Learning Content Management Systems

Transcription

1 Learning Content Management Systems A Comparison of Page-Based and Asset-Based Systems OutStart, Inc. 745 Atlantic Avenue 4 th Floor Boston, MA

2 2007 OutStart, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without prior written permission. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 2 of 20

3 Table of Contents INTRODUCTION... 4 THE LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT MODELS... 5 INTRODUCTION TO THE PAGE-BASED DEVELOPMENT MODEL... 6 INTRODUCTION TO THE ASSET-BASED DEVELOPMENT MODEL... 7 BUSINESS DRIVERS OF LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT... 8 CONTENT CONTRIBUTION ENABLING SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTS... 9 STANDARDS SUPPORT MANAGING AND PUBLISHING STANDARDS-BASED CONTENT...10 CONTENT REUSE AND ASSEMBLY ASSESSING GRANULARITY AND AMOUNT OF CONTENT AVAILABLE FOR REUSE...11 BLENDED LEARNING PROVIDING MULTIPLE OUTPUT CAPABILITIES...13 LEARNING AUDIENCE DIVERSITY PROVIDING PERSONALIZED LEARNING EXPERIENCES...15 CONTENT MAINTENANCE KEEPING CONTENT CURRENT...16 LCMS DECISION PROCESS OUTSTART S EXPERIENCE Implementing an LCMS...19 Protecting Your Investment...19 CONCLUSION OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 3 of 20

4 Introduction One of the largest issues facing learning today is The Content Gap. This gap lies in the space between the abundant availability of generic off the shelf courses, and the lack of quality, organizational-specific content. Off the shelf content is important but provides no competitive advantage as it is readily available to the masses. As a result, Learning Management System (LMS) implementations, along with the ROI expectations that accompany them, can fall short precisely at the moment when off the shelf content options are exhausted. Learning becomes a much clearer value proposition when organizations are able to address the content gap by harvesting their own intellectual capital and convert those assets to learning content. To support this harvesting, organizations are increasingly turning to Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS). The importance of a LCMS is supported by a November 2006 Gartner Group report, Escalate the Maturity Level of Your Learning Content to Maximize Business Value, In the report, Gartner states that the successful use of learning solutions increases demand for content. When such demands result in internal content development, management of learning content becomes as much a basic necessity as other functions, such as learner tracking. According the Bersin & Associates, a leading learning analyst and research firm, the key benefits of LCMS technologies include: Increased efficiency Increasing the efficiency of the content development and deployment process and leveraging skilled resources across more and more content programs Reusing content Storing and managing content from a single repository to increase efficiency, content quality, and consistency Meeting compliance Delivering regulatory content online with strict control over content versions and historical account of changes over time Reducing training time Delivering dynamically more personalized content, such as prescriptive learning programs, to provide more relevant and customized training and reduce overall training time Delivering learning on demand Organize content into smaller pieces and enable search and delivery as needed to meet the demand for just-in-time content As with almost all technologies, not all LCMSs are the same or created using the same architectural or philosophical approach. Understanding the fundamental approaches, as well as their strength and weaknesses in meeting different business drivers, can help organizations select the best approach for their immediate and long-term needs. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 4 of 20

5 The Learning Content Management Models In the LCMS market today, there are two different models for development, storage, and delivery of learning content: page-based and asset-based. A page-based LCMS is centered on the creation, management, and publishing of elearning pages created using its own embedded authoring tools. These tools enable authors to take an artesian approach to developing online learning content. Authors handcraft the learning experience by constructing individual pages within the course, embedding the course navigation, adding content elements to the page, and specifying their look and feel. The handcrafted result is a well-designed course that is purpose-built for the delivery of elearning. An asset-based LCMS is centered on the creation, management, delivery, and publishing of all learning content not just elearning. Content created using asset-based LCMS authoring tools allows organizations to save useful chunks of content (assets) a single time in a central repository. The content is stored without an embedded look and feel or navigation, enabling the assembly and delivery of the assets as often and in as many places as needed (i.e. in elearning courses, instructor and student guidebooks, instructor slides, online help, or via PDA) enabling organizations to use the same learning content over and over. While both offer enhanced productivity for developers and effective learning for students, they each have, fundamentally different approaches for how learning is created, managed, and deployed. As a result, each is optimized to meet different business drivers. Purpose This paper compares and contrasts these two approaches and their different philosophies, within the framework of critical business drivers. The goal is to help guide organizations that are looking at LCMS strategies to select the appropriate approach based on their organization s key business drivers. For the purpose of this paper, learning content is comprised of the following components: Content Text and media which comprise the subject matter Layout Placement of content Presentation Look and feel applied to content Structure Assembly and packaging of content for a particular context Navigation Learning path and sequence through content OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 5 of 20

6 Introduction to the Page-Based Development Model The page-based development model is one in which the content author combines the content components into a final elearning course. This means that the five content ingredients: content, layout, presentation, structure, and navigation are all cooked together to make html-pages, purpose-built for online delivery. The page-based development model is a paradigm very familiar to developers who have had experience using other page or slide-based authoring tools such as PowerPoint, OutStart Trainer, Lectora, and Toolbook. Like PowerPoint, page-based LCMS authoring tools provide easy to use tools to layout and configure each page in an elearning course without the need to perform any programming. Extending the functionality of page-based desktop authoring tools, page-based LCMS development enables collaborative on-line authoring, allowing multiple authors to work in the same course at the same time using web-based authoring tools. The page-based approach uses the page as the fixed framework that defines the content structure. Each page is created by first embedding the course look and feel, the navigation controls, adding content to each page to fit within the course navigation frame, and then positioning and formatting it to match the course s look and feel. This process is often streamlined through the use of page-level templates that automatically embed the course look and feel and navigation elements to the page. Using this development model, authors are responsible for creating elearning pages that fit into the structure of the elearning course, hard-wiring the available paths through the content and ensuring that the presentation of the course content is consistent across the entire elearning course. Thus the page-based model provides authors with total control over what the material looks like and how learners may navigate the pages in that individual elements are authored within the context of a page, and pages are created within the context of an online course and the available paths defined by the navigation. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 6 of 20

7 Introduction to the Asset-Based Development Model The asset-based development model is centered on creating learning content in its raw form; content, layout, presentation, structure, and navigation are all stored separately from one another and are not hard-coded. This approach allows for extensive flexibility so that the content can be re-combined to create new assemblies of learning content for different contexts, audiences, and delivery mediums. While the authoring tools provided in an asset-based LCMS can be easy to learn and use, the asset-based development model requires a shift in thinking about how to create content. In an asset-based development model, authors are no longer responsible for the look and feel of the content, its layout, or presentation. Additionally, the content is stored as individual assets, enabling them to be reassembled into new courses or contexts. Therefore, without the responsibility to construct content within a pre-defined page framework, the authors focus is to create the learning structure and create and/or assemble the raw content (assets) that populates it. Within an asset-based model, assets are organized and assembled into a learning structure, and the presentation, content layout rules, and navigation are applied at the time of delivery. This allows for multiple delivery modes (e.g. elearning, print, presentation slides, PDA, etc.) for the content, with each delivery mode having specific system level rules to control the presentation and layout rules that are applied at the time of publishing or delivery. In a typical scenario, content elements such as text, lists, media, questions, and interactions are created within the authoring environment in the context of an initial course structure by creating and assembling the content in a manor best suited for its initial purpose an elearning course for example. The author does not need to apply any formatting to the content, or embed any navigation because the layout and look and feel are applied at the time of delivery. Finally, content navigation path is defined at the time of delivery through the dynamic assembly of the content assets and the path through them. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 7 of 20

8 Business Drivers of Learning Content Management To further compare the page-based and asset-based approaches, it is highly valuable to consider the business-drivers behind implementing an LCMS and the organizational decisions related to them. OutStart has over 150 LCMS installations of our page-based and asset-based LCMS solutions. Based on our experience implementing and supporting customers, the following business drivers have been identified as core issues that apply to their business strategy of successfully developing, managing, and delivering learning content. Therefore, this comparative analysis will focus around the following business drivers: Content Contribution Enabling subject matter experts (SMEs) Standards Support Managing and publishing standards-based content Content Assembly and Reuse Assessing granularity and amount of content available for reuse Blended Learning Providing multiple output capabilities Learning Audience Diversity Providing personalized learning experiences Content Maintenance Keeping content current It should also be noted that at any stage in an organization s growth, the business drivers may have varying impact and therefore the factors used to choose an LCMS may change as an organization evolves. As the business drivers change, it may force migration from one model of development to a different model. It becomes extremely important for organizations to have a long-term view and consider protecting of their investment in content and the ability to migrate the developed courses to the system of choice in the future. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 8 of 20

9 Content Contribution Enabling Subject Matter Experts Content development often requires the expertise of several types of people (e.g. instructional designers, content developers, SME s, and multi-media designers). These roles may differ slightly based on organizational process, but organizational content development is seldom a one-person task. Often times within an organization, SMEs are tasked with providing the base information from which the subsequent learning materials are built. In most cases, it does not make sense to train SMEs on how to use LCMS authoring tools to capture the information they can provide. Instead, most organizations rely on the software that most SMEs already have prior experience using, such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. To accommodate this approach, an LCMS provide the ability to ingest these common file types and convert them into a format native to the LCMS. Page-Based Page-based systems typically enable developers to import page-based content like PowerPoint created by SMEs. Page-based systems generally do a good job of importing this type of content because it has already been optimized for on-screen delivery, and shares the same basic page-based framework for structuring, presenting, and positioning content. Support of document-based content such as Word documents however, may be a bit more troublesome because the structure of the ideas and concepts within a document are not typically confined to a page-based framework. Instead, this content flow is optimized for the paper-based format. Therefore, document-based content typically requires authors to manually re-work the content structure prior to importing or to clean-up the content after it has been imported by breaking up the long passages of text into smaller, discreet content elements. Asset-Based Likewise, asset-based systems also support the ingestion of structured, page-based content, enabling each page to be transformed into structure and the content within the page to be transformed into native content elements. This means that each text area, image, table, and list are converted to an asset and assembled into the same structure as the original document. Because of the asset-based system s separation of the delivery format from the content, document-based content is easily handled. The content does not have to map directly into the confines of a page, so the document may be ingested into the system as a collection of structured content. This ability to ingest and manage document-based content is a key capability used to convert legacy content such as documentation and instructor-led materials into the content foundation used to create other delivery modes such as elearning courseware. Summary Both page-based and asset-based systems provide the ability to ingest, manage and deliver content developed in a page-based system. This allows SMEs to use familiar authoring tools like Word and PowerPoint) to create content. However, asset-based systems generally do a better job of ingesting and managing document-based content. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 9 of 20

10 Standards Support Managing and Publishing Standards-based Content ELearning content standards such as Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC) and Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) are designed to enable content to be interoperable across any compliant system. The ability to publish elearning content from the development environment to these standards should be a core capability for any LCMS. Additionally, the ability to ingest, manage and deliver content developed outside of the LCMS is often a key requirement for organizations. This enables standardsbased content like SCORM 1.2, 2004 and AICC to be delivered by vendors and offthe-shelf courses (developed by NetG for example) to be ingested into the LCMS to be centrally managed along with all other learning content. Page-Based A page-based LCMS is focused on the management and publishing of content that was created using its own authoring tools. This includes the ability to publish the elearning content developed in the system as a standards-compliant course. This enables the course to then be played in any LMS that is standards compliant. Content authored outside of the page-based system might be able to be imported into the system to be delivered as a whole section of content. However, this content is not able to be easily integrated into content authored within the LCMS. Asset-Based In addition to the publishing of standards-based content, the asset orientation of these systems allows externally created content to simply be treated as a new type of asset. This includes standards-based content, legacy content such as web-based courses, and off-the-shelf courses. For example, a SCORM 1.2 course could be ingested into the system and the individual assets become objects in the system that can be reassembled into new courses. When the course is published as a new SCORM 2004 course, the previously imported content is included in the final course. Summary Both page-based and asset-based systems provide the ability to publish elearning content as standards-compliant (SCORM and AICC) courses. Additionally, asset-based systems have the capability to ingest, manage and deliver standards-based content allowing organizations to manage elearning content created outside of the LCMS. Other legacy content like existing HTML courses, CBT courses, or other third party developed courseware may be ingested and managed by both systems. However, an asset-based system provides stronger abilities to ingest, manage, and deliver content that was not developed using the LCMS s built-in authoring tools. For organizations required to only deliver standards-based content created by the organization, a page-based system will fill the need. When an organization needs to manage and deliver standard-based content created by vendors, or use off-the-shelf content within a course, an asset-based LCMS should be considered. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 10 of 20

11 Content Reuse and Assembly Assessing Granularity and Amount of Content Available for Reuse Our customers have described reuse and assembly as the ability to: Create New Learning Constructs - Aggregate and assemble content from different sources to create new content for courses with different contexts, or different variations of products, processes, or services Support Multiple Audiences Reassemble content to support the unique needs of each learner group such as employees, customers, partners, and resellers Support Multiple Roles Reassemble content to support various technicians, sales people, support staff, and consultants Create a Single Source of Content - Synchronize content for all online and offline courses in a single location With these definitions, both page-based and asset-based systems support the ability to assemble and reuse content. However, the approaches to content reusability and assembly differ between the two types of systems. These varying approaches and the functionality designed to support them have a direct impact as to the degree to which content is reusable and the effort required to assemble and maintain new content assemblies. Page-Based Each page and the content embedded in it are stored as unique objects in an LCMS, presenting the option of re-using the page in other courses or the same content in other pages. However, because of the way the look and feel is embedded into the page and content objects, re-use is often limited to only courses sharing the exact same look and feel as the original course. Since content is structured around the page-based framework, reuse most frequently happens at the page-level. Authors search for and find pages that contain the desired content and link it into the new course structure as-is. In order for individual content objects to be reused in other courses, they must first be cataloged individually so that they are available outside of the page on which they were originally authored. Courses that share common standards (font, size, color, etc.) for content can share these cataloged objects. However, if a different look and feel is desired, any desired content objects must be copied and modified which has long-term implications in terms of content maintenance. Because of the handcrafted nature of page-based content, when designing and developing for re-use in a page-based system, it is critical that the content on the page is styled and positioned in a standardized manner. Look and feel and positioning standards will increase the likelihood that the page and its contents will be able to be reused for other purposes. However, without development standards like this, the likelihood to link and reuse the pages and their contents decreases dramatically. Asset-Based Because content is stored without presentation embedded in it in asset-based systems, the manner in which the content was created will not impact its ability to OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 11 of 20

12 be reused. In other words, a single element, be it a graphic or a paragraph, constitutes an indivisible entity and automatically exists in the LCMS as a content asset available for sharing. Therefore, the focus of authors in an asset-based LCMS is not to create handcrafted pages but to instead focus on the creation and assembly of learning assets Moreover, asset sharing may take more than one form. An existing content asset may simply be linked as a means of incorporating it into a developer s new work. Alternatively it may be copied, as in the page-based system, into a developer s work, but without the need to individually catalog content objects beforehand. Either way, sharing is a simple process and is intrinsic to the way the LCMS works. Also, the content may be re-assembled to support other learning delivery methods such as instructor-led training because the content is not limited to the single framework of an elearning page. This is possible due to the raw nature of the content in which the look and feel and layout is not part of the content itself. Consequently, the same content may be generated out as an ILT student guide with the formatting and positioning rules for print output applied at the time of publishing. This is possible because the content is not limited to the page-by-page structure of the elearning delivery for which it was originally created. Additionally, the same raw content may be assembled into the instructor s PowerPoint slides, using only a portion of the original content elements for display and using the remaining assets as instructor notes within the PowerPoint file. Therefore, the asset-based philosophy enables long-term reusability and flexibility of the content that is developed as individual assets. This enables authors to create new learning content by creating new content assets or by discovering and assembling from pre-existing assets. Summary Organizations should take into account their development methodologies and the likelihood of creating content that can be used across multiple courses and/or multiple delivery methods when choosing a page-based or asset-based system. Organizations that see a real opportunity to experience efficiencies by sharing and reusing content, between courses, divisions, branches, or audiences will have more incentive to consider the asset-based approach since it simplifies the sharing process. Organizations that do not expect to share content across multiple courses or provide multiple variations of the base content may see no major advantages in content sharing and typically find the page-based approach an appealing alternative. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 12 of 20

13 Blended Learning Providing Multiple Output Capabilities Some organizations are only concerned with developing and delivering elearning, while others may have the need to provide additional training materials to support different delivery channels. Outputs required to support these channels include ILT materials, documentation, PDA-delivered content, online help, and output to Microsoft applications such as PowerPoint and Word. A special case of the need for multiple output capabilities occurs when organizations employ blended learning within their training strategy. There are many ways in which blended-learning can be defined, however, it is generally the ability to provide several types of learning that work well in conjunction with one another. For example, an ILT class, whether in the classroom or taken synchronously online, may be supported with learner workbooks or final tests taken online. In most blended learning situations, there is a need to supply learning content on the same subject but in different forms. Page-Based Because page-based systems are optimized to create elearning-specific pages, the tight coupling of the content and presentation makes it difficult to deploy the content through other delivery channels. The content can often be reformatted to allow the same elearning course to be delivered with a different look and feel by applying different course or navigation templates to it. However, to deliver the elearning content through other delivery mediums such as print or PDA typically requires the use of tools to migrate the content to a format appropriate for multi-channel delivery. These tools are often cumbersome and potentially error prone creating potential long-term development and maintenance issues. For example, to deliver content originally developed for elearning through the PDA would require authors to copy the original content and reformat it to make it usable on the PDA. For non-browser based content such as user guides or guidebooks for instructor-led training, complex migration tools that convert the HTML-based content into native Word or PowerPoint files would be needed. Figure: Page-based content being output to two different elearning courses OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 13 of 20

14 Asset-Based In an asset-based system, the inherent separation of the content from presentation allows the presentation to be applied at the time of output. The presentation is dictated by the delivery medium (e.g. elearning pages, Word documents, or PowerPoint slides) and the delivery rules specific to that medium. Therefore, the base content may serve as a single centralized content source used to support multiple delivery channels like print, presentation slides, online help, and PDA. Since all formatting and placement of assets is determined outside of the development process, standards such as fonts, element placement, page setup, and the look and feel and navigational options are centrally controlled through systemwide themes. The formatting (i.e. theme) is applied by the system when the content is dynamically delivered or at the time of publishing out to channels such as print. Changes to content and presentation can be made independent of one another and combined as desired. The asset-based approach also enables the publishing of content to multiple output formats, a concept generally known as single source. The diagram below is an example of this concept. Figure: The same content displayed in three different outputs Summary Where organizational learning strategy relies on the need for multiple output types from a single source of content, the asset-based approach offers efficiencies and simplifies the process of preparing, coordinating, and maintaining the development and delivery of overall learning content ensembles. However, when the organization relies on only one or two modes or types of learning content delivery, these efficiencies become less important and the page-based approach to content creation, storage, and handling may actually avoid complication without undue losses in efficiency. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 14 of 20

15 Learning Audience Diversity Providing Personalized Learning Experiences When content is delivered online, the learning experience delivered by the LCMS may be tailored to match a learner s profile, providing a personalized learning experience to each learner. This may entail audience-specific content branding (i.e. content look and feel) to different learning experiences and content tailored for each audience or specific roles within that audience (i.e. custom learning paths). Providing just for me content personalization for learners is a long-term goal for many organizations. Both the page-based approach and asset-based approach allow for varying levels of personalization. Page-Based The page-based approach to branding content for multiple audiences typically consists of applying different look and feel templates to the course prior to publishing the elearning content. As long as the content design and layout adheres to the requirements, of each look and feel template there are typically few issues encountered. However, this approach requires organizations to track and maintain multiple variations of the published courses. Providing custom audience or learner specific content however, may involve a great deal more work. Authors must create pre-defined paths through the course content. This hard-coded personalization is typically limited to the display or omission of pages or content objects based on pre-defined profiles. When hard-coded personalization requirements become more complex, it often becomes necessary to create and maintain multiple audience-specific versions of each course. Asset-Based With asset-based systems, personalization is approached very differently. The elements of learning content (i.e. content, structure, presentation, layout, and navigation) are dynamically combined to produce individualized content. This dynamic delivery relies on factors such as learner profile and assessment results to determine the specific content to be delivered and the navigation path available through the content. This personalization can be applied below the page level and is handled dynamically without additional programming or recoding of the content. Summary When a personalization strategy is being considered by an organization, the assetbased approach provides for maximum flexibility, more granularity, and efficiencies maintaining the content over time. However, where personalization of elearning content is not a part, or is a minimal part of an organizations strategy for training, the page-based approach is to be considered. Additionally, when an organization has requirements for the same content to be deployed with different look and feel for different audiences, or where organization standards for look and feel often change, the asset-based approach is preferable because stored content is generic, and the style is be applied for the specific delivery mode and use at the time of delivery. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 15 of 20

16 Content Maintenance Keeping Content Current The issues discussed thus far have dealt primarily with the creation of learning content. Content maintenance, however, is an issue that must be addressed. In cases where content is highly perishable, content maintenance may require more resources than the original content creation. The extent to which this is likely to be an issue for a given organization is determined by the nature of the content and the authoring methodology chosen. Page-Based The process of updating and maintaining page-based content follows the same process as the initial creation of the content. Update the elearning pages, the look and feel, navigation templates, and the hard-wired learning paths available within the content; then, publish the changes to replace the original courses. With some page-based systems, the content is dynamically generated HTML, so changing the look and feel may be as simple as changing a course look and feel template. However, the learning paths through the content are not dynamically assembled and are typically hard-wired into a pre-determined path. This may require that each learning paths, and its pages, be located and updated. If, due to the limited ability to re-use and link existing pages together, multiple courses were created to address the needs of different audiences or roles, authors would most often copy the original content. Therefore, all the copied related content must be located and updated, possibly exponentially increasing the amount of content that must be updated. Additionally, if multiple delivery channels are used, the same base content will need to be located and updated for each delivery medium. Asset-Based The asset-based approach allows updating of content once and automatically updating any courses or output that use it, ensuring that the latest information is available to the end user. Thus, as content is linked together and re-used to support multiple audiences, roles, and delivery channels, content becomes easier to update centrally. This equates to a multiplier effect as updates on re-used content automatically updates every instance that uses that content. Since content is dynamically assembled at the time of delivery, authors do not need to manually update the entire course. Instead, they focus on the content and various learning paths through the content. This enables organizations to perform incremental changes to course materials without having to re-publish an entire course. Finally, the searching tools available within the asset-based system enable authors to easily find any content assets that relate to the content to be updated regardless of where or how it is being used. This enables authors to find all content related to a particular subject and update the relevant information in the content assets which require changes. Summary Short learning content update cycles mean that efficient handling of content pays a real labor and cost dividend, especially where timely content release is important. Asset-based systems that dynamically assemble content are the choice for heavy OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 16 of 20

17 maintenance learning products or situations that require the same base content to be used in multiple courses or delivery channels. Page-based systems can offer good value where learning products do not turn over quickly and where updating is on a long or intermittent time cycle. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 17 of 20

18 LCMS Decision Process The significant differences between page-based and asset-based development approaches should be recognized and understood when considering the acquisition of an LCMS. Both approaches have their advantages depending on current and longterm needs for organizational learning. A simple process, such as the list of considerations below, can help an organization or department to determine whether an asset- or paged-based approach is best for them. 1. Identify the decision drivers that pertain to a given situation. 2. Evaluate the level of importance each decision driver has within the context of the specific organization s present and future structure and processes. 3. Assign a weight (or priority) to each driver relative to other drivers. 4. Formulate a choice based on the resulting decision profile. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 18 of 20

19 OutStart s Experience OutStart was one of the first vendors to emerge in the LCMS market and the only vendor that provides both page-based and asset-based LCMS solutions. OutStart s dual LCMS approach allows OutStart to work with organizations to define their business drivers and to select the best type of LCMS for their needs. Additionally, OutStart understands that organizations have diverse business drivers that can change over time or differ across business units. Therefore developing integration between our page-based and asset-based systems to enable both systems to co-exist within an organization has been core to our platform strategy. Once again, this allows organizations to deploy the best LCMS for their various business units or to change LCMS approaches without fear of losing their investment in content. Implementing an LCMS In working with customers to deploy over 150 installations of OutStart s page-based and asset-based systems, we have determined that the average amount of time required for installation and implementation varies based on the type of system that is selected. Based on an average implementation for an organization of about 20 developers, we have found the following: A page-based system implementation typically takes 1-2 weeks to install, train, and implement to the point where an organization is able to begin developing content. An asset-based system implementation typically takes 4-6 weeks to install, train, and implement. Protecting Your Investment We believe that an organization s investment in training content will far outweigh the investment in technology used to develop and manage it. We understand that organizations have diverse business drivers that can change over time. Therefore developing integration between our page-based and asset-based systems to enable both systems to co-exist within an organization has been core to our platform strategy. OutStart s dual LCMS approach allows diverse organizations to select the best system(s) for their needs and deploy them throughout their various business units. Allowing the content, regardless of the system in which it was created, to be flexible and usable across the entire organization. This integration, therefore, protects the investment in the training content by allowing it to be used across both the assetand page-based systems. Finally, your investment in learning content should never be locked into a single system or particular vendor. Therefore, the ability with OutStart to export your content from the system into a standard.xml format gives organizations the flexibility and insurance they need to make the investment into a training content development, management, and delivery platform. OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 19 of 20

20 Conclusion The LCMS technology is such that two major camps are represented: those predicated on page-based approaches, and those using asset-based models. As shown in this discussion, the differences can be stark, and the impact of the choice on organizational training strategies can be widespread and long-lasting. It is important for any organization that is contemplating acquiring and using an LCMS as a basis for its present and future online training strategy to weigh their choices with eyes wide open. The information presented here is an effort to expose the characteristics of both types of systems in a way that decision-makers can understand and will find useful in conducting an analysis of their own organizations, as well as helping select their choices of tools and systems in a comprehensive and informed manner. WP_LCMSDIFF_0107_02 OutStart, Inc 2007 Page 20 of 20