Author: Colin
Case study: Houston ISD
Not only do we love hearing success stories from teachers who found ways to implement LearnKey courseware into their curriculum, but we know that information also helps others by showing real-world examples of how the program works.
Margaret Williams from Barbara Jordan Career High School was kind enough to tell us her story about how implementing LearnKey courseware helped her students pass their certification exams in this case study. Here is an excerpt from that document:
All of my students, (100%) passed the Word and PowerPoint certification exams first try without books during the fall semester. The e-Learning online instruction helped me to individualize instruction. It is based on the students’ learning styles. It provides virtual, interactive learning with video (which includes certification objectives in an outline format), guided practice, and independent practice activities. It helps students to develop a thorough understanding of the Microsoft certification objectives.
Do you have a success story for us? Share it in the comments or post it on our Facebook Timeline!
A+ Certification 2012 released
We’ve been teasing it for a while, but our A+ Certification 2012 course is now available! A+ is one of our most popular courses, so of course Tom Carpenter and our production teams went out of their way to make this version both entertaining and educational.
Course Clips:
Looking inside a computer
The Motherboard
Mini-ATX and Micro-ATX
Installing a CPU
An A+ Certification is one of the core requirements for many tech support and computer service jobs, and is the gateway to more specific career paths. If you’ve been looking to get started in IT, or if you’re expanding your tech knowledge, this course is for you.
Visit the Product page for more course information
Tom Carpenter discusses A+ 2012
Our next CompTIA A+ Certification course is coming closer and closer to completion. As you may know, this version is hosted by Tom Carpenter, a course author who has worked with us quite a bit in the past. This is Tom’s first A+ course with LearnKey, and some of you may not have had the chance to see any of his other work before, so we wanted to make sure your questions and concerns were answered.
Our own Paula Pixley contacted Tom for an interview, in which he discusses his years of IT experience, his past work with LearnKey, and what kind of approach he takes to teaching the A+ objectives.
Share your story!
We love to hear people’s success stories. Whether you’re a teacher implementing LearnKey courseware in your classroom, or you’re a learner yourself using LearnKey courseware to advance your career, It’s a great feeling to know something we created made an impact in someone’s life.
That’s why we want you to share your stories! Let us know how our courseware helped you land that new job, or how blending eLearning in your classroom raised your pass rates, or how implementing a training program helped increase productivity at your business. We may even choose your testimonial to be featured on our website!
How to submit your story
Submit your story to one of our social media profiles:
- Facebook: Leave a post on our Timeline, or create a post on your own and tag us by adding @LearnKey
- Twitter: Create a Tweet, including us by adding @LearnKey
- Google+: Create a post, and tag us by adding +LearnKey
…or leave a comment on this post with your story. Be sure to include which courses were involved and if any certifications were earned using our courseware.
We’re not picky about the format either – you can type it out, record a video, include pictures, whatever you want to do!
Connecting the Dots to Blended Learning (infographic)
At LearnKey, we support K-12 learning in several ways, but many teachers aren’t sure integrating technology into the classroom actually pays off. That’s why we’ve come up with this handy infographic!
Do any of you have success stories about how blended learning helped your students? Or maybe a unique way you’re integrating online learning into your curriculum? Let us know in the comments!
New “Certify for Life” program available for Veterans
We have recently implemented a new program for veterans who certify through our Veteran Services program – it’s called Certify for Life. This is an excellent new program that can help save veterans hundreds if not thousands of dollars throughout the course of their career.
The way this program can help save veterans money is by giving them free courseware updates for the rest of their life. So, in four to five years when technology advances and makes certain certifications out of date, the veteran doesn’t have to pay for courseware again, they don’t have to try to get the VA to cover the courses and they don’t have to pay out of pocket either – all they have to do is call LearnKey and let them know that they are in the Certify for Life program and LearnKey will get them set up with the current courseware in their area of study for free.
eLearning Company Announces Free Training for U.S. Veterans
LearnKey’s “Certify for Life” program enables qualified U.S. veterans to receive video-based training, free of charge, after they’ve completed their initial training certifications through VA-sponsored programs such as VR&E and VRAP.
ST. GEORGE, UT, May 11, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ — LearnKey, a global provider of self-paced online training, today announced “Certify for Life,” a new program that provides free education for qualifying U.S. veterans. Certify for Life is available to veterans who participate in Vocational Rehabilitation & Employment (VR&E), Veterans Retraining Assistance Program (VRAP) and VOW to Hire Heroes programs offered through the Veterans Administration.
Visit veterans.learnkey.com for more information on our Veteran Services program.
Are you ready for A+ 2012?
As you may have heard by now, we’re releasing a new A+ Certification course this summer. With that said, I’m just going to leave this video here for you…
A+ 2012 Filming
Recently I had the opportunity to travel to the Salt Lake City office to see some of the filming of our newest CompTIA A+ Certification courseware – presented by Tom Carpenter. Tom has presented quite a few of our IT courses, and if you’ve ever taken one of them before, you know that he’s a great choice to take the lead on the next version of LearnKey’s most popular courseware series. If you haven’t seem Tom in action, watch this video in which he discusses our Voice over IP Fundamentals course:
From what I’ve seen, this course is going to be one of the best, most engaging courses LearnKey has ever produced. Our production teams are going all out to make it entertaining as well as educational, so if you’ve been wanting to get your A+ certification, you’ll definitely want to stick around for this release.
For more video clips, check out our YouTube Channel. Tom has presented many LearnKey courses, so there are plenty of videos to choose from if you would like to dive in.
…and of course, there is always the infamous Blooper Reel!
Happy 25th Anniversary, LearnKey!
This year, LearnKey turns 25 years old! We’ve come a long way in 25 years, going from a small one-man office producing VHS video, to an amazing group of people spanning multiple offices which are dedicated to providing the best eLearning products we can produce.
LearnKey now has three different offices in Utah, with distributors all over the world providing our courseware to areas we never even thought possible when the company was founded. And now with our Better Learning Systems sister companies LearnCast and Predix, our reach is even larger.
Here are a few facts about when LearnKey first started out:
- LearnKey came to be in 1987. Official Incorporation date: March 20, 1987
- The first video produced was WordPertfect 4.2 for DOS
- Our first product was edited and packaged in April/May 1987, and the first VHS arrived October 28, 1987.
Thanks for being there with us over the years, and may there be many more in the future!
Tech jobs are the most popular among veterans
A recent article by PayScale recognizes the difficult task of returning to civilian employment after military service, and in an effort to ease the confusion, asked the question, “Where do military veterans usually work after finishing their service?”
The result? Veterans typically go to jobs where they can apply the skills they learned in the military, which turn out to be mainly tech jobs. PayScale measured the top fifteen most common, well paid, and quickly growing professions veterans choose, and also the top ten job skills veterans report having, and found that while some of the jobs were leadership and medical positions, many of the jobs and skills had one thing in common – they were mostly in information technology or other tech-related fields.
Here is a sample of the data – the top five job skills veterans report having:
- Emergency Room (ER)
- Computer Security
- Microsoft SQL Server
- Electronic Troubleshooting
- Security Risk Management
Read the full article for more information, including the full list of top job skills, and the titles, average salaries, and projected job growth of each of the top fifteen job roles.