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Bob Little Press & PR
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PRESS INFORMATION ISSUED ON BEHALF OF:

Giunti Labs
Abbazia dell'Annunziata,
Via Portobello - Baia del Silenzio,
16039 Sestri Levante (GE), Italy
Phone: +39 0185 42123; Web www.giuntilabs.com

6th October 2009

Giunti Labs takes the lead with TRIO, Europe's largest work-related Regional e-learning initiative

Giunti Labs, a leading global vendor of learning content management solutions (learn eXact LCMS) and digital repository platforms (HarvestRoad Hive), is leading a consortium of companies appointed to re-engineer the learning content production and delivery infrastructure of Training Innovation Research and (job) Orientation (TRIO), the Web Learning System of the Tuscan Region (www.progettotrio.it). Many people believe that TRIO is Europe's largest work-related e-learning regional initiative - delivering lifelong learning materials to the citizens of Tuscany, Italy, among others.

The web portal offers a wide range of learning products, with a catalogue of over 1,400 work-skills related e-learning courses. To date, some 542,000 such courses have been delivered to over 140,000 users since TRIO's inception in 2002.

These materials are being delivered via a web portal - known as TRIO - in an innovative approach to providing continuing professional development opportunities for public and private sector organisations, as well as for all the citizens in the Tuscan Region and in the world. In this, the project contributes to the implementation of European policies on lifelong learning.

The TRIO project consortium, under Giunti Labs' leadership, has introduced an extended implementation of Moodle to be the core of the new TRIO platform. This is being integrated with HarvestRoad Hive, a federated digital repository System (FDRS) developed by Giunti Labs that manages any form of content such as SCORM/AICC courseware, learning objects, digital assets, e-books and podcasts.

By adding the HarvestRoad Hive DR infrastructure to Moodle, TRIO managers will be able to unbundle their content offering from any specific delivery platform. This enables this content to interoperate with any kind of third party learning or course management system and to interchange standard content catalogues with other public administration in Italy, Europe and worldwide - thus fostering maximum reuse and sharing of the produced work-based curricula.

TRIO is already integrated with several commonly used course management systems, authoring and content assembly tools. Moreover, the final catalogue has already been shared with several local government administrations in Italy, Spain and beyond.

In the new TRIO architecture, Moodle functionality is complemented by information services (KCMF), virtual classroom services (DimDim), collaborative social networking services for sharing knowledge and experiences (Elgg) as well as experimental mobile services via mobile learning modules offered by the HarvestRoad Hive DR add-on.

"TRIO represents ‘excellence' in the world of e-learning because it addresses the continuous evolution of training needs successfully," explained Gianfranco Simoncini, Regional Minister for Education, Vocational Training and Labour of the Tuscany Region.

"It meets the growing demand for training, providing opportunities for re-training, knowledge increase or re-orientation, to ensure the business skills needed to succeed. In this, it supports and sustains the training needs of public and private bodies, promoting the development process of e-government, and contributes to the creation of an integrated regional system of education, training and work."

"The TRIO catalogue of courses is being migrated to the SCORM standard and extended with 1,800 hours of new courses developed by Giunti Labs and a handful of partners using Giunti Labs' LCMS and DR technologies," said Antonella Castaldi, TRIO Project Manager of Giunti Labs. "Courses will also be reorganised according to new semantic aggregations such as series, thematic areas and certified learning paths following market, regional and institutional standards."

In 2006, the European Commission awarded the TRIO project the European Label for language teaching through innovation and effective teaching practices.

End

About TRIO

TRIO offers services and tools through dedicated web portals (WLG) to government agencies, accredited training organisations and private organisations to support or supplement traditional training provision with online learning resources and service.

These services are also delivered through a network of ‘physical assisted internet access points' (Paas). These are managed by territorial municipalities to enhance support services for TRIO's e-learning provision, as well as help individuals experience ‘social inclusion' and also gain qualifications.

About Giunti Labs

Giunti is unique in the international publishing industry.

In 1497, Giunti publishers and typographers in Florence, together with others in Venice, began modern book manufacturing. Over the years Giunti has built a 'historical catalogue' of huge dimensions, through a gradual process of 'fusion' of different publishers, but also through the creation of new brands, including Giunti Labs. Giunti Editore now includes 20 companies in the publishing sector.

Giunti Labs, which has its global headquarters in Italy and offices in London (UK), Frankfurt (Germany), Lund (Sweden) and in Boston (US), provides a wide range of services, in response to any content, learning and knowledge management need, covering:

• Content production

• Research and development

• Technological solutions for content, learning & knowledge management

• Architectural and technological solutions for mobile & wireless

• Training and consulting

Giunti Labs provides the learn eXact® suite, Europe's leading e-learning and mobile learning content management technology. This suite is interoperable with all major vendor-driven and open source LMS and VLE solutions in the market including Plateau, Oracle, SumTotal, Saba, WebCT, Blackboard, Sakai, LRN and Moodle.

Moreover, Giunti Labs does not just adhere to the international standards relating to the LMS/LCMS world, it is one of the organisations that helps to determine and drive these standards: co-writing and developing them. Giunti Labs plays a key role in most of the international institutions for the definition of eLearning specifications (IEEE LTSC, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC36, CEN/ISSS WSLT, AICC, IMS, ADL-SCORM and OKI).

Further information from:

Minna Leikas, Giunti Labs, +39 3489 399127
Bob Little, Bob Little Press & PR, +44 (0)1727 860405