there is a need of a separate CLO in an organization today was excellent. The CLO, who is a domain expert in learning and organizational development, is the key to enable the achievement of an organization’s vision and business goals through the proper development of its workforce.

Some of the other subjects discussed at the event were ‘Learning in Multicultural environments’ and ‘The role of R&D, Innovation and Learning in today’s dynamic organization’. These sessions brought out different perspectives and that was great for the audience. The audience itself was participative and contributed to a better understanding for everyone with its questions and comments.

It was a day filled with inspiring keynotes, crisp panel discussions and stimulating presentations, the event witnessed the presence of eminent speakers such as Mr. Bhaskar Chatterjee (Secretary, Department of Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises, Government of India), Mr. Arun Balakrishnan (HPCL), Mr. Thomas Varghese (Aditya Birla Retail), Mr. Yogi Sriram (L & T), Ms. Susan Bloch (Aditya Birla Group), Mr. Kalyan Banerjee (Mindtree), Ms. Suchitra Rajendra (PepsiCo), Mr. Nilesh Kulkarni (Novartis Consumer Health), Captain Mohanlal J P (SBI Life Insurance) along with notable personalities from the Indian PSU sector including BPCL, ONGC and IOC.

Conventional eLearning is based on behavioural and cognitive models of learning which were developed during the 1960s and 70s. For today’s generation, however, with its growing percentage of gamers, these methodologies fail to grip. Their expectations have been molded by the Internet, the World Wide Web, and digital games, and their associated technologies. They want sophisticated media, involvement, and interaction.

Upside Learning’s white paper recommends the use of games to interest this learning audience. Games, by far the most engaging of all interactive media forms, can provide the impetus and motivation for young learners who wouldn’t enjoy the typical ‘page–turner’ courses.

Most training includes factual, conceptual, or rule–based content, and the paper suggests converting such content into small Casual Games. These are designed to be played repeatedly, are not very complicated, and are relatively inexpensive to build. They can prove to be an excellent choice for organisation experimenting with DGBL (digital game-based learning).

While the author recommends casual games as an essential learning component for a gamer audience, he stresses the importance of first determining what type of gamers they are, and what (learning) purpose the games would serve. A Concept Game, for example, provides an opportunity to identify attributes of a concept. Typically, these games are presented as multiple-choice exercises or identification games. Declarative Knowledge and Labeling Games help teach declarative knowledge through repeated attempts. Information that needs to be committed to memory gets reinforced as the player aims at a higher score or continually endeavours to beat an opponent. What’s more – these games do not need elaborate realistic graphics and immersive interaction to be effective! Aligned closely with simulations, Rule Knowledge Games facilitate learners in recognizing and remembering rules associated with rule systems.

While conventional eLearning is closely tied to media development, game development has closer ties to software development. Though the same fundamental instructional design approaches are applied to develop both, the delivery media differ significantly. Games steer more towards software development because of the complexities inherent in their development. The author has highlighted significant considerations to reflect upon from the development perspective like the costs involved, or even the time frames required for the design, as well as the ever-changing training needs that link directly to the shelf-life of a course.

The white paper concludes that games are valuable learning tools that will appeal to a growing young audience who views the world differently.

Click here to download a copy of the white paper.

Upside Learning has been included in the fourth annual list of “Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing” announced by Training Industry, Inc. on April 7, 2009.

This list recognises the top organisation from the global market that have demonstrated “innovation and excellence” in the provision of outsourced learning services and are now ready to raise their service levels to clients. The aim of this list is to provide businesses, government agencies, and training companies seeking learning solutions outsourcing partners with a short list of skilled, successful, and reliable organisation. This can help them to make more informed decisions and procure high-quality learning services.

Being included on this list is recognition of our experience, expertise, and capabilities as a learning solutions provider. It brings us alongside some of the well known and large training and eLearning organisation from around the world.

It’s no small recognition to have achieved in just five years of operation, and comes on the back of inclusions into Deloitte’s Technology Fast 50 India 2008 program and Technology Fast 500 Asia Pacific 2008 program.

Click here to view the complete “2009 Emerging Leaders in Training Outsourcing” list.