Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Interest in STEM education—science, technology, engineering, and mathematics—is on the rise. This interest is driven by the knowledge that most 21^st-century innovations in the world economy will be driven by STEM fields. In this fascinating opening keynote, Dr. Neil deGrasse Tyson, director of the Hayden Planetarium and host of the television show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, will explore how and why STEM is critical not just in the education of young people, but also in impacting the landscape of today’s workplace. You will learn how strong foundations in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics can be leveraged in organizational training, and how that foundation can be expanded upon to empower workers to solve business-related problems—even problems they have never before seen. You will explore the role of ever-advancing technology and the challenges and opportunities these advancements represent. You will leave this keynote with a greater understanding of the key roles that learning plays in the uncharted territory that is the future of work.

If you’re an eLearning developer looking to build more engaging courses, then you’re going to love Articulate Storyline 2. In this session, you’ll learn how to quickly create interactive content that captivates your learners. You’ll see all the amazing things you can do with the brand-new slider interaction, relative motion paths, and new triggers.

Serious games have the potential to engage and motivate your learners. But what about driving long-term retention of business critical knowledge? In this session, we will share how several organizations have put theory into practice and implemented games as part of their training programs. Then, we will unveil the brand-new Knowledge Guru “Quest” game, an expansion of its game-based learning platform that uses spaced repetition, feedback loops, and immersive game elements to help employees acquire critical knowledge and apply new skills on the job.

In this session, a comprehensive introduction to video and audio compression, you’ll learn the best delivery standards for optimizing content delivery to mobile and desktop devices; the session will provide an overview of everything you need to know about editing, preparing, and delivering the highest-quality video and audio to your audience. We’ll discuss techniques and interactivity that can be added, as well as the latest standards and how you can take advantage of open-source, free compression tools, as well as the latest applications for getting the smallest file sizes and the highest quality.

Successive approximation, rapid prototyping, agile methods—they all call for iterative development. With each iteration you take a product out to the learners and gather new input into your designs. Does this completely mess with everything we’ve learned about the ADDIE model? How do you know when to stop iterating? How do you convince your project sponsors to go along? Is this just an excuse for releasing shoddy work?

Learn from actual case studies and LLAMA (lot like agile methods approach) methods how to create opportunities for iterations as you plan your instructional-design projects. You will explore a number of different iteration approaches, what to do with the information gathered at each cycle, and pitfalls to avoid.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to keep your project on budget and on time
• How to plan iterations for each phase of your project
• When to say when to iterations
• What to do with the information you gather

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, instructional designers, managers, and directors. No previous knowledge or skill required.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Engaging learners online in an authentic way presents challenges for instructors and designers trying to create effective and pedagogically sound courses. An ideal educational experience happens when students encounter a cognitive presence, a social presence, and a teaching presence. Such an experience can also be grounded within the community of inquiry model and personal learning environment.

In this case-study session, you will explore how book clubs became the stepping stone to transform a traditional online asynchronous classroom activity to an engaging, social, and active online-learning experience through asynchronous peer interaction and collaboration. You will learn how these book clubs provided the scaffolding for small-group debates. You will discover how Southern New Hampshire University successfully implemented asynchronous online book clubs and debates in a combined community and global Health course. You will discuss overcoming potential difficulties and limitations in the successful deployment of collaborative activities within a learning management system.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to implement collaborative strategies in an online environment
• How book clubs and debates can create student engagement and learning opportunities
• How to reference the community-of-inquiry model in asynchronous activities
• Design, development, and implementation techniques for group forums, wikis, and discussions

Audience:
Novice designers and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
Collaboration and other tools available in Blackboard, Adobe Connect, Skype, etc.

Organizational storytelling can be a powerful learning approach, but it suffers from many obstacles. Storytellers often lack skill in developing a cohesive narrative and delivery. Often the relatability of the narrative misses the mark. Content, relevancy, and usefulness should always be paramount and the current quality of many training-related videos is mediocre at best

In this session you will learn how collective digital storytelling (CDS) combines methodologies of organization development, digital video capture, and collective/systemic storytelling to create a platform that is extremely engaging to learners. You will explore how CDS puts learners in more active positions so that they are storytellers as well as story-receivers. You will discover how peer-to-peer communication enables the learners to become the teachers and vice-versa. You will leave this session understanding how CDS provides a new and energizing way to use video as part of eLearning.

In this session, you will learn:

• The definition and description of collective digital storytelling (CDS) and an overview of the process
• How to augment video capture with organization development approaches to generate richer and more meaningful content
• Synthesis methods used to turn independent story lines into a cohesive narrative that reflects adult learning needs
• Uses and applications for collective digital storytelling (CDS)

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Video capture, video editing, and examples of and outcomes of projects.

Some developers pay instructional design (ID) no attention at all. Some have never heard of it, and do not see any reason to get to know it. You can see instructional design being criticized in blogs, Twitter streams, and other areas. It’s too slow. It’s too wordy. It’s not techie enough. It’s not appreciated by customers or clients. What you don’t find are alternatives or even a shared definition. If you ask 100 instructional designers for a definition, you won’t get just one definition, you’ll get many—or shrugged shoulders. Shouldn’t we try to establish a shared, contemporary perspective on it before we consign it to the scrapheap of history?

In this session participants will revisit instructional design. You will explore what it is, and then dig deeper to explore what it really is in practice. You will discuss what instructional design looks like when it is done well. You will discover the relationships between ID and technology, and how the two work best together.

In this session, you will learn:

• The true value of instructional design
• How instructional design works in practice
• Why instructional design is often criticized
• How technology can be leveraged in instructional design

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

Using video for eLearning is here to stay. But it’s almost impossible to answer fundamental questions about whether or not your training video is reaching its goals. In many cases, you don’t even know if the viewer is still in the same room after they’ve clicked play.

In this revealing and interactive session, you will learn practical tips and tricks to produce interactive training and eLearning videos. You will explore real-world examples of how corporations and other large organizations are using video combined with seamless interactivity to provide traditional training and on-demand performance support. You will learn secrets to share with your colleagues and staff on how you can transform existing training and eLearning videos into learning workhorses and how to give your learners access to the information that matters most at just the right moment leaving them energized, empowered, and ready for the task at hand.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to produce video with interactivity in mind
• How to enhance memory retention and behavior change with video
• The three secrets to interactive-video success
• The must-have tools for interactivity
• Interactive videos that worked

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, project managers, managers, and directors who have used video to try to meet learning objectives or managed others who have done so.

Technology discussed in this session:
YouTube Annotations, Interlude, HapYak Interactive Video, Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline, and various video-hosting solutions.

With the financial advantages of big data gaining global attention, C-level managers and senior business leaders are beginning to demand better reporting and improved accountability across all organizational divisions. While the goal of measuring learning seems unreachable for most in the training division, the reality is that these technological advancements mean that disruption in the training industry is inevitable. These innovations will enable unprecedented reporting of training effectiveness, business impact, and return on training investment.

In this session you will learn about the looming industry disruption, including the advantages and the benefits. You will explore the tools to develop an overarching strategy to prepare your organization for the change and provide tools to communicate with your training team, peers, and other business leaders. You will discuss strategies for planning a long-term change within your organization. This session will examine what’s happening with analytics in a logical and easy-to-understand way. You will leave this session understanding what you need to know about analytics, what you need to do now, and how to do it.

In this session, you will learn:

• True learning measurement and how to separate useful and meaningful data from the noise
• The effects of big data on the way training is currently done
• Strategy for communicating to other business leaders, peers, and teams
• Tools for developing a roadmap for change within your organization

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced managers, directors, and executives with an interest in the future of eLearning, decision-making authority, and/or the responsibility to manage change.

Technology discussed in this session:
Enterprise Infrastructure, learning management systems, HRIS, learning record stores, the cloud, and analytics dashboards.

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 and with little or no follow-up. Grainger was seeking faster and more innovative ways to make its 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.

There is an increasing demand for accessibility in learning content, yet many instructional designers are unsure if they are doing a good job of meeting the needs of learners with disabilities. There is a need for instructional designers to discover what they can do to accommodate and enhance content for users of all abilities.

In this session participants will learn from the accessibility lessons learned in supporting the Connect-Ability project, an online education initiative for individuals with disabilities seeking gainful employment. You will explore how assistive technology (AT) is used and how course designs support accessible content. You will discuss 508 standards, other accessible guideline information, and the practical application of tips to incorporate in your design. You will examine the different considerations to consider for inclusive design based on working with a diverse population of users. This session will help you become more comfortable understanding your learners and how to ask important questions that can influence your course designs.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why 508 compliance is an important factor in course design and important 508 standards to follow
• What tools to consider when developing accessible content
• How JAWS users engage with content and the importance of using headers in content
• How to be creative and still meet accessibility requirements
• About the various types of disabilities to consider
• Considerations for building accessible courses/content
• The top 10 design goals to consider for designing accessible content
• If your courses are inclusive

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

Technology discussed in this session:
JAWS (screen readers), Lectora, closed captioning and various eLearning tools, Blackboard, 508 standards, and others.

How can you make computer application training interesting and effective for your learners? Software simulations can be an effective way to train employees on new applications. However, creating complex simulations is expensive and time consuming. Simplistic simulations are often ineffective, resulting in boring eLearning (often referred to as death by PowerPoint).

 In this session participants will learn tips and tricks that can be used to make software simulations much more effective and less time-consuming for the developer. You will explore the value of learner-centric workflow analysis, storyboarding, character development, interactions, and much more.

 In this session, you will learn:

• About learner-centric workflow, a development approach to creating engaging software simulations
• Key SME questions
• How to use simple scenarios via storyboarding and character development
• Alternatives to tracking completions

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Most learners and stakeholders want an efficient learning experience that can increase their competency as quickly as possible. Most training teams want a scalable, flexible, and sustainable solution. Yet too often training programs fail to deliver on these expectations because we try to cram too much information into too short a timeframe using the wrong type of solution.

In this participatory session, you will examine a case study in which Guardian Analytics made similar mistakes and their lessons learned. In small groups, you’ll use the case study to identify training problems and determine options for more effective and relevant customer training. You will explore the warning signs of a poorly planned training project, discover approaches to ensuring programs are scalable, flexible, and sustainable, and learn strategies to ensure you are connecting with your learners. You are encouraged to share your own experiences with inefficient training and the methods you used, if any, to address the problem.

In this session, you will learn:

• The warning signs of ineffective or inefficient training
• The importance of regarding training as an extension of your company’s product rather than as a necessary evil
• Why you must understand your learners’ needs—and the consequences of not doing so
• Effective methods used to successfully flip training into a blended solution

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Jive platform, Captivate, and SmarterPath (a social learning LMS).

Too often, when we get rooted in our projects, we become very self-centered in our work. We forget there are people just like us struggling in the exact same way. We begin to convince ourselves that our way is the only way and, creatively, we can shut down very quickly under the weight of our workload. The panic, stress, and insecurity all lead us to not put our best work out there and, what’s more, to not share our work in pursuit of improvement and feedback.

In this session you will explore an individual case study turned confessional in which the presenter realized he did everything mentioned above (and then some), and the benefits and value he realized when he changed his approach to professional development. You will discuss the benefits of coming out of your cave and opening up via membership in professional organizations. By attending this session you will discover simple steps that can lead to amazing benefits, both professionally and personally.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance and benefits of membership in a professional organization
• The importance and benefits of being involved and active, professionally, via social media
• The limitations you may be experiencing without even realizing them
• That community is key to professional development

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

The concept of using games for learning is a very popular topic right now. It is also a controversial topic, as there are people who support games for learning, and others who question their value. Part of this divide is the existing confusion regarding how games support learning, and what research-based approaches are most effective.

In this session you will explore the most current research findings related to applying games in corporate learning and training environments. You will discuss how you can apply the research findings via tips for implementing game-based solutions. You will examine the skills needed to build effective game-based training programs, learn why many organizations struggle to get started in games, and get lessons to take away from other organizations’ successful implementations.

In this session, you will learn:

• The most current games-research findings
• Which findings are most relevant to your game programs
• New heuristics for game implementation
• What new research might bolster your case for incorporating games

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Games.

Many practitioners think that learning research is pie-in-the-sky information that is of value for academics but of little value for practitioners. But good practitioner research is practical research that points practitioners and their managers towards better practice and helps them make the important decisions.

In this session, you will hear the main conclusions from the recent Guild research report, The Experience API: Liberating Learning Design. You will explore the various findings of the report and how the information is valuable for day-to-day practice. You will have the opportunity to discuss the research and ask questions. You will leave this session with a deeper understanding of the Experience API and how it can be used to enhance your learning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• The interesting data, charts, and insights from Guild research reports you can use
• The main conclusions from recent Guild research reports
• How Guild research helps you improve your practice and make better decisions
• What experts in the field are thinking and doing

Audience:
All.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI.

Articulate Storyline is a very powerful tool for eLearning. It is also extremely easy to use, enabling novice users to quickly learn how to build courses and add interactivity to content. Interactivity is what can make even the most boring content more engaging.

In this hands-on session you will explore a number of different ways to build interactivity into an eLearning course using Articulate Storyline. You will examine different types of interactions, and when each type of interaction works best. You will build interactions during the session, including click-and-reveal, drag-and-drop, and mouse-over effects.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to determine which Storyline tool might be best for certain interactions
• How to build a click-and-reveal style interaction
• How to build a drag-and-drop style interaction
• How to build a mouse-over effect

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers with some experience and familiarity with Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
A PC or Mac running Windows and Storyline.

Research shows that only 20 percent of corporate learning happens during formal training, regardless of the delivery modality. However, 70 percent of learning occurs during on-the-job experiences. One way of bringing more job experience into formal training is through online roleplay simulations. The challenge most organizations have is the belief that simulations are too expensive, take too long to build, or require skill sets they cannot support.

In this hands-on session, participants will learn how to build a complex and effective roleplay that will run on a mobile device using ZebraZapps. You will explore how easily you can build the simulation by creating your own in 60 minutes. You will leave this session with the tools, content, and media to make simulation-based learning a reality for your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• An overview of ZebraZapps
• The components of an effective roleplay
• How to build a roleplay from scratch using ZebraZapps
• How to publish the app for mobile delivery

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

Technology discussed in this session:
ZebraZapps.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with Internet access.

The maker movement has won accolades for reinventing education. How can we take the lessons from the maker movement and apply them to curriculum design? What tools do we use for teaching? What aspects of our curriculum are engaging for learning? Do learners have the tools they need to complete their tasks? In this workshop, you will explore how to bring the lessons of the maker movement to curriculum design. 

The development management system (DMS) is the missing piece to the toolset used by L&D. For many years, talent management systems and learning management systems have helped you plan and deliver solutions. However, there has never been a tool to support your development operations. The DMS is the missing link between the planning processes and solution delivery. In this session, you will learn how a DMS facilitates the development process and automates the day-to-day operations across the entire enterprise.

The main driver of learning and development today is to deliver and track sufficient training to minimize company risk and ensure employees understand basic processes and procedures. It is a broken, antiquated way of thinking suited for delivery by dated legacy technology and results in minimally effective programs. In this session you will learn why emotional connections are valuable and how they are created. You will explore the parallel between how exceptional retail and hospitality companies grow by staging experiences to create emotional connections with customers, and how the same thinking, tactics, and tools can apply to learning and development.

Tired of your legacy desktop authoring tool failing to create the beautiful multi-device learning your learners want and need? Looking for responsive and adaptive learning without blowing the budget? It’s time to meet gomo, your new authoring tool. In this session, gomo’s Mike Alcock will be running a live demo of its new authoring tool to show you how easy it is to create your own single-source content for desktops, smartphones, and tablets.

Are you a performance-driven company or a training-driven one? Your answer is crucial, because today’s consumer-minded learner has high expectations about engagement and accessibility. How will you respond? Can you connect the dots from learning to performance? Content strategy plays a critical role in managing and measuring content effectiveness once we break it down into small chunks. In this session you’ll learn about the future of learning technology and how it fits into your plans to deliver learning that not only delights, but drives performance. If you are planning your learning architecture for the future, don’t miss this.

Find out how new social and video collaboration technologies from IBM can transform the way your people learn. Hear about best practices from customers like Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and Boston Children’s Hospital, and learn how they are looking beyond the learning management system to a social, collaborative, better way of learning.

Within your content, sound is a sure way to heighten the overall educational experience and move your content into the future. Good sound and sound design can make a training video go from bland to wow. But looking for ways to incorporate sound in eLearning can be overwhelming: How do I record great sound? Where do I get music and sound effects? How much should I pay? Should I license the music? Do I have to license the music? What is licensing? In this session, you will explore solutions to add high-quality sound design to our eLearning videos on a very low budget.

It’s getting more difficult to filter the best and most relevant content that employees need to do their jobs effectively. In this session you will explore a next-generation content feed that aggregates information into one place. Learn about how the Office Graph surfaces signals from email, IM, SharePoint, Yammer, and soon line-of-business applications (i.e., LMS) and organizes it using into a coherent, relevant stream using Delve. It’s like building contextual performance support based on the activity that your learners are already doing today.

As today’s workforce adopts new technologies, only one in 10 workers consider themselves proficient with the digital tools they use every day. Meanwhile, rapid technological change has led to a skills half-life of just 2.5 years, allowing even the most adept among us to fall quickly behind while the US economy picks up the nearly $1 trillion dollar check in lost productivity. By laying out a digital competency model made up of eight core skills, this presentation provides a tool kit for closing your organization’s skills gap so that you can catch up, keep up, and move ahead.

Today’s eLearning developers have amazing desktop and cloud-based solutions to choose from. However, deciding which tool will best suit an organization’s learning and development needs, both today and in the future, can be an overwhelming challenge. There are a number of factors that you need to explore and understand before you can make a proper authoring-tool purchase decision.

In this session you will explore the pros and cons of desktop and cloud-based content authoring tools. You will learn where each type of tool excels and where it has challenges. You will examine a framework for understanding and evaluating features and benefits as they pertain to different learning development environments. You will leave this session understanding which option best suits your learning development model, which meets your budget goals, and which provides you the most flexibility going forward, making your next purchasing decision easier and more impactful.

In this session, you will learn:

• The pros and cons of desktop authoring tools
• The pros and cons of cloud-based authoring tools
• A framework for evaluating your learning development processes and needs
• How to choose an authoring system that best matches your learning development (and budget) needs

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, project managers, managers, directors, and VPs who understand their organization’s learning development model and the challenges they face when deploying authoring tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Software as a service (SaaS), desktop authoring, and cloud-based authoring.

Getting self-directed learners to jump into their LMS and click through the curriculum can be as simple as individual requirements and goals. But people are more effective learners when they are engaged and eager to interact with the content. While we have struggled with this in the training world, the marketing world has had great success in this area.

In this session participants will explore a number of techniques used in the field of marketing that can be applied to learning programs to make content more engaging. You will also explore the types of marketing techniques that can ruin engagement. You will discuss ways that marketing techniques can be tweaked and adapted to better serve organizational learning. You will leave this session with a plan and components that can be used to market your learning content.

In this session, you will learn:

• The core elements that help marketers engage viewers
• How those elements can be leveraged to engage learners
• Which elements can ruin engagement
• An example of a plan and components for marketing learning content

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, managers, directors, and VPs who understand their learners’ consumption habits.

Technology discussed in this session:
Websites, video, mobile.

To meet the real needs of an organization’s learning and performance strategy, learning programs have to be designed appropriately. On principle, this means acquiring performance objectives, mapping to meaningful practice, presenting models that guide application, supporting with reasonable examples, and making the experience engaging. In practice, you have subject matter experts who don’t have access to what they do, tools that are aligned with knowledge presentation, pre-existing processes and practices that are hard to change, stakeholders who mistake sizzle for steak, and limits on schedule and budget.

In this session, you will explore a case study of an organization’s attempt to successfully meld meaningful outcomes under pragmatic constraints. We’ll discuss what worked, what adjustments had to be made, and what’s still left to figure out. You will leave this session with better context of how to build a learning strategy that works when it really matters.

In this session, you will learn:

• The principles of learning that achieve outcomes
• The barriers to success and the tradeoffs that have to be made
• The lessons learned from a serious attempt to change

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Gamification is one of the hottest buzzwords in the learning world, yet its true benefits are not yet proven or fully understood. We need stories about what works and what doesn’t to enable us to grasp and harness the power and possibilities of this shiny new toy. Instructional designers, trainers, consultants, and others need to know how gaming can work alongside or integrated with both better-known and emerging tools.

In this case-study session you will explore the theory and practice of gamification with concrete stories of both success and failure and the key ingredients of each. You will learn the failures of Success Factors’ first gamification effort, and the lessons learned. You will also examine how it applied those lessons to its next gamification initiative, learn how it succeeded, and see the results. You will walk through the entire step-by-step process of the project, including program design, game mechanics, and technical details.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create a successful gamification initiative
• How to apply basic game elements to a learning event
• The most important pitfalls to avoid
• Step-by-step game creation
• How to gain executive buy-in for learning games
• How to judge what aspects of gamification will and won’t work for your audience
• How to optimize content for gamification
• Quick wins for game mechanics independent of your platform

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers, ideally with a basic knowledge of game design and mobile-application design and development.

Technology discussed in this session:
Responsive design, Google Docs, SurveyMonkey, and Amazon Web Services.

It’s hard enough to get learners to engage with the content of your eLearning course. This issue is compounded even further when learners can’t figure out how to use the course in the first place. All too often, new eLearning designers put their focus solely into designing the learning content, while at the same time ignoring the interface it’s encapsulated in. This leads to confusion on the part of the learner and disrupts the learning process.

In this session, participants will explore five simple rules for designing an eLearning user interface that promotes engagement, interaction, and learning. Using real-life examples, you will examine how simple interface changes can remove visual distraction and redundancy. You will leave this session able to improve your eLearning courses by removing user interface distraction and promoting intuitive action by the learner.

In this session, you will learn:

• How bad user interface decisions distract from the learning process
• Five rules for designing effective eLearning user interfaces
• How to visually distinguish interactive elements from your course content
• How to promote intuitive action by the user through visual cues

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a basic knowledge of the purpose and use of eLearning.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio.

Learners are increasingly taking control of their learning. As a result, the role of the learning department is changing from steering to facilitating. The trends affecting this change are already visible, however many learning professionals do not know how what they mean or how to respond to them. Even if they recognize the environment changing around them, they do not know what to do or how to adapt. These changes could ultimately signal the end of the learning department staple—the LMS.

In this session you will explore the five trends that are changing the future of organizational learning: self-directed learning, personalized or adaptive learning, curation, anywhere-anytime-any-device learning, and specialized learning content. You will learn what these trends are and how these trends are leading. You will explore why the LMS, in its current form, may not fit in the future. You will leave this session understanding these trends and how you can prepare yourself and your organization for the future.

In this session, you will learn:

• The trends that will change the world of learning and development
• Why the LMS may be dead five years from now
• What you as a learning professional can do to prepare for this change
• What you as an organization should do to prepare for this change

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile devices, Experience API, LMSs, and authoring tools.

Designing for face-to-face delivery is hard enough. How do you transfer those skills to the virtual- and blended-delivery environments? The shift can be daunting because instructional designers don’t have as much experience in virtual deliveries as participants do. Couple that with the fact that when a design falls apart, the participants usually know about it before the facilitator does so spending time on a tight design is critical up front. Plus, designing in the wrong way can be expensive when it comes to programming and technology adoption costs.

In this session you will explore five best practices for designing for the virtual and blended environments. You will learn how to apply traditional design principles in this new delivery landscape. You will discuss the value of an environmental analysis, and how it helps you understand the technology landscape. You will leave this session with an understanding of the common blended-learning design roadblocks and how to overcome them.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to determine the desired learning outcomes and how to assess mastery of these outcomes
• How to conduct an environmental analysis to fully understand the learning technology landscape
• How to map learning objectives to the most appropriate learning outcomes
• How to create an assessment plan for the individual learning components and for the entire blended program
• How to create a validated instructional-design plan to manage the development of the blended program

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers with experience creating learning objectives and familiarity with what learning technologies are available at their organizations.

Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual classrooms, eLearning, and more.

Mobile design and development is a new discipline for many in the learning industry. A user-centric design-thinking approach is necessary for positive results. However, this type of approach is counter to how most of us have approached instructional design and we must understand it if we are to truly address the mobile learner’s needs.

In this interactive session you will learn how to build amazing mobile learning by leveraging the device’s unique affordances. You will discuss what device affordances are and explore various examples of them. You will examine how best to embrace learner needs and match them against mobile opportunities. You will brainstorm and share your ideas on how to leverage these affordances in learning programs. All content generated during the session will be shared back to the participants for later use.

In this session, you will learn:

• What device affordances are
• Why they matter and how to use them
• Some quick ideas for creating true mobile learning
• How to embrace the learner’s needs and design effective mobile learning

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a basic understanding of mobile devices and their usage.

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile devices.

Developing content that is meaningful and accessible in a world of multiple devices and varied platforms is a huge challenge for today’s instructional designer. Content developers have to first consider the context in which the training is being consumed, and then try to navigate the devices that might access that training today and in the future. Responsive training design is being heralded as a panacea for this training delivery dilemma, but is it enough?

In this session participants will examine the concept of adaptive or intelligent responsive training development. You will explore a framework to evaluate a training need and the context in which the training is being delivered. You will discuss development strategies and techniques such as simplifying content when needed and adding extra when it makes sense. This session will explore real-world examples and offer 15 tried and true tips for making responsive eLearning adaptive, intelligent, and as effective as it can be no matter what the end user’s device is.

In this session, you will learn:

• The difference between responsive and adaptive training
• The current frameworks for responsive and adaptive training development
• What learning opportunities are best suited to adaptive responsive design
• Fifteen tried and true tips for making eLearning adaptive and responsive

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a general understanding of training development and the issues confronting designers trying to develop for a multi-device world.

Technology discussed in this session:
Responsive design, HTML5, iOS and Android OS, various Android and iOS devices (phone and tablet).

The volume of content in most organizations is getting to a point where manually curating content for various audiences is becoming overwhelming. Sifting through thousands of eLearning packages for relevance to a certain topic, role, or location can be a very time consuming task. The delivery may change, the style of content may change, the packaging and location of content may change, but the volume will continually expand making finding relevant content increasingly difficult for our audiences.

In this session you will learn how computers and systems can be used to curate content for our audiences. You will explore why allowing computers and systems to understand what content is about will allow those systems to filter content that is relevant to a user’s needs or relevant to the context of a user’s situation. You will discover how this will make the increasing volume of eLearning content more manageable. You will leave this session understanding how building intelligence into our content will allow the systems that deliver content to identify the context, understand it, and bring that contextually relevant material to our audience.

In this session, you will learn:

• What structured content and intelligent content means
• How to design intelligent content
• Practical uses for intelligent structured content
• Tools and development techniques for creating structured eLearning
• Practical advantages of using intelligent content

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and managers who are familiar with custom eLearning content development using both rapid authoring tools and custom code. Knowledge of LMS systems, learning record stores, and how computers interact with each would be beneficial.

Technology discussed in this session:
XML, JSON, HTML, JavaScript, rapid authoring tools, structured content tools, intelligent content design, learning management systems, learning record stores, and computer intelligence.

Building eLearning isn’t just about design and development. Each eLearning course or module you develop is essentially a project. Project management can be a daunting task, from goal definition to the post-mortem review. However, proper management of eLearning projects can have more of an impact on success than even design and development.

In this session you will explore an overview of the total project cycle. You will develop an understanding of each phase of the process and learn practical tips for each step along the way. You will leave this fast-moving session with a lot of practical information that can be useful to beginning or advanced project managers in a one-man shop or in a team environment.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to set project goals
• How to determine resource needs
• How and why to choose an authoring tool
• How to manage the development process
• How to manage the quality-control process
• How to deploy to a LMS
• How to do the project post-mortem preview

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Our current training paradigm does an admirable job of transferring knowledge, but no matter how well we accomplish this transfer, knowledge retention works against us when what we really need is flawless performance at the point of work. In short, our training paradigm was never intended to support performers at the point of work. It never was, and it never will be. It’s time for a little disruption!

In this session you will explore embedded performer support (EPS), a new discipline that will evolve any existing training strategy to include the work context where true business value is either generated...or lost. Participants will examine new techniques, new technologies, and new agile development methods to address a rapidly growing need by all businesses. You will learn how integrating EPS tactics and technology into your L&D strategy will compensate for the convergence of learning with work.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to map a holistic learning and performance environment
• How to expand and evolve discovery efforts
• How to build agile, rapid design, development, and delivery of content
• How to determine the right mix of technology for an EPS solution
• Where to begin

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, managers, directors, VPs, CLOs, and executives.

Technology discussed in this session:
EPS.

Training demands are greater that any one central training department can meet. Departments are always making their own training despite lacking the skills or tools to make it truly effective. Even if subject-matter experts want to partner with a full instructional-design project team, they rarely have the time to do so. And yet despite these challenges, end users still require and deserve a high level of quality in their training programs.

In this case-study session you will learn how Pacific Gas and Electric’s (PG&E) Academy created a number of self-support tools, “brown bags,” communities of practice, and guidelines that enable any business unit to build their own instructor-led training, web-based training, or virtual learning. You will discover how these tools enabled the organization to build more training with fewer resources in a shorter amount of time. You will leave this session with a number of tools, templates, and guidelines that you can take back and adapt for your own organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What tools, templates, and guidelines are needed to make a self-support model work for all business units
• What evaluation measures, checklists, and coaching need to be in place to ensure quality
• What the business impact is when other groups share in the course-development process
• How you can adapt and leverage internal training-department standards across the business
• How you can leverage similar tools, templates, guidelines, and support methods in your organization

Audience:
Novice project managers and managers with a basic understanding of the course development process.

Technology discussed in this session:
Instructor led training, PowerPoint, Microsoft Word, Adobe Connect, Articulate Studio ’13, SharePoint, Yammer, iMovie/iPhone, and Show and Share video portal.

There are a number of misunderstandings and misconceptions about the Experience API (xAPI). Many learning departments and organizations aren’t quite sure what the benefits are of xAPI and how to integrate it into their learning solutions. In a time when mobile technologies and informal workplace environments are on the rise, designing comprehensive learning programs to take advantage of these devices and environments can be daunting without the right technology to tie it all together, one that will help improve learning overall.

In this session you will discuss ways the xAPI can improve your learning programs. You will examine the authoring tools that publish for xAPI and how xAPI can drive leaderboards to make learning more engaging. Participants will discover that the effort to implement xAPI is smaller than expected and absolutely worth it. This session will demonstrate seven novel ways that xAPI can be used to overcome some of the most common learning challenges organizations face today.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to describe xAPI in your own words and explain how it works
• Innovative ways to use xAPI to make learning more engaging and fun in your organizations
• How other organizations have used xAPI
• How to find xAPI resources and communities online

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, and executives with a basic understanding of eLearning design and development as well as a basic understanding of learning goals and objectives.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI, learning record stores (LRS), the LMS and LCMS, Articulate Storyline, Lectora, WordPress.

It’s all too easy to create boring eLearning with any authoring tool, including Adobe Captivate. What we need to engage learners is to make them interact with the content, not just watch and listen. Interaction does not mean just hitting next, back, and menu, nor does it mean just pressing a glossary button or a mute button. It means pulling the learner into the content and having interactivity involve them at the level of doing, not just seeing.

In this hands-on session, participants will explore the various ways that Adobe Captivate can provide opportunities to provide learners with true interactivity. You will examine ready-made interactions along with drag and drop and other interactive elements. You will discover how quiz questions can be used to engage learners along the way as well. You will leave this session having covered all of the ways you can have your eLearning lessons interact with the learner....yes, all of the ways.

In this session, you will learn:

• To use Captivate’s built-in interactions
• To use buttons, click areas, roll overs, and drag and drop
• To use quiz questions for more than just quizzing
• To engage learners in every way possible

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a passing understanding of Captivate.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with Adobe Captivate installed.

Courses that meet the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) accessibility requirements are in high demand. However, many instructional designers lack the understanding of what 508 compliance really means, and the competency to effectively develop compliant courses.

In this hands-on session participants will explore how Articulate Storyline can help you create eLearning modules that are more accessible for users. You will discuss some of the important issues related to 508 compliance. You will learn how to use alternate text to describe screen elements. You will build courses with closed captioning effects. You will leave this session understanding the Storyline features that support accessible content.

In this session, you will learn:

• To list some of the more pressing issues regarding eLearning and 508 compliance
• To use alternate text to describe onscreen elements
• To build courses with closed captioning effects
• To determine which Storyline features support accessible content

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers who are familiar and comfortable with the basic functions of Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
ADA section 508, use of alternate text, closed captioning, Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
PC or Mac running Windows, Storyline.

This session will discuss the pedagogical advantages of using i>clicker in the classroom, how clickers can increase student engagement, and an overview of the features and benefits of the i>clicker products, including a live demonstration. If time permits, there will also be a brief Q&A session at the end for any inquiries.

Emerging technologies are always fun and exciting. But what happens after the shine is long gone? We implement the tools and are disappointed. After 20+ years experiencing so many amazing emerging technological advancements, I’ve seen the eLearning industry struggle. While the rapid growth of the eLearning marketplace is undeniable, as practitioners, we find ourselves struggling to stay relevant. Let’s talk about how we can get better at providing business value: Let’s become better partners within the business units. Let’s integrate our systems/processes to better support the changing needs of the business. Let’s talk about how.

Most online learning designed for today’s workforce has changed little over the last 10 years; it takes the form of a prepackaged course which the learner clicks through. So why, when so much has changed in the way we use technology and digital media, has so little changed in our approach to learning at work? This session provides a practical approach to overcoming this challenge and demonstrates how new learning technology that makes use of the xAPI (including, but not exclusively, Brightwave’s own learning system, tessello) is delivering more effective learning.

Being a tenured professor for over 30 years, and a part of the education community for decades, has made one thing perfectly clear to Allison Rossett: It’s time for a change. Allison isn’t the only one who thinks change is overdue in education. The President, Bill Gates, the Lumina Foundation, and others all think so too. They all make a case for WHY change must come to universities, the professoriate, and by extension, corporate education. In this session you will explore the more important question related to educational change: How to do it. You will discuss what we can do to change the future of education and examine technology’s important role in changing the structure and culture of education. You will gain an understanding of the forces that will impact the changes coming to educators, universities, and other learning entities near you.

The “badge movement” is gaining momentum, but many organizations are still unaware of their potential. Organizations are starting to award badges to acknowledge worker competencies built on-the-job, and other organizations are recognizing the badges that employees and job candidates have earned elsewhere as a means of improving hiring and new-hire training. In this example-rich session, you will learn about the power of badges, the ecosystem in which they live, and the role they will play for you and your organization. You will explore examples of badges that provide value in competency-based education programs, job training, professional development, and city-wide learning initiatives. You will learn how badges give prospective employers, schools, collaborators, and other learners a more complete picture of knowledge, skills, and abilities. Badge holders are entering the workforce, and they expect business and industry to accept and issue this new currency. This session will help you be ready for them.

What is the best way to design instruction for today’s technology tools, for stand-up instruction, and for eLearning? Many designers struggle to answer that question because you must match the right learning content with the right instructional strategy and design instruction in a way that ensures it will “stick” with the learner. Often, this matching can be the difference between success and failure of a learning program. In this interactive session you will learn simple techniques instructional designers use to create compelling and meaningful instruction based on applying proper instructional strategies and techniques to specific types of content. You will explore examples demonstrating how to match content with the right learning strategy that range from creating stories to developing analogies to properly chunking factual content. You will discover how to leverage the correct matching of content to your instructional strategy to create effective, engaging learning opportunities.

There are many ways to support learning, including formal, informal, mobile, social, and immersive. Yet, we often look at each approach independently rather than seeing the bigger picture, which limits our thinking of what a truly integrated learning strategy can be. To demystify and manage all this for the highest value, we need more than just a bigger learning toolbox; we need a learning ecosystem—a new organizing framework for what we do. In this session, you’ll examine the characteristics of a learning ecosystem from the perspective of performance and look at the infrastructure, including innovations in technology, needed to support it. You’ll get suggestions on how to identify the strategic drivers and develop the sponsorship needed to grow and sustain a cohesive learning ecosystem in your organization. You’ll explore the future of learning ecosystems—and why this new way of looking at what we do is so important.

Because mobile technologies have changed how we live our daily lives, it is natural to assume that they will also change how we learn. However, some might suggest that mLearning, as a method of supporting learning and performance, is more hype than substance. They built this critique upon a flawed foundation that considers mLearning through the lens of eLearning. mLearning is not eLearning on a mobile device; it is much, much more than that. This panel discussion will explore why mobile technologies are a critical driver for the future of learning and performance, why mobile is critical to the learning conversation, and how mLearning is an entirely new world for learning and performance that we must explore. You will learn how organizations are reinventing learning and performance using mobile technologies, and how you and your organization can utilize mobile in innovative ways. Panelists are members of the advisory group for the mLearnCon Conference and Expo.

Formal training programs cost a lot to produce and maintain so just because people have learning or performance needs doesn’t mean you must build a formal training program—a community can meet a lot of the support workers need in order to learn and do their jobs better. In this session, Tom Kuhlmann will share his experiences from building small communities of practice to Articulate where he manages a community of over 130,000 members. You will discover what makes a community work, discuss how communities help people learn based on their needs as they connect with other learners and experts, and learn about the wealth of resources a community generates that serve as a growing book of knowledge. You will learn what a community is, how to get one to grow, and what it takes to manage it so the members are engaged and active participants.

One way to address the impersonal aspect of eLearning is to use video. Video lets learners see and hear other people who may be addressing them with a story or performing the training’s focal activities. Integrating video can be a daunting and expensive proposition. In this session you will explore the FRBC’s use of “found” video, the tools we already have, and a focus on learners’ needs rather than production value to integrate video and make online training more engaging for our learners without a full video production staff.

Emotion is a powerful learning tool, forging strong memories and associations. Most games for learning focus on cognition and knowledge, but a new class of games and immersive experiences are focusing on training our emotional and physiological responses. Biometrics can now be used to shape your learning experiences based on your body’s response to a situation or decision. Come join the discussion and learn how the key to future learning may be in your own mind!

Customer training is increasingly critical to the sales and marketing process, yet for many companies, it is still considered only a support function. In this session you will explore examples of how innovative organizations are integrating customer training into their pre-sales process. You will get specific ideas for how training can impact your top-line growth, as well as best practices for adapting course delivery to this purpose.

eLearning professionals select development software for creating online training, but there are a number of other tools and resources needed to create interesting and engaging training. In this session, you will learn about the best tools and resources (some free) to add to your development toolbox. You will explore tools such as templates, assets, and widgets, as well as other software needed to create training. You will see examples of tools and resources used to enhance development, and you will learn will learn how to access and use these tools.

Prototyping is an increasingly important need in eLearning. In this session you will learn how to design new courses and apps to gather feedback before starting development; about paper prototyping to tools that help simplify sharing concepts and testing ideas; to create fully interactive previews for desktop and mobile delivery; and which tools you can use as soon as you get back to your office.

What makes your audience care about what you’re saying? Is it your snazzy PowerPoint template, or maybe your amazing charisma? How do you make information connect with an audience? How do you make them care? In this session you will explore the lessons learned via years of surveying sociology, history, and technology to uncover real-world examples of effective communication techniques that grab and keep an audience’s attention. You’ll learn quick, creative, and budget-friendly ways to design engaging presentations that enhance the clarity and impact of your message.

The promise of MOOCs is appealing … massive to scale an organization’s limited resources, online on any device, open to people who wouldn’t otherwise have access, but that course part? It gets boring fast. Courses can be too linear, too logical, and too long for digital learners. It’s time to face up to the fact that courses are an artificial way to learn, invented 150 years ago to make farmers into obedient assembly line workers.

In this session you will explore a new way of looking at MOOCs and how they can be applied to corporate learning. You will learn how MOOCs can be fascinating, engaging communities that have bite-sized content at their fingertips. You will explore the results of a recent experiment—a MOOC on corporate MOOCs—and discuss many of the lessons learned along the way. You will leave this session with a number of tips that can be applied to help build a fascinating MOOC people will love.

In this session, you will learn:

• Alternatives to traditional course models in MOOCs
• Strategies for creating bite-sized learning opportunities
• Lessons from a public MOOC implementation
• Tips to apply in building your own MOOC

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

Technology discussed in this session:
MOOCs.

If you talk to game developers most will agree that building a functional artificial intelligence (AI) for a game engine is usually the most time-consuming part of development. Are there tools that we can use to rapidly develop the look and feel of AI without the resource drain of full AI development? Despite the fact that our development tools have greatly enhanced our abilities to create compelling, engaging content, adding AI elements to our courses can seem like a “bridge too far” for many developers.

In this session, you will explore how adding AI to gamified content can increase your user engagement. You will review some of the attributes of artificial intelligence. You will examine a series of tools you can use to add AI to your content. You will review a demonstration and case study of the AI engine that RAPS created to power a certification training game.

In this session, you will learn:

• How using AI in your courses can increase engagement
• How to incorporate simple AI concepts into your course design
• Techniques for planning and executing your AI behavior
• How to utilize certain AI strategies in your courses

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and directors with a basic understanding and appreciation of general game-playing concepts.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Adobe After Effects, Adobe Photoshop.

You’ve created a video, and visually it looks great. At the same time, something about it feels flat to you. You’ve shared the video with others and it seems sort of flat to them as well. The problem is often not with the visuals; it’s with the audio. Video often needs more than just voices to be engaging.

In this session, you’ll explore how to build a memorable soundtrack for your eLearning programs. You will discover how a soundtrack can take videos to new heights and facilitate higher levels of understanding among viewers. You will examine a number of techniques that eLearning developers can leverage to create soundtracks for learning programs. You will leave this session understanding the value a soundtrack can add to eLearning, and tips for how you can build one yourself.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why you need to think beyond the sound your voiceover is making
• When music can enhance and when it can detract from your training
• What makes a good soundtrack and how to form it
• How to do multi-track mixing and mix-down for your training video
• How easy it is to imagine great sound and create it
• Where to get sound effects (SFX) and how to integrate them into your eLearning video soundtrack

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

Management often views training efforts as a line expense for a specific period. Rarely is any type of training activity considered an investment apart from specific tangible elements. eLearning and mLearning initiatives are considered investments since they require tangible financial requirements, including technology and supporting infrastructure viewed as capital expenditures.

In this session you will discuss the specific financial literacy tools used to build a comprehensive financial structure to support your eLearning and mLearning projects and gain senior management buy-in. You will explore why trying to convince based only on qualitative factors is insufficient. You will use tools including cost-volume-profit, break-even, and net-present-value to evaluate a training investment—the same tools senior management uses to run the business.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to define capital investment evaluation tools and apply financial tools to build an effective case for eLearning and mLearning
• How to utilize the financial results to build a case for an initiative
• The skills to communicate eLearning and mLearning effectiveness
• How to implement an eLearning and mLearning budgetary forecasting process to demonstrate the extended impact the initiative will have on an organization
• How to benchmark financial performance to evaluate the lifecycle of the initiative and assess whether external sources are more effective

Audience:
Novice and intermediate project managers, managers, directors, and VPs with basic comprehension of financial concepts.

Technology discussed in this session:
Excel spreadsheets.

It is increasingly challenging for designers and developers to create content that works well across an ever-increasing number of devices. Screen sizes and aspect ratios vary tremendously, and instructional designers and developers do not have the resources to create multiple versions of each project for each type of potential device.  Responsive design has allowed learning content to be flexibly displayed across the diversity of devices while maintaining a single content source.

In this session you’ll learn the HTML and CSS code that creates responsive interactions. You will explore how responsive design is coded. You will discover how responsive design can provide you with high levels of control over your content and how it appears across the gamut of devices used to consume eLearning content. You will leave this session with a greater understanding of how responsive design works and how it can enhance your eLearning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• The syntax of responsive design code in CSS
• How to create optimized views for mobile, tablet, and other specialized devices
• Techniques to hide and reveal content as appropriate for different-sized devices
• To evaluate code produced by eLearning tools and further optimize for better responsive design

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Many training professionals find it challenging to know if training was effective on the job or if part of the organizational system is not supporting the training delivered. While many training departments collect data under Kirkpatrick’s levels one or two, few are able to track data beyond that. Training departments need a methodology for finding out training needs without on the job observation or having trainees return for a test.

In this session participants will explore the problem-based inquiry (PBI), a method used to systematically mine data that already exists at the organizational level that provides insight into what may need addressing with training. You will learn how this information is mined from the organizational help desk’s database of actions workers struggle with on the job. You will explore the tools and methodologies needed to use the PBI method. You will discover how inexpensive the PBI method is to employ and how it utilizes data already captured by the organization by the help desk.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to indirectly evaluate training programs
• How to use the problem-based inquiry method
• The benefits of indirect training evaluation
• How to use data already captured to improve training

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic appreciation for the need to assess training effectiveness.

Technology discussed in this session:
The problem-based inquiry methodology.

As training professionals we know that practice and repetition builds skills, reinforces knowledge, and aids information retention and recall. However our traditional learning solutions and tools often struggle to provide practice opportunities that allow learners to apply knowledge and build skills in realistic, risk free environments. Even when we have practice opportunities in our curriculum, they may often lack the engagement that motivates learners to repeat and build proficiency and/or mastery over time, and they are difficult to scale to larger audiences.

In this session you will explore the power of games as a tool for learner practice. You will examine the design and development considerations that can help you create learning games that scale across large groups. You will discuss the differences between gamification and learning games, and understand when and where the two should and shouldn’t be used. You will leave this session understanding how games can be used to build measurable proficiency over time for a wide audience.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify opportunities for game-based learning within your business
• How to design games and use game mechanics
• How game experiences can be indicators of proficiency and/or performance
• Why you should think about building reusable-content engines

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic knowledge of instructional design and experience with games.

Technology discussed in this session:
Game mechanics, Flash, HTML, C#, SQL, CallLab, and FlexQuest Creator.

As valuable as courses are, there will always be times when performance support is more appropriate. But in order to have really effective just-in-time learning support, people need to be able find and use it quickly and effortlessly. Performance support needs to be available wherever you are and whenever you need it. More importantly, the performance-support tools of the future are hands free.

In this session you will explore Google Glass, and the possibilities that hands-free devices like it open up for mobile learning and performance support. You will learn how Google Glass works, and examine examples of unique learning and performance solutions being developed for the device. You will compare how wearable performance support compares to that delivered on other mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. You will leave the session with new ideas and inspiration for how you might use mobile devices and wearable technology in your own organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can use Google Glass for distance coaching
• Why Google Glass is so effective for hands-free performance support
• How you can use Google Glass for context-sensitive performance support
• What the future of immersive learning might hold

Audience:
Novice designers and developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Google Glass, smartphones, tablets, and Oculous Rift.

Changing technologies, changing learner behaviors and characteristics, and the way that content is delivered today all impact how learning should be architected. As learning professionals, what are we to make of the explosion of new technologies and their promise to transform how we learn?

In this session participants will be introduced to key considerations for integrating the promise of technologies such as collaboration tools, social networks, and more, into effective learning solutions that achieve tangible results. You will discuss how new technologies and business trends are fundamentally impacting the way we communicate, learn, and share information at work, home, and in our communities. You will examine how to leverage technologies in the context of broader business and social trends to make an impact in your organization.

You will explore a framework upon which new learning programs that leverage new technologies can be implemented.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify traits and characteristics of learners today
• To assess how new technologies have changed how learning content is offered
• Relevant industry examples that showcase how technology is used to better enable learning
• To define a framework from which blended learning design can stem

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, managers, and directors with a general knowledge of instructional design principles.

Technology discussed in this session:
A variety of leading edge technologies, tools, and examples of new learning (Yammer, TedEd, QStream, etc.), including the corporate MOOC.

Technology has completely changed the way we live, work, and learn. Technology has brought us the Internet, smartphones, tablets, and many more tools that have changed our lives forever. Of course, these same technologies have also brought us memes like Socially Awkward Penguin, Success Kid, and yes, Grumpy Cat.

In this session these two worlds collide as six industry experts use today’s memes to explore the current and future state of learning. The rules of each presentation are simple: Each speaker’s presentation has 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. That provides each speaker with six minutes and 40 seconds to paint their vision for the future of learning. And there’s one last rule—slides can only use common Internet memes for visuals. Join us for what is sure to be a fun and informative session.

In this session, you will learn:

• How learning has evolved in recent years
• How Ignite session formats can create unique learning opportunities
• What learning might look like years from now
• Way more about Internet memes than you ever thought possible

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Various technologies.

On the job performance support is often a key area of professional development that may not always be adequately addressed or sustainable, particularly in instances where workers are part of a mobile/virtual workforce. Traditional forms of training are often leveraged to bridge performance gaps and provide ongoing development opportunities. However, the methods often fail to deliver on the performance support needs of today’s mobile worker.

In this session participants will explore a case study from Saint Elizabeth Health Care that identified the readiness and value of implementing a mobile learning strategy to bridge performance and training gaps by providing just-in-time and just-enough training at the point of need. You will learn from the findings of a pilot study that was conducted to observe the readiness of front line staff to leverage mLearning and the impact it might have as a sustainable performance and training strategy. You will leave this session able to able to identify key factors required to build an mLearning strategy and many fundamental design principles of mLearning.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key factors required to build an mLearning strategy
• The fundamental design principles for mLearning
• The difference in design strategies between mLearning and other forms of training design
• How mLearning advances just-in-time and just-enough training at the point of need of training strategy

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile phones.

eLearning is often viewed as a brain dump of knowledge and there is far too little examination of how to motivate the learner. Engaging design elements and interactivity can inspire the learner to complete the module, but it doesn’t necessarily inspire the learner to keep learning and growing. There is a huge opportunity to incorporate motivational strategies from educational psychology in a practical way in eLearning.

In this session you will learn about self-determination theory (SDT), a motivational theory identifying the three basic human needs that are required for growth and achievement: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. You will discuss this theory and explore the proven business benefits of using SDT to motivate learners. You will examine practical examples of how this theory can be realized through the design of thoughtful web-based training deliverables. You will leave this session with a new way of looking at strategies for eLearning that can have long-term positive results for retention, employee development, and employee performance.

In this session, you will learn:

• What SDT is
• The three basic learner needs identified in SDT
• How applying SDT in training helps you meet business and training goals
• Specific strategies for inspiring motivation in web-based training initiatives

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers with knowledge of analyzing, designing, or developing learning solutions.

Learning professionals have long battled what is allowable from an organization’s IT group. Understanding why IT has these issues is the best method of lowering these barriers. In today’s world, data theft has become big business. The IT group sees allowing personal laptops and mobile devices onto organizational networks as a surefire method to data disaster. As such, IT groups often shut all the doors to minimize risks. Opening those doors can yield huge benefits and can be relatively easy—if you know how.

In this session you will learn how easy it is for someone to infiltrate your learning program and use it to attack your organization. You will learn a number of rules you need to employ during development to ensure your training remains safe and how following these rules will put your IT department at ease. You will explore how this process will lower the barriers to successful project implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why IT likes to say no
• How to change your online behavior to stay safe and protect your organization
• Basic mLearning development rules to keep your product clean
• How easy it is for an attacker to infiltrate your organization’s IT infrastructure
• How to ensure your mLearning development is not a cause for concern

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

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, Base64, Android, and iPhone.

The tools and technologies that exist today in large learning and development organizations are complex, and they don’t always play nice with each other. This makes it very difficult to build useful reports from the results of learning experiences in multiple systems. One of the new tools that is available that can address this problem is the Experience API (xAPI).

In this session, you will learn about the Sears rollup reporting infrastructure for dozens of competencies across over 200,000 people. You will examine the processes and underlying technologies that are working together as part of the competency reporting system, including the xAPI, HRIS, reporting system, and LMS. You will explore a real example of how to leverage the xAPI and existing systems to reach desired business outcomes. You will discuss implementation challenges and share learnings about the design and planning stages of an enterprise LRS implementation.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Sears is using an LRS to aggregate data from multiple LMS systems
• How to translate and migrate historical data from existing systems into an LRS
• What tools and techniques were used to drive large scale near real-time competency rollup reporting
• How to sync HRIS data with an LRS to define groups of people

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic high-level knowledge of the xAPI and related LMS/content technologies.

Technology discussed in this session:
Reporting systems, HR information systems, multiple LMSs, the xAPI, learning record stores.

Lectora is a popular development tool that is more powerful than most instructional designers realize. Lectora is extremely malleable, making it possible to do almost anything you can design. However, some users are unaware of how to get the most out of the authoring tool.

In this hands-on session, participants will explore tips and tricks for getting the most out of Lectora. You will learn to control functionality based on current date, move an item in a group individually, and put an item on top of a Flash object. You will examine how to display a student’s name as first-last (switching from last-first), build and display a countdown (or count-up), and how to time events to audio.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to control functionality based on current date
• How to move an item in a group individually
• How to put an item on top of a Flash object
• How to display a student’s name as first-last (switch from last-first)
• How to build and display a countdown (or count-up)
• How to change selected items in a list box based on outside user interaction
• How to reset individual form elements
• How to time events to audio
• How to build conditional functionality with multiple decision points

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers who are familiar with Lectora X, Inspire, 11, or a comparable rapid development tool.

Technology discussed in this session:
Lectora (version X, Inspire, or 11 are appropriate for this session).

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with Lectora installed.

As eLearning developers we often get caught up in designing only what we know from experience. The same holds true with eLearning developers using Articulate Storyline. The more you know, the more options and ideas become evident to solving instructional design challenges. The more you know about variable programming in Storyline, the more the world opens up to unlimited design possibilities.

In this hands-on session participants will explore the basics of Articulate Storyline variable programming. You will examine when it is best to use a variable, and when variable programming may not be the right solution. You will discover what a Boolean variable is and review some applications for its use. You will explore numerous tips, techniques, and a few trickeries to get the most out of variables. You will leave this session with several practice source files to practice using variables in your own projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• About variable types and their differences
• The various uses of variable types
• The best time to use a variable
• Tips on how to best manage multiple variables

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers and developers with a good understanding of object states, layers, and triggers using Articulate Storyline.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline.

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop with licensed copy of Articulate Storyline or a 30-day trial version.

This session provides an overview and demo of Capella’s LEAP solution, which supports companies in developing first-time leaders using a 70/20/10 model of development. Research has shown that the most effective way to develop new leaders is to provide support for learning new ideas (10 percent), learning from others (20 percent) and learning from practice (70 percent). LEAP, which stands for learn, evaluate, apply, and perform, enables Capella’s learning partners to use web-based technology to enable deep leadership learning and transformation. Capella utilizes a robust competency-based leadership model based on leading workplace models, strong content and processes for implementing learning in action, and assessments for measuring behavior change on-the-job.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Perception is what drives everything we know, think, feel, and believe. It also impacts how we learn. In this thought-provoking keynote presentation, renowned neuroscientist Dr. Beau Lotto will use perceptual neuroscience to explore creativity and the critical role it plays in learning. Discover what creativity is from the perspective of the mind. Learn why fear and stress are the main barriers to creativity. Explore how you can create an environment that allows maximum creativity for yourself and others. This presentation will help you understand how the brain resolves uncertainty and how “destructive creation” is at the heart of learning itself.

This session will break down the key ingredients that will make your mobile app a learning success. You’ll learn design principles, from user interface to user experience, and how to get the best in class. You learn several ways to prototype apps prior to programming, from paper to interactive testing, and learn the techniques and tools that you can use to test your concept prior to programming. You’ll also look at the key types of apps and receive dozens of ideas to get you started and to apply when you’re back at your office.

Storyline 2 has arrived, and it brings a whole new world of possibilities to eLearning development. With new triggers, relative motion paths, controls, dockable panels, and many other features, Storyline 2 is the easiest, quickest way to build anything you can imagine! In this session, you’ll learn how Storyline 2 gives you more ways to bring content to life, more ways to create the right look and feel, and more ways to be more productive.

See how an organization used the TREK Learning Experience Manager to enable short, frequent, asynchronous, targeted coaching interactions—“nano-coaching—to support on-the-job learning. Learners used mobile devices to capture evidence of work along their learning path and submit it to their designated coaches. Coaches were notified and provided feedback that was sent back to the employees. The coaches were provided with performance support, including coaching guides, checklists, and success criteria. You’ll see the results of a pilot study of the effectiveness of the technology-supported nano-coaching process. You’ll also get guidelines for developing an effective nano-coaching program in your organization.

Data privacy is an issue that is rising in importance around the globe. As more examples of privacy violations are becoming public, the need for learning professionals to focus on data privacy increases. However, most learning professionals have never really put much thought into data privacy or how privacy factors into our design and development.

In this session you will explore two key areas of concern for data privacy in learning. You will examine the importance of learner data, and how companies control how learner data is being used. You will also discuss the increasing frequency in which organizations are extending their content development to SMEs, and the increased risk that places on protecting data in materials. You will leave this session able to assess your own organization’s possible risks, and how to reduce them.

In this session, you will learn:

• How your training materials may be putting you at risk for privacy infringement
• Steps that other companies are taking to minimize risk
• How to create governance around data
• How to manage SME-produced content without being Big Brother

Audience:
Novice designers, managers, and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

In the world of Big Data, organizations are increasingly using data and technology to better understand the value of their investments and efforts. As training professionals, it is imperative that we also use data to communicate the impact of our work. Many learning professionals avoid data and measurement because it seems like a daunting task, but it doesn’t have to be.

In this session, you will examine eight smooth steps for involving stakeholders in developing an evaluation framework for your eLearning initiatives. You will discover how this framework can be foundational for creating a common language for stakeholders. You will learn how the use of this framework can minimize the number of implementation issues, and provide a structure for the ongoing assessment of eLearning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of evaluation for eLearning
• About an evaluation framework for implementing eLearning
• Ways to foster eLearning evaluation
• The importance of setting a common language with stakeholders

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

Organizations often recognize that the best way to improve performance is through practice, but they have struggled to shift their learning design from knowledge acquisition to performance improvement. Immersive learning is a new way of thinking about training design, and companies are looking for examples to help them see how immersive design can help them with their unique needs.

In this session participants will examine a number of case studies from organizations who have implemented immersive learning solutions and have seen success. You will explore immersive learning being used to address a variety of organizational issues. You will learn how immersive design can solve complex organizational problems in effective ways. You will leave this session with an arsenal of examples that can be used to successfully implement immersive learning in your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• What immersive learning is
• How organizations have successfully used immersive design to solve organizational problems
• The basic steps in immersive design
• Tips for getting your organization started with immersive design

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Games, simulations, virtual worlds, mobile learning, virtual learning environments, augmented reality, alternate reality games, immersive learning environments, video.

One of the most challenging aspects of developing learning programs is managing the sheer volume of content generated on a daily basis. There are eLearning modules, demos, simulations, videos, job aides, quick-start guides, webinars, ILT decks, graphs, flowcharts, assessments, animations, podcasts, and the source and media files to go along with each. The most frustrating aspect of all this is the number of times developers are forced to reinvent the wheel because, while the perfect content may already exist in one format it is incompatible with content in another format.

In this session you will discuss how implementing a learning-content management system (LCMS) can help address many of the content curation and organizational issues facing learning-development teams today. Using athenahealth as a case study, you’ll review the process they went through in choosing a vendor, getting leadership buy-in, the ups and downs of implementation, what custom work needed to be done, bringing over legacy content, convincing IDs that learning another new tool would be worth it, what worked as promised, and what didn’t.

In this session, you will learn:

• The challenges of trying to curate and update tremendous amounts of content
• The advantages of using an LCMS to develop and manage learning content
• How athenahealth implemented an LCMS during the chaos of a major software release
• How athenahealth plans to utilize the power of the LCMS in the future
• Lessons from an LCMS implementation

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers who have experience as an instructional designer.

Technology discussed in this session:
Kenexa Premier LCMS.

Experience is the most meaningful type of learning learners can engage in. Experience implies using skills in context and applying critical thinking to any situation. We have to provide as realistic an experience as possible to learners without putting people at risk. Multiple-branching and multiple-outcome simulations help learners develop critical judgment to address what to do in real scenarios, creating true experiences that will translate easily to real-life situations.  

In this session you will learn the distinction between experience and instruction and explore the methodology of experience design. You will explore scenarios from simulations that provide insight and help you better understand the tools and levers of experience design and how you can leverage them. You will begin to develop a simulation by applying the concepts of experience design to a business or performance challenge. You will also review some of the different tools that are available in the market to develop applications without the need for programming.

In this session, you will learn:

• To understand experience design as a tool for achieving the development goals of your organization
• How to determine when to use simulations to support your overall learning objectives
• How to make the simulation experience “sticky” to support learner retention and application
• How to effectively capture and deploy experience in a simulation format

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Simulations.

Choosing an authoring tool can be very challenging, especially as the number of authoring tool options continues to grow. In 2014 there are almost 190 different authoring tool options available to organizations. Understanding which authoring tools work best in different contexts is critical in order to make the best purchasing decision.

In this session participants will explore the speaker’s top 10 authoring tools for 2014, as well as the criteria used to provide the ranking. You will explore the various capabilities that today’s authoring tools provide, and which capabilities provide the most value. You will also look ahead to 2015 and beyond to identify where the market is heading and what new capabilities developers can expect.

In this session, you will learn:

• The top 10 authoring tools for 2014
• The top mobile authoring tool in the market
• Trends in the authoring tool market that will impact consumers
• Forecasts for 2015

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, managers, directors, and executives with a basic understanding of authoring tools, either by previous use or from exploring the market to buy one.

Technology discussed in this session:
Authoring tools.

When well-conceived and executed, games can greatly enhance learner engagement, but randomly adding game principles to learning can result in colossal failure and many hours of wasted time. One way to assure a positive impact on learning is to approach designs from the game perspective first, rather than trying to gamify existing or planned learning.

In this session, you will learn about a proven approach to designing games for learning that maximizes the likelihood of success, especially when the games are built with a specific purpose in mind. You will explore how this approach works for both physical and virtual games, including game-based learning deployed on mobile devices. After exposure to the process and key principles, you will apply some of the core concepts to create a game for a fictional business problem.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design games for learning
• How to devise an appropriate game metaphor that aligns with your culture and audience
• How to identify which game elements are appropriate for your game
• When and how to test and validate your game

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Paper-and-pencil design, Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio ’13, Microsoft PowerPoint, and mobile devices.

Today’s employees need to use different types of tools and they must learn how to assimilate and perform their job with limited training time and support. By using a social-networking site for a virtual-learning environment (VLE) learners can interact with experienced employees, learn how to properly use the company’s internal social network, and properly navigate through systems and repositories.

In this session you will explore how to use an enterprise social-networking site to create a well-designed VLE that will enhance the traditional corporate classroom and the learning experience. To increase performance outcomes you will identify key principles that support social and informal learning using a VLE. You will learn how to encourage participation and collaboration, and get engagement using a classroom VLE. You will leave this session understanding how a VLE can enhance participant performance, engagement, and learning experience, and reduce time to proficiency.

In this session, you will learn:

• Ways to incorporate social approaches that support learning and performance outcomes
• How to encourage participation, collaboration, and engagement using Web 2.0 technology
• How to enhance formal content by using a virtual learning environment
• The advantages of social capabilities within the classroom
• How to build a virtual learning environment using a social platform

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, managers, training managers, and facilitators.

Technology discussed in this session:
Jive, virtual learning environments, social collaboration, and SharePoint.

A conversation begins, most often, with a question. IT blogger Selena Deckelmann suggests that when those in control “ask women directly to speak up, we open the door for participation,” and diversity and inclusion can begin. “If we insist on equal participation, the structure of our organizations will change. The first time I spoke up in a user group was terrifying, but I did so because a peer politely, but repeatedly, asked me to speak.”

In this session you will learn from an observational research study of gender participation in the fields that comprise technology. You will explore the various opportunities that exist for inclusion. You will discuss the barriers that are the most difficult to break through for women who have all the skills and talent necessary to be successful. You will discover strategies to encourage conversations that lead to more participation and greater inclusion.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to explain the concepts of diversity and inclusion as they relate to underserved populations
• How to describe how inclusion strengthens practice communities and leads to better overall creativity and performance
• How to illustrate the positive and negative factors that impact a single gender and how those factors can be mitigated
• How to apply lessons learned regarding implementing strategies for a more diverse workforce
• How to demonstrate an understanding of the case study outcomes and how they can lead to new approaches and methodologies for increased cooperation and participation among a diverse workforce

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Most instructional designers can recognize a strongly designed and developed eLearning program. However, there is a noticeable gap between the accepted standards of what makes quality eLearning, and the reality of what the industry produces. We understand what quality eLearning looks like, but too often we fail to deliver on that standard. Many instructional designers struggle with maintaining eLearning quality standards when confronted with the realities of organizational project constraints.

In this session, you will learn strategies for maintaining quality and developing impactful eLearning programs while dealing with reasonable project constraints. You will discuss the standards of eLearning quality that the Serious eLearning Manifesto includes. You will explore methods to implement the Serious eLearning Manifesto’s principles, and see examples that show the principles put into practice. You will examine common project constraints that can take away from eLearning quality, and share strategies for overcoming those barriers.

In this session, you will learn:

• The differences between typical, minimally effective eLearning and high impact, serious eLearning
• How to economically implement many of the Serious eLearning Manifesto’s principles
• How to evaluate alternative instructional approaches
• What to require when setting acceptance criteria for developing courseware

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, and project managers.

Technology discussed in this session:
Desktop and mobile eLearning.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to touch and transform every facet of our lives. From industry automation and automobile connectivity to wearable devices and smart-home appliances, it will make our way of living more enriching. Learning will also undergo many changes as a part of this evolution, though it will likely be a bumpy road getting there.

In this session you will explore how the Internet of Things can impact the world of eLearning. You will discuss specific examples of how IoT can enrich interactive learning, games-based learning, and on-demand learning to improve the overall learning experience. You will examine industry trends on how learning is evolving from the traditional formats to a more social and collaborative culture, and how IoT supports that evolution. You will explore numerous use cases that will show where IoT fits into the current learning and performance paradigm, and how it will influence our field in the future.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Internet of Things key concepts apply in the context of eLearning
• How one needs to approach eLearning content creation differently in an IoT environment
• How one can make their content ready for IoT devices
• How IoT is applicable in eLearning

Audience:
Novice and intermediate developers, project managers, managers, directors, and VPs.

Technology discussed in this session:
Kinect, Raspberry Pi, and 3-D printing.

Chances are that your organization already has one or more learning management system in place. Chances are that you also have a learning content management system, enterprise resource planning, a human resource management system, knowledge management, and/or customer relationship management systems in place. Now you are looking at adding performance support to the mix. Technology can be an enabler and driver of efficiency, but it can also be complex, cumbersome, and confusing. But all systems have one primary intent: To increase the performance of employees.

In this session, participants will take a closer look at the relationship between learning management, learning content management, knowledge management, and performance support systems. You will develop an approach to integrate these systems cohesively to eliminate content creation and maintenance redundancies. And you will examine how performance support can be the broker of information from the learning ecosystem to systems that live in the workplace ecosystem.

In this session, you will learn:

• Where performance support fits into the existing learning and performance ecosystem
• How different learning systems relate to one another
• How to integrate multiple systems
• How to eliminate content creation and maintenance redundancies

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

Technology discussed in this session:
LMS, LCMS, ERP, HRMS, knowledge management systems, CRM.

Most organizations focus on the quality of the eLearning they develop, but have you ever considered the quality of the workflows used to create that eLearning? We always face the challenge of doing more faster but with fewer resources. As such it is critical that an organization’s eLearning-development workflows are organized and efficient. Many organizations resist the need for more organization under the reasoning that the process is time-consuming; the opposite is actually true.

In this case-study session you will examine a process and workflow utilized at Union Bank for designing and developing eLearning for LMS delivery and for availability via SharePoint. You will explore the bank’s rigorous testing process and discuss some of the pitfalls and lessons that were learned during development of the process plan. You will leave this session understanding how to ensure quality and an excellent end-user experience via a process flow that allows for rigorous planning and testing.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to document and implement the multiple steps of a process flow for modern eLearning design and development
• How to create a testing document for testing courses with multiple paths
• How to ask the right questions when working with SMEs
• How to differentiate testing and implementation plans for content launching from an LMS vs. content delivered via SharePoint

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers with design and development experience and familiarity with various authoring tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline, Articulate Studio, UPK, and Lectora.

Interest in the Experience API has grown steadily in the last few years, but most of the conversations exploring the topic were either conceptual or technical in nature. There have few case studies showing the xAPI in practice, and those that did exist focused more on the technical application of the specification rather than on business value.

Adoption of the Experience API (xAPI) continues to grow, and we are now seeing examples of xAPI case studies that focus on the business value that is being provided by the use of the specification. In this session, you will learn from the three winning entries from xAPI Hyperdrive, the competition that took place before DevLearn began. You will leave this session better understanding the business value that innovative use of the xAPI can provide to organizations.

In this session, you will learn:

• From examples of the xAPI being used to innovate learning
• How the xAPI can provide business value
• What the business case is for xAPI use
• The future potential of the xAPI

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

Technology discussed in this session:
The Experience API.

When you limit your design to the default question slides in Captivate, the result can often be a boring assessment. Being aware of the basics of these slide designs and of the quizzing system variables allows developers to extend the functionality of the default slides. By tweaking these default slides you can create simple games that can turn a basic quiz into a challenging experience.

In this hands-on session you will go beyond the basic template of a Captivate question slide and explore ways to enhance the default interaction. You will examine techniques including replacing text with image or audio, knowledge slides, remediation, intermediate score slides, control navigation, drag and drop, scored objects, and more. You will also clarify the process, possibilities, and limitations of the Captivate questions slide template.

In this session, you will learn:

• To understand the default process and objects in question and score slide
• To know the quizzing system variables
• How to add intermediate score slides and shape buttons
• The use of the advanced interaction panel
• How to create custom question slides based on widgets or interactions
• How to create custom question slides with standard objects
• How to use the drag & drop wizard for question slides

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers and developers with a basic knowledge of Captivate.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate (latest version) on a Windows or Mac machine.

Participant technology requirements:
Latest version of Adobe Captivate on a Windows or Mac machine.

Video will become increasingly important as a method of imparting knowledge as our populace transitions from a linear written-word culture to a global and visual culture. Many instructional designers and developers would like to implement “how-to” videos in their programs but do not know how to go about it. Practitioners are unable to leverage the power of video instruction into their presentations and eLearning projects.

In this session you will explore the practical problems associated with incorporating video in eLearning. You will discuss utilizing both desktop and camcorder video regarding content, planning, size, format, streaming solutions, and accessibility from a learning management system. You will examine the challenges of transitioning from a linear- and text-based information structure to a mainly non-structured visual knowledge culture. You will leave this session equipped with the knowledge to record and produce appropriate videos for your eLearning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• The value of video learning in instructional design
• From practical examples of video-based eLearning
• How to leverage video in eLearning with common tools
• The steps required to create a short video and import it into Storyline

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, and project managers with basic instructional design, eLearning development, and computer software skill and knowledge.

Technology discussed in this session:
Microsoft Windows, Office, Articulate Studio, Camtasia Studio, Adobe Captivate, microphone, video camcorder, and associated editing software.

Participant technology requirements:
Laptop computer, Camtasia Studio (evaluation copy available), and Articulate Storyline (evaluation copy available).

Video can be a highly effective form of media for learning. However, adding video to an eLearning course has historically been expensive and something that required a large amount of time and skill to create. That’s not the case today. In this session you’ll see how easy it is to create high-quality video for eLearning. You’ll also explore how course creators are integrating video to create more engaging learning experiences.

Video has long been respected as a great tool for training, but has often been dismissed due to costs. That is changing, and a dramatic drop in production costs and a wide array of YouTube-framework solutions has accelerated the role of video in corporate training. The challenge for eLearning developers is to move beyond traditional linear experiences and incorporate engaging interactions on top of traditional video. In this session you will explore how to use HTML5 interactive-video frameworks to add to your learners’ experience. You will review the planning process, including the available interaction types and how to leverage existing content delivery networks.

Women face an ever-growing list of attributes they lack and strategies they should be adopting to bridge the gender gap in workplaces, especially in the tech industry. The world of eLearning is often no different. But how did fixing that gap become the responsibility of women? In this panel discussion you will explore not what women should be doing differently, but how the workplace itself needs to change to better accommodate the strengths of all workers, regardless of gender.

During this workshop we will lead you through the techniques Forio has developed to building online simulations for use in the classroom. We will show you how you can leverage Forio Simulate, a web-based development environment, to create simulations using drag-and-drop design tools. No programming skills are required.

Native apps, web apps, mobile portals, online/offline … mobile learning is becoming a pervasive feature of today’s learning landscape, and is continuing to evolve. Learn how Seertech Solutions’ award-winning learning management solution, iLearning PLUS, delivers four different mobile deployment models across four different customers. We will explore the advantages of each deployment option via customer case study and look at their future plans. From working on jet engines to manufacturing medical devices to making gourmet burgers and cocktails, iLearningPLUS serves up mobile solutions.

Ten years ago, did you ever think that we would deliver an entire instructor-led course over the Internet? Five years ago, did you ever think that an ordinary worker would carry three Internet-connected devices to work? Every day, more learning organizations join the single-source movement. Can we create engaging learning content for desktop and mobile? Is reuse practical? Can our IDs make the shift to structured authoring? Will we really produce more, faster? Masters from Caterpillar, Paychex, and Xyleme come together in this highly interactive session. Any question is fair game.

Many instructional designers use a single tool—whether it’s the right tool or not—simply because it’s the only tool they have and it was pricey, leaving no budget for additional tools. What many instructional designers may not know is that for every $1,500 tool, there’s a free or low-cost alternative that can do the job just as well. This session will cover a selection of these tools that are available today and have many of the capabilities of expensive applications that can decimate a budget.

Articulate has released Articulate Storyline 2, the first major upgrade to its award-winning rapid eLearning authoring tool. In this session, you’ll explore more than 20 new features and enhancements you’ll find in Articulate Storyline 2. You’ll see how many of the new features work and have the opportunity to ask your most burning questions.

You’ve been tasked with building an eLearning team. You have just a short time before you need to begin producing training for your big project. First you need to figure out who those people are, then you need to find and hire them. In this interactive discussion, you will explore the team-building process and share approaches to hiring the right people. Since there is no one solution to the problem that fits everyone’s needs, you will participate in a discussion to explore different approaches to suit specific situations, preferences, industry needs, legal obligations, and more.

There’s a growing demand from organizations to create courses that work on both mobile and desktop platforms. The currently available tools have a hard time doing this, and many times you must create multiple courses for each type of screen. In addition, content only resizes to fit these various screens; it doesn’t truly change based on each device.

In this session you will learn about the latest release of Adobe Captivate 8, and the huge advances it enables in responsive mobile design. You will explore how this software enables users to build in one view, and support multiple mobile devices at the same time. You will discover how this software enables developers to create courses that actually change design and content layout based on different devices. You will leave this session understanding how this software provides greater efficiency and improves your learning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Adobe Captivate 8 can automatically adjust your content based on different devices
• How to create responsive mobile interactions in Adobe Captivate 8
• How to create responsive themes in Adobe Captivate 8
• How to publish Adobe Captivate courses to ensure mobile compatibility

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Captivate 8, responsive themes, and responsive interactions.

The availability of (and demand for) data around learning has grown dramatically. Tools like the Experience API (xAPI) make it increasingly easy to acquire data about learner’s activities, but this will provide little benefit to instructional designers or learners if we do not design to acquire meaningful data, know how to interpret that data, or know how to improve our learning design based on that data.

In this session participants will explore the use of data in the context of learning systems design. You will examine some basic principles surrounding the effective use of data and how to design to provide meaningful feedback. You will discuss concepts including comparative mapping of novice to expert practices and learner experiences with formal courses and other activities. You will explore the application of principles from UXD, web analytics, and business intelligence to design for meaningful (and actionable) contextual data. Examples of how using data generated by the xAPI that can be used for predictive analytics to make interventions seamless for the end user will also be discussed.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to apply principles from fields including business intelligence and web analytics to learning design
• How to design to gather meaningful data within the context of course goals and overall performance objectives
• How to use data analytics to improve course design
• Potential pitfalls of data interpretation

Audience:
Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers. A conceptual knowledge of the xAPI is useful, but not required.

Technology discussed in this session:
The xAPI, learning record stores.

Games and gamification are the latest fads, but getting learners to play games only exposes them to learning content and develops first-level reflexes. This risks confining learning to superficial understanding of the subject matter. We need games to solidify what the trainee has learned, but to do that we must redefine the responsibilities and the role of trainers.

In this session you will explore how you can use games to solidify what was learned by simulating real scenarios, placing the subject of learning back in its context, and creating perspective to build awareness of the impact of choices and alternatives. You will examine how this is possible via games in which the learners themselves author the content. You will leave this session understanding how learner-created games immerse learners in the content and enhance logic, strategy, style, and form, regardless of the subject matter.

In this session, you will learn:

• How a new generation of tools is about to emerge and transform training techniques
• How learners can be authors of content and be motivated by that role
• How trainers can plan their training sessions around learners’ creativity
• How non-linear logic leads to a deeper perception of the subject matter
• How collaboration can be an exciting and creative experience
• How creating permanent open-ended objects leads to longer-term engagement in learning
• How trainers can share and support one another in original ways

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a sensitivity to the importance of motivation as a factor of effective learning.

Technology discussed in this session:
ChatScaper.

With the successful rollout of the Experience API (xAPI) the foundation for a new SCORM standard has been laid. By itself, xAPI is not a replacement for SCORM. Instead, xAPI defines communication between a learning experience and the learning record store, or LRS. While most of us agree that the majority of learning occurs outside the LMS, there is still some formal eLearning that will be maintained in the LMS.

In this session you will learn how the Aviation Industry CBT Committee (AICC), working with ADL, has stepped in to define a new LMS to eLearning specification as a layer on top of xAPI. You will discover the possibilities of AICC CMI-5, a flexible new design that some call “xAPI with some rules.” You will explore how CMI-5 works and the advantages it has over SCORM.

In this session, you will learn:

• That xAPI is not a SCORM replacement
• To define the existing issues with SCORM that should be addressed by a new specification
• To define how AICC CMI-5 will fix several SCORM issues
• To define the interoperability of AICC CMI-5

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, and CLOs with some familiarity with both SCORM and xAPI.

Technology discussed in this session:
AICC CMI5, xAPI, SCORM.

Have you ever reached a slide in an eLearning course where you were unsure what to do, or where to click? If so, you were the victim of bad navigation design—a common eLearning problem. One of the most challenging aspects of eLearning development can be designing clear and cohesive navigation that is easy for learners to follow, and that doesn’t lead to dead-ends.

In this session you will learn tips and best practices for designing user-friendly navigation in your eLearning that ensures users never have to guess about where to go, and can focus on the content. You will learn great ways to test your navigation and find out if it really works or not. You will learn the importance of incorporating a clear exit from your course, and how to create one.

In this session, you will learn:

• How and when to add navigation instructions
• Tips for designing consistent course navigation
• Best practices for incorporating a clear exit from your course
• How and why to thoroughly test your navigation

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers with basic eLearning knowledge.

Technology discussed in this session:
Powerpoint and Storyline.

Preconceptions of eLearning, lack of instructional design insight within organizations, disjointed learning ecosystems, and the perceived size of the task in front of them mean organizations have lacked the confidence to take their more complex programs into the online domain. However, online learning is opening the doors to more flexible, sustained, and comprehensive support for learners than ever before.

In this session you will explore a comprehensive analysis of the MOOC experience since 2012. You will examine the MOOC experience and how the highs and lows have informed the strategies and approaches taken by a range of organizations in their programs. You’ll discuss case studies from Telefonica, Transitions Optical, and The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising on how MOOCS have been applied to programs that include flipped classrooms, online CPD, and sponsored MOOCs. You will also explore the skills, tools, and technology needed to create the right ecosystem in which more complex online programs thrive.

In this session, you will learn:

• Best practices in learning path design for complex subjects
• How to create learner engagement through learning design, course orchestration, and facilitation
• Where to spend, where to reuse, and where to save
• How to create the business case for corporate MOOCs
• When to curate from an existing MOOC and when to create your own
• How to create the right learning ecosystem to support complex subjects online

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced managers and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
MOOCs.

In their clinical training, physicians and other clinicians are not learning the skills they need to lead their organizations through the rapid changes happening in health care. It has become more and more difficult to pull clinicians away from patient care to teach them core leadership skills. As a result, health care organizations are struggling to provide these critical skills with shrinking time and resources.

In this session participants will examine a case study on the physician leadership development program at NYU Langone Medical Center (NYULMC). You will discover how this program utilized a flipped learning approach to using a combination of eLearning and classroom training. You will discuss how key subject matter experts inside and outside of the organization partnered to determine how to best develop, design, and implement this training. You will explore an approach for building strong partnerships and collaboration to maximize the benefits of eLearning and classroom training. Participants will learn how to embed eLearning into larger training programs, target the training topics and content to your organizational environment, create personalized custom videos, and build capability for mobile access to your training.

In this session, you will learn:

• To develop a strategy for developing and implementing blended learning strategies for leadership development programs
• To build partnerships between SMEs and eLearning designers and developers
• To create blended learning programs that maximize the potential of different learning modalities (lecture, discussion)
• To customize eLearning that caters to your own blended learning program

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic understanding of adult learning principles.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline.

There’s a great deal of buzz in our industry about HTML5. Chances are that the development tool you’re using to create eLearning can output to HTML5, but most instructional designers are not sure why that feature is important. HTML5 is also a subject that, for many, is clouded in confusion, with learning professionals often unable to translate the technical discussion into understanding of what the technology makes possible.

In this session you will learn about the HTML5 core technology from an easily digestible and understandable perspective. You will discuss why HTML5 is important and what skills you need to develop to take advantage of it today. You will also explore what types of questions you should be asking of your team, developers, and LMS vendors. You will leave this session with a better understanding of HTML5, including why it is important and what resources, tools, and templates you have available to help you apply HTML5 immediately.

In this session, you will learn:

• Five ways HTML5 can help your development team
• Five ways HTML5 can improve your user experience
• Fresh ideas you can apply immediately with your team
• Free web apps to learn new skills
• Using open-source web apps to improve your tool set today

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic understanding of eLearning and how tools work.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML5, CSS3, Fonts, JavaScript, Canvas vs SVG, Media formats, Adobe Edge Tools, iOS, Android, and browsers.

Remembering is a major challenge for all of us. Estimates range from zero to 90 percent on the amount of forgetting that occurs within days after training occurs. At times, this matters little because the focus is on compliance rather than actual performance. However, do learning professionals need to take a different approach in those instances when remembering really matters?

In this session you will learn from two corporate learning case studies that show how incorporating research-based design techniques into your learning solutions will improve knowledge and skill retention, which ultimately drives business outcomes. You’ll examine what was done in each case study, how it was done, and the results that were achieved via a single online learning game for sales reps. You’ll also explore the results for a larger, blended curriculum for the customers of a diagnostics company. You will discover four research-based strategies for remembering as well as four strategies for the initial “teach” of the skill or knowledge.

In this session, you will learn:

• Four research-based strategies for building long-term retention of knowledge or skills
• The optimal way to design and deliver feedback for long-term retention
• How and why stories foster long-term memory
• Four research-based design techniques for creating a learning experience that minimizes learner’s cognitive effort
• How to incorporate the learning and retention strategies discussed in the session

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers with knowledge of some of the basic lingo of instructional design, as well as the basics of business lingo.

Technology discussed in this session:
eLearning, mobile learning, classroom strategies, Lectora, Storyline.

“I need the content to work on a phone and a tablet as well as on a desktop.” This is a request we’re hearing more and more each day. In the new era of multi-device delivery, instruction designers struggle to find the one design to rule them all. How can you ensure solid instructional design across all those devices if your aim is to only build one course?

In this session, you will explore top tips for responsive eLearning design that you can start using right away. You will start with a brief overview of what responsive means and how it is different from traditional content. You will discuss the new world of scrolling pages and learn to love the scroll bar. You’ll examine audio strategies for multi-device delivery. You will explore examples built in Adapt, the open-source responsive eLearning framework. You will leave this session with practical ideas and inspiration to jumpstart your own responsive eLearning projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• What responsive eLearning design means
• How to identify if responsive design is the right approach for your organization
• How to apply simple design strategies to your own responsive projects
• How to optimize audio in a multi-device environment

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Adapt.

Like many organizations in today’s increasingly global marketplace, the Asia Pacific Region of World Bank Group has a workforce in 20 countries. The regional team has the daunting task of training global staff in an efficient manner. Since World Bank knowledge workers are also mobile and tech savvy, moving training to a virtual classroom that can be accessed on a laptop or mobile device was a logical solution.

In this session you will learn how to efficiently convert training programs and develop new programs. You will explore a four-step model that provides the framework to be used for virtual training for both operational and soft skills topics. You will discover the importance of planning as part of the model, as virtual training is a lot like video and audio broadcasting, where many hours are needed to prepare for a broadcast and disruptions and mistakes are amplified. Participants will leave the session with a toolkit for live virtual training and for calculating carbon footprint reduction when face-to-face training is replaced with virtual training.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to apply a four-step model for designing and delivering virtual classroom training
• How to determine facilitation team members and skills needed for each role
• How to develop strategies to adjust content, images, and exercises from in-person training for a global audience in a virtual classroom
• Best practices to use to avoid pitfalls when planning logistics for virtual classroom training

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, project managers, and managers with an understanding of the virtual classroom either from the participant and/or facilitator perspective, with a general understanding of one of the virtual classroom tools (Adobe Connect, WebEx, GoToMeeting, Saba Classroom).

Technology discussed in this session:
Virtual classroom/Adobe Connect.

Training for sales professionals at global pharmaceutical firm is robust, thorough, and frequent. However, the training curriculum of its marketing staff, who were being asked to be its commercial leaders, creating and delivering on business objectives and strategies as well as leading salespeople, was almost non-existent. Fixing this multi-layered challenge wouldn’t be as simple as implementing new training for marketers. Because so little training had existed previously, the company needed to change its culture to take its marketers’ attitudes from “why training?” to “I want more training!”

In this session you will learn how creating the firm's college of marketing helped its marketing staff elevate their skills and close gaps in organizational profitability. You will explore how it shifted the culture of its marketing organization from one that expected little to no training to one that embraced the value training could bring. You will learn about the implementation of “enrichment days” that allowed workers to step away from daily work and focus solely on their development, and how one enrichment event on digital and social marketing generated enough buzz to reach number three on Twitter for the day.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to engage the business in a meaningful way to help set and execute learning strategies
• How to leverage Twitter to engage learners
• How to level-set marketing employees, some of whom need fundamental training
• How to get the most from your keynote speakers

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, VPs, CLOs, and executives.

Technology discussed in this session:
Twitter.

I’ve often heard managers tell me that they have a course they like that meets their requirements, but it isn’t what they wanted or envisioned. I find myself asking “If it is what you asked for, but not what you wanted, why didn’t you ask for what you wanted?” This problem exists in many forms. The results can range from a disappointed client to the world losing the next great idea, all because we don’t always know how to ask for what we really want in our products.

In this session participants will discuss some of the issues that organizations have had to solve in building new content, as well as in other projects. You’ll address these issues as a series of example scenarios, working through them as a group. You will explore probing questions about what is important, how to ask questions of a vendor, and how to ferret out the details that could cause problems later on. You will leave this session able to adapt the process to build solid requirements in your future projects.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to translate what you want into a list of requirements for your vendor
• How to evaluate what you really want
• The difference between what you want and what you need
• To evaluate if you really want what you think you want

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

We have all experienced huge courses, documents, and texts that are barely manageable by the instructional designer. In fact, much of how we design courses and even our documents makes it impossible for an employee to find the one piece of information they need at the time they need it. Since content is so dense, it makes finding meaningful information difficult, and it makes tracking anything useful in it even more difficult.

In this session you will explore the big picture of what technology is capable of today. You will dive into practices that will extend the lifespan and reduce the headache of how we create and manage content. You will learn tips on how to create content that is easier to track, can be used in many different areas (including mobile), and helps to populate more meaningful reports (both for management and the designers). You will discuss the value that content management systems (CMS) and learning record stores (LRS) play in forward-looking technology infrastructures.

In this session, you will learn:

• How today’s technologies make creating content easier and more effective for designers
• How today’s technologies make accessing content easier and more effective for workers
• How you need to structure content so that it works on all devices
• Why the LMS alone isn’t the backbone of your technology infrastructure

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

Technology discussed in this session:
LMS, CMS, LRS, the xAPI.

Rapid instructional development tools provide us with the ability to add narration and text-to-speech to eLearning courses, but many instructional designers aren’t using the audio medium to its full potential. Bringing quality audio design together with engaging stories can transform a click-and-read presentation into an immersive experience.

In this session participants will learn how to produce high quality audio for eLearning projects and how to combine this audio with storytelling techniques to create engaging eLearning experiences. You’ll explore inspirational examples from video games and radio that are directly applicable to eLearning. You’ll examine the equipment required and learn the basics of how to use Audacity, a free  open-source program, to record and optimize content. You’ll also explore strategies for recording and manipulating audio in order to tell better and more engaging stories.

In this session, you will learn:

• How easy and cheap it is to create high quality audio
• Examples of combining audio and storytelling to create powerful experiences
• How to choose a microphone that suits your needs
• How to use Audacity to record, manipulate, and optimize audio for eLearning
• Basic guidelines for writing engaging narrative
• How to use and manipulate audio in the service of that narrative

Audience:
Novice designers and developers with basic knowledge and experience using rapid instructional development tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Video games, Audacity, basic microphone equipment.

Participant technology requirements:
Have Audacity installed and bring earbuds or headphones to the session if you plan on following along.

In today’s training departments, a learning management system is a usually a necessary technology for organizations that utilize eLearning. However, these systems can be expensive, especially for organizations with minimal budgets. Finding low cost learning management system options that still provide the needed features for organizational learning can be a challenge.

In this hands-on session participants will learn about Moodle, a free open-source learning management system that many organizations use for their training and eLearning needs. You will explore how Moodle works from the user and admin perspective. You will walk through the steps for designing a course within Moodle, and what the learner experience of taking that course looks like. You will leave this session with the knowledge to begin exploring the use of Moodle in your own organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• The basics of Moodle operation
• How to design a course in Moodle
• How to take the course online
• How to get real time feedback

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a basic understanding of instructional design.

Technology discussed in this session:
Web-based systems, Moodle.

 Participant technology requirements:
A windows/Mac laptop with web browser and Moodle installed.

PowerPoint is the basis for much of the training material you use, and yet it’s text-heavy, dull, and boring. See how you can revolutionize your presentations and other training material using visuals, diagrams, and animated sequences, with some helpful how-to guides and a collection of awesome PowerPoint tricks, plus a free PowerPoint toolkit to kick-start your efforts for everyone that attends. Steps to take: 1. Attend this session. 2. Become a PowerPoint Legend.

The use of mobile technologies for learning is on the rise. Learners want just-in-time training and performance support, and they want it on their mobile devices. But do your development tools let you meet your learners’ needs? In this session, we’ll look at trends in mobile learning, take a critical look at how current development tools fall short, and see how a new HTML5 tool fills the gaps in available tools.

Learners expect any content they need to be accessible, searchable, and on the devices they want. Customers expect your training material to be just enough, up-to-the-minute, and tailored to them. Facilitators want to easily select and remix existing content items to deliver specific learning objectives. How to keep up? In this session we will showcase customer examples using XanEdu’s cloud-based content handling and nimble delivery platform. You’ll see how L&D organizations and training providers meet the need to assemble and remix content collections to suit the needs of various audiences while flexibly delivering the right content, at the right time, in print and the digital or mobile formats they prefer.

Gamification is the integration of game mechanics, or game dynamics, into a learning experience. Game-based training can be defined as a game designed for the purpose of solving a problem. However, these words are being used in parallel by the industry and it can be quite confusing.

In this session you will learn to clarify the differences between gamification and game-based training. You will explore examples of both from all around the industry. You will discuss the examples in detail to understand each of the learning experiences and explore the best practices in their development. You will leave this session with an understanding of the differences between serious games, gamification, and gameful design, and with the ability to begin applying the principles of each in your learning programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• What serious games are and how they can be used for learning
• What gamification is and how it can be used for learning
• What gameful design is
• Best practices for serious game development
• Best practices for gamification
• Best practices for game-based learning

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

The two goals of any eLearning program are to teach learners new information and then to enable them to transfer their new knowledge into their work. Learning transfer is a complex process, and most eLearning designers do not understand the simple steps that they can take to ensure that knowledge does transfer from the computer where the learners learn it to the work place where they need it.

In this engaging session, you will examine the scientific research demonstrating how you can use eLearning technologies to maximize learning transfer and positive behavior change. You will discover the three myths of eLearning and learn why overcoming these myths is critical in improving learning transfer. You will discuss how interactive eLearning, simulations, and social-learning environments can work together to sustain learning transfer and you will leave this session with a concise and useful overview of eLearning strategies that increase learning transfer.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can customize eLearning training to increase learning transfer
• How pre-tests such as measuring a learner’s readiness for change can lead to a much higher learning transfer
• Three myths that interfere with successful transfer of learning
• Strategies to encourage executive buy-in on programs that promote learning transfer

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Flat design seems to be everywhere now. It’s the new look of our computer operating systems, our apps, websites, posters, book covers, and so many other places. Is this just a new fad or is this a fabulous new design trend that we in the eLearning industry need to pay more attention to in order to understand the fine points of flat design?

In this session participants will discuss the many advantages—and disadvantages—that are associated with flat design. You will look deeper into the fine details of flat design that instructional designers should be aware of and how to ensure we are using it appropriately. You will separate the hype from flat design and understand where it works effectively. You will leave this session with an understanding of whether this design style is just a passing fad or a trend we should be embracing.

In this session, you will learn:

• What flat design is and why it is significant
• The advantages and benefits of using flat design
• The disadvantages and risks of using flat design
• The differences between flat and skeuomorphic designs, and how/when to decide which to use
• Where to find examples, inspiration, and resources to create your own flat designs

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, and managers with a basic understanding of designing learning.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Instructional designers and eLearning professionals are often faced with the daunting task of designing learning interventions to meet the needs of multiple stakeholders quickly and effectively. Many eLearning solutions are perceived as boring, ineffective, or incapable of meeting learning goals effectively, leaving designers with an uphill battle to sell new ideas and concepts to colleagues. Even strong concepts and well-designed projects face barriers and challenges.

In this session participants will explore strategies to assess the needs of various stakeholders, pitch eLearning project ideas and garner support, work with subject-matter experts while staying within an appropriate project scope, and implement time and cost-saving tips in development. You will examine two eLearning projects, each utilizing simulation and case-based learning strategies to drive the design of immersive, story-driven projects that capture and hold stakeholder interest and ensure that learning objectives are achieved. You will leave the session with takeaways for managing risk encountered during various stages in the design process.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to map performance/learning problems to concrete eLearning objectives, ensuring alignment of ideas with stakeholder needs
• Effective ways to present your project ideas effectively to garner interest, enthusiasm, and support
• Strategies for working with subject matter experts on determining content while keeping within a manageable scope
• An effective process for designing interactive, case-based eLearning modules to engage and hold the interest of learners

Audience:
Novice designers, developers, and project managers with a clear understanding of instructional design frameworks (e.g., ADDIE) and the affordances and limitations of eLearning authoring platforms.

Technology discussed in this session:
Articulate Storyline.

Technological advances disrupt the status quo. We’ve seen this happen a number of times in the way we address learning and performance interventions. In the last few decades, the emergence of home computers brought us eLearning, and the proliferation of mobile and smartphones have brought us mLearning. Both of these technological advances have fundamentally changed how we look at learning and performance programs. Another technological advance is coming—one that will once again change some of our definitions and how we address performance issues: wearable technology.

In this session you will explore wearable technology and the world of opportunity that it presents for performance support. You will learn about different types of wearable technologies and how they are being positioned for consumer usage. You will discuss the unique affordances of these technologies and explore how you can use them for new types of performance support. You will also explore early use cases of wearable technology for education and performance support.

In this session, you will learn:

• About different types of wearable technologies and how they are being positioned for consumer use
• How wearable technology can be used for performance support
• The unique affordances of wearable technology
• How innovative companies are using wearable technology today

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Wearable technology.

eLearning has a broken feedback loop, and it’s holding us back as a field. Because we usually can’t see our products being used, we lack the most basic information necessary to improve what we do. Traditional evaluation at best is costly and difficult to measure, and at worst either ignored all together or implemented in such a superficial way that it’s meaningless. Even good evaluation measures are not granular enough to inform future design decisions.

In this session you will explore the need for designers and developers to be able to see the impact of our creations in a meaningful way, so we can grow as a field. You will discuss the importance of this need being addressed in a way that is both inexpensive and easy to implement. You will examine the concept of “guerrilla evaluation” methods and what we can learn from the field of software usability. You will leave this session with a list of practices we need to add to that will ensure successful eLearning design.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to recognize when you have a broken feedback loop
• How to use user-experience best practices
• How to conduct a guerrilla evaluation
• How to ensure you are moving forward as a practitioner

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

Technology discussed in this session:
User-experience practices and guerrilla evaluation methods.

Learning to leverage the specific tools and capabilities in mobile devices can be challenging for eLearning developers. Effective mLearning goes beyond converting traditional eLearning for use on mobile and actually applies techniques of responsive design and maximizes technologies like geolocation and gestural inputs to become authentic mobile learning.  

In this session you will learn how to create authentic mobile-learning content, and how you can leverage the device-specific tools to create powerful mLearning experiences. You will explore examples of both authentic mLearning projects and of mLearning project creation. You will discuss how you can use device-specific tools and features to accomplish feats like location-aware learning. You will discover why intuitive gestural and physical inputs provide rich experiences that are most appropriate for mobile devices. You will explore examples of functional mLearning courses that leverage these capabilities, and learn how you can create these examples today.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why mLearning courses should be different from eLearning courses
• What responsive mLearning is and why you should employ it
• How to use gestural inputs to control mLearning on devices
• What makes mLearning experiences on devices authentic
• Who will use authentic mLearning and how learners feel about it
• Why location-based learning is important to the future of mLearning

Audience:
Intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with a basic understanding of eLearning, and an awareness of mLearning’s challenges.

Technology discussed in this session:
Android phones and tablets, iOS phones and tablets, and mLearning authoring tools.

Your course users demand more quality and sophistication in the eLearning content they interact with. A growing expectation is for attractive eLearning content that is close to virtual reality with 3-D animated and interactive content. Interactive 3-D content can help teach more effectively, and make the courses more attractive and competitive. But is it worth the effort and the costs?

In this case-study session you will explore sample content from courses and learn how they were transformed from 2-D to 3-D. You will learn how to develop 3-D content and how to evaluate the degree of complexity of 3-D animations. You will leave this session understanding how you can improve content with 3-D graphics as well as the level of effort it will require.

In this session, you will learn:

• How interactive 3-D content can enhance the users’ learning experience
• How to develop interactive 3-D content simply
• How to go from non-interactive 2-D or 3-D content to interactive 3-D content
• Tips to develop cost-effective interactive 3-D using UNITY 3D

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced developers, project managers, managers, and directors with some knowledge of course-content development, graphics, and animations development or usage in courses.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML5, UNITY 3D, WebGL, and JavaScript.

There’s an increasing awareness of the value of social learning in the workplace. Knowing that it exists is one thing; creating the scaffolding and support that allows people to capture, categorize, retrieve, and share what they learn is something else entirely.

In this session you will explore why eLearning practitioners and instructional designers are in a unique position to provide vision, leadership, and specific strategies to bring together informal social learning with formal eLearning and other training activities. You will examine tools for personal and social knowledge management, discussing their facets and merits as they pertain to various learning cultures and individual learning objectives. You will discuss examples of how eLearning courses dovetail with continuous individual learning to provide a more context-based and immediately applicable learning program that encourages individual learners to find, use, and share knowledge.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to leverage the forces that can amplify formal eLearning programs via already-in-place informal social learning
• How to analyze ways in which formal and informal learning can work together to reinforce broader learner goals
• How to identify ways to fold formal and informal online learning into a unified continuous-learning program
• How to use knowledge-management methods to extend and bind the larger learning program
• How to compare and contrast several existing online social learning tools for their fitness to specific learning needs

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Twitter, Scoop.it, Google+, Delicious, and Diigo.

Modern eLearning courses are technology solutions developed and implemented using many of the same techniques and tools that software developers use. Both share similar challenges: subject matter experts to navigate, aggressive deadlines to manage, assorted files and assets to organize, and an integrated approach to delivery, accounting for various hosting and browsing systems plus ongoing user support.

In this session you will examine the common evolution of eLearning and software development. Specifically you will explore techniques, agile processes, and best practices from the software development world that can be directly applied to your work. You will leave this session able to streamline your eLearning development and strengthen the quality of the solutions you produce.

In this session, you will learn:

• Tools for managing project communication, assets, and schedules
• Techniques for satisfying stakeholders
• Agile development and delivery practices that can be applied immediately
• Quality control practices to support robust delivery

Audience:
Novice to advanced developers.

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Currently, a lot of eLearning can be defined as a high-level PowerPoint presentation that includes animated text, images, and narration. The problem is that this type of eLearning doesn’t grab and hold the learner’s attention. Many times the learner can’t relate to what is being presented to them, or understand how they can apply it to future situations.

In this session you will learn how to address the boring-eLearning issue by introducing story-based animated eLearning. You will explore how to transform a traditional eLearning course into an effective scenario-based animated story that learners can relate to and most importantly learn from. You will examine a current traditional course and see how you can convert each phase into an animated problem-based scenario. You will leave this session able to identify and create stimulating eLearning content.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to translate bulleted text into a scenario-based story
• How to develop effective storyboards to support video production
• How to produce high-quality audio narration
• How to develop a scenario-based GoAnimate video
• How to effectively insert a video into Articulate Storyline

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

There is no definitive process for instructional design. Regardless of how much research we conduct, we can modify every theory and every process to meet our individual project needs. Modifying these needs and/or techniques becomes much easier when facilitating live, instructor-led training where learners provide both verbal and visual feedback. When it comes to eLearning, there is no facilitator available to modify the experience based on feedback. Therefore, instructional design plays a key role in determining the success of any training experience.

In this session you will examine the key differences between designing instructor-led training vs. designing eLearning or self-paced training. You will explore what types of design will work for instructor-led training and/or eLearning. You will leave this session able to design appropriate courses for whatever type of training you are creating, which translates into better experiences for the learners.

In this session, you will learn:

• The key differences in designing instructor-led training vs. designing eLearning
• How to adapt course designs for self-paced eLearning training vs. instructor-led training
• How to determine learner needs based on training environments
• Tips on how to design courses based on how training is facilitated

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Lectora, Flypaper, and Snap!

As you start to explore the Experience API (xAPI), it is easy to feel intimidated. If you lack the necessary coding skills to build a solution from the ground up, taking advantage of xAPI might not be possible without outside help since being able to prototype a solution is critical to the success of your project. Successful prototypes can help show what data is important and what changes you could make before creating a final product for release.

In this session you will discover how non-developers can create xAPI projects and start to see the power and capabilities of using xAPI. You will examine components that, with some minor coding, you can combine to build custom platforms. You will discuss available HTML elements that come equipped with easily edited code to build solutions around content. You will learn how to use basic HTML coding to implement data gathering using xAPI. The session will approach this topic from the viewpoint of a non-developer who was able to implement and prototype xAPI implementations.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the Experience API works
• What is required to implement xAPI
• How to use various HTML-based elements to produce working xAPI implementations
• How to adjust elements after reviewing the initial data you collected

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, and project managers with basic HTML skills and a basic understanding of the Experience API.

Technology discussed in this session:
HTML, the Experience API.

We’ve all been there—as a participant in a one-way, presentation-only style webinar. Presenters may know how to click through a series of slides, but that type of session isn’t very engaging to the learner. Also, although Adobe Connect is one of the most popular platforms for live online learning, it’s also one of the more complicated to learn to use its full feature set.

In this session you will learn how to maximize the use of Adobe Connect’s layouts to create interactive and engaging online sessions. You will explore how Adobe Connect’s layouts feature allows a presenter to quickly, dynamically, and frequently change the screen throughout a virtual program. You will go beyond the basics of Adobe Connect to create, modify, and use layouts to design interactive virtual training. You will leave this session able to immediately apply what you have learned in order to turn your live online training presentations into more engaging ones.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of interactive and engaging live online sessions
• How to create and modify Adobe Connect layouts
• Creative ideas for using Adobe Connect layouts to engage participants
• Practical techniques for designing interactive sessions

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers, ideally with some previous exposure to Adobe Connect, either as a participant or facilitator.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Connect.

Participant technology requirements:
A web browser with Internet connectivity.

Instructional designers tend to define what is possible by the limitations of our chosen authoring tools. We remove ideas like responsive courses from consideration because our authoring tool does support the capability. Sometimes common modern web practices don’t always transfer over to eLearning authoring tools until it is too late. Why not take control over what you can do in your eLearning authoring by building it yourself?

In this hands-on session you will explore how jQuery Mobile allows you to build responsive custom mobile applications that not only take advantage of modern web technology, but simplify development without the requirement of heavy amounts of coding. You will learn how this tool removes many of the constraints placed by authoring tools and how to build custom, mobile-first HTML5 quickly and easily. You will examine how to integrate the xAPI into HTML5 to allow you to track progress within your LMS or LRS.

In this session, you will learn:

• jQuery Mobile basics
• How to build a player in jQuery Mobile
• How to make your jQuery xAPI compliant
• How to develop a custom HTML5 course

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and project managers who know basic HTML5 formatting.

Technology discussed in this session:
jQuery Mobile and xAPI.

Participant technology requirements:
A laptop with an HTML editor.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Kick-start your day with Morning Buzz, the ever-popular “Early Bird” discussions. This is your chance to grab a cup of coffee and meet other conference attendees in a relaxed, casual environment, so you can share your best practices, insights, and tips while learning from one another’s experiences.

Learning professionals have a number of difficult goals to achieve relative to the creation and management of online learning. We need to ensure consistent quality, visual identity, and education outcomes of effective learning objects that are reusable between programs and delivery methods. As many challenges as we face, sometimes the solution itself presents its own new set of issues. In the case of the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing, massive open online courses (MOOCs) were both a challenge and a solution.

In this session you will explore how the MOOC creation process served as a catalyst for the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing to improve course quality and production standards and promote innovative teaching. You will discover how the process of creating and deploying MOOCs can help teams focus attention on keys issues. You will learn how this process led to institution-wide changes in the way the school conducts all of its eLearning activities. You will leave this session with an understanding of both the changes possible when attempting to build and implement MOOCs, as well as methods for structuring the MOOC-building experience to maximize opportunities for organizational growth and improvement.

In this session, you will learn:

• How MOOCs can be a catalyst for improving eLearning across multiple online learning paradigms
• How to improve production and use of eLearning components across platforms based on MOOC best practices
• How to promote best practices that can be embraced by the institution, encouraging compliance
• How to develop workflows to ensure consistent application of branding and copyright review in the production of eLearning

Audience:
Novice and intermediate managers and directors.

Technology discussed in this session:
MOOCs (Coursera), self-paced module (Storyline), online courses (Blackboard), video production (green screen/Vimeo), presentation tools (PowerPoint/Keynote).

As learning and development professionals, we often spend a significant amount of our time trying to put together the pieces of a giant organizational puzzle so we can do our jobs. We are, in many ways, the middlemen between those who know and those who need to learn. L&D must reposition itself away from its current role as an information conveyor and leverage its unique skills to help people find and use information to improve their performance.

In this session participants will discuss the value of user-generated content as a way to overcome many modern L&D challenges. You will review the collaboration principles and tools Kaplan continues to use to break through common barriers to curating and sharing user-generated content, including technical limitations, regulatory concerns, and employee motivation. You will also discuss ways this content can be used to create powerful on-demand and targeted learning experiences that scale. Participants will leave this session with actionable ideas on how to transform valuable tacit information into meaningful, crowd-sourced, well-curated, user-generated content.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to shift the focus of your organization’s information culture from consumption to contribution
• Four proven methods for motivating users to share what they know all the time
• Collaborative principles Kaplan used to build its enterprise social network and knowledge curation platform
• How to use simple video to add context to traditional online reference materials
• How user-generated content can help L&D focus its resources on more meaningful and timely learning experiences

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, project managers, managers, directors, and VPs with a basic understanding of the concepts of user-generated content, online video, and enterprise social networking tools.

Technology discussed in this session:
Confluence, JIRA, webcams, iMovie, Axonify, Kaltura, online discussion forums, Salesforce.

Learning professionals are increasingly losing a battle against short attention spans and increased competition for learners’ attention. We need to adapt our approaches to accommodate the changing needs and desires of our audiences that want training in highly visually formats, and in short doses.

In this session you will explore the concept of screencasting and how it can provide an audience with the information they need in ways that traditional eLearning often fails to do. You will learn why screencasting is a valuable deliverable for eLearning developers to have in their skill set. You will examine how screencasting complements traditional eLearning-development skills in a way that will make your overall services more valuable. You will leave this session understanding the niche screencasting fits into for efficient and effective content delivery.

In this session, you will learn:

• What screencasting is
• How it can complement other eLearning deliverables
• How screencasting can fit into overall training strategy
• An overview of screencasting development process
• The types of training for which screencasting should be considered as a solution

Audience:
Novice and intermediate designers, developers, project managers, managers, and directors with some familiarity with instructional design methodology and eLearning as a training solution.

Technology discussed in this session:
Screencasting output—videos.

Your course looks fantastic, but how does it sound? Learning is most effective when it takes advantage of both audio and visual pathways into the brain. Adding quality voiceovers to your eLearning program can greatly enhance knowledge transfer. But hiring professional voiceover talent can be expensive, and subject-matter experts may not always be available. That leaves just one person: you!

In this interactive and engaging session, you will learn what to do once you receive an eLearning script. You will receive a small portion of a script on which to practice mark-up techniques. You will make minor modifications to the script to make it as natural as possible to read. You will also learn which words or phrases to emphasize to match the instructional content, and to clarify any issues with the SME or content provider. You will explore four simple audio editing techniques for reducing background noise, improving the quality of the narration, removing unwanted portions of the audio, and optimizing the audio for playback. Participants will also learn how to set up an inexpensive recording studio to further improve the quality of voiceovers.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to review, prepare, and modify a voiceover script to ensure narration quality while maintaining instructional integrity
• Techniques you can immediately use to sound your best during the recording phase
• Four easy steps to enhance the quality of your narration and remove unwanted sounds and noise with audio editing software
• How to optimize your audio for playback and make post-production changes
• How to create a very inexpensive recording studio

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and project managers with an elementary knowledge of instructional design principles and the courseware development process.

Technology discussed in this session:
Adobe Audition or Audacity.

Narrating our work—also known in some circles as “working out loud”—is getting a lot of attention lately as it offers great potential for connecting talent pools and capturing tacit knowledge, reducing rework and duplication of effort and maybe even meetings. While there is a lot of discussion around the value showing your work provides in the context of learning, there’s less clarity around how showing your work provides value to a business or organization.

In this session you will explore the value of narrating work from the point of view of management. You will discuss what it means to narrate your work in an organizational context. You will discover why this is critical to business outcomes and how organizations can encourage more people to narrate their work. You will leave this session understanding when to support showing work in the ever-challenging quest for surfacing organizational knowledge.

In this session, you will learn:

• A clearer view of what “showing work” means
• Ideas for choosing what to share and when
• Tips for identifying the most appropriate tools for narrating work
• Strategies for ensuring success at helping workers successfully show their work—and avoiding mistakes and pitfalls

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

Technology discussed in this session:
N/A

Everyone’s talking about Big Data, but learning systems already generate piles of data and it’s a mess. How can we move on to a more in-depth analysis of learner behavior if we can’t even straighten out the basics? Our technicians roll their eyes and complain about poor data quality in the upstream feeds. The report designers complain that the stakeholders keep changing their requirements, and our teams are burning precious hours managing unwieldy Excel spreadsheets. We don’t need a new technology. We need a new approach.

In this session participants will examine a framework for understanding how to efficiently work with learning data. You will explore an overarching approach that you can use to communicate to both technical staff and business stakeholders. Using humor and visualization, this session will introduce you to techniques, tools, and concepts that are not usually thought of by database professionals outside of the learning industry. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to clarify the business drivers for gathering data and use them to inform your strategy
• To look at learning data holistically so that you can find solutions to data problems
• To discover techniques to use existing data to generate the data needed for reporting
• How to put data limitations into a perspective that business stakeholders understand
• How to create low-effort, repeatable, and flexible processes for collecting, cleaning, and reporting on learning data

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

Learning has been and always will be social. However, in a world of increasing use of eLearning and mobile-learning courses, we run the risk of coming full circle back to stale, unengaging “click-here”-based learning. People naturally collect in communities of practice outside of work (Facebook, Google+, reddit, Tumblr, etc.) to share and collaborate. How do we create an ecosystem of learning that engages learners both within and outside our eLearning content?

In this session you will learn how to develop communities of practice through an online-learning ecosystem. You will explore best practices for how to engage learners and keep them engaged. You will discuss ways to facilitate large-scale communities of practice (15,000+) down to smaller, more intimate, communities (50+). You will gain tips and tricks on how to use curation for user-submitted content, communication portals (blogs, forums, etc.), and direct discussion linked to specific learning modules.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why social learning is vital for training
• Ways to implement social learning ranging from small to enterprise
• Best practices for engagement with learning through social tools
• How other companies are utilizing social learning

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

Technology discussed in this session:
Wisetail LE, Adobe Captivate plugins, JavaScript, and LMSs.

Organizations often need to communicate critical knowledge and motivate learners of varying proficiency to achieve specific performance levels. This commonly requires delivering a range of content across disciplines. It can be challenging to design impactful learning that goes beyond transmitting information that results in consistent performance.  

In this case-study session you will discuss how these design challenges were addressed in an online game simulation for respiratory care. You will learn how gamifying a course allows adapting content and remediation to the learner, reducing the training time for those needing positive reinforcement, while promoting a behavior change that sticks for others. You will explore when incorporating game-like elements is beneficial to promoting individualized learning in order to achieve performance objectives and content retention. You will discuss the course-design process, learn tips for game-simulation development, and discover how they designed branching to capture learner-performance data for performance coaching.

In this session, you will learn:

• A procedure for converting content into a game simulation with branching based on individual learner proficiency
• A strategy for selecting gaming elements most conducive to the course objectives and motivating to the target audience
• How to design and track branching and provide immediate feedback and remediation within a game-simulation course
• A process for receiving SME-review feedback and content development approval for a branching game
• How to use LMS tracking and a SCORM report for additional personalized performance coaching and course evaluation

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and project managers with basic instructional-design knowledge. While a general understanding of SCORM or learning management systems may be helpful, this knowledge is not required to benefit from the session.

Technology discussed in this session:
Flash programming, SCORM, and LMS tracking and reporting.

Many organizations have significant investments in SharePoint. If you are already using SharePoint as a corporate intranet portal, it makes sense to consider an LMS with strong integration points with SharePoint. CorVel has a well-developed intranet portal in SharePoint and had previously implemented a home-grown LMS. However, after a few years, some additional requirements led the company to evaluate the LMS market for SharePoint.

In this case-study session, you will review the success factors CorVel considered, get information about its current eLearning efforts, and learn how it made its ShareKnowledge LMS implementation a success. You will explore how companies that are already invested in SharePoint can realize significant savings in infrastructure, IT staff resources, and implementation by leveraging an LMS that is integrated with SharePoint. You will examine how this project enabled the company to better serve the needs of its 3,000 member workforce distributed across the country.

In this session, you will learn:

• How CorVel implemented an LMS fully integrated with SharePoint
• How CorVel developed and rolled out a CEU program for sales associates
• How CorVel offers weekly training events over WebEx and tracks attendance automatically through the LMS
• The significant ROI CorVel achieves through its training offerings

Audience:
Novice and intermediate project managers, managers, directors, VPs, and CLOs with knowledge of the basic features of an LMS and familiarity with SCORM.

Technology discussed in this session:
SharePoint 2013 and ShareKnowledge.

Salespeople make up 70 to 80 percent of Hilti’s 21,000 team members worldwide. Those employees only make money if they are closing sales. Training is an important support tool for salespeople, but it is often looked at as an interruption of the sales process by both the salespeople and organizational management. Trainers needed to find a way to motivate salespeople to complete training.

In this session participants will explore the biggest constraint salespeople face related to training—time—and the biggest motivator for them to become engaged in training: a link to financial success. You will examine a series of blended learning solutions that make the most of a salesperson’s limited time and are clearly linked to helping them achieve financial success. You will discover the key design approaches that can have the greatest impact in the smallest amount of time.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to develop motivating eLearning courses
• How to understand your employees’ motivations
• How to link eLearning to your business needs
• How to create the biggest impact in the smallest amount of time

Audience:
Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, project managers, and managers with business acumen and eLearning development technical knowledge.

Technology discussed in this session:
Skillport LMS, Articulate software, video editing software, image creation tools, iStockphoto, Adobe Creative Suite, and Sharepoint.

Technology is constantly evolving and changing the ways we live, work, and learn. The ways we approach learning are very different than they were even a decade ago. In order to keep our practices current, we must stay ahead of this technological evolution—and that starts with getting the most out of today’s technology.

In this session you will explore how to use systems you already have to provide on-the-job support for learning, examine the impact of cloud technologies on learning platforms, and discuss how learning platforms can integrate with other enterprise systems. You will examine the increasing role of social media as a means of enhancing informal and social learning and how to use today’s cutting-edge technologies to paint a picture of how technology will shape how we learn tomorrow.

In this session, you will learn:

• How and when to use social and informal learning tools to assist in learning and knowledge transfer
• The differences between cloud-based platforms and traditional internally hosted systems
• How learning programs have evolved in tandem with technology
• How to prepare yourself for continued technological evolution

Audience:
Novice to advanced designers, developers, and managers with a basic knowledge of adult learning theory.

Technology discussed in this session:
Web-based and cloud-based products, Lync, SharePoint, Yammer, Internet sites, Blackboard, etc.

When learners are geographically dispersed, and the training is completed, it is difficult to know if the skills were transferred back on the job. In addition, it is difficult to observe the learner performing a new task, and to provide feedback for improvement and/or reinforcement of what was done well. We need to find ways to use technology to enable us to effectively evaluate learners’ ability to apply what they learn in training.

In this session participants will explore two real-world case studies, demonstrating the design and technology considerations applied to implement two 360-degree practicums. You will discuss key considerations for getting buy-in from evaluators. You will examine the communications used, review examples of templates and how-to aids on using software applications, and see samples of the resources provided to both learners and evaluators.

In this session, you will learn:

• Creative ways to leverage technology in order to implement remote skill assessment
• Considerations for getting buy-in and involvement from the evaluators
• A framework to give to the evaluators so they are confident with how and what to assess
• Planning steps for how to support the knowledge needed by the learners for them to be successful in the assessment
• How to measure success

Audience:
Intermediate designers and developers with some experience with online survey tools, HTML coding, and awareness of Kirkpatrick levels of evaluation.

Technology discussed in this session:
SurveyGizmo, video conferencing (Lync), mobile phones, LMS.

The Experience API is still an emerging technology. While the specification has matured over the last few years, most organizations approach xAPI conversation with more questions than answers.

In this session you will join a no-holds-barred Q&A exploring all aspects of the past, present, and future of the Experience API. You will learn about the IEEE group that is taking the xAPI into international industry standardization. You will discuss who’s doing what with the technology and what the roadmap looks like for the next several years. The greatest value of the session comes from the questions that are asked from the audience, so be sure to bring your questions with you to the session.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the xAPI is evolving
• How organizations are adding the xAPI to their strategy
• What the future of the xAPI holds
• Answers to your burning xAPI questions