E-learning sector buzzing with activity

Started in

1990, Pune-based Harbinger Group was in the news by making it to the Top 20 list

of Specialized Learning Process Providers brought out by Training

Outsourcing.com.

Talking

about the recognition, the company's chairman and managing director Vikas Joshi

says "the recognition today is a token of right folks realizing the importance

of e-learning. Recognition adds to our credibility and helps in our field."

In an

interview to AC Ganesh of CIOL, Vikas Joshi spoke about a range of topic related to

the e-learning scenario, India's success in the area and the company's future

plans.

How do

you think the success of e-learning should be measured?

Traditionally dropout or the completion rate has been the measurement tool. If

the drop out rate is close to zero one can measure people's performance. As Kurk

Patrick's model suggests, one has to look at the following to determine the

success:

a)

Completion rate

b) ROI is

an important factor

c) Impact

on performance

Don't

you think e-learning will be boring without any interaction? How do you address

this?

Interactivity and presentation is the key to e-learning as interactive learning

should be made interesting. Some of the challenges in this field are to be met

while designing a program so that the learner has an opportunity to interact.

Though teacher trainers are highly motivated, they don't have enough exposure to

instructional design, so they need a “tool set” which will help in designing a

format for interactive learning. Programming is another important aspect to make

it interesting and developers are needed to do this. Some of the solutions to

make e-learning interactive or interesting are through developing a format

through role play, games or puzzles to name a few to draw the learners.

Harbinger

addresses the needs by offering about 175 interaction models. The models can be

customized for various subjects and the change of content does not need

programming. This packaged product is called Raptivity, which is sold to

educational institutions, universities, government and corporates in 22

different countries. Some of our customers are Hilton HQ—UK, Infosys, Tesco,

Aviva, Satyam, BPO companies.

Can you

throw some light on some of your authoring tools?

We have a

content authoring tool Elicitus Suite that helps to create content, make it

interactive, deploy the courses, track learners and get progress reports. There

is a tool which allows one to leverage PowerPoint content. Elicitus

SlideCoverter converts PowerPoint slides and multimedia. Elicitus Content

Publisher helps one to create SCORM and AICC standards compliant e-learning

courses. Elicitus Interactivity Builder allows adding some fizz to the course.

Elicitus ProgressTracker allows one you to manage learners, deploy courses.

With

Raptivity, one can create interactivity rapidly and add it conveniently to their

e-learning content. It allows trainers and subject matter specialists to create

engaging interactive content and use their existing autjoring tool, LCMS,

LMS, CMS and Live Collaboration Systems. The content published by Raptivity can

be a single flash file which can be distributed as a presentation, websites,

documents and help files.

Can you

tell us about the activities in the centre of excellence?

With the

sector buzzing with activity, it has also thrown open a homogeneous community.

We are in the process of building physical infrastructure in two-phase in Pune.

When we setup the centre of excellence, we were 100 in number and have grown

two-fold, resulting in business growth. Currently, we have 30,000 sq feet for

our own use and planning to increase to have a 450 seat capacity — 300 in phase

I and 150 in phase II. We believe we have an opportunity to grow the headcount

according to international product marketing as there is scope for employees to

create a product and market them.

What are

the skill set required for those who want to make a career out of e-learning?

With 4

million graduates passing from colleges every year, e-learning sector opens the

gate for those who can create GUI, design support sets and ability to design and

describe a product, write user documentation and have some product engineering

skills with some programming knowledge. Training is also a very important aspect

as one needs to understand the business processes for developing a world class

product and solution for the industry.

How is

the market for the products abroad and specifically India?

There is a

huge market for e-learning products abroad and in India is at a nascent stage

offering scope for many players to tap the USD 20 million through new product

development.

Though we

have no real challenge in the country, there is barely a small market (Rs. 90

crore) for e-learning products for consumption and expect a reasonable double

digit growth. The country is a major exporter of e-learning product and solution

and the reasons being:

- Core

competencies centered on programming

- Lot of

animation and graphic talent

- Huge

advantage in English language

- Project

management skills

How do

you plan to tap the Indian market?

Earlier,

there was some resistance among the teachers to such tools and that has reduced

considerably due to awareness. But the major pain point is allocation of budget

for such tools. But one can tap the market by creating a product, making the

right buzz and reaching out to universities and government through direct

contact. While players like NIIT, Tata Interactive have presence as outsourced

content developers, Harbinger is into product development offering arrange of

products and solutions in the area and some of the verticals we are

concentrating are IT companies and BPO's. Harbinger's strategy to reach out to

the potential customer is through direct market selling, conferences, webinars

and online presence.

© CIOL Bureau