Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day—and your networking—with Morning Buzz, the popular early-bird discussions held each morning of the conference. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Migration to virtual training delivery is a “must consider” strategy for most geographically dispersed organizations. The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES) is an $8 billon organization that supports soldiers, airmen, and their families with over 2,400 retail facilities. Training the staff that supports those operations is a worldwide task. AAFES needed a better and more effective training strategy.

In this session you will learn the development and execution of a virtual training strategy for AAFES sales associates in the PowerZone and Outdoor Living store segments. You will learn from the AAFES’s implementation how to successfully migrate from a live training strategy to a virtual delivery model. You will learn what worked, what adjustments were made to the second event, and the continuing evolution of virtual events within the organization. The case study highlights the lessons learned and the best practices for similar projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• Key considerations in a virtual delivery strategy
• Lessons learned from a real-world implementation
• Best practices in virtual training
• Examples of effective training content

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, project managers, managers, and directors. Participants should have experience implementing training requirements and exposure to virtual training.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Connect and PowerPoint with Presenter. The session is focused on strategy and best practices.

Technology is constantly evolving and changing the ways we live, work, and learn. The ways we approach learning are very different than they were even a decade ago. In order to keep our practices current, we must stay ahead of this technological evolution, and that starts with getting the most out of today’s technology.

In this session you will learn how to use systems you already have to provide on-the-job support for learning, examine the impact of cloud technologies on learning platforms, and discuss how learning platforms can integrate with other enterprise systems. You will examine the increasing role of social media as a means of enhancing informal and social learning and learn how and when to use social and informal learning tools to assist in learning and knowledge transfer. Finally, you will explore how to use today’s cutting-edge technologies to paint a picture of how technology will shape how we learn tomorrow.

In this session, you will learn:

• How and when to use social and informal learning tools to assist in learning and knowledge transfer
• The differences between cloud-based platforms and traditional internally hosted systems
• How learning programs have evolved in tandem with technology
• How to prepare yourself for continued technological evolution

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
MOOCs, crowd sourcing, TED, and EDex.

From CIOs to instructional designers, to faculty, trainers, and students, organizations and universities are considering adding video-making or “visual literacy” as a core skill to the three Rs—reading, writing, and ’rithmetic—in order to prepare learners for a highly visual communication landscape that requires critical thinking to offset consumerism. Evidence shows there is a need for multi-modal learning and cognitive skills. Researching, creating, and sharing video playlists is one of the important additions to creating personalized learning pathways and engendering continuous post-diploma learning.

In this session you will review a number of case studies demonstrating the positive learning outcomes of multi-modal learning in academic and corporate settings. You will learn how to create playlists that can be annotated, edited, and shared across teams as reference materials, projects, textbook replacement, task and solution playbooks, workshop guidebooks, and individualized learning. You will leave this session knowing how to create a shareable learning play book and implement personal learning pathways.

In this session, you will learn:

• Ways to explore multimodal learning practices
• How to create shareable learning play books
• How to implement personal learning pathways
• The role of video in learning

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

You can read the statistics yourself: Bersin reports that nearly 60 percent of CLOs will enjoy an 8 percent budget increase in 2015. But so what? About what are they thrilled? What keeps them up at night?

In this session, you will have the opportunity to peek into the mind of today’s CLO through information gathered by a consultant. Gain an undersanding of their views of joys and vicissitudes. You will learn successful lessons from CLOs and gain insights from their horror stories as well. Use their views to discuss the role of learning, performance, and technology in the enterprise, and leave this session better able to consider potential implications for your contributions and your career.

In this session, you will learn:

• What CLOs are currently satisfied with
• Where CLOs are challenged
• To contextualize CLO priorities into your own work
• How to use this information towards personal professional growth

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

A Fortune 500 company was seeking a way to get a safety message to customers via their sales force without the training impacting face time. But, how do you train 3,000 plus salespeople to enhance their selling approach and deliver this new message to thousands of customers in a consistent fashion, in a compressed time frame, and with limited time away from selling?

In this session you will learn how they mplemented an enterprise mobile-learning platform for the sales force while concurrently developing content to teach the salesforce key new messaging. You’ll see how the L&D team designed a learning program leveraging each seller’s omnipresent smartphone and laptop as key access points to the just-in-time training content, participatory activities, and leader-led discussions. You will gain the perspective on how the overall program was planned, implemented, and supported in the age of myriad mobile challenges like security, authentication, integration, and private app stores.

In this session, you will learn:

• A blended approach using mobile and the roadblocks to such a large undertaking
• A beginning-to-end perspective on working with business partners and the learning areas to create a blended approach
• Insights on how to engage leaders at all levels to make the program a success
• The tools used to make the content mobile and what tools were provided to the managers to support the program

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Microsoft Office Professional, GoMoLearning’s responsive authoring platform, and OnPoint Digital’s CellCast Solution, along with Apple iOS devices.

L&D professionals are consistently being asked to do more with less while providing scalable training solutions that align to business needs. At the same time, employees are becoming increasingly accustomed to driving their own learning at home using popular technologies. By leveraging a mix of technology, instructional strategy, and organizational knowledge, L&D professionals can put employees at the center of the learning and performance ecosystem and, by supporting this shift in accountability through a focus on providing right-time, right-fit learning opportunities, truly do more with less.

In this case-study session you will learn how, during the past three years, Kaplan Higher Education Group evolved its learning ecosystem to address the need for rapid scalability while continuing to focus on the needs of the individual knowledge worker. You will gain insights on how to shift from a reliance on training events to awareness, influence, and expansion of an employee-centric ecosystem. You will explore popular cultural challenges and learn how to influence various stakeholders. You’ll leave with the knowledge needed to start expanding and integrating your own ecosystems.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify the elements that make up a learning ecosystem
• How to diagnose the health of your existing learning ecosystem
• To recognize the value of establishing a solid knowledge base for your learning ecosystem
• How to apply right-fit, scalable technology to align your ecosystem elements to how people really learn
• How to start the shift towards an employee-centered, self-sustaining learning ecosystem

Audience:
Novice and intermediate developers, managers, and directors who understand the concept of a learning and performance ecosystem at a basic level and are familiar with blended learning solutions, knowledge management, and reinforcement training.

Technology discussed in this session:
Confluence (wiki), Axonify (reiterative eLearning platform), Google+ (social media), Google Analytics (data reporting), and Adobe Connect (virtual instructor delivery).

Many applications of gaming in learning simply encourage competitive or game behaviors—they lack a focus on true learning or underlying game dynamics. The game dynamics are what power the experience and include aspects of generosity, collaboration, sharing, trading, perspective, and power.

In this session, you will explore ten different game dynamics and see how they can relate to social learning approaches, mobile learning approaches, and/or traditional training. Learn how to use gaming approaches to build coherence and trust in communities, as well as using micro-reward and input approaches to affect engagement over time. The aim of this session is to encourage you to think of more holistic and inclusive approaches that truly enhance competence, not just rewarding the gamers. This session is suited to people interested in how to design engaging and effective learning, regardless of the channel. It’s about the underlying dynamics of learning in the social age.

In this session, you will learn:

• How games truly work
• To recognize the risk of leaving people behind
• The ten underlying dynamics of games in learning
• How the ten dynamics can be applied
• The roles of kindness, fairness, and trust in game application

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Various game sites.

Every year, we spend millions of dollars on training and development. One of the ways we can determine the value achieved is by using analytics to assess who is using the content, where, when, and how. But with all this data available, which data points matter? Deciphering the ways to analyze a program’s effectiveness can be confusing. And just because we have a lot of data, does that really make any of it valuable? 

In this session, we’ll compare Experience API (xAPI) and Google Analytics to learn about your users. Using real-world examples, we’ll look at what data is available and how to find it. We’ll also discuss why some data is more valuable than others and why big data isn’t always good data. Lastly, we’ll look at how all the data points come together to really bring into view a clear image of who your users are and why it’s okay if they enjoy a frozen treat while enjoying their class.

In this session, you will learn:

• To be more familiar with Google Analytics and xAPI reporting
• The analytic process
• Which data points will help you understand your users best
• To evaluate what you really need to learn about your users

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Google Analytics, xAPI, JavaScript

There are things that prevent us from making the great video learning content that we are capable of. Sometimes these things are technical, sometimes they are budgetary, but mostly they are due to our misconceptions about what is involved. While some blaze into situations making bigger promises than they can ever deliver, others scare themselves out of ever getting started in the first place. Most of us fall in between, perpetuating common video myths without even knowing it.

The truth is, great video learning content does not have to be expensive or complicated. It just has to work within your particular constraints. In this session, you will learn what kind of content for learning makes the best content for video. You will gain a better understanding of the best designs, scripts, tools, and techniques to fit your organizational context. In this session, you will find the answers to your questions and create a preliminary action plan for your video learning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• What learning content makes the best video content for your organization
• How to test your way to the best designs, scripts, specs, tools, and techniques for your environment
• To address fears and questions about video learning
• To create a preliminary action plan

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Workflowy, Scrivener, GoogleDocs, iPhone/iPad, GoPro, YouTube, JW Player, Camtasia, Screenflow, Captivate, FinalCutPro, Premiere, Litmos, Moodle, Saba.

Learning professionals today are under a great deal of pressure. It becomes easy to get formulaic and forget two important things: our learners’ needs and our own joy, growth, and fulfillment. How can we break out of the mold, stay connected with our audiences, and remain excited about our profession? And what are some techniques we can use to contribute to a learning culture, even if the rest of the organization isn’t quite there yet?

In this session, you will learn that the best way to survive (and thrive) as learning professionals is by planning for a zombie apocalypse! You will review great L&D lessons learned by Enzo Silva as a recurring background artist on The Walking Dead. You will look at zombie theory and how it came to life via real-world examples from successful (and some less successful) L&D initiatives at SAP. You will learn novel approaches to using humor while teaching serious lessons about being more creative, effective, and learner-centric.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to tap into your creativity by looking outside the world of L&D
• To identify the right learning solution for the right situation
• Techniques for adapting content to different modalities
• What new approaches can make your team more collaborative and effective
• What baking cookies has to do with zombies and L&D

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Implementing a great user experience is critical for designing the optimal learning experience and requires the content developer to think from the perspective of the learner. There is much research on user experience (UX) available and bad practices still in circulation. Identifying what works and what doesn’t is a task worth undertaking.

In this session, you will learn basic UX best practices that can be implemented in your organization to enhance the learner experience and aid learner retention. You will see examples of good and bad learning experiences so that eLearning content developers can see useful design patterns and interactive elements that can aid learning retention and make your eLearning courses an enjoyable experience. Finally, we will discuss how the proliferation of mobile devices affects the learning experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• Important design patterns that aid in learning retention
• Why user-centered design is important for eLearning
• How the proliferation of mobile devices affects learning experiences
• How to design an awesome user experience

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
User-centered design, UX, HTML5, responsive design.

The holy grail of all learning is retention (and subsequent behavior change). Relevance drives retention. And we have no faster path to relevance than through effective stories. Stories engage us and trigger our imagination to take us places. We’ve all read about the importance of storytelling, we’ve listened to webcasts, maybe we’ve even bought a book or two about effective storytelling. Storytelling is a major buzzword today, but how can we effectively use storytelling in learning solutions?

In this session you will explore the basic framework of story, but we won’t stop there. We will discuss story arcs and the ways of creating your learning journey around a story—not just sharing a story. You will learn how to use story inside of learning opportunities. Can our learning solutions become a story or do they just use stories? Learn how story can improve learning of dry subjects such as ethics or business conduct, and finally, identify when a storytelling approach is most and least appropriate to use.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to distinguish between your learning containing a story and being crafted around a story
• The elements of a story that make it come alive
• The structures (story arcs) we can use to craft a story
• Practical resources you can use to help you transform your learning from containing a story to revolving around a story

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers and managers.

A state healthcare agency made a significant investment in new technology with the purchase of Microsoft Office 365 (SharePoint, Outlook, Excel, etc.), but there was a known gap in the digital skills of agency employees. Due to budget constraints, it had been several years since the last technology upgrade and as a results the employees had no experience with Office 365 and limited experience with productivity tools in general. However, the employees were not without relevant learning content. They had a catalog of eLearning courses on Microsoft Office and a learning management system (LMS) to make them available. Yet this skills gap remained an issue...

This session will describe a systems approach to building a learning ecosystem that provided a smooth user experience, relevant formal and informal learning content, and a collaborative platform to share the journey. This session will describe how SharePoint 2013 can be integrated with an LMS to provide performance support and social learning to engage, enable, and empower over 4,000 people in a state agency.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to leverage SharePoint for social learning
• How to integrate your LMS with SharePoint
• How to leverage instructional videos in SharePoint
• How to use SharePoint to curate external learning content

Audience:
Intermediate designers and novice managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
SharePoint 2013, Meridian LMS, PC, iPad.

As the world becomes more and more mobile, so too has the technology we’ve grown accustomed to using on desktops moved to mobile devices and in so doing has expanded the possibilities. AR is one of the emerging technologies that enable smartphones and tablets to interact with the world around them.

In this session, you’ll learn how Qualcomm employees use augmented reality (AR) and other emerging technologies to experience richly interactive learning on top of non-interactive things (like a patent wall). Originally used for marketing and selling, these technologies are now being redeployed for learners and employees—putting them to work for good. Learn how you can do the same.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Qualcomm uses augmented reality to aid employees
• Examples of augmented reality being used in non-marketing spaces, such as for learning and performance
• Why mobile technology and augmented reality is a perfect marriage for organizational learning

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and project managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Augmented reality.

Scenario-based learning is a proven effective method for learning using complex real-life situations. However the effort and technology to develop scenarios has often appeared to be too complex, expensive, and time-consuming. Today though, authoring tools have advanced to make designing and developing robust scenarios to be easier and more efficient than ever before.

In this session, you will learn how to build templates for scenario-based learning courses that will increase learner engagement while drastically cutting development time. You will build a scenario-based learning template that you can use, saving time, money, and frustration. Using Advanced Actions and Variables you will create a decision-based branching scenario with complex interactions.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to set up a scenario
• How to build a template
• How to create complex interactions
• How to save and reuse Advanced Actions

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Captivate.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with the latest version of Captivate installed.

Many organizations are still using paper-based guides, manuals, and job aids for day-to-day operations. Planning for additional printing costs throughout the year to accommodate frequent content changes is often the norm. Reliability can also be questionable, as older documents may not all be thrown out when replaced with an updated version. Some organizations have gone almost completely paperless, yet the electronic versions of the documents are still basic text, which doesn’t make use of the full potential of a virtual format.

In this hands-on session, you will gain the skills and practice needed to create interactive eBooks. You will learn how to format a document for multiple devices, integrate various types of media, and learn about alternative free and paid tools that can be used to develop and edit interactive eBooks. You will walk through a basic workflow to convert a simple document with a few simple media types to an EPUB file format that can be later made available for download directly to mobile devices with an eReader app installed.

In this session, you will learn:

• To convert print materials to an interactive, mobile-friendly format using Adobe InDesign
• To improve the quality of performance support materials by adding appropriate media
• To quickly deploy simple, effective, multiscreen mobile learning solutions in your organization
• To create native mobile content to support users who may not have consistent access to an Internet connection

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Session attendees must have Adobe InDesign installed on their laptop. Should also have a mobile device with an eReader application installed (such as Adobe Digital Editions, iBooks, or Kobo).

Anyone still struggling with learning projects or courses that exceed schedule, budget, or that do not meet audience objectives needs to understand project-scope management. This project management key knowledge area is often overlooked. However the planning, monitoring, and controlling processes involved are critical to ensuring your projects deliver the required results, on time, and on budget.

In this session you will learn the processes, tools, and techniques available to quickly and accurately collect stakeholder requirements. You will learn how to reach agreement on the scope of a learning project, and how to deconstruct the project work for the transparency and visibility required to develop reliable project time and cost estimates.

In this session, you will learn:

• The components of a good scope-management plan
• How to adequately identify requirements and document objectives and agreements
• How to decompose projects into manageable work packages
• Techniques to monitoring and validating projects and prevent scope creep
• Techniques for estimating project time and costs

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Work breakdown structure (WBS) templates.

Your organization has a mature learning program facilitated through the use of a learning management system (LMS). But now the technology powering the current system constrains your organization’s evolving strategic needs for business growth. Your team may have begun looking for technology solutions or started drafting a wish list, but what are your next steps?

Through the lens of two case studies, you will learn the best practices and lessons learned by two nonprofit associations. The first one gives an overview of the American Physical Therapy Association’s efforts to migrate 1,400 courses and 100,000+ users to a new LMS. The second highlights the Society of Human Resource Management’s efforts to select an LMS vendor dependent on a larger technology initiative to build a unified shopping cart and change pricing models for the eLearning product. You will take away practical and scalable solutions to migrate data from your current LMS to a new system and learn strategies for facilitating organizational change and managing the expectations of your team, vendors, and stakeholders.

In this session, you will learn:

• What criteria to consider when selecting a new LMS for your organization
• How to effectively lead the organizational change
• Project management techniques and communication strategies for stakeholders, vendors, and your team
• How to develop a transition plan for both internal and external stakeholders
• Common pitfalls to avoid when you are in the trenches of data migration

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Learning management systems.

Live virtual learning, while not new, has only recently gained momentum due to a down economy and increased travel restrictions. Learning organizations know that they must increasingly provide live virtual solutions, but they don’t fully understand how to transition their traditional content to a virtual platform. Intel initially struggled with a lack of standards and development skills which led to mediocre learning experiences.

In this case study session you will see how Intel reinvented live virtual learning. You will learn about how they secured a purpose-built virtual learning platform and defined quality standards for virtual learning environments, experiences, content, and instruction. You will discover their success in providing training and professional development resources for learning designers, developers, and instructors. Finally you will see how enlisting “champion” learning organizations and learning domains lead the way in modeling the highest quality virtual experiences.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to target strategies to improve quality
• How to evangelize and gain leadership support for quality standards
• How to target the right stakeholders to provide quality learning experiences
• How to enlist champions to help you lead the way

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers.

More than four years have passed since the inception of the Open Badges experiment, and in that time the concept of digital badges has moved steadily into the general consciousness. As this novel idea continues to evolve, so do its many opportunities and challenges.   

Part technology, part conceptual approach, the digitization of representations of learning now touches upon such wide-ranging considerations as competency-based education and ePortfolios. IMS, a global, nonprofit standards organization, is working to make sense of these issues as they relate to education—from investigation into an extended transcript based on the Open Badges standard to the development of the currency framework that endeavors to define and highlight the value propositions inherent in digital credentials.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the badging initiative has evolved into the digital credentialing movement
• The broad definition of digital credentials, and why they’re increasingly valuable and meaningful
• What role competency-based education is playing in the development and recognition of digital credentials
• How IMS is helping to make sense of digital credentials—including badges

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Digital credentials.

The coming year will see the launch of inexpensive virtual reality (VR) devices. But this change is not about gadgets; it’s about a massive consumer technology that will be accessible and powerful with huge potential. VR is a medium, not a gadget. How appropriate is it for education and training?

In this session we will explore seven key principles that support virtual reality as an educational medium. In learning we all yearn for something that can really hold sustained attention, induce intense emotion, allow learning by doing, provide relevant context, enable transfer, increase retention, provide cognitive swap, and above all, allow you to do things that are impossible in the real world.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why VR is on its way as a massive consumer phenomenon
• Seven learning theory principles that support the use of VR as a medium
• From real examples of the use of VR in both education and training
• From an actual experience of VR for real (well virtually real)

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Oculus Rift DK1 and DK2

Do you spend more of your time copying and pasting from one content format to another than you do creating new instructional materials? Do you have to deliver the same information for more than one learning deliverable? If you answered yes to either of those questions, then it’s time to reclaim your time and use a single source for your content.

This session will introduce you to the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) as the single source for your learning content. You’ll learn how to separate the content creation and maintenance from its delivery using a single XML source to create and update the content. You will discover a strategy that can enable you to work more efficiently, develop consistent content, and improve quality all while supporting content delivery using the existing delivery methods, learning-management systems, printed materials, slides, web sites, and mobile apps.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to implement your instructional design with structured content
• How to create and manage content in easily-updated chunks or topics
• The process to produce deliverables from XML in multiple formats, including slides
• How to update the content in one place in the source and deliver it via multiple methods
• The basic strategy to align content to learning objectives

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
XML, XML editors, DITA, and DITA Open Toolkit.

During design and development, SMEs and other stakeholders sometimes suggest ideas or practices that are antithetical to good instructional design. For example, a stakeholder believes it’s best to film a daylong stand-up training session and deliver it as one video. An SME might write learning material on a complex topic without breaking concepts down for beginners. In these cases, it is helpful for the designer to be able to present research findings to help the stakeholders understand why you should design learning solutions differently.

In this session you will learn about current eLearning research regarding multimedia, visual design and usability, and assessment. You will be able to identify how and where to best cite research with an SME, and will be able to apply findings to their design and development process. Finally, you will leave this session with a list of current research findings in three areas: multimedia, visual design and usability, and assessment.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to cite research in three areas: multimedia, visual design and usability, and assessment
• How to successfully use research to make data-driven decisions for design and development
• Where to find sources of eLearning research
• How to conduct a research-based discussion with your SMEs

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Learning professionals are always looking for the best and most efficient way to distribute training, education, and performance support. Sometimes that is face-to-face (F2F), other times online, and there are times where a blended approached is best. You can easily and cost-effectively create an online or blended approach by using readily available online tools and resources. No expensive LMS is needed!

In this case-study session you will learn how Southlake Regional Health Centre created a free blended solution using WordPress and other online resources to distribute course materials, provide participant discussion opportunities, and solve some issues that traditional LMS delivery poses. You will gain insights from the many lessons they learned as they attempted to enhance the learning experience of an established multi-day program with a more blended approach.

In this session, you will learn:

• How they created a blended-delivery learning system using free or inexpensive online resources and tools
• Which features to look for in a WordPress template to best meet the needs of online learning
• How to set up a WordPress site to optimize it for delivery of training and learning materials and resources
• Where to find inexpensive resources that you can use to enhance the learner’s online experience

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Tracking learning and performance activities to be able to analyze them and interpret their value has always been a desire of learning professionals. Having this information naturally leads to the opportunity to refine the effectiveness of the learning experiences. Until now, this has been time and cost prohibitive.

In this session, you will learn how the Experience API (xAPI) is allowing us to look deeper at what is happening and how that data can influence future design and learning environment decisions. You will explore a detailed use case involving the analysis and resolution of a productivity challenge in a large sales and marketing organization. The use case will include descriptions and explanations of how learning analytics and the xAPI can be applied, including needs analysis, solution design, data collection, data visualization, solution monitoring, and building on success. You will learn how analytics can be used to address workplace performance challenges and how to leverage the xAPI.

In this session, you will learn:

• The value of both descriptive and predictive learning analytics in the workplace
• How a common performance issue may be examined and resolved through the disciplined application of learning analytics
• How xAPI may be used to support the understanding of bridging a workplace’s performance and learning ecosystems
• How to organize the use of learning data analytics in your organization

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Experience API.

There is a huge difference between the traditional levels of interactivity for asynchronous eLearning and interactions. Levels of interactivity delineate the mechanical complexity used during the request for proposal (RFP) and proposal stages of business development, sales, and contracting to determine scope and pricing for an eLearning project. Interactions, on the other hand, have to do with the actual design of the eLearning project to bring about the desired performance change. We have interactivity (mechanical) and interactions (instructional). How do we work with both to achieve what we want for our learners?

In this session, you’ll explore the differences between interactivity and instructional interactions. You’ll find ways to align the simplicities and complexities of each to accomplish your learning objectives (both instructional and performance). You’ll learn a methodical, reproducible process you can take back to your organization to start building better eLearning courses immediately.

In this session, you will learn:

• The different levels of eLearning interactivity
• How to apply Bloom’s Taxonomy to instructional and performance objectives
• How to create instructional interactions using the different levels of interactivity
• How to create performance interactions using the different levels of interactivity

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

We’ve spent years aiming our focus at being good business partners. We build our road maps around urgent and emergent business needs. We have begun to dispel the notion of learning styles. These are all good steps. But are we getting too far away from our understanding of the learner’s experience? Understanding the needs of our business partners is useless if we don’t understand how our work will land with our learners. How can we seek to understand how the learner’s experience plays out in our learning ecosystem?

In this session, we’ll look at the importance of evaluating business goals, the technical environment, and the learner experience. You will learn how to use real-world examples of building data-based learner personas and how personas can be used to build a better vision, create a better road map, and make better decisions for both business impact and the learner experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why it’s important to understand the learner’s experience
• What a good persona looks like
• How we build personas
• How we use personas to make decisions

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

You have limited resources and need to create from scratch, and you’re under time constraints to deliver targeted learning programs. What do you do? You have to leave the glitter aside and create what you can with what you have. When you are in the trenches of a startup, you have to constantly iterate on learning and training solutions. There is rarely a final learning product, more like an MVP, most viable product. MVP is the quickest way possible to start the learning process. 

Taking a page from the “Lean Startup” movement, they each designed, delivered, and iterated on training solutions, keeping the MVP approach close in their arsenal. You will leave with ideas that you can use to build training programs quickly and apply to any organization, whether a startup or not. 

In this session, you will learn:

• The basics of the Most Viable Product of learning solutions
• To collaborate and use technology to involve learners sooner
• Concepts of “working out loud”
• To ask targeted questions to understand and evaluate the results
• To create action plans from the MVP to continue to iterate 

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and project managers. 

Technology discussed in this session:
Enterprise Social Network Tools, Desk.com, Google Docs, PowerPoint, Very Light LMS (Mindflash/Litmos).

Yes, the interest in learning games has exploded, along with the interest in gamification. Many practitioners want to create digital game play experiences as opposed to “Click NEXT to continue” eLearning. But when you get started in digital, how do you do it? How “game-y” does something need to be to produce solid learner engagement while maintaining the integrity of the learning experience? What best practices should you follow, and what pitfalls should you avoid? How is the design process the same? How is it different?

This session outlines the tools and techniques to use when designing learning games, revealing several simple learning games—and mistakes made in creating some of them. You will be able to identify what to do and the common pitfalls to avoid when designing a digital game. You will walk through up to five different learning games, learning the factors that influenced the fun and effectiveness of these games. Finally, you will be provided a learning game design template to use in getting started in digital game design.

In this session, you will learn:

• To identify what’s fun—and what’s not fun—in a digital games and how much fun is required for a game to be effective
• The nine game elements (cooperation, competition, rewards, resources, chance, strategy, aesthetics, story, theme) and factors to consider when incorporating into your games
• The three best practices in digital learning game design and three major pitfalls to avoid—and why
• The why, what, and how of play-testing a game
• The prototyping and game authoring tools available to those who want to dive into design and development

Audience:
Intermediate designers, directors, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Construct2, Flash, JavaScript.

People live in a visual world and are, therefore, conditioned to perceive quality based largely on its visual design. Your digital badge is your visible representation displayed in digital backpacks and ePortfolios. You have been tasked with creating the badge artwork. But you are not a designer and your budget does not support hiring one—so what do you do?

In this hands-on session you will learn the badge design process. Explore a host of design questions focused on creating the actual artwork. Learn what needs to be communicated and explore which design elements, such as fonts, colors, and imagery, will communicate effectively. The session also discusses the existing online design badge builders. By the end of this hands-on session, you will be equipped with the resources and confidence to create dynamic badge art on a shoestring.

In this session, you will learn:

• The communicative role of badge artwork
• How to identify steps to starting the design process
• How to identify key design elements to effectively communicate
• How to Identify online design resources for creating badge art
• How to create a digital badge

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
TBD

eLearning and instructional designers are often asked to turn long blocks of content into a product that is effective and engaging. On top of that, everyone wants a product that is mobile-ready and adaptive. How can designers with limited skills in programs like After Effects or Blender and limited coding skills create products that fit the content-focused needs of our clients?

In this session you will learn how to create interesting motion-graphics animations using Microsoft PowerPoint. You will see how these animations are flexible in the types of content they can get across—emotional, didactic, or in-between. You will also practice the basics of using PowerPoint to develop motion graphics for use in your eLearning course. Finally, you will learn how to integrate animations into standard eLearning, and consider how to talk with clients about using the most appropriate content medium for different types of content.

In this session, you will learn:

• When motion-graphic animations are most effective
• A simple process for developing a script and storyboard
• The nuts and bolts of using PowerPoint to construct complex motion graphics
• Resources for adding music, sound effects, and voiceover narration to your animations
• Ways to share and distribute your finished animations to your learners

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with strong PowerPoint skills and an interest in visual design of information.

Technology discussed in this session:
Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 or 2013.

Participant technology requirements:
A Mac or Windows computer with Microsoft PowerPoint (minimum of 2010, 2013 preferred) installed. A pair of headphones is also helpful, but not required.

As the eLearning industry continues to shift towards a more software-like and code-intensive development model, it’s important for learning developers to understand the process of software development. An understanding of the vocabulary, process, and difficulties of writing code is important to better communicate with software developers and others who are involved in the process of writing complex eLearning.

Whether you intend to write code yourself, work with coders on your team, or contract code out to a development company, this session will provide you with a high-level understanding of the coding process. In this session you’ll work with the instructor to complete a development cycle and write your first program. Fast-paced and fun, this session will give you great insight and practical experience in the programming process!

In this session, you will learn:

• The process used by professional coders to develop software
• How to develop a short interactive program
• How to build a working application from program code
• Techniques to debug code and find errors that prevent your code from building or running correctly
• A vocabulary used by professional coders that will help you communicate with them about projects

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
TBD

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with Internet access.

Many companies are interested in seeing how mobile learning can enhance and supplement current learning practices.

In this session we will explore how the needs of companies differ and how different companies approach satisfying those needs with mobile learning. You will examine the problems encountered along the way and how best to deal with those challenges. You will explore the experiences of companies using mobile learning for their workforce, including conclusions and lessons learned. You will leave this session understanding how organizations are looking at mobile learning, the challenges they face, and how they are addressing the needs of their workforce.

In this session, you will learn:

• The special problems companies  face when implementing mobile learning
• What to do, and what not to do, when applying mobile learning to a workforce
• How to apply peer-to-peer learning in workforces
• About the future of mobile learning

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile.

Learning is an opportunity to demand the most of yourself: To commit to a goal and develop intellectual fortitude. Natalie Panek is passionate about lifelong learning through experiences removed from your comfort zones. As learning professionals, we have the challenge of igniting this passion in others. In this inspiring session, Ms. Panek explores how the ongoing pursuit of knowledge should take place throughout life and across an array of experiences. You will leave this session able to encourage yourself and others to be drawn to the rewards of challenge and learning, because the incentive is the fulfilment of our dreams, and our dreams are what will transform the world.