Wrong month? Check out our latest list of free L&D webinars.

We’re heading into the warm season, and searing-hot days lie ahead. But first we have to get through some soggy springtime weather here and there. If you’re stuck inside because it’s too rainy for a walk, why not use the time for a free webinar? There’s a good selection this month to get you thinking about the business of learning and development.

Thursday, May 4, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: Wow with WebEx, Zoom or Whatever!
It’s time to make your job training online easier, and there’s no better or more effective way than putting people in charge of their learning with interactive techniques. In this session, Becky Pike Pluth, President and CEO of The Bob Pike Group, will model effective use of the most common tools across online platforms. Experience the difference in energy, engagement and fun, and see how easy it is to incorporate these tools into your training. In this webinar, you’ll:

• See methods to use chat, whiteboards, polling, breakout rooms and other tools on your platform.

• Discuss strategies for what to do when technology fails.

• Explore how to help your participants become comfortable and proficient using the tools.

Thursday, May 4, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: What’s Your Tech Type? Why Understanding Tech Profiles Is Critical to a Digital Skills Initiative (Free for ATD members)
Explore the five HR fails that organizations encounter when trying to improve productivity. Understand the importance of tech types and how a new tech assessment can boost performance by 30%. Lastly, learn how to roll out a digital skills initiative that exceeds expectations. During this event, hosted by Mike Song, CEO of GetControl.net, you’ll: 

• Learn about your TQ (Tech Quotient) Profile and why it’s becoming as important as IQ or EQ.

• Discover a new way to measure and improve tech proficiency.

• Explore best practices for inspiring widespread digital transformation.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: From Story to Slides
A killer start-to-finish approach to making amazing presentations quickly. Mike Parkinson, owner of Billion Dollar Graphics, will share tips, tricks and tools from his newest book, A Trainer’s Guide to PowerPoint: Best Practices for Master Presenters. Learn how to improve understanding, recollection and adoption using three simple techniques. 

• Discover comprehensive approach to making powerful presentations.

• Get the latest tools and techniques that wow.

• Improve understanding, recollection and adoption.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: Intelligent VR: A More Effective Way to Train (Free for ATD members)

Tune in to this webinar for insights into the latest advances in virtual reality as a training tool for learning and development professionals. Discover how a combination of machine learning and sensor fusion technologies can be leveraged to create more intelligent and adaptable VR applications. HP Senior Managers, Jay Fraser and Tico Ballagas, will be joined by Mimbus CEO, Laurent Da Dalto, to discuss the increased efficacy of training in VR and share how companies are taking advantage of revolutionary innovations to get the most out of training experiences. You’ll learn about:

• The benefits and applications of training with immersive technology.

• How data-driven insights can enable more effective VR training.

• VR use-cases and applications for learning and development.

Wednesday, May 5, 2021, 12:30 p.m.–1:30 p.m. PT: I4PL National Webinar — The Secret to Sustainable Organizational Learning (Free for I4PL members)
Too often, one-off training and coaching initiatives don’t always deliver the ROI that was touted and expected. As we put the utterly shambolic year of 2020 behind us, organizations need a way to accelerate organizational learning and capacity building without burning their people out. Discover how learning professionals can breakdown silos, foster collaboration and innovation, and build a learning culture, all by putting coaching tools in the hands of their leaders. This session will be hosted by Glain Roberts-McCabe, Founder and President of The Roundtable, who’s on the vanguard of shaping how today’s generation of leaders can bring more conscious leadership to their work and the world.

Thursday, May 6, 2021, 8 a.m.–9 a.m. PT: Best Practices for Writing Voiceover Scripts for Elearning Courses
For adding narration to your elearning courses, you need to change your writing style a bit to make it sound more natural to the ears instead of the eyes. Although the general writing principles are the same for on-screen text and narration, there are some nuances that you need to take care of when authoring the voice-over scripts. Join Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Lead Elearning Evangelist at Adobe Digital Learning Solutions, as she takes you through the best practices for writing voiceover scripts. She’ll show you different examples of how to convert on-screen text to narration and the details you need to add to the script before passing it on to the voice-over artist, for minimizing the number of edits and re-recordings.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 8:00 a.m.–9:30 a.m. PT: Creators’ Workshop Series: Create your First Elearning Project with Adobe Captivate
Ready to rock and roll with Adobe Captivate? Learn to create an exciting elearning course that hits all the right notes. Take part in this hands-on introduction by Dr. Pooja Jaisingh, Lead Elearning Evangelist at Adobe Digital Learning Solutions, to take your elearning journey to new dimensions. What’s more, earn a valuable certificate upon creating your own short project. Beginners, educators and intermediate-level elearning professionals can highly benefit from this program. You’ll learn how to:

• Use Quick Start Projects for creating visually appealing elearning courses.

• Use the ready-to-go slides and customize it according to your needs.

• Quickly create your elearning course that’s rich with interactions, graphics and animations.

• Add a quiz and publish your courses to an LMS.

May 11, 2021, 10:30 a.m. PT: I4PL National Webinar — High Impact Evaluation: Beyond Smile Sheets (Free for I4PL members)
Join this webinar for a 60-minute overview of this leading made-in-Canada evaluation methodology. High Impact Evaluation (HIE) is a predictive, proactive learning evaluation methodology developed to help organizations not simply measure results, but also drive job performance and business impact. The HIE model is the outcome of a major five-year Canadian research effort, designed to transform training evaluation. Conducted in partnership with I4PL, the Investing in People project was launched to “develop innovative new evaluation tools” to help organizations boost learning outcomes. Developed by Dr. Lynette Gillis and Allan Bailey at the Centre for Learning Impact, this new field-tested model can be used to evaluate and improve the impact of individual programs, or as a strategic tool to benchmark and optimize the enterprise learning portfolio.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: Building a Culture of Learning Remotely with a Digital Library (Free for ATD members)
COVID-19 significantly disrupted business operations, forcing many companies to shift employees to work from home. One year later, employees are still working at home and many won’t be returning to the office. In this new remote environment, businesses must adopt learning and development (L&D) strategies that can be delivered in a convenient format for employees wherever they are — in the office, travelling or working from home. Join Steve Rosato, General Manager at OverDrive Professional, to learn how companies are navigating the transition to remote learning and how digital libraries are proving to be a valuable resource. You’ll explore real-world examples and provide best practices for making digital libraries a practical part of L&D in the evolving world of work.

Tuesday, May 11, 2021, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. PT: How to Build a Killer Zoom Studio… for Cheap
Are you waiting for services like Zoom and Teams and all the others to offer tools to make you look better, sound clearer and be more charismatic? That would be a pretty neat trick, but you can do better than connecting your notebook and yammering on. Virtual presenting will be with us long after COVID — in our offices and in our spare bedrooms. Rick Altman, Director at BetterPresenting, called his own dare, took over his daughter’s bedroom and created a Zoom studio, with professional-grade cameras, sophisticated switching unit, an excellent microphone and top-quality lighting, at a price far lower than what you might expect. In this hour, he’ll take you on a guided tour of what he did, how he did it and what you can do, regardless of your budget or your company’s, to improve your virtual presence.

Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: The Emotional Intelligence Factor in Talent Development (Free for ATD members)
Among the many core elements of talent and career success, emotional intelligence is the critical distinguishing factor for advancement. Furthermore, it’s no longer just for leaders. Emotional intelligence (EI) is strongly associated with essential skills required for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and has been shown to positively influence team productivity, leadership effectiveness, individual and overall business outcomes. Join EI Advantage’s President and Co-Founder, Janice Gair, and Co-Founder, Dr. Hayley Hesseln, for the webinar to learn how to enhance your EI skills and the skills of others using scientifically validated tools. 

Wednesday, May 12, 2021, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. PT: Friction-Free Virtual and Hybrid Training Events
Virtual and hybrid events are complex machines with lots of moving parts. Internal friction between those parts can degrade the experience for learners, presenters and hosts. Brella’s Mark Mallchok, Co-Founder and Chief Event Strategist, Amanda Bridges, Events Production Manager, Brad Urban, Event Production Manager for Design, and Dave Less, Creative Director, will identify common sources of friction and how you can address them to make your next event a smooth-running machine. 

Thursday, May 13, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: What Does Colour Have to Do With It? Colour Theory for Instructional Design
“Colour” is a word that many take for granted. It’s a design element that’s a key part of all visuals and embraced to a theoretical level by graphic designers, but an element that’s often misunderstood or misrepresented by those outside of the graphic design space. Join Dr. Josh Yavelberg, CEO of Flying Cloud Solutions, as he provides an interactive journey through of the complexity of colour in delivering your training. From the theoretical to the practical, you’ll come away with an understanding of the importance of colour properties, harmony, branding, accessibility, cultural symbolism/impact and psychology.

Thursday, May 13, 2021, 10:00 a.m.–10:30 a.m. PT: Non-Profit Secrets: Get the most from Benefit and Learning Consultants
Join Leah Chang and guest speaker Tyler Hoffman, founder of OnPoint Benefits and author of Lure Factor — The 5 Essential Steps That Accelerate Trust to learn their insider secrets to get the most out of your external consultants. At the end of this jam-packed 30-minute webinar, you’ll be able to:

• Describe the typical services of a benefits consultancy and a learning and development consultancy.

• Rate your level of readiness to work with benefits vendors or online learning designers.

• Use 6 tips to evaluate your current vendors.

• Expand your professional network and add to your organization’s tools and resources!

Thursday, May 13, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: Beyond Logic: Designing for the Flaws in our Cognitive Architecture (Free for ATD members)
While evidence suggests we’re not logical reasoners, much of our learning design is still predicated on that assumption. Despite our powerful cognitive architecture (that allows you to read this, for instance), we’re prone to errors in our thinking. Understanding these cognitive flaws is critical in our learning design approaches to achieve learning that will stick. Join this webinar to unpack the mental flaws that can lead you astray and explore how you think, based in the latest cognitive science results. Clark Quinn, author of the recently published Learning Science for Instructional Designers, will provide a set of practical steps to improve your learning design with the least amount of change, and make your learning evidence-informed and effective. 

Thursday, May 13, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: Emotional Intelligence for Sales Leadership Success
There’s a lot of advice out there on how to lead and develop salespeople, but the irony is that most advice on sales forecasting, sales pipeline management and sales metrics is focused on improving the first half of the word: sales. What’s missing is the important half, which is people. Effective sales managers recognize that in order to develop a salesperson, they must work on developing the whole person. This includes developing a salesperson’s mind, body and sales. In this engaging workshop, hosted by Colleen Stanley, Founder and President of SalesLeadership, you’ll:  

• Discover the top Sales EQ and Sales IQ skills that produce a positive mindset and consistent sales results.

• Recognize the value in measuring your sales team’s “energy metrics” and sales metrics.

• Learn the top sales management metrics that build high performing sales team.

Friday, May 14, 2021, 8 a.m.–9 a.m. PT: Work Made Fun Gets Done! Easy Ways to Boost Energy, Morale and Results
Employees at the best companies are having the most fun, and if you make fun part of your work culture, your employees will fare better as well, since fun is a proven driver of productivity, results, creativity and better relationships. In this fast-paced webinar, led by Dr. Bob Nelson, President of Nelson Motivation, and Mario Tamayo, Principal of Tamayo Group, you’ll learn how to harness the key element of “fun” for yourself, your group or team and your workplace. Trainers, L&D professionals and Sales Executives can use these principles to teach your managers to invigorate their teams. The session focuses on many low- and no-cost ways to bring fun into work at four levels: individual, leader, team and organization, and will include numerous true-life company examples from the hosts’ own experiences.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: How to Scale Learning and Development Using On-Demand Video
Are you like many instructional designers and trainers who are being asked to meet the growing training needs of hundreds of employees and customers? Even if your team is able to support this increased demand, they likely won’t have adequate time to close the loop and analyze the effectiveness of the content you meticulously crafted. This can lead to a slippery slope, wherein teams continuously create and share training content without knowing the true impact on their audience. Join Panopto’s Dill Hasan, along with Amanda Kruysman and Kellie Gillenwater, Training Design Manager and Director of Learning Strategy, respectively, at Lash Group, and discover:

• Why on-demand video is the key to unlocking your scalability challenges.

• Why your LMS may not be the ideal place to host all your training content.

• How to gain buy-in from business leaders on the importance and impact of training with on-demand video.

• How to encourage the use of video for communication and training organically through word of mouth.

Tuesday, May 18, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: Training: The Front Line in the New Normal
The upheaval of 2020 has forced most organizations to either begin or accelerate their digital transformation. The training function has not been immune. But while other parts of the organization can sit back and watch what happens with the various processes, procedures and protocols that make the business run, training needs to take a front seat. To survive, companies need a strategy to upskill their people for the digital environment. Additionally, learning has to undergo the transformation as well, acquiring new skill sets that keeps them ahead of the curve. Join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Steve Thompson, Raytheon Professional Services’ Director of Business Development for the EMEA region, as they discuss what the post-pandemic learning ecosystem will look like, and what skills and tools will be required to make it work. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: Webcams at Work: A Survey of Learning Professionals’ Practices and Perceptions
Webcams on or off: do you have a preference? In this webinar, Dr. Vanessa Dennen, Professor of Instructional Systems Learning Technologies, Kari (Knisely) Word, Doctoral Student in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies Program, and Ömer Arslan, Doctoral Student in Instructional Systems and Learning Technologies Program, all from Florida State University, will present the findings of a recent survey of learning professionals focused on webcam practices and perceptions. Learn about how perceptions and use of webcams have developed during the pandemic, and the webcam practices, norms and woes that surround the use of this important learning and communication technology. A research brief summarizing the findings will also be available to attendees at the time of the webinar. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: Bringing Experiential Learning to Enterprises: A Sneak Peek into Digital Adoption Platforms
Delivering training that’s engaging and driving knowledge retention has always been a key challenge for L&D leaders, especially with the pandemic forcing most organizations to work remotely. Things have been looking up recently, but some large organizations are now opting for a hybrid working model, if not completely remote. Making the learning experience contextual and personalized is extremely important in this context in order to close the emerging skill gap, especially in terms of technology. Join Gokul Suresh, Head of Growth at Whatfix, as he talks about how you can deliver experiential learning at scale with the help of a Digital Adoption Platform to empower your employees to make the best use of the technology at their disposal. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 11 a.m.–12 p.m. PT: Sales Enablement Evolved: Why the Next Era of Sales Learning and Development Depends on a Rep-Centric Strategy (Free for ATD members)
Learning and content capabilities are merging. Technologies like conversation intelligence and AI-powered coaching can provide deeper insights and better, more scalable sales support than ever before, but to be truly effective, today’s tools and strategies must be focused on answering a single question: How can reps be more effective at selling in a virtual world? This requires a mindset shift that aligns everyone on the team — from marketing to sales to L&D to customer success — around seller needs. Sales content can no longer be distributed and abandoned. It needs to be activated to ensure reps know how to use it. Join this webinar hear from Allego’s marketing leaders, Wayne St. Amand, chief marketing officer, and Jonathan Carlson, senior marketing director, as they guide you through the new sales enablement landscape and where L&D fits into the equation. 

Wednesday, May 19, 2021, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. PT: Creating Animated Intros, Outros, and Explainer Videos in TechSmith’s Camtasia
Often, when designing elearning courses, a simple animation is more effective in capturing attention and explaining a concept than a static illustration. Camtasia is great for creating quick and effective animated videos and it’s more than just a video editing tool. Whether you need animated intros or outros for your videos, or an explainer animation for your elearning course, Camtasia is easy to learn and use. In this webinar, Kevin Thorn, Chief NuggetHead at Nuggethead Studioz, will show you the animated intros and outros that come pre-loaded with Camtasia, demonstrate how to construct a simple title animation for your elearning course and how to save your custom animations in your library as a template. 

Thursday, May 20, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: Extended Enterprise Learning: Unlocking the Potential of the External Ecosystem
Organizations gain exponential benefits by expanding learning operations to external audiences and offering training to partners, resellers and customers. However, the journey to success is often non-linear. Traditional internally aligned corporate learning platforms can’t often meet the needs of extended enterprise learning, such as monetization, multi-tenant learning content syndication, expanded reporting and analytics, and integration with the organization’s marketing cloud (CRM, Support, email, ecommerce, etc.). In this webinar, David Wentworth, Principal Analyst at Brandon Hall Group, and Barry Kelly, CEO at Thought Industries, will share their insight and expertise on what goes into developing a mature extended enterprise training program that generates results. 

Thursday, May 20, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: How to Recertify Your APTD or CPTD Credential (Free for ATD members)
Are you a current APTD or CPTD credential holder whose recertification date is fast approaching? Are you a recently certified credential holder with questions about the recertification process? Be sure to join Susan Kaiden, Senior Project Manager at ATD, for this webinar. Sue is the ATD Credentialing Institute’s senior project manager who’s responsible for the recertification process. 

Thursday, May 20, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: From A to Z: An Amazing Array of Awesome Antidotes for Zoom Fatigue
If there’s one thing the pandemic has taught us, it’s that we can do virtually anything — virtually. Virtual communication is ubiquitous, cost-effective and convenient, and it’s here to stay. We’ve all “Gone-to-(one-too-many)-Meetings,” and in short, we’ve become unwitting “Slack”-ers. Meetings are scheduled back-to-back and without breaks for necessities, like a 10-minute meditation or a quick cardio workout up and down the steps. Frankly, too much of a good thing can be bad. But the good news is that employers are beginning to understand how virtual meetings affect us mentally, physically and psychologically, and devising strategies to help us wake up, focus and beat the burnout. Join Dr. Constance Staley, Professor of Communication at University of Colorado, for an amazing array of awesome antidotes that may help you minimize toxic burnout and maximize your own — and your organization’s — effectiveness.

Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: “New Normal” Never Arrives. Train Clients to Be Ready for the Next Normal
Trends happen for a reason, and you’ve probably been training your clients on how to be virtual, how to manage remotely and how to use Zoom. But as you’re wrapping those sessions up, remember: the job of a training resource and consultant isn’t just to deliver what clients ask for today, but to teach them what they need for tomorrow. In 2021, that means helping them fight the temptation to settle into the “new normal” of the moment, instead supporting them as they equip themselves to flex into the next normal after that — and the one after that. In this session, award winning author and repeat Training Magazine presenter, Ed Muzio, shows you how to help clients define, discuss, and improve upon readiness for the kind of change that includes neither a clear current state, a well-defined new state, nor a path from one to the other. 

Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: The State of Skills in 2021 (Free for ATD members)
2020 changed everything. Many of the organizations that survive, emerge and thrive in the new reality will be different than they were before. Their workforces will have to be, too, and that’s forcing millions of people all around the world to refresh their current skills and to build new ones. Everyone’s asking what skills to build for the future, and time and money are in short supply. Join Todd Tauber, VP of Product Marketing at Degreed, for a sneak peek at exclusive new research on the state of skills in 2021. 

Tuesday, May 25, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: Where’s the Front Door? Building a Right-Fit Digital Learning Experience for Every Employee
How many learning technologies does your company have? Whether you’re working from home, in the office or on the frontline, technology is now the face of workplace learning. L&D has a seemingly unlimited number of tech options. However, a pile of learning apps can get very complicated very quickly, especially for employees who don’t have the time or desire to hunt for resources. How can you simplify the digital learning experience and meet the skill development needs of your workforce? Join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and JD Dillon, Chief Learning Architect at Axonify, as they explore the realities of the modern learning technology ecosystem. 

Wednesday, May 26, 2021, 9 a.m.–10 a.m. PT: Learning Science Is Trending: The Whys, Whats and Hows
You may have been hearing more about learning science of late. Why? Are there reasons we should be concerned with learning science? Aren’t our instructional design approaches sufficient? In this webinar, Clark Quinn, Executive Director at Quinnovation, will talk about what learning science is, why you should care, what it entails and how it’s done. You’ll look at how learning science fills in theory gaps and keeps us from making costly mistakes. You’ll also cover the basic cognitive architecture that underpins our thinking, working and learning. You’ll even conduct a sample experiment to experience how cognitive science research is done. You’ll leave better equipped to support your organizational learning needs.

Thursday, May 27, 2021, 10 a.m.–11 a.m. PT: Taking Learning from Mundane to Meaningful
Now that you’ve spent more than a year without being able to gather in person for face-to-face training, the state of elearning has been laid bare. It turns out that most elearning programs were not up to the task of replacing ILT, and the big reason is that it simply hasn’t made up for the engagement that’s inherently built in to an in-person program. Companies really need to take a look at the training they’re offering and see if their material is really engaging and impactful. Join David Wentworth, Principal Analyst with Brandon Hall Group, and Sergey Snegirev, CEO and Founder of BranchTrack, as they look at how companies can take their learning from traditional page turning to more meaningful, memorable and impactful interactions. 

Thursday, May 27, 2021, 12 p.m.–1 p.m. PT: One More Time — Stop Lecturing in Webinars; Change Seven Deadly Habits
Many agree that lecturing in webinars can quickly become boring and can even kill learning, but what could be a better alternative? More teasers and warm-ups? Additional break-out sessions? How about more exercises and activities? All of the aforementioned techniques don’t change the core problems of lecturing in webinars. The key problem is that we keep “telling” participants instead of helping them reflect and apply ideas. In this webinar, Dr. Ray Jimenez, Architect of TrainingMagNetwork.com and Chief Learning Officer of Vignettes Learning, will share examples and templates that will help you to strategize for your webinars — veering away from lecturing to encouraging reflections. 

Monday, May 31, 2021, 8 a.m.–9 a.m. PT: What Philosophy Can Teach Us About Learning
Presented by the Community for Training, Learning, and Development Professionals (TLDC) and hosted by Data Analyst, Anja Hartleb-Parson.

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