Tata Interactive Learning Forum (TLF) India 2013, by Tata Interactive Systems, the global leader in providing learning solutions and products was held in Mumbai on October 10, 2013. The TLF is a global symposium where leaders and decision makers from the learning and development space come together to share their ideas, innovations, and insights. This unique platform provides learning leaders the opportunity to share their experiences in corporate learning, network with like-minded peers and examine case studies of key learning initiatives in other organizations. The theme of TLF India 2013 was "Meeting Strategic Organizational Goals through learning". An Invitation-only forum, Tata Interactive Learning Forum was exclusively for SVPs/VPs/CXOs/Heads of HR and training functions. The third India edition was graced by the presence of eminent speakers and industry experts like Raj Narayan - Chief Human Resources Officer, Titan Industries Ltd. Shireesh Joshi - Head Strategic Marketing Group, Godrej Industries Ltd. Bijay Sahoo - President:  HR, Reliance Industries Ltd. (Retail & Digital Services Business) KRS Jamwal - Executive Director, Tata Industries Jagmohan Rishi - Head: Training & Talent Development, Wockhardt Anjali Chatterjee - Vice President: HR, Tata Communications Ltd. Rajagopalan Purushothaman - Vice President & Director, Reliance Retail Ltd. Priya Thiagarajan -  Content Head, Vodafone Kavi Arasu - Chief Manager: Corporate Learning and Development, Asian Paints Ltd. Paras Kaushik -  Head: HR, Pantaloons Retail Sangeetha Gandhi -  Oberoi Centre of Learning and Development Diptii Das - Head: HR (South Asia), Aramex India Pvt Ltd. Sandeep Dhir -  Chief: Capability Development, Tata Steel Rituraj Sar - Vice President and Head: Learning & Development, Lupin Ltd. Rustom Vesavevala - Vice President: Learning & Development, Indian Hotels Co. Ltd. Kishore Iruvanti Naga -  Director: Learning Solutions Competency Center, Alcatel-Lucent Judajith Das - Chief: Human Resources, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Ltd. Some key sessions at the forum included Enabling Key Organisational Initiatives through Learning, Meeting Strategic Organisation Goals through Learning, L&D Initiatives Impacting Business Outcomes, Building a Smarter L&D Team - role of a learning partner ,Training ROI - putting theories into action and Expanding the Boundaries of Human Potential to name a few. The event also had two panel discussions revolving around topics like Collaborative Learning & the Impact of Social Media - is it going to replace formal learning? and Leveraging Technology - how do organizations use technology to create a learning ecosystem. The forum saw participation from organization/institutes like Reliance Industries, Godrej Group, Bennett Coleman and Company, TCS, Religare, Vodafone , Titan, Aditya Birla Minacs, Tata Communications, Wipro Technologies, Tata Chemicals Ltd, Nomura, DHL, Asian Paints, Ashok Leyland, DBS Bank, Tata Steel, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI Prudential and Tata Motors to name a few. Like every year, TLF India 2013 successfully maintained its purpose to bring leaders and decision makers in the L&D space to interact, innovate and inspire. As a market and thought leader in the training industry, the forum strives to push the boundaries of innovation in Learning & Development and is constantly evolving.

Season's Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Year from Tata Interactive Systems. Do check the animated season's greetings: 1.http://bit.ly/1caYweE2.http://bit.ly/JGIHAs

Serious Games. Game-based learning. Gamification. How are they different? Aren’t they different epithets for the same thing? Tata Interactive System's webinar on serious games and gamification, part of the ‘Ask the Experts’ series, explored the differences between the two and points where they meet. For several years now, the specter of yawn-worthy e-learning has dominated the landscape. Serious games - and more recently, gamification - are trying their best to inject the necessary enthusiasm back into learning. The numbers suggest that game-based learning has met with fair success so far, and pundits such as Gartner Inc. paint a bright future for the two avatars of game-based learning. So, does adding a timer and lots of badges and points constitute game-based learning? You’ll see in the webinar that this is not true, and whether you decide to build a serious game to teach something or use gamification, your decisions must be led by purpose and the performance outcomes you seek. Game-based learning designed by Tata Interactive Systems places the business rules right at the core of the activities. The work in tandem with the game rules, the game controls, and the visual game skin to complete the whole sensory experience for the player. For a full discussion on the differences between serious games and gamification, please click here for the webinar http://youtu.be/nqno2zQMT0U

The learning world has been talking about social and informal learning for close to a decade now. Jay Cross popularized the concept in his book, Informal Learning: Rediscovering the Natural Pathways That Inspire Innovation and Performance, defining it thus: "Informal learning is the unofficial, unscheduled, impromptu way people learn to do their jobs. Formal learning is like riding a bus: the driver decides where the bus is going; the passengers are along for the ride. Informal learning is like riding a bike: the rider chooses the destination, the speed, and the route." Organizations have moved from skepticism regarding social learning to realizing that it is a much-needed component in the learning ecosystem. The days when formal training alone worked are over. Training worked when work was predictable, processes could be pre-defined, and best practices could be handed down - via ILT or elearning - depending on the organization in question. With the advent of globalization, ubiquitous technology, mobile devices and a myriad other ripple effects of technology, the world of work has suddenly been hit by a whirlwind of change. Simple, process-driven work that defined the industrial era is giving way to complicated and complex work where exceptions are the norm. Employees and organizations alike are at a loss. It is clear that something more than formal, top down training is definitely required to enable employees remain efficient and be able to acquire the knowledge and skills required. Thus, organizations are taking a second look at informal and social learning today. Micro-learning, micro-content, Learning Flows, and mlearning are some of the current and upcoming trends in the world of learning and development. They all have a common denominator—they require very little "at-a-stretch" time commitment from learners/users. And learning design - driven by these principles - lend itself to informal and social learning as well. Wikipedia describes micro-learning thus: Micro-learning can also be understood as a process of subsequent, "short" learning activities, i.e. learning through interaction with micro-content objects in small timeframes. ~ Wiki Some of the key characteristics of micro-learning are given in the diagram below: These qualities make small capsules of learning - tweets, responses to forum discussions, short podcasts, learning nuggets, and so on - eminently suitable in the context of social and informal learning. Imagine an employee posting a question on a discussion forum on an enterprise collaboration platform. S/he could receive a response in any one or more of the following forms - a direct post, a short video, a podcast, a link to an external resource, or be directed to an expert on the said topic. A collaboration platform that facilitates such interaction promotes social and informal learning within an organization. However, it is important to remember that a platform doesn’t necessarily bring about the desired change. To foster a culture of sharing and collaboration, it is important that L&D dons the hat of community managers and facilitators enabling content curation and aggregation and connecting learners to relevant content, to each other, and to experts. But what’s wrong with good old formal training, you may ask. Nothing really! Formal learning will still be required but it can no longer meet the needs of the workforce. As the juggernaut of change continues to hit the global work environment, exceptions and complex problems are becoming the norm. It is no longer feasible or possible to design training programs in advance for challenges one doesn’t know is coming their way. All of these are pointing to a shift that is in motion—a shift from long courses with a defined structure and curriculum that trained users on good and best practices based on the past. The "Era of Courses" reflected an age where work was stable, experience of the past could be encapsulated and translated into courses that future workers could take and be successful in their work and performance. Businesses grew and became mega-businesses. Accumulated experiences counted. The future reflected the past. And economy of scale was the order of the day. Learning "at the speed of need" is of paramount importance today. And enabling social and informal learning at the workplace is one way to meet this need. Providing a platform for globally dispersed employees to quickly access a learning byte, share an insight, post a query, or upload a document ensures that just-in-time learning is happening. It also brings learning into the workflow. And fosters a culture of sharing and collaboration thus also ensuring that the organization’s tacit knowledge is being captured. Today, workers need bursts and nuggets of learning a.k.a. performance support. Lengthier, knowledge-driven courses will still exist but will become optional and can be taken at the workers’ discretion. Individuals will take those courses where they see personal and professional benefits—but they may not be driven by the organization where they work. This is directly evident in the MOOC phenomenon as seen on Coursera or EdX. Learning design will have to increasingly revolve around micro-learning concepts that are device, time and location agnostic. While micro-learning can be viewed as a support to more formal and longer courses, this equation may change. Workers used to Googling to solve their queries and problems are likely to bring that same paradigm to learning. They may well expect a collection of micro-modules to be available which they will dip into as and when needed. Each worker will chart out their own path through these micro-modules based on their role, performance need and prior experience and knowledge. However, the big question is: How will corporates take advantage of these trends and phenomenon that have organically grown out the changing technology landscape. And, what will be the role of learning designers in this new landscape—curators & aggregators, facilitators & collaborators, connectors & change agents? -          Sahana Chattopadhyay, Consultant - Instructional Design, Tata Interactive Systems

MOOCs, especially when referred to in the context of the workplace, are increasingly going to become a catch-all term for any online, large scale, learning intervention. The MOOC is a dissemination model that encapsulates three components - formal, informal and social - within the same framework. While the cMOOC or the Connectivist MOOC started out with the vision of leveraging the power of networks in learning, xMOOCs took the more conventional classroom-learning format and brought it online. From the amalgamation of these two is emerging a new breed of MOOCs—the corporate MOOCs. Some of the evolving characteristics of corporate MOOCs and their impact on organizational learning include: 1. MOOCs go beyond fixed courses to dynamic context sharing: A MOOC is more than a course disseminated online. In a MOOC, content/modules is the basic requirement. What differentiates a MOOC is the context that gets built around the content via discussion forums, micro-blogs and the ability to add user-generated content. The content thus becomes dynamic and also remains relevant. 2. MOOCs can effectively address peer-to-peer learning. Peer-to-peer learning is especially pertinent when engaging in problem-based learning. MOOCs require active participation rather than passive content consumption and thus fosters the skills of self-directed learning, an ability to articulate challenges, share thoughts and ideas, and draw on the network to enhance one’s learning. Problem-solving skills work best when one is able to share thoughts and ideas and get feedback from peers and experts. Peer-evaluation ensures greater assimilation of complex concepts and a higher level of learner engagement. The process nurtures an overall culture or learning and a focus on performance. 3. MOOCs tap in-house expertise and make tacit knowledge explicit. "Discussion Forums" and "Ask an Expert" components of a MOOC platform (any enterprise collaboration platform) tap into the expertise existing in an organization, often in siloes. Very often, access to expertise gets limited to being co-located. However, a MOOC ecosystem eliminates this challenge by bringing learners in touch with experts on the same platform. This benefits both the learners and the experts, and above all the organization. The evolving knowledge base of the organization becomes explicit enabling faster learning, reducing loss of critical information and fostering an environment of continuous learning. 4. MOOCs follow the principles of micro-learning - A MOOC is typically designed around the principles of micro-learning enabling learners to go through bytes of learning in short duration. The modules ideally do not exceed 15 minutes. These small learning bytes not only aid quick assimilation but also makes it possible to learn on the go, thus reducing the dependency on a fixed time slot or the need to take a large chunk of time out of one’s working day. 5. Synchronous and Asynchronous, Online and Offline come together - The MOOC can have both synchronous and asynchronous learning modalities built in. Instant chats and webinars (hangouts) can be effective ways to share knowledge or pose a question. A short webinar to discuss a challenge or a unique situation will not only lead to deeper learning but also foster the skills of critical thinking and exception handling. The webinar can be recorded for those unable to participate in real time. The learning from the MOOC need not stay within the MOOC and can be taken outside. "Lunch and Learns" to share knowledge and talk about recent experiences, or to discuss a case-study or a course module can further enhance the learning experience. - Sahana Chattopadhyay, Consultant - Instructional Design, Tata Interactive Systems

Tata Interactive Systems features in ‘Top 20 Gamification Companies’ list Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) has been named in the first-ever ‘Top 20 Gamification inaugural Companies’ list by TrainingIndustry.com. This initiative is part of TrainingIndustry.com’s mission to continually monitor the training marketplace for the best providers of gamification services/technologies in support of corporate learning and development.      The selection of this year's "Top 20" list was based on the following criteria: Features & capabilities of the gamification products/services, company size & growth potential, quality & number of clients/users, geographic reach, as well as awards, recognition & competitive differentiation.

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), one of the global leaders in eLearning, simulations and serious games, celebrates 25 years. A worldwide pioneer in technology-enabled learning, TIS is recognized as a thought leader and market mover in providing learning solutions and performance support design. Having worked with 70 Fortune 500 companies, TIS provides expertise to help improve people performance through best-in-class learning solutions and integrated analytics. With 70 international awards in the last decade for its cutting-edge solutions, TIS helps customers achieve their key organizational initiatives through learning and performance support solutions. The company’s innovative products and strategic learning advisory services drive people competency and learning & development process efficiency. Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of TIS, says: "The last two and a half decades have seen key transformations in technology and development tools. TIS has created newer immersive and award-winning learning formats like virtual 3D worlds, multiplayer simulations, gamification, learning nuggets and story-based learning, changing the way people learn across the world."  "As technology and development tools have changed over the years, our multi-disciplinary team of over 400 specialists with global experience have constantly been innovating to create effective solutions to meet customer requirements - from MOOCs, augmented reality, internet of things, mobile learning apps to SaaS. Learning will be a constant; TIS will have to keep learning and evolving," says Manisha Mohan, Executive VP - Centre of Excellence Group. Looking at the road ahead, Ishrat Shums, Senior VP - Commercial Office, adds: "From helping organizations and educational institutions define their learning roadmap, to developing best-in-class instructional products, the TIS team continues to push the boundaries in every facet of learning. We understand that we have been able to achieve this 25 year milestone only through the support of our customers and we look forward to the next 25 years!" 

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS), a global provider of learning solutions, will host a live workshop using Google Hangout that showcases a blended but personalised learning experience. This follows the ‘standing room only’ success of Joanna Kori’s blended learning seminar at Learning Technologies show in January 2015. 58 volunteers will experience the mechanics of ‘More than a Hangout’ workshop starting on February 25th 2015. TIS will use Google applications to explore contemporary learning models and complete a pre-workshop task. This will be followed by an activity-based Hangout for peer-to-peer exploration of these models. Joanna Kori, Senior Learning Consultant, TIS, cites, "We are overwhelmed with the response to join the workshop. We now look forward to demonstrating how to maximise these applications using a topic close to the heart of learning professionals." Will Chadwick, Vice President - UK, TIS, adds, "It was pleasing to be ranked as the only Potential Leader in Elearnity’s 9-box grid. This is an example of the types of thought leadership content we have created for our clients. The Hangout model has now been proven for a range of topics and we believe it bridges the gap between traditional classroom delivery and digital-based learning." The post-workshop activity will focus on designing reflective tasks and encouraging peer-to-peer feedback via Google Plus community.

Gamification is changing the way the world learns. In fact, it has gained traction and importance because humans have a competitive streak and whenever a human/learner wins a test or a game, there is a release of testosterone and dopamine into the brain of the learner. Gamification has a central component of fun that makes learning easier and less scientific and mundane. This is primarily the reason why gamification is being seen as an important tool in the realm of learning. Gamification is also being widely adopted because of its inherent features of engagement and collaboration. Games offer a sense of challenge to the player and make the activity a time bound exercise. Not only can a learner compete fiercely, but also help the learner leverage on his existing skills as well as skills of the team to navigate the game play and discover new learning. Games also work in the mode of simulation where the learner can play the game for an infinite number of rounds till she/he masters the game, thereby indicating a mastery of the concept being taught as well. As organizations continue investing in making gamification a part of their learning curriculum, they are already seeing benefits. This is because gameplay entails learners to harness their prior knowledge, cross map between the various levels and take control of their learning through repeat games. It also helps in engagement, creativity, learner interaction, behaviours like risk taking and group decision making.  Besides, it empowers the learner, as leader boards and badges provide easier milestone checks and establishes a learning path for him. Gamification is gaining traction even in the commercial space. As per statistics, websites that have gamification built into the navigation get a significant increase in site actions and hence is seeing an increased usage in commenting, sharing of information, and more updates to the social networking activity feeds. To know more, read the Article on Gamification in Learning.

Tata Interactive Systems (TIS) is celebrating 25 Years of Excellence in eLearning, Simulations & Serious Games. To commemorate this occasion, TIS recently organised a special event in Dubai for some of our key clients in the Middle East region. Sanjaya Sharma, CEO of TIS, delivered the keynote address and offered insights into the company’s newer immersive and award-winning learning formats like virtual 3D worlds, multiplayer simulations, gamification, learning nuggets and story-based learning. The event witnessed participation of eminent personnel from Emirates Airlines, Emirates NBD, Higher Colleges of Technology, MAF Carrefour, Jumbo Electronics, Panasonic Aviation, General Civil Aviation Authority, Landmark Group, Mashreqbank and Edu Alliance. A worldwide pioneer in technology-enabled learning, TIS is recognized as a thought leader and market mover in providing learning solutions and performance support design. Having worked with 70 Fortune 500 companies, TIS provides expertise to help improve people performance through best-in-class learning solutions and integrated analytics. With 70 international awards in the last decade for its cutting-edge solutions, TIS helps customers achieve their key organizational initiatives through learning and performance support solutions. Our innovative products and strategic learning advisory services drive people competency and learning & development process efficiency. We look forward to building on our proud 25-year history and helping companies across the globe to develop the skills and capabilities that employees need to perform well in their jobs.