Users of Europe’s leading learning content management system (LCMS) met in London recently to discuss the latest developments and plans for the system and its related suite of products.

This latest in a series of regular User Group conferences, held at venues throughout Europe, began with Fabrizio Giorgini, head of R&D at Italy-based eXact learning solutions, explaining the developments in the eXact learning suite of products over the past year and then outlining eXact learning solutions’ plans for its products over the next year.

The User Group conference included presentations from eXact learning suite clients The British Council; the telecoms company, Telefónica UK; eLfH, which is part of NHS Health Education England, and the Ireland-based learning materials provider, Intuition.

In particular, Rich Brook and Asi DeGani, of Telefonica, outlined a project in which they were given just two and half weeks to produce a major online learning programme. Asi explained, “We knew we had three options: change the launch date; commission the work to be done externally, or handle it in-house.

“It wasn’t practical to delay the launch. Our preferred external supplier said that they would expect to charge £20,000 for the project but they wouldn’t undertake it because there was not enough time for them to complete it.

“This meant that we had to build it in-house, which we did – within the deadline – using the eXact learning LCMS. So, in other words, using the eXact learning LCMS had saved us £20,000 – and we met a key deadline which, otherwise, would not have been achievable. Moreover, we received praise for the high quality of the learning materials,” he added.

“In addition, the eXact suite is easier to use than ‘conventional’ authoring tools,” Rich commented.

Conference delegates also heard a presentation from Bryan Eldridge, a US-based senior consultant with eXact learning solutions, who, in looking to the future of the online learning technology industry, offered some suggestions for developing a Model of Instruction (MOI). An MOI is the conceptual representation, via templates and activities, of an instructional strategy intended to effectively support a given learning outcome or competency within a specific context across both formal and formal contexts.

“An MOI approach provides a systematic strategy to ensure that the organisations’ overarching learning and training goals are integrated regardless of the components,” said Bryan. “It helps the organisation to move from an ‘e-Reading’ to an ‘e-Everything’ model – and provides a framework for incorporating and supporting both formal and informal activities.”