Friday
Dec311999
SPECIAL REPORT: Learning Portal Watching Guide
December 31, 1999
SPECIAL REPORT: Learning Portal Watching Guide
(We are seeing an amazing number of learning portal announcements. At
TechLearn '99 (http://www.techlearn.com) , we will have the first gathering
of learning portal companies and training managers interested in learning
portals. Here is a guide to watching learning portals)
Portals, Portals, Everywhere!
By Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center
Everyday we receive another press release announcing the roll-out of "THE"
portal site for learning. Each of these announcements is applying the term
PORTAL to a different dimension of learning and training management. With
portal bloat on the horizon, here are a few tips for going learning portal
watching on your neighborhood browser:
A Broad Portal Definition: Any site which offers a learner or an
organization a consolidated access to learning and training resources.
Portals can range from a simple page filled with links to a sophisticated
virtual classroom and learning center. Most portals proudly announce
themselves as portals. Others are more subtle, adding the phrase .com,
.net or the rear of their corporate name; click or 2 to the front of their name;
or starting with the phrase my or big. If the site claims to be your
single stop for learning, you have stumbled on a portal. Of course other
sites are portals in training, and may have the name stamped on the title
until we all figure out what a portal is or if anyone will make any portal
bucks.
The Content Consolidation Portal: A good number of portals are aiming at
the content consolidation and aggregation business. These portals want to
give the learner or buyer a simple way to shop for all of their training
needs on a single page. The portal gets a cut of the action and allows
the buyer to have a consolidated shopping and purchasing plan. Some of these
portals are content quality agnostic.they want to be the amazon.com of learning, so any content can come to their site. Others are claiming to
filter content or only offer best of breed. Still others are "treating"
the content so that it can be used interchangeably, mixing and matching
training modules from several vendors.
The Embedded Technology Portal: These groups are using the portal as a way
of embedding and selling their technology as a component of learning or on
a LSP (Learning Service Provider) basis. For example, you buy a class from
the portal and your organization gets all the data they would have
collected if they had a training management server. Or, the portal supplies a free
or usage based access to a virtual classroom with digital collaboration
tools. These portals are vending technology more than content.
The Internal Portal: Why go to the internet if you can have a portal right
in your digital backyard. These companies are offering to build you a
branded portal, that sits right on your internal server, and offers content
consolidation and/or embedded technology. These offerings are aimed at
allowing the learning or business function to build a learning site rapidly
and often bypass the internal anxieties of an IT department.
Community and Collaboration Portals: Other portals are popping up that
focus on building a digital community of users. You can recognize these
portals with the presence of standard community technologies: chat rooms,
what's new in the learning world, threaded discussion, access to coaching
and links to books to buy. We know that learning is a heavily social
process, so the community portals will proliferate in the coming months.
Affiliation Portals: These portals, popping up in the non-profit
association world, will offer the above services, with the "Good
Housekeeping Seal" of the association. The affiliation allow for content
screening and/or discount buying.
And, the portal game is new. We will see additional portals based on
selling the "eyeballs" of trainees, portals offering to hold the skills
portfolios of workers over their lifetimes, portals with live coaching
available on a click, and portals to link learning with employment
opportunities (take this class and the results go real time to the job
board - monstor.com - just kidding!) And, most of the portals are nimbly
ready to absorb all of the functions above and experiment with the widest
range of business models.
The portals are hitting the marketplace as a large response to the
e-commerce frenzy and to appeal to venture capitalists who love the idea of
a single portal for all world learning. Now, it is time to see if
customers share the enthusiasm for portals and which value propositions
work in the marketplace of training buyers. We believe that the experimentation
in the portal arena is healthy for the industry, creating new offers of
capability and pricing. The only hesitation I have is when the word THE
PORTAL is used more than 10 times in the business plan. One thing is sure,
we will probably have more than 150 learning portals before year is out.
Elliott Masie is the President of The MASIE Center, an international
thinktank focused on learning and technology.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(We are seeing an amazing number of learning portal announcements. At
TechLearn '99 (http://www.techlearn.com) , we will have the first gathering
of learning portal companies and training managers interested in learning
portals. Here is a guide to watching learning portals)
Portals, Portals, Everywhere!
By Elliott Masie, The MASIE Center
Everyday we receive another press release announcing the roll-out of "THE"
portal site for learning. Each of these announcements is applying the term
PORTAL to a different dimension of learning and training management. With
portal bloat on the horizon, here are a few tips for going learning portal
watching on your neighborhood browser:
A Broad Portal Definition: Any site which offers a learner or an
organization a consolidated access to learning and training resources.
Portals can range from a simple page filled with links to a sophisticated
virtual classroom and learning center. Most portals proudly announce
themselves as portals. Others are more subtle, adding the phrase .com,
.net or the rear of their corporate name; click or 2 to the front of their name;
or starting with the phrase my or big. If the site claims to be your
single stop for learning, you have stumbled on a portal. Of course other
sites are portals in training, and may have the name stamped on the title
until we all figure out what a portal is or if anyone will make any portal
bucks.
The Content Consolidation Portal: A good number of portals are aiming at
the content consolidation and aggregation business. These portals want to
give the learner or buyer a simple way to shop for all of their training
needs on a single page. The portal gets a cut of the action and allows
the buyer to have a consolidated shopping and purchasing plan. Some of these
portals are content quality agnostic.they want to be the amazon.com of learning, so any content can come to their site. Others are claiming to
filter content or only offer best of breed. Still others are "treating"
the content so that it can be used interchangeably, mixing and matching
training modules from several vendors.
The Embedded Technology Portal: These groups are using the portal as a way
of embedding and selling their technology as a component of learning or on
a LSP (Learning Service Provider) basis. For example, you buy a class from
the portal and your organization gets all the data they would have
collected if they had a training management server. Or, the portal supplies a free
or usage based access to a virtual classroom with digital collaboration
tools. These portals are vending technology more than content.
The Internal Portal: Why go to the internet if you can have a portal right
in your digital backyard. These companies are offering to build you a
branded portal, that sits right on your internal server, and offers content
consolidation and/or embedded technology. These offerings are aimed at
allowing the learning or business function to build a learning site rapidly
and often bypass the internal anxieties of an IT department.
Community and Collaboration Portals: Other portals are popping up that
focus on building a digital community of users. You can recognize these
portals with the presence of standard community technologies: chat rooms,
what's new in the learning world, threaded discussion, access to coaching
and links to books to buy. We know that learning is a heavily social
process, so the community portals will proliferate in the coming months.
Affiliation Portals: These portals, popping up in the non-profit
association world, will offer the above services, with the "Good
Housekeeping Seal" of the association. The affiliation allow for content
screening and/or discount buying.
And, the portal game is new. We will see additional portals based on
selling the "eyeballs" of trainees, portals offering to hold the skills
portfolios of workers over their lifetimes, portals with live coaching
available on a click, and portals to link learning with employment
opportunities (take this class and the results go real time to the job
board - monstor.com - just kidding!) And, most of the portals are nimbly
ready to absorb all of the functions above and experiment with the widest
range of business models.
The portals are hitting the marketplace as a large response to the
e-commerce frenzy and to appeal to venture capitalists who love the idea of
a single portal for all world learning. Now, it is time to see if
customers share the enthusiasm for portals and which value propositions
work in the marketplace of training buyers. We believe that the experimentation
in the portal arena is healthy for the industry, creating new offers of
capability and pricing. The only hesitation I have is when the word THE
PORTAL is used more than 10 times in the business plan. One thing is sure,
we will probably have more than 150 learning portals before year is out.
Elliott Masie is the President of The MASIE Center, an international
thinktank focused on learning and technology.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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