David Kelly’s Curated L&D Content for the Week of 8/27/18

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

• The importance of context in workflow learning
• Tips to improve your proofreading skills
• How to help an employee (or yourself) reignite your desire to grow
• A great example of VR being used to bridge a learning opportunity gap
• A discussion on how characters and avatars can be used in learning
• A look at how the world of work may be changing as network technologies continue to advance

In Workflow Learning, Context Beats Content by Bob Mosher
If you were to draw a Venn Diagram of microlearning, workflow learning, and performance support, the three circles would largely overlap. The reason for the increased interest in these areas isn’t because they are radically new ideas; it’s because we’ve reached a unique moment in time where technology has caught up to the promise of the idea. That’s what makes it such an exciting time to be in L&D – we have the opportunity to target learning and support in ways we haven’t been able to do before, and that target has everything to do with context.

10 Modern Proofreading Tips to Catch More Avoidable Goofs by Stefanie Flaxman
Proofreading is an often unheralded requirement of L&D. We receive content from someone else that we need to create into learning resources, but sometimes that content isn’t as clean as it should be. If proofreading is part of your workflow, this post provides a number of great tips to do it more effectively. 

What to Do When a Good Employee Stops Trying to Grow by Whitney Johnson
Providing opportunities for personal growth is at the heart of why I love L&D. But learning is about much more than opportunity; it’s also about motivation. This post explores how to reignite that motivation for someone that may have reached the end of their current learning curve. It’s a great post for the work we do, and it’s also a great lens through which to question our own personal growth.

VR Labs open doors of opportunity for STEM students by Courtney Hampson
This is a great example of how VR can be used to transform learning. The post looks at a program from Google targeting STEM education. This example hits the unique value proposition right on the bullseye: it bridges the gap of providing hands-on learning experiences when access to the actual hands-on environment is unavailable due to distance, cost, or limited resources. Are their similar examples in your organization where VR might be a tool for practice and learning? 

Characters and Avatars in Game-based Learning and Gamified Instruction via Game Level Learn
This podcast is part of a series that explores how games can be used in learning and education. While the discussion does take an academic lean, the principles explored can be applied to any learning environment. This particular discussion examines how characters and avatars: How they’re different, how they work, and most importantly, why they matter.  Even if you aren’t interested in game-based learning, this discussion on the use of characters and avatars could be very useful in the narratives you form in learning programs. 

We Need to Prepare for the 5G Jobs Apocalypse by Sascha Segan
The world around us is being transformed by technology. It’s important for us to always keep informed on how those changes are taking shape, both in terms of our own job security and to understand how L&D needs to adapt to what will become “the new normal”. I like posts like these not because I find any one of them to be wholly accurate; but because I like to track the trends that I see being mentioned often that I may want to keep track of, such as the effects of automation.

New Co-Located Event at DevLearn 2018!

We’re pleased to announce the eLearning Guild’s Articulate User Conference, a co-located event taking place with DevLearn in Las Vegas this fall. This first-of-its-kind event features talks and workshops by Articulate’s expert community team and engineering leaders.

You’ll hear from Articulate Tom Kuhlmann, David Anderson, Trina Rimmer and more gurus from the eLearning Heroes Community. pros. Take your use of Articulate applications to all-new heights by joining us for the Guild’s first-ever Articulate User Conference!