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Future-Proofing Leadership: How Skills Taxonomies Drive Agility and Learning
Here's an article I wrote for Evolve Solutions Group: In the age of constant digital change, yesterday’s leadership playbook no longer applies. With constant technological breakthroughs, the half-life of skills is shrinking. Research from the World Economic Forum shows that 44% of core workplace skills will change by 2027 . At the same time, leaders must navigate increasing complexity—rising automation, economic uncertainty, policy changes, hybrid work models, and shifting em
Mar 11, 2025


Navigating AI & Emerging Tech: Preparing the Workforce for Continuous Change
Here's an article I wrote for Evolve Solutions Group : Generative AI has gone from a novelty to an essential tool in today’s L&D world. In just a few years, it has transformed how content is created, knowledge is shared, and training is delivered. The rapid pace of change isn’t slowing down—and this is just the beginning. As emerging technologies continue to evolve, the real challenge isn’t just keeping up with one breakthrough but preparing for a future where disruption is c
Feb 22, 2025


Need some tips for keeping up with emerging tech and tools for your L&D department?
Check out my article from the Evolve Solutions Group June 2024 newsletter for 5 tips to keep you up to speed on emerging tech for training design and dev: leonardo.ai - image of a middle manager, sitting on the floor, looking only slightly confused, swarmed with different technologies and modalities Staying Ahead of the Curve: 5 Tips for Keeping Your L&D Department Up to Speed with New Tech and Tools By Tristia Hennessey, Senior Instructional Technology Strategist The allure
Jun 14, 2024


Help me test & refine my Chat-GPT 'Branching Scenario Builder' prompt!
Credit to u/3DPianiat and u/perturbaitor on reddit for the basis and inspiration for the prompt, based on their modified prompt for a Choose Your Own Adventure game (go visit the reddit link above to check out the prompt options from the original thread to play CYOA with Chat-GPT!) created with stable diffusion 2.1 at Leonardo AI - https://app.leonardo.ai/ For the prompt, copy and paste everything between the lines below into Chat-GPT, then follow the conversation; it should
Jan 16, 2024


What eLearning Can Borrow from Game Design - Part 2
I wrote this article for the November 2023 Evolve Insights newsletter: https://evolve-sg.com/what-elearning-can-borrow-from-game-design-part-2/ Harnessing the Power of Story, Dialogue, Empathy, and Consequence in Training & Development In Part 1 of “What eLearning Can Borrow From Game Design” I discussed ways you can elevate your eLearning courses with Game Design and UX techniques. In this article I’ll explore how storytelling, dialogue, roleplay, and consequence are fundam
Nov 12, 2023


Custom AI Chatbots: 4 Powerful Applications for Employee Performance Support
I wrote this article for the October Evolve Insights newsletter: https://evolve-sg.com/custom-ai-chatbots-4-powerful-applications-for-employee-performance-support/ and it was featured in Christy Tucker 's newsletter too! While AI chatbots for B2C applications are widely in use, more recently companies have begun exploring the potential of AI chatbots for internal use. These custom bots cater directly to employees, aiming to simplify many of the routine or complex tasks they
Oct 7, 2023


Long-Lasting Learning: Combining Drip, Spaced, and Microlearning
I wrote this article for the September 2023 Evolve Insights newsletter: https://evolve-sg.com/long-lasting-learning-combining-drip-spaced-and-microlearning/ If you’re an instructional designer, you’re probably well aware that the key challenge isn’t just getting information into learners’ heads—it’s keeping it there. Think back to the last time you learned something valuable, especially a difficult concept, skill, or process. Maybe it was a workout routine, how to change the
Sep 24, 2023


What eLearning Can Borrow From Game Design – Part 1
I wrote this article for the September 2023 Evolve insights newsletter: https://evolve-sg.com/what-elearning-can-borrow-from-game-design-part-1/ Part 1: Elevating Your eLearning Courses With Game Design and UX Techniques Want to make your e-learning courses truly engaging? Games are about much more than points and leveling up. Let’s dig into how simple game design strategies like UX and interactions design can help you achieve that. Easy Navigation In games, a clear path oft
Sep 23, 2023


I presented at the AI in Learning Summit 23 - watch here for 7 AI tools to streamline training dev
Miss the AI in Learning Summit 2023? Below you can watch the recording from my presentation on July 26th 2023. I review these 9 tools that can help take your eLearning to the next level: Google Bard Wordtune InVideo Whisper AI / Google CoLab Soundraw.io 7taps AI WellSaidLabs
Aug 19, 2023


Leveraging AI Text Generation for Enhanced Training Development
AI generated image - Why would the robot/AI also wear glasses? Presumably to fit in with its 'nerdy' peers 😂 By Tristia Hennessey & Chat-GPT 3.5 (all human edits in green) AI text generation is in its early stages, but even now these free tools can help save hours of time when working on instructional design tasks, such as outlining, content rewriting, research, and brainstorming. In this article, we explore practical ways instructional designers can harness the power of AI
Jul 13, 2023


5 tips for writing dialogue for scenario-based learning
leonardo.ai generated image in 3d animation style. prompt: "a woman of color and a white man talking happily, with comic-book-like speech bubbles above their heads"; I noticed another controversial and oft commented-on trait of current AI image generation models, that any lack of detail around prompts involving "people of color" tend to invoke fairly white-washed characters - all 8 images leonardo generated with this prompt (using 2 different styles) created similar-looking,
Jun 23, 2023


Considering the ROI of Adaptive Learning
Here's an article I recently wrote for the Evolve Solutions Group blog and newsletter: Considering the ROI of Adaptive Learning by Tristia Hennessey for Evolve Solutions Group February 2023 A Typical Training Scenario You’re taking your company’s annual compliance course on cybersecurity and email safety. You’ve been with this company for several years and you know the cybersecurity rules and procedures and took the same exact course last year, and the year before that. Neve
Feb 3, 2023


Cloudy TinyWorld in GravitySketch
I took this opportunity to re-familiarize myself with tools and the movement of objects and orientation in Gravity Sketch. I've done a number of other fun sketches in the past, but since it's been over a year I needed to reorient myself with this project inspired by another video. A couple of observations from this short pet project: creating detail in an environment is a time consuming labor of love, careful observation, attention to detail, and rework, rework, rework scale
Jan 23, 2023


Some fun with AI image generation
How does an AI see itself ? How would it choose to represent itself given the choice, or command? I asked Rosebud.ai ' s Synth to create images of "an AI" and "a group of AI" to see how it might choose to represent itself. Synth has several theme options, so I entered the same criteria for each one to compare the different results. Options on Synth: "an AI" - if you look closely, most the images are of some eyeball looking robotics and/or a humanoid with a distorted, unforme
Jan 10, 2023


Developing Wilderness Challenge in Unity - We've got hands! (part 1 of probably many)
I've gotten started on developing my project in Unity, and (so far) have only had to start over 4 times! I was able to successfully integrate the VR Interaction Framework and place the sample XR rig into an environment level I purchased (which required several other asset packs by the same artists). I've definitely found some gaps in my design document and will be reposting a new version soon with some updates.... plenty more to consider that I'll need to include, like specs
Jan 2, 2023


An excerpt from my upcoming TD at Work guide, "Creating Effective Simulations for Learning"
UPDATE : This published the first week of May 2023! Buy it here: https://www.td.org/td-at-work-guide/simulations-learning-lived-out I just finished my draft for the TD at Work guide I have been invited to write for ATD's TD at Work collection! The full guide will be published in March 2023 and for sale on ATD's website. Here's a sneak peak: Types of simulations for learning What type of simulation you design will depend largely on your content, your modality, and your devel
Nov 29, 2022


Tracking Learner Engagement and Data in XR Learning Experiences
I wrote an article for Evolve SG, check it out here: https://evolve-sg.com/tracking-learner-engagement-and-data-in-xr-learning-experiences/
Nov 24, 2022


DevLearn 22 Recap - Lots of Immersive Fun & Learning in Vegas
DevLearn 2022 was the same wonderful whirlwind, drinking-from-the-firehose event we've come to expect from this annual Las Vegas event. Evolve Solutions Group covered a lot of ground this year: I spoke with Alex Ryan at the Articulate User Conference ("Simulation and Gamification - Blended Learning Strategy"), sharing some of our blended learning solutions including simulations and branching scenarios, for several of our restaurant and utility clients. Alex and James Oakley a
Nov 1, 2022
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