TK 2021 Conference Sessions

High quality audio in eLearning is critical for effective engagement, learning, and retention. In today's culture of AirPods and earbuds, learners will tolerate bad quality video much longer than they will tolerate bad quality audio. This session shows the steps necessary to ensure high quality audio in eLearning, including the one most important factor needed for high quality audio. Room acoustics, microphone selection, microphone placement, and proper recording levels will be discussed in easy to understand, non-technical language. Attendees will be given the opportunity to have their eLearning audio evaluated for quality by a professional voice talent after the conference at no charge.

Speaker: Greg Thomas

I don't have time for this. I already know this stuff. Do I have to go through all of this?
How often have you heard complaints like these? Everybody's busy these days. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to do something to lighten the load?
In this hands-on workshop, you'll use standard Storyline features to build a course that adapts itself to your audience, based on how they're doing in the course. You'll:

• create a pretest to evaluate prior knowledge
• use that information to allow your learners to skip content they know
• set up remedial sections to give more content or practice to people who need it
• develop a final test which ends as soon as someone passes or fails, instead of making them go through the rest of the test questions

Speaker: Simon Blair

This session offers a fresh approach for extending learning and providing reinforcement in this digital and mobile age. Specifically, a mobile chatbot can bring microlearning to the students mobile phones in an interactive way to reinforce knowledge and engage them directly in key bits of the learning again and again. The intent of introducing this emerging mobile form of learning reinforcement is to support formal learning so it can deliver the desired results back on the job.

Speaker: Bonnie Beresford

New tools are making it possible to convey your content through whiteboard-style animations. How can you use these for marketing, presentations, or training, and how easy are they to create? Its probably easier than you think! In this session, you will experience how easy whiteboard-style scribes are to create and give you a new way to tell your content stories in a creative and innovative way.

Speaker: Dani Watkins

How do your employees react to compliance training? At Spectrum, their compliance training is some of the highest rated training in the company. To get there, they rethought the purpose of compliance training and then focused on why it is important to the employee and the overall user experience. This has led to a library of compliance; courses that employees enjoy taking. The Spectrum Design team will be sharing their design approach to the entire program and to individual courses.

Speakers: Kay Hunt and Marc Donelson

As an Instructional Designer, whats the biggest challenge you face in eliciting intellectual knowledge from your SMEs? Is it retrieving what you need timely? Does the interaction lack a sense of collaboration and respect? Are you struggling for control of the direction of your project? Lets face it, to be successful you need information from your expert, while you also need to be able to ask questions and discuss gaps you want to fill in your learning unit. Learn and practice strategies to turn drama into dynamics and change control struggles into cordial collaborations with your SME.

Speaker: Paula Obrien

Thoughtful design of training is critical, but the Learner Experience tends to get lost in the urgency to cram all information onscreen, whether it really needs to be there or not. Keeping in mind learner empathy, human-centered deign principles,and how these practices relate to the overall Learner Experience can make the difference between a memorable training and a forgotten one. We will talk you through all of these concepts, and then teach you how to develop Learner Personas in order to truly support you in your learner empathy journey. If your content is falling flat because you aren't taking the learner into account, then its time to practice learner empathy techniques!

Speaker: Alicia Seguin and Debra Jensen

In this session you'll learn various ways to make your online courses accessible to a large population for whom colour blindness or hearing deficiency is a major obstacle to learning.
Well explore the role of color selection in the creation of images and descriptive text in enabling these users to experience and learn from your content and consider steps to take when making images accessible
You'll also learn how to create an accessible course with PDFs and word docs as well as creating courses within Storyline that provide alternative navigation tips for users.
Join me in getting started with simple steps and free resources on how to make your courses accessible to all and breaking down the barriers to learning.

Speaker: Stephanie West

You've just learned that due to new laws, or your organizations desire to be inclusive, that all your training content needs to be Section508 or WCAG compliant, in other words accessible to all. Your first idea, providing a PDF of the course, was shot down. Separate but unequal wont cut it. Later you were reminded that adding narration to the course doesn't make it accessible, it just adds unnecessary work and may conflict with screen readers. Hiring an accessibility expert just isn't in the budget, so what is an instructional designer to do?

Speaker: Paul Schneider

Are you puzzled by how to create the most engaging online interactivity? Every guide calls for interactivity, yet rarely are guidelines for quality interactions provided. As a result, rote questioning and tedious busywork populate much e-learning. It doesn't have to be that way. Several areas of work suggest specific desirable qualities we should consider. This session looks to definitions of interactivity, principles of adult learning, guidelines for individualization, and game design principles to outline a single, concise, and powerful design model for effective online interactivity. Participants will leave with a proven approach to instructional challenges that consolidate best practices in these diverse disciplines.

Speaker: Ethan Edwards

In this session, you'll learn how to use visual communications to create engaging learning experiences. You'll explore how to use visual communication techniques to visualize your learning content and help your learners see what you're saying. Best of all, this session will focus on tips anyone can use, regardless of their current art or graphic design skills.

Speaker: Tim Slade

Jim Henson started working as a puppeteer in 1954, long before most people considered corporate instructional design as a career. Yet, Jim Henson applied many of the core ideas from instructional design and design thinking in his imaginative work.
We will cover Hensons use of design thinking and ID concepts, such as storyboarding, storytelling, iteration, empathy, audience analysis, and more. Well bring his applications back to practical application in our daily work. Well get creative, discussing how construction of a Muppet can translate to construction of a course.
Also, this session is fun, and includes singing and a guest appearance by Sid, the Muppet.

Speaker: Michelle Lentz

So many times, we spend hours building great one or two slide game like interactions that are engaging and really gets the learner interacting with the content. A few courses later you realize that great interaction would fit in so well with your new course, but you cant remember which course you put it in, where the source file is, let alone how you set up the triggers and variables! Or you find the slides and need to rebuild it because the look and feel of the course is different. Wouldnt it be great to have a library of interactions you could grab and customize to wow your audience!

Speaker: Stephanie Daul

When a new training is requested, there are so many questions to answer. Who is the SME? What form of project management are we using? What will the review cycles look like?
And most importantly: Why are we doing this? What is the behavior change we want?
Learning Contracts are a great way for an instructional designer to set expectations with stakeholders on requested training. The process of writing one will clarify the goals of the project and cause everyone involved process the implications of this commitment. By front loading all of the questions, the instructional designer is likely to have a more successful experience doing her job.
I'll provide a customizable template use can use to create a learning contract for your next project.

Speaker: Emily Wood

Visual design affects an audiences willingness to engage with learning materials, because learners regularly use visual cues to determine credibility. In this session, participants will learn the seven basic principles of design, how theyve been applied by masters throughout the history of art, and how participants can apply them in their own work. These principles of design can be applied to any medium, including presentations/slideshows, e-learning courses, job aids, and videos.

Speaker: Brittany Jordan

With the need to change behavior and ignite action, how can your elearning solutions leave your audience remembering your message? Try looking to a field that does this well: marketing. If advertising messages can get people to recall and retain information, how can you use these marketing techniques to change behavior and ignite action amongst your learners?
In this interactive session you'll learn the four key techniques that marketers use to make their messages stick. You'll explore the role of message visualization, drama, emotions and compelling text. You'll examine both marketing and training examples in order to apply the concepts to your own projects.

Speaker: Danielle Wallace

In this session, you'll learn what it really takes to make the leap into freelance eLearning or instructional design full-time. You'll explore how to transition out of your 9-to-5 job, without sacrificing your financial security. Additionally, you'll discover how to build your brand, source clients, and how to work when and where you want.

Speaker: Tim Slade

These are unprecedented times with technology enhanced training methods becoming the new normal in corporate training. Mobile learning is integral to this landscape with its potential to provide performance support to employees - at the time and place they need it most! In this session, RK Prasad shares how you can use mobile learning for performance support with examples drawn from training for sales and service personnel. You can adapt the ideas shared to other employees easily. You will learn how to, blend mobile learning with other forms of training to ensure that learning sticks and lasts.
Chalk out your mobile collaborative learning strategy based on experiences of companies that have tried and tested it before.

Speaker: RK Prasad

The quickest way to succeed is by failing fast but how can you gather rapid feedback on your ideas when working with a distributed team? In this interactive session, you'll learn how to get ideas and assumptions out of your head and into the real world (or cyberspace) in under 15 minutes. Well explore a simple Design Thinking framework to improve and focus prototypes, and share 10+ digital tools to spark your creativity and help increase your velocity. You'll also hear how we've used virtual prototyping in our roles as learning leaders at Virgin Orbit and Lyft and in our classrooms at Stanford and IDEO U. Well wrap with a prototyping mini challenge to help you get unstuck on a learning challenge you're currently facing.

Speaker: Jesse Harris and Laura Pickel

In our time together you will learn how simple yet powerful prototyping and gaining feedback on your projects can be. You will be able to go back to work, know how to build a prototype, and gain critical feedback that just may change your project for the best!

Speaker: Jeff Lowndes

There's a huge learning curve when you are building elearning for the first time. If you need professional quality, the learning curve gets worse. Using PowToon, a simple and robust tool developed in the UK, Moser Consulting built two stunning videos for a state project in a week.In this session, you will learn how the tool was used to build compliance training, emotional intelligence, Introduction to Projects and Leading thru Crisis training, all completed and launched in a two week period. Lou Russell will share tips to help you jump-start your projects using this new tool. There is a free version which will be used in the session as a demo.

Speaker: Lou Russell

Have you ever listened to a great podcast, one that hooks you in, has cliffhangers and keeps you wanting more?
Get ready, you're going to find out how you can apply these same principles to your learning content!
Instead of designing another boring fraud and corruption module, these principles were used to create The Fallout, a fictional hybrid eLearning module.
In this session, you'll hear about the initial conversation with the client and you'll be taken through the design and development process; creating the characters, story, curating the content and how the course was branded with a True Crime look and feel.
You'll leave this session with a ton of new ideas that you can implement right away and give your content the wow factor.

Speaker: Cath Ellis

Using a Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Mindset can improve eLearning design to reach all learners. Capturing and developing talent that could have been missed with regular design practices. UDL is more than accessibility, it is a purposeful design for all participants, lessening the need for accommodations, and reaching all learners despite how they best acquire knowledge or demonstrate understanding. Join us to learn how to develop a UDL mindset and build your toolkit to design for all learners.

Speakers: Michelle Bartlett and Suzanne Ehrlich

Think of this session like a lab in which you'll experiment with elements of effective elearning design, explore which elements bond most cohesively together, and concoct a re-imagined elearning program. This session is about making new discoveries and discussing whats possible within your organization.

In this session, you'll explore a periodic table of 51 elements of effective learning design, you'll focus on a few of those elements, you'll work with others to create a Weird Science-like ideal elearning module and then you'll reflect on what might be realistic (even if it pushes the boundaries) within your own organization.

Speaker: Brian Washburn

The team makeup needed to deliver a successful AR experience is different than other L&D efforts you may be used to. And that means the talent sourcing, identification, and evaluating processes you're used to may need to shift. Not only that, but you'll also need to explore new roles for your team, as well as new ways to bring all their skills together.
This session will help you envision the team and workflow you'll need to deliver success to your stakeholders and examines the types of jobs, tools, and processes that are used to create AR experiences.

Speaker: Chad Udell

Lets explore the immediate future for AI in workplace learning. In this session, well clarify what AI can and cannot do. Well highlight the role data will play in the emergence of AI-enabled LD. We will explore AI capabilities that are already being used within workplace learning. We will then apply AI principles to solve familiar LD challenges, such as content development, translation, personalization and measurement, to demonstrate how this technology will fundamentally change the work we do every day. Youll leave this session with a practical understanding of how AI will augment your LD capabilities over the next 3 to 5 years.

Speaker: JD Dillon

Augmented reality (AR) is widely available today in games, marketing, and now learning and development. The barriers to getting started are lower than ever but there is always the inevitable question. Where do I start? In this session, we will explore how AR can fit into your development workflow.You will be introduced to low-cost tools and resources that will make developing an AR project accessible,effective, and engaging. We will be hands-on in creating a custom AR experience. You will explore additional interactive AR examples, review uses cases, and story board methods for bringing your AR experience to life. You will leave this session with all of the information you need to get started with augmented reality.

Speaker: Destery Hildenbrand

Many designers spend countless hours developing guidebooks, tips sheets, and manuals knowing that training participants will thumb through your hard work during the session and rarely use it again. If they have a question after the fact, it seems like too much work to dig out and reference the glorious manual you gave them in class. Unless the materials are used immediately following training, most forget the content entirely.Tips sheets are meant to be valuable resources, not something to toss in the recycle bin.But what if there was another option for creating documents, both paper and digital, in a way thats interactive, engaging, and practical?

Speaker: Mike Peacock

Over the last couple of years, corporations have gone all-in on creating proof of concept (PoC) VR training experiences. This is an important step in learning whats possible. However, the real value of VR training is realized by actually deploying it throughout the enterprise.
So, how do you do that?
This session will cover the entire roadmap for deploying VR training -- from PoC, to pilot implementation, to corporate LMS integration, to ultimately rolling out immersive training experiences to a wider audience. Included in this presentation will be actual case studies of how organizations are building out VR training experiences and how they are beginning to roll them out at enterprise-scale.

Speaker: Dave Beck

You there! Yes, you! Have you ever wondered about Augmented Reality? Have you heard some things and been wanting to check it out? Is your curiosity on overload?
Well, right this way, Ladies and Gentlemen, right this way! Dont be afraid to step right up!This is a session unlike any other! The AR Sideshow SpectaculAR is about to begin!
ifyouaskbetty presents not one, not two, but THREE unique AR experiences the likes of which you have never seen before! (I mean maybe). You dont want to miss this! Bring your device and get a chance to try out three top AR platforms! Youll leave inspired, motivated and maybe even entertained!
Come one come all to the AR Sideshow SpectaculAR!

Speaker: Betty Dannewitz

Learners will be able to explore, challenge and even build Chatbot demos in a safe environment. You will discover tools and developers from the major technology companies. Use several demo devices and share samples with your colleagues. Create targeted questions about the application of simple AI to the learning and discover how to create learning pathways using this new technology. Additionally, you will discuss the implications of AI, Machine Learning and SMART on your organization and embracing technologies to support an inclusive community that brings the entire organization together.

Speaker: Bobbe Baggio

Building AR experiences does not have to be complex or hard, you can build AR performance support experiences right on our iPad with Realities Composer or Adobe Aero. This means we can prototype, develop, and animate AR content right on our iPads and preview instantly without having to publish an app.
In this hands-on session you'll find out how to get started using these AR creation tools. You'll discover how to start developing simple 3D objects right on your iPad and how to add interactivity to them, creating an engaging learning experience that the learner can view on their own device and in their own environment.

Speaker: Jeff Batt

In a recent Bersin by Deloitte report, it was stated 80% of CEOs believe upskilling is their most pressing challenge. This means retraining and upskilling are critical to the modern workforce. However, packed schedules impose a barrier to providing the formal training needed to address the upskilling needs of a modern workforce.
By providing dripped or spaced learning we give knowledge a greater chance of sticking and give people a better chance of knowledge retrieval and application. This creates a win-win for the people and businesses.
In this session, we will be working with three drip delivery platforms; blogs, chat-bots, and email to demonstrate the combined value of conversational, chunked, and self-directed microlearning content.

Speaker: Shannon Tipton

Are you ready for xAPI? Do you know what it takes to get started? This introductory session will get you started on the path to implementing xAPI in your organization. Well talk about what it is, what its good for, and all the vocabulary you'll need to navigate in this new world. When you walk out of this session, you'll have a list of learning tools that send xAPI data (including elearning authoring tools you probably already have), a list of learning record stores (LRS) and LMSs that collect your xAPI data ... and questions to ask prospective vendors as you begin your implementation. Whats more you'll have realistic expectations for what you can accomplish with xAPI.

Speaker: Megan Torrance

Jobs are being overtaken by automation. People want skills that increase their employability and enable better internal mobility within their organizations. Organizations need to stay agile, productive and ahead of their competition. How do we as learning professionals overcome our own obstacles to embrace the new future of learning and help our organizations succeed in the new skills economy?
The learning industry is changing. We have an opportunity to shift the way we think about learning and how we partner with other groups in our companies to make learning happen.

Speaker: Darren Nerland

Neuroscience has promised to radically improve talent development but that promise has been slow to be fulfilled. This session presents findings from the first distributed neuroscience platform that is fully automated, provides data in real-time for any number of people, and has been used to improve training in a variety of organizations. A neurologic state called immersion accurately predicts information recall weeks after training. This session describes the neuroscience of immersion and identifies best practices for those seeking to create immersive content. It includes a live demonstration of an immersive experience by measuring neural activity of attendees.

Speaker: Paul Zak

New technologies emerge on a regular basis. Changes require constant upskilling and reskilling of the workforce. According to executives, building the organization of the future is the most important challenge they face (Bersin et al. 2017). How can you as a talent development professional monitor and stay current regarding emerging technologies so you can ensure that you and your organization take full advantage of these technologies? How can you ensure that the technologies are appropriate and viable?

Speaker: Debbie Richards

Are you ready to take your eLearning to the next level? Are you underwhelmed by out of the box xAPI provided in rapid development authoring tools? Are you curious about how to leverage the power of xAPI to make more engaging, and personalized eLearning? If so, this is the session for you.
We will move beyond out of the box functionality and see how xAPI can be used to facilitate adaptive learning, manage user preferences and even store instructor-graded activities. Roll-up your sleeves and we will code modules to take advantage of the xAPI specification to move boring, page-turner eLearning into content made for your learners. Well also discuss the impact this new ability has on the instructional design process.

Speaker: Debbie Richards

There's an explosion of VR training programs in the workplace, and some of these training programs need facilitator support. Therefore, we need to ask the questions: "whats the facilitator role in VR training?" and "what skills to facilitators need in order to be effective in the VR classroom"? Facilitators need to figure out which traditional classroom training skills apply, and which ones don't!
This interactive session will explore similarities and differences between the "traditional classroom trainer" role the new ;"learning experience facilitator" role. You'll earn 5 skills needed for success in the immersive classroom.

Speaker: Cindy Huggett

In this session, you will learn how to effectively and efficiently run a design thinking workshop from the planning stages through to the post-workshop follow-up and deliverables. We will share outcomes you can and cant achieve, and talk about skills needed to achieve outstanding results.
Using real-world examples, we will explore how to facilitate the first three stages of a design thinking workshop. We will share success stories and talk about common derailers, when things didn't go as planned, offering you tools and techniques to deal with the unexpected on the fly. Along the way, we will highlight the skill set you and your team need to create true collaboration between you and your client, no matter if they are internal or external.

Speaker: Bianca Baumann and Matt Donovan

The session will explore the possibilities offered by ai-driven technologies to LD teams for addressing the growing need to develop millennials on soft skills.
Panelists have already faced and addressed this challenge using top-notch ai-driven solutions and will share their experience with examples and best practices.
The discussion will highlight:

• how can AI help scaling the opportunities for authentic practice-based learning;
• which constraint can limit the wide adoption of ai-based technologies;
• how AI can help developing soft skills such as emphatic relationship;
• how can AI help increase users on-line engagement;
• how can AI help increase learning retention;
• how AI can increase the quality of learning metrics measurement

Speaker: Andrea Laus

When was the last time you binge-watched a TV series? What if you could make your training just as addictive as your favorite TV program? You can and Margie Meacham will show you how in this engaging and interactive session about the Netflix Effect. Every time you select a program on Netflix, you're teaching the algorithm about your preferences. Each time the algorithm is used, the predictions get better and better. And as you enjoy the experience your brain gives you a rush of dopamine to tell you to do it again (and again and again). That's the virtuous cycle of choice and reward. In this session, youll learn how to build this cycle into your learning delivery system, using Big Data and artificial intelligence.

Speaker: Margie Meacham

Think of an emerging technology challenge that you are currently facing or an emerging technology implementation idea. It can be big, small, or somewhere in between. Now imagine having a small group of peers that could help you tackle that challenge by brainstorming to help you find a solution. The Solution Room is designed to provide peer-supported advice on the most pressing challenges. Participants work in small groups to brainstorm in short cycles, then we will debrief and further explore the viability of each solution and the technologies that support them.

Speaker: Almira Roldan

Learn how one company developed measurable, scalable and cost-effective virtual communication skills training for SMEs while decreasing travel costs and increasing efficiency, accountability and ROI. This unique solution offers personalized coaching using a combination of AI-based analysis, instructor review and peer feedback.

Speaker: David Bruesehoff and Sheri Jeavons

xAPI can enable adaptive learning, support mobile learning and provide rich analytics but may organization struggle with getting started.
In this session, participants will discuss the key drivers for decision makers from the C-suite to First-line Supervisors. We will focus on the benefits and results that impact your stakeholder not the underlying technology to sell your xAPI project internally. This session will highlight common challenges to new learning technology purchases and guide participants around potential roadblocks. Case studies from successful implementations will be used to help paint a picture of xAPI benefits. Everyone will leave with a list of free and low-cost resources to get their first pilot project off the ground.

Speakers: Art Werkenthin and Duncan Welder

Augmented reality continues to advance and emerge in both consumer and enterprise markets. There's also rising interest in how to use AR for learning and performance. With AR now one of the hottest buzzwords, how much is hype and how much is substance?
In this session, you will explore the current state of augmented reality in 2020. You will see examples of AR in practice in the consumer and enterprise markets. You will examine whats working and whats not and how you can apply those lessons to learning and development. You'll also examine whats expected to change in the AR landscape in the near future.

Speaker: David Kelly

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 has shown the necessity of proving the value of mobile learning programs. Executives require serious evaluation before approving new programs and robust evaluations are required on existing programs.
This session will focus on preparing and responding to these demands. To secure support and funding, mobile learning must deliver results. An ROI study showing how mobile learning delivered business value is highlighted, revealing principles that you can apply to programs projects to ensure success. This session also shows how designers developers can ensure that mobile learning will deliver results. Basic design-thinking principles are presented, focusing on delivering application and impact in mobile learning.

Speaker: Patti Phillips

In this session, you will develop a microlearning framework and use problem-solving techniques to determine your microlearning solution.
We will spend time exploring a real-life pain-point and determine a solution that can be immediately applied. Through applying the concept of content deconstruction and reconstruction, you will get to the heart of problem and determine which type of microlearning asset, based on content and context, to use to support your stated solution.
You will have an opportunity to work in pairs to create a microlearning strategy, leaving this session with the foundation for a completed microlearning framework, with tools and templates to make microlearning creation easier and more impactful to your business.

Speaker: Shannon Tipton

Have you ever thought of serving your learners with a great online social learning program? This session will learn you how to design and moderate engaging and effective online social learning.
You'll learn the most important design principles and starting points backed up by the most important social learning theories.
You'll also learn the importance of the role of the moderator in online social learning and how to make the best of that role. Via the Five Stages model you'll learn how to be a professional moderator.
Make use of the insights drawn from an online social learning program in which 450+ learning professionals from 23 countries participated. This session will make you an online social learning pro!

Speaker: Ger Driesen

There are several myths about video creation - like you need expensive gear. Or it isn't easy to learn. Or you need a sizable budget to get a video that will work. During this session, well dive into the myths and see which ones hold water and which ones we can bust. Along the way, well look practical solutions and advice for overcoming the challenges of the medium, including tips on essential gear, keeping budgets affordable, and critical video editing skills.

Speaker: Matthew Pierce

Podcasting is popular and interview podcasts seem to be at the top of the movement. But, interviews can be tricky.
In this session, you'll learn about common interview blunders. You will experience some classic walkouts and get an opportunity to discuss why they happened. You will learn how to choose the right guests and prep them appropriately. You will also learn how to be prepared as an interviewer and interviewee for when things go wrong. You will learn practical ways to structure and manage your interview, including how to ask the right questions. You will leave with the steps needed to begin practicing these concepts and avoid the walkout immediately.

Speaker: Betty Dannewitz

At the end of an e-learning assessment, a learner sees "Correct Answers", "Number of Questions", and "Accuracy". Wouldn't it be more helpful for her continuing education and for her supervisor to know in which areas she has the greatest success and weakness? In this session, we will use Adobe Captivate to develop an assessment using the test bank to select a certain number of questions based on the objectives in our course. We will establish the pass or fail overall score for the course, and build subscores for each objective that a learner must pass not only the entire test at 80%, but each objective at that level as well. The provided results will be more useful in focusing areas for reteaching and coaching for the learner and her company.

Speaker: Emily Wood

Presentations, and much eLearning, are linear tools to convey information in a strict order that you cant deviate from. But its not how your audience work. They want to ask questions, jump around, and engage in an active discussion, which is far more effective.
Amazingly, PowerPoint can help. Easily and quickly create interactive presentations, infographics, and eLearning, all with standard PowerPoint. Combine that with UI/UX design techniques, and powerful animation tools in PowerPoint like triggers, Zoom, and Morph, and youve got the basis for highly effective communication tools using dynamic, interactive content.
This session is packed full of examples of different approaches with live demo of how to create them all in PowerPoint.

Speaker: Richard Goring

In this hands-on session, you'll take your fundamental knowledge of Articulate Storyline and learn how to further your abilities by applying advanced techniques. You'll learn how and when to use the three types of variables, along with conditional triggers, to create various types of custom interactions in Articulate Storyline. This session requires a working knowledge of Articulate Storyline, including the use of states, layers, and basic triggers.

Speaker: Tim Slade

Should podcasts be part of your learning program? What do you need to know to build a successful podcasting program (or improve upon your current one)? This session will explore specific case studies of podcastings benefits for employee development, especially with the changing nature of work today. It will also help you with specific tools and resources to build and grow a successful podcasting program. Most importantly, you will have an outline of steps to get started, evaluate, and grow. Like any learning tool, podcasting is only as good as the way it is used. After this session, you'll be able to pinpoint if it makes sense for your organization and what you need to make it succeed.

Speaker: Shannon Martin

Executives buy results, not training. The challenge is that most HR and training professionals are tasked to prepare employees to lead the future of their organizations, but do not measure the impact of their leadership development programs. They are paying top dollar for training and coaching programs but cant prove that they are actually making a difference and rarely see a measurable and sustainable return on their investment.
It doesn't have to be that way. We can and we must do better. Its time to prove the training impact to our participants, our businesses and the training industry as a whole. Sal Silvester of 5.12 Solutions Consulting Group will present a mandate for measuring behavior change in leadership development programs.

Speaker: Sal Silvester

We are surrounded in our day-to-day lives with high quality, high fidelity content. At times it can be easy to determine that all content that we create needs to match up to what we see on marketing websites, YouTube, and other locations. Does all our content need tobe the best quality? While its true that quality and aesthetics can impact the perceived value of materials, striving for perfection can also cause us to create less content and ultimately provide less help, less information, or at the very least we respond much slower than our business wants or needs. In this session, well explore ideas around what it means to create valuable and helpful content fast and determine what the sacred standards are and where we can deviate.

Speaker: Matthew Pierce

From Google to Netflix, we interact with AI every day to provide us with relevant information and to deliver a personalized experience. Yet, as training professionals, many of us still create one-size-fits-none learning paths that frustrate learners and waste time and money.If you're ready to create a strategy to include AI in your learning program, it all starts here. Join Dave Romero, President Co-founder of Unboxed Training Technology to learn how to get off the edge of the AI pool. We'll focus on how to:

• Start using AI in your existing corporate training technology framework
• Begin measuring knowledge, skills, competencies that enable a personalized learning experience
• Start creating learning content that is future-ready for AI

Speaker: Dave Romero

You can learn to code! Even if you've said coding is not for me; or have attempted to learn but given up, this session is for you.
JavaScript is the language of eLearning. Used under the hood by your authoring tool and LMS, JavaScript also is a great way to extend learning experiences. Experienced JavaScript developers can build full-scale learning games and simulations using the language. However, all developers have to begin somewhere.
You'll leave this session having written and executed actual JavaScript code. More importantly, you'll understand that code and the process for creating larger JavaScript programs. Even if you're apprehensive, you'll gain a comfortable understanding of JavaScript fundamentals from this session.

Speaker: Mark Lassoff

Who has been driving the digital transformation of your learning organization: CLO, CIO, or COVID-19? The pandemic accelerated an immersive learning revolution. Get the inside scope on the new generation mobile games and virtual reality simulations where students learn by doing, progressing at their own pace, multiplying reps and sets of practice, and building muscle memory. Walmart's mobile game Spark City has been downloaded half a million times and upends how companies attract and develop managers. Pfizer minimize travel with a hyper-realistic virtual reality lab where students and instructors can interact remotely. Learn how these and other successfully organizations are transforming learning in the age of physical distancing.

Speaker: Anders Gronstedt

If your organization is somewhat like ours, you probably have the challenge of tech-savvy young professionals struggling to communicate and interact with a non-tech savvy older workforce. In this session you will learn how the talent development team from a mid-sized nuclear engineering and environmental services firm used simple, innovative learning tools to increase engagement, communication and productivity, which helped achieve the highest monthly profitability since 2015, amidst social distancing and the virtual workplace. This will be an interactive session, in which participants will have an opportunity to develop and use simple tools that can be used to help engage resistant employees at their companies and organizations.

Speaker: Kyle Freedman and Tamara Menteshashvili

Decision making doesn't come with an instruction manual, and leadership is not a one-size-fits-all discipline. They key is to find a process that works for each individual. Fortunately, there are techniques leaders can adopt to perfect their decision-making process and increase the likelihood that their decisions will lead to a positive impact for their organization.This session guides leaders through four techniques for effective decision-making and outlines how to integrate them into your own process when considering the pros and cons of important decisions.

Speaker: Matthew Confer

When it comes to engaging learners, variety is key. Learning professionals are a bit like chefs, mixing approaches to give their students an effective and enjoyable educational experience. Originally delivered as the opening keynote of ATDs NEAC Conference, this session provides practical ways to deliver learner focused experiences that encourage active engagement. We will discuss how to use learning technology effectively and incorporate classroom experiences with other delivery methods. We will also explore research and theories behind current teaching methods, such as project-based, experiential, and inquiry-based learning.

Speaker: Katrina Baker

Traditional elearning software simulations just don't cut it anymore. Learners are forced down a specific path and their ability to explore and navigate within the software is extremely limited.
What if eLearning developers could design software training that removed these restrictions and gave learners the freedom to make mistakes and then learn from their errors? In this session, participants will learn how they can use cloud-based virtual machines to deliver software training without any of the limitations of traditional eLearning. Then, well use API calls to evaluate whether or not learners completed the assigned tasks successfully.

Speaker: Kristian Chartier

We all know that there is a world-wide Hi-Tech skills shortage but can we learn from others how to solve it? Can re-skilling, training and adult education providers help address the problem and try narrow down the gap? Can they do it alone? By using Israel as a case study, Eran will demonstrate how the Start-Up nation is successfully using re-skilling and education as key elements in its Hi-Tech workforce foundation and the how the cooperation between Universities, Industry and the government is a critical factor to achieve success.

Speaker: Eran Lasser

We all struggled with proving the ROI of our training initiatives. But with the abundance of people analytics; HR, operational, and other data types we are fully equipped to measure the success of any LD initiative, especially when it comes to remote workforce performance. During this session well develop a sample framework for your organization on how to make Talent Development measurable, data-driven, directly impacting KPIs growth.

Speaker: George Elfond

Are you data literate? Learn how to implement a data literacy training program within your organization. We will give multiple options for how to start big, start small, or just start an awareness program. The key is to start and to expose this gap in the organization.

Speakers: Jill Camper & Kelly Zamboni

This classroom session provides a framework and strategy for developing a training needs analysis while incorporating the RACI matrix; a project management tool widely used to establish responsibility and alignment. Throughout this session, learners will be encouraged to consider a past or current project that requires a training plan. We will walk through the Training Needs Analysis template provided in order to define the sections of the needs analysis. As the session progresses, the RACI matrix will be incorporated into the training needs analysis, and conclusively learners will be guided to using the analysis template to develop a training plan for any given organizational project or initiative.

Speaker: Adia Smith

In a post-COVID19 world, leadership development has never been more important. Many practitioners are tasked with and struggling to design and deliver a meaningful leadership development experience without the legacy nearly-exclusive face to face component or ILT content that was hastily converted to VILT and leaves a lot to be desired. Imagine delivering an experience that supports leaders in their specific moments of need, that allows learners to engage meaningfully, together from anywhere in the world, that fosters connection, drives application and incorporates meaningful coaching. Come open your imagination to the future of leadership development.

Speakers: Ann Rollins and Britney Cole

In this session, you will learn models and tools that will help you more effectively partner with the business to transform the value of learning. First, we'll cover a model for an adaptive learning organization that has discrete measurement dimensions and used to benchmark an organizations capabilities and define further transformation. Secondly, we'll look at learning ecosystems and innovation frameworks as Design Thinking tools to map your current state, explore potential futures, and chart right-sized innovation that drives organizational impact. Lastly, learn about enterprise modeling techniques that enable a deeper understanding of the enterprise and set you up for an effective investment of LD resources for business impact.

Speakers: Dan McCoy and Michael Hruska

In this session, youll discover what a Web API is and how it can tie learning applications together to form an integrated ecosystem. Youll review architectural diagrams depicting the interconnectedness between applications, which forms a basis for strategic ecosystem planning. You'll also walk away from this session with a template containing questions to ask your vendors or internal technical teams, requirements to consider, and budgetary items to plan for. Finally, youll experience real-world examples that illustrate how Web APIs can help do things, such as: Provide personalized learning experiences and share learning content between applications to promote a single source of truth.

Speaker: Heidi Schafer and Kevin Yount

Agile provides a framework for adapting to change as it happens and working with the project sponsor to deliver whats most needed by learners. The Agile mindset helps us harness change for good (instead of resisting it) and Agile techniques offer solutions for making constant change a practical reality. Rapid iterative cycles allow us to test our solutions before releasing incorporate constructive change along the way.
And yet, software projects face different challenges than instructional design projects. Traditional Agile methods may not apply to your LD work. What can we borrow from this useful mindset and approach, and what do we need to shape specifically for an instructional or learning experience type of project?

It is a common misconception that technology drives digital transformation. This is why so many digital transformation efforts fail. It is people first, then processes and strategy that need to be at the core of a digital journey, and the technology choice and implementation have to take a supportive role. Helping every contributor in the organization to understand their role and master the skills and tasks required to execute the strategy needs to become the primary focus. In this session we will share ideas, tools, best practices and insights on easy actionable steps you can take to set your organization up for success and how to leverage data and technology on the road to more agility, performance and digital transformation.

Speakers: Angela Feigl and Luis Vale

How many times have we heard from business leaders training is too long? Rather than the typical response, this session challenges you to ponder if your business leaders may be right! This session is about creating learning experiences that focus on developing training programs that teach skill acquisition necessary for job performance. We will show you how to cut through the fluff and get to what matters to your business employee performance and engagement. With a series of interactive demos and simple to apply activities, you will leave with tools to analyze your current programs and begin the process of finding efficiencies that will benefit your learners and your stakeholders.r

Speakers: Elaina Biffle and Kristen Miller

As a result of the COVID-19 crisis in 2020, there is a demand to show the value of ongoing and future projects. When budgets are cut, it is difficult to secure approval for projects, directly affecting the LD community. This session will show how to create a forecast for an unexpected project. The forecast connects the proposed project to business measures that will improve once the project is implemented. When the monetary value of the improvement is compared to the projected cost of the project, a financial ROI is forecasted.
This process will forecast data at five levels, plus intangibles. When conservative standards are used and presented compellingly, it makes a great argument for allocating funds, even in difficult uncertain times.

Speaker: Jack Phillips

This session will examine the Fogg Behavior Model and how companies seek to minimize "friction" between us as consumers and their product offerings, providing the path of least resistance. If you look at your learning solutions as a product that you want your learners to consume, where are you creating friction that discourages those learning consumers? And what can you do about it? You'll leave this session with a "friction assessment" of your learning ecosystem, along with a tool kit of strategies you can explore to minimize that friction in your organization. Moreover, you'll leave with a new perspective on your learners, their motivations, and how you can best reach them.

Speaker: Jeremy Roberts

You think you know the learners journey. But do you really? It's time to shed some light, pull back the curtain, and explore your learners true journey, their pain points, and the impact of your learning solutions. In this interactive workshop, you will productize your learning solutions, take a macro view of the learning experiences you create, and explore their impacts on the economics of learning within your organization. The end results of this workshop are the development of a complete reusable toolkit, applicable knowledge to drive innovation, and create impactful learning experiences that align with both the business and learners needs.

Speaker: Almira Roldan

Thinking of adding a new Learning Platform or LXP to your ecosystem? Let us show you how we have implemented platforms at dozens of companies quickly and successfully. We will show best practices and processes to rollout an LXP with the partnership of stakeholders, champions and drive engagement, right from the start.
No need to take months to implement! We will show how implementing a new platform is not about the technology, but the learning strategy, the new culture and the right mix for engagement. Discover the processes, the procedures and the techniques that will drive success.
Get engagement right from the start and drive the right content to the right audience, quickly.

Speaker: Becky Willis

Ever want to test a new learning technology or approach, but got bogged down by the investment it would take to get it started? This hands-on session will help you learn about two key concepts, squads and sprints, that will help you get started to quickly develop, test, iterate, and get data on new innovations. And you'll get a chance to try out a few of the activities for yourself. Leave this session ready to re-design and re-energize your innovation efforts on the job

Speakers: Ryan Heinl and Stephanie Neal

Innovation and creativity are crucial to your organizations success. This is especially true during this pandemic every industry must reinvent itself amidst economic chaos. Harvard found that organizations that thrived through the Great Depression adopted an entrepreneurial mindset and sparked innovation. In fact, high performing organizations are 5X more likely to build a culture of innovation across functions.
But most organizations struggle with how to support and encourage both innovation and creativity (they are different). Join Dr. Britt Andreatta, former CLO of Lynda.com (LinkedIn Learning) as she shares her research on the neuroscience of innovation and creativity. You'll leave with strategies you can implement immediately.

Speaker: Britt Andreatta

Have you noticed that your learners don't use their mics, cameras, chat, or QA during your webinar sessions? Maybe they don't want to have their comments, ideas or experiences tied to their names in a public forum, or perhaps there is something else. Aren't you intrigued by what they are not saying? Turns out there is immense value in what your learners can tell you if you give them the adequate tools and channels and help build their psychological safety. This session will help you understand backchanneling and the potential gains of this rich feedback-gathering experience. Moreover, well help you devise your backchanneling strategy and use five ready-to-apply techniques for your webinar sessions.

Speaker: Juan Mavo-Navarro

Virtual classroom attendees usually ignore pre-work and other assignments. Virtual training technology is powerful and has made it easy to connect, yet L&D professionals still struggle with engagement. Interaction is key and using the features of the platform is the answer to interaction. However, the features alone do not engage the participants. It is what you choose to do with those features that will make the difference in your next virtual training and determine whether they do those application assignments or not!
Activities are the key to your success. Through them you'll learn to manage the technology, get attendees to actively engage, and help presenters have a great time too!

Speaker: Kassy LaBorie

Do you have trouble teaching participants how to operate new software? You're not alone. Apply specific facilitation techniques to your next software training program and your learners will be requesting YOU to come back to instruct them next time a new software application is launched

Speaker: Nikki OKeeffe

Engagement in the virtual classroom refers to the attention, interest, curiosity, and involvement shown by a learner during a virtual course. So, how do we keep our learners engaged when distractions are all around us? The key to reducing the impact of those distractions is to boost engagement, and best practice is to engage your learners every 3-5 minutes. Every virtual platform has different tools and capabilities, but its what you do with those tools that can be challenging! In this session, you'll learn how to take your virtual classroom courses to the next level by leveraging the tools in your virtual platform to create powerful, interactive, and engaging virtual learning experiences.

Speaker: Melissa Grey Satterfield

Selecting the right virtual classroom platform can be challenging! There are so many programs available, each with its own sets of tools and features. And each platform offers a unique angle on virtual training classes. With all those differences, its hard to know which platform is right for your organization. In this session, you'll get to compare four different virtual classroom platforms: Adobe Connect, GoToTraining, WebEx Training Center and Zoom. You'll gain hands-on experience with their common features and explore what makes each one unique. Using a checklist that can be tailored to your organization, you'll begin to determine which platform might be best suited for your own virtual training programs.

Speaker: Cindy Huggett