Open Sesame
Now that you’ve got a great LMS that does everything you need and then some, what next? The hard part – pulling all of your content together. Some content captures unique institutional knowledge of your business. Other content is general knowledge. For institutional knowledge, there is no easy way out – you have to roll up your sleeves and either create the content in house or pay big bucks to have it done for you. For general knowledge you don’t have to re-invent the wheel or perform searches, follow advertisements, and get referrals to the known-brand content vendors.
In my training career I have been employed by a very large Fortune 50 financial organization. This organization has spared no expense and bought entire catalogs from multiple vendors. For years, I have had virtually unlimited access to thousands of courses from the leading content vendors. Even with a large bulk purchase, the content is expensive and a lot of that price is just the brand. The content has been adequate, but nothing special. Getting much of this content to work in our LMS system was a nightmare.
Recently, a new content vendor has entered the eLearning market, OpenSesame, presenting a unique value proposition for the content marketplace. It’s easiest to think of OpenSesame as an iTunes for eLearning. Just as iTunes allows songs to be uploaded for purchase, OpenSesame allows vendors to upload content for purchase. OpenSesame also ensures that content is compatible with virtually every LMS system, which is no small feat, including the Accord LMS.
OpenSesame has over 1700 courses posted from many vendors covering a myriad of topics. The content vendors range from independent developers to more established content providers. Content types range from simple content and quiz designs to interactive gaming.
I have had the pleasure of beta testing OpenSesame, and I was graciously extended the opportunity to be an Expert Reviewer for some of the content submitted to the site. I have performed several reviews, and I am genuinely impressed with much of what I am seeing.
Here’s a snippet of my review from a PRINCE2 Project Management course:
“The course is one of the best online project management courses I have seen (I've developed several, and reviewed many from leading industry vendors). It offers great content with superb guidance and engaging interaction. It complements the core content with rich resources and well-designed assessments.”
If you are seeking good content to compliment your Accord LMS, I encourage you to explore OpenSesame. The content available through the site is growing quickly, and spans a wide range of topics and formats. Content pricing is transparent and cost-effective. And, you can be assured that any content offered on OpenSesame will work in Accord LMS without issue.
Disclosure: I do not currently have any content posted to OpenSesame for purchase, nor do I get any compensation for referral to the service. I was not compensated for blogging about the experience of beta testing. I have no associations with the currently posted content on the site.