Launch of Interactive Live Video
Today, GuyKat announce the general launch of 'interactive live video' as a new product option. The announcement comes after successful pilot projects at two key clients.
Lead developer, Hannah Quinton said; "We're always looking at the mix of eLearning solutions we offer. We've made brilliant animated, narrated and bite-size material for years. But we've previously used third party providers to bring 'live action' video into the mix. Investments in new kit together with experience from the pilot projects have brought the studio capability in-house. We're going a step further. Video can move from something you press play and watch, to something you interact with. A film character can talk to you. What they say next will depend upon your interaction. This means learners can have different experiences depending upon their choices. We've done this 'scenario based' approach for some time with animation, but bringing it to 'live action' film is a step change."
GuyKat founder, Guy McEvoy said; "We're excited about the opportunities for our more ambitious clients. We still offer all our core delivery options and will help clients chose the mix that is right for them. In most cases budgets will mean that our award-winning animated solutions will still be first choice. However, for mission critical learning programs, where a classroom based roll-out may be the alternative, interactive video can be both incredibly compelling and cost-effective."
If you're interested in discussing an interactive video engagement please either contact your GuyKat account manager, else contact info@guykat.com
Lead Designer Up for Award
We're incredibly proud that our Lead eLearning Designer, Hannah Quinton, has been shortlisted in the tech category for the the Birmingham Young Professional of the Year Awards.
Hannah is a certified developer in Adobe Captivate. In 2015, her work was deployed in over 52 countries and used in the training of thousands of professionals worldwide. Hannah's been a key driver in GuyKat’s ongoing success, helping the company grow by 20 per cent year-on-year. She also project managed a suite of online training modules that won the Digital Technology category in the Insider Midlands 2015 Export Awards.
We wish Hannah the very best of luck for the award ceremony which will be held at the ICC in Birmingham on 12th May.
Docebo at Learning Technologies 2016 (London)
*Update 8 Feb*
Thanks to everybody who stopped by to say hi at our stall last week. A picture of some of the team is attached above. We will be in touch with everyone who expressed an interest over the coming days.
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Jan 26
GuyKat team members will again be joining our Docebo colleagues and exhibiting the game-changing, cloud-based LMS at stand (N12) at this year's Learning Technologies Expo at London Olympia. Our MD, Guy McEvoy said; "Learning Technologies is the premier event for our industry to showcase what we do. 2016 is brings some great enhancements to Docebo that I'm excited to show-off. I can't give away too much now, but I will say if you want to embed 70:20:10 in your organisation you should take a stop-by and take a look. Everyone attending the Expo should definitely make time to hear Docebo COO Alessio Artuffo present his free seminar on the topic."
GuyKat have been proud UK partners of Docebo since 2012. The Expo at the conference is free to attend and can be booked via this link: CLICK HERE . If you are interested in a new LMS or our bespoke eLearning services then feel free to stop by the stall, or if you want to guarantee time for a discussion then please feel free to contact us directly to book a firm time-slot.
Turn Your Training Course Into An Online Goldmine
Build a course once, sell it infinitely.
Experts who deliver quality training for a living quickly find demand for their courses outstrips capacity to deliver them. Classrooms only hold so many people, there are only so many days a week. That used to leave two choices; either turn away business or employ other trainers. Turning away business is mad. Employing others is risky. There is now another way: move the training online.
Technology costs no longer prohibit this. It’s affordable to even a start-up. So, “How do I put my classroom courses online?"
There are two steps. First, convert the content for online delivery. Second get somewhere to host it.
Online delivery is different to classroom delivery. The materials used in a classroom may not be appropriate online. The good news is widespread availability of low-cost eLearning and video authoring apps. The best of these allow anyone who can handle PowerPoint, web-apps or video editing software to have all the tools needed to build good-looking interactive eLearning. No coding needed. If you’re new to this field, we recommend you start by looking at Elucidat. You’ll making your first multi-device content in minutes.
When you have content you’re happy with – whether it is as basic as powerpoint, PDFs and videos or as complex as fully interactive game-like simulations you need somewhere to host it. You want to make sure only paying customers can access it. This is where a Learning Management System (LMS) comes in. Using the docebo platform you can have a light SMB version of an enterprise-grade LMS catering for up to 50 active for as little as £150 monthly (potentially serving 600 unique users a year). In a world where a single course of niche, quality-assured content can be sold for many thousands of pounds, this offers the opportunity of an extraordinary profit margin.
Build a course, put it online, tell your customers, take the money, let the learners self-serve and go lie on the beach. We can help you with every step of that journey except lying on the beach.
Gold can only be found once you start to mine. So, if you’re based in the UK or Ireland and what to find out more get in touch. We can help you with a free full trial of an authoring tool, an LMS or the whole caboodle.
Call us. +44 121 288 1122
GuyKat CEO Named in List of Top Techies
GuyKat founder Guy McEvoy has been named as one of the 25 most influential tech people in the Midlands. The list was compiled for publication in the newly released December issue of Insider Magazine. Guy said; "To see me listed with the leaders of companies such as Bet365 and Codemasters or an original investor in Candy Crush is a mark of how far we've come. The recognition is nice. But only if we continue to do what we're doing - disrupting the learning technology market, maybe in a couple of years I'll feel like I've really earned my place."
GuyKat at Dublin WebSummit
GuyKat was represented at this year’s WebSummit in Dublin, attending with a number of other companies from the Birmingham area. The event gathers over 30,000 attendees from across the tech industry. It’s an eclectic mixture of start-ups, established companies and investors. GuyKat’s CEO Guy McEvoy said; “There’s always a buzz around these events, and it’s easy to get swept up in the hype about the ‘next big thing’. For me though, it was disappointing there wasn’t more innovation in learning technology on show. Our industry should be a poster child for this kind of event, but to me it felt under represented. Next time, I hope GuyKat will take a lead in changing that. We’ve a couple of side projects ready to kick-off and we may well be showing them off at next years event in Lisbon.” Watch this space.
GuyKat WIN Digital Technology Award!
The GuyKat team took centre stage last night as they scooped the Digital Technology prize at the Insider Midlands International Trade Awards 2015. Managing Director, Guy McEvoy, said; “We're thrilled to get this recognition that our growth is being driven by heavy-weight global clients. I'm chuffed for the whole team who've put in a lot of work. I can only sell our work overseas because their work is truly of international standard".
BBC correspondent, Dave Harvey, kicked off the event at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole, which showcased some of the excellent work undertaken by businesses in the Midlands area. We also offer congratulations to our friends at Ultraseal and Portmeirion who were named as the region's leading exporters in their respective fields.
What is SCORM? In Layman's Terms...
If you’re new to eLearning or Learning Management Systems you’ll often hear or see the word SCORM. It’s a piece of jargon we use that means nothing to people outside our industry. So, let’s explain SCORM in layman’s terms:
- SCORM is the most common standard format that eLearning modules are published in. It allows content to be uploaded to and tracked by a Learning Management System.
Why do we need a standard? Well, there are two main steps to delivering eLearning. First you make the content, then you put the content online. Typically, you make the content using a computer program called an ‘authoring tool’. There are many authoring tools on the market; Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline or Elucidat are examples. The next step is to put your content online. You do this using a Learning Management System (‘LMS’). Example LMSs are Totara, Moodle or Docebo. It is critical your content can ‘talk’ to your LMS so that you can track how your learners are doing. You want to capture data such as; Who has done which course? How long they looked at the course? What score did they get? Which specific questions did they get wrong? This is the magic of SCORM. The SCORM standard defines how this data is captured and communicated.
Having a standard allows learning and development teams to use their preferred choice of authoring tool and their preferred choice of LMS without compatibility issues.
SCORM is not a standard for the technology that the eLearning itself is built with. So, you can have eLearning built in Flash which is packaged into SCORM format or eLearning built in HTML 5 packaged into SCORM format or any other technology.
A SCORM file, typically looks exactly like a zip file. If an LMS asks you to upload a SCORM file you upload it in whole – don’t unzip it. This is very easy on Docebo.
Things are slightly complicated by there being more than one flavour of SCORM e.g. SCORM 2004 and SCORM v1.2. There are also other competing standards e.g. AICC or Tin Can/xAPI. These formats are less common. xAPI is gaining traction, however, it is still a bleeding edge technology that we would avoid for now. Whichever you use Docebo LMS is compatible with ALL these standards. We’ll do another article on the different types in future.
Whether you are looking to buy SCORM content, build-your-own SCORM content, or find an LMS to host SCORM content we can help you. eLearning is what we do. Please feel free to get in touch.
GuyKat Secures £200k For 2016 Growth
GuyKat's founder today outlined a £200,000 plan to grow the business through 2016. CEO Guy McEvoy said; "This investment allows us to accelerate our phased recruitment plans and build on last year's success. We are creating roles for instructional design, creative media, web technologies and our first apprentices. We've already brought on board David Brannon who is an experienced instructional designer to bolster our team as the first hire under this plan. We're also going to be far more aggressive in our marketing in the coming year. Our clients can expect to see an increased presence at the major learning technology events. Additionally, we are exploring a speculative project in the healthcare sector that we hope to kick-off in Q4."
The investment includes £50,000 pounds of funding from HM Government's Regional Growth Fund through the Birmingham Post Growth Fund in Partnership with Bournville College. The remainder of the funds are from retained profit and Director loans.
GuyKat Supports Veterans Football
For the second year GuyKat Solutions was proud to lend support to the 'Everton Veterans' football team playing at the 'Worldnet Big Tam Veterans Tournament' at Weetwood near Leeds. The tournament attracts teams from across the UK and some international entries. This year Everton had a great showing in the league on the Saturday coming second in their group, but lost out to 'Arsenal Nigeria' one-nil in the first round of the knockout stages on the Sunday. Well done to those who took part and all the other supporters who made the journey to Leeds to lend support.