The L&D
Word Project

Browse or search for L&D and business terms.

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EX (Employee experience)

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Employee experience (EX) refers to employee's feelings about their journey at an organization, from the hiring experience, to onboarding, to development and career opportunities, and more.
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EdTech (educational technology)

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According to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, educational technology is the study and ethical application of theory, research, and best practices to advance knowledge as well as mediate and improve learning and performance through the strategic design, management and implementation of learning and instructional processes and resources.
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Empathy

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Empathy is the capacity to understand, sense, and share the feelings of another person.
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Empathy map

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Commonly used in design fields, such as UX and service design, an empathy map is a collaboratively created visualization of experiential data from customers or end users, designed to help gain insight into the way they interact with and feel about a product, service, or situation.
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Employee engagement

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Employee engagement refers to the relationship between and organization and its employees. Specifically, it's how much energy and motivation employees put toward reaching organizational goals.
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Enablement

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Enablement is the process of providing employees with the information, skills, and resources they need to be productive and efficient in their roles.
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Evaluation

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Evaluation refers to the assessments and metrics collected to assess the effectiveness of learning experiences.
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Experience

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An experience refers to gaining knowledge through direct observation or participation.
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Experiential learning

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Experiential learning is learning that happens through doing. Specifically, it is the reflection on the activity that makes learning experiential.
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Expert

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An expert is someone who has comprehensive and authoritative knowledge or skill in a particular area.
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Expertise

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Expertise refers to comprehensive or authoritative knowledge or skill in a particular field.
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Explainer video

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An explained video is a short video created to explain products, services, policies, or topics.
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Explicit learning

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Explicit learning is an intentional learning process, where the learner is consciously aware of what they are learning and can summarize it after the learning experience.
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Extrinsic motivation

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Extrinsic motivation refers to when someone's reasoning for doing something is tied to tangible results, such as money, reward, or notoriety.
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Facilitation

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Facilitation is the act of engaging learners during a learning experience, which often includes moderating discussions, introducing activities, answering questions, and guiding learners.
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Fixed mindset

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A fixed mindset is one in which people believe their qualities, skills, and abilities are innate and cannot be changed.
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Flipped classroom

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Flipped classroom is a model that reverses the traditional educational model where students are lectured to during class time and practice problem solving at home. In the flipped classroom model, students receive the lesson material at home and then work on problem-solving and practice during class time.
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Forgetting Curve (Ebbinghaus)

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The Forgetting Curve hypothesizes the loss of memory and retention of information over time.
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Formal learning

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Formal learning is any learning experience that is intentional and guided, typically taking place either in a classroom or online designated meeting place or platform.
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Formative assessment

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A formative assessment is a planned, structured assessment of student's learning during a learning experience, often used to check for understanding and progress toward learning goals so that the instructor can alter the learning experience as needed to make sure the goal is reached.
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Four Stages of Competence

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The Four Stages of Competence is a learning model that explains the psychological states that take a learner from incompetence to competence, which include unconscious incompetence, conscious incompetence, conscious competence, and unconscious competence.
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Framework

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A framework is a basic conceptual structure of ideas used to support or guide someone.
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Freelancer

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A freelancer is someone who is considered self-employed but performs work for organizations on a short-term or per-task basis, not committing themselves to any one employer long term.
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Future state

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Future state refers to the long-term goals and greater vision of the business over time and with changing economics and technology.
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GUI (graphical user interface)

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A graphical user interface (GUI) allows users to interact with electronic devices through visual indicators or graphical icons, as opposed to text-based interactions.
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Gagne's Nine Events

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Gagne created a nine-step process for people to use when designing learning experiences with the goal of maximum engagement and retention. The steps are gain attention, inform learners of objectives, stimulate recall of prior learning, present stimulus, provide learner guidance, elicit performance, provide feedback, assess performance, and enhance retention and transfer.
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Game-based learning

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Game-based learning describes adding games to a learning experience or using games to teach.
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Gamification

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Gamification is applying game principles to the design of a non-game experience, which may included adding game mechanics, such as scoring, leaderboards, and badging, to a program, product, or service in order to encourage participation.
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Gap analysis

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Gap analysis is the process of looking at a business's current state and its future state and analyzing where there are issues or areas of opportunity that need to be addressed to reach goals, looking at areas such as operations, resources, finances, and roles.
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Generational Theory

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Generational Theory posits that each "generation" of people born within a 20-25 year time period shares similar characteristics, or a persona, based on shared historical events.
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Goal

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In business, a goal is a target or accomplishment an organization sets out to achieve in the short or long term.
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Great Media Debate

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The Great Media Debate, started by Clark and Kozma in the 1990s, sought to answer the question, "do media influence learning?"
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Growth mindset

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A growth mindset is one in which people believe their qualities, skills, and abilities can be developed over time through effort.
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HCD (human-centered design)

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Human-centered design (HCD) is an approach where designers make the perspective and emotions of the end user their primary focus when designing systems.
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HCM (human capital management)

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Human capital management (HCM) includes the processes for attracting, hiring, managing, developing, and retaining talent in an organization.
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HR (human resources)

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Human resources (HR) refers to the department in the organization that deals with everything employee-related.
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HRIS (human resource information system)

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A human resource information system (HRIS) is software that manages employee information and any information HR uses for business processes and operations, such as hiring and benefit information.
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Hard skills

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Hard skills are technical abilities that can be objectively and quantitatively measured.
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Heuristic

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A heuristic is a practical, mental shortcut people use to decrease cognitive load and reach an immediate, short-term goal.
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Human capital

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Human capital refers to the organizational and economic value of the collective skills and abilities of the employees of an organization.
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Human factors

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Human factors refers to employee characteristics and behaviors that influence how they act in their organization, affecting the overall health and safety at the organization.
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Hybrid working

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Hybrid working is a flexible working environment in which employees spend part of their time in the physical workplace and part of their time working from a remote location.
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ILT (instructor-led training)

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Instructor-led training (ILT) is when an instructor facilitates a learning experience for learners.
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IP (intellectual property)

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Intellectual property refers is any intellectual creation, such as literary works, artistic works, inventions, designs, symbols, and images. IP can be protected by patents, trademark, copyright, or other laws.
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IQ

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IQ is short for intelligence quotient. It is the score derived from a set of standardized tests that are used to determine human intelligence.
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Impact

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In business, impact refers to the effect your performance has on the organization's performance, goals, and stakeholders.
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Implementation

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In the ADDIE framework, implementation refers to the plan to release and communicate learning experiences with the intended learners. In technology projects, it refers to the execution of the plan to launch the technology.
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Implicit learning

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Implicit learning is an unintentional learning process, where the learner is not aware that they are learning and retaining complex information.
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Individual development plan

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An individual development plan is a plan created by an employee and their manager that outlines professional goals for the employee for a specific time period. The goals align with the organizational goals and are assessed after the time period.
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Infographic

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A infographic is a visual representation of data or information, presented in a way to simplify the data, reducing cognitive load for the end user.
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Informal learning

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Informal learning is any learning experience that is unintentional and unstructured and takes place outside of the traditional classroom environment.
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Inquiry-based learning

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Inquiry-based learning is an educational approach that starts when questions, problems, or scenarios are posed, and learners have to research and explore ideas to answer the questions.
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Instructional design

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Instructional design is the process of analyzing learning and performance gaps and creating, deploying, and measuring instructional and non-instructional learning opportunities to close gaps and encourage learning and performance improvement.
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Instructional design model

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An instructional design model is a series of steps that can be followed to create learning experiences.
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Instructional designer

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An instructional designer is someone whose main job function is to analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate learning experiences.
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Instructional systems design

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Instructional systems design was the original term for instructional design because of the systems approach taken to design and develop learning experiences. The term has been shortened to instructional design in most areas, but instructional systems design is still used in some industries, including in government and military.
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Instructional technology

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According to the Association for Educational Communications and Technology, instructional technology is the theory and practice of design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation of processes and resources for learning.
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Interactive PDF

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An interactive PDF is one that uses multimedia, including images, audio and video, links, GIFs, and fillable forms.
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Intranet

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An intranet is a private network used by an organization to communicate, collaborate, and to store and share information.
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Intrinsic motivation

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Intrinsic motivation refers to when someone's reasoning for doing something is tied to inherent satisfaction that is not tangible, such as enjoyment or a sense of meaning and purpose.
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Issue

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In business, an issue is an unforeseen problem, gap, inconsistency, or conflict that occurs during a project.
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JIT (Just in Time)

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Just in time (JIT) refers to learners having access to the resources and information they need at the moment they need it.
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Job aid

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A job aid is a set of simple, step-by-step instructions that help a learner complete a task at work.
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Job architecture

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Job architecture refers to the organizational structure of job roles and their hierarchy within the organization, as well as the requirements and competencies of those roles.
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Job task analysis

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A job task analysis looks for the tasks and activities, as well as resources and requirements, needed to do a particular job successfully.
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KPI (key performance indicator)

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A key performance indicator (KPI) is a quantifiable measurement of progress toward a performance goal within an organization.
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KSA (knowledge, skills, abilities)

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Knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) are the qualifications necessary to perform a job, listed in job postings and on resumes by applicants.
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Kanban

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From the Japanese word meaning "visual board," kanban refers to a visual system of organizing work as it moves through steps in a process.
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Kirkpatrick’s Learning Evaluation Model

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Kirkpatrick's Learning Evaluation Model includes four levels of training evaluation: reaction (measuring how learners felt about the experience), learning (measuring what was learned), behavior (measuring how people apply their learning), and results (measuring the learning against organizational outcomes).
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Knowledge

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The facts, skills, and information gained during a learning experience.
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Knowledge management

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The process of identifying, creating, managing, sharing, and evaluating information within an organization.
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LCMS (learning content management system)

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A learning content management system (LCMS) is a software creating, editing, implementing, and maintaining learning content for an organization.
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LMS (learning management system)

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A learning management system (LMS) is a software that allows for creating, implementing, maintaining, tracking, and reporting on data from learning experiences.
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LRS (learning record store)

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A learning record store (LRS) is defined by the xAPI specification as "a server (i.e. system capable of receiving and processing web requests) that is responsible for receiving, storing, and providing access to Learning Records."
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LXD (learning experience design)

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Learning experience design is another, more modern term for instructional design that aims to take the focus away from "instruction" and place it on the learner and their experience.
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LXP (learning experience platform)

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A learning experience platform is another, more modern term for a learning management system that aims to take the focus away from asset management and place it on the learner's experience in the software.
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Leadership development

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Leadership development refers to the upskilling and training of leaders so that they can be successful in their roles and with their teams.
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Lean

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Originally from the manufacturing industry and then adopted by software development and learning and development, lean refers to the set of processes and principles that aims to maximize efficiency and reduce waste.
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Learner journey

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A learner journey looks at how the learner moves through a learning experience, including the time before they begin the experience to the activities that occur after the experience to apply and reinforce learning.
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Learning

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Learning is the process through which we acquire knowledge and/or skills.
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Learning and performance ecosystem

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In a learning and performance ecosystem, employees are connected to the resources they need to learn, improve performance, and develop their skills to grow in their roles.
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Learning culture

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Learning culture refers to how employees, teams, and organizations use learning and growth opportunities to help employees feel they belong in and have a future at their organization.
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Learning design

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Learning design is another, more modern term for instructional design that aims to take the focus away from "instruction" and place it on the learner as an active participant.
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Learning environment

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The learning environment refers not only to the physical location where one learns but also to the delivery method, educational approach, and cultural context where learning takes place.
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Learning myths

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A learning myth is one that sounds plausible but has no basis in research or research-based practice.
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Learning objective

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A learning objective is a brief statement that describes what someone will learn by the end of a successful learning experience.
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Learning pathway

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A learning pathway is a set of modules, lessons, courses, activities, resources, or experiences that help a learner move through information on a particular topic.
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Learning styles

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One of the most popular and well-known learning myths that is still taught in graduate education today, the learning styles theory states that people learn in one of three main ways: auditory (through listening), visual (through seeing images and graphic representations), through reading/writing, and kinesthetic (through manipulating objects or doing something "hands-on").
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MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator)

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Created by a mother/daughter duo based on the work of Carl Jung, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator is a personality test used to divide people into extroversion or introversion, sensing or intuition, thinking or feeling, and judgement or perception. It's validity, dichotomy, reliability, and lack of objectivity have been repeatedly called into question over the years.
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MOOC (massive open online course)

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A massive open online course (MOOC) is a course available to a large group of learners over the internet.
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MR (mixed reality)

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Mixed reality is an immersive experience that involves parts of the real world and digital world.
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Market share

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Market share is the percentage of the total revenue or sales in a market that a company's business makes up. For example, if there are 50,000 units sold per year in a given industry, a company whose sales were 5,000 of those units would have a 10 percent share in that market.
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Masterclass

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A masterclass is a lesson given by an expert to a group of high-performing learners who have a specific interest in the topic.
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Mayer’s Multimedia Principles

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Mayer's Multimedia Principles are 12 principles to follow when designing multimedia assets that aim to increase retention and reduce cognitive load of learners.
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Memorization

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Memorization is the process of committing information to memory so that you can recall it later.
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Mental model

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A mental model is a representation in someone's thought processes for how something works.
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Mentoring

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Mentoring is a reciprocal relationship between a more experienced person and lesser experienced person, where the more experienced person provides advice to the lesser experienced person for the purposes of achieving career goals and growth.
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Merrill's Principles of Instruction

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David Merrill spent time researching which principles were most common in instructional design theory and came up with what he deemed the first five principles of instruction where learning is promoted: 1. when learners are engaged in solving real-world problems, 2. when existing knowledge is activated as a foundation for new knowledge, 3. when new knowledge is demonstrated to the learner, 4. when new knowledge is applied by the learner, and 5. when new knowledge is integrated into the learner’s world.
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Metacognition

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Metacognition is the process of thinking about one's own thought processes and the patterns that create them.
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Metaverse

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A simulated digital environment that uses augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and social media mechanics to create a space for people to communicate and interact like they would in the real world.
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