New Year. New Learning.
Happy New Year Everyone! In case one of your new year’s resolutions included learning new things, I thought I would pass along some information on two of the latest trends that will have an impact on how and what people learn.
Shared Responsibility for Learning and Development via The Cloud
As more companies have moved to a cloud environment, a wonderful new democracy in the work place has taken shape. All members of a team can more easily share knowledge and information and this can have a great impact on the company as a whole.
Anyone can have a great idea or come up with a solution that has dogged management for a while. A cloud-based repository for knowledge means that all team members can contribute to the knowledge base of a company. So, more resources are available for everyone – this includes learning resources.
Here at IRN, when one team member discovers a solution to a particular issue, he or she can create a document or screencast and share it with the team, and with clients, in IT Glue. This means everyone has access to the solution. This shared information may not be useful or interesting to everyone, but it is available, so anyone facing a similar issue can build upon what has already been tested and proven – Boom! Everyone wins and the team (clients included) move forward.
Leaders can take advantage of the cloud and intentionally design a space where team members may contribute to the knowledge base of their company. A simple solution is using Google Drive to create shared folders. If you are already using our cloud services, you may also want to ask about IT Glue. Managers can also add relevant materials to this “learning library” as a way of directing your team toward shared performance goals.
Microlearning and Customized Learning Paths
Think of microlearning as a series of itty-bitty, bite-sized TED talks that are focused on helping a learner master one important concept or principle. Say, for example, a manager would like to enable employees to better explain a particular service that the company offers. The objective is set: “Employees will be able to describe all aspects of our loyalty rewards program, explain benefits to a prospective customer, and respond to customer questions with 100% accuracy.” Next, a series of short video lessons are assigned to employees. Employees may access the video lessons at any time and watch them as often as they like. At the end of each video, employees/learners take a quick assessment to make sure they have understood and mastered the content covered in that video. Then they can move on to the next video in the series, and so on, until the objective is met for the particular goal that the employer has in mind, in the example given, that would be for employees to be able to better explain the loyalty rewards program to prospective customers. Microlearning lessons are typically made for employees to access and complete on their phones, in short bursts, whenever and wherever they have time to fit in the learning.
Most of us engage in stand-alone microlearning several times a day. I know I still rely on my old standby, You Tube, whenever I am trying a new recipe, or when I want to quickly learn how to repair something around the house. Business leaders CAN develop microlearning paths that help employees meet specific learning objective, too, however. This takes intentional development of video segments or screencasts, or curation of a collection of videos that employees can access on demand.
Professional Learning Solutions also offers microlearning as a service. We can work with companies to develop microlearning lessons and learning paths for your employees. Contact us to find out more: www.prolearningsolutions.com.
Happy New Year and Happy Learning!
Amy