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Training & Development - Flipped Learning: Leveraging Our Model

By Tom Phelps posted 10-27-2016 15:44

  

Leveraging Our Flipped Training Model

Since starting our Flipped Training model in tandem with our rollout of our Windows 10/Office 2016 upgrade, we have come up with a number of ideas to entice people to participate in our training sessions.  I don’t know about you, but sometimes I wonder if the tips & tricks emails I send out are helpful, and how many people are benefiting from the training articles I publish regularly.

 

During a conference call in which our Windows 10 rollout was being discussed, it was suggested that we send out Flipped Training notifications as Outlook Calendar invitations rather than simply an email with a course registration link.  I was a bit apprehensive at first, as it seemed a bit obtrusive.  The result, however, was a pleasant surprise.

 

The First Time…

Because we have multiple offices throughout the country, we decided to deploy our upgrades on an office-by-office basis.  Our first three offices to go were Atlanta, San Diego, and Delaware.  By the time we got to San Diego, we were already discussing ways to improve our training options. This is where the idea of sending Outlook Calendar invitations was birthed.  Despite my apprehension, I sent an Outlook calendar invitation to our entire San Diego office and waited. Within moments, the responses started coming in. To my surprise and pleasure, most of the responses said, “Accepted.”

 

Success!

 

Cross Pollenating

Now that we were experiencing a certain degree of success and acceptance, I decided to implement our Flipped Training model in yet another area.  The opportunity came when our Director of Practice Systems asked for Skype for Business training for some of her direct reports.  So, I simply took some of the brief (60-90 second) training videos, a tip sheet, and sent them out in an Outlook Calendar Invite with directions to review that material first, and then to attend the training session.  I pulled reporting from our Learning Management System (LMS) to see if anyone had accessed the training materials before the training session, and, another success!  While not all of the attendees took advantage of the resources, there were those who did and were, perhaps unwittingly, participating in the Flipped Training model!

 

The Benefits

One of the things I like most about the Flipped Training model is the work-specific questions that participants bring to the sessions.  They are given brief, basic tutorials on the content, and then are given time to apply their knowledge to their own work before attending training.  It is during that time that users can test the waters and find their fit, whatever they may be.  Then, by the time the actual instructor-led course is offered, users have had the time to become as familiar as possible and look for more specific knowledge. This eliminates a lot of time in the classroom where learners are watching subject matter that may never directly apply to them. Much more effective, in my opinion.

 

Moving Forward

As I continue to learn and discover more about Training & Development best practices, I welcome ideas, feedback, and input. Please feel to reach out – I’d love to hear from you.

 

Until next time!

 

Tom

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01-25-2017 17:35

Tom - we've been using the Flipped Learning model for about 3 years at Day Pitney, in several different ways.  We are always excited to find out how others are using it, too!  Thanks for posting!