{"id":2234,"date":"2020-05-22T12:45:58","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:45:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modernworkplacelearning.com\/magazine\/?p=2234"},"modified":"2020-05-22T12:37:15","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T11:37:15","slug":"how-can-employers-support-online-learning-think-differently","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modernworkplacelearning.com\/magazine\/how-can-employers-support-online-learning-think-differently\/","title":{"rendered":"How can employers support online learning? Think differently!"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is the text of a 15 minute talk I gave to the Institute of Learning & Management<\/a>‘s Virtual Conference, Online Learning: Challenges and Solution<\/strong>s<\/strong> on Friday 22 May.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, the Coronavirus has done what few CEOs have been able to do \u2013 it has pretty much overnight changed the workplace and at the same time made us realise the value of online learning.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been watching how many organisations have been putting their training online. Many have opted for Zoom \u2013 the video meeting platform. But unfortunately, that has led to other problems, for as meeting after meeting takes place on Zoom, interspersed with live virtual training, people have ended up with Zoom fatigue. Dazed and overwhelmed by the whole thing.<\/p>\n

So, there\u2019s one big thing I want to start by saying when we consider online learning, it\u2019s remembering that it\u2019s not about replicating or automating<\/strong> traditional training practices but innovating<\/strong> \u2013 thinking differently about what we can do online to help people learn.\u00a0So, I\u2019d like to spend these few minutes with you helping you think differently<\/strong> about how to support learning online in new ways.<\/p>\n

The first thing we need to do, is think differently about the word \u201clearning\u201d itself. Learning doesn\u2019t just happen when we are trained or taught or study something \u2013 that\u2019s definitely the traditional view of learning. You know, sitting in a school classroom or university lecture hall or in a corporate training room or working through an online course on your computer. \u00a0Of course, training is important – but it\u2019s not the only way we learn at work.From the results of my Top Tools for Learning survey \u2013 that I\u2019ve been running for the last 13 years, I\u2019ve identified that people use digital tools to learn in 4 different \u00a0– although highly interconnected – ways that I\u2019ve been calling the 4 D\u2019s of learning<\/strong> \u2013 i.e all the words begin with D!<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. People learn through DISCOVERY<\/strong> \u2013 that is by finding things out themselves (mostly on the Web) through searching or serendipitous browsing. We might also refer to this as Informal learning<\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. People learn though DISCOURSE<\/strong> \u2013 that is by interacting with others (whether it be in their professional social networks (like Twitter or LinkedIn) or with their work colleagues. We can refer to that as Social learning.<\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. People learn from<\/span> DOING <\/strong>the day job <\/span><\/strong>and from their everyday work experiences. We might refer to that as <\/span>Experiential learning.
    \n<\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. And of course, people do learn throug<\/span>h <\/span>DIDACTICS<\/strong> \u2013 <\/span><\/strong><\/strong>being taught or trained \u2013 what we usually refer to as <\/span>Formal Learning.\u00a0<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>But, although this is the dominant way of learning for L&D departments, research shows that only around 10% of what people learn at or for work happens in this way.<\/span>
    \n<\/strong><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, when we talk about online learning, this means we need to think about how we can promote and support ALL of these 4 ways learning \u2013 DISCOVERY, DISCOURSE, DOING as well as DIDACTICS – \u00a0digitally or virtually.\u00a0In this short talk I can\u2019t cover everything that might be done; there\u2019s just not enough time for it, so let me just pick out a few things.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ll begin with DIDACTICS <\/strong>because that\u2019s most L&D\u2019s starting point.<\/p>\n

    You might be interested to know that some other research I\u2019ve been carrying out for the last 10 years has consistently shown that people actually rate classroom training and e-learning as the least valuable ways of learning at work. \u00a0There\u2019s lots of reasons for this (boredom, frustration, lack of time) so, if we simply replicate the classroom online we just repeat the same mistakes. So, here are two things to consider.<\/p>\n