We recently provided a wellbeing and productivity programme exclusively online.
It allowed us to reach a large group of people in several locations.
We were able to deploy it within one week.
We were able to build new modules in response to feedback.
Here’s what we learned about people and online learning.
About Learners
Learners are lazy, in a good way. They seek the fastest and easiest way to the end.
Today’s workers are ‘crazy-busy.’ And moving. You need to give them what they want, when and where they want it.
People love when you offer them something different, and not just work-related. The programme we offered was holistic. It helped the people look at all aspects of their life.
People want pragmatic tips and tools they can apply right now. Give them something valuable, they will actively seek to learn. Give them something actionable they will embed that learning.
Accountability can come from two places – an individual’s internal motivation or a group setting. While the former is better, sometimes the latter is the pathway to it.
About the learning experience
Here are 15 reasons why micro-learning offers numerous benefits to learners and trainers alike:
- Mobile. Today’s distributed workforce can access the learning anywhere they need to. With short modules they can fit learning in-between other activities.
- On-Demand. Those crazy busy learners can access the learning anytime anywhere
- Self-Paced. Learners with different learning styles and pace can decide their own rhythm
- Shorter attention spans. Shorter topics can offer more bang-for-buck. Even those who like to learn in large chunks they can just cover multiple modules.
- Gamification. Learning can be made fun by providing leaderboards or engagement scores using completed modules.
- Social. Chat or peer-group capability will support shared experience, a supportive environment and peer coaching.
- Personalised. Each learner can choose the modules of most use to them and thereby create a personalised programme
- First impressions. This type of learning suits new entrants into the workforce and provide an easy-to-deploy induction programme.
- Keep it Fresh. Learning platforms widely available to trainers allow new learning modules to be created and deployed within hours of being identified.
- Empowering. Giving learners access to a wide range of modules from which to choose increases the learner’s feeling of control, and ensures learning is not viewed as being externally-driven.
- Embedding Knowledge. Classroom learning usually also means taking people out for days and bulking the content. We all know how hard that is. If the learner seeks the content based on need, they will embed the learning immediately.
- Affordable Scale. Micro-learning can be deployed to a large number relatively cheaply.
- Agility. You can constantly change, sensing and responding to changing needs, without needing to overhaul large programmes.
- Less Waste. You create just enough content to work for learners and measure engagement to build more of what’s needed.
- Get creative. You can use design thinking and experiment. Ask learners what their problems are during existing modules and build new modules to address them.
Despite the above benefits of online learning though, the blended online and offline approach usually works best. Online modules need to be viewed in the context of the overall company vision and values and to align with those. Online rarely stands alone. Combining with face-to-face, clear programme objectives and good metrics (baseline and ongoing) will provide optimal benefits for the organisation.
Learning should seek that sweet spot at the intersection of enterprise goals and a learning experience that users actively seek. The latter is achieved if it helps users across their entire life, not just work, which is the tip of the iceberg.
If you want to chat with us about personal development and productivity, feel free to email hello@TheWellbeingGym.com