Knowledge Guru Adds Player Analytics and Reporting Automation

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Great things are coming to the Knowledge Guru platform as we head into the second half of 2016. We start things off with the first of two Summer releases. Our June 24th release provides users with three enhancements:

1) Automated Reports

Coaching helps cement knowledge and skills for most of us. With that in mind, we’ve made it easier for learners’ managers to see what their employees are accomplishing within a Knowledge Guru game so they can easily have coaching conversations. When game authors create a new game, they can quickly set up automated delivery of any standard report. They can choose what reports to send, the frequency with which to send the reports (daily, weekly, or monthly), and establish a stop date.

autoReport

2) Player-Facing Reports

Players have always been able to assess performance by monitoring their score within Knowledge Guru, but now they can get detailed feedback on their performance on each learning objective associated with the game. They can also get a question/answer summary for questions they’ve already encountered in the game. This report makes study and review simple. Here’s the mobile version of the report:

 

PlayerReport

3) Cloning and Converting Capability

Lots of users want to re-purpose an existing game for a different audience. Perhaps 80% of the game content will remain the same, but 20% of it needs to be revised to fit the needs of a new audience. Now, you can easily do this with two clicks. You can also convert games from one game type to the other (Legend to Quest or Quest to Legend).  This task is performed at the system administrator level, not at the game author level. System Administrators access the “Create Game” menu option off of their main menu. They then choose an option from the Clone From drop-down menu as shown in the image below.

Still to Come in 2016

We’ll have a second Summer release in August that provides game authors with two new question types to use in Quest games. Game authors will be able to create Select All That Apply questions as well as a Ranking question that requires learners to put a list into the appropriate order.

Our most significant release will come in November 2016 when we introduce a new reinforcement and coaching app for mobile devices. The biggest pain point for training initiatives is the lack of post-training reinforcement options. Our new offering will provide an effective reinforcement option that requires only minutes/day from users. Users will reinforce and strengthen knowledge and skill via a variety of mini-games they can complete in a few minutes at a time. Users and their managers will receive analytic reports  that help them identify areas where users have:

  • High confidence but low skill.
  • Low confidence and low skill.
  • High skill but low confidence.
  • High confidence and high skill.

Stay in the Know

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BLP Wins 2015 Horizon Awards for Knowledge Guru Mobile and Custom Game-Based Solution

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Bottom-Line Performance (BLP) is the proud recipient of two awards in the 2015 Horizon Interactive Awards competition. The prestigious competition receives thousands of entries each year, and only 65% of all entries receive a Gold, Silver, or Bronze distinction for excellence in interactive media. These award-winning solutions build on BLP’s recent success in the Horizon awards: BLP has now won six Horizon Awards since 2013, including two awards for the Knowledge Guru platform.

The Knowledge Guru mobile reinforcement and gaming app earned a Silver designation in Mobile Apps – Education. The new app allows learners to start playing Knowledge Guru on their smartphone and finish on their laptop. Scores and achievements sync seamlessly between the web app and native app version of Knowledge Guru.

“The Horizon Interactive Awards competition has always been about excellent design” said Sharon Boller, President of Bottom-Line Performance. “Winning this award with our Knowledge Guru app is a great honor and reflects the efforts of our product team to bring the full Knowledge Guru experience to mobile devices.”

BLP also won a Bronze Horizon Interactive award for Password Blaster, an arcade-style game that helps Cummins, Inc. employees learn how to create secure passwords. Players must “blast” the bad passwords while letting the good passwords pass by. It is part of a larger Information Asset Protection curriculum design to help Cummins employees protect sensitive information.

“BLP helped develop resources to address and mitigate global threats facing employees, facilities and information assets. They created a multitude of interactive modules that fit within a one-stop-shop Security Toolkit designed to help our employees access and navigate our security resources and learning portals” said Bryan Langley, Global Security Manager at Cummins, Inc. “Their product has been globally acclaimed and we look forward to continuing our future collaboration with them.”

The Horizon Interactive Awards is a prestigious international competition recognizing outstanding achievement among interactive media producers. The competition recognizes and awards the best web sites, videos, online advertising, print media and mobile applications. Each year, the Horizon Interactive Awards receives thousands of entries from all over the world. A panel of industry professionals, from diverse multi-media, graphic design and marketing backgrounds, review the entries to determine the work that is to be recognized.

BLP showcases Knowledge Guru, along with award-winning custom solutions like “Password Blaster,” at the 2016 ATD International Conference. Learn more and register here.

About Bottom-Line Performance

The Knowledge Guru platform is imagined by Bottom-Line Performance, a learning design firm serving a wide range of corporate clients. Since 1995, we’ve helped clients choose the right learning solutions for their learners, while also helping them to design and develop learning tools effectively. Areas of focus include product launches, customer training, internal process training, safety & compliance and more.

Knowledge Guru Adds Smartphone App in 2015 Fall Release

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The Fall 2015 release of Knowledge Guru is so small, it fits in your pocket.

What I mean is that we are releasing a new smartphone app for iOS and Android. Learners will be able to play Knowledge Guru games across desktop, tablet and smartphone the week of November 2nd.

Multi-Device Gameplay

Your learners can start playing on their smartphone and finish on their laptop. Scores and achievements sync seamlessly between the web app and native app version of Knowledge Guru.

Seamless Authoring and Analytics

Create one game with the Knowledge Guru authoring tool that players can access across all devices. Achievements and analytics will sync for all players, no matter what device they access

Mobile-First Experience

On-the-go learners will never need to access a computer to play Knowledge Guru. Every interaction and screen has been optimized for the mobile experience.

Push Notifications and Email Alerts

Set up reminders for your players to invite them back into the game and to what they have learned. Players can select between receiving push notifications on their mobile device or email alerts when it is time to come back and play a new topic.

Already a Customer?

We’ve created a Knowledge Base Article with more details for Game Authors and Players to get started:

Getting Started with KGuru Mobile – Game Author & Player QuickStart Guide

Ally, Bottom-Line Performance Win Brandon Hall Excellence Award for Knowledge Guru Game

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Bottom-Line Performance and Ally partnered to win a 2015 Brandon Hall Excellence award. The winning submission won a Bronze in Best Use of Games or Simulations for Learning. The game was created and implemented with the Knowledge Guru game-based learning platform.

Knowledge Guru customers use the platform to help employees learn and retain things like product knowledge, policies, procedures and compliance information. Gameplay is linked to learning science so employees retain facts by playing. The platform has won four Brandon Hall Excellence awards since 2014, including two “Gold” distinctions.

“We have continued to advance and evolve our product with customers as our guide,” says BLP President Sharon Boller. “It’s a wonderful thing when a client has tangible success, whether that’s through our Knowledge Guru platform or one of our custom learning solutions.”

The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits.

Read about all four of our Brandon Hall 2015 wins on the Bottom-Line Performance website.

Knowledge Guru Adds Video, Adaptive Learning, Faster Speeds in Winter Release

2015-winter-releaseThe Knowledge Guru platform has evolved quite a bit over the last few months. We unveiled the new “Quest” game type in October, which added an entirely new gameplay experience and performance challenges. Most importantly, Quest uses the same back-end database and spaced repetition principles that are critical to the Knowledge Guru approach.

We think every release is exciting, but Winter ’15 is especially great. We collected customer needs and feedback to add new features that make Knowledge Guru a more powerful learning tool… all while improving load times and speed.

Video

Video Question

You asked, we listened. Now, you can embed video directly into your Knowledge Guru questions. Choose between text-based, audio or video questions throughout your games.

Adaptive Learning

minigame

The Knowledge Guru database can now create a personalized learning experience for players based on their learning needs. Mini-games at the end of each World in the Quest game type pull questions that players missed on the first attempt.

Healthcare Character Pack

medical-characters

We have created an all-new Quest character pack especially for our clients who work in healthcare settings. We can create a character pack for any industry you can imagine. Just ask!

Faster Speeds

We have migrated the entire Knowledge Guru database to Amazon cloud servers. The result? Faster load times for both players and authors, no matter where they are in the world.

New Player and Question Upload Capabilities

Need to load players into your game fast? Do your employees not have a company email? No problem. In addition to self registration, you can now mass upload your players into the Knowledge Guru database. Questions can be mass uploaded as well, making it easy to send subject matter experts a spreadsheet of content to review instead of having them play through your entire game.

iFrame Embed

Knowledge Guru games can already be customized with corporate logos and branding… and some customers have even set up custom integrations with their own learning portals. Now we have made Knowledge Guru games easy to embed within an iFrame. This feature is ideal for customers who wish to create a seamless branding experience for their learners.

SCORM 2004 support

Knowledge Guru is now compatible with virtually all LMS systems. Administrators can export their games as SCORM 1.2 or 2004 packages… or host the game in the cloud for expanded gameplay features and deep tracking. Experience API support is also still available across all plans.

Winter ’15 is Available Now

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Knowledge Guru customers have already had new features added to their accounts. To see what’s new with Knowledge Guru, register for our Winter Release webinar, held on February 18th at 1 pm EST, 10 am PST. Don’t worry… we’ll send you a recording if you cannot attend.

Knowledge Guru Platform Wins Three 2014 Brandon Hall Awards

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Bottom-Line Performance won two Brandon Hall Excellence in Technology gold awards for its Knowledge Guru Game-Based Learning Platform. One gold award honored Knowledge Guru as Best Advance in Gaming or Simulation Technology. The other award, gold for Best Advance in Sales Training Online Application, recognized BLP and Cisco Systems, Inc. for Cisco’s use of the Knowledge Guru platform.

BLP and ExactTarget also won a bronze award for Best Use of Games and Simulations for Learning in the Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning awards earlier this year, bringing our total to three Brandon Hall Awards for the 2014.

The Knowledge Guru platform is used by Fortune 500 companies to reinforce and help employees retain critical knowledge such as policies, procedures, product knowledge and compliance information. The platform uses serious games that link engagement and motivation to the science of learning and remembering.

Cisco uses Knowledge Guru in its award-winning Cisco Sales Associate Training Program (CSAP) to train the next generation of sales leaders at Cisco. The platform helps new sales associates master and retain product and technical knowledge, and participants rate Knowledge Guru highly as a learning tool that helped them complete their Cisco certification. Cisco uses Knowledge Guru games around the world and the experience scores equally well in all regions – Europe, Middle East, India, China, Japan, Singapore, Australia, Canada, North and South America.

“It is truly a great honour for the Cisco Sales Associates Program to receive a second Brandon Hall Award,” said Paula Rossini, Global Program Manager of the CSAP program at Cisco. “The team is proud to uphold the highest standards in learning and to be recognised for this. We value our strong partnership with BLP and with them, we look forward to taking the learner experience to the next level!”

“I am honored by the recognition BLP’s Knowledge Guru platform has received in 2014,” said Sharon Boller, President and Chief Product Officer of Bottom-Line Performance. “It recognizes the efforts our team has put into designing and developing a research-based learning platform focused on helping people learn and remember critical knowledge and skills. It also recognizes the great work clients such as Cisco have done to integrate serious games into their organizations in a relevant, appropriate way.”

The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits.

ABOUT CISCO SYSTEMS, INC.

Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide leader in IT that helps companies seize the opportunities of tomorrow by proving that amazing things can happen when you connect the previously unconnected.

ABOUT BOTTOM-LINE PERFORMANCE, INC

Bottom-Line Performance is a learning design firm serving a wide range of corporate, nonprofit, and government clients. Since 1995, we’ve helped clients choose the right learning solutions for their learners, while also helping them to design and develop learning tools effectively. Areas of specialization include product launches, customer training, customer service training, and safety and compliance training. BLP is a certified woman-owned business.

ABOUT KNOWLEDGE GURU

Bottom-Line Performance is the creator of Knowledge Guru, a game-based learning platform that uses learning science to increase employee knowledge retention and improve performance. Use it to create a single serious game teaching foundational knowledge or an extended play experience that incorporates performance challenges to help players acquire and practice new skills. The secret? Every game mechanic and game element are carefully linked to the science of how we learn and remember.

Knowledge Guru Fall ’14 Release Adds New Game Type, Expanded Reporting and More

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Since the release of Knowledge Guru in 2012, our team has spent thousands of hours researching the science of learning and serious games. We’ve play tested dozens of games to see what mechanics work for learning. Most importantly, we’ve listened to our growing customer base to find out what features and functionality they need to make serious games a success in their organizations.

All of this has led up to our Fall ’14 Release, the biggest Knowledge Guru release yet. Next week, we are unveiling the all-new Quest game type. It takes the Knowledge Guru platform to a new level.

We’ll show off Quest at DevLearn 2014, October 29-31 in Las Vegas. See the list of events, or simply register for the Fall ’14 Release webinar on November 6th.

What is Quest?

Quest is an all-new game type that uses the same game content as the original Knowledge Guru games, but in a new way.

Journey-Focused

quest-and-legend

In Quest, players are on a journey to “unlock knowledge.” They travel through three worlds to do so. The original Knowledge Guru game has been renamed as Legend. Learn more about the difference between Quest and Legend here.

More Personal Than Ever

Players select an avatar to represent themselves… and a Guru to guide them through the game.

Addictive Gameplay

addicting-gameplay

The game environment is immersive and responsive. The interface just feels fun as players play, and the game mechanics encourage replayability. Players maximize their “star rating” on each topic and earn power-ups that impact their experience.

Social Leaderboards

standings

Players vie for first place on the leaderboards while seeing a real-time stream of their colleagues completing challenges of their own.

Minigames

minigame

The “Bonus Gate” provides a mini game that is fun to play and actually integrated into the learning itself. This deepens the learning and improves retention.

Performance Challenges

performance challenges

Connect gameplay to real-world challenges. You create the challenges; players complete them as part of the game.

Powerful Learning Science

The game format has been structured to take advantage of the latest research on how memories are formed. You can even control the spacing for players by “locking” worlds for play on a later date. The game can send an email to players reminding them to return, if you’d like.

Plenty of Options

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Quest is launching with three different theme choices: Business, Space, and Island. That makes for 11 total theme options across both Knowledge Guru game types.

Other Improvements

Quest is not the only thing new this fall.

Reimagined User Interface

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The user interface has been optimized to truly “flow” through the game development process. The tabs across the top of the screen walk you through each step from getting creation to customization to implementation. It’s still simple to create a game; just add your content.

Improved Support Resources

We’ve added a short “Getting Started” video for both Quest and Legend game types that provide a three minute overview before you begin. We have also introduced a new, expanded Knowledge Base with tutorials that help you create your game. If the Knowledge Base is not enough, the new support ticketing system will get any issues resolved quickly.

Gorgeous New Reports

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All of our admin reports have received a facelift. You’ll also find a new “Report Dashboard” that tells you, at a glance, how your game is going. The new “Game Overview Report” combines several popular reports into one useful PDF. As always, all our reports can be exported to a CSV, too.

Attend the Fall Release Webinar

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We are showing off Quest in a free public webinar on Thursday, November 6th at 1 pm ET, 10 am PT. Even if you cannot attend, register to receive the recording.

BrandonHallAward

Knowledge Guru Platform Wins 2014 Brandon Hall Award

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Bottom-Line Performance and the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud won a coveted Brandon Hall Group bronze award for excellence in the Best Use of Games and Simulations for Learning category. BLP and ExactTarget’s win was announced on September 10th, 2014. The winners are listed at http://go.brandonhall.com/past_award_winners.

The winning solution, MobileConnect Guru, was created using the Knowledge Guru Game-Based Learning Platform. Knowledge Guru is a cloud-based platform for designing serious games that link engagement and motivation to the science of learning and remembering.

ExactTarget’s employees, resellers and partners played the game to gain mastery over mobile terminology and product features and benefits – mastery that is critical to effectively selling and supporting a product. The game reinforced other rollout efforts and provided a “just before launch” reinforcement.

“We are continually looking at ways to innovate on our learning initiatives,” said Scott Thomas, Director of Product Enablement at ExactTarget. “The Knowledge Guru platform was a fun and new way for us to reinforce the training we needed to do with the launch of our new product. Our clients loved it, and the training led to meaningful business outcomes.”

“ExactTarget Marketing Cloud was truly innovative in the way they incorporated the Knowledge Guru platform into their training,” said Sharon Boller, President and Chief Product Officer at BLP. “They are a best-in-class example of how games can be integrated into a broader product launch training effort. We are proud of the award but more proud of the business results MobileConnect Guru helped drive for ExactTarget.”

The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measureable benefits.

ABOUT THE EXACTTARGET MARKETING CLOUD

The ExactTarget Marketing Cloud from salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) is the leading 1:1 digital marketing platform, connecting companies with customers in entirely new ways. Learn more at www.ExactTarget.com.

ABOUT BOTTOM-LINE PERFORMANCE, INC

Bottom-Line Performance is a learning design firm serving a wide range of corporate, nonprofit, and government clients. Since 1995, we’ve helped clients choose the right learning solutions for their learners, while also helping them to design and develop learning tools effectively. Areas of specialization include product launches, customer training, customer service training, and safety and compliance training. BLP is a certified woman-owned business.

ABOUT KNOWLEDGE GURU

Bottom-Line Performance is the creator of Knowledge Guru, a game-based learning platform that uses learning science to increase employee knowledge retention and improve performance. Use it to create a single serious game teaching foundational knowledge or an extended play experience that incorporates performance challenges to help players acquire and practice new skills. The secret? Every game mechanic and game element is carefully linked to the science of how we learn and remember.

Surprise! Knowledge Guru Summer Release Adds SCORM, Security Features

Knowledge Guru Summer 2014 Release

We promise our customers three major Knowledge Guru updates per year, but 2014 is different. We’ve had some ideas up our sleeves for some time now and don’t want to make you wait until Fall. We’re so excited about it that we are giving away a Knowledge Guru package to one lucky winner to try out the new features. The first one is big…

SCORM is Here!

ScormPackager

Knowledge Guru customers can now choose to publish their games as a SCORM package for upload onto their LMS. You can put Knowledge Guru content alongside your existing courses and track completion just like you always have. You can author your game using the same easy-to-use online interface, then simply hit “publish” to generate a zip file for your LMS administrator to handle.

Of course, customers who do not wish to use Knowledge Guru with SCORM or load it onto their LMS can still host their games in our cloud.

Personalized Stats

Personalized Stats

The SCORM edition also includes a fun new feature for players: personal stats. Players can see things like total correct response percentage, last objective completed, max possible points remaining and more. Seeing our own personalized statistics give us even more opportunities to adjust our performance.

Offline Access

When you upload the SCORM version of Knowledge Guru on your LMS, it’s hosted in your environment… not ours. That means players can access it on a company intranet or behind a firewall, if you’d like. The game speed is blazing fast, too.

Be A Part of the Beta… Enter to Win

The SCORM edition of Knowledge Guru is now available as a beta. If you are interested in using the Guru with SCORM, we will provide you with a test game to load onto your LMS environment prior to purchase to make sure your LMS is fully compatible.

Request a Demo Here

…And as a special treat, we are giving away one free Starter package of Knowledge Guru, good for 3 months. All you have to do is attend the Summer Release Webinar, where we will draw the winner.

Your Games Just Got More Secure

EmailSecurity

Worried about the general public, or a competitor, stumbling onto your game and registering as a player? Put your mind at ease. We’ve added new email verification options for registering players. You can now choose between a Low, Medium and High security setting:

Low Security: Players may register on the website without restriction. A valid email address is not required.

Medium Security: When players register on the website, they are sent a verification link to the email they provided. They must use this link to set their password. This ensures they are using a valid email account.

High Security: Administrators decide what domain names can create a Knowledge Guru account. Only email addresses with “Your Company Name” will be accepted. Once someone has entered a valid email, they still must access the verification link sent to their address.


See it all in our Summer Release Webinar… and Win

We are hosting a free webinar on Wednesday, July 9th to share more about the features included in the Summer ’14 Release. We’ll test drive the SCORM version of Knowledge Guru, show off the new security features and provide information on how to test Knowledge Guru in your LMS environment.

Best of all, we will pick one lucky webinar attendee and award 3 free months with a Knowledge Guru Starter Package. All you have to do is attend the webinar to enter. We will draw the winner at the conclusion of the webinar.

When: Wednesday, July 9th – 1 pm EDT
Where: GoToWebinar

How Johnson & Johnson Uses Knowledge Guru to Drive Efficiency

“Should I use games for learning?”

 “If the answer is yes, how do I integrate them into my training program?”

 “Oh, and what about buy-in from leadership?”

While research and case studies both demonstrate how effective serious games are when integrated into a blended curriculum, organizations need concrete examples that show what “success” looks like when using serious games.

One such example comes from the Talent Acquisition Organization at Johnson & Johnson. I interviewed Kristen Pela, Manager, Training & Communications, Talent Acquisition to learn more about their use of Knowledge Guru.

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Who is the Talent Guru game for?

All Johnson & Johnson US associates within the Talent Acquisition organization.

How it is part of a learning solution? What other pieces are involved in the training?

The talent GURU game was one piece of a larger training program. The training program is a 5-week series of formal and informal training that includes:

  • Outcomes of Project Camelot
  • Outcomes of Project Prism
  • TA Fundamentals Refresher
  • Technology Refresher

Each week consisted of a 20 minute online module, Talent Guru competition, and a Topic Forum.

What results do you hope to produce from Knowledge Guru? What do you want the learners to know or do after playing? 

The goal of our training program is to drive consistency and efficiencies across Talent Acquisition not only with our processes but also in our recruiter and sourcer partnerships.

What initial feedback and results have you received so far?

The feedback for Knowledge Guru has been amazing and folks have really enjoyed the fun and interactive training.

What have been the keys to successful implementation for you? (I’m guessing the weekly emails are part of it)

We’ve driven success with:

  • Clear goals & objectives
  • Leadership involvement
  • Game play tied to each person’s G&Os (Goals and Objectives)
  • Daily & weekly winners, which creates a competitive framework
  • Use of Twitter to talk about the training and create some fun banter

 

What advice would you give to others on creating their first Knowledge Guru game?

Don’t rush game play or development. Getting folks engaged has been the key to our success.