for W3c validation

The 5th annual ‘eLearning Movers and Shakers’ list has been published by Bob Little (UK) and reflects the top 10 most influential people in corporate eLearning globally and regionally.

As a member of the selection review committee for the APAC region with over 50 nominations, we were very conscious of the interpretation of influence – a challenge faced across the entire digital and social media landscape. Simply measuring someone’s influence by their number of followers was deemed inadequate, yet without a digital footprint, distribution of your message would be limited.  Ryan Tracey’s 3 determinants  of influence outlined last year provided a good starting point:
1. Intent to change other people’s behaviour.
2. Leverage social media to expand your sphere of influence.
3. Produce original content.

The review committee considered some additional factors which were felt to be essential to a Mover & Shaker in the eLearning sector:

• As a practitioner – openly sharing experiences and stories (where possible) that could guide others towards best practice.
• Conference presentations that inspired others to take action in their own contexts.
• Contributing to debates on practice or theory – through industry publications, blog posts, comments in discussion forums etc.
• Supporting others by sharing or distributing their best practice or findings.

In our APAC region it was exciting to be included on the list again in 2013, alongside other Aussie colleagues Ryan Tracey & Joyce Seitzinger.

The APAC Top 10 List: 
1. Amit Garg – Co-founder of Upside Learning, m-learning evangelist, international speaker and contributor to the Upside Learning Blog. (Position last year: 1)
2. Manish Mohan – Senior Vice President at NIIT, mentor at e3cube, extensive corporate career, award winner and writer of the Learn and Lead blog. (Position last year: 4)
3. Abtar Kaur – Professor of education and languages at Open University Malaysia, Programme Head for Master of Instructional Design and Technology and Programme Coordinator for Bachelor of Teaching (Science), international speaker, consultant and award winner. (Position last year: 3)
4. Joyce Seitzinger – Lecturer of blended learning at Deakin University, author of Moodle Tool Guide for Teachers, international speaker and writer of the Cat’s Pyjamas blog. (Position last year: 6)
5. Anne Bartlett-Bragg – Managing Director Asia-Pacific of the Ripple Effect Group, sessional academic of e-learning at the University of Technology Sydney and contributor to the Ripple Effect Group blog. (Position last year: 7)
6. Ryan Tracey – E-Learning Manager at AMP, Advisory Board Member at eLearn Magazine, Reviewer at the Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, author of magazine articles and writer of the E-Learning Provocateur blog. (Position last year: 9)
7. Sahan Chattopadhyay – Enterprise Community Manager at Thoughtworks and writer of the ID and Other Reflections blog.(Position last year: 2)
8. Manish Gupta– CEO of G-Cube Solutions, an e-learning products and services company; director of Vivo Collaboration, offering unified conferencing software, and speaker on performance support, experiential learning, gamification and just-in-time learning. (New entry for 2014)
9. Sumeet Moghe – Training Manager at Thoughtworks, avid tweeter and writer of theThe Learning Generalist blog. (Position last year: 5)
10 equal. Zaid Ali Alsagoff – E-Learning Manager at the International Medical University, avid tweeter and writer of several blogs including ZaidLearn and e-Learning In Malaysia. (Position last year: 10)
10 equal. Gautam Ghosh – in charge of HR strategy and projects for Philips India. He specialises in HR, organisation development and how businesses can use social tools for HR. He’s a subject matter expert in the HR and social media area for SHRM India, and his blog has been listed, by HRWorld, among the top 25 HR blogs worldwide. (New entry for 2014)

‘Bubbling under’
Others who just missed out on making this year’s list included:
Rob Wilkins – Head of Learning & Development at Aussie Home Loans, avid tweeter and writer of the Ruminations of a Learning and Development Professional blog. (Position last year: eight)
Vikas Joshi – founder, chairman and managing director of Harbinger Knowledge Products and a thought leader in the field of interactivity.
Jeevan Joshi – Principal Consultant & Founder of KnowledgeWorking, Producer & Community Manager at The Learning Cafe, speaker, author of the ‘KnowledgeWorking’ blog and co-author of ‘The Learning Cafe’ blog.
Janhavi Padture – online learning interactivity specialist and speaker, working with Harbinger Knowledge Products

2013 was a turbulent year for eLearning – not only in the corporate sector but also seen across higher education and vocational sectors. Three key trends dominated the conversations:

1. The shift towards mobile learning saw increased demand from learners yet under represented in the market (see my article on The State of Mobile Learning).
2. The publicity and emergence of MOOCs, heralded as a major disruptor learning in to both higher education and potentially organisations, has yet to show any major impact. However, we’re already seeing substantial change as a consequence of MOOCs.
3. The maturing of approaches to social learning – beyond the simplicity of integrating social media, but the acknowledgement of learning that occurs in contexts beyond the formal structures or classrooms or eLearning courses and enabled through the use of social intranets.

The forward view of 2014 is not looking any less turbulent in the corporate eLearning market – stay tuned here for updates as emerging trends are revealed and examples of best practice are shared.