By now you’ve probably read about Sparkeo’s affiliate tools and how to create an affiliate course on Sparkeo. But maybe you already have courses that you’ve begun to sell that you’d like to make available for affiliates.  We’d like to remind you that once you have made a video course available to affiliates and a sale has been made, you will no longer be able to change the commission that you’d like to give the affiliate marketers.

To make a previously uploaded video course available for affiliates, log in and click on the course through your dashboard. You will be redirected to the video courses’s permalink on Sparkeo:

You will be taken to a page where you can edit all of the information related to the video, including affiliate settings. Just click on the No and make it a Yes:

And define the percentage of commission you’d like to give affiliates. Click Save Changes and you’re done!

Once you have defined at least one course as available to affiliates, you will see a special affiliate box on you dashboard that will show your affiliate link:

Copy the link and email it to all of the affiliates you know, post it on your website, and anywhere else where you think people would be interested.

Any questions? Feel free to contact the Sparkeo team at any time.
Here’s why we recommend using affiliates to sell your video courses through Sparkeo.
Here’s how to create an affiliate video course on Sparkeo.
Here’s how to sign up as a Sparkeo affiliate.

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By now you’ve probably read about Sparkeo’s affiliate tools and how to create an affiliate course on Sparkeo. This short post will show you how easy it is to sign up to be a Sparkeo affiliate and begin selling courses.

Before we begin, I’d like to point out that, currently, you can only sign up to be an affiliate through a direct link from the course creator. However, you can contact the Sparkeo team if you’d like to find out what videos are available for affiliate sales and we can introduce you to our experts (with their approval, of course).

So without further ado, here are the simple instructions of signing up to be an affiliate.

The expert who would like you to sell their courses will need to send you a link that begins with www.sparkeo.com/affiliate. You copy and paste the link into your browser and will prompted to either log in with an existing account (you can sell multiple experts’ video courses through the same account), or to sign up for a new account.

On the next page you will be asked for link to your website and your PayPal address, but both of these are optional. Just remember that when you request payment, you will have to enter your PayPal info.

The final is also the page you reach when you click on Affiliate Codes in your header:

Here you will select the expert whose video course you’d like to promote:

And the particular video course:

Once you’ve selected the video course, you will see the following table that describes what the video course is about, what the price of the course is, what your share will be for each sale, and a Dollar representation of your cut:

Once you are satisfied with your choice, all that’s left to do is copy the embed code that includes your unique affiliate ID:

And paste the code into your site:

And voila! It appears on your own site.

All that’s left to do is promote the video course.

Any questions? Feel free to contact the Sparkeo team at any time.
Here’s why we recommend using affiliates to sell your video courses through Sparkeo.
Here’s how to create an affiliate video course on Sparkeo.
Here’s how to make an existing video course available for affiliate sales.

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So you’ve heard about our new affiliate tools, you’ve read why allowing affiliates to sell your video course can be beneficial to you, and you’re ready to dive in. So how do you upload a video course and mark it available for affiliate sales?

After you’ve signed up or logged in, click on the big Create Course button on the right side of your screen. It looks like this:

You can actually click this button if you’re logged in now

Click Browse and select the video course you’d like to upload. Fill in all of the basic information such as course title, description, categories, etc. Then you will reach the pricing and affiliate section.

Please note that you must price your course  and offer it for sale in order to make it available for affiliate sales. By default, the course will be marked as available for affiliate sales. Don’t worry, though: At the moment, only affiliates who receive a direct link from you will be able to sell it.

Under the Revenue Share section, you will see a drop-down box. Here you can select the total percentage of each sale that your affiliates will earn for this particular video for each sale they make. You are free to change this percentage until the first sale is made. Additionally, you can have different percentages for different video courses.

The minimum you can choose to share with your affiliates is 20%. Since at Sparkeo we really believe in the power of affiliate sales, the first 10% of affiliate profits will come out of our own cut, so we will actually only earn 20% commission on any affiliate sales. The rest of the affiliate’s commission comes out of your percentage.

For example, if you sell a video course for $20 and decide to give the affiliate 30% of the sales, the division will be:

You the expert: 50% – $10
The affiliate: 30% – $6
Sparkeo: 20% – $4

Click the Next button at the bottom of the screen to finish editing information, wait for the video to finish uploading and optimizing, and you’re ready!

All you need to do now is go to your Dashboard (by clicking Home), and on the right side of the screen you will see a box that looks like this:

Copy the code and send it to any affiliates you know, post it on your website, and generally anywhere else where you think people would be interested in selling your video courses. The best part is that you don’t even need to deal with any of the financial issues – Sparkeo will automatically divide the profits between the different parties, so you can just concentrate on creating great video courses.

Just like you were able to see your own sales on the dashboard, you will now be able to see the sales made by an affiliate as well, and you will continue to receive email notifications of all sales, including those by affiliates.

Signing up as an affiliate with Sparkeo is very quick and easy. We recommend you bookmark the post and send it to your affiliates or even repost in the emails you send to your affiliates.

Any questions? Feel free to contact the Sparkeo team at any time.
Here’s why we recommend using affiliates to sell your video courses through Sparkeo.

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Congrats to us! Without further ado, we’d like to introduce to you the brand new Sparkeo video player!

So what’s different you ask? Many things! First, I’d like to tell you what’s going on under the hood. The new Sparkeo video player is much much faster than the previous one, and we have also added more security features to prevent illegal downloads of your video.

Cosmetically you’ll notice the player is completely different, and a few features have been temporarily removed. We will bring back most of the removed features and add new ones as well, but I’d love to hear from you what features you miss and which ones you’d like to see.

One of my favorite new features on this player is the Buy Now button that appears directly on the player. If previously your potential customers had to watch the entire 1 minute previous (or go to the course’s permanent link on Sparkeo) to be able to purchase the course, now it is very clear and very easily available.

Clicking the Buy Now button will take your users to this screen:

Checkout has remained the same, though you may not have seen that we updated the Sparkeo checkout page about 2 months ago.

Sharing your video has become a lot easier now as well. Every time the video isn’t playing, you will be able to see the share button. It also appears on the player itself.

When you click the share button, you arrive at this screen:

This screen both gives you the option of sharing the video on various social networks, and copying the embed code for your website or blog. Please note that this code is not intended for affiliate sales. Your affiliates need to copy the specialized code that is available for them through their Sparkeo account. Here’s some information about why we recommend using affiliates to sell video courses on Sparkeo. It will also give you tips and short tutorials about setting it up. Clicking on any of the icons will easily lead you through the steps necessary to post.

At the top of the screen you will notice there are three words: Post, Bookmark, and Email. Click Bookmark to access all of the bookmarking sites that interest you (including Twitter). You will arrive at this screen:

Here you can access all of the major bookmarking sites including Del.icio.us, Digg, Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit. Click on any of the icons, and it will lead you through the easy processing of bookmarking or sharing your video courses.

Finally, clicking on Email at the top of the screen will bring you to this screen:

Through this screen you will be able to email your video course to any of your contacts, both through direct email and through your Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, or AOL.

As I previously mentioned we will be releasing a bunch of new and old features in the coming weeks, but what would you like to see become part of the Sparkeo vide player? Let us know in the comments or contact the Sparkeo team via the site.

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As part of our affiliate debut, I’d like to begin by explaining what an affiliate is and why using affiliates to sell your video courses can be beneficial to you.

In short, an affiliate is someone who promotes your video course, and if he sells your video, he receives a portion of the sale price.

There are a few ways to look at video affiliate sales. On the one hand, you are actually earning less per video course than you would had your sold the video course yourself. On the other hand, affiliate sales are by definition sales that you would not have made otherwise.

In essence, affiliate marketers help you by promoting your video in places that you probably wouldn’t otherwise reach. In the short run, you can view this as a smaller sale, but one that you, most likely, would not have made otherwise. In the long run, affiliates can you bring you customers who will convert into repeat customers, thus multiplying your sales, which is ultimately your goal.

On Sparkeo.com, you decide if you’d like a video course to be available for affiliates to sell, and you also choose the percentage you’d like to share. The minimum you can choose to share with your affiliates is 20%. Since at Sparkeo we really believe in the power of video affiliate sales, the first 10% of affiliate profits will come out of our own cut, so we will actually only earn 20% commission on any affiliate sales. The rest of the affiliate’s commission comes out of your percentage.

For example, if you sell a video course for $20 and decide to give the affiliate 30% of the sales, the division will be:

You the expert: 50% – $10
The affiliate: 30% – $6
Sparkeo: 20% – $4

Using affiliate marketing to increase your video course sales is essentially using a low-risk and high ROI (return on investment) marketing tactic. Your exposure grows exponentially,and the best part is you don’t pay anything until the affiliate makes a sale.

If you have any questions, feel free to contact the Sparkeo team at any time.

What do you think of the new video affiliate program on Sparkeo?

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There’s so much to fit in to one post, that I don’t know where to begin!

As you can see, we had a major update today. In short, we debuted a brand new homepage, a brand new player, and launched the Sparkeo video affiliate program. Over the next few days, we will release posts explaining more about each of these features, so for now I will give you the basics of each. Before I begin, I’d like to point out that any players that were previously embedded have not been switched the new player yet, but they will soon.

The biggest change, other than the gorgeous new homepage, is our brand new video player. The new video player is incredibly fast, and has quite a few enhancements including HD/H.264 support and delivery, adaptive bit rate, a user-friendly share and bookmarking system, and overall better look.

One of our favorite new features in the new player is the Buy Now button that appears directly on the video player. Your users no longer have to watch the entire preview in order to purchase it:

The regular basic features are still there: full screen capabilities, info about the video course, sending to friends,and sharing on Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks and bookmarking sites.

In the coming weeks, we will be bringing back most of the features that we had in our old player, while continuing to focus on the enhanced security measures that we’re constantly updating to ensure your video courses are as safe as possible.

I’d like to take this opportunity to give you a short introduction to the Sparkeo video affiliate program. Many of you have requested an ability to work with affiliates, and we’re happy to launch the program today.

As I mentioned previously, I will be publishing a series of posts over the next few days detailing various functions of the program, but it’s actually such an easy program to understand, that you can get started today.

When you upload a video course, all you need to do is mark Yes under the affiliate program and choose a percentage of the total sale that you would like to give affiliates who have sold your course:

We are firm believers in affiliate programs, so when you sell a course through an affiliate, the first 10% of their profits come from our cut of the sales. This means we will only get 20% of the final sale price. Here’s an example just to clarify things: If you were selling a video course for $20 and you wanted to give your affiliates 50% of the total sale price, the division would be:

You:30% or $6
Affiliate: 50% or $10
Sparkeo: 20% or $4

You can also enter any videos you previously uploaded by logging in to your account, clicking on the video page, clicking on Edit Information, and entering the information as it appears above.

Once you have at least one video in the program, you will see a link appear on the right side of your dashboard that you can send to all of your affiliates:

Affiliate  sign up is incredibly easy. Your affiliates just need to copy the code, sign up (or log in), copy and paste the code that we generate for them, and start selling! You will see the sales on your regular dashboard, and your affiliates will see the sales on theirs. Of course, you will continue to receive email notifications whenever a course is sold.

Over the next few days, I will post more details instructions about the affiliate program as well.

While we have our lists of features for the site and player that we will be updating, it is important for us to know what you would like to see. What features do you miss in the player? What new features would you like? What do you think about the new video affiliate program?

Let us know in the comments, through the Feedback button on the site, or email us at contact at Sparkeo.com.

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Hi all!

Yesterday we had an update to our site. I’d like to introduce one of our more requested features – attaching course materials! Currently they are only available at the permanent link on Sparkeo.com (which your users can access by clicking on the name of the video course at the top of the player), but we will work on getting the link into the player itself on a later date.

So how do you add video course materials? I’m glad you asked!

When you create a new video course, right under tags, you will have a new option labeled “Attachments/Course Materials.” Just click browse, locate your file, and voila! You’re done. You can also access this page by clicking “Edit Information” on any video course that you previously uploaded.

If you’d like to attach more than one file, please group them into a .zip or .rar file (you can use Winzip or 7-zip for this) and then upload that file. When your users access your permanent link on Sparkeo, they will see the video course material available for download if they have purchased the video course. Go ahead and try it yourself on the Sparkeo Demo (no, really, try it. There may be a surprise waiting there for you).

VIdeo course materials can be added to both free and fee-based video courses. If the video course is free, the materials will be available to be downloaded without logging in. If your video course is a paid course, users will not be able to download your course materials until they have purchased the video course.

For those of you who direct their users to the permanent link on Sparkeo, we have also added a purchase button that will make it even easier for people to buy your video course.

Another major change in yesterday’s release is a brand new checkout page. We’ve made the process a bit easier and more straightforward, and added your names, the link to your video course, and your video course description.

What do you think about these updates? What other changes would you like to see?

Please let us know in the comments, through the Feedback button on the site, or email us at contact at Sparkeo.com.

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When you create a web video – regardless of whether or not it is meant to be educational – you’d like your video to be as visually interesting and stimulating as possible. Speaking directly at the camera is less effective than incorporating a PowerPoint presentation. Incorporating a PowerPoint presentation that includes bullet points alone is less effective than one that includes visual stimulation like pictures. Get where I’m going with this?

There are three major types of learners in the world:

• Visual learners – people who learn through seeing things, such as graphs, videos, maps, diagrams, and outlines.
• Auditory learners – people who learn by listening to teachers, audio books, reading out loud, and being read out loud to.
• Kinesthetic learners – people who learn from experiencing things, such as role playing, lab classes, and using memory games.

Of course, many of us learn best through a combination of the above styles. What’s unique about video is that can incorporate all three styles, though visual and auditory learners will benefit most. Adding music, video clips, etc. can greatly increase the effectiveness of your video and keep people watching.

Why is this important, you ask?

Making that first sale to a person is easier than making a repeat sale. Your preview can only show so much of your style, but once someone has made a purchase, they have already had the YOU experience. The longer a viewer remains engaged with your video, the higher the chances are that they will purchase another video course from you.  Get where I’m going with this?

To start you off, here is a list of free stock photo sites that you can use to find photos that you can use in your videos in alphabetical order. In my next post, I will also list the paid stock photo sites.

Best Free Stock Photo Sites

Cepolina has free nature and travel photos. Why I like it: The photo descriptions appear in over a dozen languages, and the photos are divided into many categories that you won’t find on other sites, such as by country and region.

EveryStockPhoto is an enormous site that indexes millions of photos. Why I like it: EveryStock is a search engine that searches through many stock photo sites, and it allows you to search by license type.

Bear with me on this one. Flickr, for those of you who aren’t yet familiar with it, is a user-generated photo site. Photos range from incredibly professional to as amateur as it gets, but their tagging service and easy-to-read copyright permissions make photos easy to find and use. Why I like it: If what I said wasn’t enough, using user-generated photos, as opposed to regular stock photos, decreases the chances of someone else using the same photos you’re using.

FreeDigitalPhotos.net have both free and paid photos. Why I like it: All photos (that I’ve browsed) are free, but they are lower-resolution. You can purchase a high-res version, too, so they actually cater to both sides. I just really like their pictures.

FreePixels is very search-friendly, and I usually find what I”m looking for very quickly. Why I like it: Everyone always uses the same business/corporate-type images from other stock photo sites, but this gives you a new pool of photos that you won’t see everywhere. This is more important than you think – you want people to concentrate on what you’re presenting, not trying to remember where they saw that guy with the chalkboard before.

ImageAfter has thousands of great images in many categories. Why I like it: You can use their images for printed brochures that are for sale, so you can most likely use them for your videos (that are also commercial). Be sure to choose the images drop down, and not the textures (depending on what you’re looking for).

ImageBase has lots of really great photos, all are creative commons. Why I like it: Other than having photos that are different than others, ImageBase has a group of really beautiful PowerPoint templates that you can use for your presentations. If you don’t have the time to create your own original backgrounds, but want something different, ImageBase has you covered.

Kave Wall doesn’t have a huge selection of photos, mostly because they’re a studio, not a stock photo site. But the ones they have are incredible. I can’t remember where I first heard about them, but I’ve used them over the last year or so. Why I like it: My friend got me into macro photography, and they have great macro photos. They’re colorful and fun.

Don’t let the gruesome name deter you – MorgueFile is one of the largest free stock photo sites out there. This user-generated photos are free to use commercially, so they’re great for video courses on Sparkeo, but be sure to check the terms on each photo. Why I like it: Once you perform a search, you can filter images by license type, geo-tagging, and category. You can even filter them by color!

NationsIllustrated is also a user-generated photo site that has pictures from all around the world. They are divided by continent, country, and area. Why I like it: The pictures are all incredible, and they are very easily searched and indexed. Plus, if you’re bored, you can click on “Play puzzle” and it will mix it up for you.

NOAA has a really interesting collection of science-related photos that are all part of the US government’s collection. Why I like it: The site encourages use of its photos for educations purposes – they might as well write “use us on Sparkeo!” Also – the pictures are so beautiful that sometimes I just surf the site for fun.

PD Photo is a great public domain photo site. Almost all the photos are available for free use, but be sure to check the licenses before you download, just in case. Why I like it: PD Photo has some really awesome and unique photos that you can’t really find anywhere else, like this one. Seriously – you want to click it.

Photl is hands-down my favorite on the list. It has very unique photos with a style and quality that are equal to paid stock photo sites. You are limited to 35 MB a day, but it’s totally worth it. Why I like it: You can perform a search by keyword AND select the color of the photo from the drop down menu. Plus, when you click download, you can chose to crop the photo and only download the part that you want!

Photogen requires you to register, but you can download all their high-resolution photos for free. Why I like it: All photos free and available for commercial use, and you can even download photos in clusters in a zip file.

Photoree is a search engine for stock photos that allows you to keyword search by license type. Why I like it: If you don’t have lots of time to browse through multiple sites and need a quick fix, Photoree will search across multiple sites for you. The photos themselves are really nice, and they have a ranking system that you can use so it can find more photos that match your taste better. You can also save the photos on the site and access them later.

Photo Rogue has an awesome concept. Why I like it: You can request what you would like a photo of, and their photographers will actually go out and take it for you! Just know that not all requests will be fulfilled, but it’s worth a try!

PhotoVaco has incredible photos that are absolutely free to use, and are very clearly indexed and easily searchable. Why I like it: They have pretty nifty vector sets that you can use.

Public Domain Images is just that – copyright free images that everyone is free to use. Don’t let the Google Ads deter you. Why I like it: There are some real special photos scattered across the site, and all photos are available for commercial use, so they can all be used in your video courses on Sparkeo.

RGB Stock is a growing site of stock photos, many of which are user-generated. They are all free to use. Why I like it: Like  some paid stock photo sites, you can view great previews of the photos when you hover over them, which is a huge time saver.

No free stock photo list would be complete without Stock Exchange, possibly the most well-known site of the bunch. I have personally been using Stock Exchange for years, and have rarely had to search another site. Why I like it: Their lightbox lets you save pictures for later, and their browsing is a breeze. I also like changing the view to 60 pictures to minimize scrolling, and you can see large previews of the photo when you hover over it. Plus you can see how many users have downloaded the picture, if uniqueness is important to you.

Stock Vault is another user-generated stock photography site that has free and premium pictures. If you sign up for free, you get a bunch of extra features that make the search process a lot nicer. Why I like it: In addition to a great selection of photos, and the obvious “user-generated, so less popular” that I’ve mentioned about other sites, they also have Photoshop tutorials that can help you create the look you want.

It’s may not be the prettiest of the bunch, but Uncle Sam’s Photos has a large selection of government photos that anyone is free to use in their projects. Why I like it: Uncle Sam’s Photos is actually a directory of all of the US government’s stock photography base, making it easy for you to find what you’re looking for in one place.

As always, whenever you use media that you did not create on your own, check the site’s particular terms of use. Most of the site will allow for both personal and commercial use, some ask for links back, others want nothing in return. It’s important that you comply with the terms of the site, and we recommend taking a couple minutes to review their permissions, especially since you will be selling your video courses.

What free stock photo sites do you like to use? Which would you recommend and why?

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This is part two of an interview between e-Learning Queen Susan Smith Nash and Sparkeo CEO Frederic Aknin. You can read part 1 here. For the full interview on Elearning Queen, please click here.

Interview with Frederic Aknin, Sparkeo: Innovators in E-Learning Series – Part 2

4. What is your favorite way to use video in an online course?

Screencasting can be efficient, especially in demoing a product. I like using webcams to connect with the audience, but think that an educational video, especially one that delves deep into its particular subject, needs to be taped at a good quality, not a webcam. Using webcams or unstable photography inhibits the user’s ability to learn because their focus is on the moving background. Taping a quality video will help eliminate the distraction problem I spoke of earlier.

5. What is your favorite way to use video in mobile learning?

I like Qik and online streaming video applications. I do watch the occasional educational video on my mobile phone, however only short video snacks. If it is something that would require a video that is longer than a few minutes long, I would much rather view it on a larger screen.

6. What is Sparkeo?

Sparkeo is a flexible video platform that enables experts, consultants, teachers, and passionate entrepreneurs to promote and sell their expertise through the creation of video courses all over the Web.

It specifically meets the needs of the experts by bringing two decisive innovations: A portable payment solution for the online sales of videos and an enhanced learning experience.

Through Sparkeo, users can create paid courses, free courses and soon invitation-only courses. Sparkeo addresses a new phenomenon: The massive emergence of knowledge entrepreneurs.

There are all kinds of experts, educators, consultants, or simply knowledgeable amateurs who are Web savvy and have the entrepreneurial drive to make money teaching what they know and love over the Web. But they all had one problem: They did not have the right tools to do it.

7. What are the reasons for developing Sparkeo?

We want to empower the expert to maximize his or her online potential.

We want to give the expert an intuitive tool that is as simple as YouTube, but that has been specifically designed to meet his needs: Building a business out of his knowledge.

We cannot expect to see the best content on the Web if we do not provide the expert the means to make money of his knowledge. How can we expect the experts and educators to give their best insights when the revenue is so low, that they are better off using offline monetization opportunities through seminars, consulting, and such? That’s what we had in mind in creating Sparkeo, one simple goal: To bring a simple solution to a real problem: The lack of real financial incentives for experts.

Our product addresses both the most famous experts who are puzzled about the way they can bring their expertise on the Web in a way that makes sense financially, and the potential amateurs who have unique knowledge, but do not know from where to start. Our solution is free and works on a revenue sharing base. There is no need to invest in building a website or developing an application. It is totally embeddable all over the Web and can be embedded on your blog, website, and social networks.

8. How does Sparkeo make the learning process more effective?

There are three components that make the learning process more effective:

Interactivity
A key strategy is transforming the video from passive content to a bridge between the expert and his users.

Users can ask the experts a question directly through the video. This question is made public and everybody will be able to see it on Sparkeo.com. The answer to the question will also be emailed directly to the user.

The idea is to create a means of communication and interactivity within the player. For the user, it is a dream to communicate with the expert directly. For the expert, interactivity is a decisive selling point. He does not just sell a video, but an interactive learning experience in which he can address his customers’ needs. This tool is also a very powerful way for the expert to push the engagement of his customers to new extents and enrich his course with qualified Q&A.

For our corporate clients, it opens new frontiers in terms of customer relations and internal learning.

Enhanced Navigation
The other part of the experience that we deliver, aside from interaction, is enhanced navigation: Educational content is longer the typical 3 minute video found on most video sites, and it is designed to be learned. Most educational videos on Sparkeo are between 20 minutes to 1 hour long.

Sparkeo emphasizes the need of navigation by the introduction of chapters. Like in a DVD or book, the user can skip from one chapter to another with ease. The correct organization of the information provided ensures a better understanding of the content taught.

We also created an index which makes it even simpler to go to the relevant chapter. From the side of the expert, the creation of chapters is intuitive.

Video Personalization
As in a regular lesson, article or book, the user is given the possibility to highlight the best parts of the video and annotate them. The video becomes personalized. The user can go back to a video he already viewed and see in a glance the parts of it that were most important to him and he can view his annotations.

Do you have any questions for our CEO Frederic Aknin? Do you see a future in online learning?

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Several months ago, eLearning Queen’s Susan Smith Nash interviewed Sparkeo CEO Frederic Aknin on her blog. She asked great questions, and we think the interview went so well that we’d like to repost is. You can read the original interview here. Since this is such a long interview, we will be posting it in 2 parts.

Interview with Frederic Aknin, Sparkeo: Innovators in E-Learning Series

Welcome to an interview with Frederic Aknin, CEO of Sparkeo, a new video platform designed to enable more flexible uses of video with e-learning.

1. What is your name, your affiliation, and your history with e-learning?

My name is Frederic Aknin, I am an internet addict and a passionate continuous learner. I believe in the power of the Internet to broadcast knowledge, fertilize ideas, and bring the means to people to excel and make the most of themselves.

I know the basics in elearning. I am a user of YouTube which I used to discover extremely good content and a total TED freak.

I believe online learning is at its dawn and that it should expand. I see several very important trends:

• The need for simple video monetization to enable people to sell their premium knowledge on the Web and to enable users with a way to find the knowledge that they seek online. Currently, the highest quality end content is not online since the experts have no motivation to give it away.
• The C2C market: The world is changing so fast that the universities cannot keep up. It is already known that what students learn in college will become irrelevant when they graduate, while new platforms appear on a daily basis. The top 10 most in demand jobs today did not exist ten years ago. There is no formal education that teaches you how to be a social media director or community manager. I believe that a great part of learning will focus less on the universities and more and more online. A college education is fundamental in building the foundation for your future, but people must know that a formal education is no longer enough: They must continue to evolve with technology or they will be left behind, and this is where Sparkeo steps in.
• Need of simplicity: This is a result of the former element. Because people are learning more and more once they are out of college through YouTube, podcasts, and online tutorials, they need elearning applications that match their current use of the Web. LMS, CMS or complex elearning infrastructures are not addressing those needs.
• Interactivity: I believe that users are craving for interactivity.

2. What are your core beliefs about visual learning?

I believe in the essence of visual learning. As being more visual myself, I have difficulties in making the most of audio podcasts and such.

The visual contact with the educator and learning material makes it easier to remember and to reproduce our natural learning path. Moreover, graphs, charts and images create clarity and emotions that ease the learning process. If this is true for visual learners, I believe it is also true for all learners since we all learning though our three senses.

I believe that all tools developed by elearning can actually enhance the learning experience, but they should respect the visual nature of the learning process.

The iPad, the Google Tablets and all the new digital slates deliver new means to extend visual learning and make it mobile. It is a new frontier and a fascinating one.

3. What are some of the problems with using video as an elearning element?

There are many hardships:

• Video is an art: Educational content might not need the highest end means in terms of recording, but it does need to be nicely edited. A small number of the people that have knowledge really know how to film themselves. Therefore, the result is mediocre videos that are difficult to watch.
• It is difficult to watch a video on a computer for more than 15 minutes. People lose their concentration and have short attention spans because the videos can be uncomfortable to view, and the Internet is a huge distraction with social networks and online games. On the other end we have the cellular phone. Although it is becoming increasingly more connected, it has a small screen that makes it difficult to watch video in the long run. But there are solutions: TV set top boxes and smart TVs that enable viewers to watch web videos and content on their computers directly on regular TV screens or the tablets that create a new space on which they can watch some content.
• Passivity: A video is a passive experience while the Internet is an interactive one. This is another reason why people connected to the web have little patience for video. How can we transform it into a more interactive one? We need to create a link with the content provider and make the whole video experience more social.
• Navigation: It is crucial that an educational video be easy to navigate. Where am I within the video? What chapter? What is he talking about? How do I bookmark the parts I really liked for later? It is all the more decisive, as an educational video is meant to be watched a few times. By definition, learning is a requirement. Therefore, navigation is key!
• Customization: Any tool that will help me appropriate the content in some means will bring high added value.

Part 2 of Susan Smith Nash’s interview with Frederic Aknin

Do you have any questions for our CEO Frederic Aknin? Do you see a future in online learning?

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