by Beth Hedger

DevLearn 2020 was my 2nd year at DevLearn but something was different! Instead of packing up and heading to Las Vegas for a blurry week of sessions, vendor expos and DemoFest, we all got to attend from the comfort of home and spaced out over the course of a couple of weeks. Although I missed the nice dinners and Vegas shows, I got to take advantage of so many more sessions, come back to on-demand and recordings and put the new learning into immediate action.

Session 534 – Training and Performance Onboarding

This session talked about ways to make onboarding a learning experience instead of an information dump. Case study: A company used training tablets that employees were able to use at their workstation. This gave new employees who would not normally be at a desk and opportunity to access on-demand, on-the-job training and job aids while they’re performing their job.

Great idea: Make onboarding a learning experience that sets the tone and builds a learning culture.

Session 232 – Creating Better Video

As a learning project manager, I don’t always get into the weeds of video production but I do know good and bad video when I see it! Also, like everyone else, more and more of what we do is online and even I have to record a video or two nowadays and I am not very tech savvy. This session provided tips for producing better quality video that engages your audience from YouTubers and marketing professionals. Top lessons learned:

  • Keep it authentic and personable.
  • Video is very effective for tutorial and “how-to” content.
  • Video and audio recording device is less important – you can shoot quality video on most smartphones.
  • Audio clarity, lighting, and framing are very important.
  • Get it to be good enough, okay to make a mistake, keep it real!

Sean Cannell “punch perfectionism in the face and just hit publish” … see what works and doesn’t work. Banish fear and just put things out there.

Session 613 – Assembling Your AR Dream Team

This session was a bit of a team effort. Tristia joined me in this session from a developer perspective. I am not nor never will be an AR or VR developer, but I have to manage them, and I want to do it well. This session provided great information on how to go about assembling, structuring and managing your AR/VR development team, here is what I learned:

  1. Make sure you know what problem you are trying to solve. From a project manager perspective this helps me manage scope and depth of the solution.

Insight: AR helps to visualize hands-on and tactical tasks. AR is best used at the point of need, while people are getting their work done.

  1. Assess your current AR/VR capabilities and skills and whether it aligns with the project need.

Tech Tip: Technology needs to be aligned with the content and learning outcomes. Once you know what you are solving for, then determine whether AR/VR or some variation of these technologies would work best to accomplish the goal.

  1. Should you insource or outsource? Look at your resources, project portfolio, budget, and timeline to make sure you have the right resources and capacity.

Questions to consider when building your project team:

  • If you keep it in-house, will it get done on time?
  • If you outsource, will the ramp-up and learning curve create a lag?
  • If you bring in resources for specific needs, will you be able to recruit and train in time to help?

Insight: Even if you feel like your development team has a firm grasp on the latest technology and tools for your AR/VR project, be realistic about timeline and scope. AR/VR takes time and requires a very particular skillset.
Even if you have a solid grasp on AR/VR technologies, tools and platforms are evolving fast.

Outsourcing or Insourcing? Look at your resources, project planning needs, budget, timeline…