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Category: Blog

Social Media’s Impact on eLearning

I took a brief break from work recently to visit with my Mother on Canada’s west coast. Waiting for my flight, I found myself mindlessly scrolling through my social media feed. In just fifteen minutes, I had consumed dozens of short videos, read several brief articles, and engaged with countless images. As I put my […]

Storyline: Reducing Interaction Complexity

Do you find yourself dreading the initial setup and endless revisions for innovative designs? Imagine being able to craft those flashy interactions effortlessly, without a complex mess of events. What if editing took minutes and not hours? If this sounds interesting, then get ready to step into the world of function layers. With each review […]

The 10 Lies of Learning, Lie #10: If We Build It (a Learning Program), They Will Come

Welcome to our countdown of the biggest lies in Learning & Development. We’re starting with #10 – a comforting fiction that has launched a thousand LMS implementations. You’ve seen the movie Field of Dreams. Kevin Costner hears a whisper in his cornfield: “If you build it, he will come.” He constructs a baseball diamond, and […]

The Collective Advantage: How Collaborative Learning Creates Lasting Results

I used to dread the words “team-building exercise” during professional development sessions. The moment our facilitator announced we’d be doing role play or building the tallest structure using only spaghetti, tape, and marshmallows, I’d have to stifle a groan. It felt like a waste of time that could be better spent learning “real” skills. Yet […]

The 10 Biggest Lies in Learning & Development: A Contrarian’s Guide

A Brief Foreword from Cathy Thornhill: We’re delighted to welcome Josh LeFebvre as our guest contributor. While never officially a member of our team, Josh has been an invaluable part of the Smartfirm ecosystem for years—first as a client, then as a trusted advisor. His unique perspective bridges both sides of our business relationship, offering […]

The Emotional Side of Learning: Designing for Empathy

This blog post was inspired by a recent project I worked on for a large consulting company, where I did the instructional design work. The project focused on creating meaningful messages that resonate with clients, with a key emphasis on empathy—understanding clients’ challenges and emotions by stepping into their shoes. Throughout this work, I couldn’t […]

Embracing AI in Instructional Design: The Super-ID Era

If you feel like everyone’s talking about AI these days, you’re not alone. It’s everywhere—at work, in the news, and in our household, in our conversations at the dinner table. In the Learning and Development community, you’d be hard-pressed to find a conversation that doesn’t somehow circle back to AI. And when this all started, […]

Emotion and Memory: Creating Training That Sticks

As an accountant, I’ve endured countless hours of continuing professional education to maintain my credentials. Most of these courses consisted of slide after slide of dry regulations and technical updates. I’d dutifully click through, earn my credits, and promptly forget most of what I’d “learned.” The information simply didn’t stick.  When I changed careers to […]

AI-Powered Personalized Learning: The Future of Cost-Effective E-Learning

Picture this: Two ambitious professionals are each taking an online project management course. Two Design Approaches Which of these two learners will be more likely to achieve—and retain—the promised learning objectives and outcomes? Mitchel is taking a course designed using a generalized learning approach. Long the norm for eLearning development, it is a one-size-fits-all solution […]