There are many advantages to working at Learning Pool. For me, meeting lots of different people from all parts of the country is really interesting.

On a recent visit to Yorkshire for a Breakfast Meeting Sam and I stayed in Leeds for the night which gave us the opportunity to sample the delights of the city centre and indulge in one of my other passions - Indian food. We found ourselves a really good place and settled down.

This restaurant served the largest naan breads I’ve ever seen. When we asked why they were so big we were told that they were the family size naan. Feeling hungry after a long day travelling we thought we were man enough for one of these beauties and so tried to order one with our meal. Our waiter had other ideas though, “They’re too big for two people,” he said. So we had to settle for a normal size one (pictured), which was more than enough for the two of us.

So what does naan bread and Learning Pool have in common?

Well, in a word, sharing. Learning Pool allows you to create, deploy and monitor e-learning, plus you can share your creation with other members. Why reinvent the wheel when there may be something already created and shared back in to the catalogue?

Using our Authoring Tool you can easily make changes to a course already created and then deploy it, no fuss. Or perhaps you have created images for you course? These can now also be shared via our brand new online image library.

It really is good to share, as Sam and I now know. Our curries were delicious and, if you want to know the best places to eat in Leeds, give me a call!

John

I was looking forward to coming into Learning Pool but I had to leave my kitten Freddie at home so I think Learning Pool should have a bring your pet to work day!!!

Due to Derry’s busy traffic Mary didn’t get her usual parking spot…right outside the door!!!! My best work outfit got soaked on the walk to the office. I was ready to get started as soon as I came in out of the rain.

After saying hello to all the Learning Pool staff I had a go at the new Authoring Tool and my first project is now underway. It was thirsty work so I needed to have a drink of juice. I saw Mary in the kitchen having her first cup of the day.

Then I wrote out my interview questions and got all my staff pictures together for my project.

After lunch, I interviewed everybody from Learning Pool after I got the giggles!!

I have had a really good day at Learning Pool and I can’t wait to come back.

Olivia, aged 10

When writing blogs I usually sit down and try to think of an interesting and personal topic to talk about…But instead I thought I would try and buck the trend and sat down and attempted to think of the most boring topic, just to mix things up!

Only one topic sprung to mind, the dreaded conversation everyone hates and rolls their eyes when they hear it… have you guessed it yet? Yes, the weather! What a topic, guaranteed to get any girl in the world to run a mile or put your granny to sleep on the sofa with a cup of tea in her hand.

I once had a dream… the dream that when someone said it was the summer, it actually was the summer. Instead we get flood-like conditions and, if we are lucky, maybe (just maybe) it will hit or possibly go past twenty degrees. I’m guessing that’s the reason why Ireland (and most of the UK) is so green, because no matter what the season, month or day you’re promised at least a little rain, sleet or even snow.

For this reason and maybe because I’m just a little lazy, I love e-learning. There is no need to leave the office or maybe the comfort of your bed if you are armed with a laptop. All that is needed is a few clicks and the information is in front of you. No stress, time or effort required for a company to hire venues, trainers, catering and other expenses. If that wasn’t enough, cutting out traveling by car, train or plane cuts down on your carbon footprint, making you and your company do something a little greener and save a lot of cash.

So why not be lazy like me check out Learning Pool’s site or e-mail Breda and get a free month’s guest pass.

Andrew

Lights (Well, scorching London Sunlight)

Camera (Newly purchased and surviving its first fall….oops!)

Action!

With a brand spanking new Authoring Tool on its way, continued improvements to our increasingly popular DLE, and a makeover to the Leaning Pool website about to be unveiled, we thought now was the perfect time to make a splash (bad pun I know) with the first Learning Pool Customer Vodcasts!

A Vodcast, to impress your younger friends is the delivery of on-demand video content, the term an off-shoot of the more familiar audio Podcasts. Vodcasts are most commonly associated with the video sharing site Youtube, whose launch in 2005 brought, unfortunately in some cases, more than 30 seconds of fame to budding celebrities and their not so tasteful ‘homemade’ videos.

At Learning Pool however, we are not so fame hungry, our focus with the introduction of Vodcasts to highlight the experiences of you, our customers! What you like about Learning Pool, what you don’t like -very few things I’m sure but we wouldn’t like to present a biased view…. and generally, the interesting ways you have incorporated e-learning into the training schedules of your authority. So, with our willing subjects and future e-learning celebrities in place, Breda ‘Spielberg’ Doherty behind the camera and Janet ‘Walters’ Harkin conducting the interviews, we recently compiled our first Vodcasts.

Not as easy to film as we had initially thought; despite Ben’s assurances that you simply ‘point and shoot’, due to an ill-fitting tripod stand and the London humidity stifling to those of us from the ‘wee smoke’ of Derry. Not to mention the unwelcome sound effects resulting from the construction work being completed nearby what we thought was our rather scenic filming location and the clattering of passing tea trolleys-the one and only time I have not welcomed the sight of a cuppa!

Despite these what we shall call, ‘Learning Curves’, our first attempts at Vodcasts turned out extremely well, allowing us to fulfill our main goal of recording the feedback and practices of our much valued Learning Pool customers. They also allowed those of us who don’t get out of the office that frequently to catch-up with some of the subscribers we usually only interact with via the telephone or more commonly through frequent and sometimes unnecessary emails; which those of you who attended our recent Steering Group will recall is not good email etiquette!

So put your cinema tickets for Batman: The Dark Knight on hold as coming soon to a PC screen near you is Learning Pool: The Customer Views!

Breda

For anyone not familiar with this American expression, it’s when something appears to be a bargain yet it’s only after you’ve committed to buying it and read all the small print that you realise that all those little extras you’d assumed were included in that great headline price are going to cost you. And cost you dear.

This happened to me recently when I bought a new floor. I needed to buy a floor and I was desperate. After much deliberation, I made my decision. The price per square metre looked affordable and within my budget however once labour, delivery, trim, other extras and sales tax were added onto my bill, the true price compared to the headline grabbing price was as different as night and day.

Why, dear readers, am I telling you this? Lately we’ve heard of other e-learning companies using these sorts of loss leader tactics to ensnare public sector customers - only then to hit them hard with the most ludicrous charges for the smallest things - £1 per LMS report per person in the authority was one that I heard last week and another was the levying of a minimum charge of half a day consultancy (over £400!) to make a change to a course that would have taken someone in a technical team 10 minutes max.

Our philosophy at Learning Pool is to offer our treasured customers excellent customer service and high quality e-learning products at a low, but more importantly, transparent price. This is so important to us that we publish our pricing structures widely and they are available for all to see on our marketing literature and our websites (even though this tells our competitors too). We would hate to make our collective living as a company by “stealth charging” our customers for the smallest things we do and basically ripping people off. That’s not what we’re about.

We also know and appreciate that we don’t hold a monopoly on e-learning and it’s healthy for our customers to buy from other suppliers. Indeed we’ve even tried to facilitate this by making some 3^rd party offers available from companies that our customers have used and (more importantly) recommended.

So if you see a deal that is too good to be true, or a new “alliance” or “partnership” or “coalition” for the public sector being offered, just scratch the surface a little and check what lies beneath as it may not always be what it seems. And remember, the good thing about being part of a community like Learning Pool is that we’re all here to help each other. So if you want to know about another e-learning company lift the phone and ask one of us, you might be surprised at what we know!

Mary

Hip, hip, hurray! We’re 2 years old on 1^st August 2008 and it feels fantastic. My, how we’ve grown in the last 2 years since Paul and Mary bought Learning Pool from IDeA. A roller coaster ride, if ever there was one!

In the last two years we have:

Re-branded and re-launched Learning Pool

Kept the IDeA’s original customers and added 50 more

Moved offices once

Launched 4 new services

Recruited 22 new team members

Doubled our number of customers

Been shortlisted for a national e-learning award

Been on TV

Had 10 customers hug us

Had a few wild staff nights out

Launched our (hotly contested) Customer of the Year award

Met Elvis

Introduced over 400 customers to each other

Had a Learning Pool baby (2 more on the way!)

Lost 4 customers and got them back

Had 8 Steering Group meetings

Met or spoken to all the LEA’s in England (hello!)

Worked with some fab suppliers (and a couple of not so fab ones)

Met about 300 councillors

Delivered instructional design authoring training to 168 people

Written lots of lovely blogs

Created over 40 e-learning courses

Revamped and re-launched our Authoring Tool

Eaten too many cakes at our team meetings

Visited over 300 councils (and counting)

Clocked up too many air miles

Spent about 600 days on our mobile phones (wow… should have bought shares in Vodafone!)

What’s Mary’s highlight from the last 2 years?

“Launching the fabulous Learning Pool DLE and seeing it being used so widely - it brings me joy every time one of our customers finds something new they can do with it that we hadn’t thought of and I still have nightmares about the county council that had spent £1m on an LMS.”

And Paul’s?

“Being in a room full of prospective customers and having one person stand up and say that Learning Pool’s customer service was the best she had ever experienced… anywhere! Well done Ben, thanks Christine and welcome on board Essex councils!”

Have I ever told you about the time I met Robert Plant?

…..it’s all about being in the right place at the right time and seizing your opportunities when they present themselves.

Robert and I met in a backwater bar (where else?) way up in the mountains in California in a place called Pioneertown.  We were both there to see the wonderful Wanda Jackson play.  Wanda was one of Elvis’ girlfriends in the 1950s and boy does she have some good stories to tell about those days.  But that’s for another blog…

Fifty or more years later, she still manages to pack enough of a punch to entice a living legend and rock god to leave his Los Angeles pad, get into his car alone and drive a hundred miles or so out into the desert to watch her perform and to participate in her particular brand of living theatre.  And up for it he was as he jostled with me for pole position on the front row.

And what, I hear you ask dear readers, does any of this have to do with e-learning in the public sector in 2008?  The answer is that as Learning Pool customers, every one of you is in the right place at the right time…the tools and the technology are all here and Web 2.0 is within your grasp, your learners are all ready and waiting, the community is in place and willing to offer support, the exchange works, the list of topics you can author is endless and limitless - so what are you waiting for?  Take that next step, download AT5 and let your imagination do the rest.

Mary

P.S. For anyone out there who isn’t sure (where have you been?) Robert Plant is the legendary Led Zeppelin singer and front man with his compadre Jimmy Page.  And as everyone surely knows, Led Zeppelin is the BBITW as Janet’s mum says (Best Band in the World).

I’m a bit jealous of the new guy in our team.  He walks in here, coolly joins the lunchtime salad club and has taken to his role like a duck to water. Hmmph!  He could at least pretend he needs my help…

Let me explain. I’m heading off for a few months to deliver another little project of my own so Andrew’s joined our Marketing team to a) cover my maternity leave and b) stay on as Marketing Executive after I’ve come back. 

Because I’m so new to my role and have only really just found my feet, I’m feeling a teensy bit put out that I have to hand over for a while (there – I’ve said it!).  But I’m happy that I’m leaving my duties in capable hands, so I can’t hold too much of a grudge.  Check out Andrew’s profile and see the other new additions to the team here.  

The past few months have flown in and I can hardly believe it’s almost time for me to go.  It’s been a steep, whirlwind of a learning curve, but thoroughly enjoyable at the same time (check out how I felt way back in May).  The role has been both challenging and fulfilling all wrapped into one and I’ve been helped hugely by the fact we have a wonderful, supportive team here in Marketing and throughout the company.  No wonder I’m being a bit precious about my job!

A little of what I’ve been busy doing is helping with the design of new leaflets (check these out on our resource section) and updating the website with daily news and images.  We’ve also created a new section on the site called ‘Quote of the Day’ for those needing a little inspiration.  Check these quotes out on the homepage.

Although I’ll miss the buzz of Learning Pool, I have to admit, it will be a relief to put my feet up.  For those who have never met me, I’m quite petite, so at the moment I’m as broad as I am tall and waddling instead of walking!  All’s left now is to say goodbye for a while and to wish Andrew all the best in his new role and, in case you’re worried, I haven’t tried to sabotage any of your work. I promise…

Emma

Who said e-learning is the new rock and roll?

I have to admit a council’s remit seems a tough one at the moment.  Not only do they have to run the libraries and leisure centres better than ever before, keep the streets clean, manage door step recycling schemes (whilst encouraging reluctant recyclers to use them) but, this week, there’s been the small factor of having 100,000 or so less staff to do it.   And all the while trying to reduce costs annually by 3% to meet their CSR07 targets.

On top of all that central government’s also been busy with the publishing of six white papers in just half as many days. These papers cover some meaty issues tackling devolvement of power and putting communities in control.  Citizen Kane had nothing on Hazel Blears.

The main aim of these white papers is to bring more people, that’s you and I, into the democratic process and give more control to local communities rather than Whitehall.  But can and will this actually succeed?

One big challenge not to be underestimated is simply being able to communicate the clear and precise messages from the papers through to each staff member.  A tough job at the best of times but especially so when staff numbers are in the hundreds or even thousands spread across many different working locations and working different hours.   Sounds like a job for e-learning!  This is a medium perfect for delivering consistent messages to a large dispersed audience within a certain time frame.

Local councils must first respond to the new White Papers but the biggest challenge lies ahead, delivering the knowledge needed in order to implement these changes.

This could be achieved by constructing a clear, defined learning and development strategy in conjunction with e-learning services like our Dynamic Learning Environment (DLE), a fully hosted (and very cost effective) system which does more than an LMS ever could.

You can deliver our e-learning courses, and anybody else’s too for that matter, using it and it can be designed and tailored exactly to your needs.  Add in polls, quizzes, glossaries (anyone for a TLA?*), links to other learning material and podcasts.  It can even allow people to sign up to a webinar or online chat with the Chief Executive.  Priceless for making your CE accessible to far flung and remote working staff.

We’ve got some ideas up our sleeves (there are that many) for other interesting stuff, not least a piece of e-learning outlining the 7 key themes of the Empowerment white paper.  But more on that later….

*three letter acronyms

Andrew