Meet Chris Mason, Author of Tutor in a Box

Chris Mason has spent the last 20 years raising three kids with special needs. During this time, he received his Bachelor's in Psychology and a Master's in Education. When his children attended an online charter school, he needed to find ways to save money and found many free resources through the internet. Tutor in a Box shares many useful--and free!--resources for students, parents, and educators. Chris has written many other "in a Box" reference guides to the best free stuff in particular areas.

1. What audience did you have in mind as you researched and wrote your book, Tutor in a Box?

The primary audience was the overworked soccer mom or families with children in alternative school settings.

2. How much time did it take you to find all the resources in your book?

Tutor took about six years to complete.

3. With so much information on the internet, what were your criteria for separating the useful resources from the not-so-useful ones?

I used the following criteria for website inclusion:

A. The 30 second rule. Could I figure out the website in 30 seconds? If the answer was no, the website was discarded; if the answer was yes, the website moved on to step B.
B. Was the website and its educational content geared towards students? As before, a no answer got a website dropped from consideration, and a yes moved it forward.
C. What was the grade level of the website, and what was it teaching? For example, 6th grade California mission history.
D. What was the website's focus? Skill instruction, skill reinforcement, enrichment, or reference.
E. Was the website unique?
F. Did I enjoy the website, or did it help me?

If a website passed the above tests, it was included in Tutor in a Box.

I also tried to make sure to include websites for all modalities of learning. For example, in math, if reading something is the best way a student learns, then Purple Math is for them. If, however, the student is an audio-visual learner, then Khan Academy is the best fit.

4. Would you tell us a little bit about some of your other "in a box" projects?

The "in a Box” series of books are a set of reference guides to the best free resources on the internet in a particular area. The series currently includes:

• Tutor in a Box - A guide to free educational resources.
• Book Store in a Box - A guide to free print and audio books.
• Arcade in a Box – A guide to free video games.
• Video Store in a Box – A guide to free television and movies.
• Record Store in a Box – A guide to free music.
• Entrepreneur in a Box – A guide to the best ways to make money on the internet.
• App Store in a Box – A guide to the best free applications for mobile devices.

5. What's your advice to other authors with a unique idea but who haven't explored self-publishing before?

This is a multipart answer.

A. Write what you love and are passionate about, if you care about it others will because your passion will leap off the page.
B. Don't write about what's popular on Amazon. Stand out and be different.
C. Have your audience in mind as you write; it helps keep you focused.
D. Match your subject matter to your delivery system. Not every book is good for every format. For example, the "in a Box” series would not be good for the audio format due to its online nature.
E. Don't be afraid to outsource parts of the writing process that are outside your skill set. For example, I outsource my cover creation and formatting. This way I can just focus on the writing. This includes marketing as well.
F. Lastly, as corny as it sounds, believe in yourself. In the immortal words of Ed Wood, "Just write. If it is bad, it will get better, and if it is good, it will become great. Just keep writing."

Thanks, Chris!

Where to Learn about Personal Development and Self Improvement

Is there anything you want to change in your life? Do you ever feel like you might make more progress on projects important to your work and/or personal life if you could maintain a stronger sense of positivity?

If you've been thinking about these types of questions, you might really enjoy www.PersonalDevelopmentInsights.com, the website of Carmen Wyld, a personal development coach, author, and speaker who also teaches a course called Personal Development--Ultimate SECRETS to an Amazing Life! on udemy.

Speaking of Carmen's udemy course, she is offering it at a significant discount if you use this coupon code. With the code, the course is only $15. It includes lots of valuable, insightful resources including video lectures and lots of downloadable content.

What are the benefits of personal development for all of us? As Carmen says, some people "don't bother" with such topics because they think that only people who are already rich and successful have a good life. But really, we can all have a better life if we look inside ourselves rather than focusing on other people and what we don't have.

As Carmen also says, another problem that many people run into is that they try to follow what seems to have worked for other people rather than gaining personal, individual insight and figuring out what might work for them. We're all unique, so there are unique solutions to the difficulties we face. There's not a one-size-fits-all solution to making improvements in your life; to use Carmen's phrase, we have to fine-tune what's in our "personal toolbox" so that it helps us reach what we have in mind for ourselves.

Another interesting aspect of Carmen's work is that she begins with self-examination and self-exploration, but she expands outward into how our personal choices help us create change in the world at large. She considers each of us to be a co-creator when it comes to affecting change in ways that have social, environmental, and cultural implications.

I've enjoyed checking out Carmen's website and her udemy classes, and I think she's got a lot of interesting content that she's sharing that could be a catalyst for positive change.

Meet Christos Pittis, Educator and Entrepreneur

Born in Cyprus, Christos Pittis is an entrepreneur and teacher who offers a variety of courses through Udemy. He holds degrees in Economics and Management and has worked as a Business Services Consultant in Dubai, Cyprus, Lebanon and Egypt. His Udemy classes emphasize accounting and bookkeeping, global entrepreneurship and marketing, social media, and other topics. Learn more about Christos on his Udemy profile and by watching the YouTube video below.

1. How did you first hear about Udemy, and what made you decide to start teaching through the site?

I used to run my own educational organization, and also at that time, around 2013, we were operating a live online school. I did a search on the web to see what competitors were doing. I come across a marketing course on Udemy, not Udemy's landing page directly. I paid to enroll in that course, and I was impressed, not only by the quality of the course, but the platform as well. It was the best online platform I'd seen.

I am an accounting teacher as well, and I started teaching accounting back in 2006, so I had the material ready. So I purchased a camera and a mic, and I started filming my course to upload to Udemy.

2. You offer a variety of courses. How did you decide which courses to teach?

I have created six courses so far, and I am in the process of publishing one more course. The course name will be "Interviews with 10 Startup Owners," or something like this. It is not finalized yet. I have two accounting courses, one for beginners and one for intermediate users. I also have one course for YouTube channel owners, one for the largest social media network in Europe (VKontakte, the so-called "Russian Facebook"), one for website building with the help of freelancers, and one entrepreneurship course for young entrepreneurs. Here is the complete list:

• Accounting 101: A Beginner's Guide to Business Accounting
• Accounting 102: A Intermediate Guide to Business Accounting
• VKontakte: Beginner's Guide to European Social Media
• Website Secrets: Get a Gorgeous Website on the Cheap
• Become a Global Entrepreneur: A Young Professional's Guide
• YouTube: Transform your channel into a money making machine

Click here to see my Udemy profile: https://www.udemy.com/u/christospittis/.

Now allow me to answer how I decide on what courses to offer. It is a combination of three factors:

1. My personal knowledge and experience
2. Trending courses at Udemy
3. The most popular Google keyword searches

3. What would you say distinguishes your courses in terms of the quality of content as well as your professional experience?

I focus on the following aspects:

• Value-delivering on expectations and learning objectives
• Content quality: relevancy, structure, comprehensiveness, and accuracy
• Instructor quality: credibility, delivery, and responsiveness
• Practical applications: quizzes, resources, and exercises
• Technical quality: clear audio and video

I also try to make things as simple as possible. I do the hard work and deliver material to students with step by step instructions and guidelines. I like to talk with students and learn from them as well.

I have some experience in my professional life which I apply to my teaching. I am an entrepreneur as well, and I used to work as an ERP consultant for one of the best applications of Microsoft.

4. Could you tell us a little more about what students can expect from your courses? What kind of content will they receive, and do they get to interact with you personally to ask questions or get feedback?

Students will receive expert tips and guidance that are difficult to find elsewhere. They will also receive important information and learn how to do things properly. They can get support and often updates as I revisit and revise my course materials. My courses usually contain around 80% video and 20% quizzes, pdf documents, and presentations. Most of the time, I offer discounts to my students for upcoming courses of mine.

I am always open to answer any questions and assist students with performing specific tasks.

5. What makes Udemy a good resource for people who want to grow as entrepreneurs?

Udemy offers almost 20,000 courses in various topics like business, technology, entrepreneurship, marketing, and even yoga classes! More than 10,000 skilled and well-known instructors from all over the world are teaching through this platform. Additionally, Udemy offers a lifetime access guarantee, so once you buy the course, you'll always be able to access the course content. Large organizations can subscribe in a flexible and economic plan to educate their employees.

6. How can interested people sign up for your new course "Interviews with 10 Startup Owners"?

The new course will be released in January or early February 2015, and anyone interested can submit a valid email address by clicking the link below. The normal price will be $299, but I offer a very good discount for the readers this blog at $99. For more information, please click here http://eepurl.com/9SYzX.

Thanks, Christos!

Meet Mauricio, Founder of NEWinPM, a Website for Project Management Education

Mauricio is the founder of NEWinPM.com, a modern e-learning site that first launched in January 2013. Since then, the educational materials on the site have been helping students from all over the world to study project management and prepare for their CAPM Certifications. If you are just beginning your project management studies, NEWinPM was designed with you in mind. Check out the following link to learn more about how to get CAPM certified.

1.When you came up with the idea for an e-learning site, why did you choose to focus on project management?

Education has always been a thing of high importance to me and close to my heart. I am a Project Manager myself within a MNC. We never wanted to restrict our business to a particular region or space. Project Management today is one of the most important stepping stones to one's career and professional needs.

The reason for choosing online education and especially imparting Project Management study was to make sure that students and professionals all over the world, and especially beginners, get to know Project Management better through our Online Courses and learn the necessary steps to progress in their careers.

2. What is the PMBOK, and why is it so important to people who want a career in project management?

PMBOK (Project Management Body of Knowledge) is a study guide from the PMI (Project Management Institute) to share the best practices involved in Project Management operations. It consists of a collection of processes and concepts that are vital to Project Management implementation across multiple industries.

For those who are passionate about Project Management and are looking for a breakthrough in their careers by writing their Project Management entry level exam (CAPM), PMBOK will teach all the basics of Project Management and the guidelines followed in Project Management. Aspirants should follow this book so that they will be able to leverage all the concepts in their real time work, too.

3. What is CAPM certification, and how does your site help people prepare for this credential?

CAPM (Certified Associate in Project Management) is an entry-level certification from the PMI that helps beginners and aspirants gain fundamental knowledge of the processes involved in Project Management.

NEWinPM is a modern online educational platform that focuses on imparting Project Management education for those who want to undertake CAPM and other Project Management exams. Our practices follow the latest knowledge books from the PMI and ensure that students and professionals stay up-to-date with the concepts.

4. Would you tell us a bit more about the resources your site provides to help people get started in project management?

NEWinPM offers tailored services to suit the needs of different individuals. Our approach is very unique in its way where we offer video tutorials that add a great value to learning. We also have tons of study materials, quizzes, and games that help in the learning process and make it far interesting.

For our students we also offer many tips and tricks, as well as community support where they will interact with fellow students and enrich their knowledge. Our forums and articles offer plenty of Project Management news and knowledge that can be very valuable for students and professionals.

5. If you were talking to someone who had never taken any sort of online class or study program before, what would you describe as some of the specific benefits of the e-learning format?

The convenience of learning at any time and anywhere makes e-learning the best way to gain knowledge. Today in this fast-paced world, the majority of the students and professionals are busy with personal and professional commitments that make it hard for them to study effectively.

NewinPM has taken the leap here to address these issues. We offer convenient e-learning project management coaching for CAPM that is fully packed with all the resources from videos, books, quizzes, article sections, forums, community discussion, and much more than you may ever want.

Thanks, Mauricio!

Meet Brandi Jo Newman, Financial Advocate and Author

Based in San Antonio, Texas, Brandi Jo Newman helps people all over the country prepare for retirement through her retirement income course.

A quote from Brandi Jo: "Here's the truth about me and my business... I don't get paid unless you benefit. It's as simple as that! Many of my colleagues want to charge you excessive fees and separate you from your money. Not me, and I make that promise every day."

1. I saw on the front page of your website that over 300,000 baby boomers are retiring every month. Wow. Based on your experience, how many of these retirees are likely to be truly ready (financially) for retirement?

I would say only the many who have chosen to work with me on their retirement income choices. The unique approach that I follow does not depend on how much money they have saved or how many assets they have acquired throughout their lifetime. It is all dependent upon how efficiently their income choices are positioned.

Quite often a client of mine will enjoy more income over their lifetime, especially during retirement, just by simply being able to position their assets properly and following a more efficient strategy for a lifetime of guaranteed income.

We do this by allocating their assets into appropriate guaranteed vehicles but also leaving room for gains with the protection of a market volatility buffer of at least three to five years.

With all this being done well in advance of retirement time, we are able to increase my clients' retirement income by at least 30% and sometimes more than 50%. This means that someone who had roughly $125,000 of retirement income from pensions, 401k, IRA, and annuities can have at least an income of $187,500 a year guaranteed for life.

2. Do baby boomers still have time to improve their retirement prospects if they are retiring soon--or already retired?

Absolutely! There is always time, but you need to be realistic. The only thing I can't give anyone is their time back. And as we all know time is finite, so it is best to get started right now, today, with a pre-tax retirement summary to see where we are and where we need to focus.

I encourage anyone and everyone to contact me to get their retirement summary at no cost and then allow me to educate them about the many possibilities they may have. There is more to revealing more income choices than just another mutual fund or working longer or--worse--taking on more risk with their existing savings.

3. Would you tell us a little bit about your retirement income course? Does it include readings or videos or...?

The Retirement Income Planning Course is a series of five videos that I have produced to take someone through the entire understanding of how retirement income streams work. Many of my clients have accomplished the first half of their retirement goals which is compared to climbing a mountain: once you get to the top, you need to know how to get back down the mountain, and that's where maximum income options come into play.

The two white papers we discuss are important to the decision making process for which route to take during retirement. The Wharton Financial Institutions Center published a policy brief on the Importance of Investing A Lump Sum for Retirement Purposes. This is in direct relation to how retirement income streams work and how much changes in the investment environment when someone is taking an income from invested active assets. The policy brief shows just how much uncertainty there is with a retirement account that is being used for income purposes. The example case given in the policy brief shows that the income stream has less than a 50% chance of lasting the entire life of the retiree.

The other white paper we discuss is from Morningstar with one of the researchers being Dr. Wade Pfau who discussed the impact of such a low interest rate environment on retirees' assets and portfolios. The findings reveal how fragile retirees' portfolios can be given a lack of liquidity to sustain the bear market years during retirement.

4. What made you decide to focus your career on helping people with retirement financing?

I want to help all my clients through every phase of life. It just so happens that most of my clients are well into their accumulation years, and they want to make sure their assets, opportunities, and liquidity last for their entire lifetime.

We do this by making sure we capture most of their income outside of the markets' volatility first and then leveraging their liquidity for the purposes of lifestyle. Building the bridge between accumulation and distribution is where the permanent and guaranteed vehicles play a major for my clients.

5. Are there some lessons you learned as a professional golfer that have transferred into your current career as a financial advocate and author?

It's been said many times that one round of golf is like life. There are ups and downs throughout every round of golf we play. But the process and the strategy is what delivers us a good score. Golf as a metaphor for life is one that I talk about often with my clients.

We all know where and what the end goal is: we just need to make sure we have most efficient strategy possible for our course of life.

Thanks, Brandi Jo!

Meet Jim of Raw Inquiry

Jim is the writer and creative mind behind the website, Raw Inquiry. He offered the following autobiographical note...

My name is Jim and I will do almost anything to learn something. I think that getting to know the Universe is the way we get to know ourselves.

I want "Here lies a man who never stopped learning and growing. He shared his knowledge with others for the benefit of society" to be etched into my tombstone.

1. When did you start Raw Inquiry, and what was your motivation for starting it?

I started Raw Inquiry in August 2012 as a way to share anything I wanted to learn about with others. I also wanted to improve my writing.

2. What are some of your favorite topics to learn and write about?

I enjoy exploring this vast, incredible universe and learning everything I can about it as a way to get to know myself better. I love to learn and write about travel, culture, and personal growth. I think what we believe about ourselves (identity) and the beliefs and meanings we share with others (culture) along with how those belief systems form are the most interesting topics to explore when it comes to learning about human beings.

3. How do you find participants for your World Almanac project, and what are your goals with this project?

The main goal of the World Almanac Project is to put together a personal, qualitative World Almanac. We often see a collection of demographic information about countries whenever information about all of the countries in the world is presented. I want to put a real person and a personal story behind each country in the world for people so that they can relate more deeply to the various nations of the world. We tend to change the way we think when we actually know someone who is involved in an issue or who belongs to a particular group.

One of the cool things about the World Almanac Project is that I don't have a system for selecting participants. So far, they have come to me easily and naturally. Often, one person I interview or one of their friends introduces me to several more people from other countries who want to participate. I was originally worried that nobody would be interested in sharing their thoughts; now I realize that people have a story to tell and they are often happy to share it with me for my project.

For me personally, it will be really cool for me to know someone from literally every country in the world. I think a social network like that will prove invaluable to me in the future. Also, I absolutely love conducting the interviews and they always end in admiration for the person I speak with. It’s amazing what can happen when we stop talking and just listen. Most people are passionate about their country and I learn a tremendous amount about life each time I interview someone for the World Almanac Project.

4. What are some of the pleasures--and challenges--when it comes to writing about personal growth?

What a great question! Writing about personal growth is both the most challenging and rewarding topic I write about. It's very challenging to be vulnerable by sharing the things that are most personal to you in such a public forum. When I write a blog post about a subject that really pushes my comfort zone, I often get physically sick after pressing the "publish" button. However, a few days later the pain is gone and I feel incredibly strong. The increase in self-worth you feel is permanent. Every time, you level up. Shame hates vulnerability, so the ability to put yourself out there publicly on the internet fundamentally changes who you are.

Writing about personal growth allows you to solidify the things you have learned and the breakthroughs you have had and make them part of your permanent identity. I also like the fact that other people might benefit from what I have written.

5. Where do you see yourself in your writing life and in your career in, say, three to five years?

In three to five years, I see myself creating educational experiences for people. I will be writing about travel, culture, and personal growth along with anything else I'm interested in learning about. I will be traveling all over the world and sharing my exploration of this mind-boggling universe with all kinds of extraordinary people. I will be having fun and laughing as much as possible.

I hope to finish the World Almanac Project in the next three to five years as well. There are all kinds of cool things I can do with the information from the World Almanac Project when I'm finished, and I look forward to creating those things as well.

Thank you for the excellent questions! Cheers!

Thanks, Jim!

Meet Aaron Sherman, Founder of Storyboard That

Storyboard That, founded by Aaron Sherman, is an innovative technology to rapidly and easily create storyboards online. Storyboards have countless applications in the business and educational world. They are also a lot of fun! Aaron has a BS in management, and an MS in Computer Science from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI). He worked for 9+ years in both technology and marketing across the globe in Boston, Barcelona, and Sydney and brings to the table a powerful vantage point of common problems regardless of location and an astute understanding of communication opportunities.

1. What is it about the combination of words and pictures used in storyboards that encourages creativity?

Research has long shown that most people learn and remember better with a visual aspect. At their core, people are storytellers, and we best communicate and engage in that fashion. Combing pictures and words gives you storyboards.

2. How have you found storyboards helpful in your own personal and professional work?

Having spent a fair amount of time in the corporate world, both as a technologist and a marketer, I have witnessed more times than I can count the two sides unable to easily communicate. For marketers, the 'problem" and therefore "solution" is so obvious they don't understand why the developers "don't get it." Meanwhile, on the technology side, the developers are juggling so many activities, they don't understand why a marketing request is important or how it fits into the bigger picture. By breaking down an idea into a very simple story, it lets both sides look at the same problem together, and I apologize for the pun, but be "on the same page" and then work together towards a joint solution.

On a personal side storyboards are just fun. I get tremendous pleasure reading and looking at the creativity of Storyboard That's global audience. It also gives me an excuse to practice my Spanish trying to understand some of my audience.

3. What makes storyboards useful in schools as well as in business settings?

Effective communication and communication via storytelling are critical skills in today's workplace. In order to be effective, authors need to figure out what they want to say, why they want to say it, and how they are going to say it. Storyboards are a very powerful framework for this because they force the author to be concise (3-6 cells), think in a linear fashion (storyboards force the questions of "what's next"), and clearly show context of who, when, and where.

When students create book reports via storyboards, they are practicing these critical skills without realizing it. As students mature and their storyboards become more sophisticated, again and again they are breaking down their thoughts into bite-sized, easily consumable chunks.

4. What are the benefits of using the tools on your website to share storyboards with other people, rather than just making storyboards for brainstorming (etc) and not sharing them?

In my entire life I cannot think of one example where I shared work with someone and did not leave with new ideas and a different perspective. I constantly share my own storyboards with my fiancé to get her opinion on dialog and imagery or even find out if I missed the point completely. People are social: we like to talk, and we love to criticize and give feedback. Every storyboard has its own URL, so it is easy to send it to a friend.

That being said there is nothing wrong with making a few storyboards just to privately organize your thoughts.

5. How do you see Storyboard That growing over the next few years?

Storyboard That and its parent company Clever Prototypes are at their infancy right now. Clever Prototypes' stated mission is to help develop solutions to make people enjoy their days more by improving communication, ideation, and looking for ways to take old tasks and make them more fun. The focus right now is on continuously making our storyboard creator the best technology out there and making it easier for people to access it.

Thanks, Aaron!

Meet Patrick of On Learning Point

On Learning Point is a website with free and useful information about online teaching and learning and the use of technology in online education. The training technology manager who runs On Learning Point, Patrick has a passion for training and training technology and has implemented and migrated several enterprise systems as well as small start-up sites; he specializes in creating cloud-based learning solutions that give the best training impact to the business.

1. What motivated you to start On Learning Point?

Our Learning Point is primarily an informational site about learning and e-learning and e-learning technology. I realized after being in the industry for 10 years that I had a lot of information and tribal knowledge that would be good to share and put out there to help others. And so, I created the site primarily as a resource site for people who are actually practitioners of implementing a learning solution, as well as to offer suggestions for solving everyday problems that people face.  

A lot of times, people face the same exact problems and ask me the same types of questions. Usually once a year, I get the same set of questions. These include: How do I set up a certification exam, if the requirements are "x"? Or, how many people can be included in this audience? What audience should be set up? It can be even simpler than that. Other questions include: How do I define my audience?  How do I build a training platform that I can use to deliver all kinds of different things?  

Some of the other things that I try to explore on the site are more the complexity of building an entire software stack, such as a platform as a service. This means that you'd have several different platforms all working together to provide a seamless experience. For example, with learning solutions, you may have a video delivery platform, a document delivery platform, as well as the LMS (learning management system), which does the tracking and the backend functions.  

That's primarily the focus of the site. It was an idea that I had been toying around with for many years, dating all the way back to 2003 when I was starting to get really heavy into the learning process.  

Back then, Moodle and some of the other open source LMSs were very immature. They had a multitude of issues. The issues were not being addressed particularly well. They were being addressed in a community manner, obviously, since this was sort of a side project for a lot of people. However, all of that changed in 2011 when they adopted a more formal development and a break fix model where people could actually pay for commercial support, as well as getting commercial grade fixes for the LMS when something broke. And this was a paradigm shift in the open source LMS market.  

There are other companies who did something similar, and they may have said that they were open source, but if you tried to access their code, you wouldn't have been able to do so. I think that's one of the major differences between an open source LMS provider and someone who's not. Technically, that's not part of the GPL license, that you have to provide the code on your website, but it really seems to be an indicator of whether the product is open source or not.

Some of those other products claim that they are open source, but if you were to go to their website, you can't find one piece of code. To me, that's not really an open source product when even though technically you are licensed, as you can't get a hold of the code, which means you can't fork it. It means you can't own it. It means you can't support it. You can't create derivative works from it. It's not an open source. It is a completely a whole different area of philosophy.  

The other thing that is really neat about the way learning management systems have come and the direction that they're going nowadays is the whole introduction of the cloud systems. Now you can create, without actually having to purchase a lot of heavy end equipment, products that are located right in the cloud and they can come and go and may have very short shelf life--maybe only one hour.  

You can spin up one instance and then deliver your training and then spin it back down. It'd be a strange scenario where you would want to do that, but there may be specific reasons for it, so it's a very interesting paramount change in the way things are now being done.  

2. What's the current role of technology when it comes to education/training programs?

The role of technology in training is ever-changing and ever-evolving. Right now, we're at a paradigm shift in the way training is being taught to everyone: everyone from high schools, preschoolers, and all the way up through post-secondary education, as well as corporate training as well. The ability to create video and deliver it anywhere ambiguously on any device is changing everything. Pretty soon, and you're already starting to see this, you will be able to do a little search for content and, on the spot, you will be able to learn anything that you need to know about anything, whether it is air conditioning repair, how to diagnose your car trouble, or how to apply for college credits.

It doesn't matter what it is. A lot of the institutions are realizing that as well, and so they've gone to a global learning reach where they've defined their audience as everybody in the world. Obviously, there are some language barriers with doing it this way, but the fact that you can actually deliver your learning content to any corner of the globe at any time, at any instance, is completely changing the way we do business.

Now, the similar technology needs to catch up and be able to track these types of delivering mechanisms, but at its simplest form. If you were to click on this website, I can track that you've launched the content. I don’t know if you finished the content, but I know that you clicked onto it and so I can track that click. The other thing I can do from a technology standpoint is that I can assess your knowledge very easily as well by creating quizzes after the fact.

So, whether or not you consume that content with me or you consume the content with some other provider, it doesn't really matter to me. The content most likely will be available to you, although maybe not always and then, by virtue of me assessing your knowledge and skill level, I can now say that indeed that you are certified. I can feel comfortable with certifying you remotely, without even having even seen you. This is great for me because I can charge you money to do so. And this is great for you because you may live in a rural area where these schools are not available except online.

The other thing that is quite revolutionary when it comes to learning is the use of video cameras and webcams. Through different services and virtual classrooms like Skype or Big Blue Button, you can now have a face-to-face meeting with one person or an entire class. And so you can take that traditional classroom environment and actually deliver it virtually anywhere in the world.

There are some technical limitations as far as bandwidth goes and you have to make sure that your video and audio is synced up, but that is becoming more and more ubiquitous. Some of the technology is going to need to catch up as far as tracking and recording as well.

But, at some point, there is no reason why anybody can't become an instructor. If you know something or you have a certain skill set or you have a certain knowledge area, you should be able to share that with the world and be able to resell that information. This is whether it's a recording or if it's actually a live class.

Some people start with doing a live class and, once they've done it a couple of times, and they feel like they've gotten good at it, they'll take that and actually record it. Once the recording is done, now you can sell that and repackage it as you want. Add a quiz and now you can certify someone: after someone reviews your content, heor she may be able to pass a quiz and now you have certification.

So, technology is changing everything by making everyone connected via the Internet.

3. How is mobile technology changing both learning and teaching?

To summarize, it's video and the ability to get that video anywhere. Anyone can learn and anyone can tach right from their mobile device, because let's not forget, they are all just little tiny computers. And they are perfect platforms to broadcast from.

It's an exciting time where things are really just spinning up and soon you will be able to learn things right at the point of needing to learn them. As an instructor taking a mobile device to the field will let you narrate and show the item being talked about. You can then wrap up the whole thing by making an assessment in the end and you will then have a full training module.

4. What is the cloud, and how is it affecting online learning?

Most people have heard of cloud computing by now, but just to reiterate, cloud computing is a shared computing platform that can be used to host and store learning content.

You can create a whole virtual machine or a server right in the cloud, using shared resources and you don't need to worry about any of the underlying infrastructure like:

Routers
Physical servers
Disks

All that stuff has been virtualized, so you just create an instance of your Moodle sites by going in through Amazon web services, create the server, and set it up, load your content and then you are in business. It can take as little as 5 minutes to get everything set up.  

This is incredible because this is a paramount shift in the way the speed of things can go to market in which you can bring things.  

Also, there is the ability to store items in the cloud, either as a student or as an instructor: if you have videos that you would like to store, if you have audio files, word documents, all your content can be stored up there on the servers, which are actually located in a secure location somewhere other than yours that can be accessed by any Internet-capable device.  

From a standpoint of creating content and hosting it and tracking it, it's never been an easier time in order to get that done.

It used to be, in the old days that you had to get a server.  

You had to size that server correctly, based on the amount of traffic that you were expecting.  

And then, perhaps you had to put a load balancer in front of it, and basically have to worry about a lot of different technical details such as:

What IP addresses you have.  
What are your DNS settings?  
How do you set all that stuff up?  
Do you run your own DNS server?  
Do you setup your own mail server?  

Anyway, all of that is not really an issue anymore thanks to cloud computing.  

There is one down side and thats privacy. You may lose the ability to have your items private--but anything that's out on the web, it's probably not going to be private anyway. So, unless it's secret content, it's probably going to be okay to have it on that server there in the cloud.  

5. What would you recommend to an entrepreneur without experience in new learning technologies who wants to start utilizing the online environment to offer trainings, seminars, and other interactive products?

I think, if you're an entrepreneur and you’re starting out today it's really a 3-step process.

1. The first thing you'd want to do is just create a base outline of the different courses that you're going to be offering.  

2. Next, you need to create that offering and start with the easiest thing you can start out with. So, whether it is a small, short PDF or a short video recording, you can start with that and get everything in place and start offering courses to people.

3. Set it up in the LMS, because it's so much easier to get started: you can be up and running the same day that the content is ready.

Often, it seems that people get stuck on the technology, and it becomes more and more this huge, great big thing.  

If you kind of have an outline of how you think it's going to look when it's done, start that vision and then break it down into little pieces and turn each one into an individual PDF.  

Sometimes people just get stuck on just creating that first PDF and when that happens, they find it hard to implement because it seems so massive.  

With each LMS that I've been involved with, they all started in the same place. They started with loading a single document, testing the ability to serve that document to other people and making sure that it was recorded and that the student had basic access to the content. It doesn't need to be any more complicated than that.  

The great thing is what you can do today:

You can very quickly create your content, and then very quickly set up in just an instance a learning site, and then launch it very quickly and get it out to the market, often within the same day of completing your content.  

So, there is no reason to make it overly complicated.  

One other problem area is that people will try to go through a whole LMS selection process trying to figure out which one is best. Most of the ones that are out there today generally do the same thing, just in slightly different ways, and so, depending upon what your goals are, it's probably pretty easy for you to achieve that goal.  

Get that content out there and start charging for it today. Validate that your business model is good and that the content is something that people would pay for before you invest many, many hours into the project.  

The other thing you can also do is you can use PLR content (Private Label Content), which is content that's already been written. You can take that content and rewrite it and put it up into your LMS immediately, making it a very fast turn-around.  

Depending on what area you're actually working in, you can get the LMS and the content pre-built for you and you can use that to turn-around your business model very quickly.  

Online webinars are also a great way to push content out quickly to the large groups of people. Software such as Big Blue Button and WebEx lets you talk and share your screen. Hold a monthly webinar, which is great for connecting to people and finding out exactly what the market needs.

To learn more about e-learning platforms, please visit On Learning Point. On Learning Point is a site dedicated to helping everyone learn about e-learning platforms and e-learning technology.

Thanks, Patrick!