Tony Karrer's eLearning Blog on e-Learning Trends eLearning 2.0 Personal Learning Informal Learning eLearning Design Authoring Tools Rapid e-Learning Tools Blended e-Learning e-Learning Tools Learning Management Systems (LMS) e-Learning ROI and Metrics

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

eLearning Guild Research Reports

In my last post on Flash Quiz Tools, I mentioned how I had used the eLearning Guild Research to streamline my effort of find the right tools.

This post is probably long overdue, but the use of the data from the guild has been a really great resource and has lead to posts such as:
I personally get the most value by having direct data access to the reports. That way I can slice and dice the reports as I need. However, the BIG ANNOUNCEMENT:

The eLearningGuild recently announced that they would give copies of the PDF reports to all Associate Members (which is free with a profile completion). This level of membership also gives you several other nice things such as the eMag, access to data behind eLearning Buyers Guide, Training Modalities, the e-Learning Salary & Compensation Report, and the e-Learning Projects Database.

And, if I'm not mistaken this includes direct data access to the Tools Satisfaction data that I just used in my last post!

It's definitely worth the price, i.e., the time it takes to fill in the profile.

The PDF research reports include the following, but I believe that you also get access to some of the slightly older reports such as Informal Learning, Future Directions, Extended Enterprise, etc. You can click on the images to see more information about each report.

Immersive Learning Simulations
Learning Management Systems
Synchronous Learning Systems
Mobile Learning
Measurement

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Tony and everybody else,

I have some suggestions about making important decisions using the free Tools and Product Satisfaction DDA report.

Unlike the in-depth surveys that accompany the Guild's 360 reports, in the general Tools and Satisfaction Direct Data Access report look at five measures:

Overall Satisfaction
Would You Use the Vendor Again
Cost
Ease of Learning/Implementation
Vendor Responsiveness

(Overall Satisfaction is computed based on the other four).

For some categories, these results shine a lot of light on the subject (LMS, Synchronous Tools, Audio Tools, etc.)

For some categories the results are useful but don't dig down very deep. I'm thinking in particular of Rapid Development tools where we see PowerPoint, Word, Captivate, Lectora, Raptiviy, and others lumped together and don't have enough information to see what's different about the tools.

This is why for Courseware, Rapid Development, and Simulation Tools I would steer people to our upcoming 360 report on authoring and development tools as we drill down VERY deeply into the strengths and weaknesses of each tool.

The same goes for testing and assessment tools. The 360-report (and the attendant DDA portfolio) really shows the differences among the tools.

So, the general purpose Tools and and Product Satisfaction DDA is certainly very useful (and I give thanks to the thousands of Guild members that have taken the time to share their experiences through this system), but if you need to make some serious decisions I would first get the free PDFs of the 360 reports. And if you need to filter by company size, industry, and so on, then I would purchase the related DDA portfolio as some tools work better in different industries/company sizes, etc., than others.

Sincerely,

Steven Wexler
Director of Research and Emerging Technology
The eLearning Guild