Perspectives on Content Development | Special Edition 2016

S P E C I A L E D I T I O N I CO N T E N T D E V E LO P M E N T

TO P T RA I NI NG CO M PA NI E S 201 7

perSPECTIVES ON

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT SPECIAL EDITION

BUSINESS

PERSPECTIVES

ON

MANAGING

WORLD-CLASS

TRAINING

CONGRATULATIONS

TOP 20 CONTENT DEVELOPMENT COMPANIES

Check Out Our 2016 Content Development Watch List The Top 20 Content Development Companies are a service provided by Training Industry, Inc. Due to the diversity of services offered, no attempt is made to rank the “Top 20s.”

PERSPECTIVES ON CONTENT DEVELOPMENT - K E N TAY LO R

BEFORE YOU INVEST IN BUILDING THE “THING,” IT DESERVES THE THOUGHTFUL ANALYSIS ON WHAT YOU’RE TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH.

One of the most interesting segments of corporate learning is the custom program or content development space. At Training Industry, we monitor this segment to understand several key elements of the everchanging corporate learning space. This is the segment where we see new programs combining the latest innovations as they are applied to new learning initiatives. This is also where we see the latest thinking in concepts around the use of technology, length and makeup of programs, the evolving role of the instructor, and most importantly, the state of connection between business impact and the introduction of these programs.

In this segment of the market, it’s tempting to focus solely on the shiny things or the latest “gamified microlearning in the cloud."

While they may be excellent strategies for your program, we must be mindful to wait until we collect and understand the goals of the program and how to measure its impact on the business. Before you invest in building the“thing,”it deserves the thoughtful analysis on what you’re trying to accomplish. If we are razor focused on the intended outcome from the training, then we can integrate triggers for our measurement on the impact into the program. This little change can provide you with the data needed to justify the investment in the program, but also establish the kind of dialogue and credibility with your internal customers that you will need for the next “investment discussion.”

At Training Industry, we have been publishing the findings of our annual review of the top companies in custom content development for more than six years now, with our 2016 Top 20 Content Development Companies list publishing in May. These companies are selected based on a thorough review of a detailed submission they make to our selection committee. One of the key areas of focus in that review is innovation. This edition of Training Industry Magazine is a collection of perspectives from these top companies on what to consider when developing your next program or learning initiative.

This issue covers concepts from designing performer-centric learning systems to considerations for a mobile learning experience. We hope you will use this magazine to uncover a few ideas that can change or reinforce your thinking with regards to your content development initiatives. The quality of the perspectives shared in this issue should provide you with some direction that will make a lasting impact on the performance of your company.

As always, we would love to hear your thoughts on the point of views shared in the magazine.

Ken Taylor is editor in chief of Training Industry Magazine and president of Training Industry, Inc. Email Ken.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS F E AT U R E S

10 18 26 32 38

FLIPPED KIRKPATRICK: DESIGNING LEARNING JOURNEYS FOR BUSINESS IMPACT

By Arun Prakash | InfoPro Learning It’s time for organizations to design learning experiences with the end in mind for maximum impact.

BOOST EFFICIENCY AND DO MORE WITH LESS: 5 PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR LEARNING LEADERS

By Paul Meskanick | General Dynamics IT Savvy learning leaders can increase strategic value and achieve high-impact results with fewer resources.

CRITICAL MISTAKE ANALYSIS: CREATING EFFECTIVE HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENCES

By Dr. Gregg Collins | NIIT Design training focused on the skills that cause the most critical mistakes when performed in real life.

DELIVERING CONTENT THAT LIVES UP TO EXPERIENCE

By Phil Antonelli | Conduent Learning Learning leaders are constantly challenged to wrap content in a unique and engaging experience.

DESIGNING PERFORMER-CENTRIC LEARNING SYSTEMS FOR MILLENNIALS, GENERATION Z AND BEYOND

By Matt Donovan & Ann Rollins | GP Strategies Successful companies can engage employees from every generation in their own workplace development.

08

FRONTLINE CAPABILITY BUILDING: AN ELUSIVE DREAM?

14

WHEN GOOD CONTENT BECOMES GREAT

16

DESIGN BETTER, DESIGN BACKWARD

22

CONVERTING MOBILE LEARNING TO HTML5

24

SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL LARGE-SCALE LEARNING PROGRAMS

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By Priya Thiagarajan | Tata Interactive Systems

By Jason Hathaway | CrossKnowledge

By Michael Allen | Allen Interactions

By Pascal Debordes | Cegos

By Erin Krebs | SweetRush

30

SECURE MOBILE LEARNING FOR REAL-TIME PERFORMANCE SUPPORT

36

KEEPING A LID ON CONTENT UNTIL YOU DESIGN

42

ORGANIZATIONAL TENSIONS IN EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING

44

A WINNING APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

By Phil Scheidhauer | Raytheon

By Ashley Reardon | Kineo

By Ron Zamir | AllenComm

By Russ Becker | AchieveForum

CONTENT DEVELOPMENT SPECIAL EDITION

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03 I PERSPECTIVES ON CONTENT DEVELOPMENT

The content development market applies the latest innovations to new learning initiatives.

06 I INFOGRAPHIC

With a focus on innovation, the content development market develops impactful solutions.

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CONTENT DEVELO

THE CONTENT DEVELOPMENT TRAINING MARKET IS EXPERIE

GLOBAL MARKET

$

2.12B

$

NORTH AMERICA

1.67B

REST OF WORLD

$

3.79B

2016 TOTAL INVESTMENT

8%OVER2015 KEY INNOVATIONS

DIGITIZATION OF CONTENT

VIRTUAL/ AUGMENTED REALITY

GAMIFICATION

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MOBILE APPS

BADGING

SOCIAL COLLABORATION

xAPI

LOPMENTMARKET

ENCING GROWTH, WITH STRONG EMPHASIS ON INNOVATION.

SERVICES THAT MAKE UP TYPICAL INITIATIVES

VIDEO

MULTIMEDIA DEVELOPMENT

CURRICULUM DESIGN

CONTENT CONVERSION

CONTENT REFRESHMENT

EVALUATION OF TRAINING

TOP SUBJECT AREAS

WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT

COMPLIANCE/ REGULATORY

ONBOARDING

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

SALES TRAINING

METHOD OF DELIVERY 25%

BLENDED LEARNING

20%

E-LEARNING

17%

INSTRUCTOR-LED FACE-TO-FACE

11%

VIRTUAL INSTRUCTOR-LED

7% 7%

VIDEOS MOBILE LEARNING

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Frontline capability building is emerging as one of the key growth levers of global companies.

They all realize that it is through every transaction carried out by their frontline - where the company meets the customer - that their strategies are primarily executed, values personified and brand image established. According to Chris Zook, a partner in Bain & Company, the secret of “some of the greatest founders of our time” is “the extreme degree to which great founders are obsessed with the front line.”

Yet, a huge gap between intent and implementation exists. In a 2015 survey conducted by McKinsey & Co., only 33 percent of learning and skill development resources are spent on frontline worldwide.

The good news is that this percentage is on the upswing and grew from 22 percent in 2010.

While the growth is an acknowledgement of the importance, frontline training remains a challenge for both L&D professionals and content developers.

CHALLENGES Degrees

FRONTLINE CAPABILITY BUILDING AN ELUSIVE DREAM?

BY PRIYA THIAGARAJAN

of separation.

In large organizations that have national, regional and international footprints, frontline resides at several degrees of separation from even the L&D departments, not to mention top management/decision makers. Often, frontline also belongs to vendor/partner organizations. It is difficult to cut through the operations organization to reach or influence the frontline directly.

Scale of operations. Even for the well-

intentioned training organization, reaching the frontline is made logistically impossible by the sheer scale of operations. Frontline belonging to call centers, back offices, channel partners, feet-on-street and work floor usually is a veritable army running into tens of thousands in numbers in large organizations. How to reach them in a sustained and meaningful manner is a challenge.

Frontline turnover. Turnover makes the

task even more daunting. In many industries, frontline stays on for barely long enough to acquire basic skills. By

the time they go over their learning curve, they are already on the move.

Motivation, engagement and emotional investment seem to be the lowest in this group. This is ironic considering this is the group that personifies the organization to customers.

Technology enablement and training infrastructure. This is another big

obstacle. Interoperable, mobile enabled, and state-of-the-art learning technology may well be a pipe dream for this learner group. We are also noticing that a key issue in mobile-enabling learning is the confusion of who will pay for the device and data plans. Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) might hold some of the answers, but it still seems to be at a conceptual stage.

Think outside-in. Any consideration of

frontline capability building should probably start with the customer experience/journey that you want to offer. When the job description changes from “answering queries” to “giving meaningful brand experience,” the knowledge-skills-attitude matrix changes too. The former requires basic intelligence and communication skills.

The latter would include empathy and empowerment. As the world has seen with Zappos, that makes a lot of difference! Thinking outside-in also impacts the entire value chain—from screening, hiring, training, enablement to rewards and career growth.

L&D cannot work in isolation—HR, brand and business need to integrate in this process.

Return on Investment. ROI of training

remains a problematic entity to establish.

The debate of what delivers frontline performance—operational controls (KPIs, SLAs, on-the-floor-supervision, etc.) or training—rages on and is a difficult one to decide. What we do know is that as long as training interventions are treated as discrete events (induction, refresher, mandatory programs) and not as a lifelong employee capability building endeavor, it would be difficult to establish tangible impact. Capability building needs to be viewed as a system and designed as one for sustained and measurable results.

While all these remain largely operational challenges, there are specific challenges faced by content developers as well.

WHAT MAKES STICKY CONTENT? One of the dangers of frontline content development is the temptation of defining the target audience in the broadest of terms—we often design for a “typical” profile: certain educational profile, background, experience and job role. Considering a lot of this content (in global organizations) is used by frontline in different countries, such “typical” approximations are probably incorrect.

Given these challenges, let’ look at some tips that can make training design and implementation achievable and meaningful for frontline.

A HUGE GAP BETWEEN INTENT AND IMPLEMENTATION EXISTS FOR FRONTLINE TRAINING. Think learning curve. Many organizations

think of training as events. They happen discretely with varying frequencies for different audience. There is no connectivity between these events and no after-training support. This leads to either partial learning or complete forgetting. Instead, organizations can think of learning curves. Use a blend of formal learning and knowledge management to have training and information at arm’s reach for the frontline. Support them with the right information while they are executing.

Build an expert system; create decision trees. Put them through regular refreshers and knowledge top-ups. Hand hold them up their learning curve by creating learning and career paths.

Think personas. One size does not fit

all. It never has—a median, “typical” profile is a fallacy. It makes more sense to do periodic frontline surveys/focus groups with supervisors to understand what are the four or five personas that comprise the organization’s frontline.

If these personas are categorized by departments/desks/processes, it becomes more useful. Then design content for these personas—you will probably cover a wider swathe of your audience. Try and include different styles of learning, such as visual, auditory and kinesthetic (VAK), as much as time and budgets would allow.

Think emotional connect. Given the degrees

of separation, scale and rapid turnover, it often becomes difficult to establish a sense of belonging with the frontline.

However, this becomes a critical element in creating an engaged, capable frontline. While the organization can take many steps to create this, training plays an important role too. Reserve some part of the induction training to establish brand connect. Deconstruct brand position, emotion and values for the frontline by giving them training on how this can be brought to life by their actions. Collect stories of best practices and make them available on the knowledge management network.

Think social. People usually only think

of leaderboards and discussion boards when they say social learning. But that is just scratching the surface of social learning. L&D departments can reduce a great deal of burden on themselves by promoting crowdsourcing content.

Help your frontline share thoughts and tips through videos. Put them through a workflow to check for content appropriateness and put them up on your internal social network.

Gamify the experience by giving badges and points.

Frontline capability building is tough, but some creative thinking can make it meaningful and useful.

Priya Thiagarajan is the vice president of learning design at Tata Interactive Systems.

Email Priya.

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BY ARUN PRAKASH

FLIPPED KIRKPATRICK DESIGNING LEARNING JOURNEYS FOR BUSINESS IMPACT

ONLY 5 PERCENT OF LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT (L&D) ORGANIZATIONS EXCEL AT USING DATA TO ALIGN LEARNING WITH BUSINESS, ACCORDING TO A RECENT BERSIN REPORT, AND 59 PERCENT HAVE TROUBLE CONNECTING LEARNING WITH BUSINESS OUTCOMES. AND IF YOU TAKE A CLOSER LOOK, IN THOSE 5 PERCENT OF CASES WHERE L&D IS ALIGNED WITH BUSINESS OUTCOMES, THEY WORK WITH THE BUSINESS TO SOLVE BUSINESS PROBLEMS.

ASKING THE RIGHT QUESTIONS Learning leaders need to stop taking questions about the ROI of their training programs – because that is the wrong question! Not just because you cannot always measure the intangible performance parameters of a business, but, more importantly, because learning leaders should be the ones asking the questions – difficult, uncomfortable questions to the business about what their objectives are and how they plan to achieve them. This will help the business identify tangible metrics for milestones, knowledge and skills, which then culminate to become business goals.

For example, to the sales head, you should ask questions about the campaigns they plan to run to meet their targets, what metrics they use to demonstrate that their sales team has the required knowledge, skills and processes to achieve targets, how they are planning to mitigate risks, and how they plan to course correct if their team does not perform at the required level.

WHAT MATTERS MOST IS TRAINING’S IMPACT ON BUSINESS GOALS.

These types of questions require the business to consult with learning and development to meet their targets, not just tell L&D what training they need. These questions will also help learning leaders design the right learning interventions and journeys (not necessarily training programs), pace them out in the right way, and derive the right business analytics to ensure that the business succeeds.

Interestingly, these questions sometimes

reveal that a learning intervention may not be the right solution to achieve the targets, and perhaps the business leader needs to look at other alternative avenues.

INCLUDE A BUSINESS PLAN Your learning plans should include a business plan and business impact goals.

Only 19 percent of L&D organizations have a business plan and only 35 percent list business impact goals in those plans, according to the same Bersin report.

The right questions will help you make a business plan, list the impact goals and work out a learning plan from those goals.

But, here’s the problem: Businesses are not letting you ask the right questions.

GETTING A SEAT AT THE TABLE Businesses are generally unreceptive to questions from L&D in part because they don’t think you have an appreciation of their business since you were not part of the business’s goal setting or strategizing sessions, and because you have not demonstrated a process or result that gives them confidence that you can help them achieve their goal (22 percent of L&D departments rarely or never track progress toward any strategic initiatives).

In other words, because you don’t have a seat at the table.

Analyzing all the reasons behind why L&D does not have a seat at the business table is an entire article of its own, but a lot of it has to do with the genesis of L&D and HR. In most businesses, the L&D organization is just a part of the HR organization and is a support establishment for the business and not considered part of the business.

While this separation is disappearing for HR as leaders are realizing the value of the HR department, the L&D department still has yet to make this transition.

That said, there are organizations out there that have successfully isolated the L&D organization as a separate department and are being seen as a competitive advantage. These L&D departments are doing at least five things differently:

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1. They consider themselves “performance consultants.” They do not treat themselves as a learning arm of the business, but as consultants to the business to help them achieve their goals by improving employee performance.

2. They associate themselves with the business. They are not reactive to the business’s training requests, but proactive partners to the business in maneuvering through business realities and finding solutions to achieve performance goals.

3. They start with the end in mind. They focus on the business metrics that define the existence of the business and the behavioral changes they need to instigate in employees to achieve desired business results, and work backward in arriving at the learning journey.

4. They do not get constricted with any one form of training. They do not see training as an event, but look at it as a learning journey to achieve behavioral changes in employees, thus directly impacting their performance and hence ROI. 5.They measure business outcomes. They put all their energy into focusing on business outcomes as the measure of success, and consider individual measures for training/ learning interventions incidental.

Five things can be hard to remember, so let’s simplify these points by saying: They

flip the Kirkpatrick Model™ on its head, and start with trying to impact business results.

FLIPPED KIRKPATRICK In its simplistic form, the Kirkpatrick Model evaluates the effectiveness of any type of training, formal or informal, across four levels: Level 1 (Reaction): Evaluates the learners’ response to training Level 2 (Learning): Measures the learning from the material Level 3 (Behavior): Considers if learners are applying what they learned in the training on the job

• Only 5% of L&D organizations excel at using data to align with business • 59% have trouble connecting learning experiences with business outcomes • Only 35% list business impact goals in their plans • 19% have no business plan • 22% rarely or never track progress toward strategic initiatives Source: Bersin by Deloitte

Level 4 (Results): Evaluates the impact of training on the organization (or the ROI)

now creating a learning journey to impact business metrics.

By flipping the Kirkpatrick Model, you start by baselining direct evidence of what the learning program can do for the business (improving NPS, decreasing sales cycles, etc.), which takes the discussion closer to business goals and in a language that the business can understand. Your efforts, budgets and schedules are now aligned to business metrics and you start evaluating at Level 4.

This journey may contain multiple learning interventions apart from classroom or e-learning programs, like workshops, videos, job aids, coaching, simulations, electronic performance systems, collaborative networks, etc. You now design it considering the constraints of the business and you make it available to the audience most likely to engage with it, thus increasing the success rate of adoption.

This leads to treating learning as a journey instead of an event, making continuous improvement in your learning program possible. Instead of creating classroom training or e-learning programs, you are

But, why is that not what we are doing now?

While the outputs may look similar to what we are designing for today, a closer look would establish that they are fundamentally different in their approach. (See Figure 1.)

LEARNING FOR IMPACT

FIGURE 1

NEW LEARNING JOURNEY

OLD TRAINING INTERVENTION

Aligned to business goals and metrics Designed to improve performance of specific audience Aligned to work with learner and workplace demographics Demonstrates ROI – the same ROI that the business would report

Aligned to perceived training needs Designed to transfer knowledge and skills with little emphasis on metrics Restricted to traditional ways of formal training – in form and delivery Difficult to demonstrate ROI and attribute bahavioral changes to training

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THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN L&D AND BUSINESS

In the corporate world, training effectiveness should not be measured and attempts to do so are time consuming and irrelevant for the business. What matters most is training’s impact on business goals. What can be measured, and what businesses will have no problem allocating time or budget for, are metrics important to the business – Level 4 of the Kirkpatrick Model.

Most businesses have no interest in spending the time and money in evaluating training programs at Level 1 because determining how satisfied learners are with content styles is nearly impossible to tie back to an increase in sales. It’s time for us to flip the Kirkpatrick Model on its head and start spending with the end in mind. It’s time to design learning journeys for business impact.

Arun Prakash is the chief learning architect at InfoPro Learning. Email Arun.

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WHEN GOOD CONTENT BECOMES GREAT

THE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM

BY JASON HATHAWAY In the digital world, content is king. Social networks like Facebook attract millions of users daily who tune in to discover new content and interact. Content is sexy, it is ubiquitous, entertaining, inspiring, engaging and most often available in short, easy-to-digest “nuggets.�

In addition, content has become democratic: Anyone can broadcast personal expertise and points of view to the world in just seconds.

Content has become visually appealing, keeping with trends and advances in graphic design. In some cases, content is interactive, thanks to branching technologies and integrating quick links to other content. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, content is now primarily mobile, available anywhere, at any time and on any device. And these characteristics now define what excellent content means.

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For the training industry, the importance of providing excellent content to learners is no longer a nice-to-have.

Through frequent use of internet and various social networks in their personal lives, contemporary corporate audiences have acquired high expectations for content they encounter in their company’s training programs. Falling short of these expectations can often result in plummeting engagement and deteriorated motivation to learn, and even jeopardize completion, notably if the training initiative is not mandatory.

As a consequence, industry experts have recently underlined the growing importance of content, encouraging L&D professionals to think resources and not courses, especially if they want to motivate and engage their learners. However, while designing and producing high-quality content for training purposes is indispensable, the importance of content in the learning process tends to be somewhat overrated and its role often misunderstood.

IDENTIFYING CONTEXT It is crucial to identify the context in which content is utilized. To do so, one must distinguish between two specific and often confused needs: the need for information and the need for training.

The first requires a robust reference tool while the second requires a strategic learning solution. While the content itself can actually remain the same in both situations, the ways in which it is delivered to the learner are means to very different ends: The primary purpose of a reference tool is to provide quick reminders or bursts for just-in-time needs, whereas a training solution seeks to create sustainable skills acquisition.

Therefore, determining the purpose content should serve and which outcome it should create is paramount to creating successful training initiatives. Defining a smart rollout strategy that both facilitates content consumption while providing contextualization also participates in the overall success of the training.

DEFINING OUTCOMES It is essential to define the learning outcome for a given piece of content and choose its format accordingly.

The unbridled success of YouTube has certainly positioned video as the medium of choice. As a consequence, video often overshadows alternative media. While the benefits of video as a medium are well-known, concentrating only on video does not contribute to creating a diversified learning experience and does not explicitly prompt experiential learning – the building of skills through action and experience.

In addition, video as a pedagogical tool often relies on learning through observation, which has proven to be less effective for deep reasoning/behavioral skills than other more social, actionbased approaches. Recalling Bloom’s Taxonomy also illustrates the reduced scope of concentrating on informative/ demonstrative content alone, as learning strategies should also target higher orders of the taxonomy to incite learners to put those skills into practice.

Video, therefore, may not systematically be the best medium to achieve the desired learning outcome. It is essential to harness the full spectrum of content types that will contribute to creating a meaningful learning experience: polls, drills/quizzes, open questions, exercises, discussions, summary sheets, etc.

MAKING CONTENT SOCIAL Video content is not social by nature, insofar as the viewer (or learner) risks remaining passive and isolated in front of a screen. If “learning is an active process of constructing rather than acquiring knowledge, and instruction is a process of supporting that construction rather than communicating knowledge” what are the implications of this declaration in an era where video is undeniably the preferred medium?

In a social learning context, perhaps

video use should consciously deviate from the “presentational paradigm” which consists in simply transmitting knowledge. Video content can also become an “affordance or tool for a wide range of active learning strategies which engage the learner in the construction of their own knowledge.” Several studies have identified learner-generated content as a “valuable transformative tool for learners.” Adding a social component to this strategy is key since “[adults] especially learn by interacting with peers to acquire new knowledge and skills.”

there is also a lot of human interaction happening. Along with the content, these two additional elements combine to create an ecosystem that generates engagement and growth. In this way, the learner is like a plant that needs soil (i.e., a platform) to anchor its roots, water (i.e., content) and light (i.e., human interaction) to grow. L&D professionals who wish to generate lasting changes in behaviors therefore must strive to create a similar ecosystem composed of three elements: 1) media-diverse, top-quality content, 2) human interaction, and 3) technology that allows it all to happen.

ORGANIZING CONTENT The “nuggetization” of learning content has changed the face of time management in digital learning. Of course, providing short, frequent, mobile easy-to-digest bursts of learning offer unparalleled benefits for contemporary, on-the-go learners. But what about more complex skills that cannot be learned in three, five or even 60 minutes? Some concepts, whether hard or soft skills, need to be acquired and assimilated over time in successive and organized touchpoints. Defining a metastrategy in which various nuggets are assembled to serve deep skills acquisition is key for successful training initiatives. Yes, providing attractive and engaging content is important, but even more so is how that content is organized and how it ultimately serves a higher learning goal. Organizing nuggets in a longer training path may actually be the most logical choice.

THE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM The case of Facebook can serve as a compelling illustration for effective uses of content. While most users may think their frequent connections are fueled only by an addiction to new content, there are also other dynamics at work that keep bringing them back: not only is there a technological platform but

CORPORATE AUDIENCES HAVE ACQUIRED HIGH EXPECTATIONS FOR TRAINING CONTENT. Such an ecosystem will become a learning solution that provides a meaningful and engaging learning experience. Once such an ecosystem is designed and put into place, the organization can then begin to measure the skills acquisition through KPIs that not only prove training impacts on individual and team development, but also prove the transformative effects on the organization and the business. KPIs such as these that establish a direct link between learning and business stakes can only be collected and measured in an integrated learning ecosystem; by creating such an ecosystem, organizations can go beyond traditional completion level measurements to demonstrate the real value of learning and development.

Jason Hathaway is the director of content and learning solutions at CrossKnowledge.

Email Jason.

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By Michael Allen effective to provide initial content in the form of help and guidance within active learning events. If we start at the elementary level, we may underestimate what we can teach better in the context of targeted performance skills.

DESIGN BETTER DESIGN BACKWARD

IT’S IMPORTANT NOT TO COMPROMISE WHERE CRITICAL LEARNING REQUIRES OUR BEST EFFORTS. Finally, it’s easy to bore learners with meticulous presentations of content they already know. It’s also easy to underestimate what learners already know and can do. We might discover that some of the groundwork that we were anxious to lay isn’t necessary at all and would have consumed precious learning time while boring some of our learners.

JUMP AHEAD

SELDOM DO E‑LEARNING DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS, OR ANY INSTRUCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS FOR THAT MATTER, INCLUDE ALL THE TIME AND BUDGET WE’D LIKE. COMPROMISES ARE THE NAME OF THE GAME, SO IT’S IMPORTANT TO MAKE COMPROMISES IN THE RIGHT PLACES: WHERE DOING LESS THAN WE’D LIKE WON’T MAKE MUCH DIFFERENCE. THE TYPICAL APPROACH We typically design and build projects beginning with foundational content, such as basic facts and concepts. We design the most elementary material first to address all members of the target learner group, and we select content with the expectation that all learners will be able to understand the content at that level if they don’t already have a full grasp of it. Design then marches forward in the path that learners will follow, from the simplest content and required skills to the most advanced.

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This intuitive design approach makes sense, but it actually has serious disadvantages. First, in the creative excitement at the beginning of a project, it’s common to spend too much of the project’s resources on the simplest content. What’s left for dealing with the most challenging and important content will be insufficient. It’s important not to compromise where critical learning requires our best efforts.

Since facts and concepts make the most sense when learners apply them, it can be both easier and more

In every project, the first question should be, “What do we want our learners to do after their training that they’re not doing now?” Of course, we also need to determine why they’re not doing it to be sure that the reason is that they don’t know how or lack necessary skills. If there are roadblocks such as inadequate tools, insufficient time or incentives to do something else, then training won’t make much, if any, difference on its own.

If the cause of poor performance is determined to be lack of knowledge and skills, then you need a clear description of the behaviors learners need to perform after their training. Then, make sure they can demonstrate the required behavior and practice it to perfection before their training is complete.

THE LAST LESSON The targeted performance is where you should start designing your course. How can you get learners to demonstrate their proficiency? If desired performance

means handling a variety of situations, put learners in a variety of representative situations as they practice. If speed is important, learners should perform at or better than the speed needed on the job.

If learners will be expected to detect and correct their errors without help, they should demonstrate doing so in their final exercises.

The final lesson should offer the best representation of the situations or contexts in which learners are expected to perform successfully. Learners should have plenty of opportunities to make mistakes, especially the mistakes employees often make on the job. They should have the same support, options and recovery methods that they’ll actually have on the job. In short, their last lesson should be the most authentic performance environment you can offer on your chosen delivery platform. Since building an authentic performance environment may tax your energy, creativity and resources, this activity is where you should start.

Don’t compromise in this area. It’s better to be restricted to fewer interactive learning activities for the basics than to be unable to provide authentic practice activities at the conclusion of training.

STEP BACK LAST LESSON MINUS 1 Once you’ve created an authentic performance environment that allows learners to perform as targeted, you can also use this structure to help them

develop the skills they need for the last lesson. In the second-to-last lesson in the course, make sure help will appear in response to either learner errors or the learner’s request for help. At this point, you’ve brought all of the course content together to prepare learners for the last lesson. You’re expecting that, after this lesson, learners will be able to complete the final lesson without difficulty.

LAST LESSON MINUS 2, 3, 4…

Continuing to work backward, you can now define component behaviors that work either sequentially or in combination in the targeted performance. You can use each cluster of behaviors, and eventually each component behavior, as the basis for lessons prerequisite to “Last Lesson Minus 2” and/or for each other.

KEEP GOING The process continues until time and money are running out, or, hopefully, you have covered sufficient content.

Using this approach, it’s likely that you have covered more content in fewer lessons than you initially thought were necessary. Providing learners with help as you ask them to perform components of the final tasks can ensure that the course covers all the content they need.

Instead of the context-free, “Trust me, you’ll eventually see why all of this is important,” when learners receive content as help, they easily understand why it’s important and internalize it more readily.

THE LAST LESSON SHOULD BE THE MOST AUTHENTIC PERFORMANCE ENVIRONMENT YOU CAN OFFER. CHECK IT OUT As we continue to back up, the goal is to provide an entry point that works well for all learners. The only way to stop at the most opportune time – no more elementary than necessary but far enough that all learners will engage comfortably – is to test the course with real learners. You’ll need a group of employees with varying backgrounds and then more, if initial testing reveals the need to add a lesson or two.

It’s wise to test early. By designing a great final learning and practice activity and then providing a few learning exercises to prepare learners for it, you may find that you don’t need to do much more. If you do, by testing the course with learners, you’ll know exactly what you need to address. You might be surprised by what you do and don’t need to include.

Michael Allen, CEO and chairman of Allen Interactions, has nearly 45 years of professional, academic and corporate experience in teaching, developing and marketing interactive learning and performance support systems. Email Michael.

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BOOST EFFICIENCY AND DO MORE WITH LESS

Today’s business landscape includes mergers and acquisitions, financial downturns and structural realignments (among other challenges), which can create downward pressures that ultimately reach learning groups. While these pressures can affect the entire organization, they often result in direct cutbacks and consolidations in the learning function. Savvy learning leaders can leverage these situations to increase strategic value and become more closely aligned with business priorities by doing more with less. This article highlights five areas where learning leaders can achieve high-impact results with fewer resources.

1| Invest wisely.

Training not aligned to business results or strategic imperatives is often seen as a cost to the business and is more likely to be subject to cutbacks. Conversely, training that demonstrates results and is closely aligned with the organization’s priorities is viewed as an investment in the business and is a candidate for further resourcing. While training managers are only one stakeholder with input on which projects are adopted and supported, there are often many opportunities to set priorities and provide guidance on where investments should be made.

PRACTICAL IDEAS FOR LEARNING LEADERS

BY PAUL MESKANICK, M.B.A.

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Investing wisely begins with becoming well-versed in the organization’s strategic direction. This knowledge must evolve, based on leadership changes, acquisitions, technological innovations and more.

Staying aligned with these priorities is the starting point for any investment case. Meeting with line of business heads and other key stakeholders to understand functional priorities can help round out the strategy starting point at a more tangible and project-focused level. This approach provides the basis for formulating learning strategies, project plans, timelines, budgets, resources and organizational structures.

Here are some key questions for consideration: • Is the learning organization optimally configured with the right mix of skills and number of resources to support its agenda?

• If internal clients demand a largescope project that you assess to be superfluous to the business need, are you well-positioned and ready to make a case for a “rightsized solution”?

• For custom projects, have you carefully considered the pros and cons of executing them with current internal resources versus a vendor work-for-hire engagement versus staff augmentation?

2| Is it productive work or busywork?

This consideration takes the “invest wisely” point to a granular level. How and where do learning leaders and their staff invest their time? When used wisely, time becomes a source of competitive advantage. With this in mind, high levels of activity do not always predicate high levels of results.

There are two important questions to ask: Am I focusing on projects and tasks that align with business priorities, and am I performing projects and tasks in the most efficient manner?

A job task analysis performed by General Dynamics IT for a client proved this point.

The analysis of a salesperson role revealed that master performers consistently at or above quota spent approximately 80 percent of their time and effort on activities that led to increased and expanded sales, and only 20 percent of their time on administrative or other non-core sales tasks. For salespersons with below quota sales performance, the numbers were virtually flipped. Both groups were busy, but one focused their energy where it yielded the greatest return.

Efficiency depends on a number of factors: planning and organizing the work, identifying and weeding out inefficiencies, matching level of effort with expected returns, maintaining focus, managing time, quality-assuring work product, and concentrating on end goals and results.

Adopting the right attitude to achieve high levels of productivity not only takes time and practice but a realistic assessment of where one’s mindset may need to shift. Table 1 shows the distinction between busyness and productivity select workplace mindsets.

SAVVY LEARNING LEADERS CAN INCREASE STRATEGIC VALUE AND BECOME MORE ALIGNED WITH BUSINESS PRIORITIES BY DOING MORE WITH LESS. 3| Rethink learning.

Old habits can be hard to break, but breaking outmoded ones can help achieve success with fewer resources.

Whether it’s the learning group saying “we’ve always done it that way,” or the

TABLE 1

MINDSET

BUSY

PRODUCTIVE

Orientation Projection Work/Results Expectation Response Status Quo Level of Effort Thinking Quality Task Response

Activity Busyness/talk More work/more results Reactive Accepts Constant “In the weeds” Quality control (at the end) Always says “yes”

Results Accomplishment/act Improved work/better results Thoughtful Challenges when appropriate Matched to outcome/expected return “Big picture” Quality assurance (throughout) Sometimes says “no”

internal client indicating “we expect it that way,” failing to challenge the status quo, when appropriate, can have consequences: becoming predictable, losing the innovation edge, falling behind technologically and missing opportunities. It can also result in lost efficiencies, with projects taking more time and resources than they should and that the organization can afford.

How is the learning organization thought of in the broader context? As “order taker” that develops training or as a “trusted partner” that helps to move the needle on performance? When the focus is on performance, it naturally challenges the team to be a catalyst for improving the end product, which can stimulate newfound ideas to create learning that is better, faster and more cost efficient.

One such approach involves analysis.

Analysis efforts often face criticism for being time consuming, costing too much, and not always yielding actionable and practical recommendations. When performed properly, however, they can be very manageable and provide roadmaps for rapidly and more costefficiently developing instructionally sound learning. For example, Rapid Instructional Systems Design (RISD) reengineers the analysis and design process by gathering all key stakeholders together, brainstorming approaches, outlining a solution arrived at through consensus and quickly documenting the outcome. In our experience, RISD results include: • Cutting design time by up to half • Identifying gaps earlier in process • Improving risk mitigation planning • Delivering high-impact information with minimal investment and time • Reducing rework Pushing the envelope on new methods not only can result in improved learning outcomes, but also more productive means to create them.

Here are some key questions for consideration: • Does the learning organization have the performance consulting skills needed to effectively conduct front-end analysis and back-end evaluation?

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BREAKING OUTMODED HABITS CAN HELP ACHIEVE SUCCESS WITH FEWER RESOURCES. • What efforts are being made to sharpen the skills of the learning organization (e.g., dedicated R&D, joining a learning consortium, participating in leading industry events such as TICE)?

• Have new approaches (e.g., modified ADDIE, virtual instructor-led training, performance support tools) been considered to support business needs?

4| Rightsize learning.

Investing time wisely has two connotations for the learning organization: Is it investing its own time wisely, and is it developing products that maximize learning efficiency?

In the past, a “bigger is better” mindset prevailed. Today, it is “less is more.” Common user complaints of training that isn’t optimized include: • Attending training where only a fraction of content is relevant • Retraining on mastered subject matter • Taking courses that are too long • Unrealistic/unmanageable learning paths Whether because of faulty maintenance, past acceptance of bloated curriculums or lack of sound modularization, a nonoptimized curriculum that is left untreated

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can create resounding negative impacts on the learning experience, but also on critical skill acquisition and behavior change. Fortunately, there are a number of approaches to improving non-optimized learning, including: Microlearning: Integrating five- to 10-minute chunks of discrete learning on focused topics allows learners to get exactly what they need, when they need it, without having to take a long course.

Slimmed Courses: Reassessing legacy e-learning content with fresh perspectives can often reduce course size by as much as 33 to 50 percent. Focusing on need-toknow content, keeping it performancebased and pulling out content that can be used in a support role (i.e., job aids) are all ways to “rightsize” courses while maintaining instructional effectiveness.

Of course, any new development should apply the same stringent standards for determining which content is included and how to most effectively treat it.

Adaptive Learning: Incorporating a means to assess a learner’s prior knowledge and skills, whether by creating custom training paths or providing opportunities to test out of training, can often result in an improved learner experience and significant learning efficiencies.

Reassess Learning Paths: Is the current curriculum “overstuffed”? Is it meeting business needs? Are learners satisfied with it or do they complain? While a curriculum analysis requires dedicated resources and time, when properly conducted it can set the stage for more targeted, succinct learning paths while also paying dividends for future courseware maintenance.

5| Drive Value of Partner Relationships.

Selecting the right partner begins with a thorough and objective assessment of need. For example, what specific functionality do you require from your learning management system (LMS) and why? There are many LMS solutions on the market offering a broad range of functionality, industry specificity and price points. Documenting your organization’s specific requirements is the starting point for objective assessment of needs.

Here are some consideration:

key

questions

for

• How well does the provider understand your organization’s challenges and your industry?

• Are they consultative in their approach and willing to deliver candid answers, even if they aren’t the ones you want to hear?

• Are they responsive, ready, willing and able to assist when needed?

• Do they manage time well and respect your time and that of your stakeholders?

• Are they willing to make small changes in scope without fees, or do all requests include an upcharge?

• Do they conduct themselves with professionalism and integrity in all their interactions?

Doing more with less is both a challenge and a trend for learning professionals in today’s business climate. With openness to change and a plan to address areas where critical productivity gains can be made, the challenge can be met successfully.

Paul Meskanick, M.B.A., with over 20 years’ experience in the learning sector, is manager of business development for General Dynamics Information Technology (IT), a leading provider of custom learning solutions skilled across a broad range of industries, content, audiences and modalities. Email Paul.

TIPS FOR ONBOARDING LEARNING PARTNERS • Conduct online research to become educated on solution features and benefits as well as the experiences of other customers.

• Plan to interview and check references for three providers.

• Work with procurement departments, but ensure the learning organization drives selection criteria, which should be balanced and not heavily slanted to price.

• Become fully educated on relevant terms and conditions that affect your purchases.

In August 2016, Google announced, “Going forward, Chrome will deemphasize Flash in favor of HTML5.

Here’s what that means for you. Today, more than 90% of Flash on the web loads behind the scenes to support things such as page analytics. This kind of Flash slows you down, and starting this September, Chrome 53 will begin to block it.”

<!doctype html> <html lang="en"> <head> <meta charset="utf-8"> <title>The Journey</title> <meta name="description" content="The Journey"> <meta name="author" content="SitePoint"> <link rel="stylesheet"

Many companies are taking the sometimes complex and challenging pedagogical and technical journey from Flash to HTML5. Here’s some advice on how to handle this conversion and use it as an opportunity to transform learning.

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SEISMIC MOBILE LEARNING SHIFT

</html>

< CONVERTING

MOBILE LEARNING TO HTML5

<

A Pedagogical and Technical Journey

BY PASCAL DEBORDES

The appetite for mobile learning is growing.

Revenues in this sector are forecasted to reach $2.1 billion by 2019. But how well does mobile learning work on tablets and smartphones, and how can learning and development professionals improve the mobile learning experience? As Adobe Flash technology is increasingly superseded, many training professionals face a major challenge in converting outdated Flash content to HTML5 content, which enables effective mobile learning.

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Replacing Flash-based learning content with HTML5 is not simply a technical exercise; it is a major technological shift demanding an entirely fresh approach to content design and delivery. These days, learners expect to access learning content on tablets rather than cumbersome laptops. HTML5-based learning content is mandatory to reach those learners.

For many years, Flash was the only way to enable rich audio and video content on the web, and it is still widely used. In the mobile space, however, device providers and manufacturers have opted for HTML5 as the future. HTML5 video content is easier on battery life than Flash and supports on-demand and live video streaming sources effectively.

If training content providers simply convert their Flash courses to HTML5 with no adaptation and no adjustments, they will lose a valuable opportunity. Whether Flash content was designed 10 or even three years ago, this conversion is a chance to

review pedagogy and redesign and rethink content, taking into account the new expectations of learners.

Here are five tips to make mobile learning relevant to learners in your organization. < 1 > TIME LIMITS

Set a 20-minute maximum for learning modules. Ten years ago, the duration of a typical e-learning module was up to one and a half hours. Five years ago, it was 30 to 45 minutes. Current thinking is that mobile learning is most effective in 20-minute chunks.

This time limit reflects the reality of tablet use; learners spend less time on tablets than they do on laptops or desktop computers. Learners accessing content on the go often do not have the capacity to spend more than 20 minutes on that content. In fact, it’s a good idea for content designers to split each 20-minute unit into five-minute segments, enabling learners to dip in and out of the module to suit their working pattern.

Converting content to HTML5 demands an entirely fresh approach to content design and delivery. < 2 > SMARTPHONE CONSIDERATIONS

Do not use smartphones for learning experiences exceeding five minutes.

The benefit of using smartphones for learning delivery is that most people have one. However, their small screen size limits the interactivity that is key to effective learning. It’s difficult to translate features that work well on a

tablet, such as drag-and-drop or clicking on elements, to a phone. < 3 > INTERACTIVITY

When designing new HTML5 content for tablets, introduce more opportunities for interactivity. Learners value high levels of interactivity. The more users

that enables “swipe” interactions. However, it is only possible to tap into this feature if no one will be using the learning module on a computer. Another tablet feature is the ability to view content in portrait or landscape, and some content providers develop a “magic square” approach that works well in either. When developing

Best in Class

< The potential of mobile learning

interact with learning content, the more effective the learning process is. Tablets lend themselves well to interactivity and activities such as quizzes and “click-andreveal” interactions, which allow learners to drill down from the initial screen to answer questions and discover more information. < 4 > VIDEOS

Use videos with care. In a YouTube world, the use of video for training is growing.

Videos can be a great training aid to help learners visualize situations. However, watching a video is a passive experience at best and, at worst, a distraction to learners, who may be sidetracked by anything from a representation of an unfamiliar culture to a character’s passing resemblance to a friend or relative.

Embedding video within training modules makes localization or customization more difficult as well.

Some training suppliers simply provide subtitles or dubbing for different markets. However, subtitles do little to cross the cultural barrier for a learner in Brazil, Singapore or Dubai viewing a training video made in the U.S. It may be more realistic to consider creating a new illustration for each region rather than reshooting entire videos. < 5 > NAVIGATION

Tailor navigation to work well on tablets.

The biggest difference between a tablet and most computers is the touchscreen

<

technology to deliver effective learning is evolving all the time.

tablet content, it’s also important to provide a global overview of the content at all times. Feedback from users indicates that they appreciate being able to understand the context of each module and their progress.

The potential of mobile learning technology to deliver effective learning is evolving all the time. Once-futuristic technologies such as virtual reality are becoming mainstream. HTML5 will also underpin richer learning experiences by making it easier for mobile learning content providers to offer complementary bolt-on modules that include anything from expert interview videos to assessment modules.

These features are particularly important when it comes to delivering training and development in soft skills. There is a growing recognition of the importance of soft skills to the success of an organization, alongside a perception that it may be too challenging to deliver this type of learning on a mobile device.

However, in the interactive world of HTML5-powered tablet learning delivery, it’s not only possible – it’s already delivering successful results.

B E YO N D K N O W LE D G E B E YO N D KNOWLEDGE

www.cegos.com

Pascal Debordes is the director of global channels and alliances at Cegos, one of the world’s top providers of professional and continuing education. Email Pascal.

youtu.be/9LIIuMhIKrc www.cegos.com

youtu.be/9LIIuMhIKrc

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13/12/2016 16:1

SECRETS OF SUCCESSFUL LARGE-SCALE LEARNING PROGRAMS

BY ERIN KREBS The day has finally come. After years of long hours and hard work building expertise and trust, you have the green light on a career-defining opportunity: you’ve been tasked with developing a mission-critical, large-scale learning program.

The stakes are high, and so is the budget. Senior management and stakeholders have a deeply vested interest. All eyes are on you and the project’s success. You’re psyched, ecstatic and a bit terrified.

And, the learning and development game has changed. There are new technologies and tools to leverage and learners expect higher levels of polish and engagement.

You’ll need to embrace a variety of techniques, including e-learning, live and virtual classrooms, games, mobile, video, marketing materials, support apps, and social media elements. These are exciting and challenging times to be embarking on a complex development and rollout.

learners, a brand builds anticipation (in combination with the next secret). For stakeholders, associating a name and image with the program makes it real and tangible. For your team, it forges them together as a unit, working together on an important initiative.

But you’re a pro. You know instructional theory forward and backward and you’ve produced smaller but significant programs. Let’s not rehash the basics — obvious things, like choosing the right vendor — but rather hone in on the things that you’re not necessarily thinking about.

You’re getting married, but the date is months away. How do you build excitement in advance, helping them visualize that something special is coming? You send an elegant “save the date” card, maybe with a picture of the location. For this same reason, smart marketers release movie trailers months in advance of opening night.

SECRET #1

Your program needs a brand.

Think about a kid’s soccer team. Without a team name or a cool logo, it’s just a bunch of kids kicking a ball around a field.

The moment you give them an identity is when they truly become a team, banded together and working toward a common goal. They are more connected and invested in each other and their collective purpose: winning the game.

Bring your learning program to life! Give it its own unique identity: establish a brand, program personality and logo.

Your brand will impact your three most important constituents: your learners, your stakeholders and your team. For

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SECRET #2

Appease your stakeholders, build anticipation, and buy yourself time.

Your large-scale learning program also needs to be marketed in advance.

Why? Significant time and effort is needed upfront to design the entire, holistic solution and build the tools and templates necessary to work efficiently once development begins. But your stakeholders are nervous … what do they know, or care, about the learning and development process? They want to feel something is happening. All they know is that their budget is being spent.

You’ve developed the logo, now deliver a teaser video or a program marketing event.

Done well, it will put your stakeholders at ease and boost their confidence in

DESIGN COMPONENTS THAT PUSH THE ENVELOPE IN CREATIVE, INTERESTING WAYS. the program. Share it with your learners to build excitement and generate anticipation for what’s coming. And it will make your team proud. Everyone feels good, and you’ve bought time to focus on the other 90 percent of the work.

One organization implemented this secret and the video went viral within the company, all the way up to the C-team. Talk about building momentum and excitement.

SECRET #3

You have the opportunity to set a new bar for training in your organization – go for it.

Any learner can slog through a boring, one-hour training module. But what about hours of training that will be taken over months or years? Boring training is a non-starter. You’ve got the budget and mandate, and done right, your program can lift learning and development for the entire company. You’re not just setting a new bar — you’re creating one.

So, go for it.

This is your opportunity to design components that push the envelope in creative, interesting ways that get your learners excited, even eager for the next course. Think of innovative, multidimensional ways to ensure your learners are as excited and engaged on course fifteen as they were on course one.

Speak to your learners in a relevant way.

Appeal to what’s in it for them (intrinsic motivation), and provide appropriate

incentives (extrinsic motivation). Use all the creative tricks in your learning and development tool chest: gamification, video, etc.

Large-scale initiatives are often undertaken to revamp older, outdated programs. Leveraging the tools now available — such as microlearning, nano-learning, or social learning — seat time can often be reduced. Combine that with higher engagement and better results, and you have significantly increased ROI, setting a new standard for the value of learning and development within your organization.

If your program has created a buzz, your stakeholders are happy, and your learners are hungry for the next installment, then you’ve done something right. Quick example: A recent large-scale program included a “gamified” portal where learners rise up the ranks from “newbie” to “master” as they complete courses.

While the final "master" course was being developed, learners kept asking when it would be released, so they could earn this highest rank. Now you’ve got totally engaged learners and you are lifting learning and development to new heights within your organization.

SECRET #4

Caring, the special sauce.

Working with a vendor and your team on a large-scale program is a longterm relationship, not unlike a marriage

in some ways. What you are doing together is challenging, and to foster a healthy relationship, trust and caring are essential. You need to be focused on mutual success. Your job is to help your team and vendor succeed, so that they can help you succeed. This may seem obvious, but you’d be surprised.

Everyone knows that communication is essential to successful partnerships (and relationships), but what’s not often articulated is how essential caring is.

Empathy, concern and kindness create a space where the best of humanity can thrive – even as business professionals.

When there are bumps—and there will be some—caring kicks in and everyone works together to find a solution and move forward.

Nurture a positive team culture; encourage everyone to express their feelings, gratitude and caring. Always focus on your collaborators’ success. You get to set this tone. Not only will this set the stage for lasting professional and personal relationships, it will make everyone’s lives (your team’s, your vendor’s, your stakeholders’) more enjoyable. And, it will help ensure the success of the program.

So that’s it. Go for it. You’ve got this!

Erin Krebs is the director of client solutions at SweetRush, and leads the solution architect team in crafting effective learning solutions to meet client needs. Email Erin.

LARGE-SCALE LEARNING PROGRAMS have unique challenges Find out why the world’s most successful companies trust SweetRush with theirs

Brandon Hall 2016 • Best Sales Training Program for Extended Enterprise • Best Advance in Creating an Extended Enterprise Learning Program • Best Use of: º Games or Simulations for Learning º Social Collaborative Learning º Video º Mobile Learning º Performance Support

Training Industry

elearningindustry.com

Content Development & Gamification

eLearning Content Development Companies 2016

Contact Erin Krebs Director of Client Solutions info@sweetrush.com It would make her day!

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CRITICAL MISTAKE ANALYSIS CREATING EFFECTIVE HANDS-ON LEARNING EXPERIENCES

AT 3:35 ON A MUGGY JUNE AFTERNOON IN 1975, EASTERN AIRLINES FLIGHT 66, INBOUND FROM NEW ORLEANS, JOINED THE ARRIVAL QUEUE FOR NEW YORK’S JOHN F. KENNEDY AIRPORT. A THUNDERSTORM WAS BREWING, AND SEVERAL AIRPLANES AHEAD OF EASTERN 66 WARNED OF DANGEROUS WINDS ON THEIR APPROACH. THE CREW OF EASTERN 66 HEARD THE WARNINGS BUT DECIDED TO PRESS ON. AT 4:05 P.M., HALF A MILE SHORT OF JFK’S RUNWAY 22L THRESHOLD, EASTERN 66 STRUCK AN APPROACHLIGHT TOWER AND SLAMMED INTO THE GROUND, KILLING 113 PEOPLE. IT WAS, AT THE TIME, THE DEADLIEST SINGLEAIRPLANE ACCIDENT IN AVIATION HISTORY.

BY DR. GREGG COLLINS

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It was also one of the hardest to explain.

A modern jetliner should have had enough power to counteract even the strongest wind gusts expected under the conditions; why couldn’t Eastern 66 escape? Government investigators were unable to answer this question, but a University of Chicago meteorologist named Ted Fujita poured over the details of the crash and concluded that the plane had been felled by a previously unknown weather phenomenon he called a microburst, in which a compact column of cold air blasts out of the bottom of a thunderstorm cell, heading to the ground. Microbursts are energetic enough to be a serious threat to an airline and, confusingly for the pilot, cause the plane to at first gain altitude before being driven violently toward the ground.

Cockpit recorders in Eastern 66 revealed that this scenario is just what happened.

But Fujita’s theory proved controversial, and it wasn’t broadly accepted until 1985, when more detailed data from another accident finally convinced the skeptics. Soon after that, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) launched a program aimed at eliminating microburst accidents.

The heart of the program was a training course for pilots on microburst avoidance techniques based directly on Fujita’s theory. It was spectacularly successful. In the decade prior to 1985, over 750 people died in microburst-related commercial accidents crashes in the U.S. After the FAA’s training program began, only one fatal commercial accident due to a microburst occurred in the U.S. (in 1994).

Think about that for just a second. We often boast about ROI in corporate training world, but imagine creating a training course that saves 75 human lives per year.

Talk about a return on an investment!

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT What’s more amazing is that microbursts are just one threat out of thousands that have been neutralized over time through targeted pilot training. This cycle of investigation and training has resulted in a continuous, spectacular improvement in commercial aviation safety. Since the beginning of commercial aviation in the 1930s, the rate of fatal accidents has steadily and almost exponentially declined from one per million passenger miles flown to approximately one per three or four billion passenger miles flown now.

APPLYING THE LESSONS FROM AVIATION IN OTHER DOMAINS Commercial pilot training is one of the most amazing success stories in the history of education. It makes sense to ask what lessons we might learn from it that we could apply to other domains. The good news is that the techniques used to achieve these results can be applied in almost any other industry. The key is a cycle of improvement in which: 1 | An incident is investigated.

2 | Analysis determines a root cause.

3 | A response to eliminate the problem is defined.

4 | Training is created to teach that response to practitioners.

My colleagues and I have developed a general process for implementing such a methodology that we call Critical Mistake Analysis (CMA). We have implemented CMA successfully in domains that range from clerking a department store counter, to quoting insurance policies, to drilling an oil well. The central idea of CMA is that the challenges that merit the most attention in learning a skill are the ones that cause the most impactful mistakes when the skill is performed in real life.

CRITICAL MISTAKE ANALYSIS TASK 1 | INVESTIGATE The first step in investigation is to compile a list of the mistakes that practitioners of a target skill make in real life by auditing and observing the skill being performed; interviewing and surveying practitioners and experts; and tapping into existing data sources, such as records of customer service complaints.

IMAGINE CREATING A TRAINING COURSE THAT SAVES 75 HUMAN LIVES PER YEAR. The next step is to look for patterns of similar issues. For example, in general (as opposed to commercial) aviation, we might notice patterns like these:

• A pilot tries to eke a few extra miles out of a tank of fuel and runs dry in mid-air.

• A pilot tries to traverse a gap in a line of thunderstorms and is trapped in a storm cell when the gap closes.

• A pilot “buzzes” his girlfriend’s house and crashes. (I say “his” because, interestingly, I’ve found no instance of a female pilot buzzing her boyfriend’s house.)

• A pilot trying to land on a low-visibility day continues to descend despite not seeing the runway and hits an obstacle or misses the runway.

The next step in the investigation is to determine the criticality of each mistake to decide which ones are most important to address in training. Criticality is an estimate of the positive impact we can expect from training on this mistake – in other words, the value of training on that mistake. In general, CRITICALITY = F * C * R where: • F is the frequency of the mistake.

• C is the cost of making the mistake.

• R is the remediability of the mistake, meaning the percentage of all instances that we expect could be eliminated by training.

The first two criteria should be somewhat self-explanatory; basically, we would like to eliminate the mistakes that have the greatest overall impact, which is given by F * C. Remediability (a word we made up) takes account of the fact that some mistakes are easier to fix than others. Buzzing your girlfriend’s house is a (strangely) frequent, and very costly, mistake, but it is a mistake that is caused by stupidity rather than ignorance. Training does a much better job of fixing ignorance than stupidity, so addressing “house buzzing” might not have a big impact.

To account for this reality, remediability is defined as the percentage of the occurrences of a given mistake we expect a priori to eliminate through training. Mistakes that are caused by lack of knowledge or skill are assigned high remediability scores, while those caused

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THE TECHNIQUES THAT ACHIEVED THESE RESULTS IN AVIATION CAN BE APPLIED IN ALMOST ANY OTHER INDUSTRY. by poor judgment, process issues or perverse incentives are given low scores.

The final step in investigation is a Pareto analysis, in which we list the mistakes in order of criticality and identify a cutoff point at which the value of addressing the nextmost critical mistake no longer justifies the effort and expense of doing so. It is called a Pareto analysis because generally, the criticality of a given set of mistakes follows a Pareto, or “80/20,” distribution, with a small set of mistakes accounting for most of the overall negative impact.

That’s good news, because it implies that focused training addressing the handful of mistakes at the top of the chart will have a disproportionate positive impact.

TASK 2 | ANALYZE The next step is a root cause analysis of each mistake on our list focusing, in particular, on four components: • Situation

The situational factors that make the mistake likely.

• Decision

The critical decision that leads to the mistake.

• Misconceptions (1) The airplane can handle whatever wind gusts it is likely to encounter, and (2) the throttle should always be cut back if the airplane floats above the glideslope.

• Consequence Described above in detail.

TASK 3 | DEFINE THE RESPONSE Once we have analyzed a mistake, the task of defining the correct response falls to subject matter experts. Often, the response is already known, just not by practitioners. In some cases, the response is fairly obvious, given the problem, while in a few cases, the response requires some effort to define.

TASK 4 | TRAIN The most effective way to train learners to avoid a mistake is to construct a realistic learn-by-doing scenario in which learners confront the challenge that typically leads to the mistake and practice executing the correct response.

An effective challenge meets three main goals:

• Misconception

The misconception that motivates the wrong choice.

• Ensure that the learners who would make the mistake in real life will make it in training.

• Consequence

The outcome of making the mistake, and why it occurs.

• Make the simulated consequence of the mistake as memorable as possible.

For example, for the microburst problem, the analysis might look something like this:

• Make the situation as authentic as possible to ensure that learning is transferred to the real world.

• Situation Flying “low and slow” near a thunderstorm, especially while approaching for landing.

A challenge in CMA consists of five components:

• Decision Failing to attempt an escape as soon as a potential microburst condition is detected.

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• Backstory A description of the situation in which we initially place the user; for example, “approaching for landing in thunderstorm conditions.”

• Action sequence For example, a sequence paralleling what Eastern 66 experienced.

• Decision point For example, the last point in our scenario at which a pilot could throttle up and expect to escape.

• Playout of consequences For example, a crash sequence that is as faithful as possible to what happened to airplanes like Eastern 66.

• Coaching and feedback Learners may need help to understand fully the mistake they made and how it led to the observed consequences.

Tailored coaching enhances the learners’ ability to process and assimilate the lesson they learned.

Once we have sketched challenges in this way for all of our targeted mistakes, we have completed our critical mistake analysis.

THE FUTURE OF CMA We have successfully utilized CMA in a wide variety of domains. In almost every case, the biggest challenge is data acquisition, because corporate training initiatives are not generally designed to process and analyze performance data continuously from the field. But the rapid digital transformation of the industry suggests that this problem will be less and less of an obstacle as more and more performance data is collected automatically. For example, airplanes now continuously track performance data on both equipment and pilots. The era of “big data” is at hand, and one of the most exciting uses of that data will be to enable a continuous improvement training methodology that allows us to implement a critical mistake analysis approach in every domain.

Dr. Gregg Collins is the head of instructional design for NIIT's Corporate Learning Group.

Email Gregg.

Not all mistakes are born equal. Some can cost you more than others...

Determining what to teach can be a challenge for even the most qualified learning experts. Our award-winning Critical Mistake Analysis methodology provides a practical framework to identify the mistakes that have the maximum business impact and design learning challenges around them to create effective learning experiences with tangible results.

Learn more at www.niit.com/cma

CURRICULUM AND CONTENT

LEARNING DELIVERY

LEARNING ADMINISTRATION

www.niit.com

STRATEGIC SOURCING

LEARNING TECHNOLOGY

TODAYâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S WORKFORCE IS INCREASINGLY DISPERSED, ON THE GO AND HUNGRY FOR IMMEDIATE INFORMATION. TO MEET THE NEEDS OF THE MODERN LEARNER, ORGANIZATIONS MUST DESIGN AND DEVELOP ACCESSIBLE AND ADAPTIVE LEARNING SOLUTIONS IN SHORT, SNACKABLE BITES. MOBILE DEVICES PROVIDE A CONVENIENT AND SECURE WAY TO DISTRIBUTE INFORMATION AT THE TIME OF NEED, REGARDLESS OF LOCATION. By utilizing mobile devices as a training delivery method, organizations can provide employees with a performance support solution that elevates engagement and drives behavior change.

Mobile learning allows employees to take learning into their own hands and provides just-in-time support when it matters most.

SECURITY OF CONTENT When deciding to use mobile devices for training delivery, there are many organizational concerns to consider: security of proprietary content, union regulations, accessibility, keeping content up to date, speed and connectivity.

Despite the noted concerns, mobile learning is a secure way to distribute training resources. With greater confidence in mobile delivery, organizations can more effectively deliver key learning through microlearning, gamification and adaptive learning.

When embarking on a mobile learning initiative, organizations should form a partnership with a mobile learning provider that understands the importance of security and has a background in developing training solutions for high consequence environments. Training organizations should have peace of mind that their proprietary content is secure from the development phase all the way to consumption.

SNACKABLE CONTENT

BUILD EPSS INTO TRAINING

Microlearning is about getting specific about training objectives. It is not simply taking classroom or web-based content and breaking it into smaller pieces. Microlearning “snackables” are short learning bites that focus on the most critical objectives – the specific information that an employee needs at the task level – without all the training program fluff.

An Electronic Performance Support System (EPSS) is a software solution that helps individuals perform a given online task or function, or improve productivity and performance. By building an EPSS into training, every component in the system is focused on efficiency, accuracy and improved performance on the job.

By deploying microlearning through a mobile device, employees are able to snack on exactly what they need, which may include viewing examples, interacting with real-life scenarios, as well as reaching out to coaches for real-time support.

Learners can also access short videos, animations, interactive PDFs, job aids or even fun games that drive performance on the job.

Having access to content that is pushed directly to learners can essentially take a 9 percent knowledge retention rate all the way up to 60 percent by practicing some key skills or principles. Through ongoing touches and reinforcement, training becomes a learning experience rather than a standalone event.

STRATEGY MATTERS Effective training starts with an effective strategy that aligns training objectives with business goals. Developing microlearning snackables requires targeting objectives on a micro level while being mindful of the “macro picture.”

Having a clear vision of what the organization is trying to affect is a critical component of developing a training strategy that works. Whether it’s maintaining necessary compliance or improving safety and product knowledge, learning and development must identify business outcomes and design training to meet those objectives.

HAVING ACCESS TO CONTENT THAT IS PUSHED DIRECTLY TO LEARNERS CAN TAKE A 9% KNOWLEDGE RETENTION RATE ALL THE WAY UP TO 60% BY PRACTICING KEY SKILLS. We all know how vital it is for employees to follow approved procedures and policies, and perform to specific company standards and technical specifications. With volumes of information rapidly available through an EPSS, in a simple to use, responsive menudriven system, the chances for consistent performance improvement are greatly increased, and repeated failures become a thing of the past.

TIPS FOR EFFECTIVE MICROLEARNING When developing microlearning content, here are a few tips to keep in mind: Focus on the big picture. When structuring content in a micro format, it must also serve a macro purpose.

What behaviors do you want the learner to manifest? What skills and tasks should the learner be able to perform on the job? These are questions that

should be answered prior to designing microlearning.

Keep length in mind. Microlearning videos should be five minutes or less.

Learners want to get straight to the point and they have little time to waste on overly complicated messages and irrelevant information. The content should be broken down to the task level to hone in on the specific information relevant to the learner.

Make content searchable. There is little point in developing training content that cannot be accessed or found by learners.

Having convenient search capabilities and adding metatags can help learners find content more quickly. They should also be able to get to the micro bite in as few clicks as possible. After three clicks, the learner is less likely to continue searching.

Use the right medium. Whether it’s video, gamification or an interactive PDF, training must be designed and distributed in the most appropriate format. Training professionals must identify which method will be most impactful for the expected outcome. For example, if the point of training is to reduce mistakes on the job then creating a game that simulates the real-world environment and asking the learner to perform critical tasks might be more beneficial than a linear video.

MOVING FORWARD Today’s business world is fast paced and on the move. A mobile learning solution can help connect a mobile workforce with the information they need, when they need it most. Through short, snackable bites, employees can essentially snack on content in the palm of their hands.

The time is now for organizations to invest in learning solutions that provide secure delivery of content for real-time performance support.

Phil Scheidhauer is the global technology and solution strategies leader for Raytheon Professional Services (RPS). Email Phil.

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EXPER

BY PHIL ANTONELLI

DELIVERING CONTENT THAT LIVES UP TO

A COUP HAS TAKEN PLACE AND CONTENT IS NO LONGER KING. CONTENT HAS BEEN USURPED AND THE NEW KING IN TOWN IS EXPERIENCE.

In its place, learners are seeking their own truth and creating a personal learning experience. As they do this, they are sourcing and sharing content and looking to the wisdom of peers rather than experts.

IN OUR CONNECTED, SOCIAL AND MOBILE WORLD, EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING. THE DAYS OF SENDING LEARNERS TO ACCESS THE SOLE SOURCE OF TRUTH PUSHED

BY L&D VIA THE CLASSROOM, THE LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OR THE AUTHORIZED EXPERT ARE OVER.

L&D professionals have not been sitting on the sidelines watching the revolution happen, they have helped storm the gates.

Perhaps the best example is the rising popularity of the 70:20:10 model. If, 70 percent of learning is experiential than it is on us to step away from the content, take a broader view and give thought to what the experience will be and create plans for delivering it. (See Figure 1 on page 34.)

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SOCIAL/COLLABORATIVE

By contemplating the 70:20:10 model, it forces us to step away from a content focus and consider what can be done to enable social and collaborative learning. The rise of social sites has provided new opportunities for learning and has helped to fuel the popularity of 70:20:10. However, it is not an “if you build they will come” proposition and simply making a social learning site available is not likely to succeed.

It is necessary for L&D to define the terms of engagement, develop programs and train employees in the technology and best practices of collaboration to ensure

RIENCE this type of learning experience thrives.

Here are a few tips: • Create a community management strategy and train others outside of L&D to manage social learning.

• Recruit and build an extended network of employees willing to engage one-on-one with others in peer, near-peer, and reverse mentoring relationships.

MEDIA People who look at smartphones all day expect the same great experience when

they turn their attention to corporate content. That means great looking images and streaming video are not just an expectation, but a requirement.

Ooyala, which provides video technology products and services, reported in its Global Video Index: Q3 2015 that “Mobile video views have increased 616% since Q3 2012, and now make up 45% of all video views globally...”

The days of progressive download of video the size of a postage stamp are over. It’s time for L&D groups to utilize existing enterprise online video platforms (OVP) or source and operate their own. Look for OVPs that can:

• Ingest a variety of video formats and transcode processed files into formats that play on both iPhones and Androids.

• Generate HTML5 video embed codes to be used in courseware and web pages across the enterprise.

LEARNING ARCHITECTURE Desire for a better experience is not news.

The Brandon Hall Group 2016 study on learning technology finds that improving user experience is a critical need and over 44 percent of companies are considering replacing their LMS to get better at delivering it.

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WE ARE CHALLENGED TO WRAP CONTENT IN A UNIQUE AND ENGAGING EXPERIENCE. Technology is a major element in delivering a learning experience that lives up to expectations. However, if that experience is centered solely on the LMS, it is likely to fail. Experience follows learners and very few are inclined to begin their journey by visiting the learning management system.

Instead, they are prone to search among a mixture of internal and external sites looking for their answer. The answer might lead to a job aid on a SharePoint site, an expert in marketing or a TED Talk.

To support this self-directed quest of learning, think of the architecture of systems or a “learning ecosystem” (see sidebar on page 35). This architecture underlies and enables everything else and the key principle here is interoperability via application programing interfaces (APIs) and web services. This allows systems to “talk” to one another, enabling a plug and play approach to building a learning experience.

In a world of mass disruption with technologies appearing and disappearing

at a rapid rate, this confederation of systems also makes it easier to add or remove systems as conditions warrant.

PERSONALIZATION Personalized learning is a bit misleading in that implies that the learning experience is left up to each individual. That is not the case at all. While the learning may be self-directed in terms of choice, timing and pace; the objective of personalized learning is to tailor the experience to the needs of the individual based upon factors such as role, tenure, location, business unit and developmental goals.

Personalization is accomplished in two different ways. The first is to construct pathways consisting of a variety of experiences (content, people, communities, activities and assignments) designed to achieve a learning outcome.

The second method of personalization is through adaptive learning in which the system is able to respond to the actions of the learner and provide timely and smart

recommendations on content, people and activities that help the learner achieve the end goal. Adaptive learning has long been the Holy Grail for learning technologists, and recent advances in the collection of big-data on learning and analytics have made the quest within reach.

In both cases, personalization hinges on the ability of the technology to drive the learning experience.

SCENARIOS LEARNING PATHWAY A new manager logs into the learning portal and because employee profiles are loaded from the HR system, she sees her current learning path—Business Foundations.

The Business Foundations Path has two courses, Intro to Business Finance and Working with Budgets and Cash Flow.

However, it also includes a link to a social learning site where she can search for a peer to connect with, communities to join and mentors to aid in her career

FIGURE 1

70% EXPERIENCE

VALUE

DEFINE THE EXPERIENCE

20% EXPOSURE

Course Programs

10% FORMAL LEARNING

DATE OF HIRE

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Concrete Experience Reflective Observation Conceptualization Active Experimentation

i90 INFORMAL LEARNING Coaching and Mentoring Learning Communities Communities of Practice Job Shadowing Stretch Assignments

SPEED TO PROFICIENCY AND MASTERY

TIME

development. In addition, videos, tools, a self-check and an action plan are included to help formulate next steps in career development. The manager has a choice on the order of selection to complete the pathway.

When sourcing systems for learning, always ask vendors about their ability to integrate their systems with others – make this is a key requirement.

ADAPTIVE LEARNING

• Business Systems (HR, CRM, ERP)

• Document Repositories

• Virtual Learning Platforms

• Business Intelligence

• Learning Management System (LMS)

• Learning Record Store (LRS)

With adaptive learning, the same content provides a different experience than the pathway, one specific to the needs of the learner. Our new manager begins with a self-check that contains both a knowledge assessment and a matrix of preferences. As a result, the learning adapts by offering a specific person to connect with for peer mentoring and two topics she needs to master before continuing her journey.

With the topics completed, another selfcheck is presented to test her knowledge and make further recommendations including: Bob, a mentor/coach matched to her interests and needs at the moment, a link to a specific video how-to, and a budget worksheet that she can use in her conversations with Bob. When our manager has completed four sessions with Bob, she is ready to be a full-fledged member of the Budget Management Community and to complete another self-check that will guide her next steps in learning.

XAPI It is impossible to comprehend, or enable the modern learning experience without xAPI – the Experience API. Also referred to as Tin Can, xAPI was created to support the learner experience described above. Developed under the aegis of ADL, who also brought us SCORM, xAPI was created to go where SCORM could not, following learners to record activity unconstrained by the limitations imposed by the LMS. With xAPI, it is possible to go beyond registration and completion of content

THE LEARNING ECOSYSTEM Systems and tools that comprise a learning ecosystem:

• Social/Collaborative Sites • Content Libraries

• Streaming Video Platform

hosted on the LMS to understand what learners are doing as they are doing it, even if they are not connected to the internet. Macro and microlearning can be tracked and analyzed giving a view and rich analytics on a variety of things like mobile learning, team activities, mentoring sessions, on-thejob performance evaluations, video consumption, simulations and games.

• Learning Content Management Systems (LCMS)

cognitive activities such as judgment and creativity.

An internet of things (IoT) learning application, xAPI can enable adaptive learning via “bots” that listen to the LRS and present content based upon learner activity, or prevent employees from badging into a restricted area until they have completed necessary training.

CONCLUSION

IN OUR CONNECTED, SOCIAL AND MOBILE WORLD, EXPERIENCE IS EVERYTHING. XAPI ADVANTAGES As an API, its structure supports the learning ecosystem by offering a standard that makes it simple to integrate with any Learning Record Store (LRS).

Its noun, verb, object format aligns with Bloom’s Taxonomy, tracking high-level

Today, a new learning experience relies on robust and interesting content. However, it is no longer the sole consideration for learning. Today, we are challenged to wrap content in a unique and engaging experience; one that is supported by an architecture that includes formal and informal learning and also addresses the personal needs of individual learners. In an era of big data, it is imperative that we learn from learners and serve up content in a smart and efficient manner.

The stakes are high, learners are demanding and failure to deliver will risk more than losing the interest of the audience — the risk of losing loyalty is also at stake.

Phil Antonelli is the senior learning strategist at Conduent Learning. Email Phil.

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IT’S A FAMILIAR STORY TO MANY IN THE E-LEARNING DESIGN SPACE: YOU KICK OFF YOUR PROJECT AND YOUR CLIENT OR SUBJECT MATTER EXPERT (SME) HANDS YOU A MOUNTAIN OF CONTENT. YOUR TASK IS TO CREATE A COURSE THAT MAKES AN IMPACT — NOT JUST BY HITTING THE RIGHT OUTCOMES, BUT BY ELICITING POSITIVE RESPONSES FROM LEARNERS — ALL WITHIN A 30-MINUTE SCOPE. You begin with a content workshop with the SME to better understand what content she feels is critical to convey. At the end of your workshop, you have a better idea of what the course is about, but there's much more content than you can cover in the scope.

KEEPING A LID ON CONTENT UNTIL YOU DESIGN

By Ashley Reardon

Your design work begins. You craft narratives for your content and build in interactivity. But, as you try to find a place for all the information, it sometimes feels as if you're stitching a quilt from mismatched fabric scraps. Still, you soldier on and produce something that you think covers all the content and achieves the objectives.

But does it? Far too often, our training falls flat, resulting in a content-heavy, page-turning experience. Even worse, it doesn't move the needle on behavior or performance in any meaningful way.

As designers, it’s our job to lead our clients through the process of creating effective and engaging learning solutions. But all too often, the process we use leads us astray and inadvertently takes us down a path of designing to the content, rather than designing to the need. The good news is, we've discovered a simple way to reset the table so that business sponsors, SMEs, development teams, and, most importantly, learners are all happier and get more from the work we do.

Where do we go wrong?

Experts, while intrinsically familiar with the subject at hand, don't always make the best teachers. It’s easy to lose sight of what's important to a new trainee, and how training content can best support actual performance. To

most experts, everything in a training program is important. From a learner's point of view, however, the scope of content needn't be so broad.

Yes, we need our SMEs and their expertise.

But we don't need it right away. But if we get in their heads too soon, we set ourselves up to design to the content rather than to the desired outcomes.

What should we do instead?

It’s time to ditch your preconceived notions that limit your e-learning development to, “What does this course need to cover?” and instead, ask yourself “What does this course need to accomplish?” In other words, rather than focusing on what learners need to know, as designers we should focus on what learners need to do after the training and what learning experience will get them there. Asking some key questions will get you to the right place: • What’s the business need?

• What’s the problem we’re trying to solve?

• What do learners need to do?

• What do they need to know?

Then, use Post-it notes or hand-drawn sketches to prototype the ideal learning experience and indicate which content topics to cover and where.

WAITING MAKES GATHERING YOUR CONTENT SO MUCH EASIER. But what about the content?

Ah, I haven't forgotten about the content, and nor should you. But keep a lid on that content until after you get your design deliverable locked down. Here's why I'm pushing for this: Waiting makes gathering your content so much easier.

Rather than gathering content and then having to sort through and organize

it into meaningful learning chunks, you can instead go into the content gathering process with a much clearer picture of what you need. In fact, you can build content gathering templates with specific questions that you can send to SMEs to complete. And guess what? SMEs love it. No longer do they have to guess at what information and level of detail they need to provide.

responsibility for facilitating the process.

Kickoff. In a kickoff meeting with the client team, describe the overall process you’ll be following throughout the project, the meetings you'll need to have, the desired outcomes of those meetings and who should attend.

The subtle shift in starting your project with a design workshop rather than a content workshop has a profound and liberating impact. Let me illustrate.

Design Workshop. Schedule your design workshop to include all key stakeholders with a vested interest in the design.

Create and send a questionnaire that your client team can complete as prework so that they come to the meeting already having thought through the business needs, target audience, metrics, post-training behaviors and goals, and content topic areas.

What would your design look like if your stated goal was to teach learners about the company’s information security policy? You might begin with a few screens to introduce the importance of the policy and to orient learners to the structure of the policy. Then, you might present learners with some scenariobased questions to practice applying the policy in different situations.

Use your design workshop to map out what people need to do/how they need to behave, what mistakes they make and what kind of information they need to be successful. Then, move to design. Get the whole client team discussing the kinds of exercises that would help teach the skills and reinforce the behaviors. Do some Post-it-note-prototyping and capture your output in a design document.

What would your design look like if you knew the problem was that employees fail to recognize and avoid or report breaches of information security and that the training needs to help reduce the number of breaches? You might design a game-based environment where learners "spot" risks and hazards. For each identified hazard, you deliver content that explains why something is a hazard and what to do about it.

Content Workshop. Once you have your design in place, you're finally ready for your content workshop. Create and send to your SME a content gathering worksheet where you outline the topics of content you identified as part of your design workshop. Let the SME complete this in advance of your content workshop.

Then, use your time during the meeting to get any clarifications needed and to make sure you and the SME are clear on what content will and won’t appear in the course and what content will appear as additional resources.

So how does that help me design better?

Can you see the difference? Can you feel the difference?

In the first approach, the content is the primary focus and the exercises secondary. The second approach, driven by a business need and an understanding of what learners need to do, models and builds awareness of a desired behavior.

The content is secondary — it's there to support the learner through the exercises and help them know what hazards they may encounter and what to do once they’ve spotted a hazard.

Great, so how do I do it?

This approach can be successful with any client as long as you, the designer, take

Does it work?

Leading with a design workshop enables you to develop a design framework tied to the client’s business need, that you can then use to focus your content gathering on what content is needed to populate that framework. The result is a more thoughtful learning experience that’s focused on solving the actual business need, versus delivering content for content’s sake.

Ashley Reardon is the director of learning design at Kineo US. Email Ashley.

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MUCH HAS BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT THE IMPACT OF MILLENNIALS AND FUTURE GENERATIONS ON THE WORKPLACE. HOW, WHEN AND WHERE PEOPLE WORK, AS WELL AS WHAT IS IMPORTANT TO THE EMPLOYEE, ARE ALL CHANGING. BUT IT’S NOT JUST THE MILLENNIALS WHO ARE RECALIBRATING THE WORKPLACE DYNAMIC. The same environmental factors that shaped millennials (born 1980-1999) are affecting all generations, from boomers (born 1945-1964) to Generation X (born 1965-1979) and Generation Z (born 2000-2015). The accelerating evolution of technology, extended periods of economic uncertainty, globalization of business, and increasing demand for innovation and change have had a profound impact on how all generations approach work individually and collaboratively.

The fundamental difference is that millennials have been immersed in the changing environment and have grown up at “ground zero.” They are responding most acutely to the changes everyone is experiencing. In many ways, they may also be those best equipped to navigate this increasingly complex business ecosystem effectively.

BY MATT DONOVAN & ANN ROLLINS

DESIGNING PERFORMER-CENTRIC LEARNING SYSTEMS FOR MILLENNIALS, GENERATION Z AND BEYOND

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One of the greatest benefits of the focus on millennials is that the learning and development community is coming to grips with the fact that some traditional approaches have not been working. The truth is that they were ineffective long before millennials joined the workforce.

Millennials and Generation Z are shining a bright light on the inadequacies of traditional approaches.

Successful companies will be those that can engage each generation by recognizing their talents and needs, empowering them in key roles, and enabling them to perform at high levels.

ENHANCING PERFORMANCE FOR MILLENNIALS AND BEYOND Now that millennials represent the largest generation in the workplace and are quickly moving into management, it is reasonable to focus on them as a primary audience. However, the learning solutions designed for them should work across generations. The rise of approaches like the 70/20/10 learning model and the 5 Moments of Learning Need is a direct response to the needs of today’s workers, including millennials.

Although organizations are adopting these approaches, many of them are using a traditional lens, where the organization controls the structure and pacing of learning. Too often, organizations take the self-service mentality of “if we build it, they will find it, learn it and apply it correctly.” Unfortunately, this approach is only successful with true high performers – employees who would succeed with little support.

Training organizations must quickly shift to a learner/performer-centric model, where employees (not the organization) define the learning need, contribute the content and collaborate with others to move the business forward. This approach leverages and nurtures the behaviors of high performers from all generations. Self-starting, resourceful employees will not let a lack of direction keep them from learning what they need to get the job done. This approach also reinforces the importance of using technology to create social connections, collaborative problemsolving relationships, and peer coaching and mentoring networks.

The question is: How should we modify traditional approaches to meet the needs of both the business and a multigenerational workforce? We recommend a four-element model to designing and delivering a performance-oriented employee development experience: Engage, Focus, Wrap and Nurture.

1| ENGAGE The first step is to connect with the whole performer and establish a strong relationship between the performer and the organization. This relationship sets the tone for the employment and performance experience from the outset. Engagement based on this two-way dialogue is critical, especially for millennials and Generation Z. Organizations are purposefully stepping back to make critical decisions about the full experience before throwing their employees into a “learning churn.”

MILLENNIALS AND GENERATION Z ARE SHINING A BRIGHT LIGHT ON THE FACT THAT SOME OF OUR TRADITIONAL APPROACHES ARE NOT, AND HAVE NOT, BEEN WORKING. IN THE FUTURE, SUCCESSFUL COMPANIES WILL BE THOSE WHO ARE ABLE TO ENGAGE EMPLOYEES FROM EVERY GENERATION IN THEIR OWN WORKPLACE EVOLUTION AND DEVELOPMENT. Onboarding is the first time organizations can lose the millennial and Generation Z performers.When they join an organization, members of the younger generations are looking for an open architecture where they have some support and guidance but also opportunities to create their own experience and contributions. To meet these needs, companies should set an expectation that millennials are not only empowered but also expected to lead their own development.

During the engagement stage, the conversation should focus on the purpose of the organization, opportunities to make an impact, a plan for progression, paths to success, and ways to build their

personal brand within the organization.

This step is a great opportunity to start the relationship with a focus on performance.

A critical output of the engagement step is a learning approach that engages millennials and will pay dividends when Generation Z hits the work scene in the next few years.

2| FOCUS Once you have engaged the employees, the next steps is to focus on desired performance and outcomes. Anchor the learning journey to the desired performance and the performance support network, and make sure it reinforces problem-solving and continuous improvement. Given that a lot of today’s work is collaborative, it is important to integrate not only individual performance but team performance as well.

3| WRAP With engagement established and a focus on performance in place, the next step is to wrap the performers with a performercentric learning system – delivering the right content at the moment of performance in the space of performance.

Although boomer and Generation X are quickly embracing a collaborative or social element in their learning, millennials are already looking for it, and Generation Z expects it. Generation Z is the most connected and technologically immersed generation, and this inclination has been reinforced in the way they have learned from birth.

In addition to leveraging sound design approaches encompassing the 5 Moments of Learning Need with a healthy dose of on-the-job learning (70/20/10), a performer-centric learning system should: • Establish relevance by ensuring that learning goals and tasks are set through the learner’s lens • Leave enough room for employees to set their own path

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• Leverage a scenario- or goal-based approach connected to an ecosystem of learning resources • Be instantly accessible across a range of devices • Offer content in multiple formats and using a range of media • Incorporate a strong content curation strategy • Allow for social connections around the learning, including peer mentoring and coach networks

4| NURTURE The final step in the process is to nurture the performer-centric learning ecosystem.

This stage is the continuous and deliberate evolution of the first three steps. The key to success is establishing two elements: alignment with the organization’s evolving strategy and a rigorous but fluid evaluation and measurement system.

Engagement is a continuous process, and an ongoing two-way dialogue is critical to finding strategically aligned stretch opportunities. These opportunities will benefit the organization but also enable employees to add more skills to their resume and to have experiences that will benefit them outside of work. The performance focus will always need to evolve with the organization’s internal and external challenges and needs.

Accordingly, organizations will need to adjust the learning ecosystem wrapping the performers.

This step is where L&D organizations will provide the greatest impact moving forward. Instead of creating an onslaught of formal and structured learning events, their function will be to monitor and measure how effectively each element is performing and then to make evidencebased decisions on how to tweak the dialogue, performance focus and learning system.

A CRITICAL NEW ROLE TO SUPPORT THE MODEL As L&D organizations make the shift toward a performer-centric learning

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model, the need for a critical new role is growing. Content/context curators, learning Sherpas and virtual librarians have emerged as critical links in the learningperformance ecosystem. Although all employees find them valuable, millennials and members of Generation Z have especially connected with them.

These professionals help make connections between the performers and the organization’s content, resources and networks. They don’t create or own a majority of the content; instead, they are responsible for: • Searching and sifting through the expanse of information • Creating meaning from the content • Sharing with and engaging the performance community • Monitoring, adjusting and evolving the performer-centric learning ecosystem In many ways, content curators are the architects of a successful, collaborative experience through a partnered learning approach. This experience will help millennials succeed in owning their learning experience. As they become more comfortable, they then become the guides for employees joining the team.

This longer-term plan accomplishes several goals: • Enhances the nimbleness and contributions of a generation that requires ongoing engagement • Provides opportunities for millennials and Generation Z to be successfully self-sufficient without an overly structured learning experience • Nurtures a collaborative learning and teaching mindset that will ripple through the organization

INDICATORS OF SUCCESS Millennials have a natural curiosity that will cause them to change jobs. Once in place, key indicators of the performercentric learning system’s success include reduced attrition rates due to lack of development. Organizations should also

THE FOUR PHASES OF DEVELOPING A LEARNERCENTRIC APPROACH 1 | ENGAGE

Connect employees to the organization using a performer-centric approach.

2 | FOCUS

Focus employees on performance, align learning systems to the point of their performance and create a clear line of sight to performance impact.

3 | WRAP

Allow employees to identify the direction of their learning, and wrap them with the resources they need.

4 | NURTURE

Explore, cultivate and nurture the learning opportunities to satisfy employees’ need for development and keep them continually growing. see millennials taking the opportunity to mentor and develop new hires. We want the millennial workforce to understand that they may be newer to their roles and the organization, but they have great advantages to offer their new colleagues. When people not only choose to fulfill their learning goals but also help determine how their learning happens, it’s a strong indicator that the learning approach is working. Finally, successful performer-centric learning systems see millennials become a participating force in self-managed learning communities.

As society changes, so must L&D. Both employees and learning professionals are partners in the continually evolving process of workplace performance.

The millennial generation brings the workplace the gift of more collaborative and efficient approaches to learning – an opportunity everyone can learn from moving forward.

Matt Donovan is the vice president of the Learning Solutions Group at GP Strategies. Ann Rollins is a senior instructional designer at GP Strategies. Email Matt and Ann.

ORGANIZATIONAL TENSIONS IN EMPLOYEE ONBOARDING

BY RON ZAMIR

D

eveloping an effective onboarding strategy and program can be one of the toughest challenges for a corporate learning and development group. Yet it remains one of the most impactful processes we can influence.

Research by the Human Capital Institute and Society for Human Resource Management affirms the value of the onboarding process in improving retention and shortening time to competency. According to SHRM, 60 percent of organizations surveyed saw effective onboarding improve time to productivity, with BambooHR CEO Ben Peterson saying good onboarding can improve performance by up to 11 percent.

ELEVATING YOUR COMPANY’S ONBOARDING EXPERIENCE IS AS MUCH ABOUT CHOICE AS IT IS ABOUT DESIGN.

Yet, in our experience, consistent, welldeveloped onboarding remains outside the reach of many organizations. Moreover, conflicting priorities and tensions over onboarding ownership contribute to a lack of optimization in this critical area of training. Minimizing these conflicts can be a key to better onboarding.

ONBOARDING OVERVIEW Let’s first look at the current state of onboarding strategy. Effective onboarding results in two overarching outcomes: lower turnover and faster time to competency. To achieve these, an onboarding program should provide the following employee experiences: • Orientation on rules and codes of conduct • Presentation on the company’s culture and mission

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• Socialization with managers and peers • Training on tasks and procedures You could easily rate your organization by how many of those experiences are met with new hires in their first 30-6090 days on the job. Recent work by Allen Communication in this area points to best-in-class organizations knowing how to mix and match these tasks for best results, or, at the very least, focus on less to achieve more in the two outcomes.

“All too often on-boarding misses the mark,” said Jathan Janove, principal at Janove Organization Solutions.

“Instead, the process should be treated as a new beginning—an opportunity to connect the employee to a shared purpose, to show how he or she can make a meaningful difference, and to establish a connection on an individual level.”

RESOLVING TENSIONS TO ACHIEVE MORE EFFECTIVE ONBOARDING The first step in achieving good onboarding is the lowering of tensions or conflicts that exist in many organizations.

OWNERSHIP AND FOLLOW-THROUGH Regardless of company size, we observe inconsistencies in onboarding between the corporate recruiting function, HR, and learning and development. At best, this leads to disjointed or mistimed activities between recruitment and orientation training. At worst, new hires miss critical activities and have to wait a long time for training cycles to begin again. Onboarding then becomes more of a task of scheduling than engagement and support for new hires.

COMPLIANCE VERSUS COMPETENCE It is no surprise that a newly onboarded employee needs to consume compliance information and sign off on a “do’s and don’ts” checklist. All too often, companies will incorporate these types of sessions in a checkerboard fashion during job training, leading to a haphazard, confusing training schedule and lack of focus on the tasks at hand.

TRAINING CONSISTENCY De facto inconsistencies between what new hires are taught in the classroom and what their on-the-job expectations are often result in retraining in the field and a lack of trust in the onboarding process.

BRAND PERCEPTIONS AND CULTURE CHALLENGES A new source of tension stems from how the rise of social media has blurred the lines between customers and employees. The best onboarding will be weakened if what the employee experiences and learns conflicts with what consumers and employees believe about your brand and products.

With the impact these non-design changes have on onboarding, elevating your company’s onboarding experience is as much about choice as it is about design.

Centralizing the onboarding function, or developing a clear demarcation of responsibility between recruiting, HR, and learning and development, is an important first step. We find an increasing number of companies building more structure into their onboarding process. “Preboarding” techniques such as socialization and familiarization to the company brand and mission are being handled by recruiting, making it a low-cost method to align employee perceptions of the company before and after hire. HR handles the more traditional parts of the onboarding process—the rules and code of conduct. And L&D takes ownership of ensuring new hires understand their job duties and the way their role fits into the company’s mission.

we can avoid having this content distract from the critical socialization and competency components of our onboarding, and track consumption and completion.

Microlearning and gamification, in the classroom or online, provide great opportunities to combine socialization and learning activities. We’re seeing a rise in their use as companies shorten formal onboarding processes to be more supportive for employees already in the field. Onboarding a new employee is as much about selling your company and its culture to the new hire as it is acclimation and teaching.

Managing the typical tensions of onboarding can be easier when you design a process that combines the different onboarding experiences in singular activities.

• Brand awareness and experiences • Socialization with peers and managers

MAKING DESIGN MATCH THE CHOICE Recent articles from professors at MIT’s Sloan Management Review have highlighted the significance of getting employees up to speed on one hand, and leaning toward employees’ individual strengths by reinventing the process on the other. While they show innovative thinking in these areas, the articles still don’t adequately address the issue of lack of consistency plaguing many onboarding processes. We believe that in many cases, new technologies and modes of learning offer solutions in the areas of consistency, socialization and brand perceptions.

Many of today’s new hires are adept at absorbing information in a nonlinear fashion. By moving compliance and checklist-type information to portals,

• Skill-based activities and assessments Each activity that encompasses all three experiences will build your new hire’s confidence and create the glue you need to ensure better retention and employee competency. Many recent onboarding programs share these characteristics and are recognizable by being shorter and incorporating more on-the-job activities than ever before.

For your own organization, the first step can be addressing the tensions in your current processes. Then rethink and prioritize your design in shorter nonlinear activities. Onboarding done right is one of the biggest “bang for the buck” activities for any organization.

Ron Zamir is the president and CEO of AllenComm. Email Ron.

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A WINNING APPROACH TO LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

BY RUSS BECKER Imagine Bill Gates’ reaction if someone had claimed that his biggest problem when he ran Microsoft was winning too often. That judgement probably wouldn’t have had much of an impact on the way Gates went about his business or carried himself as a leader. After all, in the world of big business, winning is what you are supposed to do, because it translates into making more money.

But, for a few moments, let’s consider whether winning too much hinders someone’s leadership ability. Marshall Goldsmith, a world-renowned expert on executive coaching, believes it does. He calls this phenomenon the “dark side” of success. Everyone is willing to talk about the fruits of victory, he explains, but very few want to open up about the challenges they face as successful leaders.

SUCCESS DOESN’T ALWAYS BREED SUCCESS. Mid-level and senior leaders who have risen through the ranks are, by definition, successful people, with attributes that have helped them achieve long lists of accomplishments. Goldsmith has devoted his career to helping successful leaders make lasting changes that take their

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leadership to the next level. He describes his clients as “mega-successful” people.

That means he has seen the impact of leadership on a grand scale. That impact, he says, is not always pretty.

Part of the problem is that, as leaders move to higher levels of the organization, many of their peers share the same attributes.

Everyone is functionally skilled. Everyone is smart. Everyone is up to date on the latest technical aspects of the job. The higher leaders rise, the more their opportunities for growth become behavioral. As leaders become more successful, mastering their subtler attributes and behaviors helps them achieve even greater success.

In his book “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There,” Goldsmith explores 20 self-limiting behaviors (“derailers”) that

can stall the progress of highly successful leaders. During a recent interview with the Harvard Business Review, Goldsmith was asked to name the number one derailer.

He replied: Winning too much! Successful leaders love winning in every context! Is it meaningful? Win. Is it critical? Win. Is it trivial? Win. Is it not worth it? Win anyway!

Imagine a leader who has a hard day at work. She goes home. Her husband or partner says, “I had a hard day!” and she replies, “You had a hard day? Do you have any idea what I had to put up with?” Most successful leaders are so competitive that they have to prove they’re more stressed out than the people they live with!

Goldsmith observes that the lower leaders are in the organization, the more important it is to be a winner. But the higher they go, the more dysfunctional it is to be a winner. “For great achievers, it’s all about ‘me,’” he says. “For great leaders, it’s all about others.”

FOR GREAT ACHIEVERS, IT’S ALL ABOUT “ME.” FOR GREAT LEADERS, IT’S ALL ABOUT OTHERS.

Because of the profound between “I win” and “they incredibly challenging to from being a great achiever great leader.

difference win,” it is transition to being a

FEEDFORWARD FOR DEEP LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT. Winning too much is just one of 20 derailers leaders might have in their behavioral repertoire. Multiply the challenges of winning too much by as much as 20, and change can be intimidating to leaders who need to rise to the next level. What can they do? Goldsmith suggests a solution that leaders can apply once they identify their derailers: FeedForward.

The FeedForward process can be a positive, upbeat way to help leaders improve their performance. Goldsmith says that FeedForward is the essence of leadership development – a practice that can serve leaders well both inside and outside of the workplace. It’s a simple process, so leaders have no excuse not to try it.

To understand FeedForward, think of what you know about feedback. Giving feedback is a well-known workplace skill based on the past: People work for a specific period of time, and then managers

or leaders critique their work. Here’s the problem with that model: No one can change the past.

The first rule of FeedForward is that it’s not about the past. FeedForward is all about what leaders can do in the future, letting others know what they’d like to accomplish and asking for ideas on how to do it. It’s about simply saying to another person, “I want to get better at…” and unpacking a personal pool of possibilities, with ideas from others.

“If feedback is past tense,” Goldsmith says, “FeedForward is future perfect.”

FeedForward overcomes the two biggest obstacles leaders face with negative feedback: first, that successful people in dominant positions don’t want to hear criticism, and second, that their subordinates rarely want to give it.

FeedForward circumvents criticism and shrinks discussion to the intimate dimensions of two human beings. It invites common, human reactions to situations, including when leaders are addressing the behavior of the people they lead. This leads us to the second rule of FeedForward: Leaders cannot judge or critique the ideas they receive.

IDEAS ARE GIFTS THAT HELP LEADERS GROW. Typically, the quickest way to shut down others is to evaluate or judge the ideas they offer. The beauty of FeedForward is that it encourages the opposite: Leaders hear and consider new ideas.

Leaders can’t say “Good idea,” “Bad idea,” “I already knew that,” “That will never work,” or any other statements that carry the weight of judgment.

Goldsmith says that FeedForward works best when leaders stop talking, listen and take notes. They should treat the ideas they receive as gifts and express gratitude to the people who share their thoughts.

When leaders respond to FeedForward with a simple “thank you,” amazing things are possible – for their organizations, their colleagues and their own performance as leaders. FeedForward can be life-changing both for the leader and the organization.

Russ Becker is president and CEO of AchieveForum.

Email Russ.

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W H AT â&#x20AC;&#x2122; S O N L I N E T R A I N I N G I N D U S T R Y. C O M

ARTICLES 10 TIPS AND TRICKS FOR DEVELOPING MATERIALS UNDER CHALLENGING DEADLINES | By Bridget Dill Deadlines can make training content development difficult to manage. Use some tips and tricks to help.

HOW TO AVOID POOR GAMIFICATION IN MOBILE LEARNING | By Dasha Sokolova Combine the power of gamification and mobile learning in a single engaging and convenient course.

WHY MICROLEARNING IS A GREAT WORKFORCE TRAINING STRATEGY | By Natalie Smith Technology enables learning methodologies that require little investment in terms of time and money.

BOOST EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT WITH ADAPTIVE LEARNING | By Carol Leaman Learning that meets the individual needs of modern learners is a definite must to boost engagement.

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C O M PA N Y N E W S

ACQ UIS I T I ON SAN DPA RTN E R SHIPS Vector Solutions announced that it has acquired LearnSmart, a provider of professional skills, project management and IT and security training. The acquisition will provide customers of LearnSmart access to over 4,000 additional courses, new LMS functionality, and continued support from e-learning and industry experts. Customers of Vector Solutions brands, RedVectorand TargetSolutions, will gain access to over 1,000 video-based courses.

CIVC Partners (CIVC) announced that its portfolio company, KPA, has acquired Succeed Management Solutions (Succeed), a leading provider of webbased risk management and safety software for the insurance market. This acquisition enhances KPA's existing environmental, health and safety software offering, provides entry into the insurance channel, and broadens the set of compliance solutions available to clients of both companies.

Auctus Group through its affiliate Auctus Search Partners has acquired KLG Consultants, a talent acquisition and talent development firm. Combined with Auctus's financial services staffing capabilities, Auctus and KLG are poised to provide organizations, C-level and other executives search and selection services as well as outsourced CFO, COO and HR solutions. The acquisition of KLG also brings professional development offerings to Auctus.

Echo360 announced the acquisition of online learning company Astute Technology, whose testing and certification platform allows organizations to evaluate user comprehension of video content and generate cloud-based certificates as users master new skills and competencies. With the integration of the Astute assessment and credentialing suite into the Echo360 video platform, learners will have access to an expanded set of tools to assess learning and measure student engagement.

Management Concepts announced it has established a strategic partnership with the Defense Acquisition University (DAU) to support educational opportunities beneficial to the Defense Acquisition workforce. The partnership provides opportunities to maximize academic accomplishments by receiving credit for DAU courses toward an undergraduate, graduate or certificate program offered by a strategic partner.

JPL Integrated Communications announced that it will merge JPL's learning solutions business into its d'Vinci Interactive subsidiary, creating a stronger market presence with expanded capabilities. d'Vinci develops custom learning experiences, educational websites and web and mobile applications for a different client base than JPL. The combined organization will service corporations, government agencies, educational content providers and medical education organizations.

INDUSTRY NE WS Game-Like Learning for Mastery and Tracking of Sales Skills Allego announced the release of Allego 4.0, which includes the “Flash Drills” feature – a new reinforcement learning capability that will enable sales reps to better retain knowledge and achieve short- and long-term sales skills mastery through the game-like use of flashcards and spaced-repetition learning. Sales managers can also create courses within a single integrated platform.

Study Finds Partnership with Sales Channel Linked to Higher Revenues True collaboration with the sales channel gives organizations a leg up on those that give channel sellers little or no attention afterward, according to a new

channel sales study from CSO Insights, the research arm of Miller Heiman Group. Organizations that help channel sellers with lead generation and provide consistent coaching can expect channel revenue goal achievement of more than 90 percent.

Degrees Delivered Entirely on a MOOC Platform FutureLearn, owned by The Open University, will partner with Australia's Deakin University to offer a range of postgraduate degrees, including Cyber Security, Information Technology, Financial Planning, and Humanitarian and Development Action. This is the first time a MOOC (massive open online course) provider has offered several degrees, fully online, entirely on its platform.

Research Reveals One-Third of U.S. Employees Receive No Formal Job Training

Axonify research revealed that organizations are still struggling to provide employees with the formal training they need to do their jobs effectively. The study included more than 1,000 employed adult respondents and uncovered a significant gap between the realities of formal job training and the types of training employees identify as effective.

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