(With many thanks to Karl Kapp and Robin Yap for providing the inspiration for this article) "No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the Continent, a part of the main; if a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were; any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee." John Donne, Meditation XVII English clergyman & poet (1572 - 1631) We know that scenarios and simulations have a powerful impact on modeling preferred behaviour. For users of the new Scenario Engine, there's a few things to consider to turn your scenario plans into an effective learning experience for your intended audience.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Toronto, Canada , November 10, 2010 Scenario based learning allows educators to engage students in the eLearning environment creating an enriched and ingrained learning experience. Aura Interactiva and MindMuze announced the release of the Scenario Builder as part of their award-winning SHIFT eLearning authoring technology. Aura Interactiva, based in San Jose, Costa Rica and MindMuze, based in Toronto, Canada have partnered in the distribution of SHIFT in North America. "We continue to listen to global educators and instructional design professionals, so that we can help deliver unprecedented efficiencies in eLearning authoring. The Scenario Builder is a whole new way of creating eLearning that boosts engagement and retention with animation, image and sound", said Rick Beaudry, CEO, MindMuze. "Our goal is to provide corporations, governments and schools with the most efficient platform in the building of complex eLearning interactions", Beaudry added. Randolf Kissling, CEO, Aura Interactiva, commented, "With the Scenario Builder, trainers and educators with zero graphic design or programming skills can create complex learning scenarios that can be delivered to students in minutes". Traditionally, producing eLearning programs has been a time-consuming, expensive task that involves a team of instructional designers, graphic designers and developers. SHIFT has removed the need to be technical and transferred the power of creating rich eLearning content to the educator. Now, anyone is able create the ultimate eLearning environment. About SHIFT SHIFT (www.shiftelearning.com) is more than an eLearning authoring tool, it is an eLearning ecosystem. SHIFT allows you to create eLearning courses collaboratively. Browser-based, SHIFT's development team continues to work toward building optimum efficiency in the design and build of complex eLearning interactions for today's learner. In 2009, Aura Interactiva (www.aurainteractiva.com) formed a North American distribution partnership with MindMuze (www.mindmuze.com), one of the most innovative eLearning companies in the world. MindMuze used its own unique training processes to create the best of breed mentoring and training for SHIFT users. Together, Aura Interactiva and MindMuze are continuing to develop and improve SHIFT. Both feel that SHIFT is exactly what the market needs right now, and are thrilled to be a part of it. CONTACT: Rick Beaudry, CEO SHIFT Distibution North America Rick.beaudry@mindmuze.com 1.416.910.3457

Narrated video demonstration of the creation of a scenario using SHIFT's new Scenario Builder. Click HERE to watch the video demonstration. For a more detailed look at the Scenario Builder please contact us at info@shiftelearning.com to schedule a personalized demonstration.

Following a recent update to the SHIFT platform, I wanted to share this quick tip for changing the default Navigation interface within SHIFT. As you know, right now, SHIFT loads a default navigation interface so that you can preview your course development efforts. However, you may wish to switch interfaces to match a corporate look and feel or to match the general aesthetic of your course. To change navigation interfaces, go to your Course parameters. Click the Select button to bring up the nav/menu gallery. Click the Navigation Bar tab. Simply click the Install link on your chosen interface. To ensure that the interface is populated properly, click the Build course button on the main toolbar (ensure that you select "Fill missing media" before doing so.) The new interface will be applied to your course and will pick up the title of your course at the top. If you need to have the default logo replaced, that will still have to be done in Flash then manually uploaded.

Below are the release updates for October. If you have any questions regarding the new features please contact us for more information. info@shiftelearning.com New Preloaded Image Screens Use the 19 new preloaded image screens when you want to quickly create a course. An excellent fast and easy alternative to uploading pictures or images. P31_125 is a new interface that presents a calculator which will let the student calculate numbers inside a course without the need of external resources. Click here to see an example of these new interfaces. Navigation Bars Save even more time choosing your course's navigation bar. Simply select the navigation bar you want, click on the Install button, build your course and you're done! Keep in mind that the navigation bar will automatically add the course's name but you will have to load the logo separately. If you want to customize other items in the navigation bar you will have to download the file. Scenario Builder Moving Scenes Scenario Builder will now let you change the location of the scenes inside your scenario. You will be able to duplicate a scene and place it either forward or backward without having to create the scenes inside the scenario all over again. Loading a Character Customize your own avatar and load it into SHIFT. This will allow you to further customize your course to fit your company's branding. Loading a Backdrop Loading static and animated backgrounds and videos into the Scenario Builder is quick and simple using SHIFT. This will provide you with more possibilities of customization. Loading customized backgrounds and avatars will allow the students taking your course to relate to them in a greater way.

Today we hosted our October SHIFT Release Webcast. Weren't able to tune in? No problem, we recorded it for you! View the recorded webcast here. If you didn't pre-register for today's release webcast, you will be asked to quickly register to view it. Please contact info@shiftelearning.com with any questions on today's webcast.

SHIFT is easy to use because it automates most repetitive tasks associated with eLearning development. Through a single login screen, based on profile, the user will have access to only the courses and the roles within those courses assigned to him. No room for unauthorized people or unskilled people to change things. SHIFT allows users to create great content with no technical knowledge at all. No graphic design skills. A SHIFT user is able to create, for example, a great looking scenario, perhaps re-creating a sales-client interaction, consisting of several scenes, several dialogues and several characters, easily and with zero technical, flash or programming skills. Creativity is the only required ingredient. The smart templates (over 250) allow the writers to choose the best interaction for the content. It's as easy as clicking on a thumbnail. By filling in the preconfigured fields, the development environment will know what needs to be displayed on screen, what needs to be recorded, what needs to be uploaded as images, video or even what a specialized graphic designer or animator needs to do. There are no messy word files, PowerPoint or prototypes going back and forth among team members. SHIFTmanages everything. SHIFT will select those audios that are for a specific voice talent (for example, male voice #1) and then display only those audios to the male voice talent #1 for recording. Once each audio is recorded (by just clicking a button) the system crops, optimizes and uploads into the course. It's simple because there is no editing of lengthy audios, no manual optimization and no need to integrate into the course. Compliance to standards such as SCORM is simple. When you're ready to publish a course, clicking on the "generate course" will compile the course including all SCORM manifests, navigation, interface, automatically. Localization is also very simple and straightforward. Due do SHIFT's database architecture, exporting content, localizing and re-importing into a localized course is fast and straightforward. SHIFT has free, online, business hours (east coast) tech support, a built in, eLearning course on how to use SHIFT and a downloadable user manual.

A few days ago, a group of IT students asked me "What does your company do ?". I tried to summarize, as non-technical as I could, what the SHIFT experience is. While SHIFT allows rich media courses to be created, its core value resides in its ability to save significant amount of labor and time for project managers, instructional designers, writers, graphic designers and to eliminate programming. Lower costs, faster to market, richer experience. SHIFT allows the user to create a course with the features of a rich media course, but with the budget of a rapid eLearning authoring tool. SHIFT is a development platform. It's web-based, designed to work in an environment where there are multiple users, with different roles, profiles and access rights, designed to run multiple courses being developed at the same time and in multiple geographical locations. It's designed for organizations where content changes rapidly and needs to be updated, and where rich media is used to enhance the learning experience. SHIFT has a set of tools that allow easy rich media course creation, including: 250+ preconfigured (as of september 2010, growing by 10% per month), smart templates, some of them that automatically reconfigure themselves based on content. When the ID or writer is creating a course, an XML database is written with the subject matter. It is independent of interfaces. That allows the ID to easily interchange interface interactions among families of similar interactions, because the interface is just a manifestation of the content, but not tied together like other development tools. The 250+ preconfigured smart templates include several families of exploration (animated) screens, exercises, games, system simulation and information screens. SHIFT also has a built-in scenario engine that allows users to create scenarios with zero programming or technical skills. This engine allows the selection of backgrounds, actors and even emotional states. The ID writes the dialogue and the avatars come automatically to life, no lip-synch needed as it is done automatically for the ID. A built in audio recording studio, where voice talent can record a course from anywhere in the world and where SHIFT automatically crops, optimizes and uploads audio, at the same time sorts audio for male, female or any other type of special requirements. For those that do not want to record with a human, a built in TTS engine (Text-to-speech) allows automatic recording of courses with a single click. The TTS engine can be used solely or in combination with a human-recorded course. SHIFT identifies those audios that have been previously recorded by a human talent and would record only the leftover audios with the TTS engine. To upload images, SHIFT has a build in image editor. It allows the user to select an image, crop, resize, rotate and flip images. No need to use graphic design tools. SHIFT allows for easy allocation of graphic design tasks to different team members. They could even be outsourced and SHIFT manages the whole process (from assigning work, to uploading, integrating, reviewing and approving). SHIFT even has RFQ functionality so that organizations can easily engage with outside vendors, seamlessly, through the system, reducing to zero the media integration costs. SHIFT has an on-line and an off-line edits and bug tracking system so that all parties involved in the development and review can participate. SHIFT has several built-in security features: users, based on profile, are allowed different things, including creating, editing, deleting or just reviewing courses. Project managers, based on their profile, will be able to track the progress and upload documentation, but not edit the content itself. A graphic designer may be allowed only to upload arts, but not edit content and so on. Once a course is done and approved, it can be locked so that no one is able to change it unless given permission. Daily backups are created automatically in a different network infrastructure for redundancy. SHIFT' s architecture allows for distributed teams to work together. A graphic designer can log into SHIFT and work on a specific project, assigned to him by the project manager and only on that. The project manager or the ID can track, in SHIFT's report section, what the progress is on each screen, each media asset, in real time. SHIFT is also designed for organizations that want to share and reutilize content. Each module and screen can be tagged and can then be imported into other courses. Since content is independent from interface, when a module is imported into a new course, all interfaces will be updated to the look and feel of the new course. No rework is necessary. Thus, SHIFT can be used as a one-person development environment, with most processes fully automated, or as an "industrial strength" development environment where many people, with many different profiles work together. SHIFT's heavy automation of non-value added tasks will dramatically reduce person-hours needed to develop rich media content, while allowing very fast time-to-market and easy updates and maintenance.