Overview of Corporate Training Services
The topic of online learning is regularly raised on Habré. But the problem of organizing distance education is also relevant for business, and on a scale that exceeds the needs of an ordinary student a thousand times. Imagine, for example, the tasks of a clothing store network with more than 200 outlets in Russia: when a new clothing line comes out, it is necessary to train branch directors all over the country - how to sell it, what technology to use, how best to locate it in stores, what tendencies to tell sellers and etc. Full-time training is long, logistically difficult and, as a result, expensive. However, it’s not for me to tell you about the advantages of online. In this review we will tell you about modern Russian online and boxed services for organizing corporate online training.
First, some terminology: in the Russian legislation the concept of distance learning has existed since 1992. However, the concept of e-learning is not in it until now, so there is a little inconsistency in concepts that is usual for such situations. We will use the definition of UNESCO: "E-learning is learning through the Internet and multimedia." The classification of e-learning solutions is as follows:
Let's go in order:
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- Russian online distance learning service, a blog review of which you are reading. The fundamental difference between the service and the above educational products is that Teachbase was originally developed as SaaS, which means reducing the cost of installing and configuring the service, reducing the project launch time and eliminating the need for additional staff training compared to the boxed software.
The service is strictly focused on the corporate training market, therefore it provides the most diverse set of e-learning tools, allowing you to implement various scenarios of the educational process - for example, create an interactive course for employees, follow the process of passing, and then test and identify weaknesses. Then conduct a webinar and sort out errors such as, or organize training with a guest expert. And so on - from the preservation and editing of educational materials, to monitoring the learning process and academic performance and the ability to test and evaluate the results of trainees.
The cost of the service depends on the number of users, and varies from 4200 p. at a rate of up to 20 users - this offer is designed for private coaches or tutors who can quickly transfer their classes online — up to 35,000 rubles a month for 1,000 users for large companies.
iSpring Online is a cloud-based platform for corporate online training from the Russian developer iSpring. iSpring Online is an online service. It does not need to download, install on the server and configure. To start training, it is enough to register on the site, download training materials and assign employees. In fact, the full cycle of distance learning can be launched in one day.
The system supports all types of educational content: electronic course SCORM 1.2 / 2004, FLV-
video, MP4 video, MP3 records, SWF, documents in PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT formats. At the portal
unlimited storage. The only restriction is that the file size should not exceed
two gigabytes. ISpring Online has a powerful analytics service. It shows the quality of training in reports and graphs. You will see how often employees go to the portal, how much time they spend on training, how many courses have passed, and what mistakes have been made in the tests.
ISpring offers the iSpring Suite online courses editor for the distance learning platform. With it, you can build a professional online course from a simple PowerPoint presentation. Conveniently, the company provides free technical support that answers questions by phone, chat and mail.
ISpring prices are flexible . You do not pay for the rental of the platform, but for the training of each employee. The minimum package is 50 people. The cost of training per user per month is 97 rubles.
The SaaS version of the Mirapolis Knowledge Center system mentioned above. LMSOnline has great functionality, but it’s not the most user-friendly, overloaded interface. As practice shows, for organizing online training in a separate company, only 20% of functions are really necessary, while the remaining 80% are not used. The rest is a heavy burden on the usability of the project.
Competentum.ONLINE is another SaaS version of the “boxed solution” - this time the Competentum brand. It is a tool for organizing distance learning based on the principle of software rental (Saas). The functionality of the system allows you to manage the educational process (including conducting tests with different types of questions and passing modes), but it lacks a webinar organization module. The cost of renting software depends on the number of users and ranges from 3,600 to 25,000 rubles. per month. The maximum number of students 400 people. The program Competentum.INSTRUCTOR is a boxed version of the software that exists in the standard and advanced versions.
This solution is suitable for solving the simplest tasks (such as the example above, the presentation of a new product line to branch managers). But for a full-fledged educational process, a whole number of components are still needed - such as the ability to test knowledge, and to control students' mastery of the material. Therefore, we present the main players in the market briefly:
Two strong market players, Webinar and Comdi, announced their merger in September. Now this is actually one service under the brand Webinar operating in the Russian market, and Comdi is focused on foreign consumers. The service is a SaaS solution, the capabilities of which allow people to connect remotely from each other into an online conference, conduct simple surveys and display documents during the conference.
The cost of the subscription depends on the number of participants of the webinar and starts from 3 thousand rubles for 25 people to 20 thousand for 500 people at most.
One of the main competitors for Webinar and Comdi in the field of web conferencing. iMinds allows you to conduct webinars and supports the basic functionality (recording, broadcasting the desktop, displaying documents, chat, etc.).
There are two main tariff plans: “Webinar” (only one speaker, you can buy a one-time daily package for 15 rubles and less per participant or rent it for a month) and “Video meeting” (unlimited number of speakers, monthly rent costing 500 rubles and below for a participant per month).
Adobovsky service is today one of the leaders in the field of high-quality video conferences. Connect Pro is different in that it allows you to access multimedia content from any device at any time without additional add-ons (based on Adobe Flash Player). At the same time, it has a rather complicated administrative interface. But the most important feature is the high cost. It is mainly offered as a boxed version, but Adobe also offers two subscription options: Premium Basic (10 documents in PDF and up to 5 participants via ConnectNow, price $ 15 or 350 rubles per month) and Premium Plus (without reservations about stored documents and up to 21 participant, $ 39 or 1200 rubles per month). The special solution for training provides the ability to manage training materials, track students' progress, create new courses, etc.
The review would be incomplete without these two services, but they are not the key players in the webinar market, and are inferior to the services listed above.
There are quite a few solutions on the Russian market that allow organizing the learning process online, most of which require the installation of special software. Despite the fact that the global trend is to move to provide software as a service (saas), the market for online learning platforms is saturated with boxed versions.
These services make greater use of the computer and online capabilities — including performance monitoring, knowledge testing (various tests, etc.); therefore, they can already be considered fully suitable for corporate training tasks.
Currently, the largest of them are services of the Websoft, Hypermethod and Prometheus companies.
Websoft started working on the market of platforms for organizing on-line education one of the first, and is now the leader of the Russian market.
The strengths of the WebTutor service are the availability of ready-made online courses (effective presentation, marketing, etc.) and support for the SCORM format.
Initially, the system developed exclusively as a boxed version (and most of the sales are now made up of the boxed version), but more recently SaaS offers have appeared, which, nevertheless, are used mostly to demonstrate the capabilities of the same box software.
The disadvantages of the WebTutor system are the high cost; long process of system implementation (from 3-6 months); uncomfortable interface; poor customization of the service, requiring additional costs from the client; complex reporting system; the main module does not include the possibility of web conferencing (Websoft virtual classroom costs from 6900 rubles), etc.
The pricing of the boxed version does not depend on the number of users, but is determined only by the list of required modules. The cost of the SaaS version depends on the number of users, required modules and subscription period (75 000-115 000 rubles for six months when renting the basic configuration of the system). There is also a SaaS-version of the system with limited administration capabilities (from 4900 rubles per month).
eLearning Server is designed to organize a full cycle of distance and blended learning (including training courses, testing and evaluating students, materials management, etc.). iWebinar is a tool for organizing video conferencing on the Internet in real time, it can be integrated with a training center created on the basis of the eLearning Server. All submitted products are only available in the boxed version.
SDO “Prometheus” is exclusively a boxed software product that allows you to organize a process of distance learning (using content management functions, testing, planning of the educational process, etc.). When purchasing Prometheus SDO, the customer pays for the purchase of a license for the server, the number of users is unlimited.
Of course, there are free options for boxed solutions. It:
The most popular is the fairly well-known Moodle service, on the basis of which any company can deploy its own elearning solution.
We will continue to talk about the use of moodle in the future, since this is indeed the most popular venue in the world. But we want to note that many, preferring moodle due to the fact that it is free, do not think about indirect spending - such as their own support, the work of their specialists in setting up and finishing the service. And this is actually a lot of money and a lot of time.
This is free software, which is developed and supplemented by the functionality of which programmers are engaged on a voluntary basis, as well as employees of the developer company, which receives income from the official partners involved in installing and maintaining the system. The system is translated Russian and has more than 600 connections in Russia. The functionality of the system includes a standard set of modules providing management of distance learning (course creation, export / import of grades and texts, course reports, etc.). By type, this is a boxed solution that requires the installation of special software.
In a separate category select foreign services. World leaders in the field of online conferences have an undoubted advantage in the market in terms of application development, breadth of functionality, size of the client base, but the lack of a Russian-language interface and support in Russian makes them hardly applicable for the domestic market - this is rather an option for international companies with mandatory English at all levels.
Over three million users. The system integrates the ability to conduct surveys and testing during communication sessions. Voice communication is performed using VOIP technology or using a telephone bridge. Technically, one-time participation of up to 5,000 users is possible; standard solutions only offer up to 3,000 (WebEx Events Center), 1,000 (WebEx Training Center) and 500 users (WebEx Meeting Center). Recently, WebEx has been offered exclusively as a service from 1,500 rubles. per month for 25 users. There is a specialized solution for training - WebEx Training Center - with the ability to manage content, conduct tests, track performance, etc. The key disadvantage of the solution is the lack of an interface in Russian.
There are three product options, differing in functionality and maximum number of users. GoToMeeting - up to 15 participants, the possibility of interactive interaction during the conference is significantly limited. Cost from $ 49 per month (1500 rub.) GoToWebinar - up to 1000 participants, focused on holding mass events. Cost from $ 99 per month (3000 rubles). GoToTraining - up to 200 participants, the closest solution to the system being developed, focused on educational processes. In addition to the capabilities of the webinar, it offers functionality for storing materials, conducting tests, etc. The cost is from $ 149 per month (3,500 rubles). In the Russian market, this product is not represented and does not have an interface in Russian.
This is a small introduction to the e-learning market in Russia. Thanks to donline habraouser , in combination - to the director of development of Teachbase , for the information provided and assistance in preparing the publication.
In the next posts we will talk more about how to choose an e-learning service for business, market news and how to organize training in the company more effectively, so click the “Subscribe” button at the top right. Well, as always I will be glad to hear suggestions on the topics of new posts in the comments. Thanks to all (:
First, some terminology: in the Russian legislation the concept of distance learning has existed since 1992. However, the concept of e-learning is not in it until now, so there is a little inconsistency in concepts that is usual for such situations. We will use the definition of UNESCO: "E-learning is learning through the Internet and multimedia." The classification of e-learning solutions is as follows:
- SaaS solutions
- Webinars, online conferences
- Boxed services with closed source
- Open Source Box Services
- Foreign (non-Russian) services
Let's go in order:
SaaS services ↑
')
- Teachbase.ru of the Internet School company
- Russian online distance learning service, a blog review of which you are reading. The fundamental difference between the service and the above educational products is that Teachbase was originally developed as SaaS, which means reducing the cost of installing and configuring the service, reducing the project launch time and eliminating the need for additional staff training compared to the boxed software.
The service is strictly focused on the corporate training market, therefore it provides the most diverse set of e-learning tools, allowing you to implement various scenarios of the educational process - for example, create an interactive course for employees, follow the process of passing, and then test and identify weaknesses. Then conduct a webinar and sort out errors such as, or organize training with a guest expert. And so on - from the preservation and editing of educational materials, to monitoring the learning process and academic performance and the ability to test and evaluate the results of trainees.
The cost of the service depends on the number of users, and varies from 4200 p. at a rate of up to 20 users - this offer is designed for private coaches or tutors who can quickly transfer their classes online — up to 35,000 rubles a month for 1,000 users for large companies.
iSpring Online is a cloud-based platform for corporate online training from the Russian developer iSpring. iSpring Online is an online service. It does not need to download, install on the server and configure. To start training, it is enough to register on the site, download training materials and assign employees. In fact, the full cycle of distance learning can be launched in one day.
The system supports all types of educational content: electronic course SCORM 1.2 / 2004, FLV-
video, MP4 video, MP3 records, SWF, documents in PDF, DOC, XLS, PPT formats. At the portal
unlimited storage. The only restriction is that the file size should not exceed
two gigabytes. ISpring Online has a powerful analytics service. It shows the quality of training in reports and graphs. You will see how often employees go to the portal, how much time they spend on training, how many courses have passed, and what mistakes have been made in the tests.
ISpring offers the iSpring Suite online courses editor for the distance learning platform. With it, you can build a professional online course from a simple PowerPoint presentation. Conveniently, the company provides free technical support that answers questions by phone, chat and mail.
ISpring prices are flexible . You do not pay for the rental of the platform, but for the training of each employee. The minimum package is 50 people. The cost of training per user per month is 97 rubles.
- LMSOnline of the company "Mirapolis Information Technologies"
The SaaS version of the Mirapolis Knowledge Center system mentioned above. LMSOnline has great functionality, but it’s not the most user-friendly, overloaded interface. As practice shows, for organizing online training in a separate company, only 20% of functions are really necessary, while the remaining 80% are not used. The rest is a heavy burden on the usability of the project.
- Competentum.INSTRUCTOR, ShareKnowledge, Competentum.ONLINE, Competentum.Webinar of the Competentum Group of Companies
Competentum.ONLINE is another SaaS version of the “boxed solution” - this time the Competentum brand. It is a tool for organizing distance learning based on the principle of software rental (Saas). The functionality of the system allows you to manage the educational process (including conducting tests with different types of questions and passing modes), but it lacks a webinar organization module. The cost of renting software depends on the number of users and ranges from 3,600 to 25,000 rubles. per month. The maximum number of students 400 people. The program Competentum.INSTRUCTOR is a boxed version of the software that exists in the standard and advanced versions.
Webinars, online conferences
This solution is suitable for solving the simplest tasks (such as the example above, the presentation of a new product line to branch managers). But for a full-fledged educational process, a whole number of components are still needed - such as the ability to test knowledge, and to control students' mastery of the material. Therefore, we present the main players in the market briefly:
Two strong market players, Webinar and Comdi, announced their merger in September. Now this is actually one service under the brand Webinar operating in the Russian market, and Comdi is focused on foreign consumers. The service is a SaaS solution, the capabilities of which allow people to connect remotely from each other into an online conference, conduct simple surveys and display documents during the conference.
The cost of the subscription depends on the number of participants of the webinar and starts from 3 thousand rubles for 25 people to 20 thousand for 500 people at most.
- Mind Labs iMind
One of the main competitors for Webinar and Comdi in the field of web conferencing. iMinds allows you to conduct webinars and supports the basic functionality (recording, broadcasting the desktop, displaying documents, chat, etc.).
There are two main tariff plans: “Webinar” (only one speaker, you can buy a one-time daily package for 15 rubles and less per participant or rent it for a month) and “Video meeting” (unlimited number of speakers, monthly rent costing 500 rubles and below for a participant per month).
- Acrobat Connect Pro by Adobe Systems Incorporated
Adobovsky service is today one of the leaders in the field of high-quality video conferences. Connect Pro is different in that it allows you to access multimedia content from any device at any time without additional add-ons (based on Adobe Flash Player). At the same time, it has a rather complicated administrative interface. But the most important feature is the high cost. It is mainly offered as a boxed version, but Adobe also offers two subscription options: Premium Basic (10 documents in PDF and up to 5 participants via ConnectNow, price $ 15 or 350 rubles per month) and Premium Plus (without reservations about stored documents and up to 21 participant, $ 39 or 1200 rubles per month). The special solution for training provides the ability to manage training materials, track students' progress, create new courses, etc.
- Mirapolis Virtual Room by Mirapolis Information Technologies and choices from WebSoft
The review would be incomplete without these two services, but they are not the key players in the webinar market, and are inferior to the services listed above.
Boxed services with closed source ↑
There are quite a few solutions on the Russian market that allow organizing the learning process online, most of which require the installation of special software. Despite the fact that the global trend is to move to provide software as a service (saas), the market for online learning platforms is saturated with boxed versions.
These services make greater use of the computer and online capabilities — including performance monitoring, knowledge testing (various tests, etc.); therefore, they can already be considered fully suitable for corporate training tasks.
Currently, the largest of them are services of the Websoft, Hypermethod and Prometheus companies.
- Websoft 's WebTutor
Websoft started working on the market of platforms for organizing on-line education one of the first, and is now the leader of the Russian market.
The strengths of the WebTutor service are the availability of ready-made online courses (effective presentation, marketing, etc.) and support for the SCORM format.
Initially, the system developed exclusively as a boxed version (and most of the sales are now made up of the boxed version), but more recently SaaS offers have appeared, which, nevertheless, are used mostly to demonstrate the capabilities of the same box software.
The disadvantages of the WebTutor system are the high cost; long process of system implementation (from 3-6 months); uncomfortable interface; poor customization of the service, requiring additional costs from the client; complex reporting system; the main module does not include the possibility of web conferencing (Websoft virtual classroom costs from 6900 rubles), etc.
The pricing of the boxed version does not depend on the number of users, but is determined only by the list of required modules. The cost of the SaaS version depends on the number of users, required modules and subscription period (75 000-115 000 rubles for six months when renting the basic configuration of the system). There is also a SaaS-version of the system with limited administration capabilities (from 4900 rubles per month).
eLearning Server is designed to organize a full cycle of distance and blended learning (including training courses, testing and evaluating students, materials management, etc.). iWebinar is a tool for organizing video conferencing on the Internet in real time, it can be integrated with a training center created on the basis of the eLearning Server. All submitted products are only available in the boxed version.
- Distance learning system "Prometheus" of the company "Virtual technologies in education"
SDO “Prometheus” is exclusively a boxed software product that allows you to organize a process of distance learning (using content management functions, testing, planning of the educational process, etc.). When purchasing Prometheus SDO, the customer pays for the purchase of a license for the server, the number of users is unlimited.
Of course, there are free options for boxed solutions. It:
Open Source Box Services ↑
The most popular is the fairly well-known Moodle service, on the basis of which any company can deploy its own elearning solution.
We will continue to talk about the use of moodle in the future, since this is indeed the most popular venue in the world. But we want to note that many, preferring moodle due to the fact that it is free, do not think about indirect spending - such as their own support, the work of their specialists in setting up and finishing the service. And this is actually a lot of money and a lot of time.
- Moodle by Moodle Pty LTD
This is free software, which is developed and supplemented by the functionality of which programmers are engaged on a voluntary basis, as well as employees of the developer company, which receives income from the official partners involved in installing and maintaining the system. The system is translated Russian and has more than 600 connections in Russia. The functionality of the system includes a standard set of modules providing management of distance learning (course creation, export / import of grades and texts, course reports, etc.). By type, this is a boxed solution that requires the installation of special software.
Services without Russian support ↑
In a separate category select foreign services. World leaders in the field of online conferences have an undoubted advantage in the market in terms of application development, breadth of functionality, size of the client base, but the lack of a Russian-language interface and support in Russian makes them hardly applicable for the domestic market - this is rather an option for international companies with mandatory English at all levels.
- WebEx, MeetingPlace from Cisco Systems
Over three million users. The system integrates the ability to conduct surveys and testing during communication sessions. Voice communication is performed using VOIP technology or using a telephone bridge. Technically, one-time participation of up to 5,000 users is possible; standard solutions only offer up to 3,000 (WebEx Events Center), 1,000 (WebEx Training Center) and 500 users (WebEx Meeting Center). Recently, WebEx has been offered exclusively as a service from 1,500 rubles. per month for 25 users. There is a specialized solution for training - WebEx Training Center - with the ability to manage content, conduct tests, track performance, etc. The key disadvantage of the solution is the lack of an interface in Russian.
- GoToMeeting, GoToWebinar, GoToTraining by Citrix Online
There are three product options, differing in functionality and maximum number of users. GoToMeeting - up to 15 participants, the possibility of interactive interaction during the conference is significantly limited. Cost from $ 49 per month (1500 rub.) GoToWebinar - up to 1000 participants, focused on holding mass events. Cost from $ 99 per month (3000 rubles). GoToTraining - up to 200 participants, the closest solution to the system being developed, focused on educational processes. In addition to the capabilities of the webinar, it offers functionality for storing materials, conducting tests, etc. The cost is from $ 149 per month (3,500 rubles). In the Russian market, this product is not represented and does not have an interface in Russian.
Summary
This is a small introduction to the e-learning market in Russia. Thanks to donline habraouser , in combination - to the director of development of Teachbase , for the information provided and assistance in preparing the publication.
In the next posts we will talk more about how to choose an e-learning service for business, market news and how to organize training in the company more effectively, so click the “Subscribe” button at the top right. Well, as always I will be glad to hear suggestions on the topics of new posts in the comments. Thanks to all (:
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/157631/
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