Many organizations, especially in tight financial times, cut their training budget. More and more frequently, training departments need to implement eLearning with limited resources.

Participants in this case-study session will learn how one organization implemented a successful eLearning solution to address the needs of employees in 60 countries. You will discover how they created a LMS using open-source wares, and how they automated the enrollment, evaluation, feedback, and certificate issuance to minimize the time spent administrating the portal. You will also learn how they benefited from private partners to get free content (including the Global Giveback contest supported by The eLearning Guild).

In this session, you will learn:

• Which open source wares were used to create the LMS
• Best practices to lower your level of effort while administering the site
• How to promote your eLearning initiative
• How to maximize learning transfer

Audience: Novice to Intermediate. Familiarity with what an LMS does is not required, but is beneficial.

There are a number of reasons why training doesn’t work. A variety of factors affect job performance, and when you don’t take all of them into consideration, any solutions you create (such as training) are likely to have limited impact – at best. Too many eLearning professionals are unaware of the systems nature of training, and what impacts the reasons why training does or doesn't work. They're frustrated that it doesn't work and that they're held responsible that it doesn't.

In this session, you will explore the “performance system,” the constellation of factors that impact job performance, including how to analyze a given performance problem situation (such as, “Customer service reps too often give out the wrong information.”). This systems view of job performance goes beyond a one-size-fits-all approach (which is typically throw-training-at-it-and-see-if-sticks) to a more systematic process for assessing what you really need for the desired results.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to describe performance in terms of specific business needs
• How to analyze the factors that affect individual performance
• How to select data collection methods to understand job performance
• How to map problems with specific factors to needed interventions

Audience: Intermediate to advanced.

Many national or international organizations experience communication issues when they distribute key functions across departments, locations, shifts, and time zones. The Tim Hortons Supply Chain faced this issue — teams were working in silos, without a clear understanding of how their decisions and actions could affect other parts of the Supply Chain. Further, when problems arose, individuals were not always aware of who they could contact from other teams to resolve the issues.

This case-study session will describe how Tim Hortons Supply Chain has encouraged communication, collaboration, and teamwork through the Supply Chain Passport program. Launched in February 2010, this program brings together team members from different departments of the Supply Chain for a combination of classroom training, on-the-job experiences, and cross-functional projects. You’ll get a candid look at the process of designing and launching the Supply Chain Passport Program. You will also look at the results, and the ongoing work to improve the program.

In this session, you will learn:

• Techniques for engaging subject matter experts as facilitators
• Strategies for facilitating learning among cross-functional groups
• Sustainment strategies for continuous informal learning on the job
• The benefits of having a highly involved executive as project champion
• The importance of leveraging existing programs in the organization

Audience: Intermediate level. This session can apply to all levels, but participants will gain most value if they have experience in working with large organizations that need to encourage communication across teams.

The airline industry is always in a state of dynamic change with mergers, market conditions, new equipment, and serious pressure for continuous improvements. The human-in-the-loop scenario is real, and is a critical component. Currently, Pilots, Flight Attendants, and Maintenance Personal have compliance training requirements and a level-of-mastery check. Training ranges from self-paced (reading) to instructor-led to full-motion simulators, and often the content is complex and the performance requirements are set very high.

This session will detail the creation of a framework to move these  personnel toward a system that adapts relative to their work environment, specific job, level of mastery, and experience within their personal learning pathway. Participants will learn the importance and creation of a competency model, and the links within the model at the behavioral (task) level to training content. The learning objectives for this audience, based on the chosen competency model, provides a foundation for a high-level curriculum and course outline to which you can apply the accelerated learning framework to determine the optimal learning design and accelerate both the learning pathway and the learning process in the training.

In this session, you will learn:

• A process to move toward adaptive-learning content
• The Competency Development Methodology
• How to map Competency to Curriculum
• Business drivers for Adaptive Learning

Audience: Intermediate. To get the most out of this session the audience should understand their audiences, the differences between groups, and the environment where adapting content would be valuable. An understanding of competency models and strategic learning initiatives is helpful.

Team-based learning is a powerful instructional strategy, one that is central to graduate programs. If done properly, this technique transforms a randomly assigned “group” into a cohesive “team.” Strong bonds develop, and learning networks emerge, often with a life of their own that extends beyond the academic term. As educators, we must provide the right environment for these teams to develop. This is relatively straightforward in a traditional face-to-face setting: teams are assigned to breakout rooms, or to sit with one another during lunch, etc. But how can we provide similar opportunities in a blended or online environment? Without the myriad physical cues available in a face-to-face setting, would “virtual” team building be possible?

Paraticipants in this case-study session will learn how Rollins College was able to create a rich online environment for their student teams to collaborate and communicate with each other, using readily available technologies “in the cloud” and a flashy new invention called “the telephone.” The session will provide handy, practical tips that were born out of “real-world” necessity.

In this session, you will learn:

• Collaborative technologies and techniques using Google Docs
• Cloud storage and document sharing using such services as Windows Live and Dropbox
• Easy Web conferencing for team learning using Google+ Hangouts w/Extras
• How student teams used Prezi and YouTube to make their presentations stand out

Audience: Those wanting to discover some of the powerful learning technologies available for free in “the cloud.” Even those who are familiar with Google Docs and Windows Live may be surprised by some of the unique and powerful ways these free services can be used to foster learning.

This session offers case studies describing how Kaiser Permanente (KP) included social media in their learning strategy for two projects. In the first project, Articulate training, they were looking for a way to improve the content development and delivery for Articulate. KP saw a steady increase in the number of learners needing training, but having only one instructor who could deliver training and provide ongoing support was a constraint. In the second case study, they had project managers of all knowledge and skill levels, who did not have training or support for their professional development.

For each study, session participants will learn the situation, the challenges, what KP did as a solution, the results, and the lessons learned. You will see best practices and the strategies used to encourage adoption of Social Media into training programs.

In this session, you will learn:

• How Kaiser Permanente's Learning Solutions team uses social media
• Best practices for using social media in your learning strategy
• Strategies to encourage adoption
• How to start and effectively implement social media into your training programs

Audience: Participants should have a general knowledge of social media and its functions.

Many eLearning organizations utilize rapid development tools, but want to further brand the experience to meet the needs of their company, their clients, or their learners. Implementing a solution is not simple. Off-the-shelf rapid development tools, like Articulate, often allow little modification to their course player. If they do allow for a custom course player, implementation across a library of courses can be a technological and quality challenge.

Participants in this case-study session will examine the nature of this implementation problem and get a walk-through of the RAPS solution. You’ll also focus on some practical project-management tips for managing a project of this scope.

In this session, you will learn:

• Project management techniques for rolling out a large number of courses on a certain date
• How to manage a vendor relationship when outsourcing a custom-skin design
• How to manage the Quality Control process – from both technical and human-resource standpoints
• How to identify vendors to design your custom skin
• When to develop a custom skin yourself versus selecting a vendor

Audience: Intermediate-to-advanced participants should have basic knowledge of working with both a LMS and Rapid Design Tools. Participants who are just starting to develop asynchronous courses may find this material too advanced.

As organizations seek to reduce budgets and target process and performance efficiencies, expectations of employees' workloads seemingly increase while intellectual capital is lost as headcount reductions become the norm. This session provides a working example of multi-modal output of content via EPSS, ILT, vILT, eLearning, and Just-in-Time (JIT) content consumption. Using this type of approach allows training organizations and business information owners to keep up with the ever-changing business environment, and increasing business knowledge and data, with reduced headcounts.

Participants in this session will learn a new workflow for business information creation and maintenance for an EPSS. This workflow leverages metadata-driven content aggregation in a LCMS, dynamic delivery enabled by the AICC standard, and a seamless user experience using Single Sign-On (SSO). The metadata-driven technology delivers customized informal learning and formalized training, in multiple modalities, for different functional roles, the products they handle, and their physical location.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design a knowledge repository to deliver personalized information
• How to structure knowledge to deploy multi-modal, multi-channel deliverables
• How to develop metadata schemas for personalized information delivery
• How to collaborate with Business Information Owners (BIOs) for information creation and maintenance

Audience: Intermediate to advanced participants. An understanding of training design and development methodologies, challenges, and EPSS is recommended.

The concept of “gamifying” our training is a hot topic when addressing learner engagement challenges. Unfortunately, developers often water down this powerful concept to simply giving away points or badges and adding a leaderboard. To successfully leverage gamification, we need to understand why the game mechanics work, how to leverage them to support our performance goals, get ideas on ways to create an experience that maximizes the impact on your learners, and get rid of the belief that gamification requires new and expensive development tools.

Participants in this session will get a “Gamification 101” overview, learn the key game mechanics being successfully applied in learning solutions, and discover how they influence our behavior by meeting certain universal human needs and desires. You’ll learn best practices through examples of how organizations are using and have benefited from applying game-based sensibilities to instruction development using a variety of techniques, mash-ups, and delivery methods. You’ll get the next steps to implementing gamification techniques within your learning strategy, including ways to leverage common tools (e-mail, text, etc.) in implementing your solution.

In this session, you will learn:

• How the growing trend of gamification impacts our daily behavior, and why it works
• Which game mechanics motivate learner’s behavior, and why they are effective
• Where to start when incorporating time-based activities, leaderboards, leveling-up, storytelling, and other techniques
• Ideas on how to leverage internal tools at your disposal today

Audience: Novice participants who want to understand how to apply gaming techniques into their eLearning designs.

There is strong interest in creating a social learning culture where employees are empowered to share the expertise they have acquired during their daily work, yet there is very little guidance on how to actually do it. You need to know where to start, the requirements for a successful launch, and best practices, but real hands-on, descriptive guidance is missing. In this session you will learn from someone who has a proven record and experience gained over the last four years running Microsoft’s Academy, a social-learning initiative consisting of a “YouTube of the Enterprise” with 100,000 downloads per month. It is where 70,000 employees generate more than 10,000 pieces of content per year to share with their peers. Microsoft’s average cost savings per year are $17 million, and this is growing year on year as the Academy becomes pervasive around Microsoft globally. The Academy is the largest social learning program in North America.

Participants in this session will learn how to incorporate social media for learning and knowledge dissemination within an organization, how to successfully launch an employee-based learning culture and program, and tips, tricks, and examples based on real experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• Practical guidance to initiate an employee-generated learning culture
• The steps needed for a successful launch
• The business case for creating an employee-generated learning culture
• The benefits, such as a more nimble organization, better connected workforce, and talent discovery

Audience: Intermediate participants should be generally familiar with traditional forms of learning and what social learning is.

The way people learn and work is becoming more dynamic. The world's mobile worker population has passed the 1 billion mark and will grow to nearly 1.2 billion people — more than a third of the world's workforce — by 2013, says a forecast from IDC. A recent survey commissioned by Cisco found that three of every five employees believe it is unnecessary to be in the office to be productive, and two of three employees worldwide say they prefer a job with less pay and more flexibility. Learners need more dynamic ways to consume content to fit today’s evolving business and educational environments. Learning@Cisco responded to evolving market demands by providing a tailored, customized education experience to help students secure certification as a pathway to rewarding careers in IT. Cisco developed mLearning to help students retain and enhance knowledge received from other sources, including Cisco Learning Partners and the Cisco Learning Network, while providing a new way to build and reinforce technical skills for a new type of learner.

Participants in this case-study session will learn how Cisco designed a mobile learning program that has become a key strategy and driver of success throughout its employee, customer, and partner base.

In this session, you will learn:

• The business rationale for mobile learning
• The ten best practices
• Three critical success factors
• Cisco’s vision for mobile learning

Audience: Novice participants who have a basic understanding of mLearning.

We all read. We all create training that has words. But we also all look at words and need to learn from them. We also are always looking at the type that the creator has decided to use in their learning. Type is a vitally important part of how people receive information. Good type selection can make eLearning more easily memorable, while bad type selection can make it difficult to remember the information presented, even if in story form. How can you be sure the type you use in all your projects is appropriate to your needs? How do you decide on a type font? How do type fonts affect what you learn from what you read? As a trainer, you probably don't think about type fonts very much, but you should. Since we all use type all the time, the correct selection of type for a project is vital to eLearning.

Session participants will see how the affordance of type selection makes a difference in how learners learn the information presented to them. By viewing information presented in different styles and fonts, you'll explore how different fonts, font weights, and font sizes work to enhance, and sometimes hurt, the learning experience.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why fonts make a difference in perception
• How to determine what fonts give the affordances you'll need for learning
• What type-fonts work and what type-fonts don't work
• When to use different fonts, font sizes, and weights

Audience: No specific skill set is required.

Without being explicitly told, learning professionals today are required to be business partners to the C-suite. While focusing on the development impact of their programs, they must also be able to quote hard numbers to justify training and to support the cause for expanding the training budget. You can get lost in this conversation if you aren't fluent in the language of finance.

In this session, participants will build a graphical representation of the accounting model, and, in the process, learn the language of accounting and finance. There are only five boxes – you’ll explore the common mistakes, including calling an asset an expense, and, as an added bonus, you'll learn how to calculate the return-on-training investments, which will give you a leg up in your next training expenditure.

In this session, you will learn:

• There are only five boxes!
• How to build a balance sheet and an income statement
• The most common financial foul-ups
• What questions to ask accountants or your number people

Audience: The less knowledge the better, but bring your misconceptions and misunderstandings around accounting.