March 10, 2011 at 00:12Webinar Software - Saba Centra
In honor of the opening of the blog "Distance Learning" on Habr, I decided to write a short review about one of the tools for synchronous learning (webinars). A product that I feel has been neglected online. By law or not, it's up to you, I hope this article will help you draw some conclusions. Be that as it may, the program seemed very attractive to me, justifying its price with convenience and stable operation. But looking a little ahead, I’ll say that I encountered some difficulties in the process of acquiring this product.
We are talking about the Centra synchronous training program from the American company Saba specializing in integrated learning platforms, LMS (Learning Management Systems) and personnel development and training systems.
Saba Centra was one of the first programs to appear on the distance learning market. It was Centra that was the main competitor to the Israeli Interwise, which AT&T ultimately acquired. Later appeared "Webex" , "Adobe Connect" , "Elluminate" and others . But unlike Interwise, Centra began to fade and in recent years less and less information has appeared about it. Whatever it was, the program, like the company itself, is alive, although they sometimes show a rare indifference to interested customers.
Problems began at the stage of registering a test account on the product website. The system was dull and rejected all the email addresses that I slipped to her. Neither the corporate email, nor the Gmail address, and any other email address helped. I wrote a letter to the site’s administration, a month later I received a response from them that the bug was fixed and now you can register without hindrance. This made it clear to me how sluggish some departments of the company are and what can be expected in the future. Anyway, I finally registered and started testing the product.
Although the initial installation took quite a lot of time, all subsequent visits to the virtual meeting room took place within a minute, a maximum of two. Java-based Centra is running, so it is mandatory to have a JVM on the user's machine. If there is none, the program will tell the user what needs to be done. Saba Centra itself as a tool for conducting webinars was surprisingly good. Nice and intuitive interface, nothing more and no clutter of buttons, as was the case with Elluminate. The system will kindly tell you that you forgot to turn on the session recording and will offer you to do this before you launch the first slide of your presentation. Centra easily uploads most file formats to the session folder, though far from everything can be launched on a virtual board. It will only be able to display * * .PPT * * .JPG on it, all other files when uploading are placed on Saba servers and are available to session participants as a link. If you do not want to force the file present on your PC, you can use the Application Sharing function, which surprisingly works well and does not cause any complaints.
It is possible to receive real-time feedback from webinar participants. In addition, “Emoticons” (emoticons and status icons), which are very lacking in the “Webex” I respect very much, also help in this. If we continue the comparison with "Webex", then it is worth saying that the product "Cisco" looks more solid and presentable, but it lacks other chips that can boast of "Centra". In particular, the host using the program at any time can conduct a survey or a mini-test and immediately get the results. In "Webex" this is only available in the Enterprise version (Webex Learning Center), which is already offered for very different money, unlike the Webex Meeting Center.
All webinar entries are automatically posted on the company's servers immediately after the end of the online session. After that, you can either send the participants of the session links to the records, or download the records to your computer in * .EXE format and send them out yourself. As for the recording format, not everything is clear. On the one hand, an exe-shnik self-extracts to the user's machine and can start even without a program. On the other hand, everyone knows that exe files are truncated by most mail servers (including Gmail), so you will have to pack the recording files into archives or upload them to your servers for distribution. You can distribute recordings directly from the Saba Centra server, but by default you are given 1Gb of free space, everything else is for an additional fee.
The minimum package, including the use of 5 leading names, costs $ 80. Slightly higher than the average market price, but the truth is far and not the predatory prices of Interwise aimed at corporate business. True, unlike competitors, Centra allows up to 100 participants to attend the webinar. The minimum agreement period is 3 months. The problem is different ... Only US residents can sign a contract online (from the site). Everyone else will have to call the sales department. I was ready to spend my time to transfer our company to this product that was pleasant and attractive in my eyes, so I began to call the company's sales department. I phoned the European office, the representative turned out to be a very pleasant conversationalist and respected her, but unfortunately I couldn’t sell the product, since Israel has its own official Saba distributor. She promised me to connect with him.
The Israeli supplier was not particularly interested in promoting this product, so each time he answered sluggishly and in all letters and conversations made it clear that this was not their main product, so they were not particularly interested in spending a lot of time on me and on supporting the product. Then I tried to contact representatives of the main, American office. Each time I came across some lethargy and sluggishness. Each time they tried to shove me to a representative of my region with whom I had already talked enough. He even explained that our organization has an office in the USA and that payment can come directly from there. Logically, it turns out that in this case, we may well be served by an American office. But so we are mired with them so far in this correspondence.
Perhaps for a week or two we’ll try to conclude an agreement with them. But there is no long pull with this, no matter what the product is. So we get a dual impression. On the one hand, a good product that you want to use and that you want to implement at home. On the other hand, one gets the feeling that no one in the company wants to take responsibility. All are slow and slow. It seems that employees and distributors do not believe in this product and therefore do not want to mess with it. When I tested the same “Webex”, a representative called me several times a week and accompanied me from beginning to end.
It’s too early to draw conclusions. I hope for a reasonable end to this story. Nevertheless, I want to draw your attention to the fact that no matter how magnificent your product is, do not forget how you present it to customers. It’s better to double-check this moment, otherwise there will be no sense from your excellent product.
PS I invite authors of knowledgeable in E-learning and people who are somehow involved in this topic to take part in the creation of new, useful articles in this direction.
We are talking about the Centra synchronous training program from the American company Saba specializing in integrated learning platforms, LMS (Learning Management Systems) and personnel development and training systems.
Saba Centra was one of the first programs to appear on the distance learning market. It was Centra that was the main competitor to the Israeli Interwise, which AT&T ultimately acquired. Later appeared "Webex" , "Adobe Connect" , "Elluminate" and others . But unlike Interwise, Centra began to fade and in recent years less and less information has appeared about it. Whatever it was, the program, like the company itself, is alive, although they sometimes show a rare indifference to interested customers.
Registration and installation
Problems began at the stage of registering a test account on the product website. The system was dull and rejected all the email addresses that I slipped to her. Neither the corporate email, nor the Gmail address, and any other email address helped. I wrote a letter to the site’s administration, a month later I received a response from them that the bug was fixed and now you can register without hindrance. This made it clear to me how sluggish some departments of the company are and what can be expected in the future. Anyway, I finally registered and started testing the product.
Although the initial installation took quite a lot of time, all subsequent visits to the virtual meeting room took place within a minute, a maximum of two. Java-based Centra is running, so it is mandatory to have a JVM on the user's machine. If there is none, the program will tell the user what needs to be done. Saba Centra itself as a tool for conducting webinars was surprisingly good. Nice and intuitive interface, nothing more and no clutter of buttons, as was the case with Elluminate. The system will kindly tell you that you forgot to turn on the session recording and will offer you to do this before you launch the first slide of your presentation. Centra easily uploads most file formats to the session folder, though far from everything can be launched on a virtual board. It will only be able to display * * .PPT * * .JPG on it, all other files when uploading are placed on Saba servers and are available to session participants as a link. If you do not want to force the file present on your PC, you can use the Application Sharing function, which surprisingly works well and does not cause any complaints.
Last week, the iPad version was even announced
Additional features
It is possible to receive real-time feedback from webinar participants. In addition, “Emoticons” (emoticons and status icons), which are very lacking in the “Webex” I respect very much, also help in this. If we continue the comparison with "Webex", then it is worth saying that the product "Cisco" looks more solid and presentable, but it lacks other chips that can boast of "Centra". In particular, the host using the program at any time can conduct a survey or a mini-test and immediately get the results. In "Webex" this is only available in the Enterprise version (Webex Learning Center), which is already offered for very different money, unlike the Webex Meeting Center.
All webinar entries are automatically posted on the company's servers immediately after the end of the online session. After that, you can either send the participants of the session links to the records, or download the records to your computer in * .EXE format and send them out yourself. As for the recording format, not everything is clear. On the one hand, an exe-shnik self-extracts to the user's machine and can start even without a program. On the other hand, everyone knows that exe files are truncated by most mail servers (including Gmail), so you will have to pack the recording files into archives or upload them to your servers for distribution. You can distribute recordings directly from the Saba Centra server, but by default you are given 1Gb of free space, everything else is for an additional fee.
Price and contract
The minimum package, including the use of 5 leading names, costs $ 80. Slightly higher than the average market price, but the truth is far and not the predatory prices of Interwise aimed at corporate business. True, unlike competitors, Centra allows up to 100 participants to attend the webinar. The minimum agreement period is 3 months. The problem is different ... Only US residents can sign a contract online (from the site). Everyone else will have to call the sales department. I was ready to spend my time to transfer our company to this product that was pleasant and attractive in my eyes, so I began to call the company's sales department. I phoned the European office, the representative turned out to be a very pleasant conversationalist and respected her, but unfortunately I couldn’t sell the product, since Israel has its own official Saba distributor. She promised me to connect with him.
The Israeli supplier was not particularly interested in promoting this product, so each time he answered sluggishly and in all letters and conversations made it clear that this was not their main product, so they were not particularly interested in spending a lot of time on me and on supporting the product. Then I tried to contact representatives of the main, American office. Each time I came across some lethargy and sluggishness. Each time they tried to shove me to a representative of my region with whom I had already talked enough. He even explained that our organization has an office in the USA and that payment can come directly from there. Logically, it turns out that in this case, we may well be served by an American office. But so we are mired with them so far in this correspondence.
Instead of conclusions
Perhaps for a week or two we’ll try to conclude an agreement with them. But there is no long pull with this, no matter what the product is. So we get a dual impression. On the one hand, a good product that you want to use and that you want to implement at home. On the other hand, one gets the feeling that no one in the company wants to take responsibility. All are slow and slow. It seems that employees and distributors do not believe in this product and therefore do not want to mess with it. When I tested the same “Webex”, a representative called me several times a week and accompanied me from beginning to end.
It’s too early to draw conclusions. I hope for a reasonable end to this story. Nevertheless, I want to draw your attention to the fact that no matter how magnificent your product is, do not forget how you present it to customers. It’s better to double-check this moment, otherwise there will be no sense from your excellent product.
PS I invite authors of knowledgeable in E-learning and people who are somehow involved in this topic to take part in the creation of new, useful articles in this direction.