April 28th, 2011 by Robin Green

San Jose and San Francisco, CA (April 27, 2011), Coggno Learning Management System, the premier online distributor of electronic educational and training curriculum, has teamed up with FuzeBox, the global leader in web conferencing and webinar solutions . Coggno will now incorporate FuzeBox’s flagship product, Fuze Meeting, to incorporate online conferencing functionality, enhancing user interface with its vast online learning content marketplace, making it the only entity capable of providing web conferencing capabilities. Coggno users will now be able to take advantage of synchronous HD visual and non-synchronous training options from one convenient source.

The integration of Fuze Meeting webinar technology will allow for seamless and integrated learning platforms, allowing students and trainees to log into one convenient location to participate in seminars or various types of conferences without having to toggle between two or more locations. This reduces confusion and makes for a higher quality educational experience. The collaboration facilitates both a self-paced curriculum and live-learning coursework, due to the user ability to have all interfaces in one central location. Students and trainees will enjoy optimum ease of use through the state-of-the-art technologies Coggno and Fuze Meeting have combined. All users will have the capability to schedule live learning sessions as well as self-paced milestones at their convenience.

Tod Browndorf, Vice President of Content Management at Coggno, commented, “This partnership with FuzeBox provides a powerful resource to training professionals facilitating the scheduling and delivery of live and self-paced training in a totally integrated environment.” Additionally, corporations can expect to enjoy significant savings on travel and training expenses by empowering employees to develop skills in a comfortable, user-friendly environment.

About Coggno
Coggno’s Learning Management System enables all types of organizations to use technology to provide educational services through high-quality online curriculum that is universally accessible. Coggno feature set includes SCORM compliant tools for quick upload, and video tools that facilitates the delivery of a diverse range of learning objects. Coggno delivers content and relevant training through state-of-the art technology that allows participants to interact with the educational vehicle. For more information, please visit Coggno

About FuzeBox:
FuzeBox is the global leader in real time visual collaboration applications for millions of end users across various businesses. Its applications - Fuze Meeting and Fuze Messenger allow people to communicate, collaborate and share content from any device, across any network, anywhere in the world. Fuze Meeting is a mobile and web-based collaboration service that features integrated audio conferencing as well as high- definition, synchronized video and image sharing. The company’s technology is based on a real-time visual communications platform that converges telephony, high-definition, synchronized video and image sharing across the enterprise, the web and mobile networks. FuzeBox has been awarded 23 patents and with 42 more pending in the fields of telephony, web and visual media technologies to transform how professionals and individuals communicate.

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Coggno.com offers premier online education.

April 27th, 2011 by Robin Green

The online education content community should be taking notes from the book publishing industry. It’s an adapt-or-perish world in which those who embrace technology such as tablet computers and apps are able to thrive, while those who stick to the same old packaging are doomed to die off.

Metatextuality is key here. If your content has it, you are entering the world of the average internet-user: a world that’s dynamic and constantly in dialogue with other sources.

The death of textbooks
With more and more students getting their degrees online, education technology is wildly expanding. Not only online education students are finding textbooks irrelevant, but those who attend brick-and-mortar schools are increasingly opting out of buying the course textbooks.

In many subjects, textbooks are going the way of the dinosaurs. While textbooks like language, philosophy, and other humanities remain necessary, many other course textbooks such as biology and math are becoming obsolete as students use Google to find the answers they’re looking for.

All the information is out there, and students no longer depend on textbooks to find it in a consolidated format.

The transformation of one publishing house
In a recent Reuters article, Mark Egan profiles the innovative New York publisher Nicholas Callaway, who saw wild success with the publishing of the children’s app book “Miss Spider’s Tea Party” on Apple’s iOS platform. His company began publishing regular paper books in the 1980’s but now concentrates its energy exclusively on iOS app versions.

With an openness to more dynamic story-telling methods, Callaway’s company transformed from a traditional publishing house to a technologically innovative one.

From stories to learning Content: the transformation of your learning system
Just as you can tell a story in a number of ways, you can teach in a number of ways, in an endless number of formats and media. The way we interact with stories, news, educational content, and all kinds of information online offers a range of possibilities for online education systems.

I also loved the concept of another successful publishing company described in Egan’s article is DMC Worldwide, whose most recent venture is Copia Interactive: social e-reading.

“We think there is space around the book for community to grow,” said Seth Kaufman, Copia’s vice president of marketing and merchandising.

Copia Interactive, still in beta, allows users to not only buy books, but also inteact with one another. They can annotate books, publishing their comments and reactions.

When Kaufman explains Copia to publishers, he likes to tell them, “There are many friends I have who would never buy a Sarah Palin book, but if Jon Stewart annotated Sarah Palin’s book, they might buy that book.”

As online education content developers, how might we tap into the potential of metatextuality?

How to make your online learning content metatextual
If it’s online, information has the potential to be interactive and metatextual. Meaning, it can refer to information outside the text, like linking pages in a blog. It can create and be part of a vast network of information—there’s no limit to its scope.

Education, with or without professors and textbook companies who stubbornly stick to traditional methods, is moving in that direction.

In order to adapt and thrive, online education platforms must join the publishing industry and offer an interactive and metatextual learning experience to their learners. Platforms like Coggno offer a simple way to tap into the interactive potential of online learning for those both beginner and expert learning content developers.

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Coggno.com provides premier educational training.

April 21st, 2011 by Robin Green

It seemed that there was some good news for job seekers when the employment data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics on April 1st reported that the private sector added 230,000 jobs in March, adding jobs for the 13th consecutive month. The unemployment rate fell in March to 8.8%.

However, also in March, government employment fell by 14,000, making it the fifth straight monthly decline. And local governments were especially affected, losing 416,000 jobs since the peak in September of 2008.

Although job gains are getting better, it is still exceptionally difficult for the unemployed to find work. There are almost five job seekers for every opening available.

Unemployment is highly stressful and emotionally exhausting, but it can also be an opportunity to reflect on your skills and long-term goals, and take action. If you are unemployed, you might take this time to build on your skills and expand your marketability.

Especially for women, further education helps while seeking employment to fight the gender disparity that remains an active element in the work force. For many women either working, raising children, or seeking employment, an LMS online program is not only the most attractive option, but the only one feasible one.

The increasingly financially crippling expenses of brick and mortar university education is enough to make anyone seek alternatives, but especially those with mouths to feed, bills to pay, etc.The low cost combined with the flexibility of online courses make it the fastest-growing learning method in the world.

Surprisingly, many women are finding post-recession time to be the most difficult financially. During the recession, men lost more jobs than women overall. However, now that the recession is over, and we are supposedly enjoying an economic recovery, women are losing more jobs. Why is this the case? Part of the reason is government funding—state money has been quickly running out. Government payrolls are shrinking, programs are being cut, and jobs are being eliminated left and right.

So how are women more affected by state budget cuts? Women make up some 57% of the government work force. And among the public jobs that were cut recently, two-thirds of them were held by women.

Another factor is nothing new. Despite affirmative action and other efforts to balance the inequality between men and women in the workplace, gender biases still have a place in society. Specifically, the “breadwinner bias” still holds sway. When given a choice between a man and a woman, historically a female’s income has been considered supplementary, despite the case that more and more women are the full breadwinners of their homes.

LMS online training is helping to bridge the gender gap and equip job-seekers with the skills they need to find employment. However, without a concerted nation-wide effort in both the private and public sector to generate more work, education alone isn’t enough to solve the unemployment problem.

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Coggno.com is a leading provider of high-quality LMS.

April 16th, 2011 by Robin Green

Have you noticed what people are up to during their commutes? Go for a ride on any municipal transit system and chances are, your fellow commuters are face down and tapping away at their smart phones or tablet computers. Gone are the days when men in business suits had the four-seaters commandeered for raucous card games or were asleep using their briefcases as pillows. Now, everyone’s a multi-tasker, and that includes completing online training courses on the bus, subway or commuter train.

Modern technological advances have literally lightened our load. We’re no longer relegated to “schlepping” ginormous books and binders with us while we’re upgrading our skills. We’re also no longer chained to our desktops for an Internet connection; our personal devices can now access the Internet from virtually anywhere. So, there really isn’t any excuse left to not partake in online training because you can do it from anywhere, even the um… library, if you catch my drift.

Tablet computers, e-readers and smart phones have given us the ability to accomplish virtually anything wherever and whenever it is convenient for us. We read newspapers and magazines via applications, and download books at the click of a mouse, without the bulk and bother of carrying them with us. Students are downloading journal articles and saving thousands of dollars in textbook costs by downloading materials instead of lugging them all around. Backpack manufacturers and publishers might not be thrilled, but score one for convenience. The same can be said for training materials. The corporate world is saving a bundle on travel expenses and appearance fees to blowhard consultants by videotaping seminars and meetings, and allowing employees to download them to whichever device is most suitable for their use. Boring is a thing of the past; our future is here and it is almost exclusively online.

The next time your boss wants to “send” you for training, mention the fact that any training you need can now be accomplished online. You’ll be the office hero for your insightful suggestions, not to mention your cost-cutting capabilities. Online training courses will keep you off the roads and out of the sky while allowing you to gain the knowledge you need to get ahead. Keeping the boss happy is an extra added bonus.

The next time you see commuters staring intently at their tablets, smart phone and MP3 players, they might just be listening to a seminar or viewing a Podcast. You can join the ranks of the productive commuters by getting yourself a little online training as well. But keep that deck of cards handy just in case…

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Coggno.com offers premier e-learning education.

April 13th, 2011 by Robin Green

You might fancy the idea of saving resources and money for your organization by hosting webinars and LMS online training. But how do you go about it?

There are many avenues available in implementing online training and hosting your own training webinars. You can host training via a learning management system (LMS), providing learners with a common space for building their skills and knowledge as well as interacting with each other.

LMS training offers a variety of benefits including cost-effectiveness and a range of customization options. You can design your own training or choose pre-packaged and specific online training for your needs. In designing your own LMS training, you have the freedom to create and incorporate your own learning material, quizzes, videos, and audio and podcast features.

In addition or as an alternative to LMS online training, webinars are an exciting way to deliver training to participants. When choosing a webinar service, make sure you choose one you can trust. Do a test drive. Participants should be able to log in easily and have easy access. For many people, it might be their first time attending a webinar. Complex instructions on how to attend the webinar will deter participants and prevent the success of your event, and possibly the entire training effort.

Include polls. Polls can be taken throughout the webinar to give you instant feedback on how people are doing during your event—whether you need to repeat something, or expand on something you have said. Polls are one feature that will help guarantee the success of your event.

Remember, in a webinar you’re only able to control your end—the presentation of the webinar. That means that you should tell participants at the beginning of the event what to expect and where they can find all the materials of the webinar. Provide the slides from the webinar on your website so people can access them later. Additionally, record the event and provide the recordings afterward.

Let participants know they can ask questions via twitter if you are using it. The key is to be specific in all directions. Tell attendees they can use the question panel to submit questions, including their name, title, and location.

Provide a number to call in case people are having trouble logging in to webinar. Tell around what time there will be breaks, and when you will be taking calls.

Webinars and LMS online training provide a dynamic and environmentally friendly alternative to in-person training conferences. In both methods, the more explicit and simple your directions, as well as the effort you put in to make the experience an exciting and interesting one will make all the difference in their success.

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Coggno.com is an LMS platform that offers a wide range of online courses.

April 10th, 2011 by Robin Green

“Green” has been the trendy buzzword for just about everything. How often are we told that we need to do our part to “green” the planet by reducing our carbon footprint? Sure, every little bit helps, but when does it become overkill? Instead of worrying about supplying recycled napkins and discontinuing bottled water at a corporate gathering, how about holding a Web conference instead? The next time a training conference needs to be held, offer online training instead. Not only will your company be doing right by the environment, you’re guaranteed to save a few bucks as well. After all, all those recycled paper products and organic food you were planning to serve at your next conference will certainly cost more than a Webcast.

Most corporations are doing their share to help promote sustainability and eliminate waste. That includes upgrading facilities to make them environmentally friendly, as well as encouraging employees to be conscious of the waste their jobs produce. Fair trade coffee is now served in the cafeteria, and the water cooler has reappeared to replace the vending machines full of plastic bottled water. But, is that enough? If a company is making a concerted effort to become environmentally friendly, then why is it still needlessly transporting its employees through the not-so-friendly skies for meetings and training sessions? The Internet is the greenest alternative available to indulge a sanctimonious need to “go green”. Yet, many companies are still reluctant to utilize it to its fullest potential.

Online training exists for so many categories that the need for green meetings is virtually obsolete. Instead of scrambling to find recycled paper banners and name badges, why not put together a Webinar for trainees to watch at their desks in their offices or at home? Save a few thousand gallons of jet fuel by giving employees the opportunity to skip that crowded seminar at the hotel ballroom and complete their training in an environment more conducive to learning, like their favourite chair? There’ll be no worry about carbon emissions or what to do with the leftover food from the lunches and coffee breaks if there is no lunch or coffee break in the first place. Postconsumer recycled paper products and vegetable inks are charming, but you can give trainees something to really be impressed with by offering them the ability to complete their necessary courses online, instead of getting “green” stuffed down their throats.

We can all take a lesson from the United States government by trimming some fat from our budgets with online training. From a dollars and “sense” perspective, recycled green meeting materials still cost money. Online training isn’t free, but it is by far more cost-effective; not to mention effective.

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Coggno.com offers premier e-learning education.

April 6th, 2011 by Robin Green

Have you ever considered LMS training in herbal medicine? Herbal medicine refers to the use of plants for medical purposes. This means not only the treatment and prevention of disease, but the promotion of healthy lives and resolving health problems before they have an impact on one’s quality of life. Herbal medicine education trains aspiring herbalists to practice using plants as remedies, something that in many countries is a common practice that many people already know through tradition.

Medical systems like Ayurveda and traditional Chinese medicine depend on herbalists to treat patients. However, in the U.S., herbal medicines often come from North American and European plants.

All kinds of health professions, from herbalists to naturopathic medics to chiropractors make use of herbal medicinal solutions in their practices. As the herbalist industry grows and more and more people seek natural alternatives to pharmaceutical ones, an increasing number of people are seeking education in this growing field. LMS online programs are often a convenient and low-cost solution for aspiring herbalists.

In the U.S., herbalist medicine is widely varied. It can include someone who grows herbs, “wildcrafts” or picks herbs, manufactures herbal products, teaches or counsels on herbal medicine, or supplements, as I already mentioned, another profession such as nutrition or naturapathic medicine.

What can you expect in an LMS herbalist medicine course, or a university herbal medicine program? Herbalist medicine training typically includes courses on botany and plant identification, human physiology, pharmacology, biochemistry, and the history and philosophy of herbalism. It may also include issues of professional practice.

What are the career opportunities for LMS herbalism students? Herbal medicine practitioners who have completed LMS training can expect a welcoming market. With an increasing number of studies on the benefits of herbalism and the spreading of scientific data showing the results of such medicinal practices, interest in herbal medicine and therapy has grown world-wide.

What are a few of the careers that an LMS herbalism student can train for? Careers include owning a retail store, counseling about herbal products and uses, growing herbs to sell to manufacturers, and operating small-scale manufacturing companies which produce herbal products. Most herbalists are self-employed.

Teaching is another great option for herbalists, and are abailable through many alternative medicine colleges. Some herbalists also work for the kinds of businesses mentioned above. To discover these job opportunities, check out online forums, attend conferences of professional herbalist groups, or get to know herbalists in your area. In other words, network. These positions are rarely included through the traditional sources like the classified ad section of your local newspaper.

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Coggno.com offers high-quality LMS.

April 3rd, 2011 by Robin Green

Everybody knows that accidents happen. We never intend to cause one, or become a statistic when it comes to illustrating the importance of safety practices. There are many ways to avoid common workplace hazards, but many times, we’re just too distracted to take the proper precautions. Our employers tend to take two common approaches: the first is to scare us into becoming complaint; the other is to disguise a serious message with what they perceive as funny, “slap-stick” style safety training videos. Yes, some of them are genuinely amusing, but ultimately, they’re just flat-out boring. What we really need to do is take responsibility for our own safety by stressing common sense, and utilizing online training courses that are convenient for employees to view. Plus, they’re more cost effective than having to hire a fancy marketing company and some out-of-work actors to make them yourself.

Just one “Google” of “fun safety training” will yield more cheese than you’ll find on a dairy farm, and possibly in the entire country of France. Yes, some of those clips get big laughs, but if employees aren’t going to take them seriously, then what’s the point? Same goes for the graphic, gory stuff; you’ll never find a single person viewing those who will think, gee, that’s really gonna happen to me if I’m not careful. Instead, appeal to the common denominator we all need to pay more attention to: common sense.

Online training courses for safety are an intelligent alternative for many reasons. First of all, they’re inexpensive; you don’t need to gather up all your employees in one central location to go over safety procedures. Second, you’ll find many different types of online training courses that are tailored to different situations. Third, employees can participate in online training at their own pace and at their convenience. Just the mention of cost cutting, job elimination and attrition will make anyone want to dive under their desk. Don’t give employees any reason to be viewed as slackers. Give them a project that will accomplish an important task without making it seem like a waste of time. It’s a common sense solution to a common sense problem.

Don’t wait until your top account executive is concussed by a file cabinet. Check out some of the Webinars, Podcasts and other forms of online training courses that are available. You’ll never be able to totally eliminate accidents in the workplace, but you’ll never be able to say you weren’t warned…

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Coggno.com offers world-class LMS set of features and benefits.