Corporate learning itself is moving towards a new era. While e-learning remains the main L&D tool, xAPI comes to link this with all the other formal and informal learning instances for a better experience and more efficient planning and reporting. Tune in to find out more about the advantages that come along in an organization that includes xAPI in their training strategy.

In order to be effective, learning needs to be done with some effort. That doesn’t mean that all the gimmicks learning professionals come up with to make it easier and more fun are counterproductive. Nor does learning have to be torture. The key are those desirable difficulties that make the brain work out. There may be some discomfort but the results are worth it – just like in the case of regular gym sessions for the body.

There is a lot of academic literature on the innovation process, how it works and what techniques we can employ to get our brain to create new and different ideas. As far as the design process is concerned, Herbert Simon’s article The Sciences of the Artificial from 1969 is still very influential today. Design Thinking involves five steps: Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.

There is a lot of academic literature to show that video gaming brings about improvements in a wide variety of perceptual, attentional, and cognitive abilities. The potential video games have for positive improvements of the brain ranges from teaching young children to perform complex tasks to training workplace professionals to become more efficient in their jobs.

Keeping learners engaged simply requires some fine tuning of the way the slides are visually designed. Heavy text, obsolete fading effects and cluttered information all have to go and be replaced by attention-grabbing, point-making state of the art design. All instructional designers need to do is spruce up their visual design skills and keep their audience in mind when putting together learning materials.

Creative Commons was created to help all those who create content, whether they are writers, video makers or designers, to use already existing content without having to pay for it. Everything from text to video or sound can be used while being appropriately attributed. So check out a few things all instructional designers should know about Creative Commons.

Even though it can lead to positive learning outcomes thanks to its learner-centered vibe, just-in-time learning support or its enabling of reusable learning objects, microlearning is not the perfect solution for every training challenge. It simply can’t be. Not with all the diversity that comes with the organic process of learning in the myriad of organizations. In fact sometimes is better to avoid it altogether.

A better understanding of mechanisms that lead to memory formation and ultimately learning means that training programs can be a lot more effective but also that authoring tools and course design have to be permanently tested and improved. Some of the most recent research that produced interesting results has been dwelling into the intricate ways our mind encodes metaphors.

People no longer need to remember large quantities of information because the growing digitization of everything makes it a breeze to instantly find out just about anything. While being able to access information so easily and quickly has enormous benefits, it also means that our capacity to discern what is important to remember is negatively affected. The use of video games in training might be able to turn this tide.

A small designing mistake could result in the waste of all the efforts and negatively impact the efficiency of the training program. It is, therefore, important for e-learning designers to understand the needs of the target audience and stick to e-learning advanced principles. However, before you start creating the online courses, you need to know the mistakes that often designers make.