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02.01.07
Looking At Learn.com WebRoom
 By
Ken Molay
Learn.com has been around since 1998, mainly offering software and services to support online learning.
They recently announced a new software product called WebRoom, which is designed to enable in conjunction with, or independent of, formal coursework. Yesterday I had a discussion and demo with JW Ray, the COO of Learn.com and Dave Castella, the Director of WebRoom Sales.
I started by asking for some context. Is WebRoom intended for collaborative group meetings or for public "one-to-many" events? They told me that the goal is for the product to support both needs equally well. My tour through this first release left me feeling that customers would be better off using it for collaborative meetings at this point. An upgrade release is scheduled for Spring of 2007, promising to add some of the features I feel are important for public webinars. JW says that Learn.com sees itself as a one-vendor resource for enterprise employee management "from pre-hire to retire." They want companies to use the software for initial candidate screening, employee training, employee meetings and development, external communications, and so on. He repeated a phrase I had just heard earlier in the day from a Wainhouse Research analyst... "One throat to choke," meaning that customers shouldn't be subjected to a round-robin of finger pointing between different vendors if software or services are not delivering.
WebRoom was developed in-house as an offshoot of the larger LearnCenter software that has been the company's bread and butter. They have not OEM'd any other conferencing software as part of the package, giving them complete control over release schedules, enhancement priorities, and support.
WebRoom currently requires both presenters and attendees to be on Windows-based PC's. It loads an EXE installation file the first time you attempt to join a meeting and my Internet Explorer 7 browser made me go through about three separate Active/X confirmations to get into the meeting. These were particularly frustrating, as each confirmation threw me back to a previous step, where I had to re-enter the meeting password to continue. Learn.com needs to make this load-and-go process smoother and quicker for attendees.
The main meeting interface is simple and familiar to any web conferencing user. There is a main display area for sharing whiteboard content or live desktop applications. There is an attendee names list with a few controls. And there is a chat box that allows typing messages back and forth. The annotation interface for marking up whiteboards is icon-based and straightforward. You can change the color for your annotations and you can add filled or hollow rectangles and circles, straight lines, freeform pen strokes, text, or a pointing arrow. I made a suggestion that Learn.com change the arrow so it points to the right instead of pointing left. This lets you highlight a bullet point without covering up the text. The arrow also always shows the username of the person who puts it on the screen. A useful feature for collaborative sessions where a number of people may be making points, but distracting in a single-presenter public event.
The attendee list allows some simple audience feedback. An audience member can right-click on his or her name in the list and select from a fixed (non-customizable) list of choices. Currently these are Speed Up/Slow Down and Yes/No. The interface is not apparent, and a latecomer who doesn't get instructions about using the right click would probably never discover the feature. Presenters can see the individual responses in the attendee list and a percentage summary at the bottom of the screen. You cannot display cumulative results to the audience. The upcoming Spring release is supposed to add support for more formal audience polling. It will also add the ability to do private person-to-person chat. Currently, messages are always seen by all attendees. Synchronized web/audio recording will also be added at that time. Right now you can only record the telephone audio. The product does not support VOIP (internet-delivered audio) for meeting attendees. That is scheduled for addition by the end of 2007. Telephone audio may be purchased from Learn.com's partnership with InterCall or you can use your own teleconferencing service. The end of year release should also add support for videoconferencing. There is no live video window in the interface at this time (a fact that doesn't bother me in the least, as I feel this feature gets overused to the detriment of most meetings).
Continue reading this article.
About the Author:
With a background in software development and marketing, Ken has been producing and delivering business webinars since 1999. His background in public speaking, radio, stage acting, and training has given him a unique perspective on what it takes to create a compelling and effective presentation. Currently Ken offers consulting services through his company Webinar Success (www.wsuccess.com).
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