Learning as an adult is hard. Indeed, it’s much harder than when we were kids and our brains had the plasticity of learning sponges. Today, our time at work is stretched too thin with a myriad of responsibilities and ever-changing priorities. Our attention is constantly sapped by a barrage of Slack messages, emails, texts, phone calls, and meetings. Our egos batted about like piñatas by near-constant feedback. So, it’s no wonder that when it comes time to take an elearning course at work, it’s natural that our defenses go up. You ask yourself, why should I take time from my crazy busy schedule to learn something marginally useful for my job, won’t fully engage me, will cause me to fall further behind on my long list of to-do’s, will make me feel like an idiot when I get questions wrong on the quiz, and which I’ll forget before the week is out?

Given these emotional and logistical brain barriers, our job of teaching adults is thus supremely challenging. What to do?

We need to change the psychological dynamic between employees and learning. We need to help adults want to learn by delivering content to them that emotionally engages them and is contextually relevant to their work. Thankfully, L&D professionals now have great tools at their disposal to generate meaningful content and deliver it to learners when they need it most.

During our session, we will discuss how to create emotionally engaging games for learners to wrestle with the content as well as to create a gamified, social learning community to motivate learning.

In this session, you will learn: 

• Why traditional passive training fails to make learning stick
• How to engage adult learners across generations
• Measuring the impact of game-based learning and proving ROI

Andrew Heilman is a seasoned customer success, sales, and communications leader with over 15 years of experience driving client relationships and digital solutions. At Miller Heiman Group, he led post-sale client adoption of CRM-integrated software, achieving $5 million in annual recurring revenue with a 90%+ retention rate. He later spearheaded the global rollout of MHG’s client deployment process, launching over 100 clients in the first year.

Previously, at QuinStreet, Inc., Andrew managed media and public relations for financial services, securing coverage in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and CNBC. A University of Maryland graduate, he also worked as a photojournalist and nonprofit leader focused on youth programs.

At ELB Learning, Andrew partners with L&D professionals to provide tailored learning solutions, helping organizations enhance training and coaching through innovative software and custom learning experiences.

Lydia Symchych (she/her) is a video game designer who has worked in the positive impact gaming space since 2020. An alumna of Code Coven’s game development boot camp, she loves learning and hates homework. Her design portfolio includes museum exhibits, therapy games, educational games, and now training games. She began working with ELB Learning in May 2024 with the Training Arcade® and the custom games team.