This document provides an overview of Learnography, a for-purpose organization focused on learning and development. It includes articles from various Learnography team members on topics like the evolution of instructional design, the importance of networking, strategies for bilingual learning, redefining employee feedback, and the power of great design. The document highlights Learnography's mission and values, as well as insights from its diverse team.

1. 1
ENGAGE.
EVOLVE.
2015-2016 Issue

2. 2 3
FROM THE EDITOR 04
LEARNING THAT DELIVERS 06
STRIVING FOR PURPOSE, NOT PROFIT 08
THE EVOLUTION OF INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN 10
PRACTICE WHAT YOU TEACH 12
WHY NETWORKING MATTERS 14
#SOCIALMEDIASECRETS 16
WE’RE ALL FRIENDS HERE 18
STRATEGIES FOR BILINGUAL LEARNING 20
REDEFINING EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK 22
THE POWER OF GREAT DESIGN 24
JOIN THE DIALOGUE 26
Q&A WITH THE CHAIR OF THE BOARD 28
Q&A WITH THE CEO 30

3. 4 5
I joined Curriculum Services Canada
in 2014, midway through the strategic
initiative that ultimately led to us to rebrand
to Learnography. We wanted an identity
that spoke to our obsession with learning,
creativity, innovation, and multi-disciplinary
solutions. This change has been a great
success so far and we look forward to our
continued evolution.
We pursue meaningful and measurable
outcomes and operate based on an
unshakable love of learning. Learnography
team members, each with a unique
perspective and area of expertise, champion
the advancement of the learning sector with
passion. Together we are greater than any
one of us is alone.
The words of Learnography team members
can be found throughout the pages of this
publication. I take great pride in seeing this
community grow and would be honoured to
have you join us.
Find us online and let us know...
What do you want to learn today?
@lrnogrphy
Juliana Trichilo Cina, MA
Solutions Director
@jtcina
FROM THE
EDITOR

4. 6 7
LEARNING THAT
DELIVERS
We all know the pains of lengthy lectures or narcolepsy-
inducing eLearning.These are in direct contrast to many
experiences brought to us today by media, gaming,
marketing, and other industries.In our always-connected
and dynamic world, individuals are empowered like never
before to choose where, and on what, they want to focus.
Earning a learner’s engagement is increasingly demanding.
Just as more options are available to learners, more is
asked.As the pace of business introduces new challenges,
individuals face new performance demands.To give
learners the experiences they deserve — experiences that
drive personal development — we must deliver learning that
meets three important needs.
Entertain
Learners want to be
entertained. As a student,
I always learn best when
I care. This makes it even
more critical that learning
delivers high levels of
engagement. With today’s
technology, the possibilities
are greater than ever.
Inform
Relevance is critical.We
must inform individuals in
ways that resonate with their
experience to advance new
knowledge and behaviour.
Empowered by this
information, we can achieve
and demonstrate continued
personal growth.
Empower
The value of formal
training, and the quality
that professional educators
bring, can be forgotten
when information is so easily
accessible on demand.
Transformative learning
experiences prove their value
with immediate utility.
We create learning that delivers. When people are empowered to be
their best, communities benefit. So next time you have the honour
of contributing to the learning of others, remember that you can be
the catalyst for a powerful ripple effect.
How do you deliver learning?
@lrnogrphy
Juliana Trichilo Cina, MA
Solutions Director

5. 8 9
In the first co-op placement of my university career, I landed a role in
Solutions at Learnography.I’ve been an integrated member of the team
since day one.I am encouraged to learn just about anything that is of
interest to me and where I can make a valuable contribution.I have
benefited from this purpose-driven culture, and I believe in it too.
As an organization, we strive to provide engaging learning experiences
that empower individuals and transform organizations. By traditional
nomenclature, Learnography is a non-profit organization. However,
defining us by what we are, a for purpose organization, is far more
accurate.
“For purpose,” connotes an organization that is driven by vision and
values and is committed to achieving a positive community impact. At
Learnography, our financial success supports this purpose.
As a for-purpose organization, we want to help. We want to know how we
can serve you.
What is your personal or organizational purpose?
@lrnogrphy
STRIVING FOR PURPOSE, NOT PROFIT
Sunil Joshi
Marketing Coordinator

6. 10 11
There is more than one way to shine a penny,
and the strategies for refining raw content are
no exception. Over the past few years, there has
been an ideological shift in learning development.
As a part of that shift, Learnography has adopted
a new methodology.
1. Content is no longer just text.
User experience, graphic design, and other
disciplines play an important role in achieving
learning outcomes. Today, the presentation
of content is an essential part of the
instructional designer’s responsibility.
2. Customized design is not optional.
With each project, we challenge ourselves to
present information and engage learners in
ways that resonate with the learning audience.
We explore the effects of each stylistic choice
on the user’s learning journey. We always try
to put ourselves in the learner’s shoes.
3. Less is more.
Bite-sized learning has been proven
to increase retention, so every project
begins with a rigorous editing process. By
pinpointing the key learning outcomes, we
deliver learning that delivers.
How do you customize
& improve learning?
@lrnogrphy
Lyndsey Breslow
Senior Account Manager
THE EVOLUTION OF
INSTRUCTIONAL
DESIGN
Every training resource begins as a pile
of raw content. It comes in all shapes
and sizes: a 20-year old PowerPoint
presentation, a smattering of PDFs, or 500
pages of legal documents. Our mission is to
take this unprocessed material and turn it
into a powerful learning experience.

7. 12 13
Kate Salmon
Communications
Strategy Specialist
Much of my communication on behalf of
Learnography involves the important practice of
employee training. Many organizations hesitate
to invest in their employees for fear that people
will move on and take that investment with
them.
When making the case for strategic learning
investments, I’m always able to pull real world
examples from my experience at Learnography.
We treat learning as a lifelong endeavour, so it’s
easy to encourage others to do the same. But the
greatest argument for training I’ve ever heard
– and have often repeated – came from the
Imagine Your Workplace Conference in Toronto.
Someone asked a panel of trainers, “What
happens if I invest in my employees and they
leave?” to which the trainer responded, “What
happens if you don’t invest in your employees,
and they stay?”
Giving employees the support they need to grow
isn’t just an investment in your organization’s
future; it’s a key component of employee
engagement here and now.
How do you engage your employees?
@lrnogrphy
PRACTICE WHAT
YOU TEACH

8. 14 15
Juliana Trichilo Cina, MA
Solutions Director
Christopher Gunn, MA
Solutions Consultant
Over the past year, Learnography has grown in staff, services,
and its community reach. Team members have become
leaders in the wider learning community by contributing at
events such as conferences and forums. These contributions
have led to meaningful connections and beg the question: Is
Networking Enough?
Successfully building relationships requires real connections.
Building a network of acquaintances isn’t enough when you’re
on a mission to make a positive impact and continue to learn.
So let’s redefine “networking” as a meaningful, authentic,
dynamic and evolving practice that brings together a variety
of people from diverse sectors, skill sets, perspectives, and
experiences based on shared core values, beliefs, and goals.
This redefined networking is distinguished by:
• Shared goals, beliefs, and values
• Diverse perspectives and skills
• Cross-disciplinary thinking
• Opportunities to learn from and add value for each other
• Authentic, quality relationships that go
beyond mutual benefit
• Long-term thinking
• A growth mindset that sees dialogue as an
investment
• Meaningful collaboration and contribution
WHY NETWORKING MATTERS
Deeper connections like these require one-on-
one time, casual conversation, and maybe even a
laugh. With this in mind, Learnography has hosted
several events—Brunchography and Learning
in the Park, to name a couple—that support
reciprocal growth, shared goals, lasting takeaways,
and opportunities for future development.
How do you grow
your community?
@lrnogrphy

9. 16 17
Kyla Clarke
Marketing and Admin
Coordinator
Though there are now countless social media
platforms, the frontrunners for me still stand as
Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube. Every
person, brand, or organization is likely to prefer one
platform over another in order to effectively connect
with their audience. For Learnography, Twitter has
always been a raging success, and we continue
to build our presence on Facebook, YouTube, and
Instagram.
I enjoy exploring the potential of social media and
coming up with unique ways to connect with our
learning community online. For example, I share a
weekly #MugshotMonday photo of one of our team
members holding a Learnography coffee mug.
The caption playfully describes what they do at
Learnography and how they take their coffee.
I have also experimented with custom hashtags.
For our “Brunchography” event this spring, we used
#BrunchandLearn for online conversations. It was fun
to see everyone’s thoughts, photos, and updates in
real-time as the morning progressed.
At Learnography, one of our core priorities
is expanding and contributing to our
community.As a marketing and social
media coordinator, I have made it my
personal mission to expand and be active
in Learnography’s community in the
digital space.
We also share blog content and comment on
articles from our digital community using social
media. By sharing our blog posts with engaging title
graphics, we engage in ways that are modern, fun,
and on-brand.
In the coming year, I look forward to harnessing the
power of YouTube. Through the implementation of
high-end design, innovative engagement concepts,
and the use of vlogs, Learnography will be able to
really take our social media presence to the next
level - and grow our community along the way.
How does social media help you connect?
@lrnogrphy
#SocialMediaSecrets

10. 18 19
In the two years I’ve worked at Learnography, I have
developed and fostered lasting friendships within the
workplace. I love my boss, I love my team, and that love
sustains us through the early mornings and the tight
deadlines. I truly believe that adding the friendship
dynamic to the workplace strengthens the work we do.
Lately I’ve noticed that similar friendships exist outside
our office with clients, suppliers, and freelancers. We
work with people we like:
• People who align with us ideologically
• People who understand our passion for
learning, and
• People who know how to have fun at work.
It’s hard to argue with the value friendships bring to
business and productivity when friendships can be
described like this.
“Ariel Paul is a client I’ve been working with for over a year. We had so much
fun chatting about social media that he brought me on as a consultant for
PhET Interactive Simulations. Several video projects and cross-promotional
opportunities have come up since because we’re always looking for ways to
do more work together.” - Kate Salmon, Communications Strategy Specialist
“Through the work I do for MyClassNeeds.ca, I connect with a lot of teachers
doing really exciting things. I go out of my way to make them successful. Julia
Avery and Jeff Manchak are great examples of grateful teachers who have
called to talk about their projects and with whom I have quickly connected.”
- Kyla Clarke, Marketing and Admin Coordinator
“Andy Last is one of our freelance animators. I like him as a dude because he
is funny, willing to problem solve on the fly, and always flexible and available.
We’ve worked together for years, so he always knows what I’m looking for in
terms of tone and video delivery.” - Shaan Singha, Media Coordinator
How do you like working with friends?
@lrnogrphy
WE’RE ALL
FRIENDS HERE
Kate Salmon
Communications Strategy
Specialist
Learnography’s Friends:

11. 20 21
Most people who grow up in Canada have to take
French and English in school, so almost everyone
can speak a little bit of both. But there are so few
of us that can truly call ourselves bilingual. I am
constantly meeting people who tell me they used
to speak French but now they’ve lost it. What’s
happening here?
In a predominantly English speaking city, there
isn’t much opportunity to use French.Back
home in Montreal, being bilingual hardly made
me unique.Even if people weren’t completely
bilingual, practically everyone spoke enough of
their second language to get by.But Toronto is very
different.When I moved here I realized there were
huge demands for fluent French-English speakers
coupled with a very limited supply.Companies
here are in great need of bilingual employees to
serve their national and global markets.
Learnography is no exception. We have several
Anglophone clients who need our help to expand
their learning resources to a Francophone
audience. This demand isn’t unusual for
Canadian companies, but Learnography has
something unique to offer: we don’t just have
one single translator for our team, we have an
integrated bilingual team.
The tangible benefits of this diversity are obvious
to both the team and our clients. For example, our
Francophone clients are used to having meetings
conducted in English with other partners, but we
can and often do hold entire meetings in French.
This makes our Francophone clients much more
comfortable, and able to ask more clearly for
what they want, resulting in better service.
How do you keep fluent in your second language?
@lrnogrphy
STRATEGIES FOR
BILINGUAL LEARNING Gabriel Dionne
Bilingual Project Coordinator

12. 22 23
At the Imagine Your Workplace Conference, York
University Associate Professor Marie-Hélène Budworth
presented us with a whole new approach to providing
employee feedback. In just seven minutes, she
completely rocked my world and challenged a lot of the
principles I once held dear.
She presented us with the novel idea that we would
better serve our employees by focusing on their strengths
instead of their weaknesses. Because strengths are
more likely to influence a person’s career trajectory, we
should focus on how to maximize their natural assets.
The ‘Feedforward’ technique Budworth coined proved
to have a better impact on employee motivation and
productivity than conventional performance reviews. It
provides actionable feedback, giving employees a better
understanding of what they bring to the table and how to
use it. I couldn’t wait to test out this new technique on my
co-op student when I got back to the office.
What do you think, Sunil?
‘When Kate brought up the idea of using the Feedforward
technique instead of the traditional performance review
approach, I was more than thrilled to be her guinea pig.
The Feedforward technique was much more of a casual
and less stressful type of midterm review, and it was also
much more efficient and rewarding.Kate asked me to
describe specific instances where I performed well and
we talked about what skills and attributes I brought to the
table that made those success stories happen.Then we
discussed how I can progress even further in my areas of
strength.Focusing on things I’m good at really boosted my
morale and enthusiasm for the work I do at Learnography.’
How do you motivate your team?
@lrnography
REDEFINING EMPLOYEE FEEDBACK
Kate Salmon
Communications
Strategy Specialist
Sunil Joshi
Marketing
Coordinator

13. 24 25
Graphic design is not about making something
pretty; it’s a process that can affect great change.
Good graphic design is about respecting function.
It’s about enriching the information you’re
presenting and the experience of the user, not just
adding pretty colours.
At its core, design is about solving problems.The
issue could be a universal one, like not getting
enough attention or retention from an online
course.But at Learnography, our clients usually
serve a social purpose as well.Each problem is
different, and a ‘how we’ve always done it’ attitude
is not going to fix the problem.
Recently, I contributed to a project for the Ontario
Human Rights Commission (OHRC) working
to combat racism.We approached the OHRC
project by asking ourselves how we could best
communicate this particular topic and to this
audience.Should it be a video? A website?
Should we make an interactive job aid? It’s about
thinking strategically and creatively, not just doing
the same thing you’ve always done.
We also worked with the Melanoma Network of
Canada to develop an empathy training module
for their peer-to-peer support network. This
project wasn’t light hearted or ‘fluffy’—it was
powerful. Each design element has a function
and ultimately empowers the learner to reap the
benefits of the course by staying motivated.
There is a quote from Simon Sinek’s TedTalk that
gets brought up a lot around the office.He says,
“People don’t buy what you do, they buy why you
do it.”At Learnography we do what we do to make
a profound difference in people’s lives.We want to
enrich people’s experiences and learning.At the
end of a course we want them to feel empowered.
Each new challenge needs its own solution, and
that includes a user-centred design.
THEPOWEROF
GREATDESIGN
How do you
design for
learners?
@lrnogrphy
Martin Whelan
Graphic Designer

14. 26 27
LEARNOGRAPHY TEAM
How do you deliver learning?
Anita Sherwin-Hamer, Evaluations Director:
“I provide a context for learners to solve problems.
How do you like working with friends?
Vlada Shepel, Executive Coordinator:
“You can always chat when the day is going by slow, get a hug
when you are stressed, and share your feelings.”
Why do you like learning?
Gina Melvin: Operations Director
“Learning is as essential as breathing. It stimulates growth and
development, enriching all areas of life.”
What do you want to learn today?
Sheriff Ahmed, Instructional Designer & eLearning Developer:
“How to make learning as engaging and fun as it can be!”
How do you design for learners?
Pauline Beggs, Development Director:
“We consider purpose of programming and attributes of
intended audience – information relevancy, prior learning,
diverse learning styles, environment.”
How do your grow your community?
Jennyfer Caron, Bilingual Project Coordinator:
“My community grows when I ask people for feedback and
new ideas; it makes everyone empowered to have a voice
because they know they are being heard.”
How do you motivate your team?
Catherine Marchand, Bilingual Project Coordinator:
“I help motivate our team by fostering an obstacle-free
environment, which leads to seamless collaboration and
results in high quality work.”
We asked our staff to tweet out their own
answers to our article questions:
From left: Shaan Singha, Gabriel Dionne, Pearl Vyas, Kate Salmon, Sunil Joshi, Lauren Huxtable, Kyla Clarke,
Danijel Margetic, Amy Coupal, Gina Melvin, Martin Whelan, Jennyfer Caron, Juliana Trichilo Cina, Vlada Shepel,
Lyndsey Breslow, Inder Sidhu, Sheriff Ahmed, Pauline Beggs, Anita Sherwin-Hamer, Catherine Marchand.
Tweet
@lrnogrphy to join
the dialogue.

15. 28 29
How would you describe
Learnography?
It is truly the next wave of learning and the
emerging way of life. Learnography is an
organization that provides informative and
impactful ways to assess people’s needs.
What do you do for
Learnography?
I am the Chair of the Board for
Learnography. My responsibilities are to
help Learnography with its future. My job
is to ensure that Learnography’s vision,
mission, and values are all aligned with
the organization and our clients. I work
on all strategic activity looking at the
long term goals of the organization as
a whole. Being a member of the board,
I am responsible for facilitating board
members’ decision making and the
overall thinking of Learnography.
Why do you do this for
Learnography?
Being on the board for seven years now,
I have fallen in love with this company. I
enjoy providing insights on cutting edge
opportunities for the organization and
providing ideas that can make the world
a better place for learners. The people I
work with are a huge part of the reason I
do this for Learnography. Everyone at this
organization provides incredible ideas and
is always a joy to work with.
What will you learn today?
People you may not even know could be
working on something very similar to you
and we need to network and connect to
learn from each other.
Q&A
WITH THE
CHAIR OF
THE BOARD
Peter Levesque

16. 30 31
Q&AWITH THE CEO
How would you describe
Learnography?
Learnography is a dynamic social
enterprise that delivers valuable learning
across boundaries. At Learnography we
support learners in achieving meaningful
and lasting impact.
What do you do for
Learnography?
I am the proud CEO of Learnography. My
responsibilities are to bring leadership
to the board and the employees, both in
the short term and long term. I work with
all departments and provide a range of
support. In addition to this, I act as both
the internal and external representative of
the organization.
Why do you do this for
Learnography?
My whole career has been centred
around learning. I have a great passion
for learning and have loved developing
expertise in education. At this company,
I have been given the opportunity to
not only learn but also contribute to the
learning of others and the work they
do. This role has allowed me to bring
leadership to the field and provide
discipline and care to the success of
Learnography, making it a perfect fit with
my interests and goals.
What will you learn today?
Today, and every day, I will learn how to
better juggle all my obligations!
Amy Coupal

17. 32
learnography.ca
curriculum.org
@lrnogrphy
@CSCorganization