Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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 with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. 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.

Interest in STEM education—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—is on the rise. This interest is driven by the knowledge that most 21^st-century innovations in the world economy will be driven by STEM fields. In this fascinating opening keynote, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of the television show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, will explore how and why STEM is critical not just in the education of young people, but also in impacting the landscape of today’s workplace. You will learn how strong foundations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can be leveraged in organizational training, and how that foundation can be expanded upon to empower workers to solve business-related problems—even problems they have never before seen. You will explore the role of ever-advancing technology and the challenges and opportunities these advancements represent. You will leave this keynote with a greater understanding of the key roles that learning plays in the uncharted territory that is the future of work.

If you’re an eLearning developer looking to build more engaging courses, then you’re going to love Articulate Storyline 2. In this session, you’ll learn how to quickly create interactive content that captivates your learners. You’ll see all the amazing things you can do with the brand-new slider interaction, relative motion paths, and new triggers.

Serious games have the potential to engage and motivate your learners. But what about driving long-term retention of business critical knowledge? In this session, we will share how several organizations have put theory into practice and implemented games as part of their training programs. Then, we will unveil the brand-new Knowledge Guru “Quest” game, an expansion of its game-based learning platform that uses spaced repetition, feedback loops, and immersive game elements to help employees acquire critical knowledge and apply new skills on the job.

In this session, a comprehensive introduction to video and audio compression, you’ll learn the best delivery standards for optimizing content delivery to mobile and desktop devices; the session will provide an overview of everything you need to know about editing, preparing, and delivering the highest-quality video and audio to your audience. We’ll discuss techniques and interactivity that can be added, as well as the latest standards and how you can take advantage of open-source, free compression tools, as well as the latest applications for getting the smallest file sizes and the highest quality.

Successive approximation, rapid prototyping, agile methods—they all call for iterative development. With each iteration you take a product out to the learners and gather new input into your designs. Does this completely mess with everything we’ve learned about the ADDIE model? How do you know when to stop iterating? How do you convince your project sponsors to go along? Is this just an excuse for releasing shoddy work?

Learn from actual case studies and LLAMA (lot like agile methods approach) methods how to create opportunities for iterations as you plan your instructional-design projects. You will explore a number of different iteration approaches, what to do with the information gathered at each cycle, and pitfalls to avoid.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to keep your project on budget and on time
• How to plan iterations for each phase of your project
• When to say when to iterations
• What to do with the information you gather

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, instructional designers, managers, and directors. No previous knowledge or skill required.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Engaging learners online in an authentic way presents challenges for instructors and designers trying to create effective and pedagogically sound courses. An ideal educational experience happens when students encounter a cognitive presence, a social presence, and a teaching presence. Such an experience can also be grounded within the community of inquiry model and personal learning environment.

In this case-study session, you will explore how book clubs became the stepping stone to transform a traditional online asynchronous classroom activity to an engaging, social, and active online-learning experience through asynchronous peer interaction and collaboration. You will learn how these book clubs provided the scaffolding for small-group debates. You will discover how Southern New Hampshire University successfully implemented asynchronous online book clubs and debates in a combined community and global Health course. You will discuss overcoming potential difficulties and limitations in the successful deployment of collaborative activities within a learning management system.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to implement collaborative strategies in an online environment
• How book clubs and debates can create student engagement and learning opportunities
• How to reference the community-of-inquiry model in asynchronous activities
• Design, development, and implementation techniques for group forums, wikis, and discussions

Audience:
Novice designers and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Collaboration and other tools available in Blackboard, Adobe Connect, Skype, etc.

Organizational storytelling can be a powerful learning approach, but it suffers from many obstacles. Storytellers often lack skill in developing a cohesive narrative and delivery. Often the relatability of the narrative misses the mark. Content, relevancy, and usefulness should always be paramount and the current quality of many training-related videos is mediocre at best

In this session you will learn how collective digital storytelling (CDS) combines methodologies of organization development, digital video capture, and collective/systemic storytelling to create a platform that is extremely engaging to learners. You will explore how CDS puts learners in more active positions so that they are storytellers as well as story-receivers. You will discover how peer-to-peer communication enables the learners to become the teachers and vice-versa. You will leave this session understanding how CDS provides a new and energizing way to use video as part of eLearning.

In this session, you will learn:

• The definition and description of collective digital storytelling (CDS) and an overview of the process
• How to augment video capture with organization development approaches to generate richer and more meaningful content
• Synthesis methods used to turn independent story lines into a cohesive narrative that reflects adult learning needs
• Uses and applications for collective digital storytelling (CDS)

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Video capture, video editing, and examples of and outcomes of projects.

Some developers pay instructional design (ID) no attention at all. Some have never heard of it, and do not see any reason to get to know it. You can see instructional design being criticized in blogs, Twitter streams, and other areas. It’s too slow. It’s too wordy. It’s not techie enough. It’s not appreciated by customers or clients. What you don’t find are alternatives or even a shared definition. If you ask 100 instructional designers for a definition, you won’t get just one definition, you’ll get many—or shrugged shoulders. Shouldn’t we try to establish a shared, contemporary perspective on it before we consign it to the scrapheap of history?

In this session participants will revisit instructional design. You will explore what it is, and then dig deeper to explore what it really is in practice. You will discuss what instructional design looks like when it is done well. You will discover the relationships between ID and technology, and how the two work best together.

In this session, you will learn:

• The true value of instructional design
• How instructional design works in practice
• Why instructional design is often criticized
• How technology can be leveraged in instructional design

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

Using video for eLearning is here to stay. But it’s almost impossible to answer fundamental questions about whether or not your training video is reaching its goals. In many cases, you don’t even know if the viewer is still in the same room after they’ve clicked play.

In this revealing and interactive session, you will learn practical tips and tricks to produce interactive training and eLearning videos. You will explore real-world examples of how corporations and other large organizations are using video combined with seamless interactivity to provide traditional training and on-demand performance support. You will learn secrets to share with your colleagues and staff on how you can transform existing training and eLearning videos into learning workhorses and how to give your learners access to the information that matters most at just the right moment leaving them energized, empowered, and ready for the task at hand.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to produce video with interactivity in mind
• How to enhance memory retention and behavior change with video
• The three secrets to interactive-video success
• The must-have tools for interactivity
• Interactive videos that worked

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, project managers, managers, and directors who have used video to try to meet learning objectives or managed others who have done so.

Technology discussed in this session:
YouTube Annotations, Interlude, HapYak Interactive Video, Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and various video-hosting solutions.

With the financial advantages of big data gaining global attention, C-level managers and senior business leaders are beginning to demand better reporting and improved accountability across all organizational divisions. While the goal of measuring learning seems unreachable for most in the training division, the reality is that these technological advancements mean that disruption in the training industry is inevitable. These innovations will enable unprecedented reporting of training effectiveness, business impact, and return on training investment.

In this session you will learn about the looming industry disruption, including the advantages and the benefits. You will explore the tools to develop an overarching strategy to prepare your organization for the change and provide tools to communicate with your training team, peers, and other business leaders. You will discuss strategies for planning a long-term change within your organization. This session will examine what’s happening with analytics in a logical and easy-to-understand way. You will leave this session understanding what you need to know about analytics, what you need to do now, and how to do it.

In this session, you will learn:

• True learning measurement and how to separate useful and meaningful data from the noise
• The effects of big data on the way training is currently done
• Strategy for communicating to other business leaders, peers, and teams
• Tools for developing a roadmap for change within your organization

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced managers, directors, and executives with an interest in the future of eLearning, decision-making authority, and/or the responsibility to manage change.

Technology discussed in this session:
Enterprise Infrastructure, learning management systems, HRIS, learning record stores, the cloud, and analytics dashboards.

The process of getting newly hired salespeople trained and actively selling products is a key concern for most businesses. Organizations typically throw new hires into a classroom for a week or two, and then send them on their way with a couple of three-ring binders and with little or no follow-up. Grainger was seeking faster and more innovative ways to make its new hires successful while recognizing that people learn better over time.

In this case-study session you will explore how Grainger’s L&D team redesigned the onboarding process around each seller’s smartphone, tablet, or laptop as their primary access point to their training. You’ll discover how this restructured approach uses a combination of learning modules, live and virtual classroom experiences, interactive forums, and game mechanics to make the new-hire learning experience more continuous, inclusive, and engaging. You will learn how we overcame the challenges of packaging and delivering varied formal-learning experiences and informal-learning interactions, both online and via mobile app, in a highly secure IT environment.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of mobile and online access to all on-boarding tasks
• How to integrate with other internal systems like single sign-on, Cisco Webex, and an LMS
• How to use a blended-learning environment with interactive forums, gamification, and ride-along surveys
• The importance of a highly-customized interface from the application’s launch icon to a fully customized user experience

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Microsoft Office Professional, Epic Learning’s GoMo authoring tool, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Articulate Storyline, and Cisco Webex—all delivered and accessible via OnPoint Digital’s CellCast Solution mobile-learning platform on Apple iOS devices.

There is an increasing demand for accessibility in learning content, yet many instructional designers are unsure if they are doing a good job of meeting the needs of learners with disabilities. There is a need for instructional designers to discover what they can do to accommodate and enhance content for users of all abilities.

In this session participants will learn from the accessibility lessons learned in supporting the Connect-Ability project, an online education initiative for individuals with disabilities seeking gainful employment. You will explore how assistive technology (AT) is used and how course designs support accessible content. You will discuss 508 standards, other accessible guideline information, and the practical application of tips to incorporate in your design. You will examine the different considerations to consider for inclusive design based on working with a diverse population of users. This session will help you become more comfortable understanding your learners and how to ask important questions that can influence your course designs.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why 508 compliance is an important factor in course design and important 508 standards to follow
• What tools to consider when developing accessible content
• How JAWS users engage with content and the importance of using headers in content
• How to be creative and still meet accessibility requirements
• About the various types of disabilities to consider
• Considerations for building accessible courses/content
• The top 10 design goals to consider for designing accessible content
• If your courses are inclusive

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

Technology discussed in this session:
JAWS (screen readers), Lectora, closed captioning and various eLearning tools, Blackboard, 508 standards, and others.

How can you make computer application training interesting and effective for your learners? Software simulations can be an effective way to train employees on new applications. However, creating complex simulations is expensive and time consuming. Simplistic simulations are often ineffective, resulting in boring eLearning (often referred to as death by PowerPoint).

 In this session participants will learn tips and tricks that can be used to make software simulations much more effective and less time-consuming for the developer. You will explore the value of learner-centric workflow analysis, storyboarding, character development, interactions, and much more.

 In this session, you will learn:

• About learner-centric workflow, a development approach to creating engaging software simulations
• Key SME questions
• How to use simple scenarios via storyboarding and character development
• Alternatives to tracking completions

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Most learners and stakeholders want an efficient learning experience that can increase their competency as quickly as possible. Most training teams want a scalable, flexible, and sustainable solution. Yet too often training programs fail to deliver on these expectations because we try to cram too much information into too short a timeframe using the wrong type of solution.

In this participatory session, you will examine a case study in which Guardian Analytics made similar mistakes and their lessons learned. In small groups, you’ll use the case study to identify training problems and determine options for more effective and relevant customer training. You will explore the warning signs of a poorly planned training project, discover approaches to ensuring programs are scalable, flexible, and sustainable, and learn strategies to ensure you are connecting with your learners. You are encouraged to share your own experiences with inefficient training and the methods you used, if any, to address the problem.

In this session, you will learn:

• The warning signs of ineffective or inefficient training
• The importance of regarding training as an extension of your company’s product rather than as a necessary evil
• Why you must understand your learners’ needs—and the consequences of not doing so
• Effective methods used to successfully flip training into a blended solution

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Jive platform, Captivate, and SmarterPath (a social learning LMS).

Too often, when we get rooted in our projects, we become very self-centered in our work. We forget there are people just like us struggling in the exact same way. We begin to convince ourselves that our way is the only way and, creatively, we can shut down very quickly under the weight of our workload. The panic, stress, and insecurity all lead us to not put our best work out there and, what’s more, to not share our work in pursuit of improvement and feedback.

In this session you will explore an individual case study turned confessional in which the presenter realized he did everything mentioned above (and then some), and the benefits and value he realized when he changed his approach to professional development. You will discuss the benefits of coming out of your cave and opening up via membership in professional organizations. By attending this session you will discover simple steps that can lead to amazing benefits, both professionally and personally.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance and benefits of membership in a professional organization
• The importance and benefits of being involved and active, professionally, via social media
• The limitations you may be experiencing without even realizing them
• That community is key to professional development

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

The concept of using games for learning is a very popular topic right now. It is also a controversial topic, as there are people who support games for learning, and others who question their value. Part of this divide is the existing confusion regarding how games support learning, and what research-based approaches are most effective.

In this session you will explore the most current research findings related to applying games in corporate learning and training environments. You will discuss how you can apply the research findings via tips for implementing game-based solutions. You will examine the skills needed to build effective game-based training programs, learn why many organizations struggle to get started in games, and get lessons to take away from other organizations’ successful implementations.

In this session, you will learn:

• The most current games-research findings
• Which findings are most relevant to your game programs
• New heuristics for game implementation
• What new research might bolster your case for incorporating games

Audience:
Novice designers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Games.

Many practitioners think that learning research is pie-in-the-sky information that is of value for academics but of little value for practitioners. But good practitioner research is practical research that points practitioners and their managers towards better practice and helps them make the important decisions.

In this session, you will hear the main conclusions from the recent Guild research report, The Experience API: Liberating Learning Design. You will explore the various findings of the report and how the information is valuable for day-to-day practice. You will have the opportunity to discuss the research and ask questions. You will leave this session with a deeper understanding of the Experience API and how it can be used to enhance your learning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• The interesting data, charts, and insights from Guild research reports you can use
• The main conclusions from recent Guild research reports
• How Guild research helps you improve your practice and make better decisions
• What experts in the field are thinking and doing

Audience:
All.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI.

Articulate Storyline is a very powerful tool for eLearning. It is also extremely easy to use, enabling novice users to quickly learn how to build courses and add interactivity to content. Interactivity is what can make even the most boring content more engaging.

In this hands-on session you will explore a number of different ways to build interactivity into an eLearning course using Articulate Storyline. You will examine different types of interactions, and when each type of interaction works best. You will build interactions during the session, including click-and-reveal, drag-and-drop, and mouse-over effects.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to determine which Storyline tool might be best for certain interactions
• How to build a click-and-reveal style interaction
• How to build a drag-and-drop style interaction
• How to build a mouse-over effect

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers with some experience and familiarity with Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
A PC or Mac running Windows and Storyline.

Research shows that only 20 percent of corporate learning happens during formal training, regardless of the delivery modality. However, 70 percent of learning occurs during on-the-job experiences. One way of bringing more job experience into formal training is through online roleplay simulations. The challenge most organizations have is the belief that simulations are too expensive, take too long to build, or require skill sets they cannot support.

In this hands-on session, participants will learn how to build a complex and effective roleplay that will run on a mobile device using ZebraZapps. You will explore how easily you can build the simulation by creating your own in 60 minutes. You will leave this session with the tools, content, and media to make simulation-based learning a reality for your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• An overview of ZebraZapps
• The components of an effective roleplay
• How to build a roleplay from scratch using ZebraZapps
• How to publish the app for mobile delivery

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

Technology discussed in this session:
ZebraZapps.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with Internet access.

The maker movement has won accolades for reinventing education. How can we take the lessons from the maker movement and apply them to curriculum design? What tools do we use for teaching? What aspects of our curriculum are engaging for learning? Do learners have the tools they need to complete their tasks? In this workshop, you will explore how to bring the lessons of the maker movement to curriculum design. 

The development management system (DMS) is the missing piece to the toolset used by L&D. For many years, talent management systems and learning management systems have helped you plan and deliver solutions. However, there has never been a tool to support your development operations. The DMS is the missing link between the planning processes and solution delivery. In this session, you will learn how a DMS facilitates the development process and automates the day-to-day operations across the entire enterprise.

The main driver of learning and development today is to deliver and track sufficient training to minimize company risk and ensure employees understand basic processes and procedures. It is a broken, antiquated way of thinking suited for delivery by dated legacy technology and results in minimally effective programs. In this session you will learn why emotional connections are valuable and how they are created. You will explore the parallel between how exceptional retail and hospitality companies grow by staging experiences to create emotional connections with customers, and how the same thinking, tactics, and tools can apply to learning and development.

Tired of your legacy desktop authoring tool failing to create the beautiful multi-device learning your learners want and need? Looking for responsive and adaptive learning without blowing the budget? It’s time to meet gomo, your new authoring tool. In this session, gomo’s Mike Alcock will be running a live demo of its new authoring tool to show you how easy it is to create your own single-source content for desktops, smartphones, and tablets.

Are you a performance-driven company or a training-driven one? Your answer is crucial, because today’s consumer-minded learner has high expectations about engagement and accessibility. How will you respond? Can you connect the dots from learning to performance? Content strategy plays a critical role in managing and measuring content effectiveness once we break it down into small chunks. In this session you’ll learn about the future of learning technology and how it fits into your plans to deliver learning that not only delights, but drives performance. If you are planning your learning architecture for the future, don’t miss this.

Find out how new social and video collaboration technologies from IBM can transform the way your people learn. Hear about best practices from customers like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Boston Children’s Hospital, and learn how they are looking beyond the learning management system to a social, collaborative, better way of learning.

Within your content, sound is a sure way to heighten the overall educational experience and move your content into the future. Good sound and sound design can make a training video go from bland to wow. But looking for ways to incorporate sound in eLearning can be overwhelming: How do I record great sound? Where do I get music and sound effects? How much should I pay? Should I license the music? Do I have to license the music? What is licensing? In this session, you will explore solutions to add high-quality sound design to our eLearning videos on a very low budget.

It’s getting more difficult to filter the best and most relevant content that employees need to do their jobs effectively. In this session you will explore a next-generation content feed that aggregates information into one place. Learn about how the Office Graph surfaces signals from email, IM, SharePoint, Yammer, and soon line-of-business applications (i.e., LMS) and organizes it using into a coherent, relevant stream using Delve. It’s like building contextual performance support based on the activity that your learners are already doing today.

As today’s workforce adopts new technologies, only one in 10 workers consider themselves proficient with the digital tools they use every day. Meanwhile, rapid technological change has led to a skills half-life of just 2.5 years, allowing even the most adept among us to fall quickly behind while the US economy picks up the nearly $1 trillion dollar check in lost productivity. By laying out a digital competency model made up of eight core skills, this presentation provides a tool kit for closing your organization’s skills gap so that you can catch up, keep up, and move ahead.

Today’s eLearning developers have amazing desktop and cloud-based solutions to choose from. However, deciding which tool will best suit an organization’s learning and development needs, both today and in the future, can be an overwhelming challenge. There are a number of factors that you need to explore and understand before you can make a proper authoring-tool purchase decision.

In this session you will explore the pros and cons of desktop and cloud-based content authoring tools. You will learn where each type of tool excels and where it has challenges. You will examine a framework for understanding and evaluating features and benefits as they pertain to different learning development environments. You will leave this session understanding which option best suits your learning development model, which meets your budget goals, and which provides you the most flexibility going forward, making your next purchasing decision easier and more impactful.

In this session, you will learn:

• The pros and cons of desktop authoring tools
• The pros and cons of cloud-based authoring tools
• A framework for evaluating your learning development processes and needs
• How to choose an authoring system that best matches your learning development (and budget) needs

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, project managers, managers, directors, and VPs who understand their organization’s learning development model and the challenges they face when deploying authoring tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Software as a service (SaaS), desktop authoring, and cloud-based authoring.

Getting self-directed learners to jump into their LMS and click through the curriculum can be as simple as individual requirements and goals. But people are more effective learners when they are engaged and eager to interact with the content. While we have struggled with this in the training world, the marketing world has had great success in this area.

In this session participants will explore a number of techniques used in the field of marketing that can be applied to learning programs to make content more engaging. You will also explore the types of marketing techniques that can ruin engagement. You will discuss ways that marketing techniques can be tweaked and adapted to better serve organizational learning. You will leave this session with a plan and components that can be used to market your learning content.

In this session, you will learn:

• The core elements that help marketers engage viewers
• How those elements can be leveraged to engage learners
• Which elements can ruin engagement
• An example of a plan and components for marketing learning content

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, managers, directors, and VPs who understand their learners’ consumption habits.

Technology discussed in this session:
Websites, video, mobile.

To meet the real needs of an organization’s learning and performance strategy, learning programs have to be designed appropriately. On principle, this means acquiring performance objectives, mapping to meaningful practice, presenting models that guide application, supporting with reasonable examples, and making the experience engaging. In practice, you have subject matter experts who don’t have access to what they do, tools that are aligned with knowledge presentation, pre-existing processes and practices that are hard to change, stakeholders who mistake sizzle for steak, and limits on schedule and budget.

In this session, you will explore a case study of an organization’s attempt to successfully meld meaningful outcomes under pragmatic constraints. We’ll discuss what worked, what adjustments had to be made, and what’s still left to figure out. You will leave this session with better context of how to build a learning strategy that works when it really matters.

In this session, you will learn:

• The principles of learning that achieve outcomes
• The barriers to success and the tradeoffs that have to be made
• The lessons learned from a serious attempt to change

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Gamification is one of the hottest buzzwords in the learning world, yet its true benefits are not yet proven or fully understood. We need stories about what works and what doesn’t to enable us to grasp and harness the power and possibilities of this shiny new toy. Instructional designers, trainers, consultants, and others need to know how gaming can work alongside or integrated with both better-known and emerging tools.

In this case-study session you will explore the theory and practice of gamification with concrete stories of both success and failure and the key ingredients of each. You will learn the failures of Success Factors’ first gamification effort, and the lessons learned. You will also examine how it applied those lessons to its next gamification initiative, learn how it succeeded, and see the results. You will walk through the entire step-by-step process of the project, including program design, game mechanics, and technical details.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a successful gamification initiative
• How to apply basic game elements to a learning event
• The most important pitfalls to avoid
• Step-by-step game creation
• How to gain executive buy-in for learning games
• How to judge what aspects of gamification will and won’t work for your audience
• How to optimize content for gamification
• Quick wins for game mechanics independent of your platform

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers, ideally with a basic knowledge of game design and mobile-application design and development.

Technology discussed in this session:
Responsive design, Google Docs, SurveyMonkey, and Amazon Web Services.

It’s hard enough to get learners to engage with the content of your eLearning course. This issue is compounded even further when learners can’t figure out how to use the course in the first place. All too often, new eLearning designers put their focus solely into designing the learning content, while at the same time ignoring the interface it’s encapsulated in. This leads to confusion on the part of the learner and disrupts the learning process.

In this session, participants will explore five simple rules for designing an eLearning user interface that promotes engagement, interaction, and learning. Using real-life examples, you will examine how simple interface changes can remove visual distraction and redundancy. You will leave this session able to improve your eLearning courses by removing user interface distraction and promoting intuitive action by the learner.

In this session, you will learn:

• How bad user interface decisions distract from the learning process
• Five rules for designing effective eLearning user interfaces
• How to visually distinguish interactive elements from your course content
• How to promote intuitive action by the user through visual cues

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a basic knowledge of the purpose and use of eLearning.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio.

Learners are increasingly taking control of their learning. As a result, the role of the learning department is changing from steering to facilitating. The trends affecting this change are already visible, however many learning professionals do not know how what they mean or how to respond to them. Even if they recognize the environment changing around them, they do not know what to do or how to adapt. These changes could ultimately signal the end of the learning department staple—the LMS.

In this session you will explore the five trends that are changing the future of organizational learning: self-directed learning, personalized or adaptive learning, curation, anywhere-anytime-any-device learning, and specialized learning content. You will learn what these trends are and how these trends are leading. You will explore why the LMS, in its current form, may not fit in the future. You will leave this session understanding these trends and how you can prepare yourself and your organization for the future.

In this session, you will learn:

• The trends that will change the world of learning and development
• Why the LMS may be dead five years from now
• What you as a learning professional can do to prepare for this change
• What you as an organization should do to prepare for this change

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile devices, Experience API, LMSs, and authoring tools.

Designing for face-to-face delivery is hard enough. How do you transfer those skills to the virtual- and blended-delivery environments? The shift can be daunting because instructional designers don’t have as much experience in virtual deliveries as participants do. Couple that with the fact that when a design falls apart, the participants usually know about it before the facilitator does so spending time on a tight design is critical up front. Plus, designing in the wrong way can be expensive when it comes to programming and technology adoption costs.

In this session you will explore five best practices for designing for the virtual and blended environments. You will learn how to apply traditional design principles in this new delivery landscape. You will discuss the value of an environmental analysis, and how it helps you understand the technology landscape. You will leave this session with an understanding of the common blended-learning design roadblocks and how to overcome them.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to determine the desired learning outcomes and how to assess mastery of these outcomes
• How to conduct an environmental analysis to fully understand the learning technology landscape
• How to map learning objectives to the most appropriate learning outcomes
• How to create an assessment plan for the individual learning components and for the entire blended program
• How to create a validated instructional-design plan to manage the development of the blended program

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers with experience creating learning objectives and familiarity with what learning technologies are available at their organizations.

Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual classrooms, eLearning, and more.

Mobile design and development is a new discipline for many in the learning industry. A user-centric design-thinking approach is necessary for positive results. However, this type of approach is counter to how most of us have approached instructional design and we must understand it if we are to truly address the mobile learner’s needs.

In this interactive session you will learn how to build amazing mobile learning by leveraging the device’s unique affordances. You will discuss what device affordances are and explore various examples of them. You will examine how best to embrace learner needs and match them against mobile opportunities. You will brainstorm and share your ideas on how to leverage these affordances in learning programs. All content generated during the session will be shared back to the participants for later use.

In this session, you will learn:

• What device affordances are
• Why they matter and how to use them
• Some quick ideas for creating true mobile learning
• How to embrace the learner’s needs and design effective mobile learning

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a basic understanding of mobile devices and their usage.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile devices.

Developing content that is meaningful and accessible in a world of multiple devices and varied platforms is a huge challenge for today’s instructional designer. Content developers have to first consider the context in which the training is being consumed, and then try to navigate the devices that might access that training today and in the future. Responsive training design is being heralded as a panacea for this training delivery dilemma, but is it enough?

In this session participants will examine the concept of adaptive or intelligent responsive training development. You will explore a framework to evaluate a training need and the context in which the training is being delivered. You will discuss development strategies and techniques such as simplifying content when needed and adding extra when it makes sense. This session will explore real-world examples and offer 15 tried and true tips for making responsive eLearning adaptive, intelligent, and as effective as it can be no matter what the end user’s device is.

In this session, you will learn:

• The difference between responsive and adaptive training
• The current frameworks for responsive and adaptive training development
• What learning opportunities are best suited to adaptive responsive design
• Fifteen tried and true tips for making eLearning adaptive and responsive

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a general understanding of training development and the issues confronting designers trying to develop for a multi-device world.

Technology discussed in this session:
Responsive design, HTML5, iOS and Android OS, various Android and iOS devices (phone and tablet).

The volume of content in most organizations is getting to a point where manually curating content for various audiences is becoming overwhelming. Sifting through thousands of eLearning packages for relevance to a certain topic, role, or location can be a very time consuming task. The delivery may change, the style of content may change, the packaging and location of content may change, but the volume will continually expand making finding relevant content increasingly difficult for our audiences.

In this session you will learn how computers and systems can be used to curate content for our audiences. You will explore why allowing computers and systems to understand what content is about will allow those systems to filter content that is relevant to a user’s needs or relevant to the context of a user’s situation. You will discover how this will make the increasing volume of eLearning content more manageable. You will leave this session understanding how building intelligence into our content will allow the systems that deliver content to identify the context, understand it, and bring that contextually relevant material to our audience.

In this session, you will learn:

• What structured content and intelligent content means
• How to design intelligent content
• Practical uses for intelligent structured content
• Tools and development techniques for creating structured eLearning
• Practical advantages of using intelligent content

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and managers who are familiar with custom eLearning content development using both rapid authoring tools and custom code. Knowledge of LMS systems, learning record stores, and how computers interact with each would be beneficial.

Technology discussed in this session:
XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, rapid authoring tools, structured content tools, intelligent content design, learning management systems, learning record stores, and computer intelligence.

Building eLearning isn’t just about design and development. Each eLearning course or module you develop is essentially a project. Project management can be a daunting task, from goal definition to the post-mortem review. However, proper management of eLearning projects can have more of an impact on success than even design and development.

In this session you will explore an overview of the total project cycle. You will develop an understanding of each phase of the process and learn practical tips for each step along the way. You will leave this fast-moving session with a lot of practical information that can be useful to beginning or advanced project managers in a one-man shop or in a team environment.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to set project goals
• How to determine resource needs
• How and why to choose an authoring tool
• How to manage the development process
• How to manage the quality-control process
• How to deploy to a LMS
• How to do the project post-mortem preview

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Our current training paradigm does an admirable job of transferring knowledge, but no matter how well we accomplish this transfer, knowledge retention works against us when what we really need is flawless performance at the point of work. In short, our training paradigm was never intended to support performers at the point of work. It never was, and it never will be. It’s time for a little disruption!

In this session you will explore embedded performer support (EPS), a new discipline that will evolve any existing training strategy to include the work context where true business value is either generated...or lost. Participants will examine new techniques, new technologies, and new agile development methods to address a rapidly growing need by all businesses. You will learn how integrating EPS tactics and technology into your L&D strategy will compensate for the convergence of learning with work.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to map a holistic learning and performance environment
• How to expand and evolve discovery efforts
• How to build agile, rapid design, development, and delivery of content
• How to determine the right mix of technology for an EPS solution
• Where to begin

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, managers, directors, VPs, CLOs, and executives.

Technology discussed in this session:
EPS.

Training demands are greater that any one central training department can meet. Departments are always making their own training despite lacking the skills or tools to make it truly effective. Even if subject-matter experts want to partner with a full instructional-design project team, they rarely have the time to do so. And yet despite these challenges, end users still require and deserve a high level of quality in their training programs.

In this case-study session you will learn how Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) Academy created a number of self-support tools, “brown bags,” communities of practice, and guidelines that enable any business unit to build their own instructor-led training, web-based training, or virtual learning. You will discover how these tools enabled the organization to build more training with fewer resources in a shorter amount of time. You will leave this session with a number of tools, templates, and guidelines that you can take back and adapt for your own organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What tools, templates, and guidelines are needed to make a self-support model work for all business units
• What evaluation measures, checklists, and coaching need to be in place to ensure quality
• What the business impact is when other groups share in the course-development process
• How you can adapt and leverage internal training-department standards across the business
• How you can leverage similar tools, templates, guidelines, and support methods in your organization

Audience:
Novice project managers and managers with a basic understanding of the course development process.

Technology discussed in this session:
Instructor led training, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Adobe Connect, Articulate Studio ’13, SharePoint, Yammer, iMovie/iPhone, and Show and Share video portal.

There are a number of misunderstandings and misconceptions about the Experience API (xAPI). Many learning departments and organizations aren’t quite sure what the benefits are of xAPI and how to integrate it into their learning solutions. In a time when mobile technologies and informal workplace environments are on the rise, designing comprehensive learning programs to take advantage of these devices and environments can be daunting without the right technology to tie it all together, one that will help improve learning overall.

In this session you will discuss ways the xAPI can improve your learning programs. You will examine the authoring tools that publish for xAPI and how xAPI can drive leaderboards to make learning more engaging. Participants will discover that the effort to implement xAPI is smaller than expected and absolutely worth it. This session will demonstrate seven novel ways that xAPI can be used to overcome some of the most common learning challenges organizations face today.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to describe xAPI in your own words and explain how it works
• Innovative ways to use xAPI to make learning more engaging and fun in your organizations
• How other organizations have used xAPI
• How to find xAPI resources and communities online

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, and executives with a basic understanding of eLearning design and development as well as a basic understanding of learning goals and objectives.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI, learning record stores (LRS), the LMS and LCMS, Articulate Storyline, Lectora, WordPress.

It’s all too easy to create boring eLearning with any authoring tool, including Adobe Captivate. What we need to engage learners is to make them interact with the content, not just watch and listen. Interaction does not mean just hitting next, back, and menu, nor does it mean just pressing a glossary button or a mute button. It means pulling the learner into the content and having interactivity involve them at the level of doing, not just seeing.

In this hands-on session, participants will explore the various ways that Adobe Captivate can provide opportunities to provide learners with true interactivity. You will examine ready-made interactions along with drag and drop and other interactive elements. You will discover how quiz questions can be used to engage learners along the way as well. You will leave this session having covered all of the ways you can have your eLearning lessons interact with the learner....yes, all of the ways.

In this session, you will learn:

• To use Captivate’s built-in interactions
• To use buttons, click areas, roll overs, and drag and drop
• To use quiz questions for more than just quizzing
• To engage learners in every way possible

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a passing understanding of Captivate.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with Adobe Captivate installed.

Courses that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements are in high demand. However, many instructional designers lack the understanding of what 508 compliance really means, and the competency to effectively develop compliant courses.

In this hands-on session participants will explore how Articulate Storyline can help you create eLearning modules that are more accessible for users. You will discuss some of the important issues related to 508 compliance. You will learn how to use alternate text to describe screen elements. You will build courses with closed captioning effects. You will leave this session understanding the Storyline features that support accessible content.

In this session, you will learn:

• To list some of the more pressing issues regarding eLearning and 508 compliance
• To use alternate text to describe onscreen elements
• To build courses with closed captioning effects
• To determine which Storyline features support accessible content

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the basic functions of Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
ADA section 508, use of alternate text, closed captioning, Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
PC or Mac running Windows, Storyline.

This session will discuss the pedagogical advantages of using i>clicker in the classroom, how clickers can increase student engagement, and an overview of the features and benefits of the i>clicker products, including a live demonstration. If time permits, there will also be a brief Q&A session at the end for any inquiries.

Emerging technologies are always fun and exciting. But what happens after the shine is long gone? We implement the tools and are disappointed. After 20+ years experiencing so many amazing emerging technological advancements, I’ve seen the eLearning industry struggle. While the rapid growth of the eLearning marketplace is undeniable, as practitioners, we find ourselves struggling to stay relevant. Let’s talk about how we can get better at providing business value: Let’s become better partners within the business units. Let’s integrate our systems/processes to better support the changing needs of the business. Let’s talk about how.

Most online learning designed for today’s workforce has changed little over the last 10 years; it takes the form of a prepackaged course which the learner clicks through. So why, when so much has changed in the way we use technology and digital media, has so little changed in our approach to learning at work? This session provides a practical approach to overcoming this challenge and demonstrates how new learning technology that makes use of the xAPI (including, but not exclusively, Brightwave’s own learning system, tessello) is delivering more effective learning.

Being a tenured professor for over 30 years, and a part of the education community for decades, has made one thing perfectly clear to Allison Rossett: It’s time for a change. Allison isn’t the only one who thinks change is overdue in education. The President, Bill Gates, the Lumina Foundation, and others all think so too. They all make a case for WHY change must come to universities, the professoriate, and by extension, corporate education. In this session you will explore the more important question related to educational change: How to do it. You will discuss what we can do to change the future of education and examine technology’s important role in changing the structure and culture of education. You will gain an understanding of the forces that will impact the changes coming to educators, universities, and other learning entities near you.

The “badge movement” is gaining momentum, but many organizations are still unaware of their potential. Organizations are starting to award badges to acknowledge worker competencies built on-the-job, and other organizations are recognizing the badges that employees and job candidates have earned elsewhere as a means of improving hiring and new-hire training. In this example-rich session, you will learn about the power of badges, the ecosystem in which they live, and the role they will play for you and your organization. You will explore examples of badges that provide value in competency-based education programs, job training, professional development, and city-wide learning initiatives. You will learn how badges give prospective employers, schools, collaborators, and other learners a more complete picture of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Badge holders are entering the workforce, and they expect business and industry to accept and issue this new currency. This session will help you be ready for them.

What is the best way to design instruction for today’s technology tools, for stand-up instruction, and for eLearning? Many designers struggle to answer that question because you must match the right learning content with the right instructional strategy and design instruction in a way that ensures it will “stick” with the learner. Often, this matching can be the difference between success and failure of a learning program. In this interactive session you will learn simple techniques instructional designers use to create compelling and meaningful instruction based on applying proper instructional strategies and techniques to specific types of content. You will explore examples demonstrating how to match content with the right learning strategy that range from creating stories to developing analogies to properly chunking factual content. You will discover how to leverage the correct matching of content to your instructional strategy to create effective, engaging learning opportunities.

There are many ways to support learning, including formal, informal, mobile, social, and immersive. Yet, we often look at each approach independently rather than seeing the bigger picture, which limits our thinking of what a truly integrated learning strategy can be. To demystify and manage all this for the highest value, we need more than just a bigger learning toolbox; we need a learning ecosystem—a new organizing framework for what we do. In this session, you’ll examine the characteristics of a learning ecosystem from the perspective of performance and look at the infrastructure, including innovations in technology, needed to support it. You’ll get suggestions on how to identify the strategic drivers and develop the sponsorship needed to grow and sustain a cohesive learning ecosystem in your organization. You’ll explore the future of learning ecosystems—and why this new way of looking at what we do is so important.

Because mobile technologies have changed how we live our daily lives, it is natural to assume that they will also change how we learn. However, some might suggest that mLearning, as a method of supporting learning and performance, is more hype than substance. They built this critique upon a flawed foundation that considers mLearning through the lens of eLearning. mLearning is not eLearning on a mobile device; it is much, much more than that. This panel discussion will explore why mobile technologies are a critical driver for the future of learning and performance, why mobile is critical to the learning conversation, and how mLearning is an entirely new world for learning and performance that we must explore. You will learn how organizations are reinventing learning and performance using mobile technologies, and how you and your organization can utilize mobile in innovative ways. Panelists are members of the advisory group for the mLearnCon Conference and Expo.

Formal training programs cost a lot to produce and maintain so just because people have learning or performance needs doesn’t mean you must build a formal training program—a community can meet a lot of the support workers need in order to learn and do their jobs better. In this session, Tom Kuhlmann will share his experiences from building small communities of practice to Articulate where he manages a community of over 130,000 members. You will discover what makes a community work, discuss how communities help people learn based on their needs as they connect with other learners and experts, and learn about the wealth of resources a community generates that serve as a growing book of knowledge. You will learn what a community is, how to get one to grow, and what it takes to manage it so the members are engaged and active participants.

One way to address the impersonal aspect of eLearning is to use video. Video lets learners see and hear other people who may be addressing them with a story or performing the training’s focal activities. Integrating video can be a daunting and expensive proposition. In this session you will explore the FRBC’s use of “found” video, the tools we already have, and a focus on learners’ needs rather than production value to integrate video and make online training more engaging for our learners without a full video production staff.

Emotion is a powerful learning tool, forging strong memories and associations. Most games for learning focus on cognition and knowledge, but a new class of games and immersive experiences are focusing on training our emotional and physiological responses. Biometrics can now be used to shape your learning experiences based on your body’s response to a situation or decision. Come join the discussion and learn how the key to future learning may be in your own mind!

Customer training is increasingly critical to the sales and marketing process, yet for many companies, it is still considered only a support function. In this session you will explore examples of how innovative organizations are integrating customer training into their pre-sales process. You will get specific ideas for how training can impact your top-line growth, as well as best practices for adapting course delivery to this purpose.

eLearning professionals select development software for creating online training, but there are a number of other tools and resources needed to create interesting and engaging training. In this session, you will learn about the best tools and resources (some free) to add to your development toolbox. You will explore tools such as templates, assets, and widgets, as well as other software needed to create training. You will see examples of tools and resources used to enhance development, and you will learn will learn how to access and use these tools.

Prototyping is an increasingly important need in eLearning. In this session you will learn how to design new courses and apps to gather feedback before starting development; about paper prototyping to tools that help simplify sharing concepts and testing ideas; to create fully interactive previews for desktop and mobile delivery; and which tools you can use as soon as you get back to your office.

What makes your audience care about what you’re saying? Is it your snazzy PowerPoint template, or maybe your amazing charisma? How do you make information connect with an audience? How do you make them care? In this session you will explore the lessons learned via years of surveying sociology, history, and technology to uncover real-world examples of effective communication techniques that grab and keep an audience’s attention. You’ll learn quick, creative, and budget-friendly ways to design engaging presentations that enhance the clarity and impact of your message.

The promise of MOOCs is appealing … massive to scale an organization’s limited resources, online on any device, open to people who wouldn’t otherwise have access, but that course part? It gets boring fast. Courses can be too linear, too logical, and too long for digital learners. It’s time to face up to the fact that courses are an artificial way to learn, invented 150 years ago to make farmers into obedient assembly line workers.

In this session you will explore a new way of looking at MOOCs and how they can be applied to corporate learning. You will learn how MOOCs can be fascinating, engaging communities that have bite-sized content at their fingertips. You will explore the results of a recent experiment—a MOOC on corporate MOOCs—and discuss many of the lessons learned along the way. You will leave this session with a number of tips that can be applied to help build a fascinating MOOC people will love.

In this session, you will learn:

• Alternatives to traditional course models in MOOCs
• Strategies for creating bite-sized learning opportunities
• Lessons from a public MOOC implementation
• Tips to apply in building your own MOOC

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

Technology discussed in this session:
MOOCs.

If you talk to game developers most will agree that building a functional artificial intelligence (AI) for a game engine is usually the most time-consuming part of development. Are there tools that we can use to rapidly develop the look and feel of AI without the resource drain of full AI development? Despite the fact that our development tools have greatly enhanced our abilities to create compelling, engaging content, adding AI elements to our courses can seem like a “bridge too far” for many developers.

In this session, you will explore how adding AI to gamified content can increase your user engagement. You will review some of the attributes of artificial intelligence. You will examine a series of tools you can use to add AI to your content. You will review a demonstration and case study of the AI engine that RAPS created to power a certification training game.

In this session, you will learn:

• How using AI in your courses can increase engagement
• How to incorporate simple AI concepts into your course design
• Techniques for planning and executing your AI behavior
• How to utilize certain AI strategies in your courses

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and directors with a basic understanding and appreciation of general game-playing concepts.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop.

You’ve created a video, and visually it looks great. At the same time, something about it feels flat to you. You’ve shared the video with others and it seems sort of flat to them as well. The problem is often not with the visuals; it’s with the audio. Video often needs more than just voices to be engaging.

In this session, you’ll explore how to build a memorable soundtrack for your eLearning programs. You will discover how a soundtrack can take videos to new heights and facilitate higher levels of understanding among viewers. You will examine a number of techniques that eLearning developers can leverage to create soundtracks for learning programs. You will leave this session understanding the value a soundtrack can add to eLearning, and tips for how you can build one yourself.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why you need to think beyond the sound your voiceover is making
• When music can enhance and when it can detract from your training
• What makes a good soundtrack and how to form it
• How to do multi-track mixing and mix-down for your training video
• How easy it is to imagine great sound and create it
• Where to get sound effects (SFX) and how to integrate them into your eLearning video soundtrack

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

Management often views training efforts as a line expense for a specific period. Rarely is any type of training activity considered an investment apart from specific tangible elements. eLearning and mLearning initiatives are considered investments since they require tangible financial requirements, including technology and supporting infrastructure viewed as capital expenditures.

In this session you will discuss the specific financial literacy tools used to build a comprehensive financial structure to support your eLearning and mLearning projects and gain senior management buy-in. You will explore why trying to convince based only on qualitative factors is insufficient. You will use tools including cost-volume-profit, break-even, and net-present-value to evaluate a training investment—the same tools senior management uses to run the business.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to define capital investment evaluation tools and apply financial tools to build an effective case for eLearning and mLearning
• How to utilize the financial results to build a case for an initiative
• The skills to communicate eLearning and mLearning effectiveness
• How to implement an eLearning and mLearning budgetary forecasting process to demonstrate the extended impact the initiative will have on an organization
• How to benchmark financial performance to evaluate the lifecycle of the initiative and assess whether external sources are more effective

Audience:
Novice and intermediate project managers, managers, directors, and VPs with basic comprehension of financial concepts.

Technology discussed in this session:
Excel spreadsheets.

It is increasingly challenging for designers and developers to create content that works well across an ever-increasing number of devices. Screen sizes and aspect ratios vary tremendously, and instructional designers and developers do not have the resources to create multiple versions of each project for each type of potential device.  Responsive design has allowed learning content to be flexibly displayed across the diversity of devices while maintaining a single content source.

In this session you’ll learn the HTML and CSS code that creates responsive interactions. You will explore how responsive design is coded. You will discover how responsive design can provide you with high levels of control over your content and how it appears across the gamut of devices used to consume eLearning content. You will leave this session with a greater understanding of how responsive design works and how it can enhance your eLearning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• The syntax of responsive design code in CSS
• How to create optimized views for mobile, tablet, and other specialized devices
• Techniques to hide and reveal content as appropriate for different-sized devices
• To evaluate code produced by eLearning tools and further optimize for better responsive design

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Many training professionals find it challenging to know if training was effective on the job or if part of the organizational system is not supporting the training delivered. While many training departments collect data under Kirkpatrick’s levels one or two, few are able to track data beyond that. Training departments need a methodology for finding out training needs without on the job observation or having trainees return for a test.

In this session participants will explore the problem-based inquiry (PBI), a method used to systematically mine data that already exists at the organizational level that provides insight into what may need addressing with training. You will learn how this information is mined from the organizational help desk’s database of actions workers struggle with on the job. You will explore the tools and methodologies needed to use the PBI method. You will discover how inexpensive the PBI method is to employ and how it utilizes data already captured by the organization by the help desk.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to indirectly evaluate training programs
• How to use the problem-based inquiry method
• The benefits of indirect training evaluation
• How to use data already captured to improve training

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic appreciation for the need to assess training effectiveness.

Technology discussed in this session:
The problem-based inquiry methodology.

As training professionals we know that practice and repetition builds skills, reinforces knowledge, and aids information retention and recall. However our traditional learning solutions and tools often struggle to provide practice opportunities that allow learners to apply knowledge and build skills in realistic, risk free environments. Even when we have practice opportunities in our curriculum, they may often lack the engagement that motivates learners to repeat and build proficiency and/or mastery over time, and they are difficult to scale to larger audiences.

In this session you will explore the power of games as a tool for learner practice. You will examine the design and development considerations that can help you create learning games that scale across large groups. You will discuss the differences between gamification and learning games, and understand when and where the two should and shouldn’t be used. You will leave this session understanding how games can be used to build measurable proficiency over time for a wide audience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify opportunities for game-based learning within your business
• How to design games and use game mechanics
• How game experiences can be indicators of proficiency and/or performance
• Why you should think about building reusable-content engines

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic knowledge of instructional design and experience with games.

Technology discussed in this session:
Game mechanics, Flash, HTML, C#, SQL, CallLab, and FlexQuest Creator.

As valuable as courses are, there will always be times when performance support is more appropriate. But in order to have really effective just-in-time learning support, people need to be able find and use it quickly and effortlessly. Performance support needs to be available wherever you are and whenever you need it. More importantly, the performance-support tools of the future are hands free.

In this session you will explore Google Glass, and the possibilities that hands-free devices like it open up for mobile learning and performance support. You will learn how Google Glass works, and examine examples of unique learning and performance solutions being developed for the device. You will compare how wearable performance support compares to that delivered on other mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. You will leave the session with new ideas and inspiration for how you might use mobile devices and wearable technology in your own organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can use Google Glass for distance coaching
• Why Google Glass is so effective for hands-free performance support
• How you can use Google Glass for context-sensitive performance support
• What the future of immersive learning might hold

Audience:
Novice designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Google Glass, smartphones, tablets, and Oculous Rift.

Changing technologies, changing learner behaviors and characteristics, and the way that content is delivered today all impact how learning should be architected. As learning professionals, what are we to make of the explosion of new technologies and their promise to transform how we learn?

In this session participants will be introduced to key considerations for integrating the promise of technologies such as collaboration tools, social networks, and more, into effective learning solutions that achieve tangible results. You will discuss how new technologies and business trends are fundamentally impacting the way we communicate, learn, and share information at work, home, and in our communities. You will examine how to leverage technologies in the context of broader business and social trends to make an impact in your organization.

You will explore a framework upon which new learning programs that leverage new technologies can be implemented.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify traits and characteristics of learners today
• To assess how new technologies have changed how learning content is offered
• Relevant industry examples that showcase how technology is used to better enable learning
• To define a framework from which blended learning design can stem

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, managers, and directors with a general knowledge of instructional design principles.

Technology discussed in this session:
A variety of leading edge technologies, tools, and examples of new learning (Yammer, TedEd, QStream, etc.), including the corporate MOOC.

Technology has completely changed the way we live, work, and learn. Technology has brought us the Internet, smartphones, tablets, and many more tools that have changed our lives forever. Of course, these same technologies have also brought us memes like Socially Awkward Penguin, Success Kid, and yes, Grumpy Cat.

In this session these two worlds collide as six industry experts use today’s memes to explore the current and future state of learning. The rules of each presentation are simple: Each speaker’s presentation has 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. That provides each speaker with six minutes and 40 seconds to paint their vision for the future of learning. And there’s one last rule—slides can only use common Internet memes for visuals. Join us for what is sure to be a fun and informative session.

In this session, you will learn:

• How learning has evolved in recent years
• How Ignite session formats can create unique learning opportunities
• What learning might look like years from now
• Way more about Internet memes than you ever thought possible

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Various technologies.

On the job performance support is often a key area of professional development that may not always be adequately addressed or sustainable, particularly in instances where workers are part of a mobile/virtual workforce. Traditional forms of training are often leveraged to bridge performance gaps and provide ongoing development opportunities. However, the methods often fail to deliver on the performance support needs of today’s mobile worker.

In this session participants will explore a case study from Saint Elizabeth Health Care that identified the readiness and value of implementing a mobile learning strategy to bridge performance and training gaps by providing just-in-time and just-enough training at the point of need. You will learn from the findings of a pilot study that was conducted to observe the readiness of front line staff to leverage mLearning and the impact it might have as a sustainable performance and training strategy. You will leave this session able to able to identify key factors required to build an mLearning strategy and many fundamental design principles of mLearning.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key factors required to build an mLearning strategy
• The fundamental design principles for mLearning
• The difference in design strategies between mLearning and other forms of training design
• How mLearning advances just-in-time and just-enough training at the point of need of training strategy

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile phones.

eLearning is often viewed as a brain dump of knowledge and there is far too little examination of how to motivate the learner. Engaging design elements and interactivity can inspire the learner to complete the module, but it doesn’t necessarily inspire the learner to keep learning and growing. There is a huge opportunity to incorporate motivational strategies from educational psychology in a practical way in eLearning.

In this session you will learn about self-determination theory (SDT), a motivational theory identifying the three basic human needs that are required for growth and achievement: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. You will discuss this theory and explore the proven business benefits of using SDT to motivate learners. You will examine practical examples of how this theory can be realized through the design of thoughtful web-based training deliverables. You will leave this session with a new way of looking at strategies for eLearning that can have long-term positive results for retention, employee development, and employee performance.

In this session, you will learn:

• What SDT is
• The three basic learner needs identified in SDT
• How applying SDT in training helps you meet business and training goals
• Specific strategies for inspiring motivation in web-based training initiatives

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers with knowledge of analyzing, designing, or developing learning solutions.

Learning professionals have long battled what is allowable from an organization’s IT group. Understanding why IT has these issues is the best method of lowering these barriers. In today’s world, data theft has become big business. The IT group sees allowing personal laptops and mobile devices onto organizational networks as a surefire method to data disaster. As such, IT groups often shut all the doors to minimize risks. Opening those doors can yield huge benefits and can be relatively easy—if you know how.

In this session you will learn how easy it is for someone to infiltrate your learning program and use it to attack your organization. You will learn a number of rules you need to employ during development to ensure your training remains safe and how following these rules will put your IT department at ease. You will explore how this process will lower the barriers to successful project implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why IT likes to say no
• How to change your online behavior to stay safe and protect your organization
• Basic mLearning development rules to keep your product clean
• How easy it is for an attacker to infiltrate your organization’s IT infrastructure
• How to ensure your mLearning development is not a cause for concern

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

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, Base64, Android, and iPhone.

The tools and technologies that exist today in large learning and development organizations are complex, and they don’t always play nice with each other. This makes it very difficult to build useful reports from the results of learning experiences in multiple systems. One of the new tools that is available that can address this problem is the Experience API (xAPI).

In this session, you will learn about the Sears rollup reporting infrastructure for dozens of competencies across over 200,000 people. You will examine the processes and underlying technologies that are working together as part of the competency reporting system, including the xAPI, HRIS, reporting system, and LMS. You will explore a real example of how to leverage the xAPI and existing systems to reach desired business outcomes. You will discuss implementation challenges and share learnings about the design and planning stages of an enterprise LRS implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Sears is using an LRS to aggregate data from multiple LMS systems
• How to translate and migrate historical data from existing systems into an LRS
• What tools and techniques were used to drive large scale near real-time competency rollup reporting
• How to sync HRIS data with an LRS to define groups of people

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic high-level knowledge of the xAPI and related LMS/content technologies.

Technology discussed in this session:
Reporting systems, HR information systems, multiple LMSs, the xAPI, learning record stores.

Lectora is a popular development tool that is more powerful than most instructional designers realize. Lectora is extremely malleable, making it possible to do almost anything you can design. However, some users are unaware of how to get the most out of the authoring tool.

In this hands-on session, participants will explore tips and tricks for getting the most out of Lectora. You will learn to control functionality based on current date, move an item in a group individually, and put an item on top of a Flash object. You will examine how to display a student’s name as first-last (switching from last-first), build and display a countdown (or count-up), and how to time events to audio.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to control functionality based on current date
• How to move an item in a group individually
• How to put an item on top of a Flash object
• How to display a student’s name as first-last (switch from last-first)
• How to build and display a countdown (or count-up)
• How to change selected items in a list box based on outside user interaction
• How to reset individual form elements
• How to time events to audio
• How to build conditional functionality with multiple decision points

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers who are familiar with Lectora X, Inspire, 11, or a comparable rapid development tool.

Technology discussed in this session:
Lectora (version X, Inspire, or 11 are appropriate for this session).

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with Lectora installed.

As eLearning developers we often get caught up in designing only what we know from experience. The same holds true with eLearning developers using Articulate Storyline. The more you know, the more options and ideas become evident to solving instructional design challenges. The more you know about variable programming in Storyline, the more the world opens up to unlimited design possibilities.

In this hands-on session participants will explore the basics of Articulate Storyline variable programming. You will examine when it is best to use a variable, and when variable programming may not be the right solution. You will discover what a Boolean variable is and review some applications for its use. You will explore numerous tips, techniques, and a few trickeries to get the most out of variables. You will leave this session with several practice source files to practice using variables in your own projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• About variable types and their differences
• The various uses of variable types
• The best time to use a variable
• Tips on how to best manage multiple variables

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a good understanding of object states, layers, and triggers using Articulate Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with licensed copy of Articulate Storyline or a 30-day trial version.

This session provides an overview and demo of Capella’s LEAP solution, which supports companies in developing first-time leaders using a 70/20/10 model of development. Research has shown that the most effective way to develop new leaders is to provide support for learning new ideas (10 percent), learning from others (20 percent) and learning from practice (70 percent). LEAP, which stands for learn, evaluate, apply, and perform, enables Capella’s learning partners to use web-based technology to enable deep leadership learning and transformation. Capella utilizes a robust competency-based leadership model based on leading workplace models, strong content and processes for implementing learning in action, and assessments for measuring behavior change on-the-job.