30/09/2007
ALISON CEO Update - September 28th 2007
Dear ALISON Learner,
In May of this year, I wrote to congratulate the first 10,000 people from 85 different countries to register with ALISON. As I write today, I am delighted to report we are now 100,000 registered learners in 202 countries – a superb expansion of our learning community since our launch in April 2007. Our continuing success is down to you: our learners and supporters, who have studied on ALISON, referred your friends and contacts, or who have led teams of learners through our interactive multimedia training online.
Article 26 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that: “Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free . . .” At ALISON, we believe that this statement should not be just a slogan. Our Mission is to enable anyone, anywhere to educate themselves via interactive multimedia learning materials available free online. As our portfolio of courses continues to grow, our goal to provide high-quality learning for all basic and essential skills for life and the workplace is being achieved. We cannot achieve this goal alone however; we need your help.
The ALISON free learning service is provided to individual learners worldwide by way of: our displaying appropriate advertising; charging nominal fees for services such as group management (i.e. for teachers or trainers); and via our learning content being paid for in-part by sponsors who wish to make quality-learning freely available. ALISON provides a scalable and sustainable way to provide free basic education to everyone worldwide. To help us achieve our goal of providing ALL basic and essential skills learning for life and for the workplace, we ask if you could do any or all of the following:
(i) Learn about ALISON and its Mission - It is important to ALISON that you understand our mission, the breadth of learning we provide, and the potential impact of ALISON and free online learning for all. ( http://alison.com/pages/About-ALISON )
See our ALISON Features page to review all services and opportunities provided by ALISON.
(ii) Study on ALISON - The best way for you to appreciate our quality free learning is to take a course! If you have not already done so, might we suggest basic desktop skills to start with? How well do your really know how to manage your PC/desktop, touch-type or sit in front of and use your PC safely? Try our ICT Courses (ECDL syllabus 4.5/4.0, e-Citizen), Touch Typing and Desktop Ergonomics courses.
(iii) Refer a Friend - ell your friends, contacts and work or study colleagues about ALISON. It is extremely important to us that our existing members recommend ALISON to their friends who will hopefully then become new members. Quite simply: the more learners we have, the more free learning we can provide. Help us to help you by spreading the word about ALISON. Click here to go to our "Refer a Friend" feature.
(iv) Start an Online Group - Learners from over 5,000 organisations worldwide including schools, local governments, colleges, non-profits and private corporations are using ALISON to train staff and students in basic skills. If you have a group of learners, then why not monitor their progress online? It is very simple to organise. Click here to learn more about setting up Learner Groups.
To see some of the organisations who have adopted ALISON for their internal training, click here.
If you would be happy to link to ALISON from your site, please click here which will take you to our "Linking to ALISON" page.
We provide ALISON posters in over 200 languages so let us know what you need (see item (viii) below). Click here to review or to download our posters.
(vi) Identify a Course - If you would like to study a course that is not yet available on ALISON please let us know. We have a lot of new courses on the way, but by telling us what you would like to study, you will help us to prioritise our work. Why not ensure that the learning needs of your local students, employees, region or country are being addressed on ALISON?
http://alison.com/contact?subject=addition
(vii) Identify a Publisher - ALISON shares revenues earned with established publishers of high-quality content so that those publishers can provide their high-quality interactive learning to individuals for free. If you are an established interactive multimedia publisher and you are interested in globalising your marketing channels, then we have opportunities to present to you. For more information, click here.
(viii) Translate into your Language - With registered learners in over 200 countries worldwide, ALISON is used by people of many different native tongues. In countries where English is not the spoken language or among immigrant groups in English-speaking countries, ALISON is widely used to improve English comprehension skills. The interactive "SEE, HEAR, DO" learning on ALISON has proven to improve English dramatically. To encourage study on ALISON by learners who have some knowledge of English, we provide our introduction posters, presentations and brochures in multiple languages. If you are willing to translate our introductory marketing materials so that speakers of your native language can engage with ALISON more easily, you can start translating right away! Please click here. We are interested in accommodating every language.
(ix) Become a Referral Partner - If you are in the position to refer multiple training groups to train on ALISON, then we would be happy to share the income we generate from the provision of these groups with you. Please see information on our "Referral Partner Programme".
(x) Advise Us - The ALISON Learning Outreach Team is very keen to know how we might publicise ALISON and free learning in your country. Perhaps you can tell us who we should talk to in order to make ALISON better known? How can we integrate ALISON into your regional or national workforce training programmes to help your local workforce compete in an increasingly competitive world?
http://alison/contact
(xi) Add a Testimonial - Your endorsement of the ALISON service is very important. We have many hundreds of testimonials online but yours is equally important to us. If you would like to compliment the ALISON service, it will encourage others to investigate and to adopt ALISON for learning across the world.
http://alison.com/mod/contact
(xii) Send us Feedback - ALISON is a new service and we are still learning from our learning community as to how best to deliver and grow our free learning service worldwide. Our aims are bold and ambitious, but we need your help to achieve them, and every bit of support helps. Please let us know what you think. Tell us what we are getting wrong and what we are getting right. We are ready to listen and to act.
http://alison.com/mod/contact
We would be hugely grateful if you could help us in one of the ways outlined above!
Wishing you every success with your learning.
Mike
Mike Feerick
Founder & CEO, ALISON.
P.S. I will be in touch again when we register our 250,000th learner!
List of Recent News
