1004 Micro vs. Macro: Which Learning Experience Works Best?
10:00 AM - 11:00 AM Thursday, March 28
Management and Strategy
Salon 4
Most L&D teams are keenly interested in exploring ways to combine their macrolearning needs—traditional ILT classes and VILT sessions, tracked online learning, and structured compliance programs—with microlearning initiatives leveraging mobile, game mechanics, and social interactions. While most legacy LMS platforms have yet to include compelling microlearning features, there are ways to design and integrate legacy macrolearning platforms with modern microlearning solutions to achieve tech-enhanced learning success.
It is easy to fall in love with “shiny object” solutions that promote an “out with the old, in with the new” strategy to fix your legacy programs. Are these new solutions really replacements for the stable, workhorse systems you rely on to organize and track performance? In this session, you’ll discuss how striking a balance between old and new likely represents the best approach for many companies seeking to modernize key training programs and metrics. You’ll explore just how legacy platforms can meld with specialized technology sets to craft purpose-built solutions to support your current and future learning needs.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to combine your macrolearning needs with your microlearning desires
- Why the rumor of the LMS’s death (or imminent demise) is false
- About successful case studies where teams extended the old with the new to address changing requirements and heightened use expectations
- About a mixture of commercial solutions and open-source utilities that can help you assemble your own modern learning experience platform solution
Audience:
Designers, developers, managers, and senior leaders (directors, VP, CLO, executive, etc.).
Technology discussed in this session:
Mobile apps, social interactions, game-enabled themes, and extensible APIs, including commercial solutions as well as open-source tools that can enhance and extend legacy learning platforms.

Robert Gadd
President
OnPoint Digital
Robert Gadd is president of OnPoint Digital and responsible for the company’s vision and strategy. OnPoint’s online and mobile-enabled offerings support more than one million workers and include innovative methods for content authoring, conversion, and delivery extended with social interactions, gamification, and enterprise-grade security for workers on their device or platform of choice. Prior to OnPoint, Robert spent 10 years as CTO of Datatec Systems and president/CTO of spin-off eDeploy.com. He is a frequent speaker on learning solutions—including mobile, informal learning, xAPI, and gamification—at national and international T&D conferences.