Press Releases & News

Caja Madrid – established for some 300 years and currently Spain’s fourth largest financial group – has revolutionised its training systems through the use of a learning content management system (LCMS) augmented by a learning management system. The new system – supplied by Giunti Labs, the leading learning and mobile content management solution provider – is intended to improve both the efficiency and cost effectiveness of Caja Madrid’s staff training activities.

High levels of employee productivity and efficiency are crucial to Caja Madrid’s continued success and growth. This is the main reason why Giunti Labs’ learn eXact LCMS represents the most suitable solution for the organisation’s training contents production and management.

The project – known as ‘Aula Virtual de Caja Madrid’ – aims to exploit, and profit from, Caja Madrid’s as well as its partners’ and collaborators’ knowledge. All this is possible through a special system for learning materials development and delivery which is aligned to market rhythm and requirements.

This brand new ‘Aula Virtual’ supports a web-based content development method that can be used by internal and external subject matter experts as well as by learning object (LO) providers. Since LOs are then managed on the same LCMS and labelled with the same metadata schema, the whole process becomes more efficient from both content reuse and update points of view.

“The learn eXact LCMS solution allows Caja Madrid to organise – according to industry standards – all its learning content into one single content management system and digital repository,” explained Giunti Labs’ CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali.

“Most importantly, the legacy content of a huge number of instructor-led courses is being transferred into the system and tagged with a SCORM-based metadata and taxonomies framework. The same framework is also applied to all e-learning content.

“To ensure the efficient reuse and quality of the content, all third party content producers use learn eXact for their content production and management,” he said.

In February 2009, Caja Madrid adopted the SCORM 2004 standard for all its learning materials and recently began insisting that all those providing its learning materials did so with Giunti Labs’ SCORM 2004 conformant eXact Packager software.

In April 2009, Giunti Labs’ eXact Lobster Digital Repository was installed in Caja Madrid and content providers started generating content connected to Giunti Labs’ eXact Lobster at Caja Madrid. In the first months of 2010, Caja Madrid’s employees have begun using the resulting learning content.

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About Caja Madrid

Caja Madrid is Spain’s fourth largest financial group. It offers a complete range of banking products and services to meet its 7 million retail, business and private customers’ needs. Its customer base comprises families, small and medium sized companies, big corporations and private and public institutions.

With more than 15,000 employees and an extensive network of more than 2,000 offices all over Spain, Caja Madrid can also boast of an advanced subsidiary system comprising a series of external networks. One of the most important of these is the MAPFRE network system that, in addition to its brokers and delegates, also provides more than 600 Caja Madrid dealers inside MAPFRE offices.

Caja Madrid also benefits from its foreign branches in Lisbon, Miami and Vienna and has a strong presence in other countries including the US, Mexico, Cuba, China and Morocco.

Caja Madrid is also a leader in social action in terms of the amount of resources applied. For more than three centuries it has been working hard, from both a social and cultural point of view, to address social issues and provide assistance in cultural, educational and environmental sectors.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world. Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery, covering:

• Multi-language bespoke content production

• Content management and digital repository platforms

• ePortfolio and skills management solutions

• Mobile learning technologies

• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs launches new personalisation features to its blended learning content management and digital repository solutions at the Learning Technologies 2010 event in London.

Giunti Labs – the global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (HarvestRoad Hive) – will present recent developments which are adding state-of-the-art competency and skills based content personalisation features to instructor-led, online and mobile learning materials at the Learning Technologies exhibition and Learning and Skills Forum in London’s Olympia 2, on 27^th and 28^th January.

Fabrizio Cardinali, Giunti Labs’ CEO and chair of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG) will present ‘Learning content management solutions: this time it’s personal!’ The presentations will be held on:

• 27 January, from 3pm to 3.30pm in ‘theatre 6’ at the Learning and Skills Forum

• 28 January, from 1.15pm to 1.45pm in ‘theatre 3’ at the Learning Technologies exhibition

Visitors to the Learning Technologies 2010 event can discover more about Giunti Labs’ advances in this field by visiting stand number 21 in the Learning Technologies’ exhibition hall.

“At Learning Technologies this year, Giunti Labs will outline how it meets the learning individualisation needs of contemporary organisations with the media and skills-based personalisation features of its new eXact Portfolio and the location-based and multi-device channel capability of its eXact Mobile modules for its enterprise learning content management solution, learn eXact LCMS,” commented Fabrizio Cardinali.

“In a world of rapidly developing competition, organisations need to identify their workers’ skills, knowledge and competencies, as well as deliver the right learning content just in time, where and when the user needs it,” he continued.

Increasingly, the learning experience must take into account the learner’s learning background, study track, likes and dislikes, abilities and disabilities, location and device used to access the learning materials. Among other things, this means providing learning contents in which are embedded a high degree of adaptive personalisation when these contents are accessed.

“New qualitative learning content personalisation capabilities are now coming to market, thanks to advancements in new media and HR technologies,” he added.

JJ van Delsen, Sales Director of Giunti Labs UK, said: “We are moving to a far richer mobile learning environment offering a large set of collaborative, constructive and location based learning experiences. These should make the content experience more complete, customised and, hence, enjoyable.”

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About Learning Technologies

Now in its 11th year, Learning Technologies claims to be Europe’s leading showcase of organisational learning and the technology used to support learning at work. The Learning Technologies 2010 conference and exhibition takes place on 27th and 28th January 2010 at Olympia 2, in London. For further details, visit: http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/

About Giunti Labs Giunti Labs – http://www.giuntilabs.com – is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world. Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:

• Multi-language bespoke content production

• Content management and digital repository platforms

• ePortfolio and skills management solutions

• Mobile learning technologies

• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Standards, tools and techniques for competency and skills based learning content personalisation are beginning to emerge – which is just as well because they can help organisations perform better in the increasingly competitive global labour marketplace and world economy. This is the message that Giunti Labs, a leading global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (HarvestRoad Hive), will outline at this year’s Online Educa conference and exhibition, being held in Berlin from 2^nd to 4^th December.

According to Giunti Labs’ CEO, Fabrizio Cardinali, who will give a presentation at the Online Educa conference, leading organisations are now reshaping their learning departments, re-tooling them towards systems and technologies that empower higher degrees of learning personalisation and customisation.

These systems and technologies are based on students’ and employees’ skills, competencies and portfolios as well as the delivery media available. Such systems and technologies make organisations better suited to empower their evolving workforces and their increasing re-skilling and performance support needs.

Cardinali’s presentation will explore the new learning content production and delivery strategy, definition and infrastructure for the Training Innovation Research and (job) Orientation (TRIO) project, Europe’s largest work-related e-learning regional initiative developed by Giunti Labs for Italy’s Tuscany Region.

TRIO offers a wide range of learning products for job related skills, with a catalogue of over 1,400 e-learning courses and, to date, some 542,000 such courses delivered to over 140,000 users since TRIO’s inception in 2002.

The TRIO project infrastructure, conceived by Giunti Labs, is based on an extended implementation of Moodle, including information services (KCMF), virtual classroom services (DimDim) and collaborative social networking services for sharing knowledge and experiences (Elgg). These are integrated with Giunti Labs’ HarvestRoad Hive, a federated digital repository System (FDRS) which unbundles, manages and delivers any form of content such as SCORM/AICC courseware, learning objects, digital assets, e-books and podcasts.

By adding the HarvestRoad Hive DR infrastructure to Moodle, TRIO managers can unbundle their content offering from any specific delivery platform – and offer the content repository to third party eGovernment initiatives and public authorities with no limit to the content strategy and delivery solution in place. TRIO is already integrated with several commonly used course management systems, authoring and content assembly tools – and the final catalogue has already been adopted by several local government administrations in Italy, Spain and beyond.

At the Online Educa conference, Giunti Labs will also launch its new ePortfolio and Skills Management System, eXact Portfolio. This web-based eskills and competency management software includes a full skills management application dealing with topics such as apprenticeship, validation scenarios and peer ratings.

The eXact Portfolio solution fully interacts with Giunti Labs’ flagship learn eXact LCMS solution to enable skills based content personalisation and repackaging.

Ola Badersten, Managing Director of Giunti Labs Scandinavia, where the eXact Portfolio module was designed, commented: “Current applications blending Giunti Labs’ new eXact Portfolio module with organisations’ enterprise learning content management systems address content personalisation needs in a large telecom company in Sweden; Fundeon, a knowledge centre providing education for the construction sector in Benelux, and a number of financial services institutions worldwide. Personalised learning, incorporating blended learning opportunities, has even reached the world of eGovernment and labour organisations.

“On a strategic level, eXact Portfolio is about identifying, charting and monitoring personal skills,” he added. “Ultimately, the vision is for each person to have one ePortfolio account which is used from that person’s first day in school until their retirement – and, perhaps, beyond. This ePortfolio might link with digital repositories of content to provide personalised learning content on demand, based on the user’s skills gaps, needs and objectives.”

At Online Educa Berlin, Giunti Labs will be at stand B61 at Foyer Potsdam, together with its international partners Stoas from Benelux and International Turnkey Systems (ITS) for the Emirates and Arabic-speaking countries.

As members of the European Learning Industry Group (ELIG), Giunti Labs will also attend ELIG’s workshop at the Online Educa conference, which is being held on 2^nd December from 2pm to 6pm.

This workshop brings together key stakeholders to outline the next moves towards achieving a ‘learning society’. These key stakeholders include policy makers, corporate learning officers, learning industry experts and representatives from the education world.

Further details of this workshop can be accessed from the ELIG website (www.elig.org). Registration for the workshop will be free, on a first come first served basis.

End

About Online Educa, Berlin

Online Educa Berlin, the largest global e-learning conference for the corporate, education and public service sectors, is the key annual networking event for the international e-learning and technology-supported learning and training industry. It attracts experts in the vanguard of technology-enhanced learning from around the world. Participants forge essential cross-industry contacts and partnerships, thereby enhancing their knowledge and expertise.

For further details, visit http://www.online-educa.com/the-conference

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world.
Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:
• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.
Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs, a leading global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (HarvestRoad Hive), is supporting the Faculty of Education Sciences at the University of Genoa in the provision of its Master’s in E-learning degree programme.

The programme, which is also supported by The European Pedagogical ICT Licence Group (EPICT) and the Italian Artificial Intelligence Association, is now in its fifth year. Running from February to December 2010, the programme offers formal education and a university degree in educational technologies – covering e-learning project design skills, as well as the organisation and management of technology supported learning programmes.

“We’re delighted to be able to support the University of Genoa in helping to set and disseminate best practice where designing, developing and delivering e-learning materials is concerned,” said Fabrizio Cardinali, of Giunti Labs. “It is vital that professionals in the e-learning sector develop their knowledge and skills to the utmost if organisations in all sectors of the economy are to reap the maximum benefit from the use of e-learning and related materials.”

Focusing especially on e-learning process management, the course aims to cover everything required to design, produce and deliver an e-learning course. This year, the main focus will be on e-learning material production and creating online learning communities.

The Master’s programme is principally delivered via distance learning, using a SCORM compliant e-learning platform which is designed for easy access, thus offering the students maximum flexibility to plan their studies. Students will be able to access the material at any time and contact both the tutors and fellow students.

The programme will also include a period of hands-on, practical experience for the students.

To qualify for the Master’s programme students will need to hold at least a Bachelor’s degree.

Registration for the Master’s programme closes on 16^th January 2010.

For further information, visit: http://masterelearning.unige.it

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About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world.
Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:
• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs, a leading global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (HarvestRoad Hive), has its latest, state-of-the-art learning content solutions on show at the Ministry of Defence (MoD) Modern Learning Symposium Event (MLS).

The MLS, which is being held on HMS SULTAN at Gosport near Portsmouth, on 19^th November, provides an opportunity for the defence sector to explore and examine some of the latest developments in learning technology.

MoD figures show that 30 per cent of training exercise cancellations in the past year were put down to ’savings measures’. In addition a recent paper, written by the Policy & Management Board from the United Kingdom National Defence Association, posed the question, ‘Is a lack of training in the Royal Air Force leading to unacceptable stress in the air transport and helicopter fleets?’

JJ van Delsen, Giunti Labs’ sales director in the UK, commented: “At Giunti Labs, we save organisations money and resources in their learning content development and delivery. Our technology and processes enable large and small content development projects to deliver quickly and with excellent, consistent quality.

“Giunti Labs also has an advanced federated digital repository system, which allows content to be accessed from different and remote locations,” he added. “This is already in use with several defence organisations around the world.”

Giunti Labs, with its many years of expertise in building intelligent databases and the application of learning technologies standards, such as SCORM 2004 and technical publications specifications, such as S1000D, is able to organise vast amounts of data, and make this data not only deliverable but also usable by service personnel – often ‘in the field’.

Further details about the MLS can be found at: http://www.modlearning.co.uk/pages/default.aspx

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About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world.
Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:
• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.

Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti Group has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Florida Virtual School (FLVS), an established leader in developing and providing virtual K-12 education solutions, announced today at the 2009 Virtual School Symposium a strategic partnership with Giunti Labs, a leading global provider of learning content management and digital repository solutions, to create a state-of-the-art Learning Content Management System (LCMS).

Working together, Giunti Labs and FLVS will create a new LCMS that will enable FLVS to repackage current course content into personalized learning opportunities for each student, via a range of modalities – traditional, virtual school setting, mobile devices, or the learning management system supported by their school. Teachers will have access to a searchable index of content by which they can quickly and easily update courses and customize learning based upon individual student needs. The new system will allow FLVS to automatically map courses to state learning standards, and to efficiently maintain and update courses as standards change. By allowing content and design to work independently, the LCMS also will greatly reduce the publishing cycle for building, updating and customizing courses.

“We believe every student deserves a unique learning experience. This is possible with the new learning content management system because it will enable us to give each student a dynamic, flexible, engaging, and personalized education,” stated Joy Smith, Chief Development Officer for FLVS. ”This is what each student truly deserves and needs in order to be prepared for a world of increased global competitiveness. We are grateful for Giunti Labs’ guidance and support as we embark on creating the next generation of online courses.”

“I am particularly proud to announce this strategic alliance with FLVS. It is vital that we succeed together, because this will give students the improved access to valued online knowledge they need to skill and educate themselves to remain competitive in future global markets.” explained CEO of Giunti Labs’ Fabrizio Cardinali.

Giunti Labs’ educational research activities started in 2000. Subsequently, it has advanced learning content production and management solutions based on innovative technological concepts such as Reusable Content Objects, XML templating, IMS and SCORM Interoperability Standards.

Today, Giunti Labs’ learn eXact learning content management suite (LCMS) and HarvestRoad Hive Digital Repository platforms are adopted in more than 200 key clients worldwide. These include the Riyadh-based National Center for eLearning, federating content repositories across all the Saudi Universities in the Kingdom, the TRIO project in Italy which, with a Repository of approximately 1.500 vocational courses with more than 150 000 users, served dynamically through Moodle, represents Europe’s leading vocational education initiative and the UK NHS R-ITI Initiative, where Giunti Labs has been selected as world leader to produce and manage thousands of Continuous Medical Education Courses at a fraction of the cost.

FLVS currently offers more than 100 subject courses, including core subjects, world languages, electives, honors and Advanced Placement courses. During the 2008-2009 school year, FLVS delivered more than 154,000 half-credit courses to students in Florida and is projecting continued growth in the 2009-2010 school year. FLVS courses also are used in virtual learning programs in forty-four other states and thirty-nine countries, making FLVS not just a national, but a global leader in K-12 online education.

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About Florida Virtual School (FLVS)

Florida Virtual School (FLVS) is an established leader in developing and providing virtual K-12 education solutions to students all over Florida, the US and the world. A nationally recognized eLearning model and recipient of numerous awards, FLVS was founded in 1997 and was the country’s first, state-wide internet-based public high school. Today, FLVS serves full-time and part-time students in grades K-12 and provides a variety of custom solutions for schools and districts to meet student needs.

FLVS aims to deliver a high quality, technology-based education that provides the skills and knowledge students need for success in the 21st Century. Its vision is to transform education and create possibilities for learners worldwide.

FLVS News Contact:

Jodie Pozo-Olano, Sequoia PR for FLVS

Phone: 540-349-2311; Email: Jodie@Sequoiapr.com

About Giunti Labs
Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world.
Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:
• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.  Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Giunti News Contacts:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs

Phone: +39 3474435167; Email: m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR for Giunti

Phone: +44 (0)1727 860405; Email:bob.little@boblittlepr.com

Giunti Labs, a leading global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (Hive), has signed a partner agreement with Saffron Interactive. Under the terms of the agreement Saffron Interactive, which is a London based online and mobile learning provider working with clients around the world, will market Giunti Labs’ content management solutions.

“Naturally, we’re delighted to have Saffron Interactive as a champion and advocate for our systems,” commented JJ van Delsen, Sales Director for Giunti Labs in the UK. “Saffron is a well established business and they work with an enterprise customer base in relevant sectors.

“Content management is still a matter for large organisations,” he continued. “These organisations build more content – and the need to manage this professionally and economically is key.”

“Saffron Interactive develops bespoke e-learning, learning and training solutions on a variety of subjects,” said Saffron Interactive’s CEO, Hanif Sazen. “Everything Saffron delivers is bespoke, built in partnership with its clients to deliver business results and improved performance.

“Over the years, we’ve built strong relationships with a number of partners within the industry,” he added. “This means that we’re able to offer an enhanced service to all our clients – so they, as well as Saffron, can benefit from our partner relationships.”

About Giunti Labs

Giunti Labs http://www.giuntilabs.com is a leading Online and Mobile Learning Content Management Solutions provider with offices around the world.
Giunti Labs provides a wide range of solutions for content development, content management and content delivery; covering:
• Multi-language bespoke content production
• Content management and digital repository platforms
• ePortfolio and skills management solutions
• Mobile learning technologies
• Consulting and professional services

Giunti Labs provides solutions to many sectors including public sector, defence, manufacturing, finance, retail, ICT, education and healthcare.
Giunti Labs is part of Giunti Group, a leading educational and cultural heritage publisher with roots back to 1841. Over the years, Giunti has built a catalogue of over 12.000 titles and has acquired new brands worldwide.

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3474435167, m.leikas@giuntilabs.com

Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405, bob.little@boblittlepr.com