SELR101 Industry Leader Panel: The Future of eLearning Development
10:00 AM - 10:45 AM Wednesday, October 24
Expo Hall: eLearning Rockstars Stage
The eLearning industry is changing quickly, and it can be hard to keep up. Put that on top of ever-evolving tools, mobile vs. desktop development, xAPI integration, and other feature requests, and it’s enough to make you want to throw your computer out the window. But what if you knew what the tool developers had planned for the near future?
For this session, eLearning Brothers asked, “What would happen if we put the industry’s leading tool developers, including Adobe, Trivantis, Claro, and Adapt, on the same stage?” Come to a fantastic panel discussion that explores what’s currently exciting in rapid eLearning development and what’s coming down the pipe. Where would you like to see the technology go? SaaS vs. license purchase? Mobile development on mobile? Come get a peek into what will be in a developer’s toolbox in a few months, years, and beyond.
In this session, you will learn:
- What rapid eLearning authoring tool leaders think about where the industry is
- Where authoring tool leaders would like to see the industry go
- What features authoring tools should have in the future
- About the future of rapid eLearning development
Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate, Trivantis Lectora, Adapt, Claro, and HTML5.
Andrew Scivally
CEO & Co-founder
ELB Learning
Andrew Scivally is the co-founder and CEO of ELB Learning. He has 20 years of experience in the learning technology space, including all aspects of course design and development, as well as leading learning and development teams for financial institutions such as JPMorganChase and Zions Bank. He holds a master's degree in computer education and cognitive systems. Led by Andrew, ELB Learning has established an industry-leading brand and been featured in the Inc. 5000 for six consecutive years.
109 Leveraging Google and Amazon APIs to Enhance Your eLearning Courses
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, October 24
St. Croix B
There are many new web services available from Google and Amazon: image recognition, text to speech, voice to text, real-time data, and more. These services are inexpensive (some are free) and have the potential to make your course more engaging and effective. But how do you incorporate them into your course?
In this session, you will see and play with examples of courses that use these web services. You will explore the features offered by various services. And then you will investigate the JavaScript code needed to connect your course to these services. Specifically, participants will use Google’s Vision API, Google’s Translate API, Google’s Firebase, and Amazon’s Polly API.
In this session, you will learn:
- Which services are available from Google and Amazon
- How you can leverage these APIs to create better eLearning
- The limits of using these technologies directly in your courses
- Samples of JavaScript code necessary to incorporate these services into your courses
Audience:
Designers, developers, and managers.
Technology discussed in this session:
Google’s Vision API, Google’s Translate API, Google’s Firebase, Amazon’s Polly API, JavaScript, Articulate Storyline 360, and Adobe Captivate 2017.
James Kingsley
Senior Director Product Development
ELB Learning
James Kingsley, with a rich tenure of over 15 years in the eLearning domain, has always had a penchant for morphing tools and applications to achieve beyond their initial capacity. His recent venture, MicroBuilder, is a testament to his innovative prowess. Developed at ELB Learning, MicroBuilder is conceived to equip eLearning developers with a streamlined pathway to craft MicroLearning modules. His expertise stretches across a wide technical spectrum including Node.js, Vue, Mongo, with particular adeptness in integrating APIs, xAPI, SCORM, and extending the capabilities of existing tools. Besides being a seasoned coder, James has an eye for identifying and molding viable eLearning solutions, making significant strides in web, mobile, and desktop-specific realms. His relentless pursuit of refining and evolving eLearning solutions continues to mark a substantial footprint in the industry.
209 Responsive eLearning Design and How to Truly Achieve it
1:15 PM - 2:15 PM Wednesday, October 24
St. Thomas A
There’s a common myth that responsive design means shrinking to fit. It doesn’t! And that’s only the start of the misconceptions then applied to eLearning. The truth is, many designers have several courses that aren’t responsive or are merely paying lip service to being so. You need to start converting them now, otherwise you’re frustrating a huge group of your learners. But where do you start?
In this session, you’ll learn what responsive eLearning is, what it looks and feels like, and how to truly achieve it. You’ll walk through a complete step-by-step guide of: things you need to consider; what you need to prepare; best practice media creation; authoring tools you could use; and how you should test your courses. You’ll explore the differences between creating courses from scratch versus converting existing courses, but you’ll leave with a checklist that can be applied to both instances.
In this session, you will learn:
- What responsive eLearning is, and why it’s essential to accommodate it
- What the key points are for creating a responsive eLearning course
- How to prepare media so that it’s best fit for a responsive course
- What the main considerations are when converting existing eLearning content to a responsive platform
- Which common responsive design mistakes you should avoid
- What you need to evaluate when choosing a responsive authoring tool
Audience:
Designers, developers, and managers.
Technology discussed in this session:
Evolve will be demonstrated, and other HTML5 responsive authoring tools will be discussed.
James McLuckie
Chief Learning Officer
Flow Hospitality
James McLuckie, chief learning officer at Flow Hospitality, is a digital learning specialist who has delivered projects for clients such as Google, Heineken, Estee Lauder, the Virgin group, and the International Baccalaureate. Formerly a board member of eLearning Network, James is a fellow of both the Learning and Performance Institute and the Institute of Learning and Occupational Learning. He also lays claim to be the tallest man in L&D.
SELR106 Making 508 Accessible to Developers
3:15 PM - 4:00 PM Wednesday, October 24
Expo Hall: eLearning Rockstars Stage
Being 508-compliant is meant to make your courses more accessible, but creating 508-compliant courses can be very difficult. Different requirements, changing definitions, and clarifying expectations will add hours to any project.
When it comes to tools for helping developers create 508-compliant courses, the industry has come a long way. This session explores some of these tools and shows how 508 compliance can be much more accessible for everyone.
In this session, you will learn:
- About 508 compliance tests
- About 508-compliant authoring
- How to define your level of 508 compliance
- How to reduce development time of 508-compliant courses
Audience:
Novice to advanced developers.
Daryl Fleary
VP Business Solutions
Trivantis
Daryl Fleary is a vice president of business solutions at Trivantis. He has over 20 years’ experience as a unit and project manager, senior instructional designer/consultant, eLearning designer, and business developer/relationship manager specializing in instruction and performance support solutions. Daryl’s experience includes developing instructor-led courses, web-based training programs, knowledge portals, electronic performance support/help systems, self-study guides, and other learning materials. As an FTE or consultant he has worked with a number of industries, including financial services, telecommunications, healthcare, utilities, and federal and state governments. Daryl has been a frequent presenter in online webinars and at learning conferences, including Learning Solutions, DevLearn, and TechKnowledge.
409 Using Design Systems for Scalable, Accessible, Cohesive eLearning Experiences
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, October 25
St. Thomas B
Can you count how many times eLearning developers on your team have re-created the same button? That time really adds up. You want to create high-quality custom solutions, but they tend to take up lots of time. You’ve adopted templates, but they just don’t cut it for all of your users’ needs. What if you could create custom, cohesive, accessible, and high-quality learning experiences in half the time?
In this session, you’ll learn how design systems will help your team build faster custom solutions and still maintain high-quality work. You’ll get to see examples of design systems, and discuss what to add into your design system and what to leave out. Next you’ll discover how to build and maintain your team’s design system. Finally, you’ll learn how to ensure your design system’s components are accessible for all of your learning projects.
In this session, you will learn:
- What a design system is, with examples, and how you can apply one on your team
- How design systems help you create scalable, accessible, cohesive learning experiences
- What to include and not include in your design system
- How to build and manage your own design system
- How to test your design system components for accessibility
Audience:
Designers, developers, and managers.
Technology discussed in this session:
HTML frameworks (Jekyll, Hugo, Bootstrap) and Adobe Muse.
Melissa Milloway
Sr. Learning Experience Designer
Amazon
Melissa Milloway is a senior instructional designer at Amazon, where she specializes in designing and developing digital learning experiences. She was selected as a “30 Under 30” learning leader for Elliott Masie’s Learning 2014 conference and is an avid blogger in the industry.
609 Game Jams for eLearning: Collaboration to Creation in 72 Hours
3:00 PM - 4:00 PM Thursday, October 25
Montego B
As gamified learning transforms the L&D field in positive ways, it also brings along the challenges of game development: design problems, feature creep, troublesome timeline estimation, and project crunch. Game developers often say, “Making games is hard.” This is an understatement. What if there were a fun way to learn how to manage these pitfalls by investing as little as a few days, prototyping innovative eLearning along the way?
During this session, you’ll learn how you can use the game jam approach to create eLearning. You’ll look at the experiences of participants in 2018’s Global Game Jam, the exciting games they created, and how they designed them. You’ll also explore what can be expected from this experimental, creative, and community-building process. At the end of this session, you’ll leave with a clear idea of how game jams work and how you can apply this style of development to creating engaging eLearning.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why game jams are a unique model for collaboration that can be used to generate ideas and solve design problems in L&D as well
- How you can implement this effective and fun strategy yourself
- How game jams foster new ways of rapidly prototyping designs that can lead to better learning experiences
- About development pitfalls to avoid that can lead teams astray from amazing products
Audience:
Designers, developers, and managers.
Technology discussed in this session:
Game examples from Global Game Jam 2018; general tools of game and eLearning development.
Ross Kerr
Instructional Designer
National Alliance on Mental Illness
Ross Kerr is an instructional designer for the National Alliance on Mental Illness, where he has rolled out online and blended learning experiences to support NAMI’s national grassroots community. Previously, he spent a decade working as a special educator and award-winning trainer in nonprofits.
716 BYOD: The Least You Need to Know About JavaScript
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, October 26
Trinidad AB
More and more eLearning developers are using JavaScript to create advanced learner interactions not available through traditional authoring software. JavaScript provides a level of flexibility, power, and interactivity that has empowered eLearning developers to create more dynamic and more maintainable learning. JavaScript is the engine—the secret sauce—behind all of digital learning. Learning to hand code can be empowering and even career-changing.
In this dynamic, hands-on session, you will learn about the fundamentals of JavaScript that can add power and interest to your content. You’ll see how you can use JavaScript to unlock the powerful world of xAPI. Other JavaScript-related technologies mentioned in this fast-paced session will lead you to coding efficiencies that have the potential to save you hours of work.
In this session, you will learn:
- The fundamentals of the JavaScript language
- How JavaScript applies to eLearning authoring
- Why JavaScript is so important for the future of digital learning
- About resources available for mastering the language so you can put it into practice
Audience:
Designers and developers.
Technology discussed in this session:
JavaScript.
Participant technology requirements:
Mac or PC with a text editor (Brackets is recommended—free at brackets.io) and a web browser (Chrome is recommended).
Mark Lassoff
Founder
Dollar Design School
Over two million people have learned coding and design from Mark Lassoff. Mark and his company are pioneers in new media learning, having created the first streaming media network dedicated to learning workforce and career skills. They produce broadcast-quality learning content that focuses on digital skills such as design, coding, and digital productivity. Mark is an in-demand speaker and has traveled the world to teach. He was named to the 40 under 40 in both Austin, Texas, and Hartford, CT. In 2017, Mark was awarded the prestigious Learning Guild Guild Master Award.