Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Ken Spero, Humentum

With the advent of a host of simulation authoring tools, media objects, and a generation raised on video games, the learning simulation industry has bypassed classroom development and focused its attention on the self-paced application of the technology. This approach manifests with leaders who only look at technology for objectives that are Web- or CD-based, not for objectives being addressed in the classroom.

In this session, you will learn the power of simulation when it is broken down to its core elements and how those elements each contribute to increased learning effectiveness. You will learn the power of storytelling, linking the technology with the power of group dynamics, effectively designing a decision tree, how to use different decision methods, managing consequences, using scoring, and how to effectively facilitate these kinds of programs. You’ll experience the blending of content with a simulation, play the simulation, and learn the power of the decision-making aspect of simulation, the debriefing element, and an approach to bridging the experience from simulation back to reality.

In this session, you will learn:

• How simulation can be blended with content in a live workshop and in a live/virtual format
• A methodology for facilitating simulations in a live format
• How to debrief a simulation and bridge important issues out of the simulation world into the real world
• How to address thorny or complex issues in a way that is neither offensive nor threatening through the power of the story

Audience: Intermediate and advanced designers, developers and others

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Ray Jimenez, Vignettes for Training, Inc., SimplifyeLearning.com

E-Learning technologies, software, and processes have exploded. It is now affordable, and it is possible to raise the quality from PowerPoint presentations to rich, high-touch look and feel e-Learning programs. Clunky and cumbersome authoring tools are the thing of the past, and reusable engines and rich-interface designs (iPod-like) are the new solutions. The challenge is how e-Learning designers and developers, especially those who are non-technical designers, begin to unlearn old approaches and concepts and embrace new mindsets to take advantage of these advances?

In this session, participants will learn the building blocks of reusable engines and rich-media design. You will learn how to test small projects and apply new approaches in design. You’ll learn how to change traditional e-Learning designs to significantly cut costs, improve the learner experience, and push the quality. You’ll learn how to break from the old “authoring models” to “reusable rich-media conversions,” And you will get online access to free demos and models for reusable-rich-media engines.

In this session, you will learn:

• What reusable-rich-media engines are, compared with authoring software
• How to identify opportunities to move away from antiquated authoring tools
• How to establish costs and benefits by using reusable rich-media engines
• What the technical background basics of reusable rich-media engines are
• How to build step-by-step reusable lessons, games, exercises, and feedback
• Where to find free reusable rich-media engine demos, examples, and models
• How to cut your authoring costs from 100% to 30%

Audience: Novice and intermediate e-Learning managers, leaders, designers, and developers.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Will Thalheimer, Work-Learning Research

Learning measurement is a mission-critical endeavor in our field, but one that often creates confusion and inadequate outcomes. Traditional models like Kirkpatrick’s four levels and Phillips’ ROI provide value but don’t provide a full picture. Myths about learning measurement abound because research on learning is not utilized.

Participants in this session will get a practical, research-based perspective on learning measurement. You’ll discover the three major reasons to measure learning: (1) to support our learners in learning; (2) to provide ourselves with feedback so we can build better learning interventions; and (3) to quantify learning outcomes. You will learn the new Full-Source Learning Evaluation model, which examines not just training methods, but also prompting mechanisms and on-the-job learning. You’ll learn how to avoid several myths of learning measurement and how to start the instructional design process in a unique way – focusing on evaluation right from the beginning. You will learn to build better smile sheets and see how to utilize a Situation-Based Learning Design perspective to design evaluations. Finally, we will consider how to evaluate Learning 2.0 (when users generate their own content).

In this session, you will learn:

• How to avoid the most common mistakes in learning measurement
• The importance of examining all learning-evaluation opportunities
• The Full-Source Learning Evaluation model
• How to utilize a Situation-Based Learning Design evaluation approach

Audience: Intermediate and advanced designers and developers, but especially those who are responsible for managing training and/or learning.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Tom Eucker, TR Eucker Training & Consulting

Research shows that a large percentage of learning in organizations is informal, meaning that learning to perform in a job occurs mostly outside of the formal training environment (including typical e-Learning solutions). Additionally, many organizations are struggling with the changing workforce demographics, with many of the more knowledgeable and experienced people leaving or preparing to leave over the next five years. This magnifies the need for learning solutions to address the resulting knowledge gap. Even worse, the most valuable knowledge that organizations are most concerned about losing is typically gained through informal learning.

Participants in this session will explore the research behind the “70/20/10” model, which describes the kinds of informal learning that are of value to organizations. A knowledge model will show you the differences between expert and novice performance, and the role of informal learning in building and maintaining expertise in organizations. You’ll get specific examples of a variety of solutions (both formal and informal) that can develop deep expertise, and guidelines and recommendations that will help apply the basic principles to organizational practices.

In this session, you will learn:

• The research supporting the value of informal learning
• A knowledge management model that helps to distinguish types and levels of knowledge
• A number of effective informal learning practices
• Guidelines and recommendations for informal learning and the development of deep expertise

Audience: Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers, and others who have some familiarity with the needs for informal learning and the development of deep expertise.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Donna Safko, Mudpuddle Creations

Animation offers a learning advantage over video when dealing with complicated subjects. It can eliminate distracting information and help the learner to visualize conceptual ideas. It is also be a great way to capture attention and increase interest. But your small budget or tight deadline might not give you the ability to learn Flash Actionscript or hire an expert, even though an animation would be perfect for your learning situation. Wouldn't it be great if you could use other software that you are more comfortable with?

Participants in this session will learn that it is a mistake to think that an animation must always look as good as a Disney cartoon. Research shows that simple drawings can be just as effective in e-Learning. You may be amazed at what you can create quickly by combining paper and pencil drawings with technology. Participants will view samples and demonstrations of animations created with Photoshop, Premier, and PowerPoint.

In this session, you will learn:

• That simple animations can be very effective
• That stop-action animation is still alive and well
• How to create animations using Photoshop, Premiere, and PowerPoint
• How to create a three-part mouth series to make any character talk

Audience: Intermediate designers and developers. Basic experience with Photoshop will be helpful.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Bobbe Baggio, Advantage Learning Technologies, Inc. / LaSalle University

It seems like just yesterday that everyone was expounding the virtues of social software, and “SCORM compliant” was the thing. Then we began to twit … we connected on Twitter and everywhere else. We were LinkedIn, Plaxoed, Facebooked, MySpaced, Yahooed, and Google Grouped to death. We may be fed up with being twitted, but social software hasn’t gone away. It has, however, gone out of vogue. It is too much. People have had enough. We are moving on. First it was exciting, then it was annoying, and finally it became overwhelming and boring. But we love our social software; we love the power of being a contributor, the status of being an amateur expert, and that is not going away. Collective intelligence is here to stay and growing. So if it isn’t Twitter or blogs … then what is on the horizon?

Entire institutions and university departments are trying to figure out where we are going with technologies for training and learning, and how we are going to get there. Session participants will get the results of a meta-trend analysis of 15 research reports on the future and current trends in e-Learning. You’ll learn where we are going, what new technologies are headed our way, and how we can apply them to training and learning.

In this session, you will learn:

• An analysis of four years of major research reports on the future of training and learning
• The impact and lifespan for current technologies and learning trends
• How these trends will impact your organization’s training and learning efforts
• A synthesis of the findings into seven trends for the future

Audience: Intermediate and advanced designers, developers, and others who have a basic knowledge of technologies and terms.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Brant Deranger, SynXis

How can you drive a global training initiative across cultural boundaries using minimal resources to produce measurable business results? What are some techniques for driving bottom-line business results and scalability via training? In this session you can learn from other’s mistakes rather than making your own and discover some ways to be successful.

In this session, participants will learn and discuss quantitative data, qualitative data, tips, techniques, and best practices gathered over the last two years that have helped to successfully launch a global training program with minimal resources and extraordinary business results.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to build a training program that scales globally
• How to use training technology to drive business results
• How to measure training progress operationally in a quantifiable way
• How to get “200 miles per gallon” out of your training program

Audience: Intermediate designers, developers, and others who have a high-level understanding of the main modes of training delivery, including instructor-led synchronous, instructor-led synchronous online, instructor-led asynchronous online, and asynchronous online.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Jennifer De Vries, BlueStreak Learning

As e-Learning professionals, we’re often asked to meet tough, if not impossible, deadlines. Sometimes it seems that the only way to make these deadlines is to give up sleep and the things we enjoy most. It doesn’t need to be that way! Good project management can mean the difference between having a life and spending all your waking hours at work.

Participants in this case-study session will learn how to plan out a large project in a way that allows you to clearly make decisions throughout the project. You will review a large, rapid-turnaround project, including the project plan, the resources, and the dependencies. You’ll learn how a variety of common decisions can affect the quality of the project deliverables, as well as the attitude and productivity of the team members. We’ll discuss how to maintain your sanity in the midst of insane deadlines and workloads.

In this session, you will learn:

• What rapid e-Learning is
• How to produce schedules for rapid e-Learning projects
• Tips for selecting appropriate team members
• Tools to help manage and track your progress

Audience: Intermediate designers, developers, and others with experience working on at least one large-scale, rapid-turnaround e-Learning project in any role (e.g. ID, Course Author, Project Manager, etc.).

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Elizabeth Cunningham and Kevin Yount, Time Warner Cable

More! Faster! Better! E-Learning developers routinely find themselves in situations where they must develop effective and engaging content quickly, even though effective and engaging content takes time to develop. This session introduces an approach that will help developers maximize their time by fusing XML and Flash together to produce interactions that are adaptable to any situation. Developers will learn how to spend their time creating unique experiences by reusing functionality in a template that can easily be adapted to any content or presentation. No more cookie-cutter templates!

In this interactive session, participants will see firsthand how to describe components of an interaction using XML, and then import the XML into Flash. You will see techniques to adapt the Flash interaction to a variety of content examples, and you’ll walk away with job aids, source files, and supporting resource information.

In this session, you will learn:

• Why reusing functionality is the key to rapid e-Learning development
• How to identify interactions that can be reused for the content you create
• How to describe e-Learning interactions using XML
• How to use XML data to populate content in Flash interactions
• Ways to adapt Flash files that continue to engage the learner

Audience: Intermediate and advanced designers and developers with beginner to intermediate level of experience with Flash and Actionscript 3.0, and familiarity with the basic concepts of XML.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Kevin Thorn, AutoZone, LLC.

We often refer to an interface as the “GUI,” (Gooey) or Graphic User Interface. In e-Learning, it is more about the learner than the graphics, but we tend to get lost in the presentation. The “LUI,” (Looey) or Learner User Interface, focuses on the visual attractiveness of the graphics with an emphasis on usability. With a better understanding of the Looey concept, an e-Learning course developer can rapidly design themes around content. The themes can then be reused in the form of templates for rapid development.

Session participants will learn how the LUI enhances the appeal to an e-Learning course themed around the content. You’ll learn that engaging a learner in the first few seconds determines their attentiveness throughout the course and that communicating with visual elements will help them retain information. You’ll learn how to put it all together, with the learner at the center, and build an interface that supports the content, rather than hindering it.

In this session, you will learn:

• The concept of LUI – Learner User Interface
• The basic elements of a LUI
• How to build a LUI using themes
• How LUI themes can be reused as templates

Audience: Intermediate designers, developers, and others with knowledge of instructional and interface design. Experience using graphic editing software and/or e-Learning development tools will be helpful.

Wednesday, March 24, 2010 01:00 PM

Barbara Sealund, Sealund & Associates

Virtual learning environments (VLEs) are all the buzz in corporations and organizations worldwide. Why? Because using VLEs for learning increases learner retention.

Participants in this session will see the difference between using basic e-Learning and using a VLE to teach Identity Theft concepts. Each participant will have the opportunity to experience Identity Theft through the virtual world of a day in the life of Chris. During the session, you will help Chris recover from Identity Theft and ensure the application of important concepts to help maintain your own identities.

In this session, you will learn:

• What a VLE is
• The benefits of using a VLE
• The basics of using a VLE for training
• Why VLEs increase learner retention

Audience: Novice, intermediate, and advanced designers, developers and other training professionals interested in using VLEs to teach critical concepts.