Sponge elearning podcast

David Wilson is the CEO of Fosway Group, an independent researcher into Human Resources and learning in business.

With 20 years of research behind him, David Wilson has a unique perspective on how technology can be used to help learners in business.

Listen to hear about the trends that have been revealed over the years of Fosway Group research and where L&D teams can improve the way they work with technology.

You can follow David on Twitter at @dwil23 and find out more about the work that The Fosway Group does on fosway.com.

The questions and their times are provided so you can skip back and forth to learn more on a specific subject:

• 00:37 - What's your background and approach to elearning?
• 01:11 - Tell us about The Fosway Group and the research that you carry out?
• 04:20 - Is there a gap between what people say they're doing or what they aspire to do and what they're doing in practice?
• 07:22 - What are the recurring trends and new things that you're seeing in your research?
• 11:03 - What are the encouraging signs coming out of your research?
• 15:28 - How do you think things are going to evolve over the next few years?

Chuck Lorenz is an elearning developer who contributes to the Adapt learning project. We spoke to him to find out why it's one of the most talked about new elearning authoring technologies.

If you're not familiar with Adapt it's a set of free, open source tools that allow anyone to create responsive elearning content.

It means you can create one course that can be accessed on any type of device with a modern web browser whether you have programming experience or not.

You can find lots more information and examples of projects built in Adapt at adaptlearning.org

Chuck has recently been given a place in the Adapt steering group so we thought it would be a good time to catch up with him to get the perspective of an independent contributor.

Hopefully this podcast will inspire you to check out how Adapt could work for you and how you might be able to contribute to the project yourself in the future.

The questions and their times are provided so you can skip back and forth to learn more on a specific subject:

• 01:08 - As someone based in the US how do you find working on a project with many team members based in the UK?
• 01:53 - What's your background in developing digital learning?
• 02:34 - How did you first hear about Adapt?
• 03:25 - When did you first encounter Adapt?
• 03:38 - Are there any alternative open source authoring tools out there?
• 03:56 - Do you see the demand for responsive learning content increasing in the future?
• 05:52 - What was the first thing that struck you about the Adapt project?
• 07:12 - Where have you contributed the most to the Adapt project?
• 08:38 - Do you have any advice for developers who want to contribute to the Adapt project?
• 11:00 - Can you explain what accessibility means in terms of the Adapt project?
• 12:26 - Is there anything in particular that you're looking forward to in the Adapt project?

Julian Stodd is an author, speaker and popular blogger who accompanies his insights into social learning and theory with thoughtful illustrations.

His blog has gained a large following thanks to the accessible way he introduces concepts through everyday events.

We'd recommend subscribing to the frequently updated and colourful blog at julianstodd.wordpress.com.

Follow Julian on Twitter at @julianstodd

Find out more about Julian's consulting at seasaltlearning.com.

The questions and their times are provided so you can skip back and forth to learn more on a specific subject:

• 00:45 - What does learning in the Social Age look and feel like for the people at the sharp end, that is the learners?
• 01:54 - What's the role of L&D in supporting social learning?
• 03:27 - What's the single most important thing you can do to support social learning in your own organisation?
• 04:44 - Where do organisations go wrong with social learning?
• 06:10 - What is the role of technology in social learning?
• 09:07 - Where does curation fit into social learning?

Get inspired for your next elearning game with excerpts from interviews and talks with a range of experts from the world of elearning games.

This episode follows up on #gameweek, our annual focus on games and gamification in digital learning. We hear from a range of experts and elearning creators on how to use game based learning to promote engagement and get results from your learners.

As an introduction Sponge's Louise Pasterfield, talking in a webinar for the Learning and Skills Group , explains where games can be most useful in digital learning.

• 00:20 - Louise Pasterfield on when elearning games are most appropriate

There are many ways to create games or add gamified elements to an online training course, and one of the most common is using an elearning authoring tool. Articulate's Tom Kuhlman spoke to us in 2015 about some of the pitfalls of using game elements within an elearning tool.

• 01:43 - Tom Kuhlman on adding gamification features to elearning authoring tools

We caught up more recently with Sponge's learning game designer Jason Butler when we were talking about Adapt , a software framework that makes it easier to create one course that can be accessed on many different devices. He gives us the low down on whether a game can be integrated with an Adapt course.

• 02:42 - Jason Butler on building games with Adapt

So you've got different options for building the games themselves, but how do you go about tackling the design process if you haven't taken on an elearning game before? Louise Pasterfield takes us through the differences between traditional elearning design and creating a game experience.

• 06:28 - Louise Pasterfield on the difference between traditional elearning and games design 

Gamification consultant Pete Jenkins spoke to us last week and brought up some interesting examples of how gamification is getting real results. We asked him how L&D can prove the link between gamified initiatives, learning outcomes and business results.

• 08:00 - Pete Jenkins on proving gamification works

To wrap up the special #gameweek podcats Professor Karl Kapp, author, consultant and guest on our gameweek hangout has some advice on how to evaluate how well games are working for your learners.

• 09:51 - Karl Kapp on measuring the success of games and what you can do to make sure you get the best out of your feedback

David Kelly is Vice president and executive director of the Elearning Guild, he's one of the people you go to when you want to know what's hot in elearning technology.

Follow David on Twitter @LnDDave.

The questions and their times are provided so you can skip back and forth to learn more on a specific subject:

• 00:34 - What's the value of staying up to date with emerging technology?
• 01:35 - How do you judge what technology has potential in the learning space and what hasn't?
• 03:00 - What have you seen that has the potential to disrupt the learning landscape?
• 06:00 - Are there any red herrings that people thought would be important but haven't emerged as expected?
• 08:24 - How to learning and development professionals stay ahead of the curve?

Topics covered in this interview include:

• Technology in general and how it can be applied to digital learning
• Mobile technology and it's potential for learning
• Interactive video
• Google glass as a successful experiment in augmented reality

Read highlights from the interview in the accompanying blog post.

Our guest for episode 3 is highly respected instructional designer and author Julie Dirksen, you'll be hearing her views on helping learners to form good habits, how to avoid some common design mistakes and what we can all learn from video game designers.

The second edition of Julie Dirksen's book Design for how people learn is regarded as one of the best starting points for anyone new to instructional design.

Here are the questions asked during the interview with their times for quick reference:

• 00.39 What's changed since you wrote the first edition of the book?
• 05.29 What's the most common mistake that people make when they're designing learning experiences?
• 08.57 What are the neuroscience basics that learning professionals need to know?
• 13.07 What are the skills or knowledge that games can teach us really well?
• 19.24 Is there an example of video in elearning that has definitely got it right?
• 22.50 What are the challenges facing women working in the learning technologies industry?
• 29.00 What are you most excited about when you think of the future of elearning?

Links to the authors and theories discussed in the interview:

• Daniel Willingham
• Will Thalheimer
• Gloria Gery's Proficiency model which features in her book Electronic performance support systems.
• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi - Flow state
• Gamergate
• Trina Rimmer
• xAPI standards
• Jane Bozarth, and her book Show your work
• Kirkpatrick model
• Brinkerhoff success case model

Dave Buglass, Head of Capability and Development at Tesco Bank is the guest for this episode of the Sponge podcast, recorded at the Learning Technologies 2016 conference.

Dave was Learning and Develpment Professional of the year and Chief Learning Officer of the year in 2014, he's got more than 20 years experience in L&D and shares his thoughts on what's changed over that time and what needs to change in order for the L&D function to become more effective in the future.

Read excerpts of this interview in out accompanying blog post. http://spongeuk.com/2016/02/whats-holding-ld-back-is-actually-ld/

00:40 - What's changed in L&D over the 20 years you've been doing this? 01:33 - What do you think is holding L&D back from the point where the learner is the centre of everything? 02:53 - On a practical level how do you do that? 03:52 - What part should the L&D vendors be playing? 05:02 - You did the foreward for the most recent Towards Maturity report "Embracing Change" Is 2016 going to be the year of change?

Elliott Masie is one of the best known learning experts in the world, he's an author, conference host, learning researcher and even a broadway producer. Figurehead and founder of the influential Masie center, he held his first learning conference 25 years ago so we started by asking if it's easier or harder for learning professionals now than back then. The interview covers excitement at future technologies, serious games, personalised learning, mobile learning and what L&D can learn from Broadway.