Everyone at Designing Digitally, Inc. is excited about the Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education Conference that starts today! Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is a global community event which focuses on education in immersive virtual environments. This virtual conference is organized by educators, for educators, to provide an opportunity to showcase the learning that takes place in this community of practice. Special Thanks to Kevin Feenan of Rockcliffe University Consortium, and the team at AVACON for spearheading this event! Educators will be sharing the achievements and challenges that they face in developing within virtual worlds. Whether you are a career educator, interested in new developments in education or looking for great ideas to apply to your own areas of work, this is a conference Designing Digitally, Inc. suggests you check out! The conference dates are July 24-27 and it is held across multiple virtual worlds (Second Life, OpenSim, and Cloud Party). If you have a passion for virtual worlds, check out this free conference at: http://www.vwbpe.org/ You can also view the schedule here: http://www.vwbpe.org/conference/vwbpe-2013-schedule/ We hope to see you there!

We are happy to announce that the team at Designing Digitally, Inc. has been selected for the 2013 TrainingIndustry.com Content Development Companies Watch List. "This year’s Watch List includes a combination of growing and mature companies, each providing an innovative blend of solutions to their clientele," said Ken Taylor, Chief Operating Officer, TrainingIndustry.com. "These companies are not only increasing their presence within the training and development space, many are advancing the way that content development is delivered." "The 2013 Content Development Watch List represents a tier of companies focused on expanding their reach and continuously improving their offerings within the corporate training market," said Doug Harward, Chief Executive Officer, TrainingIndustry.com. "With an impressive selection of initial clients and a range of training solutions, many of these companies are poised for steady growth in the training industry." On behalf of everyone at Designing Digitally, Inc., we thank Trainingindustry.com for acknowledging all of our hard work and innovation. We look forward to enhancing our clients’ learning experiences during 2013 and for years to come. You may view the 2013 Content Development Companies Watch List by clicking here!

So, what does it take to create a successful E-Learning project? What are the different types/levels of E-learning and how long does it typically take to create each one? Who is involved in developing successful E-Learning? These are some of the questions Designing Digitally, Inc. is asked on a regular basis by potential clients. Since the team at Designing Digitally, Inc. loves colorful pictures we thought it would be a good idea to provide you a fun infographic to answer those questions! Below is a visual representation of what it takes to create high quality E-Learning that will provide you with a positive return on your investment. We hope this helps answer the age old question, "What does it really take to create a successful E-Learning project?".

"SMEs (Subject Matter Experts) need not apply," said no Instructional Designer ever. We’ve all had a "not so fantastic" experience working with an SME, but as we can tell you at Designing Digitally, Inc. our Instructional Designers value what an SME has to offer. Whether the SME comprehends why they are valuable is another issue, but the bigger problems lie in establishing these critical resources and their importance to project stakeholders. Given an investment in having a vendor develop an educational product there may be the expectation from the client that the vendor has expertise on hand to develop the content to be learned. Whereas the vendor will want to work with a company associated expert on the topic to ensure it meets the learner’s needs and the company’s goals. So does the Instructional Designer need to be an SME? In some respects all Instructional Designers have the potential to be an SME and an SME to multiple subjects. A key characteristic of talented Instructional Designers is resourcefulness: learning about the subject matter and formulating ideas and questions prior to speaking with an SME to confirm and solidify content. Sometimes an Instructional Designer is not afforded an SME so they research and familiarize themselves with the subject, any relevant key terms, and current or common topics or issues. There is always a possibility that an Instructional Designer can function as an SME. Perhaps we have an Instructional Designer that has worked many years in the health insurance industry creating training for compliance topics. Given the factual nature of the subject matter, there may be no need to for an additional company-facing resource to assist in confirming the accuracy of the information presented. This also creates a monetary benefit, as having an Instructional Designer that functions as an SME reduces the time from research to analysis, analysis to design, and design to development. It also minimizes the risk of differences in expectations and information shared. This aspect alone can be compounded by communication disconnects and perceptions of job roles. The limitation to this position is the inability to always comprehend the learner’s perspective based on the organization’s culture and vision. Perhaps Company X embraces a more collaborative, peer-sharing styled environment whereas Company Y has honed a more competitive workplace. How would handling and managing compliance look to a learner from each of these companies? How much value does each company place on compliance? Our Instructional Designer is only an expert on the subject matter, not on the company. This is why an SME can lend additional value to the project. SMEs not only comprehend the subject matter, but they also understand the manner in which their organization finds it significant. If the Instructional Designer is not an expert in the content and the product to be developed is for new learners, the Instructional Designer can identify with the unfamiliarity of the subject. However, holding this position is better when working with an SME. This way the Instructional Designer will leverage the novice perspective to ask targeted questions about the subject so they can design the content and learning activities to build the knowledge of the new learner. That is not to say that the SME is completely out of touch with the learner, but given their advanced comprehension of the topic, SMEs tend to over share information that is "nice to know" rather than "need to know," or they provide very broad brushstrokes to the subject matter leaving the learner with a lot of questions to fill in the gaps. The Instructional Designer re-packages this expert input so that the content speaks directly to the targeted audience. An Instructional Designer’s skills help them to recognize how to set up content and bring a learner down through the material for effective knowledge transference. Now it probably does not seem like we’re strongly selling that an SME is really warranted given how talented Instructional Designers can morph themselves quite readily to a company’s learning need. However, we can tell you from experience that Instructional Designers like to focus on creating an engaging, effective, entertaining, and educational product for their client’s learners. If Instructional Designers are asked to function as the SME, this fragments their ability to concentrate on where they truly have expertise. This does not mean that the quality of the product is minimized, but the time and effort for an Instructional Designer to remain comprehensive and neutral on the subject matter can impact the analysis and design of the project. A coupling of the Instructional Designer and SME has several benefits. It can aid in determining the best methods for engaging the learners as the SME will be more familiar with the motivations of the learning audience, while the Instructional Designer will know of strategies that will target those specific reasons. The SME can guide and confirm the accuracy of the content. SMEs can share common situations that a learner may encounter or best practices about the subject, and may even have thoughts about activities that might be useful for teaching and assessing learners. An SME and an Instructional Designer pairing really balances and complements the training initiative by providing an opportunity for both parties to share and collaborate on the subject matter.

While we try really hard to avoid clichés stemming from pop culture in our blog content, we also owe it to our readers AND our customers to stay on top of developing trends that could affect our work in regards to the content and design aesthetics of the E-Learning programs and software we produce. Much of our work is based on the idea that each proceeding generation is getting more comfortable with technology and expects to interface with it for learning and training purposes. Much like books were the de rigueur technology for learning for centuries, the Internet, personal computers, and tablets and smartphones have become increasingly invaluable for learning. It’s therefore important for us to pay attention to what is being said culturally about these subjects so that we can be prepared for the future. "Millennials," sometimes referred to as Generation Y, are the next big thing happening in the workforce, and, coincidentally, are extremely comfortable with technology both for work and for recreation. Video games for hand-held devices, notepads and laptops in the classroom, expansive social media on the Internet, texting and calling 24/7 on cell phones…the millennial generation has grown up with these innovations and EXPECTS to utilize them in most aspects of their lives. This dovetails nicely with our stated mission of customer satisfaction with E-Learning development - Millennials want to learn and get trained using serious games and mobile learning applications because they have grown up with such "toys" already! An interesting online article we came across recently from Learning Solutions Magazine by Elisabeth Arellano discusses training strategies that can work for millennial employees, and their first two strategies mentioned are...you guessed it - Mobile Learning and Gamification. Music to our ears! Here we are developing these very training tools and the next generation of workers is already expecting to use them. It’s like we planned this or something. While the verdict is still out as to whether most millennial workers will have the character strengths and weaknesses observed of some of their generation, the case has already been dismissed in regards to their comfort and agility when it comes to using technology - Millennials "get it" and want it. Since some estimates foresee as much as 80% of the workforce being comprised of Millennials within the next ten years or so, smart business leaders who want to tap into this fresh labor force should start planning right now on how to leverage E-Learning development to their advantage for the future. Designing Digitally, Inc. is here to help you do just that. Check-out this informative Wikipedia entry on Generation Y and Millennials - plenty of information to process and understand on their demographics and potentials. Thanks for reading.

Online education is abuzz with a hot new trend. More than a million users worldwide have been flocking to enroll in massive open online courses, or MOOCs. Time magazine has described the trend as the beginning of the "Ivy League for the Masses," while others view MOOCs as the latest victim of media hype. Either way, one thing's for certain -- MOOCs have made an impression. Here at Designing Digitally, Inc., we've been fielding quite a few inquiries about this trend. While we don't design MOOCs, we thought it would be helpful to offer a brief primer on what they are, who uses them, and where to find more information about them. The ABCs of MOOCs Online study certainly is not a new phenomena in education. Up until now, colleges and universities have offered online courses only to enrolled, tuition-paying students. A MOOC, on the other hand, is a college-level course offered online by top universities free of charge to anyone who is interested. It combines traditional instructional methods of lectures, assignments, exams, and assessments with interactive elements such as discussion forums, blogs, and social media. In 2011, Stanford University was one of the first institutions to open up online study to a wider audience with its first MOOC, "Introduction to Artificial Intelligence." When enrollment quickly hit 160,000 , the university introduced two more MOOCs, each of which attracted more than 100,000 participants. The Stanford professors who created these initial MOOCs have since formed ventures in partnership with some of the country's most prestigious universities to offer courses across a wide range of subjects -- everything from science and mathematics to computers and technology to music, art, and film. And interest continues to mount here and abroad. The New York Times recently reported that two of the leading ventures -- Coursera and edX -- have added international universities. Even as MOOCs continue to proliferate, there have been growing pains. Critics point to the low-completion rate among enrollees, the chaotic nature of the social networking elements, limited or no access to the instructor, and the challenges of assessing large numbers of enrollees. MOOCs in Business For the most part, MOOCs are still considered online college-level classes with instructors controlling the flow of the course. The format has not yet caught on in the corporate self-paced learning arena. But MOOC News and Reviews, an online publication dedicated to the emerging MOOC, recently reported some potential applications of the MOOC format in training, recruitment, and product promotion. Google recently launched Mapping with Google, a self-paced online course taught by Google Maps product managers to promote the use of Google mapping tools and Google Earth. And German business software developer SAP is offering a MOOC in its proprietary programming software. Where can I find MOOCs? Are MOOCs the "next big thing" or a passing fad, only time will tell. If nothing else, the concept has sparked a great deal of interest in the industry. If you'd like more information about MOOCs and available courses of study, check out the following resources: Academic Earth Caltech’s ‘Learning From Data’ Course Canvas Class2Go - Stanford Coursera edX Futurelearn iversity MRUniversity NovoEd OpenHPI OpenLearning Open2Study OpenUpEd P2PU 10gen Education Udacity Udemy UoPeople

FRANKLIN, OH--(Marketwired - Sep 10, 2013) - Designing Digitally, Inc., a full-service interactive E-Learning development company, has been selected by elearningindustry.com as one of the Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies of 2013. The CEO of elearningindustry.com, Christopher Pappas, announced the list on August 29th 2013, with the intention of educating the industry on the top companies. Christopher stated on the website, "The Top 10 eLearning content development companies were selected based on the following 5 criteria: eLearning Content Development Quality. eLearning Expertise, eLearning Industry Innovation, Quality of Clients, and eLearning Company Growth Potential." Regarding the nomination, President Andrew Hughes of Designing Digitally, Inc. said, "We are honored to be selected for the Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies, and on behalf of everyone at Designing Digitally, Inc., we thank Christopher and the entire team at elearningindustry.com for recognizing the dedication and effort we put forth for our clients. Designing Digitally, Inc. will continue to push the envelope in the e-learning realm for years to come and will ensure we continue to educate, engage, and entertain." You can view the entire Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies list here. About Designing Digitally, Inc.: Designing Digitally, Inc. is a full-service E-Learning development firm and serious game developer. Located in Franklin, Ohio, Designing Digitally, Inc. has developed a number of serious games and simulations, virtual worlds, and E-Learning solutions for companies around the country and the globe. Designing Digitally, Inc.'s overall goal is to add value to the clients that they serve by creating engaging, educational, and entertaining learning solutions.

How Millennial Workers Can Help Your Business & How You Can Empower Them to Do So It’s our unofficial Millennials Month here at Designing Digitally, Inc. and we’re trumpeting the cause of celebrating these younger workers who are pouring into the workforce with zest, ideals, ideas and motivation. While there has been a lot of funny and irreverent content produced about millennial workers in the past few years (we found this rather hilarious satire on Millennials in the workplace on YouTube, the truth is that Millennials could not be emerging into the workplace at a better time in history. Of course, many social historians and their ilk will say that our past history is what has caused Millennials to emerge in the first place - technological innovation giving way to technologically savvy workers - but we want to just skip over the whole which-came-first, chicken-or-egg argument and get down to the basics on WHY millennial workers are good for your business and HOW you can help them to be even better. For the record, Millennials are men, women and children who were born from the early years of the 1980s through the early years of the 2000s. This means that the millennial generation or Generation Y features individuals who are approximately 10 to 30 years old currently. Before them came Generation X, and before them came the Baby Boomers. Each "generation" or micro-generation has its own unique set of strengths and weaknesses and personality traits that can be loosely applied to the whole generation, although such generalizations are not hard and fast and don’t apply to everyone born within that time frame. Millennials are often characterized as being less ambitious than their predecessors, more prone to isolation and introversion, and are also suspected of being less idealistic and participatory in making societal change happen. Some would say that the easy access to news 24/7, increased global awareness - particularly of the failures of governments to solve serious problems, and the difficulties with job growth in developed 1st World countries, have caused the millennial generation to be jaded and less optimistic and expectant of a better world. This remains to be seen, as most Millennials have yet to come to their full power as adults. But Millennials also have some intrinsic advantages to every other generation currently working on the planet - namely, their comfort and expertise in working with technology. To set the stage for this idea, keep in mind that there are workers right now who entered the labor force before there was an Internet, PCs, cellular phones or other forms of mobile technology. Because of the "learning curve" involved with technology, and the cost to incorporate technologic innovation across the board in companies, some workers will just never get comfortable using the Internet, computers and mobile technology. They are "old-fashioned" and like it that way. Or rather, they were fashioned by the old. But for Millennials, such technology has always been there! These men and women will be the ones who, like Prometheus bringing fire to mortals, will bring increasing innovation and new business applications to the workplace that will greatly increase efficiencies and improve business’ bottom line time and again. How can smart executives and company owners leverage the technologic capabilities, intrinsic understanding and capacity of Millennials to use technology? One of the simplest and most efficient ways to begin this process is by inculcating E-Learning into training regimes within companies. Today’s new workers can be trained faster and more efficiently thanks to 3D training simulations, serious games and even mobile learning . Think of it - new employees who arrive for their first day of work and have already downloaded training documents onto their laptops or notebooks and completed lengthy HR forms. Imagine it - fresh workers who have accessed company E-Learning programs and practiced manufacturing protocols and processes using serious games. Do it - incorporate 3D training scenarios for workers who must execute complicated security practices in order to move about freely within complexes. Millennial workers are here to stay. Empowering them with the tools they understand and the content you wish them to learn can only result in faster training times and quicker, more accurate work earlier in their careers. This will result in happier, more adjusted employees and smoother work operations for everyone involved. And that’s JUST the beginning of your relationship with your new millennial employees! For more information on this new generation workforce see http://www.designingdigitally.com  

Mobile Learning & Serious Games Continue to Grow Technology reporting website VentureBeat’s Gamesbeat division published a story recently we just couldn’t help but blog about - the advance of serious games - which they like to call "educational games" - due to the boom in mobile applications and mobile usage. This of course makes complete sense to us - teenagers and young adults have had a love affair with the telephone since the 1950s and conspicuous consumption began. Combine that passionate pursuit with smart phones, the Internet and wireless technology, and the gaming world and you’ve got a match made in heaven. Reporting on a research article Gamesbeat came across from Ambient Insight - a market research firm for global learning technology suppliers - the reporting from Gamesbeat features some fascinating and exciting statistics for educators, players and even companies & corporations who are interested in empowering their workers with the latest and most effective training and education strategies. Some of the facts disclosed in the article include: Game-based learning will grow from $1.5 billion in 2012 to $2.3 billion in 2017 The simulation-based learning market, including corporate training games , is expected to grow even more - from $2.3 billion in 2012 to $6.6 billion in 2017. Of the 31 game-based learning companies that raised funding in 2012 and were part of the reporting, 23 were mobile - and 21 targeted consumers. According to Sam Adkins, chief research officer at Ambient Insight, much of this "revolution" in mobile-based game learning or serious games is due to Nintendo’s introduction of their game-based learning game in 2005, Brain Age:Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day. The rest, as they say, is history, or will be. As Adkins explains it, "Nintendo re-energized this market with products for older adults and now that trend has moved into mobile games and apps…. Mobile educational games are now outselling PC educational games," he said. "And the entrepreneurs are incredibly passionate about what they are doing. What we find interesting is the interest among investors in mobile." With the ease of access with mobile applications on smart phones and the convenience of using these applications "in the field" as well as in the classroom, we can certainly understand why investors are turning to mobile. Designing Digitally, Inc. is charting a similar course, pursuing mobile learning development and serious games development full-force for education and training initiatives for the future workforce. It’s always nice when you find your peers moving in the same direction as you are, don’t you think? To read the entire article on mobile learning and serious games from VentureBeat, please follow this link.

You’ll have to forgive us for the pun in the headline of this post, but it’s an exciting time in the world of serious games and we love to see E-Learning going global, or at least going commercial, per se. Playing games as a learning/training tool is becoming a big trend today in education & training and particularly in hands-on education - the kind of activity that many corporate trainers and HR pros find themselves relying on more and more to level their playing fields (another pun!) when it comes to consistency and time management. With game-based training and serious games, students and workers of all types can learn and practice valuable skills and they can do it in a non-threatening environment where they get the opportunity to DO something, not just take notes. The playful, self-competitive aspect of gaming engages them while at the same time helps to reinforce lessons and protocols they’ll need in real-word scenarios on-the-job. This type of serious games offers safe practice time for job skills and also enables the trainer to accurately asses how far along the "student" has come in skills development. This is of course not the only form a serious game can take. Some serious games are being used for marketing and promotions, while others are being used for more entertaining, "playful" purposes. Below, we present several serious games we’ve come upon lately in the marketplace that really illustrate how diverse serious games can be. The Lost Bee is a fun kids’ eBook application, story book and science class all in one that helps teach about honey bees with games that replicate the jobs that honey bees do. Environmental messages in the book about pesticide use and pollinator-friendly farming methods are also included. Sweet! Eye Shakespeare is a downloadable app that helps visitors to the classic Bard’s home in Stratford-Upon-Avon have a more enjoyable tour of Shakespeare’s homes and grounds, and even works in seven different languages. Verily! Fashion Eye is a social game app where players pick a style theme and then receive questions about the best fashion choices regarding that style. Real designers can advertise their merchandise on the app as a way of informing style-conscience consumers about their products. Fabulous! Bounce Back is a physical, actual card game (remember those?) developed by Psychology Today that we predict will make it to the Internet or become a digital app eventually. In this game, players must address real-word scenarios that cause stress and anxiety and come up with solutions for each scenario. Scoring is determined by the number of skills & attitudes based upon resilience that players use to solve the problems. No counseling couch needed! A patient management, 3D simulation game for surgeons is helping to hone diagnostic and management skills for surgical residents using Second Life™. By managing virtual patients, fledgling surgeons get the opportunity to learn to improve surgical outcomes for their patients by dealing with the whole patient, not just their physical surgery. Talk about improved bedside manner! Though none of the examples of serious games above tackle the corporate, military and industrial clients Designing Digitally, Inc. normally caters to, they’re all examples of imaginative programming and design, and we salute their ingenuity. We’re always ready to think outside of the box for such games for our clients too, should you have such a need.