by Aubrey Mellos | Jan 4, 2016 | News
(Columbia, MD – Dec. 4, 2016) CommPartners, an award-winning Learning Management System, Web Events, and eLearning provider, is honored to be recognized by Talented Learning as the association community’s second-best LMS provider. Released in 2014, the once newcomer, Elevate, is now standing-out amid the competition, having earned its place as a distinguished frontrunner. Elevate customers describe the platform as one of the sleekest, most flexible and cost-effective solutions, making it the perfect fit for associations of any size and type.
What differentiates Elevate LMS from the rest?
Nimble & Intuitive Infrastructure
Tired of being coerced into static, cookie-cutter layouts with little customization options? Elevate takes an alternate approach and empowers each customer with full latitude of their design and layout specifications. This flexible platform, intact with SSO integration points, allows for parity among all technologies a customer employs, and delivers a seamless, intuitive experience for participants, and staff.
Free Integrated Webinar Tool
Learning objects come in many forms, and CommPartners encourages customers to offer a continuum of programs that appeal to different content areas and learning modalities. After all, a knowledge community is only as good as the resources and learning opportunities found within. To help customers expand their Elevate learning community with formal web programs and/or informal learning connections, CommPartners provides a complimentary, fully-integrated webinar tool, EventCenter™.
Low-Cost Disruptor
CommPartners understands that association professionals have a responsibility to be faithful stewards of their organization’s resources. Indeed, investing in a successful professional education program requires a financial commitment, but costs shouldn’t out-pace efforts and growth. Elevate has all the expected bells and whistles—plus more—with a sensible, sustainable fee structure.
Understanding of Professional Learning
Unlike other LMS providers that focus solely on the nuts and bolts of their technology, CommPartners specializes in a deeper, more holistic approach. Their unwavering philosophy is straightforward—learning strategy first, and technology second. CommPartners has a diverse group of professionals with backgrounds in instructional design, event management, technology development and customization, association leadership, and client-partner advocacy, providing their customers with unparalleled service, expertise and assurance.
“This unique platform was created in response to the ultimate LMS wish-list of education professionals,” shares Chief Elevate Developer and COO, John Volentine. “We listened to what the community needed, carefully studied learning trends, scanned the competitive environment, and relied on our historical experience to develop and launch our very own Learning Management System. From its initial conception, my goal with Elevate has always been to serve our loyal association community with a robust platform that can help them grow, remain relevant, and generate revenue. I can confidently say we delivered on all counts and look forward to seeing their successes.”
About CommPartners
CommPartners provides online education and event services to the association community. The company‘s mission is focused on providing a well-planned and intelligent approach to sharing of knowledge, with a core focus on creating positive user experiences. Over 1,300 associations have selected CommPartners to manage their eLearning programs. The CommPartners team is diverse, and together they share a common passion: to be strategic thinkers, dedicated to advancing a client’s mission through exceptional education programs.
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by Aubrey Mellos | Nov 19, 2015 | Blog
You know what’s almost as delicious as Thanksgiving dinner? Designing an LMS. Ok wait, that metaphor doesn’t really work. How about this, planning a Thanksgiving dinner may provide some insights in developing an engaging, impactful, and delicious…ok, maybe not delicious…learning management system.
The presentation of the Thanksgiving dinner typically includes many different dishes, colors and textures. Yes the turkey is a centerpiece, however when you view the buffet or dinner table it becomes a component of a what is typically a large display of the ridiculously generous spread of appetizers, side dishes and desserts that accompany said turkey that gives Thanksgiving its truly festive feel. In fact many people will say they enjoy the side items the most.
In designing an LMS, consider that the items you have put the most effort into, courses, webinars, conferences, etc., represent the turkey. They’re some of the LMS’s major selling points, and you wouldn’t have the LMS without them. However similar to the side items and desserts at our Thanksgiving dinner, LMS’s can be created to provide a blend of different experiences that “make the meal.” These might be in the form of blogs, Podcasts, peer to peer learning, polls, and resource libraries. This blend makes our LMS feel less like a stagnant website and more like a real learning community, where there is always something interesting and current to participate in.
So, after this year’s Thanksgiving meal, whether you’re satisfied or uncomfortably full, think about what “side dishes” you could add to your LMS to make the user experience more fulfilling and engaging.
by Aubrey Mellos | Oct 7, 2015 | Blog
How would you describe your LMS? Is it a lively place where learning is active and always evolving or is it like the stacks in the back of a library where you sought a quiet place to study? Can members gather in groups to have real time exchanges? Does it provide space for conversation and social learning around important topics? Does it offer education experiences a majority of your members can participate in?
The association learning management system is vastly different than other types of training portals. Configured the right way, it provides a trusted place for accessing and sharing knowledge that bridges the association to its community, stimulates ideas, and fosters debate. It welcomes intellectual curiosity by providing access to the latest research from experts as well as ideas from those that work in the field and benefit from real life experiences.
Here are five key attributes to make your association LMS stimulating, engaging, and the Go To Place for Learning.
Five Tips to Make Your Association LMS the Go To Place for Learning
- Host your webinars right in your LMS
The reason most tradeshows host lunch right in the expo hall is to provide exposure to exhibitors. This same concept applies to the LMS. Most associations continue to have a separate webinar license outside of their LMS bringing their participants to a remote location. When we created Elevate LMS, we embedded a webinar software right inside the LMS. Attendees are not only exposed to all of your content, they can leverage all the features Elevate provides, such as engaging in conversations, as soon as one registers. An hour online program now evolves into several weeks of engagement.
- Create relevancy
We are not simply talking about if you ordered this product, you will like this product. More important is position and priority reserved for content that is meaningful and relevant to each learner. With Elevate LMS, participants have their unique view with content arranged and available just for them based on their interests or role.
- Combine social and learning in one place
Should conversations and networking exist where learning occurs? It happens this way at conferences. You leave a learning lab and on the way out have conversations in the hallway about what just occurred. With Elevate LMS we have placed independent topical forums as a networking option within the platform. In addition, any event, course or other opportunity can have a forum discussion.
- Move past passive behavior through content variety
Some learners only want a 15 minute podcast. Others want a 15 hour certificate program. Whatever your members want, have a content option that meets their needs. In Elevate LMS you can have courses, webinars, videos, blended learning, podcasts, news blogs, polls, topical forum discussions, and resource libraries. Create learning paths or subscription bundles. Move your members past passive to become active participants.
- We look for substance, however, it’s hard to ignore poor style
Your LMS has to have panache. When learners land on it, you want them to have that feeling of, “Wow! This is well done.” Having the flexibility to stylize the entire site to ensure continuity with your web presence and other online resources is important. It’s not only the styling of the site but the design of the content as well. Having learning opportunities that are well organized and attractively presented can make all the difference. Elevate LMS allows for complete custom styling to ensure your members get to the substance.
Contact Us About Your eLearning Needs
These are just some of the many ways to ensure your association LMS shines. If you would like more information, visit our Elevate LMS service page to learn about all of the features of our LMS. If you would like to speak to someone about your organization’s elearning needs, fill out our online contact form or give us a call at (800) 274-9390.
by Aubrey Mellos | Sep 8, 2015 | Blog
Technology has done something interesting to the word “authenticate.” Once meaning “to establish as genuine,” today, authenticate is typically associated with a correct matching-up of codes or reference numbers to permit access. It signals who the participant is and triggers the opportunity to provide a more meaningful online experience. We often hear the criticism that, as our world becomes more and more digitized; we lose that authentic human connection. While that may be fine in some genres, in other areas like shopping and learning online, which previously involved face-to-face interaction, there is a need to replicate personal interaction of two people together.
Amazon, for example, currently has approximately 200 million products on sale in the U.S. If it did not develop a way to learn something about the unique shoppers based on their authentication, it would likely do a pretty abysmal business as customers struggle to cut through the noise to find what it is they are looking for. One of the reasons Amazon is so successful is because it’s found a way to personalize the user experience.
We had this “Amazon model” in mind when we created our non-profit and association learning management system, Elevate. Like Amazon, we wanted to create a method to cut through the noise and personalize the user experience.
For us, this starts with single sign-on so users are immediately recognized. Leveraging this integration, we are able to provide five critically important benefits that support the learner experience. They include:
- Specific learning opportunities based on interest or role: Content recommended to each learner can be placed on the login page or any other page of the site. This shows you know who the participant is and are recommending content specifically for them. Providing specific opportunities helps you create relevant and more personal experiences.
- Organization of the catalog by relevancy to the learner: Elevate goes beyond merely listing e-learning products chronologically or alphabetically. Associations using Elevate can divide their content into topic specific categories. These categories can then be displayed in their own homepage widget or sub-page to help users find the exact content they need.
- Creation of packages or learning paths: Support the progression of knowledge over multiple programs with a learning path designed to allow learners to achieve a specific certificate or competency using a multitude of e-learning tools.
- Private content for unique groups such as new members, people that recently renewed, boards, committees and staff. All e-learning materials within Elevate can be set to be visable to all users, or limited to a specific sub-set of users. Associations can use this tool to grant special access to certain programs as a member-benefit, ensure that different member-groups see learning activities that are most relevant to them, and/or create special learning activities for your board, conference committee, or other specialized member sub-group.
- Pricing that is unique for each participant based on their status or other attributes.
For more information about Elevate LMS and/or this article, please email Eve Finstein at efinstein@commpartners.com
by Aubrey Mellos | Aug 10, 2015 | News
(Columbia, MD – August 10, 2015) CommPartners, a leader in online learning and events, is pleased to announce the launch of Event Producer, our second education platform from the Elevate Learning Management Suite.
Event Producer was designed specifically to build community and engagement through live and on-demand webinar programs. The platform integrates with a client’s database, content management system, branding and merchant services to provide a seamless experience for both the host organization and its participants. Processing of continuing education credits through assessment, survey and certificate components are included.
Benefits for Webinar Hosts
- Integrated Web Conferencing: Event Producer comes with web conferencing eliminating the need for an external license.
- Project Plans: Hosts are supported by integrated project plans that manage all the details for each webinar. The platform provides timelines leading up to an event and will notify host and presenters when tasks are due.
- Relevancy to Each Member of Your Community: Tag content based on interest areas or roles and promote those programs to subsets of your community.
Benefits for Participants
- Event Forums: As soon as a participant registers they can engage other registrants and the presenters through interactive discussions before and after the event. A one hour webinar becomes several weeks of peer sharing and social learning.
- Pre Event Polls: Polls before the event provides the presenter a sense of where the audience is to produce a more relevant and informative event.
- Access to a Library of Events: All upcoming and past events are available through a participant’s dashboard.
Rich Finstein, CEO of CommPartners, shared, “We realized through our years of producing online events that clients were looking for a more effective platform for webinars and other live programs. Event Producer delivers a true social learning environment, integrating expert content with peer ideas and experiences. We believe it’s the perfect way to engage a new generation of learners.”
For more information, please visit www.commpartners.com or email info@commpartners.com
About CommPartners
CommPartners provides online education and event services to the association community. The company‘s mission is focused on providing a well-planned and intelligent approach to sharing of knowledge, with a core focus on creating positive user experiences. Over 1,300 organizations have selected CommPartners to manage their eLearning programs. The CommPartners team is diverse, but together they share a common passion: to be strategic thinkers, dedicated to advancing a client’s mission through exceptional education programs.
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