About Guild Articles
Find practical, solution-oriented information—on design, development, management, technology, and executive matters—that you can use to make well-informed business decisions to ensure your organization’s success with learning.
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Brain Science: Should Learning Be Easy? How Effortful Processing Improves Retention
For many instructional designers and teachers, one finding from research is so puzzling that they reject it immediately: that infusing training with strategic difficulties and challenges dramatically improves the learner’s long-term retention. Shouldn’t learning be easy? This month, Professor Kohn looks at the research and begins the discussion of how to apply it.
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eLearning Guild Research: Informal Learning With and Without L&D
It’s easy to guess that informal learning is different when it takes place outside the influence of the training department or L&D, but how is it different when it happens outside that arena? The newest Guild research report shines a light on the differences in a way that will help you leverage informal learning in both sets of circumstances. Read the highlights here!
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Gamification: Recipe for Successful Learning—or Just One Ingredient?
Gamification is getting a lot of press these days, with promises of great improvements in learning. And while companies are citing successful employee engagement in gamified learning, the real question is whether gamification itself is a recipe for learning success, or is it just one ingredient?
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Marc My Words: Back to School—Technology Is Changing Learning, but Is It Changing Schooling?
Has technology in our schools come upon a significant barrier? Is it the schools themselves? Technology can improve learning, but we may never reach its full value if the context where it is used—the school—does not significantly change as well. There are efforts underway to change schools, but we still have to ask if they are enough. Read here about what it will take to change the game!
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Adapting eLearning for Mobile: Learning from Wonderful Mistakes
For many companies, adapting eLearning content for use on smartphones is a first small step in providing learning content for mobile (mLearning). While redesign is always the best option, this article digs into deeper levels of adaptation and offers detailed guidance on ways to create effective mLearning from existing materials. And remember: Mistakes are your friends.
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Tips for Successful Relationships with Learning Solutions Development Providers
The commitment to outsourcing means risking your reputation and success if not done right the first time. How do you spot a vendor’s weaknesses? How do you identify a mismatch before it’s too late? What about pricing? Here are the tips you need in this situation.
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Nuts and Bolts: Needs Assessment Basics
Needs assessment is critical to success in instructional design, but it is often left out for no good reason. (Expediency is not a sufficient excuse.) Here are a baker’s dozen of questions to ask.
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eLearning Guild Research: Informal or “Less Formal” Learning?
When experts use the term “informal learning,” they don’t mean exactly the same thing eLearning and learning practitioners do. The latest eLearning Guild research report “Informal Learning Takes Off,” written by Jane Hart, highlights the differences as well as some innovative approaches you may want to try.
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Serious Game Secrets: Best Practices Revealed
Serious games are a great way to engage and entertain your workforce as you educate them. Here are some hints from the experts that will help you create and maintain effective immersive learning!
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Toolkit: eLearning Tools—Passion, Frustration, Joy, and Sadness
What does a veteran developer and reviewer of authoring tools learn over the years? Joe shares some of his lessons learned, about vendors and developers, about complacency, and about the right questions to ask when choosing authoring tools. Read this to benefit from Joe’s insights and experience!