The Learning technologies Summer Forum was a great event to attend, even if you had attended the previous Learning Technologies event earlier in the year. As it provided a chance to speak to staff from vendors you didn’t get time to see at the last event, and it also gave you a chance to attend a selection of some of the really informative and useful free seminars presented by well known names in the Learning Technologies world.

I attended the following seminars while at the event:

• Transform your Learners Experience with Adapt - Presented by Lindsey Coode, Head of Content

• Thinking Differently – Why and How Leading Brands are Transitioning Towards the Next Generation of Learning Technology - Presented by Steve Dineen, CEO, Fuse

• Press Play: How to Integrate Games into your elearning - Presented by Louise pasterfield, Managing Director, Sponge UK

• Delivering Growth & Improving Efficiency – ASET Training Academy Case Study -Presented by Ted Mellor, V1 Limited

• All Devices, All the Time…Responsive and Adaptive Design in Reality - Presented by Mike Alcock, Managing Director, gomo

• Trade Engagement Through an Extended Enterprise LMS - Presented by Lewis John, Solutions Consultant, City and Guilds Kineo.

One highlights of the event for was seeing the Adapt authoring tool in action, which offers the ability to create responsive eLearning in a way that seems far less complicated than many other authoring tools. Although it has to be said that for more complicated types of content creation it may require a more complicated authoring tool, but this seems a great tool to use for less complicated projects.

Another highlight for me was seeing what Kineo were able to achieve with a Totara LMS for ‘Samsung Backstage’. They had managed to tweak around with Totara and make it look like something completely different.  They had simplified the look so that for me it had the visual look of a company website but with all the backend functionality of an LMS.

Samsung Backstage is (as explained by Kineo) a ‘multi-device learning management system providing Samsung product knowledge to retail staff across the UK and call centres worldwide’. Aspects such as the UX, and art direction were created by Iris as it was a collaborative project between Kineo and iris. The project also incorporates Open Badges and reward based learning and the type of project that makes you really think about the possibilities of using Totara LMS for projects in ways you didn’t think of before. (Although you would need the Kineo and iris genius and skill to create a solution like this from a Totara LMS).  Information on this project can be found here which includes screenshots, and yes it really is a Totara LMS!