It may be a short month, but February is no slouch in the learning department. It’s full of informative learning events and new business ideas to help you take your business to the next frontier. And it’s easy to participate in a free webinar—or even three or four. February has plenty to choose from—we hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Monday, February 2, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: MOOCS: Expanding The Scope Of Organizational Learning (Free for ATD members)

This webcast is based on the recently released report from ATD and the Institute for Corporate Productivity (i4cp), titled MOOCs: Expanding the Scope of Organizational Learning. The report explores the current and anticipated use of MOOCs (massive open online courses) in the business world. Join Kevin Oakes, CEO of i4cp, and Amy Rouse, Director of Operations Training at AT&T, as they explore the findings of the report and how organizations are using MOOCs.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 8AM – 9AM PST: 3 Ways to Create Mobile Learning Like Never Before

Keen to transition from traditional eLearning to any-screen mobile learning, but not sure of the best way to do it? Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh as she shows you three different ways to create mobile learning content. This session will help you understand the multiple ways in which you can create eLearning for your learners on the go and then decide whichever suits you best. Dr. Jaisingh will go over the various mobile learning schools of thought and speak about the pros and cons of each, helping you make your decision. Also, if you’re already an mLearning practitioner, you can get some of your mLearning-related questions answered. This session is appropriate for all skill levels—basic, intermediate, and advanced. Jumpstart mLearning!

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Gain the Edge: NO to Memorization – YES to Applications Learning

Why do many of our eLearning and training programs get stuck in memorization and testing rather than the application of learning in actual job situations? In this webinar, you will examine and explore the stumbling blocks to faster applications of learning. You will discover examples and methods that can accelerate your focus on learning that is immediately applicable in the workplace. Topics covered:

• Why is there a lot of focus in memorization and testing instead of applications on the job?

• What are the negative consequences in terms of costs, speed of delivery, and effectiveness of learning design?

• How do you investigate and assess whether your programs suffer from “memorization and testing overload?”

• How do you scientifically present to your leadership that there is a need for change?

Tuesday, February 3, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Accelerate the Ramp-Up Time of New Sales Reps (Free for ATD members)

In this webinar, Norman Behar and Ray Makela of the Sales Readiness Group will discuss strategies for ensuring your new sales reps quickly become fully productive. Learning takeaways for attendees:

• Improve productivity of new sales reps.

• Hire sales stars.

• Implement an effective onboarding program.

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: The Trendspotters Challenge – Innovation In Action (Free for ATD members)

Deloitte's technology, media, and telecommunications industry leaders were looking for an innovative and exciting way to help leaders develop insights into important technology trends. Hear how they designed and launched the Trendspotters Challenge, providing an engaging and innovative space to learn about current industry trends.

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: 4 Learning Metrics You’re Not Using Today But Should

L&D functions that focus on the right learning metrics successfully double or even triple the level of impact that their learning programs have on the organization. This session will focus on four underutilized metrics: Scrap Learning, Predictive ROI, Net Promoter Score, and Manager Support Rate. For each of the four metrics, we’ll delve into:

• How the metric is defined.

• How to incorporate the metric into your measurement process.

• How to best leverage the metric to achieve real impact.

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 10AM – 10:45AM PST:  The Art and Science of Assessments: Three Questions You Should Ask

What’s the big deal about assessments anyway? Assessments have been around for decades now, so why all the attention to the assessments industry these days? Organizations large and small are using a wide variety of assessment types—skill, behavioural, personality, cognitive, and more—throughout the hiring process and the employee lifecycle to help make better talent decisions, guide managers in developing their teams, and help individuals further their own career goals. It’s not enough to get an assessment score or profile. Managers and individuals need to know how to take action on that information. It’s a balance of science-driven assessments, and the art of integrating the results with your talent processes.

Thursday, February 5, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Design and Deliver Interactive and Effective Online Training Pt 1

Register for this two-part webinar series with Cindy Huggett, author and CPLP, to learn how to design and deliver an effective, world-class virtual training program. Join us for this series to learn:

• A three-step design model for online courses.

• Two key techniques for promoting interactivity.

• How to effectively engage out-of-sight participants.

• How to get attendees talking with one another.

Tuesday, February 10, 2015, 10AM – 11PM PST: Innovation and Improvisation: It's All About Focus (Free for ATD members)

Every industry, every company, and every leader is concerned about innovation. It launches new products, finds new uses for old products, and discovers cost savings. Greater innovation starts at the brainstorming table. Learn how to break through to more effective brainstorming with Karen Hough, CEO of ImprovEdge. She’ll lead an interactive session to help managers plan and lead creative brainstorming sessions that yield innovative solutions. You will learn:

• High-impact techniques for moving from brainstorming to innovation.

• Case studies of how these simple tools have supported innovation in large corporations.

• How to select participants for your next brainstorming session.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015, 10AM – 11PM PST: HCM Trends and Excellence Awards

Has your team created or implemented a leading program or enabling technology to help streamline, save costs, and improve productivity within your organization? Are you an HCM solution provider that has offered incredible technologies to your client organizations?  Then we want to hear from you, and invite you to apply for Brandon Hall Group’s HCM Excellence Awards Program. The program, which offers you an opportunity to share your best practices and results, will be reviewed by Brandon Hall Group’s elite analyst team and an international panel of industry experts.

Now entering its 21st year, the Brandon Hall Group HCM Excellence Awards Program is the most prestigious awards program in the industry. Often called the “Academy Awards” by Learning, Talent and Business Executives, the program was one of the first of its kind in the learning industry, which was pioneered in 1994. By entering you have the opportunity to join the ranks of prestigious companies that received awards last year, including Accenture, Bank of America, Hewlett Packard, IBM, Intel, LinkedIn, McDonald's Corporation, Shell, Stanford University, Verizon Wireless, and Walgreens.

Wednesday, February 11, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Unlocking the Potential of Performance Support with Mobile Technologies in 2015 (Free for ATD members)

For many organizations, it’s more important than ever to implement performance support, the training strategy for getting the right information at the right time into your employees’ hands. What else is in your employees’ hands? Mobile devices. In fact, 2014 was the first year that mobile usage outpaced PC usage, according to comScore. Connect your learners with the content they need on the job and in the moment by marrying mobile technologies with performance support. In this webinar, through case studies, anecdotes, and the latest research, you’ll learn:

• What performance support means in an increasingly mobile world.

• How to determine when and where mobile performance support makes sense for you.

• How organizations across industries are putting mobile performance support into practice.

• What kinds of tools will help you build, distribute, and measure the effectiveness of performance support content for mobile.

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: Are You Ready to Make a Change? Navigating Your Way to Your Next Position (Free for ATD members)

With the economy and resulting employment opportunities improving, you might be thinking about making a change. Do you want to move up within your organization or change the focus of your position? Perhaps you're ready to move on to a new employer. Or, maybe you're thinking about moving from another profession to training and development or instructional design. Join ATD and SkillDirector for a discussion and demonstration about how you can use the ATD Career Navigator to prepare yourself or your team for a career change in the talent development profession. The Career Navigator, based on the ATD Competency Model, is a self-assessment tool available as a free member benefit to US ATD members. With it, you can create a personalized learning plan to close your skill gaps.

When this session is complete, you will be able to use the Career Navigator to:

• Prepare for the job you want next.

• Update your resume.

• Distinguish yourself in interviews.

If you’re ready for a career change, or you want to help your team take the next step, find out how to use the Career Navigator to meet the demands of today's talent development profession!

 Thursday, February 12, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Teach Your Learners to Fish: How Holistic Learning Makes Performance Gains Stick

Investment in training for many organizations often results in a roller coaster effect: a temporary improvement in performance, followed by declines or learning plateaus. According to research published in Learning Solutions, 80 percent of what employees learn is forgotten within 30 days. Battling this up-and-down cycle has become a constant challenge for trainers. How do you replace incremental and fleeting increases in knowledge with lasting fluency that learners can call upon in real performance situations?

Holistic learning offers a solution to not only make these gains permanent, but also to give people the skills to continually improve their own performance. So stop feeding your learners, and teach them to fish instead. In this webinar you’ll learn:

• The science and psychology behind why holistic learning works.

• How to design a holistic learning program, and why microlearning should be at the centre.

• How to teach best practices and metacognitive strategies to give learners a 360º view of a topic.

• Why holistic learning saves time, money, and improves performance—permanently.

Thursday, February 12, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Design and Deliver Interactive and Effective Online Training Pt 2

Register for this two-part webinar series with Cindy Huggett, author and CPLP, to learn how to design and deliver an effective, world-class virtual training program. Join in this series to learn:

• A three-step design model for online courses.

• Two key techniques for promoting interactivity.

• How to effectively engage out-of-sight participants.

• How to get attendees talking with one another.

Monday, February 16, 2015, 10AM – 10:30AM PST: Converting Potential to Performance: Optimizing High-Potential Development (Free for ATD members)

High potentials are the future leaders of their organizations. Developing high potentials to achieve their full capabilities has unique opportunities and challenges. This webinar presents simple, highly effective techniques, based on research on star performers and the newest neuroscience of learning, that enable managers to quickly guide high potentials to realize their talent and become true stars. It also provides useful tips on how to expand the number of high potentials building organizational bench strength.

The webinar draws examples from diverse industries such as high technology, retail, and healthcare, and varying roles such as executive development, first-line leadership, customer service, manufacturing, and sales.

Wednesday, February 18, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Build a High-Performance Virtual Team (Free for ATD members)

The digital age is changing the way we work, play, communicate, and think. It is an exciting frontier that rewards those who step up to the challenge and develop new levels of competence. While it may seem difficult to keep pace with technological changes, the abundance of new, user-friendly tools actually makes it easier to lead and collaborate across distance than ever before.  This webinar introduces the tools, attitudes, and actions leaders need to encourage maximum performance in team members. You'll learn to:

• Define the skill sets important to virtual team members and leaders.

• Identify the five success factors for building and leading virtual teams.

• Discuss the prevailing myths and challenges about leading virtual teams, and ways to overcome them.

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST:  Learning Solutions and Your Product Launch: How a Curriculum Drives Success

Is your company ready to launch a new product? Your sales and support reps might not be. If the product is complex, your customers might not know how to use it either. Training is a critical part of every product launch, as it helps employees and customers in a variety of roles and locations build the knowledge and skills they need to sell, service, and use the new product effectively.

This session shows how a curriculum of learning solutions can be used as part of a product launch to solve common business problems. It then connects the big-picture goals of a product launch to practical techniques for designing a curriculum that engages learners before, during, and after a launch event. We’ll show you how to develop product launch training that drives learner retention … while avoiding common mistakes along the way.

Thursday, February 19, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Preparing for the CPLP Certification Exam: Let Me Count the Ways (Free for ATD members)

You’re serious about attaining the Certified Professional in Learning and Performance (CPLP) certification. What is the best way to prepare? Attend this webcast and learn about the various ATD options to prepare effectively for the multiple choice exam and work product. The speaker will cover ATD's Preparing for the CPLP program, including the free interactive guide, as well as the ATD Learning System and study group options. Priyanka Chaturvedi Coats, CPLP, will also join in to share her personal experience. There will be time for questions from participants, and a job aid of study tips and timing strategies will be provided.

Friday, February 20, 2015, 9AM – 10AM PST: Prepare Now to Lead Later (Free for ATD members)

Excelling later at your job means planning your career from the start. Determine the best path for you by assessing your own skills, gaining line experience, and becoming aware of the characteristics of your industry’s leaders. You also need to optimize your performance reviews and polish your image. Lastly, adopt the markers of a leader, including the ability to innovate, operate in uncertainty, convey ideas clearly, and influence others. This webinar will give you guidelines on how to prepare now so that you will be chosen to lead later.

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: The NO-LECTURE Webinar: Engage Learners, STOP “Yacking” at Them

For the trainers and participants, webinars are great, until the trainers simply “yack” at learners. That’s when learners start multitasking and, therefore, do not learn from the sessions. This is unfortunate. Done effectively, webinars are the next best approaches we can use to deliver good training inexpensively. The major pitfall? “THE LECTURE” webinar.

How do you assess webinar design and structure to determine that it engages and helps learners learn instead of boring them to death?

• What is a sound and solid design approach for engaging webinars?

• How do you apply the NO-LECTURE Webinar technique and method in all types of learning? In compliance, technical software, process, people skills and other types of content?

• How do you learn NOT TO LECTURE but instead, facilitate the optimal emotional and cognitive processes that your learners go through?

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST:  Extended Learning: Creating a Big Impact on the Bottom Line

To win in today’s fast-paced economy, organizations are becoming increasingly dependent on a wide network of global stakeholders to grow their bottom line and achieve their goals. If you’re not extending training beyond your employees to business partners, suppliers, resellers, and customers, you are missing a major opportunity to achieve even better business performance. An extended learning strategy that empowers your external audiences with knowledge and information can deliver tangible, business-changing results and contribute to achieving your organization’s key strategic goals.

Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, as he discusses the market demands and trends for leveraging Extended Enterprise Learning, including:

• Tips to identify—and develop—a solid learning program as a key part of a new revenue channel.

• Ways to leverage extended learning to increase market awareness and product adoption.

• How extended learning can lower costs and increase productivity by reducing and recouping the cost of a traditional learning program

Tuesday, February 24, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Best Webcast Series: Innovation in Education Supporting a Changing Health Care Environment at Wakemed Health & Hospitals (Free for ATD members)

The role of health care is changing at an astronomical pace. The unique nature of the dynamic health care industry is the perfect environment for new teams to learn how education is delivered to decrease medical errors and improve the quality of patient care. The link between education and clinical medicine is the key and we must create innovative ways to make that connection successful. Tracking and understanding the data can help improve the link between education, quality, and patient safety, and create standardization and consistency.

In this webcast, you will learn to:

• Identify the current changes that are impacting health care.

• Discuss how to improve quality and patient outcomes with education.

• Discuss effective collaborative strategies.

Wednesday, February 25, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST:  13 Techniques That Will Make Designing PowerPoint Slides EASY

A repertoire of specific techniques and treatments that you can quickly apply in almost any situation, focusing on images and slide layout:

• How to “flip” your presentation to free up your slide from text.

• Four layouts that always look good.

• A repertoire of image treatments that you can quickly apply.

• How to embrace emotion without appearing sappy.

• Formatting text so that it’s legible on top of an image.

This session is for those of you who are artistically challenged but still need to quickly create professional-looking, striking, and engaging slides.

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Beyond the Buzz: Engage Learners with a Corporate MOOC

They’re Massive, they’re Open, and they’re Online, and they’re getting lots of buzz. But of all the possibilities offered by MOOCs, the Corporate MOOC model stands out as a way to get real business impact and long-term results from social learning and innovative new technologies. In this interactive webinar, Xavier Sillon, CEO of Vodeclic, will explore the disruptive power of Corporate MOOCs and the best practices for launching a Corporate MOOC to facilitate collaborative, ongoing learner engagement in today’s business world.

You’ll discover how Corporate MOOCs, with their ability to combine video-based tutorials and lectures with social learning, communication, and community building, are changing the learning landscape and offering new ways to scale your development strategies and better address the needs of a diverse learning population.

 Thursday, February 26, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST:  Drivers of Engagement in New Hire Onboarding

It’s no secret that employee engagement is a serious challenge—and costly. But while most companies recognize the benefits of a highly engaged workforce, only a select few have sustainable strategies in place that effectively tackle engagement head-on. Leading organizations such as Twilio and California Pizza Kitchen are systematically fostering engagement before an employee’s first day on the job. Having implemented a more robust onboarding program, they are seeing improvements in key talent metrics and are consistently winning the war for talent.

Of course, employee engagement poses unique challenges for every organization—and talent strategies aren’t one-size-fits-all. In order to better understand the role onboarding plays, Brandon Hall Group and cfactor Works have invited a few of today’s foremost human resources and talent acquisition leaders to discuss key findings from our latest report, Drivers of Engagement in High-Performance Onboarding.

Topics to be covered include:

• 5 Essential Elements of High-Performance Onboarding.

• Key Practices for Gauging Impact.

• The Importance of Talent Technology.

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 10AM – 11AM PST: Webinar: Performance Support: Putting the “I” into Apply (Free for CSTD members)

The process you trained last month is already out of date. Your face-to-face sessions are well attended and highly rated but learners seem to forget the key takeaways right when they need them. Your onboarding training is best in class but your organization struggles with how to support these same learners as they progress in their roles or the company. What's an L&Der to do?

Want to learn more about the best kept secret in L&D? Curious how you can increase learning retention and promote stronger transfer? Join Carey Franklin-McInnes for a fun, interactive introduction to Performance Support and the massive power it offers your organizations and clients.

After completing this webinar, learners will be able to:

• Define performance support and the five moments of learning need.

• Locate examples of performance support in action in your past solutions or across your organization.

• Embed performance support into your future training recommendations.

Thursday, February 26, 2015, 11AM – 12PM PST: Blended Learning Instructional Design: A Modern Approach (Free for ATD members)

Instructional designers are constantly bombarded with new technologies and trends. It's difficult to distinguish which are fads and which are worthy of time and resources. Instructional designers must also battle the false perception that you can teach any content using any technology. So what's the solution?

Instructional designers should look to develop a more blended program rather than try to fit all content into one convenient delivery modality. This session will provide some tips on how to plan and create a successful blended program.