Podcasting has come a long way since its start as a vehicle for individuals to distribute their own radio-style shows over the Internet. Today’s podcasts can combine audio and video files to provide a rich user experience.

With their ability to be syndicated and downloaded automatically whenever new content is present, podcasts have many practical applications beyond virtual broadcasting. Universities are largely responsible for the increased popularity of podcasting by leveraging it as an educational tool. Now, students have the ability to download a missed lecture to view on their MP3 player, phone, or laptop anywhere, anytime!

http://www.brookwood.com/elearning/distancelearning.cfm

Laura Haas Green Solutions, Training, Uncategorized, eLearning

Did you know that Brookwood has a referral program? Refer 5 NEW people (not in Brookwood’s database) and receive a 1G USB drive as thanks for your participation. If someone you refer to Brookwood registers for a course you will receive a $50 gift card to your choice of: WaWa, Target, Best Buy, or The Olive Garden.

Don’t miss out! This offer expires March 31, 2009 and it limited to one offer per person.

Call 215-717-2788 to learn more or email your list of referrals to laura@brookwood.com to participate.

Laura Haas Business and Budget, Training

Starting in April 2009, this NEW 2 day course will enable experienced programmers to build desktop applications with AJAX using Adobe’s AIR application. Objectives include customized application deployment using AJAX and understanding AIR security. To gain the most from this course, you should have experience using HTML and JavaScript to develop web applications which include the following features: HTML layout; user interface, container, and navigation components; JavaScript event handling; and in-line and scripted even handling.

http://www.brookwood.com/training/AirTraining/AdobeAirTraining_air.cfm

Laura Haas Training AIR, AJAX, Training

Although some would disagree with me, I’m finding that these difficult economic times are actually providing some fascinating opportunities to work with clients to automate certain processes and cut costs at the same time.  In particular, I have seen a real push to take labor and cost intensive operations such as Human Resources, and find a way to provide the same level of service with lower costs.

Sounds like the same old refrain we always hear from business, but the really neat thing is that now, it’s a fairly easy task to accomplish. There are some great platforms out there that give us enough out of the box functionality to make an automation project pretty quick to implement and really cost effective when you consider total cost of the project against operating budget saved after implementation. 

I keep running into executives that can’t get past thinking of a software project as high risk, hugely expensive, highly disruptive to implement, and never performing as promised.  That’s really old think at its worst.  The fun is bringing these projects on-line in weeks rather many months or even years, and watching organizations deliver a higher caliber service while lowering the long term operating budget. 

Scott Isard Software Application Development

Brookwood developers recently completed customized Adobe Connect Pro training for 2 U.S. Government agencies. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) and the Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) both required that all 33 online training courses meet the U.S guidelines for Section 508 of the Disabilities Act.

The technical standards which Brookwood met for these training modules included:

• Alternative keyboard navigation to meet usability standards for the visually impaired.

• Captioning of multimedia training products, including captioning and video descriptors which could be turned on or off.

• Text labeling and descriptors for graphics to enable accessibility to web page graphics by the visually impaired using assistive technology such as screen readers and refreshable Braille displays.

We are proud to report that the project feedback we received from CMS and PTO agencies regarding these 2 projects was very positive.

With this success, Brookwood has laid the foundation for further Adobe Connect Pro training for all other government agencies that require it.

For more information on U.S. 508 Accessibility requirements click the link provided:
http://www.section508.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=content&id=5

Gene Palocsko Training Connect

Captivate 4 Training Now Available

Captivate is all NEW and more powerful than ever! Captivate 4 gives you the capability to capture screen shots on your computer and quickly turn them into interactive movies adding images, captions, rollovers, clickable areas, typing areas and sound effects. This course will introduce you to the essential Adobe Captivate 4 skills you need to know to get up and running with Captivate as quickly as possible.

Also look for Advanced Captivate 4 training available in May 2009!

Register Today! http://www.brookwood.com/training/Captivate4Training/Captivate4Training_captivate4.cfm

Reduce Travel, Reduce Costs and Save the Planet with eLearning!

Laura Haas Training, eLearning

Going green is a way to help the world become a better place and make your organization become more efficient by eliminating waste, resulting in savings now and long term.  Today, a competative edge could simply be moving training from in person to online, reducing or eliminating travel, lodging, food and other expenses associated with instructor led training.  Organizations that seek the ability to go green should look internally at training and provide online meetings in leu of travel, web based training in lue of paper/person training, as well as provide web based anytime, anywhere resources for information exchange.  Not only will this save organizations time and money, but also provide information not otherwaise accessable unless carried with the individual employee or client.

Ed Stengel Green Solutions, eLearning Business

The days of classroom based training and education are fading.  Today, more than ever, organizations are seeking to provide more information and training with less cost, effort, and resources.   eLearning is the answer.  A blended learning environment will not only provide information anywhere and any time, but alos reduced training time, paper waste, and becomes a resource that is recycled over and over for maximum ROI.  The abiltiy to edit without waste is a major benefit of eLearning vs. traditional; allowing new content to be utilized with out the traditional outcome of outdated paper based learning when new materials become avaiable.

Ed Stengel Business and Budget, eLearning

There was a time when doing business outside your town, state, country, or continent meant taking a car, bus, train, or plane to get there.  Endless hours of being “on the road”, preparation time like calling a travel agent, or even worse, doing it all yourself.  Then we had to lug all our materials in a briefcase..or two for the big presentation.

That was then… and this is now…

Almost every company world wide is going global.  How?

1. Technology - Technology such as online meetings and web based training, internet based communications have opened up a new world of business beyond our imaginations in 1985…  (So I am dating myself)  Companies have a new business model - a global one, and the successful businesses utilize these technologies daily.

2. Training  - Keeping up with the Smiths and Jones has become keeping up with latest competitive edge of technology that allows for and provides a global out reach, bridging oceans and deserts, ending in a little Cat5e line to the back of their computer.  More and more often I find that anyone is more available and more accessible for an online meeting than in person…most often with amazing results.   People of every walk of life eat this stuff up.

3. Tactic - What is your plan to meet the global needs, and demands of the new century?  Has your organization invested in the latest technology to survive or compete?  More importantly, have you invested to succeed?  Your target market knows what it wants, but do you know what it wants?  First and foremost, a global presence today is needed to survive, a global command to succeed .

4. Timing  - Global organizations knew when to go global… and it’s now.   This is not the internet boom of the late 90’s… this is reality, and to survive at a minimum you need to look and feel like a trusted global organization.  I see it more and more as off shore companies compete for my business.  This begs the question of why not compete for theirs on their home turf?  We will all be competing globally before you realize it.  Catch the wave early.

5. Teamwork - The essential part of any new business model is team work.  There is “no army of one” in a global market.  Organizational knowledge is one of the key factors in a global initiative.  Together the parts of an organization that makes the whole should work together to create a global strategy that works for each and every department, slowly weaving the parts together for a solid foundation to a global business model.

Ed Stengel Business and Budget

In a marketplace of doing more with less, Brookwood can make the defining difference in achieving your training goals. Our years of experience assessing, creating, and deploying enterprise and custom eLearning solutions produce effective and engaging learning results.

From consulting and strategic curriculum development, to custom design, development and enterprise eLearning roll outs, Brookwood has the experience, expertise, and resources to effectively meet your organizational training objectives on time and within budget.

Brookwood Capabilities Include:

• eLearning Strategy and Consulting
• Instructional Design and Support
• Custom Module Development
  • Audio
  • Video
  • Multi-media
  • Assessments
• Strategic API’s
  • eUniversity
  • mLearning
  • Interactive real-time
  • LMS Lite
• eLearning Development Templates
• eLearning Best Practices Guides
• Enterprise eLearning Deployment
• eLearning Support
• Training

Brookwood Partnership Provides:

• Industry Leading Technology and Solutions
• Veteran Experience in Solution Development
• Proven Capabilities that Yield Results

Ed Stengel Business and Budget, eLearning