106: Where Are They Now - 7Taps Transformation: AI-Powered Microlearning & the Future of On-the-Job Training with Kate Udalova

Holly Owens (00:02):

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

Nadia Johnson (00:11):

And my name is Nadia Johnson and we're your hosts

Holly Owens (00:15):

And we are super pumped because we have a returning guest with us today. We have Kate Udalova, who is, and if you don't know Kate, you should, you probably should by now, all the things that they're doing. She's the chief product officer and she is also a co-founder at Seven Taps. Kate, welcome to the show. Welcome back to the show. Thank you So

Kate Udalova (00:36):

Much. Thank you so much for having me back and for this kind introduction. I'm really excited to be here with you. And yeah, just really excited to see the Progress of Tech podcast you've been doing. Really amazing job and cutest to you for that.

Holly Owens (00:54):

Oh, thank you so much. And I've been following right along with the growth, those seven taps as well. I'm so excited that you have some new things that we're definitely going to get into and share on this episode.

Kate Udalova (01:07):

Yeah, I'm sure. I'm happy to.

Holly Owens (01:09):

Alright, so for those who haven't got the chance to listen yet, and Lola, like I said, she's probably going to join this episode, which is fine. We're at home, we're authentic here. Give us a brief intro about your journey into Seven Taps so people can get to know you a little bit more, who haven't got a chance to listen to the other episode. Yeah,

Kate Udalova (01:29):

Absolutely. I'm a learning and development professional, a very passionate founder of Seven Taps and I'm the creator of Microlearning Con. So just making it really brief, my current professional interest mainly revolves around, I'd say augmenting traditional learning environments with snackable microlearning experiences and techniques.

Holly Owens (01:56):

Microlearning Con has gotten very popular. I'm seeing it's popular. Well, yeah, it's been always really popular, but I'm really proud that we here at Seven taps try to make it more

Kate Udalova (02:09):

Practical I'd say, and we try to advocate for the experiences that are not just snackable in terms of the length of the content, but are also impactful and we advocate for the microlearning approach that actually leads to improving job performance, to increase knowledge retention. So I'd say we are a bit different from the a traditional approach that most vendors have in the field.

Nadia Johnson (02:46):

So I know that you're a returning guest. I'm so happy to be talking and meeting with you. So I'm curious to know what you've been up to the last, what has it a year since you've Been on? It's

Holly Owens (03:00):

Been about a year. Yeah, it's been about a year Since, and I'm also interested

Nadia Johnson (03:05):

Learning, it's called Learning Con

Kate Udalova (03:09):

Microlearning Con.

Nadia Johnson (03:10):

Microlearning Con. Yeah. I'm interested to know what you've been up to with that and what you've just been up to the past year. That sounds,

Kate Udalova (03:18):

Yeah, absolutely. And it's really been a while. I can't really believe that it's been a year we haven't talked to each other.

Nadia Johnson (03:26):

So as we discussed in the first interview, our core focus here at Seven Taps has

Kate Udalova (03:32):

Been to simplify the microlearning creation process and we've definitely achieved that. Literally our clients tell us that there is no other platform out there like Seven Taps when it comes to creating content quickly and effectively. And lately we've been delving a lot into AI technologies to make things even better and faster. So now we have the amazing seven tabs microlearning transformer that converts your existing training materials into microlearning content. I mean literally your PDFs, PowerPoints your videos, and in a click you can have a mini course follow up, a recap based on that content. We also have a great AI builder that creates draft of micro link content for you with a single prompt. It takes seconds and we've recently added a great text to audio technology which allows you for creating voiceovers that sound just like a real human. And in terms of these AI stuff, I would love to highlight that in contrast to other companies, we are not just jumping on the AI bandwagon for the sake of it.

(04:55):

We really invest a lot. We carefully select the right technologies that actually help learning designers in their job and to help learning designers in their job and to help everyone actually who is interested in the microlearning approach, in how to implement it within your existing learning infrastructure and embrace it and get the buying and make sure it really aligns with the learning science and it aligns with your learning needs. We have launched the Microlearning Conf, it's our free virtual event where we bring together amazing learning experts who share the real life examples of how they actually embrace the Microlearning approach. What are the use cases they see, how they create content, what are the results? Lots of inspiration. That's a great event. It is just worth visiting. We will run the 10th episode just tomorrow as far as I remember.

Holly Owens (06:12):

Oh my.

Kate Udalova (06:15):

It's been a while and we have so many plans for the upcoming episodes and so many great guests that I really recommend everyone to check the microlearning con.com website for the updates and you can look at a seat and invite your colleagues to also take apart. It's really engaging and it's fun.

Holly Owens (06:38):

Yeah, we're going to put all that in the show notes so everybody will be able to link out to that and get more information and sign up for the conference. And I love it that you offer it for free. That's something to be said, especially because of the way the economy and things are that you're offering people come in for free, learn about this, and get some information.

Nadia Johnson (07:02):

Yeah, I'm taking a look at it now. I love this. I think it's great that you're allowing people to learn from each other and bounce ideas off of each other in this type of setting. I love this. Thank

Kate Udalova (07:14):

You. Actually, I'm not a fan of a vendor-led events. That's why actually MicroCon is a standalone brand and we do not ask our guests to talk about seven tabs. We just asked them to share their real-life experiences. That's the reason actually this event exists and it really helps us to have as far as you remember, we have around 10,000 folks in the microlearning community. So there are lots of enthusiasts who are willing to join us, to have fun with us and to learn from each other every time the chat we have on the platform, it's a burst out with some messages, ideas, and comments is very, very energetic and lively.

Holly Owens (08:12):

I love it. I love it. You've developed such a great community around seven Taps and now around the con and everything that you're doing. And you were saying that you can put a single prompt in the AI and then it will develop one for you. And I was like, when Seven Taps came out, I was like, this is so fast. But now I can't even imagine it's going even faster and you can put more thought behind what you're putting into the microlearning. And I love too that the voices, oh my gosh, when you use some of these voices and some of these e-learning authoring tools, they are so robotic. You can tell, you can tell. And I'm so glad to hear and I can't wait to test it out. Me too, to do some things, definitely incorporating that into the podcast and some of the things I'm doing on the outside of the podcast. So besides the AI stuff and getting into that, and I'm so happy to hear and grateful that you're so thoughtful with who you partner with. Is there anything else that big that's been happening at Seven Tap that you want to share?

Kate Udalova (09:26):

Well, honestly there's a lot happening right now and we are constantly in a whirlwind with viewers insights to consider with an ever ending list of things we want to implement as quickly as possible. I personally, but probably since we are on the Adapt podcast right now, I think that listeners might be interested to know that currently I'm working closely with a great researcher Neva, who specializes in microlearning and cognitive psychology. So Flash, she has written two great insightful studies on Seven Times Microlearning, both of which you can also find on our website. And she explores how seven Tabs aligns with the science of learning and provides tips on how you can actually better support your learners. And this is something very, very important to me because frankly I built seven tabs based on what I believed was right, of course drawing from the science of learning, but mainly relying on my own real life corporate experience. That's something I really believed in. And now with these independent proofs by Needy, it's the validation that we've been on the right track from the very beginning. And of course it also sparked loads of new ideas for our upcoming roadmap. So really must take a look. You'll see the research menu on the top of our website.

(11:03):

That's

Holly Owens (11:04):

Great too. And I love reading white papers and stuff like that about what's happening in the field. And you have your partner with the researcher amazing.

Nadia Johnson (11:13):

And

Kate Udalova (11:13):

It's not like a traditional white paper. Again, it's very easy to read and it has lots of really insightful stuff inside. It is just amazing in terms of speaking about some complicated stuff in a very, very easy to understand terms. And the way she explains it, it seems like, oh, it's just a no-brainer and we should just be able to apply it's straightforwardly. That's why I really appreciate our collaboration and these both are great resources for any learning and development professional, no matter how familiar with Microlearning approach you are, no matter where you are on your learning and development journey at all. I

Nadia Johnson (12:02):

Love that you're kind of tapping into that science of learning, I think. I love that. That's awesome. I'm like a psychology person, so I love when that kind of makes a big play into the learning that you're developing. Yeah, I

Kate Udalova (12:19):

Think it's very important.

Nadia Johnson (12:20):

Yeah. So what are three things, thinking about Seven taps, what are three things that you want listeners to know about Seven Taps or the tools that you're building within Seven taps?

Kate Udalova (12:37):

Well, speaking about seven taps, first of all, you should know that it is the fastest and easiest tool to create quick launch microlearning experiences. And secondly, I'd say that Seven Taps shifts the focus from cramming as much information into your learners' minds as possible to helping them effortlessly extract knowledge from their memory, thereby making an impact on job performance. If we speak about corporate environment and literally we have inbuilt framework that is designed to help you get the most out of retrieval practices, space learning techniques, even if you are completely new to these concepts, seriously, everything is pre-designed for you. And the third thing I probably should mention is that seven tabs is invaluable when it comes to providing your learners with some immediate on the job support. We have new apps, there are no logins, there are no barriers for learners, and they simply dive into content in a click, they quickly acquire the new, reach the information they need and seamlessly get back to their work equipped with the new information, your skill, you name it. That's the main idea behind Seven Tabs to help your people do their job faster and in a more appropriate right way.

Holly Owens (14:18):

Absolutely.

Nadia Johnson (14:19):

I love that access.

Holly Owens (14:22):

Go Dania. You go with your list first. Yeah,

Nadia Johnson (14:25):

No, I was just thinking accessibility quick. Don't have to log in. Love that. And just love, I'm obsessed with micro learning in general, so I just love that quick. A lot of people sometimes think we talk about younger learners and adult learners, but adult learners, they need quick learning as well. We're busy during the day, so we need that kind of quick way to learn something and I love that.

Kate Udalova (14:56):

Absolutely.

Holly Owens (14:58):

And even if it

Kate Udalova (14:58):

Comes, sorry for jumping. No, you're going No, go ahead. Go ahead.

Holly Owens (15:02):

I'll tell you after

Kate Udalova (15:03):

About some learning experience that you would love to extend outside the working hours, just probably it is relevant for somebody else, you'll always compete with some stuff like spending time with your partners, spending time with your pets, with your children, doing some hobby and the time is always the most invaluable resource we have. And here at Seven Temps we focus not only on helping learning designers to actually reduce the time on content creation, but also help learners to make them actually be equipped as fast as possible and in the frictionless way ever. I would put it that way.

Holly Owens (15:52):

Yeah, that's a good way to put it. And the thing I was going to say, and you're kind of alluding to that, Kate, is that it's applicable right away. You're not going to a conference, you're not going to an offsite, you're not going to a meeting and then you forget. You're absorbing the knowledge or the skill and then you're applying it right away and seven taps all that and it's across every, I just think of so many different cases where seven Taps can apply. It's not just in one industry, it's not just in higher ed, it's just not in K to 12, it's not just in a corporate space. It's across different types of sectors, which is something that's really unique about the tool.

Kate Udalova (16:31):

Absolutely. And just recently I got some kind of feedback from Go on, our users who actually told that seven tabs can be defined as a great communication tool. And that's true learning process actually is the process of delivering some information and helping that recipient actually to put it into practice. But it all boils down to the process of communicating something and we try to simplify it as much as we can.

Holly Owens (17:01):

And you do and you absolutely do. I created one a while back, I need to go back into it. I'm not teaching this semester, but I used it in one of my instructional design classes to talk about some terminology and it was so quick and they loved it. It was like, okay, yeah, less stress, less friction, and now we're ready to go and move on to something else.

Nadia Johnson (17:24):

Reducing that cognitive overload. There you go. There you go.

Holly Owens (17:30):

Alright, well we're coming up on the end of the, where are they now? Episode. So Kate, is there anything that we missed that you want to tell the audience? Anything else you'd like to share before we wrap things up?

Kate Udalova (17:45):

Well, I kindly invite everyone to try out seven and if any of you need any support in terms of microlearning use cases and content creation, I'm available on LinkedIn K two logo. You can drop me a line and I typically respond very fast. I'm open to new connections and ready to be your go-to person when it comes to Microlearning. So feel free to reach out to me. I

Holly Owens (18:15):

Love that. And thank you for, you answered me pretty quickly too and I was like, you need to come back for an episode as soon as possible. I was seeing those emails fly by about what was being updated. So I'm really glad, and that's something that's rare too, that somebody who's a co-founder will actually respond to you in LinkedIn messaging and support you through that. It's really amazing.

Nadia Johnson (18:38):

Yeah,

Kate Udalova (18:41):

We have a product chat right in seven Temps and there are no robots, only real people answering you typically within minutes. And I'm also answering them and sometimes people are like, are you Kate? Really? You are. Yes, I'm Is that really

Holly Owens (18:58):

You?

Kate Udalova (18:59):

Yeah, I'm making selfies and showing that it is really me answering

Holly Owens (19:03):

You.

Kate Udalova (19:05):

That's a pleasure and that's a luxury to talk to your customers and listen to their feedback, understand what kind of learning needs they have, understanding the way they utilize the platform. Because at the end of the day, I do not build software just for the sake of building yet another software. I'm building it from making someone's life easier and only maintaining these very, very close and immediate contact with your users is a way out to building a really amazing product. And that's what I'm aiming at here at Seven Taps.

Holly Owens (19:44):

Absolutely. And connecting with those end users. And we can't thank you enough for all that you've shared with us here on Ed Tech and obviously all the great things you're doing out in the world. So thank you so much for coming back on and updating us.

Nadia Johnson (19:58):

Yeah, thank

Kate Udalova (19:59):

You. Thank you. It's been a pleasure. Thank you.