11:08 Ben and Sharon getting underway… started a few minutes late, and Ben and Sharon missed their entrance cue. Must have been late risers after the party last night! 
)
Ben leads our Learning Products and Services team, and Sharon manages our platforms and community businesses on Ben’s team.
11:10 MOC Update: First off the bat—mea culpa: Next Generation MOC fell flat, so we’re restoring MOC to its former glory. All classroom content going back into student book! (big applause) Lab Answer keys going back in the book! PDF of the student book will be on the student CD as well.
11:14 All MOC courses now target 145 NSAT (as rated by MCTs). 6419 is the benchmark—all courses will be at least that good. All courses will be reviewed by MCTs. Today MCT courseware NSAT at 135.
11:15 Major sustained engineering investment—WS2008 refreshes coming in October/November; Vista coming too—everything we’ve done over 18 months will be revisited to ensure we will hit NSAT of 145 per title.
Please: make sure your MCTs are reviewing our titles—we need the feedback to trigger our quality revisions!
11:18 Ben talking about Learning + Services: combining on-site learning with on-line learning…
On-site vs. On-line: Reference (MS Press vs. e-reference); Courseware (MOC/MOAC vs. MODL); Certification (Exam simulations vs. virtual labs performance-based exams); e-learning
11:21 Why go digital? Increase revenue; save time; cut costs; improve efficiency
11:23 Announcing new product: MOC Labs Online! Very simple thing: we took labs from MOC courses and put them on hosted servers. Now you don’t need to install the labs on local machines in classroom, you can just connect to our labs online!
Simply the VMs from the course, hosted. Significantly reduces set-up time; available to students outside of class; you’ll always have the latest version! Lower hardware costs; can even run 64-bit software within browser.
11:29 If you want to give access to students to Labs Online after the class is over—we recommend you sell for $50 (or bundle with course if you like). MOC Labs Online – expected to cost 12.5% of your local MOC price (if a MOC course costs you $200, then the on-line labs will cost $25); purchase through Courseware Library; English only initially; available in US and Canada initially, then rolled out by region. Toll-free instructor support; 99% up-time SLA; student access up to two weeks. Will launch on October 1st.
11:33 Announcing new product: Digital MOC! Same MOC manual but watermarked PDF. Save time on ordering; get latest version easily; full-text search; optional printing available. Use it for on-line or blended classes—no packaging or shipping costs! We will pass on some savings to you: will cost 90% of MOC (printed) price (e.g. if MOC course printed costs $200, digital version will cost $180). Purchase through Courseware Library; english initially; phased rollout.
11:36 Digital MOC will be watermarked with personal information about students (probably name, company, e-mail address) to help discourage piracy.
11:40 We did a technical preview for MOC Labs Online and Digital MOC: 22 CPLSes, 75 Classes, 500 Students, in 12 countries. Converted 6 Exchange 2007 courses for this preview. Results? Identified improvements needed, and we’re working on them. “Just as good as printed MOC isn’t good enough!” So – now ready to expand technical preview program.
CPLSes: Want to test Digital MOC and MOC Labs On-Line for Exchange 2007? It’s free from August 15 – September 15, contact dan.weis@microsoft.com (for Labs On-line) and bob.caswell@microsoft.com (for Digital MOC)
11:45 Not even going to try to summarize this one—let’s let the picture do the talking:
11:46 Going forward, you’ll see us continue to publish content (e-learning, ILT, snacks) developed by MSL, product groups, and community. Announcing SnackBox (beta), allows you to create your own learning snacks!
11:48 Courseware Library courses now called “community courses.” IT Pro/Dev courses can qualify for SATV, but individual titles may be “on probation” until NSAT/ratings tell us that these titles are good enough to count. 300+ titles available now, 600+ partners participating. Remember—can get new KPI points by contributing!
Courseware Library piloting printed manuals; more payment methods (paypal); improved reputation engine; will show MTM course data right in Courseware Library—full transparency! (applause)
11:52 Question time. Q: Will Digital MOC and Labs On-line be available to customers directly as an alternative to CPLS training? Answer: No—absolutely not. Exclusive to CPLS
11:53 Q: Can non-US/Canada partners participate in preview? A: Possibly—contact Dan or Bob (contact info above).
11:54 Q: How will sustained engineering courses work? Revisions? A: Yes, B versions. Q: Can a CPLS provide Digital MOC on a flash drive to distribute to students? A: How many of you would like this? We’ll look at it.
11:55 Q: When will Digital MOC and Labs Online be available in Europe? A: Within next 6-8 months, depending on how rollout goes in North America.
11:56 Q: Can instructors view what students do in Labs On-line? A: No. Q: Will Digital MOC be customizable? A: No, not in first release.
11:58 That’s it for now… back at 13:30
