"Last year we partnered with many organizations to advise them on learning strategy and alignment. Besides consulting services, the year saw us engaged in developing new formats in simulations and gaming, as well as augmented reality," says Kshitij Nerurkar, COO, TIS. "TIS has always been the pioneer to develop new product formats such as serious games, learning nuggets, etc. We expect augmented reality and multiplayer games to come up strongly in the next few years," he adds.

TIS' 2014 list highlights accomplishments in operations and international partnerships to support innovative learning solutions, in addition to custom learning and training course development and delivery. The year also witnessed TIS celebrating 25 years of offering innovative learning solutions.

The company introduced innovative learning solutions like marketing communication modules targeted towards brand management and customer service. Further, to encourage collaborative learning, TIS collaborated with a worldwide leader in networking to create and deploy a bespoke learning program. It brings together TIS' hallmark TOPSIM® simulation product with a custom-developed MOOC to teach financial concepts. The program is a unique blend of self-driven learning via MOOC and an experiential learning experience that places participants in a real-time competitive environment that replicates the running of a business and associated financial decision making. The company also developed portals, SharePoint applications, and custom learning-management systems (LMS).

Quite recently, TIS, in association with its partner Juniserv ME, hosted an interactive session in the Middle East with Elliott Masie, chair of the Learning Consortium that focused on innovations that will provide more scalable, personalized and learner-driven content solutions for the workplace.

In terms of awards and accolades, TIS' Associate Degree in Nursing program developed for Excelsior College won Silver at USDLA Awards 2014; the award was conferred for Best Practices in Distance Learning Programming under the sub-category of Online Technology in Higher Education. TIS transformed the learning experience for aspiring nurses through eLearning tutorials, games, and simulations.

The company also won three awards from the Brandon Hall Group in the Mobile Learning as well as Games & Simulations for Learning categories. This is the sixth consecutive year that TIS has won the prestigious Brandon Hall Awards. Besides, TIS was recognized among the Top 20 Training Outsourcing companies, Top 20 Content Development Companies and Top 20 Gamification Companies.

The company also organized a series of "Ask the Expert" Webinars in 2014. These interactive sessions for the instructional-design community focused on 2D/3D animation, learning consulting, learning portals, business gaming simulations, elearning & blended learning, and serious games, among others.

Commenting on the expected trends in the near future, Kshitij avers, "Web 2.0, Social Communities and learning will converge, thereby assisting in providing high-quality learning. This is in addition to games as a format that is expected to gain more importance and DIY Learning, which will push learning on the mobile platform."

According to him, wearables in learning is another new wave that is gaining ground. "From tracking learners’ progress to providing a new way for them to interact with data, their environment, and one another, wearable technologies have many practical applications in learning and development. Miniaturization of content is definitely another trend.  As far as mobile learning is concerned, until last year, there were early adopters, but by and large customers thought about this as an addition to traditional desktop-based learning. In 2014, the outlook changed considerably. Customers are willing to accept content that is not in Flash, built in smaller chunks, primarily ready for mobile devices, and accessible readily through Safari," states Kshitij.