Meet the Team: Vicky Rose (Instructional Design Assistant)

Hello and welcome to my first EVER blog! Please be gentle with me as I’m new to this and have a lot to learn, but learning is what this year (and hopefully many years to come) is all about.

My journey to PIXELearning has had many twists and turns, has spanned the globe and the breadth of emotion, from dismal lows to euphoric highs.

The result of this winding road means that it’s tricky to know quite where to start but I’ll give it a shot! My need for creative outlet led me

Come see us at Learning Technologies 2012 stand 57

January 25-26^th see’s PIXELearning and Intellego’s first event of the year and it’s gearing up to be one that’s not to be missed.

Learning Technologies is in its 13^th year and is one of the leading conferences for learning and emerging technologies in Europe. With a growing number of attendees and exhibitors we have taken this opportunity to get our names and skills back out there in the world of workplace learning.

By attending the conference you will have the opportunity to attend a wide selection of free seminars one of which is being delivered by PIXELearning’s very own Helen Routledge and guest speaker Kate Smith, of Capella Associates. This seminar will look at using serious gaming for Six Sigma training.

When: Wednesday 25^th January 2012 at 14.00

Where: Theatre 3

Overview: Our natural tendency when faced with a problem of any description is to try to solve it, leading to changes that either don’t solve the problem or that are not sustainable. Six Sigma helps avoid this by providing a method and a toolset to improve any process in any sector.

What better way is there to raise awareness and capability in Six Sigma to your organisation than by playing an on-line game that engages learners in an exciting case study, reinforces principles, stretches knowledge and provides feedback for CPD planning?

The mechanics and methodology behind the game will be reviewed as we explore this approach for learning and you will hear how this highly effective, low-cost solution for improving performance can be applied in your organisation.

PIXELearning will be at stand 57, showcasing demos and presentations of elearning, serious games and mobile apps.

Together we are building the next generation of digital learning and bring about a step-change in the way organisations and individuals learn, develop and improve.

It would be great to see you there, please drop by the stand for a chat or arrange to meet us there.

You can register to attend the event for free by clicking here: http://www.learningtechnologies.co.uk/register-now/

eLearning Innovation Seminar- The Presentations

As promised the presentations from, a very successful seminar if we do say so ourselves, are freely available.

The first presentation you see here is from Andy Hasoon, Director of Strategy for Intellego introduced the

Makrini™ needs your vote

Voting at Learning without Frontiers has now opened and we invite you all to vote…. (for Makrini of course).

Here at PIXELearning you may be under the impression that we are constantly talking about Makrini™ and you might be right. A product developed for Global Novations, a US provider of Diversity and Inclusion, Marketing and Talent optimization services, Makrini™ is a breakthrough approach to diversity and inclusion training, being the first-ever gaming simulation on the topic.

Being the first of its kind the species of Makrini™ are wanting to get noticed, hence its entry for Innovation Award at Learning without Frontiers.  For information about voting please see below.

Aimed at a wide corporate audience the simulation tasks the learner with a mission to a commercial space station where diversity and inclusion skills must be applied to interact productively with intergalactic associates, and to attain better business results than competitors.

It’s a learning simulation of self discovery based on the learners own preferences, decisions, critical thinking, opinions and beliefs.

The key learning objectives of Makrini™ are:

• Increase personal diversity awareness and inclusive behaviors.
• Increase understanding of the business impact of diversity
• Recognize one’s own perceptions and biases that may limit inclusive behaviors
• Develop the knowledge and skills to build solid business relationships across dimensions of diversity.

VOTING

There are two ways to vote for Makrini™.

For the UK: Using the code [MAKRINI] cast your votes via SMS or Skype SMS* to 07950 080 667

For the USA: Using the code [MAKRINI] cast your votes via SMS or Skype SMS* to +44 7950 080 667

Multiple votes from the same number for the same finalist will count as a single vote, so no funny business ok?

*Votes are charged at your standard network rate and votes the UK may attract an additional network charge. To make it fair each mobile vote from outside of the UK will count as 2 votes. If you’re outside the UK you may find it’s cheaper to use Skype.

Award for INCLUSION

INNOVATIONS : Worlds of Makrini, Global Novations, USA [MAKRINI]

Project Management Training: A new approach by Spencer Holmes

Good training as we all know can sometimes be hard to come by. That’s why when you do find an excellent trainer you want to hold on and really utilize their experience, knowledge  and skills. That is exactly what PIXELearning have done.

Spencer Holmes, MD of Global Project Leaders Ltd,  was approached as a subject matter expert by us so we could extract all the awesome supply chain management knowledge he had for a serious game we are creating. As a world class trainer Spencer has vast experience in many areas of training not to mention Project Management which has led to this particular blog post. With the help Spencer has given us we wanted to do something in return. Therefore we would like to share with you the first in an 7 part series of his Project Management Training: A New Approach article on Training Zone. You will find the link here. Registration is needed  to view the whole article (its free – you know you want to – the article certainly deserves a PIXEL Hi-5!)

http://www.trainingzone.co.uk/topic/project-management-training-misses-point/149557

6 potential marketing techniques for Serious Games

You have an innovative product offering (Serious Games in this case) that you want to market effectively and in a way that truly expresses the endless possibilities of the products capabilities, the good old fashioned product literature is no longer enough on its own so what are your options?

Create a short teaser. Without actually playing the game, you can’t quite truly appreciate what you would be learning. Therefore creating a teaser version around 10mins could allow the learner to actual experience some of the game play and what the full version could offer in the way of learning.

Create a trailer video. A bit like a film trailer that really catches the viewer’s attention. Use as much of the game play and graphics as possible but make sure it’s short, sharp and snappy.

Use graphics for different marketing purposes. These graphics can be in emails, business portals or forums.

Create a competition. Serious Games have facts, figures, points, achievements and much more built into them so why not use these stats for something worthwhile. Create a competition, it could be anything from highest sales or highest market share or highest or in some cases the lowest points. Tailor it to your users needs.

An open day. Invite colleagues, students and friends to a product opening day where they can try Serious Games for free. This could be a great way to capture interest and physically show potential learners/buyers the benefits of serious games.

Don’t forget your social networking either. More and more social avenues are opening up from the most well know to the not so well know. But all in all any route gets the work out there it’s up to you to share it amongst as many channels as possible not just twitter or Facebook. Some further options are blogs (your own and others that share a common interest), serious games portals (recently discovered www.serious.gameclassification.com), forums, LinkedIn and many many more.

This is by no means an exhausted list and to most nothing that is that new but does at least begin to identify and refresh in our minds potential marketing techniques that can help drive traffic to your site in the Serious Game market.

How Do You Use Yours?

With Easter nearly upon us and the obligatory crème egg adverts filling our TV screens and billboards everywhere, asking us how ‘do you eat yours?’ we thought this would be a great opportunity to discuss (in the context of serious games at least) How Do You Use Yours?

After writing a recent chapter relating to the use of educational games and how they have been used in classrooms across the UK, we got thinking about the many ways that games can be and are being used for training and learning.

Everyday it seems we hear about a new approach where an innovative trainer or teacher has embraced serious games and really made it there own. However, training is often divided into distinct silos, such as classroom, self study, or blended and within these areas it must be clear how a new training application will sit.

So how do serious games fit into all this? Where can they be used?

When designing serious games, one of the first requirements we try to understand is