(credit: Jalopnik.com) Recently, someone asked me what is the "game" part of gamification. It’s a great question, and it was asked by an enterprise that wants to integrate benchmark setting together with gamification: someone that is really "in the know". But the question remains - what is the "game" and why "gamification". We’ve written about the difference between games and gamification often - how gamification uses "game elements", how gamification is like a fitbit for work, and how industry luminaries are describing gamification. Yet, I was suddenly struck with the perfect metaphor for gamification: the ghost car. Gamification: be the best driver you can be This is a photograph of a car race game called Forza. The red car is the one I’m driving, while the greenish car (the "ghost car"), which is just ahead of me on the other side of the road, is where I should be. I am racing against myself.  What it really does isn’t just drive me to focus, since it acts as a benchmark - this is how I should be performing. Actually, the game is constantly teaching me how I can improve and what I can do to perform better in the game. Through practice, I get better and better at being where the "ghost" car is, until I finally get to the stage where I can beat the ghost car and be ahead of it. But it will adjust and stay ahead. We tend to think that we are competitive creatures, and that that means that we get the most satisfaction from beating fellow competitors. While competitiveness is definitely human trait,  research by Dan Ariely and Daniel Pink have discovered that we are even more satisfied when we are able to beat a personal goal that we have set for ourselves. The Ghost Car: It’s not just competition against yourself. It’s about the personal benchmark One of the often missed "tricks" about workforce gamification is the part that each employee gets a targeted, personalized benchmark. In OKR systems, which are focused on goal-setting for knowledge workers, goals are set for employees. In workforce gamification the name of the game is using analytics to set personalized benchmarks for each employee. This means that targets and KPIs for employees are set in accordance with their ability to achieve them - they are the ghost car.  Each of the benchmarks acts as a ghost car, egging employees to beat themselves. As employees get better, benchmarks are more demanding. If you look at our platform page, you can see that KPIs are actual achievement and the colored bar underneath them is the benchmark. Autonomy, Mastery, Purpose In his book, ‘Drive’, Daniel Pink outlines what he believes can explain what motivates us, and what we at GamEffective have seen that makes gamification so effective as a tool to create real change in the performance of employees over time. Pink states that Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose are the three elements that determine whether we are motivated or not. Autonomy is our desire to be in charge of our own destiny, Mastery is the urge to constantly get better at something that is important to us, and Purpose is our inherent desire to do something that is in service of something that is larger than ourselves. Racing against the ghost car is about autonomy, mastery and purpose. When we beat a benchmark that we have set for ourselves, we feel autonomy and mastery, and that makes us feel great in general. The psychological compensation we feel during an experience like this can’t be duplicated with financial rewards or with a competition set up against our peers. That kind of motivation, coming from external sources, only lasts for so long. On the other hand, intrinsic motivation, when we have the desire to achieve something because of an inner wish, allows us to stay motivated in the long run. That’s intrinsic motivation Gamification is Fitbit for work People who use Fitbit exercise more. They can set benchmarks for themselves and get immediate feedback about how they are progressing towards those benchmarks. This creates a virtuous cycle - users want to exercise more because of the goals they have set for themselves, then once they see that they are advancing towards those goals they are motivated to keep at it and set new, more ambitious goals for themselves and on and on. Gamification works in exactly the same way, just for work. We enable employees to see how they are doing compared to goals that they have set for themselves. Employees can experience how they are improving and advancing towards the goals they have set for themselves, and then set new goals which will take them even further. Gamification creates a way for employees to monitor their progress at the workplace and act from a place of intrinsic motivation. They do that by competing against their personal (and personalized) ghost car.

My wife, Katelyn Nesi, co-hosts this first episode of 2016 and we give insight into how we live life to the fullest on two educator's salaries!   Follow Katelyn Nesi   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   Audible.com   Domain.com   Listeners Like You! Become a Patron...   Segments:   (5:30) EdTech Recommendation   (8:30) EdTech Thought   (13:40) Main Content   (55:30) House of #EdTech VIP   Complete show notes: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2016/01/nclb-no-cash-left-behind.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

A rare guestless episode where I talk about the awesome shows on the Education Podcast Network, share listener feedback, and TWO recommendations!   This episode of House of #EdTech is sponsored by:   Audible.com   Domain.com   Listeners Like You! Become a Patron...   -- Segments --   (1:58) Episode 52 Feedback from Stacey Lindes & Dani Kennis   (12:15) NEW Segment Proposal! Get involved today!   (14:19) Education Podcast Network Podcast Lineup   (22:45) Grad School & Professor Nesi Update   (26:20) How to Write a Thank You Note   (31:22) House of #EdTech Recommendations   (35:40) House of #EdTech VIP - Amanda C. Dykes     Complete shownotes at: http://www.chrisnesi.com/2016/01/updates-feedback-and-recs-oh-my-hoet053.html   FEEDBACK Call: (732) 903-4869 Voxer: mrnesi Email: feedback@chrisnesi.com Twitter: @mrnesi Send a voice message from http://www.chrisnesi.com

Student tips to keep track of your online courses https://t.co/HSOZR3v2xQ https://t.co/V6eboqlouj

I had the honor of speaking at #LISDCIC in Leander ISD in Texas today. Below you will find the resources I shared and ways to stay updated on my work and Choose2Matter. I look forward to […] The post Mattering IS the Agenda! Resources shared at #LISDCIC appeared first on Angela Maiers.

Sylvia Duckworth is a #AIMlang French teacher and excited by the creative & collaborative aspects of technology who likes to think outside the box. She is a Google Certified Innovator in Toronto, Canada and you may have seen her amazing sketchnotes in the wild for us!Find out how Google Apps for Education (GAFE) can automate your workload and simplify your life.Learn how to give immediate, effective and ongoing student feedbackDiscover the amazing collaborative features of GAFELearn how to empower your students with GAFE toolsExplore how your students can get creative with GAFENetwork and meet other teachers in your community who are excited about education.Get inspired by international and local speakers and presenters.Get Googley in the Photo Booth with old and new friendsBe dazzled and entertained with the Demo SlamsFind out how you can disrupt education and make a significant difference in your students’ lives

As the Lords met this week to debate adult education and lifelong learning, two reports were published indicating the urgent need for more and better adult learning opportunities and the reversal of cuts which have left the sector an emaciated shadow of what it was just a few years ago, punching at a weight far below that necessary to turn around the UK’s ailing productivity. The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) published a review of adult skills in England which reported that nine million adults of working age in England have low basic skills, more than a quarter of all those aged between 16 and 65. These adults, the report says, ‘struggle with basic quantitative reasoning’, such as estimating how much petrol is in a tank from looking at the gauge, or ‘have difficulty with simple written information’, such as the instructions on a bottle of medicine. There is a further worry, the OECD adds, in that young adults in England perform no better than older ones in skills tests, struggling particularly in numeracy. England has three times more low-skilled young people than high-performing countries such as Finland, Japan and the Netherlands. The OECD’s recommendations included calls to improve transitions from school to work, including through good-quality apprenticeships, to prioritise early interventions in addressing basic skills problems and, more controversially, to divert young people with poor basic skills from university to shorter professional programmes in further education to ‘help to rebalance the English education system towards one which would be both more efficient in the use of public resources and fairer to all’. The report also had some important messages regarding adult education. Research evidence should be used to develop teaching methods and guide interventions, it said, recognising that ‘successful adult learning programmes need to motivate learners’ (helping children with their homework one possible motivation suggested). Attention should also be given to the development of a high-quality teaching workforce which uses evidence-based teaching methods, including greater use of e-learning and a ‘contextualised’ approach to basic skills. And better use should be made of relevant learning environments, such as occupational and family contexts. The report, again, notes the double benefit of family literacy and numeracy programmes which not only support parents as learners but can also have a transformative influence on their children. On the same day as the OECD report was published, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES) published its employer skills survey for 2015, examining the experience and practice of over 90,000 UK employers. The report highlighted a 130 per cent increase in the number of job vacancies unfilled because of skills shortages over the past four years. ‘Skills shortage vacancies’ now make up nearly a quarter of all job openings, rising from 91,000 in 2011 to 309,000 in 2015, the report said. In addition, two million workers across the UK have skills and experience which are not being utilised in their current job. Lesley Giles, deputy director of UKCES, said that the UK needed urgently to boost its productivity, which continues to lag behind that of its competitor nations. This, she said, not only demanded a supply of worker with the right skills, but an economy that created ‘good jobs that produce high-quality, bespoke goods and services’. Douglas McCormick, a commissioner at UKCES, noted that the ‘exceptionally strong job creation’ of the past few years has been accompanied by ‘stalling productivity levels. This is unsurprising since, as the OECD report authors argue, weak skills ‘reduce productivity and employability, damage citizenship and are therefore profoundly implicated in challenges of equity and social exclusion’. Both reports agree that improving the skills of the existing workforce is crucial to the UK closing the productivity gap. The scale of this challenge was highlighted in what was, nevertheless, in general, a very positive debate in the Lords. Lib Dem peer Baroness Sharp, who moved the debate, began by noting both the demographic challenges of an ageing society in which a high proportion of future job vacancies will have to be filled by members of the current workforce and the ‘chronic shortage in vital technical and professional skills which are key to raising productivity’. Evidently, current workers will need to retrain and update their skills regularly if they are to remain economically useful and productive in the face of rapid technological change. Despite this picture of clear and heightening need, the current trends in terms of adult skills and education are not good, she said. Part-time HE student numbers have fallen by 58 per cent since the introduction of full-cost 9,000 tuition fees, the Baroness observed, with the Open University and Birkbeck hit hard and part-time courses closing as they become unviable. At the same time, she continued, the FE adult skills budget had fallen by 35 per cent since 2009, with adult learners in FE colleges increasingly something of an endangered species. ‘Fifteen years ago, 50 per cent of students at further education colleges were adult students,’ she said. ‘Today it is only 15 per cent’. In the past five years alone, the number of people participating in adult education - including apprenticeships, work-based learning and community learning - had dropped by 1.3 million, she said. There had been a significant and welcome increase in the number of adults on apprenticeships, but too many were of poor quality and at a relatively low level, often going to people already in employment. Efforts to increase the number of apprentices, including the levy on large employers, were welcome, she added, but did not, by themselves, constitute the comprehensive skills strategy we need. Baroness’s Sharp’s themes were picked up with notable warmth by other speakers. ‘We cannot ignore the vast potential of those who want to continue learning, and we need to enable easy access to opportunities for adult education and skills, whatever one’s age or stage in life,’ urged Baroness Redfern (Conservative), who also stressed the importance of local relationships and new technologies. Baroness Bakewell (Labour) emphasised the need for lifelong education to ‘sustain the skills and expertise that support our jobs and our economy’ and ‘to nourish the sense of who we are, giving depth and insight to our sense of identity and enlarging our common humanity’. Baroness Greenfield (cross-bench) likewise stressed the wider value of adult education, highlighting the ‘impact of adult learning on well-being and hence its clear societal benefits’. Lord Rees (cross-bench) identified ‘a growing national need for flexible part-time education for young people seeking to qualify for gainful employment, for those in later life wishing to update their skills and for those in the third age simply wishing to follow intellectual interests’. Baroness Stedman-Scott (Conservative) echoed the sentiments of many in the chamber in saying that ‘ongoing training, skills development and education for everyone are critical to our economy. However, to have that, we need capacity and as flexible an approach as is practical, if we are to maximise the potential and ensure that we have the highly skilled and motivated workforce that employers need.’ Not everyone, however, was as sanguine about the prospects for the sector following the cash-terms protection granted the adult skills budget in the spending review. The much-vaunted ‘protection’ follows cuts on an historically unprecedented scale, including a 28 per cent reduction in the last year alone. These cuts, described by Alison Wolf as ‘catastrophic’, have narrowed the learning offer and put in doubt the viability of dozens of institutions which now face the further turmoil of the government’s partial and ill-conceived programme of area reviews. Baroness Kennedy (Labour), who cited her still remarkably relevant 1997 report, Learning Works, warned: I fear for further education because it is still being neglected - it is poorly funded and never given the esteem it deserves - and yet it is so fundamental to the wellbeing of this nation and the opportunities it provides for so many. Indeed, it could provide so much more in the future. It is a source of regret to me that we are not doing enough with their precious part of our educational world. Further education, she said, was, traditionally, the place where women returning after having children and people who became disenchanted with school or whose families said education was not for them, can get a second chance. Education, she concluded, had to be ‘at the heart of any inspired project for regeneration’, providing a springboard not only for economic regeneration but also for greater equity and justice in society, helping close ‘the growing gulf between those who have and those who have not’. By contrast, Baroness Evans, responding for the government, showed little understanding either of the scale of the challenges faced by adult education and skills or of its wider role in addressing inequality and promoting social cohesion. Acknowledging the role of adult education and skills in improving productivity, she said that the government was ‘committed to major improvements in adult education to meet the needs of the economy’. This commitment took the form of the government maintaining the adult education budget in cash terms following year-on-year cuts (what would have happened had the government not been committed to improving adult education doesn’t bear thinking about). The responsibility for funding had to be shared by government, employers and individuals, she said, though, to date, the government has shown much more enthusiasm for cutting funding from the first source than it has for the more difficult task of encouraging and incentivising funding from the other sources. There is the apprenticeship levy, of course, which Baroness Evans cited, but, as Baroness Sharp argued, this does not amount to anything like the comprehensive strategy for skills and education we require. Her understanding of lifelong learning was also depressingly narrow, focused only on how it can contribute to economic growth and employability. She concluded by noting that area reviews were making sure FE was ‘more efficient, financially resilient and locally responsive’. The reality on the ground, however, is likely to be fewer colleges and less choice for learners, with opportunity increasingly subject to a postcode lottery. The review process is a rushed and short-term response to swingeing cuts that have left many institutions in danger of financial collapse and not the sort of thoughtful, wide-ranging review of how to deliver the skills and capabilities we as a society actually need that would have real and lasting value. Baroness Sharp’s call for a comprehensive approach to adult education and skills grounded in much closer collaboration between colleges, universities and training providers, local authorities and other public sector organisations warrants serious consideration. We also need more partnership and coherence across government, as well as relief from the near constant churn in policy and policymakers, which has afflicted the FE sector, in particular, for decades. Increased resource will be essential too both in supporting breadth of provision and fair opportunity for all and in ensuring the recruitment and retention of a high-quality teaching workforce to deliver the step change we need. Colleges are already reporting difficulty in recruiting and retaining staff, with the significant added pressure of equipping young people with the English and maths qualifications they didn’t get at school making retention still more difficult. I regularly hear stories of FE teachers leaving post, with no job to go to, because of the pressures they face at work. I hear a lot of positive things too but it seems clear that, in places, teacher morale is becoming a serious issue. This needs to change if the sector is to attract and retain the high-calibre workforce the OECD says we need. Crucially too, as Baroness Sharp also argues, these arrangements must attend not only to skills but to adult education more broadly as well (a dimension Baroness Evans conspicuously failed to acknowledge). This is critically important. We need a broader, more expansive curriculum that not only develops occupational skills but the skills of adaptation, resilience, creativity, citizenship, critical thinking and lifelong learning other speakers talked about. Part of our problem is the narrowness of our thinking about skills, our tendency to think of ‘hard’ and ‘soft’, ‘cognitive’ and ‘non-cognitive’ skills as somehow separate and unrelated when in fact they occupy the same complex and interconnected ecology. Ultimately, the ongoing narrowing of adult education’s mission to focus almost exclusively on skills directly do with employment has failed to achieve even the limited aim of improving the UK’s productivity. It should not surprise us that the skills that make an economy successful are also those that help make us more thoughtful, creative, happy, cooperative and passionate about learning new things. To echo cross-bench peer Lord Hennessey’s quotation of RH Tawney during the Lords debate, adult education should be concerned ‘not merely with the machinery of existence, but with the things that make it worthwhile to live’.    

[Post by Greg Gammie, Implementations Manager at GeoMetrix Data Systems Inc.] After 22 years, The Excellence Awards Program is not only the most prestigious awards program in the performance improvement industry, but also gives you the opportunity to be internationally recognized for the leading practices that have impacted your organization’s business objectives and performance. Categories include: Learning & Development Talent Management Sales Performance Workforce Management Leadership Development Talent Acquisition By entering you have the opportunity to join the ranks of prestigious organizations that received awards last year, including Accenture, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, Shell, Canadian Tire, Genpact, KFC/Yum Brands, Boeing, Cisco, Dell, General Motors, Intel, MasterCard, MetLife, PwC, Verizon, and many other global and iconic organizations. Winners receive a variety of benefits including recognition in the awards ceremony, opportunities to present and share insights about your award-winning programs, and discounts at the HCM Excellence Conference. Submission for spring can be made until April 15, 2016 For more information visit: HCM Excellence Awards

What is the secret to great metrics? What is the secret to efficient learning? And a great ROI story? The answer is much closer than you think. It is a simple matter of applying science, and ensuring that the science behind L&D is just the same as in any other discipline where science is applied. It’s all about science. Original photo: aboutmodafinil.com Beware But let me start by saying what this post is not about. It is not about neuroscience, or perhaps more accurately "cognitive neuroscience". Cognitive neuroscience tries to explain how mental activities are executed in the brain. Because studying a functioning brain is so difficult and the conditions under which it can be done are so limited, cognitive neuroscience hasn’t been able to contribute much yet to the corporate learning field. This is because what can be observed so far in limited, confined contexts can be hardly generalized to more complex conditions such as learning in the enterprise. Back to basics Rather than neuroscience, let’s talk about plain science. And by that I mean the scientific method. The scientific method is an ongoing process that observes measurable evidence and formulates hypotheses. A hypothesis is simply a statement that needs to be tested. If all this seems too detached from L&D, it’s because we lack an example, so let’s go back to the workplace. Your business contact is telling you that the software developers in his team need a course in Advanced SQL Indexing because the product’s performance is slow due to sluggish SQL database code. The hypothesis here is that training in Advanced SQL Indexing will improve the ability of developers to write better SQL database code. And here’s the science The L&D professional will at this point get to work with providers and SMEs to source the best possible learning solution. But then, shockingly, it stops there. 87% of Irish organizations do not measure return on investment, according to a survey conducted by the University of Maynooth on behalf of IITD. And that’s where L&D lacks science. Every hypothesis must be tested. First, L&D must challenge the hypothesis given by the business, because it may be flawed. If both the business and L&D agree with the hypothesis, then the only way to validate it is to measure the evidence. The evidence is not successful delivery of training: the evidence is how that training is helping the team deliver a more efficient product. Time to change The recent hype about neuroscience -soon it will be something else- doesn’t help. It keeps L&D happy with some new buzzwords and generalizations we can somehow incorporate into our practice (and claim that we are applying them) and avoid taking a more scientific approach to what we deal with on a daily basis: hypotheses. It’s time to move outside of the cozy confines of the LMS, where surveys are easily conducted, and into the more challenging world of metrics: counters, long conversations with IT to implement telemetry; statistics, distribution curves, longitudinal studies, assessment, A/B testing, agile iterative approaches and, in short, running L&D like the businesses it supports. Let’s do that, and then, maybe, we can start looking at the advances of cognitive neuroscience and how they can help our practice. But let’s be scientific first. The post The science behind L&D appeared first on A Learning Blog.

Graduating class of the Lady Stanley Institute for Trained Nurses in Ottawa, OntarioI hopped on to #satchat this morning. The chat was lively and focused on assessment practices. One of the participants made this comment:A5: Technologies in the classroom are only as effective as the teacher using it. Realistically, most are not fully trainedindicating that most teachers are not fully trained to use technology in assessment. That comment stuck out to me. What does it mean to be fully trained?The term fully implies a finality, that there is such a time when we are done learning and can then go out and perform. As a teacher educator, I fight this notion all the time. Most hiring officials want fully trained teachers. We work hard to prepare capable teachers, but most evidence shows that they have much to learn and the good ones will keep on learning for many more years. Professionals are always working on improving their craft learning of innovations and reflecting on their practice.  The other fallacy is the idea that there is a set of practices and tools that sum up the profession. If you master this set you will be fully trained. The problem with this notion, of course, is that we do not have a set. Instead, we have an ever evolving set of practices (hopefully supported with evidence) and technology tools. There is no way to be fully trained because the what we train for keeps changing. In fact, the changes in technology do not just change the tool but the affordance in a way that can change the nature of the task and as a result the nature of what and how we teach. So what can we do?  1. We can provide teachers with ways of thinking and problems solving. Having productive strategies to think through Problems of Practice is a key element in our work. This is what we do in our student's Capstone Projects.2. We can provide an environment that supports professional learning for all. Teachers have different problems of practice and thus different professional learning needs. To be ready to tackle the ever-changing challenges of teaching we must help teachers define their learning needs and seek out the right supports. These can be as far ranging as informal edchats on twitter or formal as graduate degrees in education.3. Change our expectations. We should not expect fully trained. We should expect innovative teachers who keep trying new ideas. Sometimes we will fall on our faces, but with the help of a supportive group of educators we can get up dust ourselves off and learn. We should keep trying because there is an important lesson for our students in seeing us try, fail and try again until we all succeed together, students and educators. This is especially true of our attitudes toward new technologies.

We discuss the trends and issues we observed during the weeks of January 18-30, 2016 as we flipped resources into our Flipboard magazine (http://bit.ly/trendsandissues). We have four trends that we discuss. The first is continued news virtual reality. The primary focus was been on the push for content for virtual reality devices. The second trend […] Tags:   Del.icio.us Facebook TweetThis Digg StumbleUpon Comments:  0 (Zero), Be the first to leave a reply!Copyright © Trends & Issues [Episode 56 Trends for January 18-30 Need for VR Content, For Profit Online Education, Social Media in Higher Education, and MinecraftEdu], All Right Reserved. 2016.

The shift from a market-dominated society to a networked society is well on its way. The TIMN [Tribes + Institutions + Markets + Networks] model shows how civilization grew from a collection of tribes, added institutions, and later developed markets, as the dominant form of organization. These aligned with revolutions in communications: from oral, to written, to print. The network era began with the advent of electric communications, though it is by no means completely established. As with previous shifts of this magnitude, there is a tendency in parts of society to retreat to the old ways. "Tribalism has strong appeal in periods of rapid, tumultuous change, as what the political philosopher Karl Popper called the "the strain of civilization" exerts its pressures on society. The issue of immigration is a particularly potent one: the mythical tribe suddenly under attack by invading hordes from afar. And its impact can be seen everywhere today. A wall must be built against Mexico. The United Kingdom must restore control of its borders. Germany must slam shut its doors. Society must close, and quickly -the barbarians are coming." - The Angy Quarter We are missing appealing alternative models to our existing tribes, institutions, and markets. The critical work in all disciplines - economics, politics, education, business - is to change the worldview. The easy alternative is to revert to the old ways. We have gone through these shifts before and they can be painful, such as in England during the sixteenth century, as tenants were kicked off the land they worked. ‘Now the masses were at the mercy of a job market to obtain the means to reproduce themselves socially. Now the process of production was systematically subordinated to market imperatives: "competition, accumulation, and profit-maximization, and hence a constant systemic need to develop the productive forces."’ - Jesse Myerson: Markets in the Next System Myerson goes on to propose two alternatives to current market capitalism: cooperatives to de-market capital, and enabling labour to exit the market via the welfare state. Both of these strategies provide ways for people to avoid the effects of careening markets. As our markets become dominated by intangible goods and services, we will see ever increasing volatility. We have a choice. We can accept the inevitability of a society dominated by markets or we can create alternatives that understand networks. The electric network era can extend our humanity while obsolescing many of our current institutions and markets. We need to create alternatives, based on a new understanding of global kinship, so that society does not reverse back to tribalism. network society tetrad

The gomo team is excited to announce that its parent company Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG) is acquiring Rustici Software. Rustici is a highly respected innovator of SCORM and the co-creator of the xAPI standard (also known as Tin Can API or Experience API) and has been assisting clients in using e-learning standards to connect systems since 2002. LTG’s acquisition of Rustici Software brings additional expertise and insight to the gomo learning suite, which outputs both SCORM and xAPI learning content. It also enables the gomo team to collaborate with Rustici’s experts to transform and advance the capability of the award-winning gomo learning suite. The acquisition expands LTG’s North American presence and technical expertise, allowing the Group to deliver increasingly innovative systems and products to clients. Gavin Beddow, Director of Product Development at gomo commented: "We are really looking forward to working with the team at Rustici to explore the synergies and opportunities between our products.  Rustici have built their business through delivering best-in-class products which is a perfect fit within gomo’s vision." Alongside gomo, Rustici joins Governance, Risk and Compliance experts Eukleia, transformational learning experts LEO and Games with Purpose pioneers Preloaded as part of the LTG portfolio. Rustici will be joining gomo on the LTG stand at B21 of Learning Technologies 2016, which takes place on February 3-4th at London Olympia. Future announcements on how Rustici and gomo will collaborate to enhance the gomo learning suite will be made via the gomo learning website.   The post xAPI innovators Rustici Software join gomo as part of LTG appeared first on gomo Learning.

I was part of a PD on asking deeper questioning this week. They did a great job modeling what they were teaching us. They would introduce a concept and have us practice with a "neighbor" or would ask a question and have us discuss at our tables. They kept these activities short, only giving us a minute or two to discuss which kept us on task and did not give time for side conversations. This was not a new process to me, but they did one extra step that I think was significant. While we were talking they went around to different groups and asked someone to share out their thinking in the large group conversation that followed. So after these small conversations when we discussed as a whole group the leaders did not have to ask who wants to share because these people were already chosen. I had never thought of wait time like this before. To me, when I think of wait time I usually think of pausing and not calling on the first student who raises their hand, but letting other students have a chance to process first. Their process, in my opinion, is a much better way to do wait time. Students have a warning that they will be sharing, but have time to mentally prepare what they will say and get feedback from their group. This is an opportunity for shy students to think through things and yet are given a voice without being put on the spot. Wait time doesn’t have to mean a student thinking silently. Wait time also means the opportunity to discuss your thoughts with a partner before taking the risk of sharing with the whole group. What techniques do you use to give your students wait time?

Today, I want to share a piece of news that’s really exciting for us. As of this morning, Rustici Software has been acquired by Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG), a publicly listed learning technologies agency made up of specialist digital learning businesses. As a part of LTG, we’ll have the opportunity to work with the other Group companies in creating the next generation of technically-focused learning solutions. LTG has a great deal of learning expertise and serves organizations worldwide. LTG’s portfolio includes LEO, a pioneering learning technologies firm, the multi-device authoring tool gomo learning, games with purpose company Preloaded, and Eukleia, an e-learning provider to the financial services sector. As part of LTG, we’ll continue offering exactly the same services we do today to an ever larger group — not only will we provide our world-class e-learning standards support to LTG companies and their customers but as part of the Group, we’ll also have the platform to reach new global audiences. For our Rustici Software customers, the story is simple. The very same people will be providing to you the very same services in the same way. Our ability to serve our customers in the way we always have is something we feel really strongly about. We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with the fine folks at LTG, and to continue to serve the e-learning industry in an even bigger way than before. We’re also excited because we’re spinning off Watershed at the very same time. Watershed will continue to push forward with their exploration of learning analytics and LRSs, and has also received a significant investment from LTG as part of Watershed’s Series A funding round. Mike and I, as CEO of Watershed and CEO of Rustici Software respectively, are both excited about where the two companies are headed. If you have any questions or need more specific information regarding the acquisition, please let us know. Any inquiries or requests for additional documentation should be sent to info@scorm.com. Tim   The post Big news from Rustici Software appeared first on SCORM - .

3-4 February Olympia, London We are exhibiting! Come visit us at stand O2 Wranx at Learning Technologies 2016 Learning Technologies is the perfect opportunity to showcase how we are helping global brands to implement great learning strategies. With users across 466 cities, it is has been a fantastic 12 months for Wranx! Our team will be on hand over the two days to provide live demonstrations of our learning technology and how the spaced repetition method works. We will also have an interactive giant itab so you will have the opportunity to try out Wranx for yourself! You’re welcome to pop by Stand O2 and say hello at any time, but if you have any questions for our team, you might want to book a meeting in advance, which you can do by emailing info@wranx.com We look forward to seeing you there! Seminar : Enterprise Scale Gamification   Phillip Price - Virtual Academy Operations for PSA Peugeot Citroen 10.15am -10.45am 4th February Theatre 8 Olympia London We are also excited to announce that Phillip Price will be hosting a seminar at the event on behalf of Wranx on enterprise scale gamification! The seminar will include real examples of gamification in action and demonstrate how it can engage and incentivise employees and students to learn more. Phillip Price Phillip is a proactive and committed Learning Development Manager, with over 20 years of experience implementing and overseeing professional development operations according to corporate mandate. He has a proven background in training management, implementing instructional programmes and assessing syllabus impact at organisational level. Share this post with your own audience

Today, I want to share a piece of news that’s really exciting for us. As of this morning, Rustici Software has been acquired by Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG), a publicly listed learning technologies agency made up of specialist digital learning businesses. As a part of LTG, we’ll have the opportunity to work with the other Group companies in creating the next generation of technically-focused learning solutions. LTG has a great deal of learning expertise and serves organizations worldwide. LTG’s portfolio includes LEO, a pioneering learning technologies firm, the multi-device authoring tool gomo learning, games with purpose company Preloaded, and Eukleia, an e-learning provider to the financial services sector. As part of LTG, we’ll continue offering exactly the same services we do today to an ever larger group — not only will we provide our world-class e-learning standards support to LTG companies and their customers but as part of the Group, we’ll also have the platform to reach new global audiences. For our Rustici Software customers, the story is simple. The very same people will be providing to you the very same services in the same way. Our ability to serve our customers in the way we always have is something we feel really strongly about. We’re excited to have the opportunity to work with the fine folks at LTG, and to continue to serve the e-learning industry in an even bigger way than before. We’re also excited because we’re spinning off Watershed at the very same time. Watershed will continue to push forward with their exploration of learning analytics and LRSs, and has also received a significant investment from LTG as part of Watershed’s Series A funding round. Mike and I, as CEO of Watershed and CEO of Rustici Software respectively, are both excited about where the two companies are headed. If you have any questions or need more specific information regarding the acquisition, please let us know. Any inquiries or requests for additional documentation should be sent to info@rusticisoftware.com. Tim The post Big news from Rustici Software appeared first on Rustici Software.

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According to the Facebook group to which I was added at the weekend, this year marks the 30th anniversary of the graduation of Liskeard Comprehensive School’s class of ‘86. Looking at the roll call of names and photos in the group is like being in the audience of a Peter Kay gig. (‘Remember the 80s? Permed hair eh? And rah-rah skirts? Remember those? And eating butterscotch Angel Delight at your Nan’s house while you watched The Sullivans? Remember that?’) And, though I’m not going to be able to make the physical reunion this weekend, my nostalgia buds have well and truly been tickled, and some old real-life friends have become new Facebook buddies. So let’s get nostalgic about technology. In 1986 I was 16 and had just completed a load of CSE and O levels. And despite only getting a grade 4 in Computer Studies CSE (I go to pieces when being observed or examined in any way - hence my 4 failed driving tests and disappointing exam results. The fact I managed to get any qualifications at all is a miracle), I would like to think I was pretty tech-savvy for the day. When I was seven years old, my parents had one of the first Space Invaders machines in the country in the pub they ran, so it was no massive leap to owning one of those fake walnut veneer ATARI tennis game system thingies when I was about 10 or 11, then a Commodore 16 when I was 16. My God, I loved typing out those pages of code from computer magazines back then, and going through every letter, digit and parenthesis to look for errors when, inevitably, the code didn’t work. Now I think about it, had the role of learning technologist been around back in 1986, I know it’s something I’d have wanted to be when I grew up. Back then journalist, cartographer or chartered helicopter pilot were the closest I came to having those sorts of dreams. When we completed personality tests at the age of 15 and then saw a careers advisor, she recommended that, based on my scores, I pursued a job working with animals. That’s probably the point that I gave up on life to be honest. I don’t dislike animals…but at the same time, the fact that I don’t own any highlights just how useless that careers advisor / personality test was. So, with not much of an idea as to what I wanted to do, I ended up going to Art College and getting a degree there. I did this because art was the only thing I could think of that I was good at. Naturally, this led me to a career as a bar manager and then as a lecturer in teacher education(!)…but here’s the thing. All of the time I was developing a love of technology that even I didn’t realise was there. When I saw a computer running Windows 95 in the adult education centre in which I began my teaching career, I was curious and felt nostalgic for my old Commodore 16. So I greeted it like an old friend and started having a tinker. I like learning by toying with stuff, and guessed that as it wasn’t my computer, it didn’t matter if I broke it - plus, as far as I was concerned, the only way I could break it was by physically throwing it out of the window. Which, in those early days, I wanted to do a lot. At the age of 24 (a few years before I went into teaching - I was at the bar manager stage of my journey), I owned my first grown up gaming console: a Sega Mega Drive. And as my curiosity (and age) developed, I upgraded from the Mega Drive to PlayStation to Xbox. And this upgrading still continues as my addiction to Fallout 4 will attest. My job didn’t exist in 1986, but rather fortuitously, the odd route I took to becoming a learning technologist was perfect: I have a keen eye for design (and qualifications to prove it, so let’s nip those ‘smug cow’ comments in the bud!), so I can design aesthetically pleasing resources. My background in teacher education means I know a little about how we learn and how we engage with new knowledge, so I can see learning from both teacher and student perspectives and have half an idea of works and what doesn’t. And all those years monkeying around with computers, then laptops, then the new-fangled internet, then tablets, via a suite of operating systems, cables, wireless devices and other new-fangled gizmos and gadgets mean that I’m not too bad with computers. Put all of these skills together, and I think they make for mean learning technologist. Or, at least, they do in January 2016. Whether they’ll be appropriate for the role in 2, 3 or 10 years is another conversation entirely… …so what’s the overarching message behind this nostalgia-fest? I think it’s this: if you are at the age where your teachers and family are pestering you to make decisions about the exams you’ll be taking and the job you hope to get at the end of it, then ignore them. It is very common to find, later on in life, that the subjects you choose to study don’t often seem to have any bearing on the career you go into. So you mustn’t think that your life is over if you choose the ‘wrong’ qualifications, the ‘wrong’ apprenticeship or the ‘wrong’ degree. The job you end up doing may not have been invented yet - and may not be invented for another 20 years. I really didn’t know what I wanted to be until I started doing it - so I was about 40 when the penny dropped. And, to be honest, I think curiosity, the capacity to cock up without believing that your world has ended and the ability to embrace change are better than a bag full of certificates anyway.  

An Interview with Learning & Performance Consultant JD Dillon on metrics L&D should value to prove learning success in business I recently had the pleasure of speaking with JD Dillon (pictured right), an experienced, active and well-respected proponent for improving corporate learning and development. JD authors his own Just Curious Learning Blog and speaks regularly at the industry’s top learning conferences. Most recently, he served on the ATD 2016 TechKnowledge Conference Program Advisory Committee where he led a session entitled: Reworking the Puzzle: How to Build a Smarter Learning Ecosystem. Here’s what JD had to say about learning metrics and how to tie learning to bottom-line business results. Axonify: Most large organizations have an LMS in place. What are the top ten learning metrics you can pull from a typical LMS? JD Dillon: I’d really have to stretch to find ten useful pieces of data that I can pull from a traditional LMS. This data is typically limited to logistical details about specific training events and includes items like: Completions Level 1 survey feedback Level 2 assessment scores Training session dates/times Training hours associated to specific objects Assignment/registration info Organizational hierarchy info pulled from HRIS Axonify: How does this data help you understand and measure learning? JD Dillon: It doesn’t. While you can tell who attended and completed training and what they scored on any assessment, that doesn’t necessarily indicate learning, or more importantly, performance improvement. A traditional LMS doesn’t offer effective ways of tracking knowledge growth over time, or correlating training activity to real-world performance. Unfortunately, the limited data collection and reporting capabilities in an LMS prompt L&D organizations along with stakeholders to value the wrong data simply because it’s available. While I do care about resource utilization and formal training attendance, I really care about the connection between those data points and business KPIs, a connection that LMSs do not make easy to establish. Axonify: How do you or other professionals in your industry use this data (or is it just data that’s collected but not used)? JD Dillon: Based on my experience and ongoing conversations with peers across industries, I’d say that we don’t leverage data very effectively as an industry. This starts with a lack of effort in designing learning towards the collection of meaningful data. Then, because our systems do not support effective data collection/analysis, we are left with limited options. We also do not stress data analysis as a core L&D competency, which limits our ability to improve the situation in terms of selecting better systems and designing to ensure measurable outcomes. The order-taking nature of L&D also disrupts our ability to meaningfully use data, as it requires focus on long-term objectives rather than short-term deliverables and check-in-the-box completion. Finally, we limit ourselves by separating "training data" from "business data." It can be extremely challenging or impossible to locate and correlate information from various business units, including sales, customer service, quality, HR, L&D, etc., and therefore people often don’t make the effort. This means we fail to gain valuable insights into performance. Axonify: What data would be meaningful for measuring learning and tying it to business results? JD Dillon: Trends. An effective measurement strategy must take long-term changes in performance into account and connect them to learning opportunities. This starts with subjective and objective performance measures. In addition to hard metrics like sales, customer satisfaction, and quality feedback, we must collaborate with managers to capture behavioral insights into performance that don’t specifically appear in reports. At the same time, we must select and effectively integrate systems and processes that help us collect data on how employees are using support resources, including learning content. This includes everything from employee traffic flow through content repositories to knowledge assessment scores and practice session observations. We can then identify trends over time from this "learning data" and connect these patterns to changes in performance. This will help us ask more informed, meaningful questions when performance gaps are identified as we look for the best ways to support the organization. Axonify: How would you recommend L&D professionals get started on identifying and measuring the most important learning data? JD Dillon: Get more comfortable with data, especially information outside the traditional realm of L&D. Do your research. Take advantage of shared resources. Enroll in online classes to enhance your measurement, reporting, and analysis skills. Then, focus on performance. Find partners who have access to and experience with high-value performance data within your organization. Work to become experts with this reporting so you can, not only speak the language of the business, but also design learning and support strategies that target the right data for the purpose of finding meaningful connections. Continue to use learning data to inform your questions and decision-making, but focus on the measurements that are most valued by your partners across the business. Is this your challenge? Next week, we’ll feature a post about how to turn learning measurement on its head. We’ll take you through a business-first approach that focuses on key business objectives and then uses those objectives to drive your learning programs. Written by Richele Black The post Useless vs. Useful Learning Data appeared first on Axonify.

C3 EMEA just happened and now C3 US is fast approaching. C3 is the CallidusCloud Connections event where Litmos is part of the agenda. This is where we get the opportunity to meet our customers, and potential customers, in a focused learning environment. And where we learn as much from our customers and they learn from us. It's an amazing corporate event for anyone in the corporate training or L&D industry. With the European event behind us and the US event still to come here is a little of what you can expect at the US event if you missed C3 EMEA. The Litmos Product We like to kick of the event with some in-depth training on the Litmos SaaS-based LMS. Our team takes you through a basic overview, how to build a course, the learner view, managing users, reporting, and powerful integrations. It's always a great opportunity to show everyone the real power of the Litmos platform in one session. While Litmos continues to grow and expand in its capabilities, its still easy to use and quick to deploy. And that's only one of the benefits you'll discover. Rory Cameron, EVP & GM of Litmos.com, also uses C3 as an opportunity to announce new product initiatives. And deliver his presentation on the future of learning and how Litmos working hard to meet your training needs. At C3 EMEA Rory announced Litmos TV and Litmos Persist to an excited group of Litmos customers. Litmos TV will give users the ability to access Litmos modules on Roku or Apple TV. And Litmos Persist is a notification workflow that continues to notify learners of courses they have not completed with notifications sent through different channels including emails, SMS, iPhone notifications, Salesforce Chatter, etc. Litmos and CallidusCloud And since Litmos is part of the CallidusCloud family, you are also invited to the major keynotes, expo, and reception party. C3 EMEA recently enjoyed a motivational keynote from Clive Woodward, Rugby World Cup Winning Coach, Team GB Director of Sport, London 2012 & Captured founder. His formula for a champion includes talent, willingness to learn, able to think under pressure, and hard work. All of which applies to anyone. Not just world class athletes. With sales expertise filling the CallidusCloud side of the event and learning expertise on the Litmos side, this event is the perfect environment for training specialists focus on supporting sales departments. There is no better place to learn about training and learning in an environment filled with your target audience of learners. It's a fantastic opportunity for all learning professionals but especially powerful for Sales Training Professionals and those creating eLearning for a sales and marketing focused audience. Customer Case Studies One of the most important parts of an event like C3 is sharing our experiences with others in our field. It's one of the best ways to learn new strategies and tactics for creating, developing, delivering, and supporting the training needs of your business. C3 EMEA had Redknee, Mimecast, and Training Eye, amongst others deliver presentations about their experiences implementing Litmos. And you can expect the same at the US event as well. Keep an eye on Litmos.com/C3 for updates. Also, if you are a Litmos customer and want to share your story please feel free to reach out. We also have experts from the eLearning industry present new and exciting strategies and opportunities for training success. This year C3 had Ant Pugh who lead a fireside chat Q&A session about eLearning. Last year we had then pleasure of hearing from Clark Quinn who has authored a number of books related to the L&D industry and is known worldwide for his expertise in eLearning and informal learning strategies. C3 is always an experience to remember. It grows every year and you don't want to miss out on the fun, the learning, and the career inspiration. Grab your training team and head out to the Wynn in Las Vegas May 9-11. If you have any questions you reach to me @litmos or you can always contact your customer representative. I hope to see you there.   The post Litmos at CallidusCloud Connections May 9-11 in Las Vegas appeared first on Litmos.

Why instructional design? Why not just design, period!? I would encourage everyone to engage with others who work in design oriented disciplines. If you've never done it, it will be an eye-opening experience. I've engage with designers of all sorts throughout the years and have discovered that there are far more similarities across fields than one might think. If you look specifically at the final product of each discipline you would most likely not come to this conclusion. However, if you dig deeper into their processes and how they get the work done, the similarities become obvious.  Oddly enough, I've also discovered that most other design fields have already discovered this...a long time ago! The instructional design industry seems to always be the last to find these things out. What makes the design work we do any different from the work of other designers? Sure our tools look different. Our final products look very different. But our approach and processes are perfectly aligned. With maybe a few small exceptions. I'm writing about this today because I ran across a link on twitter to this web site for the Interaction Design Foundation. It's been a long time since I've thought about this topic so I dove right in. Here is how the Interaction Design Foundation defines design. "We take design at its most simple definition that of a practical approach to problem solving. This remains true from industrial design to service design - designers build products and/or services to solve user and customer problems." Interaction Design Foundation Hey! That sounds an awful lot like what instructional designers do too! We solve business problems, user problems, customer problems too, right? And isn't our training supposed to keep these problems from occurring? Preventative design...if that's a thing. In all honesty, I've often thought that if there was perfection in all other forms of design training would not be unnecessary. All products and services would be so intuitive that we would all just naturally understand them. That's just a fantasy. Fortunately for us, we are an imperfect species living in an imperfect world. And we all need help with our learning through training products, events, and experiences. If you are new to the world of training I would encourage you to become familiar with the basic ideas behind design thinking. And if you have time, dive into a few totally unrelated design disciplines. See for yourself. The post Why Design is More Important than Instructional Design appeared first on Litmos.

Staff and partners joining Specsavers will be able to earn a virtual coin to donate to charity in a new online induction course.The international optical and hearing business will make a real money donation to charity in proportion to the virtual coins earned by employees who complete the induction training.The innovative online course has been created for Specsavers by award-winning elearning company, Sponge UK.The module is being rolled out across 15 countries including the UK and will form part of the company’s induction programme for all new recruits.Simon Poole-Anderson, Global Learning Technologies Consultant at Specsavers, said:"We selected Sponge after a vigorous selection process, and found them to be great partners in assimilating our creative and technical direction. Sponge also provided strong project management which ensured we landed the project on time, on budget and to the desired quality. They were essential in developing this progressive learning technology intervention with us. We’ve had wholly positive feedback from our global stakeholders and we’re confident that it will provide a positive and impactful welcome to our new starters."During the module, new joiners explore an animated map of the world which includes video clips of senior managers talking about the company’s global activities.The induction course helps learners understand Specsavers’ values, goals and brand and reinforces knowledge about the company with authentic scenario questions.Those who complete the module can select one of three Specsavers’ partner charities to donate their virtual coin to, Sightsavers, Vision Aid Overseas or The Fred Hollows Foundation.Louise Pasterfield, Managing Director of Sponge UK, said:"Specsavers set out to push the boundaries of online induction and the company should be applauded for its commitment to innovation. Linking charitable giving to the induction process is not only a strong motivator to help people engage with the training but also underlines the importance the company places on giving back to communities. We’ve worked closely with Specsavers to use the latest learning technologies to incorporate animation, video and a high degree of interactivity to really bring this induction module to life." The online training can be completed by Specsavers employees and partners either during the first few days of their new job or before they take up a new position.The module covers all aspects of the business including stores, manufacturing, distribution and back office.Rob Foster, Global Head of Learning Technologies at Specsavers, said:"Our online induction course is intended to confirm to new starters that they’ve made a great choice in choosing Specsavers as their next employer. Likewise, we believe we made a great choice in choosing Sponge as our partner to help us develop this innovative learning solution."Around 5,000 people are expected to complete the module in 2016. Sponge UK has worked with a wide range of organisations on induction elearning projects including Toyota, United Nations OCHA, United Biscuits and Sports Direct. The post Specsavers uses online induction to ‘coin’ its values with new starters appeared first on Sponge UK.

I had the honor of speaking today to leaders and learners from Dallas County schools at #LiteUp2016 Below you will find the resources I shared Contact me at AngelaMaiers [at] Gmail [dot] com   Literacy […] The post Literacy Reimagined appeared first on Angela Maiers.