The introduction of new technologies has continuously impacted personal and professional learning. Individuals have used desktops, smartphones, tablets, and other technologies to enhance the way they learn, and organizations have struggled to keep up with the changes. Organizations desiring to make the move to mLearning often hit roadblocks, and find it challenging to find a place and meaning for mobile learning.

This session will challenge the notion that mobile learning is a separate strategy and you will look at mobile as a single piece in a greater puzzle. You will discover the importance of NOT having a mobile learning strategy, and understand the critical difference in having an organizational learning strategy in which mLearning fits. You will explore the behavior of typical learners, including how they consume and share knowledge on their way to understanding and competency development, and how that affects your overall strategy.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to refine your current understanding of mLearning
• How to recognize the influences of mobile learning
• How people learn in today’s workplace
• The needs of today’s worker
• How to position mobile learning to meet your overall learning strategy

Audience:
Instructional designers, developers, managers, and directors. No prerequisite knowledge is necessary, but a good understanding of fundamental mobile terminology will be helpful.

Technology discussed in this session:
Micro-video, wikis, blogs, online self-paced courseware, mobile assessment, micro-courseware, and virtual live training.

Blended mobile learning should be an experience that holds value for both training and performance support. The growing usage of tablets and mobile apps provides an opportunity to combine more traditional eLearning with user-friendly mobile applications that can also capture real-time data to enhance the overall instructional content. Pairing performance support apps with learning materials ensures that content delivered in a training session stays relevant to the user on the job.        

In this session you will learn how a major regional transit training group embraced blended mobile learning and performance support with interactive courseware on tablets. You will discover how adding a performance support app to the overall learning structure enabled users to immerse themselves in the content in ways that create a higher degree of learning and immediate feedback. You will explore the challenges associated with navigating different browsers on various mobile devices and desktop operating systems while keeping courseware up-to-date and interactive, in addition to the steps required to make courses accessible for learners with disabilities.        

In this session, you will learn:

• How tablets and other mobile devices can offer a more interactive and engaging learning experience
• Programming solutions for creating engaging and effective interactions when not using Flash or HTML5
• Strategies to make eLearning accessible to people with disabilities when programming using custom solutions
• Ways performance support apps can take learning far beyond the classroom

Audience:

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

Technology discussed in this session:

There are close to a dozen different iOS devices and over 4,200 different Android devices on the market. Designing your content for these different devices is challenging. When considering building training material for mobile devices, you may wonder if it’s best to build a native application or a web application. It’s important to know the advantages and disadvantages of both native and web training applications, and to understand the significant differences between developing for mobile as compared to a traditional desktop.

In this session, you will explore a matrix that helps you understand the advantages and disadvantages of building native training applications vs. web applications. You will discuss topics like flexible layout for smartphones, appropriate fonts, font sizing, colors, and safe viewing areas on a phone. You will explore what mobile training is versus JII (Just In-time Information), and how the differences between the two will impact how and what you build for your mobile learners.

In this session, you will learn:

• To define a flexible design
• The advantages of native applications
• The advantages of web applications
• Which font settings work best for tablets and smartphones
• Which colors work best for mobile devices

Audience:

Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers.

Technology discussed in this session:

iPhone, iPad, Android Devices, and Blackberry Playbook.

Mobile has moved from an alternative delivery option to a mission imperative as companies seek ways to reach out and connect with their workers, partners, and customers through their omnipresent handsets and tablets. Accelerating learning delivery and increasing organizational performance have near universal appeal for companies of all sizes wanting to leverage a better informed, educated, and engaged audience through the many affordances mobile tools and technologies thus creating leverage.

In this case-study session you will discover how teams across industries are tapping into mobile’s ability to connect with workers. You will explore how to build and support a holistic learning experience spanning any mobile-friendly modality that is accessible via today’s most popular handsets, tablets, and eBook readers. You will review case studies from leading companies mixing formal learning with informal interactions to drive organizational performance, and learn about the kinds of experiences users and learners naturally want to perform while mobile.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can mix formal and informal interactions to drive organizational performance
• How to measure the effectiveness of marrying formal and informal learning methods into a unified learning initiative
• How to deliver learning plans that combine just-in-time, just-in-case, blended, and social learning
• When mobile delivery works best and when it doesn’t

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors involved in mLearning implementations.

There are so many variables to consider when L&D professionals or learning vendors try to decide how to best use mobile methods to boost the success of their learning initiatives. One critical element is understanding how to balance the amount of content and functionality you should include. Our recent experiences with testing several apps over the last three years has led us to some findings that will shape the role of how the Ken Blanchard Companies will use mobile tools and materials going forward.

In this case-study session you will explore various strategies for boosting the likelihood your mobile learning will be used on the job. You will learn how our internal mobile app evolved during its development, review and learn from the framework used to create our app, and see how it can be adapted in your own organization. You will also explore which parts of a learning experience work best on mobile devices.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to reduce the functional footprint of an app to boost usefulness
• How to boost the likelihood of it being used back on the job
• What part of the learning experience to take on first through mobile
• How to make trade-offs around native or unified app development

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Native apps, web apps, and PhoneGap.

The use of smart phones, tablets, and the apps they utilize has grown quickly in the corporate space. These devices provide educators and developers with an exciting new way of reaching audiences, but the skills needed to develop mobile-learning programs are very different from those for desktop-based eLearning. How much knowledge and expertise is required to develop mLearning?

In this session you will explore practical iOS app development. You’ll learn how to create apps without using a Macintosh and without needing to learn a great deal of code. You’ll discover various ways to deploy mobile training, you’ll create a basic app during the session, and learn which materials are best suited for these new platforms. You will leave with an understanding of how to create mLearning materials, where mLearning has come from and where it may be going, and how to develop iOS apps.

In this session, you will learn:

• A brief overview of mLearning
• How to develop iOS apps without using a Mac
• Best practices for creating mobile training
• Various ways to create apps

Audience:
Novice designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Flash, Captivate, and the Apple Developer program.

Mobile technology is a powerful tool to support learning. Its ubiquitous nature offers great potential in terms of accessibility, connectivity, and collaboration, its ability to support blended face-to-face and online learning experiences, and its ability to aid differentiation to meet learning needs. But using mobile devices for learning also comes laden with complex problems. These problems may revolve around a lack of knowledge or skills to overcome technical barriers, implement mobile devices for teaching and learning purposes, or adapt content to a mobile learning environment.

In this session you will explore the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework and how this way of thinking can inform and support effective mobile-learning integration in higher education. You will discuss TPACK and learn how to apply it to your planning and design of learning experiences with mobile technology. You will leave this session with strategies to evaluate your mobile technology integration and enable you to transform learner experiences through designing experiences.

In this session, you will learn:

• What the TPACK framework is and why it is important
• How TPACK was used to integrate mobile learning in a higher-education context
• How to structure thinking, planning, and designing mobile-learning solutions with the TPACK framework
• How to evaluate your mobile-learning integrations using the TPACK framework
• How to apply it to your own mobile-learning context.

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers with a basic-to-intermediate understanding of mobile learning.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile learning devices: iOS, Android, and Surface tablets.

There is a popular myth in our industry: that courses do not belong on a mobile phone and that only performance support can be successfully delivered to mobile. This session will disprove this popular belief.

Participants in this session will analyze several award-winning eLearning courses to identify their critical components—specifically the components necessary for behavior change. Using a successful course as a starting point, you will reimagine a new mobile interface and sketch a new design for the same topic. With these sketches in hand, you will be able to compare your own designs to a set of downloadable examples of serious eLearning solutions for tablets and mobile phones on the same content.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify the critical learning components for behavior change
• Techniques for sketching a learning user interface for a mobile device
• Techniques for iterative design
• Mobile learning design techniques for your own serious eLearning course

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

Technology discussed in this session:
iOS, Android, Mac, and PC.

From the smartphone in your hand to the 27-inch screen on your desk to the giant television on your wall, the range of ways to access the Internet just keeps growing and growing. This presents a huge challenge for training departments charged with cost-effectively and efficiently developing eLearning content for their organizations. What devices should they design for? How many versions of a course do they need? Do they sacrifice one type of delivery for another?

In this session you will learn how responsive eLearning design offers the possibility to create eLearning content once to meet a learning need, no matter how the end-user choses to access it. You will explore the core practices of responsive design and the changes those practices bring to the overall design process. You will examine the learning opportunities that responsive design offers and is best suited for—providing real-world examples of effective and ineffective uses of responsive eLearning design. You will leave this session understanding the very exciting applications of responsive design for those who work in the world of learning and development.

In this session, you will learn:

• The core practices of responsive design and their difference from traditional web-design practices
• How responsive design changes the design processes for online learning projects
• What learning opportunities are best suited to responsive design
• What learning opportunities are least suited to responsive design

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile technology.

The process of getting newly hired salespeople trained and actively selling products is a key concern for most businesses. Organizations typically throw new hires into a classroom for a week or two, and then send them on their way with a couple of three-ring binders with little or no follow-up. Grainger was seeking faster and more innovative ways to make our new hires successful while recognizing that people learn better over time.

In this case-study session you will explore how Grainger’s L&D team redesigned the onboarding process around each seller’s smartphone, tablet, or laptop as their primary access point to their training. You’ll discover how this restructured approach uses a combination of learning modules, live and virtual classroom experiences, interactive forums, and game mechanics to make the new-hire learning experience more continuous, inclusive, and engaging. You will learn how we overcame the challenges of packaging and delivering varied formal-learning experiences and informal-learning interactions, both online and via mobile app, in a highly secure IT environment.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of mobile and online access to all on-boarding tasks
• How to integrate with other internal systems like single sign-on, Cisco Webex, and an LMS
• How to use a blended-learning environment with interactive forums, gamification, and ride-along surveys
• The importance of a highly-customized interface from the application’s launch icon to a fully customized user experience

Audience:

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

Technology discussed in this session:

Microsoft Office Professional, Epic Learning’s GoMo authoring tool, Adobe Acrobat Professional, Articulate Storyline, and Cisco Webex—all delivered and accessible via OnPoint Digital’s CellCast Solution mobile-learning platform on Apple iOS devices.

It’s increasingly difficult for administrators and developers to cope with the speed at which technological devices enter the market and the pockets of learners. eLearning professionals are faced with the challenge of finding the best response to internal or external demands for content delivery in the latest device, while still demonstrating sound pedagogy/andragogy, learning outcomes, and fiscal responsibility. And it’s only going to get more challenging in the future.

In this session, you will explore the historical background of the Ford Motor Company Edsel story and its relevance to innovative approaches to eLearning. You will discuss a case study wherein an organization launched an initiative to provide tablets for learners—an initiative that, like the Edsel, failed. You will examine the reasons the case study failed and what could have been done differently. You will explore the tools needed to succeed in the implementation, improvement, and/or expansion of eLearning (blended, online, mobile). You will leave this session with a set of tips and tools for responding to and managing the internal and external demands related to technology, new devices, and implementation and continuous improvement of eLearning initiatives within institutions and organizations.

In this session, you will learn:

• To ensure any eLearning initiative within your institution/organization is learner-centric, not device-centric
• Tips for how to manage and respond to external and internal megatrends related to technology and evolving devices
• Tools and tips to leverage and balance pedagogical, technological, and analytical attributes
• To be proactive, not reactive, in choice of technology and tools

Audience:

Novice developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic understanding of curriculum development, course development, and eLearning.

Technology discussed in this session:

Unlike instructor led training or eLearning, there are no industry-accepted standards for designing mobile learning. While some instructional designers have tried to adapt course-based teaching and exam-based assessment methods to mobile learning, they are often less than successful because they are not aligned with the unique performances of mobile devices, and the way people use them. Design thinking offers a way of solving this problem.

In this session participants will explore the five steps for design thinking including discovery, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, and evolution. You will learn how true designers are creative problem solvers that recognize there are different kinds of issues that present themselves to be solved. You will apply design thinking to three different issues for mobile learning instructional design—mysteries, heuristics, and algorithms. You will discuss your own examples and analyze the problems using this framework. You will leave this session with new ideas and new directions for implementation of mobile learning in your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• The meaning of a design thinking approach to problem solving
• Three types of problems and solutions in mobile learning—mysteries, heuristics, and algorithms
• A framework for designing instructional materials and activities for mobile learning
• Ideas and approaches for solving problems with mobile learning

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a knowledge of instructional design and a “big picture” view of mobile learning.

There are many different considerations that contribute to mobile learning design. Even the strongest designer of desktop learning programs can struggle with a transition to building mobile solutions. Too often, organizations struggle with trying to find their own way during their early mLearning projects.

In this session participants will break down the key ingredients that will make your mobile project a learning success. You will learn design principles from user interface to user experience and how to get the best in class. You will learn several ways to prototype apps prior to programming, from paper to interactive. You’ll explore the techniques and tools that you can use to test your app prior to programming. You will also look at the key types of apps and be provided with dozens of ideas to get you prepared to start mLearning projects when you return to your office.

In this session, you will learn:

• What makes a great design
• Techniques for rapid concept and visualization
• Tips for improving your apps UI/UX
• How to improve your prototype and how to brainstorm better ideas
• What we can learn from existing apps
• How to integrate motion into your interface
• Tips to get you started when you get back to your workplace 

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Smartphones, apps.

Any time you’re in a meeting, class, or at a conference and look around the room you’re likely to see a number of people seemingly paying more attention to their mobile phones than to the topic at hand. These devices are not going away. The challenge we now face is keeping our face-to-face audiences engaged while competing with the myriad of mobile devices. The solution to this challenge is to leverage the devices themselves.

In this session participants will learn a number of different ways that mobile devices can be used to enhance face-to-face learning experiences. You will explore the many ways that gamification, social media, and more can be used to keep learners engaged in face-to-face learning. Participants will discuss and share a number of different activities that enhance learning using the devices learners are bringing into the workshops anyway.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to focus participant’s attention on your materials using their mobile devices
• How to incorporate participant’s mobile devices into your events
• How to create activities that enhance your events while engaging your participants with their mobile devices
• How to evaluate the effectiveness of using mobile devices in your activities

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and managers

Technology discussed in this session:
In this session we will be using participant’s own mobile devices to participate in activities that any facilitator can immediately add to their events to increase engagement.

Participant technology requirements:
A smartphone.

The space restrictions on mobile devices and the increasing demand for translated content by global users makes every word we put on a screen count. Choosing the wrong words can define the difference between a successful product and a failure.

In this session you will explore how the language we use when addressing mobile users impacts both their ability to understand it and their level of engagement with the content. You will learn what to consider and look for when planning to expand your offer into additional markets, countries, platforms, and languages. You will explore how your eLearning content needs to be adapted for other countries, how to decide what works best for mobile, text, and video, and what steps are required to translate content into a new language. You will leave this session understanding why adapting or redesigning content specifically for mobile platforms is an invaluable investment that could raise your results off the chart.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to address your mobile audience in the best possible way by using the right language
• What it takes to translate mobile eLearning content into multiple languages
• How to build eLearning content that works across mobile platforms
• How to track and measure user adoption
• How to combine text and video to achieve the best user experience

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

Technology discussed in this session:
iOS and Android, marketing automation, and CMS databases.

Mobile learning is about more than technology. Too often organizations simply move bad practice to new technology. Before we step forward and look at the next best-technology or coolest new gadget in our field we need to step back to basics and consider our design. Before organizations can make the move to mobile, they need to ensure they have strong visual-design practices that work for myriad devices and audiences.

In this session you will explore the key elements of the principles of visual design. You will learn the language of design so that you can better articulate your vision. You will learn the questions you must ask when making design choices and discover the key points to remember about mobile-screen real estate and how that relates to visual design. You will leave this session with a number of actionable visual-design tips that you can use for mobile development.

In this session, you will learn:

• The elements and principles of design
• Why design is about making choices
• The primary goals of responsive design
• How to negotiate screen real estate

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile phones and tablets.

The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine has a custom LMS to deliver our online medical education offerings. This platform has been mostly adequate for about five years, but our offerings have expanded to new programs with many more learners in many different contexts. These learners want and often need to use tablets and other mobile devices to access and complete curriculum. The Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine learning platform needed a more flexible mobile strategy that could scale to multiple devices.

In this session participants will learn about the mobile strategy Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine developed. You will explore the challenges we were encountering and the rationale behind our strategy, and will discuss the many lessons learned during the process. You will leave this session with an understanding upon which your own scalable multi-device strategy can be built.

In this session, you will learn:

• What options are available for mobile learning delivery
• What responsive web design is and why you might implement it
• Which technology options exist for building a responsive web design
• Fundamentals of using Skel.js

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers with familiarity of content management systems and beginning to intermediate proficiency with HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, CSS, LESS, JavaScript, and Skel.js.

Instructional designers are increasingly faced with projects that have a mobile component. In many cases the projects are presented before the design team has the requisite knowledge and skills to design mobile learning. In situations like this, it’s challenging for organizations and professionals to know where to begin.

In this session participants will explore a case study to see the lessons learned from an organization that has walked this path in the process of designing a virtual mobile world. You will learn where to start when being asked to develop your first mobile solution, and will discover the tools that are available and the process used to vet them. You will learn the important considerations that must be factored into mobile projects. You will leave this session with tips and workflows that will prepare you to confidently tackle mobile projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design mobile solutions (workflow)
• What skills/roles are needed for mobile projects
• Lessons from a case study on designing a virtual mobile world
• How to break down a large project vision into manageable but scalable design goals and objectives

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Browser-based responsive design, iOS, Android, and mobile devices (smartphones and tablets).

Most instructional designers found their way to their role by accident, via a combination of circumstance and subject matter expertise. This is why many IDs share the challenge of “learning as we go” rather than receiving formal training and education before starting a job. This challenge is further complicated by the need to add mobile learning design to our skill sets.

In this session you’ll explore the experiences of an accidental instructional designer who suddenly finds that she needs to design programs for mobile devices. You will learn the critical factors of the mobile landscape that all new mobile designers will need to consider. You will discuss the ways to incorporate mobile into your overall learning strategy, and why that is different than having a “mobile strategy.” You will learn the obstacles and unexpected detours many designers encounter on their first mobile projects. You will leave this session with an understanding of basic strategies and ideas you can apply to your own instructional design practices.

In this session, you will learn:

• When to consider adding mobile solutions to your learning strategy
• How to integrate mobile solutions into your existing strategy
• Common mistakes you should avoid when designing mobile solutions
• Tools you are already using that aid mobile design
• Important things to look out for as you start your mobile journey

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A