Got Customer

Training?

You should!
Organizations offering customer training realize a
17% revenue improvement according to Aberdeen
Group. Take the first step and download Elearning!
Magazine’s free Extended Enterprise Learning
Resource Guide.
Inside the eBook discover:
The Extended Enterprise Learning Competitive


Advantage
48 Platforms to Support External Learning


20 Free Trials to Test Your Program



How to Offer Training as a Profit Center



Download free the “Extended

Enterprise Resource Guide” at:
http://information.2elearning.com/
extendedenterpriselearning/

Elearning! eBook is published by Elearning! Media Group, a B2B Media Company.

Learn more at: 2elearning.com 888-201-2841
 Best
New Trade
Magazine

2005
Best
Quarterly
Trade
Magazine
2005
Best
Trade
Magazine

2006
Best
Overall
Design

2006
Best
Trade
Magazine

2007
Best
Training
Magazine

2008
Best
Computer/
Training
Magazine
2009
Best
Article
Series/Trade

2009
Best
Themed
Issue/Trade

2009
Best
Computer/
Training
Magazine
2010
Best
Computer/
Training
Magazine
2011
Best
Digital
Edition

2011
Best
Trade
Magazine

2012
Best
Digital
Edition

2012
Best
Trade
Magazine

2013
Best
Digital
Edition

2013
Best
Trade
Magazine

2014
Best
Digital
Edition

2014
Best
Web
Publication

2014
Best
Digital
Edition

2015
Best
Cover
Trade

2015
December 2016 / January 2017
Volume 12 Issue 5 • www.2elearning.com

99 Solutions Named Pg 31 >> 2017 HR Tech Trends pg 22

>> How Corporate Learning is
Using Virtual Reality pg 18
>> Learning! 100 Profile:
Express is Fashioned for
Millennials pg 26
 People Grow Business.
We Grow People.

Sign up for a free trial today!

800.556.3159 ej4.com/trial

Award Winning
Training Videos Thinkzoom LMS
• Compliance • Mobile Friendly
• Leadership • Content Creation Tool
• Sales and more • Customizable

Check out our new 4tify your Learning™

training reinforcement program. Offer great
content, and make sure it “sticks,” too!
Learn more at ej4.com/thinkzoom.
 Contents
DECEMBER 2016 /JANUARY 2017
VOLUME 12 NUMBER 5

>> Cover Story:

99 Solutions Named
Best of Elearning! PG 31
The 12th Annual Best of Elearning! is the learning industry’s exclusive
users’ choice award. Garnering over 4000+ nominations across
hundreds of brands, these 99 solutions are named best-in-class
across 27 different categories. From Learning Management Systems
to gamification, the best of learning is list here.
By Jerry Roche

>> Essentials >> Features

8 News
9 Deals 18 How Corporate Learning is Using Virtual Reality
The world you experience when you strap on a virtual reality (VR) headset
10 Trendlines
might be virtual, but the learning results are real. Four learning leaders from
11 People on the Move government, education and corporate enterprises share their applications and
value of virtual reality in corporate learning.
By Dr. Anders Gronstedt
22
22 HR Technology Trends for 2017
How are enterprises embracing the consumerization of HR and Learning? Sierra-
Cedar ‘s HR Systems Survey reveals how overall strategy, corporate culture and
existing technology will impact future buying plans. Discover how application
adoption varies by organization size and technology approach as well as how
leaders assess technology’s ability to meet their needs.
By Jerry Roche

26 Learning! 100 Profile: Express is Fashioned for Millennials

By 2025, 46 percent of the workforce will be Millennials. At Express, the future is
now. Express identified an opportunity to evolve its talent management strategy
for its primarily Millennial-aged employees while becoming a fashion authority
for both men and women. To support their culture, Express created an intuitive,
irresistible, social and mobile learning experience for more than 22,000 mostly
Millennial employees.
By Claire Johnson

4 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

 18
>> Essentials >> Tools & Practices
47 3 Steps to Modernize Your
8 Salary Raises for 2017 Learning Technology
9 Learning! 100 Call for Considering replacing your
Applications LMS? You’re not alone! But
10 Where Top Talent Goes what if you didn’t necessarily
need to replace your LMS to
11 Leadership Shortage Ahead
achieve those goals? What if you
>> Management
could find a flexible technology
solution that worked with and
around your LMS? Welcome to
55 Enabling Modern Learners:
Think Mobile, Micro and
Learner-centric
Today’s competitive landscape
requires workers who can learn
and apply knowledge faster than
ever. Spending on corporate
training has grown to $70 billion
in the U.S. Has this increased
investment taught us the best way
to teach today’s workforce?
By Kieran King

12 Leader’s View
The era of the serial leaner has
arrived. They are curious, always
reaching, making connections and
seeking new experiences. This is the
future workforce. Are you prepared?
By Jeanne Meister
16 The Science of Learning
Are you preparing your workforce
for the business challenges of
tomorrow? Organizations who
deliver the best, most engaging,
effective employee training today
are going to be tomorrow’s winners
in the marketplace.
By Dean Pichee
26 Engaging the Millennial
Workforce at Express
By 2025, 46 percent of the workforce
will be Millennials. At Express, the
future is now. Express identified
an opportunity to evolve its talent
management strategy for its
primarily Millennial-aged employees
while becoming a fashion authority
for both men and women.
By Claire Johnson
51 The Secret to High- positive results.
performing Teams:
Strong Managers
While 96% of HR pros agree that
managers are vital to driving
business success, fewer than half
say their business adequately invests
in developing front-line managers.
Fight the trend: help improve
organizational performance and
employee engagement with these
three key activities.
>> Business
the modern learning ecosystem.
By Nick Washburn
7 Editor’s Note
48 70:20:10 - What’s All the
Hype About What’s on your corporate learning
wish list?
One cannot reach proficiency By Catherine Upton
or even mastery without doing.
Period. The more complex the 10 Trendlines
skill, the more practice needed.
Bottom line- formal training is Statistics, figures and industry
important to lay some ground trends
work and serve as a guide. Doing
the job is where the development 12 Leader’s View
and progress happens. The Era of the Serial Learner
By Cindy Pascale By Jeanne Meister
49 5 Tips for Maximizing Your 13 Business of Learning
Learning Content Is the Fractal Organization your
Much of today’s learning material next collaborative ecosystem?
remains trapped in traditional By David Coleman
formal vehicles like e-learning
courses or presentations. But it 16 Science of Learning
doesn’t have to be that way. Preparing your workforce for
By Luke Hickey tomorrow’s business challenges
By Dean Pichee
52 Forgetting is Easy
Learners forget 70% of what they 17 Virtual Edge
learn over a 24-hour period, so Engaging Learners with VR
organizations need to find ways to By Daniel O’Brien
reinforce their training to realize
31 New Products
By Ryan Eudy
99 Best of Elearning! Solutions
53 Top E-learning Trends of 2016
57 The Last Word
2016 was an interesting time for
learning and development and we’re The Top Ten Learning Solutions
excited to recount some of the most By Catherine Upton
notable trends of the year. Industry
advancements in the E-learning
space included micro-learning,
gamification and Virtual Reality.
By Diane Haines

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 5

 DECEMBER 2016 / JANUARY 2017
VOLUME 12 ISSUE 5

Catherine Upton
Group Publisher >> cupton@2elearning.com

Jerry Roche

Online@ Executive Editor >> editor@2elearning.com

2elearning.com
Joe DiDonato
Editor at Large >> jdidonato@2elearning.com
Trending Topics Adam Weschler
FCC Says No to Sharing
Consumer Data Manager Digital Programs >> aweschler@2elearning.com
http://www.2elearning.com/
latest-news JW Upton
Vice President >> JW@2elearning.com
Preparing for New Leadership
http://www.2elearning.com/
ideas/item/56629-preparing-
Kim Lewis
for-new-leadership Art Director >> production@2elearning.com

Call for Learning! 100 TJ Hume

Applications
http://www.2elearning.com/ Print Production Manager >> production@2elearning.com
awards/learning-100-awards
Contributors:
Dr. Anders Gronstedt, The Gronstedt Group
Most Popular Jeanne Meister, Future Workplace
Web Sessions Dean Pichee, BizLibrary
CEO Power Panel: Learning in
the Second Digital Decade Claire Johnson for Elearning! Magazine
http://bit.ly/2fWeNd0

Events
Enterprise Learning! Summit Elearning! Media Group is the property of B2B Media Company LLC
April 2017
http://www.2elearning.com/ 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139 • 888-201-2841 • 951-547-1131
events
www.2elearning.com
Enterprise Learning!
Conference Elearning! magazine is published bi-monthly by B2B Media Company LLC, 44920 W. Hathaway
September 2017
Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139. Application to mail Standard Class is filed with
http://www.2elearning.com/
events Sheppardsville, KY Post Office.

POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to: Elearning! 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794,
Maricopa, AZ 85139. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals in the USA.
To subscribe, visit 2elearning.com. Elearning! magazine is a trademark of B2B Media Company
and publishes under creative commons copyright except were noted.

6 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

 Editor’sNote
What’s On Your Corporate Learning Wish List?

T
his is the season of gift giving. The top 10 consumer gifts are mostly technology-
enabled and give us insights into the technologies corporate learning needs to em-
brace. From Apple Watch, Playstation VR, Amazon’s Echo Dot to Fire TV Stick, we
see trends in mobile, virtual reality, machine learning, artificial intelligence and video
streaming. The rate of technology adoption is pressuring learning organizations to
adopt and adapt quickly.
Inside this issue, we share how talent leaders are adopting these technologies.
>> Virtual reality is expected to reach $50 billion by 2020, according to Goldman Sachs. We asked four
leaders from education, government and corporate enterprises to share how they are using VR for
learning (page 18).
>> The user experience is paramount to employees as seen in the HR Trends of 2017 and Learning! 100
Express articles (pages 22 and 26). With the increase of millennials in the workplace, learning lead-
ers are embracing social, video and mobile to enhance user experience and engagement.
>> The 12th Annual Best of Elearning! Awards honors 99 solution providers nominated by more than
4,000 learning professionals. This article shares what enterprises are investing in and deploying suc-
cessfully. See the complete list of solutions and what users say about them starting on page 31.
While technology may be a portion of the story, there are also key behavioral shifts. David Coleman
shares his insights on the emergence of the fractal organization, a flat collaborative work structure that
may be in your future (page 13). Jeanne Meister declares we are in the “Era of the Serial Learner” and
what it means to leaders everywhere (page 12). Finally, Dean Pichee shares “Organizations who deliver
the best, most engaging, effective employee training today are going to be tomorrow’s winners in the
marketplace.” Learn more in his “Science of Learning” column on page 16.
It’s time to make that next transition. Take the first step by reading these articles from learning lead-
ers who have been in your shoes. Create your corporate learning wish list with an eye on your future
workforce, their behaviors and toolsets. And let’s keep on learning!

Happy Holidays from the Elearning! magazine team.

—Catherine Upton, Group Publisher

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 7

 News Artificial Intelligence
on Your iPhone
Salaries to Rise 3%
Ninety-three percent of organizations plan to increase and hold
salaries level in 2017 according to Salary.com’s 10th Annual Bud-
get Survey.
The good news is twice as many companies are planning for
higher budgets (and salary increases) versus 2016. By industry,
Healthcare has five times as many organizations increasing sala-
ries compared to 2016.

Percentage of Industries Giving Larger Raises in 2017

All Responders
17%
Software & Networking
11%
Business Services
18% At Dreamforce 2016, Marc Benioff announced the launch of
Einstein, Salesforce’s AI application. The goal was to make AI
Financial Services
easy for everyone to use. Literally, $1 billion of investment went
23% into Einstein, and is now accessible to Salesforce customers to
Healthcare develop AI apps.
24% Enter IBM Watson.
IBM gave iPhone users in-app access to the powerful cogni-
Chemicals
tive capabilities of IBM Watson, using MobileFirst for iOS apps.
29% This means “made-for-business apps now have the ability to
–Source: salary.com http://bit.ly/2ebbDzT understand, reason and learn based on deep data analytics,”
according to IBM.
“Cognitive insights are at the fingertips of professionals.
Roles Expand for Senior Managers These made-for-business apps can now understand, reason
Today’s senior managers have more responsibilities than ever. and learn, pulling from deep data analytics. We’re making the
HRIQ study reveals the 14 functions of today’s HR and Talent ex- apps smarter so the professional can make better, more in-
ecutives manage. No surprise, learning, performance and talent formed decisions,” says Mahmoud Naghshineh, general man-
management are at the top of the list. ager, Apple partnership, IBM.
–Source: HRIQ According to Naghshineh, any Watson API can be inte-
grated with apps based upon the use case, including IBM’s
Functional Responsibilities What are senior executives managing?
Natural Language Processing, Watson Conversation and
other Watson APIs that have been optimized to work with
94% iOS 10’s speech framework.
Performance
89% Management 89% Applications can range from intelligent assistance to learned
Talent
Training &
Management
Development solutions. For example, Retail Sales Associates using Sales
89%
Employee and Assist can access data across different resources with the
Labor Regulations
83% permission of customers -- customer databases and product
Recruiting/ Talent
forums -- for deeper insights in to a customer’s unique pref-
83% Acquisition

Compensation & 83% erences as well as the latest purchasing trends and popular
HR Compliance products to assist customers in choosing the right item. With
72% each engagement, Watson gets smarter and hones in on suc-
Employee
67% Communications cessful outcomes.
Executive 67% “Watson continuously learns from previous interactions,
Compensation
67% Executive
Compensation gaining in value and knowledge over time,” IBM said. When
Diversity & 61%
Inclusion
HCM Technology/ integrated, these capabilities are designed to solve a wide
56% HRIS
range of problems, boost productivity and foster new discover-
Health & Wellness
33% ies across many industries.”
Health, Safety & –Source: http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressre-
Security
lease/50845.wss

8 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

Learning! 100 Award Opens Lead or Get Out of the Way
Call for Applications
The 7th Annual Learning! 100 Award, hosted by El-
earning! Magazine, honors the world’s top global
learning organizations for high performance,
innovation and collaboration. Organizations
from the public and private sectors are invited
to submit an application at: http://b2bmediaco.
com/learn100/2017/award/form_100.php
“The Learning! 100 award winners are an elite
team of high performers. From small to large enter-
prises, this award honors those that push the limits of learn-
ing and development, to over-achieve by exceeding perfor-
mance expectations,” says Catherine Upton¸ Group Publisher,
Elearning! Media Group. “Learning is at the core of their suc-
cess. Every Learning! 100 winner continues to inspire us with
their innovation, passion and performance.”
Previous Learning! 100 honorees include Amazon Web Ser- Executive who fail to adapt to changing environment risk
vices, AT&T, American Heart Association, Salesforce, NASCAR, irrelevance, according to new study by Oxford Economics.
Defense Acquisition University, and Scripps Health to name a few. Strong leadership pays dividends in the digital economy, where
Apply by January 31st for consideration at: http://b2bmediaco. continuous innovation, rapid decision-making, and a global mind-
com/learn100/2017/award/form_100.php set are essential to success. Companies that get digital leadership
–Learn more about the Learning! 100 at: http://www.2elearning.com/ right perform better in the marketplace. These companies:
awards/learning-100-awards >> Report stronger financial performance. They are 38%
more likely than others to report strong revenue and
profit growth.
84% of Learning! 100 have a >> Are building a stronger leadership pipeline. They have
more mature strategies and programs for hiring skilled tal-
Chief Talent, Learning, ent (85% vs. 64% of others), building diversity (56% vs. 48%),
and succession planning (72% vs. 50%).
OD or People Officer. >> Have happier, more loyal employees. Employees from
well-led companies are more satisfied (87% vs. 63% of oth-
75% of them report ers) and more likely to stay in their jobs if given the chance
to leave (75% vs. 54%).
to the CEO –Source: http://www.oxfordeconomics.com/thought-leader-
ship/leaders-2020
–2016 Learning! 100 Benchmark Study

Deals
LITMOS BY CALLIDUS CLOUD
has been on the acqui-
sition binge. Last year
closed with purchase of
BRIDGEFRONT HEALTHCARE
Compliance for under $5
million. Early 2016, Litmos
acquired View Central, an
extended enterprise train-
ing company, for $4 million
and BADGEVILLE to boost
learner engagement for
$7.5 million. In addition to
growing customer base,
Litmos has added capabili-
ties to their portfolio.
UDACITY partners IBM WAT-
SON, AMAZON and DIDI to
offer a new nanodegree in
artificial intelligence. The
new AI nanodegree will be for
students who already have a
level of mastery in software
development. Sebastian
Thrun, founder of Udacity
claims, “At some point an AI
watching you will make you
one hundred times more ef-
ficient at your job, and it will
free up a lot of your time. I
think AI is to the human mind
what the steam engine was to
the human body…I see this as
positive news for the world.”
TRIVANTIS, makers of the
Lectora, ReviewLink, and
CourseMill, was acquired
by STONECALIBRE, a pri-
vate investment firm. Bri-
an Wall, CEO of StoneCa-
libre says, “We are excited
to add Trivantis to the
StoneCalibre portfolio, and
we look forward to driv-
ing future growth in this
rapidly expanding global
e-learning market.”
FACEBOOK and OCULUS
committing to invest an-
other $250 million to help
developers accelerate the
proliferation of high-qual-
ity VR content. The com-
pany has already invested
$250 million in VR content
so far, and now it’s dou-
bling down. The company
also announced it will put
$10 million toward sup-
porting VR app and video
creators of diverse back-
grounds, including women
and people of color.

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 9

 Trendlines
News Where Top Technology
Talent Will Go Next?
Virtual Reality Explodes
to $50 Billion by 2020
Virtual Reality (VR) market is poised for explosive growth.
Currently valued at $1 billion by Deloitte Global, VR is projected
to exceed $50 billion by 2020 , according to Goldman Sachs. Like
most consumer technologies, growth is fueled by the adoption of
consumer devices, in this case VR gear and VR content.
To spur development, eight of the top ten technology
companies have invested in VR. It all started with Facebook’s
acquisition of Oculus Rift, which leads in current headset
market share with 3.6 million units sold.

Projected virtual reality headsets unit sales

worldwide in 2016 (in million), by device
Samsung Gear VR
5 Where they go investment dollars tend to follow. “Talent is of-
ten the canary in the coalmine,” says Chris Bolte, co-founder
Oculus Rift
and CEO of Paysa, a big-data platform providing market insight
3.6 about compensation and retention.
HTC Vive While top talent is found at Uber, Google, LinkedIn, Amazon
2.1 and Salesforce, there are some shifts in the wind according to
Paysa’s Company Rank algorithm.
Sony Morpheus
1.4 Companies to Watch in 2017:
Other >> Docker >> Veritas Technologies
0.1 >> Expedia >> Cox Automotive
Unit sales in millions
>> Twilio >> Lyft
But, the market is shifting. Google’s recent launch of >> Braintree >> Stripe
Daydream mobile VR platform; $100 million investment in VR >> Twitch >> Tesla Motors
development grants to create VR content; upgraded YouTube >> Prosper Marketplace >> Okta, Inc.
Channel software; launch of Google’s Pixel Smartphones; >> Lending Club >> Zulily
and new VR headset launch in October, is positioning Google >> Credit Karma >> Snapchat
to be an alternative VR for mobile source.
Video games and entertainment are the largest VR market The biggest talent comeback stories of 2016 occurred inside
segments accounting for$18.9 billion of the market by 2020. of Starbucks, Hulu, Websense, Adobe, Capital One, Frontier
Enterprise VR applications will generate 54% of VR sales with Communications, Netflix, and Fidelity Investments, all of whom
Healthcare and Engineering leading the enterprise market. are rebounding from previous lows.
–Source: Statistics.com –Source: https://www.paysa.com/company-rank

Global 2020 VR/AR Market Share, By Use Case

In billions (USD)
n Videogames $11.6
n Healthcare $5.1
n Engineering $4.7 ‘Employees of well-led compa-
n Live Events $4.1
n Video $3.2
nies are more satisfied (87%) and
n Real Estate $2.6 more likely to stay in their jobs if
n Retail $1.6
n Military $1.4 given a chance to leave (75%)
n Education $0.7 --Oxford Economics Study
–Source: Business Intelligence, Goldmansachs.com 2016 http://
bit.ly/2dITXQi

10 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

Impact of Immersive Learning
With millennials dominating the workforce, enterprises are grap-
pling with engagement strategies. Millennials actually view more
online videos than TV. This generation of workers has spent more
time playing video games than in formal school. This new gen-
eration of workforce demands more immersive learning, reports
Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D., Gronstedt Group.
A growing body of research proves the effectiveness of immer-
sive learning approaches:
>> Video games are 14% more successful than traditional learn-
ing, according to a meta-study of 65 studies.
>> Vertical video has nine times higher viewership than
horizontal on the phone, according to re-
search by Snapchat.
>> Learners retain 33% more
from virtual reality than stan-
dard video, according to Stan-
ford research.
–Experience Intuit’s
Security Training at: https://
youtu.be/_3VLx0pXSYs
Leadership Shortage Dead Ahead
Today, 33% of the current workforce is eligible to retire and
half of them are in leadership roles. Meanwhile, 85% of HR
leaders say their leadership pipelines are lacking, and 30%
report struggles filling senior management roles. According to
HR, only 25% of those leading today’s organizations are high-
quality. Yet, 39% of enterprises offer Leadership Development
Programs. Employees indicate 15% of the training they receive
prepares them for their next position.
In contrast, those with highly developed leadership training are:
>> 8.8 times more likely to have high quality leadership
>> 9 times more likely to financially outperform their industry peers
>> 7.4 times more likely to have highly engaged leaders
–Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Social Security Administra-
tion, Global Leadership Forecast by DDI, Global Workforce Leader-
ship Study by Workforce Trends
85% of HR leaders say their
leadership pipeline is lacking.
–Global Leadership Forecast

People on the Move

CATRIONA BARBATO joins
Rite Solutions’ Commercial
division as Director of Client
Engagement and Principal
Solution Architect. Catriona
brings 20+ years of applied
experience in the learning
industry to her new role.
Catriona joins a reputable
team of Learning and Per-
formance experts at Rite-
Solutions, many of whom
where long time employees
of Vangent, a recent acquisi-
tion by Rite Solutions.
TechSmith Corporation, ap-
pointed WENDY HAMILTON
as CEO. She succeeds Wil-
liam Hamilton, TechSmith’s
co-founder and president,
who will transition to Chair-
man of the Board. Wendy
has served as EVP since
October 2015. Previously,
she was global head of life
sciences at Thomson Re-
uters and technology con-
sultant at Accenture.
Saba, cloud-based Talent
Management solution pro-
vider, added three industry
veterans to its leadership
team. EDWARD HAYDEN,
Chief Financial Officer; JOHN
HIRAOKA, Chief Strategy Of-
ficer; and JASON HOFFMAN,
Vice President of Informa-
tion Security, join Saba’s
executive team to help lead
the next phase of growth for
the company. In March, new
CEO PERVEZ QURESHI was ap-
pointed with the goal of scal-
ing Saba’s business. Pervez
was previously President of
Epicor Software
NEA and Accel backed Mind-
tickle, hired MARC WENDLING
as its VP of Sales. Marc
comes in with over 18 years
of experience building and
leading sales teams in tech-
nology companies. He will
be responsible for scaling
MindTickle’s go-to-market
efforts, and taking its value
proposition to a wider set of
companies.
Apple hires Carnegie Mel-
lon University professor
RUSLAN SALAKHUTDINOV
for Director of AI research.
SALAKHUTDINOV works in
the fields of deep learning
and neural networks. The
topics he’s worked on run
the gamut, and include rec-
ognizing objects in images
and actions in videos.
Xyleme appointments GREG
SCHOTTLAND as their new
President and CEO. He will
succeed Mark Hellinger,
who has stepped down
from his role as CEO and
will take an active role on
the Board of Directors.
Greg has served in Engi-
neering and Operations
roles at Xyleme since 2011.
Previously tenures include
Lockheed, CodeStream
and Advanced Software
Technologies.

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 11

 Leader’sView
The Era of the Serial Learner
Insights into the Future of Work
BY JEANNE MEISTER

M
uch like serial entrepreneurs, serial learners are intellectually curious, always reaching
beyond their current role to learn something new, make connections out of seemingly
unrelated topics, and seek out new networks and experiences. Companies are providing
access to MOOC’s (Massive Open Online Courses) and other free learning assets as a way
to encourage employees to take ownership of their learning and development. As Randall
Stephenson, CEO and Chairman of AT&T has publicly said, “If you don’t develop new skills, you won’t be
fired, but you won’t have much of a career.” This notion of serial learning is becoming crucial to career
growth, and companies committed to understanding the future workplace are getting out in front of this!
Three macro trends are leading to an increase of serial learners and they include:

I. LIFE-LONG LEARNING SECTOR OF EDUCATION MARKET PROJECTED TO GROW 30%

Jeanne Meister, partner,
Future Workplace.
The higher education marketplace is going through a seismic shift. The size of the education market in the
USA as estimated by GSV (Global Silicon Valley) is estimated at $1.6 trillion. This is projected to grow to
$2.0 trillion by 2020. We also see that the life-long sector is projected to grow 30% over five years. This sector
ranges from 38 MOOC providers like Coursera, EdX and FutureLearn, plus a host of organizations offering
personalized learning experiences such as Degreed, PathGather, EdCast and CAEL. Today, what you learn
directly impacts what you earn, and as the shelf life of knowledge for all roles grow shorter, the need to be
a serial learner has never been more important. This trend is driving organizations to supplement their
corporate learning with a host of free learning assets, from MOOCs to Ted Talks and podcasts.

II. MILLENNIALS AND GEN Z DRIVE PERSONALIZATION IN THE WORKPLACE

Millennials (born between 1982 and 1993) and Gen Z (born between 1994 and 2009) are estimated to be
more than 60% of American workplace by 2025. Members of these generations expect the workplace to
resemble how they live their lives: on-demand and personalized to their needs. This means companies
are differentiating their employer brands by offering Millennials and Gen Zer’s not just a job but a
workplace experience. This experience includes access to smart technologies at work, on-demand
learning personalized to their individual needs, a culture which inspires growth and development, and a
workspace which nurtures community, enables choice and promotes health and well being.

III. ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE ENTERS THE WORKPLACE

Artificial intelligence is poised to transform the workplace. Today it is a $15 billon dollar industry and it
is expected to be more than $70 billion by 2020. We are half way through a century long transformation
moving us from automating physical work to automating knowledge work. This will mean some jobs
will be lost. The World Economic Forum anticipates a loss of over 7 million jobs by 2020. But, new jobs
will also be created like Data Scientist, YouTube Content Creator and Learning Experience Designer. In
addition to impacting jobs, AI will leverage machine learning and natural language processing to improve
such HR processes as recruiting new employees, on-boarding and developing employees. A host of AI
empowered bots are entering the workplace; such as Talla, for handling recruiting, x.ai for scheduling and
calendar coordination and Gridspace for meeting follow ups.
Over the next five years, the combination of these trends will change the workplace in a way we have
never witnessed before. These trends will propel employees to take charge of their learning and become
serial learners, to grow their skills and avoid job obsolescence.
—Jeanne C Meister is partner in Future Workplace and co-author of “The Future Workplace
Experience: 10 Rules For Mastering Disruption in Recruiting and Engaging Employees.”

12 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

 Businessof Learning

Is The Fractal Organization Your

Next Collaborative Ecosystem?
BY DAVID COLEMAN

M
any of you have never heard of fractal organizations. I hadn’t until I talked to a col-
league working on the Hyperloop project, which was described as a “fractal organi-
zation.” The fractal organization may be your future collaboration ecosystem.
Most organizations today are top-down command-and-control hierarchies that
have to grow through acquisition rather than expanding from within. Oracle is a
great example of this (having just recently acquired NetSuite). In nature, mathematical constants are
both random and scalable. Look at the leaves of a fern, or the organizational patterns on some sea-
shells. Even vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli. Fractals are often thought to be infinitely complex,
because, at all levels of magnification, the pattern is the same.
With about 100 years under our belts around command-and-control hierarchies, we know that they
might work well for the Army but are not agile or stable enough to work well in today’s chaotic busi-
ness environment. On top of that, they tend to create “silos” and foster miscommunication, and in es-
sence are not great for collaboration no matter how good the technology. David Coleman, Managing
Hierarchical organizations create harmful stress and internal competition, because there are only so Director of Collaborative
many spots at the top of the organization. This causes the members to hoard information. I witnessed Strategies Inc. (CSI)
this directly in the big five consulting firms when I did research on them around collaboration in their
organizations. The stress can cause absenteeism and employee turnover, and creative individuals got
tired of corporate politics and found more creative environments.

FRACTAL SYSTEM CHARACTERISTICS

Author Janna Raye identifies the properties of the fractal system:

1 Emergence: Agents in the system interact in random ways. Interaction patterns emerge from these
behaviors that affect the agents in the system as well as the system itself. A good example of this is a
termite hill.

2 Co-evolution: Systems are in their own environment, as well as being a part of another, larger envi-
ronment. As the larger environment changes, the system does also, but because it is part of the larg-
er environment, it also changes the larger environment. For example, think of a person as a system in a
larger system (environment) called a business. As a person changes his or her behavior, it also changes
the behavior of the business, showing a co-evolution of these systems.

3 Sub-optimal: Fractal systems do not have to be perfect to thrive in their environment, and only
have to be slightly better than their competitors. Putting additional energy into making the system
better tends to be wasted energy, as these systems tend to trade off increased efficiency for greater ef-
fectiveness.

4 Requisite Variety: The greater the variety in the system, the stronger it is. That is why diversity in
our organizations is so important — not just of races, but of thought, approaches to problems, at-
titudes, etc. Fractal systems have lots of ambiguity and contradictions, but rather than seeing these as
“bad,” they are seen as a way to create new possibilities to adapt to a changing environment. Democ-
racy is a good example of this.

5 Shared Purpose: Like ants, honeybees, geese or schools of fish, all of these organizations have
shared purpose and shared values among all their members. These create pattern integrity, and
often high levels of participation in ideas and solutions for continuous improvement, which helps with
decision-making at functional levels. Leadership is universal, which enables the competition energy to
be directed outward instead of inward.

6 Information Sharing: Hierarchical organizational structures cause information silos. In a fractal

organization, all members share information iteratively and make decisions collectively in response
to constantly changing conditions.

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 13

 Businessof Learning

FRACTALS AND ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

One major feature of fractals is their “self-similarity,” meaning different sizes of similar attributes
within the larger whole, ad infinitum. In nature, you can have individual actors (like a school of fish, or
a flock of geese) all working together for the common outcome. Both fish and geese display interdepen-
dency, relying on each other. Systems in nature also have scalable structures at every level, and at each
level, there is a different organizational pattern. Some examples of this type of system are living organ-
isms, a nervous or immune system. a corporation, and economy or even a society.

So if this is true for mountains, coastlines, tree bark and even wiggles, why not organizations?
What this implies in organizations is the application of complex systems theory, with tight feedback
loops, autonomous cooperating actors, and a simple and limited set of rules governing the system.
This is the basis for the agile movement in programming today. It also seems to be one of the best ap-
proaches to how large organizations can stay creative and innovative. Fractal organizations can do so
by climbing “the fractal ladder,” enabling the sustainability of innovation.
According to Raye, a “fractal” is a way of thinking about the collective behavior of many basic but
interacting units, and in a macro sense have the ability to evolve over time. A fractal organization is the
embodiment of “the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.”
A fractal is a pattern, a form of sustainable ordered chaos, while an organization is “an ordered arrangement
of things (people).” Fractals have self-organizing principles, and fractal organizations are seen as “an emergent
human operating system that mimics nature in its capacity for creativity, adaptation, vitality and innovation.”
Switching from a hierarchical to a fractal organization supports more cooperative work, provides
better information flows, more room for advancement, lower turnover, and eliminates the view that
there is a scarcity of resources.
People in these organizations are seen as “complex adaptive systems” and emergent behaviors arise
out of organizations like this.
Self-organization is the key to self-adapting systems evolve and adapt to new challenges. In living
systems, we see cooperation and symbiotic interactions (like in an ecosystem). We also see that reflect-
ed in many organizations today; for example, both Salesforce and Slack have created large ecosystems
of developers that add value to the original product.
Some fractal companies are like Pixar — core leaders in the center — and all firms are arranged as
arms around the leader. Then in the arms, each team has a leader, and info is funneled to the center of
the organization to the leaders, needs for resources, and then allocated flow back out.
Although we are just starting to see these fractal organizations as we move from the industrial age to
the information age, we are starting to see the demise of hierarchy and the flattening of organizations.
One type of these flatter organizations are fractal organizations, which are inherently collaborative.
This bodes well for more modern organizations that are adopting the fractal nature.
—Sources: “Fractal Organization Theory” by Janna Raye, The Journal of Organization Transformation
and Societal Change. http://www.fractal.org/fractal-systems.htm
—David Coleman is the Managing Director of Collaborative Strategies Inc. (CSI), a San Francisco-based in-
dustry analyst and advisory services firm. He is the author of “the collaboration blog” and author of four books on
collaboration, the latest two being: “Collaboration 2.0” and “42 Rules for Successful Collaboration.” Email david@
collaborativeshift.com.

14 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

 It's time to change your perspective and modernize your training technology.

We make it easy to deliver

Smarter Learning and Analytics
and you won’t need to replace your LMS
 Science
Lastof Learning
Preparing Today’s Workforce for
Tomorrow’s Business Challenges

I
s your workforce prepared for tomorrow’s challenges? Maybe you’re thinking -”my workforce
isn’t even prepared for today’s challenges, let alone future challenges.” Regardless, providing
employees with the knowledge and skills they need has never been more important – or chal-
lenging. And the stakes couldn’t be higher… organizations who deliver the best, most engaging,
effective employee training today are going to be tomorrow’s winners in the marketplace.

TODAY’S TRAINING CHALLENGES

Dean Pichee, Found and
President of BizLibrary
The modern worker has changed. The average worker is checking their smartphone nine times an
hour and are typically interrupted every 5 minutes on the job. Since the year 2000, the average atten-
tion span of a person has dropped from 12 to 8 seconds – 1/3 of the attention span of workers has
completely disappeared (Time).
The modern workplace is also changing rapidly. We are running our organizations lean and mean…
so managers often feel that they can’t afford to have their people “off-the-job” and training for long pe-
riods of time. Fitting in training is often viewed as a secondary objective.
Finally, the shelf life of knowledge and skills has shortened dramatically. Today the shelf life of
knowledge is much, much shorter with technological changes and other factors. Experts believe our
knowledge and skills must be updated roughly every 18 months or we risk extinction. It’s never been
more important for workplaces to use technology to blend learning new skills into their employee’s
jobs and create a culture of learning.

ENTER MICROLEARNING AND LEARNING TECHNOLOGY

Thanks to YouTube and other streaming video platforms we now understand that not only do employ-
ees desire to learn, but their preferred format for learning is video. We also know they prefer shorter
videos to longer ones. Research shows the ideal length of an online training video is 6-7 minutes. This
type of microlearning creates 50% more engagement than other training methods.
Microlearning also works well because the programs offered by many online training providers to-
day are designed for any device and any size screen. This is important as many organizations and in-
dustries need training available in remote locations where a traditional computer setup is not available
or feasible. Fortunately, most of us carry our little video players (aka smartphones) at all times. And
since we’re checking them nine times an hour on average, training has never been more convenient!

LEARNING RETENTION AND SCIENCE

So you’ve found an online training partner with a large library of microlearning content and you’re work-
ing on a marketing initiative to roll it out to your employees. Great! Isn’t that all you need to create the
behavior changes and performance improvements your organization expects to see? Unfortunately no,
research by neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists tells us that no matter how great our training pro-
grams are, employees will forget about 70% of what they’ve learned within 24 hours of learning it.
Don’t throw your training plan out the window just yet, however. Let’s talk solutions – solutions
based on what science tells us about learning and retention.
It turns out that testing knowledge isn’t just a way to measure how much your employees know, it’s
also a great way to increase their learning, and their long-term learning retention. When the brain is
asked to retrieve information, it tags it as important and is less likely to forget. In practice, asking em-
ployees a series of quiz questions and other memory “boosters” related to the training they have taken,
spaced out over strategic intervals, can increase learning retention by as much as 300%!

THE RIGHT MIX

We certainly have challenges as HR and workplace learning professionals today. Combining a library of micro-
learning content that is curated and updated, and a post-training reinforcement plan is the perfect foundation for
your training program. Get the mix right and your on your way to preparing your workforce for tomorrow.

16 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

 VirtualEdge
Engaging Learners with VR
BY DANIEL O’BRIEN

T
he virtual reality (VR) market is a $15 billion hardware market. It is projected to reach $50
billion by 2020, according to Goldman Sachs.
VR technology today divides into two types: rotational and positional. In rotational VR, you
are seated or standing and look around a 360 environment, but cannot move within it. There is
one point of view: looking at things around you. Samsung Gear, Google Daydream and Google
Cardboard are rotational VR. The typical VR experience with Google Cardboard ranges from 5 to 20 minutes.
The second type is positional VR. This environment lets you move around within the VR space. It
can be composed of mixed reality, using a video layer over a VR environment. A mixed reality envi-
ronment lets people approximate what a user is seeing within a VR application in a 2D view. Positional
VR can scale to many users in a single shared space.

THE VIVE EXPERIENCE

Vive is a positional VR solution. You can be seated, standing or moving within a room. You can liter-
ally stand in the center of the content (think “Star Trek” holodeck experience.) Kids to grandparents
use Vive with ease because it’s natural to interact within the environment. Given the immersion, Vive
experiences tend to last longer — an hour plus for users without fatigue.
VR Enterprise Applications
To use Vive, you need a PC and headgear. There are 100,000s of Vive users globally and we are ship-
Other ping about 1,000 units per day, to customers.
Gov./
Defense PC prices to run VR have dropped considerably in the past year. Nine months ago, there were no
Media/ 10% PCs on the market to support Vive. Now there are nine models at a much lower price point.
Product
Entertainment Industries VR applications run the gamut from games and entertainment to enterprise uses, especially medical.
10% 40%
(auto, CPG,
Aerospace,
We see examples of automotive VR for design of cars. Designers can work in VR collaboratively in the
Shipbuilding) same space. This type of application can reduce the time and cost of product design.
Medical
20% VR applications like test-driving a car, viewing real estate, or visiting a travel destination are all in
development or deployed today. The medical field has recently created a surgical theater where an MRI
AEC of a brain can be displayed in space, and doctors can walk around the brain in VR. The National Park
20%
services also launched a series on 360-degree VR experiences and 2-D video on Facebook.

GETTING STARTED IN VR
You are probably sitting on digital content you can use for VR. It is a matter of reorganizing it into a
360 experience to allow you to move around. IKEA created a VR kitchen and let users select colors and
layouts before buying. This brought buyer’s remorse to zero.
When developing VR, we recommend building cross platform as much as possible. Instead of scaling
up from Cardboard, you should develop for full functionality, then scale down to the user’s platform.

LEARNING GAME CHANGER

The HTC Vive has VR learning experiences, like the Apollo 11 VR Experience. The developers, Im-
mersive VR Education LTD, created an environment of 1960s-style living room with a TV showing
JFK’s speech about going into space. The user is then transported into a space capsule sitting next to
Buzz Aldrin and landing on the moon. My young son used it and shared with me what he learned;
historical quotes and his successful moon landing. Four weeks later, I asked my son about the moon
landing, and he could still recall with great details his experience.
We have A/B tests that measured VR versus reading of material. It found VR tested higher in reten-
tion one day and 90 days later versus readers alone. VR is a game changer in retentions.
It’s these experiences that are changing how we interact with digital content and engaging people.
Vive users typically spend 45 minutes to an hour in the VR experience versus 10 minutes for Card-
board. Now, that’s an engaging experience.
– Daniel O’Brien is Vice President, VR at HTC.

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 17

How Corporate
Learning Is
Using Virtual
Reality Today
BY ANDERS GRONSTEDT, PH.D.
Imagine if a technology came along that al-
lowed your students to transport themselves
to any time or place, real or imagined. Imag-
ine if this technology could be used to cre-
ate a “flight simulator” for any skill, where
students could practice and learn under the
same conditions where they will use their
skills. And imagine if this technology could
also allow students to step into the shoes of a
customer or a colleague of different gender,
ethnicity, or culture. That technology is here.
It’s virtual reality.
The world you experience when you
strap on a virtual reality (VR) headset
might be virtual, but the learning results
are real. Football quarterbacks have seen
decision-making skills improve by 30 per-
cent. Fear of public speaking has been re-
duced by 20 percent. Unconscious bias has
been reduced in study after study. All after
just a few sessions in virtual reality.
MARCHING WITH MLK
The virtual reality learning revolution has
already begun. “We have purchased 360-de-
gree cameras and virtual reality headsets
and empower faculty members to create
their own VR video,” says Robbie Melton,
Ph.D., Associate Vice Chancellor of Mobi-
lization Emerging Technology of the Ten-
nessee Board of Regents. Her list of virtual
18 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
reality use-cases is already long: “One of our
educational professors shoots wrap-around
video in the classroom to transport future
teachers to real-life teaching situations.”
The Tennessee Board of Regents super-
vises 47 campuses with 173,000 students and
has a strategic plan for virtual, augmented,
and mixed reality and holograms. Several
professors use free virtual reality assets.
“One of our professors is transforming
his Humanities Curriculum so that when
students study about Martin Luther King’s
Washington March, they can now experi-
ence the march through the immersive
technology of virtual reality” says Melton.
The Tennessee higher education system is
not just using virtual reality as a consump-
tion tool, but a creation tool as well. “HTC
Vive brings hand controllers so we can now
do art projects in VR and AR,” exclaims
Melton. Virtual reality painting programs
like Google Tilt Brush can be used for every-
thing from 3D sculptures, to whiteboarding
of calculus assignments; and from prototyp-
ing of new products, to architectural design.
Virtual reality has been particularly empow-
ering for students with disabilities, accord-
ing to Dr. Melton. “Someone in a wheelchair
can experience going down a virtual ski
slope or swimming in an ocean.”
This sixth-largest system of public higher
education in the United States is launch-
ing a major longitudinal study to research
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 19
virtualreality
the learning retention impact and rate and Would you bet against these tech titans?
performance achievement and outcomes Perhaps not. But learning organizations
of virtual and augmented reality after six are not yet jumping in with both feet. An-
months. “Our assumption is that VR/AR thony Rotolo, Courseware Manager at the
are going to beat video or any other me- Defense Acquisition University cautions
dium by 75 percent,” says Dr. Melton. that, “We’re still in the hype cycle, we get
‘Our assumption is that VR/
AR are going to beat video
or other medium by 75%.’
– Robbie Melton, Vice Chancellor,
Tennessee Board of Regents
FACEBOOK BETTING enamored with technology solutions in
THE FUTURE ON VR search of a business case.” He doesn’t think
The fervor for VR could easily be dismissed VR is a panacea. “It has an obvious role to
if it only came from educational leaders train a bomb squad, but I have a hard time
and smaller technology startups. But when seeing it used to teach something like an
Mark Zuckerberg is betting the future of earned value management formula.” Rotolo
Facebook on the new technology, there’s is taking a wait-and-see approach for now.
reason for learning leaders to pay atten- “I’d want to see a couple of years of perfor-
tion. Zuckerberg was so impressed by the mance before the government applies it to
possibilities of VR that Facebook spent $2 e-learning. It’s prudent to wait until VR is
billion to get a piece of this growing mar- more mature and proven.”
ket, acquiring virtual reality headset maker Other organizations are piloting VR in
Oculus VR. While the first generation of small scale. Lehigh Valley Health Network,
VR is aimed at the gaming and entertain- a hospital group with seven campuses in
ment markets, Zuckerberg argues that VR Pennsylvania, looks for low-risk, high-
is “the next major computing and com- reward VR projects. “We’re trying to pro-
munication platform after phones.” When totype and find correlations between VR
Facebook launched it was mostly used for training applications and performance im-
text-based updates. Today the newsfeed is provements. We have to prove that we can
filled with pictures and self-playing videos. change metrics,” says Virginia Cooney, Se-
The next step is to capture entire scenes, in nior eLearning Designer, adding: “If I can
3D and 360 degrees. Most of the other digi- reduce error rates with catheter insertions
tal media giants, including Google, Apple, through VR training, that would be a big
Samsung, and Microsoft are pouring bil- win that we can build on and get funding
lions and jostling for leadership in the na- for larger VR programs.”
scent virtual and augmented reality market.
‘The new challenge is to transition from the desktop
monitor to virtual reality headsets, where a student
can experience full body immersion.’
–Virginia Cooney, Lehigh Valley Health Network
20 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
VR SIMULATIONS
Technical skill training like this can be a
good start for a virtual reality pilot. “You
use the same criteria as any simulation: Is
it too expensive, is it too dangerous, or is
it otherwise too impractical to practice in
real life?” Argues Anthony Rotolo of the
Defense Acquisition University. “VR has
to pass that test of suitability.” Emergency
response, product installation or repair,
and healthcare procedures are usually good
candidates for virtual reality learning.
Lehigh Valley Health Network has a large
physical simulation center where actors play
patients, but it’s a limited resource with a
schedule filled to capacity. Virginia Cooney
doesn’t think that will be replaced any time
soon, but says: “as we keep acquiring new
clinics further away we need to look at virtual
solutions.” Her team has run 3D immersive
multiplayer training programs on the desktop
for years. They started in Second Life and
have transitioned through several 3D plat-
forms. “The most recent project is a 3D im-
mersive orientation for nurses,” says Cooney.
The new challenge is to transition from the
desktop monitor to virtual reality headsets,
where a student can experience full body im-
mersion. “The advances in haptic feedback
are important for us too, recreating the sensa-
tion of cutting into a body, for instance.”
EMPATHY MACHINE
For all the excitement about using VR as
technical skills training simulator, there
might be just as many opportunities to use
it for soft skills training. Virtual reality has
proven to be the most visceral approach to
experience the world from people with dif-
ferent gender, race, age, or nationality and
reduce bias against them.
Stanford University’s Director of Virtual
Human Interaction Lab, Jeremy Bailenson
argues that, “For about 12 years now, we’ve
been running study after study showing
 ‘We should think of VR not as a media experience
but closer to an actual experience.’
–Jeremy Bailenson, Director of Stanford University’s Virtual
that feeling discrimination firsthand while
walking a mile in someone else’s shoes
[through virtual reality] is a better way to
change attitudes and behavior.” Bailenson
and his team have validated the so called
“Proteus Effect,” in which the behavior of
an individual, within online virtual worlds,
is changed by the visual characteristics of
their avatar.
Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab
has even conducted experiments simulating
the feeling of being a cow in virtual reality.
Subjects donned a VR headset, got down
on all fours, and when the simulation was
turned on found themselves in a virtual pas-
ture. The scene transitioned to the holding
pen of a cattle truck, where a haptics system
simulated the vibrations of the moving
truck as it took them to the slaughterhouse.
The study found that people felt more con-
nected to the animals than those who simply
watched the simulation play out on a screen
and ultimately might be less likely to eat
meat. This ability to be embodied as a dif-
ferent person or even a different species is
why virtual reality has been hailed as “The
Ultimate Empathy Machine,” by film maker
Chris Milk. Imagine the opportunities to
build this kind of empathy in sales and ser-
vice training, coaching skill development,
and diversity and inclusion programs.
VR HEADSET MARKET
The current generation virtual reality
headsets range from a cardboard box
for a few dollars to a $3,000 computer-
headset bundle. If you’re a New York
Times subscriber, you might already own
a VR headset. It recently provided over a
million subscribers with a fold-your-own
cardboard box, including plastic lenses,
magnets, and Velcro. Just drop almost any
smart phone into the “Google Cardbaord”
box and experience VR for yourself. If you
own certain models of the Samsung Galaxy,
you can get a $99 GearVR headset, which
Human Interaction Lab
offers a step up in comfort and quality from But, the real breakthrough with aug-
the cardboard box. With the new Google mented reality will be eye wear that proj-
Pixel phone, you can buy a similarly priced ects holographic images on top of the real
Google Daydream headset. These mobile world. “Augmented reality is the real game
headsets provide a good entry point to vir- changer,” says Robbie Melton of the Tennes-
tual reality. They work well for shorter and see Board of Regents. “We have three Holo-
more linear experiences, such as a 360-de- Lenses in our classrooms already.” The Mi-
gree spherical video. crosoft HoloLens is a see-through headset
At the high end of the virtual reality mar- that projects holographic images on top of
ket, Facebook’s Oculus Rift and HTC Vive the real world. “The HoloAnatomy is unbe-
are locked in race for market leadership. The lievably impactful, it revolutionizes anatomy
HTC Vive comes with laser cameras and a and physiology teaching”, Melton said
very long cord connected to a PC that allows Melton is an industry veteran who puts
you to roam around a room up to 15 times the new technology in perspective. “I’ve
15 feet large. Using hand controllers, you been in the learning industry for 45 years,
can see representations of your hands in the I hail from the time of chalkboards; virtual
virtual space. A clever visual overlay in the and augmented reality is by far the biggest
virtual scene indicates where the real-life technology revolution of my career.”
walls are to keep you bumping into them. –Anders Gronstedt, Ph.D., (anders@gron-
Both Microsoft and Oculus Rift have stedtgroup.com) is president of the Gronstedt
announced headsets that will occupy the Group, a digital training agency that custom
middle ground between mobile and PC develops learning games, simulations and
tethered headsets. These devices will have online video.
trackers built in, rather than relying on ex-
ternal laser cameras, making them easier to
set up and use. They are expected to hit the
market sometime next year.
Which virtual reality headset will be the
winner? Or will we see a balkanized Mac
vs. PC-style war of competing standards?
Only time will tell. My advice would be to
keep an open mind and not put all your
chips on one system, yet.
AUGMENTED REALITY
On the heels of virtual reality is its cousin
“augmented reality” (AR) or “mixed real-
ity.” We all got a taste of a crude form of
AR via the explosion of Pokémon Go.
Virginia Cooney at Lehigh Valley Health
Network is already plotting a Pokémon
GO-style game for orienting new med stu-
dents to her campuses: “They will get to
know the new campus by walking around
and finding the equivalence of poké balls
and answer questions.”
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 21
2017 HR
Technology
Trends
THE “SIERRA-CEDAR 2016-2017 HR SYSTEMS SURVEY”
TRACKS TRENDS IN HR AND LEARNING PHILOSOPHY; AND IN
TECHNOLOGY SELECTION PURCHASE AND IMPLEMENTATION.
BY JERRY ROCHE

We are now embracing an era when both enterprise and personal

technology options are improving almost by the day. So several
important considerations must be taken into account to help decide how
our organizations will respond and benefit from new HR and learning
technologies. Among them: how overall strategy, corporate culture and
existing technology will play into future plans.

STRATEGY:
Strategy is both a key component when it comes to a technology
environment and a significant opportunity; for instance, more than
40 percent of organizations are looking at improving or developing a
new enterprise HR systems strategy this year. This is a key issue for
most organizations.
For large organizations (more than 10,000 employees), the goal is
most often to transform the technology environment, creating a more
modern architecture that can support new user experiences, mobile
access, and full-data analysis requirements. Research has shown that
organizations are taking multiple pathways forward and are leveraging
this opportunity to rethink their enterprise view of HR technology.
Among mid-market (2,500 to 10,000 employees) and small businesses,
HR technology adoption has become a key to success. Organizations
with higher-than-average HR technology adoption in these categories
saw almost double the revenue per employee, and a 12 percent increase
in their overall HR, talent and business outcome metrics. These
organizations also are 75 percent more likely to be viewed as strategic
partners by their business leaders, and they are 10 times more likely
to be in the top 10 percent of organizations when it comes to social
responsibility initiatives.

CULTURE:
Three specific HR outcome models — talent-driven, data-driven, and top-
performing organizations — can alter decisions. In a world of constant
digital change, organizations need to completely rethink their perception of
technology investments. In today’s Cloud-based environments, organizations
have shown that continuous change management models improve decision-
making across the entire organization.

22 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 23
2017HRtechnologytrends
Cloud-based technologies also allow
organizations to develop more valuable
relationships with their workforces,
clearly defining their expectations and the
employee value proposition in a tailored
employee experience.
TECHNOLOGY:
Now that there has been a shift both
from vendors and buyers toward
Cloud/SaaS HR solutions, foundational
technology questions are refocusing.
This year’s survey shows a 25 percent
increase in organizations evaluating
Cloud solutions for non-HR technology,
and an increase in large organization
initiatives to integrate both HR and
non-HR technologies. The key questions
for many organizations come down
to cost, security and long-term value
propositions for a full Cloud solution.
The new non-negotiables are focused
on user experience, roadmap strategies,
and tailored relationships. For instance,
there has been a 40 percent increase to 66
percent of organizations that identify “poor
user experience” as their primary reason
for giving vendors a low satisfaction rating.
The next generation of technology is
meant to be invisible and ubiquitous in
our lives, and it’s expected to perform as
an intelligent system. More than 5 percent
of organizations are already using some
form of machine learning, wearables and
sentiment analysis tools as strategic parts of
their HR systems strategies.
Now for some specific facts and
figures, based on Sierra-Cedar’s most
recent research:
24 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
SPENDING PATTERNS
This year, just 42 percent of organizations
believe their spending will increase in
2016–2017, while 7 percent feel their
spending will decrease. That represents a
slight slowdown in spending plans from
last year, but it’s still very healthy when
compared with 2013’s spending plans
following the recent recession.
Small organizations are the fastest
growing segment of “new” HR technology
buyers, so vendors will need come to the
table with a compelling reason for them to
increase spending next year; 57 percent of
small organizations are on target to simply
maintain their existing HR technology
spending. However, each year, smaller
and smaller organizations invest in HR
technology.
HR SYSTEM EXPENDITURES
On average, total HR technology
costs can range from $100 to $500 per
employee annually. These numbers
change dramatically based on the
number of systems implemented,
amount of internal resources versus
outsourced resources, global scope of
an organization, and the complexity of
an organization’s service and support
needs. These global numbers are
generally helpful only as a ballpark
figure, but do provide us with a lens
through which to review year-over-year
annual expenditures per employee —
and it might be surprising to note that
the total overall HR technology costs
have seen a slight decline over the last
few years.
FIGURE 1 – OVERALL
APPLICATION ADOPTION SIZE
Large organizations continue as higher-
than-average adopters of all application
areas over the aggregate, especially in the
areas of service delivery and BI/analytics.
Medium organizations are often focusing
on new growth and optimizing their
workforce. We see higher levels of adoption
in administrative and social applications.
Small organizations are lower-than-
average adopters of all application areas,
although it is important to note that they
purchase enterprise-wide HR solutions
at much earlier stages than they have in
previous years.
HR TECHNOLOGY RESOURCING
STRATEGIES
Knowing that spending doesn’t provide the
only indicator of what an organization can
accomplish when it comes to its enterprise
HR systems strategy, a new question was
added concerning an organization’s plans to
increase or decrease certain roles across their
HR function over the next year. Immediately,
corporate learning and development initiatives
claimed the top position for increased hiring
plans for 37 percent of the organizations that
responded to the survey — and only 5 percent
plan to decrease these initiatives.
Following just behind L&D was 33
percent of organizations planning to invest
in hiring HR data analytics personnel.
Twenty-nine percent of organizations
also plan to increase talent management
headcount this year.
IMPLEMENTATION PLANS,
TIMELINES, MODULES
Fewer organizations (17 percent) are
planning to make solution changes in the
next 12 months as compared to previous
years, but more are planning movement
over the next 24 months. Organizations
with low user experience scores are four
times more likely to have near-term plans
to replace their current vendor.
Once an organization has decided to
either replace or upgrade an existing
solution, the next focus becomes timelines
and costs. Implementation timelines have
been a constant challenge for organizations
dealing with on-remise solutions,
particularly for large global organizations.
Two- to three-year implementation
 FIGURE 2 – ADOPTION BY
TECHNICAL APPROACH
When we look at adoption levels by an
organization’s approach to its technology
deployment strategy, we see that
organizations with high Cloud adoption
(Cloud deployed for HRMS, Payroll, WFM
and TM applications) have higher levels of
HR technology adoption in all categories
when compared to low Cloud adoption (25%
or less Cloud deployed HR applications)
organizations.
timelines for enterprise-wide HRMS
environments were not uncommon for
organizations, especially when these
solutions were implemented alongside
other enterprise-wide solutions.
In the last few years, we have seen
a decrease in overall implementation
timelines, particularly for licensed
environments, but also for Cloud/SaaS
solutions. Less customization, greater access
to APIs, and pre-developed connectors for
integration, along with more adequately
trained implementation partners, have all
led to a reduction in overall implementation
timelines over the past three years.
At this point, there are fewer on-
premise implementations than Cloud/
SaaS implementations, since very few
organizations are aggressively selling their
on-premise solutions.
LEARNING APPLICATIONS
Because of complex learning needs,
large and medium organizations are
much more likely to have high levels of
learning application adoption over small
organizations. Sierra-Cedar anticipates
continued shake up in the learning space
over the next few years as enterprise
software packages continue to invest in
their new learning solutions, and many
niche learning players coming out of the
consumer learning space (like Degreed) are
trying the change the concept of who owns
an employee’s learning record.
Although Cornerstone OnDemand
focuses heavily on its talent management
modules, it continues to be one of the
largest providers in the learning space
and holds the highest level of application
adoption at 19 percent; for large and
medium organizations, Cornerstone
OnDemand sees an increase forecasted
adoption in the next 12 months. Other
companies that are expected to grow
substantially are SuccessFactors Employee
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
FIGURE 3 – HR TECHNOLOGY
GAP ANALYSES
After years of organizations venting
their frustrations, this year more than
60 percent of them feel their current
HR systems applications are either
“Always” or “Most of the Time” meeting
their business needs. In all categories,
high-Cloud organizations are twice
(sometimes thrice) as likely to feel that
their HR applications are always meeting
their business needs.
Since feature and function gaps are
no longer major issues, the factors
that will move an organization to
replace an existing solution have more
to do with issues such as service and
support, integration, and overall vendor
relationship.
Central, Saba, Health Stream, Oracle HCM
Cloud (which is being rolled out separately
from the Oracle Taleo/Learn solutions).
Moderate growth is likely to come to
NetDimensions and SilkRoad.
SumTotal and Skillsoft — now combined
organizations — continue to hold large
adoption shares in learning across all
organization sizes. It is likely that many
organizations use Skillsoft as a secondary
learning solution along with their primary
learning management system (LMS), but
decreases are projected in adoption rates
for this vendor for both applications.
—Research for Sierra-Cedar conducted
by Stacey Harris, vice president of Research
& Analytics and research consultant Erin
Spencer. The “Sierra-Cedar 2016-2017
HR Systems Survey White Paper, 19th
Annual Edition” can be found at www.
sierra-cedar.com/wp-content/uploads/
sites/12/2016/10/Sierra-Cedar_2016-2017_
HRSystemsSurvey_WhitePaper.pdf
25
 Learning! 100 Profile:
Express:
Fashioned for
Millennials
BY CLAIRE JOHNSON
By 2025, 46 percent of the workforce will
be Millennials.
According to a report from the National
Chamber Foundation, Millennials expect
close relationships and frequent feedback
from management, viewing their managers
as coaches or mentors. Their managers —
rather than the corporations themselves —
can earn the loyalty of Millennial employees
by keeping their word. Management can
reduce the risk of Millennial employees
leaving a company by maintaining a positive
relationship with them. Findings indicate that
the main reason that this age group leaves a
company is directly related to a superior.
At Express, the future is about those
Millennials. “We structure our learning and
development for them,” says Adam Zaller, Vice
President of Organizational Development,
Express. “The average age at Express is 27, and
at the retail stores it is middle to low 20s.”
Realizing this, Express identified an
opportunity to evolve its talent management
strategy for its primarily Millennial-aged
employees while becoming a fashion
authority for both men and women.
According to Zaller, “[Millennials]
are always connected, multi-taskers who
are very socially aware. They have more
friends ... two-and-a-half times more
than Boomers. Because of this, they
are influenced by their peers; they seek
26 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
status among the peer group; they tend to
‘crave experiences.’ In our development
programs, we focus more on the
experiences and activity and less on the
classroom or the course.”
To support this culture, Express’s
organizational development team created
an intuitive, irresistible, social and mobile
learning experience for its more than 22,000
mostly-Millennial employees. The program
has pushed limits and established an engaged
employee population that’s driven customer
experience scores and internal engagement
scores to their highest levels while decreasing
turnover to its lowest rate ever during the
three years that it’s been implemented.
“It’s Uber personalization and
individualization,” continues Zaller. “It’s
not one size fits all. Simplicity is king, and
experience and activities are paramount to
actual courses. And most importantly, it’s
all about smartphones.”
How does this translate into learning
and development? Millennials wants more
communication. “Everyone has that one
thing they are phenomenal at … provide
them a talent management framework so
they can socialize that,” suggests Zaller.
THE EXPRESS TALENT
DEVELOPMENT PLAN
At Express, all training programs are
designed to organizational competencies.
“Over time, people can use the
About Express
Originally launched in 1980 as
Women’s Express, owned by The Limited,
in the famed Water Tower Place on
Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, Express as
a brand has undergone several major
transformations, becoming a company
beloved by Millennials (born 1980-2000)
and Generation Z (born after 2000).
Today, most Express shoppers were born
after the clothing company was founded,
and the company has done an excellent
job of successfully targeting a specific
age range (18-35). Catering to both
men and women, the company is now
independent of The Limited and publicly
traded on the New York Stock Exchange,
generating $116.5 million in net income
during the 2016 fiscal year.
In a world saturated with fast fashion,
Express has managed to set itself apart from
the competition — partially through its
high-quality product at reasonable prices —
but also through its high level of customer
service and brand consistency. Express has
a loyal customer following, and customers
know what to expect when they walk into
any of the company’s more than 650 stores
in the United States, Canada and Puerto
Rico. This is where consistency is key, and
with Express’s hiring and training programs,
customers get the same experience in each
store, no matter the location.
fashionedformillenials
competencies to measure against and grow collaborative spaces. They can connect and see
their career at Express,” shares Zaller. “It’s what everyone else is doing, or share ideas that
by [job] layer and area of focus. You can they have.”
see at the contributor, manager or director Communication is key to the
level, what’s appropriate at that role, the Millennials and Express took “a riff ” off
manager above you, so you can formulate of what millennials use to communicate
a career development program just from today. Millennials use a range of social
our competencies.” mediums and the learning experience
‘We conduct focused
development so your “native
genius” can shine.’
– Adam Zaller, Vice President
Organizational Development, Express
PERSONALIZING LEARNING needs to reflect this; Instagram, Twitter,
Express’s talent program starts with an Snapchat, Pinterest and Periscope.
individual’s personal aspirational vision of what “What we love most is that our
he or she wants to do with his or her career. environment looks like Facebook meets
They look at courses and classes, articles and Twitter meets learning site,” adds Zaller.
books to gain some knowledge from; then the “You can’t tell where there are classes or
experiences follow. “It really starts at how we courses, or where there’s an activity stream
create a meaningful experience for you, so you where someone is saying this is a great
can grow your career,” says Zaller. “It’s really article, or have you considered this idea.
important to provide Millennials the space It all molds together to create a curated
to share what they are really great at in these experience for somebody.”
28 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
The learning platform, supplied by
Saba, enables team members to find their
own online development in bite-sized
chunks that appeal to them. By switching
to a user-driven learning platform,
Express supports blended learning at
a personalized level: providing each
employee with personal, relevant
recommendations of classes, content
and expert connections that help each
succeed at his or her job.
The new learning ecosystem enables
individuals to opt-in and access learning
in areas of interest, resisting a one-size-
fits-all approach. The system provides
real-time recommendations, builds
personal networks, promotes social
collaboration, and provides direction for
each of the more than 22,000 associates
at Express. Prescriptive analytics provide
each employee with personal, relevant
recommendations of classes, content
and expert connections that help them
succeed at their job.
“Whether you are walking down the
hall, at your desk or in a store, you’ll have
the same experience with learning,” reports
Zaller. “You have bits and bytes of learning
and communications based on your courses,
articles, or activities of interest … over 20,000
people adding to the site on a daily basis.”
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
AT EXPRESS
The Express Essentials for organizational
competencies describe the leadership
skill set needed at a specific level in the
company. They are cataloged to focus on
key behaviors. Outlined as a map, the
competencies are shown at each level and
how they build upon each other in each
area of focus. The maps help employees
create individualized development plans
and evaluate the competencies needed to
further grow in each level of the company.
The competencies keep employees on track
with their goals every day, and management
integrates them into the mid-year and
annual review process.
In order to develop the best leaders in
the retail industry who create an engaging
environment consistent with the brand’s
values, Express focuses on a few core
programs at each level that drive leadership
behaviors. As part of its talent management
strategy, Express wants to drive employee

self-development through the creation of a
personalized and meaningful experience.
Using data and analytics is an essential
asset to shape the talent management
experiences and to provide the best results
for evaluation.
There are five key talent priorities that
support Express’ leadership initiatives:
>> Increase the importance of engagement
through communication.
>> Encourage employees to socialize their
native genius to grow the company’s
overall knowledge.
>> Encourage personalization and indi-
vidualization.
>> Leverage knowledge nuggets instead of
large traditional courses.
>> Implement a modern, easy-to-use
talent management platform which
leverages experiences and activities to
drive knowledge.
BUSINESS IMPACT
The program is doing well, based on the
results the organizational development
team tracks. Since the program’s
implementation in 2013, Express has
been able to spend less on development
while experiencing the following
positive results:
>> Reducing employee turnover by 14 per-
cent year-over-year.
>> A 100 percent improvement in associate
engagement scores.
>> An increased Net Promoter Score by
more than 80 percent.
>> The ability to spot potential employees
with high potential. (Half of all field dis-
trict managers are alumni of Express’s
high-potential program.)
#SquadGoals
Express has a highly-engaged audience and a highly-recognized brand. With big-name brand
ambassadors showcased in all forms of marketing, customers and employees feel an attachment
when they see their favorite celebrities pictured in the brand’s clothes in marketing materials and
on social media. Express works with well-known faces, such as superstar athlete Kris Bryant
who led the Chicago Cubs to the 2016 Major League Baseball World Series title, and it-girl model
Karlie Kloss, who’s perhaps one of the most recognized faces of Taylor Swift’s squad.
Express does everything in its power to make employees feel like part of its own squad. Retail
isn’t glamourous and can be a grueling environment — customers can be difficult and it requires
employees to dedicate long hours, often on nights, weekends and over the holidays — and it’s
comforting for employees to know that their employer cares and appreciates all of the hard work
and dedication that goes into such a customer service-centric job. Express makes each employee
feel valued in the long-term with its training program taking each individual’s interests goals
into account. Constructive feedback and frequent check-ins make employees realize their long-
term goals are attainable. More than that, the day-to-day is what strongly motives the Millennial
workforce to choose and grow with a company. Things like free snacks and meals during
overnight floor sets when merchandise is changed; a flexible return policy so employees don’t get
bogged down arguing with unsatisfied customers; generous discounts; and a team mentality are
what keeps employees smiles authentic while they’re going to work each day.
More than half of Millennials volunteer and, according to a report by the National Chamber
Foundation, Millennial employees who often participate in workplace-sponsored volunteer
activities are more likely to feel positive, loyal and satisfied than those who never volunteer or
volunteer infrequently. Those that participate in volunteer work with their companies are more
likely to recommend their companies to friends. Also in line with Millennials’ desire to do good
for others, Express sales associates volunteer thousands of hours each year, and the company
provides its staff with the flexibility to explore that passion in both their local communities
and on a global scale through its partnership with the MGF Touch Foundation, which supports
nonprofit organizations around the world that work to end human trafficking.
Rookie of the Year and MLB All-Star Kris Bryant is a legend in the making:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=twPg-gKIcA8

WHAT’S NEXT Like most Millennials, model and Express spokesperson Karlie Kloss has an
With its loyalty program being titled altruistic approach on life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piS0jDDMnks
ExpressNext, the company is always
looking toward the future. Zaller shares
they are planning to invite people to post
their own videos, create quick knowledge
nuggets and expand their leadership
programs.

—Sources: “The Millennial

Generation: Research Review,” National
Chamber Foundation, https://www.
uschamberfoundation.org/sites/
default/files/article/foundation/
MillennialGeneration.pdf

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 29

 You... Create learning programs
that deliver results!

Innovate, collaborate
and outperform
your competitors!

Master budget woes to

woo your employees,
customers and partners.

Now let us honor

you and your team’s
excellence.

Apply now at
www.2elearning.com/awards/learning-100-awards
Application open 10.1.16 to 1.31.17.
Government, non-profit and educational organizations can apply free.
99 Solutions Named
Best Of Elearning! 2016
The 2016 “Best of Elearning!” awards
honor best-in-class solutions across the
learning and technology marketplace.
Celebrating their 12th year, these
honors are bestowed across 27 different
categories for which Elearning! Media
Group accepted nominations.
Best of Elearning! awards are the
industry’s exclusive users’-choice awards.
All nominations are made directly by
users of solutions, and more than 4,000
nominations were received this year.
“We are honored to recognize these 99
solutions providers as Best of Elearning!
2016,” says Catherine Upton, Group
Publisher, Elearning! Media Group.
‘The number of nominations and
winning organizations is a testament to
the innovation and engagement of the
learning industry.”
The Best of Elearning! awards formalize
the recommendation and purchase
process for the learning community.
Research indicated 85 percent of learning
professionals recommended a learning
solution to a peer over the most recent
12-month period, and 61 percent claimed
that award recognition “impacts their
decision” to consider a product or service.
Since 2005, four companies have been
recognized every year. They are Adobe,
Cisco, Skillsoft and Articulate. This year,
BizLibrary, SAP, and Articulate lead with
four honors each. Additionally, Adobe
won three categories and INXPO two.
Repeat winners from last year are
SumTotal, DominKnow, Bizlibrary, Vubiz,
Articulate, Adobe, INXPO and TransPerfect.
Last year, Bizlibrary won three awards and
Adobe two.
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
NOMINATION PROCESS
Elearning! Media Group community
members, subscribers and wider learning
community were invited to nominate their
best-in-class solution providers via an
online ballot between June and October of
this year. The ballot was open-ended with
only categories designations stipulated.
No short list of brands were provided.
At close, the ballots were reviewed and
validated. Editors verified product types
and categories before counting. The
top vote earners in each category were
identified as finalists. Those with a 10
percent lead over all other products in a
category earned category winner status.
The balance of finalists earn an Award of
Excellence.
To learn more, visit www.2elearning.
com/awards/best-of-elearning-awards.
31
bestofelearning!
Honoree Spotlight
LMS CLOUD
Winner: Litmos LMS,
a Callidus Cloud Co.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Litmos has more than 3 million users and
is used by large enterprise companies,
SMBs and not-for-profits. It is easy to
build courses, assign them to learners, and
accurately track the results. Litmos is a
hosted training system, so administrators
don’t need help from the I.T. department to
set it up and get started. Content is added
in the form of modules; custom branding
is available; and users can take advantage
of a training scheduler and learner training
profiles to make certain users are being
exposed to content that they need. Users
can access the API to seamlessly share
information between Litmos and other
systems. Single sign-on can be enabled so
that users don’t have to remember their
Litmos password.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Simple, easy-to-use interface for both
administrator and user.”
>> “Module form makes it easy to replace
individual modules when we release a
new or improved feature.”
>> “Best set of features for the price.”
>> “Easy, reliable and affordable.”
PHONE
(866) 812-5244
32 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
LMS ENTERPRISE
Winner: SumTotal
Learn, a Skillsoft Co.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Established more than 30 years ago,
SumTotal’s Learn connects the dots
between the skills and competencies people
need to be better at their jobs — delivered
in the context of what they are trying to
accomplish — and prepare the organization
for tomorrow, to measurably improve
performance. With adaptable learning
plans, a visual timeline of priorities and
tasks and individualized insight into
learning progress contextual actions are a
click away, and people have visibility into
the measurable impact of their efforts.
Learning recommendations, personalized
to every individual’s needs and preferences,
keep people engaged in continuous
learning effortlessly. Engaging and
responsive mobile design and notifications
make it easy for every role to engage
with the learning they need on-the-go or
from remote locations, whether online or
offline, to ensure learning is prioritized and
accessible when and how people prefer to
consume it.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Second in usage only to email among
employees.”
>> “Month over month, over half our
employees come back, so they really see
the value of it.”
>> “With the reporting function, we’ve
been albe to say how we’ve invested in
our people and how it has helped our
business grow.”
EMAIL
connect@sumtotalsystems.com
LCMS
Winner: DominKnow
Platform, DominKnow
Learning Sys.
PRODUCT INFORMATION
The DominKnow Platform is a Web-based
authoring and publishing solution that
helps teams collaborate in real-time, share
and re-use content, and easily engage
subject-matter experts in the review
process. Content is ready for delivery from
virtually any location — all from a single-
source. It offers all the features needed
to create engaging, media-rich learning
experiences, including customizable
testing, flexible interactions and animation
creation, advanced variables, branching,
audio/video recording, software
simulations, and system and author-created
templates. The platform outputs HTML5
content that is WCAG 2.0 Level AA and
WAI-ARIA compliant and publishes to
SCORM, AICC, xAPI (TinCan) and PENS
standards. Content is ready for delivery
from virtually any location — the Web,
your own LMS or LRS, the desktop, mobile
apps, or document formats.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Allows for collaborative (SAS)
approach as well as an intuitive design.”
>> “The best e-content manage system
enhanced using multimedia u-learning
technology and complying with latest
learning specifications/standards in all
platform aspects.”
>> “Robust environment for content
development.”
PHONE
(613) 800-8733
 Throw your managers
a career lifeline.
Don’t let them sink or swim. Equip,
empower and engage them for success.

Learn how:
sumtotalsystems.com/managers
bestofelearning!
Honoree Spotlight
CONTENT AGGREGATION
Winner: Bizlibrary
Collection
PRODUCT INFORMATION
The BizLibrary Collection contains
thousands of employee training videos on
key topics your employees need including
business and soft skills, leadership, sales
and customer service, human resources
compliance, I.T., software, industry-
specific content, workplace safety and
more. Content formats offered meet the
needs of all types of learners from short,
micro-video lessons, to more in-depth
video courses, interactive video programs
and e-learning courses. Many of the
lessons and courses include quizzes and
additional support materials to extend the
learning process, increasing both retention
and the return on training investment.
Administrators can deliver employee
training videos across platforms: desktop,
mobile and tablet.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Great library of micro-learning.”
>> “Depth and width of the collection are
staggering.”
>> “Competency guides and live support
help to develop curriculum paths and
curate the robust content.”
EMAIL
ande@bizlibrary.com
34 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
Award of Excellence:
OpenSesame
PRODUCT INFORMATION
OpenSesame makes buying and selling
e-learning courses easy. Users can preview
courses, read reviews and research sellers
in the marketplace. Administrators can
buy courses with no subscriptions or
long-term commitments and use them
instantly in any learning management
system. Let us do the heavy lifting, so you
can focus on choosing the best courses for
your employees. Buyers can personalize
their interaction either through browsing
the extensive listing of courses online
or interacting with one of our content
specialists to custom build their training
catalog. Sellers can stick with the learning
management system they know best and
can rest easy knowing their material is
protected.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Not just the biggest but the easiest
platform I could integrate into an
enterprise LMS in 15 minutes, while
many content vendors struggled
immensely over months to get to the
same spot.”
PHONE
(503) 808-1268
OTHER LEARNING PLATFORMS
Winner: Bizlibrary
Company College
PRODUCT INFORMATION
BizLibrary’s learning management
system is conveniently organized into
three tiers to allow users the option to
customize their solutions based upon the
needs of their respective organizations.
All three tiers offer approval agents,
branded website design, a personalized
user experience, online and dashboard
reports, self-regulation or administrative
course assignments, a Cloud-hosted
online learning center, certification of
completion, social ratings and reviews, a
course recommendation engine and email
messages and reminders. The second tier of
the program, Content Management, offers
management of custom documents, links
and videos; a quiz and survey builder; the
ability to add custom courses, embed video
and learning assets; and community social
learning and collaborative application.
Learning Management, the highest tier,
offers all of the previous benefits in
addition to classroom management and
on-the-job external training, certification
management and virtual classroom
integration via WebEx or GoToMeeting.
EMAIL
ande@bizlibrary.com
Meet the Orange of Knowledge.
Rich in Vitamin CLO.

OpenSesame, the trusted provider of on-demand elearning courses for the enterprise.

Serving Global 2000 companies, OpenSesame delivers:

» The most flexible buying options to maximize your budget
» The broadest catalog with 20,000+ courses from the world’s
leading publishers, updated constantly
» Compatible with every LMS

We make CLOs happy.

www.opensesame.com/orange
jumphead
Honoree Spotlight
OTHER LEARNING PLATFORMS
Award of Excellence:
ej4 Thinkzoom
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Thinkzoom is ej4’s comprehensive
video training platform. With several
interactive tools and resources,
Thinkzoom helps employees during
and after training. Thinkzoom allows
administrators the knowledge of which
videos their employees are watching
and how well they comprehend the
material with its built-in interactive
exams. Score requirements can be set
and additional student materials can
be provided so learners can put their
knowledge to practice. Thinkzoom also
has a comprehensive reporting feature
that allows administrators to create
custom reports based upon users, groups,
courses and topics. Understanding
which courses are popular and which are
lacking participation can help measure
training progress and communicate
future training goals.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Easy to implement, easy to use,
engaging and rewarding for our
learners.”
>> “Able to train all departments
(including remote employees) with
relevant, and customizable content.”
>> “Easy to upload, with a lot of good
native content.”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.com
36 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
Award of Excellence:
Skillsoft SkillPort
PRODUCT INFORMATION
SkillPort is a modern Cloud-based
content delivery platform that delivers
highly targeted learning —when and
where people want to learn. SkillPort
technology, in conjunction with Skillsoft’s
unique combination of content, service
and experience builds talent and delivers
powerful business outcomes. SkillPort
offers a full learning experience as a stand-
alone learning platform, or it can be easily
integrated with existing business and I.T.
systems. The system offers a variety of
learning modalities to match individual
learning styles; a rich user-experience with
a beautiful, clean user interface; analytics,
reporting, measurement tools; extensive
search and discovery capabilities;
personalized learning recommendations,
featured topics and curated learning
plans; social and collaborative learning to
connect users across each organization;
and mobile access.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “We’re leveraging SkillPort to align
content to strategic training needs.”
>> “Being able to choose new courses
keeps our catalog from getting stale and
allows us to meet emerging needs as
they develop.”
PHONE
(866) 757-3177
TMS
Winner: SAP
SuccessFactors TMS
PRODUCT INFORMATION
SAP SuccessFactors provides a complete,
recruit-to-retire solution across all talent
processes, and comprehensive content
such as skills and competency libraries, job
descriptions, goal catalogs, as well as legal
and coaching content. In addition to content,
SAP SuccessFactors talent management
solutions are provided with a foundational
set of capabilities, including Talent Insights,
Talent Search, Basic Jam, Job Profile Builder,
and SAP SuccessFactors Presentations. The
solution includes modules that expressly
target recruiting, onboarding, learning,
performance & goals, compensation, and
succession & development.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Ease of use.”
>> “Has made us more effective and helped
us to keep our people engaged.”
>> “You’re not just getting software; you’re
getting all of the experience of SAP
in deploying the software in many
companies and industries.”
EMAIL
successfactors.en@sap.com
 The future of content
delivery is here.
Our new business skills portfolio features
thousands of curated micro-videos.

Watch a sample course video at:

Skillsoft.com/course
bestofelearning!

Honoree Spotlight
HR TECHNOLOGY I.T. TRAINING I.T. TRAINING

Award of Excellence: Award of Excellence: Winner: ej4 Software

SAP HCM Cloud
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Empower, engage, and develop your talent
– with human capital management (HCM)
software from SAP SuccessFactors. The
cloud-based human resource management
solutions support the needs of multi-
generational, global, and contingent
workforces. Administrators have access
to collaborative tools for onboarding,
workforce scheduling, payroll, and more.
The software allows organizations to
foster a culture of continuous learning
and professional development for better
business results. Core human resources
and payroll functions deliver flexible
and efficient global human resources
processes. The talent management feature
helps attract, develop and retain talent to
achieve business results and prepare for the
future. Time and attendance management
functions optimize the deployments and
utilization of each employee’s working
time. Human capital analytics increase the
success of workforce strategies with reliable
and real time, relevant insight.
Skillsoft I.T. Skills
Library
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Skillsoft provides a wide array of integrated
learning types to continuously develop
and maintain IT skills — including short
expert-led videos, video-based e-learning
courses, live web-based instructor-led
training, free live mentoring services,
certification test preparation, and access
to tens of thousands of full text online
books. It offers support for more than 100
professional IT certification exams from
leading software, hardware, networking,
web service companies and professional
organizations. Leading experts and
mentors provide an affordable fast track to
IT certification and offer test preparation
designed to improve pass rates.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Combines courseware, Books 24x7,
videos and live learning to provide a
well-rounded array of modalities to
impart I.T. information.”
Skills Training
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Ej4’s “plug and play” content fits any
organization, providing information that
is always ready to use. Short formats and
on-demand availability facilitate training,
making it available to everyone, anytime,
anywhere.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Video format allows you to see the
applications being used in ways that
learners can relate to.”
>> “Easy to use; excellent information;
adaptable; current.”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.com

WHAT CUSTOMERS SAY PHONE

>> “We will save close to $1.2 million per (866) 757-3177
year.”
>> “Frees up our people to do what they do
best.”
>> “Allows accessability from all our
facilities around the world.”

PHONE
(800) 872-1727

38 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!

Honoree Spotlight
SOFT SKILLS
Winner: Bizlibrary
Business Skills
PRODUCT INFORMATION
BizLibrary’s Business Skills Training
program include videos and coursework
on topics ranging from planning strategic
relationships and managing body language.
Other series contain several parts, for
example, Measuring Employee Engagement
discusses what passes for employee
engagement at many organizations, how to
measure employee engagement, and how
you can improve employee engagement.
Other lessons include successful time
management and mastering social media.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Able to customize a professional skills
program as well as compliance courses
and even office ergonomics.”
>> “Soft skills trainings are helpful, not just
in the workplace, but in every facet of
life.”
EMAIL
ande@bizlibrary.com
SOFT SKILLS
Award of Excellence:
Vado Management
Dev. Learning Track
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Vado’s management courses are designed
for supervisors, managers and leaders who
are responsible for leading, coaching and
inspiring employee performance. These
Award of Excellence:
BCI Win-Win
Negotiations
PRODUCT INFORMATION
BCI’s Win-Win Negotiations training helps
individuals tap into their own strengths
and experiences, hone their skills, and align
around a proven framework — so they
approach every negotiation with a plan, and
with the confidence to achieve their goals.
Lessons help users increase profits through
well-planned collaboration and concession
strategies, shift from using tactics to planning,
while reinforcing key corporate values, focus
upon interests and issues and avoid dangerous
positions, enhance communications by
developing a common negotiation language
and build strong relationships with customers,
partners and colleagues.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Absolutely vital training delivered in a
systematic way.”
>> “We realized it’s not always about one
person winning; it’s best when everyone
can walk away feeling like a winner.”
EMAIL
support@bakercommunications.com
courses help build the skills needed to
manage individual and team performance,
engage and retain employees, and contrib-
ute to the organization’s success. They offer
bite-sized content, video and mobile access.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Their approach to chunked learning
and real-world, direct applicability
engages the learner to be an active
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
Award of Excellence:
ej4 Business Skills
Library
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Ej4’s Business Skills library contains the
courses needed to effectively run any
business. The Business Skills library
contains courses covering professional
productivity, communication skills,
sales, project management, leadership,
supervision, safety, presentations skills
among others. The library is made
for employees with varying levels of
experience ranging from from recent hires
to experienced managers.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Quality micro-learning that easily
understandable and digestible in a
video format.”
>> “Easy to use, excellent information,
adaptable, current.”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.com
participant in his/her learning journey.”
>> “Content from experts yielding
expertise transfer, plus collaborative
work that exploits each content
partner’s transforable value
proposition.”
EMAIL
info@vadoinc.net
39
bestofelearning!
Honoree Spotlight
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
Award of Excellence:
Vado Leadership
Development
Learning Track
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Research shows that 70 percent of devel-
opment happens on the job, and Vado
provides off-the-shelf e-learning courses
that help learners apply learning on the
job through step-by-step instructions and
exercises. The combination of short videos
followed by step-by-step instructions help
learners put into practice the learning they
just completed, which means organization
leaders are confident that the transition
from learning to application on the job
actually happens, and organization capa-
bilities are increased. Vado’s new Remote
Leadership Toolkit is designed to equip
managers with the tools and skills required
to successfully manage others remotely.
WEBSITE
http://vadoinc.net/contact-form/index.php
TRANSLATION & LOCALIZATION SERVICES
Winner: TransPerfect
Translation &
Localization
PRODUCT INFORMATION
As the world’s largest privately held
provider of translation services,
TransPerfect uses a rigorously tested
network of industry-expert linguists and
40 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
Award of Excellence:
Bizlibrary Leadership
and Management
PRODUCT INFORMATION
BizLibrary’s leadership and management
courses cover everything from discipline
and accountability, high-performance
coaching, handling disagreements at work
and everything in between. They also
cover helpful topics such as managing
remote employees, succession planning,
handling team expectations and making
the transition from co-worker to boss.
Users get unlimited access for their first 30
days free.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Terrific variety in the contemporary,
quality videos.”
EMAIL
ande@bizlibrary.com
full-time quality managers to ensure that
the work it delivers is second to none.
TransPerfect offers multiple levels of
service based on client needs, ranging
from draft/summary translation up to
certified translation, featuring a multi-step
translation and review process to ensure
the highest level of accuracy and meet
the evolving needs of global businesses.
The company can translate from/to more
than 170 languages, using more than 5,000
native-speaking linguists.
Award of Excellence:
ej4 Leadership
Development
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Ej4’s “plug and play” content fits any
organization, providing information that
is ready-to-use now. Short formats and
on-demand availability facilitate training,
making it available to everyone, anytime,
anywhere. Leadership Development is
part of the company’s Business Skills
library and touches on everything from
transformational leadership and building
an effective leadership team.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Quality micro-learning that easily
understandable and digestable in a
video format.”
>> “Just a tremendous resource to have.”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.com
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Benefits include customer service,
range of languages provided, time
to production, cost/quality and
responsiveness.”
WEBSITE
www.transperfect.com
 TRANSLATION & LOCALIZATION
SERVICES
The world’s top companies trust TransPerfect to
help them excel in the global marketplace.
TransPerfect turns global goals into worldwide achievements. From translation, localization to multicultural communications, we are your
best-in-class partner. Thanks to our customers who voted TransPerfect Best Translation & Localization Solution 3 years running.

Got 3 minutes? Learn how GlobalLink can help you streamline

multilingual content managment. Scan the QR code to view the video

TransPerfect Global
Headquarters
3 Park Avenue, 39th Fl
New York, NY 10016
Tel: +1 212.689.5555

Change the face of your

global training
When the time comes to extend your learning
and development modules around the world,
leave the heavy lifting to us.

• Courseware & Portal Translation

• Software & Graphics Localization
• Multilingual Audio/Video Recording
• Live Interpretation for Classroom Training
• Cultural Consulting Services
• Online Platform for In-Country Review

For more information, contact:

eLearning@transperfect.com
bestofelearning!
Honoree Spotlight
SALES TRAINING
Winner: ej4 Selling
Skills
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Selling is part art, part science, and all
about the approach. Your team will be able
to move prospects down the funnel with
ej4’s cutting-edge sales training content. A
number of courses are available including
Retailer Hot Buttons: Transaction Size,
Selling to Different Customer Roles,
Building Great Sales Relationships, and
Determining Customer Needs.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Our salespeople have more confidence
knocking on doors, and have vastly
improved sales skills.”
>> “It’s taken us three calls less per
customer to sell them on our products,
and I tie a lot of that to the training.”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.com
GAMIFICATION
Winner: Gamelearn
Pacific Serious Game
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Pacific offers learning in video game format
and is designed for the development of
leadership skills. It was launched with the
aim of becoming a practical manual on
how to run and manage high-performing
teams. Pacific turns leadership into a
survival adventure to develop management
42 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
COMPLIANCE TRAINING
Winner: VuBiz WHMIS
PRODUCT INFO
Vubiz provides full-service e-learning
content, development and delivery
software with solutions that are flexible in
practice. By having thousands of hours of
off-the-shelf content available for purchase
as-is or tailored to a specific client
situation, it offers a number of compliance
courses including preventing and stopping
sexual harassment, equal opportunity and
affirmative action courses for managers,
content about the Americans with
Disabilities Act and Alternative Dispute
Resolution.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Easy to use, excellent content and price.”
>> “Sound content; adult learning
principles paid attention to; and clarity.”
>> “Excellent customer service from the
VuBiz team, quick response time, great
at customizing info when needed, and
overall great team to work with.”
WEBSITE
http://store.vubiz.com/store/ContactUs
skills such as defining roles, responsibilities
and objectives; analyzing the needs of the
team, improving processes and increasing
motivation; resolving conflicts within the
team; improving communication for the
delegation of tasks; encouraging teamwork
and performance orientation. Developed
in 3-D animation and HTML5 language to
be adaptable to a variety of devices, Pacific
is available in eight languages and requires
only an Internet connection.
Award of Excellence:
ej4 Workplace
Compliance Library
PRODUCT INFORMATION
ej4’s Workplace Compliance library
keeps users in legal compliance with
federal and state regulations while
sharing best practices for the workplace.
The Workplace Compliance library
contains titles covering diversity,
workplace conduct, workplace
harassment, fair labor standards, and
a number of human resource issues
revolving around hiring practices,
medical leave, termination, and more.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “[The ej4 team is] real good at figuring
out what it is that I’m envisioning.”
>> “We’re changing behaviors, we’re setting
standards...”
EMAIL
sales@ej4.comVubiz
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Funny, didactic and dynamic.”
>> “The first training program in video
game format for the development of
leadership skills.”
>> “Challenging, user-friendly,
unexpected!”
WEBSITE
https://game-learn.com/contact/
Honoree Spotlight
SOCIAL LEARNING
Winner: Bizlibrary
Community
PRODUCT INFORMATION
With up to five different generations
present in a workplace, people see the
world and the way it works differently. This
can create conflict about how to complete
tasks, reach goals, or run the organization.
The challenge is harnessing conflicting
viewpoints and ideas and turning them
into cooperative creativity for how to
be both productive and innovative. An
important first step to bringing together a
variety of talents and ideas is recognizing
the similarities that connect people.
Finding common interests, beliefs, or
skills (whether work-related or not) can
create a bridge over a generational division
that energizes collaboration, innovation
and problem-solving. To find those
commonalities, it’s important for coworkers
to be willing to think from a perspective
different from their own, taking others’
life experiences into account and how
that affects their viewpoint. With an RSS
feed, community members receive HR
and employee training news, tips and best
practices delivered straight to their inboxes.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Works two ways: internal for our
employees and even smaller teams, but
also for L&D professionals who are a
part of the community to ask questions
and share recommendations.”
>> “Easy way to get updates from the
vendor and share best practices with
other customers of BizLibrary.”
EMAIL
ande@bizlibrary.com
OUTSOURCED LEARNING
SERVICES
Award of Excellence:
Skillsoft Learning
Services
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Skillsoft begins by developing a
personalized e-learning program in
conjunction with each client’s strategies,
culture and events to leverage best
practices — then working to maximize
e-learning success. Skillsoft e-learning
consultants, customer support
and application engineers provide
core program support services — a
fundamental value-add. These teams
deliver the expert e-learning services
and advice to help clients establish
general strategies for deployment and
adoption of powerful learning programs.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “Tremendous catalog.” “Whenever I ask
for something, they say ‘we will handle
that’...I come back and it’s done.”
>> “The instructors are fantastically
knowledgeable.”
PHONE
(866) 757-3177
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
MOBILE AUTHORING
Award of Excellence:
DominKnow Learning
Sys. Flow
PRODUCT INFORMATION
Flow is content-authoring software that
outputs fully responsive and adaptive
HTML5-conformant content that
automatically adjusts depending on the
screen a user views it on. Flow is built it on
the same engine that powers DominKnow’s
award-winning Claro. It not only offers
responsive content that changes and re-
arranges according to the device one views
it on. It also gives authors the ability to
choose what content gets delivered, thus
adapting to the user’s device for a more
meaningful and contextual end-user
experience. And it does all of this in a
Web-based authoring environment that
allows for collaborative development,
sharing and re-use of resources, and
anywhere, anytime, any platform access.
WHAT USERS SAY
>> “A new authoring tool integrated in the
Claro LCMS.”
>> “Fully responsive with excellent, new
thinking functionalities that allow you
to produce truly responsive content that
does not only make the content bigger/
smaller, but that actually totally adapts
the content to the screen size.”
PHONE
(613) 800-8733
43
bestofelearning!
COMPLETE LIST OF HONOREES
LMS CLOUD
>> Winner: Litmos by CallidusCloud,
Litmos LMS
>> Awards of Excellence: Blatant Media
Absorb, ePath Learning ASAP, ICS
Learning Group Inquisiq R4
LMS ENTERPRISE
>> Winner: SumTotal Learn, a Skillsoft Co.
>> Awards of Excellence: SAP
SuccessFactors LMS, NetDimensions
Learning, LearnDash LMS
LCMS
>> Winner: DominKnow Learning
Platform, DominKnow Learning Sys.
>> Awards of Excellence: Xyleme LCMS,
CD2 Learning LCMS
OTHER LEARNING PLATFORMS
>> Winner: Bizlibrary Company College
>> Awards of Excellence: Articulate
Online, iSpring Learn LMS, ej4
Thinkzoom, Skillsoft SkillPort
TMS
>>Winner: SAP SuccessFactors TMS
>>Awards of Excellence: Cornerstone
on Demand TMS, NetDimensions
Performance, Oracle Taleo Cloud
HR TECHNOLOGY
>> Winners: Workday Workday & Oracle
HCM Cloud
>> Award of Excellence: SAP HCM Cloud,
Infor Lawson
CONTENT AGGREGATION
>> Winner: Bizlibrary Collection
>> Awards of Excellence: Degreed, Inc.,
OpenSesame
I.T. TRAINING
>> Winner: Ej4 Software Skills Library
>> Award of Excellence: LinkedIn
Learning, Skillsoft IT Skills Library
LEADERSHIP TRAINING
>> Winner: Vital Learning Leadership
Essentials Series
>> Awards of Excellence: ej4 Leadership
Development, Vado Leadership
Development Learning Track, Bizlibrary
Leadership and Management
44 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
SOFT SKILLS
>> Winner: Bizlibrary Business Skills
>> Awards of Excellence: BCI Win-Win
Negotiations, ej4 Business Skils Library,
Vado Mgt Dev Learning Track, Vital
Learning Motivatiing Team Members
COMPLIANCE
>> Winner: Vubiz WHMIS
>> Awards of Excellence: Ej4 Workplace
Complaince Library, Master Technologies,
Inc Bloodborne Pathogens
SALES TRAINING
>> Winner: Ej4 Selling Skills
>> Awards of Excellence: BCI Customer
Outcome Selling, Franklin Covey
Helping Clients Succeed, Richardson
Selling with Insights
E-LEARNING DEVELOPMENT TOOL
>> Winner: Articulate Storyline
>> Awards of Excellence: iSpring Solutions
E-learning Suite, Harbinger Knowledge
Products Raptivity
SIMULATIONS
>> Winner: Adobe Captivate
>> Awards of Excellence: iSpring Solutions
TalkMaster, Simformer.com Business
Simulation Platform
GAMIFICATION
>> Winner: Gamelearn Pacific Serious Game
>> Awards of Excellence: Trivie for Business,
Allen Interactions Zebra Zapps
VIDEO CAPTURE
>> Winner: TechSmith Camtasia
>> Awards of Excellence: Articulate
Replay, iSpring Solutions Free Cam
VIDEO PUBLISHING TOOL
>> Winner: Adobe Premiere
>> Awards of Excellence: iSpring Solutions
River, Sony Vegas Studio, Vimeo
ASSESSMENT
>> Winner: iSpring Solutions QuizMaker
>> Awards of Excellence: Articulate
QuizMaker, Questionmark
ANALYTICS
>> Winner: Watershed LRS
>> Awards of Excellence: Intelliboard
Reports, Yet Analytics Yet Core
SOCIAL LEARNING
>> Winner: Bizlibrary Community
>> Awards of Excellence: Atlassian
Confluence, SAP SuccessFactors Jam,
Learning@Cisco Cisco Collaborative
Knowledge
MOBILE AUTHORING
>> Winner: Articulate Storyline
>> Awards of Excellence: Adobe
Captivate, DominKnow Flow
PRESENTATION TOOL
>> Winner: Articulate Presenter
>> Awards of Excellence: Microsoft
PowerPoint, Prezi
WEB SEMINAR SOLUTION
>> Award of Excellence: Cisco WebEx
Meeting Center, GetGo GoToMeeting,
INXPO XPOCAST
VIRTUAL CLASSROOM
>> Winner: Adobe Connect
>> Awards of Excellence: Cisco Training
Center, On24 Webcast Elite, GetGo,
GoToTraining
VIRTUAL LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
>> Award of Excellence: INXPO Virtual
Learning Environment, On24 Virtual
Learning Environment, West InterCall
Virtual Learning Environment
MOBILE APPLICATION
>> Winner: Articulate Mobile Player
>> Awards of Excellence: iSpring
Solutions Play App, Colorado Technical
University (CTU) Mobile
TRANSLATION & LOCALIZATION SERVIES
>> Winner: Transperfect Translation and
Localization
>> Awards of Excellence: Welocalize
Learning Localization Svcs, Golocalise
Translation & Localization Services
OUTSOURCE LEARNING SERVICES
>> Winner: Global Knowledge
Corporation Organization Solutions
>> Awards of Excellence: Skillsoft
Learning Services, IBM Learning
Services
OPEN-SOURCE SOLUTION
>> Winner: Moodle LMS
>> Awards of Excellence: Kineo Adapt,
Mambo.io Gamification Platform

ENTERPRISE LEARNING THAT WORKS
For too long, employee training systems
have been cumbersome and complex to
work with. But the need to onboard em-
ployees, introduce programs, educate staff
on updated policies, and offer training
to external audiences has been accelerat-
ing. Organizations today do not have the
time or the patience to spend months
implementing clunky learning manage-
ment systems. Litmos by CallidusCloud is
changing that.
Litmos is the world’s fastest growing
enterprise learning platform, support-
ing more than 4 million users in over 130
countries and 22 languages. The Litmos
cloud-based solution unifies a learning
management system (LMS), the extended
enterprise, and prepackaged content in an
engaging platform to meet any organiza-
tion’s training needs. Built to scale from
100 users to 1 million users and beyond,
Litmos is highly secure, focuses on the end
user, and provides time to value three times
faster than conventional learning solutions.
With Litmos, organizations can engage
learners anytime through native apps for
Android and iOS, and they can extend
their ecosystem by using prepackaged
connectors and REST APIs. Litmos also
provides local US support during business
hours to help organizations be success-
ful. Headquartered in Silicon Valley and
backed by public company CallidusCloud
(NASDAQ: CALD), Litmos is still run with
the nimbleness of a start-up. It continues
to experience double-digit growth and
has a customer satisfaction rate of over 95
percent.
A POWERFUL PLATFORM: LITMOS
LMS, LITMOS CONTENT, AND LITMOS
TRAINING OPS
Litmos LMS is a simple yet powerful plat-
form. Most legacy systems are over-engi-
neered solutions with a huge percentage
of features utilized by less than 5 percent
of users. Litmos LMS is built with learner’s
experience in mind that makes it easy to
implement, administer, and manage. The
platform’s open API architecture and pre-
packaged connectors make it simple for
AWARD WINNING LMS-CLOUD
organizations to connect Litmos LMS to
their ecosystem. And the user interface is
consistent across devices, which helps orga-
nizations to engage their mobile workforce.
Litmos offers more than 700 packages of
content. In addition, Litmos Content uses
an in-house course production studio—
composed of specialists in instructional
design, production, research, technical op-
erations, and program support—to develop
more high-quality, mobile-friendly courses
that focus on healthcare, HR, OSHA, sales
and marketing, leadership, and more. The
design aesthetics for these courses ensure
better retention through engaged learn-
ing, and all content is available through the
course marketplace.
Litmos Training Ops is an end-to-end
training-as-a-business solution, enabling
organizations to grow revenue, build loy-
alty, and reduce costs by automating the
business side of training. A self-service,
cloud-based platform, Litmos Training Ops
delivers a sophisticated, integrated set of
tools that help organizations automate and
manage revenue, expense, global taxation,
training credits, and other business pro-
cesses so they can improve the ROI of their
external training programs.
ADVANCING CORPORATE LEARNING
Litmos’ mission and core value proposition
is to advance corporate learning by provid-
ing a learning experience that doesn’t nec-
essarily reside in one segmented location,
but in the departments where administra-
tors work and in the applications where
users spend their time. With Litmos:
>> Customers will get the perfect
combination of powerful search and
ease of use that learners love.
>> Customers can go live in 6 weeks—
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
many in days or even minutes—rather
than in 6 to 12 months.
>> Customers will achieve time to value
in less than 6 months as opposed to 24
months.
CUSTOMERS
WHAT CUSTOMERS SAY:
>> “The Litmos platform has enabled USIC
to deliver targeted, timely and efficient
learning and compliance tasks to our
8,000+ employees across the US and
Canada.” Tim Gale, USIC
>> “We chose Litmos because it’s extremely
user friendly, you don’t need a lot of
training and we love the user interface.”
Miriam Calvo-Gil, Kapco Global
>> “We liked that Litmos has the ability
to easily upload content, build your
own content, and create courses.” Rick
Galliher, 1-800-Got-Junk?
>> “What I like most about Litmos is the
easy and fast implementation without
needing a team of people or specialized
resources.” Cheryl Powers, Coca Cola
CONTACT INFO:
4140 Dublin Boulevard #400
Dublin, CA 94568
+1 (925) 251-2220
sales@litmos.com
www.litmos.com
45
 Tips
TipsLMS
3 Steps to Help Modernize
Your Learning Technology (without needing to replace your LMS)
BY NICK WASHBURN
Considering replacing your
LMS? You’re not alone! Ac-
cording to Brandon Hall, 66%
of companies are currently
looking for a new LMS. Their
objectives? Better data and in-
tegrations, mobile capabilities,
and enhanced reporting.
But what if you didn’t necessar-
ily need to replace your LMS to
achieve those goals? What if you
could find a flexible technology
solution that worked with and
around your LMS? Welcome to
the modern learning ecosystem.
STEP 1:
IMPLEMENT A LEARNING
RECORD STORE (LRS) AND
EXPERIENCE API (XAPI)
What is a Learning Record
Store? An LRS is a database that
collects and stores millions of
learning actions from your train-
ing. xAPI is a simple data format
that technology applications
can use to record experiences. It
can produce an activity stream
(I, did, this), with timestamps
second by second, of what hap-
pens during learning events. By
using an LRS alongside an exist-
ing LMS, companies are now
able to get the training data they
have been missing for years and
more importantly, integrate that
data throughout their enterprise
ecosystem including their LMS,
HRIS, TMS, and PMS. All of
your current/legacy training can
be xAPI enabled as well as new
training.
STEP 2:
USE A NEXT-GENERATION
COURSEWARE THAT
IS DEVICE AGNOSTIC,
INTERACTIVE, AND XAPI
ENABLED
Interactive Courseware - Most
companies are well aware their
training needs to be delivered
via today’s most used technolo-
gies on the mobile smartphone,
tablet, and PC. In fact 88% of
companies are looking to im-
prove their learner experience
and to get better reporting from
it. But unfortunately most LMSs
are still adapting to the rapid
advance of technology and still
have not solved the problems
around any device learning. The
good news is there are now mo-
bile and xAPI enabled course-
ware products like Riptide Ele-
ments that allows you to deliver
your courses to any device and
in any language while working
with your LMS to be compatible
to current processes.
In-line Training Course-
ware - As more and more
companies have business
critical software running their
companies and being used by
their customers, training new
employees and users in how to
use their software effectively
and efficiently has become key
to business performance. New
tools like Riptide’s Waypoints
in-line training with compe-
tency based assessments allows
you to make onboarding and
training a native experience
within your own software to
test and track exactly how well
users learn how to use it.
STEP 3:
LEVERAGE DATA
VISUALIZATION AND
PERFORMANCE ANALYTICS TO
COMMUNICATE KPIS AND ROI
Elearning! August / September 2016
Tapping into the full potential
of a Learning Record Store,
Riptide’s Performance Analyt-
ics software brings L&D lead-
ers the actionable data to show
clear and simple ROI to the
C-Suite, to Performance Man-
agers, and to their Instructional
Designers.
HOW CAN YOU GET STARTED
IN TAKING THESE 3 STEPS?
The best way to start is to pri-
oritize what you want to do
first, establish success criteria,
and prove the principle with a
pilot implementation. Ready
to get started? Visit Riptide-
Learning.com to request a free
learning technology consulta-
tion today.
-- Nick Washburn is Director
of Learning at Riptide Soft-
ware. Contact him at nick.
washburn@riptidesoftware.
com
47
 Tips70:20:10
Tips
70:20:10
What’s All the Hype About?
BY CINDY PASCALE,
CEO, VADO
What is 70:20:10? Most L&D
professionals will describe this
model or framework as:
>> 70% of learning is experi-
ential learning: people learn
and develop on the job
through day to day tasks,
challenges and practice
>> 20% of learning is social
learning: people learn and
develop through coaching,
mentoring and interaction
with peers
>> 10% of learning is formal
learning: people learn and
develop through structured
events, which includes on-
line courses and programs
Simply put: this is a learn-
ing mix.
This is intuitive. “Practice
makes perfect” is what we were
told. It can be applied to any-
thing … spelling words, riding
a bike, learning to piano, you
48 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
Strategy
name it. If you don’t practice,
you don’t make progress. You
can’t learn to throw a curve ball
by ONLY listening to a coach.
You have to practice (this is the
70%), coaching on your form
(the 20%), and a little bit of
theory (10%).
The same applies to work.
One cannot reach proficiency
or even mastery without doing.
Period. The more complex the
skill, the more practice needed.
For instance, you can’t become a
really good negotiator by simply
taking an e-learning course. The
course can guide you. Only if
you negotiate will you become
an effective negotiator.
Bottom line? Formal training
is important to lay some ground
work and serve as a guide. Doing
the job is where the development
and progress happens.
“The 70:20:10 framework
is fast becoming the preferred
strategy to improve workplace
performance. It is applicable
across all sectors and orga-
nizations, regardless of size,
because of its holistic and agile
nature,” says Charles Jennings.
What are the benefits of do-
ing this? “Organizations have
reported up to a 75% reduc-
tion in training spend through
introduction of the 70:20:10
framework,” according to the
70:20:10 Forum.
Significant results are being
seen by organizations. Training
and development budgets are
getting a bigger return on their
investment by the results of on
the job development.
So how can an organization
help their employees develop
on the job? Here are two best
practices to help learners make
the transition from the formal
e-learning space to on-the-job,
moving you closer to achieving
70:20:10 in your learning mix.
1. Provide learners with an
exercise to complete. Provide
step-by-step instructions to
guide the learner on a task or
situation so nothing is left to
chance. The 10%, although
the smallest piece, is still
critical for guidance and
instruction.
2. Provide job aids to support
the learner while complet-
ing the exercise on-the-job.
The barriers come down and
allow the learner to complete
the exercise from start to fin-
ish. This builds confidence,
and confidence leads to
success.
To review all five best prac-
tices, download our 70:20:10
Guide – Structure the 70 from
our website at: http://www.
vadoinc.net/702010.
To see management devel-
opment or employee business
skill courses created to lever-
age the natural way a person
develops, visit Vado’s website to
request a demonstration: http://
www.vadoinc.net/OurCourses
or telephone (952) 545-6698 or
email info@vadoinc.net.
 TipsLearning
Tips
Don’t Just Build and Forget
5 Tips for Maximizing Your Learning Content Investment
BY LUKE HICKEY
Stuck in inflexible pages, much
of today’s learning material
remains trapped in traditional
formal vehicles like elearning
courses or presentations. As a
result, learning content – and the
time and effort that goes into it –
is often poorly leveraged. But it
doesn’t have to be that way.
STRIVE FOR SINGLE SOURCE,
MULTI-PURPOSE CONTENT
Organizations are awaking to
the importance content plays
as a competitive differentiator
and are now demanding tools
and processes that allow them
to gather, create, organize,
disperse, and re-use learning
content in multiple ways, across
multiple learning vehicles.
Today’s learning content de-
velopment tools need to support
the creation of single-source,
multi-purpose content for both
formal and informal learning
experiences. As you build out
your learning content strategy,
look for tools and processes that
allow your organization to col-
laboratively create content that
can be used at multiple times of
need — from formal learning
through to application on the
job — and let you to measure its
effectiveness.
FIND THE RIGHT TOOLS
There’s been a rush for author-
ing tool vendors to get on the
responsive band-wagon. That’s
great news for those wanting
to develop content that can be
Content
accessed on multiple devices
and used in multiple ways, but
beware, not all responsive tools
are created equal. Truly respon-
sive content means developers
can build rich learning experi-
ences without worrying about
specific devices or multiple ver-
sions of the same content.
Stay away from vendors that
enforce a dumbed-down ap-
proach to learning content de-
velopment. Templated, fill-in-
the-blank, or block-based tools
help get stuff out the door and
satisfy the responsive check-
box, but they often don’t satisfy
the learning need.
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE
POWER OF MANY
Today’s learning organiza-
tions must adjust to the rapidly
changing content requirements
of their audiences. Whether it’s
evolving regulations, product
updates, or changing business
drivers, training departments
must deliver content that is
relevant and useful — with
little or no delay. While there
are still content developers that
work alone, team-based devel-
opment models have become
the norm because they can
leverage the collective skill and
expertise of dispersed teams.
To make the most of the time
and dollars spent on learning
programs, all learning stake-
holders (authors, subject matter
experts, sponsors) need to easily
engage in the development pro-
cess. Explore integrated, collab-
orative development platforms
that satisfy the needs of all your
learning stakeholders.
LOOK TO THE FUTURE
Future organizational learn-
ing success means making the
right tool and process decisions
today. The history (and current
state) of learning technologies
is full of horror stories about
costly investments in propri-
etary technologies that lock up
content and make it unusable
beyond its initial purpose. Es-
chew propriety technologies
and focus on vendor neutral,
standards-based platforms.
You’ll own your own content
and be able to re-use and re-
purpose it freely — both today
and tomorrow.
DON’T SETTLE FOR LESS
Learning content developers
need to make the best learning
experiences possible — quickly
and efficiently. Don’t settle for an
uncompromised content devel-
opment experience. Platforms
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
and tools exist that offer both
powerful features AND simple-
to-use environments. Search out
robust, scalable solutions that give
you the power to create meaning-
ful learning content, without the
need for complicated interfaces or
programing languages.
IT’S ALWAYS ABOUT
CREATING GREAT LEARNING
EXPERIENCES
How your organization gathers,
creates, organizes and disperses
content to support its business
goals can mean the difference
between market leadership and
failure. Always keep in mind
that it’s not about creating great
eLearning, it’s about building and
sharing great learning experi-
ences — and then maximizing
your content use and value.
-- Luke Hickey is CEO of
DominKnow Learning Systems,
a multiple winner of 2016 Best
of Elearning! award. Learn
more at: www.dominknow.com
49
 TipsEffective
Tips
Four Strategies to End the Crisis in
Online Training
Current e-learning can
be boring, ineffective and
lacks motivation. Training
may not be engaging enough
with dropout rates of 70%
for e-learning. This means
companies could waste 3 out
of every 4 dollars invested in
online training- a dispropor-
tionate and unaffordable cost
for any company.
How can we improve online
learning completion rates? Dis-
cover these 6 strategies to solve
this learning crisis:
1 OFFER QUALITY,
PRACTICAL AND
APPLICABLE CONTENT
Deliver your employee what
they need in your training
courses; quality, useful and
50 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
E-learning
applicable content. To ensure
that your content is practical
and useful for your employ-
ees, it is essential to turn it
into a set of tools directly ap-
plicable to real life. Avoid the
indiscriminate use of models,
theories or definitions that
only convey obviousness. If
you want your employees
to be engaged within your
training, you must first con-
vince them that the training
is beneficial to them.
2 OFFER SAFE
ENVIRONMENTS
If you want to motivate your
employees to learn, you must
first improve their self-con-
fidence.
An employee who faces
training with confidence is
likely to become a motivated
employee. Create a safe en-
vironment in which the par-
ticipant can test the contents
without risk, thus improving
their confidence.
You can use gamification
techniques, collaborative ac-
tivities, business simulations or
business games to create these
safe environments. Make sure
your training does not become
an obstacle.
3 GIVE PERSONALIZED
FEEDBACK
It’s important to give your
employees the chance to
observe the result of their
decisions and receive imme-
diate feedback about areas to
improve. Feedback which is
permanent, personalized and
that allows adaptability and
is scaleable. Be sure to leave
enough time for the employee
to internalize the improve-
ments and to put them into
practice again.
Feedback should be:
>> Clear and direct
>> Constructive
>> Given immediately
>> About facts, not about the
person
>> Descriptive, not qualify or
judge
>> Focused on behaviors that
can be changed or im-
proved.
4 TURN YOUR TRAINING
INTO A GAME
What if you told your employ-
ees that they can train and de-
velop their skills while playing
and having fun? What do you
think their answer would be?
The game has become the
most effective learning tool, as
shown by a study conducted by
Traci Sitzmann. Her findings
show games:
>> Improve learning retention
by 90%,
>> Improves the conceptual
knowledge of the student by
11%, and
>> Increases task completion
by 300%.
And since we are playing, there
is nothing better than a learn-
ing video game. This solution
solves the learning completion
challenge, as it:
>> Engages. Through the ad-
venture, learning turns into
something entertaining for
students.
>> Builds confidence. Being a
video game, the user relaxes
and feels safe, increasing
their self-confidence.
>> Improves performance.
The game dynamics moti-
vates students, increasing
their effort.
>> It is based on practice. The
content is fundamentally
practical, allowing the user
to learn and master the skill
or the competence through
experiential learning.
To discover how to add games
to your training programs,
contact gamelearn at https://
game-learn.com or request a
demo https://game-learn.com/
get-a-free-demo-serious-games/
 TipsManagement
Tips Development

The secret ingredient for high-performing teams:

Strong Managers
While 96% of HR pros agree
that managers are vital to driv-
ing business success, fewer
than half say their business
adequately invests in devel-
oping front-line managers,
according to recent Human
Capital Institute research. It’s
estimated that half of all work-
a 19% decrease in employee
turnover. Begin helping your
potential leaders develop their
skills before putting them in a
management role.
2 GIVE MANAGERS
VISIBILITY INTO THEIR
TEAM’S STRENGTHS, NEEDS,
managers to become strong
coaches so they can guide team
members—and the team as a
whole—to peak performance.
Next, prepare managers to
deliver regular feedback and
have an ongoing dialog with
each team member. Frequent
conversations keep employees
and recommend appropriate
next steps.
Managers have a huge impact
on the performance of your
people—so make sure you’re
giving them the tools and train-
ing they need to lead, engage
and inspire their teams.

ers have left a job to get away
from a bad manager. Fight the
trend: help improve organiza-
tional performance and em-
ployee engagement by equip-
ping new managers to coach
their people and provide clear
feedback. Here are some key
activities to set your new man-
agers up for success.
GOALS AND GAPS.
Make sure your managers clear-
ly understand the expectations
and goals for their teams—from
both a project perspective
and professional development
standpoint—so they can see
progress and respond appro-
priately. Leading a team to high
performance requires managers
to provide direction and hold
engaged and lead to better per-
formance, but one study found
that only about 20% of workers
meet with their manager on a
weekly basis. Make sure your
managers are meeting with
all their people often enough
so that employees know how
they’re doing. Have employees
and managers collaborate on
development plans, balancing
To learn more about identify-
ing and developing first-time
people leaders, download com-
plimentary research from Sum-
Total, A Skillsoft Company, at
sumtotalsystems.com/managers.
—Source: 1 “Identifying and
Developing First-Time People
Leaders.” Human Capital Insti-
tute, August 19, 2016. 2 “State
of the American Manager: Ana-

1 IDENTIFY THE SKILLS AND

COMPETENCIES REQUIRED
TO EFFECTIVELY LEAD
TEAMS.
When an individual contribu-
tor takes on responsibility for
a team, he or she may require
entirely different skills than the
ones that led to success in past
roles. As a manager, people
skills may become more impor-
tant than product knowledge;
coaching ability trumps an
aptitude for coding software.
So make sure that you’re hiring
managers who have the skills
to succeed in those roles, not
just promoting based on tenure
or great performance in a role
that requires entirely different
strengths. Gallup found compa-
nies that hire managers based
on talent realize a 48% increase
in profitability, a 30% increase
in employee engagement and
people accountable. Make sure
that employee’s goals are docu-
mented so managers can mea-
current job goals with employ-
ees’ additional interests. Lever-
age performance management
lytics and Advice for Leaders.”
Gallup, 2015. 3 “Future-proofing
HR: Bridging the Gap Between
sure and track progress through tools and 360-degree feedback Employers and Employees.”
regular check-ins. HCM sys- to let both employees and man- Mercer, 2016. 4 “How Millen-
tems that provide visibility into agers know how they’re doing nials Want to Work and Live.”
each team member’s goals make
it easier for managers to deliver
meaningful coaching and feed-
back.
3 TEACH YOUR MANAGERS
TO DELIVER CONTINUOUS
COACHING AND FEEDBACK
ON PERFORMANCE.
Just 12% of employees grade
their managers as excellent at
helping staff improve perfor-
mance and only 11% say their
managers excel at coaching,
supporting and developing
them. This is a huge gap that
organizations must fill if they
want to retain staff and pro-
vide career mobility. Train

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 51

 TipsRetention
Tips
Forgetting is Easy
But So Is Reinforcement
BY RYAN EUDY
Learners forget 70%
of what they learn over
a 24-hour period, so
organizations need to
find ways to reinforce
their training in order to
realize a positive return
on investment.
After budget concerns, “rein-
forcing training so that it sticks”
is the greatest challenge faced
by training and learning depart-
ments today. Indeed, “Burst
and Boost” have become buzz-
words in the industry, referring
to best practices surrounding
short-form content with heavy
follow-up. This is a recogni-
tion on the part of the industry
that, for training to be effective,
there have to be ways to make
it stick—otherwise, companies
52 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!
will never see a positive return
on their investment.
The problem is built right into
our brains: Research from Wash-
ington University in St. Louis
and Harvard University found
that the learning curve for just
about any kind of information
drops off exponentially, meaning
that people will forget a full 70
percent of what they learn after a
mere 24 hours have elapsed. This
means that training programs
that do not address retention are,
at best, only 30 percent effective
at behavioral change.
So how can L&D depart-
ments do better? There are
many good psychological theo-
ries about what is conducive
to remembering. In a nutshell,
these theories agree that infor-
mation is not so much “stored”
and “retrieved” in the brain as
it is connected, rehearsed, and
reconstructed. Remembering
information, then, is more a
matter of engaging in the right
sorts of activities to recall, use,
and re-engage with information.
On a practical level, there are
many ways to do this:
FOLLOWING UP WITH THE
RIGHT “BOOST” CONTENT.
Summaries or recaps of criti-
cal pieces of information can
prompt memory, helping em-
ployees recall what they have
learned. It also refocuses their
attention on what is important
and helps them decipher their
notes. Receiving reviews on a
weekly or monthly basis can
thus solidify what was learned,
and can easily be done with a
short “CliffsNotes” version of
the training in the form of a
one-to-two-minute video high-
lighting the main ideas.
PERIODIC QUESTIONS
AND QUIZZES.
People are more likely to re-
member information that they
must use to answer a question
or figure out a problem. That
kind of re-engagement is a
great way to boost recall, espe-
cially when the questions re-
quire applying the information
to a scenario the learner will
see on the job. For example,
periodic quizzes can be sched-
uled for two days, two weeks,
and two months afterward,
allowing for spaced learning—
proven to be the best method
for retaining information.
MOTIVATION THROUGH
COMPETITION.
You don’t need a huge budget
and a team of programmers to
“gamify” your training experi-
ence. You can enhance training
reinforcement simply by adding
some elements of competition
to motivate your employees. For
example, you can add badges
and leaderboards to your train-
ing program so that employees
can have a public display of what
they have done, adding to their
overall sense of accomplish-
ment. Quiz contests can work
well too: After sending out your
post-training quizzes, gather the
results and offer small incentives
for those who complete them
with a better-than-passing grade.
WHAT DO THESE ACTIVITIES
ACCOMPLISH?
The main aim of these methods
is to reinforce what has been
learned. During the process
of reinforcement, short-term
memories of the actual train-
ing event are slowly turned
into long-term memories that
can truly change behavior. This
halts the forgetting curve and
makes the learned information
more easily accessible from
memory. As a side benefit,
employees feel more confident,
engaged, and knowledgeable.
What’s more, training pro-
grams that succeed in doing
this provide a positive return
on investment over the long
term. Training programs that
do not take reinforcement seri-
ously often falter as the forget-
ting curve kicks in.
–Ryan Eudy is CEO of ej4.
Ej4 is a 2016 Best of Elearning!
winner. Learn more at: ej4.com
 Perspective:Learning
Tips Trends
Top E-learning Trends of 2016
BY SIMONE SMITH
As the year comes to a close
we’re already looking forward
to what’s coming in 2017 for the
e-learning industry. However,
2016 was an interesting time for
learning and development and
we’re excited to recount some of
the most notable trends of the
year. Industry professionals pre-
dicted that 2016 would deliver
interesting advancements in the
e-learning space, including:
MICRO-LEARNING
This year, micro-learning cata-
pulted to the top of industry blogs
as bite-sized learning became
more popular with companies
such as Uber Technologies and
Gap Inc. reportedly making the
shift to harnessing micro-learn-
ing training options. In addition,
with the last of millennials enter-
ing the workforce, we saw more
content providers offering a series
of courses in shorter segments to
cater to the new demands of the
learning market.
GAMIFICATION
Although gamification’s in-
teractive format has already
shaped e-learning, in 2016 we
saw gamification manifest in
customer-facing products such
as Nike’s Nike+ and Starbucks’
rewards program. Over the
past year these programs grew
in popularity and became a
creative way to boost customer
loyalty. In the corporate learn-
ing space, we saw companies
like Deloitte continuing to
utilize gamified learning meth-
ods in addition to companies
seeing rising engagement rates
with gamified courses.
AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL
REALITY (AR/VR)
2016 was the year of Oculus
Rift’s consumer products and
OpenSesame has been experi-
menting with AR/VR to explore
ways to make enterprise training
even more valuable for learn-
ers. While gamification allows
learners to interact and “level up”
in courses, AR/VR provides an
immersive environment where
learners directly interact with
content. This year we saw several
industries using virtual reality
with companies such as General
Motors (GM) using VR to train
employees. As e-learning courses
are created in AR/VR environ-
ments, we expect to see notable
changes in the industry.
THE “OPEN LEARNING
EXPERIENCE”
Josh Bersin, founder and princi-
pal of Deloitte, noted that 2016
was a year where the notion of
an “open learning experience”
began to thrive. In an article
with SHRM he describes how
open learning experience com-
panies “help employees discover
and publish any content they
want (including materials they
author)...” In 2016 we saw the
growing popularity of custom
learning paths and “recommend-
ed” courses available to learners.
In addition we saw training ex-
tend into social learning spaces
offered through an LMS, making
the learning experience catered
to the learner.
BIG DATA
Throughout the year speculators
predicted that the prominence
of big data in e-learning would
change the way companies think
about learning and develop-
ment. In 2016 we saw LMS and
e-learning companies amp up
e-learning analytics, collecting
data ranging from time learn-
ers spent on courses to testing
reality-based scenarios against
text-based problem solving.
This has been an exciting year
as new trends technologies are
providing better user experi-
ences. Courses are gradually
becoming shorter, more im-
mersive, and more interactive
with data for companies to track.
Although data surrounding 2016
e-learning trends are still being
collected, with the emergence
and growing adoption of AR/
VR and other technologies, we’re
anticipating an exciting 2017.
TRANSFORMING THE
E-LEARNING INDUSTRY
OpenSesame allows you to
support your learners, the way
they want to learn. Whether
you need mobile friendly, short
format, long format, ebooks, or
a mix, OpenSesame’s catalog
has the right content. As the
trusted provider of on-demand
e-learning courses for midmar-
ket and Global 2000 compa-
nies, OpenSesame delivers:
>> The most flexible buying
options to maximize your
budget
>> The broadest catalog with
20,000+ courses from the
world’s leading publishers,
updated constantly
>> Compatibility with every
LMS
Leading organizations depend
on OpenSesame to train millions
of employees. An entirely new
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
and better way—easier, more eco-
nomical, with less risk—to access
the best on-demand training.
With thousands of business, safe-
ty, technology, and compliance
courses, OpenSesame helps train
organizations of any size.
—Sources: https://elearningin-
dustry.com/5-amazing-elearn-
ing-trends-2016
https://www.docebo.com/land-
ing/contactform/elearning-
market-trends-and-forecast-
2014-2016-docebo-report.pdf
http://www.ambientinsight.
com/Resources/Documents/
AmbientInsight_2015-2020_
US_Self-paced-eLearning_Mar-
ket_Abstract.pdf
https://elearningindustry.com/
brandon-hall-group-elearning-
market-trends-2016-learning-
management-system
https://trainingmag.com/7-e-
learning-trends-keep-eye-2016
http://www.forbes.com/sites/
theyec/2016/01/05/three-trends-
in-e-learning-that-can-help-
businesses-craft-better-training-
programs/#1e17e5fd24cf
53
 Get Smarter in 2017 at “The [Enterprise]
Learning!
Conference is one
of the best events
Since 2008, EMG has produced the Enterprise Learning! Events hosting top global to attend. There is
learning leaders and best-in-class technologists in exclusive hybrid events. In 2017,
we advance this practice with live streamed events from onsite venues. The events
something new to
offer the option of face-to-face networking with learning leaders or convenience of live learn every year.
streamed participation. All focused on solving today’s business problems. Each event
is focused on dedicated themes and is broadcast to 2000+ industry professionals.
The event’s focus
on technology and
learning impact
is important for
Enterprise Learning! Conference 2017
The High Performance Organization | elceshow.com every learning
August 2017 leader to know
At ELC17, meet the 2017 Learning! 100 who are pushing the envelope for innovation,
collaboration and performance. Attendees are focused on driving business results about. We need
leveraging learning, HR and talent strategies. This intimate executive forum provides to attend events
maximum networking and dialogue. ELC17 will be live streamed to an extended
online audience. ELC17 is also host of the Learning! 100 and Learning! Champion like this so we can
Awards celebrations. learn from one
another and stay
current.”
Enterprise Learning! Summits | theelsummit.com | 2017 – Dr. Christopher
Mark your calendar for these 1-day conferences across the USA focused on
Hardy, Global
dedicated topics. From improving employee engagement, building leadership
skills and bench strength, or increasing collaboration, this senior executive Director, Defense
forum format provides the perfect environment for optimal networking, Acquisition
collaboration and dialogue. University, Dept of
In partnership with Best of Elearning! Awards, attendees will experience the best- Defense
in-class learning technologies up close. The Summits are live onsite conferences
with streamed online broadcasts of selected editions. Discover how to attend,
sponsor or host a Summit by visiting: http://www.2elearning.com/events

Building Smarter Organizations | 2elearning.com/current-events

Monthly 2017
Every month, Elearning! Media Group hosts live web seminars on the industry’s hot
topics. From Going Mobile, Personalizing Learning or Virtual Reality, these topical
sessions feature industry experts, thought-leader panel discussions, and original
research findings. View the current schedule at: http://www.2elearning.com/
current-events

Enterprise Learning! Events are a product of Elearning! Media Group, produced

by B2B Media Company LLC. www.2elearning.com 888-201-2841
 TipsModern
Tips
Enabling Modern Learners:
Think Mobile, Micro and Learner-Centric
BY KIERAN KING, VP, GLOBAL
ENABLEMENT, CUSTOMER
INSIGHT & FIELD MARKETING
Today’s competitive landscape
requires workers who can
learn and apply knowledge
faster than ever. Spending on
corporate training has grown
to $70 billion in the U.S. and
over $130 billion worldwide.
Has this increased investment
taught us the best way to teach
today’s workforce? How do
workers learn best? To answer
these questions we usually start
with the newest generation en-
tering the workplace. We know
that today’s workforce is in the
midst of a generational shift:
>> More than one in three
American workers today
are millennials.
>> In 2015 millennials sur-
passed Generation X to
become the largest share of
the American workforce,
according to Pew Research
Center analysis of U.S. Cen-
sus Bureau data.
Learners
What does this generational
change mean for learning? It
may not mean as much as we
think. Focusing on the wants
and needs of millennials seems
like a good place to begin, but
new research reveals the best
way to learn doesn’t consistent-
ly rely on age or experience.
Age doesn’t dictate how
each worker learns best. To
teach today’s workforce it’s
crucial to address the needs
of modern learners. These
learners are busy balancing
work and home life, looking
for ongoing self- and profes-
sional development as ways
of keeping pace with constant
change. Above all, modern
workers are savvy consumers.
When faced with an abun-
dance of learning and devel-
opment options, they expect
the same level of relevance,
quality and delivery flexibility
they encounter daily in their
customer transactions.
To attract and engage mod-
ern learners, learning must be
personalized to the needs of
each learner, sized to fit into
open spaces of time and atten-
tion and embedded into daily
experience.
1. MODERN LEARNING MUST
BE LEARNER-CENTRIC
Learning must be personalized
to enable learners to choose
what, how and when they want
to learn resulting in ‘one-size
fits one’ experiences. Serving
up related content on relevant
topics, in learners’ preferred
formats, helps create a unique
journey aligned to each learn-
er’s needs and preferences.
2. MODERN LEARNING
MUST BE MICRO-SIZED AND
MODULAR
Uninterrupted time is lim-
ited: providing short bursts of
knowledge that can stand alone
or serve as components of
broader programs is key.
3. MODERN LEARNING MUST
BE MOBILE
Learning must go with the
learner. Modern learning con-
siders the most appropriate
mode for learning while on the
go. Support the needs of today’s
active workers with videos,
e-books and audio books that
can be consumed while walk-
ing, running, biking or driving.
While L&D professionals
must learn to adapt some of
their methods to better serve
the modern learner, many ba-
sic principles of strong learning
program design remain the
Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017
same. Learners still want—and
need—content presented in a
variety of different modalities.
Opportunities for reinforce-
ment, practice and application
on the job are still crucial for
helping learning stick. Rethink-
ing the types of multimodal
content we provide and how we
ensure learning is retained an
applied ensures that learning
keeps pace with the changing
needs of today’s workforce.
Download new research
from Skillsoft to learn how
to meet the requirements of
modern learners at http://learn.
skillsoft.com/Website-WP-
MillennialLearningMythsand-
Misconceptions_Registration
Page.html.
Kieran King, VP, Global En-
ablement, Customer Insight &
Field Marketing
Kieran began her career in the
talent field more than 20 years
ago, participating in the evolu-
tion of the industry by consult-
ing with organizations across
a wide variety of sectors and
geographies. She has designed
enterprise learning programs,
implemented learning and
talent platforms, led strategy
engagements, and advised on
measuring impact on business
outcomes. Kieran has authored
several methodologies and white
papers, she blogs regularly and
she’s been featured in multiple
magazines. Today, Kieran stud-
ies the composition of successful
learning and talent partnerships
throughout the world.
55
Elearning!
Web Seminar Series:
Best of 2016

You are
Invited!
View the most popular sessions of 2016 on-demand.
Catch up on latest trends and best practices from these
industry thought-leaders.

How to Build a Leadership “TV Network” to Compliment Learning

Presented by Emma King, Vice President of Learning and Event Strategy &
Emma Meyer, Executive Producer, INXPO
View Now: http://www.2elearning.com/web-seminars-series/item/56618-
Join us for these how-to-build-a-leadership-tv-network-to-compliment-learning

engaging free How to Develop Competency Based Learning Programs

sessions with Presented by Jonathan Poltrack, ADL Director of Operations, Alexandria, VA
Dr. Robby Robson, CEO and Chief Scientist, EduWorks Corporation & Dr. Carla Lane,
today’s thought Vice President, FGDLA
View Now: http://www.2elearning.com/web-seminars-series/item/56616-
leaders. how-to-develop-competency-based-program

CEO Power Panel: Learning in the Second Digital Decade

Presented by Dean Pichee, CEO, BizLibrary, Chris Bond, President, Bluewater
Learning & Joe DiDonato, Editor at large, Elearning! Media Group
View Now: http://www.2elearning.com/web-seminars-series/item/56628-
ceo-power-panel-learning-in-the-second-digital-decade

Is Virtual Learning Going Prime Time for Learning?

REGISTER Presented by Richie Djamhur, Head of Culture & Learning, Bing Lee Stores & host of Ritchie’s
Room with 17 million viewers.

FREE TODAY
View Now: http://www.2elearning.com/web-seminars-series/item/56500-is-virtual-
reality-going-prime-time-for-learning
HOSTED BY:
Learning Platforms: Trends & Practices
Presented by Joe DiDonato, Editor at large, & Catherine Upton, Publisher, Elearning! Media
Group
Government View Now: http://www.2elearning.com/web-seminars-series/item/56477-learning-
platforms-trends-practices

Elearning! Web Seminar Series is a product of B2B Media Company LLC www.2elearning.com
LastWord

Top 10 Learning Tools

T
he votes have been counted, the winners selected, and the top 10 learning tools are now
known.
These solutions providers have much in common. They provide great user experi-
ences, integrate video, mobile and social components. They focus on engaging the learner
like Litmos’ VR module and BizLibrary’s video content which rates 4 or higher among
learners or it is discontinued. Gamelearn’s new Pacific game engages customer service training partici-
pants. Plus, learning and talent platforms offer excellent user experiences. Ready to create some excep-
tional e-learning? Articulate Storyline and DominKnow Claro are great places to start.
After tabulating more than 4,000 nominations across hundreds of brands, the solutions that garnered
the most votes for excellence determined the top 10 tools for 2016. They are in descending order:

10 BizLibrary Collection for Content Aggregation Platform (see page 34)

9 Litmos by Callidus Cloud Learning Management System, Cloud-based (see page 32)

8 DominKnow Claro Learning Content Management System (see page 32)

7 SAP SuccessFactors Talent Management System (see page 36)

6 BizLibrary Company College for Other Learning Platform (see page 34)

5 BizLibrary Business Skills for Soft Skills Training (see page 39)

4 Vital Learning’s Leadership Essentials for Leadership Development (see page 44)

3 Gamelearn Pacific for Gamification (see page 42)

2 Global Knowledge Learning Services for Outsourced Services (see page 44)

1 Articulate Storyline for E-learning Development Tool (see page 44)

About the Best of Elearning! Awards:

In their 12th year, this is the exclusive users’ choice awards in the learning industry hosted by
Elearning! Media Group. Discover new and previous honorees at: http://www.2elearning.com/
awards/best-of-elearning-awards.

Elearning! December 2016 / January 2017 57

 Do You Make the

Grade?
2
What percentage of HR leaders say
their leadership pipeline is lacking?
a. 25% 5
What percentage of organizations are
planning to improve or develop a new
enterprise HR system strategy this
b. 42% year?
c. 65% a. 12%
d. 74% b. 35%
e. 85% c. 40%
d. 56%
Results:
3
What is the average age of Express e. 89%
6-7 correct makes you Mensa material. employees?
4-5 correct means you are a skimmer —

6
a. 22 How much do learners retain
and can learn oh-so much more. b. 27 24-hours after a training course?
Fewer than 4? This issue is your Sunday c. 31 a. 10%
reading assignment. Try again! d. 43 b. 20%
e. 49 c. 30%
d. 50%

4
Which brands earned Best of e. 70%

1
What is the size of the Virtual Reality
market today? Elearning! Award every year?
a. Skillsoft

7
Where is top technology talent
a. $5 billion b. Articulate employed?
b. $10 billion c. Adobe a. Uber
c. $15 billion d. Cisco b. Google
d. $35 billion e. All of the above c. Amazon
e. $50 billion d. Salesforce
e. All of the above

Editorial Index
Best of Elearning! Awards Paysa Gamelearn pg 50
2elearning.com/awards/best-of-elearning- www.paysa.com http://www.game-learn.com
awards Salary.com
DominKnow http://bit.ly/2ebbDzT Learning! 100 Awards 2017 pg 50
http://www.dominknow.com Sierra-Cedar 2elearning.com/awards/learning-100-awards
Future Workplace www.sierra-cedar.com Litmos by Callidus Cloud pg 2, 45
futureworkplace.com Vado www.litmos.com
Goldman Sachs http://vado.com
http://bit.ly/1Y90UGA ADVERTISER INDEX OpenSesame pg 35, 53
Gronstedt Group BizLibrary pg 16, 52 http://www.opensesame.com
www.gronstedtgroup.com www.bizlibrary.com Riptide pg 15, 47
HTC ej4 pg 3, 46
www.vive.com learning.riptidesoftware.com
www.ej4.com/trial
IBM Elearning! Magazine Subscriptions pg 59 Skillsoft pg 37, 55
www.ibm.com 2elearning.com/elearning-profile http://www.skillsoft.com
Intuit Enterprise Learning! Events pg 54
https://youtu.be/_3VLx0pXSYs SumTotal, a Skillsoft co. pg 33, 51
2elearning.com/events
Learning! 100 http://www.sumtotal.com
Extended Enterprise Learning eBook pg 1A
2elearning.com/awards/learning-100-awards information.2elearning.com/ TransPerfect pg 41
National Chamber Foundation extendedenterpriselearning/ www.transperfect.com
www.uschamberfoundation.org Elearning! Web Seminar Series pg 52
Oxford Economics http://www.2elearning.com/events/ VuBiz pg 46
www.oxfordeconomics.com web-seminars-series http://www.vubiz.com
Answers: 1)c; 2) e; 3) b; 4) e; 5) c; 6) c; 7) e

Elearning! magazine is published bi-monthly by B2B Media Company LLC, 44920 W. Hathaway Ave. #1794, Maricopa, AZ 85139. Application to mail Standard Class is filed with Sheppardville, KY Post
Office. POSTMASTER: Send all address changes to: Elearning! PO Box 1794 Maricopa, AZ 85139. Subscriptions are free to qualified professionals in the USA. Subscribe at http://www.2elearning.com/
reg/choose. Elearning! magazine is a trademark of B2B Media Company. All rights are reserved.

58 December 2016 / January 2017 Elearning!