Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Robby Robson , Eduworks Corporation

Standards have had a significant effect on what can and cannot be done with e-Learning, and, as learning infrastructure becomes more networked, connected, global, and social, the effect will increase. The next generation of standards could open up new possibilities and help achieve the potential of e-Learning. It could pave the way for integrating learning technology with social media, games, and contextually aware computing – or it could make it virtually impossible to move past today’s technology and today’s e-Learning paradigms without great effort and great expense.

If Guild members want a positive outcome, now is time to get involved. This is especially true for Guild members who focus on non-technical aspects of e-Learning, such as learning effectiveness and organizational change. This session will explain why this is the case and what Guild members can do to make a difference.

In this session, you will learn:

• How standards affect the learning profession from top to bottom
• What standards are being developed and what they mean to the future of e-Learning
• How Guild members can get involved – even just a little – with a positive effect

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Mark Wilbur, Employers Group

Many companies still have not adopted e-Learning because they don’t know where to start. This session will address how to effectively utilize e-Learning by outlining the most important elements in creating an e-Learning platform. For companies that already have an e-Learning program up and running, this session will underline the best practices they should have in place to ensure their programs have long-term sustainability.

Participants in this session will learn the “unbreakable vows” a company must take when creating an e-Learning program to address and alleviate e-Learning problems. You’ll learn the nuts and bolts any good e-Learning program should have, from the implementation process all the way to maintenance and sustainability. You’ll learn how to avoid technical hiccups, provide online security, ensure a high level of participant interaction, and what should be included in an e-Learning program for it to be engaging, effective, and have an adequate ROI. You’ll get answers to questions you haven’t even considered. 

In this session, you will learn:

• How to avoid technical hiccups
• To understand online security
• How to create engaging content
• How to grow with your classes
• What it means to create a classroom without borders
• The important partnership between your company and your e-Learning advisor
• How to lay out goals for your e-Learning program

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Andrew Sellon, Sellon Solutions, LLC

While asynchronous e-Learning offers many proven, tangible benefits, it misses the feeling of personal attention and encouragement that a good instructor can give to each student. To fill that gap, e-Learning courseware needs a strong “voice” to engage the learners, because without it, you run the risk of creating courseware that comes across as dry, impersonal, and boring. Matching the right voiceover artist with your project can greatly enhance your learners' enjoyment of the course and encourage far greater retention of the key information they need to take back to their jobs.

Participants in this session will learn when to use voiceovers in e-Learning projects and will see lively demonstrations of how to ensure the best results, whether working with amateur voiceovers from in-house executives, subject matter experts, or professional voiceover artists. You’ll gain a clear understanding of what it takes to create successful voiceovers for e-Learning, even on a low budget, as well as specific tips and tricks you can apply on the job for ensuring success at each step of the process.

In this session, you will learn:

• When to use voiceovers in e-Learning projects – and when not to use them <
• Tips and tricks for getting the best out of in-house amateur voiceover talent
• Tips and tricks for selecting the right professional voiceover talent for your project
• Tips and tricks for ensuring successful recordings and playback in your courseware

Audience: Novice designers and developers who want to give the right voice to their e-Learning.

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Rich Mesch, Performance Development Group

Unisys was facing a challenge that many organizations face: in complicated economic times, how could they effectively build, manage, and retain talent? Unisys put into place a comprehensive and accessible Performance Management Process, with many performance support tools, that offered a roadmap to success. But how could Unisys make sure that all managers understood and felt comfortable with the process? How could managers try out the process in a safe environment, so they didn't make mistakes when working with employees? And how could they gain the attention of busy managers, who didn't seem to have a moment to spare?

Participants in this detailed case-study session will learn how Unisys created an immersive video-driven simulation that lets managers practice the process behaviors in a safe environment, demonstrates the value if the manager does the process right, and the consequences if done improperly. You’ll get insights into the creative process of building a simulation, with tips and tricks for effectively translating content into storyline and creating truly challenging and emotionally compelling decisions.

In this session, you will learn:

• How a major global organization addressed their talent management challenges
• A unique technique for translating a performance management process into effective behavior
• A process for turning process-oriented content into a compelling and immersive simulation story
• Tips and tricks for creating effective simulations
• How simulation can be repurposed as an on-demand performance support tool

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Gary Wise, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center

Speed of work increases, regardless of organization size, and training time is shrinking just as the desire for more impactful learning is increasing. Workers have moments of learning need that surface in the context of their work, so our solutions must keep pace with the demands of work, and traditional design approaches must adjust to meet the immediacy of demand. Because the nature of work within an organization is continuous, our learning assets and the learning environment we sustain cannot be any less continuous. Our design efforts must become more holistic; they must consider where the learner is in the work flow, and the inherent dependencies that shape media blends.

Session participants will learn how the shift away from formal premeditated training to the unstructured, unplanned immediacy supported by informal learning requires that we examine moments of learning need. You’ll learn to identify attributes of the learner’s work context that shape design decisions, including Space, Media, and Systems. Where the learners are within their physical environment, where they are within their workflows, the urgency to perform, and the risk attached to flawless performance are factors that influence our ultimate design.

In this session, you will learn:

• To expand your discovery efforts to include the learner's work context
• To integrate moments of learning need into your “design think”
• To iterate your “design think” across the Prepare, Deploy, and Reinforce Learning Continuum Model
• To re-invent your training focus to pursue measurable, sustained capability

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Jon Aleckson, Web Courseworks

Improving collaboration with SMEs will result in a higher quality end product. Whether hired or internal, subject matter experts often need technology education to understand the capabilities of new Internet-delivered products. When SMEs and development team members share expertise, the overall interactivity level of the end product increases and stakeholder perception of the overall quality of the finished e-Learning increases. It is crucial in the product development process that effective leadership guides the expertise-sharing process and establishes a culture of collaboration early.

Participants in this session will learn the importance of explicit direction and leadership to guide collaboration between experts and development staff. You’ll get an academic grounding, as well as concrete, real-world tips for how to enhance the collaboration process and create mutual respect between staff and experts. You’ll get tactical techniques to enhance product development by creating a “rule-book” for development staff to work with experts, and you’ll learn what works and what doesn’t work when instituting an SME collaboration policy.

In this session, you will learn:

• The leadership techniques that enhance expertise sharing between subject matter experts and your development team
• What a subject matter expert is (You are one too!)
• The challenges and benefits of expertise sharing
• A check list for enabling your product development team to collaborate with experts
• To personally reflect on both formal and informal team leadership

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Thomas Hammond Jr., United States Strategic Command
Tim Kemper, Booz Allen Hamilton

SMEs can make or break an e-Learning effort. We’ve all experienced SMEs who offer too much information and others who are missing in action. But it doesn’t have to be this way. If we spend the time to educate and empower SMEs to use Web 2.0 technologies, we can increase their efficiency. Web 2.0 is about empowerment, participation, and access, so for many learning items we can empower SMEs to take ownership and create e-Learning items on their own. A number of today’s Web 2.0 tools are intuitive and can let the average Web user develop learning items that are useful and valued-added. The three major benefits of doing this are increased production, motivated and engaged SMEs, and increased learner engagement and participation.

Participants in this session will learn what a day in the life of an empowered SME looks like and how flipping the traditional approach and empowering and positioning SMEs lets them design, develop, and deliver learning items online. It’s not about the technology, but what the technology allows the SMEs to accomplish. You’ll learn why this is important and how you can move forward in a practical manner.

In this session, you will learn:

• The importance of SME buy-in at the earliest phase of the learning project
• The importance of setting “lanes in the road” for SMEs to follow
• How to set SMEs up for e-Learning success with Web 2.0 tools
• How to manage SMEs distributed across an organization

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Michael Allen, Allen Interactions

Over the years, the e-Learning industry has drifted away from authoring technologies free of scripting and programming. These technologies were developed to help designers create prototypes rapidly, grapple with design issues, and create truly interactive and engaging learning solutions. This transition has left high-impact e-Learning out of reach for many organizations due to the time, cost, and knowledge required.

In this session, you’ll learn how selecting the right tool for the e-Learning design and development process can determine the difference between success and failure. We will establish the requirements of a new generation of authoring tools by examining today’s most popular and successful e-Learning applications, design and development processes, and technological capabilities. By seeing what is possible when today’s learning technologies are focused on designing and developing advanced and unconstrained instructional interactive multimedia, you will can share your thoughts on the features and functionality you feel are needed for a programmer or non-programmer to develop such learning solutions. A preview of tools in development will also be shared.

In this session, you will learn:

• How selecting the right tool for the process can determine the difference between success and failure
• The processes and tools used over the timeline of e-Learning development
• The requirements necessary to create the next-generation authoring tool
• How to evaluate the programs available to e-Learning developers in the industry

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Amber Sauer, Rho, Inc.

In these times of significant training budget cuts and staff reductions, it's become difficult to create impactful, engaging learning. E-learning designers need to learn to use additional free and nearly free development tools that allow them to be creative and design impactful learning when the budget won't support the purchase of additional software.

This session will introduce participants to methods and tools for creating e-Learning with free and nearly-free tools, including tools like Jing, YouTube, PowerPoint 2007, Audacity, Armored Penguin, and more. Participants will see cases and design examples using each of these tools, discuss the use of these tools in a variety of design situations, and receive a directory of free and nearly-free tools to take back to their workplace.

In this session, you will learn:

• Strategies for using and integrating free and nearly free tools into your design
• How to trim a design budget using these tools
• About examples and resources for building a nearly-free course

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Karen Hyder, The eLearning Guild

Successful virtual training sessions require much more setup than simply uploading the PowerPoint file and inviting the participants. Online Event Producers who are using synchronous software tools like Adobe Connect, WebEx, and Go To Webinar must rethink and rework materials, communications methods, interaction support, and risk management for training sessions.

Participants in this session will get a realistic look at what you’ll need to plan for and do to get ready for your virtual training program.

In this session, you will learn:

• The big-picture and little-picture questions you’ll need to ask before you begin
• How to develop a strategy for setting up your synchronous sessions
• The software features that will support your delivery plan
• The considerations and techniques for verbal and non-verbal communication

Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:45 AM

Jeff Place, Questionmark Corporation

Asking questions about something is a proven way to reduce forgetting. Hence the increasing use of quizzes embedded within learning materials on Web pages, blogs, and wikis, as well as the delivery of assessments to mobile devices. Wikis, Web pages, and blogs lend themselves effectively to delivering learning content, giving learners the opportunity to contribute, discuss, and consume knowledge. Embedding I-Frame assessments within these resources enhances the information within them and provides a knowledge check to reinforce learning and help reduce the forgetting curve. In addition to focusing learners’ attention, such assessments enliven and personalize the learning process. You can provide feedback to correct misconceptions, direct people to additional resources, and build learners’ confidence in their own knowledge.

This session will demonstrate how to incorporate quizzes, surveys, and other assessments within learning resources. It will also show how an assessment can be written once and scheduled once, yet be delivered to multiple devices to produce a single set of results for reporting and analysis.

In this session, you will learn:

• The benefits of using embedded assessments and mobile delivery
• Ways to incorporate quizzes and surveys within learning mash-ups
• Methods for embedding I-Frame assessments within a Web page
• How a single assessment can be adapted to multiple contexts to produce a single set of results