It’s common for venues to claim to be one-size-fits-all, but most are equipped for one type of event and ill-suited for others. So how do you find the ideal venue for your group’s needs? To help you navigate the labyrinth of offerings, the expert planning team at The National Conference Center has put together a comprehensive list of key factors any planner should consider when selecting a venue for a meeting, training or event. Click below to download this White paper.

What makes up a great eLearning strategy? There’s no simple blueprint guaranteed to work for every organization; however, in many successful programs there are recurring themes. The reality of modern learning and development programs is that training needs to be repeatable, scalable and uphold learning standards. Simultaneously, training programs are often more engaging when they are personalized to the learner.  Striking a balance between these two demands is the challenge that many learning professionals face and is a perennial topic of conversation. Crafting an effective eLearning strategy is also a moving target as objectives change. Organizations must constantly change strategies to adapt to new objectives, changes in budgets, and adapt to a changing world.   Managing a modern eLearning program includes more than just expanding learning content libraries. In many cases, more isn’t always better. Simply adding additional content doesn’t address the needs of all learners in the organization.  In this eBook, we focus on a few ways to examine and refine strategies around learning programs. Topics include: A Purpose-Built Content Library Responding to Workforce Trends Peer-to-Peer Learning Integrated Learning Plans Using Analytics To Inform Strategy

COVID-19 has obviously impacted the world of work in deep, disruptive ways. Your organization’s approach to what work is and how it gets done is likely to continue to evolve. Some industries are more prepared than others for this transformation, but HR and L&D pros in every industry are poised to become advocates for lasting and meaningful change, drawing on lessons about work during COVID-19. In this eBook, we dig into the impact of the pandemic on the workplace and how smart HR pros and learning leaders are preparing for the "new normal" post COVID-19.

Workplace expectations are once again on the rise. L&D is now managing more than ever before, and often delivering training to a scattered workforce. The demands of modern learning are quickly showing the limitations of inferior solutions. In this eBook, we’ll breakdown the 5 ways that modern learning is rewriting the rules of the LMS.

50 Thinking Tools to Help Learners Scale Capacities Infographics for Social Collaborative Learning

As technology continues to advance, video accessibility will become more and more important - both in terms of legal requirements and the needs of our world.  Captions have become much more ubiquitous with the growth of online video. Laws continue to close the accessibility gap by requiring captioning in more places where video is found, but people are also starting to appreciate the universal benefits of transcription and captioning.  As video continues to dominate the web and other public spaces, captioning will become less of an afterthought and more of a necessity in an increasingly accessible world. Download this Guide for an excellent introduction to captioning (vs subtitles) their importance to learners and even their role in risk management (see pages start on #24!).

Accessibility is becoming ever more important to organizations seeking to make all learning accessible and those who want to manage risk through compliance and even where 508 compliance isn't required, through best practices in instructional and training videos.   Click below to download this excellent resources, attend the webinar and watch for the companion piece in your InBox soon, "Beginner's Guide to Captions for Training Videos"

Learner motivation is a critical success factor in designing e-learning that makes a difference. In an individualized learning setting, like asynchronous web-based training programs, active learner engagement is necessary for learning to occur. So while it is important for the instructional designer to get the content "right," it is even more vital (and usually more challenging) to design interactivity to draw in the learner to commit to the authentic behavior needed for learning to occur.  This e-book presents some straightforward and effective design strategies to create learner motivation in e-learning.

Learning content has never been easier to create. It is true that creating learning content comes with its own sets of challenges, but the plethora of tools available today have made authoring somewhat easier. What is not getting easier, however, is information overload for the learner. Organizations with the ability to easily create content on the fly means that new content is often created for every situation. Now, learners have to sift through mountains of content to get the information they need. A recent report showed that 24 percent of learning leaders said "content overload" was a huge problem in their organizations, and 38 percent more said that knowledge transfer and retention of content are their biggest challenges.

The Great Resignation - or employees leaving their current roles for better opportunities in a post-COVID world - is well underway and shows no signs of slowing down. To survive and thrive, organizations must adapt to this changing economy and learn how to retain the best talent. Our infographic explains six strategies that can help your company attract and retain employees.

In high-consequence industries, accidents can lead to loss of life, general disruptions, or risks to safety. Imagine the business impact if your organization were suddenly unable to meet compliance, service, or production commitments. That’s not a position you want to be in. Keep these six things in mind as you make your contingency plans

Executing talent management activities before they’re needed is an earmark of a successful business. With aging workforces and a shortage of critical talent being among the biggest challenges facing today’s businesses, strategic workforce planning - the discipline of forecasting future gaps between demand and supply of critical talent, to ensure that you have the appropriate workforce mix three, five or ten years from now - has become one of HR’s most important responsibilities.

Are you considering working with a custom content development shop to help frame your learning strategy, create a curriculum, convert existing training, or simply give you a hand?  Working with the right vendor can deliver extraordinary results—ones that engage learners, drive behavior change and foster a culture of learning in your organization—IF you choose the right partner. Download this free eBook and learn 7 best practices that will help you build a successful partnership and deliver better learning experiences. 

There is a large contingent of instructional designers out there who are forced by their organizations’ lines of business to take orders and "design" eLearning courses. Stakeholders ask these well-intentioned instructional designers to become order-takers and apply learning objectives, knowledge checks and assessments to their PowerPoints and import them into a Storyline or Captivate published SCORM file. Once it is loaded into the organization’s LMS it resides there in a deep blue abyss forever. Did I mention that these projects have a completion deadline of 2-3 weeks? Does this sound like you? It’s not your fault. Let me say it again, it’s not your fault! After all, you have a backlog of projects and only so many hours in a day to argue the merits of learner-centric and performance-focused eLearning They were frustrated with bad eLearning that fails to live up to its promise of improving performance and creating measurable results. So they decided to come up with a set of 22 principles that reflect effective performance-focused eLearning that instructional designers should know and use. I’m a signatory and agree with every principle in the manifesto. However, it falls short of being a useful tool that instructional designers can use to evaluate their design throughout the project life cycle and make changes for the better. There are other tools out there that evaluate the quality of instructional design based on performance-focused and learner-centric standards. Take the Quality Matters Rubric for instance. This tool is very advanced, has quality assurance standards, certification for designers, and even membership opportunities. However, it focuses primarily on academia not industry, it is very rigorous, and it can take almost as much time to evaluate your course than building the actual course. Therefore, I decided to come up with an evaluation tool for my team and I would like to share it with you. The evaluation tool is called the 7 Better Learning Principles Assessment (of course if someone comes up with a better name, I’m all ears).

CSO Insights’ 2017 Sales Manager Enablement Report compared the win rates on forecasted sales opportunities between companies with a formalized approach to coaching—meaning there is a standard approach used by all sales managers—to those companies where coaching strategies were entirely left up to the manager or done informally. Their findings provide proof as to why a sales coaching initiative at your company is so important: companies who had adopted a formal approach to sales coaching achieved a win-rate on forecasted deals that was 19% higher. In short, developing a strong sales coaching culture offers a great ROI. And great leverage: Each sales manager trained is then empowered to improve the win rates of every sales rep on their team. Here are seven keys that will move you in that direction.

How do you know if your learning management system is effective in developing your employees? As talent leaders, you need to upskill, reskill, and continually expand your employees' capabilities. The urgency of developing your workplace has never been greater. Here's why: 34% employees have already left a job because they lacked career development opportunities. Effective 2020, approximately 35% of the skills needed for jobs across industries will change. According to research by SHRM, over 50% of HR professionals believe the skills shortage has gotten worse instead of better. Many use an LMS to help solve for these challenges, but most learning platforms aren't equipped with effective tools to tie learnings to long terms skills and career development. That's where this guide comes in. Get the 7 questions you should be asking now to see if your platform can solve these challenges.

No matter how fun your game-based solution is supposed to be, you will still need a plan for launching it, promoting it, and measuring it. How will you communicate about the game? Will you require players to play? How will you incentivize play... or do you need to incentivize?

Ready or not, it’s time to adapt your training program for the digital world. In order to be set up for success, you need a long-term eLearning strategy or you risk being left behind. But with over 800 learning technology options to choose from, how do you know which option is best for both your business and your learners? How can you be sure you are choosing an option that will scale with your business and provide you the data you need to make smart (and quick!) business decisions? In this free infographic, you'll get a 7-step guide to help guide your learning platform buying decision.

The world expects more than compliance. Through a partnership with research and analyst firm, Brandon Hall Group, OpenSesame has distilled the latest in DEI benchmarking and progress research; and created a seven-part white paper series that reveals seven strategies that transform your DEI initiatives. Discover factors that connect within a DEI framework, methods for program longevity and employee action, and ways that leadership within your industry creates lasting and meaningful change. Learn about: Developing a holistic DEI approach that builds a culture to transform company connections Establishing strong DEI values across your organization to maintain engagement Assessing your industry’s needs and how to prioritize DEI efforts for robust and lasting outcomes Ways to integrate DEI programs into your current and ongoing learning curriculum

No "learning culture" is born overnight. For a learning culture to become part of your brand, you must involve both the leaders and the employees every step of the way. The process is demanding but leads to a tremendous pay-off through higher employee retention, higher quality performance from your employees, and an increase in revenue.   This eBook discusses key elements of building a culture of learning, including: How to design training for measurable ROI Best practices in training design strategy Tips for custom eLearning development The role of analysis and performance consultants How to utilize managers and mentors

Looking to implement microlearning but not sure where to start? Or do you need some help identifying a microlearning use case that will enhance your existing training programs? Either way, we have great news: when it comes to microlearning, the possibilities are nearly endless. This guide shares nine of the top ways organizations are leveraging this science-backed practice to train and develop high-performing employees. From the primary use cases of knowledge reinforcement and assessments to boosting employee engagement and tracking performance, you’ll learn practical strategies you can implement right away to improve training effectiveness!

For training content to be effective and engaging, it needs to be continuously adaptive to your company's and your employees' changing needs. Download this infographic, and learn the questions to ask content providers to ensure they are the right fit. Click below to download.

With the world of work rapidly shifting to a skills-focused lens, you need to evolve your approach to developing workforce capabilities before necessity does it for you. Transforming into a skills-based organization (SBO) is a complicated, emerging process, but with the right tools and strategies, a little guidance, and a future-focused mindset, your business will reap the benefits.   In this 15-minute introduction, you’ll get prepped for the SBO journey with answers to your initial burning questions, including:  What are the benefits of an SBO?  How do you become one?  What can you do today to start your transformation?

WHAT IS A COACHING CULTURE? Culture shapes behaviors inside the organization and a coaching culture is one deliberately focused on growing and nurturing talent in order to deliver key results, strengthen leadership capacities, increase retention and deepen engagement. A culture that has cultivated a coaching approach to development often demonstrates some of the following characteristics: • Giving and receiving feedback in the service of being at one’s best • Focusing on opportunities to help members of one’s team grow • Operating in teams with clear goals and roles • Developing others when it matters most • Asking and empowering more than telling and fixing When coaching is embedded through all levels of an organization it becomes the predominant approach to working and leading together with a goal of building a best-in-class organization by building great leaders. Click below to download this White Paper.