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Self-Paced Learning vs. Classroom (ILT) Learning vs. Pre-Learning

By Sean McGinty posted 01-08-2018 09:11

  

The subject or byline for this blog post is Self-Paced Learning vs. Classroom (ILT) Learning vs. Pre-Learning. The thinking here is that this will be some sage WWF (I’m old enough to remember it) style article pitting each of these delivery methods against each other thereby allowing whomever oversees learning and development at your firm to see a clear-cut winner and more effectively allocate budget dollars. Well, it brings me great joy to tell you there is no clear-cut winner for the Magic Learning and Development model or method to achieve your goals. It is more about building a toolkit or assembling a menu for your learners to select what works best for them. Now let’s dig into the terminology and means of implementing different learning and development methods.

Terms

ILT – Old Faithful

I don’t think we need to define ILT (Instructor Led Training). We have all been doing it for years. Like the billable hour, ILT or Classroom Learning has been the recipient of many early obituaries. Here is my primer for ILT: if a sales rep for any company tells you they can replace or you can do away with ILT, end the meeting. ILT is not going anywhere, and it’s not for lack of trying. ILT is costly, time and resource demanding, and from the facilitator’s standpoint exhausting. However, if done correctly ILT is very effective as well as the method we spent the better part of 20 years being programed to accept. Additionally, it is the preferred method of compliance with government and insurance requirements.

VILT – Not New Just Repackaged

Virtual Instructor Led Training is not new. You have been doing it for a long time: whether it was calling someone’s desk and remoting into their machine or now inviting them to a Webinar Platform like WebEx or Virtual Training Platform like Adobe Connect.

Self-Paced Learning – New Aged L&D Catch All

Chances are you have deployed Self-Paced Learning at your firm. You just may not be tracking or reporting on it completely. Self-Paced Learning is any kind of instruction that proceeds at the learner’s own pace. So, with that broad definition in mind let’s breakdown common types of Self-Paced Learning:

Job Aids – I normally define a Job Aid as a short document of no more than 2 pages front and back and commonly refer to them as QRC’s (Quick Reference Cards). However, for this article I will expand my personal definition to include any written material that can be referenced at will by the learner whether QRC or a 30-page manual. Personally, format doesn’t matter to me. I consider that PDF, DOCX, PPTX, or a Wiki/SharePoint site all fall into the Job Aid category. The best practice for me is to enable reporting on use, via an LMS. You can do this by making the LMS the single repository for all L&D resources. However, in legal, we have told the users for years that everything must live in the DMS. So as not to look like a hypocrite, the way to successfully setup a system for reporting on Job Aids while maintaining a single firm document repository is to have a DSM (Document Management System) that provides direct links to files and an LMS that supports linking to external resources. Just remember to be sure that when generating reports out of the LMS there is a disclaimer for Job Aids accessed through the DMS outside of the LMS.

Recorded Webinars – Chances are you are recording and hosting a handful of recording firm webinars. The most common are internal CLE presentations and any large scale firm or court policy change. Depending on your LMS these can be hosted, tracked, and reported. In my opinion the best practice is to have a media server host the videos as most LMS providers limit uploads to 250MB or less. Adobe Connect enabled with SSO does a solid job as a media server if you are using it for VILT or web meetings/conferences.

eLearning – There are more definitions for eLearning then I care to list out. For the purpose of this article I am defining eLearning as short instructorless learner driven courses delivered completely on a computer or mobile device. In my opinion the best practice is to buy off-the-shelf content from one of the many eLearning development vendor covering core systems; MS Office and DMS. Then develop in-house eLearning for home grown solutions, time keeping, and other third party plug-ins.

Videos – I don’t think we need to define videos, there are videos you can make on your phone now. Which brings me to a best practice: don’t be afraid of making quick video to address change. Production value doesn’t need to scare you away. There are tons of YouTube and LinkedIn personalities that use their phone/tablet or laptop webcam and have millions of followers because of their content.

Prelearning – The simple definition is it’s “the training before training”. Historically Prelearning has been eLearning modules that have proceeded ILT, a prerequisite to attending a live session. There is a shift happening, where prelearning is preceding any instructor lead session, be it physical or virtual. The goal of prelearning is to reduce class time two ways; 1st make sure everyone has the same base skill level and 2nd reduce Q&A time. In my opinion the best practice here is for any large-scale rollout to use prelearning to address small scale software and/or process changes, while also addressing any change management topics. Most vendors who sell training rollout kits include suggested prelearning eLearning modules and ideas for handling change management.

Learner Engagement

This is a hard topic for several reasons. Chief among them is every learning culture is different. There is no magic “This will engage your learners” tip I can provide. What has worked for me in the past hasn’t always worked for others no matter the industry. However, there are things you can explore to improve your learner engagement.

Understand your Learners – Your L&D staff is probably more in tune with the pain points of support staff technology experiences. Training sessions almost always include a therapy session. However, this doesn’t always give them the learner’s needs, learning preference, and what motivates them to excel. Most administrative/support departments do some sort of live or virtual road show: an open educational session on what the department does and what is available to them. Some cultures are more open to express themselves in a survey, others want to interact with a human. No matter the method, find out what your learners need, how they prefer to learn, and what motivates them. It is cheaper to provide cookies and donuts then to have a failed rollout. Another item to talk about here is knowing what the expectation are from management. Training needs a seat at the table to align development with business needs.

Make Relevant Content – Collaboration is what all our attorneys want to do! As L&D professionals we need to embrace collaboration with our learners! You can’t get any more relevant then working with an SME to generate their own content. Remember the rise of learner generated content! Learner created video tutorials are a great way to share knowledge and create buy in. It doesn’t have to be a high production effort. Ask your office services team if they can shoot a video on clearing the jam on a copier. Ask a LAA if they could create an online filing outline/workflow. You can clean it up for a QRC or use it as a script for an eLearning module.

Equip Learners with the right resources – Videos and eLearning modules are cool and all, but, remember to use the right tool for the right situation. If a one page QRC is the best way to address a need, do it. Stand on the table as the expert and tell the business what medium is best for the learners and the stated goal.

Learning should integrate into daily workflow – Performance-Support is a hot trendy word to throw around when talking about training and support. One of the things I consistently have championed is QR codes on physical equipment. Everyone carries around a smart phone. If I have questions on how to use a new copier, why do I need to go back to my desk and lookup the training material in the DMS? I should be able to scan a QR code and pull the material up on my phone. There are some network and security concerns to tackle on this, and that is a completely different article, but just increase ease of access. In the end make content easy to access and share with co-workers.

Minimize Learning Barriers – Getting technology for the sake of having it is not always successful. Sometime tech can be a distracter and a barrier to learning if it is not implemented properly. Moving to VILT from ILT is a key example: do your staff have headphone/headsets so they can hear and interact in the virtual training room? Do their attorneys know that even though they are at their desk, they are still in training? Maybe you need to setup a VILT conference room to allow learning to happen.

Celebrate Success – Celebration doesn’t have to have a monetary tie in. It could be highlighting success in a firm newsletter or having senior management congratulate someone in person. It is just as much about promoting the benefits of training as it is about celebrating learners. Do you have learners actively testify how much a program helped them in their daily duties? I am not saying you should handout some $10 gift cards for food & drinks (if you know me it would be for a local craft brewery), I am just saying you may actually accomplish more by publicly celebrating how awesome someone did.

I told you there is no magic engagement spray. It requires hard and consistent work. The above ideas have worked for me or my colleagues outside of legal in the past. If you are having trouble with engagement, attend an ILTA Peer Share or see if there are other L&D professional associations in your area that you can tap into.

Learner Generated Content

There are a lot of legal L&D professionals that wear many hats. Curating content is not a quick and easy job. Keeping content up to date and relevant is almost a full time job. Learner generated content can help ease the stress while increasing learner engagement. With an LMS that has a social learning element of a user submission system you can tap into your users to help curate content easy. This is not to say you need to replace your LMS to use learner generated content, it just makes it easier. You can always use SharePoint or an internal Wiki to manage and distribute learner generated content.

Asking your learners to examine their own experience is a powerful instructional approach. Flipped classrooms have become a successful trend. However, the benefits don’t stop with the learner. It can also save you a lot of effort. Learner/Learner generated content is huge and, much like Self-Paced learning, something we have been doing for a long time. According to ATD studies roughly 10% of what we learn comes from formal learning. The other 90% comes from our peers, self-paced, and from good, old-fashioned experience. Let’s be honest: our learners are learning outside of our domain. We should encourage them to share the knowledge they are gaining. By letting your learners contribute, you can capture the informal learning happening in your environment. When best practices, workflow, or how-to videos come from their colleagues, it’ll carry an extra relevance. Make the tidbits your users are sharing official and publish it.

If you want your learners to contribute to content creation and buy in to the process, the submission process has to be easy. Spin up a page on your SharePoint site that has a template for written submissions and guidelines for video submissions. Don’t force them into a style guide. Remember, they are sharing their experience and knowledge. Your L&D Pros can clean up and make it look like the rest of your content: Honestly every piece of content needs to be reviewed, proofed, and verified that that it is right and in line with policies.

I think the sweet spot for learner generated content is helping maintain job/practice group specific change and workflow documentation. Think about that there are a lot of courts that have different e-filing platforms and that practice groups do lots of things different from each other. There is a place in large scale project development for learner generated content, best practice documents, FAQs, and short videos. I don’t think they can supplement formal training, but they can help engagement and adoption.

If you really want to drive learner generated content, create a competition and increase engagement? Try including one piece of learner generated content in weekly/monthly newsletters, and, when user content is added to a learning plan, go out of the way to make sure everyone knows who created it and their title. If you don’t have a newsletter look to see if your LMS or HRS supports badging. Create a learner generated content, Guest L&D Developer, or Content Contributor Badge. Have as much fun as your environment allows in supporting and recognizing learner’s contributions. What better way to sell a learning culture to new hires then for them to see how much user feedback and content is embraced.

I know this is a paradigm shift for a lot of L&D professionals. Embracing learner generated content brings with it a lack of control over content, maybe a reduced need for formal training classes, and fear of being replaced by the firm “crowdsourcing” training. However, you still need to edit and format the learner created content, and formal training will always have its place in the overall L&D strategy. However, less formal training classes will free you up to work on instructional design projects. 

Marketing Training

Marketing training is a touchy subject for me, I have said for a long time “I don’t bribe people to learn. You should want to learn so you can improve yourself and maintain your employment.” There is that whole “if you don’t change and adapt you die” thing. However, I know people hate change and every environment is different. So, when it comes to marketing, I always lean towards humor and/or keeping it simple. One of my most attended recursive training sessions was “I can’t find F*@king anything in FileSite!” it was the same course as “How to Search for Documents and Emails in FileSite” that no one other than my regulars attended. The learners loved it

.  It made them not feel alone in their frustration with searching in iManage. On the flipside, we made all our QRC and eLearning modules address only 1 feature or function and removed the knowledge checks. This allowed the learners to quick process what they needed when they needed it. Additionally all of the written material or eLearning modules were bluntly named “How to attach files from FileSite” or “How to attach files from Box”. Marketing is a tough subject. The key is knowing your learners and management. How much fun can you get away with, and what are they looking for? Build a group of testers that consist of attorneys, legal staff, and admin staff and use them to float ideas by before releasing it to the firm as a whole. Our holiday skit show set the stage for my ILT naming strategy, and attending ATD ICE and speaking with L&D colleagues/friends from other industries helped convert us to a more micro-learning instructional design strategy. Which brings up a good point: you can’t market your work if you don’t have a philosophy/strategy for what and why you do things.

Evaluations of Training

I could write an entire article on how to setup an evaluation program for training. There are many ways to evaluate training effectiveness, but it is pretty much universally accepted that Donald Kirkpatrick’s Four Level of Training Evaluation Model is the gold standard. At the very least every firm can evaluate training using Kirkpatrick Level 1, Reaction.  Level 1 evaluation is basically smile sheets. It allows you to make sure your learners feel good about the instructor, topic, material, and presentation. Remember you want every training experience to be valuable to your learners. If you LMS doesn’t have a survey module get a Survey Monkey account. Level 1 measures the reaction to the training by your audience. Make sure you are asking questions that help you identify important information or topics that were missing from the training.

Some firms have already gotten to Level 2, measuring learning. At level 2 you measure what your learner have learned, through assessments. I know assessments is a four letter word. However, it is important and working through Level 2 is a separate article. Just remember Casey and LTC4 wouldn’t be such huge topics every year if it wasn’t important.

Conclusion

As I stated in the beginning I don’t think this is a one method over the other situation. I think every firm that wants to create a vibrant learning culture needs to build a toolbox of training methods/options for their learners. Technology did not reduce or eliminate different learning methods, it only increased them. You can embrace it and become inspired by your favorite quick service food in a bowl restaurant (personally, I loved ShopHouse in Georgetown (RIP) and Poke Bowls from anywhere right now) and create and build your own learning and development menu for your learners. Blended learning gets thrown around way too much; however, if you have talented people and give them the tools and the time to build a program it works. Talk with your learners and find out how they want to learn. You should not be afraid of asking them and they shouldn’t be afraid to provide honest feedback.

Let’s be honest, the 9-5 Monday through Friday workplace is gone and has been for a while. We have adapted our productivity tools to empower our learners to work whenever and wherever they find themselves. Are we going to embrace this same change and redesign our learning environments?


ILTACON Session - Through the Looking Glass: Training of the Future

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