In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and Jeff celebrate the self-directed learner including what it means to be one and why it’s important.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode90 

Highlighted Resource – 10 Ways to Be a Better Learner by Jeff Cobb. The book covers areas such as your mindset for lifelong learning, practical tactics, and even the importance of diet, exercise, and sleep.

Thank you to YourMembership, the podcast sponsor for the third quarter of 2017. YourMembership’s learning management system is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations, and learning communities.

If you’re looking to potentially expand the reach of your membership base, increase engagement, and lower costs, you may want to consider venturing into the world of virtual events. 

The National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (NHPCO) decide to do just that five years ago, and now Maurine Kwende, director of e-learning, and Steve Gardner, director of education, know just what it takes to make virtual events an effective addition to your portfolio of educational offerings.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa talks with Steve and Maurine about what prompted them to begin offering virtual conferences, how they’ve evolved over the years, and the inherent benefits and potential difficulties associated with them.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode89

Highlighted Resource – Association Virtual Events – a free Tagoras report that draws on data from more than 100 associations to help you understand the emerging role of virtual events in the association sector. This report will help you learn fast and get on the road to success. To get the report, go to www.tagoras.com/virtual-events.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and Jeff discuss the concept of curation - what it is, how to do it, and why it is valuable for learning businesses and learning business professionals.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode88 

Highlighted Resource –Leading Learning newsletter - a way to share high-value resources we come across each month, packaged up into a brief email that you can read and digest quickly. If the podcast is “audio intelligence for learning leaders”, the newsletter is “inbox intelligence for learning leaders”. Get the details and sign up for this free resource at http://www.leadinglearning.com/newsletter/.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

As co-founder and CEO of Thinkific, Greg has worked to build a platform to “empower modern course creators” by making it easy for them to create, market, and sell online courses. This allows people to focus on what’s really important - their learning business - not the tools and technology behind it. With over a decade of experience as a course and platform entrepreneur, Greg knows what it takes to both lead and succeed in the world of online learning.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Jeff Cobb talks with Greg about his experience launching and growing Thinkific, practical advice for how to create and sell online courses, and what he sees as the biggest opportunities in the future of online learning.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode87

Highlighted Resource of the Week – A free weekly webinar hosted by Thinkific. This is a live training session that takes place every Monday and Thursday at 2PM ET and it’s designed to teach you step-by-step how to build an online course and start growing your online course business. It also gives you an up close look at the Thinkific platform. To find out more and to sign up, go to http://www.leadinglearning.com/thinkific.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Learn what really goes into implementing an assessment-based certificate in this interview with Paul Williams, vice president of professional development and education at Argentum, the leading national trade association serving companies that own, operate, and support professionally managed senior living communities in the United States. 

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa Steele talks with Paul about what prompted them to create an assessment-based certificate program, the process for developing it, and valuable lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Full show notes available at: http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode86.

Highlighted Resource  – A free 30-45 minute consultation for Leading Learning podcast listeners with Robin Gault-Winton of Castle to explore whether and how an assessment-based certificate program might work for your organization. To schedule an appointment, go to http://www.leadinglearning.com/askcastle.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and Jeff discuss the topic of the learning business including what it is, why it’s such an important concept, and the important link between both learning and business.

Full show notes are available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode85.

Highlighted Resource – an informal curriculum on the topic of the Learning Business – new post on the Tagoras site that brings together the various episodes we have done on the podcast along with various notes and other resources.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Assessment-based certificates, or ABCs, are a trend all learning businesses need to know about. In this episode, Celisa Steele discusses assessment-based certificates with Robin Gault-Winton, a facilitator, trainer, and instructional designer, is the director of learning solutions at Castle and an expert on how assessment-based certificate programs can help increase professional development opportunities and improve learning outcomes.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com.episode/episode84

Highlighted Resource of the Week – An ABC Program Focuses on Training and Assessing Mastery of a Specific Set of Learning Outcomes - an article published in the Institute for Credentialing Excellence’s quarterly publication (ICE Digest) that is essentially an ABC 101.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode you'll learn more about what we think has to be the “hippest” learning event in the world of continuing medical education, CMEpalooza. Jeff talks with Derek Warnick and Scott Kober about the CMEpalooza experience, the (mostly free) technology behind it, and key points of advice for organizations who might be interested in pulling together a similar educational offering.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode83.

Highlighted Resource - Leading Learning newsletter - a way to share high-value resources we come across each month, packaged up into a brief email that you can read and digest quickly. If the podcast is “audio intelligence for learning leaders”, the newsletter is “inbox intelligence for learning leaders”. Get the details and sign up for this free resource at http://www.leadinglearning.com/newsletter/.

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Do you wonder - or worry - about LMS ROI? Then this episode is for you!

When it comes to determining whether to implement a new or replacement learning management system (LMS), it’s important to ask, “What will the return on investment be?” Oftentimes, organizations struggle to try and answer this question—or even worse, it isn’t ever asked at all.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and Jeff help you answer this sometimes daunting question and provide 5 key aspects of getting a high return on your LMS investment including: new revenue generation, cost savings, general value perception, user experience, and fulfillment of vision and mission.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode82. 

Thank you to Castle, which is the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-services certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa talks with Stephanie Owen, director of education with the National Wood Flooring Association (NWFA) Stephanie knows first-hand how digital badges and credentials can impact member engagement, learning, and exposure in the marketplace. That’s because she’s been responsible for overseeing the development and implementation of NWFA University to include the use of digital credentials.

Celisa talks with Stephanie about their rollout out digital credentials and badges along with the launch of NWFA University, how it’s impacted them, and valuable lessons they’ve learned along the way.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode81. 

Highlighted Resource: Association Learning + Technology Report - based on a survey of a broad range of trade and professional associations, it provides the most comprehensive insights currently available on the use of technology to enhance and enable education in the association sector.

Thank you to Castle, the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-service certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Leading Learning co-host Jeff Cobb interviews Kevin Eikenberry, Chief Potential Officer of The Kevin Eikenberry Group and bestselling author of Remarkable Leadership: Unleashing Your Leadership Potential One Skill at a Time and host of the Remarkable Leadership podcast. Jeff talks with Kevin about why remarkable leadership seems to be so elusive, the relationship between leadership and learning, and the various resources available for leaders and aspiring leaders.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode80.

Resource Highlight: 13 Days to Remarkable Leadership - a free video series from this episode’s guest, Kevin Eikenberry.

Thank you to Castle, the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-service certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa and Jeff revisit their definition of a learning business and delve into the five supporting principles behind their newly created Learning Business Manifesto - a guiding document for any organization in the business of lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode79

Resource Highlight - Learning Business Maturity Model – We’ve discussed this before in an earlier podcast (see, Episode 56 - The Learning Business Maturity Model ), but we have not actually highlighted it as a resource, and it is closely related to the manifesto that will be discussed in this episode. The model addresses five stages of maturity for organizations in the business of lifelong learning and five knowledge and skill domains across those stages. You can find a full explanation and a visual of it at http://www.tagoras.com/maturity. You can also sign up to get access to the free assessment that accompanies the model.

Thank you to Castle, the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-service certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Celisa Steele talks with Julie Dirksen, author of Design for How People Learn, about the primary responsibilities of instructional design, the various gaps that exist for learning, and what she sees as the biggest game changer on the horizon related to the design of learning.

Resource Highlight: Free download of Chapter 8, Design for Motivation from the book, Design for How People Learn by Julie Dirksen.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode78.

Thank you to Castle, the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-service certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Jeff Cobb interviews Rich Phaneuf, CEO and Executive Director of the Association Executives of North Carolina (AENC). Jeff and Rich discuss his perspective on leadership, the evolving role of associations in education and lifelong learning, and what AENC is doing to support this.

Resource Highlight: Socrative – a quizzing tool that enables you to rapidly create relatively sophisticated assessments to track how learners perform. There is a free version as well as a pro version available for $49.95/year. It is also noted that this was highlighted at the Cool Tech Tools to Turbo Charge Your Learning Business session at Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD)

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode77. 

Thank you to Castle, the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the second quarter of 2017. Castle is an accomplished full-service certification and licensure testing company that also offers its clients a variety of learning solutions capabilities. With an expert team of testing and instructional design professionals and a thirty year history of excellence in it’s field, Castle understands what it takes to develop and deliver quality learning and certification programs.

Leading Learning co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss the growth in podcasting indicated by the most recent Infinite Dial report from Edison Research and explore why podcasting is such a relevant and powerful medium for organizations in the business of lifelong learning.

Highlighted resource: Ultimate Guide to Podcasting - a comprehensive podcasting “how to” resource page put together by John Lee Dumas from Entrepreneur on Fire who publishes an interview with an entrepreneur every day of the week.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode76/

Thank you to YourMembership, sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the first quarter of 2017.  YourMembership’s learning management system (LMS) is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Celisa Steele interviews Kristin Arnold, president and founder of Quality Process Consultants and The Extraordinary Team and author of Powerful Panels: A Step-by-Step Guide to Moderating Lively and Informative Panel Discussions. 

Celisa talks with Kristin about the different formats for panel discussions, what makes a good panel, and ways to increase their effectiveness.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode75

Resource Highlights: 

The Speaker Report – (created by Tagoras in collaboration with Velvet Chainsaw) aimed at better understanding how organizations use professional and industry speakers at their meetings/conferences/other events, how they select them, what they expect from them, and how their educational impact is measured.

The Panel Report (this episode’s guest, Kristin Arnold,  created this out of inspiration from The Speaker Report), which gives data and insights regarding the effectiveness of panel discussions at meetings/conferences/conventions. Note that both reports are free.

Thank you to YourMembership, sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the first quarter of 2017.  YourMembership’s learning management system (LMS) is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Jeff Cobb, co-founder of Tagoras, interviews Dr. Robert Cialdini, author of the mega-bestseller Influence and the more recent bestseller Pre-suasion. Jeff talks with Dr. Cialdini about the core idea behind his new book, tips on how to influence people using “pre-suasion” techniques, and the impact the concept of unity has on influence. The insights shared by Cialdini have significant value for anyone in the business of lifelong learning, continuing education, and professional development.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode74.

Thanks to YourMembership for sponsoring the Leading Learning podcast Q1 2017. YourMembership’s learning management system (LMS) is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele, co-founders of Tagoras and Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD), provide an After Action Review of LTD 2017. This episode was also broadcast via Facebook Live on the Leading Learning Facebook page.

Featured resource for this episode: Padlet.

Full show notes for this episode available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode73.

Thanks to YourMembership for being the sponsor for this quarter of the Leading Learning podcast.

In the digital world, top-notch copywriting is an essential part of building your brand and helping to turn potential customers into current customers. This is something every learning business professional needs to consider when looking at ways to improve their marketing efforts and gain the attention of prospective learners.

In this episode of the Leading Learning podcast, Celisa talks talks with Layla Masri, co-founder of Bean Creative, about the relationship between copywriting and conversion, common mistakes organizations make with copywriting, and tips for anyone looking to improve their copywriting game and increase conversion rates.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode72

Featured resource: The 5 Second Test – a free tool for quickly testing out different types of visual designs. You can upload a design, share it with people from your target audience, ask them questions about what they recall, and get a report to see how they responded.

Thank you to YourMembership, sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the first quarter of 2017.  YourMembership’s learning management system (LMS) is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Leading Learning co-host Jeff Cobb interviews Paul Gannon, founder and CEO of Thoughtcast Media, a digital marketing agency specializing in video content marketing.

Highlighted free resource: the Market Insight Matrix  – a matrix that guides you through 3 stages of assessing your market: idea generation, idea verification, and idea testing with specific activities in each of those stages.

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode71.

Don't miss out on Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD), a virtual conference created specifically for professionals in the business of continuing education and professional development.

Thank you to YourMembership for being the sponsor of the Leading Learning podcast for the first quarter of 2017.  YourMembership’s learning management system (LMS) is specifically designed for professional education with a highly flexible and intuitive system that customizes the learning experience. YourMembership’s LMS seamlessly integrates with key systems to manage all of your educational content formats in one central location while providing powerful tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Leading Learning co-hosts Jeff Cobb and Celisa Steele discuss a recent report in The Economist and other signs that lifelong learning is becoming a mainstream issue. 

Show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode70.

Download of Chapter 1 of Leading the Learning Revolution available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/revolution. 

Celisa Steele (http://www.tagoras.com) interviews Jonathan Finkelstein, founder and CEO of the digital credential service provider, Credly.

Be sure to check out Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD), a virtual conference designed specifically for professionals in the business of continuing education and professional development. 

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode69.

01:57 – Highlighted Resource - Exploring the Fringe: Flipping, Microcredentials, and MOOCs.

06:57 – What digital credentials are and their relationship to digital badges.

10:09 - The relationship between digital credentials and learning.

15:49 – Changes in how organizations are using digital credentials.

19:46 – What's on the horizon for digital credentials.

22:43 - How to get started with digital credentials.

26:26 – Overcoming barriers to implementation.

Connect with Jonathan at @JEFinkelstein and/or @Credly

Many thanks to YourMembership for sponsoring the podcast. YourMembership’s award-winning learning management system provides organizations with the means to manage all of their educational content formats in one central location, and also provides tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb (http://www.tagoras.com) interview Jeff De Cagna, founder of Foresight First (http://foresightfirst.io/).

Be sure to check out Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD), a virtual conference designed specifically for professionals in the business of continuing education and professional development. 

Full show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode68.

02:01 – Highlighted Resource - Leading Learning Newsletter.

07:45 – We’ve reached a point/critical juncture with associations and non-profit organizations where we are seeing the confluence of future developments accelerating in pace, the transformation of our society, and we also now have a critical issue with the performance of boards.

10:24 - What is “foresight first,” and how is it like a “mobile first” approach/mindset?

14:50 – The role that learning plays in a “foresight first” approach.

19:04 – A discussion about the makeup of the boards and that we likely need to rethink who it is that we are looking for on boards – rather than experts, it’s important to have good learners.

23:32 - What’s different in a “foresight” driven board meeting/call/interaction from what you might expect in a traditional board interaction?

29:54 – Application/implication of“foresight first” attitude for learning professionals.

Connect with Jeff through chat link: chat.center/foresightfirst

Many thanks to YourMembership for sponsoring the podcast. YourMembership’s award-winning learning management system, CrowdWisdom, provides organizations with the means to manage all of their educational content formats in one central location, and also provides tools to create and deliver assessments, evaluations and learning communities.

What's a learning business and who is a learning business professional? Find out in this episode of the Leading Learning Podcast with Celisa Steele and Jeff Cobb. Show notes available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode67.

Get the Learning Business Maturity Model.

Find out about Learning • Technology • Design™ (LTD), and event designed specifically for professionals in the business of continuing education and professional development. 

Jeff Cobb interviews best-selling author Rohit Bhargava about his curation, curiosity, and his new book Non-Obvious: How to Think Different, Curate Ideas & Predict The Future. Show notes for this episode are available at http://www.leadinglearning.com/episode66.