Carla Pendergraft

Texas Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus

The following was posted at Carla Pendergraft's blog (http://carlapendergraft.wordpress.com).

I was recently tasked with finding a good learning management system (LMS) for our state association, the Texas Association of Convention & Visitors Bureaus. This is the kind of task I relish. The association has very good training programs, but wanted a way to deliver them via the web, for a fee. So I went out and started looking at the various sites offering this service. I found an excellent one at http://www.digitalchalk.com. I am now a fan of this software. For an extremely low fee, you can create an entire professional e-learning system with on-demand courses. A payment system is built into the program, so you can charge anything from $0 to whatever you like for the courses. The company charges a transaction fee per person taking the course, rather than charging enormous fees for the software itself. It all takes place on digital chalk’s servers, so there’s no software to install and maintain.

The company is dedicated to customer service and training. They conducted a webinar for me initially so that I could rapidly learn how to use the package; and then conducted another webinar for the Education Committee chairman and the Executive Director of the association. Both of them loved the software and were astounded at the ease of use.

How this software works is that you create a video of the teacher delivering the content, and you cue it to the PowerPoint presentation. It’s not difficult at all. From there, you can add tests, assignments, and other tasks. I am a real fan of these guys because they offer an excellent program at a reasonable price. I am positive this company is going to take off.