The world of work is rapidly changing. Technology is a driving force of these changes, and what workplaces look like in the future will be very different. Three primary drivers of these changes are increased automation, artificial intelligence, and robotics. But the future is difficult to predict, and it seems every person has a different opinion on how things are changing. But there’s one opinion that has yet to be heard—that of the robot itself.

In this fascinating opening keynote you’ll explore the changing nature of work through the mechanical eyes of one of the most well-known robots on the planet: Sophia. Sophia will share her perspectives on how robots will be intertwined in our everyday lives and the world of work. She’ll also be the personification of the future, using artificial intelligence to engage in a live interview as DevLearn’s first-ever robot keynote.

You’ve invested a lot of time and resources into your library of eLearning courses. They are good courses with sound instructional design, and yet usage is low. You’ve tried sending emails and posting notifications to the internal social media channels, but that only helped boost usage a little. You know more employees, partners, and customers could use the knowledge and skills held within these courses. So what do you try next? 

In this session, we will explore the value of structured and unstructured communities of practice and how they can increase digital content usage and support learning as a long-term process.

We know that training doesn’t always result in learning.  And training doesn’t guarantee improved performance on the job. But we also know that learning is a social and long-term process involving communities of all kinds. By connecting with communities of practice within your organization, you are exposed to the real world of learning. And more importantly, by engaging within those communities you gain valuable insights about the work being done. This in turn affords you the opportunity to promote just the right training content at just the right moments of need.

By putting some of your resources and attention towards communities you will naturally begin to understand your usage data. If certain courses have low usage, you may discover hidden reasons why those courses are no longer needed. Other courses may be low simply due to lack of awareness. Engaging with your users via communities not only promotes course usage but allows training departments to add value in new ways.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to define a community
• How to find your internal communities
• Community engagement techniques and strategies
• Why not all communities have a digital presence
• When it’s appropriate to create & manage training course communities

Making onboarding videos can be time-consuming and a drain on resources. Finding ways to explain complex ideas while also keeping your employees engaged makes creating training videos even harder. 

 In this session, you'll learn how easy it is for anybody to build an animated video from start to finish with Vyond's drag-and-drop video editor. We'll show you how to utilize the deep asset library, customizable templates, and other dynamic features to create engaging and professional animated videos that will save you time and resources.

In this session, you will learn:

• Techniques to engage your audience through animation
• The basic functions of the Vyond Studio platform to speed up your production
• Advanced features to scale your video creation

With the constant changing and evolution of technology, we need to understand what is possible and how to determine what is a fit for your audience. Join us for this in-depth look at what tools, design, and technologies we should focus on in learning today, and what’s just around the corner. We’ll dissect what technology will be enhancing learning, and what we need to get excited about and start planning how to integrate into our solutions. What can we learn from the buzz and new tools appearing in the consumer and corporate environments and how can we take advantage of them to help our audiences succeed? This fun session will give you dozens of ideas and reboot your brain with fresh perspectives on how to enhance your learning today.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design amazing experience for your learners
• How to improve content architecture, data design, and tagging to help your audience find the content they need
• How personalization of content can improve learning
• How gamification can fit best into your learning strategy
• What tools, apps, and open source elements to explore
• How to get started with a personal learning network
• Tools & apps to help improve brainstorming and creativity on your next project

A

s technology and the workforce shift how we get work done and the types of skills needed, talent development and learning organizations must also adapt. You need to be ready now to support the changes and needs of a multi-generational workforce, and the constant demands for new and enhanced skillsets. The best way to embrace this is to shift from a command and control approach to one that enables you to support learners and their needs by supplying guidance, tools, and flexibility. Just as all great managers and leaders do, we must coach our learners through a self-directed, continuous learning journey. 

How do you deal with five generations in the workforce, and their very different needs and expectations? How do you compete with the pace of change brought on through technological automation? How do you ensure your learners and your organization stay relevant?

Join MPS Interactive as we talk though practical ways to address the demands of our learning and work cultures today.  We will discuss the issues we’re facing, their impacts, and how we can adapt to stay relevant.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the workforce of the future, and how it is changing our learning and business requirements
• Practical tips on how to adapt your approach to providing learning to your organization
• Essential skills every learning organization can utilize
• What you can do now to embrace change and stay relevant

Technologies addressed:

Instructional designs focused on self-directed and facilitated learning (websites, apps, videos, microlearning, online courses, classroom and workshops, AR, VR, and more.)

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Articulate knows that eLearning pros don’t always have time to keep up with the latest features in the apps they use—and they want to know what’s new. Articulate 360 has everything eLearning developers need to simplify the course creation process. It includes award-winning authoring apps Storyline 360, and Rise 360, which make it easy to create courses that look great on any device; an ever-expanding library of 4.5+ million course assets; an easy-to-use project review app; and online training.

We’re adding new features and content continuously, and it’s all included with an Articulate 360 subscription. In this session, we’ll give you the scoop on all the latest features in Articulate 360 that we’ve added since DevLearn 2018. You’ll learn about all the latest new features and content in Storyline 360, Rise 360, Content Library 360, and Review 360.

In this session, you will:

• Learn about the new features we’ve added to Articulate 360 to help you create eLearning quickly and easily
• Explore examples that will help you learn how to use Articulate 360 features in your projects

Technologies discussed:

Articulate 360 apps, including Storyline 360, Rise 360, Content Library 360, and Review 360

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Each day we are exposed to multitudes of user interfaces (UI) in media, marketing, and design, all geared to grab our attention. Specific techniques are used to draw us to the next item, scroll down, click here/there, make that purchase, watch that video, or look at that picture. Adopting these techniques and implementing them into our eLearning designs can have a similar engaging impact on learners.

In this session, you will learn about current and future UI design trends from the web, marketing, and graphic designs. We'll examine what these trends are, why they are useful, where are they heading, and how they are being incorporated into instructional design projects. This will be of interest to anyone that is designing and developing instructional materials. You will understand the current trends in mainstream media, and how we can utilize this appeal to improve our own design processes. Together we will explore and see how these design elements can and have been used in eLearning development.

In this session, you will learn:

• Top design elements that are trending in web, marketing, and graphic design media
• Why these elements are important to users and designers
• How we can incorporate these design trends into our own projects
• Where to find examples, inspiration, and resources to incorporate into your own designs

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Storyline

As adoption of xAPI takes hold, it allows for more robust and interesting tracking of the learning process. As actual performance and results data are integrated with learning metrics, we will have the data we need to tailor the learning process to individual needs, and can draw more useful conclusions about the learning as a whole across a wider population. This leaves instructional designers with a set of critical questions: How does this impact my work? What tools do I need? What data should I track? What infrastructure does my organization need to be able to take advantage of this?

In this session we'll discuss three key areas that impact instructional designers and their teams: Identifying learning data needs, data sources, and meaningful visualizations that answer organizational and L&D questions. We'll discuss how to determine what data to send, where it exists, and how to organize it. You'll become better at making choices about infrastructure and knowing how to work with your LMS, LRS, or both. Finally, you'll be provided job aids for implementation, including an organizational readiness checklist and an infographic for aligning learning and business data.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to describe the impact that xAPI can have on an organization's learning and performance strategies 
• How to identify new challenges in your work as an instructional designer
• To identify data needs and likely sources within the organization
• How to choose one or more first projects that leverage xAPI's capabilities, beyond what's available in SCORM today
• How to select tools and platforms that support xAPI

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

xAPI, LRS, LMS, LXP, general elearning authoring tools

Shooting video according to the script is one thing, but what about when you can’t call "cut" and start over again? When there’s no fixing it in post? Or when participants are live online, as well as live in an ILT situation? How can we best leverage interactions cross-format? What technology and resources are needed to pull off livestream?

In this session, we'll explore several different models of livestreaming used for L&D purposes. Programming formats, platforms, getting the word out, and your individualized organizational needs will be addressed. We'll leverage lessons learned from the presenter's experience producing/hosting daily livestreams like "L&D Talk," weekly livestreams such as "TLDC's Video Friday," monthly livestreams with "YouTube Certified Online Partner Hangout," and livestreaming entire conferences and events. You'll learn how to keep your cool when everything goes wrong, and why this kind of content is becoming more familiar and important to our learners. We'll also look at some of the most common technologies and terms used for livestreaming in the modern age.

In this session, you will learn:

• What is important in your livestream, and what isn't
• The top 5 most common mistakes, and how to avoid them
• Technical setups that work
• Critical communications tactics
• Livestreaming strategies for ILT events and presentations

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Audio/video production, YouTube, Crowdcast, SlingStudio, RTMP, eCamm, OBS, vMix, ManyCam, Mevo / Livestream.com, LinkedIn Live, Facebook Live

Learning leaders are feeling pressure to embrace microlearning, both from operational leaders and from the employees they train. Learning leaders want to offer more shorter-form and on-demand content, but often they don't know where to start. They don't know the formats to use, the pros and cons of different mediums, and the relative cost of different approaches. Even more importantly, they don't know where microlearning can fit into their learning ecosystems or how to introduce it into their organizations.

In this session we will demystify microlearning. What is it, and what are some examples of how it is being used in the learning ecosystem? We'll identify the most common formats and mediums that are used, and help you to understand the relative effort (time and money) to develop each. We'll also discuss some change management approaches to aid you in successfully introducing microlearning with the three groups most impacted: your L&D team, employees, and operational leaders. You will leave this session with a clear vision for where microlearning can fit into your learning ecosystem, and practical ideas for how to get there.

In this session, you will learn:

•  Ways microlearning can be used in a learning ecosystem
• Common forms and mediums you can use in delivering microlearning
• The relative effort (time and money) needed for the different forms and mediums
• Change management approaches to successfully introduce microlearning in your organization

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

You've heard about xAPI, but wonder what comes next. Getting from this initial position of interest to having wide-spread organizational buy-in can be a huge challenge. It was for us! How do you justify taking resources away from creating and curating learning experiences to build something new and unproven? It can be a challenge to identify the first steps needed to start convincing stakeholders that the investment is worth it. Since xAPI is a complex solution, there is no road map that an organization can follow. We are all looking for the best ways to use project management strategies to leverage the resources that we have access to, so we can go beyond those first "wins" in the process of implementing xAPI.

In this session, we will explain how LLamasoft went from creating SCORM content to developing a learning ecosystem. Using low-cost resources, we created a proof-of-concept consisting of prototype, pilot, and implementation. We will talk about the steps that made this a reality, such as selecting a LRS, working with (and sometimes against) the code, and using learning analytics to tell the story of what we found. After giving our organization the ability to track video usage in our Help system (and more), xAPI became a no-brainer to stakeholders. We'll explore how real-life victories and setbacks shaped what we were able to achieve. You'll walk away prepared to establish a proof-of-concept xAPI project that drives internal and external value to your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• To find the resources to make xAPI work for you and/or your organization
• Product management principles and terms to gain organizational buy-in
• An incremental approach to develop xAPI competency
• How to use data and learning analytics to best tell the story to stakeholders

Audience:

Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

xAPI, video, LRS

It's been more than five years since we first heard about xAPI. As the specification is gaining momentum, so is the learning record store (LRS) that accompanies the xAPI. Since we finally have a clear understanding of what actor-verb-object can mean for our profession, it's essential to find the right LRS to give us clear insights. But what platforms are out there, and what are the pros and cons of those systems?

In this session, we'll explore the LRS market and discuss what platforms are worth investigating. We'll showcase several we have used over the past three years, and discuss the benefits of each system. We'll examine ease-of-use, pricing, set-up, visualization, and integrations so you can jump start your search for the system that best fits your needs.        

In this session, you will learn:

• What a learning record store is
• What the LRS landscape looks like
• Which LRSs are worth your time
• What LRS might fit your needs

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Yet Analytics, Watershed, Learning Locker, Veracity, SCORMCloud, Visual Catch, TRAX

Research shows that sales training positively impacts productivity, quality, and financial results. Still, sales enablement through training can be difficult. Every minute a salesperson is away from selling costs the company money. You need fast, effective, and impactful models to develop sales training that works.

In this session, you’ll learn about digital and analog games that have helped increase sales trainee engagement, sales knowledge, and most importantly, sales results. Learn how one organization converted a live classroom role-play into an online simulation, increasing sales by 12 percent at the medical device company. See an example of how a customized card game helped sales representatives embrace role-plays. Discover how a VR sales environment is tracking sales behaviors and providing critical decision-by-decision feedback in a game-based realistic situation. Learn how a board game helped pharmaceutical sales representatives learn how to conduct a “whole office call” using consultative selling techniques. Gain ideas and insights for your own sales enablement efforts. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How games can help sales professionals practice their skills
• How you can use games to teach complex systems to sales professionals
• About real world examples of the positive impact that sales simulations and games can have on a sales results
• Design principles that make sales-based learning interventions effective

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

The virtual reality landscape is shifting rapidly as the main barriers to implementation—cost and content—are lowered. Investing in VR for learning is on the verge of being very affordable, but do you need it? The answer to that question depends on what you're trying to teach, and an evaluation of your alternatives. Convincing your leadership to invest in virtual reality can be challenging unless you can speak to its impact on organizational outcomes. How do you know you're getting your learning bang for the buck?

In this session, we'll look at market forecasts for VR and discuss where the technology is now and where it's going. Then, we'll review case studies from the military, government, and educational sectors where virtual reality has not just worked, but proven to be worth the investment. You'll understand the resources required to implement virtual reality, how the barriers to entry are shifting, and what to look for on the horizon. You'll learn about situations in which VR has proven value; and just as importantly, when it has not. At the end of this session you should understand how to make the case for virtual reality in your organization's L&D strategy.

In this session, you will learn:

• About market trends in VR and how they apply to L&D
• How VR has made an impact in learning settings
• What to look for in the future of VR

Audience:

Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Virtual reality

Learning & development departments are at a crossroads. Staffs are stretched to the limit creating, vetting, evaluating, and maintaining content, programs, and curriculum, while looking forward to the future and trying out new things. No consistent or repeatable frameworks exist to test and review emerging technologies such as augmented reality, blockchain, IoT or voice, or AI.

In this session you will learn about the challenges facing L&D in regards to emerging technologies. You will be introduced to a new framework designed to close the gaps on testing these new tools out. You will see specific examples of how this framework can be applied to current emerging technologies, and be given guidance on how this framework can be used in your organization to advance your learning strategies.

In this session, you will learn:

• How emerging technologies and the rapid pace of change are altering your role as a learning leader
• What types of criteria can be used to evaluate new technologies
• How to apply a reusable framework for technology evaluation
• When the BUILDS framework can be used to help you evaluate the new technologies

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Augmented reality, blockchain, IoT or voice, virtual reality, AI

Let's face it, auto generated online certification has no real credibility, as you cannot guarantee if the owner of the certificate is the actual person who passed the course. Also, certificates can easily be reproduced by anyone with some Photoshop skills who has access to the template or a sample. Currently, facial recognition is the most popular biometric technology on the market. It combines high accuracy and high speed of operation. Biometrics is the only form of identification that truly identifies a person. Also called 1:1 comparison, authentication answers questions like: Are you the person you pretend to be? Are you in our database? And do you have the right credentials? In contrast to passwords, PINs, cards, and other forms of identifiers, biometric ID can't be lost, forgotten, or stolen.

In this session, attendees will learn how to implement a unique certification mechanism that combines facial recognition, encrypted data, and a validation date into a simple tag called the Bioseal, which can be compared to a barcode on a passport. Compared to other identification technologies, the likelihood of someone gaining access to personal information is significantly reduced. This solution has been implemented on a massive project with a target audience of 3 million across the globe. We will showcase the full conception and deployment of this project.  

In this session, you will learn:

• How to redefine online certification
• How easy it is to use our API to implement a similar approach
• To master the power of facial recognition
• How to use Storyline to generate the right statement
• How to transfer the data from your LRS to the Bioseal

Target audience:

 Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

Webservices for facial recognition, API, Storyline, proprietary app to decode the Bioseal

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:

Designers      

We are exposed to polished and professional content that we only wish we could recreate in a small- to medium-sized company. Hiring outside vendors to create videos, situational learning, and multimedia presentations is beyond the budget for many of us, and yet we recognize and understand the benefits of increasing employee and customer engagement through the leveraging of technology to supplement our online learning. If only we could find a way to do it ourselves…

In this session, we will explore ways of using affordable platforms and technology to create your own courses. You'll learn do-it-yourself solutions like acquiring your own video equipment, installing a platform that will let you grow and learn, justifying your training dollars with management, and building from what's already out there to make dynamic and engaging courses that your employees will be sure to remember. Plus, we'll talk about how to connect with local vendors, colleges, and schools to tap their knowledge and help support your own learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• Ways to expand your existing budget and justify new equipment/platforms
• How to overcome fear and resistance to learning new software platforms and technology
• Tips and tricks for leveraging your limited budget
• How to inexpensively leverage local resources, schools, vendors, etc.
• How a DIY approach is simultaneously affordable and wicked fun

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.), trainers, and educators

Technology discussed:

Trivantis software package (Lectora Inspire, Camtasia, Snagit), video equipment (camera, microphone, lighting, etc.)

Scenarios are wonderful tools for encouraging changes in performance. Once we see ourselves in a story and are invited to take on a challenge familiar to us, we become more open to evaluating our own behavior. But bringing a scenario to life takes more than simply describing a situation and slapping a name on the protagonist. Transforming seemingly mundane tasks into powerful stories is something with which even the most prolific and celebrated writers struggle. Writing scenarios for elearning is challenging because it requires communication and storytelling abilities that instructional design programs and certification programs do not teach. IDs are left to their own devices when creating immersive stories for learners that keep them engaged, and simultaneously addresses the performance we want to change.

This session will help you identify when scenarios are best used, and then how to write them. We'll cover getting the information you need from SMEs to write a meaningful story, using a scenario design model that will help ensure your scenarios include the appropriate components, using strategic storytelling techniques like focusing on change and encouraging empathy, and using a tool called the story spine as a way to quickly structure scenarios and find key points.

In this session, you will learn:

• The role of scenarios in creating authentic learning experiences
• Three strategic techniques of storytelling to an existing training scenario
• How common writing techniques used in scenario writing can affect the learning experience
• How to find tools to help you construct stories

Audience:

Designers      

Technology discussed:

Microsoft Office Tools, online writing tools, ispring talkmaster

Storyboarding and prototyping are more important than ever, but too often we're making do with substandard tools or skipping the process altogether because the tools don't make it easy. If only there were tools that would help! Have you heard of Adobe's free tool, XD? It's part of the Creative Cloud but you can download and use it for free, even if you don't subscribe.

In this session learn about Adobe XD, a prototyping tool that can be used in a number of ways, including storyboarding your lessons. You’ll learn how to quickly mock up your lesson and share them with your key stakeholders. Once approved, you can then use that prototype to create your lessons in your authoring tool. You’ll learn a proven, best practices approach you can apply to your next project.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to prototype in XD and share with key stakeholders easily
• To set up your XD slides to correspond to your authoring tool's slides or pages
• How to export your prototype element and import into your tool for faster development

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed in this session:

Adobe XD, Captivate

Augmented reality (AR) is an amazing new technology for us as consumers and as learning developers. Our ability to access AR from our mobile devices makes the barrier of entry low, however as developers, it can be overwhelming to know where to start. Understanding when to use AR, how to design quality AR experiences, and generating organizational buy-in are difficult hurdles to adoption. Getting started with this technology is easier than ever before; the challenge is doing it in a way that makes it a valuable and sustainable part of your learning and development world.

This session will examine how to begin including AR into your training and development process. We will discuss strategies to adoption and incorporation into your existing development workflow. You will be hands-on with user-friendly software and resources. You will create an AR experience to take and discuss as a group. This session is designed for all experience levels; providing everyone the opportunity to learn about, design, and develop augmented reality.

In this session, you will learn:

• The difference between augmented, mixed, and virtual reality
• AR adoption strategies for small, medium, and large organizations
• Where using AR makes sense in your learning and development process
• What software and resources are available for creating AR experiences
• How to plan, design, and build immersive AR experiences
• What you need to know about the future of the technology, and where to go from here

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Augmented reality, Zappar Studio, 3D modeling, Apple, Android, mobile devices, 360 imagery/videos, Unity 3D, Amazon Sumerian, HP Reveal

Participant technology requirements:

Laptop, mobile device

Many eLearning designers and developers need to teach systems. It can be quite labor and time intensive to teach face-to-face. Hiring a vendor to build system simulations is another option, but with its own challenges. Vendors have to learn your internal processes, your organization may not have a secure way of giving a non-employee access, and changes to your systems may lead to additional costs to have the vendor-built simulation content updated.

Learning how to create your own great looking screen recordings and tutorials in Articulate 360 can help address system training needs in easier, more cost-effective ways. In this hands-on BYOD session, you’ll practice recording and editing a system recording in Storyline, using the best practices Yukon Learning has been implementing and improving over the years with its customers. You’ll also briefly look at how Peek 360 and Replay 360 can be used for screen recording in an eLearning module.

In this session, you will learn:

• Tips for determining which Articulate tool is right for the need at hand
• How to perform a simple screen recording in Peek 360 or Replay 360
• Techniques for recording a system simulation using Storyline 3/360
• How to adjust the recording canvas in Storyline 3/360 to ensure the best quality recording possible
• Adjustment options for the different screen recording modes in Storyline 3/360
• Ways to use “Action Fine Tuning” to edit the slides

Audience:

Designers,  developers

Technology discussed:

Articulate 360

You need to train your team, but your employees say they hate training. Why? Because most corporate training is broken; it’s often long, boring, and passive—resulting in very low retention rates. Training in the form of reading, lectures, audio, or visual presentations only yields 5 –30% retention rates. That means that 70% of your efforts are being wasted.

A successful training program must be fun, short, mobile, and social. When trainers achieve this combo learners are more engaged, performance objectives are improved, and knowledge retention increases. How do you make this happen? With games!

In this session, we will demonstrate why game-based training is critical for engaging your employees and changing their behavior. Games are simply the best way to provide active training. We’ll show you examples of games across industries, and explain which game mechanics align with specific performance objectives. We will show you how to create games and how to build a gamification strategy that can be used for new-employee onboarding, sales and product training, leadership development, safety, security, compliance, systems and processes, customer service, and many other training topics. Once you create a game-based training strategy, your employees will be begging for more training!

In this session, you will learn:

• Why traditional training isn’t working anymore
• That training needs to be active to increase knowledge retention and change behavior
• That game-based training is the solution to making your training more active and engaging
• How game-based training can increase knowledge retention and change behavior when training soft skills
• Examples of game-based training
• How to create a game

Technology discussed:

The Training Arcade®

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Business, and the way we do it, is undergoing rapid evolution. But as technology marches onwards, budgets are shrinking, and the demand is on learning leaders to create learning strategies that deliver business value. But where do you start?

Forward-looking learning leaders understand that you can’t deliver tomorrow’s learning with yesterday’s technology—adaptation to new ways of working is not only the key to staying competitive, it’s essential to survival.

In this session Topher Olsen, accompanied by Fuse Universal’s Ray Cairnes, will address the importance of leveraging learning communities to empower and connect a distributed global workforce. They will explore the techniques Alliance Residential used when they realized their employees’ learning needs were evolving. Join this session to learn how; through a few simple steps you can do the same. 

In this session, you will learn:

• The innovative techniques Alliance Residential used to align their learning with their business goals
• How to prioritize and develop learning communities to empower your workforce
• How to incorporate approaches such as social learning to allow people to learn within the flow of their work

Technologies discussed:

Fuse Universal/ Alliance residential learning platform

Wait, before you issue that LxP RFP! All organizations need better tools to enable self-directed learning, optimize content discovery, and improve the overall learning experience. The rapidly-growing learning experience platform (LxP) category has emerged to achieve these aims by delivering functionality that learning management systems (LMSs) have long neglected. But with more and more shiny new products with bewildering feature sets entering the market by the day, buyers have been left asking “what exactly is an LxP?”

In this session, you’ll learn that it’s better to think of the LxP as an employee experience concept, not just another product. You might even already have everything you need to create an LxP, but just don’t know it yet. Through practical examples and case studies, we’ll show you how learning technology stacks can be connected effectively using APIs, AI-powered recommendations, and collaboration tools like Slack and Microsoft Teams. The result is a frictionless ecosystem that enables learners to get the right learning exactly when they need it.

In this session, you will learn:

• What an LxP really is and how to create one
• How you can use AI to create powered recommendations drive self-directed learning
• How to deliver learning in the flow of work using tools like Slack and Teams
• Why combining an AI engine with Teams or Slack is better than an LxP
• Why Filtered’s data indicates AI-powered recommendations, + Teams/Slack = LxP is an effective approach
• Why you should think twice before sending that RFP

Technologies discussed:

Microsoft Teams, Slack, LxPs and magpie (Filtered's recommendation engine)

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

The day-to-day problems concerned with creating eLearning courses are all too familiar for those in the industry. While authoring and LMS tools have improved significantly, it is still very difficult to scale video production. The advent of AI-driven tools for video and audio generation will allow companies to deliver better and more customized learning material at a much faster pace.

In this session you will learn how recent advancements in AI-driven content creation will impact the learning industry. The session will focus on how using AI to generate video and audio will significantly accelerate the content creation process and enable global, personalized, and interactive learning experiences. The session is focused on what is applicable today and will explore three problems present in the learning industry today: scaling production, personalizing the learning experience, and translating video content.

Today, creating large volumes of content for courses is a pain, as learning professionals must deal with location/studio problems, reshoots, scheduling issues, and the constant back and forth between clients. Learners today are used to personalized experiences. Standing out in the deluge of content they consume on a daily basis requires tailored communication; customers don’t want a generic, one-size-fits-all approach. Learning courses can be difficult to localize, which brings its own audience limitations. Language barriers, along with the sheer amount of content that needs creating, make it difficult and time-consuming to create great content.

Photoshop changed the image editing industry. A similar advancement awaits the video editing sector as it becomes easier to edit, translate, and even generate entirely new video in a similar manner as we do with photos today.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to utilize AI face mapping technology to translate video content without compromising on quality
• How photorealistic AI video avatars can enable on-demand learning without a full production team
• How to increase learner engagement rates through the use of AI
• How to localize video content and reach global audiences without impacting the bottom line
• How virtual presenters and coaches will enable much more interactive and engaging experiences
• How AI-generated video, audio, and text will enable new opportunities in the learning sector

Target audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technologies discussed:

Synthesia ENACT, Virtual Presenter

Bluewater has helped over 1,000 clients including ADP, United Airlines, and Frito Lays maximize their investments in HCM’s and LMS’s. As experts in the learning and training industry, their team has experimented with just about every digital training solution on the market. Yet, when they were looking for help keeping up with their own internal applications training on tools and processes, most fell short. Digital walkthrough solutions were bulky, labor intensive, and difficult to manage. LMS tools were great for storing tons of content, but terrible at surfacing that content at the point of engagement, within a user’s workflow.

With systems and processes changing on a daily basis, they needed something dynamic and flexible. They needed a way to surface answers instantly, directly within a users’ workflow, across applications. They needed just-in-time learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• What is just-in-time learning
• What separates just-in-time learning platforms from other solutions
• About the evolution of learning and enablement in the workplace, and the different ways Bryan and the Bluewater team tried to address the enablement challenge of frequently updating software and changing processes
• The benefits of just-in-time learning for applications training
• How to use microlearning to address frequent changes in technology and process, and to crowdsource knowledge
• How Bryan’s team implemented microlearning to deliver contextual knowledge at the point of engagement
• How any company can easily incorporate just-in-time learning into their existing training methodologies

Technologies discussed:

Salesforce and Spekit

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Developing content that is meaningful, accessible, and maintainable in a world of multiple devices and varied platforms is a huge challenge. 

Developing content that is meaningful, accessible, and maintainable in a world of multiple devices and varied platforms is a huge challenge. Responsive web design is the key, but to unlock its real power instructional designers need to differentiate between “true” responsive and many of the “pseudo-responsive” approaches in use today.

To be successful in a multi-device world, instructional designers need to let go of the control they’ve gotten used to with “slide-based” learning and embrace the idea that web-based learning doesn’t have to be so constrained.

This session will provide participants with a thorough understanding of the principles of responsive design and how to apply them to any type of learning—from traditional courses to knowledge bases and job aids. Recognizing the difference between true responsive design and other approaches equips designers with the knowledge they need to make more effective training that is easier to develop and maintain.

In this session, you will learn:

• The benefits of responsive design as applied to learning development
• The differences between true responsive design and other responsive design approaches
• Two simple but powerful metaphors to help you understand and apply true responsive design principles to all your learning development projects
• How true responsive design can benefit multiple types of learning development projects—from more traditional courses to other types of vehicles such as knowledge bases and job aids

Every year US companies spend more than $90 billion on training and development. Yet training managers continually feel pressure to do more with less—to achieve ever-more impactful results without corresponding increases to budgets. 

Fortunately, changing workforce dynamics have created new opportunities for L&D teams to identify what content, format, and delivery will best help their organizations’ employees learn and succeed.

We’ll investigate the top challenges training managers are dealing with, and how to optimize an internal video library to help relieve some pressure. We’ll also examine which training content and format types perform best, how to implement an “agile” approach to creating and modifying training videos, and how analytics can be the key to helping improve training content while providing ROI numbers to management.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which training formats perform best in a video library
• Agile approaches to training through a video library
• Using analytics to identify areas for improvement
• How to report ROI numbers to management
• Types of content that you may be overlooking

Target audience:

While working with some of the world’s largest organizations, we noticed a common problem. Companies need to create engaging, measurable learning experiences that delight learners AND deliver on a universal business goal: efficiency.

 That’s why we created Instilled.

 Our vision—and our answer to this emerging need—draws on nearly 20 years of experience providing learning consulting and technologies for authoring, delivery, and analytics. The Instilled LXP combines award-winning technologies—gomo Learning, Rustici Engine, and Watershed LRS—into one efficient learning experience platform.

Do you think it's possible for one provider to give you all you need when it comes to beautifully created and efficiently delivered learning experiences? With the perfect blend of technologies, the Instilled learning experience platform gives you everything you need—from beautiful authoring capabilities and integrated video recording to efficient delivery, social sharing, and analytics. In this session, attendees will find out how Instilled combines the power of gomo Learning, Rustici SCORM Engine, and Watershed into one platform to bring to market the world’s newest learning experience platform.

In this session, you will learn:

• To leverage creation tools like screen capture, video, user-generated content, auto-captioning, and translation to make your learning content scalable and enjoyable for learners
• How to deliver learning content that is searchable down to a spoken word, viewed through a YouTube like interface, shareable, and secure—and all seamlessly integrated with your LMS and/or third party content providers
• To use analytics to inform your learning decisions through leaderboards, dashboards, content heat maps, and with xAPI everywhere

Digital transformation is about tools and technology, but it is even more about a successful change management process within the organization. This journey needs to engage every contributor within the organization in order to foster and drive a mindset of agility, ownership, innovation, performance, and success. Gamification, and especially business simulations, can facilitate that process of engaging minds and souls to define your digital transformation strategy and roadmap, and execute it successfully.

In this session we will demonstrate and explore tools, best practices, and examples on how gamification and business simulations can help an organization to master that digital transformation process. Through the real-life experience gamification and especially simulations provide, you can identify the key focus area  for development and foster the desired behavior sustainably and measurably.

In this session you will see, touch, feel, experience, and explore gamification tools and techniques, games, and business simulations through the lens of examples, best practices, and case studies on how we have successfully accompanied organizations in their digital transformation journeys. We will show you how we used the principles of game design to foster the “right” mindset in the organization, starting with setting the right priorities and steps to deal with digital transformation and disruptions. 

A successful digital transformation journey starts with definitions, fostering knowledge and wisdom to assure that everyone is aligned behind the same definitions and understanding. So we will start there, and engage you in a conversation on how technology can help you drive that knowledge and understanding and tap into the collective intelligence and experience within your company. We then take you through the journey of creating a digital roadmap—which is unique for each organization but follows the same guided process—and show you key ideas and tools to work around the typical issues with a change management process. You will leave this session with inspiration, ideas, and insights on how you can make every contributor within your organization feel valued and recognized as a unique and important link in the value creation chain and engaged to transform processes for higher performance and sustainable growth. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to harness the power of game design and gamification to define and implement a digital strategy and roadmap successfully
• How other organizations have faced the challenges of digital transformation
• Why business simulations are such a powerful tool for organizational development
• How to define a successful change and organizational development process
• How your organization´s business model can stay relevant and agile in a digitally disrupted marketplace
• About tools, games, and best practices that are used in innovative learn design
• What digital transformation is all about anyway

Target audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.), anyone interested in gamification and digital transformation

Connected learning is a game-changer. It’s about taking a holistic, joined-up approach to learning that is more aligned with learning as an organic, human activity. In this session, we explore how it’s possible to support learning as an organic activity (not forced, but rather enabled) within your organization. We will show that by taking a step back to consider how people naturally learn, you can connect effective learning with organizational goals. You will also see examples of how learning ecosystems (however simple or complex) enable connected learning. It’s as much data-driven and iterative as it is about providing an engaging learner journey.

Ever feel like your eLearning happens in a vacuum? Disconnected? Yes we do, too! And so do many of our customers—even those who are quite advanced in the learning experiences they provide, their L&D strategies, and tech. In this session, we’ll explore how learning became disconnected and, more importantly, how to create truly connected learning that harnesses the power of social learning, data and measurement, and joined-up systems.

In this session, you will learn:

• How eLearning became disconnected
• How to connect learners by enabling social learning
• How your learning ecosystem (complex or simple) can enable a data-driven approach
• How to create a data-driven ecosystem

With the vast number of awesome features included in Adobe Captivate, it can quickly become overwhelming to identify which approach to take on a project. Should you utilize screen capture, program simulations, create a page-by-page presentation, maybe use videos and audio? Don’t get me started on activities and quizzes! And what about the new VR functionality Captivate offers?

In this session, we’ll explore the various features and affordances of Captivate, and how you can best select from them for your specific project needs. We’ll discuss the strengths and limitations of each, and why, when, and how each feature can be made most useful. Finally, we will walk through some common tips and tricks to exponentially increase your understanding of one of the most powerful eLearning authoring tools available.

In this session, you will learn:

• Potential use cases for various Captivate features
• An overview of various Captivate features to leverage in your projects
• To assess the pros and cons of specific Captivate features
• Tips and tricks to enhance your use of Captivate

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

Adobe Captivate

Choosing a new learning platform is a little bit like falling down a rabbit hole. With more than 700 platforms from which to choose, getting lost is easy. Why not learn from the soul-sucking experience of those who have traveled this journey before? 

In this session, you will learn 10 strategies for making the right choice the first time when it comes to an LMS. You will hear the story of how one non-profit took on the search for the perfect platform, and what they learned from their journey. You will learn from their mistakes and celebrate their success. Most of all, you will save yourself time and frustration by understanding how to make this process actually enjoyable. You will leave the session with concrete ways to make the correct decision the first time. This is an ideal session for those looking for a new LMS, or hoping to make a change to their current platform.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why we often ask the wrong questions when choosing a learning platform
• How to involve your constituents in the process
• How to base your choice in reality
• How to balance what you want with what you actually need
• The difference between a platform that can deliver content and one that can actually engage your learners
• Why asking the age of the learner is paramount
• The difference between mobile-ready platforms and truly responsive

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders, (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.), other LMS decision-makers

Technology discussed:

Learning management systems, learning platforms

The effectiveness of any eLearning experience is only as good as the instructional design put into it. But can instructional design alone make eLearning engaging and effective? The truth is, good eLearning design is more than just instructional design. An engaging eLearning experience uses visual design, graphic design, and user interface design to help elevate the instructional design and learning experience.

In this session, you'll learn how to use visual design to create engaging eLearning experiences. You'll explore how to use visual communication techniques to visualize your learning content and help your learners "see" what you're saying. Best of all, this session will focus on tips anyone can use, regardless of their current art or graphic design skills.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why visual design is difficult for most eLearning designers
• How visual design is an integral component of effective eLearning
• How to implement basic techniques to visually communicate your eLearning content
• How to combine visual design with animations to add meaning to static content

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

PowerPoint, Articulate Storyline, Adobe Illustrator

It's a common problem in learning organizations…not enough skilled instructional designers to go around. Building or enhancing instructional design skills quickly and cost-effectively can be a challenge for both small and large learning teams. At PwC learning & development, a recent organizational change found our digital design & development team with varying levels of instructional design skills, and a need to upskill those with little to no experience.

In this case study session, find out how we took a team with varying levels of instructional design skills and provided them with myriad ways to upskill and enhance their value in instructional design. You'll explore how the team tapped into its skilled instructional designers to create and curate learning assets with limited budget and time. You'll learn how you can do the same for your team. Learn how to create an instructional design upskilling plan, how to leverage reusable virtual classroom templates, and how to recognize whether your efforts are achieving the results you want.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to develop a plan for upskilling your team in instructional design
• Which techniques work best for upskilling in instructional design
• How to coach staff members through the learning curve
• How to determine if your upskilling plan is working 

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Supporting the diverse learning needs of an organization where time is money can be challenging. The goal of most learning organizations is to drive content and "foot traffic" into their LMS. Today, gains in technology offer more efficient methods to complete tasks. Corporate learning organizations need to examine their goals and determine the best way to support employees in an era of shorter duration learning content, mobile-friendly options, and a workforce that takes ownership for their own learning. During this session, participants will follow one company's journey from LMS to LXP. Topics covered will include the process of finding, implementing, and launching a learning experience platform.

In this session, you will learn how to evaluate LMS/LXP options, what to include in your RFP, and things to look for when evaluating RFP responses. You’ll learn tips for setting up a solid project team structure, and how to communicate with internal and external stakeholders during implementation. Finally, you’ll learn how to make the switch and manage the change from a traditional LMS to a LXP.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to evaluate the need for a new learning platform
• What to include in your RFP, and things to look for when valuating responses from vendors
• Suggested ideas for creating and communicating with a project team
• Tips for managing the change from LMS to LXP

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed in this session:

Learning Experience Platform (LXP)

You've attended a great eLearning conference, read some amazing articles, and participated in some inspiring webinars. You're bursting with ideas to invigorate your team's eLearning offerings, but how do you persuade your department or client to share your vision? It's seldom enough to simply tell what you've learned and describe the possibilities. A successful pitch will show how your idea will come to life and improve eLearning performance. With both time and money at a premium, developing a successful pitch, especially one that includes a POC, can be difficult. But by investing in the effort and correctly framing your pitch with a clear "hook," you'll increase your chance of success.

In this session we’ll explore the benefits of developing proactive, creative pitches that showcase you and your team as forward-thinking, innovative leaders eager to keep abreast of emerging trends. Using recent examples and strategies from RPA, this session will show how investing time and effort in your pitch process will increase your chances of success. This session will also examine how pitches that may not win will still increase your standing and showcase your team. Finally, this session will provide specific strategies designed to help your teams develop new creative pitches and effective client presentations.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why a proactive approach to creative pitch development helps establish you and your team as forward-thinking, innovative leaders
• How a proactive approach to emerging technology and eLearning trends helps circumvent the pitfalls of reactive development
• How to maximize POCs to increase your pitch's chance of success
• The benefits of pitching proactive creative concepts, even when those pitches don't win
• Specific strategies to help your team develop new creative concepts and effective pitch presentations

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed in this session:

Augmented reality, virtual reality, chat bots, gamified simulations

As eLearning professionals, we know gamification helps make learning fun and engaging. It can be a challenge to find the right authoring tool to maximize gamification, while meeting your institutional needs of flexibility, quality, experience, and price. Look no further—the world of video game development has new authoring tools that eLearning professionals can adopt for amazing gamified learning creation.

In this session you’ll explore how Phaser 3, a free game building engine, can create engaging HTML5-based eLearning games and applications through this newly-improved, open-source framework. Join GameTheory Co. and the International Youth Foundation (IYF) to learn why they turned to this tool when developing an online soft skills training for young people. Learn the benefits Phaser 3 offers eLearning experts and developers as they strive to create better products, expand reach, and push creative boundaries in pursuit of meeting the needs of their users. This session will explore the pros and cons of Phaser 3 and give attendees a crash course in its use and special attributes using IYF's new game-based course, Passport to Success Online, as a case study.  

In this session, you will learn:

• About Phaser 3's unique abilities, brought to life by a compelling case study of its usage
• The basics functions of Phaser 3, and how game design toolkits can be used to develop highly interactive,  creative, and low bandwidth-friendly courses
• Which insights into the creative opportunities are available to innovative designers and developers through game design authoring tools
• How to integrate this open-source authoring tool into your existing development processes, and hear about its community of practice

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Phaser 3, Cornerstone OnDemand

One of the most sought after uses of artificial intelligence is a system that can continually assess learners and recommend the right content at the right time, adapting with them as they progress. While this description of a recommendation system sounds simple from a user standpoint, it is extremely complex in practicality.

In this session you will discover what a recommender system is, and what it requires. You will walk through the process of building such a system, diving deep into the critical milestones that must be addressed. Attending this session will provide you with an end-to-end case study detailing what it takes to create a useful, AI-based system.

In this session, you will learn:

• How AI recommendation systems work
• The sorts of data AI recommendation systems require
• How to collect, organize, and manage enough of the right kinds of data
• Pitfalls and possibilities of complex AI systems
• How to approach ambitious AI projects, whether external or internal, in your organization
• How to ask if AI is really necessary

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Many L&D organizations are struggling with how to evaluate virtual and other immersive technologies for their learning and training initiatives. Options abound, and with a lot of pressure on corporate training organizations to include VR in their training, today's learning leaders need help in choosing the right solution. A successful evaluation process includes: 1) understanding of how to establish organizational and learner needs criteria to evaluate the immersive technology options, 2) knowing the strengths of the different approaches from both a cognitive science and technical perspective, and 3) recognizing the impacts of how the technology is brought into the organization. The best way to illustrate this process is through hands-on examples in diverse learning situations.

In this session, you'll learn how to evaluate immersive technologies to super-charge your learning and training initiatives. The session will be an unvarnished look at where these technologies are today and what we can do with them. Rather than a didactic lecture, we'll dive into specific learning and training examples and consider when 2D/3D simulations, VR, AR, and virtual game technology are a good fit. A useful evaluation framework will be utilized to evaluate each example. This framework includes organizational and/or learner needs, supporting cognitive science principles, and the strengths of the various technology options. Finally, we'll discuss options to bring the technology into your organization, including build-your-own, a custom project, and incorporating platform technologies.  

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use organizational and/or learner needs to evaluate alignment of immersive learning technologies
• The strengths of 2D/3D simulation, VR, AR, and virtual game technology  
• Why cognitive science learning methodologies impact technology decisions
• How to navigate implementation options, including build-your-own, custom builds, and technology platforms 

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

2D and 3D simulations, VR/AR technologies, virtual game technologies, virtual options for mobile devices   

If they're going to work in a virtual classroom, your traditional learning methodologies need a makeover. A virtual session is more than lecture and uploaded PowerPoints. Unique techniques must be used to engage learners throughout the session. A common pitfall is to focus on the technology and forget about the design—often resulting in unengaging sessions focused on using the tools and not meeting the needs of the learners.

This session will explore the six key principles of successfully designing for any virtual classroom platform. The principles of feedback, equipment functionality, instructions, scripting, visual and verbal cues, and time management provide a blueprint for adapting traditional classroom methodologies for live, online instruction. Learn best practices gained from over 20 years' experience designing, developing, facilitating, and producing online events. Whether you want to simply improve facilitated online meetings, enhance a few classes by adding online follow-up webinars, or completely transform a full curriculum, these principles will provide the guidance you need to create successful live, online learning experiences.

In this session, you will learn:

• The six guiding principles of virtual classroom design
• The benefits and limitations of common virtual classroom tools, including how to compare functionality, speed of set up, and ease of use.
• How technology, timing, and talent (the "three Ts") affect design outcomes
• How to design interactions for your chosen virtual classroom platform
• A strategy for implementing design and delivery best practices within your organization

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers   

Technology discussed:

Adobe Connect, WebEx Meeting and Training Center, Zoom, GoTo Meeting and Webinar, Skype for Business

The two goals of any training program are to teach employees new information and then to enable them to transfer their new knowledge into their workplace. But learning transfer is a complex process, and most trainers do not understand the simple steps that they can take to ensure that knowledge transfers from the computer where it is learned to the workplace where it is needed.

To improve retention and transfer, you need to systematically reinforce training. In this session, you’ll learn of four brain-based techniques that Google is using to overcome the forgetting curve and create sustainable behavior change. These techniques include booster quizzing, social elaboration, strategic coaching, and depth of processing. You’ll see how you can easily incorporate these techniques into training programs and dramatically improve learning and retention.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to deploy a systematic program after training that dramatically increases retention and transfer
• How eLearning training can be customized to increase learning transfer
• How pre-tests, such as measuring an employee’s “readiness for change,” can lead to a much higher rate of learning transfer
• About three myths that interfere with successful transfer of learning
• Strategies to encourage executive buy-in on programs that promote learning transfer

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.).

Technology discussed:

Post-training reinforcement and social media

Imagine you're about to build a house with all the bells and whistles. Now imagine building this house without a set of blueprints. Would your contractors know what to build, and where? Would the city be able to approve any additions or modifications you want to make? Like the blueprint for a house, your eLearning storyboard outlines everything about the training you're creating. This same concept applies to eLearning and training as a whole. It's important to create a storyboard that can be easily understood by everyone in the project process, so all are "in the know" on what the final product will look like.

In this session, you will discover the four basic steps of storyboard creation. This includes choosing a storyboard format, identifying storyboard components, creating a method for timing, and incorporating mock-ups and templates. You will also identify the components unique to your style of training, which can then be used to customize the storyboard you create. Last but not least, you will receive support and guidance on the storyboard you're developing throughout the session to ensure you have a solid base to work from when the session is over. This session is meant to give you the tools you need to start using the storyboard blueprint you create when the session is over.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a framework for your storyboard based on the elements you determined during the session
• How to develop a plan for presenting the storyboard to your team in order to implement a strategy to use the storyboard moving forward
• New ways to organize, format, and present content that can be immediately utilized in your own projects
• How to identify the specific elements needed to create your own storyboarding blueprint

Audience:

Designers, developers 

Technology discussed:

Microsoft Word

Creating an exciting experience in the VR headset is only part of the solution. How do you ensure that it’s instructionally effective? The ability to produce artificial environments that are believable enables us to produce an authentic context well beyond anything we’ve ever achieved in eLearning. We can produce fully immersive experiences that feel like real life, both in the environment the user experiences and the tasks that they must perform. With an effective ID framework, we can elevate human performance to produce true behavioral change. These aspirations are vitally important in subject matter that requires human interaction, empathy, and decision-making–topics such as sexual harassment, customer service, and negotiations, to name a few. These solutions are possible through a balanced application of instructional design and game design.

In this session, you will gain an understanding of the instructional and game design principles that work in a VR environment. The ID framework includes: challenges, activity, reflection, feedback, etc. to ensure the outcomes are achieved. Game design encourages inter-competition, a motivation to do better, the ability to safely fail and repeat, a clear objective, and the ability to succeed. The elements of effective game design—engaging, immersive, motivational, rewarding, and even fun—are the essential elements of VR. New techniques using immersive context, six-degree mobility, branching, time, and even stress can be combined in believable ways. You’ll learn how to create scenarios and activities that leverage the full 3D world within VR. You’ll leave this session with an instructional framework that was specifically crafted to leverage the potential of VR.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design an instructionally-effective VR experience
• What interactive techniques are effective in VR
• What limitations of VR prevent learning
• How to identify best and worst practices in VR design
• How to produce an instructional model, scripts, and storyboards
• How to mix VR with other instructional modalities for a blended solution

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

VR headsets (Oculus, VIVE, others), VR examples, scripting tools

What's the best eLearning authoring tool out there? That's a lot like asking, "What's the best car on the road?" The answer can be very subjective, and in the end it's based on what matters most to you. Identifying key features and characteristics that differentiate tools—such as price, ease of use, interactivity, accessibility, and mobile compatibility—can help you can make the best choice to meet your needs.

In this session you’ll gain perspective on how popular eLearning authoring tools Storyline and Captivate stack up in these categories. Take a quick, under-the-hood look at both tools to get a sense of what it's like to work with them. You’ll learn some of the finer points around supporting responsive design, accessibility, and how they compare for specific use cases, such as systems training. You’ll leave this session ready to make better, more informed decisions.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key distinguishing characteristics of two popular eLearning authoring tools
• How the tools differ in terms of learning curve and ease-of-use
• How they differ in terms of pricing models
• How they differ in terms of media and interactivity
• How the two tools differ in other ways, such as mobile, accessibility, and systems training

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate

Bootstrap Studio is a fantastic tool that allows rapid development and prototyping of your applications and web content. Built on top of the well-known Bootstrap framework, Bootstrap Studio comes with many built-in components that you can drag-and-drop to assemble responsive HTML5 code for your hybrid app. Bootstrap Studio has many ready-to-use templates, allows real-time preview for different device configurations, and exports clean, semantic HTML5.

In this hands-on session, you’ll learn how leverage Bootstrap Studio to rapidly develop responsive HTML5 apps that look great across various browsers and mobile devices. We’ll explore the implications for responsive design, and you’ll learn some key basics around multi-column layout, HTML classes, divs, and containers. You’ll leave with a solid foundation to begin your development process.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create responsive applications using Bootstrap Studio
• What responsive design means
• The basics of multi-column layout
• About HTML classes, divs, and containers
• How to quickly develop responsive content

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

HTML5, Bootstrap framework, browsers, mobile, responsive layout

Participant technology requirements:

Participants should bring a laptop with internet connection, loaded with Bootstrap Studio.  Participants can use the free "Run Browser Demo" on the Bootstrap Studio website (https://bootstrapstudio.io/) to experiment with the tool without having to download the app or purchase the affordable lifetime license.

As organizations integrate mobile as a learning platform, many designers and developers face the challenge of making content available on a variety of devices, with or without a consistent internet connection. Additionally, the workforce has an expectation that mobile experiences will be accessible, practical, and immediately applicable.

In this hands-on session, you will practice the steps to create your own mobile project as an interactive eBook. You will learn basic content formatting for multiple devices, learn about the types of media that you can include, and learn about the variety of development tools available. In addition to covering various resources, you will walk through a basic workflow to develop a project with a few simple media types to an EPUB format, and you'll make that file available to download directly to mobile devices.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create content in an interactive, mobile-friendly format
• How to improve the quality of performance support materials by adding appropriate media
• How to quickly deploy simple, effective, multi-screen mobile learning solutions in your organization
• How to create native mobile content to support users who may not have consistent internet access

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Sigil, iBooks Author, InDesign, iBooks, Kobo, Kindle, Overdrive, mp4, mp3, mobile, HTML5, JavaScript

Participant technology requirements:

Laptop with Sigil loaded: https://github.com/Sigil-Ebook/Sigil/releases/tag/0.9.10, and a mobile device

The novelty of online education has faded and thousands of weekly logins and views don’t measure up to today’s expectations. If you truly want your eLearning content to stand out, it must focus on developing the most critical skill sets of your employees and customers.

In this session, you will learn how to design your training strategy around skill set development with a focus on dynamically delivering the most necessary, just-in-time training to each individual. We will explore the benefits of pre- and post-assessments and the value of global measurement data tied directly to your employees’ skill sets and where they rank amongst their industry peers. Personalize your training program, elevate content effectiveness, and increase adoption with less effort.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of tday's skill set economy
• How to implement a skills-based learning program at your organization
• The value of properly constructed pre- and post-assessments
• How to make skill sets the reward the drives eLearning adoption
• How skill set development can put you on the path to eLearning AI
• About traditional assessment tools and how they apply to today's digital learning

Technologies discussed:

Survey and assessment authoring tools such as Typeform, SurveyMonkey, and Knowledge Pilot

Target audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

In the field of eLearning, designers and developers are often expected to be pocket knives capable of a range of creative skills and course development methodologies. That can sometimes make approaching new techniques and technology tough, but sometimes we know more than we think and just starting is the biggest hurdle.

In this session, participants will walk through simple quick-start steps of a new animation project in After Effects that will make animation a viable option in your eLearning. It will demonstrate how you likely have skills in your toolbelt already that can help. 

In this session, you will learn:

• Animation principles such as timing, spacing, and in-betweens
• Efficiency techniques for animation, pre-to post-production
• Best practices for designing in Illustrator to import and animate in After Effects
• Use cases for animating objects imported from Illustrator or drawn natively in After Effects
• Tips for designing and organizing animation for optimal editability

Audience:

Developers    

Technology discussed:

iPad, Adobe Draw, After Effects, Illustrator, Audition, Storyline 360

Many of us would say that measuring the success of L&D is the hardest part of our job. And with new advances in learning technology, more data is available to us than ever before. But once you have this data, what do you do with it? How do you make sure what you're measuring is useful? How do you interpret it and present it so your audience cares? There is a whole new set of skills for your team to develop to be able to do this well. By spending time improving the data skills within your L&D team, you will become better partners to the business, make more informed decisions about your work, and open up high-impact, high-value conversations across your team.

In this session, you will learn how to identify the gaps in your L&D team's data fluency so that you can implement knowledge, skills, and environmental solutions to close them. I'll share some examples of resources we've created at HubSpot, content we've curated, and messaging we've provided across our department to be able to close this gap in our own organization. After you leave, you'll have what you need to create data-centric culture within your own team.

In this session, you will learn:

• The benefits of increasing data fluency for the L&D function
• How to identify current gaps in data fluency for your L&D team
• How to create the right culture for data fluency to thrive within the L&D team
• Examples of resources, content, and messaging to launch a data fluency initiative
• How to measure success of your data fluency initiative 

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

LRS

Even though opening a can of worms is better than kicking a bag of snakes or a hornet's nest, we nearly sank the ship chasing all of our worms! Join us as we dive into the mucky waters and wade through the deep mud of LMS migrations with this case study. As a SaaS provider, not only did we need to find a solution that worked for our team and our existing clients, but we also needed to have a solution that baited new clients as well. It wasn't easy!

In this session, we will open a tacklebox of tips that will help prepare you for your own platform migration. We'll cast a net out over the selection and migration process so that you don't feel like a fish out of water when it comes time to cast your own line. You'll prep your lures and outline your expedition plans during the session. We'll guide you through each step— you won't get swamped with the details. We'll have a whale of a time sharing our lessons learned. Come hear our tale of the Big Catch that almost wasn't!

In this session, you will learn:

• The steps our team took to conduct a needs analysis for a platform migration
• Questions we asked (and didn't) when working with vendors
• Insights on the negotiation process
• The steps we took in data migration and how data was impacted
• How our team handled client concerns and frustrations throughout the migration
• How we took an out-of-the box solution and made it our own

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.), LMS administrators

Technology discussed:

Moodle LMS, Bridge LMS

Are you struggling with scaling your training and development?  Are you frustrated with managing different tools to deliver your training programs?  Find out how VMware implemented a solution that helped scale training efforts and create a seamless learning environment.

VMware had an ever-growing solution catalog, customer, and business partner base, and the need to scale training to meet the growing demand became paramount. VMware built its large user base by delivering ILT; from 5-day courses, to home grown, hands-on lab environments and certifications. As VMware expanded into cloud-based solutions, it needed a training offering that met the needs of its growing user base. The solution needed to be a cloud-based learning tool that delivered on-demand content at scale and delivered multiple methods to create a connected and engaging learning experience. Hear more about the journey and the solution that met the company’s standards and helped grow its user base. 

In this case study, discover how VMware has grown its customer education beyond delivering ILTs to create a connected learning environment. VMware’s training and development strategy now includes microlearning, online courses, ILTs, hands-on labs, exam preparation for certification, learning communities, and an opportunity for learners to grow and become members of the company’s SME community. VMware took a methodical, phased approach that has helped in increasing the product adoption and increased certifications. We will discuss VMware’s journey from disparate systems to a fully connected learning environment. We’ll also share what’s next in VMware’s efforts to create the best learning experiences for their customers.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to think differently about your approach to training
• The benefits of a connected learning environment
• What issues led VMware to decide on building a connected learning environment
• How VMware successfully brought training, learning, and communities together
• What’s next for VMware inits training and development journey

It’s widely accepted that human attention spans are getting shorter. But a recent survey suggests the ability to maintain focus has actually improved over time; today’s learners are just more selective about where they devote their attention. More than ever, it’s important for eLearning designers to capture learner interest and keep them engaged.

This session will debunk a widely-held belief about the attention span of today’s learners. You will explore a blended microlearning approach modeled after the steps musicians take to learn new music, and see examples of how to meet five best practices for mobile microlearning design.

In this session, you will learn:

• What research tells us about the attention spans of today’s learners
• Five best practices for mobile microlearning design
• A novel blended microlearning model for engaging learners

Target audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders

We often get stuck using the same patterns of delivery, without thinking about if it is helping our audience or if it’s the best fit for a challenge. Designing great user experiences for your learners is critical to the success of how they engage, utilize content, tools, and focus on the task at hand. This session will break down what's essential in designing great experiences, and provide you with resources to get you started and inspired—from mobile to desktop and beyond. We'll discuss design strategies, what works and what doesn’t, how to plan & prototype, and demonstrate several examples for inspiration. You'll get several resources for taking your experiences to the next level and helping your organization jump forward.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use Adobe XD to get started in creating your next prototype
• Why Adobe XD provides a simple UI to create, test, and gather feedback on concepts
• How to prototype and share with your audience or team
• How to take advantage of Adobe XD resources, templates, and plug-ins
• 3 ways to improve your designs

The typical learning experience requires accessing content from disparate sources—leading to a frustrating learner journey and potentially negatively impacting learners’ success. Additionally, users typically have questions during the learning experience and might need to engage with other learners, SMEs, or instructors at the time of content consumption.  

This session will address how organizations can help learners gain knowledge suited to their own unique style and process. The core content of a course is rarely enough to reach all learners due to unique learning styles, so by presenting additional resources and collaboration, you are able to fill the gaps for a more successful learner experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How tools help bridge the gaps in geography and language
• How to create unique spaces for each topic, course, or area of collaboration
• How to pull in resources from anywhere, anytime to supply the best learner experiences for the topic
• How to create a mobile experience to learn anywhere
• How to use video for microlearning, programs, and collaboration during consumption

It is always a tough decision … choose a product off-the-shelf and try to make it work or go directly at your problems with a custom build. Many factors come into play including time-to-market, up-front cost, and obviously features. While there are certainly cases to choose the pre-built system, the perceived simplicity of that solution is often a myth.

This discussion will focus on a comparison of each side, and a set of stories which some of you will find all too familiar. We will discuss benefits, challenges, time, and cost from both a short- and long-term perspective. Throughout the presentation, attendees will participate in exercises to help drive the conversation. Bring your phone!

In this session, you will learn:

• The challenges in choosing an LMS
• How to compare an off-the-shelf with a custom LMS
• Challenges others have experienced

Research shows that personalization increases learner engagement, however many organizations struggle to provide personalized learning. Why? Because without the right content strategy, it's tough to personalize at scale. This session will explore some simple things you can do right now to go beyond one-size-fits-all solutions that won't end up overwhelming your team.

In this session you will learn about key content management strategies and straight-forward design approaches that can be applied to the tools your teams are already using.

In this session, you will learn:

• Common challenges associated with developing, delivering, and maintaining content at scale
• How targeted, chunked, and consistent content is the foundation of truly personalized content
• How to evaluate your existing content for ease of personalization
• Techniques to create targeted, chunked, and consistent content
• How technology can help your teams and content scale effectively
• The key differences between an LMS, LCMS, LRS, and LXP, and how they fit together

Target audience:

Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Electronic accessibility is increasingly important in digital learning, but it can be challenging to achieve in many eLearning authoring programs. There are myriad rules one must know and follow; different programs have different capabilities, including which browsers, devices, and assistive technologies offer the best and most reliable results; more development time is inevitably required, especially if accessibility is treated as an afterthought and not an integral component; and it's not uncommon to find a disconnect between purported performance and tangible, tested reality. What are development teams to do?

In this session, you’ll learn more about The University of California’s publicly available check list and guide to help instructional designers maximize accessibility within self-published eCourses, and prepare a pre-launch accommodation strategy. The guide includes specific Storyline 3/360 guidance that will assist you in developing programs and will serve as an illustration of how these guidelines could be applied through similar features in other authoring tools. We’ll review these guidelines, explore examples of how they can be efficiently enacted in Storyline 3/360, and discuss the equivalent lessons for development in other authoring programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to maximize accessibility in self-published eCourses
• How to efficiently incorporate accessibility into your development workflow
• How to prepare alternative accommodation strategies
• Why it's advantageous to prepare your accommodation strategy during initial development
• How to adapt to and blend best practices and program capabilities
• How to work around bugs
• How to test eCourses with a screen reader and other assistive technologies

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Storyline 3/360, Captivate, JAWS, NVDA

Good courseware engages the user with multiple elements. From video to audio to the venerable drag-and-drop, you need to make sure your content is doing the job. But is your audience actually learning anything? More importantly, are they learning the lessons you need them to? And if they are, do you have the tools to prove that to your leadership?

In this session we will look at how you can use Experience API (xAPI) to capture data from the various elements of your content into a single, uniform format in the learning record store (LRS). Then, by looking at real-world example pages, you'll learn how you can start analyzing results to see which activities contribute most to learner success in the course. You'll also look at how you can compare key performance indicators (KPIs) to course engagement and success to show your leadership that your content is helping to improve performance, satisfaction, or whatever your goals may be. With this data in hand, you can craft your courses to ensure that they accomplish their goals and make the bosses happy.

In this session, you will learn:

• What xAPI is and how you can use it in your courses
• How to collect data on student interactions with your content
• How to report on the data you've collected
• How to use xAPI to compare content consumption to performance
• How to combine data to ensure that your activities are meeting their goals

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Experience API (xAPI) or Tin Can API, JavaScript, HTML5, Learning Record Stores (LRS)

Most trainers today make video, but many have not had the opportunity to learn key principles for making video engaging because it's usually not taught in train-the-trainer classes or adult learning programs. It's the stuff usually taught at film schools.

In this session, you’ll learn key principles of effective video and how to use them to facilitate learning. It will be like film school for trainers; exploring how to use pictures to convey learning, how to frame shots, how to cut them together so they're smooth, how to use a camera so shots looks professional, how to make shots interesting (especially software training videos), and finally, how to add effects sparingly to give them extra polish.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key elements of video communication
• How to frame shots so they draw the eye of learners
• How to structure content so it's engaging
• How to produce content so it looks professional
• When video will and will not support learning.

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Whether you're a learning professional or a marketer, you're competing for the same thing: attention. Without it, you can't get people to think and act and perform in new ways. There's one big difference, though. Marketers have been much more successful. Savvy marketers understand that tapping into the psychology of emotions sparks engagement in today's hyper-distracted world. That's a mindset learning professionals need now more than ever before.

In this session, you’ll learn about ways of creating multi-touch point blended learning solutions leveraging a variety of proven marketing techniques. We will give you tools to create "human" and personable content that you can deliver at the right time, to the right audience, with the help of learner personas. Building on the concept of content strategy, you will learn about learning campaigns and how these can help you deliver outstanding blended learning experiences.

In this session, you will learn:

• How marketers appeal to emotions to change behavior
• About the importance of a content strategy for blended learning solutions
• How to create "human" and personable content that resonates with all your learners
• How to create multi-touch point blended learning solutions using campaigns

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Canva, Adobe Spark, Mailchimp

Whether your job title is instructional designer, learning experience designer, or trainer, the career path forward (and upwards) may not always be clear cut.  There are often critical moments that can shape one’s career. Understanding how to recognize these moments, and the context of the questions and answers that shape your decisions, can make a huge difference in your career.

In this panel, we will have an intimate conversation with several learning executives from diverse industries to learn about how they have navigated their careers.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to plan and make decisions to advance your career from learning professional to leader
• Which skills are most important to your success as a learning leader
• The importance of personal brand in your long-term career success

Audience:

Designers, designers, managers

Once upon a time, training was measured in seat time and the ISD community saw that this was bad. After great debates and much consternation, seat time was replaced with learning objectives and cognitive task analysis, and the ISD community pronounced that this was good. But is it? The result is that learning programs—in both education and training—are assessed on knowledge to be learned rather than what is needed on the first day on the job. As an example, people learning cybersecurity are tested on their knowledge but not on their ability to innovate and apply the knowledge, or on the "weaponized attitude" that they need to be successful.

In this session we will explore the concept of a competency framework and how it can be applied to define the "real" outcomes for a training program. We will show how data collected from the workplace. as well as training sources, can reference such frameworks and be used to analyze the efficacy of the training against authentic measures. Attendees will learn how to conceptualize and operationalize the competency-based workplace, and how to develop practice-based competency frameworks.

In this session, you will learn:

• The difference between learning objectives and competencies
• The goals and underlying philosophy of a competency-based workplace
• How to develop competency frameworks from practitioner knowledge
• What instrumentation is needed to implement a competency-based workplace
• The role of xAPI and methods for transforming xAPI data into competency assertions

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed:

xAPI, Moodle, checklist apps, CaSS

When it comes to creating gamified or game-based learning experiences, most practitioners throw game mechanics at a program without a methodology or rational strategy. They assume that what is fun for them will be fun for their participants. The result is hit-or-miss. When budgets and time are in short supply, organizations cannot afford such an approach.

In this session you will learn a practical approach to determining which game mechanics will motivate a targeted audience. You will learn how an empirically-based taxonomy of core human desires predicts what will be "fun" for specific participants, why some people like competition while others prefer quiet concentration, and still others enjoy letting it all ride on black. Rather than trying to force everyone to play, you create experiences they want engage with.

In this session, you will learn:

• A deliberate approach to apply game mechanics
• How the 16 Core Desires determine "fun"
• Which game mechanics "trigger" the Core Desires
• An overview of the first empirically-based taxonomy of human core desires
• A strategy for creating learner personas

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Oftentimes we present the learner with content they need to use for a job within the classroom setting. This may work for some, but others may forget what they have learned once they are on the job. Why not access what the learner is seeing in the moment and provide additional context or information that would enable them in the moment? End users may have to wait for a specialized technician, when instead we could use AR tools that could walk users through some initial trouble shooting steps for what they are currently seeing in the moment.

In this session we’ll explore different technologies that can be used to create experiences, and what you would need to know to start developing AR experience that would help performance support. You’ll learn how augmented reality takes the current view of the end user, and adds on additional resources and content. We’ll examine the advantages of AR for performance support—where one can allow the user to walk through content in real time. You also will learn how AR can be used to recognize 3D objects, and can know exactly where to place certain indicators.

In this session, you will learn:

• AR basics
• 3D object recognition
• Apple ARKit
• Spark AR

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Xcode, Apple ARKit, Spark AR, iOS apps

Too often our industry rushes to develop a course, or whatever the default method is within their workflow. We need to break the habit and provide the paths to create better tools and access to learning for audiences.

In this session, you will learn how to define a simple formula (no math required) to create, measure, and deliver fantastic learning experiences for your audience. We'll discuss 10 ways to create a better experience that you can apply to your next project. You'll see demos and gain several new web resources and tools.

Using Marvel App will turn you into a superhero, with easy sketching and prototyping from your phone, tablet, or desktop. Learn how Adobe XD can help you create a prototype within minutes to visualize a concept; it's a free download for Mac and Windows, with dozens of templates and screencasts. Lastly, learn how iPadOS simplifies capturing notes.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to update your development process with latest best practices to improve your results
• Four basic steps of development: Define, Prototype, Develop, and Evolve
• About free resources to inspire you and your team for months
• New tools, tips, and techniques to apply immediately
• Practical examples that you can apply to your next project

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed in this session:

Adobe XD, Explain Everything, Marvel App, Paper by Dropbox, Sketchbook App from Autodesk, Lobe.Ai, Refind.com, Feedly.com, iOS 13 and iPad

The eLearning Guild’s director of research, Jane Bozarth, along with contributors to recent research, hosts a review of several recent Guild reports. We’ll look at the ever-expanding role of the instructional designer, be joined by Julie Dirksen for an overview of what research says about designing with AR and VR, and then hear from Megan Torrance about the current state of xAPI. The focus of this session is on what is really happening across our industry now, with an emphasis on what works, what factors support our success, what content lends itself best to particular approaches, and what would enhance our own professional development.

This review of research is designed to familiarize you with what’s happening in the field and to help you find ways to be successful with approaches you’re considering, or that you’re already using and would like to enhance. You’ll leave with practical, evidence-based advice to help you engage in conversations and apply new ideas back at work.

In this session, you will learn:

• What practical insights you can gain from current research about our industry’s employment outlook, the use of AR and VR in our work, and the state of xAPI as it moves into a more mature phase
• State-of-the-industry practices in these areas
• Benefits and barriers facing practitioners
• Solutions to common challenges

Audience:

Designers, developers, and managers

Microlearning. Personalized learning. Learning styles. These are all buzzwords you've heard from vendors, at conferences, and on social media. The pace of technology development and implementation is increasing exponentially, and so is the number of buzzwords. Even if you try to keep abreast of the latest L&D trends, it's impossible to be an expert in everything. How do you know what to try right now, what to keep an eye on for the future, or what's industry hogwash?

In this session, you will learn from a panel of industry experts in the context of playing Bingo. (We are not kidding, you will actually be playing Bingo!) The game will guide a rapid-fire discussion about a wide variety of industry buzzwords with a focus on what's real, what's coming, and what's fake. Not only will you have fun and come away with a better understanding of how to make sense of the latest trends in L&D, you might win a prize!

In this session, you will learn:

• The myths that permeate our business
• Misconceptions that undermine effectiveness
• Why these problems and misconceptions are wrong, and what to do instead
• How to be a better consumer of L&D products

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Essentially, workflow learning is less about content consumption and more about solving problems and creating innovations while in the midst of the workflow. It is less about software and platforms, and more focused on changes in behavior and process of thinking.

In this session, you will learn from three cases and experiments in manufacturing, sales and support, and software operations. The cases of John Hagel’s “Scaling of Thinking Capacities”, Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s “Anticipating the Unknown and Unexpected”, and Joseph Raelin’s “Work-Based Learning” will be examined. You’ll learn ways to introduce workflow learning in your context, and explore the various software tools used to deliver workflow learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to establish a narrow and surgical-like precision approach to introducing workflow learning
• To identify direct impact areas at work
• To elevate the experience-sharing level to become trusted and reliable expertise solutions
• How to implement surface and deep-learning while doing work
• To select a mix of software and platform to deliver workflow learning (e.g., teams, workspace, situation expert)
• To set up and analyze metrics on scaling capacities, behavior changes, and business impacts

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

Microsoft Teams, Facebook’s Workplace

From faxed questionnaires to mailed DVDs, training solutions have evolved over time. How do you work within a limited environment but still innovate? How do you get buy-in from your organization when technology keeps evolving, but you feel like your organization's training is lightyears behind? What's the best way to manage change so the focus stays on the training? And, how do you evolve your learning management system as your learning needs change over time?

In this session, we will discuss the training solution evolution of Vehicle Testing New Zealand (VTNZ), the market leader vehicle inspections across New Zealand. Kelvin Hylton will discuss his key learnings that have helped VTNZ keep its technology sharp over the years, managing a mix of face-to-face and eLearning, and managing change without overwhelming staff.

In this session, you will learn:

• Applied learning methodology
• Assessing your current learning environment
• Creating a flexible strategic direction for learning & development digitization
• Trial and error - what to look for with certain learning technology solutions
• Ensuring change is a positive within the organization by creating a minimum viable product for your learning platform
• Agile integration
• How to gain buy-in from learners and setting the right pace
• Identifying future opportunities
• Working with IT on your side

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders, technical training managers, LMS administrators

Technology discussed:

Moodle LMS, Totara Cloud, Totara Learn

Delta Air Lines Pilot Learning and Development needed a way to push Captivate beyond its off-the-shelf capabilities to meet the requirements set out by both Delta and the FAA, and to enable us to produce 15-20 lessons every three months. Widgets can be hard to use, even harder to customize, and it is almost impossible to figure out how make one on your own, however we were able to crack the code and develop some widgets that are now an essential part of our training workflow.

In this session, we will dive under the hood of widget creation and explain how JavaScript widgets are made. We will describe all the files that comprise a widget. We will open up some examples and see how they work. We will walk through the workflow in creating and testing widgets. Attendees should leave with enough knowledge to understand how widgets can decrease development time, and how to begin developing their own widgets. Example files will be made available to all attendees.

In this session, you will learn:

• The basics of creating a Javascript widget
• Strategies and techniques for combining templates and widgets for more efficient development in Captivate
• How to use widgets to automate tons of common scripting tasks in Captivate
• That is possible to create your own custom question types

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed in this session:

Adobe Captivate, Adobe Brackets, JavaScript, CSS, HTML, Chrome Developer Tools

Voice assistant devices like Alexa and Google Assistant, which are being adopted in homes and the workplace, are a disruptive game-changer in the learning and development space. Learning professionals need to begin considering adoption of this tech and integration into the learning ecosystem. Barriers include fear of the technology, understanding how to even start developing learning content in this new platform, and understanding how to gather valid learning metrics to measure learning impact and solution effectiveness.

In this hands-on session, we'll create a simple voice assistant skill for Alexa and Google Assistant (no coding skills required). We'll create a workflow to create xAPI statements and connect the voice assistant skill to an LRS to capture learner interactions and measure learning performance. We will explore best practices, discuss key considerations, and debrief on the overall creation and use of voice assistant devices in the workflow. Participants will leave this session with a working prototype that can be used to facilitate a demo within their organizations, and will be able to discuss the key considerations and potential impact of the integration of a voice assistant device in the workflow.

In this session, you will learn:

• To identify the learning goals of a given voice assistant skill
• To create a simple voice assistant skill
• How to add xAPI statements to gather user interaction data
• To identify strategies to build an effective voice assistant skill 

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, programmers

Technology discussed:

Voiceflow, Invocable, Zapier, Watershed LRS, xAPI statements

Participant technology requirements:

Laptop or tablet

Do you need a quick, reliable, and cost-effective tool for informational and instructional videos? You have it all with Camtasia. With Camtasia Studio you can record, edit, and publish a short video with branching interactivity.

In this session you’ll learn the entire Camtasia production process; from screen recording, editing, inserting media, and publishing.  Along the way, you will pick up undocumented tips and tricks to make your efforts even easier. You’ll find that Camtasia has a short learning curve, making it useful for rapid development. And the best part, no Camtasia experience is required to attend this session!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to prepare and record your screen
• Best practices for producing a simulation
• How to create user-interactivity, including branching and other hyperlinking
• Efficient editing tips
• Design and development workflow for videos with and without audio
• What production settings  work with interactive videos

 Audience:

Designers, developers, trainers

 Technology discussed:

Camtasia 2019, Microsoft Word Planning Template

 Participant technology requirements:

Laptop, Camtasia 2019 (A free trial copy may be downloaded from Techsmith.com), headphones/earbuds, and a mouse, as Camtasia is tricky if using a trackpad

There are a number of trends in eLearning courseware design. Learn the pros and cons of each trend and how to apply the trends to your courses to take advantage of the pros and minimize the cons.

In this session, we will explore six trends in courseware design: micro-learning, mobile learning, on-the-job training, gamification, video, and editable courseware. Each trend has advantages and disadvantages that we will discuss. If you choose to apply the trend, we will discuss how to apply the trend to maximize the pros and minimize the cons.  

In this session, you will learn:

• The pros and cons of microlearning and how to apply it to your next eLearning project
• The pros and cons of mobile learning and how to apply it to your next eLearning project
• The pros and cons of on-the-job development and how to apply it to your next eLearning project
• The pros and cons of gamification and how to apply it to your next eLearning project
• The pros and cons of video and how to apply it to your next eLearning project
• The pros and cons of editable courseware and how to apply ite to your next eLearning project

Target audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Testing learner proficiency is a must, but traditional multiple choice/true false assessments can't really test whether a learner can complete a workflow within a software program. Instead of demonstrating competency, the learner skirts around the objective by demonstrating conceptual retention. A good test taker can often pass a traditional assessment without learning to complete the task in real life.

In this session you will learn how to create an interactive software simulation assessment in Adobe Captivate that truly tests whether a learner can perform a workflow. Discover how templates enable you to create multiple, consistent assessments rapidly. Incorporate advanced Captivate tricks that give your learners not just an overall score, but a breakdown of their performance in each section of the assessment. This session assumes basic familiarity with Adobe Captivate.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why and when to use a Captivate assessment
• Strategies for writing the assessment
• How to create a template and the final project in Captivate
• How to set up advanced actions to show your learners a breakdown of their score in each section

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers   

Technology discussed:

Adobe Captivate

Immersive strategies such as virtual reality offer promise for teaching and learning, engaging learners in a realistic and 360-degree environment. However, while the instructional possibilities are extraordinary, there have been two major challenges facing most classrooms; technology cost and instructional relevance. During this session, attendees will explore innovative immersive assignments for online and in-person courses and discover how to create effective and engaging immersive assignments on a public institution budget.

This session will explore a faculty member and instructional designer's path to successfully incorporate immersive strategies in online courses and face-to-face labs at a public institution. You will learn what you need to get started with collecting resources, utilizing free and open source technologies, and low-cost virtual reality alternatives. You will be presented with common missteps and solutions when incorporating immersive strategies for budget-friendly, interactive experiences. At the end of the session, you will have useful guidelines on designing interactive 360-degree videos, as well as a proven method to integrate these immersive experiences in learning activities.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which immersive experiences are most likely to create sticky learning
• The potential of interactive 360-degree videos and Google Cardboard for effective instruction
• How to locate and curate affordable immersive tools and softwares
• Which tools and software you can use to design interactive 360-degree videos

Audience:

Designers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

CenarioVR, SeekBeak, Rapt Video, Google Earth Pro, Google Cardboard, YouTube Live, Ricoh Theta V, Samsung Gear 360, Photogrammetry, SketchFab

Your organization is launching a new system to improve staff efficiency and foster more positive engagements with clients. This is a big change that impacts each employee's job.  Providing a manual won't calm their fears or inspire them to learn how to complete familiar tasks differently. You must do more. You have two months to develop engaging, interactive training for thousands of employees, with no budget or team.  How do you do it?

In this case study session, find out how a small team in IBM Support met the challenge by crowdsourcing microlearning development. You'll explore how the team came together from various parts of the business, created a microlearning development process that fit into their everyday assignments, and produced short videos relevant to the learners' tasks—all sounding like they came from a single person. You'll learn how to create a microlearning plan, engage stakeholders and gain commitment for microlearning strategy, define the crowdsourcing process, recruit and enable video producers, encourage feedback from learners and SMEs, and communicate results. 

In this session, you will learn:

• To create a microlearning plan
• How to engage stakeholders and gain commitment for microlearning strategy
• To define a crowdsourcing process
• How to recruit and support video producers
• The importance of encouraging feedback from learners and SMEs
• How to communicate results

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

Camtasia 2018, Moodle 3.6

The key differentiator when utilizing Experience API (xAPI) is that users have to make a long-term decision about how to manage the collected data. This decision, similarly to a decision of a learning management system choice, is driven by many factors including cost-per-user, accessibility, flexibility, security, and ultimately sustainability. The choice is undoubtedly connected with the question of what you want to do with your data, as xAPI enables activity data collection with high-resolution insights into specific learning activities of the solution. 

This presentation explores the latest update of the original white paper developed by the Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative (ADL) in 2016. In this session, you will be provided an overview of the LRS options and receive general, unbiased guidelines for purchase or development of an LRS in 2019. The right choice of an LRS should give you the ability to use data in shaping your understanding of how engaging or valuable a learning experience is for a learner.

In this session, you will learn:

• Categories and examples of LRSs
• Special features and issues to consider
• Types of learning analytics approaches
• How to create a guiding matrix

Audience:

Developers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

LRS, LMS, github

Technology has a history of being a catalyst of change in training and education. We’ve seen it with desktop computers and, more recently, with the emergence of smartphones. But those shifts, substantial as they were, pale in comparison to the next big technological disruption: Data.

In this fascinating talk you will discover how the advancing world of data analytics is forever changing the future of learning and work. You will explore the full landscape of data analytics, looking at both the expanding ways in which data is generated, and the advancements in analytics that make that data actionable. You will hear examples of data being used to better understand performance in both education and enterprise, and learn how those insights are being used to inform decisions that can transform organizations.

In 2003, the Columbia Space Shuttle tragically disintegrated during earth entry after 16 days in space. Aside from the technological causes, the Columbia Accident Investigation Board concluded in their assessment that "cultural traits and organizational practices detrimental to safety were allowed to develop," citing "reliance on past success as a substitute for sound engineering practices" and "organizational barriers and behaviors that prevented effective communication of critical safety information" among the problems found.

How could “good” engineers and managers misdiagnose the severity of the foam impact on crew safety and make such poor decisions? In this session, astronaut Charles Camarda will show you how to build a culture of learning and employ a strategy using intelligent fast failure to tackle the “epic” challenges your organization faces. How do you build high-performing teams that are equipped to solve new, ambiguous, and complex challenges? With the right organizational culture and the right tools, evoke imagination in your teams and fail successfully upward and beyond.

In this session, you will learn:

• How a culture lacking in psychological safety resulted in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster
• How to build a culture of learning
• About the digital transformation of learning
• How to tackle complex, multidisciplinary, “epic” challenges in your workplace
• How to promote psychological safety and mitigate destructive cultural and cognitive biases
• What kind of tools you need to create and analyze virtual collaboration
• How AI, machine learning, and natural language processing can help personalize and scale learning
• How to fail fast, smart, small, cheap, early, and often

Technology discussed:

Valamis Learning Experience Platform

Target audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive), academics, educators

Our digital future is no longer a distant promise, but a rapidly growing industry with real-world clout. Consider Facebook’s $2 billion acquisition of virtual reality headset maker Oculus and their new AR campus of 400 people, Microsoft’s recent release of HoloLens2, and the $1.25 billion raised by Epic Games this past year.

In this truly cutting-edge talk, Dr. Helen Papagiannis helps us understand the significance of augmented reality (AR), and how it is being organically integrated into our everyday lives. What opportunities does AR present for business and learning? How can we contribute to and help define this new technological era? And how will it forever change the way we live, work, and play?

Sponsored by:

You've just learned that due to new laws or your organization's desire to be inclusive, all your training content needs to be Section 508 or WCAG compliant—in other words, accessible to all. Your first idea, providing a PDF of the course, was shot down. Separate but unequal won't cut it. Later you were reminded that "adding narration" to the course doesn’t make it accessible; it just adds unnecessary work and may conflict with screen readers. Hiring an accessibility expert just isn’t in the budget, so what is an instructional designer to do?

Accessibility is no longer reserved for government entities. Creation of content that is supportive and inclusive of all people—no matter the method they use to interact with content—requires a new perspective and skillset. Fortunately, technology has improved significantly and can provide a big assist. This session will provide participants with a working knowledge of what exactly is accessible content, factors that need to be taken into consideration when developing content, how to test content, and ultimately how to successfully launch programs using an inclusive approach and design.  

In this session you will learn:

• What the various accessibility standards are, and their differences 
• How accessibility plays a role in different organizations
• What it’s like to experience accessible content
• What it means to have an accessibility strategy
• How to go about designing and developing accessible content
• How to test accessible content
• Problems to avoid when making your content accessible
• What you should consider adding to your accessibility development checklist

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers

You’ve invested lots of resources into creating a beautiful online course. You’ve made custom videos, got buy-in from all of your key stakeholders, and even told your friends about it. But as soon as it launches your engagement is low and your learners are dropping like flies. What are you missing? The answer is engaging and effective facilitation.

High quality facilitation has traditionally been reserved for in-person training. But as more and more training is being provided online, being able to implement high leverage facilitation actions will be the difference between a course that your learners “have” to take to an experience they “want” to be a part of.

Incorporating engaging and effective facilitation is crucial to create online training programs that result in meaningful participant learning and behavior change. With the limited time and resources most organizations have, it is essential to understand the facilitation activities that will provide the highest ROI.

In this interactive session course designers, developers, instructors, and facilitators of all experience levels will learn data-backed best practices they need to effectively facilitate online courses. You will get to see real examples of high impact facilitation actions that have led to increased engagement and completion in online training. During this session you will also explore different facilitator personas and learn which is best for your individual use cases.

Come ready to engage with other participants to brainstorm the facilitation gaps in your current and future learning content. You’ll leave the session with a set of high leverage facilitation actions you can implement immediately to increase your learners’ engagement and have them complete your learning experiences asking “what’s next?!”

In this session, you will learn:

• What online facilitation is and isn’t 

• The benefits of using facilitation to increase course completion rates and learner engagement in online courses

• Different facilitator personas you can use in your online courses, and the pros and cons of each

• How to utilize key facilitation activities to increase learner engagement in fully-digital and blended programs

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Most of us just use a couple of apps on our mobile devices and we don’t take full advantage of what is possible. Are you looking for amazing ways to use your mobile device to create content? In this session, you will learn how to use your phone or tablet to brainstorm, sketch, take notes, collaborate, create audio and video-based media, and animate using several mind-blowing apps.You'll leave the session feeling inspired and have the practical information to apply one or more apps when you get back to your device.

In this session, you will:

• Explore several programs to get creative with your mobile device
• Feel inspired and be able to start using them today
• Learn about free and inexpensive tools to help create content from your mobile device
• Get your notebook and camera ready to capture these great tools

As organizations scale at a rapid pace, it is always a challenge to manage and maintain systems in isolation. Today’s learners seek information at their fingertips and are getting overloaded with too much information with a push strategy.

Motivating, tracking, instilling a sense of ownership, and upskilling have become major challenges for product-based organizations where learning is the key to product adoption. There is always a challenge to improve the performance of learners, while keeping them motivated and hooked for a long period.

In this session, you will find out how AntWorks, in collaboration with Tesseract Learning, made use of integrated learning strategy to drive business results, and how a plethora of systems works in synch to create a successful learning culture. You will learn how to leverage the power of single sign-on, data analytics, and IOT that integrate and aid in continuous learning, and explore how digitation helps in building a successful learning culture that helps shorten the learning curve on the job. You will also learn how gamification as an overarching layer integrates with all the systems to drive learner behavior and keep them engaged on the platform.

In this session, you will learn:

• How technology can be used to connect employees, partners, and customers using an integrated learning platform
• What makes the integrated platform work well for organizations looking to drive business results using a learning ecosystem
• How gamification can be used as a reward mechanism for people accessing the platform
• How the integrated platform can be used to generate a variety of analytical reports

Articulate knows that eLearning developers face big challenges. You’re asked to create engaging courses that look great on any device, and develop gorgeous eLearning on a budget. You also need to get projects approved on a tight schedule. And you may not have access to the resources and support you need to do your best work.

Articulate 360 is a simple subscription that includes everything you need to create eLearning. In this session, we’ll show you how to speed up your workflow using the award-winning authoring apps in Articulate 360, Storyline 360, and Rise 360. You’ll learn how to develop engaging courses that look and work great on every device—without any manual tweaking. You’ll learn how to save time by sourcing assets from Content Library 360, a library of 4.5+ million photos, templates, characters, videos, and more. And, you’ll discover an easier way to manage project reviews with Review 360, a web-based app that lets you easily collect consolidated feedback from stakeholders.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to quickly and easily create custom, interactive eLearning with Storyline 360
• How easy it is to create polished, responsive eLearning with Rise 360, the web-based authoring app in Articulate 360
• How to quickly find the assets you need for your projects in Content Library 360
• How to streamline project reviews with Review 360

Technologies discussed:

Articulate 360 apps, including Storyline 360, Rise 360, Content Library 360, and Review 360

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Like homeowners faced with the task of making home improvements, instructional designers might find themselves overwhelmed with the notion of making updates to an existing course. But what if there were five simple DIY steps to making renovations or additions to improve the overall usability, effectiveness, and look of your course?

In this unique learning experience, you'll learn five simple DIY steps to an eLearning remodel. You'll identify the reasons why remodeling can be a cost-effective way to expand your current list of learning opportunities. You'll explore ways to identify your remodeling goals, set priorities, and establish a budget. You'll determine if you need to hire a team of experts, or if you can make the revisions yourself. You'll observe demo day and learn how to declutter and get organized before the construction begins. Lastly, you'll leave this session with an easy-to-follow punch list to help complete your eLearning fixer-upper.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify your remodeling goal(s) and set priorities
• How to make pre-construction plans to outline your remodel, secure any permits (i.e., SME or stakeholder approvals), and order building materials or software needed to complete the job
• Ways not to overextend yourself financially or with your time
• How to make minor cosmetic changes, such as improvements to the landscape, or minor upgrades to the exterior and interior of the course using visual design principles

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Rapid eLearning design authoring tools such as Storyline 360, Adobe Audition

Are we really able to tell how people use digital learning? How do we gain visibility that learning is being applied? Sophisticated tracking gives us the ability to gain insights from user behavior. By focusing on what we can successfully capture—such as time spent within the learning, what learning assets are most popular, and even user sentiment—it's now possible to gain a rich picture of the experience of learning. In this talk we'll explain why tracking is more important than ever, show you technology innovations that push measurement beyond the LMS, and demonstrate how to infer meaning from the data being captured to inform decision-making.

In this session you’ll see how to harness behavioral data to optimize user experience. Go beyond tracking completions and measure the real, lived experiences of your learners to explain how they're interacting with digital learning. You'll discover how to take a human-centered approach when collecting and interpreting data, and explore how to turn this into engagement stories to benefit your learners. You'll receive tips for designing learning that gathers meaningful data, and investigate how to make sense of it. Discover how machine learning and AI can be utilized to transform trend data into statement-based insights to win over decision-makers. Finally, you'll see real-world examples of how analytics dashboards can be used to seduce stakeholders with beautifully-designed user interface.

In this session, you will learn:

• How learner behavioral data can be used to empower L&D
• Techniques to frame the right questions to unlock focused data capture
• Practical tips for getting meaningful insights from your data
• Ways to tailor learning programs based on behavioral insights
• How to win over your stakeholders with beautiful and insightful data presentation

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

Learning analytics dashboards, Big Data, behavioral trends, machine learning, artificial intelligence

Keeping viewer's attention with video is a challenge. There are many barriers that might keep viewers from pushing the play button. If (and when) they've clicked play, do you know what keeps people watching? Why do they stop? What elements need to be in your videos to make sure they able to learn? The good news is that there are answers, best practices, and information to these and other questions to help you create videos that work.

In this session, we will be examining and discussing survey results from almost 1,000 participants in six countries to understand their engagement, preferences, and interactions with online instructional and informational videos. Attendees will gain insights into viewer preferences, practical tips, and suggestions about the context surrounding videos. With this study running in 2013, 2016, and again at the end of 2018, we will look across five years to see what has and hasn't changed in viewer preferences. While there are no silver bullets that overcome all of the challenges, attendees will leave this session with ideas to make their videos more effective and their viewers’ experience even better.

In this session, you will learn:

• Key results from a study looking at viewer preferences and behaviors for instructional and informational videos
• Common reasons why individuals stop watching videos, and what to do about it
• Common video interactions and how to use them to maintain engagement
• The recommended length for videos, and why those recommendations may not matter

Audience:

Designers, developers     

For decades, learning & development has been wishing for "a seat at the table" with senior leaders. So, why is it so hard to get there? The reasons may be rooted in our legacy as a training function that taught workers to perform predictable tasks and repeatable procedures. Today's work is less predictable; more creative and fluid. Yet in many organizations, L&D's training legacy continues to impact our work processes and outputs, which, in turn affects how we are perceived.

In this session, you’ll explore the approaches through which L&D can become more business savvy, strategic, and agile to meet the challenges of today's work environment. You'll investigate ways to communicate with senior leaders so you can identify and solve the problems that concern them most. You'll also discuss the capabilities, skills, tools, and approaches L&D organizations need to make our solutions more strategic, direct, effective, and instantly available.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to support the constantly evolving needs of workers
• How to enhance strategic thinking among L&D staff
• How to advance strategic L&D skills, capabilities, processes, and infrastructure
• How to build credibility and trust with senior leaders
• How to elevate L&D's value to the business

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Studies show that nearly 20 percent of the workforce is actively disengaged (Gallup). This problematic statistic has L&D professionals seeking new models. At the same time, the Towards Maturity Report (2018) shows that 61 percent of L&D departments have no policy cementing the way content is communicated and distributed in the organization. The development and use of high engagement communications tools has exploded in other industries. How can the L&D professional take advantage of the macro level trends in communications and media?  

In this session, you'll learn how to transform an L&D department into a dynamic, effective, communications machine. First we'll look at models of successful content distribution and monetization (TV shows, YouTube creators, digital magazines, and podcasts) and analyze why they are able to engage large audiences. Next, we’ll apply that knowledge to L&D content by examining aspects of media companies such as audience targeting, channel selection, and content reuse. You'll learn how to engage in what Gary Vaynerchuk called "attention aribitrage," and successfully get your critical learning content in front of your audience. When you complete this session you'll understand why you should apply the modern media model to your learning content, and you'll have the tools to start making this important transition.

In this session, you will learn:

• How content models are used in marketing
• How personas are used in content models
• How social media fits into the content model
• Why L&D benefits from adopting a content model
• The KPI's used to measure success in a content model
• How to create a content plan
• How to distribute and redistribute content from channel to channel
• How to brand content and tie distribution together

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)   

Technology discussed:

Video, podcasts, social media

Has one of your organizational eLearning investments been met with mixed reviews or low uptake from learners? Perhaps you're moving to mobile content for the first time, or expanding into a new international market where you don't have on-the-ground presence. Too often we plan, develop, and implement in a vacuum because we believe we don't have the financial resources to conduct targeted user research. Budget constraints keep us focused on solving problems and adjusting with our solutions rather than designing for different cultures, technology levels, and genders. To address the training needs of our audience, delight them with our content, and drive repeat engagement, it's critical we involve them in the process and leverage low-cost tools to make that happen throughout the process.

In this session you’ll hear how a non-profit organization and a video game start-up got creative with their user experience (UX) strategy to ensure user feedback drives the development of a mobile-optimized, game-based course built for the US, Mexico, India, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia. You'll learn how the International Youth Foundation (IYF) utilized affordable strategies for engaging end-users throughout the design and production process using tools such as Facebook and Instagram-hosted social pulse polling, crowd-sourced beta testing, behavioral insights, user personas, and focus group discussions.

In this session, you will learn:

• To maximize your UX budget by anticipating key user engagement moments throughout an agile design plan
• User-first design strategies for content creation that will work for your learner demographics, such as focus group discussions, usability testing, user persona creation, and social pulse polling
• How to unpack your user personas to target a digital audience via social pulse polling on Facebook and Instagram
• Why research and UX design are critical components of the eLearning process

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Ads Manager for Facebook and Instagram, Cornerstone OnDemand, Phaser 3, Google Forms

Many people in the eLearning realm are attempting to use gamification and serious games to spark employee engagement and drive learning retention. The biggest setbacks for are little-to-no planning, tough to pinpoint metrics, little-to-no implementation strategy, and insufficient or nonexistent post-deployment support.

In this session we will talk about planning, developing, implementing, and supporting serious games for companies that have never gone down the route of serious games and gamified learning experiences. We will discuss what makes a serious game a success or a failure, and address the proper steps to take throughout each phase of the project to ensure success. You will learn best practices and common pain points.

In this session, you will learn:

• Best practices to ensure a successful serious game implementation
• How to support serious games at your organization
• How to ensure a successful serious game implementation

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed in this session:

Unity, VIVE, Oculus, mobile apps

How does the largest employer on the planet, Walmart, attract and develop a new generation of managers who have spent more time playing games than they have in the classroom? How does pharmaceutical industry leader Novartis quickly train hundreds of people on best practice production and aseptic procedures for a new leukemia treatment, where mistakes have life and death consequences? How does Fortune 200 healthcare leader DaVita train a global organization to see the world through the customer's eyes?

In this session you will experience modern day learning simulators modeled on the flight simulator, which has (up until now, anyway) been the gold standard for skill-based learning. You will be able to download and play Walmart's "Spark City" game on your phone. It's a "learning while having fun" model, complete with Fortnite-style happy dances, which maximize skill practice "reps and sets." The session will inspire with examples from industry leaders who are ushering in a new era of experiential and visceral learning. Leave the glowing desktop screen and classroom behind and step into a new world of immersive learning, tailored for a generation of learners who have spent more time with video games than in school.

In this session, you will learn:

• How industry leaders create true-to-life rehearsal environments in VR, a "flight simulator" for any task. The demos will showcase how employees are trained like the famed Captain Sully, who landed his disabled airliner on the Hudson River, saving scores of lives.
• The research on how repeated actions in virtual reality alter neural wiring, in turn improving real world performance.
• How industry-leading companies are tapping into the exploding popularity of console-quality 3D games for the mobile handset.
• How companies that want to remain relevant can take cues from the cultural moment of Fortnite.

Audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

VR (Oculus Quest, HTC Vive and Focus, Samsung Odyssey), mobile gaming on iOS and Android

Making the workforce future proof is currently high on the agenda of all of us in training and education. In this session you will get an idea of how InnoEnergy uses artificial intelligence (AI) to bridge the skills and competency gap of engineers working in the sustainable energy field. You will learn the three steps that make the full cycle of the project: 1) Extracting emerging skills and competencies from industry reports and road maps, 2) Analyzing resumes of engineers who want to enter the energy sector or want to upskill or reskill their capabilities, and 3) Using the skills gap that emerges from the first two steps to come to an adaptive learning path in the third step of the process.  

You will learn what can be done to automate learning in order to achieve more personalized assessments, the challenges we face in reusing learning elements, and the journey we have gone through to be where we are now. In the end, you will understand how we build a full cycle—starting with an examination of industry needs, pinpointing the skills gap of engineers, and then providing personalized learning paths to the engineers.

In this session, you will learn:

• What AI in education can provide for the workforce
• From real examples of automatically-generated assessments (using AI)
• About the challenges that come with reusing learning elements
• The opportunities and possible risks of this approach

Audience:

Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

Technology discussed:

AI from TechWolf, AI from Wildfire Learning, X5gen reuse of OER

If you were tasked with finding solutions to a curriculum problem, what might you do? Microlearning? Mobile learning? Gamification? Virtual reality/augmented reality? More instructor-led training? We're often tempted to turn to new technology or trends, thinking one of these must be what our approach is missing. Certainly these modes are useful, but how do we know if they're the right solutions until we know what the problems are? In this session you will learn to face the problems as our learners would, using empathy, and build the Design Thinking process from there. Only then can you create meaningful solutions that use the right mix of tools and technology to elevate your training.

In this session, you will learn what Design Thinking is, why it's important to L&D, and how it affects root cause analysis and resulting solutions. You'll meet Matt, a call center new hire, who is eager to learn but faces obstacles to learning. You will learn about empathy and how to understand learners such as Matt through journey maps, learner personas, and empathy maps. You will then proceed through the remaining Design Thinking steps: ideate, iterate, prototype, and test. Finally, you'll also see how Design Thinking was put to work in case studies for a large financial company that wanted to replace its one-week instructor-led training with eLearning, as well as a nonprofit that trains sexual assault response teams across the nation. 

In this session, you will learn:

• What Design Thinking is and why is it important
• About the Design Thinking steps: empathy, ideate, iterate, prototype, and test
• How to gain empathy for your learners by using the tools of Design Thinking: learner personas, empathy maps, journey maps
• What gets in the way of Design Thinking, and how to address those challenges
• How Design Thinking helps you with root cause analysis before you come up with your solutions

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)  

One of the top challenges for learning professionals is getting managers to support learning. Effective talent development can positively impact employee engagement, innovation, and long-term growth. How can we make leaders own their role in employee learning? How are managers motivated to invest their time in developing their people, which often doesn't bring a return in the short run?

This session will help learning professionals show managers how to easily and naturally support learning. You'll discover 75 activities that managers can use to support employee learning, and you'll devise an action sheet to create a customized selection of these 75 activities. You will be able to inspire managers in your organization with practical tips to facilitate employees learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• What roles leaders and managers should take in regard to employee learning
• The three stages of learning where the support of leaders and managers are crucial
• To make a customized action sheet for a learning activity of your choice, so leaders will own their role in learning
• To motivate managers in your organization to own their role in employee learning

Audience:

Designers, managers   

Adult learning principles state that adults learn best when content is relevant. So why do most virtual classroom lessons rely on lectures and slides? One of the most effective ways to ensure learning sticks is by getting learners involved, and scenario-based learning design does just that. We only have so much time to dedicate to formal learning, every moment needs to be impactful and relevant. Unfortunately, virtual classroom sessions tend to focus on getting as much content out there as possible, and leaving it up to the learners to figure out how to make it all work.  

In this session we will explore how to design three types of scenario-based activities in the virtual classroom: problem-based learning, predictive learning, and play-based learning. Leave with detailed examples of each, and a template to walk you through seven steps for constructing scenarios in your virtual classroom design.

In this session, you will learn:

• The role of scenario-based learning in modern workplace learning
• How scenario-based learning supports adult learning theory
• Techniques for implementing three types of scenario-based learning in the virtual classroom
• 7 steps for constructing scenarios

Audience:

Designers, developers, virtual classroom facilitators

Learners don't always want to sit through a formal training course, or simply don't have the time. Microlearning is a great way to deliver just what people need, when they need it. But, as a learning professional, how do you create it? While the idea of short learning sessions is great, they can end up taking almost as long as a full course to create, as you need high-impact video or interactive features to explain and reinforce key information quickly. It's important to be able to create microlearning efficiently, so that you ultimately have the time to serve the needs of all your learners with the full range of topics they need access to.

This session looks at the principles supporting microlearning best practice. This includes visual, dynamic, and interactive content to make it engaging, taking into account the wide range of devices (traditional laptops, tablets, and mobile) that people use to access microlearning. You’ll explore practical techniques to create microlearning content quickly and easily using PowerPoint. You’ll experience a real-time demonstration in PowerPoint, learning of different royalty-free resources that can be used for commercial purpose such as images, icons, audio, and video. You will discover how PowerPoint can help you create rich, multimedia content.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to capture your audience's attention and maximize their retention of information in a tiny amount of time
• To create effective microlearning incorporating compelling visuals, engaging animation, and impactful multimedia
• To use PowerPoint to create your dynamic, visual microlearning quickly and easily
• Output to video or HTML5 for easy distribution

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

PowerPoint

Everyone involved in training creation and delivery is managing at least part of a project, whether they know it or not. While many think of project management as only meeting a series of deadlines, it can provide you so much more than checkmarks on a calendar. Meeting deadlines is important to your success, but what if you could use basic project management techniques to create repeatable processes, improve communications with your stakeholders, and manage risks we all encounter? Best of all, what if it can make your job easier?

In this session, you'll learn the basics of how projects are managed and how to leverage that knowledge on your next training project. You will learn how to identify stakeholders and meet their needs, set project goals that define success, manage the scope of your project (and how to prevent it from creeping away from you), create a schedule to meet everyone's needs, manage the risks that always find their way into your project, and how to close it out and start all over again. You'll leave the session with a better understanding of how to manage projects (both training and others), provide better information to your stakeholders, and most importantly, create better training more efficiently.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a basic training project
• How to create a project charter
• How to prevent the dreaded "scope creep"
• How to identify risks and what to do with them
• When to communicate with stakeholders
• How to make your successful project easily repeatable

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Project, Microsoft PowerPoint

When you develop an eLearning course for a client or yourself, you want to make sure your work stands out. One way to achieve this is by creating a personalized Storyline template, which can include all sorts of custom interactions. Did you know you can even create custom multiple choice questions? By adding different effects to your question and having custom feedback layers, you are able to tailor the interaction to meet your template’s needs. It sounds complicated, but as you'll learn, it doesn't have to be.

After this session, you will walk away with all the tools to create multiple choice questions with feedback layers that are tailored to fit all your (or your client's!) needs. You'll learn how to create custom multiple choice questions using shapes, states, variables, and other custom effects. You'll walk away with a fully-programmed and completely customizable multiple choice interaction that you can reuse in any other learning objects. And you'll be able to apply the theories you learn in this session to any other interaction type, allowing you to create a Storyline template that is as unique and creative as you are!

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use various shapes to design a custom multiple choice question
• Various ways to use states to manipulate buttons and shapes to add visual interest
• How to use variables to control the functionality of the question
• Tips and tricks for how to make the process efficient and repeatable

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

Articulate Storyline 360

Participant technology requirements:

Laptop with Articulate Storyline 360, 3, or 2 installed (trial versions are okay)

It can be difficult to keep learners engaged when taking an online course. As designers, we may want to add more meaningful interactivity to address this issue, but may not be aware of available functionalities our eLearning authoring tools have to offer to help make this happen.

Learners become more invested and engaged if we provide them with the ability to interactively choose their own path when taking an online course. In this session, you will learn the development techniques to make this design style functional. You’ll learn non-linear navigation approaches for use in common authoring tools, and the techniques to present these to learners. We’ll explore how best to track and show completions and buttons and states for navigation.

In this session, you will learn:

• The technical skills to develop non-linear navigation in eLearning authoring software
• How to change states of and link menu options to specific slides
• How to create buttons at the end of sections that will take the learners back to your navigation slide
• How to track completion of sections and change states of navigation slides to represent completions
• Design techniques for presenting navigation options to the learner
• Organizational tips within your project

Audience:

Designers, developers     

Technology discussed:

Adobe Captivate 2019 on a MacBook Pro

Participant technology requirements:

Laptop with eLearning authoring tool (Adobe Captivate if you would like to match what is being presented). A Captivate 2019 project file will be provided to use for the session.

Today’s eLearning producers must compete against all forms of online entertainment and social media distractions. Learn how to implement reality programming strategies and real-world rewards into your training content to increase user engagement.

In this session, we will explore the history of other mediums and how they have integrated reality programming and audience participation to drive user engagement. I will share specific examples of corporate educators integrating these methods into their training content to increase adoption. You will leave with best practices that can be used immediately to enhance any eLearning program.

In this session, you will learn:

• How reality programming strategies have been used successfully before
• The benefits of integrating real-world benefits into your virtual training
• Best practices for engaging users and driving adoption through reality tactics
• How to evolve your eLearning to engage on all senses

Target audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Soft skill development is vital to the success of your organization and its employees. Executives consistently rank soft skills as the top most important capabilities to cultivate in their employee populations. 

Successfully cultivating those skills, however, is another story. These programs are among the most expensive to run and the results difficult to prove. Technology is often sidelined in these development efforts in favor of mentoring programs and small invitation-only groups tracked over time. This makes it even more difficult to scale the benefits of these programs to a broad employee population. 

In this session, you’ll learn how even soft skill development programs focused on leadership, communication, and creative problem solving can be improved through the thoughtful integration of technology. We will share ideas from the field while connecting these examples to the broader principle that authentic learning requires authentic engagement. Finally, you as a participant will be invited to share your own experiences and learnings with colleagues. 

The focus will be on the instructor-led-training, but ideas will extend beyond that form of delivery. Leadership, communication, and creative problem solving will be vital to the success of your organization. Technology will be vital to your team’s success in developing those skills. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create engaging and inspiring soft skill programs that scale
• How to personalize your sessions to have an impact beyond your session
• How to increase participation and honest feedback to improve your next training session

Target audience:

Managers, curriculum designers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Most digital learning professionals know that data science and artificial intelligence (AI) can make their everyday processes more efficient and help them reach business goals faster. However, many still have questions around the real-life applications of data science and AI within digital learning, including:

• What are some examples of how AI and data science can address digital learning challenges?
• What processes can be automated?
• At what stage of the learning strategy can these technologies be implemented?
• What are the first steps for implementing data science solutions?
• What expertise and resources are necessary to successfully implement AI and data science solutions?
• What are some best practices for preparing learning data for processing, etc.?

In this session, you will study some of our practical use cases to learn about the diverse data science and machine learning applications in education. After this session, you will have a strong understanding of how you can leverage data science for your digital learning strategy to become more efficient in reaching your business goals.

In this session you will:

• Discover diversity and variability of the data science and machine learning applications in education 
• See how EPAM uses these technologies to improve learning outcomes and the impact of learning in our organization 
• Learn how you could implement these technologies in your own digital learning strategy

Technologies discussed:

Data science, machine learning, artificial intelligence, predictive analytics

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Personal data protection has become a concern for people around the globe, with countries everywhere creating their own privacy laws and standards to protect citizens and their data. With new laws in place such as GDPR in Europe, CCPA in California, and LGPD in Brazil, institutions that serve global populations need strategies for compliance with the privacy standards in every country where their customers reside.

Compliance with personal data collection laws is important to any institution that collects the data of their clients. This session will address different tactics used in the assessment industry that can be used to avoid issues with compliance. You will explore different tactics used to collect personal data that can be applied to different industries.

In this session, you will learn:

• The definition of personal data
• Global standards and laws related to personal data protection
• Different tactics used in the assessment industry which can be used to avoid issues with compliance when collecting personal data
• Different tactics that can be applied to different industries regarding the collection of personal data
• How to evaluate your company's need for collecting personal data
• How to remain compliant with personal data collection standards

Technologies discussed:

Proctorio

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

A recent study showed the Number One challenge learning and development leaders face is dealing with and driving change. From new technology adoption to process updates to mergers and acquisitions —today’s organizations are in a constant state of flux.

What happens every time a change is introduced? Without fail, documentation becomes outdated, you spend hours answering a slew of repetitive questions, and ultimately, the knowledge gap widens. Most of what you review in a training class is quickly forgotten and change adoption is an ongoing challenge. 

In this session, you’ll learn how to proactively approach introducing new tools or processes to significantly improve a team’s ability to absorb and adopt change. We’ll introduce a just-in-time learning methodology and platform that allows you to disseminate learning on a continuous basis, in bite-sized doses, directly within a team’s existing workflow.

Using Salesforce as an example, you’ll learn how to automatically embed and surface knowledge throughout the applications your team is already using. No more answering repetitive questions, no more outdated documentation, no more digging for answers in separate tools. You’ll learn how to drive adoption by delivering relevant answers in the moment and hear how some of the most innovative learning teams use this method to communicate change.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why just-in-time learning is a must-have for the modern organization
• How classroom-style learning fails to address today’s learning challenges
• How just-in-time learning was born out of necessity to drive adoption of constantly changing tools and processes
• How to break down training into bite-sized, contextually relevant pieces
• How to embed and surface training directly within Salesforce and other applications your team uses
• How to create a seamless, cross-platform learning experience

Every instructional designer wants to create top-notch work. But it can often feel like the odds are stacked against you—tight deadlines, lack of resources, department of one—you know what we’re talking about. What if you could take a peek behind the curtain at how an award-winning custom eLearning shop works? See what their secrets to innovation, efficiency, and awesomeness are?

Come hear from Rich Vass, director of customer success at eLearning Brothers, together with one of our custom clients, in a deep-dive exploration of real-world projects we’ve partnered on. Joining Rich on stage is Jennifer Le Page, director of eLearning design and development at Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada. During this session, you’ll see examples of the amazing content we created, as well as hear stories of what not to do. You’ll learn about how our teams work together to craft amazing learning solutions. You’ll walk away inspired, with new ideas to take back to your office.

In this session, you will learn:

• About innovative eLearning solutions we’ve created and how the learners responded
• Strategies for working with clients or stakeholders

Gamification and microlearning are two of the biggest buzzwords in eLearning today. How do you effectively use them together to ensure that you’re delivering a learner-centric experience that’s not just bells and whistles, but an engaging and effective experience that learners find valuable?

In this session we’ll examine gamification from the learner’s perspective to discover what they really want, which may be quite different from conventional thinking. Skip past buzzwords, and focus on practical implementations of gamified microlearning. We’ll examine practical gamification scenarios for front-line training, soft skills training, and compliance training.

Gamification and Agile microlearning go hand-in-hand. We’ll explore how to use them both to skyrocket engagement.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why microlearning gamification is better without the games
• How to use gamification elements within an Agile microlearning context
• Which intrinsic and extrinsic motivation factors you can and should leverage
• When to use gamification elements such as leaderboards, points, and badges, and when to avoid them
• Which strategies for gamified microlearning succeed in different industries
• How to effectively measure gamification impact

Technologies discussed:

OttoLearn Agile Microlearning, PowerBI

 Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Managing a large or growing library of learning content is an expensive and time-consuming exercise. The issue is compounded when the content creation or maintenance workflows contain many different stakeholders, the team’s timelines are at the mercy of upstream business units, and the learning material itself is delivered in different formats to different channels.

What lessons can L&D groups learn from other types of business that create, manage, and deliver large volumes of content? How can best practices from high performing, data-driven organizations be applied to learning assets that are diffuse and complex? And how do team leaders continue to maintain effective learning strategies while decreasing cost, improving compliance, and maintaining a responsive partnership with the wider business?

In this session we will review the impact on training organizations of the evolution in best practices for managing large volumes of critical business content. Concepts such as content strategy and information architecture continue to mature in other business areas such as operations, product documentation, customer support, and sales enablement, and these techniques and benefits are also being applied to training content development.

Our session will use examples of technology and architecture, how to categorize content and enable separation of content from storage and from delivery, and the downstream benefits of this “headless content management” practice. These benefits include more accurate resource planning/release management, better operational performance in compliance-heavy industries, additional revenue opportunities, and improved learning outcomes.

We will look at some of the key drivers that motivate training organizations to adopt these strategies, such as decreasing visibility and control as content volume increases, disparate skills and tools required for different learning modalites, and the (in)ability to innovate quickly or to be nimble with requests from clients or the business. 

Finally, we will touch on some of the key change management concerns faced by training organizations that either prohibit improvement generally or cause project friction while change is underway. This session is designed for training organizations that do—or will—create and maintain a large library of content and are looking to improve management of this valuable asset. The examples used are from Author-it clients and are applicable to any organization. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify whether your organization would benefit from a headless content approach to content development
• How to separate training content from storage and from delivery
• Examples of this separation in current technology
• How to start content strategy conversations within wider organizational strategies and workflows
• How to identify the first high-value/low-risk projects to test
• How to identify critical change management issues for people, processes, and technology

Technologies discussed:

Content management, learning content management, Author-it Cloud, MS Word, xAPI, SCORM, QMS, PLM, HRIS

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

The employee skills gap is widening, but employees have even less time for training today. According to a LinkedIn Workplace Learning survey, employees are able to set aside barely five minutes per day for formal learning. L&D managers agree that traditional training methods are not adequate to equip a workforce for the future. With workplace learning being one of the biggest motivators for employees, how does L&D meet the learning needs of today’s digital workforce and create a culture of ongoing learning?

In this session you will learn how “learning in the flow of work” makes training relevant and gives employees the right information to do tasks productively. Since it is delivered right when and where learners need it, it dramatically improves retention and productivity. Learning in the flow of work is an intelligent mix of micro and macro learning. It fills an important gap through in-depth measuring of learner progress and its impact on business. Since it doesn’t require employees to get away from their day-to-day work, it’s more effective and easier to incorporate into their already-packed days. Learning in the flow of work meets the expectations of today’s learners, who expect:

• Relevant information available at the moment of need to improve productivity
• Instant knowledge discovery and delivery from all sources of knowledge
• Learning that’s precise and personalized to a user’s needs
• Training rendered in a self-serve mode, so employees learn at their own pace

In this session, you will learn:

• How L&D managers can augment traditional training with more effective live training
• How L&D can provide personalized and contextual training to employees at their place of work
• How to train employees on multiple, complex software systems and create a homogenous training experience
• How to make all enterprise knowledge accessible to employees to promote continuous learning
• How to create effective and engaging training content with minimal time and no coding effort

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

When training is not a requirement, participation in your learning program is optional and your users train on their own time. Getting your audience to make the choice to join your community requires some enticement. 

Providing engaging content is key. Rewards and gamification can take things up a notch. Leaderboards help tie the community together and get your users interested in what their peers are doing. All these features can help lead your program down the path to success, however an engaged user is a hungry user who continually wants more … more engagement, more rewards, and more COMPETITION. So, what's next? 

In this session, you will get a peek under the hood at an approach and solution that leverages an existing base of content towards a global quiz game that fosters competition with program participants from around the world. Participants can earn access to play a fun and engaging trivia-style quiz game based on knowledge they learn within the larger program. They can earn and level-up against their peers to earn greater prizes, trophies, and bragging rights. The larger the community, the greater the opportunity to get them to play together and continue to learn.

Be sure to bring your phone to join in the competition during our session!

In this session, you will learn:

• Designing content to support gaming
• Leveraging games for reinforcement
• Supporting a global audience
• Creative approaches to competition
• Adding unique program hooks

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Standard eLearning tools are great and you can do a lot with them, but they have their limits. There are parts of those tools that you can’t customize or control or, if you can, it takes a lot of hacking to get it the way you want. Some eLearning tools also produce large files with a lot of extra lines of code that make your courses slower and harder to interact with. Cost can be a factor too, as tools may be priced out for reach for some organizations.

In this session you’ll look at an alternative option for eLearning development - inexpensive HTML5 standards to build custom courses that have no limits. There are literally thousands of different coding libraries that allow you to add on and customize any type of functionality you want in your course. You’ll discover some of the libraries that you can use to create standard eLearning experiences as well as other libraries that allow you to add functionality that you can’t easily get with standard eLearning tools. The best part of all of this? Almost every library you’ll explore in this session is free! There is so much you can do with custom courses so let's start by exploring what's possible.

In this session, you will learn:

• About custom course structure
• Which JavaScript libraries can be used for eLearning
• Which JavaScript libraries have resources you can use for developing AR and VR experiences
• What you need to know about each library to use them effectively

Audience:

Designers, Developers, and Managers

Technology discussed:

HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Various HTML5 libraries

xAPI enables us to track a wide array of data but shareholders are interested in results, not the technology. Simply tracking everything is not a strategy and often creates noise that makes xAPI data more difficult to use. Instead, you need to step back to identify WHAT needs to be tracked with xAPI, and only afterward go through the process to design quality statements.

In this session you'll explore a process for designing good xAPI statements, regardless of the tools or technology used to generate this data. You'll investigate the following questions to create an xAPI data strategy: What is the desired outcome, what are the report and query capabilities of your LRS to deliver those results, can you actually get the data required, and what existing vocabularies exist for the statements you create? Using real life examples and current tools, by the end of this session you’ll be ready to develop a data strategy to meet your current and future needs with meaningful xAPI data.

In this session, you will learn:

• The anatomy of an xAPI statement
• The query capabilities and limitations of xAPI data
• A process for designing interactions for quality results
• Common pitfalls for xAPI projects
• Where to find resources to expand your xAPI capabilities

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

xAPI, LRS, rapid development authoring tools, business intelligence tools, xAPI libraries and profiles

The sounds of snores from the next cubical over are because Jerry had to take that old, stale compliance course. Anyone can phone it in, click "next", and answer "C" to every multiple choice question. But that video choose-your-own adventure course? Jerry's going to make decisions and see immediate feedback and consequences for his choices. He might even take the course again and again to see what the other outcomes he could get, giving him a fully-detailed understanding of the subject matter with just one lesson! Snores or engagement: which would you choose?

In this session, you’ll explore how to design a video choose-your-own adventure (CYOA) course for when "correct/incorrect" text isn't enough. Through creating a CYOA course, you’ll learn how to significantly increase engagement while reinforcing learning objectives. You’ll find out how using a decision tree approach can give your audience real-time feedback. You’ll then look at the development tools you can use to create this kind of video course, as well as how to craft immediate and consequential feedback for the choices people make.

In this session, you will learn:

• Which tools can be used to create decision trees
• Development methods to create a CYOA course
• How to create consequential feedback to user responses
• How to implement immediate feedback to user responses
• How to create multiple experiences with the same course, while arriving at the desired objective for each user

Audience:

Designers, developers  

Technology discussed:

Lucidchart, Articulate Storyline

Organizations are struggling to provide leadership development programs that fully engage their employees and provide them with valuable leadership development opportunities. Indeed, according to a recent Fortune survey, just 7 percent of Fortune 500 CEOs believe that their companies are building effective global leaders, and only 10 percent believe that their leadership development initiatives have a clear business impact. How can organizations combat this problem of ineffective training, and develop modern learning programs that offer more productive leadership training in today's digital world?

In this session, you’ll learn the key strategies that are critical to creating a modern leadership development program that meets your employees' specific learning needs. Discover how you can leverage new learning technologies, tools, and innovative training designs to transform your learning program. You’ll also explore the successes and failures of other leadership programs, in order to identify best practices for developing effective leaders in your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What new technologies are currently being used by other L&D leaders
• Which cutting-edge tools from leading tech companies may be able to help
• About success stories from leadership development programs
• How NOT to run leadership programs
• Best practices for organizational leadership development
• How to convince leaders to take time for training
• How to curate a leadership library

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed:

LXPs (Degreed, EdCast, LTG), content design tools (Inkling, Gomo Video), off-the-shelf content (GO1, Filtered)

As part of the 15^th anniversary celebration of DevLearn, we’ll be building a time capsule of what L&D is today, and what L&D professionals think the future of L&D will look like.

In this session, you will join in a discussion with many of those recognized as Guild Masters exploring the past, present, and future of the L&D field. You will hear different perspectives on what we’ve learned as an industry, what we still need to learn, and what the future of L&D might look like.  We’ve invited all our Guild Masters to this discussion, making this super-sized panel a conversation you won’t want to miss. 

In this session, you will learn:

• The most important things L&D contributes to today’s organizations
• Lessons from the past that inform how we approach the future
• How L&D is changing
• How to prepare for the future of learning and work

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

It’s great when your boss finally jumps on board with all the bright ideas that you’ve been pitching. Well, until you consider you might never have done this before or the scope of your plan is beyond the current capacity of your team. How do you implement a modern vision for your courseware without breaking the bank? Do you need external support? Can your team do it all? Have you bitten off more than you can chew? Maybe, but maybe not. A strong strategy to select your team, tools, and projects will help you put your money where your mouth is.

In this session, you’ll find out how to choose the right approaches to make your project a reality. You’ll learn to maximize the different people at your disposal to start your project on the right foot and achieve the desired effect. You’ll explore how to choose the right software for the job, learning how to leverage what you already own, and then select new tools to add variety. Online content? Videos? Whiteboard videos? 3D models? The type of software that you choose will have an effect on your course, so you’ll then explore different options for creating engaging content. Finally, you’ll look at strategies for working with your team and SMEs to meet your goals. You’ll leave this session able to plan your next projects to deliver results to your boss the next time the good idea fairy visits.

In this session, you will learn:

• What strategies can help you succeed with implementing ambitious new ideas
• Who should be on your team to help these ideas happen
• What types of attainable software can achieve big results
• How to find creative solutions to help you make your big ideas come to life.

Audience:

Designers, managers

Technology discussed in this session:

Modest 3D, Whiteboard video software, rapid authoring tools, Domiknow, H5P

There’s been a large amount of research in recent years exploring the value music has on the brain and learning. We’ve all experienced it in some way in our lives; from listening to music while learning or studying, learning something from a catchy song, or by 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 to 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. (Ukuleles made available during this session will be donated to the Children’s Hospital of Nevada UMC after the conference.)

In this session, you will learn:

• How music enhances learning
• How people learn to play an instrument, and what that means to learning
• How music might enhance your practices
• How to play a ukulele!

Audience:

Designers, developers, project managers, managers

Learner expectations continue to rise as engaging AR experiences from the marketing world set a new standard. With many companies experimenting with AR for learning, the reputational risk from failed learning initiatives can be high. So why not reapply proven success from large-budget industries that also use AR to change behavior? Why not learn from the success and failures from the marketers and others who have been experimenting with this technology and testing how to use it most effectively?

In this interactive session, you'll take your AR learning plans to the next level. You'll explore the leading practices the world's top marketers are using in AR to support behavior change, and you'll examine how to use these practices yourself in a learning program. Through team-based scenarios, you'll apply specific AR techniques to learning and to your own work. You'll leave with practical and tangible tips that you can leverage in your next AR project to help it succeed.

In this session, you will learn:

• Best practices for using AR in learning, gleaned from other industries
• Pitfalls that learning professional should avoid in AR
• How to apply proven techniques from marketing to design the ideal user experience
• How to extract ideas from other industries and apply to L&D

Audience:

Designers, managers

Technology discussed in this session:

Zapworks, other AR technologies and tools

Our work on competency-based medical education helped us create a learner-centered model that de-emphasized equating competency with grades and focused instead on abilities and achievement as salient learning outcomes. A challenge to this model, though, was providing verification of skill acquisition in an appropriate format. Through a year-long journey we were able to develop a blockchain-based credential framework that could help us execute on this model, and the lessons that we learned could easily apply to other industries as well.

In this case study session, you'll learn about how we approached and defined our challenges related to digital credentials, and how this could apply to similar challenges you’re facing in your own industries. You’ll learn more about using design thinking workshops to break down the “as-is”, explore user journeys, identify risks and assumptions, and ultimately produce a road map for a minimal viable product (MVP). You’ll then learn strategies from our development process, as well as how we created a minimal viable ecosystem. Blockchain is a team sport, so you’ll discover how we approached the creation of a blockchain ecosystem within our industry, and how you can use similar tools and principles for yours. You'll leave this session with a deep understanding of how to approach blockchain technology in learning—from MVP creation to implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to determine if a blockchain solution may be valuable for your learning infrastructure
• How to successfully run a design thinking workshop to explore a blockchain framework in your industry
• The basics of blockchain technology and how it applies to learning credentials
• The value of creating an ecosystem within your industry to create a blockchain-based collaborative learning network
• About case studies on how blockchain-based learning technology has transformed areas of higher education, and how these examples could inform your thinking

Audience:

Developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed:

Hyperledger-based blockchain, digital credentials platform

Have you ever been handed a PowerPoint deck and told to go off and build a course? Many organizations tend to begin an eLearning design project leading with their content needs; desired outcomes are merely an afterthought, if they're a thought at all. Unfortunately, whether or not a solution is successful is often left to chance. With so much on the line, who wants to take that gamble? So how can you approach the design process with a more results-focused point of view?

In this session, you'll explore a design approach that we like to think of as "measure twice, cut once"—where you wait to define the learning approach and strategy until after you've spent time identifying the organizational and business results. Once you're clear on the target, you can then undertake a thoughtful content and technology design process to ensure the solution will achieve the behavioral and business goals your organization is after. You’ll discover strategies to help you navigate this results-driven approach. This session is about more than just a five-step process to design (hint: it ain't your grandmother's ADDIE!) You'll also take a close look at tools you can use in your process, including how to articulate the specific business outcomes you want to measure against, define user personas, and use situation mapping to not just get clear on the learning outcomes, but help generate realistic scenarios you can use to create authenticity in your training.

In this session, you will learn:

• The five steps to help you define a more results-driven learning solution
• The three parts to a well-stated business outcome that will help you turn business goals into measurable learning outcomes
• Ways to create and use user personas to better understand the needs of your target learners
• How to identify and apply the three steps of situation mapping, a modified approach to Cathy Moore's Action Mapping
• About the six steps of a learning journey and how to use them in designing your overall solution

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Maybe it's the eyerolls. Maybe it is the rapid clicks of the "next" button. Regardless of what the action is, we know the look and feeling of learner disengagement. If we know that we don't want our end users to feel this way, then why is it a common occurrence in so many organizations? Instead of only focusing on research and high-level theories, this session will explore solutions to this common problem in a unique way—an interactive mystery!

In this session you’ll join Detective Knowles, a character who needs your help to solve his first L&D mystery—why someone is enjoying a pleasant slumber in front of a training module. This session doesn't only tell you about the research and tools but applies them during this interactive learning experience. Along your journey, you’ll explore three constructs of learner engagement and be challenged to apply them to your current setting using a scale of engagement for each. Additionally, you’ll be introduced to SCORE, a rating system to evaluate learning experiences, and use it help you solve the case. You’ll walk away with from this session not just having solved the mystery, but also with practical resources and tips to focus on learner engagement in face-to-face, blended, and virtual settings. Detective Knowles is counting on you, gumshoe.

In this session, you will learn:

• How learner engagement is operationalized in practice and academic literature
• Three learner engagement constructs (behavioral, cognitive, and emotional) and how to apply them in your setting
• How to apply SCORE (success, curiosity, originality, and relationships) to analyze your learning content and environments
• How to use technology to enhance learner engagement for your learning environment

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed:

Poll Everywhere, Umu, Google live captioning, Google slides, Google docs

Knowing your audience is a fundamental step in the analysis of designing training. When that audience is international, this is even more critical for understanding cultural differences in both language and visuals. Then add in the additional factor of using the comic medium as a vehicle to tell a story through instruction. This combination is what was faced when designing an instructional comic for labor and delivery nursing students in northern India. This project needed to not just deliver content, but also do it in a way that reflected this audience’s lived experience and also leveraged the unique strengths of the comic medium.

In this case study session, you’ll explore the learning problems that were faced and find out why the comic medium was chosen as a solution to achieve the goals to increase awareness, increase retention, and change behaviors. You’ll learn about the steps that were taken to design characters for this comic that reflected the audience, from skin tone to their clothing and shoes. You’ll see how we addressed cultural understanding and how careful the script writing process needed to be to avoid inappropriate words and phrases. Finally, you’ll take a closer look at the results of this project and the impact this instructional comic made in reducing infant mortality rates.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why the comic medium was chosen as a solution for this learning problem
• The challenges that we faced when writing the instruction for a specific international audience
• How to write personality into characters that relate to the target audience
• The process through character modeling and the importance of attention to detail
• How to cast the right voice actors to play the role of the characters
• The results and impact this instructional comic made in reducing infant mortality rates

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Technology discussed:

Articulate Storyline 360, Adobe Illustrator

As xAPI has gained increased adoption across the industry, challenges have emerged as we have seen inconsistencies in both the expression and structure of xAPI data generated from a wide variety of tools and sources. While the xAPI profile specification was designed to define and standardize the data structure, more support and definition is needed on how to apply xAPI profiles for specific use cases. In practice, many organizations are developing their own unique approaches without any consistency in xAPI usage that can be re-purposed for a larger audience.           

In this session you'll hear about the research conducted for updating xAPI profiles, as well as the beginning framework of a repeatable methodology for anyone attempting to put xAPI profiles into practice. We'll share actionable recommendations on how to implement xAPI profiles to ensure conformance and consistency across the implementation spec. This session will be helpful for those who are considering the investment and technical application of xAPI profiles in their organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• Targeted development tips and techniques for creating xAPI profiles     
• How to ensure conformance and consistency in your xAPI usage          
• How to apply xAPI profiles to specific use cases           
• Recommendations on how to put xAPI profiles into practice

Audience:

Developers, managers    

Technology discussed:

xAPI, eLearning standards (xAPI, cmi5), learning analytics

Is your technology training content as dry as the Sahara Desert? Are short deadlines killing your creativity and ability to provide interesting and meaningful eLearning? Are you new to eLearning development and need a tool that’s easy to learn how to use? At ServiceNow, we had these common challenges and one more: we had technical releases two times a year. This meant that we needed a development tool that curriculum designers could learn without much difficulty and could develop with quickly, because anything that was created would be outdated and need to be replaced within six months. We also wanted a solution that would allow us to take our technology training and turn it into engaging, online content without sacrificing creativity and ease of use. Articulate's latest authoring tool, Rise, helped quench our thirst for interactive eLearning with a tool that is simple to use for design and development.

In this session, you’ll discover the Articulate Rise tips and approaches ServiceNow uses to rapidly create engaging technology training. You’ll explore ways to take mundane technical steps and convert them into appealing content through the use of blocks, text, statements, and lists. Since most of the time screenshots of an environment are needed in technical courses, you'll learn how you can use labeled images, GIFs, and microlearning videos to make this information content more engaging. You’ll also look at how you can use additional tools—such as Screenflow—to create videos, voiceover, and GIFs that can enhance your content further. Finally, you’ll find out how to accomplish all of this while applying real-world scenarios and storytelling to help your audience learn to solve the common problems they might encounter.  

In this session, you will learn:

• How to configure Articulate Rise for modular learning
• Tips for how to use Articulate Rise's text and image blocks to create engaging content for technology training
• Best practices for Rise layout and color schemes
• How to incorporate GIFs to teach small technical steps through the tool Screenflow
• How to apply storytelling techniques and personas to technology training

Audience:

Designers, developers  

Technology discussed:

Articulate Rise, Screenflow

Video has long been acknowledged as a great tool for training but has often been dismissed due to high production costs. In the last decade the landscape for video production has changed. There has been a dramatic reduction in expenses, mobile devices shoot HD video, and a wide array of YouTube-framework solutions has accelerated the role of video in corporate training. Most of the video content consumed by learners is linear and static other than basic video playback controls. The challenge for eLearning developers is to move video content beyond the traditional linear experience and incorporate engaging interactions.

In this BYOL session, you’ll explore ways to use Adobe Captivate to create an interactive video experience. You’ll review the planning process for interactive video in this tool, including the available interaction types. You’ll then find out how to modify the traditional video storyboarding process to suit this new approach. Finally, you’ll look at how you can use Captivate Actions to add branching to your videos.

In this session, you will learn:

• The planning process for interactive video in Adobe Captivate
• Approaches for storyboarding interactive video
• How to use Bookmarks and Slide Overlays
• Tips and tricks for creative video branching using Captivate Actions

Audience:

Designers, developers  

Technology discussed:

Adobe Captivate 2019

Participant technology requirements:

A laptop with Adobe Captivate 2019 loaded (trial version is acceptable)

Commonly used eLearning platforms typically offer only a limited amount of options when it comes to gamification. Similarly, traditional learning management systems can sometimes lag behind when it comes to observing learner usage. New technologies that solve these problems are certainly available, but how can you get started with them in a way that isn’t challenging and complicated to implement? This session aims to provide you with the solution; a guide to the tools that can help you overcome these challenges through an ecosystem approach.

In this hands-on session you’ll learn how to set up components of an xAPI ecosystem—from the learning record store to a Unity application that sends statements. We’ll walk through the process for setting up an LRS using Learning Locker and Amazon Web Services. Then we'll create a Unity application that can send custom xAPI statements to our new LRS. Using the TinCan.net library and some stock code, by the end of this session you’ll have an xAPI-enabled application that can be further customized to create gamified learning experiences in nearly any scenario imaginable.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to set up an LRS using Learning Locker and AWS
• How to build a basic Unity application
• How to leverage C# scripting to send xAPI statements
• What challenges we faced when developing and implementing our first Unity application and how we overcame them

Audience:

Designers, developers  

Technology discussed:

Learning Locker, Amazon Web Services, Unity, xAPI

Participant technology requirements:

Please bring a computer that meets Unity's system requirements and pre-install the Unity application. (This can take over an hour, depending on your network connection.)

Recently Google tested its hiring algorithms and found that seven out of their eight most important employee qualities involve soft skills. These include: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others; having empathy toward and being supportive of colleagues; being a good critical thinker; problem solving; and being able to make connections across complex ideas. These skills are as teachable as any other skill. MIT Sloan researchers have the data to prove that not only can soft skills be taught, but that by doing so companies can recognize substantial ROI. The problem is that most companies don't know how to teach soft skills effectively. The answer is serious games. 

By using serious games, companies can engage learners on a much deeper level, simulate real-world situations, encourage peer collaboration, provide instant feedback, and measure results. During this session we will showcase four simulation games designed to improve leadership, sales, and customer service skills, as well as alter IT security behaviors. 

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of soft skills in any corporate environment
• Why games are the best tool to use to train soft skills
• How powerful branching path games are for training leadership, sales, customer service, and cyber security
• How to build an engaging scenario or branching path game to train soft skills
• How to use data and analytics to measure the success of your branching path game, or how to understand where you may need to make changes in your game to change soft skills behavior

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

You know what you're doing and you do it well. You know your process works. But despite using the same methods and templates you've used before, you and your SME are not seeing eye-to-eye. You need just a little something more, or maybe something different, to close the gap and be on the same page. Have you ever had that situation? I have. My trusty workbooks and templates for course design worked well until I got to this one project and then they just weren't quite working. They weren't flexible enough. I knew I had to try a different approach.   That's when I accidentally learned how a tool that's typically used as a collaboration tool for remote teams can be leveraged to help visual people better understand the plan for eLearning design and development.

In this session you will be introduced to use Miro to conceptualize design and development plans in a visual way so your project team has a cohesive vision. You'll learn how an infinite digital whiteboard (but it's so much more than just that) can allow you to be agile when the plans shift, and to use it as a place to brainstorm ideas and resources, pull in project documents created in elsewhere, and get feedback from others. You'll even see how you can take notes from in-person work sessions and easily add digital versions (just by taking a picture!) to your project space.   You'll leave this session excited to use Miro with your teams to collaborate and visually plan and organize your projects. This is a tool you'll definitely want to add to your toolbox. The possibilities are endless. After all, it is an infinite whiteboard.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to be more agile with your approach to design while staying true to your existing processes
• When visual planning is beneficial
• How to use Miro to collaborate on ideas
• How to seamlessly integrate takeaways from in-person brainstorming sessions into existing plans
• How to ensure your visual participants share your vision
• How to update your plans on the fly

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers   

Technology discussed:

Miro (previously RealTimeBoard)

Enterprise clients are looking for a way to showcase and provide internal and external training on complex products and processes in an immersive experience,  but making 3D virtual reality presentations has historically required specialized software developers, which restricts some companies from being able to access these capabilities and causes increased costs for others.

In this session, you will learn how to create, edit, and maintain your own immersive training experiences. Using your own subject matter expertise on your products and processes, and by leveraging the advanced capabilities of augmented virtual reality, you can rapidly create digitalized solutions that are cost-effective, user-friendly, and that can accelerate and streamline the learning experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create immersive presentations in minutes that can be published directly to desktop/VR/mobile
• How to create a learning environment that can engage multiple learners in multiple locations on multiple platforms (whether on desktop, VR headset, mobile)
• How to create better communication and comprehension through engaging 3D environments
• How to save development time and traditional costs associated with distance learning
• How to maintain security while transferring lessons

Content bloat: It's embarrassing, it's uncomfortable, and you blame yourself for that extra weight you're carrying around. But how did it happen? You did a job task analysis, you created objectives, you tried to design efficiently. But somehow the program just kept growing. At JetBlue University, we're feeling the strain of training programs getting too large yet, with our safety focus, we can't just cut content or objectives. The only way to reduce the bloat is to reimagine how we handle required knowledge and skills that our job task analysis (JTA) has identified. To do that, we may need to take a few steps back and look again at our needs and expectations for modern learners in a modern workforce.

In this case study session, you'll learn about how JetBlue identified and addressed the strategic gap between unwieldy lists of knowledge and skills, and fit, healthy curriculum programs. As we share the simple internal tool JetBlue built, we'll talk through the advantages of using a strategy like this to positively influence new hire selection, learning retention, and training cost. To close out the discussion, we'll examine how modern workplace demands and technologies may inspire modern approaches to instructional design and performance support, including learning experience designers who partner with HR for talent acquisition and collaborate with decision makers for workplace rules and design.

In this session, you will learn:

• What you can do to refocus training time on what's important
• Where there may be a gap between your JTA and your program design
• How you can determine training strategies for a variety of objectives based on a few key factors
• What benefits you can realize by partnering across departments for holistic learning solutions

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.) 

Technology discussed:

MS Excel

Learning from a peer is a powerful tool and most learner populations are very receptive to hearing best practices.  Peer-to-peer learning is very personalized and direct, which allows for instant implementation. This type of strategy works very well in small group settings, but due to its personal nature, it is extremely difficult to scale. How can you create a curriculum that allows for this wonderful, small-scale interaction to be delivered at scale?

In this session, you will learn how to create an effective peer-to-peer learning strategy. You can leverage tools that you currently utilize today—webinar delivery tools, video microlearning, or in-person workshops. You will even participate in an activity during the workshop. You'll leave this session armed with an arsenal of tactics that will enable you to scale peer-to-peer learning in your organization. 

In this session, you will learn:

• Strategies for scaling peer-to-peer learning
• How to leverage existing tools for delivery
• A framework to approach the design of peer-to-peer content
• How to identify experts that could assist with the content creation

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers   

Technology discussed:

Video, webinar, ILT

Without a knowledge of where the industry is headed you may find yourself on the wayside as technologies and techniques pass you by. Staying on top of your game means watching current trends and knowing what tools are available to make you the best eLearning professional you can be.

Join Andrew Scivally, CEO of eLearning Brothers, as he hosts a panel of eLearning thought leaders discussing current trends and the projected future of the eLearning industry. Hear from the companies that are driving this industry forward and creating next year's trends. You'll leave this session inspired and energized to implement new ideas and technologies in your training.

In this session, you will learn:

• What the top eLearning trends are right now
• What tools and best practices are shaping the future of eLearning
• New ideas and technologies to implement in your training

Target audience:

Designers, developers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

Digital transformation is the name of the game, but how do you know if your current learning program is actually successful? While digital, one-size-fits-one approaches are gaining recognition across the industry, many organizations are still relying on outdated solutions that leave learners wanting more. In-person courses and paper-based materials aren’t learner-friendly for busy professionals, and traditional LMS platforms prioritize content management over creating a premium learning experience. These options also offer limited functionality and ability to scale, preventing businesses from expanding their reach into new markets and users. Without incorporating modern learning methods, you run the risk of a bad learning experience that results in high dropout rates, poor learner engagement, and ROI left on the table. 

In this session you will learning how to adopt a new learning strategy that aligns with today’s learners. We’ll take a deep dive into the three core pillars of an effective learning program—learner engagement, learner experience, and organizational revenue—to ensure your learning program is set up for success. Organizations that create engaging, differentiated programs will have a huge industry advantage in the years to come. But how do you tie all these learning pillars into a unified strategy? Through a personalized digital learning solution.

In addition to reviewing the three core pillars of an effective learning program, we will also present five questions you should consider when evaluating your current learning program or when considering a new option. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to increase learner engagement
• How to use your learning program to drive revenue
• How to create a personalized learner experience
• What questions to consider when evaluating your learning program, or a new option

Target audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

LXP, LMS, LRS, bots and more … the complexity of next generation learning technology is growing. Learning Pool is here to make life simple. This session will present a simple architecture into which you can categorize learning technology and present a seamless, simple way to bring all of the elements of a “next generation” learning ecosystem to life. 

In this session we will present a simple method for architecting your learning technology ecosystem and showcase how, using mostly open source technology, Learning Pool has created a seamless set of platforms and tools to create a next generation learning experience.

We will explore the LMS vs LXP debate, seeking to understand whether the technologies should be complementary or competitive, and look at options for integrating content from multiple sources and many providers.

We will showcase some best practice examples of “learning in the flow” of work, as well as advanced analytics capabilities to help understand how your users are interacting with your ecosystem. 

In this session, you will learn:

• The 3-layer architecture principle
• How LXPs, LMS, LRS and content providers can work together
• Case examples of companies making the “ecosystem” concept work
• How bots, nudges, and smart campaigns form part of the mix

Since the advent of YouTube, video has shot to prominence as a medium of knowledge transfer and training. Video has become an invaluable resource for teaching, professional development, formal instruction, and any kind of knowledge transfer. The rise in the use of video content brings along questions and challenges that we'll explore:

• Does academic research validate pedagogic effectiveness of knowledge transfer through video content?
• What are the pros and the cons of video learning?
• What are the best practices of using video learning in higher education and corporate training? 
• What are the key ingredients of a good learning video and online training course?
• What can training professionals learn from the informal learning ecosystem on YouTube, Udemy, etc.?

In this interactive session we will provide answers. We will investigate the advantages and challenges of using video content in education and training, and explore different types of video and how they work. We’ll explain the key elements of good educational video content and give hands-on, practical advice on what is needed to start creating your own videos. We will explore the key impediments in formal institutions to producing effective video for learning, and how to overcome them with innovative tools. Best practice examples and case studies will show the audience how videos can be effectively used in higher education and in the business world.

In this session, you will learn: 

• How the use of video can help you achieve your educational and training goals
• The effectiveness of video-based learning versus more traditional training approaches
• The key ingredients to building good learning videos and online training courses
• The ideal workflow for building great educational video content
• How to maximize your education and training budget by effectively using video content
• The different video tools you need depending on the content you need to create

Target audience:

Managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

According to the National Training Laboratories, passive training (lectures, reading, and videos) results in 5 –20 percent retention rates while active training (learning-by-doing, playing games, or participating in activities) can deliver retention rates as high as 90 percent. Despite this significant delta, the majority of trainers fall back on Death by PowerPoint, driving employees to complain about boring and ineffective training.

Knowledge retention is key but active training can deliver much more: motivated learners; critical thinking skills; problem-solving skills; creative thinking skills; collaboration; and interpersonal skills. It’s time for the training industry to adopt active training more regularly.

Effective instructor-led training is not about being the “sage on the stage”–it’s about being the “guide on the side,” leading participants to water instead of blasting them with the fire hose.  

In this session I will compare passive vs. active training techniques, showcase 10 games that trainers can use to engage their attendees, and provide five takeaways for how trainers can easily and affordably deploy games in their classrooms.

In this session, you will learn:

• About active vs. passive learning
• 10 games and activities, and identify when to apply each one to your instructional-led training
• About gamification (points, badges, leaderboards, prizes) and how they can motivate learners
• About data collection and how to apply individual/group trends to future classroom sessions

Target audience:

Developers, designers, managers, senior leaders

You've got a great idea to increase learner engagement, decrease learner attrition, or improve learning outcomes by adding a new feature to your learning platform or purchasing a new product or service. Maybe you have clear research to back up your idea, or just a solid hunch based on your experience as an eLearning expert. But implementing your plan will take time, money, and personnel. If you're wrong or you implement the solution incorrectly, you'll end up wasting precious resources without improving your learners' outcomes. What you need is a way to quickly and cheaply test your idea before deciding to commit to a purchase or addition to your learning system.

In this case study session, learn how Treehouse—an online coding school—used lean prototyping to test ideas for improving student outcomes without investing excessive time, money, or personnel. You'll find out how we combined a simple patchwork of free tools to evaluate a student-driven assessment process promoting reflection and critical analysis through peer review. Throughout this story you’ll learn how to rapidly test and refine instructional ideas by combining readily-available tools like Google Forms and Docs, email, spreadsheets, and high-touch evaluation-like user interviews and surveys. You'll also explore how to create a prototyping plan, identify risks and rewards, measure and evaluate results, and iterate quickly to develop a solid solution that can convince decision makers to invest in your idea.

In this session, you will learn:

• How fast and lean prototyping can let you test your hunches without spending a lot of money, overcommitting resources, and locking yourself into a technology solution you don't need
• How rapid prototyping of a "great" idea can help you quickly and cheaply identify (and abandon) ideas that aren't so great after all
• Tips for using free and freely-available tools to test instructional ideas to improve learning outcomes
• Ways to identify and measure successful outcomes to move a prototype into production or lead to a purchasing decision
• How to create a prototyping plan to identify risks and rewards

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

Google Sheets, Google Docs, Google Forms, Email

One in five newly-graduated registered nurses quits within the first year of their first job, never to return to nursing. Exit interviews often reveal the same basic stories: nurses feel unsupported and overwhelmed by the transition from school to nursing practice. But what if hospitals had an early warning system to inform interventions that address a newly-graduated nurse's concerns before a nurse feels like they have to quit? And how could this early warning system be used in other situations, as well?

In this case study session, you'll learn ways to design evidence-based interventions and how xAPI can give you the data you need to inform your decisions and approaches. You'll explore different components of this particular case study and then look at the process to launch and improve a small suite of interventions that were able to continually provide actionable insights to improve content, tools, and outcomes. You’ll find out how to use instructional design and xAPI together to drive performance support, eLearning, and other feedback loops to affect real-world outcomes and provide needed insights to multiple stakeholders. You will leave the session with strategic approaches for how to measurably impact retention and ROI.

In this session, you will learn:

• What kinds of questions drive an outcome-focused learning project
• How to identify data needed to answer those questions
• How to design feedback loops to provide this necessary data
• How to use data to tell stories to different stakeholders

Audience:

Designers, managers, senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.)

We all want to be able to show bottom line results from our training efforts. But how do you engage an on-the-go, never-at-their-desk sales force? At Cydcor, a face-to-face, outsourced sales company, engaging a busy learner base in a format that appealed to them was a challenge. Not only that, but the executive team was asking for tangible results. The team needed a fresh approach to meet the needs of the learners and the executive team—and quick!

In this case study session, find out how we drove learner engagement and ROI through video-based simulations. You'll explore how the team drove higher participation by engaging their learner base in the creation process. The team recorded top sales agents modeling real-life customer scenarios and created interactive video-simulations teaching the sales decision tree. You'll also learn how a focus on KPI's from the beginning led to a provable return on investment. The team wanted to decrease the days to make a sale and had a rigorous process to ensure each scenario drove that result. And it did, by 35 percent! If you are struggling with engagement, behavior change, or proving results, you’ll walk away from this session with a simple, replicable process you can apply to turn your situation around immediately.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why it's important to include your audience in the creation process to drive engagement
• How repetition of key learning objections leads to retention and behavioral change back on the job
• How to weave a consistent thread of focusing on results throughout your training creation and the inevitable outcome of ROI
• How to use video-based simulations within Articulate Storyline

Audience:

Designers, developers, managers

Technology discussed:

Articulate Storyline, video-based scenarios, Excel