We're hosting our Conference over three days in three different time zones, so everyone has a chance to get involved!
As an early adopter and champion of design thinking in learning and development, Arun is one of the most experienced and hands-on practitioners of this approach globally.
His work has spanned applying design thinking techniques to transform ‘tick the box’ compliance jobs; define organisational learning strategies; provide corporate performance solutions that span tens of thousands of people; build edtech businesses; right through to engaging with quick, low budget training requests for small audiences.
In this interactive session, Arun will share 8 hard-won lessons that will appeal to experienced practitioners and newcomers alike. Some of the topics explored include:
If you struggle to nail creative briefs or you want to get more consistency and speed into executing creative projects, this session is for you. I will step through my process from stakeholder kick-off to final sign-off, in an attempt to turn the art of video production (or any media production) into an exact and easily repeatable science.
By unpacking past video projects I will walk through how I ideate, script and produce (end to end) video content that exceeds the client's/stakeholder's expectations whilst delivering a meaningful experience for the target audience. This approach has been successfully applied to a range of creative projects from humorous in nature to more serious subject matter.
What you will take away from the session:
The web supports vector based SVG animations, but in rapid authoring tools, we're often left with old pixel based image formats with limited scope for animation.
Using BodyMovin for After Effects allows you to export many animations to play directly in the browser while maintaining them as vector and lowering their file size compared to alternative formats.
The session will demonstrate setting up and exporting the plugin for use rapid authoring tools such as Adapt and Evolve as high quality, lower files size, and more engaging replacements for graphics.
What you will take away from the session:
Have you experienced looking at the visual design of your eLearning course, thinking something is wrong with it, but cannot explain why or how to improve it? Providing and receiving constructive feedback is an important part of the quality assurance (QA) process. But how do we evaluate an eLearning design?
In this session, I will walk you through my thought process of critiquing design by showing you practical tips and tools that I use to improve two to three design examples using basic visual design principles.
What you will take away from the session:
Most learning designers recoil in fear when asked to partake in a ‘sales’ activity. It has been aligned with sales targets, discounting and a drive for the win rather than the best solution. In reality, there are a core set of skills that you can draw from sales to help sell your ideas and drive change in your organisation.
In this session, we will tackle embracing that inner salesperson to shift the industry one project at a time.
You will take away from the session, through anecdotes and role play:
Tell me and I forget. Teach me and I remember. Involve me and I learn.
Stories and the journeys they describe are intrinsic to human experience. Telling and sharing them is how we learn about the world, how it works, where we fit and who we are. These narratives form the cornerstone of our identity, attitudes and behaviours.
Once an outlier in digital learning practice, narrative-based teaching and learning methodologies are finding increasing acceptance as a mainstream approach for the delivery of more engaging, meaningful and effective adult education and training. But is there more to be gained from our love affair with story?
In this session we’ll explore the key principles and practice of storytelling and how the use of narrative can not only strengthen pedagogy, but also enhance many aspects of our roles as education professionals, including solution design, development practice and program delivery.
Following this session you should be able to:
I'm sorry to say that a wordy CV and pretty portfolio ain't enough.
Whether you're freelance and looking for your next client, or employed and thinking about your next permanent gig, a solid personal brand will help you stand out against the crowd.
In this talk, Ant will outline a simple plan that you can use to elevate your profile and increase your value - leading to better opportunities, more money and a successful career in Learning Design.
What you will take away from the session:
Clients often don't know what they want. But it's not really about them. Their users should dictate what the solution looks like. This includes their demographic, needs, and limitations. The information gathered will help to craft the appropriate learning experience within the bounds of budget, time, and other constraints.
This session will cover two to three examples of client work Croomo has completed that meets the needs of clients by using microlearning or VR. It will focus on instructional design considerations, how users influenced the design of solutions, and how those solutions were executed.
What you will take away from the session:
How many times have you sat with a client to discuss a project and they're convinced they need a course when, in fact, they don't? They need a 'just-in-time' solution for their users to access information when they need it.
It's helpful to know what different tools are available, so you can offer your clients different types of solutions that will change behaviour and fit their budget. One solution is an app. It's one we're all familiar with and have been using them for years.
Now before your internal voice says "yeah yeah, I can't make an app" hear me out! What if I told you that you could build an app from a Google Sheet with no coding and allow unlimited amounts of people to use it? In fact, The Learning Conference app was made with a Google Sheet!
In this hands-on session, I'll be giving you a stripped back copy of 'The Learning Conference' App and we'll be rebuilding it together from scratch using a free program called Glide Apps.
We'll review how the app was put together and how using components and filters brings the content to life. You'll customise your App by adding images, a colour scheme, a logo and you'll choose a theme. Finally, you'll set your Apps privacy settings and will publish it out to the web.
At the end of the session, you'll have a good understanding of the various components within Glide Apps and can continue to develop similar apps in your own time.
What you will take away from the session:
Rachael Brown is an investigative journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC). She is the host and creator of the ABC's true crime podcast Trace.
In this interactive session, you will join Rachael in a conversation about bringing this project to life, as well as ask her questions about her process through Q&A.
What you will take away from the session:
Cathy is an internationally recognised training designer dedicated to saving the world from boring instruction. She’s the creator of the action mapping model of training design and a passionate advocate for improving business performance by respecting and deeply challenging people.
In this interactive session, you will join Cathy in a live Q&A environment. Questions are curated before (ask your question here) and you will also be able to ask your question directly to Cathy through the chat to get contextual and personalised answers from her.
Some of the questions so far include:
Thanks to xAPI, bespoke tracking, LRS’s, and multiple data collection and visualisation tools, we now have more ways than ever to measure the impact of our learning solutions. In addition, data enables us to enhance the learning experience significantly. But research shows that organisational adoption of data remains low despite a huge appetite in L&D to use it for better decision making.
In this practical session, we’ll share inspiring examples of ways data has been used to:
Finally, we’ll share a method for planning data collection as a forethought in the design process, not the afterthought it often can be!
What you can take away from this session:
Why are most presentations so bad? Why is eLearning just a click-through brochure? Few people enjoy creating, delivering, or viewing presentations or eLearning.
So let’s change that by creating highly animated, dynamic, visual, and interactive content. All using PowerPoint. No, really. You’ll see how to quickly and easily create stunning animated content for use in presentations and eLearning, with before/after transformation examples, in-depth how-to tutorials, and plenty of discussion about the many possibilities available. Steps to take: 1. Attend this session. 2. Become an Animation Legend.
After this session, you will be able to:
Digital learning design is more than elearning courses. In fact, digital education is an exciting field that’s pushing boundaries in terms of technology, ambitions and potential for impact. However, being part of it requires versatile skills, a deep understanding of learning, and confidence to experiment.
This panel discussion will explore the imposter syndrome, confidence, ego, skill versatility and career longevity.
You will take away ideas and strategies around:
"The project was supposed to be live two weeks ago? The key stakeholder has gone on holiday halfway through it? The content was updated by the SME but they "forgot" to tell anyone else until the QA?"
If this sounds familiar, then congratulations you have officially experienced bad project management! For every issue that can derail a project, it can usually be fixed by having effective project management and processes in place in order to navigate it effectively.
In this session, I will discuss the do's and dont's, highs and low and any other cliched expressions to take you through effective project management, utilise appropriate communication tools and help maintain good relationships with your stakeholders even when things might not be going well!
What you will take away from the session:
How can you successfully deliver game-based digital learning for serious topics such as compliance and ensure the learning objectives are met?
This session will explore how leveraging core gameplay mechanics into your solution can increase mastery and retention as well as improving engagement and application in real-world scenarios. By showcasing and deconstructing a live solution and exploring the quantifiable results we will be sharing practical advice on designing, developing and delivering impactful game-based solutions.
What you will take away from the session:
Where did all these LXPs suddenly spring up from?
Us Learning Designers are used to thinking about the detail – the intricacies of our solutions. We put them together and they go to live on the LMS. At least that’s how it used to be.
When we design programmes that will live on an LXP such as Stream, there are a whole bunch of opportunities we never used to have. Opportunities that can enhance our content, shape learner experience, and create a cohesive programme where previously we’d only have been able to show a collection of courses.
In this session, I’ll use my own examples to demonstrate how designing for LXPs allows us to shift our thinking towards learner-centred programme design.
The main takeaways will be:
Writing a winning Proposal isn't as hard as it sounds, especially when you know what you need to include.
In this session you'll be creating a proposal for a client. You'll see how to articulate your solution, highlight your skillset, showcase your work, estimate the timeline, price the investment, cover your butt with terms and conditions and advise the client what's next.
What you will take away from the session:
This panel discussion will provide clarity on what providing learning solutions at the point of need are and how to utilize this.
This session will give practical examples of how to utilize resources at the point of need, not only in terms of the scenarios they are needed but also what these can be.
What you will take away from the session:
Martin Percy will share his insights on how to combine film and interactivity to make powerful learning experiences. He will lift the bonnet to show his unique methodology, revealing what makes films like 'Lifesaver' or 'Real Talk About Suicide' work so effectively.
In this amazing Keynote, Martin will show how you can use this approach for your own projects. He'll talk about why he never thinks of these films as 'stories'. Why he never scripts his films word for word. What he looks for when he casts actors, and why he never looks at actors' CVs. He'll show the medical research that proves the effectiveness of this approach to filmmaking - and show how you can use this research to get your own projects made.
Is your workload constantly increasing and piled high with deadlines and obligations? Do you struggle with pushing back clients, employees, executives, and strategic partners when they have impossible requests or expectations? Do you often take on more than you can chew?
The art of pushing back, saying no, and even being honest with your professional relationships are critical skill sets that many creative lack. We worry about what other people want, think, or need and spend a lot of time doing things for others, often at the risk of hurting ourselves and our own team. We love being the nice guy and are notorious conflict-avoiders.
This session will focus on the who, when, where, why, and how of saying “no” to clients, staff, and projects. Learn how to identify opportunities to push back and say no more effectively, without damaging relationships.
The job market for learning professionals is rapidly shifting. Nowadays, more and more companies are hiring for tangible skills and talent. This means they care more about what you can offer them right now, regardless of the length of your employment history or your education credentials. As a result, in order to be competitive and land your next gig or client, it’s more important than ever that you can showcase your work, skills and talent. To put it simply, a resume alone isn’t enough to get hired—you need a portfolio!
In this session, you’ll explore why portfolios aren’t just for freelancers and why and how you should start building yours ASAP.
What you will take away from the session:
Solutions that are successful put their learners at the heart of their design process. When you have a deep understanding of your learners, you can better understand the problem that you are solving and in turn create a solution that makes a difference.
You will learn how to create effective learning experiences and solve business problems using activities from human centred design.
What you will take away from the session:
Learner engagement in the time of “virtual session fatigue” can be difficult. But there are ways to make it engaging, interactive and, dare we say “fun.”
In this session, you’ll learn how to use PowerPoint, basic artwork and an audience response system (ARS) to create an interactive story that involves your audience in decision making, helps them reflect on the content and allow you, the facilitator, to gain insight into your learners’ level of understanding.
What you will take away from this session:
Developing a learning experience prior to design and user testing, leads to usability issues and additional hours of unnecessary development.
You will learn how to design and prototype a learning experience in order to gain insights from your learners. The feedback will allow you to quickly improve the design and save development time in the long run.
What you will take away from the session:
In the right hands, Glide apps can serve as powerful tools to improve human performance. However, they are a departure from typical SCORM eLearning packages that automatically collect data for designers.
At the same time, the Learning Record Store (LRS) is playing an increasingly important role in the modern L&D tech stack. Because of this, we can use xAPI to send data from any learning experience without having to rely on SCORM or Learning Management Systems (LMS).
In this session, you'll learn how to collect important data from your Glide app and automatically get it into your LRS with the rest of your learning data. You'll also learn how to pull other learning data into your Glide app for review and display (if we have time....).
What you will take away from the session:
Chris Do is an Emmy award-winning designer, director, CEO and Chief Strategist of Blind and the founder of The Futur—an online education platform with the mission of teaching 1 billion people how to make a living doing what they love.
Chris is the king of knowing your value and achieving results, teaching sales, negotiations, value based pricing, mindset, branding, graphic & motion design, social media marketing, entrepreneurship, business management and client relations.
In this interactive session, you will join Chris in a live Q&A/role play environment. Questions have been curated before to shape the role plays and you will also be able to ask your question directly to Chris through the chat to get contextual and personalised answers from him.
Some of the topics explored include:
We may not realize it, but as learning professionals, we have a lot of things in common with marketers. We both face one big challenge: How to get people’s attention and help them think and act in new ways.
So what can we learn from marketing teams? As it turns out, a lot. In today’s hyper-distracted world, we must first engage our audience if we have any hope of informing them. Savvy marketers understand how to use the latest technologies and tap into the psychology of emotions — there’s a reason you don’t see bullet points in advertising.
In this session, we reveal some tools and techniques that marketers have been successfully using for years to capture attention and move people to take action.
What you will take away from the session:
How do we create mentoring relationships that challenge and elevate the careers of both the mentor and mentee?
New instructional designers get thrown into the deep end of L&D to either sink or swim. A balance of mentorship and self-directed learning can help them get to the surface faster. Mentorship requires intentional investments of time and energy from both parties, and it does not have to be a one-way relationship. This panel discussion will provide a framework for a mutually beneficial mentorship, and encourage mentorship between experienced and entry-level professionals.
What you will take away from the session:
Alexa is one of the most widely used smart devices in the US today. It's a disruptive game changer in the learning and development space, but adoption is drastically low because learning professionals aren't sure how to integrate the technology into their ecosystem.
In this session, we will hack our way through developing an Alexa skill with no coding skills required. We will discover the core concepts of voice user interface (VUI) development, learn basic VUI terminology, brainstorm learning experience use cases for a VUI and develop an Alexa VUI skill prototype that you can take back to your workplace to demo and expand on.
In this hands on session, learners will need access to the Internet and a web browser. Learners will create Amazon AWS accounts (if they already have one, they can use their existing account). We will together build a voice user interface (VUI) and then transfer our design to an Alexa skill that we will build from scratch. Learners will test their skill using the web based Alexa simulator.
What you will take away from the session:
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