The release of LECTURNITY 2.0 is a key part of IMC's strategy this year and you speak of LECTURNITY 2.0 as a "new generation of rapid authoring". What exactly will change with the new release?

Thomas Roscheck:
We are very excited about the new release. In the last few months we have invested a lot of time and resources in LECTURNITY 2.0 and we are now able to show results that make all our work worthwhile. A lot of new features will help users take advantage of a number of new scenarios.

For example: LECTURNITY 2.0 now offers the integration of interactive tests or questionnaires. Nevertheless it is still a rapid authoring tool with all the advantages this software category has: easy use, fast production and slim technology. We had lots of discussion about user guidance and GUI and now we think we can deliver a very cool product indeed.

Besides interactivity, LECTURNITY supports the MPEG-4 format which allows presentations that are recorded with LECTURNITY 2.0 to be played on mobile devices such as the iPod. You can now really watch and listen to your trainer in the classroom even if you were not able to attend.

Learning with an iPod? - This sounds promising!

Thomas Roscheck:
Not only promising, but sexy! The iPod is one of the most successful technical gadgets of our times. Over 70 million have been sold worldwide - not to mention all the other mobile devices. Podcasting is an important trend, too. Music was the door opener - but today many users want additional applications: reading a newspaper online, accessing websites etc. So, what is more relevant for a learning technology vendor like IMC than supporting learning with a mobile device like the iPod?

The traditional catchphrase of the eLearning industry, coined years ago - 24/7 learning, anytime, anywhere - has now become reality. And thanks to the hardware industry users are now able to produce top quality nuggets of interactive and high-end multimedia learning when they use the combination of PowerPoint slides, audio and video recordings, annotations and interactive elements as provided by LECTURNITY.

You say the basis of LECTURNITY is PowerPoint slides?

Thomas Roscheck:
That's right. PowerPoint is always in use when it comes to presentations or the delivery of knowledge in small bits. You start a LECTURNITY session out of PowerPoint and then you can record your presentation or lecture - as we say - "on the fly". But LECTURNITY does not just convert your PowerPoint slides; it also provides a number of additional whiteboard tools like markers, pointers, graphic elements that you can use to make your presentation more lively and illustrating. And beyond this you can also record all activities on your computer with the LECTURNITY screen-grabbing feature, in order to produce software training for example.

This sounds complicated!

Thomas Roscheck:
Not at all. Working with LECTURNITY is as easy as working with Powerpoint - and we think that this is part of the usual skill-set of users today. Our first concern is to provide a tool that enables anybody to produce professional content without having expertise in development languages or complex authoring systems.


You also said that LECTURNITY becomes interactive. What does this mean?

Thomas Roscheck:
The former versions of LECTURNITY were "pure" recording tools with additional whiteboard functionality. Now the user can also make tests as e.g. multiple choice, drag & drop, cloze, and assess the results of the users. Even if this sounds more complex it is still something that can be done easily: after recording the presentation you edit interactive elements and integrate them into your recording.


It is still one consistent production process. The trainer can also design individual learning paths, combine exercises and perform automatic analysis of test results. There is no better and easier way to produce high-quality content.

What are the main fields of application from your point of view?

Thomas Roscheck: LECTURNITY is generally in use when it becomes necessary to share and distribute knowledge quickly and/or easily. Many universities use LECTURNITY to record lectures and share them online. In fact LECTURNITY is the leading tool in German universities in this field. In this scenario, the ability to retrieve all LECTURNITY documents is very important: students do not just want to listen to a monologue and perhaps wind back and forward, they want indexed files where they can access a specific piece of knowledge when they need it. In LECTURNITY this index is created automatically.

In companies, LECTURNITY becomes important when the so called "time2competency" is paramount. For example: product managers can use LECTURNITY to inform their sales teams about new features and specifications of a product. Service technicians can use it to get the answer to a specific problem they have, whilst in front of the machine, when they use LECTURNITY on a mobile device.

Companies can communicate with customers or partners easily by providing a video-cast of important news. Or, to give you an example taken from life at home: have you ever tried to set up a cabinet from a home improvement market or self-service furniture shop? I often wished I could have had a short visual construction manual when it turned midnight and the cabinet was still lying in parts on my floor. As you see, you can benefit from LECTURNITY in almost all situations.