Jeff Cobb of Tagoras Inc. recently released a report focused on learning management systems for associations. Find below my interview with Jeff, discussing not only the report but also his life as an entrepreneur and his quest for a balanced lifestyle. Full disclosure: Web Courseworks’ LMS called CourseStage is one of the featured systems in the report. I am writing about the LMS Report because it is an invaluable guide for associations considering a business model involving eLearning. I am also intrigued by Jeff Cobb, the entrepreneur.
Let’s start with Jeff. Often educators, especially those who achieve success researching and teaching in the higher education market, dream of private sector opportunity. Like Jeff, they can be torn between their passion for instruction and learning and their natural interest in financial acknowledgement for their contributions. It is also a challenge to succeed in the private sector educational marketplace. Jeff is one of my heroes because he did just that. In the interview featured below, he talks about how during the dot-com period earlier this century, he saw a need for a learning management system focused on serving the needs of non-profits and associations. He successfully sold his business in 2005 and formed Tagoras, a consulting and research firm in 2009 with his wife Celisa. This new venture stemmed from what he saw as an important need for information in the association sphere.
The Association LMS Report provides several benefits for technology or education managers. It saves the LMS selection committee time and effort in gathering information on LMS companies experienced in association education. The report lists features and functionalities of the various learning management systems, so associations stakeholders can spend their time asking vendors focused questions on which system can best meet their association’s needs.
“It helps them dig deeper into the association’s strategy of how they are going to use the LMS,” says Jeff. It’s one of Jeff’s goals to present associations with the technical information in the report so they can spend their time asking vendors to highlight success stories associated with the technology.
Jeff concludes this 7 minute interview by giving us a glimpse into his current research project and the topic for his next report.