Like Reality TV: Reality eLearning
We have enough reality TV shows, but what about reality eLearning? Do your courses provide audiences with a good dose of reality?
The purpose of eLearning in the workplace is to improve and enhance job performance. So workplace learning should include the type of real-world content that prepares your audience for the varied situations that arise during work.
No Prepared Script
We all know about reality. Events rarely happen as planned and after all, how could they? We are inventing and creating reality as we go along. For example, how can an online course help someone handle an employee crisis, deal with an irate customer or fix a crashed server? With no prepared script to follow, how can we help learners prepare for the unknown? Enter positive learning transfer.
Positive Learning Transfer
In positive learning transfer, what a person learns in one situation (whether through formal or informal learning) enhances his or her knowledge and ability in another situation. The difficulty for learning architects is that in novel situations, many of the variables are unpredictable.
And remember, that when someone has gone through a training program, they are expected to be able to:
- Analyze a problem to determine it’s salient characteristics
- Find commonalities between the problem at hand and what they have learned
- Identify broad abstract concepts that solved the problem in a training context
- Apply and adapt the most useful concepts to the current problem
Value of Workplace Observation
The best way to understand the types of problems that potential learners experience is to get in touch with their work environment. I’ve spent time at a muffler repair franchise, customer service call center and an HIV laboratory, to name a few. The type of information that emerges from informal conversations and observations in the work environment are enlightening.
Beware that you may run into a tough spot in your zeal to hang out with the employees. In some organizations, high-level management may not want you to informally speak with audience members. Although this is a self-defeating approach for the organization, there often isn’t much you can do about it.
Formal Surveys and Interviews
In addition to workplace observation, it’s helpful to take a formal approach to gathering information by using surveys and questionnaires, running focus groups and interviewing sample members of the targeted audience and their managers.
When it’s impossible to get on-site and directly into the work environment, telephone interviews are another option. If you’re not allowed to contact audience members, you’ll have to make do with interviewing supervisors only. This way, you’ll get at least half of the picture.
Other Research
If you can’t get access to the audience members or their supervisors, make attempts to research the field, read about it and imagine yourself doing what your audience members do everyday.
The more you can imagine what work is like from the learner’s perspective, the more realistic and effective your courses will be. This type of attitude should improve positive learning transfer.
How do you get in touch with your learning audience? Comment below.
Great post!
Another added value to observing in the workplace and interviews during the needs analysis stage is that it is also possible to identify human performance issues.
I have found that after interviews and observations what appeared to be a training need was actually a human performance issue. So often these issues just cannot be identified any other way than being in the trenches.
I am looking forward to your next article on ways to add reality to your courses.
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Connie Malamed Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 1:05 pm
I hear you on how observation can often show up performance issues. I find it infinitely fascinating how even during the front-end discussions with a client, all kinds of issues arise that they did not previously think about. Policy issues, user interface issues as well as performance issues. It’s as though training shows up all the warts in the system =). Hey, that would be a good post! Thanks for your intelligent comment.
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I agree that adding reality to eLearning is important. I’ve found that the more realistic the scenario I can place my learners in the more well received and meaningful the training is. I think that you also gain more credibility when you include information that is specifically applicable to your target audience.
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Connie Malamed Reply:
July 10th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
Good point about the credibility. The improved credibility alone is a good reason to add realism. Learners need to know they are understood. Thanks for adding to the conversation.
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Great post, Connie:
Reality is fluid, and employee responses or reactions to live situations (a teller approached by a bank robber) also differ and are fluid.
I wonder how effective are moderated wikis for continued learning after course completion? A course can’t cover every and all business scenarios. The courses I developed for compliance issues focused on the top 4-6 major ethical issues.
Have you incorporated wikis into the learning activities you’ve created?
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Connie Malamed Reply:
July 11th, 2009 at 12:31 pm
Theoretically, creating a wiki for continued learning seems like a perfect idea. A wiki could cover a broader ranges of topics than a course and could be more easily updated. I personally haven’t had the opportunity to do that. I wonder if any readers of The eLearning Coach have implemented this? If so, please let us know. Thanks for the thoughtful comment.
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