Enspire Learning Blog

Enspire marketeers Kristin Kahlich and Emily Straus will be leading a session during an E-learning Guild Online Forum. The session, titled “Coming Soon to a Computer Near You,” will focus on the exploration of marketing trailers as a technique for internally marketing training programs. The session will also cover the marketing campaigns surrounding a few popular movies and explain how trainers can apply those techniques to their own courses. Join us for this online forum Friday, May 16 at 12:15 p.m. CT. To register for the conference, please visit the Management E-Learning Guild website.

Enspire Learning’s CEO, Bjorn Billhardt, will be sharing his knowledge about measuring leadership behaviors that impact the bottom line in an upcoming Talent Management webinar. He will join a panel, sponsored by Lore International Institute, that will review new simulations that develop executives by immersing them in real-life scenarios and will explore audits of top leadership teams with direct ROI correlation.

Whether you are part of a small, midsized or global organization — or you need to assess new leaders or top senior executives — you don’t want to miss the opportunity to hear about these scalable tools. Join leaders from Lore, Enspire and Mannaz (previously known as The Danish Leadership Institute) to hear how their clients have successfully used these new interventions to improve their businesses.

The panel will take place Tuesday, May 13 at 2 p.m. Eastern/11 a.m. Pacific. For more information on the webinar, please visit the Talent Management events page. To register for this webinar, click here.

Several members of the Enspire Learning team will be attending the E-Learning Guild Annual Gathering in Orlando next week. The conference runs April 14-17 at the Hilton Walt Disney Resort. If you're attending the conference, please stop by our booth (#515). Don't miss Nathan Kracklauer's "Training Social Skills Digitally with Simulations and Games" at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 15. For more information, please visit the Annual Gathering website.

Chief Learning Officer magazine profiled Enspire’s use of marketing trailers for SAP’s virtual team management course in the April issue. In 2004, Enspire created a six-module optional training curriculum for the global software company. To encourage learners to spend time taking the training course, Enspire created a two-minute trailer by repurposing the multimedia used in the course. To read the full article, go to the CLO website.

Enspire is currently developing a next-generation online finance curriculum, Fluent in Finance. Featuring rich media tutorials, Interactive Case Studies, exercises and a business simulation, Fluent in Finance aims to provide a better way for non-financial managers to learn finance.

We're happy to release a limited Alpha version of Fluent in Finance today. You can access part of Chapter 2 of the content here.

We're still soliciting feedback from customers, so if you have any comments, please drop me a line at shon@enspire.com.

Wiilearning has captured the eye of the Austin Chronicle. Leading up to the panel on using wii remotes for e-learning, Patrick Sanchez was interviewed for the Austin Chronicle. You can read the article on the Chronicle's website.

Several bloggers also took notice of the wiilearning panel. Check out the recaps on Serious Games Source and My Opera.

Join us at a South by Southwest event tonight. Enspire Learning is sponsoring Carnypocalypse benefiting the League of Technical Voters. There will be several bands, belly dancers, apocalypse-themed carnival games, and more!

When: Monday, March 10; 8 p.m. to 2 a.m.
Where: Elysium (7th and Red River), Austin, TX

For more information on the League of Technical Voters, go to www.leagueoftechvoters.org.

Next week I'll be moderating a panel at the SxSW Interactive Festival called "Can Wii Learn: Using Wiimotes for E-learning" where I'll be discussing the possibilities of applying the unique controls of the wiimote to applications intended to teach.

A year ago when I proposed this topic there weren't many people using the wiimote apart from with the Wii itself. Since then I've seen articles describing the wiimote being used in physical therapy, medical, science, and elearning.

I think one of the reasons for the Wiimotes success has been its ubiquity and novelty. The Wii is now the best selling "next-gen" console and its making serious inroads with non-gamers. That has put the wiimote in 9 million U.S. homes and 20 million worldwide*. Add that to the novelty of a game console you can control by waving your hand and you have a hit. What few people realize is that the Wiimote is a standard bluetooth device that can easily connect to a PC to control almost any program you have. I think this is the reason its so popular with the DIY crowd.

Several members of the Enspire Learning team will be participating in ASTD TechKnowledge in San Antonio Feb. 26-28. If you’re coming to the conference, please stop by Booth 201 to see our latest e-learning creations and meet the team.

Nathan Kracklauer will be leading a demonstration of Finance Challenge on Wednesday, Feb. 27 at Exhibitor Demo Area 1 at 1:30 p.m. Later that afternoon, Nathan will be joined by CEO Bjorn Billhardt to lead a session titled, "The 3 Ps of Sim Development ROI: Prototype, Prototype, and Prototype."

For more information on ASTD TechKnowledge, click here. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Enspire is headed down to the land of peaches, Coca Cola, the Braves, and those syrupy sweet Southern accents.

Four Enspirees will be at the Training 2008 Conference and Expo in Atlanta on February 4-6. Stop by our booth #109 to see our latest e-learning innovations, say hi to the team, and grab a tasty treat. For the early risers, Shon Bayer and Nathan Kracklauer will be delivering a session entitled “The 3 Ps to Sim Development ROI: Prototype, Prototype, Prototype” at 8 a.m. Monday morning. At 2:45 that afternoon, Shon will give another session, “Designing E-Learning Simulations to Drive Results.” For more information on the conferece, go to Training’s Website. We’re looking forward to seeing you there!