Headed to DevLearn? 8 Sessions You Don’t Want to Miss

Although I won’t be making the trip to Vegas this year, Bottom-Line Performance President, Sharon Boller, and a few of my other BLP colleagues will be in attendance. They’re gearing up for another great conference and are excited to learn about the new learning strategies and technologies DevLearn has to offer.

This year, we put together a list of eight great sessions worth attending. The best part? None of them overlap – so you can attend every. single. one. Enjoy!

1. Case Study: A Game-Based Approach to Learning Without Lessons

Presented by: Chris Ang & A.J. Mazepa

Wednesday, 10/25: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

The challenge for a team at Canadian Tire was to create awareness and maximize retention of an exciting new catalog among store employees. They wanted to create an engaging and innovative solution in-house but had limited time and resources. In this session, you’ll discover how Canadian Tire developed a game-based solution using in-house resources. Through exploring their approach to solving a common L&D challenge, you’ll learn how to incorporate game mechanics using your own existing resources. You’ll also explore how to leverage tangible and intangible rewards to drive participation, increase retention, and get exceptional business results. Finally, you will be able to apply these basic principles in your own organization.

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2. Case Study: Integrating UX Design and Gamification

Presented by: Clara NG

Wednesday, 10/25: 1:15 – 2:15 PM

This is another great case study – one from Rogers Communications. In this session, you’ll learn how Rogers Communications successfully integrated UX design and gamification into an online training course. You’ll find out how to move from principles into practice with both concepts; how common UX ideas like user testing and visual design can specifically enhance gamified experiences; and how to adapt to the common challenges you might face when creating a project that blends gamification and thoughtful UX design together. You’ll also learn how to use UX as the overall framework for any engagement technique you adopt.

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3. Developing 360-Degree Learning Video Content

Presented by: Steven Skiles

Wednesday, 10/25: 3:00 – 4:00 PM

The value of virtual reality and 360-degree video content for L&D is quite promising, as the immersive nature of these technologies has the potential to make a major impact on learning and retention. However, the actual development of VR and 360-degree video content can seem daunting, complicated, costly, and even out of reach to most organizations. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In this session, you’ll learn about implementing 360-degree video content in your own organization from a company that has been using this medium for some time: Samsung Electronics America.

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4. A Look Ahead: The Now and the Next of Learning and Technology

Presented by: David Kelly

Thursday, 10/26: 10:45 – 11:45 AM

This session explores the changing face of the learning technology landscape. David will discuss the various technologies that have shifted the landscape of organizational learning. You will examine the common characteristics of these shifts so that you are better equipped to recognize which emerging technologies have the potential to disrupt organizational learning, as opposed to those that are just hype. You will leave this session better prepared to stay ahead of the evolving technology curve.

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5. The 4 Ws of Learning Campaigns

Presented by: David Swaddle

Thursday, 10/26: 1:15 – 2:15 PM

Many instructional designers and trainers are stuck in the rut of event-driven learning, whether that means eLearning courses, face-to-face sessions, or virtual training sessions. You probably know that varied, spaced learning delivers better results, but many people find it hard to put this into action. After this session, you’ll know how to use learning campaigns for your training, learning, and education programs. You’ll be introduced to the four Ws of learning campaigns, personas, and a structure for planning your campaigns.

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6. Case Study: Using Gamification for an Engaging Learning Experience

Presented by: Niyazi Arda Aygül

Thursday, 10/26: 3:00 – 4:00 PM

Internal audit reports and consumer research revealed that employees of Turkey’s largest private bank, Isbank, needed support to improve customer service for a wide range of retail banking products and services. For Isbank’s learning team, the challenge was finding an engaging, effective, and easily accessible learning solution on detailed, complicated topics for a geographically dispersed and demographically diverse workforce. In this session, you’ll find out how Isbank used gamification as an engaging strategy for learning.

This presentation will give you ideas for how to use online games for your detailed and complicated learning topics; how to improve user adoption; and how to measure a gamification project’s contribution to learning.

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7. Understanding the Virtual Reality Development Workflow

Presented by: Keith Sensing & Antonio Montano

Friday, 10/27: 8:30 – 9:30 AM

In this session, you will learn about the hardware, software, and online resources you can use to create VR environments. Learn about the workflow involved from start to final product, including creating and finding free assets, characters, and animations. You will explore 3-D modeling software, game engines, and animation websites while learning about the different file formats that will come together in a final project. You will take a look at commercial software and freeware to begin designing VR and 3-D learning environments. After this session, you will have the resources to start exploring the world of VR design.

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8. Design Thinking for Problem-Solving

Presented by: Kristin Machac & Holly Cline

Friday, 10/27: 10:00 – 11:00 AM

In today’s world, the first answer to every challenge seems to be a meeting. You hold meetings to talk about meetings, and then you schedule follow-up meetings. But how productive are you in those conversations, and are you really solving problems? Are you optimizing your time and ability to collaborate? Does everyone have a voice at the table?

This session explores the evolution of design thinking, techniques for identifying problems, and strategies for creative problem-solving. You will identify a problem and actively participate in various innovation and creative thinking exercises to address it.

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