WBT Systems has just announced that NiUG has selected TopClass to power its online certification program.   NiUG International is the largest independent organization for users of iMIS software. iMIS software helps associations and not-for-profits increase operational and financial performance. NiUG educates and connects over 3,400 iMIS users and offers iMIS certification - a curriculum based program that requires completion of a series of courses and examinations.   With a growing demand for its certification programs and with an additional certification program coming on stream, NiUG came to WBT Systems to discuss the potential of putting its programs online. NiUG chose to implement TopClass, WBT’s Learning Management System (LMS) to manage the certification process and allow iMIS users and solution providers and consultants to download educational sessions.   For NiUG, this means that they will soon be able to offer their members online enrolment for iMIS certification with support for and tracking of Continuing Education Units (CEUs). NiUG members will also be able to complete their certification modules online, participate in webinars and take the examination through a proctored environment throughout the world via TopClass LMS.   The new LMS will completely automate and simplify the administration and examination process for NiUG and will offer significant savings and operational efficiencies. It will also allow them to provide additional education offerings, as NiUG hopes to be able to act as the central repository for all iMIS education in the future.   WBT Systems looks forward to working with the folks at NiUG on this exciting eLearning project.

During our recent "Unlocking the Potential of Learning" webinar, we asked our attendees to answer a number of poll questions. These polls are great for getting an idea as to what’s really going on in the market. The questions we asked focused on a number of topics including LMS integrations, types of training materials used at associations, analytics and mobile learning. Which applications would require integration with a learning system at your organization? (select ALL that apply) AMS/CRM Shopping cart Webinar Finance Event Management Other Response Unsurprisingly the most popular application selected was webinars at 89%. Association Management Systems and Event management systems came next with 78% and 67% respectively. There was a bit of a drop off after these but integration with eCommerce or shopping cart was selected by 45% of attendees. A meager 11% indicated that integration to a finance system was a requirement at their organization. Applications Requiring Integration with an LMS Response Webinar 89% AMS/CRM 78% Event Management 67% Shopping Cart 45% Finance 11%

During our recent "Unlocking the Potential of Learning" webinar, we asked our attendees to answer a number of poll questions. These polls are great for getting an idea as to what’s really going on in the market. The questions we asked focused on a number of topics including LMS integrations, types of training materials used at associations, analytics and mobile learning.   What is your commercial model for learning? Sell courses Members have access to courses (as part of subscription fee) Combination of both   Response 21% of organizations have a purely commercial learning model whereby courses are offered for sale. Almost the same number of organisations indicated that they provide access to learning without charging a fee - in this case we assume that the subscription price would cover the cost. However most popular among organizations was a combined approach where 57% indicated that they do both. In this case we assume that some courses are offered free, while others come at a cost.  

We are excited to be heading to PersoniFest 2015 for April 12-15th this year, in Columbus, Ohio    PersoniFest is a conference that brings organizations who are using Personify360 together to meet and discuss the same challenges that they are facing and to discover solutions and resources that can help to optimize relationships with their constituents. We are looking forward to making the most of our time here, to ask the right questions and hopefully, provide you with some of the solutions you’re looking for.   We are proud to be Platinum sponsors to this year’s conference, and we have Linda Bowers, VP of Services and Support, Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development and John Roche, VP of Research and Development, representing WBT Systems over the course of the conference.   Our booth is #114, so be sure to stop by and say hi!

We are excited to be heading to the NiUG spring conference this year, in Austin, Texas at the Sheraton Hotel at the Capitol.   NiUG Austin 2015 will have an great lineup of training, general and breakout sessions with the aim to boost your iMIS and iMIS 20 knowledge. We will be there to answer any questions you might have around our iMIS integration with TopClass, our LMS.   We are proud to be Silver partners with NiUG this year, and will have Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development in attendance representing WBT Systems over the course of the conference.   He will be ready for your questions, so be sure to stop by and say hi!

We have been integrating Personify360 with our learning management system, TopClass, for many years and we understand that it is key for Associations to have their AMS tightly integrated with their LMS.   This prompted us to become a Personify Solution Partner just before the 2014 Personify conference and over the past year we have fully integrated our Product Integration Bridge with Personify360 as a core off-the-shelf component of TopClass.  With the PersoniFest Conference coming up, we thought it was a good time to share how we have gotten on since then. We have successfully launched it with our customers. We see our partnership with Personify as strategic and have invested heavily into having a very tight and flexible two-way integration that can be implemented quickly. We can happily say that we have achieved that.   What does the Bridge to Personify360 offer?   Consistent branding across both portals is easily achieved, leading to a seamless user experience. The automatic enrollment means that members can start their online courses immediately. For learning administrators, the bridge increases efficiency, as it eliminates re-keying of data such as user profiles, completed training courses or CE credits earned.    Below is a video that brings you through an example of a TopClass integration with Personify360.   Click here to learn more about the seamless integration with Personify360   We are getting great feedback from those who have seen the bridge in action and are delighted with being a Personify Partner. We are really looking forward to this year’s PersoniFest conference where we will have three of our best representing WBT Systems: Linda Bowers, VP of Services and Support, Mike Bourassa, Director of Business Development and John Roche, VP of Research and Development. They will be manning our booth, which is #114, and would love to see you there and answer your questions about TopClass, so be sure to say hi!   See you all in Ohio!

AIChE is a leading organization for chemical engineering professionals, with over 49,000 members from over 100 countries. As a part of their educational offerings, AIChE offer their members professional and technical eLearning training courses, developed by renowned Chemical Engineers as well as other experts from the industry.   Having recently upgraded to Personify360, AIChE were looking to take the next step in the evolution of their educational programs. The process to look for a new Learning Management System started with 40 potential candidates, and we are delighted to announce that they recently chose TopClass.   Why choose TopClass? AIChE set out with a set of specific requirements that they wanted in an LMS. They have 35 e-Learning courses at present, and with a desire to expand on the horizon they needed a system that could allow them to offer a more robust and scalable service that took advantage of their relationship with Personify. The most important factors in this decision for AIChE were as follows: Speed of implementation AIChE wanted a system that could be set up and running by June 2015, giving only a relatively short space of time of only a few months for TopClass to be set up the way AIChE had envisioned. Aligning with the nature of their business As with all our customers, AIChE were given demos of TopClass, where they saw examples of how TopClass could be made work for them. Aligning TopClass with their business was an essential factor for them in their consideration. They saw enough to convince them that with the help of the WBT team they would get a professional LMS that matched their look and feel. The level of integration with Personify TopClass has a full integration with Personify360, thanks to our partnership with Personify. It is a tight and flexible two way integration that offers a seamless experience between the two systems. AIChE valued this experience as a priority when looking at various LMS candidates.   AIChE will be up and running with TopClass soon. Initially only their current 35 e-Learning courses will be live. In the near future, AIChE are aiming to expand the education content portfolio and leverage TopClass for supporting new engagement models.   "After the comprehensive RFP process, we found that WBT Systems offered a flexible product that could be implemented within our timeline and had the best combination of what we were looking for. We were shown an impressive demo of TopClass working in sync with Personify and it had a more polished commercial look and feel that blew the competition away." Amit Gupta, AIChE

Remember how two weeks ago I attended that Getty Images event that was decidedly so-so? Well, last week I went to an event that was the polar opposite: a fantastic keynote run by the International Game Developers Association. The featured speaker was Neil Druckmann, Creative Director and writer from the game studio Naughty Dog. Edit: a video of the full session is now available on YouTube. To view it, click here.Why is this event something I'm mentioning on a blog that focuses on L&D work? Because Naughty Dog and Neil Druckmann are responsible for creating one of the best examples of storytelling in video games thus far: The Last of Us. The emotional impact of this game, as well as its immersive storytelling, is something that I think people in our industry could learn a great deal from. We know that well-crafted stories help content stick and increase emotional engagement. That said, L&D departments don't always use storytelling as well as they could.So, in the interest of learning more about writing great stories, I spent my whopping $5 to buy a ticket (yes, I still can't believe it was that cheap) and went to this event hoping to live tweet the whole thing and share it with all of you. That plan was quickly thwarted by the fact that the keynote was being held in the basement of the Royal Ontario Museum, which is possibly the only place in Toronto where you can't get a decent wi-fi connection OR a cellphone signal. Yup. No live tweeting for me. They also turned the room lights off for the presentation, keeping me from even taking notes (well, keeping me from taking notes if I cared about not distracting the audience with the bright glare of iPad screen... which I did, in fact, care about... because I'm not a jerk).The event ended, I loved it, and I intended to blog about what I learned... and then The Verge beat me to it with this excellent article. Warning: do not click that link unless you've played the game or have no intention of ever playing the game, because it is chock full of spoilers.For those of you who either want to dodge spoilers or just want a quick synopsis, here are the three key things I learned about storytelling from this event.1) You may have to wade through a ton of lousy versions of your story before you get to the one that actually worksDruckmann didn't have the plot for The Last of Us spring fully formed from his head magically. The story was actually the result of years of playing with several core story elements in a number of different ways. His initial attempt at the story, a game idea he proposed back when he was a student, just didn't have that much depth. However, there was a nugget of a good concept in amongst that unsuccessful game proposal, which he clearly recognized since he spent years reworking the ideas over and over again throughout numerous (and drastically different) iterations. In a clear example of why it's important not to just give up if a story doesn't work right away, after many years of experimenting he finally hit on the combination that worked.2) That said, sometimes you have to just let go of the parts of your story you can't manage to make workIn the midst of all this reworking, Druckmann had a number of ideas he got attached to that were actually holding his story back. He admitted that, while at the time he was rather enamored of these plot points, on looking back these story elements only got in the way of character building and innovative storytelling. Letting go of them was difficult, but necessary. The hard part of storytelling can often be differentiating the ideas that aren't working now but could work eventually from the ideas that aren't working now because they aren't ever going to work. 3) Your life experiences will change who you are as a storytellerWhile The Last of Us was in development something happened that deeply affected Druckmann's perspective: he became a father for the first time. All of a sudden the story he was telling about a man who becomes a father-figure to a young girl became that much more connected to his real-life experience. This event made him think differently about what that kind of relationship was, as well as how to make video game characters (in particular, nuanced female characters) that his daughter could some day grow up to respect.It's not to say that you have to experience an event in order to write about it well. It's more that the more you open yourself up to new experiences, the more of a pool of knowledge you'll have to draw from to craft creative and innovative stories that ring true to your audience.

It's conference time again, and you know what that means... trying to figure out if sessions are right for you based only on a paragraph or two of description! Now that sounds easy, doesn't it?Oh wait. No it doesn't.Anyway, to do my part to make the choices a bit easier for DevLearn attendees, I thought I'd do my usual summary post to give all of you a bit more info on what to expect from my session.What is it & when it is happening?My session is Not Just For Superheroes: Exploring Comics Through Learning and it's taking place on Thursday from 1:15-2:15pm (I haven't heard yet what room it'll be in. I'll update this as soon as I know).What's it going to be about?As usual, the session description is delightfully accurate.Comics and graphic novels are an engaging and immersive way of communicating information and stories, but not one that we often see used much within learning and development here in North America. Personally, I think we're missing out on a great tool, which is why I decided to talk about how we can use comics effectively for learning.More specifically, I'll be covering the following main topics: These topics will help you think about how you can use comics yourself. First, I’ll show you examples of the specific ways comics have been used as a learning tool, often with examples you can easily pick up and read on your own. Then I’ll discuss some basic rules and tips to consider when you go about writing and drawing your own comics. Finally, I’ll touch on tools that everyone can use to handle the visual aspects of making comics. And yes, I realize that not everyone in the audience will be a trained artist, so we’ll discuss tools and ideas for every level of comfort with drawing, from people who have been drawing for years to people who couldn't draw a stick figure if their life depended on it.Who's the right audience for this session?Do you love storytelling and are looking for new ways of doing it? Do you have large amounts of dense content you want to distill down to the essentials? Do you have scenarios and case studies that just aren't cutting it in text form? Do you want the immersiveness of video but just don't have the budget? Do you need a training solution that works well on mobile?Well, then this is the session for you!Also, this is a great session to check out if you don't have a sense of how comics could fit into L&D, or if you already love comics and need to build a business case for how you can use them at work.Do I have to already "get" comics in order to enjoy this session?Not at all. This session will make sense to you even if you haven't read a comic since the Sunday strips you might have enjoyed as a kid. I planned this talk so that it would be useful for anyone, regardless of their experience (or lack thereof) with comics.If I'm already a huge comics geek then will this session bore me senseless?Nope. We're going to looking at comics from the more unusual perspective of how they can be used for learning. Chances are you'll still get some good pointers on how you can use comics in training and performance support. Plus, it would be super helpful to have some fellow comic fans in the audience to give recommendations for what the newbies should read.What if I'm still not sure if this session is for me?Definitely feel free to ask me more about it. Email (BiancaRWoods@gmail.com) and Twitter (@eGeeking) are great ways to reach me, but I'm also happy to chat about it if you happen to bump in to me at the conference.

It's DevLearn time again and so, as usual, I'll be livetweeting and blogging the entire experience. If you're interested in seeing what specifically I'll be contributing to the backchannel, here's the schedule of sessions I'm planning to livetweet. Just an FYI: All times are listed in Las Vegas time (PDT).*Also, this year's DevLearn is a bit different for me as I'll be presenting a concurrent session of my own (Not Just for Superheroes: Exploring Learning Through Comics on Thursday from 1:15pm-2:15pm) and well as showing a project at DemoFest on Thursday night. If you happen to be attending DevLearn this year, definitely stop by either of these sessions and say hello.Wednesday, October 238:30am-10:00am Keynote: Unlocking Cool - Jeremy Gutsche10:45am-11:45amFeatured Speaker: Exploring the Learning and Performance Possibilities of Google Glass - David Kelly1:15pm-2:15pm Sketchnoting—How to Capture Ideas and Concepts with Visual Narratives - Kevin Thorn2:45pm-3:45pm Storyboarding Your Videos and Animations - Cory Casella4:15pm-5:15pm Keynote: The Real Power of Games for Learning - Ian Bogost  Thursday, October 248:30am-9:45amKeynote: The Filter Bubble: What The Internet Is Hiding From You… and Your Learners - Eli Pariser10:30am-11:30amPutting the Smart into Smartphones with Performance Support - Ruth Haddon*1:15pm-2:15pmNot Just for Superheroes: Exploring Learning Through Comics - Bianca Woods*4:00pm-6:30pmDemofestFriday, October 25 8:30am-9:30amTips for the Successful Learning Practitioner - Panel: Trina Rimmer, Jane Bozarth, Tracy Parish, Connie Malamed, and Cammy Bean9:45am-10:45amDesign 3.0 for Learning and Performance Professionals - Thomas Spiglanin11:00am-12:15pmKeynote: HackLab: Pursuing Progress Through Deviation - Jason Lauritsen and Joe Gerstandt