Once again we were excited to participate in NTSA’s ADL iFEST conference. iFEST brings together eLearning experts to showcase projects accomplished during the last year and pushes the group to set forth guidance for the industry about the standards and the technologies we all use. And it’s always our pleasure to sponsor such an innovative event. This year’s virtual format was one of the most innovative and engaging approaches we’ve seen to the conference format, even though we couldn’t all gather together in person. With nearly 500 registered attendees, the virtual format provided access to a larger audience in the discussions than previous year’s.
The conference portal provided an engaging way to watch the keynote speakers, get involved in discussions, and connect directly with attendees. While we always prefer to socialize in person between sessions, the NTSA and ADL created a virtual format that still allowed us to connect and engage with industry professionals. If you missed iFEST, you watch the on-demand and recorded presentations from the comfort of your own home or office through the end of the year in the conference portal.
Transforming the learning ecosystem
Organizations are evolving, the pace in which various learning and training programs grow does not always keep up with the features required to make everything work seamlessly. As learning and training systems improve at different rates, the various tools and eLearning standards become even more important to solve interoperability headaches.
Government keynote speaker Hon. Lisa Hershman, Chief Management Officer, Department of Defense, shared how the DoD is faced with this complexity.
Some DoD training stats:
- Tens of thousands training courses disparately managed throughout the enterprise
- Over 150 distinct learning management systems
- More than 300 million labor hours spent on taking training and education annually
- 40 thousand civilian contractors who change positions within the department annually
The DoD is undergoing an important initiative called the Enterprise Digital Learning Modernization (EDLM) reform effort working towards one centralized digital learning ecosystem for all active duty and civilian personnel.
Helping to centralize content and data
Rustici Software’s role continues to advance the utility of the ADL Training and Learning Architecture’s (TLA) vision, while providing off-the-shelf tools that enable widespread implementations. Through the TLA, ADL is transforming the paradigm of a single commercial system to a suite of services that are driven by specifications and standards. The emerging Enterprise Course Catalog (ECC) is an exciting advancement we’ll keep a close eye on.
Rustici Software’s content centralization solution is a collection of evolving tools, keeping pace with the needs of professionals growing an eLearning ecosystem as they continue to improve their organization’s tools. We’re proud to be supporting several different agencies in programs that provide better insight, library management, remote updating, reporting, and centralization tools.
We expect to see new advancements in this area next year at ADL’s iFEST and are looking forward to continuing these discussions in person. We missed our friends and are eager to get back together next year.
