Elearning! November/December 2017

Best New Trade Magazine

Best Quarterly Trade Magazine

Best Trade Magazine

Best Overall Design

Best Trade Magazine

Best Training Magazine

Best Computer/ Training Magazine

Best Article Series/Trade

Best Themed Issue/Trade

Best Computer/ Training Magazine

Best Computer/ Training Magazine

Best Digital Edition

Best Trade Magazine

Best Digital Edition

Best Trade Magazine

Best Digital Edition

Best Trade Magazine

Best Digital Edition

Best Web Publication

Best Digital Edition

Best Cover Trade

2005

2005

2006

2006

2007

2008

2009

2009

2009

2010

2011

2011

2012

2012

2013

2013

2014

2014

2014

2015

2015

November / December 2017 Volume 13 Issue 4 • www.2elearning.com

>> Driving the Innovation Agenda pg 16

>> The Data Driven Leader pg 21

13th Annual Best of Elearning! Awards pg 24

Where learning happens

The workforce is changing.

D2L’s Learning Experience Platform helps prepare and engage your transforming workforce. It provides a personalized learning experience, leadership development, and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing by leveraging content creation & curation, video and social assessment.

find out how at D2L.com/enterprise

Contents

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2017 VOLUME 13 NUMBER 4

13th Annual Best of Elearning! Awards

>> Cover Story:

13th Annual Best of Elearning! Awards PG 24

Sixty brands were selected by users as the Best of Elearning! Eight new brands join this ring of honor.

Discover what users say about these solutions, and what makes them the best-in-class.

By Jerry Roche

>> Essentials

>> Features

8 9 10 11

16 Learning! 100: Driving the Innovation Agenda at Bayer

News Deals Research Trendlines

Can one learn innovation skills? At Bayer, the answer is a resounding Yes! But, it involves changing the culture along the way. Bayer, a 2017 Learning! 100 winner, shares its roadmap to driving innovation.

By Chara Balasurbramaniam, Julia Hitzbleck, Melanie Heroult, Krysia Sommers and Henning Trill

21

21 Three Priorities for Every Data-Driven Leader Learning and development professionals have to not only up their measurement game but actually become data-driven leaders. To do this, you must become a leader committed to learning the basics. You can’t walk the walk until you can talk the talk. Take these three steps to start your journey.

By Jenny Dearborn

40 Hall of Fame Awards Honor Two Inductees This year, Elearning! Magazine added a special honor to the Best of Elearning!

Awards; the Hall of Fame Award recognizes extraordinary solutions providers.

This year’s honorees are Adobe and BizLibrary. These two brands collectively have earned more than 100 Best of Elearning! honors, across a dynamic set of solutions. What is the secret to consistently exceeding customers’ needs, while anticipating future learning challenges and solutions? We invited leaders from both organizations to share their insights.

By Jerry Roche

4 November / December 2017

Elearning!

>> Essentials 8

8

10

11

Artificial Intelligence Landscape Digital Skills Grows Salaries 22% Learning & Talent Buyer Study Findings Global E-learning Expanding 19% CAGR

>> Management

10 First Look: Learning & Talent

Platforms Buyer Study The Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study conducted by Elearning! Media Group reveals current platform trends and purchase plans for 2018.

Discover which platforms are being embraced and how they are deployed.

By Catherine Upton

12 Leader’s View What is Your True Company Culture?

My favorite definition of culture comes from Harvard Business Review. It refers to culture as “consistent, observable patterns of behavi or in organizations.” The problem with company culture is often the difference between internal PR and reality. The truth tends to be a different story.

By Joe Burton

16 Learning! 100: Driving the

Innovation Agenda at Bayer Can one learn innovation skills?

At Bayer, the answer is a resounding Yes! But, it involves changing the culture along the way. Bayer shares its roadmap to driving innovation.

By Chara Balasurbramaniam, Julia Hitzbleck, Melanie Heroult, Krysia Sommers and Henning Trill

50 Last Word Are Great Leaders Born or Made?

Great leaders aren’t born- they’re trained. Most leaders don’t receive any leadership training until about 10 years into their management careers.

By Scott Blanchard

key areas to focus on to build highly successful training programs.

By Krista Brubaker

46 It’s Time to Evolve

Competency-Based Training Competency modeling is now a mainstay in most successful businesses. In one study, 89% of best-in-class organizations had core competencies defined for all roles versus 48% for all other companies. Here are six steps for getting started with competencies.

>> Tools & Practices 14 Learning Science How to Make Training Engaging & Effective Effective training looks much different today. Your employees have become accustomed to constant connection through various devices. They expect their training experience to be up-todate with technology they are using daily. Here are three strategies to make your training engaging.

By Dean Pichee

24 13th Annual Best of

Elearning! Awards Sixty brands were selected by users as the Best of Elearning!

Eight new brands join this ring of honor. Discover what users say about these solutions, and what makes them the best-in-class.

By Jerry Roche

40 Hall of Fame Awards Honor

Two Inductees This year, Elearning! Magazine added a special honor to the Best of Elearning! Awards; The Hall of Fame Award recognizes extraordinary solutions providers. This year’s honorees are Adobe and BizLibrary.

By Jerry Roche

45 Take 9 Key Actions for

Successful Training

Programs A successful program requires many factors working together, but it all starts with a program manager dedicated to impacting business results and employees’ development. We’ve identified nine

47 Four Ways to Personalize

Employee Learning Learners today don’t want to be taught but expect to be able to learn.

Millennials cite learning as the most desirable benefit a job can offer. To be able to compete in the war for talent, organizations must personalize the learning experience. These four steps will get you on your way.

By Jon Paul

>> Business 7

Publisher’s Note Driving the Industry Innovation Agenda

By Catherine Upton

10 Trendlines Statistics, figures and industry trends

12 Leader’s View What is Your True Company Culture?

By Joe Burton

14 Learning Science How to Make Training Engaging & Effective

By Dean Pichee

48 Product Spotlight Adobe Captivate 2017

50 Last Word Are Great Leaders Born?

By Scott Blanchard

Elearning! November / December 2017

5

November / December 2017 VOLUME 12 ISSUE 4

Catherine Upton Group Publisher >> cupton@2elearning.com

Online@

2elearning.com Trending Topics 2017 Learning! 100 Named http://bit.ly/2yNSrDt Go Team! What Learning Pros Can Learn from Fantasy Sports http://bit.ly/2z9LfVo The Best of Elearning! Awards http://bit.ly/2z9Mp3c

Events Enterprise Learning!

Conference On-Demand http://www.ELCEShow.com Best of Elearning!

Web Seminar Series http://www.2elearning.com/ events/current-events

Jerry Roche Executive Editor >> jroche@2elearning.com Joe DiDonato Editor at Large >> jdidonato@2elearning.com Adam Weschler Manager Digital Programs >> aweschler@2elearning.com JW Upton Vice President >> JW@2elearning.com Kim Mabon Art Director >> production@2elearning.com

Ed Tetter Production Manager >> production@2elearning.com Maria Perkins Event Manager >> operations@2elearning.com Contributors: Chara Balasurbramaniam, Bayer Scott Blanchard, The Ken Blanchard Companies Joe Burton, Whil Inc. Jenny Dearborn, SAP Melanie Heroult, Bayer Julia Hitzbleck, Bayer Jon Paul, D2L Dean Pichee, BizLibrary Krysia Sommers, Bayer Henning Trill, Bayer

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

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

6

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Publisher’sNote

A

Driving the Industry Innovation Agenda I, Machine Learning, Cognitive Systems. The pace of change requires us all to be innovative, agile and aware. Some say these qualities cannot be “trained” into a person. But Bayer disagrees. Bayer embraces a culture of innovation; a necessity in the evolving life sciences industry. The 2017 Learning! 100 winner for innovation, Bayer’s learning

team shares its roadmap to creating a culture that drives innovation (See page 16.)

The fuel for the next generation enterprise is data. Data and analytics fuel AI, Machine Learning and

Intelligent Systems. We tapped Learning! 100 leader Jenny Dearborn, CLO, SAP to share insights on the top priorities for the Data Driven Leader (See page 21.) If you haven’t embraced your inner datageek yet, read this important career-making article.

Innovation is impossible without transformative technologies and services. The 2017 Best of Elearning! honorees are featured inside. The Best of Elearning! is the industry’s exclusive users’ choice award program. See which solutions learning professionals love and discover why, starting on Catherine Upton Group Publisher, Elearning!

Media Group

page 24. Meet the 2017 Hall of Fame winners on page 40. These solutions providers have achieved extraordinary acclaim from users worldwide, setting them apart from the pack.

From learning and talent platforms, to engaging training content, mobile, social and video solutions, the 2017 Best of Elearning! offers you a holiday shopping list filled with award-winning tools and solutions. Congratulations to the 60 solutions providers, and thanks to you for continuing to share what works with Elearning! Magazine.

We wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and Holidays. It is a pleasure serving such an enlightened and engaged community.

Sincerely, Catherine Upton Group Publisher Elearning! Media Group

Elearning! November / December 2017

7

News

A.I. Landscape Data Is the New Oil

A.I. Dominates HR Tech Talk The buzz was all about artificial intelligence (A.I.) at this year’s HR Technology Conference. No surprise, as the size of the global market for artificial intelligence for enterprise applications is worth around $360 million according to statistics.

A.I. HR implementations are seen in talent, recruitment and succession planning. IBM Talent showcased some applications.

Several other companies displayed Alexa-customized solutions like Paradox, which is a branded A.I. coach. It claims to “build human-powered A.I. to engage, empower and understand large groups of people.” Oracle will be infusing its Cloud applications with artificial intelligence. “A.I. should be an enabler,” says Gretchen Alarcon of Oracle.

Source: http://bit.ly/2yFS00u

The A.I. Landscape

New Digital Skills Drive Salary Growth According to an Informa study, 22 percent of channel professionals said their gross annual salaries increased due to new skills development or new certifications. This, in a time where most professionals are seeing stagnant or negative earnings growth.

“In this age of digital transformation and burgeoning new technology models like artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things and containers, it’s no wonder that training and career development also played a big role in salary increases in 2017,” Informa says.

Training in Cloud computing led the way, with 37 percent of channel professionals saying they had participated in training related to the Cloud in the past 12 months. Other hot skills include business intelligence, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics, security, and automation.

Source: Informa 2017 http://bit.ly/2zNK4YY 8

November / December 2017 Elearning!

The CEO of Mastercard told an audience in Saudi Arabia that “data could be as effective as oil as a means of generating wealth.” Is he right?

“Companies today handle more data than ever before and it’s having a profound effect on the way governments, businesses and technologies evolve,” says data scientist Justhy Deva Prasad, author of “The Billion Dollar Byte: Turn Big Data into Good Profits, The Datapreneur Way.” Non-digital companies may be doomed. “You cannot halt the digital revolution and if companies don’t build a boat that embraces the coming data tsunami, they’re not going to be able to compete with those who do,” says Prasad.

Traditional legacy companies need a framework for making data strategy central to their business models in the same way that the newer Digital Native companies have. The framework should provide concrete models for creating smart data infrastructures, accurately weighing the value of data and data systems, investing in the right technologies, hiring entrepreneurial people with tech skills, leveraging the full value of data, and much more. It aims to help companies align their data strategy with their business model.

Source: The Billion Dollar Byte http://amzn.to/2z4Vydk

Career development played a big role in salary increases in 2017.

- Informa Study 2017

HR Role Grows in Strategic Importance Seven of the top 10 strategic corporate initiatives require HR involvement. HR must play a strategic role in the future success of organizations in an increasingly competitive market for skills and talent, according to HR Realities 2017-18 Study.

“There is a great opportunity for HR to extend its influence right now. But, with a decrease in headcount and rise in HR technology spend, the need to innovate and be agile is vital,” says David Wilson, CEO of Fosway Group.

Forward thinking organizations are already looking at: >> Video based recruiting (84%), >> Continuous employee appreciation (82%) >> Social recruitment (77%).

Sadly, only 12% of organizations use artificial intelligence currently. But, the rate of innovation is only going to accelerate with increased adoption. “Those that are early adopters of technology will see the benefits,” concludes Wilson.

Download complimentary infographic summarizing findings of this U.K study at: http://bit.ly/2izhHte Source: Fosway Group

DOE Funds Personalized Education Initiatives

Learning Ovations, Digital Promise, UCI, and MDRC were awarded U.S. Department of Education EIR Grants to scale personalized literacy instruction for United2Read Project.

The five-year expansion grant aims to have 90% or more of students reading at grade level by third grade, and to improve district, school, and teacher capacity.

Learn more: http://prn.to/2yG34Lh

Only 12% of organizations use Artificial Intelligence currently.

– David Wilson, Fosway Group

Deals FACEBOOK launches Ocu-

lus for Business product line; Partners with Cisco with Spark product line. VR version of Spark is a collaboration platform that supports messaging, voice calls and video conversations. Spark in VR allows remote workers to meet and communicate in virtual environments using avatars, allowing them to brainstorm on virtual whiteboards and interact with files. There are also integrations with

Cisco’s digital whiteboard, Spark Board.

INTELLIBOARD announced its new Premium Integrator partnership with Moodle, the world’s largest, mostadopted, open-source learning platform. Corporate and educational users of Moodle worldwide can use the IntelliBoard plugin to significantly augment their reports and analytics – leveraging the rich data stores captured within their Moodle sites.

HR.COM, a Human Resource

education and career development site, is teaming up with Degreed, a career skillsbuilding platform, to provide online certification and accreditation programs for HR professionals. The new Degreed Skill Certification portal tests and scores applicant expertise levels in more than 1,500 skill sets. The partnership will provide HR.com’s 1.1 million members new routes to track online learning and continuing education credits,

in addition to professional development content.

ALIAT UNIVERSIDADES selected D2L’s Brightspace to modernize its teaching and learning experiences for its 3,500 teachers and 45,000 students. Aliat is a network of 27 Mexican universities based in Mexico City. It has a presence in 15 Mexican states and offers a variety of programs, degrees, specializations, master’s programs and doctorate programs.

Elearning! November / December 2017

9

FirstLook

Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study The 2017/2018 Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study conducted by Elearning! Media Group via an online survey of learning professionals reveals the current trends and purchase plans for 2018. These findings were tabulated from approximately 300 responses across corporate, government, education and non-profit organizations. The study was conducted industry wide and includes Elearning! subscribers and community members.

87% Own LMS

68% Are Cloud Based

22.5%

27% Own

Cloud 31.4% AreBased 8.8%

LCMS

Own TMS

23% Open

Are OnPremise

(Behind Firewall)

Source

Who Learning Platform Serves?

83.2%

TMS Deployments

70.4%

Support external learners (channel, customers, suppliers)

47.8%

Deploy to employees

Plans to Add, Change or Replace LMS

LMS/LCMS owners plan to change systems

33% Non- owners plan to purchase a system 10% Buyers are purchasing LMSs

26% are purchasing LCMSs

Increase Employee Engagement

51.8%

Personalize Learning

Plans to Add Change or Replace TMS

75%

Novice

33.3 %

33.4%

33.3%

44.7%

Drive Sales & Profits

467,925*

$

$

New Investment to Acquire Learning System

*Average per buyer

Discover Must Have Features, Brand Ownership & Awareness, Buying Process and Roles in 2018 Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study Full Report Available February 2018 at 2elearning.com.

November / December 2017 Elearning!

8.8%

Buyers TMS Sponsored Expertiseby(Self Reported)

960,650*

10

26.1%

Serve global locations

TMS owners plan to add, change or replace system

Non-owners plan to acquire a TMS

7.1%

Top 3 reasons for investing in learning & talent systems:

67.8%

26.1%

Are supporting one Deployed across location (department multiple U.S. locations or enterprise)

Expert/Very Familiar

Somewhat Familiar

New Investment to Acquire TMS Sponsored by

Trendlines

Three Top HR Tech Trends

Global Corporate E-learning Market Expanding 19% Global corporate e-learning market is set to grow at a CAGR of close to 19% during the forecast period, 2017-2021 according to Technavio. The Americas currently account for $15.59 billion in revenues or 41% market share. EMEA represents 32.7% share and is expected to reach $30.82 billion by 2021. APAC regions is 26.3% share and will see 20% CAGR.

Sierra-Cedar released the 20th HR Technology Study this month. Three macro-trends were revealed:

“The market is expected to witness rapid growth during the forecast period owing to the increase in digitization and corporate realization of the importance of training in strengthening the workforce. In addition, e-learning helps companies overcome the obstacles that may arise from traditional learning formats,” says Jhansi Mary, research leader, Technavio.

10 Disruptions in the HR Technology Sector Josh Bersin, principle, Bersin by Deloitte revealed 10 disruptions that will transform the HR technology field. They are: New focus on tools for workforce productivity like mobile and social ERP and HCM move to the cloud as the talent market reinvents itself as “team management” Continuous performance management has arrived following talent from project to project, data driven and in real-time.

Explosion of feedback, pulse survey & analytics tools going beyond employee performance to well being Reinvention of corporate learning is here to keep pace with new technologies, A.I., machine learning and the like Recruiting market is rapidly changing and focused on smart recruiting Well being market is exploding to focus on the whole person vs solely on productivity People analytics market has grown and matured with embedded analytics, A.I. and organizational network analytics Intelligent self-service, communications and employee experience tools to facilitate decision-making HR departments are becoming digital and innovative, team-centric and intelligent Download the free Deloitte Infographic at: http://bit.ly/2yuun8D Source: Bersin by Deloitte

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1

Data security and IT risks are hot topics in the news this year. We see that 70% of the organizations with the highest HR Talent and business outcomes have a risk and security strategy that includes HR system.

2

As employees and leaders come of age in the world of big data, they expect a level of personalization and customization which HR Technology is beginning to address. 30% of organizations are increasing learning, recruiting, and HR data analytics roles to meet this need.

3

Next generation technology is designed to inform our decisions and simplify our activities; it’s meant to be invisible and ubiquitous in our lives. The line between what organizations want and what they can do may come down to Intelligent platforms.

The top HR technology initiative was business process improvement followed by HR systems strategy. The study queried 1320 organizations across 28 countries. Fifty-four percent were SMEs. Download the complete study free at: https://www.sierracedar.com/research/annual-survey/

30% of organizations are increasing learning, recruiting and HR data roles to meet needs.

– Sierra-Cedar Study

Elearning! November / December 2017

11

Leader’sView What Is Your True Company Culture?

BY JOE BURTON, CEO, WHIL, INC.

I Joe Burton, CEO of Whil, Inc.

12

recently had the privilege of training 25 companies on mindfulness practices. Part of our session was on corporate culture. It’s a topic that I love to speak about, because most companies have a candy coating to their true corporate culture. My favorite definition of culture comes from the Harvard Business Review. It refers to culture as “consistent, observable patterns of behavior in organizations.”

The problem with corporate culture is often the difference between internal public relations (P.R.) and reality. The P.R. view is usually consistent across big companies. It goes something like, “Working here is amazing, fun, a growth opportunity where everyone loves each other and treats each other wonderfully. Best. Place. Ever. Oh, and snacks.”

The truth tends to be a different story. Most attendees share a list of common challenges in the corporate world including: >> doing more with less (faster, cheaper) >> disconnected management >> offshoring >> technology challenges >> offshoring innovation (sending employees the wrong message) >> risky competition >> increasing injury rates >> absenteeism and presenteeism on the rise We had 12 industries in the room, including real estate, technology, automotive, banking, consulting and consumer products. All agreed the challenges were universal — the norm. If this list is the norm, then by definition, it’s part of your company culture; the consistent, observable patterns of behavior in your organization. You don’t have to talk about it; it just happens.

November / December 2017 Elearning!

We then turned our attention to disruption. Every company has normal challenges. But we also have disruptive forces that ebb and flow, making the challenges even more difficult to work with. We started with basic disruption, the kind of global phenomenon we’re all sadly getting used to: terrorism, politics, technology espionage/theft.

I challenged the group to think about smaller disruptive forces. The ones we don’t talk about, but are massively damaging in the aggregate. For most companies, this includes: >> One-third of your employees suffers from insomnia. They show up unable to perform at their best. >> Four generations of employees must work together for the first time ever. And guess what? They hate each other! But few companies address the language, expectation and cultural divides that cause daily tension. >> Employees aren’t taught focus and awareness skills. Injury rates are on the rise, and 91 percent of work accidents are caused by human error. The average company has 3.2 injuries for every 100 employees, at a cost of $38,000 each. If you’re in a 10-percent margin industry, you have to make $380,000 just to cover injuries for every 100 employees. Do the math. >> 83 percent of employees name work as their biggest source of stress and anxiety. >> Gallup estimates 70 percent of employees are disengaged at work, and 18 percent are actively disengaged, including toxic employees intentionally looking to avoid work.

The group agreed that disruption is the norm. It’s part of your company culture; the consistent, observable patterns of behavior in your organization.

When it comes to company culture, the big question is this: Do you recognize the challenges and disruptive forces in running your business? Do you feel they’ll get worse in the next 10 to 15 years? Are you equipping your employees to be resilient in the face of increasing disruption and modern business requirements?

If you’re not addressing these, you might more realistically describe your culture as, “We demand faster, cheaper and ignore systemic market forces in the face of increased evidence that people don’t like it here. And we have good snacks.” If your culture is just taking disruption as the norm vs. actively working to address it, you may have a culture problem that a P.R. spin won’t help.

Here are some ways to solve that problem: >> Invest in the stress resiliency, mental well-being and coping skills of your employees. Mindfulness training has the benefit of helping the individual, while also opening him or her up to having more empathy and compassion toward one another. >> Look for more opportunities for employees to come together to create community. Whether it’s monthly happy hours, celebrating big wins with team karaoke or team “offsites,” a team in with which the individuals bond with one another will build a culture that is imperative to the functioning of the company. >> Add mental well-being to your quarterly staff surveys. When in doubt, ask. Check in on the level of stress in an open and transparent way with the intention of opening up the conversation instead of ignoring it. Ignoring it is resulting in 46 percent turnover for the average company in the U.S. >> Start small. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Find what the biggest issue is first, and focus on that for a quarter. Then move onto the next big thing. Just like habits, you need to focus on each aspect of a company’s culture one at a time to make real change happen. >> Don’t let employee well-being slip, no matter what. When things get busy, the first thing that goes is that we forget to take care of ourselves. The same happens in business. Little do a lot of companies understand how much work suffers at the hands of poor well-being.

No company is perfect. But there are a lot of ways and resources to improve the inner workings of any organization.

—Joe Burton is CEO of Whil, Inc, a recognized authority on employee wellbeing, author and speaker.

WANT MORE? View Joe Burton’s Keynote at ELC17 on-demand at www.ELCEShow.com

Elearning! November / December 2017

13

Science Lastof Learning How to Make Training Engaging and Effective

E

Dean Pichee, Founder and President of BizLibrary

very business has its challenges when it comes to training employees, but there are three issues in particular that plague companies trying to improve their training programs. All three of those issues result in low ROI and negative views of training when they’re not addressed.

Effective training looks much different today than it did 30, 15, even 5 years ago. We have more access to data and scientific evidence that proves traditional approaches to training aren’t as effective as they could be if modern methods were incorporated.

Your employees have become accustomed to constant connection through various devices. They have access to media that’s relevant to whatever they’re looking for — whether it’s learning how to complete a task, being entertained, hearing about current events, etc. They expect their training experience to be up-to-date with the technology they’re using daily, and to deliver the information they need to be successful in their job.

In a 2017 report, Execu|Search found that 76 percent of Millennials rank professional development opportunities as one of the most important elements of a company’s culture. Considering that they are already making up about half of the American workforce, paying attention to the learning needs and preferences rising from Millennials’ development is crucial for a company to see any return on its training investment.

So, what are the needs and preferences of modern learners? Short content that delivers the message without overloading the brain’s natural capacity to take in information. Video-based content with high production value. Reinforcement of training to move important information to long-term memory. If your training is too long, unengaging, and lacking reinforcement opportunities, it’s time to make some changes.

CREATE A MICROLEARNING HABIT When you’re taking employees off the job for training or having them sit through hour-long courses, you’re missing the opportunity to help them become better at learning. With packed schedules and endless to-do lists, your employees need the ability to learn relevant information whenever and wherever they need it. This means they need short bursts of training (less than 10 minutes) that can be incorporated into each day, a.k.a. microlearning.

Utilizing microlearning not only decreases cognitive load and allows for a higher percentage of the information to be absorbed, but it creates a habit of learning every day — which is a foundation of innovative and agile organizations.

QUALITY MATTERS: IS YOUR TRAINING A BLAST FROM THE PAST? One of the biggest complaints from employees about their employer-provided training programs is that the content is out of date. Training videos from the 1980s are hard to take seriously when you’re distracted by the wardrobe choices and the inferiority of the technology. Video is the most popular and most effective format for a wide variety of training topics, but learners today will have a hard time engaging with anything that doesn’t have high production value or clearly demonstrate that it’s relevant to their job today.

HOW TO PREVENT TRAINING FROM BEING FORGOTTEN The third and most critical issue has nothing to do with what happens during training. It’s all about what happens afterward. Our brains are wired to forget things that they deem unimportant, and they do so at a stunningly rapid rate. Within 24 hours of a training event, your employees will have forgotten 70 percent of what they learned — unless you counteract this natural forgetfulness with post-training reinforcement.

Making training memorable means using spaced repetition to help short-term memory transfer to long-term. Using quizzes right away promotes the first stage of recall, and then spacing out follow up questions (multiple choice, short answer, polls, etc.) signals to the brain that this information needs to be used, therefore it should be moved to long-term memory. Whether learners answer follow-up questions correctly isn’t important. Provide them with the correct answer, and the benefits of forced recall still stand.

To see greater engagement and ROI in your employee training program, try incorporating modern microlearning with post-training reinforcement.

14

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Are your employees tired of long, boring eLearning content?

Get results by delivering a next-generation training solution combining award-winning microlearning lessons and post-training reinforcement.

6,000+ Microlearning Lessons

Reinforcement Boosters

Guaranteed Results

Learn more at bizlibrary.com 888.432.3077

Learning! 100 Profile:

Driving the Innovation Agenda ABOUT BAYER: Bayer is a life science company with a more than 150-year history and core competencies in the areas of health care and agriculture. With its innovative products, it is contributing to finding solutions to some of the major challenges of our time. The business divisions include pharmaceuticals, crop science, consumer health and animal health. Bayer’s business success is based to a large extent on the knowledge, skills, commitment and satisfaction of its employees. As a modern international employer, it offers employees attractive conditions and wide-ranging individual development opportunities.

Bayer employees 115,200 across the globe, and is in the process of acquiring Monsanto. —More info: https://www.youtube. com/watch?v=U7yqCsg3Hr0

16

November / December 2017 Elearning!

PASSIONATE COACHES RECEIVE SPECIFIC TRAINING ON HELPING BAYER, A GLOBAL COMPANY, BECOME EVEN MORE INNOVATIVE.

BY CHARA BALASUBRAMANIAM, JULIA HITZBLECK, MELANIE HEROULT, KRYSIA SOMMERS AND HENNING TRILL Can one learn innovation skills? At Bayer, the answer is a resounding YES! Innovation is defined as the process of translating an idea or invention into a good

or service that creates value or for which customers will pay, according to the Business Dictionary. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need.

The life science industry is surrounded by innovation. Digitalization is creating new business models that are increasingly driving value. Disruptive technologies with big data are transforming R&D and customer approaches. Societal changes are occurring, including aging and increasing populations.

Plus, consumerism has customers taking a more active role in decision-making.

Elearning! November / December 2017

17

bayerinnovation When Bayer needed to spark the imagination of employees, it embraced innovation, and embarked on a journey to do just that.

Bayer recognizes that the world is changing, and to remain competitive in the fields of pharmaceuticals, crop science and consumer health, it needs to become even faster and more agile. The company also believes it is not about “doing innovation,” it’s about “innovating in what we do.” This mindset is central to Bayer’s future success. Words such as these come easily, and putting it into action is where Bayer has excelled.

To be truly innovative requires the right culture, as revealed in Bayer’s Annual Report: “To further strengthen our innovation culture, we have identified four Focus Behaviors, namely Experimentation, Customer Focus, Collaboration — all underpinned by Trust.”

Innovation requires a shift in mindset. Instead of claiming, “I have no time,” its better to think, “Let’s make time and ask, ‘what if ’?” Rather than accept the “what has always been,” challenge the status quo.

INNOVATION ENABLERS To help cultivate the right mindset, Bayer has established Innovation Enablers: Inspire, Learn, Collaborate, Connect.

Inspire - to explore and experiment through stories and events. Bayer chief information officer Johannes Schubmehl strongly believes in giving people freedom to innovate. “I love jamming,” he shares. “You can never predict the outcome of an experimental session. Usually the result is completely new and cool.” Experiment, trust and empower your team. “Watch what happens when inspiration, aspiration and passion come together,” says Schubmehl.

‘Empowering our people by strengthening their innovation capabilities is the foundation for securing our future success.’

—Kemal Malik, Board Member for Innovation Innovation Platform - All topics connected to the Innovation Agenda (Inspire, Learn, Collaborate, Connect) are conveniently hosted on the YOUniverse Web application, Bayer’s one-stop shop that enables employees to innovate. The YOUniverse application has had more than 25,000 registered users since its launch in September 2016. The site features more than 500 articles (including stories, learning documents and opportunities to collaborate).

For the Learn section, for example, Bayer staff can find: >> More than 40 guides on innovation methodologies and ap18

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Bayer is on track to exceed a thousand business challenges tackled by the end of 2017. proaches, for self-study and reference.

>> Webinars on innovation topics like

customer-focused innovation, and innovation methodologies to overcome employee survey hotspots. >> Online courses in collaboration with IDEO U around elements of design thinking. >> Training on systematic inventive thinking with two-day courses to invite employees to learn and apply methodologies to innovate.

Innovation Applied - With recent advances in learning and development on the topic of innovation at Bayer, particularly the establishment of a business-focused Innovation Academy, the company believes it is now at the world’s helm when it comes to driving innovation by truly learning, doing and impacting.

To help unleash the full innovation potential of more than 100,000 employees, Bayer has designed an Innovation Agenda, of which learning is a critical component.

Together with strong support from leaders and managers, the passionate and powerful Innovation Network (consisting of more than 80 Innovation Ambassadors and more than 600 dedicated Innovation Coaches) to promote, moderate and contribute toward driving innovation culture and activities from within the core of the company. Innovation Coaches have the passion to innovate and now the power to change.

INNOVATION COACH ON-BOARDING This approach came from within the company based upon industry best practices. It was co-created with a great external partner company, Systematic Inventive Thinking (SIT).

The challenge was to realize objectives in a sustainably successful manner by creating a powerful network of more than 600 fullytrained Innovation Coaches worldwide who had to be: 1. Promoters of innovation among their colleagues in an engaging way.

2. Moderators, by applying an innovation methodology in an innovation minisession to unleash the creative power of their colleagues.

become catalysts for the change that the company envisioned. It was a new network within Bayer. Challenges included: the wide geographical spread of coaches and different time zones; lack of space for Coaches to build new relationships; limited resource availability of Coaches (both time and access to budget); and lack of time for Coaches to reflect on what differentiates them from other existing communities.

While inspiring Innovation Coaches about

At Bayer, it is not about ‘doing innovation;’ it’s about ‘innovating in what we do.’

3. Contributors, by sharing tips and tools with their colleagues.

Further, once the Coaches were onboarded, their professional development needed to be supported so that they could

innovation can be easy, finding their relevance to innovation at Bayer can prove to be challenging.

The leaders of the countries and functions nominated Innovation Coaches

Elearning! November / December 2017

19

bayerinnovation (dedicating 10 percent of their time) who had a passion for innovation. From June 2016 to August 2017, more than 600 Coaches had been on-boarded via initial face-to-face training, supplemented by many other custom processes and tools.

The initial training lasted three days and was held in all the major Bayer sites worldwide, with a general positive average of 4.8 out of 5.0 evaluation score — one of the highest scores in all Bayer learning and training. The Coaches not only learned more about their new role, they discovered an innovation methodology (called systematic inventive thinking) and applied it to real business challenges.

This training was then supplemented by: >> Online Coach Community calls to share successes and support coaches with their challenges. >> Interactive live webinars with the use of real-time video to learn new techniques such as visual thinking to express ideas. >> Advanced training for high-performing Coaches who moderated more than 10 innovation mini-sessions.

All of this was delivered via an online in-

novation platform called YOUniverse with an invitation from the Innovation Academy to the remaining 99,000 employees at Bayer to also learn and acquire innovation skills such as design thinking.

IMPACT OF ON-BOARDING PROGRAM Through effective on-boarding and development of coaches, Bayer is now able to directly realize the return on investment.

Coaches have been given guidance on how

to measure the impact of their tasks: i) Promoter (to inspire one person a day on innovation) ii) Moderator (to facilitate one innovation mini-session a month) iii) Contributor (to publish one story a year on YOUniverse or contribute to Community Calls and webinars) The Coaches’ task of being a moderator who facilitates innovation mini-sessions on real business challenges is already leading

‘Innovation is not a value in itself.

It has to deliver a purpose…to contribute to improve the life of our customers. This is what drives us and where our passion lies.’

—Monika Lessl, Head of Corporate Innovation and R&D to major benefits. Using the methodology that they learned, they are helping to break cognitive fixedness within the company around product, process, business model and service topics. Bayer is on track to exceed a thousand business challenges tackled by the end of 2017 — each one leading to a potential solution.

This role of a Coach is now part of an individual’s growth and career path, and is recognized and supported by management. In addition, the network is making waves internally, and new Coaches are being nominated daily. At Bayer, the saying “Innovation starts with you” is true. And who better to lead this than its Coaches.

—Chara Balasubramaniam, Julia Hitzbleck, Melanie Heroult, Krysia Sommers and Henning Trill authored this article.

But this has been driven by the entire Corporate Innovation and R&D team, and made possible by all the talented and committed people from the Bayer Innovation network, who all deserve recognition.

Bayer is a 2017 Learning! 100 winner for Innovation. It is the company’s second Learning! 100 award.

20

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Three Priorities for Every Data-Driven Leader LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT PROFESSIONALS HAVE TO NOT ONLY UP THEIR MEASUREMENT GAME BUT ACTUALLY BECOME DATA-DRIVEN LEADERS.

BY JENNY DEARBORN, MED, MBA A few years back, “big data” was all the rage. Today, you may be more likely to hear “data analytics.” The bottom line remains the same: You have to change yourself, your team, your way of operating and — most importantly — your strategic approach to doing business with stakeholders.

To do this, you must become a data-driven leader committed to learning the basics. You can’t walk the walk until you can talk the talk. Then, find and nurture allies. A successful data analytics initiative requires friends in high and low places. Finally, reassess the profit and loss statements (P/Ls). Changing your approach to data starts with changing your mindset, which starts with the key performance indicators (KPIs) that you measure outcomes instead of activity.

Only six percent of companies are at the top tier in data analytics.

Elearning! November / December 2017

21

datadriven THE STATE OF DATA TODAY Statistically speaking, you’re likely at or near the beginning of your data analytics journey. But it’s time for change. In 2016, 54 percent of companies had a chief data officer, up 12 percent since 2012. And they have a key seat at the proverbial strategic table. In contrast, the 2017 Bersin Learning Organization Maturity Model, which tracks companies at four levels of L&D maturity, tells a very different story about our use of data. Thirty-five percent of companies surveyed are in the bottom tier, Level 1. They are still focused solely on traditional metrics like feedback from learners, stakeholders and follow-up assessments.

At Level 4, the Bersin model’s top tier, it’s a totally different data universe. Companies are collecting new data while utilizing existing data to improve development and work. Bersin’s findings on the implications for their businesses are pretty compelling. These organizations score better on performance improvement, information architecture, knowledge management, human factor design and content curation than less mature peers. And, perhaps most importantly given how rapid technological advances are changing work and society every day, these companies can look ahead

22

November / December 2017 Elearning!

the future and ready employees to adapt to change. But they’re only six percent of companies in the study.

RISKS OF IGNORANCE What’s so wrong doing things the way you’ve always done them and not aspiring to data maturity? In short, by not leveraging data analytics or doing so without the right guidance, L&D organizations severely limit their ability to solve problems and advance business strategies. That’s what makes them order takers instead of valued partners.

Other more fundamental risks to watch for: >> Decision-making by gut, not fact Common sense can sometimes be our enemy, because sense and logic can be deeply personal and subjective. Data, however, can remove guesswork, biases, anecdotal reasoning and other human foibles that can throw strategic efforts off course. Data can also take the emotion out of business discussions and break down silos as objective metrics light the way forward. >> Solving the wrong problem You’ve surely been there — weeks or months of effort to resolve a vexing challenge are revealed to have been a waste of time, resources and goodwill,

because the challenge turned out to be a misunderstanding, a red herring or a rush to judgment. Data helps avoid predetermined (and often erroneous) approaches to problem solving. >> Measuring efficiency rather than effectiveness Your team may take pride in having filled all available seats for your latest learning endeavor. But is your company better served by getting “butts in seats” or by ensuring that those employees are learning the right content at the right time in a way that drives the intended results? Even the most advanced L&D organizations on the planet can benefit from revisiting the metrics they’re capturing to ensure a focus on effectiveness and not just efficiency.

Too many companies, and L&D functions, don’t focus on defining and achieving measurable outcomes that align with and advance business strategy.

YOUR ACTION PLAN Here are three very straightforward actions you can take to advance on your journey as a data driven leader.

First, start with learning the basics.

You won’t get very far if you can’t speak the language and follow along in conversations. You don’t need to become an expert, but it’s crucial that you read up and get with the basic parlance.

Information without interpretation has little value. You or a member of your team may not be running the numbers, but analytics requires business understanding to give it meaning and power. It’s relatively easy these days to “buy” the services of a data statistician. What you can’t buy is someone who knows your organization and can ask the right questions.

Start with the four types of analytics.

Data analytics is commonly categorized as descriptive, diagnostic, predictive or prescriptive. They are separate from, but roughly align with, Bersin’s four levels of L&D maturity. a. Descriptive analytics asks, “What has happened?” Mining data to provide trending information on past or current events provides decision-making guidance for future actions, often in the form of key performance indicators. Descriptive analytics data is usually displayed

1

within reports or dashboards, which are sometimes automated to issue alerts or trigger actions at various thresholds. In day-to-day business operations, much of analytics is descriptive in nature. b. Diagnostic analytics asks, “Why has this happened?” Utilizing statistical and analytical techniques to identify relationships in data sets and degrees of correlation between variables helps pinpoint the causes of problems and formulate corrective solutions. c. Predictive analytics asks, “What could happen?” The term encompasses a variety of techniques, such as statistics, modeling, machine learning and data mining, which are used for finding correlations within big sets of current and historical facts, to make useful predictions about future events. d. Prescriptive analytics asks, “What should we do?” It explores a set of possibilities and suggests optimal course(s) of action based on descriptive and predictive analyses of complex data. Utilizing advanced analytical and mathematical models, it can also provide reasons for its recommendations and possible implications of following them.

The best partner for a data scientist is both knowledgeable about the business and relentlessly curious about what makes it tick. This type of person knows how to probe for understanding and judge whether data “feels right.” Deep knowledge of your company, combined with data analytics prowess, is a winning combination.

Find and nurture allies.

If there’s one immutable law of data analytics, it’s that you cannot do it alone. Reach out, within and outside your company, to professionals who are successfully using their data; take them to lunch and ask lots of questions.

It’s especially important to identify key data players within your company or nonprofit: the data experts, gatekeepers and evangelists, whether in I.T., a data-savvy group like finance or marketing, or on the board. There are a few reasons for this.

First, you may encounter leaders who resent both you and the very notion of data analytics. As that kind of resistance demonstrates, moving to a data-driven leadership culture, like any change effort, will bring out the best in some people and the worst

2

Moving to a datadriven leadership culture, like any change effort, will bring out the best in some people and the worst in others. in others. Some will instantly grasp its meaning and potential, while others may be skeptical, cynical or worse. It’s important to find allies early, as detractors may be frequent and fervent.

Another reason to seek allies is practical.

Most L&D organizations lack the experience and clout to single-handedly lead a data analytics change effort, especially if it requires data from outside your function. Building strong relationships with leaders from one or more lines of business (such as sales, marketing or operations), you can gain: a. Understanding: These functions tend to already be engaged in data analytics and thus have familiarity and resources valuable to an analytically-aspiring L&D team. b. Access: Teams already heavily using analytics are likely data gatekeepers whose cooperation (and data) you will need to be successful. c. Advice: Analytics-minded executives can help focus change efforts on concrete, measurable business outcomes, avoiding potentially narrower, L&Dfocused issues (although it’s generally advisable to start small, you’ll do well to think beyond L&D to all of your company as you become a strategic, data driven leader).

Reassess KPIs. The third priority is an underlying mindset shift. Data analytics is a means to an end: improving your team’s performance. But that can only happen if you are measuring the right outcomes. Are

3

you capturing efficiencies only, or also effectiveness? What have you always wanted to measure? Once you start to look at measurement in a different light, you’ll likely be motivated by the new potential you see to prove to yourself and your stakeholders that what you do matters and advances organizational strategies.

The first mindset shift is to use data to measure outcomes rather than activity. Mature organizations collect more data at more frequent intervals from more sources and are therefore better at understanding their organizations and what they need in order to make work better, and to utilize metrics and data sources that measure results of actions and not just the actions themselves.

Let’s look for a moment at so-called “rear-view mirror KPIs”: what happened. A classic example is using learner evaluation scores as evidence of impact. Yet when my team looked more closely at this a few years ago, our research showed that sales training survey results were typically driven by room temperature, food quality, and whether the presenter was funny. There was no correlation between learner feedback scores and sales rep productivity.

Assessing whether the course achieved its defined goals and objectives requires an entirely different, and more sophisticated, set of questions and measures but will enable learning teams to objectively demonstrate to their stakeholders and themselves that their efforts positively impacted the business.

L&D professionals who are measuring rear-view mirror KPIs have simply been doing their job as they were asked to do it, aiming to fulfill the expectations of their internal customers. This brings me to another critical mindset shift required to change you from an order taker to a strategic partner, and it’s yours.

L&D leaders must take the initiative. We must not wait for business stakeholders to change their expectations of us. It is up to us to hold our executives accountable for defining desired business outcomes — and have them hold us accountable for tracking our impact on those outcomes.

YOUR NEW END GAME Achieving these priorities and especially these mindset changes are the critical first steps toward measuring impact instead of activity.

Elearning! November / December 2017

23

60 Bra Named ‘Best of E

ands Elearning! ’

EIGHT NEW BRANDS ENTER THE WINNERS CIRCLE

BY JERRY ROCHE

Celebrating their 13th year, the Best of Elearning! awards recognize 60 brands across 20 categories for excellence. As the industry’s exclusive users’-choice awards, all nominations are made directly by users of solutions to an open-ended online ballot monitored and tallied by Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines. These awards honor best-in-class solutions across the learning and technology marketplace.

“As the exclusive users’-choice awards in the industry, the Best of Elearning! awards have become a trusted resource for learning professionals to specifying solutions,” says Catherine Upton, publisher for the Elearning! Media Group.

“We thank our loyal readers and community members for their nominations and congratulate each honoree.”

The Best of Elearning! awards program was first implemented to formalize the recommendation and purchase process for the elearning community. Research indicated 85 percent of readers had recommended an elearning solution to a peer over the most recent

12-month period, and 61 percent claimed that award recognition “impacts their decision” to consider a product or service. The Best of E-learning! program formalizes this referral process.

THE WINNERS CIRCLE Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines are honored to reveal the 60 brands named Best of Elearning! This year, eight brands are first-time honorees. They are: >> Babbel.com’s Language Learning >> Bigger Brains’ Microsoft Office Library >> Content Raven’s Learning Experience Platform >> Cypher Learning’s Matrix LMS >> Elearningforce’s LMS365 >> ITU Online’s I.T. Courses >> J.J. Keller & Associates’ Training On Demand >> Learnosity’s assessment solution Multiple category winners this year are: Vado’s Leadership Development, Management Development and H.R. Compliance Toolkit; ej4’s Software Skills, Selling Skills and Thinkzoom; Adobe’s Captivate and Connect; Articulate’s Storyline 360 and Replay 360; and BizLibrary’s Collection and Community.

Companies returning to the winners circle with Awards of Excellence this year are: BizLibrary’s Cloud LMS, Community and Connection; dominKnow’s LCMS; Adobe’s Connect; ej4’s Business Skills, Sales

Skills and Thinkzoom; Vubiz’s Compliance Library; and Articulate’s Storyline.

New this year, Elearning! magazine selected two brands as Hall of Fame winners.

This distinction is to honor brands that have made extraordinary advances in the learning solutions industry. The 2017 Hall of Fame honorees are Adobe and BizLibrary.

Hall of Fame details are found on page 40.

ABOUT THE VOTING PROCESS Elearning! Media Group community members, readers, subscribers and online community were invited to nominate their solution provider via an online ballot during June 1 to October 1, 2017. The ballot was open-ended with 20 categories stipulated. At close, the ballots were reviewed. Duplicates were removed, vendor ballots were nullified as well as votes without a verifiable company domain address (ex.: gmail, aol, etc.). Editors verified product types and categories before counting. The top vote earners in each category were identified as finalists. Those with a 10 percent lead over all other products in a category earned category winner status. Close vote counts and runnersup earned Awards of Excellence.

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

AND THE WINNERS ARE… Elearning! and Government Elearning! magazines take great pride in announcing the Best of Elearning! 2017 winners:

Elearning!

November / December 2017 ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

25

bestofelearning

Platforms LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – CLOUD

WINNER: D2L Brightspace LMS

Award of Excellence: Adobe Captivate Prime

PRODUCT INFORMATION D2L Brightspace is an integrated learning platform or learning environment for students who are enrolled in seated, hybrid and online courses.

Brightspace can run online, blended and CBE programs — or even MOOCs — at the same time on a single platform. It is LTI standards-compliant with a full API set and pre-built integrations. It lets you go beyond basic reporting by turning raw data into real insights that you can act on quickly to provide timely guidance.

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

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

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Instructional Design Wizard aligns content, objectives and instructional strategies >> Quizzes, surveys and assignments measure progress with optional TurnItIn integration >> Course delivery can be fully online, flipped, hybrid or blended CUSTOMERS Rochester Institute of Technology, Walmart, Babcock & Wilcox Canada CONTACT INFORMATION 151 Charles Street West, Suite 400 Kitchener, ON, Canada N2G 1H6 (877) 352-7329 or (519) 772-0325 https://www.d2l.com/products/

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Modern UI built on single Web page architecture that eliminates navigating multiple pages with a friendly user interface and fast application performance >> Content-LMS integration that is virtually plug and play >> Track multi-format e-learning content such as PPTX, video, PDF, and DOCX files and xAPI-, AICC-, and SCORMcompliant packages.

CUSTOMERS Publicis Media, BancSource, Prism HR CONTACT INFORMATION 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 (408) 536-6000 www.adobe.com/products/captivateprime. html

26

November / December 2017 Elearning!

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – ENTERPRISE

Award of Excellence: eLogic Learning eSSential LMS PRODUCT INFORMATION The eSSential LMS makes delivering, tracking and reporting training activity faster, easier and more accurate. Founded on an agile development philosophy, eLogic continuously adds new functionality based on feedback from clients.

You can cost-effectively deliver online training to your employees, customers and partners. And access training materials anywhere, anytime - at the touch of a button. And you never have to worry about a compliance audit again.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Displays seamlessly on any device >> Customize course descriptions and images >> Design branded templates (email, certificates, etc.) to promote training >> Wide range of standard reports and ad-hoc reporting CUSTOMERS Northern Tool & Equipment, Outback Steakhouse, Massage Envy Spa CONTACT INFORMATION 14934 N. Florida Ave. Tampa, FL 33613 (813) 901-8600 www.elogiclearning.com

bestofelearning

Platforms OTHER LEARNING PLATFORM

WINNER: The BizLibrary Collection PRODUCT INFORMATION BizLibrary’s learning technology platform is intuitive and responsive, allowing your employees unlimited access to workplace training content on any device, anytime and anywhere for true just-in-time learning.

The library contains thousands of microvideos, covers a wide variety of topic areas, and includes additional support materials to further increase learning retention.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Content is approved for HR Certification Institute (HRCI) and Society for Human Resources Management (SHRM) accreditation >> Many lessons and courses include quizzes and additional support materials to extend the learning process, increasing both retention and the return on your training investment.

CUSTOMERS 3M, Kawasaki, Red Roof Inns, Energizer CONTACT INFORMATION: 14500 South Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 (888) 432-3077 www.bizlibrary.com

Award of Excellence: CrossKnowledge Learning Suite

Award of Excellence: Mastery Training Library

PRODUCT INFORMATION CrossKnowledge Learning Suite offers a most engaging learning experience to transform teams and business with lasting results. Leverage HRIS data to automatically register learners, create groups, assign content. Monitor your KPIs easily with customizable dashboards. Add content from various sources seamlessly.

The company’s “Blended” innovative learning technology converts the learning process into a group project that is integrated into each team member’s professional life. With Blended, you don’t have to choose between blended learning, selfdirected learning, mobile apps or MOOCs. It is effective in any context.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Mastery has been helping organizations train their employees on workplace safety for more than 20 years.

Immediately access more than 800 course topics to address training on topics such as environmental concerns, health and safety, customer service, leadership, team building, and management and supervision. Mastery has a scalable solution to meet your needs. It trains workers across all industries, from service companies to heavy manufacturing operations. It has employee training solutions for every size organization from 10 to 100,000 employees.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Social learning a vital component >> Proprietary algorithm suggests the most relevant trainings to individual learners >> Available to laptops, tablets or smartphones, depending on learners’ working context CUSTOMERS Engie, Comite International, Aviva, Jaguar Land Rover CONTACT INFORMATION 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030 (877) 725-7517 www.crossknowledge.com

28

November / December 2017 Elearning!

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Train anywhere, anytime >> Courses are SCORM compliant >> Reduce accidents, injuries and other losses >> Ensure compliance with your diversity, ethics and harassment policies CUSTOMERS Renewable Concepts, Remetronix, Cactus Feeders, Transystems CONTACT INFORMATION 41214 Bridge St. Novi, MI 48375 (800) 258-3837 www.mastery.com

Platforms LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM SOLUTION

WINNER: dominKnow Platform

WINNER: Adobe Connect

PRODUCT INFORMATION The dominKnow Platform is a Web-based authoring and publishing solution that helps teams collaborate in real-time, share and re-use content, and easily engage subject-matter experts in the review process.

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

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION The Adobe Connect Web conferencing software service offers immersive online meeting experiences for collaboration, virtual classrooms and large-scale webinars.

With Connect, you can create and deploy engaging on-demand learning content using Microsoft PowerPoint plug-in Adobe Captivate and Adobe Presenter. You can use the features of a learning management system (LMS) at a fraction of the cost with Adobe Connect, or integrate it with your existing LMS.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive and adaptive output >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring >> Content sharing and reuse >> Real-time collaboration >> Publish to LMS, LRS, apps, print CUSTOMERS Society of Actuaries, Underwriters Laboratories, Vital Learning, Larmer Brown CONTACT INFORMATION 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 (613) 800-8733 www.dominknow.com

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Measure live learner participation with engagement monitoring >> Brandable, customizable and persistent virtual classrooms >> Streamline live session management with intuitive backstage tools CUSTOMERS University of Arizona, SoDA (The Digital Society), Kentucky Labor Cabinet, BPP Professional Education CONTACT INFORMATION 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 (408) 536-6000 www.adobe.com/products

Meet the Best of Elearning!

Discover why these 60 brands are bestin-class. Join Elearning! Magazine at these Best of Elearning! events.

Elearning! Web Seminar Series Attend these free one-hour tech talks with award-winning technologists and users.

Best of Elearning!: Platforms Thurs, Feb 8th, 10 AM PDT Discover how award-winning learning or talent platforms can enable employee engagement, personalization and performance.

Best of Elearning!: Solutions Thurs, Feb 22nd, 10 AM PDT Preview award-winning content, tools and services driving employee performance and enterprise impact.

Best of Elearning!: E-learning Development Thurs, March 8th, 10 AM PDT Creating training that is personalized, predictive, mobile and delivered in the moment of need requires best-inclass tools. See them at work here.

Register for the Best of Elearning!

Web Seminar Series free at: http://www.2elearning.com/events/ current-events

Best of Elearning!

Awards Event Meet the Best of Elearning! at the Best of Elearning! Awards Ceremony and conferences.

Watch for details at: http://www.2elearning.com/awards/ best-of-elearning-awards Best of Elearning! is a Elearning! Media Group brand owned by B2B Media Company, LLC.

Elearning!

November / December 2017 ŠCopyright. No reproduction without permission.

29

bestofelearning

Content I.T. TRAINING

WINNER: ej4 Software Skills Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Want to know everything there is to know about I.T. training? Visit the ej4 “Software Skills” Library. There, you’ll find relatable information about gmail, SharePoint, Access 2013 and Excel 2010. You’ll discover how to tame your email inbox and how to interface with Outlook. You’ll also discover how to create an Access database and how to control data entry. And you’ll learn how important Excel workbooks are, how to format text and keyboard shortcuts.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Short videos, with an average length of 7 minutes, 12 seconds >> Ten videos added to the library every week >> Currently 1,500 videos covering not only software skills but… >> More than 35 total categories CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra CONTACT INFORMATION 12125 Woodcrest Executive Drive, Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 www.ej4.com

30

November / December 2017 Elearning!

LEADERSHIP TRAINING

Award of Excellence: Bigger Brains Microsoft Office Complete Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Bigger Brains offers expertly designed business skills courses in Microsoft Office, Google apps, sales, marketing, ethics, leadership and more.

A unique “teacher/learner” format avoids a one-way information dump, creating an engaging conversation, with dialogue, questions and answers, humor and more.

SCORM bundles allow organizations to load their LMSs with high-quality, searchable courses on Microsoft Office and other productivity topics.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Courses capture and maintain your attention >> No tedious or boring lectures >> Requires only minutes to learn and master a new skill >> Topics focus on real-world, practical knowledge and skills CUSTOMERS ej4, OpenSesame, Halogen Software, Callidus Cloud CONTACT INFORMATION 1520 E. Greenville St., Suite D Anderson, SC 29621 (864) 421-6950 or (800) 743-2724 www.getbiggerbrains.com

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Helps learners apply learning on the job through step-by-step instructions and exercises >> All of Vado’s courses start with a short, high-definition (HD) instructional video >> Content optimized for the mobile learner CUSTOMERS Baylor Scott & White Health, Frasca Flight Simulation, Kingston General Hospital CONTACT INFORMATION P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 (952) 545-6698 www.vadoinc.net

editable off-the-shelf e-learning courseware buy...edit...deliver your branding your videos your graphics your forms

our courses

vadoinc.net/EditableContent

bestofelearning

Content LEADERSHIP TRAINING

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

Employees take training more seriously when you invest in quality materials with relevant content. Not only that, but the material is engaging. When employees hear content that is relevant to them, delivered by people who look and sound like they do, retention and application of content is increased.

Topics include “Becoming a Great Leader,” “What Is Mentoring?,” “The Importance of Succession Planning” and “Managing Interns.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> “Plug-and-play” content fits any organization, providing information that is ready-to-use now >> Short formats and on-demand availability >> Line managers can look up the topics or skills they need on the spot then get back to work quickly having learned something new >> Learners can receive training at the workplace or at home, whichever is more convenient CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra

SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

WINNER: Vado Management Development Learning Track PRODUCT INFORMATION Vado offers numerous soft skill development courses for a variety of performance areas and competencies including: Career development, coachng, communication, conflict management, delegating work, development, employee engagement, feedback; Leadership, meeting management, onboarding, recognition, retaining employees, supervision basics, teamwork and work relationships.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Helps learners apply learning on the job through step by step instructions and exercises >> All courses start with a short, highdefinition (HD) instructional video >> Content optimized for the mobile learner CUSTOMERS Baylor Scott & White Health, Frasca Flight Simulation, Kingston General Hospital CONTACT INFORMATION P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 (952) 545-6698 www.vadoinc.net

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

32

November / December 2017 Elearning!

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

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

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Quizzes, handouts and additional support materials >> Mobile-friendly >> HRCI, SHRM, PDU accredited content >> Knowledgable staff that focuses on customers CUSTOMERS King’s Hawaiian, American Red Cross, Dollar General, Red Roof Inn CONTACT INFORMATION: 14500 South Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 (888) 432-3077 www.bizlibrary.com

Content SOFT SKILLS TRAINING

Award of Excellence: ej4 Business Skills Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Just when you think you’ve seen everything, along comes ej4 and its “Just” products: Just as needed - Create programs with the specific topics your employees need. Just enough - Find the most useful, actionable material in an easy-to-digest format. Just in time - Get content right when you need it with on-demand learning tools. Just right - Use ej4’s extensive library or customize your own learning experience.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> “Plug-and-play” content that fits any organization >> Short formats >> On-demand availability CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Allied World, Pepsi, Goodwill Industries CONTACT INFORMATION 12125 Woodcrest Executive Drive, Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 www.ej4.com

COMPLIANCE TRAINING

WINNERS (tie): Vado H.R. Compliance Tool Kit PRODUCT INFORMATION This training starts with the laws but goes beyond by teaching people how to behave toward others, and teaching how they can expect to be treated in return.

The Preventing Discrimination and Harassment Toolkit: “Preventing Discrimination and Harassment for Employees” (30 minutes) (available in Spanish); “Preventing Discrimination and Harassment for Managers” (60 minutes); and “Preventing Discrimination and Harassment for California/Connecticut Managers” (2 hours).

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Creative, flexible, interactive, experiential training >> Episode-based, broadcast quality and Millennial friendly CUSTOMERS Frasca International, IEWC Global Solutions, McKinstry CONTACT INFORMATION P.O. Box 390153 Minneapolis, MN 55439 (952) 545-6698 www.vadoinc.net

WINNERS (tie): Vubiz Compliance Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Almost 100 titles comprise the Vubiz Compliance Library. Some of the most popular titles include “Diversity in the Workplace,” “Fair Labor Standards Act,” “Healthcare Fraud and Abuse,” “Managing Workplace Stress,” “Sarbanes-Oxley Act Primer,” and “The Affordable Care Act.” FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Full service: content, development, and delivery software >> Thousands of hours of off-the-shelf content available for purchase as-is or tailored to a specific situation >> Large, diverse elearning library with more than 4,000 online hours CUSTOMERS Bumble Bee Foods, Canon, Davita Health Care, Goodrich Corp., Lockheed Martin CONTACT INFORMATION 2872 Colorado Ave. Santa Monica, CA 90404 (310) 358-9583 www.vubizl.com

Elearning!

November / December 2017 ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

33

bestofelearning

Content COMPLIANCE TRAINING

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

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Short, tactical e-learning >> Fully customizable >> Multi-platform, including mobile >> Most video titles are 10 minutes or less in length >> Off-the-shelf programs can be customized using ej4 Thinkzoom CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra CONTACT INFORMATION 12125 Woodcrest Executive Drive, Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 www.ej4.com

34

November / December 2017 Elearning!

SALES TRAINING

WINNER: ej4 Selling Skills Content PRODUCT INFORMATION ej4’s libraries consist of ready-to-use solutions for your organization’s specific needs.

They are broken up by topic in Business Skills, Workplace Compliance and Microsoft Office that can be deployed on any platform.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Other titles: Assertive Verbal Skills, Business Travel, Business Statistics, Business Writing, Time Value of Money, and more >> Library expands every month, based on customer feedback >> Course titles can be added upon customer request CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra CONTACT INFORMATION 12125 Woodcrest Executive Drive, Suite 300 St. Louis, MO 63141 (314) 878-6700 or (816) 489-4660 www.ej4.com

Award of Excellence: Baker Communications, Inc. Win-Win Negotiations PRODUCT INFORMATION BCI’s unique blend of training, technology and learning reinforcement is said to improve retention, change behavior, and produce high-performers.

BCI is committed to helping companies and individuals achieve world-class (top 2%) performance. It’s where top athletes find their home, where top sellers receive double-comma incomes, where leaders take their teams to new heights, and where companies leave their competition behind.

And surprisingly, BCI has shown that it sometimes takes only a small change in some of the fundamentals.

The company’s approach begins with unique classroom and online training. It then uses a mobile learning reinforcement tool and gamification to augment more traditional individual, manager and team coaching.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Ability to embed online training inside most CRMS and other software >> Learning and coaching is provided during normal workflows CUSTOMERS Moog, SpawGlass, HighMount Exploration and Production, Denali Alaskan FCU CONTACT INFORMATION 10333 Richmond Ave. Houston, Texas, 77042 (877) 253-8506 or (713) 627-7700 www.bakercommunications.com

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

Tools E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT SOLUTION

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

Using Claro can be as simple as importing a PowerPoint file and publishing. Or use a PowerPoint file as a starting point, adding learning activities and assessment questions for a fuller learning experience.

Plus, you can also easily create complex events like hiding and swapping content all the way through to inter-page branching.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive and adapative output >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring >> Content sharing and reuse >> Self-described “world-class support” CUSTOMERS Meridium, ViaSat Inc., Society of Actuaries, Underwriters Laboratories CONTACT INFORMATION 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 (613) 800-8733 www.dominknow.com

SIMULATIONS SOLUTION

WINNER: Adobe Captivate 2017

Award of Excellence: dominKnow Capture

PRODUCT INFORMATION With the Adobe Captivate 2017 release, you can automatically create fully responsive content using innovative “Fluid Boxes,” transform legacy courses to responsive e-learning with just a few clicks, and deliver beautiful fonts everywhere using Adobe Typekit integration.

Design all types of content: simulations, HD demos, assessments and more, with just one tool. Create storyboards using Adobe Captivate Draft, and turn them seamlessly into attractive courses.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Use dominKnow’s Capture to create crossplatform, software simulations for standalone use or integration with other learning content.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> More than 75,000+ free e-learning assets included >> Easy conversion to desktop courses and/or mobile learning >> Develop complex e-learning modules using advanced features or by writing your own scripts CUSTOMERS Nissan, Hotels.com, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Roche Diagnostics CONTACT INFORMATION 345 Park Ave. San Jose, CA 95110-2704 (408) 536-6000 www.adobe.com/products/captivate.html

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Real-time collaboration >> Publish to LMS, LRS, apps, print >> Built-in features, including customizable testing, branching, etc. >> Ability to receive feedback from content reviewers CUSTOMERS Vital Learning, LarmerBrown, Módulo GRC, Worldwide Interactive CONTACT INFORMATION 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 (613) 800-8733 www.dominknow.com

Elearning!

November / December 2017 ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

35

bestofelearning

Tools SOCIAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS

MOBILE AUTHORING TOOLS

WINNER: BizLibrary Community

Award of Excellence: ej4 The Quad

WINNER: ej4 Thinkzoom

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

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

It’s a great forum for sharing important articles, ideas for process, service or product improvements and funny or anecdotal stories.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Employees can now join their friends when they use the online learning library.

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION With Thinkzoom LMS, not only can you see which videos your employees are watching, but you can observe how well they comprehend the material with builtin interactive exams. You can set score requirements and even provide additional student materials so they can put their knowledge to practice.

This learning management system also has a comprehensive reporting feature that allows you to create custom reports based on users, groups, courses and topics. Understanding which courses are popular and which are lacking participation can help you measure your training progress and communicate future training goals.

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

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

CUSTOMERS Red Roof, FedBid, Watco Companies, Marquette Savings Bank

CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra

CUSTOMERS Kawasaki, Dr. Pepper/Snapple, Pepsi, Culligan, Mahindra

CONTACT INFORMATION 14500 South Outer Forty, Suite 500 Town and Country, MO 63017 (888) 432-3077 www.bizlibrary.com

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

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

36

November / December 2017 Elearning!

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Use off-the-shelf content or customize the off-the-shelf content >> Authoring tools for sharing companyspecific knowledge and content

Tools MOBILE AUTHORING TOOLS

Award of Excellence: CrossKnowledge Mohive PRODUCT INFORMATION Mohive is the CrossKnowledge digital publishing platform that lets you easily design and deliver custom e-learning content using a unique platform that simplifies each step of the process.

It quickly delivers content for the business world that is beautiful, engaging and efficient, with step-by-step guidance and a technology designed to drive content production and share knowledge.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive to every mobile device >> Focus on content while Mohive does the rest >> Different interactive activities without limits >> 100% Cloud-based for on-the-go learning CUSTOMERS Jaguar Land Rover, Equinix, Air France CONTACT INFORMATION 111 River St. Hoboken, NJ 07030 (877) 725-7517 www.crossknowledge.com

OUTSOURCE LEARNING SERVICES

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

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Built-in widgets like tab sets, panels and carousels >> Design and tracking tools are built in >> Project assets stored in one central location >> Comments logged and tracked for streamlined review CUSTOMERS Gabrielli Consulting, Meridium, ViaSat Inc, Vital Learning CONTACT INFORMATION 183 Michael Cowpland Dr. Kanata, ON Canada, K2M 0M3 (613) 800-8733 www.dominknow.com

Award of Excellence: Artisan E-learning Micro-learning PRODUCT INFORMATION Does your organizaiton need great e-learning courses that get you clear business results, yet you don’t have the time or know-how to develop courses internally? Artisan works with you and your subject-matter experts to gather, organize, design, write and build engaging, interactive e-learning courses.

Whether you are working with policies and procedures, compliance, product knowledge, computer systems, business skills, or just about any other topic, Artisan can help bring your content to life. Its people can start from scratch or convert your existing classroom training into media-rich, interactive e-learning courses that track to your learning management system (LMS) using SCORM standards, or that track to your learning record store (LRS) using xAPI. FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Get your course text translated properly while managing voiceovers, reassembling the course, and testing the content across several browsers >> Customer-responsive team includes Section 508 and WCAG experts, usability professionals, and tech-savvy designers CUSTOMERS JLG Industries, Crystal River Cruises, American Red Cross, Community Associations Institute CONTACT INFORMATION 52 Tuscan Way, Suite 202-379 St. Augustine, FL 32092 (904) 800-9395 www.artisanelearning.com

Elearning!

November / December 2017 ©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

37

bestofelearning

BEST OF ELEARNING! 2017 COMPLETE LIST OF HONOREES: PLATFORMS LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – CLOUD Winner:

D2L Brightspace LMS

Awards of Excellence:

Adobe Captivate Prime, Cornerstone OnDemand LMS, Cypher Learning MATRIX LMS, ePath Learning ASAP

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – ENTERPRISE Winner:

Elearningforce LMS365 On Premise

Awards of Excellence:

eLogic Learning eSSential LMS, SumTotal Systems Learn, Net Dimensions LMS

LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Winner:

dominKnow Platform

Awards of Excellence:

CD2 Learning Learning Platform

CONTENT I.T. TRAINING

E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL

Winner:

ej4 Software Skills Library

Winner:

Articulate Storyline 360

Awards of Excellence:

Bigger Brains Microsoft Office Complete Library, ITU Online I.T. courses, Pluralsight I.T. courses

Awards of Excellence:

dominKnow Claro

LEADERSHIP TRAINING Winner:

Awards of Excellence:

Vado Leadership Development Learning Track ej4 Leadership Content, The Ken Blanchard Companies Situational Leadership II

SOFT SKILLS TRAINING Winner:

Awards of Excellence:

OTHER LEARNING PLATFORM

Vado Management Development Learning Track BizLibrary Business Skills Collection, ej4 Business Skills Library

Winner:

The BizLibrary Collection

COMPLIANCE TRAINING

Awards of Excellence:

CrossKnowledge Learning Suite, Content Raven Learning Experience Platform, Master Training Services Mastery Training Library

Winners (tie): Awards of Excellence:

TALENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Winner: Awards of Excellence:

Cornerstone OnDemand Unified Talent Management SAP SuccessFactors, SumTotal Systems Talent Management Suite

WEB SEMINAR SOLUTION Winner:

Cisco WebEx

Awards of Excellence:

GetGo, Inc. Go2Webinar, On24

Vado H.R. Compliance Tool Kit, Vubiz Compliance Library ej4 Workplace Compliance Library, J.J. Keller & Associates Training on Demand

SALES TRAINING Winner:

ej4 Selling Skills Content

Awards of Excellence:

Baker Communiations, Inc. Win-Win Negotiations, The Ken Blanchard Companies Coaching Essentials

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM SOLUTION Winner:

Adobe Connect

Awards of Excellence:

Cisco WebEx Training Center, GetGo, Inc. GoToTraining

38

November / December 2017 Elearning!

TOOLS

©Copyright. No reproduction without permission.

SIMULATIONS SOLUTION Winner:

Adobe Captivate 2017

Awards of Excellence:

dominKnow Capture

VIDEO CAPTURE/PUBLISH TOOL Winners (tie):

Articulate Replay 360, TechSmith Camtasia

TESTING & ASSESSMENT Winners (tie):

QuestionMark OnDemand Assessment, Learnosity Assessments

SOCIAL LEARNING SOLUTIONS Winner:

BizLibrary Community

Awards of Excellence:

ej4 The Quad, Cisco Collaborative Knowledge

MOBILE AUTHORING TOOLS Winner:

ej4 Thinkzoom

Awards of Excellence:

CrossKnowledge Mohive, dominKnow Flow

LANGUAGE SERVICES Winners (tie):

Babbel.com Language Learning, Rosetta Stone Catalyst

OUTSOURCE LEARNING SERVICES Winner:

IBM Watson Personalized Learning Experience, Cognitive Content Collator, and Learning Analytics

Awards of Excellence:

Artisan E-Learning Micro-learning, Skillsoft Learning Services

Artisan E-learning Has You Covered!

From micro-learning to comprehensive compliance training, Artisan E-learning can help you design and build the right learning solution that gets you the business results you want.

At Artisan E-Learning, we work with you and your subjectmatter experts to gather, organize, design, write, and build engaging, interactive e-learning courses. Whether you are working with policies and procedures, product knowledge, computer systems, business skills, or just about any other topic, we can help bring your content to life.

>> Need to make your courses accessible to people with disabilities?

>> Have to reach a mobile audience? >> Need to track to an LMS? >> Have to translate your course to multiple languages?

Artisan E-learning has you covered.

Let’s craft your perfect e-learning solution!

Contact us at info@artisanelearning.com or (904) 800-9395 artisanelearning.com Elearning! November / December 2017

39

2017 Hall of

7 Fame HALL OF FAME

Honors Two Extraordinary Brands

A pair of well-known names in the e-learning industry — Adobe and BizLibrary — become charter members of an elite group of suppliers.

Thirteen years ago, Elearning! magazine established the Best of Elearning! Awards; the exclusive users’ choice awards in the learning industry. Every year, up to 4,000 nominations are made by learning professionals to share the best in learning solutions. This year, Elearning! magazine added a special honor, the Hall of Fame Award, to recognize extraordinary solutions providers.

The 2017 Hall of Fame honorees are Adobe and BizLibrary. These two brands collectively have earned more than 100 Best of Elearning! honors, across a dynamic set of solutions.

What is the secret to consistently exceeding customers’ needs, while anticipating future learning challenges and solutions? We invited leaders from both organizations to share their insights.

Elearning! November / December 2017

41

halloffame

2017 Hall Of Fame Winner: Adobe

Best of Elearning!

Awards Honors: Adobe Adobe Captivate Best E-learning Development, Authoring, Simulation, Mobile Solution 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Adobe Connect Best Virtual Classroom 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Adobe Premiere Best Video Publishing Solution 2013, 2015, 2016 Adobe Presenter Best Presentation Tool 2006, 2007, 2012

Adobe is synonymous with e-learning. It has been named a Best of Elearning! winner every year of the awards and has collected honors across various solutions: e-learning development, mobile learning, simulation, video learning, virtual classroom and virtual event platforms.

The crown jewel of Adobe’s e-learning product line is Captivate, a 13-time Best of Elearning! award-winner.

How does Adobe Captivate continue to evolve to exceed customers’ needs? Part of the answer is in the number of resources, videos and tutorials available. There are hundreds of hours of Adobe Captivate videos alone available to users — more hours than what ones spends to earn a college degree. We asked Priyank Shrivastava, Adobe’s Director of Marketing, about Adobe Captivate’s success: “There are many to thank for this successful milestone, starting with our hundreds of thousands of customers who keep us honest in this business and make each of us work harder to be able to achieve what we have over the years,” Shrivastava says. “Being a part of Adobe also helps tremendously as there is a culture of innovation and customer centricity at the core of everything we do. And last but not the least, it’s the people who make a brand

what it is, Adobe has some tremendously talented individuals who make the journey so enjoyable.”

Q:

WHAT IS YOUR PRODUCT ROADMAP? Shrivastava: “Our product roadmap constantly reflects changing behavioral trends among both e-learning authors/designers as well as learners. Learning behavior has been changing significantly with the introduction and adoption of modern technologies. Mobile is a case in point. Back in time, at the start of this decade, mobile handsets had begun to become popular, with mobile Internet getting better, and handsets started to become more popular when it came to accessing professional content on them.

“But mobile learning was just a blip on the radar, that is when we at Adobe decided to foray into the world of mobile learning, with a two-pronged aim to make the mobile learning experience flawless for learners, and continue to make authoring easier for designers. On that axis alone, we have delivered some remarkable innovations such as responsive e-learning design, Fluid Boxes, geo-location and dynamic mobile preview, to name a few.

“Today, mobile learning is one of the mandatory requirements for all e-learning

“There are many to thank for this success... starting with our hundreds of thousands of customers who keep us honest ... and make us work harder to achieve more.”

—Priyank Shrivastava, Director, Adobe

42

November / December 2017 Elearning!

requirements. Captivate has tremendously evolved since 2004, from when it was famously known for recording simulations to now when it is known as a tool that can handle everything e-learning.”

Q:

WHAT UNIQUE FEATURE SETS DOES CAPTIVATE OFFER? Shrivastava: “Adobe Captivate allows you to author responsive e-learning without having to create different projects for different devices, so you can author just once and the content rearranges itself to deliver the most appropriate experience on any device or browser. We have also introduced Fluid Boxes, which are intelligent containers that automatically re-align objects on a slide to fill up the ‘white space’ and deliver a fully responsive experience. Another industry first is to be able to transform older legacy desktoponly Captivate courses to fully responsive mobile learning at the click of a button with the 2017 release of Adobe Captivate.”

Q:

WHAT NEW FEATURES DOES CAPTIVATE OFFER TO CUSTOMERS? Shrivastava: “Some of the above ones,

and one that is a delight for learners: Adobe Typekit integration. Considering a large percentage of courses are now consumed on the browser, the aesthetics of the course are often compromised, as the original fonts are replaced by a handful of Web-safe fonts. Authors can easily integrate any Web font from their Typekit library and can deliver the exact same experience to the learner on any device or browser. That is a cool feature that designers absolutely love.”

Q:

CAN YOU NAME SOME OF CAPTIVATE’S MARQUEE CUSTOMERS? Shrivastava: “Every customer is important to us, and we treat them equally.

Having said that, more than 80 percent of Fortune 500 companies place their trust in Adobe Captivate, so there are quite a few marquee customers ranging from American Express to Delta Airlines to the Walt Disney Corporation.”

Q:

WHAT TRENDS DO YOU SEE IN THE FUTURE? HOW IS CAPTIVATE EVOLVING TO MEET THESE NEEDS? Shrivastava: “Some of the popular

trends we foresee that could have an impact on the way learning is done is VR and AR and immersive learning as a concept. We have technologies currently brewing in the labs, and we will showcase our developments in these areas soon. Since we are so closely clued in to the L&D teams within organizations, we can build solutions to address their pain points. One example is Adobe Captivate Prime, introduced when a lot of our customers expressed their challenges in delivering and tracking e-learning content.

Captivate Prime is a next-gen enterprise LMS that challenges everything traditional LMS’s stood for.

“Another area I feel is going to transform the learning landscape is social/ informal learning, and we are currently exploring how we could formalize and scale the process of social learning within an organization.

“Through efforts like these, we wish to be a strategic partner for organizational L&D teams and help them with solutions across the board, from design, to delivery for their customers and learners.”

2017 Hall Of Fame Winner: BizLibrary BizLibrary has earned 24 Best of Elearning! honors in 16 categories. BizLibrary wins are extraordinary as they span learning systems, social collaboration and content categories.

BizLibrary was early to the video learning market and capitalized on it by developing content that exceed customers’ expectations.

According to Dean Pichee, every video in the BizLibrary collection scores four out of five stars or it goes offline and is re-engineered.

Congratulations to BizLibrary on being an elite brand named to the Hall of Fame for the Best of Elearning!

Q:

WHAT DO YOU ATTRIBUTE BIZLIBRARY SUCCESS TO? Pichee: “First, it is an honor to be included in the Hall of Fame, and we appreciate the recognition. I started BizLibrary more

than 20 years ago, with one simple goal: to improve the way employees learn at small and mid-size organizations. Over the years, we’ve grown to serve hundreds of thousands of employees, in thousands of organizations of all sizes. After 20 years in business, I attribute our success to constant innovation and improvement, and to our focus on the importance of building successful partnerships that last — with our producer partners, our clients and our employees.”

Q:

WHAT IS YOUR PRODUCT ROADMAP? Pichee: “Our product roadmap for the next year includes many new features and enhancements to our platform as well as some exciting additions to our content collection.

Some new features include our upcoming

release of gamification as well as enhancements to the user interface (including a new and improved home page design), enhanced administrative functionality, and much more.

“In addition to these platform updates, we are focusing on expanding the reach of our content offering into international markets by releasing localized libraries. To start, we have recently released libraries in Spanish, French and German with plans for more than 20 additional languages in the near future. Additionally, we have recently added more than 800 new short, performance-support video lessons to the library on ‘how-to’ topics relevant to today’s workplace.

“In terms of our content strategy, the biggest change we have made over the past five years would be the introduction of BizLibrary Productions. As the needs of our clients evolved,

Elearning! November / December 2017

43

halloffame

[BizLibrary has] one simple goal: to improve the way employees learn at small and midsize organizations.

—Dean Pichee, CEO, BizLibrary Best of Elearning! Awards Honors: BizLibrary Collection Best Learning Platform 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Business Skills Training Best Soft Skills Training 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 Sales Content Best Sales Training 2012, 2013 Microsoft Training Best I.T. Training 2013 Leadership Training Best Leadership Dev 2013, 2016 Community Social Learning Solutions 2015, 2016, 2017 BizMobile Mobile App 2015 44

November / December 2017 Elearning!

we needed a way to quickly address those needs and fill topic gaps in the content library.

With BizLibrary Productions, we are able to work with subject-matter experts and produce the content needed to ensure the BizLibrary Collection is meeting the highest quality standards possible while remaining fresh and relevant to today’s business challenges.”

share playlists with teammates for additional collaboration and social learning.

“Curated Learning Paths are developed by BizLibrary experts, and organized by job role and key topic areas. Each curated learning path contains three to five hours of training content, is assignable, and allows learners quick access to relevant training material.”

Q:

Q:

WHAT UNIQUE FEATURES DOES BIZLIBRARY’S VIDEO CONTENT OFFER? Pichee: “The unique combination of video-based microlearning and training reinforcement delivered in an aggregated library model is what sets our solution apart from other providers on the market.

The length and format of the content, on a variety of topic areas, meet the needs of the modern learner by delivering a true on-demand solution. Reinforcement ensures they are able to retain and apply the training to their job for increased business results.”

Q:

WHAT NEW FEATURES DOES BIZLIBRARY OFFER TO CUSTOMERS? Pichee: “We recently announced some exciting new features at our annual client conference. Those features included Curriculum Builder, Playlists, and Curated Learning Paths.

“Curriculum Builder is a tremendous advance, allowing learning administrators to quickly and easily preview and manage content within our platform or in a third-party LMS. “Playlists allow both learners and administrators to create playlists, organize content for a variety of training purposes, quickly and easily save searches as a playlist, and

WHO ARE BIZLIBRARY’S MARQUEE CUSTOMERS? Pichee: “We recently concluded our 10th annual client conference where we were able to meet with clients face to face and recognize the success of their training programs.

“Since partnering with BizLibrary, Pechanga has seen an annual savings of $78,000. Viewpointe has reduced turnover by 400 percent. Long Island Plastic Surgical Group has reduced patient complaints by 32 percent. Red Roof Inn has saved more than $342,000 due to a reduction in turnover. Watco Companies reduced employee turnover by seven percent within the first year and saved more than $3 million. It is results like these that validate our mission at BizLibrary, and we couldn’t be more proud to partner with these organizations.”

Q:

WHAT FUTURE TRENDS DO YOU SEE THAT WILL IMPACT LEARNING? Pichee: “We are seeing a continued increase in the need for organizations to provide an on-demand training solution in addition to prescriptive or assigned learning. Learners are driving this need, and continuing to produce video content on a single topic that is short and relevant will allow BizLibrary clients to continue to meet the needs of those learners.”

TipsPrograms Focus on These Nine Key Areas For a

Successful Training Program

BY KRISTA BRUBAKER With so many things to incorporate into your training program, how do you know where to focus your efforts? A successful program requires many factors working together, but it all starts with a program manager dedicated to impacting business results and employees’ development. We work with those training champions every day, and through our partnerships with them, we’ve identified nine key areas to focus on for building highly successful employee training programs.

1

STRONG PROGRAM MANAGEMENT Titles of training program managers may vary, but they all share a commitment to continually develop and improve their programs. Ideal program managers are curious, openminded, motivated, and interested in helping others develop their skills.

2

ASSESSING TRAINING NEEDS Performing a needs assessment through internal surveys, interviews and research will help determine who needs to be trained and on what skills. Understanding these training needs forms the foundation of what makes your training program integral to the company’s successes.

3

ALIGNMENT WITH BUSINESS INITIATIVES To see the strongest results from training, look at how training needs you’ve identified are tied into organizational initiatives.

Help employees and leaders see how training and development contributes to the goals of the overall company goals.

4

CREATING GOALS AND METRICS When training and business needs are aligned, create goals that show the steps for how to achieve those results. Make sure these goals are achievable

in a reasonable amount of time, and that they’re specific to the outcomes desired.

5

LEADERSHIP BUY-IN Your leadership team’s support of the program is critical to seeing success. Once you’ve identified the needs, aligned them to organizational initiatives, and created strong goals, you can show senior leaders the impact of training on the bottom line. This opens all sorts of doors for a bigger budget, higher utilization and engagement, and the ability to build a learning culture in your company.

6

RELEVANCY OF CONTENT The training content you provide to learners must be relevant for them to be engaged and really learn from it. Curating content for specific needs allows them to find information quicker and view your program as a valuable source for personal and professional development.

7

INFUSING CREATIVITY Inviting creative ideas into your program helps grow engagement and a more positive attitude toward training. Collaborating and brainstorming fun ideas delights employees with training that is enjoyable and helps them get hooked on developing their skills.

8

ONGOING MARKETING This is an area where many program managers struggle to

maintain momentum. A successful marketing plan encapsulates initial launch activities, along with strong ongoing efforts throughout the program. Training communication sent to employees should always include the “why” and what’s in it for them. The goal of marketing is to increase utilization and engagement, so to do that, you’ll need to continually show employees how they’ll benefit from the available training.

9

POST-TRAINING REINFORCEMENT Training is only effective if it’s remembered, so counteracting the brain’s natural forgetfulness is a critical part of seeing results from your training program, since 70 percent of training is forgotten within 24 hours. Providing opportunities for learners to recall what they were trained will help them commit it to longterm memory. Send follow-up questions and provide a space for discussions in order to see positive and impactful results from your training program.

—As a content marketing specialist with BizLibrary, the author researches and writes relevant and helpful content for the HR and L&D community. She manages blog posts, press releases, social media, and creates resources that educate and motivate the BizLibrary audience to take action and improve employee training in their organizations. Contact Brubaker at (636) 205-0354 or kbrubaker@bizlibrary.com.

Elearning! November / December 2017

45

TipsCompetencies It’s Time to Evolve to

Competency-Based Training WHAT, EXACTLY, ARE COMPETENCIES? Competencies are abilities, behaviors, knowledge and skills that impact the success of employees and organizations.

They can include general skills (like communication skills), role-specific skills, leadership skills and others. The common theme is that a competency can be analyzed and broken down into a set of specific behaviors that tell employees what is expected of them and that management can measure.

The idea is that these competencies should be well-defined across the organization. The definition is not enough by itself, however. It needs to be paired with specific behaviors or tasks that are expected of the employee. These will be different depending on the role of the employee in question

Once competencies are defined, you can create a competency model: a set of 7 to 10 core competencies that are aligned with your company’s business goals.

Once you have a model, you can begin defining tasks for each competency for given roles. You can then use them to assess potential employees for different positions. You can also easily and consistently communicate your expectations, as well as measure competencies as part of your performance reviews. Finally, you can grow your training opportunities for employees to improve upon the competencies.

WHY INCORPORATE COMPETENCIES? Competency modeling is now a mainstay in the most successful businesses. In one study

by Development Dimensions International (DDI), 89 percent of best-in-class organizations had core competencies defined for all their roles, compared to a mere 48 percent for all other companies.

A separate report, the Top Companies for Leaders report done in conjunction with Fortune and Aon Hewitt, found that a full 100 percent of companies making the global top companies list use a well-defined competency model.

There’s ample evidence that using competencies does help businesses. For example, companies that manage their people well with regard to skills, knowledge, commitment and abilities are 30 percent to 40 percent more productive than average.

The issue isn’t whether the model works. The issue is how to get started using the model.

FIRST STEPS Here are six steps for getting started with competencies: Start small. Don’t reinvent the wheel. Work to identify just a handful of competencies — no more than five or six — for your organization.

Once you’ve incorporated a select few and shown success, then you can build on these.

Decide on consistent terminology to be used.

This includes the names and definitions of the competencies themselves. To make them memorable, you can use the

1

2 46

November / December 2017 Elearning!

first letter of the names of each competency to spell out a word, like GROW or STEAM. Think in terms of specific, concrete tasks. Think about the tasks or behaviors that demonstrate the competencies you have chosen. Also think about tasks and behaviors that fail to demonstrate them so you can incorporate into your performance review process.

Work your new terminology into job descriptions, and use it when advertising positions. When it comes to describing job positions or roles, and when looking for people to fill those roles, use the language you adopted when talking about your competencies.

Research how competencies can be measured in your assessments. Both assessment questionnaires and 360 surveys can be tuned to uncover evidence of competencies in your employees.

Craft training around those competencies.

Find content (or a training partner like ej4) that speaks to your competencies, and create courses that can help both your leaders and your front-line employees grow in those areas.

Use of competency learning tracks in the learning management system, like Thinkzoom by ej4, is just one way to incorporate competencies into their learning.

Ready to get started? Visit us online at ej4.com.

3

4

5

6

TipsPersonalization Four Ways to Personalize the

Employee Learning Experience

BY JON PAUL Learners in today’s workforce don’t want to be taught to, but expect to be able to learn.

Millennials especially cite learning as the most desirable benefit a job can offer. They expect learning opportunities to be personal, accessible and flexible. That’s the heart of modern professional learning.

To be able compete in the war for workplace talent, organizations need to personalize the professional learning experience and empower employees to lead their own learning.

“It’s not just about the pay as it is about the whole experience of working for a business,” says Shane Sutherland, founder and chief designer at portfolio and personal learning platform company PebblePad, a D2L partner.

HOW TO PERSONALIZE LEARNING There are four ways organizations can personalize professional learning.

1

CREATE PERSONALIZED LEARNING PATHWAYS Enabling employees to create and keep online learning portfolios is a great way for organizations to pave personalized learning pathways. Online portfolios are a space where employees can build up evidence of their learning, reflect on their experiences, and share those reflections if they wish. In that way, they can

make employees active actors in their own learning.

They can be transferable from job to job, so employees can tell the story of who they are, what they’ve learned, and the skills they’ve developed — a key consideration in the quickly growing gig economy.

Portfolios can be particularly effective when embedded into well-thought-out learning designs via an online learner engagement platform that presents learning to employees in specific contexts. Modern learning platforms can provide employees with easy access to their portfolios and other learning materials as needed — things like “just-in-time” social, mobile and video learning content, or content that they can access at their own pace after completing certain tasks or reaching different milestones.

2

PROVIDE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SOCIAL LEARNING Conversation can be a crucial driver of personalized employee learning. Coaches, mentors and peers can all help employees to extract insights out of a learning experience, which can be something as simple as a discussion by the office coffee machine.

According to an October 2015 survey by the Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies, 88 percent of people believe knowledge sharing within a team is essential for workplace learning. Group research projects are a great tool in that regard

— they empower people to seek out new knowledge, make sense of it, and share what they learn with their peers.

Manager-led learning, where managers act more like a coach or mentor and give people opportunities to learn through things like projects, can also drive social learning. Creating custom templates can give managers a framework for facilitating effective conversations around projects and performance: What 10 words would you use to describe your performance? What did you find most challenging? What do you feel you achieved?

3

MAKE LEARNING MOBILE, AVAILABLE ANYTIME, ANYWHERE Workplace learners expect to be able to access learning experiences anywhere, at any time, and on multiple devices.

According to Google, when it comes to search, 80 percent use a smartphone and 57 percent use more than one type of device. Gartner says that consumers will own and use three to four devices by 2018.

And according to a study by Global Workplace Analytics, 80 percent to 90 percent of people in the U.S. workforce say they would like to telework at least part time, and Fortune 1000 companies around the globe are entirely revamping their space around the fact that employees are already mobile.

That’s why it’s become increas-

ingly incumbent on organizations to enable mobile learning.

4

ENCOURAGE EMPLOYEES TO TAKE OWNERSHIP OF THEIR OWN LEARNING Empowering employees to learn outside the office is a great way to get them to take ownership of their own learning. They can learn a lot through online sharing with their own professional and social networks, and independently researching on the Internet — be it through Google, YouTube videos, or LinkedIn. There are also many learning opportunities available out in the real world, too. Professional events, volunteering, hobbies and personal interests, and community engagement are also great opportunities for professional learning and development.

At the end of the day, personalizing employee learning is about more than simply modernizing learning and development. It’s also about providing learning that’s beyond the bounds of the work they must do.

—Jon Paul is Content Manager for D2L. DOWNLOAD MODERN WORKPLACE LEARNING INFOGRAPHIC https://www.d2l.com/ enterprise/blog/futureproofing-workforcechanging-labor-marketrequires-modernworkplace-learning/

Elearning! November / December 2017

47

ProductSpotlight: Captivate 2017 ProductSpotlight: Captivate 2017

What’s New In 2017 Release of Adobe Captivate?

What’s New

to help you with that. text, and graphics. As the workIn 2017 Release>>ments of Adobe Captivate?

Captivate, the 2017 release went Fluid Boxes space is resized for various display The 2017 release of Adobe lease contains several enhanceCaptivate — which went live ments and additions that have rein April — contains several ally enhanced your ability to creenhancements and additions ate high-quality eLearning in a that make it easier and faster short amount of time. Below you for e-learning authors to create high-quality, responsive some of the new additions. content without programming.

Captivate continues to be help The new features are: making it easier to create respon>> Fluid Boxes sive eLearning without program>> Integration of Typekit fonts ming and here are some enhance>> Conversion from nonresponsive to responsive

FLUID BOXES

>> Integration of Typekit fonts FLUID BOXES >> Conversion from non-reThe most significant change sponsive to responsive from Adobe Captivate 9 to Adobe Captivate (2017 release) FLUID BOXES is the addition of Fluid Boxes: intelligent containers that use Captivate 9 to Captivate 2017 white space optimally. Obcomes in the way that responsive jects placed in Fluid Boxes get design is handled. Using a techaligned automatically to the nology called Fluid Boxes, develdevice or browser, without the opers can divide up the slides into e-learning author having to containers that hold the objects, manually adjust the content, so learners get a fully responsive

TYPEKIT INTEGRATION

TRANSFORM LEGACY COURSES

sizes, those containers intelligently experience. Fluid Boxes can be automatically resize or rearrange laid out horizontally or vertithe objects without the developer cally and have a host of propneeding to go into a myriad of erties that can be adjusted to breakpoints and manually adjust give the desired outcome to the things. Fluid boxes can be laid out responsive project. horizontally or vertically and have a host of properties that can be adINTEGRATION OF justed to give the desired outcome TYPEKIT FONTS to the responsive project.

With Adobe Typekit integration, e-learning authors can use highTYPEKIT INTEGRATION quality fonts from the Typekit Now developers do not have to font library and ensure that a be limited to a handful of web great viewing experience is desafe fonts when it comes to their livered to learners across devices learners accessing eLearning and browsers. Adobe Typekit on their devices/browsers. Now is a Cloud-based repository of pick up any font from Adobe’s fonts that are Web safe — which Typekit font library and ensure means that the chosen font will the same experience is delivered look the same across devices to your learners on their devices and platforms, even if the font and browsers. Typekit is a cloudisn’t installed. This is especially based repository of fonts that important with the prevalence are web safe, thus ensuring that the fonts you choose will look

the same across all devices and platforms, even if the font isn’t of HTML5, where the content especially important with the comes as text instead of a graphiprevalence of HTML5 where cal element as in Flash. text is text instead of a graphical element as it is in Flash.

CONVERSION FROM NONRESPONSIVE TO RESPONSIVE CONVERSION FROM NONAnother major enhancement RESPONSIVE TO RESPONSIVE in the 2017 release of Adobe Another major enhancement in Captivate is the ability to conthe 2017 release of Adobe Captivert a legacy desktop-only vate is the ability to take a legacy (non-responsive) project into desktop-only (non-responsive) a responsive course with just a project and convert it to a responfew simple steps. This means sive course with just a few simple that e-learning authors need not scrap or redo their old desktop not have to scrap or redo those old courses. Instead, they can just desktop courses for your current launch an old Adobe Captivate mobile workforce. Instead, you can (v8 and 9) project in the Adobe just launch an old Captivate (v8 & Captivate (2017 release) and save 9) project in the 2017 release, and it as a responsive project before save it as a responsive project, bere-opening it and publishing to fore reopening it and publishing to HTML5 for a truly responsive HTML5 for a truly responsive eLe-learning experience. earning experience.

INTRODUCTION TO ADOBE INTRO TO ADOBE CAPTIVATE (2017 RELEASE) CAPTIVATE VIDEOS ON: 2017 VIDEOS ON:

>>Building Buildingaaresponsive responsive >>

projector ormigrating migrate toto one project

>>one Inserting video or audio in your project >> Inserting video or audio >>inCreating your first your project eLearning project >> Creating your first >>e-learning Section 508 compliance project design 508 compliance >> Section >>design Adding Typekit fonts >> AssetsTypekit for yourfonts first >> Adding eLearning project >> Assets for your first >>e-learning Recordingproject a video demo >> Creating a >> Recording ademo videoor demo simulation & more! >> Creating a demo or

View: https://elearning.adobe. simulation com/adobe-captivate-tutorials/

>> And more!

View: https://elearning.adobe.com/ adobe-captivate-tutorials/ Elearning! November / December 2017 49 48

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Do You Make the

PopQuiz Quiz

Grade?

2

Results:

6-7 correct makes you Mensa material.

4-5 correct means you are a skimmer — and can learn oh-so much more.

Fewer than 4? This issue is your Sunday reading assignment. Try again!

1

What percentage of Millennials believe development is a top priority? a) 10% b) 33% c) 62% d) 76%

Which behaviors are required for an innovative culture? a) Experimentation b) Customer focus c) Collaboration d) All of the above

3

Which of the following is NOT a Data Driven Leader’s priority? a) Hire data skilled members b) Learn the language c) Find and nurture allies d) Reassess KPIs

4

How are the Best of Elearning! determined? a) Supplier nominations b) Users choice c) Editors pick d) None of the above

5

Who is a Hall of Fame winner? a) Elearning! Magazine b) Skillsoft c) Adobe d) Cisco

6

What percentage of corporations have core competencies defined for employees? a) 33% b) 38% c) 48% d) 72% e) 89%

7

Which of the contributors was a 2017 Learning! 100 winner? a) Bayer b) SAP c) ej4 d) BizLibrary

Editorial Index 2017/2018 Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study http://www.2elearning.com Bayer https://www.youtube.com watch?v=U7yqCsg3Hr0 Bersin by Deloitte http://bit.ly/2yuun8D Best of Elearning! Awards http://bit.ly/1MZjImb Data Driven Leader http://amzn.to/2zgQime

Informa http://bit.ly/2zNK4YY Learning! 100 Award http://www.2elearning.com/awards/learning100-awards Sierra-Cedar https:www.sierra-cedar.com/research/annualsurvey Technavio http://www.technavio.com

ADVERTISER INDEX Adobe........................................................ pg 27 http://www.adobe.com Artisan E-learning.................................... pg 39 http://www.artisanelearning.com BizLibrary ................................................ 15,52 http://www.bizlibrary.com

The Billion Dollar Byte: Turn Big Data into Good Profits

D2L .................................................................. 2 http://www.d2l.com

http://amzn.to/2z4Vydk

Department of Education http://prn.to/2yG34Lh

ej4.................................................................... 3

The Ken Blanchard Companies https://www.kenblanchard.com/

http://www.ej4.com

Fosway Group http://bit.ly/2izhHte

Whil, Inc. http://www.whil.com

Vado Learning................................................ 31 https://www.vado.com/ Answers: (1) d, (2) d, (3) a, (4) b, (5) c, (6) c, (7) a

Elearning! magazine is published bi-monthly by B2B Media Company LLC, 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139. Application to mail Standard Class is filed with Denver, CO Post Office. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to: Elearning! PO Box 1794 Maricopa, AZ 85139. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals in the USA. Subscribe at http://www.2elearning.com/ registration-step1. Elearning! magazine is a trademark of B2B Media Company. All rights are reserved.

Elearning! November / December 2017

49

LastWord

G

“

Are Great Leaders Born or Made?

reat managers aren’t born — they’re trained.”

That’s the message Scott Blanchard, principal and EVP with The Ken Blanchard Companies, is sharing with audiences as he speaks to groups of leadership, learning and talent-development professionals.

Blanchard points to research that shows most managers don’t receive that necessary training, however, until they are about 10 years into their managerial career.

“The effects are damaging at both an individual and organizational level,” says Blanchard. “More than 60 percent of new managers underperform or fail in their first two years. And those who survive without managerial training often find themselves with negative habits that are hard to break — which can hold them back for years to come.”

With more than two million new people stepping up to leadership for the first time each year in the U.S. alone, Blanchard believes organizations need to take management training a lot more seriously.

“It is very important that those responsible for organizational training put together an effective curriculum for developing people into trusted professional managers. As a professional manager, you are responsible for what your direct reports do, and to some degree, how they feel — especially the emotional connection they establish with their job and the company.”

While some people’s influence and communication skills come naturally, every manager can learn and develop the skills they need regardless of their starting point, says Blanchard.

“Some people naturally understand how to work with others collaboratively and how to build rapport, while others come to leadership from a less developed starting point. But you still need a system if you are going to succeed as a manager. It’s something everyone can benefit from.”

According to Blanchard, all great managers do four things: “Great managers begin by establishing clarity for their people through clear goals, accountability and personal responsibility. Second, they intervene appropriately when things are going well — and when things aren’t going well. Third, they adapt their leadership style to what is needed by appropriately identifying a direct report’s development level on a task and then modifying their style to best serve the direct report at that stage.

“Finally, great managers know how to create long-term, long-lasting relationships that are evidenced by trust and engagement over time. This results in people who stay with the organization, talk positively about the organization to others, and perform at high levels in a collaborative manner.”

Blanchard explains that effective managers connect the dots between the work of the person, the work of the unit, and the work of the organization as a whole. They understand the correlation of action, motivation and commitment. They successfully manage both performance and employee satisfaction.

“Great managers help people see the bigger picture from whatever seat they occupy,” says Blanchard, “and that can be a challenge. People’s careers rise and fall and managers need to be there with coaching skills to help people through the ups and downs — even when there isn’t a clear path forward.

“These powerful skills almost always have to be developed through training — and once learned, they can help people focus and find a way forward in any situation.”

50

November / December 2017 Elearning!

Elearning!

Web Seminar Series

You are Invited!

First Look:2018 Learning & Talent Platform Buyer Study

Join us for these engaging free sessions with today’s thought leaders.

Speaker: Catherine Upton, Publisher, Elearning! Media Group Time: 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET Date: Thursday, January 25, 2018 The 10th Annual Learning & Platforms Buyer Study was just released by Elearning! Magazine. How are your peers using the LMS? Is talent management system adoption growing, and why? What features are Must Haves in your next platform? These are just a few of the questions that will be revealed in this session.

In this session, Elearning! magazine will review top-level findings of the Learning & Talent Platforms Study. You will learn: >> Why CEOs are investing in learning & workplace technologies >> Which platform features are Must Haves for the high-performance organization >> How buyers’ needs are changing >> Owners’ satisfaction ratings for their current systems >> The features of award-winning learning systems.

Attend this live session and receive a free copy of the 2018 Learning & Talent Platforms Buyer Study, a $995 value.

Register free at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/1202784743244287746

Best of Elearning! Web Seminar Series: Part 1

REGISTER FREE TODAY HOSTED BY:

Government

SPONSORED BY:

Speakers: Catherine Upton, Publisher, Elearning! Media Group and invited technologists Time: 10:00 AM PT/1:00 PM ET Date: Thursday, February 8th, 2017 th The 13 Annual Best of Elearning! is the industry’s exclusive users choice awards. In this session, we discuss learning technology trends, business drivers and the impact technology have on driving performance. Award-winning technologists join the conversation to outline approaches to engagement, personalization and the future technologies enterprises may encounter.

If you are embracing employee engagement, personalization and performance strategies, attend this complimentary session to discuss: >> State of enterprise learning technologies >> Effective strategies that impact performance >> Technologies that enable engagement & personalization >> Q&A session with technology experts Attend this session and receive a free copy of the Best of Elearning! edition of Elearning!

Magazine featuring award-winning solutions and what users say about them.

Register Free at: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/966317175504993282

Elearning! Web Seminar Series is a product of B2B Media Company LLC www.2elearning.com

Are your employees tired of long, boring eLearning content?

Get results by delivering a next-generation training solution combining award-winning microlearning lessons and post-training reinforcement.

6,000+ Microlearning Lessons

Reinforcement Boosters

Guaranteed Results

Learn more at bizlibrary.com 888.432.3077