Adobe eLearning Conference

This has been an amazing week! I have the chance to attend the Adobe eLearning Conference here in Washington DC. It has been a great opportunity to engage in interesting conversations with other Learning and Development colleagues. Even though I wanted to attend all the sessions, there were many happening at the same time!

Here you can find some highlights from each session I attended:

1) Memory and creativity - Bob Harris

It is incredible of the human memory works. Memories can be context dependent (the outer world triggers their retrieval) or state dependent (the inner world activates them). Our memories are glued by emotions, and as Instructional Designers we can use visuals, narratives, and associations to anchor those memories. We have to "enjoy our brains," play with our memories to create solid memories. For example, free association and rituals (move your hand in a certain way) are powerful tools.

2) Global Challenges - Christopher Lind

Organizations are complex entities. They come in different shapes and sizes, but also in their educational mindsets. Organizations should aspire to go beyond the 70:20:10 learning model, and adopt a digital readiness approach. This systematic approach is based on the transformative power of learning. It takes into consideration the audience (behaviors, tasks, jobs, etc.), the strategy (what to do and when), the resources (budget), the partnerships (insider the organization with HR or IT), and content. Let's embark ourselves on a digital journey!

3) Learning Analytics - Trish Uhl

Are you scared of math and statistics? No problem, learning analytics goes beyond that. It is a science compose by two different fields: data science and decision science. Analytics can provide answers regarding: What happened (descriptive)? What is happening (diagnostic)? What will happen (predictive)? Very soon all the math will be automated thanks to AI and cloud computing. However, this data is essential to evaluate what is happening and recommend the best actions.

4) Microlearning - Ray Jimenez

Have you ever being trained in something and not used what you learned in months? Microlearning provides instant usefulness and prevents the knowledge obsolescence. Learning needs to happen on the job. It needs to allow users to explore and to reflect on their learning experiences. Microlearning needs to be user-centric and provide with real case scenarios to be entirely effective.

5) Brain Bandwidth - Jane Bozarth

Our brains are potent data warehouses. However, they have their limits. We have a limited capacity to process visual and verbal information (something called dual processing channels). To help our brains to store information, Instructional Designers needs to reduce the cognitive load. We need to avoid all short of distractions and remove all the irrelevant extraneous information. This is very important to negotiate with our Subject Matter Experts and say no when they want to put all the content into the learning experience we are creating.

I was really amazed by all the presentations. Which of these ideas do you think is critical for a Learning and Development professional?