Interview with Michael Clifford, SignificantFederation - Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Dr. Michael K. Clifford, SignificantFederation, whose company invests in post-secondary education companies. E-Learning Queen is committed to providing insights into the world of education - public, private, and not-for-profit. Insights into how education is supported are more important than ever, given the multiple shocks sustained by the global economy. E-Learning Queen welcomes reader questions and comments.

What is your name, your position, and your affiliation and what is your involvement in private equity?

Dr. Michael K. Clifford, Chairman, SignificantFederation, a principal investor in post-secondary education companies.

What is your company, and what is its mission and vision?

The link to the company is www.significantfederation.com. Our mission is to provide ethical business and financial strategies as principal investors in online education companies.

What do you identify as the key new trends in start-up for-profit educational institutions?

For the investment community, there is an unprecedented opportunity to collect valuable assets in a distressed market while doing something good for peopleʼs lives.

This is due in part to the financial pressure on traditional non-profit universities resulting from endowment portfolios income reduced in excess of 50 percent, major donor contributions did not come in at the end of the year at 2008 as scheduled due to market conditions, and reduced state subsidies; this, combined with an increase of enrollment demand has created the perfect storm for investors in post-secondary education.


Dr. Michael Clifford, SignificantFederation

Investors partnering with savvy, experienced executives, especially those elite online degree experts (which are few), have an unprecedented opportunity to step in and provide saving grace to the non-profit universities who are hitting the wall financially at this time.

A key trend is that these investors, like myself, will be able to maintain the traditional mission statement of an established institution by injecting best practices, especially in the area of financial accountability, enhancing faculty involvement in the operations, introducing cost-saving technologies, and providing astute marketing to properly exploit these established brands in their region.

A robust online operation is the billion dollar endowment of the future for these schools. Thanks to the regulators at the Department of Education and the accrediting agencies, the level of quality educational degrees has continued to increase while these regulatory bodies have made access a priority in their support of the institutions going forward.

How do private, for-profit institutions assure students of a high-quality, flexible curriculum that includes general education as well as their major area of study?

Market-driven institutions, whether they be for profit or non-profit, are governed by regulators to ensure high quality flexible curriculum that includes general education and relevant real world areas of study. However, the Academy needs to review the traditional Gen Ed that requires two or more years of a studentʼs time while adding a burdensome 50 percent to the cost of a relevant degree. Faculty need to understand that in this new economy they must be focused on cutting costs to the student and their family and all the other funding contributors such as the Department of Education, corporate America, and grandparents, in order to get the student through to a degree and on a career path for all parties involved.

Have recent changes in the way online learners interact changed anything about private equity funding for for-profit colleges and universities? (social networking, twitter, wikis, multimedia, voice boards, etc.)

Everybodyʼs talking about social networking and ways to generate low cost leads. I donʼt think weʼre seeing much of an impact in that area yet, but we will. I believe private equity firms are just now waking up to the realization that market-driven opportunities in a non-profit and for profit education industry are unprecedented opportunities for diverse portfolio investments.

When one looks at a university, one actually sees a city with various investment opportunities. A university has real estate transactions, software and technology, curriculum design, human resource and career development opportunities, marketing and advertising, food services -- a whole gamut of industries that are spin-offs from what the university pays for to deliver the final services to a student.

Please list and describe a few key benefits of starting new institutions, or expanding using private equity funds. Do you have any case studies?

The real value creation for private equity investors is the strategic alliance or conversion of non-profit assets that have hundreds of millions of dollars invested in them over many, many years to unleash the value through strict discipline on the residential programs, combined with robust niche marketing for online degree programs.

I cannot find a sector in the investment community that is more robust. Combine this with the fact that weʼre helping people live better lives, it makes it a very meaningful investment opportunity.

Case in point, Grand Canyon University, which when we formed the strategic alliance with the non-profit board, was approximately $40 million in debt, had fewer than 1,000 students on the campus, dormitories with no air conditioning in Phoenix, Arizona, a swimming pool filled in with dirt, 22 lawsuits that the institution was bound to lose to vendors, and completely out of cash. Our group was the catalyst to bring in the money, the management, and the marketing to unleash the value of this 57 year-old Southern Baptist University based in Phoenix , Arizona . The result was a public offering November 20, 2008 that broke the longest dry spell in 33 years of IPOs. LOPE is rated the No. 1 IPO in 2008, with the stock up over 70 percent as of today.

Another case in point is the remarkable story of Bridgepoint Education, which filed its S1 prior to Christmas Eve. Bridgepoint Education began with ten employees in San Diego three years ago, now employing 1,500. Bridgepoint Education promises to be the most stunning IPO in 2009.

I am humbled that two companies I founded might indeed represent the best-performing IPOs in 2008-2009 back-to-back. This is a testimony to the need for working adults to go back to school to retool to compete in the global market during what some are calling the second Great Depression. During the last Great Depression, the government had people pick up shovels and build bridges. During this economic downturn, we need to get people back to school to learn so we as a nation can compete.

Please describe upcoming activities.

For the investment community, there are several conferences throughout the year that I would recommend, including the Credit Suisse conference, the BMO conference, Signal Hill conference and others. For the private equity investor, they are truly missing the boat by not learning about this space and the long legs it has into the next ten years.

Optional question: What do you think the stock market will do in the next 18 months? How about the price of oil? Do you think that "contango" situations in commodities will affect pricing -- obscuring the fundamentals (yet again)?

Nobody can predict the stock market, especially in today's economy. Personally, I do not believe the traditional fundamentals can be counted on any more because of the global financial wheeling and dealing that is taking place. It is my belief that until post-secondary education institutions begin to turn out business MBA students who have a strong moral compass and can make ethical decisions on Wall Street, our financial markets will continue to spiral down in uncertainty. The No. 1 comment I hear from CEOs of the Fortune 1000 is the fact that they cannot hire MBA students in business that have a strong principled decision-making process of what is right and what is wrong because they have been taught that greed is No. 1 and beating the competition is most important.

We have tried to institute in all of our institutions a strong charitable component of service by giving of our time, talents and treasures back to the community in which we serve. It is my feeling that until profitable companies get serious about giving back to our society we will continue to have this type of financial turmoil in the markets.

Interview with Grace Oh, Musicshake -- Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Grace Oh of Musicshake, an easy-to-use music making program that incorporates social networking and bookmarking.

What is your name and what is your involvement in e-learning?
Grace Oh with Musicshake, and I head our Musicshake for Education program.

What is Musicshake, and what is its mission and vision?
www.musicshake.com

Musicshake is a free to download, super user-friendly, music making program that anyone can use to make their own high quality music.You can create your own beats and tracks (hip hop, pop, electronica, rock, R&B, jazz, etc…) and even add your own voice! After you create your music, you can share with your friends and build a community around your own music.
Musicshake for Education – Unlike other existing difficult and boring music programs, Musicshake is fun and engaging. It is a great way to introduce students to music. Students can learn how every imaginable instrument sounds like, individually, and in combination with other instruments in every possible genre.

If the goal of music education is not to make every student a Mozart or Beethoven, Musicshake is the best way to introduce music to today’s already overloaded students.

Who do you consider to be the target audience? Why?

Anyone without a formal music background, or any music beginner, is a part of our target audience. This would include most of the mass audience who only dream of creating their own music but can’t because they are not musicians. Musicshake is meant to educate people on the fundamentals of music, as well as include them in the music making process without the hassle of taking classes, buying instruments and practicing.

What makes Musicshake effective?

Musicshake contains categorized lists of every combination of all the imaginable music genres and instruments and offers over 550,000 different music samples.

An innovative algorithm (MuBot – Music Robot) sits at the background and recommends the optimal music pattern mix which allows users to simply listen, click, and select what they like. This means that you have 99.9% probability that whatever you make on Musicshake would sound very professional. In fact, our users have often told us that “you really have to try hard to make something that does not sound good.”

Have recent changes in the way online learners interact changed anything about Musicshake? (social networking, twitter, wikis, multimedia, voice boards, etc.)

Yes, they have greatly changed the way people use Musicshake and interact on Musicshake.com. We originally started as an online music making software but with the advances in virtual communities and social networks, saw the need to build a community based on user generated music. In order to address these market shifts, we are going after three distinct yet very interrelated markets – music creation, music consumption and user communities around user generated music.



Please list and describe a few key benefits of using Music Shake. Do you have any demos? (please provide links, and a jpeg or two, with captions)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq_Dsrhtdjk – A feature done on us by G4 TV
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_fPK8N8tKs – A presentation of Musicshake

The benefit of Musicshake is that you are able to create music exactly how you want it for your offline/online contents. If you are making your own YouTube video or your own Slide.com slideshow, why resort to a 3rd party music that doesn’t exactly match your contents? Why not make your own music for your own user generated contents? Traditionally, you had to be a musician to do this but Musicshake completely facilitates this.

Another key benefit – and one that is becoming more and more important these days – is that we have our own in-house musicians that have created all of the different over half a million different samples in our music library. We own all the copyrights to our music so we can grant our users the peace of mind of using Musicshake music for their own iMovies, DVDs, and anything else they may need music for, without worrying about any copyright infringement issues.

Unlike most software that requires license for both home and school usage, Musicshake is accessible from both home and school, if you have an internet connection.

Musicshake is also very competitively priced and special discounts are available for educational use. Please send an email to edu@musicshake.com for any inquiries.

We are also offering to your readers a free 3 month subscription for them, and any of their students, that they can learn more about by contacting edu@musicshake.com.

Please describe upcoming activities.

Musicshake continues to have fun and interesting events throughout the year for students. One promotion we are working on for a school is a “School Spirit Contest”! We are having students create a song for their school to promote school spirit. For other schools that are interested, we can also take any existing song and make into music blocks, which can then be remixed with the rest of the over 550,000 music blocks in Musicshake’s database.

Optional question: Do you see any applications of Musicshake for developing online courses for technical / professional development?

This is a great question. The answer is YES. In the future, we plan to develop a Musicshake Pro Version which would have more sophisticated functionalities and that would help even the professional musicians with their work. Once we have this version available, we can develop online course for technical and professional development.

For E-Learning Queen readers: When signing up with Musicshake at

http://eng.musicshake.com/Member/Join/, please use the following promo code “MUSICSHAKEPROMO3” to get 3 FREE mp3 free downloads.

(Note: The Innovators in E-Learning Series consists of interviews with who are working on projects that the E-Learning Queen readers might find interesting, useful, and inspiring. The questions are intended to enable readers to look at the products and services in a new way, and to encourage collaborative work and thinking. We welcome information about new products and services, and if they fit our readers' interests and needs, we may invite you to participate in an interview.)

Interview with Sue Polyson Evans, SoftChalk - Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Sue Polyson Evans, co-founder and CEO of SoftChalk LLC. Softchalk is well-known among online instructors for its product, LessonBuilder. Online instructors and course developers from the mid-1990s will already have an acquaintance with Sue through Web Course in a Box, which she helped develop. Readers may wish to weigh in on the current state of learning management systems.

What is your name and what is your involvement in e-learning?

My name is Sue Polyson Evans, and I am a co-founder and the CEO of SoftChalk LLC. I have been working in the eLearning field from its inception in the early 1990s when I was the principal developer of Web Course in a Box, one of the first commercially available learning management systems in the U.S. I’ve also had various management positions at the university level in both instructional and academic technology.

What is Soft Chalk (link, please), and what is its mission and vision?

SoftChalk’s flagship product is LessonBuilder, a software tool designed to allow educators to create professional, sophisticated e-learning content. The thing that is unique about SoftChalk is how easy it is to use – we like to say “If it’s not easy, it’s not SoftChalk”.


SoftChalk came about as a result of the work that Bob Godwin-Jones (another SoftChalk co-founder) and I did in the 1990s, developing learning management system software. As LMS systems began to proliferate on college campuses, we saw that educators needed an easy way to move beyond the static lesson content (word processing documents and slide shows) found in most on-line courses. Through our work with faculty, we found that although educators desire to create sophisticated, interactive content, they typically do not have the time to learn complicated authoring tools. So we set about creating a software product based on these principles: the software had to be simple to use, yet powerful enough that educators could create truly interactive content. And the lesson content had to be portable for use in virtually any learning management system or on any web server. The result was SoftChalk LessonBuilder.

Today, as the leading provider of educational content authoring software for educators in K-12, colleges, universities and medical schools, we think SoftChalk is the educator’s only choice for easy content creation. With SoftChalk, educators can create professional, sophisticated content, while students love the interactive, engaging lessons created using SoftChalk. SoftChalk’s easy-to-use LessonBuilder software provides educators with a tool that enhances their teaching experience, and improves the learning experience of their students.

We would love to have you visit us online at http://www.softchalk.com and we invite you to download the 30-day free trial version of SoftChalk – the download link can be found on our website.

Who do you consider to be the target audience? Why?

On the one hand, SoftChalk’s primary target audience is the educator or content expert who desires to create professional-looking, interactive content for their digital learner. In addition, we target school administrators who are looking to leverage the investment they have already made in technology for online learning, and specifically in a learning management system. Very often institutions have difficulty getting faculty on-board in using an LMS, or adapting their course for distance delivery. But if you give those educators SoftChalk, they actually enjoy using it to create content. Once an educator has content they are enthused about, they see the value of the LMS as a way to deliver the content, and they see that adapting their course for distance delivery is very do-able.

What makes Soft Chalk effective?

SoftChalk is effective for three reasons – first is ease of use. SoftChalk works just like a word processing program. Most everyone is familiar with the word processing program interface so the learning curve for SoftChalk is very low. The average faculty member can learn to use SoftChalk in 2-3 hours. Secondly, educators really appreciate the ability to create professional-looking content very quickly. And lastly, the ability to create engaging, interactive content by including customizable Flash activities, pop-up annotations, and self-check questions with feedback, is key to student engagement.

Have recent changes in the way online learners interact changed anything about Soft Chalk? (social networking, twitter, wikis, multimedia, voice boards, etc.)

A very popular new feature of SoftChalk is the ability to easily embed YouTube videos into a SoftChalk lesson. We are working on another new feature that will be available in SoftChalk V5, scheduled for delivery in Spring 09. This feature will allow the content author to perform a federated search of multiple content/media repositories to locate images, video, audio, and text content for inclusion in their SoftChalk lesson. We think that the ability to create a “mash up” of content from various sources in a SoftChalk lesson will be extremely popular.

Please list and describe a few key benefits of using Soft Chalk.

I’d like to share some SoftChalk customer comments to help illustrate some of the key benefits of using Softchalk.

From Michael Chaney, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College, Respiratory Program Instructor, “I have a student who had barely passed every term of our professional program. Two terms ago, his grades shot up significantly. When I asked him what he had done differently, he said it was the time he spent with the activities in my new online lessons. He was referring to the SoftChalk activities. My experience is the more time students spend with the material, the better they do. They can do this in a variety of ways, but will probably pick the one that is the most fun. I think the SoftChalk activities that give instant feedback, are easy to use, and can be taken multiple times would be the one they will pick. As I had hoped, SoftChalk was improving student learing!”.

And from Nancy Terrell, Hampton City Schools, Teacher Librarian, “SoftChalk LessonBuilder allows us to easily organize information for both teaching and professional development because it makes it so easy to integrate our own content and then add SoftChalk’s interactive activities. Here in Hampton City Schools, we love having this resource to assist us in our instruction”.

And lastly, from Bill Ganza, Director of Professional Development at Florida Community College in Jacksonville, “LessonBuilder is easy to use and creates stunning interactive lessons that keep students engaged. In a very short time ANYONE can produce professional looking lessons that increase student motivation and aid in the learning process.”

For those who would like to try SoftChalk, you can download a 30-day free trial from this link:
http://www.softchalk.com/lb_trial.html

And you can view short “Quick Start” videos that give you a “jump start” on using SoftChalk from here:
http://www.softchalk.com/lb_demo3.html

We also offer free, live online demonstrations of the software. You can sign up here:
http://www.softchalk.com/webinar/


Please describe upcoming activities.

SoftChalk offers an “Innovators in Online Learning” webinar series where we feature educators in the field who are using SoftChalk in innovative ways to enhance instruction.

This is a monthly series, and in January we feature Adora Svitak, a 10-year old published author and teacher, who will be demonstrativng the interactive web pages and learning tools that she created using SoftChalk.

Then, in February, we feature Angelique Smith and Jennyly Nevarez, faculty at Valencia Community College, who will demonstrate SoftChalk instructional modules they have developed and published in their statewide digital repository, “The Orange Grove”.

We invite anyone who is interested to register for these free webinars here:
http://www.softchalk.com/webinar/

Optional question: Do you see any applications of Soft Chalk for developing online courses for technical / professional development?

Absolutely! Although SoftChalk started in the higher education world, it has developed a large following in K12 and is catching on in corporate training. It is amazing that we have SoftChalk users who are developing content for such diverse groups of students – from gifted middle school kids, to community college students , to University nursing students, to the Air Force. It is truly a cross-disciplinary software tool.

Interview with Ann Boland, Hot Lava: Interview with E-Learning Innovators

Welcome to an interview with Ann Boland, owner of OHE Associates, a Hot Lava Partner, provider of mobile learning platforms. You may sign up on the site for a demo of Hot Lava delivered to your web-enabled mobile device (PDA, cell phone, iPhone, iTouch).

What is Hot Lava? What does it do? How does it work? Why do you believe in it?

Hot Lava is a mobile learning platform that enables authoring and delivery of content; tracking, and recording of activity and results.



You can’t just take eLearning content and port it to the web. It must be reauthored in XML for delivery over a WAP (Wireless Application Protocol) server. But authoring is not difficult – even I can do it, with no technical training or background. Hot Lava recently introduced a Content Converter that instantly converts standardized content, such as a PowerPoint presentation, into content that you can drag directly into the LMA (Learning Mobile Author) and publish.

The “magic” of Hot Lava is that you author once and can publish for use on 95% of the web-enabled cell phones in use world-wide. You are not limited to one type of phone. It works on Blackberrys, iPhones, Palm, and Windows Mobile device – any phone that is web-enabled.

Ann Boland, Hot Lava

A basic management principle is that people will do what you watch and measure. So mobile learning with no tracking is nice for edutainment value, but it’s not a real tool. Hot Lava’s MDTS tracks every page that is viewed, every test, poll or survey question that is asked. It calculates pass/fail based on the author’s perimeters. Data is stored on the MDTS and/or can be instantly uploaded to the client’s Learning Management System. The MDTS has a report generator and data can be downloaded into other programs, such as Excel for further manipulation.

Modules or courses are authored and published by the LMA. They are stored on the MDTS which resides on a WAP server. From there, users log on to take the module online, or they can download the module into their phone to take it offline and upload results at a later time. So you can use your cell phone to take a course while on the airplane, or at your child’s soccer practice.



I believe in Hot Lava because it works – instantly and in the palm of your hand. There’s nothing like the enthusiasm of prospects who see for the first time on their cell phone training and job aids that previously were available only on the PC. Now they can really be learning on the job – and when and where their schedules allow.

What is the philosophy of Hot Lava?

What do our customers need to make mobile learning work in their environment? I’ve yet to see a dealer or customer make a request for an addition to the system that was not done within a reasonable period of time and usually at no charge. Bob Sanregret, Founder and CEO, feels that the client knows what is best and so long as the request is within reason and advances the platform, it gets done. I’ve never worked with an organization that was so responsive to the customer.

What do you see as the future of mobile learning?

The real advances in mobile learning are being made outside the US. We’re chained to the PC and saddled with cell carriers that restrict capabilities of the phones and schools that view cell phones as the enemy.

In third world countries, the mobile phone is ubiquitous. The PC is not. Cell phones are less expensive, batteries last longer, and are multi-purpose. There is no stigma about cell phones in the schools because they are used as precious learning tools.

In Europe, Asia and the Middle East, cell phones are used for a multitude of learning and marketing projects. Carriers are much more attuned to business and educational applications rather than all the emphasis being put on entertainment.

So, the US has a ways to go. Organizations are now turning to mobile delivery of compliance training so they can reach employees 24/7. Marketing and sales companies are looking at mobile surveys to gather data at large sporting events such as auto racing.

Who will use mobile learning or training? Where will it be distributed? How will it be publicized?

Most mobile learning is happening in business and government where employees above a certain grade level are equipped with a business phone. Inroads are slowly being made in higher education. Hot Lava is ideally suited to the education environment because it works on most all web-enabled phones. Students and faculty do not need to standardize on one carrier and one phone. We have pilot going with Thomas Edison State College in New Jersey. They have 16,000 distance-learning students, most using eLearning. In early 2009, we will be testing delivery of parts of ten courses via mobile. They plan a broad rollout beginning July 2009. They are also testing with deployed military.

Where do you see mobile training 18 months from now?

Like the migration to eLearning, the migration to mLearning will be gradual. First, it’s not for everyone. Folks who work at a desk really don’t need it. But younger employees are more used to getting all their information from the hand held, so may want mobile even if they work at a desk.

Certainly for employees who work outside the office, mobile will be the main access to job aids and support and some parts of training. We’re also seeing strong interest in mobile as a data collection tool. So engineers working at customer sites can complete a survey from the home office team about a problem and the information goes immediately from the source to the research team for action. White boards work the same way in reverse. The home office team boards the problem and the solution and the captured contents are immediately sent via mobile to all engineers working in the field.



Where and how does mobile training provide value in a recession? How does it facilitate recovery?

For business, the value proposition is doing more with less. Less workers, who still must be trained. Give them access 24/7, in the palm of their hands. Push the training to the job, don’t take people off the job.

For schools, more students need to work while attending school. Put the course work, or part of the course work into their phones so they can work on the bus, on breaks. These are motivated learners, mostly adults with multiple responsibilities.

For training developers, build an additional revenue stream by offering mobile delivery in addition to classroom and eLearning. It may be the whole course, or it may be test prep or assignments.



This recession will end. They all do. In business, training is always hit hard by downturns – maybe less so since eLearning has cut down on the T&L expenses. The organizations that pull through will be those who devise ways to delivery effective training at lower cost. Mobile delivery is part of that.

Individuals who pull through will be those who also learn to do more with less. Increasingly, land lines are cancelled and smart phones are the replacement. With one payment a month, all communication and many education needs can be met anywhere/anytime. These folks will become more tech savvy and therefore more desirable employees.

Here's an extension of the previous question -- How can we use mobile training to rebuild our world?

Get middle and high school teachers to embrace web-enabled cell phones as an education tool and build mobile learning and collaboration INTO the middle and high school classrooms!

Thinking About E-Learning? Information for New E-Learners

You may have been considering online courses for a long time, but have not been ready to take the plunge. Everyone likes to feel very confident about a new endeavor, and you realize that believing yourself able to succeed is crucial in education. Of course, it's fairly easy to feel confident about face-to-face instruction. After all, we've all had many years of experience in that area. However, sometimes the courses you need, the location of instruction, and your travel / work schedules make it impossible to take traditional face-to-face courses. And, if you're needing professional development or a certificate, the travel expenses, the time away from work, and the location and timing of the courses can totally derail your professional and academic plans.

You're left with the most logical option: online courses. But -- even in a time of widespread adoption of e-learning, many people still have a number of very basic questions. So, we'll take a moment and address those questions, and, in the process perhaps give you a better understanding of the kind of experience you're likely to have, and the way you'll learn. Finally, you'll have a chance to gain some insight into how special the e-learning experience can be.

What's really so great about online courses?
The benefits are so numerous, it's hard to know where to start. If you've got an up-to-date computer, a fast internet connection, and the right software and plug-ins, you're set. You can take the courses anywhere. If you don't have online access all day, that's often perfectly okay. Most online courses do not require you to be online all the time -- and, they encourage flexibility. You can download audio and video to experience later. You can read your books and materials offline. The things you'll do online involve communication with your professor, downloading information, taking online quizzes, practicing online quizzes, and engaging in dynamic, interactive elements (virtual labs, activities, communication). If you have to travel for your job, don't worry. Have wifi will travel. You'll be able to take your course anywhere you have a computer and an internet connection. You'd be amazed how many people log on and do their online courses from their hotel rooms while they're traveling, or going to an internet cafe or coffee shop with connections. So, you can be overseas, in an airport, or any other place with a connection.

Do online courses cost more than regular ones?
Online courses will often be the same tuition as traditional face-to-face courses. However, there may be a fee for connections and support. On the other hand, if you're taking a course with a lab, your online course may be less expensive because you will not have to pay lab fees or purchase lab equipment. You'll just have to have the book and passcode for the virtual lab. If you compare the cost of an online college with a private institution, you may be surprised that how affordable the online courses can be. In addition, many colleges that specialize in distance education for adults also have payment plans, and low-cost financing.

How much money am I going to save by taking online courses?
You may think that if you are taking an online course, you'll need to buy a better computer than you'd need for a regular face-to-face course. The truth is, you will need the same kind of computer for your regular courses. The reason for that is that most online courses require you to go online for research in their virtual library, to e-mail, and to access files and instructional materials for your course. Don't forget the realities of getting to face-to-face classes. You're going to save a great deal of money in terms of commuting time, parking, transportation costs, and incidentals.

How convenient will it be?
Taking an online course is extremely convenient. Because most courses are asynchronous, which means you can be online any time, you can follow a schedule that makes sense to you. You can work according to your own schedule. That said, it's important to keep in mind that you really need to have a reliable Internet connection that you can access often. Ideally, you should log on twice a day, even if it's just to check announcements and to see what is happening in the discussion board.

What kind of Internet connections will I need?
Dial-up used to work. It doesn't now. You will need a high-speed connection. Wifi is good, although there may be times when it can be problematic, particularly if there are a lot of users and band-width is crunched.

Do I have to be connected to the Internet all the time?
You don't need to be connected all the time. However, some courses need more connectivity than others. If you have to do activities that are accessible online, but not downloadable, you will need to be online. If this is the case, be sure to plan your day and your proximity to a computer with a high-speed connection.

Will I need textbooks?
Yes. In fact, please do not forget to get your books early and to print out your assignments, review what you'll be doing. Be sure to map out your work, and to be sure to have a good sense of how to budget your time and to schedule your study time.

What kind of computer? What kind of computer software?
Be sure to get a computer that has a fast processor (1.0 Ghz), plenty of RAM (1.0 GB minimum), storage (80 Gb), and excellent drivers.

What kinds of courses can I take online?
You can take almost all kinds of classes online today, even those with labs (natural sciences, etc.). However, some are going to be more relaxing than others, and some with resonate with your learning styles more than others.

What kinds of degrees?
You can get arts and sciences degrees, associates degrees, obtain certificates and more.

Does it take me any longer to get a degree online?
In some cases, getting a degree online can take less time rather than more.

Are online degrees respected?
Yes. What is more important is the reputation of the college rather than the delivery system.

What kinds of things will I do in an online course?
You can expect to read texts, watch videos, listen to audio, take quizzes (practice and for-credit), interact on the discussion board, post information in a home page, interact with other people, email your instructor and students, participate in innovative activities (wikis, mapping, mashups, more).

Who teaches online courses? What happens?
Instructors who have special training in online courses teach them. They often do not develop the courses, but they guide students in discussions, grade papers, post announcements, and provide personal feedback.

What's the best way to succeed in an online course?
Follow the guidelines below.

Top Ten Ways to Succeed:

1. Sign up early, take course in the correct sequence
2. Check out entire course, click all links
3. Find timeline, familiarize yourself with tasks
4. Connect with professor
5. Have appropriate computer, software, connection
6. Keep up with reading and tasks
7. Establish connection with fellow students, keep up with discussion / cooperative tasks
8. Practice writing activities: paragraphs, short essays, research papers
9. Practice quizzes, review materials
10. Perfect online research, writing

Interview with Dave Giusti, Freepath: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Dave Giusti, Community Manager for myFreepath. myFreepath is a network of people who exchange content through playlists created in Freepath. With Freepath, you can share your favorite media with a private group or a worldwide audience without having to struggle with file conversions or FTP. It is not necessary to upload, convert, or embed. All one has to do is drag and drop.

Hi Dave, Welcome to E-Learning Queen. How did you get involved with Freepath?

Prior to joining Freepath, I was an Engineering manager at Google for close to 4 years on the AdWords team. I discovered Freepath as a user.

What do you see as the most useful aspect of Freepath?

The ability to utilize a variety of file types and media to tell a story. Freepath provides an iTunes-like player for the everyday digital story-teller to show common types of content in a seamless and meaningful way. Content that includes traditional desktop files, multimedia and web content. To be able to interact with such a diverse set of content is very powerful.

Let me give you an example. Think about a person who is going to present on the recent election. The content and media that was generated from the election was extremely rich and available in numerous formats: YouTube videos, candidate websites, reports in PDF format and digital pictures of demonstrations and rallies generated by the media. Think about a flat linear presentation consisting solely of slides with a focus of giving an overview of the election. Now, contrast that with a presentation created in Freepath.

A presentation that perhaps would begin with the cheers of a crowd, followed by sound bites of candidates espousing their positions, slides outlining their credentials, digital pictures displaying the passion on all sides! It is Freepath’s ability to pull from a wide range of digital content, enabling it to interact seamlessly that makes it such a powerful tool. Freepath gives the presenter the tools to create something that is above and beyond what audiences have come to expect in a presentation.

How does Freepath compare to other integrative applications?

Freepath occupies a unique space. When I look at where Freepath lives, I see a cross section of areas: Presentation software (PowerPoint, Keynote, Ovation), Online Collaboration tools (LiveMeeting, Intercall, WebEx, GoToMeeting) and Broadcast and Communication (YouTube, Skype, Ustream). Freepath extends the power of these applications; it is a dynamic solution for face-to-face presentations as well as for web communications. We have a user who says that Freepath makes him feel like the wizard behind the curtain. The ability to pull together different media types then present over the web or in a classroom is very powerful. Adding the ability to share this diverse collection of digital media in the form of a playlist for collaboration or information dissemination makes it that much more compelling!

How do you envision using it in training and webinars?

I see Freepath similar to a toolbox. The user fills up the tool box with instruments used to create. In the Freepath world, these tools take the form of video, documents, websites, and digital files. The trainer has in mind what she would like to create; a message to convey. However, in a dynamic environment such as a classroom or a meeting, questions arise; the direction of discourse changes. The presenter needs to be able to change course on the fly or perhaps repeat a previous point to underline it. Freepath gives the presenter this power and flexibility. In Freepath, there is a prep mode where you drag and drop your media: websites, videos, sound, documents, and slides. The interface has been described as an iTunes-like player. It is intuitive and easy to use…just drag and drop!




The audience is either viewing a second monitor or through a projector in full mode.
As the presenter moves through the presentation, she has the ability to move in a non-linear way if desired. Giving the ability to move between a mash-up of digital media; responding dynamically to the audience and to the content. If the presenter is displaying a website, she has the ability to unlock the screen and select links to dig deeper within the site. The user can manipulate numbers in an excel spreadsheet, add or delete text to a document, then lock the screen to move forward (or backwards) through the presentation.

What is your relation to Freepath? Why do you believe in it?

Freepath has a companion website called myFreepath. It is a place to share, collaborate and discover content. I am the myFreepath Community Manager. As Lou Douros, Freepath co-founder, says, “I am there to protect and promote.” myFreepath user gets 100mb of free storage for their .play files; this is the format of a saved playlist. myFreepath users can invite friends and contacts, create groups that can be private or public and upload and download content. The myFreepath community is growing every day. We are starting to see teachers create groups to share and exchange subject matter, trainers providing best of class information for their constituents, and sales teams exchanging product collateral. The exciting thing for me is to see how people have adopted Freepath and myFreepath into their work flow and communication channels.

Susan, let me give you an example. Say you are pulling together some training material: four PowerPoint slides, a video, some photos you shot on a digital camera, a PDF and a few Word docs. You finished your training session and it was a success; so much so, that some of the attendees expressed an interest in accessing the class data for future reference or perhaps to share it with colleagues.

You export the playlist in Freepath 2.0 into a .play format (all the assets/files are contained there) and upload it to myFreepath. Perhaps you create a group that includes the class attendees. Every person in your group now has access to your playlist - right from their installation of Freepath 2.0. As the creator of the playlist, you have the option to keep the playlist private, only accessible by the members of your group or make it public. myFreepath is place to go to discover content, collaborate with others or to share your content. We will continue to expand the myFreepath experience; there is a lot on the horizon!

We have a Freepath update in the weeks to come with some really cool new features and functionality. Stay tuned!

If you would like to see Freepath in action, check out the 90 second tour: http://www.freepath.com/tour.php

Freepath gives people a new way to present. Pulling a variety of file types into a presentation (movies, PowerPoint slides, websites, PDFs, etc) and then moving between these files in a non-linear, dynamic way really took the idea of presenting to a whole new level for me.

We have a user, a trainer, who likes to say “I’m not cool, but my content is.” This really underlines the strength of Freepath. The linear slide presentation that we have all had to endure in meetings and classrooms is not the only option anymore. The ability to use exciting, vibrant and compelling content in your presentations and classrooms is a reality with Freepath.



In addition to Freepath, we offer users 100mb of free online storage at myFreepath.com. It is a community built around content; sharing, collaborating, discovering. There is a mountain of content out there in different formats. The Freepath community helps push the best content to the top and then make the presentation of that content seamless and flexible.

Premier Student Loans – Making the Grade Affordable

It's often been said that student loans are among the most honest and honorable debts you can incur (along with car loans and home mortgages), because it's a debt that helps provide a better future for you and your family, as opposed to credit cards that merely allow you to spend beyond your means.

Just as every student picks a university and course of study that are tailored to their personality and interests, so too do you need a student loan that fits your needs. Some loans, like Perkins and Stafford loans, are offered as part of a school's financial aid package, which are not just one loan, but are usually comprised of a combination of loans, grants (Pell Grants, for example), scholarships, and work-study programs, but in our current economic climate, with public colleges and universities, financial aid is more and more difficult to come by, even for students with perfect academic records. It is for this reason that private financing exists.

One source of such financing is PremierStudentLoans.com. This site isn't just a portal for loan applications, and it isn't a direct lender, either. Instead, it's a virtual encyclopedia of everything you always wanted to know about student loans, from explanations of what each kind of loan does, and who provides them, to how you can maximize your student's educational dollar by helping them not get into the credit card habit. There's even a section on what happens after college, and how you can help your son or daughter prepare for the inevitable moment when they must begin paying off all the money that was borrowed to cover their education.

Of course, PremierStudentLoans.com also wants to help you find the extra money you need to make sure your child's college experience is as stress free – at least financially – as possible. This is why they also offer a student loan matching service. It works similarly to the way you might request a quote on insurance, with four basic steps:

1. You complete a short, online form that asks for basic information.

2. You confirm that you really want the information, and affirm that it's okay for PremierStudentLoans.com to contact you via email.

3. Your information is transmitted securely, and analyzed to find lenders who offer what you need.

4. You are provided with information so that you can compare offers and contact the lender you select.

Best of all, all of this happens in only a few minutes, and you can do it all from your living room.
Financial aid packages are great, when they're offered, but if you need extra money to cover books and dorm fees, even after the tuition's been paid for, private financing is the way to go. To save time, and find reputable lenders, go to PremierStudentLoans.com. They always make the grade.

Interview with Gary Dietz, Elluminate -- Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Gary Dietz of Elluminate, a collaboration tool and platform that allows e-learning and training to bridge learning styles and to bring together diverse learners in effective, synchronous training that can be archived and used asynchronously.

1. What is your name and your relation to Elluminate?

My name is Gary Dietz and I am a Senior Product Manager for Elluminate. I am not the chief cook and bottle washer, but I cook and wash a lot of things.



2. What is Elluminate? What does it do? How does it work? Why do you believe in it?

Elluminate the company is focused on applying Internet technologies to help teachers and students teach and learn effectively, regardless of where they are. Elluminate is best know for Elluminate Live!, our main product.

Elluminate Live! maps the collaboration available in a physical classroom – things like talking, seeing one another, shared writing surfaces, break-out groups, shared web browsing, watching film clips – and delivers those same kind of highly interactive activities to groups of teachers and students regardless of whether they are in the same room, the same town, or a continent away.

Elluminate has other products that are concerned with planning for these live interactions, recording interactive sessions for later on-demand viewing, and for making Elluminate work with other eLearning environments like Blackboard and Moodle. I believe in Elluminate because after working in the real-time collaboration space for about 13 years, I have never seen a for-profit team so dedicated toward meeting the needs of a large swath of public and private educational needs.

3. What is the philosophy of Elluminate?

It sounds kind of corny, but our "No User Left Behind" philosophy really encapsulates what we all do every day in our roles at Elluminate. Yes, we are a for profit entity. However, we have a dedicated team of engineers, support staff, and marketing folks (many of whom have come from academia) listening to, and responding as best we can, to the needs of K-12, university, and corporate educators wherever they are and with whatever abilities they possess. Not only that, but for a small company, we have tremendous support for non-profit activities and organizations with over 100 organizations in our Community Partner Program such as NACOL, CIDER, LINGOs, CILC, and the NSTA. Also, our vRoom program allows free, unlimited use of a full version of Elluminate Live (limited to 3 connections at one time).

4. Who benefits from Elluminate? How? Why?

Students benefit from Elluminate, whether those students are K-12, university, adult, or professional learners. Look, it is easy to say that our product helps everyone who is exposed to it, but I won’t do that. What I will do is say that if you have a learner who is motivated (by themselves or their support system), the Elluminate Learning Suite of products will allow instruction to occur in many places and in many ways that would not have been possible without Elluminate. Do we do that alone? Of course not. But with teachers, administrators, parents, and public servants who realize that education needs to change, together we can learn what works best and implement best practices that bring true collaborative learning to more people in more places in ways equal to or better than traditionally available. And many times, at lower cost.




5. What differentiates Elluminate's products from free video conferencing with, say, Skype?

At the 41,000 foot level, most "real time collaboration" products connect people. How they do it, why they do it, whom they are doing it for, and in what context it is deployed is the difference.

At the top level, here are a few things. The Elluminate Learning Suite was designed with pedagogical tools specific to teachers and learners. Not as a consumer video chat tool (such as Skype, which is a great product and I use too) or a business to business "slideware plus phone" product like many other real-time tools on the market.

And it isn’t just the tools, it is the infrastructure. The Elluminate Learning Suite integrates into the way K-12 and University learning programs are designed – from single login to CMS/LMS centered to being able to handle dozens or hundreds of people in a session. And how the deployments are supported and how PD is provided is a major differentiator for an education focused company like Elluminate.

6. How does Elluminate encourage students and instructors to interact?

Elluminate as a company introduces features and free or for-pay professional development that critically examines best practices on how to use our, and others’, tools in classrooms with various constituencies. So, whether it is our free live or recorded moderator training, our free vRoom program, our free, regional Elluminate Community Conferences for face to face sharing, our Product Advisory Councils, our Centers of Excellence program, or the many free webinars we run every quarter, Elluminate is all about interaction between and amongst professionals and helping them interact better with their students. eLearning tools can be, but needn’t be, cold, monolithic, and inhuman. In fact, working exclusively online with student, teachers, administrators, and community members can, when done correctly, provide interaction that is likely more interactive than even face to face.

Let me use an example. Suppose a learner’s English skills are not as good as some of his or her classmates. By being able to participate online in real time not only are some of the "fear" barriers lowered, but additional channels of text chat, possible second language real-time closed captioning, and the ability to record and review later are available in ways that may not be so easily be made available solely in a brick and mortar classroom.

In my personal experience, groups of people who are too scared to ask questions in a brick and mortar classroom are more than willing and able to ask, via text chat or hand-raising in a virtual session.




7. Where and how does your vision encourage creativity, innovation, and leadership?

Our executive leadership is extraordinarily interested in changing the world through education. This is reflected in the makeup of our team and in our ability to address customer needs in ways that companies of a different size or a different vision would not be able to do. Don’t confuse that with lack of desire to be profitable. We certainly have achieved that and continue to require that. But profitability in this space is not achieved through myopic micromanagement or selling stuff that doesn't solve problems. It is achieved by unleashing people at all levels in the organization to solve small and large customer challenges. Our vision is to change the educational landscape, and we need to both listen to mavericks and lead them as appropriate.

8. Here's an extension of the previous question -- How can Elluminate help rebuild America / the world?

That’s a broad question, and I’ll make it even broader and rephrase a bit. We are an international company and we want to be part of the solution space of the challenges we have in delivering education to young students, engage university students, enhance adult learners opportunities, and bring lifelong learners new opportunities to enrich their lives. We strive to make a difference on a global level, particularly in areas where opportunities for communication, collaboration, and education have been sorely lacking.

Our Fire and Ice initiative demonstrates this quite dramatically. As far as the US is concerned, our focus on accessibility, in particular, addresses the No Child Left Behind initiative in a very powerful way. In fact, in South Carolina, where it’s now mandated that a distance education program contain 25% face-to-face learning, Elluminate has been recognized as meeting that requirement.

Only by distributing instructional excellence in better ways to places it already exists and by bringing instructional excellence to places it has never been will we together make the world a better place.

Interview with Dheeraj Mahtani, Faronics -- E-Learning Innovators Interview Series

Welcome to an interview with Dheeraj Mahtani of Faronics, developers of Insight, a collaborative learning environment which can be used in computer labs or in distributed applications.

1. What is your name and your relation to Faronics?

Dheeraj Mahtani, Marketing Communications Specialist

2. What is Faronics? What does it do? How does it work? Why do you believe in it?



Faronics is a software company that specializes in delivering system control solutions to the education, library, corporate, and government verticals. Our products are designed to help organizations manage, simplify, and secure their computing environments. We were made famous by Deep Freeze, our flagship product that eliminates IT helpdesk requests by making computer configurations indestructible. More recently, we’ve been garnering a significant amount of attention thanks to Power Save, our software solution that provides IT with centralized control of workstation power settings.

3. What is the philosophy of Faronics?

Faronics is driven by a desire to deliver a trouble-free computing experience by solving real world computing problems that threaten user productivity, system integrity, and organizational efficiency.

4. Who benefits from Faronics? How? Why?

Faced with shrinking budgets, educators are being asked to do more with less. Faronics has several solutions that can help.

Insight’s ability to turn standard computer labs into collaborative learning environments has helped teachers become better educators with the tools they already have. Insight allows teachers to assist, monitor, and communicate with an entire class from one central computer. Teachers can share their screen with students, control student access to applications, websites, or peripherals, and monitor classroom activity to ensure students are on task. Students can communicate with the teacher, receive assistance, and respond to class polls right from their computer.



Our award-winning Deep Freeze software eliminates workstation damage and downtime by making computer configurations indestructible. Daily user activity inevitably alters a computer’s configuration to the point where it suffers from system slowdowns and crippled functionality. Deep Freeze prevents this configuration drift from taking place by ensuring any changes made to the computer—regardless of whether they are accidental or malicious—are never permanent. Users can still save their data while the workstation remains protected.



Anti-Executable protects workstations from unwanted software by preventing unauthorized executables from running or installing. Any other programs—whether they are unwanted, unlicensed, or simply unnecessary—are blocked from ever executing. Educators no longer need to worry about students installing games, instant messaging clients, and peer-to-peer file sharing programs on classroom computers.



Power Save uses intelligent power management to ensure workstations are saving energy and money when they are not being used. Our latest version features a new centralized software deployment and management utility and enhanced power consumption and savings reporting. The average return-on-investment for Power Save is a mere four months, and many schools are even receiving Power Save for free thanks to rebates provided by local power authorities.

5. What differentiates Faronics's products from others?

Every Faronics product focuses on delivering absolute control of computing environments—whether it be delivering total workstation reliability to IT, complete classroom control to educators, or intelligent energy management to organizations. By ensuring 100% workstation availability, dependability, and control, our products have freed IT personnel from tedious technical support and software issues.

6. How does Faronics encourage students and instructors to interact? Does Faronics help special needs students, or students with disabilities? How?

Insight enhances the learning experience for students by turning standard computer labs into interactive learning environments. Students are able to request and receive help directly in their workstation session, and appreciate the discretion that the instructor chat feature offers. They can discuss course material and ask questions without leaving their workstations and without disturbing other students. The anonymity that the voting feature provides students allows them to often provide a more accurate answer to questions posed to the class.



With Insight, teachers can easily launch applications and websites on all student workstations from a central teacher console. By blanking student screens, teachers can lock students out of their computers when they should be paying attention, and can monitor multiple student computers through Insight’s thumbnail viewing feature.

7. Where and how does your vision encourage creativity, innovation, and leadership?

As a customer-centric organization, Faronics’ products are researched and developed in close consultation with our end-users. We value our customer’s ideas and suggestions, and depend on this feedback to provide the innovative solutions our users have come to rely on. This approach is the basis for Faronics’ industry-leading customer service strategy, continually working to build and maintain lasting relationships with our users.

Interview with Marina Tognetti, Myngle: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Marina Tognetti, founder of Myngle, an innovative approach to web-based language learning. It incorporates real-tie lessons with native speakers using technologies that are effective and easy to use. Myngle also focuses on culture and the human side of language acquisition. Myngle currently has more than 25,000 registered users from 150 countries, learning nearly 50 different languages.

What is your name and your relation to Myngle?
Marina Tognetti, founder of Myngle.



What is Myngle? What does it do? How does it work? Why do you believe in it?
Myngle is an online global language marketplace that aims to transform language education from traditional offline teaching to an interactive, creative and efficient online process. Moving language education online gives the masses access to real-time lessons with native speakers.

Myngle was born from my own personal need, and I was, in fact, its first customer.
A couple of years ago, I started studying Mandarin, but could not find the right solution. I tried an overly-crowded school, private tuition and CDs, but there was always something missing. I was frustrated that there were thousands of good teachers in China, yet I couldn’t learn Mandarin here in Holland.

Before Myngle, taking in-person lessons meant leaving the comfort of your home, inflexible schedules, crowded group classes or expensive private lessons. Myngle breaks down geographic limitations and allows students to learn any language, anywhere, at anytime, from teachers located in all parts of the world.

Taking live lessons on Myngle is simple:
A student chooses the course and teacher for their needs using Myngle's extensive search algorithm. Once the right course and teacher are found, the student can book a trial first lesson.

Most teachers offer an initial free consultation to assess the level and needs of the student.
The lesson is given through Myngle's virtual classroom, which has all the features needed to give and receive a lesson: whiteboard, file sharing, chat, drawing, writing and VoIP (Skype).



The booking is fully integrated and payment system uses PayPal’s service and is hassle-free.
The student can book lessons one at a time, as package or in subscription form.

Myngle currently has more than 25,000 registered users from 150 countries, learning nearly 50 different languages.

What is the philosophy of Myngle?
First and most important, is our control of the quality of our teachers and of the content our students are taught.

The quality of teachers is controlled at different levels:

Selecting & training teachers: In order for a teacher to be available to students, they must meet minimum criteria and have consulted with one of our senior teachers. We currently have about 2000 teachers who are registered, but only 520 are available for sessions at this time.
Feedback by students: An integrated feedback system features comments and ratings from students. Students assign one to five stars, both for the lesson (content) and teacher (teaching capability).

Certified teachers: The best teachers can become certified, which is noted with a Myngle certification mark. These are teachers who have taught a minimum number of lessons on Myngle, received a minimum four stars out of five, have created their own program and passed a small exam with a Myngle trainer.

Tracking professional behavior: Myngle penalizes users for late cancellations or no-shows in order to foster a respectful and professional environment.

Myngle recognizes the importance of providing our students with good content. We are continuously encouraging teachers to develop and share their content with one another, as well as developing our own content to offer to teachers and partnering with some content providers.


We believe language education should be a demand oriented service where the student is central. If we look at the student this way, we can easily discover new, unsatisfied needs where the online medium can provide a good solution.

We need to be flexible in order to continuously learn and improve. Recent introductions include:

Advanced search/MyngleAdvisor: Allows the student to sort through the long list of offerings and find the right course for their needs

30 min lessons for busy professionals: Makes it easy to fit in a lesson during any break during the day

Subscriptions for full immersion (daily lessons): Delivers maximum results in a short time frame

Resources for students to support learning in the areas of speaking and listening; reading and writing; and vocabulary

At Myngle we understand the importance of both leveraging the internet as well as quality of the education provided, as myself and one of my business partners were previously employed by eBay and two other partners from Berlitz.

Who benefits from Myngle?
Both students and teachers benefit from Myngle.
Students can completely tailor their experience by selecting the teacher and course that best fit their needs; then take lessons from the comfort of their home or office at the time most convenient for them. One of our students, a busy professional, is taking lessons on Myngle while he travels across three continents: Singapore, Portugal and the US.

Teachers can complement their income by doing something as simple as teaching their native language; which is especially timely given the current economic slowdown. A teacher from the Ukraine has given more than 500 lessons. She is now earning 3 times her normal salary on Myngle.

What differentiates Myngle's products from free language lessons available through YouTube or Google video?
We believe that to really learn a foreign language, a student needs the support of a teacher, especially during the beginner and intermediate stages. Having a teacher allows the student to practice, learn from mistakes and receive structured, personalized lessons in the most effective way for their learning style.

How does it differ from language "meet and greet" islands in virtual worlds such as Second Life?
These are excellent opportunities to practice, but we feel that Myngle gives the student the consistency, structure and guidance needed to truly learn a language.

How does Myngle encourage students and instructors to interact? Does Myngle involve virtual worlds?
No, but I should also say ‘not yet’. We do not exclude the step into the virtual world, but we’re currently focusing on getting the base offering right. Our initial emphasis is on the quality of the learning experience and bringing language education to the mass market.

Where and how does your vision encourage creativity, innovation, and leadership? How can Myngle help rebuild our world economies and communities?

Myngle is the next step in e-commerce and gives language education to the world. Also, Myngle is changing the rules of the game, by empowering students and teachers to shape the future of language education.

In regards to the world economies, Myngle can help here in many ways, both on the supply side (teachers) and the demand side (students).

Supply:
Myngle is creating new jobs around the world, including countries where jobs are scarce.
Myngle allows teachers to become ‘entrepreneurs’, therefore less dependent on the wages standard for their geographical location.

Myngle allows everyday people to supplement their income by teaching their native language. For example, university students could support their student budget by offering conversational classes.

Demand:
Students benefit by being able to work with teachers to determine price. Myngle does not have costly infrastructures or overheads that students must contribute to.

Some people are discovering that they can be a teacher and student at the same time – they can earn money while giving lessons in one language, then use the money to learn a new language!
We hope that Myngle will contribute to language education in developing nations

In conclusion, we strive to help people from different cultures communicate, and in turn, better understand each other.