Business benefits from online learning centre update

This month’s (June 2007) update of the web’s foremost Virtual Learning Centre (VLC) for business and management content - www.learningmatters.com – sees the self-learning section republished in a more interactive format for online use.

An example is available free of charge at www.learningmatters.com/idx/23719/

Revisions and upgrades to its site by Echelon Publishing incorporate the reprocessing of over 450 of its 2,000+ bite-size learning modules into interactive html as well as adding 60 newly authored modules to the site.

Users can now input responses to self-assessment questions online and benefit from immediate feedback prior to downloading and storing the material in print.

“The updated format provides greater interactivity than previously, allowing customers to explore and refine their knowledge online and benefit instantly from hidden feedback,” says Echelon director David Hill.

The Learningmatters VLC is used in a number of ways by retail learners, and by organisations wishing to support their employees, students or members.

Individuals and purchasers of Bloomsbury’s Business: the Ultimate Resource have access to the whole resource via credit card or account. Over 10,000 purchases have been transacted this way since launch five years ago.

The Institute of Civil Engineering’s training arm, Thomas Telford Training, is now sourcing the entire updated suite of self-development content for its own construction industry professional membership.

Vodafone has selected a portfolio of performance improvement modules to underpin the Six Sigma initiative for its UK operatives.

The Institute of Hospitality focuses solely on offering training material for members (front-line operatives such as bar room staff, cleaning supervisors) to enable them to undertake and cascade training.

Into Enterprise – an EU funded initiative in the North West – offers 400 modules from Learning Matters to support the competencies for small and medium-sized enterprises, while leading international business school, Ashridge, has selected 200 best practice essays to support its own learning courses.

Further information at www.echelonpublishing.co.uk

ends

Editor Note:

Learningmatters.com is the web’s primary Virtual Learning Centre for business and management material. Published in bite-size chunks, it is stocked with 2,000+ modules of learning from major publishers as Bloomsbury, Echelon & John Wiley. It features content from the world’s leading business gurus including Bennis, Goleman, Handy & Drucker. Users can purchase learning materials by credit card, by opening an account or corporately through an annual licence. Accounts can be set up from as little as £100.

About Echelon Learning Ltd

Echelon Learning is a consultancy-led publishing house that integrates electronically-delivered knowledge and learning into the development of management skills and business performance.

Echelon Consulting spearheads the company’s service with the development of new content in meeting clients’ requirements. This is usually derived from analysing employee knowledge and learning needs captured during client learning programmes.

Where appropriate, Echelon Publishing then offers this new content to a wider audience by publishing the material in generic format. This is made available in the form of easy to use ‘learning nuggets’ and is complimented with business development information licensed exclusively from one of the market’s best-known providers, Bloomsbury.

Echelon e-Learning provides the electronic systems which enable content to be published, distributed and usage tracked, and offers work-based solutions to a global audience. Echelon’s blended learning based on a bespoke site populated with material selected to support specific courses, builds knowledge prior to the event and refreshes application when back at the desk.

About Echelon Publishing
Echelon technologies help organisations place solutions at people’s fingertips, whether solving everyday business and work-related problems or helping gain qualifications and continued professional development.
Echelon:
• Has a content management system enabling informational or learning material to be developed or converted into XML so that it can be published and distributed in text and/or via the web.
• Has a learning management system to provide ready access via the web to highly structured information, which is easily searched and retrieved, and whose usage can be tracked and learning logged.
• Publishes and/or reformats content for professional bodies and commercial organisations to help students and employees maintain or develop requisite skills throughout their careers.
• Supports people from the outset of their careers in working with professional bodies to develop and deliver the learning content required by students in preparing for examination.
• Frees up the knowledge and learning contained within a business so that people have ready access to these resources in helping them to solve problems or develop their careers.

Media contact: Peter Muir Tel + 44 (0)1296 715228
Email: echelon@pmpr.co.uk

Sales contact: David Hill Tel + 44 (0)20 8568 1500
Email: david@echelonl.com