Enspire Learning Blog

“Long live the strike” was not my first thought when Air France stranded me in Atlanta the other day. The French have their culture of strikes, but other strikes have been in the news recently: in Germany, the train drivers’ union, and in the US, autoworkers at GM and Chrysler have staged minor strikes.

In the US, the autoworkers’ strikes are not about raises. They are about “job security.” It’s very easy to side with the workers who want secure jobs. But if you’re like me and you think that the world could do with half as many cars, you’re in a bind. You can’t have fewer cars and the same number of autoworkers. By the same token, you can’t eliminate coal power without compromising miner’s job security.

Job security is nice in theory, but we live in a world in which change happens whether we like it or not. We’ve all heard hundreds of times that change is picking up its pace. And there is a lot in this world that needs a-changing. But whether or not change is welcome, change is a fact, and one thing it means is that jobs will become obsolete, or they will drastically transform as technology advances.

Enspire and the e-learning industry will be affected, too. Five years from now, we will not be using the same tools we are using today, and we will have to learn those new tools.

Three Enspirees do! Nathan Kracklauer, Shon Bayer, and Kristin Kahlich will be at DevLearn 2007 in San Jose November 6th through 8th. If you are attending the conference, please attend one of their sessions.

On Tuesday, November 6, Shon and Kristin will lead a discussion about the issues surrounding the roles of Web 2.0 and social networking in training in “What the Heck is Facebook?” The session will be held at 3:15 p.m.

On Wednesday, November 7, Nathan and Shon will discuss the importance of prototyping in “The 3 Ps of Simulation ROI: Prototype, Prototype, and Prototype.” Their session will be held at 1:15 p.m. Later that afternoon, Nathan will show a demo one of Enspire’s custom content courses during E-learning DemoFest.

For more information on DevLearn 2007, click here

A course created by Enspire Learning and Cisco Systems was honored by Training magazine as “Soft Skills/Business Simulation Project of the Year” through the magazine’s inaugural Technology in Action Awards.

Enspire and Cisco created “Mastering Communications Using Rich Media” to improve sales presentation skills, specifically over virtual media. Judges commented that the course included “excellent writing, scenarios, and interactivity.” Another noted, “This was my favorite submission this year.”

Award recipients were honored at a ceremony in conjunction with Training Tech Solutions conference and expo in Salt Lake City. Winning learning initiatives will be featured in the November/December 2007 issue of Training.

October 14 to 16 will find three Enspirees in the land of the Great Salt Lake. Enspire Learning will be participating in this year’s Training Tech Solutions conference in Salt Lake City.

If you are attending the conference, please stop by Enspire’s booth (#319) to talk shop, see our newest innovations, and enjoy a tasty treat. The Enspire team will be attending the Technology In Action Awards ceremony and reception the evening of Sunday, Oct. 14.

Bjorn Billhardt, CEO, will be presenting two sessions during the conference. On Tuesday, Oct. 16, Bjorn will present "Using Simulations and Experiential Learning to Develop Leadership" at 9:30 a.m. On Tuesday afternoon, Bjorn will lead "How to Use Games and Simulations in E-learning" at 3:30 p.m.

For more information about Training Tech Solutions, visit the conference website. We look forward to seeing you out West!

Enspire Learning was awarded a 2007 Gold Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning Award in the custom content category. The honored course, Mastering Communications Using Rich Media, was created in collaboration with Cisco Systems. This course used case studies and presentation building and delivery simulations to teach learners how to effectively use Cisco’s teleconferencing and virtual meeting technologies.

Several members of the Enspire team were present at the awards ceremony in conjunction with Brandon Hall’s Innovations in Learning conference. For a complete list of winners, visit the Brandon Hall Research Website.

This is the third year in a row that Enspire has received a Gold Brandon Hall Award. In 2006, Enspire also received a Bronze Award.

Next week six Enspirees are venturing to Silicon Valley to participate in the Brandon Hall Innovations in Learning conference. From September 24 through 26, members of our team will be in Santa Clara to learn industry tips and tricks and present a few sessions of their own.

On Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. Lytton Gilliland, Vu Le, and Ben Katz will present “ARG Matey- Ready to Learn?” In this session, they will take learners on a journey through an Alternate Reality Game (ARG) and discuss the pros and cons of ARGs in learning. At 3:15 p.m. Tuesday, Shon Bayer will lead conference goers through an interactive session to demonstrate the simulation prototyping process in “The 3 P’s of Simulation ROI: Prototype, Prototype, and Prototype.”

To round out the Enspire presentations, Bjorn Billhardt and Kristin Kahlich will lead a discussion on social networking and its role in training. They will present “What the Heck is Facebook?” on Wednesday at 11:15 a.m.

If you are attending Innovations in Learning, please stop by one of these sessions. For more information on the conference, visit the Innovations in Learning website.

Karl Kapp has a great new book out called Gadgets, Games and Gizmos for Learning: Tools and Techniques for Transferring Know-How from Boomers to Gamers by Karl Kapp from Bloomburg University -- and it just so happens to mention Enspire.

The whole book is worth a read. Several other bloggers have already provided keen synopses, reviews, and thoughts of the book as part of a Blog Book Tour -- and Enspire is sponsoring day six. You can find links to all the other bloggers and keep up with the tour at Karl’s blog.

The book specifically calls out Enspire’s custom e-learning course and simulation for SAP, a six-hour learning experience for project managers with teams scattered across the globe (that just so happened to win a Gold Brandon Hall Award). The book does a great job of discussing the project, but there's nothing quite like experiencing the real thing.

So Enspire’s provided access to demos for three of the six SAP courses below. Experience our funky fictional world of Orth and unique project management sims (or "games" really) for yourself. Let us know what you think in the comments!

With 380% revenue growth in the last three years, Enspire ranked 921 on the Inc. 5000 list of "The Fastest Growing Private Companies in America."

Congratulations to the entire Enspire team!

Jane Berentson, the Inc. Editor, stated, "If you want to find out which companies are going to change the world, look at the Inc. 500. These are the most innovative, dynamic, fast-growing companies in the nation, the ones coming up with solutions to some of our most intractable ills, creating systems that let us conduct business faster and easier, and manufacturing products we soon discover we can't live without. The Inc. 500 list is Inc. magazine's tribute to American business ingenuity and ambition."

To read more or to see the complete list, visit the Inc. website.

Get your autographs now while he's still humble! It looks like Enspire's very own Stephen Robinson has conquered the small, digital screen. He's now feature in a promo Enspire developed to demonstrate Adobe's new Captivate 3 - a versatile screen recording software.

Enspire's mini-module serves not only as an example of the software's features, but also as a template for users who need to borrow components of the demo. And for the ladies, it offers an added attraction - the ever-charming Mr. Robinson.

Enspire's own Bjorn Billhardt and Shon Bayer will explore the use of games and simulations in training business leaders in an American Management Association webcast. In "Get in the Game: Using Business Simulations to Drive Excellence," Bjorn and Shon will describe a variety of business games and provide guidance in choosing the correct gaming approach for a company's needs.

Join Bjorn and Shon on September 5 from noon to 1 p.m. The webcast is free, but registration prior to the event is required. To register, visit the American Management Association Website.