Elearning - Winter 2019

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Winter 2019 Volume 15 Issue 3 • www.2elearning.com

15th Annual Best of Elearning!

Winners pg 17

>> Who’s the 2019 Rising Star?

pg 32

>> Learning! 100: New York

Life is Fit for the Future

pg 37

>> Learning! 100: How Vi

Proves Business Impact of Learning pg 41

What’s the connection?

All of these unexpected design elements are from our off-the-shelf, eLearning training videos. Can you find the one from Understanding Harassment?

You can sample all of the videos featured above at ej4.com/unexpected.

Visit us at ej4.com to learn more!

Contents

WINTER 2019 VOLUME 15 NUMBER 3

>> 15th Annual Best

of Elearning! Winners Revealed PG 17

The Best of Elearning! Awards, the industry’s exclusive users choice award, reveals 59 solutions as best-inclass. The Best of Elearning! Awards program remains the industry gold standard for excellence. Discover what users say about these award-winning solutions.

By Vi Paynich

>> Essentials

>> Features

8 News 9 Deals 10 Trendlines

32 Star Power Learning!

37

Elearning! Magazine knows the importance of innovation in the enterprise learning market. That’s why we are pleased to announce the First Annual Rising Star Award, which recognizes newer brands that have achieved multiple Best of Elearning! honors. The Rising Star Award for 2019 is bestowed on Adobe Captivate Prime (ACP).

By Vi Paynich

37 Learning! 100: New York Life Is Fit for the Future Three years ago, New York Life started formulating a plan to build new talent required for the future workforce. After nearly 175 years of success, see how the company’s rich digital learning transformation earned it the top spot on the 2019 Learning! 100.

By Michael Molinaro

41 Learning! 100: How Vi Proves the Business Impact of Learning An eight-time Learning! 100 winner, Vi has learning in its blood. Its learning programs drive significant business and learner impact. The company’s one-year Breakthrough Leadership Program (BLP) illustrates how to use key performance metrics to measure business impact of learning strategy.

By Judy Whitcomb

Elearning! Winter 2019

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>> Essentials 8

9

12

45 why we are pleased to announce the First Annual Rising Star Award, which recognizes newer brands that have achieved multiple Best of Elearning! honors. The Rising Star Award for 2019 is bestowed on Adobe Captivate Prime (ACP).

By Vi Paynich

Global Corporate E-learning Market to Hit $50 Billion by 2026 Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020 Commercial Educational Bot Growth Rates

45 A.I.-based Learning

Market Watch

>> Management 15 7 Ways to Engage

Organization Leaders As learning and development (L&D) professionals, we must recognize the importance of engaging leaders of our respective organizations to be a part of leadership and employee development programs.

For this reason, Navy Federal Credit Union created the “Follow the Leader” series of programs and events designed to provide experiential development opportunities.

By Thomas Greek

37 New York Life Is Fit

for the Future Three years ago, New York Life started formulating a plan that would address the need to build new capabilities in addition to supporting its core strengths.

Learn how the company’s rich digital learning platform led to the top spot on the Learning! 100.

By Michael Molinaro

41 How Vi Proves the Business

Impact of Learning Vi’s Breakthrough Leadership Program (BLP) continues to be the best example of a key performance metric that Vi uses to measure the impact of its learning strategy. The company shows how it used key performance indicators to measure the impact of its learning strategy.

By Judy Whitcomb

4

Winter 2019 Elearning!

50 Reskilling and Upskilling

for the Win! Reskilling and upskilling your existing workforce is more important than it ever has been before. However, building a skills program doesn’t have to be difficult.

Following are some key tips to guide you through the process.

By Brianna O’Hara

The spike in private investment going to A.I.-based Learning companies is one of eight catalysts identified in Metaari’s latest report.

By Sam S. Adkins

47 What Is Adult Learning

Theory and Why Is It

Important?

We often take for granted that people know how to learn. But, that can be a dangerous attitude to take when it comes to corporate training initiatives, especially since adults don’t learn the same way kids do. That’s where Adult Learning Theory comes into play.

By Kathy Irish

>> Tools & Practices 13 The Rapid Global Adoption

of Educational Bots A new Metaari report reveals the global Educational Bot market will reach a robust five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.6% and revenues will more than quadruple to $4.1 billion by 2023.

By Sam S. Adkins

17 15th Annual Best of

Elearning! Awards Winners

Revealed After 15 years, the Best of Elearning! Awards are stronger than ever, honoring 59 individual products across 19 categories.

Discover which e-learning products stood out from the competition.

By Vi Paynich

32 2019 Rising Star Awarded Elearning! Magazine knows the importance of innovation in the enterprise learning market. That’s

>> Business 7

Editor’s Note Lauding the Best and the Brightest

By Vi Paynich

10 Trendlines Statistics, figures and industry trends

15 Leader’s View 7 Ways to Engage Organization Leaders

By Thomas Greek

17 New Products 15th Annual Best of Elearning!

Awards

50 Last Word Reskilling and Upskilling for the Win!

By Brianna O’Hara

You’re the Best!

You...

Create learning programs that deliver results!

Innovate, collaborate and outperform your competitors!

Master budget woes to woo your

employees, customers and partners.

Now, let us honor you and your team’s excellence.

Applications accepted Dec 1, 2019 – Feb 1, 2020 Apply at: www.2elearning.com/awards/learning-100-awards

Apply for the Learning! 100 Awards 2020

These awards honor the top 100 learning organizations across public and private sectors.

Learning! 100 is a product of Elearning! Media Group, a B2B Media Company. www.2elearning.com

Winter 2019 VOLUME 15 ISSUE 3

Online@

2elearning.com Trending Topics What Is Cognitive Learning! http://www.2elearning.com/what-iscognitive-learning/ Embracing Unconscious Bias http://www.2elearning.com/ embracing-unconscious-bias-training/ Best of Elearning! Finalists Named http://www.2elearning.com/the-15thannual-best-of-elearning-awardsfinalists-revealed/

Most Popular Web Sessions Advanced Learning Tech Trends in 2019 http://www.2elearning.com/ advanced-learning-technologytrends-to-watch-in-2019/ What’s Hot & What’s Now in Learning Technologies http://www.2elearning.com/toptrends-for-learning-technologies-in2019-what-s-hot-and-what-s-not-2/

Events Learning! 100 Awards Apply December 1, 2019 February 1, 2020 http://www.2elearning.com/ learning-100/ 2020 Dottie Awards™ For Best Digital Media & Advertising Apply by February 1, 2020 http://DottieAwards.net 6

Winter 2019 Elearning!

Catherine Upton Group Publisher >> cupton@2elearning.com Joe DiDonato Associate Publisher >> jdidonato@2elearning.com Vi Paynich Executive Editor >> editor@2elearning.com Adam Weschler Manager Digital Programs >> aweschler@2elearning.com Jim Upton Vice President >> JW@2elearning.com Kim Mabon Art Director >> production@2elearning.com Ed Tetter Production Manager >> production@2elearning.com Contributors: Sam S. Adkins, Metaari Thomas Greek, National Federal Credit Union Kathy Irish, ej4 Michael Molinari, New York Life Brianna O’Hara, BizLibrary Judy Whitcomb, Vi

Elearning! Media Group is the property of B2B Media Company LLC 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139 USA • 888-201-2841 • 951-547-1131 www.2elearning.com Elearning! Magazine is published bi-monthly by B2B Media Company LLC, 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139. Application to mail Standard Class is filed with Denver, Colorado Post Office.

POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to: Elearning! 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139. Subscriptions are included with Pro Membership and to qualified professionals in the USA. To subscribe, visit 2elearning.com. Elearning! Magazine is a trademark of B2B Media Company.

Editor’sNote

I

Lauding the Best and the Brightest

t’s hard to believe it has been 15 years since Elearning! Magazine premiered its very first Best of Elearning! Awards, which gave learning and development professionals a way to acknowledge brands that have helped organizations successfully bring their learning and training strategies to fruition. We proudly recognize 59 best-in-class products across 19 categories for 2019. Find out who made the list, beginning on page 17.

And, speaking of the best…two of this year’s Learning! 100 winners share some of their L&D best

practices, as well as key insights into their training challenges and how they’ve been able to overcome them. In the feature, “New York Life Is Fit for the Future” (see page 37), the 175-year-old company explains how its Learning Exchange (LEx) platform not only addresses its need to build new capabilities, but also how LEx supports its core strengths. Another top Learning! 100 honoree, Vi, reveals its own learning success story to show L&D managers how to use key performance indicators to measure the impact of their learning strategy in “How Vi Proves the Business Impact of Learning” (see page 41).

Elearning! Magazine is excited to announce its inaugural Rising Star Award, which recognizes newer brands that have achieved multiple Best of Elearning! honors. The Rising Star Award for 2019 goes to Adobe Captivate Prime. Find out more in the feature, “Star Power Learning,” beginning on page 32.

Lastly, Metaari’s Sam Adkins touches on two of the hottest trending topics right now: A.I.-based Learning and Educational Bots. In “A.I.-based Learning Market Watch” (see page 45), Adkins discusses how the spike in private investment is going to A.I.-based Learning companies, which is one of eight catalysts identified in Metaari’s latest report. Turning his attention to “The Rapid Global Adoption of Education Bots” (see page 13), Adkins draws insights from Mataari’s latest study, in which he reveals the global Educational Bot market will reach a robust five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.6%.

It’s clear that 2019 has yielded some truly inspiring success stories in the learning technology space.

Congratulations to this year’s Best of Elearning! honorees for your outstanding contributions! We all look forward to seeing what products and solutions you’ll be introducing in 2020.

Vi Paynich Executive Editor Elearning! Media Group

Elearning! Winter 2019

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News Global Corporate E-learning Market to Hit $50 Billion by 2026

The Global Corporate E-learning market is predicted to reach $49.87 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 15% during the forecast period, according to a Research And Markets study.

Some of the key factors influencing the market growth include the adoption of e-learning in employee training, and adoption of microlearning is a growing priority. However, high training costs are hampering the market growth. Review report at visit https:// tinyurl.com/y6bd65bh Source: ResearchAndMarkets.com

Fosway Reveals New Talent Management Grid

The Fosway 9-Grid compares supplier solutions based on their Performance, Potential, Market Presence, Total Cost of Ownership and Future Trajectory. SumTotal Systems and Cornerstone ranked as high performers in the mid-cost range brands. They also earned 2019 Best of Elearning! honors. (See page 17 for details.)

UN Education Targets Missed

The United Nations’ target of universal access to education by 2030 is off-target in the African region, according to the 2019 E-learning Africa Report.

The study cites: “…56% of respondents do not believe that African countries are doing enough to ensure that, by 2030, all girls and boys will complete free primary and secondary education.

However, the percentage of those believing that not enough has been done to improve access to higher education and vocational training or further education is as high as 65%.”

There is some optimism. More than two-thirds (72%) of the experts questioned said they believe that the African Union’s 2063 vision is “realistic.”

Download findings at: https://www.icwe-secretariat.com/elearning-africa/elearning_africa_report_2019.php 8

Winter 2019 Elearning!

Source: Fosway

50%

of managers plan to leave in the next 12 months — 2019 TalentLMS Study

Military Predicts Illness with Algorithm

Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020 Gartner, Inc., outlined the “Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2020.” The organization defines a strategic technology trend as one with substantial disruptive potential that is beginning to break out of an emerging state into broader impact and use, or which is rapidly growing with a high degree of volatility reaching tipping points over the next five years.

The top 10 strategic technology trends for 2020 include: 1. Hyper-automation 2. Multi-experience 3. Democratization of Expertise

The Military created an algorithm that can “predict infection 48 hours before clinical suspicion,” with better than 85% accuracy.

DTRA partnered with the Defense Innovation Unit to leverage the latter’s other transaction authority — a special procurement method outside of the Federal Acquisition Regulations — to develop the algorithm hand-in-hand with health IT company Royal Philips.

Using its own globally-collected data sets, Philips was able to develop a unique algorithm for the Defense Department. Using 165 distinct biomarkers across 41,000 cases, the Philips team was able to create the Rapid Analysis of Threat Exposure (RATE) algorithm.

“Think of it as a check-engine for the human body,” says Edward Argenta, science and technology manager for DTRA’s Joint Science and Technology Office.

4. Human Augmentation 5. Transparency and Traceability 6. The Empowered Edge Computing 7. Distributed Cloud 8. Autonomous Things 9. Practical Blockchain 10. A.I. Security For more information, visit https://tinyurl.com/y2ley5rv Source: Gartner

Deals management technology to support its expansion efforts in international markets.

LLAMASOFT acquired OPEX ANALYTICS LLC, a Chicagobased provider of artificial intelligence (A.I.) solutions to Fortune 500 companies. The acquisition creates a combined company that will offer productized A.I. applications.

TRANSPERFECT, a global provider of language and technology solutions for international business, has

been selected by RADISSON HOTEL GROUP as its sole supplier to provide language services and translation

SKILLSOFT announced the expansion of its network of partners, including SUMTOTAL, SAP SUCCESSFACTORS, AMAZON WEB SERVICES, KORN FERRY, CORNERSTONE, SABA, IBM and TATA CONSULTANCY SERVICES, to support Skillsoft’s continued efforts to

accelerate the democratization of skills development by enabling customers to access the most comprehensive online learning ecosystem.

DOCEBO INC., developer of a leading A.I.-powered learning platform, has successfully launched its IPO on the Toronto Stock Exchange, marking a milestone for the SaaS e-learning platform.

INTELLUM purchased APPITIERRE, a Brighton, U.K.-based developer of a leading content authoring tool and learning management system, to complement its learning platform brands.

Elearning! Winter 2019

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Trendlines

A.I.-based Learning Growth by Solution

A.I.-based Learning Growth by Region

According to Metaari’s 2019-2024 Global A.I.-based Learning Market, revenues for A.I.-based Learning are heavily concentrated in North America and the Asia Pacific. North America accounted for 29% of all revenues in 2019, followed by Asia Pacific at 20%.

Western Europe has the highest growth rate for A.I.-based Learning at 42.5%, followed by the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East at 36.7% and 34.3%, respectively. Eastern Europe also has a high growth rate at 33.2%, with revenues heavily concentrated in the Russian Federation. Latin America has a robust growth rate of 30.2%. Africa has a healthy growth rate of 28.4%, with revenues concentrated in just four countries.

Source: Metaari

Western Europe has the highest growth rate for A.I.-based Learning at 42.5%, followed by the Asia-Pacific region and the Middle East at 36.7% and 34.3%, respectively.

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

The 2019-2024 Global A.I.-based Learning Market report forecasts revenues for three types of commercial A.I.-based products and services: pretrained retail packaged content and models sold or licensed by the unit, custom development services, and authoring tools and platforms. The major buyers of custom development services are corporations and government agencies. Corporate-facing custom developers tend to specialize in specific industry verticals. Governmentfacing developers tend to market to particular agencies.

32.6%

— Growth Rate of A.I.-Powered Custom Development, Metaari

The revenues are heavily concentrated in custom development services, which also have the highest growth rate of 32.6%. Except for pretrained packaged content, most A.I.based Learning products have to be trained, and there is now a cottage industry of companies that specialize in training A.I.s for customers.

Source: Metaari

NEW RESEARCH:

Global AI-Based Learning Market Report 2019-2024 by Metaari Research ENTERPRISE LICENSE ONLY $2,475 ABOUT THE STUDY Metaari reveals the six buying segments of AI in learning, the products and services stimulating the $4 billion industry. The full report is 300 pages, includes 23 tables and 12 figures and is exclusively available at www.2elearning.com The Enterprise License enables multiple business units and teams to access the study at one flat rate of $2,475.

Purchase the report at: https://bit.ly/34biGlR Or, view the Table of Contents and download the complimentary executive summary.

Barriers-toEntry are Now Quite Low

Rapid Uptake of Support Bots and Avatars in the Corporate Segment

A.I.based Learning Delivers True Personalized Learning

Private Investment Flowing to A.I.based Learning Startups

Primary Catalysts Driving the Worldwide A.I.based Learning Market

The Growing Use of Intelligent Tutors in the Academic Segments

Bots and Virtual tutors for Kids in High Demand Across the Planet

Innovation in A.I.-based Learning in Healthcare

Use of Therapeutic Tutoring Bots for People With Special Needs

The five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the global AI-based Learning market is a robust 28.4% and revenues will reach nearly $4 billion by 2024. There is now rapid adoption in all six buying segments tracked by Metaari. The demand is high, the barriers-to-entry are dropping dramatically for developers, and startups are coming on the market at a rapid rate.

Over the last three years, an average of 300 AI-based Learning startups launched every year. A massive amount private investment funding is flowing into these startups. Consolidation is underway with the major learning companies acquiring AI-based Learning startups at a steady rate. These trends have accelerated in 2019.

If you are a learning leader, designer, trainer or developer of AI for learning, you need this report. If you are a technologist, you must buy this report to construct your product roadmap.

Metaari produced “The Global AI-Based Learning Market Executive Report 2019-2024.� It is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without specific written authorization. Visit www.2elearning.com/research for details.

Trendlines News

Ed Bot Market by Region

Ed Bot Market Segments

The revenues for commercial Educational Bots are concentrated in the consumer and corporate segments throughout the forecast period, but the buying behavior is very different in each segment. Corporations tend to use Conversational A.I. bots (both physical and virtual) and consumers prefer physical bots, particularly smart toy bots designed to teach children. The corporate segment has a robust growth rate of 33.5% and the consumer segment has a healthy growth rate of 28.7%.

Source: Metaari

Study Shows Machine Learning Market to Reach $8 Billion The Global Machine Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS) market will reach $8 billion by 2023, states Technavio. The research firm has been monitoring the MLaaS market since 2016. What’s more, the market is poised to grow at a CAGR of more than 38% during the forecast period.

Graphic: Business Wire

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

Metaari tracks the learning technology markets in 122 countries across seven regions. The region with the highest growth rate for Educational Bots is Latin America at 44.7%, followed

by Africa and the Middle East at 42.5% and 41.7%, respectively.

The growth rate in Western Europe is also quite high at 37.0%.

Source: Metaari

The corporate Ed Bot segment has a robust growth rate of 33.5% and the consumer segment has a healthy growth rate of 28.7%.

Metaari’s 2019-2024 Global A.I.-based Learning Market and 2018-2023 Worldwide Educational Bot Market reports are now available for purchase at Elearning!

Magazine’s Premium Research site, http:// www.2elearning.com/research/. In addition, a free Executive Overview of each report is available at the site.

Research The Rapid Global Adoption of

Educational Bots

BY SAM S. ADKINS In November 2018, Metaari published the 2018-2023 Worldwide Educational Bot Market report. This quantitative report identifies revenue opportunities for suppliers.

Metaari uses the term

“Educational Bots,” because our team tracks both physical robots and virtual bots.

The global Educational Bot market boasts a robust five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.6% and revenues will more than quadruple to $4.1 billion by

2023. Eight major catalysts currently drive today’s global market, and they are analyzed in detail in this report.

Throughout the forecast period, it is quite likely Metaari will need to revise global forecasts significantly upward for Educational Bots.

That’s because market conditions remain in a state of positive flux, with demand rising worldwide.

The report breaks out fiveyear revenues for six buying segments: consumers, pre-K to 12 schools, tertiary and higher education institutions, federal government agencies, provincial/state/prefecture and local government agencies, and corporations and businesses. The buying behavior fluctuates in each of these buying segments.

TRACKING BUYING BEHAVIOR Particular learning bot products are in demand in specific buying segments.

The report provides detailed analysis of the buying behavior in each segment. What’s more, the report identifies six distinct types of commercial Educational Bots in the current global market: >> Early childhood learning tutoring robots (smart toys) >> STEM and language learning tutoring bots used in the pre-K to 12 schools and tertiary institutions >> Information and assistance guide service bots used in public venues, exhibitions, tourist venues, airports, hospitality businesses, retail outlets, government offices and virtual helpdesks >> Companion elderly care robots designed to im-

Elearning! Winter 2019

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Research prove emotional and cognitive health >> Behavior modification robots designed for Robotmediated Behavior Intervention (RMBI) therapy for people with special needs >> Self-learning A.I.-based tutoring robots (both physical and virtual) that can be programmed to provide any type of personalized learning Therapeutic bots are proving particularly effective in treating children with special needs. Most of the products on the market are physical bots. The NAO robot from SoftBank can be programmed to deliver any educational content and is the size of a small child. It is widely used in treating kids along the autism spectrum. The robot can be programmed to deliver interventional protocols and can sing, dance, play and converse with the kids. These children are often challenged by basic social skills, like making eye contact and reading emotions. Yet, they have no problem with robots.

BOTS SPUR NEW GENRE Corporations are the top buyers of informational robots.

By 2019, there were greater than 30,000 SoftBank Pepper robots deployed in 2,500 businesses worldwide. Companies that sell conversational A.I. bots identify employee training as a prominent-use case for the products. They are often called coaching avatars in the corporate segment.

There is a new genre of physical Educational Bots 14

Winter 2019 Elearning!

Metaari’s Six Types of Commercial Educational Bots SelfLearning AI-based Tutoring Bots Behavior Modification Therapy Bots

Types of Commercial Eduction and Training Bots

Companion Elderly Cognitive Care Robots

Early Childhood Learning Robot Tutors

Tutoring Robots used in the Academic Segments

Information Guide Service Bots

There are at least six distinct types of commercial Educational Bots in the current global market. The key characteristic of all A.I.-based bots is that they are adaptive and have some capacity for self-learning.

Corporations are the top buyers of informational robots. By 2019, there were greater than 30,000 SoftBank Pepper robots deployed in 2,500 businesses worldwide.

called guide robots. They are used to provide information and educational content to patrons visiting museums, exhibitions and tourism sites.

The most intelligent bots are equipped with A.I., speech recognition, facial recognition and emotion detection.

Dozens of museums across the globe now use robots as tour guides, including the Musée de la Grande Guerre just outside of Paris, the American Museum of Natural History in New York, the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, and the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. The Smithsonian in Washington, D.C., started using 30 Pepper robots in 2018 as tour guides in seven of its facilities. One of them speaks Swahili. The museum intends to deploy more than 100 Peppers in all 19 of its facilities.

More than 500 Educational Bot companies operating in 126 countries are identified in our report. Most of them are startups that are attracting significant amounts of venture capital. The demand is high in all six buying segments and in all seven international regions tracked by Metaari. What’s more, the revenue opportunities are very lucrative.

Metaari’s 2018-2023 Worldwide Educational Bot Market report is now available for purchase at Elearning! Magazine’s Premium Research site, http:// www.2elearning.com/ research/.

— Sam S. Adkins is Chief Researcher at Metaari.

Leader’sView How to Engage Organization Leaders

A

BY THOMAS GREEK

Thomas Greek, Vice President of Learning and Development, Navy Federal Credit Union

s learning and development (L&D) professionals, we must recognize the importance of engaging leaders of our respective organization to be a part of leadership and employee development programs. For this reason, Navy Federal Credit Union created the “Follow the Leader” series of programs and events designed to provide experiential development opportunities. In addition, Navy Federal Credit Union is an eight-time Learning! 100 Award winner. While the details of each offering below is tailored to our specific learning needs, they may be adapted to fit your own organization’s specific employee development program.

The series is led and facilitated by operational leaders representing all areas of the enterprise, as well as L&D staff. Following are seven offerings, which include: >> Leadership Roundtables – Leadership Roundtables are comprised of a selection of resources curated for leaders to use in facilitating professional development discussions with members of their teams. Each roundtable includes a professional article or video related to the Navy Federal leadership values, a summary of the topic and discussion questions for the leader to use in facilitating a conversation. >> Workshops – An executive leader hosts and facilitates each session that is full of challenging activities, case studies and videos that help improve working relationships and, in turn, enhance the member experience. >> Book Club – This part of the series is designed for anyone in a leadership role and is a great way to reinforce valuable leadership behaviors. Leaders are provided with a selected title, then come together for thought-provoking conversation and to hear examples of leadership in action from their colleagues. >> Senior Leader Panel – Junior leaders gather for a facilitated panel discussion with senior leaders as they discuss their career choices, mentors they admire, political savvy and other important topics. >> Bright Spots – The idea is to seek out effective practices from within the organization and come together to share in order to duplicate them in other areas of the organization. >> Storytellers – Preserving our culture one story at a time, these short videos feature leaders discussing different leadership topics and telling their story of leadership lessons learned. These inspiring videos are available on the organization’s intranet for all employees to view, including employees who may be pursuing or are new to a leadership role. >> Boot Camp – This leadership program teaches “recruits” (participants) the importance of incorporating team building into their work groups. Facilitators, clad in camouflage, lead recruits through simulated exercises. Teamwork, problem-solving, effective communication and active listening are a few of the topics addressed during the event.

The Follow the Leader Series not only builds a capable workforce, but it also creates confidence and trust between leaders and employees. These offerings are regularly rated as 95% to 100% valuable to participants. I hope these examples will help you develop your own Follow the Leader Series that is sure to enhance your organization’s overall learning strategies.

— Thomas Greek is Vice President of Learning and Development at Navy Federal Credit Union.

Elearning! Winter 2019

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NEW RESEARCH:

Worldwide Educational Bot Market 2019-2023 by Metaari Research ENTERPRISE LICENSE ONLY $2,475 ABOUT THE STUDY Metaari reveals the types of educational bot for corporate learning, the products and services stimulating the multi-billion-dollar industry. The full report is 165 pages, includes 21 tables and 10 figures and is exclusively available at www.2elearning.com The Enterprise License enables multiple business units and teams to access the study at one flat rate of $2,475.

Purchase the report at: https://bit.ly/34blSOn Or, view the Table of Contents and download the complimentary executive summary.

SelfLearning AI-based Tutoring Bots Behavior Modification Therapy Bots

Companion Elderly Cognitive Care Robots

Types of Commercial Eduction and Training Bots

Information Guide Service Bots

Early Childhood Learning Robot Tutors

Tutoring Robots used in the Academic Segments

The global Educational Bot market has a robust five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35.6% and revenues will more than quadruple by 2023. There are eight major catalysts driving the global market and they are analyzed in detail in this report.

Private equity alone invested $1.3 billion in the ed bot market in 2017 to early 2018.

If you are a learning leader, designer, trainer or developer of education bots for corporate learning, you need this report. If you are a technologist, you must buy this report to construct your product roadmap.

Metaari produced “The Worldwide Educational Bot Market Report 2019-2023.� It is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without specific written authorization. Visit www.2elearning.com/research for details.

15

th Annual

‘Best of Elearning!’

Winners Revealed

THE INDUSTRY’S EXCLUSIVE USERS’ CHOICE AWARDS PROGRAM REVEALS 59 SOLUTIONS AS BEST-IN-CLASS. DISCOVER WHAT USERS SAY ABOUT THESE AWARD-WINNING SOLUTIONS.

BY VI PAYNICH After 15 years, the Best of Elearning!

Awards are stronger than ever, honoring 59 individual products across 19 categories.

The Best of Elearning! Awards program remains the industry gold standard for excellence. These exceptional brands represent the best-in-class of enterprise learning solutions available in today’s marketplace. Thank you to the thousands of users who nominated and voted for this year’s Best of Elearning!

The Best of Elearning! Awards program is the exclusive Industry Users’ Choice Award, whereby learning professionals vote via online ballot for best-in-class solutions.

Eighty-five percent of professionals have personally recommended a learning solution to a colleague over the past 12 months, and this awards program formalizes this personal recommendation process. Award recognition is important for buyers, as 61% agree that award recognition impacts their buying decision, according to Elearning!

Media Group’s research.

WHAT IT MEANS TO BE NAMED THE BEST While 59 individual products and solutions have been named as 2019 finalists, 20% of this year’s Best of Elearning! honorees are first-time winners.

“We are honored to reveal the most innovative, creative and effective learning solutions in the market,” says Catherine Upton, group publisher, Elearning! Media Group. “These solutions solve real business learning challenges, according to voting professionals. There is no greater honor than having customers nominate and vote for these best-in-class solutions.”

Among the 19 categories, four companies were multiple category winners:

>> Adobe (LMS – Cloud, Virtual Classroom)

>> Bigger Brains (I.T. Training, Emerging Learning Solution)

>> BizLibrary (Other Learning Platform, Social Learning/Collaboration)

>> dominKnow (LCMS, E-learning Development Tool, Mobile Authoring Tool, Simulation Tool)

All 59 brands will be honored for excellence, and the top vote getter in each category is named the winner. “Every finalist will receive an award of excellence or winner honors. Given the high volume of votes and the number of nominated products, every one of these solution providers should be proud to be voted as best-in-class by their customers,” adds Upton.

THE VOTING PROCESS Elearning! Media Group readers, practitioners and community members nominate and vote for products and solutions via Elearning! Media Group’s online ballot. All ballots were cast from June 3 to September 1, 2019. Each ballot was reviewed and validated by the editorial team. All vendor ballots were voided.

To learn more, visit www.2elearning. com/awards/best-of-elearning-awards.

AND THE WINNERS ARE… Elearning! Magazine is honored to announce the Best of Elearning! 2019 winners:

Elearning!

Winter 2019 ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

17

bestofelearning

Platforms LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – CLOUD

WINNER: Adobe Captivate Prime

Award of Excellence: BlueSky Path LMS

Award of Excellence: Brainier Elan LMS

PRODUCT INFORMATION Adobe Captivate Prime is a next-generation LMS that delivers personalized learning experiences across multiple devices. It allows you to align all online and offline enterprise-wide learning initiatives to skill, upskill and reskill your employees.

Capitivate Prime is engaging, with gamification, unified content playback and high-quality video streaming. Mobilefriendly, it offers personalized dashboards and course recommendations.

Additionally, more than 30 help videos are contained within the product for step-bystep assistance on setting up your LMS that lets employees get onboarded faster with an online help center and 24x7 phone support.

PRODUCT INFORMATION BlueSky’s Path is built specifically for online educators and meetings and events, Path is an award-winning, powerful learning management platform that helps organizations manage their message on their terms.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Brainier is a cloud-based solution that allows your curriculum and content to be 100% accessible anywhere, at any time, and by every registered user.

Brainier delivers powerful video-based training across devices. Desktop, laptop, tablet, smartphone — learners can access content however they choose, using any device, operating system or platform they prefer. Brainier replaced traditional LMS barriers with doorways to make access and education easier and more effective.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Modern UI built on single web page architecture that eliminates navigating multiple pages with a friendly user interface and fast application performance >> Content-LMS integration that is virtually plug and play >> Tracks multiformat e-learning content, such as PPTX, video, PDF and DOCX files and xAPI-, AICC- and SCORMcompliant packages CLIENTS Domino’s, Edmunds, GE Healthcare TESTIMONIALS >> “Easy to use and fast to adopt.” >> “Saw usage rates increase 40%.” >> “LMS made for the 21st century.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 Phone: (408) 536-6000 Website: www.adobe.com/products/ captivateprime.html 18

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FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Cloud-based technology provides unlimited storage >> Mobile optimization offers access to Path LMS from any web-enabled device >> Customizable to reflect an organization’s branding CLIENTS EPCOR, National Ski Patrol, National Association of School Nurses TESTIMONIALS >> “Ease of use for content developer and end-user, end-user technical support, responsive admin technical support.” >> “Flexibility in presentation options, great account management.” >> “The platform is also robust enough to develop high-quality e-learning courses.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 5930 Cornerstone Court West, Suite 270, San Diego, CA 92121 Phone: (877) 925-8375 or (858) 900-2223 Website: https://www.blueskyelearn.com

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Social and collaboration tools to highlight subject-matter experts and promote learning >> Powerful, new reporting engine >> Enables you to customize each user’s access and role within a group >> Extensive, customizable library of materials that can be used to support or complete training needs CLIENTS American Equity, Lutheran Social Services, Merrill Gardens & Pillar Properties TESTIMONIALS >> “Excellent customer service, creative learning functionality.” >> “Easy implementation process and robust product.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 7801 E. Bush Lake Rd., Suite 450 Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (800) 487-3393 or (952) 345-5555 Website: www.brainier.com

Platforms LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

WINNER: dominKnow Platform PRODUCT INFORMATION The dominKnow Platform is a web-based authoring and publishing solution that helps teams collaborate in real time, share and reuse content, and easily engage subjectmatter experts in the review process.

Content is ready for delivery from virtually any location — all from a single source.

Included are all the features you need to create engaging, media-rich learning experiences, including customizable testing, flexible interactions and animation creation, advanced variables, branching, audio/video recording, software simulations, system- and author-created templates and much more.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive and adaptive output >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring >> Content sharing and reuse >> Real-time collaboration >> Publish to LMS, LRS, apps, print CLIENTS Cook County Sheriff ’s Office, K12, Pfizer TESTIMONIALS >> “Allows us to make multiple types of content from a single source to build full-featured responsive and HTML5 content.” >> “Simple access to files and courses from a central location, so nothing is ever lost.” >> “Helps our team keep projects on track with built-in project workflows and real-time collaboration and review.”

OTHER LEARNING PLATFORM

WINNER: BizLibrary LMS

Award of Excellence: ej4 Thinkzoom

PRODUCT INFORMATION BizLibrary’s learning management system (LMS) is conveniently organized into three tiers to allow users the option to customize their solutions based upon the needs of their respective organizations.

All three tiers offer approval agents, branded website design, a personalized user experience, online and dashboard reports, self-regulation or administrative course assignments, a cloud-hosted online learning center and more.

Learning Management, the highest tier, offers classroom management and on-the-job external training, certification management and virtual classroom integration via WebEx or GoToMeeting.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Thinkzoom is ej4’s comprehensive video training platform. With several interactive tools and resources, Thinkzoom helps employees during and after training. It allows administrators the knowledge of which videos their employees are watching and how well they comprehend the material with its built-in interactive exams.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Personalized user experience >> Live end-user technical support >> Social ratings and reviews CLIENTS Imperial Electronic Assembly, Inc., Watco Companies, LLC, Conductix TESTIMONIALS >> “Easy to use.” >> “Always making improvements based on user feedback. >> “Great product, offerings and support teams.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 14500 S. Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 Phone: (888) 432-3077 Website: www.bizlibrary.com

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Score requirements can be set and additional student materials can be provided, enabling learners to put their knowledge to practice >> A comprehensive reporting feature allows administrators to create custom reports based upon users, groups, courses and topics >> Provides managers with an understanding of which courses are popular and which are lacking participation, thereby helping them measure training progress and communicate future training goals CLIENTS Syngenta, SVM, LP TESTIMONIALS >> “Administrator-friendly.” >> “User-friendly and not overwhelming.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr. Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 Phone: (613) 800-8733 Website: www.dominknow.com Elearning!

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Platforms VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

SOCIAL LEARNING/COLLABORATION

WINNER: Adobe Connect

WINNER: BizLibrary Community

Award of Excellence: ej4 The Quad

PRODUCT INFORMATION The Adobe Connect Web conferencing software service offers immersive online meeting experiences for collaboration, virtual classrooms and large-scale webinars. With Connect, you can create and deploy engaging on-demand learning content using Microsoft PowerPoint plugin Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter.

You can use the features of a learning management system (LMS) at a fraction of the cost with Adobe Connect, or integrate it with your existing LMS.

PRODUCT INFORMATION In a knowledge-based world, employees need immediate access to information and data to perform at their full potential.

BizLibrary’s Community puts the collective knowledge of an entire organization at everyone’s fingertips. It’s modeled after social networking tools your employees already use, and it’s essential for sharing knowledge, seeking information and learning new things.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Employees can now join their friends when they use the online learning library. They can learn by watching what others do with The Quad, an intuitive social learning technology. It is a social community inside the Thinkzoom (LMS) campus created to encourage learners to connect with other learners. They can create their own informal network of peers beyond their formal, assigned learning groups.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Almost eliminates internal email >> Helps remote employees feel and stay connected >> A vital component of the company’s content management and learning management offerings

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Leverages workplace friendships and connections to enhance the learning experience in an entertaining environment >> Learners can initiate friendly competition with lifetime leaderboards, knowledge sharing and training reinforcement quizzes >> Employees can recommend courses and interact with their peers

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Measure live learner participation with engagement monitoring >> Brandable, customizable and persistent virtual classrooms >> Streamline live session management with intuitive backstage tools CLIENTS ISTE, Toshiba, SAP TESTIMONIALS >> “Simple to use, has all the tools we need for effective board meetings.” >> “Adobe Connect opened up our training program to become an around-theclock, one-stop education shop.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 Phone: (408) 536-6000 Website: www.adobe.com

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CLIENTS Watco Companies, Inc., Conductix TESTIMONIALS >> “Can collaborate with users from all types of companies.” >> “Great social networking environment that encourages new thoughts, new ideas, and provides an informative location to ask questions and get help.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 14500 S. Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 Phone: (888) 432-3077 Website: www.bizlibrary.com

CLIENTS Syngenta, LVM, LP TESTIMONIALS >> “Makes learning fun and inspiring!” >> “So easy to use.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

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Content CONTENT AGGREGATOR PORTAL

Award of Excellence: The BizLibrary Collection PRODUCT INFORMATION The BizLibrary Collection contains thousands of employee training videos on key topics your employees need, including business and soft skills, leadership, sales and customer service, human resources compliance, I.T., software, industry-specific content, workplace safety and more.

Content formats offered meet the needs of all types of learners from short, micro-video lessons, to more in-depth video courses, interactive video programs and e-learning courses. Many of the lessons and courses include quizzes and additional support materials to extend the learning process, increasing both retention and the return on training investment. Administrators can deliver employee training videos across platforms: desktop, mobile and tablet.

Award of Excellence: Mastery Training Services Training Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Mastery can help you address your most pressing training needs and help you build your organization. Immediately access more than 800 course topics to address training on topics, such as environmental concerns, health and safety, customer service, leadership, team building, and management and supervision.

Mastery has a scalable solution to meet your needs. It trains workers across all industries, from service companies to heavy manufacturing operations.

Employee training solutions for every size organization from 10 to 100,000 employees are available.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Thousands of micro-videos >> Follow-up Booster Program available >> Select content approved by HRCI and SHRM

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> MasteryNet LMS launches and tracks all of Mastery’s courses, PLUS any custom course you create >> Courses are SCORM-compliant >> Powerful recordkeeping and reporting system

CLIENTS Concast Metal Products Co., Nidec

CLIENTS Run Energy, LP, ATA Tools, Go Wireline LLC

TESTIMONIALS >> “Thousands of titles across multiple content areas.” >> “Content is kept up to date, enhancing the ongoing learning.” >> “Content is delivered in micro-learning chunks of 5-10 minutes or in longer sessions for more detailed topics.”

TESTIMONIALS >> “Accessible anywhere. Highly customizable. Huge content available.” >> “Quality videos, responsive customer service, cost-effective.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 14500 S. Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 Phone: (888) 432-3077 Website: www.bizlibrary.com 22

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CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 41214 Bridge St. Novi, MI 48375 Phone: (800) 258-3837 Website: www.mastery.com

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Award of Excellence: OpenSesame PRODUCT INFORMATION OpenSesame unlocks and delivers a broad range of courses (up to 5,000+ in all) without the burden of managing multiple systems or providers.

A new dashboard and enhanced reporting allows users to glean meaningful insights and course-correct where necessary. The Insights feature includes an activity report and a powerful new dashboard that will at-a-glance show you meaningful metrics, like percentage of seats used, enrollments per learner, percentage of courses completed and the average rating for courses taken.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Courses available on the following topics: business skills, safety, compliance, technology, certifications, plus many industry-specific topics >> Works with any LMS >> No worrying about cost per course CLIENTS Caterpillar, Siemens, McLeod Software TESTIMONIALS >> “With OpenSesame, we have seen a 30% increase in usage of our e-learning program.” >> “Their people are great to work with.” >> “We went to their one-system solution for our dealer training and overcame the battle of the LMS.” CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 1629 S.W. Salmon St. Portland, OR 97205 Phone: (503) 808-1268 Website: www.opensesame.com

Content I.T. TRAINING

WINNER: Bigger Brains Microsoft Library Content PRODUCT INFORMATION Bigger Brains offers expertly designed business skills courses in Microsoft Office, Google apps, sales, marketing, ethics, leadership and more. A unique “teacher/ learner” format avoids a one-way information dump, creating an engaging conversation, with dialogue, questions and answers, humor and more. SCORM bundles allow organizations to load their LMSs with highquality, searchable courses on Microsoft Office and other productivity topics.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Courses capture and maintain your attention >> No tedious or boring lectures >> Requires only minutes to learn and master a new skill >> Topics focus on real-world, practical knowledge and skills CLIENTS CT Edinburgh West, RLG Capital, University of Michigan TESTIMONIALS >> “Teaching style, interactive transcript and mobile-friendly design.” >> “Great teacher/student model, comprehensive topics, easy-to-find modules.” >> “Ease of use, quality of content.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 1520 E. Greenville St., Suite D Anderson, SC 29621 Phone: (864) 421-6950 or (800) 743-2724 Website: www.getbiggerbrains.com

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Award of Excellence: ej4 Software Skills Library PRODUCT INFORMATION ej4’s Software Skills Library is ideal for keeping an organization’s employees up to date on the latest software packages and productivity tools. This library contains software skills training topics, covering a number of commonly used platforms, as well as core concepts common in software development.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Library covers a number of commonly used platforms >> Focuses on well-known concepts in software development >> Select from an extensive library or customize your own learning experience CLIENTS MAPartners, P1 Learning

WINNER: Vado Leadership Development Learning Track PRODUCT INFORMATION Individuals build leadership skills that can help in any role, whether the person is an individual contributor, new supervisor or experienced manager. This course bundle includes bite-sized mobile-ready courses, like “Keeping Customers Informed,” “Seek Out the Ideas and Opinions of Others,” “Show Good Judgment Regarding Creative Ideas” and “Performing an Integrity Review.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Helps learners apply learning on the job through step-by-step instructions and exercises >> All of Vado’s courses start with a short, high-definition instructional video >> Content optimized for the mobile learner

TESTIMONIALS >> “So convenient to use.” >> “Learn what you need to learn in a few minutes — then go apply it!” >> “Easy-to-follow courses. Depth of content.”

CLIENTS Remote Leadership Institute, New Leaf Technologies

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

TESTIMONIALS >> “The modules are short, yet robust enough to get something useable after even one module.” >> “High-quality on-the-job learning.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (952) 545-6698 Website: www.vadoinc.net

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Content LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Award of Excellence: ej4 Leadership Content PRODUCT INFORMATION The philosophy espoused by ej4 is that great leaders aren’t born, they’re made.

Employees take training more seriously when you invest in quality materials with relevant content. Not only that, but the material is engaging. When employees hear content that is relevant to them, delivered by people who look and sound like they do, retention and application of content is increased. Topics include “Becoming a Great Leader,” “What Is Mentoring?” “The Importance of Succession Planning” and “Managing Interns.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> “Plug-and-play” content fits any organization, providing information that is ready-to-use now >> Short formats and on-demand availability >> Line managers can look up the topics or skills they need on the spot, then get back to work quickly having learned something new >> Learners can receive training at the workplace or at home, whichever is more convenient CLIENTS Syngenta, SVM, LP TESTIMONIALS >> “Great content for all levels of leadership — aspiring, new and tenured.” >> “Wide range of courses covering all aspects of leadership.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

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SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

Award of Excellence: BizLibrary Business Skills Collection PRODUCT INFORMATION BizLibrary’s Business Skills Collection includes “Lean: Common Tools,” which is part of the company’s Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) course. It tells organizations how to eliminate waste and do more with less.

Also included in the collection are “Business Etiquette: Best Practices,” “Total Quality Management: Creating a SIPOC Table,” “Customer Grid Analysis,” “Six Sigma: Process Control” and more.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Quizzes, handouts and additional support materials >> Mobile-friendly >> HRCI-, SHRM-, PDU-accredited content >> Knowledgeable staff that focuses on customers CLIENTS Rentokil North America, Inc., Elkhart Plastics, Inc., Imperial Electronic Assembly, Inc. TESTIMONIALS >> “Modern, relevant topics, variety of micro-lessons and formats that integrate easily into our LMS.” >> “Curated learning paths that focus on specific soft skills. Continuous additions to the course catalog to meet soft skill training needs.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 14500 S. Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 Phone: (888) 432-3077 Website: www.bizlibrary.com

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Award of Excellence: ej4 Business Skills Library PRODUCT INFORMATION ej4 defines its products as “Just products”: (Just as needed) means the products cover specific topics your employees need.

(Just enough) means it’s easy to find the most useful, actionable material in an easyto-digest format.

(Just in time) means the products offer content right when you need it with ondemand learning tools.

And, (Just right) means that ej4’s extensive library can be used to customize your own learning experience.

Business skills courses include topics, like leadership, supervision, safety, customer service, selling and much more.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> “Plug-and-play” content that fits any organization >> Short formats >> On-demand availability CLIENTS The Corridor Group, Pepsi Cola Bottlers TESTIMONIALS >> “Programs have been designed developed and validated based on solid research.” >> “Courses are short and focused.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

Content SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

COMPLIANCE TRAINING

Award of Excellence: Vado Skills Library

WINNER: Vubiz Compliance Library

PRODUCT INFORMATION With more than 390 micro-learning courses, Vado provides organizations and learners numerous opportunities to build the skills needed to lead and manage others, strengthen individual performance, as well as increase business results.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Almost 100 titles comprise the Vubiz Compliance Library. Some of the most popular titles include “Diversity in the Workplace,” “Fair Labor Standards Act,” “Healthcare Fraud and Abuse,” “Managing Workplace Stress,” “Sarbanes-Oxley Act Primer” and “The Affordable Care Act.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Courses accessible via any mobile device >> Short, manageable learning courses >> Editable content CLIENTS Kevin Eikenberry Group, e-SKY Solutions, Inc. TESTIMONIALS >> “Vado has great content that people see and train themselves to be professionals.” >> “Love the on-the-job approach and that it is editable content.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (952) 545-6698 Website: www.vadoinc.net

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Full service: content, development and delivery software >> Thousands of hours of off-the-shelf content available for purchase as-is or tailored to a specific situation >> Large, diverse e-learning library with more than 4,000 online hours CLIENTS Queen’s University, City National Bank, NFIB TESTIMONIALS >> “Easy and engaging to use.” >> “Effectively conveys the requirements of the standards and the reasons for them.” >> “Well-structured pathways through learning material.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 2872 Colorado Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 Phone: (310) 358-9583 Website: www.vubiz.com

Award of Excellence: ej4 Workplace Compliance Library PRODUCT INFORMATION ej4’s libraries of courses consist of readyto-use solutions for your organization’s specific needs. They are broken up by topic in Business Skills, Workplace Compliance and Microsoft Office that can be deployed on any platform.

Programs included are: “AntiHarassment,” “Anti-Harassment for California, Connecticut, and Maine,” HIPAA, FLSA, FMLA, “Hiring and Firing procedures,” and more. When the regulations change, programs are updated accordingly, so you don’t have to keep track of the changes.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Short, tactical e-learning >> Fully customizable >> Multiplatform, including mobile >> Most video titles are 10 minutes or less in length >> Off-the-shelf programs can be customized using ej4 Thinkzoom CLIENTS Burke Beverage Co., SVM, LP TESTIMONIALS >> “They comply with all the states with specific Anti-Harassment legislation, such as California, Connecticut, Maine, New York and NYC.” >> “Great for mandatory and personal interest topics.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

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Content COMPLIANCE TRAINING

Award of Excellence: Vado HR Compliance Toolkit PRODUCT INFORMATION This training starts with the laws, but goes beyond by teaching people how to behave toward others, and teaching how they can expect to be treated in return.

The Respectful Workplace Toolkit includes: “The Respectful Workplace Sexual Harassment Training,” “The Respective Workplace: Know Your Rights - California Harassment Protections,” “The Respectful Workplace: Identifying Discrimination” and “The Respectful Workplace - Manage for Respect Coaching Conversations.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Creative, flexible, interactive, experiential training >> Episode-based, broadcast quality and millennial-friendly >> Promotes positive workplace focused on treating coworkers with dignity and respect CLIENTS Axonify Inc., Sonic Automotive, Inc. TESTIMONIALS >> “Interactive, engaging and professionally captured.” >> “This content is best-in-class!” >> “Completion rates have increased YOY with this toolkit.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (952) 545-6698 Website: www.vadoinc.net

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SALES TRAINING

WINNER: ej4 Selling Skills Content PRODUCT INFORMATION ej4’s libraries consist of ready-to-use solutions for your organization’s specific needs. They are broken up by topic in Business Skills, Workplace Compliance and Microsoft Office that can be deployed on any platform.

The company’s Business Skills Library offers courses in Professional Productivity, Communications, Sales, Project Management, Leadership, Supervision, Safety and Presentation Skills — to name a few.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Other titles: “Assertive Verbal Skills,” “Business Travel,” “Business Statistics,” “Business Writing,” “Time Value of Money” and more >> Library expands every month, based on customer feedback >> Course titles can be added upon customer request CLIENTS Golden Harvest, Syngenta TESTIMONIAL >> “Short, well-designed courses that are robust for any Sales Enablement program.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 12125 Woodcrest Executive Dr., Suite 300, St. Louis, MO 63141 Phone: (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 Website: www.ej4.com

Award of Excellence: Vado Relationship Selling Toolkit PRODUCT INFORMATION The Vado Relationship Selling Toolkit emphasizes how sales are a way to help people and how treating connections is a future business asset. These are the foundational principles promoted by Jim Cathcart of the highly respected Cathcart Institute.

He looks at selling through the eight steps in the sales cycle that include targeting the right people in the right way, assessing their needs and solving their problems — rather than just selling them a product.

Vado courses help learners apply learning on the job. The combination of short videos followed by step-bystep instructions helps learners put into practice the learning they just completed, which means organization leaders are confident that the transition from learning to application on the job actually happens, and organization capabilities are increased.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Written by Jim Cathcart, the author of 18 books, including multiple international bestsellers, and inductee to the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame in London CLIENTS Kevin Eikenberry Group, e-SKY Solutions, Inc. TESTIMONIAL >> “The Toolkit by Vado is so beneficial for our sales team.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: P.O. Box 390153, Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (952) 545-6698 Website: www.vadoinc.net

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Tools E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL

MOBILE AUTHORING TOOL

WINNER: DominKnow ONE Claro

Award of Excellence: Adobe Captivate

WINNER: DominKnow ONE Flow

PRODUCT INFORMATION Claro courses are designed for a fixed page size, but are HTML5-based, so they are still viewable on laptop and desktop computers, as well as mobile devices.

Using Claro can be as simple as importing a PowerPoint file and publishing. Or use a PowerPoint file as a starting point, adding learning activities and assessment questions for a fuller learning experience. Plus, you can also easily create complex events, like hiding and swapping content all the way through to inter-page branching.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Adobe Captivate offers 360-degree media support to help deliver immersive learning experiences in VR that allow learners to navigate near real-life situations in a risk-free environment. Use VR to deliver experiences, such as virtual tours, safety drills, product walkthroughs, first-responder situations and more.

Captivate transitions seamlessly from storyboarding to responsive e-learning design. Users can dip into the asset store or use from Adobe Stock to enrich content to create amazing courses that run seamlessly across desktops and mobile devices.

The responsive e-learning design includes multiscreen responsive authoring, multidevice previews, iOS device capturing capabilities and native support for HTML5 objects.

PRODUCT INFORMATION dominKnow ONE Flow outputs fully responsive and adaptive content, so you don’t have to worry about specific devices or multiple versions of the same content.

ONE Flow is easy to get started with but packed with options to customize page behavior and create engaging and visually stunning content. The ONE Flow authoring stage is a live-author environment. View your page across all screen-width settings as you make it, or pop open a preview to see the page come to life.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive and adaptive output >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring >> Content sharing and reuse >> Self-described “world-class support” CLIENTS Cook County Sheriff ’s Office, DXC, First Air

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Design e-learning content in minutes with the all-new ready-to-go slides >> Quick Start Projects are a comprehensive set of ready-to-go interactive e-learning slides required for designing Introduction, Objectives, Menu, Layout, Scenarios, Interactions and Quiz slides >> Immersive learning with VR experiences

TESTIMONIALS >> “Super intuitive tool with amazing authoring functionalities to enhance learner engagement.” >> “Courses are simple to develop courses, using available templates or importing PowerPoint files and publishing.”

CLIENTS American Red Cross, Google, Lexus, IBM

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 Phone: (613) 800-8733 Website: www.dominknow.com

TESTIMONIALS >> “Intuitive platform our team adopted rapidly to make impactful training.” >> “Its responsive design provides the ability to view the training on any device.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 Phone: (408) 536-6000 Website: www.adobe.com/products/ captivateprime.html

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Built-in widgets, like tab sets, panels and carousels >> Design and tracking tools are built in >> Project assets stored in one central location >> Comments logged and tracked for streamlined review CLIENTS CAI, Unical Aviation, GuideWell Source TESTIMONIALS >> “Great templates to help get you started — but all the flexibility I need to create whatever kind of learning tool or jobaid I need.” >> “Flow outputs fully responsive and adaptive content, so we don’t have to worry about specific devices or multiple versions of the same content.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 Phone: (613) 800-8733 Website: www.dominknow.com

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Tools SIMULATION TOOL

EMERGING LEARNING SOLUTION

WINNER: DominKnow ONE Capture

Award of Excellence: Bigger Brains BrainBot

PRODUCT INFORMATION Use dominKnow’s Capture to create cross-platform, software simulations for stand-alone use or integration with other learning content.

Capture is a hybrid tool that allows you to work from your local desktop for speed and efficiency, but stores your work to the Cloud immediately — and it works on both Windows and Mac. Once you’ve made a Capture, you can quickly add highlighting or arrows using the Draw tools. Or, add tips using the Markers tool to help your learners better navigate the learning process.

PRODUCT INFORMATION BrainBot is an intelligent, A.I.-based chatbot that sends short, periodic communications to help you retain knowledge from selected Bigger Brains and other training courses.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Real-time collaboration >> Publish to LMS, LRS, apps, print >> Built-in features, including customizable testing, branching, etc. >> Ability to receive feedback from content reviewers CLIENTS RLG Capital, University of Michigan, Studio5D TESTIMONIALS >> “Capture automatically creates Step-byStep Instruction (Show me) — records all steps and provides an interactive video-like experience.” >> “The annotation capabilities are key for me — as is its intuitiveness.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> BrainBot’s artificial intelligence helps calculate if your learners answer correctly or not, and will provide constructive feedback >> Offers resources, including links to articles, videos or downloads >> Works with learners in their natural workflow CLIENTS Greenville Technical College, CT Edinburgh West TESTIMONIALS >> “Great for follow-up to ensure learning retention.” >> “Easy to use, adaptive to multiple responses.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 1520 E. Greenville St., Suite D Anderson, SC 29621 Phone: (864) 421-6950 or (800) 743-2724 Website: www.getbiggerbrains.com

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 Phone: (613) 800-8733 Website: www.dominknow.com

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©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

Award of Excellence: Immersive VR Education – VR ENGAGE Platform PRODUCT INFORMATION ENGAGE makes it easy to collaborate and learn through virtual reality. Perfect for educators, trainers and corporate teams.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Connects up to 36 people remotely from all over the world in the same virtual room >> ENGAGE IFX system allows loading 3D objects and effects into virtual environments >> Collaborate and create immersive experiences with a wide range of interactive objects and features CLIENTS Nokia, RCSI, Shenandoah Center for Immersive Learning TESTIMONIALS >> “Their IPO essentially validating the VR-based learning market.” >> “ENGAGE allows educators, third-party developers and corporate trainers to create and share their own content within the ENGAGE publishing platform.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: Unit 9 - Cleaboy Business Park, Cork Road, Waterford City, Ireland Phone: +353 51 585 837 Website: https://engagevr.io

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BEST OF ELEARNING! 2019 COMPLETE LIST OF HONOREES: CONTENT

PLATFORMS

TOOLS

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM - CLOUD

CONTENT AGGREGATOR PORTAL

E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Winners:

Adobe (Captivate Prime) D2L (Brightspace)

Winner:

Winner:

dominKnow (ONE Claro)

Awards of Excellence:

BlueSky eLearn (Path LMS), Brainier (Elan LMS), Cornerstone (LMS), Intellum (Exceed LMS), RISC, Inc. (VTA Suite)

Savvy Training & Consulting (SavvySMART Content Library)

Awards of Excellence:

Adobe (Adobe Captivate), Articulate (360)

BizLibrary (The BizLibrary Collection), Mastery Training Services (Training Library), OpenSesame (OpenSesame), Skillsoft (Skillsoft Library)

MOBILE AUTHORING TOOL

Awards of Excellence:

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ENTERPRISE Winner: Awards of Excellence:

SumTotal Systems (SumTotal Learning Management) eLogic Learning, an Absorb Software Co. (eSSential LMS), Softtek Export (iSOtrain.com)

I.T. TRAINING Winner: Awards of Excellence:

Bigger Brains (Microsoft Library Content) ej4 (Software Skills Library), Skillsoft (Technology & Developer Platform)

LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Winner:

Winner:

Vado (Leadership Development Learning Track)

Awards of Excellence:

ej4 (Leadership Development), Skillsoft (Leadership Development Program)

Award of Excellence:

dominKnow (dominKnow ONE) eXact learning (eXact LCMS)

OTHER LEARNING PLATFORM Winner:

BizLibrary (LMS)

Awards of Excellence:

ej4 (Thinkzoom), SkillSoft (Percipio)

TALENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Winner: Awards of Excellence:

Cornerstone (Talent Management Suite) Kronos (Workforce Ready)

SOFTSKILLS TRAINING Winner:

Skillsoft (Leadership & Business Portfolio)

Awards of Excellence:

Biz Library (Business Skills Library), ej4 [Business Skills Library), Vado (Skills Library)

Winner:

Vubiz (Compliance Library)

Winner:

Awards of Excellence:

ej4 (Workplace Compliance Library), Skillsoft (Skillsoft Compliance), Vado (HR Compliance Toolkit)

Award of Excellence:

ej4 (The Quad)

WEB SEMINAR

SALES TRAINING

Winner:

Cisco (WebEx Meetings)

Winner:

ej4 (Selling Skills Content)

Awards of Excellence:

Glance (Professional), LogMein (GoTo Meeting), Zoom (Meetings)

Awards of Excellence:

Baker Communications (Win-Win Negotiations), Vado (Relationship Selling Toolkit)

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM Winner:

Adobe (Adobe Connect)

Award of Excellence:

Cisco (WebEx Training Center)

VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT Winner:

On24 (CE Platform)

Award of Excellence:

INXPO, a West Co. (Virtual Events)

dominKnow (ONE Flow)

Award of Excellence:

Articulate (RISE)

SIMULATION TOOL Winner:

dominKnow (ONE Capture)

Award of Excellence:

Vyond (Studio)

EMERGING LEARNING SOLUTION Awards of Excellence:

Bigger Brains (Brainbot), Embodied Labs (Alfred Lab), Immersive VR Education (VR ENGAGE Platform)

Mark Your Calendar 2020

COMPLIANCE TRAINING

SOCIAL LEARNING/COLLABORATION BizLibrary (BizLibrary Community)

Winner:

Best of Elearning! voting opens June 1, 2020.

Watch for details at 2elearning.com Best of Elearning! is an awards program hosted by Elearning! Magazine, a B2B Media Company.

Elearning!

Winter 2019 30 Winter 2019 Elearning! ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

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–Celebrating Digital Media Excellence

2020CALL4ENTRIES Deadline for Entries: February 1, 2020 Enter the Dotties Today at www.DottieAwards.net

If you produce websites, email marketing, video or social media, blogs or digital advertising, you should apply for the 2020 Dottie Awards ™. The Dotties ™ celebrate excellence in digital media marketing. Select from consumer, business-to-business trade, marketing communications, association, student or non-profit market segments.

Entry fees start at $195 and close February 1st, 2020.

Visit DottieAwards.net for more details.

The 2020 Dottie Awards ™ are produced by B2B Media Co, LLC. To learn more, visit DottieAwards.net or email awards@b2bmediaco.com.

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

Star Power Learning!

Adobe Captivate Prime Wins First Annual Best of Elearning! Rising Star Award

BY VI PAYNICH Elearning! Magazine knows the importance of keeping organizations up to date on the state-of-the-art products and enterprise solutions driving today’s online learning market. That’s why we are pleased to announce the First Annual Rising Star Award, which recognizes newer brands that have achieved multiple Best of Elearning! honors. Twenty percent of Best of Elearning! honorees are first-time winners — a sign of innovation within the industry.

The Rising Star Award for 2019 is bestowed on Adobe Captivate Prime — the learning platform from Adobe.

Captivate Prime, in spite of being a new entrant, has earned three Best of Elearning! Awards in the past three years. This robust learning management system enables L&D teams to deliver modern learning experiences with capabilities, such as mobile learning, seamless content playback experience

and artificial intelligence-powered social learning capabilities.

Launched in August 2015, Captivate Prime was designed with a strong focus on the learner experience. Adobe went a step further by ensuring that the system offers an equally simple implementation experience for LMS admins and comprehensive reporting and analytics for training managers and executives.

Traditional LMS migrations can take up to one year to complete, in comparison one could be up and running with Captivate Prime in a matter of days, with robust data migration connectors and a UX that allows for easy content authoring and delivery. Adobe offers multiple pricing and licensing options that make it suitable for small- to medium-size businesses, as well as large Fortune 100 enterprises. The active user-pricing model provides flexibility at an affordable cost, allowing enterprises to deploy training to a floating audience.

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starpowerlearning

“If you’re able to keep just three out of 10 people by encouraging them to learn, you can really improve internal efficiencies, business consistency and performance, and employee morale.”

—Chris Taylor, Director, International Training & Standards, Domino’s, Inc. DOMINO’S DELIVERS LEARNING CONTENT FAST, HOT AND EASY Throughout the United States and around the globe, Domino’s has become a household name among pizza lovers. To help sustain its remarkable success, the company chose to upgrade its employee and franchisee staff learning and development capabilities. Thus, Domino’s implemented Adobe Captivate Prime to help instructors deliver course materials, administer tests and assignments, and track learner progress using blended learning experiences. According to the company, Captivate Prime makes e-learning delivery faster, easier and more reliable — especially across a large, geographically diverse organization.

In 2017, Domino’s international e-learning team began encouraging franchisees, which own more than 97% of Domino’s 15,000 restaurants in 85 countries, to explore the benefits of moving to a learning management system (LMS).

“Domino’s franchisees love the idea of how an LMS, like Adobe Captivate Prime, can support personalized learning to any device,” says Chris Taylor, director, international training & standards, Domino’s, Inc. “Because we use Adobe Captivate Prime for corporate training, it’s the solution we recommend worldwide.”

The company also uses features, such as gamification and leaderboards, to engage learners. In addition to dovetailing nicely with the Domino’s corporate philosophy of friendly competition, they keep learners excited about and involved in their learning. In fact, the company is working to attach its employee rewards program to Adobe Captivate Prime.

For end users, Domino’s goal is to make its learning easy. The shift to a learning culture is evident in the company’s transition from “push” learning to “pull” learning, in which the learner, not the teacher, controls his or her motives and reasons for learning. After all, when a learner is interested and engaged, he or she tends to learn faster and retain information longer.

“Once content is really easy to find, no matter what device the learner is using, they stay engaged,” says Justin Senkbeil, international e-learning manager, Domino’s, Inc. “In fact, we’re creating videos to explain the importance of ease of use to franchisees who aren’t using Captivate Prime — using the LMS to demonstrate the value of the LMS.” 34

Winter 2019 Elearning!

A.I.-BASED LEARNING FEATURES The newly introduced A.I.-powered social learning capabilities in Adobe Captivate Prime allows learners to share their expertise with peers in the form of web-based or user-generated content posted on discussion boards that are tied to skills. Learners can source content via a web URL or create it right from within the app, such as videos, audio clips and screenshots. Groups of users interested in similar skills can follow these topics to learn and even contribute to the topic, or ask questions, and follow others — much like a consumer social media platform.

This empowers learners to learn from their peers or experts in moments versus days.

This “Need It Now” utility is vital to modern learners who thrive on selfdirected learning.

Adobe Sensei is the underlying machine learning algorithm that powers the automated content curation capability in Captivate Prime. The system automatically keeps a check on the quality of learner content that’s brought in by approving only those that meet a specific quality score. This is achieved by intelligent scans on the content based on A.I. and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms that are powered

by Adobe Sensei. Of course, the L&D leaders have the flexibility to turn it off and manually moderate if they wish.

The social learning homepage in Captivate Prime provides a social feed for the participants, featuring personalized and relevant content. Learners can directly post content to the system, while browsing the web using the browser applet. The robust search algorithm in Captivate Prime populates relevant results from both social learning posts and formal

learning courses based on the learner’s search query. Participants can choose to learn informally or enroll themselves in the formal course.

AN ENGAGING LEARNING EXPERIENCE The top challenge for organizations is continuously filling the skills gap or reskilling current team members. With Captivate Prime, learning leaders can align skills to business objectives and assign skill-based learning plans to employee cohorts. Captivate Prime also supports certification, note taking, gamification and badges to drive engagement and positive reinforcement.

It’s easy to set up a learning structure in Captivate Prime. Training managers and their teams can reuse modules across courses to create structured learning paths, as well as combine virtual or live classrooms and e-learning courses to deliver learning programs, including certifications. They also can set up a Learning Plan by auto-assigning learning activities based on certain career events or the outcome of the previous learning activity.

The learner experience is key, so that learning can be personalized and relevant.

Learners have access to their personal dashboards that they can customize, using drag-and-drop widgets. They also can view completed, pending and recommended courses, skills attained, badges received and details of activities to earn more badges and points. Learners can compare their

“Adobe Captivate Prime is an LMS made for the 21st century,”

—Lance Wilcox, Curriculum Manager, Sales Effectiveness, Edmunds Inc.

REVVING UP ONLINE LEARNING FOR EDMUNDS’ MOBILE SALES TEAM Today’s internet-savvy consumers are more likely than ever to do in-depth research online before making a big-ticket item purchase, especially when it comes to investing in a vehicle. Fastforward to the digital age, and Edmunds.com has become the go-to site for car research.

Edmunds aims to make the whole carshopping experience a breeze for consumers.

The first line of contact for car dealerships is the sales team.

Edmunds sales reps must provide expertise in automobile trends, fast and efficient communications, and high levels of knowledge about such tools to help dealers market their stock effectively. With more than 160 Edmunds sales representatives located throughout the country, who spend most of their time on the road driving between dealerships, traditional training is a challenge. Another issue is the cost, as it’s expensive to fly everyone to Edmunds’ Santa Monica, California, headquarters for regular in-person training sessions.

For years, the company used a learning management system (LMS) to power its online distance learning courses, but creating new learning content took time and training. Edmunds decided to move in a different direction with a next-generation LMS that would enable Edmunds to disseminate more content with greater speed.

In addition, the company needed an LMS that was user-friendly for learners, administrators and designers. It also needed to support video content and mobile devices for the company’s busy, on-the-go sales reps. Enter Adobe Captivate Prime.

According to Lance Wilcox, curriculum manager, sale effectiveness at Edmunds, “Adobe Captivate Prime had all the features that we needed, but ultimately what made the decision was our respect for the Adobe brand.”

With Captivate Prime, Wilcox can easily create new course content for sales staff.

In-house training videos use video capture and voiceovers to teach sales reps how to use internal platforms and tools that will boost their productivity. Also, in best practice videos, Edmunds interviews successful sales reps about their tips and techniques.

The company currently has more than four hours of its own content available and thousands of hours of learning from outside learning resources. What’s more, using the fluidic player, learners can view course content on any device, from a laptop to smartphone, without needing any extra downloads or plug-ins. The company will soon roll out the mobile app to boost mobile adoption rates even further. Edmunds plans to expand use of Captivate Prime as an LMS for all types of training and skills.

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starpowerlearning

“Employees can use the points like cash on gift cards or online shopping.”

– Chris Taylor, Director, International Training & Standards, Domino’s, Inc.

performance against peers on the leaderboard, as well as get personalized recommendations in their feed based on must-have skills for their current role or desired skills for their next role.

Managers have a holistic view of their teams and are enabled to take preemptive decisions, using data from the skill and compliance report dashboards. performance against peers on the leaderboard, as well as get personalized recommendations in their feed based on musthave skills for their current role or desired skills for their next role. Managers have a holistic view of their teams and are enabled to take preemptive decisions, using data from the skill and compliance report dashboards.

Domino’s Inc., an Adobe client, awards employees points for achievements — such as the faster learner to complete assigned courses and the most optional course content taken by a learner. “Employees

36

Winter 2019 Elearning!

can use the points like cash on gift cards or online shopping, says Chris Taylor, director, international training & standards, Domino’s Inc. “We want to tie the Domino’s employee rewards program to Captivate Prime so that, beyond earning badges and climbing the leaderboards, employees get monetary rewards for stepping up and learning new skills on their own.” (See case study on p. 34.)

SALES ENABLEMENT FEATURES Captivate Prime has effective features to support sales enablement. Training can be delivered at the point of need, across devices for sales and customer-facing teams to maximize productivity. Trainers can deliver learning in-context, including within saleforce.com (SFDC) or any other web page by taking advantage of the embeddable fluidic player, making Captivate Prime a “headless LMS.” An organization’s sales representatives can get a full view of their personal learning dashboard and receive notifications about upcoming learning tasks within SFDC. For example, Edmunds, another Adobe client, was able to reach the mobile sales force on any device, easily integrate it with SFDC and see close to 100% completion rates.

(See case study on p. 35.)

Learners also receive offline learning access within the Captivate Prime mobile app.

Plus, sales training can leverage gamification, team dashboards and badges for recognition and rewards.

Managers are encouraged to use the Skills Dashboard to view a high-level summary of how their teams are currently positioned

against the assigned skills. They can also assess and forecast future skill levels among team members based on the training progress and performance stats. Data-visualization tools offer a visual of a team’s learning, with charts that represent vital statistics on enrollment, progressions and completions.

Managers can further analyze the data via Team View and Training View to better understand learning patterns, make business decisions and provide feedback on training plans and performance.

CUSTOMER LEARNING OPTIONS With Captivate Prime, it’s easy to enable customer training delivered through an elevated personalized experience using customized URLs. Maintain the organization’s brand guidelines and keep customer groups engaged and updated with new content that can be delivered on any browser or any device. Companies can leverage all the capabilities of A.I.-powered social learning, data visualization, ease of use, mobile learning, gamification and other powerful capabilities.

THE DIGITAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS PORTFOLIO Adobe exclusively offers the best-in-class triad of solutions: Captivate Prime LMS, Captivate Rapid E-learning Development Tool and Connect Virtual Classroom & Meeting Solution. Adobe brands have earned Best of Elearning! honors every year since 2005. According to their users, Adobe is best of breed across the pillars of digital learning solutions — learning management systems, e-learning authoring tools and virtual classroom. No other single brand in the learning marketplace has earned these distinctions.

LEARN MORE ABOUT ADOBE CAPTIVATE PRIME View a demo of the awardwinning learning management system — Adobe Captivate Prime — at https://www.adobe.com/ products/captivateprime/prime-rfi. html?sdid=2EL-RS-DEMO For more information, go to https://www.adobe.com/products/ captivateprime/features.html

Learning! 100:

New York Life Is Fit for the

FUTURE How the company’s rich digital learning platform led to the top spot on the Learning! 100

BY MICHAEL MOLINARO

T

hree years ago, New York Life started formulating a plan that would address the need to build new capabilities in addition to supporting its core strengths; including Actuarial Science, Product Development & Pricing, Agent-led Sales and Distribution, which had allowed the company to see nearly 175 years of success, and those identified as new capabilities needed for future success. The company realized

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NewYorkLife that the future skills needed to develop its business strategy would have to include all of these “legacy skills” with an additional focus on new emerging capabilities, including: >> Data Science – A newly emerging field that uses scientific methods, processes, algorithms and machine learning to extract knowledge and insights from its rich collection of available data. >> Digital Media & Digital Marketing – Including an external digital social presence, the ability to deliver digitally enhanced consumer and agent experiences, and the technical capability to deliver and manage the IT platforms to support all this. >> Operational Risk – Beyond New York Life’s financial and product risk capabilities, the new risks associated with technology, including cyber and model risk present new challenges. >> Human-Centered Design – Insurance product design is complex. Yet, there is a growing consumer demand for a more simplified, easy-to-buy, easy-to-understand and easy-to-service product. New York Life contends

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

New York Life...realized an opportunity existed to re-position its substantial learning capability to close any potential skills gap by creating a new Learning Exchange platform.... that “Design Thinking” or “HumanCentered Design” will play a large role in New York Life’s future customer and agent experience.

New York Life also realized an opportunity existed to re-position its substantial learning capability to close any potential skills gap by creating a new Learning Exchange platform, using the following approach: Providing standardized rich learning experiences that re-enforce the basis for the company’s culture (derived from Mutuality), as well as its deep connection

1

to its customers (resulting from its agent field force).

Promoting required education in the industry, products and its own sales and customer support practices.

Building skills in emerging talent capabilities mentioned and supporting changing skill requirements based on New York Life’s transformations (Tech, Finance, HR, Service, etc.) became chief strategic learning objectives.

2 3

THE CHALLENGES During the early stages of developing its

Learning Exchange platform, New York Life quickly learned to consider this a change management project. In any large organization, it’s important to align the stakeholders involved by having a say in the approach, design, curation rules, etc., for the final product to be a success. New York Life set up a Learning Exchange Governance committee early on that met on a monthly basis. In fact, the group still meets quarterly to discuss and develop approaches that will work for stakeholders across the company.

THE IMPLEMENTATION After 18 months of pilot testing, New York Life launched its solution in 2018, to deliver the strategy the company had crafted.

However, when it came time to actually unveil its learning platform, the company deliberately took a slow, staged approach to rollout. Rather than a company-wide “big bang,” New York Life deployed the Learning Exchange platform via departmental rollouts and local communications. This approach proved exactly right. After all, it was important that this be treated as a change management activity, rather than just a program launch.

The New York Life Learning Exchange (LEx) is a unified digital approach into a world of learning and development

The “Flex-Ed” program was…fully implemented in 2018, to specifically help technology employees learn what they need, when they need to learn it, using just-in-time learning assets.

– Michael Molinaro, CLO, New York Life

experiences designed to help its employees: >> Understand and thrive through appreciation of New York Life’s history, values and culture. >> Keep skills current for their job today and develop skills emerging in the company’s business. >> Grow, progress and be ready for their next job.

LEx brings to a single point all New York Life’s internal classroom training,

e-learning and third-party programs, as well as reference documents from its Jive and Sharepoint sites. It is delivered through the company’s partnership with Degreed.com. LEx is considered a new operating model for learning, integrating the elements of New York Life’s federated L&D community into a single unified body for learning delivery.

LEx is organized around Academies and Pathways:

>> Academies - Domains of expertise,

content curators and representatives of best practices for various subject-matter areas. These mostly reflect existing learning organizations. >> Pathways - Role or function or skillsbased curricula. They are curated from any source and linked to success in a particular subject-matter area. Pathways in areas, such as Leadership, Change Management, Customer Service, Man-

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NewYorkLife

LEx brings to a single point all New York Life’s internal classroom training, e-learning and third-party programs, as well as reference documents from its Jive and Sharepoint sites. aging People, Data Science, Accounting and more, provide learners with guidance and direction on what learning is most important for their development.

These Pathways can comprise a combination of internal New York Life training, New York Life reference material articles, videos, external courses, etc.

Business units can tailor existing Pathways to their respective needs, or develop new ones as needed through the applicable Academy. LEx uses Degreed’s machine learning capability to customize and delivery a “learning feed.”

An additional business strategy the Learning Exchange model needed to address was the continual and rapid pace of

change in technology skills underpinning all the company’s business changes and the extent to which the team can keep technologists’ skills as current as possible.

The “Flex-Ed” program was designed in 2017, and fully implemented in 2018, to specifically help technology employees learn what they need, when they need to learn it, using just-in-time learning assets. The initiative was also designed to empower technology employees and to help them feel that the company is investing in their professional growth and development.

Through “Flex-Ed,” all technology employees were given a pre-loaded debit card with a $2,500 “Learning Stipend” that they

could use to purchase fee-based learning and development resources and experiences through New York Life’s LEx platform.

Technology employees who utilized the stipend reported feeling highly empowered by the opportunity to make their own decisions about development and learning.

Most importantly, as a measure of success of this Flex-Ed model, 97% of the stipend spend was directed towards growing new skills, rather than remediation of legacy skills.

To ensure priorities continued to be met, even as skills needs evolved, New York Life formed a “skills advisory board” to provide guidance on what skills would be most needed and to bring new technology skills into discussion. In a study published

by Gartner CEB in 2018, New York Life’s Technology Skills Advisory Board model was cited as a best-practice approach to dealing with the challenge of rapidly evolving workplace skills.

ROLLOUT, REACTION AND ADOPTION When New York Life launched LEx across the entire company, it had a well-structured communication and support strategy in place. This included communication from business leaders on the importance of learning and development, and how LEx supports rich career development conversations. It also featured Open House sessions, where employees could drop in and meet with learning experts from across various businesses, have a 1-1 demo of the LEx platform, build their own personal skills profile and even download the mobile app to their phone. In addition, a “landing page” on the company’s social media platform provides FAQs and additional support. Lastly, LEx offered an e-learning course, “Getting Started with Learning Exchange,” which provides step-by-step guidance for the best use of New York Life’s new digital learning platform.

After 36 months of testing and implementation, New York Life’s carefully planned and executed solution to enabling a rich digital learning platform represents not only the first in its industry, but it’s also what has set the company apart as a Learning! 100 company.

— Michael Molinaro is Chief Learning Officer at New York Life.

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How Vi Proves the Business Impact of Learning

The company shows how to use key performance indicators to measure the impact of its learning strategy.

BY JUDY WHITCOMB As a leading provider of five-star resort living and senior living for residents throughout the United States, Vi recognizes that it’s not enough to simply offer beautiful places to live. At the end of the day, the company knows how much its employees make a difference in the lives of its residents. Therefore, providing employees the opportunity to learn, grow and prosper not only contributes to offering residents quality care and exceptional service, but it also contributes to the enablement and growth of Vi team members and services as an employment differentiator.

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PHOTO COURTESY OF VI

Learning! 100:

PHOTO COURTESY OF VI

businessimpactoflearning

Over the years, Vi has continued to refine and enhance the learning and development programs it offers. Whether it’s investing in its Management Development Program or Emerging Leaders Program for new and aspiring managers, the company knows that strong leadership contributes to a collaborative, high-performing and engaging work environment for its colleagues.

LEARNING PROGRAM EFFECTIVENESS Vi has many learning programs that drive significant business and learner

impact; however, the company’s oneyear Breakthrough Leadership Program (BLP) continues to be the best example of a key performance metric that Vi uses to measure the impact of its learning strategy. Development and retention of top talent remains a key performance indicator that is measured and reported across the organization monthly, as well as to the company’s board quarterly. Vi remains committed to making significant improvements to program metrics cohort after cohort.

What’s more, it has directly linked employee retention to other company

key performance indicators, including quality care, resident service, productivity, financial metrics and employee engagement. Employee development contributes to high levels of employee retention, engagement and performance, as measured through Vi’s employee survey.

Completing its third annual cohort in 2018, Vi continues to leverage levels three and four evaluation data completed by its third-party partner, DePaul University, to drive higher level of learner and business outcomes each year. For instance, in 2018, leveraging its second cohort data, the team structured more participant leader learning activities to initiate immediate business application and reinforce learning.

Additionally, supporting research that correlates peer involvement in learning programs to learner success, the team further expanded the use of former BLP participants to lead portions of classroom, virtual learning and study groups. To reinforce supervisor support, Vi created a participant/ leader commitment document, outlining learner/manager roles and responsibilities.

In addition, to ensure there was explicit leader support of the significant learner commitment time, the team formalized a program for learners to work from home to complete specific learning assignments. The significant results will be covered later. BLP has

TABLE #1: PROGRAM LEARNING GOALS RESULTS & ACCOUNTABILITY

>> Set clear expectations and

challenging goals >> Monitor others’ performance >> Foster teamwork >> Motivate others to improve performance >> Delegate or share responsibility approprately >> Lead others through change efforts

EMPLOYEE & PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

>> Develop others through effective

coaching >> Deliver consistent, high-quality feedback >> Manage development meetings effectively >> Identify others’ developmental opportunities >> Seek challenging developmental opportunities for self-improvement >> Demonstrate self-awareness

COMMUNICATION & INTERPERSONAL INFLUENCE

>> Display sincere interest in others >> Build strong internal networks >> Effectively navigate political environments

>> Foster productive working

relationships across business lines

>> Nurture a productive working relationship with one’s boss

>> Apply positive influence strategies to achieve organizational goals

>> Apply effective emotion management strategies to improve relationships

>> Show empathy toward others 42

Winter 2019 Elearning!

been constructed to include four major training events: 1) classroom training with Vi executives, and in partnership with DePaul University, focused on leader fundamentals; 2) Talent Smart emotional intelligence assessment and training; 3) Harvard Business Publishing series of cohort-based selfdirected online learning models; and 4) Talent Smart multi-source feedback emotional intelligence pre-post assessment.

Following are the major learning outcomes, including affective (attitudes and motivation), cognitive (knowledge acquisition and retention) and behavioral (skills and performance) from multiple sources — including objective tests, supervisor ratings and participant self-report. To provide some context, the following represent learning goals in Table #1 on page 42.

BLP DESIGN ELEMENTS Four elements comprise the BLP: Preparation & Foundation, Classroom, Virtual and Post-Class, which enabled the team to assess employee engagement and content recall. >> Preparation & Foundation – The objective is to establish participant commitment and expectations, and manager commitment and expectations. This also encompasses pre-class reading assignments, participant assessments, as well as manager assessment of participants. >> Classroom – This includes one-week classroom learning taught by Vi senior executives and DePaul University faculty. It also establishes study groups and virtual learning sessions. Lastly, it enables post-class assessment. >> Virtual – The purpose is to build and sustain knowledge acquired, leverage a six-month virtual learning platform with virtual learning instructor-led training, study group, online learning and blogs. >> Post-Class – The goal is to acknowledge, recognize and celebrate program participant success; engage participants in supporting future learning programs; examine participant assessments; manage the assessment of participants and share program results.

PROGRAM EVALUATION The Vi team knows that effective assessment draws heavily from the existing evidence on the science of training and development. Research, among other factors, shows that several key factors improve the likelihood that learners will ultimately transfer their acquired knowledge and skills to their work roles: Learner readiness. Learners must possess a unique blend of confidence, motivation and perceived value. These learner characteristics are quite malleable and can be influenced through pre-training interventions, such as clear communication regarding the objectives of the training and why they were selected to participate, as well as demonstrating a clear need or “gap” in their current capabilities compared against expectations for future capabilities.

Learner work environment. Learners are more likely to transfer their newly acquired capabilities to their own work environment when the environment is conducive to transfer.

Training design. The design of the training can significantly improve the likelihood of capability transfer. Most importantly, transfer increases as learners see a clear alignment between the learning content and their work-related needs.

Methodology - Critical components of Vi’s assessment included: Using multiple methods and sources of data (i.e., from sources, including, but not limited to, participants and supervisors); and to focus on outcomes known to be empirically associated with increased learning readiness, training motivation/performance, transfer of training and job performance.

Chart #1: Knowledge Acquisition and Retention 6.00

6.30

4.50

PreProgram (Nov 2017)

ImmediatePost (Nov 2017)

PostProgram (Aug 2018)

PARTICIPANTS Complete data were available for participants and their direct supervisors.

Supervisors reported having an average of 25 direct reports, which participants reported having an average of 15.5 years managerial experience. In addition, 70% of participants were female.

Breakthrough Leadership is a program designed primarily for high-potential managers of emerging manager at Vi. Supervisors nominate participants from their department or communities. To confirm that the selection of participants was restricted to high-potential employees, supervisors were asked to rate the overall performance of the

Chart #2: Changes In Learner Behavior Outcomes 5.00

■ Pre-Program Mean ■ Post-Program Mean

4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 Task Performance

Emotional Intelligence

Skill Rating

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businessimpactoflearning participant relative to all other employees he/she has managed at Vi. THE RESULTS There are multiple areas BLP was measured against desired learning outcomes. When it came to the strategic goal of retention, first and foremost — out of the three one-year cohorts Vi has delivered — nearly 93% of high-potential participants have been retained and have been retained with more than onethird of participants promoted. Harvard Business Publishing also noted that Vi’s Breakthrough Leadership cohorts are in their top 1% of their client learners with respect to program completion. The following represents additional findings: The goal of any training and development effort is to spur growth in learners in terms of motivating personal

change and equipping participants with the knowledge, skills and behaviors that are linked to effective on-the-job performance.

Knowledge Acquisition and Retention (Cognitive Outcomes). Knowledge was assessed via eight multiple-choice and situational-judgment items that broadly cover major concepts taught across the program. A participant’s score on the knowledge assessment represents the number correct out of the total.

Overall, the observed level of knowledge acquisition represents a large effect. It is important to note that the overall levels of knowledge acquisition were sustained over a yearlong period.

Substantial research suggests that knowledge is likely to severely decline — by 92% on average after one year — following training (Arthur et al., 1998).

Graph #1 – Task Performance, Emotional Intelligence, Skill Rating ■ Pre-Program Mean ■ Post-Program Mean ■ Control Group 5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 Task Performance

Emotional Intelligence

Skill Rating

The chart on page 43, shows no decline on average from the immediate post-test following formal training to the postprogram test one year later.

Changes in Learner Behavioral Outcomes. Supervisor ratings indicate an 8% gain in employee performance over one year, as measured by the following items: >> Gets the job done >> Meets formal performance requirements of the job >> Neglects aspects of the job he/she is obligated to perform (reverse coded) >> Regularly exceeds performance expectations BLP PROGRAM REFINEMENT Vi continues to enhance its BLP Program.

The two graphs below depict how the company’s Learning & OD Team has leveraged third-party analysis completed by DePaul University to drive more effective learner outcomes.

FOSTERING A STRONG LEARNING CULTURE High levels of executive and business partner engagement in employee development have been key in sustaining a strong learning culture. Through its BLP Program, Vi thoughtfully engages the company’s executive management team in emphasizing and communicating throughout the organization that employee development is a key leadership competency that contributes to the company’s overall success.

– Judy Whitcomb is SVP of HR and Learning at Vi.

Graph #2 – Self-Efficacy, Utility, Transfer Motivation, Role Clarity ■ Pre-Program Mean ■ Post-Program Mean ■ Control Group

5.00 4.50 4.00 3.50 3.00 2.50 2.00 Self-Efficacy

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

Utility

Transfer Motivation

Role Clarity

Supervisor Support

Preference for Numbers

Research

A.I.-based Learning Market Watch

BY SAM S. ADKINS In Metaari’s seminal market research report, called The 2019-2024 Global A.I.-based Learning Market, published in March 2019, we forecasted that the revenues for this new type of learning technology will reach well-beyond $3.8 billion by 2024.

Within the report, we identified eight major catalysts driving the rapid adoption of A.I.-based Learning across the globe. Perhaps the most significant catalyst is the penultimate achievement of true preconized

learning.

A.I.-based Learning has proven to be quite effective at one-to-one personalized instruction and is tremendously scalable — as scalability serves as a vital attribute to A.I.-based Learning. In addition, A.I.based Learning platforms can provide individualized tutoring to thousands of users simultaneously.

EASIER ACCESS TO A.I.-BASED LEARNING The spike in private investment going to A.I.-based Learning companies is one of the eight

catalysts identified in the report. “The massive amounts of investments being made to A.I.-based Learning is clear evidence of the booming market. More than $4.7 billion was invested in A.I.-based Learning companies in 2017 and 2018.

The barriers to entry are now quite low since developers can connect to commercial cloudbased A.I. engines. New lowcost, easy-to-use A.I.-based Learning tools are coming on the market at a rapid rate.

Companies can get to market quickly by using the commer-

cial platforms and the new nocode and low-code authoring tools. There are marketplaces that sell inexpensive premade components. Developers are essentially assembling reality, not developing it from scratch.

IBM, Microsoft, Google and Amazon all operate online marketplaces that distribute premade A.I. models, algorithms, bot templates, Conversational A.I.s, and “agent behaviors.”

Innovations in A.I.s used in the healthcare sector are a major catalyst driving the adoption of A.I.-based Learn-

Elearning! Winter 2019

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Research ing across the globe. Another catalyst is the emergence of therapeutic A.I.s for people with special needs. These products have proven particularly effective at treating children along the autism spectrum.

SUPPLY AND DEMAND Another major trend driving the demand for A.I.-based Learning is the near insatiable consumer demand for A.I.s that are designed to teach kids to code. They are one of the most popular instructional products on the market and are often called smart toys.

In the report, we identify Conversational A.I., a major type of Natural Language Processing (NLP), as the core foundation of all A.I.-based Learning. Conversational A.I.s interact with users via audio and digital text. Another catalyst driving the A.I.-based Learning market across the globe is the rapid uptake of A.I. tutors in the academic segments. They tend to be physical bots in the pre-K to 12 segment and virtual bots in the higher education segment.

Conversational A.I.s used in pre-K to 12 schools are mostly used for two subject domains: language learning (particularly for young children) and STEM. Higher education institutions use A.I.-based chatbot tutors, virtual counselors and student advisors. One of the best-known cognitive computing platforms is IBM’s Watson and developers are building out advanced learning technology products on top of Watson’s cloud-based platform.

Pearson, Apple, Blackboard, Scholastic, Sesame Street, Ed46

Winter 2019 Elearning!

Primary Catalysts Driving the Global A.I.-based Learning Market

Barriers-toEntry are Now Quite Low

Rapid Uptake of Support Bots and Avatars in the Corporate Segment

The Growing Use of Intelligent Tutors in the Academic Segments

A.I.based Learning Delivers True Personalized Learning

Primary Catalysts Driving the Worldwide A.I.-based Learning Market

Bots and Virtual tutors for Kids in High Demand Across the Planet

Private Investment Flowing to A.I.based Learning Startups

Innovation in A.I.-based Learning in Healthcare

Use of Therapeutic Tutoring Bots for People With Special Needs

New commercial marketplaces that sell A.I. components are rapidly driving down costs and are strong secondary catalysts lowering the barriers to entry very quickly.

A.I.-based Learning has proven to be quite effective at one-to-one personalized instruction and is tremendously scalable — as scalability serves as a vital attribute to A.I.-Learning.

modo (now owned by China’s NetDragon) and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt are selling new educational products built on Watson. All of them have global reach.

Watson is not the only A.I. platform being used for A.I.-based Learning. Pearson launched its Longman Welcome to English curriculum in Asia in February 2018 on Microsoft’s A.I. Cerego’s adaptive learning platform, which is used by more than 500 enterprise companies, governmental agencies and educational institutions, and runs on Amazon’s A.I. THE GLOBAL MARKETPLACE Finally, a major catalyst is the adoption of A.I.-based Learning in the global corporate and government segments.

A.I. has reinvented several legacy enterprise applications, including business intelligence, business process management, data analytics and visualization, knowledge graphing, knowledge management and decision support. Extraordinary new products are coming on the market.

The report identifies greater than 940 A.I.-based Learning companies operating in 126 countries. There is now wide adoption in all six of the buying segments tracked by Metaari. It’s official … A.I.-based Learning has gone mainstream.

Interested in learning more?

The report is available for purchase at Elearning! Magazine’s Premium Research site, http://www.2elearning.com/ research/.

— Sam S. Adkins is Chief Researcher at Metaari.

TipsAdult Learning

What Is Adult Learning Theory and Why Is It Important?

BY KATHY IRISH We often take for granted that people know how to learn. After all, we all had to learn while in school, right? But, that can be a dangerous attitude to take when it comes to corporate training initiatives, especially since adults don’t learn the same way kids do.

That’s where Adult Learning Theory comes into play. Knowing how adults tend to learn, you can tailor corporate training programs to take advantage of qualities adult learners have, like an eagerness to learn relevant material, the need to connect with experience and motivation to grow.

A lot of corporate training is based loosely on models of education found in schools, but an adult’s motivation for learning is much different than a child’s. When adults choose to learn something, it is because they see value in those things.

It is our interests and ambitions that drive learning, not the need for a good grade to pass a class.

In corporate learning, that difference is sometimes forgotten. When that happens, training is based on a school model, where people are grouped together and required to learn content. That model doesn’t always work, considering most working adults haven’t been in school for a while. So how do we make training something that adults WANT to do, and

how do we make it effective?

Those very questions — how to make training something that adults want to do, and how to make it effective — are what drive the field of research, known as Adult Learning Theory.

ADULT LEARNING THEORIES If we are using labels honestly, there are several different adult learning theories in the research literature. Some include: Transformative learning. True learning experiences should somehow change the individual. In practice, it recommends starting with learning experiences that appeal to your specific audience, and

then moving on to activities that challenge assumptions and explore other points of view.

Self-directed learning.

This approach acknowledges that the majority of the learning adults do is outside the context of formal training, and so, the emphasis is on augmenting those informal learning experiences. This can be through providing content, helping individuals plan their learning or evaluating learning experiences after the fact.

Experiential learning.

Experiential learning makes the case that the essence of adult learning is making sense of experiences. Adults learn best when they learn by doing, like

role playing, simulations and so on.

Andragogy. This theory combines many of the insights from the above theories. This approach starts by recognizing the differences between adults and children and designs learning experiences from there.

There are many variations on these too, and there isn’t one “correct” learning theory. Each provides insight into the ways in which adults learn. Not all adults learn in the same way, and it is important to find approaches that blend several theories so that they can work for the majority.

— Kathy Irish is VP of Operations at ej4.

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IN LOOKING FOR THE IDEAL RESUME, YOU’VE IGNORED THE IDEAL CANDIDATE.

LEARN HOW TO FIND, TRAIN AND CULTIVATE A GREAT POOL OF UNTAPPED TALENT.

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Which brand earned the Best of Elearning! Award for Learning Content Management System? a) ej4 b) eLogic Learning c) Softek Export d) dominKnow

Which one is NOT among New York Life Learning Exchange’s four capabilities? a) Behavioral Science b) Operational Risk c) Data Science d) Human-Centered Design What’s the name of Vi’s learning program? a) Vi Leadership Program b) Workforce Efficiency Program c) Training Can Be Fun Program d) Breakthrough Leadership Program

How much revenue is the global Educational Bot market forecasted to generate by 2023? a) $1.7 billion b) $1.0 trillion c) $4.1 billion Which hotel chain recently announced it has selected Transperfect’s language and technology solutions? a) Sheraton b) Hilton c) Fairmont d) Radisson

In the 2019 E-learning Africa Report, what percentage of respondents don’t believe African countries are doing enough to ensure universal access to education by 2030? a) 56% b) 10% c) 75%

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Metaari Worldwide Educational Bot Market Report http://www.2elearning.com/research/

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Answers: (1) d, (2) b, (3) a, (4) d, (5) c, (6) d, (7) a

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Elearning! Winter 2019 49

LastWord Reskilling and Upskilling for the Win!

A

BY BRIANNA O’HARA s professionals responsible for employee and organizational development, we’ve had the privilege of watching closely as changes sweep both the workforce and the workplace.

While change is constant, the pace and dramatic effects of recent innovations are

unprecedented. In the past decade, we’ve witnessed how technology has fundamentally changed job roles — automating or eliminating some positions, and creating new ones.

Brianna O’Hara, Content Manager, BizLibrary

We’re experiencing an unpredictable job market with unemployment being at a historic low, yet companies

are still reporting high turnover and skills gaps across industry and function. Culture is certainly not the only factor playing into these increased employee turnover rates, but it is a large contributor. Unfortunately, this has a very real impact on an organization’s bottom line.

While workplace priorities change, the workforce, and the demographics thereof, are rapidly changing as well. As a generation, baby boomers sought stable work environments and typically devoted their career to a single company; while millennials have less tolerance for the status quo and no fear going from job to job until they land somewhere that satisfies their expectations. One of the reasons that millennials can demand pay raises after changing jobs is that simply finding someone to hire is a growing challenge.

A brand new study from BizLibrary also showed that regardless of industry, a skills gap was likely to be very large. The study, which surveyed more than 400 companies, found that 42% of employees in all organizations don’t have the communication skills they need to be fully productive and successful in their roles, meaning that nearly half the workforce is limited by their soft skills.

I want to emphasize that reskilling and upskilling your existing workforce is more important than it ever has been before.

Building a skills program doesn’t have to be difficult. As you plan your learning strategy, think about what skills and jobs within your organization are most likely to be affected by the skills gap, automation, succession or technology in general. Could current employees fill these roles with additional training?

Next, ask how long it will take before you are forced into change. Map out current skills and progressive skills that will be needed to maintain or grow these roles. What skills can you teach? And, when do you need to think outside your workforce? Once you’ve laid out the foundation for your skills program, focus on the content. I encourage you to seek an online learning partner to support you in this process.

Statistics, data and trends analysis all point to the fact that the role of learning and development as a key business strategy is expanding and becoming more important than ever.

— Brianna O’Hara is Content Manager at BizLibrary.

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

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