More often than not, compliance courses have received a bad rap and reputation. The main complaint is that compliance courses are just "clicking boxes to meet lawyers' needs." As the perception persists, part of the blame is caused by designers, trainers and leaders abandoning the "learning side" of compliance. Consequently, these courses have been relegated to the category of being necessary evils. I am not giving up on compliance courses. From what I know of compliance courses, the intent is to protect peoples' lives, reduce costs, avoid fraudulence, keep our environments safe and many others. Without good compliance courses, we are all at risk.  Recently, I spoke at the  ATD (Association of Talent Development) Conference in Las Vegas on the topic Micro-Compliance Learning. My goal was to share how to remove the sting of compliance courses by making them short and easier to learn.  Live Demos of Micro-Compliance Lessons Please play a couple of examples of a micro-lesson. These demos are prototypes only. They address a small but significant section of a large compliance course.  Code Pink - Hospital ComplianceStash the Cash - Banking on Money LaunderingWhy and How Micro-Compliance WorksThe key principles are:Shorten compliance courses by focusing on the most important lesson.The average time of a lesson is 2-3 minutes.Relegate readings of policies and procedures as reference links. You can still track these readings by using a tracking device when learners scroll the page.Invest in the lesson story and not in a series of long slideshows about the policies with just text.Deliver the micro-lessons in smaller bits and pieces, weekly, daily or spaced over time.Insights Invaluable to Successful Implementation of Micro-Lessons"What if it is required that learners must read pages?"The cheaper way is not to put lengthy policies and government rules in long, narrated slideshows. Keep them in PDFs or text that learners could scroll through and still track if learners have done so. "Is it enough to focus on the story and some important parts of the lessons?" Overloading learners will likely bring results, although, records show they simply clicked through all pages in typically long, very long lessons. "But our lessons must be learned in 2 hours. Lawyers require this."Let learners focus on key ideas, like the examples, then let them do additional activity and readings to consume the hours. By doing this, you are not boring the learners."We are required to test for knowledge retention and compliance."In most cases this works. However, oftentimes, this encourages the learners "to game" or "cheat" the system. True or false and multiple choice types of tests are clicked repeatedly for a trial and error approach just to complete the test. Asking learners to write something may also help them to reflect their understanding of the lesson. There are authoring ways to provide feedback to learners without having someone track all the answers. How can you deliver by spacing out lessons?Learners are busy and would welcome receiving maybe once a day or once a week, a 2-3-minute micro-compliance lesson. Most compliance courses are repeated once a year and to avoid the yearly end rush, advance spaced out lessons are usually convenient.Conclusion Compliance courses are often the first line of defense to keep companies compliant. It does not mean, however, we relegate these courses to data dumps and verification of scanning pages. They can be made engaging, short and help learners learn important contributions of compliance courses. Related LinksCreating Big Lessons By Using Small DataKill Boring eLearning with Story-Based Lessons Anti-Bullying - How to combine story with a compliance lesson?Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

  The focus of most curation methods when applied to learning is in organizing, filtering, distilling, adding value, etc. to content. This is like serving food (content) in an improved way. There may be a risk in this trend. As trainers, designers and learning specialists, we continue to look at our role in curation as content servers, not learning facilitators. I propose, we focus on content co-creation as a process. I am not giving up on compliance courses. From what I know of compliance courses, the intent is to protect peoples' lives, reduce costs, avoid fraudulence, keep our environments safe and many others. Without good compliance courses, we are all at risk.Simple Experiment In the illustrations below, the first (Illustration 1) is a content from a webinar speaker and the second one (Illustration 2) shows added insights from participants. We asked participants to add their insights to the presentation. I ran a survey  with twenty participants and asked them to review both sides and gauge their reactions. Please review the illustrations below. Presentation - Illustration 1Adding Insights - Illustration 2 Respondent's ResponsesThese are samplings of responses.On the Presentation:  "Ideas provoked in me a thought.""But I was passive to it.""It was well organized and clearly stated, however, I wondered how this mattered to me.""The presentation at times was a hit and miss - relevant and irrelevant." On the Insights:"The insights made me smile about how others responded to the presentation.""I saw how others interpreted the content and prompted me to respond to one of the ideas.""I was inclined to respond and comment on the insights because it was personl.""Adding insights allowed me to create my own content, my own understanding of the presentation. "  Adding Insights is Co-Creating ContentAlthough it seemed obvious that adding one's insight is a better learning process since it is recursive where learners interpret the presentation, adding their own meaning - it occurred to me that it is far more important that learners or our audiences add insights as a way to create their own content. Such content  embodies their own understanding of the presentation. It bridges the presentation with that which is relevant to them. Therefore, this increases the value and contribution of the presentation in the real life of the learner. I discovered that a simple insight - small, tiny, spur of the moment - is content from learners which becomes an even more important part of the presentation. Practical Implications - Focus Our Eyes on Learners' Co-Created ContentAgain, this seems commonsensical, but I missed it and now realize that this is the essence of curation - to  draw out the small insights from the learners; not to serve better content. In our rush to learn and implement curation methods in our learning environments, we overlook that our efforts ought to focus in as many ways as is possible, on getting the learners to co-create the content. This does not mean long, tedious demands for writing blogs or articles or journals. It simply means that every chance we have, we try to get learners to add an insight and allow others the facility to add more insights. Related LinksCreative MusingInsight Sharing - How They "Meet and Mate"Reflections Impact PerformanceRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

 We can learn from politicians. When they say "my comment was taken out of context", what they mean is that the press reporter used their statements giving it a different meaning, which is not the original intent of the politician. How does an idea, statement or content be taken out of context or stays in context? Context Changes Actually, in the learning world, context changes depend on the situation or condition. But where, how and why it changes is interesting since it shows us how to use and add context effectively. Context is about meaning and application of ideas and things. Meaning comes from an inherent objective information (object) about a thing and/or an idea. It may also come from the interpretation of a person or a learner, or both. As an example, a content says "1 + 1 = 2," this is an object. A learner may say, "One apple put together with another apple are two apples," this shows a context.Another way of understanding context is about the movement of an idea (object) towards its application in real-life.  Another way of understanding context is about the movement of an idea (object) towards its application in real-life.  The content is the object while the context is the enabler. Ideas are not useful unless context is added to it.  The challenge is not context per se, but the difficulty in adding context and catching the shifting meaning depending on the conditions. The needs of the learners and workers varies and changes. Please refer to other definitions of context.  To aid in our discussion, I developed below The Motion of Content and Context.Click to view enlarged image. Motion of Content and Context - the ChallengeIn the following explanation, I will refer to the row numbers and columns shown in the chart.Many writers, designers and subject matter experts (SMEs) tend to look at content as a static idea. They focus on the object. They teach learners about the object of the content and fail to relate to a context. However, an even greater disservice to learners is not to move context depending on the different conditions (1). Learners easily sense this problem because the lesson is meaningless or irrelevant to them. This problem has its symptoms of over-reliance on teaching facts and testing and memorization. The approach of the lesson is rigid and inflexible (5). The proper solutions are not applied. The Changes in Drivers are Powerful Context EnablersThe drivers of context (2)  have the greatest influence on the high value that context brings to the content. In elearning and classroom or similar settings where learners are being taught, the context is often dictated by the trainer, designer or SME. The opposite spectrum is when learners are self-driven. The learners have specific goals, usually a combination of personal and professional, that drive the context of the content. Understanding that the Source of Context Helps Improve DesignA clear understanding of the source of the context (3) aids in adding the proper context to the learning content. In dealing with the challenges and use of solutions (5), the designers should emphasize different methods to help the motion of context. See Tip on Story-Based Questions.If it is in a classroom or elearning setting where instruction is the main approach, asking learners thought-provoking questions to draw their own interpretation and experience adds meaning and context to their work situation. A simple question like "what is your experience and how would you approach this problem?" would move the context of the content and make the content relevant to the learner. In Situated conditions where the learner must perform something on the job, the learning aid must be organized in such a way that the immediacy of solutions are effectively applied or used. For example, when workers need a process check to help them solve a problem, don't just provide the process in the learning aids. Provide simple rules that aid the learners to focus on what is critical in the process and what to test first, or what important points to pay attention to in the process. This approach assists the workers to help them think through the solution/s.In conditions where Life Goals drive the learners towards self-development and discovery of solutions and aspirations by following their life goals - goals that combine personal and professional results - the learners should have clarity of their goals and the skill in critical thinking to help them find the context from the abundance of digital content they discover.  Unless they have the skills, they will be overloaded with content and unable to meet their goals.Thinking Skills NeededMany designers, facilitators and curators focus on the technology and speed.  However, they forget that in this mode of learning, not only is digital skills management required but also thinking process skills. Thinking skills may include: "What is my goal?", "What do I know about this content?", "What else do I need to discover?", "How do I go about it?", "How do others think and feel about this?", and "Am I meeting my goals?." This is the iterative thinking process. The thinking process aids the learner to move the context of the content into useful and meaningful value to his/ her life goals.Conclusion Content and context work hand in hand. Content is the object while context is the enabler to add value, usefulness and relevance. The challenge is that most content are presented without the context. And an even bigger problem is not realizing that context changes have taken place depending on the learning conditions. We need to be aware that different methods and skills are required if learners are to find context - meaning and relevance - of the content. In the world of massive content and rapid learning, context setting has to be "in-context" and not out-of-context." Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Have you ever wondered what a young learner’s first impressions are of the learning industry? Joining me this week is guest blogger and Vignettes Learning research associate Francesca Jimenez, discussing her first-time experiences and insights that connect to her experience as a young learner. I hope we all learn something from what she shares below.As a new learner of elearning and a neophyte in the training industry, I have noticed a few salient points that connect to other broader, relatable experiences.Know Your AudienceIn a scene from the sitcom "How I Met Your Mother," the main character, Ted, enters a large university lecture hall full of students. It is his first day as an architecture professor. He begins timidly but exuberantly warms up throughout the lecture. The camera cuts to confused faces in the audience and then to another figure walking down the lecture hall stairs chiming, "Sorry, I am late class. This is Economics 101."Like any lecturer or speaker, trainers and webinar moderators must know their audience. Poor Ted’s knowledge ultimately left himself lost and the students disinterested, not because the content wasn’t valuable but because it simply wasn’t presented to the correct audience. Although elearning and training webinars attract certain specialists, the industries and positions represented in one session can vary greatly. Determine Between Must-Know Knowledge and Critical IncidentsThe driver's education does not highlight what to do immediately after an accident or how to file an insurance claim. Until recently, I had never gotten into a motor accident. There were no irreversible damages, but what if there had been?Within company training materials, must-know knowledge involving critical incidents should be presented first because they have the most immediate consequences, positive or negative. It seems common sense to first teach daily procedures. However these everyday skills and knowledge can be learned experientially and through routine. Training courses are meant to provide the right skills to effectively solve problems and prevent damaging consequences to individuals or the company as a whole.InsightsThe traditional education system stifles creativity through rigidity and an expectation to only memorize and recall. This expectation begins at a young age. As illustrated by Lennon’s anecdote, the teacher’s role has become an enforcer of the expectation instead of a cultivator of alternative ones. The creativity that was stifled throughout the education system is the same one that is called upon in job descriptions like "critical thinking and problem solving." But memorization and a cultivation of specific skills do not have to be mutually exclusive from personal insights and creativity. The value of individuals' insights in learning environments is as important as their differences in learning styles. Insights are more than fact and opinion; they synthesize both content and narrative. Francesca Jimenez is a recent college graduate who specialized in psychology and music. Her research interests include the application of behavioral sciences within industrial operations such as training, learning, and technology. Related linksEmploying Story Structure and Dynamics to Engage Different LearnersStop That Dump Truck! Ask Questions to Know What is Important for LearnersRemove the Sting of Compliance Courses: Make Them Short, Succinct, Easy to LearnRay Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Click. Click. Click. Zzz. Let’s face it. Having learners go through numerous slides or pages to learn important work-related information - in fact, any new information - is definitely one surefire way to bore your learners to death. When learners are bored, they learn little or nothing at all from the training. Boring e-learning de-motivates learners, making learning difficult. Motivation and curiosity are major factors that drive learners to continue, push through, or finish a course or program. Without any motivation, they drift off and refocus on something more interesting.Cultivating learners’ curiosity when it comes to learning is very important. A study by Gruber et al. published in the journal Neuron found that people learn better when they are curious about what they’re learning.Why You Have Bored LearnersData does not come from thin air. It does not come from computers churning them out into great infographics. I once saw this placard from a science lab:To understand why we have bored learners, it’s important to know what being "bored" means. According to psychological scientist John Eastwood and colleagues, boredom is "an aversive state of wanting, but being unable, to engage in satisfying activity." Eastwood et al. describes a bored person as someone who has difficulty paying attention to internal information (e.g., thoughts or feelings) or external stimuli (e.i, the learning environment). They’re also aware of the fact that they have this difficulty and believe it’s the environment’s fault. In short, this means learners want to be engaged but for one thing reason or another,  just can’t. As trainers and designers, it’s our job to make sure we’re able to stimulate learners’ interest enough to keep their attention on the course or lesson. Sustaining learners’ interest is important. because It’s a major factor on how much they persist in learning tasks and ultimately their success. This also means boring content is therefore a loss-loss situation for everyone involved. It wastes resources (time, money, effort) of the learners, the designers, and the company or organization. and It provides no benefit to learners as well (minimal to no learning equals minimal to no application).How Hyper Stories Engage LearnersThe ultimate goal when we’re designing or conducting trainings, workshops, or seminars is to have learners do a desired behavior, for instance to be able to appropriately handle an unlabeled drum. To achieve this result, we must keep our learners focused, engaged, and motivated throughout the training. The last thing we want are disengaged and zoned-out learners. To help learners go from minimum knowledge to having enough functional know-how about a certain topic in a short period of time means learners should have a way to quickly learn new information. This is possible with instant learning. It is the concept of teaching one idea to learners that results in one action or behavior they can apply right away. Instant learning works because it helps learners focus and keeps them motivated. One method that facilitates instant learning is the use of hyper stories.Hyper stories are very short but very actual day-to-day events that allow learners to quickly connect the lesson to its application in real life. Hyper stories compress the typical story arch and take learners from Crisis to Resolution very quickly.The shortest distance between Crisis and ResolutionBy using hyper stories, trainers are providing learners with content that is evocative, provocative, and engaging. The use of a story that could potentially happen in real life breathes meaning to the information presented in the training. It helps learners clearly see when and how they can apply the lessons.ConclusionHyper stories create a win-win situation for both trainers and learners. Trainers use hyper stories to keep learners engaged, motivated and focused. In the end, your learners walk away from the training with new learning they can immediately apply in their work. The distinct advantage of the approach is that learners stay glued, involved, totally focused and enjoyed the learning exchanges.ReferencesElaine Biech. "ASTD Handbook for Workplace Learning Professionals." American Society for Training and Development, 2008Matthias J. Gruber et al. "States of Curiosity Modulate Hippocampus-Dependent Learning via the Dopaminergic Circuit." Neuron, published online October 02, 2014; doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2014.08.060Association for Psychological Science. "I’m Bored! - Research on Attention Sheds Light on the Unengaged Mind". September 26, 2012Kyong-Jee Kim. "Adult Learners’ Motivation in Self-Directed E-Learning". August 2005Ray Jimenez, PhDVignettes Learning"Helping Learners Learn Their Way"Ray Jimenez, PhD Vignettes Learning Learn more about story and experience-based eLearning

Personalized eLearning programs seem to be a far-fetched idea. You may feel like shrugging off the very thought of creating individualized instruction plans for your employees. It does seem tedious and feels overwhelming. Individuals are as different from each other as their fingerprints! However, when we believe that "one size does not fit all", how can we rely on generic eLearning programs to serve a multitude of learners spanning across the globe? In this article, we will not try to convince you that you should jump on the personalized eLearning development bandwagon. We will explain what generic programs can do to your employees. We will also talk about some strategic eLearning development ideas that will yield personalized eLearning solutions! Go ahead, you have nothing to lose. In fact, you may end up with a better return on your eLearning investment. Let’s talk about an analogy to explain the need for eLearning personalization: from the world of nutrition, no less. We all have, at some point of our lives, taken up a diet fad that claimed to do wonders for our waist lines. Maybe you were bombarded with information on Facebook, maybe a friend sung the praise of the diet to you, claiming their shrunken frame is all because of this diet! Convinced and determined, you followed the friend in hopes of achieving something similar. You purchased the entire dietary catalog and toiled to change your lifestyle. So what happens next will amaze you, not! You discover that not only did your weight not budge, you are also craving food so much it’s obsessive. Frustrated and discouraged, you give up on the fifteenth day! A month later, you realize you now weigh more than you ever did! While this scenario may be a little exaggerated, it’s not too far from reality. What could have worked is a visit to a qualified dietitian. Someone who could create a personalized diet plan for you. Something you know is reasonable for you to follow and that would eventually work, doctor’s guarantee. Learning programs and instruction are not that different from the diet analogy. Each brain utilizes information uniquely and distinctly from another brains. Each of us is an individual with individual training and learning needs, and as such, there is need for personalized eLearning solutions. And let us assure you that the idea is not as complex as you may perceive at the moment. The training programs we create for our organizations can sometimes feel like a typical diet fad. The training programs we create for our organizations can sometimes feel like a typical diet fad.Click To Tweet It may work for a select few, but may be unsatisfactory for others. But what if we could build eLearning programs that worked for every employee? What if our training could be personalized to every member of our team? Experts have shared three possible strategies to create eLearning programs that are able to cater to a wider audience, taking into account individual needs. 1. Preparatory Learning Ever heard of "preparatory learning"? It’s nothing new, but is earning industry-wide respect in the education and learning arena. Preparatory learning is a valuable tool to increase learner confidence and faith in the content and delivery of training. Before the actual training, prepare your learners in order to lay the groundwork for the upcoming training. You can discuss the curriculum, syllabus, assignments and assessments format options with your learners. Help the learner identify their strengths and weaknesses before the full training begins. Your learners will have a very good idea of the content. They will be able to highlight areas that they are keenly interested in and will be able to plan their learning according to their own needs. When the actual course begins, they are able to jump to sections and pose their own questions efficiently. 2. Microlearning Maybe a single composite curriculum wouldn’t work each time. What if you broke a larger learning agenda (curriculum) into smaller chunks? Why do you want to mandate training in areas in which some employees may actually be experts? What if you grouped and categorized topics to create individual training modules? The training modules that are not attempted by the learner, since they are already more than familiar with the content, can include an option to "test out". A series of individual and fragmented training modules can be completed this way, regardless of their order. This is a classic way to produce microlearning options for employees. Shorter attention spans in learners demand shorter training modules. Research also indicates improved engagement and motivation to complete training through microlearning. Hence, microlearning is indirectly personalizing the eLearning program. When followed by a preparatory session as described above, microlearning - along with other strategies - can engage learners deeper into the eLearning program. This will help save your organization resources and effort by focusing strictly on the immediate learning needs of the employees. That’s real value in personalized eLearning solutions. 3. Learner developed learning Perhaps the highest degree of personalization is achieved when learners actively participate in putting together their learning plan. This plan or the curriculum can be embellished by the subject matter expert. Provide milestones for learners to achieve. This can include personal goals, reflection on prior learning and experience, and social interaction strategies to improve learning. By guiding learners towards their own learning, we are encouraging them to apply their learning to their specific workplace situation efficiently. Involved learners are more engaged and interested in their learning progress as well as that of others. Providing a carefully planned and individualized learning plan for learners is challenging, but a certain degree of individualization can be achieved fairly easily. While you may not be able to make everyone on the team happy, you can achieve having employees who have a positive attitude towards their training programs. With a bit of creativity as an instructional designer and eLearning developer, you can think of more strategies that will fine-tune general training to individual learning preferences. The post How To Create Personalized eLearning Solutions appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

We’ve covered a lot of things here in the TalentLMS blog through the years. From "heads up" posts for new releases to detailed breakdowns of the platform’s Instructor Led Training tools, and from integration guides for hooking your eLearning portal to services like Slack and Shopify, to general advice on starting your own online training business. You name it, we’ve most likely got it. As big TV nerds, though, and with Game of Thrones season 6 looming upon us, we’ve decided to put together a nice, lean on substance and high on filler, GoT-themed article, as we did last year, for your reading pleasure. Who knows, maybe this is a new tradition. Read freely, as it contains no spoilers (unless you haven’t seen seasons 1-5 yet). 1) Know what you don’t know Do you know why Jon Snow would make a perfect eLearning candidate? Because he knows nothing! (buh dum ts) A lot of your learners will unfortunately be in this position even after they have completed their course — and some might not be able to complete it at all. If you mostly rely on lecture or, even worse, wall-of-text style units, with some big test in the end of the course, you won’t be prepared to respond to this at the proper time. Instead, take advantage of TalentLMS’ testing capabilities and include a few questions or small quizzes at the end of every lesson, so that you can gauge your learners’ comprehension as the course progresses. This way you can lend a helping hand to struggling learners, suggest that they take some prerequisite courses, or if most of your learners fail the course, adjust your material so that it is more approachable. 2) Don’t be like Joffrey While the whims and desires of the leadership can be as important in the corporate world as in King’s Landing, collaboration with your learners, rather than coercion, is really the key for a successful training program in the corporate eLearning world. For example, even though you feel that your eLearning program is very important, the truth is your learners are also employees that have to cater to numerous daily responsibilities related to pressing business workflows and immovable deadlines. Instead of fighting them over it, work with them to reach the perfect balance between their daily work and their training regime — spreading a challenging course over a longer time frame, properly scheduling instructor-led training sessions, etc. Or, you can opt to hammer them with their training duties, and throw hissy fits anytime they don’t completely comply with your whims — kind of like Joffrey. But while they won’t poison you if you go that route, they won’t respect you that much either. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: Don’t. Be. Like. Joffrey. 3) Put yourself into the shoes (or souls) of others While his character is still slowly developing in the series, it’s pretty evident that Bran Stark is going to be a pretty big part of the final battle between the living and the (un)dead. And all that despite being basically a small boy with no army, and a broken spine to boot. His secret? Empathy — being able to get into the minds of other people (and/or wolves). And while in Game of Thrones this involves some magic, you don’t really need that to use empathy in real-life eLearning. What you do need is the ability to connect with your learners and to put yourself in their shoes, understanding what they need to get out of your course, what might confuse them, how you can explain things better, etc. You don’t have to get it 100% right from the start either — you can always use the insights gained from training the first batch of employees to make your next corporate eLearning program better. 4) Collaboration is key While the various royal houses and fiefdoms might hate each other’s guts, they all slowly begin to realize an important truth: unless they unite, they really stand no chance against the evil zombie armies. The same can be said for any large corporation — there will always be fiefdoms and turf wars between the various departments, but unless they collaborate with each other, the competitors will eat the company’s lunch in no time. As the head of the training program, you should seek the cooperation and assistance of other department heads. After all, it’s their employees that you’ll be training, so they should also have a say on the whole matter. Engage branch managers and department heads early on, and keep consulting them while the training program progresses. You’ll need them to tell you what skills their employees are lacking in, you’ll want them to provide you with raw material to be used for creating your training and on-boarding courses, and in general you’ll want to shape your training program upon their needs. 5) You don’t have to be big to think big Who doesn’t love Tyrion? He might be small in stature, but he is very good at making use of what he does have — his brains and capability of thinking a few steps ahead of the game. Wouldn’t Tyrion make a far better king than Joffrey? Or his other nephew - so unimpressive that I don’t even remember his name (OK, it’s Tommen — but I had to look it up). Likewise, don’t be fooled that you need to be a giant enterprise to have a full-blown corporate eLearning program. Sure, there are enterprise software solutions costing tens thousands of dollars, and there are others that can do the same things (or the 80% that matters to you) for a fraction of the cost. With an accessible and easy to use platform like TalentLMS, you need neither big bucks nor your own IT department (or expensive consultants) to deploy your own corporate eLearning courses. In fact, you don’t even need to install anything, it’s all waiting for you to create a new account in the Cloud. Conclusion So, here you have it, 5 pieces of Game of Thrones wisdom hastily (and frivolously) applied to corporate eLearning. 5 pieces of Game of Thrones wisdom hastily (and frivolously) applied to corporate eLearning.Click To Tweet Go ahead and brace yourselves, as season 6 is coming on April 24th. In the meantime, cook up some popcorn and take TalentLMS for a test drive. It’s the finest Cloud-based LMS on this side of the Wall. The post Game of Thrones as a parable for corporate eLearning [no spoilers] appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Slack seems to have been taking the corporate and startup collaboration world by storm in the past year or so. The popular communication and chat service for businesses has not only secured a huge installed user base, but is also already valuated in the billions (around 3 of them, to be exact). We even use it internally here at TalentLMS headquarters — which obviously is the ultimate seal of approval for any piece of software. Its success makes sense too. Compared to the awful legacy of bloated, slow and hard to use business collaboration tools, Slack is as lightweight and easy to use as Facebook or Twitter, with most of the features most teams need, and few that they might not. It even manages to instill a sense of playfulness to the whole office communication process too, with its funny emojis, reactions, custom startup messages, and the rest. And another trick up its sleeve is the ease with which it can integrate with other enterprise services, from a retail company’s CRM to an order fulfillment software, to an IT company’s source code repository system. Of course, your favorite eLearning management platform wouldn’t miss the party. Leveraging TalentLMS’ hooks to the meta-integration service Zapier, you can start integrating TalentLMS and Slack and have them exchange messages and chat up lines like old buddies in no time. Let’s see how… Zapier what? If you have already attempted integrating TalentLMS with a third party service, you’ve probably already made the acquaintance of Zapier. In that’s the case, you can skip this section. If you haven’t, then here’s all you need to know: Zapier is a "mediator", a third party Cloud-based service for easily connecting different platforms and have them work together. Zapier integrations work using the notion of triggers ("when this thing happens") and actions ("do that other thing"). When something happens on a piece of software (e.g. a user is added in TalentLMS) it "triggers" an "action" to another software (e.g. e.g. register the same user in Slack too). Such a combination of trigger and action is called a "Zap" in Zapier-speak. What’s best, you only have to write a trigger or an action once, and it will work with any software that sends compatible data (e.g. a TalentLMS "user added" trigger could invoke the same "add user" action in WordPress, Magento, ZenDesk, JIRA, Slack, and much more — Zapier offers integrations with 500+ apps). Slack features accessible through Zapier Slack offers the following triggers and actions: Slack Triggers: • New Message Posted Anywhere: Triggers when a new message is posted to any public channel. • New Message Posted to Channel: Triggers when a new message is posted to a specific channel you choose. • New Starred Message: Triggers when you star a message. • New Channel: Triggers whenever a new channel is created. • New User: Triggers when a new Slack user is created and first joins your organization. Slack Actions: • Send Channel Message: Post a new message to a specific channel. • Send Direct Message: Send a direct message to a user or yourself from the Slackbot. • Set Channel Topic: Sets the topic on a channel. • Create Channel: Creates a new channel • Send Private Channel Message: Post a new message to a private channel. • Find Message: Finds a Slack message using the Slack Search feature. • Find User by Email: Finds a user by matching against their email. • Find User by Name: Finds a user by matching against their real name. Example Slack and TalentLMS integration Integrating TalentLMS with Slack starts with triggers and actions - any matching ones can be integrated into TalentLMS. In this short guide we’re going to combine the "Course Completed (User Details) TalentLMS trigger with the "Send Channel Message" Slack action, so that when a user completes a course in TalentLMS, a message will be posted to a specific Slack channel. 1) In Zapier, create a new Zap and give it a name (e.g. "Slack/Zapier"). 2) Now you need to choose the trigger app. Start typing "TalentLMS" on the search bar, and choose "TalentLMS" from the options shown. 3) Now you need to choose the trigger itself. In this case, you shall pick the "Course Completed (User Details)" trigger — the one that is executed when a user you have specified by login/id completes a TalentLMS course. 4) If you have not already started integrating TalentLMS account with Zapier you will be asked to do so now. Provide the credentials required for your TalentLMS account to be connected. Your shall need your TalentLMS domain (the url of your  eLearning site) and API key. The latter can be found in  the Account & Settings > Basic settings > Security page (you could have also done this in advance from your "Connected Accounts" Zapier page). Once you have done so, you can test that you account is connected properly and you are ready to move on to the next step. 5) The next step would be to setup the user for whom you want to get their completed courses. Use the dropdown menu which gives your the option to select among your TalentLMS users. 6) Similarly to step (2), you now you need to select your action app — that app that will respond to the "Course Completed" TalentLMS event. In our case, this will be Slack. Start typing Slack… in the search bar, and select Slack from the options shown. 7) Now pick the Slack action you want to run. This will be "Send Channel Message" — the one that posts a new message to a specific Slack #channel you choose… 8) Similarly to how you authorized Zapier to connect to TalentLMS in step (4) you need to also authorize it to connect to your Slack account. Once you have done this, you can test that the connection was setup properly. 9) The final step is for helping Zapier translate the user information it gets from TalentLMS to the field names that Slack understands. Select the channel that you want your message to be posted in and also setup the message that you want to post. Assume a message like the following "User: Nick Smith (nicksmith) completed the course: Future Technologies". You can setup a template for these kind of messages similar to how it shows in the screenshot. And that’s it. You now have a working Slack to TalentLMS user account creation integration. Don’t be put off by the lengthy description above — it’s more verbose than difficult to follow. Test that you Zap works as it is supposed to: and finally give a name and set it on… That’s it. You’ve done it! Following the same trigger and action logic you can hook up any other functionality you want between Slack and TalentLMS (and the other way around of course, as TalentLMS is itself a trigger provider too). Conclusion In this post we had a look at look at the process of integrating TalentLMS with Slack, the increasingly popular (and fun to use) business collaboration platform. This, of course, is but one of the tons of integrations that TalentLMS offers, either natively, or through Zapier. If you haven’t yet, take TalentLMS for a test drive today and see how well our best-of-breed eLearning solution integrates with your training needs! The post Cutting some Slack - integrating TalentLMS with Slack to enhance team collaboration appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

How can eLearning developers create programs to satisfy the growing and unique needs of learners? Every year TalentLMS comes up with a revolutionary list of eLearning processes and procedures for eLearning development. Here are the latest and most popular eLearning trends! 1. Gamification The impact of gamification on eLearning still looks amazingly strong. Experts and mainstream learners can’t deny the success of gamification in enhancing human cognition. Game dynamics, when applied to non-gaming environments, bring about powerful results. Learners are being motivated and engaged through gamification well into 2016. Recall and application skills are also better than in gamified learning environments. For these fantastic reasons, we encourage eLearning developers to integrate gamification into their eLearning programs. Gamification is still the hot eLearning trend in 2016! Gamification is still the hot eLearning trend in 2016!Click To Tweet 2. mLearning No business is complete without a mobile app version of the website. This trend quickly paved its way into eLearning. The reason? Users are looking at mobile phones for all their computing needs. If your eLearning program is incompatible with mobile devices, you very well might be rendered out of the industry this year! Experts are predicting a heavier inclination towards mobile apps and mobile computing experiences in the upcoming years. mLearning literally places knowledge and information in the palm of the user, regardless of the place and time. This power is becoming easier to develop and even easier to achieve. Supporting applications that create HTML5 and other mobile-friendly outputs are widely available for all your interface experience design needs. eLearning will soon benefit the pre-existing location-based marketing technologies, QR codes, GPS and many others. mLearning is also the leading source of authentic learning experiences created through augmented learning. 3. Personalization Personalization is an eLearning trend we have devoted an entire article to. The main method to achieve customizable content is to produce independent chunks of learning. These can also be called micro learning units. They are portable and easy to assess. They can also be updated much faster than large volumes of eLearning programs. Personalization of material for learners can also be achieved by adjusting the pace of instruction, leveraging student interests, letting learners choose their own path and pace, and adjusting content presentation by choosing text, images or videos. 4. Adaptive and competency-based programs Adaptive and competency-based programs are not new to pedagogy. Remember those math placement tests in college? You solved math problems and, depending on your responses, the questions got increasingly challenging. When this concept is brought to eLearning, you have learners who are able to opt out of learning sections simply by testing. Employees love this feature. It helps them evaluate their current knowledge while keenly eyeing the upcoming information. A lot of time is saved by preventing employees to repeat themselves! Competency-based models are soon becoming the core of all organizational training programs. 5. Automation We are more used to the term rapid eLearning development. Seems like advances in rapid eLearning development have lead to the automation concept. The design time, cost and efforts are slashed down substantially. Automated technologies can curate assessment questions, exercises, tests, and several other course content elements. Instead of working on user experience and other aesthetic design details, eLearning developers are focusing on improving the quality of the content and linking content to context. Automation will soon create faster course authoring tools that are efficient and effective in presenting the content. They will also aid in preparing quicker assessments and other eLearning content. 6. Augmented learning Three years ago, when augmented learning was still in the air, it seemed like a magical technology! Imagine being able to experience an authentic vision, place or an environment. Immersive eLearning got even more immersive with augmented learning. Other examples of augmented learning include touch screens, voice recognition, and interaction where the learner draws down the required information in their chosen format, as needed. Augmented learning could top this list in 2017! Augmented learning could top this list in 2017!Click To Tweet 7. Big data The term "big data" is as big and humongous as it sounds. Given the exponential pace of information generated daily, big data continues to rise as a thing to look out for. Computing technologies like data analytics determine trends, patterns and associations between different data to yield meaningful information. Big data will soon aid eLearning developers to create better eLearning programs. And learner analysis will be more thorough than ever. 8. Cloud technology We had to mention "cloud technology", as much as we tried to avoid it in this list! The Cloud has prevailed over server-based applications. With the initial security and integrity concerns dampening away with time, Cloud tech is here to stay. Instant and scalable learning management systems can easily be set up using the Cloud. Course authoring and deployment tools are increasingly earning respect on the Cloud. The technology is simply getting more responsive, more user-friendly and agile with time. Cloud-based applications will only get better this year and in the upcoming years. 9. Corporate eLearning Employee development is the number one priority for growing companies. eLearning has proven to be the most cost-effective option for the employee learning needs. Moreover, ambitious adults look for professional development and growth opportunities provided by their companies. If they strike out, they are ready to move to companies that have similar learning values as them! Organizations also realize that innovation and creativity is fatally hindered if no learning and training intervention is available to employees. Moreover, companies know that external training developers can only guide the training department. The best eLearning programs are the ones produced (over time) within the company, by the employees and managers themselves! A plethora of smart learning strategies are available that are enabling employees to reduce training time and enhance performance. Businesses are working hard to achieve in-house training and eLearning development programs that will improve their KPIs. Corporate eLearning seems to be spreading across the eLearning horizon! eLearning trends come and go each year. But there are some that refuse to budge from the "popular" list. This simply means that these eLearning trends are working well with learners and eLearning developers need to polish these skills further. Some new educational technology tools have been entered the "popular" list; and while we have skeptics and naysayers to these eLearning trends, we also have a rising group of digital eLearners who are willing to adopt anything new and exciting. Whether the new ones will stay on the list or the old ones will go, only time will tell. The post 2016 - 9 Trends on the eLearning Landscape appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.

Colorado, or "the Centennial State", is known for its beautiful state parks, its fabulous mountains and ski slopes, being home to the Denver Broncos and the fictional (and, amusingly enough, the real) South Park, and for being the microbrewery capital of America. It’s also the state hosting this year’s Association for Talent Development (ATD) conference — the event you can’t afford to miss if you are interested in the latest developments in Talent Development. Which is exactly why Epignosis will be there, touting its wares, so to speak, discussing potential partnerships and collaboration deals, mingling with the industry’s best, keeping up to date with the latest innovations and trends in the field, and generally absorbing everything we can. The ATD 2016, like those before it, is organized by the eponymous Association for Talent Development, a professional membership organization that has been supporting knowledge and skills development businesses and professionals for over 70 years. This year’s ATD 2016 International Conference & Exposition brings together professionals from the Talent Development and eLearning industries with key decision makers and employee development stakeholders from the corporate world, attempting to offer an in-depth guide for the path to success in talent development and a clear outlook on what the future of the industry holds. With numerous keynote speeches, round-tables and learning sessions, participants will get the opportunity to share their experiences, discuss the industry’s present state and future goals, and learn about innovative tools and solutions for designing, delivering, implementing, and measuring the success of employee training and talent development programs. As for Epignosis, we’ll be there with, among the rest of our line-up, TalentLMS, the top and much-awarded Cloud learning management system. Beyond its now-renowned ease-of-use and streamlined features, this year we’re proud to bring with us our fresh mobile iOS app, with awesome micro-learning, micro-certification and offline features! But we’ve already spoken about that. Along for the ride, will be eFrontPro, our flagship enterprise Learning and Talent Development Platform geared towards large businesses with high user volumes and advanced customization requirements, and Snappico, a mobile app that builds on the intersection of micro-learning, gamification and infographics to provide bite-sized business training for the modern enterprise. If you’re attending this year’s ATD, come and say hi. We will be waiting for you at the Exhibit Hall, booth #1839. For more information on ATD 2016, visit the event’s page. The post Epignosis announces Bronze Sponsorship of the ATD 2016 Exposition appeared first on TalentLMS Blog.