Your goal is to provide learners with a terrific learning experience. Increasingly, those learning experiences are occurring on multiple devices—smartphones, tablets, laptops, you name it! How can you deliver that terrific multi-device experience when you don’t know how to code and you don’t have time to spend endlessly tweaking and adjusting your courses to suit every screen size for every device?

Anyone who has been in the eLearning business over the past 10 years and who works with mobile technology has run into this major issue: Flash. Many legacy programs were either authored using Adobe Flash or an authoring tool with SWF output, and many of today’s mobile devices are unable to support them.

Designing eLearning can be challenging enough, but designing eLearning for mobile platforms presents its own set of obstacles. In order to move your projects into the ever-growing mobile world, you need to know how responsive design differs from traditional eLearning design.

Your company may have implemented a mobile BYOD solution, but that doesn’t mean you can automatically use those devices for mobile learning. In order to implement mobile learning on a large scale, you’re going to need to partner with your IT department.

Do you need a simple mobile-first or responsive performance support solution? Today’s mobile workers often don’t need training; what they need is quick access to a knowledge base to find an answer. But the organizations putting these resources in place need something more than page views to measure their effectiveness.

Today’s L&D professionals are tasked to create more video without breaking the budget. There’s also increasing pressure to ensure that these videos are effective at supporting learning and performance goals. What are some of the metrics used to track instructional video, and how do you make sense of those numbers?

Producing videos can be a complex endeavor for learning professionals attempting to bring their courses to life. By incorporating appropriate project management principles, instructional designers can create a smooth process for video production and avoid having to reshoot critical footage they need for a course.

Video has traditionally been difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, but it doesn’t need to be. Today, eLearning professionals can produce live-action and animated videos easily, quickly, and on a budget. But which do you choose, live-action or animated? It can be challenging to determine which option will best tell your story and engage your learners while also making the most sense given your budget and time constraints.

Training comes most commonly in the form of a webinar or in-person presentation with a slide deck. You get a lot of information, presentation of complex topics, and a two-way communication street where questions from the audience can be addressed as they come up. These are all good things. But sometimes you don’t want to know how to build a watch—you just need to know what time it is.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Smartphones are everywhere, and one of the most common uses for these phones is to play games. Their smaller screens require more skill to create a strong learning experience, game experience, and user experience.

It’s not unusual to find gamification elements in software applications across nearly every industry, but only a fraction of these platforms prove to have significant impact on performance. While individual gamification elements may increase engagement and enhance performance, they often are not designed with the user in mind, and there are not enough analytics integrated into the process to assess effectiveness.

The use of online video to support performance is a hot topic these days. But when is it a viable solution? How can it improve performance? And, most importantly, how can you build a solution that uses it effectively?

Technology has made it possible to offer scalable, experiential, and collaborative learning across the globe, while instructional videos can serve as a key delivery mechanism for content from instructor to students. Nevertheless, instructional videos often are too long, too dense, and offer little room for learners to interact with the content.

The use of games in eLearning is growing. However, most eLearning designers struggle to know where to start with games. Building an interactive game can be difficult without skills and practice in coding software.

Traditional video is an important and engaging component of training programs and curriculum development. However, traditional video only allows learners to see the linear path of video projects. What if you could give learners the ability to fully immerse themselves into the videos they’re watching? With 360-degree video, you do just that.

Have you heard the saying “If a picture is worth a thousand words, a video is worth a million”? Video content can explain very complex concepts, but usually lacks good navigation or interactivity. eLearning, on the other hand, delivers a great user experience, but often comes up short at conveying meaning with just words and pictures. Combining eLearning with video can give you the best of both worlds.

Your company keeps growing, but your training department doesn’t. You feel like your current course development methods are making it harder to keep up with compressing development timelines, and yet you’re being asked to create more courses, different courses, smaller courses, and courses that are easier to access. Sales doesn’t like logging in to the LMS every time they need to take some training. And you’re getting tired...

The common approach, when introducing live video into virtual learning applications, is to create an online lecture room where participants watch and can be seen by the lecturer and can easily join the conversation. But this is just the tip of the iceberg! eLearning teams must build on the dramatically changed expectations of new generations brought up in a social revolution that has put live video communication in the hands of over three billion people around the world.

Workplace learning is a two-way relationship between a company’s desire to stay competitive and employees’ need for information to engage job functions. With the struggle for competitive advantage expected to only accelerate, it pays dividends to create a flexible and technology-enabled learning ecosystem that can foster the future generations in the workforce.

When videos, presentations, and slide shows start to look ho-hum and just aren’t holding your learners’ attention anymore, it’s time to step it up. Say goodbye to boring bullets and static graphics, and give your audience something to keep them watching.

Games and gamification are new ideas to many organizations. Executives may perceive games for learning as child’s play, or may struggle to understand how they’re different from the scenario-based learning you already have. Furthermore, some see gamification as an artificial reward system that will have no long-term benefits.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Poor-quality explainer videos can distract your learners and prevent them from getting the message. Many L&D professionals operate on a tight budget and do not have a lot of video editing experience. How do you create professional-level videos that can be delivered on any platform or eLearning tool?

Building mobile interactions for learning is challenging. Adobe Captivate 2017 offers two approaches to mobile development: breakpoints and fluid boxes. When building interactions, you need to put some thought into how to place the objects on the screen. Knowing the rules of how to work with breakpoints and fluid boxes will give you a big head start and help you avoid a lot of mistakes.

Many organizations are eager to utilize mobile learning to meet the needs of an increasingly mobile workforce who may not have access to desktops yet all have mobile devices. However, stringent corporate policy concerning mobile phones often makes this tricky. The more organizations understand the dynamics of legal, corporate, and security-based issues, the more equipped they will be to make a compelling business case for mobile learning.

Verifying that a new hire is ready for operational responsibilities is a continual challenge, but in the technical support world where “first time fix” is such a crucial measure of customer satisfaction and efficiency, it is vital. Theory tests only go so far; the adoption of mobile devices by this technician community presented an opportunity to gather data in the field to validate understanding and correct application.

Induction and onboarding has become one of the key business challenges of the moment. How do you successfully recruit and induct staff to become high-performing and fully integrated, at a speed that matches the speed of change in business? The answer may rest in the power of the mobile devices that are already in everyone’s hands.

Proper lighting in your video makes a world of difference in how your viewers perceive your product. But good lighting can be a challenging aspect of video production. Have you found yourself asking the following questions: “How do I know which lights to get? How do I determine the correct lighting placement? How many lights should I use? Should I buy or rent them?”

Everybody has experienced video training—the good, the bad, and the ugly. But by taking a "real-life" approach to video content, you can up retention and create a unique training experience that goes beyond just training on ideal situations. 

There are many opinions, myths, and facts that surround what mobile technology can or cannot do to influence, educate, and enable users. The problem is that many adult-learning professionals do not understand mobile technology and often end up developing a curriculum that fails to take advantage of mobile’s strengths or even ends up highlighting weaknesses.

At one point or another, you’ve probably been forced to endure some kind of training that made you want to pull your hair out. You click through the slides as fast as you can, or you stare blankly at the lecturer reading bullet points from each slide. What if you could transform those mandated training programs into something engaging and entertaining instead?

Video is a great medium for learning content; however, designing and developing great videos can be challenging and labor-intensive. Additionally, gaining stakeholder buy-in on a curriculum based on microlearning, like videos, can be a challenge.

You have a phone and tablet, and you use them for four or five tools and applications, but there is so much more you can do with them. Mobile devices present fantastic opportunities to create and modify photos, videos, and graphics. You are only limited by your own imagination.

You want to make sure your learners are engaged, and you have an idea for a learning game that will help you achieve that goal. You know that it needs to be focused on the content and the learner’s needs and not something you’re going to throw in just for fun. You’re excited to build this, and you think you will be able to repurpose it for other lessons, learners, and content. Suddenly, you hit a wall because you haven’t acquired the higher-order skills in Captivate yet. What, exactly, do you need to know?

Mobile, games, and video are all meaningful endeavors offering unique value propositions, but how do they fit together? Each can be linked, but has unique properties as well. How do you make sense of the opportunities?

A team working with major electronics in public areas—installing slot machines in casinos—needed to follow several safety processes. After a year or longer of monthly safety emails and talks at all-hands meetings, the company took its safety program for field service technicians to SMS bimonthly delivery. What happened next?

Not responding well to responsive course design? Frustrated with the nuances of responsive course development with rapid authoring tools? Tired of trying to get your courses to look great on desktop, mobile, and tablet devices? Need a way to deliver information awareness training that doesn’t require LMS tracking? As responsive course design becomes more prevalent, you must continue to come up with innovative ways to deliver memorable learning experiences.

Gamification is about using game elements to drive motivation and engagement. Although gamification is most effective when used to drive intrinsic motivation, it is frequently abused as an extrinsic reward system, which hinders learning. Studies have shown that learners seek more rewards in demotivating environments and that players lose interest in an activity after receiving extrinsic rewards. How do you combat bad game design and find the right balance to maintain motivation?

A government office was going through a major reorganization; there was confusion and concern about the future organization. Each division had been working with minimal contact with other divisions, which resulted in a culture of lack of trust and personal connection with other employees. The problem was intensified because employees worked in various geographic locations and time zones. Learning leaders needed to help the employees understand the new organization and purpose.

Consultants face challenging career transitions while working in fast-paced environments with high performance standards. Learning that supports such transitions requires simulation of the complex mix of skills and trade-offs that consultants face on the ground, yet traditional digital simulations often fail to incorporate that complexity.

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 606.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

You love the idea of using mobile, but you’re not sure how to get started, how to test a concept, or how to improve the design to be on the same level that mobile users are used to with their latest apps.

Most people interact with social media via their smartphone on a continual basis throughout the day. Smartphones and social media are integrated into daily life. Interactive and social learning can maximize learning opportunities by engaging in actions that people are already accustomed to.

The digital world is entering your learners’ world in a big way. Augmented reality is reshaping the way they interact with systems and websites, entertainment, and of course, education, and this change is ultimately coming to your organization!

With the ADL’s release of cmi5 in June 2016 as the xAPI profile for LMS/content communication, a wave of early-adopter authoring tools have embraced the specification. Other authoring tools have been slower to adopt cmi5, opting to rely on xAPI-enabled SCORM modules to extend tracking beyond the limited data points of SCORM.

The innovative use of mobile learning products in education has significantly increased in recent years. Mobile applications are meant to be engaging and reach beyond the walls of a classroom. Instructors and educators can use these mobile apps to increase student learning. However, the value of integrating them into the overall training is unclear. Are there added values if the organization invests in mobile apps?

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 1012.

According to the Pew Research Center, 92 percent of adults ages 18 – 29 reported watching videos on a video-sharing site. This is becoming a norm for learning and obtaining new knowledge. Live-action videos with SMEs are not always possible because of the costs and time associated with this practice. If you think advanced animation that is engaging, entertaining, and fun seems out of reach for most eLearning professionals, think again!

mLearning developers spend a lot of time developing courses. Often, the programming is needlessly repetitive, which makes the work inefficient and increases costs. In other cases, the programming leads to undesirable trade-offs because engaging interactions can be difficult and time-consuming to develop. An investigation of how to reduce repetitiveness and improve engagement might lead one to think this problem could be easily resolved through tools or templates. However, it’s not that simple.

The industry is saying that video is the way to go for online learning—great. But before you get started, it is important to think strategically about why and how video will create the most value in your course. This session will explore the best questions to ask before you incorporate (or don’t incorporate) video into your courses.

Performance support videos are everywhere. From YouTube to the workplace, you can learn pretty much anything by watching a step-by-step video. Some of these videos are good; others, not so much. So how can you be sure that the video you are producing for your client or organization is high-quality—and effective?

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Interactive videos increasingly are seen as one of the most effective ways to demonstrate a desired behavior while maximizing learner retention. However, the high cost of external video production combined with expensive interactive video authoring tools often means that this solution is out of reach for many organizations—but it doesn’t have to be.

Microlearning is a way of teaching and delivering content to learners in small, very specific bursts. Microlearning videos can teach people how to use different systems within an organization effectively and efficiently—including systems for travel, finances, document management, procurement, and more.

HBO has an app. So do other major TV channels like Comedy Central and ESPN. With major media brands like these distributing content via television-based apps, and an increasing number of people cutting the cable cord, television-based app development is a rapidly growing segment of media. Learning media and content isn’t far behind; in fact, it’s already happening. However, most developers have little understanding of the television app ecosystem and how L&D can benefit.

Many professionals developing eLearning content focus on SCORM or static content. Video is often thought of as an expensive and difficult modality, and is outsourced to agencies and external production houses. It’s so helpful for teaching others to use software, yet there is a fear of getting started with video and committing valuable time and resources to its creation. Constant changes in software interfaces add to these concerns.

Have you seen videos where a green screen or blue screen wasn’t used properly? There’s a thin green line around the edge of the actor or a green hue on their clothes, which makes the video less authentic and usable. Filming someone on a green screen can be a challenging aspect of video production.

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 409.

You got the message about the value of games in helping people learn—and you buy in! Perhaps you’ve even built some games or selected a gamified learning platform. Having a good game or a well-designed gamified initiative is only half of the equation you need for success. The other half is a comprehensive, well-thought-out implementation strategy. Without it, your likelihood of deriving business value or learning results is low.

Everyone plays games, so why not use that interest to help them improve their performance? This session will address how instructional designers and learning professionals can develop a gamification culture in their organization. By describing and experiencing the difference between gamification and gaming, you will learn how to incorporate gaming techniques into traditional eLearning designs.

Visual directions provide the framework upon which producers, editors, and animators base their content production, and many IDs introduced to today’s expanding eLearning departments lack familiarity with and experience in writing targeted visual directions for video scripts. This can result in increased costs in the form of ongoing revisions and can undermine the quality of the final product.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Organizations often spend a lot of time and money to create awesome videos for learning, but don’t track how effective the videos are. How do you know if your videos are effective? Are learners watching the videos? For how long? Having this kind of data would help you create better and more effective videos, so how do you track these types of measurements?

The mobile learning landscape is continually growing and shifting. As intimidating as those changes may be, organizations must be prepared to formulate and execute strategies to harness this growing technology. An understanding of the various devices, the appropriate content, the impact of mobile on traditional training and development, and how to make a business case for mobile in your organization are of key importance in navigating today’s mobile learning landscape.

Audio is easily neglected in online multimedia, especially for learners viewing on mobile devices with relatively substandard audio playback hardware (tiny speakers or earbuds). In fact, audio has not undergone the same rapid stylistic change that video has in the YouTube era—viewers still expect rich, clean, and well-balanced audio. Poor audio is always the first signal of an amateurish production.

As instructional designers skilled in eLearning design begin offering mobile experiences to learners, the ways in which they approach instructional design and development need to change. What works for a full-screen desktop experience doesn’t work on a mobile phone. So how can you shift your thinking to consider things like screen experience and what that means to learners? And once you’ve considered new design concerns and approaches, what development platforms should you consider to make your mobile design come to life?

Each year, PG&E Academy was spending nearly $1 million on printing costs to support required instructor-led training programs. Large binders of student materials had to be manually updated, and often would never be referenced again after training. PG&E Academy was driving to web-based training (WBT) and blended solutions that could leverage mobile devices; however, the organization needed to cover the costs of student tablets for use back on the job.

Shooting video according to the script is one thing, but what about when the content is the conversation, or an interview with live Q&A? What about when there is no power to call “Cut!” and start again? No fixing it in post? No webinar agenda? How can you best leverage live interactions without compromising the recorded asset?

Sales reps struggle to have quick and easy access to their product and services portfolio at the point of sale. Marketing, sales management, and L&D struggle to provide sales reps with the most up-to-date, consistent, and synthesized product messaging in an ongoing way. They also struggle to understand the impact their training is having on their sales reps.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

In the beginning, gamification was shiny and new and full of promise. But its reputation quickly tarnished when people misused it as a quick fix to create learner engagement. There was too much focus on extrinsic rewards and on elements like points, badges, and leaderboards (PBLs) in ways devoid of meaning to the learner. But gamification is alive and well for those who dug deeper.

Many training professionals are reluctant to start developing game-based learning. They may mistakenly believe their success depends on being able to code as a programmer, being proficient in developing animations or virtual worlds, being able to illustrate as a state-of-the-art graphic designer, or being an expert videographer. By devaluing the effectiveness of low-cost, low-tech solutions, they lose the opportunity to convince key stakeholders to fund more ambitious projects.

Feeling like you can’t get past gamification? Tired of matching, memory, or Jeopardy-style games? Everyone hits creative road blocks. Maybe you see a great example of a learning game online, but feel held back creatively by learning objectives. How do you create a serious game while ensuring you meet your learning objectives?

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 904.

You would like to design and develop animated videos, but you’re not sure how to get started or apply the tools you have to create new content. You may have a subscription to Adobe Creative Cloud but may not be sure how to get started with Adobe After Effects.

Building learning for mobile devices is not the same as building an eLearning module. At its most basic level, it requires tools and features with specific options that support mobile development. But it also requires you to take a different approach to how you should design your content. Great mobile content takes into account the needs of your mobile learners as well as the unique features that mobile learning can provide to them.

Years of momentum have resulted in numerous use cases for teams seeking to leverage xAPI to better track, measure, and manage their mobile learning efforts. It’s clear that xAPI can improve the ways you create and deliver mobile content, track interactions, and measure performance. Armed with knowledge and the proverbial “Swiss Army knife” of xAPI functions, you can begin to “slice, saw, tweeze, and pick” your way through mobile training challenges.

Professional development generally means taking time away from your work to go and learn a concept, then return to your team, who may have a “What are you going to make us do now?” attitude. Take a moment to think “what if.” What if professional development were delivered where and when it was important to you? What if you did not have to leave your team to participate in behavior-based professional development? What if your professional development created greater cohesion within your team? What if your professional development were focused directly on issues and content that were meaningful to you and your team?

Everyone has seen truly terrible training videos at some point—everything from awkward educational films that put you to sleep in school to unintentionally hilarious training videos that have you laughing more than learning. It’s abundantly clear that just because content has been put into video form doesn’t mean it’s something people want to watch. But while these training video failures may not be fantastic at what they were designed to do, there’s a surprising amount that we can learn from their mistakes.

Today, anyone with a smartphone has video capabilities—just look at the number and variety of videos posted on YouTube, Facebook, or Twitter. In addition to phones, you now have drone capabilities and cameras that you can attach to yourself and your pets or embed in your doorbell. The possibilities are seemingly endless. So how do you take advantage of these options for training?

The da Vinci Surgical System was an important medical innovation, but not necessarily one that was quick for hospital staff to learn to use. With such a complex product, hospital OR staff needed not only training on how to transport the system, set it up, and use it during surgery, but also follow-up support to help them master interacting with it in the hospital operating room. This support needed to be quick, so staff could quickly access the information necessary to work effectively with the system, and it needed to be available at any time and on any device. The solution was to blend video and performance support, creating a video portal staff could access at their exact time of need.

Many people in the eLearning realm are attempting to use gamification and serious games to spark employee engagement and drive learning retention. And while the intent is to make the best serious games that will enhance the learning objectives and help people retain content, unfortunately, they don’t always go as planned. Common issues with these unsuccessful serious games and gamified learning experiences include little to no planning, tough-to-pinpoint metrics, little to no implementation strategy, and insufficient or nonexistent post-deployment support. So what can you do to ensure your game-based project actually works?

Gamification is not just a trend. It works—when done well. Unfortunately, many organizations get caught up in the “let’s gamify everything” hype and fail to properly align game mechanics to meaningful objectives. L&D professionals continue to face stakeholder and employee objections when attempting to introduce game-based concepts. They also run into conflicting priorities when multiple game ideas are implemented without a holistic vision for employee engagement.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

As technology continues to evolve, it creates new opportunities to let people play, explore, and learn from games that include video, animation, and biometric data, and from one another. How can these new technologies support immersive learning and enable you to re-create “real” experiences in learning games?

Suggesting a mobile learning program can still raise some eyebrows in even the most progressive organizations. Concerns about security, cost, device type, and use are just a few of the barriers that can stall your efforts.

Virtual reality has exploded over the last year, extending to conversations in the mobile, gaming, and video landscape. There’s a rapidly rising interest in how to use this new technology for learning and performance. With “VR” now one of the hottest buzzwords, how much is hype and how much is substance?

Developing mobile learning solutions can become complicated if you’re not careful. One wrong turn can leave you mired in extra work you didn’t anticipate. Sometimes this happens due to design decisions. In other cases, the problem stems from choosing the wrong tool, failing to set up templates properly, or any number of other issues. Thankfully, one of the best ways to figure out how to reduce or even avoid your development complexity is simple: Look at successes and snags from previous projects.

What’s the best camera for a shoot? The definitive answer is, “The one you have with you.” The ubiquity of the mobile camera means that when you’re in the presence of great instructional content, it can become video in seconds. In addition, viewers are developing a special respect for authentic-looking video—footage that looks raw, real, and genuine. This is why many training videographers have moved to iPhones as their main production equipment, even on high-production-value shoots. So how can you benefit from this stylistic trend?

Mobile and performance support seem like a perfect team. A just-in-time performance support system can improve efficiency, reduce errors, lessen the need for upfront training, and even improve morale; and mobile devices have tremendous potential to help workers solve problems on the go. That said, designing a mobile performance support solution requires a different mindset and approach than designing traditional training. So how can you best use this pairing to improve performance?

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 714.

Mobile, video, gamification; these three trending industry technologies can increase learner engagement and drive business results (while hopefully adding some fun to the workday). Despite the sustained attention these technologies have received from learning leaders across organizations, many are still struggling to apply best practices when implementing them, or are finding subpar outcomes. A solution? Embrace outside-the-box thinking!

Instructional designers and writers are increasingly turning to branching scenarios as a way to embrace experiential learning and move beyond page-turners. But authoring an effective scenario is challenging, as the branches can become overwhelming. Moreover, if you don’t apply good game-design principles, the scenarios can turn out to be as flat, boring, and ineffective as a series of multiple-choice questions.

When a pet is undergoing anesthesia, the veterinary nurses who monitor that process are put in a high-stakes environment where the patient, not training, needs to be the focus. One organization wanted a way to bridge the gap between what veterinary nurses understood about the theories behind anesthesia monitoring, and effective real-world application of those principles. To solve this dilemma, the team needed to find a scalable solution to provide a lower-stakes environment, allowing nurses to practice the important patient assessment and remediation techniques they needed before they began actual anesthetic monitoring on the job.

Over the last decade, there has been industrywide emphasis on developing learning objects with embedded gamification elements. However, taking the concept of gamification past the singular learning objects to the more global, overall learner experience is more of a rarity.

We know that simulations are a fantastic way to allow people to practice skills in a realistic but safe environment that gives them the opportunity to learn from mistakes. However, actually sitting down and creating a simulation that feels real to your audience is definitely harder than it sounds. So learn from the industry that’s been successfully simulating real and imagined situations for years: video games! Video games aren’t just a fun diversion, there’s also a lot in common between how they’re created and the way a strong simulation should be designed.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

The role of the learning developer is expanding in scope and responsibility. Today’s learning professionals need to understand how to use mobile devices to deliver useful content at the time of need. They have to consider the complete user experience, including user context, device capabilities, mobile interface design, and audience personas. And they have to understand how all of these variables translate into a memorable experience for their audience.

As companies support using more devices to access training content, the balance between standardizing the training experience and supporting learning on the go becomes more challenging. There are distinct differences when accessing content on a computer versus a tablet or smartphone, including screen size, ways to interact with the content, and sometimes even people’s expectations of the experience. Is one experience better than the other? And is it possible to support both well?

Video is trending in L&D for good reasons. When video-based learning projects go right, they can resonate well with their audience and make a huge impact. However, when they go wrong, they can go very, very wrong. Why? Because there’s a substantial amount of financial, legal, branding, security, and relationship risk introduced when incorporating video into your learning strategy. So how can you safely create a more video-centric culture? And what processes and protocols need to be in place before you move forward?

Increasingly more participants in live online virtual training classes are joining by mobile device—which means they connect via the platform app instead of using the full desktop program. While this gives people substantially more flexibility in where and when they can access virtual training, it has a big drawback as well. Most virtual training designs assume that all tools and features will be available for learning activities, but most virtual classroom apps only have limited features. Given this challenge, it can be tricky to know how best to design virtual training content that’s engaging but that every member of your audience can fully experience.

In a world of short attention spans and the need to “break through the clutter,” how can you ensure your learning videos leave your audience remembering your message? Maybe it’s time to look outside L&D for inspiration and toward a field that already does this well: advertising. If advertisements can influence people to purchase items they don’t need, are there ways to use this field’s secrets to influence learners (and do this without their feeling manipulated)?

With an ever-increasing number of people spending more time watching online video than they do watching TV, it’s no surprise that the demand for video content is higher than ever. As you might expect, this trend is also leading to a higher expectation for video communication and training in the workplace. Fortunately, as it continues to grow in popularity, video is also becoming easier and more cost-effective for anyone to produce as long as they have the right tools to help.

Videos in learning isn't new, but the video medium is seeing rapid expansion in use, from microlearning to interactivity. Before you can move forward, you need buy-in, and that can be challenging. Barriers to approval can range from bandwidth and hosting to skill sets and equipment costs.

Learning videos can range from astoundingly effective to painfully bad. And while most people can at least create content that avoids the latter category, it’s not always easy to know what makes the difference between video content that truly resonates with your audience and content that is fine but forgettable. Thankfully, one of the best solutions is to take a closer look at examples that work well.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 506.