LearnStream

Last updated
LearnStreamLogo Color.gif

LearnStream is an e-learning company based in Fredericton, Canada. The company was originally started in 1998 [1] through a leveraged management buyout of the operation from its former parent company, FirstClass Systems Corp based in White Rock, BC. LearnStream Strategies relaunched in 2022, to provide strategic consulting and development services in the online education, corporate training, and eLearning space.

Contents

The company was founded by entrepreneurs Ken Reimer [2] and Phil Lambert, who raised the capital and engineered the management buyout from the parent company. Reimer was previously president of FirstClass Systems Product Development Corporation, and had previous entrepreneurial adventures in Western Canada. Lambert was previously vice president of FirstClass Systems Product Development Corporation and brought extensive experience with large multi-national manufacturers and small start-ups to the venture.

Description

Although the company focused originally on IT training, it expanded the client base to include financial services, pharmaceuticals, international development, and defense.

One of the recognitions for the company was winning the Canadian New Media Company of the Year award in 2000. [3] It also won Cindy awards, the KIRA Award, the K. C. Irving Quality Award, and a number of Multimedia Producer awards. [4]

The company was purchased in 2005 by Vitesse Learning, and operated from its New Brunswick base until the original LearnStream was folded into a merged entity. In 2021 LearnStream was relaunched to serve a growing market for eLearning and online learning.

Influence

As an eLearning pioneer based in Fredericton, LearnStream was a major player in the development of the eLearning workforce of instructional designers, graphic artists, media developers, programmers and others. Many LearnStream alumni have joined and now bring those skills to other firms in the Fredericton area, including Bluedrop Performance Learning, Innovatia, Skillsoft, PulseLearning, Red Hot Learning, PQA, and Virtual Expert Clinics. The alumni remain in contact through a Facebook group for Former LearnStream Employees.

A Telegraph-Journal editorial referred to LearnStream as one of four companies (LearnStream, Mariner Partners, Q1Labs, and Radian6) who "have demonstrated that New Brunswickers have what it takes to excel in the development and application of new technologies". [5]

Related Research Articles

Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to traditional mass media, such as printed material or audio recordings, which features little to no interaction between users. Popular examples of multimedia include video podcasts, audio slideshows and animated videos. Multimedia also contains the principles and application of effective interactive communication such as the building blocks of software, hardware, and other technologies. The five main building blocks of multimedia are text, image, audio, video, and animation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alludo</span> Software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario

Cascade Parent Limited, doing business as Alludo, is a Canadian software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, specializing in graphics processing. Formerly called the Corel Corporation, the company is known for producing software titles such as CorelDRAW, and for acquiring AfterShot Pro, PaintShop Pro, Painter, Video Studio and WordPerfect.

Educational technology is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning. When referred to with its abbreviation, edtech, it often refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Industrial arts</span>

Industrial arts is an educational program that features the fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. Industrial Arts are commonly referred to as Technology Education. It may include small engine repair and automobile maintenance, and all programs usually cover technical drawing as part of the curricula. As an educational term, industrial arts dates from 1904 when Charles R. Richards of Teachers College, Columbia University, New York suggested it to replace manual training.

Continuing medical education (CME) is continuing education (CE) that helps those in the medical field maintain competence and learn about new and developing areas of their field. These activities may take place as live events, written publications, online programs, audio, video, or other electronic media. Content for these programs is developed, reviewed, and delivered by faculty who are experts in their individual clinical areas. Similar to the process used in academic journals, any potentially conflicting financial relationships for faculty members must be both disclosed and resolved in a meaningful way. However, critics complain that drug and device manufacturers often use their financial sponsorship to bias CMEs towards marketing their own products.

ScriptX is a discontinued multimedia-oriented development environment created in 1990 by Kaleida Labs. Unlike packages such as Macromedia Director, ScriptX is not an authoring tool for creating multimedia titles, although it does come with a built-in authoring tool. Rather, it is a general-purpose, object-oriented, multiplatform development environment that includes a dynamic language and a class library. ScriptX is as applicable for implementing client–server applications as it is for authoring multimedia titles. ScriptX was designed from the ground up in an integrated fashion, making it smaller, more consistent, and easier to learn than equivalent traditional systems available at the time.

Unipart Group is a British multinational logistics, supply chain, manufacturing and consultancy company headquartered in Cowley, Oxfordshire, England. It has operations in Europe, North America, Australia and Japan and works across a variety of sectors that include automotive, retail, technology and rail.

Biff Mitchell is a novelist, satirist, and humorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tata Interactive Systems</span>

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) was an Indian developer of custom e-learning based in Kolkata, India. The company was acquired by MPS Limited in June 2018. The company was represented across the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, the Middle East, India, the United Kingdom, The Netherlands and Switzerland. TIS' offered corporations, universities, schools, publishers and government institutions training including simulations, story based learning, courseware and curriculum design & development, special-needs education, assessment tools, electronic performance support systems (EPSS), mobile learning, game-based learning, consulting services and training outsourcing services. Until the acquisition, TIS was a part of the $100bn Tata Group. The newly acquired company is now known as MPS Interactive Systems.

A Practice Enterprise is a practice company that runs like a real business silhouetting a real enterprise's business procedures, products and services. A Practice Enterprise resembles a real company in its form, organization and function. Each Practice Enterprise trades with other Practice Enterprises, following standard commercial business procedures in the Practice Enterprise worldwide economic environment. It offers a ‘learning-by-doing’ training programme with the aim to better prepare young people for their future careers and to increase their entrepreneurship potential through running their own Practice Enterprise.

James "Jim" Linder is an American author, academic and businessperson, as well as an authority on university research commercialization. He serves as chief executive officer (CEO) of Nebraska Medicine, and most recently was president of the University Technology Development Corporation and chief strategist for the University of Nebraska system. He is also a professor of pathology and microbiology at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.

In the history of virtual learning environments, the 1990s was a time of growth, primarily due to the advent of the affordable computer and of the Internet.

Stephen Gilfus is an American businessman, entrepreneur, architect and engineer known as "The Father of Modern E-Learning". He is a founder of Blackboard Inc. and CourseInfo LLC, where he held executive positions from 1997 to 2007. In July 2007, Gilfus started a global education think tank in Washington, DC, focused on education innovation.

Datatel, Inc. was a private company that provided fully integrated software and professional services to build enterprise education platforms for higher education until it combined with its competitor SunGard Higher Education to form Ellucian in 2012. Datatel was headquartered in Fairfax, Virginia.

Fox Learning Systems is an American e-learning and multimedia training company based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of virtual learning environments</span> Home

A virtual learning environment (VLE) is a system that creates an environment designed to facilitate teachers' management of educational courses for their students, especially a system using computer hardware and software, which involves distance learning. In North America, a virtual learning environment is often referred to as a "learning management system" (LMS).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">SumTotal Systems</span> American technology company

SumTotal Systems, Inc. is a software company based in Gainesville, Florida, that provides human resource management software and services to private and public sector organizations. The company uses multiple cloud-based channels, including software as a service (SaaS), hosted subscription, and premises-based licensure.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">D2L</span> Global software company

D2L is a Canada-based global software company with offices in Australia, Brazil, Europe, Singapore, and the United States.

INJAZ Al-Arab is a non-profit organization for education and training in workforce readiness, financial literacy and entrepreneurship across the Arab World. INJAZ Al-Arab is the Regional Operating Center of JA Worldwide (JAW), one of the largest global non-governmental organizations dedicated to addressing fundamental social and economic challenges faced by young people. INJAZ Al-Arab is also an active participant in the United Nations Global Compact. Over 3.7 million students have participated in a broad base of entrepreneurship training opportunities aimed at developing basic business skills to start and run their own businesses while obtaining soft skills increasingly demanded by the private sector. Since its inception, INJAZ Al-Arab has built a network of over 88,000 classroom volunteers, who are leaders from the corporate world. INJAZ Al-Arab has a Regional Board of Directors, which comprises 24 executives that manage some companies and institutions, as well as a team of staff, led by Akef Aqrabawi, President and CEO of the Middle East/North Africa for JA Worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arden University</span> British private for-profit university

Arden University is a private, for-profit teaching university in the United Kingdom. It offers a variety of undergraduate and post-graduate programmes with both blended and online distance learning delivery options. Its head office is in Coventry with study centres in Birmingham, Manchester, London and Berlin. Originally established as Resource Development International (RDI) in 1990, it was later bought by Capella Education and awarded university status by the British government in 2015. Since August 2016, it has been owned by Global University Systems.

References

  1. Andre Veniot, Building a Dream, Telegraph Journal, May 1, 1998
  2. Personal Website for Ken Reimer
  3. LearnStream Nominated, The Daily Gleaner, June 21, 2000
  4. Training Wheels, AV Video Multimedia Producer, February 2001
  5. The Future is Intellectual, Editorial, Telegraph Journal, April 9, 2012