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?