Organizations are not using technology in ways that match with how we think, work, and learn. The learning and development (L&D) function is focused on limited options, when there’s so much more they could be doing. On the other hand, people are using mobile devices in ways that are natural, ways that augment their ability to do. The intersection here is the opportunity that mobile provides.

In this session, you will examine how we are using mobile devices to make ourselves more effective. You will explore the context of the ecosystem in which organizations are operating and the changes needed on behalf of L&D. You will discuss how mobile devices provide the opportunities to make those changes. You will discover the steps necessary for change to lead to sustainable impact on the organization. You’ll be exploring a strategy for L&D that’s catalyzed by mobile. You will leave this session understanding the steps L&D needs to take and the role that mobile plays in that evolution.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the full suite of mobile opportunity
• How L&D could and should be supporting the organization
• Where mobile fits in the context of L&D
• How mobile enhances a learning and performance ecosystem
• The core elements of a mobile-enabled L&D strategy

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile technologies.

For most organizations, starting to explore adding mobile to an organizational learning strategy can be confusing. Some organizations see mobile learning as nothing more than HTML5. Some instructional designers think mobile learning is a concern only for developers. Still other organizations think mobile is nothing more than a different publishing option from an authoring tool. It’s only when you start walking down the path that you realize just how wrong those assumptions, and countless others, truly are.

In this session you will immerse yourself in the world of mobile learning. You will explore the key components that are needed for an effective mobile learning solution. You will learn the terminology of mLearning so that you can effectively participate in strategic discussions. You will leave this session understanding the key strategic considerations that must be explored before taking your first step.

In this session, you will learn:

• What mobile learning is … and what it isn’t
• Mobile learning terminology and buzzwords
• Considerations to explore as you build your strategy
• Design and development principles, practices, and tools
• Important points related to implementation and security

Audience:

Novice designers, developers, managers, and directors

Today more people have mobile access than have safe drinking water and electricity. There are now as many mobile subscribers as there are people on Earth. Gartner predicted that there will be close to 1 billion smartphones sold in 2013. Despite the rapid consumer adoption of ever-advancing mobile technologies, many organizations still struggle with adding mobile to their learning strategy. As learning professionals, we will have to adopt new strategies and learn new skills in order to support workers in an increasingly mobile-first world.

In this session you will discover why mLearning projects often fail. You will look at the design of these projects in terms of both technology and adult learning principles. You will explore how you can design mLearning so that learners are successful. This session will give you the keys to unlocking a successful mobile strategy.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why mLearning often fails
• How mLearning is fundamentally different, while still supporting adult learning principles
• How to go beyond form factor in design
• The intersection points between social media and mLearning
• How to start developing your own mLearning strategy

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Typical mobile platforms—phones and tablets

According to ASTD Research, the most common forms of training across all industries are management and supervisory. These also represent a large percentage of training budgets in many organizations. Finding ways to address these training needs in a cost-effective way is critical, as is the need to integrate the social aspect that will unlock knowledge and share personal experience.

In this session you will explore various platforms that enable social collaboration. You will discover how these tools allow management and supervisors to access training, rate it, and allow for conversations to develop around it. You will discover how mobile technologies make these social interactions possible and affordable. You will leave this session with a different perspective on how to provide management and supervisory training.

In this session, you will learn:

• Various platforms for social collaboration
• Where the gaps are for developers in relation to learning at their companies.
• Various cost-effective ways of distributing training
• How to appeal to your learners’ range of learning styles.

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Desktop PCs, tablets, and smartphones.

Online students and faculty are demanding mobile access to their online courses and institutional resources. Focus groups with our students and faculty have shown that mobile skins for the LMS, student portal, and library are not enough to satisfy mobile users.

In this session you will explore the native application development process and technology development used by American Public University System. You will learn how this native application for both iOS and Android provides students and faculty with access to all course elements and real-time notification of new announcements, messages, forum posts, and other course elements. You will learn what the needs and wishes of online students and faculty are based on the results of focus groups held in 2013. You will discuss the design process and development of standalone middleware to meet these requirements and how the middleware development aids in adapting to learning management systems.

In this session, you will learn:

• About the evolving mobile needs of online students
• About the evolving mobile needs of online faculty
• About the design of mobile architecture for LMS integration
• About the design challenges for mobile LMS integration

Audience:

Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors familiar with a higher education environment and general mobile device use.               

Technology discussed in this session:

Mobile computing continues to explode as consumers’ adoption rate of mobile devices increases significantly. How do we create and implement a strategy to capitalize on this and other new and emerging technology platforms? Many organizations are interested in walking this path, but they struggle with knowing how to get started. Knowing what the audience wants, whether to build or buy, and how to fund the project are just a few of the strategic questions that organizations face.

In this case-study session you will learn about the evolution of mobile technology at Georgia Regents University, a public comprehensive-research university. The University pioneered mobile technology in 2009, and since that time has created numerous mobile applications for iPhone, iPad, and Android devices targeted at multiple audiences. You will learn best practices for mobile learning on topics such as reference utilities, virtual simulations, enhancing eBooks with multimedia, and teaching apps. You will leave this session with an understanding of how to create an innovative mobile strategy and development team.

In this session, you will learn:

• The desires of the mobile learner and consumer, focusing on mobility, ubiquity, and gaming
• Elements and requirements of a successful mobile strategy
• Design and development considerations for a successful mobile-app development project
• How to determine if you should build or buy
• How to understand the ROI on mobile-development programs
• Best practices for a mobile-development program
• How to build a mobile-development team

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Various mobile apps.

Nonprofit organizations often have many thousands of volunteers. While mobile learning and performance support have a great deal of potential, they also come with some hurdles. Most nonprofits shy away from digital engagement because of the need for huge amounts of dynamic content and the requirement for volunteers to bring their own devices.

In this session participants will learn how nonprofits can speed up the process of getting connected to volunteers via the cloud and by utilizing new technologies like Ruby on Rails and HTML5. You will also explore how nonprofit organizations can deliver a digitized version of existing or new course content. Participants will leave this session with an understanding of how you too can provide a meaningful and measurable mobile training experience that scales for a growing workforce, and yet minimizes the impact on your budget.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why connecting with thousands of volunteers is now possible and easy
• How volunteers can use any device to be trained
• The value of game-based learning
• How training can be created and curated by subject matter experts without the need for expensive course designers

Audience:
Novice project managers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Cloud-based eLearning platform that supports any media and content and renders that content into games.

Mobile policy doesn’t sound like an exciting topic, but it’s an essential component to a mobile learning strategy. You can have jaw-droppingly cool apps, context-sensitivity, video, alternate reality games, or all of the above, but you’ll end up failing if you’re not on top of your mobile policy. Quite simply, policy is strategy, and without strategy, you’re just stumbling around in the dark.

In this session, participants will review the key areas of policy that need to be covered, consider alternatives to traditional legacy policies, and explore the tradeoffs. You will also debunk some of the myths that surround mobile, and explore how these myths impact your policies and mobile strategy. You will leave this session with an understanding of the elements that you and your organization need to address to make your mobile initiatives survive and thrive.

In this session, you will learn:

• Areas that mobile policy needs to address
• The pitfalls of mobile policies that derail mobile strategies
• The tradeoffs of different policy approaches
• Key policy considerations for a successful mobile strategy

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

While most organization see mLearning as something new, it’s actualy been in existsnece in some form for well over a decade. Just as mobile technology has advanced and evolved during that time, so to have the strategies we use to leverge these technologues for learning and performance. Understanding where we have been, and the lessons we learned getting to this point, will help better prepare us for the continued evolution of mLearning in the future.

In this session you will explore the progress that has been made in mLearning over the last decade and more. You will discuss the many things our industry has learned about how training and performance needs can be solved using mobile devices. You will learn about the expanded ways in which phones – both smart and feature - can be used for just-in time needs. You will also explore the ways that tablets and even laptops are being included in a learning strategy that includes mobile. You will leave this interactive session with a better understanding of how mobile tehnologies are changing the way learning is viewed in corporate and academic environments.

In this session, you will learn:

• The history of mLearning and what it means to the future
• What mobile technologies are available to us today
• What mobile technologies we can expect tomorrow
• Various applications of mobile technlogies being used for learning

Audience:
Novice Designers, Developers, Project Managers, Managers, and Directors

Technology discussed in this session:
Various mobile technologies

The widespread adoption of mobile devices has created many opportunities to enhance learning programs, but it has also brought new challenges. 20th Century Fox, a leader in the film, television, and entertainment industry, was able to successfully meet those challenges in its combined online and offline learning solution for managing courseware and critical training data through mobile devices for its employees worldwide.

In this session you will explore various development approaches and the learning curve to expand traditional eLearning development to mobile technologies. You will explore development techniques and examples, product demonstrations, and key project highlights to more fully understand the development cycle for the successful delivery of rich, engaging learning experiences on mobile devices. You will leave this session with a clear path how to be successful at delivering mobile learning and how to transition from traditional eLearning development techniques to mobile learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to transition from traditional eLearning development to mobile learning development
• The impact of mobile delivery on instructional design
• How to develop for cross-platform delivery
• The shift in workflow and work processes for mobile learning
• Newly required developer and project management skills sets for mobile learning
• How to use wireless and mobile technologies to deliver, maintain, and store training record management

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Android, iOS, smartphone as well as desktop technologies.

Have you ever tested spaghetti to see if it’s cooked by throwing it against a wall? That’s how too many organizations now approach their training programs—throwing standalone eLearning or face-to-face courses at their staff, hoping the learning will stick. There are things we can do to increase the odds of making learning stick by augmenting standalone courses. Many of these strategies are easy to implement and are very suited to mLearning approaches, giving us a whole new set of tools to improve the effectiveness of learning events.

In this session participants will receive an overview of what pre- and post-event learning transfer activities are and what research tells us about their effectiveness. You will also discuss strategies for including these activities in the planning and design of your learning programs, and how to identify ways to take advantage of mobile devices for delivering effective pre- and post-event learning activities.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to recognize what pre- and post-event learning activities are
• What the research tells us about the effectiveness of pre- and post-event learning activities
• How to integrate pre- and post-event learning activities into the planning and design of your learning programs
• How to identify ways to take advantage of mobile devices for delivering effective pre- and post-event learning activities.

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

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML5, several smartphone and tablet devices.

Determining if and how mLearning fits into a learning strategy is complicated. The temptation is to adopt mLearning because it’s the latest and greatest panacea to solve all learning woes. Much like eLearning was positioned as displacing classroom learning at its height, so mLearning is viewed by many as the golden child. Learning professionals also face the pressure of having to establish return on investment for an unproven strategy with significant up-front investments.

In this session participants will look at mLearning as a part of a holistic strategy that includes face-to-face and virtual classrooms, eLearning, and social learning. You will examine the question of strategy not from an either/or standpoint but from a maximization standpoint. You will explore the benefits of integrating the learning strategies to achieve the best overall return-on-investment Participants will leave this session with a different way of looking at measurement that focuses more attention on the why.

In this session, you will learn:

• How mLearning integrates with other learning strategies including classroom, eLearning, and social learning
• What’s required for mLearning integration with other learning strategies
• How an integrated approach improves portfolio-level ROI
• Innovative ways to use (and not use) mLearning

Audience:
Novice project managers and managers with a general understanding of learning strategies.

In order to develop a learning strategy that responds to the rapidly evolving world, learning professionals need to look at the business environment differently. On the one hand, the traditional business needs of the organization will continue to be critical and must be served. On the other hand, the next generation of learning strategies must place equal importance on the actual performance and learning needs of employees. Future learning strategies will look different, be delivered differently, and be led by a new breed of learning professional.

In this session, you will learn what core elements you need to include in learning strategies to keep up with the evolution of business. You will explore content strategy, delivery to mLearning and social learning platforms, and an expanded set of competencies that tomorrow’s learning professionals will require. You will leave this session prepared to develop a comprehensive learning strategy that takes into account the evolving nature of business and work.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to develop a next-generation learning strategy for your organization
• The importance of and how to build a content strategy
• How to incorporate mobile learning into your next-generation learning strategy
• A new competency model for learning professionals

Audience:
Intermediate managers and directors with a baseline understanding of learning strategy.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile learning, video (short form) training, and social learning.

One of TELUS’ key goals is to have a majority of its workforce work in a flexible mobile work environment. Learning strategies had to adapt to this goal. Learning could no longer simply be available on one’s laptop or in a face-to-face class. Our learning strategy had to be enhanced and updated to accommodate our growing mobile workforce.

In this case-study session you will learn about TELUS’ journey in developing their mobile-learning strategy. You will explore the lessons learned from their successes, and from the challenges they encountered and needed to overcome along the way. You will discover the key social components that were critical to the overall strategy, and you will leave this session with frameworks, strategies, and templates that you can use to build your own mobile-learning strategy.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify potential mobile learning challenges and possible solutions
• How to develop your own mobile learning strategy, leveraging strategies, and templates
• How to relate mobile-learning strategy to corporate goals
• How to link current and future learning projects for mobile delivery

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with knowledge of social-collaboration tools and functionalities.

Technology discussed in this session:
Successfactors’ Bizx mobile app, SMS services, geotagging, smart device scanning capabilities, SharePoint, Successfactor’s JAM, and social-collaboration tools.

A common business problem is that employees want to advance their career, but they often build a plan that is focused on promotions. They want to move up but do not consider lateral moves or moves outside their profession or outside their function. Beyond that, employees need the knowledge, tools, and resources to prepare for career change opportunities. Cisco has addressed this problem by constructing a mobile solution that enables employees to explore careers based on a career lattice approach.

In this session participants will learn from Cisco’s Bring Your Career to Life, the mobile solution Cisco has implemented which accelerates the planning and decisions toward growing a career at Cisco. You will explore Bring Your Career to Life through Career Navigator, a desktop and mobile tool that gets the employee started so that they understand the high-level concepts of career planning, can learn the job families within Cisco, and can discover what skills and learning are necessary to be qualified for specific roles. Participants will discuss the full story of the development of the solution, including how to influence executives regarding mobile, how to build it fast, and what technologies are necessary.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key design principles for an enterprise mobile solution
• How to build it fast and innovate
• About technology solutions for a mobile web experience
• Typical mobile project mistakes and how to overcome them

Audience:
Novice designers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
iPhone, iPad, Android phone, and Android tablet.

It hasn’t been that long since we only worried about testing online training lessons on Internet Explorer and Netscape. Those days are long gone. Today we face a myriad of testing challenges due to the vast number of devices and operating systems that are being used by our learners. Developing and testing our applications to ensure that they will work for everyone is an increasingly challenging part of an organizational learning strategy.

In this session participants will explore the various quality assurance test strategies that are currently being used in software engineering corporations to test their products, and how you can carry over those strategies into the world of mLearning. You will learn about multiple types of QA testing, and what the goals are for each. Participants will leave this session with an understanding of numerous QA strategies and how they can be applied to mobile learning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• The fundamental concepts of QA testing in software engineering operations
• The critical QA test operations that need to be used by mLearning designers
• Strategies for conducting effective QA testing within an impossible project deadline
• Strategies for mLearning lesson design that will help your QA testing effort

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with experience designing mLearning lessons for a multi-device target audience.

Learning is often built on technology, taking place in different forms and locations such as eLearning, mLearning, and social media. What if learning, resources, mentorship, and performance support strategies could all be found in one place, when your employees needed them? That is the ideal scenario, and one that would provide specific measurements for observable data outcomes.

In this session participants will explore the opportunities for an integrated platform of training, management, and mentorship guidance that has been opened up by access to affordable mobile devices and wireless connectivity in much of the world. You will learn how linking training programs and resources with mentorship provides dual performance support and the ability to affect learner decision capacity in real-time. You will discuss two case-studies that highlight the possibilities inherent within a technologically-mediated training and mentoring program.

In this session, you will learn:

• A learner-centered model for mobile instructional design relative to mentoring and performance outcomes
• How mentorship outcomes can be combined with Kirkpatrick learning outcomes for synchronized delivery
• To illustrate the positive and negative factors that impact the mentor and participant relationship
• To apply lessons learned regarding the implementation processes used in two worldwide case studies
• How to have an understanding of mobile performance support intervention tactics

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Chronus Software Platform.