LS101 Creating an Interactive Portfolio
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, March 22
Poinsettia/Quince
Whether you’re looking to showcase your work internally, seeking employment, or prospecting for clients, developing and maintaining an up-to-date portfolio will help you articulate what you do well. With a little forethought and planning, your portfolio can become one of your most valuable tools, opening up conversations and possibilities beyond your expectations.
In this session, you’ll explore the reasons why you should create a portfolio and how to effectively evaluate your design requirements for it. You’ll learn how to set realistic, achievable goals for your portfolio, and how to grow it over time without compromising confidentiality. You’ll then look at a variety of tools that can help you design and build this portfolio, and you’ll discuss what kinds of solutions you should consider including in it to best showcase your skills.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why you should create a portfolio, even if you’re not looking for a job
- How to identify the right things to focus on in your portfolio (and what not to include)
- How to plan the design and development of your portfolio
- How you can use your portfolio to get feedback on your work
- How to leverage your portfolio itself as a design example
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers and
developers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
WordPress and themes, web technologies (and
IDEs), eLearning tools, and related technologies.
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Joe Fournier
Learning Infrastructure Designer
Anthem
A long-time learning professional, Joe Fournier has been a hands-on practitioner, manager, director, and consultant to many Fortune 100 companies. He is currently a learning infrastructure designer focusing on the edge and exploring the use of technology in learning and performance contexts. Joe's current projects and interests include mobile learning, AI/machine learning, chatbots, and blockchain. Joe leads the internal Learning Innovation and AI Enthusiasts learning communities at Anthem.
LS102 Motivating Learners with Autonomy, Mastery, and Purpose
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, March 22
International South
Traditional eLearning can be dull and demotivating, a reality that runs counter to human nature. People eagerly consume and comprehend new ideas whenever they find the content engaging. They want eLearning that leverages learners’ innate desire for autonomy, mastery, and purpose.
This session will explore the underlying reasons that learning motivates or demotivates learners. You will learn how to integrate motivating strategies into your learning content design. You will see examples of these strategies applied to specific course content, from simple interactions, knowledge checks, and gamification to broader decisions like varied delivery and completion options. You’ll learn methods to leverage the inherent desire to demonstrate mastery by creating social engagement opportunities to promote peer learning and an enhanced culture of learning.
In this session, you will learn:
- About what motivates and demotivates learners
- Principles for motivating through autonomy, mastery, and purpose
- How to encourage a culture of learning
- How to create interactive conversations that encourage autonomy
- How to create gamification that encourages mastery
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers,
managers, and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate and Adobe Captivate Prime.
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Allen Partridge
Head, Digital Learning Evangelism
Adobe Systems
Dr. Allen Partridge is a learning addict with a rebellious spirit and a passion for evidence-based reasoning. Allen served on the doctoral faculties of The University of Georgia and Indiana University of Pennsylvania before joining Adobe in 2007. As Adobe's Head of Evangelism, Digital Learning Solutions, he provides guidance by relating customer experiences and challenges to the product and engineering teams that create Captivate, Presenter Video Express (PVX), and Adobe's extraordinary new learning management system, Adobe Captivate Prime. Allen is well recognized for his videos and presentations to audiences around the world. He has published a host of articles and a handful of books on topics ranging from critical thinking for business training to 3D online game development.
STR102 Creating Empowering Sales Training: Simple Solutions That Won’t Break the Bank
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Wednesday, March 22
Expo Hall: Strategic Solutions Stage
Sales training can often seem like the toughest nut to crack. You plan, design, learn new tools, hire consultants, and still you haven’t moved the needle. The sales team is the lifeblood of the company, generating revenue every day. The demand is high and the pressure strong. Those who are charged with training them face an equal challenge: improve productivity, accelerate deals, and enable individual and team success. How can you accomplish it, especially if you are a team of one?
In this presentation, you will learn about designing bite-size learning to meet the needs of the individual, driving training into the point of work. You will learn about establishing techniques to strengthen the sales core and capitalizing fingertip knowledge with mobile devices. Most importantly, you’ll learn how to make the most out of what you have (no tools, no budget, no team).
In this session, you will learn:
- How to design a blended learning solution from easily accessible tools
- How to recommend focused training solutions targeting the sales core
- How to create bite-size training modules to meet specific sales training needs
- Ways to customize training programs to respond to the unique needs of salespeople
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and
senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
Social media, mobile devices, virtual instructor-led
training, video modules, and animated PowerPoint.
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Carol Cohen
Manager, Sales Training & Enablement
Plex Systems
Carol Cohen is a manager of sales training and enablement at Plex Systems. She is a fourth-generation teacher, beginning her career as a schoolteacher and then moving to corporate training. Before joining Plex Systems, a SaaS company, Carol worked at Hewlett-Packard. She was recognized by Brandon Hall Group and ATD for her innovation in instructional design with nine awards, including two silver medals. She received the Training Industry Magazine Editor’s Choice Award for her article on social learning in 2013, and she is often tapped to present industry webinars on subjects such as mobile learning and gamification.
EME103 Prototyping and Designing Experiences: Turning Ideas into Reality
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM Wednesday, March 22
Expo Hall: Emerging Tech Stage
Whether you are creating a new project, developing an app, or launching a new platform, come learn about the latest strategies in brainstorming, prototyping, and designing your experiences. This session will highlight tools, techniques, and workflows to help you kick off any project the right way. Learn how to communicate a concept, beginning with low-fidelity prototypes; gather user feedback; and translate into high-fidelity prototypes before you start development. Get pumped and ready to get ideas out of your head and make them reality!
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Nick Floro
Learning Architect/Imagineer
Sealworks Interactive Studios
Nick Floro, a co-founder and learning architect at Sealworks Interactive Studios, has over 25 years of experience developing learning solutions, applications, and web platforms. Nick is passionate about how design and technology can enhance learning and loves to share his knowledge and experience to teach, inspire, and motivate. As a learning architect, Nick gets to sketch, imagine, and prototype for each challenge. He has worked with start-ups to Fortune 500 companies to help them understand the technology and develop innovative solutions to support their audiences. Nick has won numerous awards from Apple and organizations for productions and services.
LS201 (Re-)Creating an Immersive Leadership Readiness Program
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Hibiscus/Iris
The term “bench strength” is frequently used in relation to leadership, so it isn’t surprising that many organizations are keen to create development programs for their future leaders. However, many of these programs fail to adequately prepare employees for the demands of assuming a leadership role.
In this session, you will learn about Spectrum Health University’s experience in redesigning its leadership readiness program, Futures. You will learn about the difficult conversations and internal debates around how to develop immersive and engaging content, as well as how to select the right program participants. You will also learn how to utilize various skill sets across all team members throughout the design and development process. The session will explore various program ideas ranging from rotational experiences to immersive simulations and individual personalization via assessments, debriefs, and competency-based development plans.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to utilize all members of your team (not just instructional designers) in program development
- Why selecting the right participants leads to better learning experiences
- How to create “rotational” experiences in highly condensed time frames
- How to create "formal informality" to strengthen participant relationships
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, and directors.
Technology discussed in this session:
Social collaborative platforms, online survey tools, and online assessments.
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Tim VanderLaan
Manager
Spectrum Health
Tim VanderLaan, a manager of the Spectrum Health University, has a passion for developing leaders and making processes more efficient, programs more engaging, and participants more connected. Over the past eight years he has developed structured leadership programs, administered learning management systems, created eLearning, deployed social collaborative platforms, and helped launch a corporate university.
LS202 Sticky Learning: Ensuring Transfer
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
International Center
Very often, training is created in isolation. Stakeholders may believe that “one and done” constitutes a solution; however, in reality, training needs to be reinforced and scaffolded. The eLearning you create is one piece of the puzzle, but it needs a bit more to really stick.
In this session, you will look at the ways you can design learning for stickiness, then involve managers in the application of the learning afterward. The session will use experiential, discovery learning, and problem-solving techniques to help you ponder where you are today and consider how you can bring stickiness into your own systems.
In this session, you will learn:
- What makes learning sticky
- How to recognize problems with existing learning
- How to gain stakeholder buy-in for a more comprehensive solution
- How to articulate the tenets of the forgetting curve and describe ways to reduce its impact
- How to describe what learning transfer is and develop methods to ensure it occurs with any developed learning
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, project managers, managers, and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Learning management systems, microlearning, text reminders, and
gamification.
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Jean Marrapodi
VP/Senior Instructional Designer
UMB Bank
Jean Marrapodi, Ph.D., CPTD, has designed and developed eLearning for over 20 years in various industries and higher education. Named a Guild Master in 2016 by the eLearning Guild, she is considered an industry thought leader. Over the last 10 years, Marrapodi has presented more than 75 workshops and webinars for industry organizations and has taught over 40 graduate and undergraduate courses at New England College of Business, where she served as director of eLearning. Her expertise lies in her ability to make the complex simple, and pinpoint client needs to drive to business outcomes. She is a soup-to-nuts eLearning designer, able to single-handedly build a project from idea to rollout and work in a specific role on a project team. She is the chief learning architect at Applestar Productions, providing targeted eLearning and custom workshops for her clients.
LS203 Putting Learners on the Edge with Interactive Stories
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
International South
Too many eLearning courses are just data dumps full of facts, details, and nonessential content. These kinds of courses also often lack the necessary context to explain how all this information applies to the real world, making them both boring and ineffective. eLearning should be redesigned to better reach the audience and share content with them in a way that’s engaging and practical. And one simple but effective way to do that is through interactive stories.
Interactive stories instantly add meaning to your content. In this session, you’ll explore how you can use them to redesign your eLearning lessons so they engage learners and help them actually use what they’ve learned. You’ll find out how to craft experiences that will make your audience better appreciate the content in your eLearning and have an easier time recalling and applying it in their day-to-day work. Furthermore, you’ll get to see real examples of interactive stories in use for compliance, sales, orientation, manufacturing, and other common training situations.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to find interactive stories that match the facts of your content
- How to construct emotionally driven content
- Why short and emotional interactive stories can be more effective than long, narrative storytelling
- How to identify and edit out unnecessary content so your stories can focus on the absolute musts
- How to cut your costs and develop interactive stories rapidly
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Demos will use Articulate Storyline, Adobe Captivate,
and/or HTML5.
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Ray Jimenez
Chief Learning Architect
Vignettes Learning
Ray Jimenez, PhD, spent 15 years with Coopers & Lybrand in the areas of management consulting and implementation of learning technology solutions. Ray is the author of Workflow Learning, Microlearning Impacts Report, 3-Minutes eLearning, Scenario-Based Learning, Do-It-Yourself eLearning, and Story-Based eLearning Design. He has worked with American Bankers Association, Neiman Marcus, the U.S. Air Force, NASA, Blue Cross, Goodwill Industries, Pixar Studios, Edison Mission Group, Dendreon, Netafim, Progressive Insurance, Bridgepoint Education, and California Institute of Technology, to name a few. He is the chief learning architect for Vignettes Learning and Situation Expert.
LS207 Research Says: Current Research to Inform Practice
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Palm 4
During design and development, SMEs and stakeholders sometimes suggest ideas or practices that are antithetical to good instructional design. For example, a designer might have a stakeholder who believes it’s best to simply film a daylong stand-up training session and deliver it as one video. In this case, like so many others, it’s helpful for the designer to identify research findings to help them understand why learning should be designed differently.
In this session, you will learn the most current research regarding multimedia, visual design/usability, and assessment in eLearning. Framed as a story, this session will use scenarios in which research is used to make design decisions, and attendees will receive a list of places to look for current research to inform eLearning practices. You will receive a list of current research findings and assessments, learn how to identify how and where research is best cited for an SME, and learn how to apply findings to your design and development process.
In this session, you will learn:
- To cite research in three areas—multimedia, visual design/usability, and assessment
- To successfully use research to make data-driven decisions for design and development
- To find sources of eLearning research
- To conduct a research-based discussion with SMEs
Audience:
Novice and intermediate developers and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
N/A
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Stevie Rocco
Assistant Director for Learning Design, College of Earth and Mineral Sciences
Penn State University
Stevie Rocco is assistant director for learning design at the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences at Penn State University. Stevie has more than a decade of experience working with faculty to create and manage online learning. At Penn State, her team produces and uses tools and technologies that create quality online course experiences. In addition, Stevie consults on a wide variety of topics, including faculty development for online teaching, accessibility, usability, open source and free tools, and social media. Stevie holds a BS degree in secondary education and an MEd degree in adult education.
LS208 How Science Fiction Can Help Make Your eLearning Better!
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Edelweiss
Science fiction has always challenged people to see their world in new ways, from a glimpse at an imagined “long, long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” in Star Wars to envisioning a potential future centuries from now in Star Trek. Movies like The Matrix, Inception, Minority Report, Blade Runner, and so many others have proposed mind-blowing ideas like alternate realities, parallel universes, transporter beams, and time travel. One of the many reasons this genre is so popular is that it poses a wide range of “what-if” questions and allows its audience to play with possible answers. But these ideas can do more then just entertain you—they can also inspire your work in L&D.
In this session, you’ll explore the ways sci-fi can help you rethink how you create your content, and you’ll find out where L&D and sci-fi have some fascinating points of crossover. Come learn how to create truly engaging eLearning by applying the best ideas of sci-fi to your eLearning designs, and have fun while doing it.
In this session, you will learn:
- New approaches to find the best “what-if” ideas and determine whether they can help you reach your learners
- How to engage learners with storylines that you can borrow from the best sci-fi
- Practical ways to apply concepts from science fiction to your eLearning designs
Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
The concepts in this session are tool agnostic.
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Joe Ganci
President
eLearning Joe
Joe Ganci is the owner and president of eLearning Joe, a custom learning company. Since 1983, he has been involved in every aspect of multimedia and learning development. Joe holds a computer science degree, writes books and articles about eLearning, and is widely considered an eLearning development guru. He consults worldwide and also teaches at conferences and client sites. Joe writes tool reviews and has received several awards for his work in eLearning, including a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1999 and an eLearning Guild Master Award in 2013. His mission is to improve the quality of eLearning with practical approaches that work.
LS301 Diagnosing Behavior Change Problems
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Wednesday, March 22
Camellia/Dogwood
Most learning programs have the goal of supporting behavior change, even a change as simple as getting people to do their jobs better. Organizational learning traditionally measures desired outcomes in terms of “learning objectives,” which are fairly straightforward to identify. In contrast, identifying the root cause of behavior change problems is considerably more complex.
This session will examine the differences between analyzing learning objectives and diagnosing behavior change problems. You will explore behavior change from multiple angles, including why people do what they do today, why they may resist changing their behavior tomorrow, and more. You will leave this session with strategies you can use to diagnose behavior change problems in the organizations you support.
In this session, you will learn:
- Ways to identify the specific issues underlying difficult behavior change problems
- How to use research-based models to diagnose behavior change problems
- Specific strategies to address barriers to behavior change
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers.
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Julie Dirksen
Learning Strategist
Usable Learning
Julie Dirksen, a learning strategist with Usable Learning, is a consultant and instructional designer with more than 15 years' experience creating highly interactive eLearning experiences for clients ranging from Fortune 500 companies to technology startups to grant-funded research initiatives. She's interested in using neuroscience, change management, and persuasive technology to promote sustainable long-term learning and behavior change. Her MS degree in instructional systems technology is from Indiana University, and she's been an adjunct faculty member at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She is the author of Design For How People Learn.
LS302 Ten Lessons Learned in My First Year in eLearning
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Wednesday, March 22
Narcissus/Orange Blossom
eLearning professionals are expected to take on a wide variety of very different roles. Sometimes you’re the eLearning developer, graphics designer, narrator, or videographer. Other times you may act as the project manager, researcher, or even the department’s tech guru. It’s no surprise that this can be a daunting and sometimes scary prospect for those new to the industry, leaving them feeling insecure, overwhelmed, and unsure of where to begin.
In this session, you’ll learn 10 fundamental tips and strategies that can help any new eLearning professional survive their first year in the L&D field. These practical tips will range from visual design to content development, project management, and more. You’ll spend time learning about each tip in detail and then see specific examples of how they’ve been successfully applied in real life.
In this session, you will learn:
- Ten tips to help you become a more confident and successful eLearning professional
- About the importance of setting high expectations for your work
- Important things no one else will tell you when you start your first eLearning job
- How to cultivate continued success and confidence beyond your first year in eLearning
Audience:
Novice designers, developers, and project
managers.
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Tim Slade
Creator
The eLearning Designer's Academy
Tim Slade is a speaker, author, award-winning freelance eLearning designer, and creator of The eLearning Designer's Academy. Having spent the last decade working to help others elevate their eLearning and visual communications content, Tim has been recognized and awarded within the eLearning industry multiple times for his creative and innovative design aesthetics. Tim is also a regular speaker at international eLearning conferences, a recognized Articulate Super Hero, and author of "The eLearning Designer's Handbook."
LS303 How to Motivate Customers to Complete Training
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Wednesday, March 22
Palm 4
In the customer training world, L&D professionals often have difficulty convincing their customers to complete coursework. This audience consists of busy professionals who increasingly want training they can take at their own pace, on their own time. While in theory this approach has benefits for both companies and customers, in practice there can be real challenges in trying to convince customers to prioritize this non-mandatory training over their other pressing work tasks and deadlines.
In this session, you’ll learn techniques to overcome the barriers associated with non-mandatory training and motivate your customers to make taking your courses a priority. You’ll explore the strategies and tactics behind using incentives to encourage people to complete training and understand the different stakeholders who need to get involved in order to make them happen. You’ll also learn how to use data to assess the effectiveness of your incentives so you can adjust your approach when necessary.
In this session, you will learn:
- About specific incentives that can encourage completion of non-mandatory training
- Techniques for implementing incentives across different organizations
- How to use data to evaluate incentives
- About the pros and cons of using gamification as an incentive for completing coursework
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, managers,
and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Learning management system (LMS) and gamification
software.
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Linda Schwaber-Cohen
Head of Training
Skilljar
Linda Schwaber is head of training at Skilljar. Her expertise lies in building and growing onboarding and training programs at software startups. After teaching for several years in K-12 and university settings, she shifted gears and began to develop programs to help customers adopt and see the value in B2B software purchases. Prior to joining Skilljar, a Seattle-based customer onboarding and training platform, Linda managed customer onboarding and enablement at Simply Measured, a social media analytics SaaS company.
LS307 Designing for Learner Success
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Wednesday, March 22
Edelweiss
With so much of your design work focused on smooth navigation, creating engaging content, and crafting complex interactions, you may overlook a basic issue: Can people actually be successful with the course? Design flaws such as overload, ineffective use of multimedia (especially narration), and poor assessment items are just some of the ways an “engaging” course can still cause people to stumble.
Join this session to take a closer look at the most common, but also easily fixable, issues that can trip up learners. You’ll find out how context failures, interaction failures, attitude failures, or even reality failures can make an otherwise well-designed course ineffective. You’ll then discuss a wide range of ways that designers can avoid or correct these problems, helping to ensure that your audience can get the most out of your course.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to identify which tools are best suited to your audience, organization, and instructional goals
- How to better understand tools at their root so you can leverage them in more useful ways
- Ideas for partnering with your audience to create more user-generated content
- Ideas for overcoming resistance and common objections
- Hands-on tips for using these tools to create a solution for your workplace challenges
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
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Jane Bozarth
Director of Research
The Learning Guild
Jane Bozarth, the director of research for the Learning Guild, is a veteran classroom trainer who transitioned to eLearning in the late 1990s and has never looked back. In her previous job as leader of the State of North Carolina's award-winning eLearning program, Jane specialized in finding low-cost ways of providing online training solutions. She is the author of several books, including eLearning Solutions on a Shoestring, Social Media for Trainers, and Show Your Work: The Payoffs and How-To's of Working Out Loud. Jane holds a doctorate in training and development and was awarded the Guild Master Award in 2013 for her accomplishments and contributions to the eLearning community.
STR106 Cohort, Support, Report: A Blended Learning Approach to Sales
3:00 PM - 3:45 PM Wednesday, March 22
Expo Hall: Strategic Solutions Stage
When your organization is located all across North America, it’s no surprise that it can be a challenge to deliver in-person sales training events. Sylvan Learning needed to find a different approach, and the best option was a blended one. But while blended learning made strategic sense, the team still needed to find a way to use this approach to engage learners while still providing the same level of interactivity as an instructor-led event.
In this case study session, you’ll take a deeper look at how a blended learning, cohort approach to sales training can engage business owners and employees alike. Through the Sylvan Learning team’s experiences, you’ll find out how you can use individual coaching support, instructor-led webinar sessions, and ongoing learning opportunities to engage your audience even when you can’t be in the same room with them.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to provide sales training using a distance learning model
- How to support participants through a learning community after the initial training event
- How to use a cohort approach to training
- How to engage business owners in employee training by reporting results
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, managers,
and directors.
Technology
discussed in this session:
LMS (Cornerstone) and webinar technology (WebEx).
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Sherri Vaughn
Director, Sylvan University
Sylvan Learning
Sherri Vaughn, the director of Sylvan University at Sylvan Learning, has led her team in creating dynamic and engaging training using a blended learning approach for the past four years. She has over 13 years of experience designing, developing, and facilitating training in the fields of banking, healthcare, and currently, education.
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Erin Sumpter
Instructional System Designer
Sylvan Learning
Erin Sumpter is an instructional systems designer for Sylvan Learning. She joined the Sylvan corporate training team in 2015 after working for Sylvan franchisees for nearly eight years. Erin has also taught at the middle school level.
EME107 The Path from Instructional Design to Learning Experience Design
4:00 PM - 4:45 PM Wednesday, March 22
Expo Hall: Emerging Tech Stage
Instructional design focuses on only a small portion of the learning process—instruction. Much learning also happens through experience, supported by social feedback, content, and some formal instruction (70:20:10 sums it up). This broader approach that looks at the entire learning process goes by a different name: learning experience design (LXD). And while instructional design isn’t dead as a concept, it is finding itself being subsumed by LXD, allowing for a deeper perspective on how designers can provide the experiences that people need to develop job skills.
In this session, you’ll find out more about the guideposts on the path to becoming a learning experience designer. You’ll visit the key disciplines that inform LXD, including design thinking, user experience design, and cognitive science. You’ll also explore how to use technology, especially mobile and xAPI, to support and track learning experiences. Finally, you’ll walk through a simple process for designing learning experiences that produce measurable results.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the key steps in becoming a learning experience designer
- How to apply design thinking, user experience design, and cognitive science principles to the design of learning experiences
- A six-step process for learning experience design
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, managers, directors, and senior leaders
(VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
General application of xAPI and mobile devices.
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Marty Rosenheck
Chief Learning Strategist
Cognitive Advisors
Marty Rosenheck, PhD, CEO and chief learning strategist at Cognitive Advisors, provides talent development, learning experience design, and learning technology ecosystem consulting. He is a thought leader and sought-after consultant, speaker, and writer on the application of cognitive science research to learning and performance. Marty has over 30 years of experience. He has created award-winning learning experiences, designed learning ecosystems, developed cognitive apprenticeship programs, built performance support systems, conducted needs assessments, specified learning paths, constructed virtual learning environments, and developed formal, informal, and social learning strategies for dozens of nonprofit and for-profit organizations.
LS401 Get Inside Your Audience’s Mind: Creating a Learner Profile
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Palm 4
By creating a learner profile, you will be better able to avoid building training that is ineffective, undesirable, and lacking relevance for your learners. By doing research up front about all aspects of your learners, you will be able to leverage those details to create impactful training that will capture their attention.
This session will explore a proven approach to getting to know your learners in depth, answering questions like: Who are they? Where do they live? What do they do? What do they eat for breakfast? You will learn why this is important to all roles on a project (ISD, PM, GD, etc.). In addition, participants will build a learner profile on the spot using an audience member to create an actual learner avatar. Additionally, you will explore the potential downfalls of NOT performing a thorough learner analysis.
In this session, you will learn:
- About a proven approach to creating a learner profile
- How to create a learner profile
- About the benefits (to all team members) of a comprehensive learner profile
- What can happen when an adequate learner profile isn’t created prior to the start of a project
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and project
managers.
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Melissa Jones
Instructional Designer Associate
TLS Learning
Melissa Jones is an instructional designer associate with TLS Learning. As a classroom teacher turned instructional designer, Melissa interlaces her passions for psychology and impactful user experience to design performance-changing learning solutions. She earned an instructional design certificate from the University of Wisconsin–Stout, and she is currently a student at Purdue University in the master’s program for learning design and technology.
LS409 Now You Try It! Designing Performance-Based Software Simulations That Stick
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Narcissus/Orange Blossom
Organizations implement new software all the time, especially with the constantly changing technology landscape. A healthcare organization was tasked with training thousands of non-clinical associates, nurses, and physicians when it implemented a new electronic health record. The burning question was: How do you teach people new software in a way that sticks? How do you provide learners with authentic context to practice what they’ll actually do on the job?
During this session, you’ll learn innovative ways to move beyond the traditional “watch me do it” approach to software training. You’ll explore methods for engaging with SMEs to get the content you need and then turning that content into “sticky” interactions that teach software in the real context of how learners will use it on the job. You’ll walk away with artifacts, templates, and concrete ideas for creating performance-based software simulations and just-in-time performance support. And finally, you’ll be prepared to transfer these takeaways to your own pressing training needs.
In this session, you will learn:
- Concrete tips for building performance-based software simulations
- How to blend “watch it” and “try it” methods into meaningful software training
- How to design job aids that are clear, concise, and helpful
- How to gather end-user and SME input in focus groups and usability testing
- How to create a workflow across multiple instructional designers to ensure a consistent end product
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers, and managers.
Technology
discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline 2 and Screencast-O-Matic.
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Eric Kinne
Senior Director, Learning Design
MedStar SiTEL
Eric Kinne, the senior director of learning design at MedStar Health’s Simulation, Training and Education Lab (SiTEL), is responsible for driving the design and development of digital learning solutions for a large healthcare system in the Mid-Atlantic region. His teams collaborate to create educational experiences that are meaningful, relevant, interactive, media-rich, and engaging. Prior to joining MedStar SiTEL, Eric spent 10 years in K-12 education as a high school English teacher. He earned recognition as a teacher of the year several times and a National Teaching Ambassador Fellow with the US Department of Education. He holds a master’s degree in education from Harvard University.
T108 It’s Time for the Family Feud: L&D Edition
5:15 PM - 6:00 PM Wednesday, March 22
Expo Hall: Tools and Tech Stage
Have you always wanted to play Family Feud but are a bit camera shy? Now is your opportunity! Join this session during the expo reception, where we’ll be looking for audience participation to field two “family” teams. Topics may include best practices, emerging trends and technologies, and common pain points. A game of Family Feud wouldn’t be complete without each member of the winning “family” going home with a prize! Each member of the winning team will walk away with a Bose Wireless Speaker. Let’s play the Feud!
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Carol Leaman
CEO
Axonify
Carol Leaman is the CEO of Axonify, a disruptor in the corporate learning space and innovator behind the world’s first employee knowledge platform. Previously, she was CEO of several other tech companies, including PostRank, a social engagement analytics company she sold to Google. Carol is a thought leader whose articles appear in various publications; she also sits on the boards of many organizations and advises high-tech firms. Carol’s awards include the Waterloo Region Entrepreneur Hall of Fame Intrepid Award (2011) and the Sarah Kirke Award (2010) for Canada’s leading female entrepreneur. She is a finalist for the Techvibes Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2017).
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JD Dillon
Chief Learning Architect
Axonify
JD Dillon became a learning and enablement expert over two decades working in operations and talent development with dynamic organizations including Disney, Kaplan, and AMC. A respected author and speaker in the workplace learning community, JD continues to apply his passion for helping people around the world do their best work every day in his role as Axonify's chief learning architect. JD is also the founder of LearnGeek, a workplace learning insights and advisory group.
LS502 How Design Can Help Elevate Your Work and Your Thinking
10:45 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, March 23
International Center
eLearning and instructional professionals constantly crave new approaches to design, and they regularly grapple with how best to incorporate design thinking into their workflows. Many experienced designers find themselves struggling to enhance usability, influence perception, and make better design decisions. For the instructional designer, the ability to add techniques that “teach through design” can validate creative prowess and yield enhanced interactive and visual solutions in learning materials.
In this session, you will learn advanced design methods that can elevate your approach to design thinking and expand your design vision for better learning and education products. You will explore and discuss how advanced-level design approaches and contextual design process abilities are part of the critical skill set instructional designers command. By attending, you will build your advanced conceptual utility and discover new ways to enhance learning experiences.
In this session, you will learn:
- About advanced design-thinking approaches embedded across design disciplines
- About contextual design methods to influence perception and usability
- Strategies for teaching through design
- How to think and teach through design by adding 10 new advanced techniques
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers,
project managers, managers, and directors.
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John DiMarco
Associate Professor
St. John's University
John DiMarco is a communication arts professor, author, consultant, and designer. He helps people and organizations with technical, persuasive, and instructional communication. Professor DiMarco teaches both online and classroom courses at St. John’s University in New York City. His latest book, published by Pearson Learning, is titled:Career Power Skills. He is the author of Digital Design for Print and Web: An Introduction to Theory, Principles, and Techniques (Wiley 2010) and Web Portfolio Design and Applications (Idea Group 2006). John is the founder of PortfolioVillage.com and has worked on projects for Canon USA, GSK, Wiley, and St. John’s University.
STR202 Reimagining the New-Hire Experience for the Modern Learner
11:00 AM - 11:45 AM Thursday, March 23
Expo Hall: Strategic Solutions Stage
How do you take a traditional learning experience like new hire training and radically reimagine it for today’s learner? More importantly, why should you want to change your approach? There’s a growing consensus in the L&D industry that new employees learn more on the job than they do through formal learning events. Nonetheless, L&D is in a unique position to shape the experience of new employees from day one, which presents a prime opportunity to create a lasting impact as they begin their new roles.
In this session, you’ll learn how to plan and execute a transformation of your new hire experience. You’ll find out how to leverage the best in ed-tech to design a new-hire program that reflects how people learn not only at work, but in their daily lives as well. You’ll look at how this approach should change your design, such as how techniques like interactive video can connect new employees to both company culture and to experienced employees, and also go beyond tactical learning design techniques to better understand how to package and sell your new-hire vision to key business stakeholders.
In this session, you will learn:
- How video-based narratives can drive adoption of company culture
- Strategies for planning and executing a large-scale new-hire transformation
- Authentic ways to facilitate co-creation of knowledge among new employees
- Techniques for connecting new employees through social communities
- Tips for selling your vision to key business stakeholders
Audience:
Intermediate designers, managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology discussed in this session:
Interactive video.
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Allan McKinley
Principal Learning Consultant
Capital One
Allan McKinley is a principal learning consultant at Capital One. He has designed learning experiences in partnership with organizations including Drexel University, University of Michigan, Corporate Executive Board, MIT, and Penn State University. He has also advised and consulted numerous Fortune 500 companies on creating digital, social-collaborative learning journeys. Allan’s areas of focus include video-based learning, social learning, and virtual communities that showcase and leverage peer expertise. Allan has degrees from the University of Delaware and Saint Joseph’s University, and spent the early portion of his career as a journalist and writer.
STR203 Delivering Effective Interactive Health and Safety Training to the Front Lines
12:00 PM - 12:45 PM Thursday, March 23
Expo Hall: Strategic Solutions Stage
This session is a regulatory training case study focusing on a competency course that works on any device, tablet, or PC and provides xAPI analytics and competency data. This approach allows for third-party hosted training to be distributed through content providers by integrating to LMSs using SCORM, AICC, or APIs provided by the LMS or other systems. Along with diagrams of the same approach with multiple Riptide Elements clients, the session will focus on the case study as an innovative solution for food safety team members who manufacture and supply FDA-regulated products around the world.
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Nick Washburn
Chief Product Officer
5th Logic
Nick Washburn, Chief Product Officer at 5th Logic, has over 15 years of experience working with high-tech entrepreneurs, in distance learning, and for some of the world’s top brands. Nick is a member of the workgroup that created the Experience API (xAPI), and he continues to work in and be involved in research and development for xAPI/LRS strategies for today’s learning enterprise. Since 2005, Nick has led the development of award- winning distance learning solutions used by the Fortune 50/500 and US Department of Defense.
Kathryn Birmingham
Vice President, Research & Development
ImEPIK
Kathryn Birmingham is the vice president of research and development for ImEpik. Kathryn ensures product and service standards for research-based interactive online training and leads teams that provide training solutions while tracking impact. Kathryn’s expertise is melding business training and academic curriculum standards to bring learning to scale.
EME204 Sales Event Planning and Execution: Choose Your Own Adventure in Training
1:00 PM - 1:45 PM Thursday, March 23
Expo Hall: Emerging Tech Stage
The ability to plan and execute successful events, promotions, and incentives is a key skill for any sales professional. But, what if your salespeople are dispersed? How can they get the support they need when they need it? How do they know if they’re making the right decisions? And, most importantly, how can an organization ensure that these sales events are worth the investment in the first place?
In this session, you’ll dive into details of a learning solution created for just this type of audience—Xfinity indirect account executives who primarily supported external retail partners. You’ll learn how the L&D team worked to solve this issue with thoughtful training and performance support. You’ll look at how they began assessing the situation with a targeted survey, walk through their design process, and see their final output: content that included engaging live-action video, an interactive training guide with embedded support tools, and an online game that measured whether the audience was ready to begin planning and executing their own events. Through exploring the process used to design this content, you’ll gain ideas and approaches for creating your own blended learning solutions.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to position a survey and ask the right questions for maximum results and input
- How to approach designing a self-paced learning solution to support a dispersed audience
- Options for using interactive PDFs to serve as both the foundation for training and on-the-job performance support
- Tips for planning and executing learning media, such as live-action video with actual employees and online “choose your own adventure” games with customized video feedback
- How this learning solution drove sales results, increased leader buy-in, and fostered audience engagement
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
SurveyMonkey, Adobe AfterEffects, Adobe
InDesign, and Articulate Storyline 2.
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Britney Cole
VP, Innovation
Blanchard
As vice president of innovation and the head of the Blanchard Innovation Lab and Experience Center, Britney Cole is a visionary leader who positively impacts lives through cutting-edge solutions that drive personal, professional, and organizational growth. With nearly 20 years of experience in corporate training and leadership development, Britney is a highly sought-after consultant, speaker, and thought leader. Her mission is to help employees learn new skills, enable managers to lead their teams effectively, and assist executives in running their businesses.
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Sara Berry
Program Manager, Retail/Indirect
Comcast
Sara Berry, a program manager for learning and development at Comcast, designs dynamic training material for Xfinity sales reps, ranging from interactive PDFs to live virtual training sessions. Prior to Comcast, she designed and developed engaging training and marketing material for AT&T sales reps. Sara started her career as a trainer with the Nielsen Company, where she onboarded new employees for its TV ratings. Sara is passionate about condensing complex content into simple yet impactful information. She’s fascinated with branding and logos and is also a graphic designer.
LS601 Story: The Wholistic Design Approach
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Thursday, March 23
Palm 3
With tight timelines and rapid development tools, people on your team often find themselves on the hamster wheel of endless production. Out of context, this production machine seems very much alive and in sync with corporate needs. But is it? A six-word story experiment asked people to share their experience with corporate training—and not a single one of these stories offered a happy ending. Even with only six words, stories can weave an intricate web of emotions and events. What if you could capitalize on the power of story to redirect the efforts of your team and bring out everything human about your organization?
In this session, you’ll find out what an instructional story is and learn the three most powerful aspects of story that can transform your organization. Using instructional story design and a variety of technical options, you’ll address corporate learning needs with a wholistic approach, integrating technology, people, and information. Your organization will never be the same.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the difference between vignettes and instructional stories
- About the fundamental concepts for instructional story design
- About the three most powerful aspects of story for transforming organizations
- How to experiment with various technical and non-technical approaches of story distribution
- How to develop an action plan for building relationships that add to the corporate story
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
PowToon, Aurasma, Poll Everywhere, survey tools,
internal/external social sharing platforms, social brainstorming, email, xAPI,
and a whole host of simple, complex, free, and expensive tools that can be used
in new ways for instructional story design.
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Katie Stroud
Master Story Crafter
Incremental Success
Katie Stroud is a master story crafter at Incremental Success. Her roles in instructional design, technical writing, and consulting led her to develop a story-based approach to address the unspoken culture that lingers in every corporate initiative. The process is based on scientific studies that explain why people do what they do. It helps to find what inspires them to change behaviors in support of corporate goals.
LS602 Getting Started with eLearning Storyboards
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM Thursday, March 23
Hibiscus/Iris
Storyboarding an eLearning project is a process. There is no right or wrong way to document the design of eLearning, and there is no rule that a project even needs to use the storyboarding process in some circumstances. Because of this, the choices for storyboarding techniques and procedures can be overwhelming if you’re new to the process, and it’s no surprise that some people decide to skip it entirely. But storyboarding can, in the long run, help your project development run smoother, encourage buy-in from your stakeholders or clients, and allow you to create projects you’re more satisfied with—it’s just a matter of determining a storyboarding process that works for you.
In this session, you’ll look at the essentials of eLearning storyboards and find out how to get started yourself. You’ll explore how storyboards are not just three-column documents or a deck of slides—they are a collection of documents that define every aspect of your project. This session will show you many of the storyboarding documents and procedures you can consider using in your own work, from a main storyboard that documents the instructional design to style guides, visual modeling, and more.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the essential documentation that goes into a storyboard
- About various storyboard documents that address different aspects of an eLearning project
- How style guides are an essential supporting storyboard document
- Why assessment storyboards are independent of the main storyboard
Audience:
Novice designers and developers.
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Kevin Thorn
Director of Development
Artisan E-Learning
Kevin Thorn holds an EdD in instructional design and technologies and is an award-winning eLearning designer and developer. He is the director of development for Artisan E-Learning, and principal owner of NuggetHead Studioz, LLC., a boutique studio specializing in consulting and developing custom learning experiences. Kevin combines his skills in technology, instructional design, eLearning development, illustration, graphic design, animation, video, and educational comics to develop innovative learning solutions. He is a well- known industry speaker and trainer in visual communication, eLearning development, and design workflows and is a certified facilitator in LEGO® Serious Play® methodologies. ?
LS701 Neuroscience and Learning: What the Research Really Says!
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Thursday, March 23
International Center
Neuroscience is one of the hottest topics in training and education, so it’s no surprise if you’re drawn to this research as a source of wisdom for your learning designs. Yet despite its promise, neuroscience is a fairly young field. Questions remain. Are neuroscience findings valid? Are they relevant to learning design? Are they useful?
In this session, you’ll take a closer look at the research on neuroscience and what it actually shows (or doesn’t show) about how people learn. You’ll debunk myths, pinpoint misconceptions, and get practical advice for how to approach neuroscience recommendations. The session will utilize challenge questions, research briefs, guided discussions, and opportunities for practical reflection to enable a deep and informed review of the latest neuroscience research revelations.
In this session, you will learn:
- What the research says about neuroscience and learning
- What the research says about neuroscience beliefs
- How to approach neuroscience findings from a practical perspective
- What other sources of learning research are of critical importance
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers, developers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
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Will Thalheimer
Founder
Work-Learning Research
Will Thalheimer, PhD, MBA, is a world-renowned speaker, writer, researcher, and consultant focused on research-based best practices for learning design, learning evaluation, and presentation design. Will wrote the award-winning book Performance-Focused Learner Surveys (second edition); created LTEM, the Learning-Transfer Evaluation Model, the Presentation Science Workshop, and co-created the eLearning Manifesto. Will has the honor of being a Learning Guild Master.
LS702 You Decided to Be a Freelancer. Now What Do You Do?
2:30 PM - 3:30 PM Thursday, March 23
Poinsettia/Quince
Outsourcing of T&D is becoming more frequent, providing a large gap for freelancers to fill. But deciding to move to freelancing means you’ll need to find answers to a wide range of business concerns that you likely never had to worry about as an employee. What kind of business should you establish? How can you thrive in a competitive landscape? What do you need to put in place to protect both your new business and yourself?
In this session, you’ll learn the core concepts that every freelancer should know as they begin their new business. You’ll find out the basics of selecting the type of business to form and the business insurance you should consider when you get started. You’ll explore the kinds of work you can take on by looking at the pros and cons of direct and subcontract-type work. You’ll also discover why a webpage and a portfolio are vital to your ability to market your services.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the two types of freelance work and the pros and cons of each type
- About the three types of insurance you should consider having as a freelancer and what each type covers
- Why you should register as a business, and about the different types of businesses you may register as
- About the benefits of creating your business webpage and portfolio
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
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Michelle Jackson
CEO
Tilak Learning Group
Michelle Jackson has over 30 years' work experience in talent development, working in both higher education and corporate environments. She founded Tilak Learning Group in 2012. As an experienced instructional designer and developer, she understands the importance of identifying the expected outcomes in knowledge, behavior, and attitude that must be attained to effect change within an organization. Michelle has a master's degree in international and intercultural management with a focus on training and education; is a Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD); and has spoken at various regional and national conferences.
LS801 Shifting from Creation to Curation
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Thursday, March 23
International North
It has been a bit of an uphill battle for clients and learning professionals to make the shift from content creation to curation. You should always be looking to see what exists before you get into creating or customizing new instruction.
In this session, you will learn how to navigate the shift from mostly creation to mostly curation from an instructional design, stakeholder, and learner perspective. The session will provide solutions to questions such as: How do people learn from simply viewing a video or reading an article? What if you need a customized approach for learners’ specific needs? Is curated content a fit for everyone? And if most of the content provided is curated, what will be customized?
In this session, you will learn:
- How to shift to a curation mindset
- How to start a design with curation in mind
- How to integrate curation with creation effectively
- How to address common misunderstandings and myths about curation
- How to address concerns of IDs, stakeholders, and learners when it comes to curating vs. creating
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, managers, directors, and senior
leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
Degreed, River, Learner Community, and possibly Mobile
Coach.
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Gina Ann Richter
Sr. ID Strategist
Conduent Learning
Gina Ann Richter is a senior instructional design strategist with Conduent Learning. A curious lifelong learner, Gina is action-oriented and has a good imagination, an inquiring intellect, ingrained ethics, and a desire to excel. She holds a PhD and has nearly 20 years of experience strategizing, consulting, managing, and designing effective and instructionally efficient learning experiences. These include the use of blended, virtual classroom (asynchronous/synchronous), curation, learning ecosystems, a 70:20:10 structure, collaborative, virtual, and self-paced asynchronous eLearning within corporate settings. She has also designed, developed, and delivered bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree–level courses for several academic institutions.
LS802 Collaborative Instructional Design in a Virtual Environment
4:00 PM - 5:00 PM Thursday, March 23
Poinsettia/Quince
The benefits of collaboration are well known, and today the tools available to extend collaborative efforts across time and space (geography) are plentiful. However, merely having collaborative platforms doesn’t necessarily mean collaboration will happen.
This session will discuss successful, rapid learning design collaboration in a virtual remote work world. It will focus on roles, tools, and communication to leverage design capabilities to rapidly develop virtual learning aids and performance support. Examples of projects at various stages of development may be shared during this session (from storyboard to launch) to illustrate the process while discussing best practices. This session will explore collaborative instructional design in a virtual environment—specifically, how instructional design teams can work collaboratively while members are in geographically separate locations.
In this session, you will learn:
- About various communication tools that are advantageous to remote teams
- About best practices for remote collaboration
- About pitfalls to be avoided during remote collaboration
- Why clear delineation of tasks and roles is critical to project success
- About the benefits of remote collaboration
Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and
managers.
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Gretchen Luongo
Instructional Designer (eLearning)
US Army
Gretchen Luongo is an instructional designer of eLearning for the US Army, and has worked for the Army for over 15 years. She has been a senior web-based instructional designer for the Army School for Family and MWR for nearly a decade, during which time she has worked remotely from a home office. During this time, Gretchen developed 14 eLearning courses, participated in a pioneer virtual training project team, and developed interagency partnerships between the US Navy and Army, sharing training resources to benefit both. She holds a bachelor of fine arts degree from the University of New Hampshire.
Kimberly Rodrigues
Instructional Designer
US Army
Kimberly Rodrigues is an instructional designer for the US Army, and has worked for the Army School for Family and MWR (SFMWR) for over a decade. In this role, she has developed over 16 eLearning courses and has hosted and taught blocks of instruction for virtual and classroom courses. Kim has cultivated partnerships with the Marine Corps and Army Installation Management Directorates to share eLearning resources and learning management system (LMS) capabilities to capitalize on SCORM. She also oversees the SFMWR contracts administration and execution of the annual budget. Kim holds a master’s degree in business administration from Nichols College.
LS901 Cut the Scrap: Making Sure All Your Training Gets Used
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, March 24
International North
It’s estimated that 50 to 90 percent of training is “scrap learning”—content that is delivered but never actually applied back on the job. Scrap learning serves no practical purpose and is essentially a waste of everyone’s time. L&D professionals can’t help but be uncomfortable with those figures, but nothing in their traditional training bag of tricks has proven capable of eliminating that waste. It’s time to alter the training paradigm.
In this session, you’ll examine the heart of the scrap learning problem and experience its most effective antidote. Instead of trying to get workers to internalize all of the relevant knowledge before they need it (an impossible task), L&D professionals should instead capture the knowledge and tools the workers need and disperse that guidance into the workplace, where they can quickly assess and apply it directly to the work they are doing. This session will demonstrate how to assemble such mini-performance support to help you significantly “cut the scrap” in the training you deliver.
In this session, you will learn:
- Why so much of training becomes scrap learning
- How just-in-time guidance ensures effective application of the training on the job
- What models you can use for assembling effective mini-performance support to provide guidance at the point of performance
- How integrating performance support into your training can make the course itself more effective, more efficient, and considerably more engaging
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers,
managers, directors, and senior leaders (VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology
discussed in this session:
The session will demonstrate several web-based models
(viewable on all standard devices) that attendees can follow to augment and
expand their training into the workplace.
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Hal Christensen
President
QuickCompetence
Hal Christensen, President at QuickCompetence, has been providing organizations with strategic guidance and solutions to improve employee performance for three decades. An early pioneer of the performance support movement, he has successfully introduced performance support solutions into many organizations in the financial, healthcare, telecommunications, and energy industries. Hal chairs the ATD NY Performance Support SIG and also teaches an online course, Creating Effective Performance Support Solutions.
LS902 Reach Your Target Audience by Exposing Hidden Assumptions
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, March 24
Fuschia/Gardenia
Training professionals typically fall along a continuum with varying levels of access to their target audience. That amount of access often influences, consciously or not, the techniques they use to analyze their audience. Without adequate awareness of this continuum and where they fall on it, designers risk depending on their own assumptions about their target audience and may end up overlooking more effective analysis strategies that can improve training.
In this session, you’ll discover where you fall along this continuum, identifying your own level of access to your target audience, and find out how unexamined assumptions about your audience may be impacting your training design. Based on that information, you’ll explore tips, tricks, and techniques drawn from case studies for how you can reach your audience more effectively. In this knowledge-sharing session, you’ll also uncover how techniques used by other L&D professionals can have a bearing on your design decisions, allowing you to better serve your audience.
In this session, you will learn:
- Where you fall along a continuum, identifying your level of access to your target audience
- How unexamined assumptions about your audience may be impacting your training design
- Tips, tricks, and techniques for how you can reach your audience more effectively
- How techniques used by other L&D professionals can uncover previously missed opportunities to better serve your learners
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and developers.
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Dawn Reynolds
Senior Instructional Designer
Management Concepts
Dawn Reynolds, a senior instructional designer at Management Concepts, has over 15 years of experience as a researcher and instructional designer developing face-to-face, online, and blended training. She also has over a decade of experience teaching diverse learners, from first-generation college students to adults learning English in an adult education program. Dawn places an emphasis on compassionate instructional design, learner-centered virtual training, and mentoring new instructional designers.
LS903 Best-Practices Training Should Steal from Software Development
8:30 AM - 9:30 AM Friday, March 24
Palm 3
Agile design processes are beginning to change the ways that people create training content. While agile design appeared in the L&D space only in the last few years, they took hold in the software industry much earlier, starting in the mid-1990s. Clearly there is overlap between L&D and the software industry, and if agile design works in both worlds, what other practices used by software development teams could help L&D create better training and work more effectively?
In this session, you’ll take a closer look at software development best practices and identify the opportunities for L&D professionals to learn from that industry. In particular, you’ll discuss pain points that training teams encounter and find out how software development practices have been built to address similar pain points. Finally, you’ll take specific software practices (such as version control, code libraries, and “commenting your code”) and adapt them to training development with examples from Adobe Captivate and Articulate Storyline projects.
In this session, you will learn:
- About the similarities between your existing processes and software development best practices
- About areas where your processes could be improved using techniques from the software development field
- How to improve consistency and quality when multiple developers work on separate, but related, content
- How to avoid common issues when multiple developers need to work on the same files
Audience:
Intermediate to advanced designers,
developers, project managers, and managers
Technology
discussed in this session:
Microsoft SharePoint, Basecamp, open-source or
free tools, Adobe Captivate, and Articulate Storyline.
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Jenny Nilsson
Owner
Varma Multimedia Learning
Jenny Nilsson is the owner of Varma Multimedia Learning, a custom eLearning design firm specializing in technical content and software and process simulations. Prior to working in instructional design, Jenny worked in the software industry for nine years doing project management, design, and quality assurance. Jenny has been surrounded by technology since her parents bought a Radio Shack franchise when she was nine years old. She sold her first computer at the age of ten and has been helping people learn to use computers and software ever since.
LS1002 Simple Microlearning Solutions to Learning Challenges
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Friday, March 24
International Center
You’re faced with volumes of complicated content that you must translate into effective training. Your SMEs are pushing for delivering it through hours and hours of web-based training, which you know your audience will dread. You’ve heard of the benefits of using a micro format, but how can you possibly use it to cover all of that content?
In this session, you’ll learn how to slim down your content and use formats such as email campaigns, modular mini-courses, and microlearning videos to help your learners understand and use challenging content. You’ll discover how to break down the issues related to simplifying difficult content and translate these issues into key goals. You’ll then dive into examples of real micro solutions to find out more about the content analysis techniques and instructional design approaches that made these projects a success. By the end of this session, you’ll be able to use microlearning to create solutions that respect your audience’s time while also ensuring your SMEs feel you’ve covered the material thoroughly.
In this session, you will learn:
- Tips and tricks for crafting microlearning content
- How to employ content analysis techniques for simplified learning in micro formats
- How to design simplified instruction for micro formats
- How to apply the tips and tricks in the session to change how you deliver content in your own workplace
Audience:
Novice to intermediate designers and managers.
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Liz Herrick
Manager, Performance Consulting
BD
An accomplished professional in education, training, and performance solutions, Liz Herrick has designed and led the development of instructional programs in various formats: web-based, multimedia CD-ROM, interactive DVD, video, simulations, scenario-based, games, audio, and computerized adaptive testing. With experience covering both corporate and K-12 audiences, her achievements include corporate performance solutions with proven business results (cost savings and improved performance metrics), award-winning educational games, and national conference presentations (the Learning Guild, ISPI, and NECC). Liz holds master's degrees in education and educational technology. She is an ATD Master Performance Consultant and a Certified Everything DiSC Facilitator.
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Abbi Hake
Manager, Performance Consulting
Becton, Dickinson and Company
Abbi Hake, a manager of performance consulting at Becton, Dickinson and Company, is a 15-year veteran of the learning and development industry with expertise in performance consulting, eLearning design and creation, and technical writing. Much of her experience comes from working with large corporations to conceptualize, design, and build web-based and instructor-led curricula, in addition to other performance solutions. In the microlearning space, Abbi has led a team of instructional designers in the transformation of bulky web-based training into a curriculum of targeted web and video microlearning segments. She also hosts technical training webinars and facilitates DISC behavioral awareness training.
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Corey Decker
Learning Solutions Architect
Becton, Dickinson and Company
Corey Decker is a learning solutions architect at Becton, Dickinson and Company. With over 10 years of experience in the eLearning industry, he has designed and developed learning solutions using a wide variety of methods, including HTML5 apps, animated microlearning videos, and mobile-friendly eLearning courses. Currently working for global customer support in the medication management solutions industry, Corey helps ensure that both customers and internal associates are able to successfully utilize and support a broad range of hardware and software products. He has also taught workshops on mobile learning, material design principles, and the use of microlearning in corporate training.