Our Passions

• To advance rules-based design as a coherent structure integrating the rules of technology, business, and law into a unified resource from which to evaluate, build and govern digital information across the full dimensions of a digital, wired world.
• To create unique, visual-based maps--RitterMaps™--that transform complexity, empower collaboration, drive excellence, and improve the ability of each of us to create and manage digital information that has value.

Those values inspire us every day. We are excited about what we do. We welcome your involvement in our quest to continually improve.

Jeffrey Ritter

The Ritter Academy is the vision of Jeffrey Ritter. If you enter “digital information expert” into Google, his name appears first. No surprise there—he specializes in knowing how and why people trust digital information. To do so, he has journeyed through a career across business, law, academic research, diplomacy and consulting. 

The Academy is the realization of his vision for how to both build trust and transform how professionals integrate ongoing learning and knowledge acquisition into their work. As the founder and CEO, he authors, co-authors and approves all of the content of every course published by the Academy.  Here is the pdf bio sheet on Jeffrey that is submitted in support of CLE and other professional accreditation programs for courses he teaches.

If you want to know more about Jeffrey, well... just Google him!  You can also visit jeffreyritter.com to learn more about Jeffrey, his training, public speaking and coaching activities, and a bit about his passion for cycling!

Our Team

Making this Academy a reality is the work of an entire team. Our production team includes a full staff of professionals in instructional design, web content development, e-learning design, video production, legal research, and incredible voice talent.

In addition, during the last five years, scores of professionals have worked with our team to test, develop, modify, and kick the tires to progress the work. They continue to advise on every step of the way—at the Ritter Academy, we know it takes a virtual village to build effective training and knowledge assets.  We welcome your criticisms, comments and suggestions. In the weeks ahead, our Advisory Board will be more formally announced.

Our Curriculum and Instructional Design

The Ritter Academy has developed a structured curriculum, just like a formal university. Each category of courses (think “college”) has sub-categories (“departments”). Within each category, our courses are designed to advance defined objectives, and are built to provide comprehensive support over time to the full community of professionals involved in managing digital information. Over 85 hours of training has already been designed, including three additional categories that will be released in late2011 and in 2012.

As new courses are published, alternative learning paths will become available, allowing you to achieve greater in-depth analysis and higher levels of skills development. In addition, drawing from different categories and sub-categories, core learning bundles will be packaged to meet the critical learning demands for new professionals.

Rules-based Design

Our instructional design criteria conform to the same principle we teach across all of our courses—information developed and maintained pursuant to the known rules and best practices has the highest quality of reliability and trust. We feel the same way about what we deliver in our courses—to be good, we must consistently commit to, and employ, rules-based design methods.

Because we know that active learning is hard to accomplish, especially on-line with recorded content, we have researched, and embraced, the best thinking about what effective e-learning requires. We believe we achieve that goal with every course.

Here is a RitterMap™ you can unfold to see the varied principles we have embraced in our instructional design criteria. Just click on any “+” and discover our principles. The bottom line is simple: by following these principles, we aspire to make our courses, and all of our content assets, earn your trust as reliable sources of the knowledge you require to do your job.

Active Learning

Because of our commitment to question-based learning, our courses engage the enrolled subscriber in experiencing the content of the course. Throughout each course, and with each lesson, the subscriber must click, navigate, open, and explore, often not knowing for sure what knowledge will be presented. Just like in real life, it’s good to have a few surprises!

Active learning also works best when more than one sense is used. So, in addition to clicking, each course includes professional voice talent presenting the content, and makes the complete transcript available for those who welcome the chance to read the material.

Every course also includes one or more visits to The Map Vault, where Jeffrey Ritter unfolds maps and contributes his own personal perspectives and insights.

Our RitterMaps™

Every RitterMap™ adapts mindmapping technology to visually present the structure, context and relationships among all of the rules and the risks. Each RitterMap™ is hand-crafted, like a fine geographic map, to present the information required to allow the map to be its most effective.

These maps are the weapons and tools that can be used to evaluate, build, defend and attack the integrity and reliability of digital information . . . and the systems from which the information is produced. Visit The Power of Maps to learn more about the design of RitterMaps™.

Here are the types of RitterMaps™ included, as appropriate, with each course (small samples are presented here):

Course Lessons Map—this map sets out the content of a course and is a useful guide to keep handy as you proceed through a course.

Rules Map—this map presents collections of rules that are the basis for nearly every course.

Risks Map—this map fits to the requirements in business for risks-based analysis of threats and vulnerabilities, and applies information security management techniques to the risks to show how digital information that must be relied upon as evidence can be mishandled.

QUEENs (QUEstions for ExaminatioN) Map—this map delivers structured, integrated sets of questions that can be used to investigate current systems or services, or to evaluate requirements for building improved systems or services, through which digital information is to be managed.