Free T&D webinars for March 2014

Crocuses are popping up, and the sun is putting in a longer work day lately—could spring be approaching? Clear out the winter cobwebs and jumpstart your spring with some new business ideas for March; there are plenty of free webinars to choose from. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Wednesday, March 5, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Diversity and Inclusion: Inspiring Learning for a Changing World (Free for ASTD members)

With globalization and shifting demographics, understanding diversity and inclusion (D&I) is a requirement for every training professional to ensure that learning is relevant in a changing world. In this one-hour interactive webinar, you will learn how key trends are transforming the workplace, workforce, and marketplace, and what the implications are from a training perspective. The presenters will provide practical tools that you can adapt in your training initiatives going forward to address this business imperative.

• Learn what D&I is and why it matters to you

• Discover D&I best practices for greater effectiveness

• Enhance your professional skills to address changing requirements for success

Thursday, March 6, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Agile Project Management for Learning Projects – LLAMA!

Either by design or by default, your team’s environment and work practices are reflected in the level of service you deliver to clients and customers. New technologies, rising expectations, and shrinking budgets challenge us all to new levels. How do you keep your project from falling short in delivering on time and on budget when things are constantly changing?

Agile project management is a hands-on practical approach created by the software development industry to keeping up with the ever-increasing speed of change. In this session, we’ll explore how TorranceLearning’s approach to Agile project management (LLAMA: Lot Like Agile Methods Approach) creates the team ecosystem and project management methods that set the stage for delivering amazing results for your clients (internal or external) and for your team. 

Thursday, March 6, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Emotional Intelligence for Effective Leadership (Free for ASTD members)

Today’s fast-paced and complex business environment requires leaders who can cope more easily in stressful situations, exude confidence, and be flexible and optimistic. This webcast will explore the exciting topic of emotional intelligence (EI) and how it provides the foundation for the qualities and characteristics of an effective leader. Participants will look at the world’s first scientifically validated model of EI, the EQ-i 2.0, and understand how leadership connects to specific EI skills. The webcast also will present a plan to cultivate EI and empower one's ability to create greater leadership effectiveness.

Monday, March 10, 2014, 9:30AM – 10:30AM PST: Disengaged to Engaged Employees – The Impact on Your Culture (Free for ASTD members)

When you look around your work environment, do you as a leader/manager recognize the signs of a disengaged employee? Do you understand the impact that this can have on your organization as a whole? Constant negativity at the water cooler may be slowly poisoning your work environment. Good employees say very clearly that if a negative culture does not change, they will seek a position elsewhere. Remember that it is always the good employees who leave—because they can!

Join Doug Lawrence as he explores the signs of disengaged and engaged employees, and how both types can impact a mentoring culture. Doug will leverage past learning experiences to help you create an organization that has an engaged, empowered, and accountable workforce—enabled through a mentoring culture. This presentation will benefit leaders and managers in any organization, and HR practitioners who are struggling with a culture that is driven by negativity and disengaged workers. If you suspect this is you, then consider joining us for this presentation.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 9AM – 10AM PST: Are You Training Sales Managers for the Right Skills? (Free for ASTD members)

Sales managers have always worn too many hats, and that level of responsibility is only increasing. Still the question remains—is their development keeping up? To keep up, many sales organizations are turning to surveys to capture important sales manager performance data. Unfortunately, survey design is not something sales professionals know much about. The result is that many sales surveys produce faulty data that lead to bad decisions. In this highly interactive session, you will:

• Examine how the role of sales manager has changed

• Learn why assessments are an effective method for developing sales manager performance

• Analyze the common mistakes made when creating sales manager assessments

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Magnetic Culture – Tools to Retain Your Top Talent

Highly successful organizations know that the key to their success is keeping their employees fully connected throughout the entire employee life cycle. Connection begins as your top talent is on-boarded and continues as they learn, collaborate, innovate, socialize, and share. How do you improve the employee processes so that those employees not only feel connected but also share this feeling with others, creating a magnetic culture? How do you enhance your culture and make it one that employees do not want to leave?

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Next Generation of Learning Content Strategies – Learning Content in the Age of YouTube and Facebook

Every organization that delivers employee training and development programs must deliver learning content. The challenge in today’s world is that traditional approaches to content might no longer help organizations find, develop, and deliver the right content to the right employee at the right time. In this webinar we will explore the critical elements of the next generation of learning content strategies:

• Curating – organizing content to provide context and access

• Defining content – in today’s world, content is anything employees can use to improve job performance

• Delivery – using next-generation strategies to merge delivery tools with content for the greatest impact

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: How to Transform Your Training Content into an Engaging Story

As learning and development professionals, we know that we’re wired for stories. The problem is, we’ve got to teach facts and figures and processes and tools—which can get pretty boring. Here’s the good news. Even this content can come to life and be “stickier” through the power of storytelling. Anyone can learn to construct and deliver stories that spark interest and improve results. Join Roger Courville and get ready to take notes as he reveals how the world’s oldest pastime can rock the modern virtual classroom.

Tuesday, March 11, 2014, 12PM – 1PM PST: Survey Basics(Free for ASTD members)

Back by popular demand! Patti Philips will walk you through the fundamentals of creating and using surveys and questionnaires. Surveys and questionnaires are common instruments used to collect data of all types. Whether evaluating a training program or assessing an organizational climate, self-administered surveys are a tool with which we must contend. This webcast presents the four basic but critical challenges that can make or break a successful survey project. Upon completion of this session, you will be able to:

• Recognize the four challenges in survey design

• Calculate the sample size given the size of the population, when sampling is appropriate

• Calculate the appropriate number of responses required, given the size of your target group

• Improve the accuracy of responses by following the tips provided for asking the right questions the right way

• Consider key issues in developing survey questions

Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: eLearning Salary & Compensation 2014

What do eLearning professionals earn these days? Are salaries in your country and worldwide rising, falling, or flat? How do your organization size, industry, years of experience, and other factors influence your salary and compensation?

Join 2014 Global eLearning Salary & Compensation Report author Patti Shank as she leads a panel of eLearning professionals to compare key report takeaways. The panel will address what the almost 6,000 survey respondents said in late 2013 about their salaries and compensation, review salary and compensation trends, and discuss the trends they expect to see moving forward. Whether you have read this report or not, attend this webinar to learn more about global eLearning salary and compensation.

Wednesday, March 12, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Personalize the Learning Experience by Leveraging CRM and LMS (Free for ASTD members)

In today’s self-paced world of online learning, students are empowered to learn on their own terms. While this flexibility may be a significant advantage to the learner, it can be a challenge to provide learners with the support they need to be successful. In this session, we will look at innovative ways that CRM and LMS systems can be integrated to provide support teams with real-time access to learners’ status and information. By more closely linking these systems, potential up-sell or cross-sell opportunities can be identified more easily, and case-management solutions can be used to address learner questions and feedback. Leveraging both CRM and LMS systems provides an opportunity to make the learning experience more personal and bring back the human element with personalized interaction.

Friday, March 14, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Our Profession: Where We've Been; Where We're Going (Exclusive Webcast for ASTD's Professional Plus Members)

Join legend Elaine Biech as she reviews the history of the T&D profession and makes a case for why you should care, what’s important, and what’s not.

Monday, March 17, 2014, 9AM – 10AM PST: Career Development for Millennials (Free for ASTD members)

Hired the best early-stage talent? Are they staying with you as long as you had planned? Join  Dr. B. Lynn Ware to hear how your company can design its career development offerings so that they will appeal to this generation of talent and extend the employee lifecycle.

Ware will report the results of a recently completed, groundbreaking study about how Gen Y workers make decisions to change jobs. The reasons are different than you think. The results cry out for a change in company talent management practices to emphasize early career support and development, even during the on-boarding phase.

Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Demystifying Mobile Learning

A lot has been said about mobile learning and how it is taking enterprise training by storm. However, it has become quite challenging to separate the noise from facts. In this webinar, we will address:

• The state of mobile learning and key drivers behind mobile learning for enterprises

• Different types of mobile learning formats and use cases

• Low-cost approaches to jump-starting your mobile learning initiatives

• Pros and cons of various mobile learning models

• Recognizing potential minefields and best practices when it comes to building, deploying, and measuring learning impact

Tuesday, March 18, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Planning Lives and Building Engagement (Free for ASTD members)

Industry icon Marshall Goldsmith helps attendees to:

• Review why it is so difficult to achieve even simple change—and the classic delusions that keep us from changing

• Understand the classic debate between determinism and choice and see how most engagement work is deterministic

• Learn a new model for planning the future

• Understand why active questions can help people become more engaged

• Participate in the "active question" research study (optional)

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Best Practices for Virtual Leadership Development

The challenge of leadership in global organizations and the deficit of emerging leaders are two of the many factors leading businesses to explore alternative approaches to leadership development.  New technologies have opened to door to creative, cost-effective, and engaging ways to train your future leaders, regardless of their location.

Today’s virtual programs are a far cry from the online programs of just a few years ago. In this Training Magazine webcast, Tom Masotto—Vice President of Product Management at ON24—will discuss best practices for using virtual environments to:

• Reach global leaders faster and more cost-effectively

• Provide busy leaders with more flexibility

• More tightly integrate learning with daily work

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Research Spotlight: Recent Research Highlights from Brandon Hall Group's Talent Management Practice

This session of the Brandon Hall Group Monthly Research Spotlight Series highlights actionable talent management data. You will learn:

• Insightful analytics-based facts about leadership development drivers and talent management risks

• Talent management trends to plan for

• Talent management priorities on which to focus your attention for better business impact

• A framework for designing talent management excellence

• A model for diagnosing your current level of talent management maturity

• About upcoming talent management research

• Exclusive research resources available through our Brandon Hall Group membership

Wednesday, March 19, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Creating a Modern Mentoring Culture (Free for ASTD members)

Mentoring has proven again and again to be a powerful and effective workforce development tool, and the need for mentoring, knowledge sharing, and skill building continues to grow. However, traditional mentoring, where an older mentor meets with a younger mentee in person to help facilitate development and groom them for career progression, is no longer adequate in today's hyper-connected and fast-paced world.

Based on the September 2013 Infoline, "Creating a Modern Mentoring Culture," this webcast will describe how organizations today must embrace a new form of mentoring and knowledge sharing that allows workers to find and connect with their colleagues so they can learn while on the job, share best practices throughout all areas of the business, and collaborate with people no matter where they may be located.

Thursday, March 20, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Leadership Development – Strategy in Action

According to Brandon Hall Group’s recent Leadership Development benchmarking research, more than 300 survey respondents told us that leadership development was their top priority for accelerating business performance, yet only 25.3 percent of respondents rated their leadership development programs as extremely or very effective. How do we improve leader development, increase leader excellence, and in the process achieve higher and sustained levels of business performance?

Session topics include:

• Strategy: Understanding the what and why of leadership strategy to identify leader development priorities

• Culture: Shaping organizational culture to enable experience-driven development

• Action: Identifying key moments to spark change and being a passionate and courageous agent of change

• Sustain: Creating an enduring learning organization and building an internal coaching culture to sustain it

Friday, March 21, 2014, 9AM – 10AM PST: Gaining Credibility: Leading Executive Conversations to Improve Your Results (Free for ASTD members)

Are you a manager, director, or vice president (or aspiring one) who has found that conversations with C-level executives can be challenging? Do you want to improve your results? Executive coach Sally Williamson will share insights into what top execs value, and give you strategies to gain the credibility and influence you need to get buy-in for your recommendations and improve your results. You’ll learn:

• What top executives value and how they think

• The three core concepts that leaders listen for, and ways to deliver on them consistently

• How to define and create a compelling message

• Tips for developing a high-level conversation framework to capture executive interest and support for your projects and recommendations

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: Engaging & Retaining Employees That Keep Your Customers Happy

Great performance is achieved through successful employees. Successful employees are highly engaged. Highly engaged employees receive feedback and recognition. Over 75 percent of organizations believe employees receive most of their feedback in the performance management process; less than half feel that feedback is highly effective. How do you improve the employee feedback and recognition process, increase employee engagement, and in the process achieve higher levels of performance? How do you help your employees become successful?

Join the discussion with Trish McFarlane, VP of Research from Brandon Hall Group, as she shares recent research and key practices on creating a positive talent management environment that focuses on increasing employee success, and in the process increasing performance outcomes.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 10AM – 11AM PST: L&D Emerging Measurement Practices: From Executive Reporting to "Instant Insights"

This presentation will share the latest topics on the minds of L&D practitioners as they relate to emerging measurement practices, including executive reporting, big data, social learning, scrap learning, strategic program measurement, prescriptive “Instant Insights,” and building a business case for analytics. Glimpse into the latest trends and challenges on the minds of thought leaders and practitioners, and glean creative insights to augment your learning analytics strategies, now and beyond.

Tuesday, March 25, 2014, 11AM – 12PM PST: Learning and the Innovating Organization (Free for ASTD members)

In the fall of 2013, ASTD and Claude Legrand, managing partner of Ideaction, Inc., conducted an extensive survey on how the Learning and Development (L&D) community sees its role in the creation of innovative organizations. L&D has a critical role to play, because innovating organizations do not have more effective processes or more creative individuals. Instead, they have leaders, managers, and individual contributors who are trained to innovate systematically.

This webcast will discuss the results of the survey and what organizations need to do to become more innovative. Legrand, an expert in innovation for more than 25 years, will present a primer on how to create successful innovation programs, and will suggest options you can consider to help your organization become more innovative.

Free December webinars

It’s hard to believe that 2013 is just around the corner but there’s still time to take advantage of a few more free training and development webinars on a variety of interesting topics this month before the year wraps up. Hope to “see” you online.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Straight Talk: making Performance Management Useful to Everyone

In a recent Brandon hall Survey, over 58% of the respondents stated that performance reviews did not provide applicable performance feedback. As organizations struggle to improve employee performance in a market that requires innovation and growth to stay competitive, how are organizations increasing the effectiveness of the performance management process? Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research at Brandon Hall Group, as she shares key practices on making performance management useful to everyone. Topics discussed in this webinar include:

•  Shifting employee management models
• Positive examples of effective employee focused performance management
• Case Studies of new approaches to the performance management process

Wednesday, December 5, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: HTML5 is Here to Stay: How to Achieve the New Content Delivery Norm

Learning organizations are facing a technology wake-up call as they realize that most of their content doesn't translate well, if at all, to mobile devices. The typical reaction is to initiate one-off projects for converting desktop courses, applications, and their Flash based components, per the specs of every major device platform. Discover a practical and streamlined production alternative for mobile portability; one that even enhances your original content. Packaging courses once in HTML5 provides endless mobile portability. With a single HTML5 content base, your content becomes easily interactive and searchable, and portable to all mobile platforms.

Thursday, December 6, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Write it Right! Use a Seven Step Process to Develop Learning Activities

With so many learning experiences, techniques and devices to choose from, the course designer can be like a gourmet cook, carefully choosing just the right combination to achieve the desired results.  There is no excuse for the overuse of lecture as the primary and often only technique. What is the best activity?  There is no answer to this question.  It depends on your purpose. This workshop suggests a seven-step process to develop learning materials, identifies a “best use” for a variety of learning experiences, and presents a proven approach to designing discovery learning by writing adult learning steps to process any learning activity.

Tuesday, December 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Neuroscience of High Impact Learning

Brain research is pointing to fresh insights about how to make learning stick. A number of the findings are counter-intuitive, pointing to new approaches and tools for learning that can significantly increase engagement and retention of learning, using a wide range of training mediums. Join Dr. David Rock who coined the term “NeuroLeadership” and co-founded the NeuoruLeadership Institute to explore the latest findings emerging from brain research as it relates to creating high impact learning experiences, giving participants new tools for maximizing their impact.

Wednesday, December 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Creating Instant and Rapid One-Minute Learning for mLearning and eLearning

Is there such a thing as “instant learning”? Experts in mobile and social learning say that there is increased prevalence that learners retain and learn by increments of knowledge and use them as frequently and quickly as they can. The method is “recursive learning” – small building blocks of learning with close proximity to work applications. In most situations however, the difficulty for trainers, eLearning and mLearning designers is that courses and lessons they develop are more driven towards the “completeness” of knowledge transfer rather than the “immediate application” of knowledge. In this webinar, you will learn:

•  What research and cognitive and artificial intelligence sciences have discovered on “immediacy application learning”
• How to design “immediacy application learning” – steps, procedures and outcomes
• How  to merge learning content with mLearning, eLearning and learning platforms to encourage instant learning

Thursday, December 13, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: New Research:  Top 5 Keys to Employee Engagement through Supervisor Development

In a new Training Magazine webinar, Dale Carnegie Training reveals results of its cross industry, in-depth study of 1,500 employees to explore engagement in the workplace. The research reveals several surprises and five practical approaches managers can use to increase employee enthusiasm, empowerment, confidence and value to their organization. Attend this session and learn how to:

•  Identify which behaviors of front line managers have the most significant impact on their employees' levels of engagement        
• Make sure your supervisor development programs focus on shaping the right practical approaches         
• Learn ways to efficiently develop the skills of your front line managers by capitalizing on virtual instruction and collaboration tools and techniques
• Get the latest whitepaper summarizing this ground-breaking research

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM - 11AM PST: Rise of the Machines: Mobile Learning Comes to Life!

Is your organization going mobile? Are you already delivering mobile learning but want to do it better? The rise of mobile learning is easily the largest learning technology trend of the decade and in the last two years the changes in the space have been exponential. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group and Chris Osborn, VP of Marketing at BizLibrary as they talk about the rise of mobile learning and the demographics of mobile adoption. They will also present case studies from companies successfully implementing mLearning.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 9AM - 10AM PST: ASTD State of the Industry, 2012 (Free to ASTD members)

Laurie Miller, Director of Research Services at ASTD, and Christina Mandzuk, Research Analyst will discuss benchmarking data from ASTD BEST Awards Winners, G500 Companies, and other organizations from 2003 to date. ASTD estimates that U.S. organizations spent $1,182 per learner on employee learning and development in 2011. Over half was spent on the internal learning function, such as staff salaries and internal development costs. The remainder was split between tuition reimbursement (14 percent), and external services (30 percent). The content from this webinar is drawn from ASTD's 2012 State of the Industry Report.

Tuesday, December 18, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Using Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results

Most professional trainers think of assessments as tools for measuring and certifying employees' job-related knowledge and skills. Of course, that is one of their critical functions, particularly in compliance-dependent businesses. Join Steven Just, founder of Pedagogue Solution to learn how to use Strategic Assessments to Improve Learning and Performance and Drive Business Results, which will demonstrate how an active measurement strategy can improve individual, group and business performance. 

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Critical Questions to Ask of Your Stakeholders BEFORE Designing Any Training Program

Needs analysis is often an arduous and lengthy process - but it is absolutely necessary if you are to have a successful training outcome. Join Nanette Miner, an author and consultant in the field of workplace learning to learn the 10 crucial questions to ask of your internal or external clients to ensure that you are creating a training program that is truly necessary and one that will return significant business results.

Wednesday, December 19, 2012, 11AM - 12PM PST: So You Want to Design an Instructional Game? Five Things You NEED to Know (free for ASTD members)

What does it take to design a serious game? How do you create instruction that is not only meaningful and educational, but also (dare we say it) fun? What steps do you need to follow during the design process, and which steps are most critical for success? Most important, how do you even get started?

This webinar provides five practical guidelines you can use to design a game that results in valuable learning outcomes. You will learn research-based tips and techniques for designing effective—and engaging—instructional games. Join game experts Karl M. Kapp and Koreen Olbrish as they discuss five key factors you need to know to develop an “epic” instructional game.

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Three Aspects of Performance Improvement

During this webinar you will be introduced to three interdependent aspects of performance improvement: the systematic process, the consulting process, and the building brand process. All three aspects contribute to sustaining changes required for improving the performance of people, work teams, and organizations as a whole.   You will gain insights and get three tools that you can use to explain performance improvement to others and guide your own development in the profession. 

Thursday, December 20, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: De-Mystifying the LMS Selection Process 

The LMS marketplace continues to shift and evolve as vendors consolidate and new technology features become available. Deciding to invest in a learning management system isn’t even half the battle. Once they walk through that door, companies are faced with a mind-numbing array of choices. Where do they start? Which system is right? How do you know? Join Brandon Hall Group Chief Strategy Officer Michael Rochelle and Senior Analyst David Wentworth as they walk you through the selection process, delivering concrete steps and strategies to make the journey to LMS selection far simpler. The session will also include an informative demonstration of Brandon Hall Group’s LMS KnowledgeBase and Selection Tool.

Free Summertime Webinars

Although the calendar proclaimed it officially summer last month, sunny summer days have been very slow to arrive in Vancouver. But with summer vacations just around the corner for clients, project work can slow down a bit so it’s a great opportunity to catch up on new industry trends, research and ideas. Check out the free webinars being offered this summer. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: ROI Basics: Calculating the ROI

Join Patti Phillips, President & CEO, ROI Institute for her fourth and final webinar in the ROI series. To calculate the ROI you must convert impact measures to money, compare it to the program costs, and identify intangible benefits. During this webcast, you will learn a variety of methods to convert measures to money, five steps to convert a measure to money and cost categories that make up the fully-loaded program costs.  Click on the link to also access the recordings of her three previous ROI webinars if you happened to miss them.

Tuesday, July 10, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World

This webinar is based on ASTD and i4cp's recently published report, Mobile Learning: Delivering Learning in a Connected World. This report looks at the current landscape of mobile learning in a world in which the ubiquity of mobile devices seems to have created a perfect environment for delivering learning solutions to our workforce, where or when they need it. Upside Learning’s Kevin Oakes, i4cp's CEO, will discuss how mobile technology is changing the world and our experience of it. From an organizational perspective, mobile learning allows for a spectrum of possibilities that were not present before, and they continue to evolve before us. The findings of this Study indicate that companies with learning functions that help meet both learning and business goals tend to be higher market performers.

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to Create Interactive Scenarios in Articulate Storyline

Join Tom Kuhlmann, VP of Community at Articulate and author of the widely popular “Rapid e-Learning Blog” as he shares his simple 3C model where you challenge the learner to make a decision, offer some choices, and produce consequences that provides relevant feedback or additional challenges. Then he’ll show you how to quickly create them using Articulate Storyline. You’ll learn to:

• Use the 3C model to build decision-making scenarios
• Build interactive models using states, layers, and triggers in Storyline
• Craft interactive branched scenarios, and
• Discover how to create, share, and re-use what you build.  

Wednesday, July 11, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Design is Everything: 5 Techniques for Designing an Interactive Virtual Class (ASTD members only)

If you want to create a powerful learning experience for your online learners, your virtual training must be engaging – which means your virtual classroom design must be exceptional. In this first webinar in the 2-part Virtual Classroom Design series, learn 5 techniques you can apply immediately to take your interactive virtual training to the next level. 

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise: Building Stories using StoryLine

Using the book, “Story Impacts Learning and Performance” as a point of reference, Ray Jimenez will share how he uses engaging stories and Articulate StoryLine to author “What if I die today?” – Story Impacts eLearning Exercise. Ray will provide in advance, the source code to the self-reflection exercise, authored in StoryLine. You can investigate the authoring design prior to learning more about the approach during the actual webinar. You will learn how to:

• Build basic game-like story elements using animation, objects, scenes and slides, timelines, layers and triggers
• Use variables for multiple decision points
• Provide game-like feedback for progress tracking

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Taking Learning Mobile: The Power of Learning Everywhere (ASTD members only)

Once a learning organization has committed to “go mobile,” it may seem as though the hardest decision has been made. Soon after this path is chosen, though, reality sets in. There are many things to consider as you work to build your initial efforts for the varieties of mobile devices. This webinar will focus on how to get started with mobile learning, including deciding on an initial project and changing your design approach. Join Chad Udell, a seasoned expert on mobile learning and author of the new ASTD book, Learning Everywhere, as he demystifies the choices involved in developing mobile learning content, and provides real-world experience on how to get down to business creating mobile learning.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Empowering Employees: Sustainable Career Management Models

In the next five years, businesses will experience major demographic changes as far as their workforces are concerned. Just to name a few: Workforces will continue to become more diverse; millennials are projected to represent more than 50 percent of the overall labor force; and the capabilities required to lead in tomorrow’s economy will be different than the capabilities required today. Join Stacey Harris, VP of Research, David Wentworth, Sr. Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, Jeff Gill, Director, Talent Management and Acquisition and Amy Jo Womack, HR Systems Manager for Valerus as they share the latest research in creating Career Enhancing programs that work for mid-market organizations.

Thursday, July 12, 2012, 8AM – 9PM PST: Building the Business Case for Learning Measurement

Often the only barrier that separates an organization from getting the software it needs is a compelling argument. During this webinar, KnowledgeAdvisors will help you structure your information so you can make the following compelling argument to your leaders, “We need an evaluation measurement system. Here’s why, and here are the benefits.” While this argument will use MTM as an example, you can use the fundamental structure to argue for any software.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Informal Learning Basics: What ARE the Basics?

Informal learning might represent as much as 70 percent of workplace learning and be one of the most talked-about topics in training today. But what is it really? What forms can it take? When can it make a difference in workplace performance and when might it actually detract from it? What role, if any, do Training and Development professionals play in informal learning? Join Saul Carliner, author of the new ASTD best-seller, Informal Learning Basics, as he introduces the basics of informal learning.

Tuesday, July 17, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: A Unified Approach to Learning Management

As always, the way your learner’s access information (technology – web/mobile) and the number of channels available and utilized to learn (classroom/self-paced/social/informal) continue to increase, these pose challenges regarding how to effectively and efficiently manage learning for your organization. The need of the hour is a unified approach to this problem. Current organizational challenges in managing learning demand a system that understands that different technology options) and different channels of learning are a part of the whole learning experience. Join David Wentworth, Senior Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and Jason Clymer, VP - Client Acquisition and Partner Development at Upside Learning as they shed more light on the idea of unified solution approaches as they discuss the need and advantages of an untied learning ecosystem.

Wednesday, July 18, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Facilitating in the Live Online Classroom: 5 Techniques to Master Delivery (ASTD members only)

What do the best virtual trainers do? They engage learners by presenting, facilitating and teaching in ways that bring the online classroom together. Join this final session in the Virtual Classroom Design series, to discover the 5 techniques master trainers and presenters use to deliver their virtual lessons with real energy. Learn how to:

• Effectively engage out-of-sight participants
• Maintain high enthusiasm during delivery
• Harness your voice for the microphone
• Prepare for unforeseen technical issues

Thursday, July 19, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Developing a Client Centric Culture – A SunTrust Case Study

Differentiating your organization in today’s market can help increase revenue and develop stronger client relationships. SunTrust was able to evolve and deploy a client centric culture that enabled their organization to display growth, improve client relationships, and enhance the talent and development of their sales managers and leaders. SunTrust’s strategic approach to a sales talent and training development program allowed their sales managers to link sales, service and client loyalty while remaining committed to putting clients first. As part of Brandon Hall Group’s Excellence Award Winners Webinar Series, join Mary Slaughter, SVP, Talent Management & Development from SunTrust Banks, Inc.; David DiStefano, Chief Executive Officer, Richardson; and Rachel Ashkin, Chief Operating Officer, Brandon Hall Group, as they share how SunTrust effectively developed and implemented a new sales and sales management curriculum designed to address the current business climate and desired sales leadership competencies.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: I Want to Work THERE! 3 Keys to Creating an Engagement Culture

An organization’s culture has a tremendous influence on employee engagement. A culture that features opportunity, personal accountability, inclusion, community, and validation will lead to engaged employees. But how do you create that culture and how do you maintain engagement throughout an employee’s time at your company? Join Cornerstone OnDemand’s, Bob Kelleher, CEO of The Employee Engagement Group and Kevin Sensenig, Global Vice President, Learning and Organizational Development, Dale Carnegie & Associates, Inc. and discover best practices from two employee engagement experts. Explore how to create an employee engagement culture through three steps:
1. Hire the right people
2. Foster engagement through onboarding
3. Maintain engagement for the long term 

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: What Research Tells Us about Games, Gamification and Learning (ASTD members only)

This decidedly unacademic presentation provides a broad scientific overview of what research has taught us about the effectiveness of games and game-elements in changing learner behaviors. We will consider how playing a video game changes a person’s behavior, how avatars can shape in-game and out-of-game behavior, and how storytelling helps learners memorize facts. We’ll answer questions like: What makes a game…a game? How do points and rewards fit into games? Why are challenges, feedback, and interactivity the keys to successful games? Do serious games have to be entertaining to be educational?

Learn how to use the existing research literature in your own design and delivery of learning. This webinar also includes several practical case studies outlining how the research tips, techniques, and practices can be applied in a real-life online learning situation.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Moving Knowledge for Rapid Business Impact

Learning at work is changing – and not just in how it is delivered. The drivers behind “why” learning is even relevant are shifting as well. Executives and managers recognise the value and power of distributing information quickly, to support anything from security compliance to product launches to corporate values. This top-level recognition marks a move from ‘HR-driven’ to ‘business-led’ learning, something with profound implications for learning and development professionals. What systems do we need to meet these new business needs? What influence do millennials and other learners have? And what impact will this have on the L&D function as a whole?  Join Stacey Harris, VP, Research & Advisory Services, Brandon Hall Group and Donald Taylor, Chairman, Learning and Performance Institute as they draw on a range of practical examples to explore the trends changing the face of workplace learning today.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Critical Competencies for 21^st Century Leaders

Successful leadership involves managing one’s self and relationships with others to move toward a specific business goal. The role of a leader is to grow others - helping people grow their skills, knowledge, and confidence to develop leadership themselves in a real, practical context. The real world has other plans, however. Business goals are fluid, people are stressed, and one-way technological messages continue to invade every moment of our lives. One thing remains the same – leadership is all about people. In this session, learn how you can clear a little chaos and build a high performing team and how to take the time to consider a new approach to leadership while faced with predictable, constant chaos.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Hit the Ground Running: Establishing a Model Executive Onboarding Program

This webinar paints a compelling picture of the importance of executive onboarding in an organization. You will be introduced to OPM's government wide executive onboarding framework and the steps that are critical to developing and implementing a successful formal executive onboarding program from pre-boarding through the first year. OPM will also present a unique product to the Federal sector, the New Leaders Onboarding Assessment --- an assessment designed help government manager and executives more quickly assimilate into new organizations. The New Leaders Onboarding Assessment was developed and offered to agencies through OPM's Human Resources Solutions division.

Thursday, July 26, 2012, 11AM – 12PM PST: Real World Training Design

Despite the assumptions of most instructional design methodologies, your training events don’t happen in a neat little "bubble." And neither does your design process. What are some of the most common pitfalls and contraints? How do you navigate them for the results your organization replies on? In this webcast, author, speaker, and real-world designer Jenn Labin presents some of the most common challenges training designers face, plus solutions to keep your project moving forward.

Tuesday, July 31, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Effective Manager Training and Education – Building a Foundation for Organizational Success

Over half of all newly promoted managers fail in their roles within two years. We often assume our top performers are instantly ready for the more complex demands of management and supervision. Success for both new managers and their teams depends on support, development, and a solid approach to setting clear management expectations. Join Stacey Harris VP of Research and Advisory Services at Brandon Hall Group, and Chris Osborn of BizLibrary as they talk about the evolving set of demands and competencies all of our managers need, and they will share research and key practices for preparing both current and future managers for success.  

Wednesday, August 1, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Story-Based eLearning: Antidote to Boring Programs

According to Mark Zuckerburg (Facebook CEO), “Our lives are made up of stories – that is why we provide ‘TIMELINE’ in Facebook because we help you tell your life-stories”. From Confucius to Zuckerburg, people learn from each other by sharing experiences and stories. Nowadays, this fact becomes increasingly significant with the advent and continuous development of mobile learning, on-the-job learning support and communities of learners. The challenge has been how to design learning points that are story-driven to help learners learn instantly. In this session, learn how to use the power of story dynamics, both telling and listening, as antidotes to boring eLearning programs. A free pre-webinar study kit that includes white papers, demos and examples is available for this session.

Thursday, August 2, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Gamify Your Training: Use Gamification to Increase Employee Engagement and Improve Feedback

Half of all office workers use Facebook at work. Why? Because it's far more satisfying and rewarding than the vast majority of the tasks we're given during the workday. Facebook has a highly engaged audience for the same reasons we enjoy watching football, playing video games or gambling at a casino. The process is called Gamification and you may already be using several game mechanics now. Gamification is the application of game mechanics and game-thinking in non-game environments to increase fun and engagement. This webinar will explore how specific mechanics influence behavior and how you can add them to your own training programs.

Tuesday, August 7, 2012, 12:30PM – 1:30PM PST: Interactivity, Games and Gamification: Creating Engaged Learners

Based on the bestselling learning book, “The Gamification of Learning and Instruction” this session introduces, defines, and describes the concepts of gamification, games for learning and interactivity. It then dissects the elements of games and describes how they can be applied to the design and development of interactive learning.  The presentation is based on solid research including peer-reviewed results from dozens of studies that offer insights into why game-based thinking and mechanics makes for vigorous learning tools. Moving beyond the theoretical considerations, the presentation explores three methods for designing interactive learning based on concepts from games.

Tuesday, August 14, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Informal Learning and Social Media: Upskilling for 21^st Century Training

New tools for and ideas about learning are bringing in a new age for training and development practitioners. We now have real means of extending our reach, learners who can identify and satisfy their own learning needs, and opportunities to support workplace learning and performance like we’ve never had before. This session provides an overview of some 21st century skills we’ll need to develop to stay current and viable in a rapidly changing, but more learning-focused, time. 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012, 9AM – 10AM PST: Demonstrating Executive Reporting Solutions for L&D

This webinar will provide both strategic and tactical information about reporting L&D results to business executives. Examples of reports, scorecards and dashboards will be demonstrated. As well, you will review three classifications of expertise that exists to support an organizations’ desire to advance its own executive reporting. A review of these consultative solutions will provide insight into the depth and breadth of resources that exist to fully support a practitioners desire to improve upon the metrics provided to the business.

Free webinars for May

The sunshine and fresh spring air is finally here! So “freshen up” your learning by taking advantage of some (or all) of the free webinars being offered this month. We hope they will inspire and motivate you.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The ROI LIE: The Facts Behind Why Training ROI  is Undermining Credibility

Training is a business function, so why doesn’t management treat Training as a business function? Training's credibility within an organization can be fragile, and management often questions attempts to prove Training’s worth and validity. In recent years, concepts such as Training Return on Investment (ROI) have been touted as the solution to Training’s credibility gap, but has a focus on Training ROI helped or hurt Training’s position? Learn how to identify why the subject Training function is unable to gain management support. You’ll then help develop credible solutions to build support for the subject Training function and demonstrate sustainable business results, all while learning how to demonstrate training results in business terms for your own Training function.

Tuesday, May 8, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Basics of ROI Workshop

Never before has ROI been of such importance. The ROI Institute’s ROI Methodology is the most documented approach to measuring and evaluating learning and development programs. Join Patti Phillips, President and CEO of the ROI Institute as she presents the key elements in the ROI process including: five levels of evaluation that have served as the foundation for the ROI methodology since the 1970s, six types of results generated by the chain of impact, ten steps in the ROI Methodology process model and twelve guiding principles that support the ROI Methodology.

This is the first of a four part series. Part two is offered May 29, 2012.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Create a Powerful Connection with Your Audience

Teachable moments begin with transforming an audience, but an audience will only change if you resonate with them. Attend this webinar to hear presentation innovator Nancy Duarte demonstrate a new way to create a powerful connection with your audience. Nancy will show how to communicate with carefully crafted messages and how to train learners so they are transformed and help their organization succeed.

Thursday, May 10, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Making Learning Easy: The Impact of a Unified Learning Environment

Is learning in your organization more difficult than it needs to be? Research shows that feedback, career development, and training opportunities rank as top factors for increasing employee engagement; yet most employees say they simply don't get enough development opportunities. For some organizations the culprits are real funding and resourcing issues, but Brandon Hall Groups research has found that for many organizations it is actually complex systems and poor processes that can lead to difficult learning situations. Join Dave Wentworth, Senior Learning Analyst for Brandon Hall Group, and Saba's Naren Patil, senior director of product marketing, as they explore both process and technology improvements that can have a real impact on making learning easier and more accessible.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Eliminating the “Terrible Too’s” of Workplace Training

In 1992 Brandon Hall Group launched their first report on technology enabled learning and the changing direction of the learning industry, at that point the internet was in its infancy and true web based multi-media learning was impossible. Over the last two decades, business and learning leaders alike have continued to strive for relevant learning that was accessible where and when the learning communities needed performance improvement efforts. Today, both the internet and the learning industry have matured, and the possibilities are endless, so why are so many organizations still using old approaches and old ideas to try and meet the learning needs of a new workforce? Join Mike Cooke, CEO of Brandon Hall Group, and Dan Cooper, CEO of eJ4 as they share their unique business perspectives and industry research on learning efforts that exceed leadership expectations.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: The Impact of Business-Led Learning (Case Study – Techtronic Industries)

Techtronic Industries is a $3.7 billion global company. No organization grows to that size - and continues to grow - without a keen sense of what is contributing to its success. Proving the impact of business-led learning is Matt De Feo, Senior Vice-President for Sales, Training and Recruiting at Techtronic Industries. Since he joined the company in 2006, Matt DeFeo has made sure that rigor also applies to the learning and development function. In this presentation, sponsored by Certpoint Systems, Matt and Rachel Ashkin, COO of Brandon Hall Group will discuss the impact of business-led learning. Matt will also share several instances of proving the value of learning, and some hard-won lessons along the way.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Virtual Training:  Building a Global Training Strategy

As enterprise organizations expand to support a globally dispersed employee base, providing regular training and updates becomes a significant challenge. Live physical training sessions and events, simply don’t scale globally and cannot be implemented quick enough to keep up with the constant requirement for new information. By building a virtual training strategy, enterprise companies can effectively deliver real-time training that can be accessed by any employee or partner, from anywhere. In this webinar, learn how webcasting and virtual environment solutions enable you to create virtual learning centers that can be customized to expand your training to multiple theaters and various languages. From delivering individual training broadcasts, to building virtual corporate universities, this presentation will highlight how to increase the reach and effectiveness of your training programs, including:

Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: How to make Technical & Compliance Training and eLearning Fun and Engaging

“Boring”. “Tedious”. “Painful”. “Do I have to?” These are the moans and complaints of learners as receivers of the data-dump type of very technical and compliance forms of eLearning. Technical and compliance elearning can be fun and definitely help people learn when we shift the design by focusing less on just the technical view and instead, considering the learner’s perspective. Ray Jimenez, Chief Learning Architect of Vignettes for Training will present ideas on how to make this shift possible.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Effective Workforce Planning and Development Starts with a Talent Audit

Have you conducted a Talent Audit lately? Organizations regularly conduct financial audits, risk audits, and technical audits – but a Talent audit is often overlooked. Over 66% of CEO’s, in a recent PWC Global CEO survey, said that the lack of the right skills is their biggest talent challenge. The term talent is subjective, but it assumes that someone has the right competencies, background, personality traits, and motivations to exceed expectations. An effective talent audit will help you identify your talent needs and assess your organization against those needs – and most importantly provide concrete details on how to best fill the gaps. Join Stacey Harris VP of Research, Brandon Hall Group as she details key practices in conducting a Talent Audit that helps identify skills gaps, development needs, and talent opportunities.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: 10 Steps to Employee Engagement

More than 70 percent of employees are either disengaged or neither engaged nor disengaged, according to a recent Avatar HR Solutions survey. Lack of engagement quickly leads to lackluster results, productivity losses, and low organizational morale. But in today’s world where everyone is expected to do more with less, how can organizations not only boost engagement but empower their employees?  Discover best practices from two employee engagement experts to learn how to foster employee engagement and empowerment.

Thursday, May 24, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Five Keys to Realize ROI from Social and Mobile Learning

The average sales rep loses more than 80 percent of the knowledge learned within 90 days after a formal training program. How can you help ensure the effectiveness of your sales force when they lose their knowledge so fast and don’t have time for a refresher course? You can become a strategic partner to your business by enabling sustained know-how and sales excellence through continuous social learning and by rapidly sharing know-how — anytime and anywhere. Join this session to learn how to enable sustained sales excellence with social and mobile learning and enable top-line growth.

Tuesday, May 29, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Collecting Data (ROI)

A variety of data collection techniques exist to help you capture the information need to measure the success of your training programs. Join Patti Phillips, President and CEO of the ROI Institute as she presents the types of data collection methods available for each level of evaluation, options for timing of data collection at each level and sources that provide you the most credible information.

This is the second of a four part series. Part three is offered June 12, 2012.

Thursday, May 31, 2012, 10AM – 11AM PST: Interactive E-Learning Made Easy with Articulate Storyline

You want to build more than click-and-read elearning, but you don’t have the programming skills to do it. That’s where Articulate Storyline comes in. It helps you build highly interactive elearning with no programming required. Join TomKuhlmann, VP of Community at Articulate as he discusses key elements of interactivity and shows you how to build them with Storyline.