David Kelly’s Curated L&D Content for the Week of 7/30/18

This week’s curated content includes links exploring the following:

• a wonderful tool to help measure the accessibility of your content
• exploring the world of creativity through the eyes of a Pixar animator
• a great example of a unique value of virtual reality
• tips on how to drive your own career growth
• a wonderful example of what AR use will look like in organizations in the near future
• exploring how we can use games and gamification on ourselves

Text on background image a11y check by Andrew Brandwood
Accessibility is a topic that all designers and developers know is important, but we sometimes struggle with putting it into practice. That’s what makes a tool like this so valuable, as it helps you improve the accessibility of your content. Upload your imagery, choose the size, color, and placement of your text, and the site will score your content against basic web content accessibility guidelines. It’s a great tool to bookmark for future designs, and a great way to learn about the accessibility by critiquing your past designs as well.

‘Stay Scrappy’ and More Wisdom on Creativity From a Pixar Animator by Marcia Riefer Johnston
Creativity is, in some ways, the fuel that drives much of the work we all do every day. It’s also something that can easily fall off the table in an environment of deadlines and deliverables. This interview highlights some great insights from the world of Pixar, exploring questions like What makes a story good – or bad?, What processes result in stories that work in business?, Where can people find inspiration for creative work?, and more.

VR Helps Seniors Explore the World Beyond the Assisted Living Center by Ryan Allen
Virtual reality use in learning and development is still emerging. Like most shiny objects, the true value of virtual reality as a tool for learning and performance improvement can be found in the answer to a fairly basic question: What problem can VR solve for me that I can’t solve with existing tools? That question usually leads towards unique value propositions that could not (or could not as effectively) be accomplished any place other than VR. This post (and video) highlights one such example. Be sure to listen to the participants describing their experience in VR – those comments help drive home the types of experiences that work well in virtual reality.

How to Advance in Your Career When Your Boss Won’t Help by Kristi Hedges
While it’s great to have a supportive boss that looks to help you advance in your career, you should never transfer that responsibility. It’s important to always be thinking of what you want in your career and to make sure that you are the one driving that boss. While this post is written from the perspective of “what to do if your boss won’t help”, I think the tips described are applicable to everyone, regardless of the relationship you may have with your boss. It’s YOUR career. Own it. These tips can help.

Re’flekt AR Finds Sweet Spot, Scores BASF Investment by Charlie Fink
While there is great curiosity about augmented reality in the training and development industry, the transformative possibilities of AR have yet mature into our industry discussions. To understand the power and potential of what’s coming to our organizations in the near future, we must look outside of L&D and into the broader enterprise. This post explores one specific tool, but I share the post less about the tool itself and more about the detail in which the author explores the tool’s value. The description and pictures very well describe how AR will be used in a learning and training context in the near future.

Become a Writing Champion by Turning the Hard Stuff into a Game by Sonia Simone
You may have used, or considered using, gamification in some of the learning and development programs you create, but have you ever considered using games or gamification techniques to affect your own work? This post shares how a number of writers use games and gamification to enhance their own work. While you may be interested in trying some of the specific ideas yourself, I share the post more to inspire you to explore how you might apply some of the techniques we use in our learning programs – gamification or otherwise – to our own workflows.

LMS, LRS, LXP… HELP!

The world of learning platforms has exploded. While the learning management systems are still a staple of many organizations technology infrastructure, new and exciting technologies (learning record stores, learning experience platforms, etc.) are emerging that complement and enhance the LMS. This explosion of new technologies is rapidly transforming how organizations approach their learning strategies.

The LMS and Learning Platforms Forum targets this technology shift and provides learning leaders with the knowledge, skills, and tools needed to make sense of the expanding learning platforms marketplace. During this one-day event (taking place prior to the co-located DevLearn Conference and Expo) you’ll have the chance to explore the unique characteristics, advantages, and risks of the various platforms so you can determine the right fit for your organization’s goals. Join other learning leaders at the LMS and Learning Platforms Forum and gain the insights you need to use today’s cutting-edge technologies effectively and strategically in your organization.