Now You Know Blog

Craig Weiss over at the E-Learning 24/7 blog recently took a look at the rapid content authoring tool market, spotting several trends in the directions many tools are moving.

Craig’s list of observations is quite detailed, and we were pleasantly surprised at just how many of the “red hot” features he identifies are already taken care of in Claro.

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It's been quite a year for us here at dominKnow, and we're really quite pumped about the reception that Claro has received in its first eight months.

Just a couple of weeks ago Craig Weiss named Claro as one of his Best of the Best content authoring tools. In fact, Craig described himself as being "stoked" about what he's seen, adding that Claro's authoring functionality "means business".

A few weeks before that Craig also tipped his hat to Claro after seeing the product at DevLearn in Las Vegas. In a post to the E-Learning 24/7 group in LinkedIn, Craig said Claro's "feature set was impressive, the ease of use is there and with items such as an image editor, screen capture, video recording and narration, this really is very slick." Craig also gave Claro kudos as a product that "offers features and capabilities for the non-tech course builder, as well as capabilities for the e-learning developer and ID who is seeking an advanced tool. This product hits both audiences without any hiccups or hitches."

DevLearn was a great event for us, and Claro made some great impressions. Emergent Radio's Brian Dusablon and Judy Unrein singled out Claro as one of the show highlights in their podcast summarizing the conference (the Claro discussion begins around the 9:30 mark). Judy describes Claro as "pretty cool" adding, "I think it has a good balance between ease of use and the capabilities most people want." Here's a listening tip - open a bottle of your favourite beverage to get into the spirit of the podcast!

Judy also included Claro in her article Promising Tools for HTML5 Development in the October edition of Training and Devepmoent Magazine, the monthly publication from the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD). She noted that, "Claro is very easy to use" and has "a few very distinctive and even surprising features".
 
Janet Clarey, senior analyst for Learning & Development at Bersin & Associates liked what she saw in Claro in August, descrybing Claro as "a well thought out and incredibly simple yet powerful solution for enterprise learning" in her blog post Simplicity packaged. Clarey in particular singled out Claro's online review mode - "Love this!" as one of her feature favourites. OVerall, she said Claro is "powerful and simple all rolled up into one. We need more of that in the land of shiny shiny. With a free trial, what’s not to love?"

All of this adds up to some pretty good feeling for our team here at dominKnow. And we're not standing still, either. We've released four updates since Claro's original roll out in April, including some really great features in our update this week. And we're already planning for the next release - no rest for the wicked, eh!

The 'stache celebration is under way at dominKnow.

An elite group of our team members are putting down the razor and taking up the challenge of Movember to raise funds for prostate cancer programs this month.

Movember has become a world-wide event over the past few years, giving men a chance to try out a new look for a an important cause. Prostate cancer is the number one cancer for men, and affects millions every year.

Last year the fund-raising program included more than 1.1 million participants from countries like Australia, New Zealand, the US, Canada, the UK, Finland, the Netherlands, Spain, South Africa and Ireland.

To this point, Movember has raised $176 million worldwide. Last year almost 119,000 Canadian Mo Bros and Mo Sistas (yes, women can show their support for the program, too!) raised $22.3 million CAD.

In Canada, proceeds will be going to Prostate Cancer Canada.

Our team's goals are pretty modest - to rase as much as we can, both in funds and fun.

Big credit for getting the 'staches growing at dominKnow goes to our team captain, Chief 'Stache, er, Software Architect Ryan McIlmoyl. Ryan is no stranger to experiments with facial hair, so he's a natural leader on this front for us.

To check out our progress as the month goes on - and to donate, of course! - start at our team captain's page here. You can see a list of the dominKnow team members there, and jump to our individual pages.

Check it out frequently - we'll be posting updates on our 'stance successes as the month goes on!

It’s such a great feeling to look at your e-mail on a Sunday evening and discover not one but two incredible surprises.

For us, the surprises this past Sunday were confirmations from Brandon Hall Research Group that we had won a gold medal in the category Best Advance in Learning Content Management Technology and a silver medal in the category Best Advance in Technology for Mobile-Learning Authoring.

Needless to say, we were quite chuffed! (And you should have seen the looks on the faces of my family after I yelled out loud in the living room!)

For the gold medal in the category Best Advance in Learning Content Management Technology, our submission to the awards program focused on the usability changes that Claro introduced.

When the dominKnow LCMS first launched in 2002, the idea of a learning content management system was just catching hold. Like many leading-edge technology ideas it had strong appeal within early adopter circles, (not surprising given those circles’ strong technology background). But as almost a decade has passed, our user base has changed and it was time for the LCMS to change as well.

Using Claro is as easy as using any common desktop software tool, and the Gold medal recognizes the significance of this advancement.

The silver medal in the category Best Advance in Technology for Mobile-Learning Authoring is a great honour for us as well, recognizing the second critical focus of our team’s work on Claro.

It’s never been easier to make engaging and interactive learning content for smart phones and tablet devices like the iPad, the Motorola Zoom or RIM’s new Playbook.

Check out our samples page to see for yourself!

These are pretty exciting times here at dominKnow as we get set roll out Claro, our latest web-based e-learning content authoring offering.

The excitement is coming from all directions. There are still lots of last minute to-dos as we prepare for our time at Learning Solutions 2011 next week, and of course there are always neat things happening with our development team.

The best source of excitement, though, is from clients who are seeing and using Claro for the first time.

A couple of weeks back I was showing Claro to a client with whom we've had a great relationship for many years.

I can't remember what exactly I was showing him, but half an hour into our web conference he said, "Wow. I could become an evangelist for Claro."

Now, that reaction is on the extreme end of the scale, but the positive feedback has been tremendous from everyone.

So, what's got everyone excited?

First, it's the ease of use and the very intuitive interface. Almost anyone can log into Claro and start working on an e-learning or m-learning course – and make it great.

Second, it's the range of authoring features all brought together in one place. Need to edit that image down a bit smaller? No problem – do it right in Claro. Need to record a screen capture video? No problem – do it right in Claro. Need to record video from your webcam? No problem – do it right in Claro. Need to quickly create a custom interaction? Need to quickly add an assessment with a video? Need to make your course work on a smart phone or iPad? Yep, you guessed it – make it in Claro. And it really is no problem.

Third, it's that while you're creating that awesome learning experience, you can also get others to help you on work on the same course. Or get that SME three times zones over to look at the page you've been working on by sending him a meeting invite and sharing your desktop. Or invite as many people as you need to review the course - and you can track all the typos and graphical issues they raise and track how you ended up resolving them all.

If you're attending Learning Solutions 2011 in Orlando next week, there's something more for you to get excited about. Just drop by booth 302 and we'll tell you all about it.

And please join us for drinks during the Expo Reception on Wednesday, March 23 from 5-6:30 p/m. (which we're proud to be sponsoring), or take in our Master Classes.

On Wednesday, March 23 it's all about collaboration as we present Working Together, Better: Leveraging Collaboration to Improve Your e-Learning Development on Stage 2 at 9:45 a.m. And we go mobile on Thursday, March 24 with Learning on the Move: Going mobile using Claro on Stage 1 at 9:45 a.m.

Both sessions will be a great chance to see Claro in action – and, we think, get excited, too.