Coral Presenter Blog

In the training world, many people are moving away from PowerPoint. Some completely abstain, while others are occasional users. The biggest critics say PowerPoint is the death of training. It appears, however, that no one asked the learners what they thought. In our study, the inclusion of PowerPoint presentations increased learner enjoyment by 25 percent.

PowerPoint makes it easier for people to follow along. It also keeps people focused, employing a message or image that relates to the topic. If minds do wander, PowerPoint is a reminder to get back in the game. And for visual learners, seeing a representation of information is key to their understanding.

So while much maligned and at times overused, PowerPoint should not be dismissed summarily—at least from the learner’s perspective.

via Everything DiSC Pulse: The Method Makes the Difference.

The number of trainers and teachers using PowerPoint to develop e-learning is still increasing and it’s interesting to see some empirical data showing that learner enjoyment increased (although we have not been told what it was being compared against — Excel perhaps?)

"...increases to 59.5% of..."

Trainingindustry.com, a portal for the training industry, likes to polish the crystal ball once a year and look at the 12 months ahead.

Below is a summary of 10 Trainingindustry.com’s predictions for 2009:

1. Total spend for training services will decline by 10%
2. The Training Workforce in North America will decline by 11%.
3. Re-engineering Activities for Training Organizations Will Increase
4. Investment in Customer Training Increases to 59.5% of Total Spend
5. Consolidation of Training Departments Will Increase
6. Fixed Resources Dedicated to Training Will Decrease
7. Supply Based Training Models Will Decrease
8. Availability of Informal Learning Content will Increase
9. Creation of User Generated Content Will Increase
10. Development of Compliance Based Training Increases

Apart from the very specific numbers quoted (11%? 59.5%? hmmm…), the predictions appear to be valid generally.

Prediction #9 is of most interest. Amidst all the cuts and consolidations there is one growth area: user generated content! This is exactly the where Coral Presenter comes in. It’s ideal for use by staff with valuable knowledge to share and familiarity with Powerpoint to rapidly create web-presentations and elearning.

For an explanation of each prediction see: Top 10 Market Predictions for 2009: Are YOU ready for the New Training Industry?

Janet Clarey

According to Brandon Hall’s Janet Clarey the following are the top five learning trends for 2009:

1. Mobile learning:  Mobile learning has advanced in significant ways and now is on the edge of widespread use in the corporate environment.
2. Do-it-yourself (DIY) learning:  Learning in the workplace increasingly will provide more options to create learning.
3. Flexible learning environments:  Driven by Web 2.0 tools such as social networks and the expectations of Millennial workers, we will continue to see more LMSs transitioning from 1.0 to 2.0 platforms.
4. Virtual worlds:  This year, we’ll see more feasibility testing on the use of virtual worlds for workplace learning.
5. Games and simulations: Games have moved beyond “edutainment” into complex topics that require higher-order thinking. Learning designers are realizing the potential for games to provide a realistic, interactive experience that draws people in, as well as to address the gaming culture associated with younger workers.

We certainly agree that pressure to cut costs will result in a great deal of what Janet terms DIY learning. Coral Presenter is an excellent low-cost tool for developing this kind of learning content. Download a trial and check it out.

Bermuda Scientific’s Coral Presenter enables the rapid development of e-learning from within PowerPoint. A free trial of Coral Presenter can be downloaded from here: http://www.bermuda-scientific.com/downloads.php

View tutorial

Try Coral Presenter now! Learn how to add narration to PowerPoint slides by viewing our tutorial: Adding Narration with Coral Presenter.

Bermuda Scientific’s first software application is Coral Presenter: a tool for trainers and other professionals to easily and quickly create e-learning programs by converting PowerPoint presentations into Flash, the defacto standard for internet-based multimedia.

Surveys show that PowerPoint is still the most widely used application for creating the visual content for traditional instructor-led training. Larger organizations may have hundreds of such presentations — all of which are of limited value to users if viewed without the accompanying lecture by the instructor.

Coral Presenter has been designed as a plug-in for PowerPoint and makes it easy for an instructor to add appropriate narration to each slide in a presentation.  Coral Presenter will then output the complete set of slides in a format that can be viewed by the vast majority of internet users without the need to download special plug-ins. If you can view Youtube videos then you can view e-learning created using Coral Presenter. Coral Presenter will optionally produce SCORM-compliant output that can be devlivered and tracked by a learning management system.

This process is an example of “rapid e-learning” development which is increasingly popular as a strategic tool by companies in highly competitive markets where new and improved products are constantly being developed and released to customers. Often the first company to bring a new product to the market has a significant advantage over its competition: especially if it is also the first company to have sales and support personnel up to speed on how the new product should be sold and how to help customers with problems and assist them in getting the most value out of their investments.

On that note, Bermuda Scientific plans to help users of Coral Presenter get started on rapidly developing e-learning through a series of short tutorials covering the main features of the product which can be viewed in Flash format on this web site.

The first tutorial in the series has already been developed and is available here: Adding Narration and Synchronizing Animations

This tutorial can be viewed in just a couple of minutes and shows how easily narration can be added to a presentation and should be enough to get most users started on developing their first e-learning module.

Additional tutorials currently in development include:

• Importing Existing Audio
• Adding Quizzes
• Adding Flash Movies & Videos
• Adding Attachments
• Customizing Player Templates
• Previewing & Publishing
• Viewing a Published Course

These will be added to this site in the near future and each release will be announced here in this blog. Subscribe to our RSS feed to automatically receive updates in your chosen RSS reader.