The Next Level Lab (NLL) had the privilege of hosting an event on October 4th with our collaborators from Accenture for HGSE’s Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology master’s program. NLL Doctoral Researcher Tessa Forshaw facilitated a conversation with Dana Koch, the Team Lead for Accenture’s Institute for the Applied Learning Sciences, and Ben Dyer, who leads Accenture’s Learning Design and Innovation Team. Drawing on research from the cognitive, technological, and social aspects of learning, the Institute seeks to improve the learning experiences and capabilities of 700,000+ employees in 120 countries, while the Innovation group brings technologies like VR/XR and game design to life at Accenture.
The event offered a valuable glimpse into a career path that the aspiring learning designers in the audience may not have envisioned. Koch shared tangible resources that have been created to help Accenture’s employees understand the principles of learning effectiveness and durability, and Dyer provided a tour of the metaverse tool that Accenture uses as part of their interactive onboarding experience for new hires. Other highlights from the session included a discussion of Koch and Dyer’s proudest accomplishments and “favorite failures” throughout their career.
If you are interested in learning more about how Koch, Dyer, and their colleagues are using applied research to support learning and performance in the workplace, we encourage you to explore Accenture’s Brain Hacks series, a collection of short videos that offer practical, research-based tips on how to grow your learning skills. Koch is also the co-host of the Learning Geeks Podcast, which recently featured NLL’s Tessa Forshaw in an episode about the social dimensions of learning transfer.