Ross Stevenson

L&D just got a seat in the boardroom. Here’s why that changes everything. Learning is no longer something you check off in a conference room or bury inside an LMS. It’s now a strategic lever that boards and investors are watching closely. They’re asking: “How prepared is your workforce for the next wave of change?” That’s not a finance question. It’s not an ops question. It’s an L&D question. The Chief Learning Officer, and L&D leaders are now on the front line of growth, resilience, and competitive advantage. Organizations that treat learning as a cost will get left behind. Organizations that treat it as a growth engine will win the future. The boardroom is listening. Is your L&D strategy ready?

61

8 Comments

Articulate RISE eLearning Course Glossary Popups 🔴 𝗘𝗱𝗶𝘁 05-10-2025: Glossary Editor App link: https://lnkd.in/dW7gnKmU 𝗠𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗯𝘂𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗹𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀 𝗻𝗲𝘅𝘁 𝘄𝗲𝗲𝗸 ⚡ for the eLearning development and instructional design community! You’ve probably seen those handy 𝘄𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗺𝗲𝗮𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝗽𝘂𝗽𝘀 on 𝗪𝗶𝗸𝗶𝗽𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮. I’ve built the same interactive experience for eLearning courses. 🔗 𝗣𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄 𝗟𝗶𝗻𝗸: https://lnkd.in/d9hQqDsT 👉 This is not limited to Articulate Rise elearning course, it’s a versatile tool. You can build one central glossary, export it as a JSON file, and connect it to any eLearning authoring tool package. With a single link, your glossary content becomes interactive inside any Rise course (and other tools as well). 𝗧𝗼 𝗺𝗮𝗸𝗲 𝗴𝗹𝗼𝘀𝘀𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗰𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗲𝗿, I also developed a Glossary Editor (a companion utility). It allows eLearning developers and instructional designers to build and manage glossaries, add definitions, images, reference links, and quickly import/export JSON for integration. ✨ 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗮𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝗙𝗲𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝘀: ✅ 𝗔𝗰𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆: ● ARIA labels ● keyboard navigation ● Focus management ● Screen reader support ● High contrast mode ● Reduced motion support ✅ 𝗠𝗼𝗯𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝘆:  ● Touch detection ● Responsive centered popups ● Large tap targets ● Viewport awareness. I hope this contribution helps the eLearning development and instructional design community by making it easier than ever to add interactive, accessible, and responsive glossaries to eLearning packages. #instructionaldesign #elearningdevelopment #elearning #instructionaldesigner #elearningdeveloper #articulaterise #articulate #rise360 #elearningcommunity #risepopup #riseglossary #nrzmalik

124

8 Comments

What matters most to neurodivergent learners. For our session at the World of Learning Conference, Emma Hutchins and I have been compiling a list of actions that can help make digital learning more inclusive for neurodivergent people. Thank you to everyone who has shared their experiences and ideas over the last few weeks. We’ve now pulled everything together into the version below. Our next step is to identify which points have the greatest impact. Let us know in the comments which of these resonates most with you. Your input will help shape the focus of our session. 😊 Content clarity and structure – Provide clear and consistent instructions throughout all learning materials. – Ensure a clear and logical content structure so information fits neatly into well-defined categories. – Use bulleted lists instead of long paragraphs to aid readability. – Present information on screen so that it complements and supports the learning, rather than distracting from it - for example, highlight key points in bulleted text, use images that build mental connections, and keep deeper notes separate. Learner-centered communication – Provide clear, relevant, and tangible examples so learners understand what “good” looks like. – Write in plain language to reduce unnecessary complexity. – Adopt a friendly and welcoming tone where possible to reduce stress and help learners feel included, unless formality is essential. Accessible design choices – Avoid poor colour contrast and other design issues that contribute to sensory overload. – Avoid locked navigation controls (like 'Continue' buttons) unless it is obvious what needs to be completed to progress. Control over media and sensory input – Do not include moving or animated content unless learners can pause, stop or hide it. – Allow learners to change the speed of video content (both slower and faster) to suit their processing needs. – Always provide transcripts for video and audio to offer choice in how content is accessed. – Give learners control over audio narration - allow them to start, stop, or bypass it entirely. – Keep multimedia experiences manageable to avoid overstimulation from multi-sensory overload. – Avoid dynamic captions that move, flash, or animate in ways that distract or ‘shout’ at learners. – If possible, avoid linking to external video sites (such as YouTube) unless the learner’s return path is clear and accessible. Assessment and feedback design – Write unambiguous questions and instructions and test them for clarity. – Provide clear, direct feedback for knowledge checks — explicitly state the correct answer and explain why it is correct. – Avoid double negatives in both questions and feedback, as they slow comprehension and retention. #WOL25 #Neurodiversity (A collage of human head profiles, each filled with a brightly colored symbol such as puzzle pieces, flowers, gears, charts, and abstract patterns, visually representing individuality and diversity of thought.)

80

15 Comments

What’s your biggest eLearning bugbear? (That one thing that makes you roll your eyes every time you see it…) I’m often called in to review courses, and the same issues show up again and again. Instead of helping people learn, they leave learners sighing, clicking aimlessly, or muttering “why am I doing this?” Here are some of the common offenders 1. No recognition of prior learning (RPL). Learners forced to repeat content they already know. “Why am I doing this again? Didn’t I already cover this last year?” 2. Hidden time commitment and lack of progress indicators. Nested sections and unclear navigation mean people can’t see how long the module really takes. “If I’d known this was going to take an hour, I would’ve planned my time. Now I just feel stuck.” 3. Poor structure. No headings (or titles that are too vague or too long), making content blur together. 4. Cognitive overload. Ten examples dumped on one page. Fourteen elements crammed into a diagram. No grouping, no icons, just too much to process. “This is way too much to take in at once. Where am I supposed to focus?” 5. Walls of bullet points. Sometimes even paragraphs forced into bullets. Learners need variety — icons, frameworks, or just clean text. 6. Images that add no value. Stock photos of people smiling at laptops distract instead of support learning. 7. Unnecessarily confusing quiz formats, such as: “What does OHS stand for?” A. Occupational Health and Safety B. Operational Health and Safety C. Occupational Hazard and Safety D. Organisational Health and Safety Every option looks plausible. It’s more about spotting typos than testing knowledge. 8. Obvious or patronising questions. Sometimes the answer is literally baked into the question: “Which of the following is an electrical hazard: a faulty light switch, a leaking chemical drum, or poor posture at your desk?” “Do they think I’m stupid? This isn’t teaching me anything.” 9. Punishing feedback. Get a True/False wrong? You’re forced to retry with the wrong answer still selected. Get one question wrong in a quiz? Redo the entire thing. That’s not feedback — that’s punishment. 10. Unclear question types. Multiple choice and multiple response look identical. Without radio buttons vs checkboxes, learners are left guessing. 11. Bad UX. Writing “Exit” instead of a simple ❌. Tiny breaks in standard design conventions that make everything clunky. Each of these mistakes chips away at motivation. Together, they turn eLearning into a box-ticking exercise instead of something people actually learn from. But here’s the good news - it doesn’t have to be this way. Well-designed eLearning can respect learners’ time, build on what they already know, and use clear structure, visuals, and assessments that actually help people grow. That’s the kind of learning people don’t just complete, they remember. So I’ll ask again: What’s your biggest eLearning bugbear? Drop it in the comments 👇

36

93 Comments

If you’re in L&D I’d highly recommend following and listening to Rory Sutherland. You might think I’m crazy because he’s not an L&D expert, he’s a marketing expert. But this is exactly why you should listen to what he says. He’s in the game of changing behaviours. ✅ Take this quote as a great example: “Most people believe that the bigger an idea the less marketing it needs. However the bigger the idea the MORE marketing it actually needs because it requires people to change their behaviour A LOT - and they find that really painful. If you want people to change behaviour, you can either ask 100 people to change their mind - or you can change one context.” What Rory is pointing out about marketing, and in my opinion L&D, is that it isn’t merely about promotion - it’s often about reshaping perceptions and overcoming the inherently irrational resistance people have to change. In our world this means: ➙ The real challenge isn’t building a great programme - it’s creating the conditions where change feels natural, inevitable and even desirable. ➙ The lesson for L&D is clear. Don’t just design for knowledge transfer design for behavioural adoption. And that takes intentional, sustained “marketing” inside your organisation. ➙ If your programme isn’t being “marketed” internally as hard as it’s being delivered, don’t be surprised when it fails to shift the needle. ➙ Ask yourself - are you investing enough energy into shaping the context for change - or are you still hoping the content alone will do the work? ➙ Change happens when the path of least resistance leads somewhere new. That’s as true for marketing as it is for learning. 💡 A successful development or change initiative requires marketing, communication and a purpose aligned with business outcomes. If you’ve never met your marketing or comms team, maybe today should be the day you connect with them, and tap into their expertise. #Leadership #Marketing #CreatingImpactatScale

32

6 Comments