Organizations often spend a lot of time and money to create awesome videos for learning, but don’t track how effective the videos are. How do you know if your videos are effective? Are learners watching the videos? For how long? Having this kind of data would help you create better and more effective videos, so how do you track these types of measurements?

The mobile learning landscape is continually growing and shifting. As intimidating as those changes may be, organizations must be prepared to formulate and execute strategies to harness this growing technology. An understanding of the various devices, the appropriate content, the impact of mobile on traditional training and development, and how to make a business case for mobile in your organization are of key importance in navigating today’s mobile learning landscape.

Audio is easily neglected in online multimedia, especially for learners viewing on mobile devices with relatively substandard audio playback hardware (tiny speakers or earbuds). In fact, audio has not undergone the same rapid stylistic change that video has in the YouTube era—viewers still expect rich, clean, and well-balanced audio. Poor audio is always the first signal of an amateurish production.

As instructional designers skilled in eLearning design begin offering mobile experiences to learners, the ways in which they approach instructional design and development need to change. What works for a full-screen desktop experience doesn’t work on a mobile phone. So how can you shift your thinking to consider things like screen experience and what that means to learners? And once you’ve considered new design concerns and approaches, what development platforms should you consider to make your mobile design come to life?

Each year, PG&E Academy was spending nearly $1 million on printing costs to support required instructor-led training programs. Large binders of student materials had to be manually updated, and often would never be referenced again after training. PG&E Academy was driving to web-based training (WBT) and blended solutions that could leverage mobile devices; however, the organization needed to cover the costs of student tablets for use back on the job.

Shooting video according to the script is one thing, but what about when the content is the conversation, or an interview with live Q&A? What about when there is no power to call “Cut!” and start again? No fixing it in post? No webinar agenda? How can you best leverage live interactions without compromising the recorded asset?

Sales reps struggle to have quick and easy access to their product and services portfolio at the point of sale. Marketing, sales management, and L&D struggle to provide sales reps with the most up-to-date, consistent, and synthesized product messaging in an ongoing way. They also struggle to understand the impact their training is having on their sales reps.

Deconstructing Games is a new series of hands-on sessions where you’ll have the opportunity to play a game and then discuss how the mechanics in play can be applied in your own learning context.

In the beginning, gamification was shiny and new and full of promise. But its reputation quickly tarnished when people misused it as a quick fix to create learner engagement. There was too much focus on extrinsic rewards and on elements like points, badges, and leaderboards (PBLs) in ways devoid of meaning to the learner. But gamification is alive and well for those who dug deeper.

Many training professionals are reluctant to start developing game-based learning. They may mistakenly believe their success depends on being able to code as a programmer, being proficient in developing animations or virtual worlds, being able to illustrate as a state-of-the-art graphic designer, or being an expert videographer. By devaluing the effectiveness of low-cost, low-tech solutions, they lose the opportunity to convince key stakeholders to fund more ambitious projects.

Feeling like you can’t get past gamification? Tired of matching, memory, or Jeopardy-style games? Everyone hits creative road blocks. Maybe you see a great example of a learning game online, but feel held back creatively by learning objectives. How do you create a serious game while ensuring you meet your learning objectives?

New for FocusOn this year! This is a popular session being offered twice. It's also available as session 904.