Upside Learning witnesses strong demand for mobile learning

Upside Learning’s interaction with its global clientele, in addition to, indications by the market forecasts point towards a rapid growth in the mLearning solutions market. The company has been experiencing a strong demand for mobile learning solutions over the past quarter and predicts mobile devices to become an important learning tool in the learning technology landscape, a verity reiterated at the recently concluded mLearnCon, held in San Diego.

Ambient Report forecasted US market for mobile learning products and services to be growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.7%, showing a strong demand in mobile learning. The demand in other markets too is demonstrating similar trends. With a view to addressing this demand, the innovation team at Upside Learning has been taping onto the latest trends and developing new applications across various platforms such as Android, iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian etc. The company now offers mobile audio-video podcasts, mobile quiz games, and m-learning nuggets for these devices, both as web and native apps. Back in April, Upside Learning developed the first Layar for an Indian city – Pune Layar (an Android-based augmented reality application). The company has also developed a mobile version of UpsideLMS, its flagship, multi-award-winning Learning Management System.

PC Quest Magazine Showcases Upside Learning’s Pune Layar

Pune Layar is an augmented reality (AR) application for mobile phones that enables users to find significant landmarks in and around Pune city. With a view to exploring the application of AR in the field of eLearning, Upside Learning had released this Layar back in April, making it India’s first crowd-sourced Layar.

After having received many eyeballs and being covered by some of the biggest newspapers (like Sakal, DNA, Indian Express, Sakal Times, Pune Times), Pune Layar has now managed to figure in one of the oldest and prestigious technology magazines in the country – PC Quest.

PC Quest is a premier Indian (PC) computer magazine providing online computer news, IT articles from India & abroad. The second oldest IT publication in the country, it is ranked as the number one magazine by IT purchase decision makers in helping them with their IT purchases. In its July 2010 issue, covered under the “Exploring MARS – The Renaissance of Reality”, the magazine talks about Pune Layar – its significance from the Indian perspective and that with regard to the growing market of smart phones. The article also details the developer’s angle behind this application and Upside learning’s take on the emerging technologies.

Upside Learning Introduces Upside Blog App For iPhones, iPods And iPads

Upside Learning has always explored new technological avenues and developed advanced & innovative learning solutions to provide cutting-edge solutions to its clients. In view of the growing demand for mLearning solutions, the company has been researching on various ways to make learning accessible on mobile devices across all devices and platforms so as to enable employers to reach out to their mobile workforce easily and quickly.

Upside Learning is excited to announce the launch of its app for Upside Learning Blog called the ‘Upside Blog App’. Designed to facilitate browsing of Upside Learning’s blog content for its readers, this app is now freely available at the iTunes Store.

The Upside Blog application allows users to access, read and interact with posts on the Upside Learning Blog from an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad on the go.

The app displays the latest posts on the main panel and also allows users to ‘search’ on keywords, or browse posts by ‘category’ or ‘authors’. Users can directly checkout the ‘Top 25’ blog posts or get a list of the ‘latest’ posts. The readers could also comment on the posts directly from their phones.

Additionally, the app interacts with popular social media tools like Twitter and Facebook. Users can directly ‘tweet’ about a post or ‘like’ it on Facebook, right from the app itself. This is brought about by the in-app browser functionality which enables the readers to visit external links without leaving the app. Another important feature is the ‘Read it Later’ facility that allows users to bookmark blog posts of their choice for later reading.

Amit Garg, Director of Content Solutions, said, “We wanted to make it easy for readers to receive regular updates form Upside Learning Blog and discover interesting content on their mobile phones. We are sure that this app will make it easier for our readers to connect and interact with us better. We plan to introduce apps for Blackberry and Android devices soon.”

Besides the Blog App, Upside Learning offers a range of mLearning solutions like short nuggets (micro-courses), mobile apps, mobile videos, games, assessments (interactive quizzes), m-Books (short story-based learning modules) and Augmented Reality (Geo-location based or image-based) solutions.

Upside Learning Releases A New Point–Of–View Paper On Mobile Learning

As a company driven by innovation, Upside Learning is always researching new technologies and bringing innovative solutions to its clients. Mobile Learning has been one of the focus areas at Upside Learning in recent times. And continuing with its developments in the mLearning domain, the company is pleased to announce the release of its new Point-of-View paper, ‘Mobile Learning – Here and Now’.

The paper is based on the fact that technological developments and the increase in the mobile device penetration among the population have led to sustainable change in all spheres of our lives – radically changing the way we live and learn. Authored by Abhijit Kadle, Manager – Instructional Design at Upside Learning, this Point of View takes a comprehensive look at Mobile Learning – starting with the basics and delving deeper into the nuances of mLearning design.

Ideal for people who are considering mobile learning, the paper includes key points on:

What is Mobile Learning?
When to use Mobile Learning
Design Considerations for Mobile Learning
Advantages (& disadvantages) of Mobile Learning

Besides this, the paper also highlights a framework for evaluation, identifying three core areas – Usability, Technical, and Functional, which is handy while considering varied mobile devices available. It addresses key trends occurring in Mobile Learning space and its rapid growth across businesses, globally.

A complimentary copy of the Point-of-View Paper, ‘Mobile Learning – Here and Now’, can be obtained from here.

Upside Learning Unveils New Corporate Identity; Revamps Its Website

Upside Learning has undergone a major transformation – the first of its kind in the company’s 6 year journey. In line with its efforts to align the company’s image with its evolving business, Upside Learning has unveiled a new corporate identity today.

The new identity symbolizes the company’s movement into new domains, birth of new ideas, innovation and development of new products. It combines the elements of agility and innovation to reflect a shift in the way Upside Learning thinks & works; its focus on higher growth & success, and its step towards the new & improved.

The logo has been designed to reflect the company’s philosophy of putting YOU (the customer, its employees and other stakeholders) first – denoted by the ‘U’ shape, the arrow signifies its focus on growth through performance and learning, while the colour green embodies the eco-friendly nature of its solutions and services.

The branding initiative involves a new visual identity across all communications, which include a revamped website and blog, and relevant changes in the marketing and support materials. Upside Learning has also released a ‘new identity launch’ video on You Tube that captures the essence of the company and that of the new logo.

Watch the video:

“Upside Learning has grown significantly over the past 6 years with diversified offerings, and today it serves over 150 customers across the globe,” said Amit Gautam, Director of Technology Solutions at Upside Learning. “Our new identity reflects the attributes of our unique culture – focused on the customers, employees and other stakeholders. Most importantly, it symbolizes our fervor to grow”, he added.

Subsequently, the company also plans to re-align its products and service offerings with a renewed focus on innovation; underlining its commitment of providing effective learning solutions to the global community.