Video Learning Lab

Today, we're featuring Nelson Sivalingam, an innovative leader and the CEO and Co-founder of HowNow. He has masterminded a global learning platform dedicated to providing employees with timely and necessary learning resources. Known for his focus on enhancing performance and personal development, Nelson is a frequent presence at industry conferences and a respected voice in the field. His contributions have earned him recognition as one of the top Asian Stars in Tech by KPMG.

Additionally, Nelson has written the insightful book "Learning at Speed," which offers strategies on upskilling and reskilling workforces rapidly to boost business performance.

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Chapters

01:31 - What's the big topic with AI and L&D at the moment?

11:07 - AI has been in L&D for some time, not just recently

14:55 - What is Learning at Speed?

20:01 - What team is the best fit for the Lean Learning Method?

26:49 - How do we change the company's perception of L&D?

31:30 - 3 Things L&D teams need to let go of

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. Learning at speed is about applying product methodology and mindset to creating learning that the organization actually wants.

2. L&D and startups are very similar in how they develop their product because there's an urgency to figure out what is your product before you run out of money.

3. L&D needs to find a way to make their language universal to the business – which can be done by applying the lean learning methodology. If we speak the language of the business, we can get more support for our learning initiatives.

4. L&D needs to be measured in approaching a solution. We have our tools of training, courses, or other resources – but we could spend more time on finding the solution that actually fits the problem we're trying to understand.

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📚 Resources:

Connect with Nelson on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nelsonsivalingam/

Learning at Speed:

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-Speed-Workforce-Business-Performance/dp/1398603104

Learning Canvas:

(MIRO) https://miro.com/miroverse/the-learning-canvas/?social=copy-link

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

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🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Markus Bernhardt is a Fellow of the Learning Performance Institute and a member of several prestigious councils, including the Forbes Technology Council and the HBR Advisory Council. A leading voice in the global learning and HR landscape, he is an author, speaker, and panelist. Recently, he was the chief evangelist at OBRIZUM, where he merged cognitive science with digital learning and AI.

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0:00 - Introduction

0:49 - What was different about this year compared to past years?

2:16 - What were the big takeaways from this year's conference?

4:24 - Why has no one yet mastered AI application to work?

7:03 - What emerging tech or tools will impact learner experience?

10:42 - What skills will L&D teams need to deliver on in 2024?

14:37 - What was the biggest takeaway from the AI symposium?

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. Everyone is still experimenting but no one has a strategy for how to leverage AI meaningfully for work (yet).

2. Read the terms and conditions of your AI tools! A lot of them are safer than you might thing.

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📚 Resources:

Connect with Markus on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markus-bernhardt/

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

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🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Josh Cavalier is a leading figure in Learning & Development with nearly 30 years of experience. Specializing in the application of Generative AI frameworks like ChatGPT, he offers innovative solutions for corporations, government agencies, and educational institutions. Josh shares his wealth of knowledge through a popular YouTube channel focused on Generative AI tips and tricks.

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Chapters

02:02 - Is now the time to start using video?

06:07 - This is the reason you need to learn prompt engineering

10:40 - Don't wait to start experimenting with AI content creation

19:27 - Has AI made a big splash this year...or not yet?

27:22 - Why do training videos look so old, if the tech is so new?

36:54 - How training has changed from old to new

45:32 - Closing words from Josh

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. The world of AI tech is changing overnight. Those who are experimenting now will be able to keep up later.

2. We're all waiting to figure out what to do with AI in our lives and work, especially when it comes to LLMs.

3. Both training experiences and audiences have changed. We're in a fist fight for attention and it's up to training designers to create more engaging, more useful experiences.

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📚 Resources:

Connect with Josh on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshcavalier/

Josh's ChatGPT Masterclass: https://www.joshcavalier.com/chatgpt-for-learning-development-masterclass

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Ashley Sinclair is the Managing Director at MAAS Marketing and has spent almost ten years working in marketing for the learning and development (L&D) sector. She encourages people in L&D to use marketing techniques to improve their work, and also co-hosts a podcast called Marketing for Learning to share ideas on how to make L&D better.

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Chapters

00:00 - Ashley's intro and snowboarding

05:08 - L&D is wasting it's budget on useless resources

09:27 - Marketing for learning is the same as marketing for products

14:45 - Start by auditing what's in your resource library

20:08 - Building out a marketing plan

32:33 - Wrapping up the process of building a marketing plan

45:15 - Pro tip: forget training and think about the people

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. L&D has a huge need for marketing within the organization. Employees often don't know about certain resources that are available because this hasn't been clearly communicated to them.

2. Drop the assumption that employees want to learn and will be able to help themselves. L&D needs to understand their audience and develop solutions that meet that need.

3. Take stock of the instructional resources that are available and understand what the experience is like for your users. This is an easy opportunity to assess what is working, what can go, and what needs updating.

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📚 Resources:

Connect with Ashley on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ashsinclair/

MAAS Marketing: https://www.maas-marketing.co.uk/

____

🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Matt Gjertsen is the founder and Chief Learning Officer of Better Every Day Studios, a firm specializing in instructional design for aerospace and defense companies. With a background as an Instructor Pilot in the U.S. Air Force and a Manager of Training and Development at SpaceX, Matt brings a wealth of experience in training and development.

In this episode, we spoke about how Matt's background and development as an Air Force Training Pilot have helped him to craft no-nonsense training programs for his clients.

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Chapters

00:00 - Matt's Intro and Failing into Training

04:42 - How do increase the rigor of your training?

11:58 - Surround your participants with your training topic

17:05 - Focus on Behavior vs. Knowledge for Effective Training

22:16 - Example: How to uncover key behaviors for training

27:55 - What cognitive load actually looks like

37:54 - Relationships are key to giving good feedback

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. To focus on performance, you need to identify the behavior that you will need to see to know the training was successful.

2. Immerse your participants in your training experience, not just in the time you have with them. Send out resources with different formats, give them primers for your next workshop, and help them to fall in love with the problems you're trying to solve.

3. Don't give feedback unless you can say that you care about the other person's development.

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📚 Resources:

Connect with Matt on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthewgjertsen/

Better Every Day Studios: https://www.bettereverydaystudios.com/

____

🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠⁠

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Kristin Torrence is helping to bring VR scenarios and training into the mainstream at CA-based company, Talespin. As the Head of Learning Engineering, she focuses on the development of targeted skills through the designing VR scenarios.

In this episode, we spoke about how Kristin approaches VR learning experience design, what types of performance are the perfect fit for VR, and how to evaluate the effectiveness of an employee going through training.

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Chapters

00:00 - What is Learning Engineering?

07:44 - What's the current state of VR and training?

11:22 - How VR content has evolved for L&D

18:12 - What type of instruction is FIT for VR?

22:15 - How do you give good feedback in VR training?

34:30 - How do you design a virtual human to give feedback?

41:14 - How to use ChatGPT to develop better scenarios

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. VR training allows for more realistic, repeatable, and immersive scenarios that more closely mimic real-life situations and experience that classroom training can't.

2. Two types of feedback that are key to designing VR training are formative and summative assessments. You want to assess skill-building in progress as well as report back the overall progress towards a performance goal.

3. Define the skills, align the decision-points, and then provide multiple pathways to the "best" solution. Employees won't get the right solution every single time, but there should be opportunities to recover "wrong" choices and get back to the same positive outcome.

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📚 Resources:

IEEEVR: Professional organization committed to the development of Learning Engineering as a profession and as an academic discipline.

Talespin: Kristin's company dedicated towards building VR solutions for the Future of Work.

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠

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Cara North is one of the most recognized named in Instructional Design both for effective Instructional Design practices and getting a solid start in the industry. She is the founder of The Learning Camel and the author of "Learning Experience Design Essentials."

In this episode, we spoke all about how Cara got her start as an Instructional Designer as well as how to make practical use of AI avatars in your learning resources.

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Chapters

00:00 - Intro and Cara's start in Instructional Design

05:17 - Moving from Trainee to Trainer

09:32 - Seek Out Opportunities for Better Projects as an Entry-Level ID

16:20 - Being Proactive and not Reactive in L&D

25:12 - How Cara uses AI Avatars in Training

37:00 - Designing a Learning Journey

45:00 - How to Experiment with New AI Tools

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. Social Equity is an instructional designer's super power for getting things done within the business. Who you meet and who you know can help you answer questions, provide context, or be your champion!

2. AI avatars are a way to bring learning design to life.

3. When learning to use instructional design tools, you don't need to reinvent the wheel, but you should find something to base your content around like a nearby book or favorite blog article.

4. Don't just reach for AI tools. Identify a particular problem you're looking to solve and then find the right AI solution to test.

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📚 Resources:

Cara's book "Learning Experience Design Essentials: Amazon

Connect with Cara North: ⁠⁠LinkedIn⁠⁠

The Learning Camel (consulting service): ⁠⁠Click here

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ ⁠here⁠:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on ⁠LinkedIn⁠

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Donald Clark is one of the most well-known experts on bringing AI into Learning and Instruction. He's the former CEO of Epic Group plc, and current CEO of AI learning company WildFire.

In this episode, we spoke all about why L&D can't seem to nail the right problems for the business and their failed approach to making learning happen.

And of course...how we could fix it.

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Chapters

0:00 - Intro and Donald's background

2:47 - The early beginnings of learning technologies

5:47 - Turning yourself into an AI model with Synthesia

9:18 - The role of AI avatars in performance support

13:39 - Why is AI such a boon for learning?

20:32 - The Big Problem with Workplace Learning

25:52 - What are the skills that L&D needs to have to survive?

33:37 - The role of dialogue and intelligence and language

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🖐🏽 Key Takeaways:

1. Learning is a process and L&D needs to remember learning science if it wants to drive new behavior and results. Training as an event is dead.

2. AI avatars provide a face and a voice for the content that gets generated. We'll need something to interact with.

3. People are missing the point of ChatGPT in being a program for learning through dialogue.

4. The Future of AI in Learning and Development is performance support...not more content.

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📚 Resources:

Donald's blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/

Connect with Donald: ⁠LinkedIn⁠

Great Minds on Learning Podcast: ⁠Link to show⁠

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🤔 About the Host

Kevin Alster leads the learning team at Synthesia focusing primarily on product education and client services.

With over a decade of experience in education and learning, he has moved from the classroom and into tech to help people create and communicate better through video.

He has been developing enterprise and branded learning solutions in organizations such as General Assembly, The School of The New York Times, and Sotheby’s Institute of Art.

____

🧑🏽‍🏫 Check out the ⁠Synthesia Academy⁠ here:

⁠https://www.synthesia.io/academy⁠ 🗣

Or get in touch with me on LinkedIn

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Ross Stevenson is the creator of the L&D newsletter Steal These Thoughts.

Dr. Kuva Jacobs is the Founding Director of the Redpoint Consulting Firm and the creator of the LinkedIn Group Learning Myth Busters.

Be wary of nice round numbers in learning graphics like 'The Learning Pyramid.'

Learning science shows that we don't really "unlearn" anything. Rather, you take on new information and add it to your current understanding of a new topic. It's more like a Word document that has all of the edits, track changes, and comments.

When confronting someone about a learning myth, it's important to emphasize with that person. No one likes being attacked. Instead, get to the bottom of why that person uses that myth and show them research when appropriate.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/kuvaj/