We are so thrilled to have an in-person opportunity to connect and grow in modern learning together! Lisa and I are hosting multiple sessions and events at ATD's International Conference and Exposition in less than 5 weeks. Here's a few to-dos to make your ATD experience awesome and grow your modern learning community at the same time. 1 - Tell Us If You Will Be Joining Virtually or Live we want to know so we can make sure to connect during this hybrid event! Mark your calendar: We will be hosting a casual happy hour for alumni and champions, new and old, Sunday [...]

As our workforce has changed over the last decade (and especially in the last year), modern L&D professionals have begun abandoning the one-and-done training model and have instead moved on to blended learning, learning journeys, and what we call, learning clusters. Even with these new, modern approaches to learning, many L&D professionals hold on tightly to creating and developing learning assets they deem most trackable, typically formal, and shy away from an important part of the modern learning journey - non-formal learning. Non-formal learning is different from informal learning. Whereas informal learning tends to happen as learners engage in activities done [...]

This month, we are excited to showcase Karen Bryan-Chambers as our Modern Learner Spotlight! Karen is the senior director of the nonprofit Leadership Academy at New Leaders. She has more than 26 years of professional experience, including 16 years as a teacher, five years as a principal, and five years in leadership development. Karen started off her modern learning journey by reading Designing for Modern Learning, and quickly enrolled in one of our public workshops to further her knowledge. Karen is a regular attendee of our Monthly Modern Learning Dialogue and we were lucky enough to have her speak to our community [...]

The future of L&D in a digital age is about unleashing human potential rather than reinforcing quality, routine work. Rather than focusing on telling L&D “what” to create for a digital age, the philosophy behind the Learning Cluster Design model focuses on building capability around the thought process - the “how” and “why” - moving L&D beyond its traditional limitations and into a position to allow modern learners to choose how, when and where they want and need to learn.  This new way of thinking requires L&D professionals to focus first on learner needs. Our context as training designers and deliverers [...]

Just as we were faced with a digital learning pivot in March of 2020, modern L&D professionals are starting to look at how the learning programs we created over the last 16+ months will fare as we navigate the “new normal'' of training and developing a hybrid workforce.  While this looks different for each organization, and there certainly isn’t a “one size fits all” approach, through our research we have found that choosing the right technology alongside a learning model that develops learners in the flow of work allows modern learning professionals to deliver more learning content, faster than they could before. [...]

It’s officially summer! And even though school is out, learning is always in. If you haven’t picked up a copy already, our book, Designing for Modern Learning: Beyond ADDIE and SAM is about to celebrate it’s one year publishing anniversary! A big thank you to all of our readers, we've reached thousands around the globe! We are also on our journey to 100 reviews on Amazon. If you've read the book and haven't had a chance to drop in a review or even just a rating, please take a moment. Lisa and I would so appreciate it! Summer Reading List This year we put [...]

This month, our friends over at 360Learning interviewed this month’s Modern Learner Spotlight: Jess Almlie! Jess is a strategic L&D leader, and currently the VP of Learning Experience at WEX Health. Not only has Jess immersed herself in the LCD model by reading Designing for Modern Learning, she has been a guest speaker at our Monthly Modern Dialogue and has had her team attend our two-week public workshop. In her interview with Jonah Goldstein from 360Learning, Jess highlights how she uses modern learning principles from the Learning Cluster Design model to guide her L&D strategy at Wex. Jonah: What do you and your team focus on in terms of [...]

One of the core principles of the OK-LCD model is to focus on learner needs. Our context as training designers and deliverers is no longer as important as the context of the learner, especially in a digital age where we have the ability to deliver learning when, where, and how the learner needs it. But how do we know what our learner needs? That is where the Learn Action of the OK-LCD model comes into play. In this Action, L&D professionals identify learner personas and start to uncover the most likely moments of need for each persona. We effectively transition from the traditional [...]

With the pivot to virtual learning in 2020, and continuing with that trend in 2021, many learning professionals were faced with the challenge of converting in-person, live orientation and onboarding with a better, more modern solution. For this particular case study, an L&D leader was tasked with developing a new onboarding program. Traditionally within this organization, onboarding consisted of a week-long live class or blended learning to orient to the company, the people, to technical skills, etc. Looking at it from an LCD model lens, this leader first got clear on the most critical differences they wanted to see on the [...]