Performedia's online training solutions are designed to take training assets that many organizations already have, namely live training, and make them available in a cost-effective and engaging way online. With travel budgets shrinking, it has become increasingly important to bring the training to the desktop those who might ordinarily have come to a live training session or event. The guiding philosophy of Performedia's online training efforts is that compelling presenters in the classroom are still pretty compelling online - they are simply there when the students need them and wherever the students are.

When compared to other online learning motifs, Performedia's live presentation capture is a strong alternative. Much training up till now has been text based. But as we all know, the printed word cannot raise and lower its voice, nor can we look into its eyes. And much of society is finding itself less and less inclined to turn to reading as a way of assimilating information. The other primary online training modality has been a combination of animation, text, and audio. While this format can indeed be compelling, it tends to be limited by budget and time considerations. With many months and a huge budget the client can achieve the appeal of a slick video game, but without that - and most are without that - the result can tend to be quite a bit more pedantic with lots of re-used animation elements which risk eventually turning off the student. And finally, there is audio and slides or audio and recorded screen movie. Performedia builds on those principles and does them one (or maybe two or three) better.

The process for getting started involves a kickoff call with Performedia, during which our trained staff works with your training staff and presenter to assess the live training as it currently stands. We help them audit the content for portions that may be extraneous and can be removed in order to help boil the content down a little. We provide a rubric for helping divide up the content into sensible chunks - modules -that have a reason for being individual elements of the overall course. We help them plan their shoot day or days so that when we arrive, everyone is ready to go.

When we shoot the training, we help put your instructors at ease - they can stay in one place, sit, or stand, or walk, as they please. We can shoot with an audience or without - there are compelling reasons for both approaches. Often we don't start with the first module - we may start with another such as the third, so the trainer can get acclimated and comfortable. We can then return to the first module once the presenter is up to speed and at the top of his or her game - that's an important vibe to project at the beginning of the first module your students will view. We don't tend to stop and restart if the presentation is not absolutely perfect - you don't stop and restart the live training, and there is usually no reason to do that during a capture session either. We also capture whatever the presenter is showing on his or her laptop - not just slides, but software demonstrations, web tours - really anything they do. When we're done we have typically captured content in roughly the same amount of time that it takes to deliver it live.

Post production is next, which often includes transcripts with time-code notations, which we email to your staff for any edit notes they may want to provide. The content is then roughed out in a multimedia player with video in one window, the laptop screen activity in another, and an index (if desired) which allows students to click directly to the content that they need within the module. We can also assemble a global index that lets students choose the topics they need from a master reference index and then go directly to that point within individual modules. We can add captions and even provide foreign language versions of the captions as well. And when there are captions, we also include a search function which allows students to enter a word or group of words and then click to any instance within the module where those words are mentioned. This search functionality can also be compiled into a master glossary search function.

In many cases there is a need for a quiz or test to be integrated into the flow of the modules. Performedia can either create these elements or have your online test elements appear at a pre-ordained moment within the training flow. Polling questions and surveys can also be interspersed as needed, and the ability for students to ask questions or take notes can also be included. Tracking of students' activity and quiz results can either occur via a 24/7 tracking URL which we supply you, or the content can be delivered as SCORM-conformant zip files which can be imported into and administered through your organization's learning management system. Either way, we can typically provide you with information on who watched which modules, when, and for how long.

The end result is training that trains, with much of the compelling experience of live instruction, but with much greater convenience and greatly reduced cost.