I am always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught. ~ Winston Churchill
Many of my friends and ex-colleagues usually dislike training. They dread entering the training room, the way they would dread entering a torture chamber. In most cases, Training is reduced to an exercise in futility and the prevailing emotion is “Let’s just get this over with!”
There are numerous reasons as to why this happens. In my previous job as an Insurance Sales trainer, I realized that one of the main reasons for people to hate training is that they think that it is simply not worth their time. Amidst today’s hectic schedules and tight deadlines, who has the time for training anyway?
Another very important reason is that most people have been through some very boring training, be it instructor-led or computer based. They have had to sit for long hours at a computer or in a training room and have been subjected to tons of information being dished out at them. No wonder they gradually start hating it.
Microlearning – Learning, not Training
I was reading a blog-post by Amit Garg on the Upside Learning blog which led me to agree that Microlearning is the future of workplace learning. This blog post was published way back in 2009, so I’ll include a quick summary.
Microlearning is best used as a part of a blended learning solution and is suitable for:
- Activating knowledge before a classroom (or virtual classroom or even and eLearning session);
- Summarizing (after one of those sessions – delivered soon after the session);
- Recall (or reactivating knowledge – probably a week or two after the session. This ensures key concepts are revisited and helps in transferring the new knowledge to long term memory – especially for learners who may not get a chance to apply new knowledge immediately after the sessions);
- Providing application opportunities (through pop quizzes or learning games on mobile);
- Just-in-time search support by letting employees search in company’s knowledge databases (wikis, blogs, forums) using their mobiles.
By creating microlearning courses compatible with mobile devices, we can bring about a paradigm shift in the way we learn at the workplace.
Afterall, learning ain’t training.
January 28th, 2011 at 10:26 pm
Thank you for sharing this post and specifically the quotation at the top! It’s a valuable perspective to remember when creating learning content and environments.
People want to learn without having learning opportunities jammed down their throats!
January 30th, 2011 at 1:44 pm
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September 19th, 2011 at 7:44 am
Many training sessions do not allow enough opportunities to rehearse the concepts presented, which would aid in employees actually learning the information. Training opportunities are meant to better equip employees to perform duties and tasks; however, it can be a waste of time and resources because much of the information gets dumped out of the learners’ on the way out of the meeting room just like many of the handouts meet the trash can once the training is over. Trainers have to employ strategies to actively engage employees in the learning process in order to produce the desired results. If learning is the goal, we simply can’t expect employees to learn from one method: lecturing. Incorporating various learning strategies grabs the attention of learners which increases the chance of linking information from STM to LTM. Recalling knowledge becomes more difficult over time without practice and rehearsal, so the reinforcement activities through mobile applications could prevent the decay of important concepts after training.