Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself.
– Tecumseh, Shawnee

I just got a notice that I created my WordPress account for this site 13 years ago. How the heck can that even be possible?!? It is a reminder to me about how grateful I am for you.  Yes, that’s right you. Whether we’ve met in person or not, I want you to know how much I appreciate all the wonderful things you’ve given me. I’ve met amazing people who’ve become close friends and learned from super smart people I’d never have known otherwise. I hope I can pass along a fraction of the things I’ve benefitted from through the generosity of others through the years. Thank you!

Thanks for reading! If you find anything good, forward it to a friend or spread the word with a tweet.

Designing for accessibility is not that hard

These seven guidelines from Pablo Stanley (@pablostanley) of InVision are relatively easy to implement, can help you get closer to meeting the AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), and work on the most commonly used assistive technologies — including screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech recognition tools.

https://www.invisionapp.com/inside-design/designing-accessibility-not-hard/

Skill Stacking: A Practical Strategy To Achieve Career Success

Interesting perspective from Darius Foroux (@DariusForoux) about how the combination of various skills combine to help make you successful.

“If you think extraordinary talent and a maniacal pursuit of excellence are necessary for success, I say that’s just one approach, and probably the hardest. When it comes to skills, quantity often beats quality.” — Scott Adams

https://dariusforoux.com/skill-stacking/

2018 Blended Learning Studies: The Year in Review

Dan Biewener (@simplilearn) has assembled 10 of the most notable and relevant blended learning studies from 2018. He has highlighted key findings that seem particularly pertinent to corporate L&D and provided links to the original sources so you can dive deeper.

“Contrary to many guidelines, students do not universally appreciate videos as part of their online learning.”

https://www.simplilearn.com/2018-blended-learning-studies-the-year-in-review-article

Inclusive Design For Accessible Presentations

When you prepare for your next presentation, use these tips from Allison Ravenhall (@ravenally) on how to tweak your slides and your talk so that everyone gets the most out of it.

https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2018/11/inclusive-design-accessible-presentations/

The Evolution of 70:20:10 – Will L&D Survive or Thrive?

Detailed insights from L&D practitioners working in leading organizations about how they are getting to grips with 70:20:10 by @GoodPractice

https://www.goodpractice.com/ld-resources/the-evolution-of-702010/

Learning, Design & Technology Miscellany

A few other things just because I can.

Conference News

• The #wcebc enterprise business collaboration event was this week in Germany. Learn more at https://www.enterprise-business-collaboration.com/
• Looking for your next conference? I’ve added some new events recently to my global collection of L&D events.

Speaker Proposals:

• Canadian Elearning Conferences call for speakers is open through December 7th
• Content Marketing World speaking proposals are open until December 14th
• ICELW 2019 Call for Proposals is now open and the deadline is December 16th, 2018.
• HR Tech Conference – open until December 28th. Get the details here.

Design Resources

• Iloveimg is a fast, free site with just about any tool you could want to edit images in bulk

Apps & Tools

• Squoosh – a really refined way to reduce the file size of your images

Books/Courses/Talks/Podcasts

• Free Webinar: How to Produce DIY Explainer Videos by Lee Lefever of Common Craft

What I’m listening to

• I’m feeling very grateful and relaxed today which puts me in a Chilled Jazz kind of mood.

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Interested in the things that didn’t make the cut here? Follow me on Twitter or even better, subscribe to my newsletter.

I enjoy sharing my ideas and experience with corporate professionals via workshops, keynote presentations, podcasts, and webinars. Learn more in my Speaking and Workshop Information Sheet.

You can find me at these UPCOMING EVENTS:

• November 28:  Instructional Designers in Offices Drinking Coffee #IDIODC
• November 30: TLDC: Marketing in L&D with Bianca Baumann
• December 13: “Insider Secrets for Successful Elearning” ATD Maryland
• January 30: Free Tools for eLearning Spotlight Elearning Guild Online Event
• February 4-6: ATD TechKnowledge, West Palm Beach, FL
• February 13-14: Learning Technologies, London, UK
• March 24-26: Learning Solutions, Orlando, FL

Looking for a previous edition? Check out the archives