11
Enabling Continuous Learning: Tools and Approaches to Make It Happen
Don’t we all hope that the learning we design and develop will be valued and applied after it is first experienced? Unfortunately, despite our best intentions, after the course is completed, the whitepaper is read, or the performance support tool is tried, it is forgotten. Sending reminders or establishing requirements are just two of the typical approaches for reinforcing the value and applicability of a learning asset. It’s a universal challenge for learning professionals, and one that many continue to address with varying levels of success.
As many organizations focus on skills and reskilling, the need for continuous learning has gained significant importance. The motivation to make development a priority is a shared responsibility between an individual and their organization and is a topic for its own book.
This chapter focuses on the tools and strategies for continuous learning that our global company uses to inspire transfer and retention as well as application and sustainment. Also included are examples of how some of these tools could be adapted by other learning professionals.
Each of the descriptions of the tools and strategies outlined here include:
• the purpose of the tool or strategy
• when to use it
• when not to use it
• examples of how this tool or strategy can be used.
The tools are organized alphabetically so you can easily reference them.
Badging
Badges are an effective way to encourage learning designers to increase their skills and continually grow their capabilities. They’re also a way for individuals to validate their learning activities, skills, and achievements, such as completing courses, publishing papers, creating apps, or achieving other significant and measurable accomplishments. The Open Badges organization has established standards and processes that enable individuals to earn badges and to display any they have earned externally.
The concept of Open Badges dates back to 2010 from those working at the Mozilla and MacArthur foundations, and out of the research of Erin Knight, founding director of the Open Badges project at Mozilla. The initial intent was to recognize that learning happens in different ways and that there are new skills and literacies that are important in modern society. The Open Badges website describes badges as, “visual tokens of achievement, affiliation, and authorization that are shareable across the web. They represent a more detailed picture than a résumé as they can be presented in ever-changing combinations, creating a constantly evolving picture of a person’s lifelong learning.”
Elements of Badging
Organizations can issue Open Badges and individuals earn and display them. The elements of badging include:
• specific skills, knowledge, or achievements that warrant certification
• standards and processes for earning badges
• a team to administer the badging process
• a platform or infrastructure to deploy the program.
When to Use Them
Badges are useful when you have a skill or an activity that requires a substantial amount of effort to accomplish and you want to provide a way to validate achievements and give internal and external recognition for effort.
To establish a badge program, consider partnering with an organization such as Pearson VUE Acclaim, which can provide a digital badge program administration platform. Pearson’s Acclaim was acquired by Credly in 2018. According to the Credly website, “the Credly Acclaim platform provides a comprehensive global solution for recognizing skills, capabilities, and achievements.”
An internal team should be responsible for creating standards, a process and plan for administering the many aspects of a badge program, such as reviewing and vetting badge proposals, and working with the organizations or teams within your company that want to offer badges.
Badges are also a good way to motivate or incentivize learners to complete a course, develop a skill, or learn a body of knowledge. They incorporate aspects of gamification that encourage people to progress through activities and can be displayed on an organization’s profile pages and LinkedIn profiles, among others.
Badging provides a way for an organization to measure and track completion of a course or curriculum, as well as recognize those who have earned those credentials. Badges also allow organizations to identify a person with a particular skill or subject matter expertise they may need to hire or access for assistance with a client or project.
When Not to Use Them
Badges are likely not a good investment when the skill or activity is not robust enough to warrant certification or doesn’t have value or is not recognized outside your team or organization. Badges are also not recommended if the requirements for attaining them are likely to change.
Examples From the Field
Our organization currently offers more than 50 badges on a range of topics, most of which focus on technical skills. We also offer a badge for learning designers on the topic of enterprise design thinking. Within this topic, there are different levels of certification that can be achieved, such as practitioner, advocate, leader, coach, and co-creator.
Bundles
Bundles provide a unique way to package learning content. They incorporate gamification elements to drive completion while enabling tracking and completion. Bundles are a form of e-learning in that they’re a digital way to engage in content, but they apply a particular format and incorporate certain elements that make them unique. While they do share some of the same elements as a learning journey or learning path, there is more flexibility around the order in which topics are consumed and additional features that promote engagement.
Elements of a Bundle
The different elements of a bundle include:
• Subtopics. Also referred to as activities that divide the content into smaller consumable chunks, ideally between five and 15 minutes.
• Images. An image or graphic for each subtopic engages the learner and provides a memorable way to retain and reference the content.
• Introduction. While there is typically an order in which the topics should be consumed and an overview that introduces them, the learner can often tackle a topic in any order they choose.
• Content. Typically, the content within a subtopic consists of brief sections of text interspersed with graphics, videos, and reflection questions to keep the learner engaged.
• Points. Each subtopic or activity is assigned a specific number of points, which tend to be based on the amount of time it takes to complete that activity. For example, a five-minute introduction activity could earn you 100 points, while a 15-minute activity is worth 300 points.
• Duration. Provides the estimated amount of time it should take a learner to complete a topic.
• Progress tracking. Once a learner views a subtopic, an image of an eye appears on that activity. When they complete that subtopic, a check mark replaces the eye. When a bundle is part of a larger collection of bundles, a progress bar may indicate the learner’s rank based on the number of points they have accumulated after completing each activity. Progress tracking may even be connected to an organization’s overall initiative to drive learning. An example of this is connecting it to a program that tracks the amount of time each team member spends learning and then assigns credit or points based on their completion.
• Encouragement. Progress tracking helps encourage learners to complete activities, as do encouraging comments such as “I’ve checked it out!” “Congratulations!” and “Let’s keep going!”
• Assessment. Bundles typically include some way for learners to test their knowledge of the topic. In some cases, learners answer several multiple-choice questions at the end of a subtopic, which they can keep taking until they get them all correct. In other cases, there is a separate subtopic for testing learner’s knowledge. We created one called “Show what you know,” which includes 12 scenarios with multiple-choice questions. The learner is required to get at least nine of the 12 questions correct, but they can also take the test as many times as they want until they pass.
• Bundle topics. We create and use bundles to deliver many kinds of content to a large and global audience. One example is an enablement program for learning professionals across the organization, but we also use bundles to target selling skills, coaching, resilience, and agile ways of working. (Figure 11-1 is an example of a bundle we created for learning consultants and designers.)
Figure 11-1. Testing Your Knowledge
When to Use Bundles
Bundles are effective for providing online content around a topic that learners can consume at their own pace and access when needed. Bundles can also be used to deliver courses that track learner progress and completion.
Note: A bundle differs from a toolkit (covered later in this chapter), because it is typically focused on a more specific topic, with subtopics or activities that follow a consistent format and allow for tracking.
When Not to Use Bundles
Avoid using a bundle when the learning content requires live or face-to-face interaction, skill practice, or synchronous collaboration. While a bundle is more easily updated than an online toolkit, avoid creating one if there will be frequent changes to the content.
Examples From the Field
We use bundles to deliver an enablement program for learning professionals across the organization. The program includes an array of content to help learning consultants and designers stay relevant, innovative, and successful. The program covers approximately 16 hours of content on disruptive learning technologies, aligning learning with corporate strategies, applying digital to learning, measuring the impact of learning, learning best practices, and providing valuable experiences for a client, among others.
The bundle’s core topics are:
• learning’s disruptive transformation
• know our business
• meaningful metrics
• learning that works
• creating value.
Discussion Guides
Discussion guides are learning assets that enable a person to share what they learned with others. These guides highlight key concepts to engage people in discussions for sharing insights, best practices, lessons learned, and ways to apply them. Studies such as those in the May 2018 edition of the British Psychological Society Research Digest have shown that teaching others is an extremely effective way to increase understanding and retention of what they have learned (Jarrett 2018).
Elements of a Discussion Guide
Discussion guides typically include:
• Facilitator notes. Because the person using your discussion guide isn’t typically a trained facilitator and may not even be a subject matter expert, we provide easy-to-follow guidance for leading the session, such as introducing the topic, key concepts to present, questions to engage attendees in discussion, and ways to close the session to maximize engagement and learning impact.
• Slides. Slides should be minimal because the primary focus is on discussion and not content presentation. However, slides can be useful for guiding the facilitator, visually highlighting key points, and keeping participants engaged, especially if the session is virtual.
When to Use a Discussion Guide
Consider creating a discussion guide when you want someone who has completed a course or workshop to reinforce what they learned by teaching or sharing what they learned with others.
Discussion guides can also be used when you need to cascade information from a certain group of individuals to a large audience, such as learning directors, managers, or supervisors who attend a program or need to impart this information to the designers and developers they lead.
When Not to Use a Discussion Guide
Avoid using discussion guides when the content or skills you need people to learn require a trained facilitator or subject matter expert. Also avoid using them if there is more content than can be covered within an hour, unless you plan to schedule a series of discussions over an extended period of time.
Discussion guides are not the best tool to use if the learning content requires more than just a discussion, such as skill practice or coaching.
Examples From the Field
We used discussion guides as part of a large-scale global initiative to give leaders who participated in a workshop the opportunity to engage their team members in rich conversation about key topics. We posted these guides online so leaders could easily access, download, and print them as needed. Each one had three sections:
• Prepare
scheduling the meeting (such as timing, face to face, or virtual)
selecting the topic to discuss
collating links to the learning assets to review and prepare.
• Discuss
providing a brief overview of the topic using facilitator notes and slides.
• Continue
adding a link to enroll in the workshop so leaders could easily offer it to their team members.
Learning Design Guild
Learning design guilds are groups of peer learning designers who create a plan and schedule for collaboration and sharing. They may also take turns presenting their work to one another to exchange ideas, increase awareness of assets for reuse, build a repository of resources, and strengthen their network of subject matter experts.
Elements of a Learning Design Guild
A learning design guild includes the following elements:
• a group of peer learning professionals who are interested in participating and sharing
• an individual who is willing to organize the guild and administer the meetings
• a plan or an agenda for meetings to include frequency, length, and whether they’re face-to-face or virtual
• engagement that involves sharing ideas, resources, and help.
When to Establish a Learning Design Guild
A learning design guild is a great approach when you have a significant number of learning designers who are interested and committed to participating as well as contributing. They can be especially valuable in a decentralized organization where designers have little or no opportunity to work together.
One key to administering a guild is having a substantial number of contributors to generate enough ideas and assets to share. Also, critical will be an individual or two who are willing to create, market, launch, and lead the learning design guild for your organization.
When Not to Establish a Learning Design Guild
Avoid starting a learning design guild if you do not have a significant number of interested and committed designers or someone to maintain the effort over time.
Examples From the Field
We created a Quarterly Guild Playback series for learning designers from across our organization to learn about new offerings from fellow learning designers. Each playback session features three learning designers who take about 15 minutes to share an overview of their offering. While the primary purpose is to share new offerings, these sessions also give designers exposure to one another and access to subject matter experts whom they can reach out to if they have questions or want input on a related project.
Lunch & Learns
Lunch & learns are informal gatherings of peers during lunch time to increase knowledge about a topic. They are typically, but not always, positioned as a means to learn from one another. While peers may rotate responsibility for teaching others about a specific tool, technique, or topic, the organization may also invite subject matter experts from within or outside the organization to present.
Different from a watercooler session (covered later in this chapter), lunch & learns have a specific topic, a learning objective, assigned facilitators, and time for questions.
Elements of Lunch & Learns
What makes some lunch & learn efforts effective while others seem to die out after the first session or two? A few elements are key to success and longevity:
• current and relevant topics that participants care about
• a structure or an agenda that maintains the focus of the session while providing opportunities for engaging participants
• a subject matter expert or presenter (this can be an internal or external thought leader or one of the participants)
• a skilled facilitator to guide the discussion, engage participants, and ensure learning objectives are met (this role can be rotated among the participants)
• an individual who “owns” the offering and takes the lead to schedule and administer the sessions.
Lunch & learns can be face-to-face, virtual, or a hybrid (combination in which some participants are face-to-face while others are participating remotely). Virtual or hybrid sessions should provide an opportunity for participants to see one another through video using one of many virtual collaboration tools (such as WebEx, Zoom, or Skype).
When to Use Lunch & Learns
Consider using a lunch & learn when you have a substantial group of peers (ideally more than six) who are interested in and committed to learning about new topics, and an individual who is willing to take the lead to coordinate the sessions. This is also a great way for team members who have participated in an external conference or learning session to bring back their new knowledge and share it with their team.
When Not to Use Lunch & Learns
Simply put, don’t host lunch & learns if you do not have a large enough group of peers to warrant the investment, especially if you plan to include external subject matter experts. It may be difficult to recruit an individual to give up their time when only a small number of people will benefit. Similarly, if you plan to focus on peer-to-peer learning, individuals will also want to feel like the amount of time they invested to prepare and present was worth it. This can be an issue if you expect a significant number of last-minute no-shows, especially if your group is already small. Additionally, if the group is too small, it will be difficult to have a robust discussion and range of perspectives.
Examples From the Field
While a lunch & learn can focus on any topic, we offered a session on the basics of learning design for learning consultant team members in our organization. Although not tasked with the actual design of learning solutions, they are most often the first point of contact for a learning request, such as “We need a 30-minute workshop on leadership.” The hour-long session focused on the importance of asking the right questions to clarify the objectives of the requested solution and setting expectations for what is achievable within the allotted time.
Microlearning
Research shows that receiving digestible, relevant learning content that you can apply right away can drive more than 20 percent additional retention, which is an essential ingredient for changing behavior.
Microlearning organizes content into digestible chunks so that it can be quickly consumed, often within five minutes. It is typically understood to be composed of relatively small learning units and short-term learning activities that are most often experienced as e-learning. After conducting a poll and research study, ATD Research concluded that a microlearning activity was most effective when it lasted between two and five minutes
Elements of Microlearning
Microlearning typically includes:
• content that is designed in small and easily consumable learning units or activities
• a delivery system for deploying or accessing the microlearning content (such as through email or a website)
• a marketing strategy to promote usage and engage learners.
When to Use Microlearning
Microlearning can be used in different ways:
• Before training. It can be used prior to a live class or webinar to introduce learners to the content or reserve valuable face or synchronous time for live interaction, discussion, or practice.
• During training. Offering microlearning between the sessions of an ongoing course or series can help maintain the momentum and retain learners while reinforcing the concepts or content they learned and preparing them for the next session.
• After training. Distributing microlearning after a course can reinforce what was learned, providing guidance for applying behaviors and skills as well as links to resources for more in-depth material on a topic.
• As a stand-alone solution. Microlearning may be used on its own with topics that are small and digestible, or for courses with topics that can be broken into a series of microlearning units that are distributed over time.
When Not to Use Microlearning
Avoid microlearning when the content you need to deliver requires more than five minutes to share. In these cases, the learning objective will be compromised.
Examples From the Field
We used microlearning after a three-hour global leadership development workshop to reinforce what was covered in the session, encourage application, provide additional content, and maintain the momentum of the initiative the workshop supported. For the 10 weeks following the workshop, learners received an email that contained content they could consume within five minutes. The final microlearning was titled “Keep the Momentum,” and included a link to a website that served as a library of all the microlearning they had received, to review and reference as needed.
Each microlearning unit built on the topics covered in the course and contained the following elements:
• a catchy title that included the learner’s name and highlighted the amount of time it would take to consume the content; for example, “Take five minutes to create better team interactions, be a more resilient leader, or set a tone for extraordinary results”
• a two- to three-minute video of an exemplar or thought leader describing how they apply that behavior or skill
• three to five key points to remember or practical actions they could take now
• a link to an article where they could learn more about the topic.
While sending content via email incurs the challenge of getting the learner to open it, we used Watson Campaign Automation (WCA)—an IBM tool that leverages artificial intelligence and advanced analytics—to personalize the distribution of our microlearning content. WCA allowed us to select the best time and day of the week to send individual emails using its send time optimization feature.
Online Toolkit
An online toolkit is a way to offer learning assets or performance support tools about a topic that is easily accessible and consumable. While a bundle packages content that targets a set of learning objectives oriented to a particular curriculum, a toolkit organizes a variety of resources that the learner can use when needed (for example, habits, reflection questions, videos, articles, books).
Elements of an Online Toolkit
Toolkits typically include:
• learning assets that enable or support the performance of a set of skills or behaviors
• a platform for accessing the assets.
When to Use an Online Toolkit
Online toolkits are useful for providing online content about a topic to a global audience that needs to access it whenever they need it. Toolkits work best with content that is not intended to be consumed in a particular order at a particular time, such as performance support tools. Topics such as resilience, engagement, and feedback could be well served by a toolkit to provide different types of assets to such as guidance to apply a skill, ideas for habits, in-depth content, or templates for planning.
When Not to Use an Online Toolkit
Toolkits aren’t useful if the learning content requires live or face-to-face interaction, skill practice, or synchronous collaboration. Also avoid creating an online toolkit if your content is likely to change often, as it could be challenging for your developers to update it on an ongoing basis.
Examples From the Field
We created and deployed an online toolkit to a large global audience of leaders to help them increase employee engagement. While it is a broad subject, we used data from our annual engagement survey to identify drivers of high engagement and built the content around those drivers. Our toolkit addressed 10 topics and each topic focused on two subtopics; for example, the topic “connect” addressed the subtopics of “empathy” and “transparency.”
A toolkit for learning designers might be framed around ATD’s Capability Model, ADDIE, or even an assessment that you have conducted to determine the knowledge and skills gaps of your target audience.
• If the toolkit is based on ADDIE, it may have six topics: overview, analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.
• Subtopics for design might be synchronous, asynchronous, self-paced, face-to-face, development tools, or design strategies.
Our toolkit on engagement included several different elements. The following examples show how you can apply each of those elements to a toolkit for designers and developers:
• Essence. A brief description of the topic and its relevance to learning designers.
• Video. Exemplar learning designers share stories and examples of how they addressed the topic.
• Think and reflect. Questions that trigger insight and encourage the user to identify with their own situation. For example, “Which of these approaches might you consider for your design project?” or “What challenges do you face to make continuous learning a priority and how do you address them?”
• Tips and habits. A quick reference of actions to take and habits to adopt. For example, “Schedule time on your calendar to read a current article or speak to a peer designer about their project” or “For each of my designs, I will engage at least one thought leader from outside my organization to consider different approaches and perspectives, as well as challenge my assumptions.”
• Go deeper. Links to additional resources for more in-depth information (such as articles, websites, tools, and books).
In addition to the 10 topics and content on engagement, our toolkit included many different assets. The following examples show how you can apply each asset to a toolkit for learning designers and developers.
• Kickoff or introduction video. A two-minute video by a senior learning leader in your organization who introduces the toolkit or initiative on continuous learning and inspires others to participate.
• Assessment guidance for where to start. Provide direction for where to start or which topics to focus on first. Two options to consider:
If you already asked designers with an assessment to determine their knowledge and skills gaps, provide a link to the survey results and use the data to suggest certain topics that would best help them improve.
If you did not offer an assessment or the designer did not have results, they could access a self-assessment with questions about the extent to which they agree with a set of statements. This would provide the insight needed for determining where to start.
• Build the case. Slides on the topic with notes to present to your team.
• Cards. Small cards that contain sentiments and reflection questions that learning leaders could print and use to trigger ideas and engage their teams in rich conversation about continuous learning.
• Co-creation. The opportunity for designers to add their own examples of what worked for them (for example, make continuous learning a priority or design a novel learning solution for a client request).
• Discussion guides. Slides with facilitator notes that learning leaders can use to lead a discussion with their teams. (See the discussion guides section of this chapter.)
• Guidance for using the toolkit and tools. A video demonstrating the toolkit showing how to use the different elements.
• Key moments recommendations. Recommendations for moments identified by data that have a high impact on engagement, such as an employee who has been in the same job longer than two years or someone who hasn’t received feedback from you in the past six months or more.
• New content notifications. An ability to subscribe to notifications that would let a designer know when new content was added so they could stay up-to-date.
• Manager enablement. Resources to enable senior learning leaders to cascade the information to the leaders they manage and their teams.
• Survey app. This enables a learning leader to send a five-question survey to their teams at any time throughout the year to get input on the key drivers of continuous learning.
• Workshops. Two-hour workshops delivered face-to-face or virtually that focus on helping learning leaders engage designers and increase their knowledge and skills on key topics.
Peer-to-Peer Development
Also called coaching circles, peer-to-peer development provides opportunities for small cohorts of learners to share their experiences of applying the behaviors and skills they learned in a class or workshop as a way to reinforce concepts, deepen learning, and gain insight. Individuals may also use this safe and supportive environment to practice skills through role play for coaching and feedback. Cohorts engage in a series of sessions over a set period (for example, once a week for six weeks). This approach enables participants to develop the comfort and trust they need to be vulnerable and open and get the full benefit of the experience.
How often have we worked hard on designing and developing a learning program only to receive participant feedback that the best part was being able to connect with peers? Clearly, colleagues who share similar experiences and challenges tend to be the best source for identifying options and sharing best practices. That is the principle behind peer-to-peer development.
Elements of Peer-to-Peer Development
Peer-to-peer development includes the following elements:
• Skilled facilitator. While the primary focus is on peer-to-peer sharing, it’s important to have a trained and experienced individual facilitating the sessions. While the facilitator does not need to be an expert on the topics being discussed, they do need to be skilled at creating a safe space for meaningful sharing, which includes engaging participants, maintaining focus and boundaries, and asking good questions that encourage insight. A key challenge for many facilitators is to avoid providing solutions or giving advice, instead encouraging this input from the group. An option to consider is providing a facilitator for the first three to four sessions to model the role and demonstrating how an effective peer development group works. Then by the fifth session, you can pass the facilitator role to a group member (or rotate it among group members), freeing up the facilitator to launch another circle or focus on another project.
• Session structure. Although this approach may seem unstructured because participants determine the actual content and flow of the discussion, a certain amount of structure is needed to set the session topic, length, and participants to include.
• Pre-work. You may also choose to provide pre-work before each session. Pre-work can be used to focus the discussion and trigger ideas. The pre-work could be an article, a self-assessment, a video, a reflection question, or a suggested action (for example, interview a subject matter expert on a skill you want to develop and note the behaviors you believe were most effective and plan to try). Whatever the activity, consider limiting the pre-work to 15 to 30 minutes and providing adequate time for completion, ideally a week before the session.
• Ground rules or group norms. It’s also important to establish ground rules or group norms that ensure confidentiality and set expectations for how participants will interact. Confidentiality is usually nonnegotiable, but the facilitator may ask participants to determine the code of conduct and suggest behaviors they believe will foster the greatest participation, benefits and outcomes.
• Cohort size. Most papers outlining the benefits of peer coaching and coaching circles say six to eight is the ideal number of participants. You want enough individuals to have a range of ideas and perspectives, yet not so many that people are denied the opportunity to contribute. While participants who just listen will also benefit from the discussion, the value is significantly greater if they can ask questions and get feedback about their own situations.
• Face-to-face or virtual. There are pros and cons to either option, and both can be quite effective. If participants are all co-located and you have a designated private meeting space, then it makes sense to meet in person. However, if this is not possible, virtual is extremely effective if participants can see one another using a webcam and tools such as Zoom, WebEx, or Skype. The advantage of having remote sessions is that you can include individuals from a wide range of locations while considering the time zone and common language. The diversity you gain by including individuals from different geographies often creates a richer conversation and greater insight, due to their unique perspectives. Avoid a hybrid approach where some participants are face-to-face while others are virtual, because it is extremely difficult to engage everyone equally.
When to Offer Peer-to-Peer Development
Peer-to-peer development is a useful approach when the content has already been taught or learned and there is value in having peers share their experiences, best practices, and lessons learned. Providing a safe place to role play and practice interpersonal skills, along with peer coaching, is another reason to use peer-to-peer development.
An example would be after a face-to-face or virtual leadership development class or workshop. The approach provides participants with the opportunity to go more in depth on certain topics, engage in discussions about how they are applying skills and behaviors, and share lessons learned.
When Not to Offer Peer-to-Peer Development
Peer-to-peer development should not be considered if the facilitator or participants are unable to commit to joining at least three sessions. While a group of peers may suggest meeting on their own after a particularly engaging program, the commitment tends to wane over time without true focus and structure.
Examples From the Field
We used peer-to-peer development after a three-day leadership program for senior managers. After the program ended, alumni were invited to enroll in a six-week peer-to-peer development experience. The session facilitator was an experienced coach who also facilitated the leadership program that participants attended. Each session focused on a different topic from the program, and participants were encouraged to share how they were applying what they learned with their teams.
We also used peer-to-peer development to engage HR specialists in a four-session experience that focused on three specific topics related to trust-based relationships, detecting crossing-the-line behavior, and having difficult conversations. The first three sessions took place a week apart and were preceded by 15-minute pre-work assignments. The fourth and final session was held several weeks after the third session, which gave participants ample time to apply what they had learned.
Webinars
Webinars, also known as live virtual classrooms, provide synchronous learning around a particular topic using technology to engage participants from remote locations. While webinars can be used to deliver core curriculum when you can’t gather participants in the same location, they can also be used for continuous learning as part of a blended solution. There are many different types of webinars—from a virtual lecture to a highly interactive learning experience where the participants engage in a range of activities (such as idea sharing on a whiteboard, discussions, small group problem solving, and skill practice in breakout rooms).
Elements of a Webinar
Webinars typically include the following elements:
• topics of interest
• subject matter experts presenting or facilitating the topic
• technology that allows participants to see each other (such as Zoom or WebEx)
• an agenda and a design that engages learners and promotes learning.
When to Use a Webinar
Use webinars when there is a topic of interest in which learners can benefit from live interaction with a subject matter expert. Webinars are also useful when participants are not co-located and distance or travel restrictions make it difficult to bring them together for a face-to-face experience. If opting for a webinar, ensure that the experience is highly interactive. Most virtual tools offer features to engage the learner—such as polling, breakout rooms, and whiteboards where they can brainstorm, post a response, and even draw. However, what’s most important is the ability for participants to see one another.
When Not to Use a Webinar
If you’re unable to bring participants together at a time that’s convenient for all due to different time zones or schedules, webinars may not be an option to consider. If the session’s objectives don’t require live interaction with an expert or peers, then it may not make sense to invest in a webinar. Webinars may also not be an ideal option if you have a lot of content that can’t be consumed in one- to three-hour sessions. It’s difficult to keep participants engaged in virtual sessions that are longer than this, even if you include a break. If you have more than three hours of content, consider chunking it into a series of consecutive sessions over a few days. You could also use the webinar for core content, and then provide the rest of the content with self-paced solutions.
Examples From the Field
We used webinars that we complemented with an online community, to help facilitators (primarily) learn the fundamentals of learning design. The program consisted of six hour-long live virtual sessions, which included such topics as:
• introduction, needs analysis, and learning effectiveness
• personas, learning solutions, and objectives
• content curation
• presentations, assessments, and feedback
• PowerPoint presentations.
Participants were also added to an online community in which they could view the program structure and session agendas, download pre-work and post-session materials, access recorded versions of the sessions, and submit assignments. Within the community, participants could also engage in discussion forums on topics they learned during the live sessions. The community continues to be open, so participants can review the materials at their own pace and at any time. It is also open to any learners who want to brush up on learning design concepts.
Watercoolers
Watercoolers are informal gatherings of peers with no specific agenda. They provide an opportunity for individuals to come together either face-to-face or remotely to discuss current issues, share ideas, and ask for feedback or help. Although not the primary objective, water coolers also serve to strengthen networks. Participants engaging in watercoolers usually have a common bond, such as all being learning professionals.
Elements of a Watercooler
Watercoolers typically include:
• a group of peers with a common interest who see value in coming together on a regular basis (such as an hour each month or bimonthly)
• an individual who is willing to take on the role of coordinator to schedule sessions and facilitate as needed
• a space to either meet face-to-face or a platform that lets participants see one another (such as WebEx or Zoom).
When to Use Watercoolers
Watercoolers are useful when you have a substantial number of peers who have a limited opportunity to interact, because of either proximity or assignments, but could benefit from connecting on a regular basis.
Having a substantial number of peers who are interested in and committed to participating (for example, six or more people) is even more important than a lunch & learn, because watercoolers rely on the participation and input of attendees, whereas lunch & learns focus on a topic presented by an individual. Watercoolers also need an individual who takes responsibility for organizing the events and someone to facilitate the sessions to keep them engaging and beneficial.
A key challenge of watercoolers is the perception that they are a “nice-to-have option when I have extra time to attend,” which most people don’t have. Instead, participants should believe that the information and relationships gained from attending watercoolers is useful to their work and helps them be more effective. If that doesn’t occur, attendance tends to decline and sessions get canceled.
When Not to Use Watercoolers
When you are lacking enough interested individuals to participate, it’s likely not the right time to initiate watercoolers.
Examples From the Field
We established a monthly virtual watercooler series in which learning designers from across the company come together for a 45-minute WebEx meeting. The purpose is to give learning designers an opportunity to do the following:
• bounce learning design ideas off one another
• bring thorny learning design challenges to the group for advice
• ask lingering questions from the quarterly learning design guild playback series
• be reminded that we belong to a mighty community of learning designers across the organization.
Summary
While organizations wish that their employees would be intrinsically motivated to continuously learn and apply what they gain from the education they experience, the reality is that it often requires enablement through tools and strategies.
Even learning professionals—who should be the most knowledgeable about the importance and benefits of continuous learning—are often at risk of putting their own development on the back burner due to work constraints and competing priorities. The tools and approaches described in this chapter offer a range of options for engaging with others in continuous learning, individually or in cohorts, remotely or co-located, and synchronously or asynchronously. Consider the unique needs of your learners and the characteristics of your organization to identify the tools and strategies that would provide the greatest impact. Then try one or two or more!
Key Takeaways
Continuous learning is more important than ever as organizations are challenged to ensure their employees have the skills needed to address current and anticipated customer expectations.
Consider these tools and strategies to inspire and enable the learning professionals in your organization to engage in continuous learning:
• badging
• bundles
• discussion guides
• learning design guilds
• lunch & learns
• microlearning
• online toolkits
• peer-to-peer development
• webinars
• watercoolers.
Questions for Reflection and Further Action
1. What learning programs do you have that could be enhanced by adding one of these continuous learning approaches?
2. Which of the approaches listed would work best for the needs of your own team?
3. Which approaches have you used in the past? How have they worked? How do they differ from the way they are listed here?
4. How might you apply or customize one of these approaches to promote your own continuous learning?