How can you make learning flow in the workplace? On 22 September, two of our renowned L&D speakers explored this question and much more as part of our Learning Technologies Digital Series. Learning designed to blend with the workflow can help employees with day-to-day tasks, instead of pausing their workday for tedious training courses.

 

The morning webinar saw Nicholas Holmes, eLearning specialist at Omniplex Learning, look at the practicalities of setting up a system for learning in the flow of work and how particular programmes can support your leaners. Bob Mosher, blended learning specialist and CEO of Apply Synergies, led the afternoon session with his method of designing workflow learning as well as re-purposing existing content for this.

 

Nicholas Holmes: how can I create a virtual 'hand' to help employees?

Nicholas has a background in technology, and now the champion of digital adoption solution, Omniplex Guide. He set the scene of the webinar with a brief background on Omniplex, before diving into the webinar's content with a question to the audience — 'What's the biggest change in learning of the last ten years? (or further back, if you can!)' With a range of attendees, the answers varied which allowed for an interesting discussion. Is is 'acceptance of online learning' or the very popular 'on-demand learning'? 

 

Did you remember Microsoft's Encarta from the 1990s? Nicholas discussed how far online learning has come since then, with 'the mission landscape for L&D people in general is changing absolutely no end'. Nicholas then moved into the specifics of employee learning, asking the floor 'Can you think of areas where your teams might be struggling but not telling you?' Overwhelmingly, people mentioned adopting and updating new software as a key concern, as 'Collaboration software like Teams requires a whole new mindset to unlock the benefits.' When it comes to creating learning content, Nicholas says you should design it in phases, as 'It's unlikely to be perfect first time...the best advice you're going to get is probably from those polar employees in the first phase'.

 

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Bob Mosher: what are the 5 Moments of Learning Need?

Bob started working in education 40 years before this webinar took place this year, and he opened the session briefly describing this journey. His dedication to make learning better for others was what drove him to work in this industry, and he started teaching 8-year-olds how to read and write. Cut to now, and Bob is the Chief Learnign Evangelist of the '5 Moments of Learning Need' framework.

 

To kick off the discussion, Bob asked everyone to 'Select the TWO most effective approaches YOU have used to remember, learn, and APPLY the greatest performance challenges in your life' with the following options: eLearning, coaching, on-the-job training, instructor-led classroom, and trial and error in the workflow. The audience were asked to not think as an L&D professional, but instead as a learner — because this is who you'll be deciding for! On-the-job training received the most votes (64%), as some felt with the increase in '...hybrid jobs, where we are asked to do much more than our job description asks us to, we have to learn on the job.' 

 

What does a digital coach look like? This was one of the many questions discussed in Bob's webinar, and people talked about the importance of 'practice with feedback'. Bob shared a workflow map, explaining that 'we have to pivot on the workflow, we have to pivot the work people do...and first understand the what is the context of the work'. Bob shared insights from when he completely flipped his deliverable approach to designing learning content, making the digital coach the first thing he now creates, as opposed to the course. He admitted he was not in the 'apply, change or solve business, I was in the formal instruction...whatever modality it was', but now by building for 'apply', the workflow learning content meets the needs of the learners.

 

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