A good WBT is worth a thousand words

I recently had the opportunity to attend the ASTD’s E-Learning certificate course.  While some of the information was useful, I found much of the course to be a repeat of Michael Allen’s presentation at the conference in June.  Seriously, $1000 to find out e-learning should be engaging and learner-centered?  I am a little insulted.

Returning back to my job I discovered a WBT project was in the works and I have had the opportunity to see first-hand how a WBT goes from the written word into an exciting online piece of educational material.  One of the things I’ve noticed during this process is the importance of creating activities that help the learner to engage and explore information.  One item in the course I was looking at lacked any real connection to the information at hand, and I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the objective of the activity was.  Turns out that with some small amount of finesse the activity was altered just enough to make the objective something that could be met, and increase the interactivity for the learner.  A win-win for all.

It does go to show, however, that adding in activities to a WBT (or an in-class course for that matter) just because they are pretty, or fun, does not add to the learner’s experience.  It’s also a phenomenal way to burn through your budget without producing any change in the learner, whether intellectual or behavioral.  I don’t understand why companies insist on creating WBT courses where they either send their employees through the equivalent of a powerpoint slide deck, or overwhelm them with “fun” but teach them nothing.

When creating learning, be thinking about what this course would feel like to you if you were forced to take it.  I have had the experience of teaching dry, boring topics to people, and at the end of the course if someone wants to tell you that they would have rather boiled themselves in hot oil or received a lobotomy then you’re clearly doing it wrong.  I learned a lot from the first time I had to teach something boring and apologized for it in advance.  The answer is not to apologize for giving people boring course topics and information, but instead to seek out ways to make it useful, relevant, and engaging.  Maybe that accounting class you’re having to create isn’t full of dancing elves and fun jeopardy games, but you can get people in doing hands-on activities alone and with their peers.  You can show them how this will be relevant to their job.  No one likes a boring class, not even the instructor giving it.

So if you’re someone who designs and builds WBT, please help yourself and your learners out by making the information, however dry or fun, useful and engaging.  If I wanted to read a powerpoint slide deck, I’d request that, so if it’s a WBT take full advantage of all the options you have at your fingertips.

Welcoming new employees — onboarding part I

Everyone has had the experience of their first day on a new job, and all the fears and excitement that go with it.  Most companies have some plan in place for their employees to ensure they provide the company with documentation showing they can be employed in the USA, and to get any and all paperwork signed.  Usually this happens on day one, but sometimes it takes a few weeks or months to get it all done.  Employees at most companies spend their first day getting a tour of their workplace, introductions to coworkers, and a spot in the workforce of their own, whether that be a desk or a location on an assembly line.

What do new employees really want and need from their employers as a newbie to the company, though?  Studies show that employees have created their personal impression of a company within the first 30 days of employment.  This is a case where first impressions count, and the way you welcome an employee to your company’s family can have a lasting effect on retention.  Which brings us to the topic of onboarding.

Onboarding is a process that we use to help new employees come “on board” to the company, and usually consists of a number of small processes that may include first day schedules, new hire orientation classes, and other kinds of training or paperwork that need to be provided early in an employee’s time with the company.  Onboarding is essential to creating successful employees, but can be a neglected issue in companies that are understaffed in HR, underfunded, or who have not taken the time to recognize how important their impression on the new employee can be.  It is in this process that we as educators should be taking into account not only what we need our new hires to get in terms of training and information, but also broadening our vision to discover what new employees in our company need from us.  We have a strong influence on the burgeoning trust of our new coworkers and can place into their hands all the keys they need to be successful and feel like there is a place for them to do well and grow within the company.

Next: Day 1 processes

 

Why is education important to me?

Growing up in a country where subjects like history and English were nothing but a study of dead people and their (completely outdated) ideas and experiences makes it difficult to want to learn more.  I think, like many of my fellow students in the 80’s, that I was under the impression that this kind of read-a-book-then-get-lectured-and-take-a-test education was the only way to learn.  It’s certainly a very white middle class traditional style of educating students.  Even in college I had a lot of classes where I sat amidst 500 students looking at slides of historical art, memorizing the artist, location, and medium of the piece for later tests.  

If you asked a group of people how many of them like to sit in lectures, take notes, and then regurgitate that information in a test situation I suspect you would find very few people who are breaking down doors to get this kind of learning experience.  Why, then, do we think that this is how we should teach adults in educational settings, either in or out of the workplace?  While the main goal in my college classes, as far as I could tell, was to be sure I could memorize well, my belief is that instead of memorizing information we should be encouraging college students to learn how to question, analyze, and broaden their ways of thinking about and perceiving the world.  

In the corporate world we are often trying to impart important information to our employees, whether it be safety training or a computer skills course.  We want them to remember facts and procedures and execute them on the job.  Adults are not empty gourds waiting to be filled with what we consider to be exciting or important information, though.  They don’t always come to their classes with enthusiasm.  In fact, sometimes they are hostile and wishing they didn’t have to attend, or are bound up thinking about other things they need to be getting done, or a plethora of other distractions that adults are busy dealing with in their jobs and lives.  When they arrive at a class where we expect them to listen to a lecture, memorize, and then pass a test we are setting them up for failure if we don’t offer them ways to assimilate the new information into their knowledge scheme.

We have all heard how people learn better if they are actively engaged in their own learning experience, and I believe firmly that this is true.  Why, then, do employees continue to attend classes that bore them to tears?  Even the dullest of subjects can be taught in a way that allows students to find ways to make meaning of the information within the context of their own lives and jobs.  So I am starting this blog as a way to speak about ways in which education in the corporate world can be improved, and to highlight some of the amazing ideas that are being implemented in the exciting field of adult education.  Humans are capable of learning new information from the moment they are born until the moment of their last breath.  What a broad realm of experiences we have to share and learn from!