On July 25th the Austin ASTD Instructional Design SIG members heard a presentation by Dr. James Caras, President of Sapling Systems on "Characteristics of E-learning 2.0." Sapling Systems has developed their own sophisticated Flash-based authoring tools for math and science courses. You can learn more here at the company web site http://www.saplingsystems.com/home.html.

He coined his own term for e-learning 2.0 by calling it "we-learning" which has the following desirable characteristics:

* simple authoring tools that incorporate symbols and activities that are as good as, and hopefully better, than existing teaching methods
* engaging interactivity with rich media
* convergence - available on all OS and mobile devices
* promotes sharing and collaboration to develop new content and peer review of learning efforts
* transparency to promote trust
* measurement of learning new knowledge; tracking progress gains
* promotes effective and efficient learning
* mentors struggling learners by incorporating intelligent feedback, tutoring, and adaptive testing.