110: From Tech Support to Ed Tech Visionary: Anna Poli on iSpring's Evolution and the Future of Digital Learning

Holly Owens (00:02):

Hello Everyone, and welcome to another amazing episode of Edup Ed Tech. My name is Holly Owens.

DaNadia Johnson (00:13):

My name is Nadia Johnson, and we're your hosts

Holly Owens (00:15):

And we're super pumped today for this episode. This is the episode first ever for the appearance of iSpring Solutions, and we have Anna Poli

(00:26):

, who is a senior instructional designer there. So Anna, welcome to the show. Hi.

Anna Poli (00:34):

Hi. Thank you for having me.

Holly Owens (00:37):

We're really excited to dive into all things iSpring with you. But before we jump into that, we want to know a little bit about you, Anna. Tell us about your journey. How did you come to be in this instructional design e-learning space? Give us all the info.

Anna Poli (00:57):

Sure. So it all started, but I was hired as a technical support engineer at Ice Sprint. So then one or two years later I started to think, okay, I know almost everything about Ice Sprint, about our products. I can solve all the cases as I thought, and I want to do something new. So I talked to my manager about this and she was like, okay, fine. You'll teach new newcomers at ice print, how to use our products. And at that time it was exactly what I needed. So I was ready to pass my knowledge to somebody else. I wanted to train people. I wanted to make that onboarding process more smooth, more easy. And of course I wanted to grow like professionals and I was so enthusiastic about this and I still am, but so you

Holly Owens (02:11):

Do a lot of different webinars with so many different topics that I've seen come fly across my email and across the iSpring website. So you've gone from technician to frontline trainer? Yep,

Anna Poli (02:26):

Exactly. That's awesome. Yeah. And after that I was told by my manager, but I need to give instructional designer design a chance. So I took a couple of courses online, viewed some videos on YouTube, listened to some podcasts, and I just wanted to make my courses more engaging and professional, but it was always not that professionals that I didn't do on purpose. I just was so passionate about this. So I wanted to spice them up, make it easy to everyone, make sure all knowledge will stay with our newcomers in their way. And it was exactly what I wanted to do, but I was still tech support and I was promoted to the position of the team lead of the second line of technical support. And everything was new. There were new challenges, new skills were needed, and I started to create new learning tracks, new courses, and one day I even started to teach my colleagues how to create courses, how to pass their knowledge. And I woke up one beautiful morning and understood, but I was not afraid to go to the design anymore. So I decided to go with instructional design. I discussed it with my manager and I moved to another department. So I was a junior course developer and now I'm a senior course developer at Ice Sprint.

Holly Owens (04:20):

That's fantastic. What a story. Yeah,

DaNadia Johnson (04:22):

I love those kind of stories. I kind of stumbled in instructional design, I call it accidental instructional designer. So just kind of moved into this space and I love that, that you started off in a different role and then kind of grew to love id. I think that's awesome. So what I want to know is along this journey of moving into instructional design from technical support, who along this journey inspired you?

Anna Poli (04:57):

So the first person that I can think of right now, it was my first manager because she gave me a chance to do something new and she was sure, but I would be fine with this, I can do that. Even when I wasn't sure about this. I

DaNadia Johnson (05:16):

Love that.

Anna Poli (05:18):

And even I see how she grew some new professionals who became from Zero to Hero, and I was so inspired by that, but you can pass your knowledge to someone and make your team bigger and the true professionals. So she was maybe the first person I can think of, but for sure I was inspired by the results, but my learners showed how fast they were able to achieve their results, but they were promoted. There was something like this that was like, okay, I can be, I'm fine right now. I'm so happy they look like my kids all over the company and you're just thinking about this in this way. And for sure, my friends, my family, the whole ice cream environment where I was, was so good because people are so different. Somebody can play violin, somebody sing, somebody plays on a guitar, so there's no chance that he won't be inspired to start something new by them. So yeah, there's a lot of people that all my environment prepared me to do this.

DaNadia Johnson (06:38):

I love that. I think having someone that even when you don't see it in yourself, having someone that sees that in you can help to spark that love. I love that.

Anna Poli (06:49):

Exactly. Yes. It's exactly my case, how it was with me. So I'm blessed by this. I think so I just excited to have it. Yeah,

Holly Owens (07:01):

What a great community to be a part of. I love the instructional design community, everybody. And like you're saying, Anna, like yourself, just want to help people, make them feel comfortable, make them feel confident, and that's what you're doing now and that's what you love and that's what fills your cup. So that's wonderful. So I want to know from you, Anna, how would you go about if you were talking to somebody on the street or somebody who's never heard of instructional design before, how do you personally define it?

Anna Poli (07:35):

So it became for me about technology and about the design. So right now, if you're talking about educational technology in some kind, it's like the power of digital tools that can help you to teach people and to provide and pass some learning experience because now you can take courses on smartphone while you're on the plane. That sounds crazy for me.

Holly Owens (08:09):

Yeah, if you would've talked to me in the nineties, I would've been like, that's never happening.

Anna Poli (08:14):

Exactly. You're right. So it was just, it's kind of mind blowing this, all of this and this AI thing just cannot believe it. It can really exist. And moreover, everything is designed super user-friendly because right now I believe all the companies think about human and they about peoples. They want to do everything as easy as possible. Now you can just do something in a couple of clicks. So you can call via WhatsApp or something and it'll be good. And if you talk about instructional design, that's a kind of art form for me.

Holly Owens (09:07):

Oh, I like It. Art form. Yeah, it is an art. It isn't it.

Anna Poli (09:11):

Exactly. So because it's about creating some captivating and immersive learning experiences, but can sometimes go beyond traditional methods. So you need to think about something new, how you'll present it to people. And when you create your courses right now as an instructional designer, you really want and need to understand the unique needs and preferences of learners of your audience. And then you need to use your creativity, your imagination, to self this puzzle on how to make sure that all the information will stay with the learners. So you need to create interactive and engaging courses that truly resonate with learners. So these perfect parts which are going together, technology and instructional design, this kind of perfect match. So this is not just about using technology for sake of it, but rather leveraging it in his learning outcomes. So whether it's contemporary in some multimedia elements, some gamification or VR or ai.

Holly Owens (10:41):

Yeah, all that fun extra stuff that comes along

Anna Poli (10:44):

With

Holly Owens (10:45):

Having to be an instructional designer and learning all these different things that impact the field.

DaNadia Johnson (10:51):

Yeah, for sure. You're right.

Anna Poli (10:53):

Yes.

DaNadia Johnson (10:54):

And I think you said something super important, like leveraging, being intentional. I think that also goes back to being intentional with EdTech, not just using it for the sake of using it or saying you're using it, checking off A box, But being very intentional with how it's used. So I love that.

Anna Poli (11:11):

Yes. And right now, technology also transformed dedication and made it more accessible and enjoyable for learners of all ages. For example, your grandma takes some courses.

DaNadia Johnson (11:29):

Yeah, yeah.

Holly Owens (11:31):

That's interesting that you said that because my grandmother, she was 81 years old when she actually got her associate's degree.

DaNadia Johnson (11:42):

Finally,

Holly Owens (11:43):

She had one math class that she had to take and they actually excused her from it, but she had to do some things and she earned her degree.

DaNadia Johnson (11:53):

That's awesome.

Anna Poli (11:55):

That's amazing.

DaNadia Johnson (12:00):

So this is the part where we kind dig into ICE Spring. We know that you have so much knowledge now that you have kind of moved into this ID space at ICE Spring. So now we want to know a little bit more about how does Ice Spring help institutions and organizations within the ed tech realm? Can you tell us a little bit more about ipr?

Anna Poli (12:21):

Sure. So let me start with a little history of ICE Spring. So for over 20 years, IPR has been designing e-learning software, but we hope helps individuals, teams, And businesses. It Does,

Holly Owens (12:37):

It does.

Anna Poli (12:40):

That's awesome. So what it helps to succeed through in haste employee training. So employee training is an important process, not only when you do something in a university, but when you run your business or in the company. Our clients include our 500 companies, government agencies, and educational institutions worldwide, like Microsoft, Boeing, Dell, PepsiCo, Stanford and Harvard University. They have two flagship products. The first one is ice cream chlorine, and it is an L M Ss that allows you to deploy e-learning in your company sometimes in a matter of hours. So you can just add your users, upload content, set up gamification, and you're ready to go. Reporting and ice cream Learn provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of training programs. So it allows you to make data driving adjustments that benefit your learners. And I really love how these reports are presented in an easy to understand format and for sure they're visually appealing. So I really love it.

(14:14):

Of course, we are trying to save our clients' time and efforts when they're working with our tool. So automated training in Iceberg Learn streamlines the entire training process. For example, smart user groups allows you to easily organize learning based on various criteria such as department or rule. Automated notifications and deadlines ensure that learners stay on track and don't miss important training milestones. And once the initial setup is done, IPEN Learn runs smoothly on its own, so you don't need to set up anything. Additionally, for sure L M SS admins can easily delegate the task of mandatory learning progress to those who are directly involved with their teams by assigning multiple admin roles on ICE Spring Learned supervisor dashboards. So this not only lightens the workload, but also ensures that training is effectively managed at the departmental level. And for sure, employee engagement is crucial in creating an effective learning environment.

(15:36):

So this features like news feed with reactions, feedback on a course, chats with trainers and points, pages and litter boards. It fosters social learning and encourages active participation. So these interactive elements not only make learning more enjoyable, but also keep employees engaged and motivated throughout the entire learning process. And our second tool, which we love a lot, is our offering tool IPR suite. And for me, in some parts it goes beyond just being a tool or software because these two can transform how we deliver content and how we engage with learners. And one of the key ways Iceberg Suite help institutions is by providing a user-friendly and innovative platform for creating interactive and engaging e-learning courses. So I really appreciate how easy it is to design and develop courses that truly captivate learners because the drag and drop interface and some pre-designed templates make it to brief to create visually appealing and interactive content.

Holly Owens (17:10):

And I want to jump in here saying so many great things about iSpring and I wanted to say as a user myself, I just want to piggyback off of what you you're saying, Anna, is the fact that everything is connected with iSpring. I find sometimes in the corporate space that the L M S and the content exporting a SCORM file or something along those lines, it's like you got to export, you got to download, and then you got to re-upload it Here it's all connected also too from using an iSpring, it's accessible, it's built,

Anna Poli (17:42):

The

Holly Owens (17:43):

Creation is native into PowerPoint, so it's already built into a familiar tool that everybody knows and loves. And I love that I get the little accessibility, don't forget to do this, don't forget to do that 5 0 8 compliance. So I just wanted to give you kudos for that and add that in.

Anna Poli (18:00):

Yeah, you are absolutely right. So if I talk about one of my favorite picture of Ice Spring Sweet. So I really fell in love when I just went to ICE Spring and when I did my tasks on the boarding stage, it was about as a building assessment capabilities. So it allows me to design assessments that go just beyond simple multiple choice questions, which is amazing. It's the most default option. But sometimes when you want to engage your users more, you can definitely use need some new question types for sure. I can create scenario-based assessments like simulations with some branching scenarios, but can challenge learners to apply their knowledge in real world situations. So this not only helps assess their understanding, but it also promotes critical thinking and problem solving skills. So this is why I really love this one. And furthermore, iceberg Suite offers a range of options for delivering content to learners as Holly mentioned. So whether through a learning management system, a website, or even mobile devices, ice cream suite ensures that all your materials or your courses can be accessible anytime, anywhere. So this flexibility is really important today. So when the learners expect to have information at their fingertips,

Holly Owens (19:55):

We all want to learn really quick and we want to be able to apply it right away.

Anna Poli (19:59):

Exactly. You're absolutely right. Yeah, I have the same myself, so I need to learn something very quick and go do my thing

Holly Owens (20:10):

100%. So you're already doing a lot. You have a suite of tools, earning management systems, there's a lot of great features of I springing. Is there anything that you can share with the audience that's not a secret, that's public information that's coming up on IPRs roadmap for the year to get them excited, get 'em going? We're definitely going to include everything about I springing and the show notes. Everybody can go check it out. So is there anything you can share about the upcoming year, what's coming out?

Anna Poli (20:43):

Sure. Thank you for asking me this. Yeah, we actually had, they asked our developers before the podcast if there's something exciting they can mention on. So we actually have kind of surprise it will be released firstly today.

(21:06):

Yeah. So first and foremost they are focusing on fathering Hasting, the social learning aspect of ice cream corn. And at ICE Spring they believe in our team the belief that learning is not just about consuming some content but also about interacting with peers and instructors. So we are working on improving the newsfeed feature by adding more reactions and more engagement options. We'll allow learners to express their thoughts, share some ideas and collaborate with others, create a truly interactive learning environment. They also put in a lot of effort into improving the feedback system for courses because right now we understand what learners need personalized guidance and support throughout their learning journey. So via developing a robust feedback mechanism that will enable trainers to provide timely and constructive feedback to learners, have them improve their skills and knowledge. And in addition to the features I mentioned earlier, via also excited to announce some new integrations between Iceberg Form this Go One Power BI and Orange i r m. So these integrations will provide our customers with even more powerful analytics and HR management capabilities. And of course a wide variety of writing made courses and moving on to ice cream. Sweet. We're going to update a highly requested feature, closed captions for courses. They understand you Love accessibility here, so we love

Holly Owens (23:14):

Hearing that.

Anna Poli (23:15):

So we understand the importance of accessibility and inclusivity in e-learning. And these updated feature will enable learners with hearing impairments or those who prefer written along to fully engage with the course content. So I think it's a significant step towards making our courses more accessible to a wider audience. And lastly, we are in Hasting, the AI assistant, which reduced last month for Iceberg Sweet. So we are working on it. We will do our best to improve it even more. So overall our roadmap for the upcoming year is focused on continuous improvement and innovations across all our ICE Spring tools.

DaNadia Johnson (24:14):

That's exciting. Some new kind of innovative things going on there. That's super exciting. Thank you. So I know that you've shared more about ICE springing, so we've gotten a pretty good picture of what ICE springing has to offer as well as what the upcoming things and the new integrations that are going to come about with ipr. So is there given us a lot of information, but is there anything else that we missed or anything else that you want to share that you didn't cover with the audience?

Anna Poli (24:49):

So actually yes, because last year we officially introduced our Iceberg Academy where I work now. So would love to mention a couple things about it. And first of course we are part of ICE Spring Solutions, but our job is to provide for sources to inform, inspire and upscale our customers and e-learning enthusiasts all over the world. So they provide video courses for instructional designers. We hold different webinars and content design and e-learning management and Holly was our speakers. So this is We like her. Yes, Absolutely love, especially we love her webinar. When we had ICE spring days conference, it was amazing. So we also offer an ICE sprint certification program for anyone who wants to really master our software and give their me boost. And of course we also create off the shelf and custom courses for our clients. ICE Sprint Academy is more about community around ice cream. There's learners, there's instructional designers. So where we would love to share some experience and find something new. Oh,

Holly Owens (26:30):

I like it. And I love that you have an academy and all the different, you offer so many fantastic webinars and resources

Anna Poli (26:37):

That

Holly Owens (26:38):

Are absolutely free for people, which is crazy. You don't make them pay for it. They can just come and learn in different downloads and toolkits and it's wonderful, especially when you're new to the field and you're trying to learn, I feel like IPR really support you in those efforts. Yeah,

DaNadia Johnson (26:58):

I got some really great reasons from you, Holly, that you shared

Holly Owens (27:02):

A

DaNadia Johnson (27:02):

Professional journey from ICE Spring and I was like, oh, this is so helpful. Even though I'm already in the field, it's still helpful to just stay up to date on things within the field and make sure that you're on the right track in growing your career in id. So super, super great resources that ICE Spring has for sure. Free. Yeah,

Anna Poli (27:21):

Thank you. Thank you for kind words. It's so nice and so good to hear it from you. Really appreciate that.

Holly Owens (27:30):

So one final question for you, Anna.

Anna Poli (27:33):

Okay.

Holly Owens (27:33):

We want to know, and this is open to whatever interpretation

Anna Poli (27:38):

We

Holly Owens (27:38):

Want to know, what does the future look like? So what's the future of instructional design e-learning, online learning? Tell us what the future looks like.

Anna Poli (27:48):

So it's pretty hard to tell about the future because I know It is just coming together, but I'll give it a try. So I'll try to predict something. I think as per now, we already seen the impact of technology and ajudication, but in my opinion that's only the beginning because I think that at Tech, tech is exciting and it holds immense potential for transforming the current way of how we learn and how we teach. So these are rapid investments and ai we can expect a truly personalized learning experience for every student. So let's just imagine a world where the course adapts to each individual's strength and weaknesses. So ensuring that they receiving the most effective instruction, most effective information for this exact person. So this level of personalization, it'll be so good in my opinion. And it will not only make learning more engaging, but also empowers students to take ownership of their own ajudication, which is important for adults.

(29:14):

So I Think definitely good. And previously I believe what we talked, I don't remember, maybe three years ago we talked a lot about virtual reality playing a significant role. And I think it's still in the roadmap because right now I just love where we can transport students to maybe some historical events or far off places like immersing them in a fully interactive learning environment. So these kind of experimental learning has to the potential I think because right now it can help us to change how we understand and how we engage with various subjects. So I think that all kinds and forms of simulations will definitely be used even more because it's fun, Right?

Holly Owens (30:22):

It's fun and it's like you said, it's personalized and that's what people want. We want learning to be fun because when you are having fun and you're learning, that's a winning combination for sure.

DaNadia Johnson (30:35):

And it doesn't always, doesn't feel too when you're having fun.

Anna Poli (30:43):

And personally I just love these kind of courses where you can click somewhere and find somewhere like vr, I would love to take courses like this.

Holly Owens (30:54):

Absolutely.

Anna Poli (30:56):

And furthermore, I believe that collaboration and social interaction will continue to be crucial in the future of attack because while technology can provide individualized instruction is essential to balance it with opportunities for students to work together, like share ideas and develop interpersonal skills. So I think that emotional intelligence is the most important difference that we have from ai, at least for now. So I think it'll be essential to focus on it as it now. Yeah,

Holly Owens (31:44):

The future sounds bright,

Anna Poli (31:46):

Absolutely bright and full of possibilities.

Holly Owens (31:50):

Absolutely. So

Anna Poli (31:52):

I hope It'll be someday.

Holly Owens (31:55):

Yeah, it definitely will. And with all the things that you're doing at ipr, you're going to help us get there. You're going to be part of that future. So Anna, we can't thank you enough for coming on the show and sharing your story and sharing all this knowledge and information with us about iSpring. It's been wonderful chatting with you.

DaNadia Johnson (32:15):

Yeah,

Anna Poli (32:16):

Thank you so much. I really do appreciate it, thank you for having us and for making this our first experience, this podcast so good. And I hope that you keep up your great work and I definitely looking forward to see you and hear you in the future.

Holly Owens (32:35):

Thank you. And we'll have everything in the show notes about iSpring, how to go download, get a trial, and all the things about the sweets tools. So go to the show notes and thanks again.