Social Learning – Revolution!
July 21, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 6 Comments
Imagine!
You study in Sevilla. You go to your profile in your school’s online campus. There is an invitation to join the course Intro to Biotechnology. The invitation is from Amy, a teacher at the Mandela High School in Cape Town, South Africa. Wow! Who is Amy, and how did she find me and know that I love biology? Who are the other students? You click on more info. Amazing! The course has 25 students and 4 teachers from 10 schools in 5 countries! You click on the student John. He is from Lincoln High School in Boston, where he won the Biology Project Award. You click on the second teacher Sandra, from Colegio Chapultepec in Mexico. You see that she has a PhD in Biology from MIT. Awesome! But, how did they find me – you ask yourself again? It turns out that Jane, your Biology teacher in Sevilla, also tutors at the Mandela High School, where she is connected to Amy. You click on Join Course.
This is social learning! Or, this is how we define a Social Learning Management System at Sclipo – a platform where educational entities, its teachers and students can learn, teach and socialize with others of their own and other entities. To make Social Learning possible, Sclipo offers a platform of instructional and social applications where students and teachers can connect and share with members of any entity.
Here is how Sclipo works. Schools, companies, independent teachers and people who love to teach can open their own Web Academy on Sclipo. The Web Academy is their Learning Management System (LMS) with state-of-the-art instructional and social applications, such as:
* Courses to teach and manage face2face and online courses
* Library to share content in any format: video, presentations, audio, images…
* Live Teaching to teach one or many students anywhere via webcam, screen-sharing, whiteboard, chat and other live collaboration tools
* Groups to organize online collaborations for research, test prep, etc.
* Events to organize offline edu events, such as conferences and workshops
Students and teachers can connect, share and organize activities beyond their own Web Academy. All Web Academies and its members can connect and share with other Academies. Students can learn at one or many Academies. Teachers can teach at one or many Academies. They can also form groups, organize face2face educational events, conduct discussions and build a network of students and teachers anywhere. A Web Academy also has privacy controls, if it wants to restrict access to courses, content and activities.
What do you think of this kind of Social Learning? Wouldn’t it substantially expand the possibilities of how we learn today, what and with whom?
Such Social Learning is however not possible in your school or organization, if it runs on a traditional LMS. These are walled gardens. Each LMS installation is its own island, with no connection to others. You can’t share content and activities; you can’t find and connect with people of similar interests; you can’t create courses, groups, events or any other activity beyond the walls of the LMS of your educational entity.
But hey, wait a minute! Social Learning is the buzzword of the moment. Every LMS provider makes a big fuzz about how “social” its software is. They claim their solution has groups, discussions and maybe even a wall. Yep, but its students, teachers, content and activities are still confined to that one system installation. You cannot connect and share with other entities.
Just adding “social tools” to a LMS does not make it a social learning solution. It makes learning more collaborative among the members within its walls. This is great, yet it is a far cry from what technology can do today to revolutionize learning.
The Social Learning buzz started with the breathtaking success of Social Networking sites Facebook and LinkedIn. These offered something revolutionary: software that boosted connecting and sharing among people. It did so by pro-actively recommending new contacts based upon current relationships and behavior. As a result, people’s networks could suddenly expand effortlessly. One did no longer have to search for people with things in common. Connecting now happened in a breeze, because the system could make relevant new contact recommendations. As a result, sharing of content and activities grew exponentially. This was not possible before in Group or Community sites. These enabled collaboration only among members of the same group or community – just like a traditional LMS.
This is why we must not call a LMS with just collaboration tools a “Social LMS”. To be “Social”, a LMS must enable sharing among teachers and students from different educational entities. It cannot be a walled garden.
At Sclipo, the world’s largest Social LMS used by teachers and students in over 100 countries from thousands of educational entities, we firmly believe that social learning has the potential to revolutionize education – and this revolution will be more significant than the one ignited by LinkedIn and Facebook! Sharing in education has a huge impact on how we learn and thus on our whole life: it is after all during our education when we find our friends and jobs.
Welcome to the Social Learning Revolution!
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Here is a link to the Catalan version of this post, La revolució del social learning, published at El Blog del Llibre Digital from Grupo Santilla.
Add content from Slideshare, YouTube and other sites to your Library
May 24, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
Don’t have enough content for your teaching activities? Don’t worry! With a few clicks you can now can add content from leading sites to the Library of your Sclipo Academy:
* Documents & presentations from: Slideshare and Scribd
* Videos from: YouTube and Vimeo
* Images from: Flickr
* Screencasts from: Screenr
How does this work? Very easy!
1. Select Add Content, from the My Academy menu
2. Copy & paste the URL of the content you wish to add from the external site where it is hosted
3. Describe the content
Done!
And now…
… see the content in your Library
… assign it to courses, events and groups
… edit its privacy settings, so only your students can see it
… promote it on Twitter, Facebook and other social media
… have your students rate & comment the content
Check out this tutorial (and example).
We hope you like this new feature. If there are other content sites you’d like us to include, just drop us a line.
Sclipo – Aplicación de Aprendizaje Web o eLearning para los demás (parte 2)
May 5, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 1 Comment
En la parte 1 de este post, expliqué que Sclipo es una Aplicación de Aprendizaje Web, una nueva categoría de software de eLearning para “los demás”: profesores autónomos, pequeñas empresas y escuelas en formación continua para quienes los Sistemas de Gestión del Aprendizaje tradicionales son demasiado costosos y complejos.
En esta parte 2, describo las aplicaciones que Sclipo ofrece a través de su Academia Web: el espacio de eLearning que profesores, escuelas, empresas y cualquiera que disfrute enseñando, puede abrir en Sclipo.
Con tu Academia Web puedes:
* Enseñar y gestionar tus Cursos online, face-2-face y mixtos
* Almacenar y compartir contenido en tu Biblioteca en cualquier formato: video, documento, audio e imágenes
* Enseñar en directo tus clases y webinarios a través de cámara web, presentaciones, compartir escritorio y más herramientas de interacción
* Organizar Eventos presenciales y colaborar en Grupos online con tus estudiantes y otros profesores
* Promover tu Academia y sus servicios a través de Facebook o Twitter
* Recolectar pagos por tu cursos y sesiones en directo (Sclipo no cobra comisiones)
* Invitar y administrar un número ilimitado de estudiantes
* Autorizar a múltples profesores a enseñar cursos y sesiones en directo desde tu Academia
* Personalizar el nombre de tu Academia, URL y diseño
Aquí más detalles:
Cursos
Esta aplicación te permite publicar, gestionar y enseñar tus cursos online, face-2-face y mixtos. Un curso puede ser impartido por uno o muchos profesores. Te permite compartir contenido, mantener discusiones, organizar sesiones en vivo y publicar mensajes en el muro del curso. Cada curso tiene un panel administrativo para invitar, aprobar y comunicarse con estudiantes y demás profesores. Los cursos pueden ser públicos o privados. También puedes cobrar por tus cursos y recolectar los pagos de manera fácil por tarjeta de crédito u otras formas de pago. Sclipo no cobra comisión.
Biblioteca
Esta aplicación te permite almacenar, compartir y gestionar los contenidos (videos, documentos, presentaciones, audio e imágenes) que utilizas para enseñar. Puedes almacenar tu propio contenido y usar contenido de miles de otras Academias en Sclipo. Usa el contenido en cursos y sesiones en vivo, y compártelo en tus grupos y eventos.
Enseñar en directo
Esta aplicación te permite impartir clases en directo, webinarios y reuniones con múltiples participantes en cualquier lugar. Una sesión en directo puede ser independiente o ser parte de un curso, evento o grupo. Puedes enseñar a través de cámara web (= video chat), compartir documentos, chat de texto y compartir tu escritorio. Puedes programar ilimitadas sesiones públicas o privadas. Tienes un panel administrativo para invitar, aprobar y comunicarte con los participantes. De igual manera que en los cursos, puedes cobrar por las sesiones en directo y recolectar los pagos de manera fácil por tarjeta de crédito u otras formas de pago. Sclipo no cobra comisión.
Eventos
Esta aplicación te ayuda a organizar eventos educativos presenciales como conferencias, talleres y lecturas. Puedes discutir en el muro del evento, transmitir sesiones de eventos en directo y compartir contenidos con los participantes. Al igual que en cursos y en la aplicación de Enseñar en Directo, puedes cobrar de manera fácil por tarjeta de crédito u otras formas. Sclipo no cobra comisión.
Grupos
Esta aplicación te ayuda a colaborar online con estudiantes y otros profesores para estudios, investigaciones u otras actividades colaborativas. Puedes discutir en el muro del grupo, realizar sesiones en vivo y compartir contenido con los miembros. Mmm… no puedes cobrar por la participación en Grupos. Nos pareció que esto no tenía sentido. Avísanos, si crees que nos hemos equivocado.
Panel de control
El panel de control tiene herramientas para personalizar tu Academia, administrar los Profesores y promover tu Academia.
* ¡La Personalización es fácil! En menos de 1 minuto puedes destacar tu Academia ¡sin necesidad de conocimientos de programación! Elige el nombre de tu Academia y su dirección URL escribiendo tus opciones en los campos de texto correspondientes. Diseña tu ambiente favorito cargando una imagen de fondo (por ejemplo tu logo o una foto interesante) y selecciona un color de fondo con un solo click.
* Puedes tener varios profesores en tu Academia Web. Éstos te pueden ayudar a enseñar cursos o sesiones en directo. O pueden enseñar cursos y sesiones en vivo por sí mismos y que tú seas el coordinador. Para aumentar el número de profesores, ves a Panel de Control / Administrar profesores e invítalos desde tu lista de contactos de Sclipo o escribiendo/importando sus direcciones de correo. Tus invitados recibirán un correo electrónico con un código personal de invitación. Una vez que un profesor acepte, puedes asignarle a cursos y sesiones web. Profesores invitados pueden editar cursos/sesiones en directo, promoverlos, invitar a estudiantes, definir actividades, etc. Pero sólo tú, el dueño de la Academia o “Decano”, puedes publicar cursos/sesiones en directo y cambiar precios y condiciones de pago.
* Teniendo una Academia en Sclipo te ayuda a ganar notoriedad. Google y otros buscadores pueden encontrar fácilmente tus contenidos y cursos (si lo deseas). Y, si su calidad es buena, el efecto viral hará lo demás. Adicionalmente Sclipo te da herramientas para dar a conocer tu Academia. Sólo haz click en la pestaña de Promover mi Academia en el Panel de Control y podrás invitar a tus estudiantes, hacer tweets de tu Academia o darla a conocer entre tus amigos en Facebook. También puedes poner un atractivo botón en tu página web o blog de acceso directo a tu Academia.
Bueno, espero que este post te haya ayudado a entender qué herramientas de eLearning ofrece Sclipo y cómo éstas benefician tus actividades de docencia.
Para más información, visita:
Sobre Sclipo, con más información de qué hace Sclipo, para quiénes y por qué.
The Sclipo University, nuestra Academia Web con tutoriales, cursos y sesiones en vivo gratis, para aprender todo sobre las aplicaciones de Sclipo.
Herramientas ofrece una visión general de todas las herramientas.
Parte 1 de este post, donde explico por qué Sclipo es eLearning para los demás y cómo la aplicación de aprendizaje web Sclipo es distinta a una herramienta tradicional de eLearning.
¿Aún no tienes tu Academia web? Visita nuestros planes de Academias Web y selecciona el plan que mejor se adapte a tus necesidades de docencia.
Y por ultimo, me gustaría agradecerle a Victor, ya que sin él las aplicaciones de Sclipo solo existirían en mi mente. ¡Gracias Victor!
Sclipo – Web Learning Application or eLearning for the Rest-Of-Us (part 2)
March 25, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 4 Comments
In part 1 of this post, I explained that Sclipo is a Web Learning Application, a new eLearning software category for “rest-of-us”: independent teachers, and small companies and schools in continuous education for which a traditional Learning Management System is too complex and costly.
In this part 2, I describe the learning applications that Sclipo provides through its Web Academy, which is the eLearning space teachers, schools, companies and anybody who enjoys teaching can open on Sclipo.
With your Web Academy you can:
* Teach & manage face-2-face, online and blended Courses
* Store & share content in your Library in any format: videos, documents, audio, images
* Teach Live classes and webinars via webcam, whiteboard, desktop sharing and more cool live interaction tools
* Organize offline Events and collaborate in online Groups with your students and fellow teachers
* Promote your Academy and its services across the web, such as Facebook or Twitter
* Collect payments for courses and live sessions (no commission for Sclipo)
* Invite & manage an unlimited number of Students
* Authorize multiple Teachers to teach courses and live sessions of your Academy
* Customize your Academy name, URL and look & feel
Here more detail:
Courses
This application allows you to publish, manage and teach face-2-face, online and blended courses. A course can be taught by one or many teachers. It allows you to share content, hold discussions, schedule live sessions and post messages on the course wall. Courses comes with an administration panel to invite, approve and communicate with students and teachers. Courses can be public and private. You can also charge for courses and easily collect payments via credit card or other forms. Sclipo takes no commission.
Library
This application allows you to store, share and manage the content (videos, papers, presentations, audio and images) you use for teaching. You can store your own content and use content from thousands of other Academies on Sclipo. You can use the content in courses and live sessions, and share it in your groups and events. Your content can be private or public.
Live Web Teaching
This application allows to conduct live classes, webinars and meetings with multiple participants anywhere. A live session can be stand-alone, or part of a course, event or group. You teach through webcam (= video chat), document sharing, whiteboard, text chat and screen sharing. You can schedule an unlimited number of public and private sessions. Sessions can be recorded. You have an administration panel to invite, approve, administer and communicate with participants. Just like in Courses, you can charge for live sessions and easily collect payments via credit card or other forms. Sclipo takes no commission.
Events
This application helps you organize off-line educational happenings such as conferences, workshops and lectures. You can discuss on the event wall, stream event sessions live and share content with participants. Just like in the Courses and Live Teaching app, you can charge for Events and easily collect payments via credit card or other forms. Sclipo takes no commission.
Groups
This application helps you collaborate online with fellow students and teachers for studying, researching or conducting other collaboration activities. You can discuss on the group wall, hold live online meetings and share content with members. Hmm, you cannot charge for participation in Groups. We thought this makes little sense. Let us know, if we are wrong:).
Academy Dashboard
The Dashboard has tools to customize your Academy, to administer its Teachers and promotion features.
* Customization is easy! In less than 1 minute you can make your Academy look great without any programming skills! Choose your preferred Academy name and URL simply by typing them into a text field. Design your favorite look & feel by uploading a background image (for example your logo or a cool photo) and by selecting a matching background from a color panel with just one click!
* You can have multiple teachers at your Web Academy. Teachers can help you teach courses and live sessions. Or, these can teach courses and live sessions by themselves with you being the coordinator. To increase the number of teachers, just go to Dashboard / Administer Teachers and invite people from your Sclipo contact list or by writing / importing their email addresses. Your invitees will receive an email with a personal invitation code. Once a person accepts the invite to be a teacher, you can assign her/him to courses and live sessions of your Academy. That teacher can then edit the course / live session, promote it, invite students, define activities, etc. Only you, the Academy owner or “Dean”, can publish a course / live session and change its price and payment conditions.
* Just by having your Academy on Sclipo helps you gain notoriety. Google and other search engines can easily find your content and courses (if you want). And, if they are good, word will spread. In addition, Sclipo also gives you tools to let the world know about your Academy. Just click on the tab Dashboard / Promote Academy and you will be able to invite your students, tweet about your Academy or let your Facebook friends know about it. You can also put a cool button with a direct link to your Web Academy on your web.
Well, I hope this post helped you understand what eLearning tools Sclipo offers and how these benefit your teaching.
For more info, check out:
About Sclipo, with more info on what Sclipo does for whom and why.
The Sclipo University, our Web Academy with free tutorials, courses and live sessions to learn all about Sclipo’s apps.
Sclipo Features, providing an overview of all features.
Part 1 of this post, where I explain why Sclipo is eLearning for the Rest-Of-Us and how the Sclipo Web Learning Application is different from a traditional eLearning solution.
Haven’t got your Web Academy yet? See our Web Academy plans and select the one that best fits your teaching needs.
Last, but not least, I’d like to thank Victor, without whom Sclipo’s learning applications would only exist in my head :) Thanks Victor!!
Sclipo… uno de los Startups más importantes de Europa
March 9, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 2 Comments
Estamos muy contentos de que Sclipo haya sido seleccionado para el Startup Rally de Plugg de un grupo de 116 empresas. Esta nominación es especialmente valiosa debido a la calidad del jurado formado por expertos de la industria e inversores de capital riesgo.
“… Plugg, también ampliamente conocida como la conferencia donde los mejores startups europeos, empresarios, inversores, expertos, prensa especializada y bloggers se reúnen anualmente para analizar el estado actual y futuro de Internet y de la industria móvil en Europa, anuncia los veinte finalistas para el inicio de la emocionante competencia, el Plugg Start-Ups Rally. … “(cita de la nota de prensa Plugg).
Haber sido seleccionados como “… una de las iniciativas web y móviles más importantes en Europa…” es un verdadero honor y una excelente oportunidad para evangelizar a Sclipo (también conocido como eLearning para los demás). Me gustaría felicitar al equipo de Sclipo, a los otros 19 finalistas y, entre estos, en particular a las otras 2 empresas del ámbito de eLearning: English Attack y Datpresenter.
Si eres (o conoces) un start-up que quiere participar en Plugg el 11 de marzo de 2010 en Bruselas, haz uso de este código de descuento especial para registrarte -plugg-startupspecial- por sólo 150 euros.
Gracias a Robin Wauters y Véronique Pochet por hacer Plugg una realidad. ¡Vosotros sois los verdaderos ganadores!
Sclipo… one of Europe’s most exiting startups
March 9, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 4 Comments
We are excited that Sclipo has been selected for the Plugg Startup Rally from a pool of 116 firms. This nomination is especially valuable given the quality of the jury formed by industry pundits and venture capital investors.
“…Plugg, also widely known as the conference where the top European startups, entrepreneurs, investors, pundits, trade press & bloggers annually meet up to discuss the current and future state of the Internet and mobile industry in Europe, is announcing the twenty nominees for the event’s exhilarating pitching competition, the Plugg Start-Ups Rally. …” (Quoted from the Plugg Press Release).
Having been selected as “…one of Europe’s most exciting web & mobile startups…” is a real honor and an outstanding opportunity to evangelize Sclipo (aka eLearning for the Rest-of-Us). I’d like to congratulate the Sclipo Team, the other 19 selected start-ups and, among these, particularly the other 2 firms in the eLearning space: English Attack and Datpresenter.
If you are (or know of) a startup that would like to experience Plugg on March 11, 2010 in Brussels, use this special discount code to register — plugg-startupspecial — for only 150 euros.
Thanks Robin Wauters and Véronique Pochet for bringing Plugg to life! You guys are the real winners!
Sclipo – Aplicación de Aprendizaje Web o eLearning para los demás (parte 1)
February 22, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 3 Comments
¿Qué es Sclipo? Esto es una pregunta muy frecuente. Y debo admitir, es difícil incluso para nosotros describir nuestro producto. Esto se debe a que no existe un nombre de categoría establecido para lo que hacemos. Los establecidos – como Sistema de Gestión del Aprendizaje (Learning Management System, LMS) o Sistema de Gestión de Cursos (Course Management System, CMS) – no acaban de encajar. ¿Y por qué? Porque Sclipo ofrece una nueva solución a un nuevo grupo de usuarios quienes, hasta ahora, han sido excluidos de usar LMS por coste y complejidad. Hmm… ¿Confundido?
La comparación con un producto conocido ayudará a entender. Consideremos como ejemplo los ordenadores. De acuerdo con el Museo de Historia de los Ordenadores, el primer ordenador fue construido en 1939. Revisa la evolución de los ordenadores y podrás ver como por cada nuevo tipo de ordenador se establece un nuevo nombre de categoría: Ordenador central, mini-ordenadores, ordenador personal, etc. Algunas categorías desplazaron a otras. Algunas añadieron al mercado de los ordenadores, ofreciendo una nueva solución a un nuevo grupo de usuarios.
Entonces ¿qué es Sclipo?
Sclipo es una Aplicación de Aprendizaje Web (Web Learning Application, WLA). Nos gusta (y por ende, hemos inventado) el término WLA, porque Sclipo provee herramientas de aprendizaje en tecnología de aplicación web: sin descargas, ni instalaciones en tu servidor web, sin configuración y sin mantenimiento: Sólo regístrate y tendrás tu propia WLA operativa en cuestión de minutos.
Las principales diferencias funcionales con respecto a un LMS son:
* Fácil de usar: Si sabes usar Facebook, sabes usar Sclipo.
* Económico: Tu Aplicación de Aprendizaje Web cuesta a partir de $10 mensuales. Intenta batir este precio con un LMS, incluso con los de código abierto (y no olvides de calcular los costos de hosting, configuración, mantenimiento, etc.).
* Red de aprendizaje: Puedes usar tu WLA de Sclipo en completa privacidad e aislamiento (como un LMS tradicional) o puedes compartir y conectar con alumnos y profesores de miles de otras WLAs en Sclipo (esto es sencillamente *imposible* en un sistema tradicional de LMS).
¿Cuál es este nuevo grupo de usuarios?
Nuestra aplicación de aprendizaje web es “para los demás”: profesores independientes, pequeñas empresas y centros de formación continua. Para ellos, un sistema tradicional de LMS es demasiado costoso y complejo. LMS están hechos para grandes organizaciones y escuelas, cuyos procesos educativos y requisitos son muy distintos. Por ejemplo, la educación continua pocas veces requiere control de plagio, algo esencial para las Universidades. Aparte de ser sencilla, económica y ofrecer formar parte de una red de aprendizaje única, Sclipo ofrece la mezcla exacta de las herramientas que responden a las necesidades particulares de la educación continua.
¿Y, qué aplicaciones de aprendizaje ofrece Sclipo? Como este post se está alargando, responderé en el próximo. A los curiosos, los invito a visitar Sobre Sclipo y la Universidad Sclipo. También pueden ver Herramientas Sclipo
para una visión general de todas nuestras aplicaciones.
Sclipo – Web Learning Application or eLearning for the Rest-Of-Us (part 1)
February 16, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · 7 Comments
What is Sclipo? This is a very frequently asked question. And, I must admit, it is hard for ourselves to describe it. This is because there is no established category name for what we do. Established ones – like Learning Management System (LMS) or Course Management System (CMS) – do not quite fit. Why? Because Sclipo offers a new solution to a new group of users who till now have been excluded from using LMS due to price and complexity. Hmm… now you are even more confused, aren’t you?
Thinking about another, well known product, will help you understand. Let’s take the computer as an example. According to the Computer History Museum the first computer was build in 1939. Review the timeline of computers, and you will see that for each new type of computer, a new category name was established: Mainframe, Mini-Computers, Personal Computers, etc. Some categories displaced others. Some added to the computer market, offering a new solution to a new group of users.
So, what IS Sclipo?
Sclipo is a Web Learning Application (WLA). We like (and hence invented) the term WLA, because Sclipo provides learning tools as a web application: no download, no installation on your web server, no configuration, no maintenance, no hosting: Just register, and you have your own WLA up and running in minutes.
The main functional differences to a traditional LMS are:
* Ease of use: if you know Facebook, you know how to use Sclipo.
* Affordable: your Sclipo WLA costs as low as $10 per month. Try beating this with a traditional LMS, including an open source one (ah, and do not forget to calculate the cost of hosting, configuration, maintenance, system admin, etc.)
* Learning Network: you can use your Sclipo WLA in total privacy and isolation (like a traditional LMS) or you can share and connect with students and teachers of thousands of other Sclipo WLAs (this is simply *not* possible in a traditional LMS).
Who is that NEW group of users?
The Sclipo WLA is for “rest-of-us”: independent teachers, and small companies and schools in continuous education. For them, a traditional LMS is too expensive and complex. LMS are made for large organizations and schools, whose educational process and requirements are quite different. For example, continuous education hardly requires plagiarism control – something essential for Universities. Besides being easy, affordable and providing an unique learning network, Sclipo offers the right mix of tools that respond to the particular needs of continuous education.
So, what learning applications does Sclipo offer? As this post is getting a little too long, I will answer this question in an upcoming one. For those of you who are too curious to wait, check out About Sclipo and the Sclipo University. You can also see the Sclipo Features page for an overview of all our applications.
Manage your invitations to courses, live sessions, groups and events from your profile
January 30, 2010 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
You can now manage your invitations to courses, live teaching sessions, groups and events directly from your profile.
After you have been invited, for example to enroll in a course offered by any Academy, you will be able to:
* Click on the title of the activity or view, to be directed to the info page of the corresponding activity. There you will find more info about it and you can decide if to accept the invitation.
* Click on the Name of the Academy that invited you. You will be directed to the Home of the Academy, to find out more about the Academy.
* Click Ignore, and the invite will disappear from your profile.
Only the owner of the profile can see the invitations. Not her contacts!
We hope you find this helpful. Thanks for your feedback!
Sclipo launches Groups
December 8, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
Groups are key in education to boost knowledge transfer and networking. Today, there is hardly any learning without group work. Groups are used for activities such as study, research or exam preparation. This is why Sclipo built an application to help our members organize online Groups.
While creating groups our goal was to respond to the specific needs of teachers and students – needs which are not solved by generic group apps:
* Integration with courses: groups are often part of a course, which needs to be associated with a group
* Sharing of educational content: presentations, audio, video, images need to be easily accessible and shareable for members
* Live meetings: allow group members to meet live via video chat, white board, doc sharing and other live collaboration tools
We also believe that the networking potential is better on Sclipo than on generic apps – as all our members, activities and content are about education.
Here is how we responded to these needs. With Sclipo Groups you can:
* Organize online groups for activities like study, research, test-prep
* Assign courses related to the group. For example, if your group members are part of the same course, you can associate that course to the group
* Share educational content related to the group: documents, presentations, videos, audio files and images
* Conduct live meetings with the group members, and store and share the recordings
* Discuss with members on the group wall
* Invite and administer members
* Restrict group membership to selected people or make it open for everyone
Here our Group Teaching on Sclipo. Why don’t you join?
To learn more about Sclipo Groups, check out these tutorials.
We hope you find Sclipo Groups useful and are looking forward to your feedback.
Sclipo launches Automatic System Check for Live Teaching
October 17, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We created an automatic Live Teaching System Check. With one click, you can now check if:
* your webcam works
* your audio / microphone works
* your Internet speed (in special the upload speed) is sufficient
The Live Teaching System Check page also contains answers to common problems related to webcam and microphone installation.
We recommend that every participant of a Live Teaching session conducts this system check prior to its start! If you are the teacher / organizer of the session, make sure that all participants also conduct this system check.
Sclipo works with any broadband connection (DSL, ADSL, cable), webcam and microphone. Yet, the more broadband, the better (plus 1MB upload speed recommended). And, the better your webcam and microphone, the better the quality of your video and audio. We recommend you use one of these Sclipo recommended webcams.
Many problems related to our Live Teaching system are caused by the incorrect setting-up of webcams and microphones, and too low or unstable Internet speeds (in special the upload speed). Remember that by participating in or giving a live class, you are “uploading” a lot of data: video, sound, chat text, whiteboard drawing, etc.. If your Internet speed is too slow, our servers will receive your data with delay, which will cause other participants to also see and hear you with delay.
So, check your system now! It takes just a few seconds: http://sclipo.com/liveteaching/systemcheck
We hope this Live Teaching System Check is helpful!
Happy live teaching and learning!
Sclipo launches Educational Events
October 7, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · 1 Comment
Events play a mayor role in education as they foster knowledge transfer and networking. Events such as seminars, conferences and workshops are hence important complements to courses and individual learning activities. This is why Sclipo built an application to help our members organize face-2-face educational events.
Now, there are a lot of event apps out there. And we did not just want to give you yet-another-event-app. Our goal was to respond to the specific needs of educators – needs which in our view are not solved by generic event apps:
* Integration with courses: events are often part of an educational program consisting of various courses, which need to be associated with an event
* Sharing of educational content: presentations, audio, video, images – generated before and during an event – need to be easily accessible and shareable for participants before, during and especially after the event
* Remote participation: as travel and time budgets get tighter, the possibility to take part remotely is a strongly growing demand
Here is how we responded to these needs. With Sclipo Events you can:
* Organize off-line educational events such as conferences, workshops, seminars, lectures, etc.
* Assign courses related to the event. For example, if you want to organize a workshop as part of a course, you can easily assign that course to the workshop event.
* Share educational content related to the event: documents, presentations, videos, audio files and images
* Live stream the event, and store and share the recordings
* Discuss the event on its wall
* Invite and administer participants
* Charge participants for attendance
* Restrict events to a selected audience or make it open for everyone
We also believe that the networking potential will be outstanding – as all members, activities and content on Sclipo are about education.
Here an example Event:
Sclipo Events was built by Alex Blessing, with the invaluable support of Victor Bautista and Chris Grant. Edwin Toone did a great job in unearthing those nasty bugs that somehow always manage to sneak in. Thanks guys!
We hope you find Sclipo Events useful and are looking forward to your feedback.
Sclipo enables live teaching from Moodle
September 16, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We released the long awaited Moodle plugin for our live web classroom. It allows Moodle users to teach live – classes, webinars and conferences – directly from Moodle. For free! We are looking forward to much live education from Moodle teachers, and we are happy that Sclipo can make contribution to Moodle.
With the Moodle plugin, you can:
* Schedule unlimited live classes and webinars from Moodle for up to 99 students
* Interact with students through webcam, whiteboard and chat
* Present and share documents during the live class and webinar
* Record live classes, and share and embed these in Moodle and other webs
Installation of the plugin is very easy:
1. Download the plugin
2. Copy the plugin to the folder “mod” in the directory: moodle/mod/
3. Log in to Moodle as Administrator and click on “Notifications”
Find more info and download the plugin from Sclipo and from Moodle, where you can also help improve the plugin.
Special thanks to Alexander Blessing for developing version 1 of the plugin!
Sclipo launches Partnership Program
September 8, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We started a Partner Program to engage our members to help us spread the word about Sclipo. Sclipo makes learning and teaching online possible for everyone! This is what we want our Partners to emphasize when they promote Sclipo to people who teach, but don’t have the resources for a traditional LMS/CMS.
LMS (Learning Management System) and CMS (Course Management Systems) are complex and costly. Even if open source, you have to invest in configuration, hosting and maintenance. If you are not a web-development savvy teacher (99% of teachers aren’t), you will have to engage a LMS/CMS system consultant. Altogether, you are looking at at least a couple of months and plus 5000 USD to get started.
Most teachers can’t afford this. In special independent teachers, informal teachers (a friend, a colleague, you…) and small schools and companies for continuous education. With Sclipo however, they can get started in a matter of minutes. In addition to asynchronous instructional tools, Sclipo also provides powerful synchronous learning and social features that no LMS/CMS can offer. For example, at Sclipo you can share and connect with thousands of other people who are publishing and teaching courses and live web classes on Sclipo.
Our Partners get cool rewards! They earn a referral fee of up to 15% of the Premium Membership payments and free Premium accounts. Rewards are based upon the teaching activity of their referrals: the more a referral teaches, the higher the reward.
To help our Partners spread the word we are giving them these tools:
* A Partner page, which they can share through Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. The Partner page is a Sclipo Join page, personalized to each Partner. For example, people joining through for example the Partner page of member Jane are automatically referrals of Jane.
* A cool Partner Badge (see above), which Partners can embed in their web page or blog. It links directly to their personalized Join page.
* A Partner dashboard, which shows them all their referrals and teaching activities.
Check it out, and become a Partner today!
Sclipo launches Folders
August 28, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
I was giving a class to about Sclipo to teachers. One asked – “What about folders? I have lots of materials, and being able to organize it into folders would help my students a lot.”
We got to work, and a few days ago we launched Folders to help you organize the content of your Library. You can:
* create as many folders as you like
* describe and write tags for your folders, to help others understand its content
* assign a content item – like a video or document – to one or more folders
* share a URL to your folders (each folder has its own URL), so that students can go directly to the content you want to them to study
* delete folders (this does not delete its content)
Creating folders is very easy! In your Academy Library:
1. Click on Create New Folder
2. Write a Title, Description and Tags and click Create Folder
Done!
Assigning content to folders and removing it is even easier! In your Academy Library, after you have created at least 1 folder:
1. Find the content you want to assign to or remove from a folder, and click on Assign to / Remove from Folder
2. In the pop-up, you will see a list of all folders you have created. Simply check / uncheck the folders to which you want to assign / remove the content.
3. Click Save Changes
Done!
Here a short video tutorial.
To see an example of how folders work, check out the Sclipo University Library. There we have organized our tutorials into folders that are named according to the feature group they teach.
We are looking forward to you feedback!
New Web Classroom
August 14, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We are excited about the release of our new Web Classroom. Thanks to feedback from our users, we have improved a bunch of features and added some new ones:
* One-click switch between views for Video, Document and Whiteboard
* Increased size of the teacher video
* Increased space for document presentation
* Increased size of student panel in video view
* Students have now an additional, large Request Live Turn button
* Volume input regulator for teacher to adjust audio for students
* Audio level indicator for teacher to verify that the microphone is working
Here a screenshot of the Video view (teacher view).
Video view (teacher)
Here a screenshot of the Document Sharing view.
Document sharing view
Do you like it? Check it out for yourself by creating & scheduling a web class.
Here is the tutorial of our new web classroom.
We hope you like our re-design, and that it will improve the quality of your web classes and webinars. Please keep sending your feedback. We are sure that this will not be our last version.
Enrich your teaching with content from other Academies
August 2, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We just launched a new feature that boosts your teaching capacity: You can now post content from other Academies in your Library, and use it for your Courses and Web Classes.
It’s really easy! Just find a content, video or document, you’d like to use for your teaching. On the content page, right next to the title, click on Add to My Library. That content is then posted immediately to your Library. Now, you can add that content to your courses and web classes (at the moment, you can only show docs in your webclasses). Sclipo indicates how many Libraries, Courses and Web Classes use a content. Academies automatically improve their reputation, if their content is used by other Academies. The Academy owning the content retains the rights over it. Academies who do not want others to use their content – because they may charge for it or because it is confidential – can restrict it from being shared.
Here is the tutorial for this feature.
We created this feature because sharing fosters education. Every physical library houses content from multiple authors and any educator uses content from others for teaching. On Sclipo, this sharing is much easier and more efficient than for physical libraries. A content is placed in another Library with just one mouse click. In addition, the amount of times a content is shared on Sclipo is one of the best references for its quality. This feature will thus help our users find the good stuff easier.
We hope you like this new feature.
Sclipo – ahora en español
July 9, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · 1 Comment
Pues no estaba planeado para Julio 2009. Pero hubo mucha demanda por parte de nuestros miembros y ganas de nuestro equipo – sobre todo de Victor – para tener Sclipo en español. Gracias a Victor tenemos ahora un nuevo sistema de traducción y multi-idioma rápido y flexible. Hemos traducido las mil y pico líneas de texto y hemos lanzado Sclipo en español el 1 de Julio de 2009.
Con esto – creo – somos la primera red social educativa del mundo en español.
¡Gracias Victor!
También hemos creado más tutoriales en español, como este:
Sclipo organizes Facebook Connect Garage
April 12, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We are proud to announce our third Facebook Garage, which will take place in Barcelona on April 16, 2009. This Garage offers three newbies:
1) Connect: This Garage focuses on Facebook Connect. We will explore topics related to the Connect User Experience and Development / Integration.
2) Sclipo Courses: In addition to Facebook’s Event app, we are using Sclipo’s Courses app to organize the event and to make it more learningful. Courses serves us to post and share educational docs and videos related to Connect. In addition, it allows attendants to stay connect after the event.
3) Live streaming: This will be – to our knowledge – the first garage that is streamed live over the web for those who cannot attend in person. As of today over 60 people, mainly from Latin America, have signed up. We will be using Sclipo’s web classroom for the streaming.
Want to take part?
* To attend in person, sign up here.
* To participate via live streaming, sign up here.
Thanks a bunch to Julia Lam from Facebook for her support. And, a very special thanks to Intel, who is sponsoring this Garage.
Sclipo launches Courses, Live Web Classes and Library
March 20, 2009 by Gregor Gimmy · Leave a Comment
We are happy to announce exciting new features that take us a giant step closer towards fulfilling Sclipo’s vision: to make online learning easier, better and social.
What started as a place to share educational videos, is now a web application for the millions of teachers and companies that find traditional eLearning solutions too complex and too costly. As a web application, any teacher or organization can use Sclipo to create courses and web classes, and to invite their students, all in a matter of minutes. Traditional eLearning solutions on the other hand require a web server installation, configuration and continuous maintenance, and much more. This complexity and cost makes traditional eLearning unattainable for anyone without extensive technological know-how or a big budget.
As well as democratizing access to eLearning, Sclipo also transforms the eLearning experience through REA (Rich Educational Applications) and social features that take the quality of learning and interaction to a new level. Most importantly, Sclipo introduces the essential ingredient that’s been missing from eLearning – informal or social learning: Sclipo allows any member to teach and learn. In traditional eLearning, “users” must choose either tools for teachers or for students. At Sclipo, they get both. Sclipo makes learning online social – just like it is in real life. Peers or “non-certified” teachers are after all the backbone of education in families, schools and companies.
Here’s a summary of the most important new features:
1. Academy: Every member has an Academy – in addition to a Profile. The Academy is the space where a member teaches through educational apps like Courses, Library or Live Web Classes.
2. Courses: This app allows members to create and post courses they teach online through Sclipo, face-to-face or blended.
3. Library: The Library serves to store, manage and share educational content in any format – videos, documents, presentations, spreadsheets, etc.
4. Live Web Classes: Here, Academies can teach up to 100 students live through webcam, whiteboard and a document presenter. Students can participate actively through audio, video and chat. Teachers can present any document from their library. No downloads needed.
5. Payments: Teachers can charge students for their courses and web classes. Students pay teachers directly through PayPal.
And here’s an overview of all features. Most features are free, some are for Premium Members, like Payments and the private Web Classroom (a public Web Classroom is free to use). Premium Members pay a flat fee.
Ready to experience Sclipo? Check out this demo Academy.
We also recommend you enroll in the free and open course Sclipo Basics. There, the Sclipo team shows you how to teach, learn and socialize with Sclipo.
What’s next? There’s a lot more ahead for Sclipo and plenty of improvements and new features we are working on. We’d love to hear your ideas and feedback. Just send us an email.
We hope you like the new Sclipo. Very special thanks to Albert, Chris, Edwin, Jorge, Marcio, Nacho, Victor for their incredible efforts to revolutionize learning!
Sclipo University
Need help? Visit our Online Campus!
