Curated L&D Content for the Week of 3/19/18

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

• does humor enhance learning?
• how NASA has and continues to use VR for training
• What Google Maps-based Games might mean for learning
• why it’s important to think like a game designer
• tips on how to support retention of learning
• a case study on recognizing what doesn’t work in a training program and making changes

Does Humor Enhance Learning? by Connie Malamed

Humor is an interesting topic when it comes to learning. Humor can make something more memorable, but “trying to be funny” can completely derail a learning experience. Where is the balance? What actually works when it comes to the relationship between humor and learning? This post uses research to answer these questions and more.

NASA’s virtual reality journey uses same software, hardware as gamers by Dwight Silverman

Virtual reality is rapidly evolving into a platform through which we can build and participate in learning experiences. While recent advancements in hardware have made VR more accessible than ever, in reality a number or orgainzations have been using VR for training for decades. This article details how NASA has used VR throughout much of their history, and how advancements in consumer VR have enabled them to move from proprietary hardware to the same hardware available to the masses. It’s a great example of VR being used for training.

Google’s Linkage Of The Unity Engine With Google Maps Is A Game Changer by Kevin Murnane

This article shares details of Google’s recent announcement that developers can create Unity-based games ties to actual Google Maps data via API’s. While the possibility of playing an augmented reality game where actual locations are transformed into the gaming environment is interesting enough, I share the post here for the non-gaming examples that are shared at the end of the post. They are all great examples of how AR can be used in the context of learning and education.

Think Like a Game Designer to Create Meaningful Learning by Karl Kapp and Beth Myers

One of the most common mistakes training professionals make when it comes to developing game-based learning programs is creating a game from an instructional designer’s point of view. While there is definite overlap between instructional design and game design, what’s more important is recognizing where those two worlds do NOT intersect. There are certain goals and constraints that game designers use in their work that helps shape gaming experiences they create. Using a similar lens as described in this article will not only help you create better game-based learning, it can also enhance your overall instructional design skill set.

Five Ways to Decrease Learning Decay in the Workplace by Phil Geldart

One of the biggest challenges training departments have often has little to do with training itself; it’s finding ways to enhance retention of what was covered in training after the workers complete the training. This post covers five specific things training departments can do to increase the retention workers have from training programs they participate in..

How We Made Our Sales Training More Effective by Making It Harder by Jeff Winters

This article shares a story with a fairly common theme – A company with an over-simplified training program that discovers a wide variety of processes and skill sets being applied in the field. This post explains why this happened at one organization and what they did to correct the situation. In addition to being a solid case study with some valuable tips, it’s also a great example of how valuable it can be to pause and reflect on how effective your training programs may actually be..

Check out the NEW LearningSolutions.com

We’ve recently relaunched our Learning Solutions publication website with a fresh new look and an expanded editorial focus. We explored the type of content that resonates with our community and, more importantly, learned what types of content was needed for the future.

We used this feedback to shape the redesign of our site, and we’re really excited to finally share it with you. In addition to the fresh new look, we’ve made some significant changes and upgrades to the site that we hope will make Learning Solutions even more valuable to you in the future. Be sure to check out the new site today!