103 The New Digital Learning Media: Games, Visual Stories, and Mixed Reality
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
Antigua A
Consumer experiences with YouTube, Snapchat, Netflix, console games, and virtual and augmented reality are shaping demand for a new generation of corporate digital learning. How do you develop a generation of learners who may have spent more time with video games than in school? How do you leverage the explosion of screens and devices to change behavior? How can augmented and virtual reality bring immersion, engagement, and presence to new levels?
In this session, you’ll learn how the new corporate digital learning landscape of serious games, podcasts, simulations, short-form videos, 3-D immersive experiences, mobile, and virtual reality is poised to forever change the way people learn and organizations teach. You’ll examine how leading Fortune 500 companies are harnessing corporate digital learning to build organizational capabilities. From sales skills taught in a spy-themed game with live-action video, to leadership skills taught with 3-D immersive simulations, to technical skills taught with virtual and augmented reality, you will see what corporate digital learning can look like.
In this session, you will learn:
- How corporate digital learning represents a shift from a classroom model to a consumer-app mindset
- How true gamification makes learning engaging and inspiring
- How compelling stories across screens, devices, and formats can inspire the audience to action
- What leading-edge virtual reality applications actually look like
- How Apple’s ARKit and other AR platforms can offer “X-ray vision” and performance support
- About corporate digital learning trends that will impact learning over the next few years
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors.
Technology discussed in this session:
Various emerging digital learning technologies.
Anders Gronstedt
President
The Gronstedt Group
Anders Gronstedt, PhD, is president of The Gronstedt Group, which is instrumental in helping global companies like Walmart, Pfizer, Novartis, Bristol Myers Squibb, and Daikin improve performance with their custom-developed multi-player VR simulations and learning games. He is a frequent industry speaker and writer with articles appearing in the Harvard Business Review.
105 Moving Past the LMS: Installing a Digital-Era Learning Ecosystem
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
St Croix B
On the footsteps of the dot-com and Y2K craze, the first web-based learning management system (LMS) OLAT debuted in 1999 as a free, open-source platform to support adult learning. It was also the same year that TiVo and Unix were released, Napster was sued by the music industry, and Amazon.com became the leading seller of books. In the almost 20 years since “LMS” entered the vernacular of learning professionals, much has changed in technology and the world at large. However, the LMS remains the central learning technology of any organization. L&D is long overdue for a change.
With the much-hyped digital era and the advent of big data and machine learning, a raft of new technologies are being introduced. Most will, quite frankly, emerge and die as fads, but a handful have the potential to permanently influence learning ecosystems and change not just the type of learning (not training) we offer, deliver, and track to employees, but also the type of data and the value that learning organizations provide to their business partners.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to define the characteristics of the digital era and the ramifications for learning strategy and management
- How to identify existing learning technologies that may continue or no longer be relevant in the digital era
- How to architect a digital-era learning ecosystem and the key additions from a technology perspective
- How to describe the impact on the learning organization, metrics, and conversations it has with the business
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors.
Technology discussed in this session:
LMS, LRS, aggregation, and hosting platforms.
Frank Nguyen
Executive Director
Genentech
Dr. Frank Nguyen is a learning executive who specializes in transforming learning organizations through strategy and technology. He has led enterprise learning for Fortune companies including AIG, Amazon, American Express, Intel, MicroAge, and Sears. Frank has published extensively on the intersection of eLearning, instructional design, and performance support. He is a recipient of the Learning Guild Master and the ISPI Distinguished Dissertation awards. His work on compliance training, learning strategy, business transformation, and technology has been recognized by Brandon Hall and Chief Learning Officer. Frank has served on a variety of learning industry committees for Adobe, ATD, BJET, Brandon Hall, eLearning Guild, and ISPI.
106 Beyond 508: Inclusive Learning for All of Us
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
Martinique AB
Creating great online learning experiences for Americans with disabilities involves more than just adhering to US government Section 508 standards. The ability for people to navigate learning management systems (LMSs) efficiently, find course content quickly, and consume learning material goes beyond supporting screen readers alone. One strong approach is to focus on user experience (UX) design. Good UX design tactics will not only expand the accessibility of your content but also benefit all your users. Best of all, good UX design can simplify your content.
In this session, you will learn how to leverage UX design to implement the intent of Section 508. You’ll find out what additional UX design considerations are needed for low-vision users, dyslexic users, and other people with disabilities not explicity detailed in Section 508. You’ll then investigate high-level processes for creating and testing web and learning module accessibility designs. You will review design examples and discover resources to help you build accessible learning.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the Section 508 implementation considerations that need to be addressed
- About UX design considerations that can help fulfill the intent of Section 508
- An agile process for creating and testing learning accessibility
- About simple UX design tactics that you can use immediately in your own work
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and managers.
Technology discussed in this session:
Learning management systems, web design, mobile design, and SCORM logic design.
Russell Stinehour
President & CEO
DigitalChalk
Russell Stinehour is the co-founder, president, and CEO of DigitalChalk. He also served as CEO of CrossLogic, growing the company to 45 software engineers and $8.5 million in revenues. Russ has over 36 years of software experience, 16 years of product management experience with IBM, and is the co-author of four textbooks on software development. He enjoys working with organizations to help the visually impaired use technology; he serves as a member of the advisory board of Industries for the Blind and was named to the North Carolina Commission for the Blind.
107 The Next Big Thing Is Small: 20 Pros and Cons of Microlearning
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
St Thomas AB
Microlearning is everywhere. Your clients or L&D leaders may be pressuring you to use it everywhere. For everything. Oh, and by the way, for cheap. But when should it be used—and when should it not be used? Microlearning is a small and powerful tool, but it may not be the answer to every learning dilemma.
This discussion-based session explores 10 tips for why using microlearning in engaging and effective ways can benefit your organization or clients. You’ll explore how microlearning can be a tool that empowers learners to pull information in their moment of need or continually keep information they learned in formal sessions fresh and top of mind. However, microlearning is not meant to address every learning need. So, you’ll also explore 10 arguments against using microlearning for your organization or clients. Along the way, you’ll learn about the various formats and modalities microlearning can take.
In this session, you will learn:
- About signs that may indicate microlearning is the best answer to a learning need
- When it may be best to avoid micro courses as a form of learning
- Tips and tricks to make your microlearning “sticky” and not just flashy
- About the formats that microlearning can take (hint: it isn’t just video!) and examples of their use
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Various eLearning and video authoring and
editing tools.
Vicky Hale
Chief Learning Officer
GAAP Dynamics
Vicky Hale is a director of eLearning at GAAP Dynamics. With a degree in accounting (and a minor in visual arts) from the University of Richmond, her path to the learning community has been nontraditional. Vicky began her career as an auditor at PwC and still holds an active CPA license. A desire for teaching and the need for a more creative outlet led her to GAAP Dynamics, where she spearheaded the company's eLearning initiative. She is passionate about instructing, accounting, eLearning, and marketing, and looking for ways to combine them all!
Christine Leese
Director of Development
GAAP Dynamics
Christine Leese is a director of development at GAAP Dynamics, a company that creates fun and interactive accounting and auditing training for accounting firms and companies worldwide. Christine is a CPA and graduated from the College of William & Mary. Previously, she worked in public accounting with KPMG and in the private industry in the accounting and finance departments of large corporations. With a desire to be more creative and to contribute to the growth of others while still leveraging her technical expertise, Christine joined GAAP Dynamics in 2012, where she designs and develops instructor-led and eLearning training.
108 Instructional Design Thinking—From Defining to Prototyping Learning Ideas
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
Montego A
In many cases, the conceptual part of the instructional design process is neglected. Designers don’t have time; they don’t have tools; they don’t know how to ideate learning solutions in an efficient way. As a result, they end up with a routine solution aligned tightly with their own knowledge, skills, biases, and comfort zone. It is very hard to design great training based on such an approach.
In this session, you’ll learn how the instructional design process can be effectively supported by design thinking approaches. Human centricity, collaboration, iteration, verification of ideas with prototypes, and creativeness based on fun factor can drive instructional designers to better results. During the session, you will review design thinking techniques and available tools to support you in your efforts. Three stages of this process will be in the session spotlight—starting from defining the needs of your audience, through ideating a learning solution, and concluding with prototyping it.
In this session, you will learn:
- How the design thinking approach works
- How design thinking can support the instructional design process
- What tools and frameworks can be used in the instructional design thinker role
- How to define, ideate, and prototype your own learning process
- How to build a plan to bring sparks of design thinking to your instructional design team
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and managers.
Marek Hyla
Senior Manager; TD&L Innovation Center Lead
Accenture
Marek Hyla is a senior manager and TD&L Innovation Center lead with Accenture. He has delivered services to the T&D industry since 1999, working across a variety of companies—IT, investments, training, and consulting. Marek has cooperated with more than 100 companies, being responsible for design of learning strategies, project management, and instructional design, to mention only a few. As an Innovation Center global lead in talent development and learning practice, he manages the global network of people involved in innovative initiatives. Marek is the author of three books on new training technologies and instructional design.
112 Creating Better Information Graphics for Learning
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
Bermuda A
When you visualize abstract ideas, you make the ideas easier for people to understand. When you use visual metaphors, you make content seem familiar. An important skill in L&D is the ability to make meaning through visuals—and diagrams, charts, graphs, and timelines can help.
In this session, you’ll explore how people perceive and process information graphics. You’ll look at different types of information graphics and match them to the learning they best promote. You’ll also examine what goes into designing an information graphic, how to choose an appealing visual style, and some of the resources that are available for information graphic creation.
In this session, you will learn:
- From surprising research about perception and processing of information graphics
- How to match your learning goals with the right type of information graphic
- A design process for creating information graphics
- Where to find free resources to help with information graphic design
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Information graphic creation and information
graphic tools.
Connie Malamed
Founder and Mentor
Mastering Instructional Design
Connie Malamed helps people learn and build instructional design skills at Mastering Instructional Design. She is a consultant, author and speaker in the fields of online learning and visual communication. Connie is the author of Visual Design Solutions and Visual Language for Designers. She also publishes The eLearning Coach website and podcast. She was honored with the Guild Master award in 2018 for contributions to the learning technologies industry.
LRV102 More Than a Pretty Page
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 25
Expo Hall: Learning Revolution Stage
Do you struggle daily with learner engagement, system adoption, and the high cost of learner support? Modern HR and learning systems are not configured out of the box to meet your user experience needs, and adding a pretty landing page won’t solve the real problems. Would you like to know how to solve this dilemma?
In this session, you will learn how to make a difference in your platform user experience through a proven step-by-step process that improves your learner engagement and system adoption into the future.
In this session, you will learn:
- The leading problems associated with bad content
- Alternative ways to curate content
- The value proposition for content curation
- Key questions to ask when beginning a curation project
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, and senior leaders.
Technology discussed in this session:
Talent management systems, learning management systems, user experience maps, wireframes, and design prototypes.
Mark Prasatik
Vice President of User Experience Services
Bluewater
Mark Prastik is the vice president of user experience services at Bluewater Learning. Mark assists clients in aligning learning user experience and reporting/analytics to business strategy because he feels that user learning experience and reporting/analytics are the most predictive factors in the adoption of talent and learning systems and solving business problems. Mark has more than 25 years’ experience in employee training in the areas of oil and gas, aviation, retail, financial services, life sciences, and technology. Mark is certified in instructional design, human performance improvement, and project management and is a past president of ATD Houston.
206 Your Game Plan for Designing and Developing Mini-Scenarios
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Wednesday, October 25
St Thomas AB
A carefully executed eLearning scenario can pull people into a real-world application of new concepts and skills. Yet it’s rare that instructional designers have the time to create immersive scenarios with complicated branching and feedback. Under a tight deadline to redesign an online course in practical ethics, Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences still wanted to give students practice making realistic decisions before they began working with real patients.
In this case study session, you’ll learn how the college used realistic mini-scenarios throughout an online healthcare ethics course to encourage relevant decision-making and give people experience with the situations they should expect to encounter in the workplace. Mini-scenarios like these can encourage practical application in meaningful ways, and they take less time and resources to create than full scenarios. You’ll learn how to work with subject matter experts to write true-to-life scenarios as well as realistic feedback. At the end of this session, you’ll walk away with a practical model for designing and developing interactive mini-scenarios using common eLearning development tools.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why mini-scenarios are effective for practicing decision-making in real-world contexts
- How to work with subject matter experts to develop realistic mini-scenarios
- How to write effective feedback to maximize the learning opportunity
- Tips for using common eLearning tools for simple mini-scenario development
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Microsoft PowerPoint, Articulate Studio (QuizMaker, Presenter) and
Storyline, and Blackboard.
Angela Shertzer
Instructional Designer
Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences
Angela Shertzer is an instructional designer at Pennsylvania College of Health Sciences, where she partners with faculty to design and develop high-quality online courses and modules. With almost 20 years of experience in instructional design and training in healthcare and business, Angie excels at developing and delivering dynamic learning experiences that result in strong learning outcomes and engaged learners.
207 Increasing Retention by Putting Virtual Learners in the Driver’s Seat
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Wednesday, October 25
Jamaica AB
Adults learn by doing what they’re being taught. As a virtual trainer, it’s your job to get them “doing.” But sometimes you may find your audience multitasking instead of engaging with the content, and as a result, their learning suffers. How can you keep people actively “doing” within the confines of your virtual platform?
In this session, you’ll discover unique ways to use your existing virtual tools to go beyond the basics and drive more audience engagement. You’ll learn best practices for breakout rooms, creative activities to implement throughout your training, how to engage attendees through the whiteboard, what to do when you have a mixed audience (some virtual and some live), workarounds for platform-specific barriers, and collaboration tools to continue learning after training is complete. Throughout the session, you’ll also get tips on the various platforms that can help you accomplish these activities and increase your learners' retention, no matter what your subject matter.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to increase learner retention by incorporating purposeful action-drive learning into live online training
- About unique and creative ways to use your existing virtual tools beyond the basics
- How to increase people’s confidence with using virtual tools
- About new platforms and virtual tools to incorporate into your live online training
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers and managers with a working knowledge of live online training.
Technology discussed in this session:
Various platforms, including Adobe Connect. Laptops are not required, however attendees with laptops will have the opportunity to participate in a session demo.
Sheri Jeavons
President and Founder
Power Presentations
Sheri Jeavons is the president and founder of Power Presentations. Since 1993, she and her team of consultants have trained more than 22,000 professionals from a variety of Fortune 500 companies and industry leaders such as FedEx, Marathon Petroleum, Goodyear, Bayer, and NASA. She is also a thought leader on the topic of virtual communications and has been selected to speak on the topic at many industry-leading training conferences, including ATD TechKnowledge, ATD International, and Training 2017.
208 Creating a Global Diversity Program from Scratch: How in the World Do You Do That?
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Wednesday, October 25
Trinidad AB
Designing learning for a global workforce is challenging at the best of times. However, when you factor in that this learning must be virtual, mobile ready, and accessible to over 80,000 employees, the challenge becomes substantially more complex. This is the dilemma SAP faced when asked to develop a global diversity and inclusion program for its employees to boost awareness of the value of an inclusive work environment.
In this case study session, you’ll follow the SAP team’s journey to design and develop in-house a seven-part learning series on diversity and inclusion. Along the way you’ll explore the good, bad, and ugly of their process and get tips on the strategies and best practices they found worked best for collaborating with multicultural stakeholders and SMEs. Finally, you’ll learn how the team evaluated potential tools and methods to ensure that the learning they created was accessible to everyone who might use it.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to decide whether to stay in-house or outsource the design and development of your learning program
- How to avoid cultural miscommunication when collaborating with a diverse group of stakeholders and SMEs
- How to determine accessibility needs for the people in your organization
- How to implement universal design for learning (UDL) principles when designing for a global, virtual, and multicultural audience
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Debby McNichols
Senior Instructional Designer
SAP
Debby McNichols is a senior instructional designer for SAP. She is an L&D professional with a passion for designing and developing learning programs for diverse global audiences, and her expertise includes leadership development, virtual learning, social learning, and collaborative platforms. Debby is a CPLP with a master’s degree in instructional technology and a doctorate in organizational leadership. She is active in the Los Angeles chapters of ATD and ISPI and is the author of a number of thought-leadership articles.
Leah Morris
Senior Instructional Designer
SAP Success Factors
Leah Morris is an instructional designer for the Learning Center of Excellence at SAP. She studied violin at Indiana University, and after working in the US and internationally as a freelance musician, she left the field in the mid-1990s when she became interested in technology. After teaching herself DOS, Leah was employed as a software trainer for a Boston-based company. This led to opportunities with other companies where she trained a diverse portfolio of customers in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia in standard business software, custom software, and soft skills.
MNX104 Improve Learning Outcomes with Video Caption and Transcripts
1:15 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, October 25
Expo Hall: Management Exchange Stage
Video is an integral part of online learning and training strategies. But could you be getting more out of your video content? Without captions, video is inherently inaccessible to deaf and hard-of-hearing users. But are all of your learners missing out if you don’t have captions on your videos? Can learning be improved when captions and searchable video are introduced into the classroom?
This session will share results from a study revealing how 98.6 percent of students found captioning helpful. You will explore how captions improve learning for all students, and you’ll look at how to create a fully searchable online video portal to further improve your learners’ experience. Finally, you’ll learn why captions are useful as a learning aid to improve comprehension, accuracy, engagement, and retention.
In this session, you will learn:
- How students use captions and transcripts to improve comprehension and retention
- Why captions are critical for making video-based learning accessible to all learners
- How captions help different subgroups of learners (ESL, adult learners, and more)
- How to build a searchable video library to make your courses more engaging and interactive
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, and directors.
Josh Miller
Co-Founder, Chief Revenue Officer
3Play Media
Josh Miller is a co-founder and the chief revenue officer of 3Play Media, which provides closed captioning and transcription services to make video accessible, searchable, and more engaging. 3Play Media has over 2,000 customers across industries, including Harvard, MIT, Oracle, Viacom, NBCUniversal, Stanford, Cisco, the US Department of State, P&G, and more. As CRO, Josh oversees the company’s sales and marketing teams and is responsible for new growth. He frequently speaks on closed captioning, video accessibility, and video search. Josh holds a BA from Brown University and an MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Management.
307 The Social Network: Using Communities to Enhance Development Programs
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Wednesday, October 25
Andros AB
Leadership development programs come in numerous shapes and sizes. At many companies, though, logistical constraints limit the scope of these programs to just employees at headquarters, which limits the opportunity for people at other locations to build their leadership skills. World Wide Technology wanted to open its leadership program to employees who were located in remote offices. But how could the company give these employees the same learning experience as those at headquarters?
In this case study session, you’ll learn how World Wide Technology incorporated social learning to connect remote and headquarter employees participating in the leadership program. You’ll learn how to add social learning into a long-term development program, as well as how to foster and encourage growth of a social community. You’ll explore samples of storytelling in social media as it relates to learning, various roles within a social community, and measurements you can use to show the value and difference social learning can make for a learning program.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why social learning is an effective way to continue knowledge sharing and transfer after major events in a learning program
- How to start and foster growth of a social community
- How to use everyday tools to begin social learning in your organization
- About metrics you can use to measure social learning effectiveness
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, managers, directors, senior
leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.), social media managers, and content managers
who have some level of experience using social media and creating blended or multifaceted
learning programs.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Social media and intranet (NewsGator, Slack, Facebook,
Twitter, LinkedIn, and Microsoft SharePoint).
Erin Patterson
Senior Instructional Designer
World Wide Technology
Erin Patterson is a senior instructional designer at World Wide Technology. In this role, she develops a myriad of learning and performance support solutions, including eLearning, video, infographics, and social communities of practice. Erin has over 10 years’ experience in learning and development, with a passion for—and focus on—learning program creation and management.
308 Strategies for Supporting Complex Skill Development
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Wednesday, October 25
St Thomas AB
eLearning has a satisfactory set of options if your goal is information delivery or procedural training, but what about creating meaningful eLearning for complex skill development or for the not-so-procedural kinds of problems that show up more and more in the workplace? What about creating learning for those situations where your SME can’t tell you what good performance looks like except to say, “Well, you know it when you see it”?
In situations like these, frameworks from complexity science and the science of expertise development can help you diagnose complex learning problems, and they also help point to eLearning design strategies that can actually address and support complex skill development. In this session, you’ll discuss how variables like frequency of use, tacitness or explicitness, and level of automaticity affect skill development. You’ll find out how to use these variables and models to craft effective eLearning design and assessment strategies for complex learning.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to diagnose a complex skill problem
- How to use complexity models such as the Cynefin framework for learning
- How to use alternative assessment and feedback strategies for complex learning environments
- How to use learner self-assessment as a tool for complex learning
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers and managers. Some instructional
design experience is recommended.
Technology
discussed in this session:
eLearning-specific examples, the Cynefin
complexity model, and Ericsson’s skill development research.
Julie Dirksen
Learning Strategist
Usable Learning
Julie Dirksen, a learning strategist with Usable Learning, is a consultant and instructional designer with more than 15 years' experience creating highly interactive eLearning experiences for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. She's interested in using neuroscience, change management, and persuasive technology to promote sustainable long-term learning and behavior change. Her MS degree in instructional systems technology is from Indiana University, and she's been an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is the author of Design For How People Learn.
316 BYOL: The Magic Behind Interactive Webinars
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Wednesday, October 25
Montego C
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
- Why you’ll want to document your delivery plan in a shared location
- How to communicate with team members using secret and private messaging
- How to manage participant questions and technical issues
- How you can deliver consistent sessions using templates
- What presenters do that participants don’t see
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, managers, and online event
producers. Attendees should have some experience with virtual classrooms,
especially Adobe Connect.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Adobe Connect.
Participant
technology requirements:
Laptop or smart device with Adobe Connect app installed.
On your PC or Mac, run the Meeting Connection Diagnostic in advance:
https://admin.acrobat.com/common/help/en/support/meeting_test.htm
Karen Hyder
Online Event Producer and Speaker Coach
Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting
Karen Hyder, online event producer and speaker coach at Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting, has been teaching about technology since 1991, when she delivered instructor-led software courses for Logical Operations. She was promoted to director of trainer development, helping trainers improve skills and earn certifications. In 1999 she created a course for trainers using virtual classrooms, and helped launch The eLearning Guild Online Forums in 2004. She continues to host The Guild’s Best of DemoFest, and was honored with the Guild’s Guild Master Award. Currently, Karen provides coaching and production support for a series of online courses at Hearing First, a not-for-profit that serves audiology professionals earning CEUs.
ELT106 eLearning Accessibility: How Changing Section 508 Laws Can Impact Your Design
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM Wednesday, October 25
Expo Hall: eLearning Tools Stage
The accessibility standards in Section 508 are changing. That means if you provide learning technologies or services to a federal agency, or even use Section 508 as your organization’s guidelines for accessibility, you’ll need to ensure your eLearning and other digital content meets the updated standards. But do you know what those new standards are, when they’re changing, and how to best design for them?
In this session, you’ll find out more about the Section 508 refresh and what these changes mean when it comes to successfully creating accessible content that adheres to the law. You’ll learn how these changes may impact the way you currently design for accessibility and discover what guidelines, tools, and resources you can use to develop and test your web-based content to make sure it meets these standards. You’ll also look at specific examples of accessible courses built with both Lectora and Storyline, and explore each authoring tool’s accessibility strengths and weaknesses.
In this session, you will learn:
- How Section 508 is changing
- How the revised law relates to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) and what it takes to meet the success criteria of WCAG in your eLearning courses
- Which tools and checklists you can use to develop and test accessible eLearning
- Development tips you can use to create accessible content in Storyline and Lectora
- How examples of actual courses built for accessibility work and were developed
- How making accommodations for accessibility will change your design approach and outcomes
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
Microsoft PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline, Trivantis
Lectora, and the iPad.
Tanya Seidel
VP, Finance & Technology
Artisan E-Learning
Tanya Seidel is a vice president of finance and technology at Artisan E-Learning and has over 10 years of experience in the eLearning industry. In addition to managing Artisan’s finance, technology, and marketing landscapes, she is involved in the development and delivery of eLearning courses for a variety of clients and is well-versed in accessibility (Section 508 and WCAG), responsive design, SCORM, and xAPI. Tanya spent more than seven years working for Trivantis, the makers of Lectora. She has been involved not only in creating instructor-led and web-based training programs and materials, but also in leading the design and development of eLearning authoring software and LMSs.
406 Learner Personas: A Necessary Design Tool for Your Online Courses?
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 26
Bermuda B
There is some debate about whether personas (or learner profiles, as they’re more commonly known in L&D) are a help or a hindrance. Some argue that personas can end up being a representation of what designers wish their users were like, rather than a true reflection of the users, or that they create distance between designers and users. But others push back on this idea, stating that—when used thoughtfully—personas can increase your empathy for the people you’re designing for, allowing you to keep your work tightly focused on the real needs of your audience and to craft the most effective experiences for them.
In this session, you’ll learn more about what can make learner personas succeed. Good personas are based on real data about learner demographics and behavior, along with educated speculation about personal histories, motivations, and concerns. You’ll uncover how this design concept, when applied properly, can inspire your audience to act in ways that matter to your business. You’ll also look at how to get started with crafting your own personas, including trying your hand at a proto-persona creator that can help you stay focused when creating employee learning or performance support.
In this session, you will learn:
- How using personas can improve engagement and decrease dropout rates
- How personas save time (both yours and your audience’s)
- What personas can tell you about how to grab your audience’s attention, persuade them more easily, and even create a more customized experience for them
- How to begin creating your own personas
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers, developers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
A tool for creating proto-personas.
Monica Cornetti
President
Sententia
Unlike other gamification practitioners, speakers, and consultants, Monica Cornetti has focused intensively on the latest immersive engagement techniques and the latest research in the adult education, corporate training, and talent development fields. A gamification speaker and designer, Monica was recognized as #1 in the Most Influential Women in Gamification who have created a legitimate impact in the gamification industry. At the intersection of learning and play, she is leading a team of trusted, cutting-edge curriculum designers and developers to improve the performance of individuals and organizations across the globe.
Jonathan Peters
Chief Motivation Officer
Sententia
Jonathan Peters, PhD, studies the science and art of motivation. As a speaker, he has helped audiences from Melbourne, Australia to Augusta, Maine more effectively communicate with their customers and team-members. As the chief motivation officer at Sententia, he applies his knowledge and experience to make learning more enticing, engaging, and encouraging through gamification. Dr. Peters is the co-author of Deliberate Fun: The Purposeful Application of Game Mechanics to Learning Experiences. He is also an adjunct professor at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, though he calls South Padre, Texas home.
407 Copyright, Free Media, and Why Creative Commons Is Your Best Disruption
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 26
Antigua A
The cost of copyright confusion can affect every stage of the development and delivery process. How much does fear or avoidance inform your decision-making when it comes to finding and using online media? Have you missed out on using fabulous free resources because you weren’t (or your organization wasn’t) sure whether you had the rights to use them? Have you seen others accidentally infringe on someone else’s work because of a misunderstanding about fair use? Copyright can seem like a daunting or boring topic to learn—but it doesn’t have to be.
In this session, you’ll learn about copyright essentials through an entertaining and easy-to-understand snapshot of the law. You’ll discover how to find and use free media properly; how to protect your own work; and how to apply legal concepts, such as the fair use doctrine, to everyday scenarios. You’ll also learn more about where to find free multimedia you can safely use in your projects thanks to public domain, Creative Commons, and open access–licensed works. This session will help you gain an understanding of how you can and can’t legally use media in your work, and will enable you to become more productive and focused as you maximize your financial and creative resources.
In this session, you will learn:
- About copyright law and fair-use basics
- How to find and use free online media properly
- About Creative Commons licenses and which are most accommodating
- How to correctly and easily attribute media you use
- How to protect your work and avoid being sued
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers.
Barbara Waxer
Copyright & Media Educator
Seattle Film Institute
Barbara Waxer is a copyright and media educator, author, and trainer who teaches at the Seattle Film Institute and Santa Fe Community College. She has authored over two dozen textbooks and online products on copyright, finding and using media, writing for the web, and Adobe and Microsoft software. Her book, Internet Surf and Turf Revealed: The Essential Guide to Copyright, Fair Use, and Finding Media, won the TEXTY Textbook Excellence Award and the New England Book Show Award. Barbara thrives when developing best practices for users and creators of digital content.
410 Using a Content Aggregator to Create an Integrated Learning Experience
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 26
St Croix A
Organizational learning is increasingly becoming a blend of multiple assets from a wide variety of resources. How do you combine YouTube videos, a learning vendor course, an SME white paper and PowerPoint, an internal presentation recording, conference proceedings, and other resources into an effective learner experience that you can track and report on? The simple answer is to use a learning stack with a content aggregation front end. But what does that mean?
In this session, you will learn how the combination of a learning stack and a content aggregator can provide a new and unique integrated learning approach for your organization. You will explore the components of a learning stack and examine a content aggregator from both the developer-curator and learner perspectives. You will discover how this approach allows you to solve the problem of integrating diverse content sources and types into a cohesive, measurable learning experience.
In this session, you will learn:
- What integrated learning is, and why it is so valuable to L&D
- About the critical elements of a learning stack
- How to tie elements of the learning stack together to create an integrated learning experience
- What to consider as you migrate to (or build) the infrastructure and practices for an integrated learning culture
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers, developers,
managers, and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Learning management systems (LMSs), learning record stores (LRSs),
and aggregation and hosting platforms.
Matt Peters
Global Head of Technical Learning
Visa
Matt Peters has over 30 years of experience in tech L&D in the US and Taiwan. He is currently the global head of technical learning at Visa. Prior to Visa, Matt was head of the global engineering learning teams at Cisco, and prior to that, head of internal tech learning development at Sun Microsystems. He has both managed teams and worked with senior business leaders in North America, China, India, and Europe. He speaks fluent Mandarin and rescues small parrots. He holds a bachelor's degree in economics & statistics from Middlebury and a master of arts in education from the University of Maryland.
INN202 Run a Learning Hackathon in Less than a Day!
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: Innovation Showcase Stage
Some of the most forward-leaning companies have embraced hackathons to promote innovation. A hackathon is an event where, within a finite amount of time, creatives get together in small teams to design, build, and demo a new product or feature. But how do you get people involved? How do you run a hackathon if you have never done it before? What if you don’t have 24 to 48 hours to run one?
Whether you’re a veteran or you’re trying it out for the first time, this session will provide you with guidance, an outline, and tips for a successful and fun hackathon. Hackathons are a great place to network, so be prepared to share your interests, skills, and hackathon goals with your peers. This is not brainstorming—this is about creating solutions that have action plans and outcomes!
In this session, you will learn:
- How to plan your own hackathon event for your organization or a team
- How to use templates for consistent and action-oriented outcomes
- How to get subject matter experts, peers, and others in your organization to help generate new ideas
- How to create something amazing through the hackathon process
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Apps including Wunderlist and Moodboard.
Darren Nerland
Sr. Learning Strategist
Knowplicity
Darren Nerland is a senior learning strategist at Knowplicity, where he works on disruptive, innovative, and emergent digital learning technologies and methodologies. Darren aligns key leaders and stakeholders on the implementation of learning initiatives for the enterprise. He is an expert technologist with a demonstrable track record of bringing complex learning systems from requirements through design into scalable production. His experience includes working at the executive level to determine how training strategies and awareness can effect and sustain positive behavioral change. Darren is an accomplished and dynamic leader with strong global learning strategy and measurement experience.
MNX202 10 Tips for Effective Social Learning
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: Management Exchange Stage
Social learning involves creating spaces for people to learn, facilitated by technology and connected within communities.
This session will walk you through 10 top tips for designing and running a successful social learning program in your organization. The session will have a practical focus, considering aspects of design, technology, delivery, facilitation, and assessment. For each of the 10 tips, you will examine: (1) the challenge; (2) a real-life case study; (3) where things typically go right—or wrong; and (4) practical advice on what you can do about it.
In this session, you will learn:
- About challenges you will face when designing social learning
- About real-life case studies of how social learning is being implemented
- Where things typically go right (or wrong) in social learning programs
- Practical tips for overcoming challenges
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers,
project managers, managers, and directors.
Julian Stodd
Author and Founder
Sea Salt Learning
Julian Stodd is an author and founder of Sea Salt Learning, a global learning consultancy helping organizations adapt and thrive in the social age. Much of his consultancy work is around the need for social leadership, the design of scaffolded social learning, planning for organizational change, and the impacts of social collaborative technology. Julian comes from an academic background in communication theory, psychology and neurophysiology, learning design, educational psychology, museum education, and philosophy. He is a proud global mentor with the Cherie Blair Foundation for Women, and a Trustee of Drake Music, a charity that works to break down disabling barriers to music through education and research. He was awarded the Learning Performance Institute’s Colin Corder Award for Services to Learning in 2016. He has written 10 books, including The Social Leadership Handbook, Exploring the World of Social Learning, and A Mindset for Mobile Learning.
ELR203 eLearning Innovation at PayPal
12:15 PM - 1:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: eLearning Revolution Stage
How can you help learners feel connected during asynchronous experiences? How can you tailor a standard eLearning experience in a way that makes it feel personalized? How can orientation be standardized without losing its impact? Could you, in your wildest dreams, imagine your compliance eLearning courses being completed by word of mouth and recommendations alone?
This session will illustrate, with specific examples, the success that PayPal has been enjoying in each of these areas through creative design and innovative technology via award-winning products created in partnership with eLearning Brothers Custom.
In this session, you will learn:
- About technologies that can help you inject social and personalized experiences into asynchronous learning
- From examples of an online orientation series so popular it replaced the mainstream classroom experience
- From an example of online compliance training so engaging that it’s being completed by word of mouth and recommendations alone
- New ideas for how eLearning can jump off the page in your organization
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Flash, and the MEAN stack (Mongo DB, Express, Angular JS, Node JS).
Misty Harding
Program & Instructional Design Manager
eLearning Brothers
Misty Harding, a program and instructional design manager for eLearning Brothers, has been a workplace learning and performance professional for nearly 20 years, specializing in instructional design, eLearning, facilitation, and training management. She has built and led instructional design, eLearning, and corporate training teams for companies like eBay and Qualfon and has designed award-winning products and managed learning product relationships for many Fortune 500 companies.
Stephen Dornsife
Director, Learning and Development
PayPal
Stephen Dornsife is a director of learning and development at PayPal. Responsible for PayPal’s global professional skills portfolio, Stephen’s main focus is helping employees reach where they want to be without losing sight of where they are. Stephen and his team offer a range of professional development solutions through multiple modalities to upskill employees, managers, and leaders in all regions of the globe. With a long history in the financial sector, Stephen has deep experience with instructional design, learning and development, and talent development.
505 The 4 Ws of Learning Campaigns
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Thursday, October 26
Jamaica AB
Many instructional designers and trainers are stuck in the rut of event-driven learning, whether that means eLearning courses, face-to-face sessions, or virtual training sessions. You probably know that varied, spaced learning delivers better results, but many people find it hard to put this into action.
In this session, you’ll find out how to use learning campaigns for your training, learning, and education programs. You’ll explore the similarities between marketing and learning—they’re both in the business of changing people’s minds. You’ll be introduced to the four Ws of learning campaigns, personas, and a structure for planning your campaigns, and you’ll look at a couple of real-world examples and the results that they delivered. You will leave feeling energized and enabled to plan and implement a well-structured learning campaign, whether you’re in a company, a not-for-profit, or an educational establishment.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the structure of a typical learning campaign
- How learning campaigns differ from traditional event-based learning
- About the tools used to plan and deliver learning campaigns
- How to start thinking like a marketer
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
MailChimp, WordPress, Wix, Vimeo, YouTube,
Buffer, Woobox, Google Analytics, d.school, and Xtensio.
David Swaddle
Digital Learning Consultant
Cochlear
David Swaddle is a digital learning consultant with Cochlear in Sydney, Australia, where he works with the sales and marketing team at Cochlear creating a global learning campaign around the launch of a new device. David has led learning teams since 2003 with companies in the UK, the US, and Australia. Recognized with awards for his gamification, mobile, and LMS design, he is also experienced at creating systems training, videos, wine edutainment, and the usual inductions, SOPs, and presentations. He enjoys sharing his experiences and learning from others, often in non-learning roles. In his spare time, David runs the over 1,000-strong Sydney eLearning and Instructional Design Group, which frequently meets to share experiences and improve the quality of training and learning. In 2016, he was named AITD Learning and Development Professional of the Year.
506 Write and Self-Publish Your L&D Book
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Thursday, October 26
Montego B
Many people have helpful information to share with others, but the idea of writing a book can seem overwhelming. Even if the writing itself is something you are confident about, the “getting published” part can be difficult. Working with major publication companies is challenging and takes a lot of time; by the time a published book gets out into the world, some information might even be out of date!
In this session, you will explore how to put your book idea out there through the growing world of self-publishing. You will explore how self-publishing works and discover how it allows you to control the process and get information out on your own schedule. You will leave this session with tips and strategies to help you self-publish your first book!
In this session, you will learn:
- How to analyze whether self-publishing is good for you
- Which resources you will need to have in place
- How to format the interior of books yourself
- How to make decent covers for your books yourself
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced
designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors.
Patti Shank
President
Learning Peaks
Patti Shank, the president of Learning Peaks, is an internationally known learning expert, researcher, author, and writer who has been named one of the 10 most influential people in eLearning internationally. She is the author, co-author, or editor of numerous books. Patti was the research director for The eLearning Guild and an award-winning contributing editor for Online Learning Magazine, and her articles are found in the ATD Science of Learning and Senior Leaders Blogs and elsewhere.
508 The Power of Many: A Cohort Learning Model
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Thursday, October 26
Antigua A
Onboarding shouldn’t be an impersonal and disconnected experience. But today’s workforce is diverse and often dispersed globally, making it difficult for new employees to feel connected. At HDR, an engineering firm, new employees felt isolated and unable to make meaningful connections during onboarding. The result was a lack of engagement and motivation to complete required training. HDR needed a way to build connectivity and accountability into learning and onboarding.
In this case study session, find out how HDR reinvigorated new employee performance and engagement by creating a connected learning environment using a cohort training model. You’ll discover how the right mix of technology and collaborative learning led to a dynamic change in attitude and behavior, encouraged accountability and friendly competition related to course completion, and fostered enduring connections between employees and the company. In addition, you’ll learn about the technologies and tools that worked (or didn’t) when connecting cohort participants. Finally, you’ll identify the best way to design, structure, and manage an effective cohort learning program.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why cohort learning leads to better retention and on-the-job application
- How to design and implement an effective cohort learning program
- About the best resources and technologies to support a cohort learning program
- How to effectively manage and maintain a cohort learning program
Audience:
Novice designers, developers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
WebEx, Yammer, SharePoint, LMSs, Google Docs,
wikis, microblogging, surveys, polls, gaming, interactive whiteboards, instant
messaging, Skype, and YouTube.
Rich Reitter
Manager, Instructional Design
HDR
Rich Reitter manages the instructional design team at HDR. In the past 15 years, he has developed and successfully implemented over 500 training programs in various fields, including technology, legal, engineering, transportation, and healthcare. Prior to HDR, he managed the instructional design program for eBay. Rich is a member of ATD (the Association for Talent Development) and a past member of the ATD leadership team. He received the prestigious Innovation in Learning Award in 2013 for his design of a training program for field workers who had limited access to technology and classroom resources.
510 Communities of Practice: A Cornerstone of Social Learning
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Thursday, October 26
Martinique AB
Communities of practice (CoPs) have become a hot topic in the past few years. They are an excellent tool for developing skills, sharing tacit knowledge, and shoring up retention of high-performing staff. But they differ from teams and other types of groups in many ways. Understanding what CoPs are and how they work—rather than just looking at how to create and manage them—is critical to supporting their success.
This session will take a look at the definition and function of communities of practice; examine how successful CoPs work; explore research around the critical CoP issues of learning, meaning, and identity; and identify strategies for nurturing and supporting successful CoPs. This session draws from academic literature on CoPs and offers an evidence-based view of the topic.
In this session, you will learn:
- What a community of practice is and how it functions
- From research on what works, and doesn’t work, in CoPs
- How to nurture and support a CoP
- From examples of successful CoPs
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.
Jane Bozarth
Director of Research
The Learning Guild
Jane Bozarth, the director of research for the Learning Guild, is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to eLearning in the late 1990s and has never looked back. In her previous job as leader of the State of North Carolina's award-winning eLearning program, Jane specialized in finding low-cost ways of providing online training solutions. She is the author of several books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring, Social Media for Trainers, and Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To's of Working Out Loud. Jane holds a doctorate in training and development and was awarded the Guild Master Award in 2013 for her accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.
ELT204 It Looks So Easy! Successfully Producing Virtual Learning Sessions
1:15 PM - 2:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: eLearning Tools Stage
Virtual learning sessions can be engaging ways to reach a wide and dispersed audience, but the skills you need to successfully plan and produce them are distinctly different from those you need for in-class sessions or other learning experiences. When planning to adopt virtual classroom platforms for learning sessions, successful organizations need a clear idea of what management, design, delivery, and technical issues to consider.
In this session, you will explore the key elements of virtual-session success that the presenters have identified from their decade-plus of experience hosting and producing online events. You’ll learn how to develop a reliable, repeatable process for producing virtual learning sessions, how to adjust instructional design and delivery techniques for virtual classrooms, and how to make your virtual classroom platform and related tools work reliably. You’ll also learn how to successfully coach a subject matter expert (SME), and you’ll leave with tips on how to best avoid technical issues—all while making everything look easy to the learners.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to effectively manage the production of successful virtual learning sessions, from planning to evaluation
- About the recommended roles for an effective virtual classroom production team
- How to design for virtual classrooms rather than face-to-face ones
- How to determine how much coaching an SME needs in order to be an effective presenter
- Tips for avoiding and troubleshooting technical issues before, during, and after virtual sessions
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers,
and managers. Attendees should have some experience with virtual events, either
as participants or producers.
Karen Hyder
Online Event Producer and Speaker Coach
Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting
Karen Hyder, online event producer and speaker coach at Kaleidoscope Training and Consulting, has been teaching about technology since 1991, when she delivered instructor-led software courses for Logical Operations. She was promoted to director of trainer development, helping trainers improve skills and earn certifications. In 1999 she created a course for trainers using virtual classrooms, and helped launch The eLearning Guild Online Forums in 2004. She continues to host The Guild’s Best of DemoFest, and was honored with the Guild’s Guild Master Award. Currently, Karen provides coaching and production support for a series of online courses at Hearing First, a not-for-profit that serves audiology professionals earning CEUs.
Melissa Chambers
Online Instructional Specialist
MSC Consulting
Melissa Chambers is an online instructional specialist at MSC Consulting and a contract speaker coach/host for The Learning Guild's Online Forums and Guild Academy. Melissa has over 20 years' experience in creative media production, project and change management, online instructional design, and eLearning strategy development, and has been designing, producing, and coaching for synchronous online programs since 2002. She holds a master's degree in instructional design for online learning, and has spearheaded award-winning programs in eLearning, process improvement, and strategic development. Melissa has a passion for lifelong learning, technology, cultivating creativity, and having fun while working.
MNX204 Modernizing a Learning Solution for IBM Clients
1:15 PM - 2:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: Management Exchange Stage
At IBM, learning content and delivery strategy must adjust to meet rapidly changing technology, job roles, and learner needs. With cloud-based solutions and software-as-a-service, the need for new formats, new methodologies, and continuous learning has grown. Instructional designers have become learning experience architects, helping orchestrate the massive amount of learning content for IBM clients and providing a more personalized learning solution.
In this session, you will learn how IBM has built a learning solution to support customers’ rapidly changing businesses. This solution starts with the right core content, coupled with a balance of modern development and curation techniques. The content is then wrapped with powerful tools like Watson cognitive search, personalization, and a slick UX to deliver a dynamic learning experience that is unique to each user.
In this session, you will learn:
- Modern practices in content development—modular, reusable, digital
- Tips on content hosting—role-based, dynamic, collections
- How to leverage cognitive search—feeding Watson
- Options for incorporating personalization—dashboards, recommendations, progress
- Portal design considerations—elegant user experience, curation, credentials
Audience:
Intermediate managers, project managers, training managers,
directors, and others with experience in content development and delivery.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Watson Explorer and Curata.
Sonia Malik
Learning Strategist
IBM
Sonia Malik is a solution pathfinder at IBM. She has more than 20 years of experience in the technology industry, spanning both US and international markets. Her background encompasses recruiting and talent management, education and training, strategic alliances, technical and operational roles, team management, account management, skills development, content development, website design, and content curation.
Meg Petersen
Director, Digital Learning Platform
IBM
Meg Petersen is the director of IBM’s Digital Learning Platform, which serves IBM clients, business partners, and employers with a catalog of over 2,000 digital courses. With a passion for transformation, she is skilled in instructional design, management, product design, technical writing, training, curriculum architecture, and leadership. Meg has helped fuel the digital learning explosion at IBM, developing an IBM Digital Learning Developer badge and enabling over 1,500 professionals at IBM to build digital, dynamic learning experiences. Meg is also certified as an IBM Design Thinking professional and IBM Blue Core Coach.
ELR205 Become an eLearning Rockstar: Less Time, Less Money, Less Headache
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: eLearning Revolution Stage
As an eLearning developer or instructional designer, you want your projects to be done faster and look better, all while you have less time and budget at your disposal. Using templates is a very attractive option, but you don’t want your course to look like something “off the shelf.”
In this session, you will learn how to use a template as a starting point and quickly transform it into something that is unique and intelligent, and totally rocks!
In this session, you will learn:
- How to customize a template
- How to take a project from start to finish
- How to quickly find assets you are looking for
- How to add flare and style to existing projects
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
Technology discussed in this session:
Rapid eLearning tools.
Jake Kuresa
Director of Sales
eLearning Brothers
Jake Kuresa is a director of sales for eLearning Brothers. Upon joining the eLearning Brothers team, he quickly became an expert on the products and services offered. Jake excels at helping clients find solutions to their development and design issues while working with budget and time constraints.
ELT205 Solving the Challenges of Offline Learning
2:15 PM - 3:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Expo Hall: eLearning Tools Stage
The modern workforce is time-poor, often on the move, and under more pressure than ever before. The traditional office-based eLearning approach is no longer enough.
Today’s learners want to be able to complete learning on their own terms, on the device of their choosing, and when it suits them. With this on-demand need, wouldn’t it be great for learning content to be accessible even when the Internet isn’t? You and your learners rely so much on the Internet, but what happens when it fails?
In this session, you will learn:
- How to take courses offline easily
- How you can still collect detailed learning metrics
- How to get courses to a disparate workforce
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.
Thom Tate
Business Development Manager of North America
gomo
Thom Tate is a business development manager of North America at gomo. He has over 20 years of corporate training experience as a technical trainer and senior sales engineer. Prior to joining gomo, he held leadership positions at Atlantic Link, Kaplan Learning Technologies, and Amdocs.
603 Ukulele Learning: Exploring the Relationships Between Music and Learning
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Barbados AB
A large amount of research in recent years has explored the value that music has for the brain and learning. Everyone has experienced it in some way, be it from listening to music while studying, learning something from a catchy song, or learning to play an instrument.
In this session, you will explore the many relationships between music and learning. You will examine and discuss how people learn to play an instrument—there will even be ukuleles available for some to participate hands-on—and what this might mean for learning in general. Using the introductory ukulele lesson as a framework, this fun session will help you explore the many ways that music impacts and enhances learning.
In this session, you will learn:
- How music enhances learning
- How people learn to play an instrument, and what that means for learning
- How music might enhance your practices
- How to play a ukulele!
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers.
Jane Bozarth
Director of Research
The Learning Guild
Jane Bozarth, the director of research for the Learning Guild, is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to eLearning in the late 1990s and has never looked back. In her previous job as leader of the State of North Carolina's award-winning eLearning program, Jane specialized in finding low-cost ways of providing online training solutions. She is the author of several books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring, Social Media for Trainers, and Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To's of Working Out Loud. Jane holds a doctorate in training and development and was awarded the Guild Master Award in 2013 for her accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.
605 Going Digital: Onboarding for the Self-Directed Learner
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Jamaica AB
The former state of onboarding for investment professionals lacked content and delivery flexibility in order to meet the needs of many variables in the onboarding process. The new program provides flexibility to allow for optimal learning effectiveness in moving the new associates to productivity as rapidly as possible.
In this session, you will learn how a team at T. Rowe Price designed and developed a successful self-directed, flexible onboarding program. Find out how they transformed the program from completely classroom-based to fully digital without losing the element of interaction. You’ll learn the methods and best practices that ensured new hires were assessed and provided feedback every step of the way. See how the team created this program through collaboration, analysis, planning, and agile design and development, ultimately building a continuous learning cycle that instills confidence in new joiners.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the evolution of this self-directed onboarding program
- How to recognize learning options that onboarding can include
- About methodologies and best practices to ensure that the program is an engaging and progressive learning experience
- About the importance of KPIs, measurement, and metrics around onboarding
- How to use innovative methods to engage learners and promote accountability for self-directed learning
- How to upskill learners quickly through nanolearning
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and
managers in the fields of instructional design, instructional development,
communication, collaboration, analysis, human performance and development, or
learning management systems.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Call simulations, video, LMSs, modalities for coursework, Articulate
Storyline, and Microsoft Word, SharePoint, and PowerPoint.
Michael Lazo
Senior Lead Client Engagement & Program Management Consultant
T. Rowe Price
Michael Lazo is an assistant vice president at T. Rowe Price within enterprise learning, supporting the US intermediary learning and development needs as a senior lead consultant. He earned his master of science degree in human resources development from Western Carolina. Michael has been a strategic solution provider at firms including Bank of America, Franklin Templeton, and T. Rowe Price for over 25 years, utilizing all methods of learning, performance support, and leadership practices to enable and sustain organizational and employee growth.
Alina DeMeo Brazzeal
Lead Learning Advisor
T. Rowe Price
Alina DeMeo Brazzeal is a learning advisor with T. Rowe Price, an independent investment management firm. Alina has spent more than 10 years focused on creating learning solutions that produce effective, engaged employees capable of achieving results. She designs and develops for all modalities, including online, classroom, blended solutions, and performance support materials for on-the-job demands. Alina holds a degree in finance and has completed extensive coursework in multimedia technology, instructional design, and asynchronous learning design. She is also an accomplished developer in Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline.
606 Badges and Microlearning: The Perfect Match
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Montego A
Find the sweet spot of learner engagement by combining the bite-sized power of microlearning with the motivating effect of digital badges. By chunking your content to create microlearning-style tutorials and using digital badges to reward learners and mark their achievements, you will increase learner persistence and success in your online courses!
In this session, you’ll learn what makes the microlearning format so effective and why badges are the perfect complement to drive learner success. Using a case study of how a university library leveraged microlearning-style tutorials and badges to dramatically expand its instructional reach, you’ll find out how to implement a content-practice-assessment model to create fast-paced tutorials, and how to structure a badges program to support student learning. With just the right balance, you will engage more learners than ever, sustainably!
In this session, you will learn:
- How to develop an effectively structured badges program
- How to design microlearning-style tutorials
- About the relationship between microlearning, badges, and learner persistence
- How to combine the microlearning format with badges to reach more learners than ever
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, project managers,
and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Digital badges and tutorial design.
Lindsay O’Neill
Principal
Lindsay O’Neill Consulting
Lindsay O'Neill is faculty in the master of science in instructional design and technology program at California State University-Fullerton. An instructional designer and elearning developer, she regularly consults on effective pedagogy, educational technology, open licensing, and accessibility. Lindsay holds a master’s degree in education, specializing in educational technology/instructional design, as well as a master’s degree in library and information science.
Cynthia Gautreau
Director, Master of Science Instructional Design & Technology
California State University–Fullerton
Cynthia Gautreau is director of the master of science in instructional design and technology program at California State University–Fullerton, as well as an associate professor in the department of elementary and bilingual education. Her experience includes teaching at the elementary level, technology consulting in higher education, and graduate instruction at Cal Poly Pomona and Claremont Graduate University. In addition to teaching, Cynthia continues to pursue her interest in technology, professional development, and motivation research. She holds a doctoral degree in education.
Barbara Glaeser
Faculty, Master of Science in Instructional Design & Technology
California State University, Fullerton
Barbara Glaeser is a faculty member at California State University–Fullerton, where she helped design the master of science program in instructional design and technology, now in its 16th successful year. In the program, she teaches research methods, adult learning theory, and learning strategies, and oversees master’s projects. Barbara, who holds a PhD, is also a professor in the department of special education with expertise in remediation of learning disabilities.
607 Best Practices for Accessible eLearning
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Bermuda B
Your client has just asked you to design an engaging eLearning course. The content will be a challenge, which you like. You quickly come up with a vision for the course: interactive, applicable, fun. You know instantly this course will be your showpiece, an award winner. Then the client says, “We need it to be accessible.” Your dream is dashed as you anticipate extra work and no engagement. But it doesn’t have to be that way!
In this session, you’ll see how you can make your award-winning design a reality while also keeping it accessible. You’ll start with what accessibility means—and what it doesn’t. You will look at sample slides and see why they don’t meet accessibility standards. Then you’ll learn all about the best practices for using accessible PDFs (the lowest form of accessible learning), closed captions (which type is really best—the answer may surprise you), keyboard navigation, and designing for a screen reader. The session will wrap up with a look at how to QA all of it.
In this session, you will learn:
- Best practices for designing closed captioning
- Best practices for creating accessible keyboard navigation
- Best practices for designing courses for learners using screen readers
- How to keep engagement in courses while maintaining accessibility
- How to keep fun slides (like drag-and-drops) in an accessible course
- How to insert described video for screen readers without impacting other learners
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline
Steve Blane
Managing Partner
Darn Clever Design Collective
Steve Blane is an award-winning learning experience designer with a specialty in (and passion for) digital learning. He's been in the training and development industry for close to 20 years. Steve works with some of Canada's leading organizations to formulate and tweak their digital development strategy to better support organizational needs. Steve has taught learning experience design and eLearning development for over 10 years at certificate programs in Toronto. He is currently the program director for the Master of Digital Learning Certificate program.
608 Training the Google Way: The Neuroscience of Learning
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
St Thomas AB
L&D professionals work hard to create great training and are disappointed when employees fail to learn. It may be tempting to blame the students, but L&D efforts usually fail because they don’t understand the mind of the learner. As a result, you may build training modules that are not consistent with the brain’s natural means of acquisition. Teaching can be more effective once you understand how the learner’s mind operates.
In this session, you’ll learn the brain principles that Google uses to guide the development of its training materials. The presentation will include dramatic demonstrations illustrating how the mind learns and retains new information. You will see how these principles are utilized to train more than 1 billion people around the world.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to create social learning communities that are based on psychological principles of observational learning
- How to use authoring tools more effectively by understanding how the brain encodes metaphor and emotion
- How to develop incentive systems that reinforce desired behaviors and that are based on established principles of conditioning
- How to improve employees’ attention within mobile learning by understanding the secrets to people’s levels of consciousness
- How to design effective follow-up training by tapping into mnemonic principles of memory
- How to deliver either visual or auditory messages based on an understanding of the brain’s dual-coding mechanisms
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Art Kohn
Professor
ASPIRE Consulting Group
Dr. Art Kohn earned his PhD in cognitive science at Duke University and is a consultant with Google, helping the organization develop new programs which train more than 1.2 billion people. Dr. Kohn's professional research explores how to present information in order to maximize learning and memory. He was awarded the National Professor of the Year award from the American Psychological Association and he won a Fulbright Fellowship in cognitive psychology and a second Fulbright Fellowship in distance education. He consults with organizations around the world, helping them modernize and optimize their training programs.
610 Using Social Media for Analysis and Designing Around Corporate Culture
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 26
Antigua B
Why do you do what you do? Who are you trying to train, and why should they be there? The answer goes way beyond corporate compliance or skill-building initiatives. The answer lies deep beneath the surface in the hearts and minds of the people you are trying to train. But how do you find out what motivates them and how to help them succeed?
In this session, you will learn how the values that people hold dear can be a source of conflict that interferes with learning. You will learn that uncovering these values is a vital component of audience analysis, and that the best way to uncover them is to give people something to react to. Using social media and some principles of story, you’ll learn that you can orchestrate the kind of analysis you need to discover the backstory at work. At the same time, you’ll build culture and add to the corporate legacy.
In this session, you will learn:
- What causes conflict at work
- How conflict interferes with learning
- How to use social media and other activities to uncover the source of conflict
- How to use principles of story to design training that navigates conflict
- How to use audience analysis to also build culture
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Twitter, Yammer, Salesforce, Microsoft SharePoint,
SurveyMonkey, and any internal or external social media, survey tools, and
corporate portal tools that attendees use.
Katie Stroud
Master Story Crafter
Incremental Success
Katie Stroud is a master story crafter at Incremental Success. Her roles in instructional design, technical writing, and consulting led her to develop a story-based approach to address the unspoken culture that lingers in every corporate initiative. The process is based on scientific studies that explain why people do what they do. It helps to find what inspires them to change behaviors in support of corporate goals.
706 More than Micro: Designing Learning that Fits
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, October 27
Andros AB
Microlearning is a popular topic. But, while people are clamoring for it, the industry has not really defined it. Worse yet, the concept seems to shift depending on who you talk to. Is it short content? Does it require repetition? Do you need technology? Without a consistent understanding of the concept, L&D risks turning microlearning into yet another short-lived trend that fails to help people do their jobs better.
In this session, you’ll learn why microlearning is actually an “informed reimagination” of familiar L&D tactics. You’ll see how you can design learning solutions that “fit” within the modern workplace. You will discuss the importance of technology in a microlearning strategy, especially for distributed organizations, and hear real-world examples of how microlearning is driving bottom-line results. Finally, participants will work together to apply microlearning tactics to solve a few familiar learning and performance challenges. You’ll leave armed with the principles necessary to start applying microlearning in your everyday work.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the meaning and value of microlearning within modern workplace learning
- How to establish guiding principles for learning solutions that fit today’s organizations
- About everyday learning behaviors that support effective microlearning
- Practical ideas for introducing microlearning tactics into existing L&D strategy
Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Microlearning platforms, learning management
systems (LMSs), and social tools.
JD Dillon
Chief Learning Architect
Axonify
JD Dillon became a learning and enablement expert over two decades working in operations and talent development with dynamic organizations including Disney, Kaplan, and AMC. A respected author and speaker in the workplace learning community, JD continues to apply his passion for helping people around the world do their best work every day in his role as Axonify's chief learning architect. JD is also the founder of LearnGeek, a workplace learning insights and advisory group.
707 User Interface Design for eLearning
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, October 27
St Croix B
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 ignoring the interface it’s encapsulated in.
This session will explore 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
- Simple 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 to intermediate designers, developers, and project managers
with a basic understanding of eLearning design and development.
Technology
discussed in this session:
General eLearning authoring tools (e.g.,
Articulate Storyline and Adobe Captivate).
Tim Slade
Creator
The eLearning Designer's Academy
Tim Slade is a speaker, author, award-winning freelance eLearning designer, and creator of The eLearning Designer's Academy. Having spent the last decade working to help others elevate their eLearning and visual communications content, Tim has been recognized and awarded within the eLearning industry multiple times for his creative and innovative design aesthetics. Tim is also a regular speaker at international eLearning conferences, a recognized Articulate Super Hero, and author of "The eLearning Designer's Handbook."
708 CANCELLED - Cognition, Emotion, and Social Learning in Learning Design
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, October 27
Montego A
Historically, adult learning has been about facts. People are experts at filling their brains with facts, but sometimes they forget about relevancy, recall, usability, and impact. How can you design learning that speaks to the “whole learner”? How can you make a dramatic impact and ensure effective performance outcomes?
In this session, you will explore how to design learning programs for the “whole learner,” addressing learners’ cognitive, emotional, and social characteristics. You will examine the concept of learning as the interaction between three dimensions: content, incentive, and interaction. You’ll be introduced to real-world examples of this concept and be provided with an easy process to apply in your own learning design. This session will include an interactive exercise to demonstrate the application of the “whole learner” concept to microlearning and instructional videos.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to recognize the specific cognitive, emotional, and social aspects of a learning deliverable
- How to apply a “whole learner” design process to your learning design
- How to identify the potential for increasing performance through driving the incentive
- How to augment existing learning deliverables with emotional and social engagement
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors
who are familiar with adult learning theory and basic learning design concepts.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Desktop and mobile.
Monica Savage
President
Obsidian Learning
Monica Savage is the president of Obsidian Learning. Her 16 years of experience in variety of industries have given her a structured yet flexible approach to efficient organization and successful management of complex processes and organizations. Her master’s degrees in Chemistry and Chemical Engineering add depth to many of Obsidian’s scientific and technical projects. Her straightforward, collaborative approach to communication—both internally and with customers—and her creative problem solving abilities have been fundamental to Obsidian’s delivery of out-of-the box ideas and projects on time and on budget.
804 Create the Right Content Under a Ticking Clock
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Friday, October 27
St Croix B
All education organizations struggle to work within the triple constraint: quality, cost, and time. When adding additional resources or extending a deadline is not an option, designers can be faced with sacrificing the quality of the product in order to stay within the project’s limitations. When faced with this dilemma, maximizing your design-per-minute ratio is key.
In this session, you will learn how to outline your content to fit most naturally into eLearning formats. You will learn techniques to stretch your work further to create interesting, related course models from a single design. You will explore how rapid modification of color, placement, and symmetry can very quickly add interesting design schemes to already developed content and richness to a course where repetition was prevalent. Additionally, you will learn some simple, quick practice exercises that will help train your mind to work faster while maintaining the creative edge that your courses deserve.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to outline your content to naturally align to an eLearning modality
- How to create base-functional designs to speed up your startup time
- How to modify base-functional designs and existing content to increase volume
- How to facilitate or complete short practice sessions to improve design speed
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers. Students
will need a base understanding of how to use Articulate Storyline or a similar
design software.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline 2 and Microsoft PowerPoint.
Wade Wilder
Education Coordinator
Texas Department of Agriculture
Wade Wilder is head of education and training at the Texas Department of Agriculture and spends his workdays teaching schools and daycare centers how to feed healthier food to children. A former Texas Tech Red Raider, Wade has a two-decade history in various roles but never departed the education arena. He has spent his career asking the simple question, “What does success look like?” and working with students to arrive there.
805 Design Thinking for Problem-Solving
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Friday, October 27
St Thomas AB
In today’s world, the first answer to every challenge seems to be a meeting. You hold meetings to talk about meetings, and then you schedule follow-up meetings. But how productive are you in those conversations, and are you really solving problems? Are you optimizing your time and ability to collaborate? Does everyone have a voice at the table?
This session explores the evolution of design thinking, techniques for identifying problems, and strategies for creative problem-solving to promote innovation in business and in the classroom. You will identify a problem and actively participate in various innovation and creative thinking exercises to address it, including affinity clustering, root cause analysis, and techniques such as Rose, Thorn, Bud and Visualize the Vote.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to identify problems using problem-framing techniques
- About design thinking methods for team collaboration
- Techniques to empathize with people and processes
- Techniques for ideation and prototyping new solutions to problems
- About the importance of gathering feedback and iterating to new solutions
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers,
project managers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive,
etc.).
Kristin Machac
Design Thinking Consultant
Kristin Machac is a Design Thinking consultant She has more than a decade of instructional design experience in corporate and higher education environments. Kristin has led creative thinking and problem-solving workshops, and she has presented regionally and nationally on topics such as solving business problems with design thinking, enhancing online learning with personal interaction, and applying design thinking to course design.
Holly Cline
Department of Design Chair and Professor of Interior Design
Radford University
Holly L. Cline is a department chair for the Department of Design and the online MFA in design thinking at Radford University. She holds a PhD and earned her degrees from Virginia Tech, University of Kentucky, and Centre College. Holly is certified by the National Council for Interior Designers (NCIDQ), is a LEED accredited professional, and has taught for over 21 years. She is passionate about finding innovative solutions and innovation within the parameters of design thinking and socially responsible design. Holly has received numerous professional awards, been a keynote speaker for multiple organizations in Virginia, and presented both nationally and internationally.
806 Building Your eLearning Portfolio
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Friday, October 27
St Croix A
Regardless of your job title, if you’re working in the eLearning field, particularly in a production capacity, you need an eLearning portfolio. Why do you need an eLearning portfolio? Because it will work for you! Portfolios allow you to focus on the things you really enjoy doing, while potentially funneling prospective clients to your inbox.
Building your eLearning portfolio doesn’t need to be an overwhelming task. This session will equip you for the portfolio-building journey, and you’ll learn insider information about what works well, what doesn’t work at all, and lessons learned in building an eLearning portfolio. You will also have the opportunity to address your most pressing concerns.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the importance of an eLearning portfolio
- About common challenges in building an eLearning portfolio and how to overcome them
- How to build out and host your portfolio
- How to promote your portfolio
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers and developers.
Ashley Chiasson
Senior eLearning Developer
Traliant
Ashley Chiasson is an award-winning instructional designer and eLearning developer with over 15 years of experience. She is the senior eLearning developer at Traliant, where she creates high-quality, binge-worthy compliance training. She holds a masters degree in education (post-secondary studies) and a bachelor of arts in linguistics and psychology.
807 Encouraging a Feedback Culture in the Course Production Process
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Friday, October 27
Jamaica A
You know that it’s best to gather feedback from stakeholders early and often. But you also may have experienced times when inviting stakeholders to review early versions of your work made it difficult for projects to stay within scope, on schedule, and on budget.
In this session, you will learn how McKinsey & Company incorporates feedback into the course production process by using controlled iterations. This approach allows planned time and space for stakeholders to provide feedback throughout the course development process. You will learn about McKinsey’s course production process and how designers approach feedback with stakeholders and sponsors. You will also explore a sample project tracker, which McKinsey uses to track a project plan, move through different phases of the process, and communicate feedback to the course authoring team.
In this session, you will learn:
- About an approach to the course production process that is centered around stakeholder feedback
- How to balance stakeholder feedback with project scope, schedule, and budget
- About a sample project tracker
- Tips and tricks for moving a project through different phases of the process
Audience:
Novice to intermediate developers, project
managers, and managers who have some experience with the course production
process.
Pam Lee
Client Delivery Director
McKinsey & Co.
Pam Lee is a leader within McKinsey Academy’s delivery organization at McKinsey & Company. She has over 20 years of experience at McKinsey, and has held roles in content development, instructional design, and course operations. Prior to entering the learning field, Pam held several IT-focused roles at McKinsey—from business analyst to portfolio manager. She has a master’s degree in education technology leadership from George Washington University.
Jen Kruper
Senior Knowledge Expert & Learning Architect
McKinsey & Co.
Jen Kruper is a senior knowledge expert and learning architect with McKinsey Academy focused on leading a team of learning professionals who work with clients to diagnose, design, and develop learning solutions. She draws on research in cognitive science to design experiences that shift mindsets and accelerate behavior change to advance clients' business goals. In her role at McKinsey, she focuses on developing robust capability-building offerings for clients and advising clients on learning and development challenges.