Learning Conversations

Join me for a live "Exchange" conversation on stand 218 from 11:30-12:45 on Weds 24th Jan.

Limited numbers.

Bookings being taken from Weds 18th Jan.

Gareth Williams and I are leading a conference workshop on this topic on the Wednesday afternoon.

Here are some of the key points and questions to get us thinking:

The problem

However important we think our learning interventions are, to the majority of learners they are likely to feel like, at best, an imposition, and, at worst, an irrelevant waste of time.

There are things that we need to address even before learners get to our carefully crafted materials. If we don't deal with them, then we will have wasted our own time and money.

Removing the blockers

You need to do everything possible to remove any technical difficulties that will stop people getting to your learning materials.

There are two possible routes to this:

1. Provide support
2. Make sure the technology used is as simple and user-friendly as possible

Question: How often do we compensate for poorly designed systems with support desks and FAQs?

Motivation

People will only learn if they are motivated to do so. For many, they will be extrinsically motivated (using techniques like reward, punishment and coercion), but really, we should be trying to move toward intrinsic motivation, where people do things out of interest, a sense of autonomy, or enjoyment.

Unless we deal with the blockers and motivation, we might as well not waste our money on trying to get people to learn!

Question: What works to motivate people to learn?

Behaviours

We all behave in different ways in different situations. When dealing with learning interventions, it's the task of the designer, or facilitator, to make sure that participants understand, and accept, the conventions, standards and practices that will be needed.

When people come into a new situation, and don't understand how things work, they will quickly lose any motivation they came with. This applies to books, elearning modules, online discussions, classroom training etc. All of these have certain conventions attached that new participants will need to align to very quickly.

Question: Think of a learning intervention. What did you do to help people learn the social norms? (Note - it doesn't have to be an explicit explanation!)

Communication

Effective communication is at the heart of learning activity. Whether it's one-to-one, one-to-many, or many-to-many. It's our job, as facilitators of learning, to make sure that communication is made as easy as possible, and as clear as possible.

As soon as a learner becomes awash in a sea of information, or, even worse, adrift in an information desert, it often becomes easier to just give up.

Effective communication is partly about the content, and how it's presented. But it's also about timing.

Every learning intervention should come with a communications plan, where you set out how and when you will communicate with the learners.

It's about giving people the information they need, just when they need it to push them onto the next stage.

Question: What one thing could you do to improve communication around your learning programmes?

Management

It's very easy, even when you have highly motivated learners and no blockers, to stifle learners' engagement. Particularly so if their managers aren't aligned with the way the learning intervention needs to work.

So, you need to be working with the managers, so they can set the right expectations with their teams, so they can promote the value of the learning activity, and so they will give permission for people to spend valuable time working on learning.

Question: What is the best approach to take with managers to get them to support and promote learning?

Credit: Many of the ideas in this presentation are based on the early parts of Gilly Salmon's Five Stage Model.