The Knowledge Guru platform continues to expand its features and functionality using customer feedback as our guide.  Our Summer 2015 Release is all about expanding your options globally. We are introducing six new languages so you can expand your coverage to non-English speaking learners across the globe. We have also expanded the ways you can use spaced repetition within our Quest game type to maximize retention. Six New Languages available; Spanish for Everyone! With the Summer Release, Enterprise subscribers now automatically have six new languages to choose from in addition to standard English: Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, and Spanish.  If you are a current customer, you will find these options in your Game Author tool, under the Customize tab.  Just click the drop-down box for Theme and select the one you need. Standard and Premium subscribers have also been updated with the Spanish language option. More options for Game Spacing in Quest The most powerful feature of Knowledge Guru’s award-winning design is the spaced repetition it provides. In our Quest game type, administrators have already been able to turn on automatic spacing so that players can only play one topic per week. This design maximizes knowledge retention and encourages gameplay in short chunks. But while weekly spacing is optimal from a learning science standpoint, it is not always practical in real-world implementations. Thanks to some helpful feedback from our customers, we’ve added a new spacing option that allows players to play an entire world in a single day, then return the next day to play another world. This allows players to complete a game quickly while still benefitting from the spaced repetition of the platform. Updated Knowledge Base Articles We have added several new articles in our knowledge base to help you get the most out of your Knowledge Guru subscription. Remember, you can access the Knowledge Base at any time by clicking the "Getting Started" tab in your Game Author tool, and selecting Knowledge Base. Want to help inform the Fall Release? Our Fall 2015 release will be here before you know it… and we have some exciting new features planned. Part of the release will be an integration with Salesforce, and we would love to consider your feedback as we continue development. Fill out our four question Salesforce Integration Survey to let us know what features you would like to see in a Salesforce integration.           The post Knowledge Guru Summer Release Adds 6 New Languages and Another Game Spacing Option appeared first on .

Last week, a colleague asked me what sales process I use. I was at a loss for words because the process I use has become so natural to me that it doesn’t feel like a process. My sales process feels more like a second language… though I’m still working to master it. I strongly believe that this particular process works—I’ve experienced the success it has brought me over the years. Achieving is believing. What about your sales reps? Has your process become so embedded into their vocabulary that it is clearly driving higher revenue? Have they become believers? No? You’re not sure? If they aren’t using a sound sales process or sales language, then they aren’t driving the revenue you could be realizing. Sandler Rule #20: The bottom line of professional selling is going to the bank. Show me the money! How do we get sales rep to know the process, use the process (or see results) and ultimately believe in the process? Many organizations I work with are turning to serious games to accomplish this… with measurable results. Know the Process Before a sales rep has their first conversation with a prospect, the process they need to follow must be known ‘cold’ from memory.   Reps generally don’t have the time to consult job aids or resources while they are in the middle of a conversation. Here’s where techniques like spacing and repetition incorporated in an effective serious game can have the greatest impact. Take Cisco for example: Their use of games drove an 86.6% knowledge transfer rate for new sales reps who played. Cisco sales associates cited the use of spaced repetition in the games as pivotal to passing the required certification tests. Spacing and repetition are keys to long-term memory retrieval so that reps can truly talk the talk. Do the process Of course, once reps know the process, we must allow them sufficient time to practice the process. This is no different than any sports team: practice and more practice make for a winning team! Games that leverage additional performance challenges within the game allow players to ‘do’ the process (and make mistakes) before they talk to clients. Performance challenges can be particularly effective as reps are able to contextualize the process into their everyday sales world and conversations. Next, back-end analytics included with many serious games allow trainers to identify any knowledge gaps for the group or spot coaching opportunities with individuals. Like getting ready for a big game, the practice will allow reps to feel comfortable with the process and have a clear pathway to success. Then it’s all touchdowns and dancing in the end zone! Believe the Process If reps know and do the process, will they automatically believe in it, too? We often say that a motivated and engaged learner who is rewarded for their efforts can help in this endeavor. Games inherently engage learners with competitive elements such as status on the leaderboard, badges, trophies and power-ups. These elements motivate players to keep playing… and simultaneously gain confidence with the process. Once confident, reps can sell confidently. And, once they start to see their sales grow, it won’t take a leap of faith to make them believers. It Starts With Your Leaders Like your sales process, game-based learning can drive measurable results when combined with support from senior leadership. Many companies I work with have large PR campaigns surrounding new game-based learning initiatives. Organizations who require game play, while still offering great prizes and incentives, are more successful than companies who leave it up to decide if they will play or not. If company leaders don’t make the game a priority, neither will your learners. The same will happen with your sales process. If it is optional to know, do or believe in, many reps might leave it at a prospect’s door and revenues could suffer as a result. What leader would be happy about that? With well-trained and confident reps, you will see higher rep performance and increased revenues. Your CEO will be so proud. The post Is Your Sales Process a Second Language Yet? appeared first on .

Want to make your first Knowledge Guru game roll-out a success? While the platform itself is easy to use, a bit of planning and preparation goes a long way. The following "keys to success" will help you make the right decisions before you start designing your game… and help you make your game content instructionally sound. 1) Choose the right game "type" for your endeavor. Knowledge Guru offers you two options: Quest or Legend. Each one can a give you an impactful learning experience, and sometimes either option is equally good. Here’s a few of the major things to consider: Do you HAVE to support IE8? If so, use Legend. Quest will not work within Internet Explorer 8. If users cannot switch to a modern browser (IE9 or higher, Chrome, Firefox), then you’ll have problems. Do you want people to play as part of a live event? Either game type can be used. Legend is the optimal choice if you want to break up game play throughout the day and have players focus on a single topic per play session. Quest is a strong option if you want the game to serve as an overall review of the day. You can have players complete a single world within the game, which would include all the day’s topics. They can then finish their games on their own - getting two additional repetitions of your content following your live event. Do you have a theme? Legend gives you 8 different themes to select from; Quest gives you three. Some customers even opt for a custom-made theme. Which one is right for your event/learning experience? Do you want to incorporate video? Use Quest. Legend does not support video within the questions. Do you want to include "performance challenges" as well as the question/answer format? If so, choose Quest. For more detailed comparisons, you can check out these  Knowledge Base articles that do a detailed comparison of Legend and Quest. 2) Make your game smaller as opposed to bigger. Both Legend and Quest are designed to maximize learner retention of content. However, if you overload your game with too much content, you will hurt your players’ ability to remember.  Novice authors can go a bit crazy on crafting questions and suddenly find themselves with 8, 9, 10 or even 11 question sets within a single topic. The result is player fatigue and overload on their brains. They end up remembering very little. If you truly have lots and lots of content to cover, consider crafting several "mini-games" that can be spaced out. The Legend game type is particularly good for designing this type of solution. You can have a highly effective Legend game that has only three topics with three question sets in each topic. 3) Get good at writing question "sets" The single biggest challenge novice game creators have is recognizing when they are not writing iterative questions. Our Knowledge Base has a great article on how to write iterative questions. We encourage you to read it before you create a game, or to evaluate a game you’ve already created. Here’s a terrific formula to think about when you craft a question iteration: Make the  question on the "A" path (Legend) or "A" world (Quest) a recall of the fact. This can be done as a true/false or a multiple choice option. Widget A has three benefits. Two of these are durability and low cost of operation. What’s the third? Make the question on the "B" path or world a bit more difficult by crafting a fill-in-the-blank or having them reference. When you sell Widget A to customers, you need to share three benefits: ______ , ___ _____ of operation, and _____ease of________. Make the question on the "C" path or world scenario based. Have them incorporate the fact into a job situation they would typically encounter. You are meeting with Joe at ACME construction. He is concerned about replacement costs of Widget A. Which of the three benefits below is the one you should communicate to Joe? (NOTE: The answer would be durability. The distractors would be the other two benefits.) 4) Make your questions contextual to the players’ jobs and personal to them. We all care about what matters most to us. So make sure your questions place your players in their jobs whenever possible. Here’s a terrific "formula" to think about when you craft a question iteration: You are in a lab…. Your manager wants you to…. Your customer asks…. 5) Incorporate visuals and video. People respond well to images and they like watching short videos—just think about the popularity of YouTube. If you can show them instead of tell them, do it! Here are things you can do with an image, even one made in PowerPoint: Give the player a context or "setting" for a scenario or a visual of what a customer might look like. Present data that a player needs to analyze before responding to a question. Show the flow of a process or the steps in a process. Present a vignette of a selling situation, a feedback session, a customer inquiry, etc. The post 5 Keys to Success With the Knowledge Guru Game Platform appeared first on .

Fall is in the air. For us at BLP, that means it’s DevLearn season. DevLearn is the premier learning conference for emerging trends and technology. Our team has attended DevLearn for years to learn about the latest, greatest learning solutions before they "hit the shelves" for most of our clients. Since 2012, we have attended the conference as exhibitors to show off the latest releases of our Knowledge Guru platform. Each year we have attended DevLearn, Knowledge Guru seems to have grown so much from the previous year. But while we have added features and functionality, the core value proposition (help employees learn and remember things like product knowledge, policies and procedures) remains the same. Here is where we’ll be, and what we’ll be doing, at this year’s DevLearn conference: Pre-Conference Workshop: On Tuesday 9/29, BLP President Sharon Boller partners with Dr. Karl Kapp to deliver their acclaimed workshop, "Play to Learn - Designing Effective Learning Games." Participants will spend the second half of the workshop building a paper prototype of their own learning game. More Info. Expo: We will show off the latest features of our Knowledge Guru platform in Booth 216 of the expo. You’ll be able to catch a glimpse of our soon-to-be-released smartphone app for Knowledge Guru as well as see the latest custom learning solutions we have created. One attendee will win a Knowledge Guru subscription each day. Let us know you’re coming. Gamification Panel: Sharon Boller is a featured panelist for "The Past, Present and Future of Games for Learning" at 3 pm on Wednesday, 9/30. Learning Stage Session - Serious Games + Smart Implementation = Win: My session takes four case studies from organizations that have successful used Knowledge Guru games and distills them down to seven practical implementation tips. It’s on Thursday, 10/1 at 10 am. DemoFest: We will show off "Password Blaster", a mobile game used as part of a large Info Asset Protection curriculum, at DevLearn DemoFest. DemoFest is on Thursday, 10/1 from 4-6 pm. Lessons from the Trenches of Digital Game Design: Sharon Boller will give her concurrent session on digital game design on Friday, 10/2 at 10 am. Follow the Action: Can’t attend DevLearn? We’ll be sharing some of the content we are discussing and presenting from our Knowledge Guru twitter account. Will We See You at DevLearn: If you are coming to the conference and would like to meet, drop us a note. The post BLP Teases Knowledge Guru Fall Release at DevLearn appeared first on .

I was speaking to a client the other day who said only 10% of her workforce completes the training they are supposed to take on the LMS. She thinks training completion is low because the content isn’t engaging and wanted to know if a learning game could fix it. I told her that there is no "easy button," and games are not a cure-all for for boring content or bad learning design. Game-based learning can improve learner engagement, but only if you start with a strategy. Years of research shows that game-based learning can increase not only learner engagement, but drive both higher retention and completion rates. Industry professionals are now spending less time debating what the research says about games, but many organizations still struggle to correctly implement games that drive meaningful results. Adding a learning game to the mix just to ‘jazz things up’ could be like putting a Band-Aid on the problem when surgery is really needed. How do you implement a true game-based learning strategy that will actually work? A strategy where learners actually learn and retain at higher levels? A strategy that drives measurable results? Here are some key points to keep in mind when creating your strategy: 1. Know your audience Key stakeholders often get this wrong. I had a seasoned training director tell me that since his audience was mostly women, games just wouldn’t work. Really? According to the Entertainment Software Association, of the 155 million gamers out there, 44% are women. There are marketing games that tout a player demographic of 52% women. 2. Make it relevant This is where many game-based learning strategies fail.   First, learners want activities that are relevant to the learning material and their job. If the game is relevant to helping them retain material or gives them time to practice with material they will use often, then it’s worthwhile. If not, learners will reject it. If you’ve tried a game before and it wasn’t adopted well by your learners, this might be the culprit. Avoid drawing the conclusion that games won’t work with your learners if this is the case. 3. Make learning the focus Many folks want serious games to be, well, less "serious." They want more action, more sound, more addictive qualities to the game. The problem is that the more complex the game design or game-play is, the less cognitive space is left to learn the knowledge and skills you designed the game to teach in the first place. 4. Timing is everything Learning games work best when implemented as part of a blended learning approach. At Bottom-Line Performance, we’ve implemented games as pre-work to a larger training event or instructor-led training as well as post-work for multi-module eLearning curriculums to help learners reinforce what they learned—particularly material they really need to know from memory. 5. Measure the outcomes To drive measurable results, you have to know what you want the desired learning outcomes to be and have a way to access the data you need to measure those outcomes. If your LMS reports only completion, choose a platform that can deliver reports detailing how players performed. Of course, implementing a strategy at your company will involve many more steps than what I have shared here, as well as testing to gauge the response a game-based learning approach has with your learners. Whatever your desired business outcomes are, make sure your game-based approach is based on sound instructional design. The post How to Create a Game-Based Learning Strategy appeared first on .

Bottom-Line Performance and Ally partnered to win a 2015 Brandon Hall Excellence award. The winning submission won a Bronze in Best Use of Games or Simulations for Learning. The game was created and implemented with the Knowledge Guru game-based learning platform. Knowledge Guru customers use the platform to help employees learn and retain things like product knowledge, policies, procedures and compliance information. Gameplay is linked to learning science so employees retain facts by playing. The platform has won four Brandon Hall Excellence awards since 2014, including two "Gold" distinctions. "We have continued to advance and evolve our product with customers as our guide," says BLP President Sharon Boller. "It’s a wonderful thing when a client has tangible success, whether that’s through our Knowledge Guru platform or one of our custom learning solutions." The entries were evaluated by a panel of veteran, independent senior industry experts, Brandon Hall Group Sr. Analysts and Executive Leadership based upon the following criteria: fit the need, design of the program, functionality, innovation, and overall measurable benefits. Read about all four of our Brandon Hall 2015 wins on the Bottom-Line Performance website. The post Ally, Bottom-Line Performance Win Brandon Hall Excellence Award for Knowledge Guru Game appeared first on .

We love creating games at BLP and try to share that enthusiasm as much as we can. But we’ll also be the first to admit that designing a learning game is only the beginning. What if you design the best learning game ever, or work with a vendor who creates a great one for you, and no one plays it? Or what if the roll-out gets botched because no one can figure out how to log in? They say the devil’s in the details, and in the training world "details" often means "implementation." What organizations really need is guidance on how to best position and implement new learning technologies, which might be a game or some other type of new learning experience. Learn from the Success of Others According to Karl Kapp, games work best when embedded into a larger blended learning curriculum. This sounds logical enough, but it is much harder to decide exactly what that curriculum should look like. Fortunately, many organizations have already successfully implemented games into their training. One of the best ways to prepare for a game-based learning implementation is to learn from the success of others. I had the chance to work with four organizations who have been using Knowledge Guru as part of their training programs. These organizations come from a variety of industries (technology, financial services, healthcare) and used the games within diverse functional areas (new hire training for sales reps, product knowledge for sales and support reps and process training for HR associates). What’s interesting about all four implementations is just how similar they are. These organizations independently made many similar choices when implementing game-based learning. The results they achieved speak for themselves. Read the Case Studies… If you saw me present at DevLearn 2015 or ATD International 2015, you have already heard these case studies. Congratulations! You’re ahead of the game. For everyone else, you’ll have another opportunity to learn about how Cisco, Johnson & Johnson, Salesforce Marketing Cloud and a Fortune 500 Financial Services company approach game based-learning in my upcoming webinar with Training Magazine. I’ll explain all four case studies in depth, then share seven implementation tips based on what these organizations’ implementations have in common. …Or Skip to the Tips If you’d rather skip the case studies and get to the point, you need not wait till November 17th. I share my seven implementation tips in a new white paper, 7 Steps to an Effective Game-Based Learning or Gamification Implementation. I hope you’ll join me for the webinar, have a look at the white paper, or perhaps do both. Register for Webinar Access the White Paper The post Serious Games + Smart Implementation = Win! (Free Webinar) appeared first on .

Most sales training professionals will tell you they are working within a "new normal" these days. The products they must train reps how to sell grow increasingly complicated. Customers are savvier than ever and often do most of their research before even engaging with a rep. Procurement departments aggressively look for ways to cut costs. Marketplaces grow more competitive as new players enter the fray each year. And for many industries, the regulatory landscape is harder to navigate with each passing year. The end goal of sales training should be to equip sales reps to be a trusted advocate for their customers. When sales reps partner with their customer and invest in their shared success, the buyer and seller both win. This is obviously a tall order; it demands a high level of dedication from the sales rep and requires that they truly care about their customers’ outcomes. It also demands a lot from the trainers who must prepare sales reps to sell. With such high expectations placed on sales professionals, it’s no wonder that sales enablement has become a bigger focus for trainers. What training and resources do sales reps need to be able to become the trusted partner that customers want? How can important product information, and knowledge of the competitive landscape, be sustained and built upon long after a product launch event or national sales meeting? Unfortunately, many of the sales enablement solutions and strategies organizations use today fall short of their intended goals. They are either unwieldy to access, focused on the wrong information or unresponsive to new regulatory changes. If trainers hope to increase knowledge retention after an initial learning event and engage sales reps with ongoing skill development opportunities, sales enablement tools must be carefully designed and implemented. If your sales enablement tools and strategies have one or more of the following characteristics, they may not be sustainable practices going forward: 1. They are not connected to reps’ daily workflow If your sales reps spend most of their time away from a computer, creating sales enablement tools that are only available on a desktop or even a tablet is a huge miss. Designing tools that are "mobile friendly" is no longer enough: sales enablement tools and strategies must be specifically optimized for the mobile experience. If your sales reps work in a call center environment, the opposite may be true and they will prefer to access tools from the computer they use all day to sell. No matter where your sales reps spend most of their time, connecting sales enablement tools and resources to the CRM system is ideal. 2. They only teach basic features and benefits Some sales enablement only focuses on the basic features and benefits of a product. However, customers increasingly need sales professionals to understand their unique pain and partner with them to find the right solution. If you only teach reps how to recite a list of product facts, you really have not prepared them to sell at all. 3. They don’t drive uniform messaging The marketing department will, of course, tell you that uniform messaging is very important. When a product is complex and highly regulated, it is absolutely critical to ensure that sales reps are saying the same things, in the same way, around the world. This is where learning reinforcement stands out as a sales enablement strategy. 4. They don’t adapt with regulatory changes Many of our clients work within highly regulated industries where the marketplace changes overnight. For example, the Affordable Care Act has caused health systems and hospitals to shift their focus from a volume-based model to a population management model where quality and risk reduction are king. Sales reps who are still carrying around the features and benefits of yesterday are unprepared to meet the needs of their customers, who now care less about volume and more about patient outcomes and reducing readmissions. For this reason, sales enablement content must be continuously audited and tweaked to make sure it encourages the correct behaviors and teaches the right messages. The post Is Your Sales Enablement Sustainable? appeared first on .

Now your players take Knowledge Guru with them on the go! We’ve made it simple for your learners to play your games on their smartphones. Let’s dive into how it works! Game Author: Invite players to your game by sharing your game’s URL As a Game Author, whenever you make your game live you’re immediately given your game’s unique URL that you can share out in an invitation email. This is how players know where to go to play. Now, with Quest games, players who arrive at your link on their iPhone or Android smartphones will be able able to register for your game and then download and launch the new KGuru Mobile app. Player: Download, Login, and Play! Once a player has registered for a Quest game, they will be able to tap a link to download (or launch if it is already installed) the KGuru Mobile app where they can login and see a list of available games. That’s it, they’re all set!  On-the-go learners will never need to access a computer to play Knowledge Guru. Every interaction and screen has been optimized for the mobile experience. We’ve also added push notification support so players can select to receive notifications when its time to come back and play a new topic. Now you can play a complete Knowledge Guru Quest game on your phone!   Now available! The post Getting Started with KGuru Mobile - Game Author & Player QuickStart Guide appeared first on .

The Fall 2015 release of Knowledge Guru is so small, it fits in your pocket. What I mean is that we are releasing a new smartphone app for iOS and Android. Learners will be able to play Knowledge Guru games across desktop, tablet and smartphone the week of November 2nd. Multi-Device Gameplay Your learners can start playing on their smartphone and finish on their laptop. Scores and achievements sync seamlessly between the web app and native app version of Knowledge Guru. Seamless Authoring and Analytics Create one game with the Knowledge Guru authoring tool that players can access across all devices. Achievements and analytics will sync for all players, no matter what device they access Mobile-First Experience On-the-go learners will never need to access a computer to play Knowledge Guru. Every interaction and screen has been optimized for the mobile experience. Push Notifications and Email Alerts Set up reminders for your players to invite them back into the game and to what they have learned. Players can select between receiving push notifications on their mobile device or email alerts when it is time to come back and play a new topic. Already a Customer? We’ve created a Knowledge Base Article with more details for Game Authors and Players to get started: "Getting Started with KGuru Mobile - Game Author & Player QuickStart Guide" The post Knowledge Guru Adds Smartphone App in 2015 Fall Release appeared first on .

The corporate training world has come a long way over the last several years. While unwieldy Powerpoint slides and lengthy webinars are still out there, most organizations know better. The important message that "one and done" is never a sound training strategy is getting through to people, which explains the uptick in interest in learning products designed to improve knowledge retention. When knowledge retention is the goal, the mobile phone is often the delivery method of choice. It’s not a generational thing: most people are absolutely addicted to their phones and spend lots of time consuming content on these devices. With the launch of our new smartphone app for Knowledge Guru, we are excited to bring the learning science that makes the platform so effective for knowledge retention to learners’ mobile devices. No matter what tool or technology you use to reinforce knowledge, here are five tips for getting the most out of a mobile delivery method: 1. Use push notifications and email to pull learners in Your learners are probably busy people and need consistent reminders and encouragement to re-engage with training content. Your app or game could be ten times more interesting than the eLearning courses on your LMS and still not be enough to pull people in without frequent reminders. When possible, give learners the option of either receiving push notifications or email reminders prompting them to answer questions and re-engage with your content. 2. Have learners play in short bursts Mobile games that are popular with consumers, such as Clash of Clans and FarmVille, are designed to be played in just a few minutes at time. This usage pattern is ideal for increasing knowledge retention: we learn and remember more when training sessions are spaced out into small chunks over time. Games that only require a few minutes of play a time yet encourage repeat play are best for helping learners remember. 3. Use engaging gameplay to motivate and inspire Whether or not a game is fun is subjective, so it is important to understand the preferences of your target learners. For example, some organizations opt for a custom Knowledge Guru theme so that the setting and characters feel appropriate to their players. It’s also important to keep retention-based games simple: as a general rule, games designed to increase retention should be easy to play so that learners do not spend too much mental energy learning the rules of the game. You’ll be surprised how simple a retention-driven game can be when learners are motivated to increase their knowledge. 4. Incorporate external resources into the game Sometimes, the goal is not to help learners recall something from memory but rather to help them find and locate the correct information. In these cases, linking to external resources such as PDFs or online tools from within the game itself can be highly useful. If the game is question-and-answer driven, be sure to incorporate mixed media such as images and video to provide a richer learning experience. 5. Use analytics to spot problem areas and adjust The benefit of using a mobile retention tool is that it is probably not stuck within the walls of your LMS. This means that a wider variety of analytics are available! Use analytics to track what learning objectives and questions learners are struggling with, then send out further reinforcement on the problem areas. The post 5 Ways to Improve Knowledge Retention With Games and Mobile appeared first on .

Little-Known Facts About eLearning Professionals Henry Adams said that "A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops". As eLearning professionals, we can lose sight of that all-important fact while we’re busy developing our next eLearning course. But the simple truth is that we are a rare breed, indeed. We are charged with providing knowledge, skills, and insight to our audience, and we consider it a privilege. Here are 5 little-known facts about the elusive and ever-evolving species known as "eLearning Professionals". eLearning Professionals have an insatiable thirst for knowledge. We aren’t satisfied with just learning the basics. If you aren’t familiar with the topic, we will go above and beyond to gather as much knowledge as possible so that we can pass it on to our learners. eLearning professionals are adept researchers who soak up information like a sponge, and every day is a new opportunity for us to discover something new and embark upon a fresh educational adventure. We even take it a step further by synthesizing and applying that knowledge in creative and unexpected ways. To us, information is a tool that can unlock problems and enable us to understand more about our learners and how they think. This particular trait isn’t always a good thing, however. When it’s time to focus on other aspects of eLearning course design, our insatiable thirst for knowledge may become a distraction that leads us down the path of discovery. Instead of devoting our time to creating the eLearning course layout or navigation buttons we may be tempted to scour the web for tidbits of information. eLearning Professionals are self-starters. Self-disciplined and determined are two words that aptly describe a successful eLearning professional. While you may deal with distractions, you ultimately know how to stay focused on the task at-hand and don’t have to wait around for instruction. eLearning professionals know that there may be hard work and a significant time commitment ahead of them, but welcome the challenge. Being proactive is par-for-the-course, and we are able to adapt to meet the needs of our clients and learners. If someone calls in sick, we tend to raise our hands to take care of their tasks, because we know that it will all be worth it in end when he hand over an amazing deliverable. eLearning Professionals are optimists. This doesn’t mean that eLearning professionals see the world through rose-colored glasses and believe that everything is sunshine and rainbows. Instead, we are realistic optimists who know how to bring out the best in our eLearning team members. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, and we use our strengths to help in whatever way we can while encouraging them to do the same. In some respects, this also requires us to be mediators. If the subject matter expert and graphic designer aren’t seeing eye to eye, then we step in and try to remedy the situation because we believe that everyone plays an integral role in the process. Before we hit that publish button and introduce our eLearning courses to the world, there is a spark of hope that each of us feels. We eagerly anticipate how our work will be received and how much it will benefit our online learners. We are optimists, and we use our eLearning courses to inspire and motivate our audience. eLearning Professionals aren’t happy unless they’re wearing many hats. Multitasking may be stressful at times, but eLearning professionals thrive under pressure. If we can sit down at the end of the day and know that we’ve tackled every task and are still on-schedule, then it’s been a good day. We are in our element when we’re wearing many hats. From writing copy and audio narratives to developing the navigational flow of the eLearning course, we aren’t afraid to step into any role that is required of us and do the best we can with what we have. This is yet another characteristic that can get us into some trouble, however. This is particularly true for those of us who have full personal lives. Getting caught up in our work is a regular occurrence, even if that means accidentally missing a dinner with friends or a parent-teacher conference from time to time. Wearing all those hats can get a bit overwhelming, but it’s also what makes this profession so exciting. No two eLearning projects are ever alike, which means that we never have to worry about being bored! eLearning Professionals have supernatural abilities. This one may not be a concrete fact, but it’s true that eLearning professionals tend to be a bit psychic at times. For instance, we can look into the future and see how every piece of text, image, and interactive element is going to look in the finished eLearning project. We can also possess empathy by putting ourselves in the shoes of the learner in order to visualize their eLearning experience. Last, but not least, eLearning professionals can also predict upcoming trends and immediately get a sense for which ones are here to stay, and which ones may be short-lived. While being an eLearning professional may come with its fair share of stress, there is nothing quite like delivering a high quality eLearning course that you know is going to change lives. Technology is changing and more and more learners are recognizing the value of eLearning. It’s an exciting time to be an eLearning Professional! Wondering which skills eLearning professionals should possess in order to be successful? Read the article 10 Habits That Separate Top-Notch eLearning Professionals From The Rest to discover 10 habits that separate truly great eLearning professionals from the mediocre ones in the eLearning Industry. Interested in becoming an eLearning professional but you don’t know how to start? Check The Free eBook: How To Become An eLearning Professional to read the success stories of 23 highly-skilled eLearning professionals! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Calculating eLearning ROI   Studies show that companies are still skeptical about the value of free online courses. Today 70% of employers do not trust the credibility of their completion. Is your CEO among them? As executives watch eLearning budgets grow, they need clear evidence showing that eLearning programs can really help performance. Learning and Development managers try to find killer arguments in defense of eLearning. What do they do and why do they fail to convince the executives? How Do We Measure eLearning Effectiveness? Employees’ feedback. Often Learning and Development departments collect feedback from the employees to understand how well the training was perceived. Did they feel that the course was a valuable experience? Did they like the topic, the material, the way it was presented? The employees’ opinion is definitely valuable but it has nothing to do with the real and tangible impact of eLearning on business goals evaluation. Control questionnaires and tests. How much has the trainees’ knowledge increased as a result of the training? It’s important to measure this, but again, the fact that the employees know what to do does not guarantee that they will apply this knowledge. Control groups. After the online course completion the staff who did not take the course is used as a control group. The production results of the two groups are compared in order to find any correlations. The use of this approach appears to be reasonable only for the simple and short-termed processes (e.g. lead response time, number of solved tickets, etc.). While most of business processes are much more complex, the control group method proves to be insufficient. HR metrics. Sometimes the level of employee retention, satisfaction and loyalty may be considered as a result of successful eLearning. But the other factors such as salary, career opportunities, corporate culture, etc. can turn out to be much more important for the people. Why Calculate eLearning ROI?  The truth is that at the C-level, it’s all about quarterly and annual revenue and earnings. Most importantly, managers at this level are first and foremost focused on a "hard dollar" measurement. In other words, they need to know the return-on-investment rate which will provide them with quantitative results and enable decision making. Like any other cost center in the company, Learning and Development department has to show that it delivers real tangible benefit to the organization. If it can't demonstrate such value, then it is likely to not get support within the company.   Know The Costs  Personnel. Includes cost of people (both internal and external consultants) that will be needed to build the program. Don’t forget to value the time of staff who is involved in the process while also playing other (non-eLearning) roles. eLearning Technology. eLearning is largely a technology driven process. Often, organizations need to tailor a newly acquired technology to assimilate it into the company's existing IT infrastructure. According to Bersin by Deloitte, there are over 500 Learning Management System vendors on the market. Their price may vary greatly so each company can find a solution at a reasonable price starting at $5 per employee per month. eLearning Content. The costs should also include content development (in case when some unique content needs to be created), or ready-made content acquisition costs. Measure The Value  Eliminated travel and lodging costs. These costs are the biggest reason why the large corporations implement eLearning. Also, they are a major component of any ROI calculation, and eLearning can dramatically reduce such costs. Decreased instructor costs. No matter whether the training is led by a famous coach or a company staff member, it is always much cheaper to have the trainer record the lecture once than speak in person at each location for many times. Decreased employees’ work time spending. eLearning offers employees the flexibility to learn anywhere and anytime: on their way from home to work, as well as on weekends and vacations. Typically, the time a person must spend being trained is reduced by about 40% using eLearning. Flexibility. Just answer the question: How many employees don't learn (how to follow a new process or how to operate a new tool) because of a rigid learning schedule, and what does it cost the company as a result? Personalized learning. Individuals can learn at their own speed, due to personalized learning, which is more efficient in delivering content. For instance, the IBM eLearning program for managers enabled the participants to learn 5 times more material through eLearning - without increasing the time spent on training. These are the common eLearning costs and benefits. Still, you can find a lot of company-specific metrics: Manufacturing performance, software proficiency, personnel assessment, etc. In Any Unclear Situation Go Calculate ROI  This is the example of eLearning project ROI calculation for one of the Eduson.tv clients (a financial organization). You can use this template or create a new one for your company. Download here an excel model to calculate ROI for your company. There are also some free eLearning ROI calculators which can be useful for evaluating online training performance: www.caelearning.com www.bridgefront.com www.aadm.com Complete the fields in order to calculate and compare the costs of online and instructor-led training. So, What Should Learning And Development Managers Do?  For each dollar budgeted for corporate training, 80% goes to administrative overhead, and just 20% goes to the core instructional design process. You need to identify the "black holes" that consume your training budget and get rid of them. In conclusion, it is important to understand that eLearning is not only an attractive solution in terms of economic downturn, but it is also an efficient and cost-effective solution when employees need to be quickly educated on relevant knowledge and skills, in spite of their location and time zone. By accurately calculating the cost of a training program, eLearning professionals will be able to easily justify the investment in the program and decide if eLearning is ultimately a viable solution. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

D4Learning 2015 is the International Conference on Innovations with Digital Learning for Inclusion (D4L). D4Learning 2015 is held in collaboration with the European Distance and e-Learning Network (EDEN), and EDENs conference series of Open Classroom with focus on distance education and new technologies in school level education and training. The D4Learning 2015 conference serves as a forum for the discussion and exchange of information on the research, development, and applications on all topics related to the use of digital technology for inclusion. The D4L International Conference on Innovations with Digital Learning aims at becoming a biannual meeting place for presenting and discussing new educational environments, affordances of digital tools for including education through digital technology, and best practices and case studies on innovative technology-based learning strategies or pedagogies to achieve this goal. The D4L conference on digital innovation learning through digital technology aims to give an overview of the state of the art as well as upcoming trends, and to promote discussion about the pedagogical potential of new learning and educational technologies in the academic, educational and corporate world. D4Learning 2015 Keynote Speakers Professor Alan Tait is Director, International Development and Teacher Education at the Open University (OU), UK. Prior to this he was Pro Vice-Chancellor (Academic) responsible for the strategic and operational oversight of the University's undergraduate and postgraduate courses, packs, programmes and qualifications, together with acting as Planning and Resource Officer for the seven faculties. Alan Tait previously held the position as Dean of the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the OU. His academic career has been in practitioner and scholarly support of distance and e-learning. He was Chair of the European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) NAP Steering Committee 2002-2005, and he served as President of ICDE associate member, EDEN, from 2007-2010. Prior to this, he was Editor of the journal Open Learning from 1989-1998, joint Series Editor of the Routledge Series Studies in Distance Education and Co-Director of the Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning. Terry Anderson Professor & Canada Research Chair in Distance Education Research interest: social software use in distance education As a Canadian Research Chair he is involved in a variety of research, teaching and service activities. His activities include research carried out at Technology Enhanced Learning Research Institute of the Athabasca University, the Canadian Institute for Distance Education Research (CIDER). All references and/or full text of most of his research and professional publications are available from AUSpace the Athabasca University archive. Dr. Alan Bruce is the director of Universal Learning Systems - an international consultancy firm specializing in research, education, training and project management. He has lectured in universities in France, England and Ireland and worked in policy research for the European Commission in Brussels. He was also responsible for national initiatives in professional development in the disability sector in collaboration with a number of Irish universities. As a long-standing member of the European Distance and E-Learning Network, the Irish Institute of Training and Development, the Institute of Guidance Counselors and the California Scholarship Federation. He has lectured and published widely on the social impact of disability, labor market policy, innovative education, distance learning, social inclusion, conflict transformation, strategic change and managing diversity. D4Learning 2015 will be held at the University College Nordjylland (Aalborf, Denmark) on November 17 - 20, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

eLearning And The Struggle Of Balancing Structure And Freedom Have you ever thought about how structure has helped you grow and develop throughout every stage of your life? As a young child, your parents set mealtimes, naptimes and bedtimes that you adhered to. When you started school, structure became an even more important aspect of your life. Because of the way most adults experienced childhood, they tend to respond well to structure. Structure is a vital aspect of everyday life. Without it, nothing would get done. However, structure doesn’t typically stimulate creativity. True, governments, businesses, schools, and workplaces can’t operate smoothly without structure. But, neither can they flourish without imaginations that are alive and well. Life shouldn’t be all about structure and rigidity; there must also be room for the imagination to soar. Nothing will free the imagination quicker than a break from one’s day-to-day schedule. Today, there is a constant struggle to balance structure and freedom - especially in the realm of organizational learning. Some find that learning is fostered more effectively in an organized environment. Organized learning is great, but it’s not the only form of learning, and it doesn’t always inspire creativity. The solution is eLearning: eLearning is ideal for companies that desire to train up disciplined employees with wild imaginations. eLearning Draws The Line Between Structure And Freedom In the 21st Century, we’ve observed many examples of imaginative thinking in the business realm paying off in huge dividends. For example, social media websites and marketplaces like Etsy are producers of structured freedom, as they let people share fresh ideas in productive settings. More than likely, it was not masterminds that dreamed these companies up; it was regular people with extraordinary imaginations. Wouldn’t you love to have a workplace full of employees who are free to come up with creative ideas that could turn into new products and services? eLearning can help your workforce get to where you want it to be. eLearning platforms benefit a company’s employees by combining a structured environment where training and information sharing can occur, and a communications center where reflective conversation is welcomed and encouraged. eLearning Platforms Guarantee Structure Not all eLearning systems are the same. Some require on-site hardware installation. Because the implementation of these types of eLearning systems is somewhat inconvenient, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platforms are much more popular. A SaaS eLearning system can be accessed by any device with a connection to the Internet, from any location, at any time. Because they save time and money and reduce stress, SaaS eLearning systems are the most popular type of online learning platform. While there are significant differences between Learning Management Systems (LMSs), there are also similarities. Here are a few features that most eLearning systems share: Calendars. Calendars allow users and administrators to schedule meetings, events, and trainings. Enrollment forms. This handy feature enables administrators to see who is signed up for certain programs. Grading/attendance systems. With grading and attendance systems, administrators/trainers can ensure learners attend mandatory courses and turn in assignments on time. Import/export options. This feature gives users and administrators the ability to easily import and export curriculum. An eLearning platform with these features offers a structurally sound environment that is conducive to comprehensive education. At the same time, a Learning Management System can create a learning environment that frees the imagination and gives users a sense of independence. eLearning Systems Free Τhe Imagination  Business owners whose companies are growing like wildfire often build strong workforces by use of eLearning systems. What these leaders are discovering is that online learning forces employees to engage with others, which gets their creative juices flowing. Online learners must access communication networks that invite discussions through social learning options like forums, blogs, real time chat, and personal profiles. This type of social interaction within a structured setting facilitates imaginative thinking. An eLearning system is a remarkable way to loosen up the often-rigid structure of learning. Because eLearning platforms allow users to think freely and share their ideas with others in creative ways, learners are positioned to become innovators that make lasting contributions to their workplaces. With a flexible, easy to use, ever-changing Learning Management System, companies are able to give their employees the structure and freedom they need. Structure and freedom is a combination that advances education. eLearning systems ensure it. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Best Of DevLearn DemoFest Webinar: 14 eLearning Examples To Help You Get New Ideas For Your Work Last week at DevLearn 2015 Conference & Expo, dozens of conference participants shared their latest learning projects at DevLearn DemoFest, the industry showcase of technology innovations for learning and performance. During DemoFest, DevLearn attendees had the opportunity to see a wide variety of projects that provided solutions to common learning and performance challenges, and to learn about the tools, technologies, and processes that members of The eLearning Guild community used to build these projects. Awards were given in 14 categories. See some of the award-winning projects shown last week at DevLearn DemoFest and get some new ideas to apply to your own work during the free Best of DevLearn DemoFest Webinar on October 21 at 10:00 AM PT. During this 90-minute webinar you will explore projects from the following categories: Best Academic Solution Best Blended Learning Solution Best Business Process Solution Best Game-based Solution Best Immersive/Simulation Solution Best Mobile Solution Best Onboarding/Employee Orientation Solution Best Performance Support Solution Best Sales Training Solution Best Alternative Solution Best Student Solution Best Vendor  Solution Best Non-Vendor Solution Weejee Learning Award Register today and see award-winning projects from the industry’s leading event in action! Register now at http://bit.ly/1OVVLQd. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

How To Be A Successful Webinar Host Connecting with your audience through a webinar goes beyond the capabilities of social media, your website, or your professional blog. It breathes life into your eLearning content, it generates trust between you and your attendees, and it offers you the opportunity to create new connections and form prosperous professional relationships. Needless to say, being the host of your own webinar means that you have complete control over its flow and outcome. But is this something you can do? Would you be able to deliver engaging eLearning content and interact with your audience at the same time? Could you stimulate their curiosity, inspire them, and maintain their interest up to the last minute? Of course you could. In this article, I will share 7 tips on how to be a successful webinar host so that you can be sure that you feel relaxed and highly professional while you deliver a flawless, entertaining, and stimulating webinar. Pay attention to the sound. Audio is undoubtedly the most important element of your webinar. To make sure that everything goes smoothly, keep in mind the following tips: Choose the right location.  Find a quiet or, even better, a sound proof room to record. Furthermore, consider not using a wireless internet connection; instead use a land line, to avoid technical problems. Have a technical assistant.  Speaking of technical problems, keep in mind that during your webinar you need to be focused on delivering your content. Have an assistant who knows how to handle technical issues, if they occur, in real time. Use the right microphone.  Don’t rely on the built-in microphones in your laptop or desktop computer; use external mics. If your webinar includes multiple speakers, equip yourself with a high quality speakerphone. Practice, practice, practice. Don’t underestimate the power of practicing multiple times before going live; practice makes perfect. To make sure that your voice overs are effective, you will need to make sure that you remove every "uhm" and "err" from your vocabulary, and practicing will help you gain more speaker confidence. Ask for feedback as often as possible. Have someone to listen to you and offer you their honest opinion. Ask them to share one thing you did well and one you can improve. Is your vocal pace ok? Are you speaking clearly? How about your tone? Is it friendly or too serious and flat? Ask them to listen again and again while timing you, to make sure that you don’t end up having to rush through your last slides. Furthermore, consider recording yourself and reviewing the footage to see what is working and what is not. Start with a story. What is the best way to introduce yourself? Certainly not reading a long bio or a slide that lists your agenda; these are ways to rather ensure that you lose your listeners’ interest. Narrate a story; sharing your story and explaining what brought you there will establish trust and develop an emotional connection between you and your audience. Just remember to keep your story brief, personalize it with a few suspense elements, and conclude with a strong ending. A great trick is to also smile while you’re telling your story, as it helps elevate your voice; your listeners will be able to feel your enthusiasm about the online deliverable. Grab and hold your audience’s attention. The average attention span of a typical audience is about 10 minutes. Webinar audiences are worse; you are competing for their attention with their computer screens, their always open social media accounts, and their email inboxes. This is why it is important to not only grab their attention, but also hold it. Limit the text in your slides and avoid overloading them with bullet points. Instead, get your audience involved with an interesting mix of interactive questions, mini challenges and tasks, rich images, compelling videos, and even music. Maintain a conversational tone. Remember that you are talking to real people, not to a machine. Personalize your webinar by: Imagining that you’re speaking to a friend or colleague.  If you have, say, 150 attendees listening, you are actually having 150 one-to-one conversations. This may sound overwhelming, so try to visualize a friendly face you are talking to. Breaking your presentation up by using Q&A.  Q&As are a great way to maintain interactivity. No one wants to listen to one person talking endlessly, no matter how smooth is their voice. Addressing your audience by using "you" in your sentences.  Don’t say "Today I’m going to be sharing…"; instead say "Today you will learn…". Don’t ask "Does anyone out there have a question?"; instead ask "Would you want to ask me something?". Utilizing the word "you" makes your audience feel more engaged. Using humor.  Don’t be afraid to throw in a funny comment; just be sure that your humor is politically correct and relevant. Use interesting real facts and examples to support your message. Hearing real life experiences and thinking of how to apply the same solutions to one’s life is one of the most effective ways to learn. Filling your webinars with multiple boring graphs and figures will not captivate your audience; using real world scenarios, case studies, and examples will. Real success stories, research, and beautiful infographics that back up information are great ways to support your message and help it get across. Explain why certain strategies work and others don’t using real facts and make sure that your audience will want to remember everything you are talking about. Remember that your voice is the connection. Of course you will need to make pauses while you’re talking. Use them, but keep them short; don’t allow more than 2 or 3 seconds of silence, otherwise your audience might think that they have lost their sound. And if you are to be silent, let your listeners know. For instance, when you want to give them some time to read something, tell them "I will now let you read a few lines about…". Webinars are here to stay. Follow these tips on how to be a successful webinar host and be sure that not only you have complete control over this indispensable eLearning tool, but also your audience keeps coming back for more. Now that you know how to be a successful webinar host, you may be interested in learning more about eLearning narration. Read the article 7 eLearning Script Writing Tips To Perfect Your eLearning Course Narrative and discover some invaluable tips that can help you create an eLearning course narrative that is powerful and polished. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

AAACE 2015 theme is "Evolutions and Revolutions in Adult Learning!" AAACE 2015 encompasses the vision and mission of AAACE. AAACE is dedicated to the belief that lifelong learning contributes to human fulfillment and positive social change. To that end, we provide leadership for the field of adult and continuing education by expanding opportunities for adult growth and development; unifying adult educators; fostering the development and dissemination of theory, research, information, and best practices; promoting identity and standards for the profession; and advocating relevant public policy and social change initiatives. This year, our AAACE 2015 conference sessions provide an opportunity for reflections on the past, acknowledgement of the present, and promises for the future. Evolutions and Revolutions in Adult Learning! is about the adventures, and diverse practices, by which we help adults acquire the knowledge, skills and values needed to lead productive and satisfying lives. Held in conjunction with the AAACE Conference is the 2015 International Adult and Continuing Education Hall of Fame induction. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Hall of Fame honors leaders in the fields of continuing education and adult learning, and serves as a record of inspiration for the next generation of continuing education leaders. The 64th Annual Conference of the American Association for Adult and Continuing Education (AAACE 2015) will be held at the Renaissance Oklahoma City Convention Center Hotel and Spa on November 17-20, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Draw Inspiration From These 3 Simulation Based eLearning Examples  For some time, the bread and butter staple for eLearning agencies involved converting people’s classroom training into eLearning. But, this missed the true potential of this powerful learning tool. When I started out as an Instructional Designer, I recognized that computer based training provided the solution to the very thing that was missing in the classroom: A space for individuals to practice skills and knowledge in a safe environment. When simulated practice was first introduced into eLearning, it offered a game changer for many innovative organizations that looked to improve the performance of their team. Let's take a look at three examples of simulation based eLearning from 3 different sectors: Healthcare, skills, and financial. I'll show you how these organizations collaborate with eLearning providers and use new technologies to bring innovative learning solutions to their audiences. 1. AIIMS uses video-based simulation in their surgical training (Healthcare). The All India Institute of Medical Sciences set out to train surgeons in a complex surgical procedure -Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting- by encouraging learners to explore an experimental approach in a risk-free environment. They created web based eLearning solution, featuring a video of the actual surgery, shot using a head-mounted camera in the operating room, and covering a series of surgical procedures. The video serves both as a reference point in creating the training and as a valuable asset in the training itself. The eLearning product comprises realistic 2D and 3D simulations with a "Show Me" option that lets learners view an animated demonstration of each step in the procedure. A "Try Me" option allows them to select the right surgical tools and to perform the surgical procedures. Guided hints help learners rectify mistakes and provide them with feedback. Visit eLearning Superstars: AIIMS's simulated surgical training 2. Train4TradeSkills uses virtual reality to teach trade trainees (Skills).  The Virtual Reality House gives trade trainees, such as plumbers, a virtual place to practice their skills in a "walled garden" setting. It provides a safe environment to make mistakes and build confidence and competence before embarking on the workshop-based practical training element of their course. The instructional approach is built on the premise that the more practice you have, the more confident you become. The eLearning provider’s own i3D engine is built on the Unity 3D framework. It allows rapid development of simulated interactive training scenarios that are cross-platform compatible. The eLearning can be run from most machines including standard desktop Mac and Windows systems and hand-held mobile devices. The modular design of the eLearning makes it easy to scale courses and to tailor them to the requirements of the end users. The complexity of the scenario can be altered for beginners and advanced learners (think changing a washer to installing a whole plumbing system). This flexible, non-linear Instructional Design and engineering solution lets learners create their own learning pathways. But the real innovation is the simulated environment in which learners can test solutions safely and go back and fix any faults. Visit eLearning Superstars: Train4TradeSkills's Virtual Reality House 3. Llyods Banking Group uses integrated systems software training in their induction program (Financial). Lloyds Bank's induction program is a superb example of how vendors can work together in partnership to create a really innovative eLearning solution. eLearning agency Brightwave and simulation software provider Assima worked on this induction program for the banking firm Lloyds Banking Group. When contact center staff begin their careers with the bank, there is a need to spend a long time getting to know the system that the organization uses for handling customer calls. Staff must understand the complexity of the regulations and good practice regarding handling sensitive customer data and verification of customers. This can’t be done using live customer data, so Assima provided a fully simulated "clone" of the system using synthetic data provided by the LBG. This was integrated into Brightwave’s eLearning software to create a rich, scenario driven, learning program. Visit eLearning Superstars: Lloyds Bank induction program Stay on top of the latest eLearning ideas, trends, and technologies by subscribing to the Elucidat weekly newsletter. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

NGL2015 theme is " Formal and Informal Learning with the Support of Technology" NGL015 will discuss and examine issues regarding the consequences of the digital revolution within education and learning. NGL2015 is aimed at everyone involved with education - researchers, educators, developers. NGL is primarily about the development of pedagogy that drives technical development, and a central issue is how we can use the available technology to address and solve pedagogical challenges. We welcome the attendance of researchers, teachers and developers from higher education; in addition, we would now like to include individuals from compulsory and upper-secondary school. By doing so, we believe that NGL2015 will broaden its diversity, content and focus. The 3d Next Generation Learning Conference (NGL2015) will be hosted by Dalarna University (Falun, Sweden) on November 18 - 19, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Using Moodle For Business And What You Should Be Aware Of  In trying to think of an appropriate analogy for Moodle and business, I got to thinking "Why do so many companies choose Moodle?". It’s an open source and free, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t costs associated with it. Clearly the key word here is "free", but when you have a training budget in your hands and you choose something which needs a high degree of customization and resources, it almost seems counterintuitive not to enlist the help of a company that knows what it’s doing. What this article aims to do is give those that are looking into Moodle as a possibility, or are poised to commit to it, a bit more information to help them make the right choice for their company. There are a lot of things to be aware of when looking at Moodle, aspects that are often missed whilst blindly following the Pied Piper of the eLearning industry down a potentially very costly rabbit hole. We all love a bargain. We love it even more when things are free. Going to the opening of a new bar and getting a free beer is one thing, but downloading Moodle as a free, fully-functional Learning Management System? Sadly it falls into the category of too good to be true. Moodle is more like getting a free pet monkey. He (or she; I’m told monkeys can be female too) may be what you always wanted, and you are psyched you got him for free, but did monkey care costs really come into your mind when you got him? Firstly, he needs toys and clothes (or plugins and UI customization if you will). Secondly, he will need someone to look after him when you aren’t there (technical support) and, lastly, he needs somewhere to live (storage and server space). I think I chose the monkey analogy because I’ve always felt my life would be better with one, but then, as soon as I started thinking seriously about it, it seemed ridiculous and very expensive, much to my disappointment. Blinded by the prospect of getting something for no cost, many organizations make the mistake of jumping on Moodle because it’s billed as free, and not considering a) any hidden costs or b) other alternatives. 6 Points You Should Be Aware Of When Using Moodle For Business  The bad news is the hidden costs are many and, for the most part, undetectable until you have committed. The good news is that even more numerous than hidden costs are the alternative corporate Learning Management Systems available. What follows is a list of a number of features that corporate trainers should be aware of with Moodle when they are looking into using Moodle for business. 1. Moodle is not a turnkey solution.  Free and open source it may be, but for corporations new to the Moodle party what you get when you download the source code is the basis for a great product, but not the product itself. 2. Moodle was built for education, not for business.  Moodle was actually not originally designed as an Learning Management System but a Content Management System (CMS), so it’s key to know exactly what you are buying. Moodle was created to be a companion for teachers and students in the education industry, and has far more educational clients than corporate. The needs of businesses and corporate training differ greatly from those of schools and universities, so before you even start looking at Moodle or any other Learning Management System you should be sure of your requirements. 3. Training is not provided.  Within the eLearning industry Moodle’s documentation is well-known to be lacking. There are a number of free (free like a beer) online resources which you can use to learn more about how Moodle works, but past that Moodle don’t offer any tech support. They did all the hard work so that part is in our hands. The best Learning Management System providers, like Paradiso Solutions, provide full system onboarding and training plus telephone support and access to the "Customer Portal", where you can find PDFs, documents, videos and other reference material. 4. Moodle customizations.  This is where the costs really start to pile up. In order to take Moodle from its raw downloaded form to what companies need -a functioning, personalized Learning Management System- it is going to take investment. Here you have two options: Go for it yourself.  Hire Moodle developers or use your own in-house team to create a workable Learning Management System. Engage with the experts. Work with a Learning Management System provider like Paradiso Solutions who can take your requirements, objectives, and brand, and create for you a tailored Learning Management System. Clearly this is a difficult choice for some; many clients of Learning Management System vendors are disgruntled Moodle customers who bit off more Moodle than they could chew and ended up spending thousands on a system they weren’t happy with. If you choose the former option and go at it yourself, then it is highly important to hire developers whose area of expertise is Moodle. 5. No automatic updates. Part of a contract with a learning provider includes a clause which guarantees that they will take care of any system updates, bug fixes, and maintenance you run into. If you were to opt for the solo path and develop Moodle in house, you would be responsible for all of this, as well as keeping abreast of the latest industry trends. 6. Server space and hosting. This is another area which is often overlooked, and where lies a veritable snake pit of hidden costs. When you download Moodle, you need to store it somewhere. If you are a smaller company with few users this may not be a problem, however if you are a large company with various users spread across different countries then things may get heavy, in more ways than one. Paradiso LMS is cloud based Learning Management System and SaaS built on Moodle code. While devoid of any truly divine powers, it does have a magical place in the cloud to store your system and all of its associated data. This SaaS option frees up much more time for your organization to concentrate on more important things than managing Moodle technicalities; like creating great learning content and tracking learner progress and development. Paradiso LMS is built on Moodle, and much of what makes it great comes from the original Moodle code. However if you are an organization with a training budget you need to know of all of the options available to you before you commit. To speak to one of our advisors about Paradiso LMS, or to organize a free demo, please don’t hesitate to get in touch by following this link to contact us. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Using Gamification In eLearning  Let’s first understand what gamification is and how it is different from playing games. In one of my earlier articles on gamification, Top 6 Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning, I had highlighted both these aspects as follows: Gamification is about more than just playing games (in fact, sometimes it does not involve playing games at all). It can be defined as the concept of applying game-design thinking to non game applications. Wikipedia defines gamification as "the use of game thinking and game mechanics in non-game contexts to engage users in solving problems". What Are The Benefits Of Gamification In eLearning?  Again, I will recap from my article the key benefits of gamification: Better learning experience. The learner can experience "fun" during the game and still learn if the level of engagement is high. A good gamification strategy with high levels of engagement will lead to an increase in recall and retention. Better learning environment. Gamification in eLearning provides an effective, informal learning environment, and helps learners practice real life situations and challenges in a safe environment. This leads to a more engaged learning experience that facilitates better knowledge retention. Instant feedback. It provides instant feedback so that learners know what they know or what they should know. This too facilitates better learner engagement and thereby better recall and retention. Prompting behavioral change. Points, badges, and leaderboards would surely make training awesome. However, gamification is about a lot more than just those surface level benefits. Gamification can drive strong behavioral change especially when combined with the scientific principles of repeated retrieval and spaced repetition. Can be applied for most learning needs. Gamification can be used to fulfill most learning needs including induction and onboarding, product sales, customer support, soft skills, awareness creation, and compliance. Impact on bottom line. On account of all these aspects that touch and impact learners (better learning experience, higher recall and retention, catalyzing behavioral change, and so on), it can create a significant performance gain for organizations. Does Gamification Really Help Learners Recall Or Retain Information Better?  The answer is an emphatic "yes." This is summarized very effectively in the following statement (as per Wikipedia): "Gamification techniques strive to leverage people’s natural desires for socializing, learning, mastery, competition, achievement, status, self-expression, altruism, or closure. Gamification strategies include use of rewards for players who accomplish desired tasks or competition to engage players. Types of rewards include points, achievement badges or levels, the filling of a progress bar, or providing the user with virtual currency. Making the rewards for accomplishing tasks visible to other players or providing leaderboards are further ways of encouraging players to compete." How Can You Ensure Success Of Gamification In eLearning?  Success of gamification in eLearning is driven by the power of the concept that it is based on. An effective gamification concept is one that: Captures (and retains) learners’ attention. Challenges them. Engages and entertains them. Teaches them. Gamification In eLearning: 6 Killer Examples  While gamification has been applied in several domains, our focus has been on its application in serious learning. The games that we design are therefore geared to meet definite learning outcomes. Our gamification strategies broadly map to: Complete gamification, wherein: Tasks or concepts that are overlaid on the learning content but are not related to the content. Contextual tasks or concepts that are overlaid on the learning content. Partial gamification (notably in inline checks and end of course assessments) In this article, I will share 6 examples that will illustrate how gamification (full or partial) can be applied to your key training needs in: Induction programs. Professional skills enhancement. Compliance. Soft skills enhancement. Behavioral change. Gamify assessments for traditional eLearning courses (partial gamification). Complete Gamification Example 1: Induction Program. The gamification concept: We chose the 100 days induction cum onboarding plan to map to a theme of a mission that needed learners to clear various levels within the stipulated time. It also had leaderboards to enable them to assess how they are faring against the other team members. Reference: You can also refer to my earlier article What Are The Benefits Of mLearning? Featuring 5 Killer Examples, where this example was featured. Example 2: Professional Skills Enhancement (account management fundamentals for project managers and account managers).   The gamification concept: An avatar based gamification approach. The highlights of this approach were: Creation of different learner paths. Alignment of the learning and gamification path to the proficiency of learners. Presentation of a mix of questions in each path (mapping to real-life challenges commensurate with the proficiency level of the learners). Non availability of learning aids of theory (lifeline) for higher proficiency learners to make the challenge tougher. (The complexity and the nature of the challenges posed to the learners tested their cognitive proficiency to tackle the situation at hand, thereby resulting in immersive learning.) EI Design Gamification Professional Skills Enhancement Reference: You can also refer to my earlier article Gamification in learning through an avatar-based serious game concept, where this example was featured. The article provides further insights on the concept and its application. Example 3: Compliance.  The gamification concept: We created a simulation based, task oriented gamification course, which was interactive and engrossing. The game scenario was mapped to the context of risk management and the incremental learning was provided at each stage of the game as the learners took the challenges and overcame them. To achieve this, we incorporated a real work environment (visually), an element of challenge (bonuses and bombs), rewards for success (caps, badges), and learning through activities including elements of surprise and delight. We provided the learners the choice to seek support while performing the assigned task like in a real life scenario mapping to actual human behavior in such situations. This ensured a true simulated environment to encourage application of knowledge through performance. Reference: You can also refer to my earlier article Gamification in Compliance, where this example was featured. The article provides further insights on the concept and its application. Example 4: Rewards And Recognition. The gamification concept: This too uses an avatar based approach. The learners go through a series of gamified activities that map to the required qualities of a given reward category. The activities simulate and reinforce the qualities the individuals have to maintain to win. The scores lead them to gaining the reward. This approach also features leaderboards. Partial Gamification: Features Gamified Activities Or Gamified Assessments  Here are a couple of examples that show how partial gamification techniques can be applied to a traditional eLearning course. This simple value addition can make a standard eLearning course more fun and engaging. Of the two examples of partial gamification techniques featured here, the first one shows a gamified activity while the second one shows a gamified assessment. Example 5: Soft skills / time management - A gamified activity on time wasters.  Example 6: A gamified assessment.  This can be used to enhance learner engagement in any traditional eLearning course. The power of gamification in eLearning that is aligned to learning outcomes is clearly evident in these 6 examples. I hope this article was useful in helping you understand how you can use gamification in eLearning for almost all of your training needs. At EI Design, we have a very mature gamification practice and we can help you in transforming your traditional eLearning approaches to more immersive gamified approaches. Do reach out to me for pointers on these. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

The Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies For 2015  As "top" can mean many things, we created this year’s list by following the same process that we used for the top 10 eLearning content development companies for 2014 list. Taking a closer look at the companies that are leading the line when it comes to eLearning, we selected the top 10 based on the following 7 criteria: eLearning Content Development Quality.  eLearning Expertise.  eLearning Industry Innovation.  eLearning Company’s Economical Growth Potential.  Customer Retention.  Employee Turnover.  Company’s Social Responsibility.  As you can guess, the companies on the following list are the eLearning content development crème de la crème. Don’t hesitate to review their official websites and contact them to know more about how they can help you align your organization’s learning and performance goals with its business objectives. If you are looking for the best eLearning content development companies that create high impact and super engaging and immersive eLearning courses, here you are: SweetRush SweetRush is #1 eLearning content development company for the second time in a row, which says a lot. As it seems, their motto, "Dream with us, and together let’s make a positive impact!", fully supports their pursuit of helping businesses grow, change, prosper, and thrive. This company focuses on culture, and mastery of performance improvement is reflected in a near-zero turnover of teammates, sustained relationships with many of the world’s most successful companies, a 14-year track record of success, and a remarkable, award winning work. Every solution SweetRush delivers is infused with creativity: Instructional creativity allows them to discover effective and unique solutions to their clients’ challenges. Artistic creativity spurs them to create visually exciting, engaging user experiences. And technical creativity allows them to embrace new capabilities and platforms as they emerge, such as gamification and mobile delivery. They apply the creative lens to all things, from project management to how they care for their teammates, clients, and the planet.  SweetRush’s end-end services embrace analysis to evaluation and they excel at delivering innovative blended learning solutions including live and virtual classroom and the full gamut of custom-developed eLearning modalities. Contact SweetRush and ask them to show you how they would approach your challenge. EI Design A new addition, straight to No2 of our list: EI Design began in February 2002 and from a small team of three is now capable of generating over 500 online learning hours a year! Over the last decade, they have created over 6000 hours of eLearning of which over 400 hours are for mLearning. They understand the challenges of user experience in a multi-device environment, and have successfully crafted the right interaction design to meet the mandate. They have also a strong expertise in migration of legacy courses to HTML5, as well as crafting effective strategy for multi-device delivery for new requirements. Their customers come from diverse verticals like Financial services, Insurance, Re-Insurance, Automotive, and IT. Through a strong core featuring creative Instructional Design, EI Design offers a range of innovative learning designs; some of the techniques they use are gamification, interactive videos, decision making - branching simulations, story based, scenario based, and guided exploration. One of EI Design’s biggest strengths is their ability to identify the big picture to create a Learning and Performance Ecosystem; this approach ensures that their focus is on performance gain and provides their customers a clear blueprint to enhance their existing learning strategy. They also have a competency lab to research on facets that impact learnability. The outcome would be framework that will provide guidelines on how to convert the user experience to learnability. With their expertise on learning design and a highly efficient offshore development model, EI Design offers a very attractive total cost of outsourcing to their customers. Want to know more about that? Contact EI Design here. LEO Following the merger of the two leaders in learning technologies and eLearning, Epic (which made it to no4 of our 2014 list) and Line, LEO benefits from more than 30 years of experience. This company believes that technology enabled learning innovation has the power to deliver truly transformational results; their purpose is to help their clients deploy learning technology to deliver outcomes precisely aligned to their business goals. Their engaging learning architectures fit seamlessly into businesses and improve performance throughout the entire organization; their end-to-end service offering enables them to partner with global clients throughout the creation, implementation, and maintenance of their learning transformation; their key focuses include strategy, content, and platforms services. LEO asks questions which allow them to get to the root of an organization’s challenges, enabling them to approach solutions differently and creatively. Their clients benefit from a boutique-style delivery service, as LEO has also the capability to scale up for larger programs when required. This company has the deep understanding of learning design and technology combined with their pioneering, creative approach to drive learning transformation. LEO is part of Learning Technologies Group plc (LTG) and you can contact them here. City & Guilds Kineo Kineo is a global workplace learning company that helps businesses improve their performance through learning and technology. Acquired by City & Guilds in December 2012, they now have over 130 years of heritage and 1500 employees in 81 countries backing their innovative learning solutions and are able to offer an unrivalled set of learning services to their customers. This company is here to improve performance in your organization by making your eLearning, and access to learning, a better experience. From the starting point of considering how and where learning can help you deliver business results through to its design, delivery and implementation, they partner with our clients on the whole journey. Their focus is on delivering solutions that help their clients to achieve their business objectives rather than winning awards; however, it is nice to be recognized by the industry and to pick up some awards and recognition from time to time! Kineo has developed thousands of learning programs, working with a wide range of partners. Areas of expertise and experience include management and leadership, sales and product knowledge, customer service, compliance and awareness, technical and process training, and onboarding and orientation programs. Their services include consulting and capability building, blended program design and development, custom, rapid, and mobile eLearning development (see examples), course library of Kineo Essentials content, and learning portals and LMS using Totara LMS. Want to know more? Contact your regional Kineo office. Designing Digitally Designing Digitally, Inc. is an award-winning, full-service provider of interactive and engaging custom-built eLearning, mobile learning, 3D training simulations, and serious games. They do much more than just develop custom training solutions; they create strong relationships and work as a partnership to achieve your organization’s learning objectives. For over a decade, Designing Digitally has specialized in designing educational, engaging, and entertaining online learning and corporate training experiences tailored to fit your specific needs. They strive to provide a prosperous return on investment by producing high quality interactive learning solutions and immersive training. To learn more about how Designing Digitally can help you, check their case studies and don’t hesitate to contact them.  PulseLearning Established in 1999 in Co. Kerry, Ireland, today PulseLearning has offices located in the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia. This award winning global learning solutions provider has extensive experience in creating and customizing learning solutions that combine best practices with organizational culture. Their client list includes many of the "who’s who" in the Technology, Finance, Retail, Hospitality, Health, and Defence sectors. The great thing about this company is their strong belief that the only reason for their clients to invest in their learning solutions is to measurably add value to their business performance including greater productivity, lower overheads, and greater efficiency; and that knowledge workers need to be smart on the job, not just smart during training. PulseLearning’s success is built on mutual trust, long term relationships, and a deep understanding of their clients’ business. PulseLearning’s services include eLearning, mobile learning, localization, gamification, simulations, 3D modeling, ILT, blended learning, learning consultancy, and staff augmentation. This company is a high-energy, client-centric organization that combines excellence in people, process, partners and leverage evolving technologies, and innovation trends. If you want to know more about their solutions, check their project portfolio, or contact them. Allen Communication An impressive new addition to the list, Allen Communication has led the learning and development industry for the last 35 years, providing pioneering educational strategies, technologies, and analytics for many of the world’s largest companies. With extensive experience across every major industry, Allen’s award-winning projects drive lasting business results. The reason because businesses trust Allen with their most critical projects is that Allen aligns agency-quality media, best-in-class instructional strategy and technology, and a proven design process centered on quantifiable business results. This bold approach results in custom organizational training solutions that help departments scale and achieve more, while improving ROI. It is clear that this company’s people love what they do and clients see the results. Contact Allen to see how training can boost performance and change behavior! G-Cube Established in July 2000, G-Cube is one of the fastest growing organizations in the Asia Pacific region, offering complete learning technology solutions under one roof. Its holistic solutions range from learning consulting, custom content development, mobile learning solutions, game based learning, and social learning solutions to translation and localization (60+ languages). G-Cube has also won 60+ awards in the last 4 years (!), including the award for their WiZDOM LMS. Known for its thought leadership in learning technology space, G-Cube has contributed to several innovations in the eLearning industry, such as gaming console based learning solutions using Kinect; first HTML5-based Learning Management System to address multi-device challenges, introducing Adaptive Learning in corporate space. Their latest innovation is the introduction of IVR-based learning solutions for the blue collared workforce. G-Cube’s greatest strength is its diverse experience, which has brought with it a close understanding about the workings of the eLearning domain. As an industry, this field has seen a tremendous change in the past few years and the flux is continuous; G-Cube has been a part of this change and has been able to adapt to its changing needs. If you want to know more about this 200+ strong team, contact them here. CCS Digital Education CCS Digital Education is a leading international provider of custom eLearning content development services and award winning solutions that help their clients empower continuous learning, increase employee engagement, and effectively address their business challenges through improved learning results. CCS has extended experience in developing bespoke eLearning applications enriched with engaging features and gamification elements that boost performance and knowledge. As part of any project they assess learning goals, analyze business requirements, and take part in user experience design, storyboarding, Instructional Design, and content authoring. These efforts are supported by an accomplished team comprising eLearning experts, software engineers, visual designers, voice actors, and animators. CCS’ eLearning solutions are used by large enterprises, government organizations, leading educational and training institutions, and millions of learners around the globe. Oh, and an interesting "detail": CCS has also created Lykio, the world’s first Learning Motivation Environment designed to make corporate knowledge evolution part of everyone’s working life. Available on any device, Lykio enables learning officers and heads of business to bring just-in-time knowledge to large and dispersed groups of employees. Contact them to know more! Learning Pool Another dynamic new entry on our list, Learning Pool works in partnership with their customers to deliver the results that they need. This company’s vision is to be the most customer-centric online learning company that drives learning and performance improvement in your organization. Specializing in providing affordable solutions, Learning pool offers a complete service that includes a library of editable content, innovative tools to improve job performance and online Learning Management Systems. Their bespoke content development services deliver fully editable content, allowing customers to update and maintain their eLearning, at no cost, for as long as they want. Learning Pool’s award winning team works closely with each of their customers to deliver high quality service that produces real benefits and tangible returns. In the last year they have delivered learning solutions to 350 organizations across the UK, worked in government, health, hospitality, housing, and the financial sector, and trained more than 1 million people across their customer base! Their unique approach encourages customers to share ideas, exchange best practice, and swap resources inside the Learning Pool community. This approach generates tremendous loyalty, with a retention rate of 97%! This year, Learning Pool received the Customer Focus Award at the Institute of Customer Service, was shortlisted for the eLearning Development Company of the Year, and gained an accolade for Learning Provider of the Year. Do you want to know why? Ask any one of Learning Pool’s hundreds of customers, who include the Houses of Parliament and Jurys Inn, and find out how they’ve delivered a first class experience for their organization and their learners. Oh, and contact them here. Are you a Top eLearning Content Provider? Create a Free Listing on eLearning Industry, the largest and fastest growing independent online community for eLearning Professionals! If you are one of the Top 10 eLearning Content Development Companies For 2015 you may use the following badge! This post was first published on eLearning Industry.

Gurus from the field of inclusive design and accessibility will create an engaging and immersive experience for OpenEd15 participants to try, see, and discover. We’re extremely excited to announce a Special Strand on Accessibility and OER at this year’s conference, sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Try a perspective shift - come see how your learning resources, applications and sites are experienced using alternative access systems that replace or augment screens, keyboards, and mice. Learn how you can leverage the flexibility, variability, and extensibility of open resources to reach new learners. Discover how to make your content, code, and designs more inclusive with help from the knowledgeable teams at the Inclusive Design Research Centre, CAST, and BCcampus, as well as the growing global inclusive learning community. The special strand consists of a mega-panel on Wednesday morning and a dedicated area near the registration desk - all three days - where you can talk with gurus and interact with a range of devices to learn more about OER, inclusive design, and accessibility. OpenEd15 Keynote Speakers Following the keynote format we premiered in 2011, this year’s keynote addresses will come in pairs. These paired keynotes will provide a range of perspectives on timely topics of critical importance to the field of open education. Keynote Pairing 1: Openness and the Future of Post-Secondary Education Michael Feldstein is an educational technology consultant and a lifelong educator. Previously, he has been the Senior Program Manager of MindTap at Cengage Learning and Principal Product Strategy Manager for Academic Enterprise Solutions (formerly Academic Enterprise Initiative, or AEI) at Oracle Corporation. Prior to to that, Michael was an Assistant Director at the SUNY Learning Network, where he oversaw blended learning faculty development and was part of the leadership team for the LMS platform migration efforts of this 40-campus program. Before SUNY, he was co-founder and CEO of MindWires, a company that provided e-learning and knowledge management products and services to Fortune 500 corporations, with a special emphasis on software simulations. In a previous life, Michael was a middle school and high school teacher and a tire wrangler at a Yokohama Tire warehouse. Phil Hill is an educational technology consultant and analyst who has spent the last 10 years advising in online education and educational technology markets. As an independent consultant and analyst, Phil helps higher education institutions develop effective strategies to understand and implement online education programs. Phil’s clients have included the University of Iowa, UCLA, California State University, DeVry University, Colorado Community College System, University of Maryland University College, among others. Phil is also an author, blogger at e-Literate, and speaker, and he has become recognized in the educational technology community for his insights into the broader education market trends and issues. In addition to e-Literate, Phil has also written for EDUCAUSE Review and been quoted at Inside Higher Ed and Washington Business Journal. Keynote Pairing 2: Supporting Open Textbook Adoption in British Columbia Mary Burgess is the Executive Director of BCcampus, an organization that supports the work of the BC post-secondary system in the areas of teaching, learning and educational technology. Prior to joining BCcampus in 2012, Mary was the Director of the Centre for Teaching and Educational Technologies at Royal Roads University where she started the University’s first open educational resources project. She is a career instructional designer and longtime advocate of OER. David Porter is Associate Vice-President - Education Support and Innovation, BCIT. He is the former Executive Director of BCcampus, where he advocated for the use of open pedagogical practices and open educational resources (OER), including the implementation of Canada’s first large-scale, government-funded open textbook program for post-secondary education. He is also a board member of the Open Education Resource Foundation, a non-profit society that is the coordinating body for Open Education Universitas (http://OERu.org), a network of 30+ universities worldwide that are interested in providing low-cost access to higher education using open resources, practices and pedagogies. The 12th Annual Open Education Conference (OpenEd15) will be held at the The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver (BC, Canada) on November 18-20, 2015. This post was first published on eLearning Industry.