Utrecht workshop on educating for DITA.

Sestri Levante, Italy -- (SBWIRE) -- 06/18/2012 -- The global vendor of online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions, eXact learning solutions, is running a workshop to explain the new learning and training documentation standard from the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) group at OASIS. This standard is driving XML content formats convergence in technical training and documentation fields.

The free workshop - on the DITA XML content standard for blended online, mobile and instructor-led technical training and documentation - takes place in Utrecht, in The Netherlands, on 7th June and is connected with the DITA Information Energy 2012 conference, which takes place on 8th June (http://ie12.org/).

During this workshop specialists from eXact learning solutions will discuss the needs for new generation structured content management standards and the benefits of adopting DITA. In particular, they will focus on:

- Why companies need new generation structured content management standards for their ILT and online training materials
- What DITA is, where it can be used, and the benefits of adopting DITA
- How DITA compares - and can be integrated - with other existing learning content formats such as SCORM Content Packaging and IMS Common Cartridge

The workshop will combine theory with practical hands-on sessions, using the new DITA content authoring and management plug-in for the eXact LCMS to import state-of-the-art DITA documentation and convert it to SCORM and AICC formats for online and mobile learning.

On 8th June, Fabrizio Cardinali, Chair of European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) and CEO of eXact learning solutions North America, will give an opening keynote presentation at the Information Energy conference. His presentation is entitled: 'From the Book of Jobs to the Job of Books: Reinventing Learning Content Management & Publishing in the iPad Era'.

In addition, eXact learning will be giving a product presentation on adding DITA to SCORM interoperability to the eXact LCMS online and mobile learning content management platform, via the eXact DITA Editor.

If you would like to meet eXact learning solutions at Information Energy, please send an email to: m.leikas@exactls.com

About eXact learning solutions (http://www.exact-learning.com)
eXact learning solutions, formerly Giunti Labs, is a leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions provider, which offers a wide range of tools and services for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

- Learning content management and digital repository platforms
- Mobile learning technologies
- Consulting and professional services
- Multi-language bespoke learning content production

The company has over 15 years of experience and more than 100 customers worldwide. Its technological innovations allow enterprises to improve their organisational performance in learning content production and management, and achieve significant reductions in business costs.

For more information, please contact:
Minna Leikas, eXact learning solutions, Marketing Manager
Mobile +39 347 4435167; Office +39 0185 4608; Email m.leikas@exact-learning.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR,
Office +44 (0)1727 860405; Email bob.little@boblittlepr.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Global company selects leading LCMS.

Sestri Levante, Italy -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/31/2012 -- eXact learning solutions has been selected by Tribal, the UK-headquartered worldwide education technology and services provider, to produce online and mobile content for its training publications as well as customised learning content for its clients – which include large organisations in the healthcare, food and beverage as well as education sectors.

The award-winning eXact LCMS and eXact Mobile platforms - currently installed in over 100 organisations worldwide - support the organisation-wide creation and management of learning content as well as its delivery. They can be integrated into any enterprise ecosystem - including ERP, HR and Document Management –and they support all the key internationally accepted learning standards, guaranteeing that the learning solutions they generate and deliver are interoperable and future proof.

"Tribal manages large content production projects with different requirements. We need a highly flexible and powerful solution, which adapts to different content production projects," said Krysti Hamilton, Production Manager at Tribal.

"We chose eXact LCMS, because it's an open system, which enables us to extend the technology to meet our clients' specific content production needs."

"Being able to deliver content seamlessly to iPads and other tablets, as well as mobile devices, is extremely important in today's world," explained Carin Martell, Alliance Manager at eXact learning solutions. "It needs authoring tools which the creation of content which can then be used for different output formats – which is a key feature of eXact LCMS."

Tribal, which has more than 1m learners currently using its e-learning solutions around the world, builds software, supports adult learning and careers development and also provides school inspections and improvement services. It works collaboratively with its clients to help deliver high quality education services – which is why it wants to use the best learning technologies available to produce and deliver them.

About eXact learning solutions (http://www.exact-learning.com)
eXact learning solutions, formerly Giunti Labs, is a leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions provider, which offers a wide range of tools and services for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

- Learning content management and digital repository platforms
- Mobile learning technologies
- Consulting and professional services
- Multi-language bespoke learning content production

The company has over 15 years of experience and more than 100 customers worldwide. Its technological innovations allow enterprises to improve their organisational performance in learning content production and management, and achieve significant reductions in business costs.

For more information, please contact:
Minna Leikas, eXact learning solutions, Marketing Manager
Mobile +39 347 4435167; Office +39 0185 4608; Email m.leikas@exact-learning.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR,
Office +44 (0)1727 860405; Email bob.little@boblittlepr.com

About Tribal
Tribal supports the delivery of education, learning and training services around the world. It builds software, supports adult learning, careers and professional development and provides school inspections and improvement services both in the UK and abroad. It works in partnership with a wide range of organisations, including schools, colleges and universities, prisons and social services, government agencies and large and small employers.

Tribal has 1,300 staff and its work spans five continents across the world. More information about Tribal is available online at http://.tribalgroup.com.

For further information on Tribal please contact Helen Fitzhugh or Katherine Doyle at kwittken + company, on 020 7401 8001 / hfitzhugh@kwitco.com or kdoyle@kwitco.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Learn from the Sputnik effect, urges Fabrizio Cardinali.

Sestri Levante, Italy -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/25/2012 -- The western learning and publishing industries are being urged to experience their own 'Sputnik effect' – 50 years after President Kennedy committed the US to win the Space Race after being surprised by the initial success of the USSR's 'Sputniks'.

This call comes in a whitepaper published by eXact learning solutions, a leading online and mobile learning solutions provider. The whitepaper expresses the views of Fabrizio Cardinali, CEO of eXact Learning Solutions' North America and Australia operations and Senior Vice President of the company's Global Business Development.

The whitepaper – available from http://gnstx.gr/fDI – argues that western corporate learning industry leaders need similar vision and commitment if they are to help their organisations continue to compete and survive global competition effectively from the emerging world's labour and educational markets. Cardinali draws parallels between the world's historic industry challenges - such as the one faced by the US aerospace industry during the Cold War - and the peculiar challenges and opportunities currently facing the West's publishers and learning technologies developers as they try to help the West survive increasing competition, both for appropriately skilled workers and for business in global markets.

"To be successful , we need to combine creativity and innovation," Cardinali said. "Interestingly, such a combination occurred in Europe during the Renaissance – so we should strive to create the circumstances that will bring about a 'renaissance 2.0' perfect knowledge storm. "

For Cardinali, a 'Sputnik effect' is needed to restore similar habits among western entrepreneurs and thought leaders - to help western economies survive global challenges.

The USSR launching the Sputnik in 1957 - and thus becoming the first nation into space - gave the American aerospace industry a wake-up call. Cardinali believes that the West's corporate learning and publishing industries today face a similar challenge since countries with emerging economies – including India and China – are doing 'learning-related things' faster than they are.

"Today, the West needs to reduce its corporate learning 'missile gap'," said Cardinali. "To do this, we need to understand the nature of creativity and genius – and use this knowledge to detect and encourage excellence in performance.

"Moreover, innovative technology should be generated by multi-disciplinary teams, working together to create innovative learning experiences and solutions for our workforces. We desperately need an increase in the depth of creativity in today's learning technologies.

"As an industry, we need to re-engage in lateral thinking - still competing but taking risks together," he said. "At the least, we need to do what China is doing in terms of investment in skills development and new learning technologies - and we need to do it as fast as they're doing it - but we need to find our own creative and innovative strategies and solutions to the issue of performance support and talent development."

When it comes to being successful at surviving the increasingly challenging issues surrounding global competition, Cardinali turns to Charles Darwin for inspiration. Cardinali said: "Darwin's precepts teach us that it's not the smartest, the 'best' or the wisest who'll survive the current economic challenges.

"Nor will it be the best trained trainee and the best taught student. Rather, those who survive will be those who're the most adaptive.

"Similarly, it's not the most expensive or even the best educational design content that will succeed and stand the test of time. Those who'll be the most successful in the marketplace are those who can adapt most quickly to new jobs and profiles.

"The best digital content that will survive will be the content that's designed to better adapt to new learning delivery technologies and devices."

Cardinali has also outlined these views in a presentation at the Corporate Plenary at Online Educa in Berlin, the world's largest educational technologies event. To see this presentation, visit http://www.online-educa.com/audio-video-1019

For further discussions on this topic, please visit eXact learning's blog: http://gnstx.gr/fyv

About eXact learning solutions (http://www.exact-learning.com)
eXact learning solutions, formerly Giunti Labs, is a leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions provider, which offers a wide range of tools and services for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

- Learning content management and digital repository platforms
- Mobile learning technologies
- Consulting and professional services
- Multi-language bespoke learning content production

The company has over 15 years of experience and more than 100 customers worldwide. Its technological innovations allow enterprises to improve their organisational performance in learning content production and management, and achieve significant reductions in business costs.

For more information, please contact:
Minna Leikas, eXact learning solutions, Marketing Manager
Mobile +39 347 4435167; Office +39 0185 4608; Email m.leikas@exact-learning.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR,
Office +44 (0)1727 860405; Email bob.little@boblittlepr.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm

Everything you wanted to know about the DITA standard

Sestri Levante, Italy -- (SBWIRE) -- 05/17/2012 -- A 90-minute webinar will take place on 23rd May at 11am US Eastern Time, 10am US Central Time, 8am Pacific Time, 4pm BST and 5pm Central European Time. Seats are free but limited and granted on a 'first come first served' basis. To request a seat at the webinar, visit: http://gnstx.gr/eEX

DITA, the Darwin Information Typing Architecture, Learning & Training specialization is a new structured content XML format for producing online and instructor-led training and documentation materials.

The standard is issued by OASIS, the US-headquartered global consortium for open standards in the Information Society, which aims to boost the convergence of technical and training documentation within engineering and process orientated industries, such as the machine plants, semiconductor, automotive, financial, pharmaceutical, translation and defence industries.

Today's instructional authors, designing technical training sessions within large engineering, manufacturing and process based industries, need to cope with some 90% of their input materials coming from disparate sources within their organisations. Typically, these include the product and plant engineering, design and marketing departments – all of which use different content packaging and exchange standards (for example, DocBook, ePub, IETM and/or S1000D).

All of these differ from those commonly used within learning/ training tools and platforms – such as SCORM, IMS and AICC content packaging and tracking interchange formats.

This lack of a common interoperability format across the technical documentation, training platforms and tools has limited, to date, the type of documents that training departments could receive as input from their technical counterparts to Word, PDF and HTML, for example.

Yet - to compete successfully in contemporary markets, reaching their workforce where and when they need field training and performance support - there is a need to create compelling training materials able to deal with the increasing complexity and blending of technical training formats, from Instructor-Led Sessions to WBT, Mobile learning and beyond.

The 'cut and paste' approach was the most commonly used approach to producing technical documentation for online training delivery. This resulted in high levels of content replication, low levels of content re-use and extremely high costs in engaging subject matter experts (SMEs) within never-ending proof-reading cycles.

All those engaged in designing training for new products and processes around the world have experienced high levels of inefficiency in online training design. So they have been looking for an improved interoperability format to allow them to exchange contents among the diverse and dispersed knowledge hubs within their organisations more easily.

The DITA Learning & Training specialization now addresses this gap and brings new life to content interoperability across and within large organisations dealing with massive and rapid technical documentation and training materials production flows.

In the webinar, Fabrizio Cardinali, an expert in interoperability standards, co-writer of many of the IMS, SCORM and AICC content specifications and CEO of eXact learning solutions North America - a world leading provider of online and mobile learning content management solutions - explains the need for new generation structured content management standards and the benefit of adopting DITA. He also outlines how it compares and can be integrated with other existing learning content formats such as SCORM Content Packaging and IMS Common Cartridge.

During the webinar, Mr Cardinali will combine theory with practical hands-on sessions, using the new DITA content authoring and management plug-in for the eXact LCMS and eXact Mobile platforms to import state-of-the-art DITA documentation and convert it to SCORM and AICC formats for online and mobile learning.

In addition to this free online webinar, eXact learning solutions is running a series of closed DITA seminars for content strategists within large organisations, as well as a series of open workshops at public events and venues throughout Europe and the USA. The next workshop will be held in Utrecht, in The Netherlands, on 7th June, and is connected with the DITA Information Energy 2012 conference.

If you are interested in joining any of these workshops or would like to organise closed webinars within your organisation, send an email to m.leikas@exactls.com

Further details of DITA can be obtained from http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita/

About eXact learning solutions
eXact learning solutions, formerly Giunti Labs, is a leading online and mobile learning content management and digital repository solutions provider, which offers a wide range of tools and services for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

- Learning content management and digital repository platforms
- Mobile learning technologies
- Consulting and professional services
- Multi-language bespoke learning content production

The company has over 15 years of experience and more than 100 customers worldwide. Its technological innovations allow enterprises to improve their organisational performance in learning content production and management, and achieve significant reductions in business costs.

For more information, please contact:
Minna Leikas, eXact learning solutions, Marketing Manager
Mobile +39 347 4435167; Office +39 0185 4608; Email m.leikas@exact-learning.com
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR,
Office +44 (0)1727 860405; Email bob.little@boblittlepr.com

For more information on this press release visit: http://www.releasewire.com/press-releases/release-3.htm