Sound learning theory underpins much of traditional instructional design (ID) and can greatly improve user experience, but the advent of a need-to-know-now culture is proving the art of innovation can and must work alongside the science of design. The challenge is to balance the needs of your users and the concerns of established IDs against harnessing the originality of developers who may lack a traditional background.

When you find the optimal spot between form and function, you can react more quickly to project needs, allocate resources with greater confidence, and bring your product to users faster.

In this session, you will learn to determine the variables in play for each project quicker, understand the audience you need to reach, and decide where to focus your attention and resources along the art-science continuum. You will learn how to gain buy-in from your instructional and business stakeholders by addressing their concerns and providing a bridge between traditional theory and the power of flexibility.

In this session, you will learn:

• The definition of destructional design and how it can help you overcome ID bias and its stumbling blocks
• How to leverage the benefits of combining traditional instructional design (science) with innovation (art)
• The business constraints you must consider when building a project along the art-science continuum
• How to gain buy-in from key instructional and business stakeholders

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

“Blended learning” was one of the hottest buzzwords at the dawn of the new millennium. At its worst, it was giving the learner the choice of attending the formal class in person or online. In its best and most cutting-edge application, it was a design construct focusing on combining or blending the best elements of face-to-face classes with eLearning courses to increase retention and/or reduce costs. It was a cutting-edge approach at the time, and for many organizations, this is where they currently are with applying blended learning. But the blend has changed.

In this session, you will move beyond the traditional application and dive into the next generation of blended learning. See a world where you are able to create solutions that ultimately generate true business impact, one where your toolkit moves beyond in-person classes and eLearning. You will learn about and see the new blended elements, such as: assessments for content personalization, simulations, mobile interventions, games and gamification, social learning, user-generated content, reinforcement validation, work flow learning, knowledge management, and performance support.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the history of blended learning
• A definition of next-generation blended learning
• About the tools available within the current blend and best practices for application
• About instructional intent within the next-gen blend
• What next-generation blended learning solutions look like in action

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

An eLearning template is not a set of PowerPoint master slides. A true eLearning template is so much more, and has many elements and components. While a set of master backgrounds is a great start, there are often overlooked aspects of a template that are never considered. Designers and developers often begin with raw content and begin a project in their chosen authoring environment, rather than thinking through the overall user experience. For those projects that involve multiple modules where it’s important to keep a consistent look and feel, a template approach helps keep all assets organized across modules.

In this session, you’ll explore overall template themes, color schemas, master backgrounds, interaction templates, feedback templates, and more. You will learn how themes, branding, and colors of an eLearning course and module behave, including navigation to interactions, or even how feedback is presented as part of a template structure. Additionally, you’ll explore the documentation process of an eLearning template for team sharing.

In this session, you will learn:

• The components of an eLearning template
• The components of an eLearning template style guide
• How to consider elements local to a screen, compared to global elements
• How to use branding guidelines to develop a look and feel, and a color schema

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Research proves students learn best when doing; information strengthens schemas leading to long-term retention. Yet instructors often feel bound by the constraints of an online classroom. Since they do not meet face-to-face, it can be hard to find ways to encourage active application of information and combat the student fear of failure.

In this session, you will learn about the research related to competency-based assessments. You will be able to explain how, with a few simple design elements, you and instructors can present students with a holistic learning environment which promotes active application of material and supports failure as an opportunity to enhance learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• What competency-based education is
• What recent research says related to course competencies
• How to write course objectives focused on mastering competencies
• Ways to assess competencies
• Why failure has to be an option and what to do about it

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Participant technology requirements:
None.

As Cammy Bean states, “Good writing is the single biggest factor that can make the difference between an eLearning program that bores people to death and one that gets them to pay attention.” Yet many eLearning scripts are written in large part by subject matter experts whose prose is wordy and lifeless. Developers of eLearning must often revise the scripts and storyboards of subject matter experts, most of whom are not skilled writers and who often think everything they have written should be included in the course. It can be a frustrating and time-intensive experience to revise such prose—unless you know certain techniques.

In this session, you will explore the causes for poor writing and analyze realistic examples from various courses. You will learn the hallmarks of bad eLearning prose, and then be provided six rules that will turn any clunker of a sentence into a lean, active one. In addition, the session will focus on revising sample voiceover scripts to improve the output of audio recording.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why lifeless prose is the default mode of many subject matter experts and eLearning professionals
• The hallmarks of bad eLearning prose and where it often appears in a course
• Six techniques that will turn a wordy, confusing sentence into a lean, clear one
• Special techniques for revising bad-sounding voiceover scripts

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Sketchnoting is a visual language with a hierarchy and structure similar to written language. In order to communicate visually, or in this case communicate to yourself with your own notes, you start with the visual basics and look at the building blocks. Sketchnoting is about listening, processing, and transferring the key ideas into telling a story with your notes.

This session will focus on what a sketchnote is and look at various styles of sketchnoting. You will look at ideas of how to organize your sketchnotes in a logical flow of hierarchy, whether in a row, a grid, or a column. You will learn the fundamental building blocks of organizing dots, dashes, lines, and shapes to communicate a message. You will learn the five categories that make up a well-rounded sketchnote and the differences between live sketchnoting, or shorthand sketchnoting, and cleaning up later. You will leave this session with a new set of skills to practice and apply immediately!

In this session, you will learn:

• To define sketchnotes and their various styles
• How to organize your sketchnotes in a logical hierarchy
• About the building blocks of visual communication
• About new technologies in digital sketchnoting vs. paper and pen

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

For instructional designers and facilitators, the challenge is to create learning materials that reach and affect audiences positively, and do not elicit feelings of exclusion or discrimination. However, you’re human, and every human has hidden or unconscious biases that impact our behaviors and thoughts. This can lead to unintentional missteps in design and delivery. As learning becomes more story-driven, you need to be sensitive to how you present characters, including race, gender, gender identity, and organizational roles.

In this session, using the latest neurological research, you will learn where hidden biases come from. You’ll examine how you can uncover hidden biases within yourself and others, and identify strategies to avoid hidden bias in instructional design and delivery. You’ll look at ways instructional designers and facilitators can continue the mission of inclusivity in their day-to-day work and you’ll learn what will instill pride in your organization and learners, and what will cause them to tune out or reject your learning intervention.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to accurately define the concept of hidden bias with reference to the current literature and research studies
• How to identify at least two approaches to recognizing hidden bias within yourself and others
• How to compare at least three examples of learning content or delivery where hidden bias is evident and not evident
• How to list three ways to mitigate hidden bias in instructional design and delivery

Audience:
Novice designers, project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

As trainers, we work hard to create great training. As a result, we are disappointed when our employees fail to learn or don’t transfer learning back to their workplace. We may be tempted to blame our students, but the truth is that we often fail because we don’t understand the mind of the learner. As a result, we build training modules that are not consistent with the brain’s natural means of acquisition. Teaching should be more effective, and it can be more effective once we understand how the learner’s mind operates.

In this session, you will learn seven essential principles that will help you understand how the brain controls learning and memory. Through the presented demonstrations, you will gain an exciting new understanding of the mind, which you can immediately apply to create eLearning that will effectively engage the brain and maximize learning and recall. Come prepared to have fun ... and learn.

In this session, you will learn:

• To design training and change management solutions that are compatible with the brain’s natural way of learning
• To create social learning communities that are based on psychological principles of observational learning
• To use authoring tools more effectively by understanding how the brain encodes metaphor and emotion
• To develop incentive systems that reinforce desired behaviors and that are based on established principles of conditioning

Audience:
Designers, developers, senior developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

New eLearning instructional designers often hear about the need to incorporate interaction into courses and the power of effective simulations. Some find it difficult to get started and the examples they find give a basic tree structure but do not explain how to develop the tree into a full simulation. What can you do if you are feeling overwhelmed and don’t know how to implement the best practices you are learning about?

In this session, you will learn how to get started in mapping out a simulation. The difficulties experienced in developing an online simulation will be discussed. You will learn how to use Microsoft Office programs for development, how to find resources and ideas for simulation activities, and discuss the lessons learned along the way. You will receive a template you can use when developing your own simulations and will discuss ideas for designing simulation activities.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to map out a simulation activity
• How to find resources and ideas for simulation activities
• How to get started in designing an eLearning simulation
• How to reach your learning objectives by using simulations

Audience:
Novice designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
PowerPoint.

Writing is an underdiscussed aspect of instructional design. In fact, many people get into the field without realizing that writing is a significant part of a learning designer’s job. It is difficult to do it well, and learning designers may be required to write in at least 10 different forms that involve unique styles. Yet there is no single source of instruction for writing in all of these styles.

In this session, you will gain a deeper awareness of the different writing styles learning designers need to produce on the job. You will learn the different formats and techniques one can use to make each style effective. During the session, you will be able to compare examples of successful and less successful writing. You will leave this session being able to differentiate between the requirements and styles of writing micro-copy, video scripts, test questions, and expositions, which is a basic skill that designers need to have.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to meet the needs of the varied writing requirements used in instructional design
• How to inject creativity into the driest of topics
• How to use journalistic techniques in your writing
• How to use marketing techniques in your writing

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and project managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Habits—the automatic, unconscious behaviors we undertake daily—have historically been viewed as a negative. However, habits, and how they form, have become a hot topic in fields like health care, management, and energy conservation. Positive habit building can have a major impact on organizations and individuals. And app developers are leveraging smart devices as digital support tools for habit formation.

In this session, you’ll explore what the science of behavior change reveals about the current understanding of habit formation. You’ll also learn about habit formation methods and three different examples of digital habit applications. You will learn about strategies for incorporating habit formation into your own practice, which results in consistent positive behavior that frees up cognitive activity for other, more critical use.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use the anatomy of a habit to analyze habit behaviors in your own organization
• How to implement habit formation strategies in your own workplace with planning
• How to evaluate habit formation apps
• How to create feedback and reinforcement loops to support habit formation

Audience:
Novice to advanced managers and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Curation is a term that is becoming more and more common in the learning field. Unfortunately, most people do not understand what curation is, why curation is important, how it will impact their role, and how to leverage it for their organization. And yet it is a critical future competency for those in the field.

During the session you will learn the definition of curation and the various types and levels of curation that exist (including aggregation, filtering, elevation, mash- or match-ups, and timelines). You’ll see examples of each that show the value curation adds to learning programs, as well as techniques that contributed to the examples.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to define curation and the core types of curation that will impact learning
• How curation will impact the learning industry
• Techniques to get you started with curation
• Technology’s role in curation
• Applications of curation in learning

Audience:
Those interested in learning more about the value of curation. There is no prerequisite.

Technology discussed in this session:
Various curation tools.

Did you know that the visual design of eLearning, slides, and other instructional materials have a big impact on learner success? Well-designed materials can motivate learners, improve comprehension, and assist retention.

In this session, you will learn the power principles that will have the biggest impact on your designs. You’ll look into ways that you can apply each principle for maximum success. The goal is to quickly increase your visual design skills as much as possible in one hour. You'll be surprised at how much you can improve. You don’t need to draw well to improve your visual design skills; you need to learn the foundation principles and apply them.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why aesthetics are important to learning
• How to work with shapes, images, and fonts to communicate the right message to your audience
• Tips for laying out a slide or screen so that your designs look professional
• To ensure learners quickly see what is most important
• How to create a unified look that is attractive and pleasing

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Too often, content is cranked out without understanding the audience and looking at the best options for delivering solutions. Everyone wants to be more creative, but time, budget, and resources are frequently used as a crutch.

In this session, you will learn why creativity is critical to communicating and improving learning, from content delivery to how a learner experiences the information. You’ll learn simple techniques to improve communication, present concepts, and get inspired for your next project. You will see how creativity can improve results and the simple techniques and tools to get started with, whether you don’t have a creative bone in your body or you are an artist and just need some inspiration. This session will help you unlock your brain and let the creativity start to flow.

In this session, you will learn:

• Techniques for getting more creative
• How to inspire your team to be creative
• How to get and give creative feedback
• How to best run a creative meeting or brainstorm session
• Tips and resources to get inspired

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Agile processes are all the rage due to their ability to create products faster and more efficiently. This means that instructional designers and other learning and development professionals are being challenged to approach their work with speed, flexibility, and accuracy. However, typical design and development processes fail to support this challenge.

In this session, you will learn what it means and doesn’t mean to carry out agile instructional design. You will be provided the direction and insights that learning professionals need to become more agile instructional designers. You will explore the barriers to executing an agile development approach and how to overcome them. You will also look at strategies useful to support implementation of agile instructional design in your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What it means to execute agile instructional design
• How to define the barriers to implementing an agile approach
• The strategies that will support the implementation of an agile instructional design approach
• The direction and insights that learning professionals need to become agile instructional designers

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Many speakers have aptly discussed the need for experiential, problem-based learning. These talks leave educators, consultants, and designers excited and motivated for change. But still, they are left wondering what makes experiential learning successful? And, even more, they don’t know how to effectively use technology when implementing experiential learning.

In this session, the experiential learning process will be modeled by presenting a problem to the group. The session will build curiosity, engagement, and skills that you can use again in your own training environments. You will look at questions, including how you can identify the behaviors that learners need to learn and how you can create an experience that will effectively ensure the learners can perform. You’ll learn four guiding principles to ensure that learning does happen. You will walk away with a course outline for a topic that uses experiential, problem-based learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use essential questions as a foundation for learning
• Key principals to designing experiential learning
• How creativity fits into the experiential opportunity
• How to complete a design task for an experiential learning session
• How technology supports experiential learning

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Learning portals, corporate MOOCs, and mobile approaches.

In early 2014, Jane Bozarth’s husband was diagnosed with a large tumor perched atop his brain stem like a golf ball on a tee. The story of his surgery and recovery—“Performance Matters,” which appeared in The eLearning Guild’s Learning Solutions Magazine—became the most popular piece she’s ever published. This session will explore the story, its associated observations, and issues learned throughout relevant to L&D.

In this session, you will learn, from practical examples, the importance of human-centered design and systems design. You will learn how to address performance at the moments of learning need and the important ties between learning-practice-performance. The best L&D practitioners recognize that the performer is an actor in a system and the future L&D practitioner must design beyond the past limitations of the standalone course.

In this session, you will learn:

• The significance of human-centered design for both learning and performance
• How thoughtful and intentional design considers the interaction of all elements in a system (putting the S back in ISD)
• To consider the moment of learning need(s) when designing for learning and extended performance support
• Why designing beyond a discrete learning event will be a critical skill for L&D practitioners

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Feedback not only serves to inform learners completing eLearning modules, but it can also motivate or demotivate if not properly constructed. How feedback is targeted, displayed, and conveyed can greatly impact any eLearning course’s success. Are you doing all you can to provide your learners the insights and information they need to learn all they can?

In this session, you will explore how feedback in eLearning interactions is vital for high-impact communication with the learner. You will learn several simple, yet powerful, guidelines to replace useless feedback messages (e.g., “No, try again”) with engaging instructional feedback. You will leave this session empowered to apply these principles to impact your own eLearning designs. You will be able to use intrinsic and extrinsic feedback appropriately in eLearning designs, understand how feedback should be a primary repository of content in interactions, and combine immediate feedback with delayed judgment to increase learner motivation.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to use intrinsic and extrinsic feedback appropriately in eLearning designs
• How feedback should be a primary repository of content in interactions
• How to combine immediate feedback with delayed judgment to increase learner motivation
• How to apply various principles to your eLearning designs

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

If you look at the learning solutions that are being produced today, there is still an issue with the solutions hitting the mark and moving the needle for a learner. You need to take a step back and focus on the learner, the experience you want them to have, and how to convey the information in a way that moves a learner to action outside of the learning event.

In this hands-on and active session, you will learn about the key design framework to help learning practitioners think beyond the content or information they are given to build a course, and really consider how to make it meaningful to learners. You will explore learner profiles, stories, and contextual themes to keep the learner top of mind, even when the stakeholder is focused on the information. This session will provide you with a collaborative and creative outlet to explore new ways of putting content together, and give you the tools to help explain the value that this approach produces.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to step back from the information and content, and build an effective performance-changing solution for your stakeholders
• What learner experience is and how to ensure you are designing around it
• How to create learner profiles and keep them front of mind
• How to enhance the quality of your courses, regardless of the eLearning tool
• Tips and techniques to add more engagement in your learning solutions
• How to navigate through a content/information dump session and steer the conversation back to the outcomes for the learners
• The top five things that are essential to do when you are designing your courses for learner experience

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

How often are you faced with the dilemma and the questions: “Can I use this?” or “Where can I find images, video, music, and audio I can actually use without violating copyright?” With so many media assets, such as images, video, and audio readily available online, it can be a headache to figure out what you can use for a project and what is restricted by copyright. How can you ensure you are working within the legal guidelines, but still get the job done?

In this session, you’ll take a high-level overview of copyright and intellectual property and focus on the practical application of finding works you can use. With a primary emphasis on usability rather than the restrictive nature of copyright, you will be empowered to find high quality, legally compliant resources. You’ll walk away with resources, including a decision-making flow chart, and websites that have already approved the use of their content.

In this session, you will learn:

• The differences between copyright as it applies to non-profit and commercial entities
• When you can re-use something found online and when additional permission is needed
• What Creative Commons licensing is and why it’s important to you
• How to find Creative Commons-licensed works
• How to properly provide attribution when using a Creative Commons-licensed work
• About websites and resources that provide open access and public domain works available for free use

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Open Attribute plugin.

With the dazzle of technology and tools, it’s easy to get distracted from the basic question: “What will the learner be able to do after the experience that they can’t do now?” Return to the days of accelerated learning and rediscover the nuggets needed to design learning that drives retention and fun by honoring the unique needs of each participant.

In this session, you will learn about Howard Gardner’s work in multiple intelligence and Ned Hermann’s (and Ann Nedhi-Hermann’s) work in brain dominance, as well as current memory and brain theory. You’ll learn to apply this research to simple ways, regardless of the technical limitations, to drive learning retention. Graphics, color, animation, and dazzling authoring tools are important, but only if learning occurs and performance changes. Step back from the technology and think about how to drive retention.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to leverage research to design the sequencing of learning experiences
• Memory research-based design strategies to drive retention of learning
• Audience analysis techniques using story grids
• How to map Hermann brain dominance strategies to audience roles

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

The classic eLearning lesson forces participants to read slide after slide of textual content and take an evaluation when completed. Employees retain just enough to pass the test, so they can check off yet another mandatory course. As a rule, employees dread this kind of learning but consider it a necessary evil.

In this session, you will see before and after makeovers, which demonstrate how to use scenarios and meaningful interactions to engage employees in the learning process and put the learning back into eLearning. You’ll learn best practices for making your lessons practical, useful, and effective for your audiences. By applying the principles of instructional design, producers can inject life into even the most mundane topics. The final 15 minutes will be a case study where a learning objective and scenario are presented, and you will brainstorm ideas on how to engage the learner through interaction.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to promote learning by doing
• How to build learning with scenarios, rather than on dry principles and facts
• How to convert a monologuing click next lesson into an engaging tutorial
• How a learner can have fun while completing mandatory lessons

Audience:
Novice and intermediate developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline and ZebraZapps.

A number of myths persist about the alleged, ever-shortening attention spans of people, but what does the science say? Neuroscience, behavioral economics, and consumer psychology all offer insights into how attention is managed and allocated. Additionally, the ability to manage attention and focus seems to be related to the abilities that allocate willpower and influence how decisions are made.

In this session, you will learn what current science reveals about the interaction of attention, willpower, and decision-making, and how those interactions influence the design of eLearning environments. You will explore how to engage learners’ attention and manage distraction. You will leave with a deeper understanding that will help you create more engaging and effective learning solutions.

In this session, you will learn:

• How cognitive load and glucose usage influence willpower
• How attention is allocated and managed
• How to engage learners’ attention and manage distraction
• How to use the principles of willpower, attention, and decision-making to create better eLearning

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers and managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

As learning solutions reach increasingly diverse audiences, it is not only appropriate to ensure that courses are accessible, but it’s also the law. Remaining in compliance helps you and/or your organization avoid costly legal issues. Avoid being forced to return to old content to fix current and potential issues. Start with the end in mind, and learn to build online courses and presentations right from the start.

In this session, you will learn how to make online courses accessible for all learners using ADA, Section 508, and the principles of universal design for learning. You will see the advantages provided by using a general checklist for ADA and Section 508 compliance to make online learning an accessible environment for all students. Good design using universal design principles helps learning retention, but most importantly it provides education for as many learners as possible.

In this session, you will learn:

• To design online courses for accessibility
• To implement accessibility in online presentations
• To create accessibility in your online course content
• To apply the principles of universal design for learning in online course development

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Canvas LMS, screen recording software, and presentation software.

Clients come to eLearning developers with many questions and preconceived ideas about generally what's possible and specifically what's feasible. Maybe all they've ever seen are poorly developed read-and-click courses or maybe they want rapid eLearning, but don't know exactly what that means. As a developer, you know there are many factors to consider including focus, timeline, design, scope, and content development. How can you and your client have an informed, common understanding when you have your initial discussion?

In this session, you will explore a framework and a micro-course that you can use to support the initial discussion with a client. The micro-course is freely available and includes an interactive matrix of course development factors and four versions of the same eLearning course. After this session, you can immediately use this tool with your client prior to your initial discussion so you can have an informed discussion and best meet your client's needs and expectations.

In this session, you will learn:

• Four categories of eLearning development
• How the same content can be developed into four categories of eLearning
• The key factors you should consider when planning and developing eLearning
• How to use this framework and micro-course to support your initial client discussion

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, and project manager.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Microsoft PowerPoint, and Chrome/ web browser.