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Megan Bowe is a designer and strategist with a history of working with learning technology startups. Championing data-driven design, Megan works on projects that recognize a bigger lens that brings learning, portability of data, and formative analysis into focus. Megan works at Knewton, designing integration strategies to bring adaptivity into various learning applications. She co-created Up to All of Us, a community with an annual gathering that focuses on advancing the intersections between learning, design and technology. Megan worked to help launch the Tin Can API at Rustici Software, she continues to advocate for and support implementation of the specification.

Megan Bowe

Preparing for Adaptive Learning

April 2013 - TD Magazine

A SCORM Evolution

Aaron Silvers is an active leader in the evolution of online learning. He was the lead developer for Advanced Distributed Learning (ADL) responsible for determining how content could be built for SCORM system and over the last five years led the specification (and now standards) effort developing the Experience API. He chairs the IEEE xAPI Study Group.Through his consultancy, MakingBetter. Aaron accelerates learning and builds capacity in organizations. He evaluates systems and tools, leverages LEAN methodology to innovate and continuously improve learning and development functions, designs learning experiences and develops learning analytics and reporting capabilities.Aaron co-created the “Up to All of Us” community and annual gathering with partner Megan Bowe in 2011. Up to All of Us catalyzed a new community-of-practice that reconsidered design, workflow, tools and practice. He continues to encourage the development of more effective design practices and better tools through partnership for the Experience API community with the forthcoming events, Connections: xAPI.

Aaron Silvers

Megan Torrance is the CEO and founder of TorranceLearning, where she leads a team of learning experience designers and engineers in reimagining workplace learning. Her firm has served Fortune 1000 companies, major research universities, global professional associations, and federal agencies for more than two decades. Megan brings a strategic vision that helps TorranceLearning bridge vision with execution—delivering innovative, data-informed, and learner-centered solutions. Megan is the author of Agile for Instructional Designers, Data & Analytics for Instructional Designers, Making Sense of xAPI and the upcoming book, The AI Implementation Guide for L&D. She facilitates several of eCornell’s certificate programs focused on power dynamics, communication skills, and women’s executive leadership.

Megan Torrance

How do I become successful? How do I advance my career? How do I become the best possible me in the workplace? We have all asked these questions, and have tormented ourselves with trying to find the right answers. While there is no right answer, there is a place to start—figuring out who you are. Now, Discover Your Strengths, written by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton, allows you to take an assessment to discover and benefit from your strengths.Many people go through their daily work accomplishing task after task, with an inkling of what they are good at or what they enjoy. However, do we take those insights and mold our career around them? Maybe, maybe not. Now, Discover Your Strengths focuses on the idea that people should capitalize on their strengths and manage around their weaknesses. This means we should take what we are good at and flourish versus spending time trying to better our faults.As a society, we are used to the notion that we need to be good at everything, but in reality, that isn’t possible. No matter how hard we try, there will always be things that we are not good at. So, why do we waste our time on things that are not our strengths? The book is not suggesting that you should never try something you don’t believe you will succeed at, instead it encourages you to get to know what you are good at and truly use it to your advantage.Now, Discover Your Strengths comes with a unique code for you to take Gallup’s Clifton StrengthsFinder Assessment online. From the assessment you’ll discover your top five of the 34 strengths that they have developed. These strengths range from achiever to communicator to learner and so forth. Once you are aware of your top five, you can use the book to figure out what your strengths mean and how to put them to work.The book describes each strength, as well as the individuals that usually possess them. For many, reading this information is like looking into a mirror because it provides words to describe the actions and mindset that come naturally for them. For example, one of my strengths was learner, which in the book is described as, “The subject matter that interests you most will be determined by your other themes and experiences, but whatever the subject, you will always be drawn to the process of learning.” For me, nothing could be more true: I try to gather information constantly and learn as much as I can about everything around me. Knowing your strengths and learning how to implement them can be a personal catalyst for change at work.Now, Discover Your Strengths also dives into how to manage people regarding the 34 themes. It explains how to manage people with various strengths and suggests steps a manager can take to help that person succeed.It is vital to know who you are to advance within your career. It is even more important to ensure that you are spending your time working on items that coincide with your strengths. Now, Discover Your Strengths will help you realize your potential and drive realistic results within your career.ATD young professionals are encouraged to get involved and submit content to ATD blogs. Find more information about how you can share your content.

Discover Your Strengths

As we planned out our latest Talent Brief newsletter issue, we focused on what trends were gaining traction in the talent development field. Examining trends is a useful tool for reflection—they help us see what’s working and what’s not. This allows us to better plan for success in the future. But just because a topic is trendy doesn’t mean it’s changing talent development for the better. Some trends may do more harm than good, whether because they are misleading or because they were never actually evidence based.We reached out to experts in the field to weigh in on which trends they would like to see go away this year.Check out their replies below, and sign up for Talent Brief to get more insights like these in your inbox each week:What L&D trend from 2021 do you hope never makes a comeback, and why?“2021 was not ‘The Great Resignation.’ That’s an oversimplification. Opportunity finally caught up with disengagement. People seized the chance to reshape their relationships with work by going remote, changing jobs, or exploring new career paths. To avoid similar disruption in the future, organizations must adapt talent practices and accelerate internal skill development. L&D must shift stakeholder mindsets and make learning an ongoing part of every person’s job if companies hope to maintain capable workforces.”JD Dillon, Chief Learning Architect, Axonify“Personalization, in its current form. Yes, there are measurable results with AI-generated bespoke learning experiences. However, most employees would be surprised to know how much of their data is being collected without their knowledge and who has access to it. I firmly believe we need a GDPR when it comes to the triangulation of HR, performance, and L&D data for informed consent to opt-in to personalization.”Lori Niles-Hoffman, Senior Learning Strategist“In-person training being offered virtually exactly as it was delivered in-person. In 2020, there was a global mass movement to virtual learning. The pandemic forced things to be done quickly and cheaply to get learning up and running. The trend continued in 2021, and emergency virtual training, originally designed as live in-person training, still received no adjustments to ensure engaging and effective learning—resulting in bad learner experiences.”Myra Roldan, Senior Distributor of Knowledge and Good Vibes“I would love to see our industry doing less trend-chasing and more deciding what’s important for a particular learning & performance situation. It’s not “what can I do with mobile? AR? or video? Or microlearning? Or performance support or xAPI?” And more about how do I help this set of people accomplish this particular task in better ways? And I really do think that many of us are doing just fine with that.So much of what we have learned in the last two years now of living with a pandemic is that things change rapidly, we need to be flexible, and learning technology can be an enabler, annoying, and a barrier all at the same time.”Megan Torrance, Chief Energy Officer, Torrance Learning"As a result of protest, social unrest and political issues, organizations quickly reacted by implementing DEIB training courses without having a strategic approach that considered Culture, and other components - values, hiring, processes, etc. For organizations to truly implement meaningful change, they will need to replace reactive, “throw it together” methods with thoughtful, holistic DEIB strategies."Rita Bailey, Founder, Up to SomethingWhat trend would you like to see go away? Let us know in the comments below!

Return to Sender: Trends We’re Wishing Away in 2022

Sales success starts with understanding—not selling. While many salespeople focus on pitching features or moving quickly to a proposal, those who consistently succeed are the ones who know how to uncover a prospect’s real reasons to buy.This is the heart of consultative selling: the ability to ask insightful questions, listen actively, and identify the business drivers that move a buyer to act. When done well, it transforms the sales process from a transactional exchange into a meaningful conversation rooted in value.Why Consultative Selling Drives Sales SuccessConsultative selling is more than just a sales technique—it’s a core competency that reflects how well a salesperson can create value through discovery. It requires skill in asking meaningful questions, interpreting both verbal and nonverbal signals, and guiding the conversation toward uncovering urgency, need, and impact.Strong consultative sellers don’t jump to a solution. They start by understanding the problem from the buyer’s perspective. This approach:Reduces stalled or indecisive opportunitiesHelps buyers self-identify urgencyDifferentiates sellers in competitive, commoditized marketsWhen a salesperson takes the time to understand the buyer’s world—their challenges, pressures, and desired outcomes—they’re able to position their offering in a way that resonates deeply. This not only builds trust but also increases the likelihood of progressing the deal forward.Organizations that invest in measuring and developing this skill see tangible improvements in performance. Win rates go up. Sales cycles shorten. Forecasts become more reliable because reps are working real opportunities—not hopeful guesses.Despite its importance, data shows that fewer than one in five sellers are truly proficient in consultative selling—highlighting a major area for improvement across most sales teams.Where It Fits in the Broader Skill SetConsultative selling is one of the Tactical Competencies in sales—the observable, coachable skills that help salespeople guide buyers through the sales process. These are the “doing” skills: what a rep says and does in the field to build credibility, diagnose problems, and move deals forward.While many sales training programs attempt to develop consultative behaviors, they often lack a baseline. Without clear measurements, it’s difficult to know who’s already strong, who’s improving, and who’s struggling. And without measurement, managers are left to rely on anecdotal evidence or personality cues rather than data.A rep who’s confident and articulate might seem consultative—but are they truly uncovering the prospect’s underlying business drivers? Are they asking follow-up questions that dig deeper, or are they just moving from script to script?How Do You Know if Your Team Has This Skill?Without structured evaluation, consultative selling often gets misdiagnosed. A rep might appear personable or polished in meetings, but that doesn’t mean they’re uncovering the real issues behind a buying decision.Years of sales performance data show a consistent pattern: top performers routinely uncover deeper buying motives earlier in the process. They’re more likely to ask questions that challenge assumptions, reveal hidden pain points, and reframe the buyer’s perspective. These aren't “soft skills”—they’re measurable behaviors that correlate strongly with win rates, sales velocity, and deal size.The most effective sales teams don’t rely on gut instinct to gauge whether someone is consultative. They use data to understand which reps are driving meaningful conversations—and which ones are simply checking boxes in discovery.Strengthen This Skill, Strengthen Your PipelineDeveloping strong consultative selling skills isn't just about teaching reps to “ask better questions.” It’s about helping them become true advisors—professionals who drive buyer clarity and create momentum.This often requires ongoing coaching, real-time feedback, and an objective view of each rep’s strengths and weaknesses. Sales managers who can identify consultative gaps early are better equipped to coach them and better positioned to build a pipeline full of high-quality, qualified opportunities.To see how consultative selling fits into the larger framework of sales excellence, explore the full set of 21 Core Sales Competencies. It’s a valuable resource for any organization looking to elevate performance through measurable skill development, and a proven foundation for building a high-performing, consultative sales force.

Uncovering a Prospect’s Reasons to Buy

An understanding of the need for better online accessibility has grown markedly in recent years, perhaps accelerated by the digital shift during the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020. Legislation in different parts of the world has also been a driver of awareness and action.Accessible learning is good for everyone.As an online activity, e-learning falls squarely within the scope of accessibility requirements. But whether you’re responding to a compliance deadline, pressure from customers, or a corporate commitment to diversity and inclusion, it’s well worth noting that designing training with accessibility in mind can enrich the learning experience for everyone, not just those with a defined disability. So, accessibility should be a priority for any L&D professional who wants to optimize the learning experience.Where to start?Unless your strategy is to invest in your own in-house accessibility expertise, the natural first step is to find the right partner to advise and assist you.First, they should understand the requirements of any legislation you need to comply with. Second, if you’re interested in more than compliance—because, let’s face it, ticking compliance boxes is not always the same as taking a best-practice approach— they’ll be able to explain different standards and what you could be doing to transform learning through accessibility improvements. There’s a difference, for example, between a basic screen reader experience, which may be good enough for compliance, and a great screen reader experience, which makes a real difference for usability.Third, they should be able to help you develop a roadmap and a plan to achieve your e-learning accessibility objectives.Consider remediation from the start.Every respectable accessibility improvement plan starts with an audit against the relevant standards to establish what accessibility gaps exist. Once these are identified, the next step is remediation—fixing the identified accessibility issues—so it’s worth considering from the start whether you want your accessibility partner to help you with this.If you’re happy to handle remediation in-house or through a different partner, then it won’t matter if the accessibility specialist you choose doesn’t have specific expertise with e-learning platforms, hosted assets, and content formats. But if you do expect to need their remediation support, it can be a big advantage if they are also e-learning specialists. Consider this carefully before making your choice—and don’t forget that accessibility covers both your e-learning platform and the training content that it holds.Consider the impact of localization.Hopefully, localization is part of your e-learning strategy, since L&D has a greater chance of success when it happens in the learner’s native language. But this means that accessibility testing must cover all the languages you localize into. Even if you’re applying the same accessibility standards across countries and languages (legislative differences may mean this isn’t the case), it simply doesn’t follow that if your e-learning is accessible in one language, it will automatically be accessible in any other.For example, what if your e-learning platform doesn’t accept voice commands in all of the languages you cater to? Or, what if the way you’ve handled forced line breaks for certain Asian languages causes real trouble for screen readers?When you’re choosing an accessibility partner, make sure that they cover all of the languages you need. If they’re helping you with remediation, they also need to know coding best practices that address the user experience from both a localization and accessibility point of view—not compromising one for the sake of the other.Another way that localization and accessibility can go hand in hand is that the right localization partner can make a big difference to your accessibility journey. For example, video accessibility might feel like a big hurdle to clear, but it isn’t if your localization partner also offers (multilingual) accessible content services such as closed captions, signed videos, audio descriptions, and descriptive transcripts.It's an ongoing process.E-learning accessibility isn’t a one-off project that you complete and forget. It takes continuing vigilance and an accessibility-first approach to platform and content development. Otherwise, improvements you make will be undone over time.If you use a third-party e-learning platform or rely on e-learning vendors for course design and development, you’ll need to engage with them to achieve your accessibility objectives. If you do any of this in-house, you’ll need to update your own software standards, guidelines, and checklists, and educate your software engineers and learning designers to put accessibility front and center.There’s certainly a lot to get right when it comes to e-learning accessibility. But that doesn’t mean it needs to be painful. Help exists to make the complex more controllable and achievable. I hope I’ve inspired you to get started.Expand your instructional design expertise with an e-learning design certificate from ATD.  

E-Learning for Everyone: How to Address Accessibility

“Next person up.” This is how most frontline managers get the job.According to DDI, frontline managers are the most important people in the workplace. They lead 80 percent of the workforce and influence every part of the employee experience. But most never planned to do this job. In fact, 70 percent of managers didn’t anticipate their promotion.Companies rely on these managers to turn strategy into action. “As a result, the work piles on, and 40 percent of managers feel burned out,” according to The Deskless Report 2024. This leaves little room for development. Even a 30-minute quarterly webinar is a stretch.Traditional leadership development isn’t built for the frontline. It’s designed for people with steady schedules, not those running the floor and putting out fires all day. Managers are asking for help, but they need a different approach—one that fits into their reality, rapidly builds capability, and boosts on-the-job confidence.Here’s a better way.Start with guidanceBefore building any courses, make sure managers have access to real-time support. Provide a knowledge base with proven practices and answers to everyday challenges, such as:What happens if we miss a delivery or run out of stock?What’s the process for approving shift swaps?What do I say in a write-up conversation?Make this knowledge easy to find and apply. Use AI to provide managers with a digital assistant that’s always available to answer questions, share advice, and help them stay focused.When managers can solve everyday problems on their own, training can shift from teaching processes to building the skills that drive outcomes.Focus on what’s most useful nowSkip the leadership theory—at least at first. New managers need practical skills that enable them to run the operation without letting things fall apart.Start with the basics, then build up. Restructure your manager training into job-relevant phases:Manage a shift. Build core confidence in leading daily operations.Navigate disruption. Provide the knowledge and tools needed to handle the unexpected.Lead a team. Focus on building trust, improving communication, and coaching to performance.Lead initiatives. Help them take ownership of projects and excel in stretch opportunities.Pursue opportunities. Foster the skills that will get them to the next role.Personalize the path so each person can progress at the right pace. Strong operators may move fast. Newcomers might need more time to build the basics. Make sure the manager and their team are confident they can handle the next shift—because it’s tomorrow. Foster peer networks“Training has limits. There’s only so much you can cover in the time available. It’s no surprise that 67 percent of frontline managers say they’re making it up as they go,” according to The Deskless Report 2024.Microlearning and reinforcement are essential for ongoing development, but a manager’s most valuable resource is fellow managers. They’ve been through it. They know how topics discussed in the classroom play out in real life. Make it easy for managers to connect with peers who can share advice and offer support in difficult moments.A frontline manager might be the only one in their location, and that location might be the only one in the city. But they shouldn’t feel alone. Foster community. Create space for real conversations and judgment-free guidance. The support they need is often one text message away.Design for realityLeadership development is falling short, and most companies know it. “75 percent say their programs don’t deliver value,” according to Josh Bersin.This gap is even wider on the frontline. Managers don’t need theories and slide decks. They need actionable training that fits into their free moments. They need tools to solve real problems and lead through the daily chaos.Fixing leadership development doesn’t mean lowering the bar. Instead, L&D must design for the reality frontline managers face every day—and give them a real chance to succeed.

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