New Book: Winning E-Learning Proposals
A must-have for both vendors and RFP writers

A good friend recently asked me to review the proposals she received back in response from her e-learning RFP. Even though this was a large six-figure initiative and the respondents were some of the biggest names in the business, I was shocked by how bad the proposals were. Poor design and formatting, confusing language, and no compelling value proposition. Until now, learning how to write great RFP's and proposals was a "tribal" activity (i.e., people doing it had to learn from those that went before them).

Karl Kapp, Ed.D, is the Assistant Director of the Institute for Interactive Technologies at Bloomsburg University. For years he's been teaching graduate students how to develop good RFPs and how to respond with a "winning" proposals. Now he's laid out his strategies in a new book, Winning E-Learning Proposals: The Art of Development and Delivery.

If you are involved in either writing RFP's or in selling your company's e-learning products and services I'd strongly suggest you check it out.
Click here for brochure (PDF).
Click here to visit book's web site or order online.

DialogCoach - Voice Recognition is Here!

I just got back from the Society for Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers (SPBT) Conference in Orlando and for the first time in a long while saw something new.

Voice recognition is one of the five major trends for our industry in the next decade and Jon Anderson and his team at Allen Interactions have put together a training application that leverages this emerging technology. Called DialogCoach, the program enables sales and service professionals to role play with the computer. Unlike other programs that merely record the learner's voice for human scoring, DialogCoach uses voice recognition technology to "listen" for key words and phrases.

Remember, what is innovative today will be common in less than ten years. Learn about DialogCoach and see a glimpse of the future:
http://www.thedialogcoach.com

Journal on Open and Distance Learning

I just received a great note from Paula Smith alerting me to a free peer-reviewed online journal titled, "The International Review of of Research in Open and Distance Learning". They have over 5,000 subscribers in 82 countries. Check out their current issue at:
http://www.irrodl.org/content/v4.1/index.html

Until next time, here's to living and learning,
-- Kevin

Kevin Kruse is the e-learning columnist for CLO, Chief Learning Officer magazine, author of Technology-based Training (Jossey-Bass), and Principal with Kenexa. He can be reached at kkruse@e-learningguru.com.
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