Trends happen for a reason, and you’ve probably been training your clients on how to be virtual, how to manage remotely, and how to use Zoom.  But as you’re wrapping those sessions up, remember: The job of a training resource & consultant isn’t just to deliver what clients ask for today, but to teach them what they need for tomorrow. In 2021, that means helping them fight the temptation to settle into the "new normal" of the moment, instead supporting them as they equip themselves to flex into the next normal after that - and the one after that.

Learning can and should be fun! Your learners are adults with jobs but that doesn’t mean they don’t want to be entertained, challenged, or engaged! But your corporate training demands results, often documenting compliance, in critical areas requiring lasting performance change. Just because you are choosing a digital platform, your training program still needs to mean business. All elearning interactions are not equal in terms of how well they facilitate learning. This playbook explores this complexity and also establishes some straightforward insights into how to best integrate CCAF thinking into your own digital learning design process. In this ebook you’ll gain: 4 essential pillars of transformative learner-experienced design Tips and insights for designing engaging Contexts, motivated Challenges, appropriate Activities, and instructional Feedback with interactive designs Real-life digital learning solutions from a variety of organizations that have applied the 4 pillars

As the professional landscape evolves and organizations are beginning to finally take action towards the future, many need ways to support their teams safely and efficiently not only during the transition, but for the longer term. Dive into the four key workplace learning trends you should be aware of in 2021 and how they impact your approach to your current learning programs looking ahead.

Transforming L&D for a Sustainable Future With the pandemic, mass working from home, and huge changes to working environments, 2020 saw incredible transformations across the working world. L&D teams had to pivot almost overnight. For many organizations, this initially meant transferring predominantly or completely face-to-face learning into the virtual realm. At LEO, we worked closely with, and spoke to, L&D professionals around the world and in many different industries throughout the pandemic, as we helped them respond. In doing so we also began to understand what has and hasn’t worked for them in such a transitional year. One of our favorite analogies heard in discussion with a senior L&D professional went something like this: "Railway tracks were built on the same basic dimensions as roads created for horse and cart. They didn’t think out of the box. We can’t do that this time. We need to develop ground-up virtual strategies." So, what does this mean for learning? Put simply, in order to transform learning in an effective, sustainable, and scalable way for the future, we shouldn’t simply adapt the old ways of doing things. Just because something worked before, that doesn’t mean it will work in a new, digital, distanced, and flexible learning context. We need to embrace the opportunity for innovative and agile transformation. So, as we look at the world of learning in this period of drastic change, what shifts are taking place, what are we learning, and how can we take these trends and observations into consideration as we prepare for the future? In this eBook, we’re looking back over some of the biggest challenges this industry has faced to see what can be learned and what our key takeaways are for 2021 and beyond.

COVID-19 is changing everything. Many of the organizations that survive, emerge, and thrive will be different than they were before all the unpleasantness. Their workforces will have to be, too. We’ve already seen an unprecedented number of workers displaced all around the world. And the redeployments, furloughs, and layoffs will likely continue throughout 2021.That’s forcing countless workers to refresh their current skills, and more importantly, build new ones. But few of us know where to start — and both time and money are in short supply. That's why we created The State of Skills. Degreed surveyed over 5,200 people around the world to assess the effects of recent global events on workforce skills and to gauge their readiness to adapt to new challenges. We segmented our data by identifying the countries, industries, and job roles where skills are most at-risk of becoming obsolete. We hope this will help workers, team managers, and business leaders focus their limited energy and investments on developing the skills they need most. Pay close attention to the data on your country, industry, and role throughout the report. Those who act quickly have a game-changing opportunity to get ahead of the competition.

Virtual teams are here to stay. Soon, many companies will return to the office, but with smaller footprints and more flexible work-from-home policies that—while convenient—will make live team communication more complex than ever before. 

No matter what "going back" looks like, the return to work will mean facing a world that looks dramatically different from the one we left behind in March of last year. Conversations that were once taboo are now okay, gaps in our training needs are growing, and core internal communication channels aren’t working.

If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that we can do virtually anything—virtually. Virtual communication is ubiquitous, cost-effective, and convenient, and it’s here to stay. Zoom in particular has gained enormous traction, although many of us admit we’re also Teams-tortured, ex-Webexed, over-Skyped, and, frankly, Burned Out.

Often, when designing elearning courses, a simple animation is more effective in capturing attention and explaining a concept than a static illustration. Camtasia is great for creating quick and effective animated videos and it is more than just a video editing tool. Whether you need animated Intros or Outros for your videos, or an explainer animation for your elearning course, Camtasia is easy to learn and use.  

Webcams on or off: Do you have a preference? Many people do! In this webinar, we’ll present the findings of a recent survey of learning professionals focused on webcam practices and perceptions. Learn about how our perceptions and use of webcams have developed during the pandemic, and the webcam practices, norms, and woes that surround our use of this important learning and communication technology. A research brief summarizing the findings will also be available to attendees at the time of the webinar.

Are you like many instructional designers and trainers who are being asked to meet the growing training needs of hundreds of employees and customers? Even if your team is able to support this increased demand, they likely won't have adequate time to close the loop and analyze the effectiveness of the content you meticulously crafted. This can lead to a slippery slope, wherein teams continuously create and share training content without knowing the true impact on their audience. 

According to Fortune magazine’s list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For in America," 81 percent of workers in companies on the list report that they work in a fun environment. In fact, the variable of "fun" is the most distinguishing variable between those companies who make the list and those that do not. Employees at the best companies are having the most fun and if you make fun part of your work culture, your employees will fare better as well since fun is a proven driver of productivity, results, creativity and better relationships.

Virtual and hybrid events are complex machines with lots of moving parts. Internal friction between those parts can degrade the experience for learners, presenters, and hosts. We identify common sources of friction and how you can address them to make your next event a smooth running machine.

There’s a lot of advice "out there" around leading and developing salespeople. But irony is that most advice is focused on improving half of this word: sales. Sales forecasting, sales pipeline management, sales metrics. What’s missing is the last half of the word, which is people.

"Color," a word that many take for granted. A design element that is a key part of all visuals and embraced to a theoretical level by graphic designers, but an element that is often misunderstood or misrepresented by those outside of the graphic design space.

Built-in vidcam and crappy microphone? You can do better   Are you waiting for services like Zoom and Teams and all the others to offer tools to make you look better, sound clearer, and be more charismatic? That would be a pretty neat trick. But you can do better than connecting your notebook and yammering on. Way better. And let’s not kid ourselves, virtual presenting will be with us long after Covid - in our offices and in our spare bedrooms.

Ready to rock and roll with Adobe Captivate? Learn to create an exciting eLearning Course that hits all the right notes! Just take part in a 90-minute hands-on introduction by Dr. Pooja Jaisingh to take your eLearning journey to new dimensions. What’s more, earn a valuable certificate upon creating your own short project.

For many organizations, the learning ecosystem extends far beyond the four walls of the organization. Although, extended enterprise comprises a relatively small chunk of the L&D budget, it represents a huge opportunity for organizations to build their brand, improve customer relationships, and even generate revenue. Brainier partnered with The Brandon Hall Group to develop this research brief on the state of extended enterprise learning and its future. In this research brief, we’ll cover four key considerations in planning an extended enterprise learning endeavor, as well as case studies of organizations finding success in doing so. Key considerations include: Building the business case Finding the right technology Defining the audience and characteristics of requirements Strategizing your revenue goals for the program

For adding narration to your eLearning courses, you need to change your writing style a bit to make it sound more natural to the ears instead of the eyes. Though the general writing principles are the same for on-screen text and narration, there are some nuances that you need to take care of when authoring the voice-over scripts.  

A killer start-to-finish approach to making AMAZING presentations quickly. Mike shares tips, tricks and tools from his newest book, A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters. Learn how to improve understanding, recollection and adoption using three simple techniques.

The COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect the workplace in unprecedented ways. Whether it’s the dramatic increase in employees working remotely or the blurring of boundaries between our personal and professional lives, the pandemic has created new dynamics between employer and employee. As these trends evolve, employers will need to be proactive and recognize the expanded role they’ll play in their team’s physical, mental and financial well-being. Accepting this role and supporting their employees’ well-being will be essential to maintaining a productive, satisfied workforce. Download the full white paper to learn more. 

It’s time to make your job training online easier. And there’s no better or more effective way than putting people in charge of their learning with interactive techniques. In this session, Becky will model effective use of the most common tools across online platforms. Experience the difference in energy, engagement and fun—and see how easy it is to incorporate these tools into your training.

Are you struggling to get the supervisor involvement that is necessary to have effective training programs? Attend this webinar to find out the one, game-changing question that will generate the support and involvement required for your programs to impact on-the-job performance and create meaningful results.  

During turbulent times like this, you hear many people talk about the "resistance to change" and how this phenomenon impairs an organization’s ability to rapidly adapt and respond.