The DeMaND Project is a consortium project funded by the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training program that trains students for careers in skilled trades, including welding, construction, HVAC, electrical, CDL, and heavy equipment. The project works with students from areas with chronically high unemployment and generational poverty. Students have difficulty entering the workforce and retaining employment. The project needed a mechanism to help students learn about job opportunities and stay connected with their instructors and one another, and to support students toward employment.

Making the decision to add mobile technologies to your learning and performance strategy is one thing; making it happen is something else. One of the biggest challenges organizations run into once they make the decision to go mobile is choosing a tool to be used for mobile development. The mobile environment is very different than that of the desktop, and a tool that works in one space may not perform as well in another.

As iPads and mobile technology become more ingrained in all areas of our lives, we need to find ways to use the same tools in learning. But this shift can be extremely challenging for learning professionals and organizations to make.

You’re a top-performing company. You’ve started using a couple of mobile apps at work. How do you turn some inspired use of mobile into a broader strategy? One of the key components of this is creating an internal corporate ecosystem for mobile. So how can you get started? Should you build or buy? How do you navigate around issues with IT security and legal?

Compliance training is a universal issue and requirement for all types of organizations. It can be tricky to design and create compliance training that’s easy, available, and engaging to all learners, yet satisfies statutory legal and HR requirements. Traditional eLearning programs have gained an unfavorable reputation for being uninspiring and complex, stuck on a restricted platform such as desktop.

The instructional design process is iterative. Going from analysis with subject matter experts (SMEs) to design and back can consume precious time and resources. Developing learning materials away from the customer can sometimes yield surprises during pilot and deployment.

Onboarding of new employees to ensure they are prepared to perform is a critical undertaking for any organization. When the call is to effectively onboard temporary employees, a new wrinkle is added, as onboarding activities can take too much time in relation to the length of their contract.  

As more and more projects are being built to accommodate multiple devices, the need to prototype grows. Whether you are creating a new project, developing an app, or simply launching a new responsive course, prototyping can help you better understand what’s working and what needs to be changed.