Wheatley (UK), February 2011 - Curatr, a new platform to deliver online learning was officially launched at the Learning Technologies conference and exhibition in London. Curatr, designed and developed by HT2 and in beta since August, enables organisations to transform their existing learning content into a social game, increasing engagement and harnessing the power of collective knowledge to deliver exceptional learning outcomes.
Ben Betts, Managing Director of HT2, firmly believes that the launch of Curatr is set to "rock the learning industry". He added, "Traditional learning platforms do little to engage their users; most rely entirely on the content they serve to keep users interested, and that can be a costly approach. Curatr is the first learning platform to put learner engagement at the heart of its approach. It is capable of delivering outstanding outcomes from the widest range of content imaginable."
Curatr is the result of a joint research project between eLearning innovators HT2 and the prestigious International Digital Laboratory at Warwick University. Looking to address engagement gaps in current eLearning solutions, Curatr uses social-game mechanics and non-linear learning techniques to deliver a highly engaging learning experience to end users whilst leveraging existing learning content.
"Learner engagement is often highlighted as a key issue for the effectiveness of an organisation's online learning approach", continues Betts, "yet there are countless examples of work in other fields that have no issue engaging users online. Think about the hours we spend on Facebook each day or the collective 55 million years players have contributed to games like 'World of Warcraft'. Online engagement has been cracked by these industries, and it is on us to learn from these approaches, to take the best practices into our own field, and develop products that address these very real engagement issues".
Curatr's efforts to transform the onlineLearning experience were recognised earlier in the year by the Institute of IT Training when they shortlisted the platform as one of their "Innovations in Training Services, 2011". "It was a huge honour to be named as a finalist", said Betts, "and it felt like a good reward for the efforts my team have been putting in to make Curatr what it is today."
