Elearning! Magazine Winter 2020

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16th Annual Best of Elearning!

Winners pg 15

Winter 2020 Volume 16 Issue 2 • www.2elearning.com

NEW RESEARCH:

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

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

Barriers-toEntry are Now Quite Low

Rapid Uptake of Support Bots and Avatars in the Corporate Segment

A.I.based Learning Delivers True Personalized Learning

Private Investment Flowing to A.I.based Learning Startups

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

The Growing Use of Intelligent Tutors in the Academic Segments

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

Innovation in A.I.-based Learning in Healthcare

Use of Therapeutic Tutoring Bots for People With Special Needs

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

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

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

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

Contents

WINTER 2020 VOLUME 16 NUMBER 2

>> 16th Annual Best

of Elearning! Winners Revealed PG 15

The Best of Elearning! Awards, the industry’s exclusive users choice award, reveals 45 solutions as best-inclass. The Best of Elearning! Awards program remains the industry gold standard for excellence. Discover what users say about these award-winning solutions.

By Catherine Upton

>> Essentials

>> Features

6 6 6

10 Along the Innovation Curve

10

News Deals People on the Move

The global learning technology industry is in a period of profound innovation.

Game-based Learning companies are receiving FDA approval for therapeutic games, AI-based digital people and proctors are staffing functions and impacting how learning is delivered. Let us take a look at some of these application across the innovation curve.

By Sam Adkins

26 Learning! 100: Driving Business Decisions with Analytics Two-time Learning! 100 winner Apple Federal Credit Unions shares their step-bystep approach to moving decision making from qualitative to more quantitative.

Discover the processes, tools and results this mid-size enterprise used to achieve outstanding performance. This case study will benefit organizations of all sizes.

30 E-learning’s Performance in the COVID-19 Era Findings from the Franklin University focus group report on the performance of e-learning during the Great Global Lockdown. School closures alone impacted approximately 1.725 billion learners, leaving organizations scrambling for options.

The tragedy and the triumph of e-learning is revealed here as shared by learning leaders across the USA.

By Dr. Christopher Washington and Dr. Karen Miner-Romanoff

Elearning! Winter 2020

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>> Essentials 6

6

6

26

The $55 Billion Worldwide Mobile Learning Market Skillsoft & Global Knowledge Acquired Learning Events Shift in 2021

>> Management 10 Along the Innovation Curve These seven emerging technologies are changing the way we work, learn and think. From game-based learning to digital workers, the home and workplace is evolving. Is Your Organization Ready?

By Sam Adkins

26 How to Transition from

Qualitative to Quantitative

Decision-making Organizations of all sizes can benefit from this step-by-step approach to data-driven decisionmaking. Discover the processes, tools and results this mid-size enterprise used to achieve outstanding performance.

34 Rethinking the Employee

Lifecycle What would corporate training if employees were in control of their learning path? The employee’s journey should give organizations some keen insights into their corporate training and development programs.

By Ryan Eudy

>> Tools & Practices 8

30 The Triumphs and Tragedies

of E-learning

How to Launch Successful Virtual Sales Kick Off Events The days of annual sales kick-off events hosted in exotic locations are few and far between thanks to COVID-19. Today’s new reality has evolved into virtual experiences: the Virtual Sales-Kick Off. Follow these critical strategies to assure success.

By Joe DiDonato

15 16th Annual Best of

Elearning! Awards

Winners Revealed After 16 years, the Best of Elearning! Awards are stronger than ever, honoring 45 individual products across 16 categories. The Best of Elearning! Awards program remains the industry gold standard for excellence. Find out which e-learning products stood out from the competition.

By Catherine Upton

School closures alone impacted approximately 1.725 billion learners, leaving organizations scrambling for options. The tragedy and the triumph of e-learning is revealed here as shared by learning leaders across the USA.

By Dr. Christopher Washington and Dr. Karen Miner-Romanoff

>> Business 5

Editor’s Note COVID-19 Cannot Keep Innovation at Bay

By Catherine Upton

8

Business of Learning Successful Virtual Sales Kick-off Events

By Joe DiDonato

15 New Products 16th Annual Best of Elearning!

Awards

34 Last Word Rethinking the Employee Lifecycle

By Ryan Eudy 4

Winter 2020 Elearning!

Editor’sNote Winter 2020 VOLUME 16 ISSUE 2

COVID-19 Cannot Keep Innovation at Bay

E

Best of Elearning! Award Winners Prove It learning! Magazine is honored to name 45 brands as Best of Elearning! for 2020. The industry’s exclusive Users Choice Awards depends upon learning professionals nominating and voting for their top performing learning solutions. Thank you to the thousands of voters across the last 16 years who made the Best of Elearning! the gold standard of learning awards.

No one could have imagined that COVID-19 would take learning home. The teachers of 2020 are parents, grandparents, neighbors, tutors, and trainers. A big thank you to you all who stepped up to the challenge. This include learning solution providers! Platforms saw exponential growth, cloud-based services bent under the traffic demands, but not one partner quit. You all stepped up! You converted safety, sales, and compliance training over night to virtual delivery. (See a great example in the Business of Learning article starting on page 8.) COVID-19 training was created and deployed to businesses across the globe, much for free from our valued content partners. See many of these providers in the Best of Elearning! awards article starting on page 15. Because of the teachers, many homemade, and our impressive learning solutions providers, learning was delivered to millions of learners worldwide.

It was not all chocolate and roses though. We learned a lot about e-learning shortcomings and opportunities to improve. Franklin University conducted an interesting focus-group on e-learning’s performance during COVID-19. Their findings are shared inside on page 30. We can all take away a handful of suggestions to improve on our promise of engaging learning.

Many learning improvements are driven by innovation. The appearance of AI-powered digital workers is now alive and doing well in banking, retail, government, and education environments. Sam Adkins, principal researcher at Metaari, penned “Along the Innovation Curve,” offering a peek into the future of e-learning starting on page 10. Wow, it is impressive.

We close the last issue of the year with two-time Learning! 100 award-winner Apple Federal Credit Union’s case study on “Driving Business Decisions with Analytics.” This step-by-step lesson is applicable to organizations of any size.

Thank you all—innovators, researchers, solution providers, teachers, and voters.

Together, you make this industry exciting. We cannot wait to see what you will do next.

Signed, Catherine Upton Publisher & Editor-in-chief Elearning! Media Group

Catherine Upton Group Publisher >> cupton@2elearning.com Adam Weschler Digital Programs >> aweschler@2elearning.com

Jim Upton Vice President >> JW@2elearning.com Kim Mabon Art Director >> production@2elearning.com

Ed Tetter Production Manager >> production@2elearning.com

Contributors: Sam S. Adkins, Metaari Joe DiDonato, Baker Communications Inc. Ryan Eudy, EJ4 Dr. Karen Miner-Romanoff, New York University Dr. Christopher Washington, Franklin University

Elearning! Media Group is published by CU2 LLC 875 S Estrella Parkway #7218, Goodyear, AZ 85338 USA 888-201-2841 • 951-547-1131 www.2elearning.com Application to mail Standard Class is filed with Denver, Colorado Post Office. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to CU2 LLC 875 S Estrella Parkway #7218, Goodyear, AZ 85338. Subscriptions are included with Pro Membership and to qualified professionals in the USA. To subscribe, visit 2elearning.com. Elearning! Magazine is a trademarked and content is copyright protected and cannot be shared without permission.

Elearning! Winter 2020

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News UDEMY Surpasses $100 Million Revenue Annually Udemy for Business, has scaled from $1 million to $100 million annual recurring revenue (ARR) in just five years. Udemy for Business curates 7,000 of the highest-rated courses covering in-demand professional skills that employees need.

When the pandemic resulted in shelter-in-place orders, Udemy for Business experienced a 90% surge in enrollments as employees adapted to remote work. Popular topics included Virtual Teams (1,523% increase in enrollments), Coaching (322%), and Stress Management (235%). Consumption has stayed high as employees continue to learn through change.

IDC found that for every dollar spent on Udemy for Business, organizations could realize an 869% return on investment in three years or $9 per $1 invested.

$55 Billion Worldwide Mobile Learning Market by 2026 — Global Market Insights

Shift in Talent Management Focus Underway The COVID-19 crisis has made talent management an enterprise-wide issue where it was previously focused on succession.

“Organizations are having to pivot who works where, doing what and when – and traditional talent management processes and structures have proved insufficiently agile or transformational at the time they have been needed most,” cites David Perring, director of reasearch at Fosway Research Group.

Perring continues, ‘With the new world of work unfolding around us at pace, the old foundations of talent management fail to add up. It is time for organizations to rethink and move beyond historic views of succession planning, performance management, and annual engagement surveys. Against a tough backdrop of recruitment freezes, training budget cuts, furloughs, and redundancies, it is time to tackle talent differently. For more, download Fosway’s 9-Segment Grid on Talent Management Success at: https://www.fosway.com/9-grid/talent-managementpeople-success/

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Winter 2020 Elearning!

Churchill II Merges with Skillsoft, Acquires Global Knowledge Churchill Capital Corp II entered agreement to acquire Skillsoft and Global Knowledge for $1.533 billion. The valuation was 2x revenues and 8x adjusted EBITDA representing more than a 50% discount to peers. The initial $100 million equity investment was made by Prosus, a tech investment company.

Churchill plans to transform Skillsoft with large cash infusion to support a growth and consolidation strategy. Jeffrey Tarr, former CEO of DigitalGlobe and President & COO of IHS, will serve as company’s CEO. The combined company’s client base will include more than 70% of Fortune 1000 companies and more than 45 million users across content platforms. The transactions are each expected to close in January 2021.

Learning Events Shift in 2021 COVID-19 continues to negatively impact conferences and events into 2021. ATD announced that TechKnowledge, scheduled for late January in San Antonio, TX, will go virtual for 2021. The Jan 25-28 virtual event details can be found at: https://atdla.org/event-4011328.

Training Conference & Expo will host their event in February in Orlando, FL as a live in person event on Feb 22-24, preceded by a live virtual event on Feb 8-12. Learn more at: https:// www.trainingconference.com/2021/index.cfm.

Learning Solutions spring event was moved back to May 4-5, 2021 in Orlando, FL. The 2021 DevLearn conference is slated for October 22-25 in Las Vegas, Nv. Learn more at: https://www.learningguild.com/content/24/about-ourconferences/#learningsolutions.

ATD ICE has also moved back their international talent development conference to August 2021 in Los Angeles, CA. Learn more at: https://atdconference.td.org/.

People on the Move RUBEN RABAGO joined Intellum as Chief Customer Officer.

Former Gain Sight Chief Strategist, he brings more than 20 years of customer and operational experience to Intellum, a customer education platform company. Roabago will overseeing customer success, customer support, and services.

PHIL SAUNDERS took the reigns at Cornerstone after the acquisition of Saba. Saunders led Saba since 2015 and was responsible for guiding Saba’s vision and strategy across all product and go-to-market

functions, business operations, talent, and culture initiatives.

Cornerstone also appointed DUANE LA BOM as the company’s first Chief Diversity Officer.

In this role, La Bom is responsible for driving the company’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy by introducing new programs that foster an inclusive workplace environment and ensure the entire global Cornerstone team is doing its part to contribute to lasting, cultural change. Most recently, he was the Executive Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion for Texas Instruments.

Businessof Learning How to Create Successful Virtual Sales Critical Steps for Success

T Joe DiDonato, Chief of Staff, Baker Communications, Inc.

Virtual Sales Event Checklist Download free at: https://bit.ly/2I1s3yM 8

Winter 2020 Elearning!

he days of annual sales kick-off events hosted in exotic locations are few and far between thanks to COVID-19. Sequestered at home behind a computer screen is the last place most sales executives wish to be.

But today’s new reality has evolved into virtual experiences; the Virtual Sales Kick-Off (SKO).

There have been many studies conducted on the value of creating large scale events remotely.

The most obvious are the savings in travel and time away from the office. Adding to those issues in this COVID-19 era, according to a survey by the Sales Management Association and other studies, over 80% of online conference attendees said they wouldn’t have gone to the conference if it was an in-person event.1 But there is some good news. By going to a virtual format, the cost of producing this event is considerably less than most average round-trip airfares.

How can you make the transition engaging and motivating? Here are some of the best practices our team at Baker Communications Inc. has discovered about creating a Virtual Sales Kick-Off (SKO). I have also provided some of the key checklist items to use to turn these topics into a more formal project management plan. A more complete checklist is downloadable here complimentary: https://bit. ly/2I1s3yM. Although, I am discussing virtual sales kickoffs, many of these checklists can be applied to more simple virtual formats that your organizations might be considering.

THE ROLE OF THE SENIOR PLANNING COMMITTEE There are twelve (12) key checklist items in the full checklist that range from themes and topics to be covered, to the virtual awards ceremony and engagement venues. Six of these key items include the following: >> Alignment to Company Goals & Objectives >> Invited Audience(s) – Sales, Marketing, SE’s, Sales Enablement, Vendors and Partners >> Data-Driven Training Tracks vs. Generalized Training Tracks

BY JOE DIDONATO

>> Evergreen/Recorded Content >> Staffing – Prior, During, and After >> Virtual Engagement Venues

1

ALIGNMENT TO COMPANY CULTURE & GOALS First and foremost, this event is about company culture and direction. What the company has accomplished, where it is going, and calling out the key people that have helped to shape that company culture are important topics for the attendees. This is where to begin the effort.

You want to make sure that you are aligned to those company goals and objectives that are going to shape your year going forward. It could be new markets and products, or a complete revamping of the company’s approach because of its response to the pandemic. Examples are how Kodak has turned their facilities to the manufacture of drugs to fight the virus, or how GM and Ford switched out pickup trucks for breathing machines. This is the news that will shape the coming year.

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AUDIENCE Who will be invited to this virtual event?

With travel cost no longer an issue, we are seeing the audience being extended to Marketing, Sales Enablement, Sales Engineers, Purchasing, and even vendors and partners. The audience will help you define the relevant topics and training, as well as the program.

When attendees were asked why they like attending these events, 80% said that they attend for education purposes. Knowing that education is going to be driving the success of these events, and that the audience might be more varied than usual, how best do we cover those needs?

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EDUCATION TRACKS Fortunately, in the world of sales, we have excellent data when it comes to defining skill gaps and competencies. So, the logical question is why not let those gaps drive the educational topics?

This has become a best practice and where some of the more learner-centric companies are headed.

Staffing this event is also a bit different.

Here we have to “stack the deck” in our favor by providing speakers with people that can help them push out polls, introduce their topics, feed them questions from the audiences and respond to technical issues. We call these individuals ‘producers.’ Some take on a bigger role than others, depending on their skill set, but in all cases, they are the people that rehearse the speakers, ensure that their presentation deck conforms to the venue’s template, as well as a host of other duties.

The second biggest reason that people attend these events is for networking. That means that your platform needs to accommodate “break out rooms.” These are the areas where people can converge during breaks to meet key speakers, teammates, and other people with similar interests. We have seen these engagement venues referred to as Campfires or Town Halls or even Birds of a Feather sessions. Just remember that this is a one of the top draws to your event.

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RECORDED CONTENT This is another area that becomes more doable with the Zoom-like platforms. So key messages about company direction, culture, as well as stories of why the company came to be, are great candidates for recording. They will lend themselves to the on-boarding of new employees, as well as website stories for recruiting and other purposes. Make sure that you have a plan to record those sessions for future use.

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THE ROLE OF THE TACTICAL IMPLEMENT STAFF These are the people that bring the event to life. They create storyboards, presentation templates, and schedule the dates that individual pieces are due. There are 16 items in the full checklist, but some of the key tasks that you should have this group focus on are: >> Speaker & Panel Rehearsals and Scheduling >> Producers to Assist Speakers & Panels >> Skill Gap Assessments for Track Assignments

>> Staffing Before, During, and After the

virtual SKO >> Registration Software and Integration >> Pre-Event Engagement and Publicity This is the team that will do the heavy lifting for the Steering Committee by breaking each major task down to the detailed level.

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KEY DECISION: PLATFORM SELECTION CRITERIA Once you know the venue, topics and speaker needs, you need to turn your attention to a platform that will do the job. Most platforms have several variations, so do not just assume that one vendor cannot do it if you do not see one of your key criteria. For instance, if you are looking to use GoToWebinar or Cisco WebEx Events, you will need to add GoToTraining and WebEx Teams or Training to get the breakout rooms.

Below are some of the key criteria that have been pulled from the complete checklist: Live and pre-recorded video streaming >> Chat messaging >> File sharing capabilities >> Virtual whiteboards >> Polling tools >> Breakout rooms >> In-app conference registration >> Q&A tools >> Engagement analysis on attendance and follow-up activities >> Backgrounds for creating a branded virtual environment There are many platforms for you to consider: Cisco WebEx Events, GoToWebinar, WorkCast, Zoom Video Webinars, Click Meeting, BigMarker, WebinarJam, Remo and 18 more mentioned in the main checklist. Put your needs list together, and then compare the offerings on that basis.

KEY DECISION: REGISTRATION SOFTWARE The key issue for registration software is its ability to integrate with your delivery platform. By having this as a separate system, you are given control over a host of features that you do not have in most of the platforms. These include:

>> Registration forms on your website >> Group registration >> Sessions & attendance tracking >> Extensive reporting >> Custom registration flows >> Email communication tools >> Mobile-friendly registration >> And even payment options for non-

company participants such as partners and vendors The good news is that there are over 6,000 registration systems available, with some of the top names being Regpack, CourseStorm, Sawyer, Learning Stream, Eventsquid and Event manager.

PROGRAM DECISIONS AND LOGISTICS The last areas are going to be the program decisions and the logistics to carry them out. Some of the key decisions to call to your attention are the following: >> Keynote speakers >> Training Tracks >> Recording for Repurposing >> Networking Rooms >> Support Staff >> Outsourced Providers >> Simultaneous Translations >> Time Zones These are some of the key functions that must be handled by your Program and Logistics staff. Your job will be to ensure that the speakers are rehearsed, that you have their presentation in a timely manner – and in your SKO’s template - and finally, that each support member knows their role in making their speaker a success. Don’t let the speakers avoid the rehearsal, as this is where you’re going to uncover bandwidth issues, as well as camera and bandwidth problems – not to mention the problems they might be having with the flow and timing of their presentation.

We hope the above and the complete checklist will give you a real head start on making your event a success.

– Joe DiDonato is Chief of Staff of Baker Communications, Inc and former editor-atlarge for Elearning! Media Group.

Elearning! Winter 2020

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Along the Innovation Curve 10

Winter 2020 Elearning!

The Most Innovative Learning Applications

BY SAM S. ADKINS, METAARI CHIEF RESEARCHER

T

he global learning technology industry is in a period of profound innovation. Gamebased Learning companies are getting FDA approval for their therapeutic games, AI-based exam proctoring has altered the landscape of the certification business, artificial employees are now part of the workforce, digital “people” are learning from employees and customers, and socially-aware tutors are teaching language skills. Let us look at some of these applications along the innovation curve.

Elearning! Winter 2020

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innovationcurve IPSoft’s Amelia digital worker

ARTIFICIAL EMPLOYEES JOIN THE WORKFORCE Digital workers should not be confused with the digital workforce that are humans working with technology. Digital workers or digital employees are AI-based entities.

They are artificial employees.

One of the most sophisticated AI-based helpdesk support avatars is IPsoft’s Amelia that the company markets under the rubric of their “digital workforce”.

According to IpSoft, “she observes, learns, and remembers anything you ask.

She can read emotions and context during conversations with colleagues and customers, on any communications channel. She

IPSOFT

can do the repetitive work of thousands while helping to improve the creativity and productivity of her human colleagues. If Amelia is unable to resolve an issue, she will escalate the task to a human colleague.

Amelia will then observe how the colleague resolves the issue, learn from it, and apply that knowledge to any similar tasks.”

With her cognitive capabilities, Amelia continuously learns from human interactions to create the most engaging user experiences and generate business value.

Amelia, the Most Human AI, is the result of decades of research in discrete mathematics, cognitive neuroscience, autonomic systems, and embedded language models.

IPsoft has two primary uses cases for Amelia: IT operations (AIOps) and customer service. Amelia was first launched in 2014 and is now in her fourth iteration and the 3D avatar is essentially an artificial human.

In February 2020, IPsoft launched their new marketplace for clients to license digital employees. “The Digital Employee marketplace industrializes and democratizes AI use within enterprises by providing a new, intuitive way to quickly hire digital workers.” The first digital employee in the store is an IT Service Desk Engineer. “Through the marketplace, DigitalWorkforce.ai, an enterprise can onboard Digital Employees pre-trained as IT Service Desk Engineers who can handle a wide range of support issues both independently and in collaboration with human co-workers, delivering rapid deployment and immediate business value.”

Alelo’s cultural awareness simulation 12

Winter 2019 Elearning!

DIGITAL PEOPLE TEACHING KIDS New Zealand’s Soul Machines calls their

SOUL MACHINES

The global learning technology industry is in a period of profound innovation. digital workers “Digital People”. New Zealand’s Soul Machines generate most of their revenues from building highly realistic virtual humans for clients. For example, Soul Machines developed the virtual tutor called Will for the energy company Vector. The conversational avatar is designed to teach PreK-12 students about renewable energy.

“Compared to the cost of paying a human teacher, these systems are also far cheaper, they can scale to millions of students per avatar, and they can adjust to each student’s individual learning style, known as ‘adaptive learning,’ to help them reach their full potential,” reports Soul Machine.

In May 2020, Soul Machines made their Digital DNA Studio (DDNA Studio) available “for companies to easily and rapidly create their own Digital People for an engaging and powerful brand experience. In today’s increasingly digital world, brands can connect with every customer in a personalized way at scale with Soul Machines’ Digital People. DDNA Studio creative suite takes the power of Soul Machines’ Human OS Platform to create astonishing lifelike, dynamically interactive Digital People. The Digital People have authored personalities which you can evolve over time based on user interactions as they help brands connect with their digital audiences and automate repetitive business functions in helpful and productive ways.”

“YOU’LL NEED A PRESCRIPTION FOR THAT” LEARNING GAME In February 2020, Akili Interactive Labs announced the results from the STARSADHD trial of EndeavorRx, a digital therapeutic game designed to improve

attention in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The results were published in the prestigious Lancet Digital Health journal. According to Akili, “the publication represents the first presentation of complete results from the STARS-ADHD trial, a first-ofits-kind large, randomized, multi-center, controlled study of the company’s flagship technology and the first seminal trial in a series of recent and ongoing studies of the attentional treatment. Results show EndeavorRx improved both objective measures and parent observations of attention and functional impairments.”

In the study of 348 children diagnosed with ADHD, EndeavorRx showed improvements across a wide range of attention measures, from objective measures of attention to how attention impacted daily life and functioning.

The STARS-ADHD study represents the company’s largest clinical trial of EndeavorRx that “has to-date been studied across five clinical trials including more than 600 children diagnosed with the disorder.”

Akili has obtained $140.9 million in funding since they launched in Boston in 2011.

They rebranded EndeavorRx to Endeavor in early 2020 and obtained FDA approval for a version called EndeavorRx for a prescription-based treatment of ADHD in June 2020.

While there are several Cognitive Learning apps that have obtained FDA approval, this is the first Game-based Learning product to gain that recognition.

ADHA children showed improvement in attention measurements [with EndeavorRx.]

Proctorio’s Vector AI for remote proctoring.

Elearning! Winter 2019

ALELO

SOURCE: AKILI INTERACTIVE LABS

EndeavorRx’s game-based learning product for the treatment of ADHD children.

THE BOOMING DEMAND FOR AI-BASED VIRTUAL REMOTE EXAM PROCTORING Almost all high stakes testing is done in physical locations in the presence of proctors. Their sole purpose it to prevent cheating. Virtual online proctors with live humans have been used for decades but they have proven relatively easy to cheat. That has all changed with the advent of AI-based virtual exam proctors.

These new software products integrate facial recognition, voice recognition, keystroke profiling, and a range of socalled behavioral biometrics. So far, they have proven to be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to cheat. AI-based virtual remote exam proctoring startups are coming on the market at a rapid rate and they are attracting significant amounts of venture capital.

Startups include Romania’s TypingDNA, Meazure Learning (the result of a January 2020 merger between ProctorU and Yardstick Assessment Strategies), Proctorio, Examity, SmarterServices, Spain’s Smowltech, UK’s Combrobo, and Ireland’s Rosalyn.ai.

The demand is booming. According to Proctorio, “From April 2019 to April 2020, Proctorio experienced a 900% increase in the number of exams proctored monthly, skyrocketing from 250,000 to 2.5 million while maintaining an uptime of 99.991% and an average support chat response time of 7.9 seconds. Proctorio is currently serving 850 partner institutions, supporting 1,200,000 active weekly users, and has collectively proctored 18

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innovationcurve million exams in all but four countries around the world.”

The high demand and the booming revenues have attracted the attention of the “big guns” that are now buying their way in.

The Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) is the leading global vendor-neutral IT certification provider. In August 2019, they acquired a company called Metacog that develops AI-based assessment proctoring technology. The Metacog technology is now integrated with CompTIA’s exam platform and is marketed as a remote exam proctoring solution. This marks CompTIA’s major foray into online exams. “Deep learning analytics platform will provide robust security, analytics and psychometrics for remotely proctored, Internetdelivered exams. By making remote testing widely available we’ll provide equal access to a tech career on-ramp for those individuals who may not have easy access to a brick-and-mortar testing center.”

SOCIALLY INTELLIGENT TUTORS Intelligent tutors used to be prohibitively expensive to develop and only large federal military agencies could afford to build them. They had to be built with proprietary technology. That is no longer true with a large array of inexpensive commercial off the shelf (COTs) components in the market Alelo is primarily government-facing and sells packaged content and custom services to both government and corporate clients. Their tagline is “Play. Learn.

Communicate.” In December 2019, they launched their new AI-based Learning product called Enskills. “Alelo’s new Enskill platform helps learners develop communication skills in conversations with artificially intelligent interactive characters. Enskill supports unscripted conversation instead of reading or selecting screen prompts. The system automatically evaluates learner performance and feedback, relieving teachers of the burden of rating student speech.”

The high demand and booming revenues have attracted… “the big guns” that are now buying their way [into the virtual exam proctoring market.]

“Alelo provides cloud-based learning through AI simulations. Learners engage in interactive conversations with socially intelligent virtual humans in a realistic setting. Learners receive immediate feedback and personal instruction in areas where they need to improve. Organizations can lower training and education costs, scale rapidly, and improve learner effectiveness.”

Alelo also develops what they call cultural-awareness products using AI. In August 2020, they announced that the US Defense Language and National Security Education Office (DLNSEO) had mandated that personnel deployed to 86 countries must complete Alelo’s simulation for that country. The training is now mandatory.

According to Alelo, “we create avatarbased immersive scenarios, in which trainees must apply their skills in simulations of real-world encounters with people from other countries. They can practice as much as they need, without fear of making mistakes. When they encounter similar situations in real life, they feel familiar, and so trainees have the self-confidence to navigate them successfully.”

These are just a few of the amazing innovations that have come on the market in the last few years. Perhaps the most significant innovation is the mergence of intelligent learning products. The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into digital learning experiences essentially accomplishes the “holy grail” of providing true personalized learning that adapts in real time to an individual user’s cognitive abilities.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR Sam Adkins is chief research and founder of Metaari, an ethics-based market research firm that identifies revenue opportunities for learning technology suppliers.

The research taxonomy is the backbone of the quantitative data repository. Metaari tracks the learning technology markets in 122 countries. and offers the most complete view of the international learning technology market in the industry. Metaari focusses solely on advanced learning technology research on products that utilize psychometrics, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and augmented reality.

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Winter 2020 Elearning!

16

th Annual

‘Best of Elearning!’

Winners Revealed

USERS CHOOSE 45 SOLUTIONS AS BEST-IN-CLASS

BY CATHERINE UPTON The 16th Annual Best of Elearning!

Awards (BOE) honors 45 best-in-class brands across 19 categories. Learning and talent professionals from the private and public sector cast hundreds of nominations for these honorees. Thank you to the hundreds of users who nominated and voted for this year’s Best of Elearning!

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

“COVID-19 has placed e-learning front and center,” says Catherine Upton, Awards Chair. “Our industry responded with continuous innovation, dedication and service.”

SPECIAL RECOGNITION Innovation is the driver of award recognition.

Approximately 20% of this year’s honorees are first time winners and include:

>> DXC (LXP) >> TalentLMS (LCMS) >> Startek (Content Aggregator) >> Alelo (Emerging Solution) >> Akili Interactive (Emerging Solution) >> Soul Machine (Emerging Solution) >> eThink Education (Outsourced Services)

>> Sakai (Open Source Solution) Among the 16 categories, five companies were multiple category winners: >> Adobe (LMS – Cloud, E-learning Tool, Virtual Classroom) >> Bigger Brains (I.T, Soft Skills, Sales Training) >> dominKnow (LCMS, E-learning Tool, Mobile Authoring) >> EJ4 (LXP, Content Aggregator, IT, Leadership Development, Soft Skills, Compliance, Sales Training) >> Vado (Leadership Development, Soft Skills, Compliance, Sales Training)

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All 45 brands are being honored for excellence, and the top vote getter in each category is named the winner. “Given the high volume of votes and the number of nominated products, every one of these solution providers should be proud to be voted as best-in-class by their customers,” adds Upton.

THE VOTING PROCESS Elearning! Media Group readers, practitioners and community members nominate and vote for products and solutions via Elearning! Media Group’s online ballot. All ballots were cast from August 1 to October 1, 2020. Each ballot was reviewed and validated by the editorial team. All vendor ballots were voided.

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

AND THE WINNERS ARE… Elearning! Magazine is honored to announce the 16th Annual Best of Elearning! winners:

bestofelearning

Platforms LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM – CLOUD OR ENTERPRISE

WINNER: Adobe Captivate Prime PRODUCT INFORMATION With Adobe Captivate Prime, you can easily enable trainings delivered with a personalized experience using customized URLs. Train employees, partners, and customers effectively with a next-gen LMS. Deliver an enhanced & enjoyable learning experience for your learners. Reduce skill gaps to manage a learner ecosystem that is engaged, compliant and updated. Take advantage of the all-new AI-based Social Learning to encourage learning and allow peers to learn from each other.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Modern UI built on single web page architecture >> Content-LMS integration that is virtually plug and play >> Tracks multi-format e-learning content, such as PPTX, video, PDF and DOCX files and xAPI-, AICC- and SCORM CLIENTS GE Healthcare, LifeFitness, Publicis Media, TESTIMONIALS >> “It makes my job so much easier.” >> “We train the entire spectrum of team members with ACP.” >> “Thrilled to use Social Learning within Adobe Captivate Prime.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 345 Park Ave., San Jose, CA 95110-2704 Phone: (408) 536-6000 Website: http://www.adobe.com/products/ captivateprime.html 16

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LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORM

LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

WINNER: EJ4 THINKZOOM

WINNER: dominKnow | One LCMS

PRODUCT INFORMATION Thinkzoom LMS is a modern learning experience platform. It is simple, intuitive, and mobile so employees have the freedom to learn anywhere, anytime.

Thinkzoom was created learner-first, mobile-first, and is intuitive and easyto-use. It features an award-winning authoring tool, classroom management, enhanced reporting and search, and social learning technology, The Quad.

Learners can personalize their learning experience by enrolling in the competency-based learning tracks. Employees can choose content of personal interested beyond their required courses to help them be more successful at work. They are based on 36 of the Lominger Competencies and are measurable via Thinkzoom.

Thinkzoom LMS also supports blendedlearning environment with the classroom management feature. Whether instructorled, via a webinar, or in a classroom, you can create courses and sessions and track attendance.

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

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

Optimize building eLearning with this Learning Content Management System Accelerate projects by organizing assets in a central location to create multi-use, reusable, and shareable content that is easily updated across any number of versions.

Managing multiple course versions and making updates does not have to be difficult and time consuming. dominKnow LCMS lets you easily track revisions, manage multiple versions, and make mass updates.

CLIENTS Southeastern Container Co., Pepsi Cola, 2J Supply TESTIMONIALS >> “Easy to use platform that literally takes only minutes to be up and running.” >> ”Our entire team loved it.”

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Responsive and adaptive output >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring >> Content sharing and reuse >> Real-time collaboration >> Publish to LMS, LRS, apps, print CLIENTS DXC Technologies, Society of Actuaries, UL, TESTIMONIALS >> “Helps our team keep projects on track with built-in project workflows and real-time collaboration and review.” >> “Simple access to files and courses from a central location, so nothing is never lost.” >> “Content sharing and reuse to speed development and make updates simple.”

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

Content VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

WINNER: Adobe Connect PRODUCT INFORMATION Adobe Connect enables you with the real power of virtual to tell unforgettable stories.

Use its versatile stage to design and deliver stellar virtual experiences for a diverse audience. Let it make your training, webinars, and meetings extraordinary and securely extend your reach far and beyond the ordinary.

Transform the way you engage your audience by creating immersive virtual experiences with powerful storyboarding and engagement design capabilities. Experience the real power of virtual in letting you reach audiences of all backgrounds & abilities, across the globe. A single platform to plan, deliver, and track. We have all your pre-event and post-event workflows covered.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Measure live learner participation with engagement monitoring >> Brandable, customizable and persistent virtual classrooms >> Streamline live session management with intuitive backstage tools CLIENTS Franklin Covey, State of Hawaii, Toshiba TESTIMONIALS >> “Best features - separate presenter “stage” area, unmatched breakout tools.” >> “Persistent rooms for ease in launching repetitive sessions.” >> “Locked participant experience makes it easier to provide guidance and coaching on how to use collaborative/engagement tools.”

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

CONTENT AGGREGATOR PORTAL

WINNER: EJ4 VIDEO LIBRARY PRODUCT INFORMATION Ej4’s video library delivers the unexpected in eLearning. A unique style of microlearning videos and a modern, intuitive LMS that is everything but ordinary. Robust video library spans over 1500 topics that is anything but ordinary. They are short, refreshing, accessible and scalable.

Ej4’s mission is to deliver content that is Just as Needed, Just Enough, Just in Time and Just Enough.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Short videos averaging 7.12 minutes >> Refreshing library introducing 10 new videos per week >> Access over 1500 videos accessible on any device >> Scalable and dynamic catalog covering 35+ different topics CLIENTS State of Hawaii, The Travel Institute, United eLearning TESTIMONIALS >> “Short microlearning videos so learners can train and get back to their workday.” >> “Courses designed with engaging design and presentation.”

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

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

Mastery has a scalable solution to meet your needs. It trains workers across all industries, from service companies to heavy manufacturing operations. Employee training solutions for every size organization from 10 to 100,000 employees are available.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> MasteryNet LMS launches and tracks all of Mastery’s courses PLUS any custom course you create >> Courses are SCORM-compliant >> Powerful recordkeeping and reporting system CLIENTS Excal Visual, Nouryon, Pegasus Support Services TESTIMONIALS >> “Wide variety of training that is straight forward and easy to navigate.” >> “Easy to use and covers most everything we need to have annual training on.” >> “The customer service is above and beyond anything we would expect.“ CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 41214 Bridge St., Novi, MI 48375 Phone: (800) 258-3837 Website: http://www.mastery.com

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Content I.T. TRAINING

WINNER: Bigger Brains Microsoft Complete Training 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 CLIENTS DSP Electronics, Meyer Services, The Virus Doctor TESTIMONIALS >> “Short, focused courses.” >> “Engaging two-person video format, taught from a one-on-one format” >> “Post-training reinforcement with the BrainBot app.”

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

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LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

Award of Excellence: ej4 Software Skills Library PRODUCT INFORMATION Help your employees master Microsoft Office and Google applications with EJ4’ssoftware skills training videos. It is ideal for keeping an organization’s employees up to date on the latest software packages and productivity tools. This library contains software skills training topics, covering commonly used platforms, as well as core concepts common in software development.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Library covers commonly used platforms >> Focuses on well-known concepts in software development >> Select from an extensive library or customize your own learning experience CLIENTS Keurig Dr Pepper, United eLearning TESTIMONIALS >> “Easy to follow and informative.” >> “Learn what you need to learn in a few minutes — then go apply it!” >> “Complete software library with depth of content.”

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

WINNER: Vado Leadership Development Toolkit PRODUCT INFORMATION Vado’s Manager Courses are designed for supervisors, managers, and leaders who are responsible for leading, coaching, and inspiring employee performance. These courses help build the skills needed to manage individual and team performance, engage, and retain employees, as well as contribute to the organization’s success.

Programs includes: The Remote Leadership Toolkit, Bud to Boss Toolkit, and Work from Home Toolkit.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Robust library of over 425 courses >> All Vado’s courses start with a short, high-definition instructional video >> Content optimized for the mobile learner CLIENTS Eloomi, Remote Leadership Institute, Sonic Automotive TESTIMONIALS >> “Bite-sized, digestible leadership courses.” >> “Great for managers on the go and with limited free time. >> “Detailed and specific, engaging content.”

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

Content LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

SOFTSKILLS TRAINING

Award of Excellence: ej4 Leadership Development

WINNER: EJ4 Business Skills Library

PRODUCT INFORMATION Build better leaders today with help fromEJ4’s leadership training videos. These leadership training videos are the perfect support tool for existing leaders to build on their leadership skills, or for new leaders to develop theirs.

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, Leading a High I? and The Importance of Succession Planning.

FEATURES/BENEFITS

>> Plug-and-play content fits any organi-

zation, providing information that is ready-to-use now >> Short formats and on-demand availability >> Line managers can look up the topics or skills they need on the spot then get back to work quickly having learned something new >> Learners can receive training at the workplace or at home, whichever is more convenient CLIENTS Brewer Science, Syngenta, State of Hawaii, TESTIMONIALS >> “Helps leaders develop critical management skills such as motivating employees, coaching, mentoring, and more.” >> “Courses are short, professional and mobile friendly.” >> “Courses show what is needed to become a great leader.”

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION Ej4 defines it products as Just products: Just as needed means the products cover specific topics your employees need.

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

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

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

Business skills courses include topics, like career planning, communications skills, customer service, professional productivity.

FEATURES/BENEFITS

>> “Plug-and-play” content that fits any organization

>> Short formats >> On-demand availability CLIENTS: Seminole Hard Rock Support Services, The Corridor Group TESTIMONIALS >> “Uses real world applications that are good for any business.” >> “Covers a wide variety of topics such as communications, selling skills, and more.” >> “Courses are short and engaging so actual learning occurs.”

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

Award of Excellence: Bigger Brains Brain Bites Productivity Courses PRODUCT INFORMATION Brain Bites micro-learning courses are information-rich and convey important topics with an engaging mix of video and animation. With 5-minute video lessons and 30-minute-or-less courses, Brain Bites are the perfect tool to educate today’s busy workforce.

Brain Bites cover all the “must-have” productivity topics, including: Time Management, Email Management, File Organization, Cybersecurity and Using Windows 10.

FEATURES AND BENEFITS >> LMS-compatible with MP4, SCORM, AICC, or xAPI formats. >> Content available on Bigger Brains website. >> Includes downloadable job aids. >> Content subtitled in English, Spanish, and Hindi.

CLIENTS Computer Troubleshooters Edinburgh West, The State of Art Systems TESTIMONIALS >> ”Simple, but not dumbed down. They speak to people on their level in a way that is easy to digest.” >> ”Quick courses thar are more focused.” >> “BrainBot app offers additional help and help you retain information that reinforces what you learned from the course.”

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

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Content SOFTSKILLS TRAINING

COMPLIANCE TRAINING

Award of Excellence: VADO Soft Skills Library

WINNER: Vubiz Compliance Library

PRODUCT INFORMATION Research shows that 70% of development happens on the job, and Vado is the only off the shelf e-learning courseware provider that helps the learner apply learning on the job. Our courses combine short videos followed by step by step instructions. Our learners put into practice the learning they just completed.

Organization leaders can feel confident that employees are applying what they have learned on the job.

With more than 450 microlearning courses, Vado provides organizations and learners numerous opportunities to build the skills needed to lead and manage others, strengthen individual performance, as well as increase business results.

PRODUCT INFORMATION VuBiz has empowered people and companies to be their best by providing useful, modern online training that gives our customers the competitive edge.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Courses accessible via any mobile device >> Short, manageable learning courses >> Editable content CLIENTS Brainier, Eloomi, Kingston General Hospital TESTIMONIALS >> “Fresh approach to Harassment prevention with highly interactive video, quizzes, transcripts, “choose your own adventure” scenarios, and learner progress reports.” >> “Separate courses for employees and managers.” >> “Ease of use for administrators.”

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Full service: content, development and delivery software >> Thousands of hours of off-the-shelf content available for purchase as-is or tailored to a specific situation >> Large, diverse e-learning library with more than 4,000 online hours CLIENTS Canadian Federation of Independent Business, Honeywell, Talent Authority TESTIMONIALS >> “Super easy to use, fast transitions, material makes sense.” >> “Best value by far!” >> “Ease of use, engaging content and amazing price.”

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

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PRODUCT INFORMATION Ej4’s compliance training courses help everyone foster a safe and respectful work environment and a culture of compliance for their employees. Avoid legal liabilities related to HR with these short-form, online compliance training videos that can be easily implemented to the entire employee population. The courses are on-demand 24/7 on any device via hosted LMS. 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 CLIENTS State of Hawaii, United eLearning TESTIMONIALS >> “They comply with all the states with specific Anti-Harassment legislation, such as California, Connecticut Maine, New York and NYC.” >> “Based on research.”

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

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: P.O. Box 390153, Minneapolis, MN 55439 Phone: (952) 545-6698 Website: http://www.vadoinc.net 20

Award of Excellence: ej4 Workplace Compliance Library

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Content COMPLIANCE TRAINING

SALES TRAINING

Award of Excellence: VADO The Respectful Workplace Toolkit

WINNER: Bigger Brains Competitive Selling eLearning

PRODUCT INFORMATION Vado’s Individual Courses are designed for any individual within an organization.

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION Bigger Brains’ course focuses on proactive calling in a reactive world. It is about the toughness and edge you need to be successful in the highly competitive world of professional sales. But it does not just give you theories … it gives you tried and true techniques to be a proactive caller, in very practical terms.

Teachers Stacia Skinner and Marisa Pensa are the authors of a book by the same name, and this course introduces you to the most important concepts of their Competitive Selling program. By the end of this course, you will be able to beat the competition by practicing competitive selling.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Creative, flexible, interactive, experiential training >> Episode-based, broadcast quality and millennial friendly >> Promotes a positive workplace focused on treating coworkers with dignity and respect CLIENTS ATD-TC, Brainier, Sonic Automotive, Inc. TESTIMONIALS >> “Every company need this practical interactive guide to boost respect in the workplace.” >> It covers every single state.” >> “It is super engaging for learners, even though it’s a quite a tough subject to navigate.”

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> A two-teacher format so you see real user issues/questions. >> Outstanding and unique approach to sales tracking and handling. >> Short, professional lessons with realworld examples.

CLIENTS JCMMC, Mandeville, OpenSesame TESTIMONIAL >> “Engaging two-teacher format.” >> “Unique approach to sales tracking and handling.” >> “Short professional lessons with realworld examples.

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

Award of Excellence ej4 Selling Skills Content PRODUCT INFORMATION Boost your sales team’s knowledge and skill set with Ej4’s award-winning sales training content. Utilizing a consistent and effective selling process is important for any sales team, and Ej4’s selling skills training helps reinforce that expertise. Not only does this selling skills training help bolster your sales team’s ability to move a prospect down the funnel but gives your team a strong arsenal of selling tools. Using this training with your sales team helps unify the sales methodology within your company so you can reach your sales goals.

This training is mobile-ready and accessible 24/7, which means that your employees can spend less time training and more time focusing on what is important: making the sale.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Consistent on-boarding for sales learning path. >> Perfect for newbies and experts with extensive library. >> Multiple device compatible.

CLIENTS Golden Harvest, Syngenta TESTIMONIAL >> “Wide variety of selling topics such as territory development, identifying prospects, uncovering customer needs, and more.” >> “Mobile friendly and easy to access for salespeople on the road.”

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

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SALES TRAINING

Award of Excellence: Vado Relationship Selling Toolkit PRODUCT INFORMATION Based on the work of one of the most award-wining professional speakers in the world, Jim Cathcart, this toolkit provides sales leaders the tools and information needed to build and strengthen the eight competencies of sales leadership. Learning the eight competencies will help any salesperson reach the top 1% and achieve or even surpass their sales goals.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Written by Jim Cathcart, the author of 18 books, including multiple international bestsellers, and inductee to the Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame in London.

CLIENTS Kevin Eikenberry Group, e-SKY Solutions, Inc. TESTIMONIALS >> “Engaging material ever for the most senior salespeople.” >> “Reminds us what we used to know.”

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

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Tools E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL

WINNER: DominKnow ONE Claro

Award of Excellence: Adobe Captivate

PRODUCT INFORMATION 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.

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.

PRODUCT INFORMATION Create stunning e-learning in minutes with Adobe Captivate. Create beautiful, mobileready courses in minutes with the all-new Quick Start Projects, ready-to-go slides and out-of-the-box interactions. Speed up course creation using automated branching and by copying appearance and style of one object and applying it to another. Now you can edit SVGs and convert them to buttons, play overlay videos on clicking a VR hotspot and add multiple overlay slides at any point of your interactive video.

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> (Show me) records all steps and provides a provides an interactive videolike experience where learners can start from any step in the demonstration. >> (Guide me) allows users to instantly view all steps in a process. >> (Try me) - allows users to interact, try for themselves, and use hints as needed. >> Full-featured HTML5 authoring CLIENTS DXC, Micro Focus, Pfizer TESTIMONIALS >> “We were able to adapt and reuse content across all phases of the project.” >> “This tool is my favorite because of the depth and breadth of its purpose-built HTML5 functionality.” >> “We saw a 50% reduction in translation costs.”

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Jump start content creation with the all-new ready-to-go slides >> Immersive learning with VR experiences CLIENTS American Airlines, Bank of the Pacific, Indiana University TESTIMONIALS >> “If you can image doing something, you can do it in Captivate.” >> “The ability to use Captivate has allowed our team to stretch... and increase requests from our business partners. “ >> “Adobe software is integrated into curricula across all of the university’s eight campuses.”

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

Tools MOBILE AUTHORING TOOL

VIDEO PUBLISHING/CAPTURE

WINNER: DominKnow ONE Flow

WINNER: TECHSMITH CAMTASIA

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

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

PRODUCT INFORMATION Camtasia 2020 makes it simple to record and create professional-looking videos on Windows and Mac. It is the best all-in-one screen recorder and video editor.

Camtasia is quick to learn. You do not need a big budget or fancy video editing skills. Start with a template or just record your screen and add a few effects. Whether you have experience, or this is your first time making a video, we will give you everything you need to make a high-quality video. Create content your viewers watch. A video will give you more interaction and help your audience to learn more than with text alone.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Built-in widgets like tab sets, panels and carousels >> Design and tracking tools are built in >> Project assets stored in one central location >> Comments logged and tracked for streamlined review CLIENTS Larmar Brown, Tesseract TESTIMONIALS >> “Great templates to help get you started. >> “The flexibility I need to create whatever kind of learning tool or job-aid I need.” >> “Allowed us to meet our aggressive project deadlines.”

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

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> Pre-built video templates reduce editing time. >> Share templates, libraries, themes, shortcuts, favorites, and presets in a single file. >> Record anything on your computer screen–websites, software, video calls, etc. >> Add quizzes and interactivity to encourage and measure learning. >> Pre-made animations that take your video to the next level.

CLIENTS 3M, Flight Safety International, Microsoft TESTIMONIALS >> “Ease of use and functionality. “ >> “Users can create and edit professionallooking videos in minutes.” >> “Product is second to none and the customer support is phenomenal.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 2405 Woodlake Drive, Okemos, Michigan 48864-5910 Phone: +1 (517) 879-5929 Website: http://techsmith.com

EMERGING LEARNING SOLUTION

Award of Excellence: AKILI INTERACTIVE STARS-ADHS EndeavorRx PRODUCT INFORMATION EndeavorRx™ is the first-and-only FDA cleared prescription treatment for attention in children with ADHD delivered through a digital therapy. Delivered through a video game experience, EndeavorRx is indicated to improve attention function as measured by computer-based testing in children ages 8-12 years old with primarily inattentive or combined-type ADHD, who have a demonstrated attention issue.

EndeavorRx (AKL-T01) is built on the Akili Selective Stimulus Management Engine (SSME™) core technology.

Driven by the core belief at Akili that effective medicine can also be fun and engaging, EndeavorRx is delivered through an action video game experience. The captivating experience of EndeavorRx is designed to drive engagement and compliance.

Akili is committed to challenging the status quo of medicine to help people living with cognitive impairment. We are passionate about brining together top science and entertainment with great user experience to forever change now medicine is designed and delivered.

CLIENTS

By Prescription Only CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 125 Broad Street, 5th Floor, Boston, MA 02110 Website: https://www.akiliinteractive.com/ endeavorrx

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MAGA ZINE advertising WORKS

Tools

Adobe Captivate Prime Learning Management System

EMERGING LEARNING SOLUTION

Adobe Captivate Prime Deliver modern learning experiences with an award-winning LMS

Award of Excellence: SOUL MACHINE DIGITAL DNA PRODUCT INFORMATION In May 2020, Soul Machines made their Digital DNA Studio (DDNA Studio) available for companies to create their own Digital People easily and rapidly for an engaging brand experience. “In today’s increasingly digital world, brands can connect with every customer in a personalized way at scale with Soul Machines’ Digital People” reports Soul Machine.

DDNA Studio creative suite takes the power of Soul Machines’ Human OS Platform to create astonishing lifelike, dynamically interactive Digital People. The patented Digital Brain within the platform drives the Autonomous Animation functionality which can be applied to a variety of use cases from customer experience to training across a range of industries from Entertainment to Financial Services. “The Digital People have authored personalities which you can evolve over time based on user interactions as they help brands connect with their digital audiences and automate repetitive business functions in helpful and productive ways” adds Soul Machine.

CLIENTS Bank ABC, Collection House, SK-II, TESTIMONIALS >> “Available 24/7 Kash helps customers resolve their collection issues efficiently.” >> “YUMI, the first digital brand face, provides beauty advice to clients for skin health.” >> “Fatema works along-side humans to service mobile banking clients and learns via her AI-powered Soul Machine brain.

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 44 Tehama Street #502, San Francisco, CA

Award of Excellence: ALELO ENSKILL PRODUCT INFORMATION In December 2019, Alelo launched a new AI-based Learning product called Enskill.

The platform helps learners develop communication skills in conversations with artificially intelligent interactive characters. Enskill supports unscripted conversation instead of reading or selecting screen prompts. The system automatically evaluates learner performance and feedback, relieving teachers of the burden of rating student speech.

FEATURES/BENEFITS >> “Provides cloud-based learning through AI simulations.” >> “Engage in interactive conversations with socially intelligent virtual humans in a realistic setting.” >> Receive immediate feedback and personal instruction in areas where they need to improve. >> Organizations can lower training and education costs, scale rapidly, and improve learner effectiveness.

CLIENTS Darpa, U.S. Defense Language & National Security Education Office, Virtual Virginia TESTIMONIALS >> “Alelo offers both a leading-edge approach and a proven track record.” >> “The students love it.”

CONTACT INFORMATION Address: 5200 W Century Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90045 Phone: 310-574-7500 Website: http://www. Alelo.com

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Winner

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www.adobe.com/products/captivateprime

I

Named a Leader: Corporate LMS Software (2019)

Ranked #2 in Top 20 LMS Software based on User Experience (2019)

Write to us at captivateprimesales@adobe.com

What's the connection?

What's the connection?

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

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Winter 2020 Elearning!

BEST OF ELEARNING! 2020 COMPLETE LIST OF HONOREES: PLATFORMS

CONTENT

LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS CLOUD & ENTERPRISE

CONTENT AGGREGATOR Winner:

Winner:

ej4 Video Library

Adobe Captivate Prime

Award of Excellence:

Absorb LMS, Cornerstone Learning

Awards of Excellence:

Mastery Training Svcs Training Library, OpenSesame, Startek Enterprise Process Learning

LEARNING EXPERIENCE PLATFORM Winner:

ej4 Thinkzoom

Award of Excellence:

360Learning, DXC Experience Hub

LEARNING CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Winner:

dominKnow LCMS

Award of Excellence:

TalentLMS LCMS

VIRTUAL CLASSROOM

IT TRAINING Winner: Award of Excellence:

Bigger Brains Microsoft Complete Training Library ej4 Software Skills

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT Winner:

Vado Leadership Development Toolkit ej4 Leadership Development, Ken Blanchard Co. SLII

Winner:

Adobe Connect

Awards of Excellence:

Awards of Excellence:

Cisco WebEx Training Center, LogMeIn GoToWebinar

SOFT SKILLS CONTENT

TOOLS E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL Winner:

dominKnow | One Claro

Awards of Excellence:

Adobe Captivate, Articulate Storyline 360

VIDEO PUBLISHING/CAPTURE Winner:

TechSmith Camtasia

Award of Excellence:

Sonic Foundry Mediasite Mosaic

MOBILE AUTHORING Winner:

dominKnow |One Flow

Award of Excellence:

Articulate Rise 360

EMERGING SOLUTIONS Awards of Excellence:

Alelo EnSkills, Akili Interactive STARS-ADHSEndeavorRx, Soul Machine Digital DNA

Winner:

ej4 Business Skills

Awards of Excellence:

Bigger Brains Brain Bites Productivity, Vado Soft Skills Courses

Mark Your Calendar 2021

COMPLIANCE TRAINING Winner:

VuBiz Compliance Library

Awards of Excellence:

ej4 Workplace Compliance, Vado The Repectful Workplace Toolkit

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Baker Communications Inc Virtual Selling & Account Management, ej4 Selling Skills Content, Vado Relationship Selling Toolkit

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IBM Watson AI

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eThink Education Moodle

Best of Elearning! is a CU2, LLC awards program.

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edX Open edX, Sakai LMS

Elearning! Winter 2020

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Learning! 100:

How Apple Federal Credit Union Drives Business Decisions with

Analytics Lessons Learned from Two-time Learning! 100 Winner Apple Federal Credit Union (AFCU) won the 2020 Learning! 100 Award for Performance Excellence. The organization believes a talented, engaged workforce is a competitive differentiator. This advantage promotes member loyalty through extraordinary service, provides bench strength for career progression, and creates a competitive knowledge base for innovation and ongoing operations.

AFCU invests a lot of money and resources into staff development. The Talent Development (TD) department is challenged with measuring the return on this investment and showcasing value it provides to the organization through data and metrics. Without a formalized data tracking program, decisions the teams make are based primarily on needs assessments, survey results, staff comments, and prior experiences. In general, AFCU was using more qualitative data than quantitative data.

Building a program for data analytics that centralizes all the data in one location became a priority. The team understood that to progress forward and make the best business decisions possible, the team needed more quantitative data. Tracking trends and data over time will keep the team informed and enable them to better serve staff members as an Employer of Choice, develop staff members’ skills that better serve members, and make sound hiring decisions in the Talent Development department.

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applefederalcreditunion THE PROCESS In 2019, the AVP of Talent Development, Manager of Talent Development, and E-learning Team Leader collaborated to design a method for tracking departmental data. The process began by reaching out to colleagues in the field of Talent Development to discover what methods they are using to measure return on investment and value added. From this market research, the method chosen was a department scorecard. The scorecard was broken down into three categories: Operations, Member Value, Consistent Financial Performance.

The bulk of the design process was determining what metrics should be included under each of the four categories.

The team wanted to ensure that the team was not just gathering data to say the team had it, but have the data serve a purpose in measuring competency, knowledge gained, productivity, etc.

To measure the quality of Talent Development’s operations, some of the

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

Advanced notifications drove participation up to 79%. data the team measured included internal member service results, course evaluation results using the Net Promoter Score, increase in knowledge for instructor led courses, employees’ onboarding experience and number of branch visits.

To measure value the team provides to staff members, metrics being tracked on a monthly basis included the number of e-learnings and videos produced, total learning hours, total learning hours per employee, number of students trained, hours of training complete per employee, management participation, and completion time of training required.

To measure financial performance, the

team tracked productivity (average hours per resource) and cycle time (hours per minute of content) for e-learning content. Using this data, the team can provide cost estimates for project proposals and accurate time estimates based on project needs and requests. This data also helps the department manage their resource capacity and determine whether overtime hours are needed.

The last component of the design process involved building this scorecard in excel, as well as additional tabs that track and perform calculations for individual metrics.

Once the scorecard was created, the bulk of the program’s process involved pulling data for each of the metrics monthly and meeting to discuss the results.

THE TOOLS To generate the data for the scorecard, the team used reports from the organization’s learning management system, organization’s project management software, SharePoint lists, survey data, and personal excel spreadsheets.

The team also used tools to support the metrics. One tool the team used to assist in the time to course completion metric is course notifications in the LMS. These reminders aid in communicating course deadlines and helping learners set aside time to complete their courses.

They also use pre-tests and post-tests to measure increase in knowledge. This tool provides a direct comparison of what the learner knew before the class and after the class. It also identifies the top missed questions which allows the instructor to know what topic to focus on during the classroom training.

RESULTS Talent Development analyzed the 2019 data, identified trends, and discussed what adjustments should be made for 2020.

One area where the team saw immediate result was time to completion of required training. Employees are assigned seven Annual Required Learning (ARL) Modules predicated on what the National Credit Union Administration (NCUA), the governing body that ensures the team comply with all industry regulation requirements Employees are assigned one a month, starting in January, and are given the entire month to complete them. In 2018, the average percentage of employees completing ARL’s by the deadline was 66%. In 2019, the average percentage rose to 69%.

One factor that can be attributed to the increase is the addition of multiple assignment notifications. Employees are sent assignment notifications the day a course is assigned, half-way to the deadline, the day before the deadline, and then 1, 5, and 7 days after the deadline. This increased course participation to 79% vs 74% previously. In 2020, the team has made an additional adjustment by adding 14-day overdue notification to provide additional follow-up for the overdue learners.

In March of 2019, a new hire onboarding career path was introduced to all new employees, containing courses that taught on the job knowledge employees needed to know right away. The due date for this career path is 30 days after hire date. Previously, new hires would be assigned courses ala cart with no specific deadline. They were encouraged

to finish the course as soon as possible.

Since the implementation of a more structured approach, 83% of new hires have completed their new hire onboarding career path within the 30-day deadline.

Prior to the implementation of the career path, only 39% employees hired completed on-boarding within 30 days. The structured approach has increased the essential on the job knowledge employees’ need by 44%.

New on-boarding career paths improved on-time completion rates 213%.

A critical business issue that AFCU faces is ensuring the team maintain a constant influx of high-quality loans to generate income. TD partners with Consumer Lending by meeting consistently to determine any knowledge and skill gaps.

One method the team uses to collect data is measuring the associates increase in lending knowledge for the Lending Academy course.

The goal is a 30% increase in knowledge. A pre-test is given on the first day of class and a post-test is given on the last. The average increase for 2019 was 44%. In 2018 the average was 56%.

TD also collects data via survey to staff members who have completed Lending

Academy, to gain perceptions of their knowledge gap. The results indicated a need for retraining on indirect loans in the form of in-classroom refresher training.

An important aspect of the content was to increase awareness of why indirect loans can help members and organization. The TD Specialist II and the Indirect Lending SME created the content jointly. The TD Specialist II conducted the training for all member facing staff on several occasions. There was a 72% increase in knowledge (pre/post assessment) and survey comments reflected the content was helpful for the staff in their current role. Since the refresher, Lending has seen a reduction in Help Desk tickets, which means that staff are more equipped to handle indirect inquiries.

Learning hours per employee annually is one metric that continues to show improved results. In 2019, staff averaged 96 hours of learning and in 2018 averaged 66 hours of learning. The average hours of learning in 2017 was 53. A contributing factor may be that every department has career paths for their staff and the team are working to develop career progression plans for each area so the staff can understand what it takes to get a promotion from a learning and experience perspective.

An area for improvement is the measurement of career path usage and skills developed. The LMS has new enhancements including badging. In 2020, the team has made some enhancements to the scorecard. Pre-tests were created for all the ILT courses, not just lending, to show the knowledge gap each course is covering.

Another enhancement is tracking course updates in the scorecard. Productivity and cycle time are now broken down by each interaction level on the scorecard itself, instead of having to calculate the information every time you need it using a pivot table. The last enhancement to the program for 2020 is the quarterly analysis reports. With a year’s worth of data as the baseline to analyze, the team can begin to build a database of analytics. The goal of the program is to help efficiency, effectiveness and purpose in learning practices and to provide the information to make more informed decisions.

–Apple Federal Credit Union is a twotime Learning! 100 winner.

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E-learning’s Performance in the COVID-19 Era Findings from Franklin University Focus Group

BY DR. CHRISTOPHER WASHINGTON AND DR. KAREN MINER-ROMANOFF

PHOTOS COURTESY OF VI

T

he COVID-19 Pandemic was a disruptive event at such a scale as to necessitate a Great Global Lockdown, mobilizing entire nations to practice social distancing to slow the spread of the virus. The shutdown forced a rethinking of nearly every learning and workplace ecosystem on the planet. According to UNICEF—134 countries implemented nationwide closures of schools and workplaces. School closures alone impacted approximately 1.725 billion learners, leading many organizations and institutions worldwide to scramble to offer e-learning as an emergency remote alternative to educating students and training employees in traditional locations.

Prior to the global pandemic, e-learning tools and methods were increasingly being adopted in both academic and corporate settings. According to Values Reports, the global Academic E-learning Market size was 103.8 Billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.23% during 2019 – 2025. In the U.S., the proportion of all students who took at least one course online grew to 33.1 percent, from 31.1 percent in 2016, according to the U.S. Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics. Similarly, 30

Winter 2020 Elearning!

the global corporate e-learning market has been growing year over year. The corporate e-learning market size was 64.4 billion in 2019 and was expected to grow by a CAGR of 9.16% during 2019 – 2025. Increasingly, large businesses are turning to e-learning methods as a way to train their employees in ways that reduce costs, provide anytime and anywhere access to worldwide resources, and to administer and control events and calendars from various locations.

Fast forward to 2020 and the great lockdown. The rapid and unexpected adoption of e-learning by so many institutions shed light on learning ecosystem issues unfavorably impacting the shift to e-learning.

These issues include resource inequalities across societies, organizations, and individuals; uneven adoption of digital innova-

1.725 billion learners were impacted by school closures.

tion cycles; and variability in organizational capability to design and implement emergency remote learning in both schools and workplaces. These issues have spawned a significant number of disapproving public opinions about the use and effectiveness of e-learning, which in turn, disproportionately impact those who lack access to a quality education. As Alexis De Tocqueville once quipped over 200 years ago, “the power of public opinion could either result in a constructive or baneful force.” So too is modern public opinion in setting the tone and limits in which governments, workplaces, and schools, and ultimately learners come to view e-learning. Sadly, the line of socio-technological progress does not always bend in a desirable direction.

TIME TO ASSESS E-LEARNING We believe that now is a crucial time for e-learning to become a major movement in education and training delivery. To advance the practice of e-learning, it must overcome the divergent public opinions about its effectiveness. So, we asked ourselves questions about the potential future of e-learning emerging out of this disruptive and transitory period (See Figure 1.)

These questions include: “how might we intelligently contemplate the potential of e-

Elearning! Winter 2020

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businessimpactoflearning learning as a pillar of future lifelong learning in a changing world? Under what conditions can e-learning practitioners overcome divergent public opinions due to differences in access to education, lack of knowledge of best practices, and ineffective implementation?

In our enthusiasm, we facilitated focus groups of experts to solicit their ideas about a more desirable future for education in support of the UNESO “Futures of Education” Initiative. As Figure 1. Illustrates, we identified vital questions at the societal, organizational, school, and individual levels that could lead to either a precarious or preferred future for e-learning depending on how public opinions and attitudes sway.

By contemplating a polarity of possible futures relating to these questions, we aim to help e-learning advocates and practitioners anticipate dispositional roadblock and to contemplate potential e-learning adoption strategies in an unknown future. Presented below are our thoughts on a more precarious (tragedy by public opinion) scenario and a more preferred (triumphant) scenario evolving out of our current condition.

THE “TRAGEDY BY PUBLIC OPINION” SCENARIO In this near future scenario, there continues to be debate in many parts of the world concerning whether education is a common good. As an unresolved matter, access to education and subsequent human competence remains a function of socio-economic privilege. There continues to be cultural, political, and economic resistance to adopting

e-learning across societies. There is uneven private and public funding for e-learning based on local funding policies and the related wealth or poverty of citizens in local communities. Many communities around the world remain digital deserts, lacking the technological infrastructure to provide citizens with high speed access to the internet. As a private good, there is a greater movement towards privatization and monetization of learning platforms and educational content with an emphasis on “pay to access” options.

Education platforms are increasingly localized, connected to closed regional, learning or professional communities, resulting in the reinforcement of deeply held beliefs within local communities. Online platforms and tools provide virtual experiences that uncritically reinforce local cultural assumptions, ideas, and perspectives.

Across schools, colleges and universities, and workplaces there remains mixed views about the value of e-learning as a method of efficient, market-driven, and effective education and training. Learning programs reset after the pandemic to favor those who can be physically present to participate. Schools, universities, and employers fail to consider digital innovation cycles and their resultant impact on inequity in teaching and learning.

The learning data generated by sophisticated learning management systems remains underutilized by educators as a tool to prove the value of e-learning methods. Authorization, accreditation, and regulatory practices designed to assure and advance the quality of e-learning programs are rigid and slow to

FIGURE 1: E-LEARNING ECOSYSTEM Will education be a common good?

Cultural Norms & Public Options

Will education inform human freedom, fairness and justice?

Government & Societal Organizations

Will learning be accessible anytime and anywhere throughout one’s lifetime?

Home / School / Work

Will educators incorporate emerging technologies to improve instruction?

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Winter 2019 Elearning!

Educators & Learners

Will education focus on improving human wellbeing and global sustainability?

Will there be a greater Degree of Technology Convergence?

Will curriculum and instructional practices be scientifically informed?

Will students learn to solve for local and global needs?

adapt to the rapid disruption cycles of digital innovation in both learning technologies and workplace practices. Increasing proliferation of independent learning technology platforms and learning applications make it more difficult for organizational leaders to foster inter-organizational cooperation and collaborations. Independent development of learning platforms crystalizes borders between k-12 schools, post-secondary institutions, and workplace organization.

E-learning continues to be valued by those who are more comfortable with technology, have access to digital resources, and participate in communities and organizations that invest in and support e-learning.

Without a commitment to employing learning designers, curriculum design quality and instructional practices are largely a function of product features and instructor preferences. Long time educators resist adopting emerging e-learning technologies into their teaching and learning process. While many e-learning systems are equipped to collect data that can inform the analysis of peak learning environments, few are skilled enough to use them. Many organizations fail to create the infrastructure and training programs to assure teachers, faculty and trainers are competent in the use of instructional technologies.

There continues to be a lack of sensitivity to how evolving technologies can best meet the needs of diverse learners. There remain great gaps between what people learn and what is required of them at the next stage of education and work. Consequently, many youths will not reach their personal and professional goals or potential, as their home address largely determines their attitudes about education, their access to educational opportunities, and the resources available to them. As a result, many high potential individuals remain trapped in poverty, deprivation, and insecurity.

THE “TRIUMPHANT” SCENARIO Education is increasingly embraced by societies around the world as a common good, with societal leaders acknowledging that human competence is humanity’s greatest renewable resources. E-learning is popularly viewed as a legitimate method of developing human competence and expertise. Political and economic resistance to e-learning diminishes over time and there

is an increase in both private and public funding that supports e-learning in schools and universities around the globe. Increased investment in digital infrastructure provide increased access to internet around the planet. There is a greater movement towards open educational resources that enables freely transferred knowledge and scientific advancements, bringing about greater access to information and knowledge equity. Wider access to education via e-learning increases workforce participation and lifelong job training opportunities.

Education informs and is informed by human freedom, fairness, and justice.

Through e-learning, learners are engaging with peers and colleagues in civil discourse on societies most wicked problems and pervasive barriers to human wellbeing and global sustainability. Online platforms enable relationships outside of the traditional classroom and serve as virtual commons where learners share information and engage democratically within learning communities unrestricted to towns, cities, states, and countries. These virtual common areas provide engagement opportunities for a broad population of peoples, reflecting a mosaic of diverse cultural assumptions, ideas, and perspectives.

Continuous improvements in online and hybrid education and training programs lead schools, universities, and employers to increasingly value e-learning as a valid method of accessible, dynamic, and cost-efficient education and training. Advances in learning technologies and e-learning programs that are accessible anytime from anywhere support the modern workforce including permanent, casual, agency, and contract employees who work from many locations.

Organizations of all types embrace digital innovation cycles and calibrate improvements in teaching and learning with periodic advances in technological capability.

Technological convergence coupled with inter-organizational cooperation and collaborations make knowledge and human competence requirements at all levels transparent and help support learner transitions from K-12 to post-secondary and into the workplace. Educational authorization, accreditation, and regulatory practices, designed to assure and advance the quality of e-learning programs, increasingly allow for rapid adaptations to accommodate the rapid

disruption cycles of digital innovation in both learning technologies and workplace practices. Technology has progressed so that the data that it generates on learning is easy to consume. The data instructional quality and the relevance of curriculum, while allowing for instructional flexibility and increased learner accessibility.

The learning sciences have blossomed as an established discipline that is heavily influenced by empirical research. The interdisciplinary nature of learning sciences combines data analytics, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and machine learning in a way that assures and advances measurable learning. E-learning systems are equipped to collect learning science data that informs the analysis of peak learning environments. Educators are more effective at incorporating emerging tech into the teaching and learning progress. Organizations create the infrastructure to assure teachers, faculty and trainers are competent in the use of instructional technologies and e-learning pedagogies while remaining sensitive to the needs of diverse learners.

Learners increasingly value e-learning to improve their knowledge, skills, and abilities, and ultimately their life circumstances throughout all stages of life. Learning institutions and workplace move beyond formal degrees to valuing a more fluid credentialing system that recognizes different degrees of human competence. With learners untethered to physical locations, more individuals develop capabilities to solve global, local, and organizational problems. Civil societies exploit their highest level of thinking to create, innovate, and solve seemingly intractable challenges.

CONCLUSION There remains a number of discordant ideas about the value of e-learning at a time when emerging learning technologies can be adopted in ways that increase access to education and training and unleash the expertise of diverse learners on a global scale. The nature of work and the skills necessary to perform most work roles are constantly changing. According to research by the World Economic Forum, the core skills required to perform most roles will change by 42% on average by 2022. Accelerating the adoption of quality e-learning across the lifecycle can prepare individuals

for these impending changes to work roles and expand access to education in ways to lead to better informed individuals and societies. Here we identified vital issues at the societal, organizational, and individual level of the learning ecosystem that could lead to either a precarious or preferred future. We offer these thoughts as a way to help e-learning advocates and practitioners contemplate possible ways to reach the broadest potential population of learners; anticipate cultural, socio-political and financial roadblocks; and facilitate adoption of e-learning as a way to transform education well beyond this disruptive period.

We would like to hear from you. In what ways might we bring about the world we want by amplifying effective e-learning methods in the classrooms, in organizations, and in the community? Share your responses on Twitter at #Futureofe-learning ABOUT THE AUTHORS: Dr. Christopher Washington Dr. Christopher Washington serves as the Provost and Executive Vice President of Franklin University, where he works to adapt and respond to the rapidly evolving technological, social, demographic, and competitive landscape affecting higher education institutions today. He currently serves as National Board Chair of Global Ties U.S., and as a member of the United States Speakers Bureau, and on the Forbes Nonprofit Council. Dr. Washington is also a 2016 Learning! Champion.

Dr. Karen-MinerRomanoff Dr. Karen Miner-Romanoff teaches at New York University, serves as a nonprofit consultant and program evaluator, and is a 2016 Learning! Champion. Prior, she held the position of Assistant Dean for Academic Excellence at NYU and led the Center for Academic Excellence and Support. She holds a Ph.D. and Master’s in Public Policy and Administration, emphasis in criminology. Prior to joining NYU, Dr. Miner-Romanoff served as the Associate Provost for Academic Quality and Executive Director for the International Institute for Innovative Instruction at Franklin University.

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LastWord Rethinking the Employee Lifecycle

BY RYAN EUDY

M Ryan Eudy, CEO ryan.eudy@ej4.com

any HR professionals are familiar with the concept of the employee lifecycle. The idea is that every employee goes through stages with your organization, including recruitment, onboarding, ongoing development, retention, and exit or separation. Different HR programs with different goals apply at each stage as your employees are changing and developing.

The employee lifecycle has a big role to play in crafting training and development programs that are suited to where your employee is in their lifecycle (or think of it as a quest) in your company. Organizations can tailor their training solutions to apply to the employee journey and look at things from the employee’s point of view.

THE EMPLOYEE JOURNEY AND CORPORATE TRAINING PROGRAMS The employee’s journey can give organizations some keen insights into their corporate training and development programs. The kinds of corporate training you offer a seasoned employee should be different from those you provide during onboarding, for example. Would you give a brand-new employee training on how to pitch a project to executive leadership? Or does a seasoned employee need to take “Gmail 101?” Probably not. A more meaningful training approach is the one that takes into consideration the situational needs of the employee.

The same goes for the frequency of training, the depth of training, and even the kinds of training topics offered. So how do we go about accommodating all those various needs?

When we think in cycles, the tendency is to prepare a set schedule for training where, say, all new employees take a set curriculum, all HiPos take another curriculum, and so on. This is not a bad way to do things, especially for larger organizations...

But what would happen if you also allowed employees to direct their own learning, setting their own path, at their own pace? What if training was geared not just toward achieving certain company-mandated goals, but toward helping employees with the hundreds of little challenges that they confront daily in their work and private lives? My guess is that your corporate training programs would look vastly different. And once you empower employees to learn independently, you may find that they bring new and helpful skills to the table, making their work better than ever before.

WE WROTE THE BOOK ON EMPLOYEE JOURNEYS Going through each stage of an employee’s journey, discussing their needs and goals at each stage, and suggesting how to tailor training programs to meet those needs and goals...that goes well beyond what I can cover here. Fortunately, we created an eBook to fill that need. In it you can learn: The differences between an employee lifecycle model and an employee journey; Why onboarding should really start well in advance of day 1; The one element that, when missing, makes employees 12x more likely to leave your organization; What steps are involved in a highly engaging development program; Four major factors that contribute to employee turnover (and how to mitigate them); How exit interviews can give you greater insight into employee journeys so you can improve them, and more.

We understand that part of the draw of the employee lifecycle model is that it gives a nice visual representation of what HR is all about. We wanted to keep that visual element in mind. So, not only is the eBook full of useful stats and information, but we also worked hard to make it visually appealing as well. It has a mythical design of a hero’s epic journey with dragons, ogres, castles, and fairies! Download this free eBook and find more useful resources at ej4.com/quest.

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Winter 2020 Elearning!

Are you giving

your employees

thetheytools need to be successful on

their quest?

Your employee’s journey through your company can have many twists and turns. Prepare them for what lies ahead with the right training.

Explore the thrilling quest of our hero, your employee, in our free eBook "The Employee Journey."

Download at ej4.com/quest