LearnKey Blog

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!

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!

View the full 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!

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.

Continue reading “Sweet “Temporary” Home Alabama…”

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.

Read the full press release

Visit veterans.learnkey.com for more information on our Veteran Services program.

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!

Veteran benefits provide certifications and new job skills through LearnKey courseware

I just want to write a few words about a friend of mine that I met through our VA vocational rehabilitation program. Chris and I were introduced over this last summer when he began using the LearnKey program to advance his IT career. At the time, he was working in an IT role, but in a limited, part time position. Over several months of interaction, I have come to think of Chris as a friend as our whole group has been following his progress and cheering his success. In January, I was able to meet Chris face to face as he came into our recording studio to shoot a testimonial video. It was a great experience to get better acquainted and to learn that Chris served as a combat engineer in Baghdad, the same role in which my father served during WW2.

Continue reading “Veteran benefits provide certifications and new job skills through LearnKey courseware”