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.

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.

Certain fields require access to physical hardware or products to successfully train or assess qualified users. This type of training and assessment is expensive and does not scale well, which limits the learners’ access and scope of learning.

This session will introduce an augmented reality tool that allows users to configure a learning or assessment environment and then interact with this educational environment using the Microsoft Kinect. Also, by adding gamification techniques, you will see how this approach helps increase engagement, reinforces behavior, allows active participation, increases the emotional appeal of the learning, provides feedback, enables skills practice, and adds fun to learning. With technology similar to those you will see demonstrated, participants will be able to create their own augmented reality tool to save money and scale their training or assessments for efficiency.

In this session, you will learn:

• How you can use augmented reality to reduce costs of training and assessing learners
• How to use augmented reality to mirror real-world product training
• The game mechanics that augmented-reality training brings to education
• What worked and what didn't work using the Microsoft Kinect in education

Audience: Those who want to apply augmented reality tools and approaches to their learning courses.

One of the most widely used instructional activities for online and blended learning environments is the asynchronous online discussion, however it is also one of the least understood components. People utilize online discussions more for lower-level thinking skills such as remembering and understanding than for higher-order skills such as analyzing, evaluating, and creating. To benefit from this course discussion component we must address a three-fold issue how do we develop discussion questions, as well as how do we design and deliver assessments of students’ responses.

This session will provide solutions to each of the issue areas. Participants will get a practical guide to developing questions that encourage higher-order thinking skills along with real-world examples. You’ll learn a framework for developing sound assessments of discussion questions, and get demonstrations of technological tools to aid in the delivery of these processes and their applications.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to design discussion questions that encourage higher-order thinking skills
• The technologies that support the question-design process
• The technologies that support the assessment design process
• When you should assess discussion questions in terms of both summative and formative measures
• How to design simple and effective assessment tools

Audience: Intermediate-level participants should have general knowledge regarding Bloom’s Taxonomy, the instructional design process, online course delivery and pedagogy, and LMS navigation.

Scenario-based assessments can be an effective form of evaluation since they represent job-related application of knowledge and skills that can span time, space, people, tools, and various job features. When carefully designed, they can also provide instructors, instructional designers, and other stakeholders with valid units of performance analysis.

This case-study session will show suggested methods and demonstrate the application of the techniques of a Web-based training program developed for the Florida Department of Transportation that utilizes micro-scenarios, interactive simulations of roadways, task-centered quizzes, and 3-D characters as virtual mentors to guide the learners.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to create assessment scenarios, beginning with a task analysis
• How to identify the performance claims to be made based on target knowledge and skills
• How to create the story and characters
• How to identify the sequence of events that provides sufficient guidance to users while increasing validity
• How to use basic tools to manage the process

Audience: Novice-to-intermediate participants.

The rapid pace of business often makes the traditional needs assessment impractical. Companies sometimes are unwilling, or unable, to spend excessive amounts of hours and resources on comprehensive needs studies as part of their change-management initiatives. Additionally, the size and scope of many training projects doesn’t necessitate the need for a traditional, drawn out needs analysis. Unfortunately, this dilemma has left the corporate learning landscape littered with ineffective, directionless training programs.

Session participants will learn about the ANSWER Analysis, a model for a needs assessment that can keep pace with both business demand and rapid development technologies by avoiding the time and cost hassles associated with traditional needs assessments. You’ll learn how, using ANSWER, learning professionals will be able to expeditiously analyze complex employee and business development situations and create targeted solutions.

In this session, you will learn:

• How to facilitate a rapid analysis of organizational needs
• How to customize an analysis methodology to suit your work context
• How to produce a summary report of the analysis
• How to introduce an analysis methodology to your organization (one that can easily go viral)
• How to leverage a mobile tool to accomplish a needs analysis and produce a blueprint for moving forward

Audience: Intermediate participants should be familiar with the ADDIE model for instructional design and understand the basic concepts of traditional needs analysis, including job/task analysis and performance analysis.