Event Recap: DevLearn 2014

Diane Elkins, Tim Slade, and I all attended the DevLearn 2014 Conference & Expo this past week in Las Vegas. If you haven’t been to this event before, it’s an incredible opportunity to explore the tools, techniques, and tricks of successful e-learning developers from all over the world. This year’s conference was no exception.

Diane and Tim kicked off the week by conducting a pre-conference program for those new to e-learning: E-Learning 101: Everything You Need to Know to Get Started. With the way the e-learning market continues to grow, it came as no surprise that their session was full. For many attendees, the session was literally their first step in understanding what e-learning is and what it requires.  The workshop was based on our book, E-Learning Uncovered: From Concept to Execution.  Many of the checklists and templates they used in class are available to anyone on the companion website.

Later in the week, Tim and I presented our session titled Don’t Let Your Interface Get in the Way of Your User. In our presentation, Tim and I spoke about five important tips to follow when you’re developing an interface for your e-learning content. We were thrilled with the turnout and had a lot of great feedback. For some attendees, the session opened their eyes to details they hadn’t thought about previously.  For others, it validated design decisions they have been making, even if they didn’t understand why they had made them. You can access our presentation handout here.

For me, the best part about DevLearn is the opportunity to attend a variety of sessions and keynote presentations. This year’s event included an inspiring keynote by astrophysicist, cosmologist, and host of the recent television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey, Neil deGrass Tyson.In it, he spoke greatly about why we need more scientists in the world. It boils down to one thing–they are trained to be problem solvers.

When it came time for the breakout sessions, I gravitated toward those that involved responsive design. With so many conference attendees interacting regularly with their iPads, iPhones, Androids, and laptops, it seems that an interest in responsive design shouldn’t be a surprise. But, for me, it begs the question – do you really want to deliver the same e-learning content on a laptop, a tablet, and a smartphone? And if so, why? I’ll be exploring some of these questions and the emerging tools for responsive design in future blog posts.

DevLearn is also a great place to ask these types of questions and more. Whether you’re a newbie in e-learning or someone who has been involved in it for years, DevLearn presents an incredible opportunity to explore the technologies that are available, learn the practices of successful e-learning developers, and gain inspiration for your future e-learning projects. Next year’s event will once again be in Las Vegas from September 30 – October 2, 2015.