Ayogo Games Acquires Tandem Learning

October 27, 2011 – Vancouver, BC and West Chester, PA - Ayogo, an award-winning creator of serious games that uses game design to educate and motivate healthy behaviour has announced today its agreement to acquire Tandem Learning, a learning company that develops serious games and immersive learning solutions. Ayogo was named by NextMedia as “hottest digital media company in Canada” for their work creating mobile and social games that improve people's lives in meaningful, measurable ways while Tandem, which has been in business for nearly 4 years, has established itself as a leader in using new technologies and developing new methodologies for organizational training.

Education is an integral component of Ayogo’s commitment to improving lives through games. The acquisition of Tandem Learning further expands Ayogo’s repertoire of learning and training tools and expertise. Koreen Olbrish, Co-Founder and CEO of Tandem Learning will join Ayogo’s executive team.

“From the beginning our mission has been to grow Ayogo into a leading provider of serious games that motivate and educate, and today we took another big step forward. With Tandem, we get new expertise and relationships. We’re excited for our current and future customers who will now get a more robust offering from our combined companies,” said Michael Fergusson, Founder & CEO of Ayogo.

“We’ve worked hard to establish a track record of finding new ways to create engaging learning experiences which deliver measurable results for our clients. We’re thrilled that Ayogo recognizes what we’ve built and has decided to make Tandem a part of their organization,” said Jedd Gold, Co-Founder and President of Tandem Learning.

Olbrish added “This acquisition is a win for us, for Ayogo, and for our clients. Together, I believe we have a unique and compelling offering for organizations looking to incorporate game-based learning into their initiatives. We will continue to find ways to innovate to the benefit of everyone we work with.”

Tandem Learning and Resilience Alliance Launch The Change Game

March 16. 2011 - West Chester, PA, - Tandem Learning, Inc. and Resilience Alliance have announced the official launch of The Change Game, an avatar based serious game that will help increase a player’s agility in a changing environment by strengthening their personal resilience. According to Dr. Linda Hoopes, CEO of Resilience Alliance and author of Managing Change with Personal Resilience, there are seven characteristics of personal resilience that help people use their energy more effectively to get through times of change. Most people have strengths in a couple of those resilience characteristics but find others more difficult to apply. By strengthening the full set of “change muscles”, we become more agile and adaptable when change hits. The Change Game offers a fun and engaging way of helping individuals assess their own abilities to adapt to change and identify ways to strengthen their resilience across the seven facets of resilience.

The game includes a self assessment, a personal development journal, two rounds of game play to teach and then assess the subject matter, and a printable job aid as a take away. It was developed to be SCORM compliant. Companies in the pharmaceutical and automotive industries have already invested in the game with additional discussion taking place with a wide variety of other organizations.

“There are few, if any, organizations today that aren’t experiencing some sort of change. We recognized a real need for an effective training tool to help companies successfully get through these times,” said Jedd Gold, President of Tandem Learning.

“Tandem Learning has done a great job of taking the principles in my book and integrating them into an effective and compelling training game,” said Dr. Linda Hoopes.

Tandem Learning brings expertise in experiential learning design, game design, and technology to organizations looking to improve employee performance. Our solutions provide learners authentic practice, engaging storylines, and competitive and collaborative opportunities to create compelling experiences that have a direct impact on performance improvement. To learn more about Tandem Learning, visit www.tandem-learning.com.

Resilience Alliance helps organizations, teams, and individuals thrive in turbulence. We offer engaging, research-based tools and training materials. Our delivery model is flexible—we train and license internal and external practitioners, and we also deliver assessment, training, and consulting services directly to clients. Our materials are easy to use and are designed to integrate with a broad range of frameworks and methodologies. Come visit us at www.resiliencealliance.com.

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Jedd Gold

(818) 850-2465

President, Tandem Learning

Jedd.gold@tandem-learning.com

www.tandem-learning.com

Tandem VP of Learning Design Contributes to Serious Games Book

December 1st, 2010 - West Chester, PA - A new book on Serious Games has been published that includes a chapter written by Tandem Learning's VP of Learning Design, Kristen Cromer. The book, titled Serious Educational Game Assessment - Practical Methods and Models for Educational Games, Simulations, and Virtual Worlds (Annetta and Bronack, Eds.) is available for purchase on Amazon.com. The chapter written by Cromer is a case study of a client engagement. In mid-2009, the learning design team at Tandem was approached by a major automotive company who presented their current organizational challenges and knowledge and performance gaps in several areas, including a need for change management training. The case study outlines the solution that was developed to meet the learning need through the use of a serious game, highlighting design strategies and considerations that went into the final solution.

For a preview of the book, please visit: https://www.sensepublishers.com/files/9789460913297PR.pdf

Tandem Learning Announces Launch of Looking Glass® Game Engine

November 4. 2010 - West Chester, PA, - Tandem Learning has announced the launch of it’s Looking Glass® Game Engine. The Looking Glass® Engine is a customizable gaming engine that integrates scoring, leaderboards, team creation, live chat, polls, assessments, discussion boards, and more with a full back-end tracking and reporting tool. The engine has the ability to be customized with additional features and graphics based on the need of each uniquely designed game experience. Tandem Learning licenses the engine and develops customized gaming experiences that utilize the engine.

The competitive game engine is currently being used for an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) called Dr. Strangelearn’s Learning Laboratory, which is being played in conjunction with the eLearning Guild’s DevLearn conference.

“Looking Glass® can be a great addition for organizations who want to create a customized gaming experience for their training needs or even as a way of enhancing existing training with a gaming overlay,” said Jedd Gold, President of Tandem Learning.

About Tandem Learning
Tandem Learning brings expertise in experiential learning design, game design, and technology to organizations looking to improve employee performance. Our solutions provide learners authentic practice, engaging storylines, and competitive and collaborative opportunities to create compelling experiences that have a direct impact on performance improvement. To learn more about Tandem Learning, visit www.tandem-learning.com

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Jedd Gold

(818) 850-2465

President, Tandem Learning

Jedd.gold@tandem-learning.com

www.tandem-learning.com

Tandem Learning Launches Alternate Reality Game for Learning

October 25. 2010 - West Chester, PA, - Tandem Learning is launching an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) entitled Dr. Strangelearn’s Learning Laboratory. The serious game will run over the course of 2 weeks and culminate at the eLearning Guild’s annual DevLearn conference in San Francisco. Players will join teams and compete to collect clues tied to data, resources, and case studies that can support players in overcoming organizational objections to new learning strategies.

The game communication relies heavily on the use of social media including Twitter, Facebook, Youtube, and a variety of blogs and websites. Leading training industry experts have signed on to play key roles as ‘Mad Scientists’ to engage with players. These characters will lend their expertise to add to the game experience, shaping interactions and content as the game progresses. The true identities of the Mad Scientists will be revealed live at the conference. To join the game, visit www.drstrangelearn.com.

“We are thrilled to have the opportunity for the second year in a row to create and run an ARG around DevLearn. Many of the most progressive executives in the training industry attend this event so it’s very rewarding for us to see these people enjoying our game so much,” said Koreen Olbrish, CEO of Tandem Learning.

Brent Schlenker, Program Manager of DevLearn said, “We are really excited that Tandem Learning has developed another ARG for DevLearn. Tandem has fantastic creative, technical, and instructional design capabilities and with Dr. Strangelearn, they are showcasing their very best.”

ARGs are comprised of a series of activities that incorporate online and real world interactions which are elicited through an engaging and evolving storyline. ARGs that are specifically designed for learning can close performance gaps while providing excitement and motivation around the learning activities. These experiences provide learners with an opportunity to practice new skills in a setting that is both realistic and contextual. Tandem Learning is a leading provider of serious games including training based ARGs for conferences and corporations. www.arg4learning.com

About Tandem Learning
Tandem Learning brings expertise in experiential learning design, game design, and technology to organizations looking to improve employee performance. Our solutions provide learners authentic practice, engaging storylines, and competitive and collaborative opportunities to create compelling experiences that have a direct impact on performance improvement. To learn more about Tandem Learning, visit www.tandem-learning.com

About eLearning Guild

The eLearning Guild, a member-driven organization, is the most trusted source of information, networking, and community for e-learning professionals. The Guild produces conferences, online events, e-books, research reports, and Learning Solutions Magazine—all devoted to the idea that the people who know the most about making e-Learning successful, are the people who produce e-Learning every day in corporate, government, and academic settings. Learn more at http://www.elearningguild.com/.

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Jedd Gold

(818) 850-2465

President, Tandem Learning

Jedd.gold@tandem-learning.com

www.tandem-learning.com

XL3HR

Tim Martin Joins Tandem Learning

We are incredibly excited to announce that Tim Martin has joined Tandem Learning. Tim has spent the past 25 years in the eLearning industry and brings to Tandem a wealth of knowledge and valuable relationships.

Tim started in the learning space innovating new ways of providing distributed learning for professional education and training. As a Director at The John Marshall Law School, he was responsible for the production of training programs and synchronous satellite course for continuing legal education and judicial training. He produced the first blended scenario based ethics training for US Federal Judges. He then moved on to IBM as a business and p&l manager where he managed a staff of more than 150 technicians, instructional designers and instructors providing training for clients such as McDonalds, Sears, and Boeing. He joined Allen Interactions as an eLearning consultant helping the likes of Intel, American Family Insurance, United Airlines and Ameritech improve their businesses and has most recently spent the past 5+ years as Director of Business Development for the eLearning Guild.

As a result of his broad skill set, Tim will be wearing a number of hats at Tandem Learning. He will help develop and consult on new business relationships, work with existing clients, and act as a part of the executive team helping to shape the future of Tandem.

Tim has been on the forefront of innovation throughout his career. He is excited to continue to do so at Tandem Learning where he will make significant contributions to shaping the way organizations learn through Social Learning Technologies, Serious Games and Virtual Worlds. To see what Tim is most excited about, visit our website. And you can learn more about Tim here.

Tandem Partnering with Linda Hoopes for Change Management Experience

Tandem Learning has entered into a strategic partnership with change management expert and consultant Linda Hoopes to develop a game that helps individuals adapt to change more effectively.

Dr. Hoopes is an industrial/organizational psychologist, and co-author of Managing Change with Personal Resilience. She founded Resilience Alliance in 2007 to help organizations and their employees strengthen their resilience in the face of change. In her book, Hoopes describes the 7 facets of personal resilience, which are used as the foundation for the game experience currently in development.

Upon completion, the game will be marketed to organizations wishing to find a fast, engaging way to improve the resilience of their employees when dealing with change.

For more information about this game, please contact Jedd Gold at jedd.gold@tandem-learning.com

For information on change management consulting engagements with Dr. Hoopes, please contact her at linda@resiliencealliance.com