LearnKey Blog
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
A look into filming for LearnKey
How many wardrobe changes are needed for a short 3 minute promotional video? Well, in the case of David Clemons it took three. Three different shirts, two backgrounds and glasses off, just to get the best video that we could capture.
Being in the film studio is always an interesting experience. I realize every time how diligent and detail oriented our Salt Lake City crew can be. David Clemons and his colleague Oliver were in town for short time on a Monday morning. We had about three hours for Oliver to shoot a testimonial for LearnCast, and for David to shoot his version of LearnKey’s history.
Oliver’s shoot went off without a hitch; he was filmed in front of the blue screen as the crew already had an office type background picked out for him. Elizabeth McUen, or Liz our new production manager, was prepared with a barrage of questions that she directed at Oliver. He then responded with amazing detail and eloquence, he was such a great speaker that I was tempted to take notes. At the end of the shoot David added a few more questions for Oliver, we filmed for five more minutes and it was a wrap. The crew and Oliver made it seem so easy.
Then it was time for Dave’s History of LearnKey, a marketing video we requested to help promote LearnKey’s 25th anniversary. As Art Director of the marketing team, I had some input into how the shoot was organized, so I requested a different background. I wanted a white background “Apple-style”, instead of the blue screen. Dave’s cream colored shirt had looked great in front of the blue screen but seemed washed out in front of the white, luckily he was prepared with a few wardrobe options. I got the feeling that he’d done this before! He quickly changed into a black dress shirt and we started filming, filming… cut. The crew in the booth noticed that his cuff links were very distracting. Kudos to the crew! David graciously removed the cuff links and rolled up his cuffs and once again we start filming… cut. Five minutes into the take the crew decided the the stripes on the rolled up cuffs are distracting. So it was off to change to the third and hopefully final shirt, which luckily was a winner!
David was dynamic in front of the camera and shared some interesting insights into the birth of LearnKey. In fact he gave us 35 minutes of raw footage from which we’ll create a 2-3 minute video. Thank you David, for being such a great sport.
It’s a wrap, or at least the filming is finished. There is still a lot of work for the Salt Lake City crew to do before they send the footage to the marketing team in St. George. Once we receive the footage on a drive, Hyrum from the design team will spend many hours cutting and editing the film to create a nice little marketing piece for our 25th anniversary. I can’t wait to share the final product with all of our customers, and maybe Hyrum will blog about his part of the video making process!
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!
Can do, will do – watch me do it!
Once again one of our super star employees demonstrates a “can do attitude” by willing to take on additional duties without even thinking twice. Our leadership team has seen it and I witnessed it too. That’s because Chip Ehlers, LearnKey’s Employee of the Month for June, is all about being a team player. When we needed him to take over all of our shipping and trade show coordination activities, “No problem.” Then we asked him to take on additional duties supporting accounting and order entry, once again “Can do”. That is the sign of a true team player and someone who demonstrates our core values. Here’s what his manager Chad Stocks had to say about Chip….
“Chip has taken on a lot of extra duties over the last several months with a “can-do” attitude. He never complains or shows any kind of bad attitude. Chip demonstrates our core values of Ease, Value and Trust in everything he does. Chip makes work-life easier for those around him from Wendi and myself to supporting the sales team in entering orders and supporting trade shows. We all benefit from the value he brings from his experience and the previously mentioned willingness to take on extra duties without complaint. And finally, everyone knows that they can trust Chip to get the job done. We can rely on him to be here when he says he will be here and to do what he says he will do.”
Are you excited for the end of summer? You should be!
I know what you are thinking – “Why is this guy talking about the end of summer when summer has just begun?” Well, as promised in my last blog post I want to keep you up-to-date with some of the exciting happenings at LearnKey this summer. Here is a little sneak peek of some awesome OnlineExpert features to look forward to over the next couple of months.
Learning Management System (LMS) Tour
This free instructional course teaches educators and administrators how to easily access, use, and learn the functions of OnlineExpert. The LMS tour is broken into manageable sections, which allows users to easily find and watch material that is relevant to their needs.
This is one feature you don’t have to wait for – the LMS Tour was just recently released! Since it is free, current customers can easily have our representatives add it to their course libraries.
Projects
Teachers: We have listened to your requests – “More hands-on activities!” We are excited to announce that our Office 2007/2010, Adobe ACA, and IC³ courses will feature hands-on projects created by teachers who use our courses in their curriculum. These projects will help reinforce what students are learning by providing them with hands-on experience throughout the course.
Touchscreen support
In the past, our courses have made heavy use of Flash video and players, which certain mobile devices don’t support. Since these devices are becoming more and more popular in learning environments, OnlineExpert will allow students and teachers to use mobile devices as a learning tool with new touchscreen support beginning in August.
I am excited to be able to share these upcoming releases with everyone. After all, don’t we all need a good reason to actually look forward to the end of summer? Be sure to check back often for the down low on what’s going on at LearnKey.
I love getting comments, so here’s a question for you – What are your favorite summer traditions or vacation spots?
Sweet “Temporary” Home Alabama…
I recently had the opportunity to travel to Alabama with Justin, our newest member of the sales team, to attend an education conference and meet with teachers interested in eLearning and industry certifications. Here is a brief overview of our travels:
Wednesday
Beautiful weather in Bessemer, Alabama where we stayed. We spent some time in Tuscaloosa, meeting with a teacher working with students and passing the CompTIA exams like A+ and Network+. We showed him the teaser clip to our upcoming A+ 2012 release and he’s really looking forward to it.
We also had the pleasure of visiting The University of Alabama, which has a beautiful campus. We found a great place called The Mellow Mushroom, and had some of the best pizza I have ever eaten. We had a Cesar Salad pizza…yes I know salad on top of a pizza, and yes it was amazing!
Thursday
The first day of our education conference and 2 hour workshop for teachers went really well. The conference was hosted at the Mercedes factory located in Vance, Alabama. This location is the manufacturing facility where the M-Class, the R-Class, and the GL-Class are built. Our conference was located in the training center for the employees, the landscape is so beautiful and we had a chance walk through the visitors center and gift shop where I picked up a few souvenirs.
May Employee of the Month – Recognized for his “break/fix” skills!
At LearnKey, we have employees who take great pride in creating video training courses in our Salt Lake City, UT studios, those who are great at selling, supporting, marketing and promoting our courseware in our St. George offices, and those team members who finish our courses through post production process in Cedar City, UT.
Then there are team members like our May employee of the month Val Deuel, a super quality control agent who does everything he can to “break” our courses prior to them being released and loaded into our Learning Management System (onlineexpert.com). Our quality control team is a true asset to the LearnKey family, and we our proud of the great work they do.
His leadership team had these great things to say about Val:
“He embodies our core values of Trust, Value, and Ease, and maintains a positive attitude in everything he does. Trust – Val can always be trusted to complete whatever work he is given promptly and efficiently. He is not afraid to ask for help or further instructions when needed and he never complains, regardless the task. He shows trust in his supervisors by being willing to complete whatever task he is assigned. Val embodies the core value of Value in his willingness and ability to complete tasks. Through Val’s hard work he made it very Easy for us to select him as our May employe of the month.
Continue reading “May Employee of the Month – Recognized for his “break/fix” skills!”
New to the Team
Hello LearnKey blog followers! I’m Beau, and this is my first official blog as the new Marketing and Trade Show Coordinator at LearnKey. I have been in this position since April, and have really enjoyed the work that I am doing. So far I have written press releases, taken lead on new marketing campaigns, booked new trade shows for our sales staff to attend, and performed all kinds of jobs in between to help our Marketing and Support teams.
Now a little about me. I am from the greatest town in the world, Kanab, Utah. I loved growing up in Kanab because it allowed me to be close to all of the activities that I enjoy doing. I love going to Zion National Park to hike or floating the Virgin River on a tube. One of the benefits of growing up in Kanab is that Lake Powell is an hour away. Every summer I look forward to family lake trips. I am currently training to run a marathon sometime this fall.
One weird fact about me is that I like to smell trees, more specifically Ponderosa Pines. I swear to you that if you smell one in the summertime it will smell like vanilla, chocolate, or caramel. The most common smell is caramel and I have yet to smell the elusive chocolate tree.
Last year I graduated from Southern Utah University with a Communications degree emphasizing in Advertising and Public Relations.
I love working at LearnKey and am really excited about some of awesome things coming up. Some of the first major projects I started working on are the upcoming A+ 2012 and Network+ 2012 courses, and we’re all really excited about how those are turning out. Stay tuned to the blog and our Facebook page to stay up-to-date on whats going on!