Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is Nolvia Delgado, who is the Executive Director of the Kaplan Foundation. In this inspirational conversation Nolvia and I talk about0:00 › Start4:10 › Life of a First-generation College Graduate—and the support the Foundation provides to underrepresented learners like her (It’s not just financial!)7:32 › Kaplan Foundation’s Application Process—How the process works for applying, acceptance and moving through the program. How the Foundation finds (and helps) candidates apply and the partners they work with11:38 › On Community-Based Organizations—What they are, how they help the Foundation, and how it has been able to expand the reach of its programs because of these groups (and COVID’s gentle nudge)15:15 › Challenges, Myths and Concerns of Underserved Learners applying for programs like the Kaplan foundation and how Nolvia’s team is working to address them18:17 › Anatomy of the Underserved—What does a typical applicant look like for the Foundation, what factors contribute to a successful application, and their onward journey to achieve their “big dream”22:25 › The Top Three Focus Areas— The Foundation’s priorities for current applicants, to give them the greatest chance of success possible, and specific examples about how this worked out for Nolvia and others in their journey31:20 › How Nolvia plans to evolve and grow the reach of the foundation to better serve their target learnersSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is John Hackmeyer, who has been in the eLearning space for more than 20 years. He’s worn many hats as an engineer, an instructional designer & content creator, a sales enabler and as the founder of Cyber Crocodile, from which he advises companies large and small around the world. In this 'take-my-advice' conversation John and I talk about0:00 › Start2:53 › A SALES ENABLEMENT PRIMER—how to use the techniques John espouses to effectively create revenue for your company or institution6:25 › AN LMS PROVIDER OR A PARTNER? — When considering purchasing an LMS, the difference between choosing a provider and a partner, what are the business needs (immediately, mid term and long term), and what integration possibilities exist. And, ultimately, asking yourself (as an institution), where do you want to spend your time (in terms of LMS administration)12:30 › DEALING WITH BUYER’S REMORSE—What are the criteria you can set out to ensure you "get what you need" from an LMS? We also cover some of the most common "must haves" from any conversation with an LMS provider that are red flags if not available. Ask for a trial, start using support before becoming a client, asking how technical help is provided, etc20:00 › THE HUMANITY OF IT ALL—The critical nature of "being able to reach a human" with any LMS provider when you have a problem, whether or not you should expect it to be "special" and receive red carpet treatment from your provider, and how to ask for references29:00 › SECURITY! SECURITY!! —What to look for and ask about when it comes to security around an LMS provider (and, hold on, because John gets very technical in this topic) and how certification separates "good" from "great". John also takes on this topic from both sides of the table - and how providers can put their best foot forward around security.38:20 › FORGIVING SEASON—How forgiving should you be when your provider does have a security breach, and what should you expect as a response from a provider?Subscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is Dean Saunders, the Vice President for Product Development here at Open LMS. In this 'costly-but-worth-it' conversation Dean and I talk about0:00 › Start01:01 › Does Dean see a disservice in corporate education, in the way we make up a division between traditional training and workforce development?07:30 › Breaking News 🇺🇦 Smart Osvita & Open LMS partnering to help displaced students continue their education online for free13:20 › Total Cost of Ownership of a Learning Management System—and what you need to consider in both the education and corporate sectors when selecting a system and provider: Things like workforce planning, content development strategy, and more17:00 › Diving deep into ROI—How a school or company can go practically about measuring return for both their learning platform and their strategy22:00 › Regulatory thrills—What’s happening in the corporate sector that’s exciting for the near term, regulatory and technology-innovation wise. We even talk about how NFTs can be leveraged in education27:00 › Surprising Post-COVID gaps that have come to light in learning from the corporate sector. How the focus on personal life long learning, growth and development is completely changing what a “career” meansSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

My guest for today is Dr. Monique Vanni, Senior Engagement Manager for the Strive Community—a project supported by the MasterCard Center for Inclusive Growth, and the Director of Research for Caribou Digital, which implements the Strive Community.In this 'credible' conversation Monique and I talk about:0:00 Start — The relationship between Caribu, Strive and MasterCard and the goals of this global program03:30 The success and challenges of managing the Strive community remotely, including “archetypes” for people who thrive in virtual communities, and the challenges of training junior staff05:20 How Strive supports its community of small and medium-sized enterprises —not all of which are necessarily digitally savvy— through a network of partners; and the challenges of engaging new organizations digitally11:30 Monique’s best and worst—examples of implementation in remote training provided to partners16:55 How Strive is enabling “leapfrog” moments for their partners so that they can skip multiple steps in their evolution to delivering digitally20:00 Agility to innovate and grow, when funding sources and partners are more institutional and “rigid,” and why there might be a real generational issue that needs to be addressed27:25 To LMS or not to LMS—We end our talk with the age old conversation about the many flavors and varieties of delivering learning virtuallySubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is Matt Hunckler who is the founder of PowderKeg - the place to plug into tech, outside of Silicon Valley.In this community conversation Matt and I talk about00:00 Start05:00 The origins of PowderKeg through Matt’s own struggles of looking for opportunities in the tech startup space outside of Silicon Valley07:50 How Matt chose a different path, took a pay cut and jumped on the opportunity to become a part of what is now the PowderKeg network. PS: When is the last time you took a chance to really stretch yourself and grow?13:00 Leading back to Community, in work and Matt’s life—and how this continues to serve and fuel his vision for supporting others by sharing knowledge that can be applied immediately24:30 How the first iteration of a community evolved into PowderKeg to provide that critical “density” of resources (i.e. talent, capital, partnerships) every company or organization needs30:00 The importance of finding our “niche” tribes, where we can truly geek out on our passion, but also making sure we consciously seek out other experiences so that we’re consistently expanding, growing and finding our blind spots35:00 How PowderKeg is helping to bridge the gap between HigherEd and the “jobs” world, especially in the tech space.49:00 The maturing of the digital and tech space, and how this is affecting people’s choices for where, how and whom they want to work withSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is Andrew Barry, founder of Curious Lion Learning. In this very cultural conversation Andrew and I talk about:3:00 What a learning culture advisory group like Curious Lion does, and the origin, twists and turns Andrew has experienced over the past 5 years as the company has evolved from what he “thought” it would be to its current focus on providing Cohort Based Courses (CBC).14:00 How a company can go from lip service to championing investing in their people by cultivating a learning culture - and the key factors that make or break success.21:30 How recognizing and capturing shared stories are critical for creating shared purpose and building culture in an organization24:00 Bottom up vs. Top down learning - and the pros and cons of each… and how you can leverage having a “point of view” about learning32:00 How do you scale the CBC model in large organizations or institutions, and what are the factors for success (and typical fails)Subscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is David James, the Chief Learning Officer at 360Learning. In this very analytical conversation David and I talk about:01:10 How David started as a trainer around finance and banking, but then evolved into running learning, talent and development for Europe, Middle East and Africa at Disney; and how, along the way, he tracked changes happening in training delivery around data and technology that led him to his current role06:00 How organizational learning culture is linked—and the tragedy behind the spending on “education” that typically happens at a company and isn’t relevant or just misses the mark entirely. And why “bribes” like gamification often fail10:00 Why today is the greatest opportunity in history for delivering the right learning to the right person at the right time. Hint: it’s not about your platform, but your ability to uncover what your learners actually need11:30 What data and evidence-based practices look like when they are used effectively, and why using analytics from learning platforms is basically a “post mortem” and why “learning needs analysis” is defunct in today’s world14:30 How to move past the typical training request of executives and managers, to be able to identify what isn’t working, what’s the cost of not solving the problem and building training around it18:00 Why Training-as-a-Bandaid is doomed, what to do about people —yes, CFOs included— who just want a feel good benefit, and how continuing to deliver this is corrosive to your company; and why building a “meaning” muscle dramatically grows the value of the L&D role19:30 What collaborative learning makes possible—a process that allows L&D professionals to facilitate learning about anything in any company in any context25:00 Why training is so often synonymous with waste the way it is delivered today; and how to get some of that time, money and effort back28:30 Why “Analysis” is one of the hardest things to sell in training, especially to executive leadership; and why you might consider selling other things around training and simply include it in the process33:32 How to get everyone comfortable working with numbers, and the analysis required to understand the problems that need to be solved39:30 How to deal with pushback around change and the inevitable question from managers and staff of, “what do I do with the things I’m currently doing now?” in order to shift to data driven learningSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

My guest for today is Erick Prospero, the founder and chief Ninja at Ninja Tropic, which is NOT a self defense agency specializing in hot weather combat—but rather an eLearning animation company born out of passion and practicality.In this very practical conversation Erick and I talk about:📣 What is Ninja Tropic? The genesis of Ninja Tropic because of a need to create microlearning at scale (or high volume) for the nonprofit universe… and how Eric and his now-team got it done📽 Why there are different kinds of video, and why you’ll use video for everything, from a 30second topic intro, to long-form video for deeper explanations… and why finding the format that your audience responds best to is critical🤔 The need for immediacy vs quality storytelling. And why you might consider keeping your boring content for video, and your exciting, juicy content for text or other formats🌦 Corporate learners vs academic settings. Eric explains how it’s so often not about what the learners want, but what the institution is set up to be able to produce and the cultural inertia behind it. (Hint: academia generally ain’t interested in competing.) And examples of HigherEd that are solving for this and doing cool stuff🇬🇧 The process for creating great microlearning. Eric walks us through the process Ninja Tropic uses to work with a diversity of clients to produce effective content. And why the best content is motivational (not necessarily instructional). PS. Eric gives a huge shout out to flautas! 🌮👨‍👩‍👧‍👧 How to produce content that can be consumed anytime. Eric’s experience shows that people are looking for both timed and structured courses, as well as “consume at your own pace” content; and why what we really need to be focused on is how to remove friction from accessing content🛎 How much of learning data is actually used, and how much is this just lip service. Eric explains how he helps his clients use lead and lag metrics🕹 When to use animation vs live video. Eric explains why he’d always choose live video, but that this isn’t practice and why animation is better suited to certain types of content📴 When VR will take off for the masses, and why this won’t become mainstream until it's completely frictionless and immediately accessible to everyoneSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

My name is Ladek and I’m your Host from Open LMS and this is episode number 102 with Dr. Pooja Agarwal. Dr. Agarwal is an assistant professor at the Berklee College of Music, an expert in cognitive science and author of the book “Powerful Teaching” and the website retrievalpractice.org.In this very practical conversation Dr. Agarwal and I talk about:🎓 How she has created a foundation for how to think about education as a process of getting learning “out”rather than “in” - the heads of learners.🔧 The four “Power Tools” for learning she details in her book, which include, retrieval practice, spacing, interleaving, and  feedback driven metacognition.💬 Why easy learning is also “easy forgetting.” In other words why cramming never (really) works and why retrieval is absolutely critical for long term learning, and how to ensure that retrieval practice also results in synthesis.🙏 Why you should always ask learners what they remember, rather than reminding them what you’ve already covered in a class.Subscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/

Hello everyone! My name is Ladek and my guest for today is Michael Phillips, Associate Professor of Digital Transformations at Monash University.In this humanitarian conversation Mike and I talk about🎓 Monash University, part of the group of 8 research intensive universities in Australia, with the largest and most comprehensive faculty of education in Australia (and #12 in the world)🎒 What digital transformation means for Michael, his career personally, and the future of education writ large🏫 The origins, evolution and current status of an initiative that Monash is spearheading to deliver education virtually to students displaced by the war in Ukraine—and how this initiative leverages technology, student teachers and a ton of goodwill to literally change the lives of 1,000s of people👨‍🏫 Michael’s perspectives on why the programs developed by Monash result in students AND teachers that rave about learning online (Hint: you have to completely rethink how you’re delivering as a teacher)📺 How the program at Monash is funded so that it can operate from scale, who is supporting it (a shout out to David Falcon and Smart Osvita) in other ways, and how you could participate as well📺 What future additions and evolutions look like for the Monash program with things like psychosocial support, credentialing and moreℹ The reason why providing a space where structured education happens is so incredibly different than just having access to information… and why it's more critical than ever in today’s worldSubscribe to eLearn Magazinehttps://www.elearnmagazine.com/newsletter/