Frequently, learning design is about showing people how to do the right things, but actually getting them to change their behavior can be another story. It’s particularly challenging to get people to change those intractable habits and behaviors that everyone struggles to avoid, despite the wealth of available information about better choices.

This session will explore how to design with behavior change in mind. You will examine behavior change from a number of different angles, using techniques from the fields of neuroscience, behavioral economics, behavioral psychology, persuasive technology, user experience, and even game design.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify and understand the barriers to behavior change
• Ways to design solutions that don’t just inform learners, but also inspire behavior change
• How to use specific models and techniques for designing a change effort

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

The popularity of video in learning has grown substantially in recent years, due in large part to how much easier and cheaper it has become to create this content. But while video is a valuable tool, it’s also a medium that most L&D professionals aren’t trained in—and the last thing you want is for that lack of experience to lead to videos that are just plain bad. Thankfully, a little knowledge can go a long way toward improving your video skills. But where do you start?

This session is a fast-paced view on the key tips and tricks that will make an immediate difference in the quality of your videos, including everything from pre-production through production and editing. Instead of focusing on hard-to-implement theory, these tips are instead based on practical and easy-to-follow ideas that you can use immediately. You’ll walk out of this session with 50 simple ways to make what you decide to film (and how you decide to film it) simpler, more effective at conveying your message, and much more engaging for your audience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to shorten the production and editing process through pre-planning
• About the key components of audio and how they can impact your videos
• Which production techniques, such as lighting and multiple cameras, create more compelling and interesting video
• Which techniques can help you speed up your filming and avoid re-recording footage

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Click here for the session trailer

Traditional video has become an important and engaging component of training programs. That said, while it’s a fantastic tool for learning, it is still often limited to the linear path or story that it shares. People can watch video, but they can’t control it themselves. But what if L&D professionals created a more immersive world for learners by giving them the ability to explore anything and everything around them? That more interactive video experience is possible now with 360-degree video.

In this session, you’ll learn more about what 360-degree video is, how you can create it, and why you’ll want to use it for training. You’ll explore the technical side by looking at what it takes to capture and edit 360-degree video on a budget and how you can share what you create with your learners. You’ll also look at practical application through experiencing some of the real 360-degree videos that are being used for training and development right now. By the end of this session, you’ll not only know how to create your own 360-degree videos, you’ll also know how to explain the business case for using them.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the technology you can use to record and edit 360-degree video
• How to view and share 360-degree video with others
• How 360-degree video is currently being used in existing training
• About the strengths and weaknesses of 360-degree video for training development

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

Technology discussed in this session:
360-degree video recording; Adobe After Effects and Adobe Premiere; 360, VR, and 3-D plugins for Adobe software; the Xiaomi Yi action camera; and 3-D printing.

It’s not uncommon to focus on trying to find the perfect project management tools for a project. With all the exciting options out there, it’s easy to be tempted. However, research shows that the most important component of project management isn’t the tools you use but is, instead, your mental game. Do you choose collaboration over control? Sponsor communication over hiding, purpose over tasks, or trust over politics? Do your stakeholders believe you can do it? Learn how to get your mental game right to drive project success.

In this session, you’ll find out how to rethink your approach to project management by focusing on the mental side of this work. Using research from Tim Gallwey (author of The Inner Game of Work), Randy Englund (co-author of Project Sponsorship), and Johanna Rothman and Michael Mah (with Cutter Consortium), you’ll see why a significant mindset change is necessary to drive more successful project outcomes. You’ll also discover what you need to do now in order to manage your projects more effectively in the future.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the five critical success factors that research shows drive project success
• How to think differently about the project sponsor role and enable, rather than fight with, your sponsor
• Why you need to apply the critical concept of purpose/context to a project
• About the unhappy side effects of control and sign-off and what you can do to reduce them
• Why you only have 45 minutes to do a project charter

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

People never want for information at home. When they have a problem, they search the Internet or post a question on social media. When they go to work, everything changes. Vital knowledge remains hidden in a variety of silos. Organizations are unable to leverage the same knowledge-sharing behaviors that drive resources like YouTube and Wikipedia. Employees are then left to fend for themselves—often with negative results.

This session will dig into the knowledge-sharing behaviors that have become so commonplace in daily life and share specific tactics to activate these behaviors in the workplace. The session will explore the role of technology and identify the capabilities needed to enable user contribution. Attendees will discuss proven methods for motivating employees to both share what they know and seek out the information they need to solve problems on their own. The group will also address common barriers to workplace knowledge sharing. The session will demonstrate how a well-crafted curation strategy can help your organization’s knowledge go viral.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to apply real-world knowledge-sharing behaviors in the workplace
• How to motivate knowledge sharing at scale within your organization
• How to select right-fit technology to maximize knowledge sharing
• How to overcome common organizational barriers to user-generated content
• How to leverage shared knowledge as the foundation of your organizational learning strategy

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors who have a basic understanding of knowledge management, user-generated content, and related tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Various knowledge management, sharing, and social tools.

Do you feel like you’re not taking advantage of your tablet or smartphone outside of email, text messaging, and a couple apps? Mobile devices can be much more than tools to consume content and conduct conversations. Your mobile device is armed and ready to not only uncover learning opportunities but also help create them.

In this session, you will learn about several amazing apps that will provide new ways for you to explore, learn, and create new content for your learners. The session will examine the various ways you can not only move content on and off your device but also edit it. You will leave this session with new applications, ideas, and approaches to maximize the potential of your best device for learning today!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to take advantage of your mobile device
• New ways to be creative with your tablet and phone
• About new apps and tools to add creative splash to your content
• How to create, edit, and move content on and off your device

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

Technology discussed in this session:
iOS, Android, and various mobile apps.

Many instructional designers would like to incorporate games into their projects but aren’t sure how to get started and often find the prospect of designing a game to be intimidating. What are the various approaches to instructional game design? How do you determine which approach is most appropriate for your instructional need, taking into account your budget and timeline? And how do you get started designing a game?

This session will explore several approaches to instructional game design and, using real-world examples, discuss how to determine which approach is most appropriate for your specific situation. Finally, once you’ve selected your game design approach, this presentation will help you get started designing your game experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• About several approaches to instructional game design
• How to select a game design approach relative to need, time, and budget
• How to get started designing a game experience
• How to determine whether a game experience is right for your instructional goals

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

In the past few years, many organizations have introduced recognition and certification programs using digital badges, but too often the results produced by these programs have disappointed. Badge earners don’t bother to claim or share their badges, and as a result, issuing organizations have wasted their time and effort.

In this session, you will learn how IBM, Ingram Micro, and other organizations are designing, implementing, and managing their badge programs to deliver measurable business results. You will learn the types of badges that drive learner engagement, course completion, higher outcomes, and progression of learning. You will see how real-time verification of learning achievements cements badge value for earners and employers, and you’ll explore how keyword skill tagging can demonstrate job market relevance of skills and enhance employability.

In this session, you will learn:

• How top badge-issuing organizations designed their badge programs
• What kinds of badges drive learner engagement
• How real-time verification of badges drives value for employers and badge earners
• How to create connections between your badges and employability

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:
Digital open badge platforms; LMS, SIS, AMS, and CRM systems.

Click here for the session trailer

Employees at a global technology giant were enrolling in a popular performance improvement workshop at a rapid clip. The learning activities and exercises were interactive, hands-on, and practical. But wait lists were long, mostly because capacity was limited by the delivery format: two days of face-to-face instructor-led training. The challenge: to scale enrollments while reducing costs, without sacrificing learner engagement. The solution: a brain-friendly virtual learning environment and experience.

In this session, you will hear the story of learning solutions architects and instructional designers who transposed this location-bound workshop to a live, virtual, web-based delivery platform. You will see how their redesign allowed for more course offerings, lower costs, and improvements to learner interaction and engagement. You will learn how they used the latest research from the neuroscience of learning design to accomplish four key design objectives: maximize learner attention and focus on activities and outcomes; induce learner-generated meaning, associations, and insights; stimulate emotional connections to the learning through positive social pressure; and encode new learning in long-term memory through spaced repetition.

In this session, you will learn:

• Four key principles of the neuroscience of learning
• How to maintain learner attention and focus in a virtual learning environment
• How to stimulate learner-generated meaning and insights
• How to design for emotional commitment to the learning through positive social pressure
• How to use spaced repetition effectively to encode learning to long-term memory

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

Technology discussed in this session:
WebEx, Adobe Connect, and Citrix.

It’s difficult to create an eLearning course that is optimized for all devices (phone, tablet, laptop, etc.). There’s a reason that, although most of the web is now designed responsively, there are still few instances of good responsive design in eLearning. Many of today’s eLearning courses do not function and flow like the other apps that people use every day. The result? A learning experience that is full of friction.

In this session, you will learn seven key strategies for creating eLearning courses that remove the frictions of clunky design. With responsive design and a user-centered design process, you can create learning experiences that people will love. You will see actual examples and discuss the details of a real project. You’ll get plenty of actionable takeaways and effective tools to use on your own projects!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to approach a responsive design project
• How to remove clutter in design
• How to create cost-effective templates
• About a new approach to creating user-centric learning
• How to create what users will love

Audience:
Novice to intermediate project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML5, responsive design, phones, tablets, laptops and desktops, Proto.io, Balsamiq Mockups, and user testing.

Click here for the session trailer

With the advent of so many new technologies, ensuring the learner has the best access to the right-size, right-format content, delivered at the right time, is challenging. Coupled with rapid development cycles, this means designers have less time to do thorough or extremely detailed needs analysis.

Take time and do your homework! What is motivating your learners? How do their goals and experiences alter your learning strategy? Why do you care about their feelings or emotions? In this session, you will explore strategies used in learning and marketing to identify techniques to tackle learner needs as you design learner personas. You will learn about a tool that can capture these personas, and finally, you will find out how to use user stories to showcase these learner profiles.

In this session, you will learn:

• New approaches to tackle learner needs
• How to capture personas within a new tool or framework
• How to craft user stories to showcase learner interaction with learning components and technologies
• How to assess ways in which learning can utilize techniques from the field of marketing

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

Flash has been losing popularity as an eLearning development tool. Coinciding with its decline is the rise of Adobe Animate, which provides the ability to create compelling and interactive HTML5-based eLearning. Adobe Animate has emerged as an effective alternative to hand coding.

In this session, you will learn that even those with extensive Flash experience can easily make the jump to HTML5 programming by switching to Animate. You will learn some important tips and tricks for making the switch and gain key insights you will need in order to start programming in Adobe Animate.

In this session, you will learn:

• The basics of Adobe Animate
• About the differences between HTML5 and SWF
• About the similarities and differences between ActionScript and JavaScript
• About the various options for exporting files

Audience:
Intermediate designers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Animate.

L&D professionals constantly strive to create useful and meaningful content. But while they often use interviews, profiles, test results, and more to try to understand the people they design for, these things don’t always paint the full picture. But what if you could bring in even more data about your audience? You may have heard of the “Quantified Self,” a movement that recommends using technology to track a wide range of data about yourself and, through that information, to get to know yourself better. Can you apply this mission to the field of L&D? And if so, how can you go about collecting those data and interpreting the results?

In this session, you’ll explore one of the best sources for these deeper data: wearable technologies. You’ll discuss popular consumer products (such as the Fitbit, Spire, and Apple Watch), new emerging trends (like the Emotiv Insight), and how to use all of these tools to enhance learning and development approaches. You’ll also take a look at how you can use these wearable technologies for an important goal: improving performance.

In this session, you will learn:

• About some of the latest wearable technologies, such as Spire and Emotiv Insight
• Hands-on tips and tricks on how to use those technologies for learning
• How learner analytics can aid an L&D approach
• How the Emotiv Insight works, through a live demo

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Spire, Apple Watch, Fitbit, and Emotiv Insight.

Technology like xAPI has provided the learning industry with the opportunity to track anything, anywhere, and L&D and HR leaders are hailing the arrival of people analytics. These advances provide substantially more data about the people in an organization, but what do you do with the data? Are you gathering the right information? Where do you even start?

If you’re suffering from data overload and hungry for meaning, then start with metrics: what you want to measure, why, and how. In this session, you’ll take a tour of some of the most interesting examples of people and learning analytics in action. Then you’ll discover the components of effective metrics and find out what technologies are available to measure them. Finally, you’ll work to co-create a set of meaningful metrics that you and your organization can use to increase your ability to gain effective insights from the data you’re collecting.

In this session, you will learn:

• What learning analytics look like in practice
• How to identify the elements of an effective metric
• What technologies will effectively measure each type of metric
• How to create a learning metric that is meaningful to you and your organization

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:
Workforce analytics applications (SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics, IBM Kenexa Talent Insights), Google web analytics, xAPI, Qstream, and performance management/customer relationship management applications (Workday, Salesforce.com).

When building interactive screens, you need to put some thought into how to place the objects on the screen. And for responsive interaction, you need to take a step further and think about how to display the interactive objects in different breakpoints so that learners can interact with the content easily.

During this hands-on session, you will learn how to create responsive eLearning courses with ease using Adobe Captivate 9. Learn about the best practices for tweaking interactive screens, like accordions, tabs, drag-and-drop interactions, etc., to make them look good and function well on different devices. Along the way, learn about the best size and position settings for different types of objects in Adobe Captivate 9. And finally, publish the course as a single project and automatically deliver the most appropriate experience for your learner’s device.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create responsive courses with Captivate
• How to modify the size and position of objects
• How to create responsive interactions
• How to modify the placement of interactive objects in different breakpoints

Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers and developers who have basic Captivate skills.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate.

Participant technology requirements:
Latest version of Adobe Captivate (Captivate 9).

What is 508 compliance? What is WCAG 2.0? How can you make your courses compliant? What is the easiest way to create alternate text? How does a course that is taken by someone using JAWS even function? How can you make sure you’re thinking of your learner? These are some of the questions that demand answers for the Storyline user, as many instructional designers lack both the understanding of what 508 compliance really means and the competence to effectively develop compliant courses.

In this session, you will see how Articulate Storyline can help you create eLearning modules that are more accessible for users. You will see how a learner uses JAWS to complete your courses. You will learn how to use alternate text to describe screen elements, and you will learn to build courses with closed-captioning effects. Finally, you will leave this session with hands-on understanding of the Storyline features that support accessible content.

In this session, you will learn:

• What 508 compliance and WCAG 2.0 mean to you as a developer
• How to view a course through a learner utilizing JAWS
• How to create appropriate alternate text for objects
• How to create closed-caption text for your learners

Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and project managers who are familiar and comfortable with Windows, the Storyline user interface, and eLearning concepts.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline 2; Windows 7, 8, or 10, or Mac running Parallels; Adobe Flash Player 10.3 or later; JAWS screen reader program.

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop (PC or Mac running Windows); Storyline 2, update 5 or later (installed and operating).

Click here for the session trailer

Have you ever watched a really engaging web-based conference session and wondered, “How’d they do that?” When slides or polls appear or videos pop up and play automatically, it’s not magic! There’s a person behind every action who must click, type, or drag to make things happen. And learning how to use these features when you run your own webinars is surprisingly easy.

If you’ve always been a participant and never a presenter, this session will give you a behind-the-scenes peek at how interactivity in webinars can be done. To get started, you’ll explore the Adobe Connect software from a presenter’s point of view so you can see what aspects of it you’ve been missing. You’ll find out more about how to choose the right kind of webinar room to set up, which settings you’ll want to customize to get ready for interactions, how to work with participant questions and tech problems, and what the main differences are between the presenter view and the participant view.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to choose the right type of webinar room (meeting, training, event, webinar) for your event
• How to customize settings and features to accommodate planned interactions
• How to manage participant questions and technical issues
• What presenters do that participants don’t see

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Connect.

Audio can be one of the most powerful tools in your toolbox when it comes to creating effective and impactful eLearning. Bad audio, however, can be one of the most destructive tools—distracting the learner and making your course feel unprofessional or unfinished. Don’t let your courses fall prey to bad audio. There are easy steps you can take to create high-quality audio without big-budget voice talent!

This session will explore some easy ways to create high-quality and professional-sounding audio files for your eLearning modules. You will go through the entire audio-recording journey, starting with some tips and best practices for choosing your microphone, setting up your “sound studio,” and recording your own audio. Next, you’ll learn about different software (free and paid) to help you edit that awesome audio you just recorded, and finally, you’ll bring it home by learning some quick and easy—but highly effective—audio editing techniques to clean up that audio and make it shine!

In this session, you will learn:

• Which type of microphone is most suited for your recording needs
• Tips and tricks for recording your own audio, including how to set up your own basic studio
• About different audio editing software available to developers
• How to quickly and effectively edit your audio files

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Audition, Audacity (and other free audio editing software), and studio microphones and accessories.

When new technology hits the market, there is often a push to incorporate it into all upcoming projects. You may hear statements such as “We need a GoPro video” when what the speaker really means is, “We need a high-energy, action-oriented video.” When you know what is needed, not just what is wanted, you can make informed purchasing decisions to help ensure that the efforts are high-quality and in budget.

In this session, you will learn how to separate your vision in your project from the devices you use to record it. Then you will be able to approach each project with fresh eyes for a strong, effective end product, regardless of whether it uses the “latest and greatest” camera gear. In the process, you will find out how to save a lot of resources (i.e., money) without losing any quality from your final product. Finally, you’ll learn about a variety of cameras to gain a better understanding of what they do well, and when to grab something better.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the strengths of each type of camera
• About the weaknesses of each type of camera
• How to view your video project from a tech-savvy perspective
• No-nonsense advice to prepare you for the technical conversations necessary to make a video project look great

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

Technology discussed in this session:
GoPro, Action Cam, full auto home movie cameras, “prosumer” and professional full manual video cameras, DSLR, and cinema-quality digital movie cameras.

As communications and technologies continue to change, there is increased pressure on corporate workers to keep up with these changes, learn on the job, improve time to competency, and increase productivity. In addition, demographics are changing. Older workers are retiring, resulting in a loss of valuable internal corporate knowledge, while organizations must continually hire new, less experienced workers to replace them. There is a need to capture and share the knowledge that helps new workers improve performance and continue to learn over time. Using social media at work can be a compelling solution to this dilemma, offering informal learning solutions on a just-in-time basis.

In this session, you will discuss the components of successful social media use within a corporate environment. You will find out about skills that people in L&D need in order to benefit from social media and to implement it at work, including optimal characteristics, behaviors, and experiences. You will discover obstacles learners may encounter as well as the multiple benefits they can experience through participation. You will also explore different use cases that can help you build a stronger community of learners and enhance social learning at work.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the value of social media use for the learning professional as part of an enhanced toolkit
• How social media can help workers find expertise and solutions more rapidly, on a just-in-time basis, for increased performance
• About the optimal learner characteristics and skills for social media implementation
• About common barriers to successful social media implementation that you should expect
• About the specific benefits of using social media in a corporate workplace
  

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed in this session:
Twitter and internal social tools such as Yammer.

When they go right, video projects can go incredibly right! But when they go wrong, they can go very, very wrong. The stakes are higher with eLearning in video form because of the costs, expectations, and limitations in making updates to content.

In this session, you’ll learn about whom to solicit and accept feedback from, how to sidestep IT roadblocks, where to store those massive source files, what content should never be made into a video in the first place, and how to know when your project has gone off track. You’ll also examine proven strategies and methodologies that will allow you to produce more videos faster and increase learning quality.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to spot train wrecks in the making
• How to plan to your available budget and timeline
• How to communicate appropriately with SMEs, management, legal, IT, etc.
• How to address fears and questions about managing video eLearning projects
• How to draft an action plan to hit the ground running immediately

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Video production tools, project tracking tools, and learning management systems.

You are trying to reach the untethered modern learner: someone who rarely comes into the office and won’t sit for any eLearning module longer than five minutes. These learners want learning and performance support to be on demand, like Netflix, and conveniently located on their mobile devices, like Airbnb and Uber. To reach this audience, you want to encourage their learning to be as habitual as checking their phones. So why not provide effective learning experiences through a simple, easy and habitual tool they use every day: Short Message Service (SMS)?

In this session, you’ll learn how to engage this type of audience with learning delivered directly to their mobile phones via text messages. You’ll explore how the approach of popular messaging apps, like Whatsapp, Facebook Messenger, Kik, and Telegram, can help you design learning that is micro in size but powerful in outcome. You’ll also discover how to track data with this solution, look at successful real-world examples of this approach, and even uncover how using bots can fit in to the equation!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to deliver effective training via SMS
• How bots work inside messaging services and platforms
• Ways to track data and statistics to help measure effectiveness
• About effective real-world examples of SMS-based training

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Click here for the session trailer

eLearning has fallen behind other sectors in developing engaging, immersive experiences. While the world of advertising is continually exploring new ways to affect people’s habits and decisions, eLearning developers often focus purely on knowledge acquisition. This session will explore how the psychology of marketing can affect the efficacy of eLearning.

In this session, you will learn marketing techniques that you can apply to eLearning development for a more comprehensive approach to learning. You will explore psychological perspectives on learning and developing healthy habits. Learn about key strategies for supporting the needs of the whole student, including the social and emotional components that create impactful learning. You will be able to identify how learning resources can be leveraged to their full potential: not just to relay knowledge, but to inspire behavioral change.

In this session, you will learn:

• About straightforward changes you can make to dramatically increase the impact of your learning resources
• From examples of different eLearning approaches to understand the differences that make a difference
• About the psychology behind behavioral change, and how to apply it to eLearning design
• How to ensure your eLearning resources are developed with the whole student in mind

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline.

Click here for the session trailer

Some of the best training out there looks like it was developed by a single designer, regardless of how many people worked on it. But often when more than one learning professional is in the mix and there aren’t established design standards, even with the best of intentions the final product suffers from inconsistency and results in training that looks hodgepodge. The bigger the team, the worse that inconsistency can become. Consistency is key—and the solution resides in detailed style guides, design documents, and templates to make your work look polished and professional.

In this session, you’ll discover how using style guides for your team projects can lead to quicker development times, more consistency, and easier decisions about the look and feel of future projects. You’ll explore what a detailed approach to style guides looks like and discover best practices to use in creating your own. Developing and using these style guides will save countless hours—time that you can spend making more top-notch training instead of trying to clean up inconsistency.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to judge whether something needs a standard “style”
• About the importance of templates
• What a design document is
• How to create a style guide in Microsoft Word, and why you need one
• How to use screenshots to enhance your style guide
• How to know when you need to update your style guide

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Flash, and Snagit.

Yesterday’s sales enablement strategies are no longer enough for the “new normal” that most L&D professionals face. The marketplace grows more competitive each year, and the regulatory landscape is always shifting. Trainers must help reps become trusted partners to their customers, and that means moving beyond just features and benefits selling.

In this session, you will explore several examples in which a game-based solution was used to both engage sales reps and help them retain critical knowledge. You will learn how to identify various learner personas, create the right game-based learning experience for the learning need, and implement games effectively.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which kinds of sales enablement learning objectives lend themselves well to a game-based approach
• How to use a planning worksheet to identify learner personas and plan a sales enablement program that targets those personas
• Seven best practices for implementing a new learning technology such as game-based learning or gamification
• How to identify attributes of effective game design based on examples shown in session

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, managers, and directors who have a basic understanding of the training needs specific to sales reps.

Simulations can provide learners with safe environments in which to learn how to use new skills through practice and failure. When done well, they give people the opportunity to get things wrong and learn from that experience in a way that has little to no risk involved. They can also be deeply immersive, replicating the actual experience of doing something in a realistic and engaging way. Because of this, they can be incredibly effective tools for learning. But how do you create simulations on your own, particularly if you’re on a tight budget?

In this session, you’ll explore both the learning theory and practical application that you’ll need to start designing simulations that build workplace skills. You’ll learn how to apply game design techniques and architectures to learning, as well as how they can contribute to your learning goals. You’ll also discuss examples of real simulations that are used in the workplace now and look at ideas of where simulations may go in the future to increase their effectiveness.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design immersive and engaging simulations
• How applying aspects of game design can make your simulations more effective
• About low-cost technologies that are available to help you create simulations yourself
• How to address the challenges of delivering simulations on mobile devices
• How to design simulations for an audience that has limited time available for learning

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Browser-based simulations, Unity 3D, augmented reality, virtual reality, Oculus Rift, and Microsoft HoloLens.

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Captivate’s newest responsive player is built on HTML5 and JavaScript, which opens the door for you to access its code directly. This allows you to go beyond the default features in this tool and make your own customizations. But what kinds of hacks can you actually do with JavaScript, and how do you get started?

In this session, you’ll get a brief introduction to jQuery and start to explore Captivate’s code. You’ll learn tricks to help “decode” the code, locate HTML elements, and use JavaScript hacks to do things like bounce the Next button, prevent viewers from scrubbing the progress bar, hide/show slide names in the table of contents, alter the look and feel of a project, and more. Along the way, you’ll learn a little about jQuery, the Chrome Developer Console, and making code look pretty. While the specific hacks covered in this session might seem a bit weird, the skills and knowledge used to accomplish them can easily be applied to more practical solutions.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to alter Captivate elements with JavaScript
• Where to find Captivate player elements (Next button, progress bar, etc.)
• How to “click” objects on the slide with JavaScript
• How to trigger advanced actions via JavaScript
• Some of the basics of jQuery and the Chrome Developer Console

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, JavaScript, jQuery, and the Chrome Developer Console.

iBeacons allow learners to interact with their environment in new ways that were not possible even five years ago. While many learning professionals are aware of iBeacons and their disruptive possibilities, many do not understand the fundamental concepts or how to implement the devices in their training programs. Beacons can be used to provide location context in eLearning and create low-bandwidth augmented reality experiences.

In this session, you will learn about the different ways that the retail industry is using iBeacons and how you can use them in the training space. You will review how an iBeacon works and the iBeacon’s different protocols. This session also will discuss the findings of an iBeacon pilot that has been successful at CPI Security. Finally, discuss how to create beacon-driven training: both with vendor-provided tools and free open-source options. By the end of this session, you will be equipped with the tools and knowledge to deploy iBeacons in your company’s training programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• The fundamentals of iBeacon technology
• About successful implementations of iBeacon technology
• About different providers of iBeacon devices and services
• The basics of iOS application design for iBeacon training
• About upcoming advancements with beacon technology

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

Technology discussed in this session:
iBeacon, Eddystone, Estimote, iOS/Swift Programming, PhoneGap, Cordova, Google Drive, and iPad.

When you want to implement your best instructional designs to help your learners in the best ways possible, you may often find yourself limited by the tool you use or a lack of understanding of the tool’s features. The result? eLearning that is less than stellar, bores the learner, and results in few productivity gains. Often, designers are led to believe that’s the best they can do.

In this hands-on session, you will build a short lesson one step at a time and see how easy it is to turn a “blah” lesson into a really interesting experience for the learner, ensuring better learning results. The published lesson will work on desktop and mobile devices. You can then take the lesson back to your office and reuse as you wish.

In this session, you will learn:

• To build a lesson that will engage the learner
• To take advantage of Captivate’s responsive design features to ensure excellent results on both desktop and mobile
• To create learning that your learners will love and that focuses on their real-life challenges
• To reuse the project you build during the workshop and apply it to your own projects

Audience:
Novice designers and developers and those who are new to Adobe Captivate 9.

Technology discussed in this session:
The latest version of Adobe Captivate, which can run both in Windows and on Macs.

Technology required:
A laptop with the latest version of Adobe Captivate (trial or licensed) installed.

Many organizations are still using paper-based guides, manuals, and job aids. This requires planning for additional printing costs throughout the year to accommodate frequent content changes. Reliability is questionable, as older documents may not all be replaced with an updated version. Some organizations have gone 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 variety of media types to an EPUB file format that can later be 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 Sigil
• 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:
Novice to advanced designers and developers who are familiar with common mobile media formats (PNG, MP3, MP4) and comfortable working with authoring and editing tools similar to Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile devices (tablets and smartphones), HTML5, eReader applications (iBooks, Kobo), Sigil, and media conversion software (Adobe media encoder, Handbrake).

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with Sigil installed; mobile device with an eReader application installed (such as iBooks or Kobo).

In 2016, “adaptive content” has become a buzzword. To some, it’s a complex, long-term initiative to structure content for flexible reuse and dynamic targeting. To others, it’s a way to ensure that everyone, everywhere, sees exactly what they want—like magic! In this closing keynote, Karen McGrane shares her perspective (and reservations) about how adaptive content is being used today. She’ll discuss how adaptive content supports targeting content to device type, and why that’s rarely necessary. She’ll also describe creative ways that adaptive content can support tailoring content according to context, and ways that can go wrong. You’ll walk away with a better understanding of when adaptive content is necessary and how to get the most value from it.