IBM Mindspan Solutions introduces Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 in the Middle East

Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 includes new features and technological advancements that make it an ideal solution for organizations looking to reduce costs, speed time-to-market, and transform their knowledge assets into a competitive advantage. Lotus LearningSpace 5.0's innovative blended solution -- combining self-paced, collaborative and real-time capabilities in a single platform -- can result in immediate improvements in productivity, quality, and return on investment by allowing students to learn more efficiently and effectively.

"E-learning has become a mission-critical solution that helps organizations achieve their business goals," said Terry Burt, Lotus Regional Executive Middle East, North Africa Pakistan. "Now Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 makes it easier to address the learning demands of students, administrators and line of business managers. The enhanced virtual classroom capabilities help organizations drive real-time knowledge transfer to support key business information, such as new product introductions, regulatory compliance, and merger and acquisition integration, while lowering training costs."

"Academic institutions are also benefitting from our e-learning strategies and the enhanced capabilities of LearningSpace 5.0 provide an easy and interactive student interface, extensive management tools and more live virtual classroom features. These make is easier for learners to get the vital blend of teaching methods that they need (combining self-paced, collaborative and real-time capabilities), and for teachers to monitor and track progress," added Terry Burt.

Organizations Can Save Time and Money By Integrating New Features With Existing Technology Investments Lotus LearningSpace 5.0, the technology cornerstone of IBM Mindspan Solutions, is an e-learning technology platform that offers self-paced, collaborative and real-time capabilities, robust tracking and management and seamless integration of course content, all in one technology environment. This new version makes it easier for organizations to implement e-learning solutions, learners to get the vital blended learning they need, and managers to monitor and track progress.

Key features and benefits include:

Redesigned, Customizable Student Interface - Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 offers more pervasive, collaborative tools so students can easily chat with and send e-mail to classmates and instructors, strengthening the human element to the online learning experience. The redesigned student interface is based on Cascading Style Sheets and dynamic HTML for expanded customization possibilities to create client-specific solutions.

New Collaboration Features - Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 allows for the record and playback of live sessions so students never have to miss a valuable live session. The option for break-out sessions during live virtual classes further enhance the effectiveness of e-learning. Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 allows students to share documents and use e-mail launched within LearningSpace to contact classmates and instructors. Administrators can set up automatic e-mail notifications for such events as enrollment or server maintenance

Enhanced Performance, Scalability - With added support for Windows 2000, Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 enables organizations to reach wider audiences than ever before by providing improved scalability and dependability over previous versions. In addition, Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 administrators are able to take advantage of improvements in the newer versions of MS SQL, Oracle, and DB2.

New Integration Tools Available - Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 delivers key customization features and tools which make it easier to create and deliver courses that take advantage of self-paced, collaborative, and live virtual classrooms in one course, when appropriate, and all in one system. It can also be seamlessly integrated into human resource systems like PeopleSoft and SAP. Increased Support for Integration With Existing Lotus Domino Infrastructures - Lotus LearningSpace 5.0 is tightly integrated with Lotus Domino directories, and enables seamless coexistence of Lotus LearningSpace and Lotus Domino environments for easily managing student profiles and directory information.

IBM Mindspan Solutions has achieved status as the clear market leader by helping industry-leading organizations worldwide -- including leading global telecommunications, aviation, manufacturing, healthcare and finance companies -- plan for, create and deploy best-of-breed e-learning solutions.

IBM Mindspan Solutions - A Complete e-learning Solution
IBM Mindspan Solutions, the worldwide leader in e-learning solutions, leverages IBM's and Lotus' extensive experience, technologies and worldwide reach to provide organizations with e-learning solutions that solve mission-critical learning needs. IBM Mindspan Solutions utilizes dedicated e-learning sales specialists and an experienced set of worldwide service resources focused on the learning marketplace. These resources include more than 3,400 services practitioners, as well as a global content development community with 15 facilities around the world. Over the course of the year, IBM Mindspan Solutions has helped more than 500 organizations in 54 countries implement cost-saving e-learning initiatives, enabling them to solve business problems, such as bringing products to market faster, while increasing competitive advantage and improving quality and productivity.