“Social learning” and “informal learning” are among the training industry's hottest phrases these days. But there's so much confusion over what they mean, and what they mean to those of us in the business. In this session, participants will review the basics of social learning, including theory-based perspectives. These basics include items such as: Social learning isn't new; Social learning isn't necessarily “managed,” “launched,” “controlled,” or “measured;” People in the workplace are learning all the time – without us; Those people likely don't think of what they're doing as “learning.”
 
In this session, you will spend some time looking at real examples of social and informal learning as it happens in workplaces – all the time, every day. During the session you will work together to generate ideas for locating, supporting, and facilitating social learning opportunities toward the greater goal of enhancing organizational performance.

In this session, you will learn:

• The differences between social learning, informal learning, and social media for learning
• The ways learning occurs naturally in day-to-day work
• Tactics for supporting and nurturing social learning and communities
• Strategies for embedding learning into the workflow rather than interrupting it

Audience: Novice. This session is designed for anyone with an interest in social and informal learning.

Prudential has a long history of supporting Service Members and Veterans. The company is proud of its history of support, and wanted to do more to provide awareness of the need to reintegrate our Veterans into the civilian work environment. Prudential’s CEO is leading an initiative that includes an eLearning component targeted to Prudential managers and employees, which could also be leveraged by other corporations and academic institutions. The focus of the program is on issues that relate to Veterans and their transition to civilian life.

In this case-study session, you will explore the process Prudential’s learning organization went through to create the manager’s eLearning program. Through a highly collaborative effort, they addressed the requirements of stakeholders throughout the organization: from the CEO to HR functions, corporate law compliance, and business ethics. You’ll learn some of the challenges faced along the way, discuss the marketing and rollout tactics, and look at the Flash-built final program.

In this session, you will learn:

• The challenges and strategies needed when creating an eLearning program at a large corporation
• How Prudential approached the design and development process
• How internal corporate teams and a vendor shared responsibilities
• How to market and roll out an eLearning program
• Why supporting Veterans is the right thing to do, and the right thing for your business

Audience: Novice to Intermediate participants. This program has no prerequisites – just an interest in gaining more insight and understanding into creating eLearning at a large organization.

Innovation and growth in social media, mobile devices, cloud computing, and other technologies is resulting in the Learning Explosion — the perpetual creation and global distribution of ideas, innovation, and learning. Accessing and applying this knowledge without becoming overwhelmed is essential to personal learning and development. You and your colleagues need to become “Mutant Learners” — rapidly adapting, evolving, and changing to effectively harness today's Learning Explosion.

In this session you will learn how to create a Personal Learning Lab™ — a controlled learning environment where you continuously discover new knowledge, experiment with it, apply it, and organize it into salient concepts that you can easily access on your chosen devices.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can effectively evolve into a Mutant Learner. (Someone able to thrive in these ever-changing times.)
• The necessary steps to build a Personal Learning Lab
• Tools, tips, and tricks on how to utilize social media and other technology for ongoing learning
• How to organize knowledge into salient concepts that you can easily access on your chosen devices

Audience: This session is for participants at all knowledge and skill levels; however, those who want to harness and effectively apply the onslaught of information now available will be most interested.

Are you just starting your organization’s learning program or trying to revamp your learning and development approach? This session will address the issue of how to implement a hybrid solution within an organization from on-boarding to succession management. The session will examine how to blend your approach to implementing and delivering learning activities to ensure you are achieving the desired results.

Participants in this case-study session will learn how the DoD set up their program. You will walk through the analysis, customization, assessment, planning, development, and finally the measuring of effects via feedback loops. You’ll examine the decisions made to use either an online or an offline solution. You will hear how they set up a LMS and determined the delivery method for each learning item. You will get practical advice on what the DoD organization views as being best administered in the online environment and what is best left in the physical world.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to set up learning solutions to organizational needs
• How to make the LMS work for your learning solutions
• Which activities are best online and which you should keep offline
• How to provide a personal touch to newcomers to your organization

Audience: Novice to Intermediate level participants. This session is of interest to those who are either just starting their organization’s learning programs or are revamping their learning and development approach.  Knowledge of ISD, ADDIE, and overall talent management would be a plus, but is not required.

The numbers run business … literally – it’s the bottom line. Yet many learning professionals do not “speak business numbers” and therefore cannot justify their initiatives to those who approve funding. The stakes are even higher if the program is of strategic importance, highly visible, and/or costly. This session will share why measuring critical programs like leadership development, sales training, and onboarding are vital to program managers.

Session participants will learn the major elements of a measurement plan to successfully and comprehensively generate quantitative and qualitative metrics in a timely and practical manner using limited resources. You’ll get examples of tools such as a key performance indicator matrix, a communication plan, and smart-sheet evaluations, and you’ll see sample reports, including dashboards.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of measuring strategic, visible, and costly programs
• How to discuss the measurement plan to gather timely, credible data
• How to showcase sample reports, statements, dashboards, and scorecards
• How to apply this type of data to your unique needs

Audience: Those participants who need to learn how to understand qualitative and quantitative metrics to justify their learning initiatives.

eLearning professionals often have questions surrounding design strategies for learning materials. Many find themselves “guessing” about layout, composition, and typography. Yet better-designed eLearning courses yield stronger communication and focused visuals. Following the basic principles of design helps dictate communication to the audience.

Participants in this session will learn about good design by focusing on composition, the grid, images/video/animation, and type font. You’ll be able to see and comment on design examples as well as learn about design principles.

In this session, you will learn:

• Basic design principles for better screen designs
• Simple rubrics to use to evaluate your designs
• Layout and composition concepts
• How to better use type, images, and multimedia components

Audience: Those participants who want to improve the visual design of their courses.

Do you choose your tools based on your instructional design needs, or do you force your instructional design to accommodate the tool you have? Many tools to develop eLearning exist, and your instructional design should take advantage of the strengths of the best tools available.

Participants in this case-study session will learn several scenarios of instructional design approaches. For each approach you will discuss which tools are best used to develop each approach. You will also address some problem areas and learn why compromises are sometimes necessary. You’ll be able to present your own instructional design approach ideas, and together we will discuss the tools to use for your own design approaches.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to decide on a design approach that works
• How to determine which tools will best serve your needs
• How to determine when more than one tool might be necessary
• How to cut through the hype!

Audience: Those needing to make knowledgeable decisions about which tools to use to meet their design needs. Participants should have a basic understanding of eLearning design principles.

The same issue faces every training organization: a requirement for a large training initiative related to a software deployment or upgrade that requires training a diverse set of users. The timeline between the delivery of the final product and the start of training is usually short (if it exists at all), and the training staff needs to find ways to make things work. In 2010, Northrop Grumman (NG) upgraded its Learning Management System (LMS). The training team’s task was to deploy different types of learning to different groups of users, the largest of which was about 100,000 people. The expected timeline between the deliverable product and the start of training was short, and they needed to find ways to make things work with limited resources of people, time, and money.

Participants in this case-study session will look at the Northrop Grumman training project for deployment of the upgrade to their LMS. You will focus on the team’s planning, the development and deployment strategies put into place, and the results of the training.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify the training audiences
• How to make instructional-delivery-type decisions
• How to market your training effort
• How to evaluate your results

Audience: Intermediate-level participants. This session will support individuals who are preparing for an initial deployment or upgrade to a LMS or other large-scale software tool to identify, develop, and deploy training to ensure success.

This session addresses approaches for designing online courses for global learners. How do you design for multiple cultures? How do you translate content? How do you address bandwidth and technical issues? How do you engage students and create global learning communities? Participants will see examples of courses The Nature Conservancy has developed for international audiences such as: Reef Resilience, Protected Area Management, Geographic Information Systems for Conservation, and Climate Change.

Session participants will learn best practices for addressing globalizing content for all cultures, producing content in multiple languages, using Moodle to develop course rooms, addressing bandwidth and connectivity constraints, and utilizing informal learning techniques (forums, user-generated content) to build learning communities for localizing knowledge to regional areas.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to globalize and translate online training for an international audience
• How to design interactive, engaging training
• How to use Moodle to deliver courses to an international audience
• How to incorporate informal learning to build learning communities

Audience: Those interested in designing courses for a global audience.

Let’s face it — training videos can come across as having low production quality, poor acting when relying on internal talent, and be downright boring when trying to convey a process, such as overcoming objections in a sales meeting. And, the resulting video can seem staged or contrived. Reality-TV-style training videos make skills or knowledge training fun! The format breaks down the challenge into clear steps. For the viewer, the medium provides a hook — whether an emotional response to a situation, identification with a represented social archetype, or a visual cue to be accessed later on during a task. For the challengers themselves, it provides an “intense” learning experience, far more real than a role play, as it involves preparation for and delivery of a sales call to an actual customer (when possible).

This session will break reality-TV production down into easy-to-follow steps that result in fabulous videos. Participants will learn video production concepts and see scenes from actual training videos, professionally produced reality-TV-style videos used for sales training, valuable behind-the-scenes footage, and interviews with SMEs.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to manage your project from concept, to scripting, to production
• How to manage your SMEs as stars
• How to decide on a video production level and hire the right video production crew
• How to create a recognizable brand for your training to instill credibility

Audience: No video knowledge required. Participants should have a learning objective in mind that they want to turn into a video.

As the trend toward mobile learning and support grows, it's difficult to know where to begin. Instructional designers must play an important role in the development process, but the design considerations are difficult to sort out. Designers need information on how people actually use mobile phones and how to design for user habits. They also need to understand (at a high level) the technical considerations.

This session will sort through the disparate information on designing mobile performance support apps and explain the varied design issues the instructional designer will need to know about. You’ll get important resources, such as where to find pre-made icons for mobile apps, or which wireframe tools are available for creating mock-ups. Post-session participants should be able to know how to start designing an app, the design tools they can use, and the high-level technical considerations they'll need to address in discussions with programmers.

In this session, you will learn:

• The important role that the instructional designer can play
• How people really use their smartphones
• What to consider when designing a mobile performance support app
• How to write use-case scenarios for your app
• How to wireframe your app
• Where to find important resources for app design

Audience: Intermediate to advanced participants. No specific skills are required, but those who are experienced in designing eLearning will gain the most. (Note: This session will not teach how to program an app.)

Whether you are part of a design team or working by yourself, keeping track of course information is vital. Time is wasted if course information or files are not organized. How can you manage a team or your time, if you don’t know the status of the courses, or provide an accurate measure of the time spent developing courses?

This session will discuss what information it is helpful to track, how to use Microsoft Access or Excel to track information, and suggest ways to use this information to stay organized. The information it is important to track to stay organized includes SMEs, date required, course status, etc. Discover how you can use this information to determine what is being and what was developed. Utilize the information as benchmarks, or to tell leadership the time spent on course development.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to identify the information that is helpful to track
• Examples of how to track this information by utilizing Microsoft Access or Excel
• How to use the tracked information to analyze and determine individual and group workloads
• How to use the tracked information to establish routine course maintenance and reviews

Audience: Intermediate participants should have an understanding of Microsoft Excel and/or Access.

With the economy unstable, the job market is also still unstable. Companies continue to downsize, or at least, not add people. Staff increasingly feels held hostage by their company. The increased workload, long hours, and threat of future downsizing has created slave-workers. Leaders feel oppressed as well, so leadership of any kind has left the building. Leadership has been off the radar for at least three years. Employees didn't need to be engaged in their work – they were lucky to have a job. Or so it seemed. This temporary situation is wearing thin, and employees are either looking for ways out or “quitting in place.” Either way, leaders must reconnect their staff to the company or face future workload and quality issues.

In this session, hopeful leaders will relearn how to re-engage employees. Through activities designed to build employee commitment, participants will leave with new ways to begin to grow their teams into a community with accountability and trust.

In this session, you will learn:

• To identify the 10 competencies of a technical leader, and self-assess
• To assess their own current engagement, and mitigate the results
• To create a plan for re-engaging staff
• To create productive, accountable teams

Audience: Intermediate participants should have responsibility for leading in an organization, either informally (through projects) or formally (through position).