Chicago eLearning & Technology Showcase 2026

Most elearning courses look polished and interactive, yet learners forget them quickly and struggle to apply them on the job. This session explores why many courses fail to improve performance and introduces a practical redesign method built on five brain-based learning mechanisms: attention, prior knowledge activation, active engagement, reinforcement, and contextual application.

You will examine a failure case and identify why certain screens and interactions are easily forgotten. Using real examples, the session demonstrates how cognitive science principles translate into concrete design decisions inside tools such as Articulate Storyline 360, Articulate Rise 360, and Adobe Captivate.

Through live redesign activities, you will see how to replace passive interactions with decision-making, integrate spaced retrieval throughout lessons, and embed application opportunities directly into learning experiences.

You will leave with a practical evaluation checklist and a repeatable process for improving retention and performance without increasing seat time or development complexity.

By the end of this session, you will be able to

• Diagnose why an elearning module fails to produce retention or behavior change.
• Apply five brain-based design moves to redesign an existing elearning lesson.
• Evaluate an elearning course using a predictive checklist for attention, memory, and transfer.

You’ve taken the course a million times...maybe even developed it: Title slide. Click next. Stock photo with text. Click next. AI-generated video. Click next. Tabs. Click next. Drag and drop. Click next. The clicking and dragging and dropping quickly become rote. The course feels like a content dump chunked into clever, but mindless, activities. Your brain turns off. You pass the test with flying colors because the answers are obvious even without viewing the previous few dozen slides.

But what if the activities in the course weren’t technology-driven? What if they were carefully designed to give you practice?

Join this hands-on session to design activities that give learners opportunities to discover, critically think, solve problems, and practice. To fuel these activities, you will use an instructional story in ways you may not expect.

You will also see some great story-based courses produced by instructional designers from around the globe, and some mind-blowing elearning activities.

By the end of this session, you will be able to

• Construct a list of observable actions.

• Flex the power of an instructional story to self-discover and solve problems.

• Design activities that give learners opportunities to practice, using the Instructional Story Design framework.

Even the most well-designed elearning program can fail if the delivery falls flat. Too many virtual trainings, webinars, and digital learning experiences suffer from disengaged audiences, information overload, and presenters who struggle to translate instructional design into compelling delivery.

In this highly interactive session, Bridgett McGowen will diagnose the most common problems that derail virtual learning experiences and show you how to fix them.

You will learn how to transform typical slide-based training into dynamic learning experiences that increase engagement, retention, and application. Through real-world examples, live demonstrations, and audience participation, you will discover practical strategies to strengthen delivery, leverage technology intentionally, and design presentations that actually support learning outcomes.

You will leave with actionable techniques that you can immediately apply to webinars, virtual classrooms, and digital training environments.

By the end of this session, you will be able to

• Identify the most common presentation mistakes that undermine virtual learning.

• Transform static slide decks into an engaging instructional experience.

• Use interactive features in common elearning platforms to drive participation and retention.

• Apply delivery techniques that reinforce instructional design goals.

• Fix common webinar and virtual training breakdowns in real time.

Your design toolkit is about to get a microlearning upgrade. You already apply design principles to your elearning, so what happens when you add principles built specifically for microlearning? Microlearning-specific design principles are a valuable complement to the elearning design knowledge you already have.

This session unpacks the seven microlearning design principles and the learning science behind them. You will see each principle come to life through a microlearning development tool, examining designs in real time and discerning the application and need for each element.

Whether brand new to microlearning or looking to sharpen an existing practice, you will challenge and validate your design thinking through guided discussion and collaborative activities. A practical takeaway handout will support continued application long after the session ends.

By the end of this session, you will be able to

• Define the role of cognitive load theory in microlearning design.

• Identify the seven microlearning design principles.

• Evaluate the application of microlearning design principles using a microlearning development tool.