TRAINING MEDIA REVIEW ANNOUNCES TOP TRAINING PRODUCTS FOR 2009

Training Media Review, the only online source of practitioner evaluations of training technology and off-the-shelf materials, has just announced its Products of the Year for 2009.

Based on expert user reviews, TMR editors have named two Products of the Year instead of one. "We couldn't bring ourselves to exclude one or the other of the two candidates for top honors so we gave up and named two," said William Ellet, editor of Training Media Review.

CO-PRODUCT OF THE YEAR
The two Products of the Year are:

• Adobe Captivate
• Training Delivery Guide

Adobe Captivate is a rapid development authoring application. It allows learning professionals to record actions on a computer screen, add audio narration, and produce supporting documentation. The application can integrate material from many other programs such as PowerPoint slides and video.

The reviewer, Patti Shank, an expert on authoring tools used for training and education, said, "The bottom line is that Captivate 4 is an incredibly valuable tool that can be used for a wide variety of purposes." Patti has reviewed the tool several times before for Training Media Review and is intimately familiar with what it does and how it has evolved.

Training Delivery Guide is an online program-planning tool produced by MIT’s Training Alignment Team. The tool itself is a clickable graphic of the planning process with webpages and downloadable documents.

Ann Yakimovicz, the reviewer, said, "The Training Delivery Guide is a tremendous planning support that can help trainers and training managers reach sound, justifiable answers that are suitable for their participants and organizations. I strongly recommend this planning tool because of its sound framework." Ann has a Ph.D. in Educational Human Resource Development and manages the corporate university for The PBSJ Corporation.

TOP PRODUCTS 2009
Seven other products were named as top products reviewed in 2009. They include two other authoring tools, Articulate Rapid E-Learning Studio Professional, a rapid authoring application, and Lectora Professional Publishing Suite from Trivantis, a heavy-duty program for building highly interactive e-learning courses.

Also included is the book Presence-Based Coaching written by Doug Silsbee and published by Jossey-Bass. Several DVDs were named: WAYMISH, a program on customer service from CRM Learning; Drop by Drop, a release from Coastal Training Technologies on micro-inequities and their effect at work; and The Clarity Imperative, an unusual approach to leadership, also from CRM Learning.

The reviews of these products are available on the Training Media Review website. TMR can provide media and vendor representatives with access to the reviews for a limited time.

Training Media Review is an online subscription publication that provides practitioner reviews and ratings of off-the-shelf training content (online courses, software, videos, books) and select training technology. Independence, objectivity, and candor are core values. Training Media Review does not charge vendors for product reviews and does not solicit consulting work from them. All TMR reviewers are independent consultants or employees of organizations not involved in producing or selling off-the-shelf training.

For further information, contact Bill Ellet, editor of Training Media Review:

617-489-9120
617-447-4623 (cell)

To contact Bill by email, please use this link.