Howdy all:

I'm posting to let all of you know that we posted a new course yesterday.

Tweening with Chris Georgenes - $1.99 (discounted from $4.99)
http://www.richmediainstitute.com/catalog.php?item=80

This new course is 45 minutes of detailed insight into how an industry-leading animator (and best-selling author of 'How to Cheat in Adobe Flash CS4') uses both types of Flash motion tweens (the new CS4 'motion tweens' and the older tweens now known as 'classic' tweens) in his work.

It's also the first course that we've published at the RMI that is a capture of an FITC presentation. In particular, this one was captured from Chris' 60-minute presentation, 'May Your Tweens Come True') at FITC Amsterdam on February 23rd, 2010. We're definitely keen to hear your feedback on this new type of course, as we plan to capture some more courses at FITC Toronto at the end of April.

Share and enjoy!

-r

Howdy all:

I just wanted to drop a quick post here in the forums to let everyone know that the RMI will be, more or less, closed for the next week, as most of our team attends FITC Amsterdam, next Monday and Tuesday. We will be running the pre-event workshops on Sunday, and then will be sponsoring the actual conference. (If any of you are there, please stop and say hi).

So this is just by way of letting all of you know that response times on any support issues might be a bit longer than usual until March 1st.

Thank you,

-r

This is a general notice that, as of today, February 8th, 2010, all enrollments in online courses will last for 365 days -- more than the 90 days we'd previously had courses last. (I'm posting here now because we haven't yet had time to update the documentation on the site).

You should now see 'Duration - 365 Days' next to your products when they are in the shopping cart.

We may change enrollment duration again, at some point in the future, but if you have an existing enrollment you will get to keep it for as long as you were promised at the time you purchased the course.

Also, please note another change:
the enrollment counter starts when you first access the course, not when you enroll it in.

This means you can enroll in a course today, and if you access it for the first time on March 1st, then you will have until March 1st, 2011 to view the course.

Thank you all for your support.

-r

Howdy all:

Just a quick note (before we have time to update the various documentation around the site) that we have now implemented Certificates of Completion on *ALL* courses -- not just the longer, full-length courses.

All you have to do is fill out the survey for each course, and then you can claim your Certificate of Completion, including verification code. You can read more about how that works here.

Have a good night!

-r

All:

Please be advised that tonight between 1AM and 3AM Pacific Standard Time (so that is Saturday, February 6th), the site will be undergoing scheduled maintenance.

All of your courses should remain viewable in this time, but if you experience any service disruptions, please be advised of the cause.

Thank you,

-r

We are very pleased to run a special promotion this month.

Through all of February, you can enroll in 'Introduction to ActionScript Development with FDT' for FREE by following this link:
http://www.richmediainstitute.com/catalog.php?item=70

And, through February 15th, you can enroll in 'Comprehensive ActionScript 3' for FREE by following this link:
http://www.richmediainstitute.com/catalog.php?item=72

Share and enjoy!

-r

Apologies to all, but the marketing campaign we initiated this week led to a significant increase in site traffic, which in turn, created a few other difficulties over the past 36 hours.

We sincerely apologize if this has impacted your viewing experience.

Please note that all such viewing issues have been resolved, and we're back up and running. If you continue to experience any difficulties, please contact support.

Sincerely,

R

For the first time in the history of the RMI, we're now selling combo courses -- with live workshops and online training all part of the same purchase.

We've launched with Combo Courses in:

Practical ActionScript 3 Live and Online - 3 hours online and 1 full day in real life

Mastering ActionScript 3 Events Live and Online - 2.5 hours online and 1 full day in real life

Comprehensive ActionScript 3 - Live - 9 hours online and 2 full days of real-life ActionScript 3 training in Los Angeles.

We're trying to gauge customer interest based on these initial offerings, so please send this course information to anyone who might be interested.

And please remember that, throughout February, all training prices are discounted, and the code 'rblank9' will save you an additional 10%.

Share and enjoy!

-r

Just before the holidays, I announced that we'd updated the RMI video player to deliver improved performance. And I hinted that this was the first publicly-viewable aspect of an extended set of enhancements to the RMI site and customer experience.

And today we are proud to announce a complete overhaul of our public storefront (v3), which you can view at RichMediaInstitute.com.

While we've spent the past 18 months beefing up our learning platform (the part of our site that you see once you've purchased courses), this is the first complete overhaul of our public website, since we launched v2 back in 2006.

And boy did we need it!

While we still have quite a few additional features to roll-out over the coming months, and a new design-pass as well (this is a first public release, after all), our new site represents a massive rebuild of the RMI's public storefront.

When we launched the site in 2006:
- we were a much smaller firm, running only out of Los Angeles
- we operated only live workshops, not online training
- we didn't even have a full-fledged merchant account

So, we launched with a rather simple CMS that linked out to PayPal. We didn't really support coupons. You printed your PayPal receipt to get into the training. You get the idea…

Over time, the business changed quite a bit, running from different facilities, adding online training, and more. And, in the past four years, we kept updating the site, bit-by-bit, to try to handle each requirement.

But, because of the fact that we ran live workshops out of multiple venues, as well as online training -- all being served from different content management systems -- it was difficult to implement even basic features such as a shopping cart (which is why you had to purchase each course, individually, and if you wanted a 2nd course, you needed to run a 2nd transaction), and there was no real integration between our public storefront and the content management systems for the live and online training.

So, at the end of the day, we had a site that did too much of what we didn't need, and not nearly enough of what we did need.

With the new version of the site, that has changed. Without going into details, the major improvements you will immediately notice include:

- a complete overhaul and clarification of the site structure (you know where you are and how to get to where you want)
- a shopping cart (yes, it's 2010, we know)
- elimination of PayPal to complete your orders (though we have maintained it as a separate option, if that is how you prefer to pay)

If you spend some time on the site, you will see a lot of other improvements, as well (such as the new video player, and the new public forums). But these three really summarize why this is such an exciting step forward for the RMI.

Keep checking in throughout 2010, as we launch a series of new features and enhancements to the RMI customer experience. But for now, please let us know how we're doing, either by replying in this thread, or contacting us.

Thank you,

-r

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