What Are We Waiting For?

To serve as a starting point, I sense we may be unsure of how to measure the value of informal learning. This is certainly something we have seen before, especially with newly emerging tools that have attracted so much attention as to create entire sub-industries around them, such as social media.

There are definitions to explain some of the buzzwords surrounding the changing face of learning and development, as an attempt to define the elements of the craft of informal learning. However I think the L&D department knows what these terms mean and how beneficial they can be to an organization. The problem is they are speaking a completely different language than executive management, including CLO’s that are often fixated on numbers. Implementing informal learning absolutely needs endorsement from the top.

A common misconception for learning specialist is their role in an informal learning environment. Some types of learning cannot be managed, and for good reason. Informal learning can to be facilitated and the environment changed to support self-directed learning. Although this can be challenging, learning specialist are to be translators or mediators for performance, similar to how the role of trainers have changed with the implementation of e-learning in an organization.

Insight from a project manager, specializing in e-learning, provides a clear account on the role of learning specialist and instructors in the new landscape of learning and development.

“Teaching and training is both a science and an art. As the science of how people learn progresses, teachers and instructors have to themselves learn and incorporate these elements to provide the most efficient learning experience.

There are opportunities for us to change prospective on how we use technology in instructing and learning. Instead of being considered as a replacement of face to face instruction, online content should be used to enrich the learning experience. For trainers and instructors, it's understanding that online resources do not necessarily mean less work, but a more effective way to work. Specifically, online resources and learning management systems allow more effective use of time in tracking and analyzing progress.  We have, and will continue to witness technological advancements. With these changes, so must our perception on how we view things evolve in order for us to grasp how we can truly make use of these new developments in an ever changing learning landscape.”

Eric Tang, Project Manager, Vretta

Setting the Gold Standard for Training

There is no surprise that more companies are chanting the benefits of change and are looking for the most effective and efficient way to do everything. Training employees has somehow taken the backseat of importance and HR departments are comfortable with pulling everyone into one room for a full day of training and getting the entire thing done as quickly and painlessly as possible. Much like many other things that have been done the same way for some time, no one asks for metric performance reviews for the effectiveness in those methods being used because, it has always been done that way. I can tell you hypothetically, finely tailored business simulations and e-learning courses can increase retention up to 35% in trainees. In other words, employees will understand and remember more from learning by a different method. This can directly improve ROI– finance guys, did you hear that? There is a world of performance measurements supporting the abilities of e-learning, all swirling around in a great pool of blogs and online articles, but no one seems to care. We’ll still do it the boring old way that we aren’t even sure works most effectively. Surely you must see something wrong with this picture. Once someone throws a percentage into the picture, the immediate follow up question is where did that metric come from? How does e-learning improve retention in employees?

It is first important to note that not all observed information or behaviours are effectively learned. After hearing something once, you may be able to recall it almost perfectly after 1 minute and just after 20 minutes with only 58% retention ability. With e-learning, material can be reviewed at any time and information can be digested at a rate appropriate for each trainee. The ability to store information is also an important part of the learning process. “Retention can be affected by a number of factors, but the ability to pull up information later and act on it is vital to observational learning” says Kendra Cherry, author of Everything Psychology Book. In the end, in order for any type of training to work, the trainee needs to be motivated to implement was has just been learned. The means used to accomplish this should be highly engaging, motivating and interactive. This is gold standard for training.

Genele Rose 

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