Developing kick-ass learning is not for the faint of heart. Giving a Generation X learner a talking head with a "next" button is a recipe for destruction. They'll tune out and start reading mail (or IM-ing their friends, or playing Doom, or listening to tunes on their i-Pod).

You've got to move up to the next level of interactive customer-driven learning using techniques like blogs, podcasting, networked communities, wikis, viral videos and other cutting edge tools where the inmates build the asylum. You'll work through a series of worksheets and checklists to get you started on creating a framework for your own user-built content tools.

Listen to the people who have been successful, they've got lots of painful learning to share. You'll hear war stories, see how to design/implement/deploy customer centered learning, and actually develop a plan to integrate these techniques in your electronic learning.

If you're involved in creating technical learning content for complex products and systems, this will clear away the confusion and unnecessary complexity that exists around how to get people productive fast. It really isn't rocket surgery.

You audience learns best with their hands on the keyboard. Forget about speeches, demos, videos, and long boring PowerPoint sessions in huge dark rooms. Basic educational research for over 100 years says that most people learn best when they're doing, not watching. You'll create a series of worksheets and plans to design your learning experience, and hear from a wide range of real people who build learning that delights and amazes customers around the world.

From creating your original functional specification, through design and development, all the way to deployment in the lab for your students. We'll cover things like Virtual PC technology, methods of feedback and assessment, integrating additional content types seamlessly with your learning content, and much more.

If you're developing any kind of learning materials -- presentations, labs, curriculum, help files, or online learning -- you need to understand the basics of learning. This 100-page read follows a puppy through his first dog training class to help you understand the basics of creating any kind of learning. There's no boring egg-head mumbo-jumbo, and it will have you wagging your tail all the way through.

It's funny, easy to understand, and gives you a great introduction to the key points in designing, developing and producing technical training for any kind of audience. We follow Bert the Pug as he goes from puppy to all-grown-up dog, learning his lessons in the Puppy Pre-School. Each lesson reveals a connection to learning methods, best practices, and actual paws-on-the ground application advice.

You'll get all of the basics of Instructional Design, Adult Learning Theory, and all those other things you'd know if you didn't keep falling asleep in class.

Like eight-track tapes and the Pacer, e-learning is no longer cool. We've seen that just because you have text on a screen and a "next" button, people really don't learn this way. No matter how pretty the images, or how much flashing/twirling/bouncing goes on -- learners turn off and tune out.

But don't despair. There are ways to use online learning to involve, engage, and really transfer knowledge on a global basis. Listen to designers who build e-learning that rocks, and hear how they've created really effective tools and processes to make it work. No theory, no lectures, and no pie-in-the-sky. You'll walk through the process in a series of worksheets and checklists that will have you ready to put your best ideas into practice.

Help in the fight against crummy e-learning, and take away these key lessons to help you keep from joining the ranks of the design-challenged. We already have lots of examples of awful -- you can create something great!