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ATD’s two professional certifications—the APTD® and CPTD®—cover the breadth of talent development, including training delivery and facilitation, performance improvement, and more.

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Associate Professional in Talent Development (APTD)

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Certified Professional in Talent Development (CPTD)

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Learn More About the ATD Certification Institute

ATD OrgDev will provide you with the skills needed to develop employee programs at all levels and throughout their employment lifecycle. You’ll learn innovative methods at all levels to manage the ever-increasing rate of change in today’s workplace.

ATD OrgDev Registration

Your All-In-One Guide to ISDKnown as “the man who wrote the book on ISD,” Chuck Hodell offers a comprehensive and practical handbook on core instructional systems design (ISD) practices and principles with a practitioner’s eye. This updated fifth edition covers all the basics and many advanced tenets of ISD, walking you through each phase, including advanced concepts such as microlearning, social media, and leveraging technology. Stand-alone chapters offer crucial support to practitioners building foundational skills, while in-depth tutorials on subjects such as collaborating with experts offer rich insights to guide the credentialed designer. This fully revised and expanded volume offers new case studies, discussion questions, and sample design and lesson plans, ISD From the Ground Up demystifies the learning design process. Whether you are just getting your feet wet or have extensive experience in ISD, this industry staple provides the essential building blocks and more for ISD mastery.

ISD From the Ground Up, 5th Edition

Game On! Action-Based Training Designs for Better Learning Passive learning just doesn’t cut it in today’s evolving, competitive workplace. Research demonstrates that action-first learning works because it engages the mind immediately and makes sure that knowledge and skills will stick. With a more diverse array of action-based training designs, organizations can motivate learners, provide hands-on, collaborative practice, and drive behavioral change. In Action-First Learning, educator and tech expert Karl Kapp covers nine distinct types of learning experiences in one volume—from card and board games, escape rooms, and branching scenarios to augmented reality and AI-powered coaching. He explains why each design works and how to choose, plan, and execute the right kind of project for your goals.The book includes a chapter by instructional designer Amy Pape about how to improve action-first learning through accessibility and another by L&D expert Kevin Thorn on the use of comics in action-first learning. Each chapter includes a detailed case study, a design checklist, and tips on how to leverage AI in the creation of action-first learning.

Action-First Learning

Unlock the full potential of your employees with effective feedback.Providing performance feedback is one of the most challenging tasks leaders face. Feedback often sparks frustration and fear for both leaders and their teams. Why? Because there is a disconnect between what leaders think they are communicating and what employees receive. In this essential book, leadership experts Mashihi and Nowack offer leaders their four-part Performance Feedback Coaching Model, designed to bridge this gap. After over a decade spent developing, testing, and refining their model with leaders around the world, the authors offer this powerful framework based on research in neuroscience and psychology. The book equips leaders at all levels with practical strategies and tools to deliver tailored feedback that aligns with each employee’s unique skills and interpersonal strengths. By personalizing feedback, leaders can inspire significant improvements in employee behavior, creating a workplace where leaders achieve their goals and employees thrive—a true win-win situation. The authors share powerful stories, real-life examples, and user-friendly tips, as well as questionnaires, worksheets, and other tools leaders can apply immediately.With this book as your roadmap, you will have the guidance you need to improve your employees’ development, performance, motivation, satisfaction, and retention.

Performance Feedback Strategies

Get the Toolbox You Need to Design for All LearnersDesign for All Learners empowers instructional designers, trainers, and other talent development professionals to create learning experiences that are accessible to and inclusive of all people. Learn from practitioners’ vulnerable lived experiences, moving stories, and practical advice. Written with accessibility, inclusion, and L&D experts and edited by Sarah Mercier, this book will help you ensure that individuals can fully participate in the talent development and training programs you offer.Adopt a progress-over-perfection approach. Start with shifting your mindset to consider that all learners are people who have unique experiences, perspectives, backgrounds, and abilities—and that learning design should be built for people, not just to meet compliance standards. Find what you need to know about designing for the modality you’re using to reach learners—from e-learning and job aids to training in the physical and virtual classroom. Gain a clearer understanding of requirements and standards, and then explore strategies and tactics to foster an inclusive mindset throughout your organization.Anyone involved with the practice of design in learning and development will benefit from the wide range of perspectives and techniques offered, whether you’re a team of one or work in an organization with a variety of resources. If your goal is to become a better designer, developer, teacher, and leader, this book presents a packed toolbox to do so. It will change everything you think you know. Use it as a guide in your journey to accessible, inclusive design for all.

Design for All Learners

Core4 is the premier foundational training and development conference where you’ll learn the fundamentals of instructional design, training delivery and facilitation, evaluating impact, and learning technologies.

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Measure Learning Impact Despite Limited ResourcesYear after year, talent development professionals report that lack of time, lack of support or partnership from stakeholders, and limited budgets are key barriers to measuring and evaluating their learning programs. Measurement and Evaluation on a Shoestring offers TD professionals a process to measure what matters to the organization with the tools and resources they have available. M&E pro Alaina Szlachta applies the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to provide guidance, quick tips, and shortcuts for making measurement easier while still demonstrating the value and impact of organizational learning.With this book, you will learn to ask the right questions, brainstorm metrics to evaluate learning, and build a measurement strategy that fits your needs. It also guides you on integrating measurement and evaluation into your instructional design approach from the beginning as well as using and analyzing data sources you might already have. You’ll discover how to build stakeholder relationships to secure buy-in and when to look beyond your expertise for external support and technology.The Association for Talent Development’s On a Shoestring series helps professionals successfully execute core topics in training and talent development when facing limitations of time, money, staff, and other resources. Using the Build-Borrow-Buy approach to problem solving, this series is designed for practitioners who work as a department of one; for new or “accidental” trainers, instructional designers, and learning managers who need fast, inexpensive access to practical strategies that work; and for those who work for small organizations or in industries that have limited training and development resources.

Measurement and Evaluation on a Shoestring

Scenario-based learning games are one of the most effective and creative ways to equip employees with the skills they need to thrive. These immersive experiences mimic real-world challenges, giving participants the chance to practice decision making and problem solving, all while receiving real-time feedback.At TiER1 Performance, we use scenario-based games to activate learning that truly sticks. Let’s dive into why these games are so effective and what skills they can teach employees.What does a game involve?Scenario-based games replicate real-world challenges within a safe, structured environment. They’re designed around specific goals, rules, and decision points where players must make choices and see how they play out. They focus on three key elements that work together to create engaging, meaningful learning experiences:Simulation lets learners interact with complex systems, giving them a hands-on way to practice skills without real-world consequences. Learners can master new techniques in a safe space, which builds confidence and deepens their understanding of the systems and processes they’ll encounter on the job.Narrative uses stories and characters to make the learning experience more personal and emotionally engaging. Storytelling helps make abstract concepts more tangible, and a well-crafted narrative can prompt learners to ask deeper questions and explore the material more thoroughly.Gamification combines fun with challenges, competition, and achievements to keep learners motivated. By offering rewards for progress and performance, gamification turns learning into a goal-oriented journey toward mastery.Together, these elements create a comprehensive experience that not only grabs attention but also equips learners with the skills they need to apply in real-world situations.Why do games work?Scenario-based games close the gap between theory and real-world action. Traditional learning methods can sometimes fall short when it comes to applying new skills on the job. But with games, learning goes beyond just memorizing facts—it helps reshape how we think and act.Here’s why: In a game, learning happens differently than in most other types of training. Learners are presented with a situation that challenges them and prompts questions. They use what they already know, along with the environment and system they’re interacting with, to make sense of the situation. Through exploration, they see how the system responds to their choices. This process allows for rethinking the problem and applying new understanding in the real world, transforming future approaches to similar challenges.What skills can games teach?Scenario-based games can teach a variety of skills, especially those that benefit from real-time decision making and hands-on practice. Here are some examples of where we’ve seen games work wonders:Problem solving and critical thinking: Games encourage players to explore different solutions and understand the consequences of their decisions. For example, we’ve designed games for the U.S. Department of Defense to train service members on complex skills such as missile defense planning and coordinating naval fleets.Leadership and management: Scenario-based games simulate leadership challenges such as managing teams and resolving conflicts. Our work includes everything from team-based board games exploring leadership qualities to digital role-play conversations for practicing employee coaching.Strategic thinking: Games focused on long-term goals and resource management help learners plan ahead and balance competing priorities. We’ve developed business simulations to help leaders think about how to best invest across their organization, balancing tensions of profitability, growth, and employee satisfaction.Ethical decision making: Simulations can present moral dilemmas, helping players think through the ethical implications of their actions. We’ve designed branching story-based simulations that challenge people to navigate situations across all organizational levels, prompting them to consider the long-term impact of their decisionsThese skills aren’t just beneficial for individual growth—they align employees with broader organizational objectives, making scenario-based games a powerful tool for strategy activation.How can you get started?A meaningful scenario-based game requires intentional planning. We designed our Game Design Canvas to help you structure a game in a way that aligns with your learning goals. Use it as a guide to plan each aspect of a game, including the game’s purpose and goals, players’ motivations and thought processes, gameplay mechanics and feedback, optimal delivery modality and development tools, and logistics and facilitation.

Upskill Your Employees With Scenario-Based Games

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