Traditional phone call training (sales, support, etc.) is either web-based or done in-person. In-person training such as classroom-based courses or role playing requires heavy involvement of people other than the learner, and is therefore not scalable. Web-based training doesn't adequately provide a real-world situation. In both cases, learning effectiveness is difficult to measure because assessments are either weak or not given at all. What if there were a way to provide a real-world scenario where a learner can practice calls without needing a partner? And what if robust analytics were automatically captured to better understand where learners are struggling?

Voice assistants such as Amazon Alexa seem to be ubiquitous. We call on these devices to play music, turn on lights, set alarms, and even tell us whether we need an umbrella for the day. But have you ever considered how they might be used for learning? In this session you'll learn about educational use cases for the Alexa platform, focusing on a proof of concept to train technical support agents. You'll learn about how we built our Alexa skill, why you should consider developing one, and how to get started building your own using a simple web platform called Voiceflow. Specifically, we will cover how to get Alexa to speak, collect user input, and connect to external applications. You will see how a connection to a learning record store can provide detailed learning analytics for how the learner is interacting with the Alexa skill. You'll leave this session with a broader appreciation for the learning opportunities available through voice assistants, as well as the power that learning analytics can provide to your organization.

In this session, you will learn:

• Specific use cases where an Alexa skill can be useful
• How to build an Alexa skill that speaks, collects user input, and incorporates basic logic
• How to connect your Alexa skill to external applications such as an LRS
• How a learning record store can help you collect detailed learning analytics
• How you can play your Alexa skill on your own Echo device

Technology discussed:
Alexa, Voiceflow, Watershed Learning Record Store, Alexa Developer Console