I have successfully completed the "PRINCE2 Foundation" project management course

After much toing and froing (during which I looked at a number of different service providers) I decided to do the 3 day PRINCE2 Foundation project management course with Codarra Advanced Systems. I completed the course last Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday before sitting the exam in the afternoon. The pass mark was only 50% which is good because there's a lot to take in over the course of 3 days. Anyhow, I got 54 out of 70 which equates to 77%.

I'm doing the PRINCE2 Project Management Course

As some of you may know, I've been doing a lot of research around project management over the last few weeks. In particular, I've been trying to decide what kind of project management course to do considering I work predominantly in the eLearning industry.

You'll be pleased to know that (after much deliberation) I've decided to do the PRINCE2 Foundation course offered by Peter Biggs at Codarra and have booked to do the course being run in Melbourne from April 8-10. A number of people on LinkedIn and elsewhere gladly offered their opinions and helped me make my decision. I'd particularly like to thank Keith Williams over on LinkedIn.

Thank You for "Designing Learning in a Digital Age"

I'd like to thank +Allison Miller for organising yesterday's Designing Learning in the Digital Age in Melbourne. There were some fantastic discussions and I personally gained a lot by attending this event. It was great to interact with so many local and interstate eLearning luminaries including +Michael Coghlan, +Leigh Blackall, +Junita Lyon, +Penny Bentley, +Dianne Hope and +Simon Keily. I'd also like to thank the other 20 or so people who came along and helped to make this event a great success.

Melbourne Moodle Users Group (MMUG) - Moodle Monday Wrap Up and Thank You

I'd like to thank the 17 people who came along to last night's Melbourne Moodle Users Group (MMUG) face-to-face Moodle Monday at CLB Training and Development in South Melbourne. By all accounts, it was a great success with several people coming forward to showcase their various projects.

In particular, I'd like to thank Fiona Blair from NMIT for showing us a real-world example of the use of conditional activities in Moodle and +Katharine Ebbs from the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) for showing us some of the wonderful things ACEM are doing with their Moodle.

I'd also like to thank +David Isaacson from CLB for showing us his work in Adobe Captivate and Moodle. I look forward to our next Moodle Monday on Monday 18 March at 6.30pm in the virtual classroom.

Top 10 Australian eLearning Providers With Highest Social Media Engagement

A few weeks ago I read an interesting post by Christopher Pappas over at eLearning Industry. The post was titled The Top 20 Learning Portal Companies based on Social Media and ranked the top learning portals based on their popularity on social media. Christopher's post was in turn inspired by an earlier TrainingIndustry.com blog post titled 2012 Top 20 Learning Portal Companies.

Since I live and work in Australia, I thought it would be interesting to look at the social media engagement of some of the movers and shakers in the Australian eLearning industry. I have chosen to measure each eLearning provider's social media engagement via Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. With regards to Twitter I have included the number of tweets as well as the number of followers since I am attempting to measure social media engagement rather than just popularity.

I based my list on eLearning providers that are familiar to me as an eLearning consultant plus I had a look through my own LinkedIn contacts as well as the list of winners from the LearnX Asia Pacific Learning & Technology Impact Awards from 2011 and 2012.

I think I've covered off most of the big players. However, if there's an Australian eLearning provider you think deserves to be on the list post their details in the comments and I'll include them in an updated list next year. 

#1: Online Courses Australia

Online Courses Australia specialises in creating customised, tailored and interactive online learning solutions that integrate theory, experience and knowledge.

Location: Brisbane, Australia
Total Social Network: 5,427

Twitter: 37 followers & 142 tweets
Facebook: 5,243 likes
LinkedIn: 5 followers

#2: Learning Plan

Learning Plan is a specialist learning development and learning technology services company.

Location: Sydney, Australia
Total Social Network: 2,747

Twitter: 1,058 followers & 1,026 tweets
Facebook: 621 likes
LinkedIn: 12 followers

#3: B Online Learning

B Online Learning offers eLearning and online learning courses and software.

Location: Sydney, Australia
Total Social Network: 1,586

Twitter: 768 followers & 579 tweets
Facebook: 165 likes
LinkedIn: 74 followers

#4: Learning Seat

Learning Seat provides individually branded, web based organisational Learning Centres and specialise in providing compliance, professional development and accredited training.

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Total Social Network: 1,483

Twitter: 550 tweets & 404 followers
Facebook: 122 likes
LinkedIn: 407 followers

#5: Purple Learning

Purple Learning is a creative learning company specialising in custom learning solutions for large organisations and government bodies.

Location: Sydney and Melbourne, Australia
Total Social Network: 1,231

Twitter: 677 followers & 489 tweets
LinkedIn: 65 followers

#6: Nine Lanterns

Nine Lanterns design and build bespoke training solutions and collaborative online learning environments.

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Total Social Network: 681

Twitter: 388 followers & 293 tweets

#7: Online Learning Australia

Online Learning Australia provides learning strategy, custom eLearning course development, rapid development, creation of classroom material, advice on learning management systems and customisable courses.

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Total Social Network: 547

Facebook: 8 likes
LinkedIn: 539 followers

#8: eCreators

eCreators provide high level eLearning consulting services as well as expert training in Articulate Studio, Adobe Captivate and Online Instructional Design.

Location: Melbourne, Australia
Total Social Network: 210

Twitter: 60 followers & 83 tweets
Facebook: 23 likes
LinkedIn: 44 followers

#9: Savv-e

Savv-e develop elearning creation tools, learning management systems and pre-packaged content.

Location: Sydney, Australia
Total Social Network: 126

LinkedIn: 126 followers

#10: 2and2

2and2 creates custom eLearning and creative digital content solutions that educate and entertain, engage and inspire.

Location: Sydney, Australia
Total Social Network: 122

Twitter: 25 followers & 8 tweets
Facebook: 52 likes
LinkedIn: 37 followers

I'm heading over to Europe for a 4 week holiday. Do I take a MacBook Air or the new iPad?

A few weeks ago I bought the new iPad. As much as I love technology, this is my first iPad. Up until now I couldn't really see the point of it all. However, towards the end of last year, I decided to take a long overdue 4 week overseas holiday and I really want to be able to do the things I would normally do on my Apple MacBook Air.

Anyhow, when I heard that Apple were probably going to bring out a new iPad in February or March of this year I wondered whether I would be better off going OS with the new iPad rather than my MacBook Air. As much as I love my Mac I think it would be an interesting experiment to see if I can get by without it when I'm OS. I'm going to be out and about most of the time so I shouldn't really need it much. Unless I have to I won't be doing any work. All I'm really going to be doing is looking at maps, train timetables, weather forecasts, accommodation, etc. Suffice to say, I think an iPad should see me through.

Not only that but I think it would be much easier to travel with an iPad since it's smaller and lighter than a MacBook Air. In fact, the new iPad is half as heavy as my 13 inch MacBook Air: 652 g as opposed to 1.35 kg. The only real downside about using an iPad, as I discovered recently, is that the virtual keyboard is a little cramped. I probably need to give it more time so that I can get used to it.

Another downside for me is the fact that there's currently no Microsoft Office for the iPad. However, as per an article I recently read on AppleInsider, Microsoft are going to be releasing Microsoft Office for the iPad any day now. Although I may not need it, it would be nice to have access to Microsoft Office whilst I'm away. I won't be heading off for another 5 months so there's plenty of time for Microsoft to release Microsoft Office for the iPad.

Have I missed anything? What do you think I should do?

I'm Doing the Moodle Course Creator Certificate (MCCC)

In case you're wondering why you haven't heard from me in a while it's because I'm currently completing an online course, namely the Moodle Course Creator Certificate (MCCC). It's an 8 week course which finishes at the end of November. I'm doing the course through an official Moodle partner. The course isn't hard but it is a bit of a struggle finding the time as I'm kept fairly busy managing Graccon Learning Solutions. Anyhow, I'm sure it'll all be worth it in the end.