News and Updates

The End of Flash: A Plan and Tool to Convert Your Content

June 23, 2020 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

In 2017, Adobe announced it would “end-of-life” Flash in 2020. In the elearning industry, a lot of folks celebrated, and many more winced. At Learning Ninjas, we are excited about this announcement. The end of Flash is a huge win for the accessible and open web (and, in turn, online learning). We have been promoting HTML5, ebooks, email, and other open, accessible formats for a while. We also recognize that this is a huge challenge when it comes to organizations with content libraries full of existing, flash-based courses.

We will stop updating and distributing the Flash Player at the end of 2020 and encourage content creators to migrate any existing Flash content to these new open formats.
Adobe: Flash and the Future of Interactive Content

The end date for Flash is rapidly approaching, and we have put together a plan.

What does this mean for you?

Is some or most of your content in the Flash format? People may already be experiencing issues accessing that content due to device or browser limitations. It’s time for you to update your content.

Adobe will be removing Flash Player download pages from its site and Flash-based content will be blocked from running in Adobe Flash Player after the EOL (end-of-life) Date. Adobe will not issue Flash Player updates or security patches after the EOL Date.
Adobe Flash Player EOL General Information Page

We’re tracking updates on the end-of-life information page from Adobe. Given that it’s only six months to the end-of-life date, you may need to convert critical content immediately while you build a larger conversion strategy.

You’re not alone, and we are here to help!

Rest easy! You are not alone, and Learning Ninjas can help. We convert content for organizations of all shapes and sizes every day. Our team and large network of partners are ready to make this process as seamless as possible. You’ll get to work with some of the best developers in our industry to update your content to a mobile-ready, accessible format.

The best thing about this? It’s an opportunity!

We recommend using this as an opportunity to analyze and inventory your learning library. Determine which content is critical to your organization’s current mission. Consider sunsetting legacy content on a specific date, rather than converting everything.

Want to get a head-start? We created a template you can use to begin creating your content inventory! We prefer Airtable (a simple, online, collaborative database tool), but you can also download it in CSV format.

We want to help. Give us a call or send an email to start the conversation.

Sarah Facilitates ATD TechKnowledge Charity Hackathon

February 5, 2020 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

We’re excited to announce Sarah will be leading a group of instructional designers and developers at the first ATD TechKnowledge Hackathon in San Jose today.

This hackathon benefits Upwardly Global.

There are about 2 million immigrants and refugees currently in the U.S. who have college degrees from their home countries but are unemployed or working far below their skill level. Upwardly Global is the first and longest-serving organization that helps these men and women integrate into the professional American workforce.

If you’re attending TechKnowledge this week, check it out!

Sarah is also helping out at Becca Wilson’s Playground session, Principals of Experiment Design, at 1:15pm today, and presenting Thursday on Interactive E-Books for Mobile Learning, at 3:30pm.

2019 Ninjas Strategic Retreat

December 23, 2019 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

We don’t have a secret lair, yet. But if we did, I like to think it would resemble the Thundercats lair (which, awesomely, people are recreating in Minecraft). Instead, we make do with cool AirBnB rentals that have plenty of space to write, learn, and debate, along with a close proximity to excellent food.

This year, our retreat was in Chicago. While not exactly a tropical paradise this time of year, we lucked into some decent weather and were able to get some exercise walking around this awesome city. I am partial to the amazing architecture of the downtown branch of the Chicago Public Library.

Table with sticky notes from planning activities, worksheets, a laptop, and coffee cups.

Our rental was a 4-story townhouse, which worked out very well. We had a kitchen and break area on one floor, bedrooms on another, and our workspace at the top level, with a patio, good tables, and good lighting.

Some of the key takeaways from our team:

One of our core values is making positive, measurable change in the world through education. My biggest takeaway from our strategic retreat was how we can make a much larger impact with our charity fund.

It’s exciting to think of the opportunities we have to play a strategic role in making the world a better place! With a deep collective knowledge and breadth of experience, our team will be bringing some exciting new projects to life in 2020.

Sarah Mercier

CEO

I absolutely love getting together with smart people to learn and share experiences and brainstorm new ideas. This weekend was full of challenging reflection and planning activities while also making time for relaxation and team-building.

Creating space and time for this group to gather and learn is critical for the success of our business.

This year’s retreat was expertly facilitated by Teresa, and we came away with a clear set of goals for 2020 and beyond.

Brian Dusablon

CTO

Everyone in the group was highly engaged and did a great job of setting realistic priorities for the upcoming year.

Teresa Dussault

Director of Operations

A key takeaway for me was that there is no substitute for face-to-face time. This weekend represented the first time that the four of us were together in person.

The retreat was great, with no distractions, allowing us to set our path forward. We learned a lot about where we all want to head, and there was an amazing amount of alignment in our visions.

We could not have asked for a better facilitator in Teresa, who lead us through some great activities. I am energized to move forward and get us all to the end goals we are looking for.

Sean Putman

CIO

Our Director of Operations, Teresa Dussault, planned and facilitated this retreat. She reiterated how important it is to allow enough discussion time and not overpack an agenda for an event like this to be successful.

We learned a lot from our open discussions this year, including some key alignment we didn’t know we had around some new product concepts.

One big takeaway from this strategic retreat for everyone is that we need to meet more often. We decided to hold these retreats twice a year starting in 2020 so we can be more responsive to our clients and our internal passions and creativity!

Four Learning Ninjas sitting at a table - from left to right: Sarah Mercier, Teresa Dussault, Sean Putman, and Brian Dusablon. — Happy Learning Ninjas

New Director of Operations: Teresa Dussault

January 17, 2019 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

Teresa Dussault's Profile Picture We are excited to announce a new addition to Learning Ninjas! Teresa Dussault has joined our team as Director of Operations.

Teresa brings strong business operations, project management, and education expertise to our team, with most of her career focused specifically in workforce development. She is also the co-founder of Slow Wave Coffee, a responsible coffee roasting company, so you can be assured all Learning Ninjas will stay adequately caffeinated.

Along with supporting the operational growth of the organization, Teresa will serve as a project lead and subject matter expert. You can learn more about her on LinkedIn.

We’re excited about the expertise and insights Teresa brings to our daily operations, and thrilled about her community involvement efforts that align with our focus on social good and high impact projects.

A New Era and New Leadership

August 23, 2018 By Brian Dusablon Leave a Comment

I founded Learning Ninjas in 2010 to collaborate with the brightest minds in learning and development to create innovative, impactful solutions and give back to the community. Over the years, our collective found joy in working together, teaching others, and doing meaningful work for social causes. We are proud to create good in the world through our work and commitment to donate at least 10% of our time and revenue to charities and social causes. But, we can do more.

We believe learning can change the world, and every person deserves a chance to learn.

Hat tip to Shawn Rosler for his help with this video.

Announcing Learning Ninjas LLC

We’re forming Learning Ninjas LLC to grow our impact and take the organization to the next level. Through a strategic merger with Sarah Mercier and meLearning Solutions, we are expanding our leadership team and expertise to open new opportunities for growth.

In addition to experienced leadership and strong design strategy, Sarah brings excellent ideas for how to take Learning Ninjas to the next level. She founded meLearning Solutions in 2011 and later led and expanded the Academy at the Task Force for Global Health. She will continue to operate meLearning Solutions as the mobile learning design and development arm of Learning Ninjas LLC.

Sarah joins a leadership team consisting of myself and Sean Putman. Sean joined the organization as a partner in 2015. Through his experience in developing measurable, performance-based solutions, his expertise and writing about the Experience API (xAPI), and his passion for teaching others, he has helped the organization grow substantially. Sean’s vision helped bring us to where we are today.

What We Offer

Our business model isn’t changing. We continue to offer a collective of consultants, designers, and developers ready to support and teach our clients while we help them meet business goals. This merger brings additional leadership and expertise to our team, enabling us to further our mission to build effective learning solutions while teaching and mentoring others in our community. Along with some new strategic partnerships, we are excited to improve and scale our collaborative process, offer more workshops and learning events, and continue to pursue exciting products we have been developing.

I am proud to have turned a collective into an organization with drive and vision. I’m thrilled to enter this new chapter with Sarah, Sean, our partners, and our talented contractors. We look forward to providing opportunities for people to do the work they want, in the environment of their choosing, while educating and improving lives. This is our mission. We hope you’ll join us!