Yes, You Can Do Both!

Be Responsive and Effective

Can you have short, breezy learning opportunities that your learners take whenever and wherever they want that won’t make the training gods cringe?

Now more than ever, learners don’t want to spend hours sitting through synchronous learning. They also don’t want to read volumes of text or sit through a lengthy e-learning course. But can you still create effective, efficient, enjoyable learning experiences? I say YES!

Without over complicating things, below are a few things to keep top of mind.

• Consider your audience. Where will your learners be when consuming the learning? Are your learners fluent in English? What devices will they have available?
• With shorter learning, you need to get very clear on the one or two things you will tackle in each chunk of learning; in other words, what is the real-world task the learners need to do?
• Try to avoid requiring too much prerequisite knowledge. As much as possible, the solution should be a targeted standalone experience.
• Select a delivery method where learners have a fighting chance of being able to complete the task at the end of the learning. In other words, whether it’s a video or a cheat sheet or a quick decision tree, will learners “get it” and be able to DO the thing?
• Practice. Practice. Practice. Build in practice opportunities within the training or at least some suggestions of how to practice the new skill outside of the learning. For example, find a peer who will give you honest feedback as you try something new.
• Offer suggestions and resources where learners can turn if they get stuck.
• Align your efforts with the content’s projected shelf-life. Don’t spend a great deal of time and money if the content will be out-of-date next month.
• Align your efforts with the learning solution’s business impact. It’s the same idea here that you don’t want to use scads of resources if the learning solution won’t save lives or help close the next huge deal.

Your solution may not need to be perfect, but given your situation, it may be better to give your learners something rather than nothing at all. With a little thought and planning, it can be BOTH short and breezy, as well as effective, efficient, and enjoyable. You CAN do BOTH!!