DevLearn Notes

Devlearn is a three-day conference hosted in Las Vegas.

At this conference, e-learning professionals and vendors get together

to discuss new technology, e-learning best practices, and how

to build impactful and meaningful courses for your learners.

Along with three keynote speakers, attendees had the opportunity to

attend certification courses prior to the conference, as well as small group

courses throughout the event.

In the following slides, you’ll get taken through my notes from my

certification course and main event, as well as my recommendations

for the next steps to improve our e-learning experience

at Campaign Monitor.

FAQWhat is e-learning?

E-learning is an all-encompassing term for college courses or

employee training hosted and completed online.

What were your goals while attending the conference?• Gain better understanding of different methods of learning and teaching online.

• Be introduced to more learning tools used by industry leaders.

• Understand e-learning standards and practices.

• Gain knowledge on different e-learning approaches.

• Build a network of learning professionals to continue gaining insight on practices,

procedures, and standards throughout the year.

Who were the keynote Speakers?Neil Degrasse Tyson, Beau Lotto, and Belinda Parmar. Take a look over my notes for more

information!

How did you take your notes?Recently, Mat and Jules got me into the idea of Sketchnotes. Using old-fashioned paper and

pen, you use symbols, typography, and pictures to take notes for each talk. I found it very

useful! On each of the following slides, you’ll see how I put sketchnotes to work for each

topic!

Certification CourseApplying Brain Science to Improve Training and Change Behavior

Arthur J Kohn

Course overview: To explore the core principles that help us understand how the brain

controls learning and behavior. To develop a new understanding of how the mind learns and

retains new information.

Learnings• The way the brain is built does not allow for memory alone to be the

sole thing that helps us use and infiltrate information.

• We need to build courses and classes that do not just have us

memorize information, but rather practice it.

• Context is one of the main ways we can help our learners. By building

scenarios (storytelling), including emotion in our work, and engaging the

user, we are able to strengthen their ability to make information stick.

• Context needs to be clear so that people are not relying on their

intuition. People can have different ideas than you, and therefore it’s

important to be as clear as possible.

• Brains absorb more when courses are harder. Though people may

enjoy them less, they are more likely to understand the material better.

• The post-training experience is just as important as training. Putting

things in place to help “booster” the information is pertinent to the

information sticking!

Key Thoughts

If our students fail to learn, they’re right, we’re wrong.

Take the time to get to know your learners and customize their learning

plan.

Brains gain more when things are harder to learn.

Do not teach helplessness by consistently saying no.

Keynote Speakers

The Universe of LearningNeil Degrasse Tyson

We are constantly experimenting with

science as children, and have always

wanted to learn. It’s when we were told

“no” that our learning was stifled.

Our training materials should inspire our

employees to think and problem solve,

not follow guidelines and rules.

We don’t know things from what we’ve

been taught, but rather what we’ve

studied. Training should reflect that.

Creativity gives sensitivity to thinking.

We should help our employees stretch

their creative muscles, as this helps

them apply their learning.

How Perception Shapes the Mind of the

UniverseBeau Lotto

Only 10% of what you see comes from

your eyes. The rest is context you’ve

learned from past experiences.

What we see now is what was useful for us

in the past, but may no longer be useful.

To change our context, we must be aware

that we have pre-existing assumptions,

identify those assumptions, and question

them.

Uncertainty is the greatest source of

stress, but we need it to be creative. We

should encourage play so that uncertainty

becomes more celebrated and

comfortable.

Viewing Workplace Technology Through a

Different LensBelinda Parmar

There’s a lack of women in the technology

workforce, and women are leaving at an

alarmingly quick pace.

Often times, this isn’t due to a lack of interest,

but rather a workplace that reflects geeky,

masculine values.

Layouts, language, literature and office

design can all be changed to be more gender

neutral, and therefore more inviting to men

and women.

Even a poster of a strong woman within the

office can change how welcome women feel.

Cluster work environments rather than back-

facing grid like office work environments can

be more inviting to employees, as well.

Small Group Courses

The X-API

The X-API works similarly to the API.

It grabs information from different

sources to build comprehensive data

around what training courses have

been completed, to how employees

are performing within our role.

The X-API can be used offline, track

data on multiple platforms, and do

anything from viewing course

performance to seeing what e-books

has been read.

Activity can be identified by group,

location, individuals, teams, etc.

Designing for When it Matters

Three things trainers could be doing better:

Curriculum: we need real life scenarios

Pedagogy: We need to be able to practice

what we learn.

Technology: We need our courses to be

interactive.

Trainers usually know only 30% on any given

topic; we need those we train to become subject

experts that later help us build our material.

We should work to engage our learners and

provide meaningful scenarios to their life/work.

We should provide our learners space to

process what they are learning.

Fire the Professor?!

Universities are becoming obsolete as

more people report getting less from their

education, and e-learning makes it easier

to find knowledge and grow a skillset.

More outstanding learning resources are

becoming available, and when this

happens, average becomes obsolete.

“It is not necessary to change… survival

is not mandatory.”

In the workplace, we expect live

instruction and online information.

“Life begins at the end of your comfort

zone.” - Neale Donald Walsh

Motivation in E-Learning

Three basic things people need for

growth:

Autonomy - the ability to direct

themselves and have a choice in

their path.

Confidence - the ability to resource

tools and feedback to feel strong and

get the role done.

Relatedness - the feeling you are

part of something bigger.

Leaving any of these things out of

training/development can lead to lower

performance, drive, or charisma.

Creating a Process Flow for Designing

and Developing e-Learning

A.D.D.I.E.

Analysis - assess the needs, collect

content, complete project plan

Design - Complete design document,

design storyboard of course, line up testers.

Development - Develop the course, create

a document to outline testing, create

answer keys, test, collect edits and

feedback.

Implement - Collect reporting, fix any

issues, import the content to production,

execute communication plan.

Evaluate - Collect reporting and feedback

on course.

Content Wrangling: Applying Content

Strategy and Information Architecture

Content should:

Improve performance

Demonstrate Value

Strengthen/accelerate organization capacity.

Make sure to audit your content, make it

searchable, include granular information, and keep

it organized.

You should always be analyzing and refurbishing

your content, and ask yourself the following

questions when auditing:

What is happening?

Who is this effecting?

How is it effecting them?

Why should we change this?

Animate Your Learning

Animation in training can:

re-engage learners

keep them entertained

give context to important material.

It’s important that when animating your material,

you

Set the stage

Present content

Tie in the learner

Use other characters

Leave the learner wanting more!

Start by building a good storyline, then move

forward!

Transfer Users into Contributors

In their free time, people are flocking to places

where they can easily find and share

information. We often make the workplace

different.

We need to get out of the “telling” mentality, and

get out of the way!

Provide the opportunity for employees to

contribute to materials.

Provide structure and support on how to do

so.

Recognize when people help.

Remind people to contribute!

Providing sources like a wiki or collaborative

documents allow people to contribute without a

lot of pressure.

Applying K-12 Strategies and

Technology in e-Learning

Teach like a PIRATE

Passion

Immersion

Rapport

Ask and Analyze

Transformation

Enthusiasm

Look for cheap apps to make

simulations for your learners that don’t

cost a lot.

Key Takeaways

What we’re doing right:

• Our quizzes are not very easy - learners must interact with materials

they will use in their roles daily to find correct answers.

• Our content strategy is on point - Carlee has done an amazing job at

organizing our content, and the support and compliance teams do an

amazing job of adding content when it’s needed.

• The support team has done a lot to motivate our employees throughout

their training and onboarding. By focussing on things that develop

autonomy, confidence, and relatedness, we’ve worked to help

employees start on a strong foot from day one.

What we could do to improve the training experience:

• Our training could be more engaging: providing different scenarios and offering more

context would help our new employees understand the importance of what they are

learning.

• The X-API could be a tool that helps us measure the impact of our training immensely and

offer data on what we could be improving.

• We could be more forthwith about asking for feedback during the learning experience so

that we can continue building and making our training materials better.

• Offering better quizzing that helps the user place their information in context and allow them

to do more problem solving would help them internalize information with more ease.

• Use ADDIE to better plan and develop internal courses.

• Experiment with animation to see if it helps new employees become more engaged with the

product.