Upside Learning Develops Augmented Reality Cover For Elearning! Magazine

The July/August issue of Elearning! Magazine featuring a cover story on Augmented Reality (AR) for Learning officially hit the news stands on July 14^th, 2011. What makes this remarkable is the fact that it is the first-ever eLearning magazine to feature an interactive ‘augmented reality’ cover page. And making this possible is Upside Learning, a global leader in Custom eLearning, Mobile Learning solutions and Learning Management System. Upside Learning has been instrumental in the complete development process of the application from conceptualisation to implementation.

Upside Learning has constantly strived to address the multifarious platforms in the technology space, with Augmented Reality being one of the most important ones. For some years, the company has been exploring this technology and finding the best ways to utilise it in the learning domain. It has successfully developed AR applications like Pune Layar, an augmented reality application for mobile phones developed first time for an Indian city; and AR Street Racing, a simple racing game.

Given Upside Learning’s experience, understanding and capabilities of AR technology, Elearning! Magazine approached the company for its special issue focusing on Augmented Reality. The main idea was to develop a cover for the magazine that introduced the readers to the real world uses of AR. It was also important that it illustrated the accessibility of AR in learning programs. Being an eLearning company, with a focus on emerging technologies, Upside Learning considered this as a perfect opportunity to showcase its learning and technology capabilities.

After initial discussions between the publication team and Upside Learning’s team, comprising Abhijit Kadle, Sr. Manager-Instructional Design, and Shivaji Babar, Associate Lead Developer, it was decided to create a simple marker that could be printed on the magazine cover. This marker when held up to a computer camera, on recognition and registration thereof, enabled the AR demo. As the cover story was to highlight various disciplines wherein Augmented Reality could be used as a value add in effective learning, the final demo was developed to showcase three videos demonstrating practical AR applications in Manufacturing, Medical and Recruitment.

Designed for both Windows and Mac, the AR cover is clearly inline with the cover story demonstrating how Augmented Reality can blend real world learning with digital technology with components like exploration, learning and entertainment.

Amit Garg, Director of Custom eLearning Solutions at Upside Learning, said, “We are excited to see an AR application developed in-house being featured on the cover page of Elearning! Magazine. Reaching thousands of readers, it is an excellent way to showcase our technology capability while keeping learning as a focal point.”

Upside Learning To Showcase Its Latest Range Of Learning Solutions At World Of Learning 2011

This month, Birmingham’s NEC will host the World of Learning 2011 Conference & Exhibition and Upside Learning will be amongst the 100 exhibitors from UK and other international markets showcasing its wide range of solutions and services.The WOL conference and exhibition has been designed to equip learning and development (L&D) practitioners with the knowledge to help ensure their organisation employ the right people with the right skills. The exhibition will see exhibitors offering the latest ideas, solutions and services across all sectors of L&D, from using eLearning and social media in learning processes, to experiential learning, coaching and informal forms of training.Visitors to Upside Learning’s stand (E100) can look forward to experiencing the company’s entire range of award-winning and innovative solutions and services. Attendees can experience Upside Learning’s two time Brandon Hall award winning, best value Learning Management System, UpsideLMS, which has recently been declared as a finalist in ‘Learning In Practice Awards’ by CLO Magazine under ‘Excellence in LMS’ category.Besides this, visitors can also explore Upside2Go, the company’ revolutionary platform for mobile learning designed especially for the mobile workforce. Launched in the UK market at CIPD HRD 2011, within a short span of 6 months Upside2Go has won appreciation for its innovativeness and effectiveness across all regions and sectors.

Some of Upside Learning’s other solutions and services include Bespoke eLearning Solutions and Bespoke Mobile Learning Solutions. Visitors can take a look at samples of the eLearning solutions, while they can try their hands on the various mLearning solutions.

Special expo offers will be announced in a week’s time.

Upside learning’s representatives will be present at stand (E100) throughout the event. To pre-arrange a meeting with a member of the Upside Learning team, send an email specifying your preferred time and date to sales@upsidelearning.com.

One Lucky Winner To Win A Kindle Reader At Upside Learning’s Booth At mLearnCon 2011

Attendees at mLearnCon 2011 can look forward to winning a Kindle Reader at Upside Learning’s booth (#316). This is a part of the company’s special expo offer for the event, which will be held between 21^st and 23^rd of June in San Jose, CA.

To be eligible for the offer, visitors would need to register at Upside Learning’s booth. One winner will be chosen via random draw, and announcement of the winner thereof will be done post the event. The company’s representative will contact the winner personally via email.

Besides participating in the offer, attendees can experience Upside Learning’s entire range of innovative Mobile Learning solutions including its newly launched revolutionary platform for Mobile Learning – Upside2Go. Visitors can also take a look at the company’s award-winning Custom eLearning solutions and its best value Learning Management System – UpsideLMS.

The company’s representatives will also be delivering a Master Class session titled ‘Mobile Learning and Performance Support with Upside2Go’ on June 21^st at 12.45PM.

Upside learning’s representatives will be present throughout the event and can be found at booth no. 316. To pre-arrange a meeting with a member of the Upside Learning team during the conference, drop a mail at sales@upsidelearning.com

Kindle Reader To Be Won At Upside Learning’s Booth At World Of Learning 2011

Announcing its special expo offer for World of Learning Conference & Exhibition 2011 (WOL 2011), Upside Learning revealed today the prize to be won at the event. The company would be giving away a Kindle Reader (Wi-Fi version) absolutely free to a lucky visitor at the expo, to be held on 27^th and 28^th September at NEC Birmingham, UK.

The Kindle Reader offer will be held in conjunction with a survey on ‘Mobile Learning In The Workplace’. Participating in this short survey will make the visitor eligible for the expo prize. The final winner thereof will be selected via a random draw process and the announcement will be done post the event.

Besides this, attendees will get to experience Upside Learning’s entire range of learning solutions including its award-winning Custom eLearning Solutions, two time Brandon Hall award-winning, best value LMS – UpsideLMS, revolutionary platform for mobile learning – Upside2Go and other innovative Mobile Learning Solutions.

Upside learning’s representatives will be present at booth (# E100) throughout the event. To pre-arrange a meeting with a member of the Upside Learning team, send an email specifying your preferred time and date to sales@upsidelearning.com.

Upside Learning To Participate In CLO Summit, India; To Be A Part Of A Power Session On Mobile Learning

In continuance with its past participations, Upside Learning is all geared up for this year’s CLO Summit, India, one of the largest gatherings of L&D professionals in India. Apart from showcasing its award–winning Learning Management System, UpsideLMS, the company’s Director of Custom Learning Solutions, Amit Garg, will be participating in a power session on Mobile Learning.

Based on the theme ‘organizational Learning: Impacting Business. Changing the Game’, the CLO Summit, India focuses on the role of L&D in improving organizational functions. Eminent industry experts are invited to deliver sessions on different topics related to learning and development in organization. One such power session will see Amit Garg discuss the future trends and tools in Learning and Development under the track ‘Mobile Social and E–Learning’ along with other speakers in the panel. The session is slated for 1^st November at 1.30 PM.

Amit commented, “Mobile Learning is an emerging learning trend in India. Training departments are now trying to find the best possible options and strategies in implementing it in their organization. Our discussions emerging out of the power session will help organization get acquainted with the future trends in mobile learning and help them get started with it quickly.”

Visitors can drop by booth # B4 to get a first–hand experience of Upside Learning’s award’winning Learning Management System, UpsideLMS and interact with the team. Interested individuals can drop a line at info@upsidelearning.com and set a meeting with the team member.

CLO Summit, India is slated for November 1 & 2 in Mumbai, India.

Upside Learning To Showcase Innovative Custom eLearning And mLearning Projects At DevLearn 2012 DemoFest

Visitors at DevLearn 2012 have an opportunity to can get a firsthand experience of Upside Learning’s innovative learning solutions as the company showcases its custom eLearning project and mLearning project. These projects will be showcased at the eLearning DemoFest during the three–day expo.

The two unique and innovative projects, called DC Walkthrough Game for Vocollect (custom eLearning) and Jangro – Upside2Go System (mLearning), will be showcased at table no. 56 and 32, respectively. Winner of a Bronze award for Best Extended Enterprise Learning Program under the 2012 Brandon Hall Excellence Awards in Learning, the custom eLearning project for VoCollect University was developed to offer VCT, WBT and ILT, and ranges from technical to sales training. Whereas, Jangro – Upside2Go System is a unique solution that allows administrators to deliver training on desktops and mobile devices via a unified learning management system. This is brought about by the seamless integration of UpsideLMS, Upside Learning–s multi award–winning Learning Management System, and Upside2Go, the company’s revolutionary mobile learning platform.

Visitors can interact with the company representatives at the expo at table No. 56 and 32 and learn more about its solutions and services. They can also discuss their learning requirements and get answers to some of their major learning problems.

The eLearning DemoFest is slated for November 1 from 4–7 PDT and will be conducted during the three day DevLearn 2012 Conference and Expo which runs from October 31–November 2, 2012.

Upside Learning Records YOY Growth Of 97% In FY 2012

Upside Learning’s growth story continues as the company recorded a staggering 97% YOY growth for Q1–Q2 in FY 2012. The high YOY growth highlights the growing adoption of the company’s wide range of learning solutions, especially its multi award–winning Learning Management System, UpsideLMS, and Custom Learning solutions, which include tailor–made solutions for desktops and mobile devices.

While the increasing sale of its solutions and services has been a driving force for the company’s growth, another key driving force is the rapidly growing partner network. New partnerships in regions like the UK, Middle East, Thailand over the past couple of months have enabled Upside Learning to widen its global reach.

Upside Learning has always believed in innovating itself and its products and services. True to this and with a view to enhancing its growth further, the company has chalked out a promising product roadmap for its solutions – UpsideLMS and Upside2Go, its revolutionary mLearning platform. The coming quarters will see several enhancements in both these products.

The company has recently appointed a Director of Client Solutions for the UK and Europe. This appointment will bolster the company’s efforts in extending its reach in the UK and Europe regions, thereby strengthening its growth.

Recently Upside Learning has also won a Brandon Hall Award for one of its custom eLearning projects. This underlines the company’s commitment towards providing world class learning solutions and services.

Upside Learning Adopts Tin Can API In Its Proprietary Courseware Framework

Going a step beyond SCORM, Upside Learning has now integrated Tin Can API into its proprietary courseware framework for custom eLearning and mobile learning. These Tin Can compliant courses can be developed for desktops, as well as mobile devices, including tablets.

As a leading provider of world–class learning technology solutions, Upside Learning has always adhered to the latest learning standards in creating and delivering eLearning and mLearning solutions. Integrating Tin Can API into its solutions was only a natural progression for the company.

Integrating Tin Can into its proprietary courseware framework enables Upside Learning to create custom learning courses for desktops and mobile devices (including tablets), tailor–made to its client’s requirements. Clients can thereafter track and report their learners’ actions carried through these courses. These actions, defined in a simple noun–verb–object format, can help an organisation get a comprehensive view of their learners’ learning activities – be it completing a course, watching a video, taking an assessment or something as simple as opening a course. Further, these statements can be sent to any LRS (Learning Record Store). LRSs can share data and transcripts with one another, ensuring that the learners’ experiences follow them from one LRS (or organisation) to another.

At the recently concluded DevLearn 2012, held in Las Vegas, USA, Upside Learning’s integration of Tin Can API into its proprietary framework was demonstrated as a part of the Watershed showcase. Watershed is an application created for DevLearn 2012 to act as a single LRS endpoint for all Tin Can statements being generated at the event.

Future plans for the company include integration of this new standard into its other learning solutions like UpsideLMS and Upside2Go.

Towards Maturity’s 2012 Benchmark Study Released – The Ambassador Speaks

Earlier this year, Upside Learning partnered with Towards Maturity, a leading benchmark research company, as a part of its Ambassador Programme. The reason was simple. Upside Learning and Towards Maturity share the common vision of helping organisation perform better by using learning technologies effectively. A couple of days back this benchmark research company unveiled the findings of its major annual learning technology Benchmark Study for 2012.Providing the most in–depth research on the impact of learning technologies, the study findings reveal that 90% of Learning & Development professionals are looking to integrate learning into their company’s different functions, i.e. sales, customer service, talent and production. The data also underlines a clear increase in new–age technology enabled learning like social and mobile learning with 25% of organisation developing mobile apps for learning (up from 20% in 2010) and 63% of organisation allowing access to external social media sites (up from 58% last year).The 2012 Benchmark Study also reports the increase in the use of rapid application development tools (up from 44% to 59%), enterprise wide information services (up from 54% to 64%), user generated content (up from 31% to 41%), mobile devices (up from 39% to 47%) and virtual meetings (up from 65% to 74%).

Implications of these findings are profound for Upside Learning as it chalks out the product roadmap for its leading learning management products – UpsideLMS and Upside2Go, and gears up its custom development services team. For the eLearning industry at large, it sets the tone for the demand of custom (bespoke) mobile learning solutions in the upcoming months. This is further underlined by the fact that 30% of organisation are encouraging individuals to use their own devices to access learning opportunities and 31% are providing learners with mobile devices. While the increase in social learning for building networks inside the organisation; supporting learning generation and sharing of user generated content; for individuals to communicate in real time; reinforcing formal learning and supporting personal professional development necessitates the need for including social learning component as a default feature in the learning management systems/ platforms of the future.

Commenting about Upside Learning’s association with Towards Maturity, Amit Garg, Director of Custom Learning Solutions at Upside Learning, said, “Our association with Towards Maturity as an ambassador, though a short one, has been very pleasant. We find the results of its studies very valuable, and use them as a guide in our solution and services development plans. For our clients too, it provides opportunities to participate in international surveys on learning and development related topics and stay updated with the domain.”

The Towards Maturity Benchmark Study report, entitled ‘Bridging The Gap – Integrating Learning And Work’.

About Towards Maturity

Towards Maturity is a benchmarking research company that provides independent expert advice and support to help organisations use learning technologies to accelerate business performance. It leverages the data of its in–depth Benchmark Study, the largest learning technology benchmark in Europe. Since 2003 over 2200 organisations have contributed to Towards Maturity’s leading benchmarks.

Thanks to the support of Towards Maturity’s Ambassadors (22 learning organisations), annual benchmarking findings, case studies and resources are available to download for free at www.towardsmaturity.org.

Upside Learning Augments Its Partnership Program; Opens Channel Partnership

Less than two months after introducing a comprehensive partnership program for its two-time Brandon Hall award-winning Learning Management System – UpsideLMS and its recently launched revolutionary platform for Mobile Learning – Upside2Go, Upside Learning announced, today, a much awaited extension to this program. The new addition of the channel partners ushers in a network of partners who share the same strategic vision.

The Channel Partners Program is designed to help organisation capitalize on Upside Learning’s market leadership in the eLearning solutions domain. Channel partners can take advantage of the many benefits that come with the program, including technical and marketing updates, training guides, marketing materials and more. Besides this, timely product information and pre-release access to new software and product updates ensure that the channel partners have a distinct sales advantage. One of the distinct benefits of the program is that the end customer belongs to the partner and as such the partner holds all rights over the customer.

Any independent company that provides eLearning services and/or products to appropriate customers with proven ability to independently sell applicable products can apply for the program. Upside Learning’s Channel Partners Program provides qualified partners with all the resources and support necessary to help capitalize the business opportunities in the marketplace. As a result, partners can look forward to expanding their portfolios and increasing revenues.