These proceedings represent the work of contributors to the 14th European Conference on Games Based Learning (ECGBL 2020), hosted by The University of Brighton on 24-25 September 2020. The Conference Chair is Panagiotis Fotaris and the Programme Chairs are Dr Katie Piatt and Dr Cate Grundy, all from University of Brighton, UK.

This book sheds light on the emerging research trends in intelligent systems and their applications. It mainly focuses on three different themes, including software engineering, ICT in education, and management information systems. Each chapter contributes to the aforementioned themes by discussing the recent design, developments, and modifications of intelligent systems and their applications.

This book gathers the Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL2017), held in Budapest, Hungary on 27–29 September 2017. The authors are currently witnessing a significant transformation in the development of education. The impact of globalisation on all areas of human life, the exponential acceleration of technological developments and global markets, and the need for flexibility and agility are essential and challenging elements of this process that have to be tackled in general, but especially in engineering education. To face these current real-world challenges, higher education has to find innovative ways to quickly respond to them. Since its inception in 1998, this conference has been devoted to new approaches in learning with a focus on collaborative learning. Today the ICL conferences offer a forum for exchange concerning relevant trends and research results, and for sharing practical experience gained while developing and testing elements of new technologies and pedagogies in the learning context.

This book deals with solving a pressing organizational challenge of bringing employees up to speed faster. In the fast-paced business world, organizations need faster readiness of employees to handle the complex responsibilities of their jobs. The author conducted an extensive doctoral research study with 85 global experts across 66 project cases to explore the practices and strategies that were proven to reduce time to proficiency of employees in a range of organizations worldwide. This book provides the readers with a first-hand account of findings exclusively related to training and learning strategies, instructional methods, and curriculum design. This book delivers over 21 training and learning strategies across online learning, classroom instructions, and on-the-job learning. These strategies will allow training designers and learning specialists to design workplace training programs that hold the potential to shorten time to proficiency of employees. The book not only describes findings of the study and theoretical underpinnings, but it also provides practical guidance for implementation to equip corporate learning specialists, HR professionals, training leaders, performance consultants, and direct managers. Chapter 1 of the book introduces the research study that was conducted and describes the sampling, participants, data collection and data analysis methodology. Chapter 2 introduces the concept and definition of accelerated proficiency and metrics such as time to proficiency and speed to proficiency. The chapter sets the premise for the business need that demands learning designers to explore methods to shorten time to proficiency of employees. Chapter 3 describes the result of proficiency curve analysis that revealed four possible trajectories to accelerate employee proficiency. Chapter 4 introduces the four key hurdles in the form of the inefficiencies of traditional training models that hamper the acceleration of proficiency. This chapter sets the stage what needs to be avoided when designing training meant to accelerate proficiency. Chapter 5 addresses the group of findings related to online or e-learning. A conceptual model is presented to describe five e-learning strategies with the great potential to accelerate proficiency in workplace skills. Chapter 6 focuses on findings grouped as the formal classroom or instructor-led instructional strategies. The chapter specifies five instructional strategies to design classroom training and deliver an enriched learning experience to put learners on an accelerated proficiency path. Chapter 7 explains the findings grouped as on-the-job learning or workplace learning strategies. The chapter describes three strategies for workplace learning design to leverage workplace opportunities and interventions which reported great potential to accelerate proficiency. The chapter presents a conceptual model of workplace learning strategies to guide the implementation of these strategies. Chapter 8 consolidate the strategies for online learning, classroom learning and workplace learning into a simple model for training design that holds the potential to create training that can contribute into shortening time to proficiency of the employees. Chapter 9 concludes the book with final thoughts on the role of training and learning strategies toward accelerating proficiency in the long run.

Time is money and a reduction in time should be the first goal of any training program or any employee development initiative. The skills and knowledge acquired today become irrelevant or obsolete quickly. In that kind of dynamics, the organizations have shifted focus on how to shorten time to proficiency of employees and bring them up to speed to the required performance in a shorter time. This book intends to establish scholarly know-how on this construct of Accelerated Proficiency and provide practitioners and researchers with a condensed and coherent knowledge-base on this burning business concept. The book explores concepts, themes, nature, and challenges associated with the process of accelerating proficiency. This book discusses the business metrics of time to proficiency and speed to proficiency. This book is organized around reviews of studies on performance and proficiency from several different disciplines spanning over five decades. In particular, this book will enable you with the answers to some crucial questions - What is the nature of the proficiency in the organization? What is the meaning and goal of accelerating proficiency? Whether or not proficiency and performance of employees can be accelerated? What kind of methods has been researched and proven to accelerate proficiency?